How to Train Your Dragon: the Novelization

Chapter 7:Taking Flight Once Again; A New Dragon Fighter's in Town

Four Days Later

Dragon Training Coliseum

Two days had passed, and today was another one of their training exercises, made by their 'Learning on the Job' teacher, Gobber. He seemed tickled as ever to beginning this training exercise, even though he wasn't known for best teenager-handling skills. The students, those who had shown up, were all holding buckets of water. This in on its own was a most unusual form of weapon being used in the training session. And it would have started at this moment, if one student was there.

Gobber looked around, scratching the back of his head while his mace hand was thudding his hip. "It's been nearly five days now. More time than usual for an absentee." He thought aloud as he tried to figure out where that one student was, "Now where on earth is…?"

"I'm here! Sorry. I've been busy; y'know. School and work just doesn't mix anymore." Hiccup called out, running into the ring.

At least, they thought it was Hiccup, if anyone didn't recognize his voice and dry humor. Truth of the matter was that he had been gone for about four days tops. As such, Gobber had to hold the lesson back until Hiccup had shown up. But now, their seasoned warrior was trying to figure out if this really was Hiccup who had shown up.

The truth was, he wasn't as scrawny as he was anymore; no longer even identified as a human toothpick. Showing off on his rolled up sleeves to his elbows, slender muscles flexed all over his body. It wasn't like his father's frame or Snotlout's, but more of a Spider-Man frame of build. This was made evident as it was certainly a far cry from his former stick-like frame. Aside from also the physical change, he also had a few weapons on him. On his left wrist, was a black wrist band, which looked to be made of dragon scales, a rolled up whip of sorts, and a bola with cloth for the rope. In overall appearance, it was a new Hiccup in some ways.

"Ah, well, um…" Gobber stated, raising an eyebrow at this sudden change in his friend's son after four days. But easily brushed it aside as the lesson was about to begin. "Since you got here a bit late, and that we're one teammate, you'll be paired up with Fishlegs and Syn for today's lesson," he then pointed to one of the buckets, "Take a bucket of water, and join up with them, alright?"

"Yeah, no problem," Hiccup replied as he jogged over to the last bucket and picked it up.

Making sure not to spill any of the contents, he ran over to Fishlegs and Syn, who were just as stunned as Astrid and the others. When he got over to the two teens, he stood his ground, keeping at the alert. But he couldn't help but notice the stares of everyone around him, especially of the other two behind him.

Finally, he sighed as he looked around and asked Syn and Fishlegs, "What?"

"What exactly did you do to yourself?" was all that Syn asked, cocking an eyebrow and her mouth agape for a moment, as she tried to take this change in. "The last five days you've been missing, you suddenly come back, looking a little more… well, you know," she stated as she pointed at his new physical frame.

"Yeah, it's like you suddenly reached enough levels to go from meek to Ultra," Fishlegs stated, his RPG lingo once again being his usual way to interpret his thoughts to the others.

Not wishing to tell them the whole truth, Hiccup sighed as he shrugged, "Well, I've um… been doing some extra training. I mean, you guys've been probably doing some similar stuff too, right?"

"Well, yeah," Syn pointed out, "But we never did anything that make us grow extra muscle like that in at least five days."

"Alright, enough chitchat," Gobber pointed out as he pulled on a string connected to one of the cage levers.

Suddenly, the doors opened, but expecting the usual dragon bursting through the doors, or fire being spewed out, something else bellowed out from the cage. From out of the cage, dark gray smoke waved over the ground, going as fast as to nearly blot out all light. The smoke nearly encompassed the whole coliseum grounds, but not before Gobber, who was striding to the side casually, gave them some last minute advice.

"Today, you will learn Teamwork," Gobber advised as he strode out of the way. "Today's dragon is the Hideous Zippleback. Unlike all the other dragons, this fellah doesn't spew fire, but rather creates explosions, and is extra tricky to boot. It's also the only dragon to have two heads; one head spews out a combustible gas, and the other ignites it." as Gobber strode over to the safe lines, Unfer, who had been gone as well for some time, was watching this session as well with interest, as Gobber continued, "The trick in this exercise is to find the head that ignites the smoke and douse it. A wet dragon's head can't produce either flame or sparks if it's wet."

As all the teen teams, Hiccup, who was still teamed up with Fishlegs and Syn, his head was remembering the training that Draco had put him through.

Three days ago

Hiccup was doing pushups with the large rocks tied at his wrists and ankles, while Toothless rested his head on his back. As he did the pushups, he did them with his shirt off, and under a small bed of smoking red rocks, that Toothless had kept lit. At this time, the muscles on Hiccup's exposed arms and chest, were beginning to develop at a fast pace. As Hiccup sweated and breathed with groans going through his teeth, Draco was sitting about ten feet from the boy, as he quizzed the boy.

"Alright, Hiccup," Draco started, acting like they were having a quiz, "Let's begin: A Zippleback's means of attack. Is it fire?"

Groaning through his mouth, Hiccup answered, "No… it creates explosions… using a type of combustible… gas."

"Correct," Draco answered as eh smirked, "But how does it do this?"

"Well…" Hiccup strained, trying to make sure he didn't get a burnt belly. "It does it… by its head…. One Head spews out the gas… the other ignites it."

"Excellent," Draco nodded, "But which head creates the spark?"

"Um…" Hiccup thought, not sure of the answer, "Either head could do it… depending on the dragon's birth."

"Nope," Draco shook his head as he pointed out, "For the Zippleback, every one born under different rookery eggs, the left head from all of them each create the spark."

"And… and the only way to stop them… is to douse the head… that makes the spark?" Hiccup asked, the strain starting to get to him. But Toothless spotted this, and using his tail, smacked Hiccup lightly in the rear, getting the boy back in place and with enough energy back to boot.

"That's one way to do it," Draco explained. "However… the teeth and the beak on the left head are an organic form of flint. Even if the head was wet, it could still create a spark by scratching its teeth or the outside of the mouth."

"So…" Hiccup replied, as he did the last pushup. Then Toothless got off him, and pulled him up with his tail, as Hiccup balanced himself on his feet, and finished, "… so it's not enough just to douse the spark head, you gotta make sure that the mouth and teeth can't scratch a hard surface to make another spark."

Back in Present Time

"First it'll bite us with its fangs. Each containing a syringe of toxic venom for pre-digestion," Fishlegs muttered, breaking Hiccup out of his train of thought. But Hiccup then took notice of Syn, who was slightly freaked out, but not by Fishlegs's facts. It was something else, as her grip on the bucket she held tightened, and her eye was full of fright. But that went ignored for now, as Fishlegs continued, "Then, it'll use the other head to wrap is in a crushing…."

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup silently shushed the other Viking, in a calm tone, "I appreciate the facts you're giving out, but Syn's freaking out here." and then with a hushed but angered tone, Hiccup finished, "WILL YOU PLEASE STOP IT!"

Elsewhere in the mist, Snotlout and Tuffnut were keeping an eye out for the dragon as well. Their buckets were at the ready, as they stood back to back, cautiously keeping an eye out for the Zippleback. However, as usual, Snotlout was boasting out.

"If that dragon shows either of its faces, I'm gonna…" but stopped himself as he took notice of a shadow from the smoke, illuminated by the light. Both boys stopped as they saw the figure's silhouette in the smoke. They couldn't make it out, but saw horns, and assumed it to be a dragon. "There!"

The two threw their buckets out, shooting the water right at the shadows. "Hey!" a familiar female voice spoke out as the smoke cleared from that point. It was Ruffnut, who was a little soaked, and Astrid, who was dry as a bone. Tuffnut's sister huffed, "It's us, you idiots."

The two boys looked to each other, trying to come up with an excuse. But Tuffnut made the first dumb one as he chuckled, "Your butts are getting bigger. We thought you were the dragon."

But Snotlout shrugged, trying to make it into a compliment for Astrid, "Not that there's… anything wrong with having a dragon-esque figure, though."

However, at the end of that sentence, both Snotlout and Tuffnut were about to get it from their little excuses. Astrid walked up to Snotlout… and delivered a hard right uppercut to the jaw to the teen Viking, sending him to the ground. Ruffnut threw her bucket right at her brother, knocking him back on his butt. As Tuffnut was getting back up, something snagged him on the pants, and pulled him screaming into the fog. The only thing that came out of the fog, was his helmet, as the screaming and yelling continued.

Ruffnut was about to run in to get her brother, but Astrid grabbed her, "Don't, wait!"

Then suddenly, the two girls were pushed back on their butts, as Tuffnut was thrown at them from the fog. The boy was unharmed, but he was pretty freaked out as he ran out of there, passing Fishlegs, Syn, and Hiccup, yelling, "AAAAAH! I'm hurt! I'm very much hurt! AAAAAH!"

Fishlegs shrunk behind his bucket as he nervously squeaked from his throat, "Chances of survival are dwindling into single-digits now…"

Then, snaking its way out of the dissipating smoke, the dragon's heads were showing themselves, including the rest of the dragons. The dragon was light green in its scale color, with a light green underbelly, going from tail to jaw. The dragon's limbs were small, but strong enough to go fast, and support the triangle-shaped frame, with the front of the triangle body, and the top as the end. On the end, was a tail that split in two at the middle, and traveling down the tails and up to the heads were red like spines that seem to look like zipper teeth. Its wings were folded onto its sides, with only one wing bone, leaving a bat wing shape design on the single membrane wing. Its heads were bulbous, attached to thin but strong long necks to its body. Two large sharp teeth stuck out from the sides of the mouth as small sharp teeth stuck out from the bottom. They had yellow cat eyes with black slits, a yellow horn on top of their nose that pointed back, and two straight black horns shooting out of the back. This, was the Hideous Zippleback, the only dragon that had two heads and that created explosions. A very tricky dragon, considering that no one knew which head did which, until it was too late.

The two heads slithered side by side, like snakes as it sized up on the three Vikings who it spotted out. The first target they spotted was the large and shook up Viking boy, as one head slunked slow then fast. Fishlegs easily jumped back, as the head that lingered at him began to pull back in a cobra-like fashion. Seeing this as his chance, Fishlegs threw the water at the dragon's head, easily soaking it. Fishlegs smirked at the task finished, but nervously frowned, as he saw the head didn't create a spark, but spewed out the green combustible gas.

He chuckled nervously as he silently pointed out, "Oh, heh… wrong head." And then ran off, screaming at the top of his lungs, leaving his two teammates behind.

Hiccup sighed in exasperation, "Some help he is."

However, his attention, as was Syn's, were turned toward the heads as they snapped at them. Hiccup jumped back, as did Syn, even though a squeaked scream came escaping from her throat. Hiccup saw this behavior in his remaining teammate, and suddenly remembered why she was acting like this. However, that was put aside from the moment, as Hiccup spotted the head that he was aiming for. Almost taunting the two, the left head started to produce sparks from its mouth every time it quickly snapped its mouth, almost threatening the two.

"Now, Hiccup!" urged Gobber, who was watching the fight.

Not waiting for the last second, Hiccup ran up only a few feet of the Dragon as it backed away for a second. With a good swing of his bucket, Hiccup threw the water right at the left head. Unfortunately, for the boy, the left head took heed of this, and in a split second, it shifted out of the way of the water's path, allowing the contents to splash on the ground behind it. The two heads looked at the water, and then back at the boy, almost silently snickering at the boy's feeble attempt.

"Oh, come on," Hiccup groaned in defeat as his shoulders slumped.

The ZippleBack shot towards Hiccup, in an attempt to attack, as the boy was moving back from it. However, Hiccup was not the intended target, as the right head whipped to the left, and flung the boy aside, going right past him. As Gobber ran over to help Hiccup, the lad started to get back up, only to see the Zippleback's intended target. It was charging right at Syn.

Unfer saw this display in the dragon's changed target, and silently cursed, "You stupid lizard. I told you and your friends to go after the boy."

Syn slowly backed away, as the Zippleback approached her; its maws snarling and hissing like a snake at her. At first, anyone who saw the girl would immediately take action, and throw either a bomb or the bucket of water at the sparking head. But instead, she did something no one else would have thought she would do. Slowly, the bucket slipped out of her hand, as the ZippleBack slowly approached her. Then, she screamed out lout in terror for everyone to hear, including Hiccup as he looked at the female Viking teenager; fear and terror only showing on her face at this point.

Immediately, Hiccup bolted up to his feet before Gobber got to him. He rushed towards the scene, even as Gobber shouted, "HICCUP, NO!"

However, his cry went unheard, as Hiccup sped towards the Zippleback. As he did this, he brought out the bola he had on his belt, and began to spin it around with only his wrist doing the spinning.

The Zippleback had cornered Syn into the wall, not allowing her to escape at all. She tried to run on one side, but the head on the right stopped her, by spraying the gas out, nearly encompassing her. She tried to run on the left, but as it happened, the Zippleback's left head got in front of her, startling her by taunting in making a spark to ignite the gas. The Zippleback continued to taunt her, as she curled up into a ball on the ground, closing her eye as she nearly whimpered for the ZippleBack to go away. And the Zippleback was about to do so, by igniting the gas…

"Hey, you!" Hiccup shouted out, as he skidded to a stop.

The Zippleback's heads turned to face the right, just to see the boy that it swatted away. Hiccup's skid came to a halt as he threw the bolas right at the beast. It started in slow motion as the bolas were closing in on the beast's left head. The bolas spun in the fashion they were thrown in, but as they spun, the ropes that held the rocks together began to unravel into soaked cloths. Then time returned to normal, as the bolas suddenly wrapped around the left head's mouth, closing it tightly as the creature regained a bit composure.

It got back on its feet, only to realize that its left head's jaw was completely encompassed in what appeared to be wet leather or something. It tried to shake its head loose of the bands, but no avail. Hiccup saw that it worked, and hopped onto the back, jumping past the two heads that tried to get the bolas off. The young Viking then ran over to his frightened friend, leading her out of the smoke mist.

As the two were cleared, Hiccup helped Syn down to the ground, as she knelt down, coughing out all the smoke. "You okay, Syn?" Hiccup asked in concern for her. "It didn't spook you too bad, did it?"

"No," Syn coughed out, getting the last of the smoke out of her lungs. "Not as much as before," she then weakly looked to her savior, a little surprised to see him like this, "Though, I gotta admit. Seein' you come to my rescue like that… " the then let a weak smile spread across her face as she looked at him, "It's a pretty rare thing to see."

However, their happy moment was gone, as they heard the ZippleBack roar at them both, but particularly at Hiccup. The boy stood back on to his feet, as the Zippleback's wings spread out, with it charging right at the boy. He immediately charged right at it, with Syn and Gobber shouting at the boy to stop. However, before the Zippleback could get to him, he immediately skidded down to the ground, sliding underneath its underbelly, and coming around from behind. Before the Zippleback could turn around for another attack, Hiccup looked over his shoulder, and spotted the open cage door, confirming where and what he needed to do next. Immediately the Zippleback turned around, and hissed at Hiccup, but only to have the boy run up its back and come in between its heads again. The ZippleBack saw this and both the heads tried to snatch at him, but he was too quick as they conked themselves in each other's heads.

As soon as he was off the dragon, he landed back on one foot, knelt down on the ground. With the time needed, he reached for the rolled up whip like weapon, and pulled it out. The Zippleback looked to the boy, and immediately, it was no more fooling around, as it hissed out and charged at him with only its free head.

Syn saw this as she nearly screamed out, "Hiccup, no!"

Astrid saw this, and sighed to herself, "Great, now I gotta save him again!" and was about to sprint towards Hiccup and the Zippleback, armed with only a bucket.

"Hiccup!" Gobber cried out as he ran towards them.

However, Hiccup beat them all to it, as he unrolled the whip, with a quick flick outward. It revealed itself to be an eel shaped whip, and was made evident, as Hiccup whipped the ground in front of the ZippleBack. Seeing the weapon's movement, the dragon halted, and slowly backed away, yipping and shrieking in fear. At this moment, Gobber and Astrid stopped their attempt to save the boy, and only stood by as they witnessed him force the Zippleback back into its cage.

"Back!" Hiccup ordered as he whipped the ground, making the whip move in the manner of an eel would. "Get back! Go on, get back in your cage! Now don't you make me tell you again! Back!"

The Zippleback was freaking out with every movement from the whip. The creature was backing away from the whip, going slowly, and backing away into the cage. Gobber was completely stumped by this revelation, as were the teen Vikings. But none of the teens could have been more shocked than Astrid, as she helped an also stunned Syn back to her feet. The prodigy Dragon slayer couldn't believe that this guy was the same Hiccup from four days ago. But none wasn't as stunned at this scene, than Unfer, who stood by the village elder, an old druid-like Viking woman, who studied Hiccup's method of pushing the dragon back into its cage.

As soon as the Zippleback was in there, Hiccup gave the dragon a hairy eyebrow as he warned it, "Now think about what you did today." The Zippleback hissed at the boy, but Hiccup made one whiplash at the ground again, and this time the Zippleback huddled in the corner, fear filling up in its catlike eyes.

Hiccup closed the doors to the cage, and locked it back up, sighing in relief. He then looked at the whip, and smirked, "Glad to know this worked."

He then wrapped it back up as he set it back to his belt. He then turned around, and his smirk disappeared with a look of clueless confusion. Not after he had closed the doors, did he suddenly see the gazes of Gobber and the other teen Vikings, gawking at what they had seen. The only audible sound that was made was the sound of the bucket slipping from Fishlegs's grip. Sensing the uneasy stares on him, Hiccup decided to hightail it before too many questions had entered in the arena, and he would have to answer them.

"Okay, um…" Hiccup started, as he shuffled himself away from the door, and to the gate exit. "Well, if that's it for the day… I'll see you guys later, okay?" And with that, he bolted right out of the stadium.

Unfer's surprised gaze at the boy never left the boy, as he ran out of the stadium and disappeared from his sight. A scowled look appeared on his face as he stepped back, thinking, 'This… changes everything entirely.'

Back in the ring, the Viking teens were still in disbelief that Hiccup, the worst Viking in Berk, had done the unthinkable. He had defeated a dragon single-handedly and pushed it back into its cage. On top of that, he had thrown a bola right at it, as well as outmaneuvered the beast. Even Astrid was in disbelief, looking back at the closed cage doors, and back at the exit in which Hiccup had left in.

The girl's eyes were filled with confusion at this moment… but also unknown to herself… admiration that he had actually proved not to be a liability. But still, her suspicion on this matter was a bit unusual… even if it was Hiccup.

Later On That Day

Back in Toothless's Canyon

Hiccup arrived at the canyon, with something strapped to his back. As he got into the canyon, he saw Toothless at the river, resting at the side, watching the fish swim around. The young Viking thought that he was gonna try and catch some lunch or breakfast today. He looked around, trying to see where Draco was at this moment, but was nowhere to be seen at this time. He thought that maybe the dragon was at the training grounds, but that thought was quickly excused as he saw the canyon all around them darken from a shadow above them.

He looked up and saw Draco coming down for a landing, as he smirked, "Draco! Where you've been? You should've seen the lesson we had today."

Draco perched down to the ground, with Toothless getting up and excited to see the Golden Fleece. Draco smirked at Hiccup as he nodded, "I know, I was there. Hiding in sight from the others."

"How did you…?" Hiccup began to ask, uncertain on how the larger dragon went unnoticed. But he shook his head as he sat down next to Toothless, putting the leather sack aside, "Ah, never mind. The point is, I actually did something without screwing up." The smile on the boy's face couldn't have been brighter as he sighed with much pride as he looked at Toothless, the dragon actually happy for the boy, "I mean, not only did I throw a bola without getting it tangled up, but I was able to outmaneuver the Zippleback."

Draco chuckled at this and the boy's enthusiasm, "That's good to know." But his face then became that of curiosity, as he asked, "But ah… tell me. This Syn girl in the arena today… where did this phobia over the Zippleback come from?"

Hiccup's cheery nature suddenly left him, as Toothless took notice of this from the boy's face and eyes. The Night Fury nudged his human friend on the side, gaining the boy's attention, as he sighed, and looked to both him and Draco. He then sighed once again as he started the story, "It started when she and I were eight years old. Back then she had her right eye, longer hair, and she didn't have all those scars on her body. Even back then… she…" Hiccup had to suppress a sad chuckle from his throat as he finished, "… she was sort of a sister/friend to me back then."

Draco cocked an eyebrow as he quizzing asked, "I thought you said you didn't have any human friends?"

"Well, this was after the incident that I lost all my friends," Hiccup explained the best he could. "The day on that day started out as always; a raid with the dragons going after our food, sheep and livestock. And even back then, I was running around the battlefield, wanting to help out with the fight to make my mark as a Viking. The Vikings also shooed me to get back inside, as always." His face then turned serious as he went on, "But I didn't that day… cause of that scream coming from Syn's house. Ignoring the others' yelling me to go back inside, I bolted right for her home."

"That's when I spotted it, slunking around her house like a snake," Hiccup's voice dripped with seriousness, almost picturing it all into his head. "The Zippleback. It… I don't know how, but it trapped her inside the house while her parents were out, fighting the other dragons. I was the only one who heard her screaming, so I rushed in before the Zippleback took notice. The house was already filled with the gas before hand. Luckily, I found Syn trying to find her way out of there. Unfortunately, we ended up going through the front door… where the left head that sparks popped up. And…"

"And then it ignited the gas," Draco finished, knowing it wasn't easy for the boy to say much more. He then looked to Hiccup as he asked, "What happened then?"

Hiccup sighed as he finished, "My father and the others found us buried in the rubble. I didn't get hurt much, but Syn took the worst of it. She lost her right eye and took on extensive scars on her arms and chest, as well as the right side of her face. Her parents thought I was the one that led the dragon to their house, thinking I was the one that caused their daughter's disfigurement. So they made sure I could never see or talk to her again." Hiccup then pulled up his right sleeve, to show a burn mark on his shoulder, that looked like a claw mark, "You can just tell from both of us that explosion wasn't pleasant."

Draco and Toothless looked at the scar carefully, and looked to the boy in deep respect. In trying to save his friend, he had to lose them as well. Toothless walked over to his human friend and nuzzled him on the cheek, sympathetically. But then everything went back to normal as Hiccup got up and looked to the Night Fury. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot," he stated as a smile appeared on his face, and lifted the leather case. It then unfolded to reveal itself as a four strap and two seated saddle, "This is for you, Toothless. A saddle I can sit on while I'm helping you steer your tail fin."

Immediately, the Night Fury hunched over like a cat, looking wryly at the saddle. He then bolted out of there before Hiccup could even put it on. That afternoon, Toothless was running from Hiccup, making sure the saddle didn't come on. Draco was having the time of his life, laughing aloud as he watched this scene go on, postponing the training for the day.

The Days To Come

After a lot of struggling and running, Hiccup had managed to get the saddle on to Toothless's back. At first the Night Fury was reluctant, but later on he came to reason to allow Hiccup to ride on him. Along in their effort to try and fly, Draco decided to have this put into Hiccup's schedule as part of the training. However, there were a few glitches for the attempts, such as Hiccup always falling off the saddle whenever he couldn't pull the tail in the right steering lane. So he had that solved by fashioning himself a belt with a hook on cable to the saddle. This would allow him to stay on Toothless while they tried to fly.

That was put to the test, as Draco was leading them in the air. He decided to help out with the flying, but from Hiccup's point of view, he saw this as the dragon's attempt at training some more. Right now, they were following the Golden Fleece halfway off the ground, while trying to keep it easy. Hiccup was able to unsteadily steer Toothless by manipulating the movements of the artificial tail fin as best he could. He did so by tying a rope from the fin to his left ankle that stretched along the dragon's tail. So far, it was working… but as fate would have it… the idea didn't pan out well enough.

For at that moment, they crashed into a field of long grass, somewhere hidden in the forest. When Draco saw this, he immediately turned around, and landed. He then saw Hiccup trying to right himself, as he wobbled out of the grass.

Draco smirked as he asked out of humor, "Rough landing?"

"Don't ask," Hiccup muttered, groggily steadying himself physically and mentally. But then he stopped as he didn't see Toothless with him at all. "Toothless?" he called out, looking around to find his dragon, "Toothless! Toothless, where are you, boy?"

It was before the boy worried a bit more, that he and Draco heard it. Rustling from behind the boy as he raced back through the grass, and was puzzled by what he saw. Cocking an eyebrow and his shoulders slumped over, Hiccup saw what had made him and Draco look in bafflement. Toothless was rolling around in a circle in the grass, almost intoxicated by the grass all around him. To this scene, he looked like a cat on too much catnip.

Hiccup pulled out a few strands of grass, as he knelt down and examined it, and asked to himself, "Garlic Grass?"

"It's like catnip to all dragons," Draco mentioned, while keeping his distance away from the grass. When Hiccup gave him his full attention, he explained, "There are all sorts of plants and minerals that can change a dragon's mood. Which is your lesson for today: Relaxants and Aggression-inducing agents."

Dragon Training

Day 37

Hiccup stood ready in the arena, with his arm gauntlet to Shield mode. But this time, while Snotlout and Tuffnut were being decked and rammed by the Gronkle, Hiccup had a new weapon at his disposal. In his Blacksmith pouch, tiny glass bobbles, encased in copper skeletal cases, were in there, and filled with a gaseous liquid of extract of Garlic Grass.

The Gronkle then turned its attention to him, as it charged at the boy with incredible speed despite its bulky size and small wings. As soon as it was close enough, Hiccup hopped up, jumping on the beast's nose, and grasping onto the horn. The Gronkle shook him off, or tried to as Hiccup wasn't letting go on this. Astrid saw this and was charging right at them, with her battle ax at the ready as she cried out her warrior's cry.

Hiccup saw this, and not wasting any time, pulled out one of the gas bombs he made. Looking at the Gronkle head on, he smashed the bobble flask on the beast's nose. Immediately the shattered bomb sprayed out a thick green mist that almost covered the beast's nose, and it was enough for the Gronkle to take a whiff. The dragon soon then skidded on the ground, allowing Hiccup to hop off, as the beast's face then contorted into an intoxicated smirk. Its eyes suddenly became big as puppy dog's, and glazed over as its tail began to wag in a fast paste. Then with a satisfied growl, it shifted to its left side, and seemingly pass out with its tongue sticking out of his gnaw.

Astrid stopped in her tracks, seeing this with disbelief at this moment, as were the other teen Vikings. Some of the adults that stayed behind were also watching this from outside the dome, including the Elder, and a much deep in thought Unfer.

After training, Hiccup was making his way down the bridge, about to make his way back to the forest. However, he was soon caught up by the other teens, as they swarmed upon him, asking how he did such a thing, or what was in the glass flasks that would cause a Gronkle to go down like that. Even Ruffnut seemed to want to talk to Hiccup more; seemingly enough that the female twin was gaining a huge crush on him.

However, he wasn't about to divulge such a secret, as he slipped past them. "Ah, sorry, I um…" he stated as he walked away from the others, "I left my ax back in the ring. I'll, uh… I'll catch up with you later." suddenly, not watching where he went, he bumped into Astrid, causing him to turn around to apologize, "Sorry about that." And bolted right out of there.

The other teens looked at his retreating form with both confusion and awe at the sight of the newest Dragon Slayer in Berk. However, Astrid's face showed with much suspicion, and growing jealousy, at the retreating Hiccup. She blew her left bangs aside, as she glared in suspicion of him, as to how he was becoming better at this so fast.

Dragon Training

Day 42

The duo were once again training together under the guidance of the larger and older dragon. Though the training, like before, was very strange as the first few lessons. In this exercise, Draco had Hiccup scratch the back and sides of Toothless's neck, in which the Night Fury was enjoying deeply. This was made evident with Toothless letting out a low growling purr from his throat. The dragon even arched his back, feeling much comfort in the young Viking's act upon the back of his neck.

"Okay, I don't get it," Hiccup stated, feeling a bit confused as he looked to Draco, "How is this part of fighting a dragon?"

Draco then pointed to his lower left side of his neck, and smirked, "Scratch this spot, and you'll see."

Hiccup cocked an eyebrow in confusion, but shrugged, "Alright, but I still don't see…" and did as he was told. But when he scratched there, Toothless's eyes went wide as he made a surprised yelp… and plopped to the ground, seemingly dead. "Oh Gods, I killed him," Hiccup gasped in horror, but looked closely, and saw that Toothless had just been rendered unconscious, as he sighed in relief, "Oh. He's asleep."

"He'll be out of it for about ten minutes," Draco explained, catching the young lad's undivided attention as he began, "Today's lesson is Pressure Points: a point on the body you simply have to scratch, poke, or punch at to disable a dragon, or render him unconscious."

Hiccup looked to Draco, amazed by this information, and looked at his own hands. Being able to disable or knock out a dragon with just a touch was unbelievable. The young Viking gave his undivided attention to Draco, as the Golden Fleece began the lesson, just as Toothless started to wake up and once again 'volunteer' to be the Pressure Point dummy.

At the Coliseum

That day, it was a free-for-all fight against the Deadly Nadder, and boy was it free for all. The Nadder was going all out, knocking out some of the trainees, as well as shooting out some of the poison spike darts from its tail right at them. Astrid, on her game today, chucked an ax right at the beast, attempting to knock it out with one blow. But it had learned the last time, and smacked the ax away from its face. Astrid dodged the charging dragon, and went for her ax again to attack the beast.

However, she soon saw it was going right at Hiccup, as she snarled in spite, "Oh no, you don't," she told herself as she grabbed the ax, "Not this time."

The Nadder charged right at Hiccup, who stood in a semi-half crouch position, with his hands stretched out, and a look of concentration on his face. When the Nadder was right at him, it stopped, realizing that the boy was now in its blind spot. The Nadder tried to find the boy, by sniffing him out, but Hiccup jumped into action… literally. He grabbed the Nadder's horn, jumping on the dragon's face as he went over the beast's head, and landed on its back. The Nadder screeched and growled out, going buckaroo style to get the boy off its back. But Hiccup wasn't about to get thrown off that easily.

Hiccup was steadying himself on the beast, but saw the Nadder's tail arch up in the back, springing up its spines. It was evident that the dragon was gonna shoot its spines at him. However, Hiccup was prepared, as he looked carefully, and saw to where the tail connected to the body. Balling up his left fist, he slammed it down on that spot, and the reaction was the tail slumped to the ground, not even moving.

The Nadder, not having a clue as to what was going on, was slightly panicking. "Okay, that'll hold for about fifteen minutes, so…" but then he heard a screaming battle cry, and saw Astrid, charging forward with her ax at the ready. "Better make this quick," Hiccup told himself.

Hiccup then reached down at the Nadder's lower left portion of its neck, and began scratching it. The Nadder felt the comfort of the scratching, until finally Hiccup hit the right point. The Nadder then let out a high pitched chirping screech, and plopped to the ground unconscious. Astrid stopped right in her tracks as she saw the scene, and looked to Hiccup as he brushed himself clean off. The boy looked to her, as her shoulders slumped, and she breathed out a sigh in disappointed defeat, as well as show the defeated expression on her face as well as she looked at him straight in the eye.

After training, everyone was eating in the council mead hall, and were relaxing, even as Hiccup came in and passed the other teens. If he had been looking at this point, he would have noticed Astrid's silent glare at him. But he didn't see it, as he sat down at his empty table, and pulled out his sketch book. He turned a few pages, new ones depicting a few prosthetic limbs that he had designed, some applying a few ideas that he had in mind. But got to the page detailing new designs and attachments for the saddle and tail rig.

However, his concentration was stopped, as he heard the sounds of feet and skidding chair legs start and stop for a split second all around him. He looked up, and saw the teen Vikings, as well as the adult Vikings, all around him. They swarmed all around him, congratulating on his victory in the ring, gaining much popularity for him, as well as asking him how he did it. Though he kept those secret to himself, just saying he knew where to hit.

Astrid, on the other hand, sat alone at her table, and sneered at Hiccup's popularity. She slammed her drink on the table, and huffed, looking the other way.

Dragon Training

Day 51

Toothless was jumping and pouncing at a small reflected light on the ground. With the mannerisms of a cat chasing a mouse, he playfully tried to catch it. Though the light escaped his grasp, as he was too focused, nothing else seemed to matter as he followed the light. Hidden behind a rock, Hiccup and Draco were watching this, as Hiccup used one of his hammers to direct the beam of light. This was the lesson today, in which Dragons easily got distracted by this sort of thing.

That came useful today, as the next Dragon was the one that was kept behind by the most bolted up door. Gobber pulled the lever as he announced, "Alright… meet the Terrible Terror."

The doors suddenly rumbled, but to the teens' amazement and confusion, a small doggy door swung open. And now, standing only ten feet from them, and standing about 1/8th their size, the smallest dragon was present before them. It was small, with the body the size of a Chihuahua, small but powerful red wings, red spines going down from head to tail, and a small red horn on its nose, as well as two on its head. The dragon's body was colored light green with red trim on some areas, and had big, yellow eyes. It licked its right eye, almost similar as to how a gecko would do, as it looked at the teens. This was the Terrible Terror, the smallest of the dragons, but not the least in ferocity.

This was made evident as the teens looked at it, almost scoffing the notion of even fighting it. Tuffnut scoffed at the creature, "Ha! It's like the size of my…"

But that was cut off short, as the Terror pounced at him, knocking him on the ground and causing the others to scatter. Fur and hair flew over the place, as the Terror was attacking the stunned male twin. The dragon then latched on to his nose, trying to yank it off, seemingly looking like it did, and gnawing at it. Then suddenly, a light shone off it, catching the dragon's attention, as it pulled off Tuffnut and chased after the light. While Tuffnut was howling in pain, the Terrible Terror chased after the light…

… the light that Hiccup was making with the steel plate on the back palm of his arm gauntlet. He led the dragon back to the doggy door, much to the other teens' amazement, minus a stunned and glaring Astrid.

Once again, the worst Viking in Berk had done it again, and Astrid's jealousy was growing more from it, as was her suspicion of him. However, her jealousy became evident at this moment, with Tuffnut making the mistake in mentioning to her, while rubbing his nose, "Wow. He's a whole lot better than you ever were, Astrid."

"Hey, Tuffnut," Astrid began, almost unfazed by what he had said, and turned to face him, asking, "How's your nose?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Tuffnut shrugged, "Nah, it's doing a little…" but was cut off, by a punch to the nose, delivered by Astrid herself. He fell to the ground in a heap, as he groaned, "…. worse. It's doin' a little worse."

Later that Day

Deep in the Forest

Astrid was hard at work, training as she usually did, alone with no one holding her back. She was practicing her axe throws on a nearby tree; the tree showing much strain in the one part she kept striking and hitting at with every throw, strike, and slash she made on it. It was clearly and plainly obvious that she was working all her frustrations and anger of Hiccup on the tree… rather on him.

When she swung the axe back at the tree once again, she ran towards it and grabbed it by the handle. Pulling it out, she reversed somersaulted and flipped back in an impressive and acrobatic feat. When she landed back on her feet, she readied to throw the axe at the trees from where she stood. But when she looked behind her, ready to throw the axe again, she stopped and was slightly surprised at what… or who she saw.

There, frozen in his spot, carrying what appeared to be some kind of sack with some strange devices, was Hiccup. He seemed silently surprised to see Astrid, of all people, out here. But knew he had to get out of there before she became wise to his game. And so, he bolted out of there, with Astrid watching him go, until finally she chased after him silently. He immediately bolted behind a rock, as Astrid caught up to confront him.

But when she got there, he was gone, far from sight as she saw he was nowhere to be seen. She huffed in frustration as she smacked her fist on the rock, and went back to her training.

Back at the Canyon

Draco was flapping his wings strongly, creating powerful currents of wind that could send a kite flying. However, what was flying off the ground only six feet, was Toothless, with Hiccup riding atop him. But instead like last time, they were tied to a stump as they glided in place. And the saddle had been upgraded with a few more features, as Hiccup's harness had some as well. For along with the latch belt, attached to it was a pair of brown shoulder guards, made of metal, and held on to the belt by a shoulder strap that went across his chest and back. One in which were foot braces that when were pushed forward and back by the feet, they would move the artificial tail fin to where it needed to go. The other times in which Hiccup attempted to steer his dragon all ended in crashes. But now… the test flight was a success, for as with every movement Hiccup made was synchronized with Toothless.

Unfortunately, the rope that held them in place, snapped, causing the two to get pushed back into the Cliffside crashing. Draco stopped as he rushed over to them, and saw the heap they were in.

This caused the Golden Fleece to chuckle at this scene, while he tried to stifle them, "Sorry about that. But at least the saddle now works."

"Yeah, that's true," Hiccup stated as he and Toothless got back up. "But…" he started but then stopped as he felt a tug from the belt. then he and the dragons looked, and saw that the leash that held him to the saddle. The lock had been bent in place. Hiccup sighed in defeat as he groaned, "Oh great."

That Night

Back in Berk

When it was dark and no one was around, Hiccup made his way carefully through the village. But this time, he wasn't alone, as Toothless walked alongside him. The leash that held them together had to be fixed, so that they wouldn't be found out. Unfortunately for the boy, he hadn't the tools necessary to fix it, at least he didn't have them with him. So the duo had to take a risky gamble, and go to the Blacksmith shop to get the tools needed. Luckily, no one was out that night, and the patrol was only one guard that passed around every hour.

And as fast as they could when they spotted it, they went straight to Gobber's Blacksmith's shop. When they were inside, Hiccup looked around for the necessary tool needed to fix the latch. However, Toothless wandered around, and spotted a bucket nearby. Thinking that there was fish in it, he poked his head in to look around. But alas, it was empty, so the Night Fury tossed the bucket aside, making a noticeable sound, that went unheard… but noticed by one.

As Hiccup worked on the latch finally, fixing it, did he hear that familiar female voice, "Hiccup? Hiccup, is that you?"

Immediately gulping and dreading the outcome, Hiccup slipped on his Blacksmith's apron, and jumped out the window, closing right behind him. Outside, was Astrid who had heard the sound, and went to investigate. However, she was stopped as soon as Hiccup hopped out to see her, with a nervous smile.

"Oh, hi, Astrid," Hiccup stated, slightly babbling and trying to fix it, "Hey, Astrid. How… Hi, Astrid. Uh… how's it going?"

"Look," she started, not wanting to be stalled anymore as she stated, poking her finger at him accusingly. "I don't usually care about what people do. But you've been acting weird." then suddenly, Hiccup was pulled back a bit, by an unseen force. Hiccup gulped as he nervously tried to cover it up, as she shrugged with a cocked eyebrow, "Well, weirder."

Hiccup was then tugged a few more times, stumbling with every word from every tug, "I. Don't. Know what. You're. talking a…." causing Astrid's curiosity to get peeked by this scene. Until finally, he was tugged into the shop, disappearing from sight of her.

Now more suspicious, and slightly worried, she rushed over to the window and pulled them open. Unfortunately, the place was empty, causing her frustration to go in a huff. However, if she had looked behind her, she would have noticed Toothless rushing off, with Hiccup on top and steering him through every direction for a faster path, until they disappeared from sight completely.

Astrid, on the breaking point, finally turned around, and shouted out in the quiet town, "Hiccup! I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to find out! You can't keep whatever it is you have a secret forever! I'll make sure of it!"

Next Chapter: New Friends in the Fold; Everything Known is Wrong

For those of you who are wondering, Hiccup's frame was redone into Edward's from Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist. This will show the kind of effect that Draco's training will have on the boy. I felt it was necessary, for Hiccup and Edward both have something in common… everyone sees them to be short.

Also, I thought of the perfect voice actor for Syn: Lucy Liu.

Also, sorry for not updating as fast as I could. The ship doesn't have wifi for me to update on. But, I shall let you all in on something I learned from the web: DreamWorks is working on the sequel for How to Train Your Dragon. ALRIGHT!