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?
Snotlout leaned back in Hookfang's saddle, keeping his gaze locked sternly on the horizon in an attempt to ignore the Night Fury and its spindly rider soaring next to him. Yesterday, the two boy's fathers had approached them about taking a fun, cousinly camping trip to a nearby island - something about, "forming bonds," and all that nonsense. Spitelout had rather adamantly pressed the point about learning how to survive without an adult around, too, as though Snotlout hadn't learned that skill a long time ago.
It wasn't that Snotlout hadn't wanted to go. After all, he'd take any chance he could to prove to someone - mostly himself - that he was better than Hiccup. Ever since Hiccup had come back around, Stoick had redacted his previous plans for putting Snotlout on the chieftan's chair someday, ruining his plans for the future and his relationship with his own father. Spitelout had drilled him hard enough with that weight on his shoulders, but now it was even worse, since he needed to win that right back. His father had gone so far as to pull him off to the side and tell him to do whatever it took on the trip to get Hiccup to pass on the chieftanship to somebody else.
"And if that means breaking bones, then I expect you to do it," Spitelout had hissed at him. Snotlout shuddered involuntarily. The words still gnawed at the back of his mind.
But now was no time to show weakness. He was here to lead, he was here to dominate, and, most importantly, he was here to win. He loosened up his shoulders, as though shaking away the doubt and guilt, and cracked his knuckles.
"So, Hic, we getting close to that island yet? Hookfang and I want to know how much longer before we can kill a boar or two to sate our appetites," he said, flashing a dung-eating grin at Hiccup. Hookfang snorted and made a noise halfway between agreement and loathing.
There was a part of him that actually kind of liked the idea of getting away from Berk with his cousin, the two had never gotten along quite the same as he managed to get along with the rest of his friends. Snotlout had been one of the main tormentors that picked at him and on him at one point, there was a lot of things between them that he supposed needed to be mended and fixed, and getting to be away from the crazy of the village was a reprieve he would gladly take.
He was glad for the peace he and his friends had brought between the villagers and the dragons, but that had also shouldered a million new problems onto him, and he still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about being the center of attention, now that he had it in such a way he kind of hated it, not the respect, he was glad for that, but he hated having all eyes on him...It meant when he stumbled or failed he couldn't just slink off to nurse his wounded pride. He kind of hated it.
Hiccup was shaken from his own thoughts when Snotlout spoke, and he screwed up his face in thought as he pulled out the map and looked around, "if this map is anything to go by, that landmass right there should be where we're going," he said, trying to ignore what was no doubt some kind of Snotlout branded jab, "we should get a fire going before we start thinking about killing boars with our bare hands and all, don't you think?" He glanced over at him and rose a brow, clearly not rising to whatever game his cousin was no doubt playing.
When the landmass was close enough to start getting ready to land, Hiccup angled his left leg down with a gentle pat to the side of Toothles' head, "it looks like there's a good fishing spot down there for you too, bud," he grinned, earning an eager groon from the black dragon before they started heading down towards land.
"Right, right. Hookie can make a good fire for us. Can't you, Fangster?" Snotlout said, patting Hookfang on the head. Hookfang let out another snort, sending a few embers flying out of his maw.
When they got closer to the island, Snotlout grabbed Hookfang's horns, settled himself into his saddle, and crowed, "Hookfang: let's make the most impressive landing we can!"
Hookfang visibly rolled his eyes, then turned to make a wide bank around a part of the island with sparser tree cover. He turned lazily, but sharply enough that at one point Snotlout was almost parallel to the ground, left clinging to Hookfang's horns. There was fear in the boy's eyes, but his jaw was set fiercely.
And then, as he always did, Hookfang set himself on fire. Snotlout let out a laugh, which quickly became high-pitched and panicked as the flames licked the back of his vest and singed his hair. Fumbling with his grip on the Nightmare's horns, he slipped off of the saddle and plummeted to the ground with a yelp.
Thankfully, the ground was not very far away. Hookfang extinguished himself and landed with a gust of air. Snotlout groaned and picked himself up, already regretting what he'd done - that was going to leave a bruise, for sure.
Hiccup didn't contest that statement, after all, it wasn't wrong. Monstrous Nightmares were all about making goof fires, he did cringe a little, "just, maybe keep it to a campfire? Not a forest fire?" He was saying this more to Hookfang than he was Snotlout, as he knew the dragon often did what he wanted whether Snotlout wanted him too or not, and the last thing he wanted to have to do was explain to his dad why they came home early lightly roasted.
When Hookfang and Snotlout banked off, Hiccup followed, half out of worry because there was no telling how poorly this would go, and he could already see it going really poorly. It wasn't like he blamed Snotlout for these spills, the whole lot of them had only just really started actually riding their dragons, and he included himself in that as well, he wasn't perfect by any means...His spills just never happened to come after a whole lot of guffaw and posturing, which made it less mortifying.
He flinched when Hookfang suddenly ignited himself, and then Snotlout fell and he and Toothless made a quick dive towards where his cousin had landed. When he was on the ground and sure that he was okay, he slid off Toothless' back with a thoughtful smirk, "I don't know what kind of impressive you were going for, but that was certainly some sort of impressive?" He said with a good humored head tilt, he wasn't so much picking at Snotlout, but he'd tried to be a showoff and it fell flat, literally, so he didn't feel too bad.
Snotlout was rubbing his head when Hiccup complimented him. Almost immediately, his ego swelled back to its former state, and he tilted his chin up with an arrogantly appreciative look.
"Why thank you," he said, standing up and dusting off his shirt, "O Hic-Boy. You have earned my favor. Unlike Hookfang." He tossed a glare at his dragon, who blew a plume of smoke in his face as a reply. Snotlout coughed and backed up, making a small unintelligible noise. Hookfang simply made a bemused croon.
Snotlout rolled his eyes, then turned to survey their surroundings. This island was pretty small, covered in pines and stocked with game. It had been a popular survival training grounds back in the day - not that he'd ever gone. The spare boats to take him there were burned by the time he came of age.
He paced in a circle, running over Spitelout's survival lessons in his head. They were going to be here for a few days at least, so the first thing they'd need was shelter. "We need to make a shelter first," he echoed out loud. "Think you're up to the challenge?"
Hiccup exchanged a glance with Toothless when his not quite a compliment remark was clearly taken entirely as a compliment, he looked about as bemused as Hookfang did. He supposed he could let Snotlout believe he'd actually just complimented him, better than listening to him grouse over being insulted for the next few hours...Maybe...He didn't entirely like the idea of listening to him gloat either.
Hiccup distracted himself for a moment unpacking things from the saddlebags they'd put over their dragon's backs, glancing over to Snotlout when he mentioned shelter, "shelter seems like the best place to start," he agreed, especially because it wasn't getting any lighter out. When he had supplies unpacked, he turned to Snotlout and put his hands on his hips, "okay, you sound like you know what you're doing, so how about you figure out shelter, and me and Toothless will go gather up supplies for a fire?" He offered, Snotlout sounded confident, and he was willing to give him a chance to show what he knew.
He scoffed a little at the jab though and rolled his eyes, "challenge? Why's it always gotta be a challenge with you?" He asked in a slightly amused tone, it didn't surprise him, he was used to Snotlout's attitude, but that didn't make it any less tiring and unwelcome when all he wanted to do was do things in a relatively drama free way.
"Of course I know what I'm doing. I'm a Jorgenson. It's in our blood!" Snotlout said. "Go have fun gathering sticks. Come and find us when you're done. C'mon, Hookfang, let's go show 'em who's boss! Snotlout, Snotlout, oi oi oi!" he chanted, practically skipping off into the foliage. Hookfang shot Hiccup an exasperated look before slinking behind his rider and into the forest.
The moment he thought Hiccup was out of earshot, he began to consider his options to get the chieftanship back. Well, get the promise of chieftanship back, anyway. He rooted around for shelter while he thought.
There was permanently crippling Hiccup, he supposed - not that Hiccup hadn't experienced that already. The thought made a lump rise in the back of his throat. Why did he care about hurting Hiccup? It wasn't like he'd ever liked the kid, or really bothered to use him as anything but a punching bag. He was just a skinny, weak, runt. The thought of the Red Death crashing to the ground flashed through his head, as though it was trying to challenge that claim. Snotlout waved the thought away. That was Toothless's doing. Probably.
He could try bringing up the subject with Hiccup, he supposed. He was usually confident in these sorts of things, but the way Spitelout had stared at him made him err on the side of caution for once in his life. Subtlety was not his forte. Maybe if he scared Hiccup into not wanting it, he could claim it without any pain. It was worth a shot.
Hiccup could only roll his eyes at the veiled challenge from Snotlout, he was used to it, he'd been putting up with his cousin's taunting and torment for most of his life, it was foolish and naive to expect that to change just because they were on the same team, "right, we'll meet back here then and you can show me what you've found," he agreed, exchanging a look with Hookfang that spoke volumes, he knew his dragon would at least keep him safe from himself for a bit while they split up, he trusted him to do that.
"This was a dumb idea," he finally spoke out lout when he was out of earshot of Snotlout, glancing over at Toothless, "cousin bonding, right, more chance of bonding with the Red Death," he scoffed, picking up decent looking firewood sticks and stuffing them in one of the larger baskets hooked up to Toothless' saddle. He didn't hate being out here, he just kind of hated being out here with someone who's only goal seemed to be to beat him down.
Toothless gave a gentle rumble in response, nudging his rider and earning a smile from him, "I guess you're right, the camping part is pretty nice," he agreed, sliding another branch into the saddle, "Berk's been crazy, it's a good thing...But not so much when it's all being put on your shoulders," he admitted to Toothless, the dragon nudged up under his arm affectionately, and maybe in a little moment of comfort, and he chuckled and ran a hand over his head before stooping down to pick up a few more branches.
Ixen crawled through the undergrowth, his belly brushing the ground as he approached an unsuspecting boar. It had been almost a day since he'd last eaten properly. Probably due to his own neglect, what with being preoccupied with exploring the island. He tapped his fingers on the hilt of his dagger, stopping every few seconds to make sure the boar hadn't heard a sound.
"-it's all being put on your shoulders," said a faint, nasally voice. The boar froze for a moment before cantering off into the shadows. Ixen let a growl escape from his throat, and he jabbed his dagger in the dirt angrily.
The rage faded quickly, though, as the source of the voice drew nearer. From the sound of it, it was approaching the clearing, and fast. Ixen kept his dagger at the ready and pushed himself further to the ground, eyes prying for a sight of the stranger.
He'd gathered about as many good branches as he could carry between himself and Toothless, and was about ready to head back to fine Snotlout, when he heard a sound in the bushes that startled him enough that he dropped the bundle he was carrying and whipped out his own small dagger. When the sound of a startled boar came from the shadows, he let out a relieved sigh, "jeeze Hiccup, you really are a mutton headed scaredy cat," he said, in a really stupid impression of Snotlout, which he laughed off, about to put his knife away when he noticed Toothless hadn't relaxed.
"Hey...Hey it's alright, bud, it was just a boar," he said this, but the dragon's aggressive stance and expression put him on edge, and the Night Fury was staring intently into the undergrowth with a look that said that something was there, and it was absolutely not a boar, "hello? Is someone there?" He said cautiously, he wasn't too terribly worried, it was hard to be fearful of your life with a dragon like Toothless at your back, but he still couldn't help the fear as he took a few cautious steps forwards, holding his dagger in a ready to fight stance, even if he really had no idea how he'd do that if it came to it.
Ixen felt himself relax as the boy stepped into the clearing, but tensed back up the moment the boy's Night Fury followed suit. He couldn't help but take a shaky, surprised breath - he'd never seen something like that before. Humans, befriending dragons? The thought excited him, terribly so, and it took all he had to not leap out of the bush and ask the trillion questions bouncing around in his skull.
Instead, he slowly slipped his dagger back into its holster. There was no winning in a fight against a dragon - that much he knew, and occasionally, he resented that he no longer had the strength or the scales to hold his own.
"...I'm here," he rumbled, pushing himself to his feet as non-threateningly as he could manage. He kept himself crouching so as to avoid towering over the boy. "I don't want to hurt you."
Hiccup's first thought when the imposing figure of a man stepped out of the brush was to let out a slightly undignified sound and stumble back against Toothless' side, fumbling with his dagger until it fell to the ground with a thunk and he held his hands up. The dragon's tail curled around the wiry boy protectively as he let out an aggressive hiss at the man, face screwed up in a snarl for as long as Hiccup looked afraid. His first instinct and first priority was to protect the boy, and he wouldn't back down from that until Hiccup showed him that the thread was passed.
The small viking swallowed when the man spoke, looking him over top to bottom as he took him in, deciding whether he should be worried. His tone didn't sound threatening though, and he wasn't holding himself in an imposing or menacing way, he also wasn't holding any weapons, so after a careful thought, he put a hand on the Night Fury's head and shared a long look with him. Toothless relaxed in response, his expression becoming warily curious as Hiccup stepped forwards.
"Who are you?" He asked cautiously, his clothing didn't match any tribes he knew of, which meant this man was likely here on his own, not from these parts, or perhaps just a hermit, "well that's good," he quipped with a chuckled, "wouldn't really suggest it..." He cast a glance at Toothless, then back to the man, clearly more at ease now that he'd assessed that this guy wasn't a threat.
Ixen winced a little when Toothless snarled, but he couldn’t blame the dragon for going on the defensive. When they boy had adequately calmed, Ixen stood a little straighter, making sure to keep his hands open with the palms turned away from his body.
”My name is Ixenternock,” he said, tilting his head appreciatively, ”but most people call me Ixen. Well, those who don’t try to throw an axe at my head, that is. And who might you be?” His curiosity began to creep into his voice a little. These two were most fascinating! He decided preemptively that he’d make it his goal to learn all he could about them - an oddity, considering his own opinions on humans, but that only warranted further motivation for study.
Hiccup was a little taken aback by just how tall the guy was when he straightened out, but it wasn't entirely new to him, most everyone back home on Berk tended to tower over him. There was a tiny part of him that knew that he ought to be on guard just in case this guy happened to decide to make a threat of himself, but he also figured Toothless was doing a good enough job of being cautious for the both of them, even if the dragon's posture had also relaxed visibly.
"well, Ixen, nice to meet you!" He chirped in a friendly tone back, giving the man a grin before gesturing to himself and then the dragon at his side, "I'm Hiccup, and this is my friend, Toothless," he chuckled, patting his side appreciatively, "he doesn't mean any harm either, he's just looking after me," he explained, then looked around curiously, "are you here alone? How long have you been on this island?" He asked, he couldn't remember anyone ever making mention of anyone living here, and certainly his dad or Gobber would have warned them, so he assumed he hadn't been here terribly long.
Ixen raised an eyebrow inquisitively. He had to admit, he was a little surprised that Hiccup had made no comment on his outlandish name. He was a friendly spirit, it seemed.
”Oh, I haven’t been here for too long. Just a few days. I’ve been sailing north, all by my lonesome,” he replied. ”I must say, the farther I go, the stranger things get. This land packs all sorts of surprises, as I’ve learned.”
