Hiccup quickly ran down the stairs, jumping the last few steps while his brother was already at the door weapons ready.
"You got your sword?" He quickly asked as Hiccup nodded and patted his side where his short sword was.
DJ then opened the door, only to be met by a horde of Vikings crowded around the house.
"DJ, what do we do?!"
"We've never had a raid this close to winter before!"
"We weren't prepared for a raid!"
"We don't have enough warriors!"
DJ put his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly which made everyone quiet down and cover their ears. Once he was done, he then grabbed a spear from one of the Vikings and threw it into the wing of a Zippleback who was flying too close to the group.
The hit caused the dragon to crash to the ground as DJ turned and looked at the group.
"What's wrong with you all?! Yeah we've never had a raid this close to winter before but they're still dragons. You know where your positions are and how to fight them so fight them and get to your positions. If you need help, get some of the teens off of the fire crew!" he yelled as everyone ran of except Hiccup and the fire crew.
"Alright fire crew, your job hasn't changed but make sure you carry your weapons with you. If any warriors need help, I want some of you to go and the rest stay on putting out fires" he said as they all mumbled in excitement before DJ looked at Hiccup.
"Hiccup, I want you on the fire crew" he said silencing everyone.
"Uh DJ I don't think... I um-" Hiccup started but trailed off as DJ put a hand on his shoulder.
"I know and I hate throwing you into the fight like this, trust me, it's bringing back a lot of memories but I'm low on warriors and need every available person ready to help" he said as Hiccup put a hand on DJ's before sighing and nodding.
"Good, I'll swing by the forge, let Gobber know he's on his own tonight. Kids, show him the ropes" DJ said before charging into the village.
"Hoist the torches!" DJ yelled as he ran off leaving Hiccup and the fire crew standing in front of their houses.
"So what now?" Hiccup asked.
"We keep watch for any houses on fire. Obviously" Astrid said with an eye roll.
"But since we also got told to help out other by the acting chief. Until then..." Snotlout said with a smirk before he grabbed his hammer and ran off with a scream, the twins following with their spears and screams of their own.
"Snotlout! He said to aid others if they ask, not run off on our own!" Astrid said only to be ignored by the trio of trouble makers.
"Does this happen a lot?" Hiccup asked Fishlegs who nodded.
"Every raid" he muttered before being punched in the gut by Astrid.
"Grab your weapons and come on. We need to round them up and get to the water trough" Astrid said pulling her axe from her back while Fishlegs also had a hammer and Hiccup had his short sword.
Running through the village, Hiccup noticed that the lack of warriors was showing. Everyone who wasn't guarding the animals or food was rushing around the village, never staying in one place too long.
They didn't even have enough Vikings to spare to man the catapults.
As they ran past a hanging rack full of fish, Hiccup slowed and watched the other two teens keep running. Once he was sure they weren't looking back and nobody else was looking at him, he grabbed a yellow and black eel and tucked it over his shoulder underneath his tunic just like it was when he faced the Zippleback.
He then quickly kept running before he was blocked by a Gronkle who growled viciously at him.
Drawing his sword, Hiccup's legs shook as he didn't have any dragon nip as he called it and he couldn't put his weapon down during a full blown raid. So that only left him with one option.
"Back beast, back!" He yelled in the stern-est voice he could muster and slashed at the dragon, obviously not aiming to actually hit it. However he saw some other warriors had stopped to watch him so he had to make it look good.
However the lunges forwards were enough to carry the smell of eel to the dragon who shook its head and quickly flew off.
Hiccup smiled to himself before he continued on his way, running past the forge as he did so.
"See? I bet you're happy now you don't have to deal with ol' Gobber!" Gobber yelled out as Hiccup ran past the window. He quickly threw on a smile and gave the older Viking a thumbs up.
However on the inside, he wished he was in the Cove with Toothless at this moment.
Finally arriving at the well, he found all the teens gathered there.
"Where were you?" Astrid demanded.
"I fell behind and was cut off by a Gronkle" Hiccup said as she narrowed her eyes at him, however everyone soon pushed her out of the way.
"Whoa, did you kill it?" Tuffnut asked.
"I bet he killed it!" Ruffnut said at the same time as her brother.
"No it flew away after a few swipes with the sword" Hiccup said nervously.
"Probably scared of you. I've heard some of the villagers saying they're scared of you. I mean not me obviously but you know them" Snotlout said chuckling nervously.
"Fire!" A Viking called out before anything else could be said.
"Alright, that's our cue" Astrid said as Fishlegs and Snotlout grabbed the trough being the strongest and the group plus Hiccup began running towards the on fire house.
As DJ ran through the village, he stopped to help multiple Vikings, whether they were defending food or just trying to drive the dragons off the island. He had to give up one of his axes to another villager who had lost his sword to a hungry Gronkle but he still had his remaining axe and a few daggers to defend himself.
He paused as he got to a high spot in the village and looked over the sea, seeing that the sun was just starting to rise over the peak.
"Just a little longer! We got this!" he cried out to the surrounding Vikings to give them hope. Once the sun rose, the dragons always went away since they used the night as cover.
'Kinda weird we haven't seen any Furies yet' DJ thought to himself before he heard a shrill scream coming from the Great Hall.
He quickly ran in between houses and down pathways until he came to the steps of the Great Hall.
Looking around for the source, he quickly found it.
Gustav Larson, a ten year old boy who was the son of the warrior in charge of guarding the children, had once again snuck out from the Great Hall to watch the fight.
But he had now been caught by a dragon and unluckily for him, this dragon was a Titan Wing Deadly Nadder.
It was about an extra half size of a regular Nadder and was a mixture of black and red with bright red eyes.
It currently had Gustav cornered in the alleyway between two houses but the space was too narrow for it to get its mouth in further and get at the boy. However Gustav couldn't get out the other way because it was blocked off by barrels full of fish which a Gronkle was currently raiding.
As Gustav screamed for help, DJ couldn't help the memories flash in his mind. A twelve year old boy with black hair and green eyes screaming in pain as he laid on the ground, two twin boys the same age with red hair and blue eyes laying bloodied and burned on the ground and a thirteen year old boy with blonde hair and brown eyes stumbling with his right arm up to the shoulder missing.
DJ growled before he took his remaining axe and threw it at the dragon's side. The axe plunged right into the base of the right wing, causing it to roar in pain and straighten up.
DJ then ran forwards and grabbed a large rock off the ground. Using both hands to hold it, he then spun around while still charging forwards before he hit the dragon in the knee with the rock.
The hit made the knee of the dragon snap out the wrong way which also made it roar louder than before.
This time, the dragons all stopped their raiding and fighting and circled in the air above the Titan Wing, watching.
DJ saw this and quickly figured out that this Titan Wing was the leader of this raid. Meaning to keep them distracted from getting the food, he had to prolong the fight with the dragon.
"Go!" DJ said to Gustav who was behind him. He quickly ran past him and the still roaring dragon and into the crowd of villagers who had also gathered once they saw the dragons were circling a certain part of the village.
Finally, the dragon stopped roaring and lowered the front of its body to the ground before snapping its knee back into the proper place.
This action resulted in another short roar before it focused its sight on DJ who was still holding the rock and glaring back with a hardened gaze.
They continued the staring contest for a few seconds before the Titan Wing ran at the young man, mouth open.
It tried to bite him but DJ jumped into the air and slammed the rock into the dragon's nose horn shattering it.
Once he landed however the dragon spun around and hit him with its tail causing him to lose his grip on the rock and go rolling.
Once he recovered, he saw a barb sticking out of his leg which he then grabbed and pulled it out. Luckily it hadn't gone very deep so it wasn't bleeding badly but the poison was making it burn already.
Even luckier was that Nadder venom only made the wound burn like it was on fire for a few hours but wasn't fatality poisonous.
He saw a few warriors charge forwards to help him however he held a hand out to them which made them stop.
"Keep everyone back! If they're focused on me and this guy, they won't raid our food. So if I drag this fight out until the sun comes up, we'll keep our food stock up" he commanded while gesturing to the dragons.
Reluctantly, the Vikings went back to the group that had arrived which now also included the amazed fire crew and a worried Hiccup.
Suddenly thuds and vibrations in the ground quickly drew his attention back to the fight and he saw the Nadder charging towards him. He quickly threw two daggers at the beast but it shrugged off the small blades which hit against its thick skull.
Now unarmed, DJ did the only thing he could think of which was jump up and land on the snout of the dragon and grab onto the teeth to hold on.
The dragon shook its head side to side trying to get the Viking off and when that didn't work, it tried up and down and even slammed its head into the ground a few times.
DJ groaned as he tried to keep his grip however it was becoming harder.
Finally deciding enough was enough, DJ called on all his strength and ripped out the tooth that he was holding in his right hand.
The dragon roared loudly and shook its head once again, trying to throw the attacker off, who was now stabbing his own tooth into the exposed skin where the horn had been.
Turning his head to the side, DJ saw that the sun was now up enough for the villagers to clearly see the dragons meaning he could now end this fight.
The dragon continued thrashing before DJ reached up and stabbed the tooth into the top of the beast's head however it didn't go down far enough for a kill shot.
DJ then jumped from the snout onto the back where he was able to reach his axe. He then ran up the back before jumping high into the air, spinning his axe around mid air before he came down hard and slammed the blunt end into the tooth which broke through the skull and drove itself deep into the brain of the creature.
Its eyes went dull before it collapsed to earth, DJ staying on its back until they landed on the ground.
He then stepped off and turned to the large flock of dragons.
"Your leader is dead! Which one of you is next?!" He called out with his arms out.
Whether the dragons could understand him and didn't want to fight or because the sun was now halfway up and they had just seen him kill the leader of the raid was unknown. Either way, the dragons quickly flew off with whatever they had managed to pick up which wasn't much but also wasn't nothing either.
Once they were far enough away, the village erupted into cheers as they surrounded and praised the acting chief. DJ smiled as he was praised before he saw his little brother unharmed.
For a split second, DJ saw a sad look on Hiccup's face as he looked at the dragon but it quickly changed to a smile once he looked over to his brother. Thinking he was just concerned about his well-being, DJ dismissed it.
"Alright, while I enjoy the praises, we have damages to fix. So I need inventory on the food and the hunting parties and fishermen to be ready to go out. I don't think we're in for another raid until spring. Fire crew!" DJ said as most of the crowd went off to do their jobs. Meanwhile the fire crew came up and stood tall for the acting chief.
"Alright, you guys are going to be on repairs today. Go meet with the other repair people and check with them what they want you to do" he added as they nodded and went to walk away.
"Hiccup" he said stopping his younger brother in his tracks and making him turn. He saw his older brother gesture with his head and nodded before he followed him.
"So, how was your first day on the fire crew?" He then asked.
"It was... Okay. I don't really see it as my job but I'll do it if I need to" Hiccup said.
"That's good to hear... Listen I'm sorry about throwing you right into the fight" DJ said.
"It's alright, I understand that you didn't have many options for Vikings" Hiccup said.
"Thanks. I'm glad you're safe" he said rubbing his younger brother's hair before shoving him lightly.
"Now go on, away with you. Those repairs aren't gonna do themselves" he said.
"Aye aye chief" Hiccup said with a smile before he turned and began making his way towards where the others had gone.
However as he did, he saw a dark shape flying away from the forest. More specifically away from Raven's Point.
'Toothless?' Hiccup thought before shaking his head. No that's impossible. Toothless can't fly without him even with the tail on.
Earlier in the night/before the raid.
Toothless slept peacefully in the tree he had gotten into when the small human had left. However the sound of wings flapping woke him up and once he saw a shape fly over the Cove, he was out of the tree with his ears peaked and his teeth out.
He walked around the Cove and scanned the sky for anything but saw nothing.
Suddenly a large shark dropped to the ground behind him causing him to turn and growl but cocked his head in confusion once he saw what it was.
Another Night Fury like roar but a little deeper echoed out and Toothless instantly relaxed his stance.
Turning around again he saw a dragon landing on the other side of the pond.
It had the general shape of a Night Fury, walking on four legs with a long sleek body that was slightly bigger than Toothless'. But instead of ear flaps, it had a crown of spikes around its head pointing back almost like a Nadder and its teeth were jagged and sticked out of its mouth instead of Toothless'.
It also had a line of spikes that went down its back all the way to the end of the tail starting in the middle of the back where they were the longest and got shorter as they went down to the tail and had a small curved horn at the front of its snout.
It had a faint light blue markings going along its body starting at the head around the eyes.
A/N basically a Night Fury with some Skrill Features.
The dragons stared at each other for a few seconds before rushing forwards and meeting with a clash.
However they only play wrestled with the new dragon getting on top thanks to its size. It then got off Toothless before roaring softly at him and gesturing to the sky with its head.
Toothless roared back before turning and showing off his tail which still had the fake tail rig set up. The new dragon sniffed the rig and picked up the scent of a human and growled, electricity zapping between its teeth as it did. It then rose up into the air to take off but Toothless roared loudly at it which got it to land again.
Toothless then roared a few times at the dragon before he gestured to where Hiccup always dumped the baskets of fish he brought.
The new dragon sniffed the ground while Toothless roared a few more times at him before the dragon roared back lightly.
It then came up and nuzzled Toothless' head before the two dragons began eating the shark.
They ate and played most of the night, while the sounds of the raid barely reached the Cove before the new dragon roared lightly and nuzzled Toothless for the last time at dusk before he took off into the sky behind the flock of dragons.
Timeskip
Hiccup wiped the sweat from his forehead as the sun was now high in the sky and was now beating down on him while he was up on a roof fixing the shingles.
Down below most of the teen group were spread around at different houses, some fixing walls while others brought materials to them or Hiccup.
As he hammered on a few more shingles, he turned to the woods in the direction where the Cove was.
However some loud thuds on the roof quickly brought him out of his thoughts, scaring him slightly. Turning back he saw his brother with his lower body below the roof where the ladder was.
"Quit daydreaming on the roof" he said sternly with a smile before coming the rest of the way up.
"I'm getting it done" Hiccup shot back with a smile.
"Yeah you are. Need a hand? I'm done with my jobs for the day" He asked as Hiccup shrugged and nodded.
Soon enough Hiccup and DJ were working on the roof without their shirts while Ruffnut and Astrid walked by both with their arms full of materials for some other workers who were working on some walls.
The two then looked up and saw the two shirtless haddock boys. Obviously DJ was more muscular with a six pack of abs and a muscular chest and shoulders but Hiccup was no weakling since working in the forge gifted him a well toned chest and stomach.
And now that he was shirtless, they could see that DJ's burn that started on his wrist travelled up his arm to the shoulder where it finally stopped.
"Wow, I'm not sure which brother I like more~" Ruffnut cooed while Astrid just rolled her eyes and continued walking with a small tint of pink to her face. Since he had begun doing well in training, Hiccup had been getting a lot of attention from girls in the village, this included Ruffnut, girls younger than Hiccup and even girls around DJ's age.
"Thanks again for helping out during the raid" DJ said hammering in a shingle.
"DJ, you don't have to keep thanking me" Hiccup said.
"Yeah I know but... Well I hated just throwing you into a raid with only a few weeks of training. I'd hate to have happen to you what happened to-. he added but again stopped himself and kept working.
Deciding to be bold, Hiccup took a deep breath before he looked at his brother.
"Who? Is this the person you were going to mention after the last raid with the Nightmare?" Hiccup asked as DJ froze mid hammer.
He then set the hammer down and sighed before he took out his necklace which Hiccup had never seen before.
"Well I'm not surprised you don't remember. You was just little and I did a good job of hiding it. It was just after I killed my first Dragon. I had been on the fire crew when it happened and when the next raid came, I tried to go to the fire crew again. But dad stopped me, threw an axe in my hands and told me to go protect the sheep" DJ said looking down.
"Okay, so you couldn't be with your friends during the raid. But you you could still see them after the raids right?" Hiccup said. However DJ shook his head.
"Nope. Had to fight with the Warriors, so I also had to eat with the Warriors, talk with the Warriors. Do everything except sleep and bathe with the Warriors. But that ain't what this story is about, this story is about jealousy" DJ said.
"Jealousy?" Hiccup questioned as DJ nodded
"As I'm sure you've noticed, girls tends to pay a little more attention to a guy once he kills a dragon. Well that's what happened to me and, to twelve year old boys, that was more important than food and water. So my friends quickly decided that they wanted some of that too" he said before pausing.
"It was about two months after my kill, we had a bad raid that was mostly Nightmares so only our more seasoned warriors went out for that one. I brought you to the forge and kept watch over you while also helping Gobber. Apparently what happened was someone had thrown a spear into the wing of a Monstrous Nightmare but was distracted by something else, so they couldn't finish it off" DJ said before he turned so his legs were hanging over the side of the roof and body was facing out towards the sea. Hiccup came forwards and did the same before he placed a hand on his shoulder.
"...My friends saw the dragon go down and decided that if one twelve year old boy could kill one, then four should make short work of a wounded and downed dragon... We were able to put all four of them onto a single funeral boat when the dragon was done with them. That's why I didn't want you going out during raids without training" DJ said looking over at Hiccup.
The area then drifted into silence as neither had anything really to say. Finally Hiccup spoke up.
"I-I'm sorry... What happened to the dragon?" He questioned. DJ took another deep breath.
"Escaped into the woods and when I seen my friends, I made sure Gobber would watch you while I 'notified the families.' And then I tracked it down and I killed it with just one of my axes and a rock the size of my fist. That's how I got my burn mark" DJ said clenching his fist. Realization then hit Hiccup like a Gronkle tail.
"The skull in your room? The one that's cracked with a few chunks missing?" He questioned. DJ didn't say anything but nodded.
He then cleared his throat a few times before wiping underneath his eyes and Hiccup swore he saw wetness on his thumb.
Hiccup sighed as he looked away. He couldn't tell his brother about Toothless now knowing what he knew. His brother might accept Toothless after some time but that was the one thing he didn't have right now. Time.
"But enough of this sad shit. Go on and have fun for the rest of the day, I'll finish up the roof" DJ said.
"You sure?" Hiccup asked as DJ nodded with a smile. Immediately Hiccup hugged his brother and grabbed his shirt and tunic before almost sliding down the ladder and taking off towards the forest.
DJ just smiled and shook his head while finishing up the last of the shingles. Someday he'd find out what his brother was doing in those woods.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a horn being blown. Standing up, DJ looked over the roofs of the houses and saw a single boat coming towards the island.
The sail was a little hard to read since there was a large hole in it courtesy of a Dragon but soon DJ could tell it was one of their ships returning from the search.
He turned to yell at Hiccup but saw that his little brother had already disappeared into the woods.
'I'll tell him later' the older brother thought before grabbing his shirt and heading down the ladder as well.