He'd finish this map even if it killed him.

Hiccup Haddock was on a mission, to document the entire archipelago and beyond. But beyond was the second step, the first was getting the archipelago done. The Isle of Berk, his home land, was a rather cold area. Made up of islands rich with wildlife and heavy snowfall in the winters. But traders had come and gone over the years and bought with them stories of places far away. Places were the land was hot and spanned sand for miles, places where the humidity was strong but the sun pleasant.

He knew that many an undocumented dragon species would live among them, that's why he wanted to travel as far as he could and discover all he could. All for dragons, perhaps he could even find Toothless a mate one day?

But right now the map would have to be on hold, because he'd just flown into ocean. By accident of course, a cheeky terrible terror had shot a fireball through Toothless' prosthetic fin, causing them to go tumbling from the sky into the sea. Luckily for them, it was near the shore of the island below them, so Toothless was quick to grab Hiccup by his own prosthetic and dump him on shore.

Coughing up the salt water and blinking the sting away from his eyes, Hiccup stumbled to his feet.

"Thanks bud... ugh, now I'm soaked..." he muttered.

Toothless shook off, turning to look at his now burnt up tail fin. He huffed in annoyance, shoving it toward his rider.

"Yeah yeah, I'll fix it... let me squeeze the water from all my stuff first. Demanding lizard" Hiccup teased.

Taking his shoe off, he poured the water from it and tossed it aside. Toothless being the smart night fury he is, lit up his mouth with his fire to carefully dry off everything Hiccup tossed down. His leather armour, shirt and most importantly the map. He lay it out, checking the ink for any running and damage. Luckily it wasn't anything he couldn't fix.

"Alright bud, keep on drying and let's fix this tail huh?" Hiccup said, giving his dragon a thank you scratch behind the ears.

Toothless purred in a happy response, and didn't move from his position drying this off while Hiccup dug through the saddle bad for the replacement fin. Those damn Terrible Terrors man, they're always causing trouble. Luckily for the duo the fin was an easy fix, simply replacing the leather between the rods, all the gears still in place and working. So after around 15 minutes or so of fiddling, it was all set. Hiccup turned back to his map, much dryer now thanks to Toothless, he looked around to pin point where exactly they were. It seemed like they were at the very edges of the map, on one of the very foggy far off islands he'd named 'rocky coast' for the very practical purposes of the coastlines of this island having small rocks rather than sand.

"Well at least we're not in uncharted territory with no way home, although uncharted territory is exactly what we're looking for hey bud?" Hiccup said, checking all his stuff for how dry it had gotten.

Dragon fire being very hot meant it was nice and toasty and much drier now. So with a well done chin scratch he allowed Toothless to quell his flames. Hiccup beginning to suit up again, Toothless sniffed around the area now his rider was positively safe and accounted for. The moment he landed here, he could smell something unusual, but his focus was on Hiccup first.

"Whatcha picking up on bud?" Hiccup asked.

Almost as if on cue, Toothless perked up and stared down at something through the fog Hiccup couldn't see yet. And then, took off.

"Wha- TOOTHLESS! WAIT- oh for the love of-" Hiccup sighed.

Quickly gathering his map and stuffing his shoe back on, he ran after the dragon seeing his figure just up ahead through the fog. The closer he got to his dragon, the thicker the fog became and a looming shadow began to appear on the coast, Toothless slowed to approach it more carefully allowing Hiccup to catch up.

"Is that a ship?" Hiccup muttered, mounting Toothless' saddle to be better prepared for a quick take off if needed.

Slowly they approached the figure, finding it was indeed a ship. The remains of one. It looked to be burnt, some battle clearly having happened in the last few days from the looks of its condition. The mast had come clean off, the and hull was wrecked with a gaping hole. The wood singed, sails torn and through the cracks in the broken wood, empty cages lined the cabin. Perhaps it was a hunter ship? It certainly looked like one.

"Well clearly something happened here... careful bud" Hiccup said, ducking under the wood as they carefully entered the ship to check for anything worth looting.

Perhaps some weapons they could repurpose? Or something like the dragon eye again, that could lead them to their next adventure. It seems all the cages on board had been opened and whatever was inside set free, because there wasn't a single noise aside from their own footsteps on the charred wood. Some sailing gear, damaged and burnt remained on board, with some empty chests. Although among the rubble one thing did catch Hiccups attention, a knife.

Picking it up, he found it wasn't like one he'd seen before. The blade was curved, in an almost circle like shape, and the carving on the handle wasn't any tribe's sigil he recognised.

"What on earth..." he muttered, trying to make sense of it.

Toothless growling at something caught his attention, and he looked up to follow the dragons gaze. All the way at the back of the ruined ship, in a dark corner was a cage that was still closed. And something was inside it.

"Shhh, it's ok bud..." Hiccup assured.

He dismounted again, carefully creeping closer to it, but he couldn't see much.

"Toothless, some light please?"

Lighting up his fire again, Toothless lit the area. It revealed the figure of what seemed to be wings wrapped around something, Hiccup quickly recognised them as dragon wings and got to work opening the cage by jamming his sword into the latch to force it open. The door swung open with a bang, but the figure didn't move. It's slow movement indicated it was breathing, so it was alive at least. Carefully approaching, Hiccup couldn't make out what kind of dragon this was. It's wings were black, but the only dragon he knew that was completely black was a night fury. This couldn't be one though, it was much too small.

Reaching out, the wing was cold to the touch, no reaction to the touch either. And when he lifted it up, he almost had a heart attack.

That was a person. A whole human being... well... kind of.

"Oh my gods..." he gasped, reaching out to move the persons hair away from their face.

They were completely unconscious, deathly pale and thin. Malnutrition for sure. Their hair was messed up like it hadn't been brushed in ages but (h/c) in colour slightly darkened by soot. They were bare aside from a thin wrap around their waist that served as a makeshift skirt like garment. On their cheeks, black scales scattered like freckles that ran down their shoulders too. Their skin was bruised, cut up and dirty. On their back, two wings. On their lower back, a tail. And on their head, horns.

"That's not possible... how would..? A hybrid?" Hiccup muttered in disbelief.

After a moment of complete shock and awe, he realised just how close to death this person was and the adrenaline began to kick in.

"Shit- we need to get them home!"

He touched their cheek, feeling just how cold they were. Freezing, it was amazing they were still alive. Quickly he took a cloak from his saddle bag, still a bit damp so he hung it up against the car doors for Toothless to dry. He took his water pouch, pulling the half human into his arms to sit them upright, allowing him to get some water in them without choking them dead. Tearing up some cloth from the remains of the burnt sails, he was able to haphazardly clean up some of the gashes and wrap them until he could get this person home and properly treated.

Wrapping them in the now dried and warmed up cloak, Hiccup lifted the person up into his arms and bought them out into the open. Toothless followed very curious, sniffing the unconscious hand of the body, the sent somewhat familiar to him in a way.

"I know, it's amazing isn't it bud? Half dragon... I didn't think it was possible. How would someone like this even be born? Whatever we can get the details later we need to make sure they survive. Let's get home" Hiccup told his dragon.

Climbing into the saddle and pulling the hood of the cloak over the persons head to keep their face away from the wind, he held them securely against his chest with one arm and his other gripped the handle to the saddle.

"Easy now bud, we need to stay steady and careful so we don't fall with them ok? But we need to be quick, they need warmth, treatment and food fast" Hiccup instructed.

With a little growl of understanding, Toothless vary carefully lifted off the ground headed for home, the extra weight on his back almost undetectable the body was so malnourished and weak. Hiccup just hoped it wasn't too late, as amazed as he was with many many questions, he'd never get to ask them if this person died.

Their survival with his top priority right now.

By the time he got back, it was late. No doubt he'd be getting a bit of a grilling from his dad for being out all day with no warning again. But that his excuses would have to wait, this was more important. Landing right outside his house, he jumped off Toothless and pushed open the door with his leg, arms full of person.

"Dad!" He called out.

"And what time do you call this Hiccup?"

Yeah, here it came. Stoick, already winding down for the day sitting by the fire gave that annoyed dad sigh parents do when they know they're about to get a wild excuse. Shouldn't almost 20 year old Hiccup be out of his teenage rebellion phase by now?

"Dad you need to see this, and help them!" Hiccup said.

"Them?" Stoick replied, turning to face his son.

He watched in shock as Hiccup walked in arms full of something wrapped in a cloak. The wings sticking out told him this was yet ANOTHER dragon his son had bought home.

"Hiccup we don't have room for ano-" He began, only to be cut off by stunned silence as Hiccup pulled back the cloak to reveal a person.

Stoick immediately got up and rushed over as Hiccup lay the hybrid down across the table, letting his dad see exactly what he was talking out.

"By gods..." the Cheif muttered.

"I know... they're half person. I don't even know how that's possible, but they're so close to death we'll never find out if we don't keep them alive. They need a healer, food and warmth- fast" Hiccup explained.

For a moment his father just stood there in awe. He'd heard about legends, ones that told of half human dragon hybrids. But he never believed them, because it sounded absolutely ridiculous. How could a person and dragon mix? It was biologically impossible right? Well apparently not, because this right here lying on his kitchen table was a person with dragon wings.

"Alright, get them set up by the fire and warm them up. I'll get aid" Stoick agreed.

"Thank you" Hiccup replied.

The rest of the night was a frantic effort to keep this feat of nature alive, and pushing Toothless away from sniffing them. He seemed very curious about the hybrid, and Hiccup couldn't really blame him. Dragons could tell a lot by smell, so smelling something that was a mix of his own species and a human would probably be quite confusing for a animal, as smart as Toothless was. By the sunrise, the body was warmed up, cuts and gashes patched up and breathing steady, water in their system and colour returning to their skin. They needed to wake up in order to eat, but there was soft food ready to go.

Stoick had Cheif things to do, so it was Hiccup and Toothless that stayed with the hybrid. Although he knew the rest of the gang would inevitably show up as soon as they found out. Hiccup was tired from a sleepless night, only getting a little bit of sleep between the mad dashes to keep the hybrid alive. But he didn't want to be out cold when this person woke up inevitably confused and scared, feeling sick and weak. So tired as he was, he stayed awake and watched over the mysterious half human, wondering what secrets they held about dragons and what happened to them in the first place.