Chapter 4 - Stoick

Oh, Valka, why are the valkeries so cruel? Why did they send the dragons to take you from me? From our son?

Hiccup is... He's still so small. Gothi said he would be a great protector, but how? A stiff breeze could blow him away. He was terrified of that dragon toy you made for him. Last time I took him on a boat he threw it overboard, and very nearly followed it. He... he looks so much like you. I look at his eyes and I see all my failures.

I should have been faster. I should have protected you both from that monster. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could have taken your place. You would have done a much better job at this than I.

He's a stubborn lad. That should be a good trait but he's stubborn about all the wrong things. And he won't listen! I tell him to stay in the house and he leaves the moment my back is turned. I tell him not to wander outside the village and I find him in the woods drawing. I tell him to stay in his seat when we're eating at the Great Hall and he manages to set the kitchen on fire!

Last week I took him fishing along the streams on the north side of the island. I showed him how to bait a hook and told him how important it was to stay still and quiet. I hadn't taken my eyes off him for even a minute before he disappeared.

I can't remember how long I looked for him, it felt like forever. He'd somehow managed to get himself stuck halfway up a cliff. He was looking for trolls of all things.

Val, what am I supposed to do? I feel like I have to watch him every second just to make sure he doesn't get himself killed but I can't. I have to take care of the village, too. I've tried taking him with me, believe me, I did. He almost drowned at sea. He tried to climb into an oven while I was helping Gerda the Baker. The less said about what happened when Trader Johann visited the better.

I sent him to Gobber as an apprentice. Fire and sharp objects, yes, I know, but Gobber's like family and as muddle-headed as he can be I trust no one else here more. I just wanted someone to keep an eye on him and hoped that by learning a trade he'd be less interested in wandering off and getting himself killed.

So, of course, yesterday Gobber had to find him perched in the rafters over the forge rigging some monstrosity of ropes and pulleys. Hiccup could've died and all that boy could talk about was 'faster production' and 'hammering' and something about a water wheel. It's as if he has no survival instinct at all!

I'm failing him, Valka. I'm failing him and I don't even know what I'm doing wrong.

Stoick gets a horribly bum rap from a large section of the fanbase. Maybe it's because I'm older than a lot of fans (good grief, I'm older than Stoick would've been when Hiccup was born), or because I grew up around Germans and Norwegians, or both, but I really feel for the guy. Leading a small village that's under near constant threat of dragon attacks is hard enough all by itself. Add the twin problems of making sure his son survives to adulthood and that the village survives his son? It's no wonder he looks angry all the time. (As my dad has often said, 'all emotions tend to look like anger on men.' I'm not sure if this holds true for those outside northwestern Europe.)