It was a little past noon. Fishlegs had said that Gobber had moved training to the afternoon, but he hadn't said exactly when. Hiccup wasn't too worried. He would get there early and just wait. It wasn't like he had anything else to do in the village. With most of the warriors gone on the latest hunt for the nest, and the backlog of mangled weapons from the last raid worked through, the forge was almost inactive recently. There were small things, like mending various metal implements of the villagers, but nothing major to occupy the forge for more than an hour. That was one of the reasons Gobber was doing dragon training now. He knew he would have the spare time. Hiccup supposed that that meant training would be over, or nearly over by the time the nest hunt returned. If it did return at all. Nest hunts all told usually lasted about a month, so that was how long he would have to deal with dragon training.

Hiccup had reached the arena. He walked in through the main doors and into the arena proper. There was no one there. No Gobber, no teens, no angry dragon, no nothing. The only change in the arena was a few blast marks in various places and a rapidly drying puddle near the center of the ring. Turning, Hiccup did notice a trough of water and six buckets over in the corner by the entrance. He was unsure what was going on. "Hello? Anyone here?" He turned in a full circle.

"Ah, look who decided to finally show up. What did I tell you about getting here on time, Hiccup?" It was Gobber's voice, and by following his ears, Hiccup found him. He was in the spectator seating on the outside of the arena. The rest of the teens were also there, and through some ill-timed miracle they had apparently been silent this entire time, something Hiccup would have thought impossible for the twins. Gobber's voice wasn't so much angry as disappointed, though there was a fair bit of anger involved. "Hiccup, I told you what would happen if you showed up this late again."

Toothless spoke up from his corner of Hiccup's mind. 'I thought you said training was in the afternoon.'

Hiccup spoke aloud, answering both Gobber and Toothless. "I was told-"

"Nope," Gobber interrupted, "Don't want to hear it. I don't care why you weren't here. You missed dealing with the Zippleback, and the entire focus of today was on teamwork. You will be helping me clean out the dragon pens tomorrow."

Hiccup seethed, as he figured out what had happened. He explained to Toothless, unaware that it looked like he was muttering to himself. "Fishlegs must have told me the wrong time intentionally, to make me late. I don't think Fishlegs would do something like that on his own, so that means it was probably Snotlout's plan."

Gobber interrupted his quiet rant. "Now, since you missed today's lesson, you have to make it up. The problem is, the lesson was on teamwork, and I don't think any of your cla-"

"I'll do it." That was Astrid, interrupting Gobber as she swung down through the bars of the arena cage dome, to land in the arena with Hiccup.

"Oh, well then. By all means, Astrid." Gobber looked surprised, but that was nothing compared to how Hiccup felt. After all these years of ignoring him, Astrid was volunteering to help him? Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Astrid interrupted his train of thought by shoving a bucket of water into his hands. He managed not to drop it and saw that Astrid was also carrying a full bucket of water of her own.

Gobber moved over to where the levers connected to the various cages were located.

Hiccup decided that now was a good time to ask questions. "So, what exactly are we doing?"

Gobber sighed. "I already went through all of this once, Astrid can explain." With that, he pulled one of the levers. The Zippleback cage was silent for a solid half a minute. Gobber chuckled. "He's probably setting up to make another grand entrance. Betcha he wasn't expecting an encore performance." With that, the cage doors were flung outward, by something concealed within a rapidly expanding cloud of green fog.

Astrid and Hiccup stood still as the fog enveloped the arena, muffling sound, and in effect cutting them off from the rest of the world.

Hiccup turned to Astrid, slightly panicked. "So, what do we do?"

Astrid glared at him, her demeanor a far cry from moments ago when she had been all business. "We don't do anything. I'm only down here to get another shot at this dragon, I couldn't care less about helping you. Don't get in my way."

Hiccup was crestfallen. He had hoped that Astrid had volunteered to help him. So much for that. She moved off into the fog, leaving Hiccup with a bucket of water, no weapon, and no idea what the purpose of all this was. Oh, and a Night Fury spectating from inside his head. "So, got any suggestions here Toothless?"

'Yes, actually. First off, forget about that girl. Astrid, was it? Second, jump.'

Hiccup heard the last part of this advice just in time, for as he jumped, a long green duo of tails swept under his feet from behind him. Had he been standing, he would have been knocked over. "Thanks."

Hiccup began turning in a slow circle, trying in vain to spot the dragon in the fog. "I think I know what the bucket is for. Toothless, which head of a Zippleback lets out the sparks?"

Toothless immediately caught on. 'The dragon's left head usually. But not always, sometimes it can be the right head, depending on the dragon.'

Despite the situation, Hiccup was intrigued. He wanted to ask why, and how it was determined which head would do what, but he was abruptly given something else to worry about.

There was a screech from the fog and a battle yell that sounded like Astrid. Hiccup's hopes that she had doused the correct head were short lived. The dragon abruptly came into view, as it flapped its wings, dispersing the majority of the fog, in an attempt to dislodge... Astrid, who was clinging to the left head. Her bucket was shattered as if it had been stepped on, and neither head was wet. Hiccup could see that the dragon was becoming frustrated, as it could not dislodge Astrid from its left neck, and it could not light gas to blow her off, because she was holding the left head closed. The right head had one eye shut, probably the result of it trying to dislodge Astrid. She could pack a mean punch. Still, without any weapon, she was a sitting duck.

Hiccup knew what he had to do. Forget the water, he had to save Astrid. Even if she wouldn't do the same for him. The question was, how to do it without her seeing the eel he had hidden in his vest. He had an idea, but Astrid wasn't going to be happy.

'You should get out of there. Let her handle the dragon herself, seeing as she didn't want your help.'

Hiccup ignored Toothless's advice. He ran towards the dragon, specifically the left head, with Astrid on it. He waited until the extremely distracted Zippleback lowered that head enough, and splashed it with water. The thing was, he wasn't aiming solely for the head. He was also aiming for Astrid. Specifically, her eyes. In that, he succeeded. She was spluttering and for the moment had her eyes closed in shock. A moment was all he needed. He subtly opened his vest, showing the right head of the Zippleback the eel. Just knowing the eel was there scared the dragon, and it reared in fear. As a result, the already disoriented Astrid lost her grip and fell to the rock floor of the arena.

Toothless now understood Hiccup's plan, and he only had one thing to add. 'Make it look convincing, the fog is lifting.'

Hiccup did his best to look intimidating, standing almost on his toes and shouting dramatically as he advanced on the dragon, who might have laughed at him if it wasn't for the eel it knew he was carrying. "Back, back, back! Now don't make me tell you again!" The Zippleback was almost inside its cage, which had been left open. As Hiccup entered the cage, he removed the eel from his vest to show it one last time. "Now think about what you've done." With that, he rehid the eel and backed out of the cage. Someone pulled the lever to close the cage. It was over.

Hiccup turned to look at Astrid. She was absolutely furious, almost shaking with anger. Hiccup had no doubts that if she had had her ax with her, he would be dead. That being said, it did seem to be a bit of an overreaction. He had kind of knocked her off the dragon by getting water in her eyes, but for all she knew that was an accident. And he had saved her, and stopped the Zippleback through what he was sure looked like sheer force of will! He thought about that for a second. Maybe that was the problem. All the other teens had seen would have been what happened after the fog lifted. Mainly, Astrid stunned on the floor as he literally scared a Zippleback away from her with his bare hands. Now that he thought about it, that was probably the problem. He had completely shown her up. Whoops.

He looked up, into the arena stands. Gobber and the other teens were in various stages of shock, mouths hanging open, expressions disbelieving. Except for Snotlout. He was a mixture of shock and anger.

'That looks hilarious.' Hiccup had to agree, but he knew better than to laugh right now. 'Mind telling me who the ones I don't know are, so I can mock them by name later?'

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh at that, though he tried to disguise it as a cough. "The two identical ones are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and the big one next to Gobber is Fishlegs."

Toothless's tone lost all humor. 'He would be the one who lied to you, correct?'

Hiccup's mood fell at the reminder. "Yeah, but he was probably made to by Snotlout." Still, it was a little sad. He had thought he could trust Fishlegs to at least not directly aid Snotlout, even if he normally didn't do Hiccup any favors either. Might as well cross Fishlegs off the list of non-hostile acquaintances. Who was left? He was pretty sure Astrid wasn't on that list anymore either. Hopefully, her anger was temporary, but Astrid was almost the perfect Viking, and Vikings were great at carrying grudges.

Gobber abruptly closed his mouth. "Er... Alright then. Next training is in a few days. Ye'll need yer weapons. So..." He paused, obviously trying to regain his train of thought. "Oh. Hiccup, meet me here tomorrow morning to clean the dragon cages. An hour after sunrise. Got it?" His tone was menacing in the last two words, promising much worse as punishment if Hiccup dared to not show up on time.

Hiccup sighed. "Got it."

Gobber left the arena.

Hiccup decided there was no point in just standing there, and was about to head out when he was stopped by Astrid, none too gently.

She almost snarled at him. "I said, stay out of my way. I don't care what you think you're doing, I'm going to win this thing. Interfere again and you'll regret it." This scared Hiccup far more than it would have coming from, say, Snotlout. Coming from Astrid, that was a deadly serious threat. He must have really made her mad. She had left immediately after saying that, but Hiccup stood there stunned for a few seconds.

'You might want to get going.' Hiccup was about to ask Toothless what he meant, but Toothless interrupted him. 'Take two steps forward... NOW!'

Hiccup was reminded of the last time Toothless had told him to do something immediately and put his trust in the dragon once again. He took two large and abrupt steps forward when Toothless said now and was rewarded with the sound of something large and heavy hitting the ground behind him. He turned around to see that Snotlout was the large and heavy object in question. From what Hiccup could tell, Snotlout had been intending to shove him to the ground from behind, but when he moved forward at the last second, Snotlout overbalanced, with nothing to check his forward momentum. There was a moment of silence as Snotlout got to his feet.

Then the twins burst into laughter. "Man, that was impressive." Tuffnut managed to get out, in between bouts of laughter.

"Yeah, you were all ready to knock him over, and he totally messed it up without even trying!" Ruffnut was trying to regain her breath, she had laughed so hard.

Snotlout's face was turning a violent shade of red. At least the twins were equal opportunity mockers. Hiccup had to give them that. "You should watch yourself" Snotlout blustered, slowly regaining his composure. "No one shows up my future girlfriend and gets away with it."

Hiccup kept a straight face. "You do realize she despises you, right?"

Toothless had to add to that. 'She despises you too, from what I could tell. Hasn't stopped you from hoping.'

Hiccup made a mental note to figure out how Toothless could tell he liked Astrid. He hadn't said anything, had he? Regardless, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"No she doesn't, she's just playing hard to get! Once I win dragon training and kill that Nightmare in the manliest way possible, she'll come around" Snotlout paused for a moment to make muscles with his arms. "Besides, look at the alternatives. Fishface the geek, Tuffnut the insane-"

"And proud of it!"

"-and you. Hiccup the Useless, Berk's smallest occupant and biggest waste of space. I'm her only real choice."

"She could always go to another island." That was Fishlegs, looking not at all insulted by what Snotlout had said.

"No way. Her whole goal in life is to kill dragons, and Berk is the best place to do that" Ruffnut interjected. "She won't leave." Ruffnut had a very good point. Berk was the leading edge in the war on dragons. It was raided ten times as often as any of the other islands. The Vikings of Berk had always figured it was because Berk was the most dangerous. The more intelligent (on Berk, that meant pretty much just Hiccup and Fishlegs) were of the opinion that Berk was the closest to the nest, and therefore the most convenient target.

The argument died after that. There was nothing more to be said.

Snotlout turned as if to leave.

'Duck.'

This time Hiccup wasn't fast enough, and Snotlout's fist met his nose. The pain in his face was excruciating, but he was pretty sure nothing was broken. It still hurt like crazy.

Snotlout left for real, but not before giving out one final threat. "Don't try to beat me or Astrid in training. I don't care how you did whatever that was with the Zippleback, I can still pound you into the ground any time, any place."

Toothless mentally growled. 'How about the cove, jerk. I'd love to see you try anything where I can reach you.'

Snotlout, of course, couldn't hear what was a very real death threat coming from the most feared dragon in the archipelago, but it made Hiccup feel a little better. With that, the other teens left the arena. Snotlout strutting, the twins arguing, and Fishlegs trailing behind, head down. None of them looked back.

Hiccup stood, having fallen from being punched in the nose.

'That could have gone better.'

"It could have gone way worse. I'm lucky he decided it would only take one punch to get his point across."

'Has he done that before?'

Hiccup sighed. "Yup. The Viking way again. Actions speak louder than words, and whoever is louder wins the argument." Toothless declined to comment on that. Hiccup decided to move on to the next topic of conversation. "I've been meaning to ask, how do you seem to know what's going to happen before it does? I count at least three times you've warned me about stuff right before it happens."

'A combination of things. For the Zippleback, that tail swipe is a pretty standard move. As for the other times, I could hear him coming, or smell the change in mood and see it in his body language. Only right before it happens though. You'd need Night Fury reflexes to act on some of these things.'

Hiccup saw a flaw in what Toothless had said. "But for the hearing and smelling, I don't hear and smell this stuff, and you're using my senses. How come you can?" Hiccup was fairly certain that back in the cove, Toothless shrugged as he answered.

'Not sure. Maybe you do hear and smell this stuff, but you don't realize or recognize it. I'm not sure why I can understand the humans around you, either. Even if I am listening with your ears, that doesn't mean I can magically understand your language.'

Hiccup had no answer for that. Although it did raise yet another question. "Toothless, dragons can talk to each other, right? Was the Zippleback talking in the ring?"

'Yes. He was cursing you and Astrid out the entire time. From both heads. Not exactly something I would translate for you. If a dragon says something important to you, I'll tell you.'

Hiccup snorted. That was a mental image he would cherish. A Zippleback screaming curses with one head as Astrid held the other's mouth shut. Neither of them wanted to continue puzzling over the intricacies of their mental link further at the moment. Hiccup left the ring with no concrete destination in mind. Both he and Toothless were unaware that Gobber had returned to the ring, having forgotten his lunch bucket.

Gobber had returned in time to see (though not hear) the end of the argument between the teens, and to watch in confusion and growing concern as Hiccup stood alone in the ring for a good three minutes talking to himself, apparently going through an entire one-sided conversation given his shifting facial expressions. He wasn't able to write it off as one of Hiccup's personality quirks. This was too strange for that. Something was wrong. He decided to bring it up while they were cleaning out the stalls tomorrow.