Sorry for the wait. Thanks to everyone who has been reading, the attention drives me forward. And thanks to my beta of course! Enjoy chapter 4.
The moon had crested the starry night sky and was hidden behind a blanket of navy clouds. The sky was silent, and even its sole occupant didn't disturb that stillness. On the back of the gliding Nightfury Hiccup remained silent, taking in the beauty of the open night. He watched without seeing as star after star flew past them. He wasn't quite sure how long they had been flying, or how far they had gotten away from Berk.
After he and Toothless had led the dragons back to the school and put them in their cages (which they had done alone to the surprise, and almost horror, of everyone else), he took some luggage from the boat (which the army had kindly sent him) and unpacked at his new place in the barracks. Then he had mulled around until that night, grabbing Toothless as soon as the sun had dipped below the sea and diving into the brilliant mauve sky.
Below them, the tranquil ocean rolled wave after wave towards a distant shore. It was hard to believe, Hiccup thought, that just a few days ago he had washed up onto shore at Berk, none the wiser to their plans. So Hiccup, with his disbelief and muddled feeling, started ranting on too Toothless.
"What am I supposed to do here? Why do I have teaching duty anyway, who decides something like that? Oi, this scrawny kid would make good teacher, yay, nay?" He said, putting on a silly voice for emphasis. "I fought so hard to get into this uptight little army but now my position is completely pointless! I kind of just want to return to the clan, we haven't seen The Alpha in a long while... What do you think bud? Just head back to our giant ice cocoon and let the clansmen do the spying?"
The dragon answered by slightly angling his wings, Hiccup adjusted the paper tail in response so Toothless would have no trouble turning. They were facing the direction of Berk.
"Thanks for the sincere empathy buddy..." Hiccup said with sarcasm. Toothless flicked his ear back. "I know, do my job, set a good example little prince. Truthfully, Toothless, I think this whole war is pointless, and I wouldn't support getting involved at all if it wasn't for the fact that they were capturing dragons. Let's hope that we find the better side quick and get this over with huh?"
Toothless grunted and tilted his head. "I have no idea what's taking the council so long. I figured it would be pretty obvious which side would treat you better."
The craggy cove that held Berk was coming into view, and at this angle he could see the towering fences of the so called Dragon Academy. The other dragons were locked away in their cages, presumably sleeping off sea sickness. They were agitated and afraid and even Hiccup knew better than to leave the cages unlocked.
"So bud, you excited about being a teacher's pet?" Hiccup asked, chuffing at his word play. The dragon huffed sarcastically. "I'm going to do my best. Hopefully my best gets me thrown out and returned to the army with anti-glowing recommendations for further teaching jobs."
"Welcome to Dragon Training!" Hiccup said, throwing his arms open as he led his new students into the academy.
"No turning back..." Astrid muttered, the first in a group of five to enter through the stone gates. The twins followed behind her.
"I hope I get some serious burns!" The boy said with a wicked smile.
"I'm hoping for some mauling, like, on my shoulder or lower back." The girl concluded, in an effeminate version of her twin's voice.
"Yeah," Astrid agreed. "it's only fun if you get a scar out of it."
'What was with these kids and pain?' Hiccup wondered. Toothless was napping in his cage, indifferent to the entrance of the students. "So," Hiccup started, "should we introduce ourselves? I'm Major Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, but call me Hiccup."
The student's sized him up with their eyes. The buff and boastful one stood forward first. "Who let you teach?" He asked, voice mocking, as he gestured to Hiccup.
"Nice to met you 'who let you teach'," Hiccup deadpanned with a smirk then glanced at his other students, all but Astrid snickered. "It'll be easier for all of us if you just spit out your names, Stoick will be happy to supply them." But still no one spoke.
It was silent for a minute, and Hiccup went to speak again when Astrid piped up. "This is Ruffnut and this is Tuffnut, twins, and this is Fishlegs," she gestured to the loud one last, "and this is Snotlout."
"Great, now that basic courtesy is out of the way you can but your bags against the wall. Let's start training right away." Hiccup said, gesturing to a wall out of the of way.
"Shouldn't we set up in the barracks first?" Fishlegs asked, politely raising his hand.
"I'm sure nobody else minds getting right into do they? No, no, nope! Let's meet your dragons." Hiccup announced as he walked towards the locked cages with a flourish, his hesitant students following him after heaving their bags against the wall. He probably could spend the day getting them to unpack and teaching some basic military stuff in the barracks, but he wanted to see how they would do with their assigned dragons first. As soon as he got to their cages he began to open the heavy iron doors.
"What are you doing?" one of the twins yelped.
"We don't have whips or shields or-or- anything to protect ourselves!" The other one piped up, almost as an extension of the first.
Hiccup faltered. Whips? He turned on one foot toward his class, who stood wide eyed and in shock at the realization of what they just said. "What do you think we're about to do?"
"Learn how to ride dragons in a war, Major Haddock," Astrid growled in a steely voice. "What do you think you're about to do? Kill us?"
"What? Kill you?" What was wrong with this town? He stared at them and slowly a picture formed in his head. He hadn't trained in any military academy, he had passed the riding test with flying colours and his eyes closed, the fact he brought his own dragon was normal since they kept their dragons from cadet training. The military wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, neither would they bother to get him to correct the ineligible name he scribbled for his academy. His clan had taught him the basic military procedure and he flew through the ranks.
He had no idea how they trained cadets.
But even he realized that he was being a bit naïve. They captured and killed dragons and he thought that training sessions would be friend building occasions? Stupid Hiccup. "I teach differently; you'll have to trust your dragons on the battlefield right?"
"You are crazy! They'll kill us if we just let them out. Dragons are killing machines!" Astrid cried out. The other cadets nodded at her statement.
"What does some lanky loser who got forced to teach here know? I'm out, this is stupid." Snotlout grumbled turning on his heals and storming out of the arena.
After a few stinging glares the other four followed. Hiccup watched helplessly as they grabbed their bags and marched out. He was going to get an earful from command when they found out about this.
"-Then they just walk out all, we don't like the way you teach you useless oaf." Toothless nodded, staring at the steaming white fish on Hiccups plate. It had several angry puncture wounds where Hiccup had stabbed it with his fork.
"What was I supposed to do? Chase after them? No way, if they aren't happy with how I teach then I don't see the reason to want them to learn. Does that make sense?" Toothless nodded again, eyes locked onto the untouched, other than some anger driven holes, fish on the plate.
Hiccup chuckled as he noticed the dragon's eyes. They dragon caught his stare and looked up, letting out a soft 'hrrrr'. A fool to the dragon's puppy eyes, Hiccup threw him the fish, which Toothless swallowed whole eagerly.
"Thanks for listening to me bud." Toothless crawled forward and nuzzled up to him. They were behind the barracks, eating supper and lounging in the soft breeze. It was completely silent to Hiccup, but Toothless's ears flicked and he opened an eye. Seconds later a shy voice called out from the front of the barrack.
"Um, Major Haddock? It's Fishlegs, I don't have a place to stay other than the barracks now. So uh, can I come in?" He asked.
"I'm around back." He called out and soon Hiccup could hear the heavy footsteps approach him. He looked up at the boy from his seat on the soft grass. The boy looked down, eyes on the dragon, which had started falling asleep as soon as the noise was identified.
"Wow! A Night fury, speed 20 stealth 18! It's seems to be surprisingly docile though?"
"Toothless is anything but, actually."
Fishlegs observed the sleeping dragon in doubt, his eyes settling on the paper tail. "If you don't mind me asking what happened to his tail?"
"Ah, It's a bit of a tale that one." Fishlegs didn't seemed deterred. Hiccup gestured and Fishlegs made himself comfortable on the ground beside him. None but Toothless observed the shadow that hid at the corner of the house.
"I lost my leg the same time he lost his tail actually. So two tales for the price of one," as Hiccup started the story he began to unconsciously stroke the dragon's head. Hiccup couldn't tell the cadet the real story, but he had practised the false one so many times it slipped out like a real memory. It was a story about a foolish cadet, an unruly dragon and a mishap that lead to the demise of an alpha, with the help of a few soldiers.
It painted him to be a real patriot, though it always fell short of the horrors the real story held for him. So though the words that left his mouth weren't the truth, the story that played alongside the lies in his head was filled with dark nostalgia.
He had been sixteen. He was still living in the ice cocoon with his tribe, the Bewilderbeast Clan. Hiccup was proficient in so many dragon type skills that he had been christened the prince when he was 6, most decidedly being the right choice when the night fury pup had crawled into his bed to sleep. The council who ran the clan until he came of age had regaled to the entire clan stories of the powers he would someday hold.
It was a bright day when things went wrong. The clan had noticed it before, dragons were disappearing. They left to hunt near a certain island and would never return. Patrols had come back with reports of a renegade alpha. Hiccup still wasn't sure who decided he was the right man to take care of it. But he figured it was a chance to kick start those amazing powers he was supposed to get.
That fight had been hell. Complete and total chaos covered with 'you really really messed up' sauce. Mostly it was him desperately trying to hang on, while pillars of flame and lightning crashed around him. Toothless could hardly keep up. The wind and the rain beat upon them and every odd was stacked against them. And Hiccup, foolish with fear, made a mistake.
He provoked the alpha, and took to the sky. Lost in clouds of terror and darkness the fight became a blind struggle for survival. But he handled it well, devising a plan that seemed brilliant in the heat of the moment. It worked too, the dancing of the three beasts made of fear and aggression would end when one died. Hiccup would make sure it wasn't him or Toothless, but that required risks. So the plan started and almost finished flawlessly. Then the mistake happened.
Falling to the ground, suspended in air and elation of their soon to be victory, Toothless had fired the winning shot. But the alpha didn't go fast, and with a final snap shredded one of Toothless's tail fins. It was during that fall Hiccup understood why he had fought it alone. No one else could so blindly sacrifice everything for the clan. But he could, it was all he had, it was where he fit in. He needed that place.
Toothless managed to protect him, in as much pain as the dragon was. But the fall had crushed his foot. It was an entire day before his clan had found him, the dragons released from the alpha's hold had returned to the cocoon. By then the wounds had festered, both his and his dragons. Healer's did all thy could but they both lost their limbs. They wore their prosthetics as a symbol of what their blind devotion had gotten them. And what, most likely, it would get them again.
Of course Fishlegs was told an edited version, but even a spy's version of his story left Fishlegs in awe. "You seriously killed an alpha! Those are huge, and they have 30 armor and 28 attack! No wonder you're a Major already!"
Hiccup smiled at the compliment, extra points to you cadet. "Should we get you set up in the barracks then? You get first choice of bunk, and presumably you'll be the only one to make a choice."
"I'm sorry about the rest of them, but even I doubted you, letting the dragons out without protection sounds crazy. Until now of course, if you can manage that then you must be good. I hope that you'll still teach. Even if I may be the only student you'll have."
"Well it's not like I can stop, this is my job now." Hiccup and Fishlegs entered the barracks, and Toothless was fast asleep out back. Neither party noticed the shadow leave.
"Okay class of one, let's get things started. I learned how to train dragons without a fancy whip so you can too!" As predicted none but Fishlegs had showed up, and neither boy really felt like it was dragon training.
"Again Major H-"
"Hiccup."
"Hiccup. I'm sorry about the rest of them." Fishlegs piped up, adding to the many times he had said this before. "
It's not your fault. Plus…" Hiccup started before he saw movement from behind Fishlegs. "They're actually right behind you...?"
The four missing cadets walked through the gate, which clanged closed behind them. Astrid once again lead them; he could see a Major in the making in her. She was the one who spoke up, the other's glanced off sheepishly.
"I heard yesterday. What you told Fishlegs about the alpha. Trust me, if that's turns out to be some big lie to make yourself sound cool you'll have worse then some boycotting students." Hiccup gulped.
Snotlout stepped up, nudging Astrid aside, and puffing his chest. "And just because we're letting you teach us doesn't mean that we think your cool. You're still a major loser. Hehe, get it, Major Loser?"
And so dragon training truly began.