Chapter 2: A New Friend
Soon, after the end of the day and their little encounter in the woods, the two then enter the Haddock household around dark. They try to run past Stoick and quickly and quietly crawl up the stairs, but Stoick notices them.
"Hiccup." Stoick said.
"Dad! Uh... I have to talk to you, Dad." Hiccup said after stopping halfway up the stairs. Astrid had already made it up to the stairs, but she soon stopped to listen in just in case.
"I need to speak with you too, son." Stoick said.
"I've decided I don't want / I think it's time you helped others/ to fight dragons. What?" they both said simultaneously.
"You go first." Stoick said.
"No, no, you go first." Hiccup said back.
"Alright. You get your wish. Dragon Training. You and Astrid are going to be helping Gobber with the new recruits. You two start in the morning." Stoick said. Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other with Astrid nodding her head and Hiccup looked back and nodded at his dad.
"Good. Train the recruits hard. I'll be back. Probably." Stoick said as he grabbed his helmet and duffel bag and headed for the door.
"And we'll be here. Maybe." Hiccup said as he soon went back up the stairs and soon Astrid and Hiccup got in their beds and went to sleep.
The next morning, Gobber raised a massive iron gate at the entrance of a big stone arena.
"Welcome to Dragon Training!" Gobber proudly stated.
"No turning back." Dogsbreath grinned. The new recruits then filed through and onto the arena floor taking it in like the best viking warriors entering a dragon battle. The walls were covered with scorches and the twins thought it was awe-inspiring.
"I hope I get some serious burns!" Tuffnut said.
"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back." Ruffnut said.
"True, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it since I think that it's a badge of honor." Dogsbreath said.
"Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it." Hiccup sarcastically remarked as he and Astrid were carrying in several shields..
"Oh, great. Who let them in?" Tuffnut asked.
"Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village." Gobber declared.
"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so, does that disqualify him or...?" Snotlout asked before he and the other recruits started laughing and chatting to each other. Hiccup and Astrid just ignored them and placed the shields in certain areas of the ring.
"Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?" Tuffnut asked.
"For your information, Hiccup and Astrid are going to be helping me out…" Gobber started but soon gave the two a sly wink and continued, "since they're my assistants." That soon got the other teens quiet as Hiccup and Astrid grinned at each other.
"Now then, Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight! The Deadly Nadder!" Gobber explained as he walked by the corresponding cages.
"Speed: eight; Armor: sixteen." Fishlegs said to himself
"The Hideous Zippleback!" Gobber said as he walked next to another cage.
"Plus eleven stealth times two." Fishlegs whispered.
"The Monstrous Nightmare!" Gobber said.
"Firepower: fifteen." Fishlegs said.
"The Terrible Terror!" Gobber continued.
"Attack: eight; Venom: twelve!" Fishlegs states.
"CAN YOU STOP THAT?! And... the Gronckle!" Gobber finished as Hiccup and Astrid walked towards the last door and had their hands on the lever.
"Jaw strength: eight." Fishlegs quietly whispered.
"Whoa, whoa, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first?!" Snotlout screams.
"Gobber has a motto for that." Hiccup says as Astrid giggles a little bit.
"And that would be…?" Dogsbreath wondered.
"I believe in learning on the job." Gobber said before nodding to Hiccup and Astrid. The two then release Gronckle, which charges into the ring like an irritated rhino. The other teens scramble in every direction(except for the twins who decide to rush towards it instead).
"Today is about survival. If you get blasted... you're dead! Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?" Gobber asked.
"A doctor?!" Dogsbreath blurts out.
"Plus five speed?!" Fishlegs asked in a panic.
"A shield!" Astrid shouts.
"Well done, Astrid. Shields! Go! Your most important piece of equipment is your shield! If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield!" Gobber ordered the other teens as they headed for the shields.
"Get your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut yelled.
"There's like a million shields!" Ruffnut yelled back.
"Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers." Tuffnut said before Ruffnut takes the shield and slams it onto Tuffnut's head.
"Oops, now this one has blood on it." Ruffnut said.
The Gronckle then flies towards the Twins and blasts their shield with a fireball, leaving them dazed on the ground.
"Tuffnut, Ruffnut, you're out!" Gobber hollered.
"What?" The twins asked, dazed.
"Those shields are good for another thing: noise! Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim!" Gobber said as the remaining teens began hitting their weapons against their shields, making the Gronckle shake its head, confused.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?" Gobber continued.
"Five?" Snotlout guessed.
"No, six!" Fishlegs corrected him.
"Correct, six! That's-" Gobber started before Fishlegs' shield got blasted out of his hand. He runs away screaming.
"Fishlegs, out." Gobber finished.
"So, anyway I'm moving into my parents' basement. You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out!" Snotlout started to flirt with Astrid(much to her disapproval) after stopping to look at her, but soon the Gronckle fired at Snotlout.
"Snotlout! You're done!" Gobber yells.
"So, I guess it's just Dogsbreath, huh?" Hiccup asked.
"Nope, he's out." Astrid saidafter the Gronckle fired at him, and made him lose his shield, throwing him into the wall. Gobber soon hooks the Gronkle's mouth, causing its head to jerk back and use its last shot hitting the stone wall.
"And that's six! Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage! You'll get another chance, don't you worry." Gobber said as he soon put the Gronkle in the pen and the two assistants closed the gate.
"Remember: a dragon will always - always - go for the kill." Gobber said to the recruits. As everyone else was leaving, Hiccup and Astrid remained deep in thought about that statement and returned to the woods at the area with the discarded bola.
"So, why didn't you?" Hiccup asked as heweighed the bola with his hands. He drops the bola and the two press on in the direction the dragon flew off in. They dropped into a rocky crevice and followed it to an isolated cove complete with a pristine spring pool. As they scan the high stone walls, Hiccup sighs.
"Well, this was stupid." he said and then found some shiny black dragon scales on the floor. He picks one up. The Night Fury suddenly swoops past them, but falls back onto the ground, trying to settle down on the cove. Hiccup hides at the entrance and tries to make a sketch of it. Astrid smiled as she watched him draw in his sketchbook.
"You really are good at drawing, you know." she told him to which he smiled as he kept drawing.
"Why don't you just... fly away?" Hiccup muttered as he looked at the dragon again.
As he made his sketch, he noticed the Night Fury was missing one of its tail fins. He erases the fin on his drawing but he slips and drops his pencil, drawing the Night Fury's attention. It stares up at him in recognition.
Later on in the meade hall, Gobber was telling each of the teens about their faults in the ring as the couple entered the hall, grabbed their food and water and sat at a different table from the other teens.
"Now, you need to live and breathe this stuff. The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of." Gobber said, laying a giant book in the center of the table before thunder roars outside the hall.
"No attacks tonight. Study up." Gobber said as he exited the hall into the storm leaving the teens to themselves.
"Wait, you mean, read?" Tuffnut asked.
"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut asked.
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout asked.
"Some people say that, but you know…it's just a theory." Dogsbreath said as the other teens stared at him giving him weird looks.
"I'll shut up now." he finished.
"Oh! I've read it like, seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And-And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week–" Fishlegs began as the other teens stared at him as he started to go on too long.
"Yeah, that sounds great. See, there was a chance I was going to read that…" Tuffnut started.
"...But, now…" Ruffnut finished.
"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff." Snotlout said as he got up and began walking toward the door. The others soon followed after him.
"Oh, and there's this other one that has these spines that look like trees…" Fishlegs continued as he followed the others.
"So I guess we'll share?" Hiccup asked to which Astrid nodded and smiled. The hall soon became vacant and dark, safe for the few candles the two pulled together. Hiccup then flips open the book, reading its contents as Astrid sat next to him, leaning her head onto his shoulder.
"Dragon classifications. Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class." Hiccup said before turning to the next page.
"Thunderdrum: This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Timberjack: This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Scauldron: Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous. Changewing: Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight. Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, Whispering Death. Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight... [soon flips to the Night Fury page. No picture or information was shown on the page.] Night Fury: Speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you." Hiccup read out before pulling out his sketchbook and opened it to his drawing.
"So we're the first ones to actually seen one close up, and not even Bork the Bold has ever seen one, so I think that we made history" Astrid said to him smiling to which he smiled back
The next day at dawn in the high seas, several longships glided through the fog following Stoick's ship. Stoick hovered over the map - his eyes on the uncharted corner, swirling in mist and illustrations of dragons. After catching a few Terrors during the night for the arena for future recruits, the dragons were tied down and would be taken to the arena for when they returned from the search.
"I can almost smell them. They're close. Steady" Stoick said.
Stoick soon raised his gaze to the fog bank, which was towering from sky to sea like a bruised, daunting curtain, beyond which nothing was visible. The three ships drifted alongside it, skirting its solid edge, looking for an opening. On the deck, the crewmen mill nervously, all too aware of what Stoick was considering.
"Take us in," he ordered.
"Hard to port... for Helheim's gate." A viking said as the boats disappeared into the fog. Visibility dropped immediately as the armada disappeared into the blinding mist. Nothing remained except for the eerie creaking of wood on water.
"Sound your positions. Stay within earshot." Stoick ordered.
"Here, One length to your stern, On your starboard flank, Three widths to port, Ahead, at your bow, Haven't a clue." various vikings exclaimed out.
Stoick soon notices that Terrors are at the alert, quietly reacting to inaudible sounds. Stoick quickly moves to the stern of the ship, grabs the tiller, and moves the helmsman out of the way.
"Step aside." Stoick ordered as he pulled the ship into a turn, covertly following the Terrors head movements.
"Bear to port." A viking called out as the order got passed around ship to ship as they went through the foggy sea.
A clicking buzz soon becomes audible, growing louder every second. It fills the sky, converging in one general direction. Stoick then sniffs the air.
"Stay low and ready your weapons." he ordered before the ship suddenly jerks to a halt as the keel burrows into shallow black sand.
"We're here." Stoick said before he hopped overboard, landing on a sprawling beach. The buzzing then suddenly stops. Above him, a huge volcano towers into the gloom.
Meanwhile in the arena back on Berk, the new recruits were in the middle of another training session.
"You know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies. Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?" Hiccup asked Gobber as he and Astrid sat on the stands eating their breakfast as the three were watching the other teens in the arena. Gobber shook his head no and instructed the teens about the new lesson.
"Today is all about ATTACK! Nadders are quick and light on their feet! Your job is to be quicker and lighter!" Gobber said as the Nadder spots Fishlegs hiding behind one of the walls. It whips its tail of spikes. Fishlegs screams and lifts his shield to shield himself from the spikes.
"AAAAAH! I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" Fishlegs said.
"I'm surprised he's questioning this now." Astrid whispered to Hiccup to which he simply shrugged.
"Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike!" Gobber said.
The twins soon rush in and eventually come right in front of the Nadder's nose. The Nadder starts sniffing the air as the twins are smashed together - too close for their comfort.
"Ugh! Do you ever bathe?" Ruffnut asked, disgusted by a smell.
"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut responded.
"How about I give you one?!" Ruffnut argued as the twins shoved each other until the Nadder attacked the twins forcing them to run.
"Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot? Not so much. Heh, heh, heh." Gobber said.
"Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" Hiccup asked.
"No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale." Gobber replied.
Meanwhile, Snotlout and Dogsbreath were doing pretty well until the Nadder jumped in front of their path.
Don't worry bro. I'll take care of this" Snotlout exclaimed as he tossed his hammer at the Nadder and missed.
"Don't worry buddy. You have always been my greatest inspiration" Dogsbreath said as the two began running from the Nadder. Soon Gobber went in and got the dragon back in its cage and he alongside his two assistants helped clean up the mess left behind in the chase.
Meanwhile back at dragon island, tree trunks had been sharpened and planted into the sand at angled rows. Boulders had been loaded into catapult baskets. And a war plan was scratched into the sand. Stoick loomed over it, looking determined with his generals at his side.
"When we crack this mountain open, all hell is going to break loose…no matter how this ends, it ends today." Stoick said before walking toward the volcano wall and raising his arm and dropping it.
Catapults soon break a hole into the side of the mountain, and a flaming ball of straw reveals thousands of dragons inside. Stoick charges in screaming loudly, and all the dragons flee in terror, not a single one attacking with the vikings soon lowering their weapons.
"We've done it!" Spitelout hollered as the vikings cheered at their victory but soon stopped as a loud roar was heard and the mountain started to crack.
"This isn't over. Form your ranks! Hold together!" Stoick exclaimed.
"Get clear" Stoick ordered as stone tears away, cascading like an avalanche. And through the settling debris, the silhouette of a giant dragon emerges.
"Odin, help us" Stoick said aghast as the giant dragon began roaring furiously.
Meanwhile back in the cove on Berk, Hiccup and Astrid approach with a fish, leaving their shield behind. The Night Fury then creeps out from behind another rock. Sniffs at the couple and the fish, slowly approaches, then retreats upon seeing Hiccup's knife. Realizing the dragon felt threatened, Hiccup kicked his knife into the water. The Night Fury relaxes and quickly acts friendly, and slowly takes the fish from Hiccup's hand, revealing a toothless mouth.
"Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had…" Hiccup started before Toothless' teeth suddenly popped out of his gums and he snatched the fish, chomping it in half.
"...teeth." Hiccup finished but Toothless soon approached, sniffing Hiccup.
"Uh, uh, no, no, no. I-I don't have any more." Hiccup said nervously.
Toothless then regurgitated half of the fish, and proceeded to direct Hiccup through biting and swallowing it after staring at each other. Hiccup eventually gags and gnaws off a bite of the fish covered in dragon slim. As he tried to swallow it, Toothless looked at Astrid and did the same thing with her. The two soon force a smile and Toothless then tries to return their smiles. He then snarled and flew away when Hiccup reached out towards him. He ignited a small patch of dirt and tried to sleep on top of it.
He soon turns to find Hiccup and Astrid seated beside him. Toothless tolerated the two... until Hiccup tried to touch his damaged tail causing Toothless snapped at him and the couple took the hint and left.
After some time, Toothless was sleeping, hanging upside down like a bat, and woke up to find Hiccup drawing Toothless in the sand. Toothless then tried using a branch to 'draw' Hiccup in the dirt. Astrid backed away while he did this and thought it was kind of adorable seeing him trying his best at drawing. After dropping his branch, he was very pleased with his work, even though they were a bunch of scribbled lines. He soon became angry whenever Hiccup stepped on his masterpiece. Hiccup stepped over the lines and finally reached Toothless. Hiccup offers his hand to Toothless and at first he hesitated. However when he was looking away with his eyes closed, Toothless finally trusted Hiccup enough to touch his nose to Hiccup's hand. After that, Astrid made her way over and did the same thing and looked away, closing her eyes and Toothless soon put his nose to her hand. Once done, Toothless snorts and runs away.
Later that night, Gobber and the teens were seated on top of a watch tower, roasting food around a bonfire.
"...And with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." Gobber said as he finished one of his stories.
"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by... crushing his heart, or something." Fishlegs said.
"I swear, I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!" Snotlout said proudly which earned him a thumbs up from Dogsbreath.
"Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon. Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be, too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?" Gobber said before heading off for the night.
"It's gonna be me. It's my destiny. See?" Tuffnut said proudly as he rolled up his sleeve.
"Your mom let you get a tattoo?" Fishlegs gasped.
"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark." Tuffnut said.
"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before." Ruffnut said, proving her brother's lie.
"Yes, it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now." Tuffnut said.
After hearing what Gobber said about how a dragon is unable to fly with an injured tail or wings,
Hiccup and Astrid look at each other and they're both thinking about the same thing. Nodding to each other, they leave the group and head to the forge late at night. After putting in a lot of work and effort, the couple makes a new tail-fin for Toothless to replace the one the Night Fury lost.
The next day at dawn, the couple are back at the cove, with a basket of fish and the prosthetic fin.
"Hey, Toothless. I brought breakfast. I hope you're hungry. Okay, that's disgusting. Uh... we've got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel." Hiccup said as he kicked the basket over and started naming what he was going to give him. Toothless roars in fear at the sight of the eel.
"No, no, no, no! It's okay. (throws the eel aside) Yeah, I don't really like eel much either." Hiccup said. With the eel problem gone, Toothless starts to eat the fish. While he was distracted, Hiccup sneaked toward his tail.
" Okay. That's it. That's it, just stick with good stuff. And don't you mind me. I'll just be back here... minding my own business." Hiccup said as he headed to the back of the tail with Astrid following.
Hiccup tried to approach the injured tail, but Toothless swept it away like a cat every time he got near it. Astrid watched in amusement at the attempt. Eventually, Hiccup dropped a knee on top of the tail and soon attached the new tail-fin. Toothless stopped eating and perked up, seemingly realizing he might be able to fly again.
"Okay... okay... There. That's not too bad. It works." Hiccup said as he admired his work, unaware of the dragon slowly spreading its wings and Astrid looking scared. Suddenly, Toothless takes off with Hiccup literally on his tail, struggling to hold on. Hiccup soon sees the folded fin isn't working with its real counterpart as they head towards a rock wall. Thinking quickly, Hiccup adjusts the tail fin and they dodge the wall and fly up into the air.
"OH, MY- IT'S WORKING! YES! YES, I DID IT!" Hiccup shouts out excited and terrified at the same time as Toothless flies above the water. Toothless then realized Hiccup was on his tail and threw him off into the lake. Unable to steer the fin on his own, he then crashes into the lake soon after. As soon as Hiccup broke the surface of the water, he was tackled into a tight hug by Astrid who began kissing his face all over, happy that he was okay.