Dang, I really should have worked on my other stories... Oh well! I thought this up one day when I started to wonder about all the different kinds of dragons, and I thought about the Chinese dragon, which is super cool looking. So I made this, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD or A:tLA, and I make no money from these.
This is set four years after the the last episode of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and two years after HTTYD2.
There once was a series of islands and various, small countries in the far north that used to trade with the Air Nomads, they were especially close allies with a certain small island named Berk. The airbending people were the only ones that were able to maneuver through the harsh winds that surrounded the Viking tribes, and that was only remotely possible through their air bison. Any ship that tried to enter that corner of the sea would find themselves sunk by vicious sea-serpents, or attacked by the fire-breathing dragons that were also indigenous to that region.
These dragons were not the long-bodied and whiskered reptiles the rest of the world knew of, no, these were more like lizards with wings. Extremely dangerous, fire-breathing, boiling water spitting, plasma-blasting, terrifying, demented lizards with wings. And the Vikings were in an eternal war with the creatures due to stubbornness issues. The Nomads didn't approve of all this violence, so after spending years and years trying to unsuccessfully get the idea of peace into the burly islanders thick skulls, they decided to cut ties with their once allies.
So the airbenders regretfully put an end to their trade with all of the Viking Tribes, and a few decades later, the Air Nomads were nothing but a legend told in bedtime stories to the forgotten islands in the far north. And much the same happened with anyone that lived outside of the islands.
Until the Fire Nation stole all the historical documents when they wiped out the airbenders.
Fortunately for the Vikings, the Air Nomads were very thorough in their writings, so there was a lot of paperwork to get through before Fire Lord Azulon would have found the maps to the island tribes. And later on, Ozai was much too busy taking over the world and therefore could not spare the time to check over century old scrolls. Fire Lord Zuko, on the other hand, was more than happy to look through the antique files. Boy, was he surprised by what he found.
There were possibly more dragons than the two that his uncle had helped hide, but he still wasn't so sure if this was entirely a good thing. And the papers were outdated so Zuko didn't know for sure if these islands still existed or not, or even if the natives were still fighting against the dragons. The young Fire Lord had a feeling that Aang would try his best to put an end to the violence by marching over there and talking about peace and love and... whatever else the eccentric Avatar did to people to change their minds.
But that may be just what Zuko needed to solve this, because these islanders should be reintroduced to the rest of the world. Along with several other small countries in that same undisturbed corner of the ocean. So he called his tactical genius of a wife, Mai, into his study to formulate the best way to inform the little group of world-savers about this new knowledge he had just procured.
His wife of four years walked gracefully into the room despite her extended belly. Zuko smiled at her, "Mai, it's nice to see you." She rolled her eyes at her husband.
"I saw you just this morning, Zuko, so don't act like that, you handsome idiot." He merely grinned at the drawled words. The Fire Lord loved his wife, and knowing that in a few short months they'd be parents caused him to love her even more. He just started to drift off while thinking about his future child when Mai waved a delicate hand in front of his face. "Earth to Zuko, hello? You seem a bit distracted, did something interesting finally happen?" She asked in a bored tone, yawning slightly. It was getting late, and Mai had started to feel tired.
"Yes, I mean maybe, or possibly. Yeah… well there might be a whole island continent that contains dragons. That seems interesting, right?" His wife just stared at him. Zuko sighed. "The only problem is that we can't just go check out of the blue if these places exist or not; people are still very paranoid when it comes to the Fire Nation. We'll need to do it diplomatically. " He said seriously, and and his wife raised a well groomed brow.
"You mean you're going to bring in the Avatar to deal with this." She deadpanned.
"...How'd you know?"
"Who else would it be?" Mai drawled.
Zuko coughed, "yeah, I see your point. But a Fire Nation official will need to oversee the escapade; since it'd be over our water." He watched, warily, as her eyes narrowed.
"You better not be planning to go personally." He opened his mouth to reply, but she kept going. "I know you feel responsible to do every little thing thing that concerns your country, and that's good. But you're going to work yourself into the ground If you carry on like that. Plus, think of our child, you can't just leave before he's born, what if you are gone for a while and miss our baby's birth. What if you get caught and…" His wife couldn't finish the sentence before she burst into tears, which sent Zuko into a panic; he didn't even notice how she had referred to their baby as a boy despite saying she had always wanted a girl.
He wrapped his arms around Mai, and hummed softly as he held her. Zuko was sure this outburst was because of all the hormones involved in the pregnancy, he had heard something similar when Katara had come to the palace a few months ago to congratulate them. "Don't worry, the preparations will take several weeks at the least, and from past experience, I have found I don't die easily." He smiled wryly at the beautiful woman he was extremely lucky to call his wife.
"I know, I know," she sniffled, her tears had soaked into his shirt. "But you have awful luck, and life would be very boring without you." Mai had stopped crying by now, and wiped away the remaining moisture around her eyes with her long sleeves. Zuko turned her head so he could look her in the eyes, he smiled gently at her for a moment.
"I don't think you're giving the Avatar very much credit, because I know he'll make sure that nothing happens to any of his friends on this little adventure." Mai sighed and leaned back against him, and he ran his hand absently over her growing stomach. "So, what do you say? Want to help me plan something interesting, and it also has the added bonus of bossing me around for a while." His wife snorted, and had most likely rolled her eyes, but she wasn't facing him so he couldn't tell for sure.
"I get to boss you around anytime I want, you pansy." Mai sighed as Zuko ran his fingers through her hair, "of course I'll help you, we're married, so we have to do things like this together." She reached back and jabbed her fingers into his forehead, ignoring his yelp, she continued, "but I will not be happy if you end up getting your idiot self killed. So don't even think about dying, or I'll kill you."
"That sounds acceptable." He wisely agreed. Zuko sat his chin on top of Mai's head as she went on about all the things he would need for his journey.
One week later the Gaang was assembled in the Fire Nation Palace. Katara was chatting with Mai about the Fire Lady's due date. Sokka and Suki discussed plans for their upcoming wedding, Toph was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, and Aang was trying to get Zuko to hurry up and tell them why he brought them all together. After the fifth time deflecting the airbending teenager's questions, the scarred man sighed.
"Alright, Aang." Zuko stood up and got everyone's attention. "I'm sure you're all wondering what horrible thing must have happened to cause me to invite you all here."
"And here I had thought you missed our delightful company." Sokka muttered sarcastically, and the Fire Lord's eye twitched.
"As I was saying, I recently found some documents that could possibly pertain to the location to more than one unknown civilization. I need your help to find out if the files I had found contain any truth to them. This will not be an easy task." Zuko stopped his explanation to gauge the reactions of the listeners. Sokka's mind was in overdrive, Katara had been nodding her head as he spoke; Suki and Toph were grinning in excitement, and Aang just looked confused.
"Um… what?" The tattooed teen asked; scratching his head.
"What Sparky means is that we're going off on a glorious adventure, right Sparky?" Toph cut in, and she pointed at Zuko for emphasis. Said man sighed, and ran a hand down his face; sometimes his friends were too much for him.
"Yes… we are going on an adventure, of sorts." Zuko replied slowly, trying not to twitch at Toph's victorious smirk. "There are also two things you should know about this; one, is that they speak a different language, and two, these islands contain dragons." One… two… the Fire Lord counted in his head, and three…
"Wait, what?!"
"I thought the dragons were extinct!"
"Sounds like fun."
Aang, Sokka, and Toph exclaimed respectively. Right on schedule, Zuko thought to himself. The rest of the group waited patiently for the man to either continue the discussion, or to admit to pulling some kind of prank. But the latter was unlikely, because anyone who actually knew Zuko could tell he was a pretty serious guy. He decided against informing Sokka about what happened during the trip he and Aang took to help find their inner fire, Zuko had no wish to be hunted down by those people. Mai waved her hand to urge her husband to keep going, and he complied.
"Yes, there are more dragons. These are a different species than the ones we commonly hear about, but they are still the fire-breathing reptiles we associate with the word dragon. The journey over there will be the hard part, the sea alone is filled with hazardous animals that could tear apart any ships that get close." Even the steel Fire Nation ones would not stand a chance alone.
"What about Appa? We could just fly there on him." Suggested the airbender with a shrug, but Zuko immediately shook his head.
"As much as the bison would be useful, there'd be too much travel over water, with next to no land to stop and rest. Plus there's dragons that would not hesitate to attack a large mammal like Appa as prey."
"So how do you suppose we get there? Teleportation?" Toph snorted.
"We're going to use a ship." The young Fire Lord said simply.
Sokka raised an eyebrow in thought, "so you're implying that by having a waterbender on board, we'd have a chance at defending ourselves from whatever scary things inhabit those waters."
"Exactly, and we can bring Appa as well now that we'll have a place he could land. He would make great back up if we run into serious trouble. Now, any ideas about the language barrier? There were some textbooks on Norse in the files, but I'm not sure who should be the translators on this mission." Zuko asked his team, this was something he'd need to work on before they left on their voyage, or it could be very troublesome.
"I think we should all learn a little of the language, at least. You can never be too careful." Suki answered, her head rested on her hand. Sokka nodded in agreement with his fiancé.
"That sounds good, but we still have a lot of preparation to make before we depart. So let's get started." The Fire Lord smiled as they all argued over who got to do which jobs. He shared a look with his wife, and he promised himself that he would do his best to make the world a more welcoming place for his new child.
On the island of Berk, the young Chief looked at the blue, cloudless sky, and he thought about his life so far. In the past two years he's lost his father, but gained his mother. Amidst the repairs being done on Berk after the attack, he found out that his village was not the only island that was damaged because of Drago Bludvist's thirst for power. The other Viking Tribes that survived in these parts had been attacked as well. Hiccup had set out to free them from the deceased mad man's soldiers that kept them in line.
With the help of Berk's dragons, he succeeded. But that accomplishment had unseen consequences. After saving the lives of the Viking's from the other villages, he had been made some sort of unofficial Grand Chief. And since he had gained the ultimate respect of the other islands, they often dumped their workload onto his shoulders. Not that this situation wasn't a wonderful advantage in trade alone, it was just that the sheer amount of paperwork Hiccup had to do daily that made him rethink saving the other clans.
Which was why he was hiding in the clearing he had learned dragon taming from Toothless in. Very peaceful, and no Vikings bothering him with every little problem. Hiccup sighed and closed his eyes in contentment, this was what he needed to clear his head. Just then a thick tail smacked into him, and he opened his eyes to spot his first friend. "Hey bud, did you miss me?" Toothless stuffed his head into Hiccup's side and chuffed, making the man laugh. "Okay, okay, I'll get up and fly with you!" He was still chuckling as he stood up, the Chief swayed a bit before steadying himself on the Night Fury. "Alright, let's go!"
Hiccup then hooked his metal leg into the harness, and he and Toothless grinned at each other before they abruptly took off into the air. Rapidly, they soared into the clouds, going so high the air felt thin. When the human and dragon deemed they had gone high enough, Toothless slowed down and glided leisurely. Hiccup sighed, nothing made him feel more free than the wind at his fingertips. Sometimes he wondered if this was where he really belonged; nothing but his dragon and the clouds. Not tied down by any tedious position, and no paperwork whatsoever.
But then he'd remember Astrid, and how his father had sacrificed his life for his son. And he wanted to make them proud, he wanted to make his mother proud, and he wanted to show the Viking Tribes that he was worthy of their respect. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III decided that he would be remembered as the best Grand Chief in Viking history.
After a several more minutes of enjoying the high breeze he turned Toothless around to head back home. As Berk came into view, Hiccup spared one last glance to the skies, and couldn't help but wonder what else was out there. Then he shook his head, it wasn't like he would ever find out, Chief Hiccup was staying right where he was. No matter what.
The Night Fury landed gracefully on the street in front of his house, just in time to spot his fuming girlfriend. His girlfriend who was currently holding an ax in a very tight grip. Hiccup and Toothless tried to back away to preserve their lives, but the homicidal woman turned her twitching gaze upon them.
"Where were you? I was just looking for you, and you went flying?" The blond hissed as she noticed his wind-whipped hair. "Do you even realize how much paperwork you have on your desk? Let me give you a guess, it's in the triple digits. You might want to get on that, oh, and the Bog Burglar clan wants you to mediate some argument about stolen soup or something." She calmed slightly after she watched him collapse onto the ground in a defeated lump. "Some tips to getting your work done would include not trying to suffocate yourself by smothering your face in a dirty road." Astrid said with a smirk, and she crossed her arms over her chest as she continued staring at his limp form on the ground.
"Bu' iss sho harrd. I can' do thish anymor'." Hiccup muttered into the dirt. At his girlfriend's exasperated sigh he turned his head to the side, but still wouldn't get up, despite Toothless' forceful nudges. "I could get it done a lot faster with your help, oh great and powerful maiden of beauty and fearlessness." He grinned up at Astrid, who shook her head tiredly at the pathetic, dirt covered man.
"Fine. But only this once, and I'm not going anywhere near the soup conflict; Bog Burglars are infamous pick pockets." The warrior woman warned him, but they both knew she would help him again if he needed it. Hiccup jumped up, suddenly full of energy. "You dork," she laughed out as he led her into his living room by the arm, before he bowed dramatically and kissed her hand.
"Welcome to my humble abode, fair lady." Hiccup said with a loving smile, and he led her to his overflowing desk. "Aw, man, this just depresses me." The papers were taking over the small, but sturdy wooden table with a vengeance. And there wasn't even enough space for him to bang his head in despair. Pity. Hiccup sighed heavily as he got to work, Astrid helped him by sorting the papers by how urgent they were and what clan had sent them.
As he signed and stamped each finished document, his mind drifted off to what lands and people the rest of the world held. "Hey Astrid, what do think could be out there?"
The blond beside him shrugged and continued her sorting. "Who knows, I only hope that whatever else is out there is something we can take."
"But what if there are whole different cultures, with new ways of life, and what if we met some of them? Some of the few old documented texts that didn't get destroyed over the years describe people who can control the very elements! Wouldn't that be amazing?" The man said energetically, and paused his scribbling in thought. Astrid smacked him on the back of his head.
"Those are just bedtime stories to put kids to sleep at night, they're not real. So you should get back to work before that stack falls over and crushes you." She smacked him again when he rolled his eyes at her; nevertheless, he went back to signing.
But Hiccup still thought about distant lands, filled with adventure and drama. And he wondered what it would be like to actually meet someone from the old legends. Then he shook his head slightly, like that'd ever happen. Berk is his home, and the Viking Tribes was where he would always belong.