Monster

It was an awfully cold and quiet night; snow fell so effortlessly from the deep abyss that was the sky. A small village literally plastered in white illuminated miles out to sea helping ships find their way home as well as unwelcome visitors. It was also very unlike the Vikings to be this quiet on such a night when they would be celebrating something as ridiculous as a tree's birthday, purely for the sake of drinking and having a crazy night, but not tonight. In fact, each and every Viking rested in wait of an attack from a group of creatures most feared by man.

Guards were posted around every corner of Berk, as well as filling in any shortcuts or secret entrances that either they or the creatures had created so that there would be no surprise attacks. Each year in Berk, it snowed for nine months, and hailed the other three. But this didn't necessarily mean it snowed each and every day for those nine months. Some times it wouldn't even snow for a month but the snow would still be around. There was a particular day each year, when the sky would turn dark and the wind would be almost freezing, the sky would weep massive amounts of light snow that would literally cover the island within a few minutes, this only happened once every year and it was on this night that these monstrous creatures attacked, taking any means of food, whether it be animals or even children, destroying houses and wrecking weaponry, even killing many of the villagers just for their own sake of survival for the next few months as the weather would proceed to grow worse from this day on.

Another thing about this very day was that the snow would always turn black when the creatures approached, breathing their fire as a warning to the humans not to fight back, but they didn't listen or even heed their warning, seeing the black snow was a chance to fight and with the Vikings being so stubborn there was no way they were backing out and so easily letting them take what they want.

As the black snow begun to fall, the sky in the distance begun lighting up with bright blue flames giving every Viking on the island a signal to prepare and get ready for the attack.

Further up the island was the house belonging to the Chief of the tribe, along with his wife and only son. He was stood at the window when he noticed the black snow falling and the other Vikings coming out of their houses in the hundreds, preparing to fight away the annoying creatures.

"Stoick…" His wife, named 'Mina The Brave' had walked up behind him and was looking very concerned, although she too was an excellent fighter she was among the other wives who had to remain behind to look after their children. It meant that if the house was attacked she would be able to fend of any creatures that tried to steal her child as it was a very likely chance. When both Mina and Stoick were little, the creatures had invaded their village on the same night; they were both children around the ages of ten at the time and both at home being cared for by their mothers. When the attack was over, they both discovered that four other children had been taken and that they were now the last remaining children on the island. Since that day, Stoick bore an unimaginable hatred towards them; they destroyed the island on countless occasions, stole precious live stock and killed many of the villagers as well as taking many of the children.

This year, there were seven children on the island, including his son. Stoick's son was still very young as he had only just turned five the other week; he was very innocent and weak and could easily be taken by one of them if they weren't careful. That's why he placed all his faith in his wife to protect him at all costs and to hope that the creatures would never come this far up to the house. Stoick eventually turned round to gaze upon his wife's troubled face "What's wrong?"

"Please be careful" She simply put, looking away as she could tell he was so eager to get out and fight, his men, brethren and friends were all out there waiting to protect their homes and he still had to deal with his overly-emotional wife.

"Just you wait, I'll be back before you know it" He said in reply and gave her a quick goodbye kiss, the longest one she had ever received and almost seeming like the last.

He left her lost in the moment and was out of the house before she even realized he was gone. She stood at the window and watched as the attack began, the creatures raining down in the fair few but taking out parts of the village in one powerful attack, killing instantly.

The Vikings fought back just as strong, bringing down some of the creatures, but not indefinitely as they were certainly too strong to be held down for long, but they were surely battered, beaten and bruised in several places, even blades pierced their scaly flesh and helped them bleed.

So far, Stoick had counted only five of the creatures, they were so incredibly hard to see at night, their black skin blended perfectly with the dark sky, there was only two occasions when you could see them, which was when they were down on the floor because of the snow, making them a dead big give away, or for a split second when they fly past something they themselves had just destroyed with incredible speed. But even then, it was hard to tell which was which, they could all look alike from down on the ground.

The Vikings did everything to keep them back, throwing allsorts of mean and heavy weaponry at them, making plenty of noises to throw them off their aim. But this didn't affect these type of creatures, they were much different from the rest, they weren't frightened by the weaponry the Vikings held or the loud and insane noises they made as their metal clashed with others.

Following their own plan, two of the creatures secretly split up from the rest of their group as to not notify the humans of where they were heading and flew up towards the top of the hill where the Chief's house rested in peace, still untouched by the Dragons unlike the rest of the village.

They landed just a couple of feet away from the entrance, instantly giving themselves away to Mina who was stood just at the window, watching in worry. She ran away from the window as fast as she could and went towards Hiccup's room. She had very little time and if she was going to keep Hiccup safe then she was going to have to buy time.

"Hiccup!" She shook him awake almost violently and within moments he was up" You need to get out of here! Right now!" She panicked, grabbing his hand and running with him towards the back door "You need to run and don't stop until you're a safe distance away from this village, I'll come and find you as soon as I can, okay?"

"What?" He questioned back but there was no time for Mina to say again, she pushed him out the back door and quickly told him to run once again before closing it quietly. Hiccup didn't argue or try to get back inside, instead he ran down the long path towards the woods at the back of his house, traipsing through the thick and cold snow in very little clothing was extremely hard.

Mina was alerted to a sudden break in, she ran back into the hallway and spotted the two creatures stood side by side and looking around very warily. In the very little time she had left, she ran back into the kitchen and started writing a note to Stoick in case she didn't survive this horrible ordeal. After she was done she slipped the note somewhere safe but somewhere Stoick would notice.

The creatures, known as Dragons by the Vikings were extremely dangerous, with the ability to fly, swim, run at incredible speeds and breathe fire. Each Dragon breed had its own name, relating in some way to either its appearance or personality. These Dragons, the ones that attacked the village each and every year, were the worst of the lot, the dreaded night fury.

They were the strongest, meanest and without fail the best of the Dragons. Unlike the other Dragon's, they also had the incredible ability of understanding human language and even speaking it. There was believed to be only a few night furies left, and the ones that attacked their island were most likely them.

One of them looked over at Mina who was stood in the entrance to the kitchen; she looked at them angrily and fiercely. Indeed she was no mother to be messed around with and if it meant the endangerment of her child then she would not go easy on any opponent. "What do you want you pests? Get out of here before I skin you alive and use your skin as a door mat" She said viciously.

One of the night furies stood forth above the other and smirked in its own little way "Where's the child?" It simply said, ignoring her threat.

"Did you not here me?" She said angrily "I said get out!" She almost screamed.

"Tell me where the child is otherwise I'll end your life" It said again. The other one stood beside it simply remained quiet and somewhat felt sorry for the human.

"I don't have a child, it's just me that lives here along with my husband!"

"That's right, your partnered with the leader of this tribe am I right? Therefore I know I'm correct in saying there is a child amongst you, or at least you helped him escape before we got here…" He said.

Mina looked back at them unsure what to do next, she could attempt to attack them before they discovered where her son had gone but she didn't have any form of weapon on her or even around her and the Dragon's certainly wouldn't let her escape now.

Mina had some idea that the very demanding night fury was most likely the leader of their little coop. He was definitely more confident, fiercer and the scar across one of his eyes suggested he had been in some form of a difficult struggle in the past, one in which he would never forget.

"Toothless" The more up-front night fury spoke to the other quieter one stood a little further behind him, in which he then came forward and listened to what his boss had to say. "Go and find that human child, do whatever means necessary." As Toothless turned around to exit the house, he was stopped when his boss stood on his tail and said "And Toothless, I want him alive" He said letting go of Toothless's tail.

Toothless gulped and ran straight out the door, once outside he decided to check the back first. Since arriving at the house, his boss smelt the child's presence inside aswell as the mothers, but upon entering the smell became distant and neither of them had seen the child leaving through the front of the house or the sides.

He flew over the roof of the house with such ease and landed around the back in the thick and soft snow. Small but very faint footsteps tracked a path through the snow into the forest, he knew he needed to be quick, at the rate the snow was falling he wouldn't have much time before the tracks would be completely covered.

Before he left he heard a very loud and ear-aching scream echo throughout the house, Toothless ran off into the forest at this chance knowing the rest of the island was going to come flooding up to the house in a matter of moments after hearing that paining scream.

At the bottom of the island, Stoick was alerted by the scream coming from the top of the hill along with the rest of them. The Night furies suddenly stopped their attack and fell back into the darkness of the sky. Everything fell quiet and cold once again; the snow fell in its natural pure white colour. Stoick ran up towards his house along with a few others following faithfully behind, his eyes begun to weep in worry and fear as he closed in on his home. It wasn't just his wife he needed to worry about but it was his son Hiccup too.

He stopped outside the entrance to his house, which had been completely destroyed; the door was scratched and broken in several places and inside was even worse, things and objects were broken, smashed, torn and destroyed. Blood stained the walls of his house in different and disturbing ways, suggesting an epic and horrible fight taking place in his house but he couldn't see his wife anywhere. He didn't know what to think or do, he felt weak and very torn up, it took him a while before he was able to go and check the rest of the house, at first he believed that Hiccup was still there, safe and sound in bed and that Mina had sacrificed herself to protect him but when he entered Hiccup's room he too was gone, but there no sign of struggle anywhere, nor was there any blood staining his walls.

Stoick almost broke down in front of his Viking brethren but stayed as strong a possible, even though his friends would understand if he did decide to completely let all of his emotions out. "We need to start repairing the village and helping any of the injured" He said, helping get him mind of the events that had come to pass.

"But Stoick-" Gobbler said who had been beside him in the battle all that time, feeling a similar pain to Stoick. Gobbler had been very close with Hiccup, training him and helping him get better with the use of amour and machinery they had around the island.

"No, you can't worry about this for my sake; you all need to help the others and get the village back on track. I'll deal with this" He said sternly.

Gobbler backed down and became reluctant to say anything else, as everyone there with him already felt that way. They all quietly left Stoick to himself as he stood in Hiccup's bedroom, thinking and blaming himself, that he should have been there for his family but with his role as the Chief of their tribe he couldn't leave them either. He certainly wasn't going to blame his wife for what had happened, she appeared to have done her best and the evidence was all over the walls. He finally left Hiccup's room and examined the rest of the house, when he was in the kitchen he found a small note, written in Mina's neat handwriting.

Stoick…

If I don't make it then I suppose this letter will explain everything for me.
Two Dragons came to the house before whilst you were fighting the rest,
I helped Hiccup escape out the back and if he has done as I told him to then he should still
be alive somewhere, please find him and save him for me before the dragons get him.

Love Mina.

Stoic breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his son was somewhere and still alive, he couldn't believe it, Mina had done so well and he just couldn't thank her enough for acting so bravely and doing the right thing by letting him escape. Instantly he scrunched up the note and placed it somewhere safe, keeping it as a reminder to never give up on finding Hiccup.

Out in the woods, Hiccup was still running away and hadn't stopped even to rest. This way he was able to keep himself warm and fit even though he still had no idea what he was running from or even where he was going, he was doing this because his mother had told him to.

He looked up momentarily when he noticed something following him in the sky, but as he looked it suddenly disappeared. Just as he turned his head he bumped into something pretty strong and solid and fell backwards into the freezing snow. "Ow!" He moaned, rubbing his chest as he felt a little sore from the collision. Thinking it was nothing more than a tree he remained on the floor for a moment to rest, so when he opened his eyes he heart literally skipped a beat when a massive dragon hovered over him, trapping him between his four legs.

Hiccup had never seen a night fury before, it was one of the Dragons he had yet to come by and he was the only one out of everyone in his village who didn't know about the attacks made by the night furies every year since he was always put to bed long before it went on. So naturally he was scared but not for the reason of this creature being responsible for the many deaths and destruction across his village each year. He was also lied to about all that as well, each morning after the attack he was told that what had happened was that there had been a party and it had gotten a little out of control and like a child, Hiccup believed him.

The Dragon had glorious green eyes that for some reason seemed innocence and caring. The Dragon or night fury as he was called remained staring at him for some time as it continued to snow. Time almost felt like it stopped as they looked at each other, both feeling similar pain and thoughts, almost connecting in certain ways.

There was no doubt about it in Toothless's mind that this was the child of Stoick, but he certainly didn't seem like much of a Viking, Toothless was expecting some kind of a squabble even a fight, maybe even knocking him unconscious just to capture him, but lay beneath him was a child with a weak and thin figure, in a way there wasn't any possibility at all that this child and Stoick were related but it was true none the less.

Toothless suddenly noticed that the child begun shivering and he hadn't realized how cold it actually was until now; he had been lost by how interesting and somewhat cute this child seemed. He removed himself from hovering over the child and waited to see what the child would do next.

Within moments Hiccup was up on his feet, unsure whether to run or see what would happen next. Toothless continued to stare at him with wonder and Hiccup did the same in return. But suddenly, Toothless turned his back on him and started walking away, scheming a little plan to see what he would do. In this coldness, Hiccup wouldn't last much longer unless he had some form of heat provided and Toothless was the only one fully capable of doing that, so he wondered if Hiccup would follow or try and run away again. Even though he knew he had to catch him and return him back to his leader this was like a test for the boy and if it worked it would definitely spark something greater between them.

"Wait!" The boy cried, running to catch up with him "Please don't leave me" He said innocently "It's cold" He added, watching as the dragon stopped and looked back at him. Toothless knew it would work and smiled to himself for a moment before motioning his head for the child to follow him, deeper and deeper into the woods.

Wow, I'm actually really happy I wrote this… I came up with the idea today whilst I was having a nap and when I woke up I just had to write it.

Any thoughts? :D