Chapter 1: HELP!

This is Berk, my home. It’s twelve days north of hopeless and few degrees south of freezing to death. It’s located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word, sturdy. It’s been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets.

The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have…

“Dragons…” I quickly shut the door as a Monstrous Nightmare blew fire in my direction. I had heard the commotion from outside and rushed to the door.

The dragons were attacking again, likely to take another shot at our livestock. Most people would leave, not us. We’re Vikings. We have stubbornness issues. At any sign of danger, a Viking would grab the nearest blunt or sharp object and charged into battle.

I opened the door again and ran out into all the commotion and chaos. Dragons were swarming, attacking! I had to weave my way through the field to get by all the other preoccupied Vikings.

“What are you doing here?”

“Get back inside!”

Everyone was always telling me to get back inside and stay out of trouble. It wasn’t like they were concerned for me. It was really more of my father who was concerned for me.

I was about to run across one of the roads when a Nightmare swooped down and lit the path ablaze. I felt someone grab the collar of my jacket and pull me away from the fire.

“Hicca! What is she doing…?” he spoke to the Vikings while pointing at me. Then he turned to me. “What are you doing out? Get inside!” He let me go and I continued to where I was going.

That’s Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby, he popped a dragon’s head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes, I do. Why? Yes, Stoick was my father. For as long as I could remember he had been terribly protective of me. My intuition told me that it had to do with the fact that my mother died when I was a kid. Ever since we lost her…something changed in him and he started treating my like I was a frail baby.

He was close to locking me away in my room for my entire life to avoid any danger, that’s why he always made me stay inside when the dragons attacked.

“What have we got?” he asked Spitelout, his second-in-command.

“Nadders, Gronkles, Zipplebacks. And someone saw a Monstrous Nightmare.”

“Any Night Furies?”

“None so far.”

“Good.”

I ran past the main courtyard as the other Vikings lit and hoisted the torches to light up the night sky. I made it to the blacksmiths and put on my apron.

“Nice of you to join the party, I thought you’d been carried off.” Said Gobber.

“Who, me? Come on, I’m way too fast for them to catch me.” I said, lifting one of Gobber’s prosthetics into its slot on the wall.

“Well they need toothpicks, don’t they?” he joked.

I ran over to the window just as some Vikings came up and deposited their broken weapons. I grabbed the piles and put them over the burning coal.

Gobber was the town’s blacksmith. I had been his apprentice ever since I was little. It was the only thing remotely close to weapons and sharp objects that my dad let me do. He was close to saying no, but I was persistent and Gobber was his closest friend.

I heard some voices outside and ran over to the window. I saw Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut and…Caileb. They were putting out as many fires as they could with buckets of water. Just as Caileb walked away from the fire he put out, a fireball landed right behind him, blowing his beautiful blonde hair around his face.

Caileb Forest was the coolest, most talented Vikings of my generation. Ever since I was a little girl, I had a huge crush on him. Every time I looked at him, I felt my heart race speed up, my face warm up and I go weak. But why would he ever be interested in me. I mean we are best friends, but that is it just friends.

Their job was so much cooler than mine. I felt somebody grab my collar again. It was Gobber. He easily lifted me away from the window and back into the shop.

“Oh come on, please? I need to make my mark.” I argued.

“Oh you’ve made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places.”

“Please, two minutes. I’ll kill a dragon.”

“You can’t swing a hammer, you can’t throw an axe, and you can’t even throw one of these.” He said holding up a bolas, which was instantly snatched away by another Viking.

Yes, I wasn’t strong like the other Vikings, let alone the female Vikings. Compared to all of them, I was scrawny and weak. But, I was smart.

“But this can throw it for me.” I said setting my hand on my own invention. It instantly opened up and shot one of the Vikings in the window.

“Now, this is what I’m talking about. Look what you’ve done.” He said, getting irritated with me.

“It was just a mild calibration issue.”

“Listen Hicca, if you ever want to get out there and fight dragons you need to stop all of… this.”

“But you just pointed to all of me.”

“Yes, that’s it! Stop being all of you.”

“Oh, you sir are playing a dangerous game, keeping all of this raw Viking-ness contained. There will be consequences!”

“I’ll take my chances. Sword. Sharpen. Now.” He handed me a sword, a very heavy sword and I took it over to the sharpening wheel.

One day, I’ll get out there, because killing a dragon is everything around here.

A Nadder head might get me at least some attention. Gronkles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me way more attention, maybe even a boyfriend (maybe Caileb) . A Zippleback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status. And then there’s the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.

But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one’s ever seen before. We call it the…

“Night Fury!”

“Get down!”

The Night Fury’s natural sound was heard and one of the catapults exploded.

This thing never steals food, never shows itself and never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury, that’s why I’m going to be the first.

I walked back into the shop to see Gobber putting on his axe prosthetic. “Man the fort, Hicca. They need me out there.” He walked out the door but turned. “Stay. Put. Here. Oh you know what I mean.” He let out a battle cry and raced into battle.

I quickly took this opportunity and pushed my bolas shooter out of the shop as Vikings continued asking what I was doing. I pushed it through all the chaos to a quiet spot in the village. I pulled out the shooter and got ready, waiting for my target.

“Come on, Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at.” I could hear the dragon’s cry in the distance, but I couldn’t see anything against the night sky. I squinted my eyes and saw something move across the stars. I could hear the sound of the Night Fury as it blew up the catapult right in front of me. I saw it for a second only and fired the bolas. The force of the shot easily pushed me onto the ground.

I heard a snap and roar. I quickly sat up and saw a dragon fall from the sky into the woods. “I hit it! Yes, I hit it! Did anybody see that?”

I turned around to see a Monstrous Nightmare behind me and crush my bolas shooter under its foot. “Except for you.”

The dragon lifted its head. I didn’t need to know what that meant. I bolted down the road, letting out the loudest scream I could. I ran back into the village and hid behind a pillar. I felt the heat of the dragon’s fire and screamed when I felt it burn my skin.

I peered out to my right and didn’t see the dragon. I suddenly felt like something was behind me. I turned around and screamed when I saw the Nightmare open its mouth.

All of a sudden, Stoick appeared and tackled the Nightmare. The dragon tried to breathe fire, but nothing came out. “You’re all out.” Stoick punched the Nightmare, causing it to fly away in retreat.

All the other Vikings had arrived to the scene, so I took the opportunity to sneak away. I felt someone grab the back of my jacket and push me out to my father. I turned my head and saw that it was Caileb, giving me a sorry look.

“Sorry, dad.” I mutter. “But I hit a Night Fury.” I felt my dad grab my jacket and walk away, forcefully dragging me along with him. “It isn’t like the other times, dad! I really hit it! It went down near Raven Point. We can get a search party…”

“Stop!” he shouted at me. He never shouted at me. I flinched at the harshness in his voice.

He saw that and softened his tone. “Just stop. Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!”

“Well between you and me, he village could do with a little less feeding don’t you think?”

“This isn’t a joke, Hicca! Why can’t you follow the simplest of orders?”

“I can’t help it. I see a dragon and I just have to… kill it. You know? It’s who I am, dad.”

My dad rubbed his temple. “You are many things, Hicca. But that is not one of them. Get back to the house. Make sure he gets there.” He said to Gobber. “I have her mess to clean.”

I walked past the other teenagers with Gobber.

“Quite the performance.” Said Tuffnut.

“I’ve never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped.” Said Snotlout.

“Thank you, thank you. I was trying.” I replied sarcastically. I looked over to Caileb and he shot me a look of disappointment. I averted my eyes away from him and marched up to my house.

“I really did hit one.”

“Sure, Hicca.”

“He never listens.”

“It runs in the family.”

“And when he does, it’s always with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. I get that he’s protective of me since mom was killed by a dragon, but it’s not like I’m gonna end up the same way! And just look at me! I’m not like all the other Vikings! I’m a talking fishbone!”

“You’re thinking about this all wrong.” Said Gobber. “It’s not so much what you look like, it’s what’s inside that he can’t stand.”

I looked at him. “Thank you for summing that up.”

“Look, the point it, stop trying so hard to be something you’re not.”

“I just want to be one of you guys.” I opened the door and stepped in, shutting it before Gobber could respond. I quickly dashed through the house and jumped out the back door to find the Night Fury.