Hello everyone. Yes, these episodes will be posted weekly. Or, at least I'll try. In that time, I might post a Song fic; I might not, but who knows? That is more of a spontaneous thing. If you do have seen the first drabble and/or you have any suggestions feel free to tell me so. I'm always open to suggestions and criticism.
How to Start a Dragon Academy
This is Berk, a place where Vikings and Dragons now live in peace. For many generations it was Viking against Dragon; the battles were ferocious. But, then one day, everything changed. I met Toothless, and together we've shown people here that instead of fighting dragons we can ride them, live with them, even train them. Since I've met him, he's taught me so much about dragons—about myself. My Dragonese is getting a little better, and my flying is improving too, with Toothless and some of the other dragons coaching me. My village has seemed to except the dragon side of me. In fact, I don't really think they care. I guess my dad must have already explained everything. Ever since I woke up from my coma, no one has even asked me about it. But even then, with how much progress our village has gone through, the road to complete peace and acceptance isn't easy. Take this week for example…
Hiccup and Toothless were flying over the village to a sea stack she and her friends agreed to meet that afternoon. They were going to show off their best tricks, and she knew she and Toothless were going to win. Again.
"Alright gang, best trick competition. Who's up first?" she said as she landed beside Aric and Shadowstar.
"Me", Snotlout said arrogantly, striking a pose.
"Actually I think it's—"
"Me", he interrupted Fishlegs.
"Sweet baby Thor in a thunderstorm, Go!" Aric shouted, growing impatient and frustrated.
"Oh, don't worry, we'll go. And when we go Hookfang and I are going to light the sky on Firrree!"
Hookfang, in an attempt to teach his rider a lesson on respect, flew off the sea stack into a steep dive, leveling out and flying as fast and as crazy as he wanted, causing Snotlout to scream with terror. Hookfang then dived into the sea, pulled out, and returned to the other riders and dragons as if nothing happened, but quite satisfied.
"I'm alive?" Snotlout asked surprised. "I'm alive! O-of course I am", he said returning to his original arrogant self.
"It's my turn!" Fishlegs exclaimed excitedly. "Ready Meatlug?"
"You know it!"
"Here we go."
Meatlug knew Fishlegs could only handle so much, so they always went slow. For the past months they had been together she was simply getting Fishlegs used to flying, and this was what they showed as their trick. She slowly flew away from the sea stack a little, then circled back nice and slow. Fishlegs didn't freak out at all the entire time, and she was so proud.
As they landed Fishlegs was proud as well. "Yes! New personal best."
He hugged her and Meatlug licked him to show her affection back.
"You were great", she said even though she knew he didn't understand.
"My turn!" Ruffnut shouted.
"No my turn!" Her brother retorted.
"Guys, same dragon?" Hiccup interjected.
"You sure they can remember to breathe?" Toothless asked her.
"Oh right", Tuff said. They bumped fists, and had Barf and Belch leap off the sea stack.
Not even a moment later the two ran into trouble with an oncoming sea stack and the two were bickering, pulling their own head left and right unable to agree which direction to turn resulting in the two heads colliding with a thud.
"I'm honestly not", Hiccup answered quietly to Toothless, as she witnessed the scene.
They narrowly missed the pillar of rock, and Barf and Belch had decided they had enough. They threw their riders into the air, caught them shortly after, threw them back onto their backs and then returned to where they started with the twins flopped on their necks.
"We almost died", Ruffnut stated breathless.
"I know, go again?" Tuffnut asked excitedly.
Ruffnut was about to agree when Astrid butted in. "Hey! It's my turn? Come on girl, show them what you've got!"
The two took off, and Astrid began to instruct Stormfly.
"Alright Stormfly, tail flip!" Her dragon did so, curling her tail into the water.
"Now twirl!" Stormfly did as instructed still flying fast.
"Quick! Upwards spiral!" As their finale Stormfly twirled upwards as Astrid told her to, stopping high in the air.
"Alright Stormfly!" She exclaimed, her fist in the air with victory.
"Yeah. But can you do it without the dragon?" Snotlout asked sarcastically, "Ow", receiving a punch from her.
"Wow… yeah, that was truly amazing sis", Aric started, "But I think Shadowstar and I have got ya beat this time."
"You might want to take notes", he said turning to Hiccup.
She looked to him with determination in her eyes as he and Shadowstar took off. Together the duo weaved their way through the sea stacks with ease. They spun, and dove with precision, and near expertise. Their only mistake was when doing a twirl Shadowstar lost balance at the finish causing them to stumble and nearly crash into a sea stack. Aric silently cursed at that and once they were done, returned to their friends still pretty sure that they won despite the mistake.
"Great job girl", he praised his dragon with a pet on her head. He then motioned for Hiccup to go competitively.
"Well looks like we got our work cut out for us, eh bud?" she asked.
"Ha! Yeah right. Let's show these armatures how it's done."
Toothless sped off turning backwards and down into a steep dive. Hiccup waited until they were just about to hit the water when she pulled on the reigns to tell Toothless to pull out, resulting in a wake behind them. They weaved through the sea stacks with precision and speed as Aric, but even more so. The duo then came onto an arch and Hiccup prepared to show everyone the trick she and Toothless had been preparing since weeks before Snoggletog. Using the new modification to Toothless' tail fin, she locked it in place, and stood crouched on his back. Once they came close, she leaped up, spread her wings, straitened her tail, and smoothly glided above as he glided below. When they both reached the other side she tucked her wings back in and straitened herself perpendicular to land back into the saddle. She landed, and Toothless pulled up with victory plasma blasts firing into the sky.
"They're still the best", Aric remarked, accepting defeat, looking up at them.
"Another win", Hiccup said to Toothless.
"As usual", Toothless replied.
Most people on Berk would say life here is better since we made peace with the dragons. Unfortunately, dragons are still, well, dragons. They would steal people's food, disturb people's homes or run through their laundry for some mundane examples. But the worst flaw had to be at three o'clock.
"In coming."
"Look out!"
"Dragon poo."
Everyone scattered to avoid the dragons flying overhead letting their loads loose over the village. Hiccup narrowly escaped backing up to Mulch, a short and stout man with a big brown beard, and Bucket, a taller man with a long blond beard and a bucket he always wore on his head. They both had sticks stuck into shields as umbrellas.
"Oh my, oh…that's disgusting", she exclaimed, before realizing who she had stumbled by. "Hey Mulch, hey Bucket. Sorry about the uh…"
"Every day at three. The regular at least; a tip of the cap", Bucket responded.
"Better than the days when it was kill or be killed", Mulch added. "Hey, we've got some fish for that father of yours. Bucket, give the girl the cod."
Bucket held up his bag, but it had a hole ripped into the bottom. "I ate it already? Did I enjoy it?"
"Uh…no, uh actually Bucket, I'm afraid the uh…" she stumbled and pointed as she tried to explain the Terrors who took the cod.
"Mine!"
Most of us here are willing to take the good with the bad, but there are those who will never accept the dragons and will do anything to drive them, and myself, away. This here is where this week's tale truly begins.
The following morning, Stoick was working on storing food for the freeze when 'devastating winter', as Hiccup would call it, came. Hiccup and Toothless were nearby talking in Dragonese to each other, when Mildew, a cranky old man, came up to complain about the dragons once again.
"Stoick."
"Ah, here's Mildew with the complaint of the day", Gobber stated.
"You've picked a bad time Mildew. I'm in the middle of storing food; the freeze is coming", Stoick said.
"It's the dragons again. Those demons are not fit to live amongst civilized men."
"Neither are you Mildew; why do you think we built your house so far outside of town?" Gobber replied.
All the dragons around laughed at that, and Hiccup couldn't help but smile a little as well. She especially didn't appreciate him calling the dragons demons. For one, it made her think of before she met Toothless, and those were times she'd rather forget. It was funny to think that it was only months ago. They felt like years to her; so much had changed.
"Oh, very well, make your jokes. Meanwhile these dragons upend our village carts! Turn people's houses into piles of rubble!"
"Aye, Mildew's right!"
As Mildew ranted, Vikings were becoming angry as well, soon forming a mob behind him. He soon began to talk more to the crowd rather than to Stoick, waving his staff with anger and fury.
"They even disturbed an old man's rest. Can't you see these bags under me eyes?"
"Go on, Mildew!"
"He's right, he's hideous", Gobber commented.
"These are wild and unpredictable beasts!" Mildew continued.
"Right you are!"
"They even cracked this man's skull", Mildew went on, tapping his staff on Bucket's bucket, "Like an egg. You need to put those dragons in cages. If you don't, they'll eat us out of house and home and destroy the entire village!" He then shouted towards Stoick.
The growing mob of angry Vikings shouted and cheered in agreement.
"We don't mean to destroy things?!" Toothless growled.
"I know bud. I know. Calm down, it's alright", Hiccup crooned, trying to calm him down. She then moved in front of her father, facing the Vikings, and tried to calm her tribe down.
"They don't mean any harm. They're just dragons being dragons", she tried. It only made matters worse.
"Oh yes, why don't we listen to Hiccup?! The one who started this whole mess! The girl who is a dragon herself!" Mildew intervened, pointing his staff at her accusingly, causing her to flinch back. "Why should we trust this unholy offspring at all?!"
Stoick, having heard enough, pulled Hiccup behind him, taking matters into his own hands. "Look, Mildew, if there's a problem I'll deal with it."
"Oh there is a problem Stoick." He turned to walk away. "And I think I speak for everyone when I say you better do something about it."
The mob continued to shout with anger, some shouting about Hiccup as well. Stoick's stoic face broke a little, surprised to see his people so infuriated, as well as so distrustful of their heir.
That night he paced in his house, with Gobber wildling at the table and Hiccup and Toothless by the stairs, trying to come up with a way to fix the problem with the dragons.
"We can't just let dragons run wild like they own the place. Hey, we could put up signs!"
"Signs? For dragons?" Gobber questioned.
"No! For the people!"
"Signs? For Vikings? We're not big readers Stoick."
"Ugh. Then we'll build a huge net and stretch it around the plaza."
"Nets? You do know they breathe fire?"
"I know very well they breathe fire Gobber." Stoick growled in frustration. "Maybe Mildew was right", he exclaimed as he shoved a chair across the room. "We have to figure out something—"
"Nono, dad wait. What if I deal with the dragons?" Hiccup interrupted.
"You?"
"Who else? If anyone can control them I can. I'm the best Viking for the job. Or… should I say…Hybrid", she said perking her ears.
He thought about it for a moment.
"And…it might fix the whole issue of the village wanting to throw me off the island right now?" she continued.
Stoick looked to Gobber, and it was a silent agreement.
"Very well. You'll have your chance…starting tomorrow."
The next day, Hiccup and Toothless stepped into the plaza ready to begin wrangling in some dragons.
"You sure you're up for this?"
"Don't worry bud. It's just a few dragons? How hard could it be?"
"Get out! Shoo!" she heard a woman shout, and spotted a Nadder trying to take her basket. "For the last time get your nose out of my bread!"
She ran over to help immediately. "Hold on, I'll help you! Just…no", she ordered the Nadder and placed her hand on his snout. He instantly calmed, and then apologized.
"Alright. See bud, told you I could handle this. Everything's under control", she said turning her head to Toothless.
A crash was then heard with chickens scattering around startling the Nadder. Hiccup turned around to see a Gronckle 'playing' with the chickens and crashing into carts in the process. She lost the Nadder and Gronckle as they ran off.
"Okay…less under control…"
She then saw another Deadly Nadder and a Monstrous Nightmare fighting near a sheep farm, setting the sheep on fire and causing them to scatter just as the chickens had. She began to panic, and ran to stop them.
"Toothless, stop that fight! I'll put out the sheep!"
"Got it!"
She ran to another portion of town, only to be stopped by more chaos. An oncoming Gronckle, a cart being dragged by a Nadder, and then she was shoved by an angry Viking chasing after it. The dragons didn't think they were doing anything wrong, but the Vikings only became angrier chasing the dragons every which way. Now Hiccup was really beginning to panic, unsure where to start and what to do.
Meanwhile, her friends were watching from an abandoned catapult they liked to sometimes meet on.
"What's she doing?" Snotlout asked.
"Uh, I think she's helping the dragons break stuff", Tuffnut answered.
"Cool", Ruffnut then added.
They saw Hiccup running with a bucket of water to a flaming sheep, only for the sheep to hop over her, knocking her down.
"Wow. She could really use our help", Astrid commented.
"We'll get to it", Tuff started.
"In a minute", Ruff finished.
Hiccup finally reached the flaming sheep splashing the water onto it, but luck just couldn't be on her side. Dragons flew overhead, and everyone knew what it meant.
"And…its three o'clock", Aric stated.
What happened next is better left unsaid.
Hiccup was up in her room with Toothless, her body aching. "Oh everything hurts. Even this", she said holding her prosthetic.
"Hiccup?"
"Aric? Great. I don't look too beat up do I?"
"Well…" he started.
"Oh great, dragon pity— uh, hey… Aric. What a nice surprise", she said awkwardly as he walked in.
"So, how was your day?"
"Oh, uneventful; hung around the plaza. You know…"
"Yeah, I do know. We saw you out there; hard to believe you're still standing", he stated, at which Hiccup couldn't keep standing. She dramatically sighed tiredly and flopped back onto her bed, her wings spread out limply.
"I'm gonna be seeing flaming sheep in my dreams for the next month."
"HICCUP!" she heard her father yell.
Her eyes widened for a moment and she quickly stood back up.
"Hiccup, what's going on out there? The plaza looks like a war zone", her dad said as he came up the stairs and into her room.
"I know it looks bad—"
"Really bad", Aric whispered to her.
"But, this is only…uh, phase one of my master plan", she continued.
"Oh, so you do have a plan."
"I do…of course I do…Its very complex, lots of drawings, several moving parts. Yeah. It's pretty wild", she terribly lied.
"Uh-huh. Well this better be real. Because, Mildew stirred up the whole island. And if you don't get those dragons under control, they'll be calling for their heads."
Toothless crooned with 'worry' and Hiccup went to comfort him, petting his head. "Don't worry bud, your head's not going anywhere." She paused in thought for a little while, and then turned to her dad with worry in her owneyes.
"Uh, dad…? They're not…calling for my head…are they?"
Stoick looked down at her a little shocked by the question at first, but he then he answered her. "No. What Mildew said yesterday was too far. No one is going to lay a hand on you. Alright?" he told her firmly.
"Right", she said only slightly feeling better.
Her father then turned and left, and Toothless came to comfort her this time, knowing she was still a little worried.
"You do realize there are like bazillion dragons out there and only one of you. I hope you really do have a plan", Aric then said.
"Well, maybe not right now…but you know me? Ha, always coming up with ideas on the spot", she replied with a nervous smile. He didn't look very convinced. "Look, I'll figure something out. Trust me, I want this settled more than anything. My own life is on the line!"
"Your dad would never let anything happen."
"Maybe. But he can't protect me forever."
The following day, Hiccup had gathered everyone into the old killing arena where she unveiled her plan of all seven of them training the dragons.
"That's your plan? Train dragons?" Ruffnut asked disbelievingly.
"Here? Where we used to kill them?" Tuffnut added.
"Right, because we don't do that anymore. That's why it's available", Hiccup responded carrying a basket and then setting it down in front of the group.
"Actually the dragons do seem a little nervous", Astrid said petting Stormfly to calm her.
"That's because they're very sensitive. Meatlug especially; she lost a cousin here", Fishlegs said. "We try not to talk about it", he then whispered.
Hiccup ignored the fact of how he knew that, trying to get on with her demonstration, but then Aric spoke up in his usual skeptic manner.
"It's amazing your dad just gave us the arena."
"Well it would be, if he did, yeah, but he didn't. So, that's another thing we should try not to talk about."
"Wait. So we're going behind your father's back?" he said crossing his arms.
"There you go, talking about it! Uh…Alright, everybody, here's the thing." She sighed. "The dragons are out of control."
"Not all of us."
Hiccup did her best to ignore the dragons as she continued. "We want them to live in our world without destroying it, but they can't without our help. They've been blowing stuff up in the village; we've got to do something about that—"
"Got it! Help dragons blow things up. We can totally do that" Tuffnut interrupted.
"No, I believe I said—" she tried, but Ruffnut interrupted. "Here's how we do it. First, we make them really really angry."
"No problem. We anger everybody."
Hiccup was speechless; first she was dumbfounded at the twins, but then she became upset and angry. She couldn't understand how they couldn't take this seriously. 'Don't they know what's at stake?!'
"You guys this is serious!" she shouted out. "Mildew wants all of the dragons…gone. He wants for all of our dragons…in-including me, banished or dead. He may say he just wants them in cages, but we all know that's not true. If we don't do something fast my father might have no choice but to banish all the dragons off the island. And I don't know about you, but that is not okay with me."
"You're right. She's sorry", Tuffnut responded, pointing to Ruffnut who glared at him for pinning the blame on her.
Hiccup took a breath to recompose herself, and then continued. "Now, next problem. The dragons are eating everything in sight." She took out a loaf of bread from the basket she had carried in and began to move to Toothless, who clearly wanted it.
"Now when a dragon grabs something they're not supposed to have…" Toothless grabbed the bread holding it in his mouth. "…you can get them to drop it by giving a little scratch just below the chin." As she said this, she demonstrated the action by scratching Toothless under his chin. It caused him to open up his mouth, distracted by the wonderful sensation. She took the bread from him and held it up for everyone to see.
"Ehneneneneuh! Maybe that works for you and Toothless, but Hookfang and me? We do things a little different", her cousin said, swiping the bread from her hand.
He threw the bread to Hookfang, catching it in his mouth, and Snotlout walked confidently over to him. "When I want this big boy to do something I just get right in his face and—"
"DROP THAT RIGHT NOW!" the boy shouted at the top of his lungs. "YOU HERE ME!"
Hookfang didn't seem to appreciate the act, and dropped the bread in favor for him.
"See, he dropped it", Snotlout said dangling in Hookfang's mouth.
"Heh-heh, should we help him?" Tuff asked.
"Yeah", Astrid answered. "In a minute."
"Alright, we've got a lot of training to do, but together, we can keep these dragons under control", Hiccup then stated taking out some more bread for everyone else to try.
"Uh…can somebody do that chin-scratchy thing?" Snotlout asked from his dragon's mouth. No answer came. "Hello? You guys still there?"
Once they got Hookfang to drop his rider, and once they deemed themselves ready, the teens went into town to start training the dragons. But, when they got there, they found that there were no dragons to train.
"Huh. No dragons", Fishlegs stated.
"That's weird. If the dragons aren't here where are they?" Hiccup asked.
An explosion and woman's scream sounded in the near distance.
"Something tells me that way", Astrid said.
They all ran to where they saw the explosion come from, and they could only guess what had been destroyed. They were heading to where the store house was and Hiccup hoped that wasn't what had suffered the explosion. She could only imagine her father's fury if that was what happened. After a few minutes, the store house was in view, and as feared, it was completely destroyed. The building was burned and collapsed, and the food was gone. The worst part was that they saw their own dragons were a part of it.
"Stormfly?" Astrid asked shocked. Stormfly looked up at her from eating out of one of the bins that were scattered around from the explosion.
"Hookfang?!" Snotlout exclaimed in the same way, and Hookfang did the same as Stormfly, turning to look at his rider.
Hiccup ran up to see her father in what was left of the storehouse. He was holding a large pillar and when she caught sight, she saw him throw it away in utter frustration. It made her ears go down with fear and worry.
"They've eaten everything! We've got nothing left for the freeze!" He exclaimed as he came towards her.
"I warned ya Stoick", Mildew said coming up. "But did you listen to me? No. You put a bunch of teenagers and a dragon in charge. Now look at what these dragons have done? Caging is too good for those beasts", he sneered.
"Dad, I swear I can fix this. We-we were just starting to—"
"Enough Hiccup! How can I trust you to control all the dragons when you couldn't even control your own?" He gestured his hand to Toothless, and she saw her dragon's head come out of a basket with a fish. He stared at them clueless that what he had done was wrong.
"What? Do you want some?"
Hiccup shook her head with disappointment. "Oh, Toothless…"
Her father went back inside instructing Mulch and Bucket to catch more fish to try and make up what they lost, and Hiccup wouldn't give up. If she gave up, Mildew won, and she would never allow that old man to win. If the dragons went, it would only be a matter of time before she did as well. Her father came out once more with empty baskets slung over his shoulders.
"Dad, please! You gotta listen to me; I know dragons better than anyone! Just give us a few more days, I know we can fix this! If I could just ta—"
"I've heard enough, Hiccup! I have a village to feed; the dragons have done enough. By tonight, I want every one of them caged. Understand?"
"Bah! You can't just cage these dragons!" Mildew exclaimed pushing passed where Hiccup stood. He glared down at her, and she glared right back. He then stepped forward and refocused his eyes on Stoick. "You need to send them away now!"
"Stoick, Mildew's right!"
"Get 'em out of here!"
"You're right, Mildew", Stoick said, the crowds' shouts ceasing. "She'll cage them tonight, and in the morning, Hiccup will send them off the island."
"But dad—"
"Hiccup…"
Hiccup looked up at him practically begging him not to do it, but it was already decided.
"I'm sorry hun."
Hiccup and her friends were all having dinner in the Great Hall that night, and they were all upset that they were losing the dragons they had come to love so much. Astrid recounted of how she'd miss Stormfly's face being the first face she woke up to. Fishlegs talked about how Meatlug would lick his feet every night as he went to sleep, which in his depressed state, Tuffnut agreed to stand in for. And Aric was actually showing brotherly affection to Astrid as well as her to him, something they rarely ever really did.
But while everyone was depressed, Hiccup just viewed this as a set back. She'd lost the battle. She thought she could fix everything, but she failed and lost. She was now losing her 'brother', and who knows how long before she was sent away too. Sure, she was broken down, but unlike all her friends, despite her failure, something inside her made her refuse to give up. She might have lost this battle, but she would not lose the next. She had to fight back; she couldn't just lie down and except this.
"Come on guys, lets gets this over with", Aric said dreadfully as they finished their untouched meals.
"This is the worst day of my life. We're never gonna see our dragons again", Fishlegs cried as he followed the group out to cage up their dragons who were to be sent off the island the very next day.
But Hiccup wouldn't give in. "We can't let that happen", she exclaimed. She bent down to pet Toothless who lay by the fire pit. "Toothless is the best friend I've ever had."
"Oh, Toothless, I'm gonna miss you so much", Mildew chimed insincerely as he unfortunately made his way into the Hall. Both Toothless and Hiccup shared the same expression of hatred and anger. She got up from her kneeled position to face the retched man.
"You know what your mistake was", he continued in the same tone, "Thinking dragons could be trained. A dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do. It's your nature. And nature. Always. Wins."
As the man walked away from them Toothless growled nothing but 'hatred', and Hiccup felt compelled to do the same, until the doors were opened and the cold winter winds blew out the fire in the pit. Toothless immediately turned around and lit it again; it made Hiccup's face change from one of anger to realization.
"You know what?! Mildew's absolutely right!"
"Right about what?"
"I'll tell you on the way! Come on, we've got to get to the arena!"
As Hiccup ran to stop them, the teens were already locking their dragons up. After they landed they said their goodbyes.
"Goodbye Hookfang."
"I'll…miss you Stormfly."
"I'm sorry, Shadowstar. Now go."
The five dragons did as they were told, and walked into the arena.
"Ugh. Feels like big, sharp teeth are tearing at this thing in my chest", Snotlout said as they stood in front of the gate.
"That's what it feels like when your heart is breaking", Astrid said in answer.
"I don't have a heart! I'm not a girl!" He retorted.
The gate was beginning to close. They all stood in silence as their dragons looked to them from inside, both groups wishing for the gate not to close.
"Don't close it!" They suddenly heard Hiccup shout from the sky.
She hopped off of Toothless as he landed, and ran to the lever to stop the gate from closing. She pushed it back, and then stood in front of the group.
"We are not locking them up."
"What happened? Did you change your father's mind? Or are we going behind his back again...?" Aric firmly said to her.
"Uh... one of those. Look. The dragons are gonna do what they're gonna do. It's their nature. We just need to learn how to use it!"
"Ah, the nets are empty again", Mulch said as he and Bucket pulled the nets out of the water hoping for at least a few fish.
"Did I eat them already? Did I enjoy it? Oop—am I being too negative?" Bucket asked, being in his own world. "Dragon Attack!" he suddenly screamed as a Monstrous Nightmare plunged into the water scaring the fish into the nets, making them full.
"WOOHOO!" They heard a boy shout as the dragon flew out of the water.
"Hey, thanks dragon", Mulch called out.
"THAT'S RIGHT! THAT JUST HAPPENED!"
"Come on, follow me!" Hiccup called.
She, Astrid, and Fishlegs were all heading to Mildew's field with a group of dragons following not too far behind. He was planting his cabbage as they arrived.
"Afternoon Mildew!" Astrid called. Stormfly pointed her spikes out, flew low on the ground, and plowed his field for him in three seconds flat. Hiccup and Toothless flew over the field next, dumping seeds onto the dirt.
"Three o'clock! Time for the fertilizer!" Hiccup said.
"Fertilizer—?"
As Mildew turned he saw Fishlegs and Meatlug in front of a group of dragons coming towards his field, and then letting their loads loose over it.
"Smile Mildew, we just saved you three months of work", Hiccup called down.
Their next job was to help herd in some wild boars from the forest into the slaughterhouse. Shadowstar and Toothless shot their plasma blasts near the boars to keep them in line as Barf and Belch chased them forward with their fire. The boars ran in with no trouble and Gobber closed the doors as the teens landed.
"That was awesome!" Fishlegs exclaimed.
"How did you know that was gonna work?!" Aric asked.
"Because their dragons", Hiccup answered. "And their gonna do what dragons do. We just need to work with them and not against them. You know who we should actually be thanking—"
"There they are Stoick", an old man's voice said.
Hiccup's smile quickly turned into bitter frown.
"Those dragons don't look like they're in cages to me."
"No. This is not what I asked for", her father stated.
They were all taken to the arena and some people had gathered to witness their punishment for disobeying their chief. Stoick came in with Gobber walking firm but slowly towards the lined up teens.
"Oh no, what's Stoick gonna do to us?" Fishlegs asked worried.
"I'm too pretty for jail", Ruffnut said.
"Huh, where'd you hear that?" her brother asked rhetorically.
"You all disobeyed my orders, and there will be consequences", Stoick began.
"I told you we were gonna get in trouble. Ugh, you never listen to me", Aric whispered to Hiccup, causing her to step forward and take blame.
"Dad, if anyone is going to get in trouble it should be me."
"No, you all had a hand in this."
"Oh, this is gonna be great Fungus. It's about to get ugly", Hiccup could hear Mildew mutter to his sheep.
"You took this place without asking. You released the dragons against my wishes. Things are going to change around here. That's why I—"
"You're getting a dragon training academy!" Gobber interrupted.
"Gobber! I wanted to tell them!" Stoick exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, you're right. Go ahead."
"Well you told most of it!"
"Well you can tell her the part of how proud you are of her!"
"GOBBER!" He frustratingly sighed and then turned back to Hiccup and her friends. "Hiccup—well, what he said. You've all made me proud." He walked over to the lever that opened the cages, and as he opened them said, "This dragon training academy is for you."
The teen's dragons were let out, and they all ran to their dragons with complete joy, each giving their dragon a hug.
"Hookfang, My buddy!"
"Hey, Stormfly! I missed you so much!
"Meatlug! Oh, who daddy little girl? Oh, who's daddy's little…"
"Shadowstar! How's my strong girl?!"
"Hey, bud!"
Stoick stood behind his daughter proud as she hugged and pet her dragon.
"Now all you have to do is train them."
"Not a problem dad. After all, I've got him", Hiccup replied petting Toothless.
" "Ah-hem?" "
"And…them too", she amended including her friends.
In the stands she could here Mildew muttering to himself of how he'd one day get the dragons. Of how he'd one day win their hidden war. This was clearly far from over, but she'd won their first battle and that's all that mattered right now.
Dragons have instincts, instincts they can't change, and a culture and way of life all their own. They can't change who they are, but who would want them too? Dragons are powerful, amazing creatures, with secrets and mysteries Toothless and I need to explore.
The sign of the new Dragon Academy was being put up by Meatlug and Hookfang, Aric and Hiccup supervising, as well as coming up with an official name.
"Huh, Berk Dragon Academy. I like the sound of that", he said punching her arm.
And no matter how long it takes us, we are going to learn everything there is to know. Wouldn't you?