Hey guys! I'm back! Here's the next chapter and hopefully I'll be a little more consistent, but you never know with life and all

Enjoy!

Chapter 14

The sun was barely breaking over the sea when Ukiah and Kobaalt were flying next to the vast cliffs of Berk. The immense mass of rock right next to them made Ukiah feel like he was back at Fallis Woods, his old hunting grounds. He hadn't been hunting for over a month now, and he was missing it. He woke up a lot earlier than Hiccup or anyone else of the group; just to be able to get a little more flight time in. Turning away from the cliffs, he and Kobaalt then began to glide in between the rock pillars; barely missing a few just for the thrill of being able to fly so close to them.

Ukiah guided Kobaalt to a certain pillar that he found from flying yesterday. He wanted a little alone time before the day started up. Landing on top of the pillar, he found that it had a decent sized flat rock on top of it, to which he promptly sat down on. Kobaalt, with a confused look, nuzzled Ukiah; almost asking what was going on. Rubbing Kobaalt's head, Ukiah stared out into the grey sea, almost reflecting what he was thinking. He never really spent a lot of thought about his past, but this war coming on was going to drag it out of him whether he liked it or not.

Closing his eyes, Ukiah brought himself to what he could remember on that day that ended his real life. There was smoke, lots of it. Imagining the shouting from all sides scared him, even when he knew it was over and done away. Struggling to try and get more out of his past memory, Ukiah furrowed his eyebrows with his eyes still closed. Nothing was coming. The smoke was the only thing that was really fresh in his mind. He couldn't get anything else!

Frustrated at the fact he couldn't learn anything of his past, Ukiah, opening his eyes, threw a rock off the pillar. He didn't even want his ancestor's knowledge; he just wanted his parent's name! He wanted his name! All his years he was always known as Ukiah. No title, no last name, just Ukiah. Glaring at nothing, Ukiah leaned on his elbows, resting on his knees. The announcer at the arena at Thariin was the first time anyone called him something. 'Ukiah of Fallis Woods', which bugged Ukiah because it wasn't really him at all.

"I guess this is really where my life starts. I'll finally become someone that other people will remember." Then slightly smiling to himself, thought "If I die in the war, then I'll at least be remembered by a few people as 'Ukiah, last of the Crev!" Even though it was a dark thought, it sadly brought him comfort. A nudge came from his side. Looking into Kobaalt's eyes, Ukiah's smile broadened. "Kobaalt will remember me at least; he's the only family I have." The entire chance of having a Night Fury as a friend really helped Ukiah cope with the past events and even his own past. He was sent by the gods to help him, this Ukiah had no doubt about.

Meditating for a little while longer, Ukiah then mounted Kobaalt. Checking to make sure his equipment was secure; Ukiah gave Kobaalt the signal to 'have at it'. Rocketing into the air, Ukiah was able to handle the whiplash thanks to his saddle. The sun was almost completely out of the water, and Ukiah didn't want to be late to the event that he was in charge of. Urging Kobaalt to go a little faster, Ukiah closed his thoughts of the past for the day.

"Ready for day two?" Ukiah sang, watching the group walk into the arena.

"Sure, just like I'm ready to jump off a cliff." Tuffnut said flatly, obviously still trying to wake up.

Hiccup and Astrid were awake and ready, with Fishlegs slowly catching up with them as far as waking up. Everyone was there except for Snotlout, which didn't really surprise Ukiah at all. Grabbing his crossbow, Ukiah announced: "Ok, so due to the time crunch of really two more days, I'm going to ask you to continue to practice with your weapons on your own time. Today we will all be learning how to use our weapons on our dragons. This includes me as well, as I have no experience of doing this. There will be a target hanging from a cliff, and all you need to do is hit it three times in a row; all of which must be hit in different spots and angles of attack. It must be three in a row; if you miss it once, you start over." Ukiah looked at the group and then smiled "I think it's going to be harder than we think.

Excited at the idea of being able to fight while riding, Astrid asked "So we can use anything? Like any weapon?"

"Any weapon; except your dragon" Ukiah replied "This training is for you, not your dragon. Although I prefer you to use the weapon that you practice with instead of one that you think will be easier to use."

"Uh…what about us," Ruffnut asked, looking at her brother and their Zippleback "what do we do?"

"Well it should be easier for you two then; you only have to hit three times total!" Ukiah explained, turning his attention to a shadow that flew above them.

It was Snotlout, who had dismounted before his dragon landed. Falling less than graciously, Snotlout landed hard next to the entrance of the gate, rolling down the small ramp. Standing up as he finished rolling through, Snotlout said "Totally planned that, I wanted to show you a new way to dismount!"

"Uh-huh, and a new way to break our legs." Ukiah replied, annoyed that he was late "Why are you late? I said right when the sun was up that we would be starting."

"Hey! I thought it was just when we were meeting!" Snotlout said a little defensively, shrugging his shoulders at the same time.

Shaking his head, Ukiah then told Snotlout what they were going to do. Snotlout laughed and said "Well don't feel bad when I show you up then!"

Ukiah didn't even reply to him. Turning to face the group, Ukiah ordered them to get ready and to meet at the cliffs just east of the village. "I still have to get the target, so I'll be a minute behind you."

Splitting up, the group went to the designated cliffs, while Ukiah flew to Gobber's.

Minutes later, Ukiah landed on the edge of the cliffs. Dismounting Kobaalt and walking to the edge, Ukiah threw a metal sheet off the cliff. It was attached to a rope which Ukiah put a rock on top of in order to hold it in place. Taking off again, Ukiah observed the metal sheet that was dangling off the edge. The cliff was inverted, letting the plate basically floating mid-air.

Flying up with the group who were circling above him, Ukiah asked "Any volunteers?"

"I'll just get it over with" Fishlegs said, balancing himself on his Gronckle. Slowly diving, Fishlegs held out his hammer. Approaching the sheet, he struck out at it his hammer. Upon making contact, the metal sheet started to spin. Fishlegs slowly turned Meatlug around, whacking at the spinning metal in a fury, trying to make contact with it but not having much success with the spinning. After flying by and swinging at the target, Fishlegs finally just hovered next to it; hitting it three times in a row. "All done!" Fishlegs said flying up to the group who had just perched themselves on a rock pillar.

Looking at him with disappointed, but not surprised looks, the group just shook their heads. Ukiah decided not to tear into him, realizing that Fishlegs probably wouldn't have made it anyways. "He has other strengths at least" Ukiah thought to himself.

"My turn!" Tuffnut exclaimed excitedly.

"No my turn!" Ruffnut argued glaring at her brother.

"GUYS!" Ukiah jumped in so that they wouldn't fight "Together guys! Remember that you have to work with each other to accomplish this! Ok?"

Nodding at each other, the two took off on their Zippleback. Flying straight to the metal sheet, Ruffnut got ready to swing her spear at it. Suddenly, she felt herself get hit from the other Zippleback's head. Seeing why that happened, she saw Tuffnut trying to swing at it as well. "Hey! You messed me up!" She yelled angrily.

"You were going to miss anyways" He brother quickly replied, swinging at and then missing the metal sheet horribly.

"Why you-" Ruff said, still fuming about the incident. She then rammed her Zippleback's head into her brother's.

"Gah!" He yelled, losing his balance "Alright that's it!"

The two rammed, grabbed, and punched each other, completely forgetting the goal of hitting the metal sheet entirely.

Watching from the pillar, everyone laughed at the fight; all except Ukiah, whose face was buried in his palms and shaking his head. This was exactly what he didn't want to see. The twins were now flying against each other, which was a sight to see on the Zippleback, who's heads were rammed into each other and twisted around. Finally settling down, which took a few minutes; the twins refocused on the target. Repeatedly flying by the target, it took them an extra few minutes to adjust to the speed they were flying at and timing their swings, they finally were able to hit it three times in a row; taking them about fifteen or so tries to do so, including the fact that none of them were in different spots.

Landing on the pillar, the two looked at the group with a smug look on their faces, waiting for praise. Ukiah just stared at them and then said "You know what you need to do." He didn't want to get involved with them now. "Next!" he yelled, praying that the next few would be a drastic improvement from the last two.

Without saying anything, Hiccup and Toothless then took off; flying down rather than towards the dangling metal. Pulling up at the last second, they cruised right above the water. "All right bud, let's hit from below." Pulling up, Hiccup readied his shield that he had. His dagger wouldn't be able to reach the target, but his shield would; plus Ukiah said that they could use any weapon, and his shield could be counted as a weapon! Flying upwards to the target at a fast speed, Hiccup lined himself up on a course that put the metal sheet directly in front of him. Putting his shield in front of him, completely obscuring his view, Hiccup waited for the impact of hitting the metal. Thunk! The sound of his shield colliding with the metal was just like as if a sword had struck it. Recovering from the blow, Hiccup turned to see what he had done while flattening out from the climb. The metal sheet was spinning ferociously at the sudden impact. "Good job bud! Let's go in from the side!" Toothless without even thinking about it, naturally rolled to the left with Hiccup also controlling the tail. Smoothly turning around, Hiccup went straight for the metal again, this time angling himself a little to the right of the metal. Hiccup extended his shield outward, making contact with the metal sheet; the force of the hit sent the metal sheet spinning in the other direction from when it was previously hit.

The others were cheering as they watched Hiccup hit the target a second time. Hiccup by far was the most successful of those that had tried it. Ukiah couldn't help but smile as he watched Hiccup pull back up, flying high. Then Ukiah saw Hiccup and Toothless stall out, floating in the air on their backs. After what seemed to be a minute, the two rolled and plummeted towards the target. Steering a lot further to the right of the metal, Hiccup swung his shield across, managing to put a decent dent in the top of it. Success! Hiccup managed to hit the sheet his first three times! This was a huge relief to Ukiah. After watching the last two, he was just horrified that none would be able to do this.

Landing beside the group Hiccup and Toothless stared at each other, smiling smugly because they knew they were the best at that point. The tie between the two was so strong and unified that it was the entire reason why they were able to fly so well. It was their strength.

"Good job guys!" Ukiah excitedly complimented "That was by far the best run as of now! Interesting use of the shield though; I guess if you can use it, then it's equally effective than a weapon or a dagger in your case!"

"Thanks Ukiah" Hiccup replied. Turning to Astrid he continued to say, with a smug like tone "Think you can match it?"

"Watch and learn" Astrid replied, almost unimpressed by what Hiccup had just done. Within that very second, she was already in the air with Stormfly. Holding her axe in one hand, Astrid was already next to the target. Bringing her axe full swing, the metal sheet reacted by flying away from the blow. Pulling out of the dive, Astrid did a half loop and rolled around, allowing her fly head on at the metal sheet. Swinging back and forth, the metal sheet was much more difficult to try and get a hit at. Timing her speed and the movement of the target, Astrid swung just at the last moment; allowing her to just clip the target. Angry that she didn't really get a solid hit, she flew Stormfly farther away from the spinning and swinging piece of metal; already showing wear from the few hits that it's taking. Letting the metal piece slow down a little bit, then diving at the target at an angle, Astrid swung her axe right to left. With perfect timing and her strong swing, she cut a good chunk of metal off. Leaving three quarters of it still dangling and spinning ferociously, the cut metal fell into the sea.

Astrid landed next to Hiccup, smirking at him, sending him the message that he was beat very soundly.

Ukiah laughed when he finally looking up from the splash of the metal. "That was perfect! I don't think even I can compare to that!"

"Yeah well I knew that you couldn't compare, even to me!" Snotlout said annoyingly, laughing at Ukiah while doing so.

"Well, you still haven't gone, what's wrong? Scared now that you won't be able to 'impress' as well not that Astrid cut your target in half!" Ukiah said challengingly.

"Oh yeah? Well I can knock the rest of that target out of the sky before you could even get up to fly!" Snotlout said proudly, extending his chest out to act even more manly.

"Is that a challenge? Or are you going to back down?" Ukiah asked, grinning slightly. He just set the hook, there was no way Snotlout would turn it down with a comment like that.

Slightly taken back, Snotlout quickly said "Yes it is a challenge! First one to knock down the target wins!"

"I accept!" Ukiah quickly replied. Turning to Astrid he said "You say go when we're ready, ok?"

Nodding, Astrid accepted the responsibility.

Both Ukiah and Snotlout prepared their weapons. Snotlout grabbed his mace and swung it around a few times to try and intimidate Ukiah, which obviously failed. Snotlout didn't remember that Ukiah saw men swing axes. At him. Ukiah, not paying attention to Snotlout, inspected his crossbow. Loaded with an arrow, he aimed at the target to get a feel for it. Finally synchronizing his body to the crossbow, he gripped one of the handles on his saddle with his left hand and continued to hold his weapon with his right. Looking at Snotlout, who also was holding his weapon with one hand, asked him if he was ready.

"Am I ready" Snotlout laughed "I was ready before you even showed up here!"

Not saying a word, Ukiah turned to Astrid and nodded to start them out.

"On your marks!" Astrid called out. Ukiah was focusing on the target, strategizing what would be the best way to get to it. "Get set!" Astrid's voice rang in Ukiah head. The world was silent; Ukiah was so focused on the target, that even the sea lost its powerful sound in his ears. "GO!" Astrid yelled loudly with excitement in her voice. Like an arrow, Ukiah was off the pillar; diving to the sea. Snotlout went straight for the metal sheet, with a slight dive to gain speed. Heading straight for the target, Snotlout smashed his mace into the corner of the metal, bending it in a bit. Doing a circle to get him re-aligned with the metal, Snotlout quickly glanced to see if he could find Ukiah. Not seeing him, he returned his attention to the beat up metal. Zeroing in on it, Snotlout suddenly jumped as a black flash flew up from beneath him! Looking up, he saw Ukiah flying crazily fast upwards. Shrugging at Ukiah's strategy, Snotlout looked forward just in time to have his face run flat into the metal sheet.

The group on the pillar laughed as they saw Snotlout recoil backwards at the contact of the sheet metal. Still hanging on, Snotlout lost control of his dragon; which took the liberty to chase a few birds in front of it. Taking their attention away from Snotlout, they watched Ukiah level out from his climb.

"Ok bud, same thing we did yesterday; except no spinning this time!" Ukiah yelled, gripping his crossbow and handle with a death grip. Almost immediately, Kobaalt folded his wings and began to drop out of the sky; falling flatly on his stomach. Ukiah was looking forward, seeing the landscape in front of him rise. Taking aim with one hand, Ukiah pointed his crossbow in front of him. The cliffs just appeared, along with the rope holding the metal sheet. Time seemed to slow for Ukiah as he corrected his aim towards the rope. Holding his breath, Ukiah held his crossbow straight; which was a feat considering he was falling out of the sky and aiming with one hand. Squeezing the trigger, Ukiah let the arrow fly. Time quickly resumed it's normal pace. Putting Kobaalt into a dive, Ukiah didn't even look to see if he hit his target. Pulling up right before the waves crashing into the small jagged rocks barely sticking out of the water, Ukiah leveled off Kobaalt. Turning around to try and find the metal sheet, he couldn't see anything! It was gone!

"Yeah, He hit it!" Hiccup yelled excitedly.

"That was amazing…" Astrid quietly said, almost as if in shock.

"Do it again! Again!" Tuffnut called out, cupping his hand around his mouth to try and amplify what he was saying.

Snotlout was staring at the sea where the metal sheet had landed in. He was in disbelief, but mostly anger. "You cheated! You just cut the rope, not actually hit the target!" He yelled at Ukiah who just landed on the rock pillar.

"You said to knock it out of the sky, which is exactly what I did. So no, I didn't cheat." Ukiah laughed "If you want, you can go get the target and set it back up. I'll challenge you again, no problem."

"Not with a cheater like you!" Snotlout spat back.

"Remember, there are no rules in fighting…" Ukiah said, his face growing somber.

"Come on let's go get lunch! I'm starving!" Fishlegs called out, trying to change the subject.

"Agreed, we're starving and I bet the dragons are also hungry." Hiccup said, petting Toothless.

"Alright, we'll go get lunch; but before we go, I want to announce our next training." Ukiah said, receiving a few eye rolls and moans. Ignoring them, he continued "I know that it's been rushed with the training, but we have no more time and we still need to impress the people that we can fight. This is the last training before we prove to the council that we are fighters without our dragons. This training is a wilderness survival." After pulling out a map from his saddle, Ukiah presented it to the group. "You will all start at separate locations, but must end at the same spot. You can meet up and work together, but I say again, you must start alone. I'll go put a red cloth at your individual spots; you must bring this cloth to the spot in order to prove that you started there."

"Sweet! Me and Hookfang will be first!" Snotlout said, trying to impress Astrid.

"Oh…that's another thing…No dragons." Ukiah replied looking at Snotlout.

"What!? That's not cool." Ruffnut whined

"You'll ride on your dragons to your spots and then send them home." Ukiah continued, un-phased by the comment "Ruff, Tuff, you guys have spots close to each other, you get to work with each other again. Hiccup, I realize that you don't want to leave Toothless again, and he can't fly without you; but can you ride with Astrid to your spot?"

"Yeah…sure thing." Hiccup replied a little depressed. He really didn't want to be away from Toothless again

"We'll be two days and a night, the only things I want you to pack is your weapon. That's all I want you to have. Meet at Gobber's after lunch and be ready to go, we start right then." Ukiah said, getting ready to fly "There's going to be a twist in it, don't worry about that…"

The group followed suit by getting ready to take off, wondering if this next event will actually help them be recognized as warriors.