Fic Rec: Catch the Wind (How to Train Your Dragon)
Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon
Author: egelantier
Rating: G
Length: 2460 words
Do you need to know the fandom to appreciate this: Yes- this is fairly immediately post-canon
Link http://archiveofourown.org/works/580126
How to Train your Dragon is one of a rare breed: family movies that both kids and adults can find equally engaging. My kids loved it because it had dragons and silly Scottish vikings and beautiful animation. I loved it because it was about the way that families hurt each other, even when they don't mean to. And the way that young people have to choose their own way sometimes, even when it's not what's going to make their families happy. And the way that kindness can be stronger than a sword, when it needs to be.
This story picks up fairly directly after the end of the movie, with Hiccup still recovering from his wounds. It's a little meandering, but it's a nice piece of closure about certain things that the movie left not-quite-resolved: Hiccup talking to his father, Hiccup and Astrid, their futures in their village. The author manages to convey a lot of emotion without making the characters OOC. We see a lot of what Hiccup learned, and what all this meant to him. And at the end, even Toothless gets to have his say. If you watched the movie, and thought I want more, this is a very satisfying answer to that.
Excerpt:
Astrid's cleaning her axe, sitting cross-legged at the head of his bed. She looks at him and smiles, gently. Softness looks weird and somehow wrong on her face.
"You're at home, the big dragon is dead, everybody else is alive. You still have a fever.”
"What?" Hiccup croaks. Astrid sets her axe aside and puts a mug of something against his lips. It’s water, and it’s the only thing that makes sense, now, so he sucks it down greedily, afraid it will vanish.
Author: egelantier
Rating: G
Length: 2460 words
Do you need to know the fandom to appreciate this: Yes- this is fairly immediately post-canon
Link http://archiveofourown.org/works/580126
How to Train your Dragon is one of a rare breed: family movies that both kids and adults can find equally engaging. My kids loved it because it had dragons and silly Scottish vikings and beautiful animation. I loved it because it was about the way that families hurt each other, even when they don't mean to. And the way that young people have to choose their own way sometimes, even when it's not what's going to make their families happy. And the way that kindness can be stronger than a sword, when it needs to be.
This story picks up fairly directly after the end of the movie, with Hiccup still recovering from his wounds. It's a little meandering, but it's a nice piece of closure about certain things that the movie left not-quite-resolved: Hiccup talking to his father, Hiccup and Astrid, their futures in their village. The author manages to convey a lot of emotion without making the characters OOC. We see a lot of what Hiccup learned, and what all this meant to him. And at the end, even Toothless gets to have his say. If you watched the movie, and thought I want more, this is a very satisfying answer to that.
Excerpt:
Astrid's cleaning her axe, sitting cross-legged at the head of his bed. She looks at him and smiles, gently. Softness looks weird and somehow wrong on her face.
"You're at home, the big dragon is dead, everybody else is alive. You still have a fever.”
"What?" Hiccup croaks. Astrid sets her axe aside and puts a mug of something against his lips. It’s water, and it’s the only thing that makes sense, now, so he sucks it down greedily, afraid it will vanish.