A comfortable, cool breeze washed over the medieval Viking settlement of Berk.
Under the Sun's rays, citizens stepped out of their huts and stretched. Ah, now that felt good. The Sun glowed exceptionally bright that day, telling the settlement that another exciting, beautiful day was coming.
When citizens loosened their muscles, they took their dragons and headed toward the dining hall for breakfast. These people lived peacefully amongst the dragons, all because of one boy... Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.
Hiccup's best dragon friend, Toothless, woke up first in his hut. He stood on his mat and yawned while stretching like a dog. He was more a mix of a dog and cat than a dragon, but that was why Hiccup loved him so much.
In his bed, the eighteen-year-old son of Chief Stoick rested on his side and breathed silently. His mechanical, prosthetic leg sat beside one of the bed's legs. Hiccup lost the lower half of his leg in a battle with an enormous dragon (the Red Death) when he first met Toothless three years ago, but he was finally used to it.
Toothless, after stretching, trotted to him and licked his face.
Immediately waking up, Hiccup yelled, "Ahh!" and pushed him off. "Come on, Toothless! I just had the most wonderful dream!" Which he did. Hiccup thought the dream was a call from the gods—from Valhalla. He dreamt he was walking through a beautiful forest and met a new dragon—a light dragon, to be exact. It had two different-colored eyes and a crystalized body. Something exciting was about to happen. Hiccup could not wait to go exploring. Maybe he could even skip out on breakfast. Who needed breakfast when there was a completely new dragon species to discover?
With that in mind, the young man hopped out of bed and picked up his prosthetic leg. As soon as he had it on, he smiled at Toothless. "Toothless, I think a huge adventure awaits us today!"
At the word "adventure", Toothless grinned and leaped into his arms. His tail started to wag. Similar to Hiccup, he was missing half of his tailfin. Three years ago, when Hiccup shot him down during a dragon raid, he injured him, but as the two befriended each other, Hiccup made Toothless new fins every month to replace the one he was missing. That was so he could fly. In a way, the boy and dragon were dealing with physical injuries, another reason they were so close. In addition, just like Hiccup, Toothless loved exploring new islands and dragon species.
Hiccup rubbed his face and gently pushed the dragon back on the ground. "Yeah, boy. I'm excited, too."
"Hiccup!" a young female voice suddenly shouted from the other side of the hut's door. It flew open, and Hiccup's friend, Astrid, appeared in the doorway. She was a headstrong young woman who matched the typical Norwegian woman of Medieval Norway. She threw herself into battles with the hope she would impress the gods and show the citizens of Berk that she was capable of anything.
Astrid hurried to Hiccup and Toothless and announced, "I have an idea for our adventure today!"
Hiccup smiled and said, "Well, well, well. Someone is excited."
"Duh," Astrid spoke. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "I had an amazing dream last night! The gods are telling me there is a new dragon species to discover!"
"Really?" asked Hiccup. "I had a dream like that, too. It was a light dragon I saw."
"Really? Me, too!"
"Really?"
Astrid nodded. "Yeah! It was incredible, Hiccup! I saw the dragon in a beautiful forest."
"That was my dream, too!" Hiccup was amazed. "Why do you think we had the same dream, Astrid?"
"Hm." Astrid leaned to one side and gripped her chin. While she did that, Toothless rested his chin on Hiccup's shoulder. Finally, Astrid lowered her hand and answered, "Maybe we should ask the others about it."
Hiccup immediately gave in to her suggestion. "Yeah. Maybe we should."
Toothless rolled his eyes and removed his head. He sometimes felt like Hiccup relied too much on Astrid.
***
"What? Light dragon?" Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs, the rest of Hiccup's friends, asked at breakfast that morning.
Hiccup nodded. "Yes. Both Astrid and I saw it in our dreams last night."
"Aw," Snotlout groaned, "why do you guys always get the cool dreams? The only dreams I get are me staring into the blank unknown."
Tuffnut grabbed Astrid and Hiccup's heads and pulled them close to his chest. "Because they are meant for each other. Aren't you guys?"
The two teens blushed. There Tuffnut went again.
Hiccup choked on his water and spat it out. Him and Astrid? Yuck. They were nothing alike. Hiccup had a coughing attack, and it took a few minutes to calm down.
When finally it did, he rested his palm over his chest and laughed. "Oh, you're hilarious, Tuffnut!"
Tuffnut shrugged. "What? I'm serious."
"Anyway," Astrid said, clearing her throat, "Hiccup and I were going to head out today to look for the Light Dragon."
Hiccup could tell Tuffnut also put her in an uncomfortable spot. At least he wasn't the only one.
Snotlout's eyes widened. "What? You're going to fly out and look for dragons without inviting us?"
"Well," Hiccup stuttered, "Astrid and I thought you guys were getting tired of spending day after day looking for dragons."
"Are you kidding?" Fishlegs asked.
"We love it!" he, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout spoke at the same time.
Tuffnut chuckled and flashed his eyelashes at Hiccup and Astrid. "I think Hiccup and Astrid just want to spend some time 'alone.'" Uncrossing his arms, Tuffnut bent his index and middle fingers to emphasize the word "alone".
Luckily, another voice from behind interrupted the awkward moment.
"What are you kids talking about over here?" It was Gobber, and beside him was Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father. "Are you heading out to look for more dragons?"
"Is that okay?" Hiccup wanted to know, shivering when he got a sudden chill.
Stoick sighed. "Well, I did want you to help me with a few things around the island today, Hiccup, to start your chief training."
Hiccup froze, and his face turned white. Chief?
Astrid was immediately up for the idea. "Chief? Oh, my gods, Hiccup!" She punched his arm. "You're going to become chief soon!"
Hiccup flinched and grabbed his throbbing arm. "Ow!" He felt like Astrid's punches had gotten stronger lately. "Can we talk about this, Dad?" he asked Stoick. "Somewhere out there is a Light Dragon just waiting to be tamed."
As soon as he said "Light Dragon", Stoick's eyes widened. "Light Dragon?" He glanced at Gobber.
"Sure," Hiccup nervously spoke, leaning back in his chair. "Astrid and I had a dream about it last night."
Again, Stoick's eyes widened, and he gasped. "The two heroes," he mumbled under his breath.
Two heroes? What was he talking about?
"Um," Hiccup continued, "should I be worried because you're acting very strange, Dad." He leaned back further in his chair, but that caused the legs to slip out from under him, and the young man tumbled to the ground on his back.
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and Snotlout burst out laughing, but Astrid yelled, "Hiccup!" She fell to her knees beside the fallen boy and grabbed his arm. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Hiccup admitted, although his butt was a little sore.
Astrid helped him to his feet. Hiccup's prosthetic leg sometimes slipped, making it difficult for him to stand occasionally.
Stoick's face turned stern, and he gestured for the six teens to follow him and Gobber. "Come with us, Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. I want to share something with you."
"Um, okay," the teens spoke. The remaining four stood.
A few trickles of sweat ran down Hiccup's temples. He had no idea why he suddenly felt so nervous and clammy. What were Gobber and his father getting ready to tell him and his friends?
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