=Hiccup's POV=
[Saturday, 11/1/2014-1:00 pm]
[Mainland; Archian Military Base]
Despite the letter to my parents about making contact; I just haven't had the time with training for the army. Reception Week lasted three days, but we didn't move to Basic Training until two days later, and then started the next day. Reception was a whole lot of pre-training to know the basic lifestyle we all faced. Reception was filled with setting up your entire military file, an account for your money, getting your uniforms, haircuts, and making sure you could do the required exercises in a set amount of minutes. From Reception; we basically moved across the street to Fort Archia for Basic Combat Training, often just referred to as Basic. That was nine weeks of full training to learn everything we'd need to know; military history and laws, weapons, navigating, and the correct protocol for literally every type of situation we could possible encounter on the field. All in three phases, which were labeled by color; first was brown, second was black, and third was green. There was a family day and graduation from Basic, neither of which I took part in because my family didn't know where I was.
However, I did get to meet the families of Thuggory, Eret, and Dagur on family day. The four of us, who met on the bus to Reception, hit it off really well and have thus stuck together through all of training. Dagur and I were battle buddies, so were Thuggory and Eret. A battle buddy was basically your best friend for the rest of your military career unless something major happened to change that order, such as death being the only reason. Battle buddies are meant to help you stay on track through training, meaning that if you got in trouble; your buddy did too, or vice-versa. I learned Dagur has a sister, Heather; she is my age, about four months younger than me. I guess Heather's mother died giving birth to Heather, and then when Dagur was eighteen; their father passed away serving overseas.
Dagur took custody of Heather, and now that she was eighteen; he joined the army to be able to provide more. Heather takes care of their apartment, and works four days a week to pay for college. Dagur takes care of all the bills by automatic withdrawal from the bank. And he tends to send Heather about $200 a week, so she can go shopping for the apartment. I met Thuggory's parents, but learned they are divorced and have been since Thuggory was thirteen. It was nice to see that the had a civil relationship for the sake of their son, though. And Eret; I met his dad, but learned his mom died from breast cancer when he was fifteen. But yeah, that's how my family day went; spending it with the families of my new friends. I graduated basic at the rank of Private First Class; I guess I was top of the class, rather, my platoon.
That's how things worked in the military. When we moved to Fort Archia for training; we were placed in a Company; ours was just referred to as Alpha Company. This group of one hundred and forty-four, commanded by Captain Drago Bludvist, broke down into four Platoons. Viking Platoon, led by First Lieutenant Ryker Grimborn. Dragon Platoon, led by Viggo Grimborn. Sword Platoon, commanded by First Lieutenant Johann Traytor. And finally, Shield Platoon, led by First Lieutenant Krogan Hunters. Eret, Thuggory, Dagur, and I were on Dragon with Viggo. And yes, Ryker and Viggo Grimborn are brothers; Ryker being the older one by three years. I guess they joined together, or so we heard from Drill Sergeant Time, which was an hour where they could either flip the bunks upside down and make us clean it, or tell us stories about their time in the military.
Following Basic Training; we had a week to semi-relax while soldiers were shifted around depending on their MOS, or Military Occupation Specialty in order to have their Advanced Individual Training. What this meant was that Dagur, Eret, Thuggory, and I were all going out for Infantry; we are soldiers who fight on the front line of battles, in short. Anyone else doing Infantry would join us, but others went out for other things such as Medic, Communications, Engineering, etc. The training for Infantry is another four weeks, so all said and done for me from Reception to Advanced; I've spent fourteen weeks training, not including the one week break between Basic and Advanced. I graduated as a full Infantry Soldier for the United Islands of the Barbaric Archipelago Army on October 18th, 2014. And the next thing to happen was stationing orders. A lot of others have been moved to other islands, but I guess ours haven't been finalized yet, so we're just hanging on the base in our barracks. It's now November 1st, 2014, and we're still waiting.
I guess it's not so bad. Eret, Thuggory, Dagur and me have had a decent amount of time to just chat about our lives. I learned that Thuggory and I are the same age, sort of. Thuggory was born May 1st, 1996, so I'm about two months older, given my birthday is February 29th, 1996. My birthday gets celebrated on the last day of February, so if it's not a leap year; I turn a year older on the 28th. If it is a leap year; then the 29th. Anyway…Dagur is four years older than me; he's currently twenty-two and his birthday is March 1st, 1992. Also learned Heather, Dagur's little sister, is eighteen, born June 9th, 1996. And Eret; he's twenty-three, born December 26th, 1991. But despite the different ages; we're great friends who always have each other's backs. I did miss my friends back home, but when everything happened; I just wanted to get away to avoid everything that came with a break up of this magnitude.
I wanted off Berk, and I needed a major distraction. That wasn't to say I joined the army as a distraction; I'd always considered it when I hit high school. However, being in a relationship at the time, and knowing I wanted to marry Astrid; it didn't seem…Appropriate to join if I was going to settle down right away. Since all that blew up in my face; I decided that instead of sitting around being upset; I would go through with joining, so that's what got me where I am today. I still don't have a phone; I didn't feel the need to have one with training going on; we couldn't use them anyway, so seemed pointless. With training over now; I'd likely go out and get one when stationing orders were set. I also have my living situation to take into consideration depending on where we go. Yeah, I had money saved up, but the cost of living was different on every island in the Archipelago; there were eighteen of them including the mainland.
"Dude!" Eret burst in with Thuggory and Dagur. I pulled myself from my thoughts while laying on my cot and sat up.
"We missed ya at lunch," Dagur said with a smile.
"Sorry…I wasn't feeling well and decided to lay down. I told Lieutenant Grimborn; he said it was fine and to see the medic if I didn't feel better," I responded.
"Oh. Well, first off then; how ya feeling?" Thuggory chuckled.
"Bit better; laying down helped the headache. Iffy on the nausea, and still kind'a tired, but wasn't able to fall asleep," I informed.
"Well, stationing orders got announced over the meal. Rather, right at the end," Eret mentioned.
"Yeah? Where we going?" I wondered, hoping to Odin it wasn't the Isle of Berk. Yeah, it's been about five months since the break up with Astrid, but it still hurt and I wasn't ready to see her. Hell, I didn't believe we had anything left to say to one another. Her one word answer of no and then running off told me all I needed to understand she didn't want to get married.
"Berserker Island," Dagur announced proudly. "My home island,"
"That's great," I smiled.
Thank the Gods! Berserker Island was ridiculously Southeast of the mainland; four hours away to be exact. This meant that Berk was five and a half. The farthest islands in all directions were Hunter Isle, North. Shivering Shores, East. Swallow Lands in the South and Bog-Burglar to the West. Well, more like Southwest. Straight out West were a bunch of smaller, uninhabited islands. The other islands were Caldera Cay and Visithug in the North. Peaceable and Outcast to the East. Meathead and Berserker were Southeast. Berk and the Swallow Lands to the South of the mainland. Hysteria to West. Bog-Burglar, and Lava-Lout to the Southwest. Bashem, Murderous Mountains, and Wingmaiden were Northwest. So the mainland was the absolute middle island of the other seventeen in the Archipelago.
I was gonna be a nice, safe distance from Berk for a bit. I knew stationing orders could change, but usually it wasn't very often that they did. The chance of deployment was one reason for a stationing change, and the others were just to do more work, or training. That's what Infantry soldiers did; we trained to be combat ready. Of course, there were odd and end jobs involving inventory, cleaning, and moving stuff around too. Not that I minded; I enjoyed staying busy.
"When are we going?" I inquired.
"In a rush to get off the base?" Thuggory chuckled.
"Thug, we've been here since the last day of June…" I gave him a bored look.
"Yeah, getting kind'a stir crazy here. Graduated or not; we still got rules to follow while on base," Eret nodded, agreeing with me.
"And dress in our uniforms. I'm with Hiccup; I'd prefer to be off base," Dagur agreed.
"Well, back to the rushing to get off base thing. It's only because I need to find housing; I know I can stay on the base if I chose to, but trying to get off it," I informed calmly.
"Eret and I are living on base; easier and cheaper," Thuggory shrugged.
"Well, off base, but still military housing. Like a dorm room," Eret clarified. "You should consider it, Hiccup. Even if it's just for a bit; they have single dorms,"
"But it's barrack based regulations subjected to once a month inspections, at random," Dagur reminded. "I'm with Hiccup; I'll take living in my apartment with Heather,"
"It's a lucky break we're stationing on Berserker, Dagur. What happens if we station on another island?" Thuggory wondered.
"Then we move; we're on a month-to-month lease and she does her classes online. The job she works is just fast food, and she really only does it to have pocket money; you know, ordering out, some shopping, gas in the car, etc. And get out of the apartment for a bit," Dagur shrugged. "Heather knew I was joining when she graduated; we pre-discussed the possibilities,"
"Smart," I smiled. "I'll probably find an apartment or something,"
"Eh, not likely in Berserker. Apartments are hard to come by this time of year because of all the newly graduated kids rooming with friends to avoid dorm rooms, people moving out of their family homes. Not to mention the cost of living is ridiculously high. I pay," Dagur paused, thinking about it. "$1,200, everything included. Pretty pricey, and got lucky in getting it when the original person couldn't come up with the money. I struggled to get the money for rent every month; that's another reason I joined the army…Better pay," he added.
"Damn. Guess I might have to do military housing," I mumbled.
"Hey…Wait…" Dagur said.
"What's up?" Eret arched a brow.
"I…Totally just remembered that Heather and I have a three-bedroom apartment. I forget we have it because we're using it as storage; we never really go in the room because its all the stuff from our parents' house. Dad died two years ago; we had to find an apartment once I got custody of Heather as her legal guardian. We couldn't afford the house, so we found the place we have now and just took what we wanted and donated the rest. Everything is in the third room! Hiccup, come live with me and Heather," he exclaimed.
My eyes widened a bit. "A-Are you serious?"
"As a heart attack, Hic. Come on! We get along great, and already share a bunk here in the barracks. We know we can coexist in the same space without problems between us. You get along great with my sister, and you need a place to go that isn't a hotel, motel, or military housing. Just…Lend a hand with the expenses?" Dagur chuckled.
"I feel like I owe a lot more to make up for the offer," I admitted.
"Nonsense. You're my battle buddy; it's my job to have your back in any and all situations. Besides, you're practically family to Heather and me. So come on, family doesn't leave ya hanging in your time of need. Let me help ya out. If ya wanna move out later on when you're in a relationship for a bit and about to get married; go for it. But for now, while you're single…Live with Heather and I," Dagur stated.
"Yeah…Let's not even bring that possibility up. I doubt it's gonna happen…" I muttered. "Ignore that. Anyway…You're not taking no for an answer, are you?" I asked.
"No," Dagur grinned.
"Well, seeing as I have no choice but to agree…Fine, I'll come live with you and Heather," I said.
"Great! I'll message Heather later and have her get started on the room, so it's ready when we get to Berserker. Pretty sure Bludvist said we'd be back the week of Thanksgiving," Dagur informed.
"I really appreciate this, Dag," I smiled some.
"Don't even mention it. I take it you're gonna need to go shopping when we get there? Once we take the stuff out of the room; it's literally bare except walls and closet," Dagur stated.
"I can have my parents ship me my stuff from home…Maybe even my car," I informed.
"Okay. I was about to say…You only came here with a backpack that had a couple pictures, your wallet, and like…Four sets of clothes," Dagur chuckled.
"Three sets, but seven days' worth of underwear and socks," I corrected. "I was told only the essentials at the recruiter office, and the clothes we'd wear while here would be provided. That's what I did,"
"Forgive my intrusion, boys," came the calm voice of the platoon leader, Viggo Grimborn.
"Sir," we four stood, saluting him respectfully. Viggo returned the action and kept his arms behind his back.
"At ease, soldiers," Viggo informed as we relaxed on the command to do so. "I couldn't help but overhear the tail end of that conversation as I was coming in to check on Haddock; I may have an easier solution. Firstly, Private Haddock…How are you feeling?" he inquired.
"Still a bit nauseated and tired, but otherwise fine, Lieutenant Grimborn," I replied to him.
"Good, good. If it should worsen; see the medic," Viggo informed.
"Yes, sir," I nodded.
"Now, as for your situation with the upcoming move to Berserker Island. We'll assist in transporting belongings from another island. All you have to do is give a detailed list of what you want, or inform your parents to prepare it and we'll send a truck with helpers to get it loaded up and taken directly to wherever you'll be staying on Berserker. It'll be brought to Berk from your home, and then air transported to Berserker, and driven to you," Viggo stated.
"My car too?" I blinked.
"Certainly," Viggo nodded. "Just let us know if that's what you want to do and when. We can ensure it arrives around the time we do,"
"Uh, alright. Thanks, Lieutenant. Is…There a phone I can use? I sort of…Disconnected my number and left the device at home before coming here…" I sheepishly admitted.
"Forgive me prying here, but Hiccup…You never talk about your family, anything to do with Berk. As a matter of fact; it usually makes you mad. You only came here with a backpack of essentials, turned off your phone, disconnected your number, and left the phone behind…Did…Something happen to make you leave?" Eret wondered.
"Yes and no. I always wanted to join, but something sort of pushed the idea on the back burner. When that something left; the opportunity returned, and I took it…And that's all I really wanna say about it right now," I said.
"Sounds like an ex situation," Thuggory shrugged. I flinched a little, looking off to the side.
"It sounds like you made an assumption and that we should leave it alone because Hiccup said he didn't want to talk about it," Dagur remarked. "It's cool, bro," he gave me a pat on the back, and rubbed the spot a bit. I offered a half smile to him, understanding that he was trying to divert the conversation. I never told anyone about the break up; just said I had graduated and wanted to join, so I did. I knew sooner or later; I'd have to tell them. These guys were my friends after all. I guess I just wasn't ready to talk about it yet; things still hurt.
"Back to the question asked," Viggo interrupted. "You may use the phone in my office. Would you like to do that now?"
"Uh…Maybe tomorrow, if that's alright? I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep, as long as I'm allowed?" I inquired.
"That's fine, Private," Viggo nodded. I nodded, a thanks to Viggo for understanding as I laid back down on my bed and pulled the covers up.
"We'll keep it quiet for you, Hic," Eret informed.
"Thanks. Talk to ya in a bit," I replied as I closed my eyes and prayed that sleep would take me.
. . .
[Sunday, 11/2/2014-9:00 am]
[Viggo's Office]
I felt better by dinner, but didn't eat just to be on the safe side. The next morning came and I felt great. When breakfast was over, I sought Viggo to make the call home. I knew everything to expect from this call. Viggo showed me how to dial out, and left me a notepad to write information down on if I needed to. Viggo left, since his office was inside the barrack. I was told I had thirty minutes. Gods, I hadn't talked to anyone on Berk since I left on the 30th of June. Heck, I barely talked to anyone after the 15th when Astrid said no to marrying me. Here we are on the 2nd of November; it's been five months without any contact; I knew exactly how this was going to go. I took a deep breath as I pressed the key to dial out, and then to hide the number, and finally the house number. I held the phone to my ear as it started ringing. On the fifth; the call picked up.
"Hello. Haddock Residence," I hear the voice of my mother.
Here went everything. "Hi, Mom," I said.
