A/N: Hey guys! *sheepishly waves* Sorry it's been a while… my muse took a trip to other universes. I'd like to thank you for your patience, and also thank you to those of you who gently pestered me to keep writing- without you, this might not be here today! I realize this is pretty short, but the next few should hopfully be longer and juicier. So, without further ado-

Chapter 8

The next couple weeks were pretty much the same in the life of one Hiccup and his Toothless Daydream, but for waking up earlier and going out with his mother and Cloudjumper. After hiking to a more remote part of the island, Hiccup sat off to the side and shouted encouragement while Cloudjumper coached Toothless, usually with Valka on his back. The two dragons would perform impossibly twisty and turny acrobatics, then soar to ever higher altitudes, so eventually Hiccup was unable to see his dragon and could only make out the large tan silhouette of the Stormcutter. He was surprised to note that Toothless did seem to be getting a bit darker. Hiccup was walking back to the village with his mother and the two dragons, a new spring in his step, when they met Fishlegs and Meatlug.

"There you are," Fishlegs said. Hiccup paused while his mother and her dragon went on, and Toothless landed on his shoulder. Hiccup lost his balance for a second.

*You're heavy,* he grumbled.

*You'll have to hold me on your arm in less than a month. Get used to it,* Toothless advised.

"Snotlout and the gang are holding a little contest, see what everyone can do a few weeks before Thor'sday Thursday. Do you think we should join?" Fishlegs asked.

"That might be a good idea," Hiccup mused. "We can check out the competition."

*I still want to impress everyone at the actual contest,* Toothless huffed. There would be a bigger audience then.

*Underplay it if you have to,* Hiccup said. "We can be sure no one else will be holding back. They love a chance to show off."

And with that, the foursome headed down to the beach.

Snotlout laughed when he saw them. "Well, if it isn't the Useless and his followers. Come to see how the real Vikings do it?"

"We wanted to check how lousy the competition was before we waste too much effort wiping the floor with you," Fishlegs said cheerfully. Hiccup groaned. His friend really chose the wrong moment to be bold sometimes.

Snotlout snorted. "Bash him, Dogsbreath."

Dogsbreath stepped forward, but Meatlug spat lava-like fire at the ground, narrowly missing the thug's toes, growling in challenge.

*Pet,* Fireworm sneered from Snotlout's shoulder.

*Companion and packmate, actually,* Meatlug growled.

*Much better than being a slave,* Toothless chimed in.

Fireworm snarled and lunged at him.

"ENOUGH YOU SLIMY LIZARD!" Snotlout shouted, and she retreated. "Well, Fishlegs. You surprised me. I assumed your dragon was a pussy. Why are you still following Useless Loser and his newt?"

"I prefer friends with actual intelligence," he replied. "Shall we start the contest?"

Snotlout sneered and stepped back. "Your dragon may have given you a backbone, Fish, but we will still pulverize you. Not even a Gronckle can compare to my Fireworm."

Toothless opened his mouth, but Hiccup interrupted before he could speak and make matters worse. "I guess we'll see, won't we? Go ahead and show us what you can do."

The brutish teen eyed him suspiciously, but turned and made his way to the shore. "Oh, I will."

*Perfect obedience,* Hiccup hissed to his dragon as he walked down to the water's edge. *No need to give him any more ammunition. Just hold back a little.*

*Yes, yes, O wise and knowledgeable master,* Toothless said, rolling his eyes.

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply but shut it when Astrid Hofferson suddenly stepped between him and Fishlegs.

"How did you do it, Fishlegs?" she asked. "There's no way you suddenly became good at yelling, and you definitely haven't become more physically intimidating."

"Uh…" Fishlegs fumbled for an answer while Meatlug and Astrid's Nadder, Stormfly, eyed each other. "Ask Hiccup," he finally said, pointing. "He gets it better than I."

Astrid turned her stare to him, hands on her hips. "That's right. Your toothless wonder looks like nothing, but it's got spirit, I noticed."

Toothless lifted his head and gave an imperious sniff.

"Yet it follows you everywhere. So how did you do it, and teach him?" She gestured behind her to Fishlegs.

*Why is she suddenly interrogating you?* Meatlug questioned.

"No one just gets as good as you two. Especially you two."

"I… uh…" Hiccup stammered.

"Let's start!" Snotlout bellowed. "A race to that rock and back. Ready!"

Hiccup lifted Toothless on his arm. Hiccup was not a strong Viking. His arm shook even as Toothless helpfully flapped his wings a little to lessen his weight. Fishlegs was having similar issues. Astrid, on the other hand, was no body builder, but Stormfly perched attentively on her arm like a doubly deadly falcon on a master falconer's glove. If a twelve-year-old girl could be a master falconer.

"GO!" Snotlout screamed. Hiccup winced as Toothless unintentionally used his arm as a springboard to jump into the air, then watched as the dark blue dragon flew with wings half-extended in the middle of the pack… not that the pack was very large. Fireworm and Stormfly were racing for the lead, Meatlug buzzed behind Toothless, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut's Zippleback (Hiccup had no clue how that worked) meandered along behind them, though Hiccup suspected mainly for a reason to avoid the bickering twins. Seaslug hovered in slow circles around Dogsbreath's screaming head, and the other dragons were likewise uninterested until they figured out it was a competition and their pride was on the line and they got going, aside from a couple particularly stubborn dragons.

"Well?" Astrid demanded.

Fishlegs sidled up to Hiccup. "Why is she interrogating us?"

Hiccup wondered if he realized he was echoing his dragon. "I guess we kind of had to come to an understanding? Treat them like companions, packmates, instead of breaking them?"

"Did your mom help you?" Astrid asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"NO!" Hiccup yelped. "I did it myself!" Well, his mom was helping Toothless a little now. But he most certainly did not need his mom to control his dragon for him! "You see, if you try to dominate them, it turns into this whole contest of wills, and they're determined to disobey you and beat you. But if you work with them, they're much more agreeable."

"That wouldn't work," Astrid said. "Then they'd just ignore you, or walk all over you."

"Well how did you do it then?" Hiccup snapped.

Astrid smiled a dangerous smile. "We came to an understanding."

Hiccup exchanged glances with Fishlegs, silently agreeing not to ask any further. Skinny girl she may be, Astrid was scary.

The dragons had made it around the rock and were nearly back. Fireworm and Stormfly were still in the lead, with Snotlout yelling and Astrid crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at her dragon. The Nadder and Nightmare were neck and neck, and Hiccup half expected them to start snapping at each other, but they only increased the pace of their flapping. Stormfly seemed about to pull ahead, but Fireworm bumped her enough to slow her for an instant, and the red dragon won by a nose. She landed on Snotlout's shoulder and preened, looking very pleased with herself, while Snotlout grinned and flexed his muscles.

Stormfly landed on Astrid's arm, nearly spitting sparks, and the girl ground her teeth together and glared at Snotlout while the others half-heartedly congratulated him.

Toothless flapped in a minute later and landed on Hiccup's shoulder, yawning. *Boring.*

*It was your idea to wait for Thor'sday Thursday," Hiccup reminded.

*I'll show them then,* Toothless nodded resolutely. *I just wish it was sooner.*

It was in a couple of weeks. And as the other initiates left the beach with their dragons- Snotlout had declared the contest over, probably to quit while he was ahead- Hiccup found himself not dreading it as much as he expected. In fact, he was almost looking forward to it.

/|\/\v/\/|\

The Thor'sday Thursday Celebrations were a truly spectacular occasion. The Hairy Hooligans' fierce rivals, the Meatheads, from the nearby Meathead Islands, sailed across the Inner Ocean to the Isle of Berk for this great gathering. The visitors set up camp in Black Heart Bay, which turned overnight from an empty desert of echoing seagulls into a bustling village of tents made out of sails too patched to be used at sea anymore. By the next morning the Long Beach was packed with stalls and jugglers and fortune tellers. There was a happy confusion of Vikings spotting old friends, and practicing their sword play, and yelling at the children to stop hitting each other RIGHT NOW for Thor's sake no I REALLY MEAN IT this time… or… or… or… ELSE.

Vast Viking men sat on uncomfortable rocks guffawing like sea lions in a holiday mood. Impressively large Viking women huddled in groups cackling like seagulls and downing entire mugs of tea in one swallow.

Despite Old Wrinkly's gloomy forecasts in the previous week of terrible storms and typhoons, it was a gloriously hot June day with not even a hint of a cloud in the offing.

The Young Heroes Final Initiation Test would not start until 2 P.M. that afternoon, so Hiccup spent the morning listening round-eyed to storytellers telling tall tales of Dirty Danes and pirate princesses.

His confidence had faded and he now was sick with nerves, so he found it difficult to enjoy the occasion as much as he had in previous years.

Even Gobber throwing up during the How Many Gulls' Egg s Can You Eat in One Minute? competition failed to raise more than a faint smile on his pale, tense face.

Hiccup's family had a picnic lunch overlooking the axe-fighting display. Hiccup could not eat a thing, nor, unusually, could Toothless, only sniffing at the tuna sandwich Hiccup's mother offered.

"Good to keep your dragon's appetite sharp for the game," boomed Stoick the Vast, who was in an excellent mood. He had won a bet on Goggletoad in the Ugliest Baby Contest and was looking forward to seeing his son's brilliant display in the Initiation Test.

Completely opposite to Hiccup's expectations before he got into this whole mess, he wasn't worried in the slightest if he would have enough control over his dragon to pass the Test. He trusted Toothless. No, his worries were much bigger- this test didn't determine his future. It determined the future of all Viking and dragonkind on Berk!

Hiccup scratched behind Toothless' earflaps, grateful again despite his queasiness that he had the dragon he did, and Toothless leaned into the touch silently. He just hoped the dragon was impressive enough to convince the other Vikings to consider changing their ways.

As the day wore on, a hot wind suddenly started blowing out of nowhere. It was still sweltering, but ominous gray clouds were gathering on the horizon.

Maybe Old Wrinkly had been right, thought Hiccup as he gazed upward, and Thor is going to make his traditional appearance in the Thor'sday Thursday celebrations.

" P-P-P-P-A-R-P! Will all youths hoping to be initiated into the tribes this year please make their way down to the ground at the left of the beach!"

Valka gripped Hiccup's shoulder. "Good luck. Make us proud."

Hiccup gulped and nodded as he nudged Toothless and stood up.

This was it.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review, let me know what you liked, what you didn't, if there's anything you'd particularly like to see in upcoming chapters, and/or what kind of dragon you think you'd have if you lived on Berk, book or movieverse!