This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless, and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have...
It was a rather early hour of a new day, but from the looks of Berk you would think it was daytime with the amount of buildings that were aflame and the fire flying through the air as a raid commenced.
A boy rushed to leave his hut, but when he went to exit he quickly shut the door and leaned against it as flames were pelted towards him.
...dragons. Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have, stubbornness issues.
Once the dragon became bored with trying to set ablaze to the poor boy, it flew off to go torment some other Viking or even claim some of the livestock for its own.
The boy took that as an opportunity to dash out of his hut and through the village to his destination, which was none other than the forge.
My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But, it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that.
Hiccup dodges several Vikings in the heat of battle as he made his way through the burning village. There was an explosion that went off from a teal Gronckle that sent a Viking towards Hiccup, causing the scrawny teen to trip backwards to avoid the man. Said man roared in his face, full of adrenaline from the raid.
"ARGGGHHHHH! Mornin'!"
The Viking then rushed off to find another dragon to fight, giving Hiccup the chance to rush off to the forge once more. As the boy got closer to his destination he heard people shouting at him through the chaos.
"What are you doing here?!"
"Get inside!"
"What are you doin' out?"
"Get back inside!"
The boy is stopped in his tracks as a man grabs him by the tunic and lifts him into the air. He was a very burly man with a long, thick red beard.
"Hiccup?! What is he doing out aga–?! What are you doing out?! Get inside!" The man shouted, then set Hiccup down and pushed him towards a nearby building.
That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders.
Stoick grabbed a wooden cart and threw it right at a dragon passing by, knocking it out midair.
Do I believe it? Yes, I do.
"What have we got?" Stoick questioned as a Viking came up to him.
"Gronckles, Nadders, Zipplebacks. Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare." The man listed off for his chief.
"Any Night Furies?"
"None so far."
"Good." Stoick said as he casually brushed off burning embers that landed atop his shoulder mere seconds before.
"Hoist the torches!" A Viking shouted and others lifted two enormous torches and lit them, dragons swarming around them.
As that was happening, Hiccup rushed into the forge and replaced his vest with a blacksmithing apron. The man within the forge turned his attention to the boy as he made his way further into the forge.
He was a rather interesting looking man who had a long and braided blonde mustache, a peg leg, and a prosthetic hand.
"Ah! Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off!" The man joked.
"What, who me? Nah, come on! I'm waaaay too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all..." Hiccup gestured to himself as he joked right back. "...this."
"Well they need toothpicks, don't they?" The man shot back, still having a joking air about his voice.
The meat-head with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well...littler.
At a watch tower elsewhere in the village, Stoick was looking over the raid, calculating the next move.
"We move to the lower defenses. We'll counter-attack with the catapults." He ordered the other Vikings atop the tower with him.
Another dragon swooped down from above and set ablaze to another hut.
See? Old village, lots and lots of new houses.
"FIRE!" A Viking shouted when he took notice of the burning hut.
"Alright, let's go!" A young girl that looked to be in her teen years shouted to a group of other young Vikings.
The small group of teens rushed past the forge with buckets of water to douse the flames to keep the hut from burning to the ground. As they rushed past, Hiccup watched them through the window of the forge.
Oh, and that's Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Oh, their job is so much cooler.
Hiccup leaned out of the forge window to get a better look as the teens walked away from the hut that exploded as they did, their attempt of saving it from being destroyed all for nothing. Gobber lifted the boy by the tunic with his hook and dragged him back into the forge.
"Oh, come on. Let me out, please? I need to make my mark!" Hiccup pleaded as he gestured outside of the forge desperately.
"Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places!" Gobber said as he set the boy down.
"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better." Hiccup tried, but his attempts at persuading the blacksmith were all for naught.
"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" Gobber listed off, lifting a bola at the end, which was then snatched by a Viking through the window and thrown at a dragon, bringing it crashing to the ground.
"Okay, fine, but this will throw it for me." Hiccup reasoned as he pulled out a wooden machine and patted it, which then made it open and shoot out a bola randomly, hitting a Viking standing outside.
"Arggh!"
Gobber gave Hiccup a look, which made the boy let out a nervous laugh.
"See, now this right here is what I'm talking about!"
"M-mild calibration issue–" Hiccup said as he tried to fix up the machine.
"Don't you–no–Hiccup." Gobber said, pulling the boy away from the machine and making him face him. "If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all...this." The blacksmith said as he gestured to Hiccup's entire body.
"But, you just pointed to all of me!"
"Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you!"
"Ohhhh..." Hiccup said, starting to see what Gobber was getting at.
"Ohhhh, yes."
"You sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping this much raw...Viking-ness...contained? THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES!"
"I'll take my chances." Gobber said as he dropped a large sword into Hiccup's arms. "Sword. Sharpen. Now."
Hiccup begrudgingly made his way to the grindstone and began to sharpen the blade.
One day, I'll get out there. Because, killing a dragon is everything around here. A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronckles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a relationship. A Zippleback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status.
"They found the sheep!" the Catapult Operator noted when he saw some dragons pass by with sheep in their clutches.
"Concentrate fire over the lower bank!" Stoick ordered.
"Fire!"
And then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.
A Monstrous Nightmare sets itself alight as it made its way up the catapult growling.
"Reload! I'll take care of this." The chief said, then he steadied his hold on his hammer and fought the Nightmare, which retreated after taking a few hits from the ruthless man.
But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one else has ever seen. We call it the–
A high-pitched whistle was heard throughout the village, which made the Vikings go into a panic.
"NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!" A Viking shouted.
Out of nowhere there was an explosion that tore one of the catapults to shreds.
"JUMP!" Stoick yelled, jumping from the catapult with the other Vikings.
Not a single one of them took notice of the blood dripping from the sky as the Night Fury sped past. Hiccup halted in his sharpening and looked out the forge window with wide eyes as he got a feeling as though he needed to, no, had to get out there and save someone.
This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and...never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury before.
"Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there!" Gobber ordered as he changed out his hook for an axe, then ran out of the forge, but before he was far away he turned around. "Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean."
After a couple minutes went by, Hiccup tossed the apron aside and put his vest back on then he was out the door with his bola launcher in tow, making his way to an empty hill.
"Hiccup, where are you going?!"
"Come back here!"
"Yeah, I know! Be right back!" Hiccup shouted over his shoulder.
As Hiccup was rushing off, Stoick was able to catch several Deadly Nadders within a net, wrestling them to keep them down. One tried to blast him with fire, but he was able to clamp its maw shut just in time.
"Mind yourselves! The devils still have some juice in them!"
Once Hiccup got to the hill, he immediately set up the bola launcher and looked around the night sky patiently.
"Come on. Gimme something to shoot at, gimme something to shoot at."
The second those words left his mouth he felt more than heard a distressed call. His attention was then drawn to where the feeling was coming from and just like that, the Night Fury blasted a catapult and became visible from the light, but just briefly. In that split second, Hiccup caught a glimpse of a baby Night Fury tight within the clutches of the other, terribly injured and barely conscious.
Hiccup took the chance to aim his launcher and fired a bola at the Night Furies. A loud cry was heard as the shadow of the adult Night Fury plummeted from sight and a tiny shadow plummeted in Hiccup's direction. With how fast the baby dragon was falling, Hiccup had to rush off his launcher and tumble backwards a bit to be able to catch it.
Hiccup opened his arms as the baby dragon came into his line of sight and he wrapped them tightly around it as it collided with his chest, making him groan from the impact. He held the dragon close as he panted, not caring that his clothes were slowly becoming soaked with blood from the poor thing. He didn't even register that his nose began to bleed as he put all his attention on the baby dragon in his arms.
Hiccup looked down at the hatchling and his face filled with worry. He felt the urge to protect it, no, to protect her at all costs. He wouldn't let any more harm come to her again.
"You were the one calling for help, weren't you..? You poor thing..." Hiccup breathed out as he fixed his hold on the Night Fury and gently rubbed the top of her head as she rested against his chest.
The boy stiffened up when he heard a dragon growling behind him, stiffening up even further when the bola launcher in front of him was crushed by the wing of a Monstrous Nightmare. Hiccup slowly turned around, tightening his hold on the baby dragon within his arms just a bit more as he came face to face with the Nightmare.
"H-hi..."
Stoick's attention was taken away from the Nadders as a shrill cry was heard throughout the village. He turned away to see Hiccup running away from the Nightmare with something black as night within his arms in a tight grip. The chief sighed and got up to go help the boy.
"DO NOT let them escape!" He shouted as he rushed off.
"Right!"
Hiccup zigzagged about the village to get away from the Nightmare that was hot on his tail. He then hid behind a torch pole panting, then he checked on the baby dragon within his grasp and sighed in relief when he noticed she was still breathing and was just resting.
'Thank the Gods. Looks like the bleeding has stopped too. Night Furies must have fast healing abilities.'
Once Hiccup knew that she was alright, he looked around the pole to see where the Nightmare went. Before the Nightmare in question could lay a claw on him, however, Stoick punched the beast and jumped back to defend himself against it. This led to the dragon abandoning its pursuit of Hiccup to go after Stoick instead.
The dragon tried to release fire upon the chief, but it coughed up only a few drops of flaming liquid instead, having exhausted its shots earlier on in the raid.
"You're all out." Stoick said with a smirk, then he promptly beats the dragon, which makes it flee.
The torch pole that Hiccup hid behind collapses from fire damage and tumbles down into the village, leaving ruins in its wake and revealing a stiff as a board Hiccup to the rest of the village.
Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know...
The torch then rolled onto the net that held down the Nadders that Stoick captured just a few minutes prior, freeing them from it as it went. The Nadders managed to take flight with livestock and escaped the village with the other dragons, livestock and fish taken as their prize for a successful raid.
"Sorry, Dad..." Hiccup apologized when he saw the look on the chief's face. "O-okay, but I hit a Night Fury."
Stoick grabbed the boy by the back of his tunic and began to drag him towards their shared hut.
"It's not like the last few times, Dad! I mean, I really actually hit it! You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot! I even saved this baby Night Fury! The adult went down, just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there, before it–" Hiccup tried to explain, but Stoick cut him off.
"STOP! Just...stop." Stoick said, not facing his son as he did. "Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter's almost here and I have an entire village to feed!" He lectured, not once putting his focus on the boy said lecture was pointed towards.
"Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think?" Hiccup said as his grip lessened on the baby dragon as she moved to get more comfortable in his arms.
A Viking farther off placed a hand on his stomach as if to say 'Are you calling me fat?'
"This isn't a joke Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" Stoick asked as he finally put his attention on his son then froze when he finally took notice of the black void within his son's clutches. "What in Odin's name is that you have?"
"I told you. I saved this baby Night Fury from the other one. It was hurting her." Hiccup explained.
"You actually shot down the Night Fury?"
"Yes! That's what I was trying to tell you! If we go out to Raven Point we could capture it before it escapes."
"No, absolutely not. You will not be going anywhere. Give me the dragon." Stoick said firmly as he reached for the dragon.
Hiccup backed away and held her closer to him. "No! I will not let anyone else hurt her! She's just a baby!"
"Hiccup it is a dragon! They are ruthless beasts! Now hand it over!"
"I said NO!" Hiccup growled, keeping the baby dragon as close to him as he possibly could.
Stoick sighed and lowered his arm. "Fine. Get back to the house." He looked towards Gobber. "Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up."
And with that the chief walked off as Gobber hobbled over to the scrawny teen and rested a hand on his shoulder. Hiccup looked at him warily and the blacksmith just gestured his head toward the Haddock family's hut. The boy sighed and let the man lead him to the hut.
"Quite the performance." Tuffnut said as they passed by the other teens.
"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!" Snotlout mocked, then he got whacked in the head by Gobber.
"Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so..." Hiccup said dejectedly as he continued past the teens, not looking at any of them as he put his attention on the dragon in his arms to see what exactly needed to be tended to and not noticing that Astrid gave him a worried look as he passed her.
Gobber then caught up to the boy as they reached the doorway of the hut and smiled sympathetically.
"I really did hit one and saved this little one..." Hiccup said quietly.
"And I believe ya lad, but that don't mean it was a good thing fer ya to do. You were told ta stay inside."
"I know...but look at her Gobber. If I didn't do something she would've died."
"Aye, but if that was what the gods had planned, then ya shouldn't have done anythin'."
Hiccup looked away from the man and Gobber sighed.
"He never listens, Gobber."
"Well, it runs in the family."
Hiccup looked back at him with an upset look. "And when he does, it's always with this...disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich." The boy cleared his throat and proceeded to imitate his father. "Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fishbone!"
"Now, you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand." Gobber tried to explain.
Hiccup gave him a deadpanned look. "Thank you for summing that up." He said sarcastically.
"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not." Gobber said.
"I just wanted to be one of you guys." Hiccup said, then made his way into the hut.
Gobber sighed and made his way back down the hill to help with the cleanup as Hiccup closed the door behind him. The blacksmith patted Astrid's shoulder as they passed one another on the hill as a silent good luck to the young teen.
Astrid smiled a bit then ran up the hill and entered the hut as Hiccup set the baby dragon upon the table in the main room of the hut. Hiccup then made his way to his room and dug out his aid kit, then went back downstairs and set the kit upon the table as well, not registering that his friend was in the hut and leaning against the wall with an interested look as her arms crossed.
When the kit made contact with the wood, the hatchling opened her eyes and looked around the room, her eyes stopping on Hiccup once she had a proper grasp of her surroundings.
"Hey little one..how ya feeling?" He asked gently as he got the materials he needed from the kit.
The dragon chirped tiredly at him as she made to get up, but struggled.
"Hey, hey..slow your roll..you're hurt.." Hiccup said as he gently pet her head to calm her.
It worked. She gave up her attempts of getting up and purred softly at the attention.
"There..you're okay.." Hiccup soothed, then he used a wet cloth to wipe away the remaining blood on her body.
Astrid smiled and stayed as quiet as she could, watching her friend as he tended to the little dragon.
'He's acting like that baby dragon is his own child. It's adorable.' She thought.
As Hiccup washed away what he could see he was able to get a better look at all the injuries. Most of them were practically healed up by now, but one stood out to him. She was missing the tailfin on the left side of her tail.
"Oh you poor thing...did that other Night Fury do this to you..?"
The baby dragon whined as her way of answering and Hiccup smiled sadly.
"Well you're safe now..I promise..I won't let any more harm come to you.."
Once all the blood was washed away, Hiccup got fresh cloth strips and wrapped them around the wounds that were still not quite healed, mainly the area on her tail where her tailfin once was.
"There. All nice and clean. From the rate you're healing, those wounds should be gone in the next day or two."
The tiny dragon purred as she was able to stand properly and nuzzled Hiccup happily as her way of thanking him. Hiccup smiled and picked her up as she did and held her close.
"You're welcome. Now..what to name you.." He said, contemplating over what would be a good name for the little one within his arms.
"How about...Kala?"
The little one chirped happily and nuzzled against him when she heard the name and Hiccup chuckled.
"Well there's my answer. Kala it is."
Astrid took that as her chance and made her way over to the duo. "You've grown pretty attached to that Night Fury, haven't you?"
Hiccup jumped then glared slightly at Astrid as Kala tilted her head with a curious chirp at the new person.
"Don't do that! You know I hate it when you sneak up on me like that Astrid." Hiccup said with a huff.
Astrid laughed a bit. "Sorry. Force of habit. You didn't answer my question, though."
Hiccup grew nervous and looked away from her. "I-I guess.."
Astrid then took notice of the blood seeping out of Hiccup's nose and grabbed the same cloth he used to wash Kala's blood away, gently wiping the blood off his face for him.
"How'd you get a nose bleed? Did Kala's tail whack you when you caught her or something?" She asked.
Hiccup looked at her confused then shook his head. "No. I have no clue how I got a nose bleed."
"Huh. Well alright then. So, how're you gonna handle your dad? He's gonna go after that other Night Fury and kill it Hiccup." Astrid said with her arms crossed.
Hiccup bit his lip and looked down at Kala, who chirped with a tilt of the head curiously. "I don't know yet."
~~~HTRYNF~~~