REVIEWS:

DragongKing49: That's a perfectly valid reason for waiting. I never start fics that aren't finished (unless they're a sequel to something I've already read) because I hate the wait, so thank you for being patient with me.

Silverleone: I won't answer that... On a completely unrelated topic, am I being cliche?

Lost in a world I knew

I was completely soaked when I emerged from the woods, and it was only Odin's grace that kept me on my feet long enough to reach the Great Hall. Part of Dragon Training was to eat dinner together, to discuss the lessons and build friendships, but I doubted I would get any further with any of the teens. Snotlout had despised me since I was born and took his place as heir to the tribe, the twins followed Snotlout to the letter, Fishlegs was too scared to ever go against Snotlout, and Astrid didn't know I existed. Those three words during training were probably the longest thing she'd ever said to me.

I pushed fruitlessly at the huge doors of the Great Hall and sighed when they didn't move an inch. Bracing both hands against the door, I let all ninety pounds of my body weight fall onto it. I could hear Gobber through the thick door, asking each teen to share where they had gone wrong in the ring.

Ever so slowly, my muscles burning, the door creaked open and I slipped through the narrow gap in time to hear Astrid say, "I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

Ruffnut sounded annoyed. "Yeah, we noticed."

Immediately, Snotlout was kissing up to Astrid. "No, no, you were great. That was so Astrid."

I reached the table everyone was sitting around, and picked up a plate of chicken from the spot next to Snotlout. There was no way I wanted to sit next to him, even under the watchful eye of Gobber.

"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves," Gobber told Snotlout. "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

Even after almost getting killed by two different dragons recently, his words were still the scariest thing that had happened to me all week.

"Uh, he showed up?" Got that right, Ruffnut. I didn't even want to join the class.

"He didn't get eaten?" Tuffnut added, and I lowered my head. I knew the other teens hated me, but did they really wish I was dead? Maybe it was a twin thing. There was plenty of room on the bench, but every time I approached an empty space, it was mysteriously filled with someone's arm. I grabbed a spare cup of water and headed to the next table.

"He's never where he should be," Astrid said, and I almost dropped my food in surprise. Her statement was vague enough to refer to my performance in the Ring or to my general existence. I really hoped it was the former as I sat down on the end of the empty table.

"Thank you, Astrid." Gobber sounded relieved that one of his students could give a semi-useful answer. "You need to live and breathe this stuff." I heard a clatter as he swiped Snotlout's food onto the floor, but my cousin didn't dare complain. Gobber dropped a large leather bound book on the end of the table, and I picked at my food. I wasn't hungry, not after what the others had said. "The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of."

Boom! A crash of thunder made me extremely thankful that I'd got back as soon as I did. Gobber sniffed. "No attacks tonight. Study up."

For some reason, dragons never attacked in the rain. Maybe it was because the rain put out the fires before they started? I prepared myself for a long wait, sure I would be the last to have a turn with the Dragon Manual. Tuffnut groaned as he realised what Gobber meant.

"Wait, you mean read?"

"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut moaned.

I didn't know if the twins were literate or not, but I'd never seen them pick up a book before. What was wrong with reading? The few times Trader Johann brought a book or two to Berk, I'd desperately paged through them, escaping to a different, kinder world for a few hours. The runes on the pages told stories of courage, intelligence, compassion, happily ever after, and other things I could only dream about.

Snotlout banged the table with his fist. "Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?"

Maybe to expand your vocabulary, I thought, as I tried to pick out what he meant from the mess of 'stuff' and 'words'. Fishlegs juddered with excitement.

"Oh! I've read it like, seven times! There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And—and there's this other one that buries itself for like a week—"

Tuffnut cut in impatiently. "Yeah, that sounds great. See, there was a chance I was going to read that…"

I sighed. Maybe if Fishlegs had told them about the more gruesome details, they'd have been more interested.

"But now…" Ruffnut left her sentence hanging as she stood up to leave.

"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff," Snotlout declared as he followed the twins, and I pitied anything that was stupid enough to be out in the pouring rain. Fishlegs followed the other teens, still trying to convince them to read the Dragon Manual, and I tried to act casual as I walked over to Astrid.

"So, I guess we'll share?"

She shoved the book towards me and stood up. "Read it."

"All mine then. Wow, okay." I tried to salvage the conversation. "So, I'll see you, uh—" The doors of the Great Hall slammed shut as she jogged away. I sagged. "Tomorrow."

A drunk Viking sallied past me, singing a song about the glories of sheep wool catapults, before tripping over and knocking my table to the floor, and I quickly grabbed the Dragon Manual and hid behind a nearby pillar. Vikings could be brash and blunt when they were sober, but they were more likely to fall over and crush me when they were drunk. The only problem with my hiding place was that it was far too dark to read the Dragon Manual, and I decided to wait the drunkards out.

In the middle of the night—I'd nodded off a few times so I had no idea what time it was—the last Viking staggered out the doors. The great cooking fires had been quenched hours ago, so I lit a couple of candles and pulled them close to the Dragon Manual.

"Dragon classifications." I read out loud, just to hear the sound of a human voice. I wasn't scared of thunderstorms, but they always made me uneasy. "Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class." I turned the page and saw the first dragon. It obviously wasn't part of the Strike Class, my guess would be Tidal, but Vikings never organised things. Whoever wrote the book probably noted down dragons as they discovered them and glued more pages in when they ran out.

"Thunderdrum: This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." I really hoped that the picture was exaggerating how powerful the dragon was. Surely mere sound couldn't take someone's head off? I flipped a few pages, hoping to find one of the species we were training against. Widespread wings caught my attention, and I stopped. Was it the Night Fury? Had anyone else seen one and lived to tell the tale? I looked closer.

Wrong dragon.

"Timberjack: This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." I turned to the next page.

"Scauldron: Sprays scalding water at its victim." That must be the dragon Fishlegs had been talking about. "Extremely dangerous—" Boom! Thunder crashed outside, and I jumped and whipped my arm through the candle flame, almost setting it on fire. Abandoning the Scauldron, I tried a different page.

"Changewing: Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight." I flipped through the rest of the book, wondering if all these dragons were 'kill on sight' and 'extremely dangerous' just because they happened to be a dragon.

"Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, Whispering Death." The pictures started to move and I almost threw the book across the room in fright. I blinked hard and they solidified. Thor, the lack of sleep must be getting to me.

"Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside out." I almost threw up, and hurriedly moved on. Whoever illustrated the book was either an extremely brave artist, or they had an incredible imagination. I hoped it was the latter.

"Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight..." Countless images of dragons attacking Vikings and Vikings attacking dragons flicked past my eyes. Bloodstains on the pages lined up with the thin ink drawings, showing the three hundred year war in brutal colour.

I finally reached a blank page, and blinked in shock. This was the Night Fury page, but it had barely more than a name. This page was worthless! It wouldn't take much effort to describe the attacking shriek, or mention that it almost never shot directly at a human. Even the smallest toddler in the village knew more about the Night Fury than this book did!

"Night Fury: Speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you." I pulled out my notebook with the incomplete drawing of the Night Fury. That was a lot of superstition and fear resting on such a small dragon. Fear of the unknown really was the worst.

The rest of the pages were blank, and I concluded that the Night Fury was the most recently discovered dragon. Sighing, I slammed the book shut and put it back on the table. I hadn't gone through the small print, and I barely glanced at most pages, but I was done for the night. My eyelids felt heavy, and I yawned. I'd read more than the other teens, so Gobber should be satisfied.

Pushing hard against the doors, I slipped out into the pouring rain. It was dark and I could barely see, but I struggled through the mud towards my house. The wind howled, louder than any dragon, and a sudden burst of lightning illuminated the stark outline of the village. Small houses dotted together in a tangled mess of streets, and above it all, the Chief's house loomed over the village like a silent watchdog, standing firm against the storm. It stared at me disapprovingly.

I hurried inside and closed the door, then stood dripping on the floor. Hurrying up to my attic, I pulled off my sopping clothes and shivered into dry ones. I was too tired to deal with them, so I shoved them onto the growing pile in the corner of my room. Practically throwing myself onto the bed, I fell asleep within minutes.

oOoOo

When I woke up, I instinctively knew I was late. Scrambling out of bed, I hurriedly smoothed down my clothes and rushed down the stairs. Grabbing the axe I'd left by the door, I tore through the village like I was being chased by a Nightmare, and barely made it to Training in time. The other teens were already there when I hunched over in front of the gates, gasping for breath, and Fishlegs looked like he was about to say something before Snotlout cut him off.

"Hey, Useless is here! How long do you think he'll last today?"

Tuffnut grinned. "Oh, good game. I think... ten—no, five!"

Snotlout smirked. "Minutes or seconds, Tuff?"

Ruffnut tackled her brother. "Duh, he'll hide behind a wall again. Coward."

I walked as far away from the twins as I could get. They rolled across the floor, kicking and punching each other, and Snotlout tried to jump across them towards Astrid. Ruffnut's helmet caught his leg, and he fell on top of the twins, knocking the breath out of both of them.

"Get up, you lot! It's Dragon Training, not a tea party!" Gobber yelled, lurching up the path towards us. The twins easily squirmed out from beneath Snotlout, still fighting, and stood up. He held out a hand.

"Help me up, Astrid?"

Astrid dropped her axe handle on his stomach, and he leapt to his feet, cursing.

"You're up," she declared, and Snotlout glared at me.

"It's all his fault, anyway," he told Gobber, pointing at me.

Gobber raised an eyebrow. "How?"

Snotlout stuttered for words. "He—I—it just is, okay? It's always his fault."

"I disagree," Gobber said calmly, but there was a glint in his eye that even Snotlout couldn't ignore. "Now, let's get to training. Unless," his eyes scanned all of us, and Astrid and I were the only ones who could meet his gaze, "there are any objections?"

The twins and Astrid shook their heads, and Snotlout muttered something quietly.

"Good," Gobber said, pulling open the huge gates. "I don't want to see anything like that again as long as I'm training you, understand?"

We all nodded, walking into the ring. I stopped dead, and Fishlegs crashed into me. The twins yelled in excitement.

"It's those boards we rode down the mountains!"

"I almost cracked my helmet in two when we hit that rock!"

I'd wondered how Ruffnut had dented her helmet so badly. In the ring, there was a maze of wooden boards that were normally scattered around the village for anyone to use however they liked. People used them as temporary doors, threw them at dragons, or in the twins' case, slid down a mountain on them. Gobber pulled a lever, and I heard the rattle of chains as one of the dragons was released. Which one was it? Everyone else scattered immediately, hiding in the maze, and Gobber climbed out and watched us from above.

"What did the Dragon Manual say about the Nadder?"

Unless he was bluffing, that was the dragon we were facing. I scanned my brain for any useful information. Poisonous spines, hottest fire, and Fishlegs had said something about armour? Nothing remotely helpful. I took the opportunity to talk to Gobber about what I'd found last night. Not one of my better ideas.

"You know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies." A trainee who wanted to know more about the deadliest dragon wouldn't be too suspicious, right? "Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?"

I was so focused on Gobber, I didn't notice the heavy footsteps coming closer and closer until it was too late.

"Wha—!" White hot flames melted my axe head immediately, and shot a hole through the wooden board behind me.

"Whoa!" The Nadder was right in front of me at the end of the passage, perched on top of one of the walls.

"Focus, Hiccup! You're not even trying!" Gobber sounded annoyed, but I was more focused on staying alive. The Nadder leapt down and started pounding after me, feet slapping on the ground, so I dodged left, changed my mind, and ran right. I tore round a corner, still holding the useless axe handle, and the Nadder jumped onto the wall next to me. It squawked at me, and I raced through the maze, turning corners at random.

"Today is all about ATTACK!" Gobber said, calmly teaching us while we ran about in terror. I kept one ear open to him, listening for anything that might increase my chances of survival when I stumbled to a stop, panting in terror. I waited for a moment but I seemed to have lost the Nadder, so I allowed myself to relax a little.

There was a sound like a dagger being drawn really quickly, and Fishlegs screamed. I hoped he was okay, but a small part of me was glad that the dragon was after him, not me.

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" Thank Thor, he was still alive. The Nadder suddenly appeared in front of me, and I yelped, starting to run again. I jumped across an intersection mere moments before the twins barrelled into me, and twisted away from the dragon. Behind me, I could vaguely hear Gobber saying something about a blind spot, and the twins skidded to a stop before the Nadder. There was no hiss of flames or thunk of spines, so I had to assume they'd managed to hide in the Nadder's blind spot. They should be alright as long as they didn't do anything stupid.

"Ugh! Do you ever bathe?" Ruffnut gagged, but kept her voice low. Who was I kidding? Of course the twins were going to do something stupid.

"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut complained, and I heard the muffled thud of someone hitting someone else.

"How about I give you one?" Ruffnut wasn't even trying to keep quiet any more, and I heard the unmistakable sound of the twins fighting. There was a hiss of fire, then silence for a few moments.

"Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot? Not so much," Gobber joked, laughing to himself. The twins must have escaped. Astrid ran past me with Snotlout on her heels, and I tried to keep up. Gobber was watching us, so I gave it another shot.

"Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?"

He rubbed his forehead. I was probably giving him a headache. "No one's ever seen one and lived to tell the tale. NOW GET IN THERE!"

I couldn't help one last phrase before dropping it for the day. Maybe he would be in a better mood next time. "I know, I know, but hypothetically—"

I glanced over my shoulder as I walked backwards, and jumped as I saw Astrid and Snotlout crouching behind a wall.

"Hiccup," she hissed, barely loud enough for me to hear her. "Get down!" She peeked round the corner and shrank back. The Nadder must be close. I could hear its curious breathing and a few small squawks.

She took a few deep breaths to steady herself and rolled across the gap and into the next corridor. Snotlout followed her, his extra weight helping him to get smoothly to his feet and pull his shield up. I was next. Trying to ignore the dangerous reptile less than five metres away from me, I curled up and tried to roll across the opening.

I knew instantly I'd got it wrong; I'd planted my shield too early and wouldn't make it to the other side. To make matters worse, I couldn't even finish the roll before my shield tugged me back down again with a clunk. The Nadder turned to face me. I scrambled to my feet and raced down the passage, praying that it was too narrow for it to run in. It promptly leaped up onto the walls, and relief made my knees weak as it hopped away from me, presumably choosing another target.

I stumbled to a stop and bent down, panting. I was quite fit from running during the raids, but I'd never run so fast for so long before. The Nadder gurgled slightly, and somehow I knew it was laughing? Then a couple of very fast teens pounded towards me, and Astrid skidded round the corner in front of me. The Nadder crashed into the wall as it tried to follow her, completely ignoring me, and the wall tumbled over. Realising the walls weren't as solid as they looked, it proceeded to completely destroy Gobber's maze, knocking them down left, right, and centre as it chased Astrid.

I moved away, somehow finding myself in front of Gobber.

"They probably take the daytime off. You know, like a cat. Has anyone seen one napping?" If I was honest with myself, I'd thought of the cute black creature Trader Johann kept on his ship to control the rats ever since the Night Fury had gazed up at me, helplessly trapped in my bola and its life under my knife. Astrid and Snotlout raced past me and I stumbled, hoping Gobber would have some useful information tucked under his helmet.

"Hiccup!"

He was sooo annoyed with me. I turned around as Astrid screamed, and stared in astonishment as she leapt onto one of the walls that was twice as tall as her. She jumped off it as the Nadder pushed it over, and landed precariously on top of the wall right behind me.

The Nadder barrelled into that wall too, and Astrid started to fall towards me, screaming, "HICCUP!"

It reminded me, in a bizarre way, of some of the dreams I'd had when I was younger and thought I might have a chance with the best recruit of my generation. But in my dreams, I'd always caught her, swept her off her feet and kissed her. Instead, I dithered helplessly, and crumpled under her, her axe in my shield and our limbs hopelessly entangled. The Nadder leapt over us and got buried in a stack of fallen walls.

"Oooh!" Tuffnut cackled as Astrid tried to free herself. "Love on the battlefield!" Really? Was now the time?

Obviously Ruffnut thought it was. "She could do better."

Astrid planted her hand on my face, and I tried to push it off. Surprisingly, I managed to hold her weight for a moment, then she shook herself free and planted it on my chest instead. Like always, I made a complete fool of myself in front of her. While she tried to actually do something, I stuttered and mumbled like an idiot.

"Just—let me—why don't you—" She stood up with a grunt of annoyance, ready to scream at me, before the Nadder exploded from the fallen walls behind us. Her expression turned to fear as she realised her axe was still lodged in my shield.

I yelped in pain as she set her foot against my shoulder and pulled hard at her axe. Then her foot slipped, and I learnt just how bad a Viking boot could taste. She pulled so hard the shield straps broke, snapping painfully across my arm, whirled around, and smashed the shield-axe into the Nadder's head as it leapt at us. The shield shattered, leaving the axe intact. That was some really good workmanship, if I said so myself.

Astrid stood there for a moment, panting with adrenaline, and Gobber called out, "Well done, Astrid."

She lifted her axe angrily and turned to look down at me as I lay, cowering on the floor with my arms over my head. Almost dying had that effect on me.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?!" I looked at her, stunned. Astrid was the only person who never criticised me, never made jokes at my expense. I'd always assumed that was because I wasn't important enough to matter to her, but a small part of me, the illogical part, had hoped that maybe, just maybe, she cared. And now, the first full sentence she'd said to me in years was filled with anger and frustration. "Our parents' war is about to become ours! Figure out which side you're on."

Gobber reached down to help me up, unusually gentle. I clenched my fists and balled up the hot emotions in my chest, locking them in my lungs. "Better luck next time, Hiccup. Now, did you lot see what Astrid did there?"

The twins scratched their heads and Snotlout made a thinking noise. Gobber rolled his eyes. "She improvised. Now, I'd like you to practise improvising for the next lesson. Ambush each other across the village and pretend every other teen is a dangerous dragon."

Tuffnut dropped to the floor as Ruffnut pounced on him. "Ow ow ow!" He twisted over and slammed her head to the ground. "Hah!"

"Well done, Tuffnut and Ruffnut. Like that." We waited for a few seconds. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go on, shoo!" He shoved us away, and I waited as all the other teens hurried out, not particularly wanting to be Snotlout's victim. I knew he was going to take this opportunity to beat me black and blue.

"You know, most women don't realise a good man when they see one. Why, when Stoick first tried to impress your mum, she—" Gobber started to comfort me, but I didn't want his pity.

"Thanks Gobber, but I need some time alone." I walked away, and he didn't try to stop me. Part of me wished he would.

Walking through the village, I saw a pointed helmet peeking out from behind a doorway, and hurriedly changed direction. The village was too dangerous right now, especially with Gobber's task. I decided to go to the cove I'd discovered yesterday instead. It was quiet and peaceful, and that was what I really needed.

I started for the woods before stopping. What if the Night Fury was still there? I went home to pick up the shield I'd borrowed, then took the route past the storehouse and collected a small fish. I could hide behind the shield and distract the dragon with the fish if it tried to attack me again. I squished down the part of me that was hoping the dragon was still in the cove. Even if it hadn't attacked me yet, surely it was only a matter of time.