Hiya everyone,
for everyone discovering this story right now: welcome! I hop you enjoy this story!
for the people who have already read this story before: welcome back! I will attempt to dig this story out of the hiatus curse.
I want to change a lot of things around though as I am not that comfortable anymore writing first person, so I will rewrite everything I have until now to the third person and we'll see how far we'll get from there ;).
Have fun everyone!
Prologue
This, is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solemnly on the meridian of misery.
The village of Berk. In a word, sturdy. It's been here for seven generations but every single building is new.
There is fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunset. In the past, there have been some small pest problems. You see while most places have mice or mosquitoes, Berk. Had dragons. The chief's son Hiccup however, ended the long war against them with the help of some of other village children, by simply befriending them instead.
Hiccup had a surprisingly tough childhood however. As the son of Stoick the Vast, chief of the village and strongest man of the tribe, he has been granted many nicknames like Hiccup the useless, Stoick's little embarrassment and the most popular of all: The talking fish-bone.
For as long as he could remember, he had been disowned by his father, scorned by the adults of Berk and bullied and harassed by their children. Not one child in the village had any intension of befriending the tiny viking child, no matter how much he tried to act unlike himself to gain their affections.
Luckily the world is more vast than anyone knew back then and a 6-year old Hiccup finally found an unlikely friend in the unlikeliest of places.
One cold night during one of the chief's out-of-town campaigns, his babysitter/village forger Gobber took his godchild to the great hall for a well deserved evening meal.
Hiccup has always been very gullible as a child, so when Gobber flailed the golden-woven left sock of the great Odin around, telling him and a few other Berkian kids about his battle with the 'Great Troll of Idavoll', Hiccup was entranced.
The other older kids however, were not convinced in the legitimacy of the forger's story and made a mockery of Hiccup as he exclaimed he would show proof of the existence of trolls.
The next day, Hiccup woke up to find his left sock missing. Determined to find the troll who did it and show it to the villagers, he headed into the forest follwing a train of what was definitely troll footsteps.
Hiccup's obnoxious cousin Snotlout and his obnoxious friends saw the 6-year old run towards the nearby forest and followed him, snickering cruelly as they knew exactly where the little runt would be headed.
As little Hiccup meandered endlessly though the white-coated pine trees following tiny footsteps which were moving in odd ways and seems to go in circles, he finally spotted a piece of fabric laying near a tree. Hiccup could instantly recognize the pattern on his favourite sock knitted by his mother.
Happy to have found his precious garment, he ran towards his sock in a straight line.
This is unfortunately exactly what Snotlout expected: he suddenly appeared in Hiccup's path, fist up and at the ready.
Hiccup closed his eyes and braced himself for the sure-to-come impact of his cousin's fist, but the only thing he felt was something akin of a cold breeze and a gentle push on his torso which made him fall backwards.
When Hiccup opened his eyes again, he saw a teen standing defensively in front of him. The person whore a blue sweater, brown trousers and had... white hair? When Hiccup looked to the side, he saw Snotlout and his gang of bullies sprawled on the ground, face-first in the snow.
When Snotlout finally got his head out of the snow, he turned to the mysterious boy with anger in his eyes. When he saw that the teen did not back down in the face of his 'scowl', the anger was quickly replaced with fear as he began to run away while screaming and cussing, startling the other boys who quickly followed their leader with an array of insults Hiccup is sure his dad wouldn't want him hearing.
The moment Snotlout and his 'friends' were out of sight, the teen turned around with a smug smile and stretched out his hand. 'Haha I knew it: he's such a whimp! Hey kid you alright?'
Hiccup couldn't move a muscle. Did he just… defend me? Against Snotlout?!
The boy's expression suddenly changed into something more familiar to Hiccup, although it doesn't perfectly resemble the angry or disappointing scowls the little viking is used to. Instead his eyebrows look more furrowed as if he's concentrating real hard on something.
The blue-sweatered boy lowered himself to Hiccup's eye level by kneeling down, grabbed him by his shoulders and asked him in a voice he can only remember his dad using a few times when he was sick: 'Are you all right?'.
The 6-year old was baffled even more and he felt his mouth fall agape. The teen suddenly looked incredibly scared and Hiccup could feel the hands holding his shoulder beginning to shake. A moment later the cold hands let go of him as the white-haired boy backed away slowly.
'No, not again. Not again.' He hugged himself slowly as his widened eyes remained focused on Hiccup.
'… Who are you?' The little viking child tilted his head to the side to emphasise his question and noticed that the question seemed to release all tension as the teen let out a large sigh of relief.
'Don't scare me like that pipsqueak. I thought you couldn't see me.' The white haired teen said exasperated. Hiccup felt a sudden rush of anger. 'Don't call me pipsqueak!' He yelled.
The teen chuckled and then suddenly looked serious again. 'Why were you spacing out like that just now?'
'No reason.' Hiccup looked down. 'I just wasn't expecting you to ask something like that to me, so you surprised me.' This seemed to stop the boy and confusion began to show on the stranger's face. 'What do you mean something like that. What'd I say?'
Hiccup looked away even further, blushing. He was not used to people being confused while talking to him. His eyes fell on the teens feet. Wow he's walking barefoot?! In this snow?!
'Never mind then.' The agile boy quickly rose to his feet again while extending his hand towards Hiccup. 'My name's Jack by the way, Jack Frost. What's yours?'
'What? You don't know?' Hiccup asked incredulous. Hope started to bubble into the little outcast's heart. 'Could it be that you're not from Berk?' 'If that is what this place is called then nope.', Jack answered. 'So mister popular let me try again: what's your name?'
The child practically beamed as he zealously grabbed Jack's still extended hand 'My name's Hiccup! Nice to meet you Jack!' Jack let out a snicker as he pulled Hiccup effortlessly off the ground. 'Hiccup? For real?'.
Hiccup's tiny rosy cheeks puffed out slightly in a pout as he crossed his arms in front of him: 'My dad says a hideous name scares off gnomes and trolls.' Jack only shrugged: 'Gnomes and trolls eh. I should remember that'
'Say… Why are you walking barefoot?'
During the rest of the day the two boys stumbled around the forest, talking about their interests, themselves or simply joking and laughing until dusk.
Their friendship has been growing quickly over the winter as Jack and Hiccup met up almost daily and it wasn't long before Hiccup saw Jack as the brother he never knew he needed.
However, as the snow started to melt, Jack said he and his family had to move away. Little Hiccup had never experienced such a heartbreak before as the only friend he has even been able to make in his short life now left him as well.
Jack tried to console his new friend however, saying that he will be back next winter. This reassured Hiccup somewhat as that meant Jack would only be gone for a few months. After making Jack promise that he would be back to visit, Hiccup saw his best friend off with a heavy heart.
Now, 9 years later, winter is almost at Berk's doorstep again and that means one thing: Jack is coming! And man will the winter sprite be surprised when he sees what has happened this year!
Hiccup graduated from his position as 'the useless and unappreciated nobody' he grew accustomed to. Ever since he met Toothless and defeated the Red Death, his life has fully taken a turn for the better.
No longer bullied and with a handful of new friends, Hiccup became the one-in-charge of the Berk Dragon Academy and best of all, his father and the village had finally accepted every inch of him that made him who he was.
Although it was still a mystery for Hiccup why for the past 9 years Jack and his family always left at the beginning of every spring – well, as springy as it can get on Berk – to come back during the fall, Jack always seems to avoid the question and honestly Hiccup also doesn't care: as long as his best friend comes to visit, he's happy to keep that a mystery.
Hiccup waited impatiently at the docks, knowing that he won't actually see any signs of a boat in the horizon. Not knowing how else Jack will reach the island and already having tried looking in every possible direction before, Hiccup just contented himself with looking towards the dock horizon.
There is a small difference with Hiccup's surroundings compared to all those previous time however: a certain offspring of lightning and death himself was lazily playing with his tail not two metres away and no viking seemed to mind the notorious dragon being so close to the heir of their archipelago.
The hours stretched and Toothless was beginning to become bored with his tail. He started nudging Hiccup impatiently, indicating that he wanted to do something else. Probably a sunset flight as the sun was now only partially visible above the horizon.
Hiccup petted his Night Fury while saying 'Yeah Yeah Bud, I know, but just wait a little bit longer. He will be here any minute now.'
Just as Hiccup finished his sentence, he felt a cold breeze slide past his back and heard a light gasp behind him. Hiccup instantly knew who that was as he turned around.
'Hey Jack, long time no see!', he said happily, but Jack's face wasn't so cheerful.
'Hiccup! Behind you!', he screamed.
He started rushing towards the not-so-little-anymore teen viking with the full intent of starting a fight with a dragon. Hiccup saw that the dragon in question didn't like his advances one bit however.
Before all hell would break loose, he put myself between Jack and Toothless while screaming 'Jack! Stop!'.
This brought the white-haired boy back to his senses and he stared wide-eyed at Hiccup as he in turn attempted to calm Toothless down by petting him on the nose.
'Hiccup... Care to explain what's going on?'
One year later
Tamed dragons on Berk. It's still some getting used to after trying to protect Hiccup from them for 9 years but hey, Jack's not complaining.
Granted, the immortal teen had a hard time believing Hiccup's story last winter about him defeating this 'Red Death' dragon and his freshly discovered 'way with the beast' – Jack nearly had a heart attack when he saw that Night Fury standing behind him – but after seeing Berk with their newly found partners and the villagers' having a 180 degrees attitude change towards Hiccup, Jack's thoughts were re-established once again: Jup, this kid IS amazing after all!
Now, one year later, the winter sprite is starting to get used to sharing the skies above Berk with the flying reptiles. The same could not be said on the dragons' side however, as they still react very loudly and dare he even say 'dramatic' every time they spot Jack sneakily flying around to avoid viking eyes.
The problem wasn't really the fact that a being the shape of a human was flying independently; dragons knew of the existence of spirits a long time ago and could distinguish them from normal humans by their 'aura' of 'feel'. No, it was simple because like humans, dragons tended to dislike the winter as well. This meant that the relation between winter spirits and dragons have always been a little tense.
Jack however also realises that with the good, always comes the bad.
Sure, Toothless does a great job protecting Jack's 'little brother', but it doesn't always go too well. He's heard enough stories about the encounters with Dagur the Deranged, Alvin the Treacherous and the many dragons who don't always see eye to eye with the Berkians' new attitude to realise that Hiccup's talents could also very well become his downfall.
Jack's now even more worried than before.
It was a normal day on Berk. Hiccup was at the Dragon Academy busy training the dragon riders – his so-called 'friends' – to evade oncoming bolas and teaching them about aerial attack and defence in case of an attack.
The reason for this particular exercise is none other than the great Outcast leader himself: Alvin.
A few weeks ago, a Berkian who was hunting in the west part of the woods around Raven Point reported sighting a lonely Outcast ship on the horizon as he looked out to sea.
After hearing this, it was still a miracle that Stoick granted Hiccup permission to go to the Academy at all instead of keeping him at home or in the forge where he and Gobber could keep an eye on him. but the great chief saw that it was safer for Hiccup to be on his dragon, in the air, surrounded by the dragon riders than at home; the first place Alvin will look for him.
Well, I don't think he has to worry so much: I won't let anyone touch Hiccup, not while I'm around.
Jack looked at the group of dragon riders again, but found them on the ground this time; concentrating on freeing their dragons from the bolas they failed to evade.
Where's Hiccup? Jack looked around in panic when he didn't see him in the vicinity, but when he heard the soft landing of a dragon and the chuckling of a certain freckled Viking behind me, Jack was relieved again.
When Jack turned around, he quickly found out the meaning behind the chuckling earlier: he wasn't even facing the little viking completely yet when something cold and wet collided with my face.
Hiccup started laughing hysterically while running back to Toothless, who was laughing too in his own dragon-ish way, but Jack wasn't going to let the teen get away when he dared to throw a snowball at the great Jack Frost's face.
The winter sprite ducked as quickly as he could to evade another snowball and he created an enormous snowball outside of Hiccup's view. Jack aimed and threw as quickly as he could as to not give Hiccup time to mount his dragon again.
Of course he could follow him in the air if I wanted to, but Hiccup doesn't need to know yet what Jack is exactly capable of. Jack called upon the wind to change the snowball's trajectory and bullseye!
Sure, I wouldn't let anyone touch Hiccup, but that doesn't mean that I can't take revenge on him through an innocent little snowball fight. Jack smirked.
DUN DUN DUN... The revelation!
See you lovelies next chapter~