Howdy guys! I bet you guys didn't expect a story so soon, now did ya? Well, I won't keep you hanging, here ya go!

Where could that dragon have possibly landed? Gods know how long I've been looking for it out here.

Hiccup looked up from his notebook to find, once again, nothing. He gave a frustrated sigh as he drew another mark on the map in his notebook. His frustration gets the better of him, though, and what starts as a small X became a giant scribble that took up most of the page. With another sigh, he put the notebook away as he continued searching.

"Oh, the gods hate me. Some people lose a knife or a helmet. Nope, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon."

Hiccup stops to take a breath, and looks back towards where Berk would be.

"Maybe I should go get Frieda? I mean, it will be quicker to find the dragon if two people are looking for…"

His thoughts come to a grinding halt as he hears a groan towards his right.

Everything was sore as Astrid came to. Her mind was numb from the crash, and she couldn't feel anything besides the aching in her whole body. It took her a few seconds to recall the night before, but once she did, her senses went on high alert. She tried to break free from the ropes, but nothing went lose.

I need to break free before…

Her thoughts stopped when she hears footsteps. Her full attention is brought to a small figure as it comes around the boulder in front of her, her face full of fear and dread.

No…

That's what a Night Fury looks like?

Hiccup was both confused and shocked by what was in front of him. Though no one has ever seen a Night Fury, he always assumed one would be big, terrifying, and covered in scales and spikes. What was in front of him, however, looked nothing like what he had imagined. Instead, wrapped in the bola was what looked like a teenage girl with a black tail and large, black wings. She had long, blonde hair that was free and somewhat wild. Her ears were pointed, and were black at the tips. The edge of each of her cheeks was covered in a patch of black scales, but her skin was otherwise fair. Covering her was a black top and skirt that was as dark as her wings, and looked like they were made out of scales.

It took Hiccup a moment for him to remember why he was here, but once he did, he drew out his dagger.

"Alright, I can do this, I can do this. I am a Viking, I am a Viking, I am a Viking…"

Hiccup was about to plunge the knife in when his eyes wandered back to her face. Her eyes were wide in fear; her mouth was open slightly as her breathing became deeper and more panicked. The sight caused him to lower the dagger, if only briefly, before he rose it back up.

I can't let him do this!

Astrid again tried frantically to escape from the ropes, even hoping to get her tail free to whack the Viking away. With all hope seemingly lost, she could only watch as he was ready to do the job. Her breaths became gasps, her heart rate vastly increased, it was almost to the point of fainting. However, her body slowed down as he dropped the dagger.

Does he want me alive for something?

Her thoughts were interrupted quickly, though, as the Viking brought the dagger back up, and started cutting the ropes. Once he cut the last one, she immediately sprang up, pouncing at the scrawny boy and holding him up by the neck with both of her hands

If Hiccup wasn't so scared, he'd be scolding himself for what he did. Right now, he was very much afraid, and he struggled for a minute before realizing he wasn't strong enough to get out of the girl's grasp. His green eyes darted wildly before they shifted towards her blue and dragon-like eyes.

Astrid felt numerous emotions flow through her all at once. At first, she was absolutely enraged, thinking that, for all she knew, he was the one who shot her down. However, that thought translated to the fact he cut her loose just a moment ago. This made her confused as to what to do with him.

Why did this Viking cut me loose? He had every opportunity to kill me, and he just cut me loose?

She was about to let him go, but she figured she wouldn't let this Viking go without so much as a good scare. She took a deep breath, and the Viking, knowing what Night Furies can do, was expecting to be blasted. All she did, though, was let out a loud cry. It sounded human, but it may as well have been a regular Night Fury screech, as her cry managed to intimidate the boy. She then dropped him onto his feet, staring him down. After focusing on her cold stare for another moment, the boy fainted from the tension.

Some Viking…

After taking one last look at the scrawny teen, Astrid ran off. After she was a good distance away, the girl decided it was time to take flight. She spread her wings, but she immediately stopped and dropped to the ground in agony. Astrid's right wing was in excruciating pain, and when she looked at it, it was splayed in a way she knew wasn't right.

No… my wing's broken. Why didn't I notice it earlier…

Astrid shook the thoughts out of her head. Now, she decided, was not the time to think about that. Instead, she had to focus on trying to survive, and with her wing in its current condition, she knew it wasn't the best idea to move much. Right now, she needed to find shelter.

It was a couple of hours before Hiccup woke up, and by then, it was beginning to get dark, so he made his way back to Berk. The sky was a bright orange when he reached the edge of the village. Hiccup was hesitant about going straight home, so he headed towards Gobber's forge. Before he could get there, however, he was pulled out of the path by Frieda.

Hiccup unconsciously scratched the back of his head as he said, "O-oh, hi, Frieda. H-how are you doing… today?"

"Hey, I haven't seen you all day. You kinda got me worried. Where were you?"

"Oh. Uh, I was just in my house… all day."

"No, you weren't. I checked to see if you were still there before noon."

"W-well, um, you see…"

Frieda crossed her arms before saying, "You went looking for that Night Fury you said you shot down, didn't you?"

"… Ya, I did."

Hiccup noticed that she had a smile on her lips. That was certainly not the reaction he was expecting from her. Still, that brought a small smile on his face.

"Well, next time, maybe you could ask me to help you. So, did you find anything?"

The scrawny teen's smile disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He didn't want to lie to Frieda, but he couldn't tell her the truth, that he couldn't kill a dragon.

"I-I did, but I think it broke free from the ropes before I could get to it. I did hear Night Furies are strong."

"Well, sorry to hear that, Hiccup."

For a moment, the two shared an awkward silence before Frieda spoke.

"Oh, just remembered, your dad was looking for you. I think he had something important he wanted to discuss with you."

"Well, that can't be good."

Frieda just shrugged. "Well, I wouldn't keep the Chief of the village waiting. I'll see you later, Hiccup."

With that, Frieda walked away as Hiccup simply watched. When she was no longer in sight, he finally forced himself to march on home. When he did get back to his house, Hiccup tried to quietly sneak past his father, but he was waiting on the other side of door.

"U-uh, hi, dad."

"Hiccup, I've been waiting for you…"

"So I've heard…" interrupted Hiccup.

"You've got your wish, son."

Hiccup eyes immediately went wide, but before he could say anything, Stoick handed him an ax.

"You'll need this for dragon training tomorrow morning."

"B-but dad, I don't want to…"

"It's time, Hiccup. Do the family proud while I'm away."

"Dad, wait!"

"What is it, Hiccup? I have to hurry."

"I don't want to fight dragons."

"HAHA! Come on, son, yes you do!"

"Let me rephrase, Dad. I've figured out I can't kill dragons."

"And what happened to make you think that?"

"Well, I encountered a Terrible Terror earlier, and I, uh, couldn't hit it...hard enough..."

"Don't you use a dagger?"

"I, uh, lost mine when I saw it."

"Hmph. Still, you'll learn how to kill dragons. You'll see, son, you won't regret your decision. Just stay strong. I'll be back, probably." Stoick then left the house, carrying a basket.

"I immediately regret your decision."

Alright guys! Hoped you enjoyed the second chapter. Got to see the meeting of Hiccup and Astrid, among other things.

A lot of details that are depicted in this chapter changed much since I first set out to do this story, no more so that Astrid herself. Originally, I wanted a version of Astrid that was mostly human, just one who could fly, had a tail, and could breath fire. As you can see by not only the chapter above, but the cover pic, that gave out to a more, as Snotlout put it, "dragon-esque" version of Astrid.

Astrid's injury also changed. Up until I was writing this chapter, I was dead set on having one of her tail fins torn off and have her trapped in the cove. However, I realized Astrid wouldn't really be trapped there. True, she couldn't fly out, but since she has human hands, she could probably climb out with a little help from a wing flap here and there. I talked to DarKenn again, and after a little discussion, it was decided that Astrid would instead be technically free to roam across the island, but she still needed something that kept her in the area around the cove, so she has instead has a broken wing.

Anyway, the next chapter will take a little longer to put up. This one was only up so soon because it was, for the most part, already complete when the first one was posted.

Thank you for reading, and if you got anything you'd like to say, leave a review.