19 Viking For Hire

A Viking ship in the middle of the sea.

"Everybody needs a place in the world. Some people are born to theirs, " Hiccup (V.O)

Stoick shouts orders from the rear of the ship, "Raise the main sail! Turn it toward starboard!"

COVE – DUSK

Hiccup reaches out to touch Toothless.

"Some people discover theirs," Hiccup (V.O)

HELA'S ROOM – NIGHT

Hela wakes up from her sleep after talking to Sapphira, she looks to the side of her bed and sees the sword.

"Some people inherit theirs," Hela (V.O)

BERK – NIGHT

Gobber pounds away at a sword with his hammer hand. He slides it into a cart filled with weapons and pulls it into the town square.

"And some people make a place for themselves," Hiccup (V.O)

"Grab a weapon! No need to be choosy!" Gobber shouts.

Vikings run at the dragons with their weapons.

A Monstrous Nightmare shoots a blast of fire, which narrowly misses Gobber. Another Viking swings his sword at another dragons. Vikings yell. Dragons roar.

A Nadder flies off into the sunset.

————————————————

BERK - DAY.

A Gronckle flies into town, carrying Fishlegs. Dragons and Vikings are living together. One Viking's giving his Gronckle a belly rub.

"But then the world around them changes, and the place they made is gone," Hela (V.O)

Gobber pounds at a sword with his hammer hand. He inspects it and sighs before sliding it into the cart.

—————————————————

DRAGON ACADEMY - DAY.

Hela and Troels fly around the rocky cliffs of Berk and into the Dragon Training Academy, where Hiccup and the others are in the middle of class.

Hiccup stands in front of a blackboard with tally marks. Hela dismounts and decides to watch.

"Every dragon has its own unique abilities that give it its own special place in the world. Which dragon makes the best welding torch," Hiccup asks.

Astrid, Dawn and Fishlegs stand to the left of Hiccup.

"Oh! Deadly Nadder!" Astrid and Dawn yell out.

"Its magnesium flame burns with the heat of the sun!" Fishlegs adds

Hiccup adds a tally to the board. Astrid and Dawn bump fists.

"Correct! Point to team Astrid. Score is now one hundred to ten," Hiccup says.

"Isn't this team up kind of unfair" Troels says.

"Nah, if either Astrid or Dawn or Fishlegs was on the other team the twins and Snotlout would relay on them. This way they'll actually put an effort to think and answer for themselves," Hela tells him. Troels nods and continues watching.

"And you started with ten," Astrid mocks Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Snotlout who are on the other side of the arena.

"Oh yeah? Well, the game's not over," Tuffnut says before looking around confused, "Wait, what team am I on?"

"Next question. What is the shot limit of a Hideous Zippleback. Team Snotlout?" Hiccup asks.

"I don't think they can count that high," Astrid says making Dawn and Fishlegs chuckle.

"Oh really? Well let's find out! Barf!" Ruffnut calls out.

Ruff and Tuff's Zippleback raises its two heads from behind the twins and shoots flame balls toward the wall behind Astrid, leaving six marks, waking up Fenrir who was sleeping next to Stormfly he growls in their direction.

Tuffnut holds up two fingers, "Looks like it's about three,"

"Told you we could count that high," Ruffnut says smug.

Troels turns to Hela with a deadpan look making her chuckle.

"It's six. You're half right. Five point, " Hiccup corrects them.

"Yes! We're up to thirty!" Ruffnut says as she high fives her teammates.

"I think I just lost some brain cells," Troels says.

"Yeah, they have that effect on everyone," Hela says.

"All right, it's our turn. What happens when you shoot fire at the owner of a Deadly Nadder?" Astrid says before she whistles. Stormfly, her dragon, jumps up and throws tail spikes at the other team, pinning them to the back wall.

"No fair! She didn't give us time to answer!" Tuffnut complains.

Snotlout jumps down, "I've got a question. What happens when I sick Hookfang on you?"

Hiccup closes his book, worried, "Okay guys, that's enough training. So... we did some really good work here,"

"Oh come on brother it was just getting to the good part," Hela says making Hiccup sigh.

"Prepare to face the Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout pats the side of his Nightmare's mouth. Hookfang roars and lights its entire body on fire.

Snotlout jumps off, "Ah! That's the third time this week!" And leaps into a trough of water. "Ah. Sweet relief,"

"Hookfang never flames up when you're righting him. Is he okay?" Hiccup asks.

"Maybe he just realized who his owner is," Astrid says as she walks over to Hela who was now standing in front of Hookfang.

"I'm fine your highness it's nothing I can't handle," Hookfang says, Hela doesn't believe him but she decides not to push it.

"Is he okay," Astrid asks.

"Sigh, No but he says he can handle it," Hela tells her.

Gobber has set up his weapon stand in the town square.

"Gather around! Come on, one and all! You may think these dragon-killing weapons have no more use, but think again! This longsword is now a lovely butter knife!" He spreads the butter across the bread, unintentionally cutting the slice into tiny bits.

"Eh. It's also good for making breadcrumbs," The plate shatters. The crowd looks on, skeptical, "Moving on,"

Mildew leans over and whispers into Hiccup's ear loud enough for Hela to hear as well. "Well, this is a dark day. A great dragon slayer peddling his weapons as kitchen utensils? Hm,"

Gobber pulls out a giant mace.

"Up next, how about this..." A fly buzzes past Gobber and lands on the table, "Handy flyswatter?"

Gobber slams the mace at the fly, completely destroying the table. The fly buzzes away.

"Hehe. Also good for getting rid of unwanted tables,"

Gobber stands beside a catapult, "Now, for the lady of the house! When the hubby's of pillaging, how are you to protect yourself from home invaders? No problem when you have Big Bertha!"

Gobber taps at the side of the catapult, causing it to launch. Gobber grimaces. The crowd gasps.

The rock smashes through a Viking's home. The Viking stops and stares through the hole back at the crowd. The crowd starts to leave.

"Hey wait! There's more! Come back! You haven't seen everything yet! I haven't cleared out my dungeon yet!" He says but no one listens.

He turns, discouraged, lightly patting the catapult, "It's okay Bertha. We'll find a place for you,"

"Ah, it's hard to watch. Especially for you, eh, Hiccup? Hela? The feelings of guilt must be tearing at your insides. I mean, you put him out of business with your little peace pact with the dragons. You ruined his life. Bravo!" Mildew says before walking away.

Hiccup looks back to Gobber sadly before walking away.

Hela sighs and walks up to Gobber, "You know Gobber these weapons may not be used as often as they used to but we still need them. The Dragons weren't our only enemy," Gobber doesn't says anything so Hela helps him put back the weapons.

———————————————

HADDOCK HOUSE – NIGHT.

Hela is sitting at the table downstairs drinking mead, with Fenrir sitting next to her on the floor and Troels laying down on his rock bed in the corner.

Stoick comes into the house and sits down. He removes his helmet, sighing.

"Tough day huh?" Hela asks her father as Hiccup comes downstairs.

"I was all over the island. I married the Svenson girl to the Odegard boy at dawn. Then down to the fields where some kids were tipping over yaks. Then back up to the newlyweds to settle a domestic dispute. I guess that honeymoon is over,"

Hiccup pours Stoick a mug of mead. He hands it to his father and goes over to the fire.

"Thank you son. Sigh ever since you got busy with the dragons I wish there were two of me," Stoick says referring to Hela.

Hiccup freezes, dropping a log into the fire, "Dad, there are two of you!"

"Is that another crack about my weight?" Stoick asks irritated and Hela does a spit take and starts coughing Stoick and the others give her worried look but she waves them off.

"No, I mean Gobber. He can be the other you," Hiccup tells him once Hela stopped coughing.

"Gobber? He's way too busy making all those dragon-killing...." He looks towards Hela, "Well, used to be, until you. Which is great. Except for Gobber,"

"Exactly my point!"

"You know Hiccup has a point like you said you need a right hand," Hela tells him.

"What about you?" Stoick asks trying to see all his options, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I'm supervising two Dragons fighting over territory in the forest so they don't kill each other or start a forest fire and keep them away from the village," Hela tells him.

"Fine I'll take Gobber as my right hand," He stands up and puts on his helmet.

"Which works out great, 'cuz that's kind of the only one he has," Hiccup says only for Hela to punch him in the shoulder, "OW"

—————————————————

TOWN SQUARE – DAY.

Stoick and Gobber walk out to the town square, Stoick carrying a piece of paper.

"I greatly appreciate your helping me out, Gobber,"

"I'm just glad I could find some time in my busy schedule, Stoick,"

"I've got a busy day ahead of me. Here's your half," He rips the paper in half and hands one side to Gobber.

"Oh, this'll be interesting," Gobber says.

"Now remember, some of these situations are delicate. They require diplomacy," Stoick tells him.

"Ah, no problem. I'm great at... that," Gobber says as he looks through his half of the paper.

Stoick gives him skeptical look, "Really? You? You can speak to people with tact and sensitivity?"

"Oh, I thought it meant clubbing people on the head and asking questions later. But I can give your thing a shot," Gobber says as he walks away, with Stoick looking at him wearily.

————————————————

GREAT HALL.

Gobber stands at the front of a crowd of Vikings, next to a mother, father, and baby.

"Whosoever brings this child forth into the Hooligan tribe, let he be known!" Gobber says.

The Viking woman hands a crying baby to Gobber. "As a representative of the chief, I welcome this baby into the Hooligan tribe. And pronounce the name to be..."

The father leans over and whispers something into Gobber's ear. "Eeh? Hildegard? Doesn't seem like a Hildegard to me. Let's go with Magnus,"

"But she's a girl, Gobber!" The Viking mother tells him.

"Don't worry, she's not gonna look like one. Magnus it is! And please accept this teething toy on behalf of Stoick the Vast," He gives the baby a mace. The mother and father give Gobber horrified looks. The mother yells and takes back her baby.

———————————————————————

MULCH'S HOUSE.

Mulch and Bucket stand on opposite sides of the room, Gobber in between them.

"Bucket says you never paid him for the sheep!" Gobber tells Mulch.

"I never bought a sheep," Mulch says, behind him a sheep bleats.

"Who's that? A little woman?" Gobber asks sarcastically.

"Oh Mulch. You're cheating me now," Bucket says sadly.

"Clearly there's only one way to settle this," He hands a mace to Mulch and a hammer to Bucket and walks away.

As violent sounds come from inside the house, Gobber checks an item off his list.

"Diplomacy? Check. All right, what's next?"

———————————————————————

DOCKS.

Gobber hammers nails into slabs of iron patched into a Viking ship, "I know the conventional thinking when repairing a ship is wood. But if you ask me, there's nothing like a good old slab of iron!"

He gives a couple more hammers, "Nothing's getting through this!"

Stoick, the mother and father, and Mulch and Bucket walk down the docks.

"Gobber! What do you think you're doing?" Stoick asks.

"Just checking another item off the list"

Gobber gives the ship a final hit with the hammer. It slides down the docks and crashes into the water, sinking instantly.

"And adding an item for later. "Recover sunken ship." Same time tomorrow?"

The crowd behind Gobber groans. Magnus cries.

——————————————

HADDOCK HOUSE.

Stoick sits down, pressing two giant blocks of ice to each side of his head.

"Here you go, Dad," Hiccup says as he gives Stoick a mug of mead.

"Wow. A two-block headache. You know Dad, I think you're being a wee bit rough on Gobber. It was his first day. Tomorrow will be way better," Hiccup tells him.

"Oh, it will be for me. Because it won't involve Gobber," Stoick replies.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and it sunk a ship and named a baby girl Magnus. Now I'm not saying she didn't look like a Magnus, but try telling that to her parents," Stoick rants.

"I can't believe you let him go! Well, we've got to help him!" Hiccup says.

"We don't have to do anything. You on the other hand, are going to be very busy finding a job for Gobber," Stoick tells him. Hiccup stares at Stoick in disbelief.

Just then Hela and Troels walk in looking exhausted. Hela practically tumbles onto her seat with a groan. She takes a block of ice and puts it on her head. Fenrir walks up to her and licks her hand making her smile slightly. Hiccup and Stoick give each other a glance.

"That bad?" Hiccup asks.

"*Groan* You try keeping two Monstrous Nightmares away from the village while trying to stop a forest fire from forming by said Monstrous Nightmares," Hiccup and Stoick wince, "we're mentally exhausted, we should have taken Astrid and Stormfly with us,"

"You think" Troels snaps.

"Don't patronize me," Hela snaps back at him, Fenrir whines, "Sorry,"

"Did you try to settle it peacefully?" Hiccup asks, Hela gives him an irritated look, "Right, forget I asked,"

"I'm going to bed early, lets go Fenrir your going to my cuddle buddy tonight," Hela says as she walks to her room Fenrir happily walks behind her.

—————————————————

DRAGON TRAINING ARENA – NEXT DAY.

The teens and their dragons, equally confused, are standing in the arena next to their dragons.

Dawn is giving her older sister, who's fighting and failing to hold back a blush, a cheeky grin since Astrid is being hugged from behind by Hela under the pretence of still being tired.

"You're bringing Gobber... here?" Fishlegs asks.

"He's gonna be great. Nobody knows dragons like old Gobber. He's spent a lifetime, you know, studying them. If we can tap into that, we'll all be better dragon trainers," Hiccup tells them.

Gobber pushes open the gates to the arena, pulling his cart of weapons with him. The dragons recoil.

"Why did he bring those?" Stormfly asked suspiciously.

"I'm back! Did you miss me?" Gobber says.

"Gobber, why did you bring your weapons?" Hela asked.

"I thought maybe we could train them by threatening to kill them. That's how my daddy taught me to swim," He rummages in the cart and pulls out a giant mace.

He slams it into the ground, "School's in session!"

The dragons all ran past him and take off.

"Eh. I didn't like school either," He says.

Hela sighs and reluctantly let's Astrid go so she can go after Stormfly. Astrid frowns slightly, she shakes her head and goes after Stormfly.

————————————————————————

The dragons fly back through the arena gate, with the teens riding them and land in the arena.

Hiccup is sitting on the ground next to Toothless, reading and Hela is target-practicing with her bow and arrows, Fenrir watching from the side-lines. Troels left a while ago to go hunt some fish.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Hiccup asks.

Astrid gets off Stormfly and joins Hela while Dawn rubs her back. Ruffnut and Tuffnut test their legs.

"Uh. We've been riding our dragons for four hours. It took forever to chase them down after Gobber scared them away," Dawn says.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I just don't know what to do with him," Hiccup says.

Ruffnut kicks Tuffnut's butt repeatedly.

"Do you guys always have to fight?" Hiccup asks.

"It's okay. I asked her to do that. Just trying to get the feeling back," Tuffnut says.

"You gonna return the favor, or what?" Tuffnut begins to kick Ruffnut's butt.

"I've flown for hours on Toothless and I've never had a problem," Hiccup says.

"That because you, me and Astrid have saddles," Hela tells him as she shows Astrid how to use a bow.

"Saddles!" Hiccup exclaims and runs off.

Hela focuses back on Astrid. She moves behind her and corrects her stance, "Straighten your back, relax your shoulders, and take a deep breath,"

Astrid does as she says, she looks relaxed on the outside but on the inside, she's freaking out at the close proximity of their bodies and Hela whispering into her ear while also feeling her hot breath on her neck is making her heart run a mile a minute and her mind is going to place.....

"Now!" Hela says snapping her out of her thoughts and she misses the target completely.

"it's alright I it is your first tr—" before she can continue Astrid turns around and kisses her hard taking her by surprise but she kisses her back with as much passion completely forgetting they weren't alone in the arena.

"Ugh, get a room you two," Dawn says giving them a disgusted look and snapping them out of their love bubble. Astrid buries her face in Hela's neck embarrassed making Hela chuckle.

————————————————

DRAGON ACADEMY – NEXT DAY

Hiccup, Hela, and Gobber stand in front of the class. To their right is a large patchwork blanket covering a heaping pile.

"Alright, this is an exciting day for all of us. Gobber has been working hard to—" Gobber pushes Hiccup aside with his arm.

"I think they might want to hear from the artist himself," Gobber gestures to himself proudly.

As Gobber speaks, the class is clearly very excited and happy to finally be getting their own saddles.

"I've made a lot of saddles in my day. Horse, Donkey and now, Dragon,"

He gestures towards the covered pile of saddles and gives them a loving pat as he continues speaking.

"But these saddles are special. They're like my children, that is if you strapped your child to a flaming reptile and rode it. So without further ado—"

Gobber pulls the patchwork blanket off of the pile to reveal a collection of saddles adorned with various weapons. The teens are in awe.

"Wow, Gobber. This, this is certainly not what I imagined," Hiccup tells him.

"How could it be? I'm Gobber! Nobody knows what it's like to live in here," Gobber says as he taps his helmet with his hammer.

Hela walks around the saddles inspecting them, she stops at a particular one and points to it amused. "Is that a flamethrower?"

"Yup," Gobber says before he demonstrates the flamethrower's ability, much to Hiccup, Dawn, and Astrid's surprise and exasperation.

"Didn't see that one coming, did ya?" Gobber says.

"Uh no, not for dragons. They come with one built in, actually," Hiccup replies.

"I know, but can ya ever really have too much firepower?" Gobber asks.

"can't argue with that," Hela approves.

They turn to the twins who are sitting on their saddles astride their dragon. They each load a small boulder into the built-in catapult on their saddles. They pull back the catapults and fire, the rocks both hit one of the Zippleback heads square in the back, knocking the dragon's heads to the ground.

""Ow my head"" Barf and Belch groan.

"Uhh, catapults? For the twins? Not such a good idea," Hiccup says getting a nod from Hela.

Gobber shrugs and they turn to Fishlegs riding Meatlug. Meatlug can barely hover above the ground due to the weight of fishleg's saddle, which is adorned with four heavy spiked maces.

"You can do it, girl. Think light," Fishlegs encourages her but Meatlug struggles and fails to maintain flight. She collapses to the floor and growls in defeat.

"oh come on! you can't tell me my saddle is heavier than Fishlegs!" Gobber says.

"My mom says I'm just husky," Fishlegs responds offended by Gobber's statement.

"Get that thing off me," Hookfang growls irritated gaining the other's attention. He flings off the saddle.

"Come on Hookfang, what's wrong with you?" Snotlout asks as he reaches forward to pet Hookfang but Hookfang leaves with a screech. Hela frowns she knows he's in pain but Hookfang didn't tell her were he was hurt.

"That's it, someone's trading with me," Snotlout exclaims.

"Ya, sure. I'll trade my perfect dragon for an angry oven," Tuffnut says sarcastically.

Dawn rides on Shadow clearly not having any difficulties the others are with their saddles. The pair land smoothly next to Astrid and Stormfly.

"This saddle's actually pretty good," Dawn says.

"Wait 'til you try the horn," Gobber tells her.

Dawn blows into the built in horn on her saddle. The horn extends in size and emits a mighty foghorn-like noise, scaring Shadow and Stormfly. They raise their tail and flings several tail spikes in Snotlout's direction, pinning him to the stone wall.

Hela cringes slightly, "I'm glad I have my hearing under control,"

"So anyway I- I think we're really gonna need to make a few—"

"Changes! I'm way ahead of you," Gobber says interrupting Hiccup, "I've got so many ideas! It's gettin' crowded up here," He laughs and taps his helmet again with his hammer while Hiccup slumps in defeat and Hela chuckles.

—————————————————————

HELA's ROOM – NIGHT

Hela was sitting on her bed holding one of her scales in her hand thinking of what to do with them. She knows her scales are stronger and more durable than any dragon scales or metal especially the scale from her second form and since she shed her scales recently, Yeah she sheds her scales who knew, she looks at the 5 barrels full in the corner.

"I wonder?" she says to herself before igniting her hand and watching as the scale slowly starts to turn red. She grabs it with both hands and bends it with ease, "Good to know. This opens up a lot of possibilities,"

While her mind races with all the things she can make using them she sees a green glow in the corner of her eyes. She turns towards it and sees it's coming from the book she got from Troels. She picks it up and sees that the glow is coming from the eye-shaped gemstone.

She tries opening it and this time it does open with a click only to find an empty page. Confused she turned to the next page and finds it empty as well, she returns to the first page and sees words starting to appear.

'If you're reading this then that means you are my chosen successor otherwise this book wouldn't have opened anyways if my guess is right then you saw that the pages are blank but they are not because each page or pages requires a certain key from answering riddles to the dragons you meet to being close to a certain location a page or pages will be filled with what you need to know.

As you can guess by now this book contains a lot of things first being every single dragon in this world, their strengths, and weaknesses, how to increase their firepower and how to take it away temporarily plus some combos you could use once you gain their powers. These sections will open the more dragons you meet.

The second is maps, these are locations that I have visited and left some important things that'll be helpful to you and your mate. These sections will require you to answer riddles verbally and you have to be holding the book when answering. And last but not least, three, is potential allies or enemies nearby and what you need to know about them.

I know you have questions about why I chose to give away my powers and they'll be answered but for now, enjoy your powers and don't worry about this book ending up in the wrong hands because anyone other than you or those you temporarily permit to read it will only see blank pages and in the off chance it's stolen you will know exactly where it is, plus there are some notes on the effect that bonding with certain dragons and animals will have on them.

Ps, This book is not filled out so I'll leave it for you to fill it for me.'

After Hela finished reading the note she flipped to the next page which was information on night furies. She reads through them learning interesting things about them one of them being their use of lightning and that they have a subspecies which was not mentioned the name of, plus night furies and Skrills have a common ancestor.

"I'll have to try some of these with Troels sometime," she tells herself before reading the effects of her bonding with one, "permanent increase in speed, strength, defence and firepower plus a gradual increase in size up to the size of a titan wing monstrous nightmare, wow although now that I think about it Troels did increase in size not by much but still,"

Before she can continue Astrid enters her room, "There you are, did you know that Hookfang went on a rampage in the village,"

Hela frowns confused, "Why?"

"You know the thing that's been bothering him the last few days, well it turns out it was a tooth which Gobber took out a few minutes ago, "

"Huh? I guess I was too distracted to hear all that," Hela says.

"With what?" Astrid asks as she sits next to her. She sees the book in Hela's hand, "is that the book?"

"Yeah, it is,"

"Well now I know why you were distracted, what does it say?"

Hela gives her the book to read. "See for yourself,"

Astrid does just that, "chicken increases Nadder's speed, good to know" she flips through the pages until she reaches a blank one but before she can close it words start to appear, "Huh?"

"What is it?"

"it's – a riddle?"

"what does it say,"

'You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I'm quick when I'm thin and slow when I'm fat. The wind is my enemy.'

(AN: Question, should Hela bond with Fenrir?

Yes

Or

No

And please give me dragon power combos Hela should use in combat in the future.)