Fanfic / The Heart Bind Saga

The Heart Bound Saga is a series of How to Train Your Dragon AU fan fictions that is written by 10Blue10 that feature Hiccup and Toothless as platonic soulmates.

During a quest to locate other Night Furies, Hiccup is nearly killed by dragon hunters. Toothless manages to save his life by performing a heart bind ritual which is a sacred ritual performed by dragon soulmates who can't bear to live without the other. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here.

The series includes ten stories:

• Heart Bound
• Dragon Soul
• This Is Berk
• Warrior Or Whisperer
• Skin and Bones
• Worst Laid Plans
• Secrets and Lies
• Wolfsbane
• Crossroads
• Kindred Spirits

There is also a collection of one shot stories that take place in The Heart Bound Saga universe which can be read here.

Snowed In is a one shot story that 10Blue10 only posted on Fanfiction Dot Net that also takes place in The Heart Bound Saga. It can be read here.

Misty-Onyx: Forever Together is another story 10Blue10 wrote that takes place in the The Heart Bound Saga and is also only posted on Fanfiction Dot Net. It tells the story of a heart bound pair of Night Furies Hiccup and Toothless meet in Heart Bound and can be read here.

Hearts Broken is an alternate universe version where Hiccup and Toothless weren't able to escape from the dragon hunters which can be read here.

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The Heart Bound Saga contains examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism:
  • One of the things from Race to the Edge the author decided to not be cannon is that Trader Johann is not a villain. A one shot story explains it.
  • In the School of Dragons video game, Nikora Stormheart was basically a Distaff Counterpart to Drago Bludvist. Here, she's more of a Punch-Clock Villain who undergoes a Heel–Face Turn after learning that the dragons are sentient.
• Adaptational Name Change: Nikora Stormheart from the School of Dragons MMO is renamed Nicole Stormheart when she appears in the story.
• Artistic License – Linguistics: Icelandic in this story is treated as a totally separate language as Old Norse which the Vikings of Berk are technically speaking. If Icelandic is American English, Old Norse is British English. The only difference in the written form is a few spelling differences. On top of that in the time period The Heart Bound Saga takes place (mid 11th century) Icelandic and the other Scandinavian languages hadn't yet broken away from Old Norse.
• Blatant Lies: Toothless was not jealous of all the attention that Hiccup and Astrid's baby was getting in chapter 11 of 'This is Berk' when Valka caught him curled up on the floor and doing the dragon equivalent of crying when Hiccup was too busy helping Astrid to go flying.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Dragons find human courtships confusing as they sometimes can last a while when humans only live a matter of decades. Dragon can live centuries but their courtships are much shorter as they like to just get on with things. To them a long courtship is a waste of time. Time that would be better spent on deciding when they want to actually start a family with their mate. It is also baffling to the dragons that humans ^note of the time period the series takes place need to prove to the parents of their desired that they are a suitable spouse. Dragons figure that anything leading to bringing the next generation into the world is something that shouldn't concern the potential grandparents as they already done their job of raising healthy children who grew into adults.
• Brain Bleach: During the cleansing ritual Astrid goes through for her and Hiccup's wedding, she wants to unsee some some long forgotten antics of Ruffnut and Tuffnut that involved nudity when they were much younger that Ruffnut makes her remember.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played for laughs by Ruffnut and Tuffnut in the very first chapter of Heart Bound:
  “A mysterious far-away land filled with ferocious dragons – it sounds awesome!” declared Tuff.
  “Sounds like Tuesday!” joked Ruff.
• The Bus Came Back: Drago's Bewilderbeast, after wondering the world clueless as what to do for years, shows up at Berk during a battle in the third arc of This is Berk.
• Carnivore Confusion: Discussed. After learning Dragons are just as intelligent as humans, Hiccup asks Toothless about the issue of Dragons eating other Dragons. Toothless explains no Dragon is allowed to eat a Dragon that is the same species as them. Eating one of a different species is only allowed if normal prey isn't available and its a fair fight. Those that don't follow the rules like Red Death are universally feared and hated by other dragons.
• Cursed with Awesome: In one of the one-shots, it is mentioned that the Terrible Terrors being small and unable to carry food saved them from being enslaved by the Red Death.
• Dead Guy Junior: Toothless and Selena's kit is named after Toothless' late mother Ebony.
• Delayed Reaction: Hiccup has one in chapter 7 of Dragon Soul when he translates what Toothless had in response to Valka asking Cloud-Jumper to look out for Hiccup and Toothless:
  Seemingly out of nowhere, Hiccup looked at Toothless and said “I’m not telling her that.”
  “Is something wrong?” asked Valka.
  “No, no… Toothless told me to tell you that he doesn’t need a babysitter, he can take care of himself and me just — wait a minute. Are you saying I need a babysitter?”
• Disaster Dominoes: Hiccup accidentally starts one in Chapter 5 of Dragon Soul when he goes to wake up Astrid early in the morning. She opens her shutters causing him to trip backwards over Stormfly's tail causing Stormfly to shot spines that sliced a rope on the side of a nearby house making water from the fire suppression system to fall onto the house startling a nearby flock of Terrible Terrors who then flew into the path of a Gronkle which crashed into another house which caused its occupants to shout, disturbing a Zippleback who then got into a fight with the Gronkle.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The author decided some elements of Race to the Edge to not be cannon. These include:
  • Johann being a villain.
  • The Defenders of the Wing
  • The Wingmaidens
• Fantastic Racism:
  • After acquiring the ability to understand dragons, Hiccup find there are dragons that are prejudice against humans. One even tries to kill him just for being a human.
  • Night Furies and Skrills are mortal enemies according to Toothless.
• Forced to Watch: In the third arc of This is Berk Adulfr has two people torture Toothless while forcing Hiccup to watch in hopes of getting Hiccup to spill some secrets about Berk's defenses and where they can find Night Furies.
• Frame-Up: In Warrior Or Whisperer, a group of villagers in Smoking Bay tried to frame dragons of attacking a storehouse.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: A downplayed example. Hiccup doesn't understand why William wants to invade England and become it's King when he already rules Normandy.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Hiccup and Toothless
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Dragons have their own insults and phrases:
  • Eel-eater is an insult that shouldn't be used in polite company.
  • Egg-for-brain means someone who isn't to bright.
  • Fang and claw is the Dragon a equivalent of tooth and nail.
  • After Hiccup tells Toothless an old Viking saying about bashing you head against a rock to break it, Toothless tells Hiccup the Dragons have their own saying: "If you’re dumb enough to bash your head on a rock, let’s hope the rock wins."
• Identity Amnesia: After being freed after spending years under the control of the Red Death, the dragons under her control (including Toothless) at first can't remember their names let alone lives before they fell under her control. Those Dragons adopted the names the humans gave them and start to remember certain things when they encounter something that's familiar.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Inverted. Astrid's father starts to give one to Hiccup but Hiccup interrupts him mid-sentence, pointing out Astrid quite capable of carrying out her own revenge.

“Mr Hofferson, if I did ever hurt Astrid so much that I couldn't earn her forgiveness, you'd have to enact your revenge on whatever was left after she was finished with me”

• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Hiccup is told this in the third arc of This is Berk by both Astrid and Dagur when they are dealing with an army that is attacking Berk and its allies when Hiccup says he's changed his mind and will go along with a plan that will kill most, if not all of the said army.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Part of the plan to free the hostages in Wolfsbane.
• It Can Think: Hiccup is shocked to learn that dragons are just as intelligent as humans after years of treating dragons as pets.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: In Heart Bound, the first Night Furies Hiccup and Toothless encounter in Myrkr refer to Hiccup as an 'It' despite Toothless' protests.
• Loophole Abuse: For going off on his quest to find more Night Furies with just Toothless, Stoick forbids Hiccup from riding Toothless for a month. In a one shot story, Hiccup and Toothless sneak out at night to go play with the other dragons reasoning that since Toothless is wearing his auto-tail, Hiccup isn't actually ridding Toothless but rather that Toothless is carrying Hiccup.
• Love Potion: The Dragon Trappers/Breeders in Secrets and Lies use a substance they call dragon-heart oil to force the dragons they capture to mate.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In the last chapter of Heart Bound during the fight with Hauke and his men, Stoick suspects more happened in Myrkr than what Hiccup has told him when the normally compassionate Hiccup's face is filled with pure hate and makes no effort to stop Toothless from killing Hauke despite Hauke's pleas for mercy.
  • Dagur, of all people, telling Hiccup not to give in to revenge is what gets Hiccup to try to find a more peaceful way to deal with with the army attacking Berk and its allies in the third arc of This is Berk.
• Properly Paranoid: Toothless in Skin and Bones.
• Retcon: The original version of Skin and Bones has Leo the Terrible Terror able to thought-speak. A more recent version had that changed in order to make a plot point in Wolfsbane work.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Ruffnut and Tuffnut thought Harald and his crew were dragon hunters because of they found creates filled with dragon bones on Harald's ship. Those dragon bones were part of Skulder's collection that he traveled with and studied. However, Harald and his crew were dragon hunters that was using giving Skulder a ride to Berk as a cover to capture Hiccup and Toothless.
• Shipper on Deck: Hiccup when it comes to Toothless and Selena. They become a couple and have a kit towards the end of This is Berk.
• Soulmate AU Fic: Hiccup and Toothless being soulmates is part of the reason they are able to heart bind.
• Starfish Language: Dragons' 'Toughtspeak'. Its a form of communication that is telepathic and therefor impossible for Humans to understand let alone recognize as a language unless they are 'connected' to a dragon. For most people that connection will last only a few hours but it is permanent if a person is bounded (not to be confused with heart bound Hiccup and Toothless have) to a dragon.
• Too Much for Man to Handle: Hiccup in Arc 1 of This is Berk tries to use his 'alpha dragon powers' to try to learn the names of every dragon in Berk's pack all at once like how a typical alpha dragon would. Being physically human, the sudden influx of information ended up giving him a migraine headache that lasted days and couldn't remember anything prompting him to use a different strategy.
• You Killed My Father: A trope that applies to the main recurring antagonist of the series.

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