Hiccup groaned, feeling his back slam against the wall. Training the whispering death was no easy task. Toothless immediately came to his defense, shooting a warning plasma blast.

"Thanks bud," Hiccup muttered. He got up, wincing at the flash of pain. He'd been trying to train new species for weeks now, without much luck. With the dragon's eye, he'd found a whole array of new species. Now the only problem was training them. He'd tried to start with familiar dragons, that he'd never trained before. He'd move on to the more unique and rare dragons later.

"Ha ha. Nice job Hiccup," Snotlout mocked. "I'm pretty sure that's not how you train a dragon. But you always were good at getting your butt kicked." Hiccup glared up at Snotlout, willing his temper to calm.

"Well then Snotlout. Would you like to give it a try?" He asked. Snotlout laughed at him, jumping down into the arena.

"You just have to show these guys who's boss," He bragged, going directly at the dragon.

"Umm Snotlout. I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Fishlegs called out.

"I know. That's why he's doing it," Tuffnut retorted.

"No I'm serious. Whispering deaths have poor eyesight. They are known to lash out at anything they can't see," Fishlegs said, distressed.

"I'll be fine," Snotlout called out, still heading towards the dragon. Hiccup glanced at Astrid, worried. She simply shrugged, looking back at Snotlout. Hiccup gave her a look, knowing she was almost looking forward to Snotlout getting burnt to a crisp. Not that anyone would let that happen. The whispering death finally noticed Snotlout creeping up on it, and whipped around, narrowing it's bleary red eyes. It's spikes went up on it's tail, preparing to attack. Hiccup could see the ambush coming.

"TOOTHLESS," he yelled. Toothless had already reared up, and was firing a purple blast. The whispering death was thrown into it's cage, and lay there huddled up. Snotlout was just thrown to the ground.

"Do it again," Ruffnut pleaded. Hiccup glared at her, entering the arena.

"Snotlout we talked about directly approaching a whispering death. We studied them," He paused, seeing Snotlout's blank face. "In flight club. Don't you remember anything?" Hiccup asked, exasperated.

"Umm nope," Tuffnut butted in.

"Ugg," Hiccup exclaimed, walking away. He climbed on Toothless, announcing that he was going back to his house.

Hiccup sighed, resting on Toothless' back. Frustration threatened to overwhelm him. They desperately needed more trained dragons to fight back against the dragon hunters. He'd just learned that Vigo had gained hundreds of new hunters. They had been attacking the island for weeks now. They had already injured Stormfly, and right now, the academy didn't have any extra dragons. For so long, they were focused on training their own dragons, they hadn't thought about training others. Right now, Hiccup was training two different dragons. The whispering death and a young scauldron they'd found. Neither had been very friendly. He still had a burn mark from where a drop from the venomous scauldron had scorched him.

"You okay?" Astrid asked. She had been riding with Hiccup ever since Stormfly had been injured. Hiccup had almost forgotten she was there, and practically fell out of his saddle. Astrid immediately grabbed ahold of his shirt, hauling him back up.

"Thanks," Hiccup said. Astrid only nodded in response. She was deep in thought, about training the whispering death.

Astrid narrowed her eyes in concentration. She had tried to pick up small details in the whispering death's behavior. Something just didn't add up. The dragon seemed to respect confidence, but at the same time attacked it. When Snotlout had attacked, he had an aggressive confidence. When Hiccup tried, he had quiet confidence. The whispering death attacked both. But maybe to Astrid… Astrid darted her eyes around, thinking heavily. They landed on the edge, and Hiccup jumped off, turning around to help Astrid off.

No wait Hiccup. Can I borrow Toothless?" She asked. Hiccup gave her a confused look, but nodded his head.

"Thanks," Astrid said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek spontaneously. Hiccup was looking at her in shock, so Astrid took this time to fly off.

"Come on Toothless. Take me to the academy." They had built a similar academy on the edge, not wanting to always be flying back to Berk. With Toothless' speed, they quickly made their way to the academy.

"I need you to stay here," Astrid said at the entrance. Toothless obediently sat down, waiting for her to come back. Astrid entered the academy cautiously, looking for the whispering death's cage. She quickly found the cage, steeling her nerves for a second before leaving the lever to open the cage. The whispering death had seen this many times, and prepared to some out. But the girl did something different. Astrid closed the cage again. She was in the cage with the whispering death.

"It's okay buddy," Astrid said comfortingly. "I'm not going to hurt you. But I won't back down either." The whispering death glared at her stood firm and tall, but lowered her eyes respectfully. Astrid you're either a genius or a complete muttonhead, she thought to herself. The whispering death was slowly approaching her, slithering along the ground. Slowly Astrid lifted her her eyes up, meeting the dragon's. Immediately the dragon lashed out. Astrid quickly leapt away from the spiked tail. But she stood her ground, not running. The dragon reeled back, confused and suprised. Astrid looked at it again, and this time it didn't attack.

"Good job," Astrid said. She could now see from the size of the wings that the dragon was a girl. The dragon was still very skittish, and was flitting back and forth from trusting to suspicious. She would come towards Astrid, then rear back. They continued their dance for the next several minutes, both beginning to trust one another. Finally, Astrid began slowly approaching the whispering death, slowly but steadily. At first, the dragon lashed out, instincts from being cornered. Astrid dodged the spines, but continued to proceed. Eventually, she approached the giant dragon.

"You've got quite the temper," Astrid commented. The name Tempest swirled into her mind.

"You like the name Tempest?" She asked. The dragon sniffed suspiciously, leaning in to nudge Astrid. She let Astrid touch her, feeling along her jawline.

"Hi Tempest," Astrid murmured. Tempest responded by nuzzling her. She was still weary and cautious, but was letting Astrid pet her, gently smoothing down her spines. Now for the moment of truth. Astrid gently reached out her hand, closing her eyes and turning away. For a few seconds, nothing. But slowly, Tempest began to approach her, reaching out and brushing Astrid's hand. Astrid grinned, and let out a sigh of relief. She had trained the whispering death.

Hello new readers. I know this story may not seem very Hiccstrid but it is. Just keep reading until chapter 3 when the Hiccstrid plots start. Trust me.