Chapter Text
1- Celedon
In the cold, dark morning in Berk. Inside a small shack, was where a young boy with messy but well-kept brown hair slept on a bag of wool. He wore a green shirt and shorts, his green and brown jacket cloak used as a blanket.
He slept soundly until he started hearing the alarm bells and shouting.
He sprang up, his green eyes widening as he stood up, putting on his boots and jacket, grabbing a red notebook as well. He quickly exited the building before it could be set on fire...
An explosion lit up near him, but the boy didn't flinch. But was still a bit nervous of the attacks.
POV SWITCH
Welcome to Berk, it's been pretty cold lately... Especially since winter was coming... but there's one thing that kept on making every building new in this century-old village...
"OI! CELEDON! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
The young boy ducked as the Viking threw the axe towards the dragon behind him.
The boy continued heading towards the workshop, trying to avoid the fire breath from dragons.
We... they... have dragons... apparently... you might be wondering why I'm so calm about all this. Well this thing happens almost... Every early morning or evening as far as I remember.
And truth be told, I'm not from around here. Where I'm from, creatures called monsters roam around back home, Dragons- Elder Dragons are considered the most dangerous among them.
Truth be told, the dragons here are much smaller compared to them... and they seem almost as strong as... maybe in between normal and royal monsters? I can't say for sure without being biased. After all, I'm a ranger and a rider, someone who befriends and hatches and protects Monsters.
The boy entered the workshop, sharpening weapons, giving Vikings weapons, you name it.
"Good mornin Celedon. You're up early!"
"Good morning Gobber!" The boy called Celedon greeted with a polite smile as he puts on goggles to sharpen an axe. "The bells woke me up, and I thought you'd need help."
"Aw, how kind of you kiddo, though I guess I do might need some help."
Ah, I never introduced myself, my apologies. My name is Celedon. As for how I got here, well there was a storm that hit and my boat got destroyed so I ended up getting stranded here. No way home.
Am I homesick? Yes.
That's Gobber by the way, he's a kind fellow.
The boy Celedon looks around, confused.
"Speaking off, where is-"
As if on cue, another boy with light brown hair enters, putting on an apron fast.
"Oh! Nice of you to join the party Hiccup!" Gobber says as he continues to hammer a weapon. "I thought you'd been carried off!"
"W- me? No come on I'm way too muscular for their taste." The boy named Hiccup says, putting a hammer away.
Celedon just laughs as he throws a weapon carefully to give to a nearby Viking. "Yeah, yeah."
That boy is the village chief's son, Hiccup. An outcast because of... reasons. I don't mind him, though. He's a nice boy, and is pretty intellectual too.
Celedon and Hiccup hear voices outside, and spotted other children their age.
Oh, those kids are allowed to help out in their own way like putting out fire.
That's Fishlegs, a smart guy, I somewhat get along with him since we both love studying about dragons. Especially since we both read the dragon book.
Snotlout who is Hiccup's cousin I believe. I don't like him, he's a bully.
Those are chaotic twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, but I can tell that they're smarter than they let on and clearly love each other despite arguing a lot. Funny, my parents had twin monsties as their ride back home. Wonder how those twin brothers are doing...
Oh and that's Astrid who's very popular. My friend Hiccup has a crush on her.
Celedon turned towards Hiccup and teasingly smiles at him.
He could see why he liked her. Not just for looks, but she was pretty cool.
Celedon shakes his head as he continued work, wiping away his sweat.
He heard Gobber and Hiccup arguing over killing a dragon or something along those lines.
Celedon frowned at that, while he understood that they had to slay dragons, but lately, he felt like these attacks made... no sense.
Like... By his own understanding, dragons keep to themselves unless provoked. Why would they attack? For food? That didn't make sense. There were surely other places to find food. Maybe an invasive monster or something like that? He wasn't sure, and he was not in any good position to be able to investigate unfortunately.
Call me soft, that... isn't farfetched. I grew up in a kingdom where monsters are... well, chill around humans. They don't attack the castle or any of the vineyards... unless hungry like that Yian Kut-kut incident my mom solved years ago. Here they kept dragons to train the new generation. Is it a good method? I can't say for sure. Do I like it? No. They're stuck here, away from their habitat unable to go back home, stuck in cages. Back home monsters are... well, we never cage them, more of we babysit endangered monsties then we release them. Do I want to release them? Sure. But that wouldn't be the smartest decision.
Celedon looked outside, spotting nadderheads, known to shoot spikes. He thought of Nargacugas and Nergigantes. He remembered when his mom showed him pictures of the three types of Nargacugas... even remembering the one time she grew slightly terrified upon that one time he hatched a Nergigante years earlier shortly after he joined the Rangers.
Gronkles made him miss Gravy the Gravios, Kora's -his mom's other caretaker growing up- partner.
Zipplebacks? Yeah, he is unsure if there's even a monster in existence with two heads; he'd have to do research on that later.
Celedon then spotted a Monstruous Nightmare. A dragon that set itself on fire. Actually, he knows a BUNCH of monsters that can do similar abilities.
But then, he froze, hearing a cry he did not recognize. He ducked immediately, as he heard...
"NIGHT FURRY!"
"GET DOWN!!"
Celedon peaked outside, seeing the purple fire or plasma like attacks destroying the towers and buildings.
Back home, we had an Elder Dragon called a Namielle that caused us MAJOR problems. Or more specifically, is the most dangerous and strongest monster/dragon that could be found back home in Azuria. Good news, it hardly and rarely shows up. The bad news is that it can kill a lot of life in a lake.
But in this village? Its a dragon called 'the Night Furry'. Never misses attacks, and only attacks in the dark. No one has lived to tell the tale of what it looks like. Or maybe someone did, but we'd never know for sure. But from what I gather, I can at least predict its a dark colored dragon if it was able to hide in the dark night.
He then clenched his head, a soft light blue glow shining in his pocket, he quickly looked around and took it out, it was his kinship stone. He grew puzzled at first, but then clenched his head.
He heard a desperate cry. Someone desperate because they were trying to survive. He then heard a painful cry and then... a crash. Then there was silence.
He looked around, Gobber was not in sight. He probably left to help out.... Wait... Where's Hiccup?
He blinked and panic. One moment he saw him, and JUST as he took his eyes away from him, he was gone!
Oh Namielle, where did he go now?!
POV Switch
The boy looked around, trying to find Hiccup. One moment he could've sworn he heard a cry from the distance. Then he heard Hiccup screaming and being chased by a- Oh it was a Monstrous Nightmare.
"Oh Namielles..." Celedon muttered. But he was too far away to help.
But as he charged forward to try to save him, he narrowly avoided a pole from crashing on him... and then a lot more damaged was caused.
As sun started to slowly rise, he witnessed Hiccup's father, Stoick scolding him, angry about him.
Celedon said nothing. He couldn't tell if his father cared about him or not.
"Not even grandfather was this hard on mom when he was still around..." Celedon muttered.
He couldn't remember much about his grandfather, but he knew through his mother that while, yes, he was strict with her and distant, his mom understood that his role in Azuria was one of the most important and stressing roles, he was strict with her to prepare her, but he still loved his child in his own way. As for the distance, it was because of what happened with Celedon's grandmother...
...
Thinking back now, Hiccup was in a similar situation with his mom. Maybe that's why he's been extra protective with Hiccup.
Stoick ordered for Hiccup to be escorted back home, and Gobber made sure he would. Celedon ended up following him as well, concerned about his friend.
Gobber tries to give him a pep-talk and to comfort him, but when it was not working. Celedon spoke up.
"Hiccup. I can't say I understand how you feel but..." The boy wearing green shakes his head. "Look, whatever you want to be, I'll respect and support you... unless it endanger lives." He says with a smile.
Hiccup considers entering his house, before he turns back to him, confused.
"Celedon..."
"Yeah?"
"Why did you want to be friends with me anyway?"
Celedon blinked and laughed. "My mom was in a similar situation growing up." He admits, missing his mom. "I can't allow someone to live a lonely life as hers. It isn't right. Plus..." Celedon turns to head back to his shack. "You're a nice guy compared to the other children I talked to." Celedon walked down and was seen entering his shack...
But the village was unaware that the two boys secretly snuck out to the forest, but in different locations...
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...
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...
In the forest, Celedon sat down near a tree, drawing pictures of the Dragons he spotted here, writing down what he knew about them. If he found a way back home, he'd most definitely show these to his mentor, Thea and his parents... Maybe he should grab some rare ore for Kora if he could find some... And some plants too for Gaul.
Maybe some ingredients too for Eleanor from Vermeil. She did love cooking.
Celedon sighs. As he stood up deciding the explore the forest for a bit, he tripped on something and fell forward.
"Ow..." He looked down, shocked. He saw small bits of translucent crystals on the floor. He picked it up froze.
"Aenshin has been here before 200 years ago?" Celedon wondered puzzled.
He recalled the story about Aenshin from his parents. His parents used to read him the story to him to sleep, an early lesson for him to NEVER weaponize Monsties.
He decided to explore, looking around. He didn't see any egg quartz here, maybe it was just minor and not that bad here.
"Okay, I have more questions now..." His inner ranger persona started to surface. Now he wanted to investigate. "If any of my family was here... They'd go crazy about this. I just hope-"
Celedon then stops himself and looks around. He sensed something.
He then notes some trees were damaged.
"Something fell here...?" He was puzzled. He looked around, spotting some interesting clues. There were scratch marks and clear signs of something large climbing the trees too. As if it was searching something.
Celedon's kinship stone in his pocket started to glow, realizing its implications, he dashed forward, without his survival instincts kicking in.
He eventually spotted an Espinas, with an injured wing, near it, was a Tobi Kadachi, clearly worried about him.
Sensing Celedon's prescence, it turned its head around, its weary expression turning to exitement and then pouncing on him and even licking him.
"W-wait!" Celedon started to laugh. "Kaeda slow down! Wait!"
His partner, now named Kaeda listened and continued his focus towards the Espinas.
"Espur... what happened to your wings...?"
Espur the Espinas just slightly wined. He... he was hurt but was resting by sleeping.
"Okay... This is..." But Celedon calmed down, and faced Kaeda. "Is there a cave nearbye?"
With Kaeda's help, he managed to place his resting Espinas in the cave. He returned back to the village and came back with a lot of meat and medical equipment he somehow managed to sneak out with.
He then started wrapping the bandages and added some healing power on Espur.
Espur finally opened his eyes turned to Celedon, tired, but will be able to live. He just needed rest.
"Hey partner." He gently patted his head. "I'm here now. And I need you to stay out of sight okay? The people here aren't... exactly fond of you guys..."
The two understood with a nod. Celedon promised to come back with more food.
But now he had a way back home. But he didn't want to abandoned Berk, much less continuing to hide his secret from his friend Hiccup.
"First, I find a way to figure out why the dragons are like this, then I'll tell Hiccup..."
He then sighs, it would not be easy. He considered the 2nd task being the hardest among them.
"Okay how do I even begin to tell Hiccup I'm a crown prince of a far away kingdom anyway?"
TO BE CONTINUED...