Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD or it's characters

Different

The archipelago was enormous and many parts of it were still undiscovered. But there was one island, which was a bit different from the others.

That island was Berk. It was twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south to freezing to death. It was located solidly on meridian of misery. The village in a word was sturdy. It has been here for seven generations, but every single building was new. They had fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problem were the pests. Most places had mice or mosquitos. They had...

"Dragons.", girl whispered from her window as she saw the swarm of dragons approach her village.

She quickly ran down the stairs as the horn signaling a raid rang throughout the village. She opened the door, but quickly closed it when a dragon spit it's fire in her direction.

The girl was Hiccup Haddock III. She moved her bangs away from her forest green eyes and when she was sure the dragon wasn't close anymore, she ran out of her burning house with an excited smile on her face, which quickly vanished when the onslaught of noise hit her. Dragons and Vikings were fighting, and the animals were running around in panic.

Most people would leave after a few months of this madness, but not them. They were Vikings who had a stubbornness issues, who didn't want to surrender their home to the dragons. Hiccup was surprised their 'charming' demeanor hadn't chased them off by now, not to mention their body odor. Vikings were not known for being very clean or good smelling.

Hiccup ran through the village while dodging the flying weapons, dragons and Vikings. She watched as some Vikings laughed while fighting the dragons. These raids were one of the few possible ways to have entertainment and fun, as well as some warmth from winter. She had to snicker as she saw a few men warming their behinds by a burning house.

Continuing, she ignored the calls of the other Vikings saying she should stay inside or what she was doing outside. It wasn't like they were concerned about her safety, they cared more about the village and her father's anger.

As she arrived in the main plaza, she saw the dragon spewing fire on the road, but with her speed couldn't stop in time and lifted her arms to cover her face. She opened her eyes as she felt herself being moved away from the fire and was brought face to face with her father.

"What is she doin' out- what are you doing out?!" He dropped her and firmly, but gently pushed her towards the forge. "Get inside!"

That was Hiccup's father Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. She'd been told that when he was a baby, he'd popped of a dragon's head clean from it's shoulders. Did she believe it? Yes, she did.

Stoick threw a cartwheel at a dragon in the air. The dragon cried out in pain but stayed in the air unsteadily.

"What have we got?", he asked a fellow viking.

"Gonckles, Nadders, Zipplebacks, oh and Hoark said he saw a Monstrous Nightmare."

"Any Night Furies?"

"None so far."

"Good."

As Hiccup ran to the forge, she watched the people were set the torches on fire and raise them in the air. She rushed into the forge and put on her apron just as her mentor limped in. "Nice of you to join the party, Lass!" He opened the window of the forge and exchanged his prosthetic hook with a hammer as his peg leg clicked. "Thought you'd been carried off."

"Wha-who? Me? Come on, I'm way too muscular for their taste. I mean look at me, they wouldn't know what to do with all of this.", she said as she flexed her arms.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?", he joked.

Hiccup was a rather small girl, practically a twig in comparison to other teens in her age group and had been Gobber the Belch's apprentice since she'd been little, or well, littler. She learned through many mistakes and burns, but she'd become a quite talented blacksmith now. She was sharpening a weapon on the sharpening wheel when flinched as her ears were once again assaulted by the noise of outside. These raids were always so loud and left her with a headache for hours afterwards.

A house suddenly burst into flames a small distance away from the forge.

"Alright! Let's go!"

Five teenagers ran towards the barrel of water, buckets in their hands. The first one was a girl named Fishlegs Ingerman. She was smart and practically a walking book of dragons, having read through it multiple times and knowing it's contents by heart.

She was then pushed away by Snotlout Jorgenson, Hiccup's cousin. Hiccup questioned everyday how she and him were related. He was a brute, rough and one of her main tormentors ever since she could walk. His mother's kind personality having been lost when he was in the womb and only taking on his father's.

Fighting over a bucket behind him were the fraternal twins of mischief, Ruffnutt and Tuffnutt Thorston. They were renowned for their pranks and destruction. Ruffnutt's hair was braided in three parts while Tuffnutt's looked like dreadlocks.

Finally, was Anstred Hofferson. He was the prodigy of the village, even before officially being in training, he showed skill and talent. His jaggedly cut hair and fringe who covered his left eye gave him a mysterious vibe which never failed to attract the girls in the village. Her being one of those for a while but lessened over time when all he did was look at her with annoyance and ignore her.

They walked away from an explosion behind them, running by Hiccup who pretended to be working while looking at them from the corner of her eye. She envied them, their job was so much cooler than hers. She looked at them and almost fell out the window, if not for the hook that grabbed her.

"Oh no you don't!"

"Gobber please! I need to make my mark!", she pleaded as she was put down.

"You've made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places."

"Like you were the perfect Viking from the start." Gobber neither denied nor confirmed her assumption. "Please Gobber. I'll go out there, kill a dragon and my life will get infinitely better. I might even finally get a date."

"You can't lift a hammer, or an axe.", he pointed out and grabbed some bolas. "You can't even throw one of these." Said bolas were grabbed by a Viking and thrown at a Gronckle overhead.

She watched the display then strode to a contraption in the back. "Point taken, but this will throw it for me. It's still in it's testing phase bu-" As soon as she touched it, it sprung open and threw a bola straight into a Vikings face, knocking him out cold.

She winced. "See? This right here is what I'm talking about!", Gobber scolded her. He cut her off before she could protest, "Hiccup! If you ever want to fight dragons, you need to stop all of... this."

"But... you just gestured to all of me."

"That's it! Stop being all of you!"

"Ohh...", she narrowed her eyes at him in anger. "Fine then. But I am warning you, you are playing a dangerous game here mister. Keeping this much vikingness contained?! There will be consequences!", she warned, and Gobber looked at her unimpressed before he put a few dull swords in her arms and ordered her to sharpen them.

'One day.', she promised herself. One day she would get out there, because killing a dragon meant everything in Berk. A Nadder's head was sure to get her noticed. Gronckles were tough and taking one down would definitely get her a boyfriend. Zipplebacks had two heads, therefore were twice the prize. In a word, exotic.

Just then a house burst in flames and a big dragon flew out of it and climbed the catapult tower.

Another was the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings went after those as they had the nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. Making it almost impossible to fight them.

But the ultimate prize was the dragon no one had ever seen. They called it the...

"NIGHT FURY!"

"GET DOWN!"

A whistle rang throughout the village then got replaced by a screech and a catapult was destroyed by a purple blast.

Hiccup saw her father and his men jump off the catapult, relieved that they didn't get hit by the falling debris. She looked to the sky, hoping to maybe see it. The dragon never stole food, never showed itself and never missed it's shot.

The point being empathized by another catapult being hit by a blast. Unseen by any Vikings, only heard and leaving behind destruction. Gobber had once told her that him and her father had seen one once, but otherwise, no one had ever killed one. Which was why she was going to be the first.

Hiccup saw Gobber put on his axe prosthetic and hobble towards the chaos outside. "Man the fort Hiccup, they need me out there." She looked at him with a raised brow. "Or woman the fort... never mind. Stay put. There."

Hiccup continued looking at him. "You know what I mean.", he said just before he cried a war cry and limped with surprising speed into the crowd.

She only waited a second before she wheeled her contraption out of the forge and into the outskirts of the village, ignoring the angry Vikings on the way.

Soon she'd made her way onto a cliff on the outside of the village and aimed her thrower into the sky. Hiccup looked into the sky for the Fury. "Come on, where are you?", she muttered.

She squinted her eyes, feeling something in them, but ignoring it. Hiccup faintly saw it's shape circling near a catapult before it dived. The whistling started and the Fury shot it's blast. She shortly saw it in the flames and shot. The backlash threw her back, she scrambled up when she heard a snap, followed by a pained howl.

"Whoa, I hit it.", she said in disbelief then threw her arms into the air and yelled, "Yes I actually hit it!" Unbeknownst to her a Monstrous Nightmare had heard her and was prowling up the cliff. "Did anybody see that?", she asked not expecting an answer and froze as she smelled danger. Dread filled her stomach when she heard growling, and then something being crushed.

Turning around, she silently cursed when she saw the Nightmare standing behind her. Her mangler was crushed under it's clawed foot and it's eyes were slits, screaming anger and bloodlust with it's presence. "Except maybe you.", she sighed. 'And the mangler took weeks to build.'

The Nightmare charged at her with a growl, and she ran down the hill screaming. Hiccup ran fast into the plaza when she suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. The Nightmare hovered over her, and she covered her face with her arms. The dragon snarled and Hiccup released a sound which took them both by surprise.

The Nightmare reeled back in shock and just stood there. The sound had been a whine with a growl that sounded entirely too dragonish. It moved closer and sniffed her, a soft growl coming from it.

Hiccup cautiously moved her arms from her face and looked at the dragon in shock. It looked at her and she repeated the noise. The dragon's growl soon turned into a soft grumbling, and it moved a bit closer. "...?"

She startled. The noise had come from... the dragon?

On instinct she repeated the noise, but it was wavery and scratched the back of her throat.

The dragon watched her with confusion and curiosity. It sniffed her again and had moved a bit closer, yet Hiccup didn't feel as terrified as before. She knew she should be trying to find a weapon and ward the dragon off, but she didn't.

"...", it growled and flared it's wings a little. "...!"

Squinting her eyes she moved, but suddenly the Nightmare was tackled, and the moment was brocken. Jerking back in shock she looked to see her father fighting the dragon. The Monstrous Nightmare couldn't ward of the chief in it's surprise, but it finally got Stoick off of it and attempted the spew it's fire, only to burp out a small speck.

"You're all out.", the chief said smugly and started punching it. He got in a kick before it decided to retreat and flew away.

The chief breathed before he turned to his daughter with anger in his eyes. Hiccup looked all right, a bit ruffled and out of breath, likely from the shock of having the beast so close to her. He was glad she wasn't injured or that she'd been the cause to more damage to the village.

Stoick sometimes wondered what he would do with her.

"What were you thinkin'?!"

"I was just-."

"Do you know how dangerous it is to go out into a raid without proper training?!"

"I know but-"

"You were almost killed Hiccup!"

Hiccup rubbed her arm and avoided looking at her father as he rubbed his forehead with a sigh. They'd moved to the forge to talk, Gobber temporarily taking over the repairs for the village. "Are you injured?", he asked softly. There was no point in continuing to yell at her.

"No, just some scratches."

"Did the beast do anything to you?", he asked with a bit of anger.

"No, except chase me through the village."

Stoick sighed in relief. He'd grown a bit overprotective of Hiccup over the years. Her talent of getting in trouble had earned her so many injuries, Stoick sometimes feared even letting her out of the house. It had taken a lot of convincing from her and Gobber to let her work in the forge with her clumsiness.

"Were you testing one of your contraptions again?", he questioned almost resigned.

"Yes, but it's not like the other times dad! I actually hit something, I hit a Night Fury!" She said excited while pointing to the forests. "It went down just past Raven Point; we can get a search party and-"

"Hiccup!"

She startled slightly and Stoick immediately felt guilty. It wouldn't be the first time he'd yelled at her, but they'd learned that she had sensitive hearing and loud noises could agitate her. One of those loud noises happened to be his voice.

"We can't waste our recourses with a guess. That dragon might be gone by the time we get there and winter is almost here. I have a whole village to feed.", he reasoned and felt guilty once again when Hiccup's eyes dropped.

Hiccup was disappointed that her father didn't believe her. She could tell what he meant to say, even when he covered it with other words. "Between you and me the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?", she tried to joke, but the look he gave her let her know the joke was not appreciated.

Stoick looked at his now 15-year-old daughter, but all he could see was his little baby. He pulled her into a hug, granted it was awkward, but he smiled when she returned it. He wasn't the best with soft touches, but he tried for her.

After letting her go he patted her shoulder and Hiccup made her way to the house with Gobber accompanying her. Stoick sighed. The world would surely laugh at him if they saw him now. He was known as Stoick the Vast, one of the strongest and fiercest Viking leaders out there and here he was, acting like a mother bear to her cub.

"I really did hit one though Gobber!"

Hiccup had been telling Gobber about the Night Fury she knew she'd shot down, but he didn't believe a word of it. She would never say it out loud, but it hurt that neither her mentor or her father believed her. Which was why she was so insistent in going to find the Night Fury, to prove she was right.

But when he couldn't convince him she moved on to telling him about her frustrations with her father.

"I know he listens, but sometimes it feels like he doesn't, and he can be so stubborn sometimes."

"Runs in the family."

Arriving at the door, Hiccup was already on the roll with her next argument about her father, letting her over the years contained annoyance out on Gobber. "Then sometimes he looks at me with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat of his sandwich."

She lowered her voice to sound like her father's with his accent and put out her chest. "Excuse me barmaid. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here. This... girl is a talking fishbone."

Gobber was about to speak, but was interrupted by Hiccup, who apparently still wasn't finished with her rant. "What's even worse is the way he treats me." Gobber raised a brow in confusion. "He treats me like glass! Like I would break into a thousand pieces as soon as I trip or something! The other teens even started making fun of me for it, but I am not fragile!" She panted as she finished.

Gobber looked at his goddaughter with a sad frown. He tried to cheer her up, "Now, Hiccup you're thinkin' about this all wrong. He was the happiest Viking in the village when he learned he'd gotten a baby girl." Hiccup was now looking at him. "And it's not so much what ye look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand." He noticed his wrong choice of words too late.

"It's alright Gobber. I get it.", Hiccup said sadly as Gobber was trying to find a better way to say the things he wanted to say.

"Look, lass, what I'm trying to say is... stop trying so hard to be something you're not.", he said softly.

"I just want to be one of you guys.", she said and stepped into the house. 'I just want to belong.'

Gobber looked at the closed door before he sighed and limped back to the village for the after-raid meeting, all the while thinking about Hiccup and what he could do to help.

He saw Hiccup as a daughter. He had known her all her life and she'd been his apprentice for years. The blacksmith was also the one who took care of her when Stoick couldn't, because of chief duties or he was away searching for the nest. He'd changed her diapers, fed her, all the things a father did and seeing her like this saddened him.

Vikings gathered in the Great Hall after fixing most of the damage for another meeting concerning the raids. Stoick stood at the fire pit with a map of the sea, which a corner was circled where they suspected the nest might be.

"Either we finish them, or they'll finish us!", he yelled into the crown surrounding him."Once we've destroyed the nest the dragons will leave and we'll finally be rid of them. It's the only way." The people nodded in agreement.

He stabbed his knife into a corner of the map which displayed fog and dragons in it. They called it Helheim's Gate. "One more search before the ice sets in.", he suggested, though the vikings didn't look very eager to join.

"We've never found the nest in those searches, we'll only loose more ships."

"Oh, come on! We're Vikings, its' an occupational hazard.", Stoick argued. "Now who's with me?!" No one volunteered and only muttered excuses to not participate.

"Alright. Those who stay will look after Hiccup." Everyone raised their hands.

Stoick nodded satisfied and they planned to leave the next day, but a few would stay back in the case of a raid. Stoick walked over to his friend who was still seated and drinking a cup of ale. He sat down next to him, and the bench creaked under his weight. Stoick was glad Hiccup wasn't there to hear it, she wouldn't have let him live it down.

"I'll pack my undies."

"No Gobber, I need you to stay and train some new recruits."

"Oh, perfect and while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the forge. Molten steel, razor-sharp blades, lots of time to herself. What could possibly wrong?"

Stoick only sighed at the thought of all that could happen. Hiccup needed constant supervision and even Gobber couldn't be there all the time. "What am I going to do with her Gobber?"

"Put her in training with the other teens.", Gobber suggested.

Stoick looked at him with eyes wide, thinking he was joking. "No, I'm serious Gobber."

"So am I."

"She'd be killed before ye let the first dragon out of it's cage."

"Oh, you don't know that."

"I do know that actually."

"No ye don't"

"I do actually and if not that, then the... other part of her could react to those dragons and who knows what'll happen."

"Now you're just exaggerating.", Gobber said annoyed and a little frustrated that the chief didn't have more faith in his own daughter.

Stoick stood up with a frustrated huff. "You know how she is. She doesn't listen, from the time she could crawl she's been different. Instead of beating on the dragon toys with a toy hammer, she- she cuddled them!" Stoick sighed and Gobber smiled at the memory. He'd found it cute, even if Stoick frowned upon it.

"I would take her fishing and she goes hunting for... for trolls! To add to that the enhanced senses and she always had her nose buried in a book instead of learning to fight with the other children!", Stoick said frustrated. Hiccup had shown to be different form the other children in every turn. The scales on her back a strong empathizer of that fact.

"Trolls exist Stoick! They steal yer socks, but only the left ones. What's with that?", Gobber wondered, and Stoick knew from who Hiccup had gotten the idea.

Stoick sighed at his friend. "When I was a boy."

"Oh, here we go."

"My father told be to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him, and you know what happened?"

"You got a headache.", the blacksmith deadpanned.

"The rock split in two. It taught me what a viking could do Gobber. He could crush mountains, level forests and tame seas!" He walked back to the bench and sat down next to him. "Even as a little boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become. Hiccup is not that boy."

Gobber only shook his head at his friend. "No, you're right. Hiccup isn't that boy. She's a girl trying to fit in." Stoick sighed. "You can't stop her Stoick; you can only prepare her for the dangers out there. I know it may seem hopeless, but we both know that you won't always be around to protect her."

Stoick looked at the ground at the last sentence. He couldn't argue with Gobber's logic. With him being the chief and with his search fot the nest, chances were high he could die one day, and Hiccup would be all by herself.

"We both know how she is; she's going to go out there again. She's probably out there right now! Dragon Training is the perfect opportunity for her to learn how to defend herself.", Gobber said, and Stoick had to agree, but the chances of something happening to her were there and he wouldn't be there to save her.

"Besides, I'll be right there in case something happens and who knows, she might surprise all of us.", he said optimistic, but Stoick shook his head with a scoff. The odds of her even making it through one lesson were small. He would pray to Odin and Thor for her safety.

"Fine. She can participate, but I want her in one piece when I come back Gobber.", Stoick said sternly.

"I swear it on my left hand, Stoick."

The chief nodded and the two friends left the great hall. Stoick went to his house to prepare for the search tomorrow and tell Hiccup the news and Gobber to plan the training sessions, happy that he could help his goddaughter. Stoick may believe she couldn't do it, but he had learned to never underestimate her.

Stoick meanwhile was contemplating how to tell her of the search and dragon training. But he couldn't get over his worry. Hiccup was his only child and the last piece he had left of Valka. He would have to have faith in Gobber to keep her safe. He would still pray to Thor and Odin though, just to be safe.

Thanks for reading. Byee!