Disclaimer: Not mine, if it were mine I'd be working on a screenplay for a sequel, rather than this bit of self-indulgent fun.

Hiccup the Dragon Master sat on a hilltop overlooking the village on the island of Berk, as the day turned to night. Two years on, and he worked on yet another modification to Toothless' harness as the light dwindled. A fog hovered off the coast. Toothless himself lay nearby watching fairly patiently for the active dragon. He knew that whenever Hiccup decided to change anything, he would follow it with a thorough testing period, which generally involved a great deal of flying. Which considering as much as they were in the air already, he never minded waiting.

Hiccup still winced a bit at the "Dragon Master" bit. He could almost accept "Dragon Tamer", or preferred "Dragon Trainer", though to his eyes he was as much a "Viking Trainer" as Dragon. However given that modesty among his people involved bellowing their accomplishments at the top of their lungs to every and any person in the area, neither Tamer nor Trainer was considered important sounding enough by the villagers of Berk for their Hero.

The modification he was working on in the dying light wasn't mechanical for once. He was pretty satisfied with that part once he'd figured out a bit of refined whale blubber would keep the moving bits from sticking at unfortunate moments (the bruises from that incident were finally fading). During some of their more acrobatic flights he had noticed that scales at certain points were rubbed off or even crushed by the harness. The first trial had involved wool stuffing inside of leather, which worked for a time, but eventually bunched and shifted to the point that Toothless refused to allow him to put the harness on. Emphatically in fact, to go by the teeth snapping shut a foot above his head.

Next he had tried a wool felt, which again had worked at first. The main problem being the fact that dragon scales had ended up shredding it so badly that it had been half gone by the end of the first test flight. Now he was trying the felt covered by a thick but soft suede leather. At this particular moment he was finishing wrapping up the metal circles which Toothless fit his forelegs through.

Not all of his trials and modifications had worked that well. The time he had wanted to see if anyone else could work with Toothless to fly had been a complete failure. He had gotten Astrid to agree to try and managed to get her in the harness only to have Toothless curl up and stick his head under his wing and feign sleep. Several hundred pounds of dragon is hard to move if said dragon doesn't want to. Begging and pleading hadn't shifted him. When Hiccup finally lost his temper and resorted to threats, he'd ended up receiving a well aimed thwack upside his head from the tail of the "sleeping" dragon.

The one other miserable failure had been the attempt at saddlebags. The first try had placed two bags on either side right behind Hiccup's legs. Toothless spend the short test flight snapping his head from side to side trying to dislodge them. Assuming that they had shifted too much, Hiccup tried a pack down along the dragon's chest and stomach. Toothless had taken off fine, even flew perfectly. It wasn't until they were far from land that he performed a complicated contortion that had his hind legs shredding the bags off so their contents spilled into the ocean. The fact that Toothless had waited until they were in a position where the recovery of the items was slim to nil, coupled with the dragon's smug expression had gotten the point across.

Passengers only. No baggage.

The past few years had otherwise been almost idyllic. There had been some skirmishes between boats of his tribe and other Vikings here and there. Apparently they had left Berk more or less alone because it was so close to the Dragon Nest. The weather wasn't particularly good and together with even more constant dragon attacks that any three other tribe's islands combined had made other tribes view Berk as not worth the effort. With the dragon attacks gone the weather alone wasn't enough to keep back attackers looking to improve their own standing.

Hiccup argued with his father Stoick that the main reason they were attacked was the other tribes were afraid of them because of their "control" over the dragons. He felt that if he could explain and/or train the other tribes the aggression would end. His father argued that the strength of the dragons was the only thing that kept more tribes from challenging them. The fights were almost as loud as the arguments before. At least in the two years that had passed Hiccup had grown a few feet. Now instead of yelling at his father's stomach, he was yelling at his nose. Otherwise it was the same song and dance. Hiccup arguing for change and his father arguing he was too inexperienced to understand his ways wouldn't work. Which was at least a little change from before when Stoick wouldn't listen at all. At least when it came to the dragons themselves Hiccup was the first person his father turned to.

Hiccup finished the final finicky bit of tying off the suede straps and held up the finished piece.

"Hey bud, what do you think?" he asked Toothless.

The dragon lifted his head, cocking it as if to inspect the changes. His ear flaps lifted as he realized Hiccup was finished and it was time to fly. Easily getting to his feet Toothless butted the still sitting Hiccup in the chest to show his impatience to be air-born.

Hiccup laughed at the now restlessly shifting dragon, and carefully levered himself up. While he'd grown accustomed to the artificial leg, it was still a trial to get to his feet after sitting on the ground for a bit.

He had just laid out the harness so Toothless could step into it, when he heard a loud boom, followed by the sight of flames rising from the village as the last of the daylight faded.

A/N: This is the first bit of creative writing I've done since elementary school, over 15 years ago. Feel free to point out any glaring spelling/grammar errors so I can fix them.