WARNING: TALKING, STATUE TOOTHLESS IN THIS CHAPTER, you have been warned.

Chapter Two: Out There

For the next 15 years, Hiccup was raised by Alvin in the bell tower and believed to be hideous because of his unusual birthmark. He yearned to see the outside, but he'd long since learned that no sooner would he ask Alvin that Alvin would say no and add that it was for his own good. He walked up to a baby Terrible Terror that was sleeping in one of the high up statues, a man holding a sword.

"Good morning." Hiccup whispered as the Terror woke up. "Will today be the day? Are you ready to fly?"

"Uh-uh." The Terror growled.

"You sure?" Hiccup asked. "It's a good day to try. Why, if I picked a day to fly, this would definitely be it. The festival of fools."

The Terror gulped.

"Don't worry, it'll be fun." Hiccup said. "There'll be jugglers and music, and dancing."

As Hiccup said this, the Terror began to flap its wings, and Hiccup held his hands up as the Terror was flying on its own. Hiccup then laughed kindly and held up his arms. The Terror then roared happily. Several dragons then flew past as the Terror in his hands chirped excitedly.

"Go on." Hiccup said. "No one wants to stay cooped up here forever."

The Terror chirped a thank you as it flew off.

He then looked at the sky and down at the festival sadly when he was startled by Toothless, the statue the Terror was staying on, groaned.

"Oh yuck!" Toothless said. "I thought he'd never leave! I'll be washing feathers and dragon droppings off a me for a week."

"Well that's what you get for sleeping with your mouth open." Tuffnut, a statue of one of the shepherds who saw Jesus, said.

"Ah, go scare a nun!" Toothless said angrily. "So Hiccup, what's goin' on down there? A fight? A flagging?"

"A festival." Tuffnut said.

"You mean the Feast of Fools?" Toothless asked excitedly.

"Uh-uh." Hiccup said glumly.

"Alright!" Toothless called out. "Pour the whine and cut the cheese!"

"It is a treat to watch the colorful fun of the peasant folk." Tuffnut said.

"Nothin' like balcony seats the watch the old ROOF!" Toothless said. "Hey look, a mime!"

Toothless then prepared to hock a logy at him before Tuffnut covered his mouth, forcing Toothless to swallow it.

"Yeah…" Hiccup said as he continued to be glum. "Watching."

Hiccup then walked off. That's all he'd done since before he could remember. Watching the people enjoying their lives while he was stuck in the bell tower with only talking statues for company. Hiccup cared for them as friends and siblings, but he just wished he could go out there, but he knew he never could.

()()()()()

"Hey, what gives?" Toothless asked as Hiccup walked off.

"Aren't you going to watch the festival with us?" Tuffnut asked.

"I don't get it." Toothless said as Hiccup walked inside.

"Maybe he's sick." Tuffnut said.

"Impossible." Hikari, an angel statue, said. "If 15 years of listening to you two hasn't made him sick by now, nothing will."

"But watching the Festival of Fools has always been the highlight of the year for Hiccup." Tuffnut recounted. They'd been doing it since Hiccup was three, and they first started talking to him.

"What good is watching a party if you never get to go?" Hikari asked as several Terrible Terror landed on her. "You hear that? I said go! Go on, beat it, you bunch of buzzards!" The Terrors then flew off. "Hiccup's not made of stone like us."

They walked inside.

()()()()()

Hiccup went to the dinner table where he had made a perfect model of Paris. He sat down and played with one of the figures as Hikari sat down next to him.

"Hiccup, what's wrong?" Hikari asked. "You wanna tell old Hikari about it?"

"I… I just don't feel like watching the festival." Hiccup said. "That's all."

"Did you ever think of going there instead?" Hikari asked.

"Sure." Hiccup said. "But I'd never fit in out there. I'm not… normal."

"Oh, Hiccup, Hiccup, Hi-" Hikari said as a pigeon sat on her head. "Do you mind?" Hikari said indignantly. "I would like to have a moment with the boy if it's alright with you!"

"Come on, quit beating around the bell tower." Toothless said as he walked up, pulled a figure of Hikari down and set him in front of the figure of a girl. "What do we gotta do? Paint you a fresco?"

"As your pals and guardians, we want you attend the festival." Tuffnut said.

"Me?" Hiccup asked.

"No, the pope." Toothless said sarcastically. "Of course you!"

"There would be a venerable feast of educational experiences." Tuffnut continued.

"Wine, women, and song!" Toothless called out.

"You can learn to identify a lot of cheeses." Tuffnut continued.

"Playing dunk the monk!" Toothless said as he put a bucket of water on Tuffnut's head.

"Hiccup, take it from an old spectator." Hikari said to Hiccup. "Life's not a spectator's sport. If watching is all you're going to do with your life, than you're going to watch your life go by without you."

"Yeah come on man, you're human." Toothless said. "With the flesh, and the hair, and the naval lint, we're just part of the architecture, right Tuff?"

"And yet if you chip us, will we not fall?" Tuffnut said as he removed the bucket from his head. "If you moisten us, do we not grow moist?"

Tuffnut then put the bucket on Toothless's head.

"Hiccup just grab a fresh shirt and put on a clean pair of pants-" Hikari began before Hiccup figured it was time to remind them of something.

"Thanks for the encouragement, but you're all forgetting one thing." Hiccup said.

"What?" Toothless asked as he pulled the bucket off.

"My master, Alvin." Hiccup said.

"Oh… Yeah…" Toothless said downtrodden.

"Well…" Tuffnut began. "When he says you're forbidden from leaving the bell tower, does he mean ever, ever?"

"Never ever." Hiccup said. "And he hates the Feast of Fools! He'd be furious if I asked him to go."

"Who says you gotta ask?" Toothless said with a sneaky smirk.

"Oh no." Hiccup gulped.

"You sneak out." Toothless began.

"It's just one afternoon." Hikari added.

"I couldn't." Hiccup protested.

"And you sneak back in." Toothless finished.

"He'll never know you were gone." Hikari assured him.

"And what if I got caught?" Hiccup pointed out.

"You'd do better begging forgiveness than asking permission." Tuffnut pointed out.

"He might see me." Hiccup pointed out.

"You could wear a disguise." Toothless countered. "Just this once. What Alvin don't know can't hurt ya."

"Ignorance is bliss." Tuffnut added.

"Look who's talking." Toothless said with a smirk.

"No one wants to stay cooped up here forever." Hikari added as Iris remembered his little Terror friend and how he said the exact same thing to him.

"You're right!" Hiccup said as he stood up. "I'll get cleaned up. I'll go down those stairs; I'll march through the doors and-"

"Good morning Hiccup." Alvin said as he apparently appeared out of nowhere.

"G-good morning Master." Hiccup said as all of his confidence fell away in an instant.

"Now boy, whomever are you talking to?" Alvin asked.

Hiccup looked at his stationary friends as he knew that they only revealed themselves to Hiccup because of his loneliness.

"My… Friends." Hiccup said.

"I see." Alvin said. "And what are your friends made of, Hiccup?"

"Stone." Hiccup continued as Alvin lifted up his head.

"Can stone talk?" Alvin asked condescendingly.

"No it can't." Hiccup answered automatically.

"That's right." Alvin said. "You're a smart lad. Now, lunch."

As Alvin set a basket down by a nearby table, Hiccup rushed and got his wooden cup and plate while he gave Alvin his silver cup and plate.

"Shall we review your alphabet today?" Alvin asked.

"Oh yes, Master." Hiccup said. "I would like that very much."

"Very well." Alvin said. "A?"

"Abomination."

"B?"

"Blasphemy."

"C?"

"Contrition."

"D?"

"Damnation."

"E?"

"Eternal damnation."

"Good. F?"

"Festival." Hiccup said as he thought of the Feast of Fools again when he saw Alvin spit out the wine he'd just taken a sip of.

"Excuse me?" Alvin asked.

"Forgiveness!" Hiccup said as a correction and a plea.

"You said festival." Alvin said as he stood up.

"No!" Hiccup protested.

"You're thinking of going to the festival." Alvin stated calmly.

"It's just that you go every year." Hiccup said plainly.

"I am a public official." Alvin said with an air of impatience. "I must go, but I don't enjoy a moment. Thieves and cut throats, the dregs of human kind all mixed together in a shallow drunken stupor."

Alvin and Hiccup then walked out to the balcony that over looked most if not all of Paris and a good deal of the country side beyond.

"I didn't mean to upset you, Master." Hiccup said.

"Hiccup, can't you understand?" Alvin asked. "When your heartless mother abandoned you as a child, anyone else would have drowned you, and this is my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my son?"

"I'm sorry Master." Hiccup said timidly as he remembered the story of how he came into Alvin's care.

"Oh my dear Hiccup," Alvin said. "You don't know what it's like out there. I do. I do."

The world is cruel.

The world is wicked.

It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city.

I am your only friend.

I, who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you.

I, who look upon you without fear.

How can I protect you boy?

Unless you always stay in here.

Away here.

They walked back inside.

"Remember what I taught you Hiccup." Alvin said.

You are deformed. (I am deformed.)

And you are ugly. (And I am ugly.)

And these are things for which the world shows little pity.

You do not comprehend! (You are my one defender.)

Out there they'll revile you as a monster. (I am a monster.)

Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer. (Only a monster.)

Why invite their calumny and consternation?

Stay in here!

Be grateful to me. (I'm grateful.)

Be faithful to me. (I'm faithful.)

Do as I say.

Obey.

And stay in here. (I'll stay in here.)

"You are good to me, Master." Hiccup said as Alvin prepared to go. "I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven." Alvin said. "But remember Hiccup, this is your sanctuary."

Alvin then left.

"Sanctuary." Hiccup said with a sigh. He looked at his model and thought about the past 15 years.

Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone.

Gazing at the people down below me.

All my life I've watched them as I hide up here alone.

Hungry for the history they show me.

All my life I've memorized their faces.

Knowing them as they will never know me.

All my life I've wondered how'd it feel to pass a day,

Not above them,

But part of them!

Hiccup then walked to the balcony and smiled town at the city.

And out there,

Living in the sun,

Give me one day out there.

All I ask is one.

To hold forever.

Out there!

Where they all live unaware!

What I'd give…

What I'd dare…

Just to live one day out there!

Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives.

Through the roofs and gables, I can see them.

Every day they shout and scold and go about their lives!

Headless of the gift it is to be them!

If I was in their skin,

I'd treasure every instant!

Out there!

Strolling by the sand.

Taste the morning out there!

Like ordinary men,

Who freely walk

About there!

Just one day, and then I swear,

I'll be content with my share.

Won't resent!

Won't despair!

Oh and then,

I won't care!

I'll have spent... One… Day… Out… There . . .

Hiccup then put on a green cloak, made sure the hood was well up to cover his eyes, hair and his chest, and walked off.

Chaos dose not own The Hunchback of Notre Dame or HTTYD but she owns Iris, Hikari belongs to WingBladeWeaver1357, and Drew belongs to RedDiEnd.