Okay! I'm actually proud that I managed to get this updated this soon. Things are starting to let up in classes, but don't get your hopes up in that the uploads are going to get more frequent. I'll do my best, but don't expect any miracles.

MMM- Honestly, I had a few ideas of how Tori would get through this, but I had to stick to being at list a little bit realistic. Tori could have taken Nightshade and Shoo and ran away, but Tori has lived a pretty sheltered life and would probably feel too intimidated in the world by herself. There was also the possibility of her just flipping out on her father, but she's usually a soft-spoken person and tends to avoid violence whenever possible. When all of that failed, the cold shoulder/guilt trip seemed to be the most sensible solution. For the most part, Tori is getting more comfortable with the dragons, but as you'll see in this chapter, there is ONE dragon that she will have difficulties dealing with, if you read the chapter and catch my drift. As for the relationship with Tori and Hiccup, it's mostly professional, but Tori does feel gratitude towards him and Toothless and it will also be made clear why that is in this chapter.

As said before, the rest of you with accounts will be contacted through PM for your comments. Anyway, I do not own HTTYD or its characters, plot, dragons, etc. I, however, own my characters (human, dragon and otherwise), plot, and ideas. Enjoy!

At night, it was very peaceful on Berk. The Terrible Terrors had finished their nightly tunes and anyone kept up by the songs were finally able to sleep.

Tori, on the other hand, was not as at peace as the rest of the village. In her bed, with her Terrible Terror curled up under her arm, she laid there, sweating, squirming, and whimpering. Shoo's eyes blinked a bit before popping open as his rider's arm began to constrict him. He clawed with his back legs desperately at the bed as he tried to escape her grip.

Finally, Shoo had to resort to drastic measures: he bit down hard on Tori's arm. She bolted up, eyes wide open and out of breath. Her heart pounded loudly as she looked all over the room for the source of the danger.

The violet Terror climbed onto her lap and roared at her, quickly gaining her attention. She sighed in disdain as the fog in her mind cleared: the nightmare had returned.

"Sorry, Shoo," she spoke with a rasp. Her throat felt like it was dryer than the hide on a Gronckle's back. She needed water, and there was only one place at the time she could get some.

Up the ladder on the far side of her room she climbed, up the hole made by her Whispering Death friend, whom she had named Dustcloud. Of course, she doubted that the dragon would be showing herself again any time soon.

Getting to the top, Tori pulled herself onto the edge of a surprisingly spacious pen she had made specifically for Nightshade. It was a pretty simple pen: a bedding area where the Triple Stryke slept soundly at the moment, a wooden post to hold his saddle, a troth for his water and barrels for his fish.

With his things, there was also some supplies of Tori's that she felt she would need when going to training: her shield, bow and arrows, canteen, and her wild dragon encounter kit with dragon nip plant and dragon nip marinade.

She opened the canteen, greedily gulping down any drop of water she could get. When it emptied, it didn't feel like enough. Still, it was enough for now. She tossed it to the side before throwing her arms up in a stretch.

A sudden force bumped her back, and she turned and saw that Nightshade had awoken, greeting his rider with a tired roar. She could relate at the moment.

Tori gave him a tired smile, patting his snout as she greeted, "Good morning, Nightshade. Sorry if I woke you."

He growled, poking at her stomach with his head. He wasn't fooled, now able to tell when something was wrong with his rider. She didn't look upset, but he still couldn't help but feel uneasy with how tired she looked. She never looked like that when she was not tired.

"It's okay. It was just a nightmare," she assured him. He still didn't look convinced, tilting his head a bit as his pupils dilated in concern.

Tori's smile disappeared much too easily, sighing a bit at remembering said nightmare. She hadn't had that dream since she had first started training dragons. Actually…it wasn't so much as a nightmare as it was a memory.

"I never used to be this afraid of dragons. Did you know that, Nightshade?"

The Triple Stryke growled curiously, letting his body slump down to the ground. Tori grunted as his head brought her down with him. Her legs were pinned down by his weight, and so she figured that this was his way of telling her he wanted to hear. And she clearly wasn't going anywhere until she told her story.

She smiled sadly and stroked his head, "I guess it started when I was about six. I was sleeping and there was this dragon attack on Berk…"


"DRAGON ATTACK!"

Tori shot up in bed with a gasp, and at the tender age of six, she could only think of rushing to her parents to see what was happening. She rushed out of her room, carrying with her the blanket of dragon skin given to her as a birthday present. Upon coming down the stairs and saw her father rushing around, grabbing his axe, his spear, any possible weapon he could get his hands on.

"Dad! What's happening!?"

"Dragon attack. Bigger than usual. I need te get out there and help. Go get your brother and get to yer mother in the back!"

He didn't give her time to reply as he charged out the door, slamming it shut in the process. Tori hurried back to the second floor, entering the room of her little two year-old brother, Blynn. He was bundled up tightly, sleeping soundly even with the commotion going on just outside of the walls.

"Okay, little brother. We need to go to mom…"

BOOM!

Tori grunted as she was thrown back midway of picking up her brother. She pushed herself up weakly and immediately froze in horror, even going as far as to ignoring the cries of her brother and his distress. She wrapped her blanket entirely around her to ease the fear filling her up. It didn't help.

A large, smoking hole had been made in the wall of Blyn's room, and perched within that circle was a dragon. It was not very large, but large enough to be intimidating by itself. Blue sparks danced off of its scales, disappearing completely as it stepped into the room. It's long snout waved about, taking in the scents of the room before it turned its eyes, those electric-blue eyes, onto the cradle of the crying Viking babe.

Tori gasped, her eyes shifting from the crib to the dragon as it approached. She jumped up, throwing herself between the dragon and her brother protectively.

The dragon hissed, narrowing its eyes in irritation. Tori, however, held her ground and kept herself in front of her brother no matter how much the dragon made her tremble.

However, the strange dragon's head spikes shifted upward slightly, clearly thrown off by something. It pressed its snout close to Tori, taking in deep sniffs of her scent. It growled and lurched back…right before it snapped its jaws on Tori's blanket and pulling her upward.

Tori yelped, and was momentarily dazed, but felt her heart rate skyrocket as she came back to reality. The dragon had taken off, her blanket wrapped around her dangling from the dragon's jaws by about one hundred feet.

"MOM! DAD! HELP!" she cried loudly, though her hope was pretty dim considering so much of the noise cancelled out her voice.

However, her cry was heard. Agmund had his boot on the head of a Deadly Nadder and was nearly ready to end its life, but then turned at hearing is daughter's voice.

"TORI! NO!"

He ran after them, desperately thinking of ways to stop the dragon before it could reach open water. By then, there was no guarantee that Tori would ever come back to them, dead or alive.

Seeing no other way around it, Agmund brought up his axe, throwing it as hard as he could up at the dragon. The blade struck the beast, right at the side of its eye, but it was enough to make it stop in mid-air. The sudden jerking forced half of the blanket to rip, sending Tori plummeting to the ground with a scream.

The dragon shook its head, throwing aside the pain before diving down to Tori. She was falling fast, but its diving was faster. There was no way it wouldn't catch her.

"Gotcha!" Stoick grabbed Tori before she could hit the ground and held her close. The dragon crashed to the ground, thrown off by the child being snatched away from it. It shook its head before narrowing its eyes, lifting its wings and body as it hissed menacingly.

The chief wordlessly shouted as he used his shield to smack at the side of the dragons head when it charged. The shield broke in two as it threw the dragon back slightly, but that only seemed to make it angrier. With its mouth slightly open, bright blue energy began to form in the back of its throat.

"Stay away from my daughter!" Agmund roared as he struck the creature on the side with a tackle. Considering the dragon's size, it had only thrown it back a few feet, but it was enough to catch it by surprise.

Seeing as it was at a disadvantage, the dragon had no choice but to retreat. It took off, flying off with the other dragons. Stoick breathed heavily, handing over the child to Agmund. Tori clung to him, whimpering and shaking in fear as he whispered to her to calm her down.

Unbeknownst to them, the retreating dragon turned its head, staring down at the village with the other half of the dragon-skin blanket hanging from its teeth. It turned back to the sky in front of it and took off back to its nest.


"…I guess that all of us were taught to fear the dragons at that age, but after all of that, it sort of became permanent for me…"

Nightshade blinked at the solemnness of his rider's voice. She seemed so…resigned, as if she were so full of regret. Tori, who had had a small frown on her face, let a smile cross her lips slightly as she stroked his snout,

"…but you know, I'm still glad it happened. If that hadn't happened, I would have never feared the dragons as much as I had. Then I would have never would have met you."

The Triple Stryke hummed, the vibrations coming from his throat clear to feel on Tori's legs. His eyes twitched shut as the light of the morning sun began to break through on the horizon.

Tori narrowed her eyes before pushing her dragon's head off, "Hey! That's Trader Johann's ship! He should have the order I placed!"

She grabbed the sadly and threw it upon Nightshade's back. The dragon stood up, shaking off the sleep that remained in order to fly. Tori climbed onto his back, urging him to the edge of the cave.

"That ship, Nightshade! We need to get there as soon as possible!"

Nightshade growled before taking off, diving down the lower altitude upon coming into open water. They were now at the surface of the sea, quickly approaching the boat. Actually, a bit too quickly.

"Okay, Nightshade. We don't need to get there this soon. Why don't you slow down a bit?" Tori nervously stated. Still, Nightshade didn't appear to hear her as his speed didn't go down. The details of the boat were becoming more and more clear by the second.

"Nightshade, I mean it. Stop!"

The boat was now a mere fifty feet away.

"NIGHTSHADE!" Tori yanked back on the saddle roughly. The Triple Stryke's eyes widened before his wings shot open, slowing them down somewhat, but not enough before-

"Oh my!" Johann exclaimed, grabbing onto the mast as his boat was shaken violently. The boat rocked and almost went to tip over, but then suddenly slumped back down into place.

The merchant's heart was beating erratically, his eyes darting all around to find the source of the attack.

"Sorry, Johann! My fault!"

Johann jumped back as a black tail with a blue tip fell down next to him. Hanging upon the rafters was Nightshade. Tori, however, had been flung over his head and was on her stomach across his snout.

She pushed herself back, pushing back the hood that had shielded her face from view. After dusting herself off, she grinned and waved at the merchant, "Morning, Johann!"

"A-ah, Miss Tori! I-er…wasn't expecting you so soon!" he nervously greeted. Granted, even with his experience with the dragons, he didn't expect Tori Korrinston to be on the back of one, expecially one so…intimidating. "Would you be so kind as to remove your dragon from my ship? I'm afraid any more imbalance will cause it to tip."

"Sorry! Up, Nightshade!"

The Triple Stryke obeyed, pushing itself off of the boat and into the air. Johann had a hand on his chest, trying to recover his sense of peace before that incident.

"Say, Johann! Do you have my order ready?"

"Y-Yes! Right here! Just as promised!" Johann gestured to a medium-sized chest. "I must ask though, couldn't you have waited until I came ashore?"

He gasped a bit as a tail coiled its way around the chest, pulling it close to Nightshade's body.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Johann! Say goodbye, Nightshade!"

The Triple Stryke gave out a low roar before turning tail and flying back to Berk. Trader Johann put a hand to his forehead before muttering to himself,

"And just when I've thought I had gotten used to the dragons of Berk…"


"Tori, dear. Ye have the nightmare again?"

Said Viking teen looked over her shoulder to her father, who was making his way down the stairs. Tori smiled weakly and turned back to her work as she asked,

"What makes you ask that?"

"Needlework, dear," Agmund replied bluntly. "Ye use it te calm yerself down after ye've had the nightmare."

With that, she merely shrugged, "You've got me. Honestly though, this is the first time it's happened since I started dragon training…"

Agmund nodded slightly, "So, there's still some fear left of'em, then?"

At that, Tori didn't answer any further than a shrug of the shoulders as she continued her work. That was enough answer for Agmund, and so he merely left through the front door.

Tori hummed, bringing up the red silk she had ordered for closer inspection. She then asked Shoo, who was draped across her shoulders, "What do you think, Shoo? It's really coming around, isn't it?"

The violet Terrible Terror looked at her project with disinterest of the most obvious kind. He then narrowed his eyes and roared slightly.

"Oh, don't be so jealous. I'll make one for you when I'm finished with this one for Toothless. Don't forget that this is a thank-you gift."

"A thank-you gift, huh?"

"A-Astrid!" Tori suddenly bolted up, kicking the chest under the table. Sure enough, the blonde shield maiden was at the door with Stormfly waiting right behind her. "What a surprise! What brings you here so early?"

"You know, you're only going to be excused from being late to dragon training for so long. I know it's been crazy these past few days, but you still need to get your dragon under control, so I just came by to make sure you were keeping everything in order."

Feeling a bit startled at the reply, Tori blinked before shrinking down a bit, "Y-yeah…I see your point. Thanks for checking in, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of things."

Astrid hummed and nodded, but then said, "Good. Then you're ready to start dragon combat training, right?"

"Huh?!" Tori stumbled back, nearly tripping on the chest. "C-combat training? Why combat training?"

"Relax, I'm only half-serious," she interrupted. "Still though, there's going to be a time when it's just you and your dragon without any backup. If you come across any Outcasts or Berserkers while you're on your fishing boat, you'll be on your own and you can't just rely on Nightshade to fight for you."

"Wait, Outcasts? Berserkers?! What kind of training to you guys do outside of Berk?!"

Astrid, with hand on her hip, walked around while blowing out a breath of air, "We've got a lot of work to do before you're battle-ready."

She landed her gaze on the chest with the red silk sticking out. Before Tori could say a word, she pulled out the fabric composed of red and black silk.

"You said this was a thank-you gift to Toothless? What for?"

Tori rubbed her arm as she responded, "Well…for one thing, he did save me from that Whispering Death, but for the most part its just thanks for him and Hiccup for…well, everything."

When Astrid arched an eyebrow while setting down the fabric, Tori sighed and continued, "I guess it's hard to understand, but its true: I did almost get taken away by a dragon when I was young, around when I was six. Ever since then, my parents have just been keeping me away, sheltering me from the danger instead of helping me get past my fear. Hiccup and Toothless are just…the first to ever try to actually help me."

Astrid furrowed her brow in thought. That…actually did make a lot of sense. Tori hadn't been much out of her house since that time. If she ever went out at all, she was always with her mother or father or even under the watchful eye of some other adult.

There was also the case of her fear that Tori was once again correct about. Astrid knew a thing or two about fear and looking at this case, it made perfect sense now. There was a good chance that the trauma Tori had experienced as a child was not as bad as it was when she was older; however, with her overprotective parents keeping her isolated rather than helping her recover properly, the fear of dragons could only manifest and grow over time.

"We'll be starting training soon. We should get going."

That was all Astrid could respond with in that situation. She set the silk back into the chest and went to exit the house. Tori grabbed Shoo, setting him on her shoulders as she went to follow.


"Alright Tori, now that we've got you in the air, the first area we should cover is formations with other dragons," Hiccup explained. All dragons and dragon riders were present and gliding over the ocean with a surprisingly calm pace.

"Remember that the bigger dragons always fly close to the rear with the smaller dragons up front. The first formation is a simple one: single-file formation!"

Hiccup raised one arm and the rest of the riders lined up in a perfect straight line. Tori nudged Nightshade, urging him to line up right behind Snotlout and Hookfang.

"Good. This formation can hide the number of backup you have in battle," Tori cringed a bit at that word battle. Perhaps she should tell him that she wasn't quite comfortable yet with the idea of fighting…

"The next formation is the V-formation."

With the next signal, the riders went to their appropriate places. Tori was faster this time to find her place, in the back on Hiccup's right.

This is definitely getting better, Tori smiled a bit, but then it disappeared just as quickly when she turned. Snotlout, with his everlasting arrogance, winked at her with a smirk while leaning on Hookfang's horn.

"Uh…great flying, Snotlout. You too, Hookfang," she said with a forced smile. It couldn't possibly do much damage to humor him a bit, would it?

Hookfang turned his head slightly, his eyes dilating slightly as he hummed in contentment. Meanwhile, Sntlout merely boasted loud enough for the rest to hear, "You hear that, guys? Tori thinks I'm an amazing rider."

This earned groans from the rest of the dragon riders, and Tori had earned herself looks mainly from Hiccup and Astrid that basically said 'please don't encourage him'.

"Um, I don't think amazing was the word I used, Snotlout," Tori tried to protest, especially when he and Hookfang decided to fly even closer to them, much too close for comfort in her opinion. "And aren't we supposed to stay in formation?"

"You don't need to hide your feelings anymore Tori. I know you want me," Snotlout winked again at her.

Tori shrunk down, gripping tightly onto the saddle in complete discomfort. This set off Nightshade, who turned his head back with a narrow-eyed glare at the Jorgenson boy. His hiss rang out loudly as he struck at Snotlout with one of his tails.

Snotlout's eyes suddenly widened before he cried out loudly, falling off of Hookfang and plummeting down towards the sea. Hookfang seemed to groan before diving down after him.

"Huh, that's strange," Tori furrowed her brow.

"What's strange, exactly?" Hiccup asked, slowing Toothless down to fly alongside her with the rest of the riders.

"What's strange is that Nightshade struck me with his right tail when we first met, and that only made my body go numb. This time, he hit Snotlout with his left tail and he didn't seem to go numb at all. If anything, it looked like he was in a lot of pain."

"I am in pain!" Snotlout bellowed as he came back up in Hookfang's talons. "That stupid dragon's sting made it feel like my blood was on fire from the inside-ow ow OW! It still stings!"

"Cool! Do me! Do me!" Tuffnut waved his hands at the Triple Stryke.

"Yeah, do him! Do him!" Ruffnut encouraged with a devious grin.

Tori shook her head, "I am not letting Nightshade sting anyone for the fun of it."

This earned audible groans of disappointment from the twins. Meanwhile, Fishlegs exclaimed, "This is amazing! Three separate tails must mean three separate venoms after all! So the right tail causes temporary paralysis…"

"And the left one causes intense pain," Astrid continued. "What does the middle tail do, then?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll know when the time is right," Tori answered meekly. She then smiled and patted Nightshade's ear plate, "Thanks, by the way. I don't think I could have handled Snotlout myself."

"I heard that!"