Berk, 1071 AD, village of Berk

"This is Berk." Hiccup explained as he showed Kijo around his home village. "On the surface, it may look like your run-of-the-mill secluded village, but if you take an even closer look, you'll find that this place is pretty unique, for an important reason. Want to know what?"

"Sure, what?" Kijo asked, wondering where Hiccup was going with this.

"Well, while most other places have hippos or horses, we've got something special. We've got…" Hiccup paused for effect. "Dragons!"

"Whoa! Neat-o!" Kijo exclaimed. He knew that other realms had dragons, but he'd never seen a whole village dedicated to caring for dragons.

"Yeah, we've got all sorts of devices meticulously designed to make the village as dragon-friendly as possible. We've got custom-built dragon stables, an all-you-can-eat dragon feeding station, a special full-service dragon wash—"

"Dragon wash? Is that like a car wash, but for dragons?"

"What's a car?" Hiccup asked, confused. Kijo realized that he should have thought about the fact that this was a Viking village. Of course they wouldn't know about cars—or any other modern-day technology that Kijo had encountered in his adventures with the Ninja and the Ninja Pups.

"Well, it's a…you know, it would take too long to explain." Kijo answered.

"As I was saying, just in case of an emergency, we also have a top-of-the-line fire prevention system, if I do say so myself." At that moment, Kijo looked up and saw a rather bulky brown dragon sneeze and accidentally set someone's roof on fire. "I got this!" a girl on a blue-and-white dragon shouted, just before pulling a cord that dumped a bucket of water on the fire, putting it out. "And to top it all off," Hiccup continued, "We have our very own alpha dragon to keep all the others under control. Not to use them for evil purposes, mind you—just to make sure they don't cause trouble."

"What's an alpha dragon?" Kijo asked, intrigued.

"The alpha dragon is the one who watches over and protects all other dragons out there. You could say he's the king of the dragons. Everyone respects him and listens to his commands." Hiccup looked behind him and yelled, "Incoming! Get down!" Kijo flopped onto his belly instantly. Hiccup followed suit just before some smaller dragons flew over their heads. "Everyone, that is, except the babies." Hiccup finished. "They listen to no one."

Kijo chuckled. Those babies sounded a lot like Kai when he was in the middle of a battle and didn't take time to think things through. In those situations, any suggestions from the other members of the team went in one ear and out the other. He looked up once again, noticing intently how different the dragons here were from those back home. In the Merged Realms, Ninjago specifically, the dragons tended to all look alike—or at least similar to each other. Here, though, there was more variety. In just one day, Kijo had seen dragons that looked like pufferfish, had two heads, could light themselves on fire, or had any other combination of unique traits. Kijo concluded that, unlike in Ninjago, here there must be different species of dragons.

"What species is the alpha dragon?"

"Oh, you mean Toothless? He's a Night Fury."

"A Night Fury?" Kijo repeated.

"Yeah, like this one here." Hiccup sat up, pulled a small notebook out of his pack, and opened it to a particular page before showing it to Kijo. Kijo stared, fascinated. The dragon depicted in the notebook looked kind of like a huge black cat with bat-like wings and a tail. "Wow." he exclaimed in wonder. "Is Toothless the last of his kind?"

"Well, I don't know. We haven't really found any other Night Furies, so I think it's safe to assume so."

"This place is amazing!" Kijo added, sitting up. "I never would have thought that Vikings and dragons would be friends!" Then a question came to his mind. "How come dragons aren't hunted down here?"

"Well," Hiccup answered. "Things weren't always this peaceful." As he spoke, his face fell. "Believe it or not, Berk was once a place where to survive meant to kill dragons before they killed you. They were once regarded as nothing but nuisances taking off with our sheep and other food. Killing a dragon meant everything around here, and I wanted in on it."

"You wanted to kill a dragon?" Kijo asked in surprise.

"Yes. I knew that the more dangerous the dragon breed, the more valuable it would be. For example, a Deadly Nadder head would get me at least noticed. Gronkles were tough—taking down one of those beasts would definitely get me a girlfriend. As for a Hideous Zippleback, that one's worth was simple to figure out—two heads, twice the status. Then there was the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings went after those. They have this rather nasty habit of setting themselves on fire when they feel threatened, which back then was basically all the time. But there was one dragon that no one had ever seen."

"The Night Fury." Kijo stated, guessing what Hiccup was about to say.

"Yep, this thing never stole food, never showed itself, and" Hiccup shuddered. "Never missed."

"Yikes! No wonder no one was ever able to catch it! Anyone who tried had a good chance of being roasted!"

"You got that right. No one had ever killed a Night Fury—which was why I was going to be the first."

"Yet your alpha dragon, Toothless, is a Night Fury. So, what changed?"

"Well, turned out that everything we thought we knew about dragons was wrong. I discovered that after I, uh, shot Toothless down with the same weapon that was used on you."

"You what?!" Kijo could not believe his ears.

"Yeah, that was not exactly my proudest moment. Anyway, I found Toothless and basically nursed him back to health. Eventually, we became friends. Along the way, Toothless taught me a lot of facts about dragons that no one had ever known before—like how dragons don't like eel because it makes them sick."

"Cool! I never even knew that before!"

"Yep, neither did I. I was also able to make him a prosthetic tail fin to replace the one he lost when I shot him down. Long story short, this huge dragon attacked my father's army. So my friends and I came and rescued them. But during the battle, Toothless's prosthetic burned to ashes, and I fell off his back and nearly died. Thankfully, Toothless was able to save me—well, most of me anyway."

At that moment, Hiccup stood up, gave Kijo a cheesy grin, and added, "He just couldn't save all of me. He had to make it even, so…" He then held up his prosthetic leg and finished dramatically, "Pegleg!"

Kijo laughed loudly. Hiccup certainly had a flair for dramatics. "Are you telling this story again, Hiccup?" a voice inquired. Kijo looked up and saw the girl who had put out the fire standing beside Hiccup.

"Oh. Oh, hi, Astrid." Hiccup replied, blushing a little. Kijo realized that Hiccup must've had a crush on her.

"Who's this pup?" Astrid asked.

"Oh, um, this is Kijo. He got shot down by somebody and crash-landed in the Cove, so I brought him here."

"Nice to meet you, Kijo."

"Nice to meet you too, Astrid." Kijo replied. He could see why Hiccup liked her so much. Then the blue-and-white dragon that Astrid had been riding flew down and landed in front of them. "And this is Stormfly." Hiccup added.

"You can pet her if you like. She won't bite—unless you attack her."

As if she understood what Astrid was saying, Stormfly put her head down where Kijo could reach his paw out and scratch her head. "Hey there, Stormfly." he said in awe. Then he sighed in happiness. "I love how you and the dragons are friends now, and not enemies like you used to be." Then his face fell, and he took his paw off of Stormfly. "I wish my world was like that."

Hiccup opened his mouth and was just about to ask why when Astrid tapped his shoulder and asked, "Um, Hiccup, where's Toothless? I haven't seen him since you two went for your morning flight."

Hiccup suddenly gasped. In all the excitement, he'd forgotten about Toothless. "I—" he stammered. "I don't know!"