The next morning after waking up, I headed to the Great Hall with Hiccup for breakfast before deciding to head to the academy. Once we got to the hall and got our food, he took his usual seat beside Astrid while I sat beside to the other side of her. As per usual, the twins and Snotlout walked in later than all of us. When they did, Tuffnut took a seat beside me and I felt my heart skip a beat like it did last night.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Astrid asked Hiccup
"Dodging and firing practice." Hiccup replied "Dad said some stray ships were spotted in the distance and we don't know if they're harmless or one of the outcasts or Berkers' ships so we need to be prepared. And whoever trains Enya today that's what I want her to work on."
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tuff roll his eyes and begin to shove move food in his mouth. I couldn't help but smirk and turned toward him. "So Tuff, I heard you missed me yesterday."
Almost immediately he stopped shoveling the food and looked straight at me. "-ro who?" He said with his mouth still filled with food. I just smiled and rested my hand on the back on my palm. "I was just told you didn't have your little buddy there to annoy and cause her to lose all her drawings." I started to see a little bit of pink appear on his cheeks as he started trying to swallow his food to defend himself. "Don't worry Tuff, I'll be back in the academy in no time so you won't need to miss me for long."
His cheeks started to turn redder when he finally swallowed enough to finally form a sentence. "There's only two things I miss. My dragon on Snoggletog, and not you."
I raised an eyebrow and opened my mouth to say something before shaking my head and deciding against it. "Anyway, I think I'm going with Astrid today. If there's anyone who knows about firing practice, it's her. And she's been dodging Snotlout for years so she's perfect."
"She's got a point." Astrid smiled before giving me a high-five.
"You're already good at dodging too, Enya." Ruffnut chimed in "You've been dodging Tuffnut for years too." That caused my heart to skip another beat and I heard a stifled laugh come from Hiccup and Fishlegs. I felt my heart skip another beat and my face become redder than Tuff's.
"Ruffnut-" I began through gritted teeth before Hiccup quickly interrupted
"Hey, let's get going down to the academy, get as much training in as we can. Enya, I'll see you and Astrid later back at the academy. Good luck in training."
I gave Ruffnut a glare before standing up and walking outside with the others to meet their dragons.
"Alright Enya," Astrid said soon after we landed back in the same forest Fishlegs and I were in yesterday "First is dodging and then a little bit of navigating. You never know when your dragon is going to encounter dragon root, eels, or go feral and attack so it's important to know how to dodge and navigate the skies." Astrid jumped down from Stormfly and threw me the shield that was hanging off her saddle. "You also don't know when you'll encounter an enemy on a dragon. What you're going to do is dodge Stormfly's attacks, throw me off the saddle, and then try to tame her." I nodded my head and took out the dagger I keep in my boot. "Seems easy enough."
"Before you throw me off, Stormfly's going to stay close to the ground but then it's going to be your job to bring her back to me at the dragon academy no matter where she flies off to afterwards." That caused a small knot to form in my stomach, knowing Stormfly she's going to end up in the sky. But I quickly shook this feeling off and gathered my surroundings.
Astrid climbed back on Stormfly and I took a defensive stance with the shield directly in front of me while going through different strategies in my head to knock her off. After counting down from three, the "attack" began. First Astrid shot a fire attack and I dodged it by a quick somersault and began intertwining between the trees to throw off the aim. Soon after she threw a spine-shot, landing one of the spines in my shield before I could jump out the way of the others. This was followed by a another shot of fire which landed on the tree nearest to me. Suddenly I got a new idea to take her down. "Come on Astrid throw another spine-shot." I mumbled before dodging a direct swoop attack from her.
After another fire attack from her and a tail whip without the spines, I finally got what I wanted when another set of spines came hurling at my shield. This time I was able to get most of them in the wooden shield before cutting them off with my dagger. While she used another swoop attack, feeling Stormfly's claws just very lightly graze my hair, I threw the sharpest ends of the spines I gathered on a tree and began climbing up them. Once Astrid got close, I jumped onto Stormfly's back and began to fight with her to get her away from the saddle while Stormfly continued to try and knock me off. Sure enough she was staying close to the ground to not harm Astrid when I threw her off, but I still kept my surroundings in check should she decide to fly upwards. Luckily before that happened, I was able to knock Astrid off using the shield and try to settle myself into the saddle.
Stormfly took this as a cue she could fly higher without hurting her rider and she quickly shot up to the sky, the knot in my stomach returning almost as fast. I felt my hands and legs start to shake as I tried to get Stormfly under control. "Stormfly, I need you to go back to Astrid." I said as I held onto the saddle for life. I could tell she thought this was still training-mode and obviously couldn't feel the knot in my stomach and the queasiness I was slowly starting to feel. I kept my eyes straight to avoid looking down at the ever-receding ground. I continued holding onto the saddle before jerking Stormfly to the right and finally getting her to fly horizontal instead of vertical. I knew I had to look down to figure out where the forest ended and where the academy began, but my body wasn't allowing my head to look that way. My body wasn't allowing my head to look anywhere.
Finally, after gods know how long, I moved my arms again and was able to bring Stormfly a little closer to the ground. Gradually, I was able to get Stormfly lower and lower until I could faintly make out the colors of the ocean. That helped make the knot in my stomach loosen up slightly and I was able to move my head somewhat. I glanced to my sides and could make out the shape and sounds of the academy in the distance to my left. "Alright girl, lets head there." I said before jerking Stormfly towards the academy.
"Welcome back." were the first words I heard Hiccup say as soon as I landed. As soon as I felt Stormfly's legs hit ground the knot fully came undone and I felt the shakiness in my legs slow down.
"Still in one piece, too." I laughed before sliding off the saddle. I looked down at my legs and shook them off and smiled at Hiccup. "Yeah, I still have both my legs so definitely still in one piece."
That earned me an eyeroll before he turned back to the others. "Alright everyone, good training today. Same time back here tomorrow."
Astrid walked back over to Stormfly and began climbing back into her saddle while I put the shield back in place. "Any problems navigating back?" She asked while adjusting her saddle.
"No," I replied, slightly shrugging my shoulders. "Everything went as smooth as ever."
"Good, had a feeling this would be the easiest part for you." Astrid smiled before flying out.
"Yeah, says the girl without the fear of heights." I muttered before walking over to Toothless and taking my usual spot behind Hiccup.
