AN: Because it had to happen at some point and in my opinion it's long overdue.
Chapter Eighty-Four: George and the fight for the chicken
There was one thing George despised nearly as much as traitors, fish in any form and dragons. And that were hypocrites.
He hated people that fooled others through their actions and pretended to be someone they weren't.
And what he despised even more was the fact that he was turning into a hypocrite.
He hadn't planned for it to happen of course. If he could he would reverse the clock and do it all differently.
But alas that was apparently not possible.
All in all had his situation been bad this past weeks.
Why? Well, let's see:
First things first: Against his previous statements, George had, admittedly, formed a temporary alliance with the younger boy and his little group.
George was not stupid, despite Josh's constant protests, but George saw the truth when obvious to him and he knew that foul things were happening all over the world. And he knew that his uncle had been not in his right mind and yes, he wanted it to stop, especially since friends of his were still missing in action in Talkin and he desperately wanted to see them again.
If he could archive that by following this young Viking so be it.
George was devoted to the people he loved; loyal to those that deserved it in his eyes.
But he didn't have many friends and was generally disliked by his people due to who his father was and his father's-father and father's-father's-father and so on. As if any of that was his fault, he hadn't asked to be born with traitor blood in his veins. But try to explain that to dragon-weary people that needed someone to blame so they wouldn't go nuts.
Anyway.
If Haddock deserved his loyalty was a debate for another time but his quest deserved it.
Of course he'd been angry at first when he had found no way to leave this little band of homeless kids that wanted to save the world.
He was appalled by their behavior and they had stood against everything he'd ever been taught and what he'd believed his whole live.
But as the weeks had passed and they had lived for so long so close together he had started to understand each of them. And with understanding came sympathy and, as much as he wanted to deny it, he liked being part of their group, of the adventure and he felt his sense of duty calling out to him to help.
He was a soldier and he'd been raised to protect the weak and he'd seen the evil they were up against with his own eyes. His own sense of morality and his own opinions of fairness and goodness and they ways of the world had kept him from quitting and running away, back to Port East and his old, and yes, somewhat miserable life.
George wasn't able to explain his feelings and why he did what he did, especially not after the nut-job of an old man had reveled that all their ancestors had been like them before but he knew that he was still in debt to Hiccup for saving his live and something else kept him with these strange bunch of kids from all over the planet.
They were all so different and yet they got along so well, a fact that irritated George immensely.
Somehow they had all connected and bonded.
How, George didn't know.
But deep inside him there was a little voice that voiced the desire of being part of that bond.
A ridicules wish, they would never accepted him, he told himself over and over.
You imprisoned them and were mean and made everything unnecessary hard with your behavior, one voice said sternly.
But why did Hiccup still offer his hand in friendship time and time again? Why haven't they told you to go yet? Because the still want you here, argued the other voice in his head.
He's just being nice, the other voice said.
No, he means it, the other said.
Get real, the other would just counter, all we do is fight and argue and insult each other. We can't work just once together with anyone of them. We are too different from them.
And then the other voice would remind the other voice: We already worked together. You and Hiccup worked together when you had that mock-fight in Kinkal when you were captured by Alvin to serve as a distraction, you and Josh just saved Hiccup and Conner when they were dangling from the side of the boat, about to be shot, you helped Kate often with the food, you helped to care for her when she was poisoned, you also shared laughter with them and you managed to obey certain orders from others too. Admit it; you are just too proud and afraid to bind yourself to these people. You are afraid of them turning their back on them just like everybody else did in your life. Even though you know that is not going to happen.
And how would you know what my motives are? It's not like they only left me, they left you as well and above all, how can you know the future. We barely know these people.
And whose fault is that? We could be so much more, so much better, if you'd just open yourself to new possibilities. Change is nothing bad. Change is good. We could do with some friends you know?
We have friends.
Yes, people that will kill you once they know what you are doing here. Riding dragons, consulting with strangers, leaving home undefended….
That was not my fault, I was abducted.
We're back at the beginning again….
That was usually the point where George told both voices to shut up.
He was conflicted. He didn't know what to do.
Usually he did the wrong thing.
How did that have anything to do with becoming a hypocrite?
Easy: It made how he now felt even worse.
This whole mess he now called his life had started with dragons.
Dragons attacking his home ever since he could remember, dragons killing his family, dragons making his life hard, dragons being the reason for their poverty, dragons ridden by humans throwing his world out of balance, dragons carrying him away in their claws, dragons suddenly being nothing like he thought, dragons suddenly being annoyingly friendly and playful, dragons suddenly saving his life, dragons becoming part of his daily life, dragons turning out to be…awesome creatures.
Yes, awesome, that had been the word.
He, George, who had despised dragons his whole life and had sworn to kill every last of them, sneaked every night into the stables under deck and spend some hours with Nightlights head in his lab, scratching the dragon under the chin and over the eyes, breathing in the slight smell of sulfur and gas, feeling the warmth emitting from the dragons scales, enjoying the soft humming-noises they made.
But he was too afraid and still too proud to let the others know. He already got annoyed imagining Josh's smug face.
Yes, he was absolutely a hypocrite.
Had he known what was in store for him, he'd run away a long time ago!
.
.
.
The second evening after stealing the boat from Conners dad had started so well, George was sure nothing could ruin it.
Yeah, right, enough said!
But George felt optimistic.
Why?
Easy!
The weather was nice, the waves not too bad, nobody had, yet, attacked them and he'd been nominated to make dinner.
Okay, the latter one had, at first, not been a reason to be happy.
He was a horrible chef. It was a wonder he'd survived this long on his own.
But as he rummaged through the pantry of the ship and its cooling-room, which was filled with giant ice-blocks that only melted very slowly, he found what made his day.
CHICKEN!
George just loved chicken.
But the last weeks he'd been forced to eat fish and he HATED fish with a passion that was already legendary at home.
Sadly living in a FISHING-village didn't help much.
So he'd been ecstatic to find a dozen plucked and gutted chickens hanging from the ceiling of the cooling room.
Dinner that night had been awesome, even the others had said so and he'd seen relieve in the other's eyes too that knowing there was something else than fish.
Well, except for Hiccup maybe. That guy probably had sucked fish-flavored-milk when his mother had nursed him.
Anyway.
Still munching on a chicken-leg and another one in the other hand, he retreated to the deck with the others.
Sitting with their backs leaning against the railing they watched the sky pass overhead and searched for star-constellations.
Though he was sure Josh made his up.
He couldn't see a giant with three horns that was standing on a barrel and was holding a seven-picked-fork.
He doubted the others could either.
They laughed and shared stories and he felt strangely content.
He even told them some of his home-legends and a thing or two about himself in the progress.
The night went on and on and the stars twinkled in the sky and the crescent moon illuminated the deck enough for him to make out his companions faces.
Conner was lying on his back, still laughing from the joke Kate had just told them.
She had laid her head on Hiccups tights as a pillow and was fiddling with some piece of cloth and complained every time Hiccup moved.
Hiccup kept complaining that his bum was falling asleep from where he sat, leaning against the railing. Hope sat with crossed legs next to him and George sat next to her, legs outstretched, probed up on his hands and slightly leaning back and Josh lay in the middle of their circle on his belly and was carving his name in the plank with a knife. Conner had told him to 'knock it off' but of course Josh listened to no one but himself.
It was rather cold but none of them cared too much because of the heat the dragons around them were emitting even while sleeping.
It was peace and quiet in a way they hadn't known for a long time.
Just being together and saying nothing was enough said already.
"Thanks." He suddenly blurted out.
He didn't know why his mouth had decided to speak before his brain had given it permission but now it was too late.
All five of them looked at him.
Kate and Conner even sat up. Josh's eyes had widened to plates.
Hope frowned, as did most of them.
"For what?" Hiccup asked.
Was it just his imagination or was the other boy smiling? George couldn't see due to the light and the shadows.
He swallowed.
Now what, his mouth asked his brain. And the brain answered with: You started this, you say something!
But then the words left his mouth by themselves.
"I'm sorry. I only now understand. And I'm grateful for that." He said.
Conner frowned.
"Grateful for what?" he asked.
"I was a dick, I admit that. Though you can't really blame. At least not for the first few weeks or so." George continued.
"Or months." Josh muttered.
George ignored him.
"I've been thinking a lot lately."
"That's new." Josh commented.
"Shut up. Anyway, I've been thinking and I think… that I have treated you wrongly, all of you. And for that I must apologize. I must say and admit, my whole life I never had friends like you." He said silently.
There was a long heavy silence.
Then Hiccup asked carefully: "Since when are we your friends? I mean you made I quiet clear that you want nothing to do with us and would run as soon as you get the chance. What changed?"
George sighed.
"I know what you are doing is right. And what you did in Port East was right, to a certain extend of course and that you have always been right and that I can't blame you for what happened in the past. I think I have known all along but my pride wouldn't let me accept it. And I'm sorry for that. I guess I was just scared of the possibilities you showed me and how wrong my uncle had been, how twisted with hate. I don't want to end up like that. I want to have friends, people who care for me and to which I mean something. I want to make a change in the world, I….I want to be part of what you are doing Hiccup. What you all are doing. It might be impossible but not improbable. I…I pledge myself to this task because I am a soldier and although I know not much about this thing with the gods and diplomacy and whatnot, I do know how to fight. And I think you need that too. Also I….I have to come clean about something."
The others looked at him with raised eyebrows.
He got up and approached Nightlight.
The dragoness raised her head sleepily.
"Ahm, George…what are you doing? You sure that's wise? She could bite you." Kate warned.
"She won't." he said.
"Hey girl would you like a scratch?" he asked softly and Nightlight purred loudly and offered him his chin. He started scratching and talked softly to her as she purred and rolled onto her back so he could scratch the soft underside of her belly.
Nightlight crooned and nudged him carefully in the belly when he finished.
He returned to the others who all looked to him with their jaws on the ground and eyes wide as plates.
"You…you just….you…Nightlight….she let you…what did you do to my dragon?" Kate spluttered amazed.
"We…kinda became friends."
He told them everything, from his nightly visits to his doubts and fears.
When he was finished, there was a long silence and then Hiccup got up. George, who was still standing looked at him expectantly.
It was so strange. He was at least three year solder than the Viking, yet he felt like a small boy that had done something bad and now, after confessing, awaited his judgment.
Hiccup studied him for a few seconds then he said:
"I'd be honored to welcome you to my family" he said with a gesture at the others "I'd be honored to call you my brother in all but blood. I'd be honored to finally fight along your side and cover the grudge between our families. I'd be honored to start new. Hello, my name is Hiccup, nice to meet you. I'm on a mission to save the world, you wanna join me? We can offer long sleepless weeks, dangerous lands that can kill you and people that sometimes want to eat you, we usually sleep in caves and eat what we can hunt. Oh, and we ride dragons, we treat them like family but they are no pets and usually people don't like us and we end up fighting for our lives. What do you say?" he said with a grin.
George took his hand firmly and said: "Why not? Sounds like fun."
The others cheered.
.
.
Here the evening should have ended and they all should have gone to bed and everything should have been alright.
Of course it wasn't like that.
As they walked over to the door to go under-deck, with George still holding one of his chick-legs, when a shadow blocked out the moon for a second, but long enough for them to notice.
Instincts kicking in, heads shot up and hands reached for weapons.
But most of them had left the in their cabins.
Only Josh had a knife. The others were unarmed.
"What was that?" Kate asked silently.
"Maybe just a flock of birds?" Conner suggested.
Again something flew overhead and at the heck of the ship an oil-lamp went out.
"That is anything but a flock of birds." Josh muttered.
"Form a circle everybody." Hiccup instructed silently. "We need to know what we're dealing with." He added.
"We're in the middle of the freaking ocean. What could it be?" George hissed.
"Don't know. Maybe a really big flying-fish?" Josh suggested.
"What's a flying-fish?" Hope asked.
"Not now." Kate muttered and her eyes moved across the night-sky.
Again a shadow passed, too fast to make anything out.
"We need weapons. Who's closest to the door?" George asked.
"You." Hope said back.
She was right. The door was right in front of him, about five meters away.
"I can make it." He said confidently.
He didn't get the chance to try.
Something swooped down from the sky and landed with a heavy 'THUMP' on the deck, right in front of George, blocking the way under-deck and the only way to their weapons.
In a heartbeat they had broken the circle and stood in a row in front of the….
"It had to be a dragon." Conner groaned.
"Naturally." Hope sighed.
Indeed, standing there on two legs with its wings aggressively opened and snarling at them stood a Deadly Nadder.
It looked pretty much like the one Hiccup had to face during Dragon Training on Berk with the exception that it wasn't blue but dark-green and the spiked on its head had a red tinge.
Its nostrils were flaring and its eyes were mad.
Behind them their two remaining dragons Toothless and Namhera (The others had gone to their stables under-deck minutes before) jumped to their feet, ready to attack.
"NO! NO FIRE! OR WE'LL ALL BURN!" Hiccup shouted.
Gradually the dragons settled back down but not without hostile hisses directed at the intruder.
Not that said intruder really cared. It sniffed around and stamped with its feet.
"Well, go on then." Conner muttered. "There are four dragon-riders among us. One of us can do something, right? Like, send it away?" he asked.
"Well, we can most certainly try." Hiccup muttered and stepped forward. Toothless whinnied behind him, looking at Hiccup pleadingly. "Don't worry bud. Piece of cake, really." He assured his friend.
Carefully he extended a hand and whispered lowly: "Calm boy. Everything is alright. Just calm down and then we can see what we can do for you." At least he thought it was a male. It was often hard to tell with dragons.
The dragon spared him a quick glance and Hiccup could see it in its eyes.
He let himself fall to the ground the same second a volley of spikes flew over his head and impaled themselves quivering in the wooden railing.
Toothless howled and nearly pounced at the other dragon but Hiccup jumped up and blocked his path. The Nadder only seemed mildly interest. It was still sniffing the air.
Hiccup backed up until he stood between his friends again.
"Okay, so that didn't work." he muttered and thought.
"Don't….don't Nadders have a blind spot or something like that?" Kate asked. "I remember reading in Bork's book about it."
"Of course, you're right. 'Every dragon has its blind spot. Find it, hid in it and strike'. Kate you're brilliant. I wouldn't have thought of that." Hiccup said, quoting his old teacher Gobber.
He dusted himself off a bit before approaching the Nadder directly from the front, staying in its blind spot whenever it moved.
He nearly made it into reaching distance to scratch that soft spot under the dragon's jaw that made them fall asleep, when the Nadder suddenly jumped around, knocking him over in the process and advanced on his friends.
They scattered like a bunch of chickens.
The dragon decided to follow George who ran as fast as he could across the whole deck, curing and ordering the others to "get that thing of his back before it made mincemeat out of him". Nightlight and Namhera started chasing after them, running the others over, getting in their way in tripping them in the process.
It was total chaos.
"We need to help him!" Hiccup shouted at the others.
"No kidding, right?" Josh answered and grabbed a rope. "Catch!" He shouted and threw Hiccup the other and.
Understanding what Josh had in mind they ran towards the middle of the deck.
"GEORGE! LEAD IT OVER HERE." Josh shouted.
George risked a glance and nodded when he understand.
Running full speed he jumped over rope.
The Nadder that was hot on his heels got caught in the rope and went down.
In a second Hiccup and Josh were up and started to wrap the rope around its legs and wings so it would be contained for now.
But the dragon fought tooth and nail and its tail swept Hope off her feet and sent her sprawling into Hiccup, who let go off the rope.
Namhera, who saw his rider getting 'attacked' by the other dragon roared and trailed across the deck ready to attack the Nadder.
The ropes got lose and the Nadder got free, pushing Namhera off and he swirled around and its eyes fixed on….
"GEORGE! GET DOWN!" Kate shouted as the dragon pounced.
George flattened himself onto the ground. The dragon missed him by a hair but before it could attack again, Hope and Conner were there, driving it back while Hiccup dragged George back.
Namhera and Toothless rejoined the fight, snarling and snapping at the other dragon.
It just sent volley after volley of spiked at them its crazy eyes on George the whole time.
"What could it possibly want from you?" Hiccup asked George gasping.
"I don't know I've never seen this dragon before." George answered and stopped for a brief second to catch his breath.
Josh ran up next to them.
"Maybe my prayers were finally answered. But the timing is most unfitting." He said with an awed look at the dragon that tried to get past the barrier of humans and dragons.
"What prayers?" Hiccup asked irritated.
"Oh, you know the usual. I've been asking god for a while to send a dragon to eat George so we'd be rid of him." Josh said casual.
Seeing the horrified and angry gazes of his two friends he added hastily: "Of course that was before I saw what an awesome guy you actually are!"
Hiccup shook his head.
"It doesn't matter why it's here. We have to find how we get rid of it. There's no kidding with wild dragons!"
The others nodded.
"But how do we do that?" George asked.
"I have no idea, maybe…" Hiccup was interrupted by a sudden burst of flames and Hopes surprised cry.
They swirled around and saw the Nadder spit fire.
"NO! Keep it from spitting too much fire! He'll burn everything down!" Conner shouted panicking and swung the hitcher he'd found hard around, hitting the dragon on the snout.
It screeched and pushed Conner hard to the ground, hit Namhera with its thorn-covered tail in the side and knocked Toothless against the railing and jumped over Hope.
It grunted and fixed its gaze on George before advancing.
Desperately Hiccup did the only thing he could.
He conjured his fire-abilities and hurled fire-ball after fireball at the other dragon, keeping it away.
But he couldn't go full flame; the risk of setting the deck on fire was too big!
"George, go and hide somewhere, Josh, go and get weapons!" he shouted while blocking the dragon's path.
He saw Josh running towards the door; saw Kate helping Conner back to his feet. She looked up at him and he saw uncertainty and worry in her eyes.
But his attention was directed back at the Nadder. It tried to sneak past him but Hiccup jumped into its path, hurtling more fireballs into its face.
And then Toothless was next to him, jumping at the dragon. They went down in a ball of wings and tails and to Hiccups great horror the Nadder pushed Toothless off and over the railing into the sea!
"NO! TOOTHLESS! NAMHERA! GET HIM!" he shouted, desperation clawing in his throat. The Whispering Death looked at him blankly for a second, then his gaze darted to Hope who nodded hardly and shouted: "Go my friend! Save him!"
With that Namhera too disappeared over the side of the boat.
Hiccup suddenly felt very nauseous. He didn't care that the Nadder surged past him and he heard George shout in anger. He didn't care that Josh was suddenly there, shoving the Stormblade into his hands or the Kate shouted his name.
He fell heavily to his knees.
Toothless.
Dragons weren't great swimmers. And Toothless didn't like water very much!
Josh dragged him to his feet.
"Keep it together. Namhera will get him. But we have to help George!" he shouted.
Hiccup looked up and saw that the Nadder had cornered George by the heck of the ship. They were too far away to possibly reach him in time.
But then Hiccup noticed something.
Something crucial.
The dragon was not staring at George.
Well, indirectly it was but its gaze was fixed on something George was holding….
And then, like so often, things clicked together in Hiccups brain in the fraction of a second and he knew what had to be done.
"GEORGE! IT'S THE CHICKEN! IT WANTS THE CHICKEN!" he shouted across the deck.
He felt the disbelieving gazes but he kept going.
"NADDERS LOVE CHICKEN! I READ THAT IN THE BOOK OF DRAGONS!" he shouted again.
"GIVE IT AND IT WILL LEAVE, I'M SURE OF IT!"
Every normal, sane, human being would have given up the battered chicken-leg that George somehow had managed to hold on to, in a heartbeat.
But not George.
His eyes narrowed down and he clutched the chicken-leg to his chest.
"NEVER!" he shouted.
The other five stopped behind the dragon that didn't care much. It kept swatting with its tail and kept them at bay while it cornered George further.
"George, don't be stupid!" Kate shouted.
"Give the damn dragon the damn chicken if it saves your damn life!" Josh shouted.
"I just got it!" George shouted back and twisted aside as the dragon snapped at him.
"We'll get you another one, I promise but it's not worth dying for a piece of chicken-leg!" Hiccup shouted.
"It is when you've eaten nothing but fish for months!" George shouted and swatted at the dragon as it got to close for his liking.
"He has a point." Josh muttered at Hiccup.
Hiccup shot him a glare.
"George, give the dragon the chicken-leg now!" Hope ordered and stomped down with one foot.
"No, it's mine!"
That was the moment the dragon decided it had enough of their games.
It snatched the chicken from Georges hand and backed away, seemingly grinning triumphantly at George.
George clenched his fists.
"YOU. DIDN'T. JUST. DO. THAT?!" he growled.
What he did them would be told to children all over the world by their parents for eons to come.
George, the human, tackled the full grown wild Nadder.
Stupid? Yes. Effective? Very.
It's unclear who was more surprised. The Nadder or the other five of Georges companions.
But one thing was clear.
It worked just well for George's purposes.
The Nadder in its surprise dropped the . George caught it and rolled between the dragons legs and jumped to his feet.
The dragon swirled around, destroying several riggings and part of the railing.
Its eyes were narrowed down and fixed on George who swung the chick-leg like a trophy.
"Ha, did you really thing you could beat me that easily?" George gloated.
Hiccup groaned.
A Nadder was a very proud dragon. They didn't take nice to teasing.
Just as Hiccup thought that it jumped at George with its claws outstretched.
What followed can only be described as the most disturbing wrestling match this earth has ever and will ever see.
The others could do nothing but stand and stare and occasionally jump aside.
The two unlikely opponents were locked in combat but it didn't look like either of them was actually getting hurt….
This bizarre fight got to end when both parties were tugging on one side of the chicken-leg like on a tow.
"You…can't…have…it!" George said through gritted teeth.
The dragon screeched something too while tugging at the chicken with its beak.
It came as it had too, both let go at the same moment; the chicken went flying and flying, twisting around itself in midair.
Both George and the dragon reached for it.
George's hand was only inches away when the jaws of the Nadder clapped shut around it and it swallowed the chicken in one final gulp.
Personally Hiccup thought George was lucky to not get his hand bitten off.
For a second the dragon and the boy just stared at each other.
The dragon made a deep rumbling noise in the back of its throat but it was not threatening.
George was panting. His cloths were torn and he has some superficial scratches.
For wrestling with a dragon he looked surprisingly good.
The other five just stood there, gaping at them.
Finally George said: "You're a pretty good fighter. I respect that."
The dragon crooned and suddenly its throat contacted and it regurgitated half of the chicken before George's feet.
"Oh look, you made a friend." Hiccup grinned.
George picked up the half-eaten chicken and took a hearty bite while looking the dragon up and down.
"I think that's what I'm going to call you. Fighter. 'Cause that's what you are."
He sounded very pleased with himself and the dragon rubbed its head on his shoulder.
"Ahm…excuse me, but name it?" Kate asked astonished.
"Yes, name it. Your dragons have all names. Why can't mine?" George asked with a devilish grin.
"Your… dragon?" Josh chocked.
"You want to keep him?" Hope asked horrified. "After he nearly burned down the ship and killed us all?"
"He didn't try to kill you. He was just a bit…hasty in his…decisions… and actions." George defended the Nadder.
Conner fainted.
"Great." George groaned.
Fighter looked confused.
"Don't mind him, he's just a girls petty-coat." George said snickering. The dragon made some equivalence to a snicker.
"Great, the last thing we need is a Dragon-George." Kate groaned.
Hiccup just laughed.
"Look on the bright side." He said.
"Which is?" she asked.
"You won't have to share a dragon with him anymore."
That was how a perfect day ended for George.
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Alright people, it happened. Tell me what you thought of this development.
Love, Kate