Hiccup squinted in the bright glare of the morning sun. He raised a pale hand to his face as a shield from the offensive brightness that juxtaposed his mood so completely that he felt as if the world was already against him. With a groan he placed another foot in front of the other. Back to work. Again. Always the same routine. Nothing new; wake up, go to work, watch Astrid for too long, more work, tinker or explore for a while, work some more, dragon raid, mess up, get in trouble, extra work, sleep, and repeat.

He did not understand how the other vikings could stand the constant drag of the same thing day in day out. Most days he could not stand the lack of change. Today was one of those days.

Hiccup dragged his feet a little as he headed towards the blacksmith hut where Gobber was already hard at work. The boy couldn't help but roll his eyes at his teacher and only friend in the village. The routine never bothered Gobber, in fact it seemed to please him. Hiccup needed- craved -something new. Something to break the pattern.

"Good morning," Gobber called out to Hiccup over the loud clang of his hammer against a bent sword as he attempted to straighten it.

"Yep. Morning, Gobber," The older man glanced up at the boy he considered a son, for a moment, ceasing his hammering. It was unusual for Hiccup to be so curt. His blue eyes could not capture the younger boy's green ones and his expression turned grim. With a frown he returned to his work. If Hiccup wanted to talk about it he would. He always did.

Purposefully avoiding his mentor's hurt and curious gaze Hiccup quickly set up his work bench and began working. His thoughts wandered and he completed tasks from memory, barely spending a second to check that he was doing everything right.

The outside world dragged his attention away from both his thoughts and his jobs on more than several occasions. He knew that Gobber had noticed every time and he blushed slightly from shame that he couldn't focus. Eventually, Gobber sighed and told Hiccup what he had been wanting to hear since he had woken up.

"Hiccup, just take the rest of the afternoon off. Go prance in the woods or whatever you need to do so that you can actually focus tomorrow. Because you will have double the work.."

Hiccup didn't hear him as he was already out the door and sprinting for the woods. Finally, freedom!

Hey guys, gals and non-binary pals! I will probably keep chapters short so that way I [hope] that I will be more motivated to write and post more often. And so that I don't feel pressured to write consistently 1000+ words chapters. I hope you enjoy this tid bit. The next chapter will be published tomorrow. Most chapters will likely be between 300-700 words depending on motivation, inspiration and time for each day. I want to post every day- every third day at worst. Anyways, I have to head to bed otherwise I will be too tired for my assessment tomorrow. See you all next time :)

P.S I do not have a beta reader, so if anyone is willing to just point out any mistakes or awkward sentences in the comments, that would be awesome. Thank you