Chapter 3: Runts Weren't Meant to Wield a Spear

"Alright. Now just throw it."

"I can't even swing it."

"Try."

"I am."

"Oh."

"C'mon, Hiccup," Astrid said. "Be serious. Think about someone who really pisses you off. Then throw it, imagining that person's face on the barrel, alright?"

Hiccup glared at her. "I'm starting to see where you get your anger issues."

"Look, do you want to do it or not?"

Hiccup threw the axe as hard as he could and it landed just shy of the barrel.

"Oh, bummer," Snotlout cackled.

Hiccup turned to him with a 'shut-up-now' type look. Then he looked back at Astrid. "Like I said, axe throwing isn't for me."

"Well, that was just your first try."

"Astrid, I mean it."

"Fine," She raised her hands in surrender. "Let's think of something else for you, then, huh?"

The other dragons were busy watching this all with evident amazement.

"How about getting his face shoved in the ocean?" Snotlout suggested.

"No," Hiccup told him.

"Aw, c'mon…"

And so began the adventure to toughen up Hiccup.

"Now, a mace you want to be careful with," Snotlout warned. "It's incredibly heavy."

"You think I don't know that?" Hiccup groaned.

"You're not even holding it. It's on the floor, at your feet."

"I am holding it."

Snotlout realized that was Hiccup's knuckles that were dragging the ground. "Oh."

"Let's just get this over with," Ruffnut groaned.

"I'm hungry," Tuffnut said.

"I can't look," Fishlegs moaned.

"I can," Snotlout said.

Hiccup swung the mace, nearly clocked Snotlout, and ended up stirring up dust as it landed a foot away.

Snotlout howled with laughter. "Oh, all fear Hiccup, who's so weak he can't even throw a mace!"

Hiccup turned on him angrily. "I didn't ask for this."

"You did ask for help."

"Not like this!"

"Are you complaining about free labor, Hiccup?"

"No!" Hiccup said. "Like Fishlegs said to Gobber, I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods."

Snotlout grinned.

"Alright, Hiccup. C'mon. It's just a sack."

"And I suppose this is just a thousand-pound spear?"

"Think of Alvin the Treacherous."

"Why would I do that?"

"To get you good and pissed. Get some Viking anger running through your veins."

Hiccup sighed. "Thinking of Alvin doesn't help."

"It doesn't make you want to kill something?" asked a surprised Tuffnut.

Hiccup picked up the spear and lobbed it at the sack, and somehow, he did a feminine twirl as he threw it and it ended up, not in the sack, but behind him, embedded in the wall.

He turned flame red and yanked it out again.

"Nice," Snotlout giggled. "Very Viking-esque."

He was quickly silenced by a punch in the gut from Astrid.

"Okay…so clearly runts weren't meant to wield a spear."

A/N: I'm thinking of titling the chapters from now on. I really love this chap. It gets the story moving and keeps everybody in character. (I think). I'd like to think everybody else enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!