The Dragon Master

Chapter 1 - Life in Berk

Hiccup is awakened by a loud noise in the center of the village. He opened his eyes and saw that the sunlight had entered his room, through the window. It's already noon. It seemed he had slept quite a bit since he couldn't sleep late last night. Hiccup sighed and got up from his wooden bed.

"Once again a sad day." Hiccup said to himself.

Hiccup readied himself and slipped into his thick bear fur cloak over his light green tunic. He put on his boots and left the house. The village is already very crowded there. The villagers are busy with their work. However, when they realized Hiccup's presence, they glared at him and muttered insults.

"Seriously, has the chief lost his mind letting this useless brat stay here?"

"He should just be thrown out."

"Berk never wanted a failed viking like him!"

"What other ridiculous thing did he do today?"

Their every whisper hurts Hiccup. Those words seemed to contain poison that could kill him slowly. Hiccup just sighed and walked away while lowering his head. Swallow every insult. Hiccup kept walking until he arrived at 'The Forge'. This was the smithy where he worked alongside his mentor. The Forge is on a side that is less populated so that reduces the possibility of intimidation. Hiccup enters the garage and is greeted by Gobber.

"Morning lad, hope you slept well last night, you know you have a lot of work to do," Gobber said, pointing to the pile of weapons that had to be re-sharpened with his thumb. There are axes, maces and swords on the wooden table.

"Great, I slept well, hope I don't die from this work," Hiccup replied sarcastically. Gobber just rolled his eyes.

Working at The Forge is tiring, not that he hates it here. He did enjoy working with Gobber. But just working on sharpening and crafting weapons is very annoying. Considering other teenagers have better jobs, such as hunting, fishing and training in the killing ring. Meanwhile Hiccup has to be in this closed room, which makes him unable to prove himself.

Hiccup begins honing the weapons of the Berk people. Lots of blunt weapons, not to mention weapons that need to be repaired and new weapon orders. He lifted a very large mace with great difficulty. Well, his very thin arms were very unsupportive in lifting heavy weapons. This made him unable to fight dragons.

However, Hiccup did not give up. He makes mechanical weapons to fight dragons when he has free time. One of them was a dragon's rope weapon named 'Thor's Rope' which he failed when he tried in the previous raid. It wasn't about Deadly Nadder he was targeting, but about his father and uncle Spitelout. As a result, they look like a couple hugging while sharing warmth.

His father was very angry at that time. In his father's face, Hiccup could see the anger, embarrassment, and disappointment that was so great. In fact, Hiccup is just trying to help. However, what he got was not praise but insults and ridicule. His father eventually destroys his 'Thor's Rope' weapon and renders it useless.

Hiccup continued to repair the residents' weapons and took a deep breath.

"Aye lad, let's go to lunch," said Gobber. "My stomach is already raging."

"Okay." Hiccup answered as he put down the hammer he was repairing.

Hiccup and Gobber exit The Forge and walk toward the Great Hall. Once again, the villagers stare dirty at Hiccup's presence. Hiccup who felt uncomfortable just lowered his head. Gobber, who realized this, gently pushed Hiccup's back to make him go faster.

"Come on lad, I'm really hungry."

Gobber knows of Hiccup's intimidation by the people. Many times he tried to defend him, but was stopped by Stoick who said that he had to face it alone. Gobber wanted to protest but fell silent because he didn't know what to say.