Chapter One: Axes and Dragons

Hiccup stumbles through conversations.

Astrid's future is put in jeopardy.

Stoick quietly rages at home.


Hiccup's been working in Gobbers forge every day since she was sixteen, two years later and it's been proved to be a good viking occupation - making and fixing their weapons of war. A way to build up muscles and to earn the respect of others. The compact building contains a small living area for her in the back while the main room was stacked with weapons, various tools for shaping and sharpening, with a large forge dominating the center.

Despite being older, the scrawny brunette is still pitifully small, with a face bedecked with freckles. Despite her keen mind, skill for design, and a knack for fixing things, she's still usually treated as a runt by the wider community. And while the other teens were entering or finishing puberty, it very much feels like with her lack of progress she's going to once again be left behind.

Regardless, Hiccup's pretty self assured that as long as she can outthink the others and make things, she'd be reasonably okay. It's a pity that she sucks at everything else. Fighting, eating or drinking.. Which, unfortunately, covered everything the other vikings did.

She'd recently run away from her father after another argument so she went to where she most felt welcome, at the forge and away from people.

She didn't enjoy fighting with Stoick but it feels like the chief of Berk never listens to her. It's so frustrating and annoying that they can hardly get least in the forge it's just her and sometimes Gobber. Here she can work on things in peace and get away from the daily dangers of life.

A few minutes ago they had, had a short conversation about her dad not wanting to play favorites "so she shouldn't ever take anything he says to heart", despite the fact that all they ever did was argue in public. Hell, she wouldn't even know the guy was her parent if they didn't eat and sleep in the same house.

Hiccup turns an axe head around, studying the blade and running it against a grinder a few more times. Once it makes the appropriate noise and look to be sparking properly, she puts it near a handle and waits for Gobber to attach the two together. Although he only has one hand, Gobber's still vastly stronger than Hiccup is. Although his immense bulk and stature means he'd hit his head on the door many a time, much to her amusement.

Engrossed In her work, she doesn't notice that the blacksmith in question comes in.

A suspicious sly grin on his face. Too.

"How's it going with the boy's? A girl like you should be looking to get married sooner rather than later." He muses as he attaches an axe head and handle together.

"Way to get the mood going Gobber."

Hiccup pauses for a moment, she doesn't really like any of the boys of her age or has the desire to marry or go anywhere near only guy she talks to regularly is Snotlout , her cousin and she can't stand his revolting humor anyway at the rare family dinners.

Tuffnut is insane full stop. While he has a pretty decent face and blonde hair, and is much taller than her, his choice of outfit and fishy smell leaves too much to be desired. And she's pretty sure his personality would drive her to an unpleasant cliff dive!

Fishlegs, extremely large. Blonde and nerdy. A geek like her. While he would be okay to live with Hiccup also knows that they are interested in different things and she didn't really feel anything for him. And while they were somewhat friends she doesnt appreciate his ability to randomly spew out facts about dragons.

"I don't like any of the boys here," she grunts and gives a shrug while returning to her axe, the heat of the forge making her a little uncomfortable with a dew of sweat breaking out across her forehead.

"And? Just pick either the manliest or the least annoying one. It's what I'd do." Gobber shrugs back while sharpening a sword he forged earlier that day.

Her mind flashes to Astrid, one of the other girls -roughly the same age. Gorgeous with amazing blond hair and piercing blue eyes, strong and forceful.

Her mouth gets a little dry and she shifts to the side.

"Astrid is the manliest one."

Crap. She shouldn't open her mouth before thinking.

"Ha! Good joke Hiccup. Right true that is. Pity she's not a guy though". Gobber snorts and pats her on the back a little too heavily. Thankfully he thought it was a joke and that he didn't notice the reddening on her cheeks.

The thought of Astrid made Hiccup fidget last night , even though she know's fully well that Astrid doesn't like her at all. If Hiccup was suddenly set on fire and Astrid had the only bucket in town she'd probably wait for another fire to set.

The door to the forge opens and a familiar blonde viking with long hair and an axe comes in.

Hiccup's fidgeting suddenly redoubles.

She has to say something, anything. Astrid's coming closer with her axe, her powerful movements displaying her toned muscles and it's waayy too distracting.

"Hey there, welcome to our outfit. Do you need anything?" She manages to say in her calmest and controlled voice.

Astrid shrugs and levels out her axe and then switches to holding it with one hand, her dexterity has gotten good and it's really really showing right now.

"Hey. Can I get this axe sharpened, please?".

"Sure!" Hiccup answers and holds her hands out, the other girl responds by simply dropping her axe into her hands causing the smith's apprentice to stagger under the weight.

She steadies herself on a nearby grindstone before getting to work and clearing the dirty, non-viking thoughts out of her head. She shouldn't be having them at all. She should be thinking about boys.

Gobber levers himself up, "I'll leave you two girls to your gabbing."

"I'm just gonna y'know, get some - stuff for my stuff for the thing."

The old man laughter that comes once the door is shut is enough to make Hiccup visibly cringe.

Astrid begins wandering around looking at the various weapons on display. To Hiccup's credit most of the items were of her creation with Gobber simply attaching or forging the pieces that she couldn't.

Focusing on the heat of the forge in hopes of ignoring the heat of her face, she begins examining the axe more closely. The blade's a bit worn down and a couple of chips marr the edge but it's functional and should be okay for a couple of more hundred swings at trees; a favorite well known past time of Astrid's.

Said girl lets out a grunt, Hiccup looks over to see the azure clad, spiky teen bending over just enough to show off that curve of her ass.

The moment of inattention caused her to snap the axe head clean off. Her cheeks fully red with the dirty thoughts filling her mind.

She lets out a panicked squeak, quickly swapping the ruined handle for another and burying her head against the sparking axe as close as she can so Astrid can't see her red face.

Hiccup grimaces, knowing that she'll have to repair the axe head as well.

Thankfully Astrid's too absorbed in looking at greatswords to notice that Hiccup's expression. Peering over at each of the weapons, she's resisting the urge to simply take them off the wall and wield them in glorious battle against Berks enemies. At eighteen years old, Astrid'll soon enter dragon training and she knows that she'll get top place. As a member of the Hofferson clan: a family famed for its shield maidens she will do her house proud.

Astrid Glances over at the loud snap of the axe and its handle with narrowed eyebrows.

"You didn't damage my axe did you? My mother handed that down to me."

"No I rebalanced and repaired it, it uh needed a new handle as the wood was near splintering condition." The Brunette responds back and Astrid goes back to looking around the forge, she doesn't go in much as she's a warrior and not a blacksmith and she is a pretty big believer of everything being in its place.

Letting Hiccup to work on her axe, she follows a line of better quality weapons to a small door off to the side and opens it, her curiosity getting the better of her as she hears the other girl protesting about it.

"What is all of this?" She muses, a little impressed at what she finds. The room, Hiccup's presumably judging by her frantic attempts to drive her away, is stocked with drawings of weapons, posters and art wallpaper with a few small cloth pads in on a desk.

The cloth pads is the only thing she recognizes.

"It's uh a confidential place of upper level development," Hiccup stammers and brushes past as she quickly tucks the pads into a pocket.

"Of what exactly?" Astrid asks, brushing a hand over an extremely well detailed portrait of the interior of Berks stone town hall.

"Weapons! And things!"

"I see."

An image of a wheelbarrow with a tree trunk on the desk catches her eye and she lifts up one end of it. Astrid isn't sure of what to make of it and gestures over to Hiccup to explain.

"It's a bola thrower that uses twin levels as counterweights tha~"

"The mutilator right?" Saying the name of the weapon out loud stops Hiccup and she nods.

Astrid notes that the only time Hiccup hasn't been awkward or stammering is when she's talking about the thing she makes or is going to.

At the very least she feels pretty impressed by the amount of detail gone into it. It does make some sense that given the apprentice blacksmith's lack of strength and dexterity when it comes to handling weapons she'd instead make weapons that could compensate for her weakness.

"I like it." The Valkyrie says with a soft smile as she turns around and gives a genuine compliment. While she's more of a throw-it-at-your-face girl, seeing a little bit of inside Hiccup's head allows her to properly gauge the girl and she can at least respect what she's been trying to do.

It could have gone worse for Hiccup, much worse. At the very least Astrid seemed to be a little impressed by her work and drawings before they had parted ways. She'd given the blonde girl her axe and explained that the reinforcement and new handle should hold it up for a couple of months and if anything went wrong she should come back to get it checked.

In all honesty it was the first proper conversation they had had in years and Hiccup dared to feel a little better about it.


Until the night's dragon attack comes and one of them decides to blow off the door to the outhouse she's in,she manages to scramble out of the debris and avoid a burst of fire aimed in her general direction.

Hiccup runs through the village, the calls and cries of the battle ready villagers screaming at her to get inside or telling her to stay out of the way. She's used to what they say at this point given that her inventions so far have had a nasty habit of turning on the village, but she knows that's it's because of a minor mistake or a flawed calibration.

During a raid her place is in the forge which is where she heads. The hoisted torches of Berk lighting the way as she dodges the hordes of Vikings running to the defenses, a burning house or two blocking her way until she bumps into the huge frame of her father, Stoick the Vast. A veritable mountain with arms and a booming voice.

"Get yourself inside, girl!"

Eventually she gets to the forge where Gobber is at the shop front taking in orders for new weapons and passing out freshly forged or repaired ones to the waiting villagers, he spots Hiccup and waves to her, mouthing that she's going to take over while he fights the dragons with the rest of the vikings.

Or.

This could be the perfect time to prove herself.

She has no such intention of staying inside, not this latest and hopefully working new weapon, the mutilator is primed, ready and she made her calibrations earlier in the week, she will shoot down a dragon and prove that she's viking material. Prove to her dad that she doesn't need to get married to a guy to be a successful chief.

Quietly, she also wants to prove to Astrid that she's just as strong as everyone else.

Taking advantage of a massive fireball launched by a Monstrous Nightmare into a barrel of vegetables that distracts everyone Hiccup runs inside her room and carts her bola thrower out, it's a short stubby thing with multiple levers and gears kind of like a small catapult but with a tube. Hiccup runs through her practice safety check and makes sure that it's ready, it is.

After wheeling it and dodging through multiple vikings and dragons again she needs to find a spot and park it up near the edge of the village to give her maximum visibility and a place away from everyone else so the Mutilator won't accidentally throw someone through a wall, again. Eventually she locates a parking spot, one that is next to a cliff and she can feel the cold sea air from the stacks batter through her thin green tunic and ruffle her short brown hair.

Scanning the sky, Hiccup searches for a target. A Deadly Nadder of the sharp class with its beautiful hide and multiple spikes would do. Or a super hot Nightmare with its long snout and hook like appendages on its face would really bring praise to her for once.

Or a Night Fury, something that nobody has ever seen except for the whistling sound it makes while diving! Or the purple plasma blasts that never miss!

She only has one shot though and to the left of her a catapult placement explodes in a purple blast.

"I can see it!" Hiccup shouts and adjusts the firing mechanism, the gears in her head turning as she spots the cold black shape of a Night Fury preparing for another attack. She knows the height and direction it's going to fly in and all she has to do is fire when the time is right.

The chief's daughter notices the black wings of the Night Fury reflect off the fires of the machine it just destroyed in the corner of her eye and she wrenches the Mutilator to the left just in time.

She fires and the recoil alone sends her flying backwards,a series of weights and counter weights spin through the air and after a few seconds and a loud screech pierces the skies as a Night Fury she was aiming for spins erratically, a black piece of something that's reflected by a burning ship hits the water and Hiccup just manages to catch the dragon's sleek jet black form before it passes from view and heads in a downwards spiral towards the direction of Berk's forests.

Well shit, she hit something.

Elation runs through her body as she actually hit something!

"YES I HIT IT, I HIT A DRAGON, I HIT A DRAAAGON"

Hiccup rubs her hands together with glee and looks around to see if there were any onlookers towards her amazing kill.

"Did anybody see that?".

Suddenly, a Monstrous Nightmare has crawled up the cliff behind her and it simply crushes the Mutilator in two and casually throws the pieces out of the way as Hiccup turns around in shock to see the huge reptile staring at her.

"Crap"

The freckle faced teen runs as fast as she can with the Nightmare chomping and snarling and following right behind as Hiccup desperately traces her way back through the village screaming loudly for help or at least someone who can actually fight dragons with an axe. Thankfully the burning houses and the torches the villagers put up give ample lighting for her to see where she's going or else it'd be pitch black.

Eventually she reaches an open clearing. The Nightmare leaps down from a building, priming its breath and it lets loose a red hot blast at her feet. Fortunately Hiccup manages to dodge out of the way and she desperately searches for something to hide behind before she ends up as a lean steak..

She finds a wooden pole holding a torch and hides behind it, her heart pounding as she crouches to make herself as small as possible, shivering a bit in fear. She really doesn't want to be eaten, not now that she's actually shot down a dragon. The scent of charred wood fills the air around her.

It goes quiet for a few seconds and Hiccup sighs in relief, believing that the Nightmare lost her. Getting up and peering round to her left it's only when hot air shivers on her neck does she realize that the dragon is peeking at her from the right. She screams again and before it can either eat or cook her a massive axe with an ear bellowing war cry hits the reptile in the face.

It's Stoick the Vast and he doesn't look too pleased to see her.


Stoick closes the door to his house after a long night of island politics, fighting dragons, damage control and yet another argument with his daughter. Slumping into a nearby chair overlooking his bed at the ground floor of the house he reaches for a bottle of mead, opening it and downing half the bottle in a single go.

It's stress relief really, a solution to the endless shit that a chief deals with every day over and over again in calming liquid form.

Stoick slumps back on his chair and mentally goes over the events of the day, all the way from the awkward morning breakfast with Hiccup to him saving her from a dragon (again) only to see the torch she had been hiding behind fall over and destroy a valuable well.

A very public screaming ensued after with the Stoick simply having enough and lifting his daughter up by the shoulder and screaming in her face as to why she wasn't inside and safe. She replied with tears in her eyes that she had shot down a Night Fury and it landed in Raven Point, that she was a true dragon fighter and that killing was in her blood. He told her that she was just seeing things and should go home after a near death experience and to leave fighting to the trained vikings such as himself.

He remembers the light of the collapsed torch reflecting off Hiccup's wild brown hair and as she continued to defend her case he was struck by an image of Valka, his dead wife taken by a dragon. For a second all he could remember was Valka telling him to protect their daughter, no matter the cost.

Stoick had simply picked up his only remaining family member as she screamed and taken her home in front of hundreds of onlookers, including Hiccups and Stoick's peers, before going back outside to assess the damage of the latest raid.

Now alone in his house, Hiccup having stormed upstairs and locked her room before Stoick could put her aside and apologize. He's 45 and Stoick's starting to get tired of their dysfunctional relationship. Part of him wants to go back in time and ask for a son like himself so he wouldn't have this problem. A good strong lad who had the same mindset: ideal chief material.

Then again, chief material means getting married and he doesn't want that to happen much either. None of the families on Berk have expressed an interest in purchasing Hiccups dowry, even at a generous price as they claimed she was unsuitable. And while Stoick is reasonably confident the other chiefs in the archipelago would make an offer soon and undoubtedly make Berk richer with a fresh alliance and more trade, that would mean Hiccup leaving him and being on her own to the mercy of whatever man she ends up with.

Chief Stoick wants Berk to be safe at all costs. But Father Stoick has different concerns: a happy and fruitful Hiccup. He desperately wants the two to be compatible but he can't see a compromise or even a way out of it.

He has tried to talk to her about it, sitting down at the table during breakfast or dinner. But every time Hiccup's either been late, didn't eat or was just unwilling to talk with a scowl on her face. And even on the rare occasion they did talk, it was always an argument with neither side willing to budge; Hiccup calling her father an oaf and Stoick telling his daughter she needed to be more mature and future looking.

Stoick finishes the bottle of mead, letting his shoulders and muscle relax after the adrenaline filled fight , he glances around the room. His immense bulk taking up the entire chair and his house isn't that well decorated for a chief. It's fit for purpose with only a dining table and chairs with a few drawers being elaborate in any way. Well his part of the house is. He has been in Hiccup's room and her attic position was always filled with drawings and sketches: beautiful ones and others that were mechanical. Items of her design that Stoick couldn't get his head around or even understands.

He knew that his daughter sometimes unleashed those drawings into practice: building a wide variety of engineering marvels that were impressive on paper but never really worked; often ending up simply failing or causing damage to the village and he was planning to enact a ban on them. Hiccup's good at making weapons for vikings, very good ones in fact and she had been complimented for crafting axes that never failed.

He wants her to keep to that. To be in a respectable position amongst the community and to replace Gobber when the old man, his best friend, finally retires.

It would be so much easier if she was a boy, then they could relate and talk about "man" things.

He'd been told what to expect from a daughter when Valka left. One of the village elders had pulled Stoick aside when he opened Hiccups bed sheets that morning and started screaming when he found blood. The elder briefed him on what to expect from raising a daughter: bloody sheets, irritability and mood swings at a certain time every month. And his Hiccup went from being a quiet girl to a raging demon who didn't take advice from anyone.

To this day, he still doesn't understand Hiccup. The nearing food collapse from dragons eating the fish and taking the livestock? That's something he can get around, Stoick can wrangle the political divide in the council but Hiccup?

Stoick the Vast gets off his chair and heads straight to bed, wishing that his wife was there to handle their rogue daughter.

After all, Valka was the same when she was growing up.


And today was going so well.

Astrid Hofferson curls up on her bed, fists balled and she needs to either punch or throw an axe at something, anything. Her blood boils and she tightly grabs a pillow with one hand and stabs it with the other.

All that had to happen for her day to go into the shit was for Astrid to return home, her time fighting the dragon's as part of the water brigade - it went great! She heroically stood next to burning buildings and poured buckets of water on them, she ran between the defense lines to pass fresh weapons to the warriors and directed her team.

The congratulation's she received, the whoops and cheers of her compatriots - well she felt like a hero.

Not now though.

And even Hiccup was bearable and nice.

She can't think of anything other than what happened just a few moments ago. Her parents came in late after a discussion with the chief and Astrid had gotten out of bed and had lain on the floorboards with the door to the downstairs cracked open a tad to listen to their conversation.

She wished she hadn't listened, that she'd still be in a good mood.

While they had initially started talking about "that Hiccup girl" and how she had gone a step too far in destroying yet another part of the village, the discussion had taken an unpleasant twist as her father spoke in hushed tones about how other clans in Berk had offered him an extremely lucrative price for his daughter. Allegedly Astrid was in high demand and Snotlout Jorgenson had pleaded with his parents to offer twice as much as any other family.

Her mother retorted with how much she had wanted to be a shield maiden but her dad simply remarked that if Freydis had become one, Astrid and her little sister would have never been born and added that due to the Hofferson family tradition, they were low in numbers. And should a dragon attack kill him and his wife ,Astrid then being a shield maiden ensured their family line would go extinct..

Upon hearing those words the eighteen year old retreats into her bed and cries quietly.

That's her future being decided without her consent.

She quietly makes a promise to herself that since dragon training starts in a few days she'd use all of the skills she acquired to place first in the class and prove that her warrior skills will force her parents and Berk to acknowledge that she is more than worthy of becoming a shield maiden.

She'll show them, Astrid'll show them all.

Calming down a little and steeling herself for the near future, Astrid Hofferson eventually falls asleep with her mothers axe close by and a ripped pillow beside.


With thanks to the following people.

Kayda-Starr (beta reader)

Proof readers

Ginkisune, Fopdoodle, MidnightBurst, ASATanker