OKAY DREAMWORKS RECENTLY CREATED A HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON OFFICIAL WEBSITE, GO CHECK IT OUT IT'S PRETTY COOL! ANYWAY I FOUND THE DRAGON HANDBOOK ON THERE AND JUST COULDN'T HELP MYSELF, I FEEL THAT IN THE MOVIETHEY DIDN'T GIVE US ENOUGH INFORMATION ABOUT EACH DRAGON INSTEAD HAVING HICCA READ TINY BITS OF ONLY SOME OF THEM SO I'M GOING TO ADD A BIT MORE INFORMATION TO ALL BUT THE NIGHT FURY WHICH OF COURSE HAS TO REMAIN BLANK. SO ENJOY! AND PLEASE REVIEW, I LOVE FEEDBACK AS LONG AS IT'S NOT JUST FLAMES!

"Welcome to dragon training!" Gobber called, pushing up the metal gate to the kill arena to allow the teenagers to enter. "No turning back," Astrid muttered, leading the group through the tunnel to enter the ring. They all looked around in awe at the mighty structure, the one they had gazed upon their whole lives and told themselves that one day they would be the one to kill the dragon in there; they would have the honour of the whole villages' eyes on them as they became a Viking.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut both carried their double ended spears, the blades sharpened to perfection. Fishlegs carried a huge hammer made of a large square rock fastened to a sturdy handle, Astrid had her usual double bladed axe that reached to her waist when rested on the ground and Snotlout carried a black spiked mace with silver spikes. "I hope I get some serious burns." Tuffnut announced, demonstrating his point with a punch to the air. "I'm hoping for some mauling like on my shoulder or lower back," Ruffnut responded, shrugging back her shoulders.

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it." Astrid said lightly, still ahead of the group, Fishlegs had yet to speak, his eyes widening as he took in the large cell doors on the edge of the arena. "Yeah, no kidding right?" Hicca mumbled from the back of the group, she had woken up late and had to rush to training, a feat not made easier by the heavy axe she was forced to carry. "Pain. Love it" she said sarcastically rolling her eyes at their conversation.

"Oh great. Who let her in?" Tuffnut asked, his heart secretly clenching with worry as he thought of all the injuries she could obtain, he quickly dismissed it and concentrated on the insults being thrown. "Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honour of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village," Gobber announced, walking over to the group and sweeping his hand through the air as if visualising an invisible crowd. "Hicca already killed a night fury, so does that disqualify her?" Snotlout asked jeeringly. The twins burst out into laughter and Fishlegs had to stifle a few chuckles.

Hicca was silently debating in her head on whether or not to tell them about what happened yesterday but dismissed it, knowing that they wouldn't believe her. "Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?" Ruffnut sneered, turning along with the group to move further into the ring. "Don't worry. You're small and weak… that'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead" Gobber comforted and Hicca resisted the urge to face palm, what was wrong with her mentor that he thought that what he said was in any way helping.

Gobber had gradually walked her towards the group and let go of her as they drew near, moving in front of his newest batch of students. "Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!" Gobber yelled moving towards the first door, "The Deadly Nadder!" he called, "Speed 8, armour 16" Fishlegs chanted, "The Hideous Zippleback," "Plus 11 stealth. Times 2" "The Monstrous Nightmare," "Firepower 15" "The Terrible Terror" "Attack 8, venom 12" Fishlegs was becoming excited and his voice had risen. "Can you stop that?!" Gobber screamed exasperated. "And the Gronkle." "Jaw strength 8" Fishlegs whispered to Hicca out of the corner of his mouth, making sure that Gobber didn't hear, Tuffnut scowled as he saw their close proximity out of his peripheral vision, it was well known that Fishlegs was really her only friend.

Gobber smiled wickedly and started moving the lever down, "Odin's beard!" Hicca exclaimed, slowly backing away. "What? What is it?" Astrid called annoyed as all the recruits turned to stare at her, "When he smiles like that it means he's going to do something he finds fun," she explained, still shuffling backwards. The other trainees were still looking at her strangely, "That means it's going to be painful for us," she continued and their eyes widened, obviously trusting her judgement as she knew the smithy better.

They turned to look at the warrior as the lever moved further down to release, "Wait, aren't you gonna teach us first?" Snotlout complained panicked, moving forward quickly to stand in front of the other students. "I believe in learning on the job," Gobber said lightly, finally thrusting down the lever and leaving the ring quickly, positioning himself so he could make sure that none of them got killed.

The Gronkle burst through the unlocked door and charged straight for the group of teenagers who were paying close attention to Gobber's instructions as they scattered to dodge the attack of the angry dragon. "Today is about survival. If you get blasted… you're dead," Gobber deadpanned, the Gronkle was moving too fast after the teenagers and was unable to stop before crashing into the wall, he quickly got back up and started flying again, albeit a bit dizzily. "Quick! What's the first thing you'll need?!" Gobber yelled, watching intensely as the students scrambled about the arena.

"A doctor?" Hicca called incuriously and Tuffnut mentally prayed to Odin that she wouldn't need one before snapping out of that thought, "Plus 5 speed?" Fishlegs asked obviously quoting something from the dragon handbook. "A shield!" Astrid yelled, ducking and tumbling towards the pile in the arena, her voice clearly held a duh tone. "Shields. Go!" Gobber ordered, pointing hastily towards them for the rest of the students to follow Astrid's lead. "Your most important piece of equipment is your shield!" Gobber called, the rest of the group hurriedly ran up to the pile and grabbed a shield. "If you must choose between a sword or a shield, take the shield!" he advised, moving quickly over to Hicca and helping her with her shield before pushing her towards the group and the dragon.

The twins stood in the middle of the pile, each had a strong hold on a shield painted with two flaming skulls on a green and brown background, "Get your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut yelled, pulling it towards him, "There are a million shields," his sister cried, tugging it back, "Take that one. It has a flower… girls like flowers." Tuffnut retorted, cocking his head towards a pink flowery shield. Ruffnut's face screwed up in a grimace of distaste at his sexist comment and gave an extra hard pull, slipping the shield from Tuffnut's grasp.

She held it over her head and brought it down, hitting Tuffnut squarely on the top of his helmet and eliciting a harsh ow! from him. "Oops, now this one has blood on it," his sister said, giving him a mocking smile and holding it out towards him to check as he sat down hard on the dusty floor of the ring. He grabbed it and used it to pull himself to his feet, the twins once again resuming their fight over the shield, not noticing the Gronkle closing in on them until it was too late and a ball of fire knocked the shield from their hands, sending them spinning in the air before landing on the floor, the force of the fire knocking them to the ground.

"Tuffnut, Ruffnut! You're out!" Gobber called, beckoning them from the arena with his hook. "What?" Tuffnut moaned, the two siblings swaying heavily as they stumbled to their feet and exited the arena, leaning on each other to support themselves. "Shields are good for another thing. Noise! Make lots of it to throw off the dragon's aim!" Gobber told them, moving forward to get a closer eye on the action. The four teens quickly received the message and moved back, using their various weapons to bang heavily on their shields causing loud metallic shrieks to spring from their direction as they stood in a square shape around the dragon so it was surrounded by noise.

They could see it becoming confused, its head tossing from side to side as it tried to determine where its prey was. "All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronkle have?" Gobber asked, moving a bit further into the arena from his previous spot in the tunnel. "Five?" Snotlout called out, unsure of himself, "No, six!" Fishlegs said, obviously remembering something from the dragon handbook, Hicca decided to trust him on this one. "Correct, six! That's one for each of you!" Gobber's praise turned to humour as the teens paled.

Fishlegs nodded happily and raised his shield in acknowledgement only to have it knocked from his hands and blasted against the arena wall. "Fishlegs, out!" Gobber called, sounding bored with how easily the meaty boy got out. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the exit. Fishlegs face morphed into an expression of terror and he threw his hands into the air, speeding as fast as he could out of the arena, a shrill cry erupting from his throat. You could hear the twins jesting him from inside the arena.

"Hicca, get in there!" Gobber called and Tuffnut unconsciously leaned forward in his seat in annoyance, was Gobber crazy, Hicca was going to get eaten if she went into battle. He saw his twin sister smirking at him knowingly and he jumped back, leaning back but his eyes followed the red head's movements as she inched out of her hiding spot behind an old broken bit of the arena.

A fireball exploded right next to her head and she lifted her shield, scrambling back into her hiding place. Snotlout was once again trying to Astrid's attention, not the best idea during a dragon training session. "So, I moved into my parent's basement. You should come by sometime and work out. You look like you work out." He commented, watching her dart away, he turned his face back to the front but was to slow to stop the dragon from hitting his shield and sending him flying. "Snotlout! You're done!" Gobber called and the burly teenager quickly exited the arena to go and sit with his friends on the edge of the arena.

"Sooo, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Hicca said casually, moving to stand near Astrid. "Nope, just you," she responded, leaping to the side away from the charging Gronkle as a ball of fire speed towards them. Hicca barely had enough time to get her shield up before the flaming ball erupted on the wood and metal surface, knocking the shield from her arms. "One shot left!" Gobber announced, the Gronkle still bore down on Hicca, ignoring the larger threat of Astrid as she darted to the other side of the ring.

Hicca was still chasing after her rolling shield, hoping to get some protection to exit the ring with; she was so busy trying to catch it that she missed the Gronkle coming closer and closer to her. Tuffnut tensed, digging his fingernails into the palms of his hands as he watched her sprint after the shield, the Gronkle's fiery jaws getting closer and closer. She abandoned the shield as she finally looked over her shoulder and saw the dragon chasing her; she kept running only to be met with a wall, Hicca!" Gobber yelled, rushing forwards to help.

The Gronkle had her backed against the wall, its razor teeth inches from Hicca's face it opened its mouth and a ball of fire began to form in its throat she closed her eyes and turned her head but could still feel the warmth of the inner fire on her face. A hook as slipped into the corner of the dragon's mouth and yanked it away just in time to avoid blowing Hicca's head to pieces, "And that's six. Go back to bed you overgrown sausage" Gobber muttered, dragging the dragon away by the hook in its mouth. He used the momentum of the dragon's flight to throw it back into its cage and lock the doors, the heavy wooden bar settling over the entrance and the lever pushed back into place.

"You'll get another chance, don't you worry. Remember, a dragon will always," he said, addressing it to the teenagers who were once again entering the ring, Hicca was still flat against the wall and Gobber leaned towards her, "Always go for the kill," he stated, hoisting her up by her arm and setting her back on her feet. Hicca turned to stare at the smoking hole in the arena wall, the glowing ember were still hot and burned red. She turned and ran from the arena, unaware of the stunning grey eyes that followed her as she left.

She quickly skidded through the forest, tripping several times over sticking out tree limbs and tall roots but each time she clambered to her feet and continued running. When she arrived at the place she had let the Night Fury go the day before she saw that the cut pieces of the bola were still lying there. She thought back to Gobber's words, "A dragon will always go for the kill," she whispered, "So… why didn't you?" she mused, picking up the bola in her hands and weighing it carefully.

She placed the bola back on the ground and followed the path she had seen the night fury take, huge grey boulders greeted her through the trees, their size was easily 3 of Hicca high and spanned in a circle formation. She walked quickly around the perimeter and came across a narrow crack that she would just be able to slip through. When she entered she had to hold back a gasp, the area behind the boulders was a beautiful cove with a lake in the middle and thin rays of sunlight that shone through the narrow holes in the trees canopies.

Her eyes scanned the entire cove, looking for a group of shining ebony scales in the small enclosure, "Well, this was stupid," she muttered, her gaze drifted towards the ground but halted as they spotted a trail of small black circles that looked suspiciously like scales. She bent to pick one up in her hand and turned it over, examining the scales that had never before been found. A loud screech echoed around the area as a huge black shape darted upwards past Hicca, startling her out of her ministrations.

She crept forward and saw it desperately scrambling at the rock for a hold only to slowly slide back down the face; it pushed off at the last second and narrowly avoided hitting the ground. It unfurled its wings and used them to glide across the surface of the lake, coming to a descent on the other side with a small rumble. Hicca's face lit up in a pleased smile, her eyes darted about for a lower ledge and she quickly scrambled down, knowing if she got hurt no one would be able to help her this far out in the forest, not that she expected anyone to want to help her. Her foot slipped slightly as she searched for a foot hole, her eyes taking in the Night Fury with abject wonder. Her eyebrows furrowed together when she noticed that it was having trouble staying in the air for more than a few seconds, not nearly long enough to get over the rocks of the cove.

Her hands fumbled for her sketchbook in her vest, her shaking hands hurriedly pulled it from its pocket and picked up her pencil. Sketching with deft strokes the outline of the Night Fury, the sketch was done in seconds but her brow furrowed as she noticed her mistake, she had added a tail fin where there shouldn't be one. "Why don't you just, fly away?" she whispered, seeing it roar loudly towards the sky. She tugged her sleeve over the ball of her hand and swiped it across the edge of the drawing, messily erasing the left tail fin from the existence of the drawing.

She closed her book and gazed in silence as the night fury made another attempt to fly over the walls only to land heavily on the ground with a soft growl of disappointment. It's head picked up as its eyes followed the movement of a fish swimming near its head, it crouched low and began creping forward, its footsteps softer than Hicca thought possible for a creature of its size. For a split second its pupils dilated then its head darted forward, sinking into the water at an alarming speed.

Hicca saw it come back up, judging from the mournful wail it gave it had not caught anything and Hicca doubted that he would, dragons caught fish from the sea where they swam in large colonies, always able to catch at least one. In this cove with only a small lake there would be very few fish and Hicca doubted he would be able to catch any fish at all from the small body of water. Hicca was so absorbed in the creature before her that she failed to notice her slack grip on her pencil before it was too late and tumbled down the rocks with several sharp clicks.

Aodh glanced up, his eyes narrowing into slits as he saw the small human girl from before sitting up on the ledge of his prison, the small wooden stick that had made the noise was currently laying at the bottom and the girl was biting her lower lip with her front blunt teeth, how the humans managed to eat anything with those kind of teeth was beyond him, how did they tear apart their prey?. He saw her turning her head, her eyes widening as she caught him looking at her, but they were not wide with fear but wonder.

This fact struck him as yet another odd tendency of hers, he was a fearsome night fury, even the other dragons cringed at the mere mention of him yet here was a weak, defenceless young human who was not scared of him. Her head slowly began to lean sidewards, examining his face and he couldn't help but copy her movements. They stayed like that for several minutes before she broke the contact to glance at the sky. Her mouth widened in what he assumed was horror and she shrieked, hurriedly tucking a small rectangle into her black covering and fled, leaving him still trapped in the cove.

Hicca raced back through the worn path in the forest, her heavy footsteps thudded rhythmically against the dirt track and she stopped to lean against a tree to regain her breath. Her eyes once again darted towards the sunset and she noticed that there was only a tiny sliver left, barely enough to cast a faint glow over the darkness, dinner would have started ages ago. She pushed herself off the tree and kept running, her surroundings so changed from the dense forest to the stocky settings of the houses. The hall was at the top of the hill and Hicca's legs were already beginning to burn from the stress of running all the way from the cove. She gradually slowed to a walk and began the tedious task of climbing the huge stone steps.

The atmosphere in the hall was light and the group of teens sat around one of the tables, not even bothered that one of their number had not been seen since training. "All right, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber asked, moving forward so he was hovering over the teens. "I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble," Astrid said and Gobber looked surprised that she had judged herself instead of ignoring her faults like most of the Vikings did.

"Yeah, we noticed," Ruffnut drawled, rolling her eyes as she heard what Astrid considered wrong. "No, no, you were great. That was so 'Astrid'" Snotlout rushed to suck up, his small brain making it impossible for him to come up with anything better than 'Astrid' as a compliment. "She's right. You have to be tough on yourselves," Gobber interjected. Hicca hurriedly walked past the group, picking up a plate of meat and a mug, moving to sit by herself on the next tale, away from the group. "Where did Hicca wrong?" Gobber questioned, spotting her as she tried to blend into the background.

"Uh, she showed up," Ruffnut said maliciously, "She didn't get eaten," Tuffnut stated, determined to push aside the feelings of relief he felt about Hicca not being hurt. "She's never where she should be," Astrid hissed, her eyes following Hicca glaringly as the Viking in question pushed her food around uncaringly, she had been tormented by them for years, their comments no longer had any effect on her. "Thank you, Astrid," Gobber breathed, happy that at least one of his newest students had given him a somewhat reasonable answer.

"You need to live and breathe this stuff. The dragon manual." He announced, pulling a book from his vest and shoving the cups and bowls away, placing it on the head of the wooden table near Astrid. "Everything we know about every dragon we know of," he announced, stabbing the cover of the book with a meaty finger. A rumble of thunder sounded heavily in the distance and Gobber heaved a sigh that sounded like a mixture between relieved and annoyed, "No attacks tonight. Study up," he ordered; hurrying to leave the hall and move quickly back to his hut above the forge.

"Wait, you mean read?" Tuffnut asked incuriously, glancing after the retreating smithies back. "While we're still alive?" Ruffnut agreed, staring at the table amazed. "Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout wondered, banging his fist on the table. "Funny. I didn't know you could read Snotlout?" Hicca sneered, turning her head to stare at her cousin in fake amazement, Snotlout's face heated up in embarrassment and the twins collapsed on each other laughing even Astrid stifled a smile beneath her hand.

"Oh, I've read it like seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And, and there's this other one…" Fishlegs rambled excitedly, unaware of the twins and Snotlout's creeped out faces, as if saying 'Are you serious'. "Yeah. That sounds great. There was a chance I was going to read it," Tuffnut cut in, "But now…" Ruffnut trailed off shrugging slightly. Fishlegs face fell and Hicca couldn't help but feel sorry for him, he tried so hard to fit in with the group.

"You guys read. I'll go kill stuff," Snotlout boasted, standing and moving to exit. The twins hurriedly got up and pushed each other back, following Snotlout out of the hall with Fishlegs trailing behind still spouting facts, "Another one has spines like trees," he said, rushing to keep up with the rapidly disappearing group of teens. "Sooo, I guess we'll share," Hicca suggested shyly, moving cautiously towards Astrid, "Read it," she stated bluntly, pushing it towards Hicca and moving speedily after the group.

"Uh, all mine then. Wow. So, ok, I'll see you… tomorrow" she trailed off awkwardly, now talking to an empty hall as the last of the Vikings left. She quickly blew out most of the candles in the hall and kept two, placing them both on the table near the book so she would still have light to read by. "Dragon classifications," she read aloud hoping to break the stifling silence that draped over the hall like a cloak. "Strike class. Fear Class. Mystery Class." She turned the salt encrusted page to the first dragon.

"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Class: Tidal. Ability: Sonic Blast. Shot limit: 6. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight" she hummed quietly and turned the page. "Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Class: Sharp. Ability: Wing slice. Shot limit: 8. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victims. Class: Tidal. Ability: Boiling Blast. Shot limit: 14. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. AHHH!" she shrieked as a loud crash of thunder resounded through the hall and a flash of lightning lit up the hall, casting shadows across the walls, she shook her head and returned to her reading.

"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Class: Fear. Ability: Acid spit. Shot limit: 10. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Gronkle. Devours rocks then fires them back at their victims in flaming chunks of lava when provoked. Class: Boulder. Ability: Lava blast. Shot limit: 6. Extremely dangerous kill on sight. Okay I'm starting to see a pattern here." She remarked, noticing that each dragon's page contained the same words.

"Hideous Zippleback. One head creates gas while the other lights it creating an explosion. Class: Fear. Ability: Gas & Spark. Shot limit: 6. The Skrill. The Skrill is known to only come out during storms and is often seen to be covered in bolts of electricity. Class: Strike. Ability: Static Fire bolt. Shot limit 4. Bone Knapper. The Bone Knapper steals the bones of dead dragons and uses them as protective armour. Class: Mystery. Ability: Bone Attack. Shot limit: 6. Whispering Death. One of the most feared dragons the whispering death has many skills, it's only known weakness is its aversion to sunlight. Class: Boulder. Abilities: Rotating teeth, spine shooting, jaw tunnelling, fire ring attack. Shot limit: 2, wow that low?! All extremely dangerous, all to be killed on sight" she stated sarcastically, "Burns it victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victim. Turns its victims inside out. Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight. Kill on sight." Her voice trailed off as she turned to the final page of information in the book, it was nearly empty with no pictures and only a few sentences.

"Night Fury," she mumbled, remembering the black dragon in the cove earlier. "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" she scanned the page quickly but found no more text of any kind, not even a picture of the dragon. She pulled out her sketchbook she had tucked into her vest earlier and threw it onto the book, open on the drawing of the night fury. How she wished she could just draw it in there, list everything she knew about it but that would only get her and the night fury caught.

She slowly closed the book and tucked her sketchbook back in her vest, moving sluggishly through the paces of blowing out the candles and leaving the hall, she looked overhead and realised that it was now very late and she had better be getting home. She hurried through the village, slightly scared of the silence that made very shadow look like a dragon about to pounce. At the bottom of the stairs she stopped to turn and look back, her eyes scanning the house around her. She saw the outlines of the twins in their beds through the window and Astrid's house was completely dark with no sound coming from it, Gobber's snores could be heard all the way from the smithy and Hicca once again cursed her father's position as chief as she realised she still had to climb the stairs to get to her house on the hill.

Despite her conflicted emotions she still had the ability to contemplate the books words. If this dragon was so feared, held so high in a Viking's book that they would go as far as to hide, why hadn't it attacked her? She had no illusions about herself, she was weak, had no weaponry abilities and no way to defend herself, why would it have let her go when it had her at its mercy? From the moment she was born she was told dragons were evil, they had no thoughts, feelings or personalities, no sense of remorse, compassion or guilt. She finally made it to her house and pushed open the door, running quickly up to her room and shedding her clothes, sliding into her warm bed. Her last thought before sleep claimed her puzzled her well into her dreams: If that was the case then why had this seemingly uncaring monster let her live?

REVIEWS! PLEASE! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M ON MY KNEES BEGGING! (NO SERIOUSLY, I'M TYPING THIS WHILE ON MY KNEES)