Chapter 2: Dragons
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In the past 10 years, Ashalla had grown up to a young and strong lady with the will and stubborness of an ox. Her uncle was very proud of her, except for the part that she was friends with the village's screw-up of a Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.
Ashalla received through her years her femine curves, her muscles of lifting heavy axes and hammers, strong legs through running, and beautiful looks though her heavenly blood, yet she still didn't know. Ashalla's hair became lighter until it reached the white blonde colour Odin and Thor would have been proud of and very light blue eyes, almost as light that they were the colour of the thunder.
Berk. It's an island in the middle of the Meditairrian Misery, 13 degrees north of Hopeless and 12 days south of freezing to death. The village in one word? Sturdy. It snows 9 months a year and it hails the other 3. We have fishing, woodcrafing and a very beautiful view on the sunsets each day. For the rest, it's not much, but it's home. The only real downs are the plagues, most islands have mice or mosquitos, but we have...
A house was set on fire through a fireball that came from above.
...Dragons.
A young 16-year-old boy ran out of his burning house into the village. His shaggy hair was auburn brown and his eyes were as green as grass.
My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst, we Vikings believe that our names would scare off gnomes and trolls. I am the village's screw-up, I get always blamed for everything, even if I didn't do anything. The only persons who believe me are my best friend Ashalla and Valka.
Ashalla has been my best friend ever since we were babies and Valka would babysit us and raise us alongside her own daughters Ylva and Yves. Valka is also my blacksmith teacher's wife, and his name is Gobber, my father's best friend. She's the kindest person in the village.
Believe it or not... our village's Chief is my dad, and his wife Borghild, a VERY strong warrior, is my mother. I do have a sister, Erica, and a brother, Asger. Both Asger and Erica are big and hulky, just like our parents. They recently became dragon killers when they both killed a Zippleback dragon, one with two heads.
And soon I will be pushed into Dragon Training, alongside the other teens around my age, except for Ashalla.
Ashalla became already famous when she lifted my father's heaviest hammer at the age of 7 when it crashed into the Elder's house and she voluntered to get it. Of course no one believed she could actually lift it, but when Ashalla came back with it, carrying it without any difficulity, everybody in the village cheered for her and she became officially the strongest person who ever lived in Berk.
Hiccup ducked out of the way to avoid the flames of a Monsterous Nightmare while he was on his way to the forge to help Gobber and Valka. He also had to avoid his father, otherwise he'd be blamed again for something he didn't do. All because he was a scawny fishbone with no muscle at all.
Arriving at the forge, he saw Gobber already slamming his hammerhand on a red glowing form to get it in shape.
"What nice of you to join us, I thought you'd be eaten by a dragon." Gobber said.
"Nah, they won't go to me." Hiccup said.
"Don't be sure of that." Valka said as she handed him his brown work cloth. "But I'm glad you came."
Hiccup quickly got the sharpning stone from the wall and took some swords to sharp them. He quickly looked out of the window.
The other teens my age are a part of the fire brigade, they throw buckets of water over the flames to minimalize the damage to the buildings that are on fire. One of them is Ashalla's twin sister Astrid, she looks much like Ashalla, but her hair is darker blonde.
The local bullies Snotlout Jörgenson and the Thorston twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut are also in it, as are Heather Tèrrison and Fishlegs Ingerman.
Snotlout has a crush on Astrid, and he clearly lets everyone know he has.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut are just dumb and love to blow things up or set them on fire. They're also sort of tricksters, just without the lies.
Fishlegs got just accepted by Astrid and Snotlout to join their club. He was formerly a target of Snotlout too, until he started to grow and became more Viking-like, that means more muscles and more hulky. He's my cousin via my mom's side and he's acctually very intelligent, he can memorize many things and he does read, unlike the others...
Heather... she's another story. She's from another Isle far away from here. She washed up on the shore when she was 5 and the Jörgenson family took her in. She's strong, I don't deny that, but there's something that gives me the creeps when she glares at me and I don't know why. She scares me!
A fireball crashed into the ground nearby the forge.
"Valka! Keep an eye out on the kids, I'm going to help Stoick!" Gobber called as he changed his hammerhand into and axe. "And Hiccup, stay inside!" He went outside and let out a battle cry.
"Hiccup, I need to watch Ylva and Yves, please, stay here." Valka said as she also ran outside towards the house she lived in with Gobber.
Hiccup just got back with sharping weapons and laid them on the table once they were ready so the warriors could pick their weapon of choice. But he also looked outside a few times, seeing Ashalla in action.
Ashalla was very good with a hammer, she knocked dragons unconcious to stop them from creating more damage and steal the livestock. Then she left the dragons for the others to kill or bring them to the dragon training ring.
It was the one ring where the teens who were of age trained to become dragon killers.
Once the raid died down, the damage was clearly visible: at least 3 houses were burnt down to the ground, a quarter of the livestock was taken and another quarter was spread around the village. 2 houses were heavy burned but not down to the ground and one roof was still on fire.
The woman collected the livestock that was spread around the village, securing it in wooden boxes and putting it back where it belongs and the sheep and the oxes were driven back to the fields.
Hiccup slowly got out of the forge, not wanting to be seen, but all the villagers looked at him with angry faces. They were going to blame him again. He sighed. Will this ever be over?
A large and hulky shadow approached him.
Hiccup knew it was his father, Stoick the Vast. No one could escape him, especially not Hiccup.
Stoick crossed his arms before his chest.
"Uh... hi dad." Hiccup said, slowly stepping backwards, not expecting to be grabbed from behind and dragged away to the forest. He turned around to see Ashalla. "Thanks for saving me out of that hell." Hiccup said.
"You'll probably get it tomorrow morning, I just wanted to spare you the yelling tonight." Ashalla said with a smile.
"Again, really thanks." Hiccup said. "I really appreciate everything you do for me."
"I'm just trying to be brave, you know." Ashalla told. "By the way, I believe the Night Fury crashed into the woods tonight. I'm going to look for it tomorrow morning, not that I want to kill it, but Astrid used your bola throwing canon invention to shoot it down."
"What?! How did she get her hands on that? It's supposed to be inside the forge since it wasn't ready yet to be used!" Hiccup said. "I didn't even test it yet!"
"Well, I guess my sister sneaked into the forge while you weren't watching your canon after she left the fire brigade." Ashalla said. "You know how badly she wants to be known around here since I became this famous."
"Yeah, I know." Hiccup said.
"We need to return home." Ashalla said as she walked into the direction of the village. "You're coming?"
Hiccup smiled and went after Ashalla, avoiding the adults by sneaking between the houses.
"See you tomorrow!" Ashalla said as they parted to go home.
"See you!" Hiccup said and went to his house.
His house was the closest to the Meade Hall since his father was the Chief.
Lucky for him, there was nobody home yet.
Hiccup sighed in relief and went upstairs to his bedroom to fall asleep there.
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-Gryffindorgirl746