Hayla grinned and patted Julius, her Changewing, on the neck. Below her, the dragon training class and their dragons in training cheered her on. Julius had finally mastered the art of graceful flying. A sense of accomplishment flowed through her. She had finally done it! After a year of tumbles, scrapes, bruises and burns, Julius had finally done it! A voice came from her right, surprising her. Julius grunted and just shifted to help her up. Hiccup and Toothless came into out of her blind spot and into view.

"Congrats Hayla! I knew you would get it eventually! See you in the arena!" Hiccup smiled kindly as Toothless folded up his wings and plummeted in a downward spiral. Julius, not wanting to be outdone, shot a stream of acid into the sky and then raced downward, ahead of the acid. Only one drop of acid hit Hayla, putting a whole in her shirt.

"Again Julius? At least this time you didn't burn my shirt off." Julius turned to look at her and roll his eyes. Hayla laughed, remembering the first time Julius had tried that trick and splattered her with acid. She hadn't known it was acid because it was her first time riding him. It was only when she landed did the others point out her bare chest and red skin. Julius finally spread his wings and gently landed amidst the mix of adolescent vikings and young dragons. Hiccup offered her a hand and she slid down. Was it just her imagination or did Astrid roll her eyes and look the other way. No matter. This is my celebration, not hers. Hiccup embraced her in a hug and pulled away, his eyes cheerful and bright. Ruff and Tuff each grabbed a horn on her helmet and pulled her head back so she was looking at them.

"Wow good job Hayla. You didn't even burn off your shirt this time!" Tuff said. Ruff let go of her antler and punched him in the arm. Tuff, being the overdramatic guy he is, let go of the other antler and clutched his arm.

"Ouch! I am hurt! I am very much hurt!" Tuff staggered off, with Ruff rolling her eyes behind him, calling out congratulations to Hayla over her shoulder. Snoutlot just nodded and smiled. Hayla took off her helmet and hung it on one of Julius's horns. Throwing her waist length brown hair over her shoulder, she turned and patted him on the snout. He pushed her in return, knocking her back and into Hiccup, who was with Toothless. He put a hand behind her back before she could fall over and helped her up, smiling the smile that wrinkled the bridge of his nose. As soon as she was up-right, Astrid walked over, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Giving Hayla a look like you would give a half-eaten fish, she smiled at Hiccup.

"Wow Hiccup. You and Toothless looked really good. You must have been practicing a lot." She raised her hands up and fixed her headband. Hayla self-consciously ran her hand over her long hair and touched the stump of her left arm, which had been bitten off back when the dragons hadn't been as friendly. Julius nudged her, as if meaning to reassure her. Seeing that this conversation was now over, she retrieved her helmet from Julius and led him back towards the house. I'm no match for Astrid. She has the looks, the dragon skills, the charm. And not to mention she has both of her arms. Hayla stopped and tugged the big oak door open. Julius followed her in and she took off his saddle. Unlike most vikings, she had no parents. They had been killed around the same time she lost her arm. She had been raised by Gobber, the village's weapon's maker. Okay you need to stop dwelling in the past. You have to get over Astrid and for Odin's sake stop thinking about your parents. You have other things to do. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts she left Julius in the house and went over to the mess hall. Gobber was there, his hook hand switched out for a mug of beer. Hayla went and sat down with the vikings from the dragon training class, where Ruff and Tuff were fighting, Snoutlot was trying to wow Astrid, Fishlegs was reading, and Hiccup was feeding chicken to Toothless. She took her seat and started eating her food. Whatever it was, it was fresh. Gobber usually just combined the leftovers from that whole week into one dish at the end of the week. As she finished the rest of her meal, Ruffnut stopped fighting with her brother and started talking to Hayla.

"So tonight, we were gonna go fishing on the dock and maybe like jump off of it I dunno. Want to come?" Ruff gave Hayla the look she gives everyone: boredom. Hayla laughed and though about it. She did something with the class almost every night and she was torn between staying home with Julius and going to the dock with everyone else. She remembered the last time she stayed home, and how everyone kind of just ignored her the next day. That won't happen again.

"I would love to go! What time?" she said eagerly. Ruff grinned and asked Tuff, who stopped inhaling his food just long enough for him to answer.

"Uh I guess after this." Hayla rolled her eyes and went back to her dinner. Such a sophisticated answer. She got up to scrape the remnants of her meal into the fire pit, but not before she heard Astrid asking Hiccup,

"So me and Stormfly were wondering if you and Toothless wanted to come with us to the dragon nest tomorrow and just look around. It would just be us so… yeah." Hayla watched as Astrid used both hands to fix her headband as she smiled sweetly at Hiccup. She self-consciously touched the stump where her arm should have been, as she always did. You've got to stop living in the past. You lost your arm. Now viking up and stop crying over it! She didn't wait to hear Hiccup's reply, instead scraping her plate and coming back slowly. She sat down quietly and listened to Ruff and Tuff debating whether we should go fishing or hunting. Astrid had moved next to Hiccup and was talking to him as he drew Toothless, his attention divided between the two. Finally the twins decided on fishing and the class left the mess hall. Each went off his or her own way to feed their dragon and get their fishing supplies. Hayla walked inside her house and found Julius curled up next to the fire, snoring contentedly. As quietly as she could, she grabbed her knife and spear and tiptoed to the door. The second she stepped outside, Snoutlot came running up with a worried expression plastered across his face. The others were trailing behind him, obviously curious as to why he was running. The look on his face was desperate as he grabbed Hayla's arm to steady himself.

"Guys you've got to help me. Hookfang is missing."