New story for you HTTYD fans!

Okay, so this takes place after Defenders of Berk, but before Race to the Edge. Somewhere in between. But I imagine them all looking like they do in Dawn of the Dragon Racers (older them of course. So Hiccup looks like Hiccup from RTTE, accept he wears a green shirt. Off topic here, but does anyone else think that the reason he's wearing a red shirt in RTTE, is because Astrid said that thing about "always new red was your color" in DOTDR? :D) Just wanted to clear that up in case anyone was wondering.

Alright… enjoy!

Hiccup strolled into the Academy, knowing what he'd find there. Just as he'd expected. Snotlout was still fiddling with his new invention: the sheep catapult. Hiccup knew that if Snotlout had allowed him to help him, he could've gotten that thing done in no time. But Snotlout insisted on doing it on his own, so Hiccup let him. But all of his "experiments" were really making a mess in the academy- and he was also going through a lot of sheep. He'd gone through three so far, the others getting retired from Dragon Racing for reasons of them getting to mad at being continually catapulted. And you really don't want to deal with angry sheep.

Snotlout launched the catapult again, the sheep flying high into the sky. Hiccup shook his head, knowing what was going to happen. Snotlout had catapulted the sheep straight up, which meant that the sheep would land directly…

"Ahh!" Snotlout shouted as the sheep began plummeting towards the ground, straight towards Snotlout. He made a quick scramble, but wasn't fast enough. The sheep landed right on top of him.

Hiccup chuckled at the funny sight. He tried to contain it, but found it almost impossible.

"I heard that!" Snotlout shouted towards him, shoving the sheep onto the ground. The sheep stood up, and slowly walked away.

Snotlout stood to his feet, dusting off his cloths. He turned back to his catapult, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully.

Hiccup stepped up beside him while Toothless wandered off towards the stalls in search of something to eat. Hiccup refocused his attention to the contraption before them.

"H-hey Snotlout, I think it might help if you avert it a bit, so it's not aiming directly upwards. Kind of at a sixty to seventy-degree angle."

"Uh… yeah." Snotlout agreed, although it was obvious he didn't have a clue as to what Hiccup was talking about. "Thanks, but I've got this." Snotlout ran over and grabbed the sheep, placing it back into the catapult before making a few adjustments.

Hiccup sighed and turned away, knowing that Snotlout would never listen to him. At just that moment, Astrid, Fishlegs, and the twins arrived, all stopping their dragons outside the large gate.

"Morning, gang." Hiccup called out when they entered the arena. "Ready for combat practice?"

Tuffnut slapped his fist against his palm. "Oh yeah. Fighting somebody! What I do best." He looked directly at Ruffnut.

Hiccup held out his arms. "Uh, no that's not what I meant. I meant combat practice… from the air." He pointed up towards the sky for emphasis.

Everybody groaned, "Come on!" Tuffnut shouted, along with Astrid's complaint of, "We've done that so many times!" as well as Ruffnut's, "We're tired of doing that!"

Hiccup tried to act cheerful about it. "Come on, guys." He said, "Practice fighting on dragons… fun, right?"

"Wrong." Astrid answered. "We've done that a lot lately, Hiccup. We've got it memorized."

The twins began chanting in unison, "We want fighting! We want fighting!"

Hiccup groaned, "Guys, come on. Back me up, Fishlegs."

Fishlegs scooted to the side awkwardly. "Sorry, Hiccup… but I'm with them. We have done a lot of flying combat lately."

Hiccup looked around at them, almost wincing at the stern look Astrid wore. "Come on… we'll try something different, like some sort of-

The twins continued chanting. "We want fighting! We want fighting!"

"What do you say, Snotlout?" Astrid shouted. Snotlout jumped in surprise, knocking against the lever, causing the poor sheep to get catapulted back into the air.

"I'm for the opposite of what Hiccup wants to do!" Snotlout replied, just before the sheep landed right on top of him again.

Astrid looked back at Hiccup. "See? Five against one."

Hiccup looked around at the others, who were silently urging him on. He sighed then nodded slightly, "Alright. Land combat for today…"

"YES!" the twins shouted, knocking their head together with a clang. They bounced back, their hands going to clutch onto their helmets as they wobbled about.

"Oh yeah!" Astrid cheered. She grinned almost evilly at Hiccup. "I claim Hiccup as my enemy!" she proposed.

"Great." Hiccup muttered. The last time they'd paired, he'd had a sore shoulder for a week. But this time he was certain he'd die. They'd be fighting with actual weapons this time… and not just their bare hands.

"Hehe." Astrid chuckled.

"I claim Ruffnut!" shouted Tuffnut, "I claim Tuffnut!" shouted Ruffnut, at exactly the same moment. The looked at each other and said in unison, "jinx!" they gasped then laughed. "Jinx again!" they shouted at the same time yet again. "Stop that!" they both gasped. "Gah!" then they leaped at each other, the two rolling about on the floor.

Snotlout walked over, "Guess that leaves me with you, Fishy. Haha. This is going to be so easy."

Fishlegs glared at him, but didn't say anything, much to Hiccup's relief. He didn't want to have to deal with both the twins and a fighting Fishlegs and Snotlout. Not only that, but plus an Astrid with a weapon who was supposed to be fighting him?

This day really couldn't get any worse.

"Grab a weapon!" Astrid ordered. Everybody scrambled to find some sort of weapon to use. Tuffnut grabbed Macey. Ruffnut grabbed a very similar mace, although a bit smaller. Astrid grabbed her axe and a shield. Fishlegs grabbed a knife and a shield, while Snotlout got his axe.

Hiccup walked over towards a very small Terrible Terror stall that was no longer used for dragon's, but for storage instead. He rifled through he barrels and chests in search of some sort of weapon besides his knife. A knife vs. an axe? He wouldn't stand a chance.

He finally found a sword that he'd made not too long ago. It was simple, but very nice and made from Gronkle Iron, so it was light wait. He decided to give it a try, although he had never ever sword fought before. Somehow, he already knew how he was at it.

He walked back towards the others, gripping the sword in one hand while holding his Gronkle iron shield in the other. If need be, he could use his shield for a weapon.

"Nobody hurt anybody. You aim for a way to get rid of their weapon, or to knock them to the ground. Alright?"

The twins nodded eagerly, looking at each other evilly. Hiccup hurried to add. "And by getting rid of their weapon, that means no cutting off any limbs in order to do that."

The twins instantly looked disappointed. Hiccup was glad he made that point clear.

"Alright." Hiccup said, and instantly the twins charged, bashing their maces together madly, not even really looking at what they were doing. They were just pummeling each other.

Fishlegs and Snotlout were battling a bit quieter. Snotlout was constantly rushing forward, but Fishlegs blocked the blows easily with his shield.

Hiccup then focused on Astrid who was rushing towards him, shouting a battle cry of some sort. Hiccup ducked, falling to his knees as she jumped towards him. She flew right over his head and landed on her feet behind him.

Hiccup jumped up and held out his shield, turning to face her. Astrid moved to the side a couple of steps, before rushing forward again, swiping her axe towards his shield. Hiccup easily blocked the blow, hoping that he had knocked the axe from her hands in the process. But he had no such luck. Instead, she knocked her shield up, hitting his left hand that gripped the sword. He yelped, letting it clatter to the ground.

Astrid got off of him, laughing in triumph. "Haha! I win again!" she then held out her hand to help him up. He stood, then picked up the sword of the ground.

"You didn't even use your sword… don't you know how to block a shield?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't have much experience with weapons- well besides actually making them of course."

"That much is obvious." Astrid replied. She reached out and grabbed h is sword, swinging it about in her hands. "Nice sword. You make it?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, a few months ago."

"I like it." She said, handing it back to him. "It's kind of weird that you make swords, yet don't know how to actually use one."

Hiccup was about to answer when he noticed the look in her eyes. She was scheming something. Plotting some devious notion that most likely involved a sword and…

Hiccup held up his hands, almost defensively. "Don't even think about it Astrid. I'm completely happy not knowing how to fight…"

Astrid shook her head. "Hiccup, it could come in very handy someday. You never know when there might be a need for hand to hand combat. You should know how to use a sword."

Hiccup shook his head. "I-I doubt it's very important-"

"It kind of is, Hiccup. Especially if you become chief someday. You need to know this kind of stuff."

Hiccup paused. Well, that was true. But he had Toothless… and besides, he stunk at any kind of fighting with a weapon. He really did. He'd never really experimented with one before. He really didn't want to make a fool of himself… especially in front of Astrid.

"Astrid, I don't know…"

Astrid interrupted him. "We start tomorrow morning. Meet me here at dawn… and not a second later!" she said in a very official voice, before spinning on her heel and walking towards Stormfly.

Hiccup took off after her. He had to try and talk her out of this. "Astrid! That's not necessary. I'm perfectly fine… I'll ask Dad for some tips. I really don't need to and-"

"Hiccup." Astrid whirled back around, making him stop in his tracks. "You're going to learn how to sword fight… alright? It'll come in useful. I guarantee that."

Hiccup was about to protest some more, but decided against it. Maybe if he played along she'd give it up. Once she saw how absolutely terrible he was, maybe she'd get up and say "Nope. You're hopeless. No chances for you there is no way I can train you to sword fight."

As embarrassing as that would be, it would also be a great relief.

Hiccup really didn't want to decapitate himself by accident, so as soon as he got out of this, the better.

But there was no fighting Astrid when she had her mind set. He'd definitely give it his all, but that didn't mean he'd be good at it. Not at all. Hiccup just wasn't good at sword fighting. Or, at least, not naturally good. It would take a while before he'd be even kind of good at it.

He was really dreading tomorrow morning.

Got this idea a long time ago, but have been to busy to get it typed up. I think this story will be pretty long… but I don't have the entire plot laid out in my head yet… so we'll see.

Oh, and also. Just so everybody knows. I'LL BE GOING ON HIATUS FROM FEBRUARY 17TH- FEBRUARY 27TH. I think you can guess why… :D But just because I'll be on Hiatus, doesn't mean I won't be on FanFiction at all. It just means I won't be posting or updating at all. I can still talk to you guys if you have any questions or reviews. :D

Till the next chapter!