In my story, dragons become adults quicker than humans.

Age 2½: teen

Age 5-6: young adult

Age 7: mature adult, which lasts till…however long it lasts.

Chapter Three

The New Member

I try to calm my racing heart as I slowly stalk a boar. One paw step after the other; I'm almost quivering with excitement. But determination keeps me still.

It hasn't noticed me yet, and hopefully it never will. I carefully place a paw on a moldy leaf, so it doesn't make a lot of noise.

Finally, I'm close enough. Narrowing my eyes, I bunch up my hind legs and spring. Landing squarely on the beast's back, I quickly raise my right paw and kill it with a blow to the neck before it can squeal.

Jumping off, I gaze at my prey in pride as I stand in the misty forest. A small trickle of blood leaks onto the cold earth from the gash on the boar's neck. It's a good-sized meal; feed the younger ones for a couple of days, it would.

It's been almost a year since I started training with Skurge, and I've gotten a lot bigger. We can't train every day, so we went for once a week. With all the classes and extra training with my mentor, I'm one of the most skillful students- if I do say so myself. I can fly now, as well as my classmates, and, as promised, Miss Sky is teaching us to fly with stuff in our paws. So is Skurge. Also, Dracen, Ash and I, along with some other students, have started Fight training now that we're old enough. It is taught by two dragons: a male Monstrous Nightmare named Fiery, and a female Smothering Smokebreath named Mrs. Storm. I don't understand why Fiery prefers us not to call him Mister, but I don't question.

The new (new to me) students in the Fight class are decent. I usually hang out with Dracen and Ash most of the time. Though there is this one Timberjack that looks like he's got the stuff to join our trio.

Hahaha, we've become a fairly popular group in the young dragon world. Maybe I'll invite him. He can certainly fight well, and no doubt, with his huge wings, he's a good flier. His wings are their natural orange color, but his snake-like body is a foresty shade of green.

Then…there's the whole, 'becoming a teenager' thing. Of course, I'm not that close to becoming one, but my body's changed a bit. For one thing, I've gotten all of my muscles and Skurge seems like he's trying to whip every one up into shape. I've gotten my adult claws, as do the rest of the dragons my age. Skurge is making sure I keep them needle-sharp. I don't know why he's so…desperate to make me the best I can be. I know that he's very devoted to our… agreement but is this all really necessary? The strangest thing, however, is my right paw. In the past few months, it has turned a fiery crimson color. It's so weird, and Ash has mentioned it once. Skurge seems to find it amusing, and when I see that look, I usually roll my eyes.

Speaking of Skurge, I watch as the devil himself slithers towards me, the fog tumbling off of his snake-like body as he gets closer.

"Congratulations." He rumbles, "That's a sizable boar. You've done well, but I'm not completely impressed. The size will slow you down; let's see you fly this back to the village."

"I want to bring it to Zelda and her new litter."

My mentor narrows his eyes, "Why? It's not our problem that she's too busy to hunt and her mate is no use at all."

"Yes," I smirk, "but what are we without new hatchlings that will grow into strong, fine dragons? We wouldn't be able to get our revenge on Berk." There it is. I've hit his weak spot. He scowls and flicks his tail.

I huff and try to figure out where to grip the beast. Zelda, actually, is Dracen's aunt. Her eggs hatched a few weeks ago, and she's got her paws full with six energetic hatchlings. Finally, I decide to sink my claws into the soft flesh beneath the shoulder blade and use my other paw to scoop up the boar's rear.

Spreading my wings, I take off out into the dusk sky. It slips a little, but I quickly catch it. I've become especially good at flying, but I know I won't be considered an expert until Miss Sky takes us into a storm. She's still convinced that we aren't quite ready and keeps adding weight to the load that we practice with. This boar, compared to what we carry, is nothing.

My colored wing tips and marks on my white body turn as blood red as the dusk sky as I fly. Looking around, I see one of Zelda's young wrestling with his sibling. Soon, their mother comes out of a large hollow in the ground and the other hatchlings pour out after her. Laughing a little, I dive down and land gracefully.

Zelda looks up and I nudge the meat towards her. She brings her kids along with her as she walks towards me. "Thank you." she murmurs as she sniffs the prey. One of the hatchlings starts biting at its soft underbelly. Soon, he's joined by her other siblings and her mother, who only takes a couple of bites.

Then, she licks her chops and gazes at me gratefully. "Thank you." she says again, "If my mate comes back from his hunt soon with prey to spare, we will give some to you. Why did you give us this?"

"We need young dragons to survive," I reply, "It's the only way the dragon species will thrive. And, I don't know if you've heard, but we're preparing for an attack on Berk. It might not be for a while, but the Outcasts would want them to be ready."

She looks a bit uneasy at the thought of her kids fighting, but just then, Dracen and his family come. While the adults talk and the younger dragons play, Dracen trots up to me. He's slightly bigger than me, and his scales are as orange as ever.

"What's up, Phoenix?" he barks happily, "Nice catch, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Have you seen Ash around?" I blink. Where is she? Shaking my head, I say, "No. Did something happen?"

"I don't know. I just haven't seen her since yesterday during Flight class." I shrug and say, "She's probably just busy. Anyways, what do you think about the Fight class?" As a matter of fact, we've only gone to a couple of lessons. They seem to go by quicker than the Flight lessons.

Dracen shrugs, "Its pretty cool, I guess. I'm more into flying, though."

I nod and stretch on my forepaws, curving my back. We watch the adult Changewings for a few moments, and then decide to go for a fly. They don't object and we take flight. The darkening sky doesn't affect our eyesight, or at least mine since I was born in the Dark Cave.

"So, you know that Timberjack in our Fight class?" I say as we fly. Dracen nods and I continue, "Well, I think he seems pretty cool. Like, maybe we can invite him to join our group. I haven't seen him fight yet, since not a lot of us have had the chance, but I think…. okay this is going to sound kind of weird but I think he'll be…useful to us."

The young male looks at me with a cocked eyebrow, "Useful to us? What, are we going to take over the world or something?" I snort and shake my head, "Of course not. You know what I mean!"

He laughs and says, "Well, I haven't really talked to him before but if you want him to be our friend, go ahead. He seems decent, but then again, I've never met him."

Jerking my head, I spot a certain Smothering Smokebreath on top of a roof. Diving down, I land and ask, "Hey, Ash, where've you been?"

The smaller dragon jumps a bit in surprise and turns towards us. "What do you mean?" she asks. Dracen lands beside me and says, "We- I haven't seen you since yesterday morning."

"Oh right," Ash shifts her paws, "well…its just family stuff. My parents have been teaching me how 'real Smokebreaths hunt'." Yeah, at this point in life, parents usually teach their young how to hunt. But since I don't have my parents with me- I suppress a growl- Skurge is the one teaching me.

Dracen snorts and leads us to the ground, "Well if that's all, then you could've asked me to hypnotize them into teaching you the normal way." By the way, Dracen has mastered the art of hypnotism. Can't exactly say that's a good or bad thing.

"Oh yeah."

I perk up and start to tell her about my idea of the Timberjack. She remains emotionless as I speak, but I ignore it. When I'm done, she shrugs, "I guess so. Sawyer seems pretty cool. Why not?"

The Timberjack's name must be Sawyer. I guess that makes sense, since Timberjacks have wings that can cut down trees and his name sounds like saw er and…yeah.

"Then it's decided?" They both nod and I fly off in search of food for myself.

Raven's POV

I watch from atop the branches of a fir tree as Nate stalks a young doe. He's trying as best as he can, but I can still see many flaws that he's making. His tail is waving from side to side, and he's crouching too low.

There's the sound of a snapping twig, and I wince as the deer lifts its head. Nate lets out a roar and pounces, but the already tense deer sprints away. He tries to run after it, but soon gives up and I jump down from the tree.

"Stupid deer!" my son snarls as he saunters over to me, "Why can't I get this right?"

"Practice, Nate. It takes practice and patience."

Nate sighs and suddenly Irria comes crashing through the undergrowth, a squirrel in her jaws.

"Haha!" she drops the prey, "This one almost got away, but I chased it up the tree and caught it!"

I purr, "Well done!"

"Aww, come on!" Nate growls, "What am I doing wrong?"

"Your tail was waving, and you were crouching so low you couldn't leap properly. Also, you need to practice evening the weight you put on each paw and navigating your way through the undergrowth."

He sighs in annoyance and I nuzzle him. "Let's just practice fishing." I say and he nods.

I pick up the squirrel and nudge the two young dragons into the sky. They're still clumsy when they fly, and can't carry their prey in the sky for very long, but they're still learning.

Before we go to the fishing river, I fly into the village to drop off the rodent. Irria and Nate follow me. "That looks good."

I turn around to see Toothless watching us. "Irria caught it all by herself." I say and Irria beams.

"Really?" her father exclaims, "Good job."

"We were just going to go fishing." Nate says, not wanting his sister to have all the attention.

"Right." Irria says before suddenly taking off into the sky, "Race ya there!"

"Hey not fair!" her brother calls after her, "You got a head start!"

Purring, I nuzzle Toothless as we watch our two kids play in the sky. Occasionally, one would falter in the air, but then the other would help them up. I smile, glad at how they're growing up. Then I sigh. It would've been so hard for Phoenix to grow up with them. To fly and fight as well as them, with her small size.

She wouldn't have made it.

Phoenix's POV

"Attention!" I pull my paw back as I try to take a step towards Sawyer. Everybody gathers around Fiery and Mrs. Storm as they call the class to start. Growling a bit in frustration, I glance at the young Timberjack, who is joining the rest of the class, and stalk back towards Ash.

She turns to look at me with her amber eyes, which look even brighter with the black rings around her eyes, as I hiss, "Is it possible to actually get to him?"

It's late afternoon and we're in Fight training. It is held on a series of large, flat rocks that are somewhat smooth. Sawyer is either near the teachers or talking to another dragon, which is why it's kinda hard to get to him. I don't want somebody to hear us and then have him or her beg to join.

Ash snorts, which earns both of us a glare from Fiery. "Today, class, you are going to pair up and practice the moves we've taught you." Mrs. Storm gazes at us, "Don't pair up with your friends; I want smaller dragons against smaller, and bigger with bigger."

As the students break up into pairs, Fiery adds hastily, "And sheathed claws, please." I look at Ash and she shrugs. I'm obviously bigger than her so we can't pair up. "Hey, why don't you pair up with Sawyer?" she suggests and points towards him with her nose. I wink and bound towards him.

The young male turns towards me and I slow down. "Hi!" I say cheerfully, "I'm Phoenix. Want to pair up?"

He looks surprised, but then says, "Sure, but I've gotta warn you, it might not be a fair fight. I mean, a little female Night Fury like you against a macho male Timberjack like me-" I laugh and interrupt him, "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

I playfully bow and wiggle my haunches, ready to fight. "Alright then." He says, "I'm Sawyer, by the way."

Before we start, Mrs. Storm and Fiery demonstrate. I expected Mrs. Storm to lose because of her size, but she actually does pretty well and comes out on top. Meanwhile, I notice that Ash has paired up with a Terrible Terror. She catches my eye and gives me a 'seriously' look. I laugh, knowing that she's more than capable of dealing with a Terror.

Dracen is paired up with a Hideous Zippleback. Why he would want to deal with two heads, I don't know.

Once the demonstration is over, the paired up students start dueling. I dodge as Sawyer attempts to pin me with his snake-like body. Seriously, he's like a giant snake with wings.

I duck under one of his wings and grab his tail in my jaws without drawing blood. He yelps and I let go, leaping onto his back. He staggers a little under my weight but then tries to poke me with his horns. I cling onto his back as he jerks his head in frustration, his knees starting to give out. Meanwhile, I can't help but notice how much bigger he is than me. He's nearly three times my size! I bet a look like an overly large rabbit hanging onto his back.

Finally, he manages to fling me off and while I'm getting up, he leaps at me and swings his razor-sharp wing fronts at me. I bend backwards and it barely misses my nose.

Once his entire wing passes over my head, I flip forwards and, as he turns back towards me, I leap at him. My head crashes into his belly and knocks him off his feet and knocks the air out of him. He falls onto his back and I spring onto his belly, successfully pinning him.

Sawyer gasps in surprise and I purr. Bending my forearms onto his chest, curving my back, and tail curled, I purr, "Who's the macho one now, hm?"

Eh, I felt like making the group bigger. After all, she's going to need as many dragons as she can get for what's coming... *evil grin*