Chapter 1

Hi everyone! Okay for those who have read my first version on Beauty and the Beast with Httyd, this one will be very different, and less close to the fairy tale, but you will still have some vibes. Here, the beast is Hiccup and not Astrid, I hope you'll appreciate it!

Now don't worry, Astrid is not gonna be some damsel in distress or some poor thing, she'll still be strong, I wouldn't do that to a character I love. She'll still be badass, and Hiccup too!

Also, just a note: I usually don't portray Spitelout being a really bad person, but here it was the best option as it suited the story well. Now Spitelout won't be straight evil, but still despicable.

If you spot mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me, English is not my first langage.

Enjoy!

The island of Berk was one of the most prosperous of the Archipelago, and since a long time. A lot of people said that it was because they had the chance of having an island pretty fertile in spite of the usual cold. Some said it was because the gods had taken a liking on this islad. Other said it was simply because the Haddock family, the one which ruled Berk since generation, was a lineage composed by true chiefs, able to lead their tribe with strenght and honor. The current chief, Stoick the Vast, was definitely holding up to that reputation.

The man was one of the most respected and feared chiefs, extremely tough with his enemy but kind to his people. His son and Heir Hiccup was the only thing that made people doubt. The boy was a runt, not really good at fighting, and often doing messes. Yet in spite of that, most of the tribe thought that maybe the boy simply needed time to grow and would maybe become at least a decent chief. Things were going quite well around, in spite of difficult times and the dragons, the tribe was prosperous and was respected. Yet one day, everything changed.

The Outcasts, old enemies of Berk, came for a battle. Hiccup, who was ten at the time, was hidden as well as the other kids who were too young to fight. The Hooligans managed to win, yet horrible news awaited Hiccup. Once he was out of the lair they had been locked in, Gobber came to him and gave him his father's helmet.

"Hiccup...I'm sorry. Alvin...He pulled an awful trick and..."

"Is my dad..."

Gobber nodded. Alvin, Stoick's sworn enemy, had used poisoned darts to incapacitate some warriors, and especially Stoick. Half paralyzed by the poison, the chief hadn't been able to fight with all his might, and Alvin took advantage of it.

Stoick's death was a tragedy for pretty much everyone, but his son was the saddest of them all. Even though his father had often yelled at him, he had always been kind, and loved him truly. The day of his funerals, Hiccup looked at the boat burning with silent tears rolling down on his face, only a sob could be heard from time to time. As his closest relative, Stoick's brother Spitelout was named Chief, until Hiccup would be old enough to take over. Also, his nephew went to live with them, although Gobber proposed to take him home. With time, Hiccup would bitterly wish he went to live with his teacher.

At first, Spitelout, his wife and Snotlout tried to be nice toward him, after all he was a member of their family. Yet, soon enough, Spitelout started to develop other feelings for his nephew. He loved being chief (even though people said he wasn't as good as Stoick), but he was very aware that he was only a replacement, that one day the boy would take his place. And if he had to give his place to someone, it had to be his son, or at least someone worth it, and Hiccup wasn't worth it. Had Hiccup been strong and sturdy like his Snotlout, he would have accepted him (or at least that was what he thought), he would have thought it was legitimate. But Hiccup was a clumsy runt, always putting mess around. When he thought Snotlout would have to obey this runt! His son should have been the next chief!

At first, when Hiccup was causing a mess, Spitelout would simply give him a lecture, like any responsible adult would when a kid does something wrong. Yet, his uncle soon realized he enjoyed putting down his nephew, especially when there were other people around to see it. That's how Spitelout ended pointing every single errors his nephew would make before everyone, humiliating him, overexaggerating his flaws and making him feel like the worse of the worse. At first some people told Spitelout that he was rough to a kid who lost his father, but he pretended it was only in order to toughen him. With some slyness, he convinced people that Hiccup was no chief material, that he would really lead Berk to his downfall once he would be chief, that he had to be tough on him to avoid that. Many people sided with him.

Life at home was hardly better for Hiccup, his uncle and cousin would also torment him at home. Snotlout would sometimes hit him, and though his mother wouldn't allow him to hurt his cousin too badly, Hiccup knew she agreed with her husband, and scorned him. The first times Spitelout started to humiliate him in front of the village, Hiccup had tried to defend himself, but he soon understood there was no point. So instead, he would silently listen, with a cold and stern look, and would only answer with dry sarcastic remarks at times. He wasn't aware of it, but the cold demeanour angered Spiteout even more, because this gave the young boy some kind of dignity that he couldn't bear.

Snotlout also had most of the other kids against him, for a time, he and the twins as well as some others would often search for Hiccup to bully him. The young boy would go to the forest or take refuge in the forge, with his master. For a time, his life was truly a nightmare, not only he was still tormented by his father's death, but he was also made miserable by the ones who should have protected him. Gobber would do his best to help him, but he couldn't always be around. Luckily for him, another help would come.

Astrid Hofferson had never joined the other kids when they bullied Hiccup, but at first she thought that Spitelout was right to be tough on him. Yet her parents always taught her that several people attacking one alone was low, and with time, she realized that Spitelout was often very harsh indeed, even vicious toward an orphan. One day, while the chief was giving his nephew another lecture in front of everyone, she had imagined herself being Hiccup and it was awful. She also looked at the way he was standing through it: he was calm and cold, an air of indifference and she couldn't help but think that he was kind of badass, a lot of kids she knew would have already broke after all those humiliations. He deserved a chance maybe.

So one afternoon, when Snotlout and his friends started to bully him once more, Astrid came to defend him, and though she was alone to do that, the other kids knew she wasn't one to be messed with. It would have been an understatement to say that Hiccup was astonished.

"Why did you do this?" Asked he once they were leaving.

"Are you unhappy I did?"

"No, and thank you for doing it. I'm just wondering."

She just shrugged.

"I don't know, it's just low to attack someone alone."

Hiccup couldn't help but think that she was doing that only out of pity. He could have told her that he didn't want pity, but having someone at his side wasn't a bad thing, plus he had a slight crush on Astrid. Being saved by the girl you like was quite sweet. They spoke a little, and Fishlegs joined them soon enough. Though he never hated Hiccup and certainly never bullied him, he never dared to defend him and his parents advised him against befriending the boy any further. But Astrid being here to help changed a lot of things.

Hiccup was happy that he had two friends in addition to his teacher to help. Fishlegs and Astrid wouldn't be the only ones though. After defending Hiccup, she went to the other kids and tried to convince them that they shouldn't be that harsh on Hiccup, that what they were doing was wrong. Though a lot of them were left unconvinced, the twins were touched by what she said. Though they were friends with Snotlout, they couldn't deny some of the things Astrid said was true. They wouldn't say it out loud, and pretended that if Hiccup was so good at making mess (just like them), there was at least some interest in him. Some other kids just left Hiccup alone, but Snotlout and some of his friends surely didn't care about what the girl told them, and even accused her of going soft. She only answered that she wasn't some unworthy lowlife who would bully an orphan and she'd rather be soft than like him.

So though they at first tormented Hiccup, the twins soon defended him along with Astrid and Fishlegs. Truly, Hiccup was pretty sure they were only acting out of pity, or because they wanted a good excuse to fight against Snotlout, but he didn't push them away. Since the four of them decided to take his side, the bullying outside of his uncle's house had almost totally stopped and it was a big relief. Spitelout was still humiliating him in front of the village, and he would still take it the same way. Once, the twins threw some rotten egg on Spitelout's house in retalation, and Hiccup wondered if they did that just to put a mess or out of friendship.

He knew he owed those allies to Astrid and was more than thankful to her. Yet he was scared at times that one day they would decide he wasn't worth the trouble and that they would leave him. A part of him was telling him he had to trust them, but his lack of self-confidence, caused by the loss of his father and the treatment of his 'family' couldn't let him do that. In spite of his doubts, he became happier and it helped him to grow creative at the forge.

Astrid took upon herself to train Hiccup to fight, and though she was a tough teacher, he made some progresses thanks to her. He was still thin, but he could at least kick and punch properly and they discovered that he wasn't bad at all with a sword. At first, Atsrid defended him out of compassion, then she grew to really like him, and with time, she realized the boy had more abilities than they all thought, and maybe he wouldn't be a bad chief at all. She tried to tell that to her parents but they didn't really believe it. Hiccup however, started to have hope that he could prove his village he was worth something. His uncle wasn't allowing him to go to Dragon Training, unlike his friends and Snotlout, probably to stop him from doing any progress.

One day, when Hiccup was fourteen, he invented something to shoot bolas. His goal was to catch a Night Fury. Astrid told him it was madness but he was hard-headed. One evening, he disobeyed Gobber and went out with his invention and shot. No one saw it, but he got it, he got the Night triumph was short-lived as he was attacked by a Mosntruous Nightmare and caused a mess, even he couldn't deny he had screwed up. Another humiliation by his uncle followed but he ignored it. His friends didn't believe him when he said he shot a Night Fury, so he went alone in the woods to find it. He went back after a while and said he found nothing in the woods. No one saw through the lie.

After that, he would often go to the woods alone. One day, Snotlout and his friends tried to follow him and he rebuked them harshly. In retaliation, the other kids beat him, and Astrid only came in time to help him before he was badly hurt. They fought together and Hiccup had the satisfaction to punch Snotlout. Another satisfaction followed after. Astrid took him to the well in order to take some water and clean his wounds. No one was nearby, and they started to speak:

"What happened?"

"They wanted to follow me, I told them to back off."

"What are you even doing in the forest? Usually you don't hide things from me."

"It's...I don't know, I just like to be alone in there. It's not that I don't want to be with you, I like to be with you, but..."

"I see. We all need time alone I guess."

"Really, it's not...Thank you anyway, for helping me. I always feel like I don't thank you enough."

"It's okay."

"You always helped. I know that for now I can't do anything to thank you, but I will one day."

"Hiccup, you're giving me a good excuse to beat up Snotlout, and it's great, believe me."

He laughed and she did the same. They looked at each other, and suddenly, she did something he wasn't expecting: she approached his lips and kissed him. He kissed her back in a trance-like state, he couldn't believe what was happening to him. They smiled at each other and she left after that without a word.

When he went back to his uncle's house, he was feeling happier than ever. This was short-lived. Spitelout had heard Hiccup had punched his son, and he was furious. Usually he wouldn't hit his nephew hard, this evening however, Hiccup ended with an empty stomach and much more wounds than usual. Next morning, his friends asked him about his bruises on his face. He explained them and they were all furious. They wanted to take revenge on Spitelout and Hiccup was scared for them. He realized that if things continued this way, they would really get problems with the chief. Also, there was this secret he didn't dare to tell them about, and he was pretty sure they wouldn't accept it.

So, soon after his uncle's beating, he told his friends not take revenge, that it was useless, that they didn't have to get into troubles for him. Then, he went to the woods. It was the last time the village saw him.

In the woods, near a pond, Hiccup joined the one he kept secret: his dragon, his friend, Toothless. He petted his dragon and the beast licked his wounds in a soothing way. The dragon had his prosthetic, his saddle, and they had already trained to fly. Hiccup felt incredibly sad, but also relieved to know his dire situation would soon stop.

"We need to leave, Toothless. They like me maybe, but they won't accept you. They want to kill dragons. Also, they'll endanger themselves if I stay, or maybe one day they'll decide I'm not worty of it and they'll leave me. I...Astrid kissed me. I want to stay with her, but...I can't be enough for her, she just kissed me because she pity me. I can be her friend but she can't find me worthy enough of her for anything else. She would loose her time and it will endanger her because of Spitelout. Once I'll be gone, she'll realize she is better without me. I'd rather go, it's better for everyone."

The dragon cooed and Hiccup checked up on his prosthetic, the one he made in secret to allow him to fly again. He had took some stuff and his sword. He sighed and tore off a big piece of his shirt before making a cut on his arm. He dripped some blood on the piece of cloth and on the ground. The dragon's scales would be enough to let them think that something happened. He only took one last glance toward Berk, hoping his friends would be fine.

He expected them to be sad for him, but he also thought they would soon get over it. He was wrong, and while he tried to protect them as well as himself, he ended up hurting them. When people realized the boy was missing, Gobber had a search party organized before Spitelout could do anything. It was Astrid and the twins who discovered the torn shirt. Then, people saw something they had rarely seen: Astrid crying.

It was soon concluded that Hiccup had ran away, but was caught by a dragon. The village had seen the bruises and the teens told some people how Spitelout beat his nephew. Also, Hiccup had told his friends not to avenge him, that it would be useless...It seemed that the boy had ran away, but was caught by a dragon before he could even leave the island. Most of people in the village felt sorry and horrified for the boy, and they started to blame Spitelout. His harsh treatment on the boy was the reason why he ran away. Astrid didn't loose any time finding Hiccup's blasted uncle and cousin.

"It's all your fault!" she yelled at the two, "It's your fault he is dead! You pushed him to do that!"

"None of us could have..."

"YOU'RE MURDERERS!"

Those words made Spitelout tense but seemed to have a bigger effect on Snotlout who paled. She turned toward the boy:

"You wanted his place didn't you?! You murdered your own cousin for that! But I swear your life is gonna be a living hell!"

Her parents took her away, not wanting their daughter to have problems. The twins and even Fishlegs, who was usually a pacifist, swore they would indeed make those two pay. In spite of what he believed, they did like Hiccup a lot, Fishlegs appreciated his intelligence and kindness; the twins liked how funny Hiccup could be and the fact he respected them in spite of the fact everyone called them idiots. The four of them swore that Spitelout and Snotlout would definitely be miserable.

Unknowingly to them, unknowingly to the tribe, something happened some times after Hiccup's disappearance. In the West, beyond the sea, a new tribe started to rise, a very strange tribe, with a very strange chief, always masked. Ships of slaves were attacked and the people destined to be enslaved freed. Beyond the sea, rumours started to spread, as dragons in armor started to be seen...On an island far away, a tribe mounting dragons and freeing slaves was starting to rise and Berk would eventually hear of them.

Here we go! Now, don't hesitate to tell me what you think. If you like badass armies of dragons, you should like what's about to come.