Vǫrðr Inn Verǫld Svíða

Some men just want to watch the world burn

Prologue:

Fire

"Fire brings only destruction and pain. It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we're torn apart."

The very first thing a Viking learned in life was that fire was dangerous. Fire was bad. Fire was what came from dragons' mouths or coated their bodies and it should be avoided by all costs.

Hiccup had seen the burns on other Vikings from past battles, heard the gruesome stories that the other Viking children found delight in, declaring they would get the best burns out of everyone, a badge of courage...

He worked daily with fire. He knew what burns felt like, small ones, mind you, but he knew the pain, especially at his early days at the forge. But despite all that, despite the fact it burned down his house and many others at least once a week, he didn't fear fire like the others did, or at least hid that they did behind loud boasts.

He found beauty in the fire, in its crackling and its way of breaking wood, reducing even the mightiest, largest pieces to crumbled ash within minutes. He found he liked staring at candles and roaring fires, found fascination, found comfort in fire.

It was reinforced when he found Toothless. Fire didn't bother dragons, and it didn't bother him. Just another similarity between him and dragons that was tacked onto the long list of things that were odd about him.

Hiccup found, even after he almost died due to the flames, that he didn't fear fire. Fire was warmth, it helped them survive even the most brutal of winters. It was necessary to life.

But fire cannot be contained, not even by a dragon. It will rage and spread and burn everything in its path. Turn dreams and hopes into nothing but ash that floats away on the wind.

But he could control it, keep it at bay. It had not gotten out of hand. Hiccup did not fear fire.

Yet.

A/N: This shorter, since this is the prologue. The next chapters will be nice and long - at least 5,000 words with 1/5 of chapter three already written. This story will be updated every other week. The title is Old Norse for the bold part of the quote above - it was translated to the best of my ability. The second quote is from the anime, "Avatar: The Last Airbender".