"Either we finish them or they'll finish us!" immediately after breakfast, Stoick got all the children and teenagers to leave so he could start a meeting. "It's the only way we'll be rid of them. If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home!" the meeting was rowdy with agreement and disagreement. "One more search before the ice sets in."
Harald stood up, he had a thick, orange beard that reached the middle of his chest, he had many scars littering his body. He was born a Beserker so it was almost like an initiation as a child to collect as many scars as possible "those ships never come back." He would not risk the life of his wife to search for an invisible dragon nest. It was true that his wife was more dangerous and skilled than him but that did not stop his worried thoughts.
"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard. Now who's with me?!" no one replied so he decided to fight dirty, "all right. Those who stay will look after Hiccup." All hands rose at that. "Aye. That's more like it." The other Vikings strode off to prepare whilst Gefion stayed behind.
"Right. I'll pack my undies" Gobber rose to leave but Stoick stopped him.
"No, I need you to stay and train some new recruits."
"Aren't I the teacher?" Gefion said with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes but you are the most skilled weapons master in Berk, if we find the nest we'll need you." She nodded in understanding and took a large swig of her ale.
Gobber glared at his long-time friends "Perfect. And, while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor-sharp blades, lots of time to himself. What could possible go wrong?"
Stoick groaned and looked at his Gobber and Gefion "what am I going to do with him, Gobber? Gefion? I'd really like an idea."
Gobber nodded "put him in training."
The chief looked at him in disbelief "No, I'm serious."
"So am I."
"He'd be killed before the first dragon is out of its cage."
Gobber raised his arm "you don't know that."
"I do, actually." Stoick shot back.
"No, you don't."
"No, I do."
"No, you don't"
"Boys!" Gefion cut in "Stoick, he's not going to get better unless he learns, you can't keep him locked away forever." She was always the voice of reason but Stoick rarely listened, he never listened to anyone.
Stoick sighed and shook his head "listen, you know what he's like." He stood from the bench and began pacing around "from the time he could crawl, he's been…different." He sighed once more "he doesn't listen. He has the attention span of a sparrow." He said this just as Gobber was not paying attention, Gefion smirked and held in a chuckle at her smelly friend "I take him fishing and he goes hunting for trolls!"
Gobber finally decided to pay attention and swung his body around to face Stoick "trolls exist. They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What's with that?" he trailed off and stopped paying attention once more.
"When I was a boy…"
"Here we go." Both Gobber and Gefion muttered together, here comes the beginning of Stoick the Vast's legend. A legend they have heard since they were young.
"…my father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?"
"You got a headache."
"You became stupid."
Stoick ignored his friends and continued "that rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber, Gefion. He could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas! Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become. Hiccup is not that boy."
"You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him."
Gefion nodded "everyone learns differently Stoick, Hiccup may be a late bloomer. Perhaps his talents lie elsewhere. Give him time and patience."
Gobber agreed "I know it seems hopeless, but you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now."
"Of course he would be." Stoick muttered, even thinking of his son was exhausting.
Gefion chuckled "better to have an exciting son than an emotionless and bored teenager like I have."
The chief chuckled "yes, I've noticed. She's certainly different than you."
Gobber nodded rigorously "you were the most enthusiastic teenager I've ever met, the first time I met you you said hello by bashing your head against mine!" the three experienced Vikings all laughed loudly, remembering how Gobber had a large purple lump on his head for an entire week. The moment she did that Gobber instantly liked her. She was always there to cheer the men up, like when the duties of becoming the chief and being the chief became too hard she would cheer Stoick up or when Gobber unknowingly ate his pet yak Pepe and found out when he saw Pepe's bell in the kitchen.
Gefion stood from the bench and looked to her friends "I suppose I should prepare for the voyage, I'll have to talk to my sweet, loving daughter and deal with her constant nagging at wanting to join us. Who knew a child could nag yet still look bored?" They once again laughed.
"We wish you luck."
"Glad I don't have kids."
"That's because you are still a child Gobber."
"And no one will marry you unless you begin bathing."
"Never!"
"Welcome to dragon training!" Gobber yelled as he swung open the gate to the academy training grounds. All the teenagers had expression of both excitement and nervousness, before today there weren't allowed to be near dragons, now they were finally beginning their journey to become true Vikings.
"No turning back." Astrid said to Dalla who nodded in determination, the orangette felt jitters of excitement run through her. Far from the bored exterior she wore on the outside.
"I hope I get some serious burns." Tuffnut said giddily "I want to be as scared as your dad Dalla." Whilst the twins were tricksters and pranksters, they almost worshipped Harald, he was littered in scars from head to toe. He was the scariest looking Viking on Berk and they wanted to claim his title.
"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or back." Ruffnut next, hoping she could get it today. Getting a scar the first day of training would be awesome.
"I want a claw mark somewhere like my mother has on her face" Gefion had a three talon marks running from her cheeks to jaw, her daughter wanted one as well but not on her face. Call her superficial, she didn't want to mar her face.
"I think that would look incredibly attractive." Snotlout complimented, once again trying to suck up to the girls.
"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it." Astrid agreed with the others.
"Yeah, no kidding, right?" the group turned around and saw Hiccup shuffling in behind them, holding the Haddocks family axe. "Pain. Love it." No one looked pleased to see the chief's son behind them, this would only end in disaster.
Tuffnut groaned "oh, great. Who let him in?"
Gobber came out and interupted the teasing and mocking that was sure to happen "Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."
"Or her." Dalla said out loud, the women of the group turned and nodded in agreement.
"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so does that disqualify him?" everyone but Astrid and Dalla snickered and snorted at Snotlouts dig at the Haddock failure.
"Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?"
"We are the only class." Fishlegs pointed out to Tuffnut as they all moved into a horizontal line. Shortly after, Gobber shoved Hiccup into the line as he started his lesson "behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!" he pointed to the 6 cages, all rattleing angrily, what was contained behind the cages was even angrier. "The Deadly Nadder!"
Fishlegs got hyped up and started listing of dragon facts "Speed 8, armor 26."
"The Hideous Zippleback."
"Plus 11 stealth. Times 2."
"The Montrous Nightmare"
"Firepower 15."
"The Terrible Terror."
"Attack 8, venom 12."
"The Horrible Windwalker"
"Speed 7, intelligence 13"
"Can you stop that?!" Gobber yelled angrily at Fishlegs "And the Gronckle." He said fainlly as he rested a hand on the lever beside the Gronckle cage.
"Jaw stength 8" Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup, he was the most interested in the Gonckle.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Snotlout broke rank and looked at his teacher in panic "wait, aren't you gonna teach us first?"
Gobber looked at the group with a mischevious grin "I believe in learning on the job." With that he pulled down the lever and raised the log that stopped the door from opening. Immediately after, the doors sung open and a snarling brown Gronkle burst through. The teenagers gasped and yelled as they scattered and scuttled away from the raged dragon "today is about survival. If you get blasted…" The Gronckle missed Tuffnut and flew straight into the academy walls "…you're dead!" the Gronckle quickly righted itself and swooped up a pile of rocks from the floor, "what's the first thing you're going to need?"
"A doctor?"
"Plus 5 speed?"
"A shield"
"Yes Astird, Shield. Go!" the group nodded and raced to the edges, each grabbed a shield and stared at the dragon in both fear and determination. Well except the twins, they were still fighting over the same shield. "The most important piece of equipment is your shield!"
"No really! I thought it was your brain!" Dalla shouted sacastically, her green shield with a dragon wrapped arounded the middle was held tightly in her hand, her axe was in another.
"Don't get sassy with me Dalla, if you must choose between a sword or shield, take the shield!" Gobber shouted as he pushed Hiccup into the frey.
"Let go of my shield!" Tuffnut shouted to his sister.
"There are like a million shields!" Ruffnut shouted back to her brother.
"Take that one. It has a flower…girls like flowers. Aah!" he shouted as his sister bashed his head with the shield.
"Oops, this one has blood on it." They continued to squabble until the Gronckle flew in and shot the shield, making them spin to the floor.
"Tuffnut, Ruffnut! You're out!" Gobber shouted, he was enjoying this way too much. "those shields are good for another thing. Noise! Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim!" the teens nodded and used their weapons to bash their shields loudly, they watched triumphantly as the Gronckles eyes went cross eyed and its body swerved from left to right. "All dragons have a limited number of shots." They began circling the dragon so it couldn't pick a target, "how many does a Gronckle have?"
"Five?" was Snoutlouts answer.
"No, six!" Fishlegs shouted happily, unfortunately that distracted him and the Gronckle chose him as its target.
"Corrext, six! That's one for all but one of you!" the Gronckle fired a shot and it hit Fishleg's shield, the large boy screamed and ran away "Fishlegs, out! Hiccup, get in there!" Gobber shouted to the hiding Hoddock child.
"So anyway, I moved into my parents' basement, you both should come by sometime and work out!" Snotlout tried to flirt with the two girls who were focused solely on the Gronckle who had turned to them. When the Gronckle got ready to fire they rolled out of the way and left Snotlout standing out in the open "you look like you work out. Aah!" the beast shot his shield and forced him to the floor.
"Snotlout! You're done!" Gobber shouted happily.
"Oh god someone help me!" Snotlout groaned on the floor, Dalla rolled back and forced him to get up when the dragon focused its attention on Astrid and Hiccup "thank you! Let me kiss you in reward!" he moved in to kiss her right on the lips but she moved away and let him fall back to the floor "nevermind!"
"Aah!" Hiccup screamed when the Gronckle shot his shield, in panic he raced after his only source of protection, instanlty forgetting the beast had set its eyes on him.
"One shot left!" the Gronckle steered Hiccup away from his shield and pinned him to the fall "Hiccup!" Gobber shouted in panic and raced to the Haddocks side, just as the dragon was about to shoot him the blacksmith used his hook to grab the side of the Gonckle's mouth and jerk it to the side so the lavaball hit the wall instead of Hiccup. "and that's six" he grunted out as he pulled the Gronckle to its cage "go back to bed, you overgrown sausage!" he spun the Gronckle around and threw it back into its home, he quickly shuffled to the lever and closed the door. "you'll get another chance, don't you worry." He said to the group of disgruntled teens, they all failed their first class except the two Viking girls. Ruffnut doesn't count. "remember, a dragon will always, always go for the kill." He said to Hiccup in a serious tone, hoping it would bring out the Viking in Hiccup. He really did not want to explain to Stoick how his only son and heir was killed in class by a dragon. "all right, get cleaned up and meet me in the hall for dinner tonight."
"Well, that was a horrible class." Dalla drawled "all I did was roll around. How boring." The others strolled up beside her as they all left the academy.
"Don't worry princess, you'll get to kill a dragon one day." Snotlout moved in close to her and gave her his 'irresistable' smirk, if you could really call it that.
"Oh I will, my parents wouldn't shut up if I didn't"
Astrid snorted "I think the same could be said about all our parents" the group nodded.
"Not ours" Tuffnut huffed "our parents would throw a party if we even payed attention to a dragon"
"Yeah, our parents don't think we can do anything right."
