Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD or it's characters

Downed Dragon, Angry Dragon

While everyone had been at the meeting, Hiccup had used the opportunity to sneak out of the house and travel into the forest of Raven Point. She had been searching for the Night Fury for a while already, the drawn map in her notebook having multiple crosses in it already.

She'd thought she'd heard or sensed something, but she dismissed it. After a while she'd had a feeling, but Hiccup had passed it off as sounds from the forest or chills from the fog.

Circling the spot where she estimated where the dragon must've landed, she walked to the spot, breathed in deep and opened her eyes to find... nothing. Nothing but trees and bushes, just like all the other times.

Exhaling in disappointment she crossed the spot, but then out of frustration scribbled all over the page and angrily put her book away in her vest. "Oh, the gods must hate me.", she spoke to herself. "Some people lose their knife, their mug or their sword, But no, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon, a Night Fury to boot!" She angrily smacked a branch only for it to swing back into her face over her eye. "Ow!"

She removed her hand from her eye and found specks of blood on it. 'Wonderful.' She glared at the branch, but then noticed the branch's tree was almost split in half. She looked behind the tree and saw a deep trench going over a small hill.

Walking along it roots were sticking out and different sized rocks were in it, but the grass was completely gone. 'Only something big and heavy could do that. Something like... like a Night Fury.', she thought to herself as she climbed up the hill. Hiccup looked over it and her heart skipped a beat.

In a clearing laid the Night Fury still wrapped in bolas, but it wasn't moving and didn't seem to be breathing. Carefully climbing down the hill, she hid behind a stone and grabbed her knife her father always made her carry. Hiccup peeked at the Fury who was still unmoving, not even a flick of it's ear, if the plates on it's head where the ears.

"Oh wow. I-I did it.", she said in disbelief. "Oh, my Thor, I did it. This fixes everything!" She put her foot on it's front leg and struck a mighty pose. "I, Hiccup Haddock, have brought down this mighty beast." She was basking in the moment when the dragon suddenly moved it's arm and she fell back with a shocked cry.

The Fury was definitely alive and panting hard now in the confines of the ropes. She startled when she made eye contact with the Night Fury. It had green eyes, a color not unlike hers. Hiccup looked away from it's eyes when the dragon only looked at her. But she felt... something with it. It was like a pull of sorts, but also a kinship, somehow.

She gazed at it when it let out a low growl. Hiccup's always been able to tell a dragon's mood from their body language, they were so expressive, but the Night Fury was blank and still only looking at her.

Hiccup then realized something. She would have to kill it. She'd completely forgotten about that part. She had hoped it would be dead if she found it.

Exhaling she adjusted her grip on her knife. "I'm gonna kill you, dragon." She took another breath, squaring her shoulders. "I'm... going to cut your heart out and bring it to my father. Prove to him that I am a viking." She made eye contact with the Fury and yelled, "I am a viking!"

The dragon let out a moan and looked at her with slitted pupils. Hiccup raised her blade ready to end the dragon's life and prove to her father that she could be useful, that she wasn't fragile, that she belonged. As she held her knife, she looked at the dragon and saw that it wasn't struggling. It could still shoot her with no muzzle on it but wasn't going to. It had accepted it's fate, that it was going to die.

Hiccup faltered but shut her eyes and gathered her resolve. She heard a moan and then a thud but ignored it. She grunted with clenched eyes, trying to force herself to bring down the knife into it's chest. Yet she couldn't bring the knife down, something in the Fury's eyes, the way it had looked at her made her hesitate.

The knife was lowered in defeat, she couldn't do it, she couldn't kill it. The Night Fury lay before her bound, helpless, yet she couldn't kill it. Hiccup looked at the ropes keeping the dragon at bay. "I did this."

The heir looked at the creature before her with regret. It had to suffer, because of her. Such a magnificent being was bound and ready to die. About to turn and leave she stopped. Hiccup couldn't leave the dragon like this. It wouldn't be able to defend itself nor get food or water.

Looking down at the knife she was about to do something no viking would ever do. She questioned for a moment if she'd lost her mind.

'SNAP!'

The Fury's eyes shot open and moved to look at the girl.

'SNAP!'

Hiccup grabbed another rope and cut it while whispering, "I'm sorry." The ropes had started to loosen and fall away.

'SNAP!'

Hiccup suddenly found herself pinned by the very dragon she'd freed, her throat between it's claws. Leaning away from it had only resulted in the dragon tightening it's grip on her neck. The Fury was staring into her eyes and she right back. Struggling was pointless, her small size giving her no advantage against the dragon's strength.

'How ironic.', Hiccup thought just before the dragon growled, low and dangerously. At the growl Hiccup bared her neck and once again let out a sound that she knew wasn't human.

The growling stopped and Hiccup got a distinct sense of déjà vu. Just like the Nightmare the Fury was looking at her the plates on it's head raised in attention. It sniffed her and it's eyes narrowed seemingly in thought. Hiccup felt it's paw move, stop and then tighten.

Opening her eyes, the Fury was looking at it's paw with eyes narrowed in confusion. The Fury brought it's nose real close to her and started sniffing her again and Hiccup wondered what was up with it and the Nightmare that both had sniffed her. It warbled and growled after sniffing then looked at her the look made Hiccup turn her head away, baring her throat.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the dragon regarding her before the pupils, which had dilated over the last few minutes, narrowed into slits again. The dragon growled and raised it's head and Hiccup closed her eyes, sure that she would be blasted into oblivion. She heard it's intake of air and clenched her eyes. The claws left her throat, and her ears were suddenly overwhelmed with a loud, shrill roar.

Her ears rung and she felt disoriented and didn't hear the dragon leaving with a beat of it's wing or it's roar as it left.

Hiccup panted as she opened her eyes her vision was a little blurry with tears and she could hear her heart beating in her ears. She held her hand over her chest, still trying to get her breathing under control. The fact that the dragon had left her alive not even registering in her head.

She stood up on her wobbly legs leaning heavily on the rock. Letting go of the rock Hiccup only managed a few steps before she knew no more and saw black.

Green eyes opened and moved around confusedly. Hiccup slowly sat up and rubbed her head, she questioned why she was in a clearing when she remembered what had happened. The heiress wondered for how long she'd been unconscious then gasped as she saw the sun was about to set. Her father was going to kill her.

Hiccup stood up, picked up her knife and hurriedly made her way back to the village. Maybe she could still make it before her father came home.

Arriving in the village she ignored the angry or indifferent stares from the villagers and strode to her house. Hiccup moved her bangs to cover the injury over her eye and opened the door then cringed when she saw her father sitting before the fireplace.

"Hiccup.", he called as she tried to sneak past him into her bedroom.

"Dad!... I uh, I have to talk to you."

Stoick stood up with his hands clasped and his face looked unsure. "I need to talk with you too darlin'." Hiccup was instantly worried. If she knew one thing, it was that her father was never unsure about anything. She felt dread as she thought about what the conversation could be about. Hiccup gulped as she thought about 'that' talk.

Thor have mercy.

"I think it's time you learned how to fight dragons"

"What?", she asked incredulous.

"You get your wish. Dragon training, you'll start in the morning"

Hiccup felt her stomach sink. Yes, she had wanted to be part of the dragon training class, but what had happened with the Night Fury had proved that she couldn't be a dragon slayer. At least it wasn't the other talk, but maybe she'd rather have that one.

"Oh Thor.", she muttered. "Dad, I was thinking, you know we have a surplus of dragon-fightning vikings. But do we have enough... bread making vikings, or home repair vikings?"

Stoick completely ignored her and handed her an axe that he'd grabbed from somewhere. "You'll need this." Hiccup almost fell over from the axe's weight.

"I don't want to fight dragons.", she tried again, but Stoick only laughed as if she'd told a good joke, which she probably had in his eyes.

"Come on, yes you do." He turned his back to her and walked towards a basket, which Hiccup now noticed was full.

Hiccup descended the last step of the stairs and said as firmly as she could, "Dad, I can't kill dragons."

Hiccup saw something change in her father's eyes, but before she could find out what it was, he turned to her. His broad frame looming over her. "But you will kill dragons and that's what dragon training is for. To learn how."

The heiress was about to try again to get through her thick-headed father, but he interrupted her and his gentle tone was gone, anger leaking through. "It's time Hiccup."

"Can you not hear me?!"

Her father easily took the axe out of her hands as he spoke, "This is serious Hiccup. When you carry this axe, you carry all of us with you and as heiress, that makes this even more important. Your actions reflect on me." He put the axe in her hands, and she fell over, the weapon falling to the ground and Stoick raised a brow. He put it back into her hands so it would lean onto her shoulder. "Which means you walk like us, talk like us, you think like us. No more of this... strangeness."

"You just gestured to all of me.", she said hurt.

"Deal?", Stoick asked.

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided." Like every other conversation they have.

"Deal?!"

Hiccup sighed in defeat. "Deal." Like always, she had to agree to his terms, and he never listened to her opinion. It went in one ear and straight out the other.

"Good.", Stoick said satisfied. He walked back to the basket and picked it up. Hiccup then immediately knew what it meant. Another pointless search for the nest and once again multiple weeks ina big house alone. "Me and the other vikings leave tomorrow for another expedition for the nest, we'll be gone a while."

"Yeah sure, great.", she muttered quietly.

Stoick looked at his daughter and exhaled. He knew she didn't like those searches, but what choice did they have. The nest needed to be found and destroyed so they could finally live in peace.

The chief tried to find a way to make his daughter feel somewhat better, but he couldn't. He then noticed the state of her hair. "Hey." She looked up at him and he gestured for her to sit in front of him. She did so with a smile and Stoick got a hairbrush.

Another skill he'd picked up was how to braid hair, with Valka's long hair it had been very necessary.

As he brushed his daughter's hair, he couldn't help noticing the streaks of black in it. He accidentally pulled the brush a little hard and Hiccup muttered a small 'ow'. "Sorry dear."

It was tradition for vikings of high status to have long hair, but Hiccup's was rather short. Most having to be cut after an accident in the forge. She had somehow managed to put her hair on fire and after it was put out, it had to be cut as it was too damaged. Which others could take as her practically denouncing her status as chief's daughter, but Stoick knew it was an accident.

"Heh, look at that. Your hair's gotten longer.", he said with a smile. Her hair now went just past her shoulders, when before it had stopped above them. He saw Hiccup's smile and his own widened. The chief knew Hiccup had been downtrodden when they had to cut it, she'd loved keeping it long.

Stoick neatly braided her hair in two, the black streaks standing out among the brown. Her bangs went slightly over her eyes, but Hiccup didn't want to cut them, so they left them like that.

Hiccup looked at herself in the mirror and turned to her father with a smile. "Thanks dad." Stoick smiled and the two went to prepare supper. Stoick would leave during the night as he wanted to leave as early as possible. But the vikings still get a chance for some shut eye before they left.

Before Hiccup went up to her bedroom she stopped and ran back down to give her father a hug. Stoick put his hand on her shoulder and went down on one knee to be on eye level with her. "Train hard darlin'. I'll be back. Probably.", he added as an afterthought.

Hiccup nodded. "And I'll be here." Stoick smiled and left to make a last check on the boats and supplies. "Maybe.", Hiccup muttered when the door closed.

The heiress frowned at the axe leaning against the wall. She went to get the tub to prepare a bath and wash off today's stress and grime from wandering through Raven Point. She was a bit glad Vikings didn't wash themselves too often. It meant there was more water for her to use, if she ever decided to take a longer bath than usual and today was one of those days.

She slid into the hot water warmed by the fire and sighed as she felt her muscles relax. Her thoughts went back to her father as she looked at the ceiling. She loved her father, but he could be so... frustrating sometimes! The only reason he won every argument was because he was the louder of the two.

Her thoughts then shifted to the Night Fury. It was smaller than what she'd thought it would be, yet it was beautiful. The scales, black as night and dark gray markings, it truly was a creature of the night. Although it's small size, it's body held strength and had a big wingspan. The body was made for fast and agile flight. It resembled a bat in some sorts. It had no horns, or overly large claws. It only had spines on it's head, back and maybe on the tail.

But what had stayed with her was the way it had looked at her. Those green eyes had made her stop from killing it. It didn't have the eyes of a mindless animal, controlled by instinct, rage and bloodlust. It's eyes held intelligence and emotions other than anger.

Even when the positions were reversed and it'd had the chance to kill Hiccup, the Night Fury hadn't. It had decided to spare her as she had spared it. Hiccup wondered why.

Getting out of the cooled water, she drained it and dried herself. She walked up to her room and put on her night gown and lied down on her bed. Hiccup clutched her pillow to her chest. She was exhausted, yet sleep wouldn't come to her. The thoughts of tomorrow kept her awake.

She groaned as she realized the other teens would be part of her class. Which she found simply wonderful. As if they didn't make fun of her enough, they would also make fun of her during classes.

Anstred was likely going to be the best in class. Snotlout may come in second, if he could focus and stop bragging so much. Fishlegs would get points for her knowledge, the girl was a walking dragon manual. The twins would fight each other instead of the dragon, of that Hiccup had no doubt, and she would likely ridicule herself the whole time.

Out of everyone from the group, Hiccup liked Fishlegs and Ruffnut best.

Fishlegs never actually bullied her, never insulted or made fun of her. They'd been friends when they had been younger, both geeks for when it came to dragons. But had drifted apart when Hiccup had started to get bullied, and Hiccup could understand why she'd stopped being around her. Fishlegs may be big, but she was no fighter.

Hiccup and Ruffnut had been best friends since they were toddlers. She didn't laugh at Hiccup, she laughed at the damage she would cause. Ruffnut was also fun to be around, even with her less than sane tendencies and her and her brother's pranks were funny.

Hiccup yawned and put her blanket over her form. Blowing out the candle on her night stand she went to sleep.

"Welcome to dragon training!"

The teens walked into the ring with an air of confidence and anticipation. "No turning back.", Anstred said. Everyone had a smile or a smirk on their face and each one a weapon. Anstred his axe, Snotlout a mace, Fishlegs a hammer, the twins both had pikes and Hiccup her one handed axe.

The ring was a large and circular, the ground and walls made of concrete and instead of a roof, there were multiple linked chains to prevent dragons from escaping. There were scorch marks on the wall and floor, weapons in boxes and shields lying around. Along the walls were five gates with dragons in them.

"I hope I get some wicked burns.", Tuffnut said excited.

"I'm hoping for some mauling on my shoulder or my lower back.", his sister added.

"Yeah.", Anstred agreed, because of course he did. "It's only fun, if you get a scar out of it."

'I got scars if someone's interested.' Unable to stop herself Hiccup spoke with heavy sarcasm, "Yeah, no kidding right?" The teens turned to her with surprise on their faces. "Pain, gotta love it."

The faces then turned to annoyance. "Great, who let the screw up in?", Tuffnut asked annoyed.

"Let's get started!" Gobber interrupted before any more could be said. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of slaying the Monstrous Nightmare in front of the entire village."

The teens all looked excited at the chance to slay a dragon that only the trained vikings could take on. Hiccup on the other hand looked anything but. She would be very happy as last in the class; her father however wouldn't take that so well. She sometimes hated being the chief's daughter.

As they moved to the center of the ring Hiccup heard Tuffnut and Snotlout blaspheme about her, she frowned at the words they said. She startled as Gobber put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, you're small and weak, that'll make you less of a target! They'll see you as sick or insane and go for the more viking-like teens instead."

Hiccup knew he was trying to reassure her, but didn't he know that because she was small the dragons would likely go for her than the others?

"And I'll step in before things can get ugly. Your father would kill me if I let ye get hurt." She looked at her godfather with gratitude and Gobber smiled.

"Behind these doors are the species of dragons you will learn to fight!", Gobber started as he gestured to the gates. "The Deadly Nadder!"

"Speed 8, armor 16.", Fishlegs said, showing her knowledge on the dragon's statistic.

"The Hideous Zippleback!"

"Plus 11, stealth times 2."

"The Monstrous Nightmare!"

"Firepower 15."

"The Terrible Terror!"

"Attack 8, venom 12!"

"CAN YOU STOP THAT?!", Gobber snapped. He put his hand on the lever as he enumerated the last dragon, "And finally the Gronckle!"

"Jaw strength 8.", Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup and, she lifted a brow at the girl.

Snotlout saw Gobber's hand on the lever and grew slightly panicked. "Woah, woah, wait! Aren't you going to teach us some basics first?" The other's looked at Gobber with a bit of fear on their face except Hiccup. She called her cousin then spoke when he was looking at her, "Gobber's a blacksmith and if I have learned anything in the last few years, is that he believes in learning on the job." Her burn scars were a testament to that.

The recruits looked at her in shock and then at Gobber, but the smith only smirked at them and said, "Right you are Hiccup.", and he pushed down the lever.

The Gronckle burst out, pupils in slits, snarling and it's wings buzzing.

Everyone scattered to avoid the angry dragon. The wet ground made escaping harder, but they managed to dodge it's body slam.

"Today is about survival. If you get blasted... you're dead.", Gobber explained from somewhere in the ring.

"And since Snotlout wanted some basics, here's a question. What's the first thing you need when fighting dragons?", Gobber quizzed, Hiccup thought about it, but had to dodge the dragon's tail, then tried, "A doctor?"

"Plus five speed?", Fishlegs guessed.

"A shield.", Anstred answered confidently and correctly.

Gobber praised his answer, and everyone grabbed a shield, the twins fighting over one. Hiccup smiled when she saw Ruffnut hit Tuffnut with the shield. which led to them being the first to be blasted and eliminated.

They were then instructed to use the shields to make noise to overwhelm the dragon's ears and confuse it. Hiccup hit her shield but had to stop as her vision swam. She shook her head to clear it and took a few steps back from the others to not be as affected as the poor Gronckle.

"... can... sto...p." Hiccup's eyes shot open and she stared at the Gronckle as it spoke. She'd figured out by now that the voices she heard, but no one else did, had to be dragons. Hiccup asked herself how she could her them and why. But why should she care what a dragon was saying? They were the enemy.

"Here's another question. Every dragon has a limit number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?", Gobber asked, and Hiccup had to forget about the speaking dragons, for now...

"Five?", her cousin guessed.

"No six!", Fishlegs corrected, not noticing the dragon stop behind her.

"Correct! That's one for each of you!", Gobber said with a smile. 'That's one way to put it.', Hiccup thought dryly.

The Gronckle then blasted Fishlegs' shield out of her hands, thereby eliminating her.

"Fishlegs out."

"AAHHH!", she yelled running away.

Hiccup had taken the chance to hide behind a wooden wall, while the dragon was busy. Opting to stay behind it when she was almost hit with a blast when she tried to move out.

"Hiccup, get in there!"

She looked at Gobber over the rim of her shield then yelled, "No thanks!" Gobber glared at her, and she ran as soon as the reptile had it's back turned to her.

Approaching Anstred and Snotlout, she saw her cousin was once again kissing up to the Hofferson. Snotlout had this imaginary rivalry going on with him and at the same time, kissed up to him whenever he could. Hiccup had given up a long time ago to figure out what was going with the two.

The heiress snickered when her cousin's distraction earned him a blast and he was eliminated. Before her even! Anstred landed next to her from his rolled dive and for some reason she tried to talk to him. "So, uh... It's just you and me, huh?" Hiccup wanted to slam her head against the shield. What kind of conversation starter was that?!

"Nope, just you.", Anstred dismissed her and flipped away again. Hiccup was confused for a moment until she heard the buzzing, and she looked up to see a blast being shot at her. The shield was blasted out of her hands, and she ran after it with the Gronckle hot on her tail.

"Hiccup!", Gobber yelled alarmed.

Hiccup turned at his yell then fell back as she saw how close the Gronckle actually was to her. Backed against the wall she could only watch as the Gronckle charged it's last shot. She could feel the warmth of it's fire as her body froze with fear. Hiccup curled into herself when the Gronckle shot. When she realized she hadn't been burned into a crust, she looked up to find Gobber had hooked the Gronckle and was fighting it back into it's cage.

"Go back to bed you overgrown sausage!", he called after closing the cage. "You'll get another chance, don't you worry."

Gobber looked over the recruits with a small smile at their states. They looked worse for wear, a bit ruffled, but at least no one had been killed and they showed promise. Just a few more classes and they would be pros. Even Hiccup if she would try harder.

"Remember Lads, a dragon will always." He turned to Hiccup. "Always, go for the kill.", he lectured then helped Hiccup to her feet.

Hiccup was still panting, even as she stood there and watched the others leave. But as she looked at the scorch mark, she thought of something.

If a dragon always goes for the kill, why didn't the Night Fury?

See yall next time! Byee!