Hello, everyone! Apologies about the hiatus, school and work's been keeping me from writing, but I finally was able to rub two minutes together and get this down (finally, I've had it in my head for months). This chapter is super short, so I'm posting it along with the first chapter. The second is currently in the works.

Hope you enjoy!

Prologue

Hiccup broke through the heather, running as fast as he possibly could. He dared not look back, but he could hear the chitters coming from just behind him. The rain was picking up, but he still could hear the distant swishing was growing more pronounced, more audible. He darted sharply to the right, towards the deeper part of the forest, though he knew this would do little good. What good would darkness do against predators who had excellent night vision and could still smell him, regardless of the rain?

His feet splashed frantically in the muddy ground, too panicked to care about the puddles which caked his pants with brown sludge. "Toothless!" he called out desperately, cupping a hand to his mouth. "Toothless!"

He looked left and right, searching the darkness for his dragon, but he was nowhere to be found. Even if Toothless could hear him over the rain, he was probably far off. He was all alone, running blindly through a forest he hardly recognized at all. The darkness had washed itself over the terrain completely, remaking the land into a black, wet labyrinth.

"All I wanted," he panted, breathless, frustrated, and dripping, "was one weekend off. But do I get that? No! I get a supply list and a pack of bloodthirsty dragons!"

Hiccup then tripped over an overgrown root, lost his footing, and fell face-first into the mud. He pushed himself up, wiping the mud out of his eyes with the back of his sleeve. He scrambled to his feet, but he swayed to his left, and the sickening creaking and squeaking of metal came from underneath him. He looked down at his prosthetic to find it dislodged from its setting and bent to the left like a broken bone.

Just his luck. It was broken for the second time. His problems just kept snowballing.

Another dragon call came, closer than ever before. Hiccup tried to resume his run, but the broken leg made it hard and he only managed a quick limp, quick being a relative term. Just ahead of him was a break in the tree line.

He was almost out of the woods! If he could get out, he could at least have some light, be able to see his pursuers. Maybe Toothless would be able to find him more easily…

He made it out of the woods. His hands pressed against his knees as he caught his breath. The moon was hidden behind the clouds, but a distant bolt of lightning flashed and illuminated the grassy hill.

Then, Hiccup felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw that the hill abruptly stopped just a few feet in front of him. This was not a hill at all. It was a cliff, a dead end. A dead end that encircled him, cut him off from any possible escape.

"Oh, Thor!"

A sharp chitter tore through the air, reminding Hiccup that he was not alone. He whipped around and saw the lead Speed Stinger break through the treeline, his blood-red dorsal fin raised like a mainsail, his teeth bared in bloodlust. Another Stinger came from the left of him, another to his right, and several others rushed up behind their alpha.

They had herded him here. Hiccup had nowhere to go, and they had him right where they wanted him.

Hiccup backed up, hands extended in front of him. The pack encroached around him, snarling, pushing him closer and closer to the edge. This was it. He was dead. No one was coming to save him. He was all alone.

Hiccup's right foot grazed the end of the cliff. He slipped off, a scream tearing out as he fell.