Well, time to continue with the movie! Hope everyone enjoys this! Also, many people have been asking if I would have Aedus and Hiccup do "For the Dancing and the Dreaming." I'd appreciate those people looking very carefully at the first chapter of the story, or 'The Prequel.' Think about what Aedus says after they dance. Plus, they aren't doing the exact same dance. It will be a little different. ;)
Chapter is dedicated to Porcelain and Frankenteen, for inspiring me to finish this chapter! Thank them for this update!
Chapter 6
Hiccup appeared on screen, lifting up a bola weight in her hand and weighing it for a moment. She's back at the clearing in the forest where she had first encountered the Night Fury.
"Nooooooooo," Stoick groaned, seeing his daughter going back to the place where she had almost died.
"So why didn't you?" She questions, dropping the bola and walking in the direction she had seen the Night Fury fly off. She drops into a rocky crevice, walking through to find a beautiful sunlit cove, with birds song ringing through the air.
Home. Aedus and Hiccup thought, squeezing each other's hands for a moment.
"Well, this was stupid," Hiccup sighs, seeing no evidence that the Night Fury had remained in this part of the forest.
"Of course it was stupid. Dragons wouldn't stick around in the place they were almost killed in." Astrid told Hiccup in the same cold emotionless tone she always used, the brunette wincing at the reminder she had almost killed Aedus.
"Well, I think that Hiccup is brilliant!" Kai declared loudly. "I've forgiven her for trying to kill Aedus, and she's forgiven me for trying to kill you guys! So stop being such a meanie!"
A lot of the people in the room sweatdropped, as Kai's wise and serious moment was ruined with the use of the word 'meanie.'
Then she notices a few black scales littering the ground near her.
"You were saying?" Kai smirked, looking over at Astrid, who decided she really didn't like the Nadder sitting next to her.
"Just because she found a few scales doesn't mean that the Night Fury is still there!" Astrid hissed out, as the smarter people in the room shook their heads. After all, Hiccup was obviously familiar with the black dragon, so this must have been where they met.
Crouching to pick it up, she examines it for a moment.
Suddenly a black blur screeches past Hiccup.
"HA! I told you so!" Kai jumped up to a standing position on the couch, pointing at Astrid with a wild grin on his face. Said girl just ignored him, scowling.
She recoils for a moment, before watching the dark beast struggle to climb the cove walls. It scrambles for a grip on the rocks for a few seconds, before falling and twisting in midair to glide over the lake to land awkwardly.
"Why's Aedus flying funny?" A young Nadder child voices aloud what many of the dragons are thinking. The ring dragons wince, as they realize that although the other dragons knew Hiccup had shot Aedus down, they didn't exactly know about his... injury.
The Vikings looked over at the dragons curiously. The Night Fury was flying oddly? Hiccup winced, glancing over at Aedus. He sat stiffly, and she could feel his hand squeezing hers.
"Aedus?" Firan asked cautiously.
"It's alright!" As he turned to face the dragons, a smile could be seen on his face, with only Hiccup noticing how forced it was. "Just keep watching the movie. It'll be explained soon, I think."
Hiccup pants in surprise and astonishment for a few more seconds, watching as the dragon tried again to unsuccessfully climb the cliff walls before landing again. Then, realizing the opportunity she has here, Hiccup scrambles down the rocky path, grabbing her journal, and quickly sketching down the Night Fury as it moved around on the ground.
"Wait, you can draw?!" Tuffnut exclaimed, watching the Night Fury take shape on the journal pages. A few other Vikings nodded. While drawing wasn't a very useful skill, it was certainly a rare one, and important when it came to things like cartography and painting crests on shields and sails.
"Yeah?" Hiccup's eyebrow raised as she answered the question, confused. So what? She could draw, but so could Bucket. It was hardly a unique or even necessary skill. Besides, compared to some of the things they were about to find out, drawing wasn't very important in the long run.
Bucket looked over the drawing with an appraising eye. As the only other artist on Berk, it was important to pass on skills to the next generation. And from what he could see, the heiress certainly had some talent.
"Why don't you just, fly away?" Hiccup wonders out loud, watching the large black beast as it shoots plasma at the ground in anger. Then, seeing what she missed, Hiccup rubs out the left tailfin, looking up again to confirm her drawing's accuracy.
"Oh, Aedus..." Fortuna looked at him with a pitying eye, as many dragons dipped their heads to mourn the passing of their friends' flight. "Why didn't you say anything about your tail?"
He turned, looking at them with a smile, surpirsing many. "If I had told you, would it really have changed anything? Besides," he turned to Hiccup, bringing the hand he was holding up to his lips to brush a chaste kiss over it. "I gained more than I lost."
The Vikings carefully observed this interaction. Rather than rushing in and shouting in joy at their enemies defeat, they were beginning to observe first. They were learning not to judge a book by its cover.
Then she returned to watching the Night Fury's flying attempts. The dragon landed hard by the edge of the lake, causing a fish to splash away from the surface. Padding over to the water carefully, the dragon suddenly lunges forward, trying in vain to catch a fish, but the cods dart off. The dragon lowers its head, looking weakened.
Hiccup squeezed Aedus's hand, and he squeezed back. No words were necessary.
Seeing the fearsome beast unable to even catch its food, and knowing it was her fault, Hiccup slumped down guiltily, her fingers relaxing. She tries to grab the charcoal pencil as it slipped from her grasp, but it rolled off the cliff, hitting the ground with a clinking sound that caught the Night Fury's attention.
Gobber can't help but worry about his apprentice, despite the obvious fact that she had survived the encounter. After all, friendly though it may seem now, that was a Night Fury. The most dangerous dragon on Berk.
The dragon raised his head up to see Hiccup on the cliff, and both of them froze as green gazes locked together. Time froze for a moment, before Hiccup backed up, scrambling back the way she came as the dragon watched her go.
"What were you thinking during that?" Hiccup murmured to Aedus under her breath, and the dragon pursed his lips for a moment, thinking.
"At that time, I believe my thoughts were along the lines of, 'It's that odd human again. Why does she keep coming back alone?' I was confused, because from what I had observed of you humans, you tended to go around in groups with lots of weapons. You were different. It... intrigued me."
The screen shows the Great Hall. A storm is brewing outside, while inside, the teens sit eating, as Gobber quizzes them about their first day of training.
"Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" The door opens slightly as Hiccup slips in unnoticed, soaked to the bone from the rain.
"I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble," Astrid answered immediately, paying no attention to the eye rolling from the rest of the group.
"As if!" Kai scoffed, drawing everyone's attention away from the screen. "We all saw it, Astrid. The somersault dive isn't what threw you off, the problem was that you went across Hiccup to the right when it would have been much simpler to dive left, so that you could use the wall to your advantage. Instead, you blocked Hiccup's view and drew away her attention so that she didn't see the lava slug aimed at her. Duh."
Most could only stare in bewilderment at the Nadder, as he had just told off Astrid Hofferson. And in an extremely nonchalant way.
For her part, the shield maiden was shocked. No one had ever offered anything but praise to her, but here was this dragon, not only telling her off in a constructive way, but defending Hiccup's performance in the ring while at it.
Kai looked over to see his couch-mate staring at him in shock.
"Look, I know I'm handsome, but there's no need to stare," he teased her, grinning and waggling his eyebrows. The blonde narrowed her eyes, turning away and scowling at the screen.
"Yeah, we noticed," Ruffnut sarcastically pitched in, only for Snotlout to jump to his crush's defense.
"No, no, you were great! That was so 'Astrid'." Said girl just rolled her eyes and took a long drink from her cup.
"Odin's Beard, you are such a butt kisser." Verity rolled her eyes at Snotlout, who bristled in indignation.
"I do not! I was just complimenting her!"
Verity pursed her lips, looking over Snotlout carefully. After an uncomfortable moment for all who were watching them, she sighed, a few wisps of smoke intermingled with her breath.
"Listen very carefully, because I will only say this once. The blonde maiden sees you as worthless." Snotlout went to protest, but the Nightmare held a hand up. "No, let me speak. Until you are able to prove to her through actions that you are the man you say you are, she will see you as you are. An arrogant bragging boy."
With her piece said, Verity turned back to the screen, head held high, looking every bit the proud dragon she was. Snotlout was quiet, staring at her seeming to think over her words.
"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves." Gobber lectures the students, as Hiccup approaches the table. Snotlout immediately scooted over on the bench, preventing the brunette from sitting down. Hiccup just grabbed a plate of fish and cup of water, walking over to the next table, used to this happening.
"That was really rude," Verity announced, glaring at the short bruntte sitting next to her. Snotlout was quiet, still thinking over the dragon's words.
"Where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber asked, trying to get the girl involved in the conversation.
"Uh, she showed up?" Ruffnut grinned.
"She didn't get eaten?" Tuffnut pitched in. Hiccup just rolls her eyes, picking at her food.
A fireball exploded over the twins heads, and they looked over to see most of the dragons glaring at them.
"She's never where she should be," Astrid glares at the girl, as Gobber sighs in relief at finally getting the correct answer.
"Oh really?" Kai asked the shield-maiden. "So then would you mind explaining where exactly Hiccup should have been so that she doesn't make that mistake again, instead of saying a vague sentence that could mean anything!"
Astrid glared at the Nadder sitting next to her. He was staring at her with fine eyebrows arched over eyes of molten gold.
"Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe this stuff," Gobber strides to the head of the table throwing a thick leather bound book down in front of the teens. "The dragon manual. Everything we know, about every dragon we know of."
Thunder rumbles, and Gobber looks at the ceiling for a moment.
"No attacks tonight. Study up."
"Really? You just hear a storm, and assume that we are unable to attack due to it?" Mettina asks Gobber in a disbelieveing voice. Seeing the blacksmith nod, the Gronckle groans and drops her head into her hands muttering under her breath about "uneducated thick-headed humans."
Fishlegs shifted uncomfortably. He felt sort of bad, and was also nervous. Mettina was the first person to relate to him on an intellectual level; he didn't want her to hate him.
The blacksmith walked off, leaving the teens alone. Tuffnut jerks up, the dagger he was balancing falling down as what Gobber said sinks in.
"Wait, you mean read?"
"While we're still alive?" His twin adds, both looking disgusted.
Many of the dragons just looked at the Zippleback twins, who both avoided everyone's gazes resolutely, thinking of a time when they had said something extremely similar.
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout snapped, his hands angrily conveying his feelings about needing to read.
"Perhaps to extend your understandably limited vocabulary?" Mettina suggested slyly, lips curling upwards into a smirk.
"Hey! That sounded like an insult!" Snotlout shouted at the Gronckle, causing many to roll their eyes at him.
"Oh! I've read it, like, seven times! There's this water dragon, that sprays boiling water at your face!"
"Yeah! That would be us Scauldrons!" A voiced echoed from the back of the room. The Vikings all craned their necks to see a dark-skinned boy, with pale blue hair jumping up and down cheering for his species.
"And, and there's this other one, that buries itself for like a week-"
"That would be us Whispering Deaths," a quiet voice floated up, drawing attention to a small girl in the middle of the dragons, with white skin and pale eyes.
"Yeah!" Tuffnut snapped his hand close, Fishlegs' mouth mimicking it. "That sounds great. Now, there was a chance I was gonna read that-"
"But, now?" Ruffnut adds, her face the picture of monotonous boredom.
"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff." Snotlout stands from the table to leave, Tuffnut and Ruffnut following his lead, while Fishlegs trails behind the three, still spouting out information.
"T-There's this other one, that has these spines, like trees-" Their voices fade into the background as Hiccup walks over to Astrid, a hesitant, but hopeful look on her face..
"So I guess we'll share-"
"Read it." The blonde stands, striding over to the exit, leaving behind the brunette wincing down at the book.
"Ah, all mine, then. Wow. So, ah, okay, I'll see you-" A door slamming echoes across the Hall. Hiccup looks up, finding herself alone once more. "-tomorrow."
"Its fine, Hiccup." Aedus said, now acting far less dramatic now that his traumatic memories had passed, and he had a handle on his emotions. "Who needs show-off blondes when you've got a family of dragons!"
Hiccup smiled over at Aedus, who was acting more like his usual self now.
"Yeah."
A few hours later, the Hall is dark and empty, but Hiccup is shown carrying a small candle towards the table from earlier. She sits down, opening the dragon manual.
"Dragon classifications; Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class."
"Oh! Oh! Nee-chan! What Class am I in!" Ryu asked excitedly, bouncing up and down on the couch.
"Terrible Terrors are in the Stoker Class. That means that your most prominent feature is your use of fire."
She flips a few pages, finding a page depicting a large dragon with a giant mouth lined in teeth.
"Yeah! Thunderdrums for the win!" A deep voice boomed across the room. Its owner stood proudly among a group of Thunderdrums, all with one distinguishing feature; all had un-hingeable jaws.
"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight."
"Yo, that's just cause you Vikings can't handle the music." A Thunderdrum with a pink Mohawk said, bumping fists with another next to him.
She flips a few pages over, the book now showing a thin dragon with large wings.
Everyone paused, waiting for a Timberjack to announce their presence the same way the other dragons had. But all that happened was a girl with long brown hair held up a peace sign, then went back to sitting silently.
"Timberjack. This gigiantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight."
More pages are flipped, faster with Hiccup's increasing nervousness. The book now shows a dragon with a large head, and thin but long neck. "Scauldron. Sprays scaulding water at it's victims. Extremely dangerous-"
Hiccup turns, crying out as a particularly loud boom of thunder, scares her. Seeing no one but her in the hall, she gathers herself, then turns back to the book.
"Wow. That was really creepy." A random Viking said, everyone else nodding in agreement.
"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight."
"WHAT!" Fortuna yelled in outrage, many around her jumping at her sudden yell. "So what that book is saying is that you are told to murder our babies!" Many of the Vikings shrunk down in slight shame, whereas most just looked away from the rampaging mother, who was now being calmed by her daughter.
She begins flipping the book faster, only scanning each page as it goes by.
"Gronckle. Zippleback. The Skrill. Boneknapper. Whispering Death." The dragons on the pages begin to look as though they are alive, Hiccup's increasing anxiety practically palpable in the air.
"Burns it's victims, buries it's victims, chokes it's victims, turns it's victims inside out. Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous. Kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight."
"So violent…" Hiccup sighed, shaking her head at the screen.
Hiccup's rapid flipping comes to a stop, as she lands on a page bare of any illustrations.
"Night Fury. Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself."
"Wow. 'Unholy offspring' huh? I'll have you know that if any dragon is the offspring of lightening, it's the Skrills. I can't really dispute with the death thing though." Aedus muttered thoughtfully. Hiccup rolled her eyes; she knew he was intentionally scaring the Vikings.
"Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide, and pray it does not find you."
"I doubt that would work. I am excellent at hide and seek." Aedus said, winking at Hiccup, whose eyes widened in embarrassment when she realized what he meant.
Hiccup looks up for a moment, before grabbing her journal from her vest, and putting it on top of the book. It is opened up to the page she drew the Night Fury on; the only known drawing of one in Berk's history.
So I don't really have any excuse, but I will have you know I would have uploaded this chapter a week ago when school ended for me if my Mom hadn't grounded me from electronics. But anyway, now that its summer, I'm gonna be able to start focusing on writing and completely finish this story! Warning though; I'm heading to an electronic free sleep-away camp for three weeks starting tomorrow. But after that, I will continue to write!