Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III knew that he was no viking. He showed no defining feature of them at all. He was, in fact, their very opposite. Lack of muscular beefy arms, with biceps the size of beer tankards, check. Lack of ability to tank massively damaging blows, check. Lack of bravery, check. Presence of intelligence; lacking in vikings, check.
Yup. So he was no viking. And he knew that. So did the villagers of Berk. And being a non-Viking in a a Viking village? Tough life. At least Hiccup thought that they were over that part. After all, he had saved the village from the Red Death. And initially, it did. People looked up to him. Said that he was finally acting the part of the chief's son, a hero, and most importantly, he was viking. Now understand that there exist the Norse, and then there are the Vikings.Simply put, the Norse are a people, they who live in the cold lands of the North. Their warriors, are the Vikings. Terrors to their foes, for they come in, pillage and flee with their loot. Leaving behind burnt cities, raped women, and carnage all around. Even worse, the more beautiful of women run the risk of being kidnapped. To this effect, the Vikings differ from the Norse. They are truly cruel, heartless bastards.
It had been two weeks since Hiccup had woken up. He had woken up to dragons and praises. And a marriage contract signed by the Hoffersons and the Haddocks 'to wed Astrid Hofferson and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock by their twentieth summer.' Astrid was not pleased, to say the least.
She was in no way planning on marrying anyone. Andin no way was she marrying Hiccup. Screaming and yelling at her parents made no difference. She was to be wed, and she would be married to Hiccup. Having no way out of the contract, she decided to pour all her bitterness out onto Hiccup. Now Astrid was a beautiful girl, and in a village of Vikings, favors of a more sexual nature were graciously accepted in return for some service or the other. Astrid used this knowledge to her favor. For a little pleasure, young men were incited to beat Hiccup up for her.
But Hiccup didn't know that. Hiccup's gifts and attempts at wooing her were treated with disdain and even sheer contempt. Their 'romantic' outings would end up in Astrid just shaming him for his inadequacies. Eventually Hiccup stopped attempting to take them on romantic gatherings. Back in the village, dissatisfaction grew, for the Vikings had nothing to attack, without sailing out to sea. And thus their ire grew, directed mainly at Hiccup. Eventually, the only people not blaming Hiccup for anything that went wrong were Gobber, the village blacksmith, his master-in-trade, and surprisingly, Astrid's parents. They were literally the only people keeping Hiccup attached to Berk. But even they couldn't prevent what happened next. T'was Astrid's birthday. And Hiccup decided, after much contemplation (on his part) and consultation (on his in-laws-to-be's part), he decided to make her an axe. It took him fourteen days to make that axe. And everyone who saw that axe said that it was the most beautiful axe that they had ever laid their eyes upon. Runic artwork wrapped around the handle, with elaborate carvings of dragons on the blades themselves. Perfectly balanced and with a keen edge, with Gobber declared the axe to be the finest weapon he'd seen come out of his smithy.
From then on, things went downhill. Hiccup took Astrid to the top of a sea-stack, via Toothless, and presented her the axe. Without even bothering to look at it, she shoved Hiccup off the stack. Hiccup landed on something soft - namely Snotlout - and the axe landed in the