Chapter 1: Hiccup The Dreamer

Hiccup the giant was anything but a giant, a slim young man and he wasn't particularly tall either, rather slight in stature and not having much talent in sword fighting, he was considered the most useless of the Vikings.
That's why most people either openly or less openly despised him and secretly told each other jokes about Hiccup the weakling. His father Stoic was also increasingly worried about his son. He knew how different he was and that bothered the clan chief, who was highly valued and revered by everyone, when he saw how little his son could assert himself.
It wasn't much the same for Hiccup, who feared his father's shadow; he seemed to be cut from a different cloth than Haudrauff, who was a revered and feared leader of his people.
That's why he didn't enjoy training with the weapon half as much as Snotloud Jorgenson did his cousin.
He just didn't have much use for that sort of thing.
Instead, he preferred to read about dragons in the books in the Berg library and imagined seeing one of these legendary animals. He often looked closely at the dates and painted them based on the illustrations in the books. They were truly impressive animals without question.
When he read and drew, he was often able to forget the boring everyday life and his everyday worries as well as his outsider existence as a Viking and become something else. To become at home in a world other than the gray, desolate future that he seemed to expect for his life on Berk.
His favorite dragon was without a doubt the dreaded Night Fury.
He was certainly also the most mysterious dragon he could never find a portrait of the Night Fury in any of the dragon books except for a few notes.
Fishlegs sometimes helped him look for new dragon books in Berg's library.
But their search has so far been largely unsuccessful.
However, often when he wasn't inside reading a book by candlelight, he liked to go into the forest to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
There he took out his paper and drew dragons.
This time too he did it and after some work in Gobber's blacksmith shop, who was a close friend of his father and had made Hiccup his apprentice, escaped to his retreat in the forest.
It was summer and it was early afternoon, the birds were playing their song and some wild animals like rabbits and deer could be clearly seen. As a finger exercise he drew a hare he had met on the way and climbed to a good vantage point on a strong branch of a large old tree.
After he finished his rabbit portrait, he set about drawing a dragon a nadder when he suddenly realized he was being watched.
Then he saw another rabbit in front of him, a beautiful one with brown fur.
"Hello, little one," said Hiccup and was about to climb down and pet the cute bunny.
Then suddenly an arrow whizzed through the air and felled the hare.
The hunter came out of his hiding place and Hiccup recognized him immediately.
It was Astrid. He would recognize her blonde hair and her pale face and her blue eyes anywhere.
Astrid was a young Viking from the Hofferson family. She was a bold and feared warrior.
He often watched her train but she also enjoyed hunting animals in the forest. Her weapon of choice was the ax, which she liked to carry with her. But she could also make an impression with a bow and arrow.
As well as her impressive beauty. Hiccup admired her, even more, he secretly adored her. He loved her dearly. It was also one of the favorite drawing subjects alongside his favorite dragons, the nightfurrys. He often drew her as a Valkyrie or an elf.
Of course, no one knew about his crush, least of all Astrid. Because she was hardly interested in him. He was simply invisible to her. Only in his dreams, in his most intimate fantasies, could he be close to her, something he never managed to do in reality.