literature

HTTYD Modern AU: Capable

Deviation Actions

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Flashburn Dragon Training Academy, standing for two hundred years despite dragon fire, thunderstorms, and the stock market crash. It had once been a simple stone ring with enough axes to chop down; now the Academy was several buildings, complete with a renovated stadium and fencing ring.

Hiccup took a deep breath and stepped onto his alma mater's stage. He remembered reciting poetry here, as part of a school project. That day his palms had sweated and he had worn a yellow sweater. He was ten years older now, and ten years wiser. He wore a simple brown jacket and the Purple Liver for Bravery.

The auditorium seemed smaller and darker; all the children seemed like little dolls. Hiccup shook hands with the school's director, a grey haired woman with opal earrings. She was new, unfamiliar, like a leather slip; he wondered where Dr. Gobber was as he turned to face the audience.

"Good morning!" Hiccup said to the crowd, receiving several mumbles. "I said good morning!"

"Good morning!" The kids responded. Some studied the badges on his blue uniform with fascination, especially after hearing that he had discovered the only living Night Fury dragon in existence. The grey haired lady had called Hiccup a great hero for stopping a battle between dragons and humans.

"There were dragons when I was a boy," he told them, "and there still are. You'll be riding them by the end of this year, I hope. They are harder to find now, though, and more wary of humans. My dragon, Toothless, cannot be confiscated for research because he belongs to me, but more and more often a dragon is separated from his rider, to study them. That's what would have happened to Toothless and me, if I hadn't fought and lost this."

He bent over and unrolled his pants leg. Several kids gasped as they saw the prosthetic. The grey haired woman gave a distressed look. She was worried about what the parents would say, obviously.
 
"I lost my leg fighting a dragon that would have destroyed my hometown," Hiccup told the crowd, bending to show off his prosthetic. "And I don't regret it. Toothless is also missing a limb, from when I first shot him down for research, and he had saved most of me."

He told them the tale of shooting down the mythological Night Fury, realizing that he couldn't turn in or even maim the great beast further. That got their attention, as he compressed weeks of training and hiding as a teenager, and reenacted the great battle with a huge, parasitic dragon the size of a mountain.

"I'm not here to tell you how to train a dragon," he said. "That's for the biology classes you'll be having later. Now, when you look at me, do you think I'm crippled?"

Many kids shook their heads. Hiccup smiled at them.

"Good. Because I have a handicap, but I'm not helpless. The only thing I really can't do is tie my left shoe."

That earned a few laughs.

"I am handicapped, but I don't have a handicapped permit," Hiccup told them. "I did, a few years back. You see the spots for disabled people all the time, and I used them, when I first got my peg leg. It hurt to walk, and I had to use a cane."

He gave a staggering impression, complete with several pretend falls. That earned more laughs, allowing him to dive into the tale . . .



He hadn't taken Toothless with him. For one, people in urban areas were more likely to pull out a rifle and go "bang-bang." For another, he was sixteen and had just gotten his license, and the car that allowed him to drive with one foot. He had saved up his money for that car, and he was going to prove that he was recovering from his amputation splendidly. Forget what Dad said about him not being ready for the outside world yet.

That day, he had driven to the grocery store to get some yak milk and eggs; they were out of it at home. Hiccup had found an open Handicapped spot near the front because his stump was acting up and he knew he wouldn't manage a long walk. Dad wasn't to know, of course, but Dad wasn't here.

"Hey, you!"

Hiccup turned, leaning on his cane. His joints creaked. There was an old man in a Porsche, a guy with a braided beard, stained brown teeth and a permanent scowl.

"What are you doing in that spot?" The man called. "You're not handicapped."

Hiccup sighed; his peg leg wasn't visible under the long pants he had decided to wear that day. He didn't have time to argue with an old man, not with his stump seizing up in pain.

"I'm talking to you!" The man rushed up, with amazing speed for someone with a potbelly and obvious arthritis. "Show me your handicap, punk!"

Hiccup recoiled, and he cried out in pain as the man snatched his cane. Fortunately the wall was nearby, so he was able to lean on it, and pull up his pant leg.

"I have a peg leg, you moron!" he shouted, wanting to brandish the prosthetic. "I lost it fighting a dragon! I think I deserve a decent parking space!"

The old man paused, seeing the silicon leg without a shoe. His mouth opened, to say something. At the same time the glass doors slid open, and several store employees rushed out, getting between Hiccup and the old man. A pimply boy grabbed the cane, and handed it to Hiccup.

"We got it all on tape," he said. "That dude is going down."




"This guy didn't realize I was missing a leg," Hiccup told his shocked audience. "He didn't realize I had lost it saving dozens of lives. All he saw was a freeloader, someone who shouldn't be walking around like a normal person. And he probably thought only people in wheelchairs are 'handicapped'."

The laughter had died when Hiccup had reenacted the sensation of being pinned to the wall, writhing in pain and embarrassment from needing a cane to walk.

"As I said, I am handicapped but not helpless. I can still drive, fly Toothless as long as I have permission, deliver newspapers if I have to, and fight off rogue dragons. Making a judgment of what I can and can't do is called 'ableism,' and I'm not the only one who faces it. So do hundreds of people with disabilities, some obvious and some hidden. I have a handicap because I did a heroic thing, but I don't let it define me. Neither should you.

"The next time you see someone with that blue card, don't make judgments on if they lied to get a better parking space, or if they should be walking around with a cane. You might get your butt kicked and worse, you may hurt someone else's feelings."
 
He wrapped up with questions; the kids wanted to ask how he flew with a prosthetic, what Toothless was like. No one asked what had happened to the old guy in the Porsche, but perhaps that was for the best. Hiccup's father had been livid and filed a lawsuit, but Hiccup had begged for him not to bankrupt the old man. He had surely learned his lesson after such an ordeal.

Afterwards, he got off the stage to applause, and saw a familiar face lurking in the shadows. He ran as fast as he could to hug his old mentor, in the auditorium entrance.

"Hey, lad!" Dr. Gobber said, lifting him into the air. "For someone with a 'handicap' you run pretty fast."

Hiccup grinned; Dr. Gobber had lost an arm and leg to a Monstrous Nightmare two decades ago but had been the fastest Dragon Training Coach that Hiccup had ever known. Also the toughest; Hiccup had battled to get an A in the class.

"I had a good teacher," he responded as Dr. Gobber put him down. "But how would you have handled a guy like that?"

"I would've showed him little Bertha." Dr. Gobber indicated a small prosthetic hook hanging off his belt. "But the bigger question is, how would he have handled that mysterious dragon of yours?"

"Dragons are very protective," Hiccup said. "Toothless has a nasty habit of setting threats to me on fire. It was a good thing I didn't bring him with me that day."

"No; sometimes you have to show other people whose boss, especially when they have fancy equipment." Dr. Gobber clapped him on the shoulder. "We have a lot to catch up on, Mr. Peg Leg. How about I sit in on those biology classes?"

"Maybe you could ride Toothless."

"Fat chance, Hiccup; I'm never riding a beast like that."

They argued all the way out the auditorium; the grey-haired lady was frowning at them. Hiccup ignored her, basking in his mentor's glee. No one would dare challenge Dr. Gobber for having a blue permit, not with an appendage like little Bertha, but they would challenge twigs like Hiccup. Someone had to fight for them.

Hiccup wanted to be that champion. He had trained dragons; surely in time he could train people as well.

One-shot that I wrote in between quizzes last week, tackling a topic that few HTTYD modern AUs address: ableism, or the prejudices surrounding what "handicapped" people can and can't do.

Hiccup in a modern world, with a dragon and without a peg leg would face some prejudices. That's a fact because our modern world is rife with prejudice. A big thank you to :iconoreramar:, :iconkelnius: and :iconrocky-road123: for beta-reading this, and next update will be a request about HTTYD2.
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