How To Train Your Dragon One-Shots

Rewriting the Book of Dragons

*After the events of the first movie*

She didn't see much of Hiccup after she kissed him and he took his first flight on Toothless with his new prosthetic leg. At first, she was worried, and she wondered if perhaps she had misread the situation. But she didn't know anyone she could talk to about it. Ruff was...well. Rough. And there were no other girls her age she felt comfortable enough confiding in. Astrid had played the part of the indomitable warrior well. Far too well. And her parents wouldn't understand either. They didn't covet the position of chief as much as the Jorgensons did, but they had already made it clear that they were a bit too excited about Astrid's sudden closeness with the chief's son.

And so, that's how she ended up reaching out to her old teacher, Gobber, for help.

"You see," began Gobber, moving about his armory and switching between hands every couple of seconds as he hammered or tightened the many things strewn about the place, "when I was a lad, my father used to have a saying. He would say, 'Gobber, you can't always go at your enemies with a rock. Sometimes you have to whack them with a log.' You see what I mean?"

Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Gobber, what are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense."

"Aye, maybe not, but love-"

"I didn't say anything about love! I just haven't seen him and thought you might know where he's been."

"Oh, right. Well he's been resting mostly. His new leg is working fine but he still needs a lot of rest and practice using it before he's back out there full time."

Of course. Astrid should have realized that Hiccup was still recovering from his injury. She had seen him walk once and assumed he was completely fine, ignoring the reality that this would be a process.

She thanked Gobber and headed over to the chief's house. She was nervous as she walked towards the door. What do you say to someone after you kissed them? They were friends. Friends...kissed each other, right? As she paced outside, trying to figure out what she'd say, the door opened.

"Astrid!" roared Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk. "Good to see you! How is training going? You and that Deadly Nadder were a sight to behold back on Dragon Island."

"Thanks, chief. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this new dragon training thing. It's certainly better than being shot at while Gobber watches."

Stoick laughed. "Ah, true. Maybe you can train that dragon of yours to give Gobber a taste of his own medicine."

"That's certainly...an idea."

"And one that you came up with all by yourself. I always knew you were a clever viking," Stoick smiled, and there was a twinkle in his eye. "Anyway, I better run. I heard Mildew was raving in the public square again. I think we're going to build him a new house out away from the village. Save us all the headache. You here to see Hiccup?"

"I, umm, well I was going to..."

"He was just at his desk looking at something. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you." Stoick smiled again and took off towards the village, leaving Astrid alone in front of the door. 

She breathed. Why was this scarier than every day of dragon training had been? She was a viking. She could do this. 

She opened the door and walked inside. "Hiccup?" she called up the stairs. "Are you home?"

"Upstairs!" She heard him call back.

Hiccup was indeed sitting at his desk by the window, clutching a book like a tree limb. Toothless lay to the side, taking a nap. Hiccup looked up from what he was doing and smiled that sweet, goofy smile of his. "Hi, long time no see," he said.

"Well, I...wanted to check in. How are you?"

"I'm good. Gothi says my leg is healing nicely. It's getting much easier to walk, though it will probably take a little more time to get used to it completely. But never mind that, look at this!" 

Hiccup held out the book so that she could see it. It was the book of dragons, the same one that Gobber had asked them all to read back when dragon training was dragon fighting. 

"It's that old book," said Astrid. There was a loose page in it, and she pulled on it to see what it was. Unlike the others, she had read the book, and she knew there wasn't a drawing of a night fury in there. "Did you draw this?" she asked.

Hiccup nodded. "After I shot down Toothless, I found in the cove and made a quick sketch. I thought I'd leave it in the book. That way, if anyone reads it, they'll know what a night fury looks like."

Astrid took the book and opened up to the night fury section. "And after the see the drawing they'll read all about how the night fury is the 'offspring of lightning and death itself.'" She said, pointing out the lines to Hiccup.

"Yeah, I'm not thrilled about that particular aspect of the book. I mean, look at this: 'your only chance is to hide and pray it does not find you.' Boy were our ancestors so wrong."

Astrid flipped through a few more pages, glancing at all the images of vikings being burned or dismembered, and all the dragons attacking or being killed. Once, she had been excited to fight those monsters. Now, she knew they weren't monsters at all. Her stomach squirmed a little just thinking about how...intense...she had once been. 

She looked at Hiccup's drawing again. It was on similar parchment, but it didn't quite fit into the book as well. The sheet wasn't quite the right size. 

"Maybe," said Astrid, the idea dawning on her slowly, "you should write your own book."

Hiccup shook his head. "Write a book? Me? Astrid, I'm not a writer. And beside, I'm just...Hiccup. No one listens to me, remember?"

"I listened to you." She kneeled on the floor so she could look into his eyes. She wanted to grab his hands, to kiss him again, but she didn't. "I didn't for a while, but eventually I came around. And I'm really glad I did. Hiccup, you know dragons better than anyone, and you saved us all from the red death. I really think people will start listening to you."

"You do?" Hiccup asked. 

Astrid nodded. "This is your chance to change how future generations see dragons. We can train our dragons, but one day we'll be gone and all anyone will have left is that book. That book might be what our ancestors knew, but we both know it's wrong."

"You're right, of course."

"Yeah? Well, what are you going to do about it?" Astrid grinned as Hiccup smiled at her.

"Let's write that book," he said. 

******

Hi! I hope you enjoyed this story. This is my first fanfic, hastily written on a Thursday morning before work. I've read a few fanfics before and wanted to try it out. HTTYD seemed like a great place to start. If you enjoyed this feel free to check out the other original stories I have on Wattpad. Also check out my creative writing podcast "Determination, Deliberation, and Dragons." You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. My friend and I workshop our own writing, analyze books and movies (like HTTYD), and we even chat with the occasional author.