10In times of old, when Viking's ruled the land and Dragons ruled the sky, one village and tribe in particular, were not so lucky than their neighbouring clans.
The Hairy Hooligans of Berk had enough trouble fighting off Dragon Raids every other night.
They had to put up with, Deadly Nadders, Gronkles, Hedious Zipplebacks, Monstrous Nightmares, and one of the more dangerous type of dragons... Whispering Deaths.
What makes these dragons more dangerous than the others is that they hunt from underground so you'll never know when it will attack until you hear the 'Whisper' of it's spines helping it to see in the dark.
Another thing they had to put up with, sadly, was the Chief's son Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, who... was not really you're average Viking in the size or strength category, and always gets in the way - his inventions don't help either - and therefore he was not that high on the likable list of the village.
Almost every dragon raid, Hiccup would try and prove himself worthy of having his title of Heir of the Tribe... And almost every Raid ended with the Vikings loosing because of him needing to be saving or knocking over a Torch-Pole and the dragons getting away with their livestock.
After eight years of this happening, Stoick the Vast, the Chief of the Tribe, had had enough and asked his fifteen-year old son, after the most recent raid, the question he kept asking himself, with the whole town there to get the answer too.
"Why can't you just follow the simplest of orders?"
"I can't stop myself," Hiccup said defending himself "I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it. You know, it's who I am Dad."
"You are many things Hiccup," Stoick said sighing and massaging his head a bit "But a Dragon Killer is not one of them. Get back to the house. Make sure he get's there..." he said looking towards the village's blacksmith and his best friend Gobber the Belch. "I have his mess to clean up."
Slowly Hiccup and Gobber made the lone walk back to the Chief's house that was on top of the highest hill passing the teenagers who had watch the whole thing.
"Quite a performance," Tuffnut the male of the Thorston Twins said while his sister Ruffnut laughed.
"I never saw anyone mess up so badly... That helped," Snotlout, his cousin, said gesturing to where he was just standing talking to his father.
"Thank you, thank you I was trying so..." Hiccup said sarcastically trying to avoid the eyes of Astrid Hofferson, the most skilled and beautiful, in his opinion, girl of their generation.
o0o
As Hiccup and Gobber ascended the hill to get to the house Hiccup began to let his mind speak. He could always do that around Gobber. He was the only one who ever listened or treated him with respect.
"Why can't he just give me a chance?" he asked not caring if Gobber answered "If he'd let me, I'm sure I can kill a dragon, but he never listens."
"Ah runs in the family," Gobber said saying he was listening.
"And when he does it's always with this disappointed scowl, like someone stepped in the meat in his sandwich," Hiccup said then puffing out his chest and deepening his voice to mimic Stoick.
"Excuse me barmaid, I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here... This is a talking fish bone."
"Now you're thinking about this all wrong," Gobber said "It's not so much what you look like. It's what's Inside that he can't stand."
"Thank you for summing that up," Hiccup said turning to the door.
"Look the point is. Stop being so hard to be something you're not," the blacksmith said kindly.
"I just want to be one of you guys," Hiccup said going in the front door, then to Gobber's unknowing right out the back to see if he could get rid of this feeling of shame in the forest, like he usually does after things like this.
He had no knowledge that today's visit, would change his life... forever...