Thank you for reading, thank you for returning. I think I did a good job this chapter, but that's for you to decide~
Note: Words w/o AN: 5,414. Words with AN: 5,457
(Edit: Fixed small errors, no major changes.)
=Hiccup=
We launched into the sky and I felt free. Free of responsibility, free of my human body and just free to roam the world. Which is completely irrational and makes the idea seem even more appealing. "Hey wanna try that trick again?" I asked him, he glanced at me an snorted. "You caught me last time, remember?" I asked teasing him. He rolled his eyes and did a flip. "No, I'm not insane or nauseous." I told him and again he rolled his eyes. "One try," I pushed and I heard him sigh. We were decently close to the ground so Izzy could see us so that meant this would have to go higher into the sky. After a moments pause, at which I was sure Toothless was contemplating my stupidity he shot higher into the air going at speeds I'm sure weren't safe for a human body to be exposed too. No matter.
Once he felt he had gone high enough, he started a flip, slowing as I was upside down and I unbuckled myself dropping to my doom. Luckily, Toothless decided to stay near me instead of ditching me like a previous attempt at this. I grabbed onto my saddle, thanking Thor that it hasn't been damaged within the last several months and forcing my feet against it. "Yes!" I cheered as Toothless finished the circle he had originally started, I hooked myself back in and quickly extending his tail so he could fly properly. He hit me with his ear. "Ow," I glared at him but if he saw it, he ignored it. He landed back on the ground and shook his head as I climbed off. "You didn't have to hit me." I told him, he just huffed, licked me affectionately and trotted off into the garden.
"When'd ya learn to do that?" Merida asked as I wandered back over to them.
"About five minutes ago." I responded. "Being the first Dragon rider, in the last thousand years or longer..." I let that drift.
"You're insane." She shook her head.
"If I wasn't we wouldn't be here right now." I noted and she shrugged in agreement.
"That was cool!" Izzy told me bouncing up and down. "Can you take me sometime?" She asked.
"That would be up to either your mom or Jack." I said to her. "It can be quite dangerous riding a Dragon." She frowned and I ruffled her hair. "Common, it's almost time for dinner." That was the correct word to use in this situation, food brought her back to a happy state as she and the triplets rushed inside to get food. The three elder children stayed behind and I found myself in an awkward silence.
"Anything you want to say to him, you can say in front of me." Merida told Jack who flinched slightly at the words. Jack turned to me and seemed to be fully aware of Merida next to him glaring daggers into the side of his head.
"I'm sorry I didn't stop them." He said to me.
"Uh, it's alright I mean they're your friends so you'd naturally want to side with them." I said awkwardly.
"No, it was wrong." He said frowning. "I had brought it up with Snotlout multiple times but he wouldn't listen. I did try to stop it. But..."
"It's always been that way between me and him." I said. "It doesn't bother me as much as it used to, sure it's embarrassing at times but I don't let it get to me anymore." I shrugged. "I mean we're Vikings, violence is how we show that we care about someone."
"It doesn't seem like he cares too much about you." Jack noted.
"No," I agreed. "He doesn't. But we're cousins and both of us could end up as leader of the tribe so there's going to be that resentfulness between him and me… at least until we're old. Besides, he's not like that when it's just the two of us, he's a show off in front of others." Merida turned away from glaring at Jack and looked at me, raising her eyebrow.
"Then what's he alike alone?" She wondered.
"Different depending on who he's with I suppose." Hiccup shrugged. "Everybody does it, but no one see's it. Well, almost no one see's it." He paused. "We should get to the dining hall before your mom yells at us." Her eyes went wide as if she had just remembered that dinner was like, now and everyone would be waiting on them. She let Jack lead them inside and followed after, I followed and closed the door.
The weeks passed with a similar routine, which is what the castle seemed to prosper off of. I'd get up, take Toothless out for his morning fly, sometimes joined by Jack and Izzy if they were awake and Izzy would join me in the air. After she got permission from her mom of course. Then after breakfast I'd play with the triplets, or sometimes Fergus, as he had given me permission to call him that, would fight the four of us and about an hour before lunch Izzy would join us with Jack watching from the sideline.
"You're really good with kids." He told me after I had been mobbed by the four and Fergus. "And the King." He added as the man walked by carrying all four laughing children to the dining hall for lunch.
"They're not hard to handle." I said, "it's a lot like trying to become friends with a dragon."
"Do you compare everything to Dragons?" He wondered and I paused, thinking about it. He turned when he realized that I wasn't next to him anymore.
"I guess so," I responded, "Toothless was my first friend." I shrugged it off, continuing to walk and unknowingly leaving him frozen in the spot.
After lunch we would go to the garden so the kids could play with Toothless and Merida could complain about Princess training.
"I swear got god Hic you're so lucky that you don't start your training until next year." She collapsed on her bench, over the last few days she had started to tolerate Jack being around us. She was less resentful towards him in her rants each night after we went flying on Toothless.
"I think it's better to start early." I noted, "I mean, my maybe nine summers of training to be a chief verses your what? You've been doing this sense you were a little right?" I asked. "You'll have a lot more experience than I will."
After her normal rant we quickly moved topics to, her favorite, Quidditch which Jack and her got into heated discussions about, what team was better or who was a better player and always my favorite, who will be on our house teams this year. Well that had been my favorite until I was brought up in it.
"Hiccup would make a good player." Merida noted in an offhand way.
"Excuse me?" I asked shocked.
"He would, with his experience flying." Jack agreed, which is the first time they agreed on anything, besides foods.
"No, no," I disagreed. "I don't do brooms." I waved my hands trying to dismiss this conversation. "Dragon's and brooms are two totally different things." And this is how I found myself standing on the ground in the town Quidditch field with Merida and Jack circling above me as I stood arms crossed, broom on the ground, and refusing to get in the air. "There is no way you're getting me up there on that thing." I glared at them both.
"We brought a secret weapon." Jack assured me. "Izzy!" He called to his sister who was standing on the sideline with the twins and surprisingly Fergus who had most likely snuck away from his duties to watch. The little brown haired girl bounded over, enjoying a seemingly good joke her and her brother had planned for me.
"Hiccup," she said sweetly. I glared at Jack, then Merida, my best friend was doing this to me! "Please can you fly around on it? You fly so good on Toothless I wanna see you on the broom!" She begged. I sighed in defeat and summoned the broom, that instantly came to my hand. Izzy jumped in delight and ran back to the others who were waiting for the show to start.
"This is an unfair advantage you have Frost!" I scolded the boy as I leveled with them. He chuckled.
"What position do you think he'd best play?" Jack asked Merida who studied me.
"Well, naturally with him being so small I would say Seeker." She said, looking to her partner in crime. "His eyes have to be sharp from riding Toothless all the time, but he might make a good Keeper too." She offered. He nodded considering this.
"Well, Haddock, if you ever try out for the teams, which I'm sure you will after you realize how awesome and fun this game is." He started.
"And violent," I chipped in.
"If you ever go out for seeker, we'd be facing off quite often." He said.
"Odens beard you sent a letter to my father!" I stared at Merida who just looked away and suppressing her laugh. "No he'll force me to join the team! I don't want to!" I protested against her.
"One year won't hurt you. Besides, you just need to try out, no one said anything about making the team." She told me, I glared.
"You two are evil together." I shot glares at both of them. "See what friendship does, it forces me into bad things!" I didn't get to protest much after that, they put me in the keeper's position and worked, once again, as a team to try and score more points than I could block. I had to say I was a decent keeper. Not that I want to be one. And afterward, the three of us raced to see who was faster, normal seeker training. Then after we finished and landed on the ground, Elinor could be seen marching towards the field and we got to watch her sold Fergus for skipping out on his royal duties.
Dinner's were quite uneventful aside from the occasional dogs running in and jumping on the tables or Fergus and Merida and I still had our nightly fly which almost calmed everything down.
"He's not half bad." She had finally admitted after I walked her to her room as I do every night. "I mean, I did sort of know him before all the chaos last year but only for a few hours before we were sorted into rival houses." I smiled a little bit. "Honestly how do you do it?" She wondered. "Tame things so easily?"
"What?" I asked confused. "I didn't tame anything but Toothless." She sighed, as if I was stupid and didn't understand anything. Which was quite rude considering my house and all.
"Never mind." She looked around her room. "I'm actually going to miss it here," She said frowning. "It was more fun than usual. Being home."
"I'll miss it here too," I agreed. "I won't be able to spend half the break here next year, maybe just a few days at a time. She made a face and I laughed. "Won't be that bad." I pushed.
"Yes it will, Princess lessons will be slower and take longer into the day." She fell back into her bed, her red curls spreading out across the mattress. "Well, least we'll still be friends." She held up her hand, looking at her pinky. I latched onto it with my own pinky.
"Always." I agreed smiling down at her. "Night Merida."
"Night Hiccup." She said before crawling up more into her bed to get under the covers, I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me.
When I returned to my room that night there was an owl waiting for me. I unattached the letter and gently pet the bird before opening the letter. It was from my dad and I groaned in frustration after reading it. I was right. He is forcing me to try out for the team. I flopped onto the bed and fell asleep there.
That was the first night I had a dream about them. Four beautiful creatures, of a shape I couldn't tell. They were standing facing each other. And that's all they did. One was yellow, as bright as the sun. Another, blue, and clear like ice. The third was a light red, flickering like fire. The last was a mixture of browns and greens like the forest. It's light flickering as if the sun were shining through leaves. And all they did there was stand, looking at each other, none moving closer to try to reach them, none retreating. It was sad, making me want to cry.
I had cried, I had woken up with tears streaming down my face and I knew that I needed to get in the air. I changed quickly, and nearly sprinted down the hall, bounding down the stairs and out to the garden. I hoped, that no one had seen the wet trails that wouldn't stop falling down my cheeks. Toothless was waiting for me, as usual but when he saw me he nudged against me, trying to ask what was wrong. "Nothing," I told him quietly climbing onto the saddle. "Just a dream." I told myself more than him. He didn't wait for me to ask if he was ready, once I was settled in and latched on he took off into the sky, understanding that this is what I needed right now.
I tried not to think as we flew, going through the daily routine and then for a while we just flew around the castle. I told Toothless about the dream in the end, I felt like he understood what it meant wouldn't be able to tell me. Not that he could, as far as I know Dragon's don't speak English. And I'm no telepath, I can't read his mind. When we landed he nuzzled against me affectionately, as if saying. Thanks for confiding in me, then bounded off to his normal hiding spot. I walked to the door, not paying attention to the normal walk to the dining hall.
"You alright?" Jack's voice startled me back into reality and I saw him leaning against a wall. "You missed breakfast," he informed me.
"Did I?" I asked, slightly disappointed because I was hungry.
"Yeah, they're setting out lunch now." I frowned at that thought. How long had I been out with Toothless? "You seem a bit out of it." He noted.
"Just thinking." I responded.
"About anything in particular?" He wondered. I shook my head, then looked at him. He shrugged and joined me in my walk to the dining hall. "Today's my last day here." He sighed.
"So soon?" I questioned.
"Gonna miss me?" He quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, you're my friend now." I said, "I think." He thought about it.
"Yeah, we are friends now." He agreed, smiling at me. I gave a shy smile back. "How about this, we'll write letters to each other." He offered. "Until school starts, then we can ride the train to Hogwarts together."
"You don't mind sitting with Merida?" I wondered.
"She's a good person. I like her." He said, shrugging it off. "We'll start to be real friends from here on out." He offered. "I'll try to keep the bullies off of you with Merida, though I don't think anyone will mess with the Dragon Tamer this year." He chuckled a bit and I smiled. "We'll make this last day of summer vacation together the best one all year." He promised.
"Alright." I agreed. "What would make it the best day?" I asked.
"Well, I haven't gotten a ride on Toothless yet." He said. "That'd be a start." I laughed a bit. "I know you and Merida go out each night. I'm a bit jealous." He told me, being completely honest. "And, as she so proudly bragged before, she's driven Toothless?" He asked, I nodded. "Not fair."
"She's been my friend longer." I noted, he nodded as if this made sense.
"Well now you're going to have a boy friend."
"You should choose your words better." I noted getting him to blush scarlet.
"Guy friend." He corrected himself, brushing his brown hair out of his face. I'd never actually noticed his appearance before, I tried not to let the shock show on my face. He was quite handsome for being... 11? Twelve?
"How old are you?" I wondered. He glanced at me.
"11, turning 12 in a few months why?"
"You're only 11?" I tried not to laugh. "You look older." He walked a little straighter, proudly.
"Yeah, well, I'm more mature than most." He agreed and I laughed. "How old are you?" He asked.
"Twelve." I responded and he deflated some. "My birthday's in May."
"Oh," he said. "This sucks you're older than me. And you're so small!"
"Thank you for pointing out my biggest appearance flaw, I'll take it personally." We both laughed and stopped at the door to the dining hall. "Okay, so aside from riding Toothless what do you want to do?"
"Well Quidditch was fun with the three of us." He offered, I scowled. "But we don't have to if you don't want to." He added quickly.
"It's not that I don't want to, just my dad sent me a letter last night. Responding to the one Merida sent him, telling me to try out for the team." I explained.
"Really?" Merida popped up next to us, making me jump and Jack laugh at it. Then he looked at her and laughed even more.
"Oh gods," he bent over, holding his stomach. "You look like a girl!" Was the first thing he managed to get out through his laughter. "That dress!" She proceeded to be extremely un princess like and smacked him until he stopped laughing. Which took a surprisingly long time because every time he calmed down it started up again. But I saw what he meant, Merida didn't look like her normal self, she was in one of the old traditional Princess dresses with large skirts that stuck out much farther than it needed too. It was green, all shades of green and her hair had been pinned up into an elaborate ponytail. I wondered how long it had taken Elinor to do that, probably most of the morning. Which means if she messed it up her mom would yell at her.
"You look nice." I told her, after Jack's fit had ended and I could properly look at her.
"Thank you Hiccup." She smiled at me, I smiled back. "He knows how to be polite!" She snapped at Jack who in turn started laughing again. Instead of hitting him she stormed off, complaining about her mum and the dress and how she can't sit in the stupid thing.
"You might've hurt her feelings." I commented after his laughing fit ended again.
"I'm sorry but that was too much, she looked nothing like herself." He said, "I mean, yeah she looked good but it wasn't her."
"You still didn't have to laugh like that." I defended.
"Please we'll all be laughing at it later when we're on the brooms in the Quidditch pitch after she's beaten the life out of me." He noted and we entered the dining hall for lunch.
Flying with Jack was nothing like flying with Merida, but somehow, I loved it just the same. While flying with Merida felt like a warm summer's day, Jack's felt cold like a winter storm. It was exhilarating. Toothless moved quicker with much more purpose than he normally would while riding alone with me or with Merida, it was as if he needed to show off, like he wanted to be seen and outshine anything before him. Jack seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did. He laughed and pointed to places he wanted to see, with quick responses I'd move Toothless towards the location and we'd rush past it once before slowing for a better view the second time, as if taking a victory lap. When we set down back in the garden both Jack and Toothless were hyperactive and excited. As if their emotions were radiating off of each other.
"That was awesome!" Jack jumped in the air and Toothless raced in a circle as if chasing his tail. "We have to do that again sometime." He told me. I just nodded, agreeing with him absently wondering what Fall and Spring would feel like. If I could ever take anyone out on a ride with Toothless and describe it as such. I mean, I had a taste of Winter and Summer. Suddenly the dream returned to me, the four spirits, I'm sure that's what they were now, just watching each other never nearing never departing. Each reminded me of a season. Hiccup. But if they had been the four seasons, then wouldn't they have been interlaced? Because that's what the season's do in reality. Each blends into the next creating a mirage of beauty. Hiccup, and even then, why would two of my friends remind me of the seasons? I mean, it's not like they are the seasons themselves, or even have powers over them. "Hiccup!" Their voices snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked at them confused.
"Are ya alright?" Merida asked worried. I looked between them, Jack had the same expression on his face.
"F-Fine." I said, swallowing back whatever just hit me. I felt dizzy and nauseous for the first time in a long time.
"Maybe ya should sit down?" She asked me, "Ya don't look too good." She told me.
"I'm fine," I said more confidently, as to not worry them further. "Promise." They glanced at each other, having a silent conversation.
"Alright." Jack said nodding to me. "Think you can play Quidditch?" He asked.
"Yeah," I nodded, "I think I can." We left the garden and my thoughts behind and for the rest of the day had, as Jack described it, the best day of summer this year. I had to agree, even with my moment it was the most fun I've had all summer, and this was the first summer I had a ton of fun with the human species. Considering it all, it was a pretty good summer. Even when it came time for them to leave, Jack was cracking jokes and telling us his plans for anyone that tried to bully me this year. Which Merida decided to make a challenge out of it, the best prank wins. I'm the judge and I can't use bias, as in no picking Merida just because I knew her longer, or no picking Jack because, and I quote him, "I'm cooler than Merida." To which she proceeded to smack him upside the head and I laughed and he laughed and she joined in.
"Let's be good friends this year," Jack said. "Real friends." To which I held a hand out in the stupid muggle promise with my pinky sticking out. Merida joined and after a moment of confusion Jack added his.
"We'll all be good friends this year." I said.
"And bring lots of trouble to anyone who tries to stop us." Jack added.
"And beat each other up when we can." Merida added. We all laughed and bounced our hands, setting the promise.
"See you at the express!" Jack waved as he and his family left.
"Save us a spot!" Merida called back waving.
"Bye Jack!" I waved as well and we watched as he continued to wave until he was out of sight.
"Never thought I'd be sad to see him go." She said honestly. I laughed a bit, putting my arm around her shoulder and she did the same with mine. We walked each other back inside and towards the garden.
"He's our friend now. Course you'd be sad to see him go." I told her, she laughed.
"I guess so." She said, then sighed. "Who'd have thought. I'd be friend with that guy."
"Clearly not you." We both laughed and exited the castle ready for our daily flight.
That was the second night I had a dream about the spirits. Only this time, three of them were connected in the middle. As if an arm had reached out to join them. But they still stood far apart from each other. The last one, the yellow one, Spring. Was just watching them, standing apart, not daring to move forwards. Or, maybe she hadn't been invited to join? The other spirits, Fall, Winter, Summer, had all been connected, did Spring need an invitation to join? Or, had she just not found them yet? She... Yes, I believe that Spring would be a girl. Just as summer would, and Fall and Winter boys.
The next day I woke up crying again, but this time I stayed in my room, letting it all come out. The following day's flowed by quite uneventfully. It was boring without Jack here, and the more sitting around I did, the less I wanted too. I had spent a large amount of time flying, which had been normal before I met Merida, because flying was the only way I could think properly. Merida, when she wasn't doing Princess things, often took to the library where we would look at books that were to be used next term. Preparing ourselves for the year, and that kept us quite busy. Without the third person, Quidditch had easily become boring though we still went out flying on brooms and practicing when we got bored of studying. We always had our nightly flight but slowly we grew thin on things to talk about. Sometimes we spent hours in silence, just drawing or staring at a wall in Merida's case. I tried to teach her how to draw, simple things. A dog, flower, even had her try to look at something and draw that. She didn't do bad but her attempts were still poor.
Things began to pick up when in the post we received our letters for Hogwarts. Fergus informed us that we would be going out shopping tomorrow, which gave us loads to talk about. School was coming back, we wondered what classes we'd have together and who would make the Quidditch teams this year, I sent a letter for my dad asking him to meet us there tomorrow so I could have the money to buy my school supplies, and laughed when he instead sent back several owl's carrying a large money purse and a note saying to buy Quidditch gear. To which I replied: Thanks for the money, can't promise that I'll make it on the team.
Merida was overly excited about being able to buy gags to show up Jack at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, a shop owned by a fellow Gryffindor's parents. She asked her dad for an extra sum of money just for these prank items, and even tried to ask me. "I'm non-bias remember?" I asked her, and much to her frustration she didn't get any money from me.
When we arrived the next day, we stumbled right into Jack and cheered when seeing him. "You're here!" He exclaimed happily as Elinor and Jack's mother, whom I never received a name smiled knowingly as if they'd planned it. Which is quite likely. "I knew it!" He said happily, "I knew you'd be here today!"
"You sound like you missed us," Merida said amused but trying to appear as if she hadn't missed him.
"Yes!" He said wrapping his arm around both of our shoulders and leading us forwards the mothers following behind chatting about nonsense things. "Gods it's been so boring sense I went home." He said. "Izzy has her friends from the muggle school but I have no one up there. I swear, I've read more for school in these last few days than I did all last school year."
"You too?" Merida and I asked together getting us all to laugh. We entered the bookshop and wandered about looking for what we needed when I spotted a girl standing and reading the labels of seemingly every book on the shelf. Occasionally she would reach out as if she decided on a book only to retract her hand and shake her head.
"I'll be right back." I told them both, going over to the girl and taking a book off the shelf next to her. "This one's good." I told her, getting her bright green eyes looked at me. It took her a moment before a fisted hand slammed into her other one.
"Hiccup!" She said giving me a hug, I hugged her back, and noticed my friends staring at me. I tried to ignore them. "How have you been? What's it about? You look taller, are you here shopping for school too?"
"Great, just read it you'll love it I know I did, thanks and yes," I answered her and she took the book from my hands. "You grew up in a muggle family right?" I asked, she nodded. "Well these are famous children's stories in the Wizarding world." I explained. "Almost everyone grows up on them, just thought it'd be something you'd enjoy." She smiled at me.
"Thank you." She said, "can't wait to read them." She clutched the book to her chest before looking around the corner to the other side of the shop. "Mum I found a book!" She called.
"Just one?" A woman asked poking out around the corner. "They all look so interesting. Some of them move!"
"I know!" Rapunzel bounced a little. "Thanks Hiccup." She smiled at me before disappearing around the corner to buy the book. I walked back over to Jack and Merida who were waiting for me.
"Who was that?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Rapunzel Corona," I responded and Merida made an O with her mouth.
"She's the book work." Merida commented, making Jack even more confused. "They're from the same house," she told him.
"Oh." He said slowly starting to get it.
"She's muggle born," Merida added getting him to raise his eyebrow.
"So?" He questioned.
"Just seeing of you were one of those type of people." She shrugged handing Hiccup some books they had gathered. "These are yours."
"Thanks," I smiled at her and we went to pay.
"So, what's her affliction to you?" Jack asked me.
"Rapunzel?" I asked. He nodded. "A friend I guess. Haven't spoken to her all summer. She and I were the outcasts of the first years in our house. So we spent a lot of time together on projects and things. At least, when I didn't have a class with Merida."
"Merida says she's a book worm?" He wondered.
"Always reading." I agreed, "always had a book with her, or five." I laughed a bit. "And uh..." I paused. "She's the one who hit Snotlout with the atlas." Jack laughed.
"No kidding?"
"Completely and 100 percent accurate." The girl's voice behind them made them jump.
"I thought you already went to pay." I turned to look at her, she smiled, her one book turned into seven.
"Couldn't resist." She responded.