Chapter II - Sans

I run past a few men lighting the torches to illuminate the dark skies, helping the others avoid getting caught by monsters. Some of them, like the Snowdrakes, are afraid of fire. Others like the Pyropes are attracted to it though, so it's a risk. But hey, I think it's better. At least they can get those fire things together and catch or directly kill them. The rest might go away from the light, but it would be easier to see them.

With my heart rushing like I ran up a mountain and my legs aching from going so fast to rush here before getting stopped again, I enter the stall and find myself lacking the time to greet Gobber, who was hammering a scalding metal piece. I hurriedly pick up my blacksmithing apron and put it on as I get in.

"Oh, nice of you to join the party." he jokes, as usual. "I thought you'd been killed by now."

Arms behind my back to look innocent, I turn to face him as I approach the wall with hammers, axes, daggers and other weapons and gadgets, flatly saying, "W-who, me?" I turn to the wall, and struggle to put one of the heavy hammers back into its peg. Sometimes I forget how heavy these things are. Seeing Gobber put them on and off his arm stump makes it look easy. "Nah, come on, I'm too muscular for them to even dare getting close to me. They wouldn't know what to do against all…" In a futile attempt to look though, I scowl with a grin as I flex my nonexistent biceps. "This."

Gobber gives a brief chuckle as he unfastens that giant hammer on his arm stump, and replaces it with a hook, all while jokingly saying, "Well, they need to be brave, don't they?"

I ignore him as I open the wooden window. A swarm of angry, impatient warriors abruptly hand me their weapons, with looks of hatred and restlessness on their bearded faces. I put the weapons on the flaming hearth, and need to put all my weigh into the bellows to move it down.

From outside, I can still hear Stoick's commanding voice instructing, "We'll move to the lower defenses! We'll counterattack with the catapults!" I manage to see his shadow and other Vikings' as they move down the walkway, just as a Pyrope incinerates a house and runs right past them with a strange laugh.

I hear someone shouting, "FIRE!", and I look out the window after having handed the weapons to Gobber.

"Alright, let's go!"

My eyes widen almost involuntarily. I see them picking up their buckets, while covered by a sheet of fog and smoke. A chubby, blonde guy, twins with the exact same appearance and their gender being the only thing that tells them apart, and a scowling showoff, run towards the burning house.

Those are Fishlegs, the big know-it-all (big, in all senses), Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the twins that will never stop arguing about everything, and Snotlout, the teen who always brushes his success in my face.

And, of course…

A flash of pure beauty grabs a bucket and fiercely throws water into the fire, as a blast, probably from a Glyde, erupts right behind her, waving her hair. She walks away proudly, with a smile and a glare that I'd never stop looking at.

…Astrid…

She is beautiful, perfect, fiery. Everything a Viking needs to be. In other words, she's all I'm not.

I didn't notice the hypnotized look on my face as I watched her. Even followed by four smelly Vikings, she was still perfect. She wasn't even shaken by the huge explosion that sent fire and pieces of burning wood all over the place. She was like a younger, girl version of Stoick himself. Proud, careless about danger, and ready to protect those who need it.

I look away as the rush past the window. Oh, their job is so much cooler… They actually go out there, laugh in the face of danger and help women and children. All I do is support the weight of countless weapons and handle the yells of impatient men.

My hand sticks out. I barely realized I was at the edge of jumping off and joining them when a hook grabs the back of my shirt and drags me back inside. Oh, Gobber, why do you always have to ruin everything?

"Oh, come on, let me out please!" I beg with a faint tone of irritation in my voice. I know it's useless, but, hey, I have to give it a shot. "I need to make my mark!"

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks!" Gobber puts me down, and gives me a few prods with the hook, sending me a few steps back. "All in the wrong places!"

No need to remind me, I said coolly in my mind. "Please, two minutes, I'll kill a monster! My life will get infinitely better! I might even get a date!"

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe…" he starts counting, giving me this look, as if he thought I was about to do the impossible. Well, I technically was… that one monster tends to come right about now. I must get out there and catch it. I have to. I need to.

With his good hand, Gobber picks up a bola. The heavy rocks hanging from the ropes rattle as he shows it to me, exasperatedly saying, "You can't even throw one of these!" Seeing a perfect chance, a Viking from outside snatches it, noisily spins it in the air, and grunts as he throws it at a passing Glyde, successfully tangling its wings and sending it to the hard ground.

That reminds me… I actually built a bola launcher for this occasion. Whenever I got just five minutes of free time, I would add some tweaks to it, and I'm pretty sure it works just fine now, though I never had a chance to try it, and all I'm relying on is luck and experience. Mainly the former. The bola launcher (I think I should think a better name for something like this) is a ballista-kind of thing that launches bolas at a terrifying speed. Man, I almost feel sorry for the monster that gets aimed at by this baby.

"But this, will throw it for me!" I back down towards my perfect invention, and give it a few pats. I sensed it trebling slightly when it suddenly burst to life, throwing a bola out the window. Gobber managed to get out the way, but the thing hit a Viking right in the head, knocking off his helmet and making him fall on his back. Whoops… This is why I should never rely on my luck.

The launch was still good, right? Do I get any praise for that?

Pretty much ignoring my machine, Gobber glares at me after recovering from the sudden dodge he had to do and walks towards me. "See? Now this right here is what I'm talking about!" His voice becomes hard. Great, now he's mad. Don't say anything about the launcher, Gobber, it's not like I put effort into it or anything. I stutter a bit before answering – I think I let some of my own anger show up. "B-but a mild calibration issue-"

"No, Hiccup." He cuts me off. He shakes his head and moves his arms exasperatedly before pointing at me, "If you ever want to go out there and fight monsters," he points outside. "you need to stop all…" He eyes me, pauses, and lamely finishes, "this."

Oh great, not again. I can't even recall how many people refer to me as "This". At first I thought of it as a joke, now it's really starting to bother me. I'm not a "This". I'm not anyone different. I remember how Gobber used to say, "There's the Viking way, and then there's the Hiccup way." Sometimes, his jokes can be pretty hurtful. I don't want to feel different, but with the entire village reminding me? That's even harder than taking down that one monster.

"You just pointed to all of me." I say casually, with a little frown as if the whole thing was new to me. I wish it was. He prods my shoulder with a finger, saying, "Yes. That's it, stop being all of you."

I know what he's doing. Two can play that game.

"Oooh," I say, narrowing my eyes defiantly and nodding my head. Gobber merely repeats me.

"Ooooh, yeah."

I point a melodramatic finger at him. "You- you sir are playing a dangerous game… keeping this much… raw Viking-ness, contained…" I try not to falter as he stares at me blankly, in this "what in Odin's name is this kid talking about?" kind of way. I lean up to meet his bored gaze as I raise my tone, "There'll be consequences!"

I always fail at looking serious.

"I'll take my chances." Gobber deadpans, turning around and picking up a seemingly old sword. "Sword, sharpened, now." Seeing how he lifted it up with only one hand, I had my expectations too high to realize that the thing was heavy as a hammer, and considering that Gobber literally threw it at me almost made me lose balance.

I need both of my arms to not crumble to the floor, and I'm certainly glad the edges needed urgent sharpening otherwise the sword would've cut through my poor excuses for Viking arms.

As I sharpen the sword, it making several noises that crash against my ears, I can't help but concentrate on my thoughts. One day I'll get out there. Preferably today. I feel pretty determined, to be honest. Sometimes I get these random feelings that tell me I can do anything. I've always dreamt with the day of finding myself with a blood stained knife and a handful of monster dust, proudly showing both things at Stoick, and watching a smile in his face.

I can see what's going on outside through the window. The fight has calmed down a bit, and I can easily see and distinguish the different shadows lurking outside. Monsters like Snowdrakes may look though, but they are actually not a challenge at all, even though they are fast. A handful of dust from that thing is sure to get me at least noticed.

You may be wondering how we recognize which monster you killed. Anyone could come up with an Ice Cap's dust and say he killed extremely dangerous monsters, such as Undyne – which, now that I mention her, has been caught by the best warriors in an expedition and is now prisoner in the training arena along with some other monsters. The arena is a bloodbath, really. That's where Gobber trains his students to be "great Vikings". They are literally pitted against powerful monsters, and you need to learn as things go. It's almost impossible to get out unharmed.

As I was saying, each monster has a different type of dust. A Pyrope's has ashes. A Snowdrake's has bits of snow. And so on. That's why you show it to Stoick – he has read, over and over again, the ancient monster book (which is also where we got their names from). He knows what their dust looks like, and it's impossible to fool him. You can't show it to anyone else. Unless you want to get into trouble, that is.

I see some Pyropes burning houses and laughing. They are sneaky and hard to catch. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. I don't know if Astrid would be impressed, though. I'm sure she's able to fight monsters more dangerous than those.

A couple of Glydes hover over the houses the Pyropes burned. They are tough and tricky, and since they are almost entirely black, it's hard to know when they're coming towards you – you can only see them if you watch out for that giant grin and big eyes. They are exotic and difficult to kill, they would make me twice as noticed.

One of them soars across the catapults. "They've found the souls!" I hear a man yelling from atop the one Stoick is standing in. He seems prepared to take down anything that crosses his path. "Concentrate fire over the lower bank!" I hear his booming voice order the rest.

They spin the catapult towards a group of Snowdrakes, ready to shoot a mortal blow. My heart races as I hear the "Fire!", and the massive boulder hurls towards on the of the icy creatures who, not expecting the rock, is facing the opposite direction. An almost sickening crash and a pained yell, accompanied by the sound of the thing turning into dust, attack my ears.

There are also pretty dangerous monsters out there that aren't used in the arena, such as the Knight Knight, a giant beast that stops at nothing. Only the best warriors go after that one; no Viking has killed it yet, but it's pretty heavily beaten up already. One of these days, it's going down.

Stoick looks down, seeing how the Knight Knight appears from the fire that engulfs the lower part of the catapult. This monster has a nasty habit of spying you, and attacking when you less expect it. It looks directly at Stoick, and I tense.

"Reload!" Stoick yells, twisting a hammer in the air as he faces the thing. He mutters something I'm unable to get, and bravely smacks the Knight Knight twice in the face. Or, what I think is its face. That thing has a "grinning" mouth and what appear to be eyes on its helmet, but an avian face on its chest.

The chief dodges a hit from the monster's staff that almost crashes mightily right in his chest. However, the Knight Knight seems to hesitate, and gets down the flaming catapult. Afraid of something.

It's here.

The ultimate prize is the monster no one's ever seen. It's fast as a shadow – which is the only thing you see when it attacks, its shadowy blur sweeping across the destruction its attacks cause. Stoick looks around him, at the sky, as certain noise fills the atmosphere and the monsters go quiet and retreat for a moment.

We call this monster…

Sans.

I put down the sword in shock when the sound of an incoming blast surrounds everything else until it's the only thing we can hear.

"GET DOWN!"

A dragon skull emerges out of nowhere behind the catapult, and fires a powerful, white-blue beam at the flaming tower, destroying it completely. I see that humanoid shadow pass through the fire and disappear straight away.

"Jump!" Stoick screams, hurling off the falling catapult. Giant, burning bits of the tower fall off as the men desperately try to jump in the opposite direction. I wince as some of the falling parts cause a small explosion, and lean out of the window. My eyes scan the place, but there's no sight of that damned monster.

That thing never tries to steal souls, never shows itself, and…

Three more dragon skulls materialize in the middle of the sky and shoot deadly, blinding lasers at the now precarious catapult, which crumbles to mere pieces of fallen rocks, molten metal and destroyed wood. Everyone scrambles out of the way, some of them getting knocked over by the force of the blasts – I actually feel them from here.

…it never misses.