Hiccup woke up to silence. His dad's bed was empty which meant he was in the main room and explained some of the quiet, no snoring. The silence was odd, though, something seemed different about it, quieter even. Dawn light drifted lazily in through the high bedroom window. Watching the shadows cast by the light Hiccup realized what was different. The rain had stopped. He leapt out of bed and ran into the main room, tripping on his loose socks.
Stoick looked up from his tea to see his son sprawled on the floor. "Hiccup, what have I told you about running in the house?" It was an afterthought at this point; Stoick had mostly given up on that rule.
"Don't." Hiccup said as he got up. "Dad, can we go to the Great Hall for breakfatht? Pleathe? The rain thtopped."
"I don't know, Hiccup." Stoick said. There was a lot of mud out there.
"Pleathe? It'th been four dayth!" Hiccup leaned on his dad's arm, "I wanna get out."
Stoick considered it. Hiccup had been good enough since the hatchet incident. And four days was a long time for a kid. Other families would be there too; what message would it send if the Chief and his heir didn't leave the house for breakfast like everyone else? Besides, Stoick hadn't started breakfast yet. "Alright,"
"Yeth!" Hiccup threw his hands in the air, "Thank you, thank you!" He was jumping around Stoick's chair and slipped on his socks again, but his father caught him.
"You stay out of the mud on the way there and back. And this doesn't mean you can play outside today. Am I clear?"
"Perfectly." Hiccup said. He ran to get his boots. He had them on and was at the door before he noticed that his father hadn't moved, "Come on Dad."
"Let me finish my tea first, Hiccup." Stoick said from his seat at the table.
"But there'th tea there." Hiccup whined heading back to his father, "Why can't we go now?"
"Do you want to stay here?" Stoick asked him.
"No thir." Hiccup stood properly with his hands behind his back and his head bowed.
"Then sit down and be patient." Stoick said. Hiccup climbed into his chair with a quiet huff. He tried to be good and quiet but he was kicking his feet back and forth too quickly, causing the chair to scrape on the floor. It gave away his impatience. Stoick decided to be happy with what he got. Standing up he said, "Okay. Let's go."
Outside the Nightmare was in a good mood. The sun felt good on her scales. She spread her wings so they could dry out. She let out a contented sigh and settled in for a little cat nap. She heard the opening in the wooden cave creaking. Drowsiness gone, she lifted her head and saw the Viking leave the nest with her hatchling. They were headed for the big cave that smelled like smoke and food. Cautiously the Nightmare kept to the trees and followed. Her size forced her to crawl, a slow process and branches continually whacked her face and threatened to tear at her wings. Fortunately the Viking was going slow too. He was taking his time, avoiding the puddles and mud. Another point to remember: keep the hatchling dry and out of mud. He was hopping along next to his sire who was holding his hand. The little one kept up a constant stream of chatter that the Viking ignored. The Nightmare rumbled in amusement. They eventually reached the large cave and disappeared inside; leaving the Nightmare alone in the trees.
Breakfast at the Great Hall was uneventful; the normal process of keeping Hiccup in his seat and eating his meal. The Great Hall had many distractions that made eating too boring for the boy after being cooped up and alone in his house for days. It was easier with Gobber there to help; especially when Stoick had people talking to him. After breakfast Stoick had a meeting and Hiccup was left to his own devices with the instruction that he was not to play outside. The other kids had come with their families for breakfast and they now started up a game of tag. A rough shove by Ruffnut sent her twin into a bench that was knocked into a table which caused a jug of milk to topple spilling the contents everywhere. The game was stopped and the kids were told to play somewhere else, but not outside. They may be Vikings but none of the parents wanted to deal with muddy children.
"So where do we go then?" Tuffnut asked rubbing his sore leg that had hit the bench. The kids stood around near the door after being shooed there by Fishlegs' mother.
"Oh oh, my mom baked cookies last night. We could go to my place." Fishlegs said, jumping and raising his hand. The others rolled their eyes. Fishlegs' house was too neat and they weren't allowed to mess anything up.
Snotlout wanted to convince them to go to his place but he still felt guilty about pushing Hiccup. He could see the bruise on his cousin's chin, evidence of what he'd done. Plus, he was kind of worried Hiccup would tell on him. So he decided to throw his little cousin a bone. "Why don't we go to Hiccup's? He lives in the biggest house and we know his dad won't be there." Everyone stared at him; Snotlout was never openly nice to Hiccup. Holding his hands up Snotlout said, "What?"
"You want to go to my houthe?" Hiccup asked his eyes wide. He sometimes wasn't even invited to play with the others, they had never wanted to go to Hiccup's house and he had given up on that possibility.
Snotlout shrugged, "Sure, we can play all day without any adults telling us what to do."
Everyone turned to Hiccup and he fidgeted under the attention, "My dad doeth come home around midday to eat."
"But you still get the house to yourself for most of the day, right?" Astrid asked. Hiccup nodded.
"Hiccup's it is!" Ruffnut shouted. No adult supervision was exciting. Think about all they could get up to if no one was there to say no. They left the Hall in a rush and cut across the hill to Hiccup's.
The Nightmare saw the group of hatchlings leave the cave. They were rowdy as they went down the stairs. A little too rowdy the Nightmare thought; her hatchling was quite small. One of the other hatchlings made sure hers wasn't shoved though, and that pacified her. She was certain the other hatchlings didn't notice, including hers. It was subtly done. They were more subdued the rest of the way, cautiously avoiding the mud. Her little one was less careful about that and had somewhat muddy feet when they arrived at his nest. It was a nice day and for the life of her the Nightmare didn't understand why they didn't stay out in the sun. She guessed it had something to do with Viking's strange aversion to mud. Or maybe the sun was harmful too. That would be something to find out.
Hiccup insisted they avoid the mud, he said that his dad would lose it if they got mud everywhere. The kids were afraid enough of the Chief to skirt around every drop of mud they saw; even the twins. They crowded into the doorway of Hiccup's house, pushing through in a noisy heap.
"Yeth, Fishlegth, I'll make sure Dad knowth only my bootth were muddy." Hiccup was saying.
"I'm not worried or anything. He's just, you know, the Chief, and really big. And kind of, you know. Scary." Fishlegs said. The others tried to act like they were braver but they all checked their feet for mud. Hiccup rolled his eyes as he took off his muddy boots,
"He'th not that thcary."
Tuffnut opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Astrid,
"What is that?" She was pointing at Hiccup's swing. Everyone stared at it; no one knew what to say.
"That'th my thwing. Dad and I built it." Hiccup said proudly.
"What's a swing?" Fishlegs asked at the same time Ruffnut asked, "What's it for?"
"I'll show you." Hiccup said excitedly. He sat on the swing and got it going. "You can make it go high. But Dad thayth it can't go higher than the fifth thtep or he'll take it down." The others watched dumbfounded for a moment.
"Well that's stupid," Tuffnut said. No one was sure if he meant the rule or the swing. "Can we go upstairs? What's up there?"
Hiccup slowed the swing, "My room." He said watching the ground and waiting for the swing to stop.
"Cool! Let's go." Ruffnut said. The twins ran upstairs pushing each other. They were followed by the others, Hiccup last of all. It was exciting that they were over at his house but he wasn't sure if he really wanted them here. They were rather chaotic.
"This is your room?" Ruffnut asked. The kids looked around at the mess of drawings on his desk and floor, and various toy weapons strewn about mixed in with the odd rock or piece of driftwood.
"Dude, where's your bed?" Tuffnut asked, "Does your dad make you sleep on the floor?"
"I heard the Chief was strict but that seems just a little, you know, mean?" Fishlegs said.
"I don't thleep on the floor. My bed'th downthtairth. I'm not allowed to thleep in the loft yet." Hiccup said. He was trying to clean up his drawings and put them in a pile. He didn't want them stepped on or ruined. Snotlout scoffed but didn't say anything. He was still trying to be nice to Hiccup.
"You aren't allowed to sleep in your own room?" Astrid asked. The other kids looked at Hiccup inquisitively.
"Not yet." Hiccup stressed, "Dad thayth it ithn't thafe here in a dragon raid." The twins were laughing outright now and it was all Snotlout could do to not join in with them.
"We sleep upstairs in our house." Ruffnut said, "But of course the wittle baby sleeps downstairs with his daddy." She said pinching Hiccup's cheek.
"Knock it off!" He said pushing her hand away and stepping back, "I'm not a baby."
"Of course you aren't a baby," Tuffnut said. He wrapped an arm around Hiccup's shoulders.
"Thank you." Hiccup said before Tuffnut continued,
"It's just not 'thafe' up here." He cackled and the others joined in. Hiccup pushed Tuffnut off and crossed his arms.
"It'th not funny guys. You all lithped when you lotht your teeth."
"Yeah, but you're the one 'lithping' now." Ruffnut said.
"Knock it off guys," Astrid said, "We came here to play a game not pick on Hiccup." Fishlegs nodded enthusiastically from where he stood inspecting the papers on the desk.
"What do you want to do?" Hiccup asked.
"We could play hide 'n' seek." Fishlegs suggested.
Snotlout barked out a laugh, "And where would we hide?" He held his hands out gesturing at the mostly empty room.
Hiccup opened his mouth to say there were lots of places to hide but decided against it. He didn't want to be made fun of for having hiding places during dragon raids.
"For the Chief he doesn't have a lot of stuff." Tuffnut said. He was leaning over the railing looking at the room below.
"Why do we need a lot of thtuff?" Hiccup asked.
"Duh, cause your Dad's the Chief." Snotlout said as he waved around a toy sword.
"Tho? He'th barely home anyway." Hiccup noticed Tuffnut kneeling next to the railing, "Tuff we can't play with the rope." Tuffnut stood up from where he had been testing how secure it was.
"But it's about status," Fishlegs said. He was looking at all the paper in the room. That showed status; paper wasn't cheap.
"We don't need more thtuff. What would we do with it?"
"Use it to hide when we play hide 'n' seek. Keep up Hiccup." Tuffnut said.
Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Cauthe that happenth all the time."
"Can we just pick another game?" Astrid said, "Or I'm going home." She was never one to stand around and there wasn't a lot of stuff to investigate here while the others stood around. She had thought the Chief's house would be more interesting.
"We could play Vikingth and dragonth." Hiccup said.
"That works." Said Astrid as she picked up a wooden axe off the floor.
"Who's on what side?" Fishlegs asked.
"I am a Viking." Astrid declared. No one was willing to say otherwise.
"Everyone else can draw straws," Fishlegs said.
"Wait, wait." Snotlout interrupted, "How will we know who's won?"
"Duh, the Vikings always win." Tuff said. They had all gone to the centre of the room to decide who was on what team.
"But what determines when they've won?" Snotlout said pointing the toy sword at Tuffnut.
"Vikingth have to defend the village, they do that and they've won." Hiccup said with a shrug.
Ruffnut snorted, "More like the wilderness. There isn't enough stuff here for it to be a village." They looked around and nodded. Hiccup rolled his eyes and crossed his arms,
"We have enough thtuff, we don't need any more." He was getting annoyed, he thought having them at his house would mean they didn't pick on him.
"What if the Vikings have to protect something?" Fishlegs said trying to calm the tension.
"Like a damsel in distress? Sure." Snotlout laughed, "Who will it be?" The boys glanced over at Astrid and Ruffnut. The murderous glares they received made sure that suggestion was not made.
"I think it should be Hiccup." Tuffnut said. Ruffnut and Snotlout nodded.
"What! Why?" Hiccup shouted.
"Cause you're the wittle baby." Ruffnut said, "You need to be protected from the big bad dragons." She reached to pinch his cheek again but he stepped back.
"I do not." Hiccup said.
"All in favour of Hiccup being protected?" Snotlout asked. The twins and Snotlout all raised their hands. Fishlegs nervously raised his. Astrid rolled her eyes.
"Can't we uthe a toy for a sheep or thomething?" Hiccup asked.
"No." Ruffnut said with a smirk.
"It'th my houthe." Hiccup stomped his foot.
"No it's not. It's the Chief's house." Snotlout said with a grin. He forgot about making it up to Hiccup, this was more fun.
"But I live here." Hiccup said throwing his hands out.
"Still not your house." Ruffnut said with a grin.
"If we don't settle this now I'm going home." Astrid said. She was twirling the axe around. She seemed to be considering whether to use it on someone or not.
"See Hiccup? Just be the baby." Ruffnut said.
"Then the teamth won't be even." Hiccup tried.
"Um, actually," Began Fishlegs holding his finger up, "The dragons always outnumber the Vikings."
"Thith ith thtupid." Hiccup said. He crossed his arms and sat on the floor.
"I'm sorry, what was that, baby?" Ruffnut asked sweetly. Hiccup huffed but refused to answer. "So, girls versus boys?" She said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Snotlout raised both hands, almost forgetting about the toy sword he held, "Why do you get to be the Vikings?" Astrid raised her eyebrows in a challenge.
"Because we're better than you." Ruffnut said.
"No you aren't." Tuffnut put in, "You have cooties." Ruff went to punch him but Astrid levelled the toy axe at Tuffnut's neck first.
"We're Vikings and you are dragons. Got it?" Tuffnut's eyes went wide and he nodded, aware of the danger he was in. "And you," She pointed the axe at Hiccup, "Are going to be the damsel in distress, or baby, or whatever. Got it?" Hiccup nodded silently. Nobody disagreed with Astrid. "Good. Get your weapon Ruff."
"Wait a minute," Fishlegs said, "What do we get if you have weapons?" He didn't like his odds. All the kids stopped and considered the room. In the winter the 'dragons' threw snowballs for 'fire.' They had never played the game inside before.
"What about crumpling up paper and throwing that?" Ruffnut said.
"No!" Hiccup stood up, "You can't uthe my paper." For a moment everyone remembered that Hiccup was in fact the son of the Chief. The resemblance was noticeable.
"Alright, fine, sheesh." Snotlout said holding his hands up after a moment.
"Why don't you use toy swords?" Astrid sighed, "You know, like claws."
"Sounds good." Tuffnut said with a wicked grin. He picked up a sword.
"What do I do?" Hiccup asked. The other kids had picked up weapons and were testing them out.
"You just look cute and let us protect you like a good little baby." Ruffnut told him. She reached over and ruffled his hair.
"I am not a baby." Hiccup said. He was getting more frustrated with them, it was his house did they have to pick on him here?
"Can we just play already?" Snotlout said. He ducked as Astrid swung her axe at his head; officially starting the game. The kids started running around swinging their toy weapons; the 'dragons' shouting and roaring as they attacked the Vikings who shouted out war cries. Hiccup mostly tried to stay out of the way; partly because Ruffnut almost hit him in the head with her axe and partly because the other boys kept grabbing at him. It was noisy, chaotic movement all around and Hiccup couldn't keep track of everybody. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he was grabbed from behind.
"I got the baby!" Tuffnut shouted. He had both arms wrapped around the smaller boy, pinning his arms to his sides. Tuffnut lifted Hiccup off his feet and started to lug him over to the dragon side of the loft.
"Let go." Hiccup yelled, kicking his feet in an effort to get Tuffnut to drop him.
Snotlout laughed, "We won! We stole the damsel." He ducked again as Astrid almost got his head. "Whoa! Watch the where you swing that thing."
"I am not a damsel!" Hiccup shouted over his cousin. His foot made contact with Tuffnut's shin and the older boy squeezed tighter in an attempt to get him to stop.
"He's our baby not a damsel." Ruffnut said as she took on Snotlout.
"You haven't won anyway, we can rescue him." Astrid declared as she rushed at Tuffnut, knocking Fishlegs out of the way. Snotlout ducked out of his fight with Ruffnut to cut Astrid off as she made her way towards Tuffnut.
"Not if we get him to the nest and eat him first." Snotlout yelled. Tuffnut had Hiccup on the other side of the room now and dropped him in the corner. "Come on Fishlegs, you get over here so we can 'eat' him and we've won." Snotlout said as he fought off Astrid with Tuffnut's help. Hiccup was behind them in the corner, trapped. Ruffnut tackled Fishlegs when he got up from where Astrid had pushed him.
"Dragons never win." She said.
"Ow, ow, ow, get off!" Fishlegs cried. All of a sudden Snotlout fell down.
"Ow! Hiccup." He turned on his cousin who sat in the corner with a wooden hammer. He had hit the back of Snotlout's knees, "You can't use weapons."
"Can too. I jutht did and I'll do it again." Hiccup swung his hammer at Snotlout but it was blocked, "Thee."
"You're ruining the game, Useless." Tuffnut said.
"Am not. I'm helping my team." Hiccup stood up to better defend himself against Snotlout's attacks. However, Astrid pulled Snotlout back and threw him to the ground. Thinking he was safe Hiccup let his guard down but Astrid stomped on his foot, hard, and grabbed the hammer in his hands. However, Stoick had taught Hiccup to keep a hold of his weapon and the result of the brief struggle was the wooden hammer smacking Hiccup in the face. Astrid huffed in frustration, letting go of his hammer.
"We do not need your help." She enunciated each word as Hiccup held his swelling lip. "So play properly and drop that hammer!" She then grabbed Hiccup's arm and pulled him back to the Viking side of the room. All of the children were silent. The wrath of Astrid was to be feared. She could almost get as scary as the Chief himself. The sound of the front door opening broke the silence.
"Hiccup." The Chief called. Astrid let go of Hiccup's arm and stepped away from him. The kids shared nervous glances. Astrid went pale, she wasn't scared of Hiccup one bit but everyone in the village knew how protective the Chief was of his son and Hiccup's lip was swollen in a condemning way.
"You're so dead." Ruffnut mouthed to her.
Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Yeah Dad?"
"You know what. Come downstairs when I call you." Stoick said. He had had a stressful morning. The flooding was still preventing them from moving the herds closer to the village and if this weather continued the dragons would get here first. The herds would be easy pickings. He looked up from the cold box as all the kids trooped downstairs. "So this is where you were. Your parents are looking for you. Best get home now." He really was unsure of which kids belonged to which parents, with the exception of his nephew, and was not used to seeing them in his house.
"Yes sir." They all chorused. None of them dared look him in the eye. Not even Astrid was that brave. They hurried out. Stoick shook his head and went back to getting Hiccup's midday meal. He would rather not bother with eating during the day but Stoick knew Hiccup needed to. Growing boy and all that. He had gotten the lecture from the other children's mothers a while ago. Hiccup sat at the table after the others had gone.
"Dad?"
Stoick didn't look up as he determined whether the milk had gone bad. "Yeah?"
"Can we move my bed to the loft?"
"You know the answer to that." The milk was fine. Stoick poured some into a mug and got out the bread.
"But the twinth thleep in the loft of their houthe." Hiccup whined. Stoick hated it when he whined.
"Are you either of the twins?" He asked as he cut the bread.
"No."
"There's your answer." Stoick turned to give Hiccup his meal and saw the boy's swollen lip for the first time. "What happened?" He asked, not really surprised. He put the food down and checked the swelling.
"Nothing," Hiccup said, "Jutht an accident." He winced when his father touched the area.
"Open your mouth." Stoick said. Hopefully his gums were okay. The inflammation had finally gone down and Stoick didn't want any more complications. It was fine; healing well, undamaged. With a sigh Stoick stood up and brushed his hand through Hiccup's hair, "What am I going to do with you?" He said as he got a rag to wrap around some ice. It was a question that was getting increasingly more worrying; Hiccup was proving to be something of a walking disaster as he got older and was still quite small for his age. The very thought of Hiccup facing a dragon sent chills down Stoick's spine, which wasn't encouraging given that the boy was going to have to face them sooner or later as the heir to Berk. There was also the matter of finding him something to do around the village. Most people didn't want the boy near their work; they thought they were subtle about it but Stoick saw right through that. He didn't blame them either. Hiccup meant well but was too eager to help and would hurt himself, others, and objects more often than not. Hiccup was blissfully unaware of the problem for now. He'd start noticing it sooner or later, but for now he was still a child with simple needs and wants.
"You could let me thleep in the loft?" There was a hopeful note in Hiccup's voice.
"Hiccup Horrendous we are not discussing this. No means no. Not another word." Stoick knelt in front of Hiccup and placed the ice on his lip. "Hold this there. It'll help the swelling go down."
The Nightmare spent the rest of her day collecting moss and leaves for her hatchling's bed. She brought it to the clearing and nosed it around till it was spread out to dry in the sun. Inside the cave she dug out a shallow dip that she would line with the moss and leaves. She collected more wood to burn and stored that in the cave as well so it stayed dry. Everything was ready; all she had to do was wait for the perfect moment.
A/N: This one was fun to write with all the kids and their dynamics. Chaotic and confusing, but fun. Honestly I kept losing track of the kids and had to do lots of read throughs to make sense of the game scene.
Thank you for the reviews :) And thanks to my sister who came up with the game that the kids play and who's on what team.
As always thanks to CB for editing and making suggestions :)