And now for chapter four!
I hope you're all enjoying the story so far, but get comfortable; there's a long way to go!
And if my chapters seem a little short, never fear; they get a lot longer later!
Chapter Four: Lies and Deceit
As the next few days dragged by, Hiccup found himself hating dragon training more and more.
Hel, he even started to feel like Berk was no longer his home.
And in spite of his repeated successes in the arena, nobody seemed to understand that he wasn't overpowering the dragons...that he wasn't really defeating them.
The scrawny boy simply knew what the beasts did and didn't like, and used this knowledge to soothe and calm the feisty fire-breathing creatures.
And although he now received more admiration and good-natured comments from the other villagers than in the past, never before had it all seemed so…wrong.
Oh the lies he was being fed about dragons. He, Hiccup, was the only one to know the truth, so it seemed.
When the boy now looked upon Berk and its inhabitants, he no longer saw a tribe of fierce, proud warriors, but a gang of callous and cold-hearted brutes.
Indeed, it seemed to him now that Toothless had more of a soul than any Viking he'd known.
During the short week for which he had known the dragon, Hiccup could see that Toothless had showed him more love and compassion than he had ever received from those humans whom he had once called his 'tribe'.
Hiccup even began to wonder if it weren't in fact the Vikings who were stupid, blind, vicious and emotionless.
One thing which Hiccup had noticed but actually been surprised by was Astrid's attitude towards him.
The attractive blond Viking rarely acknowledged his presence, and even when she did, it was always with scorn or criticism.
But now that he was doing so well in dragon training, he'd thought she would start to act just a little curious as to how he had stumbled upon this new-found talent.
Having thoroughly expected nothing less than suspicion and jealousy befitting one of such a monumentally obvious ego, the boy had been pleasantly surprised upon discovering that Astrid had become unusually quiet and apparently thoughtful.
Putting it down to sheer surprise that he had gone from a useless nuisance to teenage champion, Hiccup pushed these thoughts to the side.
Having long since resigned himself to a life of fleeting glances and unrequited longing, Hiccup had, himself, inwardly decided that he would no longer care about the girl who had once dominated his thoughts and dreams.
Sure, she was physically attractive, but there seemed to be nothing to her beyond this, especially not now.
No, now had found something infinitely more beautiful in life.
Hiccup and Toothless had, in the space one week, become closer friends than Hiccup had ever believed possible.
The boy and his dragon now shared a bond that Hiccup could not remember ever having before with anyone in his life.
Not even with Stoick, his own father.
These thoughts had been turning over in Hiccup's head in the hours leading up to the second-last fight of the dragon training season.
He and Astrid would be required to tackle and take down a single dragon together, probably a Gronckle, and the recruit who did best would win the honour of killing their first dragon in front of the entire village.
It was an unsettling thought, especially considering Hiccup's new-found affection for the beasts.
"I had better just let Astrid win it. I can't … I definitely can't kill a dragon now," Hiccup thought miserably as he made his way across the bridge to dragon training.
Stoick had returned the previous evening, along with the other Vikings with whom he had tried once again to locate the dragon's nest, and to drive them out once and for all.
Of the three ships which had left on the mission, only one returned, barely afloat with the weight of all the surviving Vikings and significant hull damage almost pushing it down into the depths of the ocean.
Clearly, they had failed.
A truly unnerving experience had followed, as Hiccup's father then came to visit him in the forge that evening, just as the boy was trying to improve on his designs for Toothless' harness.
Praise be to Loki, for Stoick had not seen what Hiccup was working on, having been too excited about his son's sudden wave of successes in the ring.
Feigning tiredness had been Hiccup's only escape, one which his father had decided luckily not to contest.
He would, however, be watching the fight today.
And, in spite of himself, Hiccup could not help feeling that he still needed to impress the chief; that he still had to prove himself to his own father.
After a brief pep-talk from Gobber, during which both Hiccup and Astrid could hear the sounds of a great many Vikings assembling around the edges of the ring to watch the fight, the pair of teenagers walked down to the entrance to the arena.
While waiting for Gobber to inform them that the beast was ready to be released, Hiccup and Astrid stood together in total silence.
With the possible exception of the time he had been caught trying to steal an extra loaf of bread from the baker's house several years ago, this was easily the most awkward moment of the young boy's life.
Glancing at Astrid, Hiccup noticed that the girl against whom he would shortly be competing was eyeing him off.
Although, the boy noted to himself, it was more of a death stare than anything.
Hiccup answered with a slightly nervous smile; he could not pick Astrid's behaviour at the moment.
Tilting her head to one side, the Hofferson's daughter frowned as if disapprovingly.
"I normally don't care what people do, but you're acting weird," she said suddenly, making the boy she was speaking to jump.
Hiccup spluttered a little, going red in the face, and managed to crack a slight smile, which immediately turned into a kind of sickened grimace.
"Well, weirder. Look at you..." She let out a slight laugh.
Confusion was not a feeling that often held sway in Hiccup's mind.
"From nothing to everything in no time at all," Astrid stated simply, a rather odd smile playing around the Viking girl's mouth.
Hiccup shuddered inwardly; did she know something about...?
"Alright you two, it's time!" Gobber's voice sounded loud over the din of the Viking villagers who had assembled to watch the fight and the Iron grill still separating the two recruits from the arena was now hoisted up.
"Stay out of my way," Astrid shot at Hiccup, as the pair of them walked out into the ring to a chorus of cheers.
"I'm winning this thing." And, without another word, she darted off, grabbing a shield, just as the wooden doors on the other side of the arena burst open.
The brown Gronckle which burst forth was, however, either quite tired or slightly drunk, as it floated haphazardly about the ring, a dazed look in its large, round eyes.
"Hiccup!" The boy heard someone calling his name, and turned to see Stoick smiling down at him from outside the ring.
Smiling awkwardly back at his father, Hiccup readjusted his helmet, which had once belonged to his mother, Valhallarama, although not as a helmet.
Grabbing a shield, Hiccup then proceeded to duck down behind one of the many wooden barriers which were spaced unevenly around the arena as cover for the Viking combatants.
Noticing that Astrid was now stalking the Gronckle, waiting for the opportune moment to strike, Hiccup's mind suddenly went into overdrive.
If he were to lose this fight to the Viking girl, his father would probably never let him forget it, especially not considering that he had been doing so well until now.
Also, part of him still saw Astrid in the fantasy way; he could not help wanting to impress her, to show off his new dragon-fighting talents.
But the one thing which worried him more than both of these reasons combined was the thought that the poor Gronckle might get hurt; Hiccup would never be able to forgive himself for being even indirectly responsible for any pain the dragon suffered here.
And in one brief moment, the decision was made.
Quickly vaulting over the single barrier separating him from the Gronckle, Hiccup dashed towards the poor beast, which was now swaying from side to side in mid-air.
It seemed to be almost sick...but Hiccup would look into this later.
Dropping his axe, the boy quietly whistled the particular tone which he used with Toothless to induce a safe and secure feeling in the dragon's mind.
The Gronckle turned lethargically towards him, a confused look on its pudgy face, before Hiccup quickly reached up and scratched the soft spot common to all of the fire-breathing beasties.
The dragon's eyes rolled back into its head, and the great beast flopped to the ground on its side, one rear leg kicking back with pleasure.
Only a brief moment of respite was awarded to the victor, as he suddenly jumped at the sound of Astrid's war cry.
"Yeaaaaaaaahhhh!" Now more nervous than he had been for the last hour, Hiccup turned to see the blond Viking falter, her look turning from one of forceful aggression to a moment of confused silence.
And the crowd erupted in cheers.
Hiccup looked at Astrid, gesturing from himself to the pacified Gronckle, as though trying to plead with her.
"NO! NO!" Astrid yelled, her face quickly changing to an enraged look of disappointment.
"SON OF A HALF-TROLL, RAT EATING, MUNGE-BUCKET...!" She shouted in anger, swinging her axe wildly.
In a feeble and utterly futile attempt to avoid what he knew what was coming next, Hiccup tried to sneak out.
"So...later–" But Gobber, who had by now made his way back into the ring, quickly grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck.
"Not so fast!" "I'm kind of late for..." Hiccup cast around wildly for an excuse, but didn't get anywhere fast, as he was suddenly swung around to find a crazed Astrid holding her axe at to his neck.
"What?" she demanded angrily. "Late for what, exactly?" But Hiccup had no time to begin formulating an answer in his mind, as he heard his father's voice calling "OK, quiet down! Quiet down! The elder has decided!" And that was it.
Hiccup had blown it.
He knew exactly what was coming next, and as Gobber pulled him away from the mad blonde, whose axe had almost taken his head off several times now, he could tell that she knew too.
But both Hiccup and Astrid now hoped that the latter would be chosen, albeit for entirely different reasons.
Looking back up at his father, Hiccup saw the village elder at Stoick's side, about to choose his fate.
Gobber first held his hand over Astrid's head, and the blond Viking stared up at the old woman hopefully.
But it was not to be.
The elder shook her head with a dejected look.
And, as Gobber then pointed to Hiccup, the boy felt a great wave of fear pass over him.
The elder nodded, and smiled.
As a huge roar of cheering erupted from around to ring, with everyone present shouting their congratulations to the boy who had won, the great Belch yelled excitedly "Oh, yeh've done it! Yeh've done it Hiccup! Yeh get te kill the dragon!" But Hiccup shuddered inwardly as he turned to look at the girl whom he had just bested in dragon training.
Astrid was livid, lips white, her face contorted with barely-suppressed rage.
Getting quite intense, eh?
As usual, next chapter in a week.
And another little thing; if any of you other writers ever get serious writers block, or simply can't find the inspiration to put pet to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as it were), I find listening to suitable music really helps.
I wrote the entirety of chapter two to the sound of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Vangelis' Chariots of Fire.
Lumpyness.