I Am Dragonblood: Fury's Friend {Book One} (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Five - Training

A couple of hours later Hiccup stood in the arena with the other teenagers. He had been dreading this and hadn't listened to anything Gobber had to say. It wasn't until he heard the cell rattle open that he realised the training had begun. Everyone scattered as a gronckle charged out, grabbing shields and weapons. Hiccup ran to a shield and struggled with it until Gobber came and shoved it on his skinny arm, then he was pushed out into the fray. The gronckle flew around the arena, firing first at Fishlegs, who had just raised his shield arm and answered the tutors question, then the twins, who had been squabbling over a shield, then Snotlout and Astrid. It then set its sights on Hiccup. With nothing else sensible to do, he ran for it, dropping his shield on the way to the exit. His legs couldn't keep up with him, though, and he stumbled to the floor. He cringed against the wall with his eyes tight shut, expecting a searing blast any moment. But it never came. He felt sudden heat above his head and he looked up to Gobber pulling the dragon away and flinging it back in its cage. Behind and above Hiccup the wall smouldered, a black smear on grey stone. A killer blast from a killer dragon.
    But for a moment there, just before he'd shut his eyes, the gronckles pupils had dilated and it had looked confused, lost.
    Just like Hiccup had felt before he'd met Toothless.

***

After the gronckle was a Deadly Nadder, a Zippleback and a Terrible Terror. Luckily Hiccup had learnt tricks from Toothless and he'd managed to stop the dragons from being hurt during exercises. A scratch on a certain place on their chin sent them into a kind of sleep, Dragon Nip kept then happy and docile, eels terrified them (and himself, it took most of his courage to even touch an eel) and mirrored sunlight sent them chasing after a reflected point of light. The look on Astrid's face when he bettered her was hilarious, and it was all he could to not burst out laughing.
    But through his mirth came a darkness. Gothi, the Elder of the village, had chosen him to be the one to kill a dragon.

***

Every evening Hiccup went for a fly with Toothless. From the sky, Berk looked tiny, nothing like what he'd thought it would be. The fires dotted around the village looked like fireflies and the small human figures were like ants busy at work, repairing and building. Only a couple of raids had come about since he and Toothless had met, and they hadn't lasted long, more like a grab and flea than a proper raid. But still, they were worrying.
    On his way to cove one evening, Hiccup decided to ask Toothless if he knew anything about the raids. When he got there, though, the Night Fury was nowhere to be seen. He searched around the cove but found no sign of his friend, not a scale, not even a fish tail. He was debating with himself whether he should Shift so he could search better when he heard a scrape of metal on stone behind him. He spun round and saw, silhouetted against the sun, Astrid atop a boulder, sharpening an axe casually.
    'What the - how did you get here?' Thank Thor he hadn't Shifted, or he would've been mince by now.
    Astrid dropped the stone and came towards him. 'You're hiding something, aren't you?' She said, poking the axe at him. 'No one can get this good so quickly. Are you training with someone?'
'What? No,' Hiccup said, trying to fend off the sharp implement. There was a growl from behind him and, recognising his friend, he tried to slow Astrid down. Without success though, because she just twisted his arm back and pushed him to the ground.
    'Ow! Why would you do that?' Hiccup scrambled back up, only to be thrown down again by Astrid diving for cover. Toothless was coming in bounding strides, teeth bared in a snarl. He managed to get to his feet quickly and stand between the Fury and Astrid, who now had her axe raised.
    'Hiccup! That's a Night Fury!'
    'I know. You scared him.'
    'I scared him?!' A light dawned on her. 'Who is him?'
    'Astrid, meet Toothless. Toothless, Astrid.'
    Astrid stared at him a moment, then turned and ran.
    'Duh duh duh, we're dead,' Hiccup sighed. Toothless gave him a look. 'Let's get after her.'
    They surged into the air, boy atop dragon, and followed the sound path of rattling branches and snapping twigs that the girl made. They saw her in a clearing and plummeted down, snatching her mid leap and flying to the top of a fir tree, where the Night Fury dumped her on a branch.
    'Hiccup! Get me down from here!' The blonde Viking screamed at him.
    'I will. Just... First, let me show you...' He held his hand out to Astrid, but she just slapped it away and clambered warily onto the dragon. 'Now get me down.'
    'Toothless, down, gently,' Hiccup admonished the Night Fury. Toothless spread his wings and slowly lifted up. 'See? Nothing to be afraid of-' Hiccup's words were cut short by Toothless launching into the sky, using the tree he'd been perched on as a spring. Astrid screamed and scrambled for a hold, which turned out to be Hiccup's face. The Fury flew up vertically, stalled and fell back down, diving into the sea and out again until his riders were spluttering. Then he shot back up, higher and higher into the cold air, spinning as he went. 'Toothless!' Hiccup yelled in part Dragontongue, part Norse. 'What're you doing?!'
    'Ok, ok, I'm sorry,' Astrid muttered, her head pressed against the boy's back. She wasn't sure what she was apologising for, but it seemed to do the trick.
    Toothless levelled off and glided calmly above the clouds, circling around pillars of the white stuff. Astrid looked around in awe, having never seen anything like this before. She brushed the clouds with her fingertips as they soared past. From behind the thinning cloud lights erupted, green and purple and red fire across the sky, bathing the dragon's scales in colour. They flew for an hour maybe, it was hard to tell, until it was dark and the lights of Berk shone out.
    'It's amazing,' Astrid breathed. 'He's amazing,' she laid a hand on Toothless's hide. 'So, what are you going to do about tomorrow?' She asked. He knew what she was referring to. The training. 'You know your going to have to-' she lowered her voice '- kill a dragon.'
    'Don't remind me.'
Just then, Toothless's ears shot straight up and he turned his head, looking. 'What is it, bud?' Then Hiccup heard it too, a strange rattle that he couldn't describe. 'Do you hear that?' He asked Astrid.
    'No,' she replied.
    Toothless jerked to the side, then back again. Two dragons emerged from a mist that had suddenly come out of nowhere, a Nightmare and a Gronckle, both carrying fish. A Nadder swooped down from above them, a sheep in its claws.
    'These are the dragons the raid Berk,' Hiccup hissed, recognising the Nightmare that had chased him on that fateful day.
    'Where are they taking it?'
    'Here,' Toothless growled, one of the few Dragontongue words Hiccup could understand when he was in human form.
    All the dragons, including Toothless, dropped down from the air and spiralled into a hole. Hiccup glimpsed a mountain, probably an extinct volcano, with jagged rock at the summit before they were swallowed by an orange glow. They followed the other dragons and saw that they were dropping the sheep, fish and whatever else they had into a pit. Toothless circled once then landed on an outcropping of rock.
    'Nice to know that all our food's being dumped in a hole.'
'They're not eating any of it,' Astrid remarked. Hiccup hardly heard her, the ratting was louder in here and it was getting into his head. He saw Toothless's ears vibrating and knew it was getting to him, too.
    'W ne d o ge ot,' Toothless growled, and Hiccup could just about work it out: we need to get out.
    A blue Gronckle bumbled in and coughed a small fish into the pit, had a scratch then began to bumble away again. But it was not to bumble any more. A set of massive jaws came up from the pit and snapped around it, then drew back down into the murky depths. They held their breath. Only seconds later the jaws appeared again, followed by a searching eye that was as big as Stoick.
    'Let's go,' Hiccup said. The eye fixed on them. 'NOW!' They were off like lightning, bolting up the way they'd come, hundreds, if not thousands of dragons flocking around them and fighting to escape. They made it out and flew quickly away, back to Berk and familiar territory.

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