Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.
I don't own How to Train Your Dragon, only Hicca (female Hiccup) and Asher (male Astrid).
"..." Human p.o.v.
"..." Dragon p.o.v.
'...' Human thought.
'...' Dragon thought.
On with the chapter. Please enjoy and review.
Chapter 8: Portrait of Hicca as a Buff Young Woman
'Measuring up to a Viking father isn't easy, especially when that Viking father is also the chief of your village, so when you get a chance to prove yourself, you jump on it.'
In the Great Hall, Hicca and Stoick are standing side by side while Bucket is painting them on a shield.
"Shoulder's back, chin up, darling. This portrait's gonna hang in this hall forever." Stoick says patting his daughter's shoulder.
"No, no good, no good, no good! I CAN'T DO THIS!" Bucket shouts and bangs his head against a column in the Great Hall. "Okay, I'm good." He says straightening himself up.
"I've never seen Bucket like this." Hicca whispers to her father.
"Well, when he lost half his brain, he suddenly became…an artist." Stoick whispers back to his daughter as they watch Bucket continue to paint them.
"Huh." Bucket says holding up his thumb and looks at the painting.
"So, he can actually paint?" Hicca asks in amazement.
"Oh, he's the best. He's gonna do us proud, darling. This portrait's gonna take its place alongside all the other chiefs and their heirs." Stoick says gesturing to the other paintings of the former chiefs and their heirs. "That is the only picture of my father and me. It was a great day. And so is this." He says to his daughter as she straightens out her stance. "Chest out, darling." He says.
"Yeah, I don't want to show these off that much, daddy." Hicca says referring to her breasts which were larger than girls her age.
"Ah. Good point." Stoick says agreeing with his daughter.
Later that day, the teens look at the other shield portraits in the Hall.
"Look at all these great leaders, and tomorrow, your picture's going to be hanging right next to them." Asher says to his crush.
"There goes the neighborhood." Snotlout teased while snorting.
"You are part of an elite group now, my friend, and one of the few who wasn't killed by their successor." Fishlegs says.
"So far." Tuffnut says chuckling but Ruffnut punches him and knocks him to the ground.
"I guess it is a pretty big deal. I mean, it's like being a part of history, right?" Hicca asks.
"History of goofballs. What a clown." Snotlout says pointing at a shield painting.
"That is Hamish the First. He was our richest and most revered leader, and his son, Hamish the Second." Fishlegs explains to her friends.
"I'm Hamish the First. Bow down before me and kiss my pointy shoes." Snotlout says mockingly in a high-voice.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut look at each other with sinister looks on their faces as Ruffnut walks up to Snotlout and pretends to bow down and kiss her shoe while Tuffnut gets on his knees behind the girl. Ruffnut then smirks as she pushes Snotlout, making her fall over her brother knocking her into the wall causing the painting of the Hamishes to fall on top of her.
"Look what you did to the Hamishes! Forgive us, please?" Fishlegs asks kissing the painting before quickly putting it back on the wall causing a piece of paper to come out of the shield.
"What's that? It's probably mine." Tuffnut says trying to grab the paper from Snotlout who caught it.
"Looks like some sort of map with poetry." Snotlout says.
"I'll take that." Gobber says snatching the map from the girl.
"Hey! That's my poetry map." Snotlout whines trying to get the map back.
"All of these were supposed to be destroyed." Gobber says looking at the map.
"Why? What's so special about it?" Asher asks trying to grab the map as well.
"Men lost their limbs, their lives and their minds trying to find that treasure." Gobber tells the teens.
"I've heard about this. The treasure of Hamish the First. His son buried him with it and left this map. They say that the clues are so complicated that only a brilliant mind can decipher them." Fishlegs explains.
"Stoick and I even went after this treasure. It lured us high into the mountains in a blinding snowstorm. We fought like badgers over the meaning of the clues. We were lucky to make it back with our lives and our friendship intact. For your own good, kids, forget you ever saw this." Gobber says but it looks like the twins, Snotlout and Fishlegs have no intention of doing so.
The next day, it's time to reveal Bucket's painting and hang it up.
"Here it comes, darling. This is our legacy." Stoick says as Bucket reveals the painting and to Hicca shock it wasn't anything like her: she looks slightly buffer.
She doesn't look like herself at all and that upsets her a great deal.
"Whoa. What happened to Hicca?" Ruffnut asks feeling as shocked as her best friend.
"Who cares?" Asher says staring at the painting.
"Hey, Bucket? Why am I so…like that?" Hicca asks upset.
"Why is the sky blue? Why do I have a bucket on me head? We'll never know the answers." Bucket tells the girl.
"Oh, you did a brilliant job, Bucket. Don't you think so, darling?" Stoick asks his daughter.
"But it's not me." Hicca says.
"Sure it is. It's you, but, you know, bigger, stronger." Stoick says.
"Now, that's the daughter of a chief." Mulch says banging his mug against Stoick's.
"You see what I mean?" Stoick asks as Hicca looks at the painting one last time before walking away.
Hicca and Asher walk away from the Great Hall and through the village.
"Unbelievable. My father likes that painting better than the real me. I mean, think about it. Even my name! You know, it's Viking tradition to call the runt of the litter a hiccup. The only reason my name is Hicca is because I'm a girl." Hicca says.
"Come on, little hiccup!" A Viking says to a tiny sheep as he picks it up. "Oh! Hey, Hicca." He says to the girl.
"See? What do I have to do to get my father to accept me?" Hicca asks.
"He does accept you. He just accepts the painting more." Asher says.
They walk up to Gobber's smithy and see a nervous-looking Fishlegs.
"What are you doing out here?" Hicca asks.
"Nothing. Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" Fishlegs says doing a poor owl signal.
"Okay, okay, where are they?" Hicca asks.
"Who? Hoo-hoo? Hoo-hoo?" Fishlegs signals again as Hicca and Asher walk around the husky girl and to the back of the Smith. "Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo!" She signals louder.
Hicca and Asher arrive at the back to discover Snotlout trying to get out the window with the twins waiting for her.
"What are you doing?!" Hicca says scaring Snotlout as she falls out the window and quickly gets back up.
"I've got the map. We're finding that treasure, and you are a horrible lookout." Snotlout says to Fishlegs.
"You heard what Gobber said. The bravest warriors in history have died trying to find that treasure." Asher says.
"Yeah, and I'm next." Snotlout boasts.
"Well, I personally would like to live to see my next birthday." Asher says crossing his arms with a stern look on his face.
"But we'll be legends. They'll sing songs about us." Fishlegs says trying to persuade Asher to join them.
"You'll be dead. Come on, guys, not even Stoick could find it." Asher says.
"You're right. He couldn't." Hicca says as her eyes widen slightly. "G-Give me that map." She says taking the map from Snotlout.
"Finally, someone is making sense." Asher says thinking his crush was actually sane.
"All right. Where do we start?" Hicca asks looking at the map with the others around her.
"Are you serious?" Asher asks in shock.
"Well, think about it, Asher. My father couldn't find that treasure. What-what would he say if I did something that even Stoick the Vast couldn't do? I-how great would that be?" Hicca asks.
"You're gonna go after this no matter what I say, right? So yeah, pretty great." Asher says walking up to her.
"So you're not gonna give me a hard time about this?" Hicca asks her crush.
"Oh, I'll give you a hard time every step of the way. Besides, I can't let you go with just them." Asher says pointing to Ruffnut and Tuffnut having a who-can-whack-each-other-on-the-head-the-hardest contest.
"Harder. I said I want to see stars." Tuffnut says as Ruffnut punches her brother again. "Ah…" He says dizzyingly.
"It looks like the map leads you to these spots." Hicca says looking at the map displaying six clues, each in continuity with the previous: solving one will lead you to where to solve the next one.
"And the riddles are clues to what we're supposed to find!" Fishlegs says.
"Blah, blah, blah. Where's the treasure? Hmm, clue number one: "Where the land meets the sea, in the crook of the master's knee, that's where your search will be…gin." Snotlout reads.
"That doesn't sound so brilliant." Ruffnut says.
"Okay, think, think, think, think, think. Think, think-I forgot what I was thinking about." Tuffnut says making his sister sigh in annoyance.
""The master's knee." I've seen this before." Hicca says realizing something and leads the group back to the Great Hall to the portrait of Hamish the First and Hamish the Second, where they first found the treasure map. "Look, right there, where his knee bends. It's pointing to this spot on the beach. That's where we start." She says.
Later the riders get on their dragons, the dragon trainers head to that spot on the beach.
"Listen up, you guys. "From here you will see the seed that's been sown. Look to where water turns to bone." Hicca reads.
"Water turns to bone? Hamish isn't even trying to make sense." Snotlout says not getting what the clue means.
"No, it-"Water turns to bone." Water turns to bone. He must mean ice! The glacier." Hicca says looking at the giant glacier in front of them.
Meanwhile, back in the Great Hall.
"You had the map, and you didn't destroy it? What were you thinking?" Stoick asks in anger.
"I know. I'm an idiot. I thought maybe you and I could take another crack at finding that treasure." Gobber says.
"Gobber!" Stoick shouts.
"We turned back too early. So we lost a couple of toes." Gobber says.
"Come on, Gobber. We've got to find Hicca and the others before they get themselves killed. Why would she do something like this?" Stoick asks himself while Gobber looks over at the portrait of Hicca and Stoick and gets a dejected expression, implying he already knows.
Back at the beach with the glacier, the Dragon Trainers have walked into a giant cavern within the ice.
"There's something in there." Asher says pointing out something embedded in the ice.
"I bet that guy saw it too." Fishlegs says seeing a frozen Viking in the ice.
"Call on Magni, you'll go astray. Freya, though, will show the way." Hicca reads.
"I get it." Snotlout says and bends down and starts banging her helmet against the ice but as the ice starts to crack, Hicca sees a trap above the girl loosens.
"NO!" Hicca screams grabbing Snotlout before she's impaled. "We can't break the ice. That's what Magni means. He's the God of Strength." She says getting up.
"That's right! And Freya…" Fishlegs says.
"Is the Goddess of Fire!" She and Hicca say together.
"And that's exactly what we're going to use." Hicca says. "Serpentina, you know what to do." She says to her Grapple Grounder as she comes walking up. "Light 'em up." She says to her female dragon.
"You got it, Hicca. One slow flame coming up." Serpentina says and breathes fire at the ice where the embedded object is.
Once the ice was melted it is revealed that the object is a piece of forged metal.
"Ow!" Hicca says after touching the metal piece that absorbed the heat from her Grapple Grounder's fire breath.
"That's it? This is the treasure?" Ruffnut asks her best friend.
"No. Can't be, but I bet this will lead us to it." Hicca says.
"Take us to the treasure." Tuffnut says taking the piece from Hicca.
"Let me know if it answers." Asher jokes enjoying the fool Tuffnut is making of himself.
"This is just the first piece." Hicca says taking the piece back from the male twin but then the cavern destabilizes. "WHOA! TOOTHLESS!" She screams to her Night Fury as he comes running up to her and takes off into the air while the other dragons get their riders.
Stoick and Gobber, looking for the teens with Stoick's Thunderdrum, search the beach and find Toothless' prints.
"Night Fury prints. They were here…about an hour ago." Gobber says sniffing the sand.
"I'll never understand how you do that. What does an hour ago smell like, Gobber?" Stoick asks.
"Not as strong as a half hour ago." Gobber says standing up and then looks over towards the glacier seeing a part of it fall off.
"Look. The kids must have found something up there." Stoick says.
"It was in the glacier. I knew it!" Gobber shouts.
"Oh, ya knew it, did ya? Then how come we spent a week digging in the sand?!" Stoick asks pointing at the sand.
"That was your idea." Gobber reminds Stoick.
"Hicca got further in one afternoon than we got in a month." Stoick says not understanding how it's possible.
"Yeah. Looks like the little Hicca's got the best of us, and we think we're the big, strong Vikings." Gobber says showing off his arm muscles.
"What are you saying, Gobber?" Stoick asks still not getting it.
"Stoick, it's the painting." Gobber finally says.
"Ah, of course. She's trying to prove herself." Stoick says as the two Vikings and dragon look off at the glacier.
From the flat top of a rocky spire, the teens look out over the ocean and Hicca examines the next clue.
"At the edge of the world, amidst the raging sea, in the serpent's mouth lies another key." Hicca reads
"Serpents? I hate serpents. Those are reptiles, right?" Tuffnut asks.
"You do realize you're sitting on one?" Ruffnut tells her brother as he shudders.
"Wimp." Belch says about his rider.
"Hey. That cloud looks like a snake." Snotlout says pointing at a cloud.
"Yeah, and in five minutes, it'll look like a bunny." Asher says.
"Wait-wait-wait a minute. She might be onto something. "In the mouth lies the key."" Hicca repeats the clue.
"Hicca, look at the sea-stack in the distance." Bones says getting his rider's attention.
"Bones is right. Look, right there!" Hicca says pointing at the sea-stack her Boneknapper told her about. "Toothless, let's go." She says as her Night Fury gets ready to take off.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you crazy? You can't take a Night Fury with a wingspan of 48 feet and expect him to hover in winds like that! You'll be killed." Fishlegs shouts.
"Like I'd let anything happen to Hicca." Toothless says.
"Okay then what about Bones?" Hicca asks.
"A larger dragon who has a wingspan of 72 feet! You're nuts!" Fishlegs shouts.
"Fine, then what about Serpentina?" Hicca asks slightly annoyed with the walking dragon manual of a girl.
"With a wingspan of 60 feet! Do you have a death wish?" Fishlegs asks and then Hicca looks at Fishlegs' Gronckle, Meatlug.
"Well, what's the wingspan of Meatlug?" Hicca asks smiling at the Gronckle's small wings making Fishlegs gulp. "Keep her steady." She says being suspended on a rope tied to Meatlug as Fishlegs steered her dragon towards the serpent like sea-stack.
"Oh, Thor. Oh-oh, Thor! Do we really need that treasure? Isn't our friendship treasure enough?" Fishlegs asks as they come up to the serpent mouth and Hicca tries to grab the second forged metal piece.
"I can't reach it!" Hicca says.
"Okay, we tried. "A" for effort." Fishlegs says about to steer Meatlug away from the raging winds.
"Hold on." Hicca orders and stick her prosthetic foot out to try and get the piece. "Okay. Come on. Come on. No." She says after the piece falls off her prosthetic foot. "Yes, got it!" She says using her foot to toss the piece up and catches it in her hand as Fishlegs has Meatlug fly away. "How's that for a hiccup?" Hicca asks observing the piece in her hand.
In the forest, the dragons walk through as their riders direct them and Hicca discovers something about the keys.
"Look, they fit together. We must be on the right track." Hicca says.
"Hicca, what are you going to do with your part of the treasure?" Ruffnut asks her best friend.
"I'm not really here for the treasure." Hicca tells her best friend.
"Great. I get her share." Snotlout says greedily.
"You know, you don't have to do this, right?" Asher says to his crush.
"Yeah, try tellin' that to my daddy." Hicca says.
The team reaches a cliff face with a triangular wall made of tightly-fitting stones set in it.
"This must be the spot. Why else would anybody build a wall in the middle of the woods." Hicca says.
"Uh, duh, to keep out the other trees." Tuffnut says being an idiot, again.
"Well, I got another one for you. "The world is right, when stars align. When not in sync, the danger you'll find."" Hicca reads.
"Stars? I'm not waitin' around here till night!" Snotlout complains.
"No, I don't think he means actual stars. I mean, the water didn't really turn to bone." Hicca reminds them.
"Well, what do you think it means, Hicca?" Asher asks.
"Why are you asking her? Maybe I know." Snotlout says as Hicca and Asher look at her. "I said maybe. Turns out I don't." She says.
"Huh…there are shapes carved into each one of these bricks." Fishlegs says walking up to the wall and notices the carvings.
"Keep a lookout for anything that looks like a star." Hicca says thinking that's what the clue meant.
"Got one!" Snotlout says and starts pulling it out, but the wall shakes and trembles, threatening to collapse around them. "Uh-oh." She says.
"Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!" Fishlegs says in a panicky voice.
"Hookfang!" Snotlout calls to her dragon only to find him in a daze with a leaf. "HOOKFANG!" She screams getting the dragon's attention as he quickly pushes the stone back into place.
"Okay, it says, "In sync." That means there must be another star." Hicca says.
"Over here!" Asher shouts pointing to the second star carving.
"I think we're supposed to pull them out at the same time. Ruff, Tuff?" Hicca calls to the twins.
Using their twin bond, they easily and simultaneously signal Barf and Belch's dual heads to pull the stones free. The wall reveals itself to be a door as it opens up down the middle and slides back, revealing a dark cavern.
"Wow, this is amazing." Ruffnut says in awe of the cavern.
Humans and Dragons enter, but when Toothless does, the door closes behind him.
"What? No! Open up." Toothless shouts scratching at the wall.
"Oh, man." Snotlout says.
The group walks further into the where Hicca and Asher grab two torches and have their dragons light them. They then come to an open room with five pedestals, each with another key sitting on top of it.
"Uh, it's so hot. Is anybody else hot? 'Cause I'm really hot." Snotlout says whipping her brow.
"I know. I'm sweating like a dragon at an eel party." Tuffnut says.
"Uh, guys, is it just me, or is the floor moving?" Asher asks as Hicca lowers her torch to the ground but whatever is on the ground scurries away.
"Uh, Bones, can you give us some light?" Hicca asks.
"With pleasure." Bones says and fires a fireball into the ceiling lighting the room up to reveal hundreds of tiny dragons.
"That's why it's so hot in here: Fireworm Dragons." Fishlegs says.
"Whoa." Tuffnut says attempting to pick one up.
"Stop! Their skin burns hotter than the sun." Hicca says.
"Yeah, but how hot can the sun really be?" Tuffnut asks but then the Fireworm in his hand glows and starts burning. "OUCH! OW! AHH!" He screams dropping the dragon as all the other Fireworm dragons start glowing too. "Whoa." He says in awe.
"AHH!" Hicca screams shaking her legs of the Fireworm Dragons that crawled onto it.
The teen's Dragons rush into action when the Fireworms attack, and repel them with their fire, with Barf and Belch, Toothless and Hookfang scattering them away from the lower central area.
"Grab 'em and let's go!" Snotlout says.
"No, it's a choice. Listen to this, guys. "Something pure and something strong. Look first to yourself, and you won't go wrong."" Hicca reads.
"Strong…that must be the one made of iron." Fishlegs says pointing at the key made of iron.
"But iron's not pure. Take the gold." Asher says pointing to the key made of gold.
The Dragons defend as they can, but Hookfang runs out
"I'm out." Hookfang says and Meatlug covers until she runs out as well.
"So am I." Meatlug says as Stormfly picks up the slack.
"It's getting really hard to breathe." Asher says.
"That's what happens when you're getting roasted alive. You might wanna make a decision soon, Hicca. We don't have much time!" Fishlegs says.
"Look to yourself." Hicca repeats and stares at the key that shows her reflection.
"Careful. It could be a trap." Asher warns the girl as she picks the key up.
All the Fireworms flee the room: the floor beneath Hicca and Toothless falls through as a cave-in commences. Toothless makes the jump out from the center, but Hicca doesn't and falls; Toothless turns around and dives after his rider with Bones and Serpentina behind him.
"Hicca!" Asher cries out.
"Oh, no! Hurry! Where'd she go? Hicca!" Asher calls out.
"We gotta get out of here!" Tuffnut shouts.
"Through there!" Snotlout shouts pointing to an exit in the ceiling.
"No! We're not leaving them!" Asher says grabbing Fishlegs arm.
"If we don't go now we'll all be trapped. There won't be anybody to help Hicca." Fishlegs points out and for a second Asher doesn't want to be he follows anyway.
Meanwhile at the bottom of the pit beneath the Fireworm room, Bones unveils his bone covered wings to reveal a perfectly fine Serpentina, Toothless, and Hicca.
"Thank you Bones." Hicca says to her Boneknapper.
"Yeah, thanks bro." Toothless says.
"Indeed, thank you." Serpentina says.
"My pleasure everyone." Bones says.
"We gotta find some way out of here. Give us some light, sweetie?" Hicca asks her Night Fury.
As the room lights up Hicca notices an oddly-shaped hole in the floor.
"I wonder." Hicca says.
She takes the three objects from the glacier, the serpent's mouth, and the pedestal room, and puts them together, forming one key. Hicca inserts the key into the floor then turns it, and the key rises as the top of another pedestal, which opens a secret passageway.
"Hicca." Toothless says stopping his rider in her tracks. "It's not worth it." He says.
"Well, we've come this far." Hicca says.
"We need to find a way out of here." Serpentina says.
"I know but if there's any way out of here, it's probably through there." Hicca says as she and her dragons go through the secret passageway.
Outside, Astrid and Fishlegs dig through the rubble from the cave-in (as Meatlug happily snaps up some of the tossed stones as snacks) in order to find Hicca.
"Keep digging! We've gotta find them!" Asher yells tossing rocks aside.
"Find who?" A voice behind them says as they turn around to see Stoick.
After arriving with Gobber on his Thunderdrum, Stoick looks at the teens and recognizes the situation.
"Hicca." Stoick says with wide eyes.
Inside the cave, Hicca, Toothless, Bones, and Serpentina cross a stone bridge and arrive to a room with a pedestal surrounded by gold: the burial room of Hamish I. On the pedestal, inside a stone ring jutting out from it, sits a rolled-up piece of parchment Hiccup pulls out and reads what's written on the outside.
"This treasure was passed from father to son. I leave it to you, the next worthy one. For only a hiccup could get this far. From one to another, be proud of who you are!" Hicca reads the writing on the scroll and unrolls the parchment to reveal another portrait of Hamish I and Hamish II - a detailed illustration of the true Hamish II, a hiccup; perhaps Hamish II even made it himself. "Whoa, Hamish the Second was a hiccup. Just like me. He knew only another one of us could find this place." She says to her dragons as they look at the picture.
"Cool." Toothless says.
"Amazing." Bones says.
"Impressive." Serpentina says.
"Look at all this stuff. I guess being a hiccup isn't such a bad thing after all." Hicca says about herself looking at the treasure.
The pedestal's ring, with no parchment to hold it up, drops down and sinks the pedestal into the floor while two more pedestals rise on either side of it and several steps away from each other, one bearing a typical Viking war hammer and the other a quill.
"Wow, so, Hamish II really loved pedestals." Hicca says and then sees another riddle on the floor. "And, apparently, riddles. "In between the body and mind, a choice must be made on what you find. At this moment you must look to yourself, as only one path will give you true wealth." Ugh." She groans as two stone pillars fall, the rubble blocking the entrance as the treasure room collapses. "Oh, come on, Hamish, you're killing me!" She says and looks between the hammer and the quill before making her choice.
Outside Stoick, Asher, and Fishlegs continue to dig through the rocks.
"Keep digging! That's my daughter in there!" Stoick orders but then everyone outside notices a hill collapsing behind. "Hicca!" He says as he rushes to investigate with the others following him.
When the dust clears, Hicca, who chose the quill, and Toothless, Bones, and Serpentina are all right. The quill was located in the only safe spot to stand while the hill collapsed around it.
"Darling!" Stoick says running to his daughter.
"Hey, daddy." Hicca says running to her father as he hugs her tightly. "Uh, daddy I can't breathe." She says as he releases her.
"Oh, Hicca, you're okay." Asher says in relief.
"Hicca, thank Thor you're alive! What happened?" Fishlegs asks.
"Blah, blah, blah. Who cares? Where's the treasure?" Snotlout asks.
"This is Hamish's real son." Hicca says showing them the parchment with the illustration of Hamish II.
"That's not treasure." Snotlout says.
"To a father, it is." Stoick says placing his hands on Hicca's shoulders. "I never meant to make you feel like you had to do somethin' like this." He says.
"I know, daddy. But I had to do it. For myself." Hicca says.
Later in the Great Hall, everyone looks as Bucket replaces the original Stoick-and-Hicca portrait with a more accurate one showing Hicca as she truly is, wearing her Viking helmet and holding a rolled up piece of parchment with both hands in front of her.
'I've spent most of my life trying to prove to my father that I could be his kind of Viking. As it turns out, I already was.'
Stoick puts his hand on her shoulder, looking as proud of his daughter as he does in the painting.
Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The next one is the Dragon Flower episode with a little surprise in store. Stay tuned for it.