So I don't actually know when I'll post anything again, because I've been busy with classes and stuff. But I've had this sitting around for a while (a year) so why not. I'll pick it up eventually, hopefully soon!

Note: Pretty much disregards RoB and RttE. There will be dragons from the show, but I don't really consider the show canon so plots/details from there will probably be changed/altered/whatever to fit the story better. Sorry!

Dragon Day

If it was any other morning, I would already be outside, bouncing around on the roof, making any kind of racket I could so that my human would wake up already and go flying with me. If it was any other morning, Hiccup would be asleep in bed, or maybe groaning and trying to ignore me. If it were any other morning, Hiccup would not be poking and prodding me awake, taking absolute delight in tormenting me.

"Good morning, Toothless."

No. Please. No.

I didn't open my eyes. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how extremely upset I was. I think he knew anyway.

He wrapped his arms around me in a hug, and started talking into my ear. I could practically hear him grinning. He was enjoying this way too much.

"You'd never believe how beautiful of a morning it is outside." My wings ached, but I kept absolutely still. Maybe he'd think I was dead and leave me alone. "There's not a cloud in the sky- and there's just a lovely spring breeze coming in."

Spawn of Loki.

I was practically trembling with the effort of not taking off right then, right there. Hiccup knew I was listening now, and leaned in closer.

"You know, it's really a perfect morning. A perfect morning for the best day of the year." Hiccup paused. "You know what day it is, don't you Toothless?"

Oh, I knew alright.

I slid one eye open, just because I couldn't keep still any longer. Hiccup's grinning face was right beside mine, and that smile was enough to give me nightmares. "It's Dragon Day," he whispered.

I buried my face in my paws and wailed.

Dragon Day may sound like some kind of holiday, where Vikings and dragons alike on Berk celebrate the peace and unity between our species. In some ways, it is.

It means a evening of ale, food, storytelling, flying, and basically any kind of festivities Viking or dragon could think of. There are dances and flight courses and cheering. And lots of fish for me, and bone breaking hugs for Hiccup all because of our friendship. Hiccup tells our story, and everyone gets drunk and makes toasts and sings and gives me more fish and scratches.

Sounds like a good day, right?

Wrong.

There's one more thing about Dragon Day I didn't mention. Pretty much the main event, the thing that makes this holiday stand out, and leaves everyone longing (and on my part, dreading) for its arrival.

The competition.

On Dragon Day, Vikings from all over Berk go dragon searching across the Archipelago. The first year, Hiccup presented the idea as a way to spread peace between species rather than an all out competition. But he lives with Vikings. So it's no surprise that it turned into a competition before the day was done.

A competition to spread unity between dragons and humans? Why on earth would I, a dragon, possibly be against such a thing?

Because as innocent and sweet this competition appears, it is a threat to everything I love.

Hiccup knows it.

And he loves it.

"Good morning, Vikings and dragons of Berk!" Stoick boomed.

The crowd roared in joyful response, eager to begin their day of dragon training. I moaned from where I sat, anxiously shifting my paws around. Hiccup's hand rubbing my scales brought little comfort.

Almost all of Berk was gathered near the steps of the Mead Hall, dragons and humans pressed close together, everyone chittering and shifting excitedly.

"In a few short minutes, the third Dragon Day competition will begin!" More cheers. "But first, Gobber will go over the rules and scoring system."

Stoick stepped back, and Gobber shuffled on, carrying a large leather book that he started to read out of. He cleared his throat, and began: "Dragon Day competition rules. Rule number one: dragons currently on Berk DO NOT count. Wild dragons only. Any dragon trained before Gothi's signal and after sunset will not count for scoring.

"Rule number two: no teams. If you do decide to pair up with someone, you must be together for the ENTIRE competition. Any dragons trained MUST be trained by both of you.

"Lastly: all dragons trained must accompany you to Berk before sunset or they will NOT qualify for scoring. We won't believe you've trained a Boneknapper until we see it. Unless you're Hiccup."

Laughter.

I snorted, and Hiccup moved closer to me, that stupid grin on his face.

"All of you should have gotten a sheet with scoring on it-"

"I need one!"

There was a quick shuffle to find another sheet for Bucket, who was continually losing his. He wasn't really going to participate in the competition, but it made him happy to think he was included in the celebrations.

"Anybody else?" Gobber asked. No one answered. "Alrighty, then. As a quick reminder- Monstrous Nightmares: 500 points. Gronkles: 200. Nadders: 400. Zipplebacks: 300. Terrors: 25. Hotburples: 500. Changewing: 750. Smokebreath: 50. Thunderdrum: 800. Whispering Death: 1000. And so on, and so forth." Gobber through his paper down, tired of reading. "You can all read it yourselves."

"What if we can't read, sir?" called some Viking from the crowd.

"No bragging, Wartihog! Get some idiot to read it for you!" Laughter.

"For any dragon NOT on the list, the amount of points given will be determined by Gothi, Hiccup, and Fishlegs. Remember, a new species of dragons adds an automatic 1000 points to whatever the given score is." Mummers broke out through the crowd.

"And, as Hiccup asked me to remind you, bigger does not mean more points. As many of us remember from last year-" I turned to glower at Hiccup, who squirmed unhappily under my gaze. "-a Venomous Vorpent, while smaller than a Terror, is worth 80 times more."

Low murmurs of confusion broke out.

"That's 2000 points," Hiccup announced, and the crowd settled again.

"Thank you, Hiccup," Gobber said. "Any questions?"

No one had any questions.

"Well then. I guess we're good to go. When you hear the horn blow, then you can-"

PARRRRRRRRRPPPPPP.

Within seconds, the whole island was practically deserted, leaving only a few spectators behind. A few spectators, Gobber, Gothi, Fishlegs and Meatlug, Stoick and Skullcrusher, me and Hiccup, and Grump, who was snoring a few feet away.

Gobber shrugged and hopped onto Grump. "Ready, Stoick? We can't let the chief fall behind, after all."

"Just a moment." Stoick stomped over towards me. Hiccup was now sitting on my back, rubbing my scales, trying to get me to fly into the sky. I was having none of it, however. He could do anything he wanted, but there was no way I was g- Oh, that feels good.

"Hiccup."

Stoick's voice made Hiccup forget that he was trying to persuade me into suicide, and his fingers dropped from that spot. "Oh, hey, Dad."

I stared intently at Hiccup's father, pleading with him to make it stop, to tell Hiccup he couldn't go, say he needed Hiccup to do something else, tell him it was too dangerous and that he was going to get himself killed.

Stoick ignored me, other than an odd look at my behavior.

Stupid Vikings.

Stoick looked a little sheepish as he spoke to Hiccup, which was unusual for him. "I just wanted to tell you-"

"...to not get killed, maimed, poisoned, eaten or mauled?" I could hear the grin and easy confidence in my human's voice.

Stoick chuckled. "That about sums it up. Don't do anything too-"

"-stupid? Yeah. I'll try." His foot clicked in the pedal. Let's go. I want to fly, he told me with his actions.

Well, too bad.

I wasn't going anywhere. The only reason I had got out of bed was because Hiccup had taken off in a full out sprint so he could tag along with Astrid for the competition. Unacceptable.

"Good luck." Stoick said, even though Hiccup didn't need it.

"You too."

And then Stoick was gone, off to join Gobber to goof off the whole day. I watched him in exasperation. If you're so worried about him, why aren't you taking my side?

Hiccup bent over, so he could stare down at me. Stare down at me with those green eyes and that kicked hatchling expression because he knew he had me wrapped around his little finger. "Come on, Toothless. It's a great day- we get to fly all day, meet new dragons, eat all the fish you want…!"

I was firm in my decision and looked away, with a snort and a stamp, an obvious "no".

"Well… if your mind really can't be changed..." Hiccup slid off my back, and started to walk away.

What? Hiccup never gives up that easily!

I took a step towards him before I knew what I was doing. I drew back just as quickly, eyes narrowed. What was he up to?

"Hey, Fishlegs!" Hiccup called to the large Viking boy who was conferring with Gothi. I listened intently. Something was up. "Since you and Meatlug aren't competing, I was wondering if maybe Meatlug would go out with me today."

What.

Fishlegs hesitated, looking between Hiccup and Meatlug. "Well, I was thinking that me and Meatlug would spend the day together…" He looked like he was about to say no, but then he looked over at me, and understanding dawned. What kind of understanding, I had no idea. "Oh, yeah, sure."

'Oh, yeah, sure'?!

No! There was no way that Hiccup was going anywhere with Meatlug, who was admittedly nice, but she wasn't the brightest and there was no way she could protect him. Not like I could.

Hiccup already had his arms around the Gronkle and she was purring happily. There was no way I would let this go down. He was not going with her.

With a snarl, I bounded towards them, landing on Hiccup and effectively separating him from Meatlug. I growled at her (not too harshly, and I think she understood), and then at Hiccup, who just gave me a calm, patronizing smile.

"Oh, did you change your mind, Toothless?"

Did I change my mind?

In Hiccup's defense, he did try not to grin while I stormed and raged for a few minutes. He also did not interrupt my tantrum, just stood there, hiding his smile behind pressed lips.

When I had finally run out of steam, he wrapped his arms around me. "Thanks, bud. You don't know how much this means to me. I promise I'll make this up to you, okay?" I grumbled in response as he scrambled into the saddle, all excitement.

And then I lept into the sky.

I couldn't believe I was doing this again.

It wasn't like we even had to go out and train other dragons.

Hiccup was permanently banned from participating in the competition since the first year, and yet he still insisted on participating just for the fun of it. I don't even think he cared that he got disqualified just because he was Hiccup, he just wanted to befriend every dragon he met.

And that was the problem.

Hiccup told me once that he thought the gods hated him.

They must hate me a whole lot more to curse me with the kindest, gentlest, loving human.

Regardless of the danger, he'd just throw his life at the nearest dragon, like they couldn't crush his body with one paw, cook him with one flame, slice him in half with one claw, eat him in one gulp. Did I miss anything?

The more dangerous the dragon, the more he wanted to capture its heart.

It's a good thing he's got me at his side to keep him alive.

But it's killing me to see him playing with death.

Hiccup set our course, and then we were off. The first hour we spent ducking and diving along the way, skimming the sea and rejoicing in the morning. For a while I almost forgot how worried I was, and relaxed and had fun.

After all, Hiccup wasn't the only one with tricks up his sleeve.

This year, he was going after a Skrill. It was worth around 1500 points, give or take. Not that points mattered, since Hiccup couldn't win.

It was his own fault. The first year we had gone out early, and in the first two hours, Hiccup had an entire nest of Smokebreaths in love with him. Over the course of the day, he had also managed to train three Sea-Shockers, a family of Timberjacks, a Thunderdrum, and two love-bird Long-Ear dragons, who now regularly visit Berk. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown before we returned home. He would have won by a long shot, had everyone not agreed to permanently ban him from competing.

The following year was worse. Much worse.

Last year, we had set off early. It had been a beautiful day- much like today. Deceived by the colorful sunrise and exhilarating flight we took, my mind was put to rest. I didn't know the horrors in store for me.

After a few minutes of flying, we had landed on a small island. It looked peaceful enough, and I had wondered if we were going to even bother tracking down dragons on our day off.

"So, how about this? Looks pretty nice, huh?" Hiccup had said.

It had looked nice.

Until I found out it was an island of Whispering Deaths.

Hiccup fell in love with all of them, one by one, as I snarled at them from nearby, giving generous and precise details about what I would do to them if they put even one tooth out of line. I think it was Hiccup's way of overcoming any lasting dislike for them since I had battled it out with that one guy. Thinking about my former rival even now made my blood boil.

Then we found a Boneknapper, seven Scauldrons, and a Venomous Vorpent before the day ended.

We didn't know what the Vorpent was at first. Vorpents are very shy, and I wouldn't have recognised it, since I had never seen one before. I still blame myself for what happened, no matter what Hiccup says. I should have known what it was and tried to warn him. It hadn't ended well, but Hiccup was okay, and that was what mattered.

I was not about to make the same mistakes again. Not today, not ever again.

This year, we were going after a Skrill. Hiccup had been planning for months, trying to learn everything he could about the Skrill, trying to pinpoints its location in order to optimise the amount of time we had.

Or, at least Hiccup thought we were going after a Skrill.

While Hiccup was distracted doing flips and spins and dives, I had ever so slightly altered our course. I guessed that we were off track by a good hour, and now it was an hour and one minute… an hour and two minutes…

Another hour passed before Hiccup discovered my cunning. I heard him start to mutter and click his compass a few times. "Wait a minute…"

I hummed innocently, in a questioning sort of way. Like I was asking, "What's wrong?" instead of "You fell for it because I am a devious dragon who can outwit Loki spawn like you/in your face/guess we have to goof off the whole rest of the day so you can't mess with anything potentially dangerous except me".

"Well, it looks like you got me, bud." He leaned over in the saddle and stared at me. I blinked at him innocently, until I realized that he didn't look upset. Not even a little bit. He was just smiling. That same, patronizing smile from earlier.

"We're not going the right way to get a Skrill." He paused. "Good thing we're not going after a Skrill."

I nearly dropped out of the sky in shock.

How did he do it? How did he outwit me again and again? I guess Hiccup knew me more than I liked to admit.

I felt a little satisfaction that I had scared Hiccup a bit, because he grabbed onto one of my frills and jammed his foot so hard in the pedal during our sudden descent that he had to remove his prosthetic in order to work it free.

It obviously hadn't scared him enough, because he kept talking, a laugh in his voice. "'Cause you know, I was thinking, a Skrill's pretty amazing, but I really wanted a challenge today."

You always want a challange, I thought, my head spinning with despair.

"And also, the island would be nice for a nap. You wouldn't mind that, would you?"

I wouldn't mind. But I wasn't about to tell him that.

"So I thought, Melody Island would be nice," Hiccup continued.

Melody Island. Melody Island. What monster is on Melody Island?

"You up for the Death Song?"

No no no no no no no no no.

Yup. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll actually post something else this year.

Man I wish that was a joke