Hiccup returned to the blacksmith shop late that night and built a saddle.
She went to the cove and shared her idea with Toothless.
"No!" he protested, "Over my cold, dead body!"
"Wait!" exclaimed Hiccup.
Hiccup chased after the Night Fury for about twenty minutes before he finally gave up and let her put the saddle on. Hiccup tried steering the tail-fan by pulling a rope in a certain way. But that resulted in both going in opposite directions and crashing in the water.
Toothless tried to persuade Hiccup into sticking with the dragon behaviour lessons. But she insisted that she helped him fly again.
Hiccup made two hooks and attached them to the saddle. She made a belt that had leather strings on each side to help her stay on Toothless' back.
When she attempted for the second time, she tied the rope to her foot. But she ended up making them go down again. They crashed in a field of soft, sweet-smelling grass.
Hiccup rolled in the grass for a few seconds. Every muscle in her body relaxed and she was strangely calm. She found the smell of the grass somewhat comforting and the grass itself felt soft enough to sleep in. She held her upper body off the ground by leaning on her arms. She looked at Toothless who seemed to be in a similar trance.
He kept rolling around in the grass like a playful kitten, laughing as he buried himself in the grass.
"What is this stuff?" Hiccup asked through her forcefully calm voice.
Toothless was so focused on enjoying the grass that he was barely able to answer, "It's called Dragon Nip. It calms it dragons down and helps us think more clearly. But mostly it calms us down."
Hiccup held a small handful. This could come in handy. She figured.
At the arena, she used the Dragon Nip to calm the Gronckle. The dragon was so calm that she lost her balance and collapsed on the arena floor.
As they walked away from the arena, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs asked Hiccup question after question.
"How did you do that?"
"I've never seen a Gronckle just collapse from a touch on the nose before!"
"What's your secret, Hiccup?"
Hiccup remembered something, "Oh! I left my axe back in the ring. You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up with you." as she ran back, she nearly bumped into Astro.
"C'mon!" said Toothless, "Behind the ear!"
Hiccup was helping Toothless with an itch on his neck that he couldn't reach. When she moved from behind to ear to under the chin, Toothless suddenly collapsed on the ground, in a similar way from crashing in the Dragon Nip.
Amazing! thought Hiccup, I can just use my hands! Wait 'til Snotlout sees this.
Today, they were training with the Deadly Nadder. Astro threw his axe at the dragon, who blocked it with her horn. The Deadly Nadder charged past Astro and towards Hiccup.
Hiccup dropped her weapon and closed her eyes.
The Nadder stopped in surprise, "What's this?" the dragon wondered, "Your method of killing me?"
Hiccup opened her mouth to explain, but heard Astro yelling as he charged the Nadder, ready to kill her.
Hiccup quickly scratched the dragon. Behind the ear, next to the eye, and then under the chin. The Deadly Nadder dropped as if dead, just as Astro was almost close enough to hurt the dragon.
Both stared at the each other for a long awkward minute.
Later, Hiccup walked into the Great Hall and sat down at her usual spot-the neighbouring table, next to the one the others would sit at. But before she could begin eating, she was swarmed by the teenagers-along with other Vikings. Astro grew very jealous of Hiccup's popularity. He planned to somehow find out how Hiccup became so good at a very fast rate.
At the cove, Hiccup brought a small hammer. Toothless looked at it.
"What's that for?" he asked.
"What's that?" Hiccup asked in a silly way. She turned the hammer in all directions. Toothless immediately noticed the light that reflected from the hammer. "Don't go anywhere!" he yelled, "You're about to learn the process of hunting!"
Toothless ran after the reflected light like a fox after a bunny. Hiccup kept moving the light in all directions. Toothless ran everywhere. Failing at catching the light. He chased the light for ten minutes until he noticed Hiccup laughing hysterically.
"What is so funny?" asked Toothless over his frustration.
"It's not……. an animal….. that you're chasing!" Hiccup gasped between breaths, "It's the light reflecting off this hammer!"
"What?"
"When I turned the hammer, the sunlight reflected off of it!" Hiccup turned the hammer to demonstrate.
"So….. you're telling me, that for ten minutes, I've been chasing a light?"
"Yes!"
"Well let me tell you something!" Hiccup's laughter stopped as soon as she heard Toothless. Toothless glared at Hiccup, but then his glare turned into complete laughter, "I've never had this much fun in my life!"
Both laughed hysterically for the next seven and a half minutes.
"Meet the Terrible Terror" announced Gobber, unlocking the cell. But instead of a giant lizard, a baby-sized dragon ran out.
"Ha!" laughed Tuffnut in a mocking tone, "it's like the size of my-" the little dragon suddenly pounced on Tuffnut. By the way he screamed in pain, he must have been feeling a lot of it.
Hiccup used her shield to reflect the sunlight onto the ground next to Tuffnut. Immediately the Terror began to chase the light.
"Oooooh! I'm hurt!" yelled Tuffnut, "I am very much hurt!"
Once he stood up and watched with the others as Hiccup almost effortlessly lead the dragon back into its cage.
"Wow." Tuffnut commented, "She's better than you ever were."
Astro was in the woods, practicing his combat. He kept throwing the axe at trees and summersaulted as her prepared to throw it again. He was just about to let go. If it weren't for his quick reflex skill, he'd of thrown the axe and possibly killed Hiccup, who was just walking by on her way to the cove.
Hiccup tried to walk casually to the cove. She had a feeling that she'd be followed, so she secretly climbed up a tree and quietly traveled along the branches.
In the cove, a violet orb of fire obliterated a branch that was launched through the air.
"Nice job, Kid!" exclaimed Toothless, "Didn't I tell you? It's not so hard. Just aim, and make a shoving gesture. Remember to focus."
"Try again?" suggested Hiccup.
Toothless chuckled, "How else are you gonna get better?"
Once she was done practicing her aim with fire, Hiccup fastened her new riding equipment in place, and attached a rope to Toothless' saddle and a tree stump. As Hiccup carefully observed the different pedal positions, she made a sheet that explained each position's function.
She was about to try another position, when the wind became so strong that the rope snapped. Both crashed into the bushes behind them. Toothless stood up, lifting Hiccup partially off the ground. Hiccup tried to unhook her belt, but the hook was bent and the leather strings were stuck.
"Oh." said Hiccup, "Perfect! How am going to get home now?"
"Just unhook yourself." suggested Toothless.
"Tried that. It won't budge."
"Just go back to the village and find something to fix it."
"I think you hit your head on a tree. If I return now, you'll be seen, and then you'll be killed and I'll be back to being the most hated Viking with absolutely nobody who trusts me at all!"
"Try going back tonight. I'm black. I'll practically be invisible. We'll be in and out before they even know we're there."
"I hope you're right…. for both our sake."
They waited until it was almost midnight. Hiccup walked Toothless through the village to the blacksmith shop. Hiccup scanned the shop to make sure the coast was clear. Once content, she walked into the shop.
Toothless saw a bucket and peeked inside, thinking there was fish. The bucket was empty. Toothless flicked the bucket across the shop with his paw.
The bucket landed on a pile of swords, causing a loud clang.
"What the hell, Toothless?" asked Hiccup, praying that the sound wasn't loud enough to be heard.
"I thought there was fish." confessed Toothless.
"Just keep it down. And hold still."
"Hiccup?" called a voice. Hiccup and Toothless froze. Hiccup only knew one person who was curious enough to keep an eye on her: Astro.
"Are you in there?" Astro questioned, sure that Hiccup was in the shop.
Hiccup made a shushing gesture to Toothless, and jumped through the shop window, and quickly closed in behind her.
"Astro! Hey!" stammered Hiccup, trying to think of something to say.
"I don't usually care what people do," said Astro, "but you're acting weird."
Hiccup felt Toothless tugging on the leather string. She stumbled back, and laughed nervously.
I'm so dead. thought Hiccup.
"Well, weirder." added the Hofferson boy.
Hiccup was so her secret was revealed when Toothless pulled so hard that Hiccup was lifted off the ground-then pulled right through the shop window shutters.
She quickly mounted up on Toothless' back and both flew away before Astro could open the shutters.
"What in the name of Thor were you thinking?" questioned Hiccup, "You almost got us killed!"
"It was either me trying to get us the heck out of there, or one of those stupid sheep that were about to cry 'dragon'!"