(Author's note: I certainly didn't expect the kind of response that I got when the prologue posted. Within the first 24 hours, I think I counted about three dozen different notifications from the site, whether it was story favorites or follows, or reviews or messages. It gave me a cool taste of what it's like to have a following and a fanbase.

That said, there is a misunderstanding that I'd like to clear up. Many of the messages I've received have been offers to commission artwork, and while I certainly appreciate the offers and the sheer number of them, (that so many would think my work is good enough for that), I'm not looking for something like that right now. A while ago, I believe when I first started published Call of the Dragon Gem, I mentioned that if anyone ended up making any fanart to let me know. This wasn't a request for commissions, however. I was merely stating that if anyone made random fanart because they wanted to, and happened to post it somewhere, like DeviantArt or something, to let me know where I could see it too. It wasn't a call for personal requests. I just wanted to make sure I could find any fanart that might naturally have been made. So again, while I was really surprised and honored that so many people thought my work was good enough to ask for a commission, I respectfully decline. With that clarification out of the way, I hope you all enjoy this next chapter.)

Chapter 1:

Where Outcasts Abide

Banished and broken, I wandered alone. In the wild I found a kingdom unknown. Toothless and I, two shadows cast wide, building a world where the outcasts abide.

The cold of winter had begun to tighten its grip on the Archipelago. Of course, it snowed for nine months out of the year, but what Hiccup called devastating winter wasn't due for some time yet. Exile with Toothless hadn't been as bad as he had thought. It wasn't too dissimilar from the countless days he had spent in the cove with the Night Fury. The biggest differences were, of course, that he had no house to return to at night, and the complete lack of other people around.

In the past month, Hiccup found himself strangely missing the village at times. Even though he had always been the misfit and general nuisance, life on Berk had a familiarity to it that he was now without. He missed Astrid, of course, and even the other students who had at least become his friends after he took the academy by storm. There was no thought of his father.

The taste of fish was beginning to grow old in Hiccup's mouth, though the regular variety that he and Toothless caught helped to quell that for a time. There had been no want for warmth with nights spent at Toothless' side, despite the cold exposure of the winter.

One day, Hiccup and Toothless were flying across the ocean to pass the lonesome time when the wind began to pick up. The overcast sky above them began to let loose a flurry of snow that rapidly grew in its intensity. Soon, the duo found themselves caught in the midst of an enormous blizzard that had appeared almost out of nowhere.

Hiccup clung to Toothless' back, leaning flat across the black scales in an attempt to escape somewhat from the sharp, icy wind. He had lost all visibility to the blizzard, and was beginning to wonder how they might ever find a place to wait out the storm when a piercing shriek suddenly came through the wind. Toothless' ears shot up in spite of the wind, twitching, scanning the surroundings. A moment passed before the sound repeated, and Hiccup realized that it was Toothless himself making the sound.

After repeating the cry a third time, suddenly Toothless dropped closer to the water and adjusted his course to the left a bit.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked. "What are you-"

He couldn't finish as the shriek sounded again, and he clapped his hands to his ears. Toothless turned again, and Hiccup noticed the dark silhouette of an island suddenly making itself known beneath them. By means which Hiccup could not yet explain, Toothless found a cave delved out in the sea side cliffs of the island for the pair to hide out in. As the storm continued to rage outside, Hiccup found his thoughts returning strangely to Berk.

Things had not been the same since Hiccup left. Sure, life as Berk had known it remained the same. The war with the dragons was still ongoing, but Astrid found herself suddenly stripped of the fiery desire to fight in it. What Hiccup had shown her that day when she discovered him in the cove, when she discovered Toothless…

The other students had wondered at her sudden change in demeanor. She never attended training anymore, though they still found her throwing her axe in the woods. Fishlegs had seemed the most sympathetic, though of course, he didn't understand completely. The Twins were…the Twins about it, and Snotlout? His idiotic wit practically offered him up to be her punching bag.

One day, there came a new commotion in the village that interrupted the stagnant drear. A group of several people were returning from the woods behind the village, making their way toward the arena. The teens were gathered in the plaza with a small crowd when Astrid noticed Gobber and called out to him.

"Gobber! What's going on?"

"Oh, the trapping party discovered a strange dragon in one of the traps out there," he replied. "Brought the little bugger back with 'em. Don't worry. Stoick will know what to do with it."

"Ooh, I hope they don't kill it right away," Fishlegs said. "I wonder if it's a new dragon. Wouldn't that be something?"

Astrid barely heard the following conversation that continued around her as she watched the procession disappearing toward the arena. She caught a brief glimpse of a flailing orange wing in the mass of bodies.

She had no trouble escaping her house that night. Midnight axe throwing was a common pastime of hers. No one would think any differently. At least until she neared the arena. She hoped there wouldn't be any guards just because of their new captive dragon.

The moonlight guided her way well as she made her way along Berk's cliffsides to the small alcove the arena was set in. To her relief, no extra guards stood watch. Why would they need to if the dragon had been so small?

Astrid began to turn the winch that lifted the first door into the arena, gritting her teeth at the creaking wood which seemed to rend the silence of the night. Making her way inside, she realized her biggest trouble would be figuring out which pen they had put the dragon in. If she opened the wrong one, there would be more than enough noise to wake the village. And then what would she do?

The small Terrible Terror pen seemed a good place to start. She had planned to keep any dragon she woke docile with either an eel she carried with her, or the handful of grass she had plucked from the ground outside. She felt especially stupid bringing a handful of grass to ward off a dragon. It had worked for Hiccup at least, however he had done it.

Luckily, the Terrors were sound sleepers. She opened the door only a crack, enough for her to see inside but not for any of the dragons to escape before she could slam it shut. By the light of the full moon, she saw it, an irregular silhouette among the other familiar shapes of the Terrors.

Astrid's heart raced. She couldn't believe she was about to do this, but she stepped into the pen anyway. She gave a conflicted thanks to Thor that the dragon was muzzled. Stepping in with a great deal of care, Astrid lifted the dragon from the cold stone floor. It was remarkably heavy for its dog-like size.

A twinge of guilt sank into her heart as she closed the door on the Terrors and locked it. She wished she could let them all loose. But that would be a disaster, for her, and for the village. Astrid knew them to still be in the wrong, but did they have much choice at the moment? It was all anyone had known for almost three hundred years. How much could actually be changed?

Finally out in the full light of the moon, Astrid got her first glimpse of the sleeping dragon she held. It bore a fiery orange color across its body, with a splash of white on the tips of its wings and on its head. It only had two legs, like a Nadder or a Nightmare, and also like a Nightmare, those legs possessed large, razor sharp claws. The head was sharp and triangular, with two large curve horns coming out of the back of its skull.

Gobber had been right. This was a strange dragon. She had never seen anything like it, not even in the Book of Dragons. Astrid's mind flashed to Fishlegs for a brief moment. He would be itching with excitement if he could've had a chance to study this thing.

A loud, thundering roar suddenly sounded from the direction of the forest, and an orange glow sprung up from atop the trees, and suddenly, Astrid felt loath to head in that direction. But she needed to, this dragon needed her to, and so she did.

She didn't dare to remove the muzzle until the moment she was ready to release it. The dragon woke soon after her departure from the arena and began to squirm in her hands. Astrid held her arms extended to keep its kicking claws away from her chest and face. Luckily, its wings were restrained, otherwise she never would've been able to hold onto it.

Halfway to the edge of the forest, in spite of the muzzle, it gave a shriek that sent Astrid's heart racing for fear someone awake in the village might hear. Viking ears had grown sensitive to sounds of dragons in the night over the last three hundred years, and no doubt there would be those awake and on guard after the previous roar from the woods. That roar now resounded itself.

A dreadful feeling arose in Astrid's stomach, and she hurried the rest of the distance to the edge of the woods. She removed the muzzle and freed the dragon's wings, and stepped back as it immediately took off toward the forest. Astrid turned and hurried back toward the village, formulating in her mind the details of the close encounter she had had with the large dragon in the woods.

Another lonesome week had passed since the blizzard. It had warmed a little, enough for much of the snow on the islands to have melted. Hiccup and Toothless were flying near to an island that was ringed with sea stacks. The pillars of rock rose out of the water near to the islands, some of the larger ones forming wide arches with narrow bridges between. It was the perfect environment for acrobatic maneuvers.

The pair swerved like a black speeding arrow between the stacks. Hiccup knew he should be careful of how far he pushed Toothless' tail. If it broke out here, they'd be in serious trouble. But the rush of adrenaline that he got flying at such incredible speeds was too much to resist every now and then.

He didn't see the catapult that met him around the corner of a sea stack. Luckily, Toothless did, and the Night Fury dropped from the sky, the large boulder soaring over the pair. Toothless swerved away, and Hiccup turned to look at where the boulder had come from.

On the surface of the water below, pressed against the side of the sea stack, was a ship. It wasn't a very large ship, only bearing a single sail, and crewed by what looked to be little more than half a dozen Vikings. The ship itself had a very crude design to it. An assortment of shields were hung upon either side of the hull, all with gnarled spikes sticking out of them. A large dragon skull served as the figurehead at the bow, and the sail bore the symbol of a spiked Viking war helm.

Toothless suddenly swerved again, but was struck in the side by another catapult round, fired from a secondary ship. The impact nearly knocked Hiccup from the saddle, but his foot fell loose from the apparatus used to control Toothless' tail. The ensuing fall toward the water was too chaotic and too short-lived for Hiccup to attempt a recovery. A net enveloped them both, and they were dragged onto the deck of the ship.

Hiccup looked up to see an enormous man, much like his father, staring down at them. A grating chuckle came from the man as he spoke.

"Well, look what we have here."