Chapter 9
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Thought / Dreams / Event from the past
[Voice from the past]
"Dialogue"
Letter
Emphasis
"Today! . . . is about teamwork." Gobber said as the whole arena filled with green gas, "Now, a wet dragon head can't light it's fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky, one head breathe gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to find out which is which".
Hiccup scowled in anger as he hold a bucket filled with water, he was back to back with Fishlegs at the moment, and he was in a very bad mood because, well . . . The teens were supposed to train with a Zippleback today, which required for them to go in pair while there were only 5 of them. Snotlout was paired up with Tuffnut since they were good when working with each other, which was the opposite of if Tuffnut was paired with Ruffnut, that would only result in them fighting against each other instead of working together. Besides, Ruffnut was paired with Astrid since they were both girls. That leaves Fishlegs alone, and there's no way Gobber would let Fishlegs to be alone in this training since they need to be in pair, so Hiccup was forced to be paired up with Fishlegs.
It's not that Hiccup disliked working together with Fishlegs, the boy was nice and kind to him and never mocking him like Snotlout and Tuffnut, he even found Fishlegs's habit to ramble dragon status to be amusing. No, it's the fact that he was forced to take a part in dragon training that caused him to scowl in anger. He could stand it that he was forced to help Gobber to train the teens, because he didn't have to fight with the dragons, but to be forced to be in the training with the teens was downright irritating until he want to just go out there and dragged the first Viking he saw into the arena, so the Viking could be paired up with Fishlegs instead of him.
He really wondered why he didn't do just that . . . oh right, because Gobber said that this was a training for the inexperience teens, not for experienced Vikings. Even though he had fought a Nightmare in the past, no one know about it aside from Astrid, so he was counted as inexperienced. He had thought to tell Gobber about it with Astrid to back up his statement, but then he remembered the reason why he hid that incident in the first place, so he could only shut up and reluctantly did as Gobber told him to do, working together with Fishlegs.
"Razor sharp teeth, inject venom for predigestion . . ." Hiccup heard Fishlegs whispered what he know of Zippleback's status and his eyes narrowed as his blood boiled even more, he was so angry that he didn't find it as amusing as usual.
"Can you please stop that?" Hiccup asked him with a dangerous hiss, causing Fishlegs to jump with a startled squeak, "I'm not in the mood at the moment, Fishlegs." He said through gritted teeth before continuing to scowl at the green gas surrounding them.
"Sorry." Fishlegs squeaked nervously as fear crept in into his heart, he was more afraid of Hiccup than the Zippleback at the moment.
Fishlegs didn't want to be the receiving end of Hiccup's anger, it's like having to face Astrid's wrath, very scary, extremely dangerous, and definitely deadly. Hiccup being angry was like when Astrid being furious, and he didn't dare to imagine what would happen if Hiccup snapped and became furious. Gods forbid, he might be as dangerous as a Monstrous Nightmare and as destructive as a Night Fury if that happened, his speed and fighting skill were not a joke! That's why he was very grateful at the Gods for making Hiccup to be a very patient person, so the boy was rarely angered.
Ruffnut chuckled softly, "Fishlegs is scared of Fishbone, talk about being ridiculous." She whispered in amusement as she looked around for any sign of dragon.
"You can't blame him." Astrid said in a low whisper as she looked around as well, "Hiccup is angry right now and he's as scary as Hella herself when he is angry, even I don't want to be the receiving end of his anger. I hate it that Gobber forced him to take part in this training, he knows that Hiccup absolutely hate it".
"I know." Ruffnut nodded her head in agreement as she remembered Hiccup's pissed off expression when Gobber announced that Hiccup would be paired up with Fishlegs, if looks could kill, Gobber would be in Valhalla right now. "But you and Fishlegs are his close friends, there's no way he would direct his anger at any of you." She reminded her friend.
"Not intentionally, but that doesn't close the possibility." Astrid countered before yelping when she suddenly drenched from head to toe, "What the hell!".
"Hey!" Ruffnut cried out in indignation when she also get drenched, she saw the culprits and growled in anger, "It's us, Idiots!".
"Your butt's getting bigger, we thought you were a dragon." Tuffnut said with a chuckle.
"It's not like there's anything wrong with dragonesque fig-." Snotlout tried to get into Astrid's good side after he saw how pissed the girl was.
Astrid's opinion of dragon's figure had changed from ugly and monstrous to beautiful and majestic after she met Toothless and saw the true nature of dragons when they weren't in a raid, so she didn't really mind being called having a dragonesque figure since that would mean she looked beautiful and majestic. What pissed her off was the fact that Snotlout tried to flirt with her after drenching her with cold water, so much that she punched him at the jaw before the boy could complete his sentence.
Ruffnut was also pissed off at her brother that she threw her bucket at Tuffnut's face.
Hiccup's eyebrow twitched as his anger deepened when he heard the commotion, he just know that Ruffnut and Tuffnut were bickering while Snotlout tried to flirt with Astrid, again. After feeding the dragons for a year and had known of both Barf and Belch for more than three months, he had gotten used with their habit to trick people to scare them, so he know that the two headed dragon would use the commotion the 4 teens made to their advantage. So he was not disappointed nor surprised when Tuffnut ran passed him and Fishlegs while exclaiming that he was 'very much hurt', he merely sighed and waited for Barf and Belch to direct their attention to him and Fishlegs, he know that the Zippleback wouldn't hurt him once they recognized him, so he would use that opportunity to get himself out of the training.
"Our chance of survival has dropped into a single digit now." Fishlegs said nervously.
Hiccup snorted softly to himself when he heard that, he didn't care about their chance of survival, he didn't even have any intention to 'survive' this training. He then noticed one of the Zippleback's head came out of the smoke and was heading towards them while sniffing the air, the head, which he figured to be Barf, looked at him for a split second before simply turning it's attention to Fishlegs.
Fishlegs got scared when the head approached him and threw his water at the head by reflex.
Barf let out an amused chuckle since he managed to trick Fishlegs to throw his water before purposefully scaring the boy by spraying green gas at the boy's face, causing Fishlegs to run away while screaming in high pitch like a girl. Belch then joined Barf and their pupils dilated as they looked at Hiccup, they had heard Hiccup's protest when he was told to take a part in the training, they also could smell the anger and annoyance radiated from the boy, so they know that the boy didn't want to be there at all and interested in what the boy would do now.
Hiccup knew that Barf and Belch recognized him when their pupils dilated to appear non-aggressive, they were waiting for him to do something, he also well aware that the other teens were watching him along with Gobber at the moment, so he raised his bucket of water. "Trip me." He whispered to the dragon, knowing that they would be able to hear him with their sharper hearing, and secretly winked at them.
Barf and Belch caught his intention and immediately used their tail to trip Hiccup just as he began to throw his water, causing for him to fell on the floor and his water to miss them by inches.
"Hiccup!" Astrid ran to the boy as soon as she saw him tripped and stood in front of the fallen boy, ready to defend her friend from the two headed dragon, bare handed if needed.
"Astrid." Hiccup whispered to her as he stood up, so that the others wouldn't hear him, "What are you doing?".
"Protecting you, obviously." Astrid whispered back before noticing how the two heads of the Zippleback sniffed at her then backed away, she smirked as her plan succeed. "Back." She ordered calmly as she stepped forward, the dragon stepped back as she did so. She told the dragon to get back as she walked to their direction with her hand stretched out in front of her, "Don't make me tell you again." She said as they were mere feet from the cage, "Yes, that's right, back to your cage." The dragon backed off to their cage and she smirked at them, "Now, think about what you've done." She said in triumph before closing the door, she turned around and was greeted with the most hilarious sight she had ever seen.
Hiccup was looking at her with wide eyes filled with amusement, any trace of anger that were in the boy's eyes earlier had disappeared, she bet that the boy had guessed what her trick was already. Gobber and the rest, on the other hand, were looking at her with wide eyes filled with shock and their mouth gaping like a fish on the land, Fishlegs even dropped the bucket that he was holding.
"So, are we done?" She asked as she held back a laugh, "Well then, see you later." She then walked out of the arena as fast as she could before running to the forest, she stopped running once she was far enough from the rest. Their shocked expression flashed in front of her eyes and she burst out laughing, her left hand was on her stomach and her right hand was gripping a nearby tree so she wouldn't fall.
Hiccup's laughter reached her ear and she looked behind her to see Hiccup in the same position as her, "Man, did you see their faces?" He asked her once they managed to control their laughter.
"They were like gaping fishes on land." Astrid said in agreement as she chuckled again at the memory, "Even Gobber".
Hiccup shook his head before leaning on a tree and inhaled deeply, "Did you hide an eel under your shirt or something?" He asked curiously.
"I don't have a place to hide an eel, Hiccup, and I refused to feel that disgusting creature against my skin, so no, I didn't." Astrid snorted at the idea of hiding an eel under her shirt, "Considering that Toothless had reacted like that at the mere mention of an eel, I figured that their smell alone is enough to scare off a dragon, so I rubbed an eel on my whole hands before coming here".
"I see." Hiccup said with a nod of understanding, "Clever move." He praised the girl, earning a smile from her..
They fell into silence after that, just enjoying the calmness while occasionally chuckled when they remembered the other's expression after Astrid forced a Zippleback to back off with her bare hands. Finally, Astrid broke the silence, "What are you going to do now?" She asked as she looked at Hiccup, "Are we going to visit Toothless?".
Hiccup shook his head, "Nah, I need to make something first." He answered with a smile as he leaned away from the tree, "We will visit him tomorrow".
Astrid's eyes brightened as she matched her step with Hiccup, "What are you going to make now? Something to help Toothless?" She asked with interest.
"Yeah, I'm going to make a saddle." Hiccup answered as they walked to the forge, "In order for Toothless to fly again, I need to control the tail fin for him, but there's no way I will keep hanging on his tail like earlier".
"It's dangerous and definitely scary." Astrid nodded in understanding before looking at him, "Is there something that I can do to help you with this project?" She asked with a smile.
Hiccup looked at Astrid in surprise before smiling happily, "Can you sew?" He asked curiously, Astrid nodded in answer, "Good, you can help me with sewing the leather".
"Okay, I will meet you in the forge." Astrid said as she started to walk away, "I need to wash my hands and get rid of the smell from the eel first." She waved at him before running to her home.
Hiccup watched Astrid go with a smile before heading for his own home.
And so, with Astrid's help, Hiccup made a saddle so he could help controlling Toothless's tail fin. When Hiccup showed Toothless the saddle though, the dragon wouldn't let Hiccup put the saddle on right away, the mighty dragon was in the mood to play tag with Hiccup. Hiccup didn't have any choice but to run after Toothless with the saddle in his hands above his head, all the while, Astrid was simply watching the whole scene happened and laughed at Hiccup's failed attempts to catch Toothless.
Toothless then finally let Hiccup put the saddle on and they tried to fly with Hiccup opened the tail fin with his hand through a rope, but Hiccup pulled the rope too hard and they crash landed onto the hard ground, thankfully both of them was unharmed. Thinking that it would be better if Hiccup wore something to keep him from falling off of Toothless in midflight, Hiccup made a safety harness with Astrid help and making sure that the harness will hold against a strong force.
The next day, Gobber gave the teens a day off, since Astrid managed to win the first few rounds of Dragon Training, so the teens would have a chance to train on their own and win the next one, after they done their morning training. After the morning training, Hiccup told Astrid to go to the Cove first because he need to feed the dragons in the arena, so Astrid went to the Cove after she picked up the basket of fishes from Hiccup's backdoor.
While waiting for Hiccup, Astrid decided to try and operate Toothless's tail fin so they could save some time, as she did so, she also tried to fly with the rope tied around her ankle instead of being held in her hand. She and Toothless flew farther than when Hiccup tried the day before, but it's still hard to control the tail fin with a mere rope, so they ended up crash landing into a field of grass, and the safety harness that she tried couldn't keep her from falling away from Toothless.
Astrid thought that they were just grass, so she was surprised when she saw Toothless happily rolling around on them. They returned to the Cove later and saw Hiccup already there, Astrid told Hiccup about the grass and that it's easier to control the tail fin with the rope tied around their ankle instead of being held in their hand. They spend the rest of the day in the Cove, Hiccup would try to get the hang of controlling Toothless's tail fin while Astrid would observing their flight, so they could discuss what improvement needed to be made later.
When it's time for Astrid to fight Meatlug again in Dragon Training, she used the grass she found the day before to see if the grass had the same effect to the other dragons with the Night Fury. Turned out that Meatlug was affected as well, so she won the Dragon Training, with what looked like a single punch from the other teen's perspective.
They went to the Cove after Astrid escaped from her friends who kept on praising her, only to see that Toothless was having a hard time scratching on his scales against some rock. Hiccup and Astrid helped Toothless scratching his itching scales, then Hiccup accidentally touch a pressure point when he wanted to scratch Toothless's chin, causing for Toothless to fell over with an expression of pure bliss. Having nothing else to do since Toothless was sleeping, which mean they couldn't try to fly again, Astrid asked Hiccup to have a spar with her to keep their skill sharp, which he gladly accept.
Astrid had to face Stormfly again, but unlike last time, she didn't hit Stormfly with her axe. It happened when Snotlout try to attack the Nadder since he thought that Astrid was cornered, Astrid merely used the distraction to scratch Stormfly's chin until she found the pressure point and made Stormfly fell unconscious in bliss.
The night comes, Astrid and Hiccup had just returned from the Cove and went to eat in the Great Hall. Upon seeing the other teens were there as well, Hiccup went to sit on his usual place on the table next to them, Astrid then sit beside Hiccup to keep him company. They were surprised when the other teens moved to their table to ask questions to Astrid, even the adults were also crowding their table to congratulate her. Their dinner couldn't be more awkward.
Gobber cancelled the training that day, saying that he need to help out Bucket and Mulch with fishing, but Hiccup knew that Gobber was just bored and wanted to do something new. Hiccup and Astrid agreed to use this opportunity to get some flying exercise with Toothless, well, Hiccup flew with Toothless while Astrid observing as usual. They flew and kept crashing, leading Hiccup to say that they won't flying until he figure out how to get the tail fin work, so they just hanging around the Cove together for the rest of the day.
They chatted while Astrid trained with her axe and Hiccup fixed his harness, all the while ignoring Toothless who ran around the Cove, thinking that the dragon just wanted to train his running. It was later when Toothless tackle Astrid to the ground that they found out the reason why Toothless running around like that, he was chasing the light that was reflected from Astrid's axe. Astrid then moved her axe around to get Toothless to chase the light again, laughing with Hiccup all the time. That day was great for the both of them and they got a good laugh, unfortunately, Toothless didn't happy because he spent hours chasing a mere light, he punished them by throwing them into the pond.
"Meet the Terrible Terror!" Gobber said cheerfully as he lowered the lever and released the dragon.
Hiccup watched in amusement as he saw the teens stared at the small dragon, he was sure that they were wondering why such a small dragon got a name as something 'terrible', and then chuckled when Sharpshot attacked Tuffnut by biting on his nose, cutting whatever the boy wanted to say.
Astrid was amused as well, but she had had enough of hearing Tuffnut saying that he was 'very much hurt', so she used the light trick, by reflecting the sunlight using her axe, to get the green Terror back into his cage.
"Wow, Astrid, you are awesome." Snotlout praised her as soon as she got the Terror back to his cage, no doubt trying to get Astrid to like him.
Astrid sighed in annoyance and waved him away, "Give up, Snot, I'm not interested to be your girlfriend." She said dismissively as she walked away, trying to get away before she got surrounded by her fans again.
Snotlout didn't catch the hint though, he went after Astrid and grabbed her hand, "Oh come on, Babe, stop playing hard to get." He said with a confident and flirtatious smirk.
Astrid gagged mockingly, "I'm not your Babe, nor do I play hard to get." She hissed at him as she snatched her hand out of his grasp before walking away again.
"Why?" Snotlout demanded, halting her step just as Hiccup arrived at her side, "I'm the best for you, why won't you date me?".
"She don't love you, Snotlout." Hiccup answered for Astrid, "Now, just go find someone else to flirt with".
"Shut up, Useless." Snotlout snarled at him in anger, "I'm asking her, not you".
"You're the one who need to shut up, Snotlout!" Astrid snapped at him with a dead glare as she finally had had enough of the boy's constant attempt to flirt with her, she turned to face the boy and placed her right hand on her hip, "First, Snotlout, you are not the best for me, and like Hiccup said just now, I don't love you. So, give up and find someone else to bother." Her glare than became harsher, "Second, don't you dare call him Useless again, or so help me, I will kick your sorry ass".
With that, Astrid grabbed Hiccup's hand and pulled the boy with her towards the exit, but again Snotlout stopped her.
"Why do you care about him?!" Snotlout demanded as he glared at his Cousin, "He is nothing but a coward who is too chicken to kill a dragon!".
"He is not a coward!" Astrid yelled furiously at him, enough to make Snotlout taken aback in slight fear, "He is a better person that you ever were and ever will!" Her eyes then narrowed, "You asked why I care about him?" She then grabbed Hiccup's collar and pulled him into a kiss full on the lips, causing the boy's eyes to widen in shock. She heard gasps of shock from her audience and a cat call from Gobber, but she ignored them and pulled back before glaring at Snotlout again, "Because I love him." She finished before leaving the arena, dragging a dazed and red faced Hiccup with her along the way.
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To be continued . . .
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