Third person view
Back at the cove, Hiccup, now armed with a shield and a fish, slowly made his way down a path he had found to get to the lower part of the cove.
He peeked out from behind the shield to see if he could see the Night Fury. However all was silent in the cove.
So he threw the fish out into the cove and waited, yet still nothing appear to eat it, nor did he hear anything.
He then walked forwards only to get his shield wedged in between the two rocks that were at the end of the path.
He tried to pull back but it wouldn't budge so he rolled underneath it and tried pulling again from the other direction.
However with a sigh of defeat, he decided to leave it and walked over to the fish and picked it up by the gills.
He then began walking further into the cove.
Unknown to him, the Night Fury was on top of a nearby rock, crouching like a curious cat as it watched the small boy.
It only gave it's presence away when it made a low groan when it crawled down the rock towards the boy who gasped.
It half circled him before stopping in a crouching position. Slowly Hiccup held out the fish as far as his arm would stretch.
Cautiously the beast approached and was about to grab it with it's mouth. However just as he was about to, Hiccup stretched his arm more forwards which resulted in his vest opening and the sun glinted off the short sword that was tucked into his belt and the Night Fury flinched and snarled which caused Hiccup to flinch.
Seeing where the dragon was looking, he slowly opened his vest before taking out the sword and dropped it next to him. However the Dragon continued to snarl so Hiccup picked up the sword with his boot before kicking it away back towards the entrance.
Once it was far away, the Night Fury relaxed and even sat down like a dog. Hiccup extended his arm once more and slowly the Dragon came forwards until it was close enough to get the fish. It then opened up it's mouth to reveal only gums.
"Huh, toothless? Could've sworn you had-" he was cut off when small but sharp teeth erupted from the gums and he quickly grabbed the fish before eating it quickly.
"Teeth" Hiccup finished making sure all his fingers were still there. The Dragon then began moving towards the boy who backed up.
"Uh, uh, no, no I-I-I don't have any more" Hiccup said as he was now pressed against a rock with the dragon's mouth inches from him.
Suddenly the dragon began dry heaving and then the back half of the fish was then barfed up. The dragon then took a few steps back before it sat down.
They sat there in awkward silence before the dragon looked down at the fish. Hiccup looked down at it, quickly realizing what the dragon wanted him to do.
"Ugh" he muttered before he brought the fish up to his mouth and took a bite of it. He then hummed in delight for the dragon, however it was taking everything in him not to throw it up.
The dragon seemed pleased with that but when Hiccup made the gesture for him to take the fish back, it noticed Hiccup still had a mouthful so it made a swallowing gesture.
Hiccup groaned but managed to choke it down, almost throwing up, before shuttering in disgust but he quickly threw on a smile for the dragon.
The dragon looked at him confused before giving him his own gummy smile.
Noticing the dragon was copying him, Hiccup then slowly got to his feet and outstretched his hand. However the teeth came out once again as the beast snarled before it took off to the other side of the cove, flying awkwardly as it did.
Hiccup then seen it shoot a flame on the ground as it circled like a dog would before it laid down on the burnt patch.
It's attention was then taken by a bird in a nest who chirped happily before flying off, the dragon watching it as it went.
It then noticed the boy was sitting in front of him with his legs crossed. Hiccup waved awkwardly as the dragon's ear flaps lowered in annoyance before it laid it's head down But not before moving it's body do he could use his tail to block his view of the boy.
Hiccup used this opportunity to inch closer to the dragon and reach out in the hopes of touching it.
However just as his hand was inches from the dragon, it lifted it's tail and looked at him with a pointed glare, almost as if to say "What are you doing?!"
Immediately Hiccup was on his feet and walking away from the dragon who kept staring at him until he was far enough away and then the dragon walked off himself in the opposite direction.
Timeskip
It was nearing sundown and the Night Fury was now hanging upside down in a tree by it's tail with its wings curled around him like a bat.
It uncovered his head from it's wing and looked around and was surprised to see the young human was still in the cove. He was sitting on a rock and was drawing in the dirt.
It came up next to the boy who was surprised at the beast but continued his drawing which was actually the Night Fury.
The dragon followed Hiccup's stick with his head and let out low grumbles as the boy drew a decent picture of the dragon's head and facial features.
Suddenly the dragon moved away from the boy and grabbed a large tree branch out of a tree and began drawing in the dirt around hiccup with it.
Occasionally looking at the boy before drawing again as well as almost hitting him in the head with the end of it a few times.
Finally the dragon was done his drawing. Just a bunch of lines in the dirt. Hiccup looked at the drawing and took a few steps, however the dragon began growling which made him flinch.
He then realized he was standing on a line the dragon drew. He raised his foot and the dragon stopped growling and relaxed.
He stepped on it a few more times and each time the dragon growled and finally he stepped over it and nothing happened.
Hiccup smiled and then began dancing through the lines. He was so focused on making sure he didn't step on any lines, he didn't notice how close he was to the dragon until he felt hot breath on his hair.
He quickly turned around, expecting to see the snarling face of the beast. However he seen the dragon was still calm.
He raised his hand up a little more however the dragon still snarled at him. He then remembered something his brother had explained to him when they had seen a pack of wolves while out hunting. How a young male had to show the alpha he was submissive in order to gain his trust and join the pack.
Hiccup put up his hand once more, however this time he turned his head away and kept his hand away from the dragon.
The dragon looked at it curiously before, to both it's and Hiccup's shock, it moved forwards and rested it's snout against the boys hand.
He flinched expecting to feel teeth or fiery pain at any moment but soon he turned his head and seen what the dragon was doing.
However it too seemed to notice what it was doing and shook it's head before it quickly ran off leaving the boy standing there in shock.
Back at the house
Hiccup sat at the table, looking over his drawing of the dragon and a few other new ones he had drawn since he had gotten close to the beast.
Suddenly the doors to the house burst opened and in strolled DJ with a huge smile on his face and Hiccup immediately closed the journal and put it in his vest pocket.
"Well look who it is! Hiccup The Badass!" He commented slapping his brother on the back once he got close to him which almost sent the younger boy forwards.
"Uh... What?" Hiccup questioned confused.
" 'What?' He says. I haven't been able to go two steps in the village today without hearing someone talk about what happened in the arena today" he said getting out his mug before filling it from the barrel that was in the corner.
Hiccup was confused because why would his brother be happy about what happened with the Nadder since he had failed. However he then remembered what happened afterwards with Astrid.
"Oh gods, DJ look if the Hoffersons have complained, I'll-" he began but was cut off by his brother.
"No one complained. And even if they did, I'd tell them where they can shove it for the winter freeze" he said sitting down at the table.
"But I yelled at Astrid Hofferson. They're a very proud and respected house" Hiccup said.
"Yeah, and we're the chief's sons. We're higher rank, besides it's not like she didn't have it coming" he said with a smirk.
"Although I don't really like the whole 'go exploring and just keep sailing' part" DJ said switching to a playful frown on his face.
"I would've stayed in touch with you somehow. You're my best friend and brother. I don't even wanna think about my life without you in it" Hiccup said.
"Same" DJ said drinking out of his mug after raising it to his brother. However after a few seconds, Hiccup groaned.
"Oh gods, she's gonna kill me tomorrow. They all are" he mumbled putting his head into his hands.
"Nah, I don't think they will" his brother said surprising him.
"If anything I think they'll be wary of you because yelling at them like you did, sounds like something I would do. And everyone here is scared of me snapping one day and going on a hacking spree" DJ said as Hiccup scoffed
"Heh, no offense but I'm a long ways away from being you" Hiccup said.
"None taken" DJ said immediately before chuckling as his brother joined him. They then sat in silence a little more before DJ seemed to remember something.
"Oh Yeah, Gobber wanted everyone in the class to report to a catapult on the west side of the island for a cookout. And I'm warning you now that he's gonna be telling his stories" DJ said as Hiccup groaned at that last part.
Both of them had heard Gobber's stories so many times they could tell them in their sleep.
However just as Hiccup got up and went to the door, he turned to his brother.
"You wanna come too?" He questioned. DJ was about to say no but thought about it.
"Eh, why not? Haven't heard the hand story for about a month" he said before grabbing his mug and following Hiccup out the door.
At the top of the catapult, the teen sat around a fire roasting food and listening to Gobber tell his story of how he lost his hand and foot.
Hiccup sat down at the end of the line with a small fish over the fire and with his brother beside him and to his surprise, DJ was right. Many of the group kept taking glances at him. Not hate-filled or taunting ones like usual though. More curious then anything.
Except Astrid. She was the one who had a hate-filled glare directed at him. However DJ across from her so she couldn't do much about it. Especially since DJ had seen the glance and now had one of his axes over his knee, daring her to make a move.
"And with one twist, he took ma hand and swallowed it whole. I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must've passed the word because it wasn't a month before another one of them took ma leg" Gobber told them holding out his leg as many of them awed at it.
"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was in a dragon. Like if your mind was still able to control it, you could've killed the dragon from the inside by like crushing it's heart or something" Fishlegs said waving his fists around, both full of mutton and much to the annoyance of his fellow teens.
However Snotlout looked over and seen that DJ wasn't really interested in the story. To him, the older boy wasn't scared by it and that made him a little bit mad because he had been kinda spooked by it.
In truth the older boy had been scared of the story, when he first heard it when he was ten. Now it wasn't as scary but it was still a good story to hear.
However Snotlout still took it as a challenge.
"I wanna hear one of his scary stories" Snotlout said pointing to DJ who briefly looked up from his mutton that he had roasted over the fire.
"Scary implies that it scared him, I don't think DJ is scared of anything" Ruffnut purred, hugging her crush's arm much to his annoyance.
"Oh I don't know about that. The thought of never seeing my brother or father again, that scares the shit outta me. And I have seen things in this world that'll turn a man's hair white" DJ said before he leaned forwards, the fire making his face glow in an uneasy sight.
"And then there's one thing, that I'll never forget till the day that leave this world. I was about your age and was with my father on a chieftain meeting at the Blood Wolf tribe's island. I was friends with the chief's son, Eivor, still am, and we decided that we should go elk hunting on an island nearby."
"So we asked our fathers who said it was okay but we needed to take a few adults with us to at least be on the island with us. So we were talking with the group we were going with and they mentioned that we should get tattoos to celebrate this trip."
"Now it wasn't our first tattoos, we had gotten those at about 13 or so. Anyway I got this" he said pausing to roll up with his sleeve, after getting his arm away from Ruffnut, to show two swords impaling a skull in an X on his bicep.
"Eivor got this dragon skull because he had just killed his first a few months prior. But this other guy who was with us, I forget his name but he was only a few years older than us, he got this howling black wolf with red eyes. Right on his left ass cheek" DJ said as a round of laughter went around.
"Yeah, yeah we laughed too. But when I asked him why he said 'I know Odin will take my soul but my flesh is far too damaged for any God to take. So it's up to Fenrir to save my body.' "
"So the next day, we headed out. The group of adults went out to the east and me, Eivor and the other young guy went to the west. I remember that feeling of dread I was getting since I had woken up. I just pushed it down. anyway, I was walking when I spotted a nice big bull elk out in a clearing."
"I was about to take a shot at it when the older boy stepped on a twig and the elk heard it and ran away. Well the boy immediately ran after it with us behind him. We were telling him to stop as he was running too fast and wasn't looking out for dragons."
"Suddenly, just as we entered a clearing, there was this quick flash of orange and a longer white one and this crackening boom that made our ears ring. Poor guy had disrupted some kind of dragon and it let loose with a blast at him. We weren't sure what kind, we never got a look at it as we were thrown back pretty hard."
"Anyway once we picked ourselves up off the ground, we got to picking up anything we could find for the pryre. Eventually the adults found us after hearing the boom."
"Sometimes we'd find pieces we recognized. A bit of an ear, some hair with the skin still on it. But I'll never forget this, Eivor, he found this piece of flesh with a wolf howling on it, perfect like you had cut it with a knife. Everything else looked like you had thrown it into a Whispering Death's mouth not this bit, it was perfect not a scratch on it."
"So you say that he was right, Finrir did save his body. Just not all of it" DJ finished before he stared into the fire, images of the day flashing in the flames.
After that, the area drifted into silence. Everyone was a little, or a lot, shook from his story. However Snotlout snapped out of it and decided to act tough.
"I swear I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand, your beautiful foot and your beautiful friend. I'll chop the legs and butts off every dragon I fight. With my face" he said pointing to his face.
"Careful, some might enjoy that" DJ remarked getting some snickers out of the group.
"Hmm besides, it's the wings and the tail you wanna go for. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon" Gobber said ripping the wing off his whole chicken that was on a fork attachment for his hand. While he was explaining that, Hiccup's eyes went wide with shock however he quickly hid it. But he had to find a way to sneak away from the group.
"But not a defenseless dragon" DJ added now sporting a somber look. He then traced his fingers along his right bare wrist that was peaking out from his tunic and where also a burn scar began heading up his arm.
Immediately Gobber's face fell.
"Oh, lad. I'm-" Gobber began however DJ shook his head.
"It's all good. It's been years, I need to get over it" DJ said. Gobber was about to speak again when DJ stood up and slid his axe back into his belt.
"I'm gonna head out. Thanks for inviting me" he said plainly, giving his brother a pat on the shoulder as he made his way down the stairs of the tower.
"What was that about?" Tuffnut questioned. Immediately Gobber put his hand and chicken up.
"Nope! Sorry, not my story to tell. And if you lot value your lives, don't ask him about it" Gobber said waving his chicken at them which made them all look around at each other. They wanted to ask, however they didn't want the unforeseeable fallout from asking.
Hiccup seen this as his opportunity to be excused. And with a small groan, he got up as well.
"Well I won't ask him about it but I'm gonna go see if he's okay" he said gesturing to where his brother had gone.
"Eh, good idea. Don't bother coming back though, we'll all be gone. You lot need your sleep. Tomorrow we move up to the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?" Gobber said as Hiccup went down the stairs while everyone else got excited about moving up in the training.
As everyone was talking about killing the nightmare, they all failed to notice Astrid took a few steps down the stairs after Hiccup.
Not in a threatening way though, more of a curious one. To her, something about the boy's departure felt... off to her.
However she quickly shook her head. He was just going to check on his brother nothing wrong with that. So she went back up to the other and listened to Tuffnut talk about his 'birthmark'.
Hiccup made it down the stairs and about halfway to the forge when he stopped in his tracks and turned so he was looking at his house and his brother's right beside.
He knew he should actually check up on his brother but if his theory about the dragon was right, he had to get on the project right away. Plus whenever his brother was angry, it was usually better to leave him alone. Finally after some back and forth in his mind, he came up with a plan.
'Okay, dragon first and I'll check on him in the morning' Hiccup thought before he continued running to the forge.
DJ sighed as he walked along the southern beach with his empty mug in his hands. He finally came to a medium sized rock and sat down on it, looking out over the sea as waves met the sand.
He then reached inside his tunic and pulled out a necklace made out of arrow heads and beads.
On each arrow head were initials.
I.R K.S T.A U.H
DJ suddenly began breathing heavily before he got up and ran to a nearby tree and punched it, sending bark flying as well as some drops of blood which splashed onto his face.
He continued punching for several minutes before he finally slowed and fell to his knees. The trunk of the tree where he had been punching was now stripped of bark and had streaks of blood on the light coloured wood from his knuckles which were cut to shreds.
DJ then turned so his back was resting against the tree before putting his head into his knees and began crying softly, his tears mixing with the blood splattered on his face. He was glad he was far enough from the village so no one would hear him.
"I'm sorry boys" he said, continuing to cry.
"I'm so sorry"