Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

Chapter 1:

Alvin plodded forward. "Well well well. If it isn't the dragon conqueror."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, keeping his facade on. No use panicking now. "How many times must I say it? It's dragon trainer, um, what was it? Al. Right. Al."

There were a few snickers and snorts from both sides of the crowds, and Alvin snarled, keeping everyone quiet. "Hiccup."

Hiccup faced Alvin, fists clenched tightly, though his expression remained impassive. Toothless growled beside him, but stayed put when Hiccup put his hand out. He had no idea what was going on, but he would listen to his rider, the only thing that hadn't changed.

A Monstrous Nightmare roared from behind them, and it took exactly that moment for Hiccup to decide what to do.

Shrugging himself out of his captors' grip, he ran over to Toothless, and got ready to fly, before turning to the crowd and flying dangerously low, causing most of the Vikings to duck on instinct. Hiccup's eyes scanned the panicked crowd for one person…

There.

Astrid was at the corner, eyes watching him in amazement.

Without hesitation, Hiccup flew to her, landed quickly, gestured for her to get on, and when she got on, took off, narrowly dodging some arrows from the crossbows.

Flying up where the sky was still blue, Hiccup cursed that fact, and flew even higher, before the grip on his waist grew even tighter, and he suddenly remembered that Astrid wasn't used to going this high, since her Nadder had refused to.

He flew lower, searching for a place to land, before sighing and forcing Toothless to land where the Cove had formerly been, but was now barely concealed from sight: the trees were all burnt down, leaving a charred and black landscape.

What had Alvin done to Berk?

He turned to Astrid as they landed, and examined her closely. She looked confident, as always, but her skin was paler, hair was shoulder-length, and her face was filthy. Gesturing to the thankfully still clean lake, Astrid smiled in what seemed to be embarrasement as she leant down and started to wash her face off.

"What happened?" Hiccup asked as she stood up, face finally clean. "What happened to Berk? How did it change so quickly?"

Her eyes gleamed sadly. "Hiccup, you fell into the ocean. We all thought you were dead."

Hiccup started, nearly jumping away from Astrid in shock. "What? But-But I was-was-" He stuttered, not sure what to say. "I was only gone for a few hours."

"Hiccup, we thought you were dead for what, 16, 17 years?" Astrid gently put her hand on Hiccup's, even as he froze.

"16 years?" He looked at Astrid's hand, for the first time noticing the ring that was sitting on her finger. Astrid noticed, and sighed sadly.

"Hiccup, times changed. When you…drowned, Stoick had no choice but to place Snotlout as chief. Then…you know."

Hiccup made a face. "Snotlout?"

"Hiccup." Astrid chided him. Hiccup raised his hands in surrender.

"Ok, ok, but Snotlout of all people?" Astrid sighed.

"Trust me, you have no idea."

Hiccup smirked, before it faded. Now the girl that he loved dearly was currently married to his cousin, the world's biggest jerk, and he was too young to do anything to stop it. "Then what happened?"

"Snotlout did reasonably well trying to rule the Tribe, but then…" She sighed again. "Alvin and the Outcasts attacked. With dragons."

"Yeah, how did they attack with dragons?" Hiccup asked, frowning. "I noticed some with them."

Astrid's eyes darkened. "Mildew." She spat the name out like it was a particularly vile taste in her mouth. Hiccup sighed.

"Why is that not a surprise?" He asked the sky sarcastically, but frowned upon seeing the dragons above, starting to patrol the island once more. Toothless growled, as if in agreement to his anger, before he turned, head cocked towards the burnt and charred woods.

Hiccup sighed. "Look, Astrid, we need to free the dragons. Maybe if we can get the Vikings back on them and-"

Astrid shook her head. "No. They're all too petrified to rebel. Many tried, and were punished. They wouldn't dare."

"Then what can we do?" Astrid felt a warmth spreading throughout her when she heard the word 'we'. Hiccup wouldn't be going and risking his life recklessly like that.

Astrid louvered her voice. "There was some talking going on from trader Johann."

Hiccup frowned, but gestured for her to continue.

"We heard that there was a person, a dragon tamer, like you, that could help us. We only saw him once, on this immense dragon a few years ago." Hiccup nodded slowly.

"So if we can find him…"

"We can get help from him."

AN: A guess anyone about the 'Dragon Tamer'? :P Next chapter will take longer to post.