Louis CH. 1
HICCUP'S POV
I woke up to the sound of Toothless jumping on my roof. I hurried to get ready so he'd quit banging; I put my leather on , strapped on my peg and changed my boot, then hurried down the stairs and out the front door.
"Well, good morning, Mr. Bossy." The dragon made a strange noise, not exactly a growl, but something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Anywho,
"Alright, let's get going." And without another word, I hopped onto my friend's back. Then I switched out my peg leg for one that he could fly with, and we left. We flew higher than ever before, but I like to go faster. So the black dragon dove down and leveled out, flying over the ocean at the speed of sound, producing a high-pitched whistle. Roughly twenty minutes into our trip, I saw something shiny on Itchy Armpit.
"Down there, bud," I pointed to the island, and we landed. I thought I saw something in the trees next to where we were, but Toothless nudged the metal thing towards me with his nose. I picked it up and looked more closely, but I paused after hearing a rustling in the trees. Toothless started to growl protectively, but I put up a hand to stop him as a girl came out. It looked like she only had half of her left leg, because she was standing on her right, and was holding onto a boulder next to her. Her hair was simply black fuzz, and was wearing strange clothes.
"Hi. Can we help you?"
"I don't know. Maybe, but..." The teen-no older than seventeen-trailed off, confused.
"Um, my name's Hiccup. This is Toothless," I motioned to the night fury, who grunted in greeting.
"Hi. Where am I?"
"Well, we like to call it Itchy Armpit, but there's no official name for the island."
"That can't be possible. I'm not from this 'itchy armpit' of yours, I'm from a country called America. Have you heard of it?"
"No, I can't say I have." She moved her arm to scratch her forehead, shortening her sleeve and exposing more scars up and down.
"Well, I...oh, how do I explain this?"
"It's okay, take your time. I've got hours," I sat down on the edge, crossing my legs and motioning for her to do the same. When she was situated, I asked,
" What happened to your leg?"
"I don't want to talk about it," said Louis, tearing her gaze from the view of the island and giving me a pointed look.
"Okay, you don't have to."
"Um, so. Where are you coming from, anyways?"
"An island called Berk. Have you heard of it?" She shook her head to tell me she hadn't, looking back at the spectacular view.
"No. But it sounds interesting."
"I can tell you all about it, if you want," she nodded excitedly.
"Well, for starters, there's a ton of dragons living there. And also vikings. That's who we are," I mentioned, glancing in her direction.
"Anyhow, um, there's a lot of...strange things, to say the least."
"How so?" I turned to face her, who had looked at me.
"Well, there's...I don't think I could explain-"
"Explain what?" I was interrupted by a blonde girl, standing with a hand on her hip.
"Oh, hey Astrid. I was just telling this girl about Berk,"
"Go on," She urged.
"You know what? How about I just show you?"
"You mean, bring me to Berk?"
"Yes. Come on," I stood and offered a hand to my new friend and she took it.
"I don't know," She sounded worried.
"It's okay. You'll be fine." I did my best to be reassuring, but she didn't seem convinced.
"Well, considering we're the only ones who fly in this area, we're your best bet to get off this island."
Astrid and I went back to call Stormfly and Toothless. Once the dragons landed, she stopped.
" Are you okay?" It was then that I realized what she was afraid of.
"Toothless won't hurt you, you know, and neither will Stormfly," she took a deep breath and said,
"Okay." Then she walked over to me, and I helped her onto Toothless's back. She put her walking sticks in her lap, then put her hands on my shoulder while keeping the other on the sticks.
"You know, I never did get your name,"
"Louis."
"Okay." I then directed my attention to the dragon.
"Nice and easy, bud, it's her first time up, we don't want her walking sticks falling into the ocean." I got a snort in agreement and we all took off.
LOUIS'S POV
We landed about twenty minutes later, having not spoken the whole way. As soon as claw touched stone, I got looks from the people surrounding us. Thank God that I'm good at covering my emotions, because I hopped off without receiving so much as a sideways glance from Astrid.
"Come on, Louis," I heard Hiccup say, and felt a warm hand touch my arm. He led me and Astrid to a big room, receiving a shout from someone.
"Hello, Chief!" When Hiccup waved back, I made a mental note to ask about it.
We arrived at the large building, and as soon as we were inside, I saw a group of people coming towards us.
"Shit," I murmured under my breath. I suck at talking unless I feel truly safe, and I don't. So now my guard is up.
"Hey, Hiccup," said one of the group. He had long, oily hair that fell about to his waist.
"Hi. Everyone, this is Louis." He gestured to me. With my guard up, I refuse to speak for fear of my voice cracking or changing pitch. So I just nodded and smiled, giving my new friend a pointed look. Thank God he picked up on it, speaking for me.
"Toothless and I were flying, and we found her on an island. Apparently she's from this country called," he turned to me for confirmation.
"America," everyone stopped when I spoke.
"Gods. I didn't know she could speak," one of them piped up, and her brother started laughing.
"Well, I always believed in you," one of them walked up and put his arm around my shoulders. I sighed, rolled my eyes and said,
"You've gotta be kidding me." Then I grabbed his hand an twisted it, which dropped a crutch. I started to hear a crack, telling me to stop.
"Leave me alone." I said, and the twins, and the one who was hitting on me backed up a step as I picked up my crutch and situated it under my arm. Astrid just looked unfazed, Hiccup seemed surprised, and another kid simply spoke.
"Hi, Louis. I'm Fishlegs. Nice to meet you," he held out his hand, and he didn't seem like a threat, so we shook.
"The twins are Tuffnut and Ruffnut, Tuff's the boy. And the creep is Snotlout, and am I correct to assume that you've already met Astrid?"
"Yes, we met earlier,"
"Great." All of a sudden, panic crossed his face.
"Hiccup, have you told your mom yet?"
"No, we just got here." Said the young man, shaking his head.
"What about your dad?" His expression suddenly looked pained, so I quickly said,
"It's okay. You don't have to tell me," Hiccup gave me a grateful nod and said,
"Well, we better tell my mom about you. Come on," he took my shoulder and led me slowly to a big house.
"Mom! You home?"
"Hiccup? I'm coming!" I heard a woman call.
When she came, what I saw was a beautiful woman. She was wearing an olive green shirt, dark leggings, boots, and a skirt of animal skins. Her dark hair was long and braided in three pieces, draped down almost to the back of her knees.
"Hello. Hiccup, who's your friend there?"
"Mom, this is Louis. Louis, this is my mom, Valka."
"Hi, Valka."
"Hi, Louis. It's nice to meet you," she smiled and held out her hand, and we shook. "Can I help you with anything?" I shook my head, but Hiccup disagreed.
"Well actually, yes. You see, Louis isn't from anywhere near here, so she'll be needing to stay here for a while, if you want," he turned to look at me at that last part.
"I'd love to stay," I smiled, but I really just wanted to go home.
"Great! We have a few spare blankets, Hiccup can show you were they are tonight. But it isn't even lunchtime. Hiccup, you have to go; I'll show Louis around."
"Okay. See you later, Louis," he waved at me and turned, walking out of the big room. Valka shifted her eyes to me, looking at my leg. I wrapped my sweater around myself, suddenly uncomfortable.
"So..." She trailed, looking at my bright green eyes. Not into them; at them. "Your eyes are beautiful,"
"Thank you, yours too."
"Thank you. So, how about that tour?"
"Sounds great. But I should warn you, I can't walk very fast."
"No worries." The pretty woman smiled a genuine smile. And that was when, for sure, I knew I'd like it here, on the island of Berk.