Hi! I saw you reblogged one of my posts and in the tags you wrote you'd like to thoughtdump to me? (Sorry if I wrote the word wrong). Please do! I'd like to do the same lol
OH MY GOD THANK YOU
(this is turning out longer than i thought so it’s under a cut. plz bear with me your call is very important to us)
Okay—OKAY, okay, okay—
So, we know that Eret was born and raised as a Dragon Trapper, and has been working for Drago Bludvist for who knows how long.
SO! In my AU, Drago was actually not the founder of the Northern Alliance; if it was, then that would imply it had only been around for a couple of decades, and an organization that size and that widespread would take a VERY long time to get its shit together.
So anyway, in my AU, Drago came across the Alliance when he was about 19, and with all he had been through after losing his village 6 years ago (he was 13 when it happened), he was ready to finally make a difference in the world. So he found the Alliance fortress way up north concealed by some glaciers, and he approached the leader, a man named Malrik Raudraeson (who was a total dick btw, even more than Drago was; he made slaves of human races that weren’t white and used some of the younger ones to, ah, take out his frustrations on). He had seen the way Malrik treated his own men and every human in his fleet, and how he just let the dragons sit in cages and rot with nothing to do but starve and complain, so Drago offered that he take the weight off of Malrik’s shoulders and assume the throne.
Malrik laughed at him, amused by the thought of a “copper-skinned cripple” taking his throne (oh yeah he was super racist too), but then a man spoke up: Eret’s father, Erick (Eret wasn’t born yet), who was 7 years Drago’s senior but could see that he had more heart for his fellow men than Malrik did, and backed him up. A few more men came forward with their own support, until three quarters of the Alliance was standing by Drago’s side. Malrik could see he was outnumbered and challenged Drago to a duel. If Malrik won, he’d kill Drago and all that supported him. If Drago won, he would become the new leader of the Alliance and Malrik would let Drago punish him as he saw fit.
They dueled for hours, the fight moving to the icy cliffs where Terrus (Drago’s Bewilderbeast) lay waiting for one of them to fall. Malrik may have been older and stronger, but Drago was quicker and easily dodged Malrik’s attacks. Finally, he stabbed Malrik in the gut and threw him off the edge, where Terrus swallowed him whole. And just like that, Drago was named the new ruler of the Northern Alliance.
Erick thanked him endlessly for ending Malrik’s reign, saying that because of Malrik he had not seen his wife or his village of birth in years. Drago took in the boy that Malrik had taken to abusing and using the most, Krogan, and nursed him back to health, teaching him to trust again and be strong.
When Drago was 25, Erick approached Drago with a woman—his wife Siku—and a little boy wrapped in her arms. The boy couldn’t have been a year old, but when Erick introduced his son Eret to his friend, the boy reached for Drago. Drago had little experience with small children, but Siku said that he handled Eret surprisingly gently for a man of his status and stature. As Eret grew up, Erick made Drago promise that he would protect his son if anything ever happened to him, as he knew that dragon trapping was a dangerous business and one day he might not return to his son. Drago promised, seeing it as a fair favor in return for Erick’s support during his crowning.
As the years passed, Eret grew into a bold, clever kid who always tried his best to impress Da and his friend Drago. He saw Drago as an uncle figure, almost like a second father, and Drago tried hard but he couldn’t hide that he saw the boy as his own blood.
When Eret was 16, old enough to get his chin tattoos, he boarded the boat with his father and promised Drago that he’d bring back the biggest, meanest dragon they could find and watch Drago beat it up. Drago couldn’t be more proud and said that he would be waiting. A couple of weeks later, the ship returned with a batch of dragons…but Erick wasn’t among the crew.
Drago found young Eret, who was holding his father’s silver owl pendant, and asked what had happened. Eret couldn’t answer and ran off holding back tears. One of the older crewmen said that they were about to head back with their catch when one of the dragons broke out and started attacking the men. Erick and a few others held them off while the rest escaped, but all they could find of him was his pendant. Drago understood and he went to find Eret.
Eret was sitting on the docks, crying quietly into his knees, clutching the pendant, the only thing he had left of his father. His mother died of an illness when he was 10, and those wretched dragons had taken his father from him, and now both his parents were gone. He was an orphan.
Drago approached the boy and said that he understood how he felt. He doesn’t remember much of his childhood (keep that in your back pocket), but his own village was destroyed and slaughtered by dragons. That’s why he took over the Northern Alliance—so that no more children would have to see their entire lives burn down in front of them, and nobody would have to fear dragons ever again. Eret shared this sentiment and said, “I…I’m going to fix it. All of it. I’m going to trap every last dragon in the world. Nobody will be hurt or die by their talons ever again.” Drago smiled and patted his back, saying he was proud of the young man Eret was becoming.
Night was falling and it was getting late, so Drago usured Eret to bed. “Goodnight, sir,” Eret said as he left the docks.
Drago waited a beat, then called out, “Eret?”
Eret turned back.
Drago smiled, a small, secret smile he only shared with those he trusted most. “You know my name. Use it.”
Eret processed this, then grinned and replied, “Goodnight, Drago.” Then he rushed back to his bunk and disappeared into the night.
Years passed, Eret grew up, and he and Drago grew closer. Of course, they made sure nobody realized that Drago was beginning to favor Eret more than his other trappers, but rumors were rampant.
Until the day Eret came back with no dragons at all.
Now Drago had a choice. He could let Eret off the hook with no punishment and everybody would know for sure that he was playing favorites with the son of his former best trapper—or he could punish Eret as he saw fit and silence those rumors for good.
So Drago did the only thing he could: He took Eret to a private room, had two men take of his shirt and tie his arms to the wall, told them to leave, and branded his chest. Drago had to close his eyes to keep the tears from coming as Eret screamed in pain. He held it against his chest just long enough for it to leave a scar, then pulled away, dunked the branding rod into a bucket of water, and held him. Eret was shaking violently, tears streaming down his face as he muttered broken apologies and promises to do better, but Drago just held a wet cloth to Eret’s chest and told him, “I only did this to protect you. Everything I do, I do for you.” Eret didn’t fully understand it at the time, but he knew that Drago only did what he thought was best, and he stayed in that room until the next morning.
After that, Eret kept his distance from Drago. He masked his hurt behind a dashing smile and sailor swagger. Drago made certain that any interaction between them from now on was strictly professional, and told Eret to only come see him if he had dragons to present or a report to give. But that didn’t mean he didn’t still view Eret as his own child.
And when the Dragon Riders came, everything changed. Drago turned from a stoic, cold leader into a trembling, broken man, traumatized by the memories he only just now remembered. Eret began to question everything his tribe and his father and the Alliance had ever taught him, about dragons and Riders. Eventually, they both began to heal. They began to talk more often. Krogan, who had been dragged back to Berk with them, started to open up with them more. Eret bonded with Skullcrusher; Krogan improved his treatment of dragons with his Singetail Sunstrike. Drago found an equally-crippled dragon in Lump, a kind Snafflefang that saw the light in all his darkness.
The three of them became closer, until it seemed as though Eret, Krogan, and Drago were father and sons once more.
And it wasn’t long before Eret no longer called Drago by name or “sir” or any other formal title that acknowledged his leadership.
In Eret’s eyes, Drago was now “Da”.
And that was enough for both of them.
…
sorry this got really long and emotional, i just love the idea of drago treating eret like a son; this is all tied in to part 2 of my fic @the-last-night-fury-au (read on ao3 if you haven’t already!)
@lavenderqueen26 we’ve talked about all this already but here