"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, future chief of Berk, screamed, racing through Berk's frigid forests as fast as his bony legs would carry him. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH"
"WILL YOU STOP SCREAMING!?" Azula, previous princess of the fire nation and now his truly incredible and oh so supportive foster sibling, growled at him as she raced along beside.
"Aw c'mon, I've heard it's supposed to-hah-it's supposed to scare them!" came Hiccup's response. Without slowing down, he ventured a look behind him.
"Is it working?"
"Uuuhhh well it could be working, it's honestly"-he stopped to clamber over a pile of loose stones, before carrying on-"it's honestly hard to tell with all these trees in the way, and it's really pretty dark, and to be honest I didn't get a good look-"
"Okay, just shut up at let me handle this," Azula turned on her heel and span to face the dark woods. From deep within, the sound of beating wings could be heard. They were faint, but getting louder. "I should never have run in the first place. A princess never runs!"
With that, she thrust her hand outwards with a violent snap. A blossom of orange flame flickered to life, illuminating the forest-for exactly one second. Then it was snuffed out by the frigid wind. Azula blinked in surprise.
"That was really good!" Hiccup's voice floated over(though she couldn't see him, he'd probably hidden himself somewhere.) She could feel the sarcasm in his voice.
Oh right. Firebending comes from the breath. How could I have forgotten-
Then the trees parted, and IT emerged. IT was covered in hideous lumpy scales, reminiscent of ancient warts and bumps, with a gnarly brown coloration-save for it's garishly red mouth, rimmed with drool-lubricated fangs. Stumpy limbs hung limp at it's sides, but it didn't need them...this creature hung aloft in the air, suspended by the rapid beating of it's twisted, malformed wings.
...I think that's all the description I need to give for one half-grown gronkle.
Ash! It's huge!
It lowered it's head, blinking it's bleary eyes.
Ash! Azula thought, I'll need to blast this thing out of the sky before I become it's meal!
She snapped into motion, gathering her chi into her hands and flinging it outward in a combustive ball of orange flame. Exactly as she'd been taught-not one hair out of place, she hoped.
But perfect or not, the fireball splashed harmlessly against the dragon's scales with a pathetically audible poof. Far from dramatically and satisfyingly burning to death, the gronkle instead looked down at her with visible fury.
Dragons are fireproof, Azula thought, a little regretfully. Of course, what was I expecting?
The dragon broke her out of her thoughts by suddenly letting loose a blast of yellow-white death, molten stone and fire fused together. Azula grit her teeth and punched outwards with her fist in response-surely she could just bend the dragon's fire away?
It could have worked, had she been fighting a Hideous Zippleback, or a Deadly Nadder, or perhaps even a Monstrous Nightmare. But this was a Gronkle, and she couldn't bend molten stone.
So instead she was struck full in the chest by a sphere of lava, and perished tragically-a princess far from her home, too proud to run away and not skilled enough to survive. How truly unfair. Even more unfair was that stupid chief's son would get to live, probably by getting far away while the beast picked it's teeth with her immaculately delicate bones-
Well.
Actually no, that would be a little difficult for him to do, considering he was suddenly beneath her, lying on the hard, cold dirt, coughing and sputtering.
Wait what?
The air smelled like sulphur, and looked like smoke. The shadow of the dragon passed overhead.
"Shhh," Hiccup said weakly.
Azula blinked. Had he just...come back and pulled her out of the way?
Did that mean he'd seen what a fool she'd made of herself just now?
She could feel her cheeks flush with embarrassment and shame, but she kept them in until the buzzing of the dragon's wings faded into the distance. Hiccup stayed perfectly still beside her. Hmm...this could be the longest she'd heard him be quiet since she'd first met him-when he wasn't asleep of course.
Finally he could take it no longer. "So."
"What."
"So, apparently the effectiveness of loud screaming as dragon repellent has been vastly overstated," Hiccup continued, shuffling to his feet. His shoulders waved around wildly while he talked. "Also ghmhmhmmmhmhmmhm."
The last bit was impossible to hear, because Hiccup broke off into a stream of mumbling. Azula huffed and got to her feet. She was a mess.
"Stoick is going to kill you for this," she said, crossing her arms. "I could have gotten killed."
"Ahahahaha, but you didn't!" Hiccup started with a smile, but, seeing that she was serious, his smile faded. He cast his eyes downwards.
"I'd actually prefer if you didn't...if you could just not mention that dragon-slaying attempt number 48 ended up like this-or even existed, really, I mean, haha, what was I even talking about? Dragonslaying? Me?"
Azula pinched her lips. "You can't fool me, Hiccup. I was here the whole time."
Hiccup rubbed the back of his head. "Er...yes. So you were."
"Let's just get back."
With that, she began to stalk through the forest, in what she hoped was Berk's general direction. She still wasn't used to this place.
"I still think it's worth mentioning that you weren't supposed to be out here either, so..." Hiccup's voice floated up to her ears from behind her. "I think, if I were you, I'd let that influence your story a little bit."
Azula said nothing, opting instead to keep powering through the woods, letting his annoying whiny voice wash over her without sticking.
Agni, he's so pathetic. Why is he the heir to this stupid place? I'd have thrown him out and picked someone better.
"And really, I think this went pretty well, all things considered. The-the pheremone, that worked great!" Hiccup continued, oblivious. He was referring to the skinful of old dragon urine he'd dragged along to try and attract a dragon. And yes. That had worked. But other than that, "dragon-slaying attempt 48" had been a complete failure.
And if that's pathetic, what does that make me? Azula looked behind her again. Hiccup had saved her life, of course. Had he realized that? He hadn't brought it up...even though it would be perfect blackmail material. Why?
I hate this place. Everything was better in the Fire Nation.
Stoick was having a bad day. First, he'd somehow lost his ceremonial cape. Then he'd learned that Gobber had lost his favourite axe. In a pond. Of molten steel. And now, great Thor above, now...now Stoick the Vast had lost his one and only son.
He wasn't sure exactly how it had happened. The boy was always underfoot-trying to wave around swords, or show him troll footprints, or just being a general nuisance-that when he disappeared, Stoick had taken it as a chance to get some rest after a hard day.
That had been four hours ago. Now he was debating whether or not to go and fetch Gobber, I-told-you-so's be damned, and scouring the woods. He was getting more than a little concerned.
Creak.
Stoick stiffened in his chair
Thunk bump creak creak screak.
Relief washed over Stoick's face, for about five seconds. Then suddenly questions came pouring in, each one bringing with it another till he started to get a headache. Where had Hiccup been? Was he alright? Had he really thought he could sneak in the backdoor without him knowing about it?
He stood up with a great shuffle of furs, and stomped over to the foyer. He reached for the door and-
"It was all Hiccup!"
-the door flung open in his face, revealing the face of the Most Innocent girl he had ever seen. Her eyes practically glowed with watery innocence. Behind her, Hiccup stood halfway up the stairs, one foot comically raised.
"What is the meaning of this? Where in god's name have you been?" Stoick folded his arms and fixed the two children with the patented Chiefstare. Azula's innocence faltered somewhat. Stoick frowned. She was such a handful, this child that had practically been dropped at his doorstep.
"Oh, uh, Dad!" Hiccup said, stumbling back down the stairs. "Dad. Dadadadadadad, uh, hi! I didn't want to wake you up, in fact we reaaally should be heading to bedcomeonAzulalet'sgo-"
"Hiccup," Stoick said, with the weight of a crashing boulder. The single word was enough to stop Hiccup's attempt to drag Azula away up the stairs. "Did you really think you could get away with this. Sneaking out behind me back-again!?"
Hiccup slumped.
"I told him it was a bad idea," Azula chimed in, suddenly finding her fingernails very interesting. "I knew you wouldn't have approved. But he was so insistent I had to come along. Wouldn't want the future chief getting hurt, now would we?"
Stoick gripped the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb. "And what," he said, "prevented you from telling me where you were going? What made you think it would be dangerous, girl?"
Azula blinked. "I-I-"
"Enough," Stoick said, straightening up. "I'm just glad you're alright, son. We'll talk about this in the morning...get to bed."