eachdraidh | ( ✈ first flight; VIDEO, both courts — forward-dated to 1st, post-feast )

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( ✈ first flight; VIDEO, both courts — forward-dated to 1st, post-feast )

[ What the viewer first witnesses is a foot. Not a real foot, thank goodness, because it happens to be detatched from its wearer and currently being stolen; that is, until a book is thrown at the thieving imp, lamping it on the head, and the locket is placed down on a table as a young man hops over to retrieve his prosthetic, muttering as he does so. ('Steal my foot, will you? Nasty little ... Yeah, you just enjoy your time-out, bud.') Pegleg re-attached to a left leg, the tall man picks up the imp by the scruff of a leathery neck, strides out and tosses it into the arms of its awaiting (disappointed) companions. ]

Try it again and I'll show you what the ice-pick is for!

[ He sits back down with a sigh, twiddling the locket around. ]

Anyway, hi. Sorry about that. My name's Hiccup and apparently, monsters aside, this necklace can help me find people without cursing me or also trying to steal my limbs. Great! So.

[ Hiccup has very clever green eyes, almost too many freckles to count, and a slight gap in his front teeth; as well as being ~~weedy~~ slender, you wouldn't think he was the sort of person to be so confident with an unknown audience, but he certainly is. If anything, he's eager to talk, at least five years older at twenty than he was the last time anyone in the Drabwurld saw his younger incarnation ... not that he's aware of that. ~~Baby boy grew up and then some.~~

Those of a keen eye will notice he's broadcasting from an Unseelie princely estate room, contrary to the state of the battered leather armour he now wears. ]

I'm looking for a girl about my age, tall and blonde. [ Wait. ] Not just any girl! That would be weird. Really weird, like ... girl-shopping, or something. Sorry, let me rephrase; I'm looking for a tall, blonde girl called Astrid, whom I happen to actually know. [ THIS IS GOING SO WELL, ahhh. ] Don't just call me back if you happen to randomly fit that description. [ Okay, fuck it, moving on.] I'm also looking for my mother, and she's ... [ He rubs the back of his head with a chuckle. ] Uh, she's an unforgettable sight, just tell me if you see a masked, armoured person with spikes poking off their helmet. Oh! They'll also have their dragons with them.

[ Casually throwing that out there as a genuine afterthought. ]

If you see a black dragon with big green eyes, looking sort of nocturnal? That's Toothless, my Night Fury. Tell him Hiccup is at Caer Scima, he'll understand. He won't hurt you if you don't hurt him first — obviously attacking a dragon is a phenomenally stupid thing to do, under any circumstances, so hopefully no one will opt for that course of action.

[ Sitting back, he puffs a breath that ruffles an auburn fringe and raises his brows invitingly. ]

I'd love to get to know more about this place, I've never even dreamed of being anywhere this incredible. Magical. Does anyone know where the nearest dragon nest is? I want to find something to ride until I can find my own and horses aren't really my thing. Stirrups, hard ground, you can see where I'm going with that. These lockets are incredible, has anyone opened one up and looked inside? Uh, and lastly — I promise I'll shut up soon — where can I get some decent, detailed maps of the terrain?

Thanks in advance! Nice meeting ... whoever you guys are.

( ooc: forward-dated to the 1st after the welcome feast, after which he'll lose his optimistic verve as he gets to know the world a bit better. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have to stay put for a short while and make sure Toothless isn't lost here, but thanks. He'd be put off by how different all this stuff is. Plus, he'd be worth more to anyone in a battle than I would to them.

That's understandable.

Did you name him ironically? I can't really imagine a toothless dragon.

He has retractable teeth, I didn't know he had any when we first, uh. First met.

[ The second time they met, technically. He was a bit busy having a teen-life crisis when he first let Toothless go. ]

Oh, like a great white shark?

Yeah, kind of. Night Furies operate on stealth and speed, pretty much everything about him is streamlined.

[ Except his tail, but Hiccup omits mentioning that just yet. He doesn't want everyone knowing Toothless can't fly without him, it might paint a target on his dragon's back. ]

That sounds incredible.

[He missed all the dragon drama here, too busy settling in ... drawing his sister ... worrying in a very British sort of way. ]

Err - I'm not sure if this is a rude question, but back home wild animals are usually tamed in captivity. I can't really imagine putting dragons into big habitats though, so I suppose he must have just taken a liking to you?

[Then, a little dazed: ] Sorry, I'm still getting used to the fairies. I didn't think I'd meet someone who's close with a dragon.

Toothless isn't tame, you can't really ever ... do that, to a dragon. My dad had a Thunderdrum called Thornado that he released back into the wild to take care of some stray babies of the same breed, we see him sometimes in the ocean with the others of his Tidal-class. He's got a shoal of his own, now.

[ Old Thornado, that guy was great. Loud as fuck, obviously, but great. Hiccup smiles without realising, because talking about dragons? Is never rude with him.

Seriously, it could be three in the morning and he'd probably be okay with it. ]

Me and Toothless met up in secret, we got to know each other away from everyone else so it was a little touch-and-go for a while. We had to figure out a way to communicate. Night Furies are the smartest and fastest dragons, he understands everything I say and I don't have to mess about mangling Dragonese in front of him, which is lucky because I can't really differentiate between 'yak' and 'hug', which can get a little bruising.

Dragons can be insanely dangerous. I don't think that changes no matter where you go, but that doesn't mean they immediately default to it.

[Dragons sound like cats which is really endearing. Kieren smiles; it's different watching Hiccup being so passionate about dragons, than it was watching Simon talk about his beliefs. Simon had looked exhausted. Hiccup looks thrilled, just by the thought. ]

They sound a bit like cats, nature wise? Domestic cats, I mean. I think the wild ones are less inclined to give you a cuddle if you ask nicely.

[Gosh, Hiccup, this is cute as heck. ]

Did you know this much about them before you met Toothless?

Don't ask Toothless for a cuddle, he'll just sit on you and drool. [ Nodding omfg. ] And dragonspit serves as glue, so. Y'know, not the best hugger in the world.

[ He's lying, he loves Night Fury squishes. ]

Actually, dragon breeds resemble a lot of different animals. Toothless is like a ... like a shark-cat, he has four paws and a tail as well as his wings, and ear-fins that poke up, with his retractable teeth and dorsal fins. [ Hmm, what else. ] Deadly Nadders have two feet and their wings are part of their arms like a bird, Gronckles are like fat little rock-dogs blown up to a hundred times their size, Monstrous Nightmares are sort of your traditional lizard-y type, and those ones have actually been known to cross-breed with the two-headed Hideous Zipplebacks to create Monstrous Zipplebacks.

[ ~~Or the film's merchandise sector got their dragons muddled and it was literally the funniest marketing screw up ever, god bless.~~ Hiccup's eyes brighten as he chats on and on, relaxing into a slouch that angles him toward the locket and Kieren. It takes the focus off being lost, alone and weirded out, which he is grateful for in spades. ]

Before I met Toothless, Berk had been at war with dragons for generations. They took our livestock and we killed them for it, they killed us in retaliation ... It was a mess.

[He pauses, for a long moment. His fond smile is frozen on his face, but it's a lot to take in. He reminds himself of that as he tries to snap himself out of it. He never thought he'd relate to dragons. This is a new experience. ]

Yeah it sounds - it sounds complicated.

[He clears his throat. ]

But you managed to find a solution? To the war?

[ Pursing his lips, he rubs his mouth and jaw, itching his stubble. Green eyes sway to the side as Hiccup shrugs, figuring out how to word I slew a dragon the size of a mountain and not sound ... Yeah. ]

All dragons live in nests, and all nests have a Queen. Not a King, those are rarer, but always a Queen. The one that was harvesting the spoils of the smaller dragons attacking Berk would eat them if they didn't work hard enough. She was called the Red Death, and we downed her. Permanently, that is, to free the dragons she was terrorising, and who came to live with us on Berk after that.

She took my foot with her.

[ THIS FACE though, because Shit Happens. Shrugging. ]

I don't think maybe people could smile after telling a story like that.

It's only a stupid old pegleg, and Toothless and everybody else survived, so. It turned out okay.

[Good people really do exist, holy shit. ]

Hiccup, that might be the bravest thing I have ever had the fortune of hearing.

[ Eh, that gets a smile and a sheepish duck of his head don't compliment him, wow. ]

Thank you. [ Although he takes them gracefully ... and furthers the conversation, because let's not focus on him. ] Tell me about the place you come from, Kieren? You don't have any dragons, none at all?

[ You okay there, friend? :'c ]

Nooooooooo dragons.

[Suddenly, awkward. Where were u for his full disclosure Hiccup?]

My world is really different from this one. For a lot of reasons.

[ Kieren's really lucky Snotlout isn't here instead of Hiccup, who simply takes a look at him and easily rephrases, ] Don't want to talk about it?

Oh, no it's just you seem really nice and I might weird you out a bit.

[Or a lot. ]

[ Some people would laugh and say, I won't be weirded out, but Hiccup merely takes the warning on board and waits. ]

I guess I'll be weirded out, then. [ But he isn't about to run a mile. ] Tell me?

Oh. Well, I'm dead.

[Hahaha suprise!!]

Back home, we had an apocalypse. The dead rose out of their graves and started eating people's brains. I was, uh, one of them.

[He could probably tell this story better, but he's already ranted at Teresa. ]

I don't do that anymore, though. The brain eating.

[ YEAH, THAT'S HELLA WEIRD. And grim? ]

[ There's a pause (of course there's a pause, Pausing is probably something people do around Kieren a lot when he comes out with stuff like that, oops), and Hiccup squints as he tries to get his head around it all. ]

... You look okay for a dead guy.

[ That's it, that's a summary of his (tactful) opinion. ]

Thanks. I make an effort in the morning.

[He brushes his hair, u know u know. ]

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