19. First flight

After glaring at Hiccup one more time, Storm looked at Eret who was not masking his confused look. It occurred to Storm that they haven't actually explained what they were doing to their trainees. Storm crossed her arms and gave a small nod to Hiccup, waiting for him to explain their plan to the group.

"We'll be taking you all on a flight, one by one, you'll be using your own dragons and we'll just direct you from behind you."

"Isn't flying with someone else harder than flying alone?"

"Yes it is, but if you get the hang of flying with someone else, flying solo will be easier. Also, if you make a mistake we'll be there to fix it right away and you won't need to crash for us to notice that you did something wrong." He easily explained. The group made noises of understanding, except Astrid who looked way too thoughtful to be thinking just about the lesson that laid ahead.

Hiccup went about double checking the saddles again trying to look occupied, while Storm gave her full attention to Eret, who was still looking confused and a bit scared. As soon as he saw that Storm was concentrated on the lesson, Hiccup stopped pretending and eagerly awaited for her to start. Usually he was the one who trained the new riders in flying. Considering Eret was the only one who had absolutely no previous knowledge of riding dragons, watching Storm train him really interested Hiccup.

"Out of everyone here, you will have to work the most to become a dragon rider," she stated and Eret stared at her with a look that clearly meant 'You don't say?'. She raised an eyebrow, almost laughing out loud as she remembered when she used to stare at him like that, taking comfort in the fact that he clearly didn't remember her. "Let's start simple, do you feel like you're ready to get on a dragon?"

"I only just touched a dragon, without the intent to kill, yesterday, before that I spent eight years trying to be the best dragon trapper alive. So no, I'm not ready to get on the back of a dragon," he said almost harshly.

"Tough luck, you're doing it. Now." Eret let out a defeated sigh.

"Why did you even ask me then?"

"To be polite," she deadpanned. Rolling her eyes she continued. "Anyway, I've seen how you act around Skullcrusher, you're on the way of becoming great friends. Just lose the prejudice and the attitude and you'll do well. Skullcrusher had been ridden before by both me and my Chief, but with every dragon it's important that you ask them if it's okay, especially the first few times." She stood there, waiting for Eret to make the first move towards his dragon.

Hiccup had to admit, from the side she made the perfect picture of a patient teacher, her hands clasped in front of her, face not betraying any negative emotions. Hiccup had received the same stance many times before when Storm was helping him with his fighting, and seeing her from the side was as impressive as receiving her patient lessons. He also silently prayed that her attention would not stray from the man in front of her. Hiccup knew that she hated having an audience when teaching something completely new and the fact that he and the rest of the gang were all watching would not be received well.

His prayers went unheard as a moment later he saw Eret glance their way. Hiccup unconsciously held his breath, after she didn't immediately glare at them, he slightly relaxed only for Storm to slowly turn to the watching group and stare at them. Storm knew that they were watching from the start, she actually had no problem with it, but the uncomfortable look that crossed Eret's face didn't sit right with her. She continued staring at the frozen group for a long moment, before startling them all by calmly speaking.

"Don't you have better things to do?"

The group receiving her stare sprang into action, quickly turned around, trying to distract themselves with caring for their dragons. Hiccup was the only one who hadn't sprang away from her stare, he just raised his hands in defeat and gathered the others who weren't a part of Storm's lesson and made them sit down near each other. Finding out what they remembered about actually being on a dragon seemed like a great idea to him.

After the group was properly distracted, Storm gestured to Eret to start. Eret, who was impressed, yet not surprised, turned towards Skullcrusher and gently placed a palm on the dragon's nose. From the start of his (forced) volunteering he knew that his past views would change. He hated to admit that his views had already started to crumble after his previous encounters with the 'Dragon demons', in the past he couldn't comprehend the fact that there were people who dedicated their lives to dragons, but after only two encounters with his dragon he could see himself living a similar life as the woman who stood in front of him.

"Hey," he gently started. "I wanted to ask you, if I could go on a ride with you?"

He was surprised when Skullcrusher gave an amused snort and nudged him in the side. Startled by the dragon's reaction he quickly glanced at Storm as if to ask if he did something wrong. He found her observing them with a small smile on her face.

"You did great, Skullcrusher has already attached himself to you, he's very eager to go flying with you. You must be a great man to earn such trust in such a short time." She smiled straight at him, and at that moment he had a hard time connecting this young woman with the same one who could have killed him, multiple times.

"What now?"

"You get on Skullcrusher, then I get on behind you," she then raised her voice, animatedly talking to all of the people in the clearing. "Fair warning to all of you, we will have to touch you! Get rid of your fears now because there won't be any time for it on the dragon! You panic, the dragon panics, we crash." She spoke with her normal tone again, "Then we take off and I'll be guiding you all the way through."

Storm's warning caught the attention of the gang that were sitting in a circle at the other side of the clearing, giving Storm space for her lesson. Almost all of them easily accepted the fact that they'll have to be close to one of the 'Dragon demons'. Almost. Snotlout looked like he had just been force feed yak dung and he voiced his displeasure directly to Hiccup.

"Why do you have to touch us!?" Hiccup was amused for a second, until he saw that Snotlout was not kidding.

"You're serious?" he asked, a defeated sigh escaping him. Hiccup face-palmed. "How else are we supposed to stay on the dragon while sitting behind you?"

"Well – you could – shut up!" Snotlout sneered. Hiccup shook his head and decided to ignore the man, not having the patience to deal with him. Hiccup went back to answering the rest's (mostly Fishleg's) questions.

Eret was trying to work up the courage to get on the saddle, cautiously walking to his dragon's side, never taking his hand off of the dragon. Ha kept glancing at Storm, waiting for her to tell him that he was doing something wrong, but she didn't say anything.

"So I just… get on?"

"Yes." She stated. "If I see you making a mistake I won't keep quiet, you need to relax."

Eret sighed, consciously relaxing his muscles, shacking his hand a couple times to expel his nervous energy. He strongly gripped the saddle's handles, pulling himself up on the dragon. He involuntarily stiffened as soon as he sat down and unintentionally squeezed his legs into Skullcrusher's sides. The dragon, knowing that that was how previous people had indicated take off, spread his wings preparing to launch himself into the sky. Luckily Storm was faster and stopped the dragon with a hand on his snout and a firm 'No.'

"Not yet," she reiterated to the Rumblehorn. In her peripheral vision she saw the group watching them, the twins were snickering and Snotlout was about to shout something at Eret, but he was stopped by Astrid harshly elbowing him in the stomach. She gave the group a quick thumbs up and saw the rest relax.

"I thought I told you to relax?" she asked Eret, who was silently panicking.

"It's against my instinct to do this," he said, wide eyed.

"Fight your instincts then," she said in a no-nonsense tone. "Get comfortable, please."

He cautiously shuffled in the saddle, desperately trying not to squeeze Skullcrusher's sides even a little bit. Storm rolled her eyes, kneeling so she was eye to eye with the dragon.

"Wait for him to tell you when to take off, okay?" she whispered. The dragon gave an affirmative growl and she stood.

From her position she could see that despite his snail like pace, Eret did manage to comfortably sit on the dragon. She went up to Skullcrusher's side, ignored Eret's nervous look, and pulled herself up in one swift movement.

"Keep a firm grip on the handles, don't freak out when I touch you, and tell Skullcrusher to take off, he's waiting for a verbal command this time," she lowered her helmet. "Try not to panic or lean when we finally get in the air."

Storm patted his shoulder and he tensely told Skullcrusher to take off. The dragon took off slowly, sensing his rider's nervousness. They started flying away from the village, Eret tensed when he felt hands on his waist almost leaning away, but the hands didn't let him and kept him firmly in place.

"Okay, you were about to lean to the right to get rid of my hands, and Skullcrusher would've harshly turned and probably thrown both of us down," she said without any bitterness that he thought he would find. She then pointed to the ocean that they were slowly nearing. "Get us to those sea stacks, try actually giving Skullcrusher small cues, squeeze his sides to speed up, and slowly lean right or left to gently turn. And if he doesn't pick up on the cues, tell him what you want."

Eret took her words to heart and very cautiously started to speed up, squeezing the dragon's sides a few times. He forgot that he had a passenger and almost jumped when he felt one of her hands on his back, lightly pushing him down. He leaned forward and the hand returned to his waist. With Eret's encouragement to Skullcrusher they were rapidly approaching the sea stacks.

"Circle around the sea stack and touch down."

He quietly followed Storm's command. Eret was so concentrated that he didn't even register that he had actually rode a dragon. Storm jumped down from Skullcrusher and Eret followed, she lifted her helmet and kept silently eyeing him with an amusement. He stared back at her, shrugging his shoulders, not understanding why she was doing so. She half-heartedly rolled her eyes.

"How was it?" she probed.

"How was- OH!" his eyes bulged, disbelief filling his voice. "I just rode a dragon and I'm alive! You're alive! We didn't DIE!"

Storm snorted a laugh. Unexpectedly arms snaked around the woman as Eret hugged her, her eyes widened. He kept whispering 'Thank you's, until he finally understood what he was doing and hastily let her go. They spent a few moments in uncomfortable silence until Skullcrusher nudged Eret and Storm awkwardly cleared her throat.

"You're take off was expected for a beginner," she began animatedly gesturing with her hands, a nervous habit she couldn't seem to shake. "And at the end you were doing great, of course you'll need practice and a few more pointers, but that will happen later when everyone had had their chance to show us what they know. One thing that I can tell you right now is that you need to relax, right now you are not fighting, you're just flying without some looming danger. Enjoy it."

"Well I did have an enemy behind me the entire time." He forced out, not wanting to admit that he was actually terrified of the dragon way more than he was of Storm.

"We're not enemies. At least you're not my enemy," she specified.

"We fought at least a hundred times, you almost killed me once. Every interaction we had before Berk was marked by a battle, how is that not being enemies?"

"Not every interaction," she exclaimed before she could stop herself. Storm stared straight at him. "Dragon trappers are my enemies, you're no longer one of them. Let's go, the trip back will be all you."

Eret followed her with his eyes. She slammed her helmet down, annoyed at herself. Eret was once again in the saddle and when Storm got behind him he didn't wait and told Skullcrusher to take off. They were moving faster than before and reached the clearing in half the time.

'One down, five to go,' she thought to herself.