Chapter 7: Royal Treatment
"Mr. Haddock, I hope that you and your dragon will find the room we chose for your accommodations to come to your satisfaction." Queen Arianna said, only to receive a look a confusion on Hiccup's face.
"I'm sorry to be rude, but I didn't really understand what you just said. Back at my village, I've never heard anyone talk like that before." Hiccup replied.
"What my mother meant to say when she said that was we hope you and Toothless will like the room that you'll be staying in for the year." Rapunzel responded.
"I think me and Toothless should at least see what our room looks like first if we're going to be sure about that." Hiccup mentioned.
"Oh, both of you have absolutely nothing to worry about, because every room in this castle has impressively beautiful qualities, which makes each of them very special to us." King Frederic explained.
"That's good to know, and I hope one of these qualities is that they have enough space for a dragon, because in Berk, Toothless always had to stay outside my house to get a good night's sleep." Hiccup said.
"Really? Dragons have finally become your friends in Berk, but not any of the houses can fit a dragon, especially yours? It must be a disappointment for them not to be with their human every night." Rapunzel replied.
"The dragons don't really mind at all, and besides, it's much better that way. While the island became a home for the dragons, every house is more of a home for only the Vikings, and the only place that can fit everyone altogether is the Great Hall." Hiccup said.
"What's the Great Hall? Is that place an enormous hallway, just like the ones that we have right here in this castle?" Rapunzel asked, and what she got after asking that was look of bafflement on the faces of both Toothless and Hiccup.
"No, Rapunzel, it's not a hallway. It's actually a large building which is served for a multitude of purposes. It's for talking, eating, drinking, and having a meeting." Hiccup explained.
"Well then, it seems like you're quite lucky to be in Corona, because the kingdom definitely has a lot of buildings for everyone to do all of those things." Rapunzel mentioned.
"Great. Me and Toothless can't wait to see what Corona has to offer while we're staying here. Anyway, have we reached our room yet or do we still need to keep going?" Hiccup asked.
"It's good that all of us had been talking to keep ourselves busy while finding it, because we finally made it to your new room, Hiccup. Are you and Toothless ready to see it?" Rapunzel questioned.
"I sure do know that I am! What about you, bud?" Hiccup asked, turning over to face his scaly friend, who kindly gave a short growl as a response.
King Frederic came toward the door and once he had opened it, both the Viking and his dragon were simply amazed, because they had never seen a room like this before in their lives. Even though the bedroom did have much more space than the one Hiccup had back in Berk, the very first thing that he immediately noticed was the bed to the left side. It was a four-poster bed which had decorative fabric draped across the upper space between the posts and a solid swath of cloth that created a canopy directly over the bed. Hiccup could also see a door that was over on the right side, and it instantly peaked at his curiosity.
"Could someone please happen to tell me what's behind that door?" Hiccup asked.
"It leads the way to your very own personal bathroom, Mr. Haddock. You can have either a shower or a bath, and I'm sure the warm water will come useful with both of them." Queen Arianna answered.
"Would it be alright for me to show you and Toothless around the room? You've only heard just one thing about the room that makes it so special." Rapunzel suggested.
She was about to walk even further into Toothless and Hiccup's room when someone had laid a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder to keep her from going another step.
"I'm sorry, dear, but I'm afraid that there's isn't much time for that right now because it's very late and that's why we should get back to our own bedrooms and get some sleep." King Frederic mentioned.
"Yes, dad. I'm sorry, but it's just always so exciting to have a new visitor come to our kingdom! Hiccup and Toothless must be so tired and exhausted." Rapunzel replied.
"Before you guys go, I'd like to thank you for being so nice and understanding about all of this. What I mean by that is all of you being okay with me and my best friend staying here in your kingdom." Hiccup kindly said.
"Your welcome, Mr. Haddock. You seem to be such a sweet young man to say that, and so we'll make sure to have everyone treat in Corona you and your dragon with the utmost respect." Queen Arianna responded.
"Thank you very much, and good night." Hiccup said, while giving a bow to be polite and thoughtful for them.
"Good night, and enjoy your brand new room, Mr. Haddock." The King and Queen both said at the same time before closing the door.
Once the door was shut, Toothless instantly found a good space on the floor to lay down, and soon he was quickly down and out, sleeping like a hard rock. Hiccup raised one of his arms and quickly gave a sniff of his body odor, and even though it wasn't that bad, and it usually never was, he still felt that it wouldn't be so early to get himself fresh and clean. Cleanliness was obviously an important thing to Hiccup, because during the time he grew up in Berk, he would take a bath three or four times each week. Hiccup had always known that if anyone ever did find out, people would make fun of him, and that's why he was so worried when Astrid had asked him about it.
While she did uproariously laugh at first, Astrid gave Hiccup a deep kiss and told him that she really didn't have any complaints about it at all. Snotlout and Tuffnut had also found out about Hiccup's bathing habits, and seemed to take great delight –especially Snotlout- in making fun of him, telling him that he was being girly, to which Hiccup invariably retorted that, as far as he was concerned, he didn't smell like a crate of two-years old fishes that even dragons would not consider edible, and that he was the one who had Astrid for a girlfriend, and Snotlout usually would visibly deflate at that.
When Hiccup opened the door to the bathroom and slowly walked inside, he was really blown away with the bathroom's marvelous features. It had a large private cast iron bathtub with porcelain interior on a "claw foot" pedestal, which was much different than the ones that they used to bathe in Berk. The bathtubs that the Vikings used were also constructed by them with wooden staves and steel bands very much like a very large barrel, and the staves were usually made of redwood, cedar, or teak. The floor was created with many tiles of the same shape and size making a remarkable hexagon pattern, which Hiccup thought was pretty neat and nifty.
Hiccup walked over to take a look at the huge rectangle-shaped mirror which had enough space for both him and Toothless to see their reflection at the same time. In fact, Toothless could be able to feel free and go around the bathroom, just as long as he was careful and didn't accidentally break anything. Hiccup saw on top of the drawer that there were a lot of things that he had never seen before, which included face cloths, bars of soap, and bottles of shampoo, body lotion, bath foam, and conditioner. The Viking walked over to the bathtub and saw two glass knobs connected to it, with one of them having a capital letter 'H' in the color of bright red, while the other featured a capital 'C' in the color of light blue.
Hiccup quickly knew what the colored letters meant, which were hot and cold, so since he obviously wanted a nice, warm bath, Hiccup turned the 'H' knob on the left until water started to come out and into the tub. Hiccup did the same routine with taking off his clothing, starting with his fur vest, and then his green tunic, both his fur boots, one that was covering his right foot, and the other, which was covering his prosthetic leg. He also took off his brown belt, and brown pants, and then his underwear. Finally, Hiccup carefully removed his prosthetic, and he safely left it on the ground, while he laid his clothes in an organized pile on the drawer.
The dragon rider got himself into the white tub by raising the half of his left leg and then his right foot before he was finally settled and comfortable. Yes, Hiccup thought as he smiled to herself and let all the muscles of his body relax into the warm, welcoming water in the bathtub. For a good moment of time, which was about ten minutes, Hiccup stayed in a cool, calm, and collected position while keeping his eyes closed before he felt that he was good and ready to come out. Before he did that, Hiccup pulled out the cork from the bottom of the tub to have the water drained through the pipes from beneath the floors of the castle.
To dry himself off, he used a long towel, which was a great combination of being soft, smooth, quite fluffy, and put on a bathrobe which was just as light and comfortable. Hiccup grabbed his clothes from the drawer and his prosthetic from off the hexagon-tiled floor, and once he had just walked out of the bathroom, Hiccup heard a knock on the door, which was quick and not so loud, but he was sure that he had heard it. He took a short moment to reattach his prosthetic before going over and opening the door, and he was expecting that it was King Frederic or Queen Arianna, or it could have been both of them behind the door, but to his surprise, this person wasn't either of them. It happened to be their young daughter, Rapunzel, who seemed to have a mixed look of worry and excitement on her face, which obviously caused much concern for Hiccup.
"Rapunzel, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Hiccup asked, and Rapunzel shook her head before giving a response back to him.
"No, Hiccup, nothing's wrong. Even though it's very late, and not really such a good time, it's just that I wanted to check up on you, and see how you were doing in your new room and... oh my gosh! Hiccup, what happened to your left leg?" Rapunzel asked, while looking down at Hiccup's prosthetic leg.
"It's really a long story, but if you would like to know what happened, please do come in, but just make sure not to wake up Toothless, even though he's a heavy sleeper." Hiccup replied, while having the door open for her.
Being very careful, Rapunzel had slowly started to make her way through the door, and once she was inside the room, Hiccup quietly closed the door before walking over to her.
