7/6/10
A/N Had kind of a mental block with this one. Extra special thanks to Toothless-the-nightfury for betaing and offering some perspective! And thanks to everyone who's reviewed, y'all are great :D Though just a side note to the extra-exuberant Anon poster: two dozen reviews asking me to update is not going to make it go faster, it's just going to make me spend an extra ten minutes deleting all the reviews (apologies to anyone whose legitimate review may have gotten removed in the great purge).
Happy reading!
They walked over the wooden bridge to the training arena; Hiccup had been there a handful of times in his life to witness some event or another, and he knew that's where the newest batch of dragon fighters was trained. Not that his dad would ever let him participate, no matter how much he begged. As they got closer, Toothless began growling low in his chest, ears back and eyes narrowing to near slits.
"Stop that," Astrid chided, though her tone was soft, compassionate. She reached up and rubbed his ear, which seemed to soothe the dragon. "It's ok, they're no threat."
"What's wrong with him?"
She stopped and her mouth twisted a little in thought. It was a rather charming look he'd never seen before from her normally warrior-tough features. "Stuff happened the last time he was here - It wasn't good." She looked back at Toothless and gave his ear another pat. "But things are different now. You'll see."
She continued walking slowly and they followed suit. "This is where we trained to kill dragons."
"Yeah, I know what it's for. My memory isn't that gone."
"No, Hiccup, I meant 'we', as in you and I. And the rest of the kids, of course."
"No. My dad would never agree to that."
She shrugged. "He did, though most of us certainly wondered why. You were horrible at first: slow, scatter-brained, never were where you should be…"
"Thanks for summing that up." Hiccup really didn't need a rundown of his failures, especially ones he didn't even get to experience firsthand.
"…but," she said pointedly with a look telling him to be quiet, "you started performing better. You could drop a Deadly Nadder in two seconds and herd an angry Zippleback back into its pen without a single scorch mark. It was…annoying." She let a small smile play on her lips. "At least until you told me the truth. But in the meantime, you were chosen as the top of the class and were supposed to kill a Monstrous Nightmare for your final exam."
Hiccup gulped at the mere thought. He was better than Astrid? How was that possible?
"What happened?" he couldn't help asking.
She looked down shyly. "You did the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do. You stood up in front of your father, in front of everybody, and you told them you weren't going to do it, that they didn't have to be killed." She frowned. "Things didn't go well, though. Your dad was really angry, which got the Nightmare angry. It would have killed you if Toothless hadn't shown up to fight it off."
Hiccup looked at the dragon…no his dragon. He'd have to start accepting that responsibility soon enough. He remembered what his dad had said: Toothless would do anything to keep him safe. He patted the soft nose in a silent thank you.
"Come on," she told him. "We'll get to the rest later. I want you to see this."
Half of the training arena floor was covered in dragons of all shapes and sizes and breeds. Most of them paced around quietly, or slept while some were chattering loudly. None seemed the least violent. Toothless sniffed at them in an almost dismissive manner. Hiccup got the impression he wasn't fond of them.
"With the nest gone, I guess these guys didn't have a place to go. So they've slowly just been migrating to the island. The new ones get put here where we can teach them how to leave peacefully around us and each other. If they don't seem like they'll adapt well, we ask them to leave and they just… go."
"Hey, Hiccup! Look, guys, it's Hiccup!"
His head shot up at hearing the familiar voice shout his name, and a tingle of fear shot down his spine, bracing for the inevitable jibe or slur on his manhood, but the dark-hair boy just jogged up to him and gave him a friendly slap on the back. Behind him he could see Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs moving towards him. "Thought you were going to sleep through all the hard work, huh?" Snotlout said with a jovial grin. "You're the main man now; things'll be a lot smoother."
"Um, yeah I don't know how smooth I'll be making anything," Hiccup said as the other kids waved and grinned at him.
Astrid cleared her throat. "Hiccup can't remember what's happened. I thought showing him what we're doing might help."
"Can't remember?" Tuffnut asked. "What you mean like he has amnesty?"
"Amnesia, you idiot," his sister said and elbowed him in the chest. Then Ruff stepped forward, leaning close to Hiccup's face. "Your name is Hic-CUP! You are a Vi-KING! You live on – owowowow!"
"He knows that and he's not deaf," Astrid said through gritted teeth as she tossed the other girl out of the way by her braid. "I mean he can't remember anything since we started training."
"Wow that sucks, dude," Snotlout said sincerely. "You mean you can't remember how I single-handedly killed that giant dragon?"
"He can't, but I can," Astrid answered with narrowed eyes.
"Kidding, kidding!"
"What can we do to help?" Fishlegs asked quietly.
"I want to introduce him to your dragons, since they were the first, besides Toothless."
The teens seemed excited about showing off their companions and rounded them up from where they had been mingling among the new wild dragons. Astrid whistled sharply and a Deadly Nadder with bright blue body and yellow spikes eagerly ran forward to greet her, nuzzling her hair. "Hey there, Baby Girl," Astrid practically cooed at the dragon, patting her neck. "Did you miss me?" She looked back at Hiccup, blushing, "She's really spoiled - it really fits her. If you have a problem with that…?"
"Hey I didn't say anything."
Fishlegs walked over with a chubby brown dragon hovering alongside him, and Astrid continued the introductions. "This is Butterball. He's the one we practiced on the most." Fishlegs was scratching the Gronckle's neck enthusiastically, until it keeled over at his feet like Toothless had earlier. "Yeah," Astrid said slowly, "they do that sometimes."
Hiccup just nodded knowingly.
On the other side of the arena Ruff and Tuff had gotten into an argument over who was going to actually bring their dragon over while the dragon's two heads hovered apprehensively over them. Once Ruff had Tuff in a painful looking arm lock, each head grabbed the back of a twin's shirt and separated them as far as its necks could strain. Even hanging several feet in the air, the siblings continued to sling insults at each other. Astrid sighed. "The Zippleback is theirs. They can't discuss naming it without bringing out weapons, so I think it's stuck with Hey You for the time being."
"Hey, hey!" Snotlout called out from atop a Monstrous Nightmare as it walked slowly up to Hiccup. He jumped down dramatically and said, "And this is Flameskin. Because her skin flames up! Get it?"
Hiccup was nodding politely, that yes; he did indeed get it, when an angry cry pierced the air from behind. Looking back, he could see Toothless, ears completely back and teeth fully bore, snarling at the Nightmare. In response Flameskin became immediately consumed in a ball of flame.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Snotlout cried. "What's up with this?" Grabbing nearby bucket of water, he dowsed the dragon, leaving only tendrils of hissing steam. "Come on, girl, let's get out of here," Snotlout said, leading the Nightmare away.
Toothless continued to growl quietly at the retreating Nightmare. Astrid sighed. "The rules are no fighting in the arena. He has to go."
Hiccup gaped at her. "You mean off the island?"
"No, no. Just out of here. I can't have him getting the rest of them worked up."
"Fine, I'll take him home."
"Oh, well actually, I was hoping you'd ride with me."
"What?"
She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "On my dragon." With a small smile, she said, "I sort of owe you one." Hiccup hesitated. "Look, you're going to need to learn how to fly Toothless soon enough, you may as well start easy."
"Why do I need to do it at all? Why don't you fly him?"
"Because he's your dragon, and he would never allow anyone else to do it. You're the only one he trusts; you're the only one that knows how to run that rig of yours."
"Except I don't," he mumbled. She sighed and put a hand on her hip. "Ok, ok." He turned to the Night Fury. "Go home, Toothless. I'll be there soon." Toothless snorted and flapped his wings, before turning and stomping out of the arena. Hiccup found himself sorry to see the dragon go. Looking back he saw that Astrid was already on the Nadder. "Great. This can't possibly go wrong," he muttered to himself.
