Chapter 4

"You'll get another chance. Don't you worry." He mentioned to the disappointed teenagers before giving his final advice on the subject. "Remember, a dragon will always..."

"... always go for the kill."

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"So why didn't you?" Hiccup asked himself while looking at the remains of the rope he used to catch the Night Fury. He looked towards the clearing. The clearing, its self was like a massive hole in the forest. And yet after a glance, it seemed to Hiccup that the Night Fury was gone

"Well this was stupid." He remarked. However as he was about to leave, he noticed some black rocks on the ground. Upon further inspection, he realise the stones were scales. In a flash a shadow flew past him making fall backwards. It took him a moment to realise that the shadow was the Night Fury, and it looked like it was trying to fly away, however couldn't for some reason.

The dragon, also realised this, after not being able to reach the top of the stone wall, and flew off to the other side of the clearing, to try once again.

Hiccup, seeing the dragon, from the side, was surprised. He jumped towards a stone a bit closer to the beast before, taking out his book and starting to draw a sketch of the dragon before his eyes.

"Why don't you just fly away?" He asked himself, before noticing that the lower left wing was missing. It was possible that he had somehow ripped off the wing with his catcher? Hiccup sighed and closed his book, his charcoal pencil however, slipped out his hands, which attracted the attention of the dragon. As their gazes met, Hiccup realised there was no hatred or anger in its eyes, mostly just curiosity.

It was raining, when Hiccup had arrived at the Grand Hall. The were a few people inside including Gobber and the other recruits.

"Alright, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber asked the class.

"I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

"Yeah, we noticed." Tuffnut sarcastically mentioned

Snotlout however seemed to disagree with her, "No, no you were great. That was so... Astrid."

"She's right. You have to be tough on yourselves. Where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber praised.

"Uh, he showed up?" "He didn't get eaten." The twins teased

"He's never where he should be." Astrid pointed out making Gobber sigh in relief

"Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe this stuff." He pointed out, before bringing out a yellow cover book "The Dragon Manual... Everything we know about every dragon we know of." He said before pausing to listen to the situation outside. Hearing storm clouds and lightning, he muttered to himself, "No attacks tonight" "Hurry up." He told them.

"Wait? You mean read?" "While we're still alive?" It surprised Hiccup that this was something else the twins could agree on.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" the other muscle brain asked

Fishlegs, on the other hand, was excited to talk the book "Oh, I've read it like 7 times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face, and there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."He was interrupted by Tuffnut motioning to him to shush, "Yeah, sounds great.

There was a chance I was going to read that. But now..."

Snotlout decided for himself "You guys read, I'll go kill something." and, most of the others agreed on his decision to leave the book behind. Hiccup walked up to Astrid and asked "So I guess we'll share?" However the denial was fast

"I've read it."

"All mine then? Wow. So, okay. I'll see you uh,... tomorrow." He asked awkwardly. He looked at the book before deciding to read it after everybody left the Grand Hall. The wait wasn't long as the sky had darkened quite fast. After finding a few candles as a light source, he opened the book and begun to read.

"Dragon Classifications: Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class."

"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. 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."

"Skulldren: Sprays scalding water on its victim. Extremely dangerous..." The thunder outside was so sudden it managed to freak Hiccup, and the contents of the book were not helping.

"Changeling: Even newly hatch dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight."

"Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, Whispering Death."

"Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns victims inside out."

"Extremely dangerous.... Extremely dangerous....Kill on sight.... Kill on sight.... Kill on sight...."

After scanning past most of the content inside of the manual, He found something that interest him

"Night Fury: Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you." The words echoed in Hiccup's mind. He opened his diary to the page that held the sketch of the Night Fury.

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Somewhere north of Berk

Stoick and his fleet of ships had arrived near Hell Hound's gate.

"I can almost smell them. They're close." He looked towards the floating islands and misty waters, before ordering his men to proceed "Take us in,... into Hell Hounds gate.".

The moment they entered the mist though, fire and lightning surrounded them.

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Berk, dragon training ground

"Hey, you know, I just happened to notice, the book had nothing on Night Furys. Is there like another book? or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?" Hiccup was blabbering before a fire bolt struck his axe, breaking the top part off.

"Focus Hiccup! You're not even trying."Gobber woke the boy from his day dream before proceeding on with his lesson "Today is all about attack! Nadder's are quick and light on their feet. You should be quicker and lighter."

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods." Fishlegs told Gobber after surviving a rain of spikes

"Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it. Hide in it, and strike." Gobber said with a casual tone, completely ignoring what was happening inside the ring.

The twins however seemed to have found the blind spot of the Nadder. It was right down the centre of the head. However, close proximity to one another, seemed to spark some conflict between the two.

"Do you ever bathe?"

"You don't like it, then just get your own blind spot."

"How about I give you one?"

They exchanged insult, until they both realised the Nadder was about to fire another fire bolt, which led to them dodging the bolt by a very small margin

"Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot, not-so-much." Gobber expressed his boredom, before chuckling at his own joke. Hiccup seeing that he was close to Gobber decided to bring back the subject from before.

"Hey, hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" He asked some slight hope

"As far as I've heard, almost no one had witnessed a Night Fury and lived to tell the tale." Gobber mentioned

"Wait, you said almost. Who was the person who had survived one?" Hiccup noticed his phrasing and immediately pointed it out.

"I don't know if it's true, but there were rumours of Geralt fighting off a night fury at one point. However the man calls himself a Witcher, so nobody knows for sure. Now GET IN THERE" He screamed at the endlessly curious kid

"Hiccup" A whisper distracted him from his thoughts. As he turned he saw Astrid and Snotlout crouching near a wall, with Astrid motioning him to take cover. "Get down"

After making sure that the Nadder was distracted Astrid and Snotlout both rolled past the blind dragon, and despite knowing that he couldn't do it, Hiccup tried to copy the actions of the other two, which resulted in him attracting the attention of the dragon, which was pulled away by the Snotlout trying to converse with Astrid.

"Watch out, babe, I'll take care of this." He boasted before chucking his axe and completely missing the large target in front of him. He shrugged his shoulders and tried to excuse his shot "The sun was in my eyes, Astrid. What do you want me to do? Block out the sun? I can do that. I don't have time right now." He asked while the Nadder was chasing Astrid. After a sharp turn the dragon bashed straight into the wall, making the surrounding wall topple like dominoes.

Hiccup, however was too busy, asking Gobber more question about Geralt and the Night Fury

"Did he kill the Night Fury, or was did he frighten it off like he usually does?"

Gobber 's response though managed to pull him out of his disarray "Hiccup!", only for him to look up and realise that Astrid was falling towards him and the wall was falling right behind her

After landing on Hiccup in an uncomfortable position, the twins without hesitation started teasing the two.

"Love on the battlefield." "She could do better."

Astrid however was more fixed on getting her axe out of Hiccup's shield, and after noticing the Nadder coming closer for the kill, she removed the shield completely from Hiccups hand and smashed into the dragons jaw.

This resulted in Gobber usual praise: "Well done, Astrid."

Despite that though, Astrid was far too angry at Hiccup to even process the praise. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?" She asked with contempt. "Our parent's war is about to become ours. Figure out which side your on." She warned before walking off, with the others behind her, leaving Hiccup to process what she meant.

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Hey guys, hope you liked it. OC content tomorrow. First large appearance of Geralt. Check out my other novel ATLA: The Master

Cya tomorrow...

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