Author's Note: I want to bring to your attention that this is the first time I ever tried to write a fictional text in English. I am not a native English-speaker and would be therefore very happy if you could spend your time telling me how to improve my language skills.

What can you expect from this story you may ask? First I want to say that Backroad's "Good Thing You're Already Dead" inspired me for this first chapter but other author's work will influence the yet to be written chapters. As there is to be seen in the description the fight in the arena, supposed to be Hiccup's reward for being the best in training, finishes worse than in the film - Hiccup dies. In the upcoming chapters the people of Berk will have to face the future while I am concentrating on Toothless' and Stoick's deeds.

I certainly will add new features for Toothless.

I will work on the first couple of chapters and see if people are interested in this story and than decide whether to further spend my time on it or not.

Go watch the movie until Hiccup has to face the Monstrous Nightmare in the arena or just jump ahead if you know it by heart.

Last but not least: I do not own any characters in this and they belong to their rightful owner!


Chapter 1 - Reward

Hiccup stood in the arena not so ready to kill his first dragon. The whole village had gathered around the arena, to watch him being the awesome Dragon-Slayer they thought him to be. Why could not Astrid have been the one to win the training? She really had wanted to win, she had been so angry with him, she had even followed him into the forest discovering his secret – Toothless. She was the only one in the entire village to know about their relationship. Hiccup had befriended a dragon and was now supposed to kill one. He could not do it. He simply did not want to do it.

Astrid stood in the gate smiling reassuringly at him. His father hold a speech but he did not listen. Hiccup stood there, only a small knife in one hand and a shield in the other. Gobber finally released the Monstrous Nightmare which than crawled into the arena. Its eyes were focused on Hiccup who first dropped his knife, afterwards his shield and at last his helmet.

"I am not like them." he whispered to the Monstrous Nightmare.

His father got curious, stood up and leaned further into the arena, watching what was going on through eye slits.

Hiccup's gaze met his father's. "We don't have to kill them. They're not who we think they are!" He than held out his hand for the dragon to sniff at it. The dragon was supposed to be one of the most dangerous of all species, but a Night Fury was the most feared of them all and still he had managed to become friends with one. He had nearly earned the Monstrous Nightmare's trust when Stoick got impatient, grabbed his hammer and hit the iron fence surrounding the top of the arena, causing a thunderous boom inside the pit.

"What are you doing Hiccup?" he shouted.

All the noise disturbed the Monstrous Nightmare who than attacked Hiccup. The teen turned around, tried to grab his shield, failed, and ran away screaming. He was only saved by Astrid throwing her hammer and hitting the dragon on his snout and by this means splitting its attention. Meanwhile Stoick worked his way through the gasping masses to the gate. He opened it, gesturing for Astrid to get out of harms way. He tried to get through to his son, but Hiccup was busy saving himself. Stoick grabbed the next best item he could get his hands on – Hiccup's shield – and threw it at the dragon, missing.

In that moment the sky darkened, a whistling noise, like the wind howling through every hole in a house, could be heard. The iron net covering the arena exploded and smoke filled the pit. The villagers just saw purple light orbs explode and when the smoke lifted the Monstrous Nightmare was cowering unconscious at the wall. Hiccup stood in the middle of the arena facing another dragon, not even flinching.

"Night Fury!" Gobber shouted. The whole village gasped in shock yet again.

Stoick roared into action, swinging a hammer while running to attack the beast. The dragon turned around, snarling at Stoick. It then simply shot the hammer out of Stoick's hand and returned its attention to Hiccup, its gaze flickering over his body.

Fear was still written into Stoick's face as he grabbed another weapon – an axe this time – to attack the devil again. Not fear for is own life nor for the village, but fear for Hiccup. This time Stoick did not announce himself, he just ran to the dragon.

In that moment the Monstrous Nightmare bellowed as he became conscious again. The Night Fury's attention turned to the other dragon so Stoick had no one to stop him. Hiccup screamed, "Toothless!" The dragon turned around to see the chief charge at him and shot the second weapon out of Stoick's hand. Or he at least tried to, Stoick's grip of the weapon was so firm, he was thrown off his feet and collided with the wall, the breath knocked out of him. Shock was written in his face. Had his very own son warned the dragon of his attack?

While the Night Fury's attention was still on him the Monstrous Nightmare stood up again and bathed Hiccup in flames. Stoick was condemned to watch without being able to interrupt the dragon. He had to watch his son's death passively. The Night Fury roared in outrage, his toxic-green eyes glowing, turned around to face the Monstrous Nightmare and fired his purple orbs of energy rapidly blasting the other dragon to smithereens. At this demonstration of pure power the villagers awakened from their state of shock and all jumped into the arena to attack and bring down the devil.

Toothless fought like he never had fought before. He still did not want to realize Hiccup's death. He still thought Hiccup was alive and needed his help. He still felt the urge to defend Hiccup, his best and only friend in this otherwise lonely world. He saw all the Vikings coming at him but did not realize any details. He just fought and fought.

A group of Vikings charged at him with a battlecry and he turned around quickly, unfolding his wing behind them so they were trapped and then shoved them into the wall. From behind another group of Vikings jumped into the pit with an ear ringing battlecry and Toothless turned around, rapidly shooting again, until none of them had any more weapons in their hands and ran away screaming. Another single Viking had sneaked up from behind and in a split-second decision Toothless swiped him with his tail so he flew out of the arena. The fighting went on for a long time, Toothless held his ground all the time, reminding himself that Hiccup would not want the humans to be killed or severely injured.

Finally he had defeated every single one of them. He stood panting, his gaze sweeping over all the Vikings littering the ground, they were moaning or unconscious. No, he had not defeated everyone, that female Viking Astrid, the only human besides Hiccup he knew, stood in the gate with wide eyes staring at him. "Toothless." she whispered. He flicked his head and his eyes were no longer ablaze. The rage had left him and was replaced by regret and grief. He turned, sat down and took a look at Hiccup's body. It was totally charred, only his face untouched, the hair singed and shock written in his staring eyes. Toothless carefully nuzzled Hiccup's head to remember his scent but he could not find it. The scent of coal was too strong. If dragons could cry, he would have done so immediately.

Some Vikings stirred, stood up and grabbed their weapons, reluctantly nearing the hunched dragon. Astrid ran to Toothless' side, blocking the Vikings that tried to reach him.

Stoick was totally confused. Had his whole village of formidable dragon fighters been defeated by a single dragon, although probably the most powerful of them all? Had Hiccup befriended this dragon? And what was Astrid doing, covering that monster? And was that expression on the dragon's face grief? No, he could not give in to such thoughts. Dragons were their enemies, had forever been and would forever be. A dragon had killed his son, his treacherous son, yet his son.

In that very moment Stoick had decided to stand up and do something about the situation but the Elder appeared on top of the arena and sprang, to the shock of all attending Vikings, into the pit and faced the dragon without any hesitation. The dragon raised his gaze and both, Elder and beast, stared at each other while the time stretched. It seemed as if a silent conversation was going on between the two when, finally, the dragon stood up and retreated to the edge of the pit, leaving room for the Elder to examine Hiccup.


Author's Note: I would like to thank you for reading this first chapter. I would be enthrilled if you could spend your time and review this, tell me how you like it and how bad my English is.

Thanks to JoyRose10 for correction some of my grammatical mistakes!