When in Rome

lost and found

Hiccup was a renegade.

The statement, 'Hiccup was a renegade', is made of three main parts. Hiccup, was and a renegade. Here 'hiccup' refers the 15-year-old dragon rider from Berk who does not need to be reminded of what an unfortunate name he has. It does not, therefore, refer to the momentary condition known as 'the hiccups' or the notion of a mistake- although most people considered him to be one.

A renegade is someone notorious for rebellion, usually one who betrays a country or organisation. Here, however, it simply refers to the kind of person done with everyone else's bullshit.

And finally, was is a word used in the past tense. It means something no longer exists in a certain state of being.

So, Hiccup was a renegade.

But first, it might be preferable to talk about when he is, just to give this story some context.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third lived on Berk, an island so barren of joy and good medical care that it could be considered almost American in nature- if America wasn't being run by a far better group of ancient civilisations at the time or Berk wasn't being located in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Norway, Iceland and other extremely cold places.

He decided he did not, in fact, enjoy that fact. Not because of the lack of good medical care or the temperature, but because it lacked any form of emotional importance to him, due to the fact that everyone there was a massive dick to him.

Well, not everyone.

But, originally every idea of leaving Berk had been a mere daydream unachievable due to his inability to take a boat and sail somewhere else. But when he befriended Toothless he was given some better options.

And those options are what lead him to a dragon nest, a ball of blazing fire, a Roman camp and now a trip into a dreamscape with a Roman god. Although he hadn't quite processed those last two yet.

After his dragon had led him to the dragon nest, they'd taken down the queen out of sheer luck. He'd expected to not wake up, not after being sent hurtling into fire without his dragon to protect him. Last he remembered was the fire below him and Toothless above him, trying his best to get to Hiccup and save him.

But, surprisingly, he did wake up.

He sat up in a room that was unfamiliar. The shadows twirled at the edges of the room unnaturally and the ceiling seemed to melt into a starry night sky. The marble floor beneath him had a pattern that shifted underfoot that dizzied him too much to keep looking. And when he did, he instead looked up at one end of the room where the floor raised slightly and two thrones rose from the polished rock.

They gleamed from a light within, one charcoal and neatly carved with practical-looking lines and shapes, the top closed to two points, made like a trident with the middle tine punched off. The second was a red-tinted gold, flowers hiding skulls inside the buds shaded hell-beasts with claws and teeth as sharp as any dragon etched in. the top curving into a cruel looking fan of sharpened picks like a simplistic image of a sunrise.

And on the charcoal throne sat a man. His head rested on his fists, propped on his knees. A black toga draped across one shoulder and pooled all the way to his ankles, which were wrapped with the leather of his sandals. Pale skin shone almost translucent against the material, silver veins barely hidden spiderwebbing beneath. Black hair was tied back with a leather band, stray hairs falling in front of his face, where two wholly black eyes pierced hiccup's very soul.

His heart thudded against his chest, or he presumed it was as he had no way of knowing if it did. His head snapped to behind him, at the other end of the hall. Two skeletons stood stock-still, weapons in hand, next to a door that rose from the floor like a wave from water.