[HTTYD] Hybrid: Foreign (theme 27)

Hybrid: Foreign (theme 27) [rough draft], a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic series by Raberba girl

List of themes by AngieChild, Variation 1 for the 100ThemesChallenge group on DeviantArt

A/N:  AT LAST STUPID ERET CONSENTS TO MAKE HIS DEBUT.

So far in this fic, I've been using a system of italics and brackets to indicate which language a character is speaking.  Up 'til now, it's only been Norse and dragon language; but unless you guys have a major objection, I'm also going to include English (or whatever Eret's native language is supposed to be).

Ftr, Eret's been learning Norse because his father had dealings with Norsemen, and/or because Eret Sr. disappeared in Viking lands and Jr. wants to know the language when he's old enough to go searching there.

Hiccup is six; Eret is eleven (and not completely fluent in Norse yet).

o.o.o

By the time Hiccup was four years old, his mother could no longer deny that her son was, for all practical purposes, a dragon in human skin who happened to be bilingual (sort of).

He was five by the time she stopped procrastinating on the only thing she could think of to help him.  Considering that he and Toothless were now practically joined at the hip, exposure to other humans was risky, but it was either that or watch Hiccup grow up thinking that it was completely normal to walk on all fours, lick people, and expect to be caught every time he jumped off a cliff.

The problem was finding human children whom Hiccup could actually associate with.  Vikings were out of the question; even if the young ones didn't run away screaming, their parents would still come swarming in with their torches and pitchforks.

Ice Hunt sometimes tagged along on Valka's mapmaking expeditions, and it was he who started leading Valka to new lands when he realized she was exploring.

"Ice Hunt say, 'What are you looking for?'" Hiccup asked on behalf of his friend.

"He knows I'm looking for something?" Valka wondered.  She had lately been trying to practice her Dragonese more, and from what Ice Hunt had said just now, she had picked up the words 'female parent' (after some thorough vocabulary clarifications, Hiccup insisted it was a different word than 'mother'), 'search,' and the question indicator.

"He say - says - he says you're looking and looking for something, parent-anxious, maybe for me your child that you love, it's very important but it's also not-important; confusing.  What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for human children for you to play with, Hiccup.  Children you can play with safely, without their parents trying to hurt you for associating with dragons."

He wrinkled his nose in his 'translating' expression.  That was yet another reason she needed to find him some human friends soon - it bothered her how much of a struggle it still was for him to understand and express himself in what should have been his native language.

"A-so-sating...."

"A-sso-ci-a-ting."

"A-sso-ci-a-ting.  I love dragons, humans don't like it??"

"Yes, and they're very protective of their children, so they will probably be frightened to see Toothless.  I don't suppose you'd be willing to leave him behind?"

Hiccup screeched and flared his 'wings.'

"All right, all right!  I didn't think you would.  Which is why we have to find a place where you can play with human children, and the adults won't be frightened by your Night Fury friend."

"Looking for new toys for me," Hiccup explained to the two curious Furies.  "Human children to play with; boring."

Toothless agreed, though Ice Hunt cocked his head and wondered if Valka intended for the human children to be playmates rather than toys.

They eventually did find lands, far enough south or east where dragons had little presence and were thought of as distant monsters rather than direct threats to human livelihood.  There was still a lot of running away and screaming, but not always.

One man prostrated himself and worshiped the dragons in a foreign language, responding neither to Valka's attempts to speak to him or Hiccup's curious investigation of his belongings.

Another man, though his companions fled, stayed behind to gush in a foreign language over the dragons in wild excitement.  He scribbled notes and drawings at a frantic pace, and peppered Valka with heavily-accented and increasingly invasive questions.  She eventually became uncomfortable, not liking how eager he seemed to be to learn the location of the dragons' nest.  As soon as Hiccup had finished drawing a picture of Toothless in the man's notebook, Valka called her family back into the safety of the sky.

The first woman who didn't flee had such an air of confidence and entitlement that Valka suspected her to be a princess.  They had come across her bathing in a lake, but she expressed her surprise and delight at the exotic visitors without making any attempt to cover herself.  She and her bevy of female servants cooed at Hiccup and the dragons in yet another foreign language, adorning them with flowers and looking happy to meet a little boy who could speak to dragons in their own tongue.

Hiccup usually seemed to like the adults, as objects of curiosity if nothing else.  It was the children he snarled at and fled from.

Despite Valka's best efforts, there was nothing she could do to shield her child from the unmistakable sneers and mocking.  Human children couldn't understand why Hiccup acted like an animal.  It didn't matter that their words were spoken in a foreign language; Hiccup could still perceive quite clearly that they looked down on him, that he was incomprehensible to them and that they did not see him as an equal.  It didn't help matters that the more upset Hiccup got, the more dragonlike his behavior became.

The third time Valka tried to introduce her son to a new group of children, hoping that this time things would be better, Hiccup and Toothless ran away, and did not return until well after nightfall.

Valka, agonizing over the situation, finally decided that she would nurture Hiccup's relationship with an adult, perhaps the foreign princess and her attendants who seemed to like him and Toothless so much, and then hope that Hiccup could in that way be introduced to more children.  'It will take more time than I expected, but I must do something....'

They were still en route, about three-quarters from their destination, when they came across a scuffle in the woods.

Most of the time, Valka and her family steered clear of human conflict, but occasionally there were situations that demanded their intervention.  She was not simply going to stand by and watch three men beating a single boy out in the middle of nowhere.

Ice Hunt's whistling warning was enough.  The men shouted in alarm and looked to the sky, then fled away when they saw the fearsome beasts descending.

The boy they had left behind stared up at the dragons in terror.  He was about eleven years old, heavyset and finely dressed, though his clothes were torn and rumpled, and there were marks of abuse on his flesh.  Cloudjumper immediately marched over to tend to the child's wounds, but the boy tried to flee.  Ice Hunt blocked his way, and the boy shied away with a shriek.  He stumbled, staring around, realizing that he was surrounded by dragons.

"We won't hurt you," Valka said.  "Do you speak Norse?"

"First kidnappers, and now demons!" the boy cried in a foreign language.  Then he narrowed his eyes at Valka and spoke in stilted Norse, "You being a witch?"

"No, I'm not."

"I am no money!  No money for them," he pointed savagely in the direction his assailants had run, "no money for you!"

"I'm...afraid I don't understand what you're talking about.  What's your name?" Valka tried.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Name."  She pointed to herself.  "My name is Valka."

"...Name being Young Lord," the boy snapped.

Valka sighed a little, but if he was going to refuse to tell her his real name, she didn't see any reason to force the issue.

"Toy?" Hiccup wondered, walking right up to the boy.

The young lord yelped again and jerked away from Toothless, who bared his teeth and raised his wings in displeasure at the sudden movement.

"Half Of Me, please hold him still for me," Hiccup asked.  Toothless happily knocked over the older boy and sat on him.

Young Lord protested and struggled and tried to lean out of Hiccup's reach, but he couldn't stop Hiccup from patting his hair and then stroking his cheek.  Hiccup's eyes widened.  He settled into a more comfortable crouch and began running both palms over Lord's face, crooning in dragon language, "Sooooo soft, like Mama's."

"Get off me!" Lord shrieked.  "What are you doing?!  Get off me!"  Then, in Norse, "GO AWAY!  I NO LIKING YOU!"

"Good toy, Mama," Hiccup proclaimed.  Toothless leaned down to lick the back of Lord's head.

"Hiccup, he's not a toy," Valka said uncomfortably.  "You're supposed to play together with him."

Hiccup didn't respond, choosing instead to twist a braid into Lord's hair and then lick it.

"What's wrong with this freak?!  He crazy in head?" Lord demanded of Valka.  "Tell them go away!!"

"I won't.  You're the first child he's met that he's shown any real interest in."

Lord stared at her, and for the first time, she realized that the fear in his eyes was genuine.  There seemed to be something more than just the typical fear of flying fire-breathers.  "...You catching me?  You hurting me?"  The way he asked it made her remember how they had found him.

"Who were those men?" she asked.  "The ones beating you earlier?"

Lord scowled.  He had stopped struggling by now, seeming resigned.  Toothless was reading his scents, and Hiccup, frowning in displeasure, was fiddling with one of the tears in his clothes.  "Men catching me, take me away.  Ask family for money."  He gave Valka a pleading look.  "You give me to family, going home, they give to you money."

"We'll take you home," she said quietly, "but we have no need of money."

"Mama," Hiccup said, "sew!"  He tugged at the tear.  "Sew, sew!  Fix!"

"All right, Hiccup.  But say it right."

Hiccup sighed loudly.

"You need to ask for something," she prompted.

"Please give me sew things," Hiccup said sloppily.  Then, at her look, "Please!  Give!  Me!  Needle!  And!  Thread!  I will sew this broken thing!"

"Thank you for asking, Hiccup.  Here."  Valka took the sewing kit out of her pocket, threaded the needle, and handed it over.

Lord stared as Hiccup began working the needle through the torn cloth.  "He sews??"  He eyed Valka.  "He being boy, but sew?  Is wrong.  Girls doing sew."

"Hiccup can sew perfectly well, and there's no shame in it," Valka snapped.

"Whatever," Lord grumbled.  He sighed.

Valka moved a little closer.  "Lord, listen to me."

He eyed her resentfully.

"This boy is my son, Hiccup."

"Hiccup??"

"That's his name.  His name is Hiccup."

Lord barked a scornful laugh, and Valka had to resist the urge to smack him.  "Listen," she snapped.  "Hiccup is my son.  He has lived with dragons for five years, and now I'm worried that he'll never learn how to be human."

"He's a dragon boy," Lord muttered, watching Hiccup.  "Some kind of freak who thinks he's a dragon.  This is insane."

"Lord, I want to ask for your help."

"ME helping YOU?" Lord said indignantly.

"We saved you from those men."

Lord looked at the ground sullenly.

"Hiccup needs a friend.  A human friend, I mean.  Lord, may I please bring Hiccup back sometimes to talk to you?  I want him to play with humans, I want him to remember that he is human.  Please treat him kindly.  Please be his friend."

"Hey you, crazy kid," Lord said to Hiccup, who chittered at him.  "I'm a great lord and you're a crazy dragon boy who sews, but she wants us to be friends.  She's crazy, too, if she thinks that'll ever happen."

Hiccup, picking up on Lord's hostility and arrogance, took hold of the older boy's head and shoulder, and closed his teeth on the back of his neck, asserting dominance.

"What is he doing?!  He's biting me!!  Hey, lady!  Making him go away, STOP!  Help!!"

"He can tell when you're insulting him.  He's saying to you in dragon language that he will not be belittled, that he will subdue you instead, and you must treat him with respect."

"You people are crazy!!"

As time wore on, the young lord seemed to get tired.  He stopped resisting as Hiccup mended his clothes and Toothless tended to his injuries.  He watched resentfully as Hiccup cut off and played with the silver buttons from his clothes, but he looked very surprised and a little bewildered when Hiccup eventually placed the buttons back in his hands.

"Toys belong to Cornered," Hiccup said solemnly in dragon language.  "[Share], this thing I don't like, but toys belong to Cornered, I [borrow] and play with them, and now I give them back."

The boy gripped the buttons for a minute.  Then he said, "Hey.  My name is Eret.  ERET."  He pointed at himself.  "Name being Eret."

"Name, Eret," Hiccup echoed.  "Dragon name is Cornered, human name is 'Eret.'  [Okay.]"  He nuzzled Eret's face and then wandered away with Toothless.

Valka smiled as she approached.  "Where do you live, Eret?"

"Oh no...if you find out where I live, you can come back anytime you want and sic your crazy dragon kid on me!  But if I don't tell you how to take me home, I'll be stranded out here."  Eret groaned.  "I showing you.  I showing you, but you tell big dragon no eating me, no eating me ALLOWED!"

"Yes, dear, of course," Valka chuckled.

o.o.o

Author's Notes:  Please tell me if there was any point where you were confused about which language was being spoken!!  (Again, Eret's native language is English [unless/until canon states otherwise], but he does speak a bit of Norse.  Hiccup, as usual, was speaking a mix of dragon language and Norse.)

I decided that Val would just start calling Ice Hunt by his common name whenever Hiccup does get old enough to translate.  Toothless is different because Hiccup's dragon name for him is not one that anyone else is allowed to use, so Val just sticks with 'Toothless' for him.

FINALLY, Eret let me finish his debut. *sweatdrop*  He's going to play a fairly big role in this fic.  Someday, though, I wanna go back and do Valka's POV of "Heaven." XD

According to the grammar Web site I looked at ( grammarist.com/usage/procrasti… ), it's fine to use the word "procrastinate" transitively, but it feels so weird doing that and is not incorrect to add an unnecessary preposition, so I added one. *sweatdrop*

Complete:  9/100