~Ouroboros~

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1st - 13. The Chasms Between Us

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"This was, quite possibly, the stupidest idea of my life"

As could be told from a single glance at Hiccup's expression, he was not in a good mood. Several hours after he had returned back to Gobber's forge after the fiasco of dragon training in the morning he had decided to try and find the Nightfury – again.

Now that he was here, it was starting to become apparent to him just how stupid – stupid and dangerous – the idea really was.

It was into this forest that he had shot down the Nightfury, it was within this general location where he searched for it the first time, and it was in this exact clearing that he had finally found it. Incidentally it was also within this exact clearing where he had his temporary moment of insanity leading to him releasing said Nightfury which promptly attempted to either maul him or set him on fire – he wasn't sure he wanted to know which.

It was also right here where it had spared him and flown off; quite unlike the Gronckle that had him pinned in almost the exact same position just scant hours ago in the kill-ring.

Still, Hiccup was seriously considering if the past few days have not completely shattered his precarious grasp on sanity. After all, if returning to the same place where you have recently almost been killed, and more importantly where the possible killer could still be lurking was not considered insane – that or freeing a tied up being that was known for its horrible effect on Viking life expectancy; he did not know what would be.

Then again, how else could he label himself – the self-proclaimed pacifist Viking who could not kill a single dragon, even when said dragon was all tied up and ready for the slaughter.

Though, why hadn't the Nightfury killed him? He himself could at least plead temporary insanity for his own actions towards it, but he doubted that that would work as an excuse for the dragon. Besides, Gobber, the widely regarded expert on dragons himself had told them all in clear words that dragons would always go for the kill.

Turning around Hiccup glanced in the direction he remembered the Nightfury flew off into. Considering that the chances of him actually surviving dragon training were abysmally low – proof to point, his near death during the first day – the least he could do was sate his desire to know why the dragon that he had shot down and had more than reason enough to kill him didn't, while another dragon that really should not have anything against him tried its hardest to.

Besides, it had not rained last night and Hiccup could still see traces of brown on the otherwise green grassy floor where the dragon had landed. He didn't even need to close his eyes for his mind to place the image of the Nightfury with its regal black scales marred and in some places shredded back in the spot it laid when he had first found it. If it wasn't for his own personal experience telling him otherwise, he would have never believed that the Nightfury – or any dragon really – could still move in such a condition.

The dragon had spared him the same way he had when he stumbled across it, and there was just something inside him that needed to make sure it was alright.

I just hope I don't get killed for this…

Having reached a decision, Hiccup readjusted the slightly rough new vest he stitched up after training to replace his old one, and proceeded to track down the Nightfury – something much simpler than he had expected considering that it did not fly away as he had expected, but instead seemed to have kept slamming its way into trees and tearing away at the ground, leaving gashes in the trees where their bark was stripped off their trunks and skid marks along the grass.

It did not take him long to reach the end of the tracks, for no more than several hundred paces from the clearing the forest opened up into a fair sized cove with a small lake in the middle. The ancient trees along the edges have long ago run out of room for their gargantuan roots, causing said roots to hang down the cliff-like edges. Down below various rock formations littered the ground, mostly along the edges where they must have fallen down from a long time ago. Although the cove was nearly completely closed off, from his position Hiccup could see the narrow gap where the lake emptied down into the ocean. Overall Hiccup could not help but be amazed that such an idealistic location existing within the treacherous landscapes of Berk.

Amazed and slightly disappointed.

Well that was useless.

There was no dragon in sight – Nightfury or otherwise. He wondered what it said about him that he felt sad and annoyed at not finding the dragon he was looking for instead of being relieved that there was nothing around that could potentially see him as a good afternoon snack.

Turning around to get back to the village Hiccup took several steps away from the edge and paused. The cove looked quite inviting, and since he was already here it wouldn't take much time to explore it – it was much better than the places he used to get away to after particularly bad arguments with his dad, and strangely enough he had never found this place when he went out exploring the forest. Heck, he doubted any of the other Vikings knew of this place – there wasn't much to hunt in this part of the forest so few people ever ventured here. Considering that it was roughly half an hour's walk from the village it was quite unlikely that anyone would come here in the foreseeable future ether.

Now if only he could find a way down that did not require him to get a rope – preferably one that offered a way back out if he got stuck down there.

It took him almost an hour to finally find a place along the edge where it was even possible to attempt to climb down, an entire hour during which his excitement grew until he was almost giddy from it. The place was just perfect! Blocked off on all sides with nigh impassable walls no one would ever search for him here during those moments he just needed to get away from everything! With everything that had happened to him these past few days it was nice to see that some things could still go his way for a while. Unlike his usual haunts in the forest, the cove offered quite good protection against predators, meaning that he could truly relax inside it and lose himself in sketching out whatever came to mind – be it new ideas for designs or just the world around him; and considering the beauty of the cove, it would take a while for him to run out of things to draw.

The way down that had finally revealed itself to him probably acted as an overflow route for a nearby river during the heavy storms quite common around Berk along with the annual snow melts. With most of the dirt and relatively small stones washed away it looked like a shallow chasm along the ground, with large smoothed over rocks sticking out from the bottom and sides. It was rather simple to jump in and get out of it when he traced it further out from the cove; but the depth of it deepened the closer it came to the cove's edge, being almost twenty feet deep at the point it opened up into the side of the cove.

From his position at the edge of it, Hiccup could see that there was still forty to fifty feet to go to reach the bottom of the cove, but fortunately for him the layered nature of the rock walls along this side of the cove combined with the thick roots from one of the thousand year old trees rooted above him that hung down formed an easy way both up and down from the position he was at.

Well, relatively easy – he was sure he would have little trouble climbing down and up as long as neither the roots nor the rocks were wetted from a recent storm or worse still covered in a thin layer of ice as was unfortunately all too common for similar cliffs during Berk winters. Still, even with perfect conditions he doubted that anyone except for a human well versed in climbing (such as him incidentally) would be able to use this way in and out of the cove – even lynxes would have trouble going up and down the hanging roots – though he supposed it would be possible.

Sitting down close to the edge to take a sketch of the place before continuing down Hiccup's plans were interrupted by an angry bellow as a dark shape darted almost within reaching distance of him, the shock of which sent him sprawling onto the ground and reflexively scrambling backwards deeper into the narrow opening where he could hopefully hide in the shadows. With disbelief he watched its futile attempts to scramble up the smooth and near vertical walls that extended further up to the actual ledge of the cove, before succumbing to gravity and disappearing back down below.

Although he had only seen it for a few seconds before it disappeared once again, Hiccup knew that it was most definitely a dragon – more specifically, the same dragon he had shot down just the night before. Though how it managed to scramble up fifty feet of the nigh vertical cliff face from the bottom of the cove up to his hiding place – without flying apparently – was not something he wished to think about.

Well, he got his wish – he found the Nightfury, and apparently it was back to prime condition seeing at how it was jumping off walls instead of resting as he would have expected of someone with the types of wounds he remembered on it.

Perhaps like his own, the Nightfury's wounds simply looked worse than they really were – that would at least explain how it was capable of lightning fast movements mere moments after being released. His curiosity about the dragon along with the remaining feelings of guilt had a brief but ferocious battle against his instinct of self-preservation – the later having been given a significant boost from the events these past few days, but still nowhere close to being able to handle the former side of the argument.

He needed to get closer.

Scrambling back towards the opening Hiccup took several steadying breaths before peering out again, infinitely more cautious than last time.

He spotted the dragon immediately. How could he not when it was walking along the opposite end of the cove completely ignorant of the fact that it was no longer alone. From the looks of it, it was gearing for yet another flight. Not taking his eyes off the dragon Hiccup reached into his vest to get out a notebook he could use to draw the beast in front of him before stopping.

The cove was quite large, and what with him being positioned almost on the complete opposite side of the Nightfury, not to mention fifty feet above it, almost everything except for the vague outline would be lost to him. He would need to get closer if he wanted to draw something even half decent.

Strangely enough the thought of coming closer to the Nightfury only made him feel more excited, so much so that he was already two ledges further down and over thirty feet away from the safety of the opening before common sense once more took over, causing him to skid to a halt and lie down on his belly so as to at least decrease the chance of being spotted. A good thing too as the next step of coming closer would have involved climbing down the roots, and that would have definitely caused enough noise to warn the dragon about its unexpected visitor.

As the dragon rushed along the other end of the cove across the lake from him before launching itself upwards, Hiccup had already flipped open his sketchpad and was quickly sketching its general shape as he imagined it would look from above, filling in any parts he could not see from memory – an almost snake-like head with an ear and two 'flaps?' on either side; the slightly widening torso roughly three heads in length followed by a tail which looked to be roughly another five heads in length. Two wings were hastily drawn in in with rough details from yesterday's encounter, and a wingspan perhaps one and a half times longer than its length from head to tail as he had eyeballed when it had them spread open in preparation for taking off. Lastly there were two fins directly behind its wings and two more at the end of its tail, showing the least detail as he could barely notice them from his position, only having spotted the two behind the wings when it had spooked him at the entranceway scant minutes ago.

Breaking off from watching the dragon to glance at his drawing to check its quality, Hiccup only turned back when he once more heard the grating sound of claws on stone and the almost frustrated gurgling growls. The Nightfury was once again attempting to claw its way up the steep sides of its cove and was apparently not having much success this time either.

Hiccup could feel a sliver of worry grow within him as he watched it push off the wall and perform something between gliding and falling, ending with it plowing its way along the ground before jumping back up and taking off again in the opposite direction. It was blatantly clear that it was attempting, and surprisingly enough, failing to get out of the cove.

Hiccup shivered. His mind just couldn't understand how it was possible for the Nightfury to not be able to leave whenever it wanted to.

"Why won't you just fly away?" he did not notice himself muttering softly as he saw it spread its wings and launch itself up again, easily gaining height with a single beat of its spread wings. Despite knowing that more than just the last few attempts that he had seen had failed spectacularly – it had after all been over a day since he had released it, so he doubted that these were its first attempts at getting out – it was still surprising to him when the dragon dipped to the left and slammed its shoulder painfully into the ground, not having even flown far enough to reach the opposite side of the cove.

This time, it took much longer than several seconds for it to stand back up, and even Hiccup could see the dejected look upon its face. He could almost feel the frustration radiating from the dragon – frustration and perhaps just a sliver of fear. Somehow, he knew it was unlikely to try getting out again – at least for now. As it slowly trudged its way towards the lake to drop itself down before it, Hiccup's mind was franticly attempting to understand why it couldn't fly.

It was quite obvious from the way it had been running around that any injuries it had sustained from crashing down into the forest were, if not completely healed then at least healed enough to be disregarded. In much the same way it was obviously not too hungry to fly – not that he had even thought that possible of any dragon.

Its wings were in good condition with no rips or tears along them; as was its tail which was incidentally lying out in full view from his position, showing off its single perfectly fine fin stretching along the right side of the tail.

The second fin was missing from the other side.

Hiccup jerked as his eyes darted between his rough sketch of the dragon and the Nightfury still lying before the pool before using the cuff of his shirt to smudge away the left tailfin on his sketch, not even noticing that his rapid movements had caused his pencil that had already been lying precariously close to the edge of the rock ledge he was lying on to be pushed off. The sounds it made coming down were more than enough to catch Hiccup's attention, causing him to freeze and focus on the dragon with a vain hope that he had not been spotted. His breath hitched as he noticed that his stare was being returned.

Perhaps it was the fact that the Nightfury did not make any attempt to make its way towards him that kept him from scrambling as fast as he could back to the opening he came from, or perhaps it was the memory of this dragon deciding not to kill him, but even so it was almost a minute before the pain in his chest made itself apparent in his mind causing him to notice that he had been holding his breath the entire time. Taking in a lungful of air he watched as the dragon below lost interest in him and with a snort turned back to the pool, once more attempting to catch some fish swimming in its shallow end with several quick darts of its head. He felt another pang of worry as he noticed that it had been unsuccessful both times. He was sure that it would not have any difficulty catching its prey if it had been capable of flight.

The moment broken, Hiccup looked away from the dragon and stashed his notebook back inside his vest. While he still wanted to get down into the cove and explore it, that plan no longer seemed like such a good idea – no matter how helpless the Nightfury looked at the moment, there was always a chance it was hungry enough to find him an acceptable snack – especially if he decided to freely walk into its den. Besides, the sun was going to be setting soon and he had to get back to the Village in time for Gobber's meeting.

Still, he did not hurry as he climbed back up towards the exit from the cove. For some reason he was almost certain that the Nightfury meant no harm to him – at least as long as he stayed away from it.

With a final glance back at the dragon that was now curled up on the grassy grown below either asleep or completely ignoring him, Hiccup increased his pace and left to get back to the village. There was still enough time to at least take a small break after his escapade into the forest before he was supposed to meet with the rest of the Vikings-in-training at the Meade hall.

Had he kept his gaze a while longer he would have noticed the Nightfury opening its eyes and looking up towards him, watching him leave.

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"… Now that ye have all had your first actual battle against a dragon, I hope I do not need to tell you just how unprepared you are to fight them. After all, if you were ready then there wouldn't be any reason for dragon training – now would there?..."

The Meade hall was relatively empty this early in the evening, and Gobber's naturally loud voice could be easily heard over the scattered din of conversations going on within its walls. It was with some trepidation that Hiccup realised that he was the last one to arrive and that the others have already started without him.

It had taken him longer to get back to the village than he had expected because of a sudden onset of rain that had come out of nowhere to drench him to the bone, incidentally making crossing the bridge between his village and the actual island of Berk much more difficult due to the wetted wood under his feet and the high winds attempting to fling him off.

If he knew what was good for him – and he most definitely did in this case – he will not be mentioning to anybody exactly where he had been wandering and where he was when the veritable flood caught him.

Attempting in vain to squeeze some of the water from his vest Hiccup hurried towards the tables Gobber's voice was originating from while at the same time hoping that Gobber would not draw undue attention to his arrival.

"… remember, any advantage ye find is yers to take. Unlike what can easily happen in a real fight during a dragon raid, there are six of ya against a single dragon, and more importantly you do not have to watch out for any other dragons joining the fight. So use that to yer advantage!"

Gobber's tirade continued as Hiccup tried his hardest to walk over as silently as possible. From the way Gobber's eyes had flickered to him when he wasn't even halfway to the table, Hiccup knew that at least one person had already noticed him – still, he would prefer to postpone the mandatory ribbings from the others for as long as possible.

"Seeing how well y'all did today, I think a little warning is in order for tomorrow's training" The exasperation in Gobber's tone made it obvious exactly what he thought about their first try at dragons, causing Hiccup to wince; a move that was mirrored by all the other younglings save Snotlout who Hiccup personally thought was too thick-headed to have clued in on what Gobber really meant.

Noticing that Gobber wasn't continuing, Hiccup spared a glance towards him and noticed the expectant look. It was obvious that Gobber would not continue until Hiccup was seated, and so steeling his heart for what he was sure was to follow, Hiccup quickly shuffled his way towards the tables and sat down at the edge. Gobber nodded towards him, but that was all the welcome he got. The others seemed content to act as if he wasn't there – a much better response than he had been expecting, but Gobber's words along with his near death must have still been at the fore-front of their minds.

They all knew – except perhaps for Snotlout, but even he could feel the atmosphere around him – that they were a lot further from being considered full-fledged Vikings than they thought. Worse still, no matter how useless they considered Hiccup to be; during the first time they were placed face to face against a dragon they were not much better. Whether it was through luck or skill, Hiccup had been able to last for longer than anyone except for Astrid – even with his near death experience moments later.

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Being a long time veteran of dragon raids meant that Gobber had noticed Hiccup's attempts at approaching them unnoticed before his apprentice was halfway across the hall. He had continued to act as if he hadn't noticed until Hiccup was only several steps away before focusing his eyes on him and waiting for him to take a seat. For a moment Gobber played around with the idea of putting his apprentice on the spot for being late before discarding that plan – after what had happened in the ring, being late was something he could easily forgive Hiccup for.

Instead he casually glanced around at his trainees, not letting any of his thoughts show on his face. Inside though, he knew that while the first lesson had turned out more dangerous than he had expected, it had done its job. The six younglings seemed to understand just how different an actual battle against a dragon was from those their imagination had provided them with. It was for this reason that just about every actual lesson would pit them against one of the dragons in the ring.

Truly there was nothing more important than experience. As the age old Viking saying went, if you want to teach someone to swim, just push them into the water. There was a distinct lack of information about how deep the water was to be when you did this, but over time he had found that just enough water to drown in was the perfect amount – it provided very real danger while at the same time allowing you to save the trainee with much less work on your part if they should falter and actually start drowning.

"So for tomorrow's training ya will all be facing a deadly Nadder – and mind ya while I honestly doubt you can do worse than y'all did today, do try better – today was just embracing."

Not giving them enough time to think too much about it, Gobber continued while at the same time taking out a thick leather bound book which he threw on the table in front of them.

"To help ya out, here – the dragon manual. A collection of information about every dragon we've ever had to fight including both the common dragons and the rare dragon types, along with their weak points and the attack methods we found to work best against them. I expect all of you to at least use some of what is written down against the Nadder tomorrow."

Snotlout seemed like he was about argue, but Gobber just pinned him down with his gaze. "So do study up – Spoon feeding y'all how to go about fighting a dragon leaves a foul taste in my mouth, and is an embracement I doubt either of us wants to repeat. I mean really – needing to be told to pick up a shield; I know it was the first day, but still… At least ya all had your weapons with you."

With that he rose from his seat and proceeded out. The rest was all up to them, but throughout his career of teaching the next generation of Vikings he had yet to meet a group that did not at least glance over the Nadder before the second lesson or have the five most common dragon races along with the only legendary dragon type memorized before the end of training. Somehow he doubted this group was going to be the first.

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Hiccup lay on his bed staring unseeingly at the ceiling beams above him. He really should not have gotten his hopes up since every time he did, life just had a way of bringing them down – typically in new and exciting ways. For once in his life he had felt, if not accepted then at least not completely ostracized by Astrid and the others. He thought that participating in dragon training along with the others had changed something between them.

He really should not have allowed himself to hope – it only made things feel so much worse in the end.

The few moments of silence after Gobber had left were ended by him as he offered to read the dragon manual together – they all needed to read it in any case, so it would be better to just go over it as a group, right?

From the disgruntled looks and rolled eyes that he got in response, reading as a group was the last thing on their minds. Fishlegs had chosen that moment to start spewing out lines that he had remembered from the book – as he had apparently read it seven times before – but the others quickly asked him to be quiet (to put it mildly).

As they all grabbed some food off the table, Snotlout picked up the book and flipping haphazardly towards what Hiccup thought was the section about deadly Nadders, and proceeded to quietly mumble his way through it – looking the entire time like he was attempting to burn his way through the pages with his eyes. Hiccup wasn't sure how much he had actually read before slamming the book shut and throwing it towards the Thorston twins, nor was he sure how much of what he read would actually stick around until tomorrow.

After the mandatory fight between Ruffnut and Tuffnut (for once focusing more on giving something to the other instead of taking it away), they compromised by spreading the book on the table between them and going through it together. Hiccup just busied himself with the decently sized chicken he was eating away at.

When the book passed on towards Astrid, Hiccup gathered all of his courage to ask her if she wanted to read it together as it was apparent that they were the last ones left (Fishlegs having memorized the book a long time ago) to which she slid the book towards him. With a gruff reply of 'read it' and not a single glance towards him she stood up and left, the others quickly catching on and running after her leaving Hiccup alone with the manual at the table.

They really did not even have to say anything; it was more than apparent to him just where they considered his place to be on the Viking social ladder.

Figuring that he may as well read the book that had been so unceremoniously passed to him, Hiccup gathered several more candles and pushing his half-finished plate off to the side began to read.

It was clear from the start that Vikings were not too interested in actually writing stuff down during the first generation of dragon attacks, as the first few lines of many entries were filled with sections like 'just hammer away at its head' or 'extremely dangerous, kill on sight', usually followed by simply drawn images of Vikings hacking off a dragon's head or being attacked by the multitudes of methods available to said dragons – images which even he could tell were drawn more for the sake of telling the story than to teach others about the dragons.

What really caught his attention while simultaneously causing shivers to run across his spine were the later sections which were composed mostly of single line additions at the bottom – obviously written in long after the original. Unlike the drivel written above, these lines contained within them concrete facts, in most cases followed by a much more detailed drawing of the dragon with all dangers clearly labeled along with what few weaknesses have been found over the ages. Be it the approximate number of quills a Nadder could shoot, or the maximum range of a Nightmare's shot of liquid fire, everything the Vikings knew about every dragon they knew of was summarized in this book.

Alone in the Meade hall with only a pair of candles lighting up the table he was sitting at, Hiccup could not stop his breath from hitching and his heart rate from shooting up every time he read words like 'capable of shooting through a doubly reinforced shield and spearing the Viking holding it at close ranges', or 'will continue burning long since the flesh it landed on had turned to ash'. Neither could he prevent his overeager mind from imagining just how the Vikings came across such information, the thoughts of which easily turned his complexion slightly green.

It was from these additions that he finally understood just how foolhardy he had been to go out of his way during dragon raids to find a dragon he could test his inventions against. Even if each dragon was half as dangerous as it was described, it was still nothing more than a miracle that he had managed to survive until now.

Perhaps that was why he did not feel like going to sleep at the moment – just knowing that he would be facing a dragon that was described as 'a better archer than most Viking hunters' with quills that could pierce just about anything at close range inside the training ring with nowhere to hide was turning his insides into lead. Heck, if what he read was correct, the Gronckle that he had nearly died against was tame in comparison to a deadly Nadder that he would be facing tomorrow!

How could Gobber even think about making them face a virtual avatar of death on just their second day of training!?

…Avatar of death eh?

The image of the Nightfury appeared in his mind along with its section within the dragon manual.

'Nightfury – This avatar of death has never been seen, for anyone who has seen it has not lived to tell the tale. As the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, it has been tasked with only one job – to bring more Vikings into the embrace of Hel. Unlike the other dragons it never attempts to steal food, for like the demon it is, it does not require it. It has the ability of shooting blue fireballs with an accuracy that none can surpass, leading some to say that the blue flames are spirits of the dead or perhaps shards of Hel flying swiftly towards their victims – just as impossible to dodge as death itself. If you manage to see it, your life is already forfeit because it has selected you as its next prey, and it does not allow anyone who has gazed at its terrible visage to live.'

Somehow, the knowledge that he himself had already survived what was by far considered as the actual avatar of death did nothing to decrease the anxiety he was feeling, which is why his heart nearly stopped when he heard movement nearby as Gobber made his way in.

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He had been about to go to sleep when he remembered promising himself to talk to Hiccup before the end of the day. As such, knowing that putting such things off would only make the conversation more awkward and less helpful, Gobber rose back up and proceeded to make his way to Hiccup's room where he kept most of his designs and which now doubled as temporary sleeping quarters until Stoick came back and got around to re-building his house.

Still, he could not stop himself from feeling just a little bit vexed when he noticed light coming out of Hiccup's room. It was obvious that he was still awake and there was no reason not to proceed.

"Hiccup – ye still awake in there?"

"WA- Gobber?" It was obvious that Hiccup had not been expecting him. "Yes I'm still awake… Were you looking for something?"

"No, no lad. I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. Now I noticed that ye weren't exactly your normal self back at dragon training, so what's with that eh? Always thought you would have been jumping off the walls with excitement once Stoick let you go…"

For a moment it looked like Hiccup wasn't going to answer, but perhaps Gobber's disarming expression relaxed him a bit.

"It's just… I don't think I am all that suited to fighting dragons – heck you saw how I acted in the ring today right?"

"Don't say that lad. Everyone does badly during the first session – you definitely acted better than Ruffnut and Tuffnut, what with them not even noticing the dragon coming up on them in the midst of their fighting. Besides that's not what I meant and ya know it. You looked like death warmed over even before I let the dragon out of the cage. Was it because of what happened during the last raid?"

Strangely enough that seemed to cause Hiccup to panic for a moment before visibly calming down and replying. "Let's just say that I am really extra sure that I can't kill dragons – and I don't mean because of lack of training or something – I mean that if, completely hypothetically speaking, I had one lying tied up in front of me, I doubt I could bring myself to kill it"

And all of a sudden it dawned on Gobber the exact problem his apprentice was facing. Opening his mouth to reply he was surprised to notice Hiccup continuing with only a slight pause in between.

"I said as much to my dad, but you know him – once he makes up his mind on something, there is just no stopping him! It's like fate likes to play around with me, the very moment I finally decide to drop my foolish daydreams about fighting dragons is the moment when dad in all his infinite wisdom finally succumbs to my pleas and throws me off into dragon training! I mean I thought yesterday was bad what with the dragon and –" Hiccup stopped abruptly and swirled around in a panic to stare at Gobber who was quite lost as to what could have brought about that reaction. He had after all been there yesterday when the Nightmare had chased Hiccup halfway through the village.

After a moment's thought, he decided that it really did not matter. Whatever it was that happened yesterday during the dragon raid that had caused such a startling change in Hiccup, it was still obvious to Gobber just where the problem lay. Taking a seat to the left of Hiccup Gobber proceeded with the conversation that, frankly speaking, Stoick should be handling.

"It's what ya saw after the raid isn't it? If it was up to me you would never have seen something as gruesome as that, but it's not like you can hide from it forever" From the way Hiccup flinched, Gobber knew he hit the problem on the head.

"Ye take after your mother ye know – " and just like that Gobber could feel he had Hiccup's attention. " – she too was always sad about having to take the life of a dragon; considered them too beautiful or something – too full of life… Have to say I never quite understood her til I had to take care of the captured dragons, after which I have to agree with the both of you – something about them just makes you feel that they are more than just the mindless beasts we see them as…"

"But then again – " and here Gobber's voice took on a steel like quality " – I have sometimes found wolf packs to have a certain mystical quality about them as well, especially when you see one from afar during a hunting expedition; and yet ye wouldn't just lay down your weapons and accept having them kill you if they attack yer camp right?

"Same thing with the dragons really – they raid us for food, and we respond by fighting them off and looking for their nest to get them off our backs once and for all. It all falls down to a simple choice of survival – in the end it will be either us or them, and I hope you agree with me when I say I would much rather it be us that survived."

Taking Hiccup's continued silence as acknowledgement Gobber ruffled his apprentice's head and left after blowing out the candle flames. There really wasn't anything else left to say.

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After Gobber left, Hiccup was once again left to himself with a mess of conflicting feelings. Partially he was glad for at least this small connection between him and his mother; but on the other hand if it wasn't for this he might have had a chance of being a Viking. Besides which, his mother had been able to put it all aside and kill dragons when needed… quite unlike him.

Then there was Gobber. While he was completely off about what had caused all this, Gobber was unnervingly right as to what was troubling him. Partially he agreed with his mentor's thoughts – but at the same time he doubted that he would be capable of killing a dragon – not when the first one he actually had a chance to… interact… with acted so human…

Perhaps it was just the Nightfury – after all, the other dragons acted so differently from it… And then he remembered that Nightfuries (if indeed there was more than one) were known to have caused more damage and deaths than almost the rest of the dragons combined.

He just didn't know what to think!

He could feel the onset of a major headache setting in and cursed. Flopping backwards onto his bed and attempting to stifle his thoughts in the hopes of getting at least some sleep before tomorrow's training; Hiccup pulled some furs over him and closed his eyes.

He would have a lot more time to think about all of this tomorrow – as long as he survived training.

And if he didn't, then all of it would not matter to him any longer anyway.

.

A/N

… Well that turned out quite long as well – funny considering that just last chapter I said I would keep them to the 4-5k range…

That should teach me to make predictions for chapter length beyond my standard 4k+ preference.

.

That's all from me,

Saienai