Chapter 7

Focus, Hiccup!

Training Arena, Morning

"So, I just happened to notice that the book had nothing about Gore Magalas!" Hiccup was saying to Gobber the very next morning, his Lance and shield waving about as he spoke. "Is there, like, another book? A sequel? Maybe a little Gore Magala pamphlet?"

Rather than answer, though, his master scolded him. "Focus, Hiccup!" he shouted down. "Ye're not even tryin'!"

Before Hiccup could reply, there was a yell from Batwings. "Hiccup, watch out!"

A horrendous blast of light and heat struck the wall, scaring the living daylights out of Hiccup. At first he was merely startled, focused only on how the tip of his iron Lance was now glowing red-hot and bent out of shape. Then he heard the squawk, he zeroed in on the purple beak and burning red eyes, and only then did his brain make the essential connection.

Like a rabbit flushed from the undergrowth, Hiccup's fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. Arena. Yian Garuga. Run. Certain death.

With surprising nimbleness, Hiccup darted down one pathway, narrowly avoiding the bird wyvern's snapping beak. He made several more turns until he could no longer hear its pursuing talons. Only then did he slow down to catch his breath, lift his warped Lance, and set it against the wooden wall. Today, the training arena was filled with such walls, arranged by Gobber into a simple maze that allowed the trainees to run circles around the prowling Yian Garuga. While it perched above, twisting and turning in search of them, they could rush down different corridors to elude its hungry beak.

It made Hiccup feel like a mouse being hunted by a cat.

"Today is aboot attack!" Gobber's voice floated easily to the trainees through the din of running feet and harsh squawking. "Bird wyverns, like this Yian Garuga here, are quick and light on their feet! Yer job is ta be quicker an' lighter!"

While Hiccup took a moment of rest, Fishlegs came down the corridor and sprinted past him, huffing and puffing. But, just as the Ingerman boy rounded the next corner, the Yian Garuga appeared on the wall above. It spread its wings with a caw, and Hiccup stiffened with terror. The bird wyvern's eyes weren't on him, however – as he goggled at it in terrified stupor, it angled itself away from him, raised its spiny tail, and lashed it as a scorpion would. A piteous shriek came from the corridor, and Fishlegs came running back the way he'd come, his shield bristling with venomous spines.

"What's going on?!" he screamed on his way past. "The Book of Monsters said nothing about detachable barbs!"

"Eh, don't worry aboot it too much," Gobber called in response to Fishlegs' wails.

As Hiccup picked his weapon back up and chose another path to race down, he fumed silently at Gobber. The blacksmith didn't sound the least bit concerned for their safety. Fine enough for the teens that could defend themselves properly, but what about Hiccup?

Maybe he figures I'll be fine because this exercise amounts to running and hiding, he considered. He allowed himself a bitter scoff. Those two things I actually have experience with –

The sound of fireballs exploding from elsewhere in the maze cut Hiccup's wandering mind off mid-thought, once again reminding him where he was. He knew he ought to concentrate on the task at hand – surviving – but questions still pounded through his head.

The Gore Magala. He was planning on approaching it today, if he could work up the nerve. But going in completely blind (No pun intended, he thought) would be suicide. Even as he wound through the maze, picking turns at random and almost bumping into Ruff and Tuff, his mind was back at the grotto. He saw cliff walls instead of wood, a snarling black beast crouching in front of him. Where would he begin? If he approached, it'd feel threatened and attack… if he stayed, rooted to the ground, it'd surely lose patien–

"CREEEEEEE!" the Yian Garuga screeched.

Suddenly, there it was, a sight that brought him flashing back to reality. Hiccup backpedaled, avoiding the serrated beak by a hair, and turned tail without hesitation. His heart was hammering so hard at the narrow escape, the sound of his feet on the arena floor might as well have been its pulse.

"You know, I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" he somehow found the breath to yell out to his mentor.

"Look fer its blind spot," Gobber advised in response. His voice sounded close. "Every monster has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike!"

Hiccup had no idea where he was running to: just away. But when he made the next left, he froze. The Yian Garuga's tail was in front of him, lashing from side to side. In his hurry to get away, he must have made a full loop around and ended up behind it. Its sharp ears did not catch him, fortunately – it was preoccupied with something else.

"Ugh, do you ever bathe?" came Ruffnut's distinctive rasp.

"If you don't like it, just get your own blind spot," Tuff shot back.

The Yian Garuga's head was bobbing from side to side. The twins must have blundered into its blind spot through a stroke of dumb luck, and were keeping it occupied for now. Hiccup chose that moment to run, this time choosing his paths carefully. He was near the wall, so that meant Gobber was somewhere over…

The sound of hissing fire and the twins' shouting filled the arena. At the same time, Hiccup found a path that led right to Gobber's perch above the arena, where he, Arachne, and Batwings watched the action from a safe distance.

"Blind spot, yes," Gobber was musing. "Deaf spot… eh, not so much."

Skidding to a halt, Hiccup spoke up, as casually as he was able, "So, so how would one sneak up on a Gore Magala?"

He needed answers – somewhere to start that wasn't a wild guess. But Gobber only rubbed his forehead, gave a half-baked answer that amounted to "no-one's ever met one and lived ta tell the tale", and shouted at him to focus on the exercise. Beside him, Arachne vibrated with anxiety and Batwings was fixated on something.

"I know, I know, but… like, hypothetically…" Hiccup tried to ask, while his mind was once again elsewhere. It cycled through possibilities, trying to figure out the best way to approach a monster in peace. Protection. Protection I'll definitely need, he decided, thinking back to Gobber's advice about shields. What else… a peace offering, I guess? I don't even know what it would –

"Hiccup!"

The piercing whisper cut through his fantasy as effectively as a Yian Garuga screech. He started, raising his weapon, only to see that it was Astrid who had spoken. She was crouched next to a wall only a few feet away, Snotlout and Snaketail right behind her. Astrid was glaring at him, motioning with one of her Midnight Blackwings. It took him a second to recognize the words her mouth was forming. Get down.

At the same time, scraping and clicking sounds came from behind the corner. Hiccup flushed with fear and hastened to get behind Snaketail, balancing his Lance next to him.

It was right there.

Astrid made another motion with her blade. She leaned around the corner, then, after a harrowing second that seemed more like an hour, executed a flawless roll that carried her past the dangerous corridor. Snotlout shuffled after her and repeated her move, then Snaketail, with a little stumble at the end. Too soon, it was Hiccup's turn, and before his brain could register what was happening, he threw his body forward.

CLANK. Mid-roll, his cumbersome weapon threw him off balance and clattered to the floor, while he fell flat on his back.

The Yian Garuga's head snapped in his direction, its ears springing erect and a harsh squawk coming from its throat. Hiccup shoved his Lance away and leapt to his feet, a serrated beak slamming shut at his heels. He followed the others down toward a fork in the path, darting down the left while they chose the right. A fearful glance thrown their way told him that they were going to stand their ground and fight. Hiccup shivered and tucked himself up against the wall. He still had his shield bound to his arm, and gripped it like a lifeline as he brought it to his chest.

Milliseconds later, the Yian Garuga burst out from behind the wall to confront the Vikings-in-training, turning its back to Hiccup. He couldn't bring himself to breathe – his chest felt like a set of bolas rolled tight. He saw its wings spread, its talons scratch at the floor, its silvery mane quiver. It advanced a pace forward, and Astrid and the others backed off, encouraging it to advance further.

"Watch out, babe!" Snotlout said with confidence, elbowing Astrid out of the way. Ignoring the Hofferson girl's protest, he added with a wink, "The Snot will take care of this."

He grasped his Uragaan Hammer in both hands, swung it around, and let it fly. It sailed through the air and missed by a mile, thumping against the maze wall with a splintering of wood. The Yian Garuga glanced down at the Hammer, then back to Snotlout with a mocking caw.

In any other circumstance, Hiccup would've laughed. But, rather than call attention to himself, he swallowed the urge to chuckle and tore off in the opposite direction, to wherever counted as safety in this gods-forsaken maze. He heard raised voices, then squawking and the roar of fireballs. The sounds reminded him of the Nadders he'd seen fighting the Gore Magala the other day.

His thought process took him deeper, his ears becoming deaf to the sounds of repetitive crashing and voices rising to screams. The scene replayed in his mind's eye, the trio of dragons ganging up on the monster with fire blasts before being scared off by its deadly fog. If he wasn't careful, the same thing would happen to him. Protection and food might not be enough… if he could catch it napping, then he'd be –

"HICCUP!"

Gobber's roar snapped Hiccup back to reality, and the muffled sounds around him rushed back to the foreground. All of a sudden, his comrades were scattering, a little girl was shrieking, and a wall was toppling toward him, pushed over by a Yian Garuga driven berserk. But those eyes that glowed with bloodlust weren't on him, rather they followed a figure that leapt from the top of the wall, plummeting down straight toward…!

The moment the maze walls started coming down, Batwings was moving. He scrambled toward the arena's gateway, flapping his wings to keep himself steady whenever he stumbled. He didn't wait for an order from Gobber to open the only escape route for Hiccup and the others – whether or not Gobber would order it be damned. The Garuga had been incensed to the point of madness, chasing anything that moved, turning the maze into a set of oversized dominoes as it crashed around blindly.

Somebody was going to die if someone didn't step in. That thought alone motivated Batwings to hook his claws around the gate and pull as hard as his muscles allowed.

All at once, the gate sprang open, and Batwings stepped into a nightmare. The maze was all but flattened and Viking teenagers were running in blind panic, their weapons long discarded in favor of their lives. The Yian Garuga was screeching and snapping as it felled a wall in pursuit of Astrid, who leapt off the edge and landed painfully on top of Hiccup.

Batwings heard neither the frustrated grunts of the Hofferson girl, nor Ruff and Tuff's snickering as they watched from behind a pile of rubble. Rather, a frightened squeak from the other end of the arena drew his attention – the Garuga had unearthed itself from a pile of walls and was sprinting for Fishlegs.

Later, Batwings would reflect on this moment and realize he couldn't remember exactly how he'd managed to cross the distance between him and the Garuga. His ears were filled with the sound of his thundering pulse, his eyes tinted with a curtain of red, his body filled with the hot, fizzling rush that always came when he shapeshifted. He could feel his teeth sliding into flesh and the taste of blood on his tongue. He knew razor-sharp spikes were digging into his scales as he tightened his coils around the Garuga's body, but there was no pain. No pain, just red, roaring, and blood.

Then, he was flying away, not of his own accord, but tossed aside like a half-finished fish carcass. At last he felt pain, a white-hot lightning strike that shot up his spine upon impact with the wall. The red faded, only to be replaced by black…

…and, like waking up from a dream, clarity returned. Batwings blinked; his surroundings were becoming less blurry, the noises less muffled. He knew he was back in his human form, as he felt his fingers twitch and then clench into a fist as he pulled himself slowly onto his knees. Lifting his head, he saw Astrid storming out the exit and Hiccup curled on the ground. Close by, Gobber was attending to the other trainees. The Yian Garuga was nowhere in sight.

Is it over?

"Alrighty then!" Gobber boomed, rubbing his hand and hook together in satisfaction. "Ye all did well against the dastardly Yian Garuga. Astrid is the Viking o' the hour fer knocking it oot, of course, but ye all demonstrated the skills necessary ta hunt a bird wyvern. The twins were even the first ta find its blind spot!"

"Wait, what?" Tuff gaped. "I mean… o-of course we were the first. We're awesome!"

"The first to do what?" Ruff asked him, only to get a shrug in reply.

"Right, that's all fer today," Gobber dismissed. "Same time tomorrow!"

The twins and Snotlout all followed Gobber out of the arena, the latter stating loudly that he wouldn't have missed the Yian Garuga if the sun hadn't been in his eyes. Hiccup looked like he was still out of it, but Snaketail and Arachne were running to his side, so Batwings let himself relax. He could approach the Haddock boy later, and perhaps ask him why he'd been so distracted during training.

He seems… off, Batwings thought, frowning as he watched the girls pull Hiccup to his feet. For someone that was so concerned for his own safety last session, he was incredibly careless today.

The Siren realized that one trainee was missing, and glanced around in search of Fishlegs. As he considered the possibility that the Ingerman boy had already left, he felt a soft poke on his shoulder. He turned around to see Fishlegs wringing his hands and playing with his fingers, refusing eye contact.

"H-Hey, um…" the Ingerman boy mumbled. "Y-Your side, um, i-it's a little…"

Confused, Batwings lifted his arm to peer at the spot Fishlegs' shaky finger was pointing to. A dark blotch had blossomed on his Sharqskin tunic, around the same spot where he had noticed the ache. Pressing his hand to the spot, the ache became a lance of pain shooting through his torso, and his hand came away wet.

"It's fine," Batwings waved him off, although he hissed a little. "That Garuga must have spiked me. You have a healer in your village, right?"

He started to turn away, only to wince as his first step brought the pain back, a hot blade stabbing into his side. To his surprise, he felt a hand clamp his shoulder, and tilted his head to see Fishlegs stepping up beside him. The boy was looking him in the eye, wearing a nervous, wobbly smile.

"Come on, I-I'll take you to see Gothi," he offered. "Y-You know, this was my first time seeing a Siren transform. I-I've read all about it, but it's much more dramatic seeing it in person! Although, I recommend not attacking a Yian Garuga directly next time. Their armor is spiky in places, which can do an additional plus 5 damage if you make physical contact. And then there's the poisonous spines on the tail, which I never imagined could be thrown like that! You think that's an ability they all have? Or is it just…"

Batwings lagged behind his babbling guide on their way out, staring at him in fascination. He wasn't sure what was more incredible – Fishlegs' monster knowledge or the way words spilled out of him like a tidal wave. One thing the Siren was sure of, though, was that Fishlegs had lost all trace of the reluctance he had displayed the other night, when Batwings had first tried to reach out.

Did Fishlegs trust him now? Well, maybe not… but at least the husky Viking-in-training was becoming comfortable around him. That was a start, and the thought warmed Batwings' heart.

When Hiccup came to, it was to a decimated war zone. The maze was trashed, nary a single wall still standing, and several of the trainees were coming out of hiding from behind piles of those walls. A loud BANG indicated a door being closed, followed by a grinding noise as the Garuga's cage was locked once more. He pushed himself into a sitting position, revealing an unconscious Batwings on the other side of the arena, his dented shield sitting at his feet, and Astrid standing over him with a thunderous scowl.

He heard familiar snickering from over where the twins were standing. "Yo, did you see when she fell right on top of him?" Ruff said.

"Love on the battlefield!" Tuff jeered.

"She could do better," his sister agreed.

For a moment, Astrid turned her storming thundercloud of an expression on the twins, but brought it back to Hiccup a second later. He didn't much notice, still trying to recollect his scattered thoughts.

Huh. It's over, he observed through a splitting headache.

Then the panic set in. What happened to Batwings?! How am I not dead? Holy gods Astrid's looking at me what do I DO?!

"Uh," he tried, only to be struck by a coughing fit. "Hey?"

The Hofferson girl's expression darkened further, a hybrid mask of outrage and disdain. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?!"

He flinched as a Midnight Blackwing was stuck in his face, any protests he had freezing in his throat. A shout from nearby made him flinch a second time, twisting around in surprise to find Snaketail rising to her full height. She must have been bent over him, checking to see if he was still alive, but now her eyes were locked on Astrid, and they reminded him too much of the Yian Garuga for comfort.

"Hey, back off!" Snaketail snapped at the blonde. "He was only trying to get away from the monster, like everyone else! Don't blame this all on him just 'cause he happened to bump into you!"

"Oh really?" Astrid spat, now turning on her. "Didn't you hear him? He was pestering Gobber the entire time! Bad enough he's in here with us, but he's not even trying to take this seriously!"

There was a clink as Snaketail's grip shifted on her sword, readying it for attack. "He was almost killed, no thanks to you. Show a shred of sympathy, maybe!"

"Why do you even bother with him?!" Astrid raged, raising her weapons in return. "He's a hiccup! He's completely worthless and nothing but a liability on the battlefield!"

Wow, Hiccup thought, observing the confrontation between girls. I've never heard the entire village's thoughts about me summarized so succinctly.

Another part of his mind then offered, Also why does Astrid look the hottest when she's mad?

"Why don't we see how useless you are after I've taken your arms off," Snaketail retorted, a snarl that sizzled with flaming rage.

Both girls hollered battle cries and leapt forward to crash their weapons together, Astrid's Dual Blades crossed to block Snaketail's Sword and Shield. They wrestled for a solid five seconds before a giant lump of flesh, cloth, and metal shoved them apart.

"Alrigh', alrigh', that's enough!" Gobber scolded. "Snaketail, ye'd better reign in that temper o' yers. Remember, ye're all allies against the monsters. Save those cavalier attitudes fer them – and that goes fer ye too, Astrid."

At first, the Hofferson girl looked as though she were about to argue. Likewise, Snaketail's glare radiated pure murder. Beside Gobber, Hiccup finally noticed Arachne trembling, wound as tight as a catapult's firing mechanism the moment before it launched. Thankfully, Astrid and Snaketail backed down, sheathing their weapons while the aggression melted from their faces. Satisfied, Gobber limped away to address the other teens, and Snaketail spared Hiccup a glance before leaving the arena.

He expected Astrid to walk out as well, but rather, she turned back to him. Hiccup tensed, although her expression was devoid of hostility. Rather, it conveyed a sense of quiet scorn that was, somehow, worse than her most fiery outburst.

"Our parents' war is about to become ours," she told him. "Figure out which side you're on."

She turned on her heel and marched off without another word, her braid flicking out as though giving a final jab toward the boy still crouched on the floor. With aching limbs and a stinging pride, he pulled himself up to his knees and stared, blank-faced, at his ruined shield.

"Hey, you okay?" a small voice asked. He found Arachne leaning over him, her young face glowing with kindness.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her, smiling. "Just a little wiped out, thanks."

The ten-year-old's brow creased with worry, and the corners of her mouth tightened as though she had something she wanted to say. She kept silent, though, and with a mumbled farewell, she dashed out the exit.

He took another look around the arena. Batwings was up, but injured, and speaking with Fishlegs. The remaining trainees were being given one of Gobber's pep talks. Hiccup let out his breath in a soft rush; he hadn't been lying to Arachne when he confessed to being tired. So much had happened in the span of one morning that he could already feel a weight on his shoulders, of the kind that could only be lifted by a full night's sleep.

Astrid's parting words filled his head – Figure out which side you're on.

His thoughts rolled back to what he was preparing for, the plans that had almost cost him his life today, and he screwed his eyes shut in a guilty grimace.

Sorry, Astrid. But I don't know which side I'm on anymore.

I kind of understand why Astrid was so pissed off at Hiccup in this scene.

Snaketail and Astrid were pretty chummy before, forming a friendship based on mutual respect as budding warriors and a desire to compete. Unfortunately, Snaketail has a massive temper that I don't think was very well represented in "Monsters of Berk" until the finale. I'm bringing it in early to make up for that.

I'm also intending to make Snaketail's anger issues much more prevalent in "Monsters of Berk" once I get to updating it – she'll be picking more fights and the like.

Speaking of relationships, Batwings is getting somewhere with Fishlegs, and hopefully this is the start of a solid friendship. And on the subject of friendship, Hiccup's going to making a new one next chapter!

Review please!