Jack was pretty sure that staying with Hiccup for almost a week was considered 'overstaying your welcome'. He was also pretty sure that Vikings weren't used to the saying and it wasn't like Jack could try to explain it without making him look as if he didn't want to stay with Hiccup, because he defiantly did. Hiccup and Toothless were amazing company; Toothless was even beginning to warm up on him (Jack had a few singe marks to prove it).
The only person Jack wasn't getting used to was Hiccup's father, Stoik, and likewise. He was fine with Jack and Hiccup being friends; he was just very interested in Jack. Very interested.
The first time Jack had met Stoik was after one of Stoik's vast journeys; needless to say, he was tired, smelly and not at all ready to find an odd haired boy snuggled up in Hiccup's blankets while Hiccup was upstairs sketching.
It took a long time to explain everything to Stoik and the same amount of time to try to pull the ax from Hiccup's headboard.
Days ago, Stoik had actually been well-rested enough to sit down with Hiccup and Jack to a Nordic dinner; Jack, thankfully, couldn't taste any of it.
Stoik started up the conversation, a bowl of charred fish and undercooked potatoes in front of him. He stabbed a potato with a dagger he'd been clutching in his huge fist; the noise startled Jack and caused him to jump. Hiccup glanced between his father and Jack, quietly gnawing on a strip of fish. Toothless smuggled two fish from the spit above the hearth and dragged them into a corner to eat.
"So, Jack," Stoik began. "I hear you resided in Jotunheim before coming to Berk."
Jack nodded, poking at his food with a smaller knife similar to Stoik's.
"Well," Stoik continued, "How do you like it?"
Jack glanced up, meeting Stoik's gaze. His face was slightly guarded (mainly by a mass of unruly beard) and his eyes gazed back expectantly at Jack, awaiting an answer. "Berk's really nice. It's a little warm for my taste, however; I prefer the cold."
Hiccup scoffed slightly and Jack glanced at him, smiling. Stoik was slient for maybe two seconds before he let out a loud laugh. "Ah! You'd love our winters then, Jack! They last most of the year."
Jack smiled at Stoik. "I'll have to try and stay that long then."
Hiccup frowned slightly as Stoik asked, "You're leaving?"
"Not for a while," Jack shrugged and took another bite of fish. He was going to leave it at that but Stoik began to press.
"Well, where are you leaving to?"
Jack thought for a moment. "I'm going on an ... expedition."
Stoik raised his furry eyebrows. "Oh?"
"Yeah," Jack continued, sawing his knife into a baby potato. "I'm looking for," Jack thought back to the book tucked away in his silver stachel, "... will-o'-the-wisps."
Stoik grinned through his mustashe and laughed heartily. "Furolles?"
Jack slowly nodded, totally clueless as to what was happening. Stoik nodded eagerly and said, "I was just there! 'Round the bend of Berk, there it is!"
Jack's eyebrows furrowed for a half-second; Hiccup noticed the slight dip in Jack's usually high eyebrows. Jack smiled and asked, "Where exactly is that? I need to make sure I'm going in the right direction."
"Well, that depends on whether you're going by ship or dragon-"
Stoik was interuptted by the door being ripped open; a man tottered in with a huge wire cage of extra fish in his thick arms. He had thick braids in his mustashe that slapped against his knees and a unibrow to match. A stone tooth gutted from his bottom lip and he had a prosthetic arm from the elbow down and a wooden pegleg that seemed to be constructed of driftwood. If any of these seemed to slow him down, Jack couldn't tell; he zoomed right into the hut and slapped several of the fish onto the spit. "Aye," He nodded to Stoik and Hiccup, glancing twice at Jack. "Who's the white-haired fellow?"
"This 'ere is Jack," Stoik shouted over the roaring of the hearth and the sizzling of the fish. "Jack ...," Stoik glanced back at Jack and asked, "What was yer surname again?"
Jack had to stop himself before he said 'Frost'. Jack thought back, his mind briefly flashing to a time when he was young and alive, his sister by his side and laughing all the way; and then his mother shouting after them, "Jackson Overland! Slow down!"
Jack smiled faintly. "Overland. Jack Overland."
Stoik raised an eyebrow and nodded, waving a thickset arm to the man tending to the crackling fish over the hearth. "You 'ear that, Gobber? Overland!"
The man known by the name Gobber turned and pointed his prosthetic arm at Jack; Jack noticed it looked like a set of makeshift tongs poking from a curve of metal, the tips of the tongs red-hot. "Overland, eh? That sounds familar ... Where did you say yer're from?"
"Jotunheim," Jack said, a little louder for Gobber to hear. Gobber came closer so that he stood between Hiccup and Stoik and gazed at Jack from across the table. "That sounds very familar." Gobber stopped to stroke his uneven braids of blonde.
Jack sniffed slightly, detecting a hint of something burning. As the spirit of winter, Jack had always been sensitive to heat and the prospect of fire. Jack glanced over to the unattended fish over the spit, which had begun to crisp.
Hiccup turned and sighed, "Gobber ... The fish-"
"Oi!" Gobber yelled, turning around and rushing to the overcooking fish. Alas, Toothless beat him to it, sinking his suddenly there teeth into both blistering fish before darting off back to his corner where he continued to growl at Gobber until he gave up on trying to save the remains of the fish. Gobber came back to the table, shoulders hunched.
Toothless rolled his wide green eyes before upchucking a part of the fish. He then grabbed the fish gingerly between his jaws and waddled over to Gobber; Toothless dropped the glistening fish onto the wooden table before Gobber and waited expectantly. Gobber smiled and patted Toothless with his free hand, his tongs already finding purchase into the fish as he placed a part of it in his mouth.
Jack felt like he was going to be sick; there was no way that could be healthy.
Stoik shrugged and continued on as if Gobber hadn't just taken a bite of a rejurgitated bit of fish. "So, Jack was telling me he's going on an expedition after furolles."
Gobber was in mid-bite, his stone tooth slipping from his gums. He pulled it out, much to Jack's supressed disgust, and placed the tooth on the table. Hiccup edged a little ways from it as Gobber stared imploringly at Jack. "Now, why would you want to do that?!"
Jack was silent for a while until Hiccup spoke up, "Well ... He's looking for his Fate. Isn't that what they do?"
Gobber nodded. "They lead you to yer Fate, but ... That's not something you should look fer. It'll catch up with you anyways."
Jack closed his eyes tightly, his thoughts drifting. No, it won't. Because it already has.
Jack reopened his eyes when Gobber continued, "Why, Thor almighty, if I had known I would lose both my hand and foot, I would've done a bit more! I would've picked more fights to punch with my good hand before I lost it; if I had it, still, boy, Stoik, would you be in fer it ..."
Stoik let out a hearty laugh that actually shook the table which was over his large stomach. "Oi! You can still hit and bite like ye used to! Don't tell me you don't put that stone tooth to good use!" The two began to quarell; Hiccup glanced at Jack's slightly strained facial expression with concern before stepping up from the table.
"Hey ... Jack, wanna go for a walk?" Hiccup asked; he watched Jack's distress fade and his blue eyes ignite but there was something Hiccup also noticed, the sadness lining his lips and tucked away deep in the crevices of smile lines and dimples. Jack hopped up from his seat as Hiccup grabbed his fur vest and slipped it over his shoulders. Toothless followed the two boys out after Jack had grudgingly shoved his cool feet into a pair of hide boots.
Hiccup and Jack walked down a small pathway, side-by-side, their breaths mingling in the cold evening. The sky was dark, signaling that the day was drawing to a close. The low sunset streaked the rough ocean in the last touches of warmth, like slices of auburn and gold waving farewell over dark blue flashes of water. Hiccup was the first to break the silence. "Jack ..."
Jack turned, glancing at Hiccup; he'd evidently slowed to keep in stride with the boy who was still fumbling on his metal leg over the bumpy ground. Toothless had darted before the two and was currently snuffing out a few wild birds from the trees and watching them slice through the air curiously. "Hmm?"
"You're ... different," Hiccup struggled for a word to completely outline the boy's personality. "You're not like the rest of them here."
Jack smiled slightly. Hiccup didn't continue so Jack asked, "What do you mean?"
Hiccup bit his lip, rubbing his thumb over the fur of his vest. "You ... You're just ... I don't know," Hiccup huffed out a puff of air and sighed, sucking in a new one. "You're not like anyone here or anyone from Jotunheim. You're ...," Hiccup shook his head and hunched his shoulders, quickening his pace.
Jack furrowed his eyebrows and swiftly ripped the boots away, nimbly hopping behind Hiccup. "I'm what?" Jack asked, his cool breath tickling the newly-erect hairs on the back of Hiccup's neck.
"You're just so ... so ...," Hiccup couldn't think of any of word to say except the one on his mind, "different. No one else is like you, but ... I feel like I've met you before."
Jack furrowed his brow even more. I'd remember meeting you, Hiccup.
Jack suddenly felt a pinch of fear, the words of his mind's tongue echoing in his ears. Or, would I? I forgot my sister, my mother ... I forgot myself.
"Jack," Hiccup had turned to the unusually silent boy. In the setting sun, Hiccup had a realization; with the subtle hints of gold and auburn against Jack's frame, Jack didn't look like a boy. He looked like a man. Something Hiccup could never do.
Jack shifted, his nose and lips and eyelashes flashing in the last few splashes of orange before the Sól was completely gone. Hiccup wished for it to be day again; he wanted to see Jack, to know he was there. In the dark, Hiccup felt completely alone, just as he had when the ocean had clung to him so heavily until he'd almost been lost. Almost.
"Yes, Hiccup?" Jack asked, straining his neck in earnest, awaiting Hiccup's words.
The words were trapped in Hiccup's mind, however, words that felt foreign on anyone's tongue; words Hiccup would never have the courage to ever say, so instead, he settled for, " ... Where's Toothless?"
Jack sighed, brushing off the aburpt change of subject as the two began their frantic search for the sleek shadow of a dragon. They followed trampled weeds and overturned trees until they found a shadow with unusually curious green eyes that peered at the two in a question, when the two should've been questioning the dragon.
The dragon was up in a tree, its scaly legs perched like that of a bird's; its wings pinched against its sides in a way to tuck them close to his body. The dragon was sitting on the remaining twigs of a broken nest. Hiccup groaned and Jack laughed, the two running forward.
"Toothless! No!" Hiccup scolded, his hands grabbing bits of his own hair as he tugged.
Jack walked around Hiccup and started to climb up the knotted truck of the tree to try and convince the dragon down. The dragon only growled at Jack and continued to scoot away from him. Jack sighed and gave up, hopping down from the branch, his feet landing inches from two softball sized speckled eggs. "Hey, Hic," Jack called, his voice soft as he dipped down and scooped the two eggs in his cool hands, "Look at this."
Hiccup tripped over some brambles and weeds, finally reaching Jack and the two eggs, one in each palm. Hiccup stared at them, before Jack handed him one, which Hiccup had to manhandle with both hands, as the width of the egg was much larger than he expected and the weight was heavy and the shell slick and smooth to the touch. Hiccup stared at it with wide curious eyes, much like the dragon's.
The dragon slipped down and neared Hiccup; his snout flexed as he gave the egg a sniff. Hiccup placed his hand against Toothless's snout and gave it a slight push before Hiccup's palms wrapped protectively again around the cooling egg. "It's cold," Hiccup said.
Jack could feel his; it was warm. His lips parted as his thoughts continued to wander. Isn't that sad, Jack. You're even colder than this dying egg. His old wound against his cheek throbbed.
Jack thought for a moment, feeling its weight. Were bird eggs normally this heavy? Then, it clicked and at the right moment, too, as Toothless had sniffed the egg in Hiccup's hand and detected the faint hint of another dragon. Fire bubbled up in the dragon's throat, instinct taking over as his irises slitted.
"They're drag-" Jack tried to say but his voice was drowned out by the roar of flames grabbing hold of oxegyn with wispy orange tongues.
I'm sorry this is short but I wanted to give you all a chapter~
I've also read Land of Stories and A Tale Dark and Grimm (fantastic, both of them) and I've started The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (woo me) and I've also seen Jack the Giant Slayer (I'll have to buy it and join thy fandom because I have the frothing of story ideas) and then Once Upon A Time is going to Neverland and you guys don't understand my feels right now you're all just like my parents and it's Percy Jackson's birthday just leave me to die and this probably isn't even a decent chapter because I hurriedly typed it and didn't even add anymore perspectives
but I love you all for sticking with my tardiness which means I should explain that I may only be able to write and post on weekends now that school's shoving homework down my throat
I also mispelled a lot I'm sorry I'll fix it sometime -flops and cries-