Aroth was unmistakably bored. It squawked and howled, allowing it's massive claws to scratch into the dirt. Hiccup saw this and said skeptically, "Come on, I'm sure you want to join the others." When I gave him a brisk nod of the head, the boy turned. His reddish hair flipped over his eye as he bent down to pick up two halves of a fish. With his pale hand, he pushed the hair out of his eyes and turned back to me. He stood up straight and tossed me a slimy, silver fish. I was pretty grossed out, seeing that it's slime was getting all over my hands.
Hiccup informed me that I had to hold the fish out to my Deadly Nadder. He showed me by using the other half of the fish to lure his Night Fury. I watched him hold the fish out a fair distance out from him, his arm outstretched, as he slowly walked backwards. "You coming?" He asked in a bored-out-of-my-mind tone, continuing to stumble backwards. He headed straight towards one of the doors that used to hold a dragon. I turned towards my dragon and copied Hiccup's movements. I reached out the hand that held the fish towards Aroth, who was interested in it's cold, disgusting half.
I began to walk backwards, somewhat surprised to see that my Nadder was following. Inch by inch, I slowly fell into the darkness of the dragon cage. I was afraid that Aroth would tear me to shreds in the darkness, but he didn't. He just continued following me like a good dragon. I grinned in the darkness, my eyes locked on the outline of Aroth's powerful hindlegs.
Eventually, I made it to the end of the dragon cage. There was a gate protecting the other end, but that was left wide open. I walked right through, continuing to walk backwards. Being as clumsy as I am, I ran straight into Hiccup. Toothless, who was eyeing me, let out a low growl. I gave the blue-black dragon a quick glance as I pulled away from Hiccup. He was standing still, fish still in his hands. "Alright," he grunted as if nothing had happened, "You can give the fish to Aroth now." His eyes looked towards Toothless, who's mouth was open to reveal his sharp teeth. He tossed the fish straight into the Night Fury's open mouth.
I watched Toothless devour the half fish in one large chomp before I looked up at my eager Deadly Nadder. It was staring at me through one of it's eyes, it's head turned to one side. He was so close that I could feel the warmth of his scales. I shivered and nervously held the fish out to him. He opened his mouth wide and tore the fish from my grasp. It shook the fish from side to side with it's large head before he swallowed it.
Hiccup put his hands on his hips, observing Aroth. He nodded to himself and turned away once again. He began to walk away from the Dragon Arena as he called, "Your dragon should be able to follow us for the rest of the walk now. Come on, make haste, Frida!" Toothless stared at me through his large, soft eyes before he bounded after his rider.
Aroth was watching the Night Fury run akwardly and looked at me. It snorted excitedly, wanting to follow. I grinned a toothy grin at it and ran after the two who were walking on a marked path. The Nadder managed to follow me like Hiccup had said, even if he did get distracted every so often.
The four of us walked. And walked. And walked some more. Once we were away from the Dragon Arena, we were walking along the fieldy outskirts of the village. The field was rather pretty and hilly, with it's long grass and little flowers that weren't going to be there much longer. And after the field, we were walking on a rough, bricked bridge that lead into the forest. The bridge connected the main island of Berk to a lesser island that was mostly forest. The bridge was grey-ish in color and it looked as if nobody had been walking on it in years. The light click, click, clicking of Toothless and Aroth's nails lightly tapped away as we walked across the bridge.
The bridge, I swear, was about half of a mile. It was quite boring after the first few paces of walking on it, much less interesting than the field near the village. After crossing the bridge, our little group managed to fall into the darkness of the old forest. The forest was pretty too and it's old trees sang in the breeze. Their protective branches blocked out the blue sky and clouds, but nobody seemed to really notice.
"Alright," Hiccup said shyly as he slowed to a stop, "This is the tricky part." He looked over his shoulder to reassure himself that my Deadly Nadder and I were still following. Toothless too stopped, his black tail wagging as his large paw played with a large fern. "There's a lot of rocks and roots that stick out around these parts, so make sure you and your dragon are very careful. There's a steep decline coming up, but you don't need to worry about your Nadder falling."
I nodded. Deadly Nadders were very, very careful on their feet. They wouldn't let themselves fall. I was sure of it. Hiccup continued forward until we reached the drop-off. His feet curled around the edges of the drop and looked at Toothless. "Frida," he snapped. When I looked up, he said in a low tone, "Toothless and I are going to fly to the bottom. It's too steep for a Night Fury." He mounted himself straight onto his dragon's leather saddle and sailed down to the bottom.
I walked up to the edge, Aroth putting himself straight beside me. I looked up at him and sighed, "Ready?" In response, he chirpped an odd, bird-like chirp as he and I began our descent. I could tell that Chomper, Viper, and Firroth had been here, seeing that there were dragon grooves in the mud on the hill. I could tell that a couple of them had fallen too, there were scales and rubbings around everywhere, too. I gulped nervously, letting my pale fingers latch onto smaller trees that were around me.
Aroth and I were doing pretty good until my clumsiness got the better of me. My right foot hit a rock that was hidden among the slippery mud. Being caught off guard, I lost my balance. I was sent tumbling head first, my body rolling about three times. When I stopped tumbling, I managed to end up in one of those animal tracks, which was filled with water and mud. "No!" I squealed as I rushed down the flodded animal tracks, getting my finest fur coat and boots soaked through with water and mud.
My blue and orange Deadly Nadder saw me and thought that this would be a good idea too. It roared with delight as he suddenly stopped making his way down the hill. He bent his knees and sat down on his bottom. The mud underneath him managed to allow him to slide down the rest of the way.
I stopped sliding at the feet of Toothless. His large, black head turned to look at me with his startled, slitted eyes. But when he saw who it was, his eyes stopped looking like a cat's and formed to look more playful. It nudged me with his nose. My face had several dark mud stains on it, my brown hair caked with it, too. Instead of being pissed like a normal person would be, I just laughed. I don't know why, but I just did.
Hiccup turned towards me, too. He chuckled before he found Aroth sliding down the hill. He laughed even harder. Toothless looked between his rider and I, his expression confused. But, he quickly caught on. He laughed a dragon-y laugh, too. Aroth made the needles stick out on his tail when he neared the bottom, slowing him to a stop near us. He jumped to his feet and stomped to our little group. His golden eyes proved that he was happy.
When we all stopped laughing, I stood up. Hiccup was still smiling as he said, "Well. That was interesting." He turned towards the large boulders that were a few feet infront of us. He cleared his throat and let his smile fade. He pointed to the boulders. "Our training grounds are just beyond those rocks. There's a small crack in the rocks towards the middle that you can use after today, but now we have to get our dragons over that hill."
He looked back at me. "Neither Deadly Nadders nor Night Furies are able to climb something like that, not even with their sharp nails. So, are you prepared to fly?" I stared at Hiccup with wide eyes, "What?" "Come on," he sighed in reply and hopped back onto Toothless. He patted the small sliver of saddle behind him as he clipped the elastic that connected him and the saddle. I climbed onto Toothless and took a deep breath, looking at Aroth.
"Alright, Toothless," The chief beamed. And at that, Toothless took off. The ride was only for a few moments, but it was frightening. I kept on feeling like I was going to fall off. Luckily, I didn't have to do it a second time. My Nadder followed me like a puppy. Toothless landed messily and Hiccup unhooked himself from the saddle. He climbed off and helped me off by holding out a hand.
We were inside of the training grounds. I looked around the little enclosement, amazed to find that there was a small lake in the middle of it. Chomper, Viper, Firroth, and all of their owners were playing around with their dragons on the other side. They saw Hiccup and I, waving like idiots. I grinned and waved back at them, running around the small lake to join them.
When I got there, I was out of breath. Anton was staring at my Deadly Nadder, his Monstrous Nightmare close by his side. "Nice dragon," he exclaimed and looked away, back towards his own dragon. He patted it's large, orange nose. "Thanks," I grinned, "You too." Christian was sitting in the corner of the training area with his Zippleback, Viper. He looked rather proud of himself for his dragon, seeing that he was smiling from ear to ear. With a person like Christian, a smile was very uncommon. Upon seeing Hiccup, Kristin was blushing. I laughed at her and playfully picked up a little pebble, flinging it straight at her head. "Wake up, dreamer girl," I teased. She glared at me, her hands on her hips. "I can't help it," she defended, "Hiccup is H-O-T." I shrugged, I suppose he was, but he was the chief of the village. With us being two, unknown village girls, we barely stood a chance.
Hiccup managed to limp towards our little group, Toothless not too far behind. He had a smile plastered on his face, "Welcome to our training arena," he announced, "You will be training here with me from now on. We will meet here everyday just as the sun rises and we will leave at sundown." He paused. "Because it is not sundown yet, we will begin our training today." Anton, Kristen, and even Christian who had come to join us, and I all smiled. We couldn't wait to begin.