Chapter 5

Hiccup was in shock for a moment before he was able to register what had just happened. Keila was falling and Toothless was just shaking his head like he was waiting for Hiccup.

"Toothless! Why…oh I don't have time to yell at you! Dive Toothless!"

Toothless shot into a nose-dive headed for Keila. She was flailing and panicking and Hiccup knew it was going to be hard for her to relax enough, for him to catch her.

"Keila we are coming!" Hiccup shouted, but he was afraid his voice was lost in the wind. Keila suddenly stopped flailing and she just put her arms out straight and let the wind carry her. She whooped excitedly.

Hiccup sighed and angled Toothless to dive under her. For a moment she was that fearless girl he remembered, the one who had once dared Hiccup to dive off the tallest cliffs in Berk when they were eight.

Hiccup swooped under her and reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. Her face while tear streaked was bright and joyful.

"Let's do that again." She said pushing back from Hiccup's embrace. Hiccup smiled and helped her to settle in behind him. She was shaking, but it looked like she was ok, and once she had realized there was nothing she could do she seemed to just resign herself to the fall.

She hugged tight to Hiccup's back and he could feel her starting to cry a little again, but now, unexplainably, she didn't seem as afraid of Toothless. Either that or now she just excepted that if she wanted to be back on the ground she would have to trust the dragon for now.

She could see the arena over Hiccup's shoulder now. She felt like she was probably hugging him a little tight, but she didn't care.

She couldn't believe she was actually riding a dragon. Every instinct inside her was screaming at her to run, but where? There was nothing she could do.

The dragon kept looking back at her with big eyes, like he was checking on her. Fishlegs and his Gronkel flew nearby to them.

She had to admit after she stopped freaking out the fall had been kind of fun. Hiccup was so relaxed up here, she didn't understand how he could trust these dragons so much. Of course now she had no choice but to trust the one she rode now. Hiccup had apologized three times now for his dragon dropping her. She kept saying she was fine, but she was really shaken.

They pulled up and landed smoothly in front of the entrance of the arena. The small group of Rusians were standing outside the arena waiting for them accompanied by a few people from Berk, including Stoick and Gobber. She lunged away from the dragon almost before they even hit the ground.

Hiccup came running after her, hands out, "It's okay, it's okay. Toothless didn't mean it, it was an accident! Right Toothless?"

The dragon looked guiltily at Hiccup. "Oh yes he did." Keila said under her breath. She curled her fingers around her dagger defensively.

She didn't take her eyes off Toothless. Stoick and the others approached, the two chiefs looked slightly concerned. They ignored Snotlout who was prattling away about his supposed skill to them.

"Hiccup is everything all right?"

"Uh… yeah Dad…fine." Hiccup looked at Keila, concerned.

Everyone was on edge from watching Keila. She was staring Toothless down, with eyes full of fear and rage. Hiccup tried to distract everyone.

"Welp okay then let's get started shall we?" Hiccup waved everyone towards the arena, Toothless moved to follow him. Keila jumped and held her knife out. Everyone held their positions and watched her carefully. Toothless paused and looked at her.

Hiccup tensed up, Toothless didn't like having knives pointed at him. "Keila…"

Toothless looked Keila up and down and chirped softly. Keila lifted her knife.

Toothless then did something that threw Keila off guard. He bowed his head, and looked at her with soft eyes, it was almost like he was apologizing.

Keila lowered her knife out of pure shock. Hiccup looked back and forth between the dragon and the girl. Toothless crept forward with his head low.

He crooned softly to her as he approached, Keila shivered in her spot. Hiccup chuckled to himself as he watched Toothless.

He stepped to Keila and put his hand on hers. She resisted a little as he slid the knife out of her hand and threw it away. Hiccup slowly lifted her hand slowly as Toothless got close. She balled her hand and tried to pull away, but Hiccup squeezed her hand reassuringly. Toothless offered his nose to pet. Hiccup led her to press her knuckles onto the dragon's nose.

Keila cringed at first and then spread out her fingers and felt the dragon's smooth snout. She could feel his breath under her fingers and the thrumming warmth that he exuded. She relaxed slowly and didn't even realize that Hiccup had let her go. She was touching Toothless by herself.

The Russians cheered and their chief spoke enthusiastically to Stoick about the possibilities of riding dragons. Hiccup stood next to Keila smiling. Keila turned to him without moving her hand.

"Ok Hiccup…teach me about dragons."