Haha, thought this was dead, didn't you? Nope! Just being pathetically slow in the making! Next few chapters will have more action, teens, OCs, and Dragon Training! Trust me, you'll see me drawing numerous parallels to the movie here, but everything will be different in some way, huge or insignificant. For example, I might use a line from the movie that Hiccup says, but in here Birla might say it to emphasize the similarities between Birla and Hiccup. Please stay with me here!
Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own the How To Train Your Dragon franchise. Boy do I wish I did, though.
Hiccup was a little bewildered by the previous events of the past, oh, minute to say the least. Escaping Gobber's forge with his Bola Launcher, making all the way to Fishgut Cliff without anyone stopping him, and drawing a perfect bead on what must have been a Night Fury. Hiccup really had felt as if the fates were with him that night. Then, that Monstrous Nightmare had shown up, ruined his aim by what seemed to be a fraction of an inch, and nearly burnt him to a crisp. If it weren't for the timely intervention of this girl Birla, a catapult, and finally Stoick, he'd probably be dead.
Ah well. Failure was preferable to death. And for once, he hadn't actually destroyed something. Instead, he indirectly had caused that mighty Monstrous Nightmare to be captured! Well, wasn't that something! He grinned broadly as his father came over.
"Hey, dad." he mumbled, still wary of his father since, after all, he had snuck out.
"Hello Hiccup. I see you made good bait for those dragons-I gotta thank you!" he said jokingly. That alone was enough to make the entire night's misadventures worth it. To have his father joke to him... to be fair, he must be in a good mood. Dragon attack repelled with minimum damage, livestock protected, and they had captured a Monstrous Nightmare. Actually, in one of their rare conversations Stoic had revealed he was worried about capturing a Monstrous Nightmare in time for Dragon Training. In his own words, it wouldn't do to have the champion have to slay any lesser of a beast than the biggest, most destructive of dragons. Save the Night Fury, of course, but they would never capture on of those.
"Greetings, lass!" Stoic cheerily said to Birla, who's eyes widened at being spoken to by the chief of her village.
"Yeah, uh, dad, Birla here, well, saved my life. I think." Hiccup explained, awkwardly rising to his feet.
"Aha, your the daughter of Egill and Bera?" Stoick asked.
"Er, yes." Birla replied, nearly too quiet to be heard.
"Well then, that fixes a problem of ours. Hiccup... our roof got blown off by a dragon earlier, so I'll be sleeping in Spitelout's house tonight. I thought you might have to bed down in Gobber's forge, but I want you to stay with the Skalls here." Stoick said.
Hiccup started to shake his head to say to stay with anyone was a very bad idea for him, but Egill Skall walked up, and upon hearing what Stoic had said, grinned.
"We'd be honored to have your son over!" he smiled. Turning to Birla, he hugged her tightly, saying "I'm so glad you didn't get hurt!"
Surprised at their genuine warmth to him, Hiccup could only nod, smile, and mumble thanks as he walked with the Skall family to their house. He supposed that they didn't know him like most of the village did. He just knew there'd be jeering afterwards from the other teens in the village, probably all revolving around him being good for nothing but dragon bait. Might as well enjoy this time of safety.
For her part, Birla was surprised at Hiccup's shyness to her. She was leading him to her house, since her family was going to the Mead Hall for a traditional Viking post-battle celebration. She never liked mead - for a girl of her stature, a small sip could prove sufficient to make her woozy and drunken, not something she wanted to do. On the other hand, Finna could already chug down alcohol like water. Back to the point, nobody besides her family had ever treated her as an equal, or a greater like Hiccup was. He looked self-conscious and shy, silent but following her every move. Jeez, he was actually the son of Stoic the Vast, pretty much the best Viking around?
For his part, Hiccup indeed was quite self-conscious at the moment. They entered the tower, and Birla motioned Hiccup to sit down at the family dinner table. Hiccup did so, and Birla quickly skirted out of the room to the kitchen.
Finally, Birla re-entered the dining room, carrying a small bowl of soup in each hand. She placed one down in front of Hiccup, who watched her without a word. She then sat down on the table's bench right next to him.
Hiccup gave her a look. "You're sitting next to me?" he asked in a slightly incredulous tone of voice.
"Yes." she replied, looking away. "We never have much room at the table, and they'll be coming back soon."
After that brief exchange, nothing was said as both attacked their small bowls of soup with gusto. An awkward silence proliferated in the dark room as they ate in silence. Finally, Hiccup spoke up.
"This is really good soup." he commented. That was definitely true, after all. Much better than anything he had managed to cook up at his house when Stoic was away.
"Thanks." she responded.
"So, um, are a Skall?" Hiccup asked, nervously fidgeting.
"Yeah."
"You seem . . . a little . . . little for a Skall. I thought you guys were, y'know, bigger than me." Hiccup said, trying to find the right words.
"Hey!" Birla exclaimed in mock indignation, puffing up her chest. "Who's calling who little!?"
"Right. I can imagine my throat split open at the laughter directed at that statement." Hiccup replied, rolling his eyes at the girl.
"Whatever. Yes, I am a Skallagrinsson." she said. A second later, she continued, "And you must be a Haddock?"
"In spite of appearances, I am a brave, strong, and thoroughly viking-like son of Stoick the Vast, and soon-to-be best Viking there is!" he said dramatically, flexing his non-existent biceps.
Birla laughed, shaking her head. "Sorry, didn't get that."
Hiccup leaped up and slashed an invisible sword at an invisible dragon, his face set in determination at the task. Birla laughed even harder at the spectacle, doubling over in her seat, and grasping the edge of the table to keep from falling over.
Hiccup stopped and raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" he asked, voice completely serious.
Birla finally got control of herself, and wiped a tear from her eye as she sat up. "I-I don't know . . . everything!" she said as she gestured wildly with her arms. "Everything about you!"
Huffing in mock defeat, Hiccup crossed his arms and rolled his eyes yet again, frowning. "Thank you for summing that up." he muttered.
"Oh, not that way. I mean, you're just . . . different!" Birla said, dramatically waving her hands out in front of her.
"Like, I'm nothing like everyone else?" Hiccup said.
"I wouldn't say everyone." Birla said immediately, look up sharply.
"Hey, at least you don't have the Dragon Trainees mocking you at every step."
"Well, that's because I'm nobody! They wouldn't know who I was if their lives depended on it!"
"My dad knew who you were . . ."
"All he knew was that I was the daughter of Egill and Bera."
Hiccup turned away. "At least your family likes you." he said slowly and sadly. Birla was surprised at his sudden change in mood. So far, he'd been kinda sarcastic but not entirely serious. Not so now.
"Huh?" Birla said in confusion. "I thought your dad was happy that you helped capture that Monstrous Nightmare."
"Yeah, for once in my life. He's happy even though I nearly got roasted by a dragon. Your dad hugged you and said he was glad you were safe."
Birla gave him a funny look, and said back, "Hey, let's not get into how our lives suck, okay?"
"Fine." Hiccup conceded, still in a rather dark mood.
Birla looked around, trying to find a way to change the subject. As she looked out the window at Fishgut cliff, it came to her in a flash.
"What was that thing you had?" she asked, genuinely excited.
"Oh, the bola launcher? Just a little machine of mine . . . it's nothing really. It failed." Hiccup said, still unhappy.
"No, it was awesome! Even I coulda fired that thing!" Birla exclaimed, leaping out of her seat.
"Really? I missed." Hiccup said, looking up.
"Of course! You woulda hit that Night Fury if that Monstrous Nightmare had shown up a second later. How did you even make that thing?" she said, eyes sparkling.
"Well, you can see!" Hiccup said, finally brightening at Birla's infectious enthusiasm.
Birla quickly set out bowls of soup for her returning family, and raced out the door after Hiccup. Together, they sprinted up the path to Fishgut Cliff where Hiccup's abandoned bola launcher sat, slightly damaged by the Monstrous Nightmare's blast of fire. Birla looked over the machine excitedly, surprising Hiccup. Typically, when Vikings noticed his machines, they wrote them (and him as well) as "un-Vikinglike" and that was that. Birla actually seemed to be interested in it.
"You . . . you made this?" she asked in an incredulous tone of voice, running her hand along a firing grip.
"Well, is there anyone else on Berk that would be even remotely interested in something like this?" he shot back.
"Me!" Birla exclaimed, looking up, her eyes sparkling, saying "Why, even I, Birla Skall, the weakest Viking in all of Berk, could use this thing and take down a dragon!" Continuing, she gestured at her small self. "I mean, look at me! I can't swing a hammer, I can't lift an axe," pausing for a second, she grabbed a spare bola attached to the side of the machine, "I can't even throw one of these!" she said as Hiccup noticed how hard it was for her to lift up the twin iron spheres.
"But this . . ." Hiccup started to say.
"Could throw them for me. Exactly!" Birla said. "Oh, this fixes everything!"
Hiccup gave her a look. "Every what?"
"I'm a Skall, you know what they do, right?" Birla asked.
"They man the catapult on the Western Tower." Hiccup responded.
"Exactly. I can't use a catapult! Look at me, I can't even roll rocks up the ramps to the throwing arm. All I do is run messages to my family." Birla said.
"Well, that's a better job than I have." Hiccup frowned.
"You're the village blacksmith, right? Or the apprentice, at least."
"Yup. Absolutely lovely feeling when you're stuck inside a sweltering forge with Gobber watching your peers get to put out fires." Hiccup said with feigned excitement.
Birla laughed again. "Hey, you don't have your family poke fun at you for failing the family tradition."
Hiccup darkened. "You don't have your family practically disown you for failing the family tradition."
Birla grabbed Hiccup's shoulder and tugged on it, trying to get him back to the tower. "Come on! I want to show you my message-carrying system!"
Hiccup looked at her, temporarily forgetting the mentioning of his strained family relationship. "Wait, what?"
"I rigged up a bunch of pulleys to carry messages to the roof of the tower."
"Let me get this straight," Hiccup said, giving her a disbelieving scowl, "you invented something to save you from physical work?"
Birla stuck her tongue out at him. "Look who's talking, Mr. I-need-a-machine-to-throw-bolas-for-me!"
Hiccup backed away from the energetic brunette, waving his arms. 'No, no, no, no! That's really awesome!"
Birla smirked, crossing her arms. "Anyways, look at me. I'm probably the only person on Berk that can't pull you to wherever I want you to go."
"Now you've got me curious . . ." Hiccup smiled as he started pushing his bola launcher towards the still-abandoned Western Tower.
"Now that's the spirit!" Birla cried as she raced after him.
Hiccup couldn't believe his luck. For once in his life, he had had an intelligent conversation with one of his peers. On top of that, the girl he had talked to actually had the same interests as him! Witty, humorous, able to take his instinctual sarcasm with a grain of salt unlike everyone else on Berk . . . brave. She hadn't even seemed to really notice his lack of manly-Vikingness! Also, it helped that she was practically the only person on Berk weaker than him. The rest of the Skalls seemed pretty nice, too. Despite barely missing that Night Fury, Hiccup felt better this night than he ever had in recent memory. He felt so . . . fulfilled.
Birla couldn't believe her luck. For once in her life, she had met someone who didn't scoff at her size or (lack of) strength. He was mechanically minded, witty, kinda sarcastic, and actually understood her sense of humor! Plus, it helped that he was practically the second-weakest/non-Vikingest person in Berk. Her week was certainly looking a lot brighter at the prospect of having a . . . friend? Hiccup as a friend? The entire concept of friendship was still fairly alien to her, but if this was what friendship was like, laughing and joking and understanding, she certainly liked it.
Both teens thought at exactly the same time, Tonight has gone really well!, and both smiled at exactly the same time to themselves.
So there you have it! Chapter two of A Fresh View, filled with friendship-building! I do hope I wasn't horribly OOC with Hiccup, as if I was it was completely unintentional.
Have a nice day, and as always please review! Profuse thanks to Only If It's 4 U for his/her review!
P.S. The Tale of Drake (my current minecraft fanfic) will be updated tomorrow, in the unlikely case that you're following me across franchises.