AN:
Just a quick heads up. All text in italic, so like this, is Latin. This basically means that that the Berkians can't understand it, whilst out two heroes can speak it without problems.
That's all, enjoy!
The streets were crowded, almost everyone in the town had headed to the arena, curious to the news that the chief wanted to address. Some folk had stayed home or at their places of work, of course, some vital positions couldn't be missed. Men and women were hard at work in the port, lifting a few ships out of the water so that they couldn't be damaged by the ice. This way they would start fishing directly once the ice had been thawed. The people that couldn't or wouldn't attend the meeting relied on family and friends to get the news.
Astrid made her way through the crowded streets. Luckily, Berk had relatively wide paths, mainly because of the large amount of large, winged reptiles that would have to walk through them. Astrid slowly crossed the large stream of Vikings, now nearing the bridge. The small remnants of blood that had remained on the bridge had bitten into the wood, leaving little stains. It would probably wash away after a few good rains.
The crowd thinned out, not wishing to walk on the bridge with too many at once, for fear it might collapse. Vikings weren't exactly known for being as light as a feather, so they were careful with these kinds of bridges. She walked across the wooden bridge with haste, hoping to find a good place to watch the chief's speech. It had been quite a while since she had to search for a place on the tribunes, since she and the rest of the riders would usually stand besides Stoick.
This time was different though, and because she had effectively made her way through the masses that headed to the tribunes, and had shot a few mean looks to people, she was standing just behind the front row. It was the best place to stand really, because you had a great view, and thanks to the excitement of some Vikings there was the chance of being over the railing if you stood at the front row.
She could look into the academy, Stoick standing there, discussing some things with Gobber. She couldn't hear it, partly because of the distance, but mainly because of the large group of loud and noisy Vikings that stood beside her. Luckily, they silenced asked for their attention.
"Hello everyone." He began, his voice silencing all the Vikings that surrounded the arena. "The origin for this meeting came to me just yesterday, but it's about a subject that has to be addressed." Stoick explained loudly, before silently adding. "To prevent casualties on both sides."
"What is it?" An inpatient villager yelled from the stone ring around the former arena.
"Excellent question." Stoick continued. "It the foreign warriors, or Assassins, that have already been spoken about."
This statement made the crowd erupt, people were arguing heavily, everyone voicing his or her opinion about the foreign 'Masters'. But luckily they came to a quick halt when Stoick's voice boomed through the arena again. After the crowd had silence he continued.
"We have news concerning them." He told the villagers slowly. "These men have asked for a place to stay for the winter." He said, quickly continuing before the crowd could start again. "Now I know!" He yelled, getting everyone's attention again. "I know how we feel about foreigners. So it's with a relieved hard, and trust me, no one is more surprised than I am, that I welcome two men."
The crowd waited for a second in absolute silence, Stoick waiting for Hiccup and Ragnar to show up. But then the silence was broken by someone clearing his throat, standing on the bridge.
The crowd parted like they had some sort of disease, and the hooded man took this as an invitation to walk further, making their way down the ramp that lead into the arena. The stopped together, each standing on one side besides Stoick.
"I welcome Ragnar of Karnes!" Stoick said with his booming voice, Ragnar removing his hood for his introduction. The crowd was silent, except for Heather, who was cheering and clapping. Quickly being silence by the looks of fellow Vikings, who still didn't trust the strangers. Ragnar shuffled on his feet a bit, the young man getting rather nervous from the angry and distrusting gazed of the crowd.
"But that's not all." Stoick continued, relieving Ragnar of the gazes of the townsfolk. "Because today is a day that we will celebrate for generations." He said, earning confused reactions from the crowd. "Today, we welcome back the true heir of the Hairy Hooligans."
Hiccup removed his hood, looking sheepishly at the crowd that surrounded him. The people were frozen, shocked. The boy they knew, who was now a young adult, had changed a lot. He had grown taller, his body still rather lean but also radiating strength and pride. A large mob of messy, auburn hair covered his scalp, and his green eyes glistered in the morning sun.
"We welcome back, Hiccup the Horrendous Haddock the third!" Stoick yelled with excitement, the crowd erupting in a mixture of yelling, applauding, and laughter of joy. "The boy, no, man, who freed us of the dragon raids. Who showed us a different truth than we had learned from our ancestors." Stoick continued, only allowing the crowd to cheer even more. "A hero to our people!" He yelled, before turning to Hiccup, who smiled at him with watery eyes. "My son."
"Don't forget the dragons." Gobber hinted as he looked at the positive reaction of the crowd. "We want people to trust their dragons too."
"Right." Stoick said, a bit distracted by the crowd. He cleared his throat. "And as we would expect of Hiccup, they brought dragons." He yelled, his voice reaching above the sound of the crowd. He turned to lads, signalling them to call their dragons. He had expected some sort of dragon call, like he had seen their group of riders do some times. But instead, Ragnar grabbed a small object, it was white, and shaped like a small Skrill. He blew on it, the whistle emitting no sound at all.
The crowd was silent again, curious about the actions of the now known assassins. Fishlegs was the first to lose his patience. Standing at the front of the crowd, allowing him to see the assassins very well, he asked the question that was on the mind of most of the Vikings.
"What are you doing?" He asked with a tilted head, observing the whistle in the hands of the assassin. His answer come in the form of small pebbles falling down from the rocky outcrop above the academy. The crowd looked up, looking into two pairs of large eyes. A Skrill and a Nightfury, climbing down the side of the cliff like they were ants. Most Vikings immediately recognised the Nightfury, the bright red prosthetic tail giving it away.
Toothless jumped off the wall, landing on the metal roof that was suspended above the arena, which began to swing. The Skrill slowly climbed down further, the crowd parting again to allow it into the arena. Toothless walked to the edge of the roof, making it lean to one side. He then quickly jumped down into the former arena, landing besides his rider, wrapping his tail around his feet protectively.
"This, as most of us will remember, is Toothless." Stoick said loudly, before turning to Ragnar's Skrill. "And this is." He began, looking at Ragnar in the hopes he would finish it for him.
"Bolt." Ragnar said with pride. "His name is Bolt."
"This is Bolt." Stoick said loudly. "As for the other dragons, these are not to be harmed, scared or hunted in any way. I'm convinced that they roam around safely." He said before turning to the two young assassins. "As long as they behave."
"Understood." The two said in unison. Earning a satisfied smile from Stoick.
Astrid was mesmerised, she had been unctuously waiting for the reveal once she saw the two assassins walk in. And even though she had expected Hiccup to have changed a bit over the years, she hadn't expected to see what stood in the ring. It was Hiccup alright, the little, curious, adventurous and clumsy boy could be recognised from a mile away. But he was, different. There was something that she couldn't describe about him, something
"Hot"
She turned left, seeing the female component of the famous Thorson twins basically drooling over her shoes. She had to admit, Hiccup did look good, very good. But observing him could wait for now, first she would have to secure her asset. "Back off Ruff." She said simply. "Hiccup is mine."
Ruffnut turned around, spotting Astrid and cursing herself for not looking around properly. And although there wasn't a lot of hostility in her voice, she felt that this was a warning to be taken, but, there could always be argued.
"Astrid, a few years ago I wouldn't have said this." She began, trying to bring the subject as delicately as possible. "But I think there's enough Hiccup for a couple of girls, at least the two of us."
"He's mine." Astrid hissed more violently. And once she noticed that Ruffnut was about to speak again she added "All mine."
The female twin sighed, looking at her friend pleadingly. "Please." She asked as gently as she could. "Astrid already has dips on the other dude."
"Correct." Astrid said sternly. "And I get Hiccup."
"It's just not fair." Ruffnut pouted. "I saw him first."
"And I kissed him first." Astrid said, quickly adding "End of discussion." Before walking off, leaving the female twin to drool at the new unobtainable boys.
Some of the crowd had already walked off, the rest was following the chief and the two guests closely towards the mead hall, where they could exchange stories and tales.
The boat ebbed quietly on the seas, clams and barnacles stuck on the hull that would usually lay below the water. But the vessel was lighter this time, much lighter, which the captain disliked heavily.
A heavy thud shook through the vessel, as the long, slender and tangled body of a Whispering Death landed on the deck, caught in a heavy, reinforced net. The dragon thrashed wildly, trying to hake it's captors off himself, but to no avail. Extra ropes were secured around the lean body of the dragon, and a large leather muzzle was strapped around his mouth. Closing the opening filled with razor sharp teeth.
"Get her below deck." The captain yelled as he made a coil out of an unused rope. "We don't have all day."
His men did as obliged, roughly dumping the large, defeated dragon into the hull of the ship. A metal lid was closed above the opening, effectively stopping any attempts at escape. Once the men were done the hull shook again. The dragon underneath the deck attempting a new escape. But it was futile.
"Let's head back." Eret, son of Eret, said as he stood on the deck. "He specifically requested a life Whispering Death, we won't be able to lay port sooner, so pray the Gods are on our sides."
"They aren't!" One of the crew cried out as he pointed at the sky, where a large four winged silhouette could be seen through the clouds.
The mead hall was filled with laughter and cheering, Vikings were happily drinking away while they listened to the stories of the two young boys. Usually, once a tale involved one of Hiccup's plans, it went horribly wrong, but apparently this was the idea behind the plan.
"So then, we lit the hay and oil and in a matter of seconds the entire tunnel was ablaze." Ragnar told the crowd with excitement. "And it worked as expected, the fire eating away at the wooden supports."
"Yea, so it didn't take long before the entire system of tunnels and rooms collapsed on itself." Hiccup continued. "Bringing down the entire castle."
The hall filled with laughter again, the Vikings hadn't had good experiences with Romans, and were glad that the invading armies had stopped somewhere on the mainland. So they hadn't reached the dragon invested archipelago. And even though the Berkians hadn't had any run-ins with the Roman army so far, they didn't mind the stories about them being defeated.
In the middle of the laughing the two assassins shared a quick look, they were letting out just enough details of the stories. There were quite some other things that they could tell, but some things were best left out.
Our young heroes however were growing rather tired of the attention, being used to living their lives in the shadows they were growing rather uncomfortable under the keen eyes of the village. Hiccup decided to shift the attention towards someone else. He glanced around casually, spotting Fishlegs in the ranks, and remembering that if you wanted someone to explains something, Fishlegs could do it in a way that would make everybody lose interest.
"But what has changed around here?" Hiccup said, casually looking around the group. "Fishlegs?" He asked with curiosity.
Fishlegs eyes lit up immediately, and it didn't take long for him to ramble the complete story about what happened after the fight with the Red Death. He included the search parties that had been send out to look for Hiccup, and how they continued after the winter. He explained how his father had never accepted the idea of his son being dead. He told the stories about how they adapted to living with dragons, and he sure didn't spare on details.
It only took explaining the first full year to make half of the crowd find other forms of entertainment, and at the end of the second year there were only a few people left. Hiccup was actually pretty interested in the story, he was wondering how they adapted to the dragons and Fishlegs proved very good in answering the questions. His story was interrupted however, since a group of Vikings, which Hiccup recognized as friends of Snotlout, walked up to them.
"Hello Hiccup." One of the guys, Slipknot, said. "You two must be really good at running, given you've survived for so long."
Ragnar shot Hiccup a quick look, and Hiccup could clearly see that he was irritated by the comment. Hiccup turned back to Slipknot, a small smile on his face. "Believe it or not, we are both more than adequate fighters." Hiccup said calmly. "I think we'll even be able to beat you."
Slipknot didn't like that, he had hoped to just annoy the two boys and go off, but he couldn't back down to a challenge. "Fine, a friendly spar it is." He said with a fake smile. "We'll see you in the arena in an hour."
The group walked off, busily chatting about the upcoming fight. Hiccup and Ragnar shared another quick glance, both feeling confident about the upcoming fight. Fishlegs however, wasn't so certain about it. The group of Slipknot had often fought people, and usually they won.
"Are you sure about this?" Fishlegs asked as he saw the assassins sitting calmly with cocky smiles. "They have a rather large gang."
Ragnar turned to Fishlegs, a smug smile plastered on his face. "Are they with more than twenty-five men?" He asked calmly.
"No, I think their gang holds eight." Fishlegs answered. "Slipknot included."
"Good." Ragnar said. "Then we won't even break a sweat."
"What makes you think that?" Fishlegs asked curiously.
"We're up against Vikings, who have never fought assassins before, and are really underestimating us." Hiccup said as he took a swig from a tankard. "They'll do a short and powerful charge, exhausting them, and will be forced to fight in a tight group afterwards, watching each other's sides."
"We'll just have to break it up from there." Ragnar said. "Once a formation falls apart, tactics mean nothing."
"How can you be so sure about that?" Gobber, who was calmly overhearing the conversation, asked. "People train for these kinds of things you know."
"Yes, but they train in a group." Ragnar said. "They won't expect two guys to break their entire formation."
"A broken formation equals chaos, and chaos can easially be manipulated to our own advantage." Hiccup said.
"Is that what you did to Alvin's men?" Gobber asked. "Break their plan and just go for it?"
"Basically, we first scared them, fear is a strong motivator, then we broke their formations so they would attack out of order." Hiccup explained carefully. "When a blade is swung it has a lot of force, it's easier to change its direction than to block it."
"This all sounds very nice, but they're Vikings." Gobber said sarcastically. "Chaos is our expertise."
"Chaos is no one's expertise." Ragnar said calmly. "If you can control it, it's not chaos."
"Indeed, the dragon raids were never chaos." Hiccup explained. "We had an organized defence, and the dragons were predictable, going after food instead of prioritizing the destruction of buildings."
Gobber thought about the information for a second, carefully listening to what they said. "And the forge yesterday, what do you call that."
"Well, I had to improvise." Hiccup said calmly. "But I didn't block attacks, I just diverted them. Sending Astrid's axe into the wood, the Twins into the shields."
"Yes, and finding my weak spot and taking advantage of it." Gobber muttered with an annoyed tone. "You're going to show me how you make that steel and how you sharpen it, don't you."
"When I come around to it." Hiccup said calmly as he stood up. "First we have a match to attend to."
The arena was again surrounded by Vikings, a few less than earlier the day but still more than half of the village population. They were eagerly watching as Hiccup and Ragnar stood at one side and Slipknot's gang stood at the other end.
Slipknot himself stood at the front, he was a short and beefy Viking, carrying a large two-handed war-hammer as a weapon. His gang all had different weapons, two had swords, three had spears, one of them carried a mace and one carried a round spiked shield, which looked extremely painful.
Stoick stood at the top of the ring, the metal cage had been lowered to prevent people from interrupting the fight, and to prevent them from falling down into the pit.
"Alright, the rules are simple." Stoick said loudly. "Your aim is to disarm or defeat your opponents, not kill them." He raised his hand slowly. "Is that understood?"
Slipknot and his gang nodded calmly, some swinging their weapons on their shoulder in a relaxed stance. Stoick turned to Hiccup and Ragnar, who stood ready. They had their hoods covering their faces, that combined with the fact that they stood in the shadows gave them a deadly and mysterious look.
"Then it's settled, you can begin on the signal." Stoick said as he turned to the Viking who was standing next to the large horn. Stoick nodded gently, and the Viking blew on the horn with all his might, signalling the start of the fight.
As expected, the entire group of Slipknot charged at the assassins, who stood in front of the old dragon pens. The Viking with the spiked shield charged at Hiccup, who dove out of the way at the last second, causing the shield to embed itself into the wall, rendering it unusable. Ragnar had successfully blocked an attack with his halberd, twisting it to rip the blade from the Viking who wielded it, disarming him.
The two Vikings quickly ran to the gate, which was opened for them to let them leave. Slipknot had noticed the defeat of two of his men. He saw how Hiccup dispatched of another one, ripping a mace out of his hands with his own hands. They didn't fight like Vikings, clashing swords together, they fought like nothing he had seen before, effectively working the objective.
He noticed that Ragnar was busy with one of his friends, who wielded a spear. He took this change to swipe Ragnar of his feet with his war-hammer, charging at him while holding hit low to his left. But hit hammer was suddenly swung towards the other direction, as Hiccup had hooked his hook blade behind it and pulled it back. Slipknot rolled back a bit before regaining his footing, his hammer still in his hands. In the meanwhile, Ragnar had finished two of the spear wielding Vikings, moving in on the third.
His mind was distracted by a short sword that landed at his feet, he looked to his left, finding his friend who walked towards the gate, defeated. He quickly charged at Hiccup, who had his back turned to him. He swung with his hammer, Hiccup quickly ducking underneath the weapons. The force spun Slipknot around, unable to stop the large and heavy weapon. And he knew he was done for once his back turned to Hiccup. An arm wrapped around his neck and he heard a blade unsheathe, feeling cold metal against his neck.
"Surrender." Hiccup whispered calmly, not exhausted by the fight at all. Slipknot did as asked, his hammer falling on the ground at the same time as the spear of his remaining friend was ripped from his grasp. Hiccup let him go, Slipknot leaving his hammer on the ground and slowly walking to the gate.
"The winners are Ragnar and Hiccup!" Stoick yelled as the two assassins raised their hand in victory. The crowd started to cheer for them, a confused but happy cheer. The battle had gone fast, and most Vikings hadn't been able to see what happened before the challenging group had been defeated.
"I hope this clears some things up." Hiccup yelled as he stood in the ring. "I am not the same boy who left here, we are skilled and dangerous."
"Yea, so if anyone wants to try something," Ragnar began. "then they are welcome to." Just as he finished his sentence he realised his mistake, he just challenged the entire audience, an audience of Vikings. People who would choose a friendly spar over anything else in the world. He turned to Hiccup, receiving a disappointed look.
It didn't take long for Spitelout to raise his club. "I want to have a shot!" He yelled loudly, a few other adult immediately joining him. In just a short moment our heroes stood against their next enemies, a group of five Viking adults, wielding weapons and shields, all highly trained and experienced.
The day passed graduate, and Vikings fell left and right, defeated by the apparently unbeatable duo. The two had first though that the relations with the village would worsen when they defeated all their capable warriors, but it appeared to just increase. It became more apparent after the battles, when they would receive more cheers and praises, getting pats on the back and some of them wanting a handshake. In the beginning the audience would cheer for the competitors, since they were seen as their own team. But as the day continued they slowly started to cheer for the assassins, eventually even yelling tips and hints at them, not that they needed them.
Another Vikings weaponry dropped, a loud clatter ringing through the arena as the sword hit the ground. The crowd, which had shrunk quite a bit, cheered away. Hiccup and Ragnar stood in the ring, rather exhausted, but not showing it. The Viking grabbed his swords as others came to collect their weaponry, graduating the assassins on their victory. The sportsmanship was very good, better than Slipknot, who had just left, not wanting to see the village again after his defeat.
Hiccup straightened his back, feeling the bones shift a bit. "Well, that was fun." He said as he rolled his shoulders. "Time for some food."
The two assassins slowly walked towards the gate, busily chatting with each other. That was until they heard a voice coming from the gate.
"Not so fast." Astrid said as she held her axe with one hand, her shield with the other. "I challenge you."
"We took out a dozen of Vikings at once." Ragnar said confused. "And you want to challenge us?"
"Not you," Astrid said calmly, shifting her gaze to Hiccup. "him."
Hiccup stood baffled, waiting for Ragnar to say something. But his help came in the form of his friend saying. "Fine, I was in for a rest anyway." As he walked past Astrid.
Hiccup muttered a soft insult as he walked back to his position in the ring. Astrid was carrying an axe and a shield, granting her good defence and heavy attacks. Hiccup slowly formulated a plan in his mind, hoping to safely and calmly disarm her to win the battle.
Stoick had already left, needing to continue his chiefly duties. So the battles were completely self-organized. "Ready?" Hiccup asked, his hidden blades unsheathed and ready to use.
"I was born ready." Astrid said back with a smirk, rolling her shoulders as she readied herself.
They started to circle each other, the audience watching carefully. Astrid was the best warrior on Berk, and she was able to defeat any warrior that they send to her. But the day had proven that the assassins were also really capable.
Astrid charged first, axe up high and shield raised. Hiccup quickly dodged it, but still receiving a bash from Astrid shield. The shield would be able to block most of his attacks so he would have to get rid of it. Luckily, his time as Gobber's apprentice had given him expert understanding of weaponry, and he remembered how the shields were made. They consisted of a steel handle and a leather strap, which he could easily cut.
He waited for another attack, and Astrid did not disappoint. She charged again, the same way that she had before. He dived away, again almost receiving a bash from the shield, but he evaded it and used his Hidden blade to cut the leather strip on the back of the shield, causing it to fall out of Astrid's grasp. He quickly rolled backwards after his attack.
Astrid regained herself quickly after losing the shield, stepping back and grabbing her axe with two hands. She didn't charge again, carefully waiting for her opponent.
Hiccup felt good about his little victory, with the shield gone he had more chances for small and quick attacks. Still, he didn't want to hurt Astrid, so to win he would have to disarm her. But with the white-knuckled grip that Astrid had on her axe there was a small chance of that happening.
He charged first this time, his hand on the handle of Inferno, extending the blade as he charged. The charge wasn't like the regular charge of Vikings, instead of the usual battle cry Hiccup moved silent, making no sound as he charged at Astrid.
He had quickly made a plan on how he would disarm her. Astrid's grasp was too strong to quickly rip it out of her grasp, and she wasn't stupid, so she wouldn't fall for him luring her into getting her weapons stuck again. No, he would have to try something else.
Astrid blocked Hiccup's blow with her axe, his blade landing on a steel part of the axe's blade, leaving a cut in the metal. Astrid pushed into the block with all her force, slowly forcing Hiccup back. However, the block was all part of his plan.
He quickly let his left hand slip from his sword, grabbing the hilt of Astrid's axe. Astrid was distracted by the block, so she didn't notice Hiccup's hand until it was touching her own, but at that point it was too late.
Hiccup leaned into the block, angling his blade to force Astrid's axe to the left. She quickly lost grip, the blade forcing her wrists to bend ways that they couldn't. Forced to let go, Astrid quickly saw her axe disappear. She stumbled forward, Hiccup had quickly stepped backwards after he had grabbed the axe, causing the weight that she had put into the block to cause her to fall. She barely managed to keep herself on her feet.
She looked at Hiccup, who stood a few steps away, his blade in his right hand and her axe in his left. She huffed walking up to him, grabbing the axe from his hand, which he so gently extended for her, and walked off, muttering some insults.
Hiccup stood calmly in the ring, part of him proud, part of him sad. He had mend to defeat Astrid, because politically that was a smart thing to do. Defeating Berk's best warrior single handily sure left a good impression for the rest of the town. But anyone could easily notice that Astrid was just a bit irritated.
Ragnar slowly walked down the ramp to meet his friend, watching Astrid storm off. Hiccup looked at him with a sly smile. "I would say that's not the way to court Viking lasses." Ragnar said jokingly as he walked up to Hiccup. "But I believe I would be wrong."
"I hope you're right." Hiccup said as he watched the blonde walk over the wooden bridge, disappearing into the village. "Otherwise I just ruined all my chances."
"Don't say that." Ragnar said as he walked back out of the arena, Hiccup following closely. "She'll come back."
"You think?" Hiccup said as he clicked the hilt of inferno to his leg. "Because I question it."
"I know my women." Ragnar said calmly. "If she won't be back for love, it will be for revenge."
"Great." Hiccup said. "Home for one day, and I'm already making enemies."
"Well, that's what we're good at." Ragnar said jokingly, before looking around if there's anyone near them. "But we need to make plans." He said in Latin.
Hiccup signalled him to just keep walking, not to arouse suspicion. "I know." He said. "But we can't do much until the end of the winter."
"We'll have to wait until after the harshest part." Ragnar said as they walked across the wooden bridge. "Then we can safely go out again."
They slowly walked through the village, discussing the upcoming plans in Latin. They received some strange looks from bystanders but everyone accepted it. They had both been to some foreign place and they it was understandable that they had picked up the language.
The two calmly walked through the town, and were eventually approached by Heather.
"Hey guys." She said smoothly. "I was hoping to run into you."
"Why's that." Hiccup relied, still rather wary of the Raven haired girl.
"I just wanted to thanks you." Heather said sincerely. "Without you, my whole village would've been destroyed."
"Not a problem." Ragnar said, smiling warmly. Hiccup looked at him from the corner of his eyes before looking back at Heather, seeing the same dreamy stare that Ragnar had. He slowly and silently left.
"Well I just wanted to thank you." Heather repeated. "You've saved a lot of lives. Including mine."
"Well, it was my duty." Ragnar responded smoothly. "Would be a shame to let such a pretty live go to waste."
"Ooh." Heather gasped playfully. "Adventurous, mysterious and romantic."
"Well, I'm a man of many traits." Ragnar said jokingly, earning a smile from Heather. "But I know those, so tell me about yourself."
Hiccup slowly walked through the streets, being greeted by the people he would call tribe a few years back. He was admiring the ingenious system for fire prevention when he felt a small pebble hit the back of his head.
Turning around, he quickly met the person who threw it. She walked up to him slowly, and he was at a loss for words. The sun shone behind her, radiating around her golden hair, which was still tied into the tidy braid. She wore the same attire as at the spar they had, and it made her look amazing.
"Hey." Astrid greeted gently. "I'm sorry about storming off, I hadn't expected to lose."
"Doesn't matter." Hiccup said nervously. "I wasn't trying to win either."
As soon as he said it he cringed, he should not have said that. He could see how she angered, before slowly calming herself down.
"I'm sorry, that's not what I meant." He quickly apologised. "It's just, it's been a while."
"You got that right." Astrid huffed as she sat down on a barrel that lay in the street, looking around the town. "What do you think?"
Hiccup wasn't sure if he meant how he thought about her or how he thought about something else, luckily, she cleared it for him. "The town." She said. "What do you think about it?"
"Eem, yea." He corrected himself. "It's amazing."
"You don't know how much you helped." Astrid said. "You're a hero."
"I'm not so sure about the second part." Hiccup said dryly. "But you got the first bit right."
"What do you mean?" Astrid asked confused.
"I don't know what I did to do this." Hiccup said slowly. "I don't remember it."
"You don't?" Astrid asked slowly, the young assassins shaking his head gently. "What do you remember?" She asked.
"I shot down Toothless." Hiccup said. "And made a tail for him, flew with him and played with him."
"That's all?" Astrid asked carefully.
"No, I also remember the fight with the dragon." Hiccup said, Astrid cringing at the memory of the Red Death, but she misunderstood. "The one in the arena, which I tried to tame."
"Yes, anything else?" Astrid asked, feeling like he missed an important part somewhere between the fight in the arena and making friends with Toothless.
"I remember him banishing me." Hiccup explained. "After that it's just, foggy."
"So you remember nothing else." Astrid asked for reassurance. "Nothing at all."
"I'm afraid not." Hiccup said sadly, I only remember waking up in a shack with Ragnar, missing the lower part of my leg.
"Why didn't you come back?" Astrid asked carefully.
"Why do you think?" Hiccup said with a sarcastic chuckle. "The last words I received from my father were 'You're not my son'."
Astrid was shocked a bit, she knew the two had a harsh, probably one sided, talk once Hiccup was dragged into the great hall after failing to control the Nightmare. But she never knew what Stoick had said.
"I thought I would be executed if I returned." Hiccup said.
"Well, at least you're here now." Astrid said as she jumped from the barrel, quickly turning around to Hiccup. "Do you have anything to do three days from now?"
"Not that I know of." Hiccup said as he thought. "Why?"
"We got a dragon race coming up." Astrid said. "Want to compete?"
"Dragon race?" Hiccup asked confused. "What is that?"
"Awesome." Was all Astrid answered as she grabbed his arm and dragged him with her.
AN:
So, here it is. Again, I'm extremely sorry for the longer wait.
I am currently busy with my finals so I don't have a lot of free time, and the free time I have is mostly covered by sleeping because finals are pretty tiring. So yea, that's a bit of a pickle. That is also the reason that I'm going to say: Don't expect a chapter next week. My finals will last for two more weeks, then I'm done. I might update next week, I might take another week to make sure it's proper. The problem being that with chapters of 2000 words I could easily write a chapter in a good hour, not even needing a proper script or overview to write it. I can just write a bit and worry about the rest the next week. This isn't the case with this story. Writing a chapter probably takes a good 6 full hours of my time. This consists of writing a short summary of the chapter, then cutting that up to smaller parts and divining them between the 6000 words, and then finding motivation to actually write. Which is extremely difficult with my finals. :(
Then it's a matter of writing and checking the spelling, which is a step I usually skip as of late because of time reasons.
Also, since Fanfiction . net likes to ruin links, basically anywhere on their site. I have to repost the blog link :/
R4yR4ywriting . tumblr . com
That's it, just removed the spaces and done!
Anyway, onto two other things. Some time ago, a reader of another story approached me with a piece of fanart for a fanfic, it's like fanception. But my question is simple. If there's someone who would like to make a cover art for this story, go ahead. I'd love to see the things you can design.
The second thing has to do with another story I am currently experimenting with. Don't worry, I won't spend full hours into it until this or my other story is finished, but I still want to share this with you.
I ran into a problem, and I can't think of anything. The story this is about is the one where the teens are in tanks and they play war situations as part of their school things. The problem at hand is simple to explain, but I find it rather difficult to realize.
I want to make a few things possible:
Real vehicles (Tanks, half-tracks, jeeps, planes, enz.) can fight alongside infantry.
With this I mean that the vehicles have to be the same as in the second world way, they will have been altered to protect the crew inside from hits and to make sure they don't spontaneously combust and stuff. But I don't want them to be virtual reality stuff, they need to be real. (This is basically where the entire story is about.)
No competitors run the risk of fatal injury. You will get some bruises and maybe break something, but that's also possible with any other sport. The most important thing is that you don't run the risk of losing vital body parts and stuff, like arms and legs, which seem pretty vital to me.
I already had a basic idea, it consisted of the round they fired being some sort of airsoft round. Judges would check if someone was hit and Tanks and planes would automatically become inoperable. Thanks would have armour penetrating rounds against other tanks but would carry airsoft rounds as their 'anti infantry.' Planes would carry two sets of belts for each type of armament. One for dealing with live things, like strafe-runs on infantry, and one for not-alive things, like other aircraft and tanks. The pilots in aircraft will be in some sort of protective, bullet-proof, cage that makes sure they don't die.
I'm to hear the things you come up with. If you have any suggestions than please PM me, that way we can actually exchange conversation. I try to react often to PM's, most of the time daily. If not, I either haven't read it yet, or I am thinking of a good answer.
Also, asking questions in the reviews is fine, but I can't answer them if you don't have an account to PM.
What I can do is answer some common ones though:
Q: Can you upload more often.
A: Simple, no. I, sadly enough, have school and work besides writing, so I can't spend so much time writing as I would like.
Q: Have you abandoned the story.
A: This question arrives when I haven't uploaded for a week and a few days, and I hope the whole exams part will clear that up. If I am ever to abandon the story I'll let you know. I'll probably put it up for adoption or something, but I hope the day that I'll have to do that will never come.
Q: When do you regularly update.
A: I don't have set days, I try to update in the weekends, but my steam library and my procrastination is basically causing the stories to be uploaded on Monday.
DO REALIZE that this is in comparison to my own time zone. I live in Europe, so my time is +1 from Greenwich. Which also explains why I sometimes have incorrect English.
Q: Why do you almost always end on cliff-hangers?
A: Because I'm evil. . . .
Anyway, I hope you all liked the chapter and that you all understand the predicament I'm in with my finals and that can tolerate the wait for another week, or two.
Take Care! R4y.