Chapter 9
Hiccup could feel his stomach doing all sorts of funny things. Sometimes he wondered if it was trying to escape. Did it suspect he was going to be embarrassed beyond comprehension? He didn't doubt it. He prayed to any god that could hear him that he was wrong. The time finally arrived for the day of the initiation. In this special day, Thor's Thursday, the whole village had arranged a great festival to celebrate their Vikingness and the soon to be Vikingness of their young.
Usually Hiccup loved this day more than any other. There was cheerful and drunken singing, family picnics, children playing, mothers gossiping like hens, old warriors retelling stories of their glory days and children listening intensely, and so much more. Tents were pitched in the sandy shore, tables set with food and drinks shared by everyone. Just like when he was little, he thought, nothing had changed… not everything, he remembered his mother was not there. Everyone had high spirits for exception of him and his father.
Stoick cleared his throat, tried to start a conversation, but couldn't find the words so instead he took a large gulp of his mug. Hiccup didn't blame him; he also had no idea what to say. They sat a little to the edge of the celebration. They had a little feast of their own, but even Stoick who had an incredible appetite barely touched it. His mother's cooking had been batter than any of this. Hiccup thought biting into a fruit pie.
"You shouldn't let your dragon eat so much before the initiation," Stoick finally found something to say, and for a good reason too, "he will have trouble flying"
"Toothless," Hiccup said pulling away the basket of fish from the dragon, "that's enough" he tried his most stern voice.
"I am still not talking to you" said Toothless but still reached to grab the basket back.
Good, Hiccup wanted to reply, but he had to be careful around his father.
"Making fun of dragons; you humans should learn your place" the small dragon said, though he said he wouldn't talk to him.
Stoick watched curiously as the little dragon screeched at his son, as if he was talking to him, but that would be impossible because dragons did not speak to Vikings. At least, this is what Stoick told himself even after his son rolled his eyes at the small dragon, as if he understood. After finishing their small, awkward picnic they both started to part their ways. Stoick had planned to search for his old friend Gobber who was probably still at the seagull egg eating contest. Hiccup wanted to find his friend Fishlegs, who was the only person as worried as him about the initiation.
"Good luck," said Stoick patting his son's shoulder.
"Thanks," Hiccup nodded before taking towards the rest of the celebration. His mind was tangled with worry and old memories. He needed to find Fishlegs before he went mad.
Toothless followed closely, still muttering small curses at the boy. Hiccup paid him no mind. Instead he found himself trying to remember how it was to enjoy this day. He remembered how his mother made his father sit him on his lap as she got their servings ready. His father, who had little to no experience with children, would only bounce him up and down, up and down, and that had been plenty of fun. His mother and father would laugh as he asked his father to bounce him a little higher.
His father used to say that he would be a great rider 'he should be starting as soon as possible' thought he was about five years old.
Then his mother would say 'he is too young, don't even think about it Stoick, or you will be sleeping outside with your dragons'
That had made all of them laugh. After that his parents would take him around the celebration to listen to the story tellers and sit on the backs of small dragons (with adult supervision, of course), and finally to watch the young trainees go through their initiation. He remembered his mother always betting with his father about who would be the best dragon show. His mother always won, and that always got a few laughs from the rest of the tribe.
"What are you laughing at?" Toothless sneered, was the kid coming up with more bad dragon jokes?
"I just remembered something from when I was little," Hiccup said returning to the present, "well, little-er"
He heard Toothless trying to hold back his laughter. He was supposed to still be upset at Hiccup for capturing him and telling him so many bad dragon jokes, but the little dragon found it hard to. Actually (and he would never tell the boy until much later in their lives) Hiccup had gained some (just a teen′sy-ween′sy little bit) of Toothless' respect.
"Oh girl, I am so sorry. I knew I shouldn't have fed you so many, but you just looked so happy!" Hiccup heard the clear distress behind his friend's voice as he reached the place where the Ingerman family usually had their picnics. Behind some tents he found Fishlegs rubbing Meatlug's even larger belly. Hiccup could tell at once his friend had been feeding her too much before the initiation, which would slow the boulder eating dragon even more.
"What am I going to do Hiccup! She won't be able to fly!" Fishlegs said as he rubbed Meatlug's belly faster, "I am going to get booted!"
"You are not," sighed Hiccup, "c'mon. Let's get a little far from here. We don't want to set anything on fire"
Fishlegs wasn't sure what Hiccup had in mind, but he was desperate. His family had been telling him that he was spoiling Meatlug too much, and so had Hiccup. He was glad his friend wasn't saying 'I told you so,' not that was anything Hiccup like. He and his dragon followed Hiccup until they were a little farther from the celebration.
"Here should be fine," said Hiccup, "now ask Meatlug to do some lava blasts to get rid of the excess rock"
"Why didn't I think of that! I am supposed to be Gronckle expert for Thor's sake!" he offered his friend a thankful smile, "c'mon girl, let's get some good lava shots"
Hiccup turned towards the sea and sat while Fishlegs did this. The day just felt so unreal.
"How did you know?" asked Toothless sitting next to him, though he kept his distance.
"Fishlegs told me that Gronckles don't really have a shot limit as long as they have boulders to eat. It's common sense"
"Not so common for your friend" Toothless teased as he looked back at Fishlegs and Meatlug. It made him kind of sick (more like disturbed) how close they were, but more that such a friendship could be found between a human and a dragon.
"He was scared, he wasn't thinking clearly" Hiccup buried his fingers in the sand. He remembered everything that Fishlegs had told him about Gronckles, not just because they were friends, but he also found the Gronckle to be a fascinating dragon. Though it wasn't fast or that big, it still had an incredible advantage when it came to fire power.
"And you are?" he looked at the boy intensely.
"I am afraid so. Not that I really want to, but sometimes I wish I was like the rest of the tribe. I want to stop thinking so much and just let my emotions make all the decisions"
"Not that I like you human, actually I despise you, but I think you are fine the way you are"
Hiccup knew when not question a compliment when he got one, so he just smiled and started to draw in the sand with a twig he had found. Where he sat Toothless watched the boy draw a small head that looked like his before started on the long body and wide wings. Dragons had little to no understanding of art, but Toothless was still surprised to see a very nice drawing of him in the sand. They sat there for a while as the sun reached the middle of the sky. It was a wonderful warm day, what a shame, Hiccup thought. It would have been perfect to do some dragon watching.
Finally the time arrived for the young dragon trainers to gather for their initiation test. Fishlegs and Hiccup stood side by side with their dragons watching the gathering crowd. They could easily spot their families and worried stares. Hiccup turned away when he made eye contact with his father.
He noted the rest of the teens from his tribe were rather quiet. The waiting crowd would cheer after Gobber presented the young trainer and their dragon but it wasn't enough to lift the anxiety around them. Even the Thorston twins seemed submissive as Gobber started to introduce them and their two headed dragon. Astrid stood proudly with her head held high, which her dragon mimicked perfectly. Snotlout stood as firm as a roman soldier, though Hookfang seemed much less attempt as he sharpened his claws with one another. When Gobber got to Fishlegs he raised a questioning brow at the boy who shrugged unsure of what to say. Meatlug looked a lot happier and seemed even a little lighter (as light as a Gronkle could be) and ready to start. This was not something that Gobber would have expected of the Ingerman boy and his dragon.
Then he made it to Hiccup and Toothless.
"So, the little demon decided to cooperate?" Gobber stared down at the small dragon with mistrust.
"Miss me?" Toothless purred at the large Viking who visibly shuddered.
"More like hates me and can't wait to humiliate me" Hiccup said when he caught sight of Toothless smug smile.
"That's the spirit!" Gobber patted him on the back almost sending him tumbling to the sand.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I could have never done it without you wonderful advice" Hiccup deadpanned as he straightened.
"You are welcome," then he turned to the waiting tribe, "PRESENTING THE HEIR OF THE TRIBE HICCUP HORRENDOUS THE III AND HIS DRAGON… ehm… TOOTHLESS!"
There was an awkward silence in the crowd before someone started to clap politely, and soon the rest followed. Hiccup knew it was no easy for his tribe to be somewhat silent, but he thought it was ridiculous how well he could hear them from where he stood. They whispered (or so they called it) about the type of dragon he had gotten. Many quoted Snotlout about it being a mongrel and how small and shameful it was.
Hiccup tried his best not to turn red with embarrassment. He kept telling himself that he had foreseen this, but when and if Toothless showed what he could do he would shut them all up. Though he wasn't looking directly at his father, he could feel the weight of his gaze on him. He wanted to shout at him not to worry. He would do all he could. He would not shame him and his mother's memory.
Toothless could hear them also just fine, but decided that he didn't care. He kept on blowing his ever so perfect smoke rings their way before flapping up and then standing behind Hiccup's back, claws set firmly on his shoulders.
"This is boring; you are really failing on delivering you part of the deal. I want an adventure,"
"Once I become an official Viking we will have so many adventures you won't know how to handle it all"
"So you keep saying"
The initiation test started. The first tasks involved simple commands for the dragons to do things like going, shooting, circling and so on.
Soon the air was filled with shouting commands of the young trainers and the screeches of their dragons.
Well, here was the moment of truth.
"Go," he said in his soft breathless voice.
He felt a weight lift off his shoulders and he realized Toothless had gone when he told him to go. His eyes were almost as wide as everyone else's as they watched the small dragon speed into the skies faster than they had ever seen a small dragon fly.
"What is that sound?" he heard some say. It was somewhat like a whistle, yet it wasn't. Then Hiccup remembered that first morning when he talked to Toothless. He knew what was coming.
"Plasma Blast!" he shouted as hard as he could before the little dragon released a swift and inconceivably straight purple fire blast into the sky, which exploded greatly in the form of a ring (much like Toothless' smoke rings) and expanded until it eventually faded away. It was beautiful, and deadly without doubt.
"Now Toothless!" Hiccup took a step forwards and looking up with smile larger than anyone had ever seen he shouted again, "Dive Bomb!"
The small dragon wrapped his wings around himself and dropped straight down as it filled its mouth with another blast. He dropped so fast that everyone was gasping when he didn't show any sign of stopping. The waves were so close now, everyone stopped breathing.
"Now!" he shouted and just in time Toothless released his blast and then opened his wings, turned his body horizontally and flew directly to land before Hiccup.
"You owe me a life of adventure, lobster every night, all the jokes I want, and to never ever tell another bad dragon joke again" the small dragon said as Hiccup kneeled before him.
"That's quite the price for one show" he whispered aghast. Never did he imagine things would go like this.
"Just wait until this is over. We will see who trained who" the dragon chuckled, though not as darkly as Hiccup had heard him before.
"You are absurd" but he said this with a proud smile. He had a wonderful dragon.
Whatever was Toothless's response, it was drowned by cheers from the crowd that rushed to them. Stoick was the first to reach them, he opened his mouth, tried to form some words but then shut his mouth again. Then he took his son in his arms in a mighty embrace.
"Can't bre…breathe"
"Sorry!" he dropped him immediately, "you… you did great!"
He could hear the agreement coming from everyone else around.
"Get back the lot of you!" shouted Gobber, "the initiation isn't over yet. You too Stoick, yeah you heard me right. Now get back!" then he turned to Hiccup, "get a move on Hiccup, you can celebrate all you want later" and his smile was encouraging.
He nodded and turned away from the crowd and his father. His face was starting to hurt, he realized before he tried to stop smiling. Instead, a crooked smile remained.
Snotlout wanted to smash that smile to pieces. Hiccup and his mongrel dragon had taken all the attention of the tribe. All eyes were on Hiccup, not Snotlout; the scrawny kid, not him who was so big and strong. He had detested Hiccup before because he was a small obstacle for him to become the chief. His father told him constantly that they would make quick work of the fishbone when the time arrived but now it was all different. He had to see him fall.
