"How did we do dad?" Hiccup asks wiping his brow with a cloth.
Stoick chuckles as he hefts his ax over his shoulder as he looks over the winded crowd of fighters and trainers. "Quite well."
"I didn't expect us beating your group, but at least we put up a good fight," Hiccup says as all the dragons watched perched on the headquarters or from the stables.
Stoick smirks slightly. "At least we can brag that we have tougher kids than we do warriors."
"Ah, good joke Stoick," Gobber calls, walking up and having been one of Stoick's team.
Hiccup sighs. "And one step closer, but we need a lot more work."
"That you do," Gobber says as Stoick helped Thorve up.
Thorve pants heavily as she tries to keep standing. "So…what's the next lesson?"
"Take a break while we set something up," Hiccup says.
"Which is?" Thorve presses, looking up to him.
"Getting them ready to take their first flights on a dragon," Hiccup whispers.
Thorve smiles. "This will be fun."
"Decided since we have three nightmares, we will start with them," Hiccup whispers before feeling a tap on his shoulder.
"Something you want to share?" Astrid asks.
Thorve giggles slightly as Hiccup looked a little embarrassed. "Hey, Astrid…so we are…you know…"
"Whispering to each other. Yeah, I saw," Astrid says.
"Just making a plan Astrid," Hiccup tries to defend.
"Uh-huh?" Astrid asks looking to Thorve as she knew she had the worst poker face of the two.
Thorve giggles nervously and turns away from them to hide her expression.
"Come here," Hiccup says pulling Astrid to him to whisper to her for the first time ever. "We were whispering about the next stage," Hiccup whispers to her.
"Dragon flying…we need to let them rest unless you want to push them," Astrid adds.
"Well, the dragons are rested so we are giving them a few hours then we are going to do that," Hiccup whispers to her.
"Then you better get ready," Astrid whispers back before looking to Thorve. "And I'll handle her."
"I will handle you then," Hiccup jokes.
Astrid just hits his head lightly before going to Thorve.
"Hiccup has gotten bolder over the last few months," Thorve says smirking.
Astrid nods before hooking her arm and pulls her away. "Which means that we need to watch out for him."
"He told me he loved me last night," Thorve whispers to her.
"Oh, really?" Astrid asks.
"Yes," Thorve says smirking.
"Kinda want to hear that from him now. I want to see him squirm," Astrid says smirking.
"Oh Astrid," Thorve says sweatdropping.
"Alright, as you all have probably guessed from their presence. We are starting on the monstrous nightmare today," Hiccup says to the crowd, noticing more in it than usual. "Well, your first lesson will be in the air. That is right. We will be taking you up and flying with you for this lesson. This will be one by one though," Hiccup says after a short pause. "Right now, while those are in the air are with the three nightmares, the rest of the will be running a gauntlet Gobber has set up. When they get back, three more of you will be taken to fly as well while those three will start running the gauntlet. This will continue until everyone has flown. After that, lessons will be finished for the day," Hiccup informs.
"At least it's a clear plan," Thorve says as the rest of the team stands to the side.
"Right. Snotlout, Astrid, and Thorve will be the ones taking you up. So decide amongst yourselves who goes first and go to them. The rest you know what to do," Hiccup says as Gobber was waiting eagerly.
"You have your ax just in case?" Thorve asks Astrid.
"For the rest of you…help Gobber," Hiccup instructs, not trusting the twins to supervise themselves.
Thorve smiles as she has been working the plans while waiting. "So…testing their choosing skills?"
"Not yet," Hiccup says before whispering something into her ear.
Thorve stops dead cold and slowly blushes bright red before slowly turning around away from them.
Hiccup then walks off to the forge as Toothless follows him. Toothless growls quietly to him and Hiccup smiles as he pets her head.
"What did he say?" Astrid asks.
"Something about a date," Thorve whispers to her.
"Okay. I am going to give you advice," Astrid says crossing her arms.
"No need. We have a class," Thorve says.
"For dating," Astrid clarifies.
"We have class," Thorve repeats.
"Later idiot," Astrid clarifies again.
"Quiet," Thorve growls.
Astrid slowly smiles at her and Thorve blushes before looking back to her drawings to make sure of her numbers and lines before one of them came to her for the lesson.
The weeks passed before they got word that the berserker tribe had raided the outcast tribe and with the news was a ship with a few deadly nadders who were being petted on their tails, keeping them calm and showing they trusted the berserkers. Hiccup could only guess that Dagur remembered what he read in the book of dragons as the nadders were lead off the ship.
"They seem to have had a good raid," Hiccup says to Astrid as they watched.
"And a group of healthy nadders for us. I say it was a nice catch," Astrid adds.
"It seems like we will be doing more lessons on them. After the next lesson on zipplebacks, we are either going to let them take one of those nadders or take them to find wild dragons to tame. You both alright with this?" Hiccup asks.
"Fine with it," Thorve agrees.
"Same…as long as they don't hurt them," Astrid adds at the end.
"The nadders or the trainees?" Hiccup asks.
"Nadders," Astrid clarifies and looks to him.
"Heh," Hiccup chuckles before leaning over and kisses her cheek, freezing her.
"Welcome to my world with him most of the time," Thorve says cheekily.
"Astrid is speechless," Hiccup says smirking as he knew Thorve would get a lot of mileage out of this.
"Considering you haven't done much with her, not hard to see why," Thorve points out.
"Well, I am getting over her intimidation," Hiccup says smirking at her now.
"Then go out with her next," Thorve offers.
"One thing at a time Thorve. So how is progress?" Hiccup asks.
"Well…I got the prototypes of some of the dragon stingers. Just now working on the saddles and attaching them," Thorve informs.
"I told you she was brilliant," Hiccup says to Astrid.
"Why do you think I am with her?" Astrid shot back.
"Really you asked that?" Hiccup asks with a blank face.
"What else? Unless you want it directed at you?" Astrid asks.
"Thorve, I will let you field this," Hiccup says, making her smirk at Astrid who knew she was in trouble.
"Thorve don't you dare," Astrid starts.
"Have a good talk?" Hiccup asks.
Thorve just smirks at him.
"I will take that as a yes," Hiccup says before running a hand through her unbraided hair.
Thorve smiles now and leans against him. "Remember when we first met Toothless?"
"Bound up in your bola," Hiccup says now holding her.
Thorve nods slowly. "And you thought of me as being the village klutz."
"No, I thought of you bring a girl I had no chance at like Astrid," Hiccup says.
Thorve giggles. "And then came the time we spent together when working with Toothless…even those times where people thought we were actually together."
"Well, they aren't wrong now," Hiccup says.
Thorve smiles nervously up at him. "About that…marriage…right?"
"We have a few more years before considering it," Hiccup informs.
Thorve smiles more now. "So…just a thought…what do you think about Toothless?" she asks, making Toothless's head shoot up and look at them at hearing her name.
"Why do you ask? You jealous of her?" Hiccup asks, making Toothless snicker.
Thorve blushes a bit embarrassed. "Well…she does like you as well…and well…if you want…"
"What do you think Toothless, she has a dirty mind?" Hiccup asks before Toothless starts laughing.
Thorve whimpers quietly and hides her face in his chest. "You guys suck…I am just saying in case you love her too," she complains.
Hiccup shakes his head and pets her.
"So…do you want Toothless as well…?" Thorve tries to ask as Toothless leans over before wrapping her tail around them.
"You may love on Toothless," Hiccup says smirking trying to turn this to be about Thorve.
"I asked you," Thorve shot back.
"Toothless, what do you think?" Hiccup asks.
Toothless seems to be thinking and tilting her head around before moving over and resting her head on his, grinning all the while.
"You're a sweetheart," Hiccup says before getting her under the chin, making her collapse onto the floor.
A loud snore caught his attention to make him look down to see Thorve snoring peacefully against him. Hiccup shakes his head and picks her up and carries her to his bed where he joins her. Toothless smirks as she stares at them from where she lays before closing her own eyes herself.
"How goes the training son?" Stoick asks riding in on Thornado.
"It's going well. Some of them have gotten the nadders we received from the berserker tribe to be their dragon," Hiccup says as he watches Astrid drill them in flying their nadders while on Stormfly in the air.
"And the rest who didn't get their dragons?" Stoick asks.
"We are taking a trip to dragon island," Hiccup informs.
"Don't have them agitate the dragons and get in trouble. I rather not explain how to pull you out of the dragon fire," Stoick warns.
"I already sent Dagur a letter on this. His reply, 'Sure. I am alright with a trial by combat'," Hiccup says showing him the letter for him to read.
Stoick sighs as he reads the letter. "And we all still wonder how you were able to get him on our side."
"He is wanting war for glory and stuff. I pointed him to the common enemy and said, 'Hey, look at them. They are strong and think are high and might be attempting to pit us against each other. How about we knock them off their high dragon?'" Hiccup says.
Stoick raises an eyebrow at him. "You pointed him to Alvin, didn't you?"
"Who else would I point at?" Hiccup asks.
"A dragon maybe," Stoick says offhandedly.
"After the queen, we kill no dragon unless it is that big of a threat around anymore," Hiccup points out.
"Fair enough," Stoick says before spotting Spitelout, his brother. "Spitelout, what are you doing!?"
"What does it look like? I am training to ride dragons and helping teach the younger riders about combat," Spitelout says.
Hiccup just hums as he watches how he is doing, not saying anything for the moment. "You ready to go to dragon island Fishlegs?" Hiccup asks.
"Sure thing Hiccup. Let me grab Meatlug," Fishlegs calls back.
"We will meet you at the ship," Hiccup says getting up.
"Welcome everyone to dragon island. For those who do not know, this is where the Red Death had its nest and where it met it ends," Hiccup announces to the group of trainee dragon riders.
Those from the berserker tribe and the younger vikings who never got to see the dragon look around shocked. Some were trying to find signs of the battle itself while others wanted those who were there to tell the story.
"It's strange dragons came back here after all the trouble," Thorve voices in the back as Hiccup kept talking.
"Aye, but this does save us trouble looking for dragons to tame," Spitelout says, putting a hand on her good shoulder.
Thorve hums as Toothless bumps his hand away from keeping her protected by circling around her. "Though what dragons to who."
"Hiccup is saying we have to find our own and befriend it," Spitelout says.
Thorve sighs. "What dragons would they be good for them all?" she asks herself as Toothless puts her head on top of hers.
Toothless looks at them for a bit before sneezing.
Thorve scratches her nose while she kept thinking. "A good dragon…"
"With that, we let you all off. Have fun and retreat back here if you get in trouble. You're no use to your clans dead before even seeing the battle that awaits us," Hiccup says.
Thorve snarks a bit at that as Hiccup walks over while the future riders all head off to find a dragon.
"What?" Hiccup asks.
"Nothing," Thorve says teasingly while looking away.
"Can you tell me what she finds so funny Astrid?" Hiccup asks.
Astrid looks away and smiles as well as Thorve kept giggling.
"Alright. Don't tell me," Hiccup says.
"It's a girl thing. Don't bother," Astrid notes, poking his head.
"I have been thinking," Hiccup starts.
"Oh no!" Astrid, Thorve, and Fishlegs call.
"What's wrong with that?" Hiccup asks, slightly offended.
"Continue," Astrid says sighing.
"I was thinking, I would do what they are all doing. Seeing if I can't find another dragon for us," Hiccup finishes.
"Another one, huh? What are you going to get?" Thorve asks.
"I am sorry, do you not like having more dragons to take care of?" Hiccup asks as Blazesnap laid his head on Thorve's good shoulder.
Thorve sighs. "Just don't grab ten of them."
"Alright, alright," Hiccup says grabbing his bow as he headed out.
They all stare at him as he leaves. "We are going to need to help him, don't we?" Thorve asks bluntly.
"Eh…not sure if he needs it," Astrid admits.
They all stayed silent for a bit before Thorve started walking. "I'm going to check on him and make sure he doesn't blow stuff up."
Astrid sighs and hangs her head. "I'll stay here. Look over any dragons the group might bring back," she says before Toothless walks under her and slides her onto the saddle. "Oh. And I'll do like a commander," she says playfully to Toothless who smirks up at her.
"Hum…Spitelout I see is going for a nadder…really paid attention to the lessons and training," Hiccup says watching Spitelout with a telescope he made.
"And not sticking himself to the wall," Thorve suddenly whispers next to his ear.
"You came, huh?" Hiccup asks.
"To make sure you don't blow stuff up," Thorve reminds, leaning on him as she watches above his head.
"Let's see…hum…look at that. One of the berserkers is going for a gronckle," Hiccup says before passing the telescope up to Thorve and points to the direction.
Thorve smiles as she watches. "Not bad. And learning to tricks to deal with them," she observes, watching the berserker throw rocks for the dragon to eat.
"So what do you think?" Hiccup asks as Thorve saw the berserker take dragon nip out of his pouch.
Thorve sighs. "Still using some old tricks, but we can weed those out and handle it," she says before feeling Hiccup brush her hair aside and leans on her.
"That is what we taught them and they are hardly old, considering that we didn't come up with them even a year ago," Hiccup says.
Thorve hums before turning her head to him. "So, what dragon are you hey," she complains when Hiccup kissed her neck. "Really?"
"You are somewhat a dragon to me," Hiccup says smirking.
"Tease," Thorve mutters before shutting her mouth when he kissed her neck again. "Again? Don't you have a dragon to look for?"
"Yeah, I am," Hiccup says motioning for the telescope.
Thorve shakes her head before giving him the thing. "And stop…" she shuts up again when he gives her a kiss on the lips and quickly pulls away and walks off. "Okay. I need Astrid for advice on this."
"Hello. I think I see a changewing," Hiccup says stopping her.
"Um…you are going to try for a changewing?" Thorve asks, slowly walking over to him.
"Well, I may never get another shot like this," Hiccup says.
Thorve sighs. "I'll help."
"Alright, what do we know about changewings?" Hiccup asks, quizzing her.
"They are very curious and have mimicking behavior," Thorve says.
"Right. So let's start with the reflection trick," Hiccup says.
Thorve blinks before digging around into her bag. "I have one mirror here somewhere."
"Lower left pocket," Hiccup says, keeping an eye on the changewing.
"Oh," Thorve stops and digs into her pocket to take out the small mirror. "I won't question how you know that," she says walking up to him and shining a reflective light on the ground.
"It sees it," Hiccup says watching it move curiously towards the light.
Thorve smiles as she keeps shining the light closer.
"I am surprised it is following it that far," Hiccup says as the changewing tries to catch it as it makes its way towards them from the other side of the valley they were in.
Thorve hums as she keeps bringing it closer. "Maybe we both make it trust us."
Hiccup nods as he starts bringing out fish and starts making a trail of them, leading back.
"I take the front seat once we get a saddle on it," Thorve says quietly to Hiccup.
"We will talk about that later," Hiccup says before starting to make a campfire.
Thorve hums as she leads the dragon closer to him while getting behind Hiccup.
"Did it find or smell the fish yet?" Hiccup asks.
"Yep," Thorve whispers as she quickly puts the mirror in her pocket and let the dragon see the campfire with fish being cooked over it.
"Is it eating the trail to it?" Hiccup asks as he blows on the fire to help it grow.
"Yep," Thorve answers as the changewing slurps up the fish and keeps following the trail. "So…how many you think will get their dragons?"
"I am hopeful," Hiccup says as he looks up to see the changewing on the other side, watching him interested.
"Well, you got his attention now," Thorve observed, kneeling by him and also keeping an eye on the dragon.
"Don't look into its eyes," Hiccup reminds, starting to work on the fire again.
"Right…sorry," Thorve berates to herself as she looks to the tail that is waving around.
"It can hypnotize with its gaze," Hiccup reminds before getting the fire going before acid went onto it as he sees the changewing mimicking him, blowing on the fire.
Thorve hums as she keeps watching the tail. "How's it going?"
"It looks interesting. Do your thing," Hiccup says before tossing the changewing a fish.
"You sure? You did want this," Thorve points out, already holding her hand out.
"We share dragons," Hiccup reminds.
Thorve smiles a little and starts to step closer as Hiccup watches her when the changewing notices her and perks its head up to face her, Thorve quickly looking elsewhere on its head while still stepping closer.
"That, right. It is all ok," Hiccup soothes softly, reaching into his bag for something else getting the changewing's attention again as he pulls out a honeycomb still dripping with honey.
"Hiccup," Thorve warns as she steps back a little from the agitated dragon.
"Here you go," Hiccup says setting it in front of the changewing who started hopping around it, reminding Hiccup a little of a kid in a candy shop as it very slowly started eating the honeycomb. Which does remind him of the fact that this is a changing world and there are no candy stores…yet.
"Hiccup…" Thorve whispered harshly as she stays still, keeping her hand out.
"What?" Hiccup asks as the dragon looked very happy as it continued.
"You want me to do this or not?" Thorve huffs to him, finally looking to him.
"Thorve, it was to make it happy and put at ease," Hiccup explains as he slowly gets up and stands next to her. "Besides, now we both can have its trust this way."
"Fine," Thorve says as they both move up and start to pet the dragon.
The changewing picked its head up, its muzzle drooling with honey and turns to them before leaning its head in as they kept petting. "At least this is a good way to infiltrate if we ever get to it…though we need to cover ourselves as well," Thorve starts to ramble to herself on many ideas under her breath.
"I think I will name you Seer," Hiccup says to the dragon as he pets it. "Come on Seer. We are going back to our home where there are more food and honeycombs," Hiccup says smirking, making the changewing stand up straight before following.
Thorve sighs in relief. "Thank goodness."
"You coming?" Hiccup calls.
"Yeah. My brain is just catching up," Thorve calls before running after them.
"They are going to be shocked when we come back with this guy," Hiccup says as Thorve catches up.
"Maybe show that you too can get a dragon of this level on your own," Thorve suggested whimsically.
"I am glad I came. Aren't you?" Hiccup asks.
"I am too. We get a new friend along with us," Thorve says as she looks to Seer.
"And I got some alone time with you," Hiccup says smirking at Thorve.
Thorve blushes a little and looks away. "Yeah. Guess you did."
Hiccup smiles before pulling her to him and kisses her.
Seer tilts his head as he sees them kissing before Hiccup pulls away and continues walking, leaving Thorve in a small daze before she giggles and rushes after him and hugs him. "You're pushing it."
"Which one is pushing?" Hiccup asks.
Thorve pushes him away. "Quiet."
"Just remember, Seer can hypnotize with eye contact," Hiccup says.
"I'll make sure to remember that," Thorve tries to reassure.
"Also, not sure we should make a saddle for Seer with his camouflaging abilities," Hiccup says.
"Thinking on that," Thorve says, giving off a thinking expression.
"Gives me an idea," Hiccup says smirking.
"And what's yours?" Thorve asks looking at him.
"Show you in a week or so after we get back," Hiccup says before pulling her close.
"Tease. I was still coming up with a plan," Thorve pushes.
"We will show each other their ideas soon," Hiccup whispers into her ear.
Thorve blushes a little when he kisses her cheek. "Tease."
"You sure he told us all to meet him here?" Astrid asks, looking around for Hiccup.
"Yep. He will be here soon," Thorve reassures as she writes in her journal.
"We've been here for over an hour already," Snotlout complains as they all watched for Hiccup.
"He'll be here," Thorve spoke up as she turns to her blueprints and looks it over.
"He has been for two hours," Hiccups voice calls.
Thorve sighs as she puts her things down while everyone looks around. "Really, Hiccup? Did you change your boar suit?"
"What? Can't find me or Seer?" Hiccup asks.
Thorve just rolls up a ball of paper and throws it at a wall to make it bounce off of something. "Saw his eyes blink once. As for you…you have to have been holding very still."
Seer pulls himself off the wall but there was still no Hiccup.
"Hiccup. Enough. Time to show yourself," Thorve requested.
"I am behind you. Look down," Hiccup says.
Thorve slowly looks behind her on the ground and seems a lump of grass on the ground. "A grass suit?"
"Not exactly," Hiccup says before the grass seemed to get up, but it seemed to be a blanket like thing.
Thorve picks up the grass blanket and looks it over. "So this is the idea, huh?"
"Camouflage like Seer over there. Stuff like this will make ambushes far easier," Hiccup says.
"Need to learn to breathe and hold still though," Thorve notes while feeling the blanket.
"You couldn't find me till I spoke up," Hiccup says as Stoick looks over it.
"I mean training with this," Thorve says giving the blanket to Stoick.
"Well, the outcasts will have quite the time finding an ambush with these, that is for sure," Stoick says.
"Maybe train them with changewings?" Thorve suggested.
"Well, we only have the one so far," Hiccup reminds as Seer starts sniffing for something. "I have hidden honeycomb for you, Seer. Can you find it?" Hiccup asks.
Seer looks excited at them before sniffing around more closely and eagerly for the honey. Before pushing a few out of the way and pulls off another blanket like thing to reveal a honeycomb.
"And he found it," Hiccup says.
Thorve gives a few claps with everyone. "Not bad Seer."
"I have been training him. Can you tell the progress?" Hiccup asks.
"No," Astrid says smirking.
"Whoa. Thanks so much," Hiccup says as they all had a good laugh at that.
Thorve giggles before turning back to him. "So…what's the next big training lesson? Stealth lessons with this thing?"
"That and seems Seer brought a few friends," Hiccup says before whistling and soon more changewings started to appear.
"Nice. So you got lessons already thought up?" Thorve asks as she gets up.
"Yeah. Gather around everyone. Today, everyone is going to partner up with a team consisting of one changewing and three vikings. The objective is stealth. You will see in each of the barrels around the headquarters is different color paints. The lesson is simple. The ones who, by sundown, have the least amount of paint on them wins a prize. The ones who get everyone else the most with their paint also gets a prize," Hiccup says, hoping to foster some good fun competition.
There is some murmur among the crowd as Thorve leans over. "Everyone's a winner, huh?"
"The prize for winning either is getting either a new set of armor or weapon forged by Gobber who will be one of the judges," Hiccup calls.
"Hello," Gobber waves with a stone hammer.
Hearing this, many of the young dragon riders started to get excited as Stoick sees he was trying to use competition to get them to train harder and nods approvingly.
"Alright, you will each take one arrow from this quiver here. The tips have been painted the color you pull will determine your team and the paint you will use," Hiccup says, calling each one by one forward to take an arrow.
"This will be an interesting challenge," Thorve says, liking on wanting to look for these.
"Now, rule one, no dragons will be used in this. Rule two, no wiping off paint. Found doing so will result in punishment. That punishment is for the next week you will see to the stables of the dragons. Rule three, no weapons besides the paint is allowed," Hiccup informs finishing as they finished getting separated into teams.
"Now, the judges will either be hidden or fly overhead watching for anyone breaking the rules. Also, if you hit a hidden judge, it counts as ten hits to hitting another team," Hiccup informs.
They all grin a little at the chance of hitting one of their teachers.
"But who is who?" Hiccup asks, starting to fill them with uncertainty. "You have till this," Hiccup says, pulling out a small hourglass he got from Yohan. "When all the sand falls to the bottom, no one is to start throwing paint till then. You will know when it runs out when judges start flying around overhead, blowing horns. Begin." Hiccup informs before turning the hourglass over and the sand starts falling to the bottom.
Everyone runs off at that point, running into the forest at this point while everyone watches them scramble.
"And so the game begins. Astrid and Thorve, you're with me and dad as the judges in the sky," Hiccup says as Seer comes up to him before he gets on.
"Don't make it too easy," Thorve reminds as she gets on Toothless and Astrid gets onto Stormfly.
"Dad, you ready?" Hiccup asks.
"Very much son," Stoick says getting on Thornado.