Chapter 1: The Beginning

Berk- Two Years After The Battle Of The Alphas

Lights shone from the chief's house at the top of the hill. To anyone flying overhead, it would seem very odd, since it was in the middle of the night, but this was no ordinary night.

Two dragons paced outside of the house, a Deadly Natter and a Night Fury. The Natter looked very agitated, but the Fury was only fidgeting a little. He knew his best friend could handle this. Inside the house, two new parents were smiling happily at their newborn twins, a boy and a girl.

"Let's name her after Camicazi! She looks like she'll be a fighter!" the man suggested, looking at his wife, while she nodded in unison.

"Camicazi would be a great name!" Astrid- for that was who it was, the mighty warrior of Berk, wife of Hiccup Haddock the Third- looked at her baby boy.

"We should name him Stoick." she said after a minute. "He will be one of the greatest chiefs Berk has ever seen." Hiccup smiled, laughing with her. Then he slowly got up, being careful not to wake his children, and opened the door. The two dragons that were waiting outside tiptoed in, and sniffed the babies. Toothless licked Cami, and Stormfly curled her tail around Stoick. The babies cooed and laughed at their new friends.

Seven Years Later

Camicazi Haddock stood on the dirt path, frozen, watching her brother cry as he was being carried to the Haddock house on top of the hill. She looked very out of place- her red hair made her stand out against the white snow. Or maybe it was the bow that she took everywhere she went, that was almost as long as she was tall. (It was her dad's old bow, and she loved it. She could already shoot an arrow more accurately than most of the village, she just needed more strength.) Stoick had been hurt that morning, when the chief had taken his seven-year-olds with him to the blacksmith. Stoick had gotten very excited when he was allowed to help sharpen an axe, but he tripped over a hammer on the ground and fell on the axe. The healer said he would be ok, but his left arm would have a nasty scar. She said it have been a lot worse, since the axe had not been sharpened yet. Cami blinked, erasing the image in her mind and raced up the hill to her house.

3 Weeks After

"Dragon Raid!" Hiccup ran through Berk, trying to spot Camicazi. Really, the silly girl wanted to help put out fires. She's only seven! Hiccup sighed in relief when he saw her at the docks, trying to dip a bucket in the water. But as he watched, a singetail with a rider stalked behind her, ready to pounce. His cousin Snotlout was rushing to her (Camicazi had started calling him Uncle Snotlout and he had grown quite fond of her), but the red dragon fired a bolt at him, snatched up Camicazi, and flew into the sky.

"No!" Hiccup screamed, running to his Night Fury and bolted into the night.

He caught up with the singetail fairly quickly, but as soon as he caught up, the dragon threw fire with its tail and dove. Toothless and Hiccup's reactions were slow, and the bolt caught the canvas tail. The pair were forced to turn back to Berk, crash landing in the process. Hiccup started sobbing and he laid there, not noticing the raid was over, not noticing Astrid stand beside him, get a search party, and leave into in night.

In the next few weeks, both Hiccup and Astrid lead as many search parties as they could, taking turns searching for Camicazi and looking after Stoick. Stoick didn't understand why Cami wasn't there to play with him, and he looked for her everywhere he went, like they were playing a really long game of hide-and-seek.

Snotlout more quiet that anyone had ever see him. He tried to go on every search party until he couldn't walk straight from lack of sleep, and Hiccup ordered him to go to his hut and go to sleep.

After weeks of nonstop searching, and finding nothing, Snotlout came to Hiccup one afternoon.

"Hey Hiccup. Do you have a second?"

Hiccup was sitting at a table in the darkest corner of the Great Hall squinting at a book spread out in front of him on the table. He looked up when Snotlout came, and gestured to the seat across from him.

"I can't make heads or tails of these figures. All these numbers are getting blurry." Hiccup said dejectedly. Snotlout slid the book to his side of the table, and stared at the numbers. He made corrections and explained to Hiccup what the mistake was.

"Nobody took inventory after the dragon raid a few weeks ago. There, that should do it." Snotlout said, pushing to book back to Hiccup.

"Thanks a lot Snotlout. I didn't even think about that." Hiccup sighed rubbed his eyes.

"Hey Hiccup, I need to tell you something, but I don't think you'll want to hear it." Snotlout decided to just say this awful thing and get it over with. "Listen, the village isn't going to run itself much longer. We need a leader. I know you need to find Cami, but she isn't going to be found anytime soon. We've checked every island at least three times, and there's no trace of her. You know I would be the last one to tell you to give up, but-"

"You want me to stop looking for my daughter?" Hiccup rose to his feet and started pacing. "I can't Snotlout! What will I tell Stoick? How can I live with myself if we stop?"

Snotlout rose as well, making eye contact with Hiccup. "Berk needs a chief, Hiccup." Snotlout sighed, then said, "Just think about this. You can take comfort in the fact that you still have your son, and even your father got to see his lost one again, even after he stopped pounding himself into the ground after she was gone." When Hiccup didn't reply, Snotlout said, "I'm sorry Hiccup. If you need anything, you know where to find me."