A/N: I'm sorry I'm falling a bit behind, guys. This was a really difficult prompt to write for. I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with how it turned out, but I don't want to waste more time on it. I'm gonna do my best to catch up this weekend!


"Oh. Oh wow," Astrid said as she read the script again. "This is a lot bloodier than I remember."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. You should see the Ragnar Lodbrok play I wrote a while back. That one's definitely not for the children!" Kirsten laughed, and Astrid wasn't really amused.

"Maybe, but this play is for little kids. And maybe we shouldn't be showing them 'The Glorious Tale of Grimbeard, Enslaver of Dragons' anymore. Six months after, you know, making peace with the dragons, we shouldn't be portraying a Nadder getting split in two while... 'blood sprays everywhere and entrails spill from the mangled corpse'? What were you thinking when you wrote this?" Astrid shouted, quoting from the scroll with disgust. Stormfly looked up in alarm at her raised voice, and Astrid felt even sicker at the thought of her dragon getting chopped up like that.

Normally she liked her mother's plays. Hell, she must have watched this one when she was a little girl. But now…

"Hey, that's my most popular play! As a matter of fact, I recall you cheering particularly loudly at this part about 10 years ago. You didn't even notice the entrails were sausages and the entire dragon was a doll," Kirsten said, obviously trying not to laugh.

"Well, maybe little me was an idiot who had no idea what was right or wrong, and adults told me that butchering innocent dragons was a good thing," Astrid said, putting the scroll away. She couldn't look at it for another second.

Kirsten sighed deeply, her smile dropping. "Maybe you're right. You have to understand that when I wrote this… it was a different time. And no matter how outdated its message may be, I'm still proud of it. I worked hard on this play, and I think it still has good parts despite the… bloody imagery," she said, and Astrid didn't really know what to say.

"But Astrid… You're right. It's time I- no, we write something new. Hiccup can help too. And then you can perform that new play, something more fitting for these times."

"I'd like that," Astrid slowly said, already trying to think of plotlines. Maybe something about training dragons instead of killing them!

"Alright then! Get your boyfriend in here too, we have a lot to write before the festival!" Kirsten said, grabbing ink and paper and looking very eager to start writing.


It wasn't easy for Astrid to suppress her laugh when she saw Hiccup with a huge fake beard and a helmet with a broken horn walk out on stage, but remembering her own outfit helped. She was dressed in what were basically Hiccup's old clothes, including his brown fur vest.

"Hello children, welcome to my newest play, Book of Dragons! And applause for Hiccup and Astrid, who play Bork the Bold and Hiccup Haddock, respectively! Today you'll see the history of how we interact with dragons!" Kirsten announced, bowing at the applause from the parents gathered in the square before leaving the stage. Hiccup looked really nervous, but thankfully he didn't have much stage fright.

"Over a hundred years ago lived a Viking named Bork the Very Very Unfortunate. That's me! Now, I know that's quite a sad nickname, but how did I get that name? Well, it was because of my interactions with dragons. You see, I tried to do a lot of jobs. I tried fishing," Hiccup explained as he lifted a fishing rod with a fish hanging from it. He sat down on a chair on the stage, mimicking him fishing in the ocean, when Toothless walked on the stage. The dragon suddenly snatched the dragon from the line, and Hiccup 'woke up' dramatically. A moment later he was chasing the stealing Night Fury off the stage as the kids laughed.

"I also tried farming," he said as a wooden board with a wheat field painted on was pushed onto the stage. Seconds later Hookfang descended from the sky and set it ablaze. It was quickly wheeled off-stage again to cheers and laughter.

"I even tried blacksmithing!" Hiccup continued when a pile of stones and an anvil were moved on stage. Again he only worked for a few seconds before another dragon, Meatlug this time, interrupted him and ate the rocks.

"So, I decided that the best way to get these dragons to leave me alone was to learn all there was to know about them. That way I'd learn what they hate, so they'd leave me in peace!" Hiccup announced, sitting down again and grabbing a book.

"I studied every dragon there is, and wrote down everything in this little book. For example, when I was camping in the forest one night I encountered a Deadly Nadder…" Hiccup said as Astrid nudged Stormfly onto the stage. They had another dramatic encounter, with Bork learning Nadder's hate to have mud thrown on them.

That was her cue.

"I'm Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, and I'm much younger and handsomer than Bork!" she said as she climbed the stage. The children laughed, immediately accepting this.

"I also try to learn everything about dragons, but unlike Bork, I want them to be my friends! For instance, with this Nadder I know there's nothing she likes more than having her tail stroked!" she said, doing just that. Stormfly chirped happily.

So they continued with the other tamed dragons. 'Bork' would first have a painful encounter with them, after which he learned to drive them off. Then 'Hiccup' would learn to attract the dragon and have them help each him with a task. The kids weren't laughing as much anymore, but they paid close attention.

"Me and Bork are very different in how we saw dragons. But we were also similar! We both sought to learn and to study, and to write down what we found so others can learn from it! And maybe in a few years you guys can also write down what you learn from your dragon friends!" Astrid concluded the play, and the children cheered. Actually, not just the children. The adults seemed to like it too. Honestly she hadn't expected that, and she could feel a blush forming. Hiccup wasn't much better.

"Hmm, I might have a new most popular play," Kirsten mused as they left the stage and the families dispersed. "Also, you make an adorable Hiccup."

"I'm not sure, Mother. I think the most adorable Hiccup is still right here. Even with that ridiculous beard," Astrid said, kissing him on the cheek before pulling the beard off. "Much better."