The island of Berk is located on the Meridian of Misery in the Barbaric Archipelago, twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death, where it snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. It wouldn't be weird to assume that anyone who attempts to settle there would be out of their minds – and you'd probably be right. The ancestors of the Viking tribe settling in Berk – the Hairy Hooligan tribe – must have had something wrong with their brains for them to have decided to ground their boats on Berk, build an entire village and settle down with their families.
Of course, vikings are typically not the sharpest knives in the drawer and are more typically renowned to be a foolhardy group of people (well, mostly), with being a viking often being regarded as an occupational hazard. Even so, the ancestors of Berk would probably have thought twice about settling down on Berk had they known of the pest problem on Berk. You see, while other places might have had problems stemming from the local rat population, Berk had problems stemming from a much larger, stronger, fiercer, fire-breathing-er dragon population.
"Gah! What are you doing here? Get back!"
Hiccup knew that he should just stay in his house during dragon raids, but that had never stopped him from leaving it during raids anyway. Despite all the vikings shouting at him, he continued to wander through the blazing town littered with battles between vikings and dragons towards the forge where he knew Gobber would be at a time like this. Although Hiccup was neither old enough nor strong enough to defend the village from the dragons' attack, Hiccup still wanted to contribute to the defense of his village as much as possible. If only the other villages liked his actions as much as he did. All the times where he set fire on houses, sheep and people were all merely unfortunate accidents. Really.
Just as he predicted (though it wasn't really much of a prediction), Gobber was at the forge busy fixing and handing out weapons to the vikings who came by so that they could continue their war efforts against the dragons when Hiccup reached the forge.
"Hiccup! What 'r ye doin' here, lad? Didn't yer father tell ye to stay at home?" Gobber asked without even bothering to take a glance at the door that just opened. After all, Hiccup was the only person other than himself who would ever go to the forge.
"Yeah, it's good to see you too, Gobber. Don't mind me, I'm just here to be helpful. One helpful deed per day! That's my goal alright." Hiccup replied as he put on his apron, ready to start hammering away at the pile of weapons rendered useless by the dragons that was steadily growing larger as the night progressed.
"Well if ye really wanted ta' do somethin' helpful each day, ye could start by just stayin' at home so that ye don't accidentally do something to destroy the rest the village. Of course, I'd appreciate if ye helped me work on those useless weapons as well, hoho." Hiccup pretended that he didn't hear the first part of what Gobber said, and instead to just focus on the latter part of Gobber's instructions.
Gobber continued, "Let's hope the dragons don't do too much damage ta our village tonight, eh, Hiccup? After all, we're holding the Ceremony tomorrow!"
Hiccup never did understand the purpose of the Ceremony. The Ceremony was an annual, well, ceremony held by Berk meant to bless the village with divine protection from the gods and reduce the number of dragon raids faced by the village each year. Emphasis on "meant", because Hiccup was pretty sure that the Ceremony was utterly useless and redundant. The dragons never seemed to fail to come to their village once each month on the night of the new moon to perform their raid. Hiccup was fairly confident that it wasn't just a coincidence that the dragons only ever came during the new moon, especially since the Night Fury could camouflage so well into the dark sky, preventing the vikings from having a hope of even seeing it before it strikes.
If Hiccup ever became the chief of the Hairy Hooligans, the first thing he did would surely be to rid of the age-old tradition of holding the Ceremony. Hiccup was fairly certain that wanting to get rid of the Ceremony was one of the few things that he had in common with his dad - which was a huge deal, since Hiccup got along with his dad as well as a viking with a dragon. Unfortunately, although his dad Stoick the Vast was a pretty popular chief with fairly high approval ratings from the village, even he did not have the ability to put an end to the Ceremony due to the great resistance he faced from the staunched traditionalists. Thankfully by the time Hiccup grows up, all those old stubborn-minded vikings would probably be too dead to continue resisting the termination of the Ceremony.
Briefly, Hiccup wondered who would become the next winner of the Ceremony. The village would surely be in for a surprise if bitter old Mildew won. Then again, considering how Mildew has yet to win even after all these years of participating, Hiccup doubted Mildew would ever win the Ceremony. Deciding it was better to focus on his task, Hiccup redirected his attention to his smithing.
Hiccup didn't really get much sleep following the dragon raid before he was woken up by his dad's loud talking-that-seemed-more-like-shouting. "Get up, Hiccup! You know we can't be late for the Ceremony!"
More like he couldn't be late for the Ceremony, seeing as Stoick was the chief of the tribe and hence had duties to host the Ceremony each year. Hiccup on the other hand could be as late as he wanted for any event and no one would miss him. Probably. Sadly. With a sigh, Hiccup dragged himself out of bed, dressing himself in his finest before heading down the stairs into the living room where Stoick was waiting. Hiccup would never understand where Stoick found the motivation to be so active during the Ceremony each year seeing as he knew for a fact that his dad did not enjoy the Ceremony either. He supposes that it was just another part of his dad's professionalism that made the villagers regard him as a great chief.
Breakfast was a somber affair as usual albeit quicker, and the two of them soon headed out towards the square and the Great Hall.
After reaching the village square, Stoick wasted no time to head towards the rest of the adults to complete the final preparations for the main event of the Ceremony each year, leaving Hiccup with the rest of the children in the village. He was soon approached by the rest of the teens around his age.
"Look who it is! Feeling lucky this year, Hiccup?" sneered Snotlout, who was his cousin, as soon as the two of them made eye contact. Hiccup liked to think of himself as someone who was more intellectual than the average viking, and hence often wondered how it was possible for him to be related to the brainless pile of muscles before him.
"Don't worry, I'll remember to give it all to you" replied Hiccup, only to receive a shove from Snotlout.
"I hope Tuffnut wins!" "I hope Ruffnut wins!" cried the twins.
"Well, statistically speaking, it is quite unlikely for any of us to win." Fishlegs added, before letting out a small nervous laugh.
Astrid stood in silence by the side, listening to the conversation, and Hiccup remembered that the Hofferson family had won the Ceremony a decade ago. He assumes that she was probably reminded of her deceased uncle, Finn Hofferson, who had died that year after winning the Ceremony. Despite her tough exterior, Astrid had a soft heart and she was extremely sad back then. Hiccup figures that she probably still gets reminded of him whenever winning the Ceremony gets mentioned.
Though Hiccup never did fit in with the rest of the village, he was at least glad that the other four teens talked to him more often than the rest of the village (though Snotlout probably treated Hiccup more like a pet to be abused). Hiccup bemusedly watched the interactions of the teens as they partook in the various festivities of the Ceremony throughout the day.
Soon, the evening came and the villagers started to head into the Great Hall, partly to escape from the brewing storm, but mostly because that was where the main event of the Ceremony was about to take place.
AN:
Hi everyone, thanks for reading this story!
So after many years of lurking around on this site, I've finally decided to attempt to write a story by myself :D
This chapter's kind of short and the plot hasn't really started to pick up yet, but I promise there will be more actions in the next chapter!
As this is my first story, I'm not really sure how I've done so reviews and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!