Chapter 13

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Thought / Dreams / Event from the past

[Voice from the past]

"Dialogue"

Letter

Emphasis

Dangerous Tone

Stoick was humming to himself as he checked the net to make sure it was set perfectly.

"You seem to be in a good mood, Chief." Mulch commented as he watched the man.

"Because I am." Stoick said simply and turned to look at Mulch, "How long we wait normally?" He asked since he never go fishing before.

"About half an hour or a full hour." Mulch answered as he finished setting the net on his side.

"Good, I will just relax here then." Stoick replied as he sat on an empty fish barrel, simply enjoying the calmness that he rarely got, but then he noticed Mulch and Bucket's worried expression, "What are you worrying about?" He asked curiously.

"Haven't you heard, Chief?" Bucket replied as he looked around, "A rumor said that, lately, there's a rogue dragon that keep attacking fishermen's boat".

"Ah, the problem with rogue dragon." Stoick nodded in understanding, "I have heard about it. That's another reason why I go with you today, aside from to have a break from my other chiefing duty. I want to catch this dragon and bring it to Berk, then Hiccup can talk with it and find out why it keep attacking the fishermen." He explained calmly, "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you both".

Just as he said that, the boat rocked. "It's coming!" Mulch announced, causing Stoick to jump to his feet, "It's circling us!".

Stoick narrowed his eyes as he tracked the dragon's movement with his eyes, the dragon finally flew out of the water and Stoick's eyes widened. "A Thunderdrum." He breathed in awe as he stared at the blue colored dragon, "A dragon that people say to have it's power come from Thor himself".

"What to do, Chief?!" Mulch and Bucket asked in panic.

Stoick saw the Thunderdrum opened it's mouth, "Duck!" He yelled and ducked, just in time to avoid getting hit by a powerful sonic blast head on, but the attack had broke the sail to pieces. He stood back out and cracked his knuckles, "You attack us first, dragon." He said as he stared at the dragon in the eyes, "Prepare yourself!" He yelled out his battle cry and charged at the Thunderdrum bare handed.

The Thunderdrum opened it's mouth to let out another sonic blast, but Stoick got the dragon first and hit it at the jaw, the dragon let out a cry and dove back into the sea. Stoick looked around for when the dragon would came out again, but then the dragon's tail wrapped around him and pulled him underwater. He used his strength to release himself from the dragon's hold and immediately have to grab the dragon's jaws when it moved to bite him.

"Chief!" Mulch and Bucket cried out in worry when he and the dragon get out of the sea once again.

They crashed onto the deck, the dragon tried to pin Stoick but Stoick punched it to throw it away from him. He saw a net near him and immediately picked it up, then, using the dazed state of the dragon, he threw the net at the dragon and pinned it down using his weight and strength.

"That was the most exciting fight I even have." Stoick said with a smirk as he looked down at the dragon, who struggled to get away but couldn't because of the net.

"Chief!" Astrid's voice reached him, he looked up to see the girl flew on Stormfly along with the rest of the teens, "We were flying around when we heard the Thunderdrum's roar, so we came to investigate." She explained as she landed on the boat, "What happened here?".

"Well, you've heard about the rumor saying a rogue dragon keep attacking the fishermen, here is the dragon." Stoick gestured to the Thunderdrum, "I'm planning to bring it back to Berk so Hiccup can talk with it, then we can find out why this dragon attacking us".

They stared at him with gaping mouth, "Did you just fight with that dragon and won?" Snotlout asked in awe.

"Of course!" Stoick laughed at the question, "Now, don't just stay there, help us get back to Berk!" He ordered them, "We lost the catch today and have a broken boat, we need to get back so we can send out another fishing boat".

They returned to Berk with the help of the dragons and brought the Thunderdrum to the academy, "Where's Hiccup?" Stoick asked he looked around the academy, "I thought he would be here by now." He had just come in because he need to change his clothes first.

"We went to the forge to find him but Gobber said that Hiccup had left for the Nest." Fishlegs answered, "It seems that there's a problem in the Nest, so as the Alphas, he and Toothless are needed over there".

"But Hiccup told Gobber that he would be back before dinner time." Astrid said immediately as soon as he saw Stoick's disappointed face, the man must be looking forward to have family time with Hiccup.

"I guess we need to wait until Hiccup return then." Stoick said with a sigh before his eyes darting to the cage where the Thunderdrum was locked for the time being, "Hmm . . . what do you say if I want to train this guy?" He asked Astrid curiously.

"It's awesome!" Snotlout answered right away.

"Yeah, so cool!" Tuffnut joined in.

"Definitely cool!" Ruffnut said as well.

"Hey! Don't imitate me!" Tuffnut said as he pushed his Sister, who in turn pushed him back double force, leading them to fight as usual.

Astrid looked at them with a bored expression, "Fishlegs, get them out of here." She told the larger boy before looking at Snotlout, "Leave." She said shortly.

"Why?" Snotlout asked back.

"Because I said so." Astrid answered.

"Can I get a kiss first?" Snotlout asked as he grinned stupidly at Astrid while flexing his muscle.

Astrid answered by punching him at the face, "In your dream." She sneered and pushed him to the door's direction.

"You have many fans, huh?" Stoick commented teasingly.

"Who cares about fans if Hiccup isn't one of them?" She muttered unhappily to herself, oblivious to the fact that Hiccup was crushing on her as well, before looking at Stoick curiously, "I'm glad that you want to train a dragon, but why?" She raised an eyebrow at the man.

"When we fought earlier, I know that he got spark in him." Stoick looked at the Thunderdrum, "Somehow I don't mind it if it's him, I just know that he is the one for me".

"Let's see if it's true then." Astrid smiled at him, "The first rule in training dragon is 'everything based on trust', so you need to let him know that you are a friend. A bit hard considering you both just fought each other, but not impossible." She walked to the lever and placed a hand on it, "Don't forget to make eye contact, let him know he can trust you".

"Okay, let's try it." Stoick said confidently.

Astrid pulled the lever down and released the dragon, the Thunderdrum slowly walked out of the cage and approached Stoick, "Stay calm." She said to them both, she was a bit nervous since it's the first time she helped someone to train a dragon, Hiccup was the one who helped the others before, "Don't make any sudden move, it will spook him".

Stoick slowly held out a hand and touched the dragon's snout, but the dragon tried to bit Stoick's hand, thankfully the man could pulled his hand away in time. Unfortunately, Stoick's reflect kicked in and he immediately punched the dragon with his right fist.

"Woah!" Astrid gasped in shock, "What happened with trust?!" She asked in disbelief.

"My bad, but it's his fault too, he tried to bit my hand off!" Stoick defended himself.

The Thunderdrum shot out from the cage but Stoick caught his tail to prevent him from flying away, they still need Hiccup to talk to the dragon first so they could find out why he attacked the boats.

"Stop it, Chief, it's not working that way!" Astrid tried to tell the man.

"If it's not working then I just have to show him who is the boss." Stoick said back and pulled the tail until the dragon fell to the ground, he immediately jumped and sat on it's back. The dragon went wild and flew away carrying Stoick, while trying to throw the man from his back, "Woah! Easy! Don't you know who I am?!" Stoick yelled out as he got carried away by the dragon.

Astrid could only stare at their retreating figures, "We really got a problem now." She said with a shake of her head before running out of the academy, "Stormfly!" She called out to her dragon, who squawked at her and landed beside her, "Come on, girl, we need to follow them!".

It's a good thing that Astrid followed them, because the Thunderdrum managed to throw Stoick off of him when they were high in the air, the Chief would be dead if it wasn't for Stormfly who caught him. "Follow him, Astrid!" Stoick said as soon as he climbed onto Stormfly's back, "We need to know why he attacked us!".

Astrid nodded and patted Stormfly's neck to let her know that they need to follow the dragon, "Hold on." She warned before Stormfly flew faster than earlier pace.

They followed the Thunderdrum to an island, and when they landed, they were surprised when they saw an injured Thunderdrum. "Do you think she is his mate?" Astrid asked as she looked at the purple colored dragon, her eyes looked at them warily.

"Who knows?" Stoick asked back as he climbed off of Stormfly's back, "But at least now we know why he attacked the fishing boats, he need to protect her." He then looked at Astrid seriously, "Go get help and tell Gobber to get ready, she need help".

"I can't leave you here alone, Chief." Astrid protested.

"Go." Stoick said sternly.

Astrid didn't have another choice beside to go and did as what Stoick told her to do.

Stoick saw them left before returning to the Thunderdrum that caught his interest, "I want to help." He said to the dragon as he slowly reached out to touch the dragon's snout, "Trust me." Before Stoick could touch the dragon, however, something behind Stoick caught the dragon's attention and caused him to growl angrily. Stoick turned around and saw many wild boars approaching with a dangerous look at their eyes, "I'm guessing that they were the cause for your friend's injury." He said with his eyes narrowed.

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"Any of you found him?" Hiccup asked his flock after they regrouped again, the rest voiced their failure at finding the dragon, causing Hiccup to sigh, "If only Scauldia is here, then she can help us searching the sea".

Scauldia was another member of their flock who was a Scauldron, they met each other when the young Scauldron accidently got caught in Hunterville's fishing net. Hiccup calmed her down and she immediately took a liking to him, not to mention that she loved the attention.

Earlier, he was working on his fire sword, which he called Inferno, when a Terror flew into the forge and said that they got a problem. He had flown with Toothless and the rest of his flock to meet Sparker halfway to The Helheim Nest – since the dragons in Berk called Berk as their Nest as well – and the Nightmare told him that there's a Thunderdrum who attacked fishermen's boats lately. They feared that the Vikings would start killing dragons again if the Thunderdrum kept his attack, so he was asked to talk with the Thunderdrum to solve this problem. Since he and Toothless was the Alphas of both The Helheim Nest and The Berk Nest, they figured that the Thunderdrum would listen to him more than them.

Hiccup and his flock had been searching for the Thunderdrum, but they couldn't find the said dragon anywhere above the sea, so he thought that maybe the Thunderdrum hid in the sea. Hiccup thought that if Scauldia was with him, the Scauldron could help him searching the sea, it's just too bad that Scauldia was still helping the Hunterville with their fishing at the moment. She need to help them until they gained enough trust from another tidal class dragon, so that the other dragon could take over her job and she could rejoin him. It might take a long time, maybe months, because it was harder to gain the trust of Scauldrons than the usual breed of dragons.

"Alphas!" Stormfly's voice was the one who reach him first before he caught sight of Astrid on her dragon's back.

"Astrid?" Hiccup called out to her.

"Hiccup!" She called him as soon as she arrived within hearing range, "It's great that we meet here." She said with relief clear in her voice, "I need your help".

"What is it?" He asked her curiously.

Astrid then told him how his Dad caught a rogue Thunderdrum who attacked his fishing boat, then Stoick tried to train the dragon but failed and got carried away by the dragon instead. She told him how she and Stoick followed the dragon and found that he had an injured friend whom he need to protect, that's why he attacked the fishermen.

"Stoick told me to get help, so can you go and help him?" Astrid asked urgently, "I need to go back to Berk and inform Gobber so he could prepare everything".

"Sure." Hiccup answered with a smile, thanks to his Dad and Astrid, he now know where the Thunderdrum he was searching for was at and the reason why he attacked the fishing boats, "Help Gobber with the preparation, we will arrive there shortly".

"Thanks, Hiccup." Astrid said with a smile before patting her Nadder, "Let's go home, girl".

Stormfly squawked her affirmative and flew back to Berk.

"Come on." Hiccup called out to his flock, "We have a Thunderdrum to help." He said before directing Toothless to fly towards the direction Astrid was from.

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It's not a secret that Vikings like to fight so much, so when Stoick, the stubborn Viking he was, saw the boars approaching threateningly, he reached for his hammer and charged at the boars with a loud battle cry right away. If he could hit a Monstrous Nightmare bare handed, of course he would be able to handle many boars at once. One or two of them sneaked behind him and targeted the injured dragon, but the blue Thunderdrum took care of the problem by knocking them away with his tail. Stoick thought that he and the dragon was good when fighting together, just like when he fought with Gobber.

A boar attacked Stoick from behind, he managed to throw the boar away from him but then another boar attacked him and caught him off guard, he lost his hammer in the process and fell onto his back. Stoick growled in anger as he tried to get the boar off of him, he couldn't believe that he make such a mistake, he was then surprised when a tail whipped the boar away. He didn't let the shock get the better of him and immediately stood up before charging at the boars again, he hit one of the boars with his hammer and knocked it off the cliff into the sea.

Stoick and the Thunderdrum saw that there were more boars heading their way before looking at each other straight in the eyes, it was now or never, Stoick decided. He silently reached out a hand and stopped just before he touch the dragon, just like what he saw when his Son gained Barf and Belch's trust back then, whether the dragon wanted to trust him or not, it's his choice.

The Thunderdrum sniffed his hand before closing his eyes and touched his snout to Stoick's palm, Stoick smiled at the dragon before looking seriously at the slowly approaching boars without removing his hand. In a swift move, he removed the brace that they put on the dragon to prevent him from shooting his sonic blast, a sign that he trust the dragon not to blast him.

The Thunderdrum growled softly in approval and lowered his head, which was connected to his body without a neck to bridge the two parts, an invitation for Stoick to get on. Stoick get on the dragon and sat there, looking all majestic and powerful, while his Thunderdrum turned towards the boars. Stoick raised his left hand and his Thunderdrum blasted the boars away with his sound wave, and a feeling of triumph warmed their heart.

"Look at us, we are bonding!" Stoick said to his dragon as soon as he was sure that there's no boars left, his dragon purred at him in response.

Stoick thought that he would never bond with a dragon, the memory of the dragon who took his wife from him had always been in his heart, but he thought that he need to let go of his hatred towards the dragons now. He wasn't the only one who lose someone during the war, he had seen it when he saw his dragon protected his friend, he now understood that the dragons had lose their loved ones as well during the war.

When he fought with his dragon, he felt warm inside, as if they were destined to meet each other. He now understood what Hiccup and Astrid felt about their dragons, it's like he had been missing a piece of himself and never know about it until he met his dragon. He would never thought that it was possible, for him to bond with a dragon and fight alongside them like what Astrid said to convince him to train his own dragon, but now not only that he had train his own dragon, he had fought alongside his dragon and won.

"We make a good team." Stoick said proudly as he gently patted his dragon at the head, he looked up when he heard a roar and saw his Son flew to him with his dragons, "Son!" He greeted as he waved at his Son, "Astrid called you?".

"Yeah." Hiccup answered as he and his flock landed in front of him, "She said that you tried to train him and failed, but I see that you had succeeded".

"Well, we fought some boars together and bonded." Stoick said happily as he motioned to his dragon, "It's just like what Astrid said, which I'm sure she know about it because of your book, everything is based on trust with dragons." Hiccup smiled and nodded in approval, "So, have you solved whatever problem that you got in the Nest?".

"As soon as I have a talk with him." Hiccup gestured to Stoick's dragon, earning a raised eyebrow from Stoick. He climbed down from Toothless's back and walked to the blue Thunderdrum, "Hello there, Thunderdrum." He greeted the dragon as he held out his hand in front of the dragon's snout, the dragon sniffed his hand for a bit before pressing his snout onto Hiccup's palm, "The dragons from The Helheim Nest are worried because of your action, they want me to find out why you are attacking the fishermen so I can solve this problem." He explained with a smile at the dragon, "Now that I understand your reason for attacking them, I would like to offer something. We will help you protecting your friend and help her heal, you are welcome to join the Nest if you want, but I want you to stop attacking the fishermen unless they attacked you first. How about it?".

"I don't know why you ask me when you can't understand me, but I accept your offer." The Thunderdrum answered with a purr, "I promise not to attack them unless they attack me first, I want to stay with this man though, so I don't think I will join the Nest".

Hiccup chuckled, "I can understand you." He told the dragon, earning a surprised look from the dragon in front of him, "You can join The Berk Nest if you want, this man is my Dad, and we stay in Berk".

"The Berk Nest?" Stoick asked in surprise and confusion, "Since when Berk become a Nest?".

"Since the dragons love to stay in Berk, they called Berk as their Nest." Hiccup explained with a grin, "I hope you don't mind, since I'm sure more dragons will come to Berk now that we don't kill dragons anymore".

"I don't mind." Stoick answered with a smirk, "I'm sure that many of the villagers will want to train a dragon, considering I got myself a dragon now".

Hiccup chuckled in response, he then looked at Bonecrusher and nodded before looking at the Thunderdrum, "Can you help your friend to climb onto his back?" He pointed at his Boneknapper, "If she stay at Berk, she can rest without worrying for wild boars".

"Thank you, kind one." The Thunderdrum answered before walking towards his friend.

Stoick helped his dragon carrying the dragoness onto Bonecrusher's back, they then flew to Berk together and into the academy, where Gobber and Astrid were waiting for them. "Take good care of her, Gobber." Stoick said as they lowered the dragoness to the ground in front of Gobber, Gobber answered him with a thumb up, Stoick smiled and looked at his dragon. "Now that your friend is in good hands, how about we fly around your new home, Thornado?" His dragon unfolded his wings in answer.

"Thornado?" Astrid asked curiously.

"Well, they say that Thunderdrum get their power from Thor himself, so I think it suit him." Stoick answered with a grin before taking off flying with his dragon.

Astrid grinned as she saw the Chief flew with his dragon, "As usual, once you taste the freedom of flying, you will never have enough of it." She said happily.

"How about we fly together, Astrid?" Hiccup offered his hand to Astrid, "I'm sure you've never flown on a Night Fury before, have you?".

Astrid smirked and accepted the offered hand and climbed on Toothless's back, "Don't hold back." She said confidently.

"I sure won't." Toothless answered as he flew out of the academy.

"Hold tight, Astrid." Hiccup told her with a smirk on his face, "Toothless said he won't hold back!" That was the only warning Astrid got before Toothless shot up like lightning.

Astrid yelped in surprise as first and wrapped her arms around Hiccup, making the boy blushed at the contact, but once the shock wear off, she was grinning from ear to ear. "This is amaaaziiing!" She cried out in excitement.

Life was really easier and more livelier with dragons around, that, Astrid was certain as she threw her arms to her side as she enjoyed the speed of a Night Fury's flight for the first time, a bright smile adorned her face.

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To be continued . . .

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