Chapter 5: Hiccup's Dragon

"I...hate...being...a...Viking," panted Fishlegs to Hiccup as they stumbled back through the bracken to the Hooligan village.

You didn't really walk on the island of Berk, you waded - through heather or bracken or mud or snow, which clung on to your legs and made them difficult to lift. It was the sort of country where the sea and the land were always falling into one another and getting mixed up.

The island was shot through with holes burrowed by the water, a maze of crisscrossing under-ground streams. You could put your foot on a solid-looking piece of grass and find yourself disappearing up to your thigh in black, sticky mud. You could be making your way through the ferns and suddenly find yourself fording a river, waist-high and icy cold.

The ten of them were already soaked to the skin with seawater, and now the snow had turned to horizontal driving rain, blowing in their faces with the strength of one of the gale-force winds that were always shrieking across the salty wastelands of Berk.

"First thing in the morning is a narrow escape from a horrible death," Fishlegs sighed, "No one is going to talk to me for YEARS after that mess... except you, of course, Hiccup, but then again, you're just a weirdo like me."

"Oh, jeez, thanks," Hiccup said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean. And I know what you did, by the way." Fishlegs stated.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked him.

"In the Nursery, before I sneezed, you put the dragon you got in my basket, but I was too out of it because of my allergies to realize it till my mind cleared up. You're very sneaky, Hiccup. You can have this dragon back if you like, Hiccup I warn you, they're filthy heavy when they're wet and angry," said Fishlegs, miserably, "Gobber is going to go off like a typhoon when he finds out you haven't got a dragon."

"But I HAVE got one," said Hiccup.

Fishlegs stopped and began to take the basket off his back. "I know it IS yours REALLY, " he sighed wearily. "I think I'll just go straight past the village and keep on running till I reach somewhere civilized. Rome perhaps. I've always wanted to go to Rome. And I haven't got a hope in Valhalla of passing Initiation way, so..."

"No, I've go another one in my basket," Hiccup insisted. Fishlegs' jaw dropped open in disbelief.

"I got it when I went back into the tunnel," explained Hiccup.

"I should have known," said Fishlegs. "But how in Thor's name did you know it was there? It was so dark you couldn't see the horn in front of you."

"It was weird," said Hiccup. "I sort of sensed it when we were running down the tunnel. I just knew there was a dragon there, and that it was meant to be MY dragon. I was going to ignore it, actually, because we were in a bit of a hurry, but then you said what you did about not having a dragon and I went back, and... there it was, lying on a shelf in the tunnel, just as I'd imagined it would be."

"Well, doesn't that beat all." said Fishlegs, and they started running again.

Hiccup stood tall with slight pride. She was bruised all over, her hands were shaking from shock, and she had a nasty dragon wound in her calf, which was stinging like crazy from the saltwater. She was freezing cold and there was an irritating bit of seaweed in one of her sandals, BUT she was alive and had a dragon.

She was also a bit worried because she knew she should not have given Fishlegs the dragon she got in the first place. This was not the act of a Viking Hero, a traditional one anyway. A Viking Hero would know not to intervene between Fishlegs and his Fate.

On the other hand, Hiccup was not a traditional Viking, and Fishlegs was her best friend and one of the only people that she could have a intelligent conversation with in the entire island of Berk. . She knew Fishlegs had been secretly worried about Dragon-catching Day for a long time. He admitted to her that he was sure that he would be the only one to come back without a dragon, and shame, embarrassment, and awful exile would follow.

But now, here they were: Viking warriors WITH dragons. So, on the whole, Hiccup was feeling fairly pleased with herself.

Things were looking up.

"You know, Hiccup," said Fishlegs a little later, as the wooden fortifications of the village appeared on the horizon, "that sounds like Fate, you sensing the dragon was there like that. This could be Meant to Be. You could have some sort of wonder-dragon in there. Something that makes a Monstrous Nightmare look like a flying frog. You are the daughter and heir of Chief Stoick after all, and it's about time Fate gave you something out of it other than, well..."

They both stopped for a moment, puffing with exhaustion.

"You mean being promised to Snotlout, right? He can think what he wants, I am not marrying him. Anyway, I'm sure it's just a Common or Garden that wondered away from the rest," said Hiccup, trying to sound careless but unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

'Maybe Old Wrinkly was right,' Hiccup thought. Old Wrinkly was Hiccup's grandfather on his mother's side. He had taken up soothsaying in his old age and he kept on telling Hiccup how he looked into the future and that Hiccup was destined for greatness. 'this dragon could be the start of a transition for me, from the strange, "hopeless" Hiccup, to a respected, Hooligan leader.'

"Hey, Hiccup... Hiccup... you okay?" Fishlegs said waving a hand in front of her face. She shook out of her thoughts, and looked at him.

"I was just thinking," Hiccup smirked, then bolted towards the village and screamed over her shoulder. "RACE YA!"

Fishlegs laughed and ran as fast as he could to catch her. They both knew this was childish, but they didn't care. After a near death experience, they needed to just be kids again. They ran to about ten feet from the gate, no way were they letting the others see them like that. With a glance at each other they calmly walked threw the gate and in to the small crowd of eight teenage boys. Each of them showing off the dragons that they caught, and bragging.

Hiccup took her basket off her back and paused before opening it. Everyone now had turned their attention to her and there was a short moment of silence.

"It's very still, isn't it?" said Tuffnut

"It isn't moving at all in there. Are you sure it's alive?" Clueless asked tapping the basket lid.

"It's just in a very deep sleep," said Hiccup. "It was stone cold when I picked it up."

Suddenly she had a strong feeling that the gods were on her side. She KNEW that this dragon was alive. With trembling fingers, Hiccup undid the latch, took off the lid of the basket, and peered in. Fishlegs and the others peered in as well. Things were looking up, indeed. There, fast asleep in the bottom of the basket in a tight curl, lay perhaps the most gorgeous dragon Hiccup had ever seen.

It's scales were black as ebony and glossy as polished leather. It's wings were folded tightly to it's back. Razor sharp claws shone a bright porcelain white. It was only slightly smaller than a Labrador retriever, but despite it's size and claws it didn't look like a brute, it was lean and oddly... elegant looking. At first glance Hiccup knew that this dragon was created for speed, it was shaped similar to an arrow.

"Wow," Hiccup whispered.

"Well," Fishlegs said patting Hiccup on the shoulder. "that's a sign if you like. I reach for a Deadly Nadder and what do I get? A Basic Brown. You grab a dragon in the dark and what do you get? A Night Fury, one of the rarest kinds of dragons there are. Just proves that you were meant for being Chief of the Hairy Hooligans."