As a reminder, because people always ask, I am still continuing with Not a Curse. It is just on hiatus, this story being this period's hiatus story as I've come to calling them. I like to take breaks between Not a Curse intervals to work on and post other stories, because otherwise I'd never get to them.

This one is taking longer than others, but I'm not used to the book universe/characters like I am the movie franchise, so it's taking me longer to come up with a lot of the dialogue and actions I feel is natural for the book characters as opposed to when I make dialogue for the movie characters. I'm getting through it, though, one step at a time.

Now, without further ado, let training begin.

First Day Jitters:

When hiccup came up to give Hiccup and Toothless their breakfast, he found his room empty. They must have already left for the forest. Why the sudden departure, hiccup wasn't sure, but he was supposed to meet them there. He figured he'd bring along their breakfast too, but before he made the attempt of dragging toothless out from the nest he made of his bed, he needed to do something first. As usual, Old Wrinkly was out on the front porch smoking his pipe. hiccup came out with his little pack for Hiccup and Toothless and sat beside him.

"Hungry aren't we", Old Wrinkly remarked. "Going somewhere?"

"Oh, uh, just to the forest. toothless and I are gonna go out there to do some training. This is for later. Lunch", hiccup ended with a one shouldered shrug, a lie, but the most believable one.

A beat passed in silence, a puff of smoke blown out. There was something hiccup wanted to talk about, or really asked about. The only question was how, or where to start. Luckily, his grandfather gave him the place he needed.

"How is training going so far with the little dragon?"

"Lousy", hiccup answered honestly. "That's actually what I came out to talk about, Old Wrinkly." His grandfather glanced over towards him with that intrigued look it seemed all old people possessed. "I met someone yesterday, and they said they would help me train toothless. It's actually why I'm going to the forest, so no one will see I need help, but…"

"But…" Old Wrinkly mimicked.

"But, what if even with this guy's help I'm still hopeless? What if I just end up wasting his time?"

"What if he helps you become the greatest dragon trainer there ever lived? What if he gets you that one step closer to becoming a Hero?" Old Wrinkly countered. "There are many what ifs, hiccup. It's all about which ones you choose to focus on."

"But―"

"But nothing. I say, you never know until you try. And if you continue sitting about here worrying about all the negative what ifs floating out there, you're gonna miss all the positive ones. Now, go on and meet this new friend of yours before he thinks you've changed your mind."

hiccup smiled despite himself as he stood up at Old Wrinkly's insistence. He hadn't thought of abandoning Hiccup by not showing up to their training session, but knew Old Wrinkly would help him to feel better about going. The things he told his grandfather were true. He was scared he was a lost cause, but now he was just a little more confident that there was a chance he could do it. It was one of the what ifs that existed, and hiccup decided he was going to cling to it, not just for his own sake, but Hiccup's as well.

000

Deep in the forest, Hiccup and Toothless were wrestling as they waited. Some found it odd that when he was little, or littler, he hadn't liked wrestling with the other kids his age, but he and Toothless play-fought all the time now. Toothless wasn't like the other riders, though. He was gentle, and always made sure to never hurt Hiccup, knowing how big he was in comparison to Hiccup's small human body.

Soon enough, hiccup came through the foliage with toothless, carrying a bag of something inside. Hiccup and Toothless stopped their game, and Hiccup brushed off some dirt as he stood.

"I brought you guys some breakfast", hiccup told them. "Did you forget I was coming back, or something? You left so sudden."

"Oh well, we just caught some fish from the river down there, so it's fine. That'll be a good lunch, though."

"Okay", hiccup put the bag down by the trunk of a tree, his lie now apparently a truth. "So, what do we do first?"

"I want to see how you normally interact with toothless; how you usually go about training him", Hiccup said.

Nodding, hiccup turned to toothless. "toothless, fly up and grab those acorns up there for me, would you please?" hiccup asked toothless in Dragonsese, the language all dragons spoke.

toothless jumped to the ground.

"Why s-s-should I?" toothless questioned with his nose up in the air all high and mighty.

"Because if you do, I'll not only tell you a really good joke, but I'll also give you the biggest mackerel you've ever seen", hiccup enticed. There were times offering jokes worked, other times not so much, so hiccup figured that offering two of his favorite things might just sweeten the deal.

"T-t-toothless like m-m-mackerel", toothless seemed to be considering it. "But, getting acorns s-s-still a useless t-t-task."

hiccup was hissing and clicking, looking to toothless as if addressing him, and Hiccup watched on unsure how to respond to it. hiccup looked about as insane as the twins. toothless clicked, hissed, growled, and huffed back, looking like Hookfang when he didn't want to listen to Snotlout's orders. Were they…having a conversation?

"Uh…" Hiccup droned, still dumbfounded by this sight. Beside him, Toothless' head was cocked to the side, just as confused.

hiccup didn't seem to notice as he gave a sigh and turned back. "See what I mean? I just can't get him to do what I tell him no matter what I try!"

"hiccup, what was that exactly?"

"What was what?"

"That thing you were doing with your dragon."

"What thing? I didn't― Wait. Can't you speak Dragonese?"

"Drago-what now?" Hiccup asked.

"Dragonese. Your Toothless has a slightly different kind, so I'm having a hard time understanding him, but it's definitely there. I thought you could―"

"Whoa, wait. Slow down. My dragon has a language? As in―"

"You didn't know?"

"And humans can learn it?" Hiccup continued, ignoring hiccup's question.

"Sure. But it's really rare. I learned from dragon watching, which isn't a geeky thing to do, by the way."

"Um, okay? Well… we can come back to that later", Hiccup shook off. They needed to move on. "What exactly were you, or have been, saying to toothless that isn't working?"

"Well, I've tried spoiling him and asking nicely, I've tried bribing him with promises, and of course I tried yelling, but he still doesn't listen. At this point, I think it's just for his own amusement."

"Hmm. Well, the first step to proper dragon training is establishing trust. If your dragon doesn't trust you, he's not going to listen to you. Here, I'll show you."

Hiccup walked up to toothless, and as he did, he continued instructing hiccup like he would any of his friends at the academy.

"Um", hiccup voiced. "Dragons are the last creatures you want to trust."

"For someone who can talk to them, that's a surprising statement", Hiccup responded, before continuing. "In order to establish trust with a dragon, you need to first show the dragon you trust him completely. They can sense fear, so remaining calm is a good start. It's okay, toothless, I'm not gonna hurt you. You're completely safe, I promise."

"Oh, no", hiccup muttered, feeling he knew what was going to happen.

As Hiccup came closer and closer, toothless just stood there, and once Hiccup's hand came close enough for toothless' maw to reach, Hiccup's face turned from the dragon with his eyes closed. Several seconds passed, when suddenly Hiccup felt the pain of a toothless dragon clamping its jaws on his hand.

"Ah!" Hiccup screamed and pulled away, only for toothless to come with, practically dangling.

"toothless, no! Stop!" hiccup went to pry his dragon off.

Toothless was growling, crouched in preparation to defend Hiccup the moment he got the chance, but with both Hiccups in the way, he must have found it difficult to actually find an opening to jump in and get his smaller counterpart off his rider.

When toothless released, hiccup fell back with the tiny dragon and Hiccup held his sore hand; for a dragon with no teeth, that really hurt. Toothless licked it in his own attempt to help now that the subject hurting his human was off. He still growled at toothless for biting him in the first place, though.

"Now you see what I mean?" hiccup lamented.

"Okay, I admit, that was a first. But, it doesn't mean he can't be trained."

"I don't know about dragons where you come from, but here dragons cannot be trusted. They're self serving first, kind and loving never.

"I'm sure not all dragons here are like that. Alright, toothless, let's try this again."

Hiccup was about to reach his hand out again, his other hand this time, when something struck him.

"No, wait. You need to do this, not me."

"What?!" hiccup exclaimed, afraid to get his hand turned into a potential dragon snack too.

"I'm a stranger to him, a foreigner no less. It makes sense he wouldn't be able to form a bond with me, and I shouldn't have expected that. But you're his trainer, and he clearly trusts you enough to ride around on your shoulder and let you pick him up. It's more than worth a shot. Besides, you were going to have to do this at some point anyway."

"If that trick even works here."

"If Toothless and I have any hope of getting home, it has to." Hiccup was actually starting to worry that maybe the dragons of this world and his own were different, and everything he'd learned about training dragons wouldn't work here, but if that was true then their plan was shot. He would be back to square one of trying to find out the answer to the cave's riddle, if that was even the key to getting home, and hiccup...well he'd be back to being on his own.

hiccup sighed. "Alright. I'll try."

'Here goes nothing', he thought with a quick prayer to the gods. This was gonna hurt.

hiccup stepped up to toothless, hand raised out towards him. toothless looked a little surprised by this, but it was quickly replaced with that mischievous look of his that hiccup knew was trouble. It was the same one he was giving Hiccup when he tried this very gesture. hiccup closed his eyes anyway and turned his head the other way when he got close enough for toothless to reach him.

One second passed, then two. hiccup was expecting toothless' jaws to snap any moment, but it didn't come.

Hiccup witnessed the whole thing with awe. One moment, toothless had this look about him that said he would do the same thing he did before, maybe harder this time, but then something changed. He'd gotten a wif of hiccup's scent, and that look faded as the little dragon leaned forward to curiously sniff his hand. Then, as hiccup's face was all scrunched up, still waiting for pain, toothless leaned his head in, the top of his snout resting in hiccup's palm.

hiccup's eyes popped opened at the feeling of toothless' scales. "I don't believe it", he said in complete astonishment. He couldn't believe it. "toothless…are you feeling okay?"

toothless quickly reared back.

"N-n-never s-s-speak of this."

"Okay, so that was…something. Now what?" hiccup asked.

"Now, we can start training", Hiccup simply replied. If only it was that simple.