2. Linking Up

Story Start: Arena, Four Days After Dragon Den Completion

There were two lines of ten facing each other in the arena. Hiccup paced between the lines, Dragon Elders of the group residing on the island along with a few curious 'off shore' volunteers they had managed to coax in joining this unprecedented venture on his left, the ten best Vikings under Stoik's command, men and women both, all of who had eagerly signed up to learn how to ride previously thought to be hell spawn mounts on his right. All eyes were on Hiccup as he paced, Toothless sitting on one end of the rows.

After a moment, Hiccup cleared his throat and said "Gentlemen, Ladies, and whatever you identify yourself as." Chuckles filtered through the lines as he pointed at a toad like dragon at the end, known as an Oil Spitter (A prime example of Vikings' lack of naming ability). They were also known to be able to change genders whenever they felt like it, primarily in order to keep their population at a reasonable level, though male and female weren't the ONLY choices they could take. Hiccup twitched up his lip before he continued "You all are here for one reason. To see if it is possible for a partnership to be formed between a Viking and a Dragon. Let's be clear here though, you will not find your partner today, you might not even find it this week. What we are here today for, is for you to familiarize yourself with which dragon type best suits you. For instance, while I am sure everyone of you fantasizes about riding a Monstrous Nightmare into battle, maybe a Terrible Terror that can serve as a hidden scout during a hunting trip or infiltration mission would be the best option for you. A Timberjack would be a great partner to have if your primary job in the village is wood collection, however, a Cavern Crusher could be a better partner if your job was treating said wood." Stopping in the middle of the rows and turning to fully face the Vikings, Hiccup spread his arms slightly as he continued "Think about what you see yourself doing in the future, not only this month, but the years ahead and ask yourself, what kind of dragon do I see aiding me the most?"

Hiccup gave them a moment to mull over his words before he gestured at the small tables that sat beside each dragon, or in the Terrible Terror's case sat on, more specifically, the pages bound together by cord and said "Over the last few days, Toothless and I spoke with each one of these dragons and wrote down everything that they thought it was important to know about their species. Take a read through them, and if you have any questions then remember that you can ask them if you phrase it in a yes or no question. If you need to ask them something that can't be asked in that manner then Toothless and I will translate for you."

And so started the new routine for Hiccup and Toothless. They spent the morning introducing a new group of Vikings to what was quickly termed the 'Welcoming Committee' then after lunch would move onto the dragons den where groups of each available dragon who were interested in getting a partner would interact with them. Thankfully, once the Vikings had decided on which breed would best work with them they didn't HAVE to do this with only ten Vikings at a time. Instead what would happen was that a Viking would give an introduction to the group about themselves, likes, dislikes, favorite hobbies, all that jazz, and one of the dragons would offer to hang around with them for a few days. If they hit it off then that was great, if not, the pair would just go back to the group and another dragon would give it a try. And there was a very good indicator that the pairs would work that no one saw coming but in hindsight should have been obvious: Hiccup and Toothless weren't unique; more mental links were beginning to show up between the two races.

Surprisingly or not, depending on how you look at things, Astrid of all people was the next person to establish a link with a dragon. Two days after beginning to hang out with the Nadder that she nicknamed Stormfly the two were able to sense each other's emotions. Not all links formed that fast of course, or even took so long. Some links took a full week of interaction to begin forming while some were almost automatic as they happened within the hour. The fact that Hiccup COULDN'T find any defining variables that dictated why link creation times varied so much just about drove him bonkers, much to Toothless' visible amusement. Still, frustrating as it was for Hiccup to try to figure out, it DID make him relieved that he and Toothless wouldn't have to translate for every Viking/Pair on the island.

Not everyone was making the transition from war time conditions so smoothly though. Gobber may have been a master black smith, but at heart, he was always a weapons smith. Without constant fighting supplying the need for old weapons to be repaired and new weapons made, Hiccup's mentor began to flounder, and Hiccup was unsure of how to help.

Fortunately, this was one time that Hiccup didn't need to step in. Two weeks into everyone beginning to partner up with various dragons the Monstrous Nightmare elder walked right up to the black smith while he had been working on a harpoon launcher in the forge (Supposedly for Grey Whale hunting though no one really bought that one), grabbed him by the back of the shirt like a mother cat grabbing a kitten and marched with him in his mouth straight into the Dragon Den. No one but the Nightmares knew why, but when one of them got a toothache, GOBBER and not Hiccup was the one they decided was the best person to go to first about a tooth extraction procedure.

Whatever their reasoning, the Nightmares had managed to hit upon a solution that Hiccup didn't mind admitting he wouldn't have thought up himself and within another week the man was giving ALL of the dragons not only dental checks but full physicals as well. It seemed that Berk had its first dragon doctor.

Time Skip: Three Days After Gobber's Change Of Profession

Thoughts of Doctor Gobber was the last thing on Hiccup's mind right now. He, Astrid, and a Viking Husband/Wife pair that had established links with an also mated pair of Monstrous Nightmares were on weather reconnaissance several leagues out from Berk. They were sent out when the Viking Bucket, renamed for the bucket covering a nasty head injury, began showing all the signs of detecting a bad storm coming. And as much as Hiccup didn't like relying on what was supposed to be nothing but superstition, Bucket had the unfortunate tendency to be right when it came to picking up storms, sometimes weeks in advance.

The group were perched on the top of a small single mountain island seventy miles from Berk and watching as a rather worrisome storm rumbled its way towards Berk, traveling at a rapid pace that would put it over their home island within three days. Shaking his head, the husband, Boulder Splitter said "I've never seen a storm this bad so early in the year, usually we've got a few more months before we have to worry about those."

"At least it seems to be a fast one so we shouldn't have to weather it out for too long." His wife, Tinny said, before wincing as a rather large lightning bolt flashed at the front of the storm and everyone, including the dragons winced at the loud thunderclap it produced.

"Depends on how far the storm goes from this direction." Hiccup said with a frown.

Tinny's mount grumbled something and she nodded as she said "Spinel thinks it's too early for the storm to be a big one, just a really BAD one."

"Only one way to find out for sure though." Boulder Splitter said and with that the group took off, rapidly gaining altitude in a twisting spiral so that way they could travel over the storm as it passed under them. They got so high that Spinel and her mate Burning Coral had to ignite their tails in order to keep the four riders warm, but the view it gave of the storm beneath them was well worth it. Hiccup pulled out a rudimentary spy glass from a small saddle bag he had added to Toothless' saddle and tried to spot the end of the storm.

Frowning when he didn't see one, he called to the others "I think we're going to have to fly over it for a while to find the end!"

"Well that's not ominous at all!" Astrid called back even as the dragons drifted closer now that they weren't making large spirals and the group began flying against the wind that was still going strong even as high as they were, Spinel and Burning Coral alternating flying in front of the smaller Toothless and Stormfly in order to make it easier for the two. Two hours later, they reached the end and Astrid called over the wind "Looks like it's going to be an all nighter!"

"Not to mention part of an afternoon, if my calculations on its traveling speed are correct then it's going to hit about an hour before dinner time in two days!" Hiccup shouted.

"Let's turn around and go warn the others then!" Tinny shouted and the squadron of dragons turned and began heading back for Berk. The fact that the wind gave them a not so insignificant boost as they rushed to beat the storm was a bit of a cold comfort considering what else it was bringing with it. Still, they did manage to beat their time going out by half meaning that the Vikings and Dragons had that much more time to prepare.

Time Skip: Two Days Later

The wind was howling outside of the Mess Hall. Smaller dragons paired with Vikings remained near their partners while Vikings with the larger breeds of Dragons stuck with them in the Dragon Den, both sides of the bond displaying protective instincts for the other. Toothless currently had a blanket wrapped Hiccup under a wing as the pair sat watching everyone else.

Their people watching was interrupted as Stoik walked over and sat down with a sigh and said "I know I said it before Hiccup, but you and your group did good work a couple of days ago. It really helped having a more accurate guess at when this storm would hit."

"Thanks dad, I'm just glad we got here fast enough." Hiccup said, Toothless humming his agreement.

Stoik chuckled and said "Indeed, it seems that the benefits of Vikings partnering with Dragons has once more become apparent."

Nothing more was said, the group content to fall into comfortable silence as outside the storm continued to rage. But thanks to the early warning, everyone was able to weather through it without worry during the night.

END

Author's Notes: I deeply apologize for how long this took. First I waited for the disc sets to come in, then I tried watching the second episode on said disc only to cringe so much I kept starting and stopping. Finally I just skipped to the end and what do I find? Gobber becomes a dragon dentist. It's official, my story is way too different from canon for the intro of the series. Thankfully, episode three is a storm episode. How sad is it that something as unreliable as the weather is what pulled this chapter out of its grave?

Anyway, as you know by now, the Update Schedule is on the Profile Page. There is also a Poll for deciding what the next story I work on is going to be. My Naruto/Kingdom Hearts story is in the lead right now with two other Naruto stories taking spots two and three in a tie which really surprised me since I thought my readers would want to see something other than another Naruto fic, but I guess not.