Berk. The island that I call home. The crazy, cold and harsh land that will leave you gaping in shock on your first day here. Why do you ask? Dragons. It was early in the morning, everything outside completely quiet, and I was sleeping soundly in a wooden bed before waking up to hearing a noise. I listened closely for a few moments before yelling out to my parents. "Mom, Dad! Dragon raid incoming! Wake up!" The response was immediate, as they ran out the door with their axes yelling at everyone to prepare for the incoming raid.

While they did that, I searched for my walking stick that is laid next to my bed and got up when I felt it.

So I guess I should tell you about myself. My name is Aaron Smitherd, and I am 15 years old and guess what? I'm blind! Yeah I may be blind, living in a village full of Vikings, so you would think I wouldn't survive a day. However when I was young the village elder Gothi told everyone that I would have an important role to play in the future. Of course they didn't think so at first, but later on they realized that with my advanced hearing I could hear the sound of incoming dragons way before they attacked. That and I've used my ability to hear and sense ground vibrations to become a surprisingly formidable opponent, second only to Astrid.

Well back to the present, I'm heading down to Gobber's forge in order to give him and Hiccup some help with sharpening weapons. My friend Hiccup is very good at that to begin with, and with my uncanny ability to feel dullness and cracks in the blades, I can help him sharpen weapons even better. I then arrived at the forge just as Hiccup walked in.

"Ah! Nice of you two to join the party! Thought they'd carried you off!" Gobber said.

"Who, me? No I'm way to muscular for their taste! They wouldn't know what to do with all, this!"

Even though I couldn't see, I knew that Hiccup was striking a bodybuilder pose. So I rolled my unseeing eyes.

"Well they need Toothpicks don't they?" Gobber teased.

I snorted. "I'm sure that you would make a great toothpick for the Monstrous Nightmare."

Hiccup protested. "What-hey! No-no I wouldn't. I'll show them one day. Yeah that's right."

I shrugged but said nothing and continued to check the weapons. Whenever I found a spot in need of fixing, I would use a watery form of colored paint to mark it. Whenever the liquid was heated, it would melt right off, so it worked well for my purposes. More and more houses were lit aflame as the morning wore on, and soon the rest of the teens were called in for the fire brigade.

That group consisted of the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the two mutton-heads; Fishlegs the dragon facts expert; Snotlout, the kid with a big ego; and Astrid, the top fighter in our generation, and is especially gifted with an axe. Even with my blindness, I've practiced with my other senses for years and have managed to be equal and skill at fighting with Astrid, but I use a custom sword forged for me by the very kind Hiccup. It stays concealed inside my walking stick when not in use, and the handle, or hilt, whatever you want to call it, is engraved with very fine steel, with a leather handgrip that fits my hand almost perfectly.

As another fireball exploded against the ground, I heard Gobber hook Hiccup into the building.

"Whoop! Not so fast." he said, while Hiccup protested. "Aw come one let me out please, I need to make my mark!"

"Oh you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places!" Gobber pointed out. I frowned a little.

"I thought burning Mildew's sheep was a good mark." I joked.

Gobber paused. "Eh, good point laddie."

Hiccup continued. "Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon, my life will become infinitely better; I might even get a date!"

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" I suddenly hear the sound of a Viking grabbing something from Gobber's hand, and then I hear a sharp snap before a Gronckle comes crashing to the ground. Wow.

Hiccup walked over to one of his newer inventions, which I believed to be a bola launcher. "Ok but this will throw it for me." I guess he tapped it, because I then heard it spring open before a Viking outside grunted in pain and fell to the ground. I muffled my laughter behind my hand as Gobber rounded on Hiccup.

"See, now this right here, is what I'm talking about!"

"Mild, calibration issue…" Hiccup mumbled.

"Hiccup. If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all… this." Gobber stated in exasperation.

Hiccup sounded astonished. "But you just gestured to all of me!"

"Yes, that's it! Stop being all of you!" Gobber confirmed.

"Ooooohhhh…" Hiccup threatened mockingly.

"Ooooohhhh yeah."

I blurted in. "OOOOHHH NOOO! What happened again?" I could feel their eyes glaring straight at me so I raised my hands in surrender.

"You sir are playing a dangerous game, keeping all this, raw, vikingness, contained! There will be consequences!"

Gobber shook it off. "I'll take my chances." He grabbed one of my marked swords. "Sword, sharpen, now."

Hiccup grunted from the weight of the sword and carried it to the sharpening wheel. I continued marking another sword with paint until a distant sound caught my attention. I listened for a few moments before jumping up and ringing the bell on the side of the forge built for me to use. This bell was built for me to ring whenever I heard the tell-tale shriek of the Night Fury. Everyone scrambled around in a panic, and five seconds later the shriek of a dive-bombing Night Fury was heard in the sky to everyone.

The catapult tower in the sky exploded, and I could vaguely hear Chief Stoick the Vast yell for everyone to jump. The shriek built up again before another blast hit the tower, disabling the weapon for good.

"Man the fort laddies. They need me out there!" Gobber paused. "Hiccup, stay… put… there."

I almost laughed. "Is he your dog?" Gobber shrugged. "You know what I mean!" With a battle cry, he charged into the fray.

Almost immediately I could tell Hiccup was starting to head out with his bola launcher to try and hit a dragon down. "Hiccup." I said.

"Not now Aaron."

"Hiccup."

I said not now Aaron!"

"Hiccup!"

"What!?"

I held up the missing piece for calibrating his bola launcher while smirking. "Oh… thanks." Hiccup said sheepishly.

"Go get some dragon points Haddock."

"Thanks Aaron. You're one of the greatest friends I could have." Hiccup said. I smiled, before motioning for him to head outside. He wheeled the launcher towards the door and bursts outside, villagers yelling as he passed.

After that the raid went on for another 10 minutes at most. I kept to myself, marking the weapons but otherwise doing nothing. A minute later though, I could hear one of the large flaming torches falling through the village, and winced from every crash., as well as the sound of wing flaps from dragons getting quieter as they left. I knew that whether the destroyed torches were Hiccup's fault or not, he would still be blamed for it. Knowing this, I sighed and got up, grabbing my walking stick and then following the crowd of voices in the distance, eventually coming across the group of Vikings watching Hiccup and Stoick argue.

"...the village could do with a little less feeding don't you think?" I heard Hiccup say. A few Vikings grumbled at Hiccup while I snickered at the sarcasm.

"This isn't a joke Hiccup!" Stick yelled in exasperation. "Why can't you follow the simplest of orders!?"

"I can't stop myself! I see a dragon and I have to just, kill it, you know? It's who I am Dad!" Hiccup defended himself.

Stick sighed. "You are many things Hiccup. But a dragon killer, is not one of them." Many Vikings mumbled their agreements while Hiccup sighed. "Get back to the house. Make sure he gets there."

I decided to come along as well to provide Hiccup some encouragement. Unfortunately we also passed by the rest of the teens.

"Quite the performance." Tuffnut remarked. I could practically hear him sneering

"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That really helped!" Snotlout taunted him, making me grumble.

"Thank you, thank you I was trying so…" Hiccup trailed off.

When I passed by Snotlout I whacked him on the head with my stick, knocking him to the ground. He got up fuming. "Hey watch who you hit moron! Oh wait I'm sorry you can't see where you hit. My bad." I brushed off his insult. "Oh I know exactly where I was aiming Snotface. It's not like you can do anything to me."

"Oh yeah? I can do this!" He yelled in outrage.

I could hear his fist coming from a mile away, and sidestepped to the left before spinning around and nailing him on the head again, sending him into a wall. I snickered. "You certainly can prove you're dumber than a fly." I then turned away and walked with Gobber and Hiccup, heading towards Hiccup's house.

"It's always funny to watch that happen with Snotlout." Hiccup remarked.

"Yeah those two hits to the head probably lowered his intelligence even more than is possible," I remark with a grin.

Hiccup laughed before quickly becoming somber again. "I really did hit one," he said dejectedly.

"Hit what?" I ask him.

"A Night Fury."

I stopped, surprised. "You did? That's great Hiccup!" I genuinely congratulated him. Most Vikings believe that dragons have no heart or emotions and are only made for the sole purpose of killing humans. Now I know this to be false, since I've encountered a wild dragon before that inspected me curiously when I was nine, but otherwise left me alone. However the rest of the village waves it off as being a boar or something, saying that I couldn't see the creature so it would most likely be something else. What rubbish. However I would still fight a dragon if it meant I was defending something. Which includes the Night Fury.

"Thanks Aaron. If only my dad would listen though. He never does!"

"Ehh, runs in the family." Gobber remarked.

"And when he does it's with this, disappointed scowl, like someone skimped the meet on his sandwich." Oh here we go, another impersonation. "Excuse me barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered and extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side! This here, this is a talking fishbone!"

Gobber tried to make him feel better. "Now now it's not what you look like, it's what's inside, he can't stand." And he failed.

I looked in his direction. "Worst pep-talk ever." Gobber shrugged.

"Thank you for summing that up." Hiccup said after a moment.

"Look, stop trying so hard to be something you're not." Gobber tried to reason with him.

"I just wanna be one of you guys!" Hiccup said in defeat, before heading inside.

"You'll get there one day. I'm sure of it." I reassured him as best I could before heading home with Gobber. After a second, I heard a door open the slam shut with footsteps leading into the forest. I smiled and shook my head. I would rush after him, but I had things to do for today, and it would take me a while to navigate the forest. I may be a fantastic fighter, but when it comes to waking around rough and uneven terrain without the ability to see, it takes time to figure out the best path to take. Once I do figure that out however, I can memorize it fairly quickly, which gives me the advantage.

Although I will admit I'm a little worried about Hiccup going after a Night Fury on his own, but he's smart. He won't face it if there's a chance he could be killed.

With these thoughts in mind, I headed back to my house to clean up and prepare myself for the day.