Wow… so I expected maybe to get about 5 follows, maybe a guest review saying "it good", but y'all really blew that expectation out of the park. First off, thanks for everyone who gave a review, as much as it may seem that you aren't saying anything it does help in allowing me to see what y'all think is interesting.

To be honest a lot of this story I don't have planned, besides a few main points, so if y'all want to see something, please let me know and I'll see about letting it in.

In the meantime, thanks to Lucas Godzilla, CajunBear73, bahall1964, AirCaptainBiggles, and a guest for the reviews!

Hiccup sat up, letting the wind flow through his hair, his hair flew everywhere, into his eyes, and pulled at his head. The wind battered his skin, causing it to go red and wore away at his face. His legs were sore from sitting for so long. It was painfully uncomfortable, yet Hiccup enjoyed every second of it.

"I thought I told you not to interact with humans," Hiccup's father grumbled from underneath him. Hiccup's father had quickly found out over the years that Hiccup, as admirable as his quirks were, would hardly ever listen.

"She wasn't a viking though," Hiccup rambled, "she was actually surprisingly nice. No frothing at the mouth, no cursing my ancestors, no accusing of being a bastard dragon spawn of a 'Loki', I enjoyed the change once for my life."

"And what if she wasn't nice?"

"Then I would've been fine," Hiccup drawled resting himself on a nook on his father's back, "I'm not just some fishbone, I can handle myself."

"Mm Hm," his father harrumphed, obviously not believing him, "why did you even want to talk with her in the first place."

"She was drawing, and I got curious."

"You risked your life, because she was drawing?"

"Well, yeah," Hiccup sat up, rolling his eyes, "obviously her artistic skills put me in grave danger."

"Are you never careful?"

"I am," Hiccup said, "I just don't know what you want from me."

An exasperated gasp, "To be careful for once in your life! I want you to think ahead for a second, and not put yourself in these deadly situations," as harsh as it was, Hiccup knew that there was love behind it.

"Hmm," Hiccup said holding the pencil he got in his hand and angling it against the sun, "sounds boring, not gonna lie."

Hiccup's father shook his head, sometimes he could see the viking in Hiccup, that stubbornness that would rival a Flame-skin, "What interests you so much about them anyways?"

Hiccup shrugged, "beyond that fact that I am one?"

A terse nod.

"I dunno, they're interesting. On one side they are bloodthirsty savages who don't know their right hand from their left, on the other side," he touched the pencil in his pocket, "they seem to always surprise me," he blinked a few times trying to gain hold of his thoughts, "Honestly, though, humans are just weird."

Hiccup's father turned around and gave him a sardonic gaze, the irony of what Hiccup just said not lost upon him.

Hiccup's father shook his head in mock disbelief as they arrived back at the nest, "We're back."

Hiccup stood up on his father's back, waited until they were over one of the alcrops and jumped off. For a brief moment Hiccup was weightless as he flew through the air, landing on the ground with a roll, recovering on a crouching position, with his hands stabilizing himself on the ground, as he watched his father fly overhead.

His father was probably going to converse with the King, say once again how Hiccup was coming along nicely despite his propensity to not listen. Blah, blah, blah. He's heard it all before.

In fact his father was probably grumbling to himself right now about Hiccup's lack of personal safety, and will probably lecture Hiccup tonight about how dangerous it is to fall great distances.

It was weird, on one side his father wanted to treat him like his kin, let him be his own, but he had no fire, no wings. His scales, or lack thereof, where pitifully weak. And so he was relegated to being relegated to the side like sick prey.

So Hiccup was contempt with sitting on the edge of the alcove on the cliff edge, watching the horizon, waiting for his kin to finish their duty.

There was a dot on the horizon.

Hiccup just noticed it, probably a stray cloud, or maybe a dragon returning from a scouting trip. A moment passed, it got closer, the dot getting larger, so probably a dragon.

There was something odd about it though, dragon's often prided themselves on their flying ability, yet this one was odd, dipping low and flying back up, bobbing a bit then repeating. Either this was someone being incredibly lazy about returning, trying to show off, or…

He could see him now, one of his kin, a cyan Spike-tail. It was bleeding, a lot. Hiccup vaguely recognized her, a Spike-tail that had just come of age and would often try to take up as many duties as possible to please the King. One of its wings was nearly torn off and was dripping blood into the sea, it was coming towards the cliff edge Hiccup was sitting on.

It landed, falling to the ground under its own weight, there were claw marks everywhere, criss crossing her entire body like some sort of sick caricature, "what happened?" Hiccup whispered.

She turned to look at him eyes awash with fear and pain, "I-I was attacked."

"By who?"

She shivered, pulling herself up to her feat, heading towards the inside of the nest, "who attacked you?" Hiccup asked again.

"I have to tell the King," she replied barely noticing Hiccup's existence.

Hiccup walked in front of her, "why, who attacked you, what's so important."

"No, no, no" the Spike-tail whispered to herself, walking around Hiccup, blood dripping on him.

"What's going on!" Hiccup growled, "who hurt you!"

She blinked and stared at him, seemingly finally realizing he's there, "the Red Queen-" she drew a heavy breath, "she's expanding, she's going to attack. She's declaring war."

The boat Kim rode on was moored at Berk, as Kim stood on the dock, watching the people go about doing their own thing. Another island, another batch of mysteries to uncover. Her mind drifted back to the previous island and the mysterious dragon-boy she met. Maybe one big mystery to uncover.

Ander walked up beside her, "Welcome to Berk," he said matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the buildings, "what do you think?"

She paused gazing over the landscape, "never been on an actual viking island before," she paused again, "it's very interesting to say the least."

She gazed yet again, it was an entire society dedicated to fighting dragons. It would be a lot more interesting if it wasn't so morbid. The statues out at sea warding off predators, the houses, made to deflect projectiles, each one being recently built, even the catapults raised on towers used to help them fight back.

"How long are we staying here?" Kim asked turning to Asher.

He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully, "Uh, guessin' a couple of days. Thor knows, think the captain' is from here. He might wanna take a couple of days to meet some friends. So, uh, yeah probably couple of days, or more."

"Uh huh," Kim nodded, "well, my intrepid tour guide, if we're going to be here for the next days, why don't you show me around. There has to be something interesting here I can learn about."

"Well, uh," he stammered, "I heard they have good mead here, and I know you like to collect stories, and I heard they have an experienced blacksmith with plenty of stories to tell."

Kim looked at the sky, it appeared to be mid-afternoon, "take me to the blacksmith," she said, "then afterwards we can get a drink or something."

"Why are we here?" a Buzz-wing asked Hiccup.

"Because this is where the injured spik-tail was attacked, and I want to see what's going on here."

"But won't your father be angry?" the buzz-wing asked, glancing around at the surroundings as if it was going to lunge out at them.

"Ah, he's angry at everything I do," Hiccup shifted on the mountaintop, watching the humans in the village down below do their own thing, he put on a mocking voice, "why can't you be more like your kin Hiccup. I raised you to be safe, and you're nothing more than a clueless hatchling going wherever you want.."

The dragon recoiled as if Hiccup had struck him, "do you really dislike your father that much?"

Hiccup let out a sigh, "of course not. We just don't agree on everything, I just want to explore and find new things, and he'd rather have me sit in the nest forever as safe as possible."

The dragon timidly shook his head side to side digesting what Hiccup just said, "I still don't understand why we are here, however."

"Because," Hiccup started turning to face the timid buzz-wing, "the spike-tail said she was attacked by the Red Queen. It's no secret that the Red Queen and these humans have been at war forever. If something happened here, it might explain why she so suddenly decided to attack us."

"Is that it?"

"And I just want to get out," Hiccup firmly responded.

The dragon let out an exasperated groan and hid his head between his paws as if they would be teleported back to the hive, "Why did I agree to take you here?" he mulled to himself. Hiccup gave him a small glance, patted him on the side and went back to watching the humans.

A couple of those wooden houses the humans like to use were coming and going, people moving about the center of their hive. Nothing all that interesting, in fact Hiccup dully thought that you couldn't even tell that these people were prepared to wage genocidal war against his kin.

Hiccup was starting to think he made the wrong choice by coming here.

"I'll tell you what,"" Hiccup started turning to his hatchmate, "if nothing happens by nightfall we can head back."

The dragon looked up with both joy and fear, "and what do we tell your father?"

Hiccup shrugged, "we got bored and went out flying for a bit, I dunno."

"Why can't we leave earlier?" the dragon groaned.

Hiccup gave a playful smile, "because then you'd have to explain how you left me on Berk."

"Why am I friends with you?"

"You know you love me."

"Can't say I've seen you before lass," the man in front of Kim said, hammering away at a bent sword while turning to glance at her and giving her a lopsided smile.

"Came in on a shipping boat," Kim replied, leaning her arms onto the windowsill into the forge, "I heard that you got some good stories to tell."

Kim glanced over the man, and agreed that he had some hell of a story to tell. A missing arm and leg, no one goes through that accidentally. Part of him said grizzled warrior, as he looks strong enough to carry an entire ship on his two arms… or what is left of it. At the same time his face betrays that idea and gives off the impression of a kindly old man who will take you in and feed you.

"Would love to chat," the man started, emphasizing the point with a shake of his head, "but chief won't like seeing me off duty."

Kim gave a smile, "I'm from an eastern university. If he comes I'll just give some spiel about how this is for the betterment of communal knowledge. Or some bullshit like that."

The man stopped hammering away at the sword, set it down next to the anvil and turned towards her, "If you don't mind me askin'," he started, "what'chu doing all the way out here then?"

"Got tired of the bureaucratic hell that is the university," she gave a half-shrug, "got out of there and am now traveling around the world."

"I'd be careful around here then. Berk here suffers from dragon raids, not that safe for an outsider, no offence of course."

She shrugged, "none taken," she paused and brushed her fingers against the notebook, "but tell me about these dragons."

He stepped over and looked at her eyes, "this is what you wanted to ask about in the first place, isn't it lass?"

She gave a guilty smile.

He returned it with a happy one, "well I take it you ain't gonna leave me any time soon, so what can ol' Gobber tell you about then?"

She leaned into the window facing the aptly named 'Gobber', she opened her mouth to ask a question but paused, "why do dragons attack Berk?"

Gobber gave an appreciative whistle, "ain't that the big question. No one here knows, all we know is that we gotta fight back and defend our home."

She thought back to Hiccup and his adopted father.

"Do all dragons you meet attack you then?"

He tilted his head, "Can't say I've met a friendly dragon in my lifetime," he held up his hand, "unless they were tryin' to save me from my own hand."

Kim wasn't sure if laughing at the joke would be rude, so she just nodded in response, "well then, how intelligent would you say they are?"

"From what I know, it varies from dragon to dragon," he took in a breath, "but that ain't my specialty. There's a kid who helps me at the forge, Fishlegs, he almost knows dragons as well as I know the forge. If you want answers, I'd say ask him. I can fetch him for you."

"That'd work. Thanks," he turned away but before he finished she said, "but if you will. One more question."

He turns back around, "what's on your mind?'

She took in a deep breath, "Has there ever been any stories of humans living among dragons?"

He gave a half-grin, "we'll I've heard of stories of humans living inside of dragons," he punctuated his gloomy joke with a flick of his amputated hand, "but I can't say I've heard of humans living with dragons."

Kim paused, "thanks," she said. This either meant that Hiccup was the odd one out, or somehow Berk is getting an extremely limited view on dragons, "so where can I find this Fishlegs?"

"Don't worry lass, just wait here," he hobbled to the back of the forge, and although slightly muffled she could hear Gobber yell, "Fishlegs, get your ass over here!"

She swore she heard a surprised 'eep' followed by a high-pitched, "coming!" before a chubby kid rounded the corner and came to the front of the shop.

Fishlegs stopped in front of Kim, "what do you need ma'am. Sword, hammer, maybe a net?"

Gobber hobbled back to the front of the forge, "listen up you dolt! She has a couple of questions about dragons she was fixin' to ask you."

Kim swore she could see his eyes light up, "Oh what do you want to know! There's so much I can tell you, like there's this dragon that can kill you by screaming-"

"Fishlegs," Gobber said trying to get his attention.

"-or there's this other one that that can shoot you with lightning-"

"Fishlegs!" Gobber repeated this time a bit louder.

"-oh! There's even this one called a 'NightFury' which no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale!-"

"FISHLEGS!" Gobber yelled startling the poor child, "let the lass ask her question."

"Oh sorry," he timidly replied shrinking down, "what question did you have?"

She gave an amused smile at her antics, "this is kinda a vague question, but how smart are dragons?"

"Are you asking about a specific species or-"

"Tell me about the smartest one you know of," she interrupted with a wave of her hand.

"That would be the Deadly Nadder with an intelligence rating of 8," Fishlegs said matter-of-factly, "they tend to express their intelligence in pack mentality, seemingly caring for each other and protecting each other, especially in raids."

"Is that the limit to their intelligence?"

He gave a small nod, "well, yeah. Most dragons don't show much of a response to anything besides fighting and food."

Kim frowned, "Would you say there are sentient dragons then."

Fishlegs frowned in tandem, "there might be one out there," he shook his head, "but at least here we don't got any."

Kim lightly shook her head, maybe the next village would have more information on the feral dragon boy she met, "well then, tell me about Berk."

Fishlegs grew the same smile he had when she had asked about dragons, "what do you want to know. Fishlegs at your service," he punctuated it with a small, albeit improper bow.

"Tell me about yourself, what do you do?"

"Me?"

"No, the other you."

Fishlegs gave a meek smile, "I'm too young to do too much right now. I mostly just help around the forge with Gobber and help put out fires during dragon raids."

"Do all kids your age do this?"

He shook his head, "most of the people my age are preparing for dragon training in a couple of weeks. If you ask me, I can't wait."

Kim opened her mouth to ask another question but a voice interrupted her, "Hey Fishlegs what's up."

Kim turned to look at the newcomer. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He looked to be a bit younger than Fishlegs, but at the same time seemed to be in far better shape, avoiding the classic Viking stocky build in favor or a more lean taller body type.

Fishlegs turned, smiled and said, "Oh hey Harald, just talking about Berk."

"Hopefully you're not giving away all our secrets, right?"

Fishlegs flushed, "of course I wouldn't."

"Relax, I'm just teasing you," he turned and greeted Kim, "name's Harald, nice to meet you."

Kim gave a playful smile back, "good to meet you. I'd be careful around this Fishlegs however, he's been telling me all your secrets, just one more slip of the mouth and next thing you'd know the chief will be on your ass."

Fishlegs blushed and Harald let out a warm laugh, "I don't think that I have to worry that much," Harald grinned, "dad's always busy with chiefly duties anyways."

"It's nighttime, let's go," the Buzz-wing groaned from next to Hiccup.

Hiccup blinked a couple of times, he was falling asleep. He focused his eyes on what was left of the sun, it crawled down into the earth, breathing a dim fire into the edge of the world. Maybe nothing was happening, "fine," Hiccup conceded, "let me just stretch my legs before I strain them on the flight back."

He stood up and walked over to the edge of the cliff, facing down onto hive. It was a lot more quaint, most people in their little wooden nests by now, and fires being lifted into the sky as a warning against any potential raids.

Part of him wanted to wait through the night, watch these humans do their thing. Part of him just realized that there was nothing left here but odd mental trinkets.

"Hiccup," the buzz-wing said from the other side of the alcove.

"I know, I know," Hiccup said with a wave of his hand, "we can go now."

"No, Hiccup, look!" the buzz-wing nearly shouted.

Hiccup turned towards the buzz-wing, his eyes wide and looking at the horizon, body violently shaking and wings held tight against his body. Hiccup followed his eyes, without the eyes of a dragon he was missing something, he squinted and looked closer, it was just black.

Just black…

It was like the stars had been doused in the horizon, and only on that bit of the horizon. It looked like the stars wrapped their wings around the edge of the world. Something was coming, something in the way of the stars, "a raid," Hiccup whispered to himself.

And like a fire that has been ignited suddenly the nest of Berk was awake with fury. People shouting, wooden contraptions being lifted into the air, people running to and from their dens.

"Let's go," Hiccup said, turning to his hatchmate.

The raid had started, Hiccup could hear his kin rain down fire upon Berk, with the viking screaming in response. Hiccup turned to hop onto his friend's back, stopping as he heard a faint whistling growing louder.

Instinctively Hiccup and his companion dropped to the ground, as the whistle grew to a near unbearable level, Hiccup dared to look up in time to see one of the viking towers being obliterated by a purple blast. It lit up the surrounding area like a new sun, and his eyes hurt just from looking at it.

A wave of heat flowed over Hiccup and he leaned up, just in time for a black mass to travel right above his head. He had only heard stories of the abyssal dragon the Red Queen uses, he swore he locked eyes with it as it passed overhead.

One of the human wooden towers turned to where the void traveled and in a large click released a flaming rock… Traveling right to the alcove where Hiccup was hiding.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Hiccup screamed as the it grew closer.

His heart hammered in his chest, fingers grew clammy, he knew his hatchmate was yelling at him to move, but he could barely hear it over the thunder in his ears.

His mind returned at the last second as his hatchmate and Hiccup dove together, away from the flaming rock. There was a thunderous crack, and suddenly the ground was no longer there.

Kim debated the idea of leaving, heading back to her home and never traveling to where dragons were.

Like some ethereal switch had been flipped, the relative calm of Berk was replaced with the chaos of a raid. Her perception of being an outsider was flipped, instead of being excited to meet new people and learn about the culture, suddenly she was lost within a sea of people with no idea what to do.

Fishlegs and Harald had muttered some apology about how he had to leave and was gone before Kim could even reply.

Kim had decided to hide next to the wall of a house, hoping that no dragon would see her and decide she looked especially tasty.

It was one thing to hear of dragon raids, another to be in one.

The cacophony of noises, screaming, and fire. The wretched scent of blood and molten flesh in the air, enough fire to make Kim want to live on the ocean for the rest of her life, the sky alive with dragons. Part of her was amazed at what was happening, part of her was horrified.

She took a deep breath and peered out from behind the wall, a two headed dragon was flying above Berk, one head breathing a deep green gas, it was making a strafing run… and coming in her direction.

It was coming right towards her!

Not wanting to see what affects the green gas had she dove to the side, as the dragon flew above her hiding place, filling the surrounding area with a thick ooze. She heard a faint click and suddenly the gas was replaced with fire.

Her skin burned, and she could fear a now frustrating lack of eyebrows. But she was alive.

The house she was hiding behind was alight, a flaming pyre reaching almost as high as the elevated catapults the vikings liked to use.

That was a no go.

Her hands were red to the touch and skin was peeling away, she couldn't afford to take a chance again. She peered up focusing through the pain, and got up to her feet.

A female Berkian ran past her, glancing at her momentarily then stopping, axe dropped to the ground, "what are ya' doin'. Get to the Great Hall!"

And as soon as she stopped she was heading back to the fight. Kim looked up, on top of the mound little over a couple hundred feet away was what Fishlegs had told her was the Great Hall. She mentally scolded herself for avoiding the logic of staying in the one place in Berk not made of wood.

She ducked her way through people, most of the barely even sparing a glance as they focused on the attacking dragons.

Occasionally she would make a slight detour to avoid a stray flame, or a dragon making a strafing run, eventually finding herself at the Great Hall after what felt like way too long.

There was a thunderous clap and she looked up to see the mountain above the Great Hall crumble down. Rocks the size of her fist rained down as she took cover next to the door. It was closed. Of course it was closed.

The rocks rained down with a fury and Kim knew if she strayed from the small shelter provided by the door she stood a chance of losing a limb. There was a loud thump as the rocks continued raining down, as Kim saw what Fishlegs described as a 'Gronkle' landed right in front of her.

She let out a scream as she backed up onto the door, the Gronkle shook itself and faced her… wait there was something on it…

"Hiccup?" Kim asked, not quite believing herself. Her mind struggled to comprehend what was going on, is he a part of this raid? Does he hate humans? Is he being forced to participate and tell the secrets to beating them?

The dragon raised human turned and looked at her with wide eyes, seemingly just as confused as she was, "Kim-human?" he asked in response.

The moment didn't last long, however, as a scream tore through the midst. A teenage girl ran from the stairwell, net in hand and tossed it at the Gronkle. Hiccup dived to the side, landing on all 4's, as the Gronkle was caught in the net.

He watched in wide eyes as the Gronkle writhed in the rope. Fortunately the teenager had missed his presence, but Kim watched as he bristled from his spot in the shadows.

Hiccup breathed in, and moved to help the Gronkle. Kim ran over and pushed him back, "don't," she hissed, "they'll kill you."

He looked at her with wide eyes, emotions flowing through too fast for her to notice, "you need to get out of here," Kim whispered.

Hiccup looked at Kim and then at his Gronkle friend, and then at an encroaching group of Vikings, one of them yelled, "looks like we got a new dragon' for the kill ring boys!"

Hiccup held his eyes shut, warbled something to the Gronkle and took off running, disappearing into the night.

I borrowed a lot of the naming conventions from RiftRaft's I Hear Him Scream because it sounds good, and I'm too lazy to think of anything more complicated.

There was supposed to be more in this chapter, but I was having trouble writing it, so I just opted to post what I had completed and keep what I had planned for the next chapter. So next chapter will have Hiccup meeting Toothless and more Berkian action.

I'm still debating having Hiccup turn into a dragon, so until then keep telling me y'all's thoughts.

What did y'all think of this chapter? I'm happy with how it came out, but I feel like I could have improved upon some ideas. I'm worried that most of this chapter is rather uninteresting so what did y'all think?

Laters!