DISCLAIMER: I own neither HTTYD or LOST BOY: The True Story Of Captain Hook. This is written purely for fun, though essentially it's a HTTYD version of Lost Boy. Some details are the same while others get a HTTYD TWIST. I make no profit from this. HTTYD is property of DreamWorks and Cressida Cowell. LOST BOY is property of Christina Henry.
Chapter 1
You never really imagine how much blood is in a person. Not until you've seen death first hand-as I have more times then I can count, the way the blood pools out their wounds, just keeps coming and coming.
Sometimes I dream of a woman, a woman and a small boy. Don't know who they are, her eyes blue and his green like mine, both dull, the light of life gone, one of her arms around him while the other was outstretched almost like she was reaching out for someone, almost like she was reaching for me before her throat was slit open from ear to ear, like his, in a bright red smile. I don't know why I dream about them. I can't even tell if it is wholly a dream or something that happened in the Other Place, before Camacazi brought me here.
If she is real it must've happened there, because their were no grown ups on the island, except the mermaids, and the Vikings, and the mermaids didn't really count, being half fish.
Yet still every night. My dreams are filled with flashing silver and gushing red and sometimes it's so powerful it startled me awake and sometimes it don't. Tonight was no different, but something else woke me up.
It was the sound of someone sniffling, whimpering.
My eyes shot awake all at once, you needed to be a light sleeper on the island. If you weren't you were likely going to wake up to find all your limbs twisted off by sharp toothed jaws. Our hollow was built into the boughs and roots of tree, well hidden and protected. But here protected just meant safer…not safe. No where was safe on the island.
The boys were asleep in an unorderly heap of animal skins on the dirt floor or piled into corners, some of their bodies in strange positions. The light of midnight moon filtered in through the rough windows me and Cami had cut into the walls long, long ago. Outside the islands night life filled the air, along with the grunting and sniffling of the Skullions out in the plains leaking into the forests, only broken by the screaming of the eels in the south
"It's just Nuffink." I heard Cami say above.
She was folded into one if the gaps between the roots, her skin pale and shining in the moonlight, looking out across the forest. I saw the flash of the her knife, Invincible, in her hand, a piece of wood in the other. The light dancing over the wooden surface. She seemed part of the tree herself, her unruly mess of hair behind her.
I shouldn't be surprised she was up, in all the seasons I'd been here I very rarely saw her sleeping. Never a full nights rest either, only an hour or two. There was always too much fun to be found, she'd never waste her life in slumber, (and hated the rest of us would always succumb to the weariness at the end of the day). Even though her life was already beyond that of most, none of us knew how old she really was. Didn't ask either.
Quietly, so I wouldn't disturb the others slumbering, I tip toed carefully over the sleeping forms until I found Nuffink. He was curled up in a little ball in a root knot almost like a baby, which he almost was practically. A small head sporting duel braided auburn plaits peeked up at my approach.
"Sorry Hiccup, I'm trying to get him to sleep." Nuffink's sister Zephyr said in a small voice.
"Don't worry." I told her gently, "Go back to sleep, I'll take it from here."
Zephyr seemed relieved, guess after living on the streets it was nice to have someone to help with the toddler.
Zephyr and Nuffink were the two newcomers to the island, they were both younger then me when I arrived, at five and three, younger then everyone Cami brought over before.
I scooped the little boy up and held him close against my chest, against my heart. He kicked once, then quieted.
"That's no help to him you know." Cami said, "You'll just make him soft. Stop babying."
"He's too young. They both are." I hissed, "I told you."
It was a waste of breath, Camacazi didn't listen then and she wouldn't now. But I still felt I had to say it.
Camicazi usually chose kids around the same age as I had been when she found me-around eight or nine. That was the perfect age, we still had the youthful spirit and the will to follow it. We'd already tasted the life that awaited us as grown-ups, whether through school or working- enough to decide we didn't want to spend our days toiling in menial tasks like working in an office or in the fields.
I had been with her the last trip to the Other Place. When she spied these two shivering in a damp wooden box. She instantly declared they'd be fun new playmates, I had argued of course, said they'd be much better off in an orphanage. Like usual, Cami won the argument, she always won.
She wanted the two and she got them. But now that she had them she found them useless. They couldn't play and roughhouse with the bigger kids like she enjoyed us doing. Couldn't keep up with us doing long treks across the island, more then half the time I suspected she was purposely trying to leave them behind to be eaten by a predator, then she'd be free of a headache. But I always kept one eye on the two, which she hated, but she couldn't do a damn thing about it. All she could do was watch as I usually ended up having to carrying them back when they got too tired and complain. Which she did.
Since I failed to talk her out of leaving them, least I could do was look out for them.
"You should've just left them at Eel pond stuck in the mud." She said, "Then his crying wouldn't wake you up."
"I told you they weren't big enough." I retorted.
All Cami did as a reply was grunt.
It wouldn't have been worth my breath to respond so I didn't. Cami prided herself on never losing an argument-and not because she was never wrong- which she often was- but she wouldn't give up, she'd blather and brag back and forth, coming back at you until eventually you simply gave up and said she was right just so you could have some peace.
She didn't speak again so I finally could concentrate on Nuffink, bouncing him in my arms and gently patting his back until his slow breathing told me he was back to sleep. I tried to return him by his sister, but he whimpered as soon as I tried to let him go so I was forced to pick him up again. Cami sniggered.
"Now you done it, he'll keep you up all night now. You'll be just like his mama."
"And how would you know anything about it?" I shot back, quietly though so I wouldn't wake Nuffink, rubbing his back to try and settle him down. "There's never been a mama here, you can't even remember yours."
Cami shrugged "I've seen them, in the Other Place. Babies will start their crying and then the mama comes in, or sometimes the papa. They'll walk the babe round the room just like you're doing now, and sometimes the babe will quiet but sometimes they won't. So they'll just keep wailing and then the parents will cry and wall themselves cause the little things won't shut up. I don't know why they don't just leave them outside. So what I something happens to the little midges? Not like they can't make more of something happens to it."
She didn't mean it, least I told myself she didn't. To Cami all children were replaceable (cept her of course). Whenever we lost one on the island to predators, illness or the Vikings she'd just head to the Other Place and bring back a new one.
Preferably an unwanted one, those were the ones that would be bitter and angry at the world and therefore would leap at the offer to come here, and forget about the Other Place. And best of all, they'd do whatever Cami told them to do.
Those that didn't or weren't content to stay here, playing the day away or going on whatever adventures Cami thought up wound up left in the plains of the Skullions without bow or spear or club, or found themselves near the Vikings camp or straight up forgotten. Cami had no time for anyone not up for adventures.
Nuffink stopped fidgeting soon after, rather then putting him back on bed I sat leaning against the wall, still holding him against my chest. I found myself humming quietly, don't even know when, it just started. It was a tune I've always known, even though I have no idea where I learned it. It was just there, shelved in my mind and would get pulled down from time to time. Cami hated it, told me to shut it more then once, but I didn't listen and kept it up until Nuffink completely quieted into sleep.
I didn't put him back in bed even then, just stayed there holding him softly against my chest, looking out past the window, past Camicazi, out high at the moon, it was always full here, bright and unattainable. Watching over the world until the sun relieved it in the morning and then it could sleep until the next evening.
I felt myself drifting off now. It was still some hours until morning. Every day was the same, I'd been here long enough to know that, longer then anyone except Cami, longer then I had been in the Other Place. I couldn't tell you how long even if I wanted to. I stopped counting long ago. Every day was always the same.
The moon vanished under my closing eyelids. My last image of was of Cami's knife sparking white in the darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/-\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was smaller then, small and alone, and Cami was big and brave.
"Come away with me," She had said " Come away and we'll live a life of adventures and be friends always."
And I did. I put my little hand in hers and when she smiled it burned into my brain and heart and stayed there.
We ran through the streets of the city where I had lived, and Cami was so swift and silent, she ran likr the wind, so fast her feet barely seemed to touch the ground and I found myself waiting to see if she'd suddenly kick off from the ground and fly away with me. I always wanted to fly, I would watch the birds enviously as they would take off and soar away from the loud noises and dirt of the city. Full of big and bullying people, who beat you and steal your bread and apples and water before they threw you down into the mud and laughed just because they were bigger and they could. Not caring that you were starving and your insides twisted and clenched around themselves. Cami promised there wouldn't be anything like that where we were heading.
"How much further." I asked several times
"Not much further." Was always the answer.
Yet we were still running, the whole time she told me about her Island.
"There's all the food you could ever hope to eat and no one will take it from you or hit you, tell you what to do and when. When you grow tired you can sleep in the trees, taste and smell the salty sea air on your tongue, and there's treasure and fun to be found it you know where to look."
"I want to go there!" I said in excitement.
"Of course you do, that's why we are." She answered back.
I had never been on a ship before. I'd seen them at port but never got to close. The mere thought of getting on one was daunting, the bigger kids told me the sea was full of monsters and they ate stringy little boys like me. I was afraid Cami wouldn't t take me if I said I was afraid to get on a ship." I so wanted to go to the wondrous place she described.
She tugged me along and I could feel the drain in me, the only thing I had to eat that day was a half-eaten apple I found in the trash, and I was getting tired.
"Come on, Hiccup, it's just a little bit more and we'll be there."
Then to my surprise we turned away from the path that lead to the docks and we soon far out past the lights of the city, I didn't even know where we were. Only that the fields were rushing past as I tried to match the pace of the older girl.
"Aren't we getting on a ship?" I wondered.
"A ship? Cami said, but not contradicting or mean-spirited like I was use to hearing, but amused like she genuinely found my thought amusing. "Why would we get an a ship, silly goose?"
"You said we were going to an island?"
"Yes, but this is a special island," came her reply, "one that has adventure coming out the seams."
And then she smiled again and that was it. All I wanted was to get her to smile at me like that again.
So we kept running, even as we left the only home I ever knew, away from the people that hit me and where I slept in dirty straw and every where you turned was always filled with screams
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/-\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cock-a- doodle-do!"
I still heard the screams from my dream as Cami's cock-crow roused me just as the sun started peeking out over the mountains in the distance. The scream and cry mixing together so that for a second I couldn't tell which was more real. Then the scream faded and my eyes blinked open and saw her patching in the window.
She was small and lithe with a mess of tangled blonde hair that was always clumped with dirt and twigs and leaves, for she hated bathing. Dressed in a shirt and leggings made from the hide of a light fury.
Her feet were bare and filthy, her toenails broken and torn, soles thickened with callouses from scampering over rocks and trees. She looked not unlike a bird, silhouetted in the window, perched with legs wide apart, hands on hips, her crowing ripping the still morning air.
"Cock-a-doodle-do!" Cock-a-doodle-do!"
I and most of the older kids eyes opened instantly, well used to Cami's morning antics, but some of the newer ones groaned and rolled, their heads in their arms.
Nuffink stirred in my arms, green eyes blinking open tiredly. "Get up now, Hiccup?" He asked.
"Aye," I said gently placing the younger boy back on the ground and guiding him over towards his sister. I rose, stretching my back out, I feel taller then I did a week ago. Not much-just a hairs breath really. But my hands looked like they were closer to the dirt roof then before. On another time I might paused at it but I spotted Cami rubbing her hands together excitedly and that made my thoughts halt. I knew that look.
" Who's for raiding the Vikings today?"
"What for," I didn't even try to keep my irritation under wraps.
"Duh, cause those half-trolls need raiding." Cami said, her wide grin stretching almost ear to ear.
A duo of near identical cries cut of the reply I had ready .
"Yeah, a raid!"
Tuffnut and Ruffnut, the twins, looked so similar most people tended to confuse them for the other, even those who known then for a while, they were both lean and sinewy, thin ropey muscles on their arms and legs, they both had the same greyish-blue eyes and matching manes of blonde hair dark and greasy from their mutual dislike of washing. I couldn't tell if they hated washing because Cami did or because they liked picking bugs out of each other's hair.
Tuff and Ruff had been here longer then anyone else besides me and Cami. They were so alike they were almost the same person, wherever one was the other was never far off. Even they couldn't tell a time they weren't side by side, or even who was the oldest for that matter. The only way to tell them apart usually was the three thick braids Ruff had her hair in. Besides that, they were pretty much a single entity. Same mischievous air, same sick toothy smiles that came whenever they so much as heard "raid". It was their favorite game to play after Battle. There was nothing the twins liked more then to shed some blood, especially if said blood was their siblings.
A long time ago Ruff had killed one of the big spotted cats that stalked the mountains east of our hollow with only a pointed stick, a feat Cami so heartily approved of she made Ruffnut Chief of the tree for an entire week. Ruff had cleaned the pelt and made a kind of hood out of the cats head and ears and a belt out of the tail. The rest of the skin she made into fur leggings and decorations for her vest.
Never one to stand by and be outshined by his sister, so he promptly headed out in the forests and taken down a wolf, so now he wore the wolf's head and ears as a hood and grey fur leggings, with the left overs donning his own vest, yet he wasn't made chief of the tree, a fact he was still liked to complain about.
Some of the other children tried to copy the "Ruff and Tuff look" and ended up a predators lunch for their trouble. Cami saw no loss in this, called it "thinning the herd" or "culling the weak." Whenever we lost one we'd just go get a new one from the Other Place, for Cami was set in her idea about how many followers she had around her at all times.
As of now, we were fifteen, including her and me, mostly boys, (once there had been other girls but only Ruff and Cami remained …and now little Zephyr) Every year, we'd lose a few to Battle, or raids, and some to predators or sickness. There was one boy, Dogsbreath, we had not to long ago, he died coughing up blood, and it seemed Fishlegs might've caught whatever it was, he was looking thinner and whiter then usual. Soon he'd be coughing his lungs out and Cami would send him outside so she wouldn't have to listen.
Cami had griped the whole time Dogsbreath was ill and dying, how the phlegmy hacking and bugged her, like Dogsbreath had control over it. If he could've stopped it he would have, everyone who came loved Cami, even when she could be cruel, for her praise was much sought after.
Cami jumped down off her perch to land among the rest of us. She landed on her feet despite the height, sometimes it was easy to image she couldn't be hurt. She'd never had so much as a splinter the many seasons I'd been here with her. The island took care of her and her of it, they looked out for one another, bound in a way the rest of us could never understand.
Maybe that was why I had grown a bit. Not much but some. I was around the same age as the twins when they first arrived, the day I came to the island, around eight or nine. The island kept us young always, for the most part. For some reason or other, none of us could fathom, some of us grew up the same as in the Other Place. It didn't happen too often, Cami had an eye for picking the right children to bring with her. The ones that didn't want to grow up, to stay kids forever and do kid things now and for always. I suspect that was somehow part of it.
But occasionally a kid would start to grow up, an as soon as Camicazi saw a kid turning into a adult, that child was abandoned, no turning back, no coming back to the group, left to fend themselves, those that survived ended up at the Viking outpost on the far side of the island if they made it that far, became just another grim face amongst the heathens, unrecognizable from the friends we once knew.
That's what happened to Thuggory and Eret and Throk and Mala, they'd all been good fighters. We still see them during raids sometimes, wonder if they recognized us still or just see us as the enemy.
I'd been here about…one…two hundred seasons, least that's how long I reached before I stopped counting, the twins a little bit less, none of us were sure exactly because the days kind of blurred together and it was easy to lose track if you aren't paying much attention. I looked around thirteen, a few years older then when I arrived, Ruff and Tuff looked closer to twelve.
Cami had started off as eleven and that age she stayed. No part of her wasn't the exact same as when we first met as she was taking me from the Other Place long ago, I was her first friend and comrade in arms, inseparable.
Sometimes I worried I'd grow up, just a little but the fear was there, then I'd be sent away to the Vikings.
Cami had laughed, cuffing me upside t the head. "Silly, you'll never grow up. That's why I brought you here in the first place.
Yet still I had gotten older, same as Ruff and Tuff. We lost so many of the others over the years it was impossible to tell if we were the only three feeling the slow creep of age sneaking up on us. We'd been here so long I wondered, late at night, if Cami's assurances I wouldn't grow up were only that'd I'd die before that happened. Sometimes I wonder which would be worse.
Our fearless leader crouched on the ground with her knife , drawing lines in the dirt, making a map of the island and then a detailed image of the Viking outpost. The tree we called home was at the center of the forest at the dead center of the island. To our east was the mountain ranges. It split the island right down the middle before emptying out in the ocean on the east side, and a sheltered lagoon to the west.
The northwest part of the island we'd never go to we could avoid it, which we did everything we could. Those were the sand plains of the Skullions.
Straight south from our tree, that was the path to Eel pond and then the swamps, a green marshy place where the screaming of the giant eels was ever present.
The southwest corner marked the sand dunes, mountains that took almost forever to climb up then down. Past that was a crescent of a white sandy secluded beach. We went there to play and collect coconuts. Further northeast of here, half hidden by trees, belonged the mermaid's cove.
The Vikings had claimed the northern most beach as their territory, near the base of the mountains and the borders of the plains. Here there wasn't a beach, only a sheer face of jagged rock that plunged straight down into the sea.
I didn't join the others crowded around Cami, I didn't have to. I'd been over every rock, root and tree. , crept around every hidden place, swam with the mermaids a hundred times over and jumped away from the barbs of the Speed Stingers or a Eels jaws more times then I could count. I knew this island by heart and only Cami knew more then I. I didn't think we should have a raid so soon after the new kids arrived, but I kept my mouth shut.
A hand gripped mine, Nuffink. The thumb of his opposite hand jammed in his mouth, Zephyr beside him. Neither showing much interest in the map or what was being discussed .
I sighed, what was I supposed to do with these two during a raid? They were two small to fight, I half expected this was a subtle act on Camicazi's part of disposing of them.
Most of the newer kids didn't look too sure as Cami went on about her plans for the raid, crept for a big kid named Dagur. He was almost as big as me, and I was easily the biggest there ,and looked around fourteen. He had the looks of a boy that liked to be the best in everything, and he's been eyeing me the moment he arrived . I sensed a fight would be coming soon, I only hope I could do it without doing too much harm.
I thought this without malice,I was easily the best fighter and everyone who's been here longer knew that . The Vikings knew it too, that's why they always tried their damnedest to kill me whenever there was a raid. I didn't take it that personally.
The Vikings outpost was on the furthest side of the island, a two days march from the tree, depending on how fast we could hurry everyone along, and though Cami made it out as a grand adventure, I knew there was just as much work as play. There was supplies to gather, weapons to clean. The Skullions lived smack dab in the middle of the plains we had to cross. To top it all off, the Vikings might not even be there when we reached them. Around this time, they were off raiding themselves, stealing gold and silver and jewels from ships and villages they plundered.
Not only did I have Nuffink and Zephyr to worry about, but the new boys were untried, most of them never swung a club, shot a bow or lifted a sword. We didn't know if half of them could even fight at all, much less grown blooded warriors who could break rocks with their heads.
And Fishlegs didn't look so well, I always like him. He was husky boy with a smart, friendly disposition. I could already see him sicking out bloody puddles from his lungs, blood that would attract the Skullions to us when we crossed the path that bordered their sand. It was a risky plan, more wasteful them useful. Plus even if we got every one to the outpost, it was highly unlikely they'd all make it back. Never had we returned with the same number we left with.
I made Nuffink let go, giving him a reassuring smile as I locked his sisters hand in his and got a little half-smile from each of them.
"I'll be right back," I told them, "Just need to talk to Cami for a bit."
I sidled up beside Cami, she was busy excitedly slashing marks in the dirt map to indicate who would go where. I knew I was probably wasting my breath again, but I felt I had to at least try to convince her to wait till the new kids were better prepared.
"I don't think-" I whispered under my breath.
"Don't think." Cami replied sharply.
A few of the boys snickered, my eyes whipped across the circle, narrowing and one by one their eyes dropped, except for Dagur, who stubbornly scowled back at me until I growled. His gaze dropped to the ground, cheeks flushing. I answered to nobody but Camicazi and the sooner the newbies learned that the better.
"I know what you're going to say, so don't," Cami said not looking at me," Stop babying."
"It's not babying to wait until they know the pommel of a dagger from the tip," I said.
"Stop babying." Cami repeated.
"How many of them know how to shoot a bow, or tie a snare?"
"Stop."
And I did, for Camicazi had spoken. And we all did as she said, for it was her Island. She invited us here, she promised us we'd stay young and happy forever.
And so we did. Unless we caught sickness, or died, or were taken by the Vikings. And if we did I made no impression on Cami, we were just playmates to help her pass the time, of course none of them knew this. They all thought they were special in her eye, but none of them were, no one but me was special. I was the first-picked, had been her right hand for so many years. But even I had no power to make Cami do what she didn't want.
Cami wanted to raid the Vikings, so we were going to raid the Vikings.
I jammed my hands into the waistline of my deer skin breeches, with my thumbs hooked over the edge. Listening to Cami's plans with half am ear, but not really paying attention. I knew my role, heard it all before. I always fought the first mate.
Most of them I killed, and the ones that lived forever bare my mark. I always cut off the right hand of those I fought, living or dead, so they'd always know it was my doing, and who it was. To add insult to injury, I always use their own swords to do this. I only had a dagger, and I felt using their own weapons made the pain even worse.
Camicazi always went for the Captain. We've gone through a few over the years, Alvin, Viggo, Ryker, Krogan and Drago Bludvist, just to name a few. But the recent one had been around for quite a while, a silly bloke called Ragnar the Rock I got the feeling Cami let him live this long. Sometimes she found it more fun to taunt the Captain then kill them. But I knew eventually she'd grow tired and desire a new Captain to tease.
Cami suddenly stood up, dusting her hands of, "Right, go get something to eat boys, and girl. Then, after, the fun can begin."
Most of them filed out through the small notch that made the doorway of the tree. The tree was enormous and hollowed completely throughout. We could fit thirty kids in here if we needed to, easily, (though we never had that many all at once). The roots twisted up from the dirt, making beds and chairs for any who wanted them, but most of us chose the floor.
All the newbies wore the same clothes they wore back from the Other Place, the rest of us wore the mishmash of animal skins and jewellery and adornments we either made ourselves or stole from the Vikings. I had a cloak of black Dragon skin I stolen from Drago long, long ago when he left it hanging on a peg outside his door. It was too big for me and I had to cut most of it to fit tolerably well , but it was mine and the cuttings had made a nice vest.
Cami had been jealous the moment her eyes had seen it, it was a good prize . For a while she had been inclined to whine and wheedle it from me, implying it should be hers since she was chief of our little band, but I had spotted it first and snatched of the peg while she was looking for any gold or other treasure to steal as always. She just couldn't bare that I had thought of something she hadn't. Later she said it looked ridiculous on me because it was too large and was stupid, but I know she still wanted it.
I turned from her, Zephyr and Nuffink were still where I left them, not heading out with the others. I came over and gently nudged them with my knee to the exit.
The two nervously hugged each other as Nuffink spoke with wide eyes around the thumb still in his mouth. "Aren't you coming?"
"Just give me a minute." I told them softly, ruffling their hair, "Go on outside."
I wanted a word with Camicazi before we set out, away from every one else. When Nuffink and Zephyr were gone I turned back, Camicazi had her arms crossed watching something with vague interest. I peeked over and saw the twins in one of their famous scuffles.
"What this about now." I said
Cami shrugged," Who can ever say? They like hitting one another."
This was true, sometimes the twins fought just for the sake of fighting.
Tuff and Ruff rolled along the ground, kicking and punching and biting as hard as they could. One of them- it was impossible to say when they were a tangled knot of limbs and dust-was bleeding and the blood dribbled into muddy globs in the dirt floor.
We watched them for a second before I moved to separate them. Cami might not care if they bashed one another's brains out, but I did and knew they couldn't go breaking bones before a raid. That's why I was here, Cami told me once, to think of these things so she didn't have to bother.
Ruffnut broke Tuffnut's nose once, I tried to fix it as best I could with some strips of soft bark but it hadn't healed properly, the nose was swollen and just slightly crooked, and if you felt were the break was, there was a ridge of gnarled bone underneath.
Tuffnut wasn't bothered in the least by the botched nose, he said it made a pretty decent war wound, but he had been feverish for several days after. I has stayed to make sure he pulled through and didn't worsen. Infections could spread rapidly if you weren't careful. But Camicazi wouldn't let me stay and play doctor if the twins broke anything else before a raid. We'd come back to a corpse of a twin, and then I'd have to bury them where I buried the others.
I thought this as I pushed to separate the two brawlers. I heard Camicazi mutter "killjoy" behind me but she made no move to stop me. Maybe she too had thought of what might happen, but more then likely, she'd simply grown bored watching.
One of the twins had the other pinned to the floor while they decked them in the jaw, the latter had a bloody nose, (thankfully not broken), which drooled down their cheek, dusty trails left in the hot liquid.
I hooked the attacking twin-I could see it was Tuff now by the grey wolf ears- under his armpits and hauled him off his sister. Instantly Ruff was on her feet and charging like a goat to headbutt her brother in stomach.
Tuffnut dangled from my arms, his feet barely brushing the floor when Tuffnut's attack caught him under the ribs, all his air coming out in a great "whoosh"
"That's enough", I tossed Tuffnut to one side to stop Ruffnut with a hand against her forehead.
"He took my tooth!" She shouted, arms wind milling wildly.
The twins each wore a matched set of tooth necklaces they going from the jaws of a Zippleback, just one of their many dangerous ventures around the island, to this day they considered it one of their finest achievements.
One of her wildly spinning hands clipped my chin, not even close enough to even sting, but I was in a foul enough mood already from Cami and her blasted raid.
I swung a hard left hook right in Ruff's mouth, "I said enough!"
The female twin sprawled in the dirt, wiping blood from her bleeding lip.
Tuffnut cackled, it lasted only a moment before I picked up from the tangle of roots he landed in and gave him the same treatment his sister got.
They sat up side by side, grey-blue eyes peering at me from their bloody muck encrusted faces.
I sighed through my nose, fists held rigid at my sides, I hated raising my hand against any of them, but sometimes I had to.
"Sorry, Hiccup," the two echoed each other.
I pointed at Tuff, employing my serious voice, "Give her back her tooth. You know better than anyone. how long she worked on it."
"But- Tuffnut said but stopped at the sternness in my eyes and muttered, "fine."
He got up and addressed us all, "Look away, I don't want you seeing my hiding-hole."
I rolled my eyes, Tuffnut's hiding hole was a tribe mystery, no one had found it yet, though several had tried. Tales of all manner of hidden treasures were whispered around camp. No doubt Cami, who knew the while island like the back of her hand, knew where it was, but didn't say anything since she found our searching amusing.
We turned our heads and heard Tuffnut shuffling out, soon returning and tossing his sister the tooth adorned thread, his sister snatching it out of the air and looping it lovingly around her neck.
"Go get something to eat," I said jerking my chin at the notch.
The two scurried off, their feud already forgotten by the time they reached the notch and Tuffnut playfully punched Ruff in her shoulder.
"Those two. Fighting and making up like nothing," Cami chuckled softly., "That's why they don't play against you in Battle.
I took another deep breath, waiting for the red to recede before I did something rash.
Sometimes I feel like taking my knife, not the stone ones the others used, but the metal one I stole from the Vikings, then I'd throw Cami to the ground like I did the twins, only I'd squeeze her jaws until her tongue lolled out before slicing it off as even as an perfectly honed sword blade.
I closed my eyes and the feeling faded, the hot-blooded mist before my eyes dispersing and when my eyes opened again, Camicazi was still there, grinning, unharmed and no idea what thought just crossed my mind.
I was shocked a course, that thought even existed, for I loved Camicazi, like we all did- at least the majority of the time- and was always eager to get her to smile at me the way she did when we first met.
"They just try me sometimes," I muttered, feeling the last of the anger leaving me, though I made a mental note to apologize to the twins later if I found time.
Camicazi's arm looped around my shoulders," You'll whip the newbies into shape. You always do. Then we'll have us a hell of a raid."
"We shouldn't have a raid at all," I tried again even though it was hopeless, "They aren't ready."
"It'll be a blast," Camicazi laughed, nudging me towards the notch.
Outside a few of the boys scampered around the clearing, chasing one another in a game, others had made themselves useful by gathering the ripe fruits from the trees and piling them in a heap. Fishlegs was showing the new kids how to separate the skin from the plumb purple flesh before trying to eat it.
"The outsides will make you sick if you eat it, but the insides juicy and delicious", He took a bite out of the one he just peeled , juice bursting over his chin, they sticky wine colored liquid stood out against his plump pale face.
I paused as I watched him, Fishlegs always took it as his duty to instruct the new kids on things like this. Camicazi emerged and stood beside me, her gaze following mine.
"Fishlegs won't last much longer," I said ," He won't last a raid any rate."
"If he's sick he can stay behind," Camicazi shrugged, "Better he's coughing up that muck where I don't have to listen to it."
It's just what I expected she to say, but all the same I felt the same surge of rage I felt moments ago, I liked Fishlegs. That made me speak when I normally wouldn't say a thing.
"What if it was me sicking my lungs out?" I said. The temper dangerously close to erupting. "Would I be left behind."
Camicazi turned to me, in her eyes the faintest hint of a questioning look," You never gotten sick, Hiccup. All the season's you've been here you never even had a sniffle."
"Just sat I did?"
Truthfully I didn't know whether I should be angry at Camicazi or not. There wasn't any harm in her feeling. Who she be happy if Fishlegs lived, absolutely. But she wouldn't be bothered if he didn't. She didn't wish any of us harm.
"You won't be," Camicazi said as if that was the end of it. She ran off and joined the running boys, they were practicing swordfighting with the broken branches taken from the trees, practicing jabbing and parrying and slashing.
With the familiar love and worship I had know for a long time mixed with frustration I felt more often, I watched her. No point trying to change her, she didn't want to change, that was the whole reason she lived on the island in the first place.
Shaking my head, I crossed to the group eating the fruits. Most of them were managing, but Zephyr and Nuffink were having trouble, their hands too small for the stone knife that had been lent to them by one of the older kids.
My irritation faded at this, the sight all too familiar, newbies struggling, remembering how we would all go through this.
"Here," I got down on my knee and took the knife from Zephyr, "Like this see?"
In a thrice I had skinned the fruit with expert practice, split it evenly and handed them each a half.
Blue and green eyes stared at me in shining adoration as their teeth sank into the fruit. "'S good," Nuffink mumbled.
I ruffled his hair, yellow-white like corn silk, he reminded me of myself a bit, when Camicazi first found me, wide shining eyes at someone bigger and stronger showing him kindness, like a duckling following its mother, he and his sister both would follow behind me and expect me to look after them and protect them. I mentally shrugged, there wasn't nothing I could do about it now , I felt I had to look after them. I'd just have to keep a good eye on them until they either got bigger or smarter.
I looked around the clearing, at all the boys running around, if Camicazi wanted a raid, then there was work that needed doing.
"Ruff, Tuff!" I stood up and called.
The twins were on the opposite side of the clearing, beating one another upside their heads with sticks, but they stopped as soon as they heard me call. Rushing to stand before me.
"Go and check the traps, take Snotlout and Hroar with you."
"Kay," the twins said.
"And take the newbie, Dagur with you."
For a second, Dagur's mean little eyes bore into me, looking like he might try to argue, but I wasn't in the mood for fighting right now. Best put him to work.
The twins saluted me almost exaggeratedly, but I knew they would mind, anything to prepare for a raid. They ran off to collect the other three, Dagur more then a little reluctantly and vanished into the trees. They wouldn't be gone long, not past midday at the latest, not with how fast the twins could move.
We needed the meat if we were gonna be crossing the island, some of it to eat, the rest for anything unfriendly that might cross our path. I didn't like the way the Skullions were acting lately. They were getting more and more unpredictable. I unsettled me.
I rounded up the other boys and put them to work, and there was much to be done- the weapons had to be rounded up and inspected; the usual knives and bows, spears clubs and the odd but treasured weapon someone managed to steal from the Vikings, the packs had to be sorted and any damages repaired, fruit to slice into stripes for the sun to dry. Shortly the clearing was bustling with the activity of boys hard at work. Camicazi frowned when she saw everyone was taken from play to do chores.
"Hey, what're you on?" She said at me.
"I thought you wanted a raid?" I said, turning to hide my smirk of satisfaction. It a raid she wanted, a raid she'd get, and all the work that went along with it."
"Aye," she answered.
"Then we have work to do."
"None for me," She said, planting herself squat under the shade of the fruit trees, snorting defiantly as she pulled something from out of her tunic, I recognized it almost immediately as a seven holed flute she whittled out of a dragon bone. She started to play, her light brown eyes boring into mine.
I gave her my back, helping the others with their tasks, pretending I didn't still feel those sharp orbs on me, watching closely.
That's it for chapter one. This is based off of and essentially a HTTYD adaption of Christina Henry's book Lost Boy, which offers a darker backstory between the Boy who wouldn't grow up, Peter Pan, and his best friend, who grows up into the infamous Captain Hook.
Reviews welcome.