Author's Note: Yet another day-early update.

Hiccup moved behind a large tree, trying to step as quietly as possible. He carefully avoided the fallen branches that would give him away if he stepped on them, stretching his legs to step on a small stone beyond them instead, ducking to avoid some overhanging pine needles, and even attempting to breathe quietly. He considered the path to his next likely hiding spot, another tree a few yards away. He decided to chance it and took a few quick, precise steps to stealthily close the gap between him and his target. Step, step, hide, exhale. Look, step, step, hide, exhale.

He continued like this from tree to tree, slowly but surely making his way towards his ultimate goal. With only a couple dozen trees away from his target when the wind shifted. His target turned to face him, and he knew he had been noticed.

'Better. This time you just got unlucky. I only noticed you because the wind shifted, and I could smell you.'

Hiccup sighed. He liked this new training the Night Fury had come up with, but it was a bit frustrating. This had to be the thirtieth time Toothless had caught him, and they had only started this yesterday. He had yet to get within fifty feet without the Night Fury knowing about it. Hiccup had definitely learned quickly, as he and Toothless had spent the remainder of yesterday working on his stealthiness. The dragon had had him walk through the forest, and as he did Toothless would point out every mistake he made that increased how noticeable he was. After a few hours of that, Hiccup had figured out the ground rules for sneaking around. Don't make noise, be patient, always move slowly, always be aware of what's around you. It was the fine points he kept messing up. Stuff like forgetting to watch for branches he might step on, or keeping himself downwind of his target. He might have been better at this if hunting was a thing on Berk, but the island's isolated nature and draconic raiders meant that game in the forest was almost nonexistent. He would rather be working on flying, but after a certain number of crashes each day Toothless refused to continue. Something about repeated dunkings in the cove lake made the idea unappealing after a while, and they were barely staying up long enough to do anything except leave the cove on occasion.

"I still can't get close without you noticing."

'That would be because I'm a dragon. You should know better than any human how sharp my hearing and eyesight is. Not to mention my sense of smell. Why do I have to keep reminding you that getting within three hundred feet is good, let alone fifty?'

Hiccup felt a little better. His dragon thought he was doing well.

But he could do better.

'Besides, you only need to sneak around Vikings, not dragons. That, I can tell you from experience, is not hard.' Toothless was walking in a random direction now, with Hiccup following behind. They were finding another spot in the forest for them to use for the next round.

"Why wouldn't I have to sneak away from dragons?" Hiccup stepped over a small fallen tree.

Toothless snorted. 'Asides from the fact that you don't fight them? You would want them to smell you before they see you, so you would want to be upwind.' Toothless took in the confusion written clearly on Hiccup's face and elaborated, boosting Hiccup over a boulder in the way with his head, before jumping up and over after him. 'You spend a lot of time in close contact with me. My smell is rubbing off onto you. You didn't smell like much of anything except smoke and metal to start with, so 'Night Fury' is now the best way to describe you from scent alone. It won't scare other dragons off, but it will stop them from attacking on sight. No one wants to mess with anything that spent time with a Night Fury and lived to tell the tale, regardless of what they look like.'

Hiccup was happy with that. "So basically, because of you I SMELL intimidating?" He struck a manly pose, which happened to involve his foot on Toothless's side. He raised a closed fist in triumph. "The only man in the world to see a Night Fury and live to tell the tale!"

Toothless rolled over, trapping Hiccup beneath him before continuing the roll, freeing Hiccup.

"The only man to survive… being crushed by…. a Night Fury's massive bulk!" Hiccup didn't look very triumphant now, flat on the ground, struggling to replenish the air he had just had squished out of him.

'What a great accomplishment. Now if it had been a Gronckle crushing you, maybe. But yes, you smell scary.'

"Cool! Hey, what do Vikings usually smell like?" Hiccup had regained his lost wind and sat back up.

Toothless answered without any hesitation, in a completely neutral voice. 'Blood, anger, and stupidity. Sometimes, all of that plus a brain-deadening stench born of lack of hygiene. That part depends on the Viking.'

Hiccup laughed. That sounded about right. And the idea that Vikings could smell so bad that it hurt was entirely believable. Some Vikings could trace their last bath back their most recent shipwreck.

He had a sobering thought. He didn't even smell like a member of his village, even before he had met Toothless. He really wasn't one of them. He pushed that thought away, as it came with the confusing mixed feelings he had had recently in regards to being like everyone else. Hiccup decided to focus on something else.

"well, time for attempt number thirty-one!" He said, walking away from Toothless. The dragon sat down, knowing it would be quite a while before Hiccup came into range again. He had to make his way out past Toothless's sight or hearing range, circle around to some angle the Fury wouldn't expect, and then he could start his way stealthily back. To make it even possible for Hiccup, Toothless wasn't allowed to access Hiccup's senses, which meant that while Toothless could still talk to Hiccup, it wasn't two-way communication, and he had to wait in the clearing mentally as well as physically. He generally slept in a patch of sunlight for a while.

As Hiccup had been thinking, he had also been running out towards the edge of Toothless's visual range. He wasn't able to go as fast as he could with Toothless advising him, but he could still handle running through the forest unscathed much faster than he would have a few days ago. He was improving in this, at least. Hiccup had never been super patient, and he didn't consider the fact that he had only really been training for a few days so far. He also hadn't really been taught any physical skills in the past, except for one disastrous attempt by his father a few years ago, so he had no frame of reference for how long this kind of thing usually took. Stoick had once gone on a 'weapon-readiness' program with Hiccup. The problem was, Stoick had done this when Hiccup was ten, and incapable of even swinging the heavy warhammers and axes Stoick wanted him to practice with. But Stoick had stuck to it for a full week, not dropping it even when Hiccup actually fainted out of exhaustion just carrying the weapons to the training grounds on the other side of the village… multiple times. As a result, while Hiccup found training with Toothless to be vastly preferable, he still felt he was learning too slow.

Toothless on the other hand was adamant that Hiccup was learning and improving at an exceptional rate, by Viking or dragon standards. He had said that it was a combination of the Hiccup's natural intelligence and the fact that teaching from inside his head was very effective. Toothless also credited his own teaching abilities, of course. It helped that stealth and speed were things Hiccup was naturally suited for, unlike most Vikings. His wiry, tall frame might not be able to support as much weight (though he wasn't as weak as he looked, thanks to working in the forge) but he had strong lungs and long legs suited for running, and it was easier to hide with less size and weight. As a result of all this, though he was learning far quicker than he should have expected, Hiccup pushed himself through impatience, and Toothless had to stop him from overworking himself far more often than he had anticipated. And it had only been a few days.

Hiccup had made it out of range and had circled around to the right, hoping the river flowing through this part of the forest would mask any noises he accidentally made. He checked the wind, confirming that he was downwind of Toothless, and began his stealthy approach. Once again, sliding from tree to tree on light feet, he found himself within fifty feet of the dragon, but that was the easy part. The dragon's hearing in particular was what always got him here. He thought about it for a moment, then smiled. Maybe he could use that to his advantage instead of against him. He moved quietly over to the riverbed, silently palmed some stones, and returned to his spot.

The Night Fury in question had relocated somewhat, to stay in the slowly shifting patch of sunlight. He was currently lying next to a large tree, his head facing to Hiccup's left.

Perfect!

Hiccup wound up and lofted the first stone as far as he could forward and to the right. The stone landed among the dead branches with a snap, and Toothless's head whipped around to face the direction of the noise, away from Hiccup. He waited a few seconds, and the dragon dismissed the noise. Once Toothless lay back down, Hiccup threw the next two stones as quickly and as silently as he could. These landed further to the right, but slightly closer to Toothless's position. Hiccup smiled as the dragon got up, and began silently moving towards the sounds. He guessed that Toothless was planning on ambushing where he thought Hiccup was, for fun. As the dragon moved away, Hiccup quickly stole behind the tree Toothless had been lying in front of. As he had hoped, the Fury spent a few moments checking the area where the stones had landed and then padded back to his spot. A few feet away from Hiccup, who couldn't be seen from this angle, couldn't be heard because he wasn't moving, and couldn't be smelled because he was downwind of the dragon. This was by far the closest he had ever gotten.

Hiccup considered trying to touch Toothless's back himself, for the ultimate victory. But, he realized that startling a dragon might not be a good idea. He had a vivid image of being sent flying or pinned by Toothless before his friend realized it was him. But he still wanted to do something dramatic to announce his victory. Maybe something that put a bit more distance between them. So, he grabbed a fallen branch that still had some pine needles on it, and ever so slowly lifted it into position. He decided to go for the Fury's back because apparently, that spot was impossible for the dragon to reach without rolling over. He hoped that meant any reaction would be slightly delayed.

He leaned out from behind the tree and extended the branch. Toothless didn't suspect a thing, though Hiccup thought that if he was any closer, the dragon would feel his body heat or hear his heartbeat. He slowly lowered the branch and the pine needle lightly brushed Toothless's back. The dragon shifted a little, subconsciously trying to rid himself of what he must have thought was an annoying fly or something. Hiccup held in his amusement and lowered the branch a bit further.

The instant Toothless felt a substantial pressure on his back, he leaped, turned, and started a snarl- only to cut it short when his eyes beheld Hiccup. Toothless stood entirely frozen for a moment, and Hiccup did the same.

Then Hiccup couldn't hold it in any longer, and the laughter he had been containing burst out.

Toothless was still not moving, and simply stared at Hiccup as he collapsed, laughing uproariously. Toothless spoke. 'I'm not sure whether to be proud, embarrassed, or both. I guess that's what I get for telling you that three hundred feet was good. I assume the noises I heard weren't you?'

Hiccup answered after he had control of his breathing again. "They were, actually. I threw rocks to distract you, so I could get closer without you noticing."

Toothless's eyes widened. 'Well done.' Then they narrowed again. 'But did you really have to tickle my back? Now it itches like crazy, and that's the hardest place for me to scratch!'

Hiccup felt a little bad about that. "I can do that." He clambered onto the dragon's back, for once bereft of the saddle, and proceeded to just randomly scratch around the general area. He quickly learned that scratching a Night Fury's back while sitting on it wasn't a good idea, as Toothless arched his back and accidentally threw Hiccup off. Hiccup was undeterred and managed to reach the dragon's back with his hands while standing by his side. Toothless really seemed to enjoy it, so Hiccup gradually moved towards his head, so as to keep scratching without having to stand on his toes to reach. A minute later, he discovered something.

Apparently, dragons have a pressure point slightly to the side and back from their jawbone. The human equivalent would be the soft spot on the underside of the jaw. For dragons, this was apparently enough to knock them out for about fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, Hiccup made this discovery while standing too close and spent that entire time trying to wriggle his feet out from under a heavy head.

When he woke up and was told what had happened, Toothless was unsympathetic, though he wasn't mad about it. 'That's what you get for knocking a dragon out while standing too close!'

Hiccup felt he had to defend himself. "How was I supposed to know about that? Why is that even a thing?"

Toothless thought for a moment. 'I don't know why it works, but it's great for getting hatchlings to settle down. Didn't think it worked on adults though.' Toothless got up and stretched before continuing, finally freeing Hiccup's feet. 'That could come in handy.'

"What, having sleeping problems?" Hiccup laughed at that. He playfully batted the dragon's ear. "You of all people shouldn't have any trouble getting sleep. You've got the most peaceful place on the island as your bedroom!"

Toothless nudged Hiccup, just hard enough to make him stumble, and laughed at Hiccup's affronted expression. 'No, I meant for you in the arena. I would let you practice it some more, but we should go back to the cove for that.'

"Why would I need to practice it?"

'If you plan to use it against an aggressive dragon, you have to know where the spot is right away, not just the general area.' Hiccup was silent for a few minutes.

"Wait, would practicing on a Night fury even help? You're a different type of dragon, so the spot probably wouldn't be in the same exact location anyway. I'll be lucky if it's even in the same general area."

By this point, they had reached the cove, and they split up momentarily as Hiccup came in via the crack in the cliffs, and Toothless glided down.

'You have a good point. Besides, I want to be awake when you run back, and it's almost time.' Hiccup sighed, looking up. Dragon training was supposed to be bright and early tomorrow, and he needed to get up early enough to get Toothless his breakfast, and the saddle this time, and make it back before training started. He was already stretched on sleep as it was, so Toothless wanted him to go to sleep early that night. Hiccup couldn't fault the dragon's logic. Besides, he already felt tired, and he still had to run back. Speaking of which.

"You don't have to be awake when I run back, I can go fast enough on my own if I avoid the hard parts."

The Night Fury snorted. 'I wanted to start you on the less basic stuff, the fun stuff. Now is a great time.'

Hiccup had to agree, when he had gotten back to the village, a good half hour later than usual, that the less basic stuff was, for lack of a better word, fun. If fun, in this case, meant really difficult and potentially painful if done wrong. He couldn't argue that doing stuff like kicking off of trees to change direction or leap fallen logs wasn't cool as heck, because it was. He did, however, feel that he might be a bit in over his head in actually doing it. These new stunts felt like something meant for a creature with four legs, and while the few times he had actually succeeded undoubtedly must have looked and definitely felt awesome, they were far outnumbered by the times he had just not gotten enough force behind his rebounds to do anything, and ended up just kicking a tree awkwardly before sprawling on the ground. Still, Toothless assured him that these new moves wouldn't be used so much in an actual run, and were mostly for changing direction last minute at speed, something Hiccup had had problems with on his run from Astrid. In all honesty, his biggest motivation was something more personal. Stealth and running fast through thick forest was useful, but probably not very impressive to watch. This, though, was useful and impressive. The part of Hiccup that still wanted acknowledgment from the rest of his village liked anything he could learn that would impress Vikings. Even if such demonstrations would lead to dangerous questions and were not an option for the foreseeable future.

The next day, Hiccup and Toothless agreed to forego the more complicated maneuvers in favor of making it to the cove as fast as possible. Hiccup woke up long before the sun and had enough time to stay with Toothless for a few minutes as the dragon ate his fish, in order to catch his breath. At Toothless's request, Hiccup 'practiced' on him, though they both knew it wouldn't do much to help Hiccup with a different type of dragon. Hiccup then ran again, all the way back to the village, through the village, and up across the bridge to the arena. He had underestimated how fast he was now that he had enough stamina to go the whole way with energy to spare and had gotten there slightly before anyone but Gobber. His earlier start also helped with that, because he had now been up for a good two hours, and he was more alert than the last time he had made this early run before training.

The other teens stopped on the way to the arena as Hiccup passed them. He hadn't even noticed the group, because they were coming from the Great Hall, and just emerging from a side street to the one he was running on. As they watched him go by, each had their own opinion on what they had seen. Fishlegs was trying to remember if he had ever seen Hiccup run so fast, and so easily. He mentally updated the numeric stats he kept on everything, including the other teens, to reflect what he had just seen, adding one to Hiccup's speed, and two to endurance.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut had been fighting but had stopped to watch. "Why aren't you that fast?"

"Why aren't you? We run from our victims all the time! Speed is one of a prankster's top assets!"

"He's moving in on our territory!"

"Mm," Tuffnut solemnly said, "Yes, We cannot allow this to continue."

Ruffnut crossed her arms and said with half-lidded eyes, "So this is what it's come to. So sad, so sad."

Snotlout was not bothered by Hiccup's speed or apparent endurance. He valued strength and strength alone. His only worry was that he might need help catching Hiccup in the future, and the Twins would be happy to assist him with that, so it wasn't a problem.

Astrid was extremely unhappy with what was to her was a reminder of her chase the other day. She remembered thinking she could outrun him on clear ground and she hated that he was making her question that, too. She was still much faster than him in a fair race, but he seemed intent on closing that gap. She was also becoming increasingly suspicious. This increase in endurance wasn't by any means unnatural, and neither was his speed in the forest, but there was no way it was accidental. She was sure he had to be training with someone. She considered finding out who but brushed it off. She would just train even harder in response. That twig would not be allowed to threaten what was rightfully hers.

Gobber was surprised to see Hiccup was the first there and even more surprised that he had apparently run there. "Ye know, ye could just get up earlier. Save on the runnin'."

Hiccup replied without thinking about it. "I've been up since an hour before dawn."

Gobber absent-mindedly tightened his hook hand. "Then why did ye have ta run here?"

Hiccup realized his mistake and quickly thought up an explanation. "Oh, I just lost track of time. Been happening a lot lately."

'You could always just tell him it's good exercise.' Toothless thought that that was a good explanation, and it was true too.

Hiccup couldn't reply, not with Gobber staring right at him. He would explain later that Gobber knew very well Hiccup had never cared about physical fitness beyond what was expected of a Viking, which he failed automatically.

"Eh, jes' don't let all yer runnin' tire ye out before training starts!"

"Do I look tired?"

Gobber had to admit that Hiccup didn't look overly exhausted, his eyes still bright and alert. Just a bit sweaty. He figured Hiccup must have just come from his house to here, or maybe from the forge.

The conversation ended as the other teens filed in, Astrid leading the group. Gobber and Hiccup both noticed that she was already in a bad mood, but neither knew why.

Toothless had a pretty good guess. 'She looks like she still remembers you outrunning her in the woods.'

Hiccup realized that this was the first time he had seen her since that memorable event. He hoped she wouldn't mention it, though he was pretty sure she wouldn't. If she did, she would have to explain how he got away. He was fairly certain her pride would make that not worth the risk. He would have to avoid being anywhere alone with her, though, and he definitely didn't want to repeat the chase, so he would have to be careful how he left for the cove.

Gobber slammed the door shut behind them. He moved to the levers and said a few words of encouragement. "Today's the Nadder. No maze now, so try not te' get killed in less than two minutes. I got a barrel o' mead riding on tha'."

Before anyone could question the morality of taking bets based on the life-threatening endangerment of teenagers, Gobber released the Nadder from its cage.

Hiccup noticed immediately that it was thinner than last time. It was also slower. Whatever Gobber and the other Vikings were feeding it, it wasn't enough.

The next few minutes followed a pattern. The Nadder would focus on a teen and rush towards them. Either the teen would ward it off with their weapon or the other teens would. The Nadder had done this to Fishlegs, both of the twins separately, and Snotlout. Hiccup figured it would go after either him or Astrid next.

From the look on her face, Astrid knew it too. She hefted her ax and glared a promise of murder at Hiccup if he interfered when it rushed her. This one was hers.

Hiccup was more than happy to let Astrid handle it. The Nadder, on the other hand, had a different plan. Hiccup wasn't sure what made the Nadder choose to rush him before Astrid. Maybe it was the fact that he was way less of a threat.

Whatever the reason, it rushed him. It got about halfway before something happened.

Hiccup had been close to the same wall for the entire training session and, as a result, was always downwind. Now, as the Nadder rushed him, the wind changed.

The Nadder's nostrils expanded and it slid to a stop directly in front of Hiccup, inhaling deeply in what seemed to be confusion.

'Night Fury scent, remember? Now use the pressure point before Astrid beheads her!'

Toothless spoke quickly, and Hiccup picked up on that urgency. As he searched frantically with his hands for the spot, he could hear Astrid screaming as she rushed them. The Nadder heard it too, and Hiccup barely had time to hit the spot before the Nadder would have jerked away to face Astrid. Instead, she collapsed into a contented sleep just as Astrid reached them.

Hiccup wasn't very happy with Astrid for a variety of reasons. He was also distinctly aware that he had just shown her up, again. So, he wasn't at all worried about making her mad. She was already as angry as he thought humanly possible and glared bloody murder at him.

He just shrugged. "You would have taken too long to get here. I had it." He was distinctly aware of the effect his words had on her, and in a moment of suicidal carelessness, he wondered if he could make that vein in her forehead pop out any more.

"Maybe next time don't try to get in my way." Using Astrid's own warning against her was a good way to make her mad.

'That might have been a bit too far' Toothless noted, worried Astrid might snap then and there. He could see the way her hand was gripping her ax so hard it was turning white from the strain.

Gobber had descended into the ring during this confrontation, and he didn't want Hiccup to lose his head in training, especially to a fellow trainee.

Hiccup was quite happy to see Gobber relieve Astrid of her ax from behind. Gobber then proceeded to lead Astrid away, saying something to her about her ax technique in the ring. She had no choice but to follow, especially when he still had her ax.

Hiccup came back to Earth after his bout of courage and realized what he had just done.

'Why did you do that?' Toothless wasn't mad, he had found it quite funny. Still, it was strange for Hiccup to intentionally taunt Astrid, especially when he was already making her mad through self-defense in the ring. And doubly so when she had her ax with her.

"I guess... if I'll be making her mad anyway... I figured I might as well do something to deserve it. Besides, she's starting to make me mad too. What am I doing that's offending her so personally? We're all supposed to do well here, at least in theory." He muttered all of this while staring in her direction. Gobber was still talking to her, but she was staring past him, directly at Hiccup. He didn't realize that she could see him talking to himself, because he was still mad and not thinking clearly.

'Maybe she doesn't like competition.'

Hiccup would have dismissed this because Astrid always had to compete with Snotlout, but he realized that if Snotlout was Astrid's closest competitor, then she really didn't ever have any competition. At least until now. Snotlout might have been the second best of the teens, but he was a ways below Astrid in pretty much every category except raw strength.

'In other news, remember what happened last time you made Astrid mad?' Toothless prompted him.

Hiccup got the hint and left the arena before Gobber finished talking to her. Gobber had already said that the next training session wasn't for another five days, on account of routine arena repairs. When you housed dragons, all moving parts they could reach needed to be serviced pretty often, to avoid potentially deadly problems. Hiccup figured he would spend that time like he spent all of his free time nowadays. Committing treason. Also known as hanging out with the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death Itself. It was going to be a great five days.