Sorry that I'm taking so long to post chapters now, but there's been a lot going on. Anyway, thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy Chapter 4 of Remember, Hiccup! I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or any of its characters.
"So, where are we going again?" Hiccup asked the group of teens ahead of him as he rubbed his eye sleepily with his fist. He had gotten a rude awakening from his father that morning and it didn't help that he had only started to doze off an hour before his father had woken him. The reason for his restless night, was primarily the Night Fury everyone called Toothless. For that night, a couple minutes after his father had put him to bed, he had heard noises downstairs. As he silently tiptoed down the creaky stairs to find the source of the noise, he had caught his father trying to sneak the dragon in who, after being caught, told Toothless to sleep outside. Hiccup though was still worried that the dragon would find its way in and make a meal out of him and had spent his entire night wide awake, jumping at every noise he had heard.
Astrid then looked back with a smile on her face before answering Hiccup's question eagerly, "It's a surprise!"
"Oh, well it better not have anything to do with dragons" Hiccup said nervously. When he had awoken that morning, not only had he had a close encounter with the dragon Toothless, but he had nearly had a panic attack when he saw dragons roaming free around the village.
"It's okay son," Stoick had reassured him when he saw his son's pale, worried face, "Just stick with the group." And that's exactly what Hiccup did.
"Oh no, of course not" Astrid told him, but nervously averted her eyes from Hiccup's. The place they were going had everything to do with dragons.
That wasn't the only thing the teens knew that Hiccup didn't, though. For following them was Hookfang, Meatlug, Stormfly, Barf and Belch, and Toothless. Toothless had been instructed early that morning to lead the group of dragons as they followed the teens to the Dragon Training Academy. But he had to make sure that none of them were seen by Hiccup until all the teens were at the academy. There were many close calls, one of which happened when Hookfang nearly ran out into the open to chase a bird, again, and another was when Barf and Belch started to fight. The two heads could never agree with each other, just like their riders.
Toothless kept a close eye on the other dragons though, and so far everything was going according to plan. But as he walked along, still aware of the dragons, he still mourned the fact that Hiccup was afraid of him. He had had a rough night sleeping without the comforting sound of Hiccup's shallow breathing while he slept. And in the morning when Hiccup had walked outside, Toothless had tried to greet him 'Good Morning' only to find that Hiccup was still afraid of him. Crooning sadly, he hoped that Stoick's, or the other teens ideas, helped bring Hiccup's memory back.
The dragons then continued to pad along, following the teens in secrecy, until they were at the entrance to the Dragon Training Academy.
"'Berk Dragon Training Academy' Wait? What!" Hiccup exclaimed as he read the sign above the entrance, which had a picture of Toothless on it. "Y-you said this had nothing to do with dragons!" Hiccup stammered as he looked at the group of teens, mostly at Astrid, who gave him a sorry look.
"Yeah well, we knew you wouldn't have come with us if we had told you where we were going" Snotlout replied, unfazed by Hiccup's fearful, shocked face.
"Well now that I know where we are going, I'm going to head back home. Good Day to you all" Hiccup told them as he turned around and waved a hand only to see the group of dragons staring back at him. "Ahhh!" Hiccup screamed when he saw the dragons, and ran away in fear straight into the academy. When Hiccup realized where he was it was too late, the entrance was already blocked by both dragons and riders. "Please, just let me out!" Hiccup begged them keeping a cautious eye on the dragons roaming around the academy.
"No way, Hiccup. We're going to get your memories back!" Tuffnut said as he threw a fist in the air which his sister imitated as she said, "Yeah!"
Hiccup then moaned in both fear and defeat, clearly there was no way in getting out of this. But then, someone grabbed his arm and Hiccup looked to find Astrid staring at him.
"Hiccup," she began, "the dragons are nothing to be afraid of. Trust us, trust them." She then pointed to the dragons, once again in a group, looking expectantly at Hiccup with wide eyes. "After all," she continued, "You always say that when training a dragon it all begins with trust."
"I do?" Hiccup asked, confused.
"Uh, well, you did. But for now let's train some dragons!" Astrid told him, playfully punching him in the shoulder.
"O-Ok, I guess I could try" Hiccup said warily as he rubbed his shoulder, not believing the words had actually come out of his mouth. Then, to Hiccup's amazement, a small spark of confidence ignited in his chest.
The teens and dragons then cheered, which made Hiccup jump because together the dragons' roars were so loud. Maybe the Hiccup they knew was finally coming around.
The training then began with Astrid's own dragon Stormfly, since Hiccup was still wary of Toothless, who stared back at him anxiously.
"Okay," she said guiding Hiccup toward Stormfly's spike covered tail, "Slowly approach her and rub her tail spikes down, she loves it!"
Hiccup then gulped, looking at the massive spikes that could easily impale him before asking Astrid, "Are you sure this is good idea?"
"Trust me, the best way to approach a Deadly Nadder is from behind. Now go on!" she replied, waving him enthusiastically on.
Hiccup then carefully moved on, aware that the dragon was now looking at him, interested. He had the urge to run away from the creature, say he at least tried, but then shook the thought out of his head. He might as well get this over with.
"Try complimenting her! Appeal to her vanity!" Astrid then yelled to him helpfully from the sidelines.
Hiccup rubbed his neck, thoughtfully, what could he possibly say to please a dragon? Then suddenly, he thought of the perfect compliment. With a smile, he then told Stormfly, "You certainly have very pretty scales."
Stormfly then fluttered her eyes bashfully, she fell for compliments quite easily, even the simplest ones.
Hiccup then shuffled his feet and looked down at the ground, feeling stupid for complimenting a dragon, but moved on toward her tail spikes anyway which were only a few feet away now. He soon was upon them. And as he raised his shaking hand cautiously, he looked back at Astrid who was encouragingly making rubbing motions with her hands. Hiccup then looked back at the spikes, and taking a deep breath, put his hand on them and began stroking them. They were surprisingly smooth and Hiccup soon found himself getting used to, and even enjoying, their touch as they slowly started to lay down against Stormfly's blue and yellow tail.
"Wow, I did it!" Hiccup exclaimed, surprised, looking at Stormfly's now smooth tail. He felt pride swell up in his chest. Maybe, the dragons really weren't that scary at all.
"Great job, Hiccup! Now you can do the rest of the dragons!" Astrid said happily as Hiccup nodded, ready for the next dragon, maybe even the Night Fury.
The rest of the training went by smoothly, Hiccup made Meatlug roll over and successfully gave Barf and Belch the exact same amount of attention. But then they got to Hookfang.
"You better not mess this up, Snotlout!" Astrid whispered threateningly to the boy, who seemed not to have a care if he did or didn't. For she knew that one mistake, could put them back at square one.
"Don't tell that to me, tell that to him!" he scoffed as he pointed at Hookfang, who seemed extraordinarily calm at the moment.
"Yeah, but you're in charge of him!"
"I'm not the boss of him, he does whatever he wants!"
Astrid, tired of bickering with the boy, punched him in the shoulder before yelling after him as he went to the center of the academy, "No mistakes!"
"No mistakes" Snotlout rudely mimicked Astrid as he introduced Hookfang to Hiccup. It wasn't his fault Hookfang could become wild at any given moment. "Okay," he told Hiccup in an uninterested voice, "All you basically have to do is put your hand on his snout."
"That's it? Seems easy enough" Hiccup replied. This seemed the easiest out of all the things he had to do that day. Hiccup then, with confidence, started to lower his hand onto Hookfang's nose.
Unbeknownst to the teens though, Tuffnut and Ruffnut were having one of their usual fights right behind Hookfang.
"Ha, missed!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he dodged yet another blow from his sister, who growled angrily.
"Well I won't miss this time!" she then replied and rammed her full body against Tuffnut, knocking him to the ground.
The twins were soon rolling around on the floor, fighting, while yelling names at each other like, "Troll!", "Butt Elf!" and "Bride of Gretel!" But because they were so caught up in their own battle, they didn't realize how dangerously close they were to Hookfang's tail until they rolled right onto it, crushing it.
Hookfang, feeling the pain of his crushed tail, then let out a furious roar and burst into flames, causing the twins to scream in pain before running over to the water trough in the academy and jumping into it.
"AHHH!" Hiccup screamed, startled by Hookfang's sudden outburst before taking off in a sprint.
"Snotlout!" Astrid angrily yelled at the boy, who was trying to calm his dragon down, but failing.
"What!?" Snotlout exclaimed, "It's not my fault this time!" He then pointed to twins in the water trough, who were sighing with relief.
"Where's Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked frantically as he ran up to Snotlout and Astrid, noticing he was gone.
Astrid then heard Toothless roar and saw that he was looking out the entrance to the academy. As she ran over to his side, she then saw Hiccup running away, nearly tripping as he did, from the academy and desperately yelled after him, "Hiccup!" But Hiccup was already too far away to hear.
That's it! Once again, I'm sorry I'm taking so long to post chapters, but I will finish this story! (There are still a lot more chapters to go) Well, this is How To Train Your Dragon Lover signing out!