The next morning, about an hour before dawn, Nina was shaken awake by Terrible Terrors swinging wildly on the hammock. She fell out with a yelp with Herby landing sprawled on her back. She pushed herself up with a tired groan.
"What's wrong, Terrors?" she asked rubbing her eyes as she sat up.
Chattering met her ears and Herby perked up. "They say time to wakey. Almost daybreak," he said. She smiled and chuckled before scratching him under the chin. He chirped before clearing his throat and purring longer and louder than necessary.
"Alright, if it's time to wake up, then I had better do so, right?" she said with a laugh. He chortled and cackled. She stood up and stretched, yawning widely and loudly. "Well time to greet the new day." She threw her archery set over her shoulder, the arrows rattling in the quiver. Herby snuggled down in the satchel she had attached to the quiver's harness. It was bulky enough on the outside that he was hidden quite well but he could still breathe easily. His nose wiggled as he sniffed the crisp morning air, sticking his head out far enough to have an unobstructed scope of scents.
Nina wandered around a bit before heading to Hiccup's house. She knocked on the door just as the sun broke the horizon. He opened it, hair looking exceptionally wild, as though he had just woken up and was trying to figure out whether it was worth getting up or if he could get away with a few more hours of sleep. When there wasn't a dragon attack, most Vikings did the sensible thing: prepare for the next fight or the coming winter. Hiccup and the other teens did what was probably pretty wise: catch up on lost sleep.
"Oh, good morning, Nina," he said, voice very sluggish, a bit nasally, and deeper than usual due to having just woken up. He yawned, covering his mouth with the back of a hand. He coughed a bit before remembering his manners. "Come in." He opened the door a bit more and stepped aside, letting her pass into the house.
She sat down on a bench beside him. "You ready for your first day of Dragon Training?" she asked.
He snorted. "As I'll ever be," he said.
"Hey, it's a success if you're not dead by the end of the day, right?" He gave her an odd look. "If you're alive tonight, no matter what happened today, it's been a successful day." She looked into the almost dead hearth. "Where's your firewood again? Under the stairs?"
"Oh! Yeah, it is. Sorry I'm just a bit tired, I guess," he said rubbing his face sleepily. She retrieved a couple logs and set them on the embers. Blowing on the glowing bits didn't do much so Herby stuck his head out of the pouch and spat fire on it, igniting the logs.
"Thank you, Herby," she said to him, patting his head. She glanced over her shoulder at Hiccup who blinked for a moment before a light of remembrance sparked in his eyes.
"Oh, right. Your Terrible Terror flock," he said. "How was your morning?"
"A bit rough. They rocked the hammock so much I flew out," she said. He laughed at that, genuinely laughed. It woke him up enough to run his fingers through his hair, taming it for the most part. "Well it's almost time for Training to begin, you ready to go?"
"Well I need breakfast first, Nina, gods," he said, acting offended. "I mean, it's not like you need to eat or anything, Landlegs."
She bit her lips, trying not to laugh. "Oh come on, Twiggy. Do you even eat?" she returned. "Gods, if you're trying to make it so you're as thin as a broom, you don't have much farther to go." He threw his head back and laughed.