Chapter Five

A/N: I'm trying to make the dialogue a little more light-hearted and true to the series. The only problem is I suck at everything social so...pardon me if the conversations sound awkward or too forced.

Sharp, winter wind bites through Hiccup's clothes as he and Toothless glide toward the Training Academy. He can clearly see his breath, which puffs out in little white clouds. A shiver goes through him. Great, and I was really starting to enjoy the only slightly freezing weather. Looks like devastating winter is going to come a little early this year...

Toothless lands on the roof of the Academy and crawls down the side, dropping to the floor from half-way up. Hiccup grunts at the impact and slides off the saddle. He takes a step away before realizing he's still hooked in. "What the...?" He reaches down and grabs the chord that keeps him secure in the seat. It's locked again. "That's not good..." He mumbles, wrenching at it. "And here I thought that was just a freak thing...I'll need to have a look at the safety mechanism later..." But until then, he reaches behind himself and unties his belt, which is hooked to the chord.

"Hey, Hiccup!"

He glances up at the sky and waves as Stormfly flaps down through the opening in the roof. Astrid jumps off before her dragon even lands. "Long time no see." He says, sarcastically.

Astrid's eyes find his riding gear which is laying on the ground in a heap, still tied to the saddle. "What happened there? Did that thing jam up again?"

He shrugs. "Guess so. When we're done with training, I'll take it to the shop and fix it."

"Hmm, seems like a lot of stuff is breaking lately." She comments, dryly. Then, with an ornery smirk, she adds, "Maybe you're not as good an inventor as you make yourself out to be."

Hiccup feigns offense and gasps. "That's got to be some kind of blasphemy."

"If you say so." She says, innocently. "So, when do you think the others will get here. I can't wait to hear what the 'Great Dragon Tamer' has for us today."

Hiccup snickers at the grand title and simply shrugs. "Soon, I hope. I'm kind of excited to train with this too..."

"Oh? Do you have any hints for your favorite student?" Astrid bats her eyelashes and smiles.

"Who, Fishlegs?" Hiccup asks, pretending to be confused.

She puckers her lips and folds her arms. "Cute."

"I try."

Just then, a loud shriek makes them both flinch and cover their ears. Snotlout laughs, evilly as he and Hookfang enter the arena.

"Your wait is over! I'm here." Snotlout says, loudly. Then, with a wink in Astrid's direction, he says, "Hey, babe."

Astrid pretends to gag, inciting a laugh from Hiccup.

Soon after Snotlout climbs down from Hookfang, Fishlegs and Meatlug walk in through the front door, having landed outside the Academy. And a moment later, the twins arrive with Barf and Belch.

Fishlegs goes straight over to Hiccup, wearing an eager smile. "So? What're we training in today? Accuracy? Speed? Attack?"

"Yeah, can we practice attack? I wanna blow some stuff up!" Tuff shouts, pumping his fists into the air.

"Me too!" Ruff agrees, punching her brother's shoulder.

"Ugh, all that stuff is so boring. Hookfang and I are already good at all of that!" Snotlout complains.

With a weary sigh, Hiccup says, "Actually, today we're doing something a little different."

"Oh?" Astrid asks in such a way that makes Hiccup blush. He gulps and shifts his weight a bit.

"Y-yeah. A-anyway," He clears his throat and looks back at everyone else. "As you guys know, dragons are our greatest asset. They've saved all of our lives more times than we can count."

"Yeah, we know that, genius!" Snotlout comments with a roll of his eyes. This earns him a hard elbow to the ribcage from Astrid.

"Ahem, as I was saying: but there have been times when we've been separated from our dragons. All of those times we were practically helpless."

"Oh man, are you gonna have us do more excersizes?!" Tuffnut whines.

"Yeah, I still hurt from the last time you insisted on 'training the body as well as the dragon'." Ruffnut adds as she rotates her sore shoulder.

"No!" Hiccup barks, reaching to rub his head which is beginning to ache. "What I was going to say is: we need to be able to find our dragons if we get separated. And it's entirely possible that dragons calls may not cut it. They might be too far to hear or, Oden forbid, they might be injured and can't come to us."

"So? What are you saying?" Snotlout demands, getting impatient.

"I'm saying that we need to learn how to track dragons in case we ever need to find them!" Hiccup concludes.

"Track dragons?" Tuffnut asks, scratching his head. "How're we supposed to do that?"

"Well, we start by learning the difference in dragon footprints and then hints you can look for in your surroundings to-"

"Wow this sounds boring!"

Hiccup glares at Snotlout who stands up and stretches. "Well, pardon me Hiccup, but I think I'm going to go train my dragon. You know, like the reason this is called the Dragon Training Academy."

"Snotlout!" Astrid growls. "Don't be such a-"

"Yeah we're coming with you." Tuff and Ruff say at the same time. "We wanted to go yak tipping anyway!"

Ruff smacks her brother across the face and hisses, "Shut up, idiot! No one is supposed to know that!"

"Oh yeah...do you think they heard me?"

"Yes, Tuffnut, we heard you!" Hiccup groans.

"Oh man! They're onto us!"

"Run!" The twins scream as they sprint out of the arena, their dragon following behind them. Snotlout shakes his head, seeming shocked at their level of stupidity, before jumping onto Hookfang and flying away.

"Well." Hiccup sighs. "That was a total failure."

"Not a total failure!" Fishlegs protests. "We're still here."

Astrid nods and hurries over to them and smiles. "Yeah, those guys just don't appreciate what you're saying. It makes sense to me."

Hiccup smiles, softly. "Thanks guys..."

"Well? Come on! Let's get to training!"

"Um, right." Hiccup pulls the Book of Dragons from his vest and kneels down on the floor, his friends following suit. Flipping open to the first entry, he begins to explain the subtle differences between a Nadderhead and Monstrous Nightmare footprint...

Night is falling over Berk by the time class is dismissed. The horizon is glowing shades of pink and orange and there are stars already twinkling against the black sky. Fishlegs waves as he and Meatlug fly off toward home.

"See you tomorrow!" He calls.

"See you." Hiccup agrees, waving back. He and Astrid watch as their friend disappears over the hill that leads into the village. With a small chuckle, Hiccup starts walking.

"Where are you going?" Astrid asks him. "Your house is that way."

"I know." He assures her. "I'm headed to the Forge again. I want to check out that buckle, see why it keeps getting stuck."

She nods and jogs to catch up to him. "Don't take too long or else you'll end up being too tired for our field trip to Dragon Island tomorrow."

"Me? Too tired to train dragons? I'm sorry, madam, you must have the wrong Hiccup."

"Cute."

Just then, Toothless bounds up being Hiccup and makes a garbled sound in his throat. He wiggles his butt and flaps his wings, looking up at the sky.

"Sorry, bud. It wouldn't exactly be safe to fly tonight until the saddle is fixed." Hiccup explains, wearing an apologetic smile. "But don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to fly tomorrow when we go to Dragon Island to practice our tracking."

Toothless makes a sound like a droning sigh before falling into step behind them. He folds in his wings in and coos, unhappily. Stormfly chirps and tilts her head, looking at Toothless with a confused expression on her bird-like face.

"Sorry, bud." Hiccup says again. "But I'd rather us not drown again."

Astrid laughs as Stormfly leans down and gently pecks her side, communicating something to her. "Okay, okay." Astrid reaches up and strokes the dragon's head. She looks to Hiccup and says, "I guess that's my hint to take her home. I think someone's tired."

Hiccup laughs. "Okay, see you tomorrow. And remember, five a.m. for our trip to Dragon Island."

"I'll remember." She tells him. "Don't stay up too late."

"We won't."

Astrid hops onto Stormfly and they take off into the air, hovering just above the ground for a moment. Hiccup's breath hitches at the sight of the lovely blonde poised in front of the moon and colorful horizon. His cheeks heat up and he suddenly feels bashful.

"Night, Hiccup."

"Um, g-goodnight Astrid..." And with that, she and Stormfly disappear as well. Hiccup feels a little nudge on his elbow. He turns to find Toothless giving him an odd expression. "W-what are you looking at?!" He demands, folding his arms.

Toothless groans and bounces away.

"Okay, yeah. Let's just go to the Forge and get this saddle fixed." Hiccup mumbles as he runs to catch up with Toothless. The Night Fury purrs when Hiccup gets closer. Hiccup pats his dragon's head. "It was a pretty rough day, bud. Let's just hope tomorrow goes smoother..."

A/N: Let me know how you guys are liking this so far!