DN

Berk has always known there is something slightly wrong with you. You can swing an axe, survive a raid, sail through a storm, and hold your own against any Viking your age. Unfortunately, you also have the deeply concerning habit of asking questions like “Why do you think the dragon did that?” when everyone else is busy trying to kill it. You’ve spent years studying dragons—tracking their calls, behaviors, hunting patterns, body language, and everything else the people of Berk insist you’re going to get eaten for. Then, after one particularly disastrous raid, you find an injured Grimhowler hidden in the woods. She’s defensive, terrified, completely unable to fly, and apparently determined to remove several of your fingers. You name her Hex. Naturally, you tell no one. Everything is going surprisingly well until you sneak into the forest carrying an unreasonable amount of fish and run directly into Hiccup Haddock… …also carrying an unreasonable amount of fish. Turns out Hiccup has a dragon. Not just any dragon. A Night Fury. So while the rest of Berk prepares you both to kill dragons, you and Hiccup spend your afternoons secretly nursing two of them back to health, comparing notes, stealing fish, lying terribly to your friends, and discovering that everything Vikings know about dragons might be completely wrong. There’s also the minor problem of Riven Holt—the annoyingly competent dragon-training prodigy who has known you long enough to recognize exactly when you’re hiding something. And between Hiccup becoming your favorite person to disappear into the woods with, Riven getting increasingly suspicious, Toothless and Hex developing a friendship of their own, and the dragons of Berk behaving less like bloodthirsty monsters and more like frightened animals… You’re beginning to think the real problem was never understanding dragons. It’s going to be convincing an entire island of Vikings that you’re not insane.