So it finally happened, after years of war, horror and devastation.

It seemed so strange at first, we had survived hundreds of years of fighting with each other, years of arguing over who had the strongest weapon or who could kill the most amount of people in the least amount of time. For the first time in thirty years we had actually achieved peace, only to have it blown up in one single bloody week.

IT happened, the thing that mankind has talked about for centuries. Some of us feared it, others even hoped or begged that it would happen during their lifetime:

Armageddon, the end of the world, Ragnarok, the total and utter annihilation of earth and mankind...

Wow... this is a really gloomy start of my tale, isn't it?...

... ...

So, where was I?... ah, yes the utter and total annihilation and so on...

The world ended in the year of 2050 when a new kind of spices was discovered, or rather re-discovered. The ironic thing is, we kinda saw it coming. Nearly since the dawn of time have we told stories about those flying lizards, how they kidnapped young princesses and then was slain by knights in shining armor, or how their breath could torch hundreds of men in a matter of seconds. Sadly, there weren't any knights around to slay them when the dragons returned, although machine guns and tanks seemed to work a hell of a lot better than an old sword. Not that we were ready for them or anything. Unlike 2012, there wasn't an Mayan calender telling us that the dragons would return and that made all the difference.

No one is really sure where the dragons came from in the beginning, some say that they came from the north of Europe, somewhere by Scandinavia, others say that they came from Africa(just as we did) and have just been sleeping there since the dawn of time. Some even say that they were a failed government experience that got lose, but most of us didn't care about were they came from, it´s kinda hard to really care about anything when everything you know and everyone you love gets decimated in a giant blast of fire and death.

So what happened? Were the dragon friendly? Were they intelligent enough that they understood what was happening? Did we keep the peace we had fought so hard for and worked together with the dragons for a brighter tomorrow? Or did we panic and tried to nuke every single dragon we could find.. The fact that we already have had two world wars and nearly started a third one, should provide you with an answer: The human race isn't a friendly one.

Though in hindsight; trying to nuke moving targets, when they were in highly populated areas? Not the smartest idea this worlds so called leaders had, especially when it turned out that all of the dragons didn't die in the attack.

So if the world ended and we were all killed, how am I telling you this now?

Well it turns out that the human race are a really stubborn bunch, at least when it comes to surviving the end of the world. Even though most of the worlds cities were destroyed and the few of us who survived were literally blasted into the stone age, we fought on and survived.

By 2056 humanity had manged to create a kind of society consisting of a number of small villages in the north of Scandinavia.

My story begins four years later, in 2060 , in one of those small villages:

This is Berk.

It all started with a relatively calm night.

Parents tucked in their children, old friends shared a drink of mead by the fire, guards half-asleep on their posts. Everything seemed to be perfect.

I was observing the village from the roof of my home, enjoying the cool night breeze as it swept through my hair and made my clothes ripple slightly. It felt weird, seeing the village so peaceful yet again. Usually the nights here were filled with the sound of fighting and the screams of the dying as the dragons rained fire and death upon the village, not that I was complaining; I loved to be able to sleep trough a whole night without finding out that dragons realized that they really hated your house and decided to burn it to the ground(there is something very stressful about waking up just to find that everything around you is a burning inferno, can't put my finger on what though).

We had now had four weeks of dragon-free nights and people were actually starting to believe that the dragons were gone for good and that meant that the guards were lazy, they could often be found playing dice or drinking mead instead of being at there post.

It frightened me, how not even a month of "peace" made us drop our guard so easily. What would happen if the dragons decided to attack us now. We would not get the usual warning and wouldn't have any time to prepare us, the attack wouldn't be an attack any more; It would be a slaughter!

Sighing, I turned away from the lights of the village and walked the few steps to the ladder I had placed there earlier and quickly climbed down it and entered my house.

It was a rather simple house, just three rooms all and all, made out of thrash found in the wilderness and wood. The first two rooms wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a kitchen and a bedroom, filled with the regular furniture you could expect in a post-apocalyptic world. Although a surprising amount of trees survived the rain of bombs, they were scares enough that it was forbidden to cut them down just as you pleased. If you worked for three months you could get one tree, what you did with it after that was up to you.

I´d worked enough to earn a couple trees that was planted behind my house and provided me with a steady income of firewood and material. Both the kitchen and the bedroom were filled with both metallic and wooden furniture, although the metallic ones were steadily decreasing by the week.

The last room in the house was the smallest one, but also the most interesting one. Hidden behind an old bookshelf lay my workshop. One of the few places in the village were I knew that I could be of help to others. Everything else I did always seemed to burn down or explode or horribly injure half the population of the village...

Shaking my head, trying to rid my mind of those thoughts, I went over to the fireplace in the kitchen and woke the slumbering fire there to life again. Shuddering a little I started looking for something to eat in the house. A quick search later made me sigh in frustration(I could have sworn I had some meat left from that deer I killed a week ago)and with a grumble I decided to go to bed without dinner tonight.

But before I knew it I was outside again, this time with my notepad, sitting down by a small fire, scribbling both pictures and ideas down.

"Hiccup!"

The familiar voice made me look up from my scribbles and see how a very large, familiar figure was walking towards me in the darkness. The behemoth walking toward me looked like he could crush stone with his bare hands, he was nearly a head taller than me and was not someone you would want to mess with at first glance. But if you looked a little closer and you would see one of the gentlest, nerdiest and also smartest people in the village, and one of the few people in this village that resembled something that I could call a friend.

I raised my hand in return to his calling, not daring to say his name out loud, and turned back to my writing, not even looking at him when he sits down beside me and starts packing up the contents he brought in his bag.

To any one passing by it would have seemed like I was ignoring the gentle giant sitting beside me, but far from it, I was keeping an eye on his every movement, ready to run away at the smallest difference in his usual stance.

Difference meant trouble and trouble always seemed to find its way to me.

But nothing happened and soon all of the bags contents stood before me; freshly baked bread, smoked salmon, mead, salted meat, a stew made of deer and wild leak and even more courses that I couldn't bring myself to name.

My mind went blank, my mouth watered and all I could think was: "Food!" My hands were quickly moving towards the smorgasbord that stood before me but my instincts kicked in and, as I removed my hands from the food, I slowly raised my head to look that the man before me.

"Thank you", I whispered, only to be met with a blinding smile while the man nodded for me to dig in.

Not giving him a chance to chance to change his mind I dug in like a wolf, eating like it was my first meal in days.

"Easy, easy," the gentle giant said, "Don't want you to choke now, do we?"

"I have to eat quickly," I answered with a growl which made the giant frown and look a little bit disappointed. I continued to eat quietly and quickly for a while, doing my best to keep appearances, but soon a small laugh escaped from me and I couldn't control myself anymore.

While laughing like a maniac I pointed at the now confused giant, nearly screaming: "If I don you'll eat all of the food. Right Fishlegs?" Once again I collapsed in another attack of laughter.

"Hiccup, are you alright?" Fishlegs asked carefully, now he looked really scared. He was scared of me! Little Hiccup! Needless to say this made me laugh even more.

"Am I alright? You ask if I am alright? You ask this when the world has gone completely to hell, when we could die in a moments notice, when everything I do seem to end in a explosion, when my own father banishes me from my home, when I cant even use my own name?" The laughter had disappeared from my voice, it felt empty now, I felt empty.

What was left was only a shadow of who I used to be.

"Oh yes Fishlegs, I'm fine, I'm great," I said with my voice dripping with sarcasm as I stood up and started walking around in circles, muttering about how life was unfair and if I just could get one chance to prove myself I would be able to show everybody how great I...

"Hiccup? Hiccup? JACK!"

Before another second passed I had moved with lightning speed, hand placed over Fishlegs mouth, anger showing in my eyes.

"Don't say that name," I hissed, nearly suffocating Fishlegs as I pressed my hand harder against his mouth, "that name is dead, that person is dead! There is only me left now, only Hiccup, OK?"

When Fishlegs nodded his head rapidly to answer my question, I released his mouth and turned back to the food and the dancing flame.

"I think you should leave now."

I hated this feeling, this feeling of failure.

I had been so close, so close to bring back my friend to the land of the living, but the I had to screw it up and say his name. Stupid, stupid Fishlegs. I should have known that saying his name would send him over the edge, he was exiled only a year ago, why did I do that? I wanted to hit myself in my stupidity, I wanted Ja... Hiccup to hit me. To scream at me, to just show some kind of sign that my old friend was still there, hidden somewhere under the creature that had taken his place.

But not tonight, tonight I had screwed up. Stupid Fishlegs.

When he said I should leave, I knew it was over, there was no reason to try again, not tonight at least.

"Keep the food, you look like you need it." It hurt when he didn't answer me, but I knew what he had been through and I knew that it would take time for him to heal.

I walked away from hiccups house, into the darkness surrounding it, and started making my way down towards the village.

Hiccups house lay quite a way apart from the village, about a kilometer from the nearest house high on top of a mountain peak. Not the best location, but that was were the exiled people of the village lived. Berk couldn't afford to get rid of its population, we lost enough people as it was to dragons, there was no reason for us to help them in doing so. So whenever we had to exile a person we simply moved them to that mountain and left them there. It may sound cruel, but we live a cruel life, and we never left one of our own up there without a simple house and some supplies.

They would be allowed into the village at certain occasions and they would also be allowed to take dragon training, but everything else was taken from them: their birth name and home, the right to attend counsel meetings and they were never allowed to own more than what they were given or could make with their own hands. The only thing that could end you exile was either death or if you could kill a set number of dragons, the number depending on the degree of your crime.

No one knew how many dragons Hiccup had to kill, his exile had happened quickly and quietly.

One day he was there and the next he was gone. Only the counsel and Hiccup knew what his crime was and how many dragons he had to kill, or so they thought.

I had managed to sneak a look in Hiccups notebook when he was busy with something else and then I had quickly seen a large number scratched on the first page next to a sketchy drawing of something that looked like flying darkness: One!

"Tomorrow..."

The voice echoed around me, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere.

"What?"

"Tomorrow... tomorrow the dragons will attack again."

I quickly turned around and looked at the owner of the voice. Hiccup was still staring into the dancing flames of the fire. He seemed to be speaking to it just as much as he spoke to me.

"Tomorrow... will be a slaughter," This time Hiccup turned to me as he spoke, eyes filled with sadness. "Tomorrow... I have been an exile for a year, funny how fast time flies, isn't it?"

I didn't know what to feel, he was here, my friend was here, sitting right in front of me.

For the first time in a year my friend was back with us. I should be ecstatic, I should be thanking the gods, but the only thing I felt was sadness. I saw how much it hurt him to be like this, to be his old, happy, sarcastic self, and I realized how much of him was destroyed when the counsel exiled him.

"Hiccup, I... I." But he stopped me with a sad smile.

"Go, tell my da... the chief, about the approaching raid," He took a deep breath before he continued, "I know that you have been calculating their attack pattern at least five more times more than me. Just make sure you make them realize how close the next raid is. That's the only thing that could stop a slaughter, you know this as well as I do. Just tell the chief, he used to listen to you, maybe you could make him listen again."

Before I could answer, he stood up brushed of his pants and entered his house without another word, but not before he grabbed all the remaining food. I stared at the closed door for what seemed like an eternity before I shook my head with a sad smile on my lips.

Exiled, shunned and hated by at least half of the village and he still cares about all of us, I thought as I slowly made my way down the mountain to the village.

Jack, I really hope you manage to kill that dragon.

The darkness surrounding me felt like a warm blanket around my body.

It shifted and moved like a living being, giving me both warmth and protection.

I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep again, to forget about to cold harsh world that existed outside this darkness. But that was impossible. I had been awakened for a reason, and that reason would soon be clear. But not yet, please. Just let me sleep a little bit more, that's all I ask.

But the darkness around me wasn't warm any more, it wasn't the nice, soft blanket it had been just seconds ago. Now it was as cold and harsh as the outside world, ordering me to get get up and do its bidding.

No, please, I beg you... but my plea was only answered by a painful slap against my nose, which raised a small moan of pain, from my throat.

GO! The darkness orders as it hits me again. Hissing in pain, I followed its orders and walked to the cave entrance.

The cold wind made me shout in surprise and cast a longingly eye back into cave, but the darkness was relentless: GO!

With a small sigh I slowly spread my midnight-blue wings and as I throw myself into the sky, my usually green eyes turn black as I hear the darkness one final time:

GO!