Don't hate me, but I had this story floating around in my head and I had to nail it down before it either floated away or exploded. Enjoy!

Day 1

Since Hiccup was made chief he'd been busy. Toothless could be seen flying here and there all over the island from morning until night. When he got the time he would stop by the smithy to make improvements or tweaks on his flight suit or to Toothless's tail.

It was just past the midday meal when Astrid saw the legendary night fury land close to the smithy. She quickly made her way from the mead hall to catch Hiccup before he vanished for whatever duty called.

"Hiccup?" Astrid called.

"In here." Hiccup responded. He spoke in the same monotone to everyone these days. He'd lost that excited luster whenever he talked about new additions to his suit or to the tail.

"Hungry? You missed lunch." Astrid asked. She came around to his work bench. He was fidgeting with a prototype.

"Not really." Hiccup shook his head.

Astrid waited for a moment to see if he'd look up or at least acknowledge her. When he didn't she sighed, "What are you working on?"

"It's uh, just an update on the suspension in the tail." Hiccup said. His attention was divided and most of it was on the tail.

"That's…neat." Astrid said.

"Chief!" came a Viking's worried cry from the village.

"I'll see you later." Hiccup set down the tail and rushed passed her and into the village.

Astrid stood there a moment before walking back outside. Hiccup and Toothless were up in the air again and following some chattering Viking on a monstrous nightmare.

"He's been busy lately." Eret came over to stand by Astrid.

"Tell me about it." Astrid groaned. "I haven't seen him when he wasn't half asleep or distracted."

"That's why I'm never upset to not be in charge." Eret shrugged. When Astrid raised a brow he added, "I like the power but not the responsibility."

"Really? You giving up the chance to be in charge?" Astrid laughed.

"Hey, half the men on that ship couldn't count higher than ten without taking their shoes off." Eret defended.

"And the other half?" Astrid mused.

"The other have couldn't even count to ten." Eret shook his head. "Numbskulls couldn't have done anything without me. I'd gladly have let someone run that ship if they were smarter than the average sea urchin."

Astrid laughed.

Eret groaned, "I know that I'm new when it comes to dragons but being in classes with the little kids makes me feel like a fool."

The arena was occupied most of the day with dragon training classes for both Vikings and dragons. Eret and his men had been put into those classes along with the younger Vikings.

"Couldn't we just skip the book stuff and jump right into the hands-on?" Eret asked. "That's how you lot learned, right?"

"Yeah." Astrid nodded. "But it wasn't easy."

"That's fine. I like a good challenge." Eret said.

Astrid watched him put on a tough poise. She laughed. Eret was intelligent like Hiccup but a buffoon like Snotlout. And he had just enough crazy to get along with the twins.

"Alright, how about some hands-on on Dragon Island?" Astrid asked. It wasn't like there was anything better to do and she hadn't been off Berk in weeks. "There are plenty of wild dragons there."

"Right." Eret nodded.

The two of them flew out from Berk and to Dragon Island. They left Stormfly and Skullcrusher to stay on the beach as they made their way inland.

"Why are we leaving the dragons?" Eret asked. He kept looking over his shoulder to where they dragons were soaking up their vacation time by basking in the bright sun.

"Because they'll try and protect us. If you want to really learn about dragons you can't have Skullcrusher scaring them away." Astrid said. "To get closer to the dragons they need to see you and only you."

"Right." Eret nodded.

The first dragons they came across were gnockles.

"Go on." Astrid said. "We learned by diving in head first."

"Just like that? Just walk up to it?" Eret said.

Astrid nodded. "Gnockles are tough and hearty and protective of each other. But they are also soft and mushy on the inside. Kind of like Fishlegs. And all dragons love dragons nip."

Astrid stood back and let Eret learn on his own as they had. She only added bits of advice when he really needed it. She yelled at him to dodge a lava blast but that was the worst of the day. The rest of it was spent in trial and error. At the end of the afternoon he had successfully gotten close enough to a gronkle to touch it without getting his hand bitten off. They weren't attacking him but that was about it.

"Okay, we'll pick this up tomorrow." Astrid called.

"Oh, come on, another hour and I'll have him doing cartwheels." Eret said.

"I'm hungry and tired." Astrid called as she started walking toward the beach. "And I know you are too, let's go."

They flew back and landed on Berk just after nightfall. They let the dragons go to the stables to eat and sleep while they meandered toward the mead hall for a late dinner. If they were lucky there would still be warm stew.

"Oh, there you two are." Gobber met them on his way out.

"We were on Dragon Island." Eret said.

"Training." Astrid added.

"Ah, I see." Gobber nodded with a quizzical stare between them. He limped down the mead hall stairs.

"What was that?" Eret asked. He eyed Gobber as he walked away.

Astrid shrugged and followed the warm smells of food inside. Hiccup was finishing and passed them on his way out.

"Hey," Hiccup said as he put a hand on Astrid's arm and squeezed as he walked passed them.

"Hey," Astrid said, but he was always through the doors.

Eret didn't say anything but he looked at the floor and fidgeted his hands. He cleared his throat as Astrid shrugged it off.

That's the first chapter. This won't be a long one but I decided that putting it in installments of days might work better than just flooding it all out at once. What do you think? Slide some reviews me way!