Defying The Rules

Stoick's wrath

Stoick got up angrily and brushed the dirt off of his clothes. He breathed deeply and put his helmet back on. "Put it with the others." He said, referring to the Night Fury. The Vikings who were holding the animal down nodded and got to obeying.

The dragon roared in fear as it tried to escape, but it soon gave up, realizing that it had no chance of getting out of here. Hiccup watched in sorrow as his best friend was dragged into one of the pens. Tears streamed down his face as Astrid held him back, keeping him from going towards his dragon.

Stoick turned to Hiccup, anger in his eyes. "You're coming with me." He said harshly, grabbing his son by the arm and pulling him out of Astrid's grip. As he started walking out of the arena, Thalos ran up to him.

"Sir," Thalos started, trying to remain respectful to the Chief of Berk. "it's not what it looks like. Hiccup was just-"

"I know exactly what Hiccup did, and it was exactly what it looked like. Stay out of this, Thalos. I thank you for helping Hiccup in the ring, but this is a matter between Hiccup and I."

Thalos stopped, took a deep breath, and ran back up to them. "Are you going to punish him?"

"That's none of your conc-"

"You are going to punish him for trying to make peace with dragons?" Thalos said, cutting him off. "You are going to punish him for trying to keep more Vikings from being killed? For trying to stop the raids? You're going to punish him for trying to do something you yourself haven't done?"

"Enough! I don't need your input on the matter!" Stoick replied, quite irritated. "Go back home Thalos Cliteson." With that, Stoick the Vast walked angrily with Hiccup into the village.

Thalos breathed heavily and looked around. His heart was still racing after the events in the arena. He was a bit angry, to be honest. Yes, Hiccup disrespected the whole village, but he almost died! He almost died, and he was going to get punished!

Thalos shook his head and saw Astrid was still there, staring at him. He furrowed his eyebrows and thought a moment. Since when did Astrid care about what happened to Hiccup? He saw how she had gone into the ring with the Monstrous Nightmare to help him. He saw how she held Hiccup back from the dragons.

"Well?" Astrid said, snapping Thalos out of his thoughts.

He looked at her in confusion. "Well what?"

"Well, what are you waiting for? We should follow them."

"What? You want to eavesdrop on a conversation the Chief is having with his son? Are you mad?"

She shook her head, pushed Thalos forward, and walked past him. "You're his friend, aren't you? Let's go. He might need our help."

Thalos followed behind her quick pace, still not sure what in Thor's name she was thinking. "Our help? It's his father. The Chief isn't going to abuse his own son, and even if he did-"

"Not abuse." Astrid said, rolling her eyes. "What if he gets banished from the village? You saw his disrespect to the tribe, didn't you?"

"Would you slow down?" Thalos was a bit too exhausted to be following her at this speed. "If he gets banished, how are we going to do anything about it?"

"Just keep up." She said in an annoyed tone. "I don't know. We'll think of something."

Thalos shook his head in disbelief and kept following her. This was not like Astrid. He had known Astrid for a long time, and she never cared about Hiccup's well being.

"Since when did you care about what happens to Hiccup?" He asked. "You never gave him a second thought."

Astrid stopped, turned around and looked at him. She shook her head and resumed speed walking. "I just do." She said, in a different tone than before. It was almost a shy or embarrassed tone.

Obviously, this was not at all like Astrid's personality. She was a warrior for Thor's sake. She never gave much emotion aside from a temper and competitive spirit. Was she sick?

"That doesn't even-"

Thalos was stopped in his tracks when he was suddenly whacked on the head. "Ow!" He shouted, rubbing his head. He looked up to see Gothi, who hit him a second time.

Astrid turned around and looked at the old woman. Gothi used her stick to point at Thalos's slingless arm. It didn't take a genius to know what that meant.

"Oh..." He rubbed his head and glanced at Astrid, who was giving him a "what's the hold up?" kind of look. He looked back at the angry old lady. "It fell off in the ring." Thalos lied, trying to come up with an excuse as to why he wasn't wearing his sling.

Gothi, not buying his story, hit him on the head again. She shook her stick and pointed to his bad arm.

"I'll find it and put it on." He said. Now that he thought about it, his arm did kind of hurt... a lot. His arm was not ready for all of that action in the ring.

"Gothi, we really need to go." Astrid said. "I'll be sure that he puts it on."

The gray-haired woman eyed the blonde-haired girl, not sure if she believed her or not. She glared at Thalos, hit his head again, and walked away.

Thalos groaned and rubbed his head. Astrid grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, quickly resuming their walk. "Do you even know what I was talking about?" Thalos asked.

"That sling that you have been wearing for the past few weeks? I really don't care. I don't know why you would take it off before she said you could, but that's all on you. Not even I believed that it fell off in the ring. You weren't wearing it when you jumped in."

Thalos was about to speak, but Astrid spoke first. "I don't need an excuse, Thalos. I really don't care if you wear your sling or not. Come on. I see his hut."

They were about to find window they could look through to see what was going on, but Thalos stopped. "Hey, wait. I hear something in the Great Hall, over there."

"The Great Hall? Why does that matter?" Astrid asked.

"It sounds like the Chief. You heard how mad he was back in the arena. If he were in the hut, we would have what his booming voice by now."

She shook her head. "Why would they go to the Great Hall?"

"I don't know! You can go to the hut if you want, but I'm going that way." He said, pointing towards the Great Hall. Thalos started walking towards the massive building.

Astrid shook her head and kept making her way to Hiccup's hut. Thalos tried to move quickly. He was hoping he would be right in this, because Astrid would probably never let him live it up if she was right.

One would think it would be impossible to hear anyone talking in the Great Hall, but the Chief's voice carried very very well, especially if the door was opened. To his luck, from the looks of it, it was open.

He made it to the Great Hall and peered through the door. Sure enough, there was Stoick and Hiccup. Hiccup was on the ground and Stoick was walking out. Thalos immediately hid to avoid being seen.

"You've thrown your lot in with them. You're not a Viking." He said sternly. "You're not my son." With that, the big man walked out of the Hall and slammed the door. The door bounced open due to the force of which it was shut.

Thalos watched the Chief. The man stopped, took a breath, and kept walking. When he was out of sight, he made is way into the building and helped Hiccup up.

"Are you okay?" Thalos asked worriedly, looking over his friend. "What happened?"

Hiccup looked at Thalos with panic in his eyes. "He's going to the nest, Thalos! He's going to use Toothless to do it! They're all going to get killed!" He said loudly as tears ran down his face.