The Heirs of Berk

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕦𝕖

The night was lit orange by the fires that engulfed the village. Dragons circled the village of Berk, blasting houses, dive-bombing vikings, and stealing food. Vikings hacked away at the beasts, desperately trying to save their food stores. In the midst of it all, one man was simultaneously giving orders and killing dragons by the hundreds.

"Get ready!" Stoick the Vast yelled at his men, signalling them to light up the catapults. The vikings manning these formidable weapons dodged and weaved through the dragon's fire. Many of them carried torches, and with them they set the projectiles in the catapults on fire, lighting up the night even more.

"Wait...." Stoick held up his arm, waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill as many dragons as possible. They had, after all, taken his wife. 

Suddenly a flock of dragons started flying into view, at least 40 beasts. Maybe more. The Chief of Berk grinned. "NOW!" He bellowed, "FIRE!"

In unison, almost 50 fireballs arced through the sky, pushing through the night and hitting their targets. Almost instantly, the dark sky filled with tons of falling dragons. The catapults had hit their mark.

Soon, the vikings repeated the drill, but the dragons weren't just mindless beasts. Every one of them was on high alert, ready to dodge fireballs, arrows, and whatever other deadly projectiles were coming at them. They fought back too, and it seemed for every few dragon deaths, there was a human one with it.

On the other side of the village, hidden away from the horrors of the raid, a small boy played with a baby. The boy looked about 3 years old, and the baby in his lap wasn't even a year old yet. 

The boy was in fact the son of the chief and heir of Berk, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. The baby girl was his younger sister, Acacia Haddock. 

Tonight, young Hiccup was supposed to be watching his sister during the raid. They were supposed to stay put in their house, and not move until their father got back. Acacia, of course, had other plans.

She gurgled with delight as she used her new found powers of crawling to move towards the door.

"Hey!" Hiccup yelped as his sister crawled away from him. He moved in front of her and herded her back under the table where they were supposed to be. 

"'Cacia!" Hiccup scolded, sitting down and pulling his sister onto his lap. "Daddy said to stay put!"

Acacia only laughed at her brothers scolding tone, making Hiccup's frown melt into a smile.

"You," he declared, still smiling, "are so evil. You won't even let me stay mad at you!" Acacia laughed again and tried to grab her brother's nose. He flinched away, but Acacia was persistent. Eventually Hiccup gave in, letting his sister pinch his nose.

They both laughed, but they were too loud.

The roof of the Haddock's house exploded in flames as a fiery Monstrous Nightmare crashed through. The explosion sent both heirs of Berk sprawling on the ground.

Hiccup struggled to sit up, his tunic coated in ash from the fire. He heard a gurgle of delight, a sound he immediately recognized as his sister. He whipped around to see the dragon, a Monstrous Nightmare, playing with Acacia.

Hiccup wanted to do something, he knew that he had to do something, but he couldn't. He watched as the 'horrible beast' played with his sister, the flames on its body flickering out. Almost as if it didn't want to hurt Acacia. Almost as if it was being gentle. 

Suddenly, the tender moment was interrupted as a group of loud vikings, completely unaware of what was happening in the house, ran past. Their loud voices must have startled the Nightmare, because it erupted in flames again.

Acacia screamed, and Hiccup leapt up. 

"Hey!" He shouted, unable to hide the fear in his voice. "Get away from her!"

How the three year old summoned the courage, no one knows. Unfortunately, it didn't do much. 

The Nightmare was clearly not intimidated by Hiccup. It was spooked by all the yelling and desperate to get out of there, so it simply grabbed Acacia and flew away.   

Hiccup screamed desperately for his sister, but it didn't matter. The bright, flaming dragon sailed through the night, untouched by the vikings, with the Heir of Berk in its claws.