Just a short one I'm afraid, writers block can hit on specific stories. And I'm afraid I'm struggling to get to where this one needs to be! I will be continuing it of course, it's just a slow process right now, what with uni, work and volunteering as well!

The village was lively, at least as much as Rome ever had been. Camicazi had showed him a number of different places that he'd already forgotten how to get to, like the forge, and the stables where once again they'd run into her grandmother, Valka. She'd smiled and said "see, not so different at all". Camicazi was now pulling him towards the place she called 'the academy'.

"Are you sure you want to take him in there? And you know you can't see Sparky right?" Eret was saying as they made their way towards this place.

"Yes and yes! He needs to see the academy! It's where I spend most of my time after all! And he can meet the others..."

"Including Finn?"

"Yes, including Finn... And you can go see Sparky for me to tell him I'll see him tomorrow."

"It's up to you Cami."

"I know that!" She said. Finally the academy came into view. Alexander had to admit, it was not quite what he'd expected.

"Welcome to the Berk Dragon Academy!" She said cheerily leading him down to the entrance.

"Finally! I wondered when you'd turn up!" A female voice called as Camicazi entered. She grinned at her friend. "Oooh... Is this the Roman?!"

"Yup, Buffnut, this is Alexander. Alex, this is my friend Buffnut. She's a couple of years older than me. I'm the youngest here." Alexander stepped up to face Buffnut, she was pretty intimidating. Tall, blonde, like Camicazi, but her eyes were grey blue. She didn't have the same beauty that Camicazi did he decided. He instantly tried to cast that thought aside.
"He's a little weird looking. Who's clothes has he pinched?"
"Eret's. They're a little big on him I admit." She said chuckling lightly. "Miktak, this is Alexander." She said gesturing to a tall skinny blonde boy who absolutely had to be Buffnut's brother. "Alex, this is Buff's brother Miktak." The tall blonde grinned at him and held out a hand to grab his and shake it.
"Good to meet you! You're one crazy son of a..."
"Mik!"
"Ok ok, just crazy! You tried to take on this girl!" He gestured to Camicazi. "You tried to take her on, freed a giant dragon and then ran away from your people to face off with our chief and our alpha! You got balls man!" Alexander didn't know quite how to respond. These people were definitely not anything like those back home.
"Errr... thanks?"
"Miktak you jerk! Can you not clean up after your dragon for once?!" A stocky dark-haired boy yelled coming over. The brother and sister laughed.
"You put dung behind him?"
"I practically soaked the pen in it, he was going to slip up eventually."
"Rufflout you stink!" Camicazi snapped.
"Blame them! What're you doing here babe? Thought you were grounded?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Call me babe again and I'll knock out another tooth." She growled.
"Easy Cami! No need for violence!" A large boy called. He had straw coloured hair and seemed to waddle over.
"It's not violence! It's communication!" she replied with a casual shrug of one shoulder and a flick of her hand.
"You sound like mum." Alexander stopped looking around when the new boy spoke and walked out of a pen. "Is this him then?" He asked, shrugging a shoulder in Alexander's direction, in one hand he held a short blade, in the other a rag he was using to wipe it clean. This boy was obviously the leader of the others. Tall, thin with reddish hair that waved down around his ears tickling at his shoulders. His eyes were a bright clear blue and there was a faint hint of gingerish stubble on his chin.
"Yeah this is him." She replied. Buffnut's eyes brightened suddenly and she grinned at Camicazi who simply rolled her eyes unimpressed. The tall boy nodded.
"This is Gudrun." He said nodding at the larger boy. Alexander gave a courteous nod to him.
"Alexander."
"We know." Gudrun replied. "Heard quite a bit about you already. After last night, the village is buzzing. It's all they can talk about, well that and Camicazi's contract..." There was a flash of silver and a hatchet grazed past Gudrun's ear making him squeal frightened.
"Camicazi!" The other boy snapped. Camicazi gritted her teeth and forced a smile.
"I had nothing to do with it."
"Sure you didn't. Only you could throw it that close to his head and not injure him!"
"Why thank you for the compliment!"
"It's not funny Camicazi!" He growled. She smirked.
"No it's not." Gudrun agreed. She smirked still more. It was a dangerous smile curling at the corners of her mouth. Alexander felt sure that could only mean trouble.
"I beg to differ. It is really quite funny."
"You shouldn't do it Camicazi! It's no way to treat your people!"

"Ah but he's not my people! I am not the chief!"
"Yes but..."
"And I never will be. That is not my calling. I shall just run the academy and the dragon stalls."

"You still can't go around throwing hatchets at anybody who says the truth!" Gudrun protested. This time an axe buried itself into the stone in front of his right foot. He jumped back yelping.

"CAMICAZI!" The other boy yelled. She just grinned like a wild thing.
"He had it coming!"

"He did not..."

"He said I had a contract! Said it was the truth!"

"That doesn't warrant throwing weapons at him!"

"I didn't. I threw them near him!"

"And if you'd missed?!"

"I never miss!"

"But if you had you could have done him serious injury!"
"I love it when he gets angry and chief-y. Putting his foot down and stuff..." Buff said, a weird look on her face. Her brother looked repulsed, as did Camicazi.

"Gross."

"Camicazi you need to apologize!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" She shrieked at him. "You can't tell me what to do!"

"I just did, and unless you plan on going to another island, you'd better get used to it!"

"I'm not going to apologise."

"Rude. She picked up too many bad habits from back on Hysteria if you ask me." Gudrun muttered. At this point even the other boy stared at him in shock. For a split second there was silence. Then in a blur of movement, he was on the floor with the curve of an axe pressed against his throat, Camicazi holding it there and pinning him to the ground.
"Say that again." She hissed, her voice dangerously low.

"You're just kind of proving my point here..." He choked. "You spent too long with Dagur and his ilk. You're more like them than you care to admit." It became apparent that everyone thought this was over the line, for no one moved for a whole minute. Then the taller boy spoke softly.
"Cami, let him up."
"No."

"Cami..." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let him up. You know you're not really going to do anything. You wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't I?!" She yelled suddenly. She stood up, axe still pressed to his throat and one foot keeping him pinned. "You know I've done it before! Why wouldn't I do it again!"

"Cami just take the axe away from his throat!" He kept his tone even but there was a note of panic in his voice.

"I will not!" She was pressing on the axe slightly, a thin pink line was starting to become visible.

"Cami take it off!"

"NO!"

"TAKE IT OFF!"

"NO!"
"Cami, let him up." A voice spoke, soft, gentle.
"He said... He said I was..."

"I know what he said, let him up. We both know you aren't like them. Not really. So let him up." She stood there, shaking, her breathing uneven. "Camicazi... let him go." A soft rumble followed the voice, concerned, gentle. Slowly, she moved her foot and then with a shaky sigh, she tugged the axe away from his throat. She stepped back several paces and the alpha, Toothless, curled around her, rumbling softly at her as she collapsed to her knees. Alexander felt an impulsive urge to go over to comfort her, but her father straightened up again, looking from the boy on the floor, to the tall one still standing, to Camicazi huddled on the floor with Toothless. He sighed heavily.
"This cannot go on. Cami, you know that. You know you cannot act like that just because he makes you mad." He looked tired, maybe even a little saddened, but he didn't look angry. It was baffling.
"She can't get away with it, you know that?"
"I do know. Camicazi, you're not seeing Sparky tomorrow either. And unless your behaviour is near enough perfect for the rest of the week, there will be no racing." Camicazi didn't move. She looked frightened if anything, staring dead ahead, eyes glazed mouth slightly agape as she rocked softly back and forth. The dragons began making strange sounds and she seemed to slowly relax. He had to wonder what they were saying, how it could have such an effect.
One dragon seemed less than content. Screeching and blasts of lightning hit the doors on a pen. That had to be Sparky's holding pen. He seemed less than happy about what was going on. Could he sense Camicazi's distress? Was their bond that strong?
"Well that's one unhappy dragon." Eret muttered as he walked away from the pen doors, his hair standing on end.
"I'm not surprised." Hiccup said looking from Eret to Camicazi. "He knows what's going on, and he can't get to her."
"And you won't...?"
"No, she's being punished. I don't want to cause him distress, but he'll be worse if I let him see her." Sparky seemed to disagree as he sent yet another blast towards the doors and let out a heart-wrenching scream. It was like he was in physical pain. The others all flinched and looked pained by the sound. Camicazi looked up and walked towards the door, humming softly, singing words he could not make out. The crying ceased as her hand touched the doors.
"It's ok Sparky... I'm ok. We both are. He can't hurt us anymore. We're safe, we're home. This is where we belong." He knew life hadn't been easy for her in her youth, before Berk, but it made him wonder just HOW bad it had been, how much had she and Sparky depended on each other?