Disclaimer: I do not own httyd
A red-haired green-eyed girl traipsed through the village, thinking about her latest invention and how she could improve...

"Hey, useless!" Her cousin Snotlout (on her father's side, no godly genes for him) and her most common tormentor.

She kept on walking.

"Where are you going, useless? The chief's house? Come on useless, you know it's going to be mine someday. Why don't you just give it up?"

"She kept on walking, and reached the door of her house. She closed it behind her, leaving Snotlout to yell through the door.

"Yeah, that's right useless, go hide. Go..." That was all she heard, because she was sprinting out the back door as fast as her bare feet could carry her.

"Ash stared at Hicca as she walked into her house, Snotlout following her and jeering. He had had a crush on her since he knew what a crush was, but a few things stopped him from going over to talk to her, maybe defend her.

First, she was the chief's daughter. Stoic 'the vast' Haddock's daughter. He had no desire to have his head pulled off by her overprotective father.

Second, he was Ash Hofferson. Sure, he was the best fighter in his age group, but the Hofferson's weren't well regarded since his uncle died. They were dirt poor. How would someone like her be even remotely interested in someone like him?

Last, she was Hicca Haddock. The most beautiful girl since Vikings first came to Berk. Sure, she was thin and could barely fight, but that didn't matter to him. She was a good person. That was rare in the Viking world. She was way out of his league.

He watched her peer out of the back door, and run full pelt for the woods.

How was she going to keep warm with no furs?

He consi going after her, but she was too far ahead.

Good Gods, where did she learn to run so fast.

He shook his head, and headed home. Hicca was a far of dream, but his family were real. He had to be strong for them.

Hicca slid down the ice, landing with barely a thud on the soft grass of the cove. She raced over to the cave in the side, where she kept her things. This was her place, her private sanctuary where she could be herself with no constraints, no worry that she could be seen. Here, she could let her power lose, and simply be. It was here that she used her favourite, most sophisticated invention of all.

Built not to hurt or kill, but to glide free across the ice, as fast as a dragon could fly.

A pair of white boots, adorned with ice patterns of her own making, laced up to her knees with perfectly sharpened blades across the soles.

She didn't know where the idea came from. It had been in her head ever since she was first apprenticed to Gobber. One day, she just tried it out and ... this.

This feeling, the rightness in her body and her mind as she 'skated' across the ice, simply knowing what to do. After a lap of the lake (frozen by herself. All the fish had long since been forcibly migrated to the pond in the corner), her body turned fully to autopilot, and she began to really skate. Leaping, twirling, gliding, her body singing as she moved, silently dancing to the swish of her skates...

Then she stopped, gliding one-footed as she slowed to a near stop.

But she wasn't done. Not even close.

This was her secret life, her secret world, and she'd be damned if she had to leave before she had to.

Grinning ear to ear, she created obstacles of ice and started again.

A/N thanks to all the people who noticed the glitch in my first draft of this. I really appreciate it when people take the time for constructive criticism and I read all the reviews I'm sent, so please keep doing it. Also sorry for the short chapter, it's a prologue the rest will be longer.