Hiccup walks into the arena with the other teens, and looks up to see Bloom on one of the benches - thank the gods, because nobody else other than Gobber wants anything to do with him. Astrid apparently hates him, Snotlout loves to pick on him, Ruffnut and Tuffnut pull their meanest pranks on him, etc.
Turns out Gobber believes in learning by experience - so, he releases a Gronckle on the group of people. Everybody goes for shields, Hiccup managing to get one first because he moved before Gobber even finished asking what they should always go for as their first piece of equipment. Which earned him some praise from Gobber, but only for a moment.
The twins get disqualified because they were arguing over the same shield, Fishlegs is out next, then Snotlout, and then it's just Astrid and Hiccup left with shields. "Well, just me and you then, huh?"
"No, just you!" She cartwheels out of the way, leaving Hiccup to get hit with another shot from the Gronckle - second to last shot, so there's one more left. Instead of going for Astrid though, the Gronckle stays in front of Hiccup and gets its last shot ready.
Just as its about to shoot, Bloom yells "No!"
The Gronckle whips its head up as its releasing its shot, hitting the wall instead of the boy, and Gobber says "That's six. Alright, you, back in your cage. And remember, everyone, a dragon will always go for the kill." He drags the Gronckle away, using his hook in the corner of the dragon's mouth to yank it backwards.
When Hiccup looks up at the stands, Bloom's shooting a murderous glare at Astrid. After a minute, she looks down at him - he gives her a thumbs-up, then she angrily storms out of the arena. Likely to cool off so she doesn't seriously hurt Astrid for nearly getting him killed.
Bloom's stalking towards the clearing she found Brightfire in, still furious with Astrid Hofferson for nearly letting Hiccup die a fiery death.
She was right in front of him! Does she distract the dragon? Does she even try to draw its fire? No! She just uses him as bait!
Bloom lets out a long breath, not feeling any of her anger drain away. Then she looks at the shirt she's holding in both fists and makes her hands relax. She holds it up to her face, relieved that she can still smell the scent of another dragon's breath on it.
She steps out into the clearing, calling "Brightfire? Where are you?"
A noise behind her draws her attention, and sure enough her white dragon is crouching there. "There you are, girl. I'd forgotten just how beautiful you are." Brightfire seems to like the compliment, and thrums before leaping down from the rock she's on. "Brightfire, I need a favor. Could you find another dragon from their scent?"
That gets a nod, and Bloom holds out Hiccup's shirt from yesterday. Brightfire curiously sniffs it, then her eyes get wide and she bends down low - she wants Bloom to ride her?!
"You...you want me to ride you?"
That gets a nod, and Bloom hesitantly climbs on.
As it turns out, a dragon's back is a lot more comfortable than anyone could imagine - there's a dip just in front of the wings that she fits perfectly into somehow, making it a natural saddle for her and Brightfire both. And then, after they both get settled and comfortable, Brightfire is off like a streak of lightning.
And her agility is astounding, making incredible twists and turns effortlessly - and somehow Bloom stays on. She never once feels like she's going to fall off, using her legs to hang on and gripping what would be shoulders on a human.
And soon enough, they get to a cove with another dragon in it - another Fury. A Night Fury, though - midnight black where Brightfire's a sparkling white.
This must be the one Hiccup says he shot down…
Its stuck in there, she can immediately tell - half of its tail fin is gone! Suddenly, both the black-colored Night Fury and Brightfire look up at a ledge, and Bloom spots a familiar mop of brown poking out from above the rocks - what is Hiccup doing here?!
After Hiccup leaves, Bloom and Brightfire get down to the cove and the Night Fury whirls around to look at them warily. Well, look at her warily.
Bloom holds up her hands, showing she means no harm, and Brightfire slowly goes over to it and growls something to it. It quickly becomes a conversation between the two, while Bloom discreetly gets a closer look at the missing portion of the Night Fury's tail. It's a clean rip, nothing to show that the other half was even there before.
Damn, must've gotten torn off in the fall.
The tail suddenly moves away, and the Night Fury looks at her warily.
"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you."
It lets her take a step closer, and then another - she's taking slow baby steps towards the dragon, hoping to keep it calm. She gets within a foot, and then its gaze turns much warier - translation: that's far enough, thank you very much. It curiously sniffs her hand, and then it to bows down.
"Okay, now that that's out of the way, I've got a question for you." The Night Fury looks up, and she produces the shirt.
"You recognize this?" It sniffs the shirt, then looks up at the ledge Hiccup was on.
"Yeah, him. Hiccup. He's my brother. You recognize him, don't you?" The Night Fury nods, then stares at the shirt some more.
"He set you free from the Bola ropes?" Another nod.
"And you didn't hurt him. Thank you for that." The Night Fury looks up at her in shock, and Bloom says "Give him a chance, that's all I ask of you. He doesn't have any friends. Me, well, my friends are out here. All the others in the village think he's a disappointment. Our father does to. The other kids our age pick on him, would let him die to save themselves. You didn't kill him, perhaps you can help him. I'm not asking you to train him to have muscles as large as boulders or anything, if that's what you think I mean. But nobody in Berk ever gives him a chance to prove himself, never has. Nobody wants anything to do with him, or me really, and it's pretty lonely in all honesty. I, personally, don't care what the other villagers think of me - I've got the dragons out here for company. Always have. Hiccup's never had anyone but Gobber and I supporting him."
She then looks up at the sun and realizes what time it is, then says "Shoot, I've got to get back. The other villagers don't know the forest is filled with dragons! But if they come out looking for me…that's not something I can let happen. Ever. Brightfire, we need to go." The Light Fury nods, and Bloom climbs on and then they're off.
That night at dinner, Gobber's asking each of the recruits what they did wrong. Astrid says she messed up the timing on her cartwheel, as it threw her off for the attack, and then Gobber asks what Hiccup did wrong.
Everybody makes fun of him, Astrid finally saying "He wasn't where he was supposed to be."
That is it! Bloom slams her mug on the table, angrily saying "You nearly got him killed, Hofferson! Where exactly was he supposed to be, in your oh so expert opinion? Because you ran up in front of him, and used my brother for dragon-bait as you left him for dead. So really, where was Hiccup supposed to be, hm? Dead?"
Everyone looks shocked, and Hiccup nervously says "Bloom, it's alright…"
"No, it's not, Hiccup. Nobody here has ever given you a chance to prove yourself. So you're not a boy who's got more muscle than brains like Snot-face over there, big deal. You've never gotten the chance to prove you can do anything these guys would find impressive, being in Gobber's smithy all the time while everyone else is putting out fires and swinging axes. And because of that, all these bigots think it's alright to pick on you when something goes wrong. They want to put you down, they've got to deal with me. Anybody got a problem with that?"
Her glare for Astrid is practically blazing, but the blonde girl says "Oh, that's it! Chief's daughter or not-!"
She advanced towards Bloom, but the redhead grabbed her raised fist and pulled her off-balance - then shoved her face into the table, twisting the arm she still had a hold of behind her back.
Gobber mutters "Not again…break it up, you two. Bloom, off of Astrid. Astrid, away from Bloom. Now."
Bloom reluctantly lets go, stepping back so she's in front of Hiccup. "Anybody else want to say what Hiccup did wrong, or do you pathetic losers want to focus on what you did wrong?"
Snotlout opens his mouth, but its quickly covered by Fishlegs' big hand. "Nope, we're good, Bloom. Please, just keep eating and pretend we don't exist."
Ruffnut whispers to her twin brother "Since when has she been able to slam Astrid Hofferson into a table like that?"
"I don't know, but I like it!"
When everyone sits back down, Bloom and Hiccup still at the empty table, Hiccup quietly says "You didn't have to do that for me, you know. Thank you, really, but you didn't have to."
"I'm sick and tired of them thinking they can treat you like this, Hiccup. So you're not the biggest guy around, you are absolutely the best of these people. And your my brother, and nobody hurts my brother."
Hiccup sighs in relief, leaning into her side. "Thanks. That means a lot."
"I know. And I mean it just as much. Snotlout, don't even think about laying so much as a finger on either of us."
Hiccup turns around to find, yes, Snotlout is indeed standing directly behind the two siblings with an outstretched hand. "How…how'd you know I was there?"
"You breathe like a Monstrous Nightmare, that's how I knew. What in Thor's name do you want?"
Instead of answering, Snotlout retracts his hand and quietly sidles away.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Gobber presents the group with the Book of Dragons, which nobody but Bloom and Hiccup have any desire to read - Fishlegs has read it about seven times, Astrid already read it as well, and Snotlout and the twins don't want to read it. Good news and bad news: the good news is the Book details the abilities of almost every dragon but one, the bad news is that every dragon but one is marked extremely dangerous and the reader is advised to kill them on sight. And the one dragon the Book doesn't have any information on is the Night Fury, all it says is to never engage the dragon, run, hide, and pray it doesn't find you.
Not good.
AN: Hey, everyone! Quick update between homework! I've only got a month of school left and then I'm done for the summer - hooray! Then I'll be able to work on this more! I picture Bloom having learned a few things about self-defense from the dragons over the years - why not, right? She's spent enough time defending Hiccup to pick up a few moves. Not like anyone in the village would take the time to teach her. As for her going off on Astrid...blondie's just lucky there weren't any dragons around, else she'd have gotten pinned to the ground instantly. Yeah, I really hate the scene where Astrid ditches Hiccup to get attacked by that Gronckle, I really don't get why he had a crush on her after that considering she was perfectly willing to let him get roasted and then put him down for 'not being where he was supposed to be' - yeah, he was where he was supposed to be, in the ring with all of them! Gobber actually tells him to get out from behind a wooden board at once point!
...
You see why Bloom went off so bad. I always thought the Vikings were the ones that were violent and savage - they had Hiccup feeling like an unofficial outcast in the movie simply because he wasn't big and strong! So much so that he was willing to befriend a dragon!
Yeah, great parenting Stoick. Truly. I might be just a tiny bit passionate about this stuff. Don't mind me.
Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions!