Stoic couldn't keep a smile off his face as he watched his frustrated son as he crossed out yet another area on his makeshift map. The boy really did have some talent with his hands, to be able to draw like that.
"No, not me. I managed to lose an entire dragon!" A snort accompanied the statement and, for the first time since he'd begun watching the strange tale, Stoic looked around and saw Gobber sitting at a nearby table, staring at the wall in front of him. A much larger version of the same thing Stoic had been watching was in front of Gobber who apparently could hear Hiccup as well, and had laughed at the boy's dry sense of humor.
He got up and walked over to his old friend, joining him on the bench in front of the image. To his surprise, the rectangular moving picture widened to give him a better view and the volume increased so he could hear the casual music in the back. Gobber glanced up and raised an eyebrow as if to say, what do you think of this? Stoic shrugged in reply. Let's just see where this goes. The blond man let out a dismissive snort and turned back to the screen, where Hiccup proceeded to nearly poke his eye out with a branch.
The two men's chuckles at his bad luck were stifled as the sinister music brought a feeling of foreboding into the scene. That trench wasn't man made; it was too ragged for that. The ominous music sent shivers down both their spines as Hiccup walked down the trench and inspected the claw marks, approaching the end when, suddenly, the truth was revealed.
So that's a Night Fury, thought Stoic as he watched his son approach the great beast. It was a beautiful animal, with strong legs and wings, covered in black hide and scales that would protect it like chain mail and cloak it in the night. But it didn't look particularly ferocious, not with slightly dull claws and no teeth outside the lips, like a Nightmare's. It looked like a skyfighter, not something that would win hand to hand unless it used its fire. That was devastating enough to make up for its other less than satisfactory weaponry.
Why hadn't he noticed that when Hiccup rode it into the ring on the day he was supposed to kill the Nightmare? I'd been too angry to notice much of anything, especially not the cause of it, he thought with a twinge of guilt. If he had missed details about the dragon, what had he missed about his son?
Gobber finished admiring the wings when the view skimmed past them and up to the dragon's head. Those floppy things on its head looked like a cross between horns, ears, and frills. He wondered at what function they served. Balance, perhaps? Or to make it more suited to flying? Then he stopped wondering as the view showed the dragon's open eye.
Most of it was a bright green, the same color as Hiccup's eyes. The pupils were widened slightly, looking more intelligent than either man had expected. And, when he again came into view, it became obvious that Hiccup saw all of that and more.
The boy had the knife all ready, but he kept hesitating every time he looked into the dragon's eye. His spoken reasons were little more than excuses and Stoic wanted to hit themselves for trying to hammer that mentality into the boy's head when it obviously didn't suit his nature. Then he remembered a conversation he'd had about that same day with Hiccup and the boy had told him in at least two different ways that he couldn't kill dragons. It hadn't been a matter of skill. It had been a matter of heart. What had he done?
Gobber watched as the boy finally let the weapon drop and took a few steps back. He'd seen Hiccup look guilty many times, mostly after he'd messed up something, but this was different. The guilt was more consuming, as if he'd…meant for this to happen and realized how wrong he had been. Gobber looked over at his friend and chief. They wore identical expressions. They were more alike than people thought.
Actually, they were a lot alike. Stubborn, bad listeners, same guilty conscience, it was all there. Then he chuckled in his throat, thinking back to the first scene from the moving picture. When Stoic had thrown the net over the Nadders and Hiccup had slammed open his launcher, they'd made the exact same noise. Really, it was astounding how no one had seen it before, probably because no one looked long enough at Hiccup to see anything, except Gobber of course.
Then both men tensed as the heard a rope snap. Minds jolted out of their respective musings, they stared in growing horror at the image of Hiccup freeing a deadly and very angry dragon. What was he doing?! The instant that thing was free it was going to pounce on him and blast him! Honestly, did the boy have a death wish?!
Then the dragon was on him and both men jumped to their feet, ready to take action, until they remembered that it was only an image and Hiccup clearly hadn't actually died in the encounter. Giving each other slightly sheepish looks, Gobber and Stoic sat back down, but still tense. Fists clenched around their drinks or under the table, pulses racing, the blacksmith and chief watched as one's son and the other's apprentice stared absolute death in the face, only to get off with just a scream from the dragon in question. When it flew off, Gobber was so relieved that he let go of the tankard he'd manhandled into an odd shape and Stoic relaxed his hand and inspected the row of small cuts where his fingernails had accidentally cut into his palms. It seemed Hiccup shared their relief, as he fainted a few seconds later. Stoic laughed.
But Gobber was thinking hard about what had happened right after the scream and just before Hiccup fainted. The dragon had flown off, but crookedly, and had banged into things along the way. So why, when Hiccup came to show him to all the Vikings, did he fly straight and with incredible speed and control? What had crippled him in the first place? Perhaps the next scene would answer some of his questions.
As always, I love reviews and promise a twist reveal to the first reviewer.