Hiccup opened her eyes, staring at the roof above, listening to the herd of bleating sheep outside. But something was off about the bleating. It seemed as if the sheep were panicked.

Oh no!

Hiccup leapt out of her bed and ran down the stairs. She heaved the front door open with all her might. When the door was open enough, Hiccup peeked outside. A few houses were on fire and smoke was thick in the air. Giant reptiles were flying above the village of Berk, plucking sheep off the ground and taking them away.

Many of the dragon's seemed to be searching for something of great value.

One of the beasts spotted Hiccup, and both make brief eye contact. Hiccup could hear the beast, speaking with venom in its voice, "There you are!"

Without hesitation, Hiccup slammed the door shut. She could feel the heat bursting through the cracks of the door as the front of her house was engulfed in flames.

"Dragons." Hiccup breathed.

Over the cackling of the fire, Hiccup barely heard the dragon yelling, "We'll get you if it takes all day!"

You were probably wondering why Hiccup could understand dragons. The reason? She kind of was a dragon. When she was born, her father, Stoick the Vast (and chief of the tribe) discovered that she had dragon features. On her back were two curved, black lines, where black wings would sprout at will. Her ears were dark and pointed like an elf. Her fingers had claws that could sprout from her fingertips like her wings from her back. If she wasn't careful, her hands could create a flame and burn a whole house to the ground.

The Hooligan tribe wasn't very fond of dragons. Because of this, Hiccup was forbidden to use her dragon abilities. However, there were a few times when she'd lose control of her powers. This resulted in the dragons knowing about her powers.

Since then, the dragons have been trying to take her away for an unknown reason. Some said they wanted a mate, which never failed to make Hiccup struggle to keep her meals down. Others said that they needed her to aid them in the raids. Another theory was that the dragons thought she was a captive in the village. No one knew why the dragons were so hellbent on taking her away, but they did everything they could to make sure it didn't happen.

Hiccup held her breath as she opened the door and sprinted through the village. As she ran, she could hear her fellow Berkians exclaiming, "What are you doing, Hiccup?" "Get back inside!" "You're not supposed to be out here!" "Get inside!" and so on.

"Hiccup!" yelled an angry, male voice. Before she could react, Hiccup was suddenly grabbed at the back of her fur coat and lifted off the ground by her father. Stoick pointed at the girl, "What is she doing out again? What are you doing out? Get inside!"

With that, Stoick shoved Hiccup away. The Viking nearly lost her footing as she stumbled toward the blacksmith shop.

Stoick turned to one of the men, "What do we have on our hands?"

"Gronckles, Zipplebacks, Nadders, and Hork saw a Monstrous Nightmare."

The man ducked under his shield as an explosion destroyed a nearby house. A piece of burning wood landed on Stoick's shoulder. "Any Night Furies?" questioned Stoick as he brushed the wood off. The man shook his head, "None so far."

"Good." said Stoick.

Hiccup ran into the blacksmith shop past the blacksmith named Gobber.

When Gobber saw Hiccup, he chuckled. "Nice of you to join the party! I thought you've been carried off."

"What-who? Me?" asked Hiccup, "Aw no. I'm wa-a-y too humanly for their taste." She lifted a spiked hammer off a desk and hung it on the weapon stand. "They wouldn't know what to do with me."

"But you're still somehow considered a dragon in their eyes." added Gobber, "Who knows, they just might find you-"

"No! Don't finish that!" Hiccup pleaded as she felt her supper climbing up her throat. She quickly swallowed it as she ran to the window.

She grabbed the swords that were placed there and set them on the forge to begin repairing them.

Meanwhile Stoick was giving commands outside.

"We move to the lower defenses." he stated, "We'll take 'em down with the catapults."

He lead a few Vikings to a tower that held one of the catapults, dodging lava-like flames that rained down out of a burning house above them.

Hiccup heard other teenagers outside. She ran to the window and saw a group of four boys and a girl. Their names were Fishlegs, Snotlout, Tuffnut, Astro, and Tuffnut's twin sister, Ruffnut.

The teenagers grabbed buckets and filled them with water from the water barrels. The twins fought over a bucket. Fighting was the one thing they were known for. The other teenagers were actually doing the work. After Astro put out some fire, an explosion proved their effort to be a waste. But they still ran back to the barrels to get more water.

Hiccup stared at Astrid longingly. She had a crush on Astrid. Hiccup snapped out of her fantasy state as the teenagers ran past.

Snotlout saw Hiccup and smiled deviously. Snotlout really enjoyed ruining Hiccup's day, so he couldn't resist adding a comment as he ran past. "Hey, Dragon! Try not to burn the building to the ground this time!"

Hiccup growled as she tried to climb out the window and attack the Jorgensen boy. Before she could, a hook caught the back of her tunic and pulled her back in. "Oh no you don't!" exclaimed Gobber. Hiccup glared at Snotlout as he laughed at her misfortune.

"Come on!" complained Hiccup, "Let me out. Please! I need to make my mark!"

"Oh you've made plenty of marks!" replied Gobber as he dropped Hiccup. He nudged her with his hook as he continued, "All in the wrong places."

"Please!" said Hiccup desperately, "Two minutes! I'll kill a dragon! My life will get infinitely better! I might even prove that I'm not a menace."

Gobber numbered his reasons of refusing, "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" He held up a rope with weights on it. A man grabbed it from his hand and threw it in the air, catching a Gronckle."

"Okay, fine!" said Hiccup. She gestured to a small catapult, "But this will throw it for me." She placed her hand on it, causing it to launch the weighed rope inside to fly out the window and hit a Viking in the face.

"You see?" questioned Gobber, "Now this right here is what I'm talking about!"

"Mild calibration issue-" stammered Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" exclaimed Gobber, obviously frustrated, "If you're ever going to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all… this."

"But you just pointed through all of me."

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

Hiccup groaned.

Gobber groaned in a mocking tone.

"Look," said Hiccup, "all I want is to prove that I can help without needing a babysitter watching over my shoulder every second of the day. How can I become a skilled Viking without having proper training? I swear there will be consequences for this!"

"I'll take my chances." Gobber grabbed a sword and dropped it in Hiccup's arms, "Sword. Sharpened. Now!"

Hiccup walked over to the rotating stone. She began to sharpen the sword as she promised herself, One, day I'll get out there.

Killing a dragon was everything on Berk. Hiccup was sure a Deadly Nadder would at least get her noticed. A Gronckle would surely prove she could protect herself. A Hideous Zippleback would bring her twice the status. Maybe she could kill a Monstrous Nightmare. That would prove that she was one of the best Vikings. Then there was one more option. The ultimate prize that no one had ever seen and lived to describe. They called in the-

"Night Fury!" screamed a Viking.

Hiccup heard a high-pitched screeching noise, followed by an explosion. She ran to the window and watched as another explosion of blueish-violet fire demolished a catapult tower.

Hiccup barely saw a blurred outline of the mysterious dragon. The Night Fury was never known to miss its target. Hiccup was determined to be the first Viking to kill a Night Fury.

"Mind the forge Hiccup!" ordered Gobber, "They need me out there!"

Gobber replaced his hook with a hammer and headed for the exit. Just before he left, he gestured to Hiccup, "Stay. Put. There."

Hiccup stared at Gobber with annoyance, "I'm not a dog, Gobber."

Gobber added on, "You know what I mean." And with a loud yell, he limped outside to help.

But right after he left, Hiccup grabbed the handles of her catapult and ran outside. She ignored the angry Vikings ordering her to return to the blacksmith shop and ran to the edge of a small cliff.

She quickly prepared her catapult and searched the sky for a target.

Nothing was visible.

C'mon, she pleaded, gimme something to shoot at.

She waited a few moments more. Nothing.

Hiccup used her dragon vision. Suddenly, she could see the stars flickering, as if something were moving in front of them. The figure had no colour.

The Night Fury!

Hiccup took aim. She waited for the dragon to come closer.

The dragon blasted another tower and flew between it and Hiccup, giving her a nearly-clear view of its outline. Hiccup launched the weighed rope from the catapult. The momentum knocked her right off her feet and sent her landing on her back.

She heard the screech of an injured dragon. She looked up and watched the black beast falling to Raven Point.

"I hit it!" she breathed. Then she exclaimed with joy, "Yes! I hit it!" She turned to the village behind her and practically asked no one, "Did anybody see that?"

Her moment of triumph was interrupted by a crunching sound. She felt heat as she heard a serpent-like voice, "Finally."

Hiccup turned around to see a Monstrous Nightmare, moving toward her like predator to its prey, "We've been looking for you for quite a while."

"Except for you…" said Hiccup.

Hiccup saw a Viking in the corner of her eye. Without thinking, her dragon instincts kicked in. She shot an orb of fire from her hands and blasted the axe out of the Vikings hands before he could throw it. "Hiccup!" yelled the Viking.

Hiccup realized what happened. She had helped the wrong side. "Sorry!"

The Monstrous Night chuckled, "Don't you see? You're not a human. You're a dragon."

Stoick threw a net over a group of Nadders. He pinned one down by the head. He was about to tie its mouth shut when he heard the sound of a girl screaming. He turned to the noise and saw Hiccup. She had her wings spread out and was clumsily gliding through the air, fleeing from a Monstrous Nightmare.

He groaned as he chased after them. He pointed to the Nadders and commanded, "Do not let them escape!"

Hiccup landed on the ground and ran on all-fours. She ducked behind a post that held a large torch. She surrounded her body with her wings to protect herself from the fire that hit the post.

"My master wants to see you." hissed the same serpent voice.

Hiccup tried to run away, but the dragon had her surround with its tail. "I'm not going!" yelled Hiccup in the dragon tongue. But the Nightmare wouldn't take no for an answer, "What my master says goes. You're coming with us if I have to carry you in my mouth."

The dragon reached at Hiccup with a ginormous paw.

Hiccup braced herself to fight. But was pulled backwards and thrown onto the ground.

She looked up and saw Stoick fighting the Monstrous Nightmare. After a few moments of punching a kicking, the dragon flew away. Stoick turned to Hiccup with rage in his eyes. The post toppled over from lack of foundation and landed between the two. The large basin of burning coals rolled down the hill. Causing Vikings to jump out of the way and allowing the Nadders to escape.

"Sorry, dad." was all Hiccup could say.

Hiccup could hear the dragons calling to her. Urging her to follow.

She looked around. Everyone was staring at her.

She had once again caused the dragons to successfully raid Berk.

"Okay," said Hiccup, "but I hit a Night Fury."

Stoick grabbed Hiccup by the shoulder and pulled her through the streets as she stammered her excuses.

"It's not like the last few times, dad. I really, actually hit it. You guys were busy. I had a very clear shot. It went down. Just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there before it-"

"Stop!" yelled Stoick.

Hiccup flinched.

"Just. Stop." sighed Stoick, "Every time you step outside, disaster follows. You even used your powers again!"

Hiccup quickly folded her wings into her back, as if it would change the fact that everyone had seen them.

"Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

Hiccup sighed, "Well between you and me, I think the village could do with a little less feeding. Don't you think?"

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup. Why can't you follow the simplest orders? Why can't you focus on helping Vikings and not dragons? Hork told me what you did with his axe."

"I just can't stop myself!" said Hiccup, "I see a dragon's life at risk and my dragon half just has to…. Help it! It's who I am dad."

"You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon is not one of them. Get back to the house." Stoick looked to Gobber, "Make sure she gets there."

Gobber nudged Hiccup forward. Hiccup heard Stoick add on, "I have this mess to clean up."

As Gobber walked her through the village, she walked past the teenagers. Snotlout laughed and commented, "Quite the performance, Dragon, I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped."

With a growl, Hiccup tapped Snotlout's arm with her hand, burning it slightly. As she walked past, she growled, "One of these days I'm gonna kill you."

"Ow!" exclaimed Snotlout. Gobber wasn't impressed that Hiccup used her powers, but he didn't say anything. He secretly disliked it when Snotlout insulted Hiccup. Gobber pushed Snotlout out of the way.

Hiccup imagined the hate she thought was in Astro's eyes. She couldn't bring herself to look at him.

"I really did hit one." said Hiccup as she walked up to the front door of her house. "Yeah. Sure." replied Gobber.

Hiccup continued, "He never listens to me."

"Yeah. Runs in the family."

"And when he does it's always with this disappointment scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich."

Hiccup deepened her voice in order to sound more like Stoick, "Excuse my, 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 is a female monster!"

"You're thinking about this all wrong!" said Gobber, "It's not so much what you look like. It's what's inside that he can't stand."

Hiccup gestured to her back, "Thank you for summing that up."

"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not."

Hiccup shook her head, "Said the people who won't let me be who I am."

She closed the door behind her.

Gobber shook his head as he walked to the Great Hall, not knowing that Hiccup had run out the back door into the forest to look for the Night Fury.