CHAPTER 1

CRACK-BOOOM!

CR-R-R-RACK—BOOOM!

Perhaps it wasn't the smartest idea in the world to be flying dead center in a raging thunderstorm. Hiccup shivered violently, tugging his soggy cloak tighter around his shoulders with frigid cold fingers as the wind whipped through his wet hair. The rain was beating him mercilessly and cut through his skin like sharp knives, giving no intention of letting up soon. Lightning flashed dangerously close by, startling Hiccup and his dragon as deafening thunder boomed once more.

Toothless gave a low moaning growl, probably just as cold and uncomfortable—and tired—as Hiccup felt. Hiccup reached up a hand and patted Toothless's head.

"S-sorry bud, j-just a bit furth-ther," he said shakily, his teeth chattering up a storm. In truth, Hiccup didn't really know how much further there was to go to anywhere. The two were stuck in midair, surrounded by miles of ocean, clouds, and the cold. As far as Hiccup could tell, they would have to continue flying for quite some time until they reached someplace to land and hopefully take shelter. They certainly couldn't turn back home… Not now.

Not ever.

Hiccup was running away. He didn't care if it called him a coward; he just couldn't in his good conscience stay on the Island of Berk and kill a dragon to prove he was part of the tribe. Not now that he had realized the truth about dragons. Misunderstood creatures, they were. Dragons weren't merely vicious demons out to destroy every house and steal every bit of food; they were intelligent, beautiful creatures, when given the chance. Toothless was living proof of that.

A large gust of wind buffeted the two, nearly knocking Hiccup off Toothless' back. He yelped, straightening himself and making sure once again that he was secured onto the saddle.

Oh, gods, it was cold.

He had long since lost feeling in his toes, his ears were so frozen they felt they could fall of at a moment's notice, and his poor fingers were so stiff he could barely move them. His nose felt like a block of ice.

"Uhhgh," Hiccup mumbled incoherently. He wrapped the damp cloak tighter around himself; not that it did much good. His thoughts traveled to the extra blanked he'd stored in the basket behind him; however, it was buried deep underneath extra tunics and pants, so there was no getting to that blanket now, especially not a thousand feet above a roaring sea.

Toothless suddenly gave a warning, bark-like growl. Hiccup perked up.

"W-what is it, bud?" he stuttered, his tongue feeling thick and slow. Toothless gave an excited warble, and his wings picked up the pace. Hiccup's heartbeat quickened.

Has he spotted land? he thought eagerly, squinting as best he could through the thick raindrops and misty spray. If he focused… he thought he just might be able to pick something out in the mist, something… large… and shaped like…

Land. Oh, thank the gods. Hiccup lifted his face to the heavens and sent a small prayer of thanks to Odin, before urging Toothless on as quickly as possible. Toothless flapped his wings harder, fighting against the howling gale. There were more flashes of lighting, and more deafening thrums of thunder, but the two were hardly fazed as they eagerly approached the island.

The dark shape in the distance slowly became clearer as they neared. Hiccup was keen to finally rest his tired limbs, hopefully find a dry place to camp out and maybe even start a fire.

Ah, a fire, Hiccup thought longingly. He shivered again, his teeth chattering even harder than before. The looming mass of hills and trees finally became clear, and eagerly the two searched for a place to land. They passed over rocky cliffs and flew over swaying trees, Hiccup's emerald green eyes searching vividly for a small clearing or something to land in.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot out of the clouds, hitting a tree so close to them that Hiccup felt his skin tingle and his hairs stand on end. Toothless roared in surprise, flapping away from the sparks the bolt of lightning had caused. The thunder that followed a nanosecond later made Hiccup's ears feel like they could burst. He clamped a hand over his ear in pain, the other hand clutching Toothless' saddle as they swerved out of the way.

Toothless flapped hard as they lowered their descent through the forest, finally touching the wet forest floor with a solid thwump! Hiccup nearly fell off of Toothless's back from the momentum.

"Geez, that was close," Hiccup looked up, squinting at the place where lightning had struck the tree. He was quite sure he could see that the tip of it was smoldering slightly, but from his distance it was hard to tell for sure.

Does the universe hate me or something? Hiccup wondered crossly, how do I keep landing myself into these situations?! His ears were still ringing, and his legs were stiff from the cold and sitting in the same position for so long. He tried to rub the feeling back into his frozen legs, and breathed into his fingers for some warmth. He surveyed the forest canopy that they had taken shelter under. It was still raining pretty hard, but the trees around them provided them some protection from most of the raging wind. Hiccup sighed with relief, though he was still chilled to the bone and as soggy as a sponge. He was just glad to get out of that wind.

"Come on bud, lets try to find some shelter," he muttered tiredly. He clambered out of the saddle, stumbling a little when his numb feet hit the forest floor. Hiccup waited a moment for the pins and needles feeling faded from his lower limbs before he began to trudge on with his dutiful dragon behind him. Rain dripped down his forehead, creating puddles beneath his feet as he looked around, hoping to find something to use as shelter; a log, a hollow tree, a bush. But in the immediate vicinity, there was nothing in sight.

It was a good thing Hiccup had brought along a tent, then. He stopped and reached for the large basket that was secured to Toothless's saddle and untied it. The basket was heavy, his sore arms trembling to lift it off the saddle, but somehow he managed to successfully pull it off. He rummaged through the various parcels he had packed before he found his tent stuck at the very bottom.

"Here we go," he grunted, yanking it out with mild difficulty. It didn't take long to set up his tent, though his frozen fingers did slow the process of tying knots considerably, but not long after Hiccup had crawled into his tent, dragging his basket alongside him. Toothless stuck his head into the tent, wanting to follow him in. Hiccup laughed.

"No, Toothless, there isn't room!" He nudged his friend out the front flap with his hand. Toothless gave a guttural moan in protest, but didn't stick his head back in. Instead, Hiccup could hear Toothless pacing around outside for a bit before curling up around the tent protectively. He felt bad for leaving his dragon outside, but he knew Toothless would be fine. A little rain wouldn't hurt him—plus Hiccup's tent really could only fit him, there was no way he could share with a full grown dragon. And a Night Fury, at that.

Maybe one day Hiccup could get a bigger tent to fit the both of them.

It was then that Hiccup realized just how hungry and cold he was. His clothes were still extremely damp, sucking out every ounce of heat from his body. He should probably change out of them before he caught a cold or something worse. Plus, a bite to eat didn't sound bad—he hadn't eaten since that morning.

He reached back into the basket, looking for the bread and cheese he'd stored in there, as well as some fish for Toothless. He dug through his bundles of extra clothes until his fingers closed around the small tied cloth containing his food. He lifted it out of the basket, setting it aside and then dug back in for a change of clothes. The clothes in the basket were also slightly damp, but not as soaked as the clothes he was wearing at that moment. He quickly changed into his drier clothes and dug around to hopefully find a blanket or something to wrap himself in.

Though Hiccup was no longer getting wet, it was still freezing and he needed something to keep warm. He couldn't light a fire yet, any wood he would find would be completely damp, not to mention the tent was too small to light a fire inside. He would have to wait till the rain stopped.

At the bottom of the basket, he found that extra blanket and eagerly yanked it out. He wrapped it around his shoulders before untying the parcels containing the food. He took out some bread and cheese, and in the other some fish for Toothless.

"Toooothleeeess," he called, opening the flap of the tent and tossing the dragon some fish. Toothless immediately perked up and gobbled the fish up like lightning. "Good boy," Hiccup smiled, stroking his cold wet scales. Toothless nuzzled his hand, sniffing hopefully for more.

"Sorry, bud," he sighed, showing him his empty hands. "No more. Once the rain stops, we can fish, though," he promised. Toothless warbled happily, resting his head by the tent entrance, his eyes begging for attention. Hiccup snorted, but gave in and scratched his dragon under the chin. Toothless gave another happy croon, and his rider smiled fondly back.

Hiccup reached back inside with his free hand and grabbed some bread, taking a large chunk out of it with his teeth. He laid on his stomach and chewed slowly, one hand sticking out of the entrance under Toothless' chin, the other holding the piece of bread near his greedy mouth.

Outside, the rain had subsided some, turning into more of a heavy drizzle than a harsh downpour. It wasn't that different than the rain they got at Berk, except at Berk the rain usually came with hail more often than he would like. Hiccup's eyes glazed over some as his thoughts wandered from the forest canopy back to his home.

His father had most likely found out he was gone, by now. He had probably found the note Hiccup had left on his bed…

'I'm sorry.' it had said. 'I'm not the viking you thought I was, and I don't think I'll ever be. I can't kill that dragon. I can't stay. Goodbye.'

It was quite a vague note, but Hiccup didn't think he would've been able to explain the fact that he had trained and befriended a freaking Night Fury to his father in just one small piece of paper. In hindsight, perhaps he should have explained his reasonings why he left in better detail; but what was done was done. He couldn't go back now, he'd already been gone for nearly twenty-four hours. More than half that time was consisted of flying; he was roughly hundreds of miles from Berk by now, for sure.

His thoughts wandered to the Monstrous Nightmare he was supposed to kill that day… or was it yesterday? Hiccup's frown deepened. Astrid would probably get the honors of disposing of that dragon… which meant Hiccup had done absolutely nothing to help the dragon by leaving.

A cold feeling grew in the pit of his stomach as he thought of the repercussions of his actions. Perhaps his father would cancel the ceremony and send out a search party? That was likely; they wouldn't just continue on with the ceremony as if nothing had happened, not since Hiccup had started to grow in popularity with the people of Berk with his newfound… skills. At the very least, it would postpone the death of the Monstrous Nightmare; perhaps he should turn back, if to help the captive dragons escape before anything happened to them. Help them escape, then leave for good. That didn't sound like a bad plan.

How would I do that, though? He wondered. It would have to be in the dead of night; it was not like the dragons were heavily guarded. The vikings put lots of trust into the cages they put the dragons in, and you would have to be completely out of your mind to want to try and set them free (like Hiccup, apparently), so it wasn't as if they thought someone would come and free them. Usually the cages were left unguarded for the most part, with one lookout or two to make sure the dragons hadn't busted out of their cages.

He would just have to hope that no one passed by as he did it, and hope the lookouts were asleep.

Yeah. That seemed like a plan—it might have a lot of holes in it, but it was a plan.

Hiccup stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth and chewed slowly. The rain had all but stopped now, thankfully. It was still lightly drizzling, but compared to the storming gale earlier Hiccup was quite relieved. He stared out into the forest, observing the landscape with keen green eyes.

A sudden thought occurred to him and he cocked his head.

All the trees… were the exact same, he noticed. Tall, thick, and evenly spaced between each other. Odd. He'd never seen a forest like this before. Usually forests were full of old and young trees, and trees of different variety and kinds, but this forest seemed to be made of trees all exactly the same age and within the same distance as each other… almost like they'd been planted. Strange vines creeped up alongside the tall trees and covered the ground, creating a small carpet that would come up to Hiccup's ankles, if he'd been standing. He couldn't help but notice that there weren't any other plants about; just the trees and the vines.

Odd…

A chill ran down his spine, along with a very… uneasy feeling. He tried to dismiss it as soon as he got it, but the feeling was quite persistent. Something was just… off. It was a feeling in the atmosphere, something he just couldn't place. He focused hard on the forest, wondering if he could pinpoint what it was.

After a few moments, he realized that he could hear no birds chirping or wind howling; just silence. Was that what made him feel so weird?

Toothless suddenly perked up and lifted his head, staring at something in the distance. His nose crinkled slightly, as if he'd smelled a fowl odor, and let out a low guttural growl. Hiccup jerked his head to his dragon, his stomach doing several flips as his heart pounded.

"What is it, bud?" Hiccup looked in the direction his dragon was facing, darting his eyes about nervously. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, just more trees and more rain.

Then for the first time he noticed some large round stones, maybe as big as buckets, in the midst of the trees; but that was the only detail Hiccup hadn't noticed before. Toothless gave another uneasy grumble, his large yellow eyes narrowing.

A loud shriek above them made Hiccup nearly jump out of his skin. He looked up just in time to see a large black shape swoop over the tent. Hiccup yelped in surprise, going rigid as his eyes focused on the thing that had appeared in front of them.

It was just an owl. Hiccup sighed with relief and felt quite ridiculous as he relaxed and the owl flapped towards the ground, no doubt in the middle of a hunt. He'd just been spooked by an owl—the other teens in the tribe would have never heard the end of it.

The other teens…

Hiccup sighed, finishing off the bread as his mind wandered again.

He didn't really know what to think of them anymore. Over the past few weeks as he excelled in Dragon Training, the others had acted less as bullies towards him. They made fun of him less and had actually wanted to be in his company! It had been extremely hard to slip away with all the newfound attention he was getting, but Hiccup would have been lying if he said he hadn't enjoyed it, at least a little bit. He'd never got any sort of attention before, being the screw-up of the village, so the experience had been new and he'd rather liked it.

Astrid, though, the one person whose attention he'd sought after for years, was the only one who didn't change her attitude towards him. If anything, she'd gotten even more angry and curt with him. Hiccup could easily guess why; she was the star dragon trainee, the top of her class from before, and Hiccup, the renowned walking disaster of the village, was passing her up without hardly trying, it seemed. Had she been… jealous?

Astrid. Jealous of him. Maybe Hiccup was wrong, perhaps he was just daydreaming, but logically it was sound. It made sense seeing how Astrid would go from indifferent towards him to looks of hatred in the span of a few weeks, when others went from looks of hatred to looks of admiration. It… it had definitely been a crazy few weeks.

But all that was gone now, he had to remind himself.

He pulled the blanket tighter across his shoulders, tensing a bit more. What would happen now? He had a vague plan to go back and free the captive dragons, but then what? What would happen after that? Travel the world like Johann, the sea merchant that had been nearly everywhere and came with quite incredible stories to tell? That was the most likely option. See the world. He had a flying reptile, after all. A dragon was much faster than a boat or a horse, making world travel so much easier. But where would he go? Just… travel? See where he ended up?

Hiccup suddenly remembered Johann once speak of a faraway land called Vineland, which was rich with soil and bountiful in crops, the land fair and the greenest you could ever see. Perhaps Hiccup could go find Vineland. That would be an ideal place to live. He fancied the idea of him and Toothless living there, flying around tall mountains and valleys, hunting and fishing, and then sleeping in a cabin he'd made. Just the two of them.

While intriguing, Hiccup realized it was quite a… lonely idea. Toothless was great company, but… Hiccup couldn't imagine spending the rest of his life by himself. He would want a human companion to do things with, too. Maybe even… start a family with.

He'd often daydreamed that that companion would be Astrid, but that possibility had gone from a small single-digit chance to completely zero. Not now that he'd run away. Not now that he was friends with a dragon of all things. There was the likelihood Hiccup would never even see Astrid again. He would never again see those beautiful sky-blue eyes, that beautiful face, her golden hair as it caught sunlight, creating the illusion that she was a valkyrie straight from the gates of Asgard.

Hiccup was doing it again, staring into space with a dreamy look in his eyes. He quickly shook his head to rid his thoughts of the beautiful viking warrior. He didn't need to be thinking about that right now. It would only cause him more needless pain, especially since his daydreams would never become a reality. And there wasn't much of a chance he could convince her that dragons were good; she, like the rest of her tribe, was a very 'act-first-ask-questions-later' kind of person. She'd probably chop his head off before he could even begin to explain why he was friends with a Night Fury, the deadliest of all dragons.

The deadliest of all dragons in question was currently grooming his armpit, making disgusting squelching noises with his tongue.

"You really are a terror, aren't you, Bud?" Hiccup said sarcastically. Toothless lifted his head, warbling at Hiccup as if indignantly saying 'I'm completely terrifying, you've just seen my good side, that's all.' Hiccup smiled, reaching up a hand to scratch his dragon's chin again. "Yeah, a real terror," he said again as Toothless began to croon as he scratched his favorite spot.

Toothless's ears suddenly perked up and he whipped his head up, on high alert. He gave a startled, menacing growl, and Hiccup, alarmed, looked to where Toothless was growling at.

"Toothless, what—," He didn't get to finish, for just a couple yards away from them—where Hiccup had been quite sure there definitely hadn't been before—was an old man.

Hiccup opened and closed his mouth, another chill running down his spine as his stomach clenched with terror. The uneasy feeling from before returned again with a vengeance as he stared warily at the old man. He kept his eyes on him as he slowly climbed out of the tent and stood up, keeping a hand on the hilt of his knife under the blanket

The old man was short, hunched over with age, and his bony fingers clung to a tall feeble-looking staff. A snow white beard tumbled down to his waist, matted and unkempt. He was wrapped in strange black garments, and a peculiar red and gold sash was tied around his waist.

Hiccup hardly paid any attention to that, though, as he found himself staring at the man's wide, haunting and extremely creepy blue eyes. They were staring right at him with the gaze of an owl—which was extremely disconcerting to find on the face of a man.

"Er…" Hiccup croaked, finally finding his voice. "H-hello?"

"What is this magnificent beast?" the stranger ignored Hiccup's greeting, instead stared at Toothless with his owl-like gaze. Toothless snarled, standing up and slinking near Hiccup, his ears pinned back defensively.

"Ah—that, that would be, uh, my… my dragon," Hiccup stuttered, "Sorry, a-are we trespassing or something, because if so we'll gladly leave—,"

"No!" The old man rasped, shaking his head, "No, no, no, you must stay! It would be cruel to leave the two of out in this… horrible, horrible weather. Hee-hee-hee. Come, I have a warm house, and warm food. Come! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee," The old man gestured for Hiccup to follow him, while a large laughing bout suddenly escaped the man's chest.

Hiccup grew even more uncomfortable.

"Uh… well, thanks, but um—," While Hiccup wanted nothing more than to be in a warm house with warm food, this man… he could just tell by looking at the old man that all was not right upstairs.

It was then he noticed the man was carrying shrunken heads on his belt. He flinched at the sight. They weren't human heads, thankfully; they were the heads of different animals, but it certainly alarmed him. The only viking tribes he knew to do this sort of thing were the Meatheads and the Bezerkers; both extremely unpleasant people, and not ones to cross paths with.

"I—I think I'm fine, actually, out here…" Hiccup croaked, forcing himself to look back at the man's uncanny eyes.

Wait, how had he gotten so close?! He was now at least three feet away from Hiccup.

Toothless snarled loudly, putting his head between Hiccup's body and the old man, his scales and wings bristling in warning. However, the old man was unfazed and pointed his cane in Toothless' direction. Hiccup could have sworn he saw a spark of light ignite from the tip of the cane, but it happened so fast he thought he imagined it.

Toothless suddenly stopped growling, dropping the menacing air and instead was replaced with a rather dopey, hazy look, as if he'd had too much dragon nip.

"What—hey!" Hiccup cried, frightened. "What did you do?!"

The old man ignored him. Instead he grabbed Hiccup by the arm with a surprisingly strong grip for such an old man and dragged him along. Hiccup yelped, half in pain and half in surprise. Stumbling slightly, Toothless quietly followed the two of them.

Hiccup wildly looked back and forth between the old man and Toothless, growing more panicked by the second.

"What did you just do to Toothless?" he demanded shrilly.

"I have a way with creatures, hee-he-he," the old man said with a single-tooth grin. There was a sudden flapping noise, and the owl from before flew overhead, landing on the man's shoulder. The owl stared at him with an expression not dissimilar to the creepy old man's, except the owl's eyes were a bright green instead of blue. Hiccup looked back at Toothless's dopey eyes, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach.

This was bad. This was bad.

Whoever—whatever this man was, if he could incapacitate Toothless like this, there was no telling what he could do if Hiccup just let him drag them wherever!

"Listen," Hiccup yanked out his knife with his free hand and pointed it at the old man. "I'm not afraid to use this! I'm a viking, you know! From the Isle of Berk, son of Stoic the Vast himself! If he finds out I'm missing, he'll launch a full attack!"

"Oh, silly silly boy," the old man chuckled, waving his staff. That spark appeared again, and the knife suddenly glowed hot in HIccup's hands. He dropped it with a yelp of pain and it vanished among the vines. He tried to reach for it, but he was yanked along again and the knife was too far out of reach.

Hiccup cursed, trying to not let his panic overwhelm him. He had to think clearly if he was to get out of this. He dug his feet into the ground, trying to stop them, but was yanked nearly off his feet by the strength of the old man.

"I'm telling you!" Hiccup cried, hoping his bluff worked. "My father will launch an attack! Hundreds of viking ships—you wouldn't want that!"

"Silly, silly boy," the old man chuckled again. "This island is guarded by magic! No boat can sail here!"

Hiccup felt his stomach drop, dread sitting like ice in his gut.

"Silly boy! You are my guest!" the old man rambled on.

Hiccup looked around wildly, wracking his brain to try to think of what to do.

His eyes shot to some movement in the distance and he stared, caught off guard. He could have sworn one of those mossy rocks… had moved? He blinked, squinting hard, but with another yank from the old man's bony hand he was brought back to the present. He'd probably just imagined it, in his panic. He had bigger issues right now to deal with, like being freaking kidnapped!

Maybe the man just thought of himself as an overeager host? Perhaps threatening him at first had been the wrong move?

Hiccup cleared his throat, ready to try anything.

"I know you want me as your guest, but I really think I should go, I don't want to intrude on your hospitality," Hiccup said as politely as possible, trying to not sound as terrified as he felt. The man suddenly stopped, turning to face Hiccup.

"Go? But you have just arrived! You are tired!"

"No, really, I'm fine," Hiccup tried to argue, "I'm just—,"

"I said, you are tired." The old man pointed his cane in Hiccup's face, and this time Hiccup was positive he saw sparks fly from the knobby end. Hiccup's eyes suddenly drooped, his limbs felt like they were weighed down with heavy stones, and his head lolled forward. The world dimmed, and Hiccup barely registered falling to the ground before everything went black.

In the light of the evening sun that just barely lit the drizzling forest, a large stone rolled to the spot the old wizard and the strange boy had disappeared. Other stones—or what appeared to be stones—rolled after the first, stopping in a circle. A moment later, the stones unfurled to reveal short, stubby creatures whose skin resembled that of the mossy rocks they once impersonated.

"I told you, I told you he's up to no good! That old crazy wizard has been stealing animals for who-knows-what reasons and now he's got himself a human kid and a freaking dragon!" one of them exclaimed, worry shown plain on his face.

"We didn't know for certain; you know the Ancient Truce between Trolls and Wizards, we don't interfere with each other for good reason and I didn't want to jump to conclusions," another said, looking grim.

"But you saw how he behaved with those two, though!" the first troll gestured wildly, "He's up to no good! And something's going to happen to that poor kid and his dragon! And that dragon—you know how wizards are with dragons, and how valuable they are to them! That species of dragon was the rarest I've ever seen! We can't let the wizard use a Night Fury for his own selfish means!"

"And the way that dragon was so protective of the human child," Another, female troll spoke in awe, "I'd never seen a bond like that between a dragon and a human before… I wonder if the human possessed any magical abilities."

"I sensed no magic about him," an older troll said gruffly, "But Terc is right, we need to retrieve that human from the wizard's grasp. We all know how… unstable that wizard is. We just need to do it before something happens to that child…"

"What does that wizard even do to the animals he catches?" a younger troll asked, "I've seen him lay traps and bring the animals he catches to one of his cottages, and judging by the noises that come from that cottage he definitely isn't catching them for his dinner. But I've never seen what he actually does with them."

"Neither have we, it's part of the truce trolls and wizards made, to stay out of each other's business," The old troll replied. "But that human and his dragon are in danger. The truce did mention if one thinks the other is causing harm or wreaking havoc, they can step in if the situation calls for it. I believe this is a necessary cause—We must save that human and dragon before harm can befall them… I just hope we aren't too late…"