Berk. It's twelve days north of freezing to death and lies solidly on the meridian of misery. The inhabitants -the Hairy Hooligan tribe- have hunting, fishing, and a charming view of the sunset. The only real upside though is the pests-turned-pets. While most other Viking villages have parrots or ponies, they have Dragons! Life on Berk has changed for the 1st time in 300 years. Instead of killing and capturing Dragons, they now ride and train their dragons. All of this would not have been possible if not for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. He realized that everything they knew about Dragons was completely wrong, so he changed things, but at the cost of his left leg. Once the misfit and outcast of Berk, Hiccup now heads the Viking's Dragon Training academy with the help of his friends- Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut (AKA the Twins), Fishlegs, and of course Astrid. The Berk Dragon Training Academy in in session five days out of the week. The six teens are allowed to do whatever they want on their favorite day- Saturday.
DreamWorks' Dragons: Saturdays on Berk
What do they do on Saturday? Well for starters, Fishlegs and his Gronkle (Meatlug) tend to stay on the seashore searching for shells and any type of flower that grows along the coast, as Botany was Fishlegs' second favorite activity besides Dragon training. The Twins spend their time at their 'dark soggy alone place' with their two headed Hideous Zippleback, Barf and Belch, bickering and beating each other up while Barf and Belch did the same. Snotlout spends most of his time behind the Great Hall trying to teach his Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang, a thing or two in obedience… which always sends Snotlout to the nearby water bucket every 15 minutes or so, due to the fact that Monstrous Nightmares tend to have a nasty habit of lighting themselves on fire. Hiccup and his Night Fury, Toothless, spend every Saturday at the cove where they first met, fishing and improving on their drawing skills (not that Hiccup needs any improvement).
Then there's Astrid and her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. For as long as Astrid could remember, she always would notice Hiccup staring at her in a weird way. The other teens would laugh and say that the village hiccup had a crush on her. While she tended to ignore them and Hiccup, as she was the toughest out of all of them, she still couldn't understand why Hiccup even bothered trying to win her over, but then came the flight. Almost one year ago, the teens had all been enlisted in dragon training, not to tame and fly them, but to kill them. Astrid was always the best, until Hiccup started winning exercise after exercise. One day Astrid finally had had enough and followed Hiccup, as he tended to disappear at the end of training every day.
That was when she found the cove, and Toothless. Astrid immediately realized how Hiccup had made such tremendous advances in training- because he HAD shot down and captured a Night Fury as he said he had, and trained it. Astrid had attempted to run off to tell his father, Chief Stoick the Vast, but she had then been 'kidnapped' and shown that Dragons weren't all bad. Even the most ferocious out of all the known dragons, could be sweet and kind. Then when Hiccup let her go and she promised she wouldn't tell anyone, she did the stupidest thing she thought she had ever done- she kissed him. Then, after Hiccup defeated the Red Death and everyone fully accepted him- she kissed him AGAIN! This time in front of the whole village. Now, the village always would whisper and gossip about the former hiccup and his 'girlfriend'. Now while they had never been in an official relationship, they both realized how much they liked each other, but were still embarrassed whenever someone called them a 'couple'.
But, besides all of that, she still always found herself making the trip to the cove to hang out with Hiccup almost every Saturday. Ok, EVERY Saturday, Astrid thought to herself as she and Stormfly carefully crept through the forest. Astrid found herself once again thinking about their other two kisses, one during Snoggletog after Hiccup had managed to return all the dragons AND their newly hatched children after the dragons had disappeared a few days before, and one after the Thawfest games when Hiccup had deliberately thrown the final challenge so Snotlout could save his pride. While both of these had been a little more private and only a handful of people saw either of them, they still didn't talk about it.
It's not that I don't like him, and I DO, it's just that he's… Hiccup. I mean, he would probably be late to our wedding. Astrid snapped out of her thoughts as she slapped herself across the face. Really, Astrid? Really? Marriage? You're 17, and besides, Dad probably already has me promised to another guy from a different island… I just hope it's not a Berserker. Astrid stopped as she recognized the outcrop of rock leading into the cove. She peered over the edge and saw the scrawny boy sitting on a rock drawing Toothless as the Dragon took a nap in the sunlight. Then again… he isn't that bad looking… and he's sweet, funny, smart, knows everything there is to know about smelting and forging... Astrid found herself leaning on the rock staring at Hiccup as he drew in his journal. Astrid shook herself out of her thoughts and grabbed the little wooden axe that was in the bag attached to Stormfly.
Astrid always enjoyed sneaking up on the young Dragon trainer and scaring him half to death by delivering a 'death blow' to a part of Hiccup's body with the toy axe. She stealthily and quietly went through the small entrance and started to sneak up on the unsuspecting Hiccup, as Stormfly stayed put and watched from the top. Astrid raised the little toy axe as she got within 5 feet of Hiccup. Ok, good. Doesn't see me and my shadow is pointing the other way, so that won't announce my presence. Astrid stopped and raised the axe as she targeted Hiccup's shoulder.
"Nice try, Astrid." Hiccup said suddenly. Surprised, Astrid gasped and dropped the little axe onto the ground as Hiccup turned around and closed his journal.
"What? How… but I-" Astrid stammered.
"I've learned a thing or two since you've started this little game." Hiccup responded as he stood up, joints cracking. He had obviously been sitting down for a long time.
"Oh, so you've learned a few things have you? Please tell me, I'm all ears." Astrid crossed her arms in front of her as she finished speaking.
"Well for starters, the birds stopped chirping as you two approached." Hiccup said indicating with his hands that no birds could be heard. "They sensed that something wasn't quite right and a possible predator was coming."
"Ok, that makes sense. Stormfly and I were being quiet, which alerted them that something was up, and they stopped chirping." Astrid replied.
"Precisely," Hiccup said with a thrust of his hand. "The second thing was that Toothless' ears perked up at the sound of your movements." At the sound of his name, Toothless lifted his head and opened his eyes, giving the two Vikings a gummy smile.
"Thanks a lot you overgrown lizard." Astrid said very sarcastically.
"Then the third thing is that you show up around this time every week." Hiccup finished.
Astrid facepalmed. "Oh, hadn't thought about that."
A crashing sound drew their attention to the cove entrance as Stormly landed on the ground in an undignified sprawl. Stormfly clucked in annoyance, righted herself, and then immediately went to working on matting down loose scales and spikes, as Deadly Nadders were known to be very vain and cared a lot about their appearance. Hiccup and Astrid laughed at the sight as Toothless joined in with his own form of laughter. Astrid turned back to Hiccup.
"So, Mr. Dragon-Trainer, you got anymore tips for me?"
"For you? No, but I might need to speak to Stormfly about watching her step." Hiccup replied with a chuckle. Astrid smiled and laughed as well.
"Well, it's one thing knowing when an opponent is sneaking up on you, but it's an entirely different thing doing something about it." Astrid said as she grabbed two wooden swords from Stormfly's bag. Seeing where this was going, Hiccup started to back up.
"Oh… um, oh gee look at the time, we probably need to start heading back," Hiccup said as he hurriedly started walking toward Toothless.
"Seriously, Hiccup? It's only a half hour past noon! The teens aren't due back until Eight thirty!" Astrid replied as she took out a set of throwing-knives. "C'mon! You know one day you'll have to fight without Toothless, and then what'll you do?"
"Is running away an option?" Hiccup said after a moment.
"No!" Astrid cried as she handed Hiccup one of the swords. "Hiccup, you're going to be chief one day, and you NEED to know how to defend yourself besides telling Toothless to blast the living snot out of the nearest Outcast! Besides," Astrid said as she swung the wooden sword around in her fingers, "I haven't been in a good fight today."
"Hmm, well you STILL aren't going to be in a good fight today, but if you insist," Hiccup said as he quickly charged. While the two laughed and play-fought each other in the cove, neither of them realized that the birds had stopped chirping. Up above on the ridge, hidden from both Dragon and Human view, Alvin the Treacherous sat on a Whispering Death with Savage right behind him.
"Ah, young love. Doesn't it just warm your hart Savage?" Alvin said with a sneer. Savage took a moment to think about the question. Outcasts weren't known to be brought to tears by a couple of kids unknowingly flirting with each other, but sometimes, Alvin wasn't exactly joking, even when using a sarcastic voice. After contemplating a moment Savage replied.
"Nope! Nothing warms my heart except the bones of our enemies strung out as wind chimes!"
"Correct answer, Savage. But in all seriousness, I think we may be able to use that girl to our advantage."
"I thought it was the boy who was all nerdy and can train dragons." Savage said with a hint of confusion in his voice.
"No, no, no!" Alvin said quietly as not to be overheard. "I mean it's obvious that those two are smitten with each other. Remember when I grabbed the blonde one by her hair and Hiccup immediately gave himself up? Or when we thought she was Heather and the boy came to save her then too?"
"Yes, but we have Mildew now, why do we still need the boy?" Savage asked still very confused.
"Because, Mildew's training will only get us so far, and the Changewing is being rather… stubborn."
"Ah so we kidnap her when the times right and we use her to get the boy to come to us?" Savage asked.
"Now you're gettn it! C'mon Twirly, let's get out of here." Alvin said as he lowered the spyglass from his eye. Savage withheld a chuckle at the Whispering Death's very unintimidating name. "Oh shut up Savage. It responds better to that than 'dumb dragon'." Alvin said as Dragon and Outcast disappeared down a tunnel. Several hours later the sun was setting and a very tired Hiccup and Astrid rested against a log as they nibbled on fresh dragon-roasted tuna, courtesy of Stormfly. Astrid shivered as a cold wind blew through the cove.
"You cold?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah, a little. Winter-Winter is going to be here pretty soon," Astrid said as she yawned. Hiccup got up and walked over to Toothless. He rummaged around in a bad until he pulled out a big wool blanket. He sat back down next to Astrid and draped it across her. "You think of everything." She added with a smile.
"I always pack that in case Toothless and I get stranded somewhere and its freezing. This is the first time it's come in handy." Hiccup said as he himself shivered a little. Astrid lifted the blanket up a little.
"Come here," She said and indicated the blanket. Hiccup awkwardly moved closer to Astrid as she let the blanket fall, now covering both of them. A few minutes went by as no one said anything. Finally Astrid broke the silence with a yawn.
"We should probably start heading back, it starting to get late." Hiccup said pointing toward the now almost set sun.
"In a minute," Astrid said with another yawn, "If I go riding back the village I'll fall asleep on Stormfly and fall off."
"Well at least if you dozed off, your dragon could catch you. Mine wouldn't do much good at catching me." Hiccup said as he motioned to Toothless' prosthetic tail.
"He did pretty good catching you when the Red Death blew up."
"Minus the… well you know." Hiccup lifted his right leg under the blanket to prove his point. Astrid laid her head on Hiccup's shoulder as she remembered the day Hiccup had saved everyone.
"Yeah," Astrid said as she closed her eyes, "I'm glad I didn't lose y" Astrid didn't finish the sentence as she fell asleep.
"Lose what? Astrid?" Hiccup looked down and noticed her asleep, and realized how sleepy he was. "I'll just shut my eyes for five… minutes." Hiccup said as he drifted off to sleep as well.
To Be Continued…