Chapter 2

Grandma was looking over the Timberjack. Her hair had gone white and she had wrinkles, but other than that she was pretty much the same as when Mom and Dad first met her. She was Berk's new shaman, but she spent most of her time in the hanger looking after the dragons. Cloudjumper, her Stormcutter dragon, was hanging from the ceiling of the hanger, looking at us curiously like some weird combination of an owl and a bat.

"Definitely an allergic reaction," Grandma was saying as she scratched the Timberjack's back to keep it calm, "I can't determine the cause though. How soon until Heather gets back from the Shivering Shores?"

"Cami says she should be back tonight," I answered.

Grandma smiled. "Good. Then we can get this poor fellow the treatment he needs,"

"How do you know this is a male?"

She smiled knowingly. "Oh, you can tell by the length of his wings. Male Timberjacks tend to have longer wings so they can cut more wood and build bigger nests,"

"Speaking of," Dad said. I knew I was in for it, "Stoick do you know how dangerous it is to approach a wild dragon like that? What if you had been burned or sliced in half?"

"Dad, I was watching. Besides, scratching his itch was more effective than attacking with another dragon,"

"That doesn't change the fact that you put yourself in harms way,"

"You and Mom did that all the time when you were my age,"

Mom chuckled at that. "Your father had a gift for finding trouble," Stormfly and Toothless gave sounds of agreement.

"Not helping," Dad said out of the corner of his mouth before continuing, "That was when we were still learning about dragons. Back then there was a lot we didn't know about dragons, and even today we're still learning."

"And what we have discovered helped save not only the class and Berk, but we are helping a poor dragon," I gestured to the Timberjack, who was enjoying the scratching on his back.

It was then my Terrible Terror, Tiny, flew into the hanger. He was a unique indigo-colored Terror, and as soon as he spotted me flew over and landed on my shoulder. As he nuzzled me I checked his leg to see if there was a message. Yep. There was. Tiny curled himself around my neck while I read the message he brought.

Stoick,

Mom's back from the Shivering Shores. She and Spout are happy to be home.

Camicaze

I looked at Grandma. "Cami says her mom's back,"

"Then I'd better go see her right away," As Grandma walked away from the Timberjack Mom took over scratching his back.

"You can go see your friend, but be sure to clean the stables before dinner tonight," Dad said. I groaned inside. I don't know anyone who would enjoy cleaning the stables. However I nodded my thanks and followed Grandma.


A lot of Vikings were glad to see Heather was back. She was not only our island's alchemist, but she was a good physician too. Her knowledge of plants was irreplaceable. Spout was also well liked. The blue Scauldron helped gather plants that most dragons couldn't approach. From what Cami told me her mother used to live off Berk but moved to the island where she eventually married Cami's father.

"Stoick," Cami called out as I approached with Grandma. Her real name was Camicaze, but everyone on Berk called her Cami. Her black hair was blowing in the wind and she was dressed ready for adventure. She was always looking for something fun to do.

"Hey, Cami," I said. We did our little fist bump before I explained, "We found a Timberjack in the woods today. He has some sort of rash, but Grandma doesn't know what caused it,"

Grandma was not too far away and she was explaining the situation to Heather. She nodded and grabbed her bag. "I'll be back later Spout," she said as she stroked her Scauldron's face. The dragon nodded, and flew to the ocean where it dived in.

I started following her and Grandma back to the hanger, but Grandma stopped me. "Uh-uh young man. You heard your father," she didn't need to remind me. I turned and began to head to the stables.

"What happened?" I turned to see Cami was following me.

I sighed. "I helped calm the Timberjack down in the woods. Dad didn't like how I did it though,"

"Son, you shouldn't put yourself in reckless danger even though I did it all the time at your age," Cami did a pretty good imitation of Dad's voice.

I smiled and laughed a little. "Now here I am with stable-cleaning duty before dinner,"

"It could be worse," Cami said, "At least you don't have to…no this is pretty bad,"

"Gee, thanks,"


Cleaning a stable full of dragons isn't the easiest thing to do. Not only do you have dragons on the floor but on the rafters and beams as well so their…droppings were everywhere. What made it worse was the smell. How something more disgusting than rotten fish could be good crop fertilizer was beyond me.

At least Cami was taking the time to help me. "Hey Stoick, I've filled two more barrels than you," she said proudly.

I shook my head. She was starting to sound like Mom at our age. "You remember how Dad said collecting runaway sheep became a competition that turned into our dragon races?"

"Oh yeah. Now we got a great sport to look forward to," shoveling another pile of dung into a barrel she added, "by the end of this week we'll have our own dragons and we'll be able to compete in the races,"

I looked back at a pile I was shoveling. "Yeah, our own dragons…" It was then something warm and smelly hit me in the face.

"Yeah! Ten points!" Came a familiar rough voice.

I wiped my face on my sleeve. "Buffnut, what are you doing?"

Another stinky projectile hit me in the head. "Having fun. Duh." That voice was feminine. Had to be his cousin, Duffnut. Both take after their parents. I heard a cry from Cami. She had been hit.

"Oh, it's on!" She said. Taking a pile in her shovel she threw it into the dark. Good thing no dragons were currently here otherwise things might've gotten worse than they currently are.

"Come on, a dung fight?" I asked as I ducked. I wasn't a fan of this scheme of the cousins, but I couldn't leave Cami outnumbered. I used my shovel to pick up a pile and threw it into the dark. I heard Buffnut groan as the, you know, gunk hit him. More of the stuff came my way.

"Cami, you in here?" Asked a familiar voice. There was the sound of dung hitting him in the face and I heard Cami gasp. Everyone knew someone just hit her father in the face.

"Dad, this isn't what it looks like," Cami began to explain, "Buffnut and Duffnut started it first,"

"No we didn't," came two voices in the dark.

Her father wasn't amused. "You two are going to clean up this mess right now before the Vikings of Marsh Hand get here tomorrow," Turning in my direction he said, "Spout can help you clean up before dinner Stoick,"

"Thanks Mr. Ingerman,"

"I told you, call me Fishlegs,"


How do I describe getting clean by a Scauldron? Apart from painful, scaulding, and intense, it wasn't that bad. Spout really helped me to feel clean enough to approach Dad without stinking up the great hall. I did have to hurry to get there before dinner was over.

As I entered the great hall every Viking turned to face me. Bad enough being late, but does everyone have to stare? Being the son of the chief comes with high expectations. I can see why Dad didn't want the job.

I grabbed a plate of mutton, a tankard of ale, and joined my parents at the head table. Why did we have to sit ahead of everyone instead of at a regular table? Sometimes I wondered if being chief was worth all the fuss.

"Excited for tomorrow?" Mom asked me. Stormfly was behind her, eating fish with Toothless. Mom threw some chicken to Stormfly who caught it and ate it eagerly.

"A little nervous," I admitted.

"I remember when I first stood in that arena. Dragon training was different then, but still exciting,"

I swallowed my mutton. That was when Vikings still fought and killed dragons. To my friends and I that was almost like something from a myth. Dragons were too much a part of our community now. I don't think I could've stomached the idea of killing one.

Mom turned to Dad. "You still remember the first day of Dragon Training?"

Dad nodded. "Oh yeah. How could I forget that Meatlug almost roasted me?"

I choked on some ale. After a few coughs I asked, "Fishlegs dragon almost killed you?"

"This was before she was trained. When we started she was just as wild as most dragons in the archipelago. I was the only one in class who was learning there was more to dragons,"

The doors opened again and several Vikings gagged. Buffnut and Duffnut were there, still covered in dragon dung. Buffnut's long brown hair looked as if a Hotburple rolled around in it while Duffnut could've scared a Flightmare in her state. I looked away. Thor, that was something I did not need to see.

Tuffnut and his wife met with Ruffnut and her husband and escorted their children out of the great hall. They were both probably going to get blasted with water from Scauldy. Probably better than using an eel to get Torch to chase them.

I thought I'd better take Mom and Dad's minds off the horrid sight. "So, how did you know you found the right dragons?"

Dad answered first. "Well, I never expected to train Toothless. I was just trying to learn about him and when I saw he couldn't fly I wanted to help him get back in the air. It took a lot of effort, and trials and error, but in the end I ended up finding a friend in him,"

"When I first met Stormfly we were learning to fight Deadly Nadders," Mom took over, "I never thought that one day I'd be riding her. When I did…words cannot express the joy and thrill of the experience. I just knew that she and I would be together,"

I decided to voice my fears. "But how will I know if I found the right one for me?"

Mom smiled. "You'll just know. In here," she gestured to my heart. "Just remember when you train a dragon you become a part of them just as they become a part of you,"