astrid's pov
after eating breakfast we made our way to a different training arena from the one we had met up with hiccup and the others this one was on the other side of the island near the forest it had pens for dragons but unlike ours back on berk the pens were open and didn't have a roof.
when we got there dj, dagur and eret said bye and broke off from us and went in different directions "hey where are they going" snotlout said to hiccup "to do their jobs eret helps the hunting and fishing parties , dj handles the islands defenses and dagur trains the younger kids in combat and survival skills" hiccup said opening the door for the arena "but aren't those are the chief's jobs" tuffnut asked "yes, on normal islands but as you can see" he said as 6 dragons landed behind him while toothless i think was his name landed up top on the side of the arena "we ain't normal" he said going to the side of the arena while us and the dragons had a stare down.
"plus back when it was just me doing all the jobs, it was just added stress with the chiefing, the dragon riding and the bounty hunting so they offered to do some of the jobs" "so why do you do the bounty hunting" fishlegs asked "we started it before i became chief and build a village and now it's just something we do every now and again to keep together as brothers" he said walking over to a barrel and tossing a fish up for toothless as we continued to stare at the dragons.
there was the metallic looking one that Heather bonded with, a blue and yellow nadder, a brown coloured gronkle, a green zippleback, a red nightmare and one i didn't recognize "um hiccup" i said getting his attention "yeah?" he said "what dragon is that" i said gesturing to the one on the far end but before he could answer gobber stepped forward "that's grump" he said picking up a few rocks and feeding them to the dragon "he's a hotburple" he said patting the dragon's nose.
i seen hiccup smile "that's right gobber and this is?" he said gesturing to the metallic one none of us knew the answer not even fishlegs which surprised us but heather jumped forward "windshear" she said hugging the dragon's neck as it purred "she's a razorwhip" hiccup seemed to smile even bigger now "right heather" he said "so you two are excused from this next part" he said as they went to the side below toothless with their dragons "um what next part" fishlegs asked a little scared "naming, bonding and learning your dragons" he said "now I've matched up dragons with your own personalities and...yes snotlout?" he said.
i turned to see snotlout had his hand up "you can't know our personalities he said we aren't the same kids you knew" "oh" hiccup said pointing to him "always showing off his muscles trying to impress any female he sees" we all nodded while snotlout crossed his arms and huffed "your paired up with the nightmare" hiccup said moving to fishlegs "big, slow , heavy attacks but loveable and emotional on the inside" he said as fishlegs nodded probably a little insulted "the gronkle" he said moving to the twins "still love fighting with each other and causing destruction and mayhem?" he asked as the twins grinned and nodded rapidly "the zippleback two heads equals two riders" he said moving in front of me.
i took this time to notice he now towered over me and how broad his chest was now and how his armor hugged his torso 'oh man puberty did him wonders' i thought. I tried to avoid blushing and drooling as he came close "fierce, fast and deadly but has a natural beauty to her" ok i was definitely blushing visibility now i nodded "the nadder" he said going to the side "your job is to calm down and then name and bond with your dragons" he said walking away from me as i let out a breath i didn't know i had in my lungs while heather and ruffnut snickered.
"but they seem calm to me" snotlout said "toothless" hiccup called as his dragon fired a shot behind our dragons their eyes turned from round pupils to slits and they roared spreadingtheir wings we all screamed and tried to run out of the arena but the doors closed just as we got there. we looked through the bars and seen dj at the lever with his dragon behind him "really" snotlout said dj looked at hiccup through the bars "who had money on them running" he asked "um..eret , you had...them wetting their pants" he said pulling out a book and looking in it "ah...well still time" he said getting back on his dragon and taking off.
i turned and jumped to the side just to avoid being hit by a blast from the nightmare "hiccup what do we do" fishlegs said hiding behind a barrel he just shrugged "i had to learn on my own, you should too plus i believe in learning on the job" he said as i seen gobber grined "argh" i yelled as i ran from the nadder and remembered gobber saying that the first day of dragon training 'think astrid think' i thought.
what do you know about dragons since you been here i thought, suddenly i remembered seeing them eating fish i passed by a barrel that smelled fishy so i stopped and kicked it over at the advancing nadder it stopped, it's eyes going back to round pupils.
it then started to eat i took this time to catch my breath and then i noticed the others had calmed their dragons as well the twins started fighting over something and the zippleback must've found it amusing because it stopped and watched them while fishlegs rubbed and scratched the gronkle's stomach "nice job guys" hiccup said as snotlout ran by his pants on fire he jumped into a water barrel to extinguish the fire, sighing while the nightmare laughed "well at least he's calm" hiccup said.
"now for the bonding" he said "let's see how many of you were paying attention yesterday" he said as i put my hand up and turned my head away 'please don't bite please don't bite' i thought but suddenly felt something wet and scally i turned to see the nadder's snout was against my hand with it's eyes closed i let out a nervous laugh "very good" i heard hiccup say as i turned to see the others had done the same "now for the naming part I'll save you the trouble" he said pointing at the nadder and gronkle "female" he said then pointing to the zippleback and nightmare "male" he said waving his hands in the air "have at it."
i looked at the nadder "female huh... stormfly" i say hoping not to get set on fire she was silent for a few seconds until squawking happily "she likes it" hiccup said walking by me "hookfang" snotlout said as the nightmare roared "he likes it" hiccup said calming a scared snotlout down "oh" snotlout said "i knew that."
"meatlug" fishlegs said as the gronkle licked his face, smiled and wagged her tail "barf and belch" the twins yelled as the zippleback shot into the air "alright I'll be honest you guys came further then i thought you would've i had money on you guys trying to grab any weapons and kill them but i was wrong" he said "so the rest of today will be getting to know your dragons their likes and dislikes and tomorrow we will try and get everyone in the air" he said as gobber and heather came and joined in.
suddenly he looked up at the sky and holding out his arm as a blue terror came down "thanks sneaky" he said taking a note off the terror's leg as the terror flew off "okay what do we got...oh right" he paused to sigh "great" he said putting his hands onto his head "everything alright lad" gobber asked "yeah just time for the allied islands to come and go over some things we need to discuss" he said putting the note in his pocket.
"any islands we know" snotlout asked "not likely they're all from outside the archipelago" "like who" i asked curious there was an 'outside the archipelago' "the wing maidens, the defenders of the wing and couple of islands of viggo and rykers men that we have stationed out that way" he said "wait..defenders of the wing where have i heard that name before" heather asked "dagur tell you about himself?" hiccup asked "oh right" she said turning towards us "dagurs married to the leader of the defenders of the wing" she said "queen mala" hiccup said "yes it was a beautiful ceremony" he said smiling.
"so let's continue" he said as he started showing us ways to bond with our dragons, how to take care of them what they eat so on this went on till around noon "alright gang let's break for lunch" he said opening a barrel each for the dragons and started walking out of the arena we started behind him but toothless jumped in front of us giving us a glare before following close behind his rider "i guess he still doesn't trust us" i said following the nightfury towards the great hall.
when we got there a lot of the tribe was already there eating while dj , dagur and eret were at the chief's table we walked through the tables and got there as toothless laid behind hiccup's chair and we all sat down on the sides out of respect when we did eret immediately put his hand out as dagur, dj and hiccup each put a few coins in his hands while mumbling.
"i knew they would try to run" eret said as we shot him glares "sorry" he said sitting down "you lot look like runners" the others laughed as we started to eat lunch "so how's storage" hiccup asked eret but before he could answer gobber shouted "thor's beard" he said putting his head into his hands what hiccup asked.
"we were supposed to be hunting boar because the food storage was destroyed but i was so distracted with finding you i forget" he said "wait..when was it destroyed?" hiccup asked "during your escape" i said "what" he exclaimed looking towards eret, dagur and dj "i said catapults, boats and uninhabited houses," dj then raised his hand "sorry that may of been titan a catapult hit him on the side of his face when he was about to fire and the shot went wild" he said.
hiccup sighed "how much extra do we have" he said looking at eret "maybe enough to get them through half of the winter months" he said taking a bite out of his mutton "that's all we need we'll be able to trade and scavenge for the rest" gobber said "alright now that's settled , I'm hungry" he said starting to eat.
3 person view
everyone was enjoying their lunch as dagur told heather about him and mala life together and hiccup told gobber some more of his stories from all over the world while the young adults listened in on the story he was right in the middle of the one where he and toothless battled against 3,000 Roman soldiers when the doors were pushed open suddenly.
eret and dj both jumped up and unsheathed their weapons from force of habit of being surprised attacked but dropped them when they seen dagur's skrill banshee "calm down boys" hiccup said as he continued with his story not paying the dragon any mind thinking she was looking for dagur , banshee scanned the room until her eyes sighted her target behind hiccup's chair she smiled and bounded towards him jumping in between the tables as the villagers laid close to the table to avoid the wings and feet of the dragon "toothless" she shouted in the dragon language in a cheerful and happy voice.
toothless raised his head up just as she jumped high and was coming down towards the table "get down" eret said pushing hiccup outta the way before diving to the side taking dagur and heather with him, the rest of the table did the same just as banshee knocked hiccup's chair over and landed on toothless with his stomach up.
with her back legs on his stomach and her wings on the floor on either side of his chest she nuzzled his face "toothless it's time" she said as toothless eyes widened as banshee got off him he stood and roared telling everyone to get out of his way.
the villagers didn't understand the dragon language but they didn't need to, they got down just as toothless jumped and flew out the doors followed by banshee thanks to hiccup he had the tailfin made so he could fly by himself just incase he needed too.
everyone rose up slowly "what just happened" astrid asked shaking from nearly getting pounced on by a dragon however her question was left with no response as hiccup and dagur ran out after their dragons they knew what was happening.
"we'll take titan he's right outside" dj shouted rushing after them followed by eret and the berk group dj got up onto his dragon's saddle while the others jumped on his back holding onto his spikes but just as they were about to take off astrid , heather ,ruff ,tuff, snotlout, fishlegs and gobber did the same jumping onto the dragon and holding onto the spikes but they didn't jump as far up as the others had so they were more on the side then the back, the dragon not paying any attention to them took off towards dagur's hut.
everyone from berk was both enjoying the flight and at the same time horrified from how high up they were at the same time, it wasn't till snotlout let out a wimper that the others noticed them "what are you lot doing here" eret asked grabbing snotlout by the collar and pulling him up onto the back as hiccup and dagur did the same to the others "we wanted to know what is going on" heather said holding onto dagur while they suddenly started to dive downwards towards his hut.
"a birth is happening" dagur said but before heather could answer titan landed in front of his house while hiccup jumped off and ran around back behind the house towards the stables followed by the others.
everyone crowded around the two dragons while they were around three purple eggs with black specs on them suddenly one of the eggs started to shake toothless banshee said with a smile as toothless nodded while retracting his teeth and picking up the egg and dropping it in a barrel of water.
the berkians all looked at each other with weird looks until they heard a muffled boom, they looked back at the barrel as bubbles rose up first then a baby nightfury surfaced and sneezed firing a small plasma bast while shaking it's head "awww" ruff, heather, and astrid all said looking at the baby hiccup carefully approached and lifted the baby out of the barrel it was a little smaller then a terrible terror and it was all black like toothless
hiccup looked the dragon over before looking at toothless "it's a boy bud" he said setting the nightfury on the ground as he lept towards his parents chirping happily just as the other two eggs started to shake.
this time both toothless and banshee each carefully picked up an egg and put them into the water barrel and backing away slightly the same thing happened two muffled booms with a flash of purple light, then bubbles and then two baby dragons floated to the surface.
there was another nightfury except this one was black with two purple stripes on both of it's side and then there was a pure black skrill hiccup walked foward a picked them both up each in one hand and examined them "both girls" he said setting them both on the ground and they immediately bounded towards toothless and banshee who were sitting with their son while he ate the pile of fish toothless had brought in earlier in the day.
"congrats you two" dagur said flanking hiccup as they watched both their dragons as they watched their kids play with each other it was then heather noticed something "hey wait" she said pointing to dagur "you don't have a helmet on" she said as he was standing in the sunlight that came through the hole in the roof "neither do you" fishlegs said noticing dj didn't either.
"oh yeah right" dagur said taking off his glove for his right hand revealing he had a ring on "thanks to this guy i'm immune to any thing that kills a vampire" he said as dj took off his glove revealing a similar looking one "the gem of amara" fishlegs said admiring it "but i thought the legend said it was bigger and only one existed."
"there was and it was bigger until a fight with another vampire caused it to break into three pieces we then agreed that we take the two for us and he took the one for him" dagur said putting his glove back on.
"you didn't really think we never been in the sun before did ya, we aren't pasty white" dj said earning a laugh from dagur and eret but they were suddenly stopped by a smack upside the head dj and eret were slapped by hiccup while banshee hit dagur with her tail "come on guys let's give the new family some space" hiccup said as they started making their way outside.
"wait hiccup me and you have to patrol soon" toothless said stopping hiccup "and me and dagur have to show the trainees some new survival moves" banshee said bringing dagur back as well they both chuckled "don't worry i can take shaddermaster to show the newbies survival techniques" dagur said before his smile turned into a frown "he may be grounded for the rest of his life but he can still walk and run right?" he said trying to keep his face smiling which caught the group outside attention except for dj and eret.
"and i can take sleuther for the patrol if that's alright with you dagur" hiccup said trying to get his friend's mind off shaddermaster.
dagur seemed to snap out of his daze he was in "what...oh yeah go ahead he needs to get out there anyway, you can't keep a berserker's dragon locked up for a long time you know he'll go crazy" dagur said laughing.
but" both dragons said in unison but were interrupted "no buts you two" hiccup said feeling like he was arguing with kids right now "me and dagur have survived on our own before, a few days while you guys bond and figure out names for your kids won't hurt anyone" hiccup finished and then crouched down and petted the female baby nightfury as she came forward and gave a playful roar at hiccup "alright" he asked while moving towards the door.
the two dragons looked down at their kids while they fired small blasts at each other they had both the nightfury's plasma blast and the skrill's lightning blast but since they were small it didn't hurt them when they fired at their siblings.
the dragons then looked at each other and came up with a silent agreement "alright but if we hear anything from any dragon or human we're coming after you guys" toothless said as banshee nodded.
"ok mom and dad" dagur said while hiccup laughed and they quickly left before they could change their mind.
they both got outside and shut the stables door and turned to see the berk group standing there while dj and eret were off to the side hiccup sighed "who has the first question" he asked "who-" heather started but was interrupted "I'm sorry fishlegs had his hand up first fishlegs?" hiccup asked "why'd they put the eggs into the barrels of water" he asked "because dragon eggs explode when they hatch" hiccup said.
this time heather raised her hand "why-" but was interrupted again "fishlegs beat you by a finger fishlegs?" "how long ago did she lay the eggs" "she only laid them a few days ago, dragon eggs don't need as long to hatch as other animals" dagur said.
just as fishlegs was about to raise his hand again heather lightly punched him in the gut jusylt hard enough and he went down to one knee holding his gut she then raised her hand with a calm 'you better choose me this time' face "heather?" dagur asked smiling that his sister was definitely a berserker "who is shaddermaster and sleuther and why'd you get so upset" she asked quickly before anyone could interrupt her.
dagur's face instantly fell as hiccup stepped forward "they're dagur's other bonded dragons shaddermaster is a gronkle and sleuther is a triple strike" hiccup said "and as for why he got so upset" hiccup said trailing off "it's okay brother I've got this" dagur said stepping forward.
"when we made peace with the dragon hunters some of the hunters didn't like it and attacked us during the night and...shaddermaster got hit in the side damaged his wing so badly that he couldn't fly no more and he's been grounded ever since."
dagur then gave a whistle and everyone heard a commotion inside the house as a green gronkle came through the door and at the same time a brown and yellow triple strike popped out of the window and flew down and landed beside hiccup and dagur both dragons each licked a side of dagur's face.
"aww i missed you guys too" he said patting them both on the snouts "sorry we couldn't hang out for most of today boys but me and shaddermaster get to train some teens and sleuther gets to go flying with hiccup later."
both dragons instantly perked up as they jumped around "okay guys come on" hiccup said walking towards the hall "i didn't finish my lunch" as the berkians followed they seen just how far the flight was they were on the far side of the village they all groaned as hiccup turned "bet you can't wait to start fliying now can you" he said with a smile as he continued walking while answering more of fishlegs questions about the breeding habits of dragons.
