After everyone had gathered in either the viewer's standing zone or in the ring, the exams began. The senior class, about a dozen or so teens, lined up with their dragons. They'd be tested in five areas, control, accuracy, force, speed, and intelligence. That was both the students and the dragons. At the end of the official test, the students would then be given the opportunity to show off a routine they'd prepared. They would be given additional points based on how well they performed the routine. Hope was mainly worried that she hadn't practiced the routine enough. She realized that sitting astride on Sugar's back was quite possibly one of the worst places to be concerned about malpractice. She kept hearing Destiny's voice in the back of her mind.
The last time Destiny had visited, Hope had showed her the routine she'd put together. She thought that she had just the right amount of practice into it all those weeks ago, but Destiny had said that it was a little amateur for how well Hope was with Sugar. Destiny assured her that with more practice, she'd nail it and beat out everyone. Hope had practised almost relentlessly since then, to assure that hers was the very best it could be. Magnus had said that no matter how hard she practised, she wasn't going to be at the top of the class. Hope had, of course, ignored him.
Since Hope was the chief's daughter, it was customary for her to go last in every category. This meant that she could watch everyone else do a good job and have a panic attack about how unprepared she felt. The first test, the one about how well a person could control their dragon, was one that Hope was none too worried about. She was rather amused to watch the others control their dragons. Of course, Boulder did anything that Treetrunks wanted him to do, which included not devouring the pile of rocks in front of him. Gronckles tended to be more loyal and obedient than any other species.
Darren managed to keep Spit from dissolving seven of the twelve dummies set up for his test. Freya used the same test track as Darren, as each one was specified to the different species of dragon. The ones that spit things were given dummies; Gronckles was rocks, and so on.
Freya wasn't as successful as Darren. Fjord blasted all but the last one with scalding water. Freya didn't really seem to care that she flunked the control part of the test.
Derek had to keep Jack from rolling around in a huge pile of sawdust, because Timberjacks had a natural impulse to cover themselves in sawdust for some reason. He succeeded, as Hope had guessed he would.
Snublout was only a tiny bit better than his father had been with Hookfang at controlling Fireworm. Meaning that he didn't pass that portion of the test. Fireworm couldn't resist the urge to set fire to all of the dummies in the ring, and Snublout clearly didn't care about the outcome. Hope wasn't worried about the control part of the test. She knew she could keep Sugar from firing spikes at the birds they set free in the ring.
Next; accuracy. Treetrunks and Boulder aced that one, with Boulder hitting the targets at his highest speed. Granted, that speed wasn't very high. It was impressive for a Gronckle, anyways. The other kids showed off, some succeeding and hitting all if not most of the targets. Hope did one of her father's favourite moves, where Sugar went into a midair roll and fired her spikes with deadly accuracy. Hope got the top score in that segment. Force wasn't difficult, since all of the dragons had a certain amount of strength. Speed was actually unfair, since each dragon had different max speeds. Treetrunks came last with Derek in the lead. Intelligence was easy, Hope won by a landslide, since aside from the Night Fury, Nadders were the smartest species of dragon.
Finally, the time came for the routines. Hope was far to busy with stressing about her routine to pay attention to the other's scores or routines. Hope took her bow to the 'emergency bunker' Ruffnut and Tuffnut had built from the old dragon pens and practiced her archery. She knew that she was a sure shot, but the act of firing the arrow forced her nerves to calm themselves. Her breathing became steady and her heart rate slowed as she drew back the string of her cedar wood bow. Her hand tensed around the imprint left behind on the leather grip from every time she'd done the same before. The purple feathers grazed her cheek lightly and she released the string. With a twang and a faint whistle, the arrow flew to the straw target and lodged itself firmly in the center dot. She had expected as much. She just hoped she could do the same while in the air, moving at high speeds.
The order in which the graduates presented their routines was alphabetical right up to Hope. She was last, under all circumstances. It was seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. Either people would prefer the performance of one who had gone before her, or her performance would wrap up the show with a dazzling finale. She wanted to make her father proud, but she had an odd feeling that something wasn't going to go exactly right. She knew it was probably nothing, she would do just fine. When her name was called, Hope strode out from the bunker and smiled with pride, waving grandly to anyone who caught her eye.
Hope was just about to pull herself up into Sugar's saddle when a piercing scream came from the assembled group above the dragon ring. Hope's eyes searched for the one who had screamed. The only person she could see cowering and pointing with a shaking finger was Snublout. Hope was confused for a fraction of a second because his scream had sounded undeniably female, but once Hope saw what he was pointing at the laughter and witty comment that was waiting at the tip of her tongue vanished. As Fishlegs would have said, chances of survival felt as though they were dwindling into single digits.