The next day soon came and it was time for Atticus and Hiccup to give their dragons some breakfast, and where his nightmare didn't help from last night.
"Hey, Toothless. I brought breakfast," Hiccup smiled to the black dragon. "I hope you're hungry. Okay, that's disgusting. Uh... We've got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel."
Toothless looked at the eel and roared out of fright. Spyro even seemed to hate the eel.
"No, no, no, no! It's okay," Hiccup told Toothless before getting rid of the eel. "Yeah, I don't really like eel much either."
Once the eel was gone, Toothless then began to eat the fish.
"Dragons... Don't like... Eels..." Atticus told himself as he wrote that down to remember for later.
Hiccup soon brought out something.
"Careful, Hiccup." Atticus warned.
"I will." Hiccup said as he was trying to help Toothless and soon snuck up behind the black dragon.
Atticus looked down at Spyro as he seemed harmless right now as he ate the fish with Toothless.
"Okay. That's it. That's it, just stick with good stuff, and don't you mind me," Hiccup said as he concentrated to try and attach the new tail-fin while Toothless was distracted by the food. "I'll just be back here... Minding my own business. It's okay. Okay... Okay... There. That's not too bad. It works."
Toothless soon looked ready to take off flying.
"Oh, Hiccup, look out, I think Toothless is ready to-" Atticus tried to warn.
"Whoa!" Hiccup yelped as he was suddenly taken for a ride.
"Fly..." Atticus finished wearily.
"Looks like he's having a wild ride." Spyro said.
"Oh, I just hope he doesn't get hurt." Atticus said.
"I'm sure he'll be okay," Spyro said before eating more of the fish. "Ooh, this fish is really great!"
Atticus simply sighed as he should have known that Spyro would eat more fish. The viking teens were soon going into the arena.
"Oh, man, is it that time already?" Atticus asked. "Spyro, I think I need to go now."
Spyro soon nuzzle up to his adoptive father. Atticus blinked and smiled to that before hugging him as this was a great contrast to the nightmare he had last night. After their hug, they separated so he could go to dragon training.
"Today is about teamwork," Gobber told the students. "Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."
"Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion," Fishlegs informed. "Prefers ambush attack, by crushing its victims-"
'And off he goes again with the information.' Atticus thought to himself.
"Will you please stop that?!" Hiccup begged.
"Well, I'm glad somebody said it." Atticus smirked.
"If that dragon shows either of his faces, I'm gonna-" Snotlout began to threaten until he saw two heads appear. "There!"
"But which one is the one that lights the flame and which one isn't?" Atticus asked.
"Who cares? Just get them!" Snotlout panicked, drenching the heads with Tuffnut's help... Only for the reveal of them being from Ruffnut and Astrid.
"Hey!" Ruffnut glared. "It's us, idiots!"
"Your butts are getting bigger," Tuffnut defended. "We thought you were a dragon."
"Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure-" Snotlout smirked to Astrid only to get instantly punched by her. "Ow!"
'He had that coming.' Atticus thought to himself.
Ruffnut then threw her bucket at her brother out of frustration. The dragon soon let out a puff of smoke among them.
"Okay, so that's the one that doesn't light the fire." Atticus said.
Suddenly a tail whipped out.
"Uh-oh..." Atticus muttered before he was whipped back off of his feet with the others.
"OH, I'M HURT!" Tuffnut cried out, a bit over dramatically. "I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"
"Oh, brother." Atticus groaned.
"Chances of survival are dwindling into single-digits now." Fishlegs warned the others.
One of the Zippleback heads emerges from the mist.
Fishlegs then threw water on it only for the dragon head to spew out green gas. "Oops, wrong head."
"No kidding." Atticus said.
The head sprays a large stream of green gas, and Fishlegs runs off screaming. The head turns its attention to Hiccup and the other head comes into view, spitting electrical sparks.
"Okay, Hiccup, we can do this, just don't be so scared or nervous..." Atticus smiled sheepishly.
Unfortunately, Hiccup was nervous.
"Now, Hiccup and Atticus!" Gobber called out.
Hiccup threw the bucket of water at the spark-spitting head, but missed. "Oh, come on!" he then complained.
The Zippleback pounces, both heads snarling at Hiccup and Atticus.
"Got the eel?" Atticus whispered to him.
"Ohh, yeah..." Hiccup then said as he thought that would be useful.
The dragon snarled before seeing the eel and looked instantly disgusted.
"Back! Back! Back! BACK!" Hiccup glared to the dragon as he brought out the eel against the dragon as a secret weapon. "Now, don't you make me tell you again! Yes, that's right! Back into your cage. Now think about what you've done."
The dragon continued to back away from Hiccup. Hiccup then closed the door and even threw the eel inside, much to the dragon's dismay. Everybody else except for Atticus looked shocked at what Hiccup had done, even Gobber.
"Congrats, Hiccup." Atticus said.
"Uh, thanks, heh," Hiccup smiled bashfully. "Okay! So, are we done? Because I've got some things I need to, uh... Yep. I'll... s-see you tomorrow!" He then suddenly ran out of the training arena which made everyone feel a bit suspicious, but still shocked that he handled the dragon on his own.
Atticus soon joined him.
Spyro looked a little bored while waiting, but soon sat up like a dog and even wagged his tail as Atticus came back with Hiccup.
"Been waiting long?" Atticus asked.
"Practically forever!" Spyro pouted.
Atticus simply rolled his eyes playfully.
"You ever think you might ride your dragon someday?" Hiccup asked Atticus.
"I have ride him once." Atticus said.
"You have?" Hiccup asked.
"That was so much fun!" Spyro beamed from memory.
"And where he even found himself his own crush." Atticus smirked.
"Hey!" Spyro pouted.
"Well, it's true." Atticus defended.
Spyro simply pouted while blushing.
"You should put a saddle on Toothless for if you ride him again," Atticus advised Hiccup. "Riding dragons can be rough and a saddle will support and comfort you on the ride."
"Hm... Where do I get a saddle?" Hiccup asked.
"Why not make one?" Atticus suggested.
Hiccup hummed as that sounded like a good idea.
Atticus continued to look through his book until he found the dragon from his dream last night. "That was it... The Red Death..." he then said. "Couldn't figure that out last night."
"You met a different dragon last night?" Spyro asked, a little confused.
"I saw the Red Death in my dream." Atticus said.
"That sounds scary... Did you get hurt?" Spyro asked.
"Well, no, it was just a dream, but you helped me." Atticus smiled to the good part of his dream last night before it turned into a nightmare.
"That's great." Spyro smiled.
"It was kinda scary at first." Atticus said.
"But at least I helped you because I would never hurt you." Spyro replied.
"Uh... Right..." Atticus said, a bit softly.
Spyro soon noticed how Atticus acted.
"How does this look?" Hiccup's voice asked.
Atticus looked over to see the new dragon saddle and approved of it.
"Great," Hiccup smiled as he then came to Toothless. "Now for the real test."
"That part might be tricky." Atticus said.
"This should be interesting." Spyro commented as he went to watch this.
Hiccup came up to Toothless, but the big black dragon started running away from him. Atticus soon joined Spyro to watch.
"Hey!" Hiccup pouted as Toothless got away from him.
Toothless kept running off with a joking smirk. Spyro began to laugh at this. Hiccup yelped and soon grabbed onto Toothless's tail before flying in the air with him.
"Maybe we should add helmet to the Dragon Flying list..." Atticus suggested, making note of that.
"Agreed." Spyro nodded.
Atticus took out a spare notebook and jotted that down while Hiccup had trouble with Toothless at first. There was soon a crash heard and Atticus and Spyro looked to see that Hiccup and Toothless had ended up in a field. They soon rushed to see if either one was hurt.
"You guys okay?" Atticus asked.
"Yeah... That wasn't too bad." Hiccup said to him.
"Where's Toothless?" Atticus asked.
Toothless was seen rolling around and seemed to enjoy himself. Spyro soon came to join Toothless and also had some fun rolling around in the plant.
"Must be like some kind of cat nip for dragons." Atticus said.
"Dragon Nip." Hiccup said.
"Yeah, that's it..." Atticus replied. "Hmm... I wonder if we could take this to training with us?"
Hiccup soon decided to take some with him. Atticus took some as well as it seemed useful.
Eventually, the next day of dragon training came. The dragon snarled, but soon settled down once Hiccup and Atticus rubbed the Dragon Nip against it, soothing it.
"Good dragon." Atticus smiled.
"What was that?" Fishlegs asked. "Some kind of trick? What did you do?"
"How'd you do that?" Tuffnut asked.
"It was really cool." Ruffnut added.
"Sorry, it's a secret." Atticus said.
"Hey, guys, I've never seen a Gronckle do that before!" Snotlout said.
"Uh, I left my axe back in the ring," Hiccup suddenly said. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you."
"Me too." Atticus said.
The others looked to each other, but let them go for right now. Atticus soon went with Hiccup to meet up with Toothless and Spyro.
"How's it going?" Spyro asked.
"Oh, just fine," Atticus smiled. "You doing okay?"
"I just miss you a lot whenever you go away." Spyro nuzzled against him.
"Well, you know you're not always going to be with me." Atticus said.
"I know..." Spyro said. "I just can't help missing you."
"Trust me, I miss you too, I don't think this'll last too long though." Atticus comforted and promised.
"That's good." Spyro said.
"It'll be over soon, I'm sure it will, but at least people are starting to like Hiccup now." Atticus smiled.
Spyro smiled back as that sounded really nice. "Yeah, though I wish they understood that dragons have feelings too." He said.
"I sure hope that someday they do, Spyro... Though something tells me in the future, they just might." Atticus said.
Hiccup put Toothless to sleep by scratching him on the chin and was able to do the same with The Deadly Nadder, and it seemed like he had the magic touch with dragons and the others seemed to appreciate him a lot more.
"Meet the Terrible Terror." Gobber told the teenagers.
What the teenagers saw though was something that was small. This made most of them laugh at the tiny dragon.
'Seems almost smaller than Spike.' Atticus thought to himself.
"Ha! That's like the size of my-" Tuffnut laughed only to get attacked by the tiny dragon. "AH! GET IT OFF! OH, I'M HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"
"Okay, now we understand why it's called the Terrible Terror." Atticus said.
Hiccup soon made a bright light from his shield to distract the dragon. The Terrible Terror soon looked over and followed the bright light, distracted by it.
'Wow, it's almost like a cat.' Atticus thought to himself.
"Wow, they're better than you ever were." Tuffnut said to Astrid.
'Maybe Tuffnut shouldn't have said that.' Atticus thought to himself.
Later on, at the Cove...
Atticus watched Spyro play as he still couldn't believe about the evil dragon he saw in his dream and just couldn't shake it while also seeing Spyro he had come to know and love like his own child. Spyro soon started to play with him. Atticus smiled and then played with Spyro, and where he just knew that his nightmare could never come true.
"Atticus? Hiccup?" Astrid's voice called out. "Are you in there?"
Suddenly, Atticus and Spyro looked nervous.
"Astrid," Hiccup smiled nervously, though yelped as he was dragged around by Toothless without her seeing the dragon, for now anyway. "Hey! Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid."
"I normally don't care what people do, but you're acting weird," Astrid said to him. "Well, weirder."
"In what way?" Atticus smiled nervously as he hid Spyro in his pocket once he shrank him.
"Well, for one, you seemed to pick up an awful lot on training those dragons in the arena." Astrid said, suspiciously.
"Uh, we pick up on training fast?" Atticus smiled nervously.
"Uh-huh..." Astrid replied. "So, you seem busy, you sure you don't wanna come out somewhere?"
"Oh, sorry, Astrid... I've got a lot of studying to catch up on." Atticus replied before going off suddenly.
"Does that kid do anything but study?" Astrid muttered. "I think he's more interested in books than friends."
Once he was alone with Spyro, it was safe for the purple dragon to come out.
"Sorry about that, Spyro." Atticus said.
"She's pretty, Dad," Spyro said about Astrid. "I think Hiccup likes her."
"I think so too." Atticus said.
Meanwhile, at the pier...
Patrick looked exhausted as he had to spend a lot of time with Stoick lately.
"Well, I trust you found the nest at least?" Gobber asked the strong viking.
"Not even close." Stoick replied.
"Ah. Excellent." Gobber said.
"Yeah, excellent." Patrick groaned.
"I hope you had a little more success than us." Stoick said to Gobber.
"Well, if by success, you mean that your parenting troubles are over with, then... Yes." Gobber replied.
The others seemed to cheer and celebrate Stoick and Patrick as they felt so happy, and where it was all about Hiccup and Atticus.
"They're gone?" Stoick wondered.
"Yeah... Most afternoons, but who can blame them?" Gobber replied. "I mean the life of a celebrity's very rough. They can barely walk through the village without being swarmed by their new fans."
"Hiccup?/Atticus?" Stoick and Patrick asked in surprise.
"Who would've thought, eh?" Gobber replied. "They have this with the beasts."
"Uh, yeah, seems that way." Patrick said.
"I think we need to visit our sons." Stoick suggested to Patrick.
"Yeah, wherever they are." Patrick said.
"We'll find them." Stoick replied in determination, almost sounding like he was going to hunt his son rather than just find him.