When Princesses Meet Dragons

Chapter 6: Let the Training Begin!

So, now is where things are going to get a wee bit catastrophic, so prepare for a lot of practice and a LOT of guidance. Hope you enjoy!

OOXO

It was several days since Merida and Rapunzel had chosen their dragons, and they were now ready to train them. When Rapunzel entered the dragon room, Jack eagerly raced to the edge of his cage, waiting to be nuzzled by her. Of course, Pascal was still absolutely terrified of him, even if they were technically related, being reptiles and all. After all, Jack was so much bigger than the little chameleon was. The dragon easily towered over him, and he wasn't comfortable with Rapunzel riding him. What if he suddenly turned rogue on them? What if he bucked them off?

As Rapunzel led Jack out into the arena, he stared at her curiously, wondering what she had in mind.

"Okay, Rapunzel, your dragon is cooperating. Now, hop on and let him walk a little, so he can get used to carrying you," Hiccup instructed, standing by on the sidelines with Toothless, in case things got out of hand.

As Rapunzel clambered up onto her dragon's neck, he stared at her in shock, wondering what she was trying to do. As she urged him to walk, he used the hooks on his gigantic wings to pull himself along the ground. This was easy for him to do, since his wing didn't hurt that much to walk. It just wasn't ready to take to the air yet.

As several Vikings stared through the bars of the arena, watching the astounding spectacle before them, one of them suddenly sneezed, spooking Jack enough to whip his tail toward the bystanders, whacking off a huge portion of the bars separating the Vikings from the dragon. Screaming in fright, they took off, not wanting to risk getting hit by the extremely thick tail. When Jack had been startled, Rapunzel had hung on to his neck for dear life, having been swept off balance by his sudden movement. Pulling herself up, she giggled nervously, looking very sheepish.

"Eh… oops, sorry about that," she apologized, feeling extremely embarrassed.

"It's okay, no one got hurt. We'll just have to be a bit more cautious around him, make sure we don't do anything sudden. Well, I think we'll move on to Merida now," Hiccup announced, gesturing for her to come forward.

Strolling forward with her dragon, who she had named Scathach, after the legendary woman warrior of mythology, Merida climbed onto her dragon, ready for any instructions. Everything seemed to be going great, until Scathach suddenly lunged up into the air. Caught off guard by the sudden reaction, Merida was desperately clinging onto her dragon's neck, screaming her head off.

"Hold on, Merida. Don't let go," Hiccup called after her, sprinting up into the air after her with the other teens.

Eyes watering at the speed of her dragon, Merida tightly shut her eyes as Scathach performed several loop-de-loops through the air. As Hiccup and Toothless quickly approached the runaway dragon, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout were maneuvering their dragons so they could box in the Changewing. As they began to steadily close in on their target, Scathach suddenly dove straight down, causing immediate chaos. Having been caught off guard by the sudden change of direction, the twins, planning on ramming Scathach between their dragon and Toothless, accidentally rammed into Toothless. Whipping around in confusion, the two dragons managed to whack Hookfang with their tails, causing all of them to plunge toward the ocean. Meanwhile, Fishlegs and Astrid spotted Scathach make the sudden dive then disappear.

"Where'd she go?" Astrid asked.

"Uh, I know that you probably know this, but Changewings can blend into their surroundings."

However, as both of them were soon to find out, the dragon's camouflage ability wouldn't work if she had a passenger on her back. Spotting the unmistakable fiery red hair of Merida, they promptly took off, with Fishlegs calling out to Astrid to wait up.

"Why do I always get left behind?" Fishlegs groaned, trying to wake up Meatlug, who had fallen asleep mid-flight.

Having finally woken up Meatlug, Fishlegs tried to follow after Astrid, but was caught off guard when Toothless and the others landed on top of him. Just before they plummeted into the ocean, the dragons managed to swoop back into the air, all very shaken up by the incident.

"Oh, it is on now!" Tuffnut yelled, not wanting to look like a complete idiot in front of the others.

Soaring back into the air, the gang kept a close eye out, trying to spot Merida among the clouds. Just as they passed through a rather large cloud, they spotted a blur of green rush right past them, which happened to be Merida. As the gang kept up alongside her, Scathach suddenly made a sharp turn to the right, whipping her tail against Toothless' face, which caused him to roar in anger. As Snotlout and Hookfang came up neck and neck to the runaways, Astrid and Stormfly came swooping down, managing to knock into Scathach before she could pull another escape maneuver. Since they had managed to pin the rogue dragon so she couldn't escape, the gang managed to lead her back to the arena. On the way there, Hiccup was a little bit suspicious, wondering why she hadn't tried to shoot acid at them yet. She had held back when she had first seen Merida and when the gang was chasing after her.

Gracefully landing in the arena, Hiccup and Toothless began to cautiously lead the Changewing back into her cage, making sure that she didn't try anything. Surprisingly, she seemed willing enough, so they led her back with no problem. Usually, the dragons would act like they were heading to their doom, trying to burn anyone nearby to a crisp. Once they had safely locked her back up, Hiccup began to ponder on why Scathach was so tame. What if she had been around people before?

Having watched the entire scenario, Rapunzel came running up to Merida.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just don't know what could've set her off like that."

"It could've been being outside. She probably couldn't resist," Astrid said, trying to investigate the situation.

"Well, one thing's for sure; you all have a long way to go," Hiccup said, mentally preparing himself for any more mishaps like that.

OOXO

Well, there you have it! I'm so, so sorry for the long update. My parents have put a time limit on how long I spend on the computer, and I have a habit of looking at YouTube videos early in the morning. Also, sometimes it just skips my mind. I will try to update as soon as possible. P.S. The name of Merida's dragon, Scathach, is the name of a Scottish woman warrior from mythology. I just wanted to have a name that would have been recognized by the anicient Scots, to make it more authentic.