The Prince and The Warrior

Prologue

The infant in his arms stirred, making the light from the nearby torches glimmer off of his lightly freckled porcelain cheek and the thin wisps of chestnut brown hair on it's new born scalp. All the while, it's mother slept on the bed next to them, burning with a terrible fever that she got just an hour after giving birth to their son.

As if he were touching precious crystal that would shatter under the merest touch, King Stoick lifted a hand to his son's face, stroking it once with a meaty finger. The newborn prince yawned, completely innocent and oblivious to the chaos going on in the palace because of his arrival.

A flash of affection coupled with confusion and a bit of fear shone in the king's jade green eyes.

How can something so precious, so harmless cause the devastation the oracle predicted would happen?

I foresee, that should his majesty ever beget a child, that child would be a peril. He shall be an abomination, she who bore him will die as soon as he doesn't need her to survive anymore. He will posses powers that no Lirean had ever possessed and his birth will mark the beginning of the worst adversity Lireo had ever witnessed. Kill the child as soon as he's born.

Otherwise he will kill you, your Queen and eventually, everyone in the kingdom of Lireo.

After she had told him those words, the oracle died of old age, leaving fear in everyone's hearts with her last prophecy. The oracle had predicted prophesies for him and his fore fathers hundreds of times before and so far, she hasn't been wrong.

But she couldn't be right…not this time. She just can't.

A flash of lightning illuminated the entire room, followed by a loud clap of thunder. The thunder storm started a few hours ago when his wife went into labor and is yet to show any signs of dying down.

A whimper of pain came from the bed next to him and he reached out with one hand to clasp the burning and clammy one of his wife.

"Prove her wrong love. Our son is not a monster. You'll pull through. He didn't cause this." He murmured, kissing her hand once. Her fingers tightened around his and he looked up to stare into half lidded sea green eyes.

"I know. I will don't worry."  Her voice was weak and scratchy but when she spoke, the pure determination in her voice could be heard even from miles away.

"Stoick, make sure nothing bad happens to him."

A shadow fell over both their faces as they thought about what loomed just outside the palace walls. When news of the prince's birth got out, the people, or at least those who remembered and believed firmly the oracle's last words went into a rage and braved the storm outside to try and knock down the palace gates, fully intent on killing the prince before as the oracle told, he kills them. Before, they wouldn't have even dared to think about doing such a thing, but after King Stoick had declared that he did not believe the oracle and therefore would not lay a finger on his son, the people retaliated by not believing in his choice and going against him.

"I swear Valla. I swear."

A small smile graced her lips and she reached up to stroke his face with the backs of her fingers. And then her eyes closed and she went back to sleep, her chest rising and falling unevenly as she struggled to draw air into her lungs.


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"Stoick!"

The king skidded to a stop and he whirled around to find his trusted friend and royal black smith, Gobber limping towards him with a myriad of different injuries. It had happened, they made it in. Those intent to murder his son had managed to knock down the gates and the guards had been unable to stop all of them from entering the palace. Currently the palace was in total chaos, peasants were tearing into rooms, using force and magic to knock down doors, frantically searching for the newborn price and guards running everywhere trying to stop them and throw them out.

"Oh dear gods, your hand!"

Stoick exclaimed as he laid eyes on where Gobber's hand used to be. His wrist was wrapped in shredded loin cloth, undoubtedly torn from his tunic and he was clutching it to his chest. Stoick ran over to support him but Gobber swatted his hand away and collapsed against the wall.

"Don'- Don' worry about me." He panted, " Valla, I was guarding her room like ye told me to but…but then, they came in and swarmed me…I got 'em all. Then, I heard a crash from the inside and when I looked, there were some dead peasants on the floor and she wasn't there. The prince's crib is empty. Find…find them, Hurry!"

Stoick's eyes widened and he barely managed to nod at Gobber before he allowed his magic to course through his veins and he was gone in a cloud of red smoke.

He reappeared in the nursery, where his wife and son had been before he left to fight off the outraged peasants. The room was in ruins when he got there, furniture was strewn around, most of them broken, the torches were all out and like Gobber said, there were lifeless bodies on the floor. Using his magic, he summoned a flame to his palm. The first thing he saw when he lifted his hand to illuminate the room was a huge gap in the wall. This room had several hidden doors in it and obviously this one had been used for somebody's escape.

"Valla!"

He yelled as he charged through the gap, his heart hammering against his chest as he prayed to every god he knew of that his wife and child were safe.


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She gasped for breath but with every intake, her lungs only seemed to burn more. Cradled in her arms, her son cried, as if he could feel her pain.

"Hush my love, everything is alright. They can't find us here."

She murmured to him, rocking her arms back and forth slowly to try and soothe him. All the while, wishing that there was someone there to soothe her. Her eyes felt heavy, her body weak. When those men broke in through her window, armed with knives, she summoned all the strength and all the magic she could, which at that point was not much, to get rid of them and when she was sure they wouldn't get back up, she scooped her son into her arms and dashed through one of the secret doors.

She sighed wearily as she felt what little was left of her energy slowly slip away. She used up all her powers to protect her son and herself and she used up all of her energy to get here.

"It's not fair…" she murmured as she slumped down against a pillar.

"I won't get to see you grow up into the fine, brave, handsome young man I know you will be." She whispered, gazing down at the face of her son.

"I'm sorry about all this, darling. Oh goodness, we were so busy with all this ruckus, we didn't even get to name you." She said, laughing brokenly and regretting the action instantly when she felt more of her life fade away.

"I'm afraid, I'll be going soon and I will never see you again. But know that I love you and your father, with all my heart I do." She took a deep breath as she summoned all the magic and energy she has left. Her hand glowed a faint blue as she set it over his little chest.

"Take this as my last gift. My magic, my life, all that I am shall live in you and as long as it shall, I avow that those who seek to end you shall never harm you. Your death can only be found at the hands of the one who will love you more than anyone ever will and therefore would not nor ever have the heart to hurt you."

Her hand glowed brighter and she lifted it an inch above his heart. As the light dimmed, a small blue orb formed above her hand and slowly faded into thin air. She looked down and smiled when she saw a faint blue glow seep into the blankets her son was wrapped in and slowly vanish, indicating that her spell has worked. Her eye lids felt a thousand times heavier now but before they can fall over her eyes, she leaned down and placed a tender kiss on her child's forehead. With a herculean effort, she lifted her head and smiled up at the sky, waiting for it to take her and hoping somewhere in the back of her mind, that whoever it was that was destined to love her son more than anyone ever can, they would protect him.

"Valla! Valla!"

The far away, fading sound of her husband's voice was the last thing she heard before her eyes closed in eternal slumber.


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A few years later


"That night had gone down in history as the night King Stoick unleashed all of his anger and nearly burned down the entire kingdom.

After he had found Queen Vala's lifeless body, still cradling their son, it was said that he felt a rage so strong, he caused an explosion that charred everyone who had even the tiniest speckle of hatred for his son, to ashes."

"Wooow."

A grey-blue eyed child said as he stared up at the middle aged blond man in amazement. His long, silvery hair went down to his shoulders and he fisted it in his hands as he exclaimed. "That must've been awesome!"

The royal blacksmith glared down at the child as he unscrewed the hammer from his wrist and replaced it with a hook.

"Tuffnut, people getting incinerated is nothing to be happy about." He scolded.

"But they deserved it didn't they?"

Gobber paused to consider that and he replied silently. "I suppose they did…but still!"

"Ok, Ok…soree…So, is that why they built those giant walls around the palace? To keep everyone who might try to kill the prince out?"

Gobber nodded. "Yes, that's right. And to keep the prince in."

The gray eyed child tilted his head to the side, confused. "Whadd'ya mean to keep him in?"

"Well, the prince is a stubborn, curious, impulsive little tyke. Much like yerself." Gobber replied, smirking down at him. "And he doesn't like being cooped up in the palace all the time with no one else to play with."

Tuffnut was silent as he digested what has been said, then. "Man, it must be so cool to have that much stuff happen when you were born. I wish my birth story was as epic as that!"

Gobber raised an eyebrow at him. "What are ye talking about, don't you know that you an Ruffnut were born the same day he was? All those things did happen when ye were born."

"Yeah but that didn't happen because of me. Nothing special happened when I was born, cept maybe for this thing mom said. She said she saw a floating circle of blue light right as I was born and that was it. I don't think that even counts cause she could have been dillusional. There were no people charging in to kill me, no nothing. Hmph, I guess I'm destined to just be ordinary and boring." Tuffnut said, kicking the ground dejectedly.

"I don't know…ye were born on the same day as the prince. I think that's a sign that ye're meant to do something." Gobber said, moving towards the young boy and patting him on the head.

"That's just a coincidence."

Gobber chuckled. "The gods do not play with dice, especially when it comes to fate. There is no such thing as coincidence boy, only the illusion of coincidence."


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This is the kingdom of Lireo. And as these things go, you've probably guessed that those who live here are called Lireans. Now Lireans, are probably what you would call wizards or witches. We use magic but we don't ride broomsticks brew potions in giant pots or use weird words to cast spells. Heck, I think our definition of spells is completely different.

Oh…well, then I guess we don't count as wizards or witches. Ok, then I guess the closest thing you can compare us to are faeries which I guess would make sense because we do have those here and they've been around for as long as we have, which means we're related to them somewhat… Anyway, yeah. We use magic, err…well most of us anyway. It's kind of 60-50, more than half of us have the average Lirean abilities, which are the ability to use spells, disappear and reappear in a chosen destination and the ability to take energy from nature and use it as some sort of weapon. And the other half well…they are unfortunate enough not to posses any of those abilites. But they're not completely luckless. The remaining percentage of the population are blessed with unbelievably thick skin, strong bones and increased strength and agility. We call them walas, meaning empty. Why exactly they're different from us, no one can be sure. My guess is they came from a different ancestor who moved here to start a new life. (I'd advice you to believe my guess. I think I've read every history book in the palace) Anyway, other stuff you need to know. Like most kingdoms, Lireo has a rival kingdom that we've been at war with for a long long time and that is the kingdom of Draykonia. And guess what type of guys live there? Yup, dragons. But not real ones mind you. All the people who live there are only demi dragons. They're Lireans who went against nature and used their powers to morph with or more specifically absorb dragons(It's a long disgusting process I'll tell you about it later) and become them. They can turn from humanoid to full dragon at will. Real dragons are the ones who can't change to any other form aside from their own.  

Alright, I think that sums up the basics. You really needed to know all that so you wouldn't get lost when I tell the story I'm about to tell you.

My name is Hiccup.

Yes, hiccup as in well, hiccup.

And I'm the crowned prince of Lireo. I know what you're thinking. What the hell kind of name is that for a prince? Well I didn't ask for it alright? My father may have been one of the most powerful Lireans who ever lived and is without a doubt a great king, but there isn't a single fibre in his being that had even a speck of creativity in it. So yeah. When I was born, all hell broke loose. I'd really rather not talk about it. But I will tell you that I went missing for a bit. Dad found me…and my mother but let's not go there now.  Anyway, so my dad found me, and guess what I did when he picked me up?

*hic*….*hic…*hic*!

Yup. I did that. Hence, my name. Ingenious of my father isnt it?

Oh well. I guess I shouldn't be complaining. After all, there were so many other things he could have done to me that were a thousand times worse than name me Hiccup. So many other things.

You'll see. Let's get this started shall we?

I'm Hiccup and this is my story.