Summary: After being send away by his adoptive father Mundok, Hak ends up at the docks of Berk seeing Dragons for the first time and has to learn to adapt to these new surroundings.
Pairing: Hak x Astrid
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragons or Akatsuki no Yona
'It's been weeks. The proviant Mundok gave me have been gone for days. If I don't find some inhabitable land soon I'm not going to survive much longer.' Hak thinks, lying in the small sailing boat his adoptive father put him in. Mundok's last order was that he should never return to the island of Kouka, because their clan has failed the king and couldn't stop the coup.
'Hah, funny if I think about it. Even though I'm only sixteen I had already replaced the old man as general. He couldn't have ordered me to do anything if he wanted to. But the old bastard just had to knock me out and throw me into a boat. I don't have the faintest idea where I even am, but I will honor his request and never return to Kouka.' Hak thinks, his eyes constantly dropping closed before he manages to open them with much difficulty.
"A light. A lot of lights." Hak says, feeling some resemblance of strength return to him when he steers the small boat in the direction of the light shining from an island.
Before he reaches the island however his eyes fall closed once again and he falls into an uneasy sleep, getting woken out of his slumber by a lot of yelling and the sound of his boat knocking against something over and over.
"What?" He stammers out with a dry throat, managing to stand up and basically throw himself onto the bridge where many boats are docked.
When he rights himself up he sees what lights up the island this particular night. A horde of dragons, creatures he only heard myths of are raiding the people living on the island, spitting fire while flying over the buildings. Much to his surprise though the people are actually putting up a good fight, managing to fend off the beasts to some degree.
Hak stumbles towards what he assumes is a town, leaning on his glaive for support, the people running around not paying him any attention, since his hunched over frame isn't as prominent as it usually is, added to the fact that these people are actually his height or even larger, something he is not used to from Kouka.
"Fire!" A man yells loudly while Hak is walking past, behind him, hoping to find something to drink and use the chaos to not get spotted.
This plan soon fails however, when he makes a life-changing decision.
Looking towards where the man points as he yells, he sees a house on fire and some teens, who he guesses to be around his age carry buckets over to the house, throwing the water on it to extinguish the flames.
After the first round of water getting thrown on the house however The teens don't see one of the dragons, a large red and black scaled dragon with what appears to be a mane going up the back of its neck flying directly at them, fire already burning in its gigantic maw.
"Watch out!" The man who alerted the teens to the fire previously yells and most of them get out of the line of fire, save for one blonde girl who has her left eye concealed by a curtain of her hair with two bangs framing her face on either side and the back of her hair being in a braid, reaching a little past her shoulders.
"Astrid!" The teens and the man cry out in worry and panic when the creature is nearly up on her and starts to target the girl, who tries to run to the side to avoid the creature, coincidentally running straight into Hak, who pushes her to the side, before taking off the cover of his glaive. He strengthens his stand and waits for the right moment, before throwing his weapon right into the beasts maw when it's only a couple feet away, piercing through the large dragon with the weapon flying out of its back and continuing on its way, flying into a set of large doors of a building elevated on the top of the hill.
Hak however doesn't pick up any of this and falls face first to the ground after loosing the only thing keeping him standing and passes out.
"Either we finish them or they finish us. It's the only way to get rid of them. We have to find the nest and destroy it, so the dragons leave. One more search before the ice comes." Stoic, the chieftain of the Viking village announces to everyone while they are in the great hall.
"Those ships never come back." One Viking remarks.
"It's our only chance to survive the winter. Now who's with me?" Stoic asks, getting no volunteers.
"Fine, who doesn't come has to look after Hiccup." He adds, getting everyone to volunteer, not wanting to take care of the chieftain's son, who's generally known for being useless and bringing disaster with him.
"Alright, I'll pack my undies." Gobber says while the rest of the village clears out.
"No, you stay and train new recruits." Stoic tells him.
"And Hiccup continues to do stupid things…" Gobber says.
"We should train him too." The man with prosthetic arm and leg says.
"He'll be killed before the first dragon is out of its cage. You know he isn't right for it. He's always been different." Stoic says.
"You can't stop him. You can only prepare him and the truth is you won't always be around to protect him." Gobber replies.
"I'm sorry Chieftain, but there is something you should see." One of the villager says, reentering the hall.
"I'm coming." Stoic says with a sigh and follows the Viking to one of the houses, if he remembers correctly, the house of the Hoffersons.
"What is it?" He asks, entering the home.
"Uhm, a strange boy arrived tonight. He looks to be in a very weak state. We found an empty sailing boat on our shores and assume he arrived in it.
"So? Try to get him back to strength and send him off." Stoic says, his mind still occupied by the threat of the dragons and his stubborn son.
"Yes, that was our plan, but there is something you should know. Astrid." The father of the blonde girl in the room says.
"He saved me from a Monstrous Nightmare and slayed it with one strike, before passing out." Astrid informs their leader.
"Is this true?" Stoic asks, intrigued by the information and turns to the man who fetched him, who nods positive in return.
"Impressive, try to persuade him to join our ranks then. It's probably best to hand him over to Gobber. He's not the best medic around but he'll get the job done and will train our new recruits soon enough. I assume I will see you amongst them as well Astrid?" Stoic says.
"Yes." The girl says with a confident nod.
"Good. And thank you for informing me about him." Stoic tells them and leaves their house.
|A day later|
"Welcome to dragon training." Gobber says, opening the arena for the teenager he's about to teach.
The six of them enter the arena, all of them being fired up, except for the Chieftain's son Hiccup, who follows them hunched over lifelessly.
"Let's get started. The recruit who does best, will get the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village." Gobber announces.
"Hiccup already killed the Night Fury, so does that disqualify him, or…" Snotlout teases the other boy, since no one believes his claim of having shot down a Night Fury with his invention.
"Don't worry, you're small and weak. That way they'll see you as less of a target and go after the more Viking like teens instead." Stoic tells Hiccup, leading him into the middle of the arena with the other students.
"Hey, who's that guy watching us? Hey buddy you want a piece of this?" Snotlout shouts, seeing a teenager he's never seen before observing the group from outside the arena while eating a fish.
"Oh, that is Hak. He's arrived on Berk only two nights ago and Stoic asked me to offer him a spot in the training as well. But he wanted to see what it's all about first and he still needs to regain his strength anyways." Gobber informs them.
"My father did?" Hiccup asks surprised, looking up to the for their age tall teen observing them with intense eyes.
He's not the only one looking up at him however, Astrid also looks up to the guy who saved her two nights ago with interest, wondering where he came from and how he defeated the Monstrous Nightmare.
"Well let's not waste anymore time." Gobber says, going over to a gate and grabs onto its lever.
"Whoa, wait aren't you going to teach us first?" Snotlout asks scared.
"I believe in learning on the job." Gobber replies, releasing a Gronckle.
The yellow skinned creature with wings seemingly too small for its body flies out and straight into a wall.
"What's the first thing you'll need?" Gobber asks.
"A doctor?" Hiccup remarks.
"+5 speed?" Fishlegs stammers fearfully.
"A shield." Astrid says.
"Shield, go!" Gobber yells and the students all head to the weapons rack, picking up a shield with the twins fighting over one having a fancy design and the dragon shoots it, knocking both of them over.
"Tuffnut, Ruffnut you're out." Gobber tells them before telling the others "Those shields are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it. All dragons have only a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?"
"Six." Fishlegs, a chubby and larger teen says.
"Correct, that's one for each of you. Fishlegs you're out." Gobber says when the Gronckle shoots Fishleg's shield out of his hands.
"Snotlout, you're done." Gobber says when the cocky teen's shield gets hit while he was busy hitting on Astrid who didn't even listen to him, being focused on the fight.
"Well, I guess it's just you and me." Hiccups says, joining the girl in the middle of the arena.
"No, just you." Astrid says, rolling underneath the dragon who fires at Hiccups, knocking his shiled out of his hands and he starts to run after it, before getting trapped against a wall.
"Hiccup." Gobber yells and rushes over to him, but before he can intervene Hak drops down, through the railings, landing in front of the dragon who charges his last shot intending to kill Hiccup, who's cowering against the wall.
Hak quickly jumps to the dragons side, grabbing a hold of it and turning its maw and head to the floor, making it shoot its last shot directly beneath it, knocking the dragon and the teen back from the force.
Gobber quickly forces the dragon back in its cage before he joins the others as they are checking on Hak, who's lying near the middle of the arena on his back.
"Are you two OK?" Gobber asks concerned.
"I'm good." Hiccup says weakly, still frightened at almost getting killed.
"All good." Hak groans, still being weak from the days of starvation he went through while drifting on his boat.
"Nice move, you know you could become my underling." Snotlout says cockily as always.
"No thanks." Hak replies, getting back to his feet with Fishlegs helping him up.
"Well, you'll all get another chance, don't worry. And remember, a dragon will always go for the kill." Gobber tells them, looking at Hiccup in particular.
"So, youngling have you decided yet if you want to join these lads in their training?" Gobber asks Hak while the group heads back to the village.
"Probably. I don't really have anywhere to go and can use the knowledge. Where I grew up dragons were only a thing of myth." Hak replies.
"Hah, myth. You won't believe how many dragons I've fought in only my lifetime." Gobber laughs.
"Hmm." Hak hums in response.
"What's on your mind? Want to come light something on fire?" Tuffnut asks him.
"No, I'm just wondering where my weapon went." Hak replies.
"Oh, that's in my forge. Come on follow me." Gobber tells him, leading Hak to his forge, with Astrid following him, the twins, Snotlout and Fishlegs heading off to god knows where while Hiccup heads back to the forest, where he caught a Night Fury and released it, being unable to kill it after seeing the fear in its eyes.
"Here we are. There it is boy. It's quite a nice weapon if I say so myself. A bit hefty for someone your age isn't it?" Gobber asks, handing Hak his glaive.
Hak only shrugs his shoulder and says "thanks." Before turning around and walking off with no destination in mind.
"Hey, we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Astrid. I was the girl you rescued the other night. Thank you for that." Astrid says, walking beside him.
"I'm Hak. Don't mention it. I can barely recall anything I was constantly on the edge of unconsciousness." Hak tells her.
"So you don't remember saving me?" Astrid asks questioningly.
"No, I do. Just nothing before and after that. I was drifting around on a boat for a couple of weeks and my rations had run out a couple days before reaching your shores." Hak says, slightly embarrassed.
"Oh, rough trip." She says.
"So, where are you headed?" She then asks.
"I don't know yet. Getting the lay of the land? Maybe look for someplace for shelter." Hak replies calmly.
"Hmm, I'm sure my parents would be OK with you staying under our shed. Our cart burned up during the attack anyways." She offers.
"Oh, yeah thanks. That's very nice of you. I'm still not feeling too well and could use a small break before looking for permanent lodgings." Hak says thankfully.
"Hey, you saved my life, it's the least I could do." She tells him with a minor red tint to her cheeks.
"Say how long has this with the dragons been going on anyways?" Hak asks her, changing the topic much to her relief.
"A couple of generations why?" She asks.
"Just thought I could try to learn something about this place if I'm going to be staying here for the time being." Hak says.
"Mind if I ask you a question?" She asks, stopping in front of him and looking towards him.
"Shoot." He says.
"Why were you on that boat by yourself?" She asks.
"My adoptive father send me away from our home. He said we failed the King, because he got killed in a coup and that I should never return." Hak informs her.
"King? How did you fail him?" She asks.
"I am… was the general of the wind tribe. One of the five generals of Kouka. We are the leader of our military forces, so we should have stopped a coup from succeeding but at least three of the tribes formed an alliance to take out the king and appoint a new one, one they chose." Hak explains.
"General? Aren't you too young for that? You're like what? 18?" She asks.
"16 actually." Hak says and the two start to walk around town again.
"You really seem to have some bad luck huh?" She chuckles after a bit of silence.
"How do you figure?" He asks.
"You get send away from your country. You barely survive the trip to Berk and then you arrive on the same day the dragons attack and you had to save me from almost getting roasted alive." She replies.
"Hah. I guess you've got a point. I have to say though, your people. While being a lot less in number are far nicer than most people in Kouka." Hak tells her.
"So, what are your plans for the future?" She asks him.
"For now? I want to learn how to fight these dragons, help your village survive the winter and repay your people's hospitality. If I'm still alive afterwards I'll see what comes next." Hak tells her with a shrug.
"In that case. I welcome you to Berk, although a bit late. And I hope you find out what you want to do.
"Thanks." Hak says with a small smile.
