SUMMARY OF THIS CHAPTER
Hiccup gets the idea to kill Snotlout and the twins.
4. Entry - Monsters
Today I had to study. Chief training. I don't even know why dad still bothers. I can't imagine he really wants me to lead the village some day – not to mention there would be a riot as soon as I would try. Nevertheless he still forces me to do all kind of stuff to prepare for my 'duty'. Well, hope apparently dies last. Maybe some part of him still thinks I would suddenly stop with being all 'that', which actually means stopping everything I am. Believe me, dad, I wish I could.
However today's lesson included history and was actually very enlightening. Apparently there is an interesting pattern concerning the chiefs of Berk, even though my father seemed to not notice it. Every dynasty in the last 300 years didn't persist more than three generations. Why? Easy, the chief or his heir was killed and someone from a related family took his place - usually that meant the person, who murdered the original ruler. And guess what? Da dada I'm the third generation of the Haddock line since we came to power.
That resulted in an intriguing question: Will Snotlout try to kill me in the future?
I'm sure Spitelout isn't a danger. He's a rough and sometimes pretty cold person, but he was always very loyal to my father. He might expect that dad will hand over the chiefdom to Snotlout rather than me, but even then I can't imagine that my uncle would try to kill me, if my father would try to make me chief. Snotlout however is something else. He surely doesn't think about ruling Berk now, but he's a cruel person and I wouldn't be surprised, if there would be a time when he comes up with a plan to get rid of me.
Astrid was taken aback when she read this. She knew Snotlout almost her whole life, and even though he was a thick-headed, disgusting macho she would've never depicted him as a murderer. Did Hiccup really hate him this much that he could believe something ridiculous like this? On the other hand Hiccup had seen sides of Snotlout Astrid never had. The bulky teen always tried to impress her, which maybe included to hide the most ugliest part of himself. Who can better estimate the extent of your flaws than those, who despise you?
In some way Snotlout is already after my life, isn't he? I think about suicide, because of him. Maybe I underestimated him and this is all part of his super sinister master plan.
Gods, when did I start to make jokes like that?
After the history lesson followed the next topic: The law of Berk. Dad gave me three incredible huge books, which included every enactment and important precedent of the last 300 years, and told me to read them all. Then he left. I don't have to say I didn't do anything else today, do I?
Most of the stuff wasn't really new. I mean I lived my whole life under the law of Berk. I already know things like don't steal the sheep of silent Sven or don't burn Gobber's panties. However there were also things in these books I didn't know. Especially one certain precedent caught my eye.
Eric the II, firstborn of the chief at that time, killed his younger brother Gunnar, because he feared that his relative would try to kill him to be the first in line for rule over Berk. When I read this I expected that the chief would punish his firstborn, but no: The father of the murdered boy called the actions of Eric self-defense, because Gunnar was 'eroded by his greed for power and it was very likely for him to try to murder every rival on his way to rulership'. That got me thinking.
I never met someone, who doubted that a person has the right to defend themselves. There is a reason why no one cared that Snotlout ended up with a broken wrist after he tried to put his hand under Astrid's skirt. We are vikings. We stand our ground and fight against everyone, who tries to hurt us or take something from us, that isn't theirs. After all this is the reason why we fight dragons. A true viking doesn't give up. A true viking fights and if he can't fight anymore he still does everything to avoid defeat. A true viking never submits.
If I have one attribute that I have in common with a true viking then it is my endurance – or my stubbornness, if you would like to call it like that. Even after all those failures I still haven't stopped to try to kill a dragon. Yes, I'm to weak to fight with my body, but I use the means that I have as best as I can. But there are things in this world that are more cruel than a dragon and hurt me much worse.
Snotlout and the twins made my life a living nightmare. They try to kill me. They try to kill me! There is no difference between me jumping of a cliff, because of what they did to me, or them throwing me of said cliff!
They try to kill me.
I dedicated all my free time to slay a dragon, but they aren't the real monsters in my life. I was blind and weak not to see this sooner, but now that I do it is clear, what I have to do. Now I see the solution for my situation and I won't stop before I've put an end to this for once and for all.
I will slay Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut like the murderous beasts they are.
Not in a fight, not with my body, but with the means I have and I will do it in a way nobody will be able to trace back to me.
There are enough possibilities. For example no one would be surprised, if Ruffnut and Tuffnut died in an explosion of the mill of their family. Their parents told them that fire and flour are dangerous together, but they managed nevertheless to burn their eyebrows three times while working in the mill. Snotlout isn't hard either. He trains with pretty heavy weights in his basement room, which has a rotten window. If one would enter through this and manipulate the weight holder over the bench, where he lies down while heaving, he would be crushed by the barbell as soon as he puts it down.
However I don't want to make anyone suspicious. If I make their deaths look like an accident, it would be the best they would die all three in the same one. I have to think about this for a while.
It's odd. I'm feeling really good right now. I feel as happy as I wasn't in months. For once in a long time I know what to do. For once I can hope for something else than misery or ending my own life.
Like dragons those three are monsters. Dragons always go for the kill and I won't give Snotlout and the twins the opportunity to do the same. I won't stop and I won't show mercy. A true viking never gives up and never submits.
Astrid read the second half of the page several times. It all seemed so wrong. This wasn't like Hiccup. He was a gentle, loving soul, the voice of reason, the person who always searched for non-violent solutions. For crying out loud, with ending the war he was probably the greatest peacekeeper in viking history! How could someone like him think of murder? "It's just anger speaking out of him." Astrid tried to reassure herself, but was it really? He didn't seem rushed or thoughtless. His ideas with the mill and Snotlout's training gear didn't look poorly conceived. They were cold and calculated.
Astrid didn't know what shocked her more: The notion of murder or the fact that it came from Hiccup. On the other hand she could understand it... somehow. He had called it self-defense and in a way he was right. After what those three did to him Astrid wanted to hurt them herself, but to kill them? Snotlout was a disgusting pig and the twins were stupid as bread, but they were part of her group, which was now also Hiccup's group. Those three and Fishlegs were the people she spend most of her free time with, those she talked and laughed with. She never was nearly as close to one of them as she was to Hiccup now, however she always liked them. To think there was a point in his life where Hiccup seriously wanted to burn the twins inside their family's mill or crush Snotlout's skull with a barbell was utterly terrifying.
'What would you have done, if they treated you like that?' A voice in her head asked and suddenly Astrid was at a loss of words. She had always been much more aggressive and violent than Hiccup and even though she was a far better fighter than him, she couldn't take three people at once too. If Snotlout and the twins would decide to beat her up day after day, what would she do? With nobody to help, nobody to care, everyone around despising her?
Astrid shook her head. It didn't matter. Hiccup wasn't in this situation anymore and he had never killed anyone. All the thoughts in this entry were long gone and belonged in the past. The only question now was, why did he bring it back up? "Only one way to find out." She mumbled and continued reading.
