The Dragon Boy - Chapter 21 - Selfless
Frostcup fanfic

Authors Note: hey... So I'm back... Hehe yeah I remember going to bed after posting that chapter and being like oh gosh I'm gonna get battered for this and well what can I say you were all very ... Vocal with your responses ^^ seriously though I can't believe so many of you are getting into and enjoying this story so thanks soooo much for all your comments even if some of you said you hated me :-D the next chapter will be up tommorow as always and without further ado- the chapter! Enjoy^^

Hiccup took a moment to let that sink in. How horrible that must have felt- to be alone for so long, and then finally find some company, and discover you're not alone, only to have everything, and everyone, destroyed. It was cruel, Hiccup thought, he'd been given a taste of everything he'd always dreamed of, and then had it taken away from him at the last minute, and been left alone again. But, of course, Jack would never think of it like that. Jack frost, who had been so willing to give his life to save little Freya, he wasn't the kind of person to wallow in self pity. No, something else must be eating at him.
Hiccup didn't want to know the hard truth, just yet, so instead, curiosity and kindness prompted him to ask.
"What were they like? Your friends, I mean." Jacks mind brightened a little, as he fondly recalled his friends.
"They were brilliant. North, he was so loud, and so cheerful." He showed Hiccup a mental image of the large, red dragon. Amusement filled Jack's mind. "He had the best laugh ever, even if it did leave you half deaf afterwards." As he said that, the image laughed sending Hiccup's mind reeling.
"Was that necessary?" Hiccup complained. Jack was silently laughing.
"Nope, it was just fun." He quipped. It really was him, Hiccup realised, he was still the Jack he'd gotten to know over the past few weeks- still his friend.
"Tooth," Jack continued, the long, feathered dragon took the place of the red one. "she was so fast, I was the only one who even came close to keeping up with her- us both being masters of wind and all- well, she was a full master of wind, since I had ice as well, I wasn't as strong at either as a full master, but anyway. She talked just as fast as she flew, especially when she got excited, and she got excited a lot. You know, she's possibly the only dragon in the world who hates bird insults- like, say if you call Toothless a blackbird, or a crow, or something- she'd get mad at you. Whether it's just because she loves the feathered things, or if she's part bird herself, I don't know. But Bunny would often let a reference slip. It was so funny to watch, the big, tough guy looking so sorry for himself, as Tooth scolded him, and she's half his size. Then again, she was pretty scary when she got mad." Hiccup snickered, quietly, he could so imagine Jack in the same position- most likely he'd pulled a prank he'd regretted. "Yeah, pranking Tooth is not a good idea." Jack said. Hiccup had forgot he could read his thoughts. "You realise its a bad idea when she comes after you, and then there's no escape."
"What, so Mr Big Prankster changed his ways because of a scary girl?" Hiccup queried.
"No, I just went after Bunny instead." Hiccup rolled his eyes, it figures.
"He was even better to prank than a Zippleback, and the best part was that he was an earth master, so he was easy to get away from. You could stick around to watch his face, and be gone before he comes after you."
"FROST!" Hiccup heard the dragon's angry call.
"We'd always be at each other- I'd prank him, he'd try to get me back. He had these weird rocks he used to throw at me. He'd made them so that they came back to him afterwards- I dunno how he did it." Hiccup was mildly interested about the strange, returning "V" shaped rocks, but at the moment, his mind was focussing on something else.
"So, you did have a name, then." Jack was a little startled by the unexpected comment.
"No, that was just what he called me: Frostbite- because he always complained that he'd get it when I was around- he never did- but, he shortened it when he was annoyed, which happened a lot. Tooth always called me either Snowflake or Snow- I found it a little annoying, but it was Tooth so I let her off, and North just called me Kid or Boy, partly because I never get any older."
"What about the other dragon? there was four." Hiccup remembered.
"I guess you could say he called me Snowflake too. Sandy didn't speak, but he communicated using sand or earth symbols- he put up a Snowflake whenever he wanted my attention- he did it using his earth control, he only ever used the fire part to heat the ground at night to help us sleep. It worked too well at times, none of us wanted to get up. He was a nice dragon, Sandy." Hiccup went through his mental checklist, he only had two more questions to ask, he left the darker one until last.
"But if you're a dragon, how can you you change into a human?" He asked.
"It was something we all decided to do together, we were all intrigued by you guys, especially the kids, and we heard it had been done before, so we tried it ourselves. Only me and North managed it properly..." A picture of a large, jolly man with a red coat and white beard appeared in Hiccup's mind. "...Tooth still had wings and feathers..." Sure enough, a feathery winged woman showed up. "Sandy almost got there, only he was still gold and a little small." A little man, gold from head to toe came next, Hiccup tried not to laugh at his mad stuck up in all directions hair, he wasn't sure whether it would be offensive or not. "...and Bunny completely freaked out and took his nickname a little too literally." This time Hiccup really did laugh, because what he saw next was a giant, blue, man sized rabbit, standing on it's hind legs. He could tell Jack was laughing too.
After a while, a thought seemed to occur to the white haired boy. "You know, when I first snuck off to visit a village, I didn't fit in all that well- long story short, controlling the weather and flying perhaps wasn't the best way to introduce myself, and the villagers threw me out. But, the next time I flew over the village, I found out they gave me a name: Jokul Frosti. So, apparently, I started myths about a snow god." Perhaps Hiccup should have been shocked about that, but after everything else he'd heard, he found that pretty easy to believe. Hiccup stayed silent for a moment, letting Jack relive the joyful memories for a bit, before he had to ask.
"So what happened?"
Jack suddenly retreated into himself, as dark thoughts threatened to overwhelm him, but then, with a great effort of will, he seemed to compose himself.

"Well, we were travelling, just like we normally did, when the northern lights appeared. It was a summons to all the "Sky Dragons". I thought it was just some boring meeting, so I refused to go and the others went without me. I stayed behind and waited, visited a village, flew around for a bit. But, after a day or two, I got worried- had they left me, or were they still there?" So I went north, like they did, to find out what was taking them so long... and what I found..." Jack stopped, and no images appeared to clear it up. Jack was deliberately blocking them, and it was a while before he spoke again.

If it was possible for his voice to crack in his mind, then it did. "It was a massacre. All of them, all the "Sky Dragons", dead. My friends were somewhere there, but I never found them. The black dragon that attacked you yesterday, the leader of the attack on my friends... he spotted me. He'd sworn to kill every last one of the "Sky Dragons", so he came after me. I managed to evade him for a while, but eventually, he cornered me. We fought, and he won- I would have died if not for you." So that was what happened the night Toothless flung him out of bed. But, then, what had happened next? "But, I was too brash- I should've stayed low. He found me again, and only by changing into a boy as I crash landed, throwing him off my scent, did I manage to escape... and even then I wouldn't have made it if I hadn't run into you again."
Hiccup was silent, he didn't know what to say, but Jack seemed to have more to get off his chest. "After the first attack, I hit my head. I'd been trying to forget the whole thing, and that did it. If I'd looked I would have probably remembered it, but I wanted to forget, I knew was it was something bad. It's only now I really remember it all." Hiccup tried to wrap his head round it all. What he must have seen before the black beast drove him away- it's no wonder he was hiding it from him. Everyone gone. If Hiccup lost everyone in his village, he didn't know how he'd cope, he could only guess what Jack must be going through.
He moved further into Jack's mind to try and give him a little comfort, and was shocked by what he found. Jack was crying. Hiccup suddenly felt bad, how could he have been so selfish as to force Jack to relive those awful memories. He became aware of the river of sorrowful thoughts drowning his friend.
"All my fault." "Should have been there." "Could have saved them." Hiccup realised what was eating him, it wasn't the loneliness or the grief, it was the guilt. He blamed himself for what happened. Hiccup just couldn't believe it- he'd lost everything, and yet, after all he'd been through, he didn't care that he was alone, he cared that his friends had died and he hadn't been there to save them, or else, die with them.
How could he be that selfless? In the Viking world, it was every man for himself. Jack put everyone else's needs, and even lives, before his own. He really meant what he said by the lake. Hiccup thought about all the kindness he'd ever done on Berk, he'd done it all without a second thought about himself. But why, what was keeping him going? What was he living for?
Suddenly, he stumbled across a memory- a recent one. It was night, Jack was looking across at a Night Fury gazing back at him.
"How do you stand it?" He asked it. The dragon turned and looked at the small figure sleeping beneath its wing. "He has him..." Hiccup heard Jack thinking "...and so do I." Him, Hiccup realised. Him, and the Vikings of Berk. Little Freya, Astrid, all of them- they were his new reason to live, after he lost the others.
Hiccup was stunned. They meant that much to him? ...and now, they were going to kick him out. He was going to lose everything, again, and Hiccup was sure that, this time, he wouldn't cope. It would destroy him to be alone again, to be cast out by those he cared about. Hiccup knew just how awful that could be, it would shatter him. He didn't deserve that. He'd never done anything to deserve any of it. How after all that had, he become so selfless, so kind and brave.
A thought presented itself to him, in answer to his question. It was a quote, an old belief the "Sky Dragons" followed that North had taught him.
"Though the lakes will crack and the sky will weep when winter breathes its last,
only from the fires of the sky and the tears of the earth do flowers come to bloom.
It is the way things are. Winter falls so that Spring may rise,
and the fiercer the flames, the more heartfelt the teardrops,
the greater the flower that blooms."
Hiccup understood. All that pain, all that suffering, it had shaped him. Urging him to ease the pain of others, so that they won't suffer as he has.
They couldn't send him away, couldn't destroy him. It was wrong. After all he'd done to help others, it was about time Jack Frost got something in return. He wasn't going to leave, Hiccup would make sure of it.
He strengthened his resolve, and looked up at the sky- dusk, the adults of the village would be gathering to decide Jack's fate, right now. He couldn't let him down, but he couldn't just leave him. He paused for a moment, thinking of the right things to say.
"There was nothing you could have done, Jack. If you'd have gone, you'd have died too, but because you survived- their legacy lives on. You're not going to leave Berk and you're not going to be alone, again. I promise."
He ran towards the great hall.