I DO NOT OWN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON OR ANY RIGHTS TO IT.

BEFORE YOU READ: This story is told from Hiccup's point of view, just like in the movie. HOWEVER, this story explores Hiccup's thoughts as everything takes place. It's a more in depth look at Hiccup's feelings about everything that is going on. PLEASE REVIEW 3

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This is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless, and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word, sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice, or mosquitoes. We have…dragons.

Slamming the door closed I barely missed being charred alive by a Nightmare. Was I scared? Not a chance. Even having the house burning down around me wasn't enough to scare the wits out of me. No, I lived for this. Well maybe not this. Deciding it wasn't smart to remain in a burning house, I grabbed the doors handle and flung it open again. Finding the Nightmare gone, I proceeded to run from the house and into the open. Having dragons around would probably make most people leave. Not us. We're Vikings…we have stubbornness issues. My names Hiccup. Great name I know, but it's not the worst. Being completely taken in by the fire, and Vikings rushing about with weapons, I hadn't noticed that I was distracting most of the people around me. Turning back to see where I had just come from, I saw one of the men looking over at me get smacked in the head with a log and fall down. Oh, that had to hurt. Back to my name though. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Giving the man a sheepishly sorry look, I was about to turn when I was bumped from one side, and sent spinning back the other way. Coming toward me was a rather angry looking Gronckle, and before I knew it, I was sent flying back, do to the force of its fireball's impact on the ground. Finding myself on my back, I went to get on my feet again, but was stopped when a rather eager looking Viking, with embers blazing in his large braided beard, pounced on me with a rather interesting look on his face. Names frighten off gnomes and trolls? Like our hideous Viking demeanor wouldn't do that.

"RAAAAAAAAA~! Morning!"

Not only could I hear the words, but I could smell them too. Morning in deed. Seeing him leap over my head, I returned to my feet and continued running. Racing up the walk way toward the top of the hill I stated to hear the aggravation in peoples voices as they yelled at me asking, "What are you doing here?" or telling me to "Get back inside!" Yeah, you could say I'm not very popular around here. Nearing the top of the hill, I caught a glimpse of a rather laid back looking man who, in all the commotion, still seemed to find time to pick at his ears. How charming. I was enjoying my time rushing around in all the commotion, when just as I was about to cross the road ahead of me, a large man with a massive red beard, wearing a green tunic, fur cape and horned hat nabbed me by the back of the shirt and pull me away from the road as another dragon swooped down and covered the road in flames. Feeling myself being lifted up, I looked over into his eyes as he spoke in an aggravated tone.

"Hiccup! What is he doing..? What are you doing out?"

He turned me toward him, and suddenly his face was uncomfortably close.

"Get inside!"

Dropping me, he pushed me off toward the black smiths shop. That's Stoic the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it? ...yes I do. I grumbled a bit as I ran past the torches and out of the action, into the "safety" of the shop. Entering, I could see the blacksmith working on a mutilated weapon, trying to repair it quickly.

"Oh! Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off!"

Taking off my fur vest, I grabbed my leather apron and dropped the top loop over my head before tying it in the back. "What? Who, me?" I smiled bending down and attempting to lift a large hammer from the ground to place it on the wall. "No, come on, I'm way too muscular for their taste." Lifting it into place, I tuned looking over at him with a cocky grin on my face. "They wouldn't know what to do with…all this." Gesturing to my scrawny features as I spoke you could hear the heavy sarcasm in my tone.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?"

Rushing past him as he switched his prosthetic hand to a different tool, I made my way over to the shop's service window and unlocked the latch. The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. Opening the service window doors, I was immediately overloaded with mangled and broken weapons of all sorts. I grunted, nearly falling down under the weight of the heavy metal instruments, but kept my feet under me not wanting to show how strained I was. As to why I'm here, I've been Gobber's apprentice since I was little…well, littler. Hearing the sound of yet another house being set a blaze, I ran to the window and looked out. See? Old village, lots, and lots of new houses.

"Fire!" A man turned from the home looking urgent.

I could see the home that was on fire clearly, and looked up from it just long enough to see the fire squad rush past the window.

"Alright let's go!"

There were five of them, each around my age. I watched as they hurriedly scrambled for buckets, filling them with water, before dashing quickly away to put out the fire. The first one away from the wagon was tall, large, and well fed…perhaps a little too well. That's Fishlegs. He's the biggest coward I've ever seen, and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he looked around among the flames, rushing blindly at whatever seemed to be on fire. The second one away from the wagon was about my height (maybe a bit taller), with muscles and a thick chin. He wore a fur vest with a rag tag dirty under shit, and brown leather pants held up by a thick black leather belt. That's Snotlout. He is every bit as mean as a Viking can be, and sometimes I really wish he would get hit by a piece of a falling house…or maybe even get carried off by a Zippleback. That thought caught my fancy and I grinned in approval of such a sight. The next two away from the wagon were the twin idiots, that would be Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Both of which have long blond hair and attitudes that are so well matched they fight each other. Seeing them fight over the water bucket as they walked toward the fire nearly made me lose all hope for the fire EVER being put out. After them there was only one person left...Astrid… I could feel myself begin to melt as she ran up to the fire and doused it. As she turned, her braided blond hair did a perfect flip as a fire ball landed directly behind her. She moved for that instant in slow motion, and I couldn't help but watch her perfect silhouette make its way back in my direction. It was a perfect moment, and sadly I knew it was coming to an end as the others took their places behind her. Astrid…who wouldn't want someone that beautiful to be their girlfriend? Aww, their job is so much cooler. Watching them rush by to take care of other things I leaned out the shop window. Before I could get too far however Gobber grabbed me from behind, pulling me back and picking me up by the back of the shirt. Why did EVERYONE enjoy doing that? "Oh, come on. Let me out please?" I looked down feeling very scrawny as he held me up in the air. "I need to make my mark."

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places." He put me down back inside the shop and prodded me a few times with his prosthetic hand. once again I grumbled in irritation.

"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date." I couldn't help but be greatly disappointed in the fact that, unlike everyone else, I was hidden away each time dragons attacked.

I watched as (for the hundredth time) he began to count out everything I couldn't do on his fingers. "You can't lift a hammer. You can't swing an axe." He reached down and grabbed a sling from the floor and held it up. "You can't even throw one of these!" I watched as the man behind him snatched the sling from his hand, and with one mighty heave, tossed it into the air nabbing a Gronckle.

"Ok, fine, but this will throw it for me." I walked over to the firing mechanism I had been working on for the last few months, and gave it a pat. Leaping back, I watched the flaps fly open, and launch a small object into the face of one of the men outside. Oh…ouch. I winced a bit feeling the sting of proving his point for him.

"You see?" Gobber approached looking entirely irritated with me. "Now this right here is what I'm talking about!" I rolled my eyes and looked back to the machine, my hands held out to try and stop Gobber from rushing into what I knew would follow.

I fumbled around for the words to explain the problem. "T-the mild calibration issue…" I was cut off before I finished.

"Hiccup!" Here it comes…I prepared myself for what I knew I'd hear next. "If you ever want to get out there, to fight dragons, you need to stop all…this." He gestured to my entire being which didn't seem to surprise me.

"But you just pointed to ALL of me." I held my arms up to the side in questioning annoyance. It was almost as if he should just come on out and say, hey, stop being you and start being someone entirely different. Oh wait…he was.

"Yes, that's it! Stop being all of you" I gave him the look of understanding, and tried to fight back. I didn't really have anything intelligent to add to what he had just said, seeing as I seem to have said it to everyone I've met a least three hundred times.

"Oh~" Was all I could manage at first as I tried to come up with a quick follow up. "You, sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping his much raw…Vikingness, contained? There will be consequences!" I held my hand up in the air, with my index finger pointed to the sky, as if I really were telling him what was what. I couldn't make myself very big or threatening so I knew right from the start it wouldn't work.

"I'll take my chances." Turning around, Gobber picked up a large sword and dropped it in my arms. "Sword. Sharpen. Now."

Holding it as steady as I could, I staggered over to the sharpening wheel and propped the sword against the stone as it spun. That went over splendidly. Watching the sparks I blew off some steam and looked up toward the window. Someday I'll get out there…because killing a dragon, is everything around here. I could clearly see a few different species of dragon through the window at a distance. A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronckle are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. Probably not Astrid of course…no I'd have to kill at least ten Gronckles to get her attention. A Zippleback, hat's exotic. Two heads, twice the status. Then…there's the monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have a nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. Which begs the question of who would fight a Nightmare. Looking up, I knew who was out there probably beating the snot out of at least one nightmare. That's Stoic for you. Hearing a distant approaching whistle I walked from the sharpening stone and looked out the service window. The ultimate prize, is a dragon no one's ever seen…we call it the-

"Night Fury!" I watched as several men near the catapult duck for cover under their shields as a bright blue light shot from seemingly nowhere, destroying the said device in one shot.

I flinched back at the blast, holding my arm in front of my face as if to protect myself. This dragon never steals food, never shows it's self, and most of all-

The men ducked down again as the whistling came back around.

It never misses. There was another blue shot and soon the entire structure of the catapult was on fire. I liked seeing the blue shots come out of no-where…not because they were pretty or anything, just because they came from what was most likely the most powerful creature on the planet. Leaning out the window I searched the dark sky for any sign of a Night Fury (it was an effort that I knew was wasted), but I had a plan. No one's ever killed a Night Fury, that's why I'm going to be the first.

"Rah.." Gobber switched the tool on his prosthetic hand to an axe before looking over at me with a grin. "Man the fort Hiccup."

Of course general I'll get right on that. Hearing him continue I sighed, keeping my mouth shut.

"They need me out here." Sure thing. I would have argued with him but I saw no point. Rolling my eyes I watched him fumble toward the door.

I couldn't help but feel like the constant underdog, no matter who I'm with. He looked back and pointed at me and then at the floor. "Stay. Put…there." I stood watching him turn thinking he had given a clear enough command. "You know what I mean!" Yep…the only difference between me, and a dog, is that the dog…probably listened.

Grabbing my shooting mechanism, I made a few adjustments before racing out the door of the shop. Once again I managed to distract the ones around me, but at least this time no one got hurt…I think.

Once I was below the place where the catapult was now falling apart, and on fire I set up and waited. "C'mon, give me something to shoot at, give me something to shot at…" It was quiet around me, not having Vikings everywhere yelling and beating the brains out of dragons to distract me. I could hear the faint whistle, and searched the sky trying to find the source. Realizing I would have to follow the plan, I looked through the sight to line up my shot. I would only have one chance to make a hit, and with my reputation already in low standings, I couldn't afford to fail. Hearing it get louder, I put my hand on the trigger and waited.

There was a sudden flash of blue followed by an explosion. It was coming up. Checking the sight I saw it. As black as anything I'd ever seen, and for that split second in front of the fire…I was all mine.

I hit the trigger and flew back as the sling left the barrel. Getting up I could hear the sling hit, and watched as the beast fell through the sky. "Oh, I hit it. Yes, I hit it!" Jumping up I excitedly tossed my hands up and looked around. "Did anybody see that?" Hearing something behind me crush the wooden barrel of my device and feeling my cocky mood being overshadowed, I looked back and sighed, looking disappointedly into the face of a Nightmare."Except for you." My arms hung down at my side as I stared into the dragons eyes.

Oh great Oden's ghost… Seeing the dragon open wide I turned and ran. Screaming and running away…yeah real Viking like.

Running down several streets, I managed to avoid the molten fire spewing from the monstrous Nightmare chasing me, and gaining on me with every step. Seeing the post of one of the few torches I ducked behind it just in time to avoid being roasted. Leaning out from the post, I looked around to see where it had gone off to, not realizing that it was right behind me on the other side of the pole.

Just before becoming a dragon's breakfast, I was saved at that last moment by Stoic. Watching him beat the poor beast in the face was somewhat sickening, thought I couldn't look away. After a few moments of being out of flames the beast flew off in retreat. Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know. Watching the beam that had been set on fire by the Nightmare split apart at the bottom, and crash to the ground, I knew that this wouldn't be good. It got even worse when the torch on top broke off, and rolled down the hills wooden path like a fiery wheel of death. Oh. I flinched. Ouch…I hissed under my breath and flinched again and again seeing people get hit.

"Sorry Dad." I looked back with the 'oops I've done it again' look I usually gave him. Hearing an even bigger crash I looked down realizing that I had single handedly set all the dragons free and cost us nearly an entire heard of sheep. Looking up I saw the intense anger that was in his eyes and tried to avoid it. "Ok, but I hit a night furry." I was suddenly grabbed firmly on the back of the shirt by one of Stoic's mighty hands. "I-It' not like the last few times, dad!" I struggled against his grip, feeling more embarrassed than I had the time I went on a gnome hunt on the father son camping trip. "I really, actually hit it!"

I was in for it this time…