Dragon Whisperer (HTTYD)

11 - The Ultimate Challenger

Skuf panted as he stared at his opponent. His sword arm pulsed rapidly in tempo with his heartbeat. Sweat beaded down his face. His whole frame shook from the effort. He straightened his posture and slashed again, but his opponent still stood undaunted.

Of course, when one is fighting against the trunk of a sugar maple tree, one should not expect it to fall so easily, even if it is dead and rotting from the inside out.

It was part of an old routine that brought the comfort of familiarity. Back on Berserker island, he had always taken his training as a warrior very seriously. Being the best was what mattered most to him in life. He was the top of his class and it was not just because of his ability to hear the unspoken words. He conditioned his mind and body to be relaxed and ready in any environment through daily training and meditations.

This training was inspired by his close friend, Svein. He was Tofa's father and a well-respected warrior who served as chief Oswald's bodyguard.

Until a violent coup killed the chief and anyone who was there to defend him.

Skuf recognized his mood turning sour, so he stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. It would not be wise to get all worked up during an exercise that was supposed to be calming.

It was Svein who started Skuf on this daily routine. Wake up early, go for a run around the island, find a quiet spot in the woods to meditate, and train with the sword. He would always drink enough water at night so that he would awaken early enough to have time for some individual training before breakfast with the tribe.

His runs were not too strenuous, but simply got him moving. The meditation was very straightforward. The conditioning built up by something so simple as to focus on the wind or his own breath every day for an extended period of time allowed him to exercise control over his emotions and what he projects. The ability to choose to be a calm harbor amid a raging and stormy sea is the one thing that allowed Skuf to befriend Skullcrusher in the arena over a year ago instead of getting eaten by him.

After the meditations, Skuf would find different locations to train with the sword on different types of surfaces: hard rock, sand, loose dirt, a bed of leaves, grass... any interesting surface available. Sometimes, a colleague would join him for a few days, but would soon become disinterested. However, those days when Skuf had a fellow warrior with him made the exercises infinitely more interesting as sparring against a person is much more fun than slicing thin air with the sword.

Unfortunately, Skuf did not have anybody to spar with this morning. The silly Vikings here had this firm belief that they were incapable of doing anything before eating half their weight in meat and bread. Hiccup had joined him on occasion, but he was busy preparing for his trip to visit the Bog-Burglars to try to get Camicazi to see dragons the way he does. Besides, the early morning would be towards the end of the day for Hiccup's nocturnal sleep schedule, so he would be slowed down with tiredness, heavy food, and, on rare occasion, mead.

Consequently, even on the days Hiccup joined Skuf, he rarely even bothered with sparring. However, he has taken up some running when his stump would allow it, with his Night Fury gleefully prancing alongside him, encouraging him along. Nothing would stop him from joining Skuf for his meditations after his runs. Casually mentioning how it would help him hear his dragon suddenly morphed such an activity from a quaint thing to do when one is bored into the most important thing in the whole world. Toothless, though, would just silently stalk around instead of joining them.

Fishlegs had joined Skuf in meditations on numerous occasions, too. His Gronckle, Meatlug, would also meditate, surprisingly enough. She would lay there by her rider, eyes half-closed, but still awake and aware. Both rider and dragon were quite interesting. They had a certain tender closeness and delight in each other's company that most of the other dragons and riders lacked. Hiccup was already starting to hear dragons to some degree and Fishlegs would certainly follow suit.