Author's Note:
Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favourites. I'm glad there are people on board with this idea. To be quite honest, I'm not quite sure where this story will take me, but we'll see. I was encouraged by the positive response so I've tried to get this chapter up as soon as possible despite it being finals season. So if you notice any bad grammar or horrible sentence structures, I'm terribly sorry D: But do let me know what you think since this chapter will be where things start getting interesting.
Once again, characters in this story do not belong to me.
Hiccup's breath catches in his throat and his head snaps up so fast he is sure that he will feel the effects of it tomorrow. If he even makes it to tomorrow. He straightens up halfway and glances all around the clearing, trying to look for the source of disturbance. A brief sweep reveals nothing out of the ordinary and the boy slightly sags his shoulders in relief. He stays still for a brief moment longer, his ears alert to any unusual sounds. When his muscles begin protesting at holding such an awkward position for a prolonged period of time, he drops his defensive stance and sits back down onto the ground, crossing his legs. Perhaps it was just a dragon flying overhead, he reasons to himself.
The strange disturbance had successfully snapped Hiccup out of his depressed state and now that his tears have dried, he takes an actual look at the surroundings around him. It's beautiful, he muses. He is sitting in the middle of a clearing, or more accurately, a cove. Before him is a tiny lake, having formed no doubt from one of the powerful rain storms that plague the island multiple times a year. He scoots forward on his bum to peer into the depths and is in awe of the pristine water. The water on Berk was usually contained in barrels, or tubs, used for bathing or laundry only. This, this is different. The water is so clear that Hiccup can see everything - the rocks that line the bottom, the perch and trout that dart about beneath the surface. The child in Hiccup awakens and he dunks his hand into the water, trying to grab onto the fish that startle and swim away furiously. Hiccup laughs, and for the moment his despair is forgotten. Excited, he removes his boots and fur vest, discarding it off to the side before diving into the lake. The water is freezing and instantly his nerve endings are tingling, all his senses reawakened by the startling cold. He takes a large gulp of air before diving underwater, forcing his eyes to stay open as he chases after a school of fish. He can't help but laugh, bubbles escaping from his mouth as he surfaces rapidly, his hair now slicked back. He splashes around for a bit more, before the numbing sensation starts to creep in and he lifts himself out of the water, afraid of catching a cold.
He grabs his boots and vest and spreads them on a gigantic rock off to the side of the cove, before laying his back to it and staring up into the sky. He hasn't felt this peaceful in a long time. There is something about this cove that makes him feel close to his mother, as though she were sitting there right next to him. He closes his eyes, only to snap them open a second later when a loud whine sounds from the opposite end of the cove. Every instinct in his body is screaming at him to run, yet his curiosity seems to overrule all sense of reason and Hiccup finds himself inching forward on the grass, heading towards the part of the cove obscured in shadow. He hadn't noticed it before, but as he crept along the rocky walls and his eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting, a cave comes into view.
The sounds comes again and Hiccup flinches. Taking a deep breath, he wills himself to go forward. As soon as his right foot steps an inch into the cave opening, he hears a shrill cry. Hiccup flattens himself into the wall, his heart now beating so fast that he swears it could jump out of his chest. As his eyes once again adjust to the near pitch blackness of the cave, his heart nearly stops beating. A creature as black as the night, perfectly blended into the shadows of the hideout, lays on the ground, largely unmoving. The only signs of life are the heaving of its chest, and the contracted green orbs that have fixated onto his own. A Night Fury. Involuntarily, Hiccup takes a step backwards and the dragon's eyes follow his movement, all the while growling lowly. Hiccup freezes in place. Eventually, the night fury's growls subside and Hiccup cautiously takes another minuscule step forward. The dragon does not respond; its eyes are now shut.
Hiccup takes the time to examine the beast before him. He notices a dark blue substance on the cave ground and with a start, realizes that the sticky liquid was night fury blood. His eyes follow the trail and soon enough he is staring at a gaping wound on the belly of the great mystery class dragon. His stomach gives a queasy turn at the sight of such a grotesque, fresh injury, a hammer still embedded in it, and he lets out a slight gasp. The dragon snaps open its eyes again and tries to get up, letting out a shrill cry that made Hiccup duck in fear. He had heard enough stories to know that a burning hot plasma blast usually followed the night fury's cry. After only a couple of seconds, the beast warbles helplessly and flops down onto the ground once again, its breathing growing increasingly more laboured.
Something in Hiccup tugged against his heartstrings. Every Viking inch of him was telling him to get the villagers, to get his father so that they could mount the head of this beast in their Great Hall, but every Hiccup inch of him was crying out for this wounded creature, that didn't seem so dangerous now that it was downed. The Hiccup within won over the inner Viking, and with only a brief moment's hesitation, Hiccup took off back across the cove as fast as his little legs could carry him. He grabbed his clothes that still lay on the rock where he had left them and ran back into the cave, this time not bothering sticking to the walls. He heard the dragon give a small cry of surprise but ignored it, hurriedly yanking out the hammer and wrapping his vest around the gaping wound, hoping in vain that the bleeding would stop. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for his vest to get soaked through.
He hangs his head in despair. There really is nothing that he can do at this point. The dragon seems to understand and nudges him softly, and Hiccup finds himself staring into the twin emerald pools that mirror his own. With a hiss the dragon unfurls its wing and Hiccup gasps in awe at the midnight black stone that lies beneath it. Not a stone, he realizes, an egg. The night fury pushes it towards him and with trembling hands, Hiccup grasps it in his hands. The dying dragon lifts its head and holds Hiccup's gaze, opening its mouth slightly and warbling gently. Slowly, Hiccup lays a hand on its snout and it hums contentedly.
"Don't worry," Hiccup finds himself saying, "I'll take care of your baby."
The last bit of energy gone, the mother dragon drops her head back onto the ground and is still.
Hiccup pats her head one more time and slowly stands up, the egg firmly in his grasp. He picks up the hammer and examines it carefully. Jorgenson. Of course Snotlout's family would be the one to fell the swiftest dragon of all time. Disgusted by the brutality of his people, Hiccup grabs the bloodstained weapon and throws it into the lake, where it sinks to the bottom and settles in the dirt. He takes one last look at the body of the night fury and climbs out of the cove, the egg tucked away in his pocket. He will return tomorrow with a shovel. She deserved a proper send off.
He removes the egg from his pocket and cradles it in his arms, its tough shell glinting in the dying light.
"Don't worry," he tells it, "you'll be safe with me."