Chapter One.
Hiccup woke up in his comfortable bed, the sound of his dragon sadly interrupted his sleep flying high above his hut. The shrieking sound of the Night Fury cry was more than enough for anyone to wake up.
Hiccup walked out of his bed, he placed his metallic prosthetic foot on, once he was ready to stand he got out of bed, he quickly changed into his armour and grabbed his sword which he geniously named Inferno.
The sword was retracted into it's hilt which was carefully shaped like a dragons head.
He placed his Zippleback gas canisters in his sword and then his Monstrous Nightmare saliva canisters on the other end of the blade, Hiccup smiled knowing his sword was sorted for the day.
Hiccup left his hut much to Toothless's happiness, the Night Fury landed right in front of the man staring at him excitedly.
Hiccup gave Toothless a quick once over, his automatic tail fin was still working and in place, his saddle was still on, and he didn't seem to be injured, he'd say it was a peaceful night out for the dragon.
Hiccup stroked his dragons snout and they both made their way down to the monastery.
Hiccup and Toothless approach the big doors of the monastery. The doors to the building suddenly opened allowing the two to enter the dining hall.
He walked passed the rows of students and teachers and walked straight up to the centre of the hall.
The Dining Hall was a large room in an even larger building, the room was full of tables and behind the room was kitchens where the workers cook the meals.
The floor was wooden and the room was so tall that Toothless could fly freely in this room, though he doesn't do that a lot.
There was ten rows of tables each side of the room ten on one side of the door and ten on the other.
And perfectly aligned with the door was a large table that looked over the large room and all it's inhabitants.
Hiccup walked up to the table where four men and one woman sat, the watched him approach and take his seat next to the only female of the group.
Toothless sat next to him.
"Hiccup, what took you so long?" Åse asked as he settled. He looked at the woman, she was an older woman, around Stoic's age, she was a strict woman, with a brutal swing with her staff (he learned that the hard way)
"I was asleep, it was a long night last night, Master Åse." Hiccup said, throwing a yawn in for good measure.
She was not impressed by Hiccups tardiness but let it slide.
"Your Dragon sunk five ships last night, they were mighty explosions!" Master Bjørn said with a fistful of food.
Master Bjørn , was a crazy man, among us he was the most likely to go in guns blazing, Hiccup respected the man, he was also getting up there in years but never let that slow him down. When Hiccup first arrived at this island he was amazed by the majority of the ages in the monastery, back in Berk people were lucky to reach somewhere in the forties, these people treat their forties the same way the viking treat their twenties, like they have another fortie years left to live.
Bjørn, was roughly fifty years old, but don't let his age fool you. He'd best the greatest warrior any viking could produce, even when Stoic was in his prime he couldn't take on the like of Bjørn.
"I'm glad to hear it Master, Toothless looked to be in good shape when you returned him to me." Hiccup responded quickly diving into his food that was delivered to him by the workers that worked here.
"Will you be joining me, Erik and Ragnar this evening for perimeter check Mater Hiccup?" Master Magnus asked.
Magnus was the youngest of all masters, just like Hiccup.
He had the arrogance of Snotlout but was one of the smartest people alive. In Hiccups opinion, he was annoying as all hell but he deserved the right to be arrogant.
Both Hiccup and Magnus have signal handedly designed and crafted the majority of the gear that people use, like weapons and armour even the armour that the dragons use.
Yes dragons, plural.
Ragnar was the hardest for Hiccup to get used to at first, Ragnar was a natural born warrior, he was like a combination of all the vikings he hated, he was arrogant, hot headed, quick to action and hated thinking about his team, and just hated working with others in general.
Then there was Erik, the mighty Erik, the most popular among us all.
The monastery was was safe haven for warriors, exiles or just people lost in the world.
There were a few divisions. Like the warriors, which were mainly led by Masters Ragnar and Bjørn.
And the other divisions like the security division. They were led by Magnus and Åse.
Then the assassins, these were the best warriors to ever live, they fought from the shadows, no one knows they exist but they've been to almost every village in the Archipelago.
They were led by Hiccup, you all know Hiccup, well maybe you do.
Hiccup was fearless, he was never happy, never sad, never angry, never calm. He rarely joked, the only time he was happy was when he was flying or when he was in the forge or when he was sparring.
Hiccup, was not the most skilled fighter in close combat, he could easily beat a viking but a warrior such as Bjørn would swiftly best him, unless Hiccup out smarted him.
Then there was Erik, he was the oldest of them all, he had trained all of them, even Bjørn, while he never directly took credit for leading these people, every one saw him like a leader, or a father.
Once breakfast was over the six of them stood, when they did all the others stood as well, there are hundreds of people, students, adults, kids and merchants.
The six of them walked away from the table and walked out the two enlarged doors, the people in the room followed them, they all walked down the road, as they walked down the road more and more students split off from the group following their Masters.
When the end of the road appeared they were met by a large training room with a large chain like cage above them, only Hiccups students remained, and Erik.
Erik refused to train any other person besides Hiccup in the ways of the Assassin, once Hiccup spent years mastering his skills, Erik told him to train others, keep the ancient ways alive.
And so Hiccup did, but occasionally Erik would watch them train.
Hiccup took no pride in is lessons, he hated the fact he was training kids and teens to kill. But they wanted to learn, so he thought them.
"Ok, split off into teams, use the shadows to keep you covered, but also use them to find your enemies, the first team to neutralise the other team wins!" Hiccup ordered.
All of sudden his students disappeared.
The room looked empty to the untrained eye, to Hiccup they were clear as day, to each other they were invisible.
Hiccup watched as some messed up or others found their targets. Eventually, it was an even two vs two.
Hiccup analysed the situation carefully.
The other four students walked back over to Hiccup and sat behind him.
It was silent, to everybody else it looked like a large empty room, but to these people it was a battle ground.
The remaining students walked around the room, it was quite until the fuck up.
One student tripped on a weapon that was dropped by an already taken out student.
This revealed him and his team mate. The other team instantly reacted taking them both out.
The winning team stood victorious, above the losing team.
Hiccup approached the students, he congratulated them. He briefly looked over to the two boys who was sitting on the floor, the boy that tripped was looking really apologetic and the boy who was also revealed was pissed.
"Look dude, I'm sorry, guess we'll get them next time." The kid that messed up said apologising slightly. Hiccup knew it wasn't the kid's fault, the earlier kid who was carrying the weapon he tripped on should have removed it when he was taken out instead of just leaving it there.
"Are you kidding me!? We're training to protect the Archipelago and you risked the entire team, because you weren't watching where you were going. It's almost like you wanted the other team to win, well it worked good job now we're all dead." The angry kid ranted.
"I didn't want them to win, I messed up, and I said sorry, you need to get over it."
"You need to get over it!? Your the one helping the other team, Traitor!"
"Traitor!? How can I be a traitor? It was a fucking accident, the weapon shouldn't have even been there!"
"So what, you think when we're out there fighting from the shadows that the battleground won't be full of distractions!?"
"Yeah I figured it would be a plain path with nothing in my way!" The kid responds sarcastically.
"You need to figure out how to be an assassin, you need to figure out how to stop being a sarcastic idiot, and for the love of Odin you need to figure out what side your on!"
"I know what side I'm on!"
That earlier sentence caught Hiccups attention.
"Our Parents war are about to become out own, figure out what side you're on!"
Hiccup reacted quickly, he ended up slapping the angry kid across the face, the kid fell back holding his cheek, the kid was about thirteen, so he could take a hit.
When the kid looked up he saw Hiccup standing over him.
"First Lesson I thought you all. No one Assassin is stronger in a group, we a stronger separate, the team that won were far away from each other, a good assassin doesn't take the risk of a fuck up like that, meaning it's your fuck up as well." Hiccup said, those words the kid said were still ringing in his ears.
The kid bowed his head, and apologised, the children was dismissed and left. Erik approached the young man.
"Hiccup, I've never seen you actually strike a child, what triggered that reaction?" Erik asked. Hiccup looked at the old man, Erik was the only person who knew of Hiccups past, so Hiccup felt ok to explain his reaction.
"I see… Hiccup what was one of the first lessons I thought you?" Erik asked. This question confused Hiccup, there were many lessons.
"The lesson was that no Assassin can become nothing if something is weighing them down." Erik said. Granted Hiccup never really mastered that part, it took awhile for Stoic to stop being dad and for Berk to stop being home.
"You are clearly still haunted by Hiccup's past, and until you can rid yourself of Hiccups life, you cannot move forward, you did not strike that kid as Hiccup, Master Assassin, you struck him as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, or Hiccup the useless." Erik explained.
Hiccup absorbed the information. He hated the whole Hiccup the Useless title, but he understood the lesson.
"I'll… try to get better at that." Hiccup said. Erik nodded. They both agreed to talk more at dinner. Hiccup knew he had an hour before his next lesson so he decided to take Toothless for a quick fly around the island.
Astrid was in training like usual, she was currently teaching the younger students how to pick up an axe. She was fortunate to have at most six students. In her care right now, including the probably future chieftess, Hilda Jorgenson, daughter of our future Chief Snotlout and his wife Ruffnut.
Astrid has had a life change sense she was younger. Back then she was free to do her own thing, now she's basically isolated from her family, she's convinced that if she wasn't close to Stoic or Snotlout she'd already be outcasted.
Her family have all but cast her out. Astrid was from a wealthy family on Berk, she was the daughter of Captain Asfeld Hofferson. But they abandoned her after she refused to marry some merchant who was basically offering them a ship full of gold as a dowry.
Of course Astrid refused, then she refused the next, in fact the last one was chased of by herself and her axe, eventually Ruffnut begged Snotlout to talk to Stoic, he allowed Astrid that if she chose to remain a maiden she could until she liked a guy enough to give herself to him.
It wasn't normal for any woman to get that privilege, but Astrid was a prodigy to her father, she has even beaten her father in hand to hand combat, she's saved countless of villagers and their kids, from raids and even back in the dragon times. Stoic felt the village owed her the right, the right to choose her own partner. Her family were not happy.
But that was a year ago, her family want nothing to do with her, something about bringing shame to her family. Berk has been kind to her, Stoic was kind enough to let her take over for Gobber when he just got a little to old for this job, he spends his days in the forge, he had to do a lot of extra work when Hiccup left.
So now Astrid was twenty two, unmarried, no kids, and no family. All she had was this job training kids.
Ruff and Snot got married, willingly, it was their idea no arranged marriage, just two teens who asked their parents.
And Tuffnut is now a stressed overworked Viking, he's inherited his Family's land after his mother fell ill and his father died in the last Dragon attack, though that was years ago. But now he's in charge of everything Thorstan related, Ruff got nothing from her family but that's just because she married Snotlout, there was no spitefulness or pettiness there just logic, it was better to give all of the money and land to the child with nothing then split it between the child with nothing and child with everything. But he's always busy on the Fisher boats fishing or in the caves mining, or in the woods cutting the trees.
He inherited enough work for four Thorstans but by Thor does that man work his ass off. Astrid respects Tuff for his labour, he's up at the crack of dawn and asleep a few hours before dawn, he brings food to the table and profit to the land, the farm animals are still being take care of by his uncle, but his uncle is old even compared to most Vikings, he's old and Tuff knows that most likely by the end of Winter he'll be taking care of the Farm as well. Ruff tries to help she does, but Tuff won't allow her and rules on Berk are strict, Chieftess's can fight in wars, fish for fish and lead armies, but they aren't aloud to labour, no farming, no mining and no lumber jacking. She can only help with the weekly fishing haul but she's always busy with Hilda, or her other duties, much to her dismay Tuffnut her brother she once promised to never leave has become a secondary issue for her.
And Fishlegs is with his Family on Berserker Island doing a peace job for Stoic last she heard he was on his way back with Oswald the Wise and his two kids.
Then there was Hiccup, no one knows what happened to him, they think he got scared of the dragon he had to kill and fled on a boat, even though no boat was missing, and so were the dragons from the arena, but Astrid knows what happened.
Hiccup tried to leave, she thought she stopped him, they had that flight, that moment, they saw the Queen at the nest, she thought she convinced him to stay, but he left anyway. Took off the moment she left, and now she'd left wondering if that dammed Night Fury was keeping him alive, or was he dead somewhere in the Archipelago.
Astrid spent the first few days after he left scared, she wasn't sure she could kill a dragon after what she saw, knowing they were forced, that they didn't want to do this.
But the next raid never came, the dragons never came back. No one knows why and no one cares, as long as they stay gone the villagers are happy, they stopped raiding the village about seven years ago, and Astrid knew why, Hiccup had something to do with it, she didn't know what he did, but she knows the raids stopped because of him, nearly everyone on Berk tries to forget Hiccup, but Astrid knows that this village is alive because of him.
Once she was done with the younglings Astrid made her way to the Mead Hall. Berk hadn't changed at all really, the houses are older then normal, the Forge isn't really doing a lot except waiting for the Outcasts to strike again.
The Outcasts are getting more and more ballsy now a days, some even trying to Raid Berk, but that won't happen, we outnumber them and the more they send the more that get slaughtered on their side.
Thats why Astrid is training the children to fight, so that they too can fight off the Outcasts when they're big enough too.
Astrid settled in her regular seat in the Mead Hall she watched as more and more people entered, some waved at her and some ignored her, this was normal.
Tuffnut was the last to leave the table with me, but now tat his duties are as strict as they are it's impossible to get the man to sit down for more then breakfast which he cooks and serves himself at the crack of Dawn. He'd rarely join in on festivities with us but when he did you couldn't catch him with out a cup ail in his hands.
Ruff and Snot were up next to Stoic same with Hilda.
Astrid felt bad for Snot, he may have been arrogant when he was younger, but now that he's actually being trained like Hiccup was he sees that being a leader isn't easy, it's not just bossing people around, it's complicated work, truthfully he'd never admit it but he hates this, he doesn't want this anymore and neither does Ruff, she never wanted this kind of power, she matured a good bit, and frankly her being in that powerful position scared Astrid.
She stayed there the majority of the night, drinking and eating before going home to sleep off the alcohol.
Hiccup was sick of these meetings.
He used to just tone out all the meetings in Berk, but now not only does he have to listen them, he has to actively participate in them like answering questions, and making the meetings.
He hated speaking to people, he didn't become an assassin to be social. But he paid close attention to this one, he knew it was important.
Erik stood infront of everyone, he gave the normal who'd be on guard duty demand and then he began a new topic for discussion.
"Ok, now everybody, I need you all to listen in for this one. That means you too Bjørn!" He said to man who had fallen asleep behind him the older warrior instantly woke up nearly falling out of his chair.
"Sorry!" The man muttered straightening himself out.
"Anyway, people, we have an issue, and his name is Drago Bludvist."
This name got Hiccups full attention. He knew that name, the one of two people Hiccup couldn't kill.
"Our scouts have reported that his ships have been seen venturing closer and closer to us, and we know what happens if he finds our city."
"Then we fight him off! No man stands a chance against us all!" Ragnar says standing up. Getting a round of applause.
"No, we have a few dragons, and even they can deal significant damage to our city, do you all acknowledge this?" Erik asked. Hiccup was curious to see where this was going.
"Well, our scouts report that he has his own army of dragons, dragons in armour, warrior dragons that vastly outnumber us, and then the rumours that he has another, bigger then any other, even bigger then the one Hiccup claimed to have beaten." Erik announced, there was silence.
Hiccup was speechless, another queen, bigger then the last one? If Drago could control the Queen, he could control countless more!
Hiccup stood up and walked over to Erik.
"If that is true we would not last long, let me and Toothless fly out and see what I can do."
Erik was about to turn Hiccup down, but Hiccup was determined.
"Erik, this is what you've been training me for, to defend our Village before theirs even a threat, well this threat is to dam close for my liking."
Erik sighed. Before nodding.
"Ok then, Hiccup will go, he will gather intel, and if you see an opening, and only if theres an opening will you attempt an assassination. Is this understood Master Hiccup?" He announced to everyone, turning to Hiccup for his question.
"It is understood Master Erik, I will not let you nor the village down." Hiccup said bowing.
"Then go, before I come up with a better idea!" Erik said gesturing for him to leave now. Hiccup nodded and left, he walked out the monastery doors, it was now pitch black, perfect for himself and Toothless, he found his dragon next to the others, he smiled and gestured for Toothless to get ready. Toothless smiled a gummy smile and ran towards the younger Assassin. Thankfully Hiccup was always ready for action and placed up his mouth covering, then hopped on his dragon.
They both flew off the same way the scouts went. Thankfully Toothless could track them.
The flew East, and Hiccup had to smile, he didn't smile happily, he wasn't happy he was in the air, he wasn't that kid that screamed whoo hoo every time he flew, he grew out of that. No he was happy that he'd finally kill the man who took everything from him. And maybe if he was lucky Eret would be there, Eret was on the top of his list, he'd kill Eret first if he was there. The Drago. Then that fucking Queen he has. If he actually has one.