Astrid's Point of View
Something Inside Me Died When He Sang — And I Don't Miss It.
I was sitting by the gates of the arena when he began.
Hiccup.
Hiccup Haddock.
The boy this village told me to hate. The boy I'd always wanted. The boy they ruined for me.
And then he opened his mouth—
And everything changed.
"They send me away to find them a fortune
A chest filled with diamonds and gold..."
I went still.
Not quiet—still.
My breath stopped.
His voice... it didn't belong to this world.
It was hollow, aching, terrible, cold.
Like something had crawled out of the grave just to remind us all how to bleed.
"The house was awake
With shadows and monsters
The hallways, they echoed and groaned..."
I'd heard him shout in the past.
I'd heard him grunt in pain, whisper to himself, even laugh once.
But I had never heard him sing.
And now that I had?
I didn't know how I ever lived without it.
"I sat alone, in bed 'til the morning
And crying, 'They're coming for me'..."
Tears stung the corners of my eyes. I crushed them with my knuckles.
He said it so softly.
So broken.
Like he wasn't just singing it—he was reliving it.
And that made me want to kill something.
No. Not something.
Someone.
A lot of someones.
"And I tried to hold these secrets inside me
My mind's like a deadly disease..."
I clutched my arm. Dug my fingers into the skin.
He didn't deserve this.
He never deserved any of it.
They lied to me. My father. My mother. The elders. The teachers.
They poisoned me against him.
And I let them.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
Yes.
He is.
He's more than human. I don't know what exactly he is now—but I don't need to know.
I only know that I want him.
And not just want—
I need him.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
My lips twitched into a smile.
That line—gods.
He wasn't just singing it to the crowd.
He was warning them.
He was telling them that the monster they tried to bury didn't die.
He evolved.
He became something they can't control.
And I adored him for it.
"I paced around for hours on empty
I jumped at the slightest of sounds"
I remembered that.
The fear.
The loneliness.
It's how I grew up too.
They trained me to be strong. Silent. Sharp.
They never let me breathe. Never let me speak freely.
They turned me into a weapon—and made me point it at him.
But I always hesitated.
Always.
Because deep down—I never wanted to hurt him.
I wanted to have him.
"And I couldn't stand the person inside me
I turned all the mirrors around..."
I exhaled through gritted teeth.
I hated myself too.
For believing them.
For abandoning him.
For not doing something sooner.
But that ends today.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
He kept applying that salve like he wasn't tearing my soul open.
The Nadder didn't move. She laid there like she was beneath something divine.
And maybe she was.
Maybe we all were.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
My fingers tightened into fists.
I'm not scared.
Not of him.
I'm scared of myself.
Because this feeling in my chest? It's not just love anymore.
It's obsession.
I've tried to hide it, bury it, deny it—but it's always been there.
It's not gentle.
It's not pure.
It's hungry.
And I don't care.
"I'm well acquainted
With villains that live in my bed
They beg me to write them
So they'll never die when I'm dead"
Whoever those villains are—I want to join them.
Let me be one of them.
Let me be by his side, even if it means becoming something twisted.
Let me sleep in the dark with him.
Let me kill for him.
Let me burn everything else.
"And I've grown familiar
With villains that live in my head
They beg me to write them
So I'll never die when I'm dead"
My humanity?
He can have it.
If that's the price—I'll give it up.
I'll give up everything if it means I get to be close to him.
Even if it means sharing him with someone else.
I'll endure it.
I'll accept it.
As long as I can touch him.
As long as I can belong to him.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
The chains rattled. The air pulsed.
He didn't look up once.
He didn't need to.
He already owned us.
And they didn't even know it.
But I did.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
He finished.
The sound fell into silence like a sword into flesh.
And something inside me died.
My fear.
My guilt.
My hesitation.
All of it burned away in the sound of his voice.
And now... what's left is something new.
Something sharp.
Something his.
They will not stop me.
If my father speaks again—I will kill him.
If my mother tries to plead—I will end her too.
And if Berk thinks it can take him from me?
I'll burn this island to ash.
I am not a daughter anymore.
I am not a Viking.
I am his.
Whether he knows it yet or not.
(Elders' Perspective)
"When the Past Screams, the Old Must Listen"
The air was too still.
Elder Yrsa frowned from her seat near the edge of the council platform overlooking the dome.
Wind always flowed along this perch. Always. Yet now—nothing.
Just the cold weight of silence.
Then—
"They send me away to find them a fortune
A chest filled with diamonds and gold..."
She straightened slowly.
That voice.
It wasn't the voice of a child. It wasn't even the voice of a man.
It was a dirge.
A mourning wail from the grave, wrapped in melody.
Gobber's metal hand clenched the edge of the railing beside her. "That's... that's the boy?" he whispered, as if speaking too loud might draw the thing's gaze.
Elder Halvar's expression had gone pale. His lips were parted, eyes locked on the slender figure inside the arena.
"He's not a boy anymore," Halvar said hoarsely.
"The house was awake
With shadows and monsters
The hallways, they echoed and groaned..."
Even Gothi—silent, immovable, timeless—had lowered her staff. Her hand shook.
Yrsa saw the way her eyes shimmered.
This wasn't fear.
This was awe.
The kind reserved for gods. Or monsters. Or both.
"I sat alone, in bed 'til the morning
And crying, 'They're coming for me'..."
A boy had once cried in the dark. Alone. Abandoned.
And they had let it happen.
Yrsa's breath hitched.
She remembered brushing off the complaints. Remembered the bruises. The punishments. The loneliness.
They hadn't just ignored him.
They'd chosen not to see.
And now?
Now he made them listen.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
Gobber whispered, "What is he?"
Yrsa couldn't answer.
Gothi raised her hand and slowly, solemnly, drew a rune on the stone beneath her feet.
Not of protection.
Of penance.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
He wasn't just singing.
He was condemning.
He was standing before them as judge and executioner—robed in nothing but sound, and yet cloaked in terror.
"Do you feel it?" Halvar murmured. "That weight?"
Yrsa nodded.
It wasn't pressure. It wasn't magic.
It was the presence of something that remembered every wound, every slight, every betrayal—
And still stood taller.
"I paced around for hours on empty
I jumped at the slightest of sounds..."
The other elders behind them didn't speak.
Some lowered their heads. Others looked away, unable to meet the truth in the song.
But there was no hiding.
Not from this voice.
"I turned all the mirrors around..."
Gothi wept.
Yrsa had never seen it before. Not once in all her years.
But the tears were there, streaking down weathered cheeks in silence.
Because Gothi understood.
She had always known something was inside that boy.
And they ignored her warnings.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
The final line echoed like a sword drawn across stone.
And as the last note died, Yrsa finally found her voice.
She turned to the others, to Gobber, Gothi, Halvar, the elders.
Her words came like dust.
"We created something we can't contain."
Gobber said nothing.
Gothi only nodded once.
Halvar stared ahead, his voice brittle.
"If we ever try to cage him again... we won't survive it."
Freya's Point of View
Let It Burn. Let Them All Drown.
I stopped playing the moment he started singing.
The Zippleback whimpered beside me—two heads dropping low, tail curling tight.
And I just stood there.
Still.
Listening.
Shaking.
Not from fear.
From fury.
"They send me away to find them a fortune
A chest filled with diamonds and gold..."
Papa's voice wasn't soft.
It wasn't pretty.
It was honest.
Like broken glass. Like the howl of a dragon dying alone.
Like what I'd always heard inside my head, but never spoken aloud.
"The house was awake
With shadows and monsters
The hallways, they echoed and groaned..."
I clenched my fists so tightly my nails pierced skin.
Blood trickled down.
I didn't care.
He was singing my thoughts. My life.
But worse—he had lived it before me. And no one had helped him.
They just let it happen.
Just like they did to me.
"I sat alone, in bed 'til the morning
And crying, 'They're coming for me'..."
My breath hitched.
I'd said those words too.
In a closet. Under a stair. In the forge, hiding under the bench so the other kids wouldn't find me.
But Papa—
He had no one.
He had to survive it alone.
"And I tried to hold these secrets inside me
My mind's like a deadly disease..."
I couldn't hold it.
The rage cracked.
It boiled. Bubbled up through my spine, through my chest, behind my eyes.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to rip open the sky and let it rain fire.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
Yes.
Yes you are, Papa.
And so am I.
We're not meant to be caged. Not built for silence. Not raised to kneel.
We are dragons.
We are death.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
I snarled.
Not out loud.
But in my soul.
They should be scared of him.
They should be terrified of me.
Because when I'm strong enough—
When Papa lets me loose—
I'll make them drown in their own blood.
Every elder.
Every parent.
Every child who laughed when I cried.
All of them.
"I paced around for hours on empty
I jumped at the slightest of sounds"
I knew this.
Every second of this.
And I hate that he knew it too. I hate that he lived it. I hate that they broke him and he built himself back without anyone there to help.
He should've had someone.
He should've had me.
But he didn't.
Because they made sure he was alone.
"And I couldn't stand the person inside me
I turned all the mirrors around..."
They tried to make me hate myself too.
Tried to make me small. Quiet. Obedient.
They called me a freak. A monster. A mistake.
But Papa?
He never looked at me like that.
He saw me.
And they will pay for hurting him.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
My breath came fast and sharp.
The Zippleback nudged me, trying to soothe me.
I didn't move.
I didn't speak.
I just stared at Papa.
And hated this village more than I've hated anything in my entire life.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
He finished healing the Nadder.
She stayed curled around him.
Safe.
Because she understood who he is.
So do I.
He's not weak.
He's not broken.
He's the storm.
"I'm well acquainted
With villains that live in my bed
They beg me to write them
So they'll never die when I'm dead"
I'll be one of those villains too, Papa.
I'll stand beside you.
I'll help you tear this world down.
And I'll smile while we do it.
"And I've grown familiar
With villains that live in my head
They beg me to write them
So I'll never die when I'm dead"
The kids that bullied me?
The parents that sneered?
The elders that pretended not to see?
They'll all learn.
We don't forget.
And we don't forgive.
"I'm bigger than my body
I'm colder than this home
I'm meaner than my demons
I'm bigger than these bones"
My nails were black now. My eyes glowing. Lightning swirled inside my ribs.
I couldn't stop shaking.
I didn't want to.
I wanted them to see me.
I wanted them to burn.
"And all the kids cried out
'Please, stop, you're scaring me'
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?"
The final note crashed down like thunder.
The dome trembled.
Silence fell.
And I—
I looked at Papa, and I made a promise in my heart:
I'll never let him be alone again.
I'll never let them hurt him again.
And when the time comes, I'll carve their names into the stone with their own bones.
Let Berk drown in blood.
Because they earned it.
And I'll be the one to finish what he started.