Happy 2018! ...So, yeah, it's ben ages but college, family, life, job, you know the drill.
There is a new thing on this chapter that you'll notice right away and it's that I wrote it in third person.
I liked the fact that on first person you could just see HER pov of things and I could have fun with her thoughts and inner monologue buuuuut the first person had been bugging me for a long time (like around chapter 7) but I didn't want to change it since I already began with first person.
But as I was writing this chapter it REALLY began to bug me how it was turning out, one part was bc I wrote it on pieces as the months passed bc I just could work on it at moments. And something about the way it was written bothered me too, so I rewrote what I had (like half the chapter) on third person and it looks better for me? Also, is way faster and easier to write like this for some reason.
I don't know if I'm keeping it like this, probably yes, though idk if I would rewrite all the other chapters I've already posted. Anyways, let me know what you think of this change, if you like it better like this or like it was before or any other kind of comment.
Now, on with the story!
Chapter 16: New Lands
Five days. It's been five days since Hiccup last had a good night of sleep. Or any kind of "sleep" for all that mattered.
First, because it had taken the duo two days of non-stop flight to get to the new island. And now that she was able to sleep… she was just too scared to do so. 'What if they call me?' the mare though of it bugged her.
Did Toothless know? Of course not. He was so happy to travel, fly the long distance, get into a new place -that wasn't that new at all because he had been there before. But it was new for Hiccup and he was happy to share one of his favorite places with her. And Hiccup didn't have the heart to take that away for something as silly as that.
Since they arrived, the days had been the same. Hiccup was constantly trying to keep moving and do something, anything that kept her awake. Even play Toothless' rough games. Whenever they set camp, Hiccup would put traps around while Toothless went off to hunt, they had let the sea far behind and fish was off the menu, so they had to rely on rabbits, foxes, and other animals that Hiccup had no idea what they were.
Toothless wasn't stupid, he knew Hiccup wasn't getting any sleep at night, she would always insist on a night flight that went from the sunset to almost the sunrise that was the usual sleeping time for humans. He wasn't really bothered by it, he loved the night and Hiccup said it would be safer if they traveled in a dark sky where no one could see them and set camp on the days.
And so, they did. Flights at nights, Hiccup slept on the mornings while Toothless hunted, then they eat and play and explore on foot. Or so he thought.
While Toothless was hunting, what Hiccup was actually doing was trying not to fall asleep. Making different tasks to keep her mind awake, walking around in circles on the camp while drumming her fingers on her tights until she got bored of the same trees.
One of her favorite things to do was to walk on the forest by herself, counting steps, trying to remember an old song or making up a new machine in her head. Even when she would never make one of those ever again. It gave her a nice feeling of familiarity to be alone on the woods.
But today was her sixth day without rest and the nice feeling was long gone. She was finding more and more hard to keep it up, physically and emotionally.
Hiccup walked -more like tumbled- around the forest, barely avoiding branches that scratched her arms and her already-messed-up tunic. Her feet would hit every rock and root and it was a miracle she hadn't fallen over.
Even when she was going in a very slow peace, walking was getting a very difficult task. Her body was heavy, and her brain wasn't really working. All she wanted to do was to lay down and let sleep consume her, but the simple thought of the Ladies kept her -somewhat- awake.
In a puny attempt of keeping herself distracted with something, she had begun to tell herself Gobber's Boneknapper story as she tried to walk straight ahead; but her body was losing its balance, making her slowly swing to the sides just to quickly catch up and don't fall.
And with her tone of voice, anyone looking would think she was drunk. And Goober's Boneknapper wasn't the ideal story to look coherent.
"From the center… the center of the earth blas- blas… blasted forth!" she mumbled as her eyes tiredly closed, "the hammerhead whale riding the hammerhead yak. No. No, no, no. The… the hammerhead shark…"
Hiccup shook her head and opened a bit her eyes to see a fallen tree on her way. She held on its exposed roots for balance and climbed it, sitting on her way down.
"The hammered head, hammerhead… hammer-hand… Gobber's ham-ed hand…"
In a not-so-comfortable position, hugging the roots and nuzzling her cheek on the dirty wood, Hiccup quickly fell asleep; just to find herself screaming inside with a:
'Open you eyes! Open them! Open them!'
What was supposed to be a blink had lasted too long and now, even when she wanted to move, her tired body didn't let her do so.
A bright light shinned in front of her, it was blue and bright enough that, even trough her closed eyelids, she could see it. What it was? Hiccup didn't know and didn't care, she closed her eyes tighter and groaned as she nuzzled against the dirty roots.
Then someone sighed.
Hight pitched and too close to Hiccup. She opened her eyes a bit with trembling eyelids, she had to blink a few times to focus her blurry vision. Inches away from her face someone was holding up fire.
"AH!" Hiccup yelled and fell back and off the tree. The sook had been enough to wake her up, she searched with wide eyes whoever had been holding the torch, or lamp, or whatever that was.
But no one was around.
"I'm losing my mind," Hiccup shook her head, slowly standing up and shaking the dust off her clothes with a sigh. Just to make sure, she looked again to the fallen tree; to her surprise a small ball of blue fire popped out from behind the tree with the same high-pitched sigh she had hear before.
Hiccup gasped loudly, stepping back. Her heels hit a root making her fall back again. The… thing hid again and a few seconds later it showed up behind the roots with a whisper.
Not knowing what to do, Hiccup recoiled her legs with a small whimper.
What was that thing?
It was a foot tall, half of it was a round head with two little lighter dots that seemed to be its eyes. It was completely made of fire, blue fire. It moved slowly making the fire dance along. Under its head was a small portion of "body" and a pair of arms that moved up and down as its body floated.
It tilted its head with a sigh, moving closer. Hiccup's breathe calmed, there was something about it that was kind of shooting. She had to rub her eyes to make sure it was real and not just her brain playing tricks.
Was she dreaming?
No. it had hurt when she fell. This was real. The fire-thingy floated even closer and Hiccup did what was more reasonable to do…
"TOOTHLESS!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and clumsily got to her feet, running away.
Hiccup's brain rushed to find an explication for this, but as tired as she was her brain couldn't do more than just focus on making her run… run? Where was she running to?
Hiccup looked around without stopping, trying to figure out where she was. But she was lost. While a lot of people who go into the forest claim all the trees look the same, Hiccup was good at differencing even the most identical trees. She had grow up taking walks without following a path and she could always go back her tracks and always know exactly where she was.
But now she had no idea.
Her body ran out of adrenaline, letting it heavy and clumsier than before. Her eyes were losing focus on the forest, the lack of sleep finally hitting her hard.
Hiccup looked over her shoulder, hopping the little thingy had gotten away even when that would mean she was running for nothing. To her horror, the damn thing was following her, happily swinging in a wide zig-zag, whispering in that high-pitched tone and flying straight through things.
Was a tree in front of it? No problem, it would slam against it and appear on the other side of it like nothing, not burning anything.
"Agh!"
Thud!
Hiccup groaned on the ground, mentally congratulating herself for not putting attention where she was going. The fire thingy raced over her, not even noticing. Hiccup caught her breath, trying to make as less noise as possible.
Her legs begged mercy, as did her lungs and her whole body in general. She just wanted to stay there but that wasn't possible, she had to go before-
Something whispered in front of her, almost sounding as a question. Hiccup raised her face, the thingy just a few inches away from her. Oddly enough she didn't feel the heat of the fire. This time Hiccup didn't yell, too tired to do so, they just… stayed there, staring at each other.
Maybe it was friendly?
Suddenly, the ground trembled a little and the blue fire looked up and twisted in itself; not a second latter, the fire was gone. Not so far after, Hiccup had a Night Fury pocking her side and calling her name, the only answer he got was a groan.
"What happened? You hurt?" he purred a bit anxious. In response was a sigh, and it wasn't coming from Hiccup. With another groan, she raised on her elbows to see not one but five fires. With the small amount of energy she had left, she rolled and crawled back, searching protection behind the dragon.
'He is going to protect me, he can't be afraid of fire' her tired brain thought, 'he is a dragon, he has scales, he is fire proof. I am a human, I have skin… skin burns… and, that… that hurts.'
And Toothless surely wasn't afraid because he stepped forward and -to Hiccup's big surprise- he began to play with the fire thingies. Hiccup couldn't do much but stare at the overjoyed Nigh Fury, jumping around with his tongue out as the fires danced around him.
"You… you know these things?" Hiccup asked, more lost and confused than before. Her eyes fell on the floating fires and they looked at her curiously. 'what on Midgard are those?'
"Yes! They are the blue fires I told you of!" Toothless gave her a gummy smile. Hiccup nodded and let herself fall on the ground with a feeble groan. Toothless slowly got close and looked at her from above, "you don't look fine."
"'m fine, b'dy." Hiccup managed to say.
"No, you are not" the dragon insisted.
"They just scared me buddy, 'm fine" Hiccup opened her eyes to find a pair of suspicious green eyes looking at her.
"Weren't you supposed to be sleeping?"
"I… slept, then decided to take a walk." She said in a very pathetic try of a lie
"You haven't sleep all this days, have you?" Toothless said, half annoyed.
"Whaaaat?" Hiccup answered in a long and high pitched tone, she tried to rise on her elbows to look at her dragon on a more casual and not suspicious way, but her elbows slipped on the dirt and she fell on her back again, "ow, of course I have."
Toothless sighed, "I'm not stupid, you look tired and you have look like that for some days now. We are going back, and you are going to sleep."
Hiccup hummed a "yes", not really liking the idea but there really wasn't another option. Toothless gave a few steps away before turning to Hiccup who was still on the ground with no intention of moving.
"Aren't you coming?" He asked, and Hiccup hummed an answer again, still not moving. The dragon sighed and went back to her, poking her sides to make her stand up.
"'m comin'" she mumbled a bit annoyed but didn't moved or even opened her eyes.
Toothless pushed her until she rolled to her tummy and bit her clothes from behind, he carefully swung her over his shoulders and got her into her place on his back. He walked slowly to not make her fall, the slow peace finished lulling Hiccup into sleep as her body moved slightly side to side.
...
After a whole day of sleeping and another day of Toothless being mad at Hiccup for not sleeping and lying for almost a whole week, the two finally got moving.
With not close towns or villages close to them they decided to take a look from above in bright daylight. The days were getting a bit boring and Hiccup secretly wanted to get into some problem.
Since they arrived these new lands none of them had seen any dragon. Hiccup was already wondering if there were humans at all. As far as she could see, there was no sight of civilization whatsoever. No village, no farms, not even a trading post when they were close to shore.
Now they were deep into land and the only "fun" experience they had have was when Hiccup first saw the blue-fires. They had not seen more of those and Hiccup was rather happy about that, they had given her a good scare and were too freaky for her taste.
Toothless had said they were harmless but that was easy to say when you had fireproof skin. For Hiccup that had been enough magic stuff for a life time.
Hiccup looked down at her hip where the sword was tied to the harness. She pulled a bit from it to get it out of the short sheath, her eyes landed on the first runes carved into it. Her sword was ready for battle, strength, protection, power, balance, change, man's and the gods' power side by side…
She sighed heavily, wondering why did she make herself a weapon in the first place. She didn't use it but to play with Toothless, the only time she could have actually use it was when Alvin stole her book and she didn't have the chance to do so.
And she wanted to. She wanted to use the sword, pick up a fight with someone who wasn't Toothless, and she had no idea of why. Hiccup was never inclined to fighting, or training, with or without weapons. She wasn't good at it and she rather make the weapons that fight with them.
But she was bored enough to want to fight. She would probably lose, and she was highly aware of that, but she still wanted to pick up a fight with someone just to do something…
Hiccup groaned lowly as realization hit her. "Why am I more of a Viking now that I'm not actually one" Toothless purred confused, twisting his head a bit to see her. "oh, it's nothing bud, just… thinking out loud."
Toothless growled and let her to her own thoughts as she kept her eyes on the sword. Suddenly the dragon got agitated and for a moment Hiccup hopped it was trouble.
"What?" Hiccup asked, looking at the exited dragon. She followed his eyes to the ground and saw the biggest open field ever. Toothless looked at her, tongue lolling out. "Do you want to land?" she asked smiling.
As an answer Toothless immediately tucked his wings and dived down. Hiccup quickly changed the pedal's position to stabilize the flight. They landed almost on the middle of the field, Hiccup jumped down and stretched to get rid of the numbness the long flight had left.
The black dragon drummed his paws on the ground and jumped away in the tall grass that reached Hiccup's shoulder. Hiccup touched the grass, it wasn't Dragon Nip, but the dragon was equally overjoyed.
He returned jumping and took a playful position in front of the Viking.
"Run, run, run," he chanted with his tongue out, "First to the trees wins" he looked at the other side of the field and Hiccup followed his gaze to the far, faaaaaar away trees. It took her no time to know there was no way on Midgard she could win that race, she even doubted she could make it there.
Toothless loved to run and Hiccup had raced him a few times before, she is always running from him when they play fights and she had been running away from dragons almost her whole life; and yet she couldn't run that long without getting tired.
She couldn't run that long… period.
One would think Hiccup should have built up some stamina for running, and she had, but not for racing a dragon, even less a Night Fury.
Hiccup had study dragon's behavior and anatomy for the past months, she had study Toothless' body and he was built for this. He could run around the field ten times without getting tired, without losing speed and still have energy for more. He was built for speed, both on the air and the ground.
Hiccup could run one quarter, maybe one third, of the way without problem, the other two thirds? No. Hiccup looked into the trees, already seeing herself walking to the edge of the field, panting and dropping herself under the shadows to rest while Toothless happily jumped around saying he won…
Who could she say no to that?
"Fine," Hiccup said with a sigh and the dragon took off, "hey!" she yelled but she was just wasting time, she ran after the dragon.
Everything there was to see was an interminable sea of grass and the black dragon's back appearing and disappearing over the tall grass as he got farther away.
"Why did I agree to this?" Hiccup asked herself after some minutes passed, her legs had begun to burn for the sudden exercise but after a short while it stopped. A new rush of energy swirled inside her body, pushing her to keep going.
Hiccup managed to steady her breathing, syncing it with her moves, felling like she was going faster, even when she didn't know if she was actually running faster than before. But the feeling of it gave her a small sense of satisfaction that made her chase the dragon.
'Impossible.'
That was the first thing Hiccup thought as the trees were getting closer, still far away but reachable. How long had been? Ten minutes? fifty? Hiccup had no idea and she didn't care. She felt good. She felt better than good, she felt amazing.
Toothless was way ahead and kept running even when he had already pass the trees. Reaching him was still impossible to do but at least Hiccup now knew that making it to the finish line was a more reasonable task.
Minutes latter she ran off the field and into the forest. Part of her body begged her to stop, the other part chanted as Toothless had done before: run, run, run! And run she did.
It got more complicated. Now she had to jump over bushes and roots and be careful to don't hit any branches or trees. The last one was the easier one, at least trees didn't move.
What did move was a person as they walked just into her path.
"AGH!" Hiccup didn't have the time to think, even less to stop. She slammed against the person. Both screamed and rolled on the ground to a stop. They ended up side to side, groaning in unison. Hiccup's eyes fixed on the boy and her brain quickly make a verdict, he was older, bigger and surely stronger than her.
Hiccup crawled away from him and quickly stood up, immediately taking out her sword and pointing it at him. The boy looked up and exclaimed, raising his hands up in surrender. It wasn't time to laugh, Hiccup was aware of that. But even then, she couldn't help to find funny that a man a couple of years older than her was afraid of her. And knowing that no one in their sane mind would react like that on Berk, ever.
The boy said something in a foreign language and slowly stood up. Not really knowing what to do and remembering the precarious situation she was in, Hiccup raised the sword and gave a step back to put some distance between the two.
He gestured her to calm down, the only thing Hiccup did was to take a better grip on the handle. The boy eyed her up and down and asked something. Not understanding his weird language Hiccup looked for a weapon on him.
He had a weird clothing: a sleeveless shirt and a long, patterned piece of cloth that went over his shoulder then around his waist, like a skirt. A pin held it to his shoulder and a belt to his waist. On is right hip a small bag was hanging from the belt and on his left a sword. He wore no pants and had short boots.
'Weird' Hiccup thought and was bring back to reality as the black-haired boy spoke in her language.
"Norse?" he asked. Hiccup didn't answer but failed to keep herself emotionless, the word had catch up too much her attention.
"Norse, it is," he said, more to himself. The boy had a funny accent and as he spoke more it was obvious he wasn't very fluent on Norse "ye can put sword down, I not…" his voice faded and his eyes focused on something behind Hiccup.
His hand slowly moved to the hilt of the sword, "No move" he said lowly and in that moment Hiccup realized what was behind her, better said: who was behind her.
Hiccup took a step back, eyeing the sword of the man and putting some distance between the two. Suddenly, the guy took out his sword and raced to the dragon. Hiccup quickly got on his way and blocked his sword with hers. He looked at her confused and she took the chance, kicking him as hard as she could.
"And what do you think you are doing?" Hiccup asked the guy, knowing he could understand her. Toothless snarled at her side, making the man yell and crawl back. "Easy there, bud." She said, enjoying the men's reaction.
'I could get used to that' she thought as the boy looked at her with mixed emotions.
"Bud?" he asked in a high-pitched voice. Hiccup smiled a little but as funny as it was it had been enough.
"Time to go" She told the dragon, saving her sword. She had already put a foot on the pedal when the man spoke again.
"No, wait. Hold… Hold on!" he stammered, standing up quickly and taking Hiccup's arm. She shook him off and Toothless snarled, showing all his teeth. The guy jumped back, looking between the dragon and Hiccup. "How… how ye tame that thing?"
"That thing is a dragon" Hiccup told him, "and he is my friend."
"A dragon?!" he exclaimed looking at him in awe.
Hiccup frowned, her foot slowly leaving the pedal and back to the ground, "You… didn't know it was a dragon?"
"We no have a lot around here," he said taking a step closer with his hands up. Even with the not hostile approach Toothless growled, taking a bite to the air and making the man take back the steep while Hiccup didn't move an inch.
"Yeah, I noticed." She said, eyeing him up and down, "if not you wouldn't have attack him."
"What? Why?"
Hiccup raised her chin and spoke with a hint of malice, "if you knew something about dragons you would know this is a Night Fury. Unholy offspring of lightening and death itself." Toothless growled menacingly, helping give weight to her words, "No Viking had ever had an encounter to one and survive to tell the tale… but me." She ended with a small shrug.
"Vi… Viking?" he asked steeping back and eyeing his sword.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Hiccup warned him, the man reached for it anyways. Toothless shoot a small ball of fire to the sword, throwing it away and making the man jump back.
"Yer a Viking," with the accent it was hard for Hiccup to tell but she was sure it wasn't a question.
"Was," Hiccup said but decided that was too much information, "Now, remember when I said no one had survive to tell the tale?" she asked as she effortlessly jumped to the saddle. The man swallowed, the horror clear on his face, "We can make an exception, but keep your mouth shut."
Before he could say anything, the pair had already take off to the sky.
"You are amazing at making new friends," Toothless growled lowly.
"Yes, I am," Hiccup replied sarcastically.
"If there was a human on the woods there should be a human-nest close and-"
"We are going to see it!" Hiccup happily cut him off.
"Of course, you are," the dragon sighed, "isn't it dangerous now that the male saw us?"
"It was just one person," Hiccup said, looking down at her legs that had begun to burn. She caressed her tights, looking again, "what are the odds of seeing him again? Besides, I think we gave him a good scare." She finished laughing a little.
"We have scare more people too and then they came after us," Toothless grumbled annoyed.
"Yes, but you heard the boy, they don't have a lot of dragons here. I doubt they'll go instantly against us if they don't know what they are facing. Unless they are really dumb."
"Thing the male did," Toothless muttered, "and I don't think they are very fond of Vikings either,"
"Well, legally -and emotionally- I'm not a Viking anymore." Hiccup said.
"I don't think they would care for that," Toothless said deadpanned, "wait, what do you mean you are not a Viking anymore?"
"I am an outlaw and I am disowned, meaning I don't have a tribe or a clan anymore." Hiccup explained.
"Does that make you stop being a Viking?" The dragon asked.
"I… don't know," she admitted, "but I am going against any rule or Viking tradition ever built so… I guess that stops me from being a Viking?" She shrugged and looked forward, searching for the town, it shouldn't be so far.
"There it is," Hiccup said, looking at the buildings that picked out from the tress, "Let's land, I don't want to get too close."
They turned around, flying close to the trees to find a safe place to land. Not too close to the town but not too far for reaching walking in some minutes. Hiccup dismounted Toothless and sat on the grass, still caressing her legs.
"Are you hurt?" Toothless asked worriedly.
"No, just sore. It's what happens when you don't do warm ups before exercising." Hiccup answered a bit annoyed.
"But you are getting better." Toothless purred sitting at her side and licking the side of her face affectionately. Hiccup smiled a little but rubbed her cheek with her shoulder to clean the spit.
"Yeah," She said, "but I think that's all for today."
"What about the human-nest?" He asked.
"I'll go tomorrow, it's not like it's going anywhere," Hiccup shrugged.
"Or," Toothless grumbled, "You could not go at all and don't put yourself at risk."
"Bud…"
"Why can't I go with you?"
"You now exactly why," Hiccup said but the dragon wasn't done complaining.
"You can go to fire-people nests why can't I go into human-nests?"
"Because dragons like me and let me be there, Vikings don't like dragons and these people seem like they don't either." Hiccup said calmly, "you are in more danger in there that I am."
"But the male didn't like you, what if they don't like you either and hurt you?"
Hiccup sighed, "don't blow this up for me. I hadn't had a real meal in a long time, if they don't know about dragons they probably don't know about me. I could get a job for a short time and get money again. I really need it, I need to buy food and I'm still growing," she gestured down at herself for he to see her clothes.
"This should had last me two years more, but I don't really think it can even last me till the end of the year."
Toothless tilted his head, "what about the other skins you got?"
Hiccup bended her knees and poked at the new hole on her knee, "at the rate this is going they are going to last me two or three years, but I'll have to buy more later."
"If they are going to last you three winter-cycles why bother to do it now?"
"By that time, they man know about me," Hiccup shifted, a bit uncomfortable with the thought, "the word will spread, it always does and if everyone knows about me at some point… there is not going to be any safe place around humans."
They stayed in silence, as realization slowly hit Hiccup. One day everyone on Midgard will know of the "Dragon Conqueror" and will do anything to either kill her or get her to work for them. It had already happened, Dagur wanted her help and Alvin had her book now.
Hiccup's lips tightened to a firm line. She was not going to let that happen, and if people were going to see her as a threat and as the enemy she better gets getting used to it.
"Just a few months," she said standing up to untie the bag from Toothless' saddle. She put out her things and separated the clothes.
Hiccup still got her fur vest and the fur cloak she traded on the first town she put foot on. She had trade, buy and sell the rest of her clothes since then. By now she had two pair of trousers, two long-sleeved tunics, and short-sleeved one, all her size now.
"I'll make this last as much as I can," Hiccup said pulling a bit from her tunic, "I'll buy cloth to patch it up when necessary and sell some of the rest to buy bigger ones for the future. I'll need to buy a new pain of boots and…" she took a new tunic on her hands and looked at the rest, "If I can make these last me at least three years each I'll have ten years covered."
"And after that?" Toothless asked.
"We'll see when we get there." She folded her clothes and saved them on the bag, "Clothes are supposed to last longer but this whole "outlaw" thing is really getting to them." Hiccup looked at the rest of her things, there really wasn't a lot of them, "Lets wait a few days, I'll get some stuff to sell from your hunting and I'll try to get a job on something. In a few months there'll be enough to save, then we get away from danger."
"I… I doubt that's possible," Toothless growled, pulling a face.
"Okay, rephrase: Then we get away from humans as better as we can." Hiccup said to humor the dragon, "If I ever need anything else later, I can just buy it from what I saved, we'll be good."
"Sounds like a plan to me,"
...
In a few days Hiccup had gathered enough furs to sell. She walked into the town with her plan in her head. Ready to search on any opportunity she saw a way to get a job. Hiccup had been really lucky on the first town she went into but since then it had been very difficult to get a job.
But as soon as Hiccup put a foot on the town she knew there was something wrong.
All the chatter and gossip you can hear when you entered a town was there, but she couldn't understand a word of it.
Then she remembered the guy she unfortunately met a few days back. He didn't spoke her language. At least not at first. What if no one else spoke it? What if they figure out she was a Viking and acted the same way the guy did? She couldn't fight them all, and Toothless wasn't close enough.
Hiccup breathed heavily, telling herself that it would be fine as her hands got tighter on the straps of the bag over her shoulder. She swallowed and looked down to make sure her sword was on its place.
Her brain began to race, how long would it take her to drop the bag and take the sword if she needed to? Then she realized another problem: her clothes.
She looked around, every man was wearing almost the same way the guy days ago was. And all women wore long, plain dresses. Some people stared at her. Seriously, how long would it take her to drop the bag and take the sword if she needed to?
With her brain and eyes distracted Hiccup bumped into someone. She backed off and stopped herself before saying "sorry" they couldn't know she spoke Norse.
A mean-looking man turned to her and said something, frowning and waving annoyed. Hiccup grimaced nervously, not knowing what to do. The man threw her a furious gaze and an idea came to her mind.
Hiccup waved her finger in front of her and them pointed to her ear. The man's face changed almost instantly. And asked something, Hiccup didn't understand but showed him the bag, pulling out one of the furs.
The man nodded and pointed to his right, saying some instructions really loud and slowly. She still didn't understand but smiled and went that direction, waving the man a little "thank you"
'Well, that went well' Hiccup thought, 'but how am I going to sell this if I can't understand anyone?'
Suddenly she was pulled out of sight, someone covered her mouth and took her behind the houses.
"What yer doing on town?" A boy asked with a very marked accent. Hiccup stopped fighting for a moment, a frown deep in her face as she recognized that voice.
"You again?" Hiccup asked, taking his hand and pulling it off her mouth.
"Where dragon?" The boy asked.
"Not here, do you want me to call him?" Hiccup asked, faking politeness; then she took a breath, ready to let out a call and blow her cover, but the guy covered her mouth again. Hiccup frowned and bit his hand.
He quickly let go with a yell, "Ah! Ye bit me!"
"Get off me!" Hiccup tried to get his arm off, but he strongly kept her on spot, after struggling for a few seconds -and just before Hiccup considered scratching him- he let her go. She stepped away from him and eyed him up and down. "What do you want?" She asked harshly.
He stepped to the edge of the houses, looking around. Then with only a "come on" warning, he took her hand and dragged between the buildings. Hiccup planted her feet on the ground, as a try of stopping him but her feet slid on the dirt.
"Let go," Hiccup said, fighting the grip of the guy on he wrist, "you big brainless jellyfish-muscled miserable excuse of a-"
"Stop talking," he cut her off.
"Excuse me?" Hiccup said, slightly offended of but the fact he shut her up and that he cut her mid-swearing.
"Not much people here speak Norse," The guy explained as they got closer to the forest, "yer delaying yerself. 'n' we don't… get along with Vikings so…"
"If you don't get along with Vikings then how do you know Norse?"
"People on North speak it, ma' father's from there." He said, then added, "Also works for traders."
"Traders? What traders, this place is in the middle of the forest!" the guy stopped walking and covered her mouth to stop her from screaming. Hiccup slapped his hand off and said in an intense whisper, "ships can't sail on trees, you dumbass."
The guy seemed really exasperated as he explained, "There is another village close to a water, a…" he struggle to find a word, "Water canal" he said.
"Water canal?" Hiccup repeated.
"Yes," He took her hand again and took her into the trees.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hiccup asked, feeling like if she was having a conversation with Toothless.
"Just… shut up, okay?"
"Uh, no. It's not "okay" now let me go!" Hiccup snapped and pulled from her arm to get free, to no avail. She just needed him to let go, and she could run and not turn back.
"Stop screaming! Someone will hear ye" the guy whispered making Hiccup roll her eyes excessively.
"We are on the FOREST!" Hiccup yelled at the top of her lungs, hopping being that much annoying would eventually make him live her alone. Instead, he covered her mouth again.
"I'm sure people can hear that." He said, clearly annoyed, maybe it was working? "if someone finds out ye a Viking, yer dead."
Hiccup shook her head to make his hand fall off her mouth, "Oh then I'm supposed to thank you for dragging me out to the forest?" She asked dead paned.
"Yeah, now ye own me one,"
"I own you one?" Hiccup said in a high-pitched tone, "I let you live, I don't own you anything!"
"Yeah, and ye destroyed a whole cargo of fruit when ye crashed with me, so ye own me one."
"Fruit?" Hiccup yelled, not remembering any fruit but finally getting her hand free, "I spread your life, I own you nothing!"
The guy turned to her with a serious expression and gestured to her with his chin, "Call dragon," he said.
Hiccup frowned, a bit confused, "Do you have a dead wish?"
"No, I… I want to see it." The boy said letting Hiccup more confused.
"What for? Kill him?" She asked and pocked his chest hard, saying: "that's not gonna happen, buddy."
The dragon snarled behind Hiccup and jumped down a tree. The guy backed off immediately, tripping and falling down while Hiccup didn't move an inch. She internally thanked the gods for Toothless' overprotective behavior that had made the dragon be this close to the town after she had told him not to.
"And I don't need to call him," Hiccup said, crossing her arms, trying to intimidate him. "he knows when I'm in danger so back off" the guy found it hard to stand up, which mean the intimidation part had work, but it wasn't hard when you had a Night Fury on your side.
"I… I thought Vikings fought dragons," he stammered, both terrified and amazed, "How… how ye do it?"
"Do what?"
"Control it"
Hiccup sighed, her arms dropping at her sides, "Why does everyone thinks I control him?" She asked, more to herself. Then gestured to the dragon, wondering why did she even bother to explain, "He is my friend."
"Can every Viking do this?" he asked slowly, his eyes not leaving the dragon. Toothless gave a step forward with a low growl and curled his tail around Hiccup.
"Just me," Hiccup said. The guy stepped closer and drew out a hand, Toothless snarled, showing his teeth and getting ready to pounce. "You can't touch him," Hiccup said a bit harsh and smoothed the scales on the dragon's forehead, calming him.
"Why not?" the guy asked, looking between the two.
"He doesn't like you. To get close you need to earn his trust, and he doesn't trust anyone." Hiccup said, not bothering to look at the boy as she kept caressing Toothless.
"I trust you," Toothless purred, looking at her with big eyes.
"I know, buddy." Hiccup said with a sweet smile. The boy muttered something in another language that Hiccup could not understand, but she could recognize the amazement in his tone. "you… you don't think this is… wrong?" She asked slowly.
"Huh? No, it… is weird, but amazing," he said, Hiccup's shoulders relaxed a little as she looked at him with a confused frown.
Everywhere she had been people took her as a traitor, they looked at the pair with hate and fear. This boy said they didn't like Vikings, and he tried to attack Toothless before; and yet here he was, looking at them with eyes filled with curiosity.
"So, how ye did it?" He asked, bringing Hiccup back from her thoughts.
"Did what?" Hiccup asked, now missing the harsh tone she had keep with him.
"Tame it, befriend it." The guy said gesturing at the dragon, "he not seem bothered by yer presence."
The frown returned to Hiccup's face and the harsh tone to her voice, "I'm not talking about that."
"Why not?"
"One, I don't want to." Hiccup quickly answered, barely letting him finish his short question, "two, why do you even care?"
"I… em…" he didn't answer, "And… are- are ye leaving? These lands?"
"yes" Hiccup said, there wasn't a lot she could do beside that now. She couldn't go around with him knowing she was here.
"Why? Why not stay?"
"Why would I?" Hiccup asked, not seeing a reason for staying. She could find another village and get a job there, somewhere where this guy wasn't messing around her plans.
"You were going to sell things, right? I can do that for ye." The guy said, "They know me, and we spoke the same language. And ye can stay a bit more."
Hiccup looked at him suspiciously, "Why do you want me to stay?" she asked. The only reason she could come up with was so he could tell the rest and attack her.
"Eh… well," he scratched the back of his head.
Although, it wasn't so bad idea. If it was to attack her she already knew it, she could get ready to fly away if necessary. But if it wasn't for that… this guy could sell and buy things for her. Hiccup didn't know their language and could get in trouble like that. She almost already did.
"Give me a good reason and I may consider it," Hiccup said, taking him aback.
A feeble "uh…" was all the young man could say.
Hiccup looked him up and down, seeing more things she could take advantage of. She could make him teach her his language, or maybe more, he did seem to know more than two.
If she asked him about the sword and the smiths in here she can get a job once she learn to communicate properly.
"You are running out of time," Hiccup said, keeping the bad attitude to press on him.
"O-Okay, look." He quickly stammered out the words. "We not have dragon around here. All we know about them are from stories of yer lands and I not think most of the things they say are true."
"Your point is?"
"My point is: stay. I can help ye sell stuff and buy what ye need. And… can ye teach me?" he asked nervously.
"Train them?" Hiccup asked confused, it they didn't have dragons here why would he want to know?
"No, not train them," he said waving his hands, "about them" he said and there was something is his eyes, a little sparkle of curiosity.
In that moment Hiccup realized he really wanted to know about the dragons. And not in the killing way. He truly wanted to know. She looked away from him, really considering it now.
What if he turned out something like Alvin? Of course, she had knew Alvin was going to be a problem since the beginning. And Hiccup knew she had make the biggest mistake she has done when she decided to talk to him.
Hiccup had given him her book, all her knowledge…
On the other hand, didn't she write that book to make others see dragons the way she does? And here it was, a boy who wanted that knowledge without a bad intention.
As far as she knew.
"Let me think on it," Hiccup said, calmer this time. She turned to Toothless, putting a foot on the pedal, "I'll see you tomorrow, if I'm not here it means no."
"Wait, yer staying on the forest?" they boy asked surprised.
"Yeah?" Hiccup answered slowly.
"Ye… y-ye can't," he said nervously, "These woods are dangerous place, more at night."
Hiccup shrugged it off, "I have a dragon," she said and jumped on Toothless' back, "if there is something out there, they are the ones who need to watch out."
Without letting the guy say another thing they took off. They flew to their camp in silence and kept it like that once they landed, it was only broken by Toothless.
"You are really thinking it over?" He asked.
"I know what are you going to say," Hiccup answered slowly, "I don't trust him a little bit, but today I almost got in trouble in less than five minutes."
"I'm not surprised," the dragons said, deadpanned.
"I don't understand their language," Hiccup continued, ignoring the dragon's comment. "If this guy does this works for me I can get in less trouble, I just have to manage with him."
"What if he tells more people?"
"We can't control who he talks to, but we can make sure there is no one around when we meet. Toothless, this is a huge opportunity to get what I want and also stay hidden and far from human interaction." Hiccup said with a smile, "it's a win-win for both of us."
Toothless tilted his head with a grimace, not sharing the same happiness his rider did, "What about what the boy wants?"
Hiccup pointed at him, giving him the reason. She began to pace in front of Toothless as she thought it through. Toothless sat down and followed her with his head as Hiccup gave another round.
"I can't tell him everything," Hiccup said after a while, "I can't tell him anything, it would expose us too much." Hiccup remembered his eyes, filled with curiosity as he looked at Toothless; she would have give anything to see that on someone's eyes months ago.
On earlier towns, when no one knew about the dragon conqueror… or on Berk, on Asher. She would give anything for someone to give her the chance to explain and see her point. To see that dragons weren't that bad.
But not anymore.
There was too much danger everywhere. Hiccup couldn't trust any Viking or human at all, and even when her heart yelled at her that this guy could be good, that he could be an exception… her head knew better, and it knew that it was a bad idea.
"He said there were traders in a close town," Hiccup said without stopping the pacing, "those traders speak Norse, meaning they will eventually bring the rumors about the "dragon conqueror" here" She said making air quotes.
"Flying is way faster than sailing so we still have time before they arrive all the way here," Hiccup stopped in front of Toothless and pointed at him, "we just have to make the guy work for us until then and then we fly out of here."
"What if he doesn't want to make anything until you give something in return?" Toothless asked.
"I'll just tell him some nonsense without meaning," Hiccup shrugged, "I can make something up about dragons and he'll surely believe it."
"This is a bad idea," Toothless sighed, resting on the grass.
"No, it's not." Hiccup said a little offended, "we just have to plan this right."
"You can plan it right," Toothless said, frowning at Hiccup, "and when it blows up on your face, it's going to be your fault."
"Thanks for the support," Hiccup said deadpanned. She sighed and sat down to think about it.
...
Next day, unfortunately for Hiccup, they had to wake up early and pack up everything on their little camp. They flew low to their meeting point and climbed on the trees, hiding on the same place where Toothless had done the day before.
It was a perfect spot to see anyone who gets close and not being seen by anyone.
After a few minutes, Toothless began to growl. The guy walked in and looked around seconds later. Hiccup put a hand on his head to calm him down.
"Easy, bud." She whispered, and the dragon stopped. They watched in silence for a while, the guy sighed and rested against a close tree, when he got bored he began to pick on his clothes.
"Is anyone close?" Hiccup asked lowly as she was getting bored too.
Toothless' ears went up and his nose sniffed the air. He shook his head and Hiccup patted the side of his neck. With the silent command, Toothless jumped off the tree, not bothering to make a quiet landing. The guy yelled surprised and jumped back.
"Here is my deal," Hiccup said as a hello. Toothless walked slowly to the side, circling the guy; Hiccup had to suppress her smile, liking the way the guy cowered on their presence. "I don't think you suddenly going to your Village with a lot of stuff to sell would look too normal, so you are going to trade things for me, little by little."
Toothless stopped walking just un front of the boy who was still startled, Hiccup leaned forward, resting her elbows on the saddle.
"In that time, you must gain my trust and Toothless'" Hiccup said slowly, "if you do I'll tell you about dragons or whatever you want."
The guy frowned, "So, 'm doing things for free until ye decide ta pay back?" Hiccup had almost forgot the boy's accent and broken Norse.
"Yup," Hiccup said sitting straight, "if you don't like it I'm going," she added, pointing with her thumb behind her, as if she would just walk from they came from.
"NO!" the guy quickly said, raising his hand to stop them. He sighed exasperated, "Ugh. Fine, deal."
"Good," Hiccup said cheerful and untied a bag from the saddle, "better begin with it" she tossed the bag to the boy, who trapped it forcefully, obviously not liking the situation.
"And you better not tell anyone about us," Hiccup added, "if they know, we go."
The guy didn't say a thing. He looked at her angry and turned around, swinging the bag over his shoulder. He muttered something in another language as he left, Hiccup figured he was probably cursing.
"I don't think he is very pleased." Toothless said slowly.
"I don't think that either," Hiccup said and patted Toothless' neck, "let's go back to put up camp." The pedal made a 'click' as it changed position and they took flight.
Hiccup felt really bad for doing this this way. But it was the only way she could get what she needed. She had told Toothless they will only look forward to acquiring provisions for the future, but deep-down Hiccup was still hopping the guy would show up to be a trustworthy man she could share her knowledge with.
But she needed time for that. And she will give him time… see how that turns out.
…..
Just a little more thing.
For a while I wanted to make an original comic and I'm working on developing the story but meanwhile I'm making a comic for this fanfic, to practice the whole comic-making stuff on a thing I've already got a story.
I'll be updating on Tapastic and on Deviant Art. You can either watch them by going on this link or just search I'm not fragile on tapas, it should appear. I also have a comic just to put random ideas of this AU, here's the link.
Thanks to all for reading and a special thank you to all the ones that left reviews!