#and they had to sorta paint over eret

[boygirlctommy]

the last stand of the fifth battalion

check out my commissions :D

[avannak]

Hey I've got an idea for sorta medieval au fanfic .So basically Hiccup is accused of witch craft, due to the fact that he can train dragons. He is sentenced to be burnt at the stake. He manages to escape, but is left horribly disfigured ( he one dead eye, burn scars, patches of baldness ). And witch hunters Eret and Astrid are sent out to find him. So what do you think ?

You know what, that’s SUPER COOL. I would kinda love design medieval witchhunting outfits and such! And Hiccup with a metal, self-made helmet, perhaps with only one-eyehole (memorable) to hide his scarring…

Oh wow, so we have Hiccup, on Berk, whom Astrid knows from her childhood growing up on Berk as well. Berk, like many other civilized islands in the B.A. has a small host of problems ranging from witches to dragons to trolls, and all inhabitants have a basic repertoire of self and group protection. It’s simply their way of life. Many learn enough to live fully and be useful to society, others go on into specialized fields. 

Astrid had always showed talent at dragon-slaying, but that was almost sedentary for her, having a steady supply of dragons coming to Berk at least bi-monthly, whereas witch hunting involved more travel. Berk, of course, hadn’t had a witch in at least three decades, as it was oft proud to say. Encouraged by her uncle, who had been in the party to bring down the famed Witch Excellinor, Astrid, ever the ambitious child, started a double study in earnest. One out of necessity and loyalty to Berk, another out of personal interest and on the back of obscure family glory.

Astrid, by age 12, starts her apprenticeship in the witch-hunting guild, and goes abroad. She trusted Berk would keep itself afloat without her (and that, by some divine justice, Snotlout would be groomed for ruler over Hiccup the Useless). Also… it was such a great learning opportunity. By the time she’s fifteen she’s a fully qualified and proficient witch hunter. She spends the next year travelling new lands under contracts, knowing she would ultimately return to Berk but wanting a few numbers under her belt and a bit of a reputation behind her before heading home. However, before she can make that decision, and just shy of her sixteenth birthday, she receives a missive from Berk asking her back. Not as its citizen, but as a hunter. She’s both intrigued and excited.

She returns home to hear the gruesome details of the disgraced heir. How, nearly a year earlier, Hiccup had been discovered bewtiching dragons. How he had been burned at the stake, only to use his ghastly powers to escape, and on dragonback, no less. Berk would have been happy to say “good riddance” anyhow, hoping he’d die from his wounds, but rumors started floating back in many months after the incident: A great explosion in the sea. Sighting of a man on dragonback. A faceless mask with one eye…

They didn’t need fingers pointing back to Berk. The land of Outcast had never been the same after producing Excellinor; Berk’s reputation was on the line.

Affronted, enraged, and happy for a chance to show off her skill and growth, Astrid accepts the contract with little hesitation. Hiccup had always disappointed her: at first drawing her pity and exasperation, then later annoying her with his staring when he should have been doing something for the land his father put so much into protecting. She expected, at best, he would end up tucked away in the smithy, or married off to a distant land, but this was unlike anything she’d heard of before, or anything she could have expected from him.

Astrid remembers Hiccup as awkward, smart-mouthed, and a general disaster. She doubts she’d have little problem taking him down… but this talk of bewitching dragons concerned her. And excited her. It was exactly the sort of challenge she needed next.

Her closest friend from the guild, and occasional flirt, Eret, an exceptional hunter from the northwest and one who’s always aiming for the biggest game and the biggest pay, accompanies her along with his two underlings (squires?) No-Name and Teeny. Neither are great at hunting, but both bring their own charm and skill to the party.

And, to Astrid’s deep annoyance and Eret’s amusement, Fishlegs Ingerman manages to weasel his way into the the group as a training scribe with the mission to document the “Hunt for Berk’s Shame”. 

Together, the five set off, starting with the latest rumors and following a charred trail of clues and an assortment of odd characters, each one painting a bigger and bigger picture that has Astrid wondering if Shame is the correct term for Fishlegs’ documentary… or Anti-hero.

(Though if this is medieval, would Stoick be a Lord of the land? Hiccup his heir? Astrid the daughter of a knight, with a bit more of a formal education under her belt, leaps at the opportunity to be a great witchhunter/dragonslayer because its better than the alternative? Is this a lore-tarnished medieval world where, if you can prove yourself useful against human-hunting enemies, your gender may have less shackles?)