Hiccup's POV:

After surviving again, we feel hungry so I catch some fish with my hands and sit down to eat it. I manage to get a small pile for Toothless and one for me, which I cook over a fire, lit by Toothless's fire. Toothless offers a regurgitated fish head which I decline politely when I see a couple of Terrible Terrors flying towards and lands near us, sniffing in the air. They clearly want some of this fish, unfortunately, Toothless is territorial, so this should be interesting. An orange one managed to get the leftover fish, and Toothless growled at the one that came near his pile. Suddenly, a fish started moving on its own, and once out of the pile, a green Terrible Terror is pulling the fish. Toothless simply bite the fish and swallows it in one shot, leaving the poor dragon confused. I guess he got angry because he starts to huff and is about to shoot fire when Toothless puts a mini blast in him. The poor guy stumbles towards me as Toothless laughs at him.

"Huh, not so fireproof on the inside are you."

I toss the Terrible Terror a whole fish out of pity, which the dragon eats vigorously, and then walks up to me, settling under my arm to sleep. I look at the peaceful dragon, thinking that everything we know about dragons is wrong.

When I come back, I go to my small workshop in the Blacksmith where I usually go to think about ideas or inventions. I'm lost in my thoughts when I hear someone entering, which is my dad, as intimidating as usual.

"Dad!" I say in surprise, as I stand up and quickly clear up my table, full of dragon saddle designs. " You're back!"

"I know. I came looking for you." He says seriously.

"You did? What for?" I ask nervously, hoping he doesn't know about Toothless.

"You've been keeping secrets."

"I have?" I say, extremely scared of him knowing my secret.

"Just how long did you think you can keep this from me?" He says in a low voice.

"What? What do you mean? What're you talking-" I begin to ramble.

"Nothing happens on this island without me knowing." He continues, which I am going to confess my secret, but hold back in case he's talking about something else.

"Let's talk about that dragon?" He says as the blood drains from my face. How did he find out about Toothless?

"Oh, gods. Dad, I'm so sorry. I was going to tell you, I swear. I just didn't know how-" I start confessing before he interrupts me.

"What? I was hoping for this!" Chuckles my father.

"You're not upset?" I'm really starting to question my sanity if my father is totally fine with me befriending a Night Fury.

"Believe me! It's only going to get better when you mount your first Gronckle head on your spear. What a feeling!" He says joyously. Well, this conversation took a turn. "You really had me going there, son. All those years of the worst Viking anyone have ever seen on Berk! Odin, it was rough. I even almost gave up on you!"

How nice.

"All the while you were holding out on me! Thor almighty! So with you doing so well in dragon training, we finally have something we can talk about." He says excitedly as he grabs a stool and sits down, waiting for me to talk.

He adjusts his seat as I say nothing, creating a sphere of oozing awkwardness. The truth is, I'm nothing like my father. I'm not into killing dragons, not strong or knowledgeable in weapons. I've literally got nothing in common, except the fact we share blood.

"Well... um, I've brought you something," he says solemnly, taking out a horned helmet. "To keep you safe in the ring."

"Wow. Thanks..." I say, unsure how to respond after all my father isn't known to be a gift giver.

"Your mother would've wanted you to have one." He says with pride. "Wear it proudly, you deserve it. After all, you've kept your end of the deal."

"Um, I should really be going to bed now," I say, forcing a yawn. "So good talk. I'll see at home. We should do this again sometime."

"Well, I'll be going now... I'll see tomorrow." He says as he stands up, leaving awkwardly with him being taller than the door, he bends down to walk out. See how good we Vikings are at socializing.

The next day, it's just Astrid and me competing for the "honour" of killing their first dragon. Honestly, I'm probably the first Viking who doesn't want the chance to do so.

"Get out of my way." Growls Astrid, hefting her axe menacingly. "I'm winning this."

"Please, by all means," I say, agreeing with her.

Unfortunately, the Gronckle spots me and heads towards me. I see Astrid making her way to the Gronckle, but by then I'd be dead already so I have to make a choice. I use my special scratching technique, which incapacitates the Gronckle.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Cries out Astrid as she charges in, realizing I had already taken down the Gronckle. "NO! No! No!"

I hear a loud crack ring out, to see the village elder, Gothi, tapping with her stick. When I try to leave, I get dragged by Gobber alone with Astrid, with everyone murmuring excitedly. Goober raises his hand over Astrid's head, and Gothi shakes her head. When Gobber points at me, she smiles and nods in approval. Oh no. Why me.

"You've done it! Hiccup, you did it!" Yells Gobber happily, while my face becomes ashen.

"Haha, that's my boy!" Shouts my father happy, with everyone cheering. Oh, the irony.

"Heh, heh. Oh yeah! I'm super stoked! Yes, I can't wait. I am so..." I begin to say.

"Leaving. We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like you and I are taking a vacation, forever." I finish when I'm at the cove, ready to leave since I am not going to kill a dragon, not when they're intelligent, amazing creatures. I am about to shout for Toothless, looking around when I see Astrid, sharpening her axe with a rock.

"Aaagh! What the-" I shout in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, jabbing me with her axe threateningly.

"I want to know what's going on. No one gets as good as you do, especially not you. Start talking!" Astrid demands. "Are you training with someone in secret?"

"Uh... training?" Is all I could say as I rack my brain for a rational explanation when she grabs my harness.

"It better not involve... this." Astrid eyes my harness in suspicion, as I look around, hoping Toothless won't show up.

"I know this looks bad, but you see, uh..." I begin to say when I hear rustling behind me. As soon as Astrid heard it, she starts walking to where I assume Toothless is, so I walk in front of her.

"You're right! You're right! I'm through with the lies. I've been making... fashionable outfits! So you got me. It's time everyone knew. Drag me. Go ahead. Here we go." I say as I finally found a lie, worthy even of Loki. I put Astrid's hand on my harness, then she bends my hand backwards, making me fall down in pain. Trust me, I've had enough pain in the past week, all over my body. I only recently checked the bite, to see black scaring forming which is weird but didn't seem to be any known disease so I should be fine.

"Aaaaaagh! Why would you do that?" I cry out in pain and then lets me go so I fall down on the ground.

"That's for the lies," Astrid replies and then drops the axe so the hilt hits my chest and bounces back into her hand. "And that's for everything else."

As soon as I yelp in pain, I hear growling coming from the other side of the cove. When Astrid and I look up, I see Toothless snarling as he approaches slowly, assessing her as a threat. Oh man, this is not good. Suddenly, Astrid jumps onto me, clearly trying to save me, with the roles reversed.

"Get down! Run! Run! Run!" Shouts Astrid, as she goes into a fighting stance, ready to fight Toothless, only she can't win.

"No!" I say when I stand up and put myself in between the two, itching to fight each other. "No. It's okay. It's okay. Everybody calm down now..."

"She's a friend," I say to Toothless, who snorts at me in disagreement. He probably saw Astrid and me, working out our differences and thought I was getting attacked.

"You scared him by hitting me," I explain to Astrid, who looks at us in bewilderment.

"I scared him?!" Replies a scared Astrid. Wow, and just when you think a person can't be scared... life is full of surprises.

"Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." I say, introducing someone to a dragon is not exactly easy to do, especially when Astrid trained her whole life to kill one. So her first instinct is to run away since no one lived to a Night Fury.

"And we're dead." I sigh in exasperation. I turn around to see Toothless turning away, seeming all satisfied ridding the intruder. "Hey, where do you think you're going?"

Toothless and I ride high up, looking for Astrid. When you're riding a dragon, you can travel so fast, so it didn't take much effort to find her and Toothless uses his paws to grab her by the shoulders.

"Oh great Odin's ghost, this is it. This is how it ends." Astrid rambles in fear while Toothless lands on the tip of a tree, while Astrid holds on a branch for dear life. When you think about it, this scene is kind of ridiculous.

"Hiccup! Get me down from here!" She screams in anger, to my surprise since she was clearly scared.

"You have to let me explain, dragons are not what you think they are," I explain calmly as a person can be, talking to a murderous Viking.

"I'm not listening to anything you have to say," Astrid replies.

"Then I won't speak. Let me show you instead." I respond. "Please?"

I offer a hand, and after she looks at the ground below, she Astrid slaps my hand and helps herself onto Toothless. I hope he can handle two people, or we're in big trouble.

"See? Nothing to be afraid of. Alright, Toothless, show her what you got." I say as I ready myself, excited to show someone the wonders of flying.

Toothless spreads his wings, and launches straight off, flying really fast. I hate this dragon sometimes. Astrid is screaming while I shout at Toothless that the objective is to show Astrid dragons are not bad.

"Toothless! Stop this! We need her to like us, not hate us." I shout as loudly as I can, but the only response I get is Toothless begins to spin. "And now you are spinning. Thank you so much, you useless reptile."

"Okay! I'm sorry about before! Just get me off." Apologizes Astrid as she holds onto my waist tightly, which isn't so bad. Clearly, this satisfies Toothless and he begins to slow down, giving us a stunning view of Berk.

Toothless then flies up the blanket of clouds to see a starry night with a full moon. This will never get old, if I could, I would stay like this forever.

"Wow. Alright, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It's... no words can describe this moment." Astrid says in awe as she looks at Berk. "Hiccup, what're you going to do? I mean tomorrow is your final exam. You know you're gonna have to kill a... dragon."

"Don't remind me. Toothless is the best friend I could ever ask for, and I will do anything for him to be safe." I say adamantly.

Suddenly, I notice Toothless is approaching a strange dense fog. I see Toothless's ear plates suddenly standing on end. He abruptly dives into the enormous fog.

"Toothless, what's going on? What is it?" I ask nervously and gasp when I see dozens of dragons carrying carcasses near us. "Get down!"

"What's going on?" Astrid asks. I wish I know the answer.

"I don't know," I reply.

"Toothless, you've got to get us out of here," the only response I get is a hiss. "Looks like they're hauling in their kill."

"So what does that make us?" Astrid asks ominously.

Suddenly Toothless and all the other dragons dive in formation, dodging looming sea stacks. I can even see past Viking ships that met an unfortunate fate. We enter a large volcano, flying through tunnels to give way to a vast chamber. I assume the bottom would be magma filled.

"What my dad would give to find this," I say in amazement, although fearful at what lays below. All the dragons drop their kill into the misty pit, except for a Gronckle who drops one fish and stops to scratch its neck.

"It's great to know all our food goes down into a hole," I comment, annoyed to see all this food wasted.

"And they're not even eating any of it," Astrid adds.

Roaring comes from the pit and a large head erupts to swallow the Gronckle in one bite. By the gods, what is that thing?

"What is that thing?" Whispers Astrid fearfully. I have never seen a dragon this huge.

I see that it starts sniffing, and I tap Toothless neck, indicating that it's time for us to go. I'm pretty sure it knows we're here. The dragon nears the ledge where Toothless is hiding and lunges. Toothless is quick enough to fly away and all the dragons start fleeing through the top of the volcano. Toothless fly us back to the cove, under the cover of the night.

"It all makes sense. It's like one giant beehive. The dragons are workers, and that huge one is their queen. She controls them." Astrid says in realization.

"Not yet... they'll kill Toothless," I respond, thinking of the implication of what we just witnessed.

"Hiccup, you do realize we just found the dragons' nest! The very thing the first Vikings searched for when they first filed to Berk. And you want to keep this a secret? What, to protect your pet dragon?" Astrid replies incredulously.

"Toothless is my greatest friend anyone could ask for. So yes, I'll do anything to protect him." I say calmly.

"Okay, then what do we do?" She asks respectfully.

"Just give me until tomorrow.," I say solemnly. "I'll think of something."

I start to walk back to the village with Astrid when I feel extreme pain in my arm.

"Gah! My arm... it's burning." I gasp as the pain spreads all over my body, making me fall down.

"Hiccup!? What's going on? What's happening?" Astrid asks worriedly and helps me take my shirt off. That's when I notice the scarring of the bite is starting to spread. Only then, I realize they're black scales. All of a sudden, it's as if my body is tearing itself apart, everywhere is on fire. I feel the scales spreading towards my torso, and my back shifting, forming black wings. My legs crack and bend, and my arms elongating. My feet and hands become paws, with sharp claws. My tailbone extends, lengthening into a tail, hurting so much, I feel like I'm losing consciousness. What seems like an eternity, my head starts to crack and transform too, distorting my view. The last thing I see is Astrid backing away in fear and running away, abandoning me to my fate.