AN: Hello, everyone! For anyone who follows me, this story probably came out of nowhere, seeing as I was solely a Pokemon author prior to this, but I needed some inspiration and decided to branch out a bit! I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Make sure to leave a review after you finish and let me know what you think! Reviews are easily my biggest form of inspiration, and constructive criticism always helps me to improve as a writer.

Blessing in Disguise: Chapter 1

Hiccup was having an awful day. It had started like any other day, climbing out of bed and rushing over to the forge to help Gobber with repairing the village's weaponry, being sure to keep his head low to avoid the accusatory glares of the townsfolk along the way. Luckily, he managed to make it there without much incident, and set to work.

He had just finished building his latest contraption - a bola launcher - that he was hoping to use to shoot down a dragon, and was eager to test it out. Around his home island of Berk, killing a dragon meant everything. It was a way of life, and the stronger the dragon you killed, the higher your placement in society would be.

The rest of the day went by pretty much uneventfully, and for that he was thankful. It was the moment the sun sunk below the horizon that Hiccup's luck took a nosedive. Around an hour after he went to bed, he was startled awake by the sound of a horn in the distance. There was a raid on the way.

Leaping out of bed, Hiccup bolted down the steps, barely remembering to put on his boots before rushing out the door. Now was his chance! If he could make it to the forge before the dragons arrived, he should be able to get his bola launcher set up on the western cliffs with a clear shot at one of the watchtowers. He was aiming to take down a Night Fury, the most elusive and dangerous species of dragon to ever roam the archipelago. No one had ever managed to even see a Night Fury and live to tell the tale, so if he could kill one, he could easily turn his life around, going from Hiccup the "Useless" to Hiccup the "Hero" in just one night.

He had barely managed to get down the steps in front of his home when he realized something was wrong. The village was already burning; the dragons were already on top of them. Silently cursing his luck, Hiccup decided to make a break for the forge anyways. Winter was nearing, and it was possible that this could be his last chance to down the beast before spring. The dragons stopped raiding during the winter. No one was sure as to why, but no one was going to complain. They had enough trouble trying not to starve or freeze to death during those treacherous months as it was.

Hiccup broke out into a sprint in the direction of the forge, but before he could even get to the end of his street, a house to his left literally exploded, the gas of a Zippleback blowing the home to smithereens. Unfortunately for Hiccup, the burning rubble of the home completely blocked off his path to the rest of the village. Hiccup noticed the massive form of an approaching Monstrous Nightmare, and decided not to test his luck.

He made an attempt to get back to the safety of his house, however 'safe' hiding in a wooden shack from fire breathing dragons could be, but was again stopped dead in his tracks as the Nightmare launched a stream of fire at him, missing by mere inches and setting his home ablaze. Panicking, Hiccup looked around for somewhere to hide from the approaching beast, but was terrified to realize that every house around him was completely up in flames. With no other options, Hiccup made a break for the treeline behind his house.

Scared out of his mind, Hiccup kept running even after he reached the safety of the woods, and didn't stop until the sounds of the raid faded from his ears. After catching his breath, Hiccup looked around in an attempt to figure out where he was, with no luck. Cursing his luck once more, he decided to wait a few minutes before returning to the village. Hopefully the dragons will have moved on to another part of the village by then.

Suddenly, Hiccup spun around as a branch snapped directly behind him. He couldn't see anyone, but was not convinced. "Who's there?! I know someone is out there!"

There was a few seconds of tense silence, before the sound of laughter filled his ears. It wasn't a happy laugh, though. The sound sent a shiver up his spine, and he quickly reached for his dagger, hoping to drive away whatever crazy hermit he had stumbled upon.

As soon as his hand reached his weapon, a chilling voice reached his ears. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, boy."

"Who are you?! Show yourself!" Hiccup yelled, trying (and failing) to put on a brave face.

"My, my, such rude behavior. Is that how you greet all your elders?" With that, an old lady stepped out from behind a tree. She was dressed in a dark purple cape which had several gemstones sewn into the fabric. Her face sent a chill down Hiccup's spine. Over half of her teeth were missing, with the remaining few yellow and rotted. There were scars running down her heavily wrinkled face. That wasn't what spooked Hiccup, however. That kind of stuff was common in his village. What unnerved Hiccup was the glass eye that took the place of where her left eye should have been. Embedded in the glass was a slightly glowing amethyst. The overall image of the woman made Hiccup want to flee, but he held his ground.

"Well excuse me if I'm cautious of some creepy old lady that I've never met in the middle of the woods in the dead of night," Hiccup snarked, before quickly realizing that now was probably not the best time for his sarcastic side to show as a sinister grin crossed the woman's face.

"Oh, a sarcastic one, I see! You'll do just nicely for my next experiment!" She said wickedly.

"E-experiment?" Hiccup repeated shakily. He looked around for a possible escape route. He was not liking the way this was turning out.

Noticing the boy's fear, the woman pulled a staff from under her cloak and pointed it at Hiccup. There was a slight hum in the air before a blast of energy shot from the tip of the staff and hit Hiccup in the chest.

"Y-you're a..!" Hiccup stammered, realizing the direness of his situation, and attempted to flee. Unfortunately, he quickly found that he couldn't move his limbs; he was frozen in place.

"A witch, yes," the woman said with a dark smirk. "And now that you know, I can't exactly let you go back and tell your village, now can I? I guess that makes you a perfect candidate for the new spell I've been meaning to test out."

"W-what are you going to do to me?!" Hiccup asked fearfully, to which the witch simply grinned.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," she said with a cackle. Her staff began to glow an eerie shade of purple as she once again pointed it at the boy.

Hiccup could do nothing but scream as the staff unleashed its built up energy directly into him. The worst pain Hiccup had ever felt shot through every nerve in his body, but thankfully for him, he fell unconscious after only a few agonizing seconds.

The witch released him of her holding spell as soon as he fainted, and his body collapsed to the ground in a heap. At a distance, it would appear to any passersby that he was dead, but the spasms that began to shake his body told a different story. The witch stayed long enough to see the beginning of her spell's effects take root, before looking up to the sky with a grin. "It appears I have a guest."

The raid had been a complete success for the dragons. Only a few had been killed and they were returning to the nest with an above average haul. Everything had gone according to plan, with the Night Fury easily destroying the small amount of defenses Berk had been able to rebuild since the last raid, and leaving the sheep to be easy picking for the flock. It seemed that tonight would mark the first raid in over three months that resulted in no one being eaten by the Queen.

The Night Fury decided to do a quick flyover of the forest before catching up with his nestmates to help ease his adrenaline from the raid. He performed a quick lap of the island and was about to call it a night when a scream from the forest below him caught his attention. A human hatchling, in the middle of the woods? That was odd. Vikings tended to avoid the woods unless they were cutting down trees to build their houses, and he had never heard of a human hatchling wandering into the forest, especially in the middle of the night.

Being a curious dragon, the Night Fury swooped down into the treeline to investigate. He intended to remain hidden and simply observe, but was startled from his hiding place as a green blast shot just over his shoulder, causing him to leap to the forest floor as the tree he was perched on burst into flames.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" The sleek black dragon spun to his left to see the form of an elderly human woman staring at him with an unnerving glint in her eye and a smirk on her lips. He snarled fiercely, realizing the blast that had almost ripped a hole in his shoulder had come from her.

"Witch!" he snarled. Witches were rare, and extremely dangerous. He would have to be cautious.

The witch cackled at him. "I'm surprised a devil like you has the brains to know what I am! It's too bad you'll be dead by the time I'm through with you."

The Night Fury was momentarily startled over the fact that she had understood his speech, but refused to lower his guard.

"Good luck with that," he growled, before leaping at the old woman with a vicious snarl.

With unnatural speed for a woman her age, the witch dodged to the side before firing a stream of fire at the dragon's side. The Night Fury winced slightly at the blow, but was otherwise unharmed. It was one of the perks of having fireproof scales.

The witch seemed startled that her attack had been so easily shrugged off, making it clear that she had never fought a Night Fury before, and the dragon decided to wrap this up before the witch got any other ideas. He quickly leapt forwards, knocking the staff away from the witch, and pinning her to a tree. He inhaled, forming the largest past blast he had made in months. He refused to take any chances with an opponent with such unnatural abilities.

The fireball reached max capacity, and with one final snarl, he fired the shot point blank into the witch's chest.

There wasn't time for the witch to scream, but even if she could, it would have gone unheard over the explosion created by the plasma bolt.

With an ominous creak, the massive tree that the Night Fury had blasted fell to the forest floor. The dragon was surprised to not be covered in the witch's blood until he noticed the pile of ashes at the base of the tree with a cracked glass eye sitting directly on top; the only sign that the ashes came from something other than than a burning shrub. Deciding to not take any chances, the Night Fury lifted a paw and crushed the glass under his foot.

The dragon gave one last look to what remained if the witch, before giving a dismissive snort and turning away. As he prepared to rejoin his flock, he realized that he hadn't seen the human hatchling that he had come to find.

A worrying thought crossed his mind. 'That witch must have found it.'

Deciding that he wanted to make sure the hatchling was ok, he began to make his way back to where he had heard the scream. As he neared the location, however, a startled yelp caught his attention. It was followed shortly after by a loud splash.

"A dragon hatchling now?! What in the world is a hatchling doing so close to a viking settlement?!" Shoving the thought aside for the time being, the Night Fury took off in the direction the sound had come from.

Hiccup groaned as he slowly began to stir. Cracking an eyelid open, he realized he was still in the forest. 'What a weird dream. I must have fainted after running out of the village last night.'

He attempted to get to his feet, but quickly realized something was wrong, very wrong. His body felt weak, and when he tried to stand, his legs didn't respond the way they should have. It almost felt like they were... shorter.

Eyes widening, Hiccup quickly looked down at his hands, only to be greeted with a sight out of any viking's worst nightmare. What he saw most definitely were not hands. Each limb was covered in tiny black scales, and several sharp claws extended from the end of each one. Paws. He had paws. Feeling lightheaded, Hiccup slowly began to notice other unfamiliar things. It slowly dawned on him that everything was much bigger than he remembered, with each tree seemingly stretching all the way into the sky. Hiccup nearly panicked when he realized that he had limbs that he didn't have before. He could feel two large limbs stretching from his back, and a third stretching out behind him from the base of his spine.

'Oh gods.' Hiccup spun around to examine himself, and his heart fell when his greatest fears were confirmed. Resting upon his back were a pair of wings, and stretching out behind him was a tail, with what appeared to be a secondary set of smaller wings near its tip.

It took all of Hiccup's willpower to avoid fainting on the spot. Dragon. He was a dragon. It hadn't been a dream, then. That witch had indeed cursed him, and seemingly left him to die in the body of his tribe's worst enemy. Taking several deep breaths to calm himself, Hiccup shakily examined himself more closely. He knew he was a dragon. That much was obvious, but he slowly realized that he had no idea what breed of dragon he was. He had never seen such a dragon during the raids. His new scales were pitch black, and his body had a sleek feel to it that almost looked as if it could vanish into the night sky without a trace. A sudden thought struck him, and it wasn't a pleasant one. 'Am I a N-Night Fury?'

Hiccup's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a massive explosion. His eyes widened in fear. 'That was close by! I need to get out of here before whatever caused that finds me!'

Struggling to his feet, and finally managing it after three attempts, Hiccup stumbled his way through the woods in an attempt to get as much distance between him and the explosion as possible. Suddenly, the ground fell out from under him, and he realized too late that he had just stepped off of a cliff. He tried to regain his balance, but his clumsiness in his new body caused him to fall forwards and over the edge.

Panicking, Hiccup squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the end. After a few moments, he realized he wasn't dead, and cracked open his eyes. They instantly widened in shock.

When he fell, Hiccup had instinctively spread out his wings to slow his fall without even noticing, and was currently gliding over a massive natural cove. Realizing what was happening startled him out of his instinctive glide, and he plummeted out of the sky with a startled yelp.

Luckily, his accidental glide had positioned him over a pond off to one side of the cove, and he fell into it with a massive splash. Hiccup began flailing his limbs, realizing he had no idea how to swim in this body, and he was quickly running out of oxygen. 'Well, at least I won't be stuck in this form for long' he thought solemnly as he began to feel his consciousness fade.

Suddenly, he felt something grab him by the scruff of his neck, and he was pulled out of the water in one mighty tug. As he was placed on the sandy shoreline of the pond, Hiccup gasped for air to fill his burning lungs. After a moment, he felt something large prodding at his side, and he quickly turned to face it, only for his eyes to widen in shock and fear.

Stood in front of him, rapidly sniffing him over, was a larger version of himself. That meant this was a dragon, and if his suspicions as to what species he had become were accurate, then miraculously being saved from drowning was the least of his worries at the moment. The large black dragon seemingly finished it's examination after several endless seconds, before taking a step back and speaking.

"Are you alright? You fell into the lake. I barely managed to fish you out in time." The dragon said with a masculine voice, clearly worried.

"Y-you spoke!" Hiccup exclaimed, only to shoot a paw up to his mouth in shock at what had left his mouth. That was definitely not Norse, nor his voice. What left his mouth was a series of grunts and growls, but for some reason he was able to make words out of the sounds perfectly, as if it were the language he had been raised on.

The dragon looked taken aback by Hiccup's comment. "Of course I spoke! Are you sure you're ok?"

Feeling completely overwhelmed, Hiccup blurted. "No, I'm not ok! I've been treated like dirt for my entire life by my village for things that are out of my control, I almost got killed by dragons two times last night, and now some crazy witch put a curse on me that turned me into a dragon! I can't go back home like this! They'll kill me! Oh gods, my own father will kill me, and he won't even know!"

Not even caring that he had just admitted to a wild dragon - a Night Fury - that he was human, Hiccup collapsed onto his belly and sobbed for all he had lost.

Shocked by the outburst, the older Night Fury slowly worked his way through what the hatchling had said. After a moment, his eyes widened in shock as he realized what he had just been told. If what the hatchling said was true, then this young Night Fury was actually the human hatchling that he had come to investigate. Guilt washed over him as he realized the implications of what had happened minutes prior. He had killed the witch that had cursed the hatchling, and now there was likely no way for him to be changed back, if such a spell even existed in the first place.

Slowly, the larger dragon wrapped his wings around the depressed hatchling in a comforting manner. After a moment, the smaller dragon began to calm down slightly. "What is your name?" He asked slowly, hoping to avoid scaring the poor hatchling.

Hiccup looked into the dragon's eyes with surprise and a slight amount of hope. "Y-you aren't going to kill me?"

"What?! Of course not!" The dragon replied in shock. Why would the hatchling think he would kill him?

There was a brief moment of silence, before he got his answer. "Hiccup."

"What?"

"My name," Hiccup clarified. "What's yours?"

The Night Fury thought about it for a second. He didn't actually have a name. Being the only Night Fury in the nest, everyone he knew simply referred to him by his species name. After a moment of consideration, he responded. "I… I don't actually have one, but you can call me Toothless."

"Why Toothless? That's a silly name! Your far too cool of a dragon for such an underwhelming name!" Hiccup asked, confused by the choice.

Toothless grinned slightly. "Well, 'Hiccup' isn't exactly a great name for a cool dragon such as yourself, either. Plus, you need something to help cheer you up."

Hiccup looked up at him in confusion. "I'm not cool. For the gods' sake, you're like five times my size! Even as a dragon I'm a runt!"

"Actually, I don't think you're a runt. There might be a reason for your size. How old are you mentally?" Toothless asked with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Hiccup frowned. "I'm 15, why? Is that a problem?"

Toothless looked surprised for a moment, before regaining his composure. "Um, yes, actually. You see, I'm 15 as well."

Hiccup's eyes widened in shock. "You mean I..?"

Toothless nodded. "The body you are in is definitely not 15. Judging by the color of your scales and general size, I'd have to estimate that you are physically around 6 months old. Practically still a newborn as far as dragons go."

"B-but that doesn't make any sense! Why would transforming me make me younger?!" Hiccup sputtered.

"I have no idea," Toothless said with the draconic equivalent of a shrug. "But if I had to guess, I'd have to say that it was due to a miscalculation with the spell. It's too bad we'll never be able to find out for sure."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Hiccup asked, becoming slightly worried as Toothless turned his head away with a guilty expression.

"I-I'm not sure how to say this," Toothless began, before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. "After the raid, I decided to do a lap of the island to calm my adrenaline, and I heard the scream of a human hatchling. I now know that that was you. Anyways, I was curious as to what a hatchling was doing in the woods, so I went to investigate. When I approached, I was attacked by the witch that transformed you. I… I had to defend myself. I fought her and ended up killing her. After that I heard you fall into the cove and grabbed you out of the water. You know the rest."

Hiccup looked slightly dizzy from the rush of information. "The witch is… dead?" He asked in a slow voice after a few moments of silence.

Toothless nodded guiltily. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize what she had done at the time. Now I don't know if it's even possible to change you back, even though the witch wasn't likely to listen regardless. Now you're stuck in the body you don't even understand and it's all my fault."

Hiccup sighed sadly, realizing that Toothless was probably right. Without the witch, there was no one who could possibly know how to undo the spell she had cursed him with, meaning he was stuck like this. There was one thing he didn't agree with, however. "It's not your fault."

"What?" Toothless asked, surprised.

Hiccup gave the dragon a sad smile. "Like you said, you didn't know. You couldn't have been expected to just let her kill you, after all." He glanced down at his new body, experimentally stretching his wings. "Besides, there are worse things that I could have been stuck as. I could have been turned into a sheep to be butchered, for goodness sake! To be honest, I'm glad the witch is dead. If she's dead, it means she can't hurt anyone else ever again, and knowing that will help me sleep at night."

Toothless was stunned. Hiccup had every reason to hate his guts, and yet he was forgiving him and practically thanking him for killing the his only chance at returning to his human form. "You are a very selfless person, Hiccup. I admire that. But even though I know what you say is true, I can't help but feel guilty about it." He paused for a moment. "I think I know how I can make it up to you to the best of my abilities."

Hiccup frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

Toothless gave a toothy grin, as if to contradict his odd name. "Well, you said it yourself. You can't return to your village as a dragon, so I guess that just means that I'll have to take care of you!"

Hiccup felt tears coming to his eyes. No one had ever cared for him before. Not even his own father could be bothered to spend time with him. "Y-you'd do that? For me?"

Toothless gave him a comforting lick on the top of his snout. "Of course. If I'm the reason you're stuck with the body of a Night Fury, then the least I can do is teach you how to use it."

AN: So, what do you think? This is my first real attempt at writing a story outside of the Pokemon fandom, and I personally really like the way it turned out! My other story, The Reborn Chronicles, is being placed on hiatus for the time being. I do not intend on abandoning it, but I'm currently feeling rather uninspired for Pokemon fanfiction, so I branched out a bit to help get my writing spark back. Considering this is one of the longest chapters I've ever written, I'd say I'm quite invested in this idea! Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you all leave a quick review to give me your feedback! I'm still rather new to the HTTYD franchise, so don't be afraid to point any mistakes out to me. I'm sure there are several.

See you all next time!