tushanshu | 1st Flight [video]

Oh for Thor's sake, they said this would be easy...

[There's a curious green eye studying the communicator before it zooms out to reveal a young boy of about fourteen or fifteen, his face covered in scratches and scars that look both fresh and old, the oldest one a nick on the right side of his chin. He grins a bit tiredly, sitting back and snapping his fingers.]

I knew I could get it to work! Man, if we had things like this back home it'd make communicating with other tribes easier...

[He fiddles a bit, the screen flicking off as he discovers the other functions, a bit of text gibber jabber appearing before it switches back to full video, then he remembers the people he spoke to said that others could be watching.]

Uh, hi. I'm Hiccup. Great name, I know, but I guess it's kept me from being snatched up by gnomes and trolls all these years so it's worth something at least. If you couldn't guess, I'm kinda new...just arrived really. I don't think I was awake for a lot of the talk though, getting knocked out by a giant dragon tail would do that to you. I think I'm awake. At least I hope so anyway. This place doesn't look like any Valhalla I ever dreamed of.

[He reaches down to scratch at his leg.]

There's...a lot of things here that we don't have at home. I hope I don't blow anything up. And, uh, this is gonna sound kinda strange but I don't suppose anyone has anything I can, er, walk with? [Pause.] One of my legs kind of...doesn't work. They helped me here but I don't know how I'm going to get around...

I guess that's...it? Yeah.

[He goes to get up but lets out a yelp as he puts pressure on his injured leg and he falls backwards, crashing to the floor.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But something happened to your leg?

[He makes a small humming noise in the back of his throat.]

I was knocked unconscious...hang on.

[Flipping to a clean page, Hiccup takes his charcoal pencil and starts to draw, leaning in close to the page as he sketches from memory. In a couple of minutes, he turns the sketchbook around again, showing her a rough image of the monster dragon, including a speck that looked like it had wings. He indicated towards the speck.]

That's how big we were compared to it.

[Rapunzel gasped.]

What were you doing against something so big?

[He shrugged.]

I had to do something. I couldn't just let it wipe out my tribe or the dragons.

Oh...

Then that was very brave of you. And of your dragon friend, of course.

[He gives her a smile.]

Thanks. I don't think I could've done it without him. Any of it.

In stories it seems people always work better in teams.