When Daughter was creating her dragons, she decided to make something that looked like Mother's Iguana. Something small and somewhat funny-looking, but also fierce. So she took the fire and created small dragons that liked to stay in packs. They had two horns on their head, ridged spines on their backs, and a small, triangular sail at the end of their tails. They came in dark green, lime green, orange, blue, purple, yellow, and pink. These small dragons were tiny but mighty and their fire breath could destroy a house just as quickly as a big dragon's fire. The humans called them, the Terrible Terror.
Hiccup woke up in his bed and had never been more confused in his life. Why was he in his room, in his house? They were at the Family Reunion, camping in the woods near the cabin.
"Dad?" Hiccup called out. He heard his father thundering up the steps seconds later. Followed by the classic clank of Gobber's famous, peg-leg. What was Gobber doing here? Well, when was Gobber not here?
"Hiccup are you alright?" Stoick asked. He picked Hiccup up and was checking him over. His eyes, his ears, his nose. Stoick ran his hand over Hiccup's head to make sure he didn't have a fever. The entire worried parent menagerie.
"I'm fine." Hiccup answered. He had gotten used to this. His father was incredibly protective of him and Hiccup knew that wouldn't change any time soon. He got this every time he was sick or went missing for too long due to his curiosity. Or any time a weapon fell into his general vicinity. But this time, it was more intense than it had ever been, "When did we come home?"
"You don't remember almost burning the brat?" Gobber asked He looked like he was gonna burst out laughing at any moment. But the look Stoick gave him made him quiet immediately.
Stoick turned back to Hiccup, who was sitting back on his bed, "Son, do you remember what happened last night?"
"No." Hiccup replied, "All I remember is going up the mountain with Snotlout, and then he said something." What happened after that? And what exactly did he say? Something about what Uncle Spitelout said. Uncle Spitelout said a lot of things that didn't make sense. But what did Snotlout say Uncle Spitelout said? It was something about… Hiccup's mom.
And he.
And he…
Oh no.
Hiccup held his knees to his chest.
So he could turn into a dragon. And he attacked Snotlout because he was angry. What kind of monster was he? Who would ever do something like that besides a rabid Berserker? But he did say something about his mother, so was it warranted? No, it wasn't. Hurting someone who only used words showed bad character, he was a Viking and they were prideful, but Hiccup knew better than to stoop to that level. And to make matters worse, everything Snotlout said was true. He could turn into their tribe's most hated enemy. What would other people think about him? What would that crazy old man, Mildew do? He already looked at Hiccup like his existence was an abomination anyway. Tears began to leak from his eyes. But Vikings don't cry, do they?
Hiccup felt and heard two big forms plop down onto the wooden frame of his bed. His dad and Gobber. His father's gigantic hand brought him into a hug. At least Hiccup knew, no matter what, his dad and Gobber would be on his side and he would always have one of their shoulders to cry on.
He hadn't transformed since that day. To say Hiccup was ashamed of what he had done was an understatement. Hiccup learned to control his anger at a ridiculously fast rate. He never wanted to use his power to hurt someone with dragon fire ever again.
Hiccup had also come to understand that people truly thought of him as different when he woke up from almost barbecuing his cousin. Some people thought it was funny and just laughed it off. But the way some people look at him and the way he knew that Old Man Mildew was waiting on a chance to disrespect him when Hiccup was without his father or Gobber. The way some of the other kids on the island started to shy away from him. Snotlout and his big mouth made it worse, saying that Hiccup would kill everyone on the island if he was given the chance, but it wasn't all bad. Hiccup still had Fishlegs. And the twins really started to pay attention to Hiccup after they saw all the destruction that he could bring with the fire he could create.
Two years after the 'Snotlout Escapade,' Gobber decided that Hiccup needed to learn how to properly use his power, and while Stoick did not approve at first, he had no choice but to agree because Stoick knew his own power was dangerous and didn't want Hiccup to transform at random and be slaughtered by someone in the village. When children aged out of being watched by Baggybum, they would help with work around the village and shadow the older Vikings doing their jobs in order to learn how to take their place one day, but magic children had the option to be taught how to use their power by Gobber and Gothi at least twice a week instead of doing chores around the village. The two were currently standing in front of Hiccup, Fishlegs, Astrid, and the twins, (Spitelout had chosen to train Snotlout himself.) in the empty Dragon Training Ring, void of any dragons because the last recruits began fighting two years ago.
"SO! Who can tell me what we're doing here?"
"To learn how to use our powers for the betterment of the village!" Fishlegs excitedly shouted, raising his right hand and jumping up and down enthusiastically, "Then, when we turn thirteen, you take us to one of the Little Isle's every summer so that we can use our abilities to fight, AND THEN, we turn fifteen and we enter dragon training, and-"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut both clasped one of their hands over Fishleg's mouth.
"Thank you," Gobber began, "but in order to do that, you all need to become more confident with your power." He eyed Hiccup specifically, "And know when to use it." He damn near glared at the twins, who had become known for pulling pranks with their own powers. "Now who would like to demonstrate what they can do?"
Astrid calmly and confidently raised her hand.
Gobber nodded to the little, blonde girl and she stepped to the front of the class.
They each knew one another's powers, and of course, Gothi had prepared something for them. Today was to demonstrate their base-level skill. So Astrid had a table that had various objects of different weights on it. It went from a mug to a cart loaded with weapons. She could move things with her mind.
"Now, lass, start with the lowest weight and move up," Gobber instructed. Astrid held her hand out and the mug began to float, "Good, now place it down and move up." She placed the mug down, and move onto the helmet, then a sword, but she had to stop when she go to the mace, her hand began to falter. It was too heavy for her and she let it go with a grunt of frustration. Gobber placed his hand on her shoulder, "There's no need to be this upset Astrid, this is what we're here for. To train and get strong as we go."
"I know Gobber," Astrid said with a sigh, clear disappointment leaking from her aura, "But I just thought I'd do better."
The blond was upset, but she didn't let her confidence go away and walked back to where all the other kids were standing. Hiccup and Fishlegs didn't even get the chance to volunteer for the initial demonstration, not that they would before Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran right next to Gobber in the blink of an eye. The two had abilities that were enhanced with one another. This was apparently the norm in other tribes and communities around the world, having twins who were stronger together. Still, Berk had never had the opportunity to see it for themselves. They could produce weapons of plasma from the veins in their wrists. Tuffnut's were baby blue and Ruffnut's were a light yellow and they shined brightest when they were together, not that they were ever apart.
"Good enthusiasm." The instructor smiled, but before he could tell them what to do, the twins decided to take matters into their own hands.
They both conjured a small staff that could only be held in their tiny, nine-year-old hands. Smirking at one another, they charged, giving war cries. Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Astrid watched, waiting for a great clash that would clearly be the beginning of a great fight. Until Gobber grabbed both of them by the scruffs of their necks and separated them, "Did I say to fight?"
"Does it matter?" The boy twin asked.
"Yeah! I haven't cracked him in a face for hours."
"Of course, you haven't," Gobber rolled his eyes and dropped the twins with little to no regard for their safety, "You don't have to fight, you only need to conjure a weapon as big as you can."
"We did!" The twins conjured their weapons again. Gobber took measurements and Gothi jotted down notes for what they would be doing in order to better their power. They were only about a foot, but with time they would grow and have even more destructive power than they did right now. The two would likely need to constantly activate it for hours at a time and constantly battle one another in order to increase the durability of their plasma weapons. But in comparison, Astrid would need to constantly train her mind and body to handle large amounts of weight, as her mind powers would more than likely have something to do with what she could physically carry and push.
"Fishlegs! You're up."The chubby blond boy blanched as his name was called. He was uncharacteristically quiet. He had known all of these people for his entire life, but that doesn't mean showing your power was any easier. Fishlegs didn't have a magic power that was suited for battle, or at least he didn't think so. He could only grow plants, which was useful, as he could make plants for medicine and help crops grow, but at the moment, he could only grow flowers and little seedlings. Fishlegs walked to the front of the class. But luckily only Gobber, Goth, Hiccup, and Astrid were watching, the twins had gone back to fighting, which everyone had learned not to get in the way of. Gobber gave Fishlegs an alpine milk vetch flower, which was cut off from its roots at the stem, "Now Son, make it grow as much as you can."
Fishlegs follow Gobber's instruction and grasped the plant. The stem grew out and the roots expanded. The roots began to sprout other vetch flowers. Over the course of thirty seconds, Fishlegs had a bush that was taller than his entire body. Gothi began to mark down her notes. Fishlegs would need to work with different types of plants to grow, from flowers to apples, and in years, he would be able to make an entire forest of apple trees from a single seedling. Fishlegs scuffled back to his spot in line, for the first time in his life, not wanting to talk about something that he liked. Although, he had nothing to be scared about in comparison to the last one in the line-up. At this point, Hiccup was a puddle of anxiety, just waiting for Gobber to say his name, so he could embarrass himself in front of everyone. He'd probably go berserk and try to eat someone.
"Hiccup, come on."
He nervously scuffled over to Gobber. This was way worse than Fishlegs', the twins stopped fighting and started to gawk at him as soon as they heard his name called. Oh, gods when was this gonna be over?
"Don't go all pouting on me now, what did we talk about this morning?" Hiccup looked up at his second father figure.
"About doing what's best for me and the village." Hiccup sighed. He knew his power was dangerous and needed to be controlled. He wouldn't be able to be a productive member of the village if he constantly ran around, burning things up. He just really didn't want to turn into a dragon, something that he, like everyone else, despised. They stole their food, burnt down their houses, and often killed their tribe members. It wasn't fair that Hiccup had to turn into them. What fun could being a dragon be anyway? "I'm ready."
"Good!" Gobber hobbled over to a large sack on the floor in the corner of the arena. He lugged it back over to the center. Placing his hand inside, it contained what appeared to be dragon scales. Dragon scales were incredibly common on Berk as they were constantly raided. Warriors often kept them as souvenirs or for trade purposes. The most common on Berk were those of a Monstrous Nightmare, Gronckle, Zippleback, and the Deadly Nadder. Hiccup had touched many dragon scales as kids would show them off when their parents would give them as gifts, but it was never the scale of a big dragon. Only the smaller dragons, like Stingers or Fireworms. Gobber held out a small, green scale, which belonged to what everyone knew to be a Terrible Terror. "Now take it and try to absorb the dragon."
Absorb the dragon? He didn't even know how to do that. Still, Hiccup took the dragon scale from Gobber and rubbed it in his hand. He felt nothing. Hiccup doubted that this would even work, "Now lad, do you remember how to transform?"
"Yeah, Gobber." Hiccup replied. It didn't hurt and he knew what he was supposed to do. Imagine the dragon in his head and move his body to match its shape. How he transformed into the Stormcutter? He had no clue because he didn't remember any time he saw one or when he had a chance to touch their scales. But that was a problem for later and Hiccup knew what he had to do right now. Hiccup gave the scale back to Gobber and began his transformation.
Hiccup was bigger than a Terrible Terror, so his body had to shrink down. He began to think of all the parts he had seen on a Terror, their wings, their horns, that little thing on the end of their tails. A pair of red wings jutted out of his back as his height decreased. All of his senses got better like they did when he first began to express his magic. He felt his thumb and big toe go away as four talons took their places on his limbs. His teeth sharpened and he could feel the heat of the dragon bubbling up in his stomach.
Hiccup was a Terrible Terror. The fire in his stomach didn't feel bad at all. It felt quite nice against the Berkian cold. Hiccup looked up and everything looked as it did when his heart rate would speed up. Everything was sharper and he could smell everything. His clothes had been enchanted by Gothi to shift with him since Stoick suspected that he could change his form and were mutated into a green collar around his neck. Everyone was staring at him, Fishlegs in awe, Gothi with an analyzing eye, Gobber with pride that he used his power, and Astrid's expression was hard to read like she was contemplating something. And the twins…. Oh, the twins.
"Awesome!"
"I want him!"
The twins were shoving their way over to him and Hiccup was even smaller. They looked gigantic from the angle he was standing at.
"Don't touch me, you lunatics." A squeaky voice yelled. Hiccup tried to look down at himself. Did he just talk?!
"He can talk?! YEAH!"
Tuffnut and Ruffnut were right in front of him, and he had to prepare himself to be stretched in half and forced to breathe fire. But Gobber, once again, had to grab the twins by the scruffs of their necks and stop them from grabbing the little dragon boy. They thrashed of course and looked like two crazed puppies trying to get to a deer's carcass. Gobber then did the unthinkable. He opened his mouth and a green gas leaked out over the twins. An aspect of his Toxic Breath, that could be used to knock people out. It wasn't the smelliest he could muster, but enough to knock these two out. He blew it into their faces and they began to convulse. They didn't even get a chance to complain and were out like a light on the floor.
"Good," Gobber said. He turned back to Hiccup, who was still looking his draconic body over, "Now, what do you feel like lad?"
"Warm." Hiccup answers, "I can feel the fire bubbling inside of my stomach and my wings feel like a new set of hands."
Hiccup flapped the red wings on his back. It was weird; to have control over more than four limbs. Gobber grabbed him off the floor and Hiccup was perched on his arm like a hawk and Gothi was drawing him and taking notes. When she was done, Gothi began to scribble in the sand, giving Gobber instructions to tell.
"Now, transform back into a person, but stop halfway."
Hiccup hopped off of the man's arm and clumsily landed on the floor. He began his transformation back into a human. But stopped as he was instructed. His body was still hunched over on the floor and he was quite the sight. His sensory organs were still heightened as when he showed magic expression, but he had greenish scales around his eyes. His hair was on his head, but the horns were also present on both his head and his nose. Hiccup still felt the tail that was jutting out of the base of his spine as well as the ridges on his back. But the wings had changed places, instead of jutting out of his back, they were coming out of his hands and were attached to his arm and torso. Hiccup also still felt the heat of fire coming from his body. All of his clothes had reappeared, including his big, furry yak coat that he had to wear to keep out the cold. But there were small holes and magic rifts in the clothes that allowed his draconic body parts to move freely.
He looked quite bizarre.
Gothi took more notes and began to manhandle him by the wings and tail, putting him in better sketching positions. Hiccup would likely need to touch as many dragon scales as he could. His transformation was slow and took about thirty seconds to complete. He needed to constantly change from dragon to dragon in a fluid motion. Someone fighting them in the air would be incredibly beneficial and give the island the chance to recover lots of what they normally lost. He would probably be able to find the Dragon's Nest by disguising himself and leading the Berkians to victory. Gobber was already making mental arrangements for who to partner with who when it was time for their first summer training camp in three years. But something else leaked into the blacksmith's mind. He grabbed Hiccup as if he weighed as much as a sheet of paper.
"Gobber what are you doing?" Astrid asked.
"You'll see," the instructor smiled as if he wasn't planning something that Stoick would kill him for. He gestured for Fishlegs and Astrid to follow him, leaving the twins in the corner passed out, "Now let's go witness something fantastic."
"Gobber I really don't like this." Hiccup felt something in the aura that Gobber was giving off. Something just wasn't right. He began to struggle when he saw that Gobber was talking him out of the arena. But Gobber held him close like he was a newborn out in the cold. "GOBBER!" It was futile to struggle against the man's grip. Astrid and Fishlegs looked like Gobber had gone crazy while chasing after him. Gothi seemed as composed as she could ever be. Not carrying to look up as she knew that the boy would be fine. He could fly.
Hiccup, on the other hand, was going to shit his pants. Gobber exited the arena and was coming closer and closer to the edge. "Gobber I am going to die!"
"Gobber he just transformed for the first time today! Shouldn't he practice inside?!" Fishlegs pleaded, fearing for his friend's life.
"What better way to train than throwing yourself into the field."
Hiccup was gonna cry! What is wrong with his father for letting Gobber's crazy ass train him? "Help! He's crazy!"
"Am I crazy? Or brilliant?" Gobber held Hiccup by the back of his fur coat and began to spin in a circle, ready to heave Hiccup. This is it Hiccup thought as he was spun around like a warrior's battle axe, ready to be thrown at a dragon's neck. This is it. I'm gonna die today. He closed his eyes, accepting that his life had been so short. Then… Gobber let go.
"AH!"
He began to flap the red wings that were protruding from his arms and his tail began to move. It was as if they took over. He lifted his head up and held his legs and feet together under his body out of pure instinct. He dared to open his eyes and he saw… the ring. He was gliding in the ring. Gobber had almost given him a heart attack for a cheap joke. Who pranks someone by making them think they're gonna die? Doesn't he know about people dying of fear? What if he had lead go at the wrong angle and dropped him in the ocean? What if a gust of wind blew him out into the open ocean? Gobber really needed to revise his teaching methods-
*CLANG*
Lost in thought, Hiccup crashed into a large metal bolt in one of the doors and fell to the ground.
I'll have my revenge Gobber Hiccup thought as he sat up, waiting for the room to stop spinning. Gobber was laughing hysterically right outside the mouth of the arena. He didn't even ask if he was alright. Fishlegs was already running over to him, while Astrid looked at her teacher as if disappointed once more. It was Gobber the Belch, a grown adult, one of Berk's best soldiers, who was acting like a child and pranking people.
"Hiccup are alright?" Fishlegs asked worriedly as he helped Hiccup up to his feet.
"Physically? Yes. Emotionally? I'll need a while to recover."
It had only been ten minutes into the day and Hiccup felt like he could sleep for days.
Could y'all let me know how the pacing of the story is. I think it's going a little fast, but I like that. Thanks for reading.
