"So what am I going to be doing?" I asked Hiccup as he escorted me out the door and towards Toothless.
"Learning at first. We need to teach you what to feed a dragon, how to train them to do certain things, and ..." Hiccup started and then I interrupted him.
"... And how to fly like you and Toothless?" I asked excitedly.
"Well not exactly like me and Toothless. His tail kind of makes it a little more difficult." Hiccup said somberly.
"How did that happen anyways?" I asked curiously.
"It kind of a long story and ..." He started again and then I interrupted him.
"... And I'm not leaving Berk anytime soon so whats the problem?" I stated.
We were now at Toothless's side and Hiccup patted Toothless on the head and said "Well ... I kind of ... shot him out of the sky.".
"Umm ... okay. You feel like explaining." I said a little uneasy around him now. Hiccup gave me the impression that he was a gentile person that would never intentionally try to harm anything.
He saddled onto Toothless and then started "We were at war with the Dragons since I was born. I didn't really fit in with the people here." Hiccup said.
"Astrid told me about your last title, the useless." I interjected.
"Great!" said Hiccup sarcastically and then continued "So I wanted to be noticed for doing something good in the village. So ... I shot down Toothless and I was going to become the first viking ever to kill a Nightfury. I found him crashed in the forest, tied up in the bola I launched, but when I went in for the kill ... I ... just ... couldn't. After that I tried to help him with his tail and I realized that it needed to be in certain positions for him to fly. After that, me riding him, just became necessary and we became friends." Hiccup concluded.
"Good. You had me worried that the academy would be full of whips, muzzles, and chains for a second." I said as I breathed a sigh of relief. I got up onto Toothless and my Terror moved from my shoulder and clung to my back as it was expecting the sudden gust of wind that came from Toothless launching into the air. I saw the arena below us and all the other teens working with their dragons. I was surprised when Toothless dived down and swooped through the opening of the arena with great precision.
I was immediately noticed by Snotlout who stated "Great, Hiccup just had to bring the loser here.".
"Snotlout!" scolded Astrid.
"Everybody I have some good news." Hiccup announced "Freya has decided to stay on Berk and my father has allowed her to join us in the academy.".
Snotlout gave a disappointed sigh but the general consensus in the academy was one of joy.
"Is that YOUR Terror?" asked Fishlegs.
"Yep, I found him this morning and he seems to like me." I replied and generally everyone was impressed with me.
"Wow she can get a Terror to sit on her shoulder. She still wimps out in a fight." condescended Snotlout. Astrid who was getting frustrated with Snotlouts attitude grabbed a shiny metal shield.
"You want your first lesson about dragons now?" she asked me and without even waiting for a response she reflected the light so that it was shining on Snotlout. In an instant my dragon leapt from my shoulder to investigate the strange light. It began biting and clawing at the light which, conveniently, was on Snotlout. Astrid soon put the shield down and, with no more shiny light to catch, my Terror flew back to my shoulder. I laughed but Hiccup turned to me and said "My dad was right in some respects. We have some work to plan out so I can't start training you right now. So could you just sit back and watch for a while?".
I nodded and leant against a wall.
Hiccup then addressed the group "Ok so our fishing and trading boats are being taken over by pirates and my dads given us the job of driving off the pirates.".
"Ya except the problem with protecting the fleet means we have to actually attack the pirate ships" Fishlegs stated timidly and then he gulped and continued "And I don't think they are going to like that idea too much.".
"Who cares Hookfang and I can take them out ourselves." bragged Snotlout in his usual bravado.
"No Fishlegs is right." added Astrid "They are way to well equipped for a direct attack. I was scouting a few pirate ships earlier and they definitely know we have dragons. They've got crossbows, net throwers, catapults, lots of bolas ... basically everything they need to take down a dragon.".
"So any suggestions on how we should attack this problem?" Hiccup asked.
Ruffnut spoke up "Oh we could get a ship and wait out there until the pirates come. Then when they take the ship we blow it up with Barfs gas.".
"That ... could work if we had more ships than them and were willing to lose them all. There would also still need to be someone on the ship to ignite the gas." said Hiccup as supportingly as possible.
The twins both lifted their hands as if to volunteer for the job before Hiccup dismissed the idea.
"Astrid, Fishlegs, any ideas?" asked Hiccup. They both shook their heads.
Snotlout began to suggest something before Astrid cut him off and said "We already know your idea Snotlout.".
"No you don't!" Snotlout protested.
"You were going to say we should just man up and attack the ships." Astrid interpreted with annoyance in her voice. She must have been right because Snotlout didn't refute this.
"What about you Freya?" Hiccup asked.
"Huh?" I stated as I was mostly consumed playing with my Terror.
"How would you attack the pirate ships?" Hiccup clarified.
"Oh I agree with Snotlout" I said and everyone, even Snotlout, was surprised by this.
"I mean you can fly. That is a huge advantage. Why not just fly so high above them so that your not in range." I clarified.
"Show her Toothless, plasma blast!" Hiccup said and the dragon tilted it's head into the sky and shot a brilliant purple ball of fire into the air. After it traveled for a while it exploded in mid-air creating a beautiful spectacle of purple light.
"A dragons shots can't go that far. If their in range for us, we are in range for them." Hiccup instructed.
"Ok thats good to know but I wasn't talking about their shots." I said and everyone was listening intently now. "If a dragon can carry a person on it's back it should be able to carry a few rocks or even a tree.".
Astrid gave a huff of laughter and then stated "We could maybe hit a ship, at that height, one time in twenty if we dropped boulders.".
"Then we will drop twenty rocks and not use boulders." Fishlegs added. "If we drop it from really high up the rocks shouldn't need to be more than a few pounds to break through the ships hull." concluded Fishlegs.
"Ok but we still got the problem of how to aim. From that high up we can't aim accurately at all." stated Hiccup.
"Thats no problem." I stated "Look down. What do you see?". Everyone looked at their feet and the twins butted heads and fell back when they tilted their heads down.
"My feet?" Astrid stated.
"The ground?" Fishlegs stated.
"My shadow!" Hiccup exclaimed. He looked up and I nodded at him.
"And at midday everyones shadow will be right under them. You can use that to aim." I said.
"That's great. How long until midday Fishlegs?" asked Hiccup.
Fishlegs walked over to a sundial and said "Only and hour and a half, Hiccup.".
"Thats not that much time." Hiccup said quietly. "Alright everyone listen up!" Hiccup announced "Ruff, Tuff, I need you to go to the docks and get enough nets and ropes for everyones dragons and come back here. We need a way to hold the rocks. Astrid, Snotlout, I need you to bring any boulders or rocks you can find and bring them back here. Fishlegs, use Meatlug to break the boulders into a good size and try not to have her eat to many." Hiccup commanded. "And Freya ... uh ..." Hiccup stammered.
"Stay here and watch?" I asked, unenthusiastically.
"No this was your plan, come with me to Gobbers and help me sort the problem of how to open the nets and attach them to our dragons." Hiccup stated and we got onto Toothless and flew off to Gobbers blacksmiths. I let my Terror go explore town as I knew I would be too busy to pay any attention to him.
When we landed Gobber was initially pleased to see us and said "So you two have taken the day off and come to help me out.".
"Sorry Gobber but we actually need your help." Hiccups said and then he explained the situation to Gobber.
"Well a pull pin would be the best option if you only got one shot. As a matter of fact I still got the components from a few old dragon netter traps." Gobber explained.
"Great, we are going to have to break the safety though. Freya grab one and figure out a way to disengaged the safety so that we can use it by pulling a rope." Hiccup said "I'm going to check on how the others are doing and help out if they need it.". He then departed on Toothless and I got to work cracking open a trap component so I could modify it. After thirty minutes Hiccup returned with Astrid and had four of the five mechanisms completed.
"Wow, impressive." commented Astrid on the speed at which I completed my work.
"You should have seen her yesterday. She put a shield together in no time. I guess knowing someone is coming for you armed with two axes is a better motivation than most." Gobber commented. Astrid giggled at this which was a little unsettling. I didn't think Astrid was going to attack me again but the mere fact that she wasn't embarrassed or a little bit remorseful about coming after me was a little alarming. There! All the mechanisms were ready.
I turned to Hiccup and Astrid and said "Ok these should release the rocks if we can attach a rope to this.". I gestured to the pin in the component.
"Ok lets take them back and hook up our dragons." Hiccup said and they got on their dragons, and I got on Toothless, and we went back to the Academy. The arena floor was littered with head sized rocks when we got there and the twins were just arriving with ropes and nets all tangled in Barf and Belch's spikes. It took another thirty minutes to get all the dragons fitted with the nets and rocks. However there wasn't a rope long enough to reach to Ruffnut or Tuffnut from the net full of rocks.
"I'll ride on the back of Barf and Belch and pull the rope." I said to Hiccup. His eye grew wide with surprise.
"Are you sure!?" he asked.
"Ya it will be fine. We really had a good time the other day trying to kill each other." I said semi-sarcastically and I put my hands up to Barf and Belch. Surprisingly, both heads immediately moved into my hands and I scratched them.
"See!" I exclaimed to Hiccup.
"I guess this is for the best. If the rope actually reached they would just fight over it until they pulled it." Hiccup whispered. After a few seconds of bonding with Barf and Belch Ruff and Tuff walked over and Ruff yelled "Hey, back off our dragon.".
"Ya he is ours to ignore and not do that chin scratchy thing." Tuff added.
The right head looked annoyed and breathed gas in both of their faces. I laughed and climbed onto the body. Ruff and Tuff got onto the heads and then we were ready to go. Hiccup signaled everyone to move out and we started flying. We headed in the direction that Astrid saw the pirate ships before. Several minutes passed and Fishlegs was getting worried that we wouldn't find the ships before midday. With only a couple of minutes remaining until midday Astrid spotted the three ships chasing a Berk fishing boat. We climbed even higher to stay well out of range and prepare our attack.
"Line up your shadows." Hiccup said and then Fishlegs corrected him.
"We should probably move them ahead of the ships because it will take a few seconds for the rocks to fall." Fishlegs said and then Hiccup commanded likewise.
"Is it midday yet." Hiccup asked Fishlegs and he pulled out a portable sundial. Fishlegs nodded and then Hiccup said "Ok pull your ropes!".
I pulled on my rope and watched, in between the two heads, as everyones rocks fell towards the sea. They became invisible as they fell further from us. I started to get disappointed that we missed until I saw the sea all around the three ships turn white and we heard a noise like thunder. Two of the ships keeled violently and one of them even broke in half. The third looked like it was unaffected until we slowly saw the blue of the ocean come over the deck as it took on water and sank.
The twins turned around and said "That was awesome."
"So much destruction."
"And carnage."
"Please come up with more plans that end like this" they said.
Then Hiccup looked back and commented to me "Great idea. It's too bad we can only use it once per day though.".
"Actually Hiccup if we do some tests we could use our shadows to aim during most times of the day." Fishlegs pointed out.
"That's great. Alright everyone lets get back to Berk." Hiccup concluded.
"Wait Hiccup! We aren't just going to leave the survivors stranded are we?" I asked, sympathetic about being trapped at sea because of my recent endeavor.
"Don't worry. There is plenty of driftwood and the current here will take them strait past Outcast Island. They will only be out here for a few hours." he reassured. The flight back was considerably quicker, as we didn't have lots of rocks weighing us down. I got off Barf and Belch and Snotlout immediately came over to me.
"So, you doing anything later?" he asked.
"Get lost Snotlout" I repelled.