Da da da da da da da! Here is the chapter you've all been waiting for! Dragon training! :D now last chapter was a bit filler, but you see Astrid's getting a little crush on Hiccup hehe. Hope you guys didn't mind the wait! Now without further ado...read! XD
After yesterday's incident, Astrid began to become more wary around Hiccup. The scrawny little Viking was already a nuisance to her before he occupied her thoughts, but now? Any mention of him became unbearable.
She came home to her mother, still red faced, inquiring about a good remedy for heatstroke. After examining her daughter, Halldora told Astrid that she didn't have heatstroke and mumbled about how the youth of today was becoming so spoiled and coddled.
The blonde went upstairs and threw herself onto her bed. She tore off her spiked garments and examined her axe curiously. There were many scratches and dents on the handle, and it was a bit dull. 'Got to take it to the forge for Gobber to sharpen it.' she added thoughtfully. She slid her thumb across the blade as confirmation. Astrid threw her axe against a target on the wall, and despite the blade becoming dull, the axe stuck neatly.
Letting the calm wash over her body, Astrid stared at the ceiling. Without meaning to, Hiccup flashed through her mind. His awkward smile seemed to be burned into her memory. She narrowed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.
"What is with that guy?"
All of Astrid's childhood, she had been taught the Viking way: be strong, be brave, don't give up, and always fight the good fight, no matter what. Astrid had hoped to make her father proud by becoming the epitome of a Viking warrior. She was strong, fast and her battle instincts were top notch. This took extensive hours of training, but it was well worth it. 'But this little whelp is the complete opposite. He has no interest in weapons, can't carry a hammer and talks to dragons…dragons! Who the hell does that? He could've gotten killed!'
Astrid did a double take. When did she care about the well-being of this boy? Clearly she was till feeling the after effects of being out in the sun too long.
Astrid sighed and closed her eyes tight. Nothing could ruin tomorrow. Not Hiccup, not that Night Fury, not anything. Tomorrow is when Astrid would shine. Tomorrow was…
"…dragon training! Alright yeh young 'uns, let's get started!"
Astrid gave a confident smirk; no one could best her here. Beside her were Snotlout Jorgenson, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, and Fishlegs Ingerman. There really wasn't much competition here. Snotlout was pretty strong, but he was too cocky and got distracted easily. The twins were pretty good as well, but they spent more time trying to kill each other than they do dragons. Fishlegs was big and sturdy, but that was it. He would rather rattle on useless facts than put up a fight.
As far as anyone could tell, Astrid was the clear winner. She would get to slay a dragon, and she would get to make the village proud.
Gobber was standing, arms firmly behind his back. "Alright, here is where yeh are goin' to learn everythin' yeh need to slay a dragon! You may bruise, bleed, and possibly die…but nothin' to worry about."
"Bruise...?" A terrified Fishlegs began to tremble. "That sounds dangerous!"
"That's the point meh boy." Gobber clicked his foot and prosthetic together and walked in a straight line, passing by each teenager. "As I was sayin'..."
Tuffnut interrupted, "Man, I hope we get scars!" He cackled manically. "Chicks dig the scars." Snotlout high fived Tuffnut and glanced over at Astrid. He stepped closer to her as he attempted to woo her.
"Hey Astrid, since I know you think scars are such a turn on, do you wanna see where I have mine?" Snotlout waggled an eyebrow. 'I might have to tear that eyebrow out.' Astrid elbowed him in the gut and walked away without missing a beat."I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear anything over the sound of you hitting the ground." she smiled sweetly. Snotlout writhed in pain on the ground. Tuffnut had a slightly sympathetic look on his face. "Dude, your moves are just so sad. Seriously, I might be more hurt than you are just from watching that."
Snotlout wheezed, "Shut up before I make you shut up." Tuffnut stuck out his tongue. "Yeah, I'm so terrified." Snotlout got up to hit the other boy when Tuffnut gave Lout a quick kick to the knee. Immediately Snotlout was brought back to the ground.
Ruffnut watched in envy. "Hey you idiots, don't leave me out of the fun!" Quickly, she ran over and elbowed her twin in the eye. Both of them rolled around on the floor trying to top the other. Astrid rolled her eyes at the spectacle. "Anways…" She started, "..nothing's fun unless you get a scar out of it."
"Oh yeah, scars and pain! Man I just- yeah, you gotta love that stuff..." Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as Hiccup entered the arena with a failed attempt at bravado. "So...what's up guys?"
Astrid winced, what was he doing here? Her blue eyes glared at him, which made the boy flinch.
"What's this fishbone doing here?"
"I thought this was dragon training, not loser training..."
"I am so not cleaning up his blood!"
Hiccup nervously approached them and it was obvious he did not want to be here. Astrid watched as he sighed discontentedly; this made her angry. 'If he's not going to take this seriously, then he should just go. Idiot.'
Gobber stomped his foot loudly on a metal shield. This made everyone jump. "Now that yer' all here, let's get started shall we?" Hiccup joined the ranks with the other Vikings. Snotlout hit him with his shoulder, while Ruffnut and Tuffnut sniggered. Fishlegs gave him an apologetic look, which earned him a weak smile from Hiccup.
"As I was saying..." He eyed the group carefully, "This will be your dragon training. Here you will fight dragons, and become part of a Viking tradition. You will finally become full-fledged dragon slayers. Now as I said before: Bruises, blood and death. Any questions?"
In the corner of her eye, Astrid saw Hiccup gulp. She scoffed, 'Wimp.'
"Now this will be yeh first lesson!" Gobber gestured towards a huge metal door. He grabbed a giant lever, and pushed it down. The tumblers echoed throughout the arena. Suddenly, a faint growling could be heard. "Lesson 1: How to survive a surprise attack! Good luck!"
The door swung open, and a round dragon came out. It fluttered in the air, looking like a hummingbird. It was a Gronckle. Fishlegs spoke up, "Uh, shouldn't you teach us how to fight them first?"
Gobber had already reached the top of the gate by the time the dragon had come out. "I believe in learning on the job!" he called back.
Astrid readied herself for battle. 'Yes! This is what I've been waiting for!'
The Gronckle was taking in a deep breath and quickly shot out an intense fireball right at Snotlout. "Wah!" the burly Viking cried out.
"Quick!" Gobber yelled, "What is the first thing you make sure ya have?"
Hiccup quickly dodged a fireball. "A doctor?"
"Level 10 speed?" Fishlegs couldn't run quick enough, but the blast narrowly missed him.
Astrid replied confidently, "A shield!" With that, everyone scrambled to grab something to protect themselves from the blasts. Astrid rolled and grabbed the closest shield she could find. She took off after the beast. While she was running, she saw Tuff and Ruff fighting over a shield, and Snotlout standing still while gripping his tightly. Needless to say, all 3 managed to get shot.
"Three down!" Gobber bellowed. "Well don't just stand there Hiccup, run!"
Astrid felt the adrenaline surge through her, as she blocked a fireball from the Gronckle. She was getting back up from a roll, when she felt something touch her shoulder. She prepared to strike, but relaxed when she saw the culprit. It was Hiccup, and he looked completely frazzled. He manages to give her a nervous twitch of the lips, "I guess it's just you and me huh?
The blonde Viking saw the dragon heading towards them. "Nope, just you." She quickly tore herself away from where Hiccup was standing. She felt a slight twinge of guilt when she saw him almost get scorched by the flames. Hiccup ran as fast as he could, but he was soon cornered by the dragon. Astrid saw him shut his eyes, and brace himself for the painful death that awaited him; but that death never came.
"That was five shots, get back in yer' cage yeh little squirt!" Gobber pulled the dragon by the mouth and threw it behind the giant metal doors. Creaking loudly, the doors slowly shut and the arena was now empty, save for the Vikings.
Everyone except Gobber was covered in ash, with some hair singed off. Gobber gave Hiccup a stern look, and poked his chest. "Don't ever give a dragon a chance to corner yeh. They're beasts, the lot of em; they will not hesitate to kill yeh."
Hiccup dropped to his knees. Astrid shook her head and walked away. 'He shouldn't be here. All Hiccup is going to do is get himself killed, and we don't need any casualties...not anymore.' As everyone walked away, they failed to notice Hiccup's face becoming solemn. He opened and closed his mouth, then quietly got up to leave.
After another rigorous training session, all of the teens met with Gobber in the mead hall. It was pouring rain, and the lighting would frighten Thor himself.
"Alrigh', where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?"
Astrid answered Gobber's question with indifference. "I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy; it threw off my reverse tumble."
"Yeah," Ruffnut drawled, "we noticed." Astrid glared at her and huffed in annoyance. She would have to become better, to improve.
Snotlout quickly came to Astrid's defense. "No, no, you were great. That was so Astrid."
Astrid rolled her eyes at the burly boy's attempt to woo her. She noticed Hiccup came through the doors and walk towards the group, absolutely soaked to the skin.
"No, Astrid's right. You have to be hard on yerselves." Turning to Hiccup, Gobber pointed the boy out. "Now then, where did Hiccup go wrong?"
"Uh, he showed up."
"He didn't get eaten."
Astrid added bitterly, "He's never where he should be."
Hiccup didn't react to the first two comments, but flinched slightly when Astrid made her contribution. Astrid took this training seriously, and to have someone who didn't even know what he was doing messing everyone up? Regardless of whether or not Hiccup was with a dragon, or becoming more and more pronounced in her thoughts, Astrid found it extremely irritating.
"Thank you Astrid!" Gobber proclaimed. "You need to live and breathe this stuff."
Using his good hand, Gobber took out a thick, worn out book and threw it on the table. "The dragon manual; everything we know about every dragon we know of."
Astrid watched as the other teens looked at the book with reluctant and bored expressions on their faces. Fishlegs was the only one who looked like he had been given a chest full of gold. Astrid barely glanced at the manual; she had no need for such a thing. Instinct and strength were the only tools needed in a fight. Hiccup hadn't looked at anything besides the food in front of him and ignored the rest of the group.
Thunder rumbled, threatening to send a bolt of lightning down. Gobber glanced up at the ceiling and told them that they could be dismissed. "No attacks tonight, study up."
This did not go over well with the teens. "Read? While we're still alive?" asked an incredulous Ruffnut.
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?"
Only Fishlegs was eagerly anticipating this assignment. "Oh! I've read it like seven times! There's this water dragon that like sprays this boiling water at your face!"
Tuffnut silenced Fishleg's excited chatter. "Yeah, there was a chance I was gonna read that…"
"But now…" Ruffnut concurred with her brother.
Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff and Fishlegs left the table, leaving only Hiccup and Astrid. As she prepared to leave as well, Hiccup slowly walked over to her. Smiling nervously, he tried to make conversation. "So I guess we'll share?"
Astrid quickly cut him off. "Read it." She picked up and left Hiccup by himself as she walked out into the storm to go home.