Together we Map the World is a canon and OC forum that takes place directly after the first film left off, behaving as if the series and second film after never happened. With a wealth of locations, dragons, and characters to choose from, the possibilities are endless. What the tides of storytelling will do with these building blocks is up to you. How far will you go?
It had taken the better part of the morning for the two teens to scramble together a make-do tail repair for Toothless, not much chatter among them as they both tried and failed to process the shock they'd both recieved that morning upon waking up. Hiccup was acutely aware of the way his shirt rubbed against the scales that had grown along his chest and shoulders, the way his eyes took in light in a different way, and the way Snotlout kept eyeing him like a man posessed the entire time.
The flight home had taken the better part of the afternoon into the evening, and the whole trip was punctuated with a kind of anxiety that comes from carrying a heavy burden back with you. How was he going to explain this to his dad, to anyone? Oh yeah, hey, long time no see, by the way this is what I'm dealing with now. He could hear it now, concern, anger, suspicion. The last thing he needed was to become a pariah again, an outcast. If he ran now he could just hide, just figure this out on his own and become normal.
That wasn't an option though, was it? He sighed through his nose as he saw Berk creeping into view over the horizon, "home." He said, with a mixed bag of relief and fear in his voice. How would they react? How would his father react? He glanced over at Snotlout and looked anxious, "first things first...I guess I should go see your sister," he suggested, looking back ahead. He didn't particularly want to see anyone, he wanted to hole up in his room and pretend this wasn't happening. That wasn't an option though, was it? That wasn't a solution.
Stoick glared disapprovingly as two local villagers argued their cases to him. Even with the dragon issue resolved, it seemed that his life never slowed down, not for a second - the villagers would always find minute things to dispute over.
"So mark you sheep better next time and keep them in separate paddocks," he said, voice edging into that booming, authoritative tone it was so well-known for. "We have more than enough supplies to build a barrier to keep them apart."
"O-of course, chief! So, uh, what about whose sheep are whose?" one of the villagers replied, twiddling her thumbs and eyeing her neighbor.
Stoick sighed. "Split them up evenly and don't lose track of them again," he replied gruffly, waving a dismissive hand. On good days, he might spend more time to hand-pick the sheep out and ensure that neither shepherd was getting the short end of the stick, but today was not a good day.
It wasn't too long ago that he'd sent his son and Snotlout out for a trip - gods knew that the two could use some fresh air. Hiccup had nearly been pulling out his own hair from being bedridden, and his relationship with Snotlout could use some improvement.
As much as Stoick wanted to stay beside his son to make sure everything was all right, he was growing increasingly aware of how much of Hiccup's space he seemed to occupy when he was around. It was hard for him to separate himself, but he had to admit that Hiccup could handle himself... sometimes. With Snotlout, Toothless, and Hookfang tagging along, his son should've been safe from nearly anything, so there would hopefully be no repeats of the bear incident that had Hiccup cooped up in the first place.
Still, it was in Stoick's nature to worry. His son wasn't supposed to come home for several more days at the least, and with every passing hour Stoick fretted more. He paid no mind as the shepherds scrambled off to divvy up their herds, nor did he spare a passing glance at the villagers as they hooted their hellos.
Meanwhile, Snotlout gripped Hookfang's horns with white knuckles, sucking in breath. He was worried for Hiccup, sure, but the real thought on his mind was what a lashing he'd get from Stoick and Spitelout. He failed to keep Hiccup safe due to his own stupid, stupid fears, and now his cousin might not be his cousin anymore. Seeing the pinprick of Berk on the horizon only moved to actualize those fears.
"...Hm?" he said, snapping out of a derogatory haze at Hiccup's words. "Right. Adie. I guess you should see her. Maybe she'll be able to fix you... or something." He shrugged helplessly.
Hiccup could tell Snotlout was worried, and looked pensive for a moment as he racked his brain with a way to get the heat off of him. It had been his stupid idea to go exploring on his own knowing the dangers, and his cousin didn't deserve to be berated for any of what happened. Finally he sighed and looked over at him, "here's what we'll tell them," he started, already forming the lie in his head.
"We wandered out of the cave we were sheltering in to look for wood to make a fire," he tapped his chin as he spoke, looking thoughtfully ahead, "the fog rolled in too thick to see our hands in front of our faces before we were split up," the words were coming to him as he spoke, a believable lie given there had been thick fog on the island, and likely would be if they were asked to show them the island where it had happened. He looked over at him, "you found me and scared off the dragon," he offered him a wry smile, trying to rectify the situation.
He took a deep breath and nodded, already spotting his dad, "that's our story," he confirmed, before gently pushing toothless into a dive and pointedly aiming to land away from Stoick's line of sight, no doubt he'd been spotted, but he also hoped maybe he could just slip away without the man coming to greet him.
When they touched down, Hiccup immediately ducked down behind Toothless as he tried to walk off, muttering silent prayers to all the gods that Stoick wouldn't spot him...But he wasn't hopeful given the gods seemed to hate him.
Lying was not an art too unfamiliar to Snotlout. He lied the better half of the time with his overblown boasts; playing along with Hiccup's story would be easy. Besides, he didn't want to get in trouble with his father or the chief any more than Hiccup did.
"Right," Snotlout said, leaning forward as Hookfang dove to tail Toothless, "Firewood - fog - split up - dragon. Got it." His words sounded forced. This wasn't due to any grievance with Hiccup, it was simply stress.
Stoick had already caught sight of them by the time Hookfang touched down. A Night Fury was an impressive beast, after all, easy to see against the dusky sun. His stature was mighty, but even then, he could only see a glimpse of Hiccup's head peeking out from Toothless's other side as he approached. Hookfang landed between himself and his son, Snotlout sliding off the Nightmare's back with an expression somewhere between guilty and stalwart.
Snotlout scrambled to lean against Hookfang in forced casualness. "Hi. Heya. How's it hanging, Chief?" he asked, driving his heels into the grass.
A billion bad fates already running through his head, Stoick, a little off-put by the question, replied, "What's going on?"
"Fine! Fine. We're fine. We just, uh, had a bit of a dragon encounter and decided to cut our trip a little early. There was a lot of fog, and it leapt out of nowhere. Not exactly the safest place to be, right? So we headed back to rest up a bit," Snotlout stuttered, the words nearly falling off his tongue at the speed they were spoken.
Stoick raised an eyebrow and began to step forward, ever concerned.
Hiccup had to give credit where it was due, for all his stress and anxiety about this entire situation, Snotlout was handling it better than he probably would have been were the tables turned. Sure he was stuttering and you could tell he was clearly lying, but it was a good effort, and perhaps it would be enough to get them clearance to leave before Stoick decided to pull the canvas hood from his head and see what was really going on.
His own voice broke and cracked as he piped up behind Snotlout, keeping his head lowered enough that the hood concealed it as he leaned against Toothless, "what he said!" He croaked out, Toothless unable to help the un-amused expression that said how hopeless both these teens were in this very moment.
Hiccup cleared his throat and turned very abruptly to start shuffling away, "and now I'm gonna go and uh...This way!" He croaked out the words in a nervous crack, "no need to worry about me! I'm fine! Everything is fine!" he scolded himself mentally for that, make it more obvious why don't you? He'd always been an absolutely terrible liar, and a terrible actor.
And he couldn't hide this mess forever could he? He sighed and turned to Stoick, keeping his head down dejectedly, "Snot's telling the truth, he fought like Odin to beat that dragon off," A shift of his head towards his cousin, before he sighed, "but uh...Dad...And like don't freak out!" He was quick to caution, before he pulled down his hood and looked up at him cautiously.
It was only through years of hardening himself that Stoick was able to maintain his composure. The face that greeted him behind the hood was Hiccup's - or so he thought at first - but it took several moments of shaking off his disbelief to realize what had changed. There was a smattering of charcoal-black scales across Hiccup's face; the boy's ears were pointed and black at the edges, cheeks diluted with grey, and, most disconcertingly, two catlike pupils slit in fear and worry boring into his own.
He stared for what felt like forever before closing the distance between himself and his son.
"We're going to Adelaide. Now." He gripped Hiccup by the arm, perhaps a little too stiffly, and set off toward's the healer's nearby hut without saying another word. Some people called his commandeering a bad habit, but to him, it was simply a defense mechanism: the people needed guidance. He needed guidance, sometimes. Acting quickly helped keep his mind off the absurdity of the situation at hand.
Snotlout stood behind, all but abandoned. He juggled his options, weighed each one carefully, and finally decided to follow the chief at a safe distance. He wanted to run, but he'd already done that once, and it hadn't gotten him anywhere good.
Recent years after the defeat of the Red Death had seen a slow but steady improvement in the relationship between himself and his father. Things weren't perfect, he was still Hiccup and Stoick was still Stoick, but there was a willingness to learn and understand that had made thing much more smooth and manageable. It had been a long time since he'd felt any kind of fear towards his father, but the look in his eyes was unreadable, and that scared him more than anything.
"L-listen dad I can--" he was cut off with a startled yelp as he was grabbed by the arm and hauled off, too small and scrawny to really fight back. He'd been intending to head to Adelaide anyway, but he hadn't wanted to be dragged there rather roughly by his father. It felt like it had been a lifetime ago since the last time he'd been manhandled like this, and it certainly didn't help the fear and panic rising in his throat like bile.
He was glad at least to see Snotlout trailing after them, Toothless at their heels as he walked close to his rider's side. He could tell Hiccup was afraid, and it made him more than a little mother hen towards the boy, "dad you don't have to drag me y'know?" Hiccup finally addressed the rough handling as he looked up at his face, "I was heading that way anyway! I'll go willingly!" He was half pleading for his dad to let him go, say something, anything. He hated the stony silence and the expression that he couldn't read.
Stoick loosened his grip on Hiccup's arm somewhat, but didn't speak a word until they'd passed the threshold of Adie's hut and entered into relative privacy. There was nobody manning the hut at the moment, so he figured that Adie would be back soon from whatever task she was running. In any case, it wasn't the biggest thought on his mind.
He let go of Hiccup with a slight shove towards a nearby chair. Jerkily grabbing a chair of his own and sitting on it facing his son, he coughed into his fist, though his gaze never left Hiccup's.
"Son," he started. It was as good a way to start as any. "Tell me what happened."
Tell me what happened. Because he desperately wanted to know just as much as anybody else. There was a slight, flickering trust there, only barely strong enough to fight back his own panic and confusion. Tell me what happened. He didn't know what else to say - there was too much flying around within his head.
Hiccup was glad when the grip on his arm loosened, and he relaxed a little in response to that. His pupils were still narrowed to anxious slits though, his internal feelings clearly not as at ease as what was going on outside. He'd never be able to hide his fear again, he realized, if this happened every time he was afraid or stressed out.
He was glad when they came to notice the hut empty, for once dreading what the healer would say when she saw the state of him. What would the village say? They'd only just started to trust him, and even that was shaky at best, would they trust him like this?
Hiccup sat when Stoick pushed him to do so, looking down for a few moments before he finally sighed, "we were blown off course on the way to the campsite," he started, freeing his hands so he could use them to speak like he always did, "Toothless' tail fin was damaged in the crash, so we got holed up there for a bit while I decided how to fix it so we could get back home," his story was true up until now, and he realized there was very little lie sprinkled in.
"there was something in the fog, some kind of dragon I've never heard of," he explained, gesturing as he tried to illustrate with his hands what it looked like, "all bristly...It grabbed me and bit me," he looked down before pulling his good leg up to show him the bite, "I got sick, and itchy, and then I woke up like this," he looked over at Snotlout, "I would have been dragged away and killed had it not been for Snotlout and Toothless," he gave them a tense smile, Toothless crooned and tucked his head under his hand.
"After I woke up like this, we quickly repaired Toothless' tail and flew home," he sighed and ran his hands over his face, looking exhausted, "I was afraid of facing you, dad, I was afraid of what you might...Do..." He admitted carefully, he wanted to believe his father wouldn't hurt him, but old habits died hard, and he'd feared what he would do seeing these eyes looking back at him.
Adelaide limped her way through the village towards her family’s hut where she presently lived, a splint for the moment around her strangled ankle. She was still rather young for a Viking so having her own place hadn’t quite been a thought. Although, with her growing duties as a healer and her skill growing over time she was becoming keenly aware she couldn’t stay in the Jorgenson family hut for much longer.
It was not quite a thought she had openly expressed except with Gothi who seemed approving of the idea. But would her father, brother, and mother approve? She doubted Spitelout would, especially with how possessive and controlling he could be. Losing that control over his children seemed almost devastating for the patriarch, something Adelaide didn’t seem to care much for. Between her family she was closer to their mother and her brother but felt strained to maintain any form of relationship towards their father. It was a love-hate relationship to the red head and she sometimes fought her internal anger and regret when she often argued with Spitelout. But this subject...she didn’t know how he would handle it, especially when he had already shown his disdain for her focusing on studying healing rather than warriorship and weaponry.
Sighing to herself, Adelaide shook these thoughts away for the time being. The preteen would just have to consider all her options for now before she seriously considered making her own hut. But, it was there.
Though she snapped from her concerns when spotting the familiar sight of Hookfang, looking in wonder for a moment. He wasn’t suppose to be on Berk right now. Far as she had heard Snotlout, Hiccup, and their dragons were suppose to be on a mission somewhere. Had her brother infuriated the Nighrmare enough he just returned home on his own? Picking up the pace, she arrived to the hut at last, running a gentle on on Hookfang’s side in greeting before she stepped inside the house and immediately stopped in her tracks, gasping softly and nearly dropping her newly carved staff.
It was not an uncommon sight to see her family members in here, not when the Haddocks and Jorgensons often tested their limits well beyond necessary. But the sight that shocked her the most was Hiccup, probably as expected by the teenager. Such shock quickly fell to concern, turning her attention briefly to Snotlout, expecting to see the same unusual changes and alterations to her older brother but saw none, he seemed anxious and prettified more than anything, most likely due to Stoick’s presence. She was so focused on the changes however she didn’t even hear what had occurred when Hiccup explained it. “By the Gods Hiccup.” Adelaide breathed out at last, unable to think of a proper sentence for this situation before her.
Stoick’s gaze softened slightly as Hiccup spoke. His anger fizzling to a halt, he realized solemnly that his goal - to get to know his own son, and make him feel safe in his father’s presence - was not being fulfilled when he acted so brazenly. He’d spent the entirety of Hiccup’s life acting so counterintuitively. He sighed, not at Hiccup but at his own conflicts and self-repeating cycles. Biting back the reflex to criticize Hiccup’s recklessness for causing this whole debacle, he leaned forward to speak.
“Here’s what we’re going to do, son,” he said, forcing himself to keep calm. “We’re going to talk to Adielaide, and we’re going to figure out whatever’s going on and fix it. All right?” Shifting back to that serious tone he was known for, he added, “And don’t go running around in public like that until we have more answers.”
It was at that moment that the door freaked open. Stoick nearly leapt out of his own pants, surprise shifting to anger then relief in under a second.
“Adielaide. Thank the gods you’re here,” he stated.
Snotlout, who’d been hovering awkwardly in the corner, piped in with, “O-oh, hey there, sis.”
With Stoick's forced calm, Hiccup managed to find some of his own. Just kind of looking over his hands and arms at the things there that shouldn't have been. It wasn't like Hiccup to feel afraid, he'd always been a more foolhardy person than anyone really gave him credit for, first to leap into danger at the first sign of it. However this, this was something beyond bravery and beyond danger, this was an unknown that he couldn't place, that no one could place, and he hated that he didn't have a clever answer or rebuttal to any of the questions this presented.
"What if it can't be fixed, dad?" He finally muttered out the question that had been biting at him this entire time. Stoick didn't want him running around the village looking like this, and he didn't really want everyone to see him like this either, but if this was his always now he couldn't exactly just hide, could he?
He looked pensive, jumping when Stoick did as his cousin entered the room, "Adie," he sounded relieved, but only just. He trusted her skills, she was shaping up to be a damn good healer already, but she was also young and inexperienced, and he wasn't sure if even Gothi had an answer for this one. Toothless greeted her with a nose to her hand, but even he was more subdued in his worry for the boy's well being.
"It's, a lot to explain," he sighed out the words, running a hand throw his hair and cringing a little at the smallest lump of something tender there, "we had to cut our camping trip short, something, some kind of dragon bit me," he gestured to himself and looked up at her, "I woke up like this," he finished, giving her the short of it for the sake of not having to explain the whole thing again.
"We'll fix it, son," Stoick corrected quickly in his signature brand of stubbornness. Pensive, he added, "But if we don't, we'll make do."
There wasn't much substance to his words, but they were better than nothing and the only thing he could think of saying that wouldn't escalate the situation further. In truth, he wanted very much to go to whatever island Hiccup had washed on and strangle the mystery dragon with his own two hands, but his anger would have to wait for time being.
He scooted his chair back with an abrasive squeal of wood and gestured for Adie to step closer and take a look.
Adelaide stood frozen in the doorway, unable to formulate a sentence or words after her initial one. She could only stand there, eyeing her cousin in shock and seeing no sign of such a change on her brother. She seemed to be trying to wrap her mind around the fact that this was real, that Hiccup showed dragon-like qualities that no one had ever seen.
But the gentle nudge to her hand by Toothless' greeting caused her to finally snap from her thoughts, gently running her hand over the Night Fury's head in response. "J-just give me a second. I need a moment to gather some things." 'And my thoughts.' Adelaide added the last part to herself, moving across the room at a quick pace to head up stairs and grab her blank journals she had made at the beginning of her healer apprenticeship. Truth be told, Gothi had never seen anything like this in her own lifetime that Adelaide knew of. She had looked through or read all the elder healer had had at her disposal, but never had she seen anything like this.
'Come on Adelaide, you can do this. Its just a new challenge, maybe we can figure this out.' She encouraged herself, trying to get herself together and forcing herself to steel her nerves to handle the unknown. Nodding decisively, the red haired female gathered a few tools usually for testing physical ailments, her journal, and a charcoal tipped pencil before she came back down. "Snotlout, go ahead and take a seat already. You're getting a check up still just to make sure you weren't injured on the trip too." Adelaide's sharpness seemed to be returning, but there was still a waver in her voice as if she still was processing what was happening.
Once in front of her cousin, Adelaide set her things down and took a deep breathe, "Okay, might want to get comfortable, we're going to be here a while." She told them before turning to Hiccup fully, "Hiccup, I know you're going to hate this but I need to see everywhere this change is showing up, arms, chest, back, legs, it doesn't matter. I need to see the full extent of what is happening right now." She told him, her voice taking on a steady calmness.
