Stoick watched as Hubert and Hamish kissed their wives goodbye at the castle gates and rode off into the woods to go hunting with their men. The two boys had been doing that more and more frequently since they'd gotten married about a month ago, and from the scowls of the princesses, he could bet he knew why. Ah well, at least one of his sons was happy.
The girls returned to their bedrooms, no doubt to complain to their servants about the two princes, and Stoick headed for the forge he had built for his youngest son one year as a thirteenth birthday present. As he walked closer to the small building, he noticed more and more of the older nights and female servants pausing at the window of the forge. What were they looking at?
"No, I need that part of the design! Toothless, get your claws off the paper, you're smudging it." Hiccup's voice yelled out with a trace of impatience.
Stoick squeezed through the doorway of the forge and asked, "What're you working on, son?"
"A leather guard for my right arm. This lady," the boy gestured towards Milady with a thumb, "Decided to sink her claws into me yesterday, so I decided I needed some extra protection. But she keeps messing with the design! I mean, look!" He held up the parchment with a big inky X over one of the straps on the shoulder section of the leather apparatus. "I need that strap for stability, but Mrs. High and Mighty over there thinks it makes the thing look ugly."
There was a grumble from behind the big man and Milady flew over his head, landing in Hiccup's hair and pulling on it. The boy flailed beneath her. "Okay, I'm sorry! Just stop that!" She let go and flew to her father-in-law's shoulder, perching on his armor. That gave Hiccup an idea. "Hey, maybe it doesn't have to be leather." He scrambled back to the desk he used for designing and Toothless joined him a moment later as he mumbled, "If I could modify a pauldron and hook it to the leather upper arm brace. Oh, but that'd probably uncomfortable for you." The little dragon snorted and Hiccup sighed. "Fine, I'll keep the pauldron. What about a gauntlet for my arm?"
She drew her head back from the parchment and hissed softly. Hiccup nodded. "Okay. No gauntlet. What about a hawking glove instead?"
She tilted her head and blinked at him. He laughed. "Let's go hunt one down. Then you can decide." She chirped and jumped onto his outstretched arm, rubbing her cheek against his. He laughed and rubbed back. They headed out of the small building over to the section of the grounds where Stoick kept his birds and the equipment that went along with them. The king watched as one of the falcon handlers walked up to the youngest prince and asked what he was looking for. Hiccup gestured towards Milady and began telling the story, complete with dramatic arm movements that made Stoick laugh at his son's exuberance. He seemed livelier since Milady had joined their household.
The king walked back into the throne room and sat himself in the massive chair that represented his kingship. As much as he liked the affect the little dragon had on his youngest son, the unconventional nature of their marriage made the kingdom uneasy. He had to do something to assure them that the beast was a worthy wife, before they started calling for an annulment. That would be too messy, for everyone involved.
One of the other princesses, Clarice, came into the room and approached the king. "My Lord," she said, curtsying, "Princess Sophia and I would like to prepare a meal for the family tomorrow, if that is agreeable."
He snapped his fingers. That was it! "Of course you may, my dear," he smiled at the young woman. "In fact, all three princesses may prepare a meal of their choosing and bring it tonight for dinner. I am quite interested to see which of my daughters-in-law is most able in the kitchens." There. If Hiccup's wife could sufficiently carry out her wifely duties, he could use that to persuade the people that it was a decent enough match to go forward with.
Clarice smiled under cover of her reverently bent head. This was the opportunity she needed to get the attention of the castle away from that scaled disgrace and back onto herself.
Back in the forge, Hiccup finished hammering the small two pronged hook he'd formed onto the shoulder guard. He plunged the combined pieces of metal into the cooling bucket and looked up at Toothless nestled comfortable in his hair. It was her second favorite spot to roost, after his shoulder, and he didn't really mind as long as she kept her claws away from his hair. "Well, shall we see how it did?" She trilled and flew off, landing on the horn of the anvil. He pulled the piece out of the cooling bucket, laid it on the flat part of the anvil, and pulled on one of the prongs. It held. "Yes!"
She roared in triumph, hopping on the anvil. "Let's put it together and try it out!" He slipped the leather straps into their brackets and cinched them tight around his chest and upper arm. With a deft hand, he slid the leather upper arm guard from his suit of practice armor up his arm and slipped the loops he'd added to the top over the new hooks on the metal shoulder guard. Toothless flew to where Hiccup had left the hawking glove from earlier and brought it over to him. "Thank you, Milady," he joked and accepted the leather, inserting his hand into the article and tying it to the leather arm guard on either side of his elbow.
He moved his arm around, testing all the different angles of both shoulder and elbow. The piece moved with him rather well. When he stopped testing the range of motion and held it out straight, Toothless jumped on the upper arm guard and looked at him expectantly. "Don't feel a thing." She tightened her grip.
He laughed. "Still don't feel it."
She unsheathed her claws and dug in. He flinched. "Okay, maybe I feel that." She snorted and drew her claws back in, taking off and landing on the metal shoulder guard.
He looked at her, waiting for the verdict. Would she get off? Did the metal hurt her feet? But to his relief, she let out a happy trill and nuzzled his cheek. "Good, I'm glad you like it."
He was about to remove it to adjust the shape of the shoulder guard for a better fit when one of the guards came into the small forge. Bowing, the man said, "His Majesty would like to see you and Princess Milady in the throne room right away."
He flinched. This couldn't be good, but he followed the guard back to the main part of the castle anyway, still with Toothless perched on his shoulder.
A cliffhanger, but nothing too horrible. And the names I used for the armor are real pieces, look them up. Did you like his design?
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