Hello, hello! Well, first of all, I'm Frosty. I'm really glad to start a fanfic for one of my favorite movies of all time! I hope that you guys like the first chapter. I know it's a bit all over the place, but I promise it will get better.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get positive feedback at best and some constructive criticism at worst. Before anyone can ask, the line in italics at the beginning is the sort of message narrated by Hiccup. That's just something I think he would say. I can't guarantee that there'll be a whole lot more, but I can say that there will be at least two more throughout the story and a final message on the final chapter.

So, without further ado, I don't own HTTYD (though it would be so cool if I did!). I only own my OC, Tori Korrinston, and her parents. I hope you enjoy it!

"Change. It's probably the scariest and most inevitable thing in the world. Nobody knows why it happens and nothing can ever stop it from happening. Heck, not many people are ever even prepared for it. The only thing you can really do is to try to adapt to it. Of course, it's easier said than done…"

"Great flight today, Toothless," Hiccup smiled, stroking Toothless' neck as they landed into the village. "What do ya say we get something to eat, huh?"

Toothless purred, grumbling in his throat in approval. Hiccup nodded as he got off, patting the dragons head as he peered around the village, "I think that Tori should be back with the fish by now…"

The Night Fury's ear plates perked at the call of a yak, one pulling the fish wagon with Tori Korrinston at the reins. She was a rather thin and frail girl, pale and scrawny, much like Hiccup himself. It was hard to tell what emotion her face held, mainly because it was hidden by her long, black bangs and a fur-lined hood that she always kept up. She was also hardly dressed for a fight, again like Hiccup, and wore only dark violet and brown wool and cotton clothing.

"Hey, Tori!"

Tori squeaked a bit, startling both herself and the yak when she yanked on the reins and made him come to a stop. She breathed heavily as she brushed her raven-colored bangs back and got herself settled down.

"Oh, h-hey, Hiccup…" she greeted with a shy smile. Her head turned away slightly at the sight of Toothless as she quietly added, "I've got your order of salmon and cod right here in the front…"

Toothless gave out a pleased growl before climbing up onto the wagon. Tori gasped and pushed herself back as the Night Fury came closer and closer to her while trying to open the baskets full of fish.

"Whoa, bud! Slow down!" Hiccup pulled down on his saddle, but the dragon was more than eager to get some of the fish. He climbed up further, finally managing to get one of the basket lids open and began eating away. Tori yelped as she fell off the wagon, grunting as she fell face-down on the ground.

"Sorry, Tori," Hiccup apologized, helping the Viking girl to her feet. "Toothless gets a little…excited with salmon and cod."

Tori nervously brushed the dirt off of her, "It's okay, Hiccup. I know he didn't mean any harm."

Turning back to the wagon, Toothless was lying on top of the wagon with his green eyes lazily shut and his belly full. The boy rubbed the back of his neck as he commented, "Uh…I'll pay for any extra fish that Toothless ate."

"It's fine. I actually had a few extra pounds of fish I needed to get rid of, anyway," Tori shrugged faintly, rubbing her arm as she tried her best to curb her anxiety. Finally, she let her arm fall to her side as she muttered, "Well, I should get this to my father and get back to my chores. I'll see you later…"

"Yeah. Bye," Hiccup awkwardly waved as Toothless climbed off the wagon. Tori settled into her spot and commanded the yak to continue, which it did with a grunt. When she was just out of earshot, he shook his head a bit as he commented, "Still as shy as usual…and still as afraid of dragons as usual."

Toothless garbled a bit as he looked at his companion before looking at the fishing teen. He cocked his head a bit, curious as to why Tori was so frightened of him and the others. They never lifted a threatening wing or paw at her since they settled down, so why was she so afraid?

Hiccup sighed, patting Toothless on the snout, "Maybe that's something we can work on next…"

Later on that evening, Hiccup was slumped in his chair, reading over the defense drills that were to be ran tomorrow. Toothless was comfortably curled up nearby, snoring softly as he napped.

Stoick, who stopped running the sharpening stone on his axe, sighed heavily, causing Hiccup to hang his head. When his father sighed like that, he knew it meant something important to say. And not everything that was important was always pleasant to talk about.

"Hiccup," he started, making his son lift his head in acknowledgement. "I know you don't particularly like the idea, but this is important."

Yup. Important. Called it, Hiccup thought semi-triumphantly.

"I know, Dad," the dragon trainer gave out a sigh of his own. "I can't be head of the Dragon Academy and be chief."

"Precisely," Stoick nodded, continuing to sharpen his weapon. "That's why I think you should choose one of the other teenagers as an apprentice. Teach'em everything they'll need to know to keep teaching at the academy."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but then suddenly perked up as he asked, "So…that would mean that I would, hypothetically, have my apprentice close with the dragons? Teach them everything we know about dragons?"

"Exactly."

"And, again hypothetically, would my apprentice need to get a dragon of her, or his, own?" Hiccup asked, suddenly getting up from his seat.

"Yes, that's what I-" Stoick suddenly stopped, setting down his axe before looking towards his son with a suspicious look, "Hiccup, I have a feeling that all of these 'hypothetical' questions aren't that hypothetical. What do you have in mind?"

"Ye want me daughter te do WHAT?!"

"Agmund, please!" Verna, wife of Agmund and mother of Tori Korrinston, hushed gently. Honestly, it was a wonder that Tori wasn't down the stairs asking what all the fuss was about.

"Please, Agmund. I really think that this would be really good for Tori," Hiccup explained, only he and his father present. He had left Toothless outside in the event that Tori had been in the room, but now he could always set this up as a surprise. "It's one thing to be scared of dragons, but she can't go on the rest of her life in fear of them."

Stoick decided that now would be an excellent time to cut in, "Agmund, as much as you're against this and as much as Tori means to you, I have to agree with my son. I can assure you that your daughter will be in safe, capable hands."

Hiccup couldn't help but smile a bit, proud of himself that he had gained his father's confidence.

"She is in capable hands, isn't she, Hiccup?" Stoick turned back to his son with a raised eyebrow.

And then that pride went right down the drain. His shoulder's slumped before he gave Verna and Agmund a good-natured grin, "Of course. And, just for emotional support, we'll do everything one little baby step at a time. I swear, you have absolutely nothing to worry about."

Agmund turned away slightly, his head slightly down in thought. Hiccup gave his father a sideways glance, almost as if asking silently, Think I got through to him?

After a long moment of silence, Agmund looked back with a sternness in his tone, "Fine. If it'll be better for her, I'll allow it. But listen closely, Hiccup, if I get one whiff or one word of trouble, I don' want ye ever comin' near her again. Is that understood?"

Agmund was one of the few Vikings who was classified as "being in the middle" when it came to size, so Hiccup wasn't necessarily intimidated by his size. However, he could tell by his glare and tone that he was serious through and through.

"Thanks, Agmund. I swear when I'm done with Tori, you won't even recognize her."

When the parents gave him a bit of a harsh look, he backtracked and corrected, "I mean…you won't be disappointed. I'll swing by and bring her by the academy when she gets back from fishing tomorrow."

Agmund nodded stiffly, "Very well. Remember, I've got me eye on you."

Hiccup smiled in triumph, happy enough to get this far. Now all he had to do was get Tori to the academy and get started on her training. Shouldn't be too hard…

"What do you mean you're bringing Tori to the academy?" Astrid asked incredulously as her friend paced back and forth. "You do remember why she hasn't come around here before, right?"

"I know, Astrid. She's terrified of dragons. And that's why we need to be as gentle as possible when she gets here. The twins should be back with her any minute."

Astrid, Fishlegs, and Snotlout looked to him with unbelievable looks, "You tell us to be sensitive, yet you sent the twins to get her?"

"Yeah, even I'm not stupid enough to do that," Snotlout smirked.

Hiccup stopped, shrugging sheepishly as he said, "Yeah, not my best idea, but if she can handle the twins, she should be able to at least handle some dragons."

Fishlegs mulled it over, and then shrugged as well, "True. Very true."

At that moment, the teenagers turned to the entrance as they heard the flapping of wings. Barf and Belch zoomed in, with their riders upon their necks and a shivering, dark violet mass hanging from Barf's jaws.

"GUYS! What are you doing?! Put Tori down!" Hiccup exclaimed. "I told you guys not to use your dragon!"

"Yeah, well it's not like we had much of a choice," Tuffnut explained, leaning casually on Belch's head as Barf lowered Tori to the ground. "We tried asking her to come with us, but then she ran away."

Hiccup's shoulders slumped dramatically and a slight scowl formed on his face as he stated, "And you have no idea why she might've done that?"

"Nope," Ruffnut shook her head, nudging Barf to release Tori. "Besides, you told us to get her here, and we did."

The second that the Hideous Zippleback's jaws left Tori's shirt, she scrambled back against the water trough. The poor thing was shaking in fear at the pure terror of being scooped up in a dragon's jaws.

"Uh…sorry about that, Tori," Hiccup apologized as he knelt down next to her. "I kinda asked them to bring you here, just not that way."

"I don't know what we did wrong," Ruffnut said. "We found Tori and told her we had a surprise for her, that's all. Then she just ran away from us."

Fishlegs looked up from stroking Meatlug's head, "Um…don't you guys remember the last time you told Tori you had a surprise for her?"

Hicup looked up from the timid girl and answered for them, "No. Please enlighten us, Fishlegs."

"I can't believe you guys don't remember! It happened like three years ago. Tori ended up in a trough with those biting eels and crabs!"

"Uh, correction. We did that to Ingrid Frollinson," Tuffnut corrected smugly, crossing his arms in triumph.

Astrid shook her head as she countered, "No, I remember that. You guys stuffed Ingrid's boots with chicken eggs. Tori's the one who ended up in the trough."

The look of deep thought crossed the faces of the twins. Well, at least as deep as they could possibly go when it came to thinking. Their pool of thoughts and reason was quite a shallow one. Finally, realization came upon their faces.

"Oh yeah," Tuffnut nodded. "It's comin' back to me…that was totally awesome!"

"Yeah! We gotta do that again!" Ruffnut grinned along with her brother.

Hiccup then interrupted with an unexpected sharpness, "But not now, and especially not with Tori!"

Under normal circumstances, none of the other teens would have been intimidated by a threat made by Hiccup, if you could even call it a threat. However, when you put that "threat" along with a harsh glare from Astrid, people tend to think twice before challenging it.

"Fine," Tuffnut gave out a heavy sigh in disappointment.

"Uh…again, I'm really sorry about this Tori," Hiccup continued on from before. She appeared to have calmed down considerably since her body was no longer shaking. Still, she continued to breath heavily and was sure to keep herself at a good distance away from the dragons.

"Wh-why am I here? What do you guys want with me?"

"I am actually glad you asked that," Hiccup said, trying to add great enthusiasm to his voice as he said continued. "Today is the day when you are gonna start dragon training! Yay!"

There was an awkward, and no other word could describe it, silence between them all. The other trainers had strange looks on their faces, Hiccup was giving Tori an expecting glance, and the girl herself…well, with the hood it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

"What?" she finally replied.

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Hiccup asked with a bit of a forced smile. "I talked with your parents last night and you are now my apprentice. When I'm no longer able to run the academy, you'll be there to take my place."

When the chief-to-be mentioned choosing Tori as an apprentice, Snotlout and the twins couldn't help but snicker to themselves. However, when he brought up how Tori would one day take over, their looks of amusement were replaced with indignity and shock.

"WHAT?!"

"You've gotta be kidding! She's going to be the new leader of the Dragon Training Academy?!" Tori flinched at the volume of Snotlout's voice. "She doesn't even have a dragon!"

"Correction. She won't even go near a dragon," Ruffnut interjected.

With a roll of the eyes and a sigh, Hiccup turned to them and said, "Believe me, that's not going to happen for a long time. Besides, she'll only take over once I become chief."

"I ask again: WHY HER?!" Snotlout bellowed, harshly throwing his arms in her direction.

"Yeah, why me?" Tori asked uncertainly. "I don't understand…"

"First of all, what was going on when I said to be 'gentle'?" Hiccup asked the Jorgenson boy, who huffed with crossed arms and turned away sharply. He turned to Tori and gently explained, "Look, Tori, we all know that you don't really see eye-to-eye with the dragons. I know that they seem scary, but that's why I decided to do this for you. You can't spend the rest of your life living in fear of them if they're going to be around you every day."

Tori bit her lip, looking as if she wanted to say something, but stopped herself. She stiffened when she felt something nudge against her side, yelping when Toothless' face came into her line of vision. Tori tried scooting along the water trough and away from the Night Fury only to feel her back collide with another dragon's snout. Meatlug had a large smile on her face as she let her tongue loll out of the side of her mouth.

"See?" Hiccup pointed out. "The dragons love you. I'm not asking much, Tori. All I'm asking is for you to try. Please."

Tori gulped and nodded swiftly, "Okay, I'll try! But could you please just call them off?"

"C'mon, girl," Fishlegs pulled the Gronckle back a few steps. When Meatlug whimpered a bit and looked away in sadness, he gave her soothing strokes as he whispered, "It's not you, Meatlug. She's just not ready yet."

"All right, Toothless. Easy," Hiccup patted the Night Fury on the head as he backed away a bit. "Great. Now that that's done, let's get started."

Tori used the trough to help herself up to her feet. She dusted off her top before hesitantly asking, "So…how do we begin…?"

"Well, we should probably start by getting rid of that hood. Dragons like to be looked in the eye when you're training them," Astrid said, pushing down the hood, only for her to quirk an eyebrow at the new problem.

Tori's black hair was short, but it still managed to cover the top part of her face and blocked almost all eye contact. Astrid sighed, setting her hands on her hips before saying, "Okay…better, but now we need to do something about that hair in your eyes."

"Oh, I could put it up, if that would help…" At the shield madien's curt nod, Tori turned over to the water trough. She started running her fingers through her hair and tried to fix it up.

"Um, Astrid? How is this supposed to help?" Fishlegs asked in a whisper.

"Well, its true. One of the crucial basics of bonding with dragons is eye contact," Hiccup reasoned. "It will be easier on her and it will be easier on the dragons."

Snotlout rolled his eyes as he asked, "And why do we care again?"

Hiccup sighed and smacked his forehead as Tuffnut shrugged, "I got nothing."

"Hey, is this okay?"

The jaws of the boys dropped as they got a good look at Tori. Though some of her bangs still hung down, it was still short enough to reveal more of her face. It was hardly enough to say that they were shocked that she'd hide such a pretty face: high cheekbones, small round nose, and large, violet eyes that emphasized her shyness.

"Much better," Astrid nodded in approval. Hiccup did the same in agreement.

"Good. I think the best way to for you to start would be to-"

Like a swarm of bees to a flower, Snotlout and Tuffnut had Tori surrounded. She jerked back, obviously startled by the sudden and unexpected attention.

"Tori, I know I've never said this to your face, but I'm gonna now," Tuffnut said as he draped an arm around her shoulder. "I've always thought you were hot."

Ruffnut gagged in mild disgust while Astrid scoffed and rolled her eyes. Hiccup shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as he said, "Guys-"

"Hey, back off!" Snotlout threw the male twin away from Tori. Said girl try to inch away from the dogfight, only to be harshly pulled back by the Jorgenson boy. He smirked at her smugly as he said, "I think we all know that Tori wants to be with a real Viking."

Astrid, finally seeing enough, shook her head and decided to intervene. She twisted Snotlout's arm, making him cringe and loosen his grip on Tori, who scurried out of the grip instantly.

"We're trying to make Tori less afraid of dragons, not more afraid of you."

She threw him down on the ground hard, brushing her bangs out of her eyes as she went back to Hiccup's side.

"Thank you, Astrid," he said. "As I was saying, I think that the best way for someone like you to start is to touch a dragon. Toothless."

At the sound of his name, the Night Fury came to his rider's side and nudged him affectionately. Hiccup stroked his head before saying, "For your first lesson, I want you to hold out your hand and let Toothless press his head against it."