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"Berk. A village. Population: Vikings. Status: Relatively wealthy. Scenery: Idyllic. Weather: Freezing more often than not. Location: Far enough that enemies seldom bother coming to give us trouble. Human enemies, at least. Can't say the same for the other type. You may know them as--"
"DRAGON!"
Grantaire snapped his head up from where he had been bent over, scribbling furiously away in his book, and turned towards the source of the warning. Slowly, he peered over the bale of hay he was currently sitting behind.
In the distance, closer to the edge of the village, the very clear outline of a dragon had appeared in the sky. The next second, the beast let out a roar, and the accompanying burst of flames set a house on fire.
"Oh, here we go again." Grantaire sighed, tucking his book into his belt. Most of the other villagers had burst out of their houses by this point, fully armored and brandishing weapons. Everyone was, of course, running in the direction of the dragon, which was now circling overhead.
Grantaire struggled onto his feet, feeling a bit lightheaded from sitting too long, and possibly from the mead he'd been drinking with Bahorel behind one of the sheds up to about half an hour ago. Bahorel himself was stumbling out the front door of his house, helmet lopsided. He noticed Grantaire walking towards him and lifted his axe in greeting.
"Ill-timed, isn't it?" He shouted, grinning. "Well, I'm off. Pray to the gods I won't regret drinking so much earlier."
"And next time they attack, you'll just be drunk all over again to celebrate that they didn't kill you this time." Grantaire said in reply.
Bahorel waved him off. Grantaire chuckled. He was about to follow along when he was roughly grabbed by the arm and yanked behind a house just as a dragon (definitely not the same as the first one) flew over him.
"Just in time!" Fantine said in relief, quickly checking him over for injuries. She was fully armed, her shield gleaming at her side. She frowned. "Oh, gods, you've been drinking again, haven't you? And you're not even wearing armor!" She shook her head exasperatedly. "R, I need you to get inside. Preferably to Valjean's. Hold on, Cosette can take you. Cosette?"
She gestured to a figure across the square, who was busy splashing water onto a house that had gone up. The next instant, Cosette came running up, empty bucket swinging.
"Yeah? Oh, R! What in Odin's name are you doing out here?"
"Offering myself as a human sacrifice, obviously." Grantaire rolled his eyes. Cosette gave him an unimpressed look. "Thanks, you two, but I do know where the smithy is. You don't have to escort me. Go back to slaying dragons and putting out fires."
Fantine and Cosette exchanged a look. Fantine nodded, and dashed back into the square. Cosette seized Grantaire by his belt and began dragging him to the back of the house.
"Hey, wait! The fire hasn't gone out completely! Your service is still needed!"
"The others can put it out. Someone has to make sure you don't go getting yourself burnt to a crisp, or Javert will punish us in some horrible fashion."
"My uncle doesn't have complete control over you! We're vikings! This is a democracy!"
"He is our chief, who defends our homes and leads us to victory in battles. Unfortunately, his dear nephew-- that's you, whether or not you believe you're dear to him-- has not passed the dragon training exams for the past two years, and until he does, he needs to stop whining and accept our protection graciously."
"I don't need protection. Nor do I really need to become a warrior like the rest of you. I mean, there's already an excess of Viking warriors. What about the other professions? They've gone neglected in this rush to seek glory through battle!" Grantaire protested (even though both he and Cosette knew very well that he would have joined the rush himself if he didn't have to pass an exam to do it).
"Oh, shut up and get inside." Cosette said.
Grantaire noticed that they had stopped in front of a door. Screams rose up nearby. "Odin, Bossuet's somehow managed to spread the fire from his house to Joly's. I'm going to go help them. Stay put, R."
Cosette shoved the door open (and now that he was looking up, Grantaire could see that it was the very familiar door to Valjean's place) and threw him inside by his belt.
Grantaire stumbled, narrowly avoiding crashing headfirst into a bench on which five different, menacing-looking axes were laying, hot off the forge, and caught his balance against a wall.
The smith shop was extremely busy, with people running in and out every few seconds to grab more weapons and shields off the walls and tables.
"R! There you are!" Valjean said, clapping Grantaire on the shoulder. "It looks like a bad one out there. I might need you to help wheel out the catapults in a bit."
"Not a problem. Where are we wheeling them to?" Grantaire asked, already bending down to untie one of the catapults.
"Er-- out the door. Someone else will take it from there." Valjean said, smiling nervously.
"What?! You're not even going to trust me with the catapults? I helped design this one!" Grantaire said, outraged.
"Your uncle's orders were very strict, R. You haven't entered training yet, so you're to stay here and help me in the event of any and all dragon attacks, inside the perimeters of my dragon-proofed house." Valjean recited.
"I helped with that, too." Grantaire muttered, plopping down on a newly vacated spot on one of the benches.
"Pardon?"
"The "dragon-proofing". I helped with it."
Valjean sighed. "I know. You're an intelligent boy, R, but the fact is, you don't have any experience, and you're... incredibly reckless."
"Hey!"
Valjean shrugged apologetically. "It's true."
Grantaire was about to retort, but decided that at least Valjean hadn't brought up the last few incidents where he'd attempted to help, but had been too drunk to aim his weapon properly. Valjean, for all his preaching and overprotectiveness, was really a very thoughtful person.
Fauchelevant appeared at the window. "Valjean!"
"Fauchelevant. It's not dying down out there, is it?"
"I'm afraid not. Javert says he wants you to bring the catapults and meet him in front of his house."
Behind Fauchelevant, Grantaire could see the damaged front of Bossuet's house. Poor Bossuet. Feuilly had just helped him put in new walls, too.
The floors of the smith shop rumbled as the catapults were rolled out by several men who had accompanied Fauchelevant, and Valjean's assistants. Valjean followed them out and closed the door, but not before turning and pointing a finger at Grantaire.
"Stay here. I'll be back."
Grantaire groaned.
To his credit, he did try to do what Valjean said.
An entire quarter of an hour passed (during that quarter of an hour, two dragons were brought down, one was captured, and five more houses were lit on fire. No lives were lost, as far as he knew) before, at his post by the window, Grantaire noticed a small, dark shape rising out of the forest. As he watched, the shape grew larger, until it was unmistakeably a dragon, though not one that he could recognize.
Grantaire made up his mind. He leaned out the window and glanced around. There was a particularly large and annoying red dragon occupying the attention of a large group of warriors down the way, and other people (he spotted Cosette among them) were putting out flames from the last dragon they'd brought down. No one had noticed the strange new dragon in the sky.
At the back of Valjean's shop was a weapon that the two of them had been working on for the past month. It was about the size of a small catapult, and it could fire a net a distance of several thousand feet (they had never actually tested it, so the exact distance was unknown) and, if it worked, it should fire with enough force to take down a dragon.
Grantaire untied the weapon from its hook on the ground and pushed it out the door.
*****
In the field outside the village, Grantaire set up his weapon. From here, his view of the sky was unobstructed.
The mystery dragon was approaching the village, monstrous black wings spread wide.
Grantaire aimed the weapon, and fired. There was a devastating shrieking sound from the creature as it reeled and then plummeted out of sight.
*****
When he returned to the village, the attack had died down considerably, and he stood and watched for a few minutes as his uncle singlehandedly wrestled the last remaining dragon into submission and wrapped its snout shut before it was hauled away.
His entertainment was abruptly cut off when he was hit in the back with cold water. He let out a squeal. The water immediately soaked through his tunic and began to drip onto his boots.
Grantaire whirled around angrily.
"Why would you--"
"Sorry, your shirt was on fire. You shouldn't walk so close to a house that hasn't been put out yet." The culprit said calmly.
A few feet away from him, a house burned merrily away as Joly and several others frantically threw water on it. Grantaire hadn't even registered that there was a fire that close to him. The thrill of having taken down his first dragon was distracting him from everything, including the beautiful young man in front of him, who would have normally demanded all of his attention.
Grantaire smirked. "Ah, Enjolras. Here to rescue me, as usual."
Enjolras, the aforementioned beautiful young man, scowled. "I wouldn't have to rescue you if you weren't always drunk to the point where you can't be of use to anyone during a dragon attack."
Unsurprisingly, Enjolras wasn't nearly as thoughtful as Valjean when it came to pointing out past mistakes. Grantaire grinned humorlessly.
"Would you like to see the dragon I brought down tonight, while I was wobbling around drunk? I think it's even bigger than the one Uncle Javert just captured."
"Is it?" Enjolras asked disinterestedly, already turning back to the burning house, which was no longer burning, but was now very badly charred.
"You don't believe me? I only failed my training exams twice, you know. I am perfectly capable of defeating a dragon."
Enjolras scoffed, shaking his head.
"Grantaire!" Javert's voice rang out, causing everyone around them to look up. The chief was striding briskly towards them, Fauchelevent and Fantine behind him.
"Uncle! Just the man I was looking for!" Grantaire said enthusiastically. Javert stopped right in front of him.
"Why are you outside? Valjean told me he left you at his place." Javert sighed. Everyone tended to sigh a lot around Grantaire, it seemed. "Your exam is coming up in two days' time. Go home if you're not going to help clean up. You and Cosette both have lessons early tomorrow--"
Fantine interrupted. "R, was there a reason you were looking for your uncle?"
Grantaire bit his lip, glancing to the side before looking up at her and beaming.
"No, nothing I can't figure out myself."