A/N: Yeah, I couldn't come up with a better chapter title than this.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from How to train your dragon
Chapter 10: The Development
The next month, the Haddock twins worked most of the nights to improve Toothless' prosthetic tailfin. They started by making saddles. The next morning, after chasing the two dragons down for hours to get the saddles on, they went on separate test flights with Hicca learning to get use to flying on Midnight and Hiccup trying to find a way to control Toothless' tailfin manually. It seemed to be going well, until Hicca and Midnight took a sharp turn, causing Hicca to fall off the saddle knocking Hiccup and Toothless, who were flying below them into the pond. This caused the two teens to come to the same conclusion; harnesses and riding vests.
So they spent the next night making the vests with ropes attached to the saddles to make them more secure. The next day, both teens and dragons worked on their flight until Hiccup and Toothless crash landed in a grassy field. Hicca landed her dragon on the field and got off Midnight to check on her brother and make sure he did not sustain any wounds. After she finished her quick check-up, they both turned around and saw Midnight and Toothless rolling around in the grass in a pure bliss.
Hicca picked up some of the grass and sniffed it "Smells like garlic." She commented. Seeing how much their dragons enjoyed the grass gave the twins an idea.
At the next dragon training, the teens once again had to face the Gronckle. This time they both snuck in the grass which they have dubbed as 'dragon nip'. When the Gronckle charged after Hiccup, he held the dragon nip in front of him, causing the dragon to stop as its pupils widened in the delight at the scent. The other teens, except Hicca and Astrid, were once again impressed and amazed at how Hiccup could easily defeat the dragon. They started hanging out with the Haddock twins more, trying to found out how Hiccup did it.
"Oh, look at that. I just remembered that I left my axe back in the Ring. Why don't you guys go on ahead and I'll catch up with you." Hiccup said, subtly signalling his sister.
Hicca got the message "Oh, so did I. I'll come with you." She said and they ran back nearly running into Astrid who seemed a bit suspicious.
Soon, the two made it back to the Cove, where Hiccup started giving Toothless a good scratch. He then scratched under the chin causing the Night Fury to instantly drop in deep sleep. Out of curiosity, Hicca did the same with Midnight and got the same result.
"We need to keep a journal with us to write all this stuff down." Hicca said with her brother nodding in agreement.
Next day in the Arena, the teens were up against the blue Deadly Nadder (Gobber decided to be nice enough to only let one Deadly Nadder out this time. This didn't really make a difference to the teens though.). As the Nadder charged after Hicca, she dropped her axe and shield, making the Nadder stop in confusion. 'Why was this human not attacking?' A battle cry made Hicca look up and saw Astrid running towards the Nadder with her axe ready. Hicca frantically scratch the Nadder under its chin, trying to find its' weak spot. She found it just in time as the Nadder instantly dropped to the ground causing Astrid to stop and look at her in shock. That night Hicca and Hiccup went to the Great Hall for dinner. They went to sit with Raeda and what they didn't expect was to be instantly swarmed by all the Vikings, teens and adults. All that is except for a blonde Hofferson girl who was not happy with the turn of events.
Another flight trial with Hiccup and Toothless resulted in another crash-landing on to the ground. Hiccup slowly tried to get up, cradling his left arm, as his sister came.
"Hiccup! Are you ok?" Hicca asked, worried.
"Don't worry sis. I'm fine." Hiccup said, still holding his left arm.
Hicca, knowing her brother too well, was not convinced. She grabbed his left arm, ignoring his protest, and pulled down his sleeve revealing his bleeding arm. She then gave him a look that said 'Who are you trying to fool.'
"Sit down bro. Good news is you're not going to need stitches. Just need to get this wrapped." She then brought out her first aid kit and did what she did best; healing people. Toothless and Midnight came over to the two, curious to see what Hicca was doing.
"Dragon and dragoness, I present to you my sister; the healer." Hiccup said, gesturing to Hicca with his right hand. Hicca smiled at this and continued 'Maybe when dad comes back, I might be able to finally tell him. Hopefully it can work out.'
Then one day, Hiccup and Hicca brought their tools to the Cove to work on Toothless' saddle without being spotted by their new fans. As they were working Hiccup looked up and saw Toothless chasing a tiny spotlight being reflected from his hammer. He then moved the hammer, making the light move as well making Toothless chase after it. Hicca, who was watching this, picked a dagger (Midnight and Toothless trust the twins enough to let them bring the dagger without fear of being attacked) and used it to shine a light on Midnight, who started chasing it as well. With their entire focus on their own spot of light, both Night Furies pounced and accidently head-butted each other, causing Hiccup and Hicca to burst out laughing at the dragons' confused reactions.
Next dragon training the teens fought against another new dragon.
"Meet the Terrible Terror." Gobber announced. But instead of a large, intimidating dragon that the teens were used, to a small and seemingly harmless dragon came out of the cage.
Tuffnut was amused by this "Ha! That is a terrifying dragon? That's like the size of my-" As if it detected the insult, the Terrible Terror flew to Tuffnut in a blur and started to bite his nose, making the other teens cautiously step back.
"AH! HELP! HELP! GET IT OFF! OH, I'M HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT! I'M DYING!" Tuffnut yelled in pain. The dragon then got off Tuffnut and started chasing a spotlight on the ground, created by Hicca and her shield. It then moved back into the cage with Hicca behind to close the small door, once again impressing everyone who is present except for Hiccup and Astrid.
"Wow, she and Hiccup are better than you ever were." Tuffnut said to Astrid as he got up. This made Astrid glare harder as she looks at Hicca, who had just finished locking the gate. 'How are they doing this?'
Angry at the Haddock twins for outshining her, Astrid decided to go to the forest to train and to let out her frustrations. 'How can those two suddenly become good? They're not even using any weapons at all! They are both up to something and I am going to find out what it is.' The memory of the Nadder incident then came to mind as well as what Hicca told her. She was completely shocked at the Hiccas' outburst along with everyone else and a small part of her did feel guilty. 'No. I can't feel sorry about this. I am warrior. I need to do this for my family.'
She then got out her axe, did a tuck and roll and was about to throw it at a tree when she stopped. Right in front of her were Hiccup and Hicca, with Hiccup carrying something in his arms. Both of them froze for a second, not expecting to run into Astrid, and then ran off. Astrid tried to follow them, but lost their trail, much to her annoyance and frustration. 'I will definitely get them next time.'
Meanwhile, the Haddock twins made it to Cove where Hiccup was putting on the finishing touches to the Toothless' tailfin and saddle. He and his sister modified the left stirrup of the saddle so that Hiccup could control the prosthetic tailfin with his left foot. He brought a rope, a peg and a hammer and started pounding the peg to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Hicca asked as she got on Midnight.
"I need to see which tail position does what. I'm making a cheat sheet."
"Can't you do that without being tethered? 'Learn on the job.' Like Gobber always say."
"Well that method nearly got me killed on the first day of dragon training. So I'll just stick to my method." Hiccup replied as he tied the rope onto the saddle. Hicca just shrugged "Well you better learn fast or Midnight and I will be far better than you two." Midnight warbled in agreement. Hiccup and Toothless just rolled their eyes. No way were they going to let the girls be better than them!
As Hicca and Midnight flew close by, Hiccup and Toothless worked out the different tail positions. It was all working out fine, until the rope snapped causing Hiccup and Toothless to fly backwards. They then bumped into Hicca and Midnight who happened to be flying by and all four of them crashed into a tree. Luckily the harnesses prevented the twins from flying further away from their dragons.
As Hicca got up, she noticed that her safety hook has been bent, making her tethered to Midnight. "Um, Hiccup? I think we got a problem here." She said nervously.
"Actually sis, we've got two problems." Hiccup said, equally nervous. Hicca turned and saw that her brother had the same problem. "Oh boy."
Late at night, back in the village, most of the people have gone to bed. Hiccup and Hicca were leaning against one of the houses, acting casual as a man walked by them.
"Hiccup. Hicca." The man greeted. The twins waved back. As soon as the man left, the twins check to make sure no one is around and then they walked ahead pulling their harnesses to keep Toothless and Midnight with them.
"Hiccup, I will have you know that I think this is a stupid plan that's going to give us a one-way ticket to banishment." Hicca whispered to her brother.
"Well, I didn't hear you come up with a better plan." Hiccup retorted as they quietly made their way to the forge. When they reached the forge Toothless stuck his head in a bucket and threw it off while Midnight accidently knocked some swords with her tail. Both these actions made some noises which caught the attention of a certain girl nearby.
Inside the forge, Hicca and Hiccup work fast to fix the safety hook when suddenly a voice called out to them. "Hiccup? Hicca? Are you two in there?"
This caused the twins to freeze "Astrid." Hiccup mouthed to his sister.
"I can't go." Hicca mouthed back. She was still not on speaking terms with Astrid. Hiccup then got out of the forge, pulling Toothless along with him, much to the dragons' dismay.
"Astrid. Hey! Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid. How are you? It's a nice day, isn't it?" Hicca, who was overhearing this silently face-palmed. Her brother was not good at acting subtle at all! She finished fixing her own safety hook and started working on her brothers', while also listening in to the conversation outside.
"I normally don't care what people do, but you and your sister are acting weird." Astrid said.
Just then Toothless spotted a sheep that froze at the sight of a dragon. This caused Hiccup to be pulled back to the door. Hiccup gave a nervous laugh as Hicca silently scolded Toothless, trying to get him to stay.
"Well, weirder than normal." Astrid said, looking at Hiccup.
Suddenly, Hiccup was pulled inside. Astrid rushed inside the forge, but to her shock, it was empty. Unbeknownst to her, two teens and two dragons were rushing into the forest, back to a familiar place.