HTTYD: Daughter Of The Armada

Prologue

Raid bells clashed with the distinct roars of both flames devouring all that was in their way and their source, the infamous beasts flying above the small isle of Berk. The once peaceful atmosphere was now but a distant vision as the town sprung to life, men and women rushing to their positions, taking up roles that they had rehearsed in the countless waves of raids the island has faced before. One house stood out from the rest and yet was untouched as a baby lay in her cot, kept awake by the gut-wrenching screams in pain and fear cutting above all the rest of the sickly racket of the battle on the other side of the thin wooden wall.

The vicious battle carried on as every other raid had until the house that seemed to be immune to the fires, oblivious to the carnage around it, was rather unceremoniously breached as a massive dragon came crashing through the wall and landing in front of the baby, making the little girl burst out crying in fear as the gigantic four winged dragon stood up again and started walking closer and closer to the cot until it was towering over the child, however all these fears were quickly put to rest and the child calmed once more once the dragon started running the smooth side of one of its claws along the baby's cheek,

"Hicca!" A feminine shout ripped through the building as footsteps quickly approached the door to the room where the baby lay, "Hicca!" the approaching woman cried out once more before she ran through the door and finding the four-winged dragon who was still gently playing with the baby. The woman reached for a sword but made no attempt to attack as the beast turned around and slowly started to approach her, a look of curiosity in it's eyes, yet making no attempts to attack her either, not until they were interrupted by an axe flying between the two,

"Valka! Run!" A male voice shouted as the dragon screeched out in fear and turned towards where the man was stood and focused on him before tracing the man's steps with fire as he ran, quickly engulfing the house in a roaring inferno,

"No, don't!" The woman named Valka begged the dragon to stop, to leave her and her family in peace,

"Hold on!" The man yelled over the roaring of the dragon and flames alike as the dragon turned to face his wife once more and once again approaching her out of curiosity as to why she was not attacking, instead trying to intervene, to stop the battle in her own house. The man dived over a row of flames and ran towards the crying child before he picked the infant up and held her tight in his arms,

"Stoick! Stoick!" Valka cried out, her voice quickly becoming more and more distant, as the man known as Stoick turned around, his daughter cradled in his arms, to see one of the few sights he feared most, his beloved wife being carried away by one of the beasts his people have been at war with for generations as they retreated, satisfied with what they'd done and what they'd taken. A tear ran down his face, a first in a long time for the battle hardened chief of the island ravaged by what seemed like an eternal war, as he watched Valka disappear from his sight with no way to save her from an almost certain death at the claws of the greatest foe his people face.

The chief looked down at his daughter, still cradled tightly in his arms, who, despite being only a year old, was already clearly the equivalent of the runt of her generation, with her tiny ribs clearly visible through her skin that was so pale that, coupled with her being much weaker than any other child of her age and her blatantly bloodshot eyes, it made people often believed she was seriously sick, looking on the verge of death, as she had since she was born. The child, named Hicca by her mother's choice, had recovered a fair bit from when she was a new born, when she was given only a week to live by the settlement's healer, to now having regained some colour in her skin and her eyes looking a lot less like orbs of blood than before, although being noticeably a lot worse off than just about any other Viking on the entire isle, but now being told that she may just recover from the birth condition that she had narrowly avoided dying to no more than a week after being born.

Hicca's gaze met that of her father's, who's single tear had now led to a steady stream of tears running down his cheeks as he struggled to hold himself from completely breaking down, the toll of helplessly watching the woman he cared for most being taken from him weighed heavily against his mind as he began asking himself about what could have happened, what he cold have done to make sure he would have still had his wife at his side, and he failed to hold himself together any longer as he finally walked out the door of his house, his daughter still in his grasp, and slumped against the wall of the blaze that had been his family's home, the fire taking all but a few things he had to remember Valka by with it as the fire crews finally arrived at the inferno that was no one of the few things lighting its surroundings from the darkness of the night now that the raid was finally over once more.