Chapter 6: How to Trick Your Classmates

I'm back everyone! I am really sorry for the wait but with everything being shut down my place of employment actually got busier than ever. I hope that there are still people who still want to read the story...

Answer to the question from the last chapter~ I would name my Deadly Nadder...Thorntail!

Disclaimer! I own nothing!

After running around the forge grabbing notebooks, ropes, various tools, and large pieces of leather they stopped by the docks to get two more baskets of fish for their scaled friends than they were off to the cove.

"The easiest way for me to be able to help Toothless fly would be with me on his back instead of his tail," Hiccup was explaining to Gemma as he adjusted the basket on his back.

"Which means making a saddle would be the most efficient way to keep you on his back and in control of the tail fin," Gemma agreed while going over what the best saddle designs would be.

"I'm thinking I can try using a rope to keep the fin open," Hiccup added "at least until we can find a better way."

"We will also need to get them to the point of trust where we can touch them from any angle whether they can see us or not," Gemma stated "You need to be able to work on the tail without either dragon thinking harm might come to Toothless if they're not looking."

"There's also the need for them to get used to having something on their back and the straps keeping it there before we put a person on there," Hiccup responded before looking up at Gemma after he climbed down into the cove. "I can only assume all the leather is to make Brightscale a saddle too?"

"Naturally!" Gemma replied chipperly, handing down the supplies she was carrying down to Hiccup before following suit, only pausing long enough to stab her weapons into the grassy entrance. "At least if he'll let me. He's going to follow Toothless whenever you guys go flying and you could always use backup if something goes wrong up there."

"No time like the present to get started with all this," Hiccup stated before turning over to the middle of the cove where they left the dragons earlier in the day. "Toothless, come and get it!"

"Brightscale, soups on!" Gemma joined in, it only took a few seconds before a tornado of black and white scales nearly knocked the two of them over. The two Furies managed to stop right before they knocked into the baskets of fish while licking their chops at the smell of the fish.

"I think the first thing we should do is spread out all the supplies we bought and let them sniff so they can learn that it isn't a threat," Hiccup explained walking around the baskets so the dragons couldn't get to them yet.

"Then use the fish as a reward so they start thinking of it as something that gives them food! Got it!" Gemma exclaimed when she understood Hiccup's plan, she slowly but methodically spread out everything they brought out in front of the dragons.

Toothless and Brightscale looked at each other in confusion, warbled back and forth to each other, before pinning their emerald and sapphire gazes to humans in front of them. With some looks of encouragement, they turned to the items in front of them with curiosity before slowly moving forward to investigate. Sniffing the notebooks, rolling aside the charcoal pencils before recoiling after finding out they are not good for licking, they made their way through most of the items with relative ease. However, when Toothless was walking over to see some of the tools one of the ropes got tangled around his back legs causing him to freak out and try to jump away. The sudden movement meant that Toothless jumped into Brightscale, who was sticking his head in the pile of leather, causing him to also freak out and try and run but his face was covered.

"No, no, no it's okay! It won't hurt you!" Hiccup reassured stepping up behind the dragon that was getting himself tangled further within the rope. "I got you." Hiccup carefully unwound the rope from Toothless' legs. Toothless jumped away with a hiss and snarled at the rope from where Hiccup had placed it on the ground, Hiccup patted his head encouragingly so Toothless went forward carefully. When he was within distance, Toothless started stomping aggressively on the rope and snorted at it when he deemed it was no longer a threat. Hiccup rewarded Toothless' bravery with a large halibut which the black dragon snacked on happily.

"Easy boy!" Gemma cooed snatching the leather off of Brightscale's face before he could start blasting away at their supplies. "See! It is harmless!" she plopped it on her own head and spun in circles, when Brightscale huffed in disagreement, Gemma had an idea. Taking one of the salmon from the basket she rubbed the fish all over the leather before holding it out to the dragon. Brightscale's nose perked up and he started snuffling at the leather Gemma held out in front of her with new interest. While Gemma had hoped that he would not be scared of the leather, what she wasn't expecting was for him to rub his entire head in it.

"That's another way to do it," Hiccup remarked appreciatively while he fed Toothless another fish. "Let me try something." Hiccup grabbed one of the smaller leather pieces and started running it along Toothless' scales, pausing for an extra moment wherever Toothless seemed most uncomfortable so reward him with some fish and continue rubbing until the dragon relaxed. Hiccup repeated this process with some rope so that Toothless would become accustomed to everything they thought they would need to create the saddles.

"That is a good size place for a saddle," Hiccup stated motioning to the empty space between where Toothless' cranial plates ended, and his dorsal plates began. He took the largest piece of leather and draped it over the Night Fury's back before giving him a few more fish to keep him still while Hiccup traced a general outline of a saddle.

"Brightscale really isn't a big fan of leather under his chin" Gemma muttered to herself when Brightscale snorted away the leather strap for the fourth time "and due to his cranial and dorsal fin being connected all the way down means I'm going to need the saddle to be a bit elevated and padded."

The duo continued like that for a few more hours until they had all the measurements that they would need and the dragon's had gone through both baskets of fish, the humans gathered their supplies, bid their scaled friends goodbye and continued on to the forge to get working the saddles. They worked in relative silence with Hiccup forming the connecting rings that would serve to hold all the leather straps that Gemma was busy hammering holes into before going back and threading them all together.

Before training the next morning, they carried their creations down to the cove underarm, discussing the best ways to actually get the saddles on said dragons.

"Think they'll actually cooperate with us?" Gemma inquired as she dropped down into the cove after Hiccup.

"The odds of that are probably pretty low," Hiccup answered as he adjusted the saddle under his arm.

"Figures." Gemma snorted picking up her own saddle.

Toothless and Brightscale were waiting for their humans in the center of the cove with anticipation of more fish, their ears perked up and their heads cocked when they noticed the strange brown bundles held in the human's hands. Hiccup held up the saddle for Toothless to see, to which the Night Fury responded by crouching down for a second before darting forward away from Hiccup.

"Hey!" Hiccup exclaimed, taking off after Toothless, all the excitement got to Brightscale who scampered after Hiccup and Toothless with a warble, which caused Gemma to put her saddle down and join the fray.

"Okay this is getting us nowhere" Gemma huffed stopping the chase and putting her hands on her knees to hold herself up.

"I am open to suggestions!" Hiccup called from where he was still chasing after Toothless albeit at a slower pace.

Gemma paused for a minute, looking back over to where her saddle and the basket of fish lay before an idea popped into her head. "I've got it!" She cheered jogging over to basket, remembering Brightscale's reaction from the day before, she took out a large fish from basket and slathered it all over the leather of the saddle. "Brightscale!" the ivory dragon came to a halt before whirling around to look at the ashen haired female in curiosity, the smell of fish got his attention and he bounded over to Gemma. He started rubbing his body all over the leather just like Gemma had hoped, when he rubbed his back under the saddle Gemma took the opportunity to drop it on the dragon before reaching under him and securing the straps.

"Write a note so we don't forget to figure out why they do that" Hiccup stated before following Gemma's example, Toothless was also curious about the fish smell and also rubbed his body against the leather. In one fluid movement Hiccup had the saddle placed on Toothless' back, the straps connected in place and had himself placed in the saddle before he could talk himself out of it. When Toothless didn't immediately knock him to the ground he took it as a sign to continue by having Gemma take a rope and tying one end to the tailpiece before handing the other end to Hiccup to control.

"Are you sure that is going to work?" Gemma questioned.

"We've got to start somewhere right?" Hiccup responded.

"Whenever you say that one of us ends up with our face in the dirt" Gemma countered dryly.

"Oh hush, just take some notes about the things we need to improve on" Hiccup sighed, Gemma gave him a sarcastic thumbs up from where she had managed to sit on Brightscale so he could get used to the weight.

Hiccup urged Toothless upwards, after a few experimental flaps and some light tugs on the rope, Hiccup was able to keep the tailfin open enough to where he and Toothless were able to glide gently over the pond in the middle of the cove. Upon coming to the wall of the cove Toothless tried to bank left with Hiccup following suit but he pulled the rope so hard that the two of them went sailing into the pond with a scream.

"Told him yanking on the rope wouldn't work," Gemma snickered. "Looks like some sort of harness would be beneficial for staying on wouldn't be a bad idea either."

The previous evening was spent making Hiccup a brown vest with rings attached to it that could be attached to the hook on the saddle, while Gemma settled for a type of belt that would keep her attached but lower on the saddle. They also added metal loops for Toothless to put his forelegs through as well as a strap across his chest and one under his chin to keep the saddle from moving around. Brightscale's saddle was adjusted so that along with the strap that connected behind his forelegs across his stomach, they put another set of straps that formed a Y across his chest. After giving the boys their basket of fish, Hiccup decided to attach the rope to his ankle and try to work the tailfin that way while Gemma worked on padding the saddle more so she wasn't squishing the Light Fury's dorsal fin. Hiccup's ride was going well so far, Toothless was gaining altitude and speed faster than Hiccup could keep up so he ended up preemptively yanking the rope with his foot and sending the two of them careening into a field atop the south-facing cliff.

Gemma took a chance to spur Brightscale forward, he gently took off towards the fallen duo, the sudden movement nearly knocked her out of her seat and she was only able to hold on by latching her arms around his neck and squeezing her legs against his sides. The sight that greeted her when they made it to the top of the cliff was Hiccup trudging through the tall grass towards Toothless who was rolling around frantically in the grass with a euphoric look on his face.

"What is that stu-ah!" Gemma couldn't get the rest of her sentence out as Brightscale jolted forward, slamming into the field with a flop that sent Gemma sprawling to the ground when he began to also roll around.

"I have no idea what this is." Hiccup replied to Gemma's unfinished question while he pulled her up off the ground. "But would you look at the effect that it has on the dragons?"

"It completely debilitates them but in an almost pleasant way," Gemma noted while Hiccup pulled off a bunch in his hand "Wouldn't that stuff be helpful in the training."

"Speaking of which," Hiccup started "training starts soon, and we should head back."

"Good call." Gemma agreed.

It took some persuasion and the promise of fish to convince the two dragons to return to the cove but eventually they were able to gather the saddles, stow them away in the forge, gather their weapons and head down to the arena for Dragon Training. True to Gobber's training method, he just opened the door to the Gronckle's cage and let his students scatter to avoid the lava spitting dragon. The Gronckle slammed its head into Tuffnut, knocking his spear and shield out of his hands and sending him flying into the opposite wall before it whirled around and started speeding towards Hiccup. On a whim, Hiccup shielded his face while he extended a handful of what he decided to call Dragon Nip, out towards the charging dragon. The Gronckle stopped flying immediately and came to a skidding halt right before it ran into Hiccup, Hiccup took the plant and rubbed it all over the dragon's nose causing it to roll over happily.

After training was over, Snotlout, the Twins, and Fishlegs were swarming Hiccup as they all walked back into town with Astrid and Ramsey followed a pace behind, Astrid suspicious and resentful of Hiccup's recent success while Ramsey just studied his fellow teen in front of him.

"I've never seen a Gronckle do that before!" Snotlout cheered but before he could say anything else Gemma came shoving between the rest of the teens.

"Hiccup!" Gemma "Did you forget the Gobber wanted us to start on the sword sharpening?"

"Oh, you're right! Sorry, everyone!" Hiccup ran to catch up with Gemma before shouting back at the others. "See you guys tomorrow."

Instead of going to the forge, they made their way to the cove along with their customary baskets of fish, though today Gemma decided to try and see how bringing her weapons into the cove would go. Aside from a few hisses in the beginning followed by some curious sniffs from the dragons they didn't seem to have adverse reactions to the blades. It wasn't long before the reptiles were relaxing, with Gemma working on massaging different parts of Brightscale's body so there weren't any bad reactions while Hiccup was busy scratching Toothless behind the ear flap. Toothless let out a purr in satisfaction when Hiccup started to descend down his neck a bit before finally settling to scratch beneath his jaw, when Hiccup touched that spot the Night Fury crumpled to the ground with a happy whimper.

"What just happened?" Hiccup asked looking down at his hands in wonder before sharing a confused look with Gemma who could only shrug in response.

"I wonder?" Gemma pondered before running her hands underneath Brightscale's jaw and added a bit of pressure, the white dragon let out a similar whimper before he dropped to the ground as well.

"Add that to the book?" Hiccup inquired.

"Way ahead of you!" Gemma responded, pulling out her notebook and scratching away at it with her charcoal pencil.

When it was time for them to go to the arena for training, they found that they were facing the Deadly Nadder again, the bipedal dragon ran straight to the nearest human target who happened to be Astrid with Hiccup slightly behind her. Astrid swung her axe and the charging blue dragon which unfortunately bounced harmlessly off the dragon's nasal bone as it continued forward. Astrid jumped out of the way and ran behind the dragon to the other side of the arena where her axe landed meanwhile, the Nadder continued to charge at Hiccup but stopped right before it ran into him. The dragon turned its head to see if he was still there since he remained unmoving in its blind spot, the Nadder's cranial spines perked up when there was a sharp battle cry from where Astrid was previously seen. Astrid started charging with her axe raised high above her head, Hiccup started carding his fingers over the scales on the Nadder's neck until he found the spot under the chin that incapacitated both Toothless ad Brightscale the day before. Sure enough, the blue dragon was peacefully on the ground before Astrid could reach the duo and swing her axe on the dragon's head. The crowd that had gathered during the session in the arena has since followed Hiccup into the Great Hall, when Hiccup went to sit at the table next to Gemma the rest of the teens swarmed him, each shoving each other to get the remaining spot on his left side. All except, Astrid who slammed her mug down on the table in front of her in frustration with Ramsey patting her on her shoulder reassuringly.

With the dragon's acceptance with their tools in the cove Hiccup and Gemma were able to continue making improvements to the saddles without having to do it in the middle of the night in the forge. Gemma was fastening the handles to the top of her saddle while Hiccup was in the middle of hammering out the shape for the pedals for his when their attention was moved to where both Toothless and Brightscale were chasing the beam of light reflecting off of Hiccup's hammer.

"They sure are entertained by the smallest things," Gemma noted with a chuckle.

"Never know when that would come in handy," Hiccup pondered.

In the afternoon, Hiccup and the others were all lined up in front of the door of a dragon that they haven't seen up until then with their weapons at the ready, none of them sure what they were about to face.

"Meet the Terrible Terror!" Gobber called from the far side of the arena.

The cage door began to rumble, causing all the teens to tense up into a ready position but instead of the whole metal door opening, the little flap on the bottom left side opened instead. Out ran a small bright green dragon with deep red stripes and dorsal plating down its spine as well as deep red horns coming off the side of its head along with big yellow eyes, which it stuck its tongue out and swiped across one of its eyes.

"Ha! It's like the size of my-" Tuffnut started to say before his sentence was cut off when the little Terrible Terror launched itself at him and dug its teeth into his nose. "Aah! Get it off!" He screamed but the other teens ran for cover instead of helping him.

Hiccup maneuvered the metal center of his shield into the sun so that it would reflect a beam of light like it did earlier in the cove, just like with the Furies the little Terror started chasing the dot wherever Hiccup moved it, even following it right back into his cage.

"Wow, he's better than you ever were," Tuffnut muttered to Astrid while rubbing his nose Terror bit him, Astrid sent him a glare that could melt steel and promised retribution.

"You'll probably need this to stop the swelling," Ramsey sighed, holding up a jar.

Tuffnut cast Ramsey a confused look "Isn't that a bit much for my nose?"

"It won't be," that was all could be said before Astrid swung her fist into Tuffnut's face in a vicious right hook in punishment for his earlier comment before picking her up axe and storming out of the arena.

Astrid went right into the forest and started throwing her axe into every available tree with an intense ferocity while Ramsey studied her quietly from atop a boulder, her rage was only interrupted when Hiccup and Gemma happened to wander past her destruction sight. The two of them were carrying something in bundles and froze when they saw both Astrid and Ramsey staring at them, there was a short pause before the two of them disappeared behind a boulder.

Astrid reacted quickly to try and follow them while motioning for Ramsey to follow her but as soon as they made it around the boulder and saw that the ones they were trying to follow had already disappeared. Slamming her fist into a nearby tree in frustration she had no other choice but to continue on with her training while Ramsey took up his position on the boulder again.

When they got to the cove they wasted no time laying out everything they would need to fit Toothless with his new tail fin, while Gemma was laying out the baskets of fish in front of the dragons while Hiccup was running a final line of rope from the tail itself to the stirrup that would allow Hiccup to control it with his foot.

"That was way too close!" Gemma growled in irritation "they could have very easily followed us here." .

"That is definitely not a problem we need right now." Hiccup agreed "we'll have to be more careful when they're around."

After making sure that everything on the saddle was connected like it needed to be before making their way to a higher part of the cove where there was a consistent stream of air battering the cliffside. Hiccup tied the front of Toothless' saddle to a stump before fitting himself into the saddle. He had Toothless open his wings and practiced moving the tailfin into different positions with his foot and then writing down what happened on the cheat sheet attached to the saddle in front of him. It took some practice for him to read the muscles in Toothless' back as he adjusted his wings and real tailfin so that Hiccup could accurately move the fake one accordingly so that they landed gently on the ground.

They were about to practice again when an exceptionally strong gust of wind slammed against the two of them so hard that it snapped the rope and caused them to go flying back into Brightscale and Gemma who were positioned behind them. The four of them landed in a pile of the ground, painfully they extracted their limbs from one another but discovered a problem when Toothless stood up and Hiccup was still attached to him by his harness.

"Oh, great." Hiccup sighed in defeat.

"I don't suppose you would've brought that tool with you today?" Gemma pleaded while she covered her eyes with her hand.

"Afraid not..." Hiccup responded, giving the connecting strap a few more experimental tugs.

By the time the two of them made it back to the village it was dark which ended up working out to their advantage, though they were almost caught by one of the guards patrolling the square while the two teens scrambled to hide the dragons..

"Hiccup, Gemma." Algon greeted with a nod as he continued to walk by.

"You couldn't have left him in the cove?" Hiccup griped as the two of them tried to sneak both Toothless and Brightscale into the forge but ended up knocking over a bucket.

"Why don't you tell him that!" Gemma snapped back in a whisper. "It isn't like I can keep the dragon that can fly in a cove he can easily get out of."

"Let's just hurry and get this over with," Hiccup sighed as they spread out looking for the tool that they would need while at the same time trying to keep the curious dragons quiet and out of sight.

"Hey, is anyone in there?" Astrid's voice called from the night.

" Oh, just great…" Gemma growled, "You keep working on getting yourself out of this mess while I keep her distracted."

Gemma opened the serving window, jumped over the sill to the outside and slammed it behind her before meeting Astrid's suspicious look with a glare of her own.

"What are you doing?" Astrid demanded.

"I didn't know I needed a reason to come to my place of employment." Gemma sneered.

"I normally don't care what people are doing but you two have been especially weird lately." Astrid accused.

"And it still isn't any of your business." Gemma challenged crossing her arms over her chest.

The two girls stood there glaring at each other, neither giving an inch while Hiccup rushed around inside trying to free himself from his harness. His efforts were cut short when Toothless and Brightscale noticed a sheep staring at them worriedly, rightfully so it would seem like the two of them moved forward to go get it.

"No boys, leave the sheep alone, bad dragons." Hiccup groaned, Toothless ignored him and continued to move forward which caused Hiccup to be dragged forward while he was trying to hold onto Brightscale.

"What was that?" Astrid asked when the crashing noise could be heard from within the forge.

"I have something in the forge," Gemma responded hotly. "Now if that is all you wanted please leave.'' With that, she stormed around the side of forge and when she was out of Astrid's eye line she jumped onto Brightscale's back and followed Hiccup back to the cove.

And that is a wrap! Please let me know what you think and if there are things you would possibly like to see in the chapters going forward.

Question~ What family would you want to be a part of?