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.
I resolve by studying the Dragon Manual 'cause if I can learn all about the different dragons, then I can better defend myself during dragon training so I won't be teased for being so bad. A bonus would be finding the Night Fury in this book and see what the book has to say about it.
"Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class." I mutter to myself as I read its contents. I flip through it and read page by page, committing the dragons we are going to fight in dragon training to memory.
"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools." I read aloud. "When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight."
"Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full-grown trees... extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." I continue, flipping to the next page. "Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victims. Extremely dangerous."
"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight." I read through the text, then start to quickly skim all the other dragons.
"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." I read faster and faster, looking for a specific dragon. Finally, when I flip to the section of the Night Fury, very little is written about it, in fact, it doesn't even have a drawing of one.
"Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself." I read the little details provided from the book. "Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you."
I pull out my notebook and throw it onto the Dragon Manual, opening to the page where I sketched an image of the Night Fury. Except now we have an image of how a Night Fury looks like.
The next day, Gobber released the Deadly Nadder into a maze. I really want to find out if there is any other knowledge of the Night Fury. Although it is difficult as a Deadly Nadder chasing you and shooting poisonous spikes at you is very distracting. When I finally let the others distract it, I go to the other side of the maze to ask Gobber about Night Furies.
"I'm wondering if there is any other additional information on Night Furies, 'cause I noticed that in the Dragon Manual there was very little description of it. Is there another book? Or a sequel?" I ask loudly so Gobber could here.
A blast blows my axe off its hilt, leaving me dazed and I start to run and hide behind a wall.
"Hiccup! FOCUS! You're not even trying!" responds Gobber. "Today is all about attack and speed."
Everyone runs around in the maze, avoiding the Deadly Nadder like me.
"Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job today is to be quicker and lighter," explains Gobber just as Fishlegs gets shot by a barrage of spikes thrown by the Deadly Nadder.
"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods," shouts Fishlegs
"Look for its blindspot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike!" continues Gobber, ignoring FIshlegs's earlier comment.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut run into the Deadly Nadder and when they hug each other out of what I assume is fear, it sniffs the air but seemingly cannot see them. So that's the Deadly Nadder's blind spot. Unfortunately, like the other times, the twins start fighting. Again.
"Do you ever bathe?" says Ruff.
"Maybe. Why would you care?" answers Tuff.
"Ugh. Just the sight and smell of you can make someone choke," comments Ruff.
"Well, then how about you get your own blind spot!" shouts Tuff in return.
"How about you get your own!" says Ruff as she pushes Tuff.
All the sudden movement and noise allows the Deadly Nadder to locate the twins and start to bite them
"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much." says Gobber as he spectators from outside of the arena.
"Hey Gobber, how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" I ask as the others dart past, evading the Deadly Nadder.
"No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale. Now get back in there," replies Gobber.
"I know, but I meant hypothetically..." I start to say.
"Hiccup!" whispers Astrid, putting a finger at her lips and pointing at the approaching Deadly Nadder.
I walk up to them and hide behind the wall, when Astrid rolls to the next wall, past the gap where the Deadly Nadder is. Snotlout follows Astrid's lead and I do the same except, you being me, disaster always follows. I mess up and land on my shield right in front of the Deadly Nadder. As soon as it notices me, I lift myself up and immediately start running which I'm adept at since I do a lot of running. Not always from dragons of course, well most of the time it is from dragons.
As the Deadly Nadder chases me, it knocks down all the maze's walls, giving no place to hide. Astrid comes roaring in with her battle axe, about to hit the Nadder but it swiftly dodges, causing it to hit my shield, burying it quite deep. Well, I could've died there if it wasn't for the shield. After much effort, Astrid just pulls my shield with her axe embedded in it and swings at the incoming Nadder, knocking it back and dazing it.
"Is this some kind of joke to you?!" Shouts Astrid angrily and walks off with the others in tow, leaving me stunned at her outburst.
With nobody following me, I grab a fish from my house and run towards the cove, hopefully using the fish as the Night Fury's meal instead of me. In no time, I reach the cove and find a small route so I couldn't be noticed by the Night Fury. Using a fish as a shield, I slowly go inside looking for it. Behind me, I hear growling and I turn around to see it crouching on a rock. The Night Fury slowly climbs down and sniffs me before growling at me again. I realize I had my small but durable knife with me, so I take it out and show it to it. It growled again and so I throw it on the ground, use my foot to kick it into the spring. I really hope I won't die from this. As soon as the knife goes into the water, the Night Fury immediately stopped its attack pose and walks slowly towards me, eyeing the fish. When I hold it out, it opened its mouth to eat it, I realize it has no teeth.
"Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had..." I murmur when it's sharp teeth emerge and bites the fish whole out of my hand. "Teeth."
Then the Night Fury looks at me with an expectant look and advances towards me which I back up nervously.
"Uh, sorry bud. I don't have anymore." I say nervously.
The Night Fury looks at me blankly and regurgitates a piece of the fish onto my lap. I look at it confused and when I look at the Night Fury, it glances at the fish and then at me. Then I look at the fish and back at the Night Fury. Oh no. It looks at me expectantly, so I take the fish and take a bite out of the fish trying not to gag. I manage a smile to please the Night Fury, although I do admit that the fish tasted better than the tasteless food made back at my home. When I look up, I see it mimicking a smile, and I smile back. I sit up and try to touch him, then the Night Fury growls at me and flies away to the other side of the spring. It settles down to sleep but notices me staring at it and moves to a large branch and sleeps, hanging upside down. Since it is far from night time, I decide to draw inventions thought of on the spot. I draw a sketch of a saddle, for dragons specifically. Why? I've got no idea but it sure sounds cool to ride a dragon.
A few hours later, I decide to draw the Night Fury, which I've decided to call Toothless. I take a stick and begin to draw the contours of his head when I feel breathing on my neck and glance to see Toothless looking at me drawing. Acting as if I didn't notice, I continue to draw until I complete his head. That's when I suddenly hear a loud snapping sound and look to see Toothless dragging a giant branch in his mouth and starts to draw lines around me.
After a few minutes, Toothless looks satisfied so I stand up to go leave since it's getting dark. As soon as I step onto a line, Toothless starts growling menacingly, which I take a step back. Immediately he goes back to being content, and I step onto the line again, which makes him start growling at me again. I smile and step outside of the lines and watching my steps, I walk backwards, accidentally bumping into Toothless. I stiffen and step back and face him, seeing him calmly breathing. This time, I can do it. I tentatively bring my hand towards his muzzle, and he flinches. So I close my eyes and face away, bringing my hand closer, holding it there. To my surprise, I feel his muzzle touch my hand and when I look, I see him with his eyes closed. He sees me looking at him, and immediately looks away and instantly goes away and leaves him standing there. Everything we know about dragons is wrong... I take one last look before leaving the cove and heading back towards the village. I find it weird that I can see very well, despite it being very dark since the moon is out, and reach home in no time.