Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon, or any of the associated characters.

Summary: See Previous Chapters

CHAPTER NINE

It wasn't storming that night, so class was held on the watchtower, dinner eaten around a small fire.

Natalya nibbled at her chicken, more concerned with the unobtrusive Thundercloud hovering nearby. At least, since it was night-time, it was less likely that people would notice. Even better, tonight Gobber was telling stories of old battles, rather than lecturing them on the lesson. "...and with one bite, that dragon took my hand, and I saw the look on it's face: I was delicious."

Natalya wasn't so sure about that, but whatever made the Blacksmith feel better. She knew better than to comment, anyway, especially since the big Viking was still speaking. "He must have passed the word, because it wasn't more than a month later that another one of them took my leg!"

Fishlegs toyed with the two drumsticks he held. "Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like, if your mind was still in control of it, you could have reached out and crushed its heart or something?"

Natalya stared at Fishlegs, mouth slightly open in obvious disgust and totally oblivious to Astris wearing the exact same expression from her seat next to Fishlegs. "That is probably the most morbid and disturbing thing I have ever heard. Thanks for the nightmares."

Fishlegs turned slightly green as he thought over how his words must have sounded, but was prevented from replying by Snotlout's usual over-compensation. "I swear I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand, and your beautiful foot! I'll rip off the legs of every dragon I see! With my face."

Hiccup's cousin somehow didn't notice the eye-rolls from pretty much everyone as Gobber shook his head. "No, it's the wings and the tail that you want! If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Meeting Hiccup's eyes, Natalya could practically see the realisation dawning in them both. Toothless hadn't flown away because his tailfin had been torn off! His wings could get him airborne, but without both tailfins, he couldn't stay in the air or steer! They needed to get to Hiccup's notebook, fast, but they needed a distraction first.

Gobber provided it by standing up and yawning. "Right, I'm off to bed, and you should be too. Tomorrow we get started on the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honour of killing it?"

Hurrying down to the workshop, Natalya didn't hear the various boastful replies. The unobtrusive thundercloud followed them to the forge, resolving itself into Skyfire as Hiccup was stoking the forge, sketches of Toothless spread out nearby.

Skyfire could generate the lightning-like fire of a Skrill if she wanted, but most of the time it was more like most dragon fire. A ruined sword meant for the scrap pile provided metal that Skyfire heated to melting point, and hiccup fastened into long rods, examining her tail for comparison purposes. The rivets on a shield held them together, while Natalya cut up Hiccup's spare apron to serve as a replacement for the fin itself, sewing it onto the frame with quick, neat stitches.

Finally, they surveyed the finished product with a kind of quiet pride. Hiccup eased Skyfire away from where she was sniffing the tailfin, "Do you think it'll work?"

Natalya smiled, stretching her cramped fingers. "I think we'll need to try it to find out - and that I'll need to try and get some leather off Father to replace the apron before Gobber notices - but probably."

Hiccup beamed at her. "If you can take care of the nestlings in the morning, I'll try it out then. Er, I may need to raid your nets for some fish to distract him. I can only sneak a few out of the stores."

Natalya returned the smile. "Go ahead." Her smile faded and she sighed, "You know, there are times I wish we could tell the others, not just so they'd stop talking about fighting dragons, but so they could see that we aren't useless just because we're different."

Hiccup wrapped an arm around his friend, knowing the feeling all too well and trying to lighten the atmosphere. "Tell the twins about the kind of explosions a Zippleback can create. They'd jump at the idea."

Natalya laughed; Ruffnut and Tuffnut probably would try to tame a Zippleback, just for that. She leaned her head on Hiccup's shoulder for a brief moment. "Put the forge out and get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow."

Porridge was bubbling nicely in the pot when Natalya awoke the next morning, tinged the slight gold of honey and cinnamon being added for flavour. Her father's addition, no doubt, as was the small dish of berries on the table.

Natalya smiled as she sat down, still braiding her hair. "Thank you, Father. My porridge always comes out lumpy, for some reason."

Trader Johan smiled back, even if the porridge had been an attempt to make himself feel less useless at taking care of his only child. "Don't feel too bad. The lumps in Enna's porridge could be fired out of a ballista, and size would be the only difference you'd notice."

Natalya giggled and changed the subject. "Do you have any leather in stock? Hiccup's apron was a casualty of dragons, and we'd like to replace it before Gobber finds out."

Johan laughed. He'd seen the look on Hiccup's face when the two of them walked back into the village late yesterday afternoon, and the matching spring in his daughter's step. He and Enna had been like that, long ago before her parents had refused permission, when nothing had mattered but how they felt toward each other.

He grew serious again. "I'll check my stock before I leave this afternoon. I'll be back as soon as I can though."

His daughter's smile dimmed a little, but she put on a brave face. "I'll put some supplies together. Business is always slower when the warriors are away."

Johan reached over the table to cover her hand with his. "Don't take what they say to heart, dear one. You're stronger than they know, and you have loyal company in young Hiccup."

Natalya's smile brightened again at the name, which cheered him as much as it worried him. But both teens were sensible, and knew the consequences too well to do anything rash in the absence of parental supervision. "I know, Father. I'll be fine."

'Fine' was a bit of an exaggeration, but better for her father's health and business than letting him observe another session of Dragon Training.

From Hiccup's drenched but overjoyed appearence (and the brief glimpse of a Nightfury in flight while Natalya was riding Skyfire to the valley) when he showed up at her hall half an hour before the day's training was due to start, the tailfin had been a success.

HIccup had also been saying something about a trick to use against the Zippleback and brains over brawn, a bit too excited to realise that at least half of what he was saying was muffled by a towel, but they had been too close to running late for Natalya to ask him to repeat whatever he had said slower.

"Today is about teamwork!" At least Gobber sounded as cheerful as ever, despite the door of the Zippleback cage bursting open to engulf the entire arena in a thick haze of smoke.

Due to uneven numbers, Natalya was stuck with Ruffnut and Astrid, which none of them were happy about and even Gobber should have spotted as a recipe for disaster. For all their arguing, the twins worked best as a team, while Astrid and Natalya were still at odds from the previous day.

But either the blacksmith didn't notice, or he decided that they needed to work together anyway. "Now, a wet dragon head can't light it's fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas; the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

All three girls muttered something rude as the smoke surrounded them, which was fortunate for Fishlegs, who was spouting off statistics and about to be punched if they could actually see him. "Razor-sharp, serrated fangs, which inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attacks, crushing it's victims -"

Hiccup, partnering Fishlegs, didn't appear to take the commentary much better than anyone else. "Will you please stop that!"

On the other side of the arena, Tuffnut and Snotlout were shoving each other out of the way, eager to get to the dragon first. "If that dragon shows either of its faces, I'm gonna - there!"

Natalya was well-positioned, in the sense that both Ruffnut and Astrid were directly in the line of fire, and her instinctive step backward saved her from much more than a mild splashing, unlike the other two. "Hey! It's us, you idiots!"

Perhaps a side effect of being twins with Ruffnut, Tuffnut was unconcerned. "Whoa, your butts are getting bigger; we thought you were a dragon."

Snotlout was a bit more alert to potential warning signs, as both Astrid and Natalya narrowed their eyes. He tried to backpedal, knowing that this wasn't going to end nicely. "Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure... Oof!"

Astrid punched him as Ruffnut threw her bucket at her brother's head, reasoning that Natalya and Astrid still had their buckets, which was still enough for one per Zippleback head.

Although not for long, as something dragged Tuffnut into the smoke, and a tail came sweeping out of nowhere, knocking Astrid off her feet and making her drop her bucket.

Natalya dodged Tuffnut when he came tearing out of the smoke, followed by a head, only for Astrid to grab Natalya's bucket and throw it at the head, while her cousin's eyes were still trying to follow the curve of the neck. She tried to grab it back, but missed. "That's the right head!"

Her wording was bad, she could admit. Natalya had meant 'left and right', because the left head was the one that lit the gas from the right head, but Astrid probably thought that she meant 'right' as in 'correct'.

Luckily for everyone, Natalya still smelled strongly of Skrill, and a certain thundercloud had taken advantage of the gas and smoke to sneak in and drop the disguise for a moment, un-noticed by the teens that were frozen facing the Zippleback. It was good timing, as the current head started to emit gas.

The Zippleback, like many before it, decided that it wasn't worth tangling with the second-most dangerous species, and left to find easier prey. Natalya waved frantically for Skyfire to get out of there before the thinning smoke failed entirely, hearing Fishelgs comment in the background, "Chances of survival are dwindling to single digits now."

Astrid punched Natalya in the bicep. "You said that was the right head!"

Natalya punched her back, already missing her father and fed up with Dragon Training and everything to do with it. "Did I sound like I was cheering you on? Right heads breathe gas, left heads make sparks! Anyone who gave the Book of Dagons more than a passing glance knows that!"

Or anyone who has been watching baby Zipplebacks grow up for the past ten years, but whatever. They stopped arguing when Fishlegs ran by, yelling with terror and trailing green fumes and Gobber yelled "Now, Hiccup!"

The last of the smoke cleared, and Natalya could see Hiccup throw the water up at the correct Zippleback head, which calmly lifted itself out of range. "Aw, come on!"

The Zippleback roared and lunged forward, then just as suddenly reared up, backing away as Hiccup advanced. "Back! Back! Don't make me tell you again! Back into your cage!"

The Zippleback retreated as Hiccup opened his vest just enough for Natalya to see him slip something off his shoulder. "Now think about what you've done."

He closed the doors of the cage, turning to see everyone staring at him in shock. Fishlegs dropped the bucket he was still clutching. Hiccup tried not to look at Natalya, knowing that her raised eyebrow could crack him faster than a dragon egg at hatching time. The middle of the arena was not a good place to blurt out the trick that he had just used. "OK, so, are we done? Because I've got some things I need to... Yep, see you tomorrow!"

He bolted before Gobber or any of the other teens could pin him down and demand explanations. Ruffnut rounded on Natalya. "Did you know he could do stuff like that?"

Natalya was in a bad enough mood to be catty in her response. "I've always known that Hiccup could do amazing things, if people could get over the fact that he does them differently and let him experiment."

She followed in Hiccup's wake, resolving to go back and check the Zippleback's cage for answers once everyone else was gone.

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A/N: Right, the chapter is up and I hope you enjoyed it.

Work is starting again, which may cut into my writing time, but it promise not to abandon this story. Also, I posted a one-shot for the Maleficent movie that came out recently. Go check it out if character introspect ions are your thing.

Thanks!