How to Train Your Dragon: the Novelization
Chapter 3: First Day of Dragon Training; No One Wants You
Dragon Training Coliseum
On the other side of the village, on the side of a mountainous cliff connected to the village by a stone bridge, a giant stone-shaped coliseum stood there. The dome was constructed with impenetrable stone, and on top of the dome, was a metal cage. The walls and the cage roof were completely destructive-proof, as it was built into the side of the cliff that towered above it. Inside and out, were doors that were bolted into and secured by plank locks. This was the Dragon Training coliseum, where all Vikings at the teenage age trained to fight dragons. And today, the young wards were making their way through, followed by Gobber as he reached for the door, with his prosthetic hand changed into a ruler sized hook.
"Welcome to Dragon Training!" Gobber said to his teenage students.
The doors opened to the Dragon Training Ring, allowing the teenagers to enter the training grounds. Astrid, followed by Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Syn, and Fishlegs entered the arena, with weapons in hand.
"No turning back," Astrid said to herself, walking confidently, ready to finally learn how to slay dragons.
The group of young Vikings walked into the middle of the ring, all gazing around them and getting a good look at the stone walls and the chain ceiling that surrounded them.
"I hope I get some serious burns," said the male twin Tuffnut.
"I'm hoping for some mauling," said his sister Ruffnut, "like, on my shoulder or lower back."
"Well, you're all out of luck," Syn stated as she rubbed her right arm tenderly. "'Cause out of all of ya, I'm hopin' to add a few more burn scars in a few other places."
"Yeah," sighed Astrid, "It's only fun if you get a scar out of it."
"No kidding, right?"
Everyone heard that, and turned around to the door. There, they saw none other than Hiccup, equipped with his battle gauntlet, as well as the ax his father gave him. He grudgingly stepped into the ring last, adding wryly, "Pain. Love it."
"Oh great," Tuffnut said, looking at Hiccup. "Who let him in?"
"Now, now. That's no way to treat Stoick's son. Or your future chief," a familiar voice called from one of the doors, gaining the attention of both the Viking teens and Gobber. It was Unfer himself as he calmly walked in, and stood by Hiccup, patting him on the shoulder, "Hiccup, although albeit lacking in his father's more dominant traits, will someday prove to be an irreplaceable chieftain one day once his father has stepped down."
"Didn't know you'd take an interest in this class," Gobber asked as he strode over the cages.
"Well, you know me," Unfer walked away from Hiccup as he went to a more safer spot, "I always say: the children are our future. I just like to see where we're going." And with that, he calmly made his way to the bleachers.
"Alright, let's get started!" yelled Gobber, ignoring the last statement that Unfer had made. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."
"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury so… does that disqualify him or...?" Snotlout asked innocently, when in truth he was poking fun at him. As he did this, the other students laughed as they walked further into the arena.
As if to add more salt into the wound, Snotlout taunted aloud, "Can I change to the class with the cool Vikings?" That made the others laugh even harder.
"Don't worry," said Gobber reassuringly, putting a hand on Hiccup's shoulder as they started to walk forward, "You're small and you're weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll go after the more Viking-like teens instead."
"Gee, that's great," Hiccup said dryly, the sarcasm going unnoticed by Gobber at all.
With a rough push, Gobber sent Hiccup towards the rest of the group.
"Behind these doors," Gobber said passing in front of his students, "…are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight." Gobber walked towards a large door, that was shaking on its hinges; obviously it was a very angry dragon waiting behind it. "Here we have the Deadly Nadder,"
"Speed: 8, armor: 16..." Said a very eager Fishlegs.
"The Hideous ZippleBack," Gobber said pointing to an even larger door.
"… Eleven stealth – times 2... "
"The Monstrous Nightmare," Gobber stated to a door that was smoking on both the wood and the hinges.
"- Fire-power: 15... "
"The Vicious Volcanoback," Gobber pointed to a steel door, which oozed out from the cracks, little drippings of lava and flame.
"Heat Temperature: 25, Long Range Attack: 30"
"And finally," Gobber finished, as he stopped in front of an iron clad door, with many warning symbols on it. "The Terrible Terror!"
"- Attack: 8, venom: 12! - "
"Would you stop that!?" Gobber, feeling very annoyed, as he walked to a wooden and metal door that was knocking so hard, it almost seemed like there was a battering ram on the other side of it. "And then, there's the Gronkle." Gobber put his hand on the lever that would open the door.
"Jaw-strength: 8." Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup.
"Whoa whoa, wait!" yelled Snotlout, looking terrified. "Aren't you gonna teach us first?"
"He doesn't believe in that sort of thing," Hiccup mumbled, with only Fishlegs hearing that as he gulped.
"I believe in learning on the job," Gobber answered, with a smile on his face, and his hand on the lever. However, Hiccup only knew that too well, being Gobber's apprentice in the Black-smith's shop. As proof of this, they all witnessed Gobber push down on the lever, opening the door.
Suddenly, bursting down the doors as they slowly opened, a mighty dragon flew in. or rather, hovered forward and in the air, as it would be. The dragon was colored a light puke brown, and had a short body, a gigantic head, and a round tail. It had yellow eyes, two wing-like horns atop of its eyebrows, and a smaller horn on the tip of its nose. Its mouth had two large bottom teeth, giving it the look of a bulldog. Under its chin and on top of its back and tail, it had purple small stubby spikes, that kind of resembled like acne. However, unlike the Dreaded Nightmare or any other dragon, its wings were relatively small, but were beating as fast as a hummingbird's by the looks of it right now. It looked pretty small, but the way it was moving, it was very good in maneuverability. This was a Gronkle, a bit lazy but nevertheless never to be underestimated on the battlefield.
The Gronkle maneuvered about the ring, flapping its wings like a hummingbird. All the young Viking teenagers dispersed about the ring, preparing to take combat of this flying mini-tanked creature.
"Today is all about survival against your opponent. If you get blasted, then you're dead." Gobber warned his students, as the Gronkle flew around angrily. "Quick!" he shouted, beginning his little quiz, "What's the first thing you're going to need?"
"A doctor?!" Hiccup suggested, not too sure about this exercise.
"Plus 5 speed?!" Fishlegs guessed, slowly starting to freak out now as he spoke in RPG lingo.
"Burn ointment?!" Syn guessed, feeling excited at this point, with the glint in her eye and the smirk on her face.
"A Shield!" Astrid said, all raring to go on this exercise.
"Shield! Go!" Gobber ordered, pointing out to a pile of shields, and the teenagers ran around to where the shields were. "The most important piece of equipment is your shield!" Gobber advised the students. Hiccup immediately tried to get one of the shields on, but fumbled about with it, until finally he sighed and let it drop, as Gobber walked over. "If you must make a choice between a sword and a shield," Gobber said while helping Hiccup lift his shield off the ground, "… take the shield!"
"It's okay, I brought my own," Hiccup insisted as he gave Gobber the shield back.
Hiccup turned to his glove, and then twisted the metal plate so that it pointed in the direction of his elbow. And then, he extended his arm out, and made a fist with his right hand. Suddenly, the blade extended out halfway, as it suddenly split in half. It extended until it reached to the fist side, creating a shield. On the back end, the sword blade stuck out, while in the front, two small blades were in front to where the fist was. Hiccup then pushed the shield a bit forward, making it so that it wasn't at his elbow, but now in the middle of his forearm.
As hiccup picked up the ax, Gobber rubbed his temple, muttering, "Oy, Hiccup," he then gestured to all of Hiccup as he stated, "Remember our talk?"
"I know, I know," Hiccup moaned in annoyance as he headed to where the others were, "I gotta stop being all this."
Meanwhile, as the other teens grabbed their shields, Tuffnut and Ruffnut ran to where the shields. Unfortunately, they both made it the habit to grab the one with skulls and fire painted on it. This caused the two to fight it out over possession of the shield as the two were now playing a game of tug-o-war.
"Take your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut yelled.
"There's like a million shields!" Ruffnut argued.
"Take that one; it has flowers on it. Girls like flowers." Tuffnut said, gesturing to a different shield. Ruffnut managed to get the shield out of Tuffnut's hands. And then she smacked him over the head with it. "Ahh!" Tuffnut yelled, feeling the sting from the blow on his noggin.
"Oops," Ruffnut innocently apologized, until her edge came back in her voice, "…now this one has blood on it."
Tuffnut grabbed the shield once again, and the twins both continued to fight pointlessly over the shield. The Gronkle, not having much patience in a siblings squabble, fired a shot of blazing flames that destroyed the shield Ruff and Tuff had been fighting over. The blast was powerful enough to send them both spinning in the air, until finally, they crashed face-first into the ground.
"Tuffnut! Ruffnut! You're out!" Gobber yelled.
"What?" They said, in a daze as they groggily got back up on their feet.
"Those shields are good for another thing. Noise," Gobber advised the teenagers as the Gronkle was hovering around, either planning to attack, or basically escape the coliseum dome. "Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim."
The remaining Viking teens began to hit their shields with their weapons, confusing the Gronkle. The Gronkle's vision became disoriented with every banging sound made. Now, the young Viking teens were nothing more than shaking blurs in its eyesight.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots," Gobber continued with the lesson, as he quizzed, "How many does a Gronkle have?"
"Five?" Guessed Snotlout.
"No, six!" Fishlegs yelled out, holding his shield up in the air, feeling glad that his knowledge was coming to good use.
"Correct, six!" Gobber said, "That's one for each of you!" However, as Gobber said this, the Gronkle took the opportunity, when its head was cleared up, and destroyed Fishlegs's shield, which he had been lifting into the air. When this happened, Fishlegs ran out of there with his hands raised in the air, screaming his head off in fear.
"Fishlegs… you're out!"
"Hiccup! Get in there!" Gobber yelled at Hiccup.
During the commotion, Hiccup had taken the opportunity to hide behind some wood left in the stadium. As Hiccup stepped away from the wood, he was almost blasted to pieces by the Gronkle. Hiccup, with having one advantage, was fast on his feet. It was from years, running away from the occasional bullies that picked on him. Now thankfully, it was being used to outrun the Gronkle's blasts.
Behind the safety of the armored bleachers, Unfer was sitting down, observing Gobber's teaching methods. Unfer saw this, with great interest as he stroked his beard, observing the students, but mostly Hiccup. A cocked eyebrow and a scrunched up mouth meant only one thing: Unfer was scheming something big… and it involved Hiccup.
The only ones left now, were him, Astrid, Syn, and Snotlout, who was standing close to Astrid. He was yet again trying to flirt with her, but was more focused on the training exercise once again.
"So yeah, I'm moving into my parent's basement," Snotlout flirted to Astrid, who clearly wasn't paying any attention to him. "You should come by some time to workout. You look like you workout." As Snotlout said that, Astrid cart wheeled/rolled to the side just as the Gronkle shot in her direction. Her movement left Snotlout exposed, and his shield was obliterated, as he was sent flying in the other direction.
"Snotlout! Yer done!" Gobber confirmed.
Syn, who stood there at this, completely went pouting in disappointment as she huffed, "Aw, man. I wanted to get blasted."
With a small battle 'Heeya!', Astrid rolled to the side, until she was now standing beside Hiccup. To Hiccup now, this was kinda an awkward moment; he and Astrid were now standing side by side. He really didn't know what to do at this point, even so much as to stop being in his clumsy battle stance.
"So I guess it's just you and me, huh?" He said, doing his best to sound cool, with an awkward half-smile on his face.
"Nope," Astrid said quickly. "Just you."
She ran out of the way, leaving Hiccup vulnerable and alone. Just at that moment, the Gronkle's fire collided with Hiccup's shield gauntlet, and with luck not blasting it to pieces, but instead sending it and him rolling across the arena.
"One shot left," Gobber pointed out while Hiccup was groaning as he righted himself.
Hiccup had rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, looking at his gauntlet with a smirk. The shield had not been damaged at all as he got back up, "Man… do I make a piece of equipment, or what?"
Groaning and cracking his neck, he slowly got back to his feet. However this wasn't the best of luck for him at this time. Now he only found himself cornered against the wall. And to make matters worse, the Gronkle was now advancing on him, with eyes only on him.
"Hiccup!" Gobber yelled out.
The Gronkle was just about to fire that shot that was sure to be Hiccup's doom. However, Hiccup snapped out of it at the last second, and slammed his shield into the wall, creating as much noise as possible. Once again, the Gronkle's vision was becoming disoriented; its vision of Hiccup became even more blurier due to the noise Hiccup made with his steel shield and the rock wall, the noise much closer to the dragon than before. When it least expected it, Gobber had run up in the nick of time, stuck his prosthetic hook hand, into the dragon's mouth, and was able to ensure to redirect the location of its fire.
"And that's six," Gobber said struggling with the dragon, "Go back to bed, you overgrown sausage!" He shot at it, as he secured it back into its cage. "You'll get another chance, don't you worry." He turned to his students, who were all out of breath, and as Unfer walked to them calmly. "Remember, a dragon will always," he turned to Hiccup, who was leaning on the wall, rubbing his right arm, "… always go for the kill."
Hiccup just stood up and looked at the smoldering hole in the stone wall that the dragon had made.
However, his train of thought was gone, as soon as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw it was Unfer once again, as the adult Viking nodded in approval, "A most endeavor training to you today, Hiccup."
"But I didn't do much of anything," Hiccup defended.
"Nonsense," Unfer defended the lad, pulling away as he gestured to the other Vikings, "You had both caution and opportunity to wait for the right moment. Noise was the key element in disorienting the Gronkle. Bringing it in that close and creating that much noise only made it more confused." He then looked to the other teen Vikings as he scoffed, "While others fought amongst each other, ran away when they lost their shield, waiting to get shot at, or merely flirting with others." And then he turned right into Astrid's direction, "… or simply dodging and doing nothing."
Astrid simply growled as she shot out, "At least we were all out here, and not hiding with our skirts between our legs!"
"Yeah, you tell him, Astrid," Snotlout shouted out, while Ruffnut and Tuffnut were high-fiving each other on a burn well done.
The thin Viking simply scoffed as he added more insult to injury to the girl as he pointed out, mocking a woman's hand gesture, "Ohm, well at least I practice my curtsy." And then turned his back to them all as he made his way out.
After that little comment, Astrid was fuming as she shouted at him, pointing her ax forward in his direction, "Don't you dare turn your back to me!"
Unfer stopped in his tracks, but only for a moment as he slowly turned to face her, and reply, "Oh no, Miss Jofferson," and then proceeded to walk out as he stated, "Perhaps you and your friends shouldn't turn your backs on me."
Just then, Astrid ran forward to catch up to him, and immediately got in front, brandishing her ax almost up to his neck. Then, with an angered sneer, Astrid shouted at him in question, "Is that a challenge!?!"
"Of course not, dear Astrid Jofferson," Unfer calmly defended, gently pushing away the ax as he looked Astrid in the eye. "I would never dream of facing any of you."
"And pray tell, why's that?" Gobber asked, cocking an eyebrow at all this. "It's usually a Viking's job to beat up on the kids. makes'em tough."
"When do they do that?" Hiccup asked, starting to worry about this class.
Turning towards Hiccup, who was now standing straight up again, and retracted his shield, Unfer answered, "Well, when it comes to brains, Hiccup and I were infinitely blessed with it," and then turned to Astrid, as he sneered in disgust, "But when it comes to brute strength…" his sneer disappeared as he simply shrugged and walked past Astrid, her eyes never leaving the target as he finished, "… I'm afraid the two of us were unfortunate to have been denied that while in the gene pool." And just walked away, leaving the other teens to leave, with only Gobber and Hiccup left behind.
As Gobber was done cleaning up, he muttered, "Ah, there's one in every village," he grumbled, referring to Unfer as he and Hiccup prepared to leave, "Unfortunately for us, we ended up with someone like Unfer."
"What'd you think my dad's gonna do with him?" Hiccup asked, just making conversation with a concerned face.
Gobber was quiet for a moment as he scratched his chin with the hook. Finally, he turned to Hiccup with a smirk as he joked, "Well… he'd make a pretty good throw rug."
"Gobber," Hiccup scolded in a fun tone, as Gobber was about to go his separate way.
"Well, just think, Hiccup," Gobber stated before he left, "Every time he'd get dirty, you or your dad could drag him out and beat him." Gobber just chuckled to himself as he left, leaving Hiccup behind to go out the gate.
However, as he began to leave the arena, he was lost in thought. When he finally became aware of what he was doing, he decided he needed to go find the Night Fury again. So, when no one was looking, Hiccup disappeared into the forests of Berk once again.
A Little While Later
Dragon Cages
While everyone had left, Unfer had come right back, walking into the arena. He then walked towards one of the cage doors, and went in to one of the human sized doors. The scrawny and devious looking Viking strode into a darkened way, with only a torch in his left hand. But as he entered deep into it, dragons like the Gronkle, the Nightmare, or others were slowly encircling him at this point. However, he didn't seem all that afraid of them, not one bit as he stopped in the center, calmly looking at the dragons surrounding him.
Unfer looked around him at all sides, just glancing to see the dragons snarling at him, hissing at his presence. "So… we're all here, eh?" he asked, not even caring that the dragons hissed and began to advance on him, "Good."
Just as the dragons got closer to him, their nostrils fuming with smoke and their teeth drooling in growls, Unfer still showed no fear. Then, as a show of him not fearing them, he lightly tapped the horn on the Monstrous Nightmare's nose.
When he did this, he simply replied, "Now, if you pardon my saying so," and then simply shrugged as he held in his right hand, some sort of rope in a spiral shape. "Are you all…" he stated as he unfurled the rope, which was actually now a whip, with metal sharp blades, causing the dragons to flinch in fear as he shouted, whipping the blade around on the ground and in the air around him, like a land-stranded eel, "STARK RAVING, TOTALLY BLINKING IDIOTIC!?!?!"
The dragons all flinched back in complete fear at him, as Unfer finally stated, in his usual calm demeanor, "I practically gift-wrap the village's lamb and cattle supply for you to take," and then he pulled his hair back as he sighed, "And you can't even dispose of one gangly Viking teenager." he sighed as he put the whip away, and turned to exit the cages, but not before he shot all the dragons a sharp glare, "Remember: I want the scrawny one they call Hiccup… dead."
Later On
In the Forest
Hiccup continued to go down the path in the forest, seeking out the Night Fury. 'A dragon will always go for the kill.' Gobber's words repeated in Hiccup's head, as he walked closer and closer to where the creature had crashed. There, Hiccup stood only a few inches to where the cut up bola ropes lay on the ground in front of him.
"So why didn't you?" He asked himself out loud, kneeling down and holding up the ropes that had once trapped the captured dragon.
Hiccup walked a little further into the forest, in the direction that the Night Fury flew away last time. It wasn't a hard task, considering the broken branches and paw prints. It seemed evident that the Night Fury must have been hurt. Otherwise, the dragon wouldn't have crashed so many times. He followed the trail until it led him to where the tracks and broken branches ended at.
Hiccup now was at the end of the trail, or so he thought it was. He stepped between two large rocks, and behind them laid a small canyon. It was surrounded by tall rock walls, much like the ones in the training arena. It was full of lush, green plants, the sun was shining into it, and there were birds fluttering about inside it. Even in the canyon, was a small lake in it, either used for swimming or drinking in. in some aspect, it was like a small private paradise for anyone who wanted to get away… or to hide in.
Hiccup took a look into the canyon, a bit disappointed that he didn't find the dragon. "Well this was stupid," he muttered to himself. "It's probably long gone by…"
And just as he was about to leave, he looked down to his left and saw small black scales. He picked one up to get a better look at it. There was no mistaking anything about it; the scales that he held in his hand were identical to the Night Fury's scales. As he knelt down, a large, black figure swept by right in front of him. He jumped back a bit, but regained his footing as he looked to see what it was. It was the Night Fury, and it looked like it was trying to climb out of the canyon, but the rocks were too smooth for its claws to grab on to.
The dragon glided down and across the small lake that was centered in the canyon. It landed by a tree that was on the opposite end of the canyon from Hiccup. Summing up enough courage to do this, Hiccup jumped down to a rock ledge so he could get a better look at the dragon, as it tried once again to fly out again.
As the Night Fury attempted to escape the canyon, Hiccup decided not to waste an opportunity like this. Hiccup pulled out his pocket book from his side pouch, as he watched the dragon fail two more times to escape, flying around crookedly and always crashing flat on his belly. He drew the basic shape of the dragon: It was long with large wings, small fins right behind its wings, and two tail fins.
"I don't get it," Hiccup asked out-loud, "Why don't you just fly away?" It was only when he looked for a while at the dragon, did he take notice of it. He took a closer look at the dragon, and as he looked, he noticed that one of the tail fins was gone.
Hiccup looked at the picture he drew in his pocket book, and erased the left tail fin.
The Night Fury tried to fly out once more, only to crash by the lake. Just at that moment, a fish jumped out of the water, catching the Night Fury's attention. The dragon walked to the edge and peered in, anxiously looking for a meal. immediately, the dragon dove into the lake to catch one; the dragon's head came out of the water empty.
After watching the poor dragon come out empty handed, Hiccup felt bad for doing this to the dragon. He set down his charcoal pencil, but it rolled off the rock he was sitting on, landing in the canyon and giving away his cover.
The Night Fury looked up at Hiccup, its green eyes full of suspicion. Hiccup froze and stared back at the dragon, which cocked its head and made low grumbling noises. The two just stared at each other, forgetting that they were enemies, just trying to figure out one another. It was almost as if both Hiccup and the Night Fury were curious about one another; as if they were kindred spirits.
Later that Day
Back in Berk
Berk Council Building
When Hiccup got back to the village it was raining heavily. When he finally got to the Berk Council building, he was already soaked from head to toe, and his normally auburn hair looked dark brown. He went to the same large stone building as to where Stoick had held his meeting over finding the Dragon's Nest. When he had entered, he found the rest of the class were eating dinner there since everyone's parents were with the chief, looking for the said Nest. As he opened the door, Hiccup could hear the conversation inside.
"Alright, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber asked his students.
"I miss timed my somersault dive," Astrid said, "It was sloppy; it threw off my reverse tumble."
"Yeah, we noticed." commented Ruffnut.
"No no, you were great. That was so you, Astrid." Snotlout tried to defend Astrid, and yet, like always, failed miserably.
"She's right," said Gobber as Hiccup walked up to the table. He was attempting to sit down in a spot, until Snotlout took his spot, preventing him from even finding a place to sit down. "You have to be tough on yourselves." Sighing in defeat, Hiccup grabbed his plate of food and walked to a table where he would sit. Alone. "Now…" Gobber asked, pointing to Hiccup at this moment, "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"
Ruffnut was quick to answer. "Uh, he showed up."
Tuffnut chuckled as he fiddled and played with his dagger. "He didn't get eaten."
"He was born," Snotlout shot out.
"He dropped his ax," Syn pointed out, not sounding like she was poking fun at all at him.
"He's never where he should be." Astrid said venomously, looking at him with a scolding look in her eyes.
"Thank you, Astrid." Said Gobber. "You need to live and breathe this stuff. The Dragon Manuel," Gobber stated as he held up an old book, "Everything we know about every dragon we know of." He placed the book on the table where most of the class was sitting.
Thunder rolled through the sky and Gobber began to walk toward the two giant doors "No attacks tonight. Hurry up."
"Wait," Tuffnut asked in surprised shock, while dropping his knife, "… you mean, read?"
"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut added.
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout said stupidly.
"Oh yeah, that made perfect sense," Syn replied sarcastically.
"Oh!" Said Fishlegs, excited, "I've read it like seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And… and there's this other one that buries itself for like a… "
Tuffnut cut him off, seemingly not interested at all, but more annoyed, "Yeah that sounds great. Now, there was a chance I was gonna read that…"
"… But, now?" Ruffnut finished.
Snotlout stood up, "You guys read… I'm gonna go workout, and go kill stuff." And with that, everyone, except Astrid, stood up and began to leave the room.
The two just sat there, not even speaking much of anything to each other. None of them barely even started to ring up a conversation at this time. Astrid barely even noticed Hiccup in the room at all, either that or she just didn't care to speak to him. But he decided now would probably be the best time to break the ice.
Hiccup got up and walked over to Astrid. "So-so I guess we'll share?" he pointed to the book as he let out an unconfident half-smirk.
"Read it," Astrid sharply and curtly replied, pushing the book towards him, and started walking towards the door.
"Uh, all mine then, wow," Hiccup replied, sounding a bit disappointed, but did his best to hide it, "So, uh, OK, I-I'll see you, uh…" The door slammed as Astrid left, "… tomorrow." Hiccup finished with a sigh, completely alone in the room. Unwanted, not needed, not even noticed by anyone.
Next Chapter: Know Your Dragon; A Forbidden Bond