Chapter 4

It was two months after I arrived. I still never fired my gun, or lay a hand on Toothless. A normal day usually consisted of going to the forge to watch Hiccup make some new saddles, going to the former 'Kill Ring' to train new dragon riders, or watching Hiccup and Toothless fly around a bit (I'm still not interested in a dragon). This particular day was anything but normal. It was the day Hiccup decided he wanted to go camping.

Toothless had always been the first awake. Probably because he wanted to protect Hiccup. After the first month, the idea of Toothless being awake before me didn't cross my mind. I trusted him not to eat me, but nothing more than that. What do you expect, he shot a fireball at me when we first met. Toothless had countless times offered me fish. I guess it was some sort of piece offering, but I wasn't a fan of fish, especially raw. Toothless wasn't the only one to try and be generous. Hiccup had offered me to fly on Toothless, but I have no need to, and its dangerous. My main goal now is to survive. It's technically been my goal from the start. Another thing I'd like to mention, is that Toothless hadn't growled at me since that first day. I can tell he trusted me more than I trusted him. Maybe it had to do something with being Hiccups secondary protector.

Hiccup woke up about an hour after I did. Toothless gave him a 'good morning' nudge in the face before helping him get out of his bed. Hiccup then looked at me with a grin on his face. This was unusual.

"What are you so happy about" I asked

"Oh nothing, just that I decided last night I needed a break from all the craziness of the village. I'm going to go camping." He said cheerfully. I was not supportive of this.

"Not a good idea, you can get hurt out there. Some times you have realize your not invincible just because you have Toothless following you." I tried to convince him.

"You make things too complicated, I'm not leaving Berk. I'm just going camping one day on the other side of the Island." He replied, not convinced by my reasoning.

"And nothing is going to stop you?" I asked him, wanting to know if this was an argument worth fighting for. I realized after living here for a while, Vikings are incredibly stubborn.

"Nope, I'm not even flying on Toothless to get there. I'm walking the whole way, I need practice using the new adjustments on my fake leg." He replied.

"Well, I'm coming with you." I said while grabbing my rifle and standing up.

"Why?" He snapped back.

"Because I'm not just going to sit here and let you get your self be killed by something in the forest." I told him firmly.

"What could possibly be out there?" Hiccup asked

"Are you forgetting there are dragons in the wild" I answered him sternly

"Fine, but I don't want you nagging me about everything potentially dangerous we come across." He whined. I just rolled my eyes and went downstairs for breakfast. Nothing special, just bread. Hiccup packed some sleeping gear and food and headed out, with Toothless and I following. The walk took a couple of hours. We didn't talk much, just when I was helping Hiccup do something like jump walk across a river, or climb a large rock. I think Hiccup was happy I came in the end. He adapted pretty well to the adjustments on his prosthetic. Toothless caught Hiccup with his head every time he tripped, which happened a lot.

When we reached where we would sleep for the night, which was a cliffside coasting the ocean, something was strange. There where no other animals around. We also recently passed a tree that was cut down from half way up, clean through the trunk. I moved the thought to the back of my head and helped Hiccup set up the camp. A fire was generously made by Toothless, and Hiccup finished making a tent like structure to sleep in. That night when we had everything set up and ready, we decided we should eat. Unfortunately, someone got hungry on the way there.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled while looking into the empty basket that should have food in it. His dragon whined and walked over to Hiccup with his head down, he knew what he did.

"We need that food to live Toothless, why would you… ugh" Hiccup didn't find any reason in explaining to his dragon.

"Well, since we don't have food, I guess me and Toothless are going to find some by the river we passed earlier" Hiccup explained to me. It was only about a five minute walk, and Toothless was there, how much trouble could he get in. If anything really bad happened I could run there in one minute.

"Alright, don't kill yourself." I said as Toothless and Hiccup walked off into the forest. I was sitting near the fire, warming my hands.

About ten minutes after Hiccup and Toothless left to get food, there was an ear piercing screech that sounded close, too close. I grabbed my rifle and flicked on the flashlight. I scanned the area for any movement that was not leaves in the trees. It then became quiet. The rusteling of the leaves stopped. I knew it was only seconds before something happened, but I never expected this. The two trees I happened to be looking at, opposite of the Cliffside, were sliced clean through the middle, by a dragon that had to have had a wingspan of at least 50 feet. It had a long neck and tail. I didn't exactly have time to stare at it. It was not friendly AT ALL. Dodging the falling trees made me momentarily lose my attention on the dragon, who was now coming in to land behind me. I tried to lift my gun to aim at it but it was too late. It landed with such force it sent a shockwave across the ground. As it landed it swung one if its massive wings at me, which was so close it made a 'SHING' sound as it cut through the leather strap from my gun. The shockwave from the landing knocked me off my feet and I lost my grip on my rifle. It landed several feet away, but my instincts kicked in as I grabbed my pistol, pulled back the slide, and aimed it up to fire. I was too late again, the dragon swung its other wing down at me which hit the suppressor at the end of my pistol, bending it ninety degrees blocking the end of the barrel. The dragon was recovering from the last attack, and I unscrewed the suppressor from the end of the barrel faster than I have ever done in my life. The dragon was about to swing again, but I had it this time. I was aimed, safety off, and fired. BANG BANG BANG BANG. I fired four shots too what I thought was it's chest, because it's head was swinging in all directions. The dragon was stunned by the blow of the gun, and halted it's attack. It then let out an ear piercing roar. I knew this dragon was getting really pissed, so I fired two more times to try and kill it. BANG BANG. The bullets stunned the dragon mid roar, but it was still standing. I wanted this thing dead NOW. It's neck had slowed it's erratic movement significantly, and I took that to my advantage. I fired five shots at it's neck. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. It fell over in slow motion. It's entire body fell foreword followed by it's neck which violently slammed into the ground. It's head laid only feet in front of me. It was making grumbling and gurgling noises out of it's mouth. It was still alive. It was bleeding out of the mouth. I walked up to it cutting the distance between us in half. I took aim the top of it's head, held my breath, and fired the last bullet in the magazine. BANG. The head moved about an inch or two from the stopping power of the bullet. It made a few last gurgling noises before finally becoming silent. It was complete silence except for my own heavy breathing from the encounter. Whatever this abomination was that tried to kill me, was dead, and that's all that mattered. I heard Hiccup and Toothless come flying in from behind, I turned around to see them.

"What in Odin's name was that!" Hiccup yelled, terrified by what he just saw.

"You tell me! This was exactly the reason why I didn't want to come out here!" I yelled back, angry at his ignorance.

"It was a freak'in Timberjack! And the only encounters I have heard of are ones of people dying. Even after the dragon war ended they sound like they still despised humans." Hiccup explained trying to stay as calm as possible.

"Well as long as your fine and I'm fi-" I was cut off by Toothless who was whimpering in concern.

"What!" I yelled at him, trying to understand what HE was concerned about, I was the one that just got attacked. I soon found out when I felt a mind numbing pain strike right under my left shoulder. I grabbed it in agony, holding in any temptation to scream.

"Alex what's wrong!" Hiccup yelled in concern while running over to aid me. I removed my hand to find it was covered in blood, I looked back at where the pain was coming from to find a deep cut under my left shoulder. There was a lot of blood.

"Shit! You gotta be kidding me!" I yelled in disbelief. I had no first aid equipment, and it was a long walk back to the village. I did the best I could to stop the bleeding by taking my knife and cutting some fabric from my pant leg, tied on by the now broken leather strap for my gun. It was doing an okay job but it still needed additional medical attention.

"Will that make it better?" Hiccup asked helplessly. He didn't know what to do.

"For a short time, but eventually the bleeding will seep through the cloth. Do you have any extra clothing or cloth material?" I asked him calmly, trying to keep the situation under control.

"No I don't, I only brought the cloths I have on now." Hiccup replied, more worried than before.

"Well, I need to get back to the village then, but it would take too long if I walk-" I was interrupted by Hiccup's excited voice, who sparked an idea.

"You can ride Toothless, it will take nearly minutes to get there!" Hiccup said, proud of his idea. I leaned against one of the trees the Timberjack had cut down and thought about this matter carefully for a minute.

"Well!" Hiccup asked, anxious to help me.

"Fine, but only because if I'll die if I don't." I responded, angry at the situation I was stuck in. I was going to take one big 'leap of faith'. I had never touched the creature before and now I was going to ride it. I grabbed my rifle, placed the pistol in my holster, and hopped on to Toothless with caution. I was wary of every move I made. I was then on the saddle behind Hiccup.

"So what do I hold on to?" I asked

"Right now the only thing to hold on to is me." Hiccup replied, and it was true. I held on to Hiccup's shoulder using my good arm, and we took off. Taking off was the worst part of the whole thing. The force happened so quickly, Toothless almost flew out from underneath me. Once we where in the air it was silence, only filled by the faint rushing of wind. It was peaceful, and I might have enjoyed it more if I wasn't dieing. The flight did only take a few minutes, and when we landed at Hiccup's house, Stoick was surprised.

"Hiccup! What are you doing back so early?" Stoick asked, not expecting the early arrival.

"Dad! Get the healer. Alex was attacked by a Timberjack." Hiccup ordered his dad as he rushed up to his room with Toothless and I following. Hiccup told me to lay on his bed. It was a little small but it worked for now.

"You stay here, I'll go tell the healer what happened." Hiccup said, and ran downstairs, but Toothless didn't follow him. He sat down, staring at me.

"Aren't you going to go with Hiccup?" I asked him while resting my head on the wool pillow. Toothless shook his head 'no' and continued to stare at me. I sighed and closed my eyes for a second, which burned from the lack of blinking in the past few minutes. Toothless whined and moved a little bit closer to smell my wound from a couple inches away.

"I'll be fine." I explained, which calmed him down. He walked in a circle and then laid down, curling up next to the bed. A few minutes later Hiccup and the healer came up the stairs.

"-then he removed his hand and there was blood all over it." Hiccup explained to the healer as they came up the stairs.

"Alright, let's see what kind of wound we are dealing with here." The healer said, removing the improvised bandage. I cringed at the pain as it was removed.

"Hmm, it's pretty deep, we may have to sterilize it first, Hiccup get some clean water." Hiccup ran down the stairs to do so.

"How did someone as careful as you end up fighting a Timber jack?" The healer asked. I was known around the village as a very cautious person.

"It was Hiccup's idea to go camping, and if I didn't go that Timberjack would've killed him." I explained to the healer. Hiccup came running up with a bucket of water. The healer took a clean cloth, soaked it in water and cleaned the wound.

"Will he be ok?" Hiccup asked

"He'll be fine as soon as I get the bandage on." The healer replied. He applied the bandage, which limited my mobility to my left arm. This would be a problem when I have to aim my rifle.

"It should be fully healed in a few weeks." The healer assured standing up and leaving the room. Hiccup sat up against Toothless who was still curled up next to the bed.

"How did you kill it?" Hiccup asked. I sighed, and prepared for the many questions to come.

"I shot my gun at it." I replied

"Is that what made those really loud noises, and those flashes of light?" Hiccup asked

"Well, it wouldn't have done those things if it still had the suppressor ." I told Hiccup

"The what?" He asked me, confused.

"The black cylinder at the end of the gun." I explained.

"But it's still there." said Hiccup, pointing at my rifle leaning against the bed.

"No, my other gun." I said while pulling out the handgun from my holster and showing him.

"Oh" he responded. We where silent for a while, we ate dinner in his room. When we finished Hiccup had one more questions.

"Alex?" He asked

"Yes Hiccup?" I asked him back

"Can you teach me how to fight with my knife?" asked Hiccup.

"I guess, I have to have this heal a bit first." I responded, gesturing to the wound.

"Thanks, it's just I feel I need to learn to defend myself somehow." He explained

"I was thinking the same thing." I told him. We then got set for sleep and I remained on Hiccup's bed. Hiccup slept under Toothless' wing. It was a long night with me and my throbbing shoulder. I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if the Roman army invaded before it could fully heal. Hopefully I could put some training into Hiccup before that happened.


Next chapter is from Toothless' point of view, Fun!

And don't worry guys we're close to the roman invasion. Infact, the chapter after next chapter is the invasion, and this time Alex will have stealth on his side.

Don't forget to review. I am writing a Toothless point of view chapter because somone suggested it. I will probably make some one-shots when I'm done with this story to fill in some blanks of the missing months. So give me your ideas (except having Alex ride a dragon).

See ya next time!