Banished, Chapter 1, Leaving

[Early Autumn, year one]

The dense forest of the isle of Berk had often seen hunters get lost or walking around in circles. The few animals that lived here didn't make it worth hunting for since there was a considerable chance for them to get attacked by any dragons that lived there. At least, that is what the villagers though to be true. It wasn't true at all.

Hiccup had been to the forest many times. Using it as a place to escape the clutches of the village, the disappointing scowls, the annoyed stares. In the forest he wasn't the runt, he wasn't the disappointment, he wasn't the hiccup. Instead, he was free, he was on his own. No one to say that they are disappointed, and no one to glare at him. He had the space and freedom to think, to look around, and to experiment with new things without everyone around him seeking cover. Here he wasn't cast out, he wasn't different, and he wasn't looked down on.

That was because no one was there.

That was the reason he went here, to the forest. There was no one, here he could do anything, and no one would be there to check it, to prevent it. At least, that was how it had been. That was how it had been before he had finally done something that they might accept. He had shot down a dragon, a Night Fury no less. He had finally done something that could made him a loved member of his tribe, something that could have made him respected and accepted in his own home. That was, if he had told them.

He had never felt so bad about himself. The downed dragon, which he had dubbed Toothless after a misunderstanding with feeding him a fish, proved to be a real friend, his only friend. He could understand him. He could talk with him, as strange as that might be. He understood him, and he didn't mind that he was different. They were both a bit different. Quite a bit, in fact.

He had done it, the first Viking to down a Night Fury. But he didn't just down him, he also tamed it.

Had he tamed him though? He didn't feel like it. Toothless didn't need taming, he wasn't some wild beast that was ferocious unless it was broken into pieces and rebuilt the way you liked it. No, he was a gentle and caring creature, who only needed to be understood and trusted to let him into your inner circle. Then everything was fine, everything was perfect.

He was the first, the first to live in harmony with a dragon. It was a strange idea, dragons and Vikings, living together. Would it work? Dragons were wild and powerful creatures, they could travel long distances by air and could easily move around the archipelago. Vikings couldn't do that. Vikings would find a wet heap of rocks to settle on, staying in one place to make sure that they were able to build farms and strong homes. To make a fleet for fishing and fighting, something that Vikings loved dearly.

It was clear, dragons and Vikings were too different to live together in a society, but he had at least discovered that peace was possible. He moved further through the wet and muddy forest. It hadn't rained in a bit, which was quite spectacular for the place they lived. He didn't complain though, it was a lot easier to walk through the forest when it only had the occasional puddle of mud and slippery rock on his path.

He calmly walked the familiar path, it was the safest way to head to Toothless. The path wasn't straight and clear, and he had to move through quite a bit of thick bushes to get there. He did this on purpose. Because he didn't want someone to discover a clear path towards the cove where his new best friend resided. He carefully had created this path to minimize the chance of his dragon being discovered, because that would be the worst thing that could now happen to him now.

But this was where he stopped following the path, he had the choice. Finish his walk of shame across the original path, taking a longer way and making sure that he couldn't be followed; or just go there straight and be able to leave earlier.

Perhaps if he had made a different choice our story would deviate, perhaps he'd stay on Berk, and safe his village from their doom as they tried the impossible. He could be a hero, a saviour to his people. Perhaps he could.

He adjusted the strap of the basket he carried on his back. Filled with some food and a blanket. As well as a flask for fresh water. And he decided to walk straight through the forest. The earlier he was able to get there the better. He felt around his hip, where a small sack hung from his belt. It contained a bit of hack-silver he had taken from the forge, Gobber wouldn't be missing it, and he could definitely use it.

The idea of forever living alone in the forest was appealing to him, he could perhaps build a small home, create a suitable place to live for him and Toothless, but he was no fool. Sooner rather than later he would have to head to some kind of civilization, trading whatever he had for tools, materials, and most importantly, food.

The only food he currently carried with him was a piece of fresh meat, he had gotten it from the butcher earlier that day, and it had been so fresh that it was still pretty bloody. It had already soaked a part of his blanket, and there was also a bit on the inside of the basket. It was a mess really, he should have brought bread or something like that, but in a dire situation, meat was more useful, since he could use it to lure animals away from him. And it was worth more than bread a piece of bread.

He had come here so many times, walking around the tall trees and the fallen logs to calm himself, to escape the busy life of the village. It was almost funny that the last time he would spend here would be during his final escape.

He couldn't stay, even if he wanted too. Everything would crumble down, what was he going to do, calm the Nightmare in the ring like he had done with Toothless? Try to be his friend? It wouldn't work. Hiccup had learned a few things in his time on the isle of Berk, and one of those things was that nothing is thicker than the skull of a Viking.

He pushed a branch out of the way carefully, not wanting the twig to return the favour and hitting him back. It wasn't uncommon for that to happen, and he had experienced it multiple times now. He calmly ducked as he made his way through the thicker foliage, walking through parts of the forest that weren't easy to navigate.

He had trouble with it, but that wasn't unexpected. His legs slipped in the muddy soils sometimes, which wasn't dangerous if the land around him was flat, but it wasn't. To his right was a gully, it wasn't a long way down, and if he slipped it would only bruise him a bit, but he still preferred to not tumble down a hillside. He walked carefully, trying to not break too many twigs and not to leave to clear footprints. They would discover that he went missing eventually, and even if he wasn't the pride of the island, they would look for him. Especially now that he excelled this much in dragon training.

In fact, because he exceeded so much in dragon training, someone was already looking for him. A bit behind our unsuspecting hero, there was movement. Swift and trained, carefully sneaking behind the boy to see where he was heading every day. He was acting weird lately, well, weirder. He used to be the clumsiest Viking on the entire island. Sure, he excelled in the smithy, but then again, once he stepped outside, disaster was imminent.

It didn't bother her that he had become better, it was good. He was still clumsy, she could see that. The way he tried to lift a shield while holding it incorrectly, or the time he tried to roll but managed to screw it up halfway through. It all proved that he hadn't changed that much. But when it came to the interaction with dragons, it was almost eerie.

He suddenly became a master, knocking the beasts out of the fight with his bare hands. It was like he had full control over them, like he knew all the ins and outs of the large monsters. It was strange, very strange. This was wat annoyed Astrid, he had suddenly become way too good, way too fast. That wasn't possible, someone didn't just become so good. She had trained for years and he was rising to, and now apparently beyond, her level of skill.

It made her angry, extremely angry. He was cheating, he had to be. Was he somehow drugging the dragons before the matches and trainings? Putting some sort of herbs in the fish they fed them to make sure they fell before his feet. It could be, but it would require an extreme amount of luck to have the dragons always drop right before they attacked him. Hiccup had proven to be clever, if not smart, so he wasn't going to risk getting eaten alive just so he could win. He wasn't that kind of person.

Or so she thought, she thought she knew Hiccup. Small skinny boy, usually there when you don't want him to be, and gone when you actually need to see him. Like now, she cursed underneath her breath. Instead of just following the boy to where he was going she would now have to actually track him down.

She calmly inspected the ground, following the broken twigs and crunched leaves. It made a clear path, and although Hiccup was clearly trying to make sure he couldn't be followed, she could still find his trail. She moved with swift haste, hoping to catch up with the boy and be able to just continue following him.

Hiccup was indeed out of her sight, he was slowly trying to get down the hillside, which had been steeper than he had thought. He could have done two things, try to walk back the way he came and take the long route he always took, or try to climb down the hillside. He had chosen for the last option, it would probably be the best thing to do, since he would still arrive earlier at the cove. And the earlier he was there, the sooner he was gone.

But the hill had been much steeper than he had though, and he was leaning against a tree that stood there to make sure he couldn't fall down. He made sure to try to dig his feet into the soft soil as much as he could, that way he could form some sort of steps to easily descend the side of the hill. It had worked for about half the hill, and he was actually pretty proud of himself. He had just climbed down a steep hill that the average Viking would have walked around.

His moment of joy was short lived though, as he heard, and felt, a twig snap underneath his feet. He didn't even have a second to curse as he felt his leg slip, desperately trying to find grip on the steep hillside. He threw himself against the dirt, his hands trying to find something to grab. Moss, small plants, anything. But the few small saplings that he were within his reach proved too young, and he pulled them out of the ground with shocking ease.

Without anything to stop him or hold him in place he tumbled down, sliding down the hill before a failed attempt to catch himself on a tree caused him to roll further down. He bit his lip as he rolled, and he let out soft grunts as he fell, he didn't want anyone who also happened to be in the woods to hear him. Because that would surely ruin his plans.

He hill ended abruptly, and so did his fall. He made three more tumbles before he came to a sudden halt against a tree, his body definitely bruised. He groaned softly, lying still for a bit, his body slowly absorbing the pain until it gently faded away. He slowly opened his eyes. Scolding himself for celebrating too early.

He got up, his back not agreeing with him trying to continue, but it would have to do. He looked around, and could see that he had left a clear trail on the hill beside him, there were clear tracks where he slipped, where you could clearly see how he had struggled to try to stay there, pieces of weed were pulled out of the ground and a few small plants had been crushed as he rolled down.

He looked around again, hoping that his little struggle with the hill hadn't revealed his presence to anyone who might be in the woods with him. His eyes caught movement up the hill, where a single branch moved softly. This wasn't too strange, it was a small branch, so it could have easily been caught by wind or perhaps a bird landed on it. But his tumble would probably have scared any small wildlife away.

He looked further, spotting the small basket with supplies a few paces away from him, he calmly went to grab it, but was distracted as something tiny rolled down the hill, originating from the same place he saw the branch move. Hiccup, curious as ever, could clearly see that this wasn't a piece of dirt. Perhaps it was a nut or fruit, which could indicate that there was indeed a small animal up there. He swung the basket over his shoulder and calmly walked to the object that had rolled down the hill. It was lying in some grass, the sun shining through the foliage to shine upon the item like it had some more significant meaning, like it was a gift from gods.

A ray of light reflected from it, the glimpse catching his eye. This was the first indicator that surprised Hiccup, fruits and nuts didn't reflect light, at least not as strongly as that item just had. He kneeled down and picked it up. Observing the small piece of metal carefully, it was flat, and looked like it could be clasped onto something. But it was only when he turned it around, that he felt fear sink into him.

It was a small, decorative, iron skull.

Astrid had cursed to herself when Hiccup almost saw her, luckily he was occupied with descending the hill. She calmly waited on top, seeing that Hiccup had left a clear path downwards, kicking the nose of his shoe into the hillside to create steps for himself, clever.

However, then he had tumbled, and Astrid had winced as she saw the boy roll down the hill and stop as he hit the tree. That would have hurt, he lay there motionless, only a soft groan escaping his lips. Astrid carefully looked if he was okay, he didn't seem to be hurt, well, hurt badly. But she quickly had to dive back when the boy's eyes opened again, looking around him calmly.

She quickly pushed herself into the bushes of trees, the branches shaking softly as she tried not to give away her position. She had pushed herself back against a tree, but not everything of her had made it. One of the skulls of her skirt lay on the edge of the hillside, and Astrid cursed to herself. It had probably got hooked behind a branch or something and had been pulled off. She quickly checked her skirt and discovered that one of the iron skulls was indeed missing. She sighed heavily, knowing that Hiccup could probably see it there, lying on the side of the hill.

She calmly laid down on her belly, careful not to cause herself to be visible over the ridge of the hill. She slowly crawled closer to the edge, reaching out with her hand to try and grab the small shiny piece of metal that was almost ruining all her plans. She just had to reach a bit further to grab it.

Her finger brushed gently against the metal, and her eyes went wide and it shifted, the small piece of dirt that it lay on was unstable and unpredictable, and she saw the metal disappear behind the ridge, rolling downhill.

She cursed softly as she heard a soft rustling, indicating that the piece of metal had landed safely somewhere down the hill. She feared for her secrecy as she heard soft footsteps approach the skull, followed with a soft and curious sigh. Hopefully he didn't realise, maybe he would think that she lost it when she was out practising something, like her hill climbing.

These dreams were crushed when she suddenly heard more rustling, quick and loud. She listened closely as she heard it grow softer and softer as it went further away. She looked up from her position, seeing that the place were Hiccup had just been was now vacant, a freshly made path through the forest clearly visible. Created by Hiccup, quickly running away as he had discovered that he was being followed. He knew she followed him now.

Astrid cursed loudly as she nimby threw herself over the ridge of the hill, slowly and carefully climbing down the hill. She first used the steps Hiccup had kicked into the soft soil, glad that they were tested and proved to work very well. She only now realised what the lead was that Hiccup had gained on her, since the cliff proved to be a tough one to descend. It was slow and difficult work, and when she finally reached the part where Hiccup had slipped she realised that she still had halfway to go. She used her anger to kick the steps into the soil. Two swift kicks being all that it takes for her to make a small hole in which her foot, and later her hand, could find good support.

When she was near to the ground, about her own length away from it, she jumped, her feet sinking a bit further into the dirt to launch her away from the cliff. She landed with a graceful roll, picking a leave from her hair as she set out to follow the path that Hiccup had clearly left in his wake.

Hiccup now had a proper lead on Astrid, who he knew was following him. It didn't surprise him, Astrid was extremely competitive, and he hadn't expected to get away with winning so easily. He had realised it directly when he found the little skull. He had already been suspicious that he was running into her more and more often when he was in the woods, sometimes she was practising with her axe. Taking, what he assumed to be, anger out on innocent trees. Other times she was just sitting somewhere, sharpening her axe with that damned stone. She would cast this calm but threatening look at him, like she was sharpening the axe specifically for him. It was fuel for nightmares.

He ran as fast as he could, Astrid no doubt close on his heels. He didn't care if he left a clear trail, he would just have to make sure that he would be at the cove before her. Sure, he had lied to her before when she questioned him, but he wasn't taking his chances with her when the two were alone in the forest. She would skin him alive if she discovered that he'd been cheating, and then she'd tell the village about Toothless.

It was amazing how good he was at not screwing up when he was panicked, he dodged roots and branches with expert precision, probably a side effect from fearing for your own and your best friend's life. He wasn't really looking forward to receiving punishment while they hung Toothless' head from a wall in the great hall. I mean, he himself could also have been executed, although they'd probably banish him. But he wasn't sure he would be able to survive, let alone want to live, without Toothless.

It might sound dramatic for an animal he only knew for a few weeks or so, but it was true. The dragon had been so kind to him after the initial fear they both held for each other. But now they were even. They could talk, they could play. Hiccup had never guessed that ever in his life he'd play tag with a dragon, a Night Fury no less. It really was a strange time for him to live in.

But he didn't feel bad for befriending their former enemy, they were misunderstood creatures. They were kind and peaceful, and when he saw Toothless chasing something like a butterfly or a shimmer of light reflecting from a piece of metal it was difficult to think that these were the creatures that raided his home.

Well, his home, in the last weeks that had also changed. His home had slowly changed from his own house and his own village to the cove, where he would spend most of his time, sometimes even nights, together with Toothless. It may not be the smartest thing to do, but that way he could spend a lot of time with him without constantly having to walk between the village and the cove, which would increase the risk of him being discovered.

It helped that his father was gone though. Sailing out on their heroic journeys which could lead them to the gates of Valhalla. Or in this case, Helheim's gate. He had heard the stories from the elders, a large wall of fog that shrouded the island of dragons. They were certain that the nest was in there, but sharp rocks and sea stacks were difficult to navigate with the thick mist. And the dragons that protected their home made it even more dangerous.

He was glad that he'd never have to deal with that again, the raids, the battles, it would all be the past soon. The only thing he'd need to do now was get to Toothless, nothing else mattered. Astrid had seen him, so what. She could see him fly away on Toothless for all he cared. He'd like to see her face as he flew away from Berk, disappearing into the distant skies.

He didn't care much for them anymore, all he needed to do was leave. If he could just go away, put all of this behind him, then it would be all good. He wouldn't have to worry about having to kill a dragon, something that had been a dream for him just a month ago. So much had changed for him. But it wouldn't go as easily for his old village though.

His old village, he was already cutting his ties with them. They weren't his tribe, they weren't his people. He couldn't say that he didn't care for their safety or their wellbeing, but he could say that he wasn't going to stick around to ensure it.

In all of his thoughts he hadn't noticed how close he was to the cove, but he quickly noticed his normal path. It was clearer than where he had been thinking which way he was going to take. The closer he got to the cove, the more confident he had gotten, and also excited. It was always a sigh of relieve to him that he was close, close to seeing Toothless again. He quickly ran down the path, which headed to the narrow entrance of the cove. It started going downhill, and Hiccup had to watch out that he wasn't going to run too fast and trip over his own legs. He stopped at the edge of the cliff, moving sideways to the path that he could easily climb down.

He still wasn't the most athletic, but he had mastered the small rock wall thanks to his regular visits to the cove. He could climb down it with incredible speed, something he was sure Astrid couldn't match him in.

But that didn't matter, he was home free. He jumped the last bit, quickly running towards Toothless' who was already running towards the entrance when he heard his rider running towards the cove, something that he never did. But of course Hiccup had to trip again, this time by a small pit in the sand, he fell flat on his chest, the strap of the basket breaking and the contents spilling out.

"Prepare for a flight bud." He said as he stood up and ran back to the basket, the contents lying in the sand. He quickly grabbed the flask, Toothless looking curiously at the sand-covered meat, sniffing at it before quickly eating it. Hiccup turned around to find his supply of food gone, he looked at the chewing dragon, pieces of the meat hanging from his mouth.

"Toothless." Hiccup wined, scolding the dragon as he looked at him. "That was my food."

Toothless was fine with that, the meat was filled with sand and it wasn't tasty at all, the blood had a metallic taste that he didn't like. The dragon spat it out on the ground, some of the blood dripping from his mouth into the sand. Hiccup looked at it in disgust, usually when his dragon did this the food would be relatively untouched, only covered in saliva, but the pile of small and slimy pieces of meat that now lay in front of him proved that this was not always the case.

"We'll get something else." Hiccup said as he saw Toothless turning his ears to the cliff side, probably hearing Astrid approaching. "Now let's go." But Toothless wasn't about to leave the food for small animals like Terrible Terrors, he was a kind dragon, but he didn't want to share much. A short stream of his purple, plasma fuelled fire was enough to burn the pieces of meat to mere ashes.

Hiccup swung himself onto Toothless' back, connecting the small ropes that made sure he would be able to stay on the back of the dragon to the saddle. He gave a soft tug on them and tested the prosthetic. It all worked fine. Toothless looked up, his rider was in a hurry today, surprising to be honest, usually they played a bit before they flew, but he wasn't complaining.

"Go, now." He said to Toothless, who was eating the regurgitated meat again, he turned his head away from the meat and preparing to take off. He took a few steppes, accidently stepping on the basket that Hiccup had dropped. He only needed a quick leap and a few beats of his wings, and then he was up in the air, flying away from the cove, and the island, that had been their home.

Astrid ran through the forest as quickly as she could, Hiccup was clearly running from her. And he knew these parts better than her, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to hide somewhere. Luckily, now that he was running and not even trying to cover his track he was leaving a clear path through the forest, and because he hand swatted and broken the twigs and branches that were in the way it made it easier for her to follow.

She was thinking about what his plan was. Was he trying to warn the person he was heading to? Was he going to destroy evidence or something? Maybe he was just scared of her and ran away. Or maybe he hadn't realised that he was being followed and had though the skull to be an omen of death or something.

She really didn't know what was going on until she heard the beating of wings ahead of her. Her feet felt heavier as she heard a dragon roar loudly. It came from ahead, where Hiccup had headed.

Astrid suddenly felt fearful, what if Hiccup had been cheating, and he wasn't ready to take on a wild dragon. He had just ran right into the worst enemy there was, almost completely defenceless. She had forced him to run into it.

She forced herself to run faster, her panicked state of mind causing her to miss the path that Hiccup had actually taken. She had to force herself to stop quickly, as she stood on the edge of a small cove. She looked down into it, in her panic searching for Hiccup, who was nowhere to be seen. She could only see a few items lying on the sand down in the cove.

She stepped back from the edge of the rocky wall. Her heartbeat rising and her breath becoming ragged and fast. She turned around, running back to Berk as fast as she could. She feared that something unthinkable had happened to Hiccup, and it didn't help that she heard a loud dragon roar, followed by a faint but familiar scream in the distance.

He didn't know why he screamed, he just felt like it. He was free, finally free. And after Toothless had roared so loudly he felt like it was only fitting that he did the same. He could do whatever he and his dragon desired. Whatever they wished to do. However they wished to do it. He could fly around the world, explore everything that he ever wanted to. Sure, it hadn't exactly went as Hiccup had expected it to go, since Astrid intervened, but that didn't matter too much. He only lost the meat and the blanket.

He could sleep underneath Toothless' wing, he had done it in the cove before. It was amazing that the dragon allowed it, actually wrapping its wing around him more tightly like some sort of warm hug. And they could fish for food. A well-aimed plasma blast at a school of fish was more than enough to stun them and make them easy to grab. They would do great.

"This is amazing!" Hiccup shouted loudly as he drummed on the back of Toothless' saddle, leaning over to scratch the dragon on the side of its head. He crooned softly, enjoying the gentle scratches.

The dragon flew calmly, enjoying the attention he was getting from his rider, he enjoyed the late flights they would occasionally make, but he loved to fly through the night sky, the darkness around him enveloping him completely. But they would have to wait a while before it turned dark.

Hiccup felt extremely excited, but also nervous, this was it, and there was no turning back now. He had done it, he had left. He would never have to fight dragons, he could just live freely, exploring and travelling with Toothless.

He could see the world, discover things that Vikings would never dream about seeing before, he could live with dragons instead of Vikings, they had proven to be just as protective, if not more, and were excellent hunters and gatherers.

It could work, a simple forge could be made by a bunch of rocks and a Deadly Nadder, who's fire was enough to heat metal in a couple of seconds. Perhaps he could convince some Gronckle to move some logs for him, so he could even make a shelter pretty easily. He wasn't planning on getting close to any Monstrous Nightmares anytime soon, he felt like those were still a bit out of his expertise. He also decided that Zipplebacks were forbidden territory for now, since they were unpredictable and also very dangerous.

Now that he thought of it, a Zippleback, a Deadly Nadder, a Gronckle and a Nightmare were all still trapped on Berk, locked in cages without ever hoping to be free again. They were misunderstood and innocent creatures, why should they deserve to stay there? Hiccup couldn't just leave them, he just couldn't. He didn't know why the dragons raided, but he knew that they were perfectly capable of acting nicely, if you just showed them the proper respect and love first. It wasn't surprising that they didn't trust you at first, Vikings and dragons have been killing each other for centuries.

He had to save them, it felt wrong to just fly off, enjoying his freedom while nice and innocent dragon were trapped on the island, he couldn't just leave them to their fate. Toothless let out a surprised noise as Hiccup shifted the tailfin, the dragon and him calmly flying towards Berk, the sun creeping closer and closer to the sea that they could see on the horizon.

"Don't worry bud." Hiccup said calmly, his nervousness slowly rising. "But we just can't leave the other dragons to die."

Toothless let out a happy but cautious warble, he knew that they were heading to Berk, and Hiccup seemed determined, but he didn't feel comfortable around the island. Although they could very well be almost invisible under the cover of darkness he didn't like going towards the village alone, he always travelled with the other dragons, since they usually distracted the fire from him.

He stopped flapping his wings, calmly letting his wings carry him further, gliding closer and closer to Berk. The sun slowly sunk below the sea, turning the dimly lit world around them into one of darkness. The only light being the soft glow that still hung above the sea, and the dim light that came from Berk, the village always somewhat lit during the night, for the sentries to spot dragons more easily.

Luckily for them they had focussed their defence around their supplies of food, and they didn't have the arena that heavily defended. It was locked by a simple system for Vikings, but dragons couldn't figure out what the combination of levers and cogs did. Luckily for them they were a team of both a dragon and a human.

They arrived under the cover of darkness. The odd guard that would occasionally check the arena was probably eating his dinner, so Hiccup had plenty of time to release the dragons, although he wasn't quite sure how to do that yet. He calmly slid of Toothless' back after he had disconnected the chord that kept him in the saddle, and he slowly walked into the arena. The large gate that could seal it during training and matched was open, probably left that way by the guard, who trusted in the strength of the pens to keep the dragons in.

It didn't take long for him to realise that he couldn't just release the dragons, if anyone would look it would be evident that someone had opened the cages, and it would be suspected that it was someone of the village. That would have repercussions, and could even lead to someone being executed. Hiccup didn't want that blood on his hands.

He had to either make it look like the dragons escaped themselves, or that they had somehow been helped by a different dragon, but both of those possibilities were difficult to achieve. He could let Toothless blast the logs and beams blocking the door, but that would probably only startle the dragons and would perhaps even alert the village before he was able to release them all.

It only occurred to him later that he was actively planning to sabotage Berk, his home. He hadn't had meant to step foot on the rock ever again, especially so soon after his leave. But here he was, once again standing in the arena. Perhaps he wanted to do this to prove himself, or maybe to definitely cut all his ties with the island. If he did this, he was certain that he would never return, because if the truth did surface, he'd be dead.

He slowly looked around as he walked into the arena, Toothless following behind him. He looked at his dragon nervously, he shouldn't do this, he should just leave and run away, flying off into the dark of night, but he couldn't, he wasn't able to tear his eyes away from the four doors that were built into the wall of the arena. Most of the doors had a simple mechanism to lock them, a large log or beam lay calmly rested in two holders, one on each door, they effectively kept the wild and dangerous dragons inside, who would usually spend their day kicking and hitting the door with their full bodies, just to be able to escape, but now it was calm, so they were probably already asleep.

Only one door had a more intricate system, the door of the Monstrous Nightmare, the door to his cage was locked by two logs, which rested on top of each other, one of the logs would disappear down into the ground, while the other would be lifted upward. The door was extra heavy, and was specially designed to be able to hold the most powerful dragons.

But what if Hiccup could somehow weaken them, allowing the dragons themselves to break them open. It would make everything look like an accident, and that way the arena would be inoperable for a while. Winter would be coming in a few moons, and the raid always stopped during the colder months, Hiccup guessed they hibernated, or perhaps they just thought it was too cold to fly.

If he managed to damage the arena so much that they couldn't hold dragons, they had no reason to keep them, the arena was the only safe place. And if winter would set in early enough, the raids would stop, and they wouldn't be able to capture new dragons.

It was an excellent plan. It was risky, because he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't be able to capture new dragons, but the chance was pretty big. Perhaps he could even destroy the bridge that lead to the arena, it was wooden after all, so it wouldn't take a lot for it to go down. A well-aimed shot at one of the supports would probably do it, all the wood would suddenly be forced to lean on the last remaining side, and that would certainly not hold. It might not be destroyed completely, but it would certainly be out of commission.

He stepped towards the basic door, he knew how they worked, and he knew how they were build, the holders that held the log were bolted to the door, and were as sturdy as possible. If the dragon threw itself against the door they would receive the force of it, so they had to be strong. But if he managed to weaken them, then the dragons would be able to press them off the wall if they bashed against the doors again, all except the terrible terror. But that wasn't difficult, that little dragon was kept inside by a small bar, keeping a small flap inside one of the doors closed. He could lift it with one hand, and the dragon would be free, so that wasn't too difficult.

He decided that he had thought about it for long enough, and ran to the weapons rack that stood at the far side of the arena, grabbing a sword from it. Toothless looked at him as he dragged the large weapon across the ground, making a sharp scraping noise. The dragon covered his ears and tried to shut the sound out, but it didn't work. Luckily the dragons inside didn't notice.

He lifted the sword carefully, and managed to get it locked just behind one of the bolts that kept one of the holders in place, just one bolt would probably be enough to weaken it enough, the other one would only be able to take a few beats from the dragon.

He pulled at the sword, using it as a leverage to pull the bolt out of the wood. It wasn't easy, but thanks to the dry days they had the wood had shrunk a bit, and after a while the bolt shot loose. It clattered on the ground softly, and Hiccup looked at it pleased, he hoped that the others would go as smoothly as well.

A little while later he had three of the doors ready for destruction. He would have to return the swords to the armour stand afterwards, and he would definitely have to put it there before the dragons were released, since they would see him as more of a thread if he held a sword in his hands.

He pulled another bolt loose, he was getting quicker at it, this was the seventh both he had loosened, just one more and he was done with these. Then he only needed to release the Terrible Terror and the Nightmare.

That was going to be something, releasing a Monstrous Nightmare right in front of himself, one that was probably pretty pissed. He looked at the mechanism, the large log that sank into the ground was controlled by a large weight, but that was place somewhere inside the rock wall, and inaccessible for him. Perhaps he could manage to remove the top log. With one log out of the way he could probably manage to break free.

But if he just weakened the iron it could also break, shatter even, it wouldn't be so difficult to do, Toothless could heat the rings that used the logs to lock the door, and if the Dragon then tried to break free he would easily deform and probably break the metal. He ran back to the weapons rack, putting the sword back, but grabbing a small dagger with sheath for himself. He placed it in his belt, on his back. He lifted the smaller log on the Terrible Terrors cage, making him able to leave, luckily the little dragon was asleep, because otherwise he could give him some trouble.

Before he started the final part of his work he ran up the ramp quickly, looking at the village. It was still calm, but he knew how quickly it could change. It had been a few days since the last raid, but he hoped one wouldn't come tonight.

He turned back around, running down the ramp to head to the dragons. "Toothless, come here." He whispered as he motioned the black dragon to follow him. He obeyed calmly, following his young rider to the largest door of the arena. He could smell the scent of the other dragons, and he had a good idea what his young rider was up to.

He looked at Hiccup with a questioning look as they stood before the large door. "Here." Hiccup tapping his finger on one of the metal rings that kept the logs in place. "Can you heat this?"

Toothless warbles something as Hiccup stepped aside, retracting his teeth as he opened his jaw, a soft light starting to glow in the back of his mouth. Before a steady stream of plasma fire came out of his mouth, and Hiccup watched as the metal slowly got heated.

After a few seconds Toothless stopped. The iron was glowing a bit, but thanks to his experience in the smithy told him that the metal was nowhere near being as mouldable as he needed it to be. He looked at it again, he needed something else to destroy the gate, and he couldn't just leave one dragon. That would honestly be terrible. The village would be furious and would probably take all the anger out the last dragon they had, and that would probably be the Nightmare.

He looked at the locking mechanism again. And then at Toothless. "Any ideas, bud?" he asked calmly, hoping that the dragon could find some magical solution to heating the metal. Perhaps if they made some kind of fire they could heat it enough to the point where the Nightmare could burst out of it, but he didn't expect it. He looked at the weapon rack, perhaps there was something there he could use. He could grab an axe and chop the large log to splinters, but he knew that would take him a few days.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of Toothless charging a shot. He spun around rapidly, just in time to see the dragon fire a large plasma shot right at the part where the two logs rested on each other. The sound rung through the entire arena, and he could hear how all the dragons awoke instantly.

Hiccup watched in awe as the large top log was launched up in the air, the tip of the bottom log was reduced to a ruined pile of smouldering remains. He heard how the dragons started to bash against the doors, and he could see how the remains of the locks were slowly giving in, it was working.

But the blast had been extremely loud, that and the fact that he didn't want to be in the arena with the dragons that were just roughly awoken and sounded pretty angry. He quickly mounted Toothless, the Night Fury warbling worriedly as he thought that he had done something wrong.

"Good job bud." Hiccup said as he guided the dragon out of the arena, Toothless quickly began running, jumping off the edge and spreading his wings to fly off. He looked at the village, seeing how people were slowly starting to head outside and some were running towards the arena.

He knew that the dragons needed more time, and he could clearly see that if this continued the Vikings would arrive on time to lock the main door, trapping the dragons inside. He switched the stance of the tailfin, sending them into a steep climb, before turning completely and levelling out again. Hiccup looked down at the town, people were realising something was wrong and were rushing towards the arena in large numbers, but no one had made it to the bridge yet.

He decided not to waste their advantage and pushed Toothless to go into a dive, the two understood each other completely and Toothless directly realised what Hiccup wanted to do. Together they steered them into a straight dive, Toothless folding his wins once he was content that they were going straight at it. Hiccup heard the soft and faint whistle start to grow, and it send shivers down his spine. Toothless opened his mouth, a light burning lighter and more intense in it as more and more air was being added to it.

Hiccup could see how people had stopped running, at least some of them, to look at the sky. They probably heard the whistle now too, Hiccup lied down flat on Toothless, the dragon preparing itself for releasing its shot.

It was a textbook attack, if there was something like that. Toothless had fired his shot with expert precision right at the bridge. Hiccup could see the blue plasma explosion, which quickly turned yellow as the wood incinerated. Only a faint blue shockwave eradiated from it, before it dispersed in the night sky.

Both sides of the bridge were burning, and the middle part was completely reduced to splinters. Hiccup looked, making sure everyone was okay. It looked like everyone had been too far away from the blast to be harmed, and they weren't hit by any debris too. He gulped, he had just attacked his own village, well, his old village. He was truly cutting his ties with Berk. During the time he was thinking Toothless had turned them around, Hiccup absently helping the dragon. He was now heading straight for the arena. Hiccup realised what was going on as he heard the whistle build again, and he could see how they were diving at the metal roof.

A part of him didn't want to do more damage, he knew that building a bridge across such a large part was difficult, especially since Stoick usually asked Gobber for advice, and Gobber would ask him. But he wouldn't be around to think of some crane design this time. Another part of him did want to do this. He wasn't harming anyone and the arena would be out of service for a long time. They wouldn't waste precious wood on building a bridge with the winter coming, they'd need it for firewood. So the bridge would be delayed to next year. So they wouldn't be able to rebuild the arena for almost a full year. That meant they wouldn't have any use for trapping dragons for a year to come.

Hiccup watched as a second blue explosion formed in front of him, this one creating a large cloud of smoke instead of fire. As they flew over he could hear the first door giving in under the beating of the dragons. And he knew that the others would soon follow. The Terrible Terror could already be seen climbing out of the arena and flying off.

It wasn't long before he could look behind him and see the silhouettes of dragons contrasted against the fire of the bridge. Five of them, a small speck, which was probably the Terror, a larger speck, which was the Gronckle, the Nadder and the Zippleback followed close behind them. And finally the Nightmare, who looked angry, but apparently had chosen to retreat instead of a fight for vengeance.

Hiccup let himself fall back on his the saddle, thinking about what he had done. He had betrayed his village, fled from it using their biggest enemy, and had destroyed their only method of training people against the dragons. But he hadn't wounded anyone, and he had also freed the dragons. So perhaps that balanced everything out a bit. He knew that things would look up from now.

AN:

So it's probably not the smartest thing to upload this right in the middle of exam weeks and stuff, but I've been looking at this story for a while now. The plan was to finish it fully before uploading, which would allow me to change anything in previous chapters if I wanted to. But since motivation is kinda lacking, and I could use some more feedback on it I'm just gonna put it out there. DO NOTE, that everything here could still change, I got the plot and timeline of the story planned out, but not much more. Besides that I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter. If you see anything like a mistake or something then please do tell. As mentioned before, all the feedback is welcome.

Now, for those who are 'extra' interested in the story, as said, I have a complete overview of the coming chapters (46 total, this one included). Perhaps I've spread it out too much but this was to avoid mayor time skips, and it'll be fun to work on such a large project. But, if someone wants to help, maybe chat about the plot, give ideas and stuff. Then please don't be affraid to contact me! It's always amazing to find new friends, readers and writers on this site.

I wanna try to update this every two weeks, but since I aim to get the chapters 6000-8000 words long that might be difficult. But maybe if the Story catches more steam I'll get that intoxicating drive to write back :D

With that said, I hope everyone enjoys this and has a great day!

- R4y