HTTYD: Dragon Girl

Chapter 10: Training Dragons

My eyes water as I try to see through the green gas, my back to Mollusk's. This is one of Unferth's most confusing exercises yet.

"You'll have to use teamwork today," Unferth says. "A wet dragon can't light its fire. The Hydra is especially tricky. One head breathes gas, the other lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

We've been split into three pairs, each student holding a bucket of water. I guess that gives me a better chance, with Mollusk as my partner, but I still don't want to face this dragon.

"There!" shouts Starkwulf somewhere off to my left. There's a splash as he and Dorfang throw the contents of their buckets, then shouts of protest.

"Hey!" Fordang whines. He and Keegan are soaked. "It's just us, idiots!"

"You must be getting fatter," Dorfang snickers. "We thought you were a dragon."

"Of course, it could just be muscle," Starkwulf says quickly.

The tense silence makes me doubt Keegan is impressed. Then I hear him and Fordang cry out as their buckets clatter to the ground, and a thump that tells me they've fallen to the ground.

"Chances of survival are dwindling nearly to the negatives," Mollusk whimpers.

"You're such an encouraging partner," I grumble, but I freeze when I hear the guttural growl of a dragon.

One of the Hydra's heads slithers out of the gas and sidles up to Mollusk. He yelps and fumbles with his bucket before tossing its contents onto the head.

The head shudders. Then, green gas pours out of its mouth. Whoops.

The head snaps at Mollusk, who shrieks and runs away, leaving me to complete the exercise myself.

The rest of the Hydra enters into my line of vision. The mouth of the head on the right is sparking.

"Now, Astrid!" Unferth calls.

I try, but the sparking head is far above mine, and I've never had good aim. The water splashes uselessly to the ground.

The Hydra seems to chuckle at my failed attempt to beat it. The rest of the class gasps in horror as the sparking head slithers toward the green gas, and Unferth cires, "Astrid!"

A sudden, crazy idea enters my mind. "Back!" I declare, thrusting my arms out toward the Hydra. "Get back!"

The movement of my arms exposes the eel I hid from Brightwing in my vest earlier today to the Hydra. The dragon nervously backs away from me.

"Don't make me tell you again!" I announce, trying to display dominance to the Hydra. "Get back into your cage."

I've somehow successfully backed the Hydra into its enclosure. I toss the eel into the pen, and the Hydra frantically presses itself against the wall, eyeing the eel with a look of absolute horror in all four of its eyes. "Now think about what you've done."

I close the doors to the cage and bar them shut, then turn around to see Unferth and the other students staring at me, dumbstruck.

Oh, yeah. Astrid the Useless shouldn't be able to do something cool like that.

I act like I don't notice their expressions, which vary from dumbfounded (Unferth) to infuriated (Keegan). "Well!" I announce, rubbing my hands together in what I hope looks like carelessness. "If that's all for today, I'll just be going. I've got a... yeah. See ya!"

I have a lot of work to do.