"HICCUP!" boomed Stoick from the academy gate. Everyone froze and stopped celebrating. He looked angry and was glaring over my shoulder. I turned to see what he might be looking at and I saw the twins, trying to look as innocent as possible.
I whispered over to them "You guys did tell the fishermen why you took the nets, right?".
"Uh" Tuff belated.
"We may have ... actually ... forgot ... that part." Ruff explained.
"I just came here from the docks where I was told that Ruffnut and Tuffnut stole five fishing nets and caused an explosion." Stoick scolded. I looked back over at the twins in shock.
Ruff was now looking at the ground and said "An accidental gas leak may have occurred.".
I saw Hiccup, who was within earshot of the twins, rub his hand down his face in frustration.
Tuff absentmindedly yet excitedly added "Don't forget about the accidental ignition!".
"Dad i'm sorry but we ..." Hiccup started but then was cut off by Stoick.
"Save it Hiccup. I told you that this would happen. You can't keep the twins from running wild and train Freya at the same time." Stoick added.
"But the twins weren't running wild and I wasn't training Freya. They were getting the nets for Freya's plan to..." Hiccup started but was interrupted again by Stoick.
"So you told the twins to do this?! I was generous enough to give you the option to stay on Berk and now you are thieving and destroying things?" Stoick scolded me.
"Dad for the love of Thor, we sunk three pirate ships!" Hiccup yelled.
Stoick looked stunned for a moment and then scolded "I told you it was too dangerous to attack the pirates and thats why I put you in charge of finding a safer way to protect our ships. You think that disobeying me ...".
This time Hiccup interrupted his father and said "We didn't attack them head on! It was Freya's plan to drop rocks on them from well out of their range. I was the one who ordered Ruff and Tuff to get the nets because we needed to attack them before noon. I was the one who gave the order though so, if your going to be mad at anyone, be mad at me.".
"Three pirate ships?" Stoick said inquisitively.
"And no danger to anyone, ... except maybe the dock workers near the explosion" Hiccup stated and shot a glare at the twins before continuing "But that was a one time thing.". Hiccup was awkwardly grinning at his father waiting for a response.
"Good job." Stoick said.
"I'm sorr ... what?! So ... your not mad?" Hiccup asked.
"Oh I'm still mad but sinking three pirate ships is still a great accomplishment. However, you two" Stoick said, now pointing at the twins "... are going to help with the repairs to the dock.".
Ruff and Tuff sighed and Ruff complained "You me 'con'struction?".
"But thats my least favorite kind of 'struction" Tuff commented.
"Oh and Freya?" Stoick turned from departing and said "That must have been one good plan. It looks like you chose the right place to work.". I just looked at him with a look of gratitude and Stoick walked away with the twins. After they departed Hiccup went over the basics of how to train a dragon with me. After a little convincing he got Astrid to let me ride Stormfly alone, as operating Toothless's tail mechanism would be too complex and unnecessary to learn. After a we trained at flying for a bit my Terror came back to me. We went over a few methods of training different dragons, Terrible Terrors included. When it was about seven'o clock, I had trained my Terror to receive and execute basic commands like fetch and I learned the Terror call to bring my Terror to me if we were separated. We all decided to end for the day and we all decided to get supper. We all started walking back to give the dragons a break from flying with us on their backs.
"I think my rocks were the ones that caused the ship to split in half" Snotlout claimed and everyone ignored him.
"If someone can do some tests with me tomorrow, we can figure out a way to use Freya's rock method at anytime of the day." asked Fishlegs.
"I'm not so sure we should just drop rocks all the time, I mean, there is no challenge in it." Snotlout stated.
"How about next time you and Hookfang 'challenge' yourselves and attack the vicious pirates head on. If you fail, you can tell us your first hand experience of what it's like on a ship when rocks start crashing through the deck." Astrid taunted.
"That's a challenge we are willing to ..." Snotlout started before Hookfang roared at him.
"Oh I almost forgot, Freya." Fishleg exclaimed now holding out a book. "You should probably start reading this." he suggested, handing the book to me.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's the book of dragons, everything we know about Dragons." Hiccup stated. "Training techniques, measurements, descriptions, speeds, and there are ... actually ... the left over ... tips ... on how to kill them." Hiccup listed off. Toothless heard the last part and slapped his rider with his tail.
"What?! I can't make words, written in ink, disappear, Toothless." Hiccup defended against his dragon.
"How dose that work?" I asked.
"What?" Hiccup replied.
"How dose he know what you said?" I clarified.
"I actually don't know exactly how. I assume he just responds to my body language and picks up on a few key words." Hiccup responded.
"Have you ever tested it?" I replied.
"Well he can't speak back to me so it would be a useless test." Hiccup laughed.
"Yes he can! He just did." I exclaimed "All you would have to do is talk to your dragon in one way and project body language that would suggest your trying to convey the opposite. Then you would just wait an see if Toothless slaps you with is tail or not." I explained and the group laughed at my 'tail' comment.
"That might actually work Hiccup. We could test that tomorrow" commented Fishlegs.
"I thought the point of getting a new dragon trainer was so that we would have to do less work not more?" huffed Snotlout. We then walked into the Great Hall ate our meals and said our goodbyes for the night. It was still early so I got a bucket of water and borrowed a washboard and, finally, washed my clothes. I set them near one of the fires to dry and then got a candle to start reading the Book of Dragons. I read nearly halfway through the book, before I put out the candle and went to sleep. The next morning someone shook me awake. I was still incredibly tired so it must have been early. I managed to open my eye's enough to see that it was Fishlegs that was shaking me.
"How early is it? The suns not even out yet." I asked Fishlegs.
"6 and a half hours. Are you ready to get started?" he Asked.
"You guys always get up this early?" I asked, yawning and stretching in bed.
"No, but the sun will be up soon and I thought we could do the tests with our shadows today." He said, excitedly.
I groaned and then caved "Fine. Let me get dressed.". Fishlegs left and I retrieved my clothes by the fire. The air was cold outside of the Great Hall and I could see the giant clouds of breath that were coming out of Meatlug. The sun had just risen enough so that we didn't need torches to navigate.
"I should probably introduce you two properly. I mean without the ropes and Gobber. Meatlug this is Freya." Fishlegs said. I went up to the Gronckle and touched her snout without any pause. The dragon nuzzled me and then Fishlegs commented "Wow. She is usually more timid around new people.".
"Well if there really was a war between Dragons and Vikings a few years ago I would assume all other people she would meet would have had ... bad experiences with dragons and vise versa." I commented before gesturing for Fishlegs to mount his dragon; I did the same after Fishlegs was on Meatlugs back and we flew over to the arena to get some equipment and a log book for the tests. We then flew to a field where I got off.
"Ok it's almost 7. I'm going to fly up to different heights and you can mark where the shadow of me and Meatlug is. If you can see the rock, try to count how long it takes for it to hit the ground" Fishlegs explained. I nodded and walked across the field until I got into his shadow. I stuck a stake into the ground and he dropped a rock. I counted until I heard it hit the ground. Fishlegs went to three different heights real quickly and I practically had to sprint to every shadow.
After, he came over to me and said "We will try that again after five minutes and measure how much it has changed. For the rest of the test we don't need to count how long it takes for the rock to hit the ground.". I glared at him, completely out of breath from running between the shadows. A few minutes into my break I heard a familiar little squawk behind me. My terror had found us and was wanting some attention. Playing with my Terror helped pass the time between the tests. At 10 I was exhausted and had enough of the tests.
"This doesn't all need to be done in one day Fishlegs" I breathed out having just run between the last two shadows for 10 o'clock. Fishlegs was leisurely resting against Meatlug in the grass.
"Why can't it, besides we have only been out here for a couple of hours." Fishlegs said.
"No, you have been out here sitting in a saddle for a couple of hours. I have been out here sprinting around for several hours. Take me back to Berk." I requested.
"Freya we need to know how to use this method at any time. What if we get attacked by pirates tomorrow and we haven't completed these tests." Fishlegs replied.
"If I can't go back and get some food I'm going to die of starvation before tomorrow." I pleaded.
"I doubt that. You are just going to have to tough it out. I'll tell you what, if you continue with these test I'll do all the calculations with the data later." Fishlegs offered.
I ignored his offer and said "Fine. If your not going to take me back to town, I'm going myself.".
"Good luck." he said closing his eye's and reclining further on Meatlug "It's a long ways if your not on the back of a Dragon".
With Fishlegs unaware I climbed on the back of Meatlug and said "I know.". I took off and Meatlug was surprisingly receptive to me and we headed towards town. I was surprised that Fishlegs hadn't demanded that I bring back his Dragon. However, when I just got up over the trees I heard a Gronckle call behind me. Meatlug then ignored my commands completely and sped back to her rider. She landed right in front of Fishlegs and I got off and crossed my arms in annoyance with a matching look on my face.
"Don't look at me like that. You are the one who hijacked my dragon." Fishlegs said in a triumphant voice.
"I'm trying to decide if I hate you more than Snotlout right now." I stated deep in thought. My annoyance finally faded and I said "Nope, he's still worse.".
"Alright it is almost five past 10 I need you to ..." Fishlegs said but I interrupted him.
"I know. I know. Mark your, stupid, shadow again." I said, defeated. I was relieved when it finally turned midday and I said in relief "There. Can you take me back now?".
"Wait, we don't know if the sun behaves the same way after midday." Fishlegs said.
"WHAT?!" I shouted in disbelieve.
"Have you ever tested your shadow like this before? We can't just assume something will behave in a certain way. We need to be sure because we will only get one shot with the rocks." Fishlegs defended.
"No, no, no." I said making my way to the midpoint where Fishlegs and Meatlug flew up from. I paced out the distances from the last test and said "When your shadow lines up with these spots we are going back!". I didn't even bother to stand by to mark the five after 12 positions and I just rested in the field. Sure enough Fishlegs came back and confirmed they were correct and we headed back. When we entered the Great Hall I could see the other teens sat at the table and I grabbed my food and sauntered over to them.
Astrid immediately noticed the exhausted look on my face and asked "What happened to you?".
"We were testing how our shadows behaved at different times." I said, abrasively.
"Then why do you look like you just got trampled by a heard of yaks" Astrid asked, almost laughing at me.
"Because, I don't have a Dragon to carry me around and 'someone' forgot that little fact and made me sprint to keep up with him, for five hours." I said venomously.
"It looks promising, I should have a way to attack those pirates at anytime of the day by tomorrow" Fishlegs said.
"That's great Fishlegs. Good work." Hiccup applauded. I was very annoyed that Hiccup didn't appreciate me, or Fishlegs didn't correct him but I was to tired to voice my opinion.
Luckily, Astrid nudged him and and Hiccup added "And you too Freya.". I just grunted in response as I was busy chugging my mug of water.
When I finished I commented "Why did I have to tame a Dragon too small to ride?".
"Tough luck" Astrid jabbed.
"Well you should have talked to Astrid and borrowed Stormfly again." Hiccup commented only to later regret it as Astrid elbowed him in the ribs. Obviously everyone was really defensive about their dragons, as shown by the twins yesterday and Astrid's little bit of violence just now.
Hiccup then pointed out "Well I can't keep flying you everywhere on Toothless. So ... how about we head to Dragon Island later and you can tame a ridable dragon of your choosing.".
"Really? You think I'm ready for my own dragon?" I asked. Astrid supported this, realizing that this would mean I would never need to borrow Stormfly again.
"Why not." Astrid said "You have more experience than even Hiccup had when he tamed Toothless.".
"Cool." I commented.
"So did you read the book." asked Fishlegs.
"I got halfway through. I saw all of what you guys put about your dragons except for yours Hiccup." I said, some curiosity it my voice.
"Well it's in the back half and it's not complete anyways." Hiccup stated.
"What!? Your ok with everyone else's dragons being documented, but not your own." I pried.
"There is some stuff but ... well ... you know that the way me and Toothless met was ... unique. I can't endorse that kind of approach method and I can't exactly say for sure what would work with other Nightfury's because there aren't any." Hiccup said. "I also don't wan't to put down a speed because ... well ..." Hiccup started but Snotlout chimed in.
"Because he can't tell how fast Toothless used to be since he gimped his dragon." Snotlout said, very inconsiderately. Astrid then whipped her head forward to face Snotlout and kicked his knees under the table. "Ow! Those were ... still ... sore from ... last time" Snotlout cried in pain.
I decided to change the subject and I turned to the twins and asked "So how long did it take you to repair the damage you guys did?".
"A long time." bragged Tuff, contented by thinking about the damage he caused. Ruff was annoyed by his tone and hit him, sending him face first into his food.
Ruff dispiritedly said "A very long time.".
She then turned to her brother and scolded him "Why did you have to spark the gas? I let it out on accident.".
Hiccup stopped the fight and then sighed as he said "Whoa guys. I could have gone my whole life without hearing that sentence and I have a feeling that before this is over allot more things are going to be said that no one wants to hear. So, how about you two just stop while your ahead.".
"Ahead of what?" they both asked.
Hiccup sighed in frustration and said "You know what, I'm finished my meal. How about we fly to dragon island and get you a dragon.".
Hiccup whispered over to Astrid "If you can outpace the twins you are welcome to come with us, otherwise ..."
Astrid took one look at the twins who were now starting the fight again and said "Lets get out of here.". When we left the Great Hall we all quickly got onto our dragons and Hiccup flew Toothless over to the academy and grabbed a satchel.
"This has a few supplies you might need" Hiccup explained. "I take it you read up to the parts about dragon nip and eels.". I nodded and he continued "There is some of that in there and some smoked fish.". With that we departed to Dragon Island. It took an hour before it showed up on the horizon. Suddenly, Toothless began acting strange and let out a roar.
"Toothless! Calm down bud. It's just Dragon Island." Hiccup said while rubbing Toothless's side. A few seconds passed in silence and then a near identical roar responded to Toothless's.
"Hiccup!" said Astrid in a worried tone.
"Was that the roar of ..." I asked and Hiccup finished my sentence.
"Another Nightfury." Hiccup said in a very serious tone.