Rights: DreamWorks and such. Not me. Nope.

Author Notes: Well, I never imagined I'd actually go back to fanfic. The work I put into my previous series many years ago told me to try writing original fiction, which I have and continue to.

So why this? Well, I really liked HTTYD. And when I really like something, my brain overloads. I have to get rid of the story so I can move on. I have learned from my past, though. I'm posting the prologue and the first two chapters – the second chapter ends at a spot I can be happy ending on if this story isn't going to fly with other people, but it's by no means the ending. God, no. If folks want more, I'll give you more (but you got to let me know). Otherwise, I'll have dumped my brain enough to move on.

A few other tidbits/warnings:

There are original characters in this story. The story will focus on them as well. But it is ultimately about Hiccup and Toothless and Astrid and the rest. Not every character's going to get equal story time, though. Sorry, plot comes first.

We're in sequel mode here. I'm following the movie (and that little twenty-minute Boneknapper special as well), but this will be AU once the actual sequel comes out.

Length: well, two chapters… or many. I do have an end game planned out, but I can't say how long this will be. I've learned how to be more efficient since my last bout of fanfic, but I still can't guess at length.

That's it. Hope you enjoy.

Update (5/13/11): After getting a few rather positive reviews, I've decided to go ahead and do the whole thing. I'll probably average a new chapter every other week or so. Thanks for all the feedback.

Prologue

This is… um… No, I'm not going to do it.

You know the location by now. If I have to point it out, then you haven't been paying attention, and I've got a lot of territory to cover here. So we're skipping over the Berk introduction and moving on.

Almost two years ago, I went from official village nuisance and unofficial Lightning-Rod-of-Derision to something closer to, I don't know, Viking hero celebrity. Something usually reserved for guys who fell seven giants in one blow or who manage to punch Odin in his good eye and live to brag about it.

Well, all right, I did kill a dragon… a really, really, REALLY big dragon. An act that liberated the local dragon community from enslavement and ended a three-century long war.

Usually these kinds of heroic acts cost you an arm and a leg. I got off at half-price.

I'm not complaining, despite the fact that I now have to protect my left foot from rust. You really should see things in the village now. Hairy guys with axes taking up dragon-riding like they were five-year-olds trying to ride sheep. You can't exactly "fix" the classic Viking demeanor, but it has lightened up a bit. Not to mention that I've got more respect than I can deal with, and if that sounds like it might be a problem, it's because it can be at times. Again, trying not to complain.

So, end of story, right? Peace and prosperity for the village, love and respect for me, and nothing but a bright future headed for everyone involved. Right?

Yeah, doesn't ever work that way. Even if we weren't Vikings and weren't attracted to trouble like longboats are attracted to icebergs, something would crop up on its own. Gobber, who is the closest thing in our village to a scientific mind, calls it "chain reaction." Think of a pebble rolling down a hill that hits a bigger pebble that collides with a rock that bounces off a boulder that then proceeds to start an avalanche that levels a mountain which flattens everything below it and changes the landscape forever.

I'm not sure where I fit into that analogy, but I'm in there somewhere.

The end of the Dragon War was my avalanche. There's a new landscape now and people are beginning to react to it. Most people around me are thrilled. "What a great view we have now," they tell me. "We don't miss the mountain at all." But there are others out there, distant people who used to expect a mountain filling up the horizon. They're finally figuring out something's different, and they're not thrilled.

Then there are the other chain reactions. The world's full of them, or so I've begun to learn. Sometimes avalanches collide with other avalanches and suddenly rocks are flying everywhere and no one's safe anymore. That's where the next part of my life begins: with the avalanche I started colliding full on against someone else's.

It starts with a giant skeletal bull running amok.

I wish I were making that up.