Welcome to my new story!

Let's get right into it:


Chapter 1: A bad idea.

Hiccup knew that this was a bad idea from the start.

It wasn't that- He thought it was a good idea but then things went south- No no.

He knew from the very beginning, that no good was gonna come from this plan. Nothing but pain, misery, and humiliation, and he should kill this dangerous idea in its infancy.

This was so wrong, yet the circumstances had come together in a way that made it seem so right.

The first thing had been the dragon. The Night fury, to be precise.

Hiccup hadn't planned to befriend the most feared dragon among the centuries old enemy of all Viking kind, it had just turned out that way due to... well... circumstances.

1) Traitor to the village? Check.

2) lying to your dad and everyone else? Check.

3) Enrolled in dragon training at the worst possible moment? Check.

4) Having become the most knowledgeable Viking on dragon behaviour in history, but having to hide that knowledge and act like he hated dragons like everyone else? Check check and check.

But no. That wasn't even the kicker. The final nail in the coffin came on a sunny and ordinary day, which just happened to be the 16th birthday of one Astrid Hofferson, the focus of Hiccup's timeless and hopeless crush.

*Two weeks ago*

It was customary for the girl to choose her groom after coming of age on this day. It was an age old tradition. Girl turns 16. Gets a bunch of marriage offers. Accepts one and boom. Wedding.

Although in this case- unsurprisingly to everyone- it hadn't gone so smoothly.

Astrid had been furiously adamant on remaining a maiden, and Hiccup had even heard rumours that she had burned all marriage contracts received by the Hofferson household in the evening bonfire.

Judging from the pile of ashes on the side of her house, Hiccup didn't have much trouble believing that.

Her parents had insisted intensely, partly out of fear of reputation, partly in worry, concerned that their fierce tempered daughter might not end up marrying at all. She had yet to show any interest in boys, completely focused on being the best warrior on Berk. The fact that she was a woman, she paid no mind. She had two legs and two arms, and she could beat the best of Berk's male warriors in her sleep.

Hiccup was not the only one to have heard the sounds of angry arguments ringing through the nights leading up to the big day, emanating from the Hofferson's modest house.

Astrid's mood had been sour for days, during training, at lunch, dinner, and everything in between.

It was becoming apparent that she was fighting an uphill battle, and other than leaving the village or disowning her parents altogether, she was gonna have to concede defeat.

Hiccup sat at the long table in the great hall one evening at dinner. Even though he was technically part of the same training class as them now, He still maintained a cautious distance from them, opting to sit at the far end of the table. Being the constant target of bullying made him used to being by himself, being a silent observer. Observation came easy if you took a minute to stop talking, he had noticed.

It had been a long and tiring day at training, and he was just about to call it a night and get up when Astrid's hushed and rapid conversation with Fishlegs caught his attention. He craned his neck slightly to hear better.

"-check all the scrolls?" she asked.

"For the third time, yes, I checked all of them. This is the best option I've found." replied Fishlegs.

"Fine. Explain it in detail."

Hiccup remembered Astrid asking Fishlegs couple of days back to go through the old village laws scripts, looking for a loophole to get her out of this whole marriage nonsense. Fishlegs was always interested in knowledge, history, and finding out about some obscure village laws seemed right up his alley. And apparently, he'd found something.

"So this scroll was pretty dusty and looked like it hadn't seen daylight in a hundred years, but I have no reason to believe why the writings on it wouldn't be legal. It said that the bride has the absolute right to reject any groom who loses in a one on one duel. The duel needs to take place between the prospective groom and a warrior of the village, chosen by the bride."

"And?" Astrid asked impatiently.

Fishlegs grinned mischievously. "As far as I can tell, there's no reason why the bride can't appoint herself the said opponent for the duel. You can fight any one who wants to marry you, and legally reject them when they lose."

Hiccup noticed how Fishlegs didn't say if she lost. He said, when. It was a testament to Astrid's skills, and after learning about this loophole, she finally smiled.

Hiccup averted his eyes quickly lest he be caught staring. Her smile was probably the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen, and had hypnotised him into being caught staring red handed on multiple occasions.

"And about the dragon thing?" She asked.

"You can set the terms for the fight. Anyone who can last three minutes with a dragon is considered a warrior and eligible to claim your hand on victory."

"And I can choose the dragon right?

"Umm.. I don't see why not"

"So I can choose the monstrous nightmare?"

Fishlegs gulped nervously. "Y-yeah"

"And about combining them?"

"It was mentioned that a man can be subject to upto two trials to prove his worth. So you should be fine"

Astrid smiled smugly, sitting back in her chair. "Let's see how they marry me off now."

Hiccup sat there for a long time, picking at his food while processing all that he'd heard. He knew he'd never be able to win over Astrid, and apparently now, no one else was gonna, either.

The next week, after breakfast at the Great hall, Astrid announced the terms of her betrothal. A minimum of a week's notice was necessary in case of a betrothal by a requested trial, so of course she'd left it as late as possible.

The first condition was a hand to hand duel with her with a single weapon each, and immediate disqualification in case of a defeat.

If any prospective managed to clear the first trial, then he'd have to survive three minutes in the arena with a Monstrous nightmare, and be conscious and standing at the end of the allotted time.

The second condition was a joke really, more of an insult to injury to any foolhardy lad hoping to win the hand of Berk's toughest maiden.

Everyone knew Astrid was more or less unbeatable hand to hand. Adding the second condition was more of a insurance on her part, just to be surer than sure.

It was debatable if the first task was the more suicidal one or the second. But it was clear that neither of the two was within the realm of possibility. Right?

Hiccup stared into the notebook in his hands. He had quickly noted down the points this morning at the announcement. He'd tried to be particular about noting down the fine details, whereas most men had stopped listening after the 'Beat Astrid Hofferson in a duel' part.

A few over-confident -or delusional- vikings had still stuck around. Snotlout being one of them.

"I don't really want to beat up a girl, but the dragon should be a good fight" he gloated, cracking his knuckles and chuckling to others. Hiccup had stared in disbelief. How could a guy be beaten up by a girl on multiple occasions and still think he could take her in a fight?

Perhaps his manly bravado was clouding his judgement. He wasn't the only one. Thuggory and Dogsbreath were eying Astrid with their filthy gaze too.

Astrid had glared smugly at whoever had bothered to listen till the end of her terms. It was an inviting look, almost malevolent. As if she was daring anyone who had a deathwish to show up and try to claim her hand.

Fishlegs was slightly trembling next to Hiccup by the end, not noticing him discreetly scribbling away in his notebook.

The twins were grinning proudly, as if extremely pleased with the well constructed scheme Astrid had thought up to escape the confines of marriage.

Hiccup was- well, he was there. Hardly anyone paid attention to him these days, and if they did, it was usually to berate him for his latest screwup or an angry command to stay out of the way.

He had become used to staying in the shadows, opting for this lifestyle to avoid as much pain and misery as he could. He didn't always succeed.

He wasn't even sure why he was so focused on Astrid's words, but he had this feeling in his gut that he'd want to hear and remember them clearly.

Hiccup liked Astrid. That was a fact.

He desperately wanted her to like him too, or at least look at him long enough to even consider that he was a real person beyond the 'village screwup' he had been considered all his life.

He had daydreamed many a time about finally slaying a dragon and earning hers and the village's respect, but given the revelation he'd had in the last few weeks, any dragon slaying was clearly out of the picture.

However, Astrid's second condition about the monstrous nightmare has piqued his interest. It was intended to be a wall, an impossible challenge. But he'd recently learnt that most, if not all dragons were not mindless killing machines at their core, but rather magnificent and intelligent creatures. He'd not had many encounters with wild dragons other than his night fury, but the odd terrible terror here and there had shown him that it was a trait common to all dragon kind, not just Toothless.

This meant- that he could theoretically tame the nightmare, and show it that he wasn't a threat. If that worked, he could survive the required three minutes with relative ease.

He had observed the arena dragons over the last few training sessions, and he had found that if you really considered their perspective, it was obvious why they appeared aggressive and hostile. They had been kept in tiny cages for who knows how long, and the only time they were let out, was when a bunch of noisy humans wanted to fight them.

It had broken his heart when he'd first realised it, how cruel they had been treated. How all dragons had been treated for the last three hundred years. During raids, they mostly fought back in self defence, choosing to avoid conflict if possible. It was clear that there was a paradigm shift in their behaviour at raids as compared to the rest of the time. Hiccup speculated intensely on this question, but hadn't come up with a viable theory so far.

But he had to make sure to keep this side of him a secret. Aside from the fact that he was hiding a freaking Night fury in the woods, he had to make sure no one got the faintest whiff of how he felt about the injustice against dragons.

'Dragon sympathisers' were considered the lowest of the low in Vikings. Actual ones didn't really exist, so the term was often used as an insult against someone who was bad at fighting dragons.

Hiccup had heard stories, from various adults around the village, how his mother Valka, had always advocated for peace and non violence against dragons.

People tried to refrain from speaking ill of the dead, but he had heard murmurings of how this attitude had gotten her killed in the end.

So, thus far in training, he had made sure to try and appear to fight the dragons, like the rest of the teens. Not that he was very successful at it even if he actually tried, but he had managed to make do without any major injuries so far.

So, even assuming he could pass the second trial, it was pointless since he didn't have a candle's chance in a hailstorm of beating Astrid in a duel. Or did he?

That question had kept him up at night. His brain was clearly telling him to forget it, not to risk the pain, humiliation, and potential dismemberment by attempting to take part in the trials. But his heart was telling him something else. It was firmly stuck on this idea and wasn't letting go. No amount of logical risk-reward assessment was working.

Hiccup had always been one for impulsive and badly calculated plans, and this one was definitely the king of bad ideas.

Toothless wasn't that different from Astrid really. Both were fierce, agile, tactical, and powerful. He enjoyed 'play fighting' with toothless, dodging his exaggerated punches with his front paws while trying to wrestle the beast to the ground. It was the first time he'd actually had fun in a long time.

He'd noticed that after spending time with toothless and learning to ride him, his reflexes had gotten sharper. Years of work in the forge meant he wasn't exactly a fish bone anymore, there was a hint of muscle on his lean physique. But so far, he'd lacked the necessary skill to make use of it in a fight. But that could change with some effort.

Then there was the weapon dilemma. Each contender would be allowed the use of one weapon in the duel. It didn't take a genius to guess which one would be Astrid's pick. Her trusty battle axe.

Hiccup's initial thought was a sword, but then he realised he was pretty hopeless with wielding it in any useful way. A shield would be a much smarter himself with it might save him from most of the bodily harm.

Wait. A thought struck Hiccup about his shield. A few days ago, he remembered how Astrid had landed on top of him during a bout with the deadly nadder, and how her axe had become stuck in the damp wood of his shield.

"Ooh, love on the battlefield" Tuffnut had called in a sing song voice as Astrid had furiously tried to disentangle her limbs from Hiccup.

That will probably be the closest I'd ever get to her, Hiccup thought sadly.

If... if he could somehow make that happen again, on purpose, and effectively disarm Astrid of her Axe, then there was a sliver of a hope for him to turn the tide. He'd have maybe a couple of seconds of surprise before she'd realise what had happened.

But first, he'd have to devise a way to modify his shield for that to happen precisely when he wants it to. And, he'd have to train physically to even have a chance to get to that point. And, he'd have to do a lot more thinking about the monstrous nightmare.

There was a long list of what ifs, but he finally had a semblance of a plan. When it comes down to it, he would participate in the trial to win Astrid's hand.

And he was gonna win.


Hope the first chapter is interesting! I've been working story on-off for around a month, and I figured I have enough confidence in this now to release the first chapter.

Do let me know your thoughts on this! :) And check out my other stories if you haven't already! :D