Reviews of the Trailer
godzillapaluch: I plan to.
DJ Rodriguez: Thank you. I hope you'll enjoy this.
Now on with the story.
Chapter 1: Figure Out What Side You're On.
"You know, I noticed the book had nothing on Night Furies," Hiccup H. Haddock calls out to Gobber the Belch from where he stood. "Is there another book? A sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?"
A stream of dragon fire shot next to Hiccup's head and hit the wall behind him. "Whoa!" he cried out. His axe was also hit by the stream. The blade melted off and half of the shaft had burned down.
"Focus, Hiccup!" Gobber snapped from wherever he was. "You're not even trying!"
Right, Dragon Training. In front of Hiccup was the Deadly Nadder. And he was in a maze same as the rest of the teenagers. "Today is all about attack!" Gobber shouted.
The female Deadly Nadder screeched which made Hiccup think of a bird. A beautiful and deadly ire breathing bird. She jumped off the wall and charged to Hiccup.
The young heir feigns going to the left before running to the right, barely avoiding the Nadder's jaws. He hears the Nadder squawk behind him as the dragon jumps on top of the maze walls.
"Nadders are quick and light on their feet," Gobber went on. "Your job is to be quicker and lighter!"
Fishlegs Ingerman looked around a corner nervously before looking up in fear as the Nadder looked down at him from her perch on the wall, she squawked. Her tail spikes stood up on end before she launched them towards Fishlegs. The large boy screamed in fright as he lifted his shield and blocked three of Nadder barbs.
"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" Fishlegs called to Gobber as he ran, briefly bumping the wall as he ran.
"Ha! I've been questioning his methods since I was nine years old!" Hiccup exclaimed in amusement. The Viking heir snickered to himself at the memory before the Nadder lands in front of him. She spread her wings out, tail barbs standing up. The teen let out shouts of surprise and fright and run the other direction.
"Look for its blind spot!" Gobber said as he watches from the top of the Arena. "Almost every dragon has one." he explained. "Find it. Hide in it and then strike."
Hiccup runs past the Thorston twins who decide it was a good idea to run in the direction they saw the heir run from and came face to face to the Deadly Nadder.
The Nadder grumbled in confusion as she tries to move her head to see them, but the Twins move in sync with her blind spot. She can smell Viking hatchlings, but she can't see them.
She wasn't the only one who could smell the Vikings. Ruffnut could smell her brother and gagged. "Do you ever bathe?" she asked in a disgust filled whisper.
"If you don't like it, just get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut snapped, elbowing his sister.
The Nadder chittered and turned her head.
"How about I give you one!" Ruffnut snapped, shoving Tuffnut before the two pushed their heads against one another.
The Nadder squawked, getting the twins' attention. If they were trying to sneak up on her, they had failed. Ruffnut grabbed her brother by the arm and pulled him out of the way of the dragon fire that sprayed the area he was.
"Blind spot, yes." Gobber said, holding his head. "Deaf spot? Not so much." He chuckles in amusement at his own joke as Hiccup stops in front of him.
"So, how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" he asked. "No one has ever met one and lived to tell the tale," Gobber replied tiredly before snapping. "Now get in there!"
"I know, I know," Hiccup says as he walks backwards. "But hypothetically-"
"Hiccup!"
He turns to the right and sees Astrid and Snotlout against the wall. "Get down!" Astrid whispered urgently and Snotlout nodded in silent agreement.
As Hiccup knelt down next to them, he hears the Deadly Nadder around the corner.
Astrid peeked around the corner for a moment before she somersaulted passed the Nadder when the dragon was looking away from her. Snotlout did the same move. The two glanced back to Hiccup who looked over to the Nadder. He picked up a rock from the ground and threw it past the Nadder and it bounced off the wall behind the dragon and clattered on the floor.
The Nadder squawked in a excited and confused tone as she ran down the other path. Hiccup then walked over to where Astrid and Snotlout stood. Snotlout looked surprised while Astrid looked impressed.
The Nadder roared in anger from where she was.
"We should get moving," Hiccup whispered urgently. Just as he walked past them, the Nadder jumped onto their path. The three teens then run to the right but then the Nadder climbed over the wall jumped in the path in front of them. The Nadder growled.
Both Astrid and Hiccup get ready to fight before Snotlout shoves them both to side. "Hey!" Astrid exclaimed while Hiccup grunted from the shove.
"Watch out, babe. I got this!" he declares confidently to Astrid and throws his mace at the Nadder.
The mace flies past the Sharp Class Dragon and hits the wall behind her. The dragon paused and glanced at the mace clattering on the floor before she began to laugh, to Hiccup's surprise. Hiccup stares at the dragon in awe. The dragon could laugh in its own way. What else was it capable of? Realizing something else, he turned his attention away and stared at his cousin incredulously while Astrid glares at him. How could have he missed a dragon that barely moved from its spot?
"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid!" Snotlout tried to defend himself. Hiccup looked up at the sky incredulously. "Sun? What sun?" he asked. "It's been cloudy all day!"
They then had to run away as the Nadder began to chase after them. "What do you want me to do? Block out the sun?" Snotlout asks as they run, apparently trying to go with his lame excuse of missing the Nadder. "I can do that, but I don't have the time to do so."
Snotlout ran in one direction and Astrid the other with the Nadder on her tail. The Nadder slid into one of the walls and knocked down some of the walls of the maze while chasing Astrid who screamed and ran past Hiccup who had stopped to talk to Gobber again. The Nadder ran right past him, ignoring him entirely and focusing on Astrid.
"Night Furies, they probably take the day off, like a cat or a bat, right?" Hiccup asked Gobber, ignoring the teens running past him. Behind him, most of the walls of the maze were knocked down by the Nadder as it chased Astrid. "Has anyone seen one napping?" He asked.
"Hiccup, pay attention!" Gobber shouted urgently, pointing behind him. Turning around, Hiccup saw the large wall falling, and Astrid was on the top trying to avoid the Nadder's jaws. She had no choice but to jump towards Hiccup. "Hiccup!" she shouted.
Dropping onto his back, Hiccup caught Astrid but the ended up in a tangle of limbs and Astrid's axe ended up embedded in Hiccup's shield. Looking upward, Hiccup saw the Nadder running past them and apparently, she had thought that the teens were under the pile of rubble and fallen walls.
To the right of him, Hiccup sees the Thorston twins looking at him and Astrid with shit eating grins. "Ooh! Love on the battlefield!" Tuffnut said teasingly.
"She can do better," Ruffnut said with a grin.
Ignoring them, Hiccup looked to Astrid as she struggles to stand up. "Uh-Let me-Why don't you-?" he asked in a stutter but then he heard a crash behind him. Looking up, he sees the Nadder lifting a rubble off of her. She squawked in their direction. Astrid gasps in fright and grabs her axe still stuck in Hiccup's shield. She plants her left boot on Hiccup's face and pulls on her axe harder.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Hiccup exclaimed. This was both painful and disgusting. These were not new boots and she's clearly been running for a while in them. It's quite possible the dirt on their soles is hurting him more than the pain from being stepped on.
It took a while, but Astrid managed to pull the shield off Hiccup's arm with a yank. She then swings her axe at the dragon who was less than three feet from her. The Nadder staggers away, stunned by the blow and the pain. She whimpered, leaving the teens in the clear.
"Well done, Astrid." Gobber complimented.
Astrid had a shaken expression from the encounter with the Nadder before it turns into a scowl. She turns to Hiccup who had covered his head in fear. "Is this some kind of joke to you?" she snaps angrily. He looks up to him in confusion and surprise.
"Our parents' war is about to become ours." Astrid replied. She narrowed her eyes and held up her axe. "Figure out which side you're on." she said.
Hiccup felt mildly offended at her words, he thought it went without saying that he was on the Viking's side in the 300-year Dragon-Viking War, but apparently all the destruction he accidentally caused when trying to prove himself a Dragon killer was making people, even Astrid Hofferson-the best warrior of their generation who usually ignores him- was doubting his allegiance and he was the heir.
But her words have given him some thought. Everyone in the village, including his father the chief except Gobber the blacksmith, had been either ignoring him or bullying him ever since he was little, well littler, and all he wanted was a friend and be accepted.
If that's what the Vikings had to offer, neglect, bullying and isolation from everyone, then he'll see what the dragons' side has to offer.
Friendship and acceptance.
That's what the dragons' side offered. How? Because for three weeks, Hiccup befriended a dragon. What kind of Dragon you may ask? It wasn't a bird-like Deadly Nadder with the hottest dragon fire. Not a chunky Gronckle with the toughest hide. Not an exotic two-headed Hideous Zippleback or a Monstrous Nightmare. Not even a tiny little Terrible Terror. It was the deadliest, feared and respected dragon of them all. The Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death itself.
How did he manage that when every Viking think he's too clumsy and accident prone? Well, what everyone does know is that he is an inventor. An inventor of chaos and destruction, in their eyes. But he was genuinely trying to build tools to help fight dragons. All the damage and destruction was done when there were malfunctions in his inventions or because the Thorston Twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, sabotaged them. And he's certain that they've been sabotaging 99.9% of the time and framed him for a vast majority of their pranks when they weren't pranking him or Fishlegs.
But anyway, in the last Dragon Raid, Hiccup used one of his latest inventions, the Bola Launcher, and shot the Night Fury down. After finding no one believing that he shot down the legendary dragon, Hiccup went into the woods to hunt for it.
And he found it, trapped and ripe for him to kill it. However, instead of trying to snap at him or try to break out of the ropes, the Night Fury just stared up at him fearfully as if begging for his life and then gave up.
Seeing the dragon in fear, actual fear changed Hiccup's mind and he found it in himself lacking the will to kill the defenseless dragon. So instead, he cut it loose.
Of course it pounced on him on the spot, but it didn't kill him either, despite having the motivation to do so. It roared in his face and flew off.
He didn't think much of, until now when a) Gobber had said that dragons always go for the kill, b) he learned that the Night Fury was more feared than he thought yet it didn't kill when it had the chance a second time and c) Astrid snapped at him.
So he went to the Cove with a fish, found out the Fury had retractable teeth and could draw, albeit in a squiggly way. He offered a hand of friendship and trust and was accepted.
In the next three weeks, he had learned more about dragons than anyone on Berk ever could. They don't like eels, they roll around in the grass field outside of Raven Point, they have a pressure point under their jaw, they even chase the light reflecting shiny objects like a cat!
Why was Hiccup so willing to trust this dragon rather than what the other Vikings believed in? Because he was treated better by a "mindless and bloodthirsty beast" then by his own people.
He even made a prosthetic tailfin for the dragon and a saddle for him along with some equipment to control the tailfin so that the dragon can fly as long as Hiccup was on its back. A bit flawed but will be adjusted later.
But now, after two weeks of failure and errors fixed, it was time.
Time for them to fly for real. No rope attached to a stump, no flying over a grass field or a pond. Just the two of them and the sky.
No Godzillasaurus yet. Wait for the next chapter.
So what do you think?