It had been about 3 days since Stoick had led his team on their dragon-slaying voyage. Gobber had made the announcement to gather all the youngsters of the village for dragon-training. The only Vikings youngsters who were of age to join were Hiccup and the village teen fire brigade, but it was better than nothing. Once Gobber had everything prepped and ready, he led the recruits to the dragon-training grounds, raising a massive iron gate at the entrance of a vast stone arena.
The recruits filed through the gate, and out onto the arena floor. They take it in like gladiators entering the coliseum. The walls are covered in scorched silhouettes of blasted Vikings. It was a grim yet awe-inspiring place, well, for most of the recruits, anyway.
"No turning back," Astrid said as she took in the sight of the arena.
"I hope I get some serious burns," Tuffnut declared, checking the axe he brought along with him.
"I'm hoping for some mauling," Ruffnut said as well, massaging her shoulder, "like on my shoulder or lower back."
"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it," Astrid agreed.
"Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it."
The recruits turned to see Hiccup behind them, unenthusiastic and bored, and groaned at his presence.
"Oh great," Tuffnut grumbled. "Who let him in?"
"Let's get started!" Gobber butted in before Hiccup could make a remark. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."
"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury," Snotlout announced in jest. "So does that disqualify him or…?"
The recruits laughed and chattered in the background, no doubt saying taunting things behind Hiccup's back, or discretion there-lack-of. Hiccup sighed and frowned, looking down at the ground. He knew this was going to happen, and after what happened to him, how was he even able to face a dragon, let alone fight it? If only there was something he could do to get out of it…
"Don't worry," Gobber said cheerfully as he threw a supportive arm around Hiccup and ushered him along. "You're small and you're weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead."
Not exactly very helpful, Hiccup thought as Gobber stuck him in line with the others and continues on toward five massive reinforced doors. Terrible roars and bellows issued from within, giving the recruits a little rush of adrenaline and Hiccup a whole lot of fear.
"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight," Gobber started as he circled the team. "The Deadly Nadder…"
"Speed eight. Armor sixteen," Fishlegs, the resident dragon geek muttered.
"The Hideous Zippleback…"
"Plus eleven stealth. Times two."
"The Monstrous Nightmare…"
"Firepower fifteen."
"The Terrible Terror…"
"Attack eight. Venom twelve."
"Can you stop that?" Gobber scolded in frustration at Fishlegs' interruption. "And…the Gronckle."
"Jaw strength, eight," Fishlegs whispered, unable to resist, when everyone was caught unaware as Gobber pulled a lever, raising the cross beam on the last of the doors.
"Whoa, wait!" Snotlout reacted first. "Aren't you gonna teach us first?"
"I believe in learning on the job."
So saying, a Gronckle thundered out of its cave, charging into the ring like an irate rhino. The recruits soon scrambled in every direction, following Gobber's instructions on survival and the importance of shields. Aside from the occasional twin sibling rivalry over what kind of shields they want, Fishlegs using more of his brain rather than brawn to get through the training, learning how to distract the dragon with noise, Snotlout busy hitting on Astrid, figuring out the maximum fire shots a Gronckle has and the disqualifications one by one, the training was as eventful as it could ever be for first-timers. Astrid seemed to prove herself the better Viking as she and Hiccup were still in the game, though not so much for Hiccup, as Gobber spotted Hiccup hiding from the Gronckle's molten slugs.
"Hiccup, get in there!"
Hiccup had no choice but to join in the fray and saw Astrid just so happened to roll to a stop beside him.
"So, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Hiccup asked, stirring awkwardly and trying to look cool.
"No. Just you."
Without warning, Astrid rolled away. A split-second later a lava slug knocked Hiccup's shield clear off of his arm. Hiccup was soon exposed. Panicking, he chased after his shield as it rolled across the ring. The sudden movement sent the Gronckle chasing after him, leaving Astrid in the clear.
The Gronckle drove straight toward Hiccup, pinning him against the wall. A flash of the Night Fury pinning him down went through his mind. Almost immediately, the colour was drained from his face and he started hyperventilating. Everything that had happened to him and been done to him by the Night Fury 3 days ago was repeating itself before his mind's eyes. Instead of realizing the Gronckle opening its mouth and cocking its tail, ready to fire point-blank, he saw the Night Fury opening its jaws to clamp around his neck, subduing him, holding him down so that it could have its way with him again, ravaging him until he bled all over himself again…
The hit never came as Hiccup saw Gobber lunged in and hooked the Gronckle's mouth at the last second, causing its head to jerk back and fire against the stone wall above Hiccup's head.
"…And that's six!" Gobber wrestled the irate Gronckle back into his pen. "Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage! You'll get another chance, don't you worry," he slammed and locked the pen and turned to the recruits, "Remember, a dragon will always," he looked sternly at Hiccup, not realizing how rattled Hiccup really was, "always go for the kill."
Without giving Hiccup time to fully register and recover, Gobber hoisted him up to his feet and walked off, telling everyone to take a break before the next lesson. Hiccup looked overhead to see a steaming pit in the solid stone wall, finally realizing how close to death he was.
Still, it paled in comparison to what the Night Fury had done to him.
Death would've been a mercy to him right now.
-:-
Hiccup studied the remnants of the discarded bola as he was back at the place where the incident took place. He didn't know why he came back here—this should be the last place he would be if he didn't want to be reminded of it—but it was better than going back to the training grounds. He had enough running and bashing around for one day, and he knew no one would miss him anyway.
He dropped the bola and pressed on in the direction he last saw the Night Fury flew off. He followed the trail of broken and fallen branches and trees and randomly scratched and chafed stones the Night Fury left behind and they led him into a rocky crevice. He dropped into it and continued to follow it to an isolated cove complete with a pristine spring pool. He scanned the high stone walls, then noticed a single black scale on the ground. He crouched and picked it up, studying it as it shimmered under the daylight.
"Well this was stupid…"
Suddenly, the Night Fury blasts past him out of nowhere. Hiccup recoiled, watching the massive beast struggle to climb the walls. It flapped violently, then peeled away to a rough landing. Hiccup, after managing to remember how to breathe, calmed himself down and slipped closer to have a clearer look. The dragon seemed to be trapped somehow, and it was exhausted and frustrated after leaping into the air and beating its wings furiously for the umpteenth time. Again and again, it rolled uncontrollably and crashed heavily, and out of anger, it shot a ball of fire on the ground, as if throwing a tantrum.
Almost out of habit, Hiccup pulled his leather-bound sketchbook of design he often carried around when he had new ideas on dragon-catching weapons and gadgets and flipped past the drawings to a blank page. He sketched the dragon quickly, desperate to record the image before he even realized what he was doing. By the time he was done, he felt almost like a fool.
Why did I do that? he thought to himself, bemused at what he just did. Why do I care about how this Night Fury looks like? I should be running! He…He raped me! He tainted me and found out the secret that I have been guarding for my entire life! Why in Odin's name am I…
His thoughts were distracted when he saw the Night Fury clawing at the steep rock walls, trying climb out of the cove. It slipped and fell hard, crushing several saplings. The dragon rolls back to his feet and slowly crawls to the water's edge. It spotted fish in the shallow water and snapped at them but came up empty. It lowered its head, looking weakened, and Hiccup could've sworn it looked sad.
"Why don't you just…fly away?" Hiccup muttered to himself, then noticed that the dragon was missing one half of its tail. As he adjusted his drawing, carefully erasing where it was supposed to be missing, he accidentally dropped the charcoal stick. It rolled off of the rock outcropping that hid him from view and bounced into the cove, catching the Night Fury's attention.
The dragon raised his head, spotting Hiccup. Hiccup held his breath, his eyes looking warily at the dragon, waiting for it to pounce any moment now and let history repeat itself again, but surprisingly, the blow didn't come. Instead the Night Fury just stayed there and continued staring at him. When Hiccup tilted his head, the dragon copied him. When he closed his book and pocketed it, it didn't even flinch. When he got on his feet, the only thing the dragon did was took a small step back. And when he slowly backed away out of the cove and made his way back to the village, it showed no indication of following him.
As much as he felt relieved about what just happened, it still bothered him.
Why is he not…doing anything…?
-:-
"Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber started his briefing discussion as the teens ate their fill.
"I mistimed my summersault dive," Astrid replied. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."
"Yeah. We noticed," Tuffnut replied, sounding a little sarcastic. Seemed he didn't take too well to Astrid's perfectionist behavior.
"No, no, you were great," Snotlout defended her, trying to brown-nose his way through her. "That was so 'Astrid'."
"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves," Gobber agreed with Astrid before he heard the Great Hall door open. All eyes turn to Hiccup, entering the hall, sheepishly. Gobber glared at him taking his share of food and continued, "And where did Hiccup go wrong?"
"Uh, he showed up?" Ruffnut asked teasingly.
"He didn't get eaten?" Tuffnut joined his twin, closing the gaps to keep Hiccup from sitting with them, forcing him to sit alone at a vacant table next to them.
"He's never where he should be," Astrid said in a admonishing tone, glaring accusingly at him.
"Thank you, Astrid," Gobber stood up and turned around to take something out of his pockets. "You need to live and breathe this stuff," he laid a giant book in the center of the table, "The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of. No attacks tonight. Study up."
The teens looked at Gobber incredulously as he left the Great Hall, staring at the book in shock.
"Wait, you mean read?" Tuffnut exclaimed in disbelief.
"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut mirrored her twin's reaction.
"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout complained.
Hiccup rolled his eyes quietly as he munched on his drumstick.
"Oh! I've read it like, seven times," Fishlegs jumped into the conversation. "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…"
"Yeah, that sounds great," Tuffnut interrupted his rambling. "There was a chance I was going to read that…"
"…But now…" Ruffnut looked bored.
"Well, you guys read, I'll go kill stuff," Snotlout said as he got up to go, followed by the rest of the gang. Hiccup saw Astrid still sipping the last of her drink and tried his luck again.
"So I guess we'll share—"
"Read it," Astrid said dismissively as she pushed the dragon manual toward him and left, obviously not interested in staying long or be in Hiccup's company.
"Oh, well, all mine then. Wow, so okay. I'll see you…" Hiccup winced at the sound of Astrid slamming the door, "…tomorrow. Ah, who am I kidding…"
Hiccup sighed as he returned to his seat, taking the book with him. As he opened the massive book, the hall slowly became vacant and dark, but for the few candles he's pulled together, leaving him all alone in the Great Hall. He poured through page after page of strange and frightening dragons, muttering to himself about how cheesy he was to try and chat Astrid up and how he would actually get her attention, although if she would even consider a relationship with him, he'd have to share the family secret with her. That thought brought him back again to what the Night Fury did to him and he shook the thought out of his head, focusing on what he was reading.
"Dragon classifications: Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class," Hiccup read, skimming through the pages. 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," his eyes drifted to a lurid illustration of decapitated Vikings, then turned to another page again. "Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees…extremely dangerous. Kill on sight," he turned another page, "Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous…"
The sudden storm outside raged against the shuttered windows, startling Hiccup as he thought probably the Night Fury he had left behind finally changed its mind and barged in, but lucky for him, it was just that: the storm.
"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight," Hiccup continued, flipping through the pages. "Gronckle. Zippleback. The Skrill. Bone Knapper. 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…"
Hiccup finally landed upon the page he'd been looking for.
"Night Fury," Hiccup noticed that it was blank, no image, save for a few, sparse details. "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."
Curious, Hiccup pulled his sketchbook out of his vest and opened it to his drawing of the Night Fury. He laid it over the book's blank page and considered it.
"Maybe…" Hiccup muttered quietly to himself. "Just maybe…"
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