Chapter Eight: Saddles and Ambushes.

Getting back to the arena without any of the others noticing her absence was a challenge before Hanna found herself back in the middle of another training session. Hanna was standing with Fishlegs, both holding a bucket of water each; the other teens were standing in twos, each holding a full bucket of water while the gate was open, and the arena was filled with a greenish fog which stank a little, obscuring the dragon within.

But Hanna knew precisely what kind of dragon it was; the Hideous Zippleback was legendary for its two heads, and its ability to spew gas from one while igniting it with the other.

And besides she had seen this same training session repeated more times than she could count.

Hanna was partially tempted to try to speak to the dragon telepathically as she had done with Toothless, but she decided against it. While the gas was spreading throughout the arena, there was a chance someone would see the dragon acting oddly around her, and that was the last thing she needed right now.

In any case, she wanted to see for herself just how much of a problem eels were and to act as a shield so the dragon wouldn't come for her.

Gobber was in the arena with them, where he was there to make sure nothing went wrong since the stakes were much higher. "Today is about teamwork, the amputee blacksmith was saying, "Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

Hanna took a deep breath as the gassy fog spread throughout the arena and made it extremely hard to see more than a few feet ahead. Just before she had entered the arena for this training session, she had checked her pocket, making sure the eel was still there. She had no intention of getting fried by the Zippleback.

But then she realised someone was muttering. She rolled her eyes in annoyance when she realised it was Fishlegs, once more reciting his stupid dragon facts in his terror.

"Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion," Fishlegs was saying. "Prefers ambush attack, by crushing its victims—."

On edge already and unsure if her plan would work and not really hesitating in snapping back at him, Hanna turned her head and hissed. "Fishlegs, I'm sure you can rewrite the entire Book of Dragons, but can you please stop that and just shut up?!"

Meanwhile, Snotlout who was partnered with Tuffnut was bragging again, "If that dragon shows either of his faces, I'm gonna- there!" He shouted when he saw two silhouettes.

Snotlout and Tuffnut both threw their buckets into the thick fog, but an angry roar of anger and a shriek of shock made them both pale when they realised they had stupidly drenched Austen and Ruffnut, but in their defence, they had been thinking they were the Zippleback.

"Hey! It's us, idiots!" Ruffnut spat in anger.

"Your butts are getting bigger. We thought you were a dragon," Tuffnut tried to excuse himself as he took in the anger of his twin sister.

"Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure—," Snotlout oiled, but then he yelped in shock when Austen punched him right in the face, breaking his nose with the force while Tuffnut ended up getting a bucket thrown into his face, "Ow!"

Tuffnut then yelped in shock when a tail snagged him, and he was dragged into the smoke.

"Wait!" Austen shouted before a tail knocked them all off their feet before Tuffnut came running out of the mist, screaming, "OH, I'M HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"

Hanna groaned. 'I'm surrounded by idiots! So much for Vikings; apart from Austen, all of the kids this time around are utterly useless. And they have the gall to call me Hanna the Useless; at least I don't run around screaming 'Oh, mummy, mummy, I'm hurt, the horrible dragon touched me! Oooh mummy.''

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single-digits now," Fishlegs said fearful before one of the Zippleback heads emerged from the mist. Fishlegs desperately threw water at its face, but Hanna could tell the large boy hadn't properly checked to make sure which head it was, and it angrily spewed out some green gas as a result.

Fishleg's whisper of, "Oh. Wrong head," sounded so pathetic before the head sprayed out a very large stream of green gas, and Fishlegs turned and ran off screaming. The head turned its attention to Hanna and the other head comes into view, spitting electrical sparks.

"Fishlegs!" Gobber yelled to get the overlarge teen to get back, but he quickly gave up, "Now, Hanna!"

Hanna threw the bucket of water at the spark-spitting head with all of the strength she could muster in her upper arms, but it clearly was not good enough before it missed.

Hanna groaned in disgust, "Oh, come on!"

The Zippleback pounced, both heads snarling at Hanna.

That was it.

This was it. Hanna dropped the bucket - it wasn't much use to her right now - and she exposed the eel hidden inside her bear fur vest. She quirked a brow at the dragon. 'Don't even think about it!' She telepathically yelled at it.

The dragon recoiled, both in terror at the sight of the eel, and the way she'd yelled. 'You can speak to me, human? But how is that possible? Your kind can't speak to us!'

'Who says I'm fully human?' Hanna asked; she still wasn't sure about what she was, on her mum's side, but it filled her with pride and even a touch of arrogance she had never felt before.

"HANNA!" Gobber yelled, but Hanna was already holding the Zippleback at bay with the hidden eel's help. Making sure that the fish was clearly seen, Hanna slowly stepped forward and the dragon stepped back. To the shock of the watching Vikings, who had come to observe the next generations' progress and had been disappointed since the teens were barely even trying to grow up and be responsible, the Zippleback was cowering in front of small, weak Hanna Haddock.

'If you ever see me again, don't even think of spraying your gas around me, or I'll shove a dozen of these eels in your pen,' Hanna warned the dragon before she shut the gate of the enclosure once the dragon was back inside. She considered her options but decided against throwing the eel inside. Her experiment had worked perfectly, and the Zippleback had been cowering in terror; there was no point or reason in tormenting the dragon any further.

Hanna turned around….and froze. "Oh Hell," she cursed under her breath when she saw the teens and Gobber were shocked, and Fishlegs comically dropped his bucket in panic.

Hanna cursed again; she had only decided to try out the eel to see if all dragons had that issue, and now she found she was right, she had made the mistake of showing off the trick to the others.

Hoping they could just forget about this, Hanna smiled like nothing happened,"Okay!" She clapped her hands loudly. "So, are we done? I think we're done for today because I've got some things I need to, uh... Yep. I'll... see-see you tomorrow!" She quickly scarpered out of there, leaving the bewildered teens and Gobber alone.

-8-

Late at night, Hanna was finishing working on the saddle she had spent hours working on. To her utter dismay, word about what had happened in the arena had already spread to the rest of the village. Soon Hanna was receiving weird looks. It was almost as if everyone was proud of her, but since she knew how the tribe truly thought of her, it just felt fake.

Anyway, in the meantime, Hanna had been refining her designs for Toothless' tail-fin. Hanna had been hoping to create a tail-fin that Toothless could use to replace the one she had snatched off him. But it hadn't happened. She was still a long way from working out the best way of making one like that, but the Night Fury desperately needed to fly again.

And there was only one way she could think of that could help.

Hanna would have to control the tail-fin, but she wanted to have a control mechanism. To make that possible, she would need to attach a saddle to Toothless' back. The idea was intimidating despite their bond, but she had no choice. The saddle needed to control the pulleys and gears that would connect to the tail fin, and she would need to set up a foot pedal. Unfortunately, the mechanism for that would likely take another night's work; she had spent too long working on the saddle and the new tail fin. She simply didn't have the time to build the mechanism for the foot pedal yet.

This was going to be a test.

It wasn't perfect. It would do until she had refined the design. Besides, Hanna needed a lot of time and she needed to closely observe how the tail fin worked to do that, she needed to sit on the dragons's back and watch everything and mentally calculate the best way to build the tail fin Toothless could operate by himself. The biggest problem she had was designing the whole set-up, but she was doing her best.

Once she was finished, once more ignoring the waves of fatigue - she would need to find some time tomorrow to get some sleep - Hanna stepped back to admire her work. The saddle was as well made as she could make it, but it would do for now.

-8-

Fortunately for Hanna, lugging the saddle to the cove was easier than a tail-fin and a whole bag of fish. Toothless came bounding over when he saw her coming.

'Hello, Hanna!" Toothless greeted her.

"Hi, Toothless," Hanna kicked open the fish bag and poured it all out, every single slimy fish. "I did my best to avoid the eels, but just be careful."

'Thank you, and I will,' the Night Fury replied, bending down to eat the fish. Once he was finished with his slimy breakfast, he turned to her expectantly and tilted his head curiously when he saw the saddle and prosthetic. 'What's that?'

"Your new tail-fin," Hanna held up the tail brace, "and a saddle for me to sit on your back to sit on."

'You want to sit on me?' Toothless asked incredulously.

"I have to, Toothless, until I can build you a prosthetic you can operate yourself," Hanna lifted the saddle and walked over to him…only for the Night Fury to playfully run away from her.

"Hey!" Hanna huffed indignantly, and she chased after the more agile and faster dragon.

'Catch me if you can, Hanna!'

"Toothless get back here!"

When she had finally caught up with the dragon, Hanna managed to attach the new prosthetic and the saddle to his body. Once she had it on, checking it out, Hanna got onto his back after carefully tying Toothless with a rope to a tree.

'I thought we were going flying?' Toothless said, but fortunately, the dragon didn't seem hostile to her idea of testing the new fin while he rode on an air current on top of a hill.

"And we will, but I want to test out the new tail fin," Hanna replied, tugging the prosthetic tail fin with a rope to change its position. Unfortunately, the wind was just too strong. The wind blew at them and they tumbled backwards, head over heels. Hanna yelped, but fortunately, her Night Fury friend wrapped her up in his body.

'Hanna, don't worry, I've got you….ooh, this is lovely!' Toothless' voice changed, becoming…almost dreamy, and he seemed to be wriggling around in what looked like a field.

"Toothless?" Hanna clambered out under the Night Fury. They had crashed into a field of tall grass. Hanna stared at him in disbelief, wondering what it was about the grass that made him do that.

"Toothless?" Hanna asked curiously.

'Oooh, Hanna; the smell of this grass….why didn't you bring me here earlier?' The Night Fury moaned.

Hanna plucked a piece of the grass off. She sniffed it experimentally. She knew she had always had a sharper sense of smell than the Hooligan tribe, but if what Toothless said was true about her only being half-human, and she had no reason to doubt him, then she expected something…

Oooh, that was a strong scent; it tickled her sinuses, but that was all it did. But for Toothless….

She stared down at the dragon as he went crazy, rolling around in the tall grass.

Did this work for all breeds of dragons?

-8-

In the arena during her next training lesson, Hanna had the piece of grass in her hand; nobody had noticed her slip it out of her pocket during the chaos as Gobber released the Gronckle. Hanna had largely kept out of the way, while Austen and the other trainees either ran off because of their stupidity, their lack of teamwork, or because Austen didn't want to work with anyone else.

When the Gronckle came to her, Hanna held up the grass she had named 'Dragon Nip,' and the moment the dragon took a sniff before it could attack her, it stopped. Hanna then rubbed it against the dragon's snout.

Later when Hanna walked out of the Kill Ring, she was surrounded by the other kids. Hanna had gone out of her way to avoid them over the years, and this was no exception.

"What did you do?!" Austen yelled in her face as he loomed over her, invading her personal space. "Did you cheat, is that why the dragon went down?!"

Hanna was startled by his anger. Ever since he had groped her, Austen had been seemingly apologetic, and even a bit creepy with the way he watched her - ooh, she had noticed, oh yes, she had - but Hanna hadn't expected this level of anger. She looked at the other teens, noticing only Snotlout and Tuffnut were with Austen on this. Hanna knew Austen was the leader of the pack, and judging from the indifference in Ruffnut's stance, and the look of hungry eagerness from Fishlegs, she knew Austen had only strong-armed them into this.

"No, I didn't cheat," she lied.

There was no way she was ever going to admit the truth.

"We don't believe you!" Snotlout sneered.

"What was that? Some kind of trick? What did you do?" Fishlegs got out in one single breath.

"How'd you do that?" Tuffnut demanded.

"Like, it was cool," Ruffnut added, but when she realised the others were staring at her, she glared at Hanna, "but we can't have the weakling cowardly freak with two hearts upstage us, the real Vikings!"

The others cheered, but Hanna gave them an unimpressed look, she was focusing on Austen; she could hear his angry thoughts in her own mind (later she would guess being with Toothless had made her telepathy more sensitive). "You think, just 'cause you've all got one heart each, you're better than me? Let me show you what someone with two hearts can do!" She closed her eyes, and she concentrated, suddenly Hanna was gone.

Fishlegs squeaked. "W-where'd she go?" He whimpered, while the others looked around.

But Hanna was gone. They didn't notice that she had stepped around them and walked towards the forest in a dead run, speeding up time so by the time Fishlegs asked his question, she was halfway to the cove.

-8-

Shaken by the unexpected ambush, Hanna went back into the forest, heading towards the cove. She wanted to spend some more time with her Night Fury friend.

She had made a massive mistake by showing off what she had learnt while being with Toothless in the Kill Ring, but she had known that from the word go; she had just been curious if the eel and the dragon nip had the same effects. But she wasn't going to do that again. There was also another problem on her mind; what she had just done to escape the other teens. While she no longer cared one bit about what the tribe thought about her, she didn't want things to be even harder for her.

When she got back to the cove, Hanna smiled when she saw Toothless. The Night Fury bounded over to her once more. 'Hello, Hanna, I wasn't expecting you back so soon.'

"Yeah, well I had a nasty encounter with the other teens," Hanna told him about what happened, and how she had escaped.

Toothless was stunned. He stared at her in amazement. 'You can do that?'

"Yes, I can. Watch," Hanna chirped, closing her eyes and concentrating hard on the flow of time; the sound of the birds chirping overhead, the sound of the slight breeze she had been aware of…slowed down. And Hanna moved.

Toothless blinked in astonishment when he saw, from his perspective, Hanna…vanishing. 'Hanna?' He looked around, but then he saw her…on the other side of the cove.

"Hi, Toothless!" Hanna called with a cheeky smile.

Toothless rushed over to her. 'What did you do?'

"I can slow down time; I found out how to do it years ago," Hanna smiled back at him, her smile dimming as a memory came to her.

She was with the woman she was sure was her mother, and they were…somewhere else, and she could see something else, and her mother was holding her head up…and she could see different places, different peoples', creatures…

Hanna shook her head, violently banishing whatever that memory was out of her mind. But she was curious about it and its contents, but she couldn't make any sense out of it.

'Do you use it often?'

"Sometimes. When I first learnt I could do it, I didn't tell anyone," she admitted.

One of the reasons she had never told anyone about her powers was because of how her father was treating her as if she had some kind of infectious disease, and was treating her so badly the rest of the Vikings who were so weak-willed and weak-minded followed his example. Hanna might have wanted her father to become proud of her, but she knew even at that point he would never have accepted her.

'Hmm,' somehow that made Toothless back off, and he eyed her with something she couldn't tell at first, but when she looked at him Hanna got the impression he was suspicious of her for some reason, 'Hanna, what is really going on? You go away for a long time every day. I want to know what's happening. We bonded together, you and I. Please be honest.'

Hanna was more than a little surprised and concerned by how demanding her Night Fury friend was being, but she came to understand it from his point of view. She sighed. "I'm in Dragon training," she began, "It's where young Vikings learn how to fight and kill dragons."

Toothless reared back in shock. 'You're learning how to fight and kill dragons? I thought you were my friend!'

Hanna glared at him, not in the mood to be verbally bashed by someone she was starting to love. "I am, Toothless. And why are you so shocked? Don't you remember how we even met?"

'How can I trust you? You lied to me!'

Hanna bit her lip, and she closed her eyes and projected her memories of the years she spent on Berk, how she had struggled day and night to be accepted into the Hairy Hooligan tribe, suffering from humiliation after humiliation, suffering from the hurt her own father caused her, her vision of being successful and happy and believing it meant she would finally build something to help her bridge the gulf that Vikings could easily handle, the years of dreading meeting up with the other heirs of the other Viking tribes who were no better than what she had to cope with on Berk, the destruction of her inventions after spending so long working on them only for them to be destroyed by a people who just refused to accept them, the creepy duality of Austen who could be violent one second in one day, apologising the next at night, and then being furious with her the next day.

And then there was Stoick, her own father.

Hanna shared all the memories of the bitter pain and upset the man had caused her, how he had ignored her, humiliated her, called her out in front of the entire village more than once…and how he had no shame in using her to set up the hunts for the nest. She showed Toothless what she had seen of that night where she had shot him down, and how furious she had been.

When Hanna was finished, she stared at him solemnly.

Toothless looked down at the ground. 'I'm sorry Hanna, truly sorry. You don't have to stay with them, you do know that, don't you?'

Hanna stared at him in surprise, but then she guessed some of the thoughts she had pushed into his mind had filtered through, he must have seen how she had started to seriously consider leaving around about the time she got the Book of Dragons. Okay, at the time Hanna had seriously been trying to work out how to leave Berk.

And then she realised.

"Toothless, are you saying….I should leave with you?" She breathed.

Toothless snorted as if he believed the question to be incredibly stupid. 'Yes. Why not?'

A smirk slowly spread across Hanna's face. "Why not indeed?" She whispered, already making her plans. She would need to carry on with her plans for the work to improve on the prosthetic, and she would need to continue her work on improving the design of the saddle, and the pedal.

But she saw no reason why she should not leave Berk on Toothless.

At the same time, she would do absolutely nothing about cheating in the Kill Ring.

Actually, why shouldn't she go on?

Why shouldn't she spite Austen, Snotlout, and the others?