Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hiccup’s heart pounded in his chest as he ran through the forest, stumbling as his feet struggled to catch up to him. He had just been picked to fight the Monstrous Nightmare in the ring. A Monstrous Nightmare! His panic didn’t falter as he continued to race over logs and dodge trees, not even thinking about the world around him. What was he going to do? He wouldn’t even survive a minute in the ring with that dragon, let alone defeat it. On top of that he didn’t even want to. Just thinking about fighting a dragon caused Toothless to appear in his mind, instantly discouraging any thought of fighting.

He continued to run through the forest, his mind racing at a million miles a minute when suddenly, his foot snagged. He slammed into the forest floor, pain shooting up through his foot and his face as he lay in the dirt. Slowly, he rolled over and began to sit up. Pulling his knee to his chest he gingerly began inspecting his ankle. Nothing seemed to be broken or sprained but he decided against trying to stand up for now. Moving onto his nose, there was a small trail of blood beginning to trickle down from his nose, but it wasn’t broken either. Sighing he began to lie back down when suddenly he remembered what was at stake. The fight. Toothless. He sprang back up, ignoring the slight pain in his ankle and resumed his sprint through the forest.

Arriving at the entrance to the clearing, he squeezed under the stuck shield as fast as he could, before standing up straight, and scanning the clearing.

“TOOTHLESS!” He yelled out, looking for the dragon in all the usual spots. He had just begun to take his first steps towards Toothless’ favorite sunbathing spot, the large rock next to the lake, when suddenly a large black shape came bounding out of the small cave at the far end of the clearing.

“There you are bud.” Hiccup said hurriedly as the large dragon approached and began nuzzling his clothes. “I don’t have fish,” he said, “But we have a big problem. I've been chosen to be the one to fight the Monstrous Nightmare in the ring tomorrow, somehow, but I don’t think I can fight a dragon let alone kill one. Plus I don't even want to, ever since…”

Hiccup started to pace back and forth in front of Toothless, continuing to ramble as the dragon merely stared at him with what seemed to be a concerned expression. Eventually Hiccup turned to face Toothless and said in a panicked and out of breath voice, “What are we gonna do?” Toothless was quiet for a few seconds before making a quiet rumbling sound. Hiccup sighed before wiping the drops of blood off his face and then reaching out at scratching the dragon on the head. “Don’t worry bud. No matter what happens I won’t let them hurt you.”

Suddenly, Toothless’ head snapped toward the entrance of the clearing, causing Hiccup to jump up. He was about to speak when suddenly he heard it too. Footsteps. And they were close. Running over to Toothless, he began pushing him towards the cave. “Hide!” He whispered loudly. They both turned and ran towards the cave from which Toothless had come earlier. The cave was not very deep, but it was dark enough that hopefully Toothless could remain unseen. The dragon curled up behind the largest boulder they could find by the rear of the cave, and Hiccup sat as close to him as he could. Toothless then unfurled one of his wings and spread it out to cover both of them.

Just as Hiccup peaked out above the wing, a figure appeared from the entrance of the clearing. As soon as Hiccup saw the long braid of blonde hair he knew who it was. Astrid. He tried to stay as hidden as possible as he watched her pace around the clearing, closely inspecting every nook and cranny, shining axe in hand. Slowly, she worked her way closer and closer to the cave, until eventually it seemed she was right on top of them. He ducked behind the cover of Toothless’ wing and pressed himself as close to the dragon as possible. He tried to stay as still and quiet as possible, although he couldn’t tell how quiet he was over the pounding of his own heart in his head. Then, he heard a footstep. And then another. And another. Each one coming closer and closer to where the pair hid. Hiccup silently prayed to whatever god could hear him to keep Toothless hidden.

All of a sudden a voice rang out from outside the clearing. The footsteps stopped and then he heard Astrid return to the mouth of the cave.

“Yeah?” She yelled out. The voice then yelled again, posing a question that Hiccup couldn’t discern. His best guess was that it maybe sounded like Ruffnut yelling something about Stoick? Before he could figure out what was said Astrid suddenly yelled, “Alright I’m coming.” before continuing to walk away.

Not daring to move Hiccup stayed where he was, curled up next to Toothless, for an eternity. It could have been 5 minutes, or maybe 20, or possibly even an hour. After what seemed like days, he slowly lifted his head up and stared out of the mouth of the cave into the clearing. It was empty. He stood up and then slowly walked to the mouth of the cave, with Toothless at his heels. He looked around, scanning every inch of the cove. She was gone.

Hiccup let out a loud sigh before sitting on the floor and burying his head in his hands. He almost started to cry but then Toothless pushed his head into Hiccup's hands and began to lick them. Hiccup let out a small chuckle before the solemn look returned to his face. “What the hell have I gotten myself into.” He said quietly. “I thought that people would actually like me now, that Dad would finally want me to be his son, that I could actually be someone for once.” He stood up and began to pace around. “But no,” he said, “because I’m HICCUP FUCKING HADDOCK AND I CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT!” He screamed into the air, before crashing back to the ground. He began to feel tears well up in his eyes. “Maybe I never should have shot you down.” He muttered. He looked up at Toothless who had sat down in front of him. He stared into his large green eyes and felt a strange mix of emotions. “No.” He said fiercely. “You are the best thing that has happened to me and besides, it's too late to do anything now.” He wiped his eyes with his sleeve as reached out and began scratching Toothless on the head, causing the dragon to purr. Or whatever the dragon equivalent was. 

He took a deep breath and began to weigh all of his options to figure out what to do next. He would have to find a new place for Toothless, first of all, now that this place had been discovered. Deeper into the forest maybe. He could do that tonight and then in the morning he could talk his father out of forcing him to fight the Monstrous Nightmare. And then he could-. Could what. Continue to keep Toothless hidden in the woods forever? Continue to never fight a dragon and be seen as a weakling forever. Continue to be hated by his father. 

He lay back and stared up at the late afternoon sky. The sky. He looked over at Toothless. “Hey bud.” He said. The dragon's head perked up. “Want to go flying?”

Astrid was furious as she stormed through the forest. Not only had that boy stolen her chance to actually kill a dragon, and a Monstrous Nightmare at that, but then he had the gall to disappear into the forest while she trailed him. She knew he was cheating somehow, he had to be, and she was going to figure out how.

“Um, Astrid?” She heard Ruffnut say. “We’re here”. Astrid looked up. She was so engrossed in her anger that she didn’t even notice that she had followed Ruff all the way back to the Great Hall, where Stoick waited. She took a deep breath before taking Ruffnut and walking up the stairs and inside.

As she entered she immediately spotted Stoick, his large stature made that easy, however he wasn’t alone. There were many people milling about the tables but Stoick himself was talking to a small group of people, including Gobber, Spitelout, Gothi (although the elder wasn’t doing much talking), and a few others, and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Astrid approached before greeting the group.

“Astrid.” Stoick said in his usual overly loud and booming voice. “Good to see ya lass.”

“Ruffnut said you wished to speak to me sir?” She said, still wondering what he could want to speak to her about.

“Aye I did.” Stoick said, placing his tankard of what was presumably mead on the nearest table. “I know you were hoping to fight the Monstrous Nightmare yourself, but seeing as Hiccup has been chosen for that,” He flashed a small grin over to where Gobber sat, clearly enjoying his son's newfound skill, “I wished to give you something to make up for it. Seeing as you are the brilliant fighter you are.” 

Although Astrid was still mad about this whole deal, and seeing Stoick’s pride didn't help in that matter, this did pique her interest. “A gift, Chief?” She asked.

“Somewhat.” He said. “More of a deal actually.” This made Astrid even more intrigued. “I want you to train Hiccu—”

“WHAT?!?” Astrid yelled incredulously. Her anger flared up once more. “No.” She stated. “I refuse.”

A sigh could be heard from the nearest table. “Let the man speak, lass.” Gobber interjected. “I know what you’re thinking right now but trust me, you’ll be interested.”

Astrid stayed quiet for quite some time before finally speaking. “Fine.” She said, looking up at Stoick. “What’s the deal?”

“I’ve heard from Gobber that while Hiccup does seem to be improving when dealing with the beasts,” He picked up his tankard and took a gulp. “He still is struggling with the actual fighting bit. Especially while fighting people. So I was hoping that you could teach him a bit of your skills once he’s slayed the beast tomorrow, and then once the winter is over, “ He stared pointedly at Astrid. “I’ll take you on my next expedition to find the nest.”

Astrid nearly gasped. Stoick had never taken someone so young on one of those trips. This could be her chance to finally prove herself, and the offer was coming from the Chief himself! But it would mean teaching that, that idiot, how to fight. As she thought of the proposal in her mind, there was movement from her side.

Gobber stood up and moved next to Stoick. “My teaching methods don’t exactly work on the boy, for some reason.” He said. “He never listens, he does what he wants, and he asks too many questions. He needs someone else, someone who he will actually listen to and learn from for once. And we hope he’ll actually listen to you.” He and Stoick shared a knowing look.

Astrid stayed silent, weighing her options for several minutes. Finally she spoke. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

Stoick breathed an internal sigh of relief. “Fantastic.” He said. “Then i’ll let Hiccup know tonight and—”

“No, I'll do it.” Astrid said suddenly. She still needed to confront Hiccup about how he had managed to cheat.

Stoick shared a confused look with Gobber before slowly speaking. “Alright. I’ll leave that to you then.” He and the rest of the people there said their farewells to Astrid before she turned and left the Great Hall. They all then returned to their table and their mead. As they did so, Gobber spoke up.

 “Let’s hope this actually works, Stoick.” He said as he took a sip from his tankard.

“Aye.” Agreed Stoick. “In both regards.” Gobber silently nodded.

Hiccup and Toothless slowly flew far above the frigid seas north of Berk. He had said almost nothing the entire time, merely trying to enjoy his time with Toothless. Finally however, as the sun began to set below the waves, he took a deep breath and spoke. “I think it’s time we headed back, bud.” Toothless gave a disgruntled warble before the pair turned back to the island.

The first stars were beginning to appear in the sky as the two landed back in the clearing. As Hiccup began to take off Toothless’ saddle, the dragon gave an angry huff and lay down rather aggressively in the dirt. “I know bud.” Hiccup said. “I wish we could fly forever too.” He sadly unhooked it and moved it off to the side.

Wait. Why couldn’t they fly forever? It was becoming increasingly clear to Hiccup that no matter what he tried to do he could never exactly fit in with the other vikings. They would never want him anyway. If he and Toothless simply left Berk then everything would be solved. He wouldn’t have to fight the Monstrous Nightmare, his father wouldn’t have to deal with his disappointment of a son, and he wouldn’t be bullied by the others anymore. Hiccup’s mind raced as he thought of the possibilities. He would still have to return home to grab his stuff, as well as some food and anything else he could need, but if they left tonight they could be miles away by sunrise, even more so before anybody would notice that he was gone. 

He told Toothless to wait in the clearing, and that he would be back. He exited the clearing and began to walk back through the forest towards his house. It didn’t take long to exit the forest, as he was so engrossed in his own mind, but as he walked towards his front door he didn't notice the figure approaching from behind.

“Hey!” Hiccup heard them yell. He turned around to find Astrid walking briskly toward him with an angry look on her face and axe in hand.

“A-Astrid.” Hiccup stammered. “What are you doing here?” 

Astrid stopped in front of him, brandishing her axe. It softly shone in the moonlight. “How did you do it.” She said angrily. 

Hiccup stared blankly at her for a few seconds. “Do what?” He asked.

“Don’t play dumb.” Astrid stated. “No one can get that good at something that fast. Especially not you, and especially not with dragons.”

So that's what she wanted. Hiccup’s mind raced to find some excuse, anything she would believe, but it could come up with nothing. So he just lied.

“I don’t know. I guess I got lucky.” He said. It's not like it would matter what she believed once he left. He just needed her to not chop off his head until then.

Astrid scoffed. “I don’t know what you're hiding, but I'm going to find it.” She said angrily, once again pointing her axe at him.

“O-ok.” Hiccup said, staring at the axe. “Can I, go now?” He wanted to leave this conversation as soon as possible.

“No.” Astrid said as she lowered her axe. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and looking at Hiccup. “Stoick wants me to teach you how to fight. Noon, in the ring, in two days. If you are even a second late I am going to kill you.” She said, before turning around and walking away without another word.

Hiccup merely stood there, mouth open, as he processed what she said. Astrid was going to teach him how to fight? The Astrid? Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

“Y-You never were the worst.” He said.

Astrid wheeled around. “What?” She said, confused.

“Out of all the people here who hated me, you weren’t the worst.” Hiccup repeated. “Sure, you ignored me, maybe even hated me, but you never bullied me like the others did.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Astrid asked, even more confused now.

Hiccup sighed. “Don’t worry about it.” He said. “Doesn't matter.”

Astrid simply stared at him, a confused expression on her face, before turning back around and walking away, shaking her head as she went.

Realizing that he was just standing out in the open Hiccup turned and walked into his house, closing the door behind him. As he did so he began to think about what Astrid had said. Maybe if she taught him how to fight things would be different. His dad would listen to him and the others would like him even more. Hiccup walked up the stairs and to his room as he thought. He was so entranced in his own mind that he didn’t even hear the front door open. Suddenly there was a knock on his door.

“Son?” Hiccup heard a gruff voice say. He walked over to his door and opened it. There stood the large and overbearing frame of his father, Stoick the Vast. His father squeezed his way through the door frame before standing up as much as he could in the small room. They both stared at each other for a second before Stoick spoke.

“I wanted to talk to you about your fight tomorrow.” He said. Hiccup’s heart sank in his chest. “I can’t wait to see how you’re going to kill that beast!” Stoick said excitedly, not even noticing the crestfallen expression on his son's face. “And believe me, it only gets better! Just wait til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time. And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear. What a feeling!” He laughed and smacked Hiccup on the shoulder, causing him to wince in pain. “You really had me going there, son.” Stoick said, calming down. “All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough. I almost gave up on you! And all the while, you were holding out on me! Thor almighty!” Stoick grabbed the stool from Hiccup’s desk nearby and struggled to take a seat. “Ahhhhh. With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about.” He looked at Hiccup expectantly. They both stared at each other for a long time, until Hiccup coughed, trying to break the awkward silence. “Oh, I... brought you something.” Said Stoick, speaking up. Reaching behind himself he pulled out a small, horned helmet, and presented it to Hiccup. “To keep you safe in the ring.” He said quietly. 

“Wow.” Hiccup muttered, looking over the helmet. “Thanks.” 

“Your mother would've wanted you to have it. It's half of her breast plate.” Stoick said, before tapping his own. “Matching set. Keeps her close, y'know?”

Hiccup says nothing as he looks back and forth between the two helmets.

“Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal.” Stoick said as he gave a small smile. The two stayed that way for quite some time, with Hiccup looking at his helmet, and Stoick looking at his son. Finally Hiccup spoke up.

“I should really get to bed.” He said, forcing out a yawn. 

“Aye.” Stoick agreed. He tried to stand up, hitting his head on the ceiling in the process. “Big day tomorrow. You’re gonna kill your first beast!” He said excitedly. 

“Right.” Hiccup muttered. “Gonna kill it.” 

Stoick squeezed his way back through the door frame before turning around. “Get enough rest.” He said before reaching forward and closing the door.

“Don’t worry I will.” Hiccup said to no one in particular. He stayed standing, staring at the door for a couple seconds before sitting on his bed. Looking at the helmet in his hands, he lay down and stared at the ceiling. He can’t stay here. Even if Astrid did teach him how to fight, it would only be for one purpose. Killing dragons. No matter how much he improved, no matter how much he did, he could never be accepted for that one simple reason. He would never kill a dragon. 

He stood up and walked around his room, taking note of everything he had. Then he walked to his closet and pulled out a leather bag. Opening it, he began to grab everything he thought he would need and stuff it inside. His notebooks and pencils, a knife, his jacket, some uneaten food left on his desk, everything he could. Then, once he was done, he walked over to the small window over his bed and opened it. He put both legs through before stopping. Turning around, he gave his room one last look. He turned back around, ducked through the window frame and jumped.

He landed hard, with pain shooting through both feet, but he rolled to absorb most of the impact. Jumping up he began to run into the woods where Toothless hid. In one hand he had the small leather bag, and in the other, was a small horned helmet. 

It was coming close to midnight by the time Hiccup had arrived at the clearing where Toothless was. The dragon immediately bounded over to Hiccup and began sniffing the bag. “Hey bud” He said, yanking the bag out of the dragon's reach. “Don’t eat that. We’re gonna need it.” Sighing, he walked over to where Toothless’ saddle lay. “We’re leaving bud.” He said. “We have to." He tied the saddle to Toothless and attached it to the tail rig before climbing on. “You ready?” He asked Toothless, receiving an excited warble from below. “Alright then.” He said as he grabbed the reins, and the pair launched into the sky. 

The two floated above the island as Hiccup took one last look at his home below. As he gazed over the island he notice one bright light still shining in the middle of the town. The forge. Gobber was probably still working late into the night, as he always did, most likely preparing for the fight tomorrow. The fight that was never going to happen. Hiccup felt a pang of sadness shoot through his heart as he thought about the old blacksmith. Gobber was perhaps the only person on Berk who Hiccup actually enjoyed spending time with. Stubborn though he was, he had taught Hiccup how to use his hands in the forge, and had been more of a father figure than Stoick ever bothered to try to be.

Gazing down at the forge, Hiccup slowly took a deep breath and opened his mouth. “Goodbye Gobber.” He said softly. Then, with a flick of his foot the pair turned, and began to fly south.

Chapter Text

Astrid swung her axe hard, burying it into the wood of the tree in front of her. She then ripped it out by the handle and spun around before throwing the axe as hard as she could into the next nearest tree, causing it to slam violently into the bark. As she trained, she kept replaying the conversation she had the night before with Stoick in her head. She had stupidly agreed to that deal, and now she was stuck teaching that idiot until spring came. She pulled her axe out of the nearest tree she had attempted to murder, and sat on a fallen log to rest. No it would be worth it, she decided. She may not be able to kill the Monstrous Nightmare today but she would more than make up for her lost glory when the next trip to the nest came.

Right, Hiccup was going to fight the dragon in the ring today. She would probably be in a lot of trouble if she was late to that. Sighing, she stood up, and returned the axe to her back as she began to walk back to the village.

As she walked she started to think about the other conversation last night that had her even more confused. What the hell had Hiccup been talking about? She knew the boy was weird but this was a new level of strange even for him. Maybe it would be better to not try to understand his mind.

Emerging from the forest, Astrid started to make her way to the ring, weaving through houses until she reached the nearest road, joining the small crowd of people milling about as they waited for the fight to start. Wait, but something was wrong. It was normal to see people gossiping in the streets, viking liked to gossip, especially Berkians, but today something was off. Some were rapidly speaking in hushed tones, others were glancing around nervously, as if something was wrong, and most seemed on edge. Confused, Astrid approached the nearest viking she could find, and tapped them on the shoulder.

“Hey what's going o-” She started to say.

“FIND HIM! NOW!” Someone behind her yelled. Wheeling around Astrid spotted the culprit. Stoick the Vast was storming down the street, a furious expression on his face, mixed with, was that concern? Hurrying up the road she ran up next to the chief. 

“Stoick, what's happening?” She asked, confused.

“Astrid! Lass, do you know where he is?” Stoick asked hurriedly, grabbing her by the shoulders.

“Who?” she asked, gently pushing his hands off of her shoulders.

“Hiccup!” Stoick said loudly. “No one can find him! Not even Gobber, who has checked his usual places.”

“Stoick, relax.” Astrid said calmly. “He probably got nervous and wanted to be alone before the fight.”

“The boy was supposed to be in the ring preparing nearly an hour ago.” Stoick said. “Not even someone as foolish as him would dare to be so late to something this important.” 

“Calm down Stoick.” Astrid said slowly. “I know of one last place he might be hiding.”

Astrid sighed as she walked around the clearing. For some reason Stoick had decided to bring an entire search party to find Hiccup, half of who were currently combing the forest while the other half, including Astrid and Stoick, searched the clearing she had seen Hiccup run into the day before. She still didn’t know how he had managed to escape her yesterday, but judging by the scraps of metal and leather strewn about, on top of the tools and other miscellaneous items that they had found so far, it was clear that he had spent a considerable amount of time here.

As Astrid gazed around the clearing she suddenly spotted a gleam coming from near one of the boulders. Walking over to it she bent down to get a closer look. It was small and round, only about a quarter the size of her palm, and it was thin too. Most strikingly, it was pitch black.

“Hey Stoick?” She called.

“You found something lass?” Stoick said excitedly as he hurried over.

“Do you recognize this?” Astrid asked as she held up the object.

“Looks like a rock.” Stoick said, holding out his hand.

Astrid placed it in his hand. “I think,” she said, “it's a dragon scale.”

Stoick raised the object to his eyes to get a closer look, before the color drained from his face. “GOBBER!.” He yelled. 

“Aye chief!” Gobber responded from the other side of the clearing.

“Find the rest of the search party and bring them here!” Stoick yelled. “I want this entire area searched! And thoroughly!”

Once the others arrived in the clearing they all began inspecting every corner of the clearing. Every once in a while someone would yell out ‘Found one!’, as they found another one of the strange black scales. By the end, in total they had about 30 of the things, but despite this no one could identify what beast they came from. Not even Fishlegs, who had read the dragon manual front to back several times over could identify from who they came. That was until someone spoke up.

“Hey chief.” Said Gobber. “I'm usually not one to begin theorizing and thinking about these kinda things.” He paused and took a deep breath. “But d’ya think those are from the Night Fury?”

No one spoke for several seconds, although they all took an even closer look at the scales. While no one has ever seen the beast, no one can think of where else they could have come from.

“I swear to Odin.” Stoick said slowly, an immeasurable amount of malice filling his voice. “If that dragon has touched my son, there will be hell to pay.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Said Astrid calmly. “It could be nothing.”

“Uhh, Stoick?” Said Fishlegs worriedly. Looking over, Astrid saw him standing towards the back of the group staring at the ground. The entire group hurried over to where he stood, crowding around whatever he was looking at.

“Out of the way.” Stoick said, as he pushed his way past the others, Astrid close at his heels. As they reached where Fishlegs stood, they looked down at what he was looking at. There, scattered around his feet, were several small drops of blood.

Chapter Text

Hiccup shivered as he bent down closer to Toothless' back, trying to feel as much of the dragons body heat as possible. They were racing through the night, trying to get as much distance between them and Berk as possible before anybody noticed he had left, but that meant flying through the unbearably cold northern nights, and combined with the wind shear, Hiccup was nearly frozen to the core.

He had decided to fly South in order to escape the Archipelago as soon as possible so none of Berks allies would spot him, but that meant flying over the open ocean where there were few suitable islands to land. From his many lengthy conversations with Johan the trader he knew the mainland was south, but how far he had never asked.

Looking up he saw the first few rays of sunlight peaking over the horizon to his right, causing him to sigh with relief, knowing he would start to warm up soon. Glancing back over to where the sun was rising, he noticed that they were actually heading more Southeast, rather than South. they had probably drifted during the night, but hopefully they would still find the mainland right? He had heard it was really big, but he didn't now how big.

They flew for another hour or so, enjoying the little warmth the sun brought as it rose, when suddenly, Hiccup saw it. Land.

"There! We did it bud!" Hiccup said excitedly, pointing at the landmass rising on the horizon. The pair watched as the land slowly came close into view. It looked somewhat like Berk did, but it seemed to stretch forever. The coast was made of small rocky cliffs, but the land itself was large rolling, grassy plains and marshlands that stretched until they reached the large snowcapped mountains that rose in the background.

As much as Hiccup wanted to land as soon as possible, there was just nothing here. He saw no people or animals, aside from a few birds around the coast, and so he and Toothless turned East to follow the coastline until they found something, anything.

Their efforts were not in vain, as soon they saw small shapes arise in the distance. Hiccup felt his heart start to beat faster as they approached the small town. He admittedly had not thought this far ahead, and now his mind raced as he tried to figure out what to do. He flew upwards, above the thick grey clouds that covered the town, attempting to give himself time to think.

He definitely couldn't just land in the town. If these people were anything like those on Berk he would be attacked immediately. He also thought about landing outside the town and having just himself enter the town but these plains were so open that there was no place to hide Toothless.

As he thought about his situation, he suddenly felt Toothless perk up.

"What it is bud." He asked, scratching the dragon on the head. Without warning, Toothless shot forward at full speed before diving through the thick cloud cover. Hiccup grabbed the front of the saddle and hugged his body as close to Toothless' as possible as the dragon gained speed. Doing his best not to scream he opened his eyes, which he hadn't notice had been squeezed shut, and looked up.

As they broke through the clouds, Hiccup first noticed that they had flown past the town, and were now headed straight towards the ground, and a small flock of sheep.

"NO BUD!" Hiccup yelled before yanking the dragon away from his dive and instead faced back to the coast. Spotting a break in the cliffs that instead opened into a small sand beach he aimed for it, before landing there with Toothless.

Letting out a loud sigh he dismounted from his saddle before turning and facing his dragon.

"You can't just surprise me like that bud." He said. "And you definitely can't eat peoples sheep like that. Don't worry, i'll get you some food soon." He would probably have to steal some fish to keep him away from those sheep. Wait, if there was a flock of sheep, then there had to be a shepherd. And unless this shepherd was blind, then they most likely had not missed the massive black dragon dive towards his sheep.

"Well shit." Hiccup muttered. 

The last week Hiccup had spent near this small village had been surprisingly chaotic. It turned out that the little beach they had landed on was a perfect hiding spot. It was a small and rectangular beach that ran along the coastline, but it was still surrounded by cliffs. The cliffs weren't very tall, but they were steep enough that it was pretty much impossible to access without a boat or a dragon. There were also a few outcroppings in the cliff that gave Toothless the perfect space to hide, both from boats and from people looking down from above.

Hiccup had spent the first couple days worrying that someone would find them, especially since he was convinced that the shepherd had seen him, but so far no one had even come near the beach.

Despite all of this both Hiccup and Toothless found themselves not liking the place a whole lot. It rained a lot here, like a lot. Usually daily, and there was a day or two where it rained from dawn until dusk. On top of that, the open flat terrain meant that Toothless couldn't leave the beach unless it was night, but he couldn't even do that when Hiccup was gone. Hiccup had spent the last couple nights sneaking into the village and stealing what he could, once he had started running out of provisions. At first it was just fish for Toothless, but he had also managed to grab some cooked food for for himself, as well as a number of strange coins, mostly copper and silver.

And so here he was again, a week after first landing in this strange land, on the outskirts of the village as the moon rose high overhead, attempting to sneak in. He hadn't interacted at all with the people there, but he could tell that they were very different from the people of Berk. He didn't understand the language they spoke, and while they looked similar to the people he knew, they were much thinner, and their clothes were different. He also noticed a distinct lack of weapons. There had been a couple people he had noticed walking around with swords, but most looked like they had never touched an axe in their life.

Taking a deep breath, Hiccup slowly snuck his way in between two of the houses on the far side of the village, attempting to stay in the shadows. There was nearly a full moon tonight so had to be extra careful not to be seen. He hadn't been to this part of the village yet, but he had decided to move away from where he had been already before anybody noticed their stuff disappearing.

He took note of the buildings around him. So far they were all just houses, which Hiccup didn't dare sneak into. He slowly made his way towards the larger buildings, which were most likely workshops or stores of some kind where there wouldn't be people at this time at night. One by one he checked each building. Most were locked and the few that stored stuff outside had nothing of use or value.

He peered into the shutters of one such shop. It wasn't quite a forge but it was definitely the shop of a blacksmith. There should definitely be metals or tools of value in there. Pulling out his knife he worked it in between the shutters and began to attempt to unlatch it from the outside. It took several minutes but eventually there was a soft clink and it came undone. Putting his hand on one of the shutters he gently pushed it inward slowly, before climbing through the window and into the shop.

Looking around he scanned all the items in the shop. There were a few tools and metal scraps scattered around on the far table, with several more tools hanging on the wall above it. To the left of the shop there was a table where an assorted group of metal objects lay. He saw arrowheads, fishing hooks, nails, and a few other things he didn't recognize. On the right side there were a number of larger objects, a number of spears and a hammer or two, but nothing that Hiccup could feasibly use.

Walking over to where the wall of tools was and started looking over them. He recognized most of them and wondered if he would be able to sell them at another town. He began to reach out to grab it when suddenly he was grabbed by the back of the collar.

Hiccup was wheeled around violently and came face to face with a very large and angry looking man. The man began yelling at Hiccup loudly in a language he couldn't recognize, the smell of alcohol wafting through the air, before throwing Hiccup to the ground. Hitting the ground hard, Hiccup looks up to see the man yelling something out the door before turning around to face Hiccup again.

The man is only about a head taller than Hiccup but is much wider, and clearly much stronger. He has a very large scraggly red beard, yet no hair on his head, and has a furious expression on his face, complemented by bright red cheeks. The man grabbed a hammer off the table next to him and began waving it around in the air while yelling at Hiccup. Not understanding what the man was saying, Hiccup merely stayed on the ground, wondering how he could possibly get out of this situation.

Suddenly the door swung open and in walked another man. Much taller than the first one, he also sported much neater dark brown beard and hair. But what really caught Hiccup's attention was the sword hanging on his hip.

The tall man walked over to the stout, yelling man and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the shorter one to stop yelling and turn around. After exchanging a short conversation, the tall man walked over to where Hiccup sat and crouched down.

"Dè an t-ainm a th’ ort?" He said.

"I-I don't know what you're saying." Hiccup responded nervously, his heart pounding in his chest.

Standing back up the tall man said something to the short man who then turned around and walked out of the door. Confused, Hiccup merely sat on the floor while the tall man merely watched over him. Hiccup considered trying to attack the man with his knife and then making a run for it, but he had never fought before and he definitely couldn't win against a man with that sword. Besides, Hiccup doubted he had the courage to stand near this man let alone fight him.

The door swung open once more after a couple minutes, and in walked the short man. followed by a small, hunched over man. He was balding, with snow white hair and had a cane clutched in both hands. He hobbled his way over to the tall man, who then muttered something. The old man nodded before making is way over to where Hiccup sat. He squinted at the boy for a couple seconds before he began to speak.

"What your name." The old man said slowly.

"You-you speak Norse?" Said Hiccup incredulously.

"Little, little." The old man said, shaking his head. "Name?"

"I-it's Hiccup." He stammered. "But still, how do you know this language."

The old man didn't respond but instead turned to the tall man with the sword and muttered something. Hiccup still had no idea what he said but he definitely heard his own name be said. They continued to speak for a couple seconds until the old man turned back around.

"You leave." The old man said.

"But-" Hiccup began to protest.

"Go East." The old man interrupted. "Find Norse men."

"There are Norse people here?!" Hiccup asked excitedly.

"Orkney Island." The old man confirmed. "East. Must leave now."

"Wait now?" Hiccup asked, panicked. "But I-"

"Must go." The old man said firmly, pointing towards the door, and then towards the man with the sword. "He take you."

Hiccup didn't respond for a several seconds, before looking up at the three figures standing over him. Standing up slowly, he eyed the man with the sword as he walked towards the door. The tall man followed him out before leading him down the main road towards the outskirts of the village. Eventually, once they walked past the last house, the man stopped walking. Turning to face Hiccup he pointed towards the East and simply said, "Orkney."

"T-thanks, I guess." Hiccup said quietly before turning and walking off. As he walked back towards the beach where Toothless waited, he began to think about what he had just learned. Apparently there were other vikings near here, an entire village maybe? He wasn't sure if he was ready to face more vikings yet, but currently he had very little food and money, was in a land where he didn't speak the language, and he didn't actually know where he was. Whatever this settlement was, it was probably his best bet at the moment.

Approaching the beach, Hiccup turned back towards the village to check that the man with the sword wasn't looking, and once he confirmed that he was, began his slow climb down the cliff. Reaching the bottom, he was quickly greeted by the large black dragon waiting for him.

"Hey Toothless!" Hiccup said excitedly. "I know where we're headed next!"

Toothless began thoroughly sniffing Hiccups clothing, clearly looking for food.

"I didn't manage to get any this time bud," Hiccup said, scratching the dragon. "but I found out there there are Vikings here! Hopefully once we get there we can get some proper food."

The dragon gave an excited grumble, clearly excited at the prospect of more food. Hiccup grabbed his bag, now including the couple items he had stolen. Mounting the saddle, he grabbed the rains.

"Lets get out of here before the sun comes up." Hiccup said to Toothless, as the pair launched into the sky. They then turned to the east, and flew off as the sun began to peak over the horizon.

Chapter Text

Hiccup and Toothless circled above the outskirts of Orkney under the cover of darkness. It had only taken until the afternoon for them to reach the coast across from Orkney Island, but they had waited until night to fly to the island in order to keep Toothless hidden. Hiccup didn't know if the vikings here were anything like those on Berk, but he wasn't willing to risk Toothless' life to find out. They probably could have gotten here even faster if they had flown at full speed, but they also had to stop every now and again to ask for directions, being careful not to let Toothless be spotted. He simply asked each person he came across one word, 'Orkney?' Usually they would understand and point him in the right direction.

Once the pair touched down in the woods outside the town, Hiccup dismounted from Toothless and began unloading his stuff.

"Sorry to make you hide again bud." Hiccup said as Toothless began to find a place to lie down. He would go into town in the morning, see if he could find a place to stay or maybe a place to work. He couldn't steal his food for the rest of time.

Sitting down next to where Toothless has settled, he lay back and closed his eyes. Though it had only been a little over a week since his departure from Berk, it felt like he had lived through another lifetime. Back on Berk every day had been the same. Wake up, do chores, be bullied by Snotlout and the twins, help Gobber, receive disappointing looks from his father, and the occasional life threatening screw up whenever there was a dragon attack.

"How do you think Dad reacted when he found out." Hiccup said, looking over to Toothless. The dragon opened his eyes and stared at Hiccup before giving a soft warble. and closing his eyes again "He probably was just disappointed that it happened right as I was getting good in the ring. I bet Snot has already moved on."

He scooted over until his back was resting against Toothless' side.

"Guess we should get some sleep. Long day tomorrow." He muttered. Toothless, with his eyes still closed merely grunted. Clearly he had been trying to do that this entire time.

Hiccup stood at the edge of the forest, gazing at the town in front of him as the sun fully rised over the horizon. Dozens, maybe hundreds of housed were sprawled on the flat lands in front of him. The stretched from the edge of the forest all the way until the coast, possible double or even triple the size of Berk.

"You can do this." He whispered to himself as he exited the safety of the forest and made his way towards what seemed to be the main road. As he approached he noticed two people standing to the side of the main road, and they were armed. They were clearly guards, but one was gazing off lazily into the distance, and the other was practically asleep while leaning on his spear. He had his small knife hidden in his vest, but he had absolutely no chance of taking on either of them.

Taking a deep breath, Hiccup approached as confidently as he could until one of the guards noticed him.

"You lost kid?" The guard said, stifling a yawn. Hiccup suddenly felt hope at hearing someone who could actually speak his language, albeit with a strong accent he didn't recognize.

"N-no." Hiccup said with all the courage he could muster. "Is this Orkney?"

"Yep" The guard nodded. "The one and only."

"Thank you." Hiccup said as he began to walk forwards. He held his breath as he waited for one of the guards to stop him, but they both merely watched him as he continued into the town. It wasn't until he had rounded the corner and was out of sight of both guards the finally began to breathe again.

As Hiccup continued his way deeper into the town, it began to come alive with movement. People began exiting their homes and began groggily making their way up and down the street, most sparing him little more than a glance. Others began opening their windows and shops, and he saw a few removing the laundry they had left out to dry the night before.

While exploring the streets, he marveled at how different this place was from Berk. It seemed so much calmer, with more smiles and joy in the people faces. The children he saw running around were playful and laughing. The people here were also clearly much thinner than those he had known back home, though he saw the occasional man who could rival the average Berkian in both weight and facial hair.

Although Hiccup was itching to run around and explore each and every aspect of this place, the pangs of hunger that shot through his stomach were a very clear reminder of why he was here. He needed food, and a place to stay and for both of those, he needed money. He had the few coins he had stolen from the previous village, but he had no idea how much a room and food were priced here, and plus he had no need for the few items he had stolen so he might as well sell them.

Asking around, he was pointed in the direction of one shop after another, selling everything he could at until finally, as the sun was well over the rooftops, he now had thirteen copper coins, and two silver ones.

He secured his newly acquired coins in the hidden pocket next to his knife before moving onto the problem he could no longer ignore. His hunger. Looking around he approached the first person he saw, an older women taking laundry off a clothes line and placing it in a basket.

"Excuse me ma'am." He said as he approached. "Do you know of a place where I could get some food?." The woman looked up before speaking.

"Nearest place would be the Irvine Inn. It's down the road and to the right." She said, pointing down the length of the street.

"Thank you." Hiccup said. He began to take a step before remembering something else. "Is there also a place to sleep nearby?" He asked.

"Yeah, the same place." The woman said said slowly, a confused expression spreading across her face. "That's what inns are for."

"Oh." Hiccup said, equally as confused. "Thanks anyway. " As he began to walk down the street he thought about what she had said. Back at Berk everyone simply ate in the Great Hall, but no one slept there. Clearly he had more to learn about this place than he thought.

He rounded the corner and continued walking until he noticed it. There, on the right side of the road, there was an unordinary two story building nestled in with all the other buildings around it, and hanging above the doorway was a sign that said in simple writing, Irvine Inn.

Making his way to the door, he pushed it open and walking inside. It opened to a single large room, dotted full of table and chairs, a few of which were occupied by people, talking and laughing among themselves, completely ignoring Hiccup's presence. In the back of the room there was a small bar with a few empty glasses on it and stools in front, and there was a single closed door. There was also a small brick fireplace to the left wall, and a staircase leading to the second floor.

As Hiccup took in the sight before him, the door behind the bar swung open. Out walked an old woman holding a full plate of food in front of her. She wore a light blue dress under a well worn apron, and her grey hair was tucked neatly under the white cap she wore, but the most striking thing was the small smile on her face that was matched by the expression in her eyes.

As the woman rounded the bar she notice Hiccup standing in the doorway and locked eyes with him.

"Be with ya in a moment dear!" She said cheerily before walking over to a table where two men sat, and placing the plate of food in front of them. Wiping her hands on her apron, she made her way through the tables in the direction of where Hiccup stood.

Though Hiccup could clearly see the wrinkled on her face, she weaved through the tables as if she had the energy of a much younger woman.

"How can I help ya?" She said with a smile as she stopped in front of Hiccup. Although Hiccup had originally taken her to be a short old woman, she seemed to be almost the exact same hight as him.

"Uhh" Hiccup said, nearly forgetting why he was there in the first place. "H-how much is it for a place to sleep here?"

"One copper a night." She said.

"And what about food?" Hiccup asked, his stomach gurgling with excitement.

"It's included with the room." The old woman said. "This your first time at an inn?"

"Yes actually." He said.

"Well you do seem a bit young." The woman said, looking him over. "Do ya want a room then?"

"Yes please." Hiccup said hurridly, pulling a copper coin out of his vest and handing it to the woman.

"Follow me then dear." She said as she turned and began to make her way through the maze of tables to make it to the stairs.

Making it to the top of the stairs, Hiccup saw that it was a hallway that stretched from the stairs to the back wall, and another hallway that was directly left of the top of the stairs, and went until it hit the side wall. He followed the woman down the hall that went to the left, until the had reached the very last room. She opened the door and took a step back, allowing Hiccup to enter the room. The only things in the room were a small bed in the back right with a small desk directly to its left, a dresser on the left wall, and a window directly above it, although it only gave a view of the wall of the next building over.

"Breakfast well be downstairs when you're ready dear." The old woman said before closing the door.

Hiccup took a look around the room before sitting on the bed. It felt weird, sitting on a bed again after sleeping out in the open for weeks, but now he had one, at least for the time being. He began to look through the dresser and the desk, but the rumbling of his stomach forced him to leave and make his way downstairs.

As he reached the ground floor he saw the old woman wiping down the bar with a rag, and noticed that most of the other people from earlier were no longer there. The old woman noticed him come down the stairs and smiled at him.

"Take a seat, I'll go grab some food." The old woman said before she walked through the door behind the bar.

Taking a seat at one of the round tables, Hiccup waited until the old woman came back through the door with a tray. Walking over to his table she placed it in front of him. It consisted of a glass of milk, a piece of bread, a bowl of porridge and an apple. While it wasn't much compared to the amount of food the vikings ate back on Berk, compared to the stale rations Hiccup had been eating for the last week after grabbing them from Berk, it looked heavenly.

Grabbing the spoon, he began eating the porridge as fast as he could without burning his mouth, causing the old woman to chuckle. As he moved on to the piece of bread she spoke.

"So what's a young man like yourself doing here with no parents." She asked, taking a seat across from him.

Hiccup merely shrugged before speaking. "Exploring I guess." He said, his mouth full of bread.

"Exploring?" She repeated.

Hiccup nodded.

"Where are you coming from then." She asked.

Hiccup looked up from his meal but hesitated before he spoke. "North." He said.

The old woman inspected his face with a curious look on her face. "Alright then." She said finally, struggling a bit to get up from her seat. "I'll let you finish your food then."

"Wait!" Hiccup said suddenly, hurriedly swallowing the last of the bread. "Do I call you Mrs. Irvene, since that's the name of the inn?"

"That is my name." She said with a smile. "But please, call me Cecile. Or Mother Cecile, as some people have taken to calling me. And what do I call you?"

"Uhh, I'm Hiccup." He said nervously.

"I've never heard that name before." Mother Cecile said, puzzled. "I like it."

"Oh." Hiccup said. No one had ever like his name before. He hated it himself some days. "Thank you."

"I'll let you finish your breakfast, dear." She said before walking away.

"Thank you for the food!" Hiccup called as she walked away. He turned back to his food but merely looked at it for a bit. He liked Mrs. Irvine.

Hiccup groaned as he looked through his money supply. In the past week he had been here, he had spent most of his copper coins. Most of it had gone to paying Mrs. Irvine for the room, but he had also payed three coins to use the local bath house, and he had spent one of his silver coins on various new clothes. He still had two copper coins, and one silver coin left, but he was now realizing that sooner or later he was going to have to find a way to make some money.

He made his way down the stairs, planning to go out and ask around to see if anyone would hire a fourteen year old boy, when he noticed a person sitting at the bar. As Hiccup reached the bottom step, he took a second look at the short blond and dark stubble along his jaw before realizing that the man was Arthur Irvine.

Hiccup found out, on his second day at the inn, that Mrs. Irvine had two grandchildren living with her. One was Caela, the younger of the two who was only a little over a year older than Hiccup himself. She helped Mrs. Irvine run the inn, and had been quite nice to Hiccup whenever the two talked.

The other grandchild was Arthur. He was almost 5 years older than Hiccup, and spent most of his day working, leaving in the mornings before the sun rose, and returning late into the night. Hiccup had only met him once so far, and Arthur had barely even glanced at him.

But this time, as Hiccup made his way down the stairs, Arthur noticed him.

"You're that kid right?" Arthur said as he took a swig from the tankard he was holding, although he didn't turn to face him. "The one Grandma keeps talking about."

"Uhh, yes?" Hiccup said, surprised that Arthur was talking to him, given how their first meeting had gone.

"I'm Arthur." He said, turning his head to Hiccup before giving a nod. "Didn't really get to say much last time."

"I-i'm Hiccup." He said nervously. "It's fine, by the way. You seemed pretty tired last time."

Arthur gave a small chuckle.

"I thought Mrs. Irving said you worked during the day." Hiccup said, curious as to why he was finally seeing him in the middle of the day of all times.

"Boss gave me the day off." Arthur said, taking another drink from the tankard in his hands. "I think he's just too hungover today."

Hiccup nearly laughed at the irony.

"Well, enjoy Orkney then. Not a bad town." Said Arthur.

"Thank you." Hiccup said, before turning to walk out the door. Suddenly, a though crossed his mind and he stopped walking.

"C-can I ask for a favor?" He said nervously.

"Sure." Arthur said, spinning around in his stool to face Hiccup.

"Do you know of a place I can get a job around here?" Hiccup asked.

"Depends." Arthur said. "You got any skills?"

"I uh, I used to be a blacksmiths apprentice." Hiccup admitted, immediately thinking of

Gobber.

Arthur said nothing for a second, before finally speaking up.

"Well there is a blacksmith nearby, and he doesn't have an apprentice." Arthur said slowly. "But he's not the easiest person to work with. Honestly he'd be kicked out of his job if there was anyone else who could do it."

"I can handle difficult people." Hiccup said, picturing his father. "I just need some money."

"Alright." Arthur said, getting up from his stool. "Follow me then."

The pair made their way through the streets of the town, making turns here and there. it was midday, and the town was bustling with activity. People walked up and down each street, market stalls had popped up in front of different businesses, and shop owners were attempting to sell their wares.

Eventually the two stopped in front of a rather unremarkable building. It had a rather large chimney and it was only a single story but a single look through the front window showed no activity.

"Well this is it." Arthur said. "If this doesn't work out i'll see if theres anyone else who needs help."

"Are you not coming in too?" Hiccup asked, suddenly becoming much more nervous.

"No way." Arthur said with a chuckle. "I haven't had near enough alcohol to deal with him. Good luck though!"

And with that he turned around and walked away, leaving Hiccup standing alone in the middle of the road. Turning back to face the worn shop, he took a deep breath and walked forward. As soon as he opened the door and crossed into the threshold, a voice rang out from the back corner of the room.

"FUCK OFF YA RAT BASTARD! I'M NOT FIXIN' IT AGAIN!"

Hiccup strained to see the figure sitting in the dark. Sitting slumped over in a chair wedged into the back corner of the room, sat a man. He was somehow both fat and muscular at the same time, and had a large brown beard that rivaled Stoick's. He wore a worn and dirty leather apron, and held an empty bottle in one hand. His cheeks were bright red, his eyes foggy and even from the other side of the room, Hiccup could very much smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Uhh I-I was told you're the blacksmith right?" Hiccup asked nervously, doing his best not to stutter the entire time.

"Oh. Thought ya were that Norward kid again." The man said, slurring his words as he struggled to sit up in his chair. "Keeps breaking that damn sword."

The man stubbled as he heaved himself out of the chair. He slowly made his way closer to where Hiccup stood, occasionally grabbing the wall or a table to keep himself from falling. As he came into the light that shone through the window, Hiccup got a better look at the man's face. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and there were grey streaks that ran through his hair and beard. Small scars covered his arms, most likely from years of blacksmithing.

"The fuck you want." The man said gruffly. He attempted to take a swig from the bottle in his hand, but after realizing it was empty, he quickly discarded it on a nearby table.

"I was wondering if I could work for you." Hiccup asked, his heart pounding in his chest. The man was only a couple inches taller than Hiccup, his presence was so intimidating that it made Hiccup want to run.

"No." The man said suddenly. He turned and began to walk away,

"Wait sir, please. I have experience in a blacksmith, I used to be an apprentice." Hiccup pleaded. Making things was basically Hiccups only skill that he could use to make money. He would be hard pressed to find a job elsewhere.

"I have no need for some apprentice." The man grumbled. He searched the shop until found some other bottle nearby and began to drink from it.

"I don't mind doing chores sir. I'll do all the small work you'll let me, even if its just cleaning. I mostly sharpened weapons as an apprentice anyway." Hiccup said.

"Why should I." The man said, turning back around to face Hiccup.

"S-sir, I heard that your store is not very popular these days." Hiccup stammered. As soon as he said this the expression on the man's face darkened. He knew saying this was a gamble but he needed this job. "If I worked for you maybe I could help with the smaller things so you could focus on blacksmithing and the store."

The two stared at each other for several seconds before the man finally spoke.

"Gutsy little bastard aren't ya." He muttered before sighing. "Fine."

"Really?!" Hiccup asked excitedly.

"Ya got two week to impress me. Otherwise yer leaving." The man said, turning back and walking towards the door at the back of the shop. "You can start by cleaning this place up."

"Yes sir!" Hiccup said excitedly. He had gotten the job.

Chapter Text

Hiccup pulled his hood up over his head as the snowflakes began to fall. He watched the steam leave his mouth as he breathed, and listen to the soft crunch of snow beneath his boots as he walked.

It had been a little over four months since he had gotten the job working for Kieron the blacksmith, and he found himself quite enjoying this town. Kieron had let him continue working at the forge, seemingly impressed by his work ethic although he didn't show it very often, and had even recently let him help sharpen and repair the tools and weapons that made their way into the shop. Kieron still loved to drink, but he always seemed to sober up some whenever he started working.

Winter had started shortly after Hiccup had arrived in the town, but it was really in full swing now. It snowed heavily most days, almost as much as Berk, and Hiccup had recently been recruited by Arthur to help shovel the snow off the main roads. It payed worse than the forge, but they didn't get much business in the winter anyway.

He was now making his way back to the Irvine Inn after spending some time with Toothless. He had very quickly learned that dragons didn't come here, and that most people didn't believe they existed, which was fine by him. He flew with Toothless most nights, and visited him as much as he could, but he was still being very careful not to be caught.

Hiccup hurried up his pace as he rounded the corner into the view of the Irvine Inn. He exchanged a couple greetings with people here and there, but no one stayed long to talk, especially not in this weather.

He luckily reached the door to the inn just as the wind really began to pick up and shoved his way inside. He pulled down his hood and began to shake the snow off of his boots.

"Hey Hiccup!" Caela greeted cheerfully from behind the bar.

"Morning Caela." Hiccup said, walking over to where she stood.

"Arthur putting you to work again?" She asked, as she continued to organize the glasses behind the bar.

"Hey we at least get payed for it." He said. "Speaking of, can you give this to Mrs. Irving when you get a chance?" He pulled a number of coins out of his pocket and handed them to her. "It's this weeks payment."

"Of course." She responded with a smile.

"Thank you." Hiccup said as he made his way towards the stairs. Once inside his room, he took off his cloak and hung it over the chair by the desk before taking a seat on the bed. He pulled the remaining coins out of his pocket and counted them before adding them to the ever growing collection in his desk drawer.

Letting out a small sigh, he lied back in his bed and pulled out his sketchbook and a charcoal pencil. Toothless' tail rig was starting to rust, and it was about time he upgraded it anyway. He had learned a lot more about how Toothless' tail worked ever since they had started flying so much more, and he had many improvements whirling through his mind that he was itching to get onto paper.

As he sketched, he thought about what he wanted to do in the future. As much as he liked this town, he couldn't stay here for forever. He couldn't live with Toothless here, and keeping in the woods forever was completely not an option. Once the snow melted they would leave, find someplace for just the two of them, but before that could happen he needed money.

But there was also one other reason that he needed some money. His birthday was in a few days He never got much for his birthday back on Berk, so this year he was going to get something nice. What exactly, he had no idea, but he was going to get something.

After a while, he figured he should probably go check in on Kieron, and see if there was anything else that should be done. Closing his notebook, he placed it back on the desk and left the room, grabbing his cloak as he went. As he walked down the stairs, he noticed that Arthur was now in the main room too, talking with Caela. As he reached the bottoms of the steps Arthur noticed him.

"Hey Hiccup, I was just looking for you." Arthur said, turning to face him.

"Oh yeah? What for." Hiccup responded.

"I've got another opportunity for you to make some money if you're interested."

"Of course I am." He could always use more money.

"Great. Follow me." Arthur said as he made his way towards the front door.

"A boat of vikings docked here the other day. Apparently they just came back from some raids with considerable less crew than they started with, and need some more hands to help with repairs and stuff." Arthur explained as the two made their way through the snow covered main street. Although the wind blew so hard that it stung against their skin, the travelers cloaks the pair wore was enough to keep the worst of the cold at bay.

"They were in raids?" Hiccup asked, confused. He was very sure that there were no dragons raids around here.

"Well yeah, they're vikings." Arthur said, as if it was obvious. "You know, they go around raiding and pillaging places, and then they come back home with their riches."

As the two made their way to the docks, Hiccup tried to wrap his mind around the concept, as Arthur kept explaining. He knew that different tribes back in the archipelago often fought each other, but he had never heard of vikings who exclusively attacked places in order to make money. What was even more confusing was that only those who raided and pillaged were called vikings. Everyone else called themselves norse, or norsemen. Back on Berk everyone was just a viking. This whole thing was very strange.

Finally, as they reached the docks, Hiccup saw these vikings. The longship they stood on and around reminded him of the ones back on Berk, if not a little bigger. The men themselves looked pretty much the same as the vikings he knew back home, except that they were a little smaller, and their helmets didn't have horns.

Arthur began to walk in front of him as they stepped onto the dock itself, and he approached one of the vikings who was on the dock. They exchanged a few quick words before Arthur turned back to Hiccup.

"Hiccup this is Thorfinn, the leader of these vikings." Arthur said. "Thorfinn, this is Hiccup, the kid I was talking about."

"Nice to meet you." Hiccup greeted, extending his arm for a handshake. Thorfinn was a short, yet stout man, who wore rather ragged leather and wool clothes, compared to the leather and chainmail worn by the others. His hair was blond and ragged, falling past his chin, and he stood pretty much eye to eye with Hiccup.

"This ship took quite the beating in a storm on out was back." Thorfinn said, wasting no time in getting down to business. "Half of our mast rigging is shot, and our steerboard gets stuck if its turned too far. Arthur here said you were smart. Think you can fix them?"

"U-uhh" Hiccup managed to stammer out. He was starting to feel kinda overwhelmed at this point, but he knew he would get payed for this. "I-I have no idea what those are but I can at least take a look at them."

"If you can fix them I'll make sure you're payed well." Thorfinn said. "I'll have one of my men show you the problems."

"Oh, I have to check in on the forge first. Just to make sure Kieron's fine for now." Hiccup said quickly. He didn't want to be fired from his best source of income, plus he needed the forge to make the new rig for Toothless. Not to mention the fact that he simply enjoyed making things in the forge.

"You're a blacksmith?" Thorfinn asked, confused.

"An apprentice." Hiccup admitted, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. He was aware that he didn't look like the blacksmith type.

"Can you get us some new weapons? We lost some here and there over the past couple months."

Hiccup was slightly taken aback. He didn't think Thorfinn would believe him. "If you pay for them sure."

Thorfinn nodded. "That I can do."

"I'll head over to the forge before taking a look at the boat then." Hiccup said to Arthur.

"Sure." Arthur said. "I'm gonna go ahead and help Thorfinn's men start unloading."

Hiccup then said goodbye to both men, and thanked Thorfinn for the opportunity before heading back up the main road towards the main road. With more money from this, maybe he could splurge a bit more on his birthday.

Grabbing a hand full of coins out of the desk drawer, he quickly shut it and hurried down the stairs. As he made his way towards the front door he heard a voice ring out from behind him.

"Where are you headed in such a hurry?" Mother Cecily asked as he reached the door and opened.

"I've gotta buy something." Hiccup called back as he closed the door behind him. He had been working back and forth between Thorfinn and Kieron for the past couple days, and had already gotten the vikings new weapons and had fixed the mast rigging. But today he was taking the day off, because it was his birthday.

Hurrying through town he made his way in and out of different shops one by one, grabbing a few items here and there and putting them in his bag. By the time he was done, he ended up with some new pencils, various small tools, and a new pair of fox skin gloves, which had set him back quite a few coins.

As he made his way towards the outskirts of the town, he marveled at his new purchases. His gifts back on Berk were always very small, with the only people who ever got him stuff was Gobber and his father. Gobber could never get him much, and his father rarely put much thought into his gifts each year. There had even been a year or two where he had forgotten. But now, he was able to get himself what he wanted, and he loved it.

Squeezing his way between two of the last houses in the village, he made his way into the edge of the forest, and began to run. Reaching a small clearing. He sat on a stump and began to unload his bag.

"Toothless, I'm here bud!" He called out, even though he could clearly already hear the rustling of branched above him. Suddenly, a large black shape dropped out of the canopy, directly in front of his face, nearly knocking him over,

"Geez bud, try not to squish me next time!" He said, putting on an exaggerated expression of fear and then relief on his face.

Toothless sat back and let out a warbling laugh, clearly enjoying himself.

"Oh what, are you enjoying my suffering now?" Hiccup asked, raising an eyebrow at the dragon. Toothless said nothing but walked forward with a very clearly smug expression on his face,

Hiccup then reached behind him and pulled out a second bag. "Well since you clearly like seeing me in pain then I guess I'm not giving you any of this." He said, as he reached into the bag and pulled out several very large and plump fish.

Toothless snapped at the fish but Hiccup stood up and yanked them out of the way before he could grab them.

"Nuh uh bud, only nice dragons get fish." He said, waving the fish in front of himself.

Toothless sat back down and let out a loud huff, clearly very displeased at Hiccups refusal to feed him.

Giving out a small chuckle, Hiccup extended the fish out in front of him. "I'm only joki-"

Suddenly Toothless lashed out without warning, snatching the fish straight out of Hiccups hand, and began chewing on the first one.

"Geez bud, you almost took my hand off!" Hiccup said, clutching the hand to his chest in fake agony as he returned to the stump. Grabbing the first bag he had brought with him, he opened it and pulled out a small object wrapped in paper and string. Unraveling the string, he peeled back the paper to reveal a small pastry. It wasn't much, merely bread, jam and some sugar, but it was more than they could ever have found back in Berk.

Standing up, he walked over to where Toothless was finishing off the last of the fish before sitting down in front of him.

"Well," He said, taking a bite out of the pastry. "Happy fifteenth birthday Hiccup."

Chapter Text

Sweat poured off of Hiccup's brow as he hammered away at the anvil. Kieron had finally decided to allow Hiccup to help make weapons, ever since they had sold most of their stock to Thorfinn and his men.

"Ya still ain't finished with that sword, boy?" Kieron said, coming into the main room.

"Yeah well not all of us can have arms the size of longboats." Hiccup said, trying not to let his exhaustion slip through his voice. "Some of us actually have to take our time when we make things."

"Bah. I've known newborn babes with more skill than ya."

"Then why'd you hire me?" Hiccup said, trying not to laugh once he saw the contorted expression on the old blacksmith's face.

"Just finish the damn thing," Kieron muttered, taking a seat in his chair with a bottle of presumably mead.

The two stayed there for quite some time, making small talk every now and again, until Hiccup finally finished the sword blade. Thanking Kieron for the pay, he then made his way out of the shop, and back towards the inn.

Arriving at the inn and walking inside, he was immediately greeted by both Arthur and Mrs. Irving. Arthur was simply sitting at the bar and talking to his grandmother, while she went around serving the people who were sitting at the tables around the room.

Sitting next to Arthur, the pair started to talk about various things going on throughout the village.

"Did you hear that Thorfinn's crew is leaving soon?" Arthur mentioned eventually.

"Really?" Hiccup responded. "They're not waiting for spring?"

"Apparently not. They wouldn't say why but they seemed kinda on edge."

That was worrying. If something made vikings nervous it definitely couldn't be good.

"That's too bad. They payed well." Hiccup said, deciding to not voice his concerns.

"Yeah." Arthur agreed. "Can't last forever though."

The two stayed like that for quite some time, simply chatting. Eventually they were joined by Caela and Mrs. Irving for dinner. As they finished up however, they all suddenly heard a commotion outside. Getting up from the table and walking to the door, Hiccup peered outside. At first he saw nothing, but as he noticed a trickling string of people running towards the village entrance, he saw what was wrong. A billowing plume of thick black smoke rose high above the rooftops.

"There's a fire!" He yelled back into the inn. Wasting no time, Arthur jumped out of his seat and raced out the door, Hiccup close on his heels. Hiccup's heart pounded as he raced to stay close to Arthur, his feet roughly hitting the snow covered road.

"When we get there help the others with getting water!" Arthur yelled over his shoulder.

"G-got it." Hiccup panted. The pair rounded the corner, closing in on the ever growing fire, when suddenly a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air. Then another, and then a third. As the two got ever closer, Hiccup was so focused he barely noticed when Arthur had stopped running.

Stopping next to him, Hiccup fought to catch his breath.

"Why, why'd you stop?" He panted. "It's right th-"

There, lying limp at the end of the street, buried in the several inches of snow that still covered the road, was a body, lying face down.

"Stay behind me." Arthur said, his voice tense and strained.

Approaching, they both suddenly stopped again at the ghastly sight. The body wasn't alone. Numerous others were scattered around the road. Blood splatters decorated each one, slowly seeping into the snow around them, dying the road red.

Looking over at one of the farther bodies, Hiccup noticed something shine next to it, a sword. As he got closer, his stomach heaved at the sight. It was one of the guards from the gate. His eyes were void of life, and stared endlessly into the darkening sky above. His skin was grey and cold, and his legs were crumpled unnaturally. A deep red gash ran along his throat, still slowly dripping blood into the ground below, and beads of blood had appeared at the corners of his mouth.

Suddenly gagging he bent over double and vomited the dinner he had just finished all over the ground by his feet. Arthur approached slowly and said nothing as the boy retched, merely placing a hand on his shoulder and waiting for him to stand back up.

As the two stood there, gazing at the lifeless form below, more screams rang out from other parts of the town. Arthur took off without a word, and grabbed Hiccup by the arm as he went, forcing Hiccup to wrench his gaze away from the dead guard.

The two sprinted around the corner, and then another, getting ever closer to the growing sounds of screams and yelling. As they ran, they passed one body after another, each one gruesomely killed in similar ways. Finally, as they passed a burning house, they saw it.

Soldiers, dozens of them, armed with swords, spears and axes, ran through the streets. They dashed from one house to another, pulling screaming women and children from them as they went, killing any who fought. Others came out with chests, clothes and valuables, and dumped them on the ground, sorting through their loot.

"Hiccup." Arthur said quietly. Hiccup said nothing. "Hiccup, look at me."

Tearing his eyes away from the sight, he looked to where Arthur stood.

"You have to go and find Thorfinn." Arthur said, a tense and fear stricken expression on his face. "His people are the only ones who can stop this."

"But w-" Hiccup began to protest.

"There's no time." One of the soldiers noticed and began approaching the two boys. "RUN! NOW!"

Hiccup sprinted away, closing his eyes and not daring to look back at whatever was about to unfold behind him. His chest screamed with pain as he sprinted through the streets, passing one body after another as the sun began to grow red and black from the sunset and the smoke. It seemed like an eternity before he finally rounded one last corner and the dock came into view. There, walking down one of the ramps was the short, blond frame of Thorfinn, loading the last of his supplies onto the longboat.

"THORFINN!" Hiccup bellowed as he ran. Sprinting all the way down the ramp he nearly crashed into the man, and struggled to not collapse.

"Sol-soldiers." He panted, gasping for air. "Fire. Dead. Arthur."

"Whoa, slow down kid." Thorfinn grabbed him by the shoulders and holding him up. "What is happening."

Hiccup gasped for air as he struggled to catch his breath. "Invaders. Killing people. Arthur needs help."

Wasting no time Thorfinn drew his sword and yelled out behind him. "EINAR! Gather everybody! We have to move!" With that, he then turned to face Hiccup again. "Stay here kid." He said, before taking off running down the street, a dozen of his vikings right behind him.

Collapsing onto the dock, Hiccup lay back, still panting for air. What the hell was happening? Vikings never killed like that back in the archipelago, but whoever those were definitely weren't vikings. Sitting back up, he began to panic even more. Should he go help? What about Mrs. Irving and Caela? Were they ok? Hopefully Toothless wasn't spotted. Wait. Toothless!

Shooting off his feet, Hiccup took off again down the road. Weaving his way between houses and alleyways, he sprinted past the border of the village and into the woods. Toothless had to be ok. He just had to be.

Dashing into the clearing, he stopped and screamed "TOOTHLESS!" The large black dragon immediately shot out of some nearby foliage and bounded over Hiccup.

"Oh thank the gods you're alright." Hiccup muttered, hugging the dragon as hard as he could. "We have to help Arthur." He said, quickly mounting the saddle. Grabbing the reins, they shot into the air and out of the forest canopy as fast as the could.

Flying over the town, Hiccup tried to spot where he had last seen Arthur, but that was easier said than done.

"Cmon, cmon." He muttered impatiently as he scanned the city below. He managed to spot Thorfinn and his men fighting the soldiers, and he struggled to not throw up again as he saw one man fall after another, but he focused on finding where he had left Arthur. It had to be around here somewhere.

"There!" He exclaimed suddenly, pointing at the spot he had found. The two dived immediately, pulling up at the last second and landing hard on the cobbled street. The air was thick with smoke, but by this point the fire had burnt its way through the house.

"ARTHUR!" Hiccup called, not seeing him anywhere. He scanned the entire street, yelling out Arthurs name as he went, as well as the alleys and burning house, but he saw no one left standing. Wait. What about the bodies.

His heart raced with panic as he began to check one corpse after another. Arthur couldn't be among them. He just couldn't be. As he scanned over the many corpses littering the road, he suddenly saw one with blond hair, lying face down in the snow. Running over, Hiccup grabbed it by the shoulder, before struggling to roll it over. As the body slumped over onto its back, Hiccup looked at its face and-

"No. No, no, no, no, no." He stammered. He felt tears began to well up as he gazing into Arthur's eyes. They were unfocused and glazed over, not noticing that Hiccup was there. Arthur's mouth was gaped open and making soft wheezing sounds, as his chest heaved up and down erratically.

"You're, you're gonna be, you're gonna be fine." Hiccup stammered, panicked, Glancing up and down Arthurs body he saw a large red stain on his stomach. Yanking up the shirt, he saw a deep hole in Arthur stomach, slowly pumping out blood, that poured onto the ground below. Without hesitation he immediately placed both hands onto the wound, and pressed down hard.

"I gotta, gotta stop the bleeding." He stammered to no one in particular. He was barely aware of Toothless' presence behind him, whimpering softly. His mind raced as he thought of what to do when suddenly, he felt the movement beneath his hands stop. Whipping his head up to look at Arthur, he noticed what had happened. His chest was no longer moving.

Immediately abandoning the stomach wound, still slowly dripping blood, he grabbed Arthur by the shoulders.

"No. You can't, it, I should, but." He rambled, as he gently shook the unmoving body. Tears poured down his face as he began to sob uncontrollably. His eyes filled with tears as he cried, droplets, pouring down onto the body below. Eventually his shaking slowed until it finally stopped, and he just lay there crying over Arthur, who merely stared at the stars that were beginning to twinkle overhead.

"You gotta get up." He sobbed quietly. Toothless approached slowly, gently nuzzling Hiccup's side. The two stayed there for a couple minutes, as Hiccup's sobs slowly grew quieter until suddenly, Toothless whipped around.

"What-" Hiccup said, as he too turned to look at whatever Toothless had noticed, wiping the tears from his eyes. In the street, among all of the corpses strewn about, one of them stirred. As it stood up Hiccup suddenly felt an uncontrollable rage burst inside of him. It was one of the soldiers.

The soldier groaned in pain. He had blood trickling down the side of his face and into one of his eyes, and one his legs was burnt. Hiccup scrambled to his feet and immediatly charged at the soldier without a second thought.

"YOU BASTARD!" He screeched as he sprinted forward, pulling his knife out of his vest as he went. The soldier's eyes widened as he saw the young boy sprint at him, knife in hand. He attempted to draw his sword, but by then it was too late.

Hiccup slammed into the soldier, driving his knife as deep as it would go into his chest. Warm blood splattered over his face and arms, staining his hands even more. The soldier gave a strange yell as the two collapsed to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Hiccup immediately scrambled back, staring at the writhing form on the ground in front of him as Toothless shot forward and shoved himself between Hiccup and the soldier, attempting to shield him. They both watched as the soldier clawed at the knife in his chest, a terrified look on his face as he attempted to pull it out. He opened his mouth to scream, but only a strange gurgling sound came out.

Slowly, the soldier began to move less and less, as Hiccup stared in horror at what he had just done, watching as the man became limp and lifeless, just as still as every other corpse littered around them, For a long time after, both he and Toothless stared at it, neither approaching.

Eventually, Hiccup's chest heaved yet again, and he began retching, yet this time nothing came out. Calming down, he grabbed Toothless for support and slowly stood up.

"I, I killed him." He muttered, turning away from the body. He suddenly felt like crying, but no tears came out. "I killed him. I actually killed him." He repeated. Toothless began nuzzling him again, whimpering as he went.

"What, what do I do?" Hiccup stammered. "I've never, I didn't wanna kill him! Should we-"

"HICCUP!" A voice rang out from farther down the street. Hiccup wheeled around to find Thorfinn and several of his men sprinting down the street.

"Hiccup are you oka-" Thorfinn suddenly stopped running as his men screeched to a halt. "What the fuck is that."

Oh shit. Toothless was right behind him, out in the open.

"Hiccup." Thorfinn said slowly, raising his weapons, as Toothless began to growl. "Slowly walk over here. Do not make any sudden moves." He then signaled to his men, who began to slowly approach from the sides.

Thinking quickly, Hiccup dashed forward to the man he had just stabbed, and ripped the knife from his chest, causing more blood to pour our. Jumping back to Toothless he then raised the knife in front of him.

"If any of you try to hurt him i'll kill you." He said, confidently,

"What the hell are you doing kid." Thorfinn said sternly.

"He is not dangerous. Don't you dare try to hurt him." Suddenly, however, Hiccup was feeling much less confident. There were several of them, and he only had his knife. Maybe he should have grabbed the soldiers sword.

Thorfinn simply stood there for a couple seconds before slowly lowering his weapons. "For starters," He said slowly, "What the fuck is that."

"He," Hiccup emphasized, "is a dragon."

"A goddamn dragon." Thorfinn muttered quietly. "And why are you protecting him."

"He's my friend. And his name is Toothless" Hiccup responded, expecting a laugh. Surprisingly however, Thorfinn said nothing.

"Yeah well it sounds like he plans to kill us." Thorfinn said, as Toothless continued to loudly growl at him.

"He won't." Hiccup said. "Unless I tell him to."

"Well he hasn't attacked anyone yet." Thorfinn sheathed his blades and stood up taller, still warily eyeing Toothless. "Seems like you're telling the truth. Well kid I'll tell you what. My men and I have to get out of here before more of those fuckers show up. I'll let you come with us"

"Really?" Hiccup said suspiciously.

"Yes." Thorfinn, signaling his men to back off. "In return, I want you to work for me for at least, uh, 10 years. With the dragon obviously."

Hiccup didn't respond for a bit, thinking about the proposal. He was still concerned about Thorfinn going after Toothless, but he understood where Thorfinn was coming from. Hiccup and Toothless would get a place to live and protection, and in return Thorfinn would have the only dragon in the area under his control.

"Just so you know if you try to kill me and take him, he will easily kill all of you." Hiccup said, as he slowly put his knife away.

Thorfinn gave a small chuckle. "I wouldn't dare." Turning back to his men he ordered them to head back to the docks.

"Wait!" Hiccup exclaimed suddenly, causing Thorfinn to look back.

"What is it?" He said.

"I want to have a funeral for him first." Hiccup said, looking over at where Arthur lay. He was not leaving before Arthur got a chance at Valhalla.

Thorfinn said nothing before slowly walking over. "That we can do."

Chapter Text

Hiccup stared out over the water as he felt the soft ocean breeze across his face, and felt the wood creaked beneath his feet as the boat strained and rocked against the waves. The air was starting to become warmer as spring arrived, and he planned to make the best of it.

He had been a part of Thorfinn's crew for almost three months now and he was becoming rather bored. The longship had stopped in the norse town of Bernicia for a resupply as soon as they left Orkney, and now they were heading south, following the English coast. Stopping at Bernicia meant more hiding in the woods for Toothless, and so they had flown through the night to catch back up with the longboat once the had left port.

Because of this, Toothless now lay curled up next to Thorfinn in the rear of the ship, causing the viking to look very uncomfortable, while Hiccup looked out over the ocean. Most of the crew refused to approach the dragon, so Toothless had taken to sleeping next to Thorfinn. Turning around to face the captain, he then approached.

"So where are we headed." He asked.

"Southern England." Thorfinn said. "We're going to have to pick up some more men since we lost quite a few in Orkney. Plus those cities are quite rich. We might just find one or two to grab some coins from."

"Why didn't you get more men in Bernicia."

"Too close to Orkney. I didn't want to stick around too long in case those soldiers made a second appearance."

Even a single mention of those soldiers caused Hiccup's heart to race with anxiety as he thought about about them and what happened to Arthur. He couldn't the face of the soldier he had killed out of his mind. He kept picturing the man gasping for air as he struggled to live.

He also couldn't get Mrs. Irving and Caela out of his head. He had stopped by the inn on his way to the dock after they had buried Arthur (he still couldn't understand why someone would want to be stuffed into the dirt instead of buried at sea), but the inn had clearly been abandoned. The forge too was abandoned. A good portion of the place had burned to the ground, and what remained had been ransacked until nothing was left. He had looked around but it seemed Kieron had disappeared too.

Shuddering, Hiccup looked back up at Thorfinn. "Teach me to fight."

"What?" Thorfinn said, looking taken aback.

"Teach me to fight." Hiccup repeated.

"But you've got that guy." Thorfinn said, gesturing to the large sleeping dragon next to him.

"He's not always going to be by my side." Hiccup said. "Like when he had to hide in Bernicia. If I were to die or get injured when he isn't there, then youre going to have no one left to control you're dragon."

Thorfinn said nothing for a while, merely staring at the young boy. "Fine. I'll think of something when we land."

Hiccup smiled.

Hiccup gasped for air and his hands burned with pain as he pulled against the rough wooden oar. He watched over the railing as the longboat slowly made its way up the winding river, into the town of York as the first glimmers of light started to brighten the horizon. They had been able to use their sail at the enterance of the river, but as they went farther upstream, they had been forced to switch to rowing, which meant Hiccup had to pitch in.

Finally, as the thought his arms couldn't take any more, and his hands were going to lose all of their skin, they stopped. Hiccup looked up just in time to see lines being tossed from their boat to men on the docks who began to pull the boat in. Following the others, Hiccup pulled his oar into the boat before standing up, groaning as pain shot through his back. Looking down at his hands, he winced as he saw the bloody skin and swollen blisters that spread across his fingers and upper palms.

Slowly staggering his way to the back of the boat where Toothless lay with all of their supplies, he collapsed to the ground. Reaching over he gingerly scratched Toothless on the chin, ignoring the pain shooting through his hand.

"What are you doing kid." Thorfinn said, standing up from the steerboard.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked.

"We still gotta unload everything. No time for rest." With that he walked over to the pile of supplies and grabbed a crate.

With a sigh, Hiccup stood up again, and grabbed another box before following Thorfinn and the others as they made their way off the boat. As they made their way back and forth between the boat and dock Thorfinn explained that he wanted for Hiccup to stay in one of the inns they had rented, to keep Toothless close, but unseen.

"And then tonight," Thorfinn continued as they finished unloading the last of the supplies they needed, "meet me in the clearing two hundred paces to the north of the city."

"Why?" Hiccup asked, suddenly slightly concerned.

"You'll see." Thorfinn said, before walking away.

Hiccup soared through the air on Toothless' back, looking down at the ground below. The sun had just set, and he was on his way to meet with Thorfinn. After a couple minutes of searching he finally found the clearing Thorfinn had mentioned. As he touched down, he saw a figure leave the tree line and started walking towards him.

"You said you wanted to learn to fight, right?" Thorfinn asked as he approached.

"Are you actually going to teach me?" Hiccup asked excitedly as he dismounted from the saddle.

Thorfinn tossed him a wooden sword once he approached. "Can't have you dying now, can I?"

Grasping it with both hands and raising it in front of him, Hiccup merely grinned.

"Gods your stance is awful." Thorfinn muttered.

That night, Hiccup didn't take a single swing. They spent the entire night on the basics. It took a minute for Thorfinn to realize that Hiccup was left handed, but once he did their progress was quite rapid. By the time the sun rose, Hiccup's stance was nearly perfect.

They returned every night, and slowly his training changed. After the first couple days, Thorfinn started having him exercise before he even touched his sword. It started with simply running. After a while he added in body weight exercises and learning how to swing his sword properly. Once several weeks had passed, he now had to run while wearing chain mail, and he began to practice on dummies.

Every morning he would return home exhausted. His hands were constantly bloody and covered in blisters and ripped skin. He spent all day sleeping and nursing his muscles, struggling to do even the most basic of tasks. Eventually though, he got used to it. The pain never subsided, but he found he could handle it more and more as the days went on.

Finally, one night, as spring came to an end, summer started to begin, and Thorfinn and his men were preparing to leave, it changed. Hiccup landed in the clearing to find no dummies this time, but just Thorfinn.

"We doing something different tonight?" Hiccup asked as he approached.

As usual, Thorfinn handed him his wooden sword once he got close. "I want you to hit me."

"What?" Hiccup asked confused.

"You're going to hit me." Thorfinn repeated, raising a wooden sword of his own. "I won't attack back, but i'm not going to make it easy."

"Alright." Hiccup said quietly, swallowing his fear.

He raised his sword to match Thorfinn's, and took his stance. This wouldn't be easy, but since Thorfinn would only defend, his best chance would be to act as agressive as possible.

Dashing forward, he thrusted his sword forward. Thorfinn easily parried it to his side and turned out of the way. Flying past him, Hiccup immediatly spun and slashed at him from the side.

"Good!" Thorfinn yelled. "You're small, so use your speed."

His heart pounded as he swung blow after blow, each one parried, blocked or dodged. Thorfinn egged him on as he continued to pressure him as much as possible, not wanting to give him a single break.

Slashing at Thorfinn from the side, he deliberately slammed his sword into Thorfinn's sword, knocking it back. Drawing it back to his chest, he thrusted it forward, just barely missing Thorfinn's chest as he spun on his heel. He threw another low slash, but Thorfinn had drawn his sword back forward and easily blocked it.

Jumping back up, Hiccup grabbed his sword with both hands and ran at Thorfinn, thrusing his sword down from above. Thorfinn raised his sword to block, but as Hiccup approached he instead threw a punch directly at Hiccup's exposed chest.

Hiccup immediately fell to his hands and knees, his sword clattering to the ground beside him. He gasped as his lungs struggled to drag in air, and his chest burned in pain. His eyes began to water and his throat close as he fought to breathe. Finally, his throat opened and his lungs filled with air, causing him to collapse to the ground while wheezing.

"I thought, that you weren't going to fight back." He sputtered weakly, still gasping for air.

"Yeah but I couldn't resist when you left yourself that open." Thorfinn said, standing over him. "Plus never trust what your opponent says, chances are they're lying. Now get up. You haven't won yet."

Struggling to scramble to his feet, he grabbed his sword and lifted it. His lungs still burned and his heart pounded in his head but he was determined to win this. Sweat dripped off of his brow, and his mouth filled with the taste of blood as he charge yet again.

This time, he was careful to not leave himself open. He dodged left and right, stabbing and slashing at Thorfinn from each possible angle. He stabbed at his left side and after being blocked, spun around and slashed at his right side with the back edge of his sword.

Taking a step back he rushed forward and thrusted his sword towards Thorfinn's left shoulder. However, at the last possible second he drew it back slightly and threw a punch towards the right. Caught off guard, Thorfinn attempted to block it but groaned as it made contact with his side. Wasting no time, Hiccup drew his fist back and thrust his sword again, right to where Thorfinn's sword was seconds before, and stabbed him in the shoulder.

Panting, Hiccup fell backwords onto the ground, lay down in the cool grass.

"Took you long enough." Thorfinn said with a chuckle. "Nice job kid." He took a seat next to Hiccup.

"To be fair I am a lot smaller than the people you usually fight. And I'm left handed." Hiccup said, closing his eyes.

"Hey you're not much smaller than I am." Thorfinn admitted. Standing up, he stretched and began to walk away. "Get some rest. We're gonna start packing up tomorrow."

"That soon?" Hiccup asked, sitting up.

"Yep." Thorfinn called behind him. "And you're helping too."

Hiccup groaned. Tomorrow was going to hurt.

Chapter Text

"They should be coming through this clearing any minute now." Thorfinn whispered, as they huddled in the dark foliage.

Hiccup slowed his breathing as they waited, doing his best to stop his breath from being visible. He stood with Thorfinn just inside the tree line waiting with half of their men, while the other half waited in the tree line on the other side of the road they were watching.

They had left York about six months ago and had headed for Denmark, arriving just as fall began. They had been hired as mercenaries for some regional lord, who was being attacked by his neighboring lord. They were very much outnumbered, so Thorfinn decided that their best plan of action was an ambush.

Because of this, they were now sitting in the forests of southern Denmark, waiting for some lord to come through with his army. Luckily they only had to deal with the forward force, which would be decently small and with no cavalry nor archers, and the lords personal army would handle main force, but it was no less dangerous. On top of that, they had gotten lucky with the snow this year, and so far they had none, despite it being so late in the fall.

"Here they come." Thorfinn hurriedly whispered. "Get ready." Hiccup couldn't tell if he was right or not, until he heard it too. The thunder of footsteps. And a lot of them.

Peering out from where he hid. He watched as the lines of men approached. They were all adorned in various pieces of leather and chain armor, and most had helmets. For comparison, Hiccup himself only had his leather armor, and the helmet his father had given him. He recently added a spectacle guard to the helmet, at Thorfinn's request, which now covered his brow line with holes for his eyes, but it would do little without a chain veil.

He gripped his sword tighter as his heartbeat raced ever faster in his chest, so fast that he could hear it pounding in his head. His hands felt clammy and covered in sweat in his gloves, and his mouth was dry. He had been practicing almost daily with Thorfinn, but he still hadn't killed anyone since Orkney.

"Here we go." Thorfinn whispered next to him. Belting out a war cry, he charged out of the tree line, Hiccup and the others close at his heels. The enemies ranks collapsed in surprised as the band of mercenaries swarmed both sides of their army, crashing into the unsuspecting soldiers.

Hiccup yelled as loud as he could as he charged at the first soldier he saw. The soldier struggled to draw his weapon before Hiccup slammed into him. Shoving the soldier to the ground, he raised his sword up and thrusted it down as hard as he could into the soldier's neck. The man struggled against him for a second or two before falling limp.

"HICCUP!" Thorfinn yelled from several yards away.

Looking up, Hiccup saw another soldier charge at him, spear in hand. Dashing to his feet he yanked his blood soaked weapon up. He took a step back as the soldier approached, readying his sword. As soon as the soldier was close enough and thrusted his spear forward, Hiccup dashed to the side, before pushing off his back foot and lunging forward, plunging his sword into the man's stomach.

The soldier dropped to the ground, dragging Hiccup with him, but Hiccup merely shoved himself to his feet, drawing his sword from the man and leaving him to his fate. He dashed from one end of the battle field, attacking one man after another as they were distracted fighting other mercenaries. Due to the ambush, the soldiers ranks had completely fallen apart, causing chaos. Hopelessly panicking, each soldier was left to one on one fighting instead of the organized army they had trained to fight with.

Hiccup spotted an enemy soldier facing away from him, right as the soldier slashed one of the mercenaries across the neck. Sprinting forward he slashed his sword downward across his back. As he collapsed to the ground in pain Hiccup kneeled over him and jabbed his sword into the mans back.

"Little bastard!" He heard someone roar from behind him. Spinning around, he saw a man hurriedly approaching. A very large man carrying a very large atgier, like a cross between and spear and an axe.

Before the man even got close enough for Hiccup to attack, the soldier violently swung his weapon downward. Hiccup narrowly dodging out of the way right as the blade slammed into the ground where he had been seconds before. He jumped up and tried to run towards the man, but the soldier stepped back and swung the atgier in a large arc, forcing Hiccup to jump back.

This was going to be a problem. The long range of the weapon meant that it would be very difficult to get in close, but if he could get in close then the long range would become more of a hinderance than a help.

He continued to run at the man every chance he got, putting pressure on him and pushing him farther and farther back, but this soldier was unrelenting. Every attempt he made was blocked by a stab, slash, or blow from the weapon, keeping him at bay.

Hiccup's muscles strained as he kept attacking. His heart felt like it was going to explode, and his feet screamed at him to stop moving. But he couldn't. He kept pushing, attacking the man every chance he got.

Finally however, the fatigue got to him, and he stumbled. Noticing this mistake, the soldier swung his atgier rapidly towards the boy. Hiccup dashed backwards as fast as he could, but it was too late. The tip of the blade caught flesh, and a gash was ripped into Hiccups left shoulder. He yelled out in pain and the soldier grinned at finally landing a hit. As he did so, Hiccup noticed the weapon drop ever so slightly.

Biting through the pain, he ran forward as fast as he could, trying to take advantage of the mistake before he corrected it. The soldier yanked the atgier up as fast as he could, but Hiccup was already past the blade. He lunged forward and stabbed the soldier as could in the abdomen. The soldier roared and stumbled backwards swinging his weapon as he went. It narrowly missed Hiccup, who had ran backwards after the attack.

The soldier, now clearly angry, ran forward, swinging his weapon wildly as he went. Hiccup noticed that his attack had missed any vital organs, but clearly it was causing lots of pain. He dodged back and forth as the atgier waved through the air. The man's movement was getting sloppier as the seconds go by, and Hiccup only needed him to make one mistake.

Suddenly, the soldier stumbled. This was it. Hiccup dashed forward, readying his weapon as he went. He lunged forward right as the man swung his atgier upwards. Hiccup jolted as he felt the weapon hit him, but it was too late. His sword continued straight and plunged into the man's chest.

They both collapsed to the ground, Hiccup rolling away from the soldier, but he lay there unmoving, blood leaking from his chest onto the leaves below. Hiccup panted as he looked at the body, before noticing a trail of blood leading to where he sat. Glancing over at his shoulder, he noticed the blood soaking into his leather armor, but funnily enough he couldn't feel it anymore.

He gasped for air as he struggled to his feet, but suddenly he stumbled and collapsed back down onto the ground. He couldn't stand. Why couldn't he stand? He lay back as his vision started to fog up. Was someone yelling his name? He couldn't tell. His eyes unfocused and his breathing slowed as his mind began to go blank. Hopefully Toothless was alright. His vision went black and he collapsed.

Chapter Text

Hiccup groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. Everything hurt, and he couldn't remember why. As his eyes came into focus he noticed a large black shape hovering above him.

"Hey bud." He said, it barely coming out as more than a whisper. Toothless began violently licking him, causing more pain to flare throughout his body.

"Whoa, whoa, careful." Hiccup muttered, pushing the dragon off of him. He pushed himself into an upright position, his whole body protesting in pain as he did so. Taking a look around the room he was in, he found nothing of interest. He was lying in a small be pushed into the corner, and there was a door to his right. Other than a dresser, there was nothing else.

As he took in a surroundings, there was a knock on the door. It swung open and in walked Thorfinn.

"How ya feeling kid." He said, standing over the bed.

"Everything hurts." Hiccup groaned.

"Yeah well you really pushed yourself out there." Thorfinn said. "Too much."

"What does that mean?" Hiccup asked, noticing the change of tone in his voice.

Thorfinn merely stared at him for a few seconds before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. "So you haven't noticed yet. You, uhh, got pretty banged up in that last fight. I tried to help you towards the end but once I got there it was too late." 

"Too late for what?" Hiccup asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Just take off the blanket." Thorfinn said quietly.

Peeling off the blanket, Hiccup took a look at his own body. His torso was fine, so were his legs, but as he looked farther down, he noticed it. Where his left foot normally was, there was nothing.

Hiccup just stared at it as his heart rate spiked and his breathing became ragged. How did this happen? How hadn't he noticed? What the hell was he supposed to do now?" His mind raced as he stared at his injury, before he began hyperventilating.

Thorfinn grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to look away from his leg. "Look at me kid. You're gonna be fine. I've known people who can do more with worse."

"But, but how, I mean wha-." Hiccup stammered. "What the hell happened."

"When you killed that last guy, it seems he managed to hit your ankle. We managed to stop the bleeding in time, but your uh, your ankle was shattered beyond recognition." Thorfinn explained, not looking Hiccup in the eye. "Even if we had managed to save it, you would have been in horrible pain and probably would have struggled to walk for the rest of you life."

Hiccup said nothing as he gazed back towards the air where his foot used to be. Kinda like Gobber. He chuckled grimly at his own thought. This was going to take a while to get used to.

Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, it really started to sink in that his foot was simply gone. He could feel how his right foot touched the floor, but where his left foot was supposed to be there just was nothing.

"I uh, I got you this." Thorfinn said, pulling out a wooden object. "It was the only thing I could find."

Taking the object from Thorfinn, Hiccup saw that it was a small wooden leg, like the ones he had seen vikings back on Berk use. And now he had to use it too. Great.

Hiccup squeezed Thorfinn's shoulder tighter as pain shot through his leg. He stumbled as he took his next step, but was caught.

"This fucking sucks" He muttered, gritting his teeth.

"Hey, watch the language." Thorfinn said, straining to keep Hiccup upright. 

Hiccup grimaced as he gingerly took a step again. "You curse all the time."

"Yeah well i'm older than you."

Hiccup had spent the last week healing in bed and had been itching to start moving again. Unfortunately that meant putting on the prosthetic foot Thorfinn had found, and learning to walk. The thing was ugly, unruly, and hurt like hell. He was definitely designing a new one once he could function again.

For now however, he was stuck holding onto Thorfinn as he tried to learn to walk like a baby. Toothless followed the entire time, offering support every time Hiccup stumbled, which was pretty much every step.

They made circles around the house Thorfinn had rented from the lord that hired them. Apparently through a second battle that happened while Hiccup was unconscious, they had defeated the other lords army, gaining them the lords favor.

The group of viking mercenaries now inhabited several small houses on the very outskirts of the town, so luckily no one had been around to spot Toothless. He had even noticed more of Thorfinn's vikings approaching Toothless now and then. They didn't seem entirely comfortable with him yet, but they didn't entirely avoid him either.

As Hiccup slowly stumbled back and forth, leaning on Thorfinn, his legs began to grow numb from the cold, and the pain subsided. 

"I think we should leave it here for today." Thorfinn said.

"C'mon, the pain was just going away." Hiccup complained.

"Yeah but I can't feel my balls so we're going back inside." Thorfinn, muttered, steering Hiccup back towards the door. 

Once back inside, Thorfinn helped him into his bed before leaving. As Toothless curled up next to his bed, he grabbed his notebook and some pencils from his pack nearby, and began to draw. 

For hours, he lay there, sketching design after design. This leg needed to be functional but also comfortable. It had to be compact but not heavy, and it had to fit enough to not fall off, but also be removable. 

Finally, he put his pencil down and looked at his work. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now. He had so many ideas running through his head of things he could add, but he had to scrap many of them in order to build this one in time. He would however, need to find a forge.

Eventually he stumbled out of his room, grabbing Toothless to stay upright, and took a seat at the table where Thorfinn and a few others were eating dinner. Taking a look at the pot, it was the same disgusting stew that they had been eating the past couple days, but it was food.

"Gods we need to hire someone who can actually cook," Hiccup muttered.

"Why don't you do it then." One of the men said sarcastically.

"You're really going to make the man with a missing leg do hard labor?" Hiccup asked with feigned shock.

"At least we'd finally have a use for you." Thorfinn said.

A few chuckles rang out from across the table as Hiccup took a seat. Thorfinn then grabbed some of the leftover fish that had been tossed in the stew, and threw them to Toothless, who scarfed them down eagerly. 

"I think you should stay with Toothless from now on." He said, turning to Hiccup. "It's my fault for pushing you to fight without him. I just wanted you to get some experience."

Hiccup said nothing as he stared at his food. "Its fine. You couldn't have known what would happen."

"Still." Thorfinn muttered. "I should've known you weren't ready. You can also do more damage with a dragon anyway."

Hiccup just nodded as he finished his food.

Hiccup wiped the sweat from his brow as he pinned on the last finishing touches to the prosthetic. He had found the nearest blacksmith, which was a decent walk away, and asked to borrow his forge. With pay, of course. The blacksmith was hesitant at first, but quickly agreed once he spotted Toothless, before scurrying out of the building. 

The foot itself was pretty simple, merely a piece of metal in similar size and weight to his other foot, he hoped. He had given the ankle the ability to move ever so slightly but it was still very stiff, making it more similar to a peg leg. The part that actually came in contact with his leg was a sleeve made of leather, cotton and wool, which could then attach to the foot. He had given the sleeve a number of clasps and latches to attach it to the metal foot, which meant that if he ever need to swap out the sleeve or foot, he could do so without getting rid of the other.  Finally, the sleeve itself attached to his leg through a number of buttons he had sewn into his pant leg, and a strap which could be tightened around his shin.

The whole thing was very cobbled together, but it would do for now. Hopefully it would be better than that sorry excuse for a foot that he had been using so far, which was little more than a log tied to his leg.

He hooked the foot onto his leg and lifted it up off the floor. It seemed to be holding up so far. Putting his hand onto Toothless' back, he slowly stood up onto his good leg, before lowering the prosthetic to the ground. As he shifted his weight over, his leg ached in pain, but it was much better than before. 

Holding onto Toothless, he grabbed the cane which he had brought with him, and began to slowly wobble around in circle. The foot was holding up well, and while it still felt very unnatural, it was infinitely better than what he had been using before.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out several coins, leaving them on the table for whenever the blacksmith worked up the courage to return. Leaving the forge, he and Toothless slowly made their way down the road back towards the house. Hiccup kept a close eye on the foot, making sure it held up, and so far it did.

Walking into the house, he was greeted by Thorfinn.

"How's the leg." He asked.

"Like I never lost it." Hiccup replied, slowly making his way to the table.

"Well now that you have it theres only one thing left to do." Thorfinn said, standing up.

"What's that?" Hiccup asked.

"Training." Thorfinn said with a grin.

Chapter Text

Hiccup stumbled as he grabbed his pack and swung it over his shoulder. He made his way outside into the snow, his head pounding horribly and his mouth dry as sand. His stumbling tonight was no longer due to his missing foot however. Last night had been the final night of Yule, and this morning he was more than slightly hungover. Although he hadn't drunken that much, he never really had alcohol before this so the last couple of days had been rough.

He had also been working with Thorfinn in the weeks leading up to Yule, and had finally been able to start walking without pain shooting through his leg. Running on the other hand was a different story.

"Morning Hiccup!" Thorfinn called. 

Hiccup's winced in pain as the sound caused pain to shoot through his head. "Not so loud." He muttered.

"Rough night?" Thorfinn chuckled, patting Hiccup on the back.

"Yeah and who's fault is that." He groaned.

"Hey, I didn't force you to drink." Thorfinn said.

"No, you definitely did."

"Maybe." Thorfinn said with a shrug. "Either way we have to get going once the others get here."

They had been notified last night that the lord that had been hosting them here after hiring them was finally done dealing with them, so he had asked them to leave. It was a rough way to end Yule, but Thorfinn was apparently planning to leave soon anyway.

"So where are we headed?" One of the vikings asked as the rest of the group arrived one by one.  

"South." Thorfinn replied. "Into the Carolingian lands. I hear they're pretty rich."

"I hear they're pretty strong." Another man said worriedly.

"Do they have a dragon?" Thorfinn asked, looking over at Toothless, causing a couple chuckles to ring out. 

"Here's the plan. I've sold the longboat, and purchased a couple of horses instead. They'll carry our stuff while we walk, and i'll also have one pull a cart for other supplies. Hiccup will be our forward scout." Thorfinn said, turning to Hiccup. "When scouting make sure to not go too far. If you see any trouble feel free to take care of them, if not just wait for us to catch up. If you can also find us a place to camp or stay feel free, but if not then that's fine."

"Got it." Hiccup muttered. At least Toothless could get more flying in. He felt terrible that the dragon had been grounded while his foot was healing.

"Does that make sense?" Thorfinn asked the rest of the group. A series of confirmations rang out.  "Alright. Let's get moving."

Hiccup pulled up his hood before tightening his grip on the reigns as he looked at the raid unfolding below. Buildings burned and people screamed as vikings ran in and out of buildings, grabbing what they could. It was like Orkney all over again.

He was flying on Toothless high above the raid. Thorfinn had forced him to stay out of it, on account of his foot. He was supposed to be keeping watch, but he couldn't focus on keeping an eye out. His mind flashed with images of Arthur and the destruction of the town, and it made him nauseous.

He circled the village below several times, occasionally watching the carnage below but most mostly he talked to Toothless and thought about changes he was planning to make to his metal leg. As he took a glance below however, he noticed movement in the forest surrounding the village. Movement that didn't belong to the vikings. 

Flying slightly closer to the ground to get a better look, he saw that there was a large group of soldiers approaching, heavily clad in chainmail and cloth, and holding a multitude of weapons such as sword, spears and axes. Worst of all however, was that they were followed by cavalry.

Wasting no time he urged Toothless rapidly upwards, performed a hairpin turn before diving straight at the ground. They shot towards the ground at a breakneck speed, a screeching sound filling the air as Toothless prepared a plasma bolt. Aiming straight for middle of the calvary, he yelled at Toothless to release the bolt and pulled up as hard as he could, an explosion ripping through the air behind him. 

Speeding over the treetops, the pair quickly swung back around to face the incoming army again. Blending into the night sky, the passed over low, releasing a series of plasma bolts as they went, causing many in the army to scatter. A few brave soldiers attempted to loose arrows at them, but they easily missed. 

Flying back up, higher into the air, Hiccup looked back down to see that while a sizable portion of the incoming army was running off, plenty of them made it into the village and were now attacking the vikings, who were easily outnumbered two to one. Even worse, several cavalry troops had escaped his attack and were now attacking the vikings as well.

Diving back down, he took aim at the soldiers, but they were now face to face with the vikings. It was too close for them to shoot without hitting any vikings, so he pulled up for now. Looking behind him he watched as the viking ranks collapsed, and many began to run. Staring in horror, he could only watch as many of them were cut down as they ran away, easily outpaced by the cavalry. The few who remained fighting were easily encircled by the overpowering enemy force, and were killed. 

Spinning back around, he spotted a number of figures running between the houses, being pursued by even more soldiers. Flying over them he spotted Thorfinn among them, and wasted no time in starting his dive. 

He pulled up right before hitting the ground, and landed hard. He jumped off his saddle just in time to see the few remaining vikings turn and engage the soldiers. Dashing towards the battle, he spotted Thorfinn fighting two men at the same time, and focused his sights on the closest one. Sprinting at him, he tackled the first man he saw, tumbling to the ground with him. Scrambling to his feet, he drew his sword as the soldier ran towards him, sword in hand. Suddenly however, the soldier stumbled in shock as he spotted the dragon behind Hiccup. Taking the opportunity, Hiccup, dashed forward, knocked the sword to the side and plunged his sword into the soldiers chest. 

As the man crumpled to the ground, he spun back around towards Thorfinn, just as he managed to kill the last man he was fighting. Though he clearly was injured in multiple places, he still stood. Sadly however, the same could not be said for the other vikings. They each fell one by one, most taking several soldiers with them, but it was not enough. 

Eventually, Hiccup and Thorfinn were the only vikings left standing. Dozens of soldiers rushed towards them, but suddenly Toothless lunged forward, mauling the closest soldiers and blasting plasma bolts at others. The remaining soldiers halted where they stood, weapons still in hand but clearly second guessing their decision to attack the dragon.

Turning towards Thorfinn, Hiccup grabbed him by the arm and began dragging him towards Toothless. "We have to go."

"But-" Thorfinn began to protest.

"More soldiers are on their way." Hiccup said. "We have to get out of here now."

Pulling Thorfinn towards Toothless, he helped him make his way onto the dragon, before climbing on himself.

"Hold on tight." He said, grabbing the reigns. Toothless shot into the air, soaring over the heads of the shocked soldiers below. He felt Thorfinn squeeze his torso tightly, and heard him begin to mutter, most likely praying not to die. 

As the flew south, away from the now ruined village, Hiccup began to panic more and more as he thought about the situation. They had just lost an entire longboat's worth of vikings over the course of maybe a couple hours. They were now running from a clearly very powerful army, and while they did have a dragon, Thorfinn was in no state to fight.

Speaking of, he needed to do something about Thorfinn's wound and soon.

Looking behind his shoulder, he saw how pale and how out of it Thorfinn looked. "How are you holding up?"

Thorfinn looked up slowly, a blank and exhausted look on his face. His eyes were fogged over, and as he spoke his words were slurred and jumbled.

"I'm fine." He muttered. This was bad. Despite whatever Thorfinn said, he was clearly losing blood and was in a very bad shape. He needed to treat those wounds right now.

Taking a quick look at the landscape around them, he couldn't spot any towns or villages around them. Letting out a quick curse, he aimed towards the nearest clearing he could find, and landed Toothless softly.

He helped Thorfinn off the saddle, and steered him into the tree line. At this point he basically had to drag him to a tree a decent ways into the forest. Helping Thorfinn take a seat against the tree, he turned back around to Toothless and began rummaging around in the bag attached to the saddle.

Grabbing the very few medical supplies he had, he returned to Thorfinn who was now slowly leaking blood into the dirt below. As carefully as he could, he peeled off layer after layer of Thorfinn's clothing until he was bare chested. He counted several deep cuts along his arms, and one large stab into his lower abdomen. 

He grabbed his only role of bandages and quickly began wrapping the wound on his torso, as Thorfinn began to shiver violently. He would have to be fast before Thorfinn died of either blood loss or hypothermia.

Glancing at Thorfinn's face, he watched as his eyes slowly began to close. "Hang in there man, hang in there."

Pushing his way through the flap of the tent, Hiccup made his way over to where Thorfinn lay. He had wanted to move Thorfinn as soon as possible to the nearest town, but he didn't want to risk running into those soldiers again, and he also had no idea where they were. He had flown around the surrounding area with Toothless, but he didn't want to leave Thorfinn alone for too long so they had quickly returned. He hadn't even managed to find the town they had come from in the first place.

He had to crane his neck even as he crouched down while in the tent. The thing was just barely large enough to house Thorfinn, leaving little room for himself. He had cobbled it together with animal skins he had brought with him and some that he had aquired from some deer he had hinted while he was here.

He began by peeling off the old bandages that covered Thorfinn's injuries. They had done their job by stopping the bleeding, but the wound in his abdomen was still was very raw and in danger of opening up again.

Luckily for Thorfinn, Hiccup had read both of the books that existed on Berk back to front several times over. The one that almost everybody had read was the Book of Dragons, but the other one that very few had bothered with was Gothi's book of medicine.

He gently rinsed the area with some water, washing it off as best he could. He then mixed some yarrow flowers with deer fat in a bowl before grinding it repeatedly until it became a rudimentary salve. Gently, he spread the salve over Thorfinn's various wounds before covering them in cloth and wrapping the entire area in a makeshift leather bandage.

He left the tent and walked over to where Toothless lay, mere feet away. Sitting down, he lay down and rested against the dragon.

"I think he's going to live." He said solemnly. "He woke up once a couple days ago, but he hasn't since."

Toothless warbled softly, clearly concerned for his friends distress.

Hiccup sighed loudly and buried his head in his arms. "I mean what happens if his wounds get infected? I can stop his bleeding, make some salves, and keep him hydrated but thats about it. We're in the middle of nowhere, I have very little medical knowledge and even less supplies, what if he dies because of me?"

He continued ranting for quite a while, just belting his worries out into the world, until finally he calmed down. 

"I'm scared that he's going to die. I don't want us to have to fend for ourselves out here. At least up north there were people who speak norse, and now I don't even know which direction is north." Hiccup though about his situation. Luckily since there was no one near, there was no one to see them, but it also meant they were on their own.

As Hiccup sat with Toothless, there was suddenly noises coming from the tent. Rushing inside, he found Thorfinn lying on the ground, staring up at him.

"What happened?" He asked groggily.

"We were attacked from behind during the raid. You uh, got stabbed. It was bad."

Thorfinn tried to sit up, but gasped in pain and fell back down.

"Tell me everything." He said, clutching his side.

Hiccup sighed as he thought about how was best to summarize this. "It was a complete ambush. I'm pretty sure we were the only two to make it out. I flew us out, but in the dark I got lost and now we're in the middle of nowhere and you almost died."

Thorfinn said nothing as he took it all in. "Gods above. We're kinda fucked."

"Yeah." Hiccup said exhaustedly. "So, what's the plan."

"How am I supposed to know?" Thorfinn responded with a grim chuckle.

"I think we should stay here for now. We can't move while you're healing, and we can't ask for help from the people who stabbed you. And then once you're better we…" Hiccup paused while he thought. "I don't even know what we do then."

"We're going to have to get out of this empire." Thorfinn suddenly stopped, an idea forming on his face,

"What. What is it." Hiccup asked. 

"I… have one idea of a place we could go. They hate the Carliginians too, and I know a guy in the capital." Thorfinn said. "Its not going to be easy to get there, it's really far and we have to go through all of the Holy Roman Empire to get there. We're going to have to make it to Miklagard."

Chapter Text

Astrid grabbed her axe from where it rested against the wall and walked out of her room. She made her way down the stairs into the main room, and spotted her parents at the table, eating.

"Mornin'!" Her dad said cheerily.

"Good morning." She responded, sitting down next to them. "Are you two not working today?" Nobody on the island got breaks anymore. The dragons attacks were as rampant as ever, and it took the entire village working around the clock to make sure the island wouldn't starve to death this winter. Although it was only just becoming summer, it was already clear that this winter would be a rough one.

Astrid's mother shared a nervous look with Astrid's father before turning back to her. "We do but there was something we wanted to talk to you about first."

Astrid suddenly felt nervous. Whatever this was it clearly wasn't good news. "What is it."

There was a moment of silence before Astrid's mother finally spoke. "We think it's time that you married."

Astrid scoffed and began to stand up from the table. She was not in the mood to have this conversation lately.

"Just wait a second, Astrid." Her father implored as she stood up. "We know that you aren't really interested but you are already past the age where you could have been betrothed, and there are several very promising bachelors who are looking for your hand."

Astrid rolled here eyes at that last part. "Bachelors? Like who, Snotlout?" She said sarcastically. 

Her parents said nothing as they glanced at each other before looking back at her.

"No." Astrid said suddenly, her eyes widening. She had just realized what was happening. "No you can't be serious. I will not marry that, that pig!"

"He's offered a more than generous bridal dowry." Her mother said. "We can only turn down his offer so many times. Plus, he is not the worst prospect for a husband."

"That man is the worst possible prospect for a husband! I would rather marry a Monstrous Nightmare than that man."

"Please listen to what your mother is saying, Astrid." Her father said. "Snotlout is next in line to be chief, he's a very strong warrior and his father basically runs the village already ever since Stoick-"

He suddenly paused after mentioning Stoick, all of them remembering the state he was currently in. The room was filled with silence, before Astrid broke it.

"I will not marry him." She said angrily, storming out of the house before her parents could say anything.

She muttered angrily as she wandered down the street. It was true that other people her age were beginning to get married, and she would have to sooner or later. At eighteen years, she was well past the age where vikings could begin to be betrothed, and eventually her parents would be forced to marry her off anyway.

She was especially not marrying Snotlout of all people, despite his future position of power. She was also convinced that he was using his recently acquired status to keep any other suiters from asking her parents for her hand, basically making sure that he was the only option. Ever since Hiccup had died four years ago he had been made next in line to be chief, and he was very proud of that fact and was flaunting his power.

As she walked down the street, she suddenly paused. She hadn't thought about Hiccup for a while, but now that she did it was clear that's where all of the problems started. Once they had found his blood and the dragon scales in the clearing, Stoick had refused to believe that his son was dead and immediately ordered a search of the entire island. After a couple days it was clear he was no longer on the island, so he began searching the waters around the islands. Then he notified the neighboring tribes, but he was nowhere to be found.

After nearly two months, Stoick had finally stopped searching, and that's when everything fell apart. Over the years he began spending less and less time out of his house, and spent more and more time drinking. Eventually it got so bad that Snotlout's father, Spitelout, had to take up most of Stoick's duties in order to keep the island running. A few people such as herself, Gobber, Gothi, and even Bucket and Mulch, were doing there best to get him back but it was slow going.

Looking up as she walked, she realized that she had inadvertently walked all the way to the ring. She trained here so often that walking here had become muscle memory. Maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea to train some, though. She walked down the ramp, and rounded the corner into the ring, when she saw a figure already training in it. Snotlout.

She tried to immediately turn around a leave but it was too late. He had noticed her.

"Astrid." He said, a sleezy smile spreading across his face. "Have you come to watch your future husband train?"

Astrid felt her anger flare as he dared to say that. She immediately stormed over to where he stood, and slapped him in the face, her hand connecting solidly with his cheek. He stumbled backwards, nearly falling over.

"Listen here you disgusting excuse for a human." She said angrily, malice filling her voice as she towered over him. "If I ever hear you say something like that again I will make sure that nobody will every be able to find you again, and if they do find you, you will be so unrecognizable that they will dump your body into the ocean, thinking it to be a pile of waste."

Snotlout did his best to look confident, smirking weakly until he finally spoke up. "Just wait. You can't say no to me forever." 

Astrid turned around began to walk away, but as she did she heard a wolf whistle erupt from behind her. Without a second of hesitation she wheeled back around and sprinted over to where he stood. Her fist landed violently with his stomach. He immediately collapsed on the ground, retching and wheezing in pain.

"If I so much as hear your name for the rest of today," She said, pressing her axe blade against his neck, "then I will personally kill you. And I will make sure you beg for mercy before I do it."

"I'm, I'm s-sorry" He sputtered, as beads of red blood began to appear around where her axe touched his neck. 

Astrid stared at him for a second, before pulling back her axe and walking out of the arena, cursing him violently as she went. She walked into the woods instead, figuring it a better place to train for today.

For hours she practiced, slamming her axe again and again into tree after tree, cursing her luck and especially Snotlout as she did so. That fucking bastard made her so mad she wanted to chop of his head every time she even heard his name.

"Astrid." She heard someone say from behind her.

Wheeling around she raised her axe, before suddenly halting in her tracks.

"Don't startle me like that, Ruffnut." She said, lowering her axe.

"Hey I called your name several times. You're the one who didn't notice." Ruffnut responded, walking over to her.

"Sorry, I've just been kinda distracted today." Astrid said, sitting down on one of the logs nearby.

"I can tell." Ruffnut said, sitting down next to her. She and Astrid had become closer over the last couple years, seeing as they were some of the only two women their age around. All the others were at least several years older or younger.

"Are you alright?" Ruffnut asked, concerned. "I didn't see you in the Great Hall for breakfast today."

"I'm fine." Astrid said. There was a moment paused as Ruffnut merely stared at her expectantly, as if to say I can tell you're lying. "Fine. My parents are trying to convince me to get married again."

"Againt? Didn't they just ask that like a week ago?"

"Yeah but this time it get's worse."

"Ooh, do I sense a story?" Ruffnut asked, her face lighting up.

"Don't look so excited. It's not good." Astrid muttered. "They tried to convince me that Snotlout was my only option."

Ruffnut sat up straighter, a shocked look on her face. "Snotlout?" She asked incredulously. "Really? Out of all people? The Snotlout?"

"Yeah." Astrid said grimly. "And to make things worse I'm pretty sure he's scared off all the other men his age off from proposing to me. Not a single one of them has approached my parents every since he made his first proposal."

"Wow." Ruffnut said quietly. "That's bad. And I thought my parents were fools."

Astrid looked up confused. "Why, what happened with your parents?"

Ruffnut said nothing for a couple seconds, her expression softening. "That's actually what I came to talk about. My parents got a marriage offer yesterday."

"Who was it?"

Ruffnut paused before speaking. "Fishlegs."

Astrid chuckled quietly. "As if you'd agree to that."

Ruffnut said nothing.

Astrid looked up suddenly, staring at her with shock. "Don't tell me…"

"I said yes." Ruffnut admitted.

"To Fishlegs?" Astrid exclaimed.

"He's sweeter than you'd expect." Ruffnut said shrugging. "He brought me flowers. Plus he's both smart and strong, and his parents are pretty well respected. It's the best offer I'm probably ever going to get."

Astrid sighed. "Well, I never saw that coming."

"Me neither." Ruffnut said with a chuckle. "I feel bad for you though."

Astrid just shook her head, staring at the ground.

"That dumbass Snot is convinced you're going to marry him just because he's Stoick's heir. And now he's using his power to make sure your parents have no choice but to accept." Ruffnut continued.

"Wait." Astrid's head shot up. She turned to look at Ruffnut. "I know how to get out of marrying him!"

"Really?! How?" Ruffnut asked excitedly.

"Snotlout isn't Stoick's son, so he's not the heir, he's the heir apparent."

"What's the difference?" Ruffnut asked, clearly confused.

"Heir apparent means that he has been appointed next in line, but he isn't officially the successor until he becomes chief. Being the heir means that because you are next in line, no one can take that position from you unless you die or resign. Hiccup used to be the heir, but Snotlout is only the heir apparent"

"And how does this help us?"

"Because Snot is the heir apparent, that title can be removed at any time by Stoick. So all we have to do is get Stoick to appoint me as heir apparent instead of him, and then he can't force me to marry him!" Astrid said excitedly.

"Is that allowed?" Ruffnut asked.

"I don't think anyone but the chief's family has ever been made heir apparent before, so it'd definitely be a first but it's not against any rules."

Ruffnut said nothing as she thought about it. "Well…" She said eventually. "I guess it's worth a shot.

Astrid slowed her pace as she approached the Haddock household. There was no light coming through the window, and the thatch roof was beginning to become old and overgrown. Much of the grass around it was scorched and dead, and on the the posts had a large gash running through it. Slowing to a walk, she approached even slower as Ruffnut caught up behind her, wheezing.

"Why'd, you," She panted, "run so fast."

Astrid said nothing as she cautiously approach the front door. Raising one hand, she hesitated before gently knocking on the front door. 

"Stoick?" She called. "Are you home?"

Hearing no response, she knocked once more, before gently pushing the door open. It creaked open slowly, revealing a dark, cold room. The fireplace to the right side of the room was dark and empty, occupied by little more than a few pieces of charcoal. 

Walking inside, Astrid noticed a small wooden bowl on the table in the middle of the room. Making her way over, she saw it was a bowl of cold, thick porridge. Gobber had probably brought it this morning from the Great Hall, but it sat there untouched. Gazing around, she saw thick layers of dust covering the beams and fireplace, with cobwebs beginning to appear in the corner. The charcoal in the fireplace itself was fresh, and the the table and chairs were clean but it was clear that most of this house was long neglected for.

Moving past the table she made her way deeper into the house, past the stairs on her left. Walking to the back of the house the stopped by a large door on the back wall. Knocking gently, she got no response.

"Stoick?" She called out. No response. Slowly she grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. 

Immediately a waft of hot air hit her in the face, the stench of alcohol filling the room.

"Whoa." Ruffnut said behind her, clearly as shocked as she was. 

Walking into the room, she could immediately tell that this room was more lived in, but just as uncared for as the rest of the house. To the right side of the room was a massive bed, the largest Astrid had ever seen, covered in disheveled fur blankets, most of them on the floor. There were clothes, bowls, and other various items strewn about the floor and on the left side of the room, slumped over a desk, was a very obviously drunk and unconscious Stoick the Vast. 

"Thats… sad." Ruffnut said, stepping into the room behind her. 

"Yeah." Astrid said solemnly, staring at the lifeless body. "Alright, let's get this over with."

"Stoick I know you still need time," Astrid said, sitting across the table from the man. "but until you are ready to resume your duties we need somebody to run Berk safely, and you and I both know that the Jorgensons are not the people for that, especially not Snotlout."

Stoick said nothing as he drank slowly from the mug, the water doing what little it could to resolve what was probably a horrific hangover. Ruffnut and Astrid had spent the last hour helping Stoick clean up, and were now trying to remedy the copious amounts of alcohol in his system, Stoick gently put the mug back on the table, Before closing his eyes and rubbing his temple.

"Stoick…" Astrid began.

"I heard ya lass." He mumbled, not opening his eyes. "I don't… I don't know. The kid's family. He's doin' fine."

"But he's not." Astrid said. "He's let the power go to his head. He hasn't bothered to learn a thing about leading, and spends all day pushing people around. The village is fine for now because Spitelout and Gobber are running things, but what about the future Stoick? What happens when your generation is gone and Snotlout actually has to run things?"

"He's next in line Astrid." Stoick said, now staring blankly at the table. "Ever since Hic-" He suddenly paused. "Snotlout is heir. I don't… its done. It's been decided."

"Chief…" Ruffnut started to say.

"I said it's been decided." Stoick said gruffly, before grabbing the mug and chugging the rest of the water.

"Stoick." Astrid said. "Look at me."

"Lass…" 

"Look at me." She repeated sternly.

Stoick slowly raised his eyes, before meeting hers.  She immediately noticed how heavy they felt, filled with a mix of sadness, regret, and hopelessness. He was looking at her, but it felt as if he was looking at something a million miles away. 

"Stoick." She said, staring him in the eyes. "Since I was a child you have done nothing but what was best for Berk. You have always been known as a stern but fair chief. You have led this tribe into battle many times, have kept us alive through the harshest of winters, and have kept peace between the tribes of this archipelago. Even when Valka died, you remained strong."

Stoick tensed up at the mention of his wife, but Astrid kept going.

"We need that Stoick now." She pleaded. "The Stoick that has kept this tribe afloat. The Stoick that has led this tribe to victory again and again. The Stoick that Valka and Hiccup knew, and were proud of. We need Stoick the Vast back."

Stoick merely stared at her once she finished. For what seemed like an eternity he said nothing, merely staring, waiting. Finally, he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. 

"I see your point. I guess…" He exhaled loudly. "this is pitiful. Gods they'd be so ashamed. "

"Then make them proud." Astrid insisted.

Stoick sighed, before standing up from the table, nearly knocking the chair over. "Give me a second to uh, clean up would ya?"

"Of course chief." Astrid said, before turning and leaving the room, Ruffnut at her heels. She closed the door to the house behind her, before letting out a huge sigh of relief. This could work. 

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Snotlout roared, slamming his hands against the round table.

"Quiet!" His father Spitelout hissed, before turning back to face Stoick. "Chief, you just came back so perhaps you should take some time to think abou-"

"I've had plenty of time to think Spitelout." Stoick said, standing up from the chair and placing both hands on the table in front of him. "While I stepped away from my duty as Chief, it was the duty of my heir to continue running the village in my stead. While I had no expectations of Snotlout running the village on his own, from what I hear he has not even made any attempts to learn even the slightest bit about ruling."

Murmurs ran throughout the Great Hall as he spoke. Everyone knew that Snotlout was terrible at leading, but removing his title as heir? This had never been done before.

"Those are lies!" Snotlout yelled once again. "I am clearly the best candidate for heir!" She just wants to get out of marriage!" He continued, pointing at Astrid.

Astrid opened her mouth for a retort but was interrupted by Stoick.

"On top of your shortcoming's when it comes to the duties as heir, you have abused your power as heir to get what want, skirt general responsibilities, and have overall been an ass to the rest of Berk." He said pointedly, staring at Snotlout. "All of which are qualities unbecoming of my heir."

"But Stoick," Spitelout began. "those can't be reason to remove the title. And he's just a boy-"

"And I'm your relative." Snotlout interrupted. "So I'm the next in line as heir."

"The boy is plenty old enough to be responsible for is own actions." Stoick said sternly, looking back and forth between the two. "And, he is my nephew by marriage, not blood. This means that the only reason he's heir is because I said so."

At this whispers again spread throughout the hall, much louder this time. Would Snotlout really be stripped of his title?

Astrid's heart pounded in her chest as she watched the interaction go back and forth between the Jorgenson's and Stoick. She was so close to gaining the title, yet it still seemed so far away. It wasn't helping that she was keenly aware of her parent's gazes watching her from the crowd, just as stunned as the rest of the village at these turns of events.

"QUIET!" Stoick roared, his booming voice silencing the hall. "Listen up! As of this moment, Snotlout Jorgenson has been stripped of his title and privileges as heir to the Chiefdom of Berk!"

At this the crowd erupted into talks as the village came to the realization that this was actually happening. Astrid watched happily, and admittedly rather smugly, as Snotlout practically fumed at this news.

"In his place," He said, his voice drowned out by the astonished crowd. "SILENCE! In his place, the title and all responsibilities of said heirdom will be passed onto Astrid Hofferson, heir to the throne of Berk."

Astrid couldn't help but grin as she watched a mix of shock, terror, and murderous intent pass over Snotlout's face, as his father dragged him out of the hall. She was about to get up and leave herself when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Congrats lassie." Gobber said, smiling down at her. He then walked over and stood a Stoick's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're back chief."

"Me too." Stoick said slowly. "Me too."

Chapter Text

Hiccup leaned against the tree as he gazed at the outpost that was across the river front of them. It was only made up of dozens of tents and several wooden towers. There were several wooden walls connecting them, but they were being taken down.

"They're dismantling that outpost pretty quickly." He said, impressed.

"Yeah the Byzantine Empire is still decently powerful and efficient." Thorfinn said, standing next to him.

"Still?"

"They've been declining for decades. Ever since the fall of the Romans they've slowly been pushed back by various tribes and other empires like the Carolingians." Thorfinn admitted.

"That is too many names for me to remember. So what is the plan?" Hiccup asked.

"We walk up to the outpost and ask them to take us to the capital." Thorfinn said.

"Really?" Hiccup asked, surprised.

"No. To be honest I haven't really thought this far ahead." Thorfinn replied.

Hiccup hadn't thought much about this part either. They had spent the last two years slowly making their way south across Europe until the reached the Byzantine empire. It took forever as they attempted to avoid any Carolingian soldiers, and they also had to stop frequently for Thorfinn's injury. They had many close run-ins, and almost as many fights, but they finally made it. 

"Do they ever come out of the outpost?" Hiccup asked.

"They probably make patrols of the area."

"What if we wait for them to come out, and then we confront them?" Hiccup said.

"And have them attack us because neither of us speak Greek? Yeah right." Thorfinn scoffed.

"We have Toothless to stop them." Hiccup said, looking over at the dragon. Toothless clearly recognized the praise and looked very proud with himself. "Are you sure we can't just fly into the capital and meet with your viking friend?"

"You don't understand. There are people in every inch of the capital, at every second of the day. It would be impossible for us not be spotted, and for them to shoot at Toothless before we can even meet with the Varangian Guard."

"The who?" Hiccup asked, confused.

"The group my friend works for. The Varangian Guard is a group of vikings who serve as the emperor's personal guard."

"Your friend is the personal guard of the emperor?!"

"Which is why we need to get with him in order to be protected." Thorfinn said. "If he agrees to help us."

Hiccup sighed. "So we can't screw this up." Thorfinn shook his head. "What if we were to help the soldiers in that outpost, so that they would then want to take us to the capital."

Thorfinn clearly looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"If we use Toothless to impress the guards in the outpost, then they will want to take us to the capital. I bet they won't want to miss the opportunity to have a dragon in the Varangian Guard."

"Ok." Thorfinn said slowly, the idea forming in his head. "So how do we introduce them to Toothless without them attacking on sight?"

Hiccup said nothing for a second.

"You look like you're scheming something. What is it?"

"This outpost is right on the border between the Byzantines Empire and the Bulgarian Empire right?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah? So what?"

"So, the Bulgars and the Byzantines hate each other. If we get them to fight each other, we can then swoop in and help the Byzantines, and we become the heroes."

Thorfinn thought about it for a second. "It sounds like a terrible plan but I have no idea what else to do so let's do it."

"Great. We are really going to have to sell this though. Once we find a Bulgar patrol near the border, we are going to attack them for a bit before running. We let them chase us towards the outpost before disappearing. They'll think we ran into the outpost, and then they'll attack it."

"I doubt they're going to give chase to two lone guys." 

"Which is why we won't let them see that it's just the two of us. We will attack from afar and make it seem like theres at least a dozen."

Thorfinn still looked doubtful. "How are we going to do that?"

"With arrows."

"I can't shoot a bow." Thorfinn admitted.

"You don't need to be accurate. All we need is for the Bulgars to see a bunch of arrows flying their way, and then they panic."

"Well let's hope this works."

Hiccup smiled. "Let's go find us some Bulgars."

"Get ready." Hiccup whispered. He and Thorfinn both nocked several arrows onto their recently stolen bows, and raised them. Aiming through the trees at the sizable group of soldiers infront of them, they both drew back, waiting for them to get in range. With three arrows on each bow, it was impossible to be accurate, but they needed it to seem like there were more people than there actually were.

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Loose."

All six arrows flew, scattering around the patrol of soldiers. One even glanced off one of the soldier's shield.

"Again." He whispered. The each knocked three more arrows released them. "Again."

By the time they had each shot nine arrows. they had hit a grand total of one soldier out of nearly two dozen. But it was enough. Once the soldiers had gotten over their surprise, they immediately began running towards where Hiccup and Thorfinn hid.

"Here we go." Thorfinn said.

The two took off running into the woods. They ran just fast enough so that they wouldn't be seen, but slow enough that the Bulgar soldiers could easily keep up. Running through the forest they both reached the spot where Toothless waited and they scrambled on. As they shot into the air, Thorfinn nearly threw up.

"Gods I'm never going to get used to this." He muttered.

"Yeah well, we need to do this for this to work. Wait. There!" Hiccup pointed down at the tree line they had just flown out of. It was hard to see through the clouds, but they both saw the Bulgars emerge from the tree line, just across the river from the outpost. The group of soldiers hesitated for a second, before charging across the bridge.

"Told you." Hiccup said, looking back at Thorfinn, 

They waited for a couple minutes and watched as the Bulgars assaulted the outpost, catching the Byzantine soldiers off guard. 

"I think we've waited long enough." Hiccup said.

"Yeah we should intervene before the Bulgars kill them all."

Hiccup immediately dived straight towards the cluster of Bulgar soldiers. Toothless screeched as they plummeted towards the ground, causing Thorfinn to immediately hold on with all his might. They pulled up as Toothless' plasma bolt exploded among the Bulgar soldiers. As they leveled out, feet above the ground, Thorfinn slid off of Toothless' back and hit the ground hard, rolling to absorbed the impact.

Thorfinn charged at the few surviving Bulgar soldiers. As he drew his weapons and began to kill man after man, the Byzantine soldiers finally gained their bearings, and joined back into the attack.

Their numbers severely reduced by Toothless' attack, the remaining Bulgars were utterly decimated by the combined forces. As they killed the few remaining soldiers, Hiccup flew down and landed softly next to Thorfinn.

The Byzantine soldiers immediately raised their weapons again and looked on edge as the spotted Toothless. They said nothing as Hiccup dismounted his saddle and took his place next to Thorfinn. They merely stared at each other until finally one of the Byzantine soldiers stepped forward.

He was covered in chain mail, which was then adorned in red leather. He carried a large blue shield is his left hand, and a spear in his right. What really stood him out compared to the other's however, was the crest of feathers that stood on top of his helmet. It seemed this main was their leader.

"Σας ευχαριστούμε που μας βοηθήσατε." The man said.

"Uhh did you catch that?" Hiccup said to Thorfinn. This was going to be more difficult than you thought.

"I think he said somethings about thanks?" Thorfinn responded. He stepped forward to face the man. "Πάμε στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. Βαρανγκάινς."

The man turned to the other men and muttered something.

"I think I just said we need to go to Miklagard to meet the Varangians. Hopefully." Thorfinn said. He didn't look too confident though.

The man turned back to the two of them. Eyeing Toothless he spoke. "Σου χρωστάμε τη ζωή μας. Θα σε πάω στην πρωτεύουσα."

"I think he agreed to take us." Thorfinn muttered.

"Good." Hiccup said, as they followed the men into the camp.

Chapter Text

Hiccup did his best to not let his jaw drop open as they approached the large gates of the walled city. He had never seen such a construction. He had seen some large castles over the past couple years while wandering Europe, but this was on another level. 

The walls towered overhead, made out of massive stones, bigger than any person. It was adorned with windows and banners, and the tops of the walls were dotted with heavily armed soldiers, but even more fascinatingly, there many large wooden siege weapons, loaded with arrows as long as Hiccup was tall. His skin itched to get a closer look at the engineering feat, and figure out how it worked.

As the party of soldiers approached, the massive gates that lead deeper into the city slowly creaked open. He and Thorfinn had spent the last couple of weeks following the soldiers to Constantinople. It had taken so long because he had been forced to follow the soldiers on the ground while they rode horses, meaning Toothless had to walk.

As they passed through the massive gates, he couldn't help but let his jaw drop. Massive houses spread as far as he could see, all of them fancier and more adorned than any of the chief's houses in the archipelago. They were all packed together, and small paved streets winded their way through the city, leading deeper in.

As they made their way deeper in the city, the views got even more insane and impressive. The houses got fancier, and so did the people. They wore the fanciest clothing Hiccup had ever seen, although he didn't understand how they could handle wearing robes like those in this heat. The passed markets stock full of exotic foods, and animals Hiccup had never seen. There were stalls full of gold and jewels, weapons and tools that could make any vikings jealous.

Speaking of people, as the band made their way through the city, they began to draw a large crowd. People stared and gaped as Hiccup passed on the back of Toothless. Children stared and pointed, many hiding behind their parents. Some stared with awe, while others looked on in fear. Hiccup felt more and more uncomfortable as they continued deeper into the city, getting more stares as they went. 

Finally, they approached the end of the city, where it became a large peninsula. Or so Hiccup thought. It turns out that on the other side of the river, the city stretched even farther, with houses just as ornate and expensive. 

Apparently the river wasn't actually a river, but a channel that connected the massive lake to the sea that surrounded the city. Ships sailed up and down the channel, ships bigger than any Hiccup had ever seen. As big as Berk's great hall, they were covered in massive sails, and had dozens of people running about.

Hiccup stared back and forth at each and every sight they passed. Born into the rough and ugly life on Berk, he had grown accustomed to the dirty and rough life of northern Europe. He had been thoroughly impressed by the size of Orkney when he first arrived, all those years ago. He thought he had found the biggest city ever once they had stopped in York, and he thought the castles they had seen were where the most powerful men in the world lived, but this topped them all.

The city was so rich and massive, clean and impressive that he was sure that not even Valhalla could match this. Clearly, whoever ruled this place, could probably conquer the entire world.

Thorfinn watched him as stared at the city. "Pretty impressive, right?"

"You can say that again." Hiccup muttered softly.

"Just wait. Were not even at the palace yet."

Hiccup stared at him incredulously. "We're going to the palace?!"

"Apparently the emperor has taken an interest in you, once he heard about Toothless. At least I think that's what the captain said."

They were still following the group of soldiers that had been on border, while they made their way into the city. Apparently the soldiers had been called back to the capital anyway so they were happy to take Thorfinn and Hiccup with them.

As they approached the end of the city, before it reached the sea, the winding roads and packed houses gave way to a large courtyard, where two massive structures stood. The first one was a massive domed building. Larger than some of the castles Hiccup had seen in Europe, it was covered in spires and outcroppings. It was probably the most beautiful building Hiccup had ever seen, and it was an architectural masterpiece.  

The other building was the one they walked into. As they made their way through the stone arch Hiccup saw that it was a long rectangular stadium, but rounded at both ends. It almost reminded Hiccup of the ring back on Berk, but much, much larger.

As they walked into the stadium, the captain of the soldiers they had been following suddenly stopped walking. He turned around to face Thorfinn, said a couple words, before turning around and walked out.

"I think he said this is it." Thorfinn said.

Hiccup nodded and turned back to the interior of the stadium. Scattered throughout the massive yard were dozen of soldiers. Some where sparring, some were doing drills, and others still were standing around talking. 

All of them wore various amounts of chainmail armor, adorned with a purple dragon crest sown into the front. Others had more armor, made of leather and also died purple, and most carried spears, axes or sword. 

Hiccup turned towards Thorfinn. "The Varangian Guard?" Thorfinn nodded, before walking forward towards several people standing around and talking.

"Eret!" He called out.

One of the people talking turned around. He was a large, muscular man. Slightly taller than Hiccup but definitely wider. His long black hair wise tied back in a bun and he had three lines tattooed onto his chin. He wore the same chain mail armor as the others, with the crest in the middle, but he also had a a long purple cape across his back. 

"Thorfinn!" His face lit up as he saw the short blond man walking towards him. The two walked towards each other into a quick embrace before pulling away. 

"What are you doing here?" Eret asked.

"It's a long story." Thorfinn said. "The short version is that we were ambushed while in the Holy Roman Empire, and this was the best place to seek refuge."

"Those damn Carolingians." Eret muttered.

Thorfinn nodded. "By the way," He turned to look at Hiccup. "This is Hiccup, my companion. We've been traveling together for more than two years. Hiccup, this is Eret, current captain of the Varangian Guard."

"Nice to meet you." Eret said. stepping forward to shake Hiccup's hand, when suddenly he stopped in his tracks, eyes locked onto Toothless. "Is that…"

"A dragon? Yep." Hiccup said.

"No." Eret said, still staring at Toothless. "That's a Night Fury."

Hiccup was suddenly taken aback. "You know dragons?" He asked, shocked.

"Of course." Eret responded. "I was born a viking too you know. Almost all of us were. I was born outside of the archipelago but close enough to be affected by the dragons."

"Are there other people from the Archipelago here?" Hiccup asked incredulous. Depending on if they knew who he was, this could either be very good, or very bad for him.

"A couple, yeah. Where are you from?" 

"Berk" Hiccup admitted.

Eret nodded. "Makes sense. You guys always had it pretty bad with the beasts."

Hiccup's brow furrowed with that last statement.

"As much as I would love to stand here and reminisce," Thorfinn said, interrupting. "the only reason we were allowed into the city is because the Emperor wants to see Hiccup and Toothless, that's the dragon by the way."

"Well, I guess we can't keep the Emperor waiting." Eret replied. "C'mon. I'll take you to him."

It turned out the Emperor's palace was right behind the arena, which was apparently called the Hippodrome. The palace was actually a walled compound big enough to be a small village, and while the entrance to the compound was mere steps away from the Hippodrome, it took quite a few more minutes of walking to finally make it to the Emperor's residence itself.

Eret waved aside every guard they came across, most of them wearing the same chainmail with the crest, and while the guards eyed Toothless suspicously, none of them said anything.

Finally, the three of them reached the largest building in the compound, the palace itself. It was a large, imposing structure. Not as large as the domed building outside, but still massive. It was several stories tall, covered in balconies and large windows, and surrounded by a large garden.

Walking through the large front doors, they made their way through winding corridors and past door after door. Finally, they reached a last set of double doors, at which they stopped. Stepping forward, Eret knocked twice before stepping back. One of the doors creaked open, and out peaked an old man with greying hair. He exchanged a quick word with Eret in a language Hiccup didn't recognize, before stepping back, and letting the three of them in the room.

The room, while undeniably fancy, was rather bare compared to the rest of the palace. The walls were covered in bookshelves, cabinets and paintings. A small chandelier hung from the cieling, covered in candles, but the majority of the light came from the large fireplace in the back, and the tall windows on the left side of the room.

There were already three men in the room. One was the old man who had let them in, and another was a young adult who carried a number of books and papers. The one who caught Hiccup's attention however, was the man who sat at the large wooden desk in front of the fireplace. 

He seemed to be a middle aged man, but his face was already showing signs of aging. His hair and neatly trimmed beard were dark brown, with speckles of grey. He wore a set of elaborate purple robes, and a large golden crown sat on his head.

As soon as Eret stepped into the room, he bowed his head at the man, causing Hiccup and Thorfinn to follow. "Greeting's your majesty."

The Emperor muttered something to the two other men in the room, who promptly bowed to him before hurrying out of the room. "Eret. What can I help you with."

"I have brought you the men who cam from the Bulgar border. They wish to join the Varangian Guard." He responded.

The Emperor's face lit up as he both heard this, and spotted Toothless who was next to Hiccup. "Ah." He said, standing up and walking around to the front of the desk. "Of course. The famed demon of the sky. Word of your exploits have quickly spread across the capital."

Hiccup swallowed nervously as this man stood before him. "Thank you sir."

"What is your name." The emperor said as he stopped in front of Hiccup.

"Hiccup sir. A Norse name."

"Hiccup. And you wish to join my guard?"

"Yes sir." He gestured to Thorfinn. "My companion here is friends with Eret, so we agreed that this was the best path for both of us."

The Emperor nodded, studying Hiccup's face. "Well I certainly won't say no to a dragon joining my forces. Tell me though. Hiccup." His face suddenly grew more serious. "Do you understand what this job entails?"

"It involves guarding you, does it not?" Hiccup said. It seemed straightforward to him.

"It does. But the Varangian Guard is more than mere body guards. They are my personal soldiers." He stepped even closer to Hiccup. "They do what I say is to be done, as soon as I say it, and without question. They go where I say they go, and kill who I say to kill." The room filled with silence. "Do you think you can handle that?"

Hiccup stared back into his eyes, unmoving. "I'm not afraid to kill, sir."

The Emperor said nothing for a second, before giving a chuckle and taking a step back. "Well if Eret vouches for you, then so be it. Welcome to the Varangian Guard, Hiccup." He turned to Thorfinn. "And…?"

"Thorfinn." Thorfinn said curtly.

"Thorfinn." The Emperor repeated. "I expect the two of you to serve me well. Eret I trust you can get them settled?"

"Yes, your majesty." Eret said, before guiding them out of the room. He said nothing as they made their way back through the palace and out the front doors. "So what do you think of Emperor Basil the Second?"

"Basil II?" Hiccup asked.

"Did you think vikings were the only ones with weird names?" Eret chuckled.

 "He's an interesting man." Thorfinn said.

"I agree." Hiccup said, nodding. "He seemed rather intelligent and compassionate, but also ruthless."

"Spot on." Eret said, as they reached the exit to the compound. "Get on his good side, and you will be well rewarded. Get on his bad side, and well…" He didn't finish the sentence.

"So where are we headed?" Thorfinn asked.

"Baracks. I'll get you both settled and we will start with the training in the morning."

They all followed him past the Hippodrome and that large domed building, and started walking deeper into the city. After rounding the first corner, they reached the building where they would be staying. It was decently big and made of white clay and marble, and was fancier than any building Hiccup had ever stayed in.

Once inside they made their way upstairs into the main hallway. They passed several wooden doors before the reached the last two rooms. 

"Thorfinn, you'll be in that room. Hiccup you'll be in this one." He said, pointing.

"We get our own rooms?" Hiccup asked, shocked.

"Of course." Eret said with a smirk. "Perks of being the Emperor's personal guard.

Hiccup merely gaped at him. Back on Berk it was rare for people to get their own rooms. He had finally managed to get his own once he became a teenager because his father had cleared out a small space in the back of the house, and allowed Hiccup to transform it into his own room. If his mom were still alive, and they had more people living in the house, there was no way in Hellheim he would have been allowed his own room, like all the other families on Berk.

Eret said goodbye to the two of them, before leaving. Thorfinn was the first to move, saying goodbye to both Hiccup and Toothless and walking into his room. Once, he left, Hiccup too turned to the door to his room, and walked inside. 

Chapter Text

Hiccup gaped at the mirror, turning left and right, back and forth, as he stared. He had last seen a mirror back in Orkney, nearly four years ago, and the man he was staring at in the mirror could not have been him. He had seen his reflection in the water sure, but it was never clear, and he knew he had grown taller compared to Thorfinn but this was insane. He looked like a completely different man.

He looked so much older than he felt. His face was stern and his jaw was sharp, having lost the baby fat that had rounded out his face when he was a young teen. His collection of freckles remained around his nose and cheekbones, but now light stubble also dotted his face and chin, making him think he would have to shave for the first time soon. His auburn hair was just as messy and unruly as it had been when he was younger, but now it had grown so long that he always had to tie it back.

He looked so much taller than before. He hadn't measured himself in years, but if he had to guess he was already over 6 feet at this point. He didn't think he was even close to his father's height, but he would definitely give Gobber a run for his money.

While still much lankier than his father, his body was now covered in muscle that he had gained through years of combat. He hadn't had time to notice while struggling to survive with Thorfinn, but he had shaped up quite nicely. His younger self would be proud. Somewhat embarrassingly, he spent quite some time turning this way and that, admiring the changes in the mirror. His shoulders were much broader than he remembered, and he could definitely make out the muscles in his chest, abs and arms. He couldn't see his back that well, but he could tell it too was much more muscular than he ever thought possible. 

His muscles weren't the only thing that years of combat had given him over the years. His body was covered in dozens of scars, both small and big. Most of them were small or medium sized, dotting his forearms and thighs, where he had the least armor. A few of them however, were quite big. 

He once took an arrow right where his chest met his right shoulder. It had missed the collarbone and went all the way through him, but it did no lasting damage. It had taken several weeks until he could move his right arm properly again, but now he had a roundish scar to show for it. Another time his took a knife to the ribs. He had managed to dodge at the last second so it got suck in his ribs and didn't go too deep, but now there was a long thin scar along his left rib cage, The most impressive however, ran across his chest. He had taken an axe to the chest while in western Hungary, and would have most certainly died if it had not been for Thorfinn. He had managed to grab Hiccup by the collar and drag him backwards at the last seconds. That combined with his leather and chainmail armor meant that when he was struck by the axe, it broke the skin and cracked one of his ribs, but it didn't kill him. He was immediately dragged away by Thorfinn and Toothless, and it took nearly five months before he could breath normally again, but now he had the coolest scar ever to show people.

Standing normally in front of the mirror again, he took one last look at himself. Clearly, he was looking at himself, but he couldn't recognize himself in the man in the reflection at all. Sometimes he still thought of himself as that small, afraid boy back on Berk, but looking at himself now, he felt different. He was stronger, more experienced. He could rely on himself now. He was Hiccup, and he was finally proud of it.

Suddenly, a knock rang out from the door. "Hiccup? You ready?" Eret's voice rang out.

"Coming!" He yelled back. He found his shirt and pulled it one, before grabbing some of the stuff he usually carried around and walked across his room to the front door, Toothless at his heels.

The room he was given, while small, was fancier than anything he had ever lived it. The walls themselves were made of a smooth clay, and painted white while the roof and floor were made of a light colored wood. It had two large square windows that faced the main street, because his room was in the front right corner of the building, while Thorfinn's was in the front left. There was also a large bed covered in curtains, a desk, a large bookcase, several paintings and potted plants, a wall mounted mirror, and a small dining table, all leading to the small room being rather cramped, but clean and tidy.

Joining Eret and Thorfinn in the hallway, they made their way downstairs and out the front door, into the main street. 

"Where are we headed?" Hiccup asked.

"Breakfast." Eret responded. "There i'll introduce you to some of the other guards, who will keep an eye on you two from now on."

They followed Eret farther down the street until they reached a large building. It was larger than the building where they stayed, and the front consisted of a large set of doors, with tall and thin windows on either side. Walking inside, Hiccup was immediately reminded of the great hall. It was smaller, but the interior consisted of several large tables and benches that ran along the length of the hall, and at the back end of the hall was a similar large table that ran perpendicular to the others. On this table was a variety of pots, tables and cauldrons, with pile upon pile of food. Behind the table was several people holding ladles, pots and other tools, currently serving the large line of soldiers waiting to be fed.

"Welcome to the dinning hall." Eret said, as they got in line. "This is where you will get all your meals, After breakfast you will usually get your orders for the day, before heading to your posts. Today however, we have to get some stuff out of the way. Introductions, armor and uniforms, et cetera, "

After the three of them had gotten enough food to feed a small army and Hiccup had grabbed some stuff for Toothless, Eret led them to one of the tables. He stopped and sat down across from two guards where were currently having a conversation, a man and a woman. As Hiccup and Thorfinn took their seats, Eret introduced the pair.

"Hiccup, Thorfinn, these two are going to guide you around until you get used to the schedule. Meet Heather and Dagur."

They exchanged greetings with the pair who sat across from them. The woman, Heather, had long, jet black hair, which was tied in a braid down her shoulder, and soft green eyes, lighter than Hiccup's. The man, Dagur, had spiky red hair, the same green eyes, with thick scars and tattoos covering his face.

"Heather, Dagur, meet Thorfinn and Hiccup, our newest recruits." He gave Heather a knowing look. "Hiccup here is from the archipelago."

"Really?" Heather said, surprised. 

A unnerving and toothly smile spread across Dagur's face. "Where from?"

"Berk." Hiccup admitted.

"We're from Berserker Island." Dagur said, excitedly.

"Really? How come I never met you two?" He asked.

"We… left when we were young. Spent some time with the Kievan Rus before coming here a couple years ago." Heather said. "What about you?"

"Left Berk a couple years ago. Joined Thorfinn as a mercenary, before making our way here."

The five of them continued to talk as they ate, quickly talking about their own stories. It turned out the two were siblings, although they were about as different as two people could get. Heather was calm, kind, and level headed. Dagur was energetic, a hot head, and stubborn. He almost jumped over the table when he spotted Toothless, causing Heather to restrain him. Finally, once they finished breakfast, Eret said he had duties to get started on, and said goodbye to the group. Soon after he left, the rest of them finished as well and headed out.

"So where to first?" Hiccup asked.

"The armory." Heather said. "We need to get you guys in uniform."

At the armory, they both got their own set of chain and leather armor, decorated with the same purple crest of the dragon. The both got to pick out new weapons, similarly branded with the crest, and got a purple cape to go with it. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Hiccup had to admit that the silver and purple combination was incredibly intimidating, and he loved it. Sadly, because of the uniform standards he had do get rid of his old helmet with the horns, and was issued a new silver one, complete with a spectacle guard and chain mask.

"This is pretty cool." Thorfinn admitted, looking at him and Hiccup, who nodded.

"Alright." Heather said. "Now that you've got your gear, its time for some training."

Dagur suddenly began grinning feverishly again, sending shivers down Hiccup's spine.

"Ooh." Dagur chuckled. "This is gonna be fun."

Hiccup glanced at Thorfinn. This was going to hurt.

Hiccup groaned in pain as he sat down in the dining hall with his food. He and Thorfinn had spent the last two months training with Heather and Dagur in every manner of combat possible. He had barely had to train sword combat or hand to hand combat at all, as he was already an expert with both of those. He occasionally practiced his archery just in case, but he was good enough to not need to do it so often. Plus he wasn't an archer anyway. He struggled with combat on horseback, as the animals were much more jittery and unstable than any dragon, but his flight experience meant he got the hang of it after a couple weeks. 

The real area which he struggled with, was practicing shield wall combat. It turned out the main weapons for every Varangian guard was a spear and a shield, with a sword as a backup. Some exchanged their swords for axes, hammers or any number of weapons, but everyone had to be proficient with a sword and shield. That itself wasn't an issue. He found it quite easy to fight with a spear, the issue was in learning how to be in a shield wall, which was the first and foremost tactic that the Byzantine used. In a shield wall, soldiers would stand side to side, shields linked, with the spears poking through the gaps. This formation made it nearly impossible for any soldiers to get close to them without immediately dying, and the vikings behind them could use their shields to cover them in case there were archers. While Hiccup understood the basics behind it, and why it was used, he just felt so cramped and claustrophobic while in the shield wall. He was used to having room to move and attack, in order to use speed and reflexes to overwhelm his opponent. This was the complete opposite of that, it had only been in the past couple days that he had finally gotten used to it.

As he began to eat, his food, he noticed the dinning hall was quieter than usual. The usual ruckus was slightly calmer.

"Is something happening?" He asked.

"There are rumors," Heather responded. "that we are being called to the front lines."

Hiccup stopped eating mid bite as he stared at her. About a month after he had arrived in Constantinople, the emperor had invaded Bulgaria with the army. He had taken a hundred or so Varangians with him as a guard and the bulk of the Byzantine army, but the remaining guard had stayed in the capital. There was no need to risk his best soldiers on the front line.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Heather shook her head. "No. Again, it's just rumors."

Hiccup began to think as he ate. He still hadn't worked out with Eret exactly what his position was going to be on the battlefield. Eret had left with the emperor before they had been able to work out the details. Their best plan was that he would join the calvary, and participate in hit and run maneuvers with them, as well as scouting.

The dinning hall grew silent as a man stood up at the head of one of the tables.

"Listen up!" He yelled. It was Kentarch Asenes, the Kentarch in charge of Heather and Dagur's century, a unit of about a hundred men. "Companies four and five, as well as squadron one have been summoned to the Hippodrome at noon today. Any who are late will be severely penalized." With that, he stepped back down and walked out of the hall. The hall immediately erupted in murmering, as people began speculating.

Hiccup glanced at the others around him. Heather, Dagur and Thorfinn were all part of the fifth company, which was made up of about three hundred infantry, and he and Toothless had been assigned to squadron one, which consisted of roughly 200 calvary troops.

"Two companies and a squadron, thats over eight hundred men." Thorfinn muttered. "What the hell is happening?"

The Varangian guard was the smallest brigade in the entire Byzantine military. It consisted of roughly one thousand and seven hundred soldiers, however they were the most elite soldiers in the entire empire. For nearly half of their soldiers to be summoned at one time, meant something big.

"I guess the rumors were right." Hiccup muttered. "We're going to war."

After they were all done eating, they retreated to their respective rooms to put on their entire uniforms. Once done, they all met up again outside the barracks. Walking to the Hippodrome, they found hundreds of soldiers making their way inside as well. Passing through the stone arches, into the stadium, they saw row after row of the Varangian guard, standing in formation. The right side of the stadium was taken up by company four, behind which was company five. To the left of both of them stood squadron one. Saying his goodbyes to the others, he and Toothless walked over to the squadron, as the others took their positions in company three. He had only been assigned to the cavalry about a week ago, so while the others greeted him, they eyed Toothless nervously. 

They waited for what seemed like an eternity, as the last of the soldiers trickled in. Finally, once the entire force stood in formation, a man stood up on a wooden platform at the end of the stadium. He noticed it was Domestikos Verinus, the right hand man to Eret. Verinus was the Domestikos in charge of battalion two, which consisted companies four, five, and six, while Eret commanded battalion one, which was made of companies one, two, and three, but Eret could command all six companies if he needed.

"I am sure you are all wondering why you are here." Domestikos Verinus yelled, his voice bouncing off of the stadium walls, echoing so that all could hear. "His Majesty, Emperor Basil II has nearly crushed the Bulgar army, however the last of the Bulgar forces have holed up in the valley of Kliedion, and are proving difficult to remove. These soldiers are the last of the Bulgar army, and have decided to fight until the last man. All attempts to remove them from their fortification have proved disastrous, and many of His Majesties army have been lost. Therefore, His Majesty has decided to summon the Varangian Guard, and defeat them once and for all."

He paused, and the stadium was filled with silence. Everyone understood the importance of what he had said. The Varangians rarely left Constantinople in such large quantities, and if they could succeed in this battle, then they could crush the Bulgars and end a war that had been going on for the last half century.

"The enemy outnumber us by a magnitude of ten!" Domestikos Verinus continued. "They believe their fortress inpenetrable, and their king invincible. However! Are we not the Varangian Guard? Are we not the Emperor's men?"

Cheers rang out among the hundreds of soldiers gathered in the stadium.

"And are we not going to give these Bulgar bastards the death they finally deserve?!" Verinus yelled.

Calls of agreement and excitement could be heard through the entire yard, drowning out Verinus' words. He waited until the men calmed down until he continued. 

"In one week we will march for Bulgaria, and join his majesty in the conquest of the Bulgars!"

Hiccup breathed deeply as Domestikos Verinus continued his speech. This was about to be the biggest battle he had ever been in.

Chapter Text

Hiccup shivered as the cold air hit his face, causing him to pull up his scarf over his mouth and nose. After several weeks of traveling, they had finally arrived in Kliedion a couple days ago to find the Byzantine army exhausted and demoralized.  Now that the Varangian Guard had arrived however, the Emperor had made a new plan. The majority of the Varangian battalion would charge the Bulgar fortress head on, while a single company and the cavalry would assault them from behind.

Because of this, the first squadron and the fifth company had spent the last couple of days making their way through a tiny mountain pass, in order to end up behind the fortress. Because of his ability to fly with Toothless, he had been sent to fly ahead of the other forces to map out the best way through the mountain,

As he looked down at the Fort below them, he heard footsteps approach from behind. Turning around, he saw Domestikos Verinus approaching from behind, followed by a banner carrier and then row upon row of the Varangian Guard. Verinus stepped up beside him and looked down on the fort.

"Good job Hiccup." He said calmly. "Now the Bulgars will be forced to fight on two fronts."

"Won't they see us coming as we head down the mountain?" Hiccup asked.

"It doesn't matter." Verinus replied. "Our presence will be enough to force them to split their soldiers in two."

They slowly began to make their way down the mountain face, until they reached the valley below. In front of them, on the horizon, stood the Bulgar fort. On the other side of it, waited Eret with the majority of the Varangian Guard.

"We camp here for tonight!" Called Verinus. "In the morning we assault the fort!"

Hiccup sat to the side of the main force with Toothless, watching as the couple hundred men began to set up tents and bedding, while others began to unload their supplies and cook food.

"You ready?" He heard a voice say from next to him. Looking to his left, he saw Thorfinn approaching, Heather and Dagur just behind him. 

"I don't know." Hiccup said. "Never attacked a fort before. I've definitely never been part of an army this large before."

"Hey at least you get to be up in the air." Heather said. "We have to be on the ground."

"What is the plan anyway?" Hiccups asked. "Are we just gonna run at them until they give up?"

"I'm pretty sure we're just the diversion." Thorfinn said. "The main force is going to use siege weapons to breach the main wall and then invade the fort while half of them are busy defending against us."

"So we're just a distraction then."

"Damnit I was hoping to kill some of those bastards." Dagur complained.

Heather smiled slightly at her brother's outcry. "Don't worry. We may not have siege weapons, but we do have a dragon. I have a feeling we're going to make it inside too."

The group set up their tents as the sun began to set. A quiet calm fell over the entire camp as people began to fell asleep, many of them nervous. Hiccup however, felt nothing. And it worried him. He had decided to not join the others in the tent, and instead was lying down outside next to Toothless, staring up at the stars

"How many people do you think I've killed over the years, Toothless?" He muttered quietly. "Dozens probably."

He didn't feel bad about it anymore, but it still felt like an invisible weight on his shoulders, slowing him down. Every once in a while he would dream about himself, attacking some town, killing person after person. Inevitably, his victims would transform into people he used to know. Thorfinn, Gobber, Astrid. A couple times he saw his dad, and once he even killed a younger version of himself. 

As conflicted as he was about killing people, he knew he had no choice. Once, while he was traveling Europe with Thorfinn, he had hesitated to kill a soldier who had found them near some town. He was about to stab the man, when he saw how young he was. For a split second, he pictured himself, forced into many life or death situations after joining Thorfinn's crew. The moment of hesitation nearly cost him his life, giving the soldier an opportunity to slash at him. He had easily dodged it and then killed the man, but the blade had caught his arm. From then on, he hadn't hesitated to end a life. He knew that no matter how bad he felt, it was better than losing his own.

"We should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow." He said to Toothless, closing his eyes. As he fell asleep, images of death began to flash through his eyes.

"Do you remember the plan?" Domestikos Verinus asked. 

"Blow a hole in the walls for the infantry and cavalry, kill as many as I can, and then join the cavalry on the ground." Hiccup responded, as he double checked his armor and secured his weapons.

"Just remember, don't open fire until Eret releases the siege weapons."

"Yes sir." Hiccup climbed up onto Toothless, and grasped the reins. He hooked his feet into the stirrups and took a deep breath before he and Toothless launched into the air. They leveled out once they were high enough, and Hiccup gazed down at the unfolding scene below. He watched as hundreds upon hundreds of Varangian soldiers lined up on either side of the fortress, and saw dozens of figures scurrying around from wall to wall within the fort itself.

The two simply glided for quite some time as the ranks below them gathered together and got organized, until finally, it happened. The few large siege engines that had been constructed in front of the fortress creaked, and the wood strained as they flung their flaming projectiles through the air. Men screamed as the projectiles slammed into the front of the fortress, and a huge crash filled the air. As the dust began to settle, the parts of the wood wall that still stood caught fire, and the air began to fill with smoke.

"This is it bud." He muttered as he gripped the reins. His foot flicked forward and he pulled the reins to one side, immediately falling into a dive. His stomach dropped and his eyes began to tear up against the howling wind rushing past as the two plummeted towards the ground, but he persisted. He pulled up slightly, leveling out until they were diving straight at the fortress wall. A horrible screech filled the air as Toothless' mouth opened, and a purple glow began to fill his vision. "Hold, Toothless!" He yelled over the wind, waiting until they couldn't possibly missed. The seconds seemed to take an eternity to go by as the fortress grew larger and larger until finally, they were practically upon it.

"NOW!" He belted as he shoved his foot downward and pulled the reins up as hard as he could. He heard Toothless' screech peak as the plasma bolt shot out of his mouth, saw as it slamming into directly into the fortress, red flames engulfing the wall, and felt a boiling heat waft up from below. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed himself as low as he could to Toothless' as the pair shot through the rising ball of flame and smoke, and flew back up into the air. 

Sitting up, he watched as the ranks of Varangian guards below cheered. He banked Toothless into a turn, and circled back around towards the wall. Once, twice, three times they flew over it, pummeling it with shots until it was clearly decimated. Pulling out of his attack run, he watched as hundreds of soldiers swarmed the fortress from both sides. He knew how formidable the guard was, but he also knew that the Bulgars had thousands of soldiers, each of whom knew this would be there last stand, and would most likely fight like animals.

"Think we should join them, bud?" He asked, reaching down and scratching the top of Toothless' head. The dragon gave a happy warble, although whether it was in response to Hiccup's question or the head scratched, he couldn't tell. "Yeah they probably need our help."

The pair immediately spun and dove yet again towards the fortress, He spotted a large cluster of enemy soldiers, and let out one last plasma blast, before gliding over the battle and landing roughly behind the Varangian lines. Jumping out of the saddle, he pulled his shield and spear from where they had been tied to the saddle, and ran towards the ensuing battle.

As he sprinted towards the soldiers, he suddenly heard the very distinct and rather unsettling cackle of the one and only Dagur the Deranged. Turning his head, he spotted Dagur, Heather and Thorfinn currently locked in a shield wall against a much larger Bulgar one, and so he ran towards them. Arriving at the line, he squeezed in between several soldiers until he stood right behind Thorfinn.

"Need any help?" He yelled over the sounds and cries of the battle, even thought Thorfinn stood just in front of him. Thorfinn looked shocked for a second but kept his eyes locked on the enemies in front of him.

"I thought you would have stayed up in the air where it's nice and safe." Thorfinn grunted in response, as he shoved his shield hard against Bulgar soldiers.

"Where's the fun in that." Hiccup responded. He joined in the fight, thrusting his spear between in the gap between Thorfinn and Heather. He had only just stabbed the first man when suddenly, many of the Bulgars eyes grew wide in fear, and their mouths opened in shock. The Varangian's watched, confused as the Bulgar soldiers, who clearly outnumbered them, broke ranks and began to turn and run. Glancing behind them, Hiccup spotted the large black shape of Toothless, wings unfurled and fangs bared, which made him grin.

"KILL THEM!" Verinus belted out, and the Varangians charged forward, also breaking rank to hunt down the suddenly fleeing Bulgars. Hiccup's spear clattered to the ground as he charged forward, drawing his sword from its scabbard as he ran. 

For what could have been hours, or maybe even minutes, he ran from one man to the next, cutting down one after the others. As the battle drew on, and the sun rose high, he suddenly spotted an interesting sight. There, on the other side of the Bulgar soldiers, were even more Varangians. Hiccup grinned. They had pushed the Bulgars so far backward that they had been able to meet up with the other battalions on the other side of the fortress, and they now had the Bulgars completely trapped. One after the other, the Bulgars dropped their weapons, the blades crashing to the ground as they surrendered.

Hiccup panted hard as he lowered his sword and shield. His muscles ached and his heart pounded in his ears as he finally let himself relax. He grinned as the soldiers around him began to cheer at their victory, but as he glanced around, the destruction was undeniable. Hundreds of bodies littered the area, with even more out of sight between the ranks of the still living. Most of the corpses were Bulgar, but a significant amount were definitely Varangian. The fort still burned around them, the crackling of the flames and the crumbling of walls happening all around them, filling the air with smoke and dust, making it somewhat challenging to breathe.

As Hiccup walked around, he suddenly felt a hand land hard on his shoulder. He turned to see Thorfinn standing next to him, a toothy grin on his face.

"You're looking a little worse for wear." He said cheerily.

Hiccup glanced down as Heather and Dagur joined them, and took note of his armor. His chainmail armor was already cracked and beginning to crumble, the dragon crest in the center had almost completely been torn off, and both his sword and shield were dented and chipped.

"Woah." He muttered. "This stuff is really shitty."

Dagur snorted at that. "You're telling me. All this stuff is cheaply produced in mass. Did you know they wouldn't let me have a warhammer or even a mace when I first got here?"

"Only because giving you more weapons is the worst idea i've ever heard." Hiccup muttered, causing a few chuckles. "Seriously though, this stuff sucks. I need something new."

"The good stuff is expensive though." Heather said. "Even if you get replacements from the armory they take it out of your paycheck."

Hiccup's brow furrowed as he thought. "Maybe I should make my own then."

Chapter Text

Astrid rubbed her temple as she flipped through page after page. She sat in the Great Hall, late into the night, reviewing report after report. The only source of light in the entire room was the small candle that stood on the table. In the past couple months after she had been named heir, she had been bombarded with information about just how severe the situation on Berk was. Apparently both Stoick and Spitelout were excited to finally have someone who was interested in actually being heir, and so they hadn't let her have a single moment of rest. 

She flipped through the limited records Berk kept, going back years into the past. According to most of the older people in the village, these past couple years had been the worst they could remember in regards to dragon attacks, so she had decided to go back and try to find when it suddenly got worse. 

As far as she could tell so far, it had really gotten bad about four years ago. Records of food storage, trade, and dragon attacks were normal during the spring and summer of that year, but then by winter the frequency of dragon attacks jumped up suddenly, and had been getting worse since. The next year, their food storage was considerably worse, and it too dropped over the coming years. 

Something around that winter four years ago caused all this. "What was it though?" She muttered. Her eyelids began to droop as she worked late into the night. Stoick was so busy dealing with the present issues of the tribe, that he had no time to let her delve into the past during the day, so she was forced to look into it at night. She knew though, that if she could figure out whatever caused this, maybe she could fix it.

Sighing, she finally gave up on trying to find it for the night, and collected her things. Blowing out the candle, she left the Great Hall, and made her way back home, hoping to get a couple hours of sleep before the sun rose. Walking through the village, she thought about the people she was trying to protect, the people who were relying on her and Stoick to keep them safe. Not just the village, but her family, and her friends. 

Glancing at the houses around her, she realized she was right next to Fishleg's house, and suddenly had a thought. Maybe she should ask him for help. He was probably the smartest man on the island, and he could work on it during the day, while she was busy. It would have to wait for tomorrow though.

Making it into her house, and closed the door quietly behind her and walked into her room. Dropping her stuff on the ground, she lay down on the bed, and passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow. 

The next morning, the moment she opened her eyes, she forced herself out of bed and grabbed her stuff. Stumbling down the stair she stifled a yawn as she made her way quietly through the house, trying not to wake any of the others who were still sleeping, she walked outside. Making her way slowly up the street, she shivered as the cold air hit her. The sun was just fully rising over the horizon, and while a few people were up and about, most of the village was still quiet.

She made her way to the Ingerman home, and knocked three times. After a minute, the door creaked open and Fishleg's peaked out, dark circles under his eyes. While he was still just as wide as he was years ago, he now also towered over her, and was beginning to grow a small blond goatee.

"Astrid? What are you doing here?" He asked, yawning.

"Fish, I need your help." She said.

"What's up?" He said, stepping fully outside.

"I've been looking through Berk's records, trying to find out why the dragon attacks have been getting so bad recently, and I've found something. It all started four years ago, but I can't understand why, meaning I can't fix it. Do you think you could take a look?" She said.

Fishleg's said nothing for a minute or two, looking at her. "Astrid," He muttered with a sigh. "I have a job now and I don't know if I have the time t-"

"Please Fishlegs? It's just for today, to see if you can find anything I missed."

He paused again, before sighing. "Fine. But just for today."

"Thank you so much." She reached into her pack and pulled out the assortment of pages and books she had been looking through, before handing them to him. "Do you think we could meet tonight to talk about it?"

"Sure." He said, flipping through the pages. Saying goodbye to Astrid, he went back inside, closing the door behind him. She continued her walk towards the Great Hall where Stoick, Spitelout, and a few others waited for her to arrive before starting the days work.

Astrid rested her head on her arms as she sat at the table in the Great Hall. An entire day of meetings, arguments, and decision making had drained her of almost any energy she had, but she still had to meet with Fishlegs to go over whatever he found. Just as her eyes began to close, the door to the Great Hall creaked open, and in walked Fishlegs.

"You look tired." He said, closing the door behind him.

"How observant of you." She said, sitting up straight and stifling a yawn. 

Fishlegs walked over and sat across from her, before beginning to unload the papers from his bag.

"So what'd you find?" She asked.

"Well." Fishlegs began. "You were definitely right about the four years thing. Things began getting exponentially worse ever since that winter. Before that, things were bad, but consistent. They were definitely better than whatever is happening now."

"Did you find what caused it?"

Fishlegs paused before sighing. "No. As far as I can tell the only thing that happened around then was Hiccup dying a couple weeks before."

Astrid paused once he said that. Had it really been four years since then? She had been so distracted that she hadn't noticed. 

"Hiccup's death." She muttered. "He was killed by a dragon right?"

Fishlegs nodded. "Yeah. The Night Fury too. Can't imagine that was a fun way to go."

Astrid felt a twinge of regret. She had been ordered to keep an eye on him and train him just before he died. Maybe if she had started right away he would still be here. Suddenly though, she thought of something.

"Have we seen a Night Fury since then?" She asked.

Fishlegs furrowed his brow, clearly thinking hard. After a couple seconds he opened a mouth to speak, but the loud sound of a horn interrupted him. They both immediately stood up and sprinted out of the Great Hall, grabbing their weapons as they went. That horn could only mean one thing. A dragon attack.

Sprinting through the street, Astrid spotted a nadder attempting to grab a barrel that was in front of a house. She dashed forward towards the beast, raising her axe with both hands. The dragon noticed her at the last second, and attempted to fling several spines at her, but it was too late. She dodged the spines easily, and buried her axe into the dragon's neck, killing it immediately. 

"NICE ONE, ASTRID!" She heard Stoick roar as he thundered past, war hammer in hand. 

Pulling her axe out of the body, she continued running down the street, attacking dragon after dragon, and killing a few more. Rounding a corner, she spotted a house covered in flames. She was about to sprint past, when she heard a faint sound over the crackle of the fire, and the roar of both dragons and vikings alike.

Approaching the building, she listened even harder. There was definitely a person in there. Raising her axe, she slammed it into the door of the building again and again, until it burst open. Covering her mouth with her sleeve as a plume of black smoke filled the air, she ducked into the flaming building, coughing as she went. 

Crouching to avoid the flames, she made her way into the burning building, squinting through the smoke. Slowly making her way through the house, she spotted something towards one side. A body, still on fire, burnt, and unmoving. Swallowing hard, she continued her way deeper into the house. As burning wood began to fall around her, she finally found the source of the noise. A small boy, curled up in the corner of the room, tears rolling down his face. 

"Are you ok?" She asked him, visually checking for any injuries.

The boy looked up and nodded, a terrified look in his eyes.

"I'm going to get you out of here. You'll be ok." Picking the small boy up, she hugged him to her chest, before turning around. 

"Shit." She muttered, seeing that piles of burning wood that now blocked the door she had come from. "Hold on tight." She said to the child.

Steadying her mind, she sprinted forward. Turning at the last second, she slammed her shoulder into the burning pile. She burst through it, and collapsed into the street, dropping the boy in her arms. Standing up, she immediately began patting her shoulder pad, which was starting to burn, and put it out. 

Turning back to the boy, who was now on the ground, she began checking him again. "Are you alright?"

The boy nodded again, still sniffling quietly. He skin was hot, and some of his hair singed, but there were no burns or other injuries. Grabbing his hand, she then guided him towards the Great Hall, where most of those who were too old or young to fight, or those who were sick or injured waited. Once the boy was safe, she immediately back outside, doing her best to continue the fight.

For hours, she fought with the others, slaying dragon after dragon. All through the night they continued, not daring to slow for even a second until finally, as the sun began to rise again, It ended. As the surviving dragons flew away, Astrid took a look around at the village. Dozens of houses crumbled, and there were active fires spreading throughout the village. Those who hadn't been fighting were now running around the village with buckets of water attempting to put out the fires before more of the village could burn to the ground.

Wandering through the village. She watched as people picked through the rubble of their smoldering homes, trying to salvage what they could. Others began collecting the corpses of those who had died, while even more went to get their wounds treated. Finally, as she made it back to just outside the Great Hall, she found what she was looking for. Stoick stood outside, talking hurriedly with Spitelout, Gobber and a few others. 

"Chief." She said, as she approached.

"Lass." Stoick replied, looking over at her with an exhausted look on his face. "Good to see you alive."

"How bad is it?" She asked, nervousness erupting throughout her.

Stoick sighed, glancing at Gobber. "Almost thirty dead. Twice as many wounded. There are a couple who are either lost limbs or won't make it to tomorrow."

"Shit." This had been the worst raid in a long time. "How can I help?"

"Help organize those who are healthy. We need to start clearing away the rubble and build new houses. In the meantime I need to go take stock of how much food and supplies we have left. We only have a couple months until winter."

Nodding, she began to get to work. Taking in the devastation around her she knew that she needed to solve this as soon as possible, before Berk was burned to the ground.

"This has to be an indication of something." Fishlegs said.

It had been two days since the last dragon attack, and both Astrid and Fishlegs had been so busy that they only now had time to sit down again and talk about what they had found.

"We don't know that, Fish." Astrid said. "Just because we haven't seen the Night Fury since Hiccup died, doesn't mean it caused all of this."

"You're the one who brought this up Astrid." Fishlegs implored. "This can't be a coincidence." 

"I was merely speculating. Even if it were true, what would it mean for us. That the Night Fury was, what, keeping the raids at bay?"

Fishlegs leaned closer over the table. "I have no idea what it would mean! That's why I am saying we should look into this."

Astrid sighed. "Alright then. Say that the Night Fury did cause all of this. How did Hiccup play into this?"

Fishlegs sat back again, looking more dejected. "That's where I get confused. Hiccup was the only person to ever see one, and it killed him, so we have no idea what it was like, or how it might have caused this."

Neither of them said anything for several seconds, each thinking about what to do next.

"What if," Fishlegs started slowly. "you asked Stoick about Hiccup."

"Absolutely not." Astrid said firmly. "I just managed to get him back into doing his duties as Chief, and I am not about to ruin that by bringing up his dead son."

"Fair enough." Fishlegs said. "But we are going to have to start somewhere."

Astrid suddenly though of something. "What about the forge?"

"What about it?"

"He worked there right? Maybe he left something behind."

Fishlegs said nothing, but nodded as he began to think. "Gobber would be sentimental enough to not throw anything away. I think it could worth a shot."

"Great." Astrid said, standing up. "Let's go."

"Wait, now?" 

"Yep. Right now." Astid said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out of the Great Hall. 

It was starting to get pretty late at night, so not many people were out in the streets. Making it to the forge, they both peered inside. It was dark, and there was no movement. 

"Let's go." Astrid said quietly, opening the door and ushering Fishlegs inside. "Let's be fast. I don't think Gobber is going to appreciate us snooping, no matter how nice he is.

Fishlegs managed to find a candle, and lit it, giving them both some light. They both examined the main room, but they found nothing. It just looked just like the forge they had both always known, messy and crowded with tools and equipment. There was no second floor to the building, so it seemed like this was it. Until Fishlegs found something.

"Astrid. Look at this."

Hurrying over, she saw what he was looking at. Wedged into the back corner of the room, behind a bunch of tools that hung from the ceiling was a small door.

"Has this always been here?" Fishlegs asked. Astrid merely shrugged. She rarely ever came inside the forge, usually dropping off tools or weapons at the entrance. 

Reaching forward, she pushed the door open, dust sticking to her hand. Bending slightly to get below the hanging tools, she stepped through the doorway. Fishlegs followed her, struggling to fit through the tiny door. As they both stood up, and Fishlegs reached out with the candle, they were able to see the room they were in. It was tiny, barely able to fit the two of them, and it was packed with stuff.

Immediately to the left of the door, was a small wooden desk and stool. Wedged into the corner between the desk and the wall was a bookshelf that took up the entire wall of the tiny room. The back wall of the room was covered in a tool rack, where nearly a dozen small tools hung. The bookshelf was filled with books, more tools, wooden carvings, and a weird assortment of items and contraptions. The wall above the desk was pinned full of drawings, blueprints and designs of every imaginable thing. There were drawings of animals, buildings, trees, as well as other things. Most of them however, were covered in designs of strange contraptions, siege weapons and tools, that Astrid's mind struggled to understand. The desk itself was completely covered in a mess of paper, pencils, half finished drawings, scrap metal and wood, and even more tools. The place was a mess, yet almost mesmerizing.

"This was his workshop." Fishleg's said softly.

"I knew he made weird inventions but this is insane." Astrid said, gazing at the drawings. She recognized a few of them, the ones that had ended up destroying parts of the village, but the vast majority of them were foreign to her.

"I don't think any of us really recognized how bright he was." Fishlegs muttered as he began to look around. "I think we could have been friends, if he didn't…"

The two of them began to search around the room, trying to find anything of use. She began sorting through the bookshelf, carefully looking at each of the small contraptions and collective items. She marveled at all the small gears, hinges and springs that made up each one. She didn't dare try to figure out how they worked, given how disastrous his larger inventions had turned out, but it was impressive none the less. Each item she examined was covered in a thin layer of dust. Clearly, no one had been in here in years.

Finding nothing in the inventions, she turned to the books, flipping through a few of them. There were a few about history, even more about inventions, and even one in a language she didn't recognize. Hiccup had most likely gotten it through Johan the trader. Picking up one of the last books, she began flipping through it. It seemed to be nothing of interest, until something fell out of it and onto to the floor. Worried that she had accidentally ripped one of the pages, she reached down to pick it up. Standing back up, she brought it into the light, and froze. It was a drawing. A drawing of her.

Clearly a drawing of her from years ago, Astrid marveled at the detail. It perfectly captured the look on her face, and the detail in her clothes. She hadn't realized how good of an artist he was, but this was amazing. Had he really noticed her so much, that he was able to perfectly recreate her in a drawing? Although, Astrid had to admit that perhaps the drawing made her seem a little prettier then she actually had been. She suddenly felt a little bad for Hiccup, as she stared at the drawing. She had barely noticed the boy, even resenting him slightly once he began to excel at dragon training. And here he had been, almost idealizing her. And then he had died, thinking that she hated him.

Suddenly, Fishleg's voice broke the silence. "A-astrid."

"Did you find something?" She asked, turning around. She found him standing next to the desk, staring at a piece of paper. 

He said nothing as he slowly looked up at her, a frozen expression of shock on his face. "Thi-this was on the ground behind the desk. I only just barely saw it."

She hurried over, and stared at the piece of paper as Fishleg's brought it into the light. On it, was the slightly smudged drawing of a sleek black dragon that she didn't recognize. Neither of them said anything as they both stared at the paper in shock.

"Do you realize what this means, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked, his voice shaking.

"Yeah." Astrid responded. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, her throat dry. Hiccup had seen the Night Fury long enough to draw it with detail, and bring the drawing back to the forge. And he didn't tell anyone.

"We have to tell Stoick." Fishlegs muttered nervously.

Astrid wheeled around and looked at him. "No! Absolutely not."

"Astrid we just learned that his son saw a Night Fury, survived and drew it!"

"And then it killed him!" Astrid half whispered, half yelled. "Do you know what would happen if he knew this? It would drive him insane. The idea that if he kept a closer eye on his son, that he could have kept him alive."

"Astrid…" Fishlegs began to say.

"If Stoick finds out about this, we basically doom the village. We need him to focus on leading."

Fishlegs sighed, before sitting down on the stool. "I guess this does explain a lot."

"What do you mean?" Astrid asked.

"He drew a Night Fury. That means he was close enough to watch it. That's probably how he got so good at dragon training. Until it caught and killed him, at least."

"Holy shit. You're right." Astrid said, amazed. "Wait. Didn't he once say he shot down a Night Fury right after burning a part of the village?"

Fishlegs chuckled lightly. "It would be just like Hiccup to shoot down a Night Fury, not show anyone, and then secretly draw it."

"How does this help us though?"

Fishlegs looked at her, confused. "What?"

"Even if we now know that Hiccup saw the Night Fury, how does this lead to the raids getting so much worse?"

Fishlegs' face scrunched up as he thought hard. "And how does this connect to the Night Fury disappearing."

They both stayed there for several minutes, thinking about where to go from here, but finally they both had to concede defeat. Leaving the room, they closed the door behind them and left the forge. Saying goodbye to each other, they parted ways and began to walk to their respective homes. As she walked, Astrid realized she had something in her hand, which she hadn't noticed. Looking down, she realized that it was the drawing of her that Hiccup had made. 

Chapter Text

Sweat poured off of Hiccup's brow and his nose as he hammered the anvil again, and again. His muscles ached and his heart pounded from exhaustion, but he didn't dare stop just yet. He was so close to being done. Satisfied with the shape, he pulled the piece of metal of of the anvil, and dunked it in the tub of water next to him, causing it to hiss violently as steam filled the air.

It had been a little over six months since they had returned from their victory with the Bulgars, and Hiccup had been kept stupidly busy. The winter had come and gone quite fast. They had gotten some snow, but it was still so warm down that here that it made the summers back in the archipelago look like child's play. Of course, with winter came his birthday, which meant he had now turned nineteen years old. He had celebrated it with the rest of the Guard, but it quickly ended when Eret and Thorfinn both got so drunk that they tried to convince Hiccup to visit a nearby brothel.

He had also celebrated Yule with the guards, and another holiday around the same time which soma called Christmas. He didn't understand the holiday or the religion, but he enjoyed the time with the men just the same. Other than the holidays and the occasional partying, he had been extremely busy.

When he wasn't on duty, he spent his free time exploring the massive city. He explored shops and bakeries, markets and arenas, went to plays and mock battles, and he was loving every second of it. This place was so vibrant, joyful and full of life compared to anywhere else he had been, and it held so much for him to learn.

Speaking of learning, so far his favorite place to spend his time was the several public libraries. He would spend hours, usually late into the night reading book after book, scroll after scroll. He learned about history, geography, astronomy, and more, anything he could. He eagerly read plays, novels, and even books in other languages, which he usually never understood. The only downside of his voracious reading was it usually left him with little time to sleep, which meant he would begin guard duty exhausted.

It wasn't like there was much to do anyway. He had been moved a couple times, from some building, to the city walls, and even the palace on occasion. He enjoyed patrolling with Toothless, but so far the most interesting that had happened was raiding a boat full of smugglers. One of the upsides however was all the time it gave him to think, and think he did. While he occasionally thought about his studies, his training with Eret and Thorfinn, and sometimes even about Berk, most of the time, he thought about his new designs. 

Ever since his fight with the Bulgars, he had been desperately wanting to upgrade the armor and weapons he carried. As soon as he got home, he found the best forge he could, and payed the blacksmith quite the sum in order to use it. And so now here he was, in that forge, working on his latest invention in the ever growing list of ideas. The first thing he did was upgrade his leg. It fit so much better now, was sturdier, and most impressively, had several different foot attachments that he could switch out, and a rotating system that let the foot switch between two different feet with the flip of a lever. For now he usually wore a foot for everyday walking, and one that was specifically design to fit better to Toothless' rig.

His next invention, and the one he was currently working on, was a new sword. It wouldn't just be any sword however, he was going to make it retractable, although that was his plan for all his weapons. He had quickly learned that all the gear a Varangian soldier needed made it quite cumbersome to climb onto Toothless' back, so he needed to make all of his weapons as easy to store as possible.

At first he was going to start with the shield, after all the shield is the most important piece of equipment and the first thing a viking should choose, but his plans quickly changed after he had made a shocking discovery.

One night, while reading about a culture known as the Greeks, he had discovered that they had made something known as Greek Fire. It was a sticky, yet flammable liquid, it could burn through wood like it was butter, and won the Greeks a great many battles. As soon as he had read this, ideas began to spring through his mind of how he could possible make something to use it. At first he wanted to make some sort of device that could shoot it, but he decided against adding another thing that he had to carry around. He then wanted to add something to the handle of his sword that could shoot it out, but that also quickly fell apart once he began to explore the substance more. Apparently the Byzantine Empire still used Greek Fire, (which was great for him), but only when absolutely necessary and in hyper specific scenarios.

The reason for this hesitation he learned, was apparently due to the fact that devices that shot Greek Fire had the nasty habit of setting the user on fire, as the substance was extremely flammable, sticky, and unwieldy. Because of this, the formula for Greek Fire was a closely guarded secret, to keep the common folk from trying to make it. Hiccup decided he would solve that issue when it arose. For now he decided against inventions that shot out the fire, and so he settled for a retractable sword whose blade could be coated in the substance and then set alight.

So for now he hammered away, slowly shaping the sword into existence as he worked away. A couple hours later, as he finally finished the last piece, and lined up all the pieces on the desk, ready to assemble, there was a knocking sound behind him. Turning around he saw Heather standing in the door frame.

"You look a little tired." She said, walking forward into the shop.

Hiccup grinned as he grabbed a rag and wiped the sweat off of his face before cleaning off his hands. "Didn't you know the best form of cardio is blacksmithing? It does wonders for burning fat."

Heather laughed as she leaned against one of the tables. "Maybe I should quit the guard and start a blacksmithing business then."

"Nah, Dagur would miss you too much. So what can I do for you."

"Eret said you'd probably be here." She said. "I have some news."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Do tell."

"Apparently…" She started slowly. "We're being deployed again."

Hiccup sighed. It seemed every week there was a new rumor of the guard being deployed to Italy, or The Holy Roman Empire, or even to Britannia. "Not this again."

"I know what you're thinking, and this time it's different. My source is quite reliable."

Hiccup sighed. "Oh yeah? And who is your source."

"Eret." Heather said with a grin.

Hiccup said nothing for a second, a shocked look on his face. "Really?" He asked incredulously.

"Yup." Heather said cheerfully. "Although he did make me promise not to tell anyone."

Hiccup merely raised an eyebrow as he stared at her.

"Oh don't look at me like that. I haven't told anyone else. Plus there's more."

"More?"

"There are rumors, and even Eret admitted they were rumors, that it's only going to be a single squad deployed."

Hiccup was taken aback at this last part. A vanguard was only five men. If this was real, then whatever was the assignment was, was secretive enough to require only five men. To him, this seemed too specific to be just a rumor. Something was going to happen, and it probably was going to be important. 

Hiccup gripped the edge of the table to steady himself as the boat beneath him rocked back and forth. He was going over the map one last time just to be sure of the plan, but the swaying was making it hard to focus. 

He still couldn't believe the insane series of events that had transpired of the last two months. A couple days after he finally finished his sword, Eret had summoned him. He then somehow found himself, alongside Eret, Thorfinn, Heather, and Dagur, inside the Emperor's personal strategy room. 

Shockingly, it had turned out that Heather was mostly right, when it came to the rumors. The Emperor had decided to deploy a select few soldiers to complete a personal mission for him. The only thing Heather had gotten wrong was that it would not be a squads worth of men, which was ten, it would only be a vanguard. Five men. The assignment was given to Eret himself, who was given the honor of hand picking the soldiers for the job, which was how Hiccup found himself in the room with the Emperor, yet again.

The plan was rather simple. Some guy called Khawla al-Basri was gaining quite some power to the south and had begun attacking Byzantine shipping routes. Their attacks had started rather small, and it seemed they were just another band of pirates in the Mediterranean, until they raided a Navy outpost station just outside of Carthage, and slaughtered dozens of Byzantine soldiers. 

This had been the last straw for Emperor Basil, and so with the backing of several Venetian and Genoa merchant families, who trade was also being interrupted, the plan had been set. The people had been chose, and now Hiccup, along with the others were now onboard what looked like a regular large merchant vessel headed south. 

As Hiccup stood at the table, his eyes raking over the map again and again, attempting to soak in every last detail. As he did so, the door to the cabin swung open, and in walked the others. 

"Here you are." Eret said as he made his way inside.

"I told you so." Thorfinn said, as he made his way next to Hiccup. "This guy doesn't let himself relax."

"I thought it would be a good idea to go over the plan one last time, just to be sure." Eret said as he reached the other side of the table from Hiccup.

"Ugh, do we have to?" Dagur moaned. "It's not that hard. We kill the guy and leave."

"No it's a good idea." Hiccup nodded. "We need to be ready."

Eret nodded. "Khwala al-Basri. Pirate, raider, and general scoundrel. He started with robbing small shops and armories in and around Alexandria. We believe he then made his way to Cairo and maybe even Damascus, gaining more and more crew as he went, and hitting larger and larger targets. A couple years ago he bought a couple ships with his new winnings and began raiding merchant ships off the coast. It got so bad that the local military was about to go hunt the guy down when suddenly, about a year ago, the guy disappears. No more raids, no more sightings, nothing. It's like he became a ghost. We hoped that he had either died or moved on, but then about four months ago, he reappeared. Dozens of ships, possibly thousands of men, and probably the most well equipped pirate in the region. He almost decimated trade in the region, before he suddenly, and without warning, descended on our navy around Carthage. You all know what happens from there."

Silence fell in the room at the mention of the navy. They had all heard stories of what happened to those who were captured at Carthage. Hiccup wouldn't have wished that on his worst enemy. He would rather kill a hundred dragons than have to go out like that. 

"By the time the local military arrived…" Eret continued. "There wasn't much left of the bodies to bring home. So, our plan. al-Basri is way too dangerous to be left alive, but unfortunately we can't openly go after him. For one, we would lose hundreds of men. Secondly, he operates out of our territory, and I don't think the Fatimids would be too happy if we invaded their territory, even if it is to go after a blood thirsty pirate. And thirdly…" Eret paused. "There are rumors among the Emperor's advisors that al-Basri was hired by the Fatimid Caliphate to ransack and destabilize our forces in the area."

They all glanced at each other in shock at the last sentence. That was new information to all of them. But honestly, it made sense to Hiccup. The Fatimid Caliphate had been growing in power for over a century, and was now able to rival the Byzantine Empire in strength. The two powers were known to hate each other, and there had been hundreds of skirmishes and battles on and off over the years, as the Fatimids continued to expand. He could easily see the Caliphate hiring some pirate to destabilize the Byzantine forces in the region, without dragging the Fatimid military or government into it. They could deal a blow to the Byzantine without losing any lives.

"It's smart." Hiccup said. "I could see that being the truth."

"Agreed." Eret said nodding. "But for now it is mere speculation. So for now we don't think about it and merely do what we are told. We are going to sneak into Fatimid territory, and make Kwala al-Basri disappear. And I do mean disappear. We cannot afford to be dragged into a fight with his men, who could easily kill five of us, even with Toothless. We also cannot be spotted, as that would drag the Byzantine Empire into this, which may lead to war with the Fatimids. And finally, we cannot leave any evidence of ourselves or al-Basri behind. Best case scenario, we make his death seem either like an accident, or from natural causes, and worse case scenario is we burn his body and disappear."

The minutes turned to hours as Eret continued to go over the plan with them, about what they would do when they landed, how they would find al-Basri's men, how they would kill him, how they would get out, and contingency plans for anything that could go wrong. As they were wrapping up their meeting, there was a knock on the cabin door. One of the crew on the ship peaked his head in and spoke to Eret.

"We're here."

They all made their way to the deck of the ship. As Hiccup emerged from the stairs, he squinted as the sunlight blinded his eyes, and felt the scorching rays of the sun dig into his skin. His eyes began to adjust to the sun as he made his way to the railing, but he had to squint in order to see anything anyway. There, across the blue ocean, was a coastline. 

The dark blue of the ocean gave way to a lighter shade as it approached the coast. The sandy beaches were pure white, but grew darker as they merged into the rocky cliffs behind them. The entire coast was dotted in strange trees and green shrubs, and was just as unique and beautiful as all of the places Hiccup had been so far. They were finally here. The western Fatimid Empire. Northern Africa.

Chapter Text

Hiccup steadied his breathing as he readied his sword hilt. He pressed himself closer to the wall as he heard the footsteps grow louder and louder from around the corner, the patrol growing closer and closer. Watching as the shadows grew nearer, he waited for the last possible seconds to act. As the shape of the first man started to round the corner, Hiccup lunged forward. He pressed the sword hilt against the man's neck and activated the blade, watching as it extended immediately through the man's throat. He died in an instant, barely having time to move let alone speak, and while the rest of the patrol started to scramble and draw their blades, they all fell one by one without a sound as the rest of the vanguard appeared from around corners and up on the rooftops, silencing the patrol in seconds.

"Good work." Eret whispered as the last man crumpled to the ground. Hiccup nodded as he wiped off his blade before retracting it back into the hilt. He had managed to finish both the sword and the retractable shield before they left Constantinople, but there was nowhere near enough time to even start on any type of armor set, so for now he wore his usual black flying leathers. It turns out they came quite in handy, as he could now blend into the shadows even easier. 

"This one's still alive." Heather said quietly, nudging one of the bodies with her foot. 

"Good. Dagur, grab him. Maybe he will be more willing to speak than the last guy." Eret muttered. "The rest of you, get to work."

They worked in silence as they collected the bodies, and did their best to cover up any evidence of the attack. Most of the blood stains could be covered with dirt or random debris, and while it was only a matter of time before somebody found them, hopefully they would be long gone by then.

They had landed just outside of Carthage about two weeks ago, and had spent the first couple days staying hidden, and scouting out the surrounding areas. Recently however, they had begun making their first moves. Every night, they would leave their safe house to find any evidence pointing towards al-Basri's location. They had been quite unlucky at first, but eventually they found one man who seemed to have connectiosn with the lower levels of al-Basri's forces. After some… painful convincing, the man had revealed the little information he knew about the patrols in the area. So now here they were, three days later, ambushing a pirate patrol in some small town, in the middle of the night. 

One by one, they tied up each of the corpses, and strapped them to Toothless. Hiccup would then mount the saddle, and fly high into the air, before flying several minutes out over the coast. Once he decided he was far enough, he would unstrap the body, and shove it over the side, causing it to plummet into the dark water below. The extra weight they added would make it sink, making the chances of anybody spotting it slim to none. 

For nearly an hour they repeated this, until all of the bodies had been properly disposed. It wasn't the fastest method, but it would leave less evidence behind than burying or burning the corpses.

"Alright." Eret whispered. "Let's head back."

They grabbed the remaining man, and the group slowly made their way back through the town. It took quite some time to reach the safe house they were staying at, long enough for the moon to begin dipping down the horizon, but they made it in time. The building was some abandoned house on the far outskirts of the town, but it served its purpose. Thorfinn closed the door behind them as they all made it inside the cramped building, before walking over to the table in the corner of the room. Dragging it to one side, he then pulled up the rug that the table usually stood on, revealing the wooden door in the floor.

The group made their way one by one into the damp, dingy basement, a single lantern the only source of light in the pitch black room. Dumping the body on the floor, Dagur then dragged a chair into the middle of the room, before roughly forcing the unconscious man into a sitting position on it. As he did so, Thorfinn pulled out the length of rope he had brought, and began tightly securing the man's limbs and torso to the chair. Judging by how tight the ropes looked, the man would be incredibly uncomfortable once he awoke, but he had no chance of escaping. Finally, as the man was secured, Thorfinn then procured a piece of cloth, which he crumpled into a ball before unceremoniously shoving it into the man's mouth. 

"He's gonna have fun when he wakes up." Hiccup muttered as they all took a step back.

Dagur began to grin, a rather sadistic look on his face. "Yeah. Isn't it great?"

Hiccup merely shook his head as he turned around and made his way back upstairs, followed by Thorfinn and Heather. He had no need to see what was about to happen, plus the room was cramped enough with just the five of them.

"You think he's gonna talk?" Heather asked as Thorfinn closed the trapdoor behind them.

"Oh definitely." Thorfinn said. "I'm sure Eret could get the job done himself, but also having Dagur down there? Poor guy."

Hiccup nodded. "The real question isn't whether he will talk, but whether he knows anything of use."

"I doubt it'll be anything super useful." Heather said as she sat down at one of the chairs and began to sharped one of her knives. "He was just a foot soldier. If we keep doing this we will find something eventually though. We have to."

They continued to speculate as the sun rose outside. It grew increasingly uncomfortable in the sweltering building, but the didn't dare open any windows or doors, lest they wanted to be spotted. It was imperative that they kept the abandoned building look. As they began to rummage through their supplies however, trying to divy up the rations for breakfast, they heard muffled voices coming from downstairs.

"Sounds like he's awake." Hiccup said quietly. The others didn't respond.

They ate in silence as the voices grew. It went from muttering, to talking, to yelling. As the voices grew louder, he could clearly hear the man refusing to answer any of Eret's questions, when suddenly, the voices stopped. There was silence for a few seconds, before the voices restarted just as suddenly as they had stopped. The man's voice went from horrified, to panicked, to downright terrified, before suddenly, he screamed.

They said nothing as they ate quietly, listening to ever growing bloodcurdling screams from below. Every time Hiccup thought the screams couldn't get worse, he was proven wrong. They seemed to continue on for an eternity, when they very quickly and suddenly, stopped. The sudden silence was somehow just as unnerving as the screams themselves, and shivers made their way down Hiccup's spine as he glanced at the others. 

After another minute or so, the trapdoor in the corner creaked open, and out climbed a very disgruntled looking Dagur, followed by Eret, who wore an expression Hiccup couldn't place. 

"So?" Thorfinn asked quietly.

Dagur grunted annoyedly. "He passed out right as it got good."

Eret sighed as he rubbed his temple, leaving behind a small streak of blood. "Just as we got him to talk he passed out. The sudden spike and then drop in pain probably caused him to go into shock. We should probably treat his wounds, but I…" Eret stared at the ground blankely. "I need a minute."

With that he then walked past them all and made his way upstairs to the even smaller second floor, where they all slept. Hiccup sighed and placed the remains of his meal on the table, before standing up from the chair. 

"I got it. You guys finish eating."

He grabbed some of the few medical supplies they had lying about before making his way to the trapdoor in the corner, giving Toothless a scratch on the head as he went. Pulling the door open, he made his way into the basement, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he stepped inside he was met with the incredibly strong and metallic smell of blood.  As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he did his best not to gag at the sight. The man sat there, slumped over in the chair, blood dripping from his face, down into his lap. Both his clothes and the floor beneath him were soaked in the stuff, and there was a knife sticking out of the top of his knee. 

Hiccup grimaced as he began to get to work. Using his knife, he carefully began to cut away the man's clothes, careful to not injure him anymore than he already was. Once most of his clothing was gone, he began assessing the injuries. Surprisingly little damage had been done to his torso, although there was a nasty bruise starting to appear around his stomach and his ribcage. He most likely had a broken rib but there was no external bleeding. 

On the other hand it seemed one of Dagur's favorite places to go for was the knees. There were several deep wounds in and around the kneecap of both legs, one of which still had a knife in it. Hiccup knew how sensitive the knees and elbows could be, and he winced at the sight. He wouldn't be surprised if that was what made the man pass out. 

The face looked the worst out of all of the injuries, but Hiccup doubted he would die from them. His nose was shattered and covered in blood, one of his eyes bruised, and he was now missing several teeth. All of which would have hurt like Hel, but none of it would have killed him. 

Finally, it seemed that Dagur had also gone for the hands. One of his hands had been stabbed clean through, he was missing three fingers, and most of his fingers were now without fingernails.

Hiccup closed his eyes and swallowed hard once he finished identifying all of the wounds. After a couple seconds he opened them again, and got to work. He started with all the open wounds. He did his best to split what little poultice he had between all of the wounds to prevent any infections, before tightly wrapping the man in bandages. He had tried to clean all of the blood off at first, but there was so much of it and he was still bleeding out so fast that it was practically futile. Once the bleeding had been stopped, he did his best to treat all the bruises and fractured bones, but there was little that he could do. 

Finally, after nearly an hour of work, he was done. Taking a step back, he sighed as he looked at the man. He was practically wrapped from head to toe in bandages, some of which were already starting to turn red from blood, and he was so slumped over that if he had not been breathing slightly, Hiccup would have though he was dead. 

Turning around, he made his way back upstairs, closing the door behind him. He didn't look at any of the others as he grabbed a rag from a nearby table, sat down in one of the chairs, and began wiping off his hands.

"Gods you're covered in blood." Heather said. She immediately stood up and grabbed another cloth, before walking over to were he sat. She then began to wipe of his face and neck, where he hadn't even realized he had gotten blood.

"You guys really beat him up." Hiccup said to Eret, who had now come back downstairs. "Did he say anything."

Eret waited for a couple seconds before nodding slowly. "Right before he passed out he mentioned something about al-Basri recalling all of his forces."

Hiccup, and Heather both immediately stopped and turned to look at him. "A total recall?"

"Yep." Eret confirmed. "We still have no idea of where, when, or how many are coming, but it sounds like something is about to happen. Whatever it is we will find out once he wakes up again."

None of them said anything for a while. That would mean Eret would most likely have to go back down there. 

"This could either be both good and bad." Hiccup began slowly. "On one hand, if all of al-Basri's forces are there, then we will be less likely to be noticed among all of the ranks. On the other hand…" He paused and took a deep breathe. "It will make it much, much harder to kill al-Basri without being spotted."

"I agree." Thorfinn said. "But no matter what, this certainly changes our plans, doesn't it."

Eret nodded. Things suddenly got a lot harder.

Chapter Text

Hiccup gaped at the massive compound below them. The entire thing was larger than Berk itself, and was surrounded with walls. It was several miles south of Carthage, and was nestled into an alcove in the cliffs along the coast. It was basically a small city, and sported a massive dock, where dozens of both small and large warships waited. He watched as as hundreds of people walked through the dimly lit streets below as he and Toothless soared through the moonless skies above. He did his best to absorb in each and every detail, taking note of the position of several large buildings, and anything else he found important. This compound was way more than anything a mere pirate should have been able to amass.

"This is going to be tough, Toothless." He muttered. The dragon responded with a worried grunt, as he too watched the scene below. "Lets head back."

The pair made a slow, wide turn over the compound, before heading back towards the top of the cliffs that surrounded it. He landed in a small clearing at the edge of the cliff, and as he dismounted from the saddle he watched as a figure made it's way out of the tree line towards him.

"How'd it go?" Heather asked as she made her way closer.

"This is gonna be rough." Hiccup responded as he walked towards her. "This is not going to be easy. I don't even know where to start looking for al-Basri."

"Don't worry. We will find him eventually." Heather assured him. "We've made it this far after-all."

It had nearly been a month since they had first heard of al-Basri recalling all of his men. They had spent weeks chasing leads up and down the coast, and finally, they had found him. It seemed like the rumors were true, and that he was amassing all of his men in one location, but for what, they had no idea.

He and Heather continued to talk quietly as they made their way through the woods. Now in the hight of summer, the nights were cooler than during the day, but it was still unbearably hot, even after the sun set. Hiccup had quickly learned to shed his flying leathers when they weren't needed, and he and the others now wore thin clothing when at all possible. 

Finally, as they made their way through the sparse trees, they reached the spot where the others had set up camp. They didn't dare set up a fire, in order to not be spotted, but they had some tents set up.

"What'd you find." Eret asked as he and Heather were spotted by the others. 

Hiccup sat down with the others and began to relay everything he remembered from the compounded. Once he was done, they all began to brainstorm how to approach this.

"Well no matter what the first step is to identify al-Basri and where he lives, right?" Heather started.

"Yes but we don't exactly know what he looks like yet." Thorfinn said. "We have a basic description, but we still need to positively identify him before we act. We only have one shot at this, really."

"Well from what we know, al-Basri is confident enough in his strength that he's probably not just holed up in some building somewhere." Hiccup said. "But on the other hand he is probably smart enough to not go anywhere without a personal guard."

"So then we just find the guy with the most guards, and kill him then." Dagur said rather confidently.

"Not exactly." Thorfinn said. "If we end up killing the wrong guy, the camp will most definitely notice and be put on high alert, which will make it harder for us to then kill al-Basri."

"Dagur isn't exactly wrong though." Hiccup said slowly, an idea forming. "Any person in that compound with a personal guard is going to be important enough to be a target. And anyone that important will probably meet with al-Basri at some point."

A few of the others nodded as they saw where he was going with this.

"So if we follow the most important people, we will eventually find al-Basri, whether or not we actually follow al-Basri himself." Heather said.

"Makes sense to me. Let's go find us some important people." Eret said, a smile forming on his face.

"We have to act right now!" Thorfinn whispered hurriedly.

"We can't!" Heather argued back. "We haven't planned for long enough and we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into."

"He has to be in there! It's the only reason all of this would make sense!"

"Yes but so are the rest of them." Heather implored. "It's way too dangerous."

"Both of you be quiet." Eret said sternly. "Let me think."

For the past week they had each been keeping an eye on a different important member of the pirates, and each of their movements. For the first couple days, everything had seemed normal, until about three days ago, when suddenly all of the people with personal guards all gathered in one building. Then, last night, they had done it again, and tonight, for a third time.

After a maddeningly long silence, Eret finally spoke. "Alright, the way I see it we have two options. It's safe to assume that if all of the most powerful people in this compound have gathered in this one building, then al-Basri must be in there. Because of that, we can either attack right now, and be pretty much guaranteed that he is in there, but we would have to kill between eight and twelve other people quietly," He paused and took a deep breath. "Or we can wait until they all leave the building, and target the person with the most guards, and hope its al-Basri."

"Either way we have to attack tonight, because we don't know if they're gonna meet again tomorrow night." Hiccup added. "This is going to be our best shot."

"What do you guys think." Eret asked.

"I vote for the second plan." Heather said. "It's too risky to try to take them all out. We have no idea what the layout of the building is, or how many people and guards are in there."

"I think we should attack the building immediately." Thorfinn said. "It's our best chance to corner al-Basri right here and now. I think the added risk is worth it."

Eret then turned to look at Dagur and Hiccup.

Dagur shrugged. "I'm with Thorfinn. It can't be that hard to kill a couple more people without being noticed."

All of their eyes turned to Hiccup, but he said nothing.

"Your thoughts Hiccup?" Eret asked.

Hiccup sighed. "I'm… with Heather. It's just too risky. We were ordered to do this quietly, and that's going to be a challenge with more than one target."

Eret nodded as he turned back to the rest of the group. "I guess it comes down to me then."

He gazed down the edge of the cliff towards the compound below. The building al-Basri was currently in was at the back of the compound, practically right below them. Taking a deep breath he looked up at the others.

"We attack the building tonight." They all nodded at his decision. "Hiccup, take Thorfinn down there with you and find a way into the building. Don't be spotted." Hiccup nodded. "Once you have found a way in, come back up for the rest of us. We'll do our best to attack at multiple angles all at once so they can't react, and it must be fast enough that they can't call for help. Once we kill them and confirm al-Basri's identity, we burn the building."

They all looked at him because of the last part.

"Burn it?" Thorfinn said. "I thought the plan was to dispose of the body discretely. A giant fire isn't exactly inconspicuous."

"That was the original plan," Eret said, nodding. "But things have changed. It's going to be much harder to get rid of ten or even twelve bodies without being seen, and we don't have time to hang around. We need to get in, kill him, get rid of the bodies, and get out, all in a reletively short amount of time. The quickest way of doing that is with a fire."

"Alright then." Thorfinn said after a quick pause. "Let's do this."

The two of them climbed onto Toothless' back and dived off the edge of the cliff. Gliding down toward the compound, they hugged the cliff edge, doing their best to stay in the shadows, until they finally touched down slightly outside the compound wall. Dismounting from Toothless, they both silently made their way to the wall, until they were both pressed up against it. Because this was the back wall of the compound, and it faced the cliff, it was only a foot or two taller than Hiccup, and was usually sparsely guarded.

Reaching up, he grabbed the top of the wall, and slowly pulled himself upward, until he was peaking over the edge. Glancing around, and noticing the coast was clear, he pulled himself up, before turning back around, and pulling up Thorfinn behind himself. As quietly as possible, they both then dropped behind the wall, onto the soft grass below. 

There was little moonlight tonight, as the new moon had only been a couple days ago, which meant that while it was easier to stay hidden, it was also challenging for them to see anything. Crouching low, the pair of them began to make their way from building to building, stepping as softly as they could, and carefully checking each corner. As they got closer to the building where al-Basir was in, things got much harder. They started to hear voices, whispers of a strange language which neither of them recognized started to become louder and louder. As they reached the last building, it became clear that the majority of the voices were from the opposite side of the building, where the main entrance was, but a few were at the back of the building, just across the alley from where Hiccup and Thorfinn currently stood.

The two stayed as far into the shadows as they could, as the listened to the voices come closer. There was pratically no moonlight so the only source of light in the area came from far down the alley to their left, where the majority of the soldiers guarded the building. Both Hiccup and Thorfinn held their breath as the two soldiers stepped into the very soft torchlight. The soldiers continued to walk towards them, which caused Hiccup to start to panic. If they took only a couple more steps, they would be right on top of them, and would undoubtedly spot the two vikings. Fortunately both soldiers seemed completely lost in their conversation, and turned right down the alley instead, not noticing them at all. 

As soon as the two men turned the corner, Hiccup dashed forward, Thorfinn at his heels. Running up behind the soldiers, he immediately grabbed the far one by the neck with his arm, and dragged him backwards. As he grabbed the man, he heard Thorfinn do the same to the other man, and they both dragged the two soldiers behind the building. The man struggled against him as he wrapped his entire left arm around the mans neck, and put his right hand on the back of the mans head, before squeezing, and hard. The soldier clawed at his hand, and did his best to gasp for air, but nothing came out. Slowly, for too many agonizingly long seconds, the man struggled, his movements growing weaker, and weaker, until finally, he fell still. 

Lowering the man to the ground, Hiccup shoved the corpse into a nearby bush at the bottom of the back wall of the building, before helping Thorfinn do the same with the other corpse. They weren't completely hidden, but they would do the trick for now in the darkness. 

Gazing up at the building in front of them, Hiccup noticed how it reminded him of a much smaller Great Hall. The bottom layer of the building was made of large stone bricks, maybe eight feet tall, before giving way to a lighter combination of clay and sandstone. The whole building was most likely three stories tall, and the first row of windows only started above the stone walls.

Getting Thorfinn's attention, Hiccup crouched down and gestured towards his shoulders. Immediately getting the hint, Thorfinn climbed onto Hiccup's shoulders, steadying himself with the wall. Grabbing Thorfinn's shoulders, he slowly stood up until Thorfinn could see into the window. For several seconds, Thorfinn said nothing as he looked into the first window, just after the corner, before reaching down and tapping Hiccup on the head. Crouching back down, Thorfinn then hopped off his shoulders.

"Coast is clear." He whispered, so quiet that it was almost unintelligible. "Get the others."

Nodding, Hiccup immediately spun around and dashed towards the compound wall. Hoisting himself over, he jumped down the other side, before sprinting alongside it. Reaching where Toothless now lay, he gave the dragon a quick pet, before climbing onto the saddle, and soaring into the sky. They quickly reached the top of the cliff, and soared alongside it until the found where the others waited.

"Everything go as planned?" Eret asked as he touched down.

Hiccup nodded. "Yep. Almost had a run in with some soldiers but we handled it."

One by one he then carried the others down the cliff with Toothless, until all three of them now stood just outside the compound wall, waiting to follow Hiccup.

"Stay here Toothless." Hiccup said quietly as he dismounted from the saddle. "We will be back soon."

The dragon gave a soft warble before immediately curling up on the ground and getting comfortable.  Hiccup then helped the others over the wall, before pulling himself over and landing softly on the other side. Winding their way through the back alleys of the town, they finally joined Thorfinn at the back wall of the meeting building.

Quickly enacting their plans, Hiccup climbed onto Eret's shoulders as he was hoisted up until he was level with the window. Reaching into one of the many pockets of his leather armor, he pulled out two thin stretches of steel wire. Lifting it up to the window, he worked it in between the the two panes of glass. Very slowly, he began working the lock, twisting the wires as necessary, until the last pin fell into place, and the lock unlatched with a soft click. Gently placing his hand on one of the window panes, he pushed slowly, causing the window to swing open with a soft creak. 

Grabbing the window frame with both hands, he then pulled himself off of Eret's shoulders, and into the building. He appeared in a small, unlit hallway. He stood right at the corner of two hallways, as just in front of him, the hallway continued straight, but it then turned to go to his immediate right. 

Turning back around, he spotted Heather climbing onto Eret's shoulder, before they walked to the wall yet again. Once they were close enough, Hiccup reached forward and grabbed Heather by the arm, and helped her through the window. They then did this again until both Thorfinn and Dagur were inside as well, but then it was Eret's turn. Eret and Hiccup were both by far the tallest ones in the group, but even they couldn't reach the window alone. Hiccup practically doubled himself over while reaching out of the window, and only just barely managed to grab Eret by the hand. With the help of the others, The pulled Eret up as far as they could, until finally, they were all inside.

Immediately, they began making their way down the hallway to the right. They passed door after door, but they found nothing, until the rounded one of the corners, and came face to face with two guards in front of a stairwell. 

Hiccup's heart immediately jumped up into his throat at this sight. Time seemed to slow as one of the guards immediatly readied his spear and open his mouth to speak. Without thinking, Hiccup drew his knife from it's sheath and flung it as hard and fast as he could. The man barely had time to speak a single syllable before the knife connected with his throat, silencing him immediately. The second guard jumped forward as the first one crumpled to the ground, but he too could barely move before a spear connected with his chest. The man gasped as the spear forced the air out of his lungs, and Hiccup wasted no time in dashing forward with his sword, and finishing the man off.

He stood there panting as both men fell to the floor. Eret then walked forward and pulled his spear out of the second man's body, before mouthing the words good job at Hiccup. Hiccup merely nodded as he collected his knife, and the group began to make their way up the stairs. They moved slowly as they reached the next floor, but there were no more guards at the top. As they made their wau through the second floor however, they finally heard what they were looking for. Voices. They were hushed, quiet and in a language that none of them understood, but they were definitely not regular conversation. It had to be some sort of meeting. 

Reaching another corner, Hiccup peaked around it. There, in the wall, was a set of double doors. A soft, flickering candlelight danced through the crack below the door, illuminating it. Unfortunately however, the door was guarded by two more soldiers. Both of them wore similar clothing to the two on the floor below, but they also seemed much more tired, as one of them kept yawning, and the other one was practically asleep. 

Taking a step back, Hiccup allowed Eret to peak around the corner and see the same thing. Eret then turned around and faced the group, clearly thinking. Doing his best to both mouth the plan, and mime it with his hands, he relayed his to the others. Nodding, Hiccup then lined up in front of Eret, and waited to strike, drawing his knife. As soon as the closer soldier yawned, Hiccup shot forward, pressed his arm against the man's chest and plunged his knife into his neck, just above the collarbone. The other soldier jerked awake, and was about to draw his weapon, but it was too late. Eret also ran forward and stabbed the man in the chest, pinning him to the wall.

Slowly, Hiccup and Eret both gently lowered the two bodies to the ground, careful not to make a sound as the corpses hit the ground. Softly stepping over to the door, he peered through the gap between the two doors. It was a simple meeting room, with only a single long table. At the opposite side of the room from the door, stood a large fireplace, and both side walls were covered in bookshelves. The table itself was only surrounded by about ten men, but the farthest ones would most definitely be too far for melee combat. 

Taking a good look at each of the men at the table, his eyes fell on the last man, all the way at the head of the table, infront of the fireplace and on the opposite side of the room from the door. A slightly serious and wrinkled face, with a neatly trimmed dark brown beard, and light brown eyes. He wore simple red clothes, but he had an air about him, as if he was the most confident man in the room. It was Khwala al-Basri. He was sure of it. 

He took a step back and faced Eret, who by now had been joined by the others. He nodded, confirming the presence of al-Basri, before holding up ten fingers and mouthing the words ten men. Eret nodded before mouthing the question al-Basri? Far side. Hiccup responded, gesturing with his hands. Eret nodded.

Eret then lined up behind one of the doors, with Hiccup behind the other. Dagur and Thorfinn then fell in line behind Eret, with Heather behind Hiccup. Eret drew his spear, and Hiccup his knives, before they nodded at each other. Eret held up five fingers, before beginning to count down. Four. Three. Two. One.

Hiccup heaved against the wooden door, shoving it open as fast as he could. He watched as Eret's spear flew straight past him, watched as the spear slammed into al-Basri's chest, causing him to fall backwards out of his chair. Wasting no time on the victory, Hiccup flung one knife after the other hitting the man to al-Basri's left in the head, and barely managing to catch the one to his right in the throat, blood pouring out of the wound. 

The other men around the table did their best to shoot to their feet in response, but it was too late. The men closest to the door were dead almost as quickly as al-Basri, having been immediately attacked by Heather and Dagur. Thorfinn and leaped over the table as soon as the knives flew, and was quickly joined by Hiccup. One by one the men fell, until there were two left. The first did his best to draw his sword, but Eret cut him down. The last managed to open his mouth and scream a single sylable, before Hiccup's sword silenced him.

The entire group stood in the room, none of them moving as the last man fell dead. They waited to here something, anything to signify that the guards outside had heard something and were one their way. For one second, then ten, then thirty, they waited, but there was nothing. Sighing loudly, Eret sheathed his sword before a grin spread across his face. They had done it.

One by one they let their weapons drop as they relaxed, and a few light chuckles spread throughout the room. 

"Nice job guy." Eret said, a proud expression on his face. "Now let's finish this up and get out of here."

The grabbed all of the corpses from around the room, and piled them on the table. They then began grabbing books from the shelves around them piling them on top of the corpses.

"That should be enough." Hiccup said. "Get out of here. I'll be there soon."

Eret nodded as he placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Get it done quick, and get out. And don't die." With that, the rest of the group then turned and left, Hiccup watched as they walked out of the door, and around the corner, before disappearing. They were so close to being done.

He waited for one minute, then another, and another. For what seemed like an eternity, he waited, before finally he was confident that they had made it out of the building and far enough away. Very carefully, he drew his sword. His hands trembling, he detached the canister of greek fire that sat in the hilt. Returning his sword, he carefully unscrewed the cap to the vial, looking at the liquid inside. As slowly as he dared, he held the canister over the pile of bodies, and tipped it over, watching as the flammable liquid drizzled out of the canister, and onto the corpses below. He moved it back and forth, doing his best to cover the bodies, while also not getting it on himself. 

Once he was satisfied, he reattached the now empty canister to his sword, and made his way to the exit. He closed one of the doors behind him, but left the other one slightly ajar as he passed. Walking past the crumped corpses of the guards, he grabbed the nearest torch on the wall out of its sconce, he returned to the doorway, and took a deep breath. This was it. 

Grabbing the door with his right hand, and holding the torch in his left, he tossed the torch inside, slammed the door closed, and ran. His heart pounded in his eardrums, and adrenaline shot through him as he ran faster than he ever had before. Mere seconds after he closed the door, the room exploded. Flames burst out of the room, filling the hallway with a scorching heat, as Hiccup ran. His skin burned and his lungs screamed as he slammed into the nearest window, glass shattering around his shoulder, as he plummeted three stories. His feet slammed into the ground hard, pain, shooting through his foot, and his prosthetic creaking as he rolled to absorb as much of the impact as he could. 

Sitting up on the grass, he watched as flames flickered around the window he had just fallen from, as the wooden floors of the building caught. Shouts filled the air as people rushed towards the building, panicking as the whole structure burst into flame, beams and floorboards crumbling from the heat. 

As the shouts grew closer, Hiccup sprung to his feet. Wasting no time, he ran towards the nearest wall and pulled himself over, practically collapsing to the ground on the other side.

"Hiccup!" He heard a loud whisper say. Jumping to his feet and looking up he saw Heather rushing towards him, closely followed by the others. Glancing down at his clothes, he saw how they were singed black with soot, and felt how his skin was red and raw from the heat. He probably looked roughly half burnt right about now.

"We were starting to think you had gotten caught." Thorfinn said, as he stopped next to Hiccup.

"C'mon, I didn't take that long, did I?" Hiccup asked.

"No, but it felt like it." Heather responded.

Hiccup opened his mouth to respond but he was quickly interrupted by Eret.

"As much as I would love to stand and talk, can we please get out of here before thousands of angry pirates find us?"

Nodding, Hiccup immediately took off at a brisk pace along the compound wall. They followed it for a minute or two, until finally, they reached the large, black, and unmoving shape nestled into the grass. Toothless immediately perked up as he heard the footsteps approaching, and bounded to his feet as he spotted Hiccup, shaking off the grass and dirt as he stood.

"Thank's for waiting, bud." Hiccup said quietly, scratching the dragon on the chin, causing a quiet yet deep rumble to come from Toothless. Hiccup clambered onto the dragon, and one by one carried the others to the top of the cliff. After a couple minutes, he finally touched down on the grass with Eret at the top of the cliff, having successfully carried all of them away.

As the met up at the top of the cliff, smiles broke out on all of their faces. They had done it. A series of cheers, high fives and back slappings were exchanged throughout the group as the celebrated their victory.

"Y'know." Thorfinn began. "As cool as it was coming to someplace so new, I'm done with this place."

Eret chuckled. "Agreed. Let's go home."

Chapter Text

Astrids fingers fidgeted nervously as she did her best to look like she knew what she was doing. To her left sat Stoick, also at the central meeting table, as well as Gothi, and a couple other notable Berkians. They weren't the problem though. The real issue was the newcomers spread throughout the table. Directly across from Stoick sat Big Boobied Bertha, leader of the Bog Burglar tribe. Next to her sat her daughter and heir, Camicazi. Astrid had met Camicazi many, many years ago, and it seemed she hadn't grown much taller in their time apart. Apparently she was just as capable in combat as Astrid was, and possibly even more violently. She seemed fun. Also at the table was Chief Mogadon the Meathead, and his son and heir, Thuggory. She didn't know much about Thuggory, but if the rumors were accurate, then he could be quite the bully, had enough sense to act properly when the time called, but was fiercely loyal and protective of his tribe. She would probably have to keep an eye on him.

There were a number of other important vikings around the table, most of whom she was sure she would recognize by name, but couldn't place their faces. She was aware that there were vikings from the Bersekers, the Visithugs, the Brutes, and even a couple tribes she had never heard of before. The reason that all of these leaders were now suddenly gathered in one place, was because this year, Berk got to host The Thing. The Thing was a meeting between all the viking chiefs of the archipelago, held once every five years, but Berk had been forced to not appear at the one five years ago, due to the sudden death of their heir.

Now however, The Thing was more important than ever before, because the archipelago was out of options. Villages lay smoldering, hundreds were dead, missing or injured, and thousands more were on the verge of starving to death. None of the chiefs wanted to admit how weak they were currently, but at this point it was obvious. The archipelago was dying.

"So." Stoick called loudly, his booming voice silencing the murmurs that had been spreading throughout the great hall. "I believe we all know why we are here."

Solemn nods were shared around the table, as each chief hesitantly agreed.

"I will be the first to say that things have become dire." Stoick continued. "If we don't act now-"

"That's an understatement!" Big Bertha interrupted, her voice boomed almost as much as Stoick's, and her accent possibly even thicker. "I hate to say it, but our way of life is going extinct."

Loud muttering began to spread throughout the hall, nervous facing spreading through the crowd.

"Bertha please." Stoick said. "Saying such things will only make people feel worse."

"Am I wrong?" She asked, doubling down.

"We are here to discuss solutions, not to make the problem worse."

"Are you saying you've got a solution then?"

Stoick's face tensed as he leaned back in his chair. "I think we should go after the nest again."

Protests immediately rang out through the crowd, especially from the Berkians at the mere mention of the idea.

"QUIET!" Mogadon the Meathead roared, immediately silencing the hall so fast, that one could probably hear a feather fall to the ground. He then turned his head to look at Stoick. "You know that will never work Stoick. None of us ever found the nest all those years ago, and you continued to search even after the rest of us had given up. But now? We have even less resources, less men, less spirit and more problems. If that journey was a death sentence before, I don't even want to imagine the consequences now."

Whispers of agreement made their way through the crowd, and even to some of the chiefs and heirs at the table.

"If we do not deal with this problem as soon as possible Mogadon, then disaster will fall." Stoick said sternly. He opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing before closing it again. Taking a deep breath, he spoke. "Berk has just seen the beginnings of its eighth generation on this island, at at this rate, we will not exist to see a ninth."

Silence filled the hall at his statement.

"So," He said after the pause. "If you have any solution at all, I would love to hear it."

Mogadon said nothing,

After an agonizingly long silence, Bertha spoke up yet again. "Let us say, for just a second, that we agreed with your plan to find the nest. I do not know about the situation on Berk, but back on the Bog, we have barely enough resources to survive a single winter, yet alone another journey to find the nest. We barely had enough to make it here, let alone an expedition that could take weeks or months."

"She makes a good point, Stoick." Chief Very-Vicious of the Visithugs said. "It would most likely take years for us to gather enough resources to be prepared for a journey of such a scale. And that is assuming the attacks don't get worse than they already are."

"We do not have time to wait years." Stoick protested. "We need to act now, lest we doom ourselves."

"Stoick we must be rational about this." Mogadon said. "If searching for the nest one last time is our only options, then I could perhaps have my tribe ready in five or so years but-"

"WE WILL ALL BE DEAD IN FIVE YEARS!" Stoick roared. "I would rather act now and die on that blasted nest to allow my tribe a future, than sit here on my ass and starve having done nothing!"

"I'm not willing to toss away the lives of my tribe for some fruitless cause Stoick!" Mogadon argued. "Hiccup might be dead, but some of us still have family left alive to care about!"

Stoick slammed his hands down on the table and shoved himself to his feet, "IF YOU DARE-" He suddenly stopped, causing an eerie silence to fall over the room. Stoick slowly raised his hand and pointed it at Mogadon. Shivers flew down Astrid's spine as she spotted the look of sheer malice and hatred on her chief's face, as he practically shook with rage. "If you dare even mention my sons name again," He said, his voice so quiet, yet so terrifying that even Mogadon seemed to be thinking twice about what he said. "Then you wont have to wait to die in a raid. I will kill you myself."

With that he then stormed his way around the table, and out of the hall, shoving vikings out of the way as he went.

"STOICK…" Bertha tried to call after him, but to no avail. The hall immediately erupted with a mixture of hushed whispers and worried murmurs as people began to panic, Nervous glances were shared between the chiefs at the table as the each tried to process what just happened, and how they should act next.

Astrid immediately stood up and began to take a step towards the door after Stoick, when suddenly a large hand fell on her shoulder.

"Don't lassie." Gobber said quietly. "Leave him be."

Astrid looked at the man for a second, before looking back towards the door. Without a word she continued walking forward, leaving Gobber standing alone. 

Squeezing her way through the crowd, she rushed out of the front door, which was still ajar from Stoick's exit, down the large stone steps, and out into the main street. It didn't take her long to find herself at the chief's front door. Pushing it open, it swung forward without any effort. Glancing inside, it looked cold an empty, with no signs of life.

"Stoick?" She called, but got no response. Stepping inside, she began sweeping the house. "Chief are you here?" Nothing.

Wherever the chief had gone, he hadn't come home first. Making her way back outside, she hurried down the road, checking every place she could think of. The forge was empty, and so was the ring. She doubted he had climbed all the way up to Gothi's house, and honestly she wasn't going to check. Stumped, she began slowly making her way back up the main road towards the Great Hall, thinking maybe he had returned already, when suddenly, it struck her. She knew where he was.

She took off immediately, sprinting towards the tree line. She ran past bushes and over logs, through ditches and over creeks, until she reached it. Behind a rather inconspicuous looking boulder, the ground suddenly gave way into a rather steep slope. She made her way down it, the soft dirt turning to mud and then mossy stone beneath her feet. Vine covered stone walls rose up on either side of her as the slope led her below the ground level, until finally, they gave way into a small clearing, sunken into the ground. 

Stepping forward, she spotted a small wooden shield to her left. It was leaning up against the stone wall, and had become covered in moss and vines over the years. When they had first searched this clearing all those years ago, their path had been blocked by this very shield, as it had been wedged in the entrance. The teens had easily been able to duck under it at the time, but it had to be removed to allow the larger vikings inside. 

It was impossible to miss him as she stepped into the clearing, as the large frame of Stoick sat on a boulder with his back turned to her. She slowly walked forward, until she was right beside him, but he gave no indication that he saw her. As she approached, she immediately recognized what he was staring at. It was a small stone cairn, in front of which lay a small notebook, a pencil, and piece of clothing. An honorary gravestone.

"When did you make this." She asked quietly.

He didn't respond for quite some time. She started to think he was never going to, when he suddenly spoke, his voice gruff, yet emotionless. "It was shortly after I made you heir. I decided I needed to accept that he was… gone."

He paused for nearly a full minute, and Astrid let him. Eventually, he took a deep breath and continued.

"Part of me still wanted to think that maybe… maybe since we never found a body that he was still out there somewhere. That the beast took him but he… he managed to escape, somehow. Moving on meant forgetting about that, and I… didn't want to. I guess the cairn helped. When I talk to it, it's like talking to him."

Astrid opened her mouth to say something, but she was quickly interrupted.

"He was so similar to Valka. His mother. Too similar." He paused again, his voice beginning to shake. "It was easier when he was young, ya know. But as he got older, he just kept looking more and more like her. Acted like her too. Stubborn. Creative. Smart. Gods above, she was so smart."

Memories flashed through Astrid's mind of each and every one of Hiccup's inventions, every time he tried to help by making something, and every time it ended in disaster. But he never gave up.

"He was definitely the smartest out of all of us." She said quietly, receiving a nod. "Annoyingly stubborn, but maybe that was his way of being brave."

Stoick let out a small chuckle, before his face fell once more.

"He was just like her. None of… me in there. And every time I looked at him, all I could see was… her." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Her face, as that creature grabbed her. The terror. How I failed her. How I failed both of them."

Astrid looked down and reached out a hand to place it on Stoick's shoulder, when suddenly she hesitated. Several clear streaks were running down his face, as silent tears fell from his eyes. Taking a deep, slow breath to steady herself, she placed her hand on his shoulder anyway. He didn't move.

"I couldn't talk to him without thinking about her. So I didn't. I ignored him. My own son." Stoick's breathing grew shaky and ragged under her hand. "I kept thinking that maybe… maybe if he turned out more like me instead, then I would finally be able to look him in the eye, actually be his father for once, but as soon as he started to, that… that beast killed him!" 

Astrid froze. The Night Fury. She had been so busy preparing for The Thing, that she had nearly forgotten about the true circumstances around Hiccup's death. She and Fishlegs had agreed to not say anything, but should she? Didn't Stoick deserve to know the truth?

"I failed him." Stoick said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I let my own son die thinking his father hated his being."

No. Now was not the time to reveal that information.

"I think he would be proud." Astrid said softly, causing Stoick to scoff. "I'm serious. I didn't know him well but if he was the kind person I thought he was, then he would be proud. He would be proud that you pulled yourself, honored his death, and resumed your duties. He would be proud that you built this cairn, and be proud that you are putting the needs of the village before your own."

Stoick said nothing, but she listened to his breathing calm, and watched as he visibly relaxed, before speaking again.

"He had a crush on you, you know."

"W-what?" Astrid said, taken aback.

"He was so nervous about it too." He continued with a chuckle. "I think you were the only person on the entire island who wasn't aware."

Hiccup had a crush on… her? Why? She had acted horribly to him, like he was worthless.

"That's actually why we asked you to start training him."

"Wait what?"

An even bigger smile spread across Stoick's face at the memory. "Gobber brought it up to me and your parents. We were hoping that if you two spent some time together, then he would finally do something about it, rather than constantly bugging the rest of us."

"And my parents agreed to that?"

"Aye. I think they were hoping he would rub off on you a little, and that you would learn to relax some."

She wanted to be somewhat annoyed at her parents, but honestly it made sense. She had been a very serious and rather violent preteen.

"We would have made quite the… interesting training pair." She admitted.

"Aye."

They both stood there for several minutes, simply staring at the small cairn. She could tell why Hiccup had decided to spend time here. It was peaceful. She could close her eyes, and it seemed like all of her problems fell away. She just listened to the birds chirping nearby, the soft rustling of the wind as it blew through the trees, and the gentle gurgling of the small pond. It was… calming. Finally, she opened her eyes and turned to Stoick.

"So." She said slowly. "What are you going to do about The Thing."

Stoick sighed. "I did kinda mess that up didn' I."

"Maybe a little."

"We are running out of time, Astrid."

"So then get back in there, and come up with something to fix it."

Stoick said nothing, but merely stared at the cairn. Eventually, he placed his hands on both knees and got to his feet. She watched as he took one last look, muttered a soft goodbye, before turning around and walking towards the entrance of the clearing, Astrid at his heels.

"Let's go fix this fucked up archipelago."

Chapter Text

The hall erupted in cheers as Hiccup slammed the now empty tankard onto the table in front of him. A grin erupted on his face as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, drying off the few drops of beer that had spilled. His face was fully flushed and burning, the room might have been spinning slightly, and his skin was starting to become a little bit numb, but as another tankard filled to the brim was pushed into his hands, he once more lifted it to his lips.

They had been welcomed back in Constantinople with open arms by the emperor, and while the rest of the Varangian Guard didn't know the details of what had happened, they clearly had been told it was important, and so they had decided to host a feast in celebration. Hiccup was pretty sure they just wanted an excuse to get drunk, but the gesture was still appreciated.

He had done his best to resist the efforts of the others, and had made sure to drink slowly at the start, but as the night wore on, and the crowd got increasingly more rowdy, he had finally given in. He had absolutely no clue anymore of how much he had drunken so far, but at this point, he didn't care. Being the newest, and probably the youngest, member to the guard, the others got extremely excited that he had finally started drinking with them, so cheers went around the room every time he finished a drink, much too Toothless' dismay, who kept covering his ears.

"How's it feel ta finally be a man, Hic?" Thorfinn shouted from across the table over the noise, his words slurring from the copious amount of alcohol.

"I can't fuckin feel anythin!" Hiccup yelled back, his body not responding the way he wanted it to.

"I know, isn' it great?"

"Gods you two are so drunk right now." Heather said from Hiccup's right. Clearly she had much better restraint than either of them.

"FUCK YEAH WE ARE!" Dagur roared from across the table from Heather, lifting his tankard in the air and spilling beer everywhere.

"How are you not drunk right now?" Hiccup said turning to Heather.

"Because unlike some people, " She said, glaring at Dagur, "I know my limits."

"NO!" Dagur yelled, slamming his fist on the table. "Its cuz the last time ya got drunk, you tried to kiss Eret, and then ya passed out into a bush. So now you refuse to drink."

Her face immediately turned red. "I was not that drunk."

"Yeah ya fuckin were." Dagur said with a drunken giggle. "Just ask Eret."

They all turned to look at Eret, who was currently passed out into his plate of food on the other side of Thorfinn.

"Nevermind." Dagur muttered.

Hiccup turned back to look at Heather. "I don't think I can imagine you drunk." He stared at her for a good thirty seconds. "Nope, nothin."

"Trust me, you're not missing much." She muttered, still blushing slightly.

"Night's still young." Hiccup said, pushing his tankard towards her.

"Why, do you wanna see me drunk?"

Before Hiccup could respond, Dagur leaned over the table and shoved the tankard into her hands. 

"C'mon." He whined. "We're all havin fun."

Heather sighed before grabbing the tankard and lifting it up to her lips. "Y'all are gonna be the death of me." She said, a grin spreading across her lips as she took a sip.

Half an hour later, she could barely sit up straight.

"How the fuck did ya manage to capture a fuckin' dragon." Heather yelled, she and Hiccup somehow conscious despite the obscene amount alcohol. Dagur had joined Eret in passing out into his food, and Thorfinn was currently retching in the corner.

"Did I not tell ya this already?" Hiccup yelled back. The food hall was still somehow ridiculously loud despite the dwindling number of conscious and functioning people.

"No. Yes? I don't fuckin' remember." She muttered. 

"Shot 'im down to impress my dad. And a girl. Couldn't kill him though, cuz i was scared shitless. So I let him go."

"And he stayed?" She asked incredulously, taking another sip.

"Nope." Hiccup said with a grin. "Tried to run but he was hurt. Fixed his tail and helped him fly, so then he stayed."

"That's both the bravest and dumbest shit i've ever heard."

Hiccup somehow laughed and hiccuped at the same time. "That about sums up my early teen years. Oh and scrawny. I was so tiny back then."

"You? Tiny?"

"Oh yeah." Hiccup said slowly, with a nod. "I was shorter than Thorfinn and maybe a third of the width. Could barely lift a sword to sharpen it, let alone swing one."

"How'd you manage to take down a dragon then?" Heather asked. "A Night Fury at that."

Hiccup shrugged, looking down at his tankard. "I got lucky. I knew I wasn't good enough to fight dragons. Never was gonna be. So instead I built things."

"Things?"

"Things. Contraptions. Weapons. Whatever you wanna call them. I built machines that could fight the dragons for me, Or at least they were supposed to. Usually they'd end up blowing up the forge or some unlucky viking's house, so I mostly built them in secret, using my little free time in the forge to scrounge for materials and put pieces together. The one that eventually shot Toothless down shot bolas into the air. The only one that actually worked."

"Huh" Muttered Heather, looking very impressed. "Doesn't sound useless to me. I can't imagine any other viking pulling that off."

"Yeah well. Tell that to my father." Hiccup said. "He thought they were useless, unseemly of a viking."

There was a sudden silence between them, as Hiccup continued taking sips from his tankard. 

"What forge.' Heather asked suddenly.

"What?"

"What forge." She repeated. "You said you build them in a forge."

"Oh. I uh, I used to be apprenticed at our forge. Under a man named Gobber." He gazed across the room, picturing the blond man. "Good man. Missing a few limbs but a good man."

"Why didn't you just work for him then?" Heather asked, putting down her tankard and staring at him. "I mean surely being a blacksmith is a respected position for a viking, you know, given the stabbing and the fighting and all that. Sure, it's no fighting dragons but it's still very important."

Hiccup chuckled grimly. "Clearly you've never been to Berk. Killing dragon is the goal for berkians. Any other job is infinitely less important for them. Even Gobber only began smithing once he had lost two of his limbs. And even then he still goes out and fights when he can."

Heather opened her mouth to say something before being interrupted by Hiccup.

"Not to mention, nothing except the best could ever be expected for the chief's son."

Heather's mouth dropped open. "You're the son of the chief of Berk?"

Hiccup nodded slowly, not meeting her eyes.

"That…" She muttered softly. "That explains so much." She opened her mouth to speak but was yet again interrupted by Hiccup.

"What about you?" He said, turning to face her. "How did you and Dagur end up her."

Her face suddenly hardened, her eyes no longer meeting his.

"That's… it doesn't matter. It's a long story."

"We have time." Hiccup began to say, but was quickly interrupted by the slamming of a tankard, and the screeching of the bench being pushed away from the table.

"I should really get Dagur home." Heather said, beginning to walk around to the other side of the table.

"Yeah." Hiccup said, standing up to join her. "Here let me-"

"I got it." Heather said coldly, grabbing Dagur and hoisting him up and placing him over her shoulder. "You should probably deal with Eret and Thorfinn."

She walked back around the table and past Hiccup, barely looking at him as she made her way to the door. Hiccup turned back to look at the other two men, now both passed out. Hearing the door to the hall screech open and then slam shut, he sighed before making his way over to the two men. 

"Shit." Hiccup hissed, as a bead of blood began to appear on his finger.

Sucking on his finger, he bent down and picked up the needle from where it had fallen, and got back to work. Grabbing the stiffened piece of leather, he held it back up to the mannequin and continued sewing it to the other pieces. This basic leather armor would serve as the base for his brand new, and hopefully successful, dragon scale armor.

Finally pinning on the last piece, he took a step back to look at his work. The chest plate itself was made of several overlapping plates that met at the center, before also connecting with the collar meant to protect his neck. The pauldrons were each a single piece, but they then overlapped with another piece that would cover his upper arm. 

He still had to make the braces and helmet, and none of it was covered in the scales yet, which he was still slowly collecting from Toothless as he shed them, but it was coming along. He had also decided to use his current flight armor for everything including and below his stomach, but he still had to cover it with scales. 

Pushing the mannequin to the side, he sat down at the closest desk, and pulled the bust in front of him. Putting on his gloves, he grabbed the closest piece of freshly steamed leather, and began pressing it into shape on the bust, watching as it cooled and hardened into the proper shape. He continued this process, until he was satisfied that each piece of leather was in proper shape, before again grabbing his knife. Having already drawn where the eye holes would go, he now carefully punctured the leather, before working his knife in deeper, sawing at the leather. Once he was satisfied with the shape and size of both eye sockets, he lined up all the leather pieces in front of him, and grabbing the needle and thread.

As he sewed all of the pieces together, he was so concentrated in his work, that he didn't even notice anyone enter the forge. He was so entranced, that when they finally spoke up, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Hey, Hiccup."

Hiccup wheeled around, nearly dropping the needle again. "H-Heather! Hey! Sorry, I didn't notice you come in."

"You're fine. How is it coming along?"

"Great actually!" Hiccup said, gesturing at the mannequin where the rest of the armor currently sat. "The leather is forming even better than I thought it would, and since I'm not completely making the bottom half from scratch, it's really going much faster than I thought it would. I'm really hoping the dragon scales allow for much better mobility and range of motion than plate, while still offering more protection than chain mail. I'm kinda basing my designs off of scale mail, but hopefully Toothless' scales will be much less brittle and absorb-"

He paused as he noticed Heather staring at him, one eyebrow raised. "Sorry, I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

Heather merely chuckled. There was somewhat of an awkward silence before Heather finally spoke up.

"Actually Hiccup, I wanted to talk about… what happened at the hall a couple days ago." She said, her voice growing quieter.

"What?" Hiccup said confused. 

Heather sighed and leaned against the desk. "You asked about how Dagur and I got here and… and I kinda walked out on you."

"Heather it's fine."

"No but I owe you an explanation at least."

"Heather." Hiccup said, putting down the needle and spinning on his stool to face her. "Trust me, everyone and their damn mother who joined this guard has their secrets. I don't care how you and Dagur got here, and you don't have to tell me."

Heather sighed before a soft smile appeared on her face. "Thanks Hiccup."

She was about to speak again when suddenly the door to the forge slammed open, causing both of them to jump. 

"Hiccup." Eret called, stepping through the door frame. "Can you tell Dagur to stop-" He stopped once he saw Heather standing next to him. "Sorry, was I interrupting something?"

Hiccup and Heather immediately both began frantically denying anything, trying to prevent any misunderstandings but it was too late. A large gasp came from the door as Dagur stepped out from behind Eret's large frame, a toothy grin on his face. Stretching out both arms he made his way over to Heather. 

"Heath I'm so proud of you!" He said a little too loudly, wrapping his arms around his sister and lifting her off the ground. "You chose a great one!"

"Dagur, we're not…" Heather wheezed, trying to interrupt.

"And you!" Dagur called, dropping his sister and turning to Hiccup, grabbing both his shoulders. "This makes you my brother now!"

Hiccup sighed, removing Dagur's hands from his shoulders. "Dagur, nothing is happening here. Heather was just here to apologize for a mistake."

"A likely story." Dagur grinned, a sly expression spreading across his face. "I know what happens when a man and a woman spend time together alone."

Hiccup practically facepalmed as Heather frantically tried to get her brother to understand. 

"I'm gonna need some air." Hiccup muttered, making his way to the front door, Toothless bounding at his heels. "C'mon bud."

"Brother, please don't go!" Dagur called after him, causing Hiccup to actually facepalm this time. This was gonna make things rough. 

"Three years." Stoick said. Holding out his hand.

"Aye. Three years." Big Bertha agreed, grabbing it firmly. 

Astrid watched as Stoick said farewell to each of the Chiefs who had come for the thing. Each one was now leaving to make their way home with the little supplies they had brought with, and the even fewer Berk had been able to give them.

"Do you think we can make it three years?" Fishlegs said.

"We have no choice." Astrid muttered. Stoick had been able to come to an agreement with most of the other tribes. They would spend the next three years preparing as much as as they could muster, and then they would make on final, desperate attempt for the nest. If they could make it to then.

"We're just going to have to do what we can." Astrid said, as the last boat, the Bog Burglars, pushed off from the dock and began sailing away. 

"Do you think we can actually destroy the nest if we make it there?" Fishlegs asked.

"How am I supposed to know? I've never been there." She said with a shrug.

"Surely you've at least thought about it a little bit, right?"

"Never been much of a thinker." Astrid admitted.

"Hiccup was."

"Yeah and look where that got him."

Fishlegs didn't respond.