Hey lads and lasses, I'm still alive, still kicking, somewhat. Sorry for the huge delay, been a hectic few months for me, I had no drive for the story at the time and try to come up with several Ideas in my head, although I say I do like my HTTYD fan fics, I do like my Harry Potter ones too. And that's given me an idea for one I've seen a few times, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Yeah all because you watch that fantastic breasts and where to find them.

What? Breasts? What movie have to been watching wade?

Oh err nothing.

*Sigh* You'll never change will you? Anyway, on with the chapter, hope it's to your liking.

Chapter 18- The First Day

"Welcome te dragon training"

Gobbers voice echoed throughout the arena as five of the six teen made their way through the gate into the ring, staring in awe at finally being of age to train in dragon fighting.

Well three out of the lot were.

Fishlegs would rather study a dragon rather than fight one, blood made he queasy.

And Astrid, well ever since yesterday when Hiccup showed her Toothless, a Night Fury no less, and finding out that the raids weren't the dragons fault but a big one controlling them, she's been feeling skeptical about wanting to hurt them and even more concerned that Hiccup wouldn't like it either.

"No turning back now" she sighed which went unnoticed by the others, thinking it to be a sigh of excitement.

"I'm hoping to get some serious burns!" Tuffnut shouted in excitement, even if the pain was dealt to him.

"I'm hoping to get some mauling, like, on my shoulder or lower back" his twin followed on again with the same air of pain wanting inflicted causing Astrid to roll her eyes as she threw in a sarcastic response.

"Yeah it's no fun unless you get a scar out of it"

"Then I must be the life of the party..." everyone turned around after hearing the sarcastic tone of Hiccup break their 'conversation'

"How so fishbone?" Snotlout growled, not liking that his cousin was there as well "and what are you doing here?"

This caused Hiccup to roll his eyes at this before replying.

"Well first of all, I had no damn choice to be here, "chiefs orders" and such..." he waited for Snotlout to gather the information before carrying on "...and as for my comment, as a blacksmith, former punching bag and living out in the forest, I have my fair share of scars"

In fair to Hiccup, he could have Toothless get rid of the scars but some deeper ones couldn't fade, so chose to keep all of them as a reminder.

Astrid watch as Hiccup unconsciously scratched his back, with the reminder from him about his many scars she thought back to the time he saved her brother, taking the full brunt of the water.

But her thoughts were interrupted as Gobber hobbled pass them to get their full attention.

"Okay okay settle down ye muttonheads" he said this while glaring at Snotlout and the twins before carrying on "now the recruit who does the best will get the honour of killing their first dragon in front of the entire village"

'Great, like I really want that' Hiccup thought to himself.

Astrid meanwhile was more conflicted in her head, she dreamt of the day she could win her families honour back after the Flightmare incident.

"Err Hiccup isn't part of the village anymore, so shouldn't that disqualify him?" Snotlout interjected, making the twins chuckle and bringing Astrid out of her thought to hear the Jorgenson boys harsh words and was about to retort until she was beaten by Hiccup who turned and walked towards him before giving him a piece of his mind.

"If I had a choice I wouldn't be here Snotface! I would rather be in my home, gathering supplies for winter and forging something then try to impress an entire village whom still think of me as menace!" Hiccup then stepped back, seeing the shocked look upon his cousins face before smiling and carried on in a much calmer tone "but seeing as I'm here on forced orders I guess neither of us has a choice of the matter" he then gestured to Gobber, indicating to carry on and snapping the old blacksmith out of his surprised stun.

"Oh err right, anyway as I was saying, behind these doors are just a few of the many species you'll learn to fight..." Gobber started to name off the different types of dragon while Fishlegs mumbled loudly the stats.

Meanwhile Hiccup got close to Astrid as she was watching Gobber talking and Fishlegs mumbling before hear Hiccup whispering into her ear.

"Watch it, Gobber will set loose the Gronkle for us to challenge" at this Astrid turned to him in disbelief.

"On the first day? Surely we'd start small like the Terror as we learn how it functions as an attack"

At this Hiccup raised his eyebrow as he was finding this amusing before he raised his hand, open palmed, as he slowly closed each finger, counting down to something until...

"woah woah woah, aren't you gonna teach us?" Snotlout questioned as they all saw Gobber with his hands on the lever of the Gronkles door before he shrugged and pulled it down.

"Ehh I prefer learning on the job" and with that he backed away as the bulky dragon burst through her doors and started to fly about, startling four of the teens.

All except Astrid, who was glaring at Hiccup hating how he was right while the auburn haired boy watched the Gronkles movements with no fear in him whatsoever.

"Today is about survival. If you get blasted, yer dead. Quick! What's the first thing yer need?"

Hiccup knew the answer. Weapons down, keep calm, use dragon nip if the dragon feels tense followed by a belly scratch in Gronkles case, never near the pressure point as it intends to make them too relaxed. But he couldn't really use this without causing suspicion so went with a completely dumb answer.

"A doctor?"

'really Hiccup, a doctor?' he thought to himself after he said that 'that's got to be the most lamest answer ever!'

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs replied with own answer.

'I stand corrected'

Astrid however rolled her eyes as she gave the Viking answer.

"A shield!"

"A shield! Correct! If yea have to chose between a sword or a shield, take the shield!"

With that all but one scattered around the arena picking up random shields, which resulted in the twins fighting over the same one before getting into a fight, eventually attracting the dragons attention resulting in the shield they were fighting over to be blasted out of the hands as they looked on in confusion as Gobber declared them out.

Hiccup meanwhile, being the only one not to pick up a shield, watch as the twins argued and, to his amusement, the Gronkle blasting the shield from them.

He knew she wouldn't hurt younglings, in fact from what he picked up while he's been feeding her, she didn't like to fight at all. So knew none of them would be in real danger.

He had to stifle a laughter after catching her growling 'muttonheads' to the teens.

Gobber, while watching his students handle the dragon, saw Hiccup with no shield and was about to go over and place one in his hands when Hiccup held his hand up to stop him.

"Gobber, as much as I appreciate you looking out for me, you know if I do something I do it for a reason"

The old blacksmith could only watch his old apprentice in awe before sighing and nodding. Hiccup was right after all on that, if he did something, it was for a reason, he just didn't see what he would do without a weapon or shield in hand that would handle a dragon. He then turned towards the Gronkle as she started to eat a few of the rocks scattered around the arena as he knew it was time to teach the teens another lesson about dragons.

"Here's a handy tip for you to remember, shields are good for another thing, noise, make lots of it it'll disorient them"

With that the teens with the shields started to bang their weapons on their shield causing a banging noise that did indeed disorient her.

While the other two banged away however, Astrid saw the look on the Gronkles face before turning to Hiccup, who's expression looked saddened. She realised that he wouldn't want to hurt this dragon and with that stopped immediately feeling guilty. She would have to apologise to him later for this.

"Every dragon has a shot limit, how many does a Gronkle have?" Gobber shouted as the four remaining teens looked on before Snotlout gave his answer.

"Five!"

"No no six!" Fishlegs corrected earning a glare from the black haired teen.

"Correct! Six! That's one for each of you!" Fishlegs smiled and raised his shield high at getting his answer right.

But is was short lived as the Gronkle his his shield with a blast causing him to run off screaming.

Hiccup swore he heard her correctly when she growl that she liked the husky one causing him to roll his eyes.

Snotlout meanwhile was standing next to Astrid trying to flirt with her. He was saying that he moved into his parents basement and was trying to invite her over before his shield got blasted too, knocking him to the ground.

Hiccup really struggled to hold in his laughter until he sudden turned towards the Gronkle as he clearly heard her roar at Snotlout to stay away from Hiccups mate. He would have to have words with Toothless about that, he had a sneaky feeling the useless reptile has been spreading rumours about him to the other dragons.

With that it was just him and Astrid left as both dodged a lava blast heading their way leaving only two shots left.

"Guess it's just you and me now" Astrid insinuated as they watched the Gronkles movements.

But Hiccup had other ideas.

"Nope, just me" he replied before sticking two fingers into his mouth and blowing a whistle to get the Gronkles attention.

She fired another blast at him dodging it with ease, but was unaware of the shield on the floor, causing him to trip up, hitting the wall.

Meanwhile the Gronkle looked worried, she didn't mean for him to get hurt and was about to come over to him but saw him wink at her to carry on as she pretended to pin him and fire a lava blast away from him.

As soon as that happened a hook grabbed her mouth to which Gobber swung her about the arena.

"An' that's six now got back te bed ye overgrown sausage, you'll get your chance" with that she went back into her cell with a bit of force before Gobber addressed the teens, especially Hiccup.

"And remember, dragons always, always go for the kill" and with that he hobbled away followed by four of the other teens leaving only Astrid and Hiccup in the arena while the latter picked himself up, dusting himself off before mumbling to himself.

"Not always, and neither did she" he sighed as he thought about the event that just took place "I'd best some granite for her tonight, she's bound to be a little hurt from Gobbers comment"

"How do you know she'll be upset" Astrid asked, startling the auburn haired teen.

"Oh Astrid, I didn't see you there!" he watched as she folded her arms, waiting for her answer "she told me she's a little sensitive about her weight, to be fair most Gronkles are"

This raised another question for the blond shield-maiden as she pushed even further "okay, how do you know what dragons are saying? All I hear is growls and roars but it like you can understand them"

"That because...I can" he replied nervously as he scratched the back of his neck before looking at Astrid once again and sighing knowing she'll want to know more than that "okay I'll tell you on the way to the cove" he then walked towards the open gate before turning around and smiling "you coming milady?"

Astrid could only do was smile as she followed Hiccup out of the arena and into the forest while Hiccup started telling her what he knew.

"Here's the thing, I know someone off the island that knows about dragons as well, they told me that although we can't speak like a dragon because the human vocal cords would struggle with the constant growling and roaring to hold such a conversation, dragons however can understand norse or what ever part of Midgard they live in. They told me we could, with a little practise, understand what each growl, roar, purr, excreta meant, quite surprising for them I managed to pick it up within a year"

"Somehow I'm not surprised you'd pick up on something that would take someone else years and years to master" she mused with a smile upon her face which made Hiccup blush.

"Yeah, I'm still a little rusty with it but thanks to Toothless and a few of the local dragons as well as the ones in the arena, I was able to understand the basics, I asked them a word and they would translate it into dragonese"

"Dragonese? Why do I have a feeling you came up with that?"

"Hey! It's a cool name and it's relatable to what you're understanding" he explained while his arms and hands moved on their own, something he did when he went into explaining himself. She kind of found it to be cute.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I wrote it down in a book so if I needed to re-read some translations, certain tones in the way they said it or slight hiccups, no pun intended" he pointed out as soon as he said that watching Astrid try not to laugh before he carried on "anyway, certain ways they would growl, roar and so forth translated into a word, do you get any of that"

Astrid suddenly stop as she thought about what he said "okay so by a way a dragon communicates, how they tone it, turns into Norse"

"That's right, if you want I can show you what I wrote down and teach you" Astrid looked on in surprise at his words that he was willing to teach her how to understand dragons before she smiled.

"I'd like that Hiccup"

They both smiled as they silently walked through the forest, thoughts going through both their heads.

Astrid was thinking about earlier with the shield, she still felt bad when she saw the look on his face and didn't want to cower from what she had to say, especially to him.

"Listen Hiccup" they both stopped as the said boy looked at her, wondering what she wanted to say, from her slight sad tone, it must be big "I'm...I'm sorry for earlier with banging the shield, I guess you must have known how bad the Gronkle was feeling from all that"

Hiccup could only stare and blink at her words. She was sorry for that? He never thought about it like that if he was honest. He knew it was very irritating for dragons but he didn't think she'd be this guilty.

He did the only thing he could do in this situation and closed the gap between the two before hugging her, catching her by surprise as she fell right into it and hugged him back while he whispered in her ear.

"It's okay Astrid, but thank you for apologising" they released from their embrace afterwards as she saw the smile upon his face, leaving her a little stunned while he walked on towards the entrance of the cove.

"Are you coming?!" he shouted, snapping her out of her trance, smiling herself as she ran down towards him and into the cove to see Toothless sleeping on the ground, not even stirring while the teens walked by him to get to the house.

As they stepped inside, Astrid looked around in awe at the interior.

No weapons as such on the walls but framed drawings, obviously drawn by the owner of the house himself, the house looked like any others in the village, but not a single scorch mark in sight or even new building materials mixed with old, as in there hasn't been a need to replace anything after an attack, in Hiccups case, it's most likely true.

The boy in question was looking at her in awe as she looked at all his drawings, not with disgust, or pity, but with admiration, the more he sees in her the more his heart starts to beat.

Even now with them rekindling their friendship, how easy he was to forgive her.

'So how come I can't with my father?' he pondered in his thoughts unaware of the concerned look Astrid was giving him.

"Hiccup?"

That's snapped him out of his trance, he can find the answer out another time.

Right now he wanted to show her the book he made on understanding dragons and cook a bit of something for the two.

After all, they just come back from, training.

Several hours later- edge of the village

It had just started pouring it down as the were halfway back, ending up with the two running back instead of a normal walk, both sarcastically talking about Berk and it's lovely weather as they ran up the stairs towards the great hall opening and closing the door behind just in time for Gobber to give the others a talking about what went wrong in training today as he gestured towards Astrid.

She pondered for a moment before giving her answer.

"I didn't didn't time my jumps rights?" she sighed in relief as Gobber nodded as he carried on until Hiccup was mentioned which started off the twins.

"Err he turned up?"

"He didn't get eaten?"

Astrid however chimed in before Hiccup could retort.

"He's too selfless, he would risk his own life for others" this actually shocked the whole table, including Hiccup.

He could tell she said it as a compliment but at the same time did point out one of his flaws.

Yes he would risk himself for others, no matter the odds.

He smiled at her as the sat down by the table nearest to the fire to dry off and have a bite together, discussing more general things like Astrids chieften training, with Hiccup giving her pointers and scenarios to delegate.

"Just remember Astrid a chief or chieftess protects their own, that means that all parties are satisfied, unless to which one party makes it harder to agree with"

Astrid just sat there listening to him like she could all day, he was easier with wording, a lot easier than her father or even Stoick made it out to be. She always kept wondering that he would make a great leader someday.

Her train of thought was jolted when Gobber came by slamming a book upon the table which they both realised it was the book of dragons, the one the tribe used making Hiccup roll his eyes at the whole thing.

Astrid caught on straight away as to why. She read the book a few times so knew what it entails.

Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.

The book lay forgotten as Hiccup carried on with Astrids training.

As soon as the last person left the hall, leaving only the two of them by themselves did Hiccup take out a book of his own.

It was twice the thickness of the dragon manual and by the patterning on the front this too was the same thing, only knowing it's from Hiccup, this book would have a lot more details on how to actually be around certain dragons.

And she was right.

She compared the old book to Hiccups by which species, whereupon the old one talked about how a Nadders spines are sharp and poisonous, the other talked about how they admire their vanity, in which Hiccup capture the beauty of the Nadder in the drawing, and only use their spines for either, defence or catching fish. They also love to play fetch and chicken gives them an extra burst of speed, nearly out rivalling that of a Night Fury.

And speaking of which, as she turned the page on both books to that section, she can already see a huge difference.

Whereas the older book doesn't have any information, just to hide and pray they don't find you, Hiccups one not only have a very cute posing Toothless in the drawing, but the detail go way more into it. She can tell he put his heart into this particular piece.

She smiled at him as another clash of thunder indicated a long night of rain.

Realising he will have a hard struggle getting back to the cove if he didn't leave now, he packs up his book and says goodbye to Astrid before she grabs his wrist, giving him a stern look.

"Hiccup, you're going out into the forest in this weather all by yourself! You're staying over at mine, my parents won't mind, they trust you"

He had to blink a few times, he knew they liked him, considering they stood up for Hiccup against his father by staying behind, but even now he didn't want to be a burden, but as he was about to reply Astrid stopped him once again, one hand on her hip, the other poking him fiercely.

"And if you try to decline, once Haddock! I'll knock you out with the blunt side of my axe and drag you back to mine! Is that clear?!"

Hiccup thought to himself at that point that'll laugh at this in the future how Astrid Hofferson wanted to knock him out so she can drag him back to hers 'Thor know what though' he chuckled in his head.

But right now he just sighed in defeat, he can see her logic. Considering he was prone to getting sick quite easily, it would not bode well to run out in the rain for nearly an hour.

"You win Astrid, I'll come quietly"

She smiled triumphantly, as she let go of his wrist but instead grabbed his hand as she made her way towards the doors.

"I knew you'd see it my way, now come along" she finished as they walked quickly out into the rain towards her house, although she blushed when she heard Hiccups reply.

"Yes dear"