Chapter 1: A Story That You Probably Haven't Heard Before


"This is Berk… It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death-" "What are you doing?" "I'm telling people the story of how a boy trained a dragon and ended a war." "Why, everyone knows it?" "It's a tradition, it's very important." "Wasn't one of the morals in the story that just because something is tradition doesn't make it necessarily right?" "Okay fair point. But now what am I supposed to tell them?" "You could tell them OUR story, they haven't heard that one before." "I don't know, it isn't exactly as believable as the other one. Don't give me the baby dragon eyes routine, it's not going to work. Don't-don't-augh! Okay you win, I'll tell them our story, just please get off me you're crushing my ribs. Thank you. So, it looks like I'm going to be telling you a different story instead. Now, there are some similarities to the story I was going to tell you, but rest assured, this story is different. Now then, let's start over please….


This is NOT Berk, this is the island of Hagallheim, which means 'Hail House' {1}. And no, it isn't actually all that cold, in fact compared to some other locations in the Archipelago, this place is pretty warm. The island is three-fourths forest, a large mountain on the western side of the island a beautiful beach on the southern side with a village filled with stubborn-as-yaks Vikings. Why did the original settlers on the island name the island something that means 'Hail House', you may ask?

I can't tell you now, you'll find out soon.

You see the village, MY village, is a fairly populated one so we need a constant supply of food. Our main source of income was the fish we brought in from the surrounding sea and the wild game from the forest. Considering the island is mostly forest, there's a lot of food to go around. Or, you know, at least there would be if it wasn't for the pests."

On a farm placed on a small hill just outside the village of Hagallheim, a heard of yaks were peacefully grazing. All of a sudden, a pair of claws flew by and picked one of them off, the one nearby just looking shocked. The shock quickly wore off and it returned to grazing. "Yup, just like that Berk place, the pests that Hagallheim deal with are…" Hearing the ruckus and commotion outside his house, a young lad about the age of fourteen opened his front door, and saw something about to shoot fire at him and he quickly closed the door back up, the flames hitting that instead. "Dragons."

Dragons attacked all around the village, people fighting to protect their home. Swords and axes clashed against the teeth of dragons and flames and rained from the sky. The boy had light caramel hair that parted to his right, with bright blue eyes that resembled pools of water. He wore a long sleeve storm blue tunic with a silver wolf fur vest and matching boots. On his right cheek was a scar that ran from his lips to his lower jaw. "That would be Hamish Bjornson, A.K.A yours truly. In case you didn't figure it out, I'm the 'Hiccup' in our story." Hamish ran through the village, dodging multiple blasts from dragons. When he reached the village square, he almost ran right into the path of a dragon and he would have been toast if wasn't for the large hand that grabbed him before he got himself killed.

"Hamish, what are you doing, you shouldn't be out here! Get to the smithy where you belong!" With a hard push in the direction of the smithy, Hamish was sent off allowing the person to get back to his duties. "At six foot ten with the presence that can strike fear in any dragon's heart, it's the one and only Chief Magnus the Strong." Chief Magnus wore a short sleeve black tunic that was so massive it almost reached the ground, a brown bear fur cloak draped over his shoulders. A top his head was helmet with ram horns and over his wrists were braces covered in dragon scales. His hair and beard were a sandy color which highlighted his pale green eyes.

"They say as a baby he could pick up a whole dragon and throw it so hard that the only thing not broken would be the attitude." Seeing a dragon flying off with a yak, Magnus quickly the first thing he saw, an apple cart, and threw it right at the beast, causing it to come crashing down. "What, I said this story wouldn't be as believable. Oh, and for the record, despite him being the 'Stoick' equivalent, he is not my father. And just case you don't believe that, listen to this." "Magnus have you seen Hamish," asked a female warrior. Compared to other warriors, she was pretty slim. Her hair was the same color as Hamish's, her bangs styled into two shoulder length braids, one on each side. Her face was similar to Hamish's as well, the only difference being her eyes, they were a bright emerald green.

"I just saved him from being burned by a dragon. You really need to keep that boy of yours under control Brenna." "See, what I tell you." "What have we got so far?" "About three dozen dragons are attacking, five men injured and a quarter dozen yaks have been taken." A nearby catapult tower exploded, Brenna using her shield as cover. Magnus however, wasn't afraid of fire and he simply brushed a flame off his shoulder. "Are there any signs of the Hail Devil?" "As far as we can tell it might not even be in this raid." "Good." "Yeah, that part about a 'Hail Devil' is important. Take note of it."

After running through the village, narrowing avoiding death, Hamish eventually reached the Smithy, and immediately got scolded. "What took you so long, I've been waiting for almost ten minutes!" "That 'lovely voice' belongs to Garrison the Crafty, village blacksmith and resident mood killer." Garrison was six-five, a couple inches shorter than most adult Vikings but that was due to a slouch. He lost his right hand in an incident that was never really clear, the story differed depending on who told it, and he replaced it with a prosthetic hand that had a clip on the wrist, allowing him to hold things. For attire, he head a mustard yellow tunic with beige pants. His dull gray eyes complemented his graying black hair. Personality wise, he was friendly fellow, if not a rough around the edges type of friend.

"Sorry Garrison, I was-" "I don't want to hear it. Start sharpening some weapons boy or I'll toss you into the boar pit outside Calum the Crazy's house!" Not wanting to end up in that boar pit again, don't ask it was a traumatic experience, Hamish took the nearest axe and started to sharpen it against a moving stone. "You may be asking yourself why I'm working in a blacksmith's forge with an old guy with an attitude. Well I have a bit of a reputation for trying to 'establish' myself as a potential dragon slayer during these raids, so sometimes there is some damage in the village that was not caused by the raiding dragons. Add to that my scrawny, non-Viking look, the chief just snapped one day and assigned me as Garrison's assistant and apprentice. It's only temporary though, in can quit as soon as I, in Chief Magnus' words 'Stopped being such a nuisance and start acting like the Viking you claim you are.' He may be wise when it comes to things like leading a village and solving fights, but emotional wise he has the intelligence of a loaf of bread. But what he said doesn't really bother me as much as it did when he first said it, because soon I'll prove that I am a Viking."

"Restock ammunition for the catapults, we begin a counter attack on my signal," Magnus said to one of the warriors beside him, carrying a goat on his shoulders. Protecting lives, people and livestock was priority number one during raids so sometimes people had to carry livestock to safety. Magnus and the other warriors ran through the field of battle, a dragon shooting at one of the houses, setting it on fire. "Fire!" "Quick get moving, we can't led it spread further than it already has," said a voice that passed by the window near Hamish, running towards the burning house. "Oh yeah, it's time to introduce the rest of the cast." A group of teenagers about Hamish's age set up a station filled with buckets of water and began working to put the fire out.

First was a heavy set boy with a yellow leather tunic and dark green pants. On his head was a helmet that had miniature dragon wings instead of horns and he also had charcoal black boats with white fur around the ankle. His eyes were brown just like his hair. "That's Johann Blankstone, nice guy. Not really a whole lot of personality, he basically just does what he's told to do and he's happy." Johann threw his bucket at the front door of the burning house, the water dousing the flames but not really reaching anything else. "Johann, I think if you aimed a little to the left you could extinguish a good portion of the flames." "Alright, on it Leif."

From the station with the water buckets, another boy was giving orders and refiling buckets. He was pretty small, attributed to him being a year younger than the rest of them. His blonde hair was short, and it was spiked like a dragon's tail. His icy blue eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for possible ways to end the flames. A red piece of fabric was wrapped around his right elbow, which stood out from his white short sleeved tunic and dark gray pants. On his left shoulder was a shoulder guard that looked like a dragon's head when viewed from the top. "Leif Tyrnsan, youngest in the age group, very smart…" Johann followed Leif's suggestion and aimed to the left of the door, and just as he said a large amount of the flames went out. "Leif it worked!" "Of course it worked, I came up with it." And unfortunately he knows it."

On the other side of the house, two more teens were struggling… to pull a bucket out of the other's hand. The first was a somewhat muscular lad with green eyes and red hair. He wore a purple tunic with open-stitching that was tucked into light gray trousers and a pale yellow leather vest over it. On his arms were gray fur bracers with matching boots. His helmet was similar to the Chief's, except the ram horns were painted red to look like dragon's blood. "Sven Erikson, selfish, arrogant and egotistical in every sense of the word." "That's my bucket, it has my name and everything on it. I get it, you want something that was signed by the great Sven Erikson, but I need it to work. Afterwards you can have it until I take it back later.

"No way, I head this first. You know the rules, 'Finders keepers, losers don't get anything," said the other boy. His long hair was blonde and dyed green at the ends, and his eyes were a mesh up of blue and green. A light yellow tunic that extended past his hip, black short fur vest, green pants and red boots were his clothes. He also had a long blue arm clothe that wrapped around his left elbow and stopped at his wrist and a dragon tooth pendant that rested on his chest. "Aric Askrson {2}, little crazy, little unintelligent, all around odd ball. He was dropped on his head one to many times as a baby." "Would you two stop and get back to work," Leif shouted. "MIND YOUR OWN BUISNESS," the two shouted back. "Aria, could you please get Sven and your brother to stop fighting, remember what happened last time that happened."

The last on the fire brigade, and only girl member, quickly threw her bucket of water at another flaming building before walking towards the struggling twosome. Blonde hair wrapped in a braid that laid against her back, forest green eyes that looked more like a cursed forest than a happy forest. Her blood red shirt was sleeveless with black cloth braces around her arms and a chain belt. Her leggings were black and paired with dark blue furry boots. "Aria Askrson, Aric's twin sister and the serious one of the two. She really only hangs out with the others because of work on the fire brigade. She treats life as one big competition and never settles for anything other than first place." Aria ripped the bucket out of Sven and her brother's hands and smacked both of them with it. "Now get back to work!" "YES MA"AM!"

"Yeah you get it, Leif and Johann are Fishlegs, Sven is Snotlout, Aric and Aria are the twins while Aria has Astrid's attitude. They don't hang out with me because, hello I'm the 'Hiccup' here." Oh, and for the record, Aria does not have the love interest roll here, that belongs to this last one." While Garrison wasn't looking, Hamish peeked out the Smithy window and into the healer's hut next door. And there she was, helping treat the injured warriors who were brought in. "Allie Ingres, granddaughter of Freya, the village elder." Her eyes were pink, something that was rare by normal standards, long black with a purplish tint hair that extends to her lower back, secured with a dragon wing shaped barrette. She had on a cream colored leather vest and a long sapphire blue dress with gray leggings underneath. Wrapped around her waist was a torn silver scarf that belonged to her father and a topaz pendant around her neck that was her mother's. "Both her parents passed away in a dragon raid when she was young, and after that she swore against fighting and decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and become a healer."

"Alright, Gunnar you can go now," she said, her voice as soft and sweet as a bird song. "Thanks Allie." She looked out her window, and gave Hamish a smile and wave. It was only until after he realized he was staring and she saw him that Hamish turned into a nervous wreck. He was going to wave back, but Garrison had caught him slacking off. He picked Hamish up and moved away from the window, much to the boy's embarrassment. "Come on, I was doing well there." "Trust me, I was saving you from yourself." "Well could you at least let me go out there and let me kill a dragon?" Garrison rolled his eyes, knowing where this was going. "Please, just one minute, I can prove the chief that I can be the Viking I claim I am. I may even get Allie to go out with me!" "You aren't able to shoot a crossbow, you can't throw a spear. You can't even throw a bolas probably," Garrison listed, grabbing the weapons he listen. To his surprise, a passing buy villager grabbed the bolas out of his hand and threw it at a dragon overhead, ensnaring the winged creature instantly.

"Okay, that was true. But I've been practicing watch," Hamish said as he bragged a bolas and aimed it out the window at a dragon, but at the last second someone walked in front of the bolas and he was caught in it instead. "Sorry Gunnar. Well that didn't count, Gunnar walked in the way and-" "Hamish, this is why Magnus put you here in the first place. If you ever want to start killing dragons, you need to stop all the talking and stop being a little less you." "'A little less me'," Hamish repeated. "Okay a lot less you. Basically your name is the only thing that says. And even than it might have to be changed." Hamish was offended by his mentor's advice and proceeded to give a lame comeback. "Well, you have to start being less grumpy and start being more chummy." The old blacksmith face didn't even change. "Yeah I know that was bad." "You've admitted you made a mistake, that's a start. Sword. Sharpen. Now," he said as he placed a large sword in the boy's hands and he started to sharpen it.

"Soon, real soon I'll kill a dragon. How could I not, it's in my blood. Oh, that reminds me you haven't met the dragons yet. This batch is not as well-known as other species, but lucky for us at Hagallheim, we get to deal with them. Yeah us." Over by a storage house filled with sheep, a group of dragons with long, slender necks and jagged-edged wings were picking up the livestock. "Windstrikers, they give the term 'dragon-breath' a whole new meaning." A few feet below them, a group dragons that looked like elongated Gronckles with snowy mountains on their backs were grabbing drying fish in their mouths. "Groncicles, think Gronckle but with ice instead of lava." Someone tried to rush at the Groncicles, only for an earthworm like dragon to burst out of the ground and catch his axe in its teeth. "Sweet Death. The 'Sweet' part comes from the smell it uses to lure in its next victim, not because it's pretty to look at." Over by another place used to hide livestock, a dragon with an axe-like snout, six legs and a spiked tail was cutting through the walls. "Hackatoo, don't let the ridiculous name fool you, those things can cut through wood like a hot knife through butter." More dragons began to take the livestock from the hiding spot, taking off with the animals in their claws.

"They found the animals!" "Don't let them get away," Magnus instructed. The men obeyed and fired towards the dragons that were flying with animals in their grasps. Some fell to the ground, dropping the livestock, only for small, fish like dragons with tentacle like strings under their chins to grab them and dive into the sea. "Sliquifiers, small but the fastest swimmers you'd ever see." Magnus looked around for any nearby dragons, but his attention draw to a fire ball that hit the catapult tower he was standing on. A dragon that resembled a Snafflefang in terms of build, except with a fan like tail, spikes on its back and multiple horns started to circle the tower. "The Moldruffle, like Monstrous Nightmares they like setting themselves on fire, except," The dragon stopped in front of Magnus, and flapped its wings towards the flames, whipping them up into a frenzy, "They prefer to boost the flames first." "I'll take care of this," Magnus said as he grabbed his trust mace. The Moldruffle started to snap at him, only to get a whack in the face.

Suddenly, a loud wolf-like howl bellowed through the sky, the Moldruffle retreating from his battle with the chief. "And that would the Hail Devil, the icy beast that brings the fury of a winter storm to the island and the reason we call it 'Hail House', the…" "WOOLLY HOWL!" "Get down," shouted the Hagallheim Vikings as a white blast hit the tower, exploding in a burst of ice and snow. "JUMP," Magnus shouted as the tower started to collapse. "The Woolly Howl. I know, not the most threatening name in the world, why do you think we stick with 'Hail Devil.' This beast never leaves the sky, it doesn't go after food, and in terms of accuracy-" Another blast hit the catapult tower, completely destroying it. "It always hits the mark."

From the inside of the Smithy, Hamish watched the whole thing, the icy powers of the Woolly Howl were something most feared, but not him. "I'll give you three guesses as to which dragon I'm going after and the first two don't count." "They need some assistance out there Hamish," Garrison said as he grabbed an axe," "You stay here and man the fort. Basically, don't leave that spot, unless someone asks you to sharpen a weapon, or they need a new one, on second thought, don't leave the building," Garrison said as he joined the battle, axe held high screaming a mighty battle cry.

Hamish was told to stay put. No points as to guessing what he does instead. He grabbed a pair of bolas and ran straight out of the Smithy, ignoring the numerous pleas of the people who needed their weapons fixed.

Over by a group of Windstrikers that had surrounded a bunch of goats, Magnus threw a large net over them, and some villagers went at the beasts. One of them attempted to break free by burning through the net by shooting a blast of super-heated air boosted by its fire, but it was stopped by Magnus clamping its mouth shut. "Careful, the beast still has some fire in it," Magnus warned as the dragon tried to throw him off.

On the other side of the village, Hamish positioned himself next to a stationary crossbow that he had placed there after the last raid. Miraculously, the crossbow had remained intact. He had modified it so that instead of arrows, it would throw a bolas. Despite having worked on his throwing skills, he could throw it hard enough that it would go more than a few feet in the air. Placing the bolas inside, he looked out in the night sky, searching for the Woolly Howl. "Come on, I need something to shoot at," he whispered to himself. For about a second, he thought he heard a low, wolf like growl. He looked over a bit, and realized that another catapult tower was close by. The howling noise grew louder, and Hamish knew this was when he had to take his shot. The tower exploded in a flurry of snow, and Hamish shot the bolas, the force knocking him back. As he got back up, a painful howl filled the air.

He had hit the Woolly Howl. Looking away from the tower, towards the start of the sunrise, he saw a large shape fall towards the base of the mountain. Hamish Bjornson, the village runt, had down the Woolly Howl.

"Yes, I did it," Hamish screamed happily. "I hit the 'Hail Devil,' who else saw that!?" "Hamish," screamed a young voice. He turned around, and saw the chief's six year old son, Magnus the second, running towards him. "Magnus did you see that? I hit the," Hamish started before a large fire ball flew by, barely missing him. "HELP!" He looked behind Magnus and saw that a Moldruffle, wings and tail covered in flames running behind the little boy. As quickly as he could, Hamish ran towards Magnus and picked him up with the Moldruffle close behind, snapping its jaws whenever it got closer to them.

Soon Hamish hid behind one of the torches used to illuminate the village during the raids, which was good for him because the Moldruffle fired at them right before he managed to get behind the torch. Magnus started to cry, worried for what was going to happen. "Hey it's okay. Everything's going to be alright," Hamish tried to comfort the younger boy. Unbeknownst to either of them, the Moldruffle was had found them, and they only realized this when the dragon took a deep breathe, preparing to shoot fire at them. Hamish brought Magnus in close, bracing himself for a fiery death…

But it never came. Before the dragon could shoot, Chief Magnus punched the Moldruffle, disorienting it and firing at Gunnar who was lucky enough he had his shield with him. Chief Magnus stared at the dragon with a hatred equal to a thousand burning suns. The Moldruffle attempted to fire at him, but only a small spark came out. "Looks like you're all out," Magnus said right before giving the dragon a right hook to the face. The dragon flew off, and the chief turned around… to see the torch collapse, Hamish looking at him awkwardly while Magnus Jr. cradled in the boys arms. As for the rest of the torch, long story short the Windstrikers that were captured in a net escaped with a small group of yaks, and the villagers had to do some repairing to the docks.

As the dragons flew away with a large amount of the villages livestock, all eyes turned toward Hamish. They were all staring at him with furious glares, especially Chief Magnus. His mother ran through the crowd and wrapped her arms around him, asking if he and Magnus Jr. were okay. "We're fine mom. Nothing's broken and we're still alive," Hamish joked. "Is that really what you have to say," Chief Magnus shouted. "Are you trying to get you and your half-brother killed." Hamish looked away from the chief, unsure what to say next.

"To be fair, I said he wasn't my father. I never said anything about him being my step-father."


PurifierofChaos131000 here! And with a new story too, look at that.

After starting to write up a bunch of stories, I finally settled on this one. I have a bunch more in the works but I'm doing this one for now. For those following my other story, Dragon Nation, I still have a lot of work to do on that, but for the time this one is what I'm focusing on.

So, the idea behind this story actually came from a story called 'Dragons: Riders of Bliz!" by BEST OC Maker or Gigabyte. It was pretty short, in fact it was stopped because it had to be rewritten. However, it did get me thinking about what would happen if things in the first movie were different? Different dragons, different people, a different setting, etc. So my creative juices got flowing and low and behold an O/C version of How to Train Your Dragon.

Just so we are clear, I did not copy "Riders of Bliz" I simply got the idea to do this story from that one. The only things that are in both this story and that one are that there is a Woolly Howl as a Toothless substitute (there aren't that many Strike Class dragons and I thought the Woolly Howl was the next best choice. Plus I wanted to give dragons that had only appeared in Rise of Berk and School of Dragons some love. The only exception is the Windstriker, which was one of the background dragons from the second film), the inclusion of the Moldruffle dragon, (again, not really many dragons to choose from that belong to the Stoker Class, I don't care what Rise of Berk says with the Moldruffle being Tracker Class, it showed up in School of Dragons first and I'm going with Stoker Class. I was going to use Hobblegrunts, but I thought that the dragon seemed more docile and the role was supposed to be the Monstrous Nightmare here), and that there are seven teens instead of six (that was simply because I wanted seven instead of six.) Oh, and if one of the O/Cs sounds a lot like an O/C from another story you've seen that is pure coincidence. I don't read a lot of stories with O/C characters so if one of them sounds familiar it was just a coincidence.

As for the notes of this chapter,

1} I actually had to look up the Old Norse, and Hagallheim does mean 'Hail House'.

2} The last names of the other teens, I just thought them up and made them sound like they might be actually Viking names, except for the last name I used for the twin characters. 'Askr' is Old Norse for 'ash tree', and Aric is the equivalent to Eric. But other than that, I don't know the Old Norse language.

So slightly off topic and very late, what did you guys think of the Race to the Edge episode released at the end of June. Personally I thought it was the weakest season. I'm not saying it was bad, it definitely had some high notes. I loved the new dragons we got, the finale was a great cliffhanger, Dagur's redemption arc had an interesting reveal, the subtle hints that the Dragon Hunters are connected to Drago, and I definitely have grown to despise Viggo, and I mean that in the best way he is a great villain, to name a few things. But at the same time there were low notes. There were parts that I wish were further explored in the season, such as the civilization under Dragon's Edge and the Dragon Fights, I wanted to see more of them, especially the Dragon Fights, I really thought that could have been a two-parter, Dagur's redemption could have been more than just two episodes, Grump's origin story is put in with no fanfare (but at the same time Gobber VS. Ryker, Gobber may have just became my favorite character in this franchise) and the episode 'A Grim Retreat', that was just my least favorite episode in the entire series. The only thing I liked about that episode was what was happening at Dragon's Edge with Gobber and Stoick trying to replace the Chicken, long story.

Sorry it got a little long there. Basically the season felt weak because it didn't expand on interesting plot ideas and instead focused more on filler like episodes. It's a good thing that we have three more sets of episodes on the way because I don't think everything can be wrapped up in thirteen episodes. Let's hope that more of these ideas are expanded on in the future.

Back on topic, updates of this story will be every Friday, starting next Friday. Schools starting up tomorrow and I have to finish some last minute preparations. See you guys soon.

PurifierofChaos13100

R&R

Posted: September 7th, 2016