Disclaimer: How to train your dragon belongs to its respective owners.
Prologue
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third was possibly the worst Viking ever in existence, even worst than Fowleye the Wimpy and Croaknose the Scared. It was not a lack of courage that was not the issue. He had quite an unhealthy dose of that, thank you very much. Nor was it his physic, albeit he was a little on the lean side for a Viking but the recent loss of his right eye more than compensated for it (War wounds were extremely popular in Viking society, especially amongst the women). No, Hiccup simply lacked the quintessential philosophy that lay at the heart of every good mead chugging, axe grinding sea warrior.
He did not hate Dragons.
Not even the little ones.
And he didn't have an overwhelming urge to go out and rape and pillage the nearest village either. Village pillaging in his opinion was the wasteful destruction of ethnic cultures and the raping didn't go down too well with the ladies, or the men on the receiving end for that matter.
This disdain for all things Viking probably stemmed from that fact that Hiccup was a rather intelligent individual. In Viking terms, this meant that he used his head for things other than breaking rocks. Useful things like drawing and algebra and metal work. Maybe if he had been born into another race, his gift would have been nurtured and encouraged but in the world of brawn and battle, intelligence was not held in high regard. Mainly because it led to soft mushy feelings such as acceptance, compassion and understanding.
It was because of those undesirable qualities (compiled with the unhealthy dose of courage mentioned earlier) that Hiccup found himself in his current position; More then twenty thousand feet in the air, battling through the snow covered mountain with his dragon friend, Toothless as they searched for, you guessed it, dragons.
Hiccup gasped for breath. It wasn't just human life that found it difficult to survive at high altitudes, the air itself seemed to be struggling. Up ahead, a delighted Toothless bounced through the snow, completely unaffected by the extreme conditions. The man scowled jealously and shuddered in his furs. For a reptile who spent long winters curled up in a volcano, the dragon was adapting remarkably well to the cold.
Roof Top mountain was part of the wider and unimaginatively named Snowy Caps Mountain Ridge located right on the border between Turfan and the Middle Kingdom. It was a barren godforsaken wonderland where if you weren't killed by the avalanches or blinded by the glare of the sun, you still have a good chance of loosing half your foot to frost bite. Extreme snow storms and thin air meant that it could not be cleared safely by flight so Hiccup was forced to the tackle the monster by foot.
He pressed onwards towards the cave near the summit, idly calculating the likelihood of returning to the bottom with all ten toes still intact. The probability was extremely low. Especially after he'd taken the Lama's advice against travelling on Dragon back. Human bodies, changing altitudes and high speed did not mix well.
"You all right boy?" he wheezed as Toothless bounded towards him.
The black skinned reptile peered down at him with unimpressed and pointedly nudged the man with his head.
"I'm fine... Just... a... little breathless. Odin, look at that view..."
The great exploding white of the Snowy Caps spilt the sky around them. From where he stood, the mountain peaks looked as if they might burst through the earth's atmosphere and out into the heavens above.
"It really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?" he sighed, feeling a little refreshed. "Chin Tu better be right about there being dragons up here, otherwise I'm gonna drive an icicle through his nose."
The dragon snorted sceptically. According to local myth, Roof Top was home to the celebrated and legendary Five Claw Lopslang. Hiccup remained optimistic that such a creature existed despite evidence pointing to the contrary. He hadn't seen one tell tale scorch mark, large dropping or mauled cow carcass in twenty thousand feet. And for a beast that was rumoured to be the size of the Forbidden Kingdom it would be highly unlikely that the droppings of such a dragon would go unnoticed.
Hiccup blinked a few times just to check that he hadn't been deceived. Lack of oxygen did funny things to one's brain after a certain amount of time. Nope. They weren't. Beside him Toothless was staring at the reptile with an equal look of disappointment. They had finally made it to the cave at long last and thankfully found the Five Claw Lopslang, or what Hiccup assumed to be the Lopslang anyway. From the cave floor, the bug-eyed reptile dragon blinked up at him.
"It's tiny."
Toothless grunted as he continued to stare. Hiccup had never seen anything so small in his life. So much for the Forbidden City. There was no way in Hel you'd be able to find the droppings of this dragon. It looked like a scaly bush baby with wings on its back and a long snout. Big blue eyes blinked again and Hiccup resisted the overwhelming urge to cuddle it.
"Kinda disappointing don't you think? I mean, all that way for this?"
Judging by the dumbfounded expression on the Night Fury's face, Toothless didn't disagreed. Hiccup sighed and unloaded his back pack. He couldn't really complain. They had just found possibly the rarest (and smallest) dragon in existence in the remotest cave location on the earth. At least the view had been worth it.
The curious Five Claw sniffed at Hiccup's feet. He was probably the first human the little thing had ever encountered.
"Do you like dried meat, little fella?"
A large set of pointy teeth extended in its answer. Hiccup tossed Toothless some rations before leaning back against the wall with his notebook.
"The Elusive Five-Claw Lopslang." He carefully wrote the words "to scale" beside the quick sketch of the dragon. "Thirty centimetres in size including its long spindly tail. Wingspan roughly- OI! None of that!"
From inside the mouth of his backpack, the tiny dragon swallowed two scraps of meat. Hiccup felt his eye twitch in annoyance. They didn't have many rations left after their three day hike from the monastery. Toothless growled and it retreated hastily to the crook beneath Hiccup's legs.
"-Carnivore. Most likely eats small birds and rodents. Anything else you wanna tell us?"
There was a loud burp and a massive green flame erupted from the Five Claw.
He arched an eyebrow. "O-kaaay! Small but extremely fire powered. Hmm, mythical Lopslangs supposedly breath green flames too. I'm glad to see that there's some basis for the rumours."
One thing was certain, he would never bore of studying dragons. In seven short years he had seen some spectacular beasts; Like the Quozalcoatl, who created beautiful smoke sculptures with its nostrils and the shy rainbow Gokin Aoqin, one of the few sea dragons left. And then there had been the graceful Hakku from the far eastern islands that swam through the air with no wings. Dragons fascinated him. He unabashedly admitted that he could sit and watch one preen itself for hours. Aside from the variety in shape and size, every one had their own unique personality. However, like humans not all of them were good. The larger the dragon, the more likely it was to try and eat you. His missing eye was homage to that fact.
But Hiccup hadn't just met dragons on his travels. There had been humans as well. Humans of all different shapes and sizes and colours of skin. With great, bizarre, wonderful cultures so alien to his own that he didn't even know if a simple smile would be taken as an offensive. For the most part the people had been great. In the warm countries to the West they had thought that he was some sort of god when he landed. Where as in the dark stuff forests of the South, they had affectionately nicknamed him the "White Devil" before trying to sell him to a Turkish slaver. Good times.
What interested him the most, was peoples attitudes towards dragons. The Middle Kingdom for example revered them as gods, with the emperor taking a now inaccurate drawing of a Five Claw Lopslang as his symbol. Others held a more Viking philosophy but Hiccup liked to think that Toothless had altered their points of view a little.
He truly did want to believe that one day humans and dragons would live a peaceful coexistence but as long as people like his father existed, they probably never would.
The led of his pencil bit into the page at the thought and Toothless turned his head accusingly.
"What? I was leaning too hard!"
The dragon narrowed its eyes. The damn reptile was too perceptive for his own good. Hiccup sighed and touched his leather eye patch with his fingers. Admittedly he did miss Berk. He missed the nine months of snow and three of hale. He missed sharpening the swords in Gobber's Smithery. Hel, he even missed being told that he was a useless nuisance.
When he ran away all those years ago, it hadn't been because of Toothless but because he was too much of a coward to stand up for what he knew was right. But now, undoubtedly because of him, many innocent dragons and people had lost their lives since.
There was a soft purr beside him. Hiccup smiled weakly at the tiny dragon rubbing up against his leg. Some day he'd put it right. He had to put it right.
A/N: Please note that I use the British way of spelling. Yes I know, its awkward and there's an annoying amount of extra letters etc. Feel free to review. Thanks.