It was the loveliest day that the isle of Berk had seen in a while. The air was cool and crisp, not ragged for once. Vegetation growth marked a healthy environment. Common songbirds were chirping frequently and loudly, as to take opportunity of this splendid day. Even the sea, not so far from the frigid Arctic Circle, felt warmer to the touch and waves less roughened. It was the type of day where one could do as they pleased and just relax…

Unless you were like Hiccup, who was ignoring nature's wonder with embarrassment and stress still clinging to him like a wet rag. 'Well THAT was stupid,' he thought. The boy had ventured away from the glen where the, er, TARDIS had landed, not intending to look back. Hiccup didn't notice his surroundings, as he was only concentrating on getting as far away from that TARDIS as possible. He felt as if the entire endeavor had been very pointless and very dumb.

Hiccup shook his head and continued to walk through the forest, shouting for his dragons. When they did not respond right away, he sighed and assumed that they had wondered off and were now playing amongst themselves idly in the trees. "Toothless! Windwalker! Wodensfang!" he called again, a bit louder this time. A chipmunk or two scurried away from a carpet of fallen leaves, but that was it. There were no signs of dragon life in this barren land. Hiccup began to get worried. In the past few dangerous months, his faithful friends never strayed too far from his side…Where they hurt? he wondered. Did they get kidnapped by Vikings or enemy dragons?

"We need to get going! We have no time for games!"

Hiccup told himself as calmly as he could not to panic (which, quite frankly, did surprisingly little to help his nerves). Walking throughout the woods, searching for his friends and calling for them as well, Hiccup began to become a bit more in-tuned to his surroundings.

It was not the glen. He was no longer on the same path he had followed to reach the TARDIS. Hiccup was lost, and he knew it. The dragons were currently separated from him, and he knew it as well. He was by himself, alone, in the woods, where he knew not what was potentially watching him…

"STORMFLY!" shouted a strong voice, a female voice.

Hiccup's first thought was 'Camicazi?' for only Camicazi could yell that loud and only Camicazi had a dragon named Stormfly... "Come here, girl!" shrieked the voice again and Hiccup yelped in surprise.

And although Hiccup had promised himself to stay hidden, out of sight and out of trouble, a strong curiosity pricked inside of him. He hoped against hope that maybe it was Camicazi, that she might be just around the bend. But those hopes were dashed when Hiccup realized that is extremely improbable, and she shouldn't be in this part of the Archipelago anyways.

So Hiccup walked off, slightly disappointed, but…

…But. But it could be a certain scary-looking-but-cute-and-also-violent blonde Viking girl, who, against all odds, was here, on this deserted island, where he himself was standing.

Hiccup hoped against hope that it was Camicazi, a familiar friend after months of isolation and violence. But a small but wise voice in the back of his head was whispering quietly that even if it was her, it wouldn't be a good idea to walk up and strike a conversation as if nothing had happened and the world was normal. Hiccup agreed brought up the suggestion of just making sure without talking or any interaction at all, as he was getting very curious.

So Hiccup had walked a bit closer in the direction of the voice, all while making certain to be well-hidden amongst the trees. And there, just a hop, skip tumble away was standing a scary-looking-but-cute-and-also-violent blonde Viking girl.

But it wasn't Camicazi.

For one thing, Hiccup noted, this girl was tall. Taller than him, and probably older too. She also had her hair tied back in a messy braid, something Camicazi would never do, as she preferred to keep hers in its natural, un-brushed state. And instead of his friend's signature sword, a heavy and battle-worn axe rested against the girl's skirt.

"Stormfly!" she called again.

But why was this girl (who was most certainly not Camicazi) looking for Stormfly? There weren't any other dragons in the Barbaric Archipelago named Stormfly…Where there?

Hiccup's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as a huge gust of wind blew itself like a twister to the ground below. A completely massive dragon then flew down from the sky above, flapping its great wings and landing gracefully not-too-far from Hiccup and the girl.

"Oh, there you are!" the blonde cried in joy as she ran over to greet the dragon. "Stormfly! Oh, what have I told you about chasing flocks of birds?" The girl's tone sounded harsh and angry, but her body language spoke otherwise as she laid her arms around 'Stormfly's' thick scaly neck. "C'mon girl, let's get back to the village! I would've finished chopping wood by now if you hadn't run off!" She used Stormfly the Second's (yes, that was what Hiccup was calling her in his mind) enormous blue wings as a quick lift to the leather saddle the dragon proudly sported. The pair launched off in a whirl of wind and wings, nearly knocking down poor Hiccup, who was quite confused and still trying his best to go unnoticed.

As Hiccup attempted to regain his footing, he couldn't help but wonder why a Viking was riding a dragon when such interactions were forbidden nowadays (of course, that had never stopped him). And what the Hel kind of dragon was that anyways? And why was this girl, who reminded him so much of Camicazi, yet was so unlike her, riding a dragon named Stormfly who was obviously not the Stormfly that he knew?

'The village,' he thought. 'She mentioned something about a village. But last time I checked, there weren't any nearby villages in this part of the Archipelago…'

Hiccup ran through the thick undergrowth of the forest, suddenly remembering that Toothless, the WIndwalker and Wodensfang were all still lost. Where could they be? This had never happened before…

'Stupid TARDIS,' thought Hiccup. It had all gone downhill when the Doctor showed up with his TARDIS-thing and that woman.

xXx

Very quickly, the dense forest began to thin out into a peaceful wood. 'That's odd,' noted Hiccup. 'I thought this place would be covered with trees…Oh! The village must be nearby, wherever it is.'

As Hiccup wandered closer, the land took on a new atmosphere and appearance. Trees, for example, sported carefully-cut branches, a sign that humans had sawed them down for timber. There was less wild game, as those animals would've been the first hunted. Even the air was starting to smell slightly of roasted food and human activity; typical odors for an average Viking settlement.

And Hiccup's assumptions were proved correct, for very soon lay sprawled out in front of him like a picture-perfect drawing on a map, a medium-sized Viking village. Hiccup dare not enter, though, for fear that people would recognize his face from the wanted posters, something that would not be good. But then again, it would be useful to know exactly where he was, as he had previously thought the island was small and uninhabited. This proved not to be so. The town was very alive and bustling, people happily chatting with one another while exchanging goods and gossip.

'Where am I?' Hiccup wondered. Every other village he had happened to come across seemed to be full of scared and vengeful people, angry at him, angry at the dragon rebellion, and angry at the world in general; not surprising since the largest war the Archipelago had ever seen was raging right on civilians' doorsteps as rebel dragons attacked at night. People lived in constant fear and misery, knowing full too well that any day might be their last.

But what did surprise Hiccup was that amongst this war-torn world lay a seemingly peaceful and care-free village where the inhabitants rode dragons. And it seemed that the blonde girl wasn't the only one to be friendly with the beasts; dragons of all shapes and sizes and colors flew around the air, ate out of barrels, followed people around, and no one tried to do anything about it. It looked completely normal.

Hiccup was reminded of Berk, his now-destroyed hometown, when life was far from great, but it wasn't completely horrible. Back—on a normal day, when life seemed to drag on forever, it was so dull—when no one wanted to kill him (except for Snotlout) and no one wanted to kill dragons (except for Snotlout). Those days, Hiccup would wander to the nearby cliffs with Toothless, who begged to be carried because his wings were too tired, and where Hiccup would eventually give into the whining dragon and they would waste the day away dragon-watching. It was because of these long afternoons that Hiccup knew nearly every species of dragon known to Vikings.

Or at least, he thought he had known. The secluded village teemed with dragons that Hiccup had never laid eyes on before. Most were huge and colorful, like Stormfly the Second, but others resembled Common or Garden dragons very much so, but lacking the sharp little teeth.

Oh, the Common or Garden dragons here were toothless! Hiccup watched the reptilian beasts, their eyes goggling lazy and their heads swinging in excited circles. He sighed. There was a place, an isolated island where Vikings and dragons lived together peacefully every day, side by side. This discovery, although sparking a small flame of hope in Hiccup, also reminded him of the fact that a good part of the uncivilized world claimed the deed impossible. But here! Here was the proof! Hiccup wished that people could look at such a scene as this and admit that it did seem like a better alternative to war, rather than immediately destroy it.

It was like no one wanted peace! Had Alvin and his mother somehow twisted the peoples' minds into believing that fighting was necessary? Was this what the human soul was reduced to when stripped raw?

Hiccup shook his head and stared back out to the near-perfect scene playing before his eyes, like a clipping from a dream. Two young children, no older than ten, giggled in pure joy as a large, monstrous-looking fire-red dragon ate breadcrumbs out of their hands, like a well-behaved puppy. The girl affectionately scratched behind its upper neck spines, a place that was difficult for the dragon to reach by itself while her companion hopped himself onto its long, winding neck, pretending to ride it. The dragon looked perfectly content to continue playing with the children.

'I might…I better take a closer. Just to make sure nothing fishy is going on here.'

xXx

"Astrid!" a boy called out.

After quite a bit of wandering (an it is pretty hard to wander aimlessly without being caught) Hiccup had come across the teen Viking girl who had intrigued him so much in the forest. He found her on the edge of the town, axe in her hand and wood on the ground. She let out a grunt with every swing, obviously very concentrated on her work.

'Astrid' (as it appeared to be her name) let out a shriek and whipped around, loose hair flopping around her face.

The boy who had approached her held up his hands in surrender and backed away. "Woah! Calm down, Astrid, I just went out to look for you! Where have you been?"

"Oh", she responded aloofly. "You know, I was just chopping some firewood here, when all of a sudden, Stormfly lets out a cry and leaves me!"

The brunette boy looked at her curiously. "I wonder what could've made her do it, she's usually one of the most obedient dragons on Berk!"

Astrid shrugged her shoulders and stared off into space, trying to look like she could care less. "I don't know. It was probably a flock of birds, or something, you know how she likes—"

"Berk!" Hiccup gasped under his breath? Were they somewhere that familiar island? Months ago, the entire settlement had been burned down, but was it possible that Vikings were again trying to recolonize the island?

"Wait," Astrid paused, eyes narrowing. "Did you hear something? I thought I heard something."

He had said too much. Hiccup had given away his presence to these strangers, ones who were unmistakably Vikings, and Hiccup hadn't very much trusted Vikings in a while. Slowly, he tip-toed away, quietly as possible from the scene.

"It—it was probably nothing," her companion responded.

"Oh no, I'm pretty fairly sure that it was a something, and that something sounded awfully human-like."

"Oh gods…Astrid, are you suggesting that someone is spying on us!"

"That's exactly what I'm implying! And for all we know, it could be more." Attention now focused on Hiccup's presence, she gripped the wooden handle of the weapon and shouted, "C'mon, show yourself!"

"There is nobody out there!" the boy cried, exasperated with his friend. "Look, I just came to tell you that dragon training is canceled for today. Hookfang has disappeared and no one knows why! We've spent the day looking for him."

'Dragon training?' Hiccup thought fondly. It had been too long since that wonderful phrase had been spoken casually.

"Although knowing him, he probably just got distracted chasing a Terror and fell into a volcano or something."

Astrid leaned against her axe and smiled. "Okay, fine. I'll help you, Hiccup. Odin, what is it with all our dragons being distracted today?" She put down her beloved weapon before walking further into the woods looming behind the teens. "I'm going to go get Stormfly, she's eating something over here."

Ah, yes, now he could see it. The boy's arms were lanky and lacking in muscle. And he was short, even shorter than Astrid, despite them being seemingly the same age. He was a hiccup, an accident, a runt. Just like himself.

And Hiccup had met only one other tribal runt in his life, his friend Fishlegs, and heard about others only in old tales. What coincidence it was to find one that shared his name! It was common Berkian tradition to name the runts 'Hiccup'…

Berk.

He had to ask. He had to. It was the next step to finding Fishlegs, to finding his father, to getting everyone back on the right track. And then, Hiccup decided, everything would again be nor—

"Hey!" The Hiccup-boy had run straight into Hiccup, who had stopped walking a little whiles ago, too immersed in his own thoughts. "Sorry! Gah, I didn't see you there!" He stopped to give a slightly awkward smile to Hiccup and a short apology. Hiccup brushed it off and mumbled a 'it's okay' in response.

There was a loud 'What in the name of Midgard are you eating?!' and the soft crushing of leaves, which signaled Astrid's arrival back to the wood-chopping block, Stormfly in tow.

"Hey, Hiccup, I'm back—" She took one glance at Hiccup and flew into a fury. "Ah-ha!" she shrieked rather joyfully, for one who was upset. "I knew someone had been spying on us!" She picked up her axe— and to Hiccup's surprise the axe did not do its job of spilling blood—and held it firmly in her right hand. Astrid's free left hand was held in an accusing position, not a finger pointed at Hiccup, but her body language couldn't be plainer.

"So, stranger," she snarled, stalking up to Hiccup like a hungry predator. "What brings you here?"

"Woah, woah!" the Hiccup-boy said, in defense of Hiccup. "We weren't doing anything that was worth spying on! He could've been just an innocent person walking through the forest around the same time we were. Believe it or not, Astrid, there is such a thing as coincidence."

"Coincidence, fate, whatever!"

The Hiccup-boy looked at Astrid and said, "Well maybe he could help us find Hookfang!" He paused and pondered this before continuing, "Yeah! If you insist that he's here for a reason, maybe he could help us! Sorry, but what was your name?"

Hiccup sighed. "Dogsbreath."

Sorry for the long wait! As you know, life can be very busy…So tell me what you think so far? Is this a good idea? I'm sorry if anyone else already did something like this, I didn't mean to copy. Reviews, constructive criticism, and comments don't go unappreciated! And (hopefully) the next chapter will be up in a shorter amount of time, maybe slightly longer and include more characters.

Fem America 13: Thanks for being the first reviewer! I hope you're enjoying the fanfic. :)