Chapter 11 Flying With Friends

" Astrid, why do you holding a bucket with a towel in it." Snotlout asked as the teens met at the edge of the forest next day.

" I remembered Stormfly said something like she wanted a wash two or three days ago, and I kind of forgot it yesterday. So I bring these ."

" You really pay attention to what I said." Hiccup replied.

They found their dragons were hiding in the forest besides the cove as the dragons need sheld themslves from the weather. All of them were still here, except Sharpshoot and Nevmes who went back to the nest to fulfill their duty. All of them entered their hide out and the nadder seem excited to see Astrid holding a bucket. Toothless said if no one remember to wash Stormfly, she was going to do it herself. She wanted to do it the day she and others were free, but Toothless suggested her to bear it a few days more to see if Astrid really care about her.

" Do all dragons like being clean or it is just nadders." Fishlegs asked

" All, but nadders like it the most. Toothless actually believes that nadders smells better than most vikings." All of them sniffed themslves and it didn't smell pleasant. Might be Toothless is right... How could a creature lived in the wild smelled better than they humans who lived in houses, this was embrassing!

" I am not included in the most vikings." Hiccup continued after they stopped using their nose.

" How come?" Fishlegs asked.

" I sweat a lot everyday since I worked in a forge and it is very hot out there. So I...and Gobber take a bath everyday."

" I have to smell Gobber after he finished his work and took a bath." Tuffnut said.

"And me also." His sister joined in.

" Don't tell me you two are going to sneak into somebody's, no, your teacher's house to do it." Hiccup said with worry.

" You just give me a idea." Tuffnut was inspired. God blessed them. Hope they would forget this stupid idea or they would get hurt real bad by Gobber who would idenified them as thieves.

Astrid was informed that Stormfly was grateful that she cared about her, but she could do it herself. After saying that, the dragons broke the ice by simply put a foot on it and had a bath which all of them wanted for their lifetime. The nightmare had locked in the ring for ten months right aftered the previous one was killed by the winner of the dragon training. The gronkle, zippleback and terror had been in there for years. The teens watched their dragons with interest. The dragons didn't just clean themselves, but others as well since a dragon couldn't reach every place of his body. Toothless and Stormfly went back to shore last as Toothless had to fulfill the high standard of hygiene. He complained why nadders were so hygenic and cared their appearance so much since they were not that beautiful anyway. He said the last part in his mind or the same embrassing event which involved a piss off nadder sat on him like a hen would happened again. Toothless also reminded himself not to being too close with Stormfly or rumour would start to fly around and he definelty didn't wanted to upset Sharpshoot.

The dragon lied on the shore and had a sun bath, enjoying the warmth.

" So, no flying in this morning huh." Astrid stated. They were wearing way more clothes than they need in this kind of temperature and they took off their heavy and thick fur coats as it was getting hot. Hiccup informed them to wear the coats and gloves yesterday, so they wouldn't get freeze to death during their first flight and all of them were excited. So it was kind of disappointing to see their dragon took a nap under the warm sun lazly and they were not going to get up any time soon by the looks of it. They returned to the tent and discussed all kinds of topics related to dragons to kill their time. About an hour later, Toothless poked his head into the tent and told the teens that they were ready.

They put on their pounds of fur and rushed to the dragons. Hiccup brought out a bundle of ropes he prepared early on and tossed them to his friends. They tied themselves up to the dragons since they could not be sure their dragons could catch them in time if they fell.

" Okay, all of you relax. The dragons would take care of the flight. It is going to be terrifing at first but you will get used to it and love it." Hiccup said when they were sitting on the back of their dragons, prepared to take off.

All of his friends screamed and panicing when their dragons got off the ground, But they clamed down quickly and experienced what Hiccup had in the last three months.

" This is amazing! They are amazing." Astrid summered up their feelings in a short sentence while she put a hand on Stormfly's reached out their hands to touch the clouds once they had gain enough attitude.

" I don't feel anything. I always think they are soft like our pillow." Fishlegs said.

" There is so much thing we don't know." Hiccup replied.

" Don't you want to know the age of your dragons." Hiccup yelled back.

"Sure" "Of course"

" Stormfly is twenty, Sneaky is eleven, Meatlug is seventeen, Hoofang is twenty nine and Barfbelch is thirty five."

" Wow! Barfbelch is older than us so much." Ruffnut said.

" I asked Toothless about this before I let you start your friendships with them. I don't want you bond with a dragon which is too young or too old, or one of you would have to live without each other for a long time. So it was kind of luckly that all of them have the right age to match up with you." They thought deeply about this. People would get really sad when their beloved horses died, let alone a dragon which could understand you and talk to you.

" Hiccup, how high have you ever fly to." Fishlegs asked.

" To the point where I couldn't breath. The higher you go, the harder for you to breath."

" Wow" they said.

" We wanted to try that too." The twins said.

" Okay, but take it your dragons could not climb any higher or you can't breath, go back to the cove and wait for the others" Hiccup adviced while Toothless translated his words to Hookfang, Meatlug and Barfbelch. The temperature was dropping so as the density of the air. The difference in the body structure of the dragons started to matter as the attitude increased. Meatlug was the first dragon who gave up. Hookfang and Barfbelch joined a moment later. To Fishlegs' surprise, Stormfly was still able to follow the night fury long after others had quit as she, a nadder, should not be able to fly that high. Hiccup and Astrid signalled the dragons to descend or they were going to pass out if they kept climbing.

" So, fun huh." Hiccup said while he and Astrid demounted from their dragon.

" Yeah. Awesome!" The twins shouted together.

" Hiccup, how can Stormfly able to follow Toothless all the way up." Fishlegs pointed out. He obviously had remembered everything Hiccup or the book said about dragons. So Fishlegs.

" I had the same questioned before. Toothless explained that since he, Stormfly, Sharpshoot and Vofa are friends together for a long time, his friends get better at high attitude flying as Toothless often leads them to here."

" You mean the training she had make her get better just like we humans can get stronger by working out ?" Astrid concluded.

" Yep. Speaking of that, we need to get back here to do some training after we have our lunch."

" Why? Training is not fun!" Ruffnut said and her brother and Snotlout agreed too.

" If we don't get better, Gobber will banned us go into the forest alone and it will be harder for us too meet the dragons." Fishlegs pointed out.

" Just like what he say. And don't worry, it is going to be fun." Hiccup ended with a smile which contained some evilness. Astrid guessed out his training method and it was going to be so Gobber style. In another words, he believed in Learning On The Job. Just hope his method wasn't so reckless as Gobber's.

They took a pile of shields and weapons away from the empty kill Ring. Some people asked them about that, and they all got the same answer " Our training equipment". They headed to the cove, loaded the stuff to the dragons' back and flew to opposite side of the island, far away from the village. Their new training ground was a open field which had twice the area of the ring and was surrounded by forest with a stream not far away. They bulit another tent under one of the trees after they landed. They started their training after it is done.

"Welcome to dragon Training!" Hiccup announced. Fishlegs and Astrid knew what was going to happened the moment they heard the words. The twins and Snotlout on the other hand, were confused

" We are going to trained with the dragons. And the first part of the training is about survival."

"You mean, the dragons would attack us and we need to survive it." Astrid asked.

"Yep, they won't kill us or hurt us real bad of course. And today, we are going to have a nice tag game with Meatlug. Don't worry, it won't be last very long." The gronkle moved forward. " The rule is simple. Just don't get rammed by her and we cannot leave this glass field. The game will start after toothless nodded his head three times"

"Wait, won't you teach us first." Snotlout questioned.

" I believe in Learning On The Job. Now lets get in there."

They stood in the middle of the field with their dragons watching them from the forest. Toothless gave the signal to start the game and the gronkle besides him took off, charging towarded the teens. The teens scrattered and cried in terror. Although they knew it was a mock attack, being chased by a gronkle was still terrifying. Fishlegs, the twins and Snotlout were outed in two minutes since they ran in a straight line and got knocked to the ground. Astrid and Hiccup didn't run at all. They knew they were never going to be faster than the gronkle, even it was one of the slowest dragons. They would hold their ground and dodged at the last second by jumping to the side and finished it with a roll and repeated it again. Toothless called it out fifteen minutes later as the two surviver couldn't took it anymore due to exhaustation.

They had another four rounds with a short rest between each of them and Hiccup saw his friends was slowly improving after every round since they were more prepared and had a cue in their mind.

" I totally understand how you get better now." Astrid said

" My training is less serious. It is more like playing. But I get better mainly by riding Toothless. Riding dragon are not easy."

" Hiccup, we want to have another go." Snotlout requested while he and others were mounting on their dragons.

" Fine for me... You guys go first. Toothless, watch them, make sure they don't do anything stupid."

" Astrid, huh...you know... I want to be able to defend myself, so... can you help me with that?" He asked after they left.

" Fine, where do you want to start from?"

Hiccup revealed a short sword under his vest and handed it to Astrid." Can you teach me how to use this?"

" It is pretty light, suit for you... much powerful than a dagger while small enough to hide it. I think you made this for yourself, right?"

" Yeah, I made this a week ago."

" Okay, first of all, you need to hold it like this...

One hour later

" Hiccup, you are doing pretty good."

"Thanks"

" You will be great one day if you train as hard as I do."

" Really?"

" Yeah, I am serious. But... you can't use this thing as your main weapon in the battlefield. Its just not powerful enough. I think cross bow is for you, you are doing better in it than any of us."

" Thank you for your advice...Are they are not back yet?"

" No."

" Lets have some more flying and find them on our way."

The couple hopped on Stormfly and took off.

" So guys, how are you doing." Hiccup said when the nadder approached the formation of four dragon.

" It could be better if our dragons willing to go faster." Tufffnut complained.

" It is for your own good. Those ropes won't be able to hold you if you go that fast and pull some manover at the same time."

Hiccup untied his ropes.

" Wait Hiccup! What are you doing?" Astrid asked nervously.

" Go back to my dragon. Toothless!"

The night fury moved and flew under the nadder. Hiccup jumped and landed on the back of Toothless. Cool was the only word his peer could think of.

" Great day, huh." Hiccup asked while they were dismounting from their dragon.

" Yeah" "the sunset is so beautiful" " Sure it is."

" Oh no, we are nearly late for dinner!" Fishlegs said and they ran back to the village.

" Astrid, Ruffnut, Can you two do me a favour." Hiccup asked after they had their dinner.

" What?"

" You see, you guys need proper flying equipments like saddles and harness. I hope you two can give me some help with that."

" You mean you want us to help you make those things. Sure no problem." Astrid replied and Ruffnut agreed too.

" How about others. Why don't you ask them too." Ruffnut pointed out.

" They wouldn't know how to handle the needle." Viking tradition men should focused on their weapons and fighting skills and left other stuff like knitting to the women. On the other hand, women could learn and do anything they want because of reasons.

" Where do you learn this?" Astrid asked when they were making saddle in the forge. Although Astrid was always connected with her fighting ability, her knitting skills was surprisingly good for a girl who spent hours in the wood killing trees with her axe everyday.

"I learnt it from Gothi secretly. I think it would come in handly since I like to bulid things. You are doing surprisingly good Astrid, all of us think you know nothing else but fighting."

" My parents forced me to learn it. They said I need to know how to be a proper housewife or I won't find a husband. I hate it absolutely."

" I don't hate it like you do." Ruffnut joined in. " It is just so boring and not fun. May be you are acting too men like Astrid." They continued taking about themselves thoughout that night.

In this day, the teens found out they never truely understood and knew each other despite they had been living in the same village for the last fifteen years because they never tried to. It was dragons who brought all of them, the six of them, six totally different and unlike people into close friends.