A/N: Hey guys, So I watched the First movie last night as I needed some inspiration and I haven't seen the first movie in years so I needed to refresh my memory. Well it worked wonders and so here we are, a few deviations from the movie but we keep the same relative scene of Hiccup finding Toothless for the first time. This was fun to write so I hope you all enjoy it.
Httydastrid4ever: A live action version of these movies would be awesome, they can take all my money if they did that lol! Glad you liked the chapter and I hope you like this one as well.
gandalfnho: Well they had to put the tracking device in somewhere and they did lose the signal soooooo. Writing in that little scene with Sharpshot was so much fun. He will be involved through out the movie and be a pivotal part in how we see certain scenes.
WinterBreath0602: Henry/Hiccup just can't catch a break, but his strength is not something that can be seen on the outside it is within him and that allows him to prevail.
CB73: You will find that throughout this movie, real life bleeds through and gives scenes more powerful meaning. Life imitating art will be a big portion of this story as you will see in this chapter.
Whiskerface: Thank you for the message, your input and suggestions are very helpful and it caused me to stop and re-read the chapter a couple of times before I posted it today. This is the kind of critique that I like and will only help me in the future, thank you for taking time out of your day to read and write that. I hope I fixed some of the issues in this chapter if not let me know again and I will do better. Grammar is not one of my strong suits so any help would be appreciated. Enjoy the chapter.
Thank you all for the lovely responses, they make my day every time I see a new review or message. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Mexican ;p
(Saturday, October 13th, 2018)
The village clean up took longer than anyone anticipated. Turns out that the dragons had gone wild for a few moments and damaged several other buildings that needed to be repaired. Somehow the twins and Simon found that it was Henry's fault, blaming him for taking everyone's attention when the Nightmare was chasing him. Henry sighed and said nothing, opting to continued with his part of the repairs.
The NightFury hadn't been found yet either. Not that anyone had the time to go looking for it. Henry was glad that he at least had the name of the dragon to work with. He had been mentally trying to map where the dragon might have fallen, but that was proving difficult. He figured that if he went back to where he shot the Nightfury down it would give him a better idea.
"Hey." Astrid greeted.
Hiccup turned around to the beautiful sight of the sun light flowing through Astrid's hair, her smile warm and sympathetic, and any trace of doubt or internal conflict that he saw a couple nights ago was gone. Seeing her in costume reminded him that they were still being filmed so he slipped back into character.
"Hey." Hiccup returned the greeting, his voice cracking.
The boy turned red as he tucked his head to try and hide his blush. Astrid laughed at him which made Hiccup turn even redder. Gaining control of her laughter Astrid gave him a light punch on the shoulder which managed to bring Hiccup out of his embarrassed state. He rubbed the spot on his shoulder and grinned at Astrid.
"Some raid the other night huh." Hiccup stated as he picked up yet another board and walked toward the forge.
"I'll say, I've never seen one like that." Astrid replied, carrying a bucket of nails that needed to be straightened.
"You said it, has anyone found the NightFury yet?" Hiccup asked as he dumped the board into a pile of others.
Astrid groaned out as she placed the bucket on the counter of the forge before following Hiccup through the village.
"Not this again Hiccup. Come on, you actually hit a NightFury? You can see how that seems a bit far fetched as no one as even seen the dragon." Astrid replied, slightly annoyed.
"Right, but if anyone else would have claimed to have hit it, we would be out there now trying to find it. Just because I say I did I must be lying right?" Hiccup countered; his voice equally annoyed.
Both teens had started to walk up the hill that Hiccup claims to have shot the NightFury from. The blackened remains of his weapon were all that remained atop the peaceful hillside. Hiccup positioned himself to how he was standing that night and mimicked his movements as be he could. He 'fired' the weapon and sat down on the ground before looking up at where he 'hit' the dragon and followed it as it descended from the sky.
He saw a series of tall rounded hills that were covered in trees that the dragon must have crashed into. Feeling the tiniest bit of hope he smiled and stood up. He took out a small sketchbook and started to draw a crude map and several destinations to search.
Astrid had fallen strangely quiet as he was doing all of this. Her thoughts back on her initial reaction and how she could have handled it better. Hiccup was right of course; it was unfair to him to discredit him right away. Taking in a deep breath she took a step towards Hiccup.
"So, what are you going to do now?" She asked genuinely.
"Do you really want to know?" Hiccup asked as he closed his sketchbook, his tone skeptical.
"Yes, I do." Astrid replied firmly, leaving no room to argue.
"Alright, well I'm going to try and find the NightFury. I have a decent idea of where it could have landed, and I hope that I'm right. It could fix everything." Hiccup replied, his voice full hope.
"Well then let's get going." Astrid replied, her voice gaining optimism.
"You want to come with me?" Hiccup asked, obviously surprised.
"You think I'm going to let you go off dragon hunting by yourself, for the most dangerous dragon that we know of no less; Think again Haddock." Astrid teased him.
"Your confidence in me is overwhelming." Hiccup sassed back.
The two shared a laugh but started to walk toward the edge of the village and into the rolling hills. Unknown to the young actors in the recording hut Helga was watching them both with great interest, smiling as she saw the two take to their roles like no one she had seen before. She realized that they had no camera's out where the two were walking however and started to look around at her other monitors to see if there was a dragon close by. To her surprise she found a monitor that showed the back of her head and the inside of the hut.
Turning around she saw Henry's dragon Sharpshot perched on a computer staring at her blankly, as if a single thought had never passed through the tiny dragon's head. Helga focused her strange purple eyes on the dragon and before long the dragon was standing straight up and awaiting her command.
"Come here little one." Her voice called out, echoing off the walls of the hut.
Sharpshot flew seamlessly off the computer and landed in front of Helga, waiting for her command.
"I need you to follow your master and his friend but stay out of sight. Return to me when they are back in the village." Helga instructed Sharpshot.
The dragon nodded and made for the door. Helga opened it for the dragon and watched as he took off in search of his targets. Helga sat down and looked over the monitors until she found the feed from Sharpshot. She grinned as the dragon closed in on his targets and sat back to see what he would capture.
(Hours later)
Hiccup crossed out another spot on his map, a little more forceful than necessary. He stared down at the pages that were full of crossed out marks and gave out a groan of frustration.
"This is just great." He said as he looked at Astrid.
"People lose their knife, or mug…" Hiccup started
"Their mind." Astrid added.
"Thank you for summing that up." Hiccup drawled in response.
"I somehow lose an entire dragon!" Hiccup shouted out as he smacked a branch out if his way, only for it to smack him back.
Hiccup groaned in pain as he rubbed the spot on his face, Astrid laughed at his little mishap before sighing out and looking around. She didn't notice any broken branches or tore up earth, no claw marks, or burn spots. There was nothing to suggest that a dragon had gone down or even been in the area. She placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder and patted it a few times.
"It was a good try Hiccup." She said, trying to reassure him.
"It has to be out here Astrid; I know that I hit it." Hiccup replied, his voice desperate for it to be true.
"I'm not saying you didn't. I'm saying that maybe you didn't hit it as well as you thought you did, and it was able to fly away." Astrid suggested.
"Maybe, but I have to believe that it is out here, I can't go back without that dragon Astrid." Hiccup answered back, his voice getting desperate.
Hiccup and Henry bleeding into one, Hiccup's desire to be recognized by the village, and Henry's need to find the movie's rare dragon. Astrid sighed out, missing the double meaning in Hiccup's voice. She released his shoulder and took a step back; she took one last look around before calling it.
"If you want to keep looking Hiccup go ahead, I've got to get back. Don't stay out too long though, can't have you going missing too." Astrid advised.
Hiccup turned to see Astrid smiling at him, the warning though seemed to have a double meaning to it as well. Astrid didn't want Hiccup to go missing anymore than Audrey wanted Henry to be gone.
"Just a few more spots, an hour at the most then I will start making my way back." Hiccup replied.
Astrid nodded and went to turn back before she was stopped when a hand grabbed her wrist. She turned to see Hiccup smiling at her as he gently released her wrist.
"Thanks for coming with me Astrid. It means a lot." Hiccup said honestly.
"No problem Hiccup, just don't stay out too late otherwise if I have to come back out here in the dead of night to find your skinny butt it will not be pretty." Astrid joked and threatened if the evil smile she had was anything to go by.
"I have no intentions of seeing that Astrid come for me." Hiccup smartly answered.
Satisfied with his answer Astrid nodded and turned and started to walk back toward the village. Waving to each other one final time Astrid disappeared through the trees and over the hills. Hiccup set back on his path determined to find the dragon but also keep his promise and only stay out for another hour.
He crested the next hill and slid down it only to hit something and fall flat on his face.
"What the…" He trailed off as he looked back.
A massive branch that had been hidden by the underbrush had tripped him up. He looked the branch up and down and noticed that it must have been broken off as the splintered end indicated. He looked up and saw the tree that the branch had come from and could see a clear line of destruction withing the canopy. Following it with his eyes he could see the descent of whatever had run into all the other trees and finally saw torn up spots of earth where something big and heavy and crashed and skipped across the ground like a stone on a lake.
Following the path of destruction was easy enough, a blind man could have done it. As the damage to the trees started to lessen the damage to the earth grew, signaling that whatever had crashed was now on the ground. Swathes of earth were torn up leaving a clear path for Hiccup to follow. He followed the trail up a slight hill and as he crested it a black wing was sticking up from the other side, wrapped up in a bola.
The suddenness of seeing the dragon wing startled Hiccup as he ducked back down behind the small hill, his heart hammering against his chest. He gently peeked back over and finally got a descent look at the mysterious dragon.
No doubt it was the NightFury, black as night, wings like a bat, but smaller than Hiccup would have imagined. He drew his dagger and slowly crested the hill and made his way down. Taking in his surroundings Hiccup noticed a large bloody patch of scales off to the side, stepping close to get a good look at it he noticed a few strands of something were sticking out of the scales.
Henry recognized them right away as the wires that must have been to the tracking device on the NightFury. Understanding as to why the dragon hadn't been found now Henry looked back at the dragon and inched ever closer to it.
Hiccup took in the sight of the legendary creature entangled by his creation and laying on the ground unmoving. He turned back to yell for Astrid but realized that she was long gone and probably wouldn't hear him anyway. Looking at the NightFury he nudged it with his foot to see if it was still alive. Getting no response Hiccup started to finally realize what he had done.
"I hit it… I actually hit it. This changes everything! I can bring back this dragon and show it to village and finally be accepted. They will see that I'm a great dragon kil…" Hiccup stopped mid-sentence.
Henry came back full force and the weight of what would happen if he brought back a dead dragon would mean for the movie and himself. He started to panic and dropped his dagger to the ground and fell against a nearby rock.
"Nononononono, this can't be happening." He muttered to himself.
Visions of him and his dad being blacklisted flashed through his head. His hard work, his dad's hard work to get him to this point all taken away in a single stroke. He wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his head. Tears and sobs almost overtook him when a pained groan cut through the forest air. Henry looked up to see the NightFury had cracked open an eye and was staring at him.
The same piercing green eye that he had seen several days earlier. It didn't have the same effect on him as it did the first time, these eyes were full of pain. Henry felt a two-pronged attack of relief and guilt. Relief that the dragon was alive but guilt that he had caused the dragon such pain.
"I did this." Henry said softly as he gazed at the tangled mess of ropes that held the dragon down.
Henry knew that he had to get the NightFury back to the village, it was the only way for the movie to continue and get it the help it needed. A glint of light from his dagger caught his eyes and Henry knew what he had to do.
The NightFury watched in confusion and panic as Henry picked up the dagger and started to walk toward it. Thinking that Hiccup was going to put it down the NightFury moaned pitifully and slumped its head down. When the sound of ropes snapping entered its ears the NightFury's eyes snapped opened. Feeling the roped loosen around its body it waited until it felt the last of them fall away before it jumped and pinned the small boy to a nearby rock.
Glaring into the boy's soul the NightFury snarled and growled at him, angry that the boy had put him in this humiliating position and thankful for letting him go. The NightFury took great pride in seeing the look of terror and panic on the boy's face, mirroring what he felt just moments ago. He watched the boy close his eyes and turn his head away, just like he did, and resigned himself to the NightFury's mercy.
Seeing as the boy had spared him the NightFury glared down at the tiny human before rearing back and unleashing an ungodly roar in the boy's face. The NightFury jumped away and crashed through the trees and away from the boy who had just survived a close encounter with the most dangerous dragon on the island.
(Back in the village)
Helga watched in shock and surprise at the images that Sharpshot had captured but she was very intrigued by the interaction she saw between Henry and the NightFury. Sitting back and placing a hand on her chin, she began to think of how this movie had taken a bit of drastic turn but a good one none the less. Ideas popped into her head as she smiled and looked back at the screen just in time to see Henry faint. She laughed at the sight and stood up, saving the recording to the hard drives.
"Don't worry Henry, not everyone can say they have had that close of an encounter with a NightFury and lived to tell the tale." Helga said as she saw Henry begin to stir and make his back towards the village.
A/N: Well that was an encounter that I'm sure Hiccup and Henry could have gone without. You will see that I italicized Henry and Hiccup's names a few time above this is to indicate a kind of character change as he flips back and forth to what he is supposed to be feeling. Just thought I would explain that. See you all next time, and don't forget to leave a review. As you can see from above I love reading them.
(Published 1/15/2020)