Safe Out of Sight Chapter 6, a how to train your dragon fanfic

"And it's fun to deceive when you know you can leave, but you have to be wary..." ~ On the Steps of the Palace: Into the Woods

Chapter Six

Hiccup was not late to the forge the next morning. In fact, he made sure he left early, before most of the villagers had even dreamt of waking. He padded slowly down the hillside that separated the village from the forest's edge, struggling a bit with a single crutch in the powdery snow that blanketed the ground. Under his free arm, he carried the broken prosthetic. Despite the freedom of being able to walk without it, Hiccup determined that hobbling awkwardly through the smithy with his cloak and crutches would not be conducive to getting work done. Work that that snarly girl had clearly indicated would not be easy. He was ready for the labor, but Hiccup would need all of his agility available to him to make certain he gave her no reason to complain.

Hiccup slowly approached the forge once he entered the village square, pausing several paces away and peering inside. There was no sign of the girl or other man; he was in the clear. Relieved, Hiccup exhaled and stepped into the forge, setting aside his prosthetic and trading his cloak for a smithing apron that hung near the entryway.

Upon closer investigation, Hiccup had found that the source of his prosthetic's mechanical failure resided in a broken spring; simply replacing the spring that allowed the metal footplate to resist his weight would restore the leg's usefulness as well as Hiccup's mobility. Swiftly, Hiccup set to searching through the largest workbench in the forge. Sure enough, a small collection of misshapen nails, small weights, and other odds and ends found a home on a ledge underneath the workbench. Jackpot.

Hiccup sifted through the misfit materials, keeping one eye out for any piece that would replace the broken spring and the other for anyone else entering the forge; the girl would almost certainly throw a fit if she found the Norseman rooting through the master craftsman's workspace. He exhaled, placating himself in order to focus on his task; all he needed was a spring. They wouldn't possibly miss such a small, commonplace…

"What are you doing?"

The resounding thud of Hiccup's head cracking against the underside of the bench managed to drown out his startled yelp at the girl's sudden appearance. Groaning and rubbing the crown of his head, Hiccup swiped his cloak from the ground and turned to face her.

"What are you doing?" he retorted as he threw the cloak around his shoulders, refusing to tiptoe around her already flaring temper. She scoffed.

"It's my forge. I can do whatever I please."

It was Hiccup's turn to scoff at her. "Oh, really?"

"Yes." Assuming this laid the topic to rest, the girl moved to the other side of the forge where another workbench was pushed against the wall.

"Right," Hiccup continued sardonically, "and the man here yesterday was your apprentice?"

Across the smithy, the girl froze where she stood, her fingers in the midst of tying her smithing apron around her waist. After a moment's pause, she completed the task, tying the apron in a sturdy knot. Turning on her heel, she strode across the forge to stand directly in front of him. "I don't owe you any answers, foreigner," she spat down at Hiccup where he still knelt on the ground. She smirked. "Now, would you kindly step away from my workbench?"

Hiccup stared at her, dumbfounded. Slowly, he reached to the workbench to pull himself up from the ground. This couldn't possibly be her station; it was easily the largest in the forge, customarily reserved for the master craftsman. As he grabbed his crutch as stepped aside to allow her to seat herself, Hiccup observed the tools and ledgers arranged neatly against the back of the table. She removed the last ledger from its place and took a pencil to the page. The poised authority with which she took her place at the bench convinced Hiccup of her claim. But why, in Thor's name, was a girl no older than he carrying out the duties of a master blacksmith?

"You can start working over there," she stated, pointing to the smaller workbench in the corner without looking up from her ledger. "There are plenty of unfinished projects for you to get started on." Hiccup failed to shoot back any sort of sarcastic reply, still baffled by her revealed status. If she was, in fact, the master craftsman, then she must be extremely skilled in her trade; uncommon at their age, and all the more uncommon for a woman. Despite her bitter disdain for him, Hiccup couldn't help but have respect for her.

Thus, he did as he was told, moving to the workspace she had indicated, but not before swiftly swiping his prosthetic from where it leaned against the side of her workbench.

"What was that?" she snapped, spinning on her stool to face him.

"What was what?" Hiccup asked dumbly, concealing the leg behind his back.

Her eyes narrowed. "You know precisely what. Give it here."

Before Hiccup could protest, she was across the room in three paces. Though she was easily a full head shorter than him, even when he leaned on his crutch, she stood her ground with such conviction that Hiccup knew there was no going around her demand. Reluctantly, he held the prosthetic out in front of him.

"Oh." Her abrasiveness fizzled instantly, all cockiness and attitude deflating as she registered the full extent of the injury that forced the boy to walk with a crutch. "I thought…I didn't realize…"

"S'fine," Hiccup mumbled, dropping the prosthetic to his side once again, withdrawing. The shift in her demeanor was unsettling. If she was going to treat him differently, he didn't want it to be because of a handicap. He wanted to earn respect. Regardless, something in her face softened and she continued.

"I will repair it," she said, holding her hand out expectantly to take the prosthetic from him, but Hiccup drew back from her extended arm. The repair was simple, something Hiccup knew how to do with his eyes closed; for this girl, who until thirty seconds before wouldn't give him the time of day, to repair it for him would almost be insulting. Hiccup didn't need someone else to rescue him anymore, he was going to work his way back to Berk himself. He was perfectly capable and knew it, even if no one else around him seemed to recognize it. Her offer to help him was borne from pity for the cripple that she had verbally abused, and pity was the very last thing Hiccup wanted.

Seeing his wary pause, she urged him further. "You have other work to do, and you'll need this for bellow work later, I'm sure," she reasoned. Her tone was businesslike, removing emotion from the equation. "It's most efficient for both of us."

Hiccup had quickly learned that this girl would adamantly refuse to compromise on any of her demands; she was not one to meet in the middle. Grudgingly, he stepped forward to meet her and dropped the prosthetic into her waiting arms. Without another glance, she turned away, dismissing him to return to his workbench.

Hiccup turned his attention to the unfinished projects waiting there for him; he was glad to find that most of what needed to be done was technical detailing work, easily done seated. He sat on a stool, sturdier than the one at his own workbench in Berk, and leaned intently over his tools.

As the early morning light flooded over the misty horizon and wore on into day, Hiccup found that they fell into an easy rhythm of working with one another, never speaking, yet at ease in the other's presence. Even in the unfamiliar space, Hiccup felt more at home in this forge than he did in his own workspace in Berk. Though the origins of the girl's deep-rooted resentment of him remained unknown, she had seemingly rescinded her initial judgments about him, if only for the hours they were in the forge together. For those hours, she was able to regard him as a fellow human being rather than just a Northerner. Both of them had their own stories and struggles, and his clearly involved a degree of sacrifice she knew nothing of. For that, he deserved her respect.

The ageless silence in which they labored shuddered for a moment when she cleared her throat behind him, unwilling to be broken. It shattered, however, when she cleared her throat a second time and Hiccup was thrown back to the present; the foreign village, his moody smithy companion, and his ever-pressing need to get working on a new tail for Toothless to return to Berk.

"Here," she said, thrusting the prosthetic towards him. Her face was stern, but her voice had lost its cold and biting tone. "I suppose you'll want this for whatever personal work you needed to do." Hiccup took the leg from her, tentatively weighing it in his hands to gage what kind of adjustments she had made. "We perform only the highest quality repairs, I assure you," she said over her shoulder as she turned to leave, dismissing him for the day without any cordial parting words. Hiccup's skepticism of her regard for him intensified; perhaps the shift in the room's atmosphere earlier was due only to a brief bout of pity for the crippled foreigner.

"Thank you," Hiccup called, gesturing to the repaired prosthetic when she stalled in her exit to face him. "And thank you again for the use of your forge…er…" Hiccup trailed uncomfortably, realizing that she had never mentioned her name. Intrigued that he had referred to their location as her forge, she eyed him, appraising the safety of trusting him.

"Regan," she said calmly, and quickly strode around the corner, out of the stall, and out of sight.

Thoroughly pleased with himself to have gotten any information from her, Hiccup noted that she had given her name without first demanding his. She trusted him.

Hiccup now had an ally.

Stoick was not the only one who spent time staring at the distant horizon. Astrid had situated herself on the hillside where, only days ago, Hiccup had sat beside her in the grass laughing with her, sending their voices out over the craggy rocks and waves until their ribs ached and their minds were free of any troubling, worldly thought.

The grass beneath Astrid's fingers was now frozen and dead, finally choked in winter's grasp. It had happened so quickly it was almost as if Hiccup had snatched the life away from Berk in his disappearing act. While the rest of the village gathered to celebrate Vetrnætr, Astrid remained where she sat, well-aware that her attentions were wasted, but half-hoping to see the boy and Night Fury appear over the water nonetheless.

"What are you doing up here?"

Astrid tensed, snapping her head towards the voice, but relaxed upon identifying the speaker.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied. "It's almost sundown. Why aren't you at the feast, Fish?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Though Fishlegs' retort wasn't nearly as biting as Astrid's, she tentatively observed her features to ensure she wasn't going to threaten any physical damage before seating himself on the ground beside her. "You know, I heard the chief is planning to send ships out looking for him if he doesn't come back by the end of Vetrnætr. They'll find him."

"I can't understand it," she said. "I knew that he was acting strange, I just never thought he could actually just pick up and leave…"

"He didn't."

Astrid sighed, yanking up dead blades of grass from where her fingers raked the frozen ground. Her absent-minded action told Fishlegs she didn't believe him.

"Astrid. Hiccup didn't run away."

She scoffed. "You didn't hear the way he was talking…"
"I didn't have to. Hiccup isn't like that, Astrid." The girl failed to avert her attention from the dead grass she studied intently between her fingers. If Fishlegs' didn't stop incessantly pushing the subject, he was going to find himself on the receiving end of a good punch to the ribs…

"All I'm saying is that you need to have more faith in him, Astrid," Fishlegs said, seeing he wasn't going to be able to talk much more sense into her for the time being. "Even though some things he does might seem crazy, Hiccup always knows what he's doing. He's proven that much, don't you think?" Astrid finally turned to look the boy in the eyes. He managed a small smile. "Trust him."

She wanted to trust him, desperately wanted to believe that he was coming back, but the longer she dwelt on his jumpiness and distance in the days before his departure, the harder she found it to believe it wasn't premeditated.

Either way, Hiccup had more explaining to do than he would be able to wrap his little freckled head around when he came back.

If, and when, he ever did.

Hiccup was surprised to find that Regan had truly made quality repairs to the foot. As he trudged back towards the woods, the leg adjusted more naturally to his weight than he remembered, transitioned more smoothly with his stride. The girl's skill was evident even in the minor adjustments she made to the prosthetic, and Hiccup couldn't help but wonder why someone just his age in a farming village, a girl no less, would have mastered such a trade. Regardless, he was glad to have found an ally in his foreign surroundings, albeit a temperamental one. Since she finished the prosthetic repairs for him, Hiccup had had time when she departed to start constructing a new tail for Toothless. If he had the same amount of time to work the next few nights, he and Toothless would be back to the Barbaric Archipelago by the end of Vetrnætr.

At the thought of the dragon, Hiccup quickened his pace; if he took much longer to return to camp, all of the fish he had caught would almost certainly be gone.

"Why the hurry, boy?"

Hiccup froze in his tracks mere strides from the edge of the woods. The voice that had spoken was menacing and gruff. Hiccup's heart caught in his throat even before he turned to see the threatening, burly man it belonged to. He was flanked on either side by two other equally terrifying men who stepped forward to close in on Hiccup like enormous, burly birds of prey. Where they stood at the forest's edge, they were untouched by the glow of village lights in the far distance, invisible to all but the waning moon.

He was alone.

Hiccup stumbled backwards. "No, I just…" he mumbled as he stepped back to put more space between himself and his aggressors, but found his back pressed against a tree. For a fleeting moment he pondered making a mad dash into the trees, but struck that plan after glimpsing the men's daggers where they glinted at him from their belts. Even with the improvements to his leg, Hiccup doubted he could outrun the armored thugs. He was cornered, and the ringleader's wicked grin told Hiccup they knew it too.

"You should be more careful what valuables you carry around with you foreigner," the man sneered, closing the ring they formed around Hiccup, who instantly wanted to kick himself for not wearing his cloak; he should have known better after he made a display of offering payment to Regan the day before. Pulse racing, Hiccup prepared to reach for his dagger, though doubtful it would be of much help to him now. With a sneer, the front man swung an enormous fist, but not before a massive beast burst forward from the trees. It was moved with blinding speed, black as the abyss and equally as petrifying, and released a piercing shriek that shattered the stagnant night air. The deafening scream shook the men to the core, and they all but bolted from the scene when the beast defensively planted itself between them and the boy, wings spread wide and fangs bared. Both boy and dragon stared as they ran without as much as a backward glance. Grunting, Toothless spat a fireball at their heels for good measure.

When they had disappeared from sight, Toothless turned to sniff worriedly at Hiccup, inspecting him for any injury. The boy reached up to reassuringly rub Toothless' nose from where he had been knocked to the ground.

"I'm fine, buddy," he said, releasing a nervous chuckle. "Thank you. That could have ended badly." Toothless whimpered his agreement while tugging at the human, anxious to return him to the safety of the trees. Suddenly recognizing just how tired he was, Hiccup readily complied, following Toothless back into the woods. "It was weird though; they all acted like they'd never seen a dragon before," Hiccup wondered aloud.

"Well they've certainly never seen a Night Fury before."

Hiccup didn't have to turn to identify that it was Regan who spoke, words biting. She had seen everything. Now, Hiccup realized as his stomach dropped, he would be providing her with much more information than he had originally planned.

And he would have to trust her with it.

I'd like to state that this is not a romance fic; Hiccup's primary goals at this point are getting back home and hanging out with his dragon broski, not hooking up with random Irish girlies. Rest assured that this is a Hiccup-centered story as well and will not be turning into The Adventures of Regan and Her Main Character Turned Sidekick anytime soon. She just has a lot of background that plays into Hiccup's development that we need to build for the time being. And Toothless will show up more from now on :D

Any and all constructive feedback is greatly appreciated!