#httyd deviation

HTTYD Deviations 

(yes, it has been a long, long while but a short bit of thinking on this brought me to a startling conclusion)

“You can’t stop him Stoick, you can only prepare him. I know it seems hopeless, but the truth is… you won’t always be around to protect him…”

The rest of Gobber’s words melt into the low din of the Mead Hall as his last, clear sentence rings again and again before Stoick’s mind’s eye. Hiccup wasn’t a one-and-done deal. He needed constant protection. He needed protection from himself. It was an investment. Gobber was right: Stoick wouldn’t always be around. And if he couldn’t protect Hiccup, who would? And how? 

Gods knew the boy weren’t capable of protecting himself…

When Hiccup sneaks back inside—well after dusk—with his heart still erratic and out of sync with his breath, his clothes still stinking of the feral dragon’s breath, his mind unable to focus on a single, dizzying thought… it’s to a cold hearth and a dark home.

Somehow, he’s made it home before his father, and in his troubled state he only experiences a distant sense of relief from the subconscious acknowledgment. A dozen scenarios of uncomfortable (and inevitable) conversations had played in his mind for the entire trek back from the forest. All of which could be delayed while longer.

He tries to swing the door closed behind him but it stops short. A heavy hand lands on his shoulder.

Hiccup shrieks. A Very Viking short of shriek, of course.

“Son,” Stoick greets as he too steps into the house and sets about lighting the circular inglenook.

The events of that very morning rise up to both minds, and both men swallow the discomfort back. Too much has happened to each and neither is willing to drudge up old arguments at the moment.

The room flares to life. Hiccup hastily wipes pine needles from his tunic as Stoick takes off his helmet and smooths his hair.

Hiccup is almost suspicious with how long his father spends settling his Chief’s cloak on his favorite chair, patting the matted fur with thick fingers. His great beard jostles each time he opens his mouth and nothing comes out. Something is up.

“Son,” Stoick finally manages. “we need to talk.”

Orange light dances over his quiet and steady voice, and Hiccup is set on edge.

Well, first, I wouldn’t call it feral Hiccup so much as another runaway fic. Feral AUs already exist and Hiccup’s actually more feral in those, having been raised by dragons more or less. (I know Valka was taken at 20 but the feral comment is more a joke).

And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen my HTTYD Deviations page, but that scenario actually exists! (pff of course it does).

Though that was speculated upon before I ever saw HTTYD2, which changes some things.

One difference is I have Hiccup writing a note and leaving it for his father to find as he packs up (I’m pretty sure I had that going on in Hitchups?). It’s not confirmed or not if Hiccup ever wrote a note in canon, because up and leaving is both cruel and practical... and the sorta selfish thing Hiccup would do and regret later on. On one hand, there’s the possibility that they hunt him down, on the other hand, leaving his father to wait and worry and have to conclude (after SO much denial) that Hiccup’s dead is simply terrible. Plus, in the note, Hiccup could give them every reason to not search for him. That he’s chosen the dragons. That he’s betrayed Berk. Would it be better to live as a perceived traitor than cause unnecessary grief? It’s going to be painful either way. 

So the idea that Berk believes he’s dead is a bit up in the air. UNLESS, he uses a note to say he was trying to tame a dragon he found in the cove before his big exam and if he doesn’t return then he died... and stages his death. Still kinda cruel but still gives some closure?

Especially if Astrid arrives just as Toothless is flying off. It’s a little hard for her to tell what she saw because she’s pretty sure there was a human too but... it might have been the sun... it looked like it was on the wrong side of the dragon...

And again, without the rush, all of what you said would likely come to pass, with Toothless giving his input to go west, and Hiccup’s slow discovery of different dragon species... plus some mishaps. Some funny. Some not. New scars abound. I still believe he’d sneak into society every now and then for coin, or supplies, or the odd job. He has a fast ticket out of anywhere should he get into trouble. And he makes sure he’s far, far away from Berk when he does this. Often wearing hoods or the like in case anyone recognizes him (he does have a history as an Heir who had to attend Things, after all). For the most part he

He’s definitely meeting his mother someday.

Which could lead to some juicy conflicts because Hiccup is adamant about doing something about the dragon Queen and stopping the war, and Valka believes in leaving the dragons to their nature and that Berk likes war. And Hiccup argues that they don’t, and that it doesn’t have to be that way, and the dragons are slaves...

So… Dead!Hiccup AU actually moves forward into THW and past its timeline:

Part I | Part II | Part III | Legacy | Toothless’ side

But lets see how well they merge:

Toothless still becomes Alpha. 

Stoick is still chief. He has Valka and Astrid and Eret (at Astrid’s insistence) and Berk still hosts dragons. They do things that Hiccup would have wanted, to honor him, but they don’t lead like he leads. They free dragons—Valka spearheads that constant mission—but they don’t hoard them.

They release them from the warlords’ grip. 

“If they’ve got any sense, they’ll find that Hidden World,” Stoick would rumble. Valka would rub his shoulder fondly. She never disabuses Stoick of the Hidden World theory, nor does she encourage it. She quietly hopes he’s right.

Stoick is more focused on fighting humans than saving dragons. He sees the warlords as the root of the problem. He also knows Berk doesn’t have the army or resources to take them on. His wife and the most skilled dragon fliers take the lead with saving dragons from humans, but Stoick works on negotiating alliances, old and new. If they get enough strength in allies then maybe---maybe---they could take on the warlords.

Of course, old wounds run deep. It doesn’t go well.

Astrid frowns every time she hears Stoick talk of the Hidden World. She doesn’t believe in it. She sees an endless cycle of catch and release.

Then there’s the issue of pregnancy. Astrid is pregnant in Dead Hiccup AU. She clearly wasn’t pregnant in THW... though perhaps that’s a choice she made during the year between movies. Who knows what kooky dragon oil/remedies they have for abortions? Or a flying accident. Or a training accident. Something might have gone different with Hiccup around...

... Anyway, without Hiccup, dragons are around for a much longer time, but also suffer at the hands of humans for much, much longer.

Perhaps Stoick makes some headway with alliances. First the Bogs. Then the Visithugs. Then the Meatheads. It takes years---decades---to incorporate dragons into the lives of other communities. And they can’t always be monitored. They can’t always stop the abuses that happen behind closed doors... Vikings that can’t unsee, unexpirience, what they had at the jaws and claws of dragons...

That would be an awesome story.

HTTYD Deviations

Adrenaline and terror coursing through his veins, Stoick feels a second of white heat, the hard impact from every side, and then it all goes black.

He awakens with a shout, sucking in warm, dark air. It takes him a moment to register the bed beneath him, the walls around him… Another moment to hear the screaming outside. The alarm bells. The flashes of red flame and bleating of terrified sheep.

He’s in his room. He’s on Berk. His skin isn’t cold and raw from ice caves, but warm and sticky with dried sweat.

He stumbles out of his bed, smacking his shin on a clothings’ chest (hadn’t he moved it against the wall last spring?), and with a pounding heart throws open his shutters.

Starlight had been replaced with wings and fire. Braziers cast violent shadows across the chaotic grounds as Vikings vault and sprint and swing, all glinting blades and bellows. Rage and excitement tainted the air, swallowable, invigorating.

Stoick shakes the addictive sensations from his body and tries to focus. A dragon attack. On Berk.

How is it possible? Where is Hiccup?

“Chief! Chief!”

Hoark’s scrambling up the hill, dried blood on his cheeks.

“They came a day earlier than we thought, Cheif!” the man puffs. Stoick barely hears him.

Why is Hoark’s beard at full length? He’d lost half to scarring in that Zippleback incident three years ago…

“Chief!”

“Aye,” Stoick hears himself say absently, “I’ll be out in a mo’…”

On autopilot, déjà vécu occluding his mind with every movement, Stoick throws on his cloak and shoulder pads and bracers. His hand reaches for an axe he hadn’t kept by the hearth in five years, but something about this moment moves his body. Like a play he had rehearsed too many times.

He’d…he’d done this before.

He takes the time to race up to the loft: Hiccup’s bed is empty. There’s no roof-hatch in the ceiling. No large, flat bedstone for Toothless.

He thunders down the stairs, the grip on his axe dangerously slick with sweat.

“Where’s Hiccup?” he roars at Hoark. The man appears taken aback. Even with only blazing fire for light Stoick sees how much younger the man looks. Less scars, no grey.

“What? Ah, he’d run off to Gobber’s last I saw. His house, mind, not the forge.”

Stoick nods shortly and beelines towards Gobbers hut, navigating a battlefield, feeling at odds with not participating. He wants to shout to stop hurting them! To lay down their weapons. But he sees their stores being ravaged and their sheep carried off. These dragons are hurting his village and if he has to choose…

“What’s the plan, chief?” Phlegma shouts from atop the cleaved body of a Gronkle.  She has a rescued sheep under one arm and is yanking the buried half of her double-bladed axe from her kill. Her braid style is an old one. She has more muscle on her than Stoick recalls.

Stoick slows and opens his mouth, unwitted. What can he say? What is happening?

He can see Hoark mouthing something to Phlegma that Stoick can only assume has something to do with his uncharacteristic blank expression. He must seem a fool to them.

Distraction comes in the form of a small and gangly blur.

Stoick snatches Hiccup from a raze of fire so quickly it shocks the both of them.

The brume recedes to make room for clarity; his mind ready to accept the impossible turn of events.

Because now, with his tiny (tiny!) son swinging petulantly from his grip, Stoick understands. It had been years since he’d been able to pick up his son with one hand. That, more than anything, told Stoick this wasn’t a dream (how could it be? With all the blistering heat and choking, frenzied atmosphere?).

He had died. 

Stoick had died with his last sensation being his son in his hands, much like this. His much heavier, much taller boy in his grip, being thrown out of Death’s path.

But now he’s alive.

Stoick sets Hiccup back on the ground, but doesn’t release the scruff of his vest. He doesn’t shove him off with a harsh “Get back inside!”.

He pulls Hiccup to his chest and hugs him. Hiccup muffles something into the fabric of his tunic but suddenly Stoick can’t bring himself to let go.

The gods were playing a game.

They’d shown him everything: the Nest, Dragon’s nature, his son’s potential, his wife….

This time he’d play to win.

This time, he’d do things right.

Stoick’s Second Chance

So, Stoick’s been given quite the thinking assignment for this, because even as he’s putting Hiccup on the ground he’s wondering when and where he should interfere.

Save their winter supplies and personally see to Hiccup being locked away for this raid? Spare Toothless his tailfin and keep Hiccup from the Forge in particular? But then, how would Hiccup bond with Toothless? How would they get a hostile Night Fury to give a human child a chance?

He’s certainly not going after the nest before the ice sets in this time around. Not when he knows what’s waiting for them…

Dear Thor, he knows what’s in the nest! They can train properly. He can fly against the beast himself and not his son—He can save Hiccup’s leg! He knows the boy will grow tall and strong without it, but all the same…

Stoick doesn’t know how he’s going to make his plays, but he does know he needs to make the first moves, take the first steps in making amends with dragons if they want a peaceful outcome… but delicate steps, they must be.

Side note: this can easily end up like a Groundhog’s day situation where over the course of a few months, Stoick keeps fucking up and dying and having to repeat things, and that earlier version was the “final right one”.

A situation where he stops Hiccup from shooting Toothless down, becomes encouraging of him all the same (especially for his forge skills) and Hiccup starts to adapt and grow into a capable Viking in his own right, but one that still kills dragons, much to Stoick’s helplessness (even going so far as to usurp his suddenly dragon-friendly father?x x)

He allows Hiccup to “Run off to the forge” but this time follows Hiccup and “witnesses” the takedown of the Night Fury. He stops the Nightmare before it can chase Hiccup through the village, quietly says he “believes Hiccup” and says they’ll look for the dragon once the village is in order. Later, when they find Toothless tied up, Stoick encourages Hiccup to release the dragon, but the sight of a grown Viking towering over him causes Toothless to immediately kill them both as soon as he’s freed.

But we’ll stick to one story.

Stoick decides to keep Hiccup from shooting Toothless down that night. He chooses to help out Gobber and Hiccup in the forge and make sure Hiccup doesn’t go running half-cocked with a contraption.

The raid ends, they have enough supplies, and Stoick shoots down any ideas of a final Nest Hunt. They’ll wait out the winter, he says. They’re stocked for it.

From there, Stoick spends his evenings sneaking into the Kill Ring and working with the dragons. He wants to start big, with Hookfang, but reminds himself of how much they damage these poor beasts. He wins over Meatlug first.

Night is the only time his early-to-rise vikings aren’t constantly seeking him. He’s under the guise of taking more ‘night watches’. “Don’t want another raid as we finish up the harvest!”

He also spends time talking to his son. Soaking up their time together. Listening to him. Drinking in a face he should have paid more attention to. Asking about his day, his projects, with genuine care…

And Hiccup is suspicious. His father is looking at him with eyes shining… not just from pride of all things but… remorse? Unbridled love? Longing? He’s not sure. The attention is everything he wanted but it feels so… unwarranted he’s suspicious. And his father’s behavior… out at night? Hiccup is the only night owl in the family. He used to enjoy the privacy of the dark. Now it’s being intruded upon by his father of all people. His gentle, attentive father who is now encouraging his ideas. Hell, even suggested he ‘tweak’ to Mutilator to ensnare rather than kill!

His father who cancelled dragon training. Astrid is furious, of course. She’s been particularly short with Hiccup, and he suspects its because she’s under the impression it was cancelled for him. As though, being in their age group, rather than deny Hiccup joining them, the Chief has taken it away all together. The way Snotlout loudly goes on about it in the Mead Hall, Hiccup can only assume that’s the circulating rumor amongst his peer, and no amount of denying it will get him anything but a shove in the mud.

So Hiccup takes matters into his own hands. He follows his father one night, quietly…to the Kill Ring, of all places. He watches as his father unlocks the Nadder’s cage and waits, in the moonlit arena, unarmed, for the beast to emerge from the dark. Hiccup has to swallow a scream ‘What are you doing?!’ when a spiked head charges forth.

For a split, horrifying breath Hiccup knows he’s going to witness a sudden and grisly death by one or the other.

Instead the Nadder drives right into Stoick’s open arms and start bucking into the hearty scratches. It’s purrs can be heard from where Hiccup holds the wall.

“Come on out, Hiccup,” Stoick calls over his shoulder. Shaking, Hiccup does.

The Nadder is introduced as Stormfly. And she was partial to chicken, an excellent tracker, and liked to have a particular spot on her jaw scratched.

From there, Hiccup’s introduced to every other dragon as well. Hiccup is surrounded by dragons, unarmed, and his father is petting them like dogs.

“Come tomorrow, everything will change,” he tells Hiccup, with a hearty clap on the shoulder. And tomorrow, everything did.

At dawn, Stoick flies on the back of a Monstrous Nightmare he’s calling Hookfang and lands on the highest steps of the Mead Hall. The village is in an absolute state of shock. Weapons are equipped, but held loosely, uncertain. Mouths are open but silent, save for a few expletives. Tuffnut has stars in his eyes and Astrid Hofferson hadn’t looked so gobsmacked since she was told Dragon Training was cancelled. Hiccup has a hand over his face, perhaps the least shocked of everyone. He feels Gobber watching him more than his father.

The wind picks up and suddenly Berk is looking at a painting more likely seen in a book of legends.

The Gods had given him a vision, is what Stoick tells his village. A vision of victory against a devilish beast, but only if humans and dragons united ways. Stoick was shown how to do that.

That’s the story he goes with, anyway, and Hiccup is certain he and Gothi are the only two people on that island who think it absolute poppycock. Gothi because she probably receives real visions, and Hiccup because, after a full night straight of talking with his father (about what the hel he was doing the past nights), he couldn’t get the feeling that his father was holding something vital back. Not a vision from the gods, but perhaps something else.

But with his grand stature, heroic red hair, and legendary feats under his weighty belt, near everyone else can only shrug and say “Why not?”. If there were any viking of their age for the gods to deign worthy of a vision, it would be Stoick the Vast.

A new regime comes into play. Vikings are taught ‘sweet spots’ and ‘grasses’. They take turns flying on the backs of the dragons they’ve captured in raids past. Weapons are altered for the part. Saddles are made.

The only time Hiccup nearly believes that the gods had indeed spoken to his father is when the man stops him, repeatedly, from bonding too well with any particular dragon, despite his natural talent for flying (even Astrid Hofferson had to begrudgingly admit as much). His reason?

“You’re meant for another.”

Every. Time.

Winter passes. Vikings and Dragons train together. Raids come and go, but each time they seduce more dragons to co-exist and protect them. Whenever attacking the nest is brought up, Stoick would say, “Not yet.”

It happens over dinner in an early thaw. A gronkle named Newtsbreath happily crunches on a yak’s femur. Hiccup sketches out a design for a Timberjack’s saddle. Astrid Hofferson’s bonded to one and Hiccup thinks it’ll get him back in her good graces (she’s annoyed, now, that he beat her in a friendly age-group race. It’s like she’s trying to find excuses, he swears…)

“There was one other person who knew, without a doubt, that dragons were reasonable creatures, deserving of our kindness, and not our blades.”

Stoick waits and Hiccup, putting his charcoal down, gives into the silent prompt.

“Who?”

“You’re mother.” Stoick grins as Hiccup chokes on his drink. “… And we’re going to get her.”

OOOOOH MAN, YOU ASKED THE QUESTION.

Quick preface: Astrid is not Camicazi, or vise-versa. I don’t care what role they’re trying to fill. Both the characters and their part, are so, so different.

Another quick sidenote: Someone once asked about introducing Camicazi in the TV show, which I outlined an episode for.

Now, you’re asking if Camicazi were to replace Astrid, not exist alongside of her? That’s something I have not talked about, as all of my movie!Camicazi adaptions exist within HTTYD-movie canon. To be honest… as far as background goes, I don’t see an immediate difference:

Camicazi is still a Bog Burglar, from a different tribe, an allied tribe, also battling the War on Dragons.

Camicazi has a whole Bog Culture behind her (created along with @ch4rmsing)

Camicazi and Hiccup both knew each other as heirs, seeing each other at the yearly Thing, always hosted by a different tribe.

Camicazi was one of Hiccup’s first real “friends”. She, at least, respected him for who he was (or saw opportunity in what he was capable of), and they remained pen pals through the years.

Hiccup was Camicazi’s first kiss from a boy. That follows whether Astrid exists or not.

In the movie!canon timeline, Camicazi’s dragon is a Hobblegrunt… lest a Mood Dragon come to existance, which, in this non!Astrid one, maybe we can… and it’s name is Stormfly! YEAH!

So, should Astrid not exist…

Hiccup is still fighting the good fight to Fit In™, just sans the Crush. But we’ll say that when no one believes him about shooting down the Night Fury, that, after he drops his “I just want to be one of you guys” line to Gobber, and forlornly shoves his way back into the Haddock Houshold, he first writes Camicazi a letter (and uses pigeon messaging? Pre-terrormail) gushing about his victory because at least she’ll listen.

Hiccup has already started dragon-training, met Toothless, and has slowly begun to work on the tail-fin before Camicazi assaults him mid “See You Tomorrow” montage.

Turns out, his letter was inspiration enough to get her to commandeer a small ship and adventure her Tiny, Tangled way over to Hooligan territory (it didn’t hurt that Hiccup’s letter mentioned his father would be away). Camicazi wants in… on whatever nonsense Hiccup is starting now (also she has her own Coming-of-Age background nonsense she’s running away from)

Hiccup knows, in the back of his mind, that Camicazi was just looking for an excuse to break the rules a bit more. That was the basis of their friendship after all: he had an uncanny way of finding trouble and pissing people off, and Camicazi was all for getting them out of it. She loved the challenge. But he wants a human friend in on this. And he wants more people to know about Toothless the more he uncovers dragons.

Camicazi loves hiding away on Hooligan Island, harassing Hiccup where she can, learning about dragons, and aiding in the magic of flight/helping-Toothless. She doesn’t reveal herself to Berk. Not while Stoick’s away. It’s her escape time.

she also loves whispering into Hiccup’s ear how to handle his new popularity with his peers. She knows he loves it deep down; she also knows he feels false about it. She’s there to mediate.

When Stoick returns, she wants to go further with Toothless. Ultimately, Stoick will receive word from her mother that she’s missing and people will be on high alert. She wants one last Hurrah.

That’s when they discover the Queen.

They decide to bring it to Hiccup’s father first after a small argument over which tribe to inform first. Hiccup’s not alone in breaking this news; both heirs need to carry the burden of truth.

There is no Final Exam incident. It’s the witching hour and Stoick can barely contain his rage as Camicazi (the brat was on his island the whole time; Bertha’d never let him live it down!) practically shouts over his son’s mumbles absolute hearsay: Dragon Queens and taming Night Furies and generations of ideals wrong. But in the next instant his son is gone, a shadow in the sky that left him hoarse and looking like a lunatic.

A week later of his son missing and Stoick certain he’d gone mad, an envoy of the Bog Burglars arrive. Bertha’s furious, talking of her daughter and his son flying around on a Night Fury of all things.

Apparently their children had done a Truth Bomb on the Bog Burglars as well and demanded the two tribes meet lest they want to see their heirs again.

It isn’t until dusk that Hiccup and Camicazi and Toothless come to Berk, remaining high, and barely visible, where they’re safe. They address the parties, and explain what they’ve seen, what they’ve learned, hoping for cooperation.

It’s cooperation they’re given… up front. They’re careful play isn’t as well thought as as it seems, and the adults take matters into their own hands the following morning and steal away the Nightmare (meant to be slaughtered a week earlier) to find the nest.

Kids follow, asses are kicked, feet are lost, in the chaos Camicazi bonds with a Mood-dragon/Hobblegrunt and helps save Phlegma the fierce (a Bog defector that was on her mother’s Shitlist)

Hooligans and Bogs are forced to reconcile with dragons, with Camicazi and Hiccup colluding through Terrormail in the following five years <3

Their meetings get hotter, let me tell you

(tldr; adding an outside heir would be hella sweet js)

There’s a side thought that Hiccup won’t meet Camicazi until HTTYD3, which could involve Romans… as they truly met ;)

Even if Astrid exists, Hiccami could happen with the right spin (less so after HTTYD2)

Aaaaay! Ye old HTTYD deviations! Haven’t touched those in forever. So glad you got a good binge out of them :)

So the real question lies… how wounded? Unconcious? Are people initially worried if he’s dead or not, with the sort of fear they held over Hiccup at the end of the first movie? Or does he merely bounce violently off the rocks and then gets back up?

Either way, Drago’s going to Berk. He’s defeated their alpha, has control of their dragons, and is now going to fly away with their only means off the island. As far as Drago’s concerned: he’s won. Without dragons, the Riders are hardly a threat to him. And to top it all off, he’s just smacked down the man who escaped him last time.

The only danger of Stoick being less hurt is that Drago may try again with a killing blow, perhaps turning all of their dragons against them, just to wipe out the minor problem they once posed. But he doesn’t operate like that; instead he’ll grin and leave them, stranded and suffering, to worry over Berk’s inescapable future.

Of course, Stoick’s survival or not, Drago’s going to overlook (or not know about) the baby dragons being free of control. And this time they don’t have to spend time on a funeral and will make faster grounds on Drago’s lead... perhaps enough that more of Berk is spared. Perhaps, in an extreme case, they catch up before Berk.

Again, the question of how injured Stoick is matters.

Is he rearing to hop on a dragon himself and fly after Drago as soon as possible? It’s his son’s idea, of course, and in no time Hiccup and Stoick are single-mindedly Hours ago all she could do was marvel at how her son managed to resemble her so, despite her absence from his life, and now she’s bearing witness to a little Stoick. The same stubborn set in their jaw, the low brow, the biting determination--almost bullheaded heroics--both willing to fling themselves thoughtlessly into another impossible battle, all to save the village she wrote off.

Is Stoick injured enough that they spend some time patching him up... just enough until he’s insisting they get to Berk. Hiccup brings up the subject of baby dragons one minute and the next everyone’s asking Stoick if he’s sure he’s good to fly.

Is Stoick so injured that he’s still unconcious? Hiccup’s antsy and devastated and is the first to announce how he’s getting to Berk. Someone has to stay with Stoick and it causes a small commotion because they all feel that desperate pull to get to Berk, to save their dragons and save their families. Fishlegs is the slowest flier. Valka doesn’t have the emotional connection to Berk they all do, and may have the best. In the end Gobber stays, with the most medical knowledge of all of them.

Hiccup will still free Toothless, and fly Toothless, and very likely still unlock Alpha!Toothless - though if Stoick’s around there’s a slim chance that could be interfered with. Stoick would definitely let Hiccup and Toothless “do their thing” in that final battle, because he has great faith in his son and he’d whisper reassurances to Valka during the terror of watching him fly. His reaction to Hiccup being encased in ice would be epic. Straight up put Valka to shame. His joy at Hiccup not only surviving but kicking ass and taking names will also put everyone else’s to shame (Yeah, Toothless, you’re totally forgiven for shooting him now).

(2/3) Just like Hiccup Stoick would have been injured pretty badly, probably broken ribs, a shoulder dislocated or a broken arm (or both!), maybe a back injury from the impact with the wall, and everyone thinking he couldn’t has possibly survived until Gobber or Valka realize he’s still breathing. From there is really where I wasn’t sure how it would go - Drago hearing he survived or not, and whether or not this would affect his decision to attack Berk anyway.

(3/3) But even with my vague wording you went so in depth with it from every angle that I’m not sure which would work best anymore! So thanks for giving it tackling it with the same depth as the other stuff you’ve done, and keep being awesome!

From This Deviation

<3 Hey man, sorry for the wait, I got whisked away for half the week. And, honestly, it was such a dramatic moment that could have gone in so many ways. It was a good thing to pick up on! And thank you so much for enjoying my take on the Dragons’ universe. The whole stupid thing weaseled its way into my psyche too deep and now I need to see it through to the end, for better or for worse, and the characters themselves are what really build it for me. Even if things are in a lull now, I’m happy to continue to play around with it and the third movie will certainly hike things up.

So Stoick is injured pretty badly. Like, unconcious, but alive. They don’t know if there’s brain-damage, memory-loss (now there’s a fun idea! holy shit…), but he’s alive and Valka is sobbing with relief and Gobber’s knuckles are white, gripping Stoick’s vest, and Astrid’s hands are rubbing Hiccup’s back whispering ‘thank Thor’ and Hiccup is fucking livid.

His face is set, his mind is made up, he’s going back to Berk not to just save his dragon, or to save his village, and his father’s village, but to take out the man who dared to put Stoick the Vast in such a… a vulnerable state. It’s nothing like Hiccup’s ever seen before and it’s shaken him to the core. He’s barely communicated his intentions to use baby dragons and he’s already stalking inside the ice cave. He’s furious, focused, not-listening and, in that moment, he looks so much like Stoick that Valka too falls silent amidst the clamor to get Hiccup to open up.

So, yes, they’re all heading to Berk on baby dragons with Gobber looking after Stoick, but now they have an added drive – to get Stoick medical attention, fast.  They win, obviously, and with Toothless as Alpha, Hiccup wastes no time in getting his dragon to influence one of the largest dragons from Drago’s army to follow them back to the Ice Caves…

Hiccup’s not chief, but he’s a renewed hero. Berk isn’t as damaged since.

And Stoick is back… But how much he’s back is another deviation in itself because there is the chance of… dun dun dun… memory loss! How original! (but fun, so fun). Where his mind jumpstarts back to its previous trauma… to five years earlier. 

Stoick awakens in his home, warm under furs, in a moderate amount of pain, with a parched throat and the meaty smell of Gobber’s stew filling the room. Gobber only makes that stew when someone’s sick or sad; its enough to jog the most recent events to memory: his son accidentally destroyed one of their stocked ships and allowed a good bit of their livestock to be taken by freed dragons. They made one last, desperate bid for the nest before the ice was to set in; a hail freya of a prayer to avoid any more raids in the winter. They entered the layberinth of fog… there was dragons, fire, men screaming, the splintering of wood, and then…

Ah. So he was injured in that failed expedition. Enough men must have survived to get him back to Berk safely, but he shudders to think of what was lost in the attempt.

Stoick lets loose a painful cough that tells him his ribs were in delicate condition. He swears he hears his son call to him, but when he opens his eyes its a towering, young man who greets him. He looks both familiar and a stranger and all too comfortable in his house.