Chapter 1 – Struck by Lightning

A/N: This is an idea I've had brewing for a while now. How to combine characters from one of my favorite movies (HTTYD) with characters from one of my favorite book series (DRoP). I think I've found a solution, but I had to arrange the "death" of one of the major characters, so you HAVE been warned. As always, thanks for reading and PLEASE leave a review. Thanks.

All characters (not including my own) are property of Dreamworks Animation and Anne McCaffrey.

This is Berk. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless, the people even more so. The only up sides are the pets. While other places have ponies and parrots we have...

DRAGONS!

Winters in Berk are hard, but the blizzards this past winter were especially tough. With the stored food nearly gone, everyone pitched in to resupply the village. Even the dragons were contributing to the resupply efforts, bringing back freshly killed deer from nearby islands. Hiccup and Toothless followed a group of dragons flying South and confirmed there was indeed a large population of deer on several uninhabited islands to the South of Berk. After returning home and reporting to his father about his discovery, Hiccup volunteered himself and the dragonriders to lead a hunting expedition to the islands. Upon arriving they decided to split up into teams, each team will pick an island and hunt there. That way they could cover more territory and not have so many dragons in one place spook all the deer.

Two days later, Hiccup and Astrid were on their way back home after a successful hunt. Strapped to the back of Toothless and Astrid's Nadder, Spike were the carcasses of two large deer the dragons killed that morning. Both Hiccup and Astrid had full packs of camping supplies and salted deer meat strapped to their backs. Hiccup had Toothless fly a bit slower to compensate for the extra weight and to reduce the stress on Spike since he had smaller wings.

"Let's take it slow and easy, alright bud? We've got a long way to go and we've got a pretty heavy load here. You doing okay there, buddy?" Hiccup asked while leaning forward. Toothless turned his head sideways to look Hiccup in the eye and grunted once as if he was saying, "No problem".

Hiccup looked across at Astrid and Spike and it looked like they were doing okay. "No problems with them so far, Spike is still breathing with his mouth closed" Hiccup thought to himself. Nadders were excellent fliers but had less wing size than Night Furies. If they get tired they start panting like dogs, so Hiccup had to watch out for that since he and Toothless were the ones setting the pace.

"How are you doing over there, Astrid?"

"We're fine" she shouted back. "We could go a little faster. I'm sure Spike has a little more speed in him." Astrid leaned forward and scratched his neck scales and Spike crooned back at her in appreciation.

"I'm pretty sure he does, but we've got a lot of open water to cross and don't forget the extra weight he's carrying."

"I haven't forgotten, I just think we could go faster is all I'm saying."

Hiccup shouted back; "We can do dragon races when we get home, Astrid. Let's just try to get there without straining ourselves or our dragons, okay?"

Astrid sank a little lower in her saddle but shouted back, "Okay". Hiccup could tell she wasn't happy.

"Look, Astrid, we've never had to fly this far with a load like this. Once we get back and get the dragons unloaded, we'll race you around the island. How's that sound?"

Astrid immediately brightened up at that. "You're on, dragon boy!" she shouted back.

Hiccup leaned forward and spoke to Toothless, "You hear that buddy? Astrid and Spike want to race when we get back, so save a little strength for it. You've got a reputation to uphold and I wouldn't want to see you lose a race because you were tired." Toothless just rolled his eyes at him. Hiccup laughed and scratched his neck.

o0o0o0o

By Hiccup's reckoning, they were three quarters the way back to Berk. Toothless was doing fine, but Hiccup could see that Spike was getting a little tired. He was still breathing through his nose, but he was spacing his wingbeats out a little more trying to save energy. He was still able to keep up with Toothless, but the constant up and down motion from delaying his wingbeats probably made an uncomfortable flight for Astrid.

Hiccup was also worried about the ominous looking storm clouds ahead that stretched across their path. It looked to be a fairly large storm, so there was little chance of flying around it. Hiccup thought about it for a minute and shouted across to Astrid.

"Listen, Astrid, we don't have a lot of options here. I know Spike is a bit tired from flying so far with such a load, and Toothless is not much better, so we can't go back to the island we came from. We have to try and make it through this storm, Berk is just on the other side of it. If we have to, dump the deer carcasses, we can always go back and get some more. We have to try and save ourselves and our dragons. Are you with me?"

"I'm with you, Hiccup" Astrid shouted back.

Hiccup leaned forward and made himself flat against Toothless's back to reduce wind resistance. He said to him; "It's up to you now, buddy. Bring us all home." Toothless looked back at Hiccup and gave a single bark in reply before flying into the storm.

At first it didn't seem so bad. Sure, there was the wind buffeting them around and the rain stung a bit, but they were still flying straight. They could start to see some of the rocks that form the barrier islands around Berk, so Hiccup knew they were close. It was then that the storm unleashed its full fury. Howling winds nearly tore Hiccup and Astrid from the backs of their dragons. Both Toothless and Spike roared in pain and frustration as the wind nearly wrenched their wings out of their sockets. Hiccup had Toothless turn with the wind and motioned for Astrid and Spike to do the same. Going with the wind they were moving away from Berk, but the flying was easier.

Hiccup shouted across to Astrid; "We can't fly straight into Berk, the winds are too strong."

"Then how are we going to get back?" Astrid shouted back.

"We tack. Remember sailing lessons?" Every child on Berk was taught at an early age how to sail.

"Of course, why didn't I think of that before?"

Hiccup smiled and shouted back; "I'm sure you would have thought of it eventually."

Astrid smiled, but immediately sobered; "What do we do about the deer?"

"Lose them!" he shouted back.

Astrid drew her belt knife and hesitated a moment before cutting the ropes holding the carcasses to Spike. When the bodies slid off his back to splash into the water below, Spike almost shook in relief.

Hiccup also cut the ropes holding the deer carcasses to Toothless, but didn't ditch his backpack. One reason was that his journal was packed away in there and didn't want to lose it. Another reason was that his safety harness was over the backpack straps and he would have to take the harness off to get to it. With the winds blowing around the way they were there was zero chance of that happening.

When he was done, Hiccup leaned forward and spoke to Toothless; "Okay, buddy, we can't fly straight home, we'll have to take the winds at an angle. It would take longer but we'll get there eventually. So you just keep us flying and I'll steer us there, okay?" Toothless looked back at Hiccup, laid one of his ear lobes on his hand, and grunted in reply. Hiccup adjusted the pedals to steer Toothless and said; "Alright, let's go!"

Once they turned at an angle to the wind, it tore at both dragons and riders, but they were able to manage it. Hiccup had Toothless take the lead in each turn so that Spike and Astrid would stay in the lee of Toothless's wings. They were making some progress now and some of the outer islands were closer each time they made a turn. On their sixth turn Astrid shouted that she saw something ahead of them.

"What is it?" Hiccup shouted back.

"I think it's a boat."

"What idiot would take a boat out in a storm like this?" Hiccup shouted to Astrid.

She shouted back; "Whoever it is they probably went out in good weather and the storm blew in on them unexpectedly. Now they can't get back. Hiccup, whoever it is, we have to help them!"

Hiccup sighed to himself and said quietly; "I suppose you're right" then a bit louder he said; "Alright, let's go get them!" and steered Toothless to intercept them.

They had to tack a few times to reach the boat and when they got there they noticed two things. One thing was that the mast snapped off at the waterline and the boat was taking on water rapidly. Two was that there was only one person in the boat. Hiccup circled closer to try to see who it was. He sucked in a breath when he noticed it was Snotlout! "What the Hel is Snotlout doing out in a boat?" Hiccup thought to himself. Then he remembered, Snotlout didn't have any dragonriding duties at the moment because his Nightmare, Fireworm was tending her egg and wasn't flying. "So, he was doing his part to help out the village. That's nice, now we'll have to rescue him and endanger ourselves in the process. Just another occupational hazard for a Viking!"

Hiccup steered Toothless closer so he could shout down to Snotlout. When he was close enough so he could be heard over the wind he told him; "Snotlout, stand on the bow and hold your arms up. Toothless and I will come around and when he does grab on to his legs. We'll carry you to shore." Snotlout gave the thumbs up and moved to the bow. He stood there with his arms outstretched and waited for Toothless to come around. Hiccup waited until the boat started to rise on one of the waves before he had Toothless descend. When the boat reached the crest of a wave, Toothless dove toward the boat and caught Snotlout in his back claws. Hiccup asked; "Did you get him?" Toothless ducked his head down so he could see his back legs and saw Snotlout smiling at him. Toothless gave a gummy smile back.

"Snotlout, are you okay?" Hiccup shouted down.

"Yeah, I'm here. Just get me to shore, okay?" came the reply.

"Just hang on, we'll get you there." Hiccup leaned toward Toothless's ear and said; "Alright, buddy, let's go home."

Toothless turned in the direction of Berk, but the winds continued to blow from that direction. Hiccup adjusted the pedals so that they could continue to tack toward the island. They were now within sight of the main island, a few more tacks and they'll be home! Hiccup stroked Toothless's neck for encouragement. "Almost there, buddy" he said to him.

Hiccup was starting to feel they were going to make it home when the storm turned really ugly. Before it was just wind and rain, now lightning started flashing all around them. Hiccup groaned to himself; "Great, just great. What else could go wrong?" His shoulders drooped when he looked back to see how Astrid and Spike were doing. Spike was working hard to stay airborne now. He was panting heavily and every wingstroke seemed to take a lot of effort. Astrid kept encouraging him, that seemed to be the only thing keeping him going.

Hiccup scanned the shoreline ahead of him trying to find some shelter. There! A cave with a small beach in front of it. It looked large enough for two dragons and three humans. Perfect! Hiccup pointed it out to Astrid and angled toward the beach.

Astrid was looking directly at Hiccup and Toothless when disaster struck. Toothless was still over the water and descending toward the beach when a bolt of lightning smashed into Toothless and Hiccup, enveloping them in a blinding white light. Astrid screamed and Spike roared in pain from the intensity of the flash. She could hear Snotlout scream in fear as he fell to the water. A small part of Astrid's conscious mind was saying that he would be okay, because Toothless was low to the water and slowing down for a landing, but the major part of her thoughts were toward Hiccup and Toothless. "Are they okay? What the Hel just happened?" Blinking back tears, Astrid tried clearing her vision while Spike shook his head to try and clear his.

Once Astrid's vision was clear enough to see around her, she had Spike descend towards the beach. She looked around desperately for any sign of Hiccup and Toothless. She saw Snotlout swimming toward shore and waved to him. At least he was okay. As she neared the beach, she could see a part of Toothless's tail sticking out of the water. He was on his back with his tail pointed toward the beach. Astrid nearly panicked when she saw this, because if Hiccup was still in the saddle he would be pinned under Toothless and also be underwater. She had to act fast if she was going to do anything.

She directed Spike to land on the beach and instead of allowing him to collapse from exhaustion, she pleaded with him to help her pull Toothless from the water. If it was any dragon other than Toothless, Spike would have ignored her, but all the dragons owed Toothless and Hiccup a debt of gratitude for freeing them from the influence of the Red Death. He bit into the base of Toothless's tail to get a grip and started pulling. Astrid was a little worried when she saw this, not because Toothless would have Spike's toothmarks on him for the rest of his life, but because there was absolutely no reaction at all from Toothless. Astrid thought; "If someone bit ME like that I'd sure be reacting in SOME way. Something must be seriously wrong."

Astrid was standing by Spike's head offering encouragement to him. She didn't see the front part of Toothless when Spike pulled it clear of the water. Snotlout was wading through the surf toward shore and could see everything. When he did, he dropped to his knees in shock. He was still staring open mouthed at the sight of Toothless when Astrid came around to see. He came off his knees instantly and intercepted Astrid before she came around Toothless's outstretched wing.

"Let me go Snotlout! I have to help him! I have to know if Hiccup is alright!" Astrid screamed at him.

"Astrid, there's nothing you can do for them! Trust me, you don't want to see this!" Snotlout looked like he was fighting to keep from getting sick. However, Astrid was too hysterical to notice.

"Snotlout, I said... LET. ME. GO."

Snotlout has seen that look in Astrid's eyes before and didn't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath. With a final bow of his head and a muttered "I did try to warn you", Snotlout released his grip on her arms. Astrid gave him a questioning look and then walked around Toothless's wing to see what Snotlout was talking about. What she saw made her recoil in horror.

"No, Oh gods, no. No, no, no, no. Oh gods, this can't be happening. This is not happening. Hiccup has to be okay. He had to have been thrown clear somehow. He's somewhere..out...in...the..."

Astrid sank to her knees in the sand. She looked again at the ruin that once was a proud Night Fury and realized that Hiccup was still in the saddle when the lightning bolt struck.

Everything forward of Toothless's front legs, including his head, neck, saddle, and rider were completely and utterly obliterated.

Hiccup and Toothless were gone.