Prologue

It was the night before the winner of dragon training was decided, and Hiccup was just returning home from the forest. As he neared the front door of his house he heard voices from inside. Curious he pressed his ear to the door to hear the conversation better.

"Stoick your boy is finally becoming a Viking." A female voice was heard saying.

"Aye, we all thought he would be the disappointment of the village." This time a man's voice was heard.

"But Stoick you got to look at this realistically. The boy may finally become a Viking, but he's not chief material." Hiccup recognized the voice now speaking as his uncle Spitelout. "No Viking would follow a runt. Isn't it time you announced Snotlout as heir like you'd been planning to do?"

"Yes brother. I'll announce it tomorrow in the great hall. Yer right. The lad's no chief material. His head is too far up in the clouds." Tears began to well up in his eyes as Hiccup heard his father's answer.

For the first time in a long while Hiccup was truly angry. He slammed the door open. It hit the wall with a loud bang, startling the occupants sitting around the fire.

"H..Hiccup" Stoick says, and begins to stand.

Hiccup holds up his hand, and says in a cold tone "Don't bother." with a fierce glare aimed at the room's occupants Hiccup climbed the stairs to his room. As he was about to enter his bedroom he turns back to the people gathered who had all fallen silent, and says in an emotionless voice "Don't mind me. You can all go back to talking about me behind my back." Hiccup then loudly slams his bedroom door close.

The atmosphere became pretty awkward for the Vikings, and they began to leave one by one. As the last one left Stoick sadly looked up at the closed door, promising himself that he'd apologize tomorrow. Tonight he would let his son cool down.

Unbeknownst to Stoick, Hiccup began packing his belongings. He was angry that his own father didn't think much about him, even now when he was doing well in dragon training. As Hiccup slipped through his bedroom window he didn't notice Astrid returning to her house. Astrid saw Hiccup with a bag heading for the forest, and decided to follow him.

Hiccup dashed through the familiar woods. Astrid had difficulty following Hiccup through the dark, and was very surprised at how fast he was going.

Astrid crept inside the now dark cove. She heard Hiccup's voice as she descended along the large stones. As she got nearer to the sound of Hiccup's voice she noticed a black shape approaching. Realizing that the shape was a black dragon Astrid readied her axe, and shouted "Hiccup look out! Get out of here!"

Startled by the sudden shout Hiccup whipped his head around giving a startled cry "As..Astrid, w...what are you doing here."

"Get down! There is a dragon!" Astrid shouts, and runs toward Hiccup hoping to get him out of the way, but she is knocked back when the dragon fires a blast at the ground, which sends her crashing against a boulder knocking her out.