Accepting Change

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at a How to Train Your Dragon story. I just got done watching the last movie and yes, I may have cried a little. Anyway; missing the characters already, I wanted to give my try at this amazing franchise.

Chapter 1

Her life was relatively simple, albeit a dangerous life, but a simple one. She gets up every morning, trains, slays dragons who consistently attack their island and steal their fish and sheep, sometimes killing humans in the process. When the slaying ends, she goes to bed and gets up to do it all over again the next day. While her life was constantly in danger, she thrived off the fighting. She loved being known as the youngest dragon slayer amongst the few teens on Berk. Nothing was going to stop her from slaying the most dragons out there. A legend, Stoic the Vast; their chief, has known to slay over a hundred dragons throughout his time, and continues to do so. The young Astrid Hofferson thrives to be as successful as their great chief one day; in-fact she hopes to become the next chief. Due to Stoick losing his wife and baby to dragons years ago when she was just a helpless infant herself, he no longer has an heir to take over as chief, when he decides to one day retire in the future. However; Astrid is certain to be given the great honor as chieftess, it is her dream to become the next great protector of Berk. To rid this world of the dragons who constantly threaten her home and loved ones, time and time again.

Her mind gets lost in time when she remembers seeing a family get trapped in their home. They were her neighbors, she was just a small girl when it happened. Her father tried everything to get into the home that got caught fire from a dragon's attack. She can still remember the crying pains of the family stuck in their home, now the place is an empty space, as if the family was never there. A haunting image Astrid sees every morning, but a burning reminder as to why she gets up early everyday to train, no matter how tired her body becomes from the constant training, she has to become stronger. Out of anger she throws her ax at the mark on the tree she uses for training.

Her eyes widen when she suddenly sees a boy, the boy went completely stiff, having only been inches from her tree. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't even heard the stranger come, how?! She was usually always aware of what's around her, even if her mind wonders from time to time during her training. She glares at the boy who gives off a confused look, his head tilt to the side, as if studying her.

"What the heck do you think your doing? Do you want to be killed?" She shouts in frustration. She certainly didn't want to be responsible for some kid's death; though she knows it's her own fault for not having notice him before her throw, she was still a bit shook of having almost commit murder unintentionally. A few seconds of awkward silence goes by. She huffs as she walks over and pulls out the ax. "Well, you going to answer or just keep looking like some idiot lost in the wood?"

The kid moves his head back up right, but the confusion doesn't leave his features. Astrid takes this moment to observe him, he's scrawny and small, looks to be about her age, 14 or 15. His hair is an auburn color, short wild and messy, minor freckles on his cheeks, and dull green eyes. What catches her attention though is something she's used to seeing amongst her Viking family and friends. She sees the prosthetic leg, replacing where his original left leg use to be. "I see, you must be a Viking if you lost a leg" She points at the boy's leg. He looks down where she is pointing, then back at her again. Once again, he's confused by her words, and just stares. This only makes her even more frustrated. "Uggg!" She growls, throwing her arms up in the air, while carefully holding onto her ax. "Why don't you say anything? At least give me your name? I haven't seen you around the village before, did you just travel here?" The young warrior was growing frustrated with each passing second, he just kept staring at her in utter confusion, as if trying to understand the words she was spitting out.

"Ok fine! You can stay lost then, I'll go train somewhere else" She stomps off. "And don't follow me!" She yells. Of course, a few seconds into her walk and she can hear uneven footsteps following not far from behind her. She turns around, only to see the boy stop and gaze at her curiously. "I said don't follow me!" She yells. This was getting her nowhere fast, if the boy refuses to listen, she'll have to get violent. The Viking notices as the boy flinches from her shouting and she almost feels bad. He looks down at the ground, sad. It was somewhat pathetic looking, but Astrid couldn't help be curious about this strange boy.

She sighs heavily and makes her way to him. Yelling at him clearly wasn't working, she was going to have try another tactic to get information out of the boy. He blinks as he looks up in surprise at her return to him, though he stiffens a little, unsure if she will yell more at him. She rest her ax lightly against her right shoulder, and places her other hand on her hip. "Can you even speak?" Once again, she is met with silence and a confused gaze, she sighs. He looks like a normal village kid, save for some messy dirt spots over his clothes, and wild unkept hair. "Let's try this" She points a finger to her chest. "I'm Astrid. Astrid" Then she points to the boy. "You?" She tilts her head some-what, in the similar manner as him, to hopefully see that she is just confused as he is.

He blinks again. Looking at her finger pointing to him and waiting for some kind of respond, he thinks he might know what she's asking. But he tries something first. He points to the girl. "Astrid?" He tone is uncertain, but he thinks she is asking for his name.

Astrid smiles. "Right! I'm Astrid" She points to herself, nodding. Hoping that he understands her gestures. "And you?" She points to the boy.

He smiles and points to himself. "Hiccup"

This time Astrid blinks. "Hiccup, odd name" She shrugs. "But most of us Vikings are given odd name here too. Kind of a tradition, though I don't understand why" She shakes her head. "So; Hiccup, where are you from, did you travel here by yourself?" She points to the boy. "You alone?" Hoping that her words sound more understanding at the end.

The boy shakes his head. "Not alone"

"You do speak!" She says annoyed, giving a look of death to the boy. "Why play dumb?"

He shakes his head. "Human language hard, speak some" He explains slowly and somewhat hesitantly.

Astrid frowns at that answer. "Human language?" She looks at him uncertain, he does the same to her. He has already said too much. "Explain" She narrows her eyes at him.

He is even more hesitant and quickly shakes his head. "Toothless!" He suddenly shouts for.

Astrid hears the yell of a dragon and on instinct she gets into her fighting pose. She is in a moment of awe when she sees the rare night fury come gliding over and quickly standing guard in front of the boy. The dragon gives a low warning growl to Astrid. She takes a step back but doesn't show the fear growing inside her, instead she gives her murderous glare. Her hatred for the beast growing from just the sight.

"You're a traitor amongst humans! You are friends with the beast?" She yells in anger and somewhat betrayal. Although she barely knew the boy, aside from his name. She still felt betrayed that a fellow human would side with the man-slaying beast.

"Dragons good, humans bad" The boy says calmly.

Astrid frowns. "You're a fool to trust them, they will kill you in your sleep, burn you alive if they must" How foolish can this boy be. "Did they not take your leg?!"

Hiccup doesn't answer. Astrid isn't sure if it is because he doesn't understand, but she watches as he slowly get's onto the dragon's back. The young Viking couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Dragon friend" He offers a small smile. He then holds out a hand. He wants to show her, show her that dragons aren't scary. He is going against the dragon king's orders, but he isn't a dragon. The dragon king wants humans and dragons to be enemies, he thinks it is fun to kill the humans for their food, but the other dragons don't want this, he can finally help stop it. But he has to show them first, earn their trust, this girl maybe the key to help making that change.

She shakes her head. "You must be crazy if you think I'm getting on that beast with you!"

Toothless makes a sound of annoyance from the name calling. Hiccup suddenly starts speaking in some tongue she can't even begin to understand. 'Easy there bud, she's just scared, give her time' He pets his friend on the head, hoping to calm his frustration. Toothless didn't care for name calling.

"What was that?" Now Astrid was even more confused. Her instincts told her to just throw her ax, fight and ask questions later. But her curiosity was getting to her, she had never heard such a language. It was soft and gentle to listen to. There was a strange calming affect about it.

"Dragon" He says simply, hoping that is enough for her to understand. He only knows very little human language.

She blinks, but still keeps her fighting pose in-check. Just in-case they try anything. "Dragon? You mean dragon language? Are you telling me that beast actually understands you?" She shakes her head in disbelief. This can't be real. Do dragons feel and have emotions like humans? Impossible! They were monsters! Nothing more.

"Dragon friends" He says once again. "Astrid"

She takes a moment to gaze at the boy, truly study him. The way he said her name as he holds his hand out once again. To fly on a dragon, that would be suicide for a Viking like her, but could it truly be possible? She places the ax behind so that she is carrying it on her back. "If you try anything, I will kill both of you" She points two fingers at them and then motions her hand slicing off her head, making certain that both the beast and boy understand her clearly. Astrid frowns and glares daggers as she watches the beast rolling his eyes, mocking at her threat.

However; Hiccup's smile just grows when he finally feels the warmth of her hand in his and he helps her up onto the back of his friend. "Toothless, fly!" He grins, and Astrid can hear the excitement in his voice. Gone is the scared uncertain boy she met just moments ago, replaced with a new confidence she isn't used to. A confidence that wasn't just some other Viking bragging about their killing numbers. This was so much warmer and inviting.

She can't help but watch in awe as Toothless spreads his wings and quickly climbs up a tree. Astrid cries out in shock and quickly grabs onto Hiccup when the beast finally leaps into the air to fly. She prays she doesn't regret her decision to join this boy and his dragon.

To Be Continue