Chapter 4: Dragons, Vikings, and Wooden Legs (Epilogue)
The first thing that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third sees when he wakes up about a week after the Red Death incident is his dragon Toothless' face staring down at him with wide green eyes. "Hey Toothless." He greets with a weak voice as the dragon in question starts nudging his face, before he starts to lick the brunette teen in happiness. "Happy to see you too bud- Oh!" He cries out when Toothless accidentally puts a paw down on his groin. However, this causes him to realize exactly where he is. "I'm in my house." He says, looking around the first floor, before settling his sights on Toothless as the dragon sticks his tongue out for a minute. "Uh, you're in my house." He says as surprise and slight fear start to creep into his voice.
As Hiccup says this, Toothless starts to leap around the first floor with the energy of a joyful dog, knocking down multiple objects as he does so. "Does my dad know you're here?" He asks, before Toothless comes bounding back over to him. "Oooooh, okay, okay!" He exclaims, holding out his hands to stop Toothless from unleashing another round of dragon saliva. "Toothless, no, no, Toothless!" The Viking teen exclaims as the dragon once again starts bounding around the room, before leaping up into the rafters to stare down at the brunette. "Oh come on-" Hiccup cuts himself off as he attempts to get off the bed, before his eyes go wide as he realizes something.
Hiccup's face goes slack, before he pulls back the covers to see something that frightens him. Toothless leaps back onto the ground, and walks over to Hiccup's side as he puts his feet on the ground. His right foot covered by his boot, while the bottom half of his left leg is replaced by a wooden and metal prosthetic. Toothless lowers his head to sniff at the new leg, before looking up at Hiccup as the boy holds back tears to find that he is now minus one leg. He attempts to get out of bed and walk, makes it a single step, and then Toothless has to catch him as he falls trying to take the second step. "Okay… Thanks bud." The Viking teen thanks the dragon as he allows Hiccup to use him as a makeshift crutch. They walk towards the door of their house, the squeaking of Hiccup's prosthetic leg being the only sound besides the swishing of Toothless' tail, still missing his left tail wing.
Hiccup opens the door to his house… Only to slam it closed again when a Nightmare's head comes into view letting off a loud roar. After taking a few breathes to calm himself down, he turns to look at the Night Fury. "Toothless… Stay here." He says, before opening the door once again… only to see Snotlout riding on the same Monstrous Nightmare.
"Come on guys get ready! Here we go!" He cries out as he's followed by Fishlegs on a Gronkle, and the twins on a Zippleback. Hiccup walks outside with wide eyes at the sight that greets him. Dragons flying around, or resting the rooftops of Viking houses as said Vikings go about their normal day. Some even have dragons following behind them as they walk around town.
"I knew it, I'm dead." Hiccup states, thinking that he's been sent to paradise. Only for a chuckle next to him to get his attention.
"No, but you gave it your best shot." Stoick stays as he walks onto the porch of his house, laying his hand on Hiccup's shoulder with a smile on his face. "So, what do you think?" He asks, gesturing to the town as they walk down the steps of the porch. Before the teen can answer, a Viking in the crowd below cries out.
"Look! It's Hiccup!" He exclaims, making everyone in the area immediately run up and greet the chief's son with warm smiles and cheers.
"It turns out all we needed was a little more of…" He trails of to gesture to Hiccup. "This." He says with a small smile.
"You just gestured to all of me." Hiccup says with a small smirk at the corners of his mouth. Getting a nod and smile from his father in response, before another voice speaks up from the crowd.
"Well, most of you." Gobber says as he walks up to the father and son. "That bit's my handy work." He says, pointing at the prosthetic leg that Hiccup has. "With a little Hiccup flair thrown in. You think it'll do?" He asks, making the teen lift the leg and take another look at it.
"I, might make a few tweaks." He says with a small smile, making the crowd laugh. Suddenly, Hiccup jerks forwards as he's punched in his shoulder by a certain female teen Viking.
"That's for scaring me." She tells him.
"W-w-what? Is it always gonna be this way?" He asks in disbelief as Astrid takes a step towards him. "Because-" He's cut off as Astrid pulls him into a kiss, amongst the different Viking's "Ooo's" at the scene. As she pulls back, Hiccup has a blank stare on his face due to the surprise of the situation. He's able to snap out of it and give a small smirk. "I could get used to it." He says, getting a small smile from the female Viking. Then, he turns to Gobber as he's handed a new prosthetic tail wing for Toothless.
"Welcome home." He tells the teen, getting a smile in return before the sound of a door opening is heard, and a Viking yells.
"Night Fury!" He cries out, getting gasps of surprise from the crowd.
"Get down!" Another one cries as Toothless comes leaping out of Hiccup's house, crushing a few Vikings beneath him as he tries to use their shoulders as launch pads. He lands in front of Hiccup, and gives him a small roar of excitement at seeing the new tail wing. Astrid laughs at the scene, and Hiccup joins in for a few seconds, before he realizes something that he mentally kicks himself for not remembering as soon as he woke up.
"Wait! Where's Jack?" He asks his father, getting a confused look in return.
"Jack?" He asks his son.
"Yeah, Jack. The other teen on the white Night Fury." He tells his dad, only for a different voice to respond to his question.
"Aw, so you do care about me." A voice says in the crowd with joyful sarcasm evident. The crowd of Vikings part to show Jack walking towards Hiccup with a smile, the white Night Fury behind him. "Welp, looks like my idiotic rescue attempt might not have saved all of you." He says with a smile, looking down at Hiccup's prosthetic leg. Hiccup smiles a bit, before looking at Jack a bit closer, and noticing something that he should have as soon as he saw the teen… Hiccup wasn't the only one missing the bottom half of his left leg. Jack must have noticed that he was staring, because he gives a small smirk and lift the prosthetic leg. "Yeah, turns out we got a matching set out of it." He says, before gesturing to the white Night Fury behind him. "As did this guy." He says as the Night Fury lifts its tail to show that where his left tail wing should have been, there was a slight burn mark.
When he sees this, Hiccup understands that the dragon's tail must have burned off, as opposed to being cut off like he'd accidentally done to Toothless. He flinches when he thinks about the possibility of the dragon being awake while this happened, realizing it must have been a lot more painful. He's cut off from his thoughts by Jack's voice resonating through the air again. "Well? Are we gonna go flying or what?" He looks at his friend to see him holding up an exact replica of the prosthetic tail wing he's holding. The only difference being that Jack's is colored blue. Hiccup smiles, and nods at the question.
A minute later, they're both on their Night Fury's, with Astrid on the Nadder from the battle standing beside them. They all share a smile, before Hiccup looks down at Toothless. "You ready?" He asks, getting a small snort from the dragon in response as if he's saying "of course." Then, the three take off. "Woo-hoo!" Hiccup cries out as he dives towards the ground with Astrid and Jack at his sides. As they fly over town, the other teens join them on their own dragons. A few minutes into the flight though, Hiccup turns to Jack. "Hey, didn't you say that you were going to tell me where you actually came from?!" He cries over the wind, getting a small smile from Jack in response.
"I did say that, didn't I?!" He cries out. "We might want to land! Something tells me this is going to be a loooong explanation!"
AN: And that concludes this story in the "A New Life" series! The next one that I'll be working on is the "Gift of the Night Fury(s)", but it might not be the next one posted. Most likely, I'll be able to finish it the same day I post this chapter, but the next story that I'll post is most likely the "Riders of Berk". The reason for this is because I plan on posting GOTNF on Christmas (for me). So, there will most likely be a few things that will confuse you in ROB, since I'll have decided on them in GOTFN.
Anyways, now onto the reviews for the last chapter! (P.s. I'll probably respond to reviews for this chapter in the beginning of the next story, unless they're just reviews saying that you loved the story. In which case, thanks!)
Sam4801:
Nice to see you're alive an kicking! Yeah, in the TV series, Stoic has a different dragon than in the second movie. However, it's explained why in the third to last episode of season 2. Either way, I suggest tha you watch the TV series before reading my next story, because I'll be changing, and adding in, quite a few things since Jack is able to understand things better than the Vikings. (Like I said last time, a certain episode where the Vikings don't understand why Thor is angry with metal, as well as the future of a certain raven haired, green eyed girl.)
Anime PJ:
As you can see, I've made it so that they both lost their left legs. Why you may ask? Well, you'll just have to read the other stories to find out. *Trollface* But anyways, glad that I could entertain you through the story, and I hope to have the same response with the next ones in this series!
Andy493:
LLLLEEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOYYYYY, JJJJEEEENNNNKKKKINNNNNSS! (Good to know that I was able to entertain you with that line!)
Well, I think that's about it for this finale to the story! Holy shit, I just realized something. This is the first story that I actually successfully finished… Yes! Well, now that I am officially happy to actually finish a story, I'm going to start writing GOTFN. I hope to see you all in the next story, and thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this!
