To think I dreamed of doing this…
Hiccup, axe in hand, walked along the lonely path towards the arena. He had woken up late as he had trouble getting to sleep last night, and part of him had wished that dragon training had already started. His hopes were dashed when he saw the other teens, following Gobber, still making their way towards the arena's gates. By the time the gate was opened, Hiccup had closed enough of the distance between himself and the other teens that he could overhear what they were saying.
"I hope I get some serious burns."
"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back."
"I'd rather get through this without much of a scratch."
"Yeah, doesn't seem smart to be looking forward to getting mauled." Hiccup said as he crossed the threshold into the arena.
"Oh great. Who let him in?"
Before anyone could respond, Gobber began the day's lesson with a shout.
"Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."
Snoutlout, always ready to make fun of the chief's heir, asked, "Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so… does that disqualify him or…?"
The teens burst into laughter as they walked away from the scrawny Viking, except for Frieda, who walked with him towards the center of the arena.
"Hey, glad you could make it. Now I don't have to deal with Snoutlout alone."
"Well, I couldn't let that happen to you. That's a fate worse than death."
The two chuckled before they got into line with the other teens.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all.
"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!"
He pointed at one of the many doors and of the arena before shouting, "The Deadly Nadder!"
"Speed eight, armor sixteen."
Hiccup turned to his left to see who just spoke up and, not to his surprise, it was Fishlegs. What did surprise him was that the normally timid Viking looked focused and confident.
"The Hideous Zippleback!"
"Plus eleven stealth, times two."
"The Monstrous Nightmare!"
"Firepower fifteen."
"The Terrible Terror."
"Attack eight, venom twelve."
"Can you stop that?!"
By this point, Gobber was obviously annoyed by Fishlegs' stats, and took a second before announcing the last dragon type."
"…And, the Gronckle."
Fishlegs couldn't help himself, and he simply whispered the one to Frieda and Hiccup, though he was so quite that the heir couldn't really make it out. Snoutlout, meanwhile, just noticed Gobber's good hand was on the lever to the Gronckle's door.
"Wait, aren't you gonna teach us first?"
Gobber, with a crazy glint in his eye, simply stated that he believed in learning "on the job." With that, he pushed the lever down, and the Gronckle burst through its cell doors. The Hiccup and the others scattered, all trying to avoid being targeted by the dragon.
"Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead! Quick, what's the first thing you'll need?"
"A doctor?" Hiccup asked, only partially joking.
"Plus five speed?" asked Fishlegs.
"A shield?" answered Frieda.
"Shields. Go!"
Everyone made a mad dash towards the closest shield while Gobber explained how important they were. Hiccup, though, was having trouble putting one on his arm, forcing Gobber to help him before shoving him off back into the fray. To the small teen, the arena was filled with chaos, and he was having trouble making out what exactly was happening. Before he knew it, the twins were out of the session, and Gobber was shouting out another tip.
"Those shields are good for another thing: Noise! Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim!"
With that, the remaining teens banged their weapons into their shields, giving the Gronckle some trouble targeting them. This gave Hiccup time to go hide behind a weapon rack as Gobber asked the class a question.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How much does a Gronckle have?"
Snoutlout gave an answer before Fishlegs corrected him. While he was distracted, the Gronckle shot Fishlegs' shield out from his hand, and the overweight teen ran towards the entrance of the arena.
At Gobber's orders, and after narrowly avoiding a fireball, Hiccup came out of hiding just as Snotlout was knocked out of the training session. Frieda ended up right next to him as she avoided the blast that got Snoutlout.
"So, got any ideas on what to do?"
"Yeah, move!"
Frieda sped off as the Gronckle shot another fireball, forcing Hiccup to block it with his shield and knocking it out from his hand.
"One shot left!"
Hiccup focused on getting back his shield as it rolled away before he saw the dragon was on his tail.
"HICCUP!"
Before he knew it, he was pinned between the cold arena wall and the Gronckle's face.
No, not now!
Hiccup flinched as he prepared to be blasted, but before he could meet a fiery end, Gobber pulled the dragon away and causing it to scorch the wall instead.
"And that's six. Go back to bed you overgrown sausage."
Gobber threw the dragon back into its cell and quickly locked its doors.
"You'll get another chance, don't you worry."
Turning his attention back to the class, the blacksmith shouted, "Remember, a dragon will always…"
Gobber turned his attention to his apprentice before continuing, "…always go for the kill."
The other teens made their way out of the arena, followed shortly by Gobber, leaving Hiccup alone in the arena.
Then why didn't she?
Without thinking, Hiccup headed towards where he last saw the dragon girl.
To say Astrid didn't have a good night was an understatement. The night before, she headed towards a small cove she spotted near where she had crashed, thinking the entrance would have provided a suitable place for her to rest and mend her broken wing. When she got there, though, she realized that she wouldn't have been able to fit with her wing splayed as it was. Ultimately, due to the pain of her wing, the dragon girl was forced to take refuge under a couple of trees that were near the cove. For most of the night, Astrid remained on alert for would be predators and dragon slayers before she became too tired and fell asleep.
The sun was at its peak when Astrid woke up. However, she didn't feel rested and, with her wing aching as it was, the girl was a bit agitated.
Why does everything have to go wrong for me now? What did I do to deserve…
Astrid's train of thought was interrupted when she heard a rustling of some bushes. Instinctively, she scanned her surroundings before she saw the same Viking boy from the day before. She gave him a cold, hard stare.
What do you want? Why are you here?
At that point, her attention turned to what the boy had in his hands. To her confusion, there wasn't a dagger or some other weapon. Instead, he was scratching a stick against some sort of flat object.
What are you doing?
Hiccup added the last few details of his sketch of the dragon girl in front of him, his mind focusing on getting the details just right. When he felt it was to his satisfaction, he smiled as he turned his attention back to the subject depicted in his book. His smile instantly faded away, however, when he noticed that the girl's eyes were focused squarely on him. For a moment, he was still with fear until he realized the girl wasn't exactly doing anything else aside from staring curiously at him. Caution got the better of Hiccup, and he took a couple steps back before he ran back towards the village.
Well, that was weird.
With the Viking gone, Astrid turned her attention to her other needs. Right then, her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since before the last raid. Ignoring her wing's ache as she got up, the dragon girl looked around for anything resembling food. Unfortunately, the only thing that she spotted was a bunch of berries on a nearby bush.
Well, it's better than nothing, I guess.
She plucked one of berries of its branch and chucked it into her mouth. Almost immediately, Astrid spat it back out due to revulsion.
So much for that… Need to find something else.
She was about to continue looking for food when she felt a raindrop hit her good wing, followed shortly by another. The girl looked up and saw dark clouds taking up the entirety of the sky.
Great, just what I needed. Anything worth eating on this island would be either taking shelter or…
She looked back in the direction that the Viking boy ran off, thinking of the food that the village held before shaking her head.
No, not worth it. Besides, if the weather is going to be as a bad as I think it is, I'd get sick getting there.
Sighing in defeat, she walked back to the spot she rested the night before, curled up and did her best to remain dry and warm.
By the time Hiccup made it home, it was already raining heavily. When it became time to go to the Great Hall to eat, it got so bad that Hiccup was soaked to the bone by the time he made the relatively short walk to the hall. Once he got inside, he saw the Gobber and the other teens eating and talking about dragon training.
How long have they been here?
Hiccup made his way towards the table the others were at and picked up a plate. Before he could sit down, though, Snoutlout took the vacant seat and beamed an arrogant smile.
Really, Snoutlout?
Moving around Snotlout, he picked up a cup from the table and took a seat on the next one over. Before he could begin his meal, Gobber slammed a book down on the other table.
"The Dragon Manual: everything we know about every dragon we know of."
Gobber paused to hear the storm outside before he continued.
"No attacks tonight. Study up."
As Gobber left, the other teens began to complain.
"Wait, you mean read?"
"While we're still alive?"
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you about?"
At the point, Fishlegs began to ramble on about various facts that, what little he could make out, Hiccup found interesting. However, he was the only one to think so.
"Yeah. That sounds great. There was a chance I was going to read that…"
"But now…"
"You guys read. I'll go kill stuff."
With that, Snoutlout made his way out of the great hall, followed by the twins and Fishlegs, the last one still spouting out dragon factoids.
Well, guess that leaves me to study with Frieda.
Hiccup moved his dinner over to Frieda's table, but paused when he noticed Frieda was getting out of her seat.
"Did you read through the manual already?" asked the heir.
"Huh… No, I haven't yet."
"Well… maybe we could read through it together if you had the…"
"I'd love to, Hiccup, but… I gotta get going."
"Oh… alright then. I guess I'll see you…" Hiccup stopped when Frieda made her way towards the door, leaving him alone with the book.
"…tomorrow."
With a sigh, Hiccup took a seat across from where Frieda sat only moments ago and opened the Dragon Manual to begin reading.
As skies thundered and the rain continued to pour, countless dragons took shelter deep within the numerous caves of the Den. However, at the edge of one cave was a dragon, one covered in scales as dark as night.
Where is she? She's usually back by now…
The Black Death let out a croon, the look of worry simply growing as time went on. He waited all through the night, hoping that his sister would come out of the darkness outside and land next to him. When it became difficult for him to keep his eyes open any longer, the dragon made a promise to itself.
When I wake up, I will not rest until I find my sister.