A couple of things first. I am basing this story off of the detailed time line laid out by Fjord Mustang's To Soar Into the Sunset: A Night Fury's Odd Memoir (with his kind permission to do so). As such, there will be some references to it. Namely some small things like names and references to events that happened only in his fanfic as well as certain abilities and such. So thoughtspeach, Dreampaths, Signalers, and the like belong to him. Also, as the chapter title says, this is just the opening exposition as such it's a little short and the real fun starts in the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I only own one character in this fic. No points for guessing who it is.

This is Berk. The weather is fairly erratic and the ocean is constantly freezing. The animals here are tough and stubborn and the people even more so. There are some perks though. Most people have horses or mules as steeds while others have dogs or cats as pets. Not us though. We have... dragons.

It had been several months since Hiccup had recovered from the battle against the Red Death. In that time, he set up shop in the Kill Ring- or rather, the Training Grounds- to train the other Vikings in the finer arts of bonding with a dragon (As the process goes both ways. If the dragon doesn't like you then you will get thrown off).

In that time, the dragons had also melded very easily into out society. They helped with carrying wood and hauling in fish (especially since that's what they ate). The medium sized ones, mainly Gronckles, also helped with home repair when possible. The smaller ones, mainly Terrible Terrors, would help with the smaller things like small home repair, sewing, and even helping Gobber at the blacksmith.

Yeah, life was great. Unless your like me and haven't bonded with a dragon in all that time (not due to lack of trying, of course). I'm not the only one, mind you. Several people haven't either. Although most of them don't want to bond with one. They don't hate them, per say, it's just hard for them to get past what they did in the past. Sure, the dragons weren't in control of themselves and because of that the humans don't blame them but a wound is a wound.

Of course, some dragons shared a similar sentiment. Those dragons would general stay away from the village and mind their own business. Some of them do come out to eat or help with logs and fish but not much outside of that. Some of them are more disgruntled though. Those didn't even come to the village and, on rare occasions, would still attack us. Given that we can also take to the skies they never do much damage. Some of them fled and returned to attack or try to befriend us, others came back to live with the others, others just never returned. We did manage to talk some of them down and lead them to where the others were staying.

Now back to myself so you can know who's giving this exposition. My name is Arnbjörn Arnfastarson I've lived in Berk for twenty years now but my family had moved here about five years before that (thus my name which is common where my family is from). I completed my standard dragon training three years before Hiccup and was a part of the raid on the Red Death's nest. I have killed dragons, in case you were wondering. I didn't like it but back then it was either kill or be killed. I never really thought of trying to befriend one. Even if I had, I don't think I could have done what Hiccup did. By and far, that kid is braver than all of us.

Anyway, I'm not quite as stocky as the Hairy Hooligans but I'm also not like Hiccup or Ástríður. Things are very strange here, according to my family. As they said my build, as well as theirs, is perfectly normal for a man from Scandinavia. I had a Gaelic accent although I could pull of a Scandinavian one if I wanted too. Just a random skill, I suppose.

Now back to Berk. We had, thankfully, just gotten into the warmer part of the spring months. A delightful change of pace from one of the harshest winters I've ever seen. While snow did have a beauty of its own, I hated the cold and preferred the green of the trees and grass. Really, winter's kind of depressing for me as very few types of vegetation live during those months.

Yeah, I know a bit about the local flora. I don't quite know the names of all of them but I generally know which ones are edible and which ones are used for healing. I know, I know. Why would a Viking who's not Hiccup nor the village healer (among other things) know that? Well, as I said earlier, I haven't bonded with a dragon. I'm also neither a farmer nor a rancher so I have had a lot of time to fill. I've picked up a lot of random skills from these months, really.

Now, let's change subjects again, shall we? I mentioned much earlier that Hiccup had been holding classes about bonding with dragons. These classes first taught you what dragons do and do not like, how to treat them, and other general knowledge. From there, after you had befriended your dragon, he taught you the proper way to ride them as well as how to put a saddle on them and how to make sure they aren't getting hurt in anyway. There was also one more class for a select few. These select few, namely the Original Five, learned more advanced flight techniques and a bit about aerial combat.

I have been to the first class a countless number of times, the second I've observed from a distance a couple of times, and I learned a bit about the third while talking with one of them (mainly Hiccup). So yeah, Hiccup learned my face having seen it so many times. I would also stick around after the classes and help clean up. I wouldn't call him a friend, per say, but I know I can count on him in times of need and I think he feels the same way. This did have the advantages of letting me learn some random bits of pieces of his time with Toothless. It was interesting and a few of his stories did teach me some miniscules trivia regarding the behavior of Night Furies. Not entirely sure what I'd do with that though.

So yeah. That's pretty much covers the major of events of Berk (at least the ones that I know of) and teaches you a bit about myself so you're not dealing with a total stranger. As for the here and now, it's about time for me to head out for Hiccup's class yet again. If anything, it does help Hiccup as I've memorized the lesson by heart so I can help in teaching a bit. I was also excited about today. Somewhere in my heart, I felt that today was finally going to be the day I bonded with a dragon.

The names Arnbjörn and Arnfastr are actual Old Norse names that follow their naming conventions with "Arnfastarson" being how Viking last names were (it literally means "Son of Arnfastr"). If you want to know how to pronounce them, Google "Viking Answer Lady". That's how I found out that stuff as well.