Chapter 1:

It had been 2 weeks since Hiccup defeated the Red Death. In that time, things in Berk had both calmed down a little as well as changed drastically. Dragons and Berkians now lived in peace, the raids were over, and everyone was looking forward to a nice relaxing winter celebrating this new chapter of life.

One such Berkian was Hiccup himself, who had recently been allowed by Gothi, the town's healer, to resume living his life as normal even with his unfortunate leg injury. Sure, he was disappointed that had to happen to him, but in a typical Hiccup positive attitude, he concluded that in the end it was a small price to pay for his current situation.

Hiccup stepped out of his back door to meet a waiting Toothless, who excitedly attempted what he thought was a smile at the sight of his best friend. "Hey there, bud. Ready for a morning flight?" Hiccup said in a soft voice whilst attaching his harness. Toothless replied with a quick muffled growl that Hiccup took to be made in a mix of relief and impatience. Soon, however, the two of them were climbing away from Earth in the direction of their old cove. This was becoming a normal stop on their new flight path before Hiccup usually decided to swing around in the other direction and fly under the bridges overlooking Berk's docks, just for a bit of fun.

After a few more minutes of flying, the pair found themselves swooping gracefully under the wood and rope bridges once again as Hiccup took in his daily view of the docks below. He loved looking at the ships, with their furled up sails and tall masts, with a dragons-eye perspective. It made him realize how lucky he was to now have a dragon. Despite their complicated nature, he could still make it almost anywhere in a quicker time with his dragon than any of those boats could. Welp…everything looks pretty normal to me… Hiccup thought to himself as he prepared to steer Toothless towards the arena to meet up with the rest of the crew. But then something caught his eye…a bright reflection that lasted no more than a few seconds coming from somewhere along the water to the east of the docks. Gliding lower, Hiccup made an eerie discovery. The reflection belonged to a belt buckle, which belonged to an unmoving figure in dark clothing sprawled out in the middle of a life boat, which had just run aground on the beach below the arena. Feeling too nervous to approach the scene immediately, Hiccup remembered the boat's location nestled in the soft sand, and pitched right to bring Toothless in for a landing, eager to tell his friends what he had seen. He had a strong feeling that today was going to be an interesting one.

—

One by one the other dragon riders began gathering in the arena to prepare for their day of group activities together. They had grown quite close since Hiccup had opened their worlds with the truth about dragons, and now they could almost always be seen near each other during the day, talking and laughing the days away as well as taking care of their new companions.

Fishlegs was usually the first to arrive, never wanting to be late. Astrid came next in order to feed Stormfly every morning before things got out of hand. The twins usually moseyed in not too long later, usually looking injured or dazed from their strange shenanigans, and of course…Snotlout could pretty much be counted on to arrive late, claiming he and Hookfang needed their "beauty rest." That left Hiccup himself, who tried to fly in on Toothless in a timely manner, but sometimes he got carried away with his morning flights and took extra time, much to the frustration of his friends.

On this morning however, he was strangely early. Toothless glided into the arena right as the twins were walking in, but before Snotlout.

"Hey everyone?! We need to talk about something!" He called out as he dismounted his dragon, his metal leg making an almost trademark clinking sound on the rough dirt as it touched the ground.

Looking concerned, Astrid and Fishlegs emerged from their dragon's stalls and began to walk over to where Hiccup stood.

"Awwww. One of your lectures already?" Tuffnut groaned as he came to a stop. "It's too early for this…"

"Come on, Tuff. This is serious." Hiccup replied flatly. "I found someone lying in a lifeboat that washed up on the eastern end of our main shoreline. They look…either dead or very hurt. I couldn't tell from the air."

Fishlegs shifted where he stood. "Could you tell what tribe they were from?"

"Unfortunately no…but I figured we should go down and get a closer look as a group just in case."

It was at that moment that Snotlout came bursting through the entrance, walking proudly with his dragon in tow. "What is it we're doing exactly? Looking for someone?"

"Nice of you to finally join us…" Astrid hissed, glaring at him.

"What's the big deal? You guys know Hookfang and I need our-"

"Beauty rest?" All the teens cut him off in unison, not amused by the situation at all.

Hiccup cleared his throat. "We have an unknown visitor. Now…before we waste anymore time, everyone get your dragons. Let's see exactly what we're dealing with here."

And with that, the teens prepared to takeoff, unsure of what to expect when they got there. Things like this did not usually happen on Berk. So much for things calming down…