In Another Lifetime

Chapter 2 - Hiccup

Hiccup Haddock was seated at his desk in his room, sketching as usual. He was trying to draw a dragon that was believed in the medieval era, and he was pretty pleased with the outcome so far. He'd called it 'The Night Fury' because he drew it against the moon, creating a silhouette that blotted out the stars. Toothless, his pet cat, snuggled against his leg as he added colour tod the pencil work.

"Hey bud," Hiccup said as he scratched Toothless behind the ears. Toothless purred and settled on Hiccup's bed, curling up and going to sleep. Hiccup continued his work carefully and as precisely as he could, but threw down his pencil in frustration as he remembered what his dad had told him out the summer.

"Hiccup, it's time you learnt to make friends."

"What? Oh boy -"

"I'm sending you to summer camp."

"Dad, I can't go to summer camp."

"So you'll be leaving on Monday morning -"

"Can you hear me?!"

"So you have to get packing."

"This conversation is feeling very one sided."

Yes, it was one sided, Hiccup thought angrily. He plugged his ear buds into his phone and decided to try and calm down. Film scores from some of his favourite films began to play, they helped him feel at ease with himself. Flutes whispered, drums shouted, violins sang and trumpets blasted out each of their melodies perfectly as he lay down on his bed, allowing himself to lose himself to a land where he didn't have to be himself.

Hiccup, truthfully, didn't like his personality. He wasn't brave enough, he thought. He never stuck up for himself, he didn't talk much unless it was necessary. He didn't really have friends, unless you counted the girl he had a crush on, Astrid. But she still hated him just as much as all the other people at school. Though he supposed she didn't have much reason to like him. He was, what everyone called him, a talking fishbone. He was dorky, awkward and generally shy.

He wasn't that remarkable on the fashion front either. Generally he wore a T-shirt with a red Viking skull on the shoulder or a long sleeved green shirt. That was about the extent of his wardrobe. His dad didn't really care what he wore, and he had never met his mother, so he didn't have anyone nagging him to wear something different. Hiccup never really missed his mother; she had divorced his father virtually a week after he was born. But she did leave enough time to give Hiccup one of the most stupid names in existence. What kind of a name was Hiccup? Why would any parent put their child through that humiliation?

Hiccup lay back on his bed and dreaded the summer ahead. There wouldn't be anyone to talk to, and who'd make friends with the nerdiest, geekiest kid in the history of the world?