How to Be a Dragon Star 1

Chapter Six - The Idea

The watchtower was one of the few foundations that was still alight at this time of night. Most vikings had retreated into their houses, exhausted from the day's work of once again rebuilding their huts after the latest dragon attack. The pre-teen recruits were sitting on a circular bench, roasting chicken breasts over a dancing fire like they were s'mores. Gobber was with them, but he had two chickens, and was regaling them with tales of his early life.

"...And with one quick twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole," Gobber continued, holding up his hook. "And I saw the look in his eye... I was delicious! He must have spread the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." He proudly lifted his wooden stump. There was a simultaneous "wow" from most of the teens.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?" Fishlegs asked. "Like—" Here, he began getting over excited at his idea and began stuttering over the words. "Like, if your mind was still in control of the hand, you could kill the dragon from the inside by, like, crushing its heart or something."

"I swear, I am so angry right now!" Snotlout said through gritted teeth. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I meet." He glanced around, pleased that he had everyone's attention. To keep it, he added, "With my face."

"Nuh-un-uh," Gobber said as he tore the wing off one of his chickens with his teeth. "It's the wings and the tails you really want." He held up the wing. "If it can't fly, it can't get away."

As he was talking, Hiccup leaned up, staring into the fire as he listened and thought.

"A downed dragon," Gobber continued with relish, "is a dead dragon."

There was a pause while most of the teens stored that in their memory for when they would be fighting monstrous beasts.

On that happy note, Gobber gave a huge yawn. "All right, I'm off to bed," he said. "You should be, too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare." He paused, smiling proudly at the teens' anticipating grins. "But who'll get the honor of killing it?"

"It's gonna be me," said Tuffnut, leaning back. "It's my destiny. Look!"

Fishlegs gasped. "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark."

Ruffnut scoffed. "Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and you have never had that ever before."

"Yeah, I have," Tuffnut argued. "You've just never seen me from the left side until now."

Astrid noticed that, next to Tuffnut, Hiccup's place was empty, his chicken leaning against the fire pit, uneaten. She stood up and peered down the stairs, just in time to see him vanish into the shadows.

In his house, alone, Hiccup pulled out a diagram from the dusty shelf. He rolled it out and hung it up so he could look at it.

It was of a dragon's tail, drawn, zoomed in, and labeled with cramped scribbles showing different parts of what part of the tail did what and how things worked, according to studies and science. Hiccup took out his notebook and turned to the pages where he had drawn the Night Fury. He redrew the tail fin that he had erased, drawing the lines just like he had done before. It was a promise.

Then, Hiccup, who was thankfully the assistant of a blacksmith and was familiar with all the tools hanging on walls and stacked in bins, began to work.

A/N: Kinda ironic to follow the longest chapter with the shortest chapter. What do you guys think of it so far? Thanks for sticking with me all the way up until this point! We're getting to the point where we start introducing the remake section. I'm super excited!

Onto the next chapter!

-Pepper9990