AN: So close to the landmark 100 follows. And nearly 100 reviews too! So glad everyone seemed to love the last chapter and it's cliffhanger. I would have put this up earlier but for some reason I couldn't put a new chapter up until now. The fight will not be in this chapter, this one is just setting the scene for it. I hope I've done it well. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon.
Wow, I actually did it normally for once. What is the world coming to?!
What?
Did he…did he just say what I think he did? Dragon training?
Oh, crud, I'm doomed. Goodbye cruel world, it's been nice knowing you. Well, not really, its been a living Helheim since mum left. Maybe I can scare everyone off with my incredible manly vikingness… I'm doomed.
It would be a lot nicer knowing that I could put up a fight, but with me there is a difference between being having the capability to put up a fight and actually being able to fight. I'm at the more pain filled end of that divide.
And Gobber's decided to lock me in with a bunch of rowdy teenagers that wield a variety of deadly weapons. Anyone else share my optimism?
I started pacing around, trying to think of something that could help. Wait, I know! I could release all the other dragons, stage an escape with them and fly off to live somewhere else. Great! Except… I can't fly.
Whoopee.
Maybe they can teach me how to fly? We're stuck in a cage, not a chance of flying in here. Guess I will have to learn to fight then. I shook my head at that thought. Learn to fight? I am the most single-handedly destructive clumsy Viking that ever lived. I have managed to cut myself with a hammer, knock myself out with an arrow head and slice myself by looking at a particularly sharp sword!
Well, I used to be. Not so sure now but I don't feel any safer not being able to wield any of the usual weapons. Instead, all of my weapons have come pre-built with my new body. A variety of miniature swords on all of my feet, a thick bludgeon at the base of my spine, teeth sharper than arrows and a flamethrower in my throat.
And I have no idea what to do with any of it.
A series of faint thuds from the wall near my broke me out of my thoughts "Hey, you gonna let me out now or what?" Stormfly's muffled voice came through.
That's an idea. I might not know how to defend myself, but I do know some who do. Hopefully they can take pity on me and teach me how to defend myself. Although I'd rather skip the pity and get on with the defending.
Some louder thumps from the cage door indicated that the she-dragon was getting impatient.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't get your undies in a twist." I called out to her.
The knocking stopped. "I don't know what you mean by 'undies', but I hope I don't have them whatever they are."
I mentally faceplanted myself before dropping the lever to open the cage doors. As soon as the locking bar had risen high enough to let the doors open, Stormfly leapt out and roared a challenge.
"Come on! Bring it on you filthy little… huh, no humans."
She looked confused for a moment as she scanned the arena, the scents of people with weapons conflicting with the sight of an empty arena. That is, empty except for me, desperately trying to avoid laughing at her actions. After she did a complete circle as if she was chasing her tail, I didn't try to hold it in. Bursting into laughter, I collapsed into a heap by the lever.
"Sorry. You just… tried to scare them… but there's nobody here!" I spat out when I wasn't laughing.
Alas, I had forgotten one of the few wise things my father had told me: Never annoy a woman, lad, or beware her wrath!
Stormfly's tail spines snapped open, and she started glaring at me. I shot to my feet and started backing away from her while she stormed closer.
"Ok, ok! You are scary! I take everything back, including what I haven't said yet!" That didn't seem to appease her, so I decided to leg it around the arena, laughing and apologising for the laughter not entirely sincerely.
She started building up to running, tail lashing around wildly. She looked decidedly scary, I decided after glancing back a few times. Especially while launching deadly toxic projectiles at your face. Huh? Jumping to avoid the barrage of spines, I looked forward to find myself in a collision course with the wall.
"Wah!" It felt like time slowed down for a few moments as the wall drew closer. I reached out to try and lessen the impact with my front legs, then felt myself rotating in the air as I somehow pushed myself along the wall. As the first of the needles struck the wall below me, my back legs met the wall, and pushed off again immediately, somehow managing to jump off the wall. Time resumed its normal speed as I sped along the ground again.
"I did not know I could do that!" I shouted over my shoulder. "I did not expect that to happen!" True to my nature, I decided to try to do it again. Do something once, see if you can do it again, that's the principle I worked on while building my variety of contraptions.
Its not my fault none of them worked.
Forgetting for a moment that so far none of my wild ideas has ever worked before (the bola launcher that caught the Night Fury doesn't count, I couldn't follow through with its results), I threw myself at the wall again and tried to twist my body like what happened the first time.
Safe to say that not much happened, except for my side scraping along the wall and me landing on a pile of shields. "Owowowowow. That hurt. Just a little bit." I complained as I rolled back to my feet, a turned to see Stormfly's tail inches from my nose, spines still extended.
"Um, your not still mad about earlier are you?" I asked, not looking away from her tail.
She didn't respond at first, or move. Then she tapped my nose gently with the tip of her tail and said "Tag!" before vanishing from my sight. I groaned at her apparent playfulness and stretched to relieve the muscles I landed on.
"I don't have time for this Stormfly." I called after her "Actually, I need your help for now"
She refused to drop her aggressively playful demeanour, and flew up to hang upside down from the chain roof. "Why? What happened? Is the world going to end tomorrow?" She asked teasingly.
"Yes. It is." I deadpanned.
"All the more reason to enjoy yourself while you can." She cackled.
I settled down on the floor, curling up to rest my head on my tail. "Well, your world might not end tomorrow but mine will."
"Ok, spill it. What's the big sulks about? Lemme guess, your going to be attacked by a bunch of rowdy kids with their metal claws." She finished sarcastically.
"Thank you for summing it up" I returned dryly.
"My pleasure." I smirked a little as I watched her eyes slowly widen as she registered what had just been said. When she did, she smoothly dropped to the floor and landed in a predatory crouch. "What did you just say? Is that really going to happen? Explain. Now."
Overly playful terror gone? Check.
Overly protective mother figure looming over me? Check.
I began explaining everything that had happened while she got locked in the cage, from saving Astrid, to the skirmish with Gobber and ending with his pronouncement of impending doom. "…so I need you to help me learn to fight, or at least hold them off so I don't die." I finished my tale of woe with a shrug.
For a couple of long moments we stared at each other, neither of us moving a muscle. After a rather tense wait, she started blinking rapidly and made as if to speak, but cut herself off at the last moment.
"I am going to pretend that you never said any of that and I'll teach you how to fight. How about that?" Expressionless, she turned away and walked over to a wall.
'She's taking this incredibly well. I expected laughter or outright denial, not simple acceptance' I thought. I started moving over to her, but stopped as she bought her tail as far around a she could and spat a burning stream of bright fire at the tip. She yelped, and waved it around before facing me, mumbling something that sounded strangely like 'So I didn't dream all of that'.
"So what comes first?" I questioned
"First we need to work on your stance. Rule number one says that you must keep your balance at all times. Keep your weight evenly balanced so that you are prepared to move at a moments notice." I stepped into the centre of the arena and got into what I thought of as a suitable fighting stance, while she circled me like a hawk. As she walked around me she nudged my limbs, moving them into a better position until she was happy with my posture.
After a little while, she brought the others out to help me learn how to dodge (mainly involving shooting me with fire until I learnt how to get out of the way), how to use my ears to locate the others and evade their attacks (getting hit more often than not) and how to use my wings for basic combat manoeuvres (jumping over a sleeping Grunckle).
And after a pain-filled excuse for a day and a nightmare filled night, where I had my head handed to me multiple times, the fateful day arrived.
Waking up early, I started practicing the best of my newfound skills. Namely, running away in a panic. Before long, my exertions woke Stormfly up.
"Don't wear yourself out to early. You'll never be able to fight back if you tire yourself out now." She mumbled while stretching.
I stopped my running, but immediately fell into my nervous pacing. "I'm not so bothered about fighting back as I am about surviving"
"Well, just remember what we did yesterday and you'll be fine. It's not like any of them know what they're doing either according to Meatlug."
Granted, Meatlug was right about that, except in Astrid's case. She definitely knows what she is doing with that axe of hers. But any of them could get a good hit in which could do seriously damage me. And I would like to avoid being mounted in the Mead Hall anytime soon.
All too soon, Gobber arrived with the training group in tow. "Stormfly, get back into the cage, but don't let the door shut properly. It'll stop it from locking shut. Keep an eye on me in case anything goes wrong. Please."
As I turned to face the group again, all I could see was Snotlout's expectant grin. The same grin that had always promised me pain throughout my life.
AN: First things first, the burning the tail thing was meant to be an equivalent to pinching yourself because you thought you was dreaming, and I doubt that dragons can pinch themselves. And the wall jump thing was just because I was bored. So whose P.O.V should the next chapter be in? I'm thinking either Hiccup, Astrid or Fishlegs. I'm also considering giving Hiccup a human friend out of one of the gang soon. Either Astrid or Fishlegs first I'm thinking.
Either way, tell me what you think!
And do you still want me to hurt Hiccup?
