This morning's chill was colder than what had been passing for the last three months and the residents of Berk were feeling it. Big, bulky Vikings had on their bear-skin shawls, the chickens were beginning to huddle together in their coops and the children that were let outside were wrapped in at least two layers of animal furs. But most of the smaller kids were trapped inside their homes, being watched over by one of their parents. Summer was coming to a close and the dragon raids would commence.

It had been four days since Hiccup's clang against the metal and it was time for the class to meet once more, but his 'favorite' Jorgenson would be joining them today. Last night at dinner in the Great Hall, he had heard Uncle Spitelout talking about showing Snotlout how the competition was doing. He was big on competition, especially the Thawfest, so that must be what he meant.

Hiccup was on the way to the arena at the moment, his father tailing him. The big man heard what Gobber did and thoroughly gave him a chewing out at dinner that night and Hiccup was almost convinced that if it wasn't Gobber that did it, he would have been using his Sonic Boom. But if Hiccup could just close his eyes and go to sleep, he wouldn't have heard them laughing about it later. The father-son duo finished crossing the bridge and made their way into the arena where only Gobber was waiting. It seemed that Gothi was only at the initial demonstration to help Gobber create regiments for them as time went on.

"You know what you have to do today son?" Stoick asked as they made their way past the carved stone entrance.

"Yes dad, I have to learn how to breathe fire." They could've covered it on the first day of training, but Hiccup was done when Gobber threw him back into the gates of the arena. Looking around the space, he saw that none of his age mates were present and there were plenty of new things laced around. At one corner of the arena, there was a red circle painted on the ground. On the corner near the door, there were empty barrels stacked on one another with targets painted on them. In front of one of the pens, there was a set of rocks and at the pen opposite, there were bags of seeds scattered about with four troughs full of dirt sitting in a line. Gobber had just finished pouring in the last bag of dirt when he looked up and saw the two entering the arena. "Would ya look at that? You actually brought him back."

"Gobber," Stoick sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes in frustration as Gobber began to chuckle again, "Try not to scare him half to death today."

"No promises."

"Gobber!"

"Fine." He whined out like a toddler that was caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. Hiccup glared at the blacksmith as he went back to laying the dirt for what appeared to be Fishlegs' training for the day.

Stoick sighed and placed a hand on Hiccup's small shoulder, "Do good, today son."

"I'll try."

Stoick smiled down at Hiccup and turned around and walked out to start his day of leading the island. Hiccup looked around the arena again and he could guess which section was for him. The barrels stacked on top of one another were for him and the planting troughs were obviously for Fishlegs. And the red circle on the floor was probably for the twins to fight in. Not that they needed instructions to fight one another. It was almost time to begin and no one else was there. Hiccup allowed his eyes to turn to slits, his ears to become pointed, and his nose to accept more information than normal. The smell of the paint became more profound, as well as the stench connected with Gobber's feet. He could smell the aged wood of the barrels and the crispness of the cold Berkian air. Hiccup loved his sense of smell. He had been using it to pick up on different people when they came and went. Everyone he met had a distinct smell. Aside from his Viking stench, Gobber also smelled like burning metal and mead. Stoick smelled like freshly chopped wood and bear skin, but on Berkian gripe days, he would smell like a handful of other villagers. Aunt Baggybum always smells like that as she watched over the village children, but there was a constant hint of lamb, as she was always making her famous mutton chops. But not everything was to enjoy about having such a strong sense of smell. Along with what they did every day, people also had a specific body odor and it was never pleasant. It was a mix of every secretion they let from their body. Their sweat, tears, saliva, and the stuff that came out of their body when they went to the bathroom. He could smell mold that was beginning to culture in bread, rotten vegetables, and the fish oil that people would use to style their hair.

Speaking of fish oil, that scent was getting stronger and stronger. As well as the annoyingly familiar shouting. The twins were battling once more and along with their horrid odor, the smell of daisies mixed with the smell of gruel, (what was usually the main course for first breakfast). So Fishlegs was likely trailing behind them.

"I'll rip your intestines out!"

"Not if rip yours out first, Numbnuts!"

And the twins were heard, clanging their plasma staffs against one another. They probably didn't even mean to come here. They never showed up to anything on time or did anything that they were supposed to be doing, but it was the twins. What was one to do about them? They rushed into the arena, chasing one another as they always did and Hiccup's nose was correct again, as Fishlegs was trudging in behind them in his heavy, black yak fur coat.

"Why are they like this?" Fishlegs inquired as he walked over to Hiccup's side.

"We made a pact not to talk about the twins Fishlegs." Their plasma weapons continued to hit one another, until Gobber picked them up by the scruffs of their necks, again, and placed them in the red paint circle. As soon as Gobber stepped out, a transparent, red pillar rose to the ceiling of the arena, encasing the twins inside. The two punched and kicked against the force field, but it did nothing and they were trapped.

However, Tuffnut was the first to notice and activated his weapon, knocking his sister off of her feet. She growled in return and the fighting commenced. Not even the cold would slow down their antics.

"Hey, where's Astrid?" Fishlegs inquired. It wasn't like Astrid to be the last person to show up. She was more of an early riser than anyone, especially since she was going to be allowed to train to physically fight with a weapon soon. They would be twelve in two years and that's when they would get the clearance to wield such weapons and Astrid was the most disciplined of all of their agemates. She never got in trouble, she never defied authority, when she was old enough to join the Berk Guard, her dream job, there was no doubt that she would be at the top of the class. It was kind of weird for a ten-year-old to have their entire life planned out. Fishlegs turned to Hiccup "Can you smell her?"
"I can smell everything Legs." Hiccup drawled, but he already turned his dragon senses off. And besides, if he didn't have a trail to pick up and the person wasn't in close enough proximity, it was useless to try. Not to mention that Gobber and the twins were stinking up the place.

"Oh don't you two worry about her," Gobber interrupted the two as he came over. "Let's get you worrying about what you'll be doing today."

Gobber herded Fishlegs over to the planters. He didn't need to give instructions as anyone that had an idea of what a context clue was, could figure it out. Fishlegs had been given a pale of water and multiple bags of seeds. He started planting with the bag labeled lingonberry seeds. He dug a small hole in the soil-filled trough and covered it over with dirt. After he watered them, Fishlegs began to work his magic, waving his hands and forcing them to grow.

"And for Hiccup, we have the targets." The blacksmith had dragged Hiccup over to the target he would be shooting at. He had to be watched at all times in case something went wrong, and there was an additional trough of water and buckets in case a fire did break out, "Half-Terror form."

Hiccup did as he was instructed without complaining, it was too cold to complain and when dragon fire wasn't being pointed at you, it made you feel warm. He activated his dragon sense and moved his body to fit the form. The nose and head horns came first, along with the green scales around his eyes. His dragon senses were activated, as well as the spines on his back. The red wings that jut out from under his arms and his tail were the last to come. He felt the warmth of fire bubble up in his chest.

"Now FIRE!" Gobber shouted.

Hiccup had seen a dragon breathe fire before, the last time he and the village had been present for someone joining the warrior ranks and killing a Monstrous Nightmare. He also thought back to how his throat felt when he tried to blast Snotlout. It felt chambered like something was leaking out and a spark was igniting what leaked out.

But doing it again shouldn't be that hard.

Hiccup reared back and a mighty hiss erupted from his throat. He could feel the heat rising from his chest to his throat and felt a striker at the end of his throat ignite the warm gas. Hiccup opened his mouth and let the fire loose from his mouth.

An orange stream burst forth, but missed the targets, as the pushback was too heavy for Hiccup's body and his wings forced him to sail backward and landed on the floor. But the fire did hit one of the stone walls of the arena, so no fire spread.

"Good grief lad."

Hiccup got back on his feet. He is known to be clumsy, so falling was nothing new to him

"Do it again, try and aim this time."

Hiccup growled and shot began to allow the fire to bubble again, but he braced himself for the impact. He shot it in the general direction of the target again, but he was still somewhat blown back.

"Again."

He shot again, keeping his balance. Getting closer.

"Again."

A strong gust of wind blew the fire streaming out of his mouth and put it out in midair.

"Again."

He missed again.

"Again."

He managed to hit one of the barrels. But still not a bull's eye.

"Again."

Hiccup was so glad the twins were preoccupied fighting because they would blab to Snotlout. They didn't prefer one cousin over the other, but with Snotlout, they were given the chance to be chaotic on purpose. Hiccup reared back again, and let the fire loose. But there was no fire to come out.

"Exactly as I suspected." Hiccup looked to Gobber for an explanation, "You've got a shot limit."

"Oh great. Something else to stunt me."

"Don't beat yourself up too bad lad." Gobber placed his hand on Hiccup's dejected little shoulders, "The gods gave you these powers and you need to do what you can with them."

Hiccup looked down at the ground, still dejected.

"Now fly five laps around the arena and I'll let you sharpen your uncle's daggers."

That perked him up immediately. Hiccup loved working in the forge and he was starting to shadow Gobber throughout the day as he worked and Spitelout was a large man and needed large weapons. He remembered how to fly as well. After the traumatic event, it stuck with him.

Hiccup jumped in the air, and began to flap his wings. His legs dangled as he gained altitude. He was sloppy as ever. Hiccup had to admit, dragons were graceful as they flew in the sky, but he didn't have that yet. His wings were uneven and his tail was weakly flapping along. Hiccup only got about three feet off the ground, but he still kept going. As he swooped up, he would open his wings and allow himself to glide closer to the ground. He passed Fishlegs, who was continuing on his lingonberry bush. Hiccup was coming near the twins and he had to move his body to the side to avoid the shield that was trapping them inside. He saw that Astrid had come in as he began his flight and she already began to lift the rocks she could with her mind.

He flew his way past the door near the twin's force field and was headed back to the targets where he started. But when Hiccup passed the door, he smelled something familiarly putrid. Snotlout and Spitelout were on their way here, but that wasn't the problem. The smell of rotten eggs and unwashed butts was following them. Dogsbreath. He was fifteen and already had the moniker, 'The Duhbrain.' He was nothing more than an idiotic lump who did whatever Snotlout told him to. He had joined the ranks of dragon killing already, but he still wanted to hang out with a rowdy, twelve-year-old. But he was probably just amazed by Snotlout's magic power, as Dogsbreath didn't have one of his own.

Hiccup was on his third lap when he felt a small pebble hit his head. He knew where it came from, but he wouldn't respond.

Spitelout came in to talk to Gobber about letting Snotlout and Dogsbreath observe his students, and that wasn't a problem with Gobber, so Spitelout left the two watching from the stands.

Oh, how lucky Hiccup was.

"So why's your Dad making you watch them?"

"To see how he's teaching me better than Gobber's teaching them." Snotlout answered, for the fourth time in the last three hours. He had watched all of his age mates get tired as they went on. The twins had gotten bored of fighting each other and were laying back to back. The force field had gone away fifteen minutes ago, but they stopped caring about two hours ago. Snotlout was surprised that they hadn't snuck out yet.

Astrid was still working diligently, moving decent-sized rocks over the arena and she wasn't going to stop until she was made to stop. Her willpower was truly something else.

Fishlegs was gorging himself on the berries that he was growing. His motivation to keep trying.

But Hiccup had to transform over and over again from a human to a Terror and he was doing it faster than he had at the beginning of the class. Snotlout would be impressed, it was Hiccup, so he wouldn't be. Admitting you're impressed by someone weaker than you is admitting they have a chance to be stronger than you, and Spitelout told him constantly that none of the other kids should get the opportunity to be better than him, even if he and Hiccup did share blood. So Snotlout did the exact opposite and had been messing with Hiccup the whole time.

Throwing pebbles at people was fun, but it was really fun when it was Hiccup.

"Get him again Lout!." Dogsbreath encouraged. Quite loudly in fact. He and Dogsbreath had been jeering at them the whole time. Hiccup was making another lap around the arena, flying much better than he did at the start, but still very sloppy. But it could also be due to tiredness. They'd been training for three hours.

Hiccup finished another lap around the arena. He had barely made it around the last time and Gobber asked him to do just one more. Snotlout put his hands on the stone around the edge of the arena. The stone was uninterrupted, so his powers would work all over the inside. He waited for Hiccup to reach the starting point by the barrels and as the half-dragon was coming to land, Snotlout swiped his fingers up the stone and a square slab where Hiccup was going to land jutted up into a small slope. It was small but still enough to knock Hiccup off of his feet, making him slide into the barrels, knocking them over.

The Snotlout and Dogsbreath burst into laughter.

"Did you see the way his legs fell over one another?!"

"How did he even do that?!"

Snotlout and Dogsbreath were on the floor gasping for air, it was just too good.

The two heard Hiccup groan from the pile of empty barrels. And that made Dogsbreath's laughter increase. Snotlout looked down to see Gobber helping Hiccup up, Fishlegs looked like he was gonna cry but nothing even happened to him and the twins thought it was awesome. Snotlout was glad his dad took him out of the baby class. Spitelout had been training him for years anyway, so it would've been pointless to show up when the rest of their age group was just starting. Snotlout had to wait on all of them to age up to go to the summer training island as well.

He didn't think it was fair, but at least Dogsbreath thought he was cool. Even if Gobber was on his way to incapacitate them with his breath.

It had been four hours since training had ended and about two hours after lunch, Hiccup had managed to drag Fishlegs into the forest. They were on the hunt. Hiccup had been searching for this malicious beast forever. Trolls. Hiccup was the son of a chief and had sailed to different islands and met the magical creatures that lived on them. On the Northern Meathead Island, an island that was only about a two hours sail away, there was a clan of angry gnomes that lived in the forest. On the Bog-Burglar Islands, elves, dwarves, and faeries lived in their villages and were considered to be part of their tribe. One of the smaller islands that was part of the Bog-Burglar chain consisted of only Harpy women. Berserker island had Minotaurs, Centaurs, and Satyrs that lived in their forest, and some, if they were crazy enough, became complete tribe members. He'd also heard of people in the Scottish Highlands having pegasuses and riding them into battle.

But Berk only had people and dragons. And the odd witch that would pop out from time to time.

So in his free time, Hiccup would constantly be on the lookout for something that wasn't a human, dragon, or witch and he chose trolls because Gobber said he saw them, so why not? He might be a loon on most days, but if Gobber kept mentioning something, there was some ground to it.

They were about three miles outside the village, the furthest Fishlegs would usually go. But Hiccup promised him something that he couldn't refuse.

First-hand dragon facts.

Fishlegs had been geeking about dragons for years. And he was obsessed with the story of how Hiccup first turned, so Hiccup had promised him a real observation of his Terrible Terror form. In the arena of course because people Berk is the type to throw axes and ask questions later. Even if they did see his fur ring, wrapped around his dragon form's neck.

"Hiccup, are you sure you know where you're going?" Fishlegs was climbing over a log that Hiccup was able to duck under.

"Sure I do!"

"That means 'no' doesn't it?" Fishlegs whined. He shifted his body over and toppled to the other side.

Hiccup continued through the forest as Fishlegs dusted himself off and trotted his little legs after him, "Gobber says he saw them years ago, just outside the village near the Unlandable Cove."

"Gobber also acted like he was gonna throw you off a cliff!"

"And I was able to burn his stinkiest skivvies without retaliation," Hiccup had never been so relieved in his life. He swore half of the stench he experienced when he activated his dragon senses was Gobber's underwear. He turned back to Fishlegs who had just caught up to him. "Don't you wanna see what else is on this island? What if there are trolls here? What if there are pixies that hide in the trees when we're around? What if there are merpeople that live near the Long Beach?"

"Can't we let someone else find them?" As he whined, little daisies would sprout from the ground he was walking on, "What if we run into a pack of wolves?"

"Then we'll run away!" Hiccup grabbed his friend's hand and was pulling him back on the path to the beach.

They continued walking through the woods for another five minutes until they were able to reach a rocky cliff that dropped down into the Unlandable Cove. It was truly a sight to behold. Large, jagged sea stacks made it impossible for anyone who didn't have the paths memorized to navigate. The jagged stacks were on the land as well, and Gobber said that was where he thinks they lived.

"Yeah!" Hiccup started running down the pathway to the cove. Fishlegs begrudgingly trotted after him. Hiccup turned into his Half-Terror form and as he reached the sands of the beach, he began to sniff around. He may have hated dragons, but their noses were useful. It smelled like Fishlegs and wet stones. Maybe they were stone creatures. What if they were just small enough to hide in the cracks in the rocks? What if they could breathe water and air and hide in the waters? "What do you think they smell like?"

"They probably don't smell like anything because they probably don't exist Hiccup."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. So the non-believing adults had gotten to Fishlegs as well. These people that had magical powers, who regularly fought dragons and have seen everything from a Centaur to a faerie didn't believe trolls existed. Why were trolls the ones people didn't think were real?

Hiccup searched around the Unlandable Cove for another thirty minutes with Fishlegs begging him to go home. One thing Fishlegs wouldn't do was abandon him in the woods, as Fishlegs was too scared to go back himself. Hiccup couldn't pick up the smell of anything other than the stones that were there and the salty water of the sea. But his spirit would not be dampened. They probably were just looking in the wrong place.

"Can we go home now?"

"Fine," Hiccup transformed back into a full ten-year-old boy again, "But tomorrow we check the Harbour."

"That's just fine with me." The Harbour was far closer to the village than the Unlandable Cove and Fishlegs' mom didn't like him being out this far. He would have disagreed with going, but an up-close dragon that wouldn't eat him in a single bite was more than enough motivation. But Fishlegs later figured that Hiccup would do that in the future anyway, so he really didn't have to go, but why let your friend do anything alone? Fishlegs turned back and started walking up the trail to the forest once more. Hiccup trailing after him this time.

They had been walking for five minutes in comfortable silence when Hiccup finally asked.

"Do you ever wonder what else exists?" Hiccup asked.

"No, I just hope whatever's out there won't eat me."

"But what about other creatures we could find." The duo had to climb over another log to get back on their path, "Every other island has magical creatures on it. But we only have people. Imagine how great it would be if we could find other peaceful species. What if one of them will help us find the dragon's nest."

"But we have been trying to do that," Fishlegs replied, "Besides, no one gets attacked like Berk and Meathead Island get attacked, so what reason would they have to fight alongside us?"

"That's true."

Thuggory, the heir of the Meathead tribe, had told them on his last visit that the dragons didn't even attack the northern island where the gnome's lived, (probably because they were too small to be noticed) and only attacked the Viking settlements. The Meatheads had tried to ask the gnomes for advice, but they just didn't know why they weren't attacked. The silence came back and stayed for another five minutes until Fishlegs started to talk about dragons for the rest of the walk. Fishlegs had already read the book of dragons twice. Hiccup knew how to read, but reading of dragons and their vicious deeds often upset him. But he loved to hear his friend talk about something that excited him so much.

When they made their way back to the village, they realized just how far away the Unlandable Cove was from the village. Fishlegs' mother would probably have both of their heads for going out so far, but what she didn't know wouldn't kill her. All of the adults had jobs that often occupied them all day, so kids going into the forest wasn't that dangerous and as they had magic, people saw it as even less of a problem.

The evening was rolling around faster and faster as the days of the year went past and even though it was only about five hours after noon, the beginnings of sunset were occurring, and Fishlegs was not one for the dark, but he was one for dragon facts, so instead of going to the Great Hall for what Fishlegs' called his first dinner, making up for the fact that he only had two breakfasts and one lunch, the two went straight to the arena. There were four members of the Berk Guard in the watchtowers on this side of the village and they did see the two friends, so they wouldn't be completely alone if something bad were to happen.

The arena door was closed, but it was used to hold dragons, so it was no problem for Hiccup to slip in. There was a little bit of a problem for Fishlegs to slip in, but he did manage. Must've been all of those second breakfasts.

So Hiccup did as he promised and turned went full Terrible Terror, with a brown fur ring around his neck.

Fishlegs squealed as he picked Hiccup up and began to examine the wings of the dragon.

"You're so light! I wonder if the way you breathe fire can increase as you age. What if you can only turn into the specific dragons that you touch? What if you can talk to them?!"

Hiccup felt like he was being strangled. He turned back to normal and fell to the floor, gasping for air.

"Sorry!"

"Hey, could you never do that again?" Hiccup asked from the floor. Fishlegs pulled Hiccup off of the floor and Hiccup turned back again. Thankfully not getting any more of Fishlegs' dragon excitement.

But Fishlegs did pull out a notebook and start jotting down things about Hiccup's appearance. How long his wings were and how many teeth he had. It was like going to the healer's hut when you were injured.

But their fun was interrupted when a monstrous roar ripped through the air.

And a horn sounded soon after.

The first dragon raid of the season was on them.

One of the members of the Berk Guard that were near the arena rushed Hiccup and Fishlegs to the Great Hall. The one place on Berk that wouldn't burn down from dragon fire. The children were inside along with the old and the injured. Those who could fight, but remained inside to guard them, formed a defensive perimeter around them. Once, long before any of today's children were born, a Whispering Death had made its way in the doors and cut the population inside in half.

The sound of dragon fire would ring throughout the night. Dragons also never attacked all at once.

They would come to the island in at least three waves. The first was the smallest, they would send scouts to the island to check out what livestock they had and where all their fish was. There would be about ten dragons of various species that would fly over and return to the other dragons.

In the second wave, after the so-called scouts had done their job, there would be about twenty to twenty-five medium-sized dragons, like Nadders, Stingers, and Snaptrappers that would start taking livestock and burning buildings. During the final wave, the big dragons would show up. Dragons like Nightmares, Gronckles, Zipplebacks, Timberjacks, and Thunderdrums would appear and the real fight would begin and at least once in the night, the notorious Night Fury would appear and blast something into oblivion and after it was done attacking, the dragons would flee with their catch.

But the first wave always gave the Berkians time to get the children and the injured to a safe place.

"Ugh, when do I get to go out there?!" Snotlout said in annoyance, "I'm already one of the best fighters Berk's got!"

"Because you're still a child, Snotlout." His mother answered. Baggybum stayed inside. While she was an excellent warrior, she was also one of the best caretakers to ever be born on this island.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Snotlout tried to mutter under his breath. However, his mother heard him and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Do it again!" Tuffnut cheered.

Ruffnut once more took this as an opportunity to torment her brother and smacked him on the back of the head. He snarled at her but didn't feel like fighting. The two usually kept quiet during the raids and would only bicker for seconds at a time.

Astrid remained on edge. She also watched how the indoor warriors always kept their guard up in case one of them had to leave. She wanted to be out there one day, and nothing would get in her way.

Fishlegs of course, while scared, was droning on about what dragons could be out there tonight and Hiccup was absorbing every word. This is life on Berk right now. Staying inside while the adults handled things. But one day, in the next few years, he would be out there battling dragons in the sky. He would be able to take revenge on them for the death of his mother and make his father proud, bringing honor to his clan and his tribe.

"Did you know that this dragon can hang its stomach out of its mouth?"

And hopefully, find Fishlegs a new hobby.

Sorry that this took such a long time, my Chemistry class is beating my ass right now. P.S. The Unlandable Cove isn't the cove from the movies, it's a location of Berk from the books. Also, I don't think it was clear from last chapter, Gobber threw Hiccup back into the arena, not off the cliff.