Ch. 1- Best and New Starts

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

This is Berk.

Its twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. Located solidly on the meridian of misery.

A village shows on the island. The sky shows its nighttime. Lanterns light up part of the village.

My village. Its on the island of Berk and has been here for 7 generation but every single building is new.

In a word, sturdy. We have hunting, fishing and the charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pest. A sheep gets picked up off the ground by a pair of claws coming in from the sky. Another sheep takes its spot.

A teenage girl jumped up in her bed to hear explosions. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a teenage boy do the same. They look at each other and nod, immediately jumping out of their beds, running downstairs. While most places have mice or mosquitoes, we have.. The teenage boy opens the door to see a dragon and shut it as the dragon shoots fire at him. "Dragons," he whispers. 

"Halla," the boys says to the girl, almost the same age as him, "stay here."

The girl shook her head wearing a determined look on her face.

"Fine, stay close to me." The girl nods and the boy opens the door, running out into the village as the girl follows.

As they run, the people they pass tell them to go back inside. Big fires are off the path and some small ones are on the paths.

Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.

My name's Halla. The boy next to me is my brother, Hiccup.

When they are about to run across a dirt road, a large man pulls both of them back just before another dragon hit them with their fire breath. "What are ya'll- what are they doing out? Get them inside." That's Stoick the vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby he popped a dragons head clean off its shoulder.  Do I believe that?  Yes, I do.

"What do we got?" Stoick asked another Viking.

"Gronkle, Nadder, Zippleback, and Hork saw a monstrous nightmare."

"Any Night Furies?"

"None so far." He ducks down from an explosion. Stoick doesn't move.

"Good." Stoick brushes a small flame off his shoulder.

The teens eventually run into a building where someone awaits them. "Oh, there y'all are," he says as they put on aprons. "I thought y'all were taken off by a dragon." That's Gobber. He has an interchangeable hand and a peg leg. His beard is long and braided.

"What me?" The boy, Hiccup, asks. "No, they wouldn't take me. I'm way to muscular for thier type," he said as he flexed arm muscles he didn't have.

"Whatever," the girl, Halla whispered, as she started to sharpen a sword. Not a soul heard her.

Stoick moved people to fight off the dragons with catapults and some buildings caught on fire. See, old village; lots and lots of new buildings.

The boy leaned out the window, watching another group of teens put out a fire. That's Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins- Tuffnut and Ruffnut- and Astrid. Their job was to put out the fires the dragons caused. Their job is so much cooler. "Oh no you don't." Gobber said to the boy, pulling him back in the store.

"Oh come on, we have to make our mark," Hiccup said, gesturing to the Halla and himself.

"Oh,  you've made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places," Gobber added.

"If I kill a dragon, my life would become infinitely better. I might even get a date." If that's even possible for you, the girl thought. Wow, that was a harsh thought, she said to herself.

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these," Gobber lifted up ropes with round stones hanging from them. A Viking then took them, throwing it at a dragon in the sky.

"Yes, but this will throw it for us," the Hiccup said as the he and Halla gestured to a contraption they built a few days beforehand. The boy tapped it causing it to fire out the window, the first Viking ducked and it hit the second, knocking him to the ground.

"See, this right here is what I'm talking about," Gobber said as he gestured to the boy.

The Hiccup looked down at the ground. "Mild calibration issues," he tried.

"Look, if you want to ever get out there, you both," he looked at the Halla, who was watching them, for a moment, "need to stop all of... this," he gestured to all of them.

"You just gestured to all of me," he rolled his eyes.

"Yes! Stop being all of you."

Hiccup's eyes narrowed. "Oh, I see." Gobber nodded. "You want to keep all this raw viking-ness contained? There will be consequences!" He yelled the last part, raising his hand, his index finger pointed to the sky.

Gobber looked well... rather bored. He picked up a dull sword. "Sword," he handed it to him. "Sharpened. Now." Hiccup sighed and went to sharpen the sword.

We'll get out there someday, Halla and Hiccup thought together. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. They both look at a few houses in the distance, smallish dragons land in and around a house. Nadder head is sure to get us noticed. They look at another group of dragons, these dragons had a big build, using their jaws to take stuff out of the ground. Gronkles are tough, taking down one of those would definitely get us a date. They look at a dragon with two long necks and heads. A green gas came  hit of one head, a spark came out of the second head, the spark caught the gas on fire. They watched it as it flew off. Zippleback, exotic, two heads, twice the status. They look at a tower where a dragon is climbing it. And then there's the Monstrous nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those; they have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. Sure enough, they watched the dragon set fire to itself and before long Stoick starts to fight off the monstrous nightmare.

But the ultimate prize is the one no ones ever seen. We call it the...

"Night Fury!" Someone yelled.

"Get down!" Someone else yelled, everyone obeyed.

They heard a high pitch scream then they saw a blue bolt destroy a tower.

Night Fury, the teens thought. This dragon never steals food, never shows itself and never misses. As they think the last part, the invisible Night Fury shot again, completely destroying the tower. No one has slain a Night Fury, that's why we're going to be the first. Both teens stood up straight as they thought that.

"Man the fort, Hiccup, Halla. They need me out there," said Gobber, pulling the kids back to reality. He put a weapon on his interchangeable hand then stopped at the doorway. "Stay. Put. There." He said to them. The teens frowned. "You know what I mean." He ran out of the shop with a battle cry.

Hiccup and Halla looked at each other and nodded. Hiccup grabbed the contraption they built and ran out the door. Halla followed.

"Get inside!" someone demanded.

"Get back inside!" others told them.

"I know. Be right back!" Hiccup yelled as they ran to a small clearing on a cliff.

"Mind yourself," Stoick said to the others while holding a dragons mouth shut. "The devils still have some juice in them."

Together, the teens got the contraption ready to fire in a matter of seconds. "Come on, give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at. Come on." Halla heard Hiccup whisper.

Halla heard a Night Fury scream then saw a blue bolt hit another tower. She followed a dark figure in the sky with her eyes. She pointed to it. Hiccup followed her finger and found the Night Fury. He took one shot, that just so happened to be enough force to push him on the ground. The Night Fury screamed. Halla thought she heard two screams, just very similar to each other. Two? Is it possible?

"I hit it," Hiccup's statement sounded like a question. "Yes, I hit it!" He said with confidence as he stood up. "Yes," he threw his hands in the air and turned to the village. "Did anybody see that?"

A monstrous nightmare came over the edge of the cliff and stepped on their contraption, destroying it, behind Hiccup. Halla grabbed Hiccup's shoulder, causing him to turn and see the dragon. His face fell and so did his arms. "Beside you."

They screamed and ran into the village. The chief of the tribe, Stoick, heard their screams and sighed. He pointed to the dragons that were under a net. "Do not let them escape!" he ordered, followed by 'yes'. He ran to the teens as quick as he could.

Hiccup and Halla ran into the village. They ran they barely past a pole- at the top was fire that was there to try to get rid of some dragons. Hiccup quickly grabbed Halla and pulled her to him. The dragon blew fire at the pole, causing fire to go either direction of them. Halla tightened her grip on her big brother, scared. (AN: Halla is 10 months younger than Hiccup)

After the fire stopped, Hiccup looked around the pole to see the dragon. The dragon looked around the opposite side and was about to shoot fire at them when Stoick finally arrived and punched it in the face. The dragon shot out a tiny bit of fire, that didn't go far, and shook its head. "Your all out," Stoick whispered them continued to punch and kick the dragon until it flew away.

The sun was just starting to rise as the rest of the dragons started to fly away.

The base of the pole was weak so the top crushed it, causing it to fall over and into 3 other things. BANG! The teens lowered their heads and lifted their shoulders. BANG! They did the same thing a bit more. BANG! Again.

Oh, and there's one more thing that you need to know...

"Sorry... dad," Hiccup said to the chief. Halla pleaded with her eyes to her father. Stoick glared at them. "OK, but we hit a Night Fury," Hiccup said quickly.

Their dad grabbed them by the arm and dragged them through the village.

"Its not like the last few times, we really actually hit it. It went down just past Raven Point. Lets get a search party out there before-"

"Stop!" Stoick yelled and dropped them. Halla rubbed her arm as he turned to face them. "Just stop," he said much calmer. "Every time you two step outside, disaster follows. Can't you see, winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed?"

Hiccup spoke quietly. "Between you and me, don't you think the village could use a little less feeding?" The large Vikings surrounding them heard and gasped at what he said. Halla tightened her grip on her brother's arm and hid behind him.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup," their father said angrily. Halla pushed into her brother's back. Hiccup looked behind him at Halla for a few moments before turning to face his father again. "Why can't you two follow the simplest orders?"

"I can't stop myself, dad. I see a dragon and I have to just kill it," he made a snapping gesture with his hands. "Its who I am, dad."

Stoick sighed, shook his head, and put his hand to his face. "You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Same for you, Halla." Halla was shocked, her father hadn't spoken to her directly since, soon after she stopped talking. Hiccup was the only one who spoke to her directly, everyone else had Hiccup translate from them to her. Just because I don't talk doesn't mean I can't understand people, she always thought.

"Make sure they get home," Stoick said loudly.  "I've got this mess to clean up."

Gobber followed Halla and Hiccup as they walked through the village to their home.

The other teens, who were trying to put out the fires the dragons made, were making fun of them as they walked past. "Hey, that helped," Snotlout teased as he gestured not the now empty sky. "That really helped."

"Yes, I know. Thanks, I was trying." Hiccup said, flatly as he continued to walk past them, Halla holding tightly to his right arm.

As they neared his home, Hiccup broke the silence. "We really did actually hit it."

"Sure you did," Gobber agreed.

"He never listens," Hiccup said, talking about his dad.

"Ya, runs in the family. Everyone but Halla," he said without Hiccup noticing, but Halla did. She smiled a bit at this.

"And when he does its with this disappointed scowl, like someone skipped all the meat in his sandwich." Hiccup started to intimidate his father's voice. "Excuse me bar maid, I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring, I ordered a extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts, and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fish bone!" He went back to his normal voice. "And he never even talks to Halla!" Her smile disappeared as she hid behind Hiccup. "Shh, Halla," he said more gently as he turned around and hugged her. "I'm sorry."

Gobber shook his head. "No no no. Your looking at this all wrong. Its not what on the outside, its what on the inside he can't stand."

"Thank you, for summing that up,"Hiccup said, flatly.

"Point is, just stop trying to be something you not."

"I just want to be one of you guys," Hiccup said, opening the front door to his house.

"As for Halla, if you just talk to him, I'm sure he'll be happy. Come on, talk, I know you can." Silence. "Oh, come on, at least say one little word, I won't tell no one."

Halla looked at Hiccup, who smiled and nodded his head once. "Hello, Gobber," she said clearly. He was the first person, besides Hiccup- who she spoke to almost every day-  who she has spoken to since she was little.

Gobber smiled. "Thank you," he said.

Hiccup and Halla went inside. Immediately, Hiccup grabbed Halla's arm and ran to the backdoor, that after a few meters, went into the forest.

They ran through the forest until Hiccup stopped, panting. "Okay, lets find that Night Fury."

And so their adventure began.

*******

"Either we finish them or they'll finish us," Stoick said to the room full of vikings. "Its the only way we'll get rid of them. One more search, before the ice sets."

"Those ships never come back," a random viking in the crowd said. A few vikings said similar things, others agreed.

"We're vikings, its an occupational hazard," Stoick said. "Now whose with me?" No one said a thing. Stoick straightened up and said, "Those who stay will look after Hiccup and Halla." In a matter of seconds the entire room had their hands raised. "That's what I thought," Stoick said quietly to himself.

Everyone left the room to get ready for the trip.

"I'll pack my undies," Gobber said."

"No. I need you to stay and train some new recruits," Stoick said as he down next to his best friend.

"Oh, perfect. And while I'm busy, Hiccup and Halla can run the shop themselves. Tons of sharp objects, razor sharp blades and lots of time to themselves, what can possibly go wrong?" Gobber asked, sarcastically.

"What am I going to do with them,Gobber?"

"Train them with the others."

"No, I'm serious."

"So am I."

"They'll get killed before you let the first dragon out."

"You don't know that"

"Yes, I do actually.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"No."

"Yes, I do."

"No. You don't!" exclaimed Gobber, looking up from his drink as he spoke.

"You know know what the're like. Ever since Hiccup could crawl he's been," Stoik stopped for a second to find the right word, "different. He doesn't listen; he has the attention spanned of a sparrow: I take him fishing and he goes hunting for- for trolls!"

"Trolls are real! They steal your socks. But only the left ones, what with that?" Gobber asked himself.

"When I was a boy, my Father told me to bang my head against a rock. I thought he was crazy but I didn't question him. And do you know what happened?"

"You got a headache," Gobber said, sounding bored.

"That rock broke in two. It taught me what a viking can do. He can crush mountain; level forest; tame sea's! Even as a I boy I knew what I was, what was what I was to become. Hiccup is not that boy. And Halla, she never talks. She stays silent all the time."

"You can't stop them, Stoick, you can only prepare them. You can't help it. You won't always be there to protect them. They'll get out there again; they're probably out there now."

Stoick though it over for a few seconds.

~~~~~~~~~~