This is where I belong ||httyd fanfic||

35. what happened to Berk

.

.

.

.

.

As wonderful as things were for Hiccup on Selardalr that's how terrible things were going for Stoick and everyone else on Berk. Some actually had the hindsight to wonder if they had deserved all of this.

The once proud village of the Hairy Hooligans that stood tall against any kind of adversity now stood in utter ruin; the place was nothing but a mere shell of what it once was. The houses had more holes in them than cheese, some were even outlined by the vicious scorch marks of dragons. Though, that description only applied to the handful of houses that were still standing, while the majority laid in heaps of broken, splintered, burnt wood and hay on the ground. The unfortunate families who those houses once belonged to had been forced to seek shelter from either family or neighbors, in the Great Hall, or in the Chief's house on the hill. Stoick didn't mind it, in fact he liked the company since his house had been painfully quiet ever since he had driven his son away. Even the forge, the Great Hall, and the chief's house themselves were heavily damaged, and they didn't provide as much shelter as was needed for the heavy snowstorms that came around. They had tried to get the holes patched up as best they could. But they had been forced to expend so much wood the forest that once lied behind the village was nearly gone, and somehow leaks still managed to get through. This combined with the utter devastation of their food stores left people sick and starving, and their numbers were slowly growing, while their morale was quickly shrinking.

There was no question in anyone's mind that the last eight years had been all but hell for them, and they always found themselves questioning how it got so bad so fast. The answer always came, though, in the form of a certain young man who nowadays had assumed Hiccup's role as the new pariah of the village:

Snotlout.

It was three years ago today that Snotlout had assumed the role of chief from his uncle Stoick, since Stoick was so broken from the loss of his son, he was unable to perform his chiefly duties, remaining in his damaged house the whole time. Outside of meals, he would just sit in the large chair in his house and stoke the fires to keep it as warm as possible before going to bed. The people had the utmost sympathy for him; the last time he had suffered this greatly was 23 years ago when his wife Valka had been taken away and eaten by the dragons. Snotlout though, wasn't too interested in his predecessor's emotional health, he had obtained the right that he figured was always meant to be and was meant to be his should anything happen to Hiccup. Deep down, Snotlout had always wanted that to happen, and his constant tormenting of Hiccup had reflected the jealousy he felt that his pathetic cousin was to be the new chief. Everyone figured that Snotlout would be the better option when given the choice between the two, but when it had actually come to that, they finally saw the immense lapse in judgment they had made.

Nobody believed it to be possible, but ever since Snotlout became the chief, his ego had actually gotten bigger and he became more and more self-absorbed. Now he expected people to do ridiculous things like bow in his presence and kiss the dirt he walked on. He became more worried about whether he had some blemish on his face than he did the actual good of the village and whined like a sorry little baby whenever he didn't get what he wanted. Even when chaos was erupting all over and the whole of their society was collapsing in on itself, he just sat there in his seat being waited on hand and foot.

And then of course came the greatest catastrophe ever to befall the Hairy Hooligans in their tribe's entire history: his marriage problems. Snotlout, once he hit the age of 18, had proposed to Astrid; being the pompous showboat he was, he figured there was no way she could refuse his hand in marriage. Imagine his surprise when she spat in his face and refused outright.