In the far corner of the archipelago there was a small rocky island, so small and far that most of the Viking rarely knows it exists. As for the near islands this island seemed like an easy target, they took it as a training for their newly recruits and their teens in training.
One starless night, covered by the dark, two ships sailed from a near island seeking this tiny isle, they were full armed and blood-thirsty for killing anything even if it was people like them, they docked on a rocky beach and soon they formed two teams and made their way toward the village.
The villagers didn't know what was coming for them; they all went back to their homes, to their families not knowing that this is their last moments with their loved ones.
"Look!" the leader of the raid called his warriors "Team one! You take the northern passage, anything that came into view, KILL IT! Understood?"
Team one cried in union "UNDERSTOOD!"
"Team two! We will take the southern passage, we will clear everything till the end, kill anything that breaths and take everything that could be lifted." Team two cheered as they raised their swords, it seems like they are celebrating their victory even before the battle starts but the battle is already sealed.
"Tonight we will delete this miserable island from the archipelago, Tonight the Viking world will sing our names with proud and glory." The leader Stated before they launched their attack.
As the leader of the raid instructed, team two headed directly to the entrance of the village as team one to the exit. The village was calm; everyone was sleeping peacefully hoping for a better tomorrow, but the reality is quite the opposite.
The raiders started breaking into homes, slaying everyone their hands fell on, soon screams got higher and higher and who runaway were killed by the first team in the northern passage without any mercy, there was no way out of this.
"NO JACK! Stop, don't go!" A wife pleaded her husband who decided to defend his village along with the other men "they will kill you."
"And what other choices do I have? If I stayed here then we all gonna die, I will gain you some time for you and Leo to run." He turned and opened the door of his house only to be shot with an arrow right in the chest.
"NO!" the wife cried and run to catch her husband before he hit the floor while their son watched from a distance shocked.
"JACK! NO, JACK CAN YOU HEAR ME?" she called while her eyes sunk in tears.
"M-Maria! I-I love you!" he said between coughs "T-Take Leo and r-run as_ far_ as _y-you c-c-c…" he couldn't finish his words before his eyes closed and loosened his grip.
"Jack?! Jack?! Please jack, answer me, please!" she called worried. Her tears dropped down her cheek and mixed with her husband's bloody beard, she cried and Leo sat by the corner of their house silent not making any move.
Then a huge ugly man stepped inside the house, he was well built with scars all over his body, one of his hands was cut and replaced with a hook, and there was an eye-patch over his right eye, he wore a red shirt and pirates pants, it was hard in the darkness of the night to recognize if it was naturally red or red because of blood.
Maria left her husband's side while she took a kitchen knife and covered her son by the corner pointing the knife toward the man by the door.
"I warn you! If you get any closer I will kill you!" she threatened the man.
"Look what we have here! A feisty little girl." The man said with an evil smirk clearly shown on his face "I guess I will have tons of fun playing with you."
The man approached Maria slowly swinging his gigantic sword very easily in the air; Maria was totally frightened of the man in front of her but was more frightened for her son's sake.
"Why don't you throw your knife and I promise you I will give you a quick death after I'm done with you?" the man said but Maria answered him with a two inches cut in the neck.
"Oh! So you prefer the hard way!" the man said cleaning his wound, the wound was just a scratch considering the size of this man.
Maria knew how to fight; she was light on her feet and smart in small tight places, she could use the man's size against him in her small house.
She hit him multiple times, but all her hits had no effect on the man, he waved his sword a few times but she easily avoided them, he kept swinging his sword around breaking everything in the house while Leo Watched his mother fight for his and her life, he stared at both of them shocked covering his ears while his eyes were full of tears.
Maria kept moving around and launching light attacks on the man who was suffering from tracking Maria, but a small mistake surrounded Maria in the corner.
"Well, well, well, looks like there's no way out for you." He swung his sword and Maria hardly avoided it, but unfortunately the next blow didn't miss, the man run his sword through Maria as Maria fell to the ground near her husband.
"It seems this is the end for you!" the man said smirking as he claimed his sword off Maria's body and then he licked Maria's blood from his sword "your blood tastes good, too bad that it has to end like this."
Maria used all the energy left for her and tried to reach the corner where her son was, the man stared at the boy after he recognized his presence amused as his mother fought to reach her son by the corner.
Maria reached her hand desperately when she realized that she can't continue dragging herself, and Leo responded by taking his mother's hand in his.
"L-Leo! Run, r-run!" those were her last words to her son before she was gone, but her son didn't move an inch, how could a four years boy who watched his parents being murdered in front of him to run away?
"I think you're not lucky as your mother was, you will die a slow, painful death by the days." The big man snickered before putting his sword back on its sheath and steeping outside the house back to the street leaving Leo with his dead parents inside.
"Burn all the houses but this one." The man called as he pointed toward the house where he fought Maria, all the raiders started setting fire in all the houses but the one they were told not to.
"But why that house in particular." One of the raiders asked the leader.
"For no apparent reason." He answered with a smirk. As the other continued their work, by midnight, a huge fire consumed most of the village and all the villagers were killed if we didn't count Leo who would probably die because of hunger or thirst.
All the raiders went back marching to their hip, celebrating their dominate victory, shouting and singing. They got on their ships and sailed back to their island after burning the one they were on to the ground.
Valka loved taking night flights, she enjoyed the fresh cold winds of the night, and enjoyed the loneliness, it has been three years since Storm-cutter had taken her from her home, but it was for the better, she kept convincing herself!
It was a starless night, darkness filled the sky, but unusually there was a red light coming from the horizon, she was curious about it source and origins.
"Storm-cutter, follow that light!" she guided her dragon toward the light, after she got closer the light glowed brighter, then she realized the light was a fire on a small island in the ocean.
"Down storm-cutter!" she instructed her dragon and storm-cutter obeyed.
When she landed, all what she could see was the ashes of what once used to be a village, she covered her nose and mouth from the smell of the blood and burned bodies and soon realized what happened here, it was a raid!
Of the entire burnt village there was one house still standing on the outskirts of the village, she thought maybe the raiders forgot to burn it or the fire didn't reach it because it was far from the center of the village, she walked to the house.
The door was wide opened, she took a look inside, at the door threshold was a young man's body hit by an arrow to the chest and in the corner was a women's body in a pool of her blood and next to her was a little boy covered in blood and heaving. She thought maybe those were his parents, her heart burnt because she knows the feeling to lose someone you love, she approached the kid slowly and put her hand on his shoulder, the boy acted a bit violently to her action, he run and hid by the corner pointing a knife toward her shacking.
"It's ok, it's ok." She tried to calm the boy while she took small steps toward the boy.
"T-They k-killed m-mommy." The boy said sobbing, as he started crying and his hand failed to keep the knife up, he collapsed.
Valka run to the boy and took him in her lap, he kept crying and calling for his parents, she cuddled him and sang a lullaby she used to sing for her son in his ear, soon the boy was asleep.
She and without thinking decided to take him back to the nest, she can't leave him alone there, she can't leave him to his death, her motherly instincts wouldn't let her.
She walked outside holding the sleeping boy in her arms, as Storm-cutter saw her he stared curiously toward the object she was holding.
"His parents died! This is too much than he can take, he's still a baby, he will need someone to take care for him and I will be that person."
Storm-cutter didn't answer at all; she mounted and flew back to the nest. While they were in the air she took a deep look to the boy with passionate eyes, he strangely reminds her of her son Hiccup, a few tears escaped her eyes, when she remembered that fateful night when the dragons raided her home and when she was taken.
The rest of the journey she kept staring at the boy, he was wearing a necklace with his name Carved on it.
"Your name is Leo?" she said smiling "What a beautiful name."