Growing Up Without Berk

Chapter 1: The Decision

Hiccup was not your typical average viking. Or at least that was what every single viking on Berk thought. He was smaller than the rest. "Scrawny" is what people called him. He was weak, with no muscle, and couldn't even lift a sheep. He was a "talking fishbone" which is what he called himself. Hiccup knew he was different. He accepted it. He was bullied by his friends, his friends being the only vikings close to his age on the whole island. Even his dad, Stoick, chief of the Hooligan tribe, thought he was useless. But what Stoick and the rest of the vikings, even Hiccup didn't know, was that with time, Hiccup's life would change... forever.

"We move to the lower defenses. Counter attack with the catapults!" Stoick yelled as a Hideous Zippleback dragon spit fire onto one of the viking's house.

"My house!" a viking shouted in the distance.

Hiccup woke up startled to the sound of wood falling. "Another dragon attack?" Hiccup moaned while lazily getting on his green tunic shirt. "That's the third time this week!" He quickly got on his brown furry vest and put it over his shirt along with his big brown boots, and ran to his front door. "They might need me out there!"

As soon as Hiccup opened the door, a dragon spewed fire at him. He quickly closed the door just in time to block the fire. "Maybe they don't need me right now," Hiccup said panting, shocked that he almost got burned alive.

Stoick and his friend Gobber both hauled up a net over the fire spitting dragons and pulled them down to the ground.

"Watch the tail!" Stoick shouted at Gobber as he was struggling to wrap up the net around the dragon's body. "Tie those legs up!"

Hiccup slowly creaks open his now black burnt door, only to luckily find the dragon flying away. Hiccup slowly steps out of his hut and runs past many surprised and angry vikings.

"What are you doing here?" said one viking.

"Get inside!" another called.

"What are you doing out?" another viking called out as Hiccup dodged debris falling from the night sky.

Hiccup ran past more vikings telling him to go back into his hut. But all of a sudden he felt a hand pull at the back of his shirt. He struggled frantically. But once he found out who had grabbed onto him, he stopped struggling. Hiccup forgot to avoid his dad while running to get a bucket of water to put out fires, being that is the only thing he could lift up and carry.

Stoick grabbed Hiccup, picking him up so easily like he was a piece of fish. "Hiccup?! Wh- what are you doing out aga--?! What are you doing out?! Get inside!" Stoick shouted at Hiccup, shoving him towards the direction of his hut.

Hiccup, as usual, disobeyed his father's order and ran to Gobber's weapon's shop. But before he grabbed a bucket for water, he spotted around the corner a wooden machine with wheels. "I can't throw a bola, but this will do it for me." Hiccup thought. He knew what this machine did. He has seen it every time he has gone in Gobber' shop. The machine can throw a bola, a weapon with two rocks connected by a rope, a long distance with a push of a button. "Maybe I can be useful for once," Hiccup said as he walked past the wooden bucket and sneakily grabbed the bola machine. Hiccup ran past low soaring dragons, and struggled to steer the bola machine up to the top of the hill. When he finally reached the high grassy area, for what seemed like hours after trudging up the hill, and dodging fire which spewed every which way at him, he set the bola machine on the ground and aimed it at the str littered sky.

"Come on give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at," Hiccup said in a whisper.

He suddenly saw a black shadow in the night sky. He tried to aim at the fast flying dragon. He aimed the bola as best as possible and pressed the button to release. But much to Hiccup's dismay, the impact of the machine threw Hiccup to the ground, causing him to lurch the bola machine and to his luck, shoot the bola towards the village.