touch the sky | hiccup haddock

⊗ stumpy? hobbled?

Standing in front of the whole town didn't make me as nervous as I had always expected it would. When I was younger I thought I would have to stand before them all in the ring to kill a dragon and earn my title, and that terrified me. But standing here with no pressure was so easy.

"Dragon race! Dragon race! Dragon race! Drag-"

Toothless shoots a plasma bast over the heads of the villagers making many duck in fear. "Thanks-" Hiccup smiles to his black dragon. "Okay- I know you all had," he pauses to find good words to use, "-fun today with the dragon academy," he glanced over to Astrid and and I with narrowed eyes, "doing exactly what they promised they would not do." I look away from his heavy glaze flushing slightly.

"I didn't make any promises," Tuffnut speaks up from the other end of the table with a smile, "Did you?" He faces his two who shakes her head. "No- not a one," her smirk is much more evident. Hiccup glares at the two before turning back to face the crowd. "I know you all want to blow off some steam- and hey... uh- what could be better than a spirited Regatta!" His enthusiasm is very lacking not that anyone needed convincing in knowing the Regatta would suck. His awkward pity laugh soon trails off from the blank stares he's getting back.

"I'll tell you what's better, anything not named Regatta!" Tuffnut inputs after taking a drink from his cup. "But how about a Dragon race! Dragon race! Dragon race!" He starts to chant pulling his arms up and down. Ruff instantly joins in with her twin pounding her cup on the table along with the chant. I face the crowd as they start to join in getting more excited for this then I've seen since our days at the dragon fighting academy.

"What's wrong Hiccup?" I look over to Snotlout who's sitting past Astrid. "You afraid you and Toothless are no match for 5,000 pounds of muscle?" He flexes is small arm making me snort. "And what percentage of that is coming by from you?" Astrid laughs before answering, ".01?" Snotlout glares- "I miss when you two hated one another." I smirk again before sticking one of my daggers I was toying with into the table turning to look at Hiccup.

"Are you going to let him talk all that trash about you?" I raise my eyebrow as I lean back into my chair. "The mighty dragon whisperer loosing to his bitch ass cousin before the race can even start?" I shrug my shoulders playing into this whole act. Hiccups face stays unamused as I look over matching his expression. "Or maybe you actually just scared too loose to Mock and I?" To add effect to my words Mock lets out a huff of steam that's supposed to intimidate toothless, but instead makes him smile. He jumps up trying to catch the floating smoke. My act almost breaks making me look away to face Hiccup again.

"I thought you were the sensible one?" He crosses his arms as I shrug again. "Yeah and you're the rule breaker- Horrendous Hiccup, can't fallow simple rules- why follow them now?" I know he breaks when his shoulders fall down and he glares at me. "You're going down Hofferson."

***

"The sheep start at silent Sven's farm," Hiccup explains to the group of us having taken over. Snotlout had a lot to say about that but then I reminded him in a friendly was with my knives, that we're lucky we get to race at all and to not blow it. Let's just say he say my side of the argument pretty easily afterwards.

"The racers will start at the academy," Hiccup covered our earlier rules with a large map of the island, where he got said map I do not know nor do I want to cause it looks pretty official- like something that would belong to a Chief, something that shouldn't be drawn on like he's been doing. "On the starting mark the sheep are released, once caught you drop it into the basket- any other suggestions?" He asks and I raise my hand. "Let me get this straight- nothing changed from our previous rules, correct?" Hiccup rolls his eyes before nodding. "Yes- they're just more organized now."

"Teams!" Snotlout bursts out cutting me off before I can make another snarky response to Hiccup.  "What do you mean teams?" The lanky boy asks as everyone turns to face the smaller boy. "We should have teams!" His chest seems to puff out slightly as if he's some dominant male and not the tiny angry boy he is. "How would we pick these teams?" Astrid asks with crossed arms, I can tell she doesn't want to get stuck with him or the twins... or Fishlegs, or probably Hiccup either.

"We already did, don't worry my sweet," her faces morphs in disgust at his comment as does mine. "Me and the twins, you and Freya- the crazy cousins- and then Hiccup and Fishface." I roll my eyes as Tuffnut speaks up. "Yeah we already have a team name," Ruff nods beside her twin while smirking. "Snotnutts." I can't stop the smile that comes to my face as all the insults flow around my brain. "Wow how did I not think of that first-" Astrid jumps me to the punchline.

"Well I think that's pretty obvious, I mean," he looks between himself and his twin," "we're sorta the more creative element of the group." I snort out. "Your defiantly something much different then the group, only I wouldn't use creative per se-" before I can make another joke Hiccup interrupts me. "I'll go get Fishlegs and we'll meet her to start in an hour- and be ready to loose."

Team Snotnutts is quick to disperse with similar smirks making me scrunch my nose. "Idiots-" I sigh out as I turn to face Hiccup along with Astrid. "Need help wrangling Fishlegs?" Astrid offers the boy who sighs out still not fully grasping the new plan. "Don't worry, you dad won't be back for a while and by the time he is back he'll be surprised at just how happy everyone is, then you'll explain how this is a much better option then the Regatta... and if he's upset you get the whole blame-" I say the latter part more rushed and I earn a glare.

"Let's just go find Fish- okay?" Astrid stands between us as a peace barrier before grabbing my arm and leading me towards the exit. I hear Hiccup mumble to Toothless before following.

Fishlegs is down my the dock working under a tarp when we finally locate him. "Sorry- Hiccup can't do it!" He yells over his shoulder from halfway under the fabric. "Can afford to take one moment away from my preparations." I roll my eyes as I cross my arms. "Why is your boat covered?" I ask which throws the larger boy off. "Boa- what this... boat! No this is a magnificent ship-" he corrects making my frown deepen even more. "Miniature ship," I cough under my breath.

"And frankly Hiccup," he finally turns around closing the flaps behind him. "I'm surprised you would shirk your responsibilities, as acting Chief and give yourself away to the masses." I look over to Astrid who's standing very similarly to me with her hands on he hips and an annoyed expression gracing her face too.

"Wait- wha... what I'm not giving over to anything!" Hiccup stumbles over his words making my cool expression almost crack into a smile. "By giving over to the masses you mean listening to the desires of all the people- minus you- who call Berk home, to me that sounds like a good Cheif, being able to listen to his people and hear their opinions," I shrug my shoulders keeping my face calm as Fishlegs face morphs to a black look.

I move to reach for my daggers as Astrid grabs my arm holding it back. ""Woah hey- no," she then turns back to the blonde boys till holding my arm. "Wouldn't you like to beat Snotlout and the twins and be able to rub it into their faces- I mean if you don't even try they'll still harrass you, but if you beat them? Oh- they won't be able to say anything-" Astrid attempt to convince him fails just like mine- only she gets a pity laugh.

"As tempting as it is," he opens the flap of the tarp as Meatlug hobbles last is heading inside making my step out of the way so I didn't get hit. "Meatlug and I have one thing on our minds and one thing only, we are going sailing." He hops in the boat alongside his dragon as he shuts the tarp. "Have a lovely day!" We hear through the closed flap before humming starts.

"You know what that means?" I turn to face Astrid who had a slight smirk on her face and I sigh out slightly dramatically. "No- I really don't think that's necessary," I start to argue making a Hiccup confused. "Wha-" but Astrid cuts him off. "Yup!" She pops the p and I groan out even though internally I'm not nearly as upset as I appear. "We're getting stuck with peg leg-" I pretend to cry turning to face Mock who's so disgusted right now I almost start laughing.

"Really? Peg leg?" Hiccup crosses his arms as toothless laughs next to him. "Stumpy? Hobbled? I got many more you just not giving me much to lean on..." he looks unimpressed as Astrid and I start heading back towards the steps of the dock giggling uncontrollably.