Chapter Text
“Dragons!”
A boy, no more than 15 years old, blinked away his drowsiness as he was stirred awake in his bed, pausing for a second to see if he heard right and not another one of his dreams getting to him again. The shaking of his bed followed up by more screams made him fully realize the situation he was going to be in.
The boy with messy red hair jumped out of bed and quickly went to his wardrobe to put on his armor for the impending battle that was going to happen.
“This is berk quite possibly the toughest location north of Hopeless, a few degrees south of Freezing to death and a little ways off west of Weird. Berk is the place you want to be if you want to prove yourself as a warrior.
My name is Stoick Haddock”
The last buckle of his shoulder pad locked into place, Stoick turned and grabbed his double sided ax with a sort of practiced fluidity, like he was expected to be attacked at night in his very own home.
Stoick bounded down the stairs two steps at a time to open his front door and join in the fighting. As he swung the door open he was surprised to find that he was greeted first by a gaping mouth of a Monstrous Nightmare. Without thinking Stoick slammed the door before the Monstrous Nightmare could release his fiery wrath upon him. Instead the flame hit the wooden door, amazingly the door withstood the blast coupled with Stoick’s weight he successfully defended himself from the preemptive attack.
“Dragons…” Stoick mumbled to himself
“Berk has been around for about 7 generations and each generation had to fix houses that the dragons burned down after years of countless confrontations. It has always been that way, until Hiccup Haddock the Third took up the mantle as chief and introduced an ingenious way to counter even fire itself! Chief Haddock became famous after he successfully defended himself from a fire blast from a dragon with nothing more than a shield. Apparently he developed a recipe for oil, that when coated on any surface would become fire retardant. It became mandatory for everyone in the village to coat their homes in fire-retardant oil. Chief Haddock went down in history as the one who conquered fire.”
After the Monstrous Nightmare finished its attack, it was now Stoick’s turn now to retaliate. He swung open the door and with an ear-piercing war cry Stoick embedded his axe onto the neck of the Monstrous Nightmare and followed though with his swing and didn’t stop until the dragon was decapitated pile of viscera at his feet.
Stoick rushed to make his way to the village plaza where all the other warriors his age were. All the while he was greeted with “What are you doing here?” and a “Get back inside!” But he ignored them all and continued his way down to the center of the village where he was needed.
It wasn’t until he was grabbed violently by the collar that he finally stopped in his tracks and turned around to see who had prevented him from going any further. But it was the face of the Chieftess of Berk who stopped him.
If Stoick was horrified he didn’t let it show, like his namesake, he kept a stern pokerface on, opting to stay silent or face her wrath and now would be the worst time to argue with her.
“Stoick! What are you doing out? Astrid said with exasperation in her voice as she impatiently waited for an answer from him.
“I was jus-” ,but that was as far as Stoick could say because his Chieftess cut him off.
“Nevermind, just get inside!” Despite their proximity she nearly screamed the order at him and released him to carry out her order.
“That was the fearless Astrid Hofferson Haddock, Chieftess of Berk and the wife of the late Chief Hiccup Haddock the fire conqueror. They say that when she was a baby the clouds parted and gave way to a magnificent ray of sunshine, a sign that the gods had favored her and she proved it, when she was old enough to wield an ax she threw it so hard that she fell a tree and the one behind it. Do I believe it? Yes I do.”
“Fishlegs! What have we got?” Astrid shouted to a chubby looking man with a mop of dirty blonde hair.
“uhh…Gronkles, Nadderheads, Zipplebacks and-” But, before Fishlegs could finish, a dragon crept in and fired off a blast that was too close for comfort. Fishleg’s ducked behind his shield to cover from the ambush, Astrid however didn’t flinch like Fishlegs did, intent on surveying the skies for anymore dragons.
“Oh, and I think the twins saw a Monstrous Nightmare” Fishleg’s said to finish off his report.
“What should we do Chief? Fishlegs asked when Astrid remained silent for too long.
Astrid looked to him and for a moment Fishlegs thought he could see a bit of blankness in them, but just as the look appeared on her face it was quickly wiped away and was replaced with bitter determination.
“We need more support from the auxiliary team, tell Gustav to raise the torches and to ready the catapults, something tells me we’re going to need them.”
Fishlegs gave a single nod to his Chief and they both separated, Fishlegs to search for Gustav and Astrid to go where she was needed the most, which unfortunately for her is everywhere.
0o0o0o0o0o0oo
Stoick finally arrived to the center of the village where he could see the other warriors fighting off dragons.
One viking was retrieving his hammer after he had slung it at an unsuspecting dragon and was knocked unconscious, more than enough time to finish the downed dragon off.
The same viking approached Stoick with a smile on his face, unfitting given the circumstances.
“Oh! Nice of you to join the party, I thought you’ve been carried off!” he said to Stoick, his voice laced with a heavy accent.
Despite himself Stoick allowed himself to smile, “Who me? I wouldn’t miss this for the world!” Stoick branded his axe and took a swing at a Gronkle.
“I mean I would but those damned dragons can’t keep their paws off me. Just awhile ago as I was stepping out of my house one of them buggers attacked me! Killed it anyway, but it still gave me a heart attack!”
Gobber who was behind him gave a boisterous laugh “Spoken like a true viking, besides that’s what you get for killing a weyr of dragons, one of them is bound to get revenge on you in the end! ”
“The meathead with attitude is Gobber we’ve been shield-brothers ever since we were little.”
Out of no where a dragon comes bounding toward the duo its teeth bared possibly looking for its next victim. Stoick brought his shield up to meet the dragons charge, at the last moment he saw something move in the corner of his eye. A fierce looking Terrible Terror had already jumped up at him to bite off, presumably at his exposed jugular and all Stoick could do was watch.
0o0o0o0o0o0o
Fishlegs ran as fast as his legs could carry him toward where Gustav was stationed at. A sign that read ‘Berks Auxiliary Outpost’ could be seen and a little ways past a small building. Fishlegs slammed open the door to find that Gustav was already up gathering his troops, which were all junior warriors still in training to become full-fledged vikings.
Fishlegs wasted no time and walked up to the man in charge, “Gustav! The Chief wants to raise the torches and she also wants the catapults manned and ready to fire.”
Gustav nodded his head in acknowledgment “Right, Bucket, Mulch prime the catapult!”
Gustav then turned to a girl and a boy “Valka and Sven prep the torches and wait for my signal to deploy.”
“This is not a drill! People’s lives are at stake, and every second you dally could mean the difference between life and death!” Gustav shouted.
Fishlegs noticed a brunette haired girl rolling a contraption toward the exit of the outpost, but before she could make away with it Gustav stood in front of her to stop her.
“Valka! What are you doing? Leave the bola launcher here!” Gustav ordered.
Fishlegs watched in bewilderment as Gustav barked out orders seemingly unlike the demeanor Gustav gave off. The warriors-in-training obediently obeyed his orders without question, it could be the thought of dying or the thought of their loved ones dying that made them focus at the task at hand. Either way, the Chief should expect support from them soon or else they were going to lose this battle.
O0o0o0o0o0o0
At the last moment Gobber intercepted the attack and with a swing of his stone hammer he knocked away the Terror.
“I’ve got your back Stoick!” Gobber stated proudly, but unbeknownst to him a deadly Nadderhead is creeping up on his blind spot. The Nadder gave a shrill screech, which signaled its attack and approached Gobber at ludicrous speeds. Gobber looked over his shoulder and out of instinct shut his eyes the second after the Nadder made its presence known and froze up from fear, acknowledging the fact that this is how he’ll die.
*scree!* *thud!*
Gobber opened his eyes wondering why he was still alive, has Odin blessed him with a second chance at life? He was met with the small back of his shield-sister Brynhild, “Nope, no gods here, just monsters and men” Gobber thought to himself.
“If you’ve got Stoick’s back whose got yours?” Brynhild said with a smirk.
Gobber smiled downward and shook his head “Obviously you would Brynhild, I’ve never doubted you for a second.”
“Brynhild was a bit on the small side when it came to the women of Berk, but she made up for it with hard work and like the youths of the tribe, her tenacity to prove herself has earned her praise not only from the village, but also from Chief Astrid.”
Stoick fought the off the dragon charging at him and finished it off quickly, just in time for him to see the torches in the village shoot up from the ground to illuminate the skies.
“It was no surprise after contending with dragons, that Berk’s engineering was quite ahead of its time as compared to the rest of the world. Berk had inventions and machines that no one has ever heard of before and it was all thanks to the late Chief Haddock for coming up with such fantastic contraptions. Hiccup Haddock wasn’t known for his physical prowess, in fact pictures of him on the wall of Chiefs depicted him as something of a walking fishbone or something akin to that. No, Chief Haddock was known for his brilliant mind, something no one has had in years. His tactics in battle were unorthodox and it baffled the enemy when they confronted Chief Haddock. During his reign, Hiccup Haddock the Third never lost a battle and had successfully defended Berk by outsmarting and outmaneuvering the enemy rather than brute force.
Now that Stoick could see his surroundings better he surveyed his environment, Gobber, Bryhild and himself have turned their backs to each other to minimize the chance of a surprise attack. He could also see some of the other junior warriors fighting a few yards away.
Spitelout and his two brothers Hedgelout and Griplout Jorgenson could be seen fighting off Nadderheads and Gronkles almost on the verge of being overwhelmed.
However, Buffnut Thorston and Helga Ingerman seemed to be holding their own against a Gronkle.
In the distance Stoick could see the Chieftess next to a catapult ordering its handlers where to point the catapult at.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
“ Gustav! Concentrate your fire over on the lower bank!” Astrid barked out.
“Yes ma’am!” Gustav turned to two blonde boys, one taller than the other with a bucket over his head. “Bucket, Mulch! Get to it!
The two boys went to either side of the catapult to turn the contraption toward the right side of the village.
“Valka! Fire at will!” Gustav yelled at a small girl and despite her size, faithfully carried out the order, pulling back a lever, which tuned numerous gears and cogs .
The boulder that was loaded into the catapult sailed into the sky and collided with a deadly Nadder knocking it down from the sky where it could be finished off from below.
Gustav and his band of junior warriors celebrated with a holler and fist pumps after they had hit its target.
Astrid knew better and was right, a shadow that the torchlight didn’t reach caught her eye. She scanned the area to find the source of the movement, but didn’t have to look far because an unknown light source came from the bottom from where the catapult was perched up.
A Monstrous Nightmare had unsurprisingly lit itself on fire, a nasty habit, Astrid knew that the only reason the Nightmare had done so was because of two reasons, one: it ran out of juice and used its last shot to light itself on fire and two: It has met a strong opponent and had to give it, it’s all if it wanted to win. Astrid liked to think that it was always the latter, it gave her confidence knowing a dragon strong as a Monstrous Nightmare would fear her.
The celebration from the auxiliary team ceased and was replaced with wide-eyed silent horror.
“Reload! I’ll take care of this” Astrid said to them darkly and without much warning started to swing her ax to defend the catapult.
0o0o0o0o0oo0o
Another dragon was slain by the hands of Gobber and he was starting to tire out,
it had been a couple minutes now and the dragon hoard didn’t look like it was slowing down, in fact they seem to be getting bigger, stronger and angrier. Gobber knew if they didn’t do something soon Berk will be overrun in a matter of hours.
“Stoick this isn’t working we have to try something new”, Gobber said without looking at him. When Gobber was met with silence he turned around expecting to see his friend, he was surprised to find that Stoick was gone. Gobber could see him running off in the distance toward a Monstrous Nightmare that had lit itself on fire.
“Stoick? Stoick?! What in Thor’s name are ye doing?!” Gobber yelled at him.
“I need to help Chief! She looks like she’s in trouble!” Stoick screamed back.
Upon closer inspection Gobber could see that Stoick was right, he could see a Monstrous Nightmare fighting the darkened silhouette of their fearless Chief.
Gobber looked back to the shrinking figure of Stoick, he weighed out his options and concluded that as his shield-brother he has a responsibility to uphold, so he lifted his hammer and followed his best friend into the fray.
Brynhild on the other hand had kept herself busy, besting a Zippleback by beheading the head that created gas. Without any gas to combust, the dragon can’t utilize its fire efficiently leaving it vulnerable to an attack. With a final swing the other head of the Zippleback lay at her feet.
“HA HA, are we still keeping score Gobber? Because I just killed a Zippleback, which everyone knows counts as two points! Brynhild said triumphantly not minding the blood and viscera that was on her clothes and hair.
When Gobber didn’t reply she looked over her shoulder to find that both of her shield-brothers had abandoned her and instead are running off.
“Really, you guys?! She said with irritation laced in her voice, but she soon followed after them in favor of not being surrounded by dragons alone.
0o0o00o0o0o0o0o
The Dragons numbers haven’t dwindled, not in the slightest Stoick knew for a fact as he slayed his fifth dragon tonight. Stoick was so caught up on aiding the Chief that he failed to notice his shield-brother and sister behind him struggling to catch up with him.
00o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0
Astrid’s head was usually in the game, but something about tonight made her mind wander off to the night sky watching out for any sign of future danger that wasn’t there, instead of being in the here and now, fighting off a very real dragon from Helheim. Wanting to recollect herself, Astrid knocked back the Monstrous Nightmare with the side of her ax. She had successfully lured the Nightmare away from the catapult and was waiting for the dragon to lose steam, but as the Dragon approached Astrid to counter attack a soul shattering battle cry interrupted their concentration.
Stoick gave away his position at an attempt to take some of the heat off of Astrid, but it was a stupid move, Stoick knew himself well enough that he couldn’t take on a Monstrous Nightmare, not in his exhausted state and to add insult to injury the damn reptile had lit itself on fire. Stoick remembered when he tried to take on a Monstrous Nightmare that had engulfed itself in fire, first and second degree burns littered his arms and torso, incapacitating him for months. He couldn’t lift his weapon and that made him feel absolutely useless. That was the first time that Stoic felt fear, the same fear that had settled in his gut made him hesitate at the worst of times, now was one of those times.
“Stoick!”
Stoick didn’t know how long he was gone for, lost in his own thoughts, but the sound of Gobber’s voice behind him was enough to know that he spaced out and Gobber was going to pay for Stoick’s mistake.
The Monstrous Nightmare knocked Stoick to the ground hard after it lost interest in him and turned its attention to the Blond man screaming and flailing his arms wildly at him like a chicken gone mad.
Gobber didn’t know what else to do, he knew that the moment when Stoick stopped his battle cry he had frozen up, a symptom of PTSD. Gobber has seen it happen before when he worked as a healers assistant with Gothi. Stoick should’ve known better than to charge in, but then again he’s done the same thing as well.
Gobber lifted his weapon to strike the fiery demon, but as his arm came down fast and hard so did the dragon’s mouth and with a single twist Gobber’s arm and beloved hammer was gone.
Astrid saw all of this in slow motion, knowing that her mind was fast enough to stop all of this from happening, but her body was to slow to follow, too stunned to react. It was like Loki was teasing her, she could almost hear the sound of her ancestors laughing at her and of her late husband whispering to her: “You’re not fit to follow in my footsteps.”
But before Astrid could react she heard the telltale sound of a Nightfury coming down and preparing to attack.
“Nightfury! Get down!” Astrid could hear one of the vikings yell out. Instincts took over and she raised her shield to protect herself from any of the Nightfury’s attack. Fortunately, none of them were a target, but Astrid wished it were aimed at her because the attack found its way to the catapult that Gustav was last seen.
O0o0o0o0o0o0o
The Plasma bolt from the Nightfury’s attack incinerated the catapult with one blast, making the contraption fall apart at the seams.
“Jump!” Gustav yelled at Valka and the others, they all followed him knowing that there was a vast ocean beneath them to break their fall. However, Valka stayed behind, knowing that the Nightfury is going to continue its attack. She deployed the mobile bola launcher that she had stowed away when Captain Gustav wasn’t looking and she aimed her sights at the dark moonless sky waiting for the spawn of lightening and death itself.
“C’mon, give me something to shoot at” Valka repeated the phrase like a Mantra.
The gods must’ve loved her tonight because her prayer had been answered, the shadowy figure of a dragon could be seen blocking the stars a second and then vanishing, appearing once again and then vanishing once more. This went on for a couple seconds until her impulsiveness and patience wore out and Valka squeezed the trigger releasing the bola into the sky. The recoil sucker-punched her in the gut knocking the wind out of her and finally falling unintentionally into the sea below to rejoin her squad, but at the last moment before she fell into the water, she could’ve sworn that she heard the sound of a dragon give a hauntingly horrified screech.
0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o
Stoick woke up with a growing headache and he fought the urge to vomit as he looked up to take in his surroundings. He could see Astrid had contiued fighting the Monstrous Nightmare with more vigor than before in the village below next to two figures that he recognized as Bryhild and Gobber, but the latter of the two had his eyes closed. Stoick didn’t have time to think what that could mean, didn’t want to think about it now.
Stoick could see that while Astrid was keeping up with the Monstrous Nightmare she was tiring out fast.
Stoick looked around to see if he could somehow help her at this distance, going down there would take too long and by the time he gets there it might already be too late.
His eyes finally landed on the ridiculously large torch that had been deployed and was struck with a reckless idea, it was going to be messy to clean up, but at the moment what choice did he have? When no alternatives presented itself Stoick took his axe and started to work his way to the center of the pillar that held the large torch. It took some time, but when he finally managed to get it to fall, the torch dislodge itself separating Astrid from the Monstrous Nightmare. The Torch rolled down to the village and it continued to roll until it rolled past Sven’s sheep pen.
Stoick looked to the way the Torch rolled down assessing the damages that he’s done, flinching every time the torch rolled past an unsuspecting viking.
At this point the the fight between the dragons and the vikings had ceased. The vikings going to the where Stoick was to see what he’s done now.
Stoick could feel an unbelievably heavy pressure that was emanating from behind him. He took a slow breath in and turned around to meet the gaze of the Chief.
“Hi Mom.” Stoick mumbled, he knew that he should’ve called her Chief, but he would do anything at that moment to alleviate some of the tension hanging in the air.
When Astrid didn’t answer back unimpressed, Stoick knew that she was pissed, not at the intentional slip of the use of “mom,” but at what Stoick had done.
“Okay, but at least my distraction worked” Stoick said in his defense, but before he could say anymore, he was violently pulled by the arm and was walking toward their house making him yelp in surprise.
“Its not like the first few times mom, my plan actually worked this time,” Stoick continued on, but was met with yet again more silence.
“If you would listen to me from time to time I actually have some pretty good ideas and-” That set Astrid off, fed up with Stoicks rambling.
“Stop! Stoick, just stop.” Astrid said, exhaustion and irritation in her voice and as she said those words she released her grasp that she had on Stoick.
“Every time you think up of your plans disaster always seems to follow you.” Astrid said matter of factly.
“Can’t you see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost upon us and I have an entire village to feed. I asked you to do one thing Stoick, why can’t you follow the simplest of my orders?” Astrid continued.
“I can’t stop myself, every time that I see a dragon I have to just kill it you know?” Stoick said as he pretended to strangle and snap the neck of an invisible dragon that wasn’t there to prove a point. “It’s who I am, mom.” Stoick finished.
Astrid ran her hand over her eyes whispering a silent prayer to Odin to give her wisdom, patience, and forgiveness for what she was about to say next.
“Look around you Stoick,” Astrid Gestures with her free hand, Stoick looked to the direction that his Chief was pointing at, which was…everywhere. The damages he caused where extensive, from the library where it held Hiccup’s compendium of dragon knowledge, all the way to the outskirts of town. He felt sorry for the poor soul that was going to get that fixed.
“You are no doubt the best viking this village has seen, but I wish that you would use your head a little and I don’t just mean your convoluted plan that you’ve concocted. What I mean is to really think of the bigger picture other than your own interest.” Astrid said.
“But, I did! You were in trouble and I distracted it to get the dragons attention, I thought you would be grateful for my help.” Stoick returned angrily.
“And a lot of good that did,” Astrid said as she pointed to Gobber that was being cradled by a haggard looking Brynhild. Her eyes were red and puffy, obviously from the crying that she did, fearing for the worst that Gobber died from blood loss if he didn’t get the medical attention required.
“Your help,” Astrid took several steps toward Stoick until she was standing in front of him, “costed one of our own to be maimed and handicapped (pun not intended), furthermore this could all have been avoided if you just listened to what I ordered you to do, To. Stay. Inside!” Astrid pushed her index finger onto Stoick’s chest to punctuate her words.
Stoick was speechless, he knew that she was right, the distraction although was successful, the payoff costed them a whole lot more than what the dragons lost and they still got away with the majority of their fish and sheep, worst of all he put his best friends life at risk.
Astrid thought it was time deal out a punishment to Stoick when he didn’t have anything to say in his defense.
“Stoick, I hereby relegate you to Auxiliary fourth class, you are to report to Gustav Larson in the morning. Err..rather in 8 hours” Astrid finished with her addendum when she looked to the sky to find that they had spent the entire night fighting off their reptilian adversaries.
“Wha-?! Mom, that’s not fair! I earned my right to be here I’ve got the scars to prove it” Stoick said and he was thinking up of more things to say to persuade the Chief to take back her words.
“Did I stutter? You are to report to Captain Larson to be debriefed on your new accommodations and that’s final. Astrid said this time with more conviction.
Astrid had her Chief voice on, Stoick knew that anything he said would be disregarded. He dropped his head defeated and ashamed.
Astrid turned to face her friend, “Ruffnut, take Stoick home and make sure he gets there, I’ve his mess to clean up.” Astrid said the last part laced with poison.
Ruffnut would usually pass on the task to her twin brother, but something told her to do as she was told, lest she wanted to be subjected to the Chiefs anger. With one smack to Stoick’s head they were off.