Chapter Fourteen: Dragon Training Academy

Hiccup and Astrid were awoken by a loud thump on the rooftop of their camper. Astrid blew her bangs out of her eyes, frustrated at the interns playing pranks once again. If they didn't always need money for research and dig permits, she would have told Hiccup that interns weren't worth the trouble. And she hated interviewing them. Because, to be honest, even the best of the crop were still immature 20-somethings. Astrid rolled over onto her side and buried her face in Hiccup's freckled chest.

A second thump. Hiccup furrowed his brow as he stared intently at the ceiling. He heard a familiar cooing sound and his eyes widened. Carefully he dislodged himself from Astrid's embrace. She stirred slightly and muttered through sleep, "Tell the interns I'm going to feed them their balls tomorrow for waking me up."

"You got it, milady," Hiccup replied as he grabbed his new walking cane. Joanna had sent it Priority Mail (though, "priority" really meant she had sent one of her many employees in a helicopter with the package). It was black with Norse markings engraved into it. Joanna had done her research, Hiccup had discovered, as the markings were inspirational quotes and dragon names.

Hiccup opened up the camper door, hobbled out, and glanced up at the rooftop. He was greeted by the Night Fury from the island. Hiccup smiled and the Night Fury retracted his teeth and mimicked the smile. Hiccup descended the couple of stairs of the camper, carefully closing the door behind him. "Hey, bud. Did you follow us all the way here?"

Toothless jumped down from the camper and landed softly next to Hiccup. He sniffed the metal of Hiccup's new prosthetic. "Yeah, it's taking some getting used to, bud." Toothless cooed and licked Hiccup in the face, knocking him onto his ass. "Argh, Toothless. That's disgusting."

The camper door creaked open. Astrid held the sheet up around her shoulders and rubbed her eyes. "Babe, come back to…is that a Night Fury?"

"Toothless. Astrid. Astrid. Toothless." Hiccup re-introduced the pair, a goofy smile on his face. "He must have followed us."

"How did he track us all the way here though?" Astrid wondered.

Hiccup shrugged. "Life finds a way I guess." He paused for a moment, stroking the Night Fury's snout. Toothless' eyes dilated and he wagged his tail happily. "Astrid, think of all we can learn from him!"

"Where are we going to keep a 25 foot dragon?" Astrid reiterated. Hiccup frowned. He petted Toothless' snout as he grinned once more. Astrid smirked and shook her head, "What's on your mind? I see those wheels turning."

"Wanna start a Dragon Training Academy with me?"

"A Dragon Training Academy? Where? Oh, no, Hiccup! What about our work? What about the research? The interns?"

"Maybe Fishlegs was right, maybe us digging up bones is an extinct process." Hiccup ushered her back into the camper and tossed a pair of jeans and a tank top at her. He pulled his favorite green hoodie over his head as Astrid grabbed a grey zip-up. "C'mon, Astrid! Think about all of the discoveries we made on the Isle of Berk and we were only there for three days!"

"And getting chased and almost killed most of the time," Astrid pointed out.

"Okay fair point, but imagine if we had more time with the dragons, if we could train them. I mean, Hammond said so-whoa," Hiccup, in his excitement lost his balance on his prosthetic. After recovering he continued, "Hammond said they didn't expect the Red Death to go rouge. If she hadn't, maybe things would have been different. Maybe if we could…"

"Whoa, whoa, Hiccup! Slow down. How do you know that dragons were…er are trainable?" Astrid asked. "What if we just got lucky and the dragons rallied together with us, the humans, to get rid of a common enemy? Now that the Red Death is gone, what if the dragons start…?"

Hiccup shrugged as they exited the camper once more to greet the Night Fury. "It would be one hell of a research project." He playfully scratched Toothless under the chin. The black dragon emitted a low purring sound and extended his neck further to show Hiccup exactly where to scratch. When Hiccup hit precisely the right spot, Toothless collapsed in a happy heap at Hiccup's feet. "Look, see? Learned something new already!"

Astrid covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled. "I can see that. But Hiccup," she rationalized, "Even if we do go on this whirlwind research project adventure back to the park, we still have two Night Fury skeletons to dig up, if not more. How much do you trust the interns to do that on their own?"

Hiccup pulled at his chin and hummed in agreement. "What if we finish this dig and then start the Academy? We could take the interns with us too!"

Astrid held up her hand to stop him. Sometimes Hiccup was a little too idealistic for the real world. "Babe, I'm not prepared to endanger the lives of the interns. Yours and mine, I mean, that's way different. If we think we're going to need extra help we'd need to recruit someone who has on site training. Or at the very least, has studying in the field with large African predators or something of the like."

"Or lived in Australia?"

"Works for me. Most everything in Australia can kill you. But the most dangerous things our interns have encountered recently was a tarantula, which on a scale of dangerous, isn't very high ranking." As the pair continued to brainstorm, Toothless walked in a small circle several times. He emitted a low, steady flame onto the ground to heat it up and then patted the flames out with the pads of his feet. Finally, he curled up on the warmed ground, wrapping his tail around his body.

"How about Fishlegs? He doesn't graduate until the end of this year, which would give us time to wrap up the dig."

"Fishlegs could work. But before we ask him, we have to talk to Hammond. We can't just go trespassing on the island."

"I'm sure she'll say yes, Astrid," Hiccup said confidently, but after catching his girlfriend's glare, he amended, "But we should definitely ask her about it anyway. Just to be sure." Astrid pursed her lips together and nodded slowly.

Hiccup walked over to Toothless and bent down, somewhat painfully next to the black dragon. "Whaddya say, bud? Want to teach us everything there is to know about dragons?" Toothless peaked through one eye at his human. Hiccup extended his open palm out in front of the dragon and waited for Toothless. The Night Fury stood up and nuzzled his snout against Hiccup's hand. Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back and extended his hand to Astrid. "Do you trust me?"

"What are you, Aladdin?" she joked, but accepted the outstretched hand and climbed onto Toothless' back. "Where are we going anyway?"

"To convince you that a Dragon Training Academy is a fantastic idea!"

Toothless picked up on the enthusiasm in Hiccup's voice and took off, a little too abruptly for the humans' liking. Astrid frantically grabbed onto Hiccup and Hiccup reached for anything to keep him from falling off of the dragon as Toothless climbed higher and higher into the night sky.

"Toothless! Bud! S-slow down!" Toothless expanded his wings into a mock-parachute to catch the wind just right to put him and the humans into a hover above the clouds. He beat his wings slowly to keep on top of the updrafts. As he slowed down to a more comfortable flying speed for the humans, he could feel Hiccup loosen his grip. Astrid in turn, relaxed as well.

It wasn't the first time Astrid had been on a dragon, obviously, but it was the first time she had been able to relax and just enjoy the adrenaline of flying. She reached up her one hand to touch the clouds above them.

"Yeah, we should probably make saddles or something too…help us to hold on," Hiccup commented, mostly to himself. Astrid wasn't really paying attention anyway, for she was far too engrossed with the amazing view of the landscape below. Seeing the dragon skeletons being dug up at ground level was exciting, but seeing them from above made them seem all the more beautiful.

"Okay I'll admit it. This is pretty cool. He's pretty amazing."

Pain shot through Hiccup's upper arm. "What was that…" Astrid cut him off by kissing him. "You know you could just kiss me without attempting to break my bones all the time. I only have so many working limbs left," he gestured to his peg leg.

"Honey and the hatchet. Makes the kiss sweeter." Astrid winked. "So about this Dragon Training Academy…" she started as she secured her arms around his waist, "I want a Nadder."

Hiccup smiled, "As you wish, milady."

Fin.

[a/n] Well that's it for this installment. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this crossover as much as I enjoyed writing it! Be on the lookout for the sequel soon!