Allan glanced at Marcus as the positively tiny boy as he stared off into space, Marcus had a habit of doing that and every time he'd do it, he'd bite his lips. ILA warned Marcus that it was a terrible habit and that he should stop but Marcus didn't ever realize that he was doing it.
"For Odin's sake Marcus!" ILA voice startled Marcus into snapping out of his day dream and looking startled. Not surprising since Marcus was frightened of everyone but also because ILA scared everyone when she shouted.
"You don't need to shout, ILA, poor Marcus is shaking" Tyson joked touching Marcus' shoulder.
"No, I'm not" Marcus replied boldly, everyone seemed to cease their talking and stared at Marcus. Marcus went a triple shade of red "I-I-" he tried to stammer an apology but Tyson grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Wow, looks like Marcus does have some dragon in him" they turned to find Aden leaning in the door way. Completely dressed in his attire along with the belts he wore around thin but lean waist.
"Why are you up so early?" Finn asked grumpily, he was not an early bird which was the exact opposite of his brother, Ciar. Ciar was up in the morning but tired in the night time, two sides of a coin.
"Training" Aden replied nonchalantly then grabbed an apple from the bowl in the middle; Aden was like a leader to the 8 teens. It was a good fit for Aden's personality; he was always calm and cool but energetic. Always in a good mood for practically anything and that earned him respect for he was also a hard worker.
"What? You still get to train with Hiccup?" Tyson complained.
Aden raised an eyebrow "you seem to be missing the point that Hiccup is my dad" he pointed out to Tyson.
"That's favoritism!" Tyson argued uselessly.
"It's called training since I was 3 years old and could knock you flat on the ground-ism" Aden countered.
Marcus smiled a little at that while Tyson sulked slightly "by the way, Marcus and Allan, you're supposed to be half way to Dragon Training" Aden added.
"What?" Allan shouted getting up quickly.
"Ah um- why me?" Marcus asked.
Aden grinned "you'll find out, c'mon, I'm supposed to go with you" Aden added.
They all took off to the Dragon Training where Hiccup stood waiting for them with Toothless next to him. There was also a big man standing next to him with a gronkle at his side, he wore a furry tunic and Viking helmet.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow "nice of you to show up, Aden; stop scaring Marcus with the secrets" he added.
Marcus was paler than usual and his face was a pale and kind of green "sorry Marcus, calm down, I was just asked to teach you to sword fight while Allan is training" he informed Marcus. Marcus didn't look relieved in fact he looked even worse and Aden frowned wondering if Hiccup was sure about sword fighting.
"Well uh, c'mon Marcus" Aden spoke up then lead Marcus away from the arena after grabbing a sword for Marcus to use. Marcus followed nervously, looking like he'd seriously jump a cliff to get out of his situation.
Allan watched them leave then looked to Hiccup who smiled "okay, Allan, all you have to do is show me what you know for now. Pick a weapon or use your own and show me what you can do" Hiccup explained.
"Um okay" Allan agreed nervously picking up a knife and facing the newly made wooden target. He breathed in and out and concentrated and threw it.
The knife sailed through the air like a bullet, hitting straight in the middle of the target leaving Hiccup smiling at him. Allan smiled proudly "okay, good, so you've got your weapon of choice; now I'm going to show you to throw under pressure" Hiccup explained.
"By the way, this is my friend; Fishlegs and his dragon, Meatlug" Hiccup introduced; I looked at the two of them.
"Uh hi, Allan?" he asked looking from to Hiccup unsure.
"We're going to do that by throwing things at you" Hiccup added.
"What?" Allan asked confused.
"Don't worry, we won't really hit you, not on purpose" Hiccup mentioned as an afterthought which didn't help Allan. "Anyway, you're going to start throwing at the targets while we start throwing" Hiccup explained.
"But I don't get it-"
"Start" Hiccup said and they both started throwing the random objects just barely missing Allan while he attempted to throw them. He missed a great majority and it was very stressful, suddenly he whipped around on instinct when a wooden block was heading for his stomach.
It was too fast to avoid it and it hit him hard in the stomach but for some odd reason, it didn't hurt, not one bit. "You alright, Allan?" Hiccup asked as they stopped throwing the wooden blocks.
"Um yeah…" Allan trailed then lifted his shirt to for a bruise but he let out a choked sound when he saw what happened.
His skin had become like a layer of rock, he touched it and it did, in fact feel exactly like rock; he stared at his stomach and wondered if it was permanent when part of it faded.
Hiccup and Fishlegs had seen it and both were silent "cool" Fishlegs muttered while Allan got up, still in shock.
Hiccup was silent for quite a while "can you try to do that on purpose?" he asked Allan stared at his hand then forced his mind to think of protection like before. The rock spread through his body and he stared at his arm, it was like armor.
Hiccup grinned knowingly then "well then, let's see what else you got."
Aden tossed the sword to Marcus who grabbed it by the hilt still looking incredibly nervous. Marcus considered Aden scarier than Hiccup. It was always the kids his own age that disliked him; it was crueler when because he left out of everything.
He'd never gotten to join in on the games the kids in his village played, always given some excuse why he was never allowed to play. He knew the truth, though, so he stopped trying. He avoided people; he was a coward, that's what he did.
Aden stared at Marcus, studying him then he held his sword a certain way and understood what his dad meant by mimicking because Marcus did the same. He stepped one way and Marcus did the same, Marcus possessed a very powerful gift.
"Aden, I want you to help me" Hiccup spoke up looking serious.
"What is it?" Aden asked sitting up straighter at the determined tone of Hiccup.
"I need you to help me help Marcus, Marcus is a talented boy with so much potential with the powers he's showed so far and he can only get better but he needs something important to get better. He needs confidence, something that's hard to earn and it can't be temporary either. He needs to feel in his heart that confidence" Hiccup explained.
"What can I do about that, though?" Aden asked.
"I want you to shatter his barriers, find him out, and make him tell you everything about himself. It could make him or break him but if we leave him like this then he'll break eventually."
Aden launched himself at Marcus who blocked him and parried it away then stepped backward. "So Marcus, what was your old village like?" Aden asked, start out with easy questions then get deeper.
"Good" Marcus replied staring at the ground but he didn't have time to avoid Aden's gaze because Aden took a swipe at him.
Marcus avoided it and kept dodging the continued sword swipes "c'mon, you've got to have some story about it" Aden prompted.
"N-Not really" Marcus replied strained.
"Tell me, Marcus" Aden said seriously, Marcus was a pro when it came to avoiding questions when not asked directly so Aden supposed that kind of approach wouldn't work.
"W-What do you mean?" Marcus asked; Aden and he kept fighting; the tension in Marcus' body didn't seem to make reckless like most. Marcus just got better now that he was off guard; everything that he was doing was instinct.
Aden knew why now, why his dad had told him about Marcus, he was so talented and everything that he had would go to waste without confidence. He wouldn't be a reliable team mate and without Marcus becoming confident himself, no one could be confident in Marcus.
"Marcus, you're hiding something, please tell me what it is" Marcus was sickly pale and shaking but that made his movements faster. Aden picked up the pace along with him; Marcus and him were on a large hill with a drop off just behind Marcus.
"No, no, no, you would hate me" Marcus said shaking his head while gripping the sword like a lifeline.
"No I wouldn't" Aden said firmly staring at Marcus' eyes, willing him to tell him everything.
"But I-" Marcus stared at the ground while Aden stared at him and Marcus dropped his sword.
"I was s-seven years old…
Marcus stared at the not even a year old puppy; it was very small and skinny like he was except that he wasn't tied to a tree with a rope pulled tight around his neck. The dog was so skinny that its ribs poked through and its fur was dirty and caked with mud.
The kids in his village had tied it up and started being rough with it; Marcus had a plan to free the poor thing as soon as the boys had left. The boys were bullies and Marcus hated bullies, he wasn't the strongest person in his village but he was quicker and cleverer than them.
He was by a house then, a cabin really where Hannel lived with his slave who was Marcus' age; his name was Lindiwe. Hannel was a rich man who traded many places and rarely came back to town but he always came with Lindiwe.
Marcus had never spoken with Hannel or Lindiwe but he knew that the boys in the village were always shouting things at Lindiwe when he came out to clean or chop wood. Hannel was a tough man, tall and lean with big hands but Hannel had never hit Lindiwe or been rude like others in his village that had slaves.
Marcus had asked his father once who responded that Hannel was a fool to trust 'that animal.' Marcus had learned to keep his mouth shut about everything to his father then. He could never think of Lindiwe as that though, no matter what anyone said.
Hannel hadn't come back to his home yet otherwise he would have stopped the boys' behavior towards to the pup. Marcus stood perfectly still so the boys wouldn't notice him behind the tree but almost gasped when he saw the boys ganging up on Lindiwe.
The oldest boy, Connor pushed Lindiwe down and they started clicking and the smaller boys who were cowards as far as Marcus was concerned threw rocks. Marcus groaned as he threw a glance at the dog then at the scene, he sighed heavily.
He ran out from behind the tree and ran fast at Connor. Marcus balled up his fast and drew back and hit him hard in the jaw. The boy hit the ground and slid across the gravel, the shocked boys stumbled back staring at Marcus.
"Cowards! All of you!" he yelled loudly, his eyes taking on a disgusted look toward all of them. The boys all stood back except for Connor on the ground who stood up. He tackled Marcus and they rolled on the dirt tearing at each other's faces and punching.
Then, it happened, he was pinned down by the boy and his hands started burning; purple searing fire shot out of his hands. It was wild fire and Connor that he'd burned with the fire let out an agonized scream but so did Marcus. He stood up baking away from Connor but the fire wouldn't stop coming out of his hand.
When it did, it was too late; hitting the trees, the cabin, and it spread impossibly fast; Connor's face didn't have the fire anymore but he still screamed. Lindiwe stared at Marcus and he stepped back in numb shock. He turned around and ran as fast as he could, the trees still burning behind him and the boys all staring.
Aden stared at Marcus for a very long time, how long had Marcus held this in? How long had he gone without someone telling him 'it's okay.' Why did Marcus suffer this long when he had entire village, Aden wanted to hate Marcus' village.
He wanted to go there and burn the rest of it down but he couldn't do that. Marcus needed to find the confidence was if he found it himself. Aden knew what he had to do and it was going to hurt him a whole lot when he did.
"You're a coward" Aden told him, Marcus looked like he'd been cut; like someone had taken a sword and shoved it through his heart. Aden wanted to put a shank in his own heart because of the look Marcus gave him.
"But-"
"You're stupid if you thought anything but that, a coward scared to face his own village because of guilt" Aden told him. Odin, this better work.
Marcus looked incredibly hurt but suddenly he looked angry "I was running because they hated me!" he yelled. Excuses, Aden deduced.
"So what?" Aden asked.
"I was running because I hated me! Everyone does!" Marcus yelled himself hoarse with more and more excuses then he went silent.
In all this time, the tears hadn't stopped streaming from Marcus' eyes and Aden was forced to keep a passive face. "I know" he whispered to Aden who then met his eyes.
"I know I'm a coward but what do you want me to do?" Marcus asked Aden, it was strange then because in the weeks that Aden got to know him. Marcus had never looked braver than he did right now.
"Are you really a coward?" Aden asked him calmly.
It was then that Marcus stood up looking confused then balled his hands into tight fists then brought his fist up and made contact with Aden cheek bone.. Aden's eyes widened as he found himself on the grass with a smarting cheek.
"NO! No, I'm not a coward anymore! I came all the way to Berk, bared that heating process, shot purple fire, and I can fight you. I'm not a coward" Marcus confirmed.
Aden got up slowly rubbing his cheek then smiled "glad to hear you finally get it" he replied.
Marcus looked confused "what do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, I set this little sparring match to gain you some confidence" Aden explained.
Marcus startled to turn very red "oh Thor, I punched you" he said in dismay.
"Yeah well…I guess I can forgive you once" Aden replied.
Marcus was about to reply when they both heard power wings flap and a dragon landed behind him. Aden's eyes widened considerably, he'd only seen one of these dragons once for they were near as rare as a Night Fury.
Marcus turned to find the Changewing from his past right there; he knew it was her because her eyes were more catlike than the pictures of the dragons in the book.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, he didn't think she'd ever given him her name.
'I'll explain later but you have two human friends in need of attention, both have not eaten for the many days on my back for they were foolish enough not to pack enough food' she replied to him.
Marcus eyes went enormous "friends?" Marcus asked looking utterly confused; he'd never had friends in the past. The dragon huffed looking impatient 'hatchling, is it more important to help someone of the same kind from death or to know if they were friends?' she asked.
Marcus finally registered what she said and nodded "w-where are they?" he asked and the dragon picked both Marcus and Aden with her claws and flew them off. Aden yelled in shock and held onto her scaly claws looking at the far away ground.
"I though you were used to flying?" Marcus shouted as loud as he could to get Aden to hear. Aden to him with tears in his eyes looking terrified.
"I'm not afraid of flying on a dragons back but this is different! And I have a question!" Aden shouted back.
"What?!" Marcus replied.
"SINCE WHEN CAN YOU SPEAK DRAGONESE?!"
Hello, hope you enjoyed it! If you'd like I have the GUARDIAN/CHARACTER PROFILE IF YOU HAVE A HARD REMEMBERING THE CHARACTERS WHICH IS ON MY PROFILE ON THE BOTTOM!