THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN

"Wooooo-hoooo!" I howl in ecstasy as I belly-slide down a snowy mountain. This has proved to be one of the funnest things about Berk- having a sliding race down the mountains, which are almost always covered in snow. Meatlug, Barf 'N Belch, and Hookfang are behind me while Stormfly and Toothless are battling for the lead.

Narrowing my eyes, I flatten myself closer to the ground and try to catch up to them. Stormfly whips her tail, sending a flurry of tail spikes towards Toothless and Hiccup. They narrowly dodge the projectiles and Hiccup yells, "Hey!"

"It was her idea," Astrid says from atop of Stormfly, "but I approved!"

Toothless growls playfully and lunges towards them. Opening a wing, he causes her to lose control and slide into some leafless, thorny bushes. I wince as the branches whip both Stormfly and Astrid.

"Not fair!" Astrid yells when they clear the bushes.

"Oops. Did I do that?" Hiccup says sarcastically and Toothless snickers.

I grin and surge forward. Noticing a small hill coming up, I move towards it and slide up the slope. Then, once in the air, I dive down to two and land in front of Toothless. I barely miss him and my tail bats his nose.

"Raven!" Toothless exclaims in surprise. I laugh and slide ahead of him.

Suddenly, the ground begins to tremble and the air is filled with the sound of rumbling. I glance up to see Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf N' Belch flying high over us. Meatlug is roaring something to us, but the rumbling has gotten so loud that I can't even hear her. I see Astrid turn around and scream. "Avalanche!" she yells and Stormfly immediately flies up.

"Raven, fly!" Toothless orders from behind me. I glance back at him and notice that he's having some trouble taking off.

"His tail's frozen!" Hiccup shouts and my heart lurches. As the Viking starts climbing towards his tail, Toothless roars, "What are you waiting for, Raven? Fly- get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving you!" I snap back, spotting the flood of snow tumbling towards us. Looking away, I see that we're sliding right towards a trench. I inwardly groan. Of course this happens!

Astrid and Stormfly notice it too and Astrid yells, "Hiccup, give me your hand!" She flies as low as she can and reaches her arm out.

Frowning, I stretch my forelegs out and unsheath my claws, slowing down so that Toothless bumps into me. "What are you doing?" he yelps as his chest slides onto my hind quarters. Ignoring him, I brace my forepaws, which are still sliding, on the snow and rear up, attempting to kick Toothless into the air with my back legs.

"Jump!" I say as I push him up, "I'll help you fly!"

"You're going to get yourself killed!" he snarls, batting my paws away. Suddenly, the ground beneath my gives away to air and I feel myself falling. Toothless and I shriek, but I also hear Stormfly, which means that she and Astrid got swept up by the avalanche too.

Mid-fall, Toothless reaches out for me with his forepaws and manages to grab me by my wing. I feel him tuck me close to him and then we hit the ground with a loud thump. The impact knocks the breath out of me and I wheeze, gasping for air.

Opening my eyes, I glance around, trying to see in the pitch blackness. I feel warmth above me and take a sniff. Through the cold, I make out Toothless's scent.

"Astrid?" Hiccup's voice suddenly cuts through the silence.

My head swivels towards the sound and Astrid replies with a shuddering voice, "Hiccup? Hiccup, I'm freezing."

"Come here."

There's a moment of shuffling in which I try to get my bearings. It's cold, but not as cold as I thought it would be. I don't feel snow all around me, only on my tail and right hindquarter, which hurts a bit. I'm assuming we're at the bottom of the trench, but how are we still alive?

Suddenly, I feel Toothless grow warmer above me and he shoots a plasma blast into the darkness. "Toothless?" Hiccup murmurs. A few feet away, I see a stream of Stormfly's fire shoot towards the same place. "Stormfly?" Astrid says with the same confusion as Hiccup.

After one more blast from Toothless, a dim light shines down on us. Glancing around, I realize that we're in some kind of snow-dome formed by Toothless and Stormfly's wings. Blinking, I see Astrid and Hiccup in each others' arms and looking up at the light. Then, they seem to realize their closeness and immediately scoot away from each other, mumbling lame excuses. To make it less awkward, Astrid punches Hiccup's arm and Stormfly chuckles.

Then, I notice my own awkward position. I'm curled up as small as possible with Toothless crouching over me, pushing me closer to the ground. The warmth that I felt above me was the plasma heating up in his chest, which is pressing down on my narrow shoulders. The only part of me that isn't beneath him is my tail and part of my haunches, although they are still somewhat covered by his tail, which is curled around me.

Of course, he doesn't seem to realize how… embarrassing this situation is and makes no move to get off of me, instead gazing up at the hole in the snow-dome. It's only when I shift awkwardly that he tears his gaze away and looks down at me. Immediately, his eyes widen and he straightens up, giving me enough space to wriggle out from under him.

Coughing awkwardly, he mutters, "Uh, sorry."

I simply grunt, choosing not to reply since my scales are burning in humiliation. Stormfly catches my eye and winks. I wrinkle my muzzle and glare at her, silently daring the Nadder to say anything snarky.

We decide to spend the next day training instead of playing. Unfortunately, I had hurt my leg in the fall down the trench. I tried not to let it show, but it hurt a lot. Toothless immediately noticed and has forbidden me to take part in any training for the next two days, much to my annoyance. He even tried to make me go to sleep early, but I had snarled, "Don't push it." and he disregarded the idea.

So, here I am, watching from the edge of the arena as the other dragons work on battle training. They fire at targets and work on ground battle while I sulk in the corner. Stormfly and Meatlug try to cheer me up occasionally, but their riders eventually make them participate in the training.

The sound of thundering feet reaches my ears and I lift my head, looking at the entrance of the arena. Stoick and Gobber burst in, alert and breathing heavily.

The training dragons stop and I stand up. "It's those rogue dragons again." Stoick informs us, "They're back over at Black Heart Bay. It looks like they've brought a couple of more friends this time."

"We'll be right there." Hiccup says, "Go look for Thornado- we might need the help, but only come if we call you." As Stoick and Gobber jog away, Hiccup turns to us, "Okay, ready guys? Remember your training." They all nod, ready for battle, and begin to exit the arena.

I move to follow them, but Toothless blocks my way. "I want you to stay again." he orders.

I flatten my windflaps and growl, "Why can't I come? I'm one of the best fighters!"

"You're injured." he replies, nodding at my leg, "I don't want you to get more hurt than you already are."

"I've fought while injured before." I retort, "Probably more than you ever have."

Toothless narrows his eyes and straightens up, adopting a more authoritative aura, "Raven, as dragon of the Chief to-be, I command you to stay out of this fight."

I stare at him incredulously. He really thinks that his authority will make me stay?

Before I can snap back, he turns and trots over to Hiccup, letting his rider climb onto him. Then, he leads the gang out of the arena and into the sky. I watch them fly over to Black Heart Bay, frowning a little. After a few minutes, I begin to hear the sound of screeching dragons and roll my eyes.

Padding out of the arena, I leap into the air and fly towards the sounds. The battle is now high over the forest, with the rogues pushing the gang inland

Ha! They do need my help! I don't care if Toothless is too stubborn to admit it.

Smirking, I fly over to the battle.