Chapter 1 - A Different Path

The forest was quiet as Hiccup paced nervously through the forest, his eyes glued to the crudely drawn map of Berk in his journal. Dry leaves crunched beneath his boots, one of the few sounds that broke the natural stillness of it all. Occassionally, he would stop, mark or erase something on the map, or even just stare at it for a few moments, and then continue walking as though he hadn't stopped at all. Every now and again, he would mumble something along the lines of "It would've gone this way." or "It has to be over here."

Then he stopped, pressing his pencil onto a specific spot on his map. Excited, he looked up, hoping to see something, anything that could signify that this search wasn't just a huge waste of time. But his excitement faded as quickly as it had come, as up ahead lay nothing but more trees and dead leaves. No dragon in sight...

An irritated huff came from behind Hiccup, making him cringe. He peered over his shoulder nervously, looking up into the unimpressed expression of his father, Stoick the Vast. The larger Viking glared down at him, his arms folded across his chest, and the fierce scowl he wore made Hiccup want to bury himself beneath the dirt.

"I um...must have gotten turned around somewhere back there." Hiccup said meekly, facing forward and starting to walk again. No reply came from Stoick, who only rolled his eyes and followed his son deeper into the forest.

Stoick was fuming as he carried his son by his shirt collar, the latter of whom was spilling out excuses for the trouble he had caused as quickly as his mouth would let him. After fighting a Monstrous Nightmare with his own bare fists, only for a pillar to fall and help free a group of Nadders that he had helped to capture, what did his son have to say for himself?

"I hit a Night Fury." he had said, as if that ridiculous statement would make things better. And that was why Stoick was now carrying him home, not even trusting his son to find his way there without doing something else to make his morning worse.

"It's not like the last few times Dad!" Hiccup yelled, making Stoick'e eye twitch as memories of said times flashed through his mind. "I mean I really actually hit it! You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot! It went down just off Raven Point."Stoick unceremoniously let go of Hiccup, who turned to face him as soon as he was back on his own two feet. "Let's get a search party out there, before it-"

"STOP!" Stoick yelled, finally having had enough. He closed his eyes and took a breath, forcing himself to remain calm before opening them to look at his son again. "Just...stop."

Silence fell between them for a moment, a small crowd watching the Chief with his son.

"Every time you step outside, disaster follows." Stoick said, a statement that at one time would've hit Hiccup like a sack of bricks, but the latter was, sadly, used to it by now. "Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

Hiccup looked around at the villagers surrounding them, looking too nonplussed for Stoick's taste.

"Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think?" the young Viking said, oblivious to the indignant reactions of some of the more self-conscious villagers.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup!" Stoick said, growing exasperated. "Why can't you follow the simplest orders?"

"I can't stop myself." Hiccup answered. "I see a dragon and I have to just...kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad."

Stoick sighed. "You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer..."

Stoick's voice trailed off as he looked away from his son. What was he going to say? That his son wasn't a dragon killer? It was true of course, but a part of him still held out hope for his son. The tiniest sliver of hope that one could hold, but hope nonetheless. Add that to the fact that his son clearly had the ambition, even if it did mean disobeying his elders...

"...well, you're not one yet." Stoick finished.

"I know." Hiccup said, starting to sound exasperated himself. "That's why I'm telling you, I shot down a Night Fury!"

A few gasps could be heard from the crowd, and everyone looked to Stoick for his response. The chief of the Hairy Hooligans looked neither surprised nor impressed. Instead, Stoick rubbed a hand down his face and shook his head, his annoyance with his son reaching its peak. Out of all the things his son had done, this was the most delusional thing he had ever heard, from any Viking. Seeing this response, the villagers began to disperse, some thinking the boy had completely lost his mind, others laughing at the idea of the scrawny kid taking down the most feared of dragons.

"Hiccup I am not-" Stoick began.

"Dad, by Odin, I swear, it's in the forest, most likely off Raven Point."

"Hiccup I-"

"If we just get a search party together-"

"ENOUGH!" Stoick cried, shutting up Hiccup. "I am not going to waste the morning looking for a Night Fury that you may, or may NOT, have shot down." Stoick threw his hands up in the air. "How would you have shot it down anyway?"

"I used a bola launcher." Hiccup said, eager to explain himself.

"A what?" Stoick interrupted. "You've been inventing stuff again, haven't you?" he said, his fists clenching.

"Yes dad...but this time it actually did what it was supposed to do!" Hiccup answered quickly, seeing the angry look on his father's face.

Stoick didn't relax as he looked into Hiccup's eyes, looking for the slightest hint of a lie or self-doubt, but he found none. In its place, however, was the look of a young man who desperately wanted his father to believe him for once. Hiccup looked down, away from his fathers intense and judging gaze, as his father continued to decide of what to do with him.

A few moments passed in which neither of the two said anything. They were completely alone now, the villagers having left to get busy rebuilding and take stock of their losses.

Stoick let out a deep breath. "Alright."

Hiccup looked up, an eyebrow raised in suspicious disbelief.

"Alright? Is that a 'Alright, you believe me.' or 'Alright, let's drop the matter entirely?'" Hiccup asked sarcastically.

"I don't believe you." Stoick replied bluntly. "At least, not until we find the dragon."

"Ok then, I'll just-wait what?" Hiccup said, doing a double take as his face lit up with excitement.

"Just you and I." Stoick said. "We'll go into the forest and search for the thing ourselves."

Hiccup beamed. "Oh, thank you dad!" he said. "You won't regret this, I promise you!" He turned to head into the house. "Let me just get my journal, there's a map that we can-"

"Hiccup." Stoick interrupted.

"Yeah?" his son replied, pausing with one foot in the house.

"It better be there." Stoick growled.

Hiccup's eagerness visibly evaporated at the Chief's words, and after gulping down his fear, he headed inside to grab his journal.

The morning sun's rays shined beautifully through the trees of the forest, but the nice scenery did nothing to improve Stoick's mood. His son's constant turning and stopping was now starting to drive him insane. It wouldn't have bothered him so much if he thought that Hiccup knew where he was going, but over an hour had passed since they had started their search, and they were still yet to find a dragon. Although as Stoick believed that there was likely no dragon to find in the first place, all of this was quickly beating down what little patience he had left into the ground. Not to mention that the sliver of hope he had held that Hiccup might ever become a true Viking had long since been spent on this pointless escapade.

Finally, after some more walking, turning, and stopping, Stoick had had enough.

"Hiccup." he said, his voice tired and annoyed. His anger from before had mostly faded during their search...mostly.

Hiccup stopped, but didn't turn around, too engrossed in his journal. "Yes dad?"

"We've been out here searching all morning, and we haven't seen a single trace of your dragon." Stoick said. Hiccup quickly turned to face him, almost as if he had expected this moment.

"No, dad, it's around here somewhere!" the young Viking said, almost pleadingly. "I promise, just give me a little more time, and I'll-"

"No." Stoick said, the finality in his voice making his son go quiet. "We're done here."

Hiccup's shoulder's drooped, and his expression was sullen as he closed his journal. "Well, I guess it's as good a time as any to stop now. I was completely lost anyway." he muttered. He looked up at his dad, who was already busy trying to find out which way was north. At the same time, he also looked to be trying hard to forget his son was there, and that he was the reason they had wasted the morning wandering around the forest. Hiccup struggled to think of what to say.

"Look dad." the boy began, looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry that I dragged you out here...I was just so sure that I..."

"Hiccup." Stoick suddenly interrupted. Hiccup fell quiet once again, thinking his dad just wanted him to shut up and let him work.

"Hiccup!" Stoick said again, causing Hiccup to look up at him indignantly.

"I'm being quiet dad, what do you-" Hiccup complained, but then he stopped as he saw what his dad was looking at; a broken tree trunk that sat a little ways away from where they were standing.

"Oh...that's new." Hiccup said. Stoick didn't respond. Instead, he quickly began walking over to it, with Hiccup having to jog to keep up with the larger Viking's strides. Both Haddocks studied the trunk for a moment, before Hiccup spoke up.

"Uh, dad?"

Stoick looked over at his son, who was pointing over at a trail of broken branches, similar destroyed trunks, and a flat path of wet dirt. Hiccup started to follow it when he suddenly felt Stoick's hand grab his shoulder.

"Stay behind me Hiccup." Stoick said lowly, as he pulled a large dagger from his vest. He cursed himself for not having brought something larger to defend himself with, having not expected to find anything when they left, but a Viking made do with what he had.

Both father and son followed the path downhill, Hiccup trailing close behind Stoick. A little too close, for barely a moment later, his dad stopped without warning, causing Hiccup to walk straight into his dad's backside.

"Hey dad, for future reference, can you warn me the next time I might get hurt chasing your shadow?" Hiccup said as he rubbed his aching head. "I mean, isn't that your hobby by now?"

"Son, look." Stoick said, who was peering over a ridge.

Hiccup got on the ridge and looked over. A second later, he gasped and instinctively ducked down before getting the nerve to look again.

A large and sleek black dragon was tangled in ropes a little ways down from where the two Vikings were. It lay on its side, motionless, and if it weren't for the ropes, they would've thought it was asleep. Neither Stoick nor Hiccup had seen a dragon like it before. Therefore, it could only be one thing.

"A Night Fury." they both said simultaneously.