Chapter 32: In which a secret is uncovered

The cove had become like a second home to them. Its seclusion made it homey and cozy and the perfect place to be. Even Toothless seemed to enjoy being there when he wasn't chomping at the bit to go flying. The dragon looked forward to them visiting every day. He'd leave a wet, slobbery lick across Hiccup's cheek. Astrid would laugh at her husband's gross predicament and hand him the rag she usually carried now just for the occasion. Toothless knew better than to slobber on her. He'd nudge her with his nose, and she'd distribute scratches in his favorite spots. She'd catch out of the corner of her eye how Hiccup would watch them with a content little smile on his face.

When they weren't flying or exploring, they hung around the cove playing with Toothless or doing weapons training or just lounging around. Toothless' soft, warm belly was the perfect place to laze about watching the sky. Sometimes Astrid found herself lying on the ground with her head resting in Hiccup's lap. She liked watching him from this angle – from any angle, really. She traced his jawline with her gaze, wondering if one day it'd be shaped differently. Everyone may look at him like he was a puny little twig, but Hiccup still had years to grow into a man. Astrid knew he wouldn't stay like this - just as she wouldn't either. She wondered how he would change over the next few years. Would she even recognize the boy she married five years from now?

Astrid reached up, sweeping his long bangs aside. Her fingers lingered at his temple. "Looks like your hair needs a trim."

Hiccup playfully flicked a strand of her bangs. "But I'm trying to adopt the broody warrior look you have going on."

Astrid sat up, yanking the dagger from her boot. "I can cut it right here if you keep talking."

"Okay, okay!" Hiccup held up his hands in defense as he got to his feet to put some distance between them. He gestured to her as he spoke to Toothless, "Such aggression in this one."

Astrid glared and shook her head wearing a tiny smirk. She'd never bantered back and forth with anyone before. She'd watched the twins shoot back and forth all her life and couldn't grasp why the silly ribbing they gave each other could be remotely fun. Now she knew.

Hopping up, Astrid nabbed her ax leaning against a boulder. "Going into the woods to work out." She brushed by Hiccup, combing her fingers through his hair as she passed. He had the softest hair she'd ever seen on a Viking. Her fingers longed to dive into it. "Be back soon."

He bid her bye. Astrid caught a glimpse of Toothless getting up, stretching like a lazy house cat as she jogged away. She'd probably come back to him and Hiccup wrestling or playing fetch.

Astrid climbed out the cove, ax strapped to her back—the trees unaware of their oncoming assault. Flinging her ax was invigorating. The thin coat of sweat that'd build up on her brow. The way her muscles opened, making her body feel lighter. Energized. She loved her workouts.

The ax sliced into the tree trunk with a satisfying split. Astrid jogged over and yanked it from the target, wood splinters spiking out from the trunk. A few more throws then she'd head back—

Astrid suddenly froze. Voices echoing in the distance caught her attention. She listened carefully, and within seconds recognized who the voices belonged to. Icy cold ran through her veins.

Oh no. Oh gods, NO!

She rushed toward the cove, ax firm in her grip. If it came down to protecting her husband and his dragon, she'd use it. The voices grew louder as she quickly approached, her fears confirmed. There were others in the cove with Hiccup and Toothless!

She slid through the narrow opening of the cove's rocky lip. Pausing behind one of the boulders jutting up, she assessed the situation. Hiccup was atop Toothless, the dragon in a crouched, defensive position. Standing around them were the four other teens.

"You can control a Night Fury?" Tuffnut said in amazement. "What are you, some kind of wizard?"

"No, Tuff. I'm not a wizard. And I don't control Toothless."

Snotlout chortled in his obnoxious way. "Toothless! Haha- that's a dumb name!"

Toothless snarled directly at Snotlout, making him jump back with a shriek. The rest of the teens threw up their weapons. "I wouldn't insult my dragon if I were you, Snotlout."

Astrid took that as her cue to intervene. The situation could escalate and get out of control in an instant. Toothless could fire in defense or one of the teens could lash out. Either way, someone could get hurt or killed. She sprang down into the cove, her ax at the ready as she quickly approached the stand-off.

"If any of you so much as think about telling anyone about this, I will split you in half!"

"Woah! Woah! Astrid!" Hiccup's alarmed cry rang through the cove.

"Astrid, you know about this!?" Fishlegs exclaimed.

"Astrid's a co-conspirator!" Ruffnut blurted, looking ridiculously proud.

"Awesome!" Tuffnut high-fived his sister. "This keeps getting better and better!"

"Everybody!" Hiccup yelled above the cacophony. The other teens snapped their attention back to him, surprised by his outburst. "Let's discuss this calmly. Why are you guys out here? How did you find us?"

"In the Great Hall a few days ago," Fishlegs began to explain, "Bucket was talking about seeing a black dragon flying along the shore closer to this side of the island."

"We were supposed to find the black dragon!" Snotlout whined, flinging his hands up in the air. "Not you!"

"No one believed Bucket because he was the only one who saw it and y'know, it's Bucket," Fishlegs went on. "But I had my suspicions that the black dragon could be a Night Fury."

Tuffnut jabbed both index fingers towards Toothless. "And we were right!"

Fishlegs threw Tuffnut an incredulous look, touching his fingertips to his chest. "I was right. Wait-" His eyes suddenly averted to the ground, deep in thought then snapped back up. "Hiccup, is this the dragon you-?"

"Shot down a couple months ago and no one believed me?" Hiccup finished, patting Toothless on the head. "The one and only."

"Whoa! This has got to be a kind of gift from the gods," Ruffnut concluded. "How're you controlling it?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Again, I'm not controlling Toothless. I made friends with him. Trained him. Dragons aren't the vicious killing machines we thought they were."

Fishlegs gestured to Toothless. "But what if this one is an exception?"

"I thought the same thing at first, but he's not," Astrid finally chimed in, lowering her ax slightly. "We've trained the arena dragons as well and have had encounters with dragons in the wild. Hiccup saw passed the stereotype of what we thought dragons were and figured out how to train them." Her sharp gaze softened as she glanced at Hiccup with admiration. "It took someone extraordinary to do that."

Hiccup held her gaze, an adorable lop-sided smile gracing his lips. Astrid's chest fluttered as her defensive position was momentarily forgotten.

"Can we have a dragon too?" Tuffnut blurted out. "Are there any Night Furies left? They cause maximum destruction and I want one!"

"You guys want your own dragon?" Hiccup asked, bewildered.

"Why not!?" Ruffnut retorted, "Riding a dragon would be be much cooler than killing one."

Tuffnut pumped his fists above his head. "Yeah, 'cause they destroy stuff!"

Astrid stepped between the teens and Toothless. "Wait! We're not using dragons to destroy stuff. We're trying to stop that from happening."

"Oh," the twins said in unison, hanging their heads. Ruffnut shrugged. "Riding one is still cooler than killing one, I guess."

"Dragons are amazing creatures," Fishlegs expressed. He touched his index fingers together, sheepishly. "I've actually been fascinated with them for a long time."

Snotlout groaned as the twins threw him a bored look. "We know, Fishface. It's not like your nerdy dragon obsession is a secret."

Fishlegs' eyes lit up. "But guys, listen! With dragons, we could cut the time of travel to almost nothing compared to using boats. Dragons could do the heavy labor that would take a dozen men to do. There's all kinds of benefits to using dragons."

"That's well and good, Fishlegs," Hiccup said, hopping off Toothless and giving his dragon a reassuring pat, "but let's not get ahead of ourselves. No one on Berk knows about this but us, and quite frankly, I'm in a bit of shock that you guys are taking it so well. But that doesn't mean all of Berk will. Berk needs to make peace with the dragons first before we could ever move on to utilizing them.

"I want to make peace between Berk and the dragons." Hiccup stood beside Astrid, gently clasping her shoulder. "Astrid is with me, but are you guys with me too?"

"We definitely are!" Ruffnut answered with an enthusiastic YEAH from her brother as they banged helmets.

Fishlegs whimpered, eyeing Toothless cautiously. "As terrifying as this Night Fury is staring at me, I'm in."

Every eye fell on Snotlout, who had shrunk back behind the group. "Snotlout?"

Snotlout's eyes darted across the group as everybody watched him. A growl tore from his chest and he crossed his arms. "Fine! I'm in too."

Astrid swung her ax over her shoulder, casually stepping up to Snotlout. "Good, because I would have had to kill you if you weren't." She leaned in close to him. "Remember, I still can if you get loose lips."

"You wouldn't," Snotlout challenged, eyebrows pulling together.

Astrid's eyes narrowed. "Try me, Jorgensen."

Hiccup gently pulled her back by the waist. "Nobody is killing anyone." He swiveled around, silently asking them to gather around him. "It's of the utmost importance that you guys keep this a secret. If word gets out that there's a Night Fury on the island, Toothless will be hunted down and killed. We could all be exiled or executed for treason."

"Way to put a damper on the cool, blowing-up-stuff part of this," Tuffnut groused, throwing his head back dramatically.

"Are you guys with us?"

Astrid couldn't help the smile that bloomed as she heard a resounding yes (though Snotlout was the least enthusiastic). In such a short time, the other teens had gone from bullying and shunning Hiccup to accepting him and following his lead. Astrid could see more and more the influence Hiccup could have. How his persuasion could turn people down a better path. She wondered if he'd had it in him the whole time. All he needed was something to draw out the hidden potential. She knew that something was Toothless.

"Which dragon would you give Snotlout?"

"Definitely the Monstrous Nightmare."

"You'd give Snotlout the most dangerous dragon on our team?"

"He's not so dangerous, are you, big guy?" Hiccup patted the Monstrous Nightmare between the nostrils. The dark orange dragon snorted in agreement. "Besides, I think he'd keep Snotlout's enormous ego in check."

Astrid snorted. She didn't think that was possible, but- "It'd be a miracle if someone could."

The evening before when the other teens had discovered their secret, Astrid had been wary of letting them return to the village. Her and Hiccup had privately discussed trust among the group. She knew the others weren't going to intentionally rat them out (though she was still on the fence with Snotlout), but what if they accidentally let it slip? Fishlegs was known for cracking under pressure. The twins would probably lose all sense and try to ride a dragon during lessons.

"It's a risk we're going to have to take," Hiccup replied.

They agreed on introducing the teens properly to the arena dragons, which was also a huge risk but one that they needed to take to move forward.

"What about the others?" Astrid asked, flinging a fish to the left Zippleback head, the other head snapping to try and snatch it first.

"The twins would get the Zippleback. You probably need two people to fly it."

"Can you imagine the twins on the back of a dragon? They'll probably take turns trying to knock each other off."

"That wouldn't surprise me. That leaves the Gronckle with Fishlegs."

"And I get my girl." Astrid hugged Stormfly's horn as the Nadder squawked happily. "Do you think we'll be able to really put together a team of dragon riders?"

Astrid knew it had to of crossed Hiccup's mind before. Vikings and dragons could be an unstoppable force if united. Not that they wanted to go out conquering or anything – there was no need in spreading conflict – but Berk did have enemies besides dragons. A team of dragon riders could play a vital part in pacify the enemy.

"I hope so. One day. We could be Berk's first line of defense if any enemies attack, whether that be people or dragons. I don't want another war, but if it were to happen, we'd have that security."

Though there was a collective need for peace throughout the village, fighting kept blood pumping through Vikings' veins. Would Berkians know how to act if they didn't have to swing an ax or a sword? Would she know how to act without the conflict? Maybe dragons would be the answer to that urge.

"We're here!" Ruffnut announced in a sing-sang voice.

Hiccup and Astrid turned to see the other teens waiting at the barred door of the arena's mouth.

"It's way too early in the morning," Snotlout grumbled, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eye sockets.

Fishlegs whimpered and cringed back at the sight of the dragons staring at them from the arena floor…free from their cages. "Why are the dragons already out?"

Hiccup walked toward the lever to open the bars. "We couldn't have a proper introduction through cage doors, now could we?"

The bars raised and the others strolled in, the twins up front while Fishlegs and Snotlout hung back hesitantly. This was it. No turning back.

"Welcome to how to train your dragon!"