The auburn-haired mountain of a man silently opened the door to his long-dead son's room. Calling out and praying for a familiar nasal voice with a sarcastic attitude to call back to him. But it didn't happen it hadn't happened in eight years and it wasn't going to happen now he knew that so did the entire village but he couldn't stop hoping that one day his skinny son would wake up when he opened that door. The man had changed over the span of eight years, he is still as tall and strong as before but now his vast beard had wisps of grey hair in it. He looked tired and devoid of any emotion, as he stepped out his doorway bending down to not hit the door frame he was greeted with pleasant weather even the gods were trying to make him smile, as it was the anniversary of his son's death as well as the death of the young shield maiden of the tribe.
As Stoick the Vast made his way down the stone path to the well-worn dirt path leading to the centre of the village he saw his people, they had been happy that the 'little troublemaker' had died. Few such as the Ingermans', Gobber, Gothi and Hoffersons' who had also lost their eldest child knew the pain he felt and were truly heartbroken that the two had made their way to Valhalla. It broke his heart that his son had died not knowing that he had truly loved him, Stoick knew he hadn't been a great father but he had only been a cold and a stoic father to push his son to become a strong Viking. He wished that his little son return to him he had been smart and small but he was his son and he missed him as much as he missed his late wife.
Moving past the line of houses towards the Great Hall he saw the Hoffersons', Ingrid Hofferson was a battle-hardened warrior and to see her this broken was a rare sight. As her husband Havlor comforted his depressed wife along with their daughter Anna, Stoick remembered the night his life had changed; when his son and Astrid hadn't returned to their homes search parties had been sent out. A few hours before dawn they had found a lush green cove with a magnificent lake at the center. if it hadn't been for the devastating event that had taken place it would have been a beautiful place to relax after a long day of work. As they searched the cove they found Hiccup's dagger in the lake and Astrid's axe on the edge of the lake. There were scales of three dragons, one of which was a Terrible Terror and the other two were opposites one was as white as the moon while the other was as dark as the sky around the now full moon, clearly those of the Night and Light Fury. Everyone knew what had happened, the two legendary dragons had killed their heir and shieldmaiden. Devasted they returned to tell the news to the villagers who had celebrated the death of the runt while a few made tales of how the menace had run for his life and Astrid had tried to protect him like a true warrior but being a teenager wasn't strong enough. After the funeral both families along with Gobber were broken and it had taken them a few days to be mentally able to come back to work. Since Hiccup's death, Snotlout had become the new heir he was constantly trained by his father. Both of them were selfish and arrogant and had somehow managed to sway the minds of all the villagers to do their bidding even though Stoick was still the chief.
As he entered the gigantic wooden doors leading into the Great Hall he was met with a few villagers and the council already seated on the main wooden table placed on a raised platform, the rest of the villagers were entering as he made his way to the table. As he sat down he heard the doors of the Great Hall closing indicating that all the villagers were in the hall. He slowly started the monthly meeting to see how Berk was doing and if they had enough resources to survive the upcoming winter.
It was a few hours past midday when Stoick entered the Great Hall again to eat his lunch where he saw most of the villagers already present eating their meat while shouting and making jokes in the corner he saw the Hoffersons' and Ingermans' silently eating their lunch the latter eating silently purely out of respect, as he sat beside Gobber he heard the comments the Jorgensons' and their friends were making about his late son. He was about to give them a piece of his mind when they all stood up immediately after hearing the sound they had dreaded eight years ago... the war horn. Stoick quickly got up and started shouting orders to defend their island from the invaders, whomever they may be.
As they ran outside the massive chief's breath hitched, as he took in the size of the incoming army it was bigger than any other fleet he had seen. It covered the entire ocean to the horizon, he knew they wouldn't win this fight it was impossible. He looked around him to see all the Vikings thinking the same as he was, making a quick decision he ordered all his people to board their large wooden ships to escape the incoming force of Dragon Trappers. He saw the colours the ships were flying recognizing them to belong to Grimmel the Grizzly even though he was a dragon killer like him, he knew that Grimmel wasn't coming for a chat. The Vikings quickly readied the sails of their ships as the children and young adults brought supplies and resources for their journey to their unknown destination. In a few minutes, they were cutting through the cold waters heading south towards the borders of the Archipelago trying to place as much distance from the invaders who were now out of sight as well as their home of seven generations.
The next day...
Why? That was the one question every Viking on the six ships had. Why had they attacked? Berk was a peaceful island ever since the dragons stopped attacking them. So why had the Trappers attacked them, to gain territory, to loot and raid them but whatever they wanted it wouldn't have been good.
The six Viking ships made their way through the lightning storm that had been dubbed ' Thor's Wrath '. It was too strong to sail through after hours of sailing the Vikings were growing tired as no sunlight passed through they had no idea in which direction they were sailing. The storm and the tall and jagged waves seemed to never end. As the old chief prayed for the gods to show them mercy the waves and winds seemed to grow stronger. Before they could even react all six ships were sinking as the Vikings scrambled to stay afloat and hold on to the younger children as they held on to the floating broken wooden planks which once made the ships which were now at the bottom of the ocean.
It felt like an eternity before the storm ended, and as soon as it did they saw large ships sailing their way. The massive ships had sails on which the crest of what only looked like a dragon curled up to make a ball with a red tail had been painted on. As the men on the ships saw the Vikings in the water, the Vikings heard the sailors shout as they dropped ropes and dragons flew from the deck towards them. All the Vikings too tired to even move let the dragons gently carry them onto the deck where the creatures dropped them gently before hovering a few meters above them.
Saying they were shocked was an understatement the ship was beautiful it had what looked like self-reloading balistas, chain and net shooters. It was advanced all the Vikings could see that. As they looked around they saw that the sailors had beautifully crafted weapons that had intricate designs on the handles and on the blunt side of the blades. The sailors themselves wore black leather armour with a hood and a black mask covering their mouths, the sailors had dragon scales sewn on their armour which had been painted black. They were meant to look scary and it was working. As they looked up to see the dragons hovering over them, the only sound they made was the periodic flapping of their wings to stay in the air. The dragons looked docile but what shocked them even more was that the people who had rescued them were riding the said dragons.
Stoick looked back ahead to see a slightly tall man wearing a different armour made of black leather and red dragon scales, he had a goatee and short black hair. He wore a smile that could make any man feel uncomfortable and had a scar from a dragon on his neck. "Hello, my dear shipwrecked friends my name is Viggo Grimborn a council member of the Draconian Empire, I am the captain of this fleet. You don't look like you are from this part of the archipelago so do tell me who is your leader and where you are from." His voice was smooth, too smooth it had a calm but scary effect on it, the voice made the hair on the back of the Viking's head stand. Slowly Stoick got up to stand up to his full height to address their saviour, "My name is Stoick the Vast Haddock, Chieftain of the Hooligan Tribe from Berk. We were attacked by Grimmel and his Dragon Trappers, his forces greatly outnumbered us so the only option we had was to run away where we fell victim to the storm and lost our ships." As Stoick finished his story Viggo's eyes turned wide, his previous calm nature turning erratic as he looked behind Stoick to see the rest of the survivors. He quickly turned around to the now murmuring and wide eyed sailors and shouted, "SET SAIL TO DRAGON'S EDGE."