Chapter Text
For such a miserable place, the Isle of Berk held a whimsical nature. Horrific, maybe, dangerous, without a doubt, but mythical nonetheless. The winter season's endless snow and hail had petered out, and finally feeble streams of sunlight began shining through the grey clouds. People barricaded in their houses slowly started to open their doors and windows, letting the sunlight bathe their pale faces.
Stoick the Vast, the tribe's chief, stood on his doorstep, overlooking the village and uttering a quiet grunt of approval at the sight of his people shovelling the remnants of snow from the town's footpaths. The chief's eyes flicked to the side.
"Hiccup."
The chief's son stopped guiltily mid-step, his back to his father.
"And where might you be going?"
Turning around, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock tapped his fingers gently against his thighs, a mannerism he did when he was sheepish.
"Down to the forge," Hiccup said, pointing vaguely towards town. "Figured Gobber would need some help with..." His voice trailed off as his father raised a stern eyebrow at him.
"Okay fine!" Hiccup confessed. "I was going out to the woods, but dad I promise I won't get hurt this time, the dragons will still be coming out of hibernation! I could kill one and bring you back it's-"
"Not. A chance." Stoick cut in. Hiccup's frustrated whine did nothing to sway him. "Even half asleep, they'd tear you to shreds."
"Thanks for the encouragement, dad." Hiccup said, monotone.
"You stay at the house, or you go to the forge, choice is yours." The chief said, giving his son a sturdy pat on the back that nearly sent him sprawling. "And be home for supper." With that, the chief strode forward towards the village, leaving Hiccup behind to roll his eyes and sigh. His eyes flicked to the heavy woods beyond the town, the icy treetops looming ominously. Turning around, Hiccup walked, defeated, back into the house. Looking over his shoulder at the door closing, Stoick gave a gentle huff of relief, unaware of his son scrambling from the back door and headed to the woods.
***
Brandishing his dagger, Hiccup crept carefully through the twisting roots and ferns, wary of any noise. Dragons usually hibernated in caves, but some slept in the open, making them easy prey. If he could just find one and bring back an intact head, he would finally not be such an outcast in the eyes of his tribe. After a flock of birds taking off from a tree startled him, Hiccup leant against the ragged trunk and sighed. Finding a vulnerable dragon seemed to be impossible. He had never had the best luck, after all. If he didn't leave soon, the dragons would wake fully and begin to emerge, and Hiccup didn't feel like being rescued. Again.
Just as he resolved to head back, a splinter of white in the green forest caught his eye, and he turned his head to look. Beyond the thawing trees, Hiccup saw what looked to be heavy frost. Curious, Hiccup forgot all about heading home, instead creeping towards the strange, icy anomaly. Gasping softly, Hiccup looked down at the ground under his feet, noticing white, swirling patterns etched into the grass and dirt by frost and ice, the verglas thickening the closer it got to the frozen snippet of forest. His heart rate picking up a little, Hiccup approached silently, holding the hilt of his knife tightly in his hand. Peeking out from the foliage of a thick bundle of bushes was a hefty piece of rope attached to a metal ball, Hiccup recognised it from one of Gobber's traps. His face lighting up in excitement, Hiccup's hands shook in anticipation of a potentially downed dragon.
Stepping closer, Hiccup stepped into a distinctly cold pocket of air, the sudden chill catching him by surprise as his breath turned white in the air. For some reason, this tiny pocket of forest remained untouched by the new spring sunlight. He took a step back. The rest of the forest was all but defrosted, yet here even tiny bits of snow floated slowly through the air. Upon closer inspection, the rope was frozen solid, held stiff in a twisted position by the heavy frost. Vikings didn't have the best track record of dealing with the unusual or unfamiliar, and Hiccup didn't recall learning about dragons that could produce frost. But the thought struck Hiccup; if he could bring back a new type of dragon, then the village would be cheering his name, he was certain. Looking down, he caught sight of a long stick, one end curved like a hook and the other jagged, as if it had been broken in half. Picking it up, he examined the etchings of ice in the wood's grooves before using it to push away leaves from his path before throwing it into the brush. The closer he got, the icier the air became, until Hiccup hacked the frozen leaves to the side and raised his knife high above the figure trapped beneath the frozen rope, intent to bring it down hard into whatever beast lay waiting. White hair, and a pale hand, frozen over. The clatter of Hiccup's knife hitting the ground echoed slightly, his trembling hands frozen in place. His eyes widened, and he hastily took a step back, beginning to feel a little sick. Had he stumbled upon a frozen body?
"Oh Thor-" He muttered, reaching down and clumsily picking up his knife before edging away further, eyes glued to the morbid scene. Despite being a Viking, Hiccup did not have a strong stomach, and he didn't want to risk feeling any sicker. Turning away quickly, he ran a few feet back to the thawed forest.
"Wait."
A feeble voice hit Hiccup's ears, causing him to stop dead in his tracks, face shifting to an expression of slight horror. Peeking over his shoulder, Hiccup caught a glassy white eye staring at him weakly from beneath the trap. Gasping, Hiccup shook a little as a shiver ran up him.
"Don't go..."
The voice was definitely coming from the trapped figure, there was no doubting it. Hiccup heard it clear as day, as crazy as it seemed. Because of how pale the skin was and how frosty the body had become, Hiccup had been utterly convinced that they were dead, but this, whoever it was, seemed to have miraculously survived.
Swivelling on his foot and nearly slipping on the ice, Hiccup rushed back, quickly kneeling by the trap. The frozen rope held the person tightly to the ground, too heavy to lift normally, let alone frozen and solid as rock. Hiccup's hands hovered for a second, unsure, before he reached for his blade and dug it between the metal clasps, prying them open despite the ice protesting. Once the metal snapped, releasing the rope from the heavy steel balls, Hiccup strained to lift the net of rope as a solid, tangled sheet, eventually pushing it off of the person. He sat back, panting heavily, staring down with wide eyes. The hand on the body twitched gently, fingers curling weakly and breaking apart the frost. With seemingly a lot of effort, they pushed themselves up to sit crookedly on their knees, still doubled over a little.
Still stunned into silence, Hiccup only watched, mouth open a little. Tiredly, they rubbed the frost from their eyes, then leant up and looked at Hiccup with striking icy blue irises.
"You can hear me."
Hiccup suddenly felt a little short for breath. The person he had uncovered, it was a boy around his age. His skin was pale as death, his hair as white as the snow on his eyelashes. His blue irises blended with the whites of his eyes, giving an uncanny look. The raggedy clothes he had on were torn and stiffened with ice, dotted with silver frost.
"You can see me." The boy whispered again, brows pursing. His boyish voice broke a little as he spoke, and Hiccup's perplexed face softened a little before he shook his head in confusion.
"How in Thor's name did you survive the night? It was below freezing!" He said, reaching out and dusting snow from the fur shawl around the strange boy's shoulders.
"I've been stuck since the beginning of winter." The white-haired boy answered quietly, rubbing frost from his eyebrows and hairline. Hiccup's brow pursed.
"That... that can't be possible... You'd be LONG dead!" Hiccup protested, trying to find logic in the boy's answer. "If someone gets lost at night it's safe enough to assume they're dead by morning, how on earth could you survive a whole winter stuck here?" The stranger's face changed a little, his lips curling into a small smile. It suddenly looked less than human. Hiccup drew his hand back with a sharp breath when he noticed the pointed shape of this stranger's ears. An old warning of Gobber's replayed in his head; "Watch out for the pointed ears! That's how yeh know it's not human," He had said, the mead sloshing in his cup. "Dastardly li'l things, they'll freeze yeh to death in winter and steal yer boots right off yer feet." Hiccup scrambled back a foot or so, looking for where he'd laid his knife on the ground. The smile dropped from the boy's face.
"Wait-" he said, leaning forward and reaching a hand out to Hiccup. "I'm not here to be trouble!"
"Yuh-huh, sure-" Hiccup said, sitting back defensively and looking on with distrust. "You think anyone would trust that? I bet you were the reason we had a terrible winter! Do you know how much food we lost? The island nearly starved to death!"
"I'm sorry! I couldn't help it!" The boy said, sitting back a little and wrapping his frozen arms around his shivering body. His tone was a little scared, and it made Hiccup's pursed eyebrows ease a little, inclined to believe he was telling the truth. "I got stuck in one of your traps, and I was just... I was just afraid..."
Hiccup's retorts melted as the boy's words turned to a whisper, his face shifting to a look of slight concern.
"I mean, it wasn't the WORST we've had, nobody died." He said quickly, trying to be reassuring and rubbing the back of his neck. "I think."
There was a moment of silence between the two.
"Thank you." The boy said softly. Hiccup noticed a tiny icicle on the tip of his nose. "For... letting me out."
"Yeaahhh it's really no big deal." Hiccup looked to the side, a little awkward. "Just don't go freezing anyone, okay?"
The boy laughed, and suddenly Hiccup's heart fluttered. "I think that's fair."
The boy looked up, his icy eyes narrowed with his smile.
"What's your name?" Hiccup hesitated a second, unsure of whether to give his name to a spirit. After a second, he exhaled.
"Hiccup." He held out a hand. The boy smiled, and reached his hand out to meet Hiccup's. Hiccup hissed a breath through his teeth at the cold on his skin.
"Nice to meet you, Hiccup. I'm Jack Frost."