Chapter 1: Ok, But I Hit a Night Fury!

This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see where most people might have mice or mosquitos, we have dragons. Most people would leave, but not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.

I narrowly dodged a Nadder's blast as I ran though the village.

My name's Astrid. Luckily, my name is one of the few that isn't awful. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't.

I ran past a huge man as he threw a catapult at a dragon in the sky. It hit the dragon. That's Stoick the Vast, Chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby he popped a dragon's head clean of its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do.

I ran into the blacksmith. "Where have you been?" Gobber said, banging on a red-hot sword. The meathead with interchangeable hand is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Or little-er.

"Hey Gobber," I replied. I snatched my apron off its hook and pulled it on. Then I grabbed a bunch of broken weapons and started to heat them up.

A house caught fire outside and five teens hauled buckets of water to put the fire out. Oh, that's Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and... Hiccup. Their job is so much cooler.

Ok, Hiccup doesn't look like much, but he can outmatch any Viking in the village. He uses his size to pretend he can't fight, then hits you when you least expect it. He's awesome.

I tried to run outside and grab a bucket, but Gobber caught me by the back of my shirt and lifted me off my feet. "You're not going anywhere, Astrid."

"Please let me go! I need to make my mark!" I begged.

Gobber set me down and said, "Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places."

"Oh come on! I can go outside, kill a dragon, and my life would get infinitely better! I might even get a date," I told him.

"How are you going to do that?" Gobber asked. "You can't swing a sword, you can't lift an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" Gobber held up a bola.

"Maybe not, but this can throw it for me!" I said, patting my newest invention.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get back to work," Gobber said, turning around to keep pounding of the sword.

"Night Fury!" I barely heard the call over the chaos outside.

"Get down!" somebody yelled. I heard the whistle of a Night Fury, and saw the huge blast of fire on a building. The thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first.

Gobber pulled me out of my thoughts by yelling, "They need me out there! Man the fort, Astrid!" He ran outside, raising up his axe/hand.

I took my chance and wheeled my bola-launcher outside. Vikings shouted at me to get back inside, but I ignored them as I rolled the bola-launcher to a hill. Then I set up my launcher and waited for the right moment. There was the whistle. I saw a dark shadow and shot at it.

I could hear the dragon scream as it fell towards Raven Point. "Yes!" I yelled, throwing my arms up, "Did anyone see that?"

I turned to find myself face-to-face with a Monstrous Nightmare. "Except you of course," I said.

I ran and hid behind a wooden pole. The Nightmare fired and the heat started to burn through the pole. I tried to see around the large pole, and suddenly Stoick bolted past me and hit the dragon with his war hammer. Turns out the dragon was sneaking up behind me. After a while, the dragons flew away, taking a lot of sheep with them.

Stoick the Vast turned around and yelled, "Really Astrid? You need to be more careful! One of these days you are going to destroy the village!"

"Ok, but I hit a Night Fury."

"Astrid!"

I looked at the ground and said, "Sorry Dad." Stoick handed me over to Gobber.

"Take her inside," he told Gobber. Then to me he said, "Stay in the house!"

The teen Vikings taunted me on the way up.

"Wow, you messed up BIG time!" Snotlout said. He was my cousin, but who cares about family, right?

"That was epic fail right there," Tuffnut joked. Ruffnut snorted at that. The worst part was that Hiccup just stared. He didn't laugh, he didn't frown, he just sat there and looked at me. But soon enough Gobber dragged me past them and dropped me off at my house.

"Stay in here this time," Gobber told me. I sighed then he said, "What?"

Then I exploded. "He barely looks at me! And when he does it's with this disappointed scowl. Like someone skipped the meat on his sandwich. I'm a toothpick!"

Gobber shook his hook at me. "You're thinking about this all wrong. It's not what's on the outside he can't stand, it's what's on the inside."

"Thanks for summing that up," I said, opening the door.

"What I'm sayin is, don't try to be someone you're not," Gobber said.

I pushed the door open. "I just want to be one of you guys." I slammed the door closed before Gobber could say anything else. Tonight I would stay in the house, but tomorrow I'm going to find that Night Fury.

Chapter 1! So it's not going to be exactly like the movie, this chapter is probably is most similar to the movie, but it will branch out soon. Enjoy and review!