Chapter 2

'But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one's ever seen. We call it the...'

"Night Fury!"

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"Get down!" Screamed out a viking, something that people had to do, when meeting a night fury. Hide.

A purple blast smashed into one of the catapults, destroying it completely.

"Jump!" Called out Stoick, trying to warn the people on there to get out of the way of the falling, flaming remains of the tower roof.

'This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and...' Another whistle appeared before a second catapult was destroyed.

'... never misses.'

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Back at the forge,

'No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first.'

Gobber, seeing the carnage, chose to swap out his tool hand into an axe hand, before warning the boy.

"Mind the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there. Stay!... Put! There! You know what I mean." He tried to stop Hiccup from doing anything stupid like running out again.

The moment he left however, Hiccup did the exact opposite of what he was told. He grabbed his wheelbarrow before speeding off towards a cliff near the forge, for a better angle. The people he had passed by though, had seen run away to do something stupid called out to him, to stop him

"Hiccup, what are you doing? Come back here!"

"Yeah, I know, Be right back!" Was his response towards the calls.

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Somewhere close to the pens.

Stoick, seeing the dragons try to take the sheep, threw a net at the group, and managed to catch some together. One of the Nadder's however seemed like it was still ready to spew some flames, but was interrupted by Stoick, throwing himself at the dragon to keep it's mouth shut.

"Mind yourself! The devils still have some juice in them." He warned the others.

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On the cliff near the forge,

"Come on. Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at. " He repeated over and over again, he had one try and he didn't want to miss. He saw a slight shift in the sky, before the whistle appeared once again, destroying the catapult tower. Hiccup however prayed and shot, hoping that he didn't miss

It seemed however that the god's had given him a chance to prove himself and he had hit the Hight Fury.

"Oh! I hit it? Yes, I hit it! Did anybody see that?" He called out in joy, before turning around to see the monstrous terror appear behind him" Except for you."

The dragon opened it's mouth and prepared to release a stream of hot fire. A hand however grabbed Hiccup from behind pulling him out of the inferno. A different hand this time.

"Careful there, kid. Don't want to have to deal with your father, if you get burned alive" Called out a gruff voice behind him.

Hiccup looked at the man to double check if he was seeing the correct person.

"Geralt! What are you doing here?" He asked the white-haired man in question, who was holding a staff in one hand, with a sword sheath on his back.

"Not the time, kid." the man said before facing the fiery dragon in front of him. The stared into the dragon's eye's before using an insignia and whispering out to it. "leave. leave and do not touch the livestock". His whisper, however, seemed to be carried by the wind and resounded throughout the village.

The dragons who had heard his voice, without hesitation, shrunk back and flew off, as if their primal instinct were telling them to get away.

Seeing the dragons run away after the whisper resounded throughout the village, many muttered to themselves

"Geralt is here."

"The fight is over."

It seemed like the man appearing, had announced the end of the dragon raid. However there were no calls of joy, yelling his name. No, no. Geralt was like a plague that everyone distanced themselves from. He and his so called insignia, with addition to his dragon like eye's.

The only person who could talk to him freely was Stoick, and Stoick new that, the man only helped them because he was asked to. Nothing more or less.

"Thank you Geralt, for the help" The man just nodded in return before walking off towards the forest, where his abode was.

"Now" Stoick turned towards Hiccup with a stern look.

'Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know... '

"What were you doing out here. I believe Gobber warned you not to leave the smithy. You were lucky that Geralt saved you from being cooked." He admonished him.

"Sorry, Dad." Hiccup looked down for a bit, before remembering the result of his hunt. "Okay, but I hit a Night Fury." Stoick, however, looked at his son like he was a fool. "It's not like the last few times, Dad! I mean, I really actually hit..." Stoick had started to walk away with Hiccup following him close behind trying to reason with his father.

"You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there before... " He pointed towards the forest.

Stoick however seemed to be too tired for this. "Stop! Just, stop!" He waved his hands in front of his son, motioning him to stop talking. "Every time you step outside, disaster falls. The only reason nothing happened this time was because of Geralt." The name made the people around whisper between themselves.

"Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

Seeing his father in such a bad mood, Hiccup tried to lighten up Stoick 's mood with a joke, "Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?"

His father, however was less than pleased, "This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?"

"I, I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it. You know, it's who I am, Dad." Hiccup tried to justify himself

"Oh, you are many things, Hiccup, but a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house." He reprimanded before ordering him to go home. To make sure however he looked towards his crooked friend, "Make sure he gets there. I have this mess to clean up."

"Quite the performance. I've never seen anyone mess up so much, that even the outsider had to set in to help. Good job!" Snotlout remarked.

"Thank you. Thank you. I was trying." Hiccup retorted back with sarcasm oozing out of his mouth.

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"I really did hit one." Hiccup tried to convince Gobber who responded with an empty voice

"Sure, Hiccup."

"Geralt saw me" He tried to point out.

"He didn't say anything did he?"

Hiccup sighed before releasing all of his pent up stress

"Father never listens."

"Well, it runs in the family." Gobber interrupted him midway but hiccup ignored it and continued.

"And when he does, it's always with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich."

And after brief hesitation, he tried to imitate his father, "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!" which came out more miserable and dark than what he had hoped, or thought through.

"Now, you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like. It's what's inside that he can't stand." Gobber tried to cheer up Hiccup while defending his friend. The words he used though were less than kind.

"Thank you for summing that up." Hiccup said with a blank face.

"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not." Gobber tried again, this time with less hurtful words.

Hiccup, however was sad that his attempts at bonding with other people were always terrible. "I just want to be one of you guys." He muttered before slamming the door shut. Seeing this Gobber sighed and left for the planning room, all the while, missing Hiccup leaving through the backdoor of the house.

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The war room of Berk

"Either we face them or they'll finish us. It's the only way we'll be rid of them. If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home. One more search, before the ice sets in." Stoick tried to persuade the townsfolk of Berk for another expedition.

"Those ships never come back." One of the Vikings pointed out.

"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard." Stoick shot back, before asking "Now who's with me?" Seeing the lack of interest or hands in the air, it seemed the people needed some motivation. "Alright,... Those who stay will look after Hiccup." Immediately all hands inside shot upwards.

"Now, that's more like it. Go and prepare. All dismissed" Everybody trailed outside and only Gobber with Stoick were left.

"I'll pack my undies." Gobber joked around, while sipping on his ale. Stoick, sadly had other plans

"No, I need you to stay, and train some new recruits." He asked his friend.

"Oh, perfect, yeah. And while I'm busy Hiccup can cover the store." Gobber retorted. "Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself... What could possibly go wrong?" He asked sarcastically.

"Oh, what am I going to do with him, Gobber?" Stoick sat down and asked his friend for helpful advice.

"Put him in training with the others." Gobber pointed out.

"No, I'm serious." Stoick thought his friend was joking but was proven wrong.

"So am I."

"He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage." Stoick tried to prove that the idea was horrible.

"Oh, you don't know that."

"I do know that."

"No you don't"

"No, actually, I do."

"No, you don't."

"Listen, you know what he's like. From the time he could crawl he's been... different. He doesn't listen. He has the attention span of a sparrow. I take him fishing and he goes hunting for.. for Trolls!"

"Trolls exist! They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What's with that?"

"When I was a boy..."

"Oh, here we go."

"My father told me to bang my head against a rock,... and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?"

"You got a headache." Gobber retorted

"That rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountains,

level forests,... tame seas! Even as a boy I knew what I was, what I had to become... Hiccup is not that boy."

"You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him." His friend warned him, " I know it seems hopeless, but the truth is you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now." Oh how right he was.

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Hey guys

Cya tomorrow...

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