I know it's been literally two years since I last updated this AU. I worked on this chapter every now and then but never got much done. Then suddenly motivation hit me again this last weekend and within those few days I sat down about an hour per day and wrote this chapter.
Thank you, CHSHiccstrid, for your review you posted ages ago. That was exactly my plan when I came up with this story, to create a sibling bond unique to all the others I had seen in other stories of this kind. I'm quite happy with how it turned out in this chapter, I hope you like it as well.
How to start a Dragon Academy
This is Berk. For Generations, it was Viking against Dragon. The battles were ferocious … the one day, everything changed.
Hiccup and Hilja are flying through the sky on their respective dragons, the Night Fury Toothless and the Scuttleclaw Wildfire.
I met Toothless, and together we've shown people here that instead of fighting dragons, we can ride them … live with them, even train them.
They fly toward a sea stack where the other teens, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, along with their dragons, are already waiting for them. Upon landing, Hiccup speaks up: „Okay, guys. Best Trick Competition. Who's up first?"
Fishlegs sheepishly raises his hand to volunteer but Snotlout beats him to it.
„Me!" he interupts.
Fishlegs tries to object: "Actually, I think it's-"
Snotlout interupts him once again, this time firmer.
"Sweet baby Thor in a thunderstorm, GO!" Astrid yells in exasperation.
"Oh, don't worry, we'll go. And when we go, Hookfang and I are gonna light the sky on -"
Snotlout is interupted when Hookfang suddenly jumps off the cliff, making the boy on his back scream.
"FIRE! Oh no!"
Hookfang performs several stunts which terrify his already scared rider even more. After a few minutes he stops and lands back on the sea stack.
"I'm alive …? I'm alive!" his unusual pale rider exclaims in relief. The other riders just blankly stare at him.
As soon as Snotlout notices it, he adds self-assured "Of course I am."
Fishlegs now raises his hand. "It's my turn! Ready, Meatlug? Here we go!"
They take off, fly in a circle around the other riders, and land in the same spot they were before.
"Yes! New personal best!" Fishlegs cheers while giving Meatlug a hug.
"My turn!" Now Ruff raises her voice but is immediately interrupted by her brother. "No, my turn!"
Hiccup and Hilja share an annoyed look before Hiccup stops the fight that's likely to follow.
"Guys, same dragon." he says with an eyeroll.
The Zippleback takes off while his riders once again start a fight. This time about which direction they should go. After almost running into a cliff face Barf and Belch fling their riders into the air. After letting them fall several dozen meters they catch them and position them back on their necks before landing on the seastack beside the others.
"We almost died!" Ruffnut exclaims, completely out of breath.
Tuffnut nods in agreement. "Yeah, I know … go again?!"
"You're not." Hilja interupts them quickly. "Now it's my turn."
Wildfire takes off without her rider, does a sharp turn and flies back to catch Hilja, who jumps off the cliff just before Wildfire catches her. The Scuttleclaw propels straight up, tosses Hilja above her and catches the girl after angling herself. After a spiral around the seastack they land again, smiling at each other.
Their friends are visibly impressed, all except for Astrid.
"It's my turn now! You might wanna take notes." She proudly says before encouraging her dragon to take off.
The others stare impressed while Astrid and Stormfly shoot across the sky and whirl around above the waves.
"Yeah, but can you do it without the dragon?" Snotlout asks her when the pair lands again which earns him a punch to the shoulder. Astrid then looks expectantly at Hiccup.
"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us there, bud." He says to Toothless before they take off.
Toothless shoots straight up before his dives down again, aiming directly for the ocean. Hiccup pulls up at the last second and they shoot forward in the direction of a maze of seastacks. They get through and fly towards a stone arch. When they are close enough, Hiccup stands up on Toothless' back and jumps onto the arch and runs across it while Toothless glides beneath. At the end Hiccup jumps into the saddle again and they fly upwards while the other riders stare in amazement and Hilja grins. Toothless then shoots multiple exploding plasma blasts.
"They're still the best" Astrid admits while Hilja turns in her direction.
"I told you so." Her eyes land once again on her brother who is now heading towards the village.
Hiccup pats Toothless' head. "Another win. Good job, bud."
Yep, dragons. Most people on Berk would say life here is better since we made peace with them. Unfortunately, dragons are still, well, dragons.
The two friends land in the village where it's dragon-caused chaos everywhere. A Gronckle is chasing a yak, Terrible Terrors are stealing chicken from a woman, a Deadly Nadder is sitting on a roof and refusing to leave and much more.
Hilja lands next to Hiccup and dismounts. "Great…" she sighs.
Suddenly the people scatter and head for their houses and other options to use for cover. Hiccup looks up in time to see hundreds of dragons flying overhead and relieving themselves, thus creating a poop shower.
Both twins back up until they run into two men who are using their shields as makeshift umbrellas.
"Hey, Mulch. Hey, Bucket." Hiccup greets them. "Sorry about the, uh …" he says as he points upwards.
"Every day at three. They're regular at least. A tip of the cap." Bucket interrupts him and actually tips the bucket on his head.
Mulch agrees: "Better than the days when it was 'kill or be killed'." He looks at Hiccup and Hilja. "Hey, we've got some fish for that father of yours. Bucket, give them the cod."
Bucket lifts his hand to reveal an empty sack with a big hole at the bottom.
"I ate it already? Did I enjoy it?" he asks, apparently confused.
Hiccup shakes his head. "Um, no, uh, actually, Bucket, I'm afraid the, uh…" He points at a Terrible Terror vanishing around a corner with the cod.
Most of us here on Berk are willing to take the good with the bad. But there are those who will never accept the dragons and will do anything to drive them away.
At night, Mildew, a grumpy old man, is woken up by a sleeping Gronckle snoring on his roof. When he walks outside he sees several other Gronckles lying next to his half-eaten cabbage. Enraged he grabs his helmet, staff and sheep and heads for the village.
In the village, Stoick is giving orders to the fishers, who have just returned from a tour. Gobber, standing next to Stoick, notices him first.
"Ah, here's Mildew with the complaint of the day."
Stoick looks at Mildew. "You picked a bad time, Mildew. I'm in the middle of storing food. The freeze is coming."
Mildew ignores him. "It's the dragons again. Those demons are not fit to live among civilized men."
"Neither are you, Mildew" Gobber interrupts him. "Why do you think we built your house so far outside of town?"
Mildew doesn't even care about the insult and continues. "Ah, very well, make your jokes. Meanwhile these dragons upend our village carts! Turn people's house in to piles of rubble! They even disturb an old man's rest! Can't you see these bags under me eyes?" He points at the village while making his claims. A few villagers agree to his points and encourage him to continue. "These are wild and unpredictable beasts! They even cracked this man's skull! Like an egg" he adds while pointing at Bucket.
Meanwhile Hiccup and Hilja walk by the plaza, stopping and nearing when hearing Mildew's speech.
"You need to put those dragons in cages! If you don't, they'll eat us out of house and home and destroy the entire village!"
"They don't mean any harm. They're just dragons being dragons" Hiccup tries to intervene.
Stoick backs his son up. "Look, Mildew, if there's a problem, I'll deal with it."
"Oh, there is a problem, Stoick. And I think I speak for everyone when I say you better do something about it."
Later that day the Haddock's and Gobber discuss the problems over dinner.
"We can't just let dragons run wild like they own the place. Hey, we could put up signs!"
Gobber immediately crushes Stoick's idea by pointing out about most of the villagers' inability to read.
"Then we'll build a huge net and stretch it around the plaza." Is Stoick's next suggestion, which Gobber crushes as well. Before he can come up with something else, Hiccup speaks up.
"No, wait, Dad. What if we deal with the dragons?" he says while pointing to himself and his sister.
Stoick looks at them incredulously. "You?"
Hiccup stays his ground, while Hilja looks a little hurt.
"Who else? If anyone can control them, I can. And Hilja is the second-best choice after me. We're the best man and woman for the job."
"Neither of you are an adult yet, Hiccup."
This time Hilja defends them. "Not if you don't give us the chance to be!" She looks at her father with stubbornness and determination.
Stoick gives in. "Fair enough, you'll have your chance … starting tomorrow."
The twins grin at eachother.
The next day both are walking through the village, ready for the challenge. Hiccup quickly spots a Deadly Nadder trying to take a basket of bread from a woman and runs there to help while Hilja continues on her way. She sees a Gronckle chasing a few chicken and tries to calm it. She doesn't get very far as it startles the Nadder Hiccup had just managed to calm and together they run of to play.
Next they come across another Nadder and a Nightmare fighting next to a sheep farm, some of the sheep already set aflame.
Hiccup runs after one of the sheep to distinguish the flames while Hilja tries to break up the fight, with the help of Toothless and Wildfire.
After succeeding with the fighting dragons, Hilja sprints after her brother into the plaza that's in even more chaos than the day before.
Unbeknownst to them the other riders are watching them from afar, commenting their efforts.
"What are they doing?" Snotlout asks in astonishment.
"I think they're helping the dragons break stuff." Tuffnut comments, Ruffnut agreeing.
When seeing Hiccup's futile attempt at extinguishing one of the sheep, Astrid speaks up.
"Wow, he could really use our help."
At last Hiccup succeeds with Hilja's help, in time for both of them to look up and see hundreds of dragons flying overhead. Hilja quickly runs for cover, while Hiccup is not as lucky.
"And it's three o'clock…" Astrid drily comments, just when Hiccup is hit.
In the evening, the twins are sitting in Hiccup's room, both of them trying to relax their sore bodies. Hilja goes as far as to try and massage her brother's shoulders. Meanwhile their dragons relax on the floor next to them.
"Oh, everything hurts …" Hiccup lifts his prosthetic leg. "Even this" he comments when they hear Astrid calling from the doorway before she walks into the room.
"Hey Astrid. What a nice surprise!" Hiccup tries to act nonchalant, while Hilja quickly withdraws her hands.
Astrid pretends to not notice anything. "So, how was your day?"
Hiccup shrugs. "Uh, uneventful, you know…"
Hilja nods in confirmation. "Yeah, we hung around the plaza."
Astrid raises an eyebrow at them. "Yeah, I do know. We saw you out there. It's hard to believe either of you are still standing."
The twins give up their pretence and Hiccup flops onto his back.
"Ugh! I'm gonna be seeing flaming sheep in my dreams for the next month."
"Don't forget the fighting dragons causing the flames" Hilja adds before flopping down as well. That's when they hear Stoick walking up the stairs. "Hiccup! Hilja!"
The twins quickly sit up again.
"Hiccup, what's going on out there? The plaza looks like a war zone."
Hiccup and Hilja exchange a quick glance before Hiccup speaks up.
"I know it looks bad…"
"Really bad" Astrid adds.
Hilja looks at her. "Not helping."
"Yeah" Hiccup continues. "But this is only phase one of the master plan."
Stoick looks surprised. "So you do have a plan?"
"I do … of course I do!" Hilja nods while her brother continues speaking. "It's very complex. Lots of drawings, several moving parts. Yeah, it's, uh pretty wild."
"Uh-huh…" Stoick doesn't seem convinced. "Well, this better be real. Because Mildew's stirred up the whole island. And if you don't get those dragons under control, they'll be calling for their heads."
At that comment both dragons raise their heads and worriedly look at their riders. The twins quickly assure them of their safety.
"Don't worry, bud. Your head's not going anywhere."
"Neither is yours" Hilja adds, speaking to Wildfire.
Astrid interrupts them. "You do realize there are, like, a bazillion dragons out there and only two of you? I hope you really do have a plan."
Hilja looks at her brother before speaking. "I think I've got an idea."
The next morning, the dragon riders and their dragons are gathered inside the old arena. Everyone looks around worriedly, the dragons in visible discomfort.
"That's your plan? Train dragons?" Ruffnut interrupts the silence.
„Here? Where we used to kill them?" Tuffnut adds.
Hilja nods. "Yeah. Since we made our peace with them, this place is available anyway."
Astrid looks at the dragons. "Actually, the dragons do seem a little nervous."
"That's because they're very sensitive" Fishlegs explains while giving his Gronckle a hug. "Meatlug especially. She lost a cousin here. We try not to talk about it."
Astrid turns back to the Haddock twins. "It's amazing your dad just gave us the arena."
Both Hiccup and Hilja look a little sheepish, while Hiccup rubs his neck when explaining. "Well, it would be, if he did. But, he didn't, so that's another thing we should try not to talk about."
"Wait, so we're going behind your father's back?" Astrid asks in astonishment.
Hiccup drops his hand. "There you go, talking about it! Uh…"
Hilja interrupts him. "Alright. Everybody, here's the thing. The dragons are out of control. We want them to live in our world without destroying it but they can't without out help."
"They've been blowing things up on the village…" Hiccup continues where his sister stopped. "We've gotta do something about that."
"Got it! Help the dragons blow things up! We can totally do that." Tuffnut punches his fist into the air.
Hiccup tries to interrupt him but now Ruffnut joins in.
"Yeah, here's how we're gonna do it: First, we make them really, really angry." By now, the Thorston's are in their element.
"No problem, we anger everybody!" Tuffnut adds before Hilja stops them from continuing.
"No,guys, this is serious! Mildew wants all of our dragons caged. Or rather off the island. And I don't know about you, but that's not okay with me." She nods in her brother's direction, signalling him to go on.
"Okay then. Next problem: The dragons are eating everything in sight. Now, when a dragons 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."
While still speaking, he holds a loaf of bread in front of Toothless for the dragon to take, and when being scratched under the chin, Toothless drops the bread back into Hiccup's hand.
"Maybe that's works for you and Toothless, but Hookfang an me?" Snotlout decides to make up his own way instead and snatches the bread from Hiccup's hand. "We do things a little different. When I want this big boy to do something I just get right in his face and – DROP THAT RIGHT NOW! YOU HEAR ME?" he shouts at his dragon who drops the bread and instead grabs Snotlout in his mouth.
When he speaks again, his voice is muffled. "See? He dropped it."
The others smile, deciding to leave him in his predicament for now.
Hilja speaks up again. "Alright. We've got a lot of training to do. But I know that together, we can keep these dragons under control."
As the teens leave the arena to start their work, Snotlout is left behind, still inside Hookfang's mouth.
The teens walk into the village, immediately noticing the silence.
"Huh. No dragons" Fishlegs comments.
"That's weird" Hiccup agrees. "If the dragons aren't here, where are they?"
His question is answered when an explosion goes off in the direction of the storage house.
"Something tells me that way" Astrid adds before they run over to find the storage house in shambles and their dragons gleefully digging into the fish. The teens stare at their dragons in disappointment.
Meanwhile, Stoick has examined the rubble and now emerges from it. "They've eaten everything!" he says to his children, before turning to all of the bystanders. "We've got nothing left for the freeze!"
Seizing this opportunity, Mildew walks to the front of the crowd, addressing his chief: "I warned you, Stoick. 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."
Behind his back, the dragon riders glare at him before Hiccup speaks up. "Dad, I swear I can fix this."
Hilja chimes in as well: "Yeah, we were just beginning to-"
She's interrupted by her father. "Enough, Hilja! Hiccup! How can I trust you to control all the dragons, when neither of you could even control your own?" He gestures to Toothless, digging into a pile of fish, while Wildfire stands next to him, trying to steal a portion for herself.
Both kids' faces fall.
"Bucket! Mulch! Man the boats! We need another catch!" Stoick then addresses the two fishers but Mulch objects.
"It's too late, Stoick. It took us six months to catch all that fish" he explains.
Hiccup now turns to his father, trying to sooth him. "Dad, please! You gotta listen to me. I know dragons better than-"
"Not now, Hiccup. I have a village to feed" Stoick interrupts him. "The dragons have done enough damage. By tonight, I want every one of them caged. Understand?"
Mildew objects. "You can't just cage these dragons! You need to send them away now!"
With half the village agreeing with Mildew, Stoick sees no other way than to agree with him. Turning back to his children, he says: "You're right, Mildew. We'll cage them tonight, and in the morning, Hiccup and Hilja will send them off the island. I'm sorry, kids."
At that every teen's face falls in dismay.
Later that day the teens are gathered in the Great Hall with sullen faces.
"I can't believe we have to send them away!" Snotlout breaks the silence.
When Astrid joins the conversation she seems to rather talk to herself: "It's gonna be weird. I got used to seeing Stormfly's face being the first thing I see every morning."
One after the other they share their favourite memories of living with their dragons before getting up and leaving to lock up the dragons. Only Hiccup and Hilja, along with their dragons stay behind.
"We can't let that happen! Toothless is the best friend I've ever had." Hiccup says to his sister.
Having heard that last sentence, Mildew decides to make his presence known. "Oh, Toothless, I'm gonna miss you so much…" he says in a mocking tone before adding: "You know what your mistake was? Thinking dragons could be trained. But a dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do. It's their nature. And nature always wins."
A shadow crosses Hilja's face at those words, vanishing again before anyone can notice.
Suddenly the doors of the hall open, a breeze dosing the fireplace. Toothless immediately bounds over to relight it.
Hiccup's face lights up. Walking towards the doors he turns to Hilja. "You know what? Mildew is absolutely right! Come on, bud!" he calls after his dragon, when Hilja whistles for Wildfire.
At the arena the other riders have already said goodbye to their dragons and are moving to close the doors, when Hiccup and Hilja swoop in.
"Don't close it!" Hiccup yells, before landing next to the lever and pulling it up.
Hilja turns to her friends. "We are not locking them up" she explains.
The other riders are visibly confused and Astrid decides to say it out loud. "What happened? Did you change your father's mind? Or are we going behind his back again?"
Hiccup looks at her sheepishly. "Uh… one of those."
Hilja speaks again, interrupting her brother. "Look. The dragons are going to do whatever they're going to to" she explains. "It's in their nature. It's just that we have to learn how to use it to our advantage."
The next day, Mulch and Bucket are out, trying to catch fish to refill the storage but repeatly pull up empty nets. Meanwhile Hiccup and Snotlout are flying above them.
"Snotlout, scare us up some dinner!" Hiccup shouts before Hookfang dives into the water, herding a giant swarm of fish into the nets.
Meanwhile Hilja, Astrid and Fishlegs are flying towards Mildew's cabbage field, having decided to help the old man with replanting.
Stormfly uses her tail to plough the soil. Wildfire flies after her, Hilja pouring in the seeds.
When they're finished, Hilja announces the arrival of a number of Gronckles.
"It's three o'clock! Time for the fertilizer!"
Meatlug and Fishlegs fly in front of the group, showing the other dragons what's expected from them.
Before leaving, Hilja turns around to Mildew. "You should definitely smile more, Mildew. We just saved you three months of work."
Mildew just looks at the retreating dragons in stunned silence.
That afternoon, after herding a sounder of wild boars into a barn, the teens meet up in the arena to share their adventures of the day.
"How did you know that was gonna work?" Astrid turns to Hiccup and Hilja.
After exchanging a look, Hiccup answers her. "Because they're dragons. And they're gonna do what dragons do."
We just have to work with them, instead of against them. You know who we should actually be thanking-?" She's interrupted by Stoick, Gobber and Mildew arriving, the latter being the first to speak.
"There they are, Stoick! Those dragons don't look like they're in cage to me."
Stoick agrees and turns to speak directly to the teens. "No. This is not what I asked for."
He pauses before he continues "You all disobeyed my orders… and there will be consequences."
The teens shrink back from their chief, except for Hiccup and Hilja.
"Dad, if anyone's going to get in trouble, it should be us" Hilja says, pointing to herself and her brother.
Stoick shakes his head. "Nope. You all had a hand in this. You took over this place without asking. You released the dragons against my wishes."
Behind him, Mildew is grinning in triumph.
"Things are going to change around here" Stoick continues before he is interrupted by Gobber. "That's why I-"
"You're getting a Dragon Training Academy!" Gobber can't keep in his excitement any longer.
Stoick turns to his friend. "Gobber! I wanted to tell them." He turns back to his children. "Well, what he said. You've all made me proud. This Dragon Training Acadamy is for you."
He goes to open the cages, all the riders reuniting with their dragons.
Mildew walks away, scheming and Stoick once again turns to talk to his children. "Now all you have to do is train 'em."
Hiccup and Hilja both smile.
"No problem, dad" Hilja answers.
"After all, we've got them" Hiccup adds while pointing at Toothless and Wildfire.
Behind them, Astrid coughs slightly.
Hiccup grins. "And them, too."
Dragons can't change who they are. But who would want them to? Dragons are powerful, amazing creatures. And as long as it takes me, I am going to learn everything there is to know about them. Wouldn't you?
I have no idea when I'll upload the next episode, but I promise it won't be another two years until then.
Nightrider out for now