A/N: Yep, I'm still here. My writing schedule is as consistent as Queen Cressida's spelling.

Two things you should know about this chapter is that 1) as FanFiction doesn't support multiple fonts, I mark Dragonese in bold, and 2) there are footnotes like in the original books, and they are in [brackets] because FanFiction also doesn't support superscript. Sigh.

CHAPTER 2
THE RED KNIGHT

Red knight took a brazen leap,
now leading an army of blood.
Beware a wolf leading an army of sheep,
and this wolf thought he won.

But pawn still advanced to challenge knight,
more thoughtful and calm than his brother.
Afraid, red knight went back one space to take flight,
and pawn was challenged by no other.

Pawn to the right moved two spaces up,
so king-to-be could stand on his shoulders.
And so began the great setup,
of which king-to-be was the controller.

Red moved forward, bold as well,
but careful after their mistake.
One pawn, one space, now all is swell,
Two whites and a red, a trade could be made.

Ten Years Later

On the wild and windy isle of Berk, Thugheart stood up to his ankles in snow, craning his neck to gaze up at Wild Dragon Cliff. Around him, twelve other boys shuffled their feet uncertainly.

Thugheart, however, was the opposite of uncertain. He was nineteen years old, and about to pass this final test before he could become a Warrior of the Wilderwest[1]. He was going to catch his very first dragon.

Chucklehead laughed beside him. 'What's so funny?' Thugheart asked his younger brother. Chucklehead was sixteen now, and still hadn't kicked his strange habit.

He just kept chuckling and didn't reply.

'YOUNG WARRIORS OF THE WILDERWEST!' hollered Bellicose the Beefy, the leader of the Pirate Training Programme. Thugheart immediately snapped to attention. Chucklehead, however, kept on laughing. Thugheart elbowed him in the ribs, gesturing with his head to the perpetually red-faced Warrior.

'TODAY,' roared Bellicose, 'YOU WILL FACE THE MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE THE UNCIVILISED WORLD HAS TO OFFER! TODAY, YOU WILL… CATCH YOUR DRAGON!'

This was met by a wave of whispering throughout the small crowd of teenage Vikings. Except for Thugheart, who whooped and shouted, 'Death or glory!'

'But before you begin,' Bellicose continued after the whispers had died down, 'I introduce you to His Royal Terrifyingness King Grimbeard the Ghastly.'

And Thugheart's father took his place in front of the Vikings-in-Training.

He limps, noticed Thugheart. Has he always done that? Well, it's to be expected, I suppose. Father is getting on in years.

Grimbeard's once-red beard was greying, and he had gained a bit of a potbelly. Yet still, everyone watched the King in awe. Chucklehad wanted to laugh at that, but knew he couldn't in the King's presence. So he stayed silent.

'Initiates,' said Grimbeard the Ghastly, 'you are about to embark on a time-honoured quest. Every Warrior of the Wilderwest has caught their dragon from Wild Dragon Cliff since I became King.'

Thugheart wondered what the tribes had done before. He thought of Hiccup the First's painted-over face.

'By the end of today,' Grimbeard continued, 'you will have found out if you are the stuff Heroes are made of, or if you're a jellyfish in a skirt. And let me say this now: the Kingdom of the Wilderwest has no place for jellyfish.

'So!' He clapped his hands together in jovial fashion. 'Get your dragon-baskets, boys. You've got a difficult day ahead of you!'

There was a mad dash to the pile of dragon-baskets. Thugheart ploughed through the group of boys, elbowing everyone out of his path. Chucklehead trailed behind, laughing again.

'Thor and Woden, Chuckles, what are you laughing at?' asked Thugheart.

Chucklehead grabbed a basket from the pile and put his arms through the straps like it was a rucksack. 'Everything,' he replied matter-of-factly.

Thugheart rolled his eyes. 'For Thor's sake…'

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to face his father. Grimbeard the Ghastly's other hand was on the shoulder of Thugheart's much younger and much shorter brother, Hiccup.

'Thugheart, I know it's your Initiation Day, but… can you do me a small favour?'

Thugheart had a nasty feeling that this small favour would involve Hiccup, but said yes all the same.

'I've got a Bashyball game in twenty minutes, you see, and I really can't miss it — I bet two of my swords that the Meatheads would come out on top. Could you keep an eye on Hiccup for the next few hours?'

Thugheart groaned inwardly. 'Fine,' he acquiesced sullenly.

'That's the spirit. I'll come meet you after lunch, to see your new dragon!' Grimbeard winked and was gone, sprinting toward the Bashyball field as fast as a man of his girth could run.

'So, what are we doing?' piped the annoyingly chipper voice of Thugheart's youngest brother. 'What are those baskets, and why are you wearing yours on your front? They should be worn like a rucksack. See, Chucklehead's got it right.'

'No, I've got it right,' argued Thugheart, irritated.

Hiccup shook his head. 'You look like Old Fishbelly,' he said. Bellicose's mother, Old Fishbelly, had a paunchy stomach that she thrust in front of her like an ugly badge of honour when she walked.

'I do not!' Thugheart insisted. He went to join the other Initiates, trying to suck in his stomach.

'What's our plan, boys?' he said, trying to ignore Hiccup blowing raspberries behind him.

The group of Initiates looked at each other and shrugged.

'Well then,' said Thugheart, 'I suggest we should climb up the mountain in single file. Youngest at the front so we don't lose anyone. What do you th—'

'That's an awful idea,' interrupted Hiccup.

Ohhh suffering scallops. Not again, Thugheart fumed. His little brother, as usual, was taking the reins from him.

'The weakest Vikings should go in the back,' said Hiccup. 'That way they won't slow us down, and if one of them were to fall, they wouldn't send the rest of us tumbling down the mountain.'

Yes, that made sense. The boys nodded their assent.

'But what if the last boy in line can't keep up?' countered Thugheart. 'What if he loses sight of the rest of us? What if he gets lost or injured? What if he finds himself stranded alone in the middle of a snowstorm?'

'Then it's too bad for him. You heard what Father the King said. The Kingdom of the Wilderwest has no place for jellyfish.'

'That's hardly fair—' Thugheart tried, but the rest of the Vikings-in-Training were already lining up to begin the ascent up the mountain.

'Take the lead, Thugheart,' said Hiccup. 'I'll go second. You are firstborn, after all.'

I'm not falling for that one that easily. 'Since when were you coming with us, little brother?'

'Since the others took my idea, I guess.'

'That's ridiculous. Wait for us at the bottom of the cliff.'

'Father said you had to watch me. What if I was to wander off and be eaten by wolves? What would you say to him then?'

Thugheart sighed in frustration. 'Fine, come along. But go in front of me, so I can keep an eye on you.'

'I'd be happy to.'

His smile was falser than that of a Crocoraptor.

After what seemed like hours of climbing through miles of wind and snow, the Initiates finally reached the mouth of the cave in the right eye of the mountain's skull. Thugheart could barely remove his harness with his shivering fingers.

Hiccup, however, seemed unaffected by the cold. Out of the corner of his eye, Thugheart saw him tiptoe straight into the Dragon Nursery[2], and he had to stumble in his brother's direction to make sure he wouldn't become the first spring meal for twenty thousand hungry baby dragons.

The nursery was dim and humid, lit by Glowworms and heated by the breath of the aforementioned twenty thousand sleeping dragons. And they were everywhere — snoring in tangled knots, hanging from the ceiling like bats, curled up in nests of foliage that they kept accidentally setting on fire. There were so many dragons that Thugheart had to watch every step he took.

Hiccup seemed awestruck by the whole thing. He stood silent and still as if in a trance, his mouth hanging slightly open. The boy had always been fascinated by dragons, for reasons Thugheart couldn't fathom. Thugheart was sure he wouldn't move for quite a while, so he took his eyes off his brother and made a careful beeline to the back of the nursery. He knew exactly what he was looking for.

And he found it. An enormous Monstrous Nightmare with beautiful grey-green scales was asleep alone in a tucked-away corner of the nursery. From the corner came an odd, rhythmic scritch-scratch — the Nightmare was sharpening its claws in its sleep. This one was a natural killer, for sure.

Almost drooling with excitement, Thugheart took the dragon in his arms. It's a little-known fact that dragons in the frenzy of a kill can become very warm indeed. This dragon's scales were hotter than sun-baked limestone.

He had just deposited the Nightmare in his dragon-basket when one particularly infuriating voice spoke up.

'You can't take that dragon, Thugheart.'

'Who says I can't?' he whispered furiously to Hiccup, who had somehow crept up on him and was now standing not three paces away.

'Only the Heir to a Chief has the right to a Monstrous Nightmare.[3]' Hiccup remained talking in a normal voice; he seemed not to care who heard him, human or dragon. Thugheart's dragon-basket rocked, just slightly.

'Keep your voice down! I'm the King's Heir — the best Nightmare obviously belongs to me!'

'No, I'm the King's Heir.' Hiccup reached into his tunic and took out a pendant. He pulled the chain off his neck and held it up for Thugheart to see.

'That's… that's the Dragon Jewel,' said Thugheart, flabbergasted. 'How did you get that?'

'Father gave it to me. He said I was his favourite son and was going to inherit the whole kingdom when he goes to Valhalla.'

Uncomfortably aware that every human head in the cave was turned their way, Thugheart said, 'Of course he didn't. You Burgled that Jewel. Everyone knows it belongs to me.' He made a grab for the Jewel, and Hiccup swung it out of reach. The dragon inside his basket rocked again, more violently this time.

'Why would I lie about this?'

Oh I don't know, maybe because you've also lied about a million other things.

'That Nightmare is mine by right. Hand it over.'

'I won't!'

'I am the owner of the Jewel, brother. I am the King's True Heir.'

'No you're NOT!' Thugheart exploded. 'You can't be!'

And the dragon's freshly-sharpened claws ri-i-ipped through Thugheart's dragon-basket.

'RU-U-U-U-UN ! ! !' he shouted as smoke began billowing out of the dragon-basket.

The young Vikings needed no urging. The other dragons had begun to wake up as well, and they chased the Vikings out, screeching and breathing fire. The boys ran helter-skelter out the cave opening — to a dizzying hundred-metre drop.

They would never be able to climb down in time.

Thugheart's Monstrous Nightmare had finally worked its way out of his dragon-basket and reared up to slash his face. Hiccup shouted a word in Dragonese, and suddenly the dragon's attention was turned from Thugheart to more interesting prey… or perhaps not. It alighted gently on Hiccup's forearm.

But the dragons were still streaming out the cave entrance in droves. Thugheart was contemplating jumping into the cold sea below when he heard Hiccup cry out, 'Furious! Help us!'

And a GIGANTIC SEADRAGON emerged from the ocean.

'Jump!' Hiccup shouted to the Initiates. He leaped off the cliff edge onto the Dragon Furious's back.

Thugheart looked at Hiccup's smug face, then at the horde of dragons advancing on him, and decided to jump.

Miraculously, he made it. But Thugheart had little time to revel in this success before he felt himself sliding down the Dragon's slippery scales.

'Grab onto one of his spines!' Hiccup called out. Thugheart reached one of Furious's back spines and held on for dear life.

Once all fourteen boys had successfully jumped, the Dragon Furious took to the air. He tilted himself so his left wing brushed the shoreline.

At Hiccup's order to let go, the boys slid down Furious's wing onto solid ground.

'Thank the gods,' breathed Thugheart.

'Not the gods,' Hiccup replied. 'Thank me.'

Hiccup sauntered into the village, whistling the Hooligan National Anthem. The thirteen Vikings-In-Training followed behind, nearly all wounded in some way. One boy was missing a finger. Another had a long scratch on his face that was sure to leave a scar. Nearly all were limping or leaning on a friend.

Hiccup, on the other hand, was feeling just fine and dandy. He had gotten into scrapes like this before, where Furious had to pull him out of danger in the nick of time. He had known exactly what to do when the dragons had started pouring out of the nursery. Those other boys were so green, they couldn't tell the difference between a Squirrelserpent and a Basic Brown. And they were twice his age.

'Stay here, Furious,' said Hiccup as the mountain-sized dragon attempted to squeeze himself through the village gate. 'You know what Father thinks of letting dragons into the village.'

Grimbeard the Ghastly actually had no problem with dragons in the village. It was just Hiccup's dragon in particular that he had a problem with, but Hiccup didn't tell Furious that. He didn't want his blood-brother to feel bad.

Hiccup led the solemn procession through the village, stopping at each house to deliver one of the Hooligan boys home. By the time they had made it to the Harbour, only he and his older brothers remained.

Thugheart brushed past Hiccup, knocking into him on purpose.

'I'll get you back for this, little brother,' he said, "if it's the last thing I ever do.'

He stomped up the gangplank of The Flying Dolphin without another word.

'At least you got your dragon, am I right?' Hiccup shouted to his retreating back. For it was true — Thugheart had escaped from the nursery with a dragon, a rather clingy female Dreamserpent that had curled up in Thugheart's dragon-basket, looking for a nice place to sleep.

The grey-green Monstrous Nightmare, on the other hand, was perched on Hiccup's outstretched arm. He reached out to stroke her, and she purred.

'What are you going to name her?' asked Chucklehead.

With his left hand, Hiccup pulled the Dragon Jewel out of his shirt and gave it a good look. Two dragons, each eating the other's mouth — the Alpha and Omega. He had Burgled it, right out from underneath the King's nose. But he would never give Thugheart the satisfaction of knowing the truth.

'I'll name her Alpha,' Hiccup said decisively. The Nightmare purred again. 'See? She likes it. Don't you, Alpha?' She playfully snapped at the Jewel in Hiccup's hand, and he tucked it back down his shirt front.

'Alpha,' said Chucklehead. He laughed, and Hiccup frowned. His brother was always laughing for no reason.

'Shouldn't you be getting on the boat?' Hiccup said sharply. 'It'll be leaving any minute now.'

Chucklehead nodded and walked up the gangplank, still chuckling and muttering 'Alpha' under his breath every few seconds.

Hiccup was all alone on the dock now. He spread his arms wide. 'Furious!'

The great green dragon burst out of the ocean. He made a loop-de-loop in the sky before diving back into the blue waves. He was so large that his claws could touch the bottom of the sea and his head would still be above water.

'Furious, I told you to stay by the gate.'

'You called me, brother.'

Hiccup shrugged. 'I knew you'd follow me.'

'I will always follow you.'

'Are you ready?'

Furious nodded.

'We'd better get this done quickly,' said Hiccup. 'Father will be back from his Bashyball game any minute now. And if I know anything about the Meatheads, he won't be pleased.'

Furious shook his head. 'Humans. I will never understand you.'

'That's alright. Fly?'

The dragon bent down and extended his left wing onto the docks. Hiccup hauled himself up onto Furious's back, using his wing-scales as hand- and foot-holds.

Once Hiccup was securely on his back, Furious took to the sky.

This is true flying, he thought as the dragon soared through the air. High above the clouds, far away from the humans and all their evil. This is where I was meant to be.

Alpha seemed to agree. She lifted her head from its resting spot on Hiccup's shoulder and purred.

Furious craned his neck backwards to look at the grey-green Nightmare. 'Who is this?'

'You're speaking to the fifth daughter of the Great Ripperclaw himself,' she replied haughtily. 'The young Viking gave me a name, however… my apologies, young Viking, but I don't understand the lumpentongue.[4]'

Hiccup cleared his throat, aware that he was in the presence of royalty. 'My name is Hiccup. I named you Alpha… if that's alright with Your Majesty.'

'Your Majesty?' She tittered. 'There's no need for your human titles. Alpha is a fine name. You're awfully SMALL for a Viking,' she added.

'I'm only a Viking-in-Training,' he mumbled.

'He's not even a Viking-in-Training yet,' Furious said to Alpha. 'He won't begin the Pirate Training Programme until next year.'

She hissed. 'My Master is a child?'

'I'm not a child!' objected Hiccup.

'Do not underestimate him,' said Furious, flashing his blood-brother a small smile. 'He may be young, but he is the third son of King Grimbeard the Ghastly. And he speaks Dragonese, as you have seen.'

'I've noticed,' said the Nightmare. 'How did you come to speak the noble language of the greenbloods?'

'I grew up on an island off the coast of the Uglithug Lands, where a Grimler Dragon suckled me,[5]' said Hiccup. 'Furious—the Seadragon we're riding—and I grew up together. Dragonese is my mother tongue.'

'Your father sent you to be raised by dragons so you would learn their language?'

'No.' Hiccup frowned. 'He didn't even know I was alive until his Hooligan Raiding Party found me. I must have gotten lost as a baby. I never really thought about it before.'

'We've arrived, brother.' Furious landed in the Harbour and tipped his wing, letting Hiccup slide onto solid ground. 'Gods grant you luck.'

'You know I don't believe in those silly gods, Furious.'

'May they grant you luck anyway, in both your expedition and overcoming your foolish ignorance.'

'What are we doing?' Alpha whispered, perched atop Hiccup's shoulder as he made his way down the empty streets of Tomorrow.

'You'll see,' said Hiccup.

She narrowed her eyes and hissed. 'Where is everyone?'

The great island of Tomorrow was usually bustling with noise and activity—dragons of every colour and breed sailing through the grey skies, Vikings of every tribe making their way down the mazelike streets, vendors touting swords and shellfish from every corner. But the island was completely deserted.

'They're all at the Bashyball game,' said Hiccup. 'Murderous versus Meatheads. The Murderous will come out on top again. They always do.'

Alpha gave a small, princess-like huff of disdain. 'Humans.'

'I'm not too fond of them either.'

Hiccup arrived at the steps of Grimbeard's castle—a terrifically huge stone structure that would have been better described as a fortress rather than a castle. It was built in the Roman style, with a gatehouse and turrets and no fewer than six towers. From the tallest tower, three flags flew—the green Hooligan flag, the red-and-gold flag of the Wilderwest, and Grimbeard's own skull-and-crossbones sigil. The whole thing was awe-some and terribly frightening. Even Alpha blinked in surprise.

'We have to be quiet now,' said Hiccup. 'I don't know how many of the servants stayed behind.'

He tiptoed around to the back of the castle, Alpha staring at the dizzyingly high stone walls and wondering how a person could live in such an enclosed space.

He slipped into the kennelmaster's hut, where Dragon Djuri lay sleeping off last night's mead. With a precision that Bellicose would have been proud of, Hiccup Burgled the kennelmaster's ring of keys from its hook on the wall.

Alpha watched curiously as her master tickled each royal dragon in its cage between the ears to wake them up. He jingled the keys in his hand softly, so the dragons with poor eyesight would know what he was doing.

Swiftly and silently, he unlocked every cage.

The dragons didn't wait. They burst from their cages the moment Hiccup twisted the key.

'You've done this before,' said Alpha.

'Six times.' Hiccup wiped his eyes. The sight of dozens of dragons soaring up into the air made him all teary.

'If these dragons have been freed and recaptured six times,' Alpha said slowly, as if she was speaking to a very stupid person, 'there's obviously something wrong with your method.'

'No, this is worth it,' said Hiccup. 'Because every time I free them, a few manage to escape for good.'

[1] If you are a careful reader, you may notice that Thugheart was much older than any of the boys in Hiccup the Third's memoirs. The reason for this is that in Grimbeard's time, Vikings-in-Training went through the Pirate Training Programme BEFORE catching their dragon. After a rather nasty incident, the Tribes decided it would be best for their Vikings-in-Training to catch their dragons FIRST, as dragons take several years to train before they can be ridden successfully into battle.

[2] Hiccup the Third describes a tunnel leading to the Dragon Nursery in the first of his memoirs, How to Train Your Dragon. However, as shown in this story, said tunnel did not exist during the time of Grimbeard the Ghastly; artificial landslides created by the Ripperclaw's dragon army during the Second Dragon Rebellion reduced the entire front half of the Dragon Nursery to a cramped tunnel.

[3] This unofficial law was changed to be the right of a Chief's son, rather than merely his Heir, after Chucklehead became Chief of the Hooligan Tribe, mostly due to the fact that he was bitter about never being allowed to catch a Monstrous Nightmare in his youth.

[4] Dragons who have lived with and are familiar with Vikings usually can usually Norse, which they call the lumpentongue. It's rather curious that Alpha, who was obviously given a princess's education, does not understand it herself.

[5] The full story of Hiccup the Second's unconventional childhood can be found in Hiccup the Third's eighth memoir, How to Break a Dragon's Heart.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review!