A/N: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon

Yes, I am still alive. It has been a while since I have written anything though. Had some dreams last night that brought me a lot of inspiration, and I decided that I had to write this.

This fic is absolutely one of the darker ones I have written. I would possibly even say that it is my darkest ever, though "The End of His Pain" ranks pretty close.


Hiccup ran.
He began to stumble and his lungs burned, but still he ran.
He could feel the rage in the pounding footsteps slowly gaining behind him and he ran faster in the struggle to stay ahead.
Hiccup didn't know what would happen if his father caught him, but he knew that no matter what, he had to keep going.
His lungs were on fire, but still he ran.

He was so close to the cove and safety. Just a little longer.
His foot caught in a root and he went down.
Hiccup picked himself up and stumbled forward, only to feel a hand clamp down on him.
He had failed. This was the end.

He felt the crushing strength of the hand tighten around his neck and his feet left the ground.
Hiccup could barely breathe as he was carried back to the village by his neck.
With the little air left, he tried to beg his father to let him go, but each strangled plea only caused the hand to tighten.
He saw the village approaching and his fear grew with each passing moment, but there was nothing he could do.
He was alone and helpless.
The edges of his vision dimmed and his head grew light from the lack of air, then there was nothing.
This was the end for him.

#

He woke up to the feel of heavy iron around his wrists and ankles, coarse stone under his knees.
As his vision cleared and he recognized his surroundings, his heart sank. He was in the arena, chained down.

His father walked down into the arena, heavy axe slung across his back and voice rang out before the gathered crowd.

"People of Berk, it is with a heavy heart that I must uphold my duties as chief of this tribe and deal with the traitor in our midst. The boy before you is guilty of treason by providing aid to the dragons that raid our village. He not only released a dragon, but stole from our waning stores to feed it. The penalty for the accused is death."

With that, Stoick pulled the massive axe off his back and began to approach.
Hiccup's pleas rang out, "Dad, please! You don't understand, they don't want to raid us! They are being forced to!" but they fell on deaf ears.

When his father was mere feet before him, his arms came back readying for the final swing.

One last time, Stoick's voice rang out, "This boy is not a viking. This boy is not my son."

Hiccup's heart shattered in pain.

Stoick took the swing and Hiccup felt no more.


I don't know when the next fic will come out, but I hope it is soon.