Chapter 1 - Road to an Academy

Hiccup and Toothless came flying in, Helga holding tightly to her brother as they landed on the sea stack beside Astrid and Stormfly. "Okay, guys," Hiccup says as soon as they land, "Best trick competition. Who's up first?"

Fishlegs was ready to speak, but as usual, Snotlout cuts in, "Me."

"Actually, I think it's," Fishlegs tries again.

"Me," but Snotlout was not going going to let anyone else go first.

"Sweet baby Thor in a thunderstorm, go!" Astrid shouts to him.

"Oh, don't worry, we'll go," Snotlout says confidently, "And when we go, Hookfang and I are gonna light the sky on fire!"

His last word was said screaming as Hookfang had not given his rider a chance to finish before jumping off the sea stack and diving for the ocean. Hookfang took charge immediately, flying around the other sea stacks quickly, Snotlout doing everything he could to hold on. Hiccup felt his sister shaking behind him and he turned to see she was suppressing a laugh behind her fist. She had no need to see what was going on when she could hear Snotlout's screaming, that was enough for her.

Hookfang continued to really take Snotlout for a ride, flying incredibly fast and causing a few occasions where Snotlout's helmet was grinding on the stacks above his head. He then dived head first into the ocean, something that would be strange for a dragon that liked to light itself on fire, but it was clear Hookfang was just trying to play with his rider. He came back out of the water, and landed right back where he started, Snotlout looking down at himself, "I'm alive? I'm alive," he shouts before realising what he was saying, "Of course I am."

Hiccup then felt Helga bump her head between his shoulders, her idea of a face palm when her hands were otherwise occupied, in this case, holding onto him. No one really bothered caring about Snotlout's wounded pride as Fishlegs excitedly calls out, "It's my turn," before he turns to face his dragon. "Ready, Meatlug? Here we go!"

Everyone watched as they took off, did a small lap to the left, circling Ruff and Tuff, before landing right back where they started, "Yes!" Fishlegs shouts before petting his dragon, "New personal best."

"Hiccup?" Helga whispers behind him, "Did they…uh…did they actually do anything?"

"No, Helga, they didn't," he sighs, whispering back.

"My turn," Ruffnut suddenly exclaims.

"No, my turn," her brother objects.

"Guys," Hiccup cuts in flatly, "Same dragon."

"Oh, right," Tuffnut mutters before sharing a fist bump with his sister.

Hiccup and the others watched as they took off and…uh…fought over what to do. They were pulling Barf and Belch in opposing directions, no doubt confusing and hurting the poor dragon. It ended up causing them to crash into a sea stack and the unfortunate Zippleback started spinning out of control. Both twins were then thrown into the air by their respective dragon heads though thankfully are caught again by those very same dragon heads, placed back on their saddles. They fly back over to their starting point and landed heavily. "We almost died," Ruffnut pants.

"Ugh, I know," Tuffnut agrees, "Go again?"

"Hey, it's my turn," Astrid shouts at them before turning to face Hiccup, "You might want to take notes."

She faces back forward, "Let's go."

Astrid had, by far, come the furthest of the other teens when it came to training her dragon. Hiccup could appreciate how much effort she put in as he watched the pair do their tricks. There was a lot of spinning involved, but Astrid seemed not to mind in the least, continuing to give Stormfly commands.

When they were done, they flew back over and landed in their starting position, the other teens cheering her on, though Snotlout felt the need to be a muttonhead, "Yeah, but can you do it without the dragon?"

"Did he seriously just ask her that?" Helga says, dismayed at his complete idiocy.

Hiccup does not reply, knowing that question was probably rhetorical as Astrid just punches Snotlout in the arm for his comment. The others then turned to face Hiccup, "Well, looks like we got out work cut out for us there, bud."

"Wait just a minute!" Helga all but shouts in his ear.

"Oh my gods, what?" he asks, rubbing his ears.

"Wait for me to get off first, I am not riding with you while you're doing tricks, no way," she says before immediately getting off Toothless, walking over to Astrid and Stormfly, then letting the other girl pull her up onto her dragon.

He watches and can only roll his eyes when Astrid just shrugs at him. He turns back to Toothless, "Okay, bud, now let's go."

They took off, did a loop and flew parallel to the sea stack, heading right for the ocean below at top speed. They pull up at the very last second, spraying the water below them as they did. They were flying so fast, the water was lifted and trailed behind them. Hiccup steers Toothless to fly through the sea stacks, and they do, continuing at their incredibly fast speed.

Then he sees it, the arched sea stack ahead of him, as they draw closer, he releases his prosthetic from the pedal and jumps. He uses his momentum to speed his steps across the top and when he reaches the other side, he drops, landing right back in his saddle. They fly straight back up into the sky, firing a few plasma blasts for affect.

Realising exactly what was happening, Hiccup smiled down at Toothless, "Another win," Toothless croons in response, "Good job, bud."

After having come back for her after his win, Helga was now back with her brother as they returned to Berk. They landed in the middle of town and quickly hopped off, Hiccup leading his sister by the hand as usual as they walked through the village. She could hear the sounds of vikings, dragons and, unfortunately, the sounds of vikings yelling at dragons.

"Uh, dragon, let go of my food! Drop it pesky dragon! Dragons!"

"Get off my roof, you pest!"

"Let go of that! Those are my apples!"

"You're a dastardly dragon, you are!"

"Give me back my dainties, dragon!"

"Put that down!"

"Incoming!"

"Look out!"

"Dragon poo!"

Helga allowed her brother to drag her out of the way, she did not want to be covered in dragon poo. "Eww, gross, gross, gross," her brother was saying as he helped her dodge the projectiles. "Oh, poop. Oh, that's disgusting."

She could tell they were now in between two other people when they stopped moving, not knowing who it was until her brother helped her realise, "Hey, Mulch. Hey, Bucket. Sorry about the uh…"

"Every day at three," she heard Bucket say to their left. "They're regular at least. A tip of the cap."

"Better than the days when it was kill or be killed," Mulch said from their other side. "Hey, we've got some fish for that father of yours. Bucket, give on of them the cod."

She had no way to know what was going on, but Bucket seemed to be confused, "I ate it already? Did I enjoy it?"

Helga gathered the fish were gone and the sound of scurrying feet told her it was a Terrible Terror. "Uh, no, uh, actually," her brother stuttered, "Bucket, I'm afraid the uh…"

He trailed off, so he was probably pointing them out to the bucket-headed man. She knew her brother had to be cringing based on his following silence, before he spoke again, "Come on Helga, let's get out of here, the poop shower is over."

"Sure," is her only response before she lets him lead her away, using her cane so as to not step in any gross puddles.

The next day, Hiccup, Toothless and Helga were around the storehouse when they heard a familiar, annoying voice. Hiccup led her over to it to see, as usual, Mildew complaining to their father, "Those demons are not fit to live among civilised men," he was saying.

"Neither are you, Mildew," Gobber said to him. "Why do you think we built your house so far outside of town?"

Hiccup could feel his sister's hands shaking, and turned to see her whole body was shaking in mirth, trying hard not to burst into laughter at Gobber's comment.

He turned back to face the adults, Mildew frowning at the comment, "Oh, very well, make your jokes. Meanwhile, these dragons upend out village carts! Turn peoples houses into piles of rubble! They even disturb an old man's rest!"

Hiccup observed as many of the villagers, drawn in by Mildew's words, gathered around them, agreeing with what the old man was saying. "Can't you see these bags under me eyes?" Mildew continued.

"He's right," Gobber agreed, "He's hideous."

"Pfft," he heard from beside him, Helga was having a harder time containing her laughter at that one.

"These are wild and unpredictable beasts," Mildew went on, Hiccup turning back to look his way, "They even cracked this man's skull like an egg."

He was gesturing at Bucket, who did not help the case with his words, "Eggs? I like eggs. Scrambled, over easy, poached."

"You need to put those dragons in cages," Mildew insisted, to shouts of agreement from the crowd. "If you don't, they'll eat us out of house and home..and destroy the entire village."

Hiccup rubbed Toothless' face as it continued, Helga leaning up against the dragon in comfort as well. Leaving Toothless with Helga, Hiccup made his way to the front to talk to the crowd, "They don't mean any harm. They're just dragons, being dragons."

He would have said more, but his father placed his hand on his shoulder and stepped forward, "Look, Mildew, if there's a problem, I'll deal with it."

"Oh, there is a problem, Stoick," Mildew says, bravely getting in his father's face, before walking back away, "And I think I speak for everyone when I say you better do something about it."

The crowd's shouting continued, even after the old man left, causing his father to frown.

Helga was sitting on the steps to her and her brother's room while said brother and his dragon watched their father chat with Gobber, "We can't just let the dragons run wild like they own the place. Hey, we could put up signs."

"Signs?" Gobber asks incredulously, "For dragons?"

"No," their father says, "for the people."

"Signs?" Gobber asks just as incredulously, "For vikings? We're not big readers, Stoick."

"Then we'll build a huge net and stretch it around the plaza," their father suggested next.

"Nets?" Gobber was really just here to question it would seem, "You do know they breathe fire."

"I know very well they breathe fire, Gobber," he answers, getting frustrated, "Maybe Mildew was right. We have to figure-"

At this point, she heard her brother knock over a chair, picking it up as he cut in, "No, dad, wait. What if I deal with the dragons?"

"You?"

"Who else?" her brother continues, "If anyone can control them, I can. I'm the best man for the job."

"You're not a man yet, Hiccup," their father tries to argue.

"Not if you don't give me the chance to be," Hiccup counters.

"Fair enough," their father says after a few seconds. "You'll have your chance. Starting tomorrow."

When tomorrow arrived, Helga had decided to stay with Astrid, knowing she would probably only get in the way with her brother. Joining Astrid on Stormfly was a different experience than being on Toothless with Hiccup. Stormfly may not be as easy to sit on as Toothless was, but she was certainly a little less scary to be on, she usually did not fly as fast for starters. It also helped that Astrid had no real problem with Helga grabbing onto her like a leech that just would not come off. At some point, she felt them land alongside the other teens. Astrid helped her down, Stormfly was a lot higher than Toothless, meaning Helga had a lot more trouble figuring out where the ground was.

"Where are we?" she had to ask.

"Hmm?" Astrid mumbled as if as an after thought, before understanding her question, "Oh, we're on one of the catapult towers, we have a pretty good view of the village from up here."

"Oh, okay," she spoke back softly, views really did not mean much to her.

"Come on," Astrid said, grabbing her by the arm, before leading her to sit somewhere, "Okay, sit here and I'll try to tell you what I can see."

She would have answered as soon as she finished sitting, but then Snotlout spoke up from his place a little ahead of her, "What's he doing?"

"Uh, I think he's helping the dragons break stuff," Tuffnut answered from her right.

"Cool," Ruffnut says from her place in between her brother and Helga.

"Who is it?" Helga asks, but then takes a moment to think about it, "Wait, it's Hiccup isn't it?"

"Yeah," Astrid agrees, "He's running around chasing dragons and sheep. It looks like he's trying to, uh, calm them down? Though I think he's having a little trouble considering there are dragons fighting each other and a small flock of sheep are on fire."

"Oh dear Thor," she mutters to herself.

"He seems to be having no success in putting out those sheep either," Fishlegs adds unhelpfully.

"Say no more," she shakes her head, "Seriously, please don't."

"Wow," Astrid says after a while, "He could really use our help."

"We'll get to it." Tuffnut.

"In a minute." Ruffnut.

Yes, thank you for your support you two, Helga thinks to herself, her left eyebrow twitching. She then heard the dragons flying above her and realises exactly what Astrid says out loud, "And it's three o'clock."

Later on, Hiccup was sitting on his bed with Toothless beside him, massaging his sore muscles, "Oh, everything hurts. Even this."

He took off his prosthetic, making a point, putting it on when he hears the shout of his name from downstairs, "Astrid? Perfect," he stands and pats himself down, turning to Toothless, "I don't look too beat up, do I?"

Toothless pulls a weird face in reply, growling softly, "Oh, great, dragon pity," he then hears her coming up the stairs, "Oh, hey Astrid. What a nice surprise."

Though when he turned around, she was also leading Helga up the stairs. "Oh, and hey Helga. I had wondered where you had been all day."

He barely paid attention to Helga giving Astrid a thankful arm squeeze and using her cane to find her bed as Astrid finally talks, "So, how was your day?"

"Uh, uneventful," he says trying to pass it off, "Hung around the plaza. You know."

He turns his sister's way when she snorts, but Astrid gives him no chance to ponder why, "Yeah, I do know. We both know. We saw you out there. It's hard to believe your still standing."

Realising he had no reason to act fine, he groans and heavily falls back down to his bed, "I'm gonna be seeing flaming sheep in my dreams for the next month."

"Hiccup!" he then heard his father call from down stairs, before he's up in their loft, "Hiccup, what's going on out there? The plaza looks like a war zone."

"I know it looks bad," Hiccup says, moving his hands in a motion for his father to calm down.

"Really bad," Astrid whispers in his ear unhelpfully.

"But this is only, uh, phase on of my master plan," he continues as if she never said a thing.

"Oh," his father mutters in surprise, "So you do have a plan."

"I do," he assures, "Of course I do. It's very complex…lots of drawings, several moving parts. Yeah, it's, uh, pretty wild."

He heard Helga snort again, but chose to ignore it. "Uh-huh," his father says disbelievingly. "Well, this better be real because Mildew stirred up the whole island. And if you don't get those dragons under control they'll be calling for their heads."

He turns and leaves with that joyful speech, causing Toothless to moan softly, "Don't worry, bud," Hiccup says to him softly, "Your head's not going anywhere."

"You do realise, there are like a bazillion dragons out there, and only one of you?" Astrid points out, still being unhelpful. "I hope you really do have a plan."

She left soon after that, Hiccup thinking about what he was going to do. He was interrupted by his sister calling out from her bed, "So, a complex plan with lots of drawings, several moving parts that is pretty wild, huh?"

"Shut up."

She just snickers.

Helga was with them all in the former dragon killing arena while her brother explained his 'pretty wild' plan to the other teens. When he was done, even she was thinking he may be losing his mind, Ruffnut verbalising what everyone was thinking, "That's your plan? Train dragons?"

"Here?" Tuffnut adds, "Where we used to kill them?"

"Right," Hiccup says, "Because we don't do that anymore. That's why it's available."

"Actually, the dragons do seem a little nervous," Astrid mentions, causing Helga to stroke Stormfly from where she stood beside the dragon.

"That's because they're very sensitive," Fishlegs explains, "Meatlug especially. She lost a cousin here. We try not to talk about it."

He had whispered that last part as if Meatlug would be unable to hear him if he did. Astrid just ignored him, "It's amazing your dad just gave us the arena."

"Well, it would be," Hiccup starts, ignoring the way his sister was smirking from where he could see her behind Astrid, "if he did, yeah. But he didn't, so that's another thing we should try not to talk about."

"Wait," Astrid says slowly, "So we're going behind your father's back?"

"There you go," Hiccup interjects, "Talking about it. Uh, all right."

He decided to quickly change the subject. "Everybody, here's the thing," he says while Astrid comes to stand back near Helga. "The dragons are out of control. We want them to live in our world without destroying it, but they can't without our help. They've been blowing things up in the village. We've got to do something about that."

"Got it," Tuffnut cuts in, "Help dragons blow things up. We can totally do that."

"No," Hiccup interrupts, "I believe I said-"

Though he in turn, is then interrupted by Ruffnut, "Here's how we're gonna do it. First, we make them really, really angry."

"No problem," her brother adds, "We anger everybody."

"You guys," Hiccup stops them, "This is serious. Mildew wants all of our dragons caged. And I don't know about you, but that's not okay with me."

"You're right," Tuffnut agrees, before pointing at his sister, "She's sorry."

"Okay, then," Hiccup moves on, and it sounded like he was opening a basket. "The dragons are eating everything in sight. Now, when a dragon grabs something it's not supposed to have you can get him to drop it by giving him a little scratch just below the chin."

"Eh, meh, meh, meh, meh," Snotlout mutters, making his way towards Hiccup. "Maybe that works for you and Toothless, but Hookfang and me, we do things a little different."

By the sounds of it, he threw the bread towards Hookfang, who caught it, before he continued. Honestly, Helga was a little excited to 'see' how this played out, because she had a pretty good idea where it was going. "When I want this big boy to do something…" he says, walking to his dragon. "I just get right in face and—Drop that right now! You hear me?"

His next words were muffled, so she had a pretty good idea about what had happened, cracking up laughing as he says, "See? He dropped it."

"Should we help him?" Tuffnut asks with a chuckle.

"Yeah, in a minute," Astrid concludes.

Deciding to ignore what was happening, Hiccup just kept going from where he left off, "Alright, we've got a lot of training to do, but together, we can keep these dragons under control."

"Uh," Snotlout called from still inside Hookfang, "can somebody do that chin-scratchy thing? Hello? You guys still there?"

A little bit later in the day, Hiccup and the others were walking into the plaza to find the dragons. However, when they entered, "Huh. No dragons," Fishlegs observed.

"That was easy," Ruffnut adds.

"I can't even hear any nearby," Helga throws out from her spot beside him.

"Lunch?" Snotlout asks, deciding there was nothing left for them to do.

"That's weird," Hiccup says softly, ignoring Snotlout completely. "If the dragons aren't here, where are they?"

As if to answer his question, there is an explosion in the distance, followed by screaming from vikings. "Something tells me that way," Astrid expresses.

They ran over as fast as they could, Helga not using her cane, trusting he would not lead her into anything. When they got there it was to see something completely unbelievable.

"Stormfly?" Astrid.

"Hookfang?" Snotlout.

Sure enough, both dragons were there, eating the stores of food. Hiccup left his sister with Astrid and ran over to the doors into the storehouse. His father was in there moving beams out of the way, grunting in frustration, "They've eaten everything. We've got nothing left for the freeze."

"I warned you, Stoick," says Mildew, coming out of nowhere, "But did you listen to me? No. You put a bunch of teenagers in charge. Now look what the dragons have done. Caging is too good for those beasts. Ow!"

Hiccup looked to see it had been Helga who had thrown the rock, Mildew's incessant complaining making it easy for her to guess his location. By the time Mildew had looked over their way, her arm was down and everyone was whistling, he had no way to know which one of them had done it, but it was doubtful he would ever guess it was Helga.

Hiccup tried not to smile as he turned back to face his father, "Dad, I swear I can fix this. We, we were just starting to—"

"Enough, Hiccup," his father interrupted, "How can I trust you to control all the dragons…when you couldn't even control your own?"

He pointed over to his left and when Hiccup's gaze followed, he saw Toothless eating some fish from a basket, "Oh, Toothless."

His father turned and walked back into the storehouse, shouting orders. "Bucket, Mulch, man the boats. We need another catch."

"It's too late, Stoick," Mulch tried to reason, "It took us six months to catch all that fish."

"Don't tell me it's too late," he shouted back, "We've got to try."

"Of course we do," Mulch chuckles, before he grabbed Bucket to tell him, "Don't tell the chief it's too late. You're always so negative."

"I don't know what it is with me," poor Bucket says in response, no way to know he had just been had.

As his father walked away with the baskets that still had food, Hiccup called out to him, "Dad, please, you gotta listen to me. I know dragons better than—"

"Not now, Hiccup," his father interrupts, "I have a village to feed. The dragons have done enough damage. By tonight, I want every one of them caged. Understand?"

"Bah!" calls Mildew, coming up behind Hiccup, "You can't just cage these dragons. You need to send them away now! Ow! Which one of you brats keeps doing that?"

Hiccup knew it had to be Helga again, but every single one of them were wearing the guilty innocence look, so Mildew still had no way of knowing who it was. Despite that, the villagers were unfortunately all shouting their agreement with Mildew, causing his father to relent, "You're right Mildew."

"He most certainly is not!" Helga shouts, but is completely ignored by their father.

"He'll cage them tonight, and in the morning…Hiccup will send them off the island. I'm sorry, son."

Hiccup was petting Toothless by the time his father turned around and walked away. What was he going to do now?

He looked over to see Helga was fuming and the villagers who were near her, seeing this, were slightly stepping away from her. Probably because she looked ready to smash heads with the way she was holding her cane, gripping it like a weapon. It was probably a good thing Mildew had left by this point, or she would have tracked him down to do more damage than her little rocks had been doing.

That afternoon, Helga was eating her dinner with the others in the Great Hall, all of them wallowing with what was happening. Well, the others were wallowing, Helga was stabbing her food with a fork aggressively as she ate. "I can't believe we have to send them away," Snotlout says sadly from where he sat across from her.

"It's gonna be weird," Astrid admits, further down the same bench as Snotlout. "I got used to Stormfly's face being the first thing I see every morning."

"Every night before I went to sleep…" Fishlegs chimes in, "Meatlug would lick my feet. Who's gonna do that now?"

Okay, that was gross and something I could have lived without knowing, Helga thought to herself.

"I volunteer Tuffnut," Ruffnut throws in.

"Whatever," he groans, "What time should I be there?"

"Come on guys," Astrid says, standing up, "let's get this over with."

"This is the worst day of my life," Fishlegs cries as he follows. "We're never gonna see our dragons again."

"We can't let that happen," Hiccup asserts, not following the others out. "Toothless is the best friend I've ever had."

Helga was still at the table when she heard Mildew come over to her brother, "Oh, Toothless. I'm gonna miss you so much. You know what your mistake was? Thinking dragons could be trained. A dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do. It's their nature. And nature always wins. OW! You?"

Helga had used Mildew's rant to find him where he stood, as soon as she reached him, she had grabbed her cane and whacked him with it, "You know what your mistake was Mildew? Coming near me when there is no one around to stop me hitting you with my cane. Oh, and also for thinking I'm the quiet, demure one in this pair of twins. I'm the one with the temper."

Hiccup was looking at his sister with wide eyes, sure she had hit Snotlout over the head many times, but this is the first time she had ever hit an adult. Toothless though, he was backing her up, growling at Mildew who took this as his cue to leave, not bothering to grace Helga with a response as he grumbled.

As soon as she heard the doors close, she was raging to him, "I hate that man, what would he know about dragons? Those dragons have done more for me than anyone in this village has besides you. I once had a Terrible Terror stop me from walking into a hole and there was one time a Nightmare had pulled me out the way of an oncoming out of control cart. The dragons know, they know I can't see and for some reason, they've all weirdly decided that they needed to watch out for me. The adult humans in this village have never done something like that for me."

She had sat back down at the table by this point and Hiccup would have tried saying..something, when the doors opened and he turned to see their father come in. However, the cold wind blew through, putting out the central fire that warmed the Hall. Without a second thought, Toothless turned around and re-lit the fire. "Oh, thank you, Toothless," said a woman who had been standing beside the fire.

"You know what?" Hiccup says in realisation, "Mildew's absolutely right."

"What?" Helga asks flatly.

He just ignored her and continued, calling to Toothless as he ran out, "Come on, bud."

He was halfway out when he remembered Helga, running back to grab her, "Whoops, sorry."

They were flying on Toothless, heading for the arena when Hiccup called out, "Don't close it."

They must have reached it and the others were in the process of locking away their dragons. They quickly landed, and when her brother jumped off Toothless, she did not bother, staying where she was. He had run over to open the gate back up, she could hear it change direction. "We are not locking them up," he informs them.

"What happened?" Astrid asks, getting excited, "Did you change your father's mind? Or are we going behind his back again?"

"Uh, one of those," he admits carefully. "Look, the dragons are gonna do what they're gonna do. It's their nature. We just need to learn how to use it."

Helga smiled, trust her brother to figure something out.

The next day, Hiccup worked with the other teens to use their dragons for the benefit of the village, using the nature that the dragons could not ignore. First he had Snotlout and Hookfang help Mulch and Bucket catch fish, having Hookfang scare the fish into the nets. He and Astrid then helped Mildew plant his crops, then allowed the three o'clock fertiliser to fly over his fields, Fishlegs and Meatlug in the lead. He then had the twins help him round up some boars, leading them into a shed in town.

"That was awesome," Fishlegs called as he landed Meatlug in front of the shed.

"How did you know that was going to work?" Astrid asks, also now on the ground.

"Because they're dragons…" he explains, getting off Toothless, Helga again choosing to stay on his back, "and they're gonna do what dragons do. We just have to work with them, and not against them. You know who we should actually be thanking—"

"There they are, Stoick," he hears Mildew shouts from behind. "Those dragons don't look like they're in cages to me."

Hiccup saw him flinch slightly, and followed his gaze to Helga, who was angrily gripping her cane. Yeah, she looked ready to beat on him again if she had to. He turned back as his father spoke up, "No, this is not what I asked for."

Later on had the dragons locked up in the ring, all seven teens worriedly standing in front of the cage all of their dragons were in. Hiccup watched as his father and Gobber entered, Fishlegs getting scared behind him, "Oh, no. What's Stoick gonna do to us?"

"I'm too pretty for jail," Ruffnut laments.

"Huh. Where'd you hear that?" her brother asks, "Astrid and Helga are the pretty ones."

She had no chance to counter when his father started speaking, "You all disobeyed my orders, and there will be consequences."

"I told you we were gonna get in trouble," Astrid whispers to him. "Oh, you never listen to me."

"I know the feeling," Helga admits from her place on his other side.

Great, I have two girls on either side of me who don't think I ever listen to them, Hiccup thought to himself as he watched his father get closer. He then stepped forward, "Dad, if anyone's going to get in trouble, it should be me."

"Nope," his father argues, "You all had a hand in this, even Helga."

"Wait what?" she whispered beside him.

"You took over this place without asking," their father continued. "You released the dragons against my wishes. Things are going to change around here. That's why—"

"You're getting a dragon training academy!" Gobber shouts, interrupting excitedly.

"Gobber!" their father admonishes, "I wanted to tell them!"

"I'm sorry," he apologises, "You're right. Go ahead."

"Well, you told most of it," he argues.

"You can tell 'em the part about how proud you are of the them," Gobber suggests.

"Gobber!"

He grumbles at his friend before facing back their way, "Hiccup—well what he said. You've all made me proud."

He then whispered in Helga's ear, just loud enough Hiccup could hear, "Yes, even the part where you hit Mildew and threw rocks at him."

He continued, walking around the arena, "This dragon academy is for you."

He then released all the dragons from the cage, allowing everyone to reunite with their dragons. "Hey, bud," Hiccup says as he hugs his dragon, Helga coming up beside him to hug the dragon as well.

"Now all you have to do is train 'em," their father says from behind them.

"Not a problem, dad," Hiccup assures him. "After all, I've got him."

He gestured at Toothless. He heard Astrid clear her throat, "And them too," he adds, looking at where the others were standing, looking expectantly at him.

"Also," he turned back to face his father as the man talked, "as much as I don't mind that she hit Mildew of all people, try not to let your sister hit any more of the villagers. I'd much rather I didn't get too many complaints."

Hiccup laughed nervously, turning to face Helga who was pretending she had not heard a thing, hiding her face in Toothless' neck.

Helga was standing with her brother and Astrid, the three of them outside what was now their academy. They had been out helping the villagers with the dragons, showing them that the dragons could be helpful and not just pests. At present, Snotlout and Fishlegs, with their dragons' help, were putting a sign above the gate to the academy. Hiccup had explained to her that it was the symbol of the Strike Class dragons, which made sense as the image was a Night Fury and the leader of the academy rode one. However, to symbolise Toothless in particular, the dragon had one of its tail fins red.

"Berk Dragon Academy," Astrid says from her place on the other side of Hiccup. "I like the sound of that."

She then proceeded to lightly punch him in the arm, making Helga laugh a little.

It looked like they had many amazing adventures left in store for the future.

A/N: it's aliiiiiive

So I have finally finished the first chapter, and therefore first episode, of Riders of Berk in my TCIT AU. It was literally a back and forth between Hiccup and Helga's 3rd person POV, but trust me, other chapters will have the POVs of the others as well.

Now, I wrote They Came in Twos in nine days, that is not physically possible for this fic. Stories written based on retelling entire TV shows just don't finish that fast. Also, I will not be able to update almost daily like I did with TCIT. I'm going to be working on two other fics simultaneously, and even collectively, I probably won't be doing a chapter a day. All three of them, including this one, are TV show retellings, which means the chapters are a lot longer than ones based on retelling movies where I usually cap a chapter between 3000 and 4000 words. So it will take months for me just to finish Riders of Berk and then I'll be moving on to Defenders of Berk.

Long story short, if you followed me through TCIT, I can't promise the same swiftness of updates as I did with that for this fic.

Anyway, I think I'll leave it here for now. If there's anything else I remember, I'll put it in the next chapter. Whenever that will be lol.

Seza, out.