Chapter One

A/N: I know this type of plot has been done to death already but, hey, I like reading them so I figured I'd try my hand at writing one. REVIEW and let me know what you think! Also, I know this chapter is really long...don't get used to it. XD

"This is Berk. An Island that sits in the middle of nowhere and is surrounded by potential danger. Everyone who lives here has a few near-death experiences under their belt. I'm no exception. In fact, I probably hold the all-time record..."

"Woohoo!" Hiccup cheers excitedly, pumping his fists into the air as he and Toothless zip through the sky at heart-pounding speed. To an onlooker, the pair would have been nothing but a dark blur against the early morning horizon. Nearly impossible to track with the human eye. The young viking grabs ahold of his dragon's saddle once again as a range of mountains comes into view. "Come on, bud! Let's see what you've got today!"

The Night Fury drones, eagerly as they soar closer and closer to the rock wall in front of them. Hiccup tenses, his eyes scanning it for a break in the stone. Somewhere to fly through. Surely enough, there's a narrow spot a few feet below them. It's just wide enough for Toothless to fit.

"Okay, steady bud." Hiccup says as he removes his leg from the controls that operate Toothless's tail fin. The dragon whimpers slightly as he begins to loose altitude at an alarming rate. Hiccup pats his friend's head. "You've got this, Toothless. Aim for the break right there."

Toothless straightens himself out as best as he can, diving straight toward the mountain. A determined glint flares to life within his emerald colored eyes.

"Good," The dragon's Rider unhooks his other foot and stands up in the saddle, balancing on Toothless's back. "Hang in there bud, just another second..." They both tense as the wall closes in on them. "And...GO!"

Hearing his Rider's signal, Toothless arcs his back, sending Hiccup flying into the air. Hiccup angles his body so that he lands on the top of the thin mountain and keeps running. His heart is pounding as he leaps once more, his body sailing downward through open air. He squeezes his eyes shut. A moment later-

Slam!

His body jolts as he lands back in the saddle, his prosthetic foot instantly snapping back into the controls and reopening the tail fin. Toothless opens his wings to their full span and turns in the direction which Hiccup drives him.

Hiccup smiles. "Yeah!" This part has gone well. Now, if they can just stick the landing... He leans forward, white-knuckling the saddle as they shoot toward the next ridge. Toothless's wings hiss through the air, trying to slow them down.

"Ready, bud?"

Toothless growls, determined.

"Okay..." He leans forward so that his chin is resting on Toothless's head. "Tuck and roll!" The dragon obeys, wrapping his jet black wings around his body and diving toward the mountain. Hiccup's eyes narrow, his body bracing itself. "And...now, bud!"

Toothless snaps his wings open again, giving them one last bolt of friction before connecting with the ground. The Night Fury's massive body skids across the peak of the mountain, leaving trails of dust behind him as he comes to a stop. A few bits of stone trickle down from the edge of the mountain as Toothless's foot claws into it to stop them fully.

Hiccup hesitates, waiting to see if they will slide over the edge like always. Toothless doesn't move either, the entire front half of his body is hanging over the edge. "Okay, Toothless...carefully now..."

With that, the dragon backs up a little. Hiccup leans back, trying to give him some leverage. More stone crumbles away as Toothless slips a little. "Come on, we got this..." A second later, Toothless jumps back. They don't fall. "HA!" Hiccup jumps off the saddle. "We did it, bud! Finally!"

Toothless coos and licks Hiccup's face, leaving a trail of slobber. "Uhh...thanks, Toothless." He grumbles, wiping the dragon saliva from his eyes. "Now, what do you say? Up for some breakfast?" He asks, patting the Night Fury's head. Toothless purrs in consent as Hiccup climbs back on.

The sun is already fully risen above the horizon by the time Hiccup and Toothless arrive at the Great Hall. Toothless lands on the roof, crawling down to the ground from there.

"Morning, Hiccup!" Gobber calls from where he's seated just outside the large doors.

Hiccup smiles as he climbs down from his seat. "Morning, Gobber."

"You and Toothless have a nice morning flight?" Asks the older viking.

"Sure did. We finally managed to perfect that stunt we've been working on." The young Rider turns to scratch his dragon's neck the way he likes. "I say that's a call for celebration, huh bud?"

Toothless purrs, contently as he follows Hiccup into the Great Hall.

"See you later, Gobber."

"See you, lad."

Inside the Great Hall, a dozen or so vikings are seated around the long wooden tables, eating their breakfast. At the foot of one of the tables, a Terrible Terror is snoozing, peacefully. A little girl is cuddled up against it, nodding off while she waits for her parents to finish up. Hiccup can't help but smile. I can't believe just a few months ago we were killing dragons... He shakes his head and laughs a little when Toothless nudges his shoulder, as if to hurry him.

"Yeah yeah, you're hungry. I got it." The two of them cross the room to where a huge number of barrels have been stacked against the wall. Hiccup grabs the closest one and shimmies it down from the top of the stack, lugging it over his shoulder.

"Morning, Hiccup."

He turns to find Astrid standing behind him and Stormfly not too far away. "Oh," He smiles, sheepishly. "Morning Astrid."

The blonde girl motions to the barrel that he's barely supporting. "You okay there, small fry?" There's that mischievous grin on her face...

"Wha-of course!" He shifts its weight and puffs out his chest. "This amount of...raw viking can handle anything!"

She smirks, her eyes glinting. "Everything except-"

"AH!" Hiccup cries out in shock as the barrel is suddenly pushed out of his grip and shatters on the floor. He spins around to find the perpetrator. "Ah...TOOTHLESS!" The dragon looks at him with big, guilty eyes.

Behind him, Astrid giggles and shakes her head. "Everything except a hungry Night Fury."

"Well, Astrid," He says, trying to recover from his outburst. "He is the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself'."

She nods back to Toothless. "Oh yeah, he looks real deadly right now..."

"Huh?"

Toothless purrs, happily as he gulps down another fish. Using his little front leg, he pushes the broken bits of wood away and swallows another one.

"Oh, Toothless..." Hiccup mumbles, shaking his head slowly.

It's only then that Astrid notices that her friend is wearing his riding gear. "Were you two out flying already? It's still so early..."

Hiccup looks back to her and shrugs. "Well you know how Toothless can be. Sometimes I wonder why they're called Night Furies. More like four-o'clock-in-the-morning-furies..." As he says this, he cuts an accusing look to his dragon, who is still pawing at the broken barrel.

Astrid chuckles. "Well the Book of Dragons belongs to you now...you have every right to change the name."

Hiccup grins. "Yeah, maybe I'll do that..."

Hearing that, Toothless's head snaps up as if to say, 'you're kidding right'? The two teenagers look at each other and laugh about the dragon's expressive face. Just then, Stormfly-Astrid's Nadderhead-squawks in frustration.

"Okay, girl." Astrid says, patting the bird-like dragon's head. "Let's go get you something to eat." She turns back to Hiccup and says, "See you later for training."

"See you." Hiccup says, still smiling. He watches as Astrid and Stormfly walk away, probably to where the vikings store their chicken since that's Stormfly's favorite. He feels Toothless nudge him with his nose. Turning around to face him, the Night Fury wiggles, excitedly. He coos and jumps to his feet, looking toward the window. "Sorry, bud. We can't go flying right now."

Toothless whimpers and looks at the window again.

"C'mon, Toothless don't look at me like that... Besides, I want to head over to the Forge and see if I can upgrade that tail fin of yours. I think if I can make the connecting rod a little more flexible, we might be able to take sharper turns more easily."

Toothless tilts his head and looks back at the red fin attached to his tail. He lifts his tail, inspecting the little metal rod that connects Hiccup's foot pedals to the fin.

"Come on, bud. If we hurry, we might be able to make a quick lap around the Island before training..."

The blacksmith forge is already unbearably hot by the time Hiccup and Toothless arrive. The many stoves are flaming, sheets of metal glowing red-hot on top of them or sizzling within basins of water. Gobber isn't home. He must still be at the Great Hall. Hiccup sighs as he ties an apron around his neck and waist.

"How many times have I told him to put the fires out before he leaves? One of these days, this whole place is going to burn down..." Hiccup grumbles as he moves about the shop, just like old times. Not that he ever really left, his inventive nature keeps bringing him back. Of course, ever since meeting Toothless, his passion has switched gears from inventing weapons to kill dragons, to gear to help him ride them.

Toothless watches with mild curiosity as his Rider zips around the shop, taking pieces of unmelted metal from one place, tools from another and scraps of paper from another... Eventually, the dragon yawns and lays down on the floor, hoping to get a nap before another flight session.

Hiccup turns around and smiles, finding his friend already asleep. Heh, those stunts must've worn him out this morning... He shakes his head with a chuckle as he slides a rod of iron into the fire so it can heat up. Once it's glowing, he removes it and sets it on a table, flattening it out with a hammer and dunking it into the water so it cools. Repeating this process a few more times, he turns it over with the pliers and nods. "Looks like this'll work." He sets the new connecting rod onto the table and goes to wake Toothless so they can try it out.

Hiccup's hand is only an inch from the dragon's head when he snaps awake. Toothless's pupils are narrow and he jumps to his feet, growling at the door. "What's wrong, bud?" Hiccup asks him, startled. The young Rider runs to the door and yanks it open, crying out in shock as a blast of fire suddenly roars across the ground outside.

Someone outside shouts, "Dragon attack!" And a horn is blown. Suddenly, the streets are filled with vikings holding nets and flying on dragons on their own. The wild Monstrous Nightmare hisses, furiously as it sends another bolt of fire toward the villagers.

"Shoot!" Hiccup stumbles back inside and runs to Toothless. Kneeling down, he quickly rips out the old connecting rod and jams the new one in. "Let's go, bud! We've got to help them!" He jumps onto the saddle and clicks himself in.

Toothless roars and sprints out into the streets. Hiccup steps down on the foot pedal, turning to see that the tail fin has opened completely. He nods and pats Toothless's side. "Let's go." The Night Fury growls at the wild dragon before leaping into the air. Hiccup leans forward in the saddle and holds on, tight. "We've got to drive it out of Berk before it kills someone!"

Just then, Hiccup notices the sound of several pairs of wings behind him. He turns and finds Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout and twins have joined the fight, along with their dragons. He smiles, tightly as they approach. "Morning everyone!"

"Out of the way, Hiccup! Why don't you let a real dragon trainer handle this one!" Shouts Snotlout as he and Hookfang tear by, in the direction of the enemy dragon. They square off and shoot a fireball at the other Monstrous Nightmare.

"Hiccup!" Astrid calls. "What's up with Toothless's tail?"

"Huh?" Hiccup spins around, grimacing when he sees the awkward angle at which the tail fin is bent. "Oh great. The connecting rod must not have snapped in right..."

The viking girl flies up next to him and says, "We'll handle this one. Why don't you land and fix that before you end up crashing."

Hiccup nods and does as she suggested. Patting Toothless's side again, he tells him, "Toothless, down."

Astrid watches as her friend lands and hops off his dragon, running back to his tail and begins fiddling with the complicated mechanisms that allow the crippled Night Fury to fly. Satisfied that Hiccup is no more danger, she tells Stormfly to go up and help Snotlout drive the dragon away from the village. Fishlegs and the twins join in as well, guiding their own dragons to opposite sides of the Monstrous Nightmare so it has nowhere to run, other than where they steer it.

"Guide it out toward Dragon Island!" Hiccup calls up to them. "That'll be the best place for it!"

"Got it!" Astrid confirms. "Let's go, guys! You heard him!"

Hiccup looks back to the connecting rod and frowns. He slides it out and turns it over in his hand. "I don't get it...what did I do wrong? I used all the right measurements so why doesn't it fit...? Maybe it's too thin for the casing...?" He mumbles to himself. However, he's torn out of his thoughts by the sound of a terrified scream. He snaps his attention back to the sky just in time to see the Monstrous Nightmare pull a tail spin and smack Astrid out of her saddle. She goes flying.

"Astrid!" He cries out, jumping to his feet. "Guys!" He barks, trying to get someone's attention. But as soon as Fishlegs turns to see what's happening, the Nightmare attacks him too. Meatlug just barely manages to dodge the ball of fire that comes her way.

Astrid grunts in pain as she slams onto the roof of a nearby building and slides down to the edge, gripping the slippery wooden surface for dear life. "Hiccup!" She screams.

And that's enough for Hiccup. Deciding it will just have to do, he jams the connecting rod back in and hops onto Toothless. "Go, bud! Hurry!" In a flash, Toothless is in the air again and soaring toward Astrid.

Just as she loses her grip, Hiccup reaches out and grabs her. Tugging her back toward him, she falls into the saddle right in front of him. "Astrid, are you alright?!" He asks.

"Y-yeah...just peachy." She stammers, trying to settle her thundering heart.

An angry look crosses Hiccup's face as he turns back to the Nightmare who almost killed his friend. "Toothless, down." He growls and the Night Fury obeys.

Astrid steps off as soon as they reach the ground, her brow wrinkling in confusion. "Hiccup, what are you going to do?"

He leans forward and stares the Nightmare down. "I'm gonna drive it away from Berk."

"But the tail fin-" She starts.

"It'll be fine. We're not going far." He says. "Toothless, after that dragon. We can't let it hurt anybody else!"

Toothless growls and takes off.

"Hiccup!" Astrid protests, but to no avail. "You idiot..." She hisses just as Stormfly lands beside her, chirping her concerns. "I'm alright, Stormfly. Now let's get back up there and make sure Hiccup and Toothless are too." A second later, they are flying through the air after the others, a determined glint in their eyes.

A/N: So? How did you guys like the first chapter? Let me know, I love reviews!