Another normal, cloudy day on the Isle of Berk was all Hiccup needed.
A few days ago, it had been pouring sheets of rain so thick; it was like a Night Fury's wing was spread right in front of your eyes.
Hiccup popped out of bed, excited. His Night Fury dragon, Toothless, was clawing at the roof, like he does every morning. He was like a giant, fire-breathing alarm clock.
"Bud..." Hiccup started, "what am I going to do with you?" Toothless just smiled an adorable gummy smile. Hiccup chuckled.
"We've gotta go catch up with Astrid and Stormfly!" Yesterday, Hiccup and Astrid arranged a flight together. No, they weren't dating, but they were close friends.
Hiccup jumped on Toothless's back, eager. "C'mon, Toothless, let's go to Raven Point; where we're supposed to meet them!"
Stormfly was a blue-and-yellow Deadly Nadder. Toothless gave a little snort of agreement.
The Night Fury sidled out the front door, then with one huge leap and the flap of reptilian wings, they were off.
It was still dark out; the sun hadn't even risen yet. The chilly, cool, dark dawn air felt fresh and exhilarating on Hiccup's face; flowing free through his hair.
His ankle flicked, changing the gears on Toothless' artificial tailwing. In no time at all, they could make out Stormfly perched on a large grey boulder, preening, with Astrid crouched next to it, sharpening her axe with a flintstone.
Hiccup motioned Toothless to be as silent as he possibly could. The pair landed noiselessly and slunk behind a large juniper bush.
With a defiant roar and a mighty leap, Toothless burst from the bush line, Hiccup on his back, scaring the tail spikes out of Stormfly and making Astrid jump and dive for cover.
Hiccup sniggered.
"H-Hiccup?" Astrid called wearily, but confidently, "Is that you?"
"Ha ha! Yeah, Toothless and I got you good, didn't we?"
"No... it was just natural reflexes to dive behind a rock when a screaming BANSHEE comes flying out at you!"
"Whatever. You coming or what?"
"The question is... are you?" With that, Astrid jumped on her Nadder and dashed into the velvet purple sky. Hiccup grinned. "I love that girl."
Hiccup and Toothless were soon hot on the girls' tails. Stormfly picked up her speed, but was no match for a Night Fury. The boys boosted far ahead, but after a bit, they slowed down, allowing Astrid and Stormfly to cruise beside them.
"Hey, uh, Astrid..." Hiccup started nervously.
"Yeah, Hiccup?" Astrid replied.
"I was wondering-" That was all he could get out before he spotted the gigantic flaming fireball rushing towards them.
Hiccup! DUCK!" Astrid screeched. Toothless was already diving towards the ocean from which they flew over, Stormfly soon after.
The fireball whizzed above their heads, sending waves of heat through their stone-cold bodies.
"Astrid? Hiccup? Dangit, we thought you were intruders," a familiar voice called.
"Yeah, we were gonna blow you up," another familiar voice stated.
"I was gonna blow them up first!"
"Nuh-uh, I was!" The sound of punching and fighting could be heard.
"Ow! Get your foot off my-"
"Not until you-"
"GUYS, CUT IT OUT!" Astrid's voice boomed, resounding across the open sea.
The voices belonged to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the most annoying, argumenative, chaos-loving twins on Berk. Both of them were sitting on a seperate head of the same dragon; BarfBelch, a green and red-brown, two-headed Hideous Zippleback.
"What are you two doing out here so early?" Astrid continued.
"Well, BarfBelch was restless-"
"-and he kept waking us up-"
"So we decided to take him on ride," they finished in unison.
"What are you two doing out here?" Tuffnut questioned.
"We're just on a ride," Hiccup explained.
"Oh, suuuurrreeee..." Ruffnut sneered.
"Just... go..." Astrid fumed.
As the twins flew away, they made kissy-noises and laughed and sang: " Astrid and Hiccup, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S... how do you spell making out?"
Hiccup blushed red.
"So, Hiccup... what was that question of yours?"
"Ahh... it's nothing. Race ya to The Cove?"
"Last one there has to clean the dragon stables!" And she was off.
At The Cove, the pale pink rays of light were just blushing the sky rosy when Astrid and Hiccup landed.
"Hey... uh.. umm.. Astrid... yeah... ummm..." Hiccup stuttered nervously.
"Yes?" Astrid answered, impatient. She has been hoping for Hiccup to ask her out since he took her to see the Northern Lights. That was before she even had Stormfly!
"Umm... do you.. fgasdfgdgcf..." Hiccup coughed in to his elbow.
"What?"
Hiccup grit his teeth. "Do. You. Want. To. Go. Out. With. Me?" He smiled innocently and flushed red. Astrid loved it when he did that.
"Yes!" Astrid cried. "I mean.. uh yeah sure," she replied a little more calmly, keeping her cool.
For the first time, Hiccup leaned in and kissed her. It was amazing. Hiccup's tongue slid cautiously into her mouth to touch hers, then explored the inside of her cheek. Hiccup gently held the side of her face, digging his fingertips into her hair. Astrid loved it.
They stayed like that, discovering the inside each other's mouths for a little bit until Hiccup jerked back quickly, a string of Astrid's saliva dangling from his lower lip, surprising Astrid.
"Wha-Hiccup?!"
"Shh... I hear footsteps."
Crouched behind a boulder, Hiccup dared poke his head out.
"I saw them land around here somewhere." a crude, Viking-accented voice announced.
"Well, let's keep looking. There's no use standin' here looking around like a pair of lazy Gronckles," a second voice pointed out.
The first voice was actually Stoick the Vast, leader of the Isle of Berk and also Hiccup's father. The second voice was Gobber the Belch, the village blacksmith, Hiccup's blacksmithing mentor (since he was little), and his faithful "good" advice giver. If by good you mean horrible, then Gobber's advice was amazing. The crunching of dead leaves indicated that the two Viking men were coming nearer.
Hiccup pulled his head back behind the boulder and stood up. Astrid did the same.
"Hey, dad; Gobber," Hiccup murmured.
"Oh, now you show yourself, son! You always were a sneaky one! Gobber and I have been lookin' for ya all mornin'. Where were you?" Stoick boomed in a good-mannered way. "Oh, an' 'hello' to you too, Astrid." Astrid dipped her head slightly forward, showing acknowledgement.
"It's always good seeing you, cheif!" she smiled.
"We just... uh.. went on a ride, and decided to, ah, stop here. We were just heading back when-"
"Wait," Gobber interrupted, "You're telling us you went on a ride?" Hiccup nodded his head.
"On your dragons?" Hiccup rolled his eyes and nodded his head vigorously. Sheesh, he thought, is Gobber dumber than he usually is?
"Then where are your dragons?"
Hiccup lifted an eyebrow and let his gaze sweep across the Cove.
"Toothless? Bud, you can come out now."
A Night Fury's wing tip stuck out from behind a large stone. Then came the rest of the dragon, followed closely by Stormfly.
"Right. Let's get goin'," Stoick announced. "We really need to show you kids somethin'." He clambered onto his great beast-of-a-Thunderdrum-dragon, Thornado. Thornado was an indigo-dark blue colour with specks of white all around.
"I need to show you kids something."
(Screw Chapters... I'm just going to put **** every time a new "Chapter" starts... Mkay?)
About the time they had taken off, the sun rose above the mountaintops. Hiccup and Astrid were both eager to know what Stoick had in store for them.
Finally, the dragons' feet touched the soft, fertile grass of the fields in the outskirts of the village.
Stoick and Gobber led them to Gothy's house sitting precariously on a ledge over the sea.
"Okay, dad. Enough stalling. Just tell us what you're hiding!" Hiccup snapped impatiently. Astrid nodded in agreement.
"We're here, Hiccup!" Gobber pointed out from behind Stoick. The two hopped off of their dragons and strolled into Gothy's shack-like house.
Lying on the couch on the opposite wall was a boy, about a year older than Hiccup, with shaggy black hair and amazing, bright, grey-blue eyes.
He wore a Viking helmet, a black fur vest and boots, a navy blue shirt with spikes on the arms, black pants, and a spiky belt. The boy was much more buff than Hiccup, too.
Hiccup already disliked him. He looked like a cocky little brat.
"What's his name?" Astrid wondered out loud. Gothy whispered something into Gobber's ear.
"Gothy says that the boy claims his name is Bluejay Freckleface," Gobber translated. "Stoick and I found him wandering in the same forest in which you found that Typhoomerang, Torch."
Bluejay spoke up with a smug smile on his face. "Well, now that we all know my name," his gaze swept around the room, eyes stopping on Astrid, lingering on her, moving on, "I'd like to know yours." His voice sounded smooth with a rough edge on it, like the sweet, metallic tone of a large, iron bell. Comforting, but unsettling.
Astrid went first. "I'm, uh... Astrid Hofferson!" Pleased to... meet you," she brushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled.
Bluejay glared expectantly at Hiccup. "I'm Hiccup Haddock," he started, "First to ride and train a dragon. Only Viking to take down a Night Fury."
"Sounds cool, but I don't have a dragon," Bluejay stated, disappointed.
"We'll get you a dragon in no time!" Astrid blurted. She blushed.
Then, Hiccup noticed. Astrid is acting strange... I mean, she used to act like that around me sometimes, but... he thought. Oh no... oh no oh no oh no...
Astrid likes Bluejay?
No, it couldn't be... Astrid and he were dating!
Hiccup cleared his throat. "Uh, Astrid?"
"Yeah, Hiccup?" Astrid replied, still not taking her eyes off of Bluejay.
"Could I, uh, speak to you for a moment? Alone?"
She raised an eyebrow, finally looking away from the other Viking boy. "Oh... Kay?"
Hiccup and Astrid walked outside.
"Okay. I see you eyeing him."
"Huh? Who? Oh, Bluejay? No, I'm not! Why would you even think that!?"
"Because, you are! You keep blushing and everything and you can't even pry your eyes off of him to reply to a question I asked you! Look, could you just tell me the truth? Do you have a crush on Bluejay?"
"No! We are dating, right? I hardly know this kid," she paused for a second. "Do you actually think that I would fall in love with some stranger knowing the fact that I became your girlfriend just barely an hour ago?"
"No, it's just that-"
"Just what? Huh? If you can't trust me, then I guess we can't be together any longer." With that, Astrid stomped off back into the house.