Hiccup X Reader

Chapter Six: The Book of Dragons.

A cold seeped through my bones as I rushed up the stairs to the great hall. My leg muscles burning more and more intensely with every step I take. The thin but mucky air made it hard for my lungs to contract. I felt my heart pounding against my chest as I finally reach the top of the staircase putting my hands on my knees roughly and grasping them harder with every breath.

"I," I huff to myself and breathe in through my nose. "I need to work out more."

I hear a chuckle beside me and look over to see Hiccup in the almost completely dulled light. His hair was dripping from the rain and the darkness made it look pitch black but all the while his vibrant green eyes showed in the dim fire light.

"I think we both do." He says to me.

I blank completely forgetting what I had said before. "Sorry?" I ask him.

"I think we both need to work out more." He says and I gasp in horror before he starts laughing. "Don't worry I won't tell the others."

"Okay good because Astrid would make me run." I look him dead in the eyes closing my emotions off completely and I swear a see a sweat drop. "I hate running." I tell him and he swallows nervously.

"Anyways we should be heading inside; we don't want to catch a cold and then miss training tomorrow, or do we have the day off?"  I ask myself and Hiccup looks at me like I might be insane.

"Yeah let's get inside." He says and proceeds to push open the very large heavy, creaky doors to the great hall.

The great hall itself most likely gained its name from the sheer size of the building itself. What looks life fifty foot ceilings hold chandeliers above our heads. The stone floors scrape under our boots as we walk to the large wooden tables laid in all places across the floor for many families to enjoy. My friends being some of the only people left in the village say in the front left of the hall placed before the large indoor fire.

The great hall always had a mix of smells; the most prominent smell of all being burning wood and some form of chicken. If we were lucky there would be a roast sheep or maybe a cow if the village had excess. Tonight's dinner was clearly chicken as the twins were trying to gouge the others eyes out with the bones.

"Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" I hear Gobber asks and I roll my eyes as he encourages our self criticism.

"I mis-stepped my somersault; it was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble." She says moving aside for me to sit down and Snotlout moves to where Hiccup moves to another table.

I did feel empathy towards Hiccup. No matter what he did somehow someway or another the gods decided he wasn't worthy enough of good luck. Some say he's been cursed by Loki to never find happiness.

Tuffnut made a comment agreeing that Astrids' form was sloppy which made me smile lightly. All those women ever did was beat themselves to death to try and fight and they always fought over everything.

"No, no I liked that move it was very Astrid." Snotlout said trying to grab her hand from over the table. I quickly took a table knife and stuck it in between his moving fingers forcing him to retract his hand.

"She right you have to be hard on yourself." Gobber says and then points at Hiccup who was walking to sit down, shivering from the outside cold.

"Where did Hiccup go wrong in the ring?" Gobber asks us and I put a piece of chicken leg in my mouth so I can stay quiet.

"Uh- he showed up." Ruffnut sneers looking at him in disgust.

"He didn't get eaten." He other half commented really not escalating or de-escalating the situation.

"He's never where he should be." Astrid tells him loudly and I nudge her elbow sharply.

"Thank you, Astrid. We need to live and breathe this stuff," Gobber explains to us while walking behind me and in between the two tables that held us teens.

"The dragon manual." Gobber states sliding utensils off the table to make room for said book. "Everything we know about every dragon we know of."

The book itself was made of work out leather and strong that was keeping in together fairly strongly. The pages reeked of stale mead and squid ink which I'm surprised hasn't been washed or worn out.

Loud thunder rumbled through the air so loud we could feel it in the ground. Gobber looked to the ceilings with a slight frown on his face; a look of almost relief crossing his features. "No attacks tonight. Carry on." He tells us while walking out of the building.

"Wait. Read?" Tuffnut asks while the dagger he was playing with drops onto the table.

"While we're still alive." Ruffnut questions looking to the door Gobber walked out of.

"We'll it would be very hard to read six feet underground wouldn't it?" I chuckle and Astrid coughs into her drink.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout asks and I blinked maybe four times before I truly could process what he had said.

"Oooh! I've read it like seven times!" Fishlegs begins to geek and I keep my quiet but my ears wide open for any information about the dragon in the woods. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face! And there's this other one! That"
Fishlegs tried to finish before Tuffnut cut him off by closing his hand, in a very harsh 'shut up' way.

"Yeah, there was a chance I was gonna read that." Tuffnut begins.

"But now," Ruffnut groans and I sigh at their laziness.

"You guys read. I'll go kill stuff." Snotlout tells us and I roll my eyes opening the brittle pages of the book letting my eyes scan every picture.

"You coming?" Astrid asks me.

"No, I haven't read this yet and I need to." I tell her and she squeezes my shoulder before walking out.

"So do you want to share?" I hear a low voice ask and I look up to see Hiccup standing anxiously in front of the table.

I feel my heart clench slightly at the sight before me; his hair lightly damp. Many strands of black coating his forehead, bright dazzling green eyes that anyone could be jealous over. With the lighting of the fire making his skin look so smooth.

"Umm, yeah. I think I'd like that a lot." I tell him with a smile.

Hey guys, I know it takes me forever to get these out my motivation has just been so low. But maybe to help you guys could put down some friendly suggestions and questions? Interacting with this story will help me gain inspiration for future chapters and I want to be able to make this the best book possible. I love you all <3