Chapter 4

Dragons, dinners, and manuals

My shock wears away by the time the Night Fury flies back down into the cove. I didn't notice before, but the dragon is struggling to fly for reasons I don't know. Landing on the ground with a thud, he growls and paws the ground in frustration before jumping up and trying to fly again. This time he's able to stay up a little longer, but then hits the rock wall of the cove before dropping to the ground again. He shakes his head before moving towards the large pool of water inside the cove. Creeping up slowly to the bank, he quickly plunges his head into the water, probably trying to catch a fish. Unfortunately for him, he comes up empty-handed. Or, empty-mouthed or whatever.

I lower myself down to the edge of the cove and climb down a few large rocks, stopping to sit on one that gives me a better view of the Night Fury on the other side of the water. I quickly take out my journal and turn to an empty page. Taking out my charcoal pencil I draw a quick sketch of the dragon. Body. Wings. Tail. Tail fins. Scratch that, only one tail fin on the right side of the tail. I rub out the fin that I drew on the left side of his tail.

My brow furrows. "Why don't you just fly away?"

The dragon walks to a patch of grass in the sun and warms the ground by blowing a low flame onto the earth, proceeding to lay down on top of it. I add a few more details to my drawing. My leg is starting to feel a bit numb, so I try shifting my position without making too much noise.

Shifting positions inconspicuously is a success. Managing to hold on to my pencil? Unfortunately a fail.

The pencil falls and makes a small noise as it hits the rocks below where I'm perched. The Night Fury hears the small noise and raises its head to see where the noise came from. What he sees is me crouching on the rock in a failed attempt to grab the pencil before it fell. My body freezes as I make eye contact with the dragon. He simply holds his gaze a few seconds longer before lazily lowering his head back down, facing the other direction.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding and stand up. The sun is starting to set over the horizon, so I should start heading back to the village now. After taking a small moment of silence over the loss of my pencil, I climb the rocks back up to the forest floor.

Ironically, the walk that was supposed to clear my mind only ended up with me having even more questions than before. I kick away a small rock out of my path in mild frustration. All these questions and absolutely no answer. Why didn't the dragon kill me? Why did Dad decide to grant my death wish by sending me to dragon training? Why doesn't the Night Fury fly away? Why is the sky blue?

Well not that last question, but still. Everything that has happened in the past forty-eight hours seems surreal. My bangs fall in front of my face as I walk, and I repeatedly have to brush them back with my fingers.

As I continue walk, the clouds overhead become darker and it begins to rain.

Just my luck. Oh wait, I don't have any.

I raise my arm to shield myself from the rain and continue walking. A few minutes later, my arms get tired and I give up trying to stop the rain from getting in my face.

After a cold, drenching walk, I finally reach the village and head to the Great Hall to for dinner. I push open the huge wooden doors and enter the hall. Gobber and the other trainees are already here, sitting and eating dinner around the table as Gobber stands at the head. I hear him ask what Asher did wrong in the ring earlier. Water drips from my clothes and hair as I walk closer to them.

"I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy, it threw off my reverse tumble," says a deep voice that can only belong to Asher.

Ruffnut rolls her eyes. "Yeah, we noticed," she says, sounding bored of the topic of conversation.

Snotlout scoffs. "Yeah I could've done it better." Everyone turns to him with questioning looks on their faces. "I mean, if I wanted to. But I didn't, so I didn't do it," Snotlout quickly continues somewhat nervously.

"Asher's right," Gobber speaks up, addressing the group. I walk past him and grab a plate of chicken and a cup of water. "If you're going to get better, you have to be hard on yourself."

As I get closer, Ruffnut moves closer to the edge of the bench, leaving no more room for me to sit. Not like I wanted to sit there anyway, I think to myself as I walk past them to the next table.

"Where did Hicca go wrong?" Gobber asks, noticing my entrance.

"Uh, she showed up," Ruffnut suggests.

"She didn't get eaten," Tuffnut says with an almost disappointed look on his face. I scowl at him.

"She's never where she should be," Asher answers, sending a quick side glance in my direction. I would have gotten mad had it not been for the validity of that statement.

"Thank you, Asher," Gobber throws a look at the twins. "You all need to live and breathe this stuff." He proceeds to clear the table of cups and plates with a swipe of his prosthetic over the table.

"The dragon manual," he states as he throws a leather bound book onto the now empty space on the table. "Everything we know about every dragon we know of," he finishes as he places a pointed finger onto the book.

Thunder rumbles outside and Gobber looks up as if listening to something or thinking. "No attacks tonight," he announces to us. "Study up." And with that, he turns and walks to exit the hall.

Tuffnut stops trying to balance his knife on the wood surface of the table and looks up in shock. "Wait. You mean read?"

"While we're still alive?" Continues Ruffnut, sharing in her twin brother's shock.

"Why read about words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout asks impatiently.

"I've read it, like, seven times," Fishlegs pipes up excitedly. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week-"

"Yeah that's great." Tuffnut cuts him off, mimicking a closed mouth with his hand. "Now, there was a chance I was going to read that-"

"But, now…" finishes Ruffnut. The answer is obviously: they're not going to read the book.

Snotlout stands. "You guys read, I'll go kill stuff." Everyone else shoots up out of their seats and follows him. Well, almost everyone. Asher still sits with his hand around his cup.

I stand and approach his table. "So, I guess we can share? The book, I mean." Awkwardly, I tuck a piece of my still damp hair behind my ear. It had fallen out of it's braid on the walk through the rain.

"Read it." He slides the book over to me and stands up.

"Oh, all mine then," I say softly. "I- I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Of course you're going to see him tomorrow, stupid. You're in training together. I mentally face-palm. Why can't I talk to people?

Asher's lips twitch and for a moment I almost think he smiles. "See you tomorrow," he pauses. "Hicca," he adds after a beat of silence, then walks out out.

I sigh and slump down onto the bench. At least the nickname is catching on. I think about reading the book right now, but decide against it. My clothes are still soaking wet and it's cold, and I don't plan on getting sick any time soon.

I stand up and leave the book on the table, knowing it would still be here when I get back. What kind of viking would steal a book?

The rain has let up, thank gods. I walk home and change into clean, dry clothes, leaving the stuff I was wearing by the fire to dry. After drying my hair and braiding it out of my face, I walk back to the hall.

The village is deserted, and rightfully so as it's nearly the middle of the night. When I reach the Great Hall the fire pit in the middle no longer blazes and it's almost completely dark. There are candles near the entrance, so I grab one and light it before moving to where I left the Dragon Book. I gently set the candle down on the table as I open the book.

"Dragon classifications: strike class, fear class, mystery class." I read off of the first page. There's information on all sorts of types of dragon. Thunderdrum, Timberjack, Scauldron, Changewing, Skrill, Whispering Death. Each more frightening than the last. Each page holds information on how the dragon attacks, always ending with the same phrase: Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.

Thunder and lightning rumble outside and the wind pushes the doors open, causing me to jump. Shaking it off, I continue to flip the pages of the book.

"Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside out." I flinch while mentally envisioning that last one.

"Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight." Each page says the same thing. I turn page after page until I reach one almost completely free of writing. The caption at the top of the yellowed page catches my attention.

Night Fury.

"Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you."

I bring out my journal. Turning to the page where I drew the sketch of the Night Fury, I place it down where the illustration should be in the dragon manual.

My brow furrows. There's not enough information on the Night Fury. None of my questions are answered. A cold breeze blows into the hall and makes me shiver and I hug my arms to my chest for warmth.

I stand and blow out the candles on the table. My thoughts wander as I leave the Great Hall and head home. At least it's not raining again. When I reach the house I go straight up the stairs and climb into bed, pulling my blanket up to my chin. Staring at the ceiling, I decide to ask Gobber for more information on Night Furies tomorrow at training.

After a lot of tossing and turning, I finally manage to fall into a restless sleep.

A/N

Woah two chapters in two days? I know! Well I wanted to write an upload at least one more chapter before I leave on a choir trip to Rome tomorrow. I'm so excited! I wrote this chapter when I took breaks from packing and getting everything ready. Sorry this chapter isn't as long as usual, I kind of rushed this chapter :P

In response to MMM: Yes the nickname will catch on xD

Thanks to everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! I get so excited when I see the alerts on my phone and I love to hear from you guys. Don't forget to review! See you in a week!

With love,

Estelle