II

Asher really wished Coal wasn't here.

Coal was her best friend and all, but he wasn't helping.

They were following Hiccup and Astrid, going to the "Academy" (whatever that was). Coal was riding next to her, and she could see him glaring daggers at Hiccup and Astrid. Seriously, what did he have against them? Sure, Astrid had tried to kill his dragon, but that was a misunderstanding!

Anyway, Coals disliking of Astrid was the least of her problems. She had bigger things to deal with. Like that little secret she was keeping…..

"So, where's this academy again?" Asher asked, desperate to change the subject on her mind.

"Right below us." called back Hiccup, heading into a dive. Astrid followed, and so did Asher and Coal. When Asher looked down, she saw a village that must have been Berk. A wide expanse of houses, spread out across a large hillside. Hiccup was headed to something that looked like a chain-link patch in the land. As they got closer, she could see it was an arena of some sort, covered by a chain-link net. Hiccup landed near the entrance, followed by Asher, Astrid, and Coal.

Now that Hiccup was off his dragon, Asher could get a good look at him. He had brown hair that stuck up behind him in little spikes, green eyes, and a little scar below his lip. Hey had a metal contraption where his left foot should've been, who knew the story behind that. His Nightfury-Toothless, she remembered, had a red tailfi- holy mother, did his dragon have a prosthetic tail? Man, that's cool.

Hiccup started to walk into the arena, where 3 dragons and 4 people were training.

"Nice left foot." Asher heard Coal whisper. "Ow!"

Her elbow, his gut.

"Can you please just shut up? We need these guys, and we don't want any of them hating us." Said Asher.

"Fine."

Asher looked at the dragons in the arena. There was a large guy with a Gronkle, two kids- a boy and a girl- that looked like twins that had a Zippleback, and another guy, this one with a Monstrous Nightmare.

"Guys," said Hiccup, "meet Asher and Coal. And their dragons, Nightwing and Jetblack. Asher, Coal, this is Snotlout and Hookfang, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Barf and Belch, and Fishlegs and Meatlug."

"Uh, Hiccup?"

"Yes, Fishlegs?"

"Where did they get Nightfuries?"

"From the Outcasts. Well, the Berserkers now."

"Where did the Outcasts get NightFuries?"

"That's the problem here. We don't know. But we need to find out and rescue any other Nightfuries before the Outcasts/Berserkers find any more."

The arena was silent for a moment.

"Wait, there are 3 Nightfuries now? I'm confused." said Tuffnut.

"Muttonhead." Asher mumbled.

"Not even close." said Hiccup, clearly hearing her.

"Wouldn't trying to save the Nightfuries with these guys be a little suicidal?" asked Coal.

"Again," Said Hiccup, more confidently this time. "not even close."