Fire and Fury

Chapter 1

Hiccup stared at the carved hook hovering over his head. Usually such a thing signaled doom, especially with a ruthless Viking on the other end of it, and this was no exception, although he had to admire how the wearer had cared for it. The customarily snarky and sarcastic teen had no words to describe this moment. The elder had already decided that Astrid would not take first place in Dragon Training, arguably the highest honour anyone of their age could receive, and Odin was she unhappy about it. He could hear her cursing away from the other side of Gobber's oversized stomach. The only other candidate was himself, but there was still the chance that Gothi would claim that neither of them were ready. He was only a hiccup after all. Nothing special for a fifteen-year-old, he stood at five feet four, dwarfed by nearly all around him. His auburn hair not nearly as bright as that of his father's, although the two shared the same startling green eyes. There was no way it could be him.

Hiccup saw every event of the past couple of months in the time it took the elder to nod her assent. He saw himself taking down the dragons that they had in the arena. The Zippleback recoiling in fear as he backed it into its cage, if one observed carefully though, they would have seen the eel hooked around his body underneath his jacket, the creature that dragons seemed to share a particular disdain for. The Terror racing back into its cage as the reflection from his shield gave it something to chase, almost like a common cat would. The Nadder purring as he reached for the spot behind it's frill, scratching it into submission whilst he made it look like he was intimidating it. The Gronckle rolling around in pure bliss due to the dragon nip concealed in his palm, the Vikings around him oblivious to Hiccup's clever methods. His father's expression of pure delight upon hearing of his son's success in the ring. The admiring stares he now received from most of the village. All down to a crippled Night Fury in a sequestered cove a few miles away from the very arena that they were all gathered in today.

In truth, Hiccup was not the success that the village hailed him as. He was as far from a Viking as one could be. Scrawny, weak, intelligent, most of these traits were despised by the tribe. Sure, some of them could appreciate Hiccup's intellect and asked him as though his opinion mattered, but not enough for it to be a genuine and common occurrence. Very few Hooligans knew that it was actually Hiccup that had a hand in most of Berk's weapons, even though he obviously spent a great amount of time at the forge while he was still Gobber's apprentice. The two were actually more like partners now, as Hiccup could almost match Gobber's ability, and his creativity was considerably greater than his master's. But suddenly, Hiccup became aware that he was no longer affected by being the runt of the tribe. He felt a weight lift off of his shoulders as the realisation hit that he no longer had to conform to their ideals. He wasn't a successful Viking by any means, but that didn't mean he was unsuccessful at life in general.

He was jolted back to reality by the cheering of the masses. He had done it. Dragon Training was over, with him as its champion. But the real test was yet to come. He was hoisted up onto the shoulders of his peers as Gobber called out.

"Yeh did it Hiccup! Yeh get ta kill ya first dragon!" His mentor exclaimed, and Hiccup felt a shock of guilt as he heard the note of pride in Gobber's voice, one that was soon joined by Stoick the Vast telling everyone that was near, in the loudest voice possible, that his son was the pride of Berk. The Twins were doing some kind of weird dance around an imaginary campfire that involved a lot of jumping, punching the air, and the occasional head-butt, in true Thorston fashion. Fishlegs was on Hiccup's left, singing praise of the highest form, presumably in an effort to make up for years of ignoring him as the runt of the tribe. Even Snotlout was showing some form of happiness for his cousin, although he was more focused on attempting to woo Astrid.

"Come on, babe, it's ok to lose." He was saying to the increasingly angry girl. "I'll make it up to you." He added, attempting to gain a kiss from the situation. Unfortunately for the young Jorgenson, he was left with a bruised jaw and a black eye.

"Awesome! That is so great!" Hiccup shouted, although the reluctance wasn't heard by the tribe. "I am sooooooo….."

-The Cove-

"Leaving. We're leaving." He said, coming into the cove with a backpack full of miscellaneous items. Most of the contents were made up of notepads, charcoal, forge tools and extra clothing that might come in handy later, although there were some scraps of leather that he had managed to sneak out from the tannery for work on Toothless' tail. He had rushed from the arena as soon as the impromptu parade and the line of congratulators had ended, with no one suspecting a thing, or so it seemed.

"Toothless?" He called. "Come on bud, we're leaving. We've got to get away before they realise that I'm missing. You know I can't kill the Nightmare, I can't kill any dragon. You're living proof of that!" Still there was no sign of his scaly companion. He rounded the corner just as a scraping sound met his ears. Astrid. He gulped. There she was, perched on top of a rock that he usually used as his own seat after a flight, to remind himself what it felt like not to be seated on air with the rush of the wind around him.

"Uh, Astrid? Hi Astrid, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be, you know, anywhere but here?" He babbled, glancing worriedly at the axe held in her hand, and then the malicious look in her eye. He knew it would hurt if he got hit with it, considering he'd produced the weapon himself, not that she knew that. It truly was a beautiful blade, with an ornate handle by Viking standards, and sharpened to near perfection. She was wearing her usual gear, shoulder pads and all, and her spiked skirt looked suspiciously evil when it was glinting in the sun while the wearer bore down on you with a furious gaze. There was a faint swishing sound coming from the bushes on the far side of the cove, but Hiccup paid it no mind, too concentrated on the most immediate threat to worry.

"What has gotten into you?" She exploded, jumping down from the rock and stalking towards him, swinging the axe to punctuate her words. "No one just gets as good as you do, especially you! Are you training with someone? It better not involve this!" She queried, poking his flight suit. Hiccup raised his hands in a placating gesture, slightly overwhelmed by the string of questions and accusations. He decided to lie his way out of it, after all, how could he tell her the truth in a manner that didn't involve her killing him or ridiculing him?

"Look, you got me, I've been making… outfits. So why don't you drag me back to the village and tell everyone my humiliating secret ok?" He said, praying that the dragon that he'd just been calling for didn't decide to show up now. Mercifully, his prayers were answered. Thor must have been feeling generous, because Astrid stopped her advance.

"Yeah, I don't buy it. You're weird, but not that weird Haddock." Astrid said, unimpressed, but at least she wasn't about to attack him now. She stood with her arms crossed, her axe now on her back, waiting for him to think of something better.

"Ok fine, fine, I was coming to test out some new moves to use tomorrow alright?" Hiccup said, faking anger. He didn't have the strength to really be angry right now anyway. "There's only so far that my regular stuff can take me, and the Nightmare is the most dangerous dragon we've got. I don't want to underestimate it."

"Underestimate it? It's a dragon, it's not gonna think about what you're doing, idiot. It's an animal, it reacts out of instinct!" Astrid said in disbelief. Hiccup kept the illusion going, thankfully he'd packed a small sword in his bag, and now he pulled it out. It was difficult to keep the blade up whilst faking a lack of effort, but somehow, he managed it. Luckily for him, Toothless was more accepting of Hiccup carrying a weapon these days.

"Yeah well, it can't hurt to prepare for more can it?" He asked, attempting to stay nonchalant.

"Ok then, let me see what you've got. If you can hold your own against a smart warrior, a dragon should be no problem." Astrid said, and suddenly the gleam was back in her eyes and her axe hand was twitching. Hiccup could already see the beating he would get.

"No! No, I can't fight you Astrid." Hiccup said, panicking. "I can't fight you… because I usually train alone. It works!" He defended, seeing the blonde's eyebrow rise in challenge. There was a tense few seconds where Hiccup thought he was going to end up on his butt anyway, but then a dragon call sounded. A familiar one, coming from far away. The two stopped, glancing around as their instincts took over. Astrid was the first to move.

"Dragon! Quick we should go after it! If we kill it then we'll both be considered warriors! It's perfect!" She yelled in excitement. Hiccup's mind whirred as he tried to formulate a plan, while the blonde practically dragged him out of the cove. After all, he didn't really carry any weight, and she was at least five times as strong as he was.

"Ok, ok, we should go, yeah." He stalled, walking after Astrid. She stopped, waiting for him.

"Come on Haddock! It'll get away!" She cried in frustration, tapping her foot in impatience, but surprisingly waiting for him to make a call.

"Alright, we should split up, try and surround it. It didn't sound like a Nadder or a Gronckle, and it was too loud for a Terror. So that leaves a Zippleback or a…" He trailed off in melodramatic horror. Luckily for Hiccup, Astrid was far too excited to pick up on his lousy acting.

"Nightmare!" She crowed. She started off in one direction, yelling over her shoulder. "I'll go this way, you take the other way, meet back here in ten minutes!"

Hiccup merely stood there until he lost sight of her in the trees. He let out a sigh of relief and retreated back to the cove, shoulders slumped in fatigue and knees weak as he remembered her expression upon coming up with a 'plan' to take down the 'wild dragon'. It was the look of one who was excited, and strangely happy. He sometimes wished that she would one day look at him with a similar expression, before remembering that she wore it right before she was about to kill something or hurt someone. As he stepped through the entrance, he was met with a large black mass with wings bounding over to him.

"Hey Toothless! Odin, am I glad to see you! That was awesome! How did you change your call like that?" He cried, rubbing his companion's scaly head all over. The Night Fury took in the praise, purring before he stopped, thinking, then padded over to the tree in which he usually perched. Hiccup realised that another game of dragon charades was in order, as Toothless dragged over a fallen log.

"Ok, so you had a log?" He questioned the dragon, who nodded back in a 'go on' gesture. "So, you called into the log? Ok I guess that would muffle the call. but that doesn't explain why the sound came from far away…" He mused. Toothless shook his head. As usual, Hiccup was overthinking and the answer lay right in front of him. Well, not quite. The dragon crouched down in front of his friend, an open invitation to get on. After a minute of unresponsiveness from Hiccup, Toothless took matters into his own hands, clamping his jaws over Hiccup's collar and throwing him up onto the saddle that had been left on from yesterday's flight, all the while rolling his eyes at his human.

"Alright, alright Mr Bossypants, I'm up, now what?" Hiccup yelped in surprise as he landed softly in the saddle. He quickly fixed into position, ready to take off, but the Night Fury had other plans. Toothless set off at a bound, heading for his tree perch. He had discovered, after the initial panic and sadness of being flightless had faded, that he could escape the cove by scaling the tree and gliding on an air current to the rim of the breach. However, the one flaw with that was that the current only blew through at certain times of day. It had taken the dragon the best part of three days to memorise the pattern, by which point he had already met the interesting human whom he now called his partner. Unfortunately for Hiccup, his skin was not as thick as his draconic companion, and the miscellaneous branches scratched his face as they ascended.

"Thank you for that Toothless, just what I wanted, a war with a tree." He groaned sarcastically. Toothless replied with a warble that sounded suspiciously like a laugh as the branches cleared and the two could survey their cove like a kingdom from atop their perch. Hiccup gasped in understanding as the breeze that Toothless had previously used to create his distraction hit his face. He looked down at the magnificent creature beneath him.

"You know bud, you're one of a kind." He smiled kindly. Toothless preened like a Nadder before sinking down to prepare for take-off. As soon as Hiccup felt the shift in the muscle beneath him, he reacted, allowing them to push off the tree and rise on the wind. A few beats of the huge wings that Night Furies were known for, and the two were well away from the ground. Hiccup felt a smile burst onto his face as the elation of being up in the air took hold of him. Up here, no one could challenge him. He and Toothless ruled the skies, and Thor did they know it.

They continued to climb, Toothless showing no signs of real physical exertion, and Hiccup realised that having a human on his back had only strengthened his companion. Between that and a regular diet, Toothless had actually grown since they first met. Not noticeably, but enough for Hiccup to be aware, they were best friends after all. Hiccup guessed that there must be another foot on the Night Fury's wing span by now, and the muscles that were impressive enough when they first met now bulged slightly, displaying Toothless' explosive power. They levelled out near the clouds, where Hiccup was sure that they wouldn't be seen.

"Well bud, you wanna go for it today?" Hiccup asked, all thoughts of running away forgotten in the thrill of flying. He had left his backpack in the cove anyway, after the whole incident with Astrid. Astrid. "Oh Thor." He mumbled. She had said to meet back in ten minutes, about three minutes ago. That gave them seven to be back on the ground with Toothless out of sight. "Uh, ok bud, why don't we see how fast we can do a lap of the island? That'll be fun right?" He asked.

Toothless' grunt suggested that no, it wouldn't be if it was only one lap, but his human was worried, so he would acquiesce this once. Hiccup rubbed his partner's head in thanks, before crouching low over the saddle as Toothless prepared to dive. The two fell, but instead of the terror a normal human would feel, Hiccup only felt thrill and bliss. The sky was his home. He had been born for this. He imagined that this was how Toothless and all the other dragons felt too. They tore through the air like it was mere paper, Toothless' aerodynamic body creating the screaming whistle that caused so much fear during raids. The sea came closer, but still the two felt no fear. They moved in sync, as if they were two halves of the same whole, and with a flip of the prosthetic they levelled out, skimming across the waves so fast that the world around them was a blur.

They rolled under the leaping form of a Scauldron, and Toothless tucked in his wings as they hurtled through the tube of a wave, opening them out once more to keep them out of the icy reach of the water once they cleared it. This was the type of flying that only a Night Fury could perform, and Hiccup was in awe as he worked in perfect tandem with his friend, stunned by the feats they were accomplishing together. The Night Fury truly was the Prince of the Skies, and it humbled Hiccup that Toothless allowed him to experience this. His heart felt a pang of guilt at the mental image of Toothless doing this all on his own, as Hiccup was now the dragon's only way of regaining his flight.

An ear flap thwacked his cheek, and Hiccup glanced down to see Toothless' disapproving stare. Clearly Hiccup's face had betrayed his emotions. Hiccup sighed, expelling the thoughts as he refocused on flying. Immediately his heart leapt again, as they shot into a clump of sea stacks. Hiccup read every tiny shift in his friend's body, feeling the muscles work as if they were his own, and reacting within a fraction of a second to follow the dragon's instinct so they could dodge around the stacks that appeared through the fog.

"Whooo!" Yelled Hiccup as they emerged from the fog. Toothless evidently felt that their fantastic flying merited a celebration, and let loose a roar of triumph, followed by three small plasma shots above them, that exploded in a myriad of shades of purple and blue. Their victory was short lived however, as Toothless changed direction suddenly, in a move that felt alien to Hiccup. It was strange, for them to have worked in harmony for the entire flight, only for it to be thrown off in one movement.

Hiccup glanced down at Toothless, only to see his friend's eyes widen and his head to shake, as if to clear it. He looked up at Hiccup, almost like he was checking for reassurance. Hiccup smiled nervously, before a shriek sounded to their left. An orange Nadder with dark blue spots came into view, carrying a sheep in its talons. A response was heard from their right, and Hiccup spun in the saddle to see a green Nightmare check itself before it rammed into them, warned by a growl from Toothless. It too held its catch.

"This must be the members of a raid hauling in their bounty." Whispered Hiccup, horrified, wondering what he was in retrospect, before remembering that this was Toothless, his friend. He ducked down as the twin heads of a blue Zippleback inspected him, before retreating under Toothless' gaze. The dragons seemed to respect Toothless, and more arrived, surrounding them but not venturing too close as they flew. They continued to follow the drove, steering away from Berk.

The dragons didn't appear to have targeted the Hooligans this time, and Hiccup was glad, although he felt sympathy for whichever tribe had been on the receiving end. It wasn't approaching night yet, which made him curious. Dragons only ever attacked at night, or in the late evening at the earliest, so they must have flown a fair way, possibly set off in the morning? There weren't many tribes that dared settle close to Berk for the sole reason of their dragon 'problem'. The Hooligans, Outcasts, Berserkers and the Meatheads were among those that were believed to be closest to the nest, as these tribes experienced more attacks than others. Although this generally meant that there was less violence between Vikings in these tribes, there was the trade-off of constant dragon attacks. Hiccup had heard tales of many battles fought between other tribes, especially from the other heirs during the annual trips he undertook with his father to renew treaties and strengthen alliances. It was a surreal thought that Vikings were fighting other Vikings when a whole world full of other creatures lay out there. Humans, he thought, were perhaps the most dangerous of all, as few would turn on their own species purely for the sport of it.

The horde of dragons jolted Hiccup from his ruminations as they drove down into a fog thicker than any he had seen before. Hiccup was amazed that the dragons knew where they were going. Instinctively, he knew that this place was dangerous. Spires of rock came from nowhere, and somehow a ship's head nearly hit them. A ship. In the rocks. Not good. Hiccup came to a very sudden realisation about where they were. They were in Helheim's Gate. The home of the dragons.

"Come on bud, we've gotta get away from here!" Hiccup whispered frantically, only for Toothless to shake his head, eyes still wide open. Clearly, Hiccup's companion wanted him to see this. Or he didn't have a choice. Hiccup didn't know which was worse.

They flew on among the drove, listening to the cacophony of dragon calls, mixed with the bleating and baying of the animals that they were hauling in. Suddenly, the fog lessened, and Hiccup bore witness to an island springing up from seemingly nowhere. In truth, Hiccup was slightly disappointed with their destination. There were no visible signs of life, no greenery, and certainly no animals. It was barren, a wasteland. Yet it's true size was only revealed when Hiccup took in the mountain in the centre. Though it seemed small at first, he soon realised that the mountain was truly of colossal size, making the island itself that much bigger. There seemed to be various exits, big enough for perhaps three dragons to fly abreast, other than the main funnel at the top.

As they circled it, Hiccup felt an urge to run, to get as far away from the place as possible. Toothless, too, seemed to feel such an urge, as his head strained away from his body in a vain attempt to escape. Hiccup was filled with a sense of foreboding as the drove's circling grew tighter and tighter, before, as one, they dove down the main funnel. It was chaos as the seemingly endless swarm of bodies piled in, narrowly avoiding each other with practiced ease.

As they entered, Hiccup felt an almost unbearable heat hit his skin. He hissed in pain, drawing the attention of a Gronckle. The creature stared at them, before fixing its eyes downwards. Hiccup soon realised why, as he leaned over Toothless' side and saw a pit filled with the fog from outside. The dragons halted in mid-air, excluding Toothless, and dropped their kill into the pit. Hiccup could only watch in utter confusion as they then moved on to settle on various ledges around the pit, drawing back to the walls and perching in nooks and crevices. Toothless flicked him with an ear, reminding him that they should move too. Hiccup agreed, whatever was in that pit clearly had the dragons scared.

They settled onto a ledge housing a Nightmare, a Nadder and another dragon that Hiccup hadn't seen before. The wild dragons barely gave him a glance, eyes fixated on the pit, cringing as a throaty grumble echoed around the chamber, nearly bursting Hiccup's ears. Whatever lay down there must have been huge to produce such a sound. The drove of gift-bearing dragons petered out, leaving only a few stragglers. The last of these was a confused looking Gronckle. It fluttered around for a moment before seemingly realising what it was supposed to be doing. With a retching sound, a single fish, ironically a haddock, slid from the dragon's tongue and dropped into the hole. The Gronckle, pleased with itself, purred, and set off for the nearest ledge.

A huge roar froze it in its tracks, and the surrounding dragons withdrew even further. Hiccup recognised the tone of the roar. It was one of disappointment, anger. It was a tone he was used to, just not from a monster in a pit in the nest of the dragons. Toothless drew back behind a column of rock, and Hiccup was aware that he was sweating profusely, due to the heat and the fear that he felt, but tried to limit his gasping breaths. If that thing was enough to scare even Toothless, a Night Fury, then it was in their best interests to remain silent.

All of a sudden, a buzz began to sound in is head. At first, Hiccup put it down to lightheadedness from the heat, but the feeling grew. He shook his head, agitated, before realising that other dragons were doing the same thing. In fact, all of them were. The buzzing became harsher, before Hiccup realised that the sound was changing. The buzz became a grating whisper, rasping and unclear.

It grew louder, and louder, until Hiccup could almost make out words. Words, in his head. What in Thor's name was happening to him?! The dragons around him began to shake their heads frantically, some even whimpering. The Gronckle remained frozen in fear, its wings beating evenly to maintain altitude above the pit. He became aware of Toothless falling into the same state, and reached out a hand to comfort his friend. Around them, the dragons collectively stiffened, as if falling under a spell. Then, they turned in complete sync to unwaveringly stare at the boy and the Night Fury. The rasping voice grew louder still, until it took on a feminine tone, almost akin to the one Gothi had used only once in Hiccup's lifetime, when she had caught Snotlout throwing axes at him. The elder's fury had been untamable as she screeched at Hiccup's cousin, before untying the ropes that had bound him to the tree as Snotlout scarpered.

"Traitooooorrrrssss innn oouuurrrr miiiddssstttt." The voice rasped in terrifying tones, and Hiccup panicked. It was the thing in the pit. It was speaking, inside his head! Toothless could obviously feel Hiccup's terror, and most likely could hear the monster too. It seemed that all the dragons could. Hiccup felt a spike of amusement ripple from the pit, although he wasn't sure how.

"Ah, one who speaks our tongue." The voice continued, and Hiccup was confused. Spoke their tongue? What was the voice talking about? Again, another ripple of amusement. "But also, one that is unaware of it!" The beast laughed, if monsters could laugh that is. Now he was truly terrified. If he could understand it, and it could understand him, what language were they speaking? The monster appeared to run out of patience. "I sense a servant I had begun to think was lost to me, welcome back Skygge Djevel."

Hiccup recognised the term. It literally translated to Shadow Fiend. There was a snarl from Toothless, who evidently detested the term, and Hiccup realised that it must have been the title given to Toothless by the monster, meaning that Toothless came from the nest. Another rasping laugh sounded.

"I tire of your insolence, insect." The beast continued, even as Toothless snarled and growled. "And I must feast. I must. Have. More!" It shrieked, as a gargantuan head emerged from the pit, jaws snapping over the still-hovering Gronckle in the biggest display of dragon cannibalism that Hiccup was ever likely to see in his life. There was a flurry of activity as the spell was broken and the situation quickly deteriorated into carnage as it became every dragon for themselves.

"Let's go bud!" Hiccup yelled, his head still aching from the monster's speech. Toothless didn't require telling however, as he was already sprinting to the edge, and they hurtled off in the fastest take-off the pair had performed yet. The monster's head slamming into the column that they were behind only moments ago. With a few powerful beats of his wings, Toothless was skyward bound, storming through the blockade of dragon bodies as each creature had the same desire: escape.

They shot out of the top of the mountain, angling away from it, the Night Fury's impressive speed coming into play. There wasn't a dragon alive that could match them as they sped past the occupants of the nest, spinning and swooping to avoid all obstacles that came their way. If Hiccup had been thinking straight he might've laughed at the similarities between the beginning of their trip and their return. As it was, his mind was still reeling from the encounter with the talking dragon that wanted them dead and he was unable to do anything but move the pedal to keep himself and Toothless in the air.

As they put distance between themselves and the mountain, Hiccup became aware that it was approaching nightfall. Definitely past the ten-minute mark that Astrid had set. They must have been out for a good two hours at least. He groaned, trying to think of an excuse to use as they neared Berk. Toothless also appeared to be well out of it, as the usually showy dragon declined the loops and tricks in favour of a quick set down in the cove. For once, Hiccup was relieved to be on solid ground. He slipped off of his scaly friend and whispered a quick goodbye as he hugged Toothless' head in thanks. It was a sign of how shaken the pair were that they said and did no more, with Hiccup taking off at once in the direction of the village. How was he going to explain this one?