Hiccup is an intuitive Berkian runaway who wants to prove himself to the Barbaric Archipelago. Raisa is a spitfire with sticky fingers who was raised by dragons and an odd outcast of a man named Tazimund. Regardless of how opposite of the spectrum the two may seem, they make quite a fearsome pair along with Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, and what's left of Raisa's family. They spend close to thirteen years building a swashbuckling, nomadic life for themselves and their family. Until Hiccup's past brings everything's they've worked for crashing down.
Prologue by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III:
I have lived many lives since the fateful day I left Berk. I have seen a thousand and one cultures, and met a thousand and two people. Only a handful of this world's inheritance has seen all that I have seen. I have made dragons my allies and caught on to their native tongue. I have fulfilled prophecies and became a masked hero (villain to some, however.). I could begin this story in many places. I could begin it the day I left my cold, marshy village on dragonback, or my first run in with blood thirsty pirates, or blood thirsty Romans. I could begin it with one of my many adventures. Or I could begin with something more solemn, like the birth of my first child, Sarani. Or possibly the day my family was captured and everything Raisa and I had been building over the past thirteen years came crumbling down.
Though, if I did I would be getting a bit ahead of myself. See, I'd had many life threatening altercations before this one, but this one is when I finally got to prove myself to the life I left behind. I suppose the best place to begin is a year or so after I left Berk, and Toothless caught sight of the downed Night Fury.
We'd flown over thousands of miles of land and ocean. We had encountered hundreds of dragons, but never another Night Fury. The dragon almost blended into the rocks. She was curled in on herself, hiding in the shadows of a steep cliff. She was dark grey and barely moving.
Toothless crooned. "Hiccup, now." I was sure he'd said more, but I wasn't great with Dragonese yet, so that's all I understood. And Toothless dove for the cliff. He landed unsteadily, almost tossing me off in the process.
The other dragon groaned and opened her eyes. They were fading in color and the pupils had grey rings.
"Old, elder," Toothless whispered, giving the dragon a light nudge with his nose. She looked frightened, and tightened in on herself again.
"Human!" Toothless yelped, stepping back.
"Help," The other dragon rasped. "Help her." She uncurled her wings and closed her eyes to show what she had been protecting: a young girl. Her dark hair was matted and her skin looked bruised and battered.
I managed to cradle her head in my hands. Her chest rose and fell with each shallow breath.
"What you gonna do?" Toothless asked, nudging my shoulder. But his eyes were still on the elderly Night Fury.
"I-I don't know." I brushed some of the hair from her face to get a better look at her. She seemed incredibly ordinary. Nothing about her was particularly striking. Her eyelashes faned over her cheeks and she little shiny scars and bumps all over her face and down her neck.
Toothless moved away while I assessed her and began speaking to the elderly dragon. The two spoke much too fast for me to keep up without actively trying to listen. Toothless seemed to know this too as he circled her, and she peppered him with questions.
The girl shivered, and with this I saw her life. I melted.
The many weeks that followed included nursing the girl and the elderly dragon, Sfinxa, who refused to tell me the girl's name. She kept telling us that she would tell us if she wanted to when she woke up.
The girl's name was Raisa. Her native language was Dragonese but she also spoke fluently in another human language I didn't understand. She moved with swiftness and agility. She clung to Sfinxa, refusing to see me as anything but a villain. Though, I still nursed her. Sfinxa managed to talk her down so she wouldn't kill me if I came close.
Though, even those memories seem so far away now. Thinking of the guarded, unpredictable Raisa I met many years ago on the cliffs seems so far from who she has become.
With her help I became fluent in Dragonese and finally had a human companion. And as it turned out, she had just as many stories to tell. She was raised by dragons. Though, she had began her life with a pack of Deadly Nadders, she eventually landed in the care of Sfinxa, the elder of the Night Fury drove. Sfinxa was old when a group of Nadders dropped her into the snow. I imagine how blue her lips must have been in the northern cold. Her cheeks were probably flushed red. I sometimes wonder how she survived so far north being a little as she was. However, Raisa was young. She did not fear dragons, and they did not fear her. She did, however, have a peculiar uncle, Tazimund, she often dropped in with in some eastern land.
Eventually, she was well again. Her own dragon companion, Nessa, a younger Night Fury still a shade of midnight blue, who had managed to find her a few weeks too late. I finally asked how the two came to be wounded on the cliff.
"Oh," Raisa whispered. Her voice was cold and rough. "An argument." Sfinxa slinked over to the young girl she had raised as her own, and pressed against her. "All the dragons were upset and blamed Sfinxa. They wanted to name a new leader. Some brawny arse of a dragon. Sfinxa refused. All the other dragons fled and swore they were never coming back. We tried to track them down, reason with them. But," Raisa sighed, watching the fire. She spoke to me, but hadn't looked at me since she began the story.
It was true that the rest of the drove had fled. We never saw another Night Fury.
Sooo this is my first HTTYD fanfic. It's an idea that's been brewing for a while. It has some book qualities and pieces. (Like the prologue being told by Hiccup) Also, a lot of the Night Fury headcanons come from Avannak so credit where credit is due. Let me know what you think? I'll try and put out the actual first chapter soon. This is going to be OC heavy wahoo.