Dragon Prince Ch.4

I'm sorry for the wait, it was a busy week. I had an important french project that I had to restart three days before it was due on the same day as an incredibly annoying math test.

I own my imagination not HTTYD if I did Gobber would have a scene where he can't reach an itch because of his missing hand. That would be funny.

Berk. It was an island located twelve days North of Hopeless and a few degrees South of Freezing to Death, solidly in the middle of the Meridian of Misery. The perfect word of description, sturdy. It had been there for seven generations, yet every single building was new. A viking could fish, hunt and watch a charming view of the sunset; the only down side were the pests. They tended to cause problems. Most places have mice or mosquitoes, not Berk. Their pest problems toke things to a whole new level. This much was evident when an unsuspecting sheep was snatched off the ground by an unidentified flying beast from where it had been grazing with the rest if it's herd on a hill. The sheep's spot where it had been peacefully eating grass was taken by another sheep immediately with absolutely no remorse for its comrade.

Dragons were Berks' pests and every now and then the beast would raid the village for food, like what happened to the sheep. Most people would leave, but not the citizens of Berk. They were vikings they had stubbornness issues. They would jump on the dragons just to take back was taken or to keep fighting them, even if the warriors would always be flung off they would straighten their helmets and resume the fight. What else could they do? They had been raised from birth to fight and hate dragons with a passion that could only come from generations of oppressive warfare, the actions were nearly mechanical.

A house was on fire and a small boy ran out of it. His name was Hiccup, not the best name, but it wasn't the worst; viking parents believed that a hideous name would frighten off gnomes and trolls, not that their charming viking demeanor wouldn't do that. No, viking parents had to name their children Phlem, Mildew and Hiccup just so mythical creatures would leave them alone.

As soon as Hiccup exited his home he began dodging. He had to there were vikings everywhere and with his small size he could easily been trampled, crushed, or, even hit by a nearby weapon. The first one fell out of the sky, he had been bucked off a gronkle, Hiccup had to jump out-of-the-way of the mans' falling ax too. The second, third and fourth had all been running with a plank he had to duck under, the third toke a moment to look at him and was knocked out when he was hit in the head with the wood he had carried. The seventh he didn't actually dodge, Hiccup was pushed over by the force of a nearby explosion when the viking jumped in front of him with a battle cry.

"Mornin'" the viking said cheerfully, Hiccup noticed his beard had embers in it making the hair smoke, before the adult went back to trying to kill what ever had wings, scales and breathed fire. Being in a war zone does not excuse poor manners, apparently.

After that encounter Hiccup decided to take a short cut on the way to his destination, it would be easier than going through the fight, he sprinted between two houses before he jumped on to a wooden walkway and began to play Dodge-the-vikings again, this time his game came with commentary.

"What are you doin' here?"

"Get inside!"

"Get back inside!"

"HICCUP!" a huge hand reached out and lifted the child off his feet just as he was about to run into a line of fire a deadly nadder made as it flew by, "What is he doing out ag-" the hand was attached to a large man, even by viking standards he was big, and Hiccup was currently getting pointed at, "What you doing out? Get inside!"

The large man tossed the twelve-year old towards his destination, Gobbers' forge. The mas was Stoick the Vast, it was said the as a baby he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Was the the story believable? Yes, it was. Was it believable Hiccup was his son and heir? No, it wasn't. That didn't stop the boy from being Stoick's only child though.

Stoick grabbed a cart and threw it at a dragon carrying some poor sheep causing the beast to drop the sheep and retreat. An explosion occurred near by and all the surrounding vikings were forced to duck except the vast man. He merely brushed off a piece of flaming debris before he went back to business.

"What have we got?" Stoick questioned a viking who was reporting to him about the attack.

"Gronkles. Nadders. Zipplebacks. Oh, and Hoark saw a monstrous nightmare." replied the viking after he stood back up.

"Any night furies?" If one of those showed up everything would go from bad to complete chaos fast.

"None so far."

Stoick looked relived "Good."

(Line)

The night fury unknown to Stoick was already there, he was just waiting until his kin really needed his protection to start attacking. He had been occupying his time by watching that small hatchling that always amused so much when he joined the raiding team that went to Berk. He preferred the Berk dragon team to the others, partly because it was closest, partly because the vikings were particularly good at killing dragons on Berk and partly because the dragons themselves didn't insult him as much as the others for staying. The hatchling just increased the frequency a bit.

He noticed the boy as soon as he left the wooden structures that were always fun to burn, he'd have to talk the Monstrous Nightmare about nearly burning his main source of entertainment later, it was honestly interesting to watch the little viking child gracefully stumble around the raids and manage to cause just as much damage as the dragons. How any creature could make stumbling graceful was beyond the night fury, but it was fun to observe.

It was only when the very large viking started fighting the Monstrous Nightmare did the night fury decide to join the fight. If the Nightmare was in trouble it was the perfect time to start destroying the rock throwing things the vikings always remade before the next raid after he blew them to pieces.

He had just barely destroyed an unused rock thrower for extra precautions,when he felt something wrap around him. He panicked and let out a scream as he feel quite a distance. How was it possible? He was much to fast for any viking to see, let alone shoot down. So why was he hurtling towards a really big tree at a really fast speed?

He didn't get much time to try to get free before he felt himself collide with the tree and then the ground. His momentum caused the night fury to hit the forest floor and slide a distance before he fell again and landed behind a boulder. The black dragon however because after hitting the ground he felt something rip then a great pain.

When he was able to think past the pain once he stopped crashing, he noted the ropes that firmly held him in place, he figured out he couldn't move properly enough to break them, he landed in an isolated part of the forest and he learned exactly how tiring plummeting from the sky was.

The night fury passed out before he realized something was missing.

(Line)

"I really did hit one." Hiccup pleaded with Gobber to believe him.

"Sure, Hiccup." Gobber said with disinterest as he pushed his apprentice along.

"He never listens." Hiccup didn't seem to catch on to Gobbers' tone.

"Well, it runs in the family."

"And when he does," Hiccup continued as if Gobber never spoke "It's with this disappointed scowl. Like the sea didn't have enough fish in it." they arrived at Hiccups home and he turned to the blacksmith and mimicked his father "Excuse me, ocean? I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I wanted an extra-large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the inside. This here, this is a talking fish bone."

Gobber looked at the defeated looking child he practically raised after Val died and offered him comfort "You're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's in you he can't stand." At least he tried to.

Hiccup gave him a look "Thank you for summing that up." he said dryly.

"Look, the point is, stop trying to be something you're not." That was much better then first attempt, by a lot.

"I just want to be friends with one of you guys." Gobber gave Hiccup a look of sympathy, he knew how badly the lad wanted a friend. It would have diffidently helped if Hiccup had been more viking like, but he wasn't and Gobber knew it wasn't a bad thing. He only wished the rest of the island could have seen that, but mostly he wanted Hiccup to be happy. He watched sadly as Hiccup entered his home then turned to go to the meeting Stoick had ordered the warriors to go to.

(Line)

He lost it, Hiccup had absolutely no idea how it had managed it but, it was true, he had lost giant flying reptile. He angrily scribbled on the page in his notebook he had been using as a map before he put it safely in his vest. "Uggh! The gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me, I manage to lose an entire dragon?! How is that even possible?" In a fit of frustration he hit a tree branch out of his way only to have it swing back and whip his face.

When he glared up at it Hiccup saw that the tree the branch was attached to was nearly broken in half and there was a trail of upturned earth leading away from the dead tree. He followed it to a black form, it was the night fury he shot down earlier. It's entire body was a tangled mess within the bola he shot at it.

Hiccups heart soared, then it plummeted. The dragon wasn't moving. He didn't want to kill the creature, he just wanted capture it safely, he didn't want to kill anything! The whole reason he made the bola launcher was to avoid death.

Hiccup cautiously approached the beast and laid his hand on the dragons side, with his eyes closed he could almost pretend it was just sleeping. Which is why when it moved it startled him and the boy jumped when the night fury shifted.

It was alive, the extremely dangerous, fire-breathing dragon Hiccup shot out of the sky was alive and he had no idea what to do. He had been so focused on actually taking down the dragon while keeping its life intact that he never thought about what he would do after. Of course he had to find it after it crashed, but then what?

Hiccup mentally cursed himself for not thinking a head. What could he do? He could have told his dad, but then Stoick would have killed the night fury and that would defeat the purpose of him trying to save lives. He could have killed it, if he wasn't completely against being a hypocrite. He could have left it alone and pretended he never saw it. The last one was really tempting; but then some wild boars would have come and done what Hiccup couldn't. So that meant his only real option was to free the dragon. The one that would probably eat him without a thought. No problem.

He glanced around a bit to make sure no random viking decided to take a leisurely stroll and came across him hanging around a dragon while he was sawing the black scaled creature free of its binds. He didn't however notice the dragon staring at him as he cut the ropes, so when the night fury pinned him against a rock Hiccup was reasonably frightened.

(Line)

The beasts intelligent green eyes looked into Hiccups' as the dragon seemed to decide if he should kill the boy or not. He knew it was the hatchling he loved to watch, but the circumstances were different then they usually were. He wasn't high above the human, safely camouflaged by the night sky and the human hatchling had a weapon. Sure he used it as a tool for freedom, but what if he didn't next time?

The night fury toke a deep breath and smelt it. It was something that should not have existed! Yet here it was attached to this human. Why?! Confused and freaked out the dragon roared as loud as he could at the human and made an awkward escape, he crashed in a cove after a moment in the air.

(Line)

Meanwhile, Hiccup was trying desperately to cool down his body with the cold morning air. He had never been so scared in is life, his entire being felt like it should have been in flames. He managed to cool down enough after a few deep breaths to stand. He only made it a few steps, however, before his face decided to get well acquainted with the ground and everything went black.

I was stuck for a while about the voice over part because it's in first person and this AU isn't. A friend of mine hates switching from third person to first because 'it's stupid and doesn't make sense' . He's kinda right, no offense to anyone who enjoys that, he's a good writer and takes it seriously. I don't think he uses FF. Oh by the way Hiccups' body temp rise because his dragon instincts want to make fire but he doesn't know why or how so he tries to cool down. I can't figure out how to make him do the fire thing. Should he monstrous nightmare it and light his body on fire? Shoot it out his hands (not very likely, no dragon actually does that)? Or should I just make him do it like Toothless?

Thank you for all the favs/follows/reviews.

Pepsi out.