My One Shot Entry

Memories

"Tell me about the dragons again Grandpa!" Exclaimed four year old Valka, climbing into her grandfather's lap.

He groaned from the surprise of the child's weight, and lifted her to shift his prosthetic leg under him before setting her back down.

The wind howled outside, and a bit of snow found it's way down the chimney, hissing when it hit the flames, reminding everyone that devastating winter was upon them.

"Well," he said. "We were at war with dragons for many years, in fact, my mother was taken off during a raid when I was just a babe-"

"The one I was named after?" Valka interrupted.

"Yes," laughed the grey haired man.
"And when I was growing up, it was everything to kill a dragon. I was a bit on the scrawny side-"

"A bit?" interrupted Astrid, walking into the room. Valka covered her mouth with her small hands, laughing.

"I was not that small!" Hiccup exclaimed.

Astrid leaned down to Valka's ear. "I called him fishbone," she whispered.

"Did he hate it?" whispered Valka in reply.

Astrid shook her head. "In fact," she whispered again. "You should start calling him that. It would remind him of old times." Astrid looked at her granddaughter as she stood up, smiling, making her wrinkles more prominent, and winked before leaving.

Hiccup cleared his throat, and continued. "Anyways, one night during a raid, I shot down a Night Fury, but no one believed me. I went to kill it, thinking I would take its heart to my father for glory."

Valka gasped. "You killed the dragon?" she asked, horrified.

Laughing and stroking Valka's firey red hair, Hiccup shook his head. "No, no. I couldn't do it. Instead, I trained him."

Valka's eyes grew large. "What did the village think?" she asked.

"They didn't think anything," said hiccup. "Because I didn't tell them."

"But didn't they find out?" Valka retorted, interrupting yet again.
Hiccup nodded.

"How? She asked.

"Well," Hiccup said, "One day when I was out with Toothless, the Night Fury I shot down, I ran into a girl. At first she was angry, but I took her on a flight with him, and she pulled through. She even helped me convince everyone that dragons were our friends, and that we could live all together in peace." Hiccup trailed off at the memory.

"How did you do it?!" Yelled an amazed Hiccup over the wind.

He had just woken up about an hour ago, and in that time, his life had changed dramatically. His leg was gone, dragons were now living in berk, and astrid, the girl he had loved forever, had kissed him.

Astrid stretched her arms out on the back of her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly.
"Oh you know," she said casually. Just snapped my fingers and they all decided that you were right." Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Okay fine," she said. "After you were knocked unconscious by the Red Death, Toothless caught you and saved your life."

Hiccup looked over to her. "He saved me?" he asked, amazed.

Astrid nodded. He leaned over the side of his dragon, and patted him. "Thanks bud."

Astrid continued. "Your dad turned around, and after that, the whole village accepted Toothless and the other dragons."

Hiccup smiled, elated that now he could live the life he was supposed to, living in harmony with dragons, not against them.