Chapter 1
It was an unusually warm morning on the Island of Berk. The sun was beginning to rise, and some of the village's infamous dragons were already out, stretching their wings and recuperating from last night's sleep. A majestic black dragon, a Night Fury, sat atop the roof of a house, overlooking the village. His name was Toothless, and he belonged to Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The Third, or just Hiccup for short. He was a handsome young man of 17, with neck length brown hair and soft, green eyes. He was tall, skinny, heroic, and an amputee. About four years ago, he and Toothless brought down a huge dragon terrorizing the island, and he lost his right leg, up to the knee. His friend and local blacksmith, Gobber, made a prosthetic leg for him out of various medals. Toothless was a matching amputee, losing part of his tail, preventing him from flying on his own. Hiccup and Toothless were the perfect pair. They were almost made for each other.
Hiccup woke up to the sounds of banging on the roof. He knew immediately that Toothless was waking him up to go on their annual morning flight. Reluctantly, Hiccup got himself out of bed, careful not to wake up his father, Stoick. Stoick was the chief of Berk. He was a large man, strong and powerful. But he slept like a baby, and didn't take kindly to being woken up before dawn.
Hiccup walked out into the unusually warm air, and grabbed Toothless's saddle from steps of his house. He saddled his dragon up and took off almost immediately. He's been riding dragons for almost four years now, and he has become a master of taking off. Soon, The Dynamic Duo was riding into the sunrise at an incredibly fast speed, doing tricks, flips, swoops, and dives, all at terribly a high altitude. Any other Viking would have a heart attack if they ever did that. But Hiccup was different. He wasn't like all the other Vikings, in more ways than one.
Hiccup and Toothless were cruising through the sky when they saw a black figure coming toward them. In no time, Astrid and her dragon, a Deadly Nadder named Stormfly, were flying toward them at full speed. They slowed down at the right moment and turn around to glide right next to them.
Astrid was a strong girl. She was stronger than most girls her age. She was very agile, and almost as good as Hiccup at training dragons. She had light blonde hair and bangs, all tried up in a side braid. Her eyes were a cold, piercing blue, beautiful and intimidating at the same time. She was tall and skinny, but not weak. If anything, she was incredibly strong. Occasionally, she would take her dragon flying before dawn. Stormfly is a heavy sleeper, and hard to wake up, so moments like this were rare.
"Hey, Hiccup!" Astrid said.
"Hey to you too." Hiccup replied.
"Enjoying your flight?"
"I am! You?"
"Of course! It's the best part of the morning!" Hiccup silently agreed by speeding up. Astrid and Stormfly were quick to follow. The two teens were gliding through the sky, cutting through the warm spring air like a knife. They flew so fast toward the sun, they might have actually knocked it out of the sky. By force of habit, they started racing each other. Hiccup was winning, but Astrid was gaining on him quickly. Knowing a race was beginning, Astrid smiled. She loved racing with Hiccup. Ever since he started the Dragon Training Academy of Berk, she's had a crush on him. Her feelings for him grew stronger over the years, but he would never know. Running the Academy was a tough job, and that's all he really cared about. So Astrid loved moments like this. Moments when it was just her, Hiccup, and their dragons. She could spend time with him and talk about things other than work, like the future perhaps. That was her favorite topic.
The kids raced on for a few minutes, before landing on one of their favorite Berk beaches, Thor's Beach. Hiccup and Toothless had won the race, but then again, they always do. Astrid didn't care. She was just happy to spend time with him.
"Looks like we won again!" Hiccup shouted victoriously.
"Go ahead, yuck it up all you want! I'll get you next time!" Astrid replied.
"Sure you will!"
"Hey! Just because you're the top dragon trainer on this island doesn't mean you are the top dragon racer!"
"Well, from the result of our last race it looks like I am!" Astrid punched him playfully and they both laughed. Worn out from the race, the two sat down on the sand and watched the rest of the sunrise while Toothless and Stormfly fought over a fish.
"I love the sunrise," Astrid admitted. "It's just so pretty. It's almost like a gift for surviving another day."
"Yeah," Hiccup agreed. "A great gift."
"I hardy ever to watch the sunrise from here. It's so nice. But even nicer to share it with someone like you."
"Toothless and I always come down here. Don't tell him this, but I like sharing the sunrise with you more." Astrid laughed and inched closer to Hiccup. He was staring out into the distance and didn't seem to take notice of her subtle movement. They both focused intently on the sunrise, but a large object in the distance broke their hypnotic trance. In the water was a large Viking ship. The kids couldn't really make out the flag on it, but it looked just like a Borg ship. A Borg ship meant very, very bad news for the people of Berk.
Borg is a village many miles away from Berk. Ever since the beginning of time, Berk and Borg had been bitter enemies. No one really knows why, but they just are. Borg was always out to get Berk in whatever way they could. They've never attacked or even tried to, for fear of starting a war. Neither of them wanted to start a war because neither of them were prepared. They mainly kept their distance from each other, so a Borg boat in Berk territory could mean trouble.
"We've got to get out of here." Hiccup said, suddenly standing up.
"What, no! We just got here! It's just a Borg boat, it's fine!"
"But if they see us, or our dragons, they'll kill us for sure."
"Don't know they killing the chiefs son will start a war!?"
"Well, they don't know that I'm the chiefs son, do they?" With that, Hiccup whistled, and toothless flew up. Astrid did the same and Stormfly followed. The two kids quickly took off into the air and flew away.
"We have to go tell my dad," Hiccup said. "He'll want to know this." The two kids took off back toward the village. The sun had fully risen, and most of Berk was already out and about doing their daily activates. Hiccup landed at his house and Astrid followed. Stoick was up already and about to make his way to The Great Hall for the weekly town meetings.
"Good morning, son!" He said, waving to Hiccup.
"Dad, we've got to talk. I was over on Thor's Beach, and I spotted a Borg ship. They weren't doing anything, but they looked suspicious." Stoick's face turned stern and serious.
"I'll assemble a team to go check it out."
"I'll go with them."
"No. You stay here. It's far too dangerous."
"I'm a child anymore, dad!"
"I know, son. I know." He looked at Hiccup almost apologetically, then took off down the stairs and into the village.
"You going anyway?" Asked Astrid.
"You know me too well. Gather the others too." He said.
"Will do." With that, Hiccup mounted Toothless and set back out to Thor's Beach.
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Thanks for reading! I'll have more up soon, I promise! It gets better as it goes on. It'll start getting good by at least chapter 3, I hope! This was more of an introductory chapter. Comment/Favorite/Follow, whatever you want. :D
(I also might be writing a series of HTTYD one shots soon, so look our for that as well.)
