Hiccup and Brooklyn both had to wake up early to get to their dragon training and with Stoick now gone to search for the infamous Dragon Nest, at least for them the two can not have to worry about the chief breathing down their necks every day.

They went into the arena with the other teens, Gobber opening the gate. "Welcome to dragon training!" He introduced, Brooklyn swallowing while holding his sword and shield in his hand, stepping into the rocky space, seeing the cages inside it that held each dragon.

Tuffnut spoke next to him. "I hope I'll get some serious burns!" Ruffnut raised her brow at her brother. "I'm hoping for some mauling like on my shoulder or lower back."

Astrid shrugged. "Yeah, it's only fun unless you get a scar out of it." Brooklyn didn't feel like being barbecued, Hiccup speaking in a sarcastic way.

"Yeah, no kidding right? Pain… love it…" Brooklyn grinned at his joking until Gobber called them to their attention.

"Let's get started! The winner who does best, will have the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village." Gobber foreshadowed, an arm around Brooklyn's shoulder who paled at the thought, hoping he didn't win at all.

Snotlout smiled in a mocking manner at Hiccup. "Hiccup already killed a Night Fury. So, does that disqualify him or…?" The laughing from the others made Brooklyn glare, though when glancing at Fishlegs, the buff boy didn't look as happy about mocking Hiccup.

Brooklyn saw Gobber giving Hiccup unhelpful advice about how the dragons would avoid him because of how scrawny he was, remembering when Coldsteel called him that before turning to the different cages. "Behind these doors, are the few of the many species you will learn to fight! The Deadly Nadder!" Gobber said, a raspy snarl coming from the first cage.

Fishlegs spoke then. "Speed 8, armor 16!"

Gobber pointed to the next cage. "The Hideous Zippleback!" Brooklyn lowered his head, remembering when that one had blown him against the wall, Tuffnut jeering at him. "Plus 11 stealth, times 2!" Fishlegs said.

"The Monstrous Nightmare!"

"Firepower, 15!"

"The Terrible Terror!" Gobber said, now having listed only 4 dragons. "Attack 8, Venom 12!" Fishlegs exclaimed, getting on Gobber's nerves and causing Brooklyn to laugh to himself. "Will you stop that?! And… the Gronckle."

Fishlegs leaned down to Hiccup and Brooklyn. "Jaw Strength, 8." He said softly, Brooklyn nodding to the boy. "Thanks." Fishlegs grinned. At least Fishlegs wasn't so mean.

Snotlout saw Gobber grasping the Gronckle's cage handle. "Whoa, wait, aren't you gonna teach us first?!" He yelped.

Gobber grinned. "I believe in learning on the job!" He pressed down the lever, letting the Gronckle out. The rocky burly dragon snarled, escaping it's confinement.

Brooklyn gasped out loud, dodging its coming attack with the others, the Gronckle slamming against the wall. "Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead." Gobber instructed, Brooklyn too busy running from the Gronckle to pay heed. "Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?"

Hiccup panicked. "A doctor?"

"4 times speed?" Whimpered Fishlegs.

"Strong skin?" Yelped Brooklyn in a pathetic manner, hating himself for feeling this way, seeing Astrid looking more focused than him. "A shield!" She said.

Gobber nods. "Shields, go!" The group made a break for the pile of shields on the ground, Brooklyn picking up one with a dragon symbol. "Your most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between the sword or the shield, take the shield!" He yelled, forced to help Hiccup pick up his.

Brooklyn saw the Twins fighting over a shield with skulls. "Take your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut shouted. Ruffnut glowered. "There's like a million shields!"

Tuffnut grinned, gesturing to a flowery shield. "Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers—agh!" His twin sister slammed the skull shield on his head. "Oops, now this one has blood on it!" Ruffnut taunted, until the Gronckle blasted them to the ground.

Gobber shook his head. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out." The twins looked too dizzy to say anything. Gobber then instructed the others to use the shields to make noise and confuse the Gronckle. Brooklyn banged his sword against his shield as hard as he could, the Gronckle swaying out of focus, groaning. "Each dragon has a limited number of shots, how many does a Gronckle have?"

Snotlout was confused and answered before Brooklyn could. "Uh, 5?" Fishlegs gave his answer, clearly the smartest now. "No, 6!"

Gobber smiles proudly. "Correct, 6! That's one for each of you!" The Gronckle at that moment blasted a fireball at Fishleg's shield, making him run for it. "Fishlegs, out."

Brooklyn spotted Hiccup hiding behind a rock, running over. "What're you doing? You can't just hide!" He said. "Warriors don't hide!"

Hiccup shook his head. "I'm no warrior Brooklyn. I wish they'd all just see that." Before Brooklyn could respond a Gronckle's blast struck his shield, making him fall and Hiccup hide again, Brooklyn laying there stunned for a moment.

"Brooklyn, you're out!" Gobber exclaimed, Brook holding a hand against his forehead. Snotlout meanwhile tried to flirt with Astrid. "Hey, I moved into my parent's basement, you should come by some time to work out! You look like you work out!"

Astrid ignored him, dodging as another blast struck Snotlout out this time. "Snotlout, you're done!"

Hiccup meekly decided to take Brooklyn's advice and step out, finding himself near Astrid. "So, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Astrid shook her head. "Nope, just you!" She rolled, a blast knocking over Hiccup's shield.

Brooklyn stared in horror as the Gronckle flew towards Hiccup, baring its teeth. Gobber's eyes widened. "Hiccup!" Hiccup found himself cornered by the wall, breathing heavily from the Gronckle readying it's last blast, only for Gobber to come in, grabbing the beast's jaw with his hook arm. "And that's 6. Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage!" He snapped, tossing the dragon into its pen.

The former gargoyle rushed to Hiccup, helping him to his feet who was breathing fast. "Are you ok?" Hiccup nods weakly, Gobber glaring at them both. "Remember. A dragon will always… always… go for the kill." He said ominously, leaving with the other teens.

Those words however made Hiccup and Brooklyn both think for a moment. If that was true, then why hadn't the Night Fury killed them both?

…

Gargoyle and Viking boy eventually found themselves back at the place where the Night Fury had nearly eaten them alive, Hiccup picking up the ropes.

Brooklyn's eyes scanned the sky in case the dragon showed up again, having a question. "Why didn't the Night Fury have us for dinner? We were right in its talons."

Hiccup shrugged. "Maybe it knew we freed it. Dragons are smarter than we give them credit for I'm thinking." He told Brooklyn, eventually starting to follow the path of crushed trees from the Fury's flight path.

Brooklyn tagged behind until they reached what looked like a hole into a hidden cove like canyon. There was a small pond down below and a bunch of trees. He couldn't help but smile. This was a rather peaceful looking area.

His friend though soon found what looked like a piece of black dragon scale on the ground, giving it to Brooklyn who felt it. It was a rather fascinating thing. "Hiccup, do you think he landed—ah!" Brook jumped backwards, eyes rounding when a large black thing soared up in front of them, clawing at the rock. It was their Fury friend alright.

The Night Fury hissed, writhing its body with all its might to escape before soon deciding to find another spot to get out. It flew along the ground, landing, then taking off, flapping desperately.

Hiccup tilted his head, wondering what was wrong with the Night Fury, pulling out his journal, and beginning to draw. Brooklyn watched him then heard his friend ask; "Why doesn't he just fly away?"

Looking at the dragon, Brooklyn squinted, until he saw the wound he made from the sword on the Fury's wing as well as a tail fin missing. Brooklyn nudged Hiccup, pointing to the tail. Hiccup saw that and soon erased the one tail fin he drew. That was why it couldn't fly.

The Night Fury bellowed after crashing back down to earth, looking rather saddened now. Brooklyn felt a pang of pity, knowing how it could feel to be flightless, feeling his back for his own nonexistent wings for the moment. He watched the black dragon dive its head under the water to catch fish but wound up empty handed.

Hiccup also had a look of pity until he dropped his pencil. The sounds alerted the Night Fury to their presence, casting its green eyes onto the pair, growling softly. Brooklyn remained frozen, not daring to move. But when Hiccup moved his head to one side, the Night Fury had surprisingly copied him. And it didn't even shoot fire.

After some time, the two eventually left the dragon rest, both feeling exhilirated after that experience. Brooklyn was smiling big. Even Broadway and Lexington wouldn't be able to believe him. They both entered the Great Hall for dinner, Brooklyn readying himself for the onslaught of rude remarks from the others.

Gobber was lecturing the class about what they had all done wrong with the Gronckle. "Alright, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?"

Brooklyn heard Astrid sigh. "I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we noticed." Snotlout however in his flirting mode tried defending her. "No, no, you were great! That was so Astrid!"

Hiccup and Brooklyn both sat at another single table with their dinners, Brooklyn biting into his chicken leg. The food here wasn't too bad. It had reminded him strongly of how the food was made in Castle Wyvern. Gobber pulled out a book, the book Brooklyn had looked at yesterday. "She's right, ye have to be tough on yourselves. Where did Hiccup and Brooklyn go wrong?"

Tuffnut smirked at the duo. "Uh, they showed up?"

Ruffnut snickered. "They didn't get eaten."

Astrid raised her brow, wondering why the friends had been gone for so long. "They're never were they should be." It made Brooklyn swallow, hoping Astrid never found their secret.

"Thank you, Astrid. Ya need to live and breathe this stuff. The Dragon Manual." He slammed the book onto the table. "Everything we know about every dragon we know of." Gobber said, pointing to the book.

Thunder sounded from outside, Gobber looking at the door. "No attacks tonight, study up!"

Tuffnut blinked. "Wait… we… read?" Ruffnut agreed with him. "While we're still alive?!"

Snotlout rammed his fists on the table. "Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Brooklyn rolled his eyes, drinking his water. That Snotlout really had no idea how important this was.

Fishlegs spoke up in excitement. "Oh, I've read it like seven times! There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face! And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week—!"

Tuffnut interrupted the nerd. "Yeah, sounds great. There was a chance I was gonna read that—." Ruffnut ended his sentence. "But now?"

Brooklyn turned to Fishlegs. "Are there really water dragons?" He asked in curiosity. Fishlegs nods. "Yeah, you gotta look up the Scauldron! It is one of my favorites in the book!" He suggested.

Snotlout huffed at their banter. "You guys read, I'll go kill stuff." Him and the others followed suit, leaving Astrid there with the two. Hiccup awkwardly glanced her way. "So… I guess we'll share or…?"

Astrid glared, pushing the book away. "Read it."

Brooklyn shrugged. "All ours then. Thanks." He said, gesturing to Hiccup to sit and read the book since he wanted to see if it was actually readable this time.

Nighttime had really fallen, Hiccup getting candles and brushing open some pages. "Dragon classifications. Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class." He read, turning to a rather large dragon with a huge maw. "Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum uses a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." Hiccup read, and to Brooklyn's happiness, he could really read the Viking language in it now. And the drawings were cool.

Another dragon was flipped too in the page, slicing through some trees with its wings. "Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." Hiccup read again, then turning to the page Fishlegs recommended. "Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victims, extremely dangerous…"

Thunder struck again, Brooklyn's neck hair shooting up, heart racing before the two continued reading. "Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can shoot acid. Kill on sight. Gronckle. Zippleback."

Brooklyn's eyes rounded when seeing the spiny dragon with lightning on its wings. "Skrill. This dragon is secretive and can ride lightning bolts. Extremely dangerous. Huh. Sounds cool." He commented as Hiccup read off the rest.

"Boneknapper. Whispering Death. Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside out…" just thinking about that made Brook shudder. "Please move on from that. I may lose my dinner." He croaked.

Hiccup laughed before doing so. "Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…" the Book seemed to get really repetitive a lot, Brooklyn not enjoying the images of Vikings killing the mighty creatures until a blank page revealed itself. The one they wanted. "Night Fury. Speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of Lightning and Death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance; hide and pray that it does not find you."

Brooklyn and Hiccup both glanced at one another, before Hiccup pulled out his drawing. They were the only ones to see a Night Fury in the village and come out alive, now wanting to know more about him.