Cursed One- How to Train Your Dragon Fanfiction

Chapter One- Shipwreck

Hiccup lay his drawing book on his lap and examined his latest addition to the pages. The rough sketch depicted his friends and their dragons relaxing in the cliff fields above Berk, among tall, dew encrusted grass and flowers, the ocean blending with the sky behind them and the rising sun ascending above.

In the drawing, Astrid was polishing the scales of Stormfly with a towel as the dragon sat back and relished in the feeling of the soft cloth. Beside her sat Snotlout, tossing a stone up and down as he leaned against Hookfang's warm flank. Then, the twins, throwing insults back and forth to see who could come up with the best version of the 'your mom' jokes even though they ironically shared the same mother, and above them, Barf and Belch wrestled and nipped playfully at each other. Finally, there was Fishlegs, sitting by a dozing Meatlug, intensely bent over a book.

Hiccup smiled gently as he set his pencil on the ground. He leaned back against Toothless. In front of him, the scene on the paper played out in reality, with not one detail out of place. He sucked in a huge breath, smelling the damp earth and salty breeze, and let his eyes fall shut in contentment.

Suddenly, the rock Snotlout had been juggling slammed into Flishleg's book, almost knocking it into his face.

Fishlegs glared at Snotlout as he opened the book back up and scanned through the pages to try and recover his lost place. Snotlout snickered, picking up another rock.

"What are you reading about, Fishlegs?" Astrid asked absentmindedly.

The young man's eyes lit up. "I'm glad you asked. I found this in a dusty old corner of the library. It's about the Cursed Ones!" He held up the novel proudly.

"Sounds boring," Tuffnut teased.

Fishlegs continued, ignoring him, "They're a family of vikings who can speak dragonese."

"Please." Snotlout huffed, "There's no way that's real."

"Actually, Snotlout, according to the book, the Cursed Ones are real, and they are still around today."

"Cursed Ones?" Hiccup repeated the words distractedly in mild interest, twirling his pencil. "Why would speaking to dragons be a curse?"

"Actually it is literally a curse that the family got from stealing treasure. The curse was passed down through generations, and the Cursed Ones are all considered bad luck. When one is born to a tribe, they have to be killed or the tribe will suffer until they are dead. Often, the not-cursed parent of the child will kill their own child to rid their tribe of the curse."

"And I thought Snotlout's dad was bad," Ruffnut chuckled. Snotlout scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Toothless shot up, sending Hiccup sprawling backwards into the dirt. His gaze locked directly towards the beach below.

"What is it?" Hiccup asked, springing to his feet and placing a hand on Toothless's neck. "Do you smell a dragon?"

Hiccup followed his eyes and immediately could see what was troubling him. Below, there was a pile of what seemed to be wood scraps. His words trailed off, and he squinted.

Suddenly, Toothless bounded down the hill, and the other dragons followed. Sharing a glance, the riders hurried after.

. . .

There was a wreck on the beach— just a small, empty looking boat reduced to a pile of rubble.

It wasn't exactly unusual to find a destroyed boat on Berk's shores after a storm, but this one drove the dragons crazy. They stuck their noses into the boards and sifted around.

Hiccup approached, pushing the throng back to find Toothless hunched over something, sniffing. He was about to usher the Night Fury out of the way, but halted when he saw what the dragon was intrigued by.

There was a hand poking from the wreckage.

"Guys, someone's in here!" he exclaimed urgently.

His friends hurried closer as he bent down. "If you can hear us, we are going to get you out," he assured. There was no response.

Together, they heaved the wood boards off the pile until the body of a small young woman came into view, still trapped under one last beam. The wood pile began to creak.

"It's about to collapse!" Astrid cried.

"Snotlout, quick!" Hiccup commanded.

Snotlout bent down, wrapped his arms around the bending debris, and heaved. Together, Hiccup and Astrid grabbed the young woman's shoulders and yanked her to safety. Snotlout released, and the pile crumbled to the ground so quickly he had to leap out of the way.

The girl they recovered from the wreck was short and petite and looked as if she hadn't eaten a decent meal in ages. Her shoulder length, brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, with bangs hanging over her eyes and a freckled face. Her cheeks and arms were coated in a gritty layer of sand, but incredibly, she seemed unharmed.

"We should take her to Gothi," Hiccup suggested as he bent down to examine her closer.

She looked about the same age as the group, but her skin was a darker shade of light brown. On her shoulders rested a silver and black fur cloak that was matted with mud and sea water but would probably look gorgeous when cleaned up.

"Where in the world did she come from?" Astrid questioned as she helped Hiccup heave the mystery girl's body onto Toothless's back.

Toothless whirled around and snarled.

"Toothless!" Hiccup cried as Fishlegs fell to the ground in surprise.

The dragon gave his rider a pleading, apologetic look.

Hiccup furrowed his brow in curiosity. "Fine, we'll put her on Hookfang."

Toothless shook himself and sent one last wary glance at the stranger.