Prophecy of the Night Fury

Chapter 4: How to Tame a Dragon

Hiccup's POV:

I make sure no one follows me from the dragon arena, and quickly start walking towards Raven Point, to the spot where the Night Fury landed. It doesn't take too long before I reach the same spot and search for any clues to my questions. Other than broken branches and debris from the crash, there isn't anything standing out. I walk forwards to see a trail of black scales lying around and see an isolated cove with a small spring pool.

"Well, this was stupid..." I mutter to myself.

I look around the cove and look at it one last time before I decide to leave when I see the Night Fury trying to catch a fish in the spring. Why doesn't it just leave when it can fly away? Then the Night Fury tries to fly, almost reaching the top of a cliff, only to fall back down into the Cove. Even as a Viking, I still feel pitiful and sad, no dragon should ever suffer this fate... I take out my leather bound book to sketch the Night Fury's body and its structure. It's not every day a Viking gets to record an image of a Night Fury when no one else lived to tell the tale. When I start to draw its tail, I realize one of the tailfin is missing. That's why the Night Fury can't fly! Without a tailfin, the Night Fury can't properly balance itself in the air, rendering it flightless. After I smear the second tailfin from my drawing, I accidentally drop my charcoal stick and it makes loud sounds as it falls into the cove. The Night Fury immediately looks at me with interest and we share an intense stare. With nothing else to do, I climb up and jog back to the village. At least the trip wasn't for nothing, I'm definitely coming back... 

By the time I arrive at the Great Hall, it just started to rain heavily, with many thunder strikes heard in the distance. Everyone from dragon training was already seated at a table near the fire pit, talking to Gobber about where they went wrong. Oh boy, I'm sure they can come up with dozens of things that I've done wrong today in the arena. I head towards them and I grab a cup of water along the way.

"Now, where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber asks as I try to find a seat on the table. Any gap between the recruits, they quickly cover it, so I give an exasperated sigh and go for the vacant table next to them.

"By showing up." snickers Ruffnut.

"And he didn't get eaten," adds Tuffnut to my long list of mistakes.

"He's never at the right place, at the right time. He's never where he should be," answers Astrid seriously.

"Thank you, Astrid," says Gobber as he stands up to get a book.

"The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about dragons is inside this book, " explains Gobber. "No dragon raids tonight. Now study up."

"Wait. You want us to read this?! You've got to be kidding me!" groans Tuffnut.

"While we're still living and breathing?" adds Ruffnut.

"Why don't we just kill the stuff, then reading the stuff about the stuff we're killing," says Snotlout.

"I've read the dragon manual seven times already! I read about how this dragon can spray boiling water at you and another one that can break your bones..." says Fishlegs enthusiastically.

"By the off chance we were gonna read it..." starts Tuffnut.

"Now..." Ruffnut goes on and does a cutting throat gesture.

"You guys can go ahead and read. But while I'm still alive, I'm gonna go kill stuff," says Snotlout as he stands up.

Everyone else follows Snotlout, even Fishlegs who continues to ramble on about another dragon, all except for Astrid who still stays behind.

"So, uh, I guess we'll share-" I start to say.

"No thanks. Read it." Astrid says after she pushes the book at me and heads out of the Great Hall, leaving me to stare at the book and contemplating if I should follow.