Author's Note: After disappearing off the face of this site since February, I thought it was about time I wrote some fanfics! This one is kind of different from the other HTTYD stories I've wrote since for once, this is not heavily inspired by the book series (though they do still link slightly. You'll recognize the characters when you see them). This is heavily inspired off Gustav. You know, that small kid from Gem of a Different Color. The mini Snotlout who also showed up in "The Flight Stuff". I thought Gustav wasn't getting enough love in the fandom, so I came up with this idea.

Disclaimer: I don't own How to Train Your Dragon, and that goes to all parts of it's franchise.

WARNING: HTTYD2 SPOILERS (after the first two chapters)

Without further ado, I present: Ryder Corps – an HTTYD fanfic.

Chapter One: How to Train Your Apprentice

"No more unauthorized dragon flying."

That was what Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, hope and heir to the Isle of Berk, told him four years ago. Now, Gustav couldn't care less. In fact, he had lost count of how many times he had broken that rule. Gustav Larson had always admired his dragon riding idols, Hiccup and Snotlout, and the older he became, the more annoyed he was at how they never let him officially join the Academy. After all, being made junior-apprentice-auxiliary-reserve-back-up-replacement-rider-in-training-4th-class was pretty lame. So Hiccup had told him to set his dragon free. All Gustav did was add that to the list of orders he disobeyed from the young heir.

Was it wrong that Gustav loved the feeling in the air as well? Sure, he started dragon flying because he wanted to be just like his heroes, but over time, the freedom of the sky grew on him, and Gustav was beginning to think that he was becoming as attached to the sensation as Hiccup.

The sea stacks proved to be quite a challenge, since the perfect combination of concentration and skill was needed. Flying at high speeds, one little moment of hesitation will be all one needs to send them and their dragon stumbling into the sea.

"Woohoo!" Gustav cheered as he lurched his dragon to the side of a pillar of rocks, the claws of his Monstrous Nightmare gently sharpening themselves along the face of stone. If anything, Fanghook thought of this as an automated service. The dragon took a peek at his rider as Gustav took them through an incredibly narrow slit between two stacks, forcing them to turn vertically to avoid crashing. Gustav could feel the slight scratching of his helmet, but he couldn't care less.

The pair broke free of the opening and sprung out into the skies. Gustav pulled on Fanghook's horns, and the dragon tilted upwards, rocketing up towards the clouds. He stopped suddenly, allowing gravity to pull them down before spreading out his wings and regaining their attitude.

Gustav patted the Monstrous Nightmare on the neck. "That was pretty good," he admitted. It was then that the boy spotted a sliver of rock connecting two columns, and Fanghook eyed Gustav suspiciously.

"Come on, boy. Let's try something new."

Lowering Fanghook's altitude to align with the bridge of stone, they flew right towards it without even the slightest hint of slowing down. Fanghook snorted, as if asking Gustav what was it that he was trying to do. Just as they approached, Gustav lifted his feet free from their stirrups, placing them onto the saddle.

His heart pounded. Was he nervous? A little. The bridge was three seconds away. Okay, I'm very nervous, Gustav admitted. Before giving anything any second thoughts, Gustav leaped off his dragon, the momentum and speed carrying him straight over the rocks. There was a moment of sheer weightlessness, an instant of absolute exhilaration and liberation.

Then it all came down in a flurry of purple as Gustav clumsily landed back on his dragon. His foot wasn't able to catch and keep his balance, and the strength of Fanghook flying forward sent Gustav tumbling backwards along the Monstrous Nightmare's back. Fanghook shrieked once he realized that his rider wasn't securely on board.

"Whoa!" Gustav reached out and gripped the very edge of Fanghook's tail. His clutch held, and Gustav flailed along with the tail. Fanghook turned to face his rider clinging onto him and snorted once again. Gustav let out a sheepish laugh. "Sorry about that, boy. We'll need to work on that."

We're still not as good as him and Toothless. I've got to train more.

From the ground below, Gustav and Fanghook's antics caught the eye of a certain village blacksmith who lacked a hand and had an additional peg leg. Gobber watched as the dragon and rider pair zipped past him, going for another lap around the island. He then hobbled back into his workshop, finding a late teenage boy at the desk. Toothless watched his rider with great interest as the Hope and Heir to the Isle of Berk had a tip of his charcoal pencil at his chin.

"You know what would be great, Toothless?" Hiccup questioned, his eyes lighting up with excitement, "if I could fly alongside you! Think about it. I could make myself some kind of flight suit. Then, you and me. We'll be able to soar through the skies together. How would you like that, bud?"

For his answer, the Night Fury slapped a slimy tongue onto Hiccup's face. The young viking recoiled, toppling out of his chair as he tried to push his dragon away. "Toothless! How many times do I have to tell you that it doesn't wash out!" Hiccup slipped away from the tongue and sat up on the floor of the forge, wiping dragon spit off his face.

"Well, it seems like you two are having fun," Gobber commented as he headed towards the wall of his many contraptions. He replaced his current prosthetic for one more worthy of working in the blacksmith, a device that would be able to help him hold onto metal when heat treating swords.

Hiccup stood up from his position, saying in his usual sarcastic manner, "Yep, getting Night Fury saliva off my face. I'm having the time of my life." As Hiccup noticed Gobber gazing at all the appendages of his arm, he spoke up. "Want me to turn that into a wheel?"

"If you think you're up for it," the blacksmith replied. He then turned to the dark furnace and groaned in complaint. "Hiccup! You're supposed to keep the forge burning by reminding Grump to keep the forge burning! I'm going to have you both fired one of these days." The Hotburple didn't so much as lift an eyelid as he went back to his nap.

"How threatening," Hiccup grumbled. He then took his seat once again at the desk but before he could get onto designing anything. Gobber called his name.

"To be honest, I was wondering whatever happened to the Berk Dragon Academy. You and your friends have been rather silent about it lately."

A wave of nostalgia hit Hiccup and he smiled. "The Academy? That was just me playing teacher and the others playing Dragon Trainer. We've all grown out of it, I guess. All they're focused on now are the new Dragon Races."

"And you're going out there and mapping strange islands while ignoring your job as my assistant!" The blacksmith flailed his prosthetic around as he spoke. Gobber paused for a moment before continuing. "Why don't you revive the Academy? I'm sure there are still plenty of others out there who are willing to learn Dragon Training."

"What is there to learn?" Hiccup asked, shrugging his shoulders and patting Toothless' head. "Pretty much everyone on the island has their own dragon and knows how to handle them perfectly fine."

Gobber raised an eyebrow. "What about those who want to do more than teach them how to play fetch? You know, those who want to go out and look for new dragon species as much as you do, and train those wild dragons you kept going after or who wants to do more than just fancy riding tricks, but learn to use it for combat. Those who want to spend their free time running from Changewings and keeping anymore Screaming Deaths off our island."

Hiccup chuckled slightly. "I don't think there's anyone."

The blacksmith sighed. "You know that Gustav kid?"

"You mean tiny Snotlout?" replied Hiccup. "How could I not? He used to worship Snotlout, followed him around like a lackey. He even wanted to be a..." Hiccup paused for a moment. "He wanted to join the Academy so badly four years ago."

"I think he still does," said Gobber. "He's been training on that Monstrous Nightmare of his every day. You've really never noticed?"

"We pass him once and a while. I've always assumed that he was just going for a morning flight. I didn't think he was actually training," Hiccup admitted. "I thought he would have grown out of it."

Gobber cleared his throat. "The boy looks up to you as an idol, Hiccup. He's even around your age when you first met Toothless now. And he's a viking."

"I see where you're going with this."

"Take him on as your apprentice," said Gobber. "The boy wants more than feeding dragon nip to stable dragons. You're the one who can teach him what he needs to learn to be an expert dragon trainer."

Hiccup eyed his mentor suspiciously. "And you're not going to be complaining about how I'm not around for work?"

"Eh," said Gobber, waving an arm. "I'll give you a leave of absence." He blacksmith waited for boy's response. Grinning, Hiccup threw his leg over Toothless' saddle, his prosthetic clicking into place. Within seconds, the pair was off the ground and up in the sky.

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By late morning, Fanghook's claws touched down on the stone floors of the arena known as the Berk Dragon Academy. Gustav came down here every morning just to think about the thrill of being a Dragon Trainer going out on adventures. The same fantasies swirled around his mind as he slipped off his dragon. "We're going to have to work on that jump and land trick, buddy," said Gustav. "Hiccup and Toothless pulled it off when Hiccup was fifteen. That means I have one year to-"

"To what, Gustav?" a voice asked out of nowhere. Confused, the boy turned around. To his surprise, Hiccup was there with his back against the arena's walls with Toothless curled up beside him. "You playing in here again?"

"No! Of course not!" Gustav hurriedly answered, suddenly nervous. Perhaps Hiccup finally caught him not cleaning up the dragon stables for the past four years. Or was he finally going to get busted for not following his orders to set Fanghook free?

Berk's young heir pushed off the wall and strode up to Gustav, with Toothless in tow. Gustav gulped as Hiccup approached. Both of them had grown, but Hiccup was still much taller. It reminded Gustav of how different their appearance, and skills, were. To his astonishment, Hiccup didn't give him a scolding as he usually would when he caught Gustav playing in the arena years ago. Instead, the heir said, "Gustav, how about I promote you from junior-apprentice-auxiliary-reserve-back-up-replacement-rider-in-training-4th-class, to Dragon Training Apprentice - First Class?"

Gustav's eyes light up immediately. "Really?" He sounded breathless, completely taken away by excitement.

"That's right. I'm taking you on as my apprentice," Hiccup clarified. "From this day on, I'm going to pound into you everything I've learned about Dragons. We're reviving the Berk Dragon Academy."

"Yes!" Gustav cheered as he pumped a fist in the air. "You have no idea how excited I am, Hiccup. Don't worry. I won't let you down! Fanghook and I are in tip top shape!" As if on cue, the Monstrous Nightmare flopped onto the ground, suddenly seemingly tired from their morning flight. Gustav flashed his new instructor a sheepish grin.

"I think we can hit pause on your flying and riding skills for a while," said Hiccup. "Now, let me guess. In the past couple of years, all you've done is taken Fanghook out for rides completely ignored the other aspects of being a dragon trainer."

Gustav gave Hiccup an aloof scoff, followed by an arm movement, waving him off. "Of course not. I've been working on the other skills of dragon training."

"Gustav..." Hiccup began, accusingly. Gustav even could've sworn that Toothless was wearing a smug expression behind his rider.

"Yes," the boy point-blanked, hanging his head dejectedly. Hiccup then patted his new apprentice on the back. "Don't worry about it too much. If you already knew everything there is to know, there's no point in me teaching you anything, right?"

"Right," Gustav agreed. He then brightened as his new mentor called for their first lesson at the stables.

"Come on," said Hiccup, turning towards the entrance of the arena. "Let's begin your training."

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"So tell me again why am I giving Fanghook a bath?" Gustav was clearly unamused as he heaved the giant brush against the rough, scaly skin of his own dragon in front of him. The Monstrous Nightmare shifted into a more comfortable position before giving a huff of content. Gustav turned to Hiccup, an annoyed expression on his face.

"First tip of the day, Gustav," said the elder Dragon Rider. "A happy dragon is an exfoliated dragon." Toothless popped up behind the young heir, and Hiccup proceeded to give his dragon a scratch around the ears. "Just so you know, I have to give Toothless a bath from time to time too."

Gustav simply rolled his eyes before scrubbing back and forth. The weight of the cleaning brush on his hands was much heavier than he thought. He's going to have to give the stable boys some more credit. "Like cleaning dead scales off a dragon is going to do much," he muttered.

"Well you want to be a dragon trainer don't you?" said Hiccup, turning away from Toothless. "There's a lot more to it than just riding. You're going to have to get the more practical stuff down too."

"That's fine and all," Gustav replied. "But when do I get to go out and map new islands like you?"

"Whoa there. Let's not get ahead of yourself. There's still a lot of training for you to go through. For now, I want three dragons washed up by the end of the day."

As Hiccup turned to walk away, Gustav caught the clinking sound of the heir's prosthetic foot fading into the background. Once he made sure that Hiccup was gone, masked by the noise of squawking dragons, he stopped scrubbing. His eyes started looking around the stalls for Hume, one of the boys who constantly worked at the stable.

"You know what they say," Gustav murmured to Fanghook. "Work smarter, not harder."

Hiccup's voice cut the air out of nowhere. "Just so you know, I gave all the stable vikings a day off today!"

"Aw fudge buckets," groaned Gustav. Fanghook meanwhile, made a slight clicking noise, earning his rider's attention. The Monstrous Nightmare had a smug grin on his face, taunting the boy, as if telling him to go back to cleaning. Gustav narrowed his gaze and said, "Don't get too comfortable."

Gustav didn't get to go on another ride on Fanghook for serious training until a week afterwards, when Hiccup dragged them into the forest for low level evasive maneuvers. Admittedly, Gustav found that the trees and branches, cluttered everywhere, were much more erratic and random than he could ever hope the sea stacks to be. He often couldn't react in time at the speed Fanghook was going, and the duo found themselves smacking into trees several times. No matter how hard Gustav concentrated, he couldn't stop him and his dragon from crashing into trunks.

"Communication between dragon and rider goes both ways," Hiccup eventually told him once he was sure that Gustav definitely had enough of logs. "Not only must the dragon follow the rider's lead, but the rider must listen to the dragon as well. Try letting Fanghook do the steering."

And so Gustav allowed his dragon to drive them through the course. While the Monstrous Nightmare did unexpectedly toss him in the air and caught him once, Gustav found it surprising that they didn't run into as many obstacles as they did before. A few days later and they could easily go through the track without any head or minor collisions.

Hiccup's next assignment had Gustav train a Terrible Terror in 48 hours, and to see what kind of tricks could the boy have the little dragon perform. He stayed up late, he barely ate during meals, worrying his mother, but Gustav spent all of his time with the Terror. When he showed off the small dragon's skills at bringing in a pile of fresh Icelandic cod an the ability to shoot at a few targets, Gustav had to admit he was very proud. But the look of disapproval on Hiccup's face crushed the confidence immediately.

"Sorry, Gustav," he said. "But you did not pass this assignment."

"What, why?" Gustav immediately questioned, growing anxious. "But I taught the Terror well! Look! He can even latch himself onto my arm and won't let go!" To prove his point, the Terror froze solid with it's jaws locked around the boy's elbow and Gustav attempted to hide his wince of pain.

"You're forgetting something." Hiccup then gestured his head towards the back of the arena. Gustav turned and found Fanghook curled up in the corner, a forlorn expression on him. A small huff of smoke rose up from his nostrils as Fanghook breathed out a small spit of flame in a feeble try to entertain himself.

The weight of his actions suddenly rained on Gustav. "Oh," he murmured.

"You've been so focused on the Terror that you ignored your own dragon," Hiccup explained in a very sincere tone. "Fishlegs once fell into the same trap. I've got to make sure that you're not going to make the same mistake. The bond you share with your dragon is greater than anything. Remember that."

The younger viking sighed as he pried the Terrible Terror off his arm.

I've got a lot I need to learn.

Gustav nodded. "I will."

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The first two chapters will be HTTYD2 spoiler free. From chapter three onwards, it's spoilers. Spoilers everywhere. You my friend, have been warned.

Coming up next:

Chapter Two – A New Age Part I: The New Riders

Thank you for checking out this story! As always, it is very much appreciated. If you're interested in reading my original writing work, they're up on a website named "Publish Your Mind", which is a site for teens to publish their stories and writing work. My current story is entitled "Soulstrings", where people Search for the missing fragment of their souls in an epic quest. Feel free to search "Publish Your Mind" on Google, or head to my profile page for the link!