Together we Map the World is a canon and OC forum that takes place directly after the first film left off, behaving as if the series and second film after never happened. With a wealth of locations, dragons, and characters to choose from, the possibilities are endless. What the tides of storytelling will do with these building blocks is up to you. How far will you go?
Henretta grunted as she unloaded a heavy crate, her dragon squeaking at her as he took one as well. The ships always payed decently for having cargo pulled, but they couldn’t exactly pay a dragon, so they only payed Henry her own share. She didn’t care, she could hunt food and sleep in her nest all she wanted. She just wanted to be able to say she tried integrating herself back into some form of society.
She had turned around to place down the crate beside her superviser’s feet, like everyone else was doing, he snarled at her, and sent a glare to her beloved dragon, who squawked and quickly went back into the ship. Henry followed suit, sighing and wiping her face with her arm and smudging dirt further on herself. Her dragon crooned and nudged a fish barrel towards Henry. “Yeah yeah buddy I’m on it, you don’t gotta rush me.” She said with a small laugh, giving the gray nadder’s head a pat before she grabbed the fish barrel and moved it out as well.
At the end of the day she was paid her share and sent on from the docks, climbing atop Gummy’s back tiredly and massaging her dragon’s wings. He was tired too, he wasn’t an adult yet, still just a juvenile dragon. He worked as hard as she did. They were both covered in dirt and scrapes from tripping up on the job, unsightly. Of course, neither of them cared. “C’mon buddy... let’s get you some fish.” She said in a soft whisper. Her dragon chirped and she leaned down, hiding herself against her dragon’s body. They did this every so often, a simple snatch and dash.
Gummy knew the plan, and slunk forwards towards a fish barrel without any eyes set on it. That happened a lot around the area, dragon’s normally wouldn’t try to steal from a single barrel, because they didn’t have someone to direct them, or they just wanted a bigger catch. Her and Gummy, however, were the perfect match of smarts and skill. “Kay buddy, go!” She hissed, and the nadder shot forwards, dunking his head into the bucket and grabbing a mouth full. The patron who owned it came out screaming angrily at them, but Gummy swallowed and squawked mockingly at her before turning tail and running, disappearing behind another set of buildings.
He wanted to say that after the Red Death's defeat, everything settled in and vikings and dragons learned to live together in peace. However, this was probably so far from the truth, it was on the opposite side of the world. He understood it even if the sight of all the bickering and petty fighting still kind of got tiresome, it was a massive adjustment for both sides, and expecting hundreds of years of viking traditions to come to a screeching halt overnight was asinine and far to high of an expectation...Even if he did kind of expect it. It didn't help that his dad had oh so kindly put him in charge of all of this drama, which meant that anytime he heard a scream, he had to go and investigate.
Stolen fish was another thing that was strikingly common around here lately. They were used to the odd cat occasionally making off with a fish now and then, but this was a much bigger epidemic, dragons didn't exactly have a concept of 'no' when it came to feeding themselves, and he still hadn't quite worked out a way to keep both parties happy on this front.
He was panting just a bit when he found the source of the angry screaming, having just ran from one end of the village to another to avoid his dad possibly getting involved, apparently a nadder had made off with a large portion of the man's fish, and he angrily pointed off in the direction he'd seen it go, "Alright alright, I'll go...Figure it out!" He promised, and then whistled for Toothless, who was by his side in a matter of moments, "okay, Bud...We gotta go find a fish thief...Again..." He mumbled the last word, before dragon and rider slipped off in the direction they'd been pointed.
It didn't take long for the pair to catch a glimpse, and he called out to them before hopping on Toothless for extra speed to pursue, "hey! Geeze they're quick..." He mumbled, before patting Toothless, "lets get an arial advantage, eh?" He held on as Toothless scaled one of the huts and took to the air, easily finding the pair from this vantage point. He intended to follow them to wherever they were going and figure out what was going on. A few stolen fish wasn't an especially pressing crime in his eyes, but there had to be a reason, and he figured he could try and find a way to help.
Henry thought that they had ditched the aggressor easily, considering not many Vikings had dragons despite the fact they had gone ‘dragon friendly,’ They hadn’t been chased yet, though she and Gummy had really only been stealing food for a few weeks... maybe someone finally decided to come on their trail? One of the dragon riders? Gummy chirped a warning, and Henry huffed. So they were being tailed. She didn’t dare steal a glance over her shoulder, and instead she focused forwards, gently rubbing the back of her dragon’s skull, “We’ve got this. No one’s gonna get you Gummy, not today,” she whispered and leaned forwards, signalling her dragon to close in for speed. He closed his wings tightly against himself to try and gain speed, leaning forwards as he put faith in his rider’s direction. She sat up just enough to peek through his horns, grabbing onto two of them to steer. The brunett yanked a hard right to go between two buildings which lead towards the trees a little ways off. If they could hit the forest then that dragon flying above them wouldn’t have such a clear view anymore. Now she took the chance to look up, scowling at the figure above...
Nightfury. So of all people to be on her tail it was the cheif’s son?
“Let’s see if we can get them to land if we can’t shake them off.” She growled out, and when she hit the tree line she weaved Gummy between the trees in a long zig-zag, not headed in any particular direction, as if leaving a fox trail through the trees.
Hiccup had to give them credit, they were impressively fast and clearly pretty coordinated, if he'd been on the ground on Toothless' back he was pretty sure he'd of lost them by now. However, with the high ground advantage that he had, he'd managed to stay mostly on top of them. He understood why they felt the need to run for the most part, even though he was really not concerned about stolen fish, the bay was completely filled with them after all. He was mostly curious where she'd come from and why she felt so inclined to steal fish in the first place, and if he knew the reason, he could help, so she wouldn't have to steal fish in the first place.
He narrowed his eyes when they hit the tree line, but they'd effectively disappeared, "no good..." he mumbled, patting Toothless before angling their trajectory downwards, if he couldn't pursue by air they would take to the ground.
The pair landed with a thud before Toothless glanced around with keen eyes, spotting the start of the trail and taking off with Hiccup still secure on his back. The trail seemed to wind in ever direction, but for the most part the dragon's sensitive nose was able to follow it, and after a few minutes they both started to hear the unmistakable gait of a Nadder close by, "they're smart too..." he admitted, glancing around before he caught sight of a Nadder tail, pointing Toothless in the direction he'd seen it before the black dragon turned accordingly.
"Hey! Listen we don't have to do all this chasing! I'm not looking for trouble!" He called out, he knew they were at least within range to hear him, and he hoped maybe he could at least get them to stop and listen to him for five second.
The tall young woman hummed in satisfaction as she finally decided to steal a glance over her shoulder, Hiccup, she was sure that was his name, was the faint figure sitting on the back of his popular nightfury. She had seen the pair once or twice, taking flight in all sorts of ways around Berk, and off into the distance. She couldn't bring herself to trust that this boy meant what he called out, but part of her also screamed that she had to. Rider to rider, right? Henry's smug smile turned into a scowl as she made up her mind, and held her hands up, confusing Gummy for a moment. "Jump." She ordered, and hesitantly the dragon followed. She would have to think of a better way to excecute that command another time, but for now, she giot what she needed.
In the next heartbeat, her hands clung to a branch, and she pulled herself up, off of the dragon and then gave her next order, "Run!" It came out as more of a hiss, but Gummy, who had stopepd to make sure his rider was okay, gave a parting squack before he took off again, weaving through the trees at a slower pace, headed for their den. Henry clutched the branch tightly, waiting for Hiccup and Toothless to come her way after either the nadder or just her, either way, they'd be getting what they were looking for alright.
"You bertter talk fast," Henry warned loudly from where she was, "I don't like it when people bother me. They normally end up with a broken bone or two!"
Hiccup kept his eyes trained on the girl and her nadder, but he swore at one point he saw her just suddenly vanish. When he got close enough to get a good view of the dragon, his suspicions were confirmed and as if reading his rider's intent, Toothless came to a stop, just in time for a voice to call from the branches. He knew he was in no position to make demands given he was pretty sure she could take him in a fight(most people could), so he just slid from Toothless' saddle and walked into the middle of the clearing, hoping that his scrawny appearance was enough to get the point across.
"Listen, I'm not trying to bother you or make trouble.", He spoke confidently, he was telling the truth after all, he had no bad intentions to hide, "I just wanted to see if we could help at all." He finally found whereabouts she was in the trees and tried to give her his best, least threatening smile...Which wasn't terribly hard...Given how absolutely non-threatening he looked, "I don't care about fish stealing, I'd jut rather solve the problem at the root y'know? So it wasn't necessary at all!" He looked up at her, then back at Toothless when he approached, giving a disarming smile, "Toothless and I just want to make this place a home to all the dragons and people who live here, you included..." He looked over as the black dragon gave a soft croon in her direction, as if backing up his rider's words.
Henry scowled down at Hiccup. This boy was incredibly convincing, she had to give him that... And having the handsome dragon behind him making his point too didn’t hurt one bit at all either. Toothless was a smart dragon, he looked as such anyway, and Hiccup seemed to really have good intentions. ... Damnit! Henry slowly slid down from the tree, rolling as she landed and then shot upright, fists drawn in a defensive stance as she circled the boy, “If you really mean that then you’re a good guy... I hate to be a downer, especially to a felllow rider, but the people on Berk are as dumb as they are fat, and as they are murderurs. You can’t expect to change that in your time.” She stated firmly, eyes flickering to Toothless, who she flashed a faint smile at, offering her hand out to his nose, “Only a few months ago I remember the name Hiccup was floating around in a completely different way. The dragon master, huh? Finally decided you couldn’t kill a dragon? But was that choice because you physically couldn’t do it, or because you just didn’t have the heart to hurt ‘em?” She asked and tilted her head, still facing Toothless, petting the nightfury’s chin and cheeks with a scowl swiftly returning.
She sent a fiery glance back towards Hiccup, rolling her eyes at the boy, “I’m a little orphan girl with a juvenile dragon. It doesn’t exactly rain fish for us down in the bay, not enough that he can catch for himself, and his parents flew the nest early because he had me. That or they went out and were killed, wouldn’t be surprised,” She pursed her lips, leaning down and resting her cheek against Toothless’, “I’ve been with Gummy since he hatched. I would steal the moon if he needed it to eat, and not give a single rat about what anyone else said. You’d do the same for your dragon, wouldn’t you?”
Hiccup didn't move when she dropped from the tree, she was younger than him by a few years at least, but the way she spoke and carried herself was pretty respectable, and he was also pretty sure she could drop him in one punch, so he wasn't entirely inclined to try and pick a fight with her. Her words made him tilt his head, he could see where she was coming from, but he'd also already seen the changes in the people he was around, "I'll change it, or die trying, it's worth it if I can even save a single dragon..." He shrugged and looked to the side at Toothless, "No dragons will die on Berk as long as I'm here to prevent it." He said this with all the conviction of someone who truly believed their words.
Toothless gave a soft croon and bumped his nose to her hand, before letting her get closer to pet him, leaving Hiccup to consider her question, "I was too obsessed with being the person that everyone else wanted me to be...That I guess I didn't see the value in the person I actually am...No one else did either..." He looked over at Toothless and came close to his side, leaning against the dragon's side and closing his eyes, "but he taught me to stand as myself, without fear of what would happen..." He ran a hand over Toothless' neck, "I'll never be able to repay the debt I owe to him for that." He admitted, hoping maybe that was enough to show her that he was her friend, "I was foolish, and now I'm working to rectify what's been done. I can't change to past, but I'm determined to make a better future."
He looked surprised by the fire in her eyes, but didn't seem deterred by it, sharing a glance with Toothless that said more than actual words ever could, "we could help?" He offered, looking thoughtful, "we could help you fish and set up nets so you can catch your own?" He gave a slight smile, chuckling softly at her question, "of course I would, I was ready to leave the island to protect him...I'd do anything for Toothless...for any dragon..." He liked this girl, he realized, he only felt bad that she held so much distrust for the people around her, he hoped maybe he could figure out a way to slowly earn it back.
Henretta relaxed the more Hiccup spoke and explained himself. She inhaled deeply as her eyes narrowed at the other, though she was much more lax, taking in a slow inhale and allowing her head to roll back as she leaned her body against the dragon. For someone who looked like a single stalk of wheat, Henry had to hand it to him, he had a strength about him that couldn’t be seen in the body. She liked it. She was always a sucker for surprises and interesting people. At least there was one person on this forsaken island that didn't seem so bad. Fine… I’ll let you help us.” She concluded after mulling over the boy's words for a few more seconds, hesitantly sticking her hand out to him, a small mischievous smile tugging the corner of her lips as she tilted her head at him like a curious cat, her Cheshire grin in full form.
”We can strike a deal, you teach me and Gummy how to get our own fish, and then I’ll owe you a favor. Shake on it~?” She gave her hand a small shake, still extended towards the slightly taller male, accented with a wink as her free hand went up to lift her goggles up on her forehead, her dual colored eyes exposed. She wasn’t one to ask anything in return for favors, but she didn’t mind letting Hiccup know she owed him one either. Someone like Hiccup probably got into all sorts of trouble, so owing him might mean she was allowed to tag along on such an event. ”You can cash it in for anything, anytime.” It had only been a split second before she added that, and forcibly grabbed Hiccup’s hand with her own tiny and dirty hand, giving him a firm shake before leaping back, and then cupping her hand over her mouth, letting out a sound much like a dragon call, though it wasn’t exact. A few more moments and her gray nadder returned the call as he jumped through the bushes, squawking happily at the sight of his rider, unharmed, and standing beside the nightfury and Hiccup.
Henry threw her arms around her dragon, nuzzling him with a laugh before she mounted, ”Are you teaching us today or some other time? We can show you our den- so long as you promise to keep our home a secret. Wouldn’t want the whole town knowing about a dragon’s nest, ya know?”
