Chapter 1
So, I'll admit to being quite a bit excited to have received this request from one of my readers, Core of Justice, so I'll give a shout out to them for it. This story is not in any way shape or form mine, as this is not my idea nor do I own HTTYD. This will be the only time I place a disclaimer on this story as, if you don't know this from reading my other stories, I find it a pain to repeatedly put a disclaimer on every single chapter, so I'll just get it out of the way now.
I hope that everyone enjoys reading this story, and without further ado, I present...
The first thing that Hiccup became aware of that morning was the feeling of shaking, and quickly after he smelled the scent of old fish and lizard breath, and directly after that the growling roars of an overexcited Night Fury.
He blinked open his eyes. "Ack! Eww! Toothless!"
The dragon backed off and gave a dragony chuckle, tail waving around and threatening to knock over the nearby table.
"Okay, Toothless, calm down. Okay, we can go for a ride." Sometimes, Hiccup thanked Thor that he was a morning person. Otherwise, he would never be able to handle Toothless's constant urge to wake him up early in the morning for a flight.
He was quick to attach his prosthetic and stand to stretch. The cool, crisp morning air sent shivers down his spine as he registered how cold it was without the blanket.
Well, it's about to get colder. He decided. He was, after all, about to take a high-speed flight in said cold air on top of a dragon.
His own prosthetic attached, he walked over to the wall of tailfins. "So, bud, which tail should we use today?"
Toothless was quick to pick his usual red tail with a viking skull on it, and Hiccup attached the tailfin. He stood back a moment and examined everything to make sure it was in order, and Toothless, growing impatient, all but threw the saddle at Hiccup.
"And now it's all spitty. Thanks, Toothless!"
The black dragon gave a happy gurgle, misunderstanding his sarcasm.
Hiccup strapped the saddle onto his dragon's back, and out the door they went, barely dodging around Astrid. Hiccup leapt onto Toothless's back. "We're going flying… we'll be right back!" He shouted over his shoulder at his slightly dazed girlfriend.
They shot up into the air and high above the edge into the clouds, then above them. The cold air stung now, but Hiccup had long since gotten used to this kind of thing and thus it didn't bother him anymore. After all, he was flying. That alone was enough to get his mind off of the temperature, as it always did.
Then Toothless dove. The next several minutes consisted of back-to-back stunts and tricks, in the process making a lap around the island in a mock patrol while they were at it. They didn't exactly mean to terrorize that flock of Night Terrors with a dive that involved a plasma blast to fly through, but it happened and Hiccup hoped they realized it was an accident.
Just when they were about to land, they flew right past Astrid and Stormfly, who quickly turned to fly next to them. "Hiccup!"
"Astrid? What's wrong?"
"We got a terror mail." Astrid replied. "We're not sure who it's from, but it looks important. It's got a fancy seal and everything. We thought we'd wait to open it until you were back, so Stormfly and I were about to go get you."
"Lead the way, m'lady." Hiccup grinned lopsidedly. Inside, however, his mind was whirring. A terror mail with an important-looking seal on it? Berk never sent letters like that, and neither did Johan. If not even Fishlegs knew who it was from, then maybe it was the dragon hunters?
No, any of them would be able to spot a Dragon Hunter crest a mile away. This was someone new.
This, of course, raised more questions than it answered. Who else out there knew enough about dragons and training them to send a terror mail all the way to a group of people the terror has never been to before to deliver mail to someone it had never seen before? Only Berk had that kind of luck with the terrors, with a close follower being the Dragon Hunters who often used them to relay messages between boats.
It was someone who knew about dragons that the gang had not previously encountered. In other words, they had no idea what kind of person (ally or enemy) that they could be dealing with.
Before his thoughts could continue, Toothless and Stormfly touched down on the landing pad on the Clubhouse. The two riders dismounted and walked into the wooden room to where the others had sprawled themselves around the fire pit waiting.
"Ugh. It sure took you long enough!" Snotlout complained, getting up from the bucket he was sitting on.
To the amusement of the twins and irritation of everyone else, the bucket came up with him. He had been sitting in the bucket, not on it.
Hookfang snickered, and Snotlout stumbled, cursed, and started trying to dislodge the offending wooden object.
The twins immediately surrounded him. "Oh, I can get it off for you!" Ruffnut chirped, before she swung a fist at him. It landed on Snotlout's side, right in the kidney, and not on the bucket.
"OOOF!" Snotlout keeled over, clutching his midsection. "Not the kidney!" He rasped.
"Oops. I was aiming for the bucket." Ruffnut replied.
One plasma blast later and all the bucket was sent flying off Snotlout to where it was simultaneously smashed and incinerated against the wall.
"Thank you, Toothless." Hiccup sighed in relief.
Toothless gurgled in response.
"So, where is this Terror Mail?"
Fishlegs walked over. "Here. I was trying to see if I could remember seeing the seal anywhere, but no such luck. It looks like a dragon."
And it did indeed look like a dragon, just not a type Hiccup had ever seen before. It was a two-legged dragon with wings spread out behind and slightly curled, its tail, which ended in an almost arrowhead shape. The seal itself was designed to be round, but it was still not a dragon he'd ever seen before.
That, of course, probably meant that this was from a rather long distance, which also explained just why exactly none of them had ever heard of them before.
"Well, I guess we should take a look at it." Hiccup said, taking it from fishlegs. He popped the seal off and unrolled the scroll (which, he noted, seemed to be made from the wood of some foreign tree, making this even more interesting) and looked at the first line.
Dear Dragons and Riders, (Here Hiccup made a probably useless mental note that their mystery person had addressed the dragons first, and not them, and began to read it out loud instead of in his head)
I address this following message to only Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third and his dragon, the Night Fury Toothless, and request that all others in the vicinity give them privacy to read this alone.
"Aww, what?" Snotlout cried. "You're making that up!" He snatched the letter from Hiccup's hands. "Seriously? What the heck?! All that suspense about what the stupid mysterious letter says and now we're not allowed to hear it?"
"It said they requested that." Ruffnut spoke up. "I say request denied!"
"Yeah! Request denied!" Tuffnut agreed. The zipplebacks burbled in the background and Hookfang huffed in agreement.
"As much as I hate to admit it," Astrid stated, "we should probably all hear this. It could be a trap."
Fishlegs nodded. "It is something the hunters might pull. We should all hear this."
Hiccup nodded and continued reading.
In this message I have enclosed a map which should lead you directly to my homeland. We have taken an interest in you and your exploits, and, pardon me for saying, in your dragon as well. It is very rare to see Night Furies that far north.
"Wait, he said very rare to see them here?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup's mind reeled. "Does that mean… he has more with him?"
"It might not." Fishlegs cautioned. "Remember what happened last time you 'found a night fury'?"
Toothless snorted in distaste and Hiccup grimaced. "You're right. I won't get my hopes up."
The fact that you are at war with the Dragon Hunters also interests me. It is due to your status as the Heir of Berk, rider of a Night Fury, and leader of the Berkian Dragon Riders under the Chief as well as one who seeks to save and protect dragonkind that I ask you to come alone to these instructions. Due to your interactions with the dragon hunters, you may believe this to be a trap. I can offer little more than my word to assure you of otherwise, however I would like to propose a deal that would be mutually beneficial to both of us, somewhat of a treaty. As you are an heir, I felt that you were the best choice. Should you chose to accept, please keep the map and follow the instructions placed on it to my location. If you do not, I ask that you please burn the map to avoid it falling into the wrong hands. The location of my homeland is little known to any who are not traders or citizens, and I would prefer to keep it this way.
Sincerely, The King of Dragons.
"The king of dragons." Hiccup restated slowly. Suspicion was absolutely roaring through his veins. Any human who introduced himself as the king of dragons and not by his name had to be bad news. Unfortunately, he was also far too curious for his own good. He pulled out the map and examined it.
"Looks like a long flight…" He stated.
Toothless growled at him, as if asking just how gullible Hiccup actually was.
"Hiccup, just look at the way he signed it." Snotlout tried to talk him down. "King of Dragons? How pretentious can you even get?"
"I didn't know you knew words that large, Snotlout." Astrid jabbed, seeming unable to resist the temptation. "Either way, Hiccup, Snotlout's right. No way are we just going to send you and Toothless on your own several days away into what is most likely a trap."
"But what if it isn't?" Hiccup asked. "What if we pass this up, and it turns out we missed the chance of a lifetime?"
"What could we possibly gain by going there?" Astrid asked. "Think about it. What kind of help can they give us? What kind of treaty would they even want? This sounds more like someone's setting up hostage situation to ensure Berk's surrender than an olive branch from a mysterious source who we know nothing about."
"I wish I could agree with you, Hiccup, but the risk is too great. We should burn the map and…"
"Even if it's a trap, we should go check it out, right?" Hiccup asked. "How about this; Toothless and I go ahead, and you can follow us at a distance. That way, even if it is a trap, you'll be right behind us to break us out."
Astrid scowled. "I don't like this."
"We do!" Tuffnut called.
The other arguing teens went silent and turned to stare at the idiot twins with deadpan looks.
"What?" Tuffnut asked. "Either way, stuff is probably going to get blown up."
Ruffnut grinned. "ANARCHY!"
"On second thought this is a bad idea, isn't it?" Hiccup asked.
"But… you're going to go with it anyways, aren't you?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup nodded. "Sorry, Astrid, but if I don't it'll just eat at me until I do. You know how I am with maps; I'll remember this one even if we burn it."
She sighed. "Alright, fine."
"Wait, you're agreeing with him?" Snotlout asked.
"The chances of this being a legitimate invitation are close to zero." Fishlegs gave one last attempt to convince them.
Snotlout sighed. "They're not listening anymore, Fishlegs."
"I guess we should start packing, then." Astrid gave in.
"I'll send a terror mail to Berk so Dad knows where we'll be going and what we're doing, just in case." Hiccup reassured them.
"I guess we're going then. This is a bad idea. Why does nobody ever listen to me?" Snotlout asked thin air.
Hookfang picked the complaining boy up in his mouth and walked out of the clubhouse.
"YAY!" The twins cheered. "VACATION! VACATION!"
"W-who said this was a vacation, exactly?" Hiccup asked.
"We're going to have to be on constant alert. There will be no relaxing." Astrid stressed.
"Aww."
"Killjoy." The twins trudged away.
Fishlegs snagged the map. "I'll plot our course to the island." He and Meatlug hurried off towards their hut, leaving Hiccup and Astrid alone with their dragons.
"You know this is going to end badly, right Babe?" Astrid asked warily.
"It probably will." Hiccup nodded. "It's just… Curiosity killed the cat, you know?"
"That's what I'm afraid of." Astrid replied blandly.
"...And satisfaction brought it back?" Hiccup added onto the end lamely.
"Let's hope so." She sighed. "I'm just worried about you."
"We'll be fine. What could possibly go wrong?" He hopped onto Toothless's back and they prepared to take off. "Don't answer that."
And with a powerful flap of obsidian wings, they were gone.
So, how was the first chapter? If you enjoyed it, go ahead and follow and favorite it! If you didn't like it, leave a polite review as to how I could do better. In any case, I'm sure you've already gotten tired of my Author's note and are probably not reading this anyways, so I'll go ahead and finish this up!
P.S., does anybody else get the sudden urge to add some ending like 'that's all folks' to put a stop to your writing? I think I'm just weird, but it just feels wrong.