Hiccup suddenly swayed, blinking light spots out of his eyes. Which he thought was strange, because just a moment ago he'd been collapsed on the ground with his eyes closed.

He heard a few outraged noises, and looked around in surprise, seeing everyone from the village in front of him in what was definitely not the forest.

He twisted around, inspecting the room. It had a high ceiling, with rafters cast in shadow. The walls were off-white, the colour of clean wool, and there were a few doors from where he could see. The signs over the doors were odd – one said 'game room/sparring ring', and another had a symbol of a dragon on it.

He spotted his father and made his way towards him, feeling unsure. He should probably tell him what had happened a few minutes ago, but now didn't really feel like the best time.

"Hey, dad," Hiccup drew his father's attention. "I don't suppose you know what's going on either?"

His father shook his head, frowning. "If only I did," he said. Then he turned his voice on the rest of the room.

"Who brings us here?" Stoick called out, seeming to be restraining himself from yelling. Best not risk provoking whatever had the power to do this. "Show yourself!"

"Over here."

Hiccup turned around at the same time as most of the village. There was a platform running down the side of one wall, and a young woman stood in the centre of it. She had bronze hair and fair skin, and was dressed in a black tunic and leggings which made the richly coloured shawl she was wearing stand out. The shawl was the only remarkable thing about her; it looked finely woven and very high quality, it was dyed in strong blues and pinks that faded gracefully, and it was dotted with stars. It looked like it would cost a fortune.

She was standing with one hand gripping her other arm, the kind of stance someone might take when feeling uncomfortable, but besides that she looked perfectly content with the eyes of the village on her.

"Greetings, Hooligan tribe," she said, smiling faintly. "I'm rather sorry for bringing you here so abruptly and without asking, but it's what had to be done."

"Where are we?" Stoick asked coldly. "Who are you?"

"You can call me Xzisa," the woman, Xzisa, said. "And you're in…" She paused, and gained a thoughtful expression, lifting a finger up to her mouth. "I actually never came up with an actual name for this place. I suppose you could call it a leisure centre."

"Why did you bring us here?" Stoick said. Several Vikings made sounds of agreement.

"I know what's coming up," Xzisa said simply. "Not just what your tribe has planned but, but some events that will be happening in the next few weeks which… Well, I think you might need this.

"I'm giving you an extra day to rest," she said after a pause. "To recover a little more after the last dragon raid, before what's coming up."

"What made you decide to do this?" Stoick asked suspiciously. "We've set on searches for the nest before, what has you deciding to do this now? What do you expect in return?"

Hiccup glanced back at his father in surprise, he hadn't known they were going on another search. When he turned back, Xzisa was speaking again.

"Not necessarily the search. Events are going to happen on the island, the seeds of which have recently been planted, which are going to rock your village to the core…" Hiccup realised that she was staring at him. Oh, gods, was this about the night fury? "I felt like you'd appreciate the extra preparation."

Xzisa smiled in a way that didn't really instil confidence. "All I want in return is for you to watch a movie before you leave."

There was a pause, and then Hiccup heard Fishlegs' voice. "What's a movie?"

Xzisa's grin flashed. "Storytelling with music and moving pictures. I'd explain more, but I'd end up rambling, and I have somewhere I need to be. There'll be food coming in soon for anyone who'd like to indulge, look out for the orange lights. Toodles!"

She twisted, and abruptly vanished with a crack. Many Vikings made some sort of shocked exclamation, and it sank in that they may have been dealing with seiðr...and possibly Loki. If not the god himself then very possibly a follower.

Sup? First time posting anything here, but I felt so excited about reaching my word-count goal for this fic for the month that I wanted to celebrate by sharing the 'prologue'. It's an utterly self-indulgent Watching the Movie fic that I've waffled about writing for a while, but decided to go ahead with. For those curious, a few things that make this a different (enough) experience than other WTM fics:

1) This isn't going to be a few lines stuffed between the full movie script. In fact, I'm not even using the movie script. (where the heck did those people get it from?) I'll be watching and re-watching the movie to make sure it stays accurate, but no direct cut-and-paste from the script. You'll see what I'm doing instead when I post that part.

2) The characters are pulled from relatively early in the film, as you can see from this chapter. I've mostly seen people pull from either later in the film, or just before.

3) I... have opinions on other people's interpretations on Stoick and Snotlout in the fics of this type I've read. This fic will have a slightly different view of them.

4) 'Camera' focus on Hiccup and Stoick for the most part.

5) And other stuff that I don't want to say yet because spoilers ;)

Might be a while before the next instalment, since I need to finish it first, but even if I end up abandoning it, I'll still upload the rest of what I've written and add an apology at the end. I probably won't, though, and I know long authors notes are a pain to read, so this should be the only one on the story. Ta!