Posting this early because I want to hurry up and get to the meat of the story. Since we're following the movie's timeline, I feel I'm obligated for now to help you guys read what you want to read instead of the novelization of HTTYD1 that's persisting through some of these chapters.

Section 1 is entirely new. Section 3 carries a very minor change, and section 4 adds a small amount of character stuff for Stoick and depth to the overall very short scene.

Chapter 12, which I will post by tomorrow (and maybe even later today if I feel like it. I'm as impatient as any of you might be right now), will have more original stuff, and then with Chapter 13 we will return to deviating from the movie and should be staying that way for the rest of the story.

Sorry for the inconveniencing. I would ask that you guys review the first section of this chapter at least, because personally I like it and I'd love to hear feedback on it. Otherwise, thanks to all who are reviewing elsewhere. Your feedback is both heard and appreciated.


11. Trial and Error

The next morning, dragon training brought them back to the Gronckle. Snotlout and the twins had groaned that they'd already seen that dragon, but Gobber had shut them down and explained that once was not nearly enough to learn how to fight a certain species of dragon. To become experts at dragon fighting, repetition was key, and if they wanted to learn to fight against the big boys, they'd have to survive the little ones first.

And so they had dove headlong into another scrum with the Gronckle, a handful of wooden barriers scattered across the arena to be used as cover. The small, tough dragon had buzzed back and forth across the ring, conserving its shots this time as it examined its teenage foes.

Snotlout had been the first one to engage, intending to impress Astrid. The boisterous teen had rambled on about something along the lines of rescuing Astrid from her unfortunate engagement to Hiccup. How Snotlout had even connected those dots, Hiccup wasn't sure, but there he'd gone to engage the Gronckle, yelling and rearing his arm back to sling his hammer.

The dragon had scrutinized him for a moment and easily dodged his hammer throw before snarling and loosing a ball of molten rock in response. Snotlout had raised his shield to block the blast, succeeding until he peered over the wooden rim. The Gronckle chose to charge headfirst next rather than waste another shot, and there was a sound of splintering wood as the small dragon crashed into Snotlout's shield and easily knocked the boy away.

The action had managed to wake Hiccup up from his stupor, for he'd nearly fallen asleep standing up until then. He'd been up all night in the forge, constructing the prosthetic tailfin for the Night Fury.

In that time, he'd also realized that it wasn't exactly prudent to keep referring to his new friend as 'the dragon' or 'the Night Fury', so he'd devoted a few moments to coming up with a name, thinking constantly about something distinguishing about the dragon in his search for the perfect moniker.

When Toothless had come to him, he'd almost laughed at the sheer perfection of it. Hiccup had worked with a purpose after that, making sure to be as quiet as possible even with his hammer strikes. It wasn't the first time that he'd worked in the forge late at night when the village slept, but that didn't stop him from being constantly on guard and extra careful. He had no idea how he would explain himself out of this one.

The prosthetic had been completed in the wee hours of the morning, and instead of walking home after hiding the invention in his workshop, he'd slumped down into his chair and used his desk as a pillow. Luckily, Gobber had come through the forge that morning and roused him, so he hadn't slept through training. He didn't know how much (or more accurately, how little) sleep he'd managed to get, and he also didn't want to think about it. Some things were better off unknown, such as his friendship with Toothless.

"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice roused him again. She shoved him in the shoulder and he fell, slumping across the ground as a molten rock flew past him overhead. The Gronckle didn't seem to care that it had missed and continued flying around, buzzing and snorting and grunting as it went. Hiccup crawled behind the nearest barrier and he was quickly joined by Astrid. They sat up against the barrier, their backs pressed into the wood. Astrid quickly checked behind her, getting an eye on the dragon.

"You okay?" she asked, leering at the dragon.

"Yeah. Thanks." Hiccup grunted, rubbing his elbow as she looked the other way.

"You missed the end of dinner last night. What was that about?" Astrid asked when she turned back, giving him this look that he knew meant he wasn't dodging her question this time.

Thor. Astrid would be the one to ask him about that. "Oh, uh, you know, I just remembered that I had left some things at the forge and I didn't want to forget to go by there." Hiccup lied.

Astrid narrowed her eyes. Somewhere on the other side of the ring, Hiccup heard Fishlegs yell in terror.

"You don't have to lie to me, Hiccup." Astrid insisted, "Whatever it is, you can talk to me about it."

Oh, sure, she might think that, but Hiccup knew that if he did tell her the absolute truth that she would never speak to him again. And that would be if he was lucky. If he was unlucky, as he usually was, Astrid might go ahead and take care of executing him right then and there.

"It's not a lie. I-I've been thinking about, ah, modifying my sword, and, maybe putting together a training outfit." Hiccup assured her. Astrid scrutinized him even harder, so Hiccup rambled and began adding to the lie, "You know, some leather padding, maybe some slots where I can carry a couple of knives?"

"A training outfit?" Astrid repeated, a disbelieving look on her face. Hiccup gulped, he really couldn't think of anything else on the fly, at least not anything with details that might sound true. Fortunately for him, a smile was tugging at Astrid lips, as if she were trying to picture him in a series of absurd getups for dragon training.

"Y-yeah." Hiccup said, "I-it's in a rough stage right now, all I managed to do was draw up some plans, and I'm going to spend a lot of time revising it, but… yeah. That-that's why I left early."

Astrid looked back behind them again, eyeing the Gronckle. The dragon's back was turned to them and it was vigorously scratching an apparent itch on the side of its head. Eager, she turned back to Hiccup, "Okay, follow my lead. We're taking this thing down."

Hiccup stammered, "Oh, uh, o-okay, I don't—wait…"

Astrid had already leaped over the barrier and Hiccup had no choice but to follow. Astrid crept silently, amazingly avoiding the ears of the Gronckle. Apparently the Gronckle's blind spot was directly behind it. Now that Hiccup thought about it, wouldn't most dragons' blind spots be directly behind them? Nadders were an exception because of their monocular vision. That might be something to think about.

Astrid looked to Hiccup and motioned for him to bang on his shield with his sword, immediately gesturing after for him to wait until she was ready. Next, she started creeping to the Gronckle's side, diving into hiding as the Gronckle looked in her direction. The small dragon growled, suspicious, and Astrid frantically signaled for Hiccup to begin.

Hiccup bashed his sword against his shield, causing a sudden racket. The Gronckle whirled around, completely forgetting about Astrid and glaring at Hiccup.

"Hey, ugly! You, uh… you want some of this?" Hiccup taunted. He briefly glanced at Astrid and saw her roll her eyes in amusement, but the Gronckle took the bait, parting its jaws and firing a ball of smelted rock. "Ah!" Hiccup yelped as he brought up his shield, dropping back a few steps from the impact.

With the Gronckle distracted, and Astrid now in its blind spot, the warrior woman quickly stepped onto the top of a barrier beside her and leaped, swinging her axe back and yelling. She was too fast for the Gronckle to turn, and with the perfect opening, Astrid hooked the curve of her axe blade around the small dragon's neck. The Gronckle thrashed, but her weight brought the dragon down to the ground. Grinning madly, she placed her foot against the Gronckle's head, pushing it into the ground to hold the dragon still.

"Well done, Astrid! And you, Hiccup!" Gobber praised. The blacksmith was actually grinning as he wobbled over. He swung his hook in the air, signaling that the exercise was over so that the other teens would come out of hiding.

The twins emerged first, squabbling with each other about the other being too slow to come up with a plan. Snotlout and Fishlegs were next, hiding on opposite ends of the arena. Gobber reached Astrid and the Gronckle and gestured for her to step off of the dragon, where he quickly replaced the pressure by grabbing the Gronckle by its teeth with his hook-hand. The tough dragon snarled and tried to chew on the stubborn metal, and with practiced ease Gobber dragged the beast back to its pen and locked up.

"Now—pay attention, you can all learn something from Hiccup and Astrid."

"Wait, but Hiccup didn't even do anything!" Snotlout complained.

"Not true." Gobber replied, "He distracted the dragon by making noise and getting its attention. That allowed Astrid to attack the dragon and incapacitate it. In a raid situation, such tactics can be invaluable, Snotlout."

Tuffnut sniggered, "Heh-heh, yeah, Snotlout." Snotlout glared at the male Thorston.

Gobber waved his hand at the six teens, shooing them. "Now, lesson's over. Git out o' here."


"Hey, Toothless!" Hiccup singsonged. The big, black dragon lifted its head, eyes sliding open as it woke and widening curiously as they fell on Hiccup. The boy was carrying a large burlap sack full of fish, and he'd actually been impressed with the fact that he'd come all the way to the cove without having to set the weight down once.

"Sorry I'm late. I brought breakfast!" Hiccup declared, setting the sack down and kicking it over. The top opened and several fish spilled out, just a few of the many stashed inside. Intrigued, Toothless approached the pile of fish, nostrils expanding and narrowing repeatedly. "Oooookay, that's disgusting. Alright, c'mon, eat up. We've got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, oh, and I think there's a whole smoked eel somewhere in here—"

Toothless suddenly backed up, baring his teeth at the pile of fish and growling. Puzzled, Hiccup reached into the pile, following Toothless' eyes and grabbing the long eel. When Hiccup pulled it up, Toothless reared back and roared, apparently spooked by the creature.

"Oh! No, no, I'm sorry!" Hiccup stammered. He promptly threw the eel to the side and Toothless calmed. Interesting. Dragons don't like eels… Hiccup thought before looking back up to Toothless, "Yeah, I'm not really a big eel guy myself. Sorry about that, bud. We should be okay now."

Toothless licked his lips and crept anew toward the sack full of fish. Hiccup casually walked out of the dragon's sight, sliding the prosthetic tailfin out from under his shoulder. Toothless greedily slinked forward and scarfed down handfuls of fish, eating quickly and indiscriminately. Hiccup crept to the black dragon's tail, carefully sitting down on it and going to work attaching the prosthetic. Toothless failed to notice, or at least didn't care—he was very much preoccupied.

Strapping on the prosthetic was easy enough.

The hard part was when Toothless spread his wings a few moments later and took off.

"WOAH!" Hiccup yelled as he latched onto Toothless' tail as tightly as he could. The dragon's wings beat repeatedly through the air, generating lift and bringing Toothless and Hiccup up.

Only a few seconds later, the prosthetic fin shrank as a result of the wind, thinning and ruining all of the momentum that Toothless had gained. The Night Fury groaned as he dropped, and Hiccup quickly reached out and opened the fin as much as it would go. Feeling the change, Toothless pulled up again. They flew out of the cove and Hiccup tilted Toothless' entire tail to the left, forcing the dragon to turn back.

Wind whipped through Hiccup's hair and made his skin tingle. "It's working! It's really working!" he hollered. He and Toothless swooped back into the cove and Hiccup let the tail return to its normal position and Toothless began flying straight again, zooming above the lake.

"I did it! Yes!" Hiccup whooped again. This time, Toothless heard him, apparently having been so enthralled with flying that he hadn't noticed the boy's presence. The Night Fury growled and whipped around, doing a complete 180 and sending Hiccup flying towards the water. What Toothless hadn't counted on was that by doing that, he was cutting any control he'd had in-flight.

Hiccup skipped across the lake's surface and Toothless plummeted, making a huge splash as he crashed. Hiccup thrashed, fighting his way back to the surface and practically jumped out of the water, arms thrust in the air as he hollered in triumph.

"Yeah!"


As soon as the doors were open, a bomb of green gas exploded in the arena, spilling a foul-smelling and explosive mist over the recruits. Each held a bucket of water in two hands, and most of them braced back a step or two as the faintest outline of some inhuman beast slinked out of the cage and blended into the gas.

"Today is about teamwork." Gobber announced, "Remember: a wet dragon head can't light its flame. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job will be to know which is which, heh-heh."

Hiccup had been paired with Fishlegs, Astrid with Ruffnut, and Snotlout with Tuffnut. Each pair stood back-to-back as sharp green gas filled the ring, adding more and more ground to the loose Zippleback's territory. It would be impossible to see the dragon now if one was more than a few feet from it.

Snotlout started to boast, warning the dragon to stay hidden while also endorsing his own talents. "If that dragon shows either of its faces, I'll tear its teeth out."

Tuffnut cackled and agreed. Moving as one with the male Thorston, Snotlout spotted a unique outline in the gas. "There!" he shouted, readying his bucket and launching the water without a second thought.

There was a rather feminine yelp and the water dispersed some of the gas, revealing the figures to be Ruffnut and Astrid.

"Hey! It's us, idiots!" Ruffnut scowled.

"Huh. Your butts must be getting bigger." Tuffnut theorized, "We thought you were a dragon."

Snotlout nodded agreeably, "Yeah. N-Not that there's anything wrong with a… dragonesque figure."

Astrid was surging towards Snotlout and the brash Jorgenson wiggled his eyebrows, entirely misinterpreting her approach, "Well, hello…"

Astrid sucker-punched him in the jaw, knocking Snotlout's head a perfect ninety degrees. Hiccup and Fishlegs both stifled a laugh, covering their mouths almost identically. Tuffnut laughed out loud, only for Ruffnut to sling her full bucket of water at him and hit him straight in the forehead. Grunting in surprised pain, the male Thorston twin promptly fell on his back, groggily lifting his head off the ground before something latched onto the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the cloud of gas.

The elation and satisfaction passing to four of the recruits instantly shifted into horror as Tuffnut screamed. Astrid staggered back, reaching again for her bucket and quickly regaining her readied stance. Snotlout scrambled away from the gas, struggling to find his footing, when Tuffnut came sprinting wildly out of the gas.

"Oh! Oh! I am very much hurt!" Tuffnut declared. He scampered away and fell down on his butt, rambling boisterously. "That thing—it almost ate me! B-but I gave it a good punch, right in the jaw, scared it off! I swear! Man, you guys are lucky!"

Hiccup and Fishlegs turned their attentions back to the gas, fear creeping into their bloodstreams. "Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now…" Fishlegs declared dejectedly.

The gas suddenly seemed to hiss and a Zippleback head slinked out of the green haze, attached to a long neck with bonelike plates down its spine. Large yellow eyes and two rows of sharp, venom-packed teeth glinted in the sunlight and the head snaked towards Fishlegs. The husky boy yelped and staggered back a step before he remembered his bucket, and he promptly doused the head in water.

The Zippleback head flinched and then opened its mouth, releasing a decidedly unhealthy amount of toxic gas from its throat.

"Heh. Oops… wrong head…" Fishlegs lamented. He smiled at the dragon, apparently hoping that it wouldn't hurt him. The Zippleback head felt differently, it seemed, and it suddenly unleashed a thick jet of gas on the husky boy, frightening him.

"Fishlegs!" Gobber shouted. The boy turned tail and ran, escaping the fumes. Another identical head appeared from the gas, followed by the dragon's oddly-built body, and approached Hiccup, spitting volatile sparks that threatened to catch the gas around Hiccup and light it aflame.

"Hiccup, now! Get 'im!" Gobber insisted. Hiccup tensed and stepped forward, bringing back the bucket and slinging it at an upward angle. The water shot out of the bucket and caught the head spouting sparks, sufficiently dousing it and shutting down its ability to light the gas.

"Great work, Hiccup!" Gobber praised, but Hiccup wasn't finished.

"Yeah! You like that?" Hiccup boasted. He stepped forward imposingly, bringing his hands up and shoving his hands at the air. The Zippleback hissed and backed up, intimidated by Hiccup's sudden moves. It couldn't light its flame and fight back, and the boy was very much not afraid of the two-headed Fear Class dragon.

"Yeah, that's right! Back! Back! Get back there in your cage, you heard me!" Hiccup ordered, continuing to back the dragon towards its cell. Once the Zippleback was ducking back into the pen, he pulled open his fur vest, reaching for the day-old smoked eel that had been mixed in with Toothless' fish, "And while you're in there, think about what you've done…" Hiccup said, sliding the eel from the vest pocket and slinging it into the pen. The Zippleback backed away at the sight of the striated creature, hissing terribly and backing away even more.

Hiccup promptly closed the doors himself, pulling the lever to lock the pen and dusting off his vest before looking up and realizing that everyone had been watching him. He'd forgotten about them in his moment of power over the dragon. Fishlegs dropped his empty bucket and it clattered to the stone floor, utter shock written on the husky boy's face as well as everyone else's. Even Gobber was flabbergasted.

"O-okay, so, ah, are we done? Because I've got some things that I need to—uh, yeah. I-I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Hiccup said, awkwardly heading out of the arena. He felt the stares of the others at his back as he went, and he bit his tongue once he was out of their sight.

He hoped that wouldn't come back to bite him.


The sea was choppy, the waves twisted and tangled with each other as they rippled in every possible direction. A longship cut through the surf, followed by about a half-dozen identical models close at heel. The vessel was made entirely of wood, with a distinct, rounded figurehead at the bow forming the head of a dragon.

The sails of every ship were uniquely painted, though they all bore an image of some sort of dragon in the process of being killed. Some sails depicted swords stabbing through the bellies of the beasts, while others showed axes, and others still displayed dragons being impaled by spears.

After days at sea, the Hooligan expedition was at last approaching its destination.

Stoick eyed the enormous wall of fog, the entrance to the uncharted region known as Helheim's Gate. The vestiges of some especially tall sea stacks peered out from the top of the foggy expanse of sea, thick and rocky and somehow adding to the area's eerie tone. Somewhere in that haze was the rumored home of the dragons, the scourge of Berk and all of their neighbors alike.

It had been Stoick's lifelong mission to find the nest, ever since his wife was taken from him and he was left alone to raise their son. They'd been happy, the proud new parents of the next heir to Berk. And then, just months after giving birth to their boy, a Stormcutter had set fire to his home and snatched his wife, carrying her off into the night never to be seen again.

Stoick never saw that particular breed of dragon again, so his desire for direct revenge never materialized. Instead, he'd turned to tirelessly seeking the dragons' home. He'd put together countless expeditions over the last 15 or so years, though not one had ever been successful. The Chief was boar-headed and stubborn to a critical fault, however. No failure ever quelled his quest for vengeance.

No matter how long it took, Stoick would always keep trying, for his late wife and for his son. So that his people could potentially live in a world free from the scourge of dragons.

It was time to try again.

"Take us in." Stoick ordered. The helmsman at the back of the ship steered the ship towards the fog. "Hard to port, for Helheim's Gate."

"Hard to port! Hard to port!" the call went up, passing through the fleet. Ship after ship turned after the head vessel, slowly but surely following them into the haze of Helheim's Gate.