"Alright guys, just like we practiced!" The moment after I said that, the Gronckle, Zippleback, Nadder Head, Monstrous Nightmare and their riders levitated off the stone floor of the arena and began to fly in a V formation, circling the entire room. "Now!" I heard Astrid cry from her dragon, pointing to the two Outcast dummies standing in the middle of the room.

The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and their dragon(s) flew to the middle over the dummies and the right head, know as Barf, spewed it's gas over the two dummies. The Zippleback circled around again and this time, Belch ignited the gas with a spark from its mouth, sending a mighty crack through the arena and launching the dummies vertically in the air.

Astrid and Stormfly, eyeing the airborne targets sent a volley of spikes to them. Five hit one of them in the chest while four hit the other in the head and they fell to the ground. They landed on their backs and rolled around on the floor until Fishlegs and Meatlug flew up and sent a lava blast to the center of them. The impact sent the two of them flying in separate directions.

One of them landed directly at the claws of Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang. The threatening beast drove its claw into the hay-stuffed dummy and flung it across the floor. The dragon then pounced to the other side of the room where the other dummy was waiting to be stabbed and violently torn apart.

As the massive dragon continued its feast, I rested my hands on my hips and looked around the arena impressed. "Well done guys. You stayed in formation, you played your parts correctly, and only one dummy is completely destroyed this time. I'm impressed." Astrid, who had hopped off of Stormfly and walked up next to me, gave me a smile. "Thanks Teach. What's next on the agenda?"

I looked down to my clipboard to see the plan. Today, I mainly wanted to focus on precision, and teamwork. That's why I set up this training session so I could work on both of them at once. I'm really glad we still had some dummies left over for the targets. They are dressed to look like Outcast soldiers, even though we haven't heard from them since I watched Alvin become a chew toy, but I keep the dummies dressed like this because I like to imagine we are actually keeping him in custody. It's a good thought.

So let's see, what is next to do? I mumbled to myself as I read the checked off items on the list of things to do. "Ok…. Taming…. Uh… Aiming…. Clean up after Ruff and Tuff…. Looks like we're done for today," I announced. The other Vikings let out a whoop of joy, hopped on their dragons and flew out the open door. Except for Astrid. She always stayed behind to help me lock up once training was over. I don't need her help, but I always appreciated her lending a hand.

We cleaned up the hay that was sprayed across the floor from the dummies and stored the two of them in one of the gates where we used to keep the dragons we would fight. We closed the gate, looked around to be sure nothing else is needed to be done, nodded our heads in approval and walked to our dragons.

The only Night fury on the island was playing with Stormfly. He was pushing his paws against the body of Stormfly in an attempt to get her riled up. The two of them pounced and jumped on each other playfully and gnawed on each other's wings. Astrid and I laughed as we separated the two. "C'mon Stormfly, it's time for dinner! Don't you want the chicken?" She asked in a playful voice. "Is that what you want?" The Nadder squawked in excitement and began to bounce a little on its light feet. "Well let's go get some!" Astrid mounted on her dragon, waved at me and flew out the door, leaving me with my best friend.

I looked over at Toothless, the greatest friend anyone could ever have and gave him a smile. "What do you say bud? You ready to go home?" He nodded his head and let out a little purr. I scratched his snout and walked over to grab his saddle. I strapped it on, climbed on top, put my prosthetic foot in the controlling mechanism and aimed my dragon to the door.

"Let's go bud." He bolted to the door, flapped his mighty wings and took flight.

Flying.

No other feeling in this world can compare to what I feel when I am soaring along with the wind, allowing it to rustle up my hair and whistle past my ears. Being able to see every square inch of the island. Being able to pretend that there is no wrong in the world, and just allow yourself to get wrapped up in the feeling of perfect harmony.

Yeah.

It's a good Feeling.

Sadly, often times it is a short-lived feeling. My house was in view and we started to descend. Toothless landed on the dirt softly and let out a grunt, signifying that we've reached our destination. "Great job bud. Tomorrow, we'll go for a longer ride." Toothless jumped with glee at that comment. I settled him down and we walked over to the front door of my house. I looked down in the village and saw Stormfly being fed by her wonderful rider.

I watched as she fed her dragon. My Gods she's so wonderful. I'm still surprised by the fact that I'm allowed to say that I am going out with her. Every time Snotlout sees the two of us holding hands I can see the anger in his face.

In all honesty, that was always hilarious.

I opened the door and saw my dad cooking a fish over a fire in the fireplace. He looked over to Toothless and I and smiled. "Welcome back son! How was training today?" He always tries to involve himself more in my life ever since I started training dragons. He felt bad about the years of neglect and feels he needs to make up for it. So he tends to ask about how everything in my day was…EVERYTHING.

"Training went well today. The twins managed to keep themselves under control and Snotlout wasn't as arrogant as he usually is." He turned away from me and went back to cooking the fish. "Good. Good." Awkward silence filled the air. In the middle of the silence, Toothless pounced up the stairs and into my room where he, no doubt, slept on his stone slab.

"How's the fish?" I asked awkwardly in an attempt to break the awful silence. "It's coming along well. Oh! And Hiccup, before I forget, a young man is looking for you." My eyes widened a little. "Uh, for me? What did he want? Do you know?" Stoick shook his head. "He just told me to tell you to meet him at the entrance of the Great Hall right about now. You'd better get going. I'll take care of supper." With that, Dad shooed me out of the house.

For a while now, not only has he been wanting to know more about what's going on in my life, he also is enforcing rules and specific duties on me because I'm going to be chief someday. He wants to be sure that I'm aware of the rules and the sacrifices required to lead an island. He's been doing this since he officially accepted me as his son after my fight with the Red Death. I guess now he sees me for who I really am and not the son he was trying to mold me into.

It may be annoying at times, but I am grateful for that.

After he pushed me through the door, I walked down the stairs and to the entrance of the Great Hall.

The Hall isn't far from my house so I got there fairly quickly. I walk up the stairs and as I near the front doors, I don't see anybody there. I look around for any form of life while I walk up the stone steps and I suddenly hear the door open.

Out came a Viking, just a little older than me actually, probably by only a few weeks. He wore a blue cloth tunic with a brown belt that supports his brown pants. He wore brown fur boots similar to mine. He had shorter brown hair, which just revealed his blue eyes. Across his shoulder, a bow was slung. And at his waist I saw a sheathed sword. And as I got closer, I noticed that he was built a little more bulky than I was. He seemed quite the warrior compared to me.

I walked up and stood next to him. While I stood I noticed he was staring awkwardly at my fake foot. I cleared my throat to gain his attention. He looked back at me apologetically. "So, are you the one who wanted to see me?" I asked. He nodded. "Yes, I am. My name's Jack." He extended his hand out I accepted it and shook. "Well Jack, what can I help you with?" He seemed a little nervous. Which was strange because of his bow and sword hanging off of his body. "I was just wondering…" He trailed off. "Could I join the Dragon Academy?"

I at first didn't know how to react. No one really ever requested to join the academy.

As I stared him down I slowly began to recognize him. I've seen his face around town some times. He would give a hand over at Mulch and Bucket's house and after the attacks of the Whispering Death, I've seen him helping lend a hand and try to clean the town up. I think I even saw him in the brawl between Outcasts and Vikings on the night of the festival. I just never really got the chance to know the guy.

I shook my head a little to snap myself back into reality. "Uh, you want to join?" I asked stupidly. He nodded. "Ever since you got the whole dragon thing under control, they just seemed interesting to me. I want to learn more about them and maybe even fly one! And besides, you're like the greatest dragon trainer in the world! It would mean a lot to me if you'd let me join you guys." I was scratching my chin. "Well, it is nice to see that others are wanting to join." I pondered. I already knew what my answer was but the look of suspense on his face was pretty comical.

"Jack, I would be honored if you joined the Academy," I said with a smile. His entire face lit up. "Oh thank you! You won't regret this I swear!" He enveloped me in a bear hug that pushed all air away from my lungs. He released me and he still had that happy face of his. He was older than me, and more heavily built, and judging by the weapons hanging off of his body he seemed to be a fearless soldier. When in reality he's just a big teddy bear. Well, I thought of him as a teddy bear up until the point he punched me in the arm just as hard as Astrid does.

He's a hostile teddy bear.

He caught his breath and finally spoke again. "So, when uh, when can I start?" "Tomorrow," I assured. I'll come by your house for training at about one. Sound good?" "Sounds great! Thanks again Hiccup." He punched me in the arm again and walked down the stairs, leaving me by the entrance and with a few new bruises on my arm.

I walked back to my house and saw my dad at the table eating a part of the fish he was cooking earlier. He saw me, patted his hand on the chair next to him and continued eating. I sat down next to him. Once he swallowed he looked down to me. "So how did it go? What did he want?" I looked up at him. "His name is Jack and he says that he wants to join the Academy." My dad's face lit up. "That's wonderful son! You have a new student!" He hit me in the arm in the exact spot where Jack had hit me.

Gods that hurt.

"Yeah. It is. I'm glad that there are more people in the village who want to learn more about the dragons." My dad looked back down to me. "You have yourself to thank for that. You're the one who showed us how the creatures could be trained. Now anyone who wants to fly a dragon only wants to because you did it first. You're the towns' role model Hiccup." After he finished saying that last part, he ate the rest of the fish on his plate.

A role model?

Me? Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III?

Never thought of it that way.

After he swallowed the last piece, he got up from the table. "There's more fish for you in the fireplace. I'd love to eat with you but Gobber has something to tell me. Eat up and get to bed. I'll be back later tonight. G'night Hiccup." I watched him walk out of sight. "Night dad."

I looked over in the pot hanging over the fire and saw the rest of the fish. I put it on my plate and basically devoured it. Once I was done, I ran upstairs and hopped into bed. I saw Toothless sleeping on his stone slab silently.

I rested my head to my pillow and allowed myself to drift to sleep.