The King of Dragons (a httyd fanfiction)

Chapter 4-A Hard Challange

Astrid went back to the village and looked around for Stoick. It took her a little while to catch word he was in the great hall, and she headed towards it. There was a line of people coming from the doors of the great hall, but Astrid skipped all of it. Most of these people just had the same complaint, dragons. She could hear them all bickering on why Stoick would even consider making peace when the dragons were causing problems now. She couldn't disagree with the people, but the dragons weren't hurting anyone that didn't hurt them first.
Her thoughts were pushed aside as she made it to the chief, looking up at him.
"Just keep the sheep inside, for now, maybe the dragons won't try and get inside Steven," Stoick sighed at the lack of intelligence in these people. But as Astrid cleared her throat to get his attention he seemed relieved, "Astrid, thank goodness. We're you able to get through to hiccup?"
"Well. Kind of," Astrid tried to sugarcoat, but a single glare got her to admit, "the only thing keeping him here now is because something broke on...I think he said the tail of his dragon."
Stoick didn't say anything but he didn't seem pleased. He let out a breath as he stood in thought, before he looked back at Astrid, "I believe I can trust you with something. Do you agree that I can?"
Astrid nodded nervous about what it was but trusting her abilities.
"Then I need you to make sure hiccup stays."
Astrid was no longer believed she'd be able to do it with her abilities, But she still nodded. Making Stoick upset wouldn't improve the situation.
"Thank you, now hurry, I'm guessing hiccup won't be taking his time," Stoick recommend as he continued to help the townspeople.
Astrid left with a groan. She started to just walk, to think, and the more she did the madder she got. She found herself in the woods and didn't take a second thought to try and reach for her axe, and realized it wasn't on her back. She had left it in the arena. She groaned, but her anger was interrupted by the sound of tuffnut and ruffnut yelling. She followed the sounds of their voices and looked out of a bush, finding them hanging off the neck of a monstrous nightmare.
"Come on dragon let us ride you!" Tuffnut yelled, getting flung off.
"Yeah!" Ruffnut agreed, "We just wanna be able to watch you shoot fire and not be the one being shot at!"
The monstrous nightmare lit up its body in hot flames, making ruffnut let go.
"Ah! Hot hot hot!" She yelped, running back over to her brother, "this is your fault, you annoyed it!"
"Did not this is all your fault! You were being rough with it!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
As they argued the dragon reared its head back to fire a powerful blast at the twins. Astrid ran in and tackled the two out of the way before they became scorched. Both yelped as they were pulled out of the way and looked at Astrid.
"Hey, we're trying to train a dragon here!" Tuffnut chastised Astrid like he knew what he was doing.
Astrid got up and dragged them away, "no you're trying to get yourselves killed!"
"Your such a party killer Astrid!" Ruffnut groaned, "if we train it we can make Loki day so much cooler!"
Astrid glared at them, "you two are insane training this you..." she looked up at the monstrous nightmare they just ran from and got a crazy idea.
"You two are brilliant!" She stood up and pulled them up with her.
"Wait did she actually say that? What did we say that was smart?" Tuffnut asked his sister, All she did was shrug.
Astrid pulled them with her and to Gobber's smith.
"Fishlegs! Get out here!" Astrid yelled through the window.
"I'm coming I'm coming!" He replied coming out, "what is it? What's wrong? Am I in trouble for giving hiccup things to make another...whatever he's making?"
"What? No-your coming with to help me convince him," Astrid explained vaguely, before motioning to the twins, "with these two."
"Wait, with the twins..?" Fishlegs questioned her decisions.
"Surprisingly, yes. They're dumb enough to go along," Astrid tried to reason," and I'm going to need another voice of reason to convince hiccup."
Fishlegs looked at her confused, "what are we even persuading him on?"
"That I'll explain when we get there," Astrid motioned for him to follow.
Fishlegs weighed his options before running after them, "wait! Ok, I'm coming!"
As the group continued they ran into snotlout on the way. There was no getting him to not leave without getting his questions answered, or even after that. Astrid just sighed, "you can follow."
"That's what I thought," Snotlout responded, and joined the group.
They all traveled to the dragon arena, the twins and Snotlout talking about what they could even be doing, as Fishlegs traveled alongside Astrid. Looking around the stadium as they walked into it. there was a hand full of Viking guards keeping watch, watching as they all walked into the pit. before he looked to one of the cages, its doors being open, and hiccup and his dragon being inside.
Hiccup was in the process of making the skeleton for the tail, using the scrap metal. toothless was keeping the fire lit and hot with his fire. Hiccup was muttering about it not being as strong as he'd like it, and something else about gronkles, or that's what the group of Vikings could hear.
"hiccup!" Astrid called out once they got close enough to the cage.
"Astrid?" hiccup looked up, seeing the group and putting a hand on toothless' head so he knew to stop, "what are you all doing here?"
"We actually have no idea," tuffnut admitted, "We just followed her."
Astrid looked from the male twin to hiccup, "we're here so you can teach us how to train and ride dragons."
the whole arena went silent for a moment before a bunch of voices erupted around her.
"are you crazy? there is no way I'm getting on a dragon."
"riding a dragon? no way I'll stick to the Viking way, Astrid."
"aw, yeah! this is exactly what we wanted!"
"great idea, Astrid, I want a monstrous nightmare!"
"no, I do ruff!"
"There is no way I am teaching any of you in the first place!" Hiccup ended the noise, glaring at all of them, "I am not teaching a bunch of...Vikings of how to control dragons."
"Alright then teach us how to be like you," Astrid countered, "a uh..."
"dragon rider," hiccup finished her sentence before going on, "and no way. I don't want to put any more dragons at risk."
"if we can ride dragons, and train them, then we can help you show berk they aren't bad. I saw the way Toothless acted once he got used to me because of the way you trained him, you are living proof dragons don't have to be enemies to Vikings," Astrid practically pleaded, "please, Hiccup. Just give us a day, maybe we'll impress you."
Hiccup stood and contemplated what she was saying. she wasn't wrong, he knew the dragons could be trained and most of the ones he had were. but on the other hand, this could be easily used as a weapon and the dragons could be injured in the future from it. he looked to the group, Fishlegs was a friend and saw dragons impressive. tuffnut and ruffnut seemed excited to learn how o ride dragons. but Snotlout was someone always prepared to kill a dragon, and so was Astrid. yet if she was the one to change her mind, he was sure Snotlout would follow. and he was pretty sure one day would show that dragon training was none of their thing.
"Alright fine," hiccup finally caved and agreed, "one day, tomorrow, it will be a lot easier to show you once I can ride my own dragon," hiccup turned and gave toothless a pat, he trilled in response.
"you have like thirty other dragons, just ride one of those," Snotlout pointed out.
hiccup glared at him for a moment before he looked back at toothless, "no, toothless is my dragon. All those out there can go home at any time, they can leave without needing me. toothless needs me to fly, and a flightless dragon is a vulnerable dragon."
hiccup continued, "and he and I are in sync," he was nudged by toothless, "uh-most of the time. so just wait until tomorrow. or we can continue talking so I take longer."
most of them sighed and left, others bickered on the way out, but Astrid stayed for a moment until hiccup looked at her expectantly.
"right, leaving," she began to leave, spotting her axe leaned against the arena wall now, instead of just flung on the ground. She went and picked up and looked back at hiccup just before she left, "thank you, for giving us a chance."
hiccup didn't have time to reply let alone even say you're welcome before she left the arena. A small smile appeared on his face, watching her leave. toothless came up next to him and nudged his side. hiccup looked at him and pushed his head away slightly.
"oh don't you even go there, mister," hiccup playfully warned. toothless made a sound of what could be called a laugh, and hiccup chuckled and turned back to the tail in progress.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want."