MDM's Version of How to Train Your Dragon
A/N: Okay, I made a piecrust promise; easily made, easily broken! Those two annoying some bodies were hogging the computer again! All week! I really need my own laptop.
Well, Chapter 5, here we go.
Chapter 5
A Reluctant Recruit
When Hiccup finally came to, he had hoped that all of that was just a nightmare. But the cut ropes nearby and the slight ringing in his ears didn't go with his theory. It was real. All of it.
He glanced up at the sky and saw the sunset, in all its fiery and warm glory. It was time to head back. Hiccup picked up his knife that he dropped when he fainted, tucked it back into his inside vest pocket, and made his way back home just as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon.
As he entered his house, he saw his father stoking the fire in the hearth, Ragnar polishing his sword in the corner of the room, and Juno clearing out the dinner dishes. His friends saw him sneaking in, and silently gave him a motion to head upstairs so that Stoick doesn't see him. Hiccup nodded back at them and began to tiptoe past his dad and over to the stairs.
"Hiccup." Stoick said, not even looking from the fireplace.
"Dad." Hiccup answered, freezing at his place on the stairs.
How does he do that? He wondered. But he decided to tell his father and his friends the epiphany that he had. The harsh truth.
"I gotta talk to you, Dad." Hiccup said, coming back down to the first step.
"I need to speak with you, too, son." Stoick added, turning around to face him.
Ragnar and Juno gave each other a confused, sideways glance. This was actually kind of strange, for this kind of interaction almost never happened between this father and son duo.
Hiccup and Stoick took a deep breath and spoke at the same time. "I've decided I can't fight dragons."/"It's time you learn how to fight dragons.
"What?" They both asked at the same time in confusion.
Juno and Ragnar both took a step back, feeling a mix of both caution and confusion. This was either going to be really bad or really interesting.
"You go first." Stoick said.
"No, you go first." Hiccup replied.
"Ok." Stoick said, bringing his hands together. "You get your wish. Dragon training, you start in the morning. All three of you." He said, gesturing to Ragnar and Juno as well.
Hiccup froze for a second. This was bad.
"Oh, man, I should've gone first." He muttered. "Because, you know, I've been thinking, we already have a lot of dragon-killing Vikings. Don't we need more bread-making Vikings, or home-repair Vikings?" He asked, trying to sound enthusiastic about it.
His friends were looking at him like he had lost his mind. The three of them were considered to have the most sensible minds in the island, despite Hiccup's incidents. But Stoick didn't seem to notice his son's hesitation.
"You're gonna need this." He handed his son a single-bladed axe; heavy enough that Hiccup could stagger a bit, but can still carry.
"But I can't fight dragons." Hiccup said.
"Sure you can." Stoick replied, oblivious to his son's reluctance.
"Ok, rephrase." Hiccup took a quick deep breath and said it again, this time trying to enunciate. "Dad, I can't fight dragons."
"Sure you can, and you will." Stoick said.
He then lifted up the axe with Hiccup's hands still grabbing it. "When you carry this axe, you carry all of us with you. That means you walk like, you talk like us, you think like us. No more of all this." He said, waving his hands to Hiccup.
"You just gestured to all of me." Hiccup said dryly.
"Do we have a deal?" Stoick asked.
"This conversation's feeling very one-sided." Hiccup said, still in his dry tone.
"Deal?" Stoick pressured, almost shouting at him, making Ragnar and Juno flinch in the background.
Hiccup sighed heavily but quietly with defeat. "Deal." He finally said.
"Good." Stoick said as he hoisted a huge basket of supplies over his back. "Train hard, all of you. I'll be back soon. Probably." He put on his helmet and left the house.
"And I'll be here. Maybe." Hiccup said doubtfully as the door closed shut. When it did, he dropped the axe onto the floor and then slowly climbed up the stairs to his room.
Ragnar and Juno slowly followed him upstairs. Something was wrong. Hiccup should've been excited to finally be in dragon training with them and the other teens. But he wasn't. Something must've happened.
They found him on his bed, staring up at the wooden ceiling. They sat on either side of it and looked down at him.
"You okay, Hiccup?" Juno questioned him. The response she got was just a simple nod.
"Want to talk about it?" Ragnar asked. "What happened out there?"
Hiccup slowly sat up. "If I told you guys, you'd either laugh or rat me out to Dad."
"Why would we do that?" Juno asked, raising an eyebrow. "We would never do that."
"You might after I tell you this." Hiccup took a deep breath and told his friends what had happened, every single second of it. When he finished his story, he dejectedly looked back up at them. They looked shocked and confused; but not angry.
"Okay." Ragnar finally said after a moment of tense silence. "Let us get this straight."
Juno began recalling what Hiccup told them. "So, you found the Night Fury, but instead of killing it, you let it go."
Ragnar then continued. "And the Night Fury also let you go when it could've killed you for shooting it down, and it just left."
Hiccup released a held breath. "That's pretty much it." He waited for his friends to start yelling at him and report him to his dad. Instead, they smiled at him, looking proud.
Ragnar patted his foster brother on the shoulder. "That was a very brave and honorable thing you did, Hiccup."
Hiccup blinked. Did he heard what he thought he heard?
"They said that showing mercy takes more courage than showing none." Juno said. "But what confuses me is that the Night Fury showed the same thing."
"Yeah." Ragnar agreed. "What's up with that?"
Hiccup let out a yawn. "Let's continue this after training tomorrow." He suggested.
Ragnar and Juno both tried to contain a yawn themselves. "Good idea." They said at the same time.
"No telling anyone." Hiccup reminded them.
"Of course not." Ragnar said. "We're not that stupid. If anyone else found out, you'd be banished by now."
"Besides, remember our motto back when we were kids?" Juno reminded. "'Misfits we may be, but we stick together'."
The boys smiled fondly at her, remembering that little childhood motto they made up when they first became friends. That motto eventually helped them through challenges of growing up when they started to realize just how different they were compared to the rest of the village.
"'Night, Hiccup." The two of them said to him.
"'Night, guys." Hiccup answered back as he crawled under his bed sheet.
Ragnar and Juno left Hiccup's room, bade goodnight to each other, went to their own rooms, and quickly fell asleep; all three of them nervous about tomorrow. First day of training. Talk about pressure.
A/N: I'm going to be super busy this week. I'm glad I got this out of the way before things start going insane. Chapter 6, coming up next week. Finally, more excitement!
See you guys then!
Got to fly! ;)