Heart of a Berserker: Trust (School of Dragons)

Chapter 1

A/N: Hello, everyone! I have recently really gotten into the HTTYD game School of Dragons, and it has consumed a lot of my time. I thought I might as well use my obsession to get some writing done, so this story was born. Those who have never played the game are welcome to read. I will explain everything along the way. I warn you my emphasis is on the expansions, and if you don't want spoilers, you should not read this. I will also basically spoil all the movies and Race to the Edge.

Working through continuity issues of the game and the movies and shows is a difficult task. Obviously, many parts of the game are for player experience and would not happen exactly that way in canon. I have done my best to smooth things over and make everything fit together. Hopefully, my timeline is believable. Race to the Edge and HTTYD 2 will take place during the story, but for the most part I will skim over the events. I may include RTTE Season 6 only because I think there could be an interesting rewrite including the original game characters and events.

Unlike other School of Dragons stories I've seen, this one will focus on my character and her interactions with the game characters (NPCs), especially in the expansions. I will try to make the characters align with the way they are in the game, though I will definitely expand upon the relationships. That is the whole point of this, after all. The start of the story (after the introduction), takes place between Defenders of Berk and Race to the Edge when the characters are 16-17 years old.

Please let me know if something does not make sense and I need to explain something in further detail. The time frame for this so far is five years, and I will have to summarize a lot to get to the main parts of the plot. I'm sorry if it's a little slow at the beginning, but certain relationships need to be established. For those of you familiar with the expansions, things will really start to heat up during Battle for the Edge.

For those of you who may start reading further down the line, I am starting this story after the Curse of the Hobgobbler expansion. When new expansions come out, I will include them if they fit with the plot I have in mind. If they contradict where the story is going by that time, I reserve the right to alter or skip over them. The story comes first.

That's about all I have to say for now. Hopefully the medias res introduction to this chapter will give you a little taste of things to come. It starts off with the events every player witnesses upon going into the school after the Hidden World update, so there are really no spoilers here.

Enjoy!

***

"When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see
Are all made of gold

When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all
And the blood's run stale"

- "Demons" by Imagine Dragons

Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly on the School of Dragons as I walked and chatted with Heather, my roommate, best friend, and fellow Berserker. Bolt, my Skrill, trailed behind us. We were almost to the lab when someone whizzed past me, nearly causing me to stumble. Heather and I exchanged a look.

"Was that-?" Heather said.

I nodded. "Harald," I said under my breath. The pirate who kept getting in our way and drove me crazy. "Come on, Bolt."

I easily slid into my dragon's saddle, and we took to the air. Hiccup and Astrid flew past me on their respective dragons, but I hovered in the air and surveyed the scene.

Harald carried a large crate bearing his captain Stormheart's symbol and was headed towards the landing pad, a large, raised circle surrounded by water. His Terrible Terror Leopold was nowhere in sight. Harald placed the crate in the middle of the landing pad while Toothless and Stormfly drew in closer.