Maximus is waking up because a horn blows in the middle of the night. It takes him a minute to think what it is about, but then he remembers the dragon attacks and he takes his axes and goes outside to help. He was assigned to throw water on the houses that catch fire, how interesting. He takes a bucket, fills it with water and then joins the fire brigade. They start extinguishing the fire around, but on one house, the fire is to high and they can't throw close enough. Maximus sighed because he didn't want to make a show, but he has to do his job, so he has to let the secrets out. He takes the bucket's handle in between his teeth and then he starts climbing on the house's walls and he puts the fire out, before jumping off when a nadder shoots at him. When he gets down, the twins and Fishlegs admire him, but he says.
"Come on! No time for gawking, there are still houses on fire. We need to go!"
The teens nod and go in different directions while Maximus gets a new bucket and start putting out more fires. They meet up again at a house where the flames are still rising, but a child is indoors. Maximus already has a plan though.
"Listen up! There is a kid in there. We need to get him out and then extinguish the flames. There is the risk of losing the house, but we can't lose one of us. I am going in there to get the child out, you try to get the fire to lessen."
Fishlegs starts protesting that he can't go in, the fire is too big and he can die, but Maximus has something to say to that.
"Hey, it's a risk I will take if we can save him or her. Now start watering!"
Maximus then throws the water at the front of the house and goes in, while rhe others fight the fire from outside while talking.
"He is going to get killed!" Shouts an scared Fishlegs.
Snotlout, still being upset he got beat up by the teen, responds. "And who cares, one less person that causes problems around here and who disrespects me."
They see that the fire is too big to put out, so they only water it to slow it down. Soon, a little kid comes out the door crying when an explosion goes off in the house and they hear a scream that makes them anxious about Maximus's safety. 2 minutes later, the teen comes out with a burn on his back, holding his axes and breathing hard.
Astrid looks at him and asks. "Are you okay?"
Maximus glances at her and says. "I got trapped trying to exit the house, when it exploded and a part of the roof fell on me. I got slightly burned on the back, nothing too bad, but I need to breathe something that's not smoke."
The teens smile seeing he is fine and look around seeing that the raid is almost over and then they hear Hiccup screaming and being chased by a Nightmare. Maximus goes fast at the forge and asks.
"Have you got the chains?"
Gobber looks at him, nods and gives him two light chains.
Maximus muttered a thanks while attaching the chains to his axes and then goes after the dragon that is chasing Hiccup. He throws one of his axes at the nightmare, catching the horns and pulls him towards the dragon. When he gets on the back of the dragon, the Nightmare shoots fire at Hiccup and Maximus plunges his sharp axes in the dragon's neck, and luckily, the dragon starts bleeding and goes limp on the ground in front of Hiccup. He killed his first dragon.
The villagers approach then as Stoick starts shouting at his son for wrecking havoc in the village. Hiccup then claims that he hit a Night Fury. The chief just sends him home, while he 'clears his mess'.
On the way to his house, Hiccup gets a "good job useless, that helped" from Snotlout which he responds with "Thanks, I try." He also gets an "At least you tried to help." from Fishlegs and a "Good luck next time." from Maximus. Hiccup smiles at them and then heads home.
Meanwhile, the villagers go near the dead dragon and they start talking about how the teen killed it. They start to praise Maximus, but he interrupts their cheering.
"Stop! There is no reason to cheer on me. I may have killed the dragon, but that is because it was already hurt from a fight with the chief. I only jumped in and hit him on a wound on the neck. It would have had the same effect if it was hit by a rock. So there is no honor in killing an already wounded enemy. Until I go against a real adversary, maybe in the ring in dragon training, this is just pure luck and we will not discuss it. Now if you could please disperse, I got burned getting a kid out of a house on fire and it hurts like Hel." The villagers agree and let the teen go to the elder for medical attention.
Mildew starts going on about Hiccup being too dangerous for the island and that he must be shipped off, but then something hits his helmet off his head and looks down, seeing an axe with a chain tied to it. He looks where it came from and sees Maximus, frowning at him and saying that he should shut up.
The next day, the chief organized another search party for the nest. One last trip before the winter sets in.
At first nobody wanted to come, but Stoick made them all accept when he said that who stays, must take care of Hiccup. Stoick then talks to Gobber, and after much persuading, he accept to let Hiccup join dragon training.
That day, all the teens meet up in the arena, even Maximus who came in later because he was in the elder's hut getting burns treatment. He got healthy, the burns turned into a small scar on his back.
Gobber walked in front of one of the doors and said." Welcome to dragon training. In here you will learn to defend yourself and fight a dragon. The one that passes all the tests will get the honor to kill a Monstrous Nightmare."
Snotlout laughed and replied smugly. "Then why is Useless here? He killed a Night Fury."
Ruffnut chose to speak next. "And Maximus killed a Nightmare last night." Apparently the others didn't know that and looked at the older teen.
"I told you, we are training to be warriors. Warriors fight with honor. Killing a wounded enemy brings no honor. The dragon was dying already, I just curmed its suffering."
Astrid nodded and smiled, finally someone that thinks like a warrior, not like a sheep.
After that, Gobber moved to open the dragon pen.
"Gobber! What are you doing?!" Shouted Hiccup.
"I believe in learning on the job. Don't worry, I am here to help if it goes bad."
The doors opened and out came a brown Gronkle. "Now, how many shots does a Gronkle have?" Asked the blacksmith.
Snotlout tried to guess it. "Uhh...five?"
Maximus and Fishlegs both shouted 6 right after.
"That's right. That means one of you doesn't get hit. But you can always take out 2 birds with one stone. What do you need in battle?"
Hiccup: A place to hide?
Fishlegs: +5 speed?
Snotlout: A weapon.
Maximus and Astrid: Shields!
"Exactly. If you ever have to choose between a sword and a shield, get the shield. Now what else are shields good for?"
Hiccup then answered nervously.
"Noise?"
Gobbe nodded and said. " Aye, make lots of noise. It makes the dragons unable to concentrate."
At that, all teens start beating their weapons on their shields. The twins though started to fight and the Gronkle took both of them out with a shot.
"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out." The next was Fishlegs who sighted in relief and then Snotlout when he tried to flirt with Astrid.
"3 remaining, one shot for each of you."
Maximus chose to be sarcastic and said. "I can feel your positivity. I also can smell this dragon and it's horrible." That made the dragon shoot at the teen, but Maximus rolled out of the way.
The next shot was aimed at Hiccup, but it destroyed his shield and chased after yhe boy in the arena. Right before the dragon could shoot Hiccup, Maximus threw his shield to Hiccup, and Gobber moved the dragon and made it miss the cowering teen.
"Remember, a dragon always, ALWAYS, goes for the kill."
That leaves Hiccup thinking. Later that day, he is standing in a cove at Raven Point, looking at a dark figure. That figure is a dragon. The offspring of Lightning and Death Itself. That dragon is a Night Fury.
He looks for a bit and then whispers.
"Then why didn't you?"
How is it? This chapter was written right after the last one. Chapter 2 was written 2 hours ago. Now, here is about 4 am. I hope you like these chapters I am writing. Please show your support. Thanks and Goodbye!