Through The Ups & Downs
Couple; HarrisonXAddilyn
Rating; Mature
Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD or any songs I might use! Also, from this point in the story and in future chapters, I do not own the character; Ella(Eira) Solveig. She belongs to my good friend, ShadowSpirit020.
8) Training Has Begun
{Harrison's POV}
[Monday, January 5, 2015]
Well, I had to admit that it's been an exciting week since arriving here in the United States of America. After getting settled in on the 30th, the day after we arrived at Fort Benning, the Wind Rider Platoon got to enjoy a full tour of the base. It was huge! I couldn't believe how much there was to see and all the training and schooling available in this place. I took Toothless flying every morning and night, it was our thing, but I never ventured out past the base since I didn't have a clue to where I'd be going. We actually did end up getting in some sight-seeing. Georgia was cool, and I liked it so far. Hopefully, with more time here, I could see the whole state, or travel to others. I'm sure with Toothless it wouldn't be very hard.
So, here we are, a week after arriving and today starts the training of the trainees. These soldiers who are already Drill Sergeants will become the trainers of the Dragon Training segment of Ft. Benning. All this week, I've been working on a classroom plan, if it could be called that. See, the American's knew dragons existed and the creatures stuck to the woods, water, or mountains even, but they knew nothing about them, and that's where the Wind Rider Platoon and I come in; to teach them about the creatures they live among and how to live in peace together.
Basically, we were teaching them a new way of life. The president had said that for now, only the soldiers would work with the dragons and then if that went well, it could be expanded to the civilians, with proper teachings of course. I made an attempt to call home once a day, but sometimes I was just too tired busy or we had the five-hour time change to handle. I made time on New Year's Eve, I called at 6:30 pm, talked for half an hour to everyone, then celebrated the New Year early with them since it was Midnight back on Arc Isle. I put together a pretty extensive learning plan to do all this teaching with, then ran it by Major General Wright and Glenn. After the accepted it, I spoke to the platoon so they would know what we were doing.
The most confusing thing about all this was how the training would go. See, Ft. Benning is a One Station Unit Training location, like how Fort Fury back home is. So, like what I had to go through, any soldiers training here would get Basic, Advanced, and Dragon Training all in one place and last four months, just as mine did. It wasn't entirely the same, though. On Arc Isle, we had been living among and worked with dragons probably since the time I was ten years old. That's eight more years experience that my home has and no one else does. The legend was that no one would approach the dragons, being fearful of them, so we just kept our world separate but then one day, someone bonded and it turned into all we have now with our winged friends.
Right, back to training. So, as I said, it was going to be a little complicated on how we were teaching the Americans because the US Military Headquarters deemed that Fort Benning would be the best place to offer the training portion of the course. Every military base would offer a course in Basic Training during classroom teachings because it made sense for all incoming soldiers to learn about the dragons, yet, it would only teach them the standard knowledge about the classifications, species, habitat, etc. Fort Benning would become the place where soldiers could learn how to bond, train, and ride a dragon if they so desired. It would be an extra course they could sign up to take, or if they already had a bonded dragon, when the president allowed dragons to roam free, they would get put into the class.
That's how it was for me at Fort Fury. I had bonded before I joined the army so when I got sent to Basic, I also did my Infantry & Dragon Training before graduation as a full soldier. There was another section for soldiers who knew nothing about dragons, that was a general knowledge course, and then there was a spot for soldiers, after AIT to try and bond, then train. That is what I guess the American's were attempted to do as well and lucky me for being in charge of the test theory to see how it went. As it stood right now, we didn't know how long it would take to teach them everything they would need to know, so this was going to be a process for all involved.
As I mentioned, all military bases were going to add in the core knowledge course to classroom teachings about military law and what not so there was at least two representatives from each base around the US as students to learn and take back with them and start using it. Now, there were only select stations in the United States where Basic Training occurred; I believe they were Fort Benning, Georgia which provides Infantry and Armor OSUT(One Station Unit Training). Next was Fort Jackson, South Carolina then Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri; also provides Corps of Engineers, Chemical Corps, and Military Police OSUT. Finally, there was Fort Sill, Oklahoma; also provides Artillery OSUT.
AIT locations were all over the place, where a soldier went would depend on their MOS or Military Occupational Specialty. There's a lot so that I won't say them all, but you get the picture. Ft. Benning was an OSUT location, and that meant that Basic Combat Training, which is required of all incoming military recruits to complete and Advanced Individual Training would be done. Now, they were going to be adding Dragon Training to that as well. This was going to be intriguing to watch play out. The time now was 8 am, the start of the first class to my three segment training course. It's how I set it up after all.
My platoon had twenty-eight members in it, and all of us would be working together to teach these trainees. The class was split up into two parts because of the number of people needing to be taught so since Dexter, and I held the highest scores in Dragon Training, and both had a Strike Class dragon, we were chosen as the lead teachers. Class started promptly at 8 am after breakfast ended and go until 12, at which time everyone would have lunch. The second half picked up at 2 pm outside on the field where the trainees would get some physical time with seeing a dragon and asking questions about it; this would last until 5 pm, just before dinner at 6 pm. I figured it would give everyone an hour to grab a shower and relax. Right now, I had the training for all this sectioned out into three parts to cover what they needed to know.
The first was General Dragon Knowledge. Next, it would be Drake Laws. Finally, Basic Dragon Training and each of these three things would give them what they needed to know for this to work out. The only thing no one could guess was how long it would take to get through; I was hoping no too long because when this was handled, I could go back home with the platoon and things would be less hectic. So, as I said, two classes. Dexter was teaching a group of thirty-two, and so was I. Syrus and twelve others were giving him a hand while I had Trevor assistance plus the remaining twelve in the platoon to help me out. I had to say the best thing about all this is that even some of the higher up leaders were in the classes, wanting to learn too.
So, here I was in the classroom with Trevor, Chelsea, Ella, and eight others as it was 8:05 am, and the rest of the students had filed in and took their seats, then placed down a big notebook with pens or pencils too. I knew Glenn would be peeking in throughout the day to make sure we were all good. I didn't mind; I knew what I was doing and so did Dexter. Well, here started my orders. Hopefully, it would be a good day.
"That should be everyone," I said and looked to Trevor with the nod to go ahead and shut the doors to the room we were using. Trevor returned to my side in position as I faced the students. Here we go.
{Normal POV}
"Welcome to Dragon Training. My name is Harrison Haddock, and I will be your teacher for the duration of this training session. I can't give you a definite on how long you will be here; it depends on how fast you retain the information. Now, I've broken this course up into three parts to make it easier, so you'll know what we're working on in each. The first is General Dragon Knowledge, which is where you are now. This segment covers classifications, species, habitats, food, mating, etc. Next, you'll learn about the laws about bonding, and training a dragon, plus the requirements for permits and licenses in Drake Laws & Regulations. Lastly, you will all get the chance to work with a dragon hands on," Harrison began.
"And everything he said has a more in depth description in the packets coming around to you now," Trevor added in as the twelve assistants grabbed small stacks and began passing them out to the others.
"So, we have to know all this before we get near the dragons?" asked Major General Wright.
"No, but this information allows you to coexist with them. I also wouldn't advise going near a dragon unless you know about it. For example; would you approach a Night Fury with no previous knowledge of it considering it's a rare dragon?" Harrison asked.
"Well, no, but how does bonding go then? Can't the dragon pick who it bonds to?" asked someone else.
"If they are enough to you, yes. However, approaching a dragon you don't know about can be dangerous as some are very skittish and particular is how you near them. That is the purpose of segment one, learning about the species, likes, dislikes, personalities, habitats, food source, so on and so forth," Chelsea mentioned gently.
"Mr. Haddock?" MG Wright stated as Harrison looked at him to continue. "Perhaps it might be a good idea to give the students a little information about you and your platoon members. Well, those in this classroom at least? Might be a good idea for everyone to know one another?" he suggested.
"That was next, Major General," Trevor smiled.
"Right. So to begin, these men and women here are members of the Wind Rider Platoon. There are twenty-eight total and then our commanding officer, Lieutenant Glenn Belmore. There are fourteen of us in here, and the others are over with the second class which is being taught by my friend, Dexter. Anyway, as I said, I'm Harrison Haddock. I'm eighteen-years-old, turning nineteen at the end of February. I'm a Private First Class Infantryman for the AI Army, and I own a teenage male Night Fury," Harrison said calmly, giving just a little about himself.
"What's his name?" asked one female.
"Toothless and I gave him that name because unless he's mad, he doesn't show his teeth due to them being retractable," Harrison replied.
"What about your family?" said another with a smile.
"I have a Mom, Dad, and little brother. For the remaining thirteen soldiers in here from the platoon, I'll let them introduce themselves with only their name, rank, job, age, and dragon. We can go over more on personal time," Harrison said as everyone nodded and Trevor started things off, and it continued through the rest of his friends for ten minutes total.
"Alright, I think we should get started on the dragon classifications as there are only seven of them. These classes will help you to understand what you're working with," Ella beamed.
"I'm going to tell you what they are; then we'll go more into detail about what types of dragons fall into those categories. The seven classes are; Boulder, Sharp, Mystery, Tracker, Stoker, Tidal, and Strike," Harrison started as he turned on his laptop and logged into it, then hooked up the cord to the projector to show a power point presentation. "I put this together to show you an example of each classification. We'll start with Stoker, and the dragon you see here on the screen is a Monstrous Nightmare,"
Harrison continued to show them one dragon from each class, then moving on to let the students pick the class they wanted to learn about first. Harrison did it this way so that they could focus one section at a time, seeing the dragons that were in that segment, and then breaking it down more to give details about each dragon in that classification.
"So, after seeing an example from each class, which would you like to focus on first?" Trevor asked.
"Tracker looks awesome. Can we do that one?" one inquired.
"Tracker is a fun class, and there are only six dragons in it right now," Chelsea stated.
"Alright, we'll start with Tracker," Harrison smiled. "In this group, we have the Deadly Nadder, Rumblehorn, and the Submaripper, which also doubles as a Tidal Class dragon but we'll get to that when we start discussing the individual species. So, the name gives away what these dragons are exceptional at; tracking. These dragons are natural born hunters due to having a highly acute sense of smell or taste that enables them to track down and find things,"
"Woah," the class swooned as Harrison was showing a few pictures of the three types in Tracker Class, he stopped on one of his dad with Skullcrusher, a Rumblehorn.
"Who is that guy in the picture?" MG Wright inquired.
"Oh, that's my dad and his male Rumblehorn, Skullcrusher. My dad is chief of police back home, Skullcrusher helps him out a lot," Harrison explained.
"So, these dragons would probably make excellent police ones, like how we have dogs to track down leads and stuff?" one male asked.
"Correct," Harrison nodded. "I suppose while we're stopped on Rumblehorn, might as well start there with facts about them and what not," he added, and that's where it began. Harrison and the others started talking about the Rumblehorn species. This marked the beginning of Thor only knew how much more to be taught but at least the training had begun.