Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon, or any of the associated characters. Changes to the plot are mine.

Summary: See Previous Chapters.

Chapter Fourteen

Hiccup woke up to the smell of cooking, rather than trying to judge if he had time to beg a snack off Natalya that he could eat on the way to Dragon Valley.

Quickly dressing and running downstairs, he found his father stirring a pot. That was a surprise; before Hiccup had learned to cook for himself, Gobber had brought dinner over to eat with them, or they had lived off food that could be eaten cold. When Natalya opened her shop and was considered independent of the Hoffersons, she had worked out a deal where she paid her tax partially in food (and a discount on goods from Johan) rather than only in coin.

Stoick looked up at his son's entrance, ladling porridge into a bowl and holding it out to Hiccup. He took it hesitantly, reaching for the jar of sauce made from some fruit that Johan had brought back from his travels, and which Natalya was trying to cultivate from the seeds, with very limited success. It was tart, like the purple fruits themselves, but made a wonderful addition to the bland porridge. "I didn't know you could cook, Dad."

His father chuckled slightly. "Not much, but it was better than letting your mother in the kitchen. You could fire her meatballs from a catapult, and not be able to tell the difference."

Hiccup blinked again. He was learning more about his mother in a few days than he had in a lifetime. He decided not to test a good thing. "Do you know how much longer we have until the final fight of Dragon Training?"

Stoick visibly pulled himself out of his memories. "I think today is the deciding round, and then whoever Gothi picks will face the Monstrous Nightmare tomorrow. I know you'll make me proud, son."

Guilt gnawed in Hiccup's stomach once more, even though he knew he had nothing to be ashamed of. Thor, Odin, Frey, even Loki, please let this whole mess turn out all right in the end.

Quickly finishing his breakfast, Hiccup stood up. "I promised Natalya that we'd go over a strategy before training. I guess I'll see you in the ring?"

Actually, Hiccup hoped that Stoick would be too busy catching up on the things that had happened in his absence to observe Dragon Training, but no such luck. "Of course, son. I wouldn't miss it."

Hiccup tried to smile, and bolted.

Natalya wasn't thrilled, as Hiccup had predicted, but she did try to understand it from Hiccup's point of view. Natalya had struggled for acceptance, too, after all, even if she had been lucky enough to have a parent who valued her for who she was, not who he wanted her to be.

Both of them were quiet, thinking hard as Natalya prepared the day's baking and put it in the oven, shooing Toothless and Skyfire out the back door, then quickly washed up. Finally, she spoke, "Have you thought about what we should do for today and the final exam?"

Hiccup shook his head, eternally grateful that Natalya's hall backed out into the forest. "I've thought about it almost non-stop, but I still don't have any idea what to do. There are arguments for both sides, after all."

Natalya nodded ruefully. "We've done so well that people will be suspicious if we fail now, but winning means being expected to kill a dragon, which I will not do."

Hiccup agreed. "But if one of the other recruits wins, not only will they be happy to try and kill a dragon, but they'll probably be at least badly injured doing so."

Both of them ruthlessly squashed down the brief glee at their tormentors getting a taste of their own medicine, but neither of the dragon riders actually wanted the other teens to die. Natalya sighed in resignation, "On the other hand, if one of us wins, perhaps we can use the opportunity to show the village that dragons don't have to be feared."

Hiccup frowned. It was a long shot, but it had possibilities. "A Nightmare isn't exactly where I'd want to start with that, but it could work."

Natalya conceded the point, and changed the subject. "I asked Gobber about the final exam. What form it would take, I mean. He says we're going to work our way through the dragons, starting with the Terrible Terror and working our way up to the Gronkle."

Hiccup grimaced, having hoped to just 'fight' one dragon and get it over with. "Wonderful. And with my dad watching the entire time, so proud of the Viking I'm pretending to be. I'm doomed."

Natalya laughed, trying to find a bright point as she screwed up her courage and brushed a light kiss on his cheek. "Only if you get too close to Astrid. Ruffnut says she's been throwing axes at trees in her spare time, and her frustration at not being the best anymore has to be through the roof right now."

Great, another reason to be nervous, on top of the fact that his best friend had just kissed him and he had no idea what to do about it.. "Oh, that's going to be – "

"GREAT, HICCUP!"

They were interrupted by the other trainees surrounding them. Snotlout threw an arm over his cousin's shoulders, not quite hiding his nervousness. Uncle Spitelout, Hiccup's mother's brother, had probably had words with him again about 'upholding the family pride', 'Jorgensons are the best', etc. Snotlout hated the idea of being a disappointment, at least as much as Hiccup hated the reality. "Got any tips for the rest of us, today?"

Natalya regained her balance from where Snotlout's meaty arm had accidentally pushed her out of the way. "Have a plan of attack, rather than just charging in?"

Hiccup was a bit less sarcastic as he leaned away from Ruffnut, who was batting her eyes at him. "Er… try to work together, instead of attacking separately and getting in each other's way? That's what caused most of the problems in training."

The twins stared at her. "Work together? That's insane!"

Fishlegs shrugged. "Maybe, but it's worked for Natalya and Hiccup so far. Besides, this is our last chance to impress everyone, so we might as well try it."

Amazingly, Fishlegs and the twins managed to work together long enough to subdue the Zippleback. Natalya had been up half an hour before dawn to braid her long hair with dragon-nip, which took out the Terrible Terror once Hiccup distracted it with something shiny and Natalya pretended to wrestle with it. The Nadder was worn down by Astrid, glaring so fiercely at the other trainees that they mostly left her to it, and defeated by Snotlout and Fishlegs body-slamming the Nadder as Astrid knocked it out.

The Gronkle, despite its slow movement, was proving the most resilient to deal with, largely because it was playing defence, dodging and avoiding the young Vikings, rather than attacking them as the other dragons had.

Ducking behind a barrier to catch his breath and nearly landing on top of his best friend, Hiccup glanced at Natalya. "Have you been training the Gronkle behind our back? It fights like you."

Natalya rolled her eyes at him. "No, but we fought the Gronkle in training more than any of the other dragons, and the breed is known to be lazy and lethargic, not stupid. Perhaps it learned from the experience."

That was a possibility that Hiccup would love to explore further at a later date, but Natalya launched herself back into the fray, a piece of dragon-nip falling out of her hair. Hiccup picked it up as his friend was replaced swiftly by Astrid, who glared and shoved him down, gripping her axe. "Stay out of my way, I'm winning this thing."

The glint in her eye was dangerous, and it wasn't just his reluctance to hurt a dragon that made Hiccup call after her. "Good! Please, by all means, go ahead!"

He looked up at the crowd, where his father was watching proudly, and made a half-hearted salute, before turning back to the fight. He didn't have much time before Astrid pulled herself together and attacked the Gronkle. After watching her nearly take out the Nadder single-handedly, Hiccup didn't like the odds for the unfortunate Gronkle.

Hiccup imitated the roar that Natalya used whenever Gronkle babies got too rowdy (though he theorised that it was the tone more than the roar that got their attention), hoping that it worked on adult Gronkles as well as baby ones. The dragon came flying toward him as he heard Astrid yell a war-cry, and Hiccup held out the dragon-nip, hoping that his body concealed what he was actually doing.

The Gronkle rolled over just as Astrid came charging over the last barrier, screaming and holding her axe high, freezing in place as Hiccup tried to assume a normal pose. Astrid didn't stay frozen for long, slashing her axe at thin air, her face a mask of rage. "No! Son of a half-troll, rat-eating, muck-bucket…"

She probably would have continued, and Hiccup felt it best to get out of the enraged blonde's way. A flight with Natalya (who was trying to separate a scuffle between Snotlot and the twins) would do wonders for his mental state. Unfortunately, Gobber got hold of him before he could slip away. "Come on, I'm late for…"

He stopped as Astrid shoved her axe under his chin "WHAT? Late for what, exactly?"

Natalya spotted his dilemma and started to come over, but to his great relief, Hiccup's father intervened. "OK, everybody quiet down! The Elder has decided!"

Er, perhaps not such a relief after all, then. At least Gothi wouldn't be making any long speeches. Gobber held his hook over Astrid's head, to which Gothi slowly shook her head. Gobber used his hand to point to Hiccup, and Gothi smiled and indicated, sealing Hiccup's doom to a chorus of resounding cheers.

If looks could kill, the glare Astrid was aiming at him would have had Hiccup knocking at the door to Freya's Hall, but luckily she was cut off by the other teens swarming around as Gobber tossed him into the air, looking prouder than anyone had ever seen him. "You've done it, Hiccup! You've done it! You get to kill the dragon!"

As though that was somehow a good thing. Hiccup tried to muster at least a pretence of enthusiasm, helped by his father's loud cheering, as Natalya slipped out of the arena. "Yes, that's great, awesome, I am so…"

"…Dead. We're doomed."

Hiccup was muttering to himself as he wandered through the woods, carrying a basket of fish. "Maybe a long vactation… very long… like, forever. But then Dad would be disappointed. But I can't keep going like this, or Astrid will-"

A cold voice interrupted him. "Yes? Astrid will what?"

Speak of the demon… "Astrid! What the… er, what are you doing here."

Astrid was sharpening her axe, the calm before the storm that may or may not end with Hiccup dead on the forest floor. "I wanna know what's going on."

Oh, Loki's balls… They were only minutes away from Dragon Valley, and dragons had very good hearing. Toothless was on this side of the gorge, and Natalya would soon be wondering what was taking him so long. He needed to get Astrid away, fast, or their secret would be blown in seconds.

Hiccup tried to subtly back up, away from Dragon Valley, Astrid prowling after him. "No-one just gets as good as you did, especially you! Start talking! Are you training with someone?"

In a sense, that was close, but Hiccup didn't think that Astrid would consider Toothless a 'trainer'. There was a flicker of something in the trees behind Astrid, and Hiccup's urgency increased. "Er, training… um…"

Astrid grabbed him by the harness, looking steadily more murderous with each passing second. "It had better not involve this…"

This was not going to end well. "Er, I know this looks really bad, but, uh, this is – OW!"

A twig snapped nearby, causing Astrid to shove him to the ground as she gripped her axe tighter and looked around wildly. Hiccup sprang to his feet. "You're right, I'm through with the lies. I've been making outfits. So, you found me out, take me in… OW, why would you do that?"

She twisted his arm, hard enough to nearly cause a fracture, and kicked the side of his knee, dropping him to the ground again. "That's for the lies! And that's –" she positioned her axe over his middle and dropped it, impacting hard. " – for everything else."

Hiccup just groaned, in both pain and frustration, struggling back to his feet as he heard Toothless growl. "Oh, no."

Astrid gasped and tackled him to the ground, which Hiccup was getting kind of tired of. He hoped that Natalya had some bruise-balm left over from her last trade with Gothi. It was the worst thing Astrid could have done, as Toothless assumed that she was attacking Hiccup and let out a furious roar as he bounded forward.

Astrid gaped for a split second, the rolled to her feet, white with terror. "Run! Run! AHHH!"

It was Hiccup's turn to tackle Astrid out of the way, throwing her axe out of reach as Toothless pounced. "No, no, Toothless! It's ok, she's a friend."

Well, not really, but dragons though of other beings in terms of 'friend' or 'enemy' or 'food', and as much as Hiccup didn't like Astrid right now, he didn't want her dead. Astrid stared in disbelief as Toothless backed down on nothing more than Hiccup's say-so. Hiccup knew that he needed to do major damage control. "It's all right. You just scared him."

Astrid's eyes were wider than Hiccup had ever seen them, her light dusting of freckles standing out in stark relief on her pale face, and a definite note of hysteria in her shrill voice. "I scared him? Who is 'him'?"

Yep, they were doomed. Hiccup glanced up, hoping to see a tell-tale storm cloud. "Astrid, this is Toothless. Toothless, Astrid."

Toothless growled, clearly not fond of the one who had dared to attack Hiccup. Astrid stared for a few seconds, then bolted. Hiccup resisted the urge to thump his head on a rock, jumping into Toothless's saddle and launching them into the air.

They had to get to Astrid before Astrid got to anyone else.

.

.

.

.

A/N: OK, yeah, it's been a while.

Various projects, both writing and non- have kept me very busy, and my computer has been having issues, while trying to post from my iPad causes formatting problems like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway, I'll be hopping over the pond to Italy tonight, so don't expect me to post anything for at least two weeks. We'll see how things stand when I get back.

'A SCA Girl in Middle-Earth', 'Reintroduction', 'War and Peace' and 'Striking Back' have also been updated, along with a new "50 Shades of Grey" fanfic entitled 'The Sub-Club'.

Yeah, I know, I have got to stop having plot-bunny-spawning conversations with friends, even if they do have amusing ideas.

Thanks, and tell me what you think.