I woke up and went downstairs, past my mother and out the door. "Marish." I turned around to see my mother in the doorway. "Since I know you're going to the arena to see the choosing, I might as well go with you." She forced a little smile and I grabbed an apple quickly, waiting for her to come beside me.
We walked in silence to the arena where the platforms were already beginning to fill with expectant Vikings. I ran to the platform, getting in line. Mother caught up to me (the line did not move very far) and we walked around on the wooden surface, looking for an open place to stand. I quickly squeezed between two Vikings before the spot was closed off and stood in the front row.
My eyes scanned the arena for Hiccup as the event began and found him behind a barrier as a Gronckle was released. Astrid had ducked behind it with him, giving him the speech to stay out of her way.
She darted after the dragon and one Viking cheered her on, "You got it, Astrid!" Hiccup stood up to scan the crowd, his eyes meeting mine briefly as he stared at his father's.
The Gronckle suddenly spotted Hiccup and flew toward him. Astrid shouted a battle cry and ran after the dragon, but Hiccup had already knocked it out before she had the chance to kill it. Cheers rippled over the crowd, one whoop of victory from my own mouth.
Stoick lifted up his hands for silence, commanding the crowd to quiet as the elder, Gothi, made her decision. Gobber grabbed the two recruits, pointing his hook for a hand at Astrid.
Gothi shook her head.
Most of the crowd rippled with sounds of disappointment as Gobber pointed to Hiccup.
The elder nodded with a smile and the remaining crowd exploded with cheers of joy. Astrid turned to glare at Hiccup, fuming with anger. "You've done it!" Gobber said, congratulating him with a slap on the back that nearly knocked him over. "You've done it, Hiccup! You get to kill the dragon!"
I rejoiced for him as the other recruits lifted him onto their shoulders, but the look on his face caused my heart to sink and my cheers to cease.
Stoick shouted praises at his boy and Hiccup tried to mask his panic with joyous remarks, but I saw past them.
He didn't want to kill the dragon.
He never wanted to kill the dragon. So why did he partake in the training?
His worth. He wanted to prove he wasn't just Berk's klutz who only created problems. He wanted to prove himself to his father.
As the crowd began to leave the arena, I ran down off the platform and jumped to the ground, waiting for my mother to follow. "I'm going to go herd the sheep," I said once she caught up. She smiled and put her hand on my head, running her fingers affectionately through my hair before I left.
I jogged to the barn and threw the door open wide. The sheep complained restlessly to me as I grabbed a new staff I had made to replace the one lost the night of the dragon attack. The herd clearly did not feel like grazing as I opened the gate of the corral, but the sheep dutifully followed anyway as I led them out to the pasture.
Wooly walked over to me on his little legs with grass hanging out of his mouth, chewing away cheerfully. I laughed and sat down in the field. "Hey, Wooly." The lamb plopped down on his fluffy tail and finished chewing his meal. The little sheep looked as if he were experiencing total bliss.
He swallowed and sat there for a few moments, looking up at me when suddenly, he ran away toward the woods. "Wooly?" I stood up, my staff in one hand, watching his tail and blue ribbon bounce away. "Wooly!" I ran after him, following the little sheep through the trees.
"You little mischievous sheep, get back here!" I ran after him deep into the woods. A distant bleat in fright caused me to run even faster. If something happened to the lamb...
"Wooly?" I came to a stop as I reached the rim of a cove, my feet nearly slipping over the edge. I looked down into the cove, pebbles from my sudden stop falling down the wall with clicks. My lungs burned from lack of air and a stitch had formed in my side. My gasps of air accompanied my gasp of fear as I saw what I had never wanted to see.
Wooly, at the bottom of the cove lying still.
"Wooly!" I shouted and climbed down a wall of rocks to the ground. As soon as my feet touched the dirt, I turned and ran to the lamb. "Oh, Wooly, what have you gotten yourself into?" I dropped to my knees, laying down my stick and taking the little sheep into my arms. I instinctively raised him to my face and held my ear to his chest.
The soft thump of a small heartbeat filled my ears. I breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back on my feet. Although, something else filled my ears.
"We're leaving. Let's pack up." It was Hiccup's voice. "Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation, forever." I turned around to see Hiccup wandering around the cove, looking in all directions for something.
"Hiccup?" I asked, standing up with the lamb cradled in my arms.
He jumped, dropping a basket he had been carrying and looked at me the same way he had that night in the blacksmith's stall. "Marish? Wha- what are you doing here?"
I walked toward him. "My lamb ran away and fell into this cove. Somehow he survived the fall."
Hiccup walked to me and touched Wooly on the head gently. "That's a pretty big drop for such a little guy. I'm surprised he didn't break anything."
"I'm not quite sure he didn't, to be honest."
Am unexpected roar came from above and a dragon appeared out of nowhere, dropping to the ground behind Hiccup with a growl. Naturally, I screamed and ran. "Hiccup, run!" My feet moved without thinking, feeling the dragon gaining on me as I scrambled to climb the wall with Wooly in one arm.
"Toothless, no!" I heard Hiccup shout just as I was pinned to the ground and a dragon loomed over me.
Night Fury. The same kind of dragon that killed my father.
The dragon opened its mouth. I could hear the screech of his fireball forming and I screamed, shutting my eyes tightly. Whenever death came, I didn't want to see it. I braced myself for the blast of fire until a hand clamped over my mouth to stop my scream. My eyes flashed open and I looked wide-eyed at Hiccup and his hand, my eyes darting back and forth from his hand to him, then to the dragon and back again.
"Shhh," he calmed me, putting his other hand on the dragon's belly and pushing it away. "Back, Toothless." I scrambled backward on my butt to get away from the beast and hugged Wooly closer to my chest instinctively.
Hiccup stood beside the dragon, no fear in his eyes. My heart pounded loudly in my chest as I looked from Hiccup to the scaled beast and back again with wide eyes. "Marish, Toothless. Toothless, Marish."
"What," my voice cracked, filled with fear. "What is that?"
Hiccup looked gratefully at the monster. "It's a dragon, a Night Fury to be more specific."
Anger filled me suddenly and I stood. "For all I know, that is the beast that killed my father!" The dragon tilted his head to one side, bright green eyes looking innocently at me. I scoffed.
"Toothless wouldn't hurt anyone." He put a hand on the beast's neck.
"Besides that scene he just put on?" I accused.
"You just startled him."
"How could anyone startle a creature like that?"
The Night Fury growled deeply, his mouth curling to reveal sharp teeth. Toothless? Yeah, right.
I shook my head in disbelief and turned away. "I'm going home now." I walked back toward the wall.
"Marish, wait!" Hiccup ran to my side, matching my stride. "He won't hurt you. Let me show you."
"There is nothing convincing you can show me that he won't like a human snack." I spat, beginning once again to climb the wall with Wooly still in one arm.
"Give him a chance. He only needs one."
The dragon came and sat beside Hiccup, the two of them side by side below me as they gazed upward.
"Why should I?" I grunted as I reached up for a hole in the wall to grip.
He paused a moment. "Because no one else will."
I stopped.
My grip loosened and I dropped to the ground from the two feet I had climbed. Without a word, I walked over to a large rock and placed Wooly behind it, walking back to Hiccup and eyeing the pair.
Hiccup jumped onto the back of the dragon and held out his hand for me. "Toothless won't hurt you."
"I believe it when he actually doesn't have any teeth," I mumbled irritably.
I reached out my hand for Hiccup's, keeping my eyes on the beast until my hand met his and he pulled me up onto its back. I looked down to see that we sat on a saddle.
"Is this what you were working on all those nights?" I asked with admiration as I tried to ignore the fact that I was sitting on a dragon.
"Yeah," he smiled, looking back at me. "I made pedals to open and close the tail I made for him too." I looked back at Toothless's tail which appeared like he had lost half of it. Hiccup's creation was attached to form the other half of his tail.
"What happened?"
"Well," he laughed nervously and looked forward again. "The last time the dragons attacked, I fired a bola at Toothless. It actually hit him but caught half of his tail and the fall he took when the bola caught his wings probably took it right off. I found him afterward and made the tail for him when we became friends."
"How does it work?"
He looked back at me with a smirk, "You'll see." He faced forward again and patted the dragon's head. "Take us up, Toothless. Gently." I wrapped my arms around Hiccup, preparing myself for the terrifying experience I was about to go through.
The beast below me extended his wings to their full length and pushed us into the air. As we flew up higher and higher, I tightened my hold around Hiccup in fear. I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as they could, hoping that if I closed them hard enough, everything around me would go away.
The wind blew my hair gently and we were no longer flying straight up but had leveled out. My curiosity coaxed me to open my eyes and so I cautiously popped one of them open. Clouds were spread across the sky like a carpet and the sun shone mysteriously through them. As Toothless began flying steadily, my grip relaxed a little and my other eye eventually opened. I reached out my hand and touched the clouds carpeting the sky below us.
"Wow," I said in amazement, leaning my head against Hiccup's back and looking at the sun now setting behind the clouds. "I've always had dreams of flying, but thought of them as childish."
"This is my favorite time to go flying," Hiccup responded, a smile heard in his voice which disappeared quickly. "But now we're leaving."
"Because you don't want to kill the dragon." I felt his body tense slightly at the mention of the subject. "I know all about that." I sighed. "I've been watching you, Hiccup. Now I know the answers to all the questions I've had."
He looked back at me and I removed my head from his back. "You came to the cove every day," I said, looking into his eyes. "You learned all you know from the best teacher. Toothless. And now you don't want to kill a dragon because you're best friends with one."
He sighed and nodded, "I need to get out of here. I can't kill a dragon, but if I don't, my father's going to be disappointed in me."
"You want to prove your worth."
"Yeah, I guess I do."
Suddenly Toothless dived down into the cover of the clouds. "Toothless! What's happening? What is it?" Toothless growled at him. A Monstrous Nightmare appeared out of a cloud nearby, causing Hiccup to order, "Get down!" I followed instructions as we both leaned down against the dragon's back.
The Nightmare roared and a Zippleback also appeared, both dragons boxing Toothless in. "What's going on?" I whispered in Hiccup's ear.
"I don't know," he whispered back. "Toothless. You've got to get us out of here, bud." The dragon hissed at him as many other dragons, thousands of them came out of the clouds carrying fish in their talons. "It looks like they're hauling in their kill."
"Then what are we?"
The pack of dragons all dove, Toothless followed the formation as if he were part of the group. We wove between tall, uneven sea stacks until the clouds and fog were behind us and a huge volcanic caldera formed before us. The dragons flew into a rank, funneling through a crack and winding tunnel.
At the end was a chamber, steamy and massive, tiered with holes like shelves. Toothless discreetly broke the formation and landed in one of the holes as we looked out into the scene.
"What my dad wouldn't give to find this," Hiccup whispered, sitting up and leaning back in the saddle. The dragons were flying in, dropping their catch down a central pit into blackness. "It's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole," he stated sarcastically.
"It seems strange that they wouldn't eat any of it. Do you think they're feeding something?" I asked quietly, looking over his shoulder.
A late arrival to the volcanic crater was a Gronckle that flew lazily over the hole, regurgitating a pathetic little fish. When the fish dropped into the dark abyss, a deafening roar emerged from the pit. The Gronckle attempted to retreat, but a behemoth dragon head emerged out of the smoke and snapped its jaws closed, swallowing it whole.
I gasped, closing my eyes and giving Hiccup a gentle squeeze.
The massive dragon sniffed the air as if aware of our presence, its head shifted from left to right until releasing a roar. He no doubt discovered the ledge where we were hiding. Other dragons flew in fear around us from the startling sound.
"Alright, buddy, we gotta get out of here. Now!" Hiccup grabbed hold of the saddle and I held onto him tightly. Toothless raised his wings and lifted us into the air with the gargantuan dragon snapping the air for us, but only catching a fleeing Zippleback in our place.
We flew out of the caldera safely, but barely. The other dragons fled from the volcano around us as we flew back to the cove in silence.
"We have to tell your dad," I said, sitting on Toothless as Hiccup slid from the saddle onto the cove's beach.
"We can't tell him," Hiccup offered me his hand to help me down.
"Hiccup," I took his hand and hopped off the dragon. "The Vikings first sailed to Berk to find a nest like this. That nest is why we're here today."
He let go of my hand and walked over to Toothless, laying a hand on the dragon's head. "They'll kill Toothless."
A minute passed in silence.
"Marish, we have to think this through carefully." Hiccup walked up to me and took both of my hands into his. "Just give me until tomorrow. I'll figure something out."
I sighed and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for tonight," I smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow at the final exam and don't stress yourself out too much, okay? I believe that whatever you decide to do will be the wisest."
Our hands broke and I went over to the big rock, picking up the now sleeping Wooly and climbing up the wall to the top.
"Marish!" Hiccup's voice called from below in the cove. I looked down at him from the wall. "You're welcome." I smiled, turning to go home with butterflies in my stomach.