A How to Train Your Dragon cross with Tamora Pierce's "Circle of Magic" series, with elements of her Immortals series. No pairing as of yet.

Hiccup looked at the quaint cottage held apart from the bustle of the Winding Circle with some trepidation. He had tried, he had really, really tried to stay in the boy's dormitories but he hadn't expected them to be so hostile towards him because the only language he understood was Tradertalk.

He knew that Traders weren't looked very favorably by most, which he never really understood, but he never expected it to be to this extent outside of the northern archipelago.

Walking up to the door, he cautiously knocked.

A woman's voice answered. He walked in, having at least learned a few words of "common" as it was called here. He had been lucky to have a Trader willing to translate him for the past few weeks...for a few coins of course.

He could speak a few phrase in the language now, but it was still slowly going.

The woman had a warm smile, and after some missteps realized the issue.

She pointed at herself.

"Lark," she said.

Hiccup knew what she telling him her name, so he responded in kind.

"Hiccup," he said, pointing at himself. He pulled out a scroll and handed it to her, mostly to get a few headaches out of the way. It was something Dedicate Moonstream had given him.

She took it and read the missive. Her eyebrows went up slightly, before she looked at him. A sympathetic expression filled her face.

Lark spoke to him in Tradertalk, explaining what was expected of him as she led him to one of the rooms. Hiccup had been given an overview by another Dedicate who had spent time among a caravan for a few years.

Discipline was a place for the...misfits...given to the Winding Circle. Those who had magic, but didn't fit among their peers. The dedicates couldn't send a prospective mage out into the world without at least the bare minimum of training, but at the same time they couldn't allow a potential disruptive element in their midst.

Or in Hiccup's case, for those who had trouble fitting in because of outside issues. Case in point, his inability to speak Common fluently, leading to misunderstandings.

With the prejudice against Traders, it was safer for all involved for Hiccup to be removed from the boy's dorm and left in Lark and Rosethorn's care. At least until he learned how to speak the local language anyway.

Hiccup was just glad for a roof over his head, and a safe place to sleep. Training would be slow without translators, but at least he had picked up a few things on the way here. Enough to make do anyway.

Rosethorn cast a glance at him briefly, but he was respectful of her space and didn't make too much of a mess, so she left him be. Besides, Hiccup was mostly earning his way by apprenticing under a local blacksmith by the name of Frostpine, since he did know a thing or two around the forge.

Frostpine had taken one look at him, and had set him up with work Hiccup easily recognized and left the boy to do his own thing with minimal supervision from his current apprentice Kirel.

For the most part, Hiccup was left to his own devices. Sure, learning to do chores was a bit strange but he accepted it. To be fair, he had done most of the housework since his...father...was too busy with more important things.

The first thing he learned was that what was acceptable by viking standards was very much not the case by those in the Winding Circle. It sometimes made him smile at the thought of how Gobber would have reacted to the fact that the mages of the Winding Circle (especially Lark and Rosethorn) were as fastidious as cats and took baths every day.

The man who had been like an uncle to him hated baths to the point it was a massive fight to get him to get him into a wash tub once every three months.

Six months in, Lark and Rosethorn got two new children in the cottage. A boy named Briar Moss, and a girl by the name of Daja Kisubo.

Hiccup perked up when he saw Daja, especially her staff. Then he registered the fact she was decked in primarily red and winced. He knew that meant she was in mourning, and couple that with the staff lacking any sort of engravings, he knew she was a trangshi, or an outcast by Traderfolk.

Rather than bring up potential bad memories, as it was likely that her loss was still recent, Hiccup went to Lark.

"What happened to her family?" asked Hiccup.

"Lost by a nasty storm," replied Lark.

Hiccup noticed a certain box among Daja's limited belongings, and recognized it for as a suraku. Couple that with her family being lost at sea, and Hiccup deduced Daja came from one of the blue trader families.

He went back to his room and dug through his mage gear. Frostpine had helped him make it from scrap material, and had it spelled to resist damn near anything. It had been a fun project.

He found what he was looking for, and went to find Daja. She was sullenly eating some food.

"What?" she demanded in common.

Hiccup simply put down what he had in his hands. It was a small ship, one that was a favorite among the blue Traders for fast trade. The rigging was made of blue thread and had little bells attached to it.

She stared at it for several seconds.

"So your family doesn't linger among the waves and sails to where the others are waiting," he said.

Daja turned to look at him, and odd expression in her eyes.

"You do realize that I'm..."

"The one who taught me Trader custom and the language was a trangshi," said Hiccup simply. "I might not be a Tsaw'ha, but I see no issue showing respect to Trader Koma and Bookkeeper Oti."

Daja looked at him for several long seconds, before holding out her hand.

"Daja."

"Hiccup," he replied. "It'll be nice to have someone help me with my Common. Lark is often too busy for it, and it's hard having to need someone to translate everything."

Daja raised an eyebrow at that.

"I'm from the far northern archipelago," said Hiccup by way of explanation. A look of recognition and sympathy filled Daja's face.

No wonder he had such issue speaking common...from what her cousins told her of that land, they spoke another language entirely!

At least he had someone his age to talk to now.

Later that night...

Briar was a bit disgruntled, but at least Hiccup was nothing like the boys in the dorm. Having to share a room because they were the only boys in the cottage was annoying.

Rather than look askance at him because of his tattoos, Hiccup helped to set a small boundary between them. Briar noticed that the older boy had his bed on the floor, rather than on the frame.

"Why is it like that?" asked Briar in clumsy Tradertalk.

Hiccup brightened, before he replied "I'm not used to soft mattresses like this. The one I had back in my homeland was mostly a pelt across a hard frame. This was the best compromise we could come up with."

Briar could relate, as he'd never had a soft bed to sleep on before either. The closest he could compare it to was the soft moss bed that was in the cell he had been thrown into.

He looked at his bed speculatively.

"Think they'd mind if I did the same?" he asked.

Hiccup simply helped him disassemble the frame and showed him where it would be stored. When they left Discipline it could be easily put back together for the next one to use it.

It was the best sleep Briar had in months.

Tris had an exasperated expression on her face watching Hiccup attempt to sweep.

"No, no, no...do it like this!"

Hiccup had a look of befuddlement on his face. Daja paused what she was doing.

Tris had a confused expression of her own when Daja translated for Hiccup's benefit.

"Does he not speak Common?" she demanded.

"Not very well," he replied, in a very thick accent. He spoke again in Tradertalk, which had Daja nodding in sympathy.

"He's from the far northern archipelago," said Daja. "They speak another language there. It took Traders a full century before they could properly do business with them."

"That still doesn't explain why he can't speak Common," Sandry pointed out.

Hiccup had a deadpan expression on his face. Sandry, Tris and Briar all stared when he started speaking in a harsh, rough language none of them understood. Daja was a little better, as she recognized a word in five.

"What the blazes was that?" demanded Rosethorn.

Hiccup looked her dead in the eye and said something that Daja cheerfully translated.

"It's the language of the vikings," said Daja translated absently. "Why did you think I stuck to Tradertalk?"

Tris stared at him incredulous.

"We are teaching you Common," she said flatly. Anything to avoid any more of that.

"Have been trying. Getting better," replied Hiccup in accented Common. He made a face. "Better than those home."

Seeing the confused look on their faces, Hiccup sighed.

"I learn language. Other village not bother," said Hiccup tiredly.

"You mean the other villagers wouldn't bother learning a new language?" she askes slowly. Hiccup nodded.

"Most don't even bother to learn how to read," he admitted.

"That...is ridiculous," said Rosethorn. And she was sick of having to rely on Lark to translate her words to the teen.

He wasn't a bad child, far from it...but his inability to communicate made things harder than it needed to be.

Once the chores were done, Tris approached Hiccup, with Daja there to translate.

"You teach read?" he asked cautiously.

"I will teach you to read Common," agreed Tris, enunciating her words slowly, so Hiccup could remember them.

Hiccup considered something. He looked to Briar and asked him something, which had the boy perking up slightly.

"Teach him too?" he asked.

"If he's interested," agreed Tris.

Hiccup looked relieved, as it was hard to understand Frostpine's handwriting, and Kirel didn't speak Trader. Things had gotten far easier at the forge since Daja arrived, since she was able to translate for both parties. It meant he got to do more interesting projects instead of what was basically busy work.

Hiccup was heading back to the cottage when he heard the shouting. He didn't really understand half of what they were yelling about, but he recognized Briar as the one in the lead carrying an odd tree.

He didn't think twice, as he had come to view the four other children as little siblings of sort. Sure, they had only known each other barely a month at this point, but they were still living together.

He put himself between Briar and the adults chasing them and made it very clear who's side he was on. Briar gave him a look of thanks and managed to make it to the cottage safely. Hiccup, however, fell flat on his face from the shackles of magic around him.

He hissed in annoyance, but he was used to far worse. He heard Rosethorn speak to the leader, and after a moment he was released.

"That...was very foolish," said Rosethorn. However she didn't look angry at him. She even helped him up.

"Protect," said Hiccup simply in common. "Family."

Rosethorn gave him an unreadable look.

Briar, once his errands were done so that his new tree had a proper place to sit, looked at him.

"Why did you help me?" he asked.

"It's the job of the eldest to protect the family," said Hiccup simply.

Briar went still.

"Family?" said Briar in surprise. Hiccup gently ruffled his hair, and frowned at the slight flinch.

He pointed to himself.

"Big brother," said Hiccup, before pointing at a shocked Briar. "Little brother."

Briar had an odd expression on his face hearing that.

"Wait...how old are you?" asked Briar.

Hiccup blinked.

He barely kept track of his age, but he had been about fourteen when he left Berk. He began to mentally calculate the days he spent traveling from the archipelago to the Winding Circle, because he knew he had missed his birthday completely. From what he recalled, he had been sick as a dog with a rather nasty flu that had been going around the Caravan at the time.

Besides, they had barely accepted him among their group, and that only because he paid them in trade and every coin he had to make it this far.

"Fifteen?" he replied dubious. It was clear even he wasn't too sure how old he was.

Which made him the oldest of the children living in the cottage. He was practically an adult already!