Chapter I

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. And 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 mosquitos. We have... DRAGONS. Right now, those pests are destroying everything in their way and trying to take our animals and probably our lives. Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues. I ran out of my house, witch was on fire by the way,tryed to stay alive while admiering a guy trying to kill a dragon whit his foot in it's mouth and successfully avoiding every Viking that was falling out of the sky. My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that. I was doing great until a guy landed on me and started growling. Then he cheerfully greeted me and moved on. I got up and started running again. Meet the neighbors. Hoark the Haggard...

,,What are you doing out?!"

... Burnthair the Broad...

,,Get inside!"

... Phlegma the Fierce...

,,Get back inside!".

And those are the charming ones. I was just about to get burned when someone yanked me and lifted me off the floor.

,,Hiccup?! What is he doing out again?! What are you doing out again?! Get inside" he said putting me down.

That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do.

An explosion forced everyone to duck. Only he stood firm.

,,What do we have?" he asked brushing flaming debris off of his shoulder.

,,Gronkles. Nadders. Zipplebacks. Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare." said a Viking.

,,Any Night Furies?".

,,None so far.".

,,Good.".

Massive flaming braziers were raised on poles, lighting up the night sky... and revealing swirling dragons of all types. In the mean time below, I crosses an open plaza and ducked into an open building with a tall chimney.

,,Ah! Nice of you to join the party. I thought you'd been carried off." said a man with one leg and one arm. I put on a leather apron and started to put away scattered appendages.

,,Who me? Nah, come on! I'm way too muscular for their taste." I said striking a bodybuilder pose.

,,Yeah, dad. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." said a girls voice behind me.

,,They need toothpicks, don't they?" he said while I transferred bent and chipped weapons to the forge as Vikings crowd the counter for replacements.

The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well...littler. The girl is Rina, his daughter and my best friend since we could walk. We we been trough everything together and we're very much alike. She has long redish-brown hair made in a braid, hazel eyes and an even smaller body than me. But she has more guts than three of me. She's actually pretty. Probably got it from her mother.

Another dragon came down and set another house on fire. See? Old village. Lots and lots of new houses. In response, the fire brigade charged through the plaza, four teen, tugging a large wooden cask on wheels. From it, they filled buckets of water to douse the flames. They are Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut and most beautiful of all, Astrid. There was a slow-motion explosion behind her in my mind, framing her in a hot ball of fire. The others joined her, looking awesome and heroic, something I'll never be. Their job is so much cooler. I was leaning at the window with Rina by my side. We looked at each other and knew whar we had to do. We were ready to jump when Gobber grabbed us.

,,Oh come on, dad!" she struggled.

,,Let us out, please. We need to make our mark!" I said but I know there was no point in struggling.

,,Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places. Both of you." he said putting us down.

,, Please dad, two minutes. We'll bouth kill a dragon and our lifes will get infinitely better." begged Rina.

,,I might even get a date." I said supporting her.

,,Let me think... Neither of you can lift a hammer, swing an axe... you can't even throw one of these." said Gobber picking up iron balls connected by rope. A Viking runs by and nabs it out of Gobber's hand, hurling it at a dive-bombing Gronkle witch crashed loudly.

,,Ok but this will throw it for me." I said showing him my new invention. But I prematurely launched a bola, narrowly missing Gobber... and taking out a Viking at the counter.

,,See, now this right here is what I'm talking about!" he said angrily.

,, Mild calibration issue." I said looking at Rina requesting backup.

,, Hiccup, if you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all... this." he said pointing to me.

,, But... you just pointed to all of him." said Rina confused.

,, Yes! That's it! He needs to stop being all of him." he said happy we got the picture.

,, You, sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping this much, raw...Vikingness contained." Rina said threatening him.

,,There will be consequences!" I said.

,, I'll take my chances. Sword. Sharpen. Now." he said giving both of us a sword. We looked at each other knowing we need to give up for now. One day I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronckles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A Zippelback? Exotic, exciting. Two heads, twice the status. And then there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.

Then we all heard a ballistic moaning streak. Everyone knew what was coming. The ultimate prize, the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-

,,Night fury! Get down!" yelled the chief and then a tower was hit by a giant blast.

This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first.