Author's Note:

Hello everyone and I'm finally updating this fic after a very long time. This keeps going with the arc that started a couple of chapters ago and shows a little more of Snotlout and Hiccup's past, though it is shorter than normal. Thank you all for your patience and support of this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Chapter 21

The Great Arena-A few years ago

Swarms of people, chattering with excitement, poured along the docks to the Great Arena.

It was the heart of the empire's entertainment world, where all the greatest shows were gathered and presented to the eager populace. It was built upon a beautiful island that boasted the best in just about everything leisure-wise, it had beaches, shows, food, just about anything the empire could offer for recreation. It was the one place that every empire citizen wished to visit at least once in their lives and the Great Arena was the crown jewel in its vast treasury.

It held a massive variety of shows and demonstrations, plays, sporting events, musical performances, fights and even full naval battle recreations. It drew crowds from all over the empire and those who graced the sands of its performance area became empire-wide celebrities, gaining fame and even fortune. One of the arena's attractions was its dragon fights, either dragon against dragon or dragon against man. However, Hiccup and Snotlout's arrival caused a change in these fights that was rapidly becoming popular.

Peering through the bars of their cell, Snotlout watched the crowds clamouring past on their way to their seats.

There was some sort of major sporting event happening that day and it was taking up the entire arena schedule, putting him on something of a day off. As slaves, he and Hiccup didn't really have 'days off', they weren't in the arena every day but they were still giving other work. Hiccup had been recruited into the arena forge (fights were a popular attraction so weapons were always in high demand) while Snotlout was something of a poster boy, often posing and performing to the crowds that were waiting outside to advertise their next event. Today however, he wasn't needed to do that since the sports were taking all the limelight, leaving him sat in his cell doing not a lot.

A rough snout nudged him in the back and he gave a small smile and turned around, "There's masses of them out there as usual Hookfang, though there seems to be a lot more than normal. These sports must be a huge deal."

The Nightmare snorted slightly and nudged him away from the tiny, barred window. Patting his dragon's snout, Snotlout made his way over to Toothless, who was sat staring intently at their cell door, waiting for Hiccup to return. The older boy had been taken to man the forge and, as expected, the Night Fury couldn't relax until he'd returned. Snotlout sat beside the dragon and scratched him gently behind one of his ear flaps, the Night Fury rumbled and gave him a brief glance but kept his focus on the door.

They stayed that way for some time until Toothless' ear flaps suddenly perked up and Snotlout smiled knowingly.

Moments later, the cell door swung open and Hiccup was hurriedly ushered in before it was slammed shut behind him. In an instant, Toothless was up and nuzzling the boy and Hiccup laughed slightly as he treated the dragon to a load of scratches. Without thought, Hiccup made his way over to his cousin and promptly sat so they were back to back, even as Snotlout spoke, "They sent you back earlier than I thought."

The older boy shrugged, "The forgemaster wanted to see the games so he let us pack up early, everything we needed to have done was finished anyway." He briefly glanced over his shoulder, "I thought they'd have had you out advertising to the crowds."

This time it was Snotlout's turn to shrug, "Everyone's too occupied with the sports today, I don't think they had anyone spare to parade me in front of them." He started scratching Hookfang's neck, "I don't even know what our next 'show' is."

"Oh, I found that out today." Hiccup sighed, "It's another 'Snotlout in distress' performance."

The younger boy groaned, "Again! What's with the Ringmaster and those ones? We've had those three times over the last five performances!"

"It's because everyone loves them." The older cousin answered, "They all love seeing you in peril and, for them at least, it adds to the drama." He scowled, "I'm also pretty sure the Ringmaster has his own personal 'preferences' in his entertainment."

"Oh, he certainly has those." Snotlout squirmed and hugged his knees, "The way he looks at me makes it pretty clear."

Hiccup reached back and gently squeezed his hand, "I know, but after this one, we're doing a week-long series for the summer festival and it has no 'Snotlout in distress' scenarios anywhere in sight."

He sensed Snotlout smile, "That's good." There was a pause, "I probably won't like this but what is the upcoming scenario?"

Hiccup sighed, "Basically, you've been kidnapped by some bandit king to be used as bait in a convoluted trap and me, Toothless and Hookfang swoop in to save you from an evil dragon. In short, you're probably going to spend most of the performance tied up and only really freed to help in the big battle."

"And which one is the 'evil dragon'?"

The older boy grimaced, "The Whispering Death."

"Just great!"

Isle of Berk-Present

"So, you've fought against this dragon loads of times before to entertain people!?"

Hiccup simply nodded in response to his father's question while Snotlout answered verbally, "Yeah, it's what the empire used dragons for. They didn't know how to train them so they put them into fights to entertain the masses."

Stoick frowned, "And now its followed you both all the way here to settle a grudge?"

Again, Hiccup nodded, "Everytime we faced that dragon in the arena, we've beaten it and it remembers that. It must have escaped the same time we did and eventually found us here."

Alsvid leaned forward, "So what you're saying is that this dragon won't stop attacking until its either dealt with or kills you."

Snotlout affirmed his statement, "Yep."

Stormlegs scratched his head, "Well then, why don't we try training it?"

"It won't work."

Stoick looked at his son in shock, surprised to hear him so quickly dismiss befriending a dragon. Beliptyr Thorston frowned, "What makes you so certain?"

Hiccup looked down sadly, "Because he's tasted human flesh and when a dragon does that, there's no going back."

Behind him, Toothless and Hookfang gave mournful rumbles and Stoick sensed a deeper story behind his words. However, it was Spitelout who gently prodded the issue, "What do you mean?"

Snotlout was pointedly looking down as if ashamed of something and Hiccup briefly glanced at him before answering, "We discovered that when a dragon eats human flesh, intentionally or not, it starts to become almost addicted to it. They start craving it and while they'll happily survive on normal meats and fish, they will attempt to feast on humans when they can." Toothless gently nuzzled his rider, offering him comfort as he continued speaking, "The empire didn't just use the dragons for fights, they also fed sentenced prisoners to them to entertain the people as well as act as a warning. Toothless and Hookfang were thankfully spared such a thing but that Whispering Death has certainly eaten people before. We saw it ourselves when we were first brought to the Great Arena, it was a demonstration of our punishment should we try and escape."

There were shocked gasps from the gathered council and Hiccup fixed them with an intense stare, "As long as it's around, that Whispering Death will not stop attacking and it won't be long before it starts trying to eat members of the tribe, its focused on me and Snotlout at the moment but it won't be able to ignore its cravings long."

He gently stroked Toothless' head apologetically before continuing, "We have to stop it before it kills someone, while its focus is still on me and Snotlout, and I'm afraid that we can't train it and simply driving it away won't be enough. We need to end this…"

His gaze darkened.

"…permanently!"

PS-As you might've realised, this arc looks at the issue of a dragon that is a danger but can't be trained, relocated or driven away. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.