Marcus curled up as the cold touched his feet; he groaned then pulled the sheets closer; the morning Berk air was always so cold no matter the season. "Wake up, Marcus" Allan called from the door, Marcus flew upright eyes wide.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll get up just please don't hit me!" he pleaded; Allan's eyes went wide and confused as he stepped back.
"Hit you? Why would I?..." Allan trailed, he realized Marcus was half asleep and he walked up shook him for a second and Marcus seemed to come to his senses.
"Marcus, you've got training in an hour" Allan told him, still holding onto Marcus's thin shoulders 'they're so bony' Allan thought letting go. Marcus got up from the bed and Allan walked with him to breakfast where everyone was already seated.
He quietly sat down while Allan seemed to be staring at Marcus who sunk down in his seat. "Stop glaring at him, Allan, you're scaring him" Tyson commented, Allan turned to Tyson and truly glared at Tyson.
"I wasn't glaring" he argued.
"Oh, you're right, I forget your face is stuck that way" Tyson replied smirking and leaning on his hand while Allan growled then bit into his food chewing angrily.
Allan resolved to just eating but then turned to Marcus who perked slightly at his stare "so… do you have any uh… powers yet?" Allan asked.
Marcus stiffened, looking uncomfortable then shook his head "bummer, I was thinking that that one dragon can blend in would make a cool power" Tyson mentioned.
Marcus shrugged then stood up from "you're not gonna eat anything?" ILA asked as he headed to the door, she frowned looking worried.
His face burned "I'm nervous" he admitted and ILA frowned then nodded smiling "good luck" she told him, he allowed himself a small smile. He then headed toward the dragon training ring, he entered slowly not quite sure what to expect.
'You don't have to be nervous, Hiccup is always friendly' the same soothing and deep voice he swore he heard yesterday came into his ears. He looked around to find Toothless walking toward him looking curious. 'What is your name?' the dragon stared at him while the voice spoke but Marcus knew it was Toothless.
"Marcus" he replied in numb shock 'very well, Marcus, my partner will not harm you; he knows you have never fought before' he told him. Marcus relaxed a bit and the color came back into his face making not the pale green color it was before.
"Marcus" Hiccup's voice spoke this time and Marcus stiffened again.
"Relax, I'm not going to make you start fighting now, I just want to see what you can do" he told him calmly.
He relaxed but shifted his weight where he stood "not much" he admitted to Hiccup though there was one thing he didn't want Hiccup to know.
"That's alright, Marcus, I couldn't either" Hiccup replied smiling.
"But you're a hero and a sword fighter" Marcus argued.
"I wasn't before, I learned sword fighting because I had to protect something, I was protecting Aden and soon I won't have to anymore" Hiccup explained.
'Just do your best' Toothless told him "anyway, just pick up a weapon and show what you can do, I'll go easy on you" Hiccup told him. Marcus nodded then looked at the weapons then picked up the axe which turned out to be too heavy and he dropped it.
"Sorry" Marcus told Hiccup.
"It's fine; I have all day, just test them out if you want" Hiccup told him.
Marcus bit his lip then pick up a sword and turned to Hiccup.
"You won't go fast?" he asked Hiccup.
"I promise I won't" he replied.
Marcus watched the way Hiccup held his sword and did the same; Hiccup went slowly at Marcus who blocked as he has seen before when he watched Aden and Hiccup duel. As they went on, they picked up the pace and Hiccup was going at medium speed with Marcus actually holding his own.
"Stop!" Hiccup called and Marcus jumped and held the sword at his side, Hiccup looked confused and a little awed. "Marcus, have you ever used a sword before?" he asked, he shook his head. "No one's ever showed you how?" Hiccup asked skeptical and Marcus shook his head again.
"I watched you and Aden duel before, I just copied the steps that you guys did" Marcus replied.
Hiccup was quiet for a few minutes then smiled a little. "Marcus, is there anything else you saw?" Hiccup asked and Marcus frowned in confusion.
"Like, anyone throw weapons, launch arrows?" Hiccup clarified, Marcus thought for a second.
"I did see Tyson's target practice" he answered. Hiccup walked over to the weapons and handed him the bow and arrows.
"Try it" he dared, Marcus fumbled nervously then set the bag of arrows down after grabbing an arrow.
He pictured how Tyson had done it and placed his hand slightly lower than the middle of the bow and pulled the arrow back. The feather part was aligned with his cheek and his elbow pulled back, a perfect copy of Tyson's form. He then found his target, a wooden painted target; he then let go and it was scary accurate.
It hit dead center and he stared in disbelief at what his clumsy hands had done. Hiccup walked up to Marcus and smiled "Marcus, thank to you, now we know that those marks do have something to do with the dragons. You're like a changewing, you can mimic thing you see and know how to do something," Hiccup explained.
'Impressive, I don't believe I've met a changwing before' Toothless added. Marcus was still in shock and sat down on a chair to think it over.
"Now what? So I can copy a few things, this doesn't change anything," Marcus mentioned whispered. He couldn't bring himself to be proud; he was always a mistake before.
He shouldn't have been born, he shouldn't have been in that village, and he shouldn't have stayed in this place. Soon, they would know, they would all know what sort of person he was; how stupid and selfish. He should have left when he got the chance but he didn't want that, he wanted to stay here, he liked the people on this island.
He feared that they would hate him if they knew the truth; he deserved to be hated, probably. "Marcus, let's try and see if you've got any fire" Hiccup told him then explained the possible ways to do it when Toothless' voice slipped into his head.
'Hatchling, Stand your ground, don't think about it just close your eyes and feel the fire. Like feeling your heart beat, stop resisting and when you can hear your heart then tune into your fire.'
Marcus suddenly could hear his heart; he could hear his veins, the dirt under his feet crackle. He could hear the wind, the slow drabble of Hiccup and he felt the tug in his hands; the heat burned at first then it felt good.
He opened his eyes then opened his hand towards the target and aimed, the purple fire was launched at the target which burst into flames. This was different than the last he had done it, the last time it hurt and he had screamed in agony.
The last time, he had lain in the forest for days; nursing the burnt hand by sticking it in the shallow stream. He went hungry for a long time until he saw something, something huge and a little scary above him.
At first he saw nothing and then a dragon, it was thin and long but it curiously sauntered up to him. Sniffing his hair and licking his hand which felt better afterwards, he heard it speak; he swore he did 'What awful sire's you have to leave you as such a young hatchling.' The dragon's voice was intelligent and female, more than a little rough.
He didn't scream or run because he couldn't get up, his hunger had worn him down and he didn't want to live.
"I want to die" he whispered to the dragon, hoping that maybe the dragon would put him out of his misery. The dragon only tilted its head and sniffed him again then used its claw to lift his shirt to look at his marks that his father had told him were evil.
The dragon curled around him like a mother would 'that's an awful thing to want, hatchling, why?' she asked. Marcus curled into her warm scales
"I did something that can't ever be forgiven.'
Marcus stared at the burning target in awe then went a deep red with shame "I'm sorry" he blurted to Hiccup.
Hiccup started laughing grinning "that was great! Perfect progress, good job, next time we'll work on control" Hiccup told him smiling.
From then, Hiccup allowed Marcus to go.
Why was everyone always so nice to him here? To tell the truth it both hurt and warmed him inside, he liked it to have friends but he remembered what he did that night. He was so scared of it all even if his father left him and he would never go back to the village again.
He walked up the trail not noticing that Toothless was beside him not 'speaking', Marcus kept walking not paying attention when he hit a wall. But it made an 'oof' sound so Marcus deduced that it was not, in fact, a wall. Marcus looked up with his deep purple eyes to find Allan "I'm sorry" Marcus stammered out.
Allan seemed to be debating something then sighed loudly "I'm not- I'm not mad at you; you- I don't mean to glare at you, sorry" he gritted out. Marcus blinked, Allan's words didn't exactly match his tone but he believed him.
"That's okay" he replied slightly puzzled at the sudden comment.
"Right" Allan muttered 'I'm an idiot, why'd I worry about it so much?' Allan thought.
"So how was training?" Allan asked as a change of topic.
"I dropped an axe" Marcus replied. Allan tried to picture skinny Marcus holding a huge heavy axe and the mask of seriousness threatened to dissolve as he held back a laugh.
"Oh, anything else?" he asked and Marcus looked hesitant, Allan bit his tongue so he wouldn't yell 'spit it out, already. "I can mimic things like a changewing; if I see something I can copy it" Marcus said quickly hoping he didn't sound like he was bragging so he decided to hold back the fire.
"Like, looks or…"
"No, actions, I hit the bulls eye with an arrow from watching Tyson" Marcus replied, Allan raised his eyebrows and he smiled only slightly.
"That's great, Allan, any fire yet?" he asked, taking a friendly tone that Allan didn't normally use.
Marcus' good mood for those few minutes were shattered, the light in his purple eyes died and he looked very sad. Allan felt like he was struck by lightning and he wanted to bang his head against a Gronkle. Why was it that every time he talked to Marcus he always said something that made him upset?
More importantly, why did he care? He wasn't close to Marcus in any way shape or from. Marcus was a mystery to all of them, unintentionally appropriate to his class. Mystery class; the two of those dragons were both incredibly strange and they didn't know how they worked.
The Bonenapper had never been seen without its protective coat of bones to shield him from dangers. Bonenappers were apparently OCD like and spent their young lives finding the perfect coat of armor. Which made Allan wonder if Marcus was like that at all, it did seem like Marcus kept thoughts to himself hardly sharing.
Then there was the other dragon in that category, the changewing, no one was sure what its true form was. Always changing skins and colors, hiding but always there to learn new things. It was curious and Allan knew that. Marcus too, though he was less bold about asking questions.
He'd seen Marcus read the book of the dragons himself even after the presentation Hiccup gave. Marcus was also very annoying, not in the way that Tyson was either. Marcus was annoying in the 'god, would you just say something already!' kind of way.
He'd bite his lip, shift in his seat, stare at the time, look up once, and even tilt his head and a lot of times he still wouldn't ask what he wanted to ask. It annoyed him to no end because then he'd be wondering what Marcus wanted to ask and then he'd have to ask what he needed.
Then Allan would lose his temper and Marcus would start looking like a kicked puppy. It was becoming very repetitive and he had no clue why he kept getting so angry at him.
Well, he was determined not to lose his temper anymore; he could punch a tree later rather than blowing up like usual. Tyson seemed to love the idea that he could annoy Allan who normally could ignore people if they bothered him.
ILA was also starting to wear him out or maybe it was just that he was meant to get along well with people in general. He wasn't social when he was a little kid or even now, he grew up in the snowy mountains. He was always far away from people and the only times he actually talked were to his Uncle, who trained him to throw knives and other objects.
His dad had died from a bad sickness when he was 3 and so his Uncle took him in and although he was tough on him, his uncle cared very much. His uncle was caught off guard incredibly on Allan's 13th birthday, he was unaware of what was happening his uncle thought he was dying.
He spotted the 7 marks on Allan's back glowing bright silver and brought out the book of dragons. Allan thought that the stories of dragons and how there was one famous one called 'The Dragon conqueror' were just myths. That is, until they were a 3rd of the way to Berk and they spotted the dragon, Allan had described the dragon to Hiccup had told him it was a 'Typhoomerang.'
It left a trail of sparks in the air which Allan was amazed by the ferocity and beauty of this dragon. The closer they got to Berk the more the dragons appeared. His favorite dragon, which he had yet to see, was the changewing. He found its powers and scales fascinating and he went into the forest quite a few times to attempt to spot it.
He had yet to get any luck but he knew he would eventually see it because he had very good eyesight despite the fact that his class seemed to suggest bad eyesight. He guessed not everything matched up with his class.
Sorry this took a while to update but I hope you like this and THE PLOT THICKENS!