A/N: This is my first fanfic, I hope you like it. The first chapter is kinda short but it does it job... I hope.

I had some hard time finding the right words as english isn't my native language and my vocabulary is somewhat limited, but I hope it isn't too visible.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own HTTYD, quite unfortunately.

Chapter 1: Blizzard

There's probably more snow than air in the sky, thought Hiccup, as he could only see few meters ahead of him. His face and hair was wet from melting snow (and dragon blood, but it's a long story) and was now freezing in the wind, and he generally was feeling pretty cold and not very comfortable.

"Come on buddy, we have to get there faster than this," he cried.

He couldn't really hear the growl Toothless gave to him as an answer; the wind was blowing so strong. In fact, he hardly even heard his own words. The Night Fury was struggling only to stay in the air, and moving forward, with decent speed, was even harder.

The ride on the dragon's back was rough and bumpy, nothing like Hiccup has used to in his flights with Toothless before. But to be honest, they had never been in air during a storm, and definitely not during a snowstorm. It was scary to see, or even worse, feel how the wind was throwing the dragon from side to side and the sudden drops of altitude was probably the worst. Especially while being aware that treetops were not-so-far below, they just couldn't be seen from all the snow.

How can everything go so wrong so quick, Hiccup wondered, and just because I wanted to… I don't know… maintain my status or something… I should have known better.

Few days earlier:

The great hall of Berk was full of Vikings. Winter was almost there, and Stoick the Vast was giving out orders regarding the final preparations for winter.

Hiccup was sitting in a corner, not really listening to what his dad was saying. No, all he could think at the moment was dragons. After he and Toothless had killed the Red Death, things had certainly gone for better. Now, most of the villagers tried to train their own dragon, and Hiccup
was trying to teach them.

Highly emphasizing the word trying. It would've been easier to teach rocks to walk than get those stubborn, prejudiced Vikings to trust their dragons. Trust was the most important thing in training a dragon, and without trust the results were just weak. Sure Hiccup understood that it was not easy for them to try and trust creatures that they had killed – and which had killed them - for their entire life.

There was no such a trouble with the younger Vikings like Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs or the twins, and they had already formed pretty strong bonds with their dragons. What came to the adults, well, few of them was in the stage of learning to fly with their dragons, but most of them was still in the very beginnings of the process. And every single one had the problem of trying to control their dragons far too strictly, which led into different sized conflicts between the dragon and its rider, accidents and just generally saying: failures.

The Vikings really didn't like failing and had became frustrated, and Hiccup had already lost some of the respect he had gained as a "Dragon Master" after killing the Red Death.

Time was running out: some of the villagers had totally lost their patience and wanted to evict the dragons, thinking they were just a nuisance that took lots of food and gave nothing in return. If he couldn't make up something to show the dragons really were useful when treated right, he might end up in his previous status in the village: a failure.

"One final thing", said Stoick loudly, waking Hiccup from his thoughts. "Our Gloomweed supplies are running low. To avoid unnecessary deaths, a ship has to be sent towards the Deathwhisper Island tomorrow, to fill our supplies of that herb. Any volunteers for the trip?"

Hiccup looked around, and wasn't surprised at all by the fact that nobody volunteered. Usually only about half of the men who went to the island returned. And now there was also the risk of snowstorms.

There it was. This was what he had been waiting for; an answer to his problem. He slowly raised his hand and saw his dad's eyes go round in amazement.

"I- I have a suggestion", Hiccup said.

Present time:

I'll fix everything, I have to.

Only thing preventing him from doing that was this damn blizzard. They had been in the air only about ten minutes, and that was ten minutes too long. Hiccup knew there was no playing with snowstorms. Even Toothless' black, scaly hide felt cold. Or would have felt, if he'd still had some feel in his fingers.

No matter how hard he wanted to correct his mistake, freezing to death wasn't going to help his friends.

"Alright buddy, we'll have to land, or I'll turn into icicle."

Toothless slightly nodded his head and started to descend. It was then when Hiccup noticed that the dragon's artificial tailfin didn't respond to his pedal's movements. It had probably frozen still.

Great. Crash-landing into snowy mountain is something I have always wanted to do.

Toothless screamed when he noticed he didn't have control over the flight anymore. Hiccup quickly pressed himself against Toothless to avoid getting hurt. Seconds later they hit the ground.

It wasn't as rough as Hiccup had expected, thanks to the thick layer of snow.

"Are you alright?" he asked his dragon.

The Night Fury shook snow off its head and then grinned.

Hiccup smiled back. "Good. Now, where are we?" He looked around. The visibility was better now when they weren't moving. Still not great though. "Let's see… no trees, we have to be near the top. Maybe we should – whoa!"

Without the safety harness Hiccup would've certainly fallen from the dragons back when it suddenly took a giant leap and began to run.

"Wha- what is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked after regaining balance. At the same moment he noticed what his dragon had seen. Not so far ahead in the icy cliffside was clearly an entrance to a cave. Better yet, there was some round shields standing at the both sides of the entrance.

Toothless stopped in front of the cave entrance. The dragon was clearly proud of his achievement. He looked at Hiccup, waiting for compliments.

Hiccup patted the dragon's head. "Wow, you really are amazing; did you know that, bud?"

Judging by his expression, Toothless apparently knew it.

"Okay, we should go in as we really don't have time to waste. Besides…" Hiccup sneezed, "I'm really catching cold if I sit here any longer."

I swear we will get back in time… we won't let you down.

OK here it was. Wanna read more? There's the review button just below; click it and tell your opinion :)