AN: Shorter one this time, sorry. This is the second shortest chapter in this story, and the lengths are rather random.

REVIEWS:

Tim2060: The worst thing on FFN is a story with a good plot but awful flow/grammar. I've had to abandon a few stories like that because I simply didn't have the patience for them, and I hate it. I'm so glad you think mine is readable! :)

Stardust333: How can so much be said through one word and a smiley face? Thank you :)

Yubel578: Arrgh, such a good idea! I kinda want to go through the remaining chapters and see if I can weave your idea in, but I'm really short of time at the moment... Maybe I can come back to it later.

STRENGTH

'I told you it'd be strength,' Toothless said arrogantly. 'I'm always right.'

"The second event will be a contest of strength. Again, there will be a human's competition, and a dragon's competition. If a tiebreaker is necessary, there will be a competition for mounted pairs. For humans, it is a simple arm wrestling contest. Please come forward."

I stepped into the centre of the arena, towards the barrel that sat in front of Dad. Snotlout knelt down on one side, and I got to my knees on the other.

You're going down! Snotlout mouthed at me from across the barrel. I didn't doubt it. He would definitely win this arm wrestling contest, but that was fine as long as Toothless and I won two of the other events.

"Yes," I replied calmly. "But you'll still never have Toothless. He's mine, not because I own him, but because he wants to be. He'll never accept you."

Snotlout's eyebrows sloped downwards and he started to say something, swallowed it, made an unintelligible noise of annoyance, and glared at me.

"On your marks…" We rested our elbows on the table and held out our hands.

"Get set…" Snotlout gripped my hand. Hard. His massive paw completely surrounded my nimble fingers and I grunted as he crushed my entire hand. The cuts from two days ago were mostly healed by now, but as the pressure increased, they started to hurt again.

"Go!" Before I could even think about resisting, Snotlout slammed my hand down on the side of the barrel and whooped in victory.

"Snotlout, Snotlout, oi, oi, oi!"

I gasped and pulled my hand protectively towards my chest. My cousin had bashed it hard enough against the rim of the barrel to leave a diagonal cut across my knuckles, and it hurt! Toothless was nuzzling it and licking it before I'd even gotten a good look at the damage, his sticky saliva numbing the pain immediately. I scratched his head with my other hand, slightly amused at how worried he was over such a small scrape. I'd had worse in the blacksmith's when I accidentally dropped a sharp object or hit my hand with the hammer. He gently wrapped his mouth around my hand, still licking, and my heart expanded, becoming larger and softer. I couldn't imagine losing such a wonderful friend.

"Over my dead body," I muttered to myself, thinking about giving Toothless to Snotlout.

'Let's hope that it doesn't come to that,' Toothless said, his voice slightly muffled.

"Come on, Toothless," Dad called. "It's time for the dragon's round."

I briefly knelt down and pressed my head against Toothless', silently wishing him luck, then I pulled my hand out of his mouth. "Go on."

"Right, the dragons will each hold an end of this chain, and stand on opposite sides of the Ring, up on top." I instinctively looked up to where the dragons would stand, and saw that the metal web that normally hung across the roof was still gone. "When I say 'go', you can both start pulling. The first dragon to pull his opponent into the Ring wins. Oh, and Hookfang? No flying."

Hookfang and Toothless nodded. Hookfang chose the side just above the entrance, leaving Toothless to take the opposite side. Gobber tossed an end of a thick metal chain to each dragon like it was a cord for laundry. Hookfang stabbed his horns through the links, pulling the chain securely down to the base by shaking his head, and Toothless gripped it tightly in his mouth.

"On your marks…" I wasn't nearly as nervous for this one, because we'd always known that we wouldn't win it.

"Get set…" I could see the tension building in Toothless' legs, ready to spring backwards as soon as the signal went.

Hookfang sprang backwards just before Dad yelled, "Go!" and Toothless stumbled forwards. My mouth tightened. Hookfang knew that he could probably win this one, why did he have to cheat?

Toothless set his feet against the floor, and slid forwards half a meter before coming to a stop. Hookfang reared up on his back feet, pulling hard, and Toothless' head jerked forwards. Ouch, that couldn't have felt nice. Narrowing his eyes, Toothless opened his wings and flapped them once, hard. He didn't leave the ground, but Hookfang stumbled forwards a little, coming closer to the edge of the Ring, and Toothless moved two steps backwards. Hookfang recovered and glared at him.

'That cheat?'

"Dad, is that allowed?" I whispered, and he vaguely nodded, his attention fixated on the two dragons.

Hookfang must have heard my question and seen Dad's response, because he reared back and opened his own wings. He tried to do a wing blast, the powerful flap that sent trees flying, but Toothless opened his own wings again and used the strong wind to push himself backwards. Annoyed, Hookfang set his teeth and started slowly walking backwards. Toothless scrabbled for a grip on the floor, pulling as hard as he could, but he was slowly dragged forwards onto the very edge of the Ring. Hookfang paused for a moment, staring right into Toothless' eyes.

'Toothless weak like Toothless Rider weak.'

Then he took one more step backwards and Toothless tumbled into the Kill Ring, spreading his wings at the last minute to cushion his fall. I jogged over to him as he shook his head.

"You alright?"

'Yes, I'm fine.'

"Snotfang, Snotfang, oi, oi,oi!" Snotlout cheered, and Hookfang preened. They flew out of the Ring together, probably to get in some more training for tomorrow. Speaking of which—

"Dad, which event is it tomorrow?"

He looked down at me, "Fighting. Everyone goes into the Ring together, the last member standing wins a point for their team."

"Thanks," I said, then gestured to Toothless. "Let's go, Bud."