Untold

Chapter 34 - Nightmares

Summary: Set when Hiccup is twelve, shortly after Take it Like a Man.

A/N: You don't have to read Take it Like a Man to understand this, just so you know. Just remember Hiccup is twelve :) my mom really shouldn't have told me all that stuff about sleep deprivation today, and how dangerous it is...otherwise this might never have been born...

Anyway, here it is! I might rewrite it, but I did it in an hour, so...please be kind. Please.

When Father first came into my cell and undid my chains, I assumed he was releasing me. He'd had a change of heart. He was letting me go. He was starting to see the truth about dragons, maybe, or maybe he just couldn't bear to keep his only son locked up like this.

When he pinned my arms behind my back and shoved me along the dimly lit hallways filled with other miserable and dirty prison cells, I was reluctantly forced to conclude that this was not what he was doing. He shoved me forcefully, firmly. I noted that Savage was not at his side. Should this have made me hopeful?

Whenever he planned to inflict a particularly brutal form of pain upon me, Savage was normally with him. Now that he wasn't, I guess I should have been grateful, but I was just nervous. I tried to walk myself, but with him pinning my hands behind my back, it didn't make it easy for me. I stumbled and tripped several times. Each time, he forced me to keep walking, hauling me up by the collar of my shirt and shoving me bodily forward again and again.

He never took his sword out of its scabbard, I guess because he didn't think he needed to. As I grew older and he needed to move me from place to place, he would take his sword out then. The times he thought I was cleverer, more likely to hatch an escape plan. Sometimes I did try to run, sometimes his sword did prove necessary.

But today it was not, because I was quiet and scared and submissive. He was my father. I had been taught to obey him no matter what. I didn't agree with the things he did, and I would never obey him when he told me to harm Toothless, but besides that, I had always been relatively quiet. I had tried not to make waves.

Destroying whole parts of the village sometimes? Check. Running out during dragon raids sometimes? Check. Causing scenes in the Great Hall sometimes? Check.

But I was never intentionally making waves, never doing it to draw attention to myself. I just wanted to prove I was worth something.

Father's next shove brought me out of my thoughts; I hadn't even stumbled that time. I had been walking just fine, and keeping up a reasonably good pace. The shove threatened to send me sprawling, but his iron grip on my arms somehow kept me upright before I did.

When we reached outside, I took a deep breath through the nose. Summer air rushed back to me, the scent of long days and short evenings and Gust's voice in my ear and Halfdan and his friends trying to trick me into jumping in the lake even though I couldn't swim. My eyes opened again. Summers were never happy for me, but at least before this I had been allowed to walk around, go where I wanted to go, do what I wanted to do.

Now I was weighed down by chains, walking like a prisoner. Everybody who saw us emerging from the dungeons hissed at me, like I was someone ugly and shameful. Father swung me slowly around to face him, giving me an expression I'd only ever seen on him when he'd downed a dragon. When the dragon struggled, completely at his mercy, he'd look at it that way, with that evil glint in his eye that let me know that a new head would make an appearance on his victory wall.

He dragged me over to one of the wooden columns of the dungeons, pressing my hands on the opposite side of the post almost tenderly. I don't know where he got the rope, but he must have had it on him. That would be like him. Always carrying some form of restraint, just in case.

I felt the ropes cutting into my wrists and I merely looked at him, not really sure what he wanted from me, and pretty much just too scared to ask.

He tied my ankles to the column as well, standing back to survey his handiwork. He frowned, leaning down to tighten the knot on one of the ropes restraining my wrist and then shot me a bit of a smile. "I know this isn't very gentlemanly of me. I apologize, I really do."

I stared up at him. "What are you doing?" I couldn't stop the fear from entering my voice. It was there anyway, surely visible through my pounding heart, my sweaty face. My hands were shaking in their ropes. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Oh, nothing." He responded simply, spreading his hands wide. I noticed he had drawn his sword. "You don't have to be afraid, Hiccup. I'm not interested in hurting you today."

He turned a bit, so he was looking out at the rest of the village and his smile grew bigger when he faced me again. "The rest of the village, however, is."

And that was all he would say.

Father did not come to get me that night. He left me bound there, and I stayed awake that first night, wide eyed and utterly terrified. I kept thinking he was going to come do something to me, so my muscles stayed tight and tense all night long.

But when night gave way to morning and he had not yet appeared to inflict anything upon me, I allowed myself to relax a bit. I even allowed the fatigue that had come impatiently knocking on my door to let itself in. But I didn't sleep, because I'm pretty sure sleeping standing up is impossible.

I didn't try. I wasn't worried. Father would come and get me soon.

Father didn't come to get me the next night, either. When he had passed me by, on his usual duties as a chief, I had seen him and begged him to release me. When he had refused, I had begged instead for food. I was so hungry my stomach literally ached. I could tell my body was trying its hardest to hold onto the little energy it still retained from the last food I'd eaten, but it wasn't going to happen. I was fast becoming dehydrated, standing in the hot sun all day. My arms were horribly sore from being behind my back. My eyes hurt with how much I longed to close them, how much I longed for sleep.

But my father would not show me mercy. He told me stiffly that this was my punishment for befriending the Night Fury, and that, if I was smart, I would take the punishment like a man.

These words were enough to force me into silence for the rest of the day.

Of course Halfdan and his gang came to laugh at me. There they were, pointing and jeering and shouting things like, "Hey, runt, haven't seen you in a while!" or "Damn, you do look awful!"

My mouth was dry from lack of fluid and my stomach was begging for food. My body sagged against the post limply, and my eyes kept fluttering closed. But I could not sleep. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't drink.

"I wonder how much your precious daddy would care if we had some fun with you." Halfdan commented, a cruel smirk lighting up his face.

My dry, cracked lips were hard to push words through. "No. Please."

"The runt is begging!" laughed one of the other boys. "Are you so weak that you can't even take a decent…what is this, Halfdan?"

Halfdan ignored his friend. "What was that, runt? I think we missed it."

"Halfdan, please." Maybe if I could appeal to his softer side, he would leave me alone. "Please don't do this." My eyelids fluttered again, my body straining against the ropes. I could barely keep my eyes open. My legs threatened to collapse underneath me, but they wouldn't give way because they couldn't. They were shaking horribly, but never moving from their place.

"Who's gonna stop us?" one of his friends asked, leaning so close I could smell his breath. I wrinkled my nose, turning my head away. My eyes flickered shut again. It felt like hammers were resting on the lids.

The first blow to my stomach was so painful that it made me cry out. I could do nothing to protect myself as more followed. I felt somebody grabbing for my shoulder, another person on my side. Halfdan grabbed my head and cracked it, hard, against the wooden column. I gasped, tears of pain springing to my eyes, my vision going hazy.

I tried to kneel, to work myself free of the ropes to protect myself from their fists, but it wouldn't work. Villagers all around could see us. We were in plain view. But nobody was stopping to help, because I was the runt and I didn't matter.

Tears began splashing from my eyes, falling freely onto the ground, my clothes, soaking my face.

"We're hurting the runt, aww."

"What a baby."

"Should we stop?"

"You can't even take this?" Halfdan's voice was in my ear, low and dangerous. "I'm so glad the chief finally saw the light. Can you imagine someone like this one day ruling us?" he grabbed my forearms, dragging me up, holding me up for them to see.

"Let me go, let me go!" I cried, trying to kick them, forgetting my ankles were tied in my fury.

"What a baby."

"I'm so glad he'll never be our chief."

They dropped me. They let me go. They let me slide back into place in my tight knots. Halfdan tightened them a bit, causing them to cut into my skin more than they already were.

I couldn't control the tears that were falling and I couldn't keep from sobbing as I stared at the ground, my face burning in shame and humiliation.

When they scattered, I think the tears fell more out of gratitude that they were finally gone. Another sob came out of my throat and I squeezed my eyes shut. A couple tears dripped out, onto my shirt. My stomach ached for food and from Halfdan's punch.

And when I allowed my eyes to open once again, I saw Father standing with Savage, shaking his head. A cruel smile lit up his face and he walked right by me once again.

"Father!" I cried, tears choking me. "Father, please! How could you let them do this to me?"

But it seemed that he had gone deaf. He kept walking, never once sparing me a glance. Other villagers stared openly, but he wouldn't look at me. Same slow, sedate pace. Each step deliberate and steady. Like I wasn't even shouting.

There was a burning at the back of my throat and something was ringing by my ear. My head throbbed so badly, whether just from a headache or from where Halfdan had smacked it against the wooden column yesterday, I wasn't sure. My stomach ached horribly, and, when my shirt came up from all my attempts at shifting around, I saw there was a forming bruise. I didn't think it was only from the bruise. I wanted food so badly that my stomach lurched whenever I smelled it.

And I was exhausted. So exhausted that my eyes would close of their own accord and I would begin to sag against my bonds.

The straining of the ropes would jerk me awake instantly again, snapping my head back against the wood. The headache would become that much worse then and I would keep my eyes open for a few seconds, thinking of how much I wanted water…how much I wanted food…how much I wanted sleep….

Snap.

The bonds jerked me back into reality once again.

Father's hands jerked me from my half dream-like state. "You look in bad shape," he said sympathetically. "Did you enjoy your stay?"

"Please," I rasped as the tears began to fill my eyes once more. "Please. Water."

"Don't worry," he soothed. "We'll get you some food and drink."

"Sleep. Please."

"It's alright, it's alright." His sympathetic smile made hope rise. Maybe he meant it, maybe he really was going to let me have food and water.

True to his word, he gave me food. He gave me water. He handcuffed me back to the wall again, but this way, I could sit and lie down. I think I was on the verge of bursting into more relieved tears as they checked me for any serious injuries from Halfdan's latest six-on-one.

He left me alone and he let me sleep.

It's lucky I slept so much and so hard that night. It's lucky I got food and water that night as well. Because the next few days were filled with more painful hunger and thirst. I was allowed to sleep, allowed to lay down if I wanted, but even then I couldn't. My dreams were no longer the pleasant, imaginative experiences they once were. My dreams were turning into nightmares, just like my life.