Thank you very much! As for Stoick, I’ve decided long ago that he’s not a dragonwalker, just a plain old viking with a loving dragon wife. He left his dragon killing life behind after finding out the love of his life was a dragonwalker and had begun building a life for themself in some nowhere island far from the village when Grimmel caught wind of a nightfury sighting on their island. He had died defending his wife and newborn son. His sacrifice was not in vain as Valka and Hiccup fled and survived.
When Hiccup is fifteen, he’s sent away from Berk on an impossible quest: capture/kill a nightfury.
Stoick sees how Hiccup struggles to fit the image of a viking and live up to all the expectations Berk has of him as the heir. He sees how different his son is and fears he’ll never be what he needs to be. After one particular mess up, he decides Hiccup needs to get off the island and prove himself. Really, it’s more meant as a way to keep the boy busy, away from danger, and give him a chance to build some character out on the sea.
It was never meant to be a quest he could complete. Nightfuries haven’t been seen in at least a couple decades.
When rumors of one make their way around the archipelago a few years later, Hiccup is filled with unimaginable hope. He thought he’d be stuck on a ship for the rest of his life hunting a dragon thought to be extinct. This is his ticket back home and he’s not going to lose it. He hunts the dragon from island to island, pulling out every trick he knows in an effort to capture the beast.
Meanwhile, Stoick hears the rumors and decides he needs to get on top of this. The son he remembers can barely wield an axe let alone kill a dragon, how can Stoick expect him to actually complete his quest? On top of that, other tribes have heard the rumors and now everyone seems to be racing to win the honor of besting the last nightfury. The chief allows a crew to go on the search; it will be a good test for the most recent group of teens to have passed dragon training.
When Astrid and her peers set sail on their quest, she thought it would be straightforward. They were trained for this, are experts on fighting dragons and have earned their merit through the war that continues to rage on Berk. They will bring honor to their tribe.
She expected the search parties from other tribes. Some were like Berk and sent out a single crew while others, like the Berserkers, had entire armadas on the lookout for the errant nightfury. What she didn’t expect was Berk’s own heir showing up and being surprisingly more competent than he was the last time she saw him. It was also a surprise when he started to work against them going as far as sabotaging all their efforts to kill the beast just so they wouldn’t win.
Doesn’t he know they’re on the same team??
Other thoughts on this AU:
Hiccup is 18 when the rumors start that there’s a nightfury around
He spent the three years before that sailing far and wide. He would hunt down any intel on nightfuries, make a point of meeting Grimmel the Nightfury Killer, visit places nightfuries used to nest. He would be taken far out of the Barbaric Archipelago on his quest.
He’d have run-ins with trappers, skate the edges of Drago’s fleet, watch from afar as a four-winged dragon attacked trapper ships and bases. The Defenders of the Wing would cast him away and he’d be lucky to never know the Wingmaidens fly among the clouds.
Viggo Grimborn is someone he’d constantly cross paths with. The Dragon Hunter chief has a strange fascination with him and their interactions leave Hiccup with an unsettled feeling in his gut and crawling skin. When they first met, Hiccup returned that fascination, but that was soon burned away as Hiccup got older and Viggo got more comfortable around him.
Early on in his quest, Hiccup has to deal with Outcasts and Berserkers. There would be an incident with the Outcasts and Alvin that would lead to Hiccup losing his leg.
Maybe Gobber would accompany him? Stoick needs someone on the ship that will actually look after his son and not just turn a blind eye to any trouble he gets into.
Dagur the Deranged hunts the nightfury, but his crew understands the Berserker Chief is equally hunting Berk’s heir.
The nightfury (nicknamed Toothless after Hiccup witnesses the retractable teeth for the first time) takes notice of the one legged viking that sometimes helps him escape other vikings. These good deeds are what lead to the dragon occasionally helping the teen out of trouble. This mutual relationship is just the beginning of the friendship they’ll form.
As Hiccup lands on amiable terms with the nightfury, he thinks of the four-winged dragon that always has a human shape perched on its back and he wonders what it would be like to fly.
