The first to know

Dragon training... *sigh*

We made it home well after dark, I stumbled in first and stopped short when I saw my father perched before the fire, stoking the coals. Hiccup stopped behind me looking over my head into the living room before us. 

I let Hiccup attempt to sneak up the stairs first. Of course he hit the bad step and our father heard.

Without turning around he called us forward.

 "Hiccup, Idonea come here." We prepared ourselves for a scolding that never came. 

He turned to Hiccup. 

"You are going to attend dragon training." I pointed at him and laughed smugly.

"The both of you." He continued now it was Hiccups turn to snicker at our misfortune.

"Oh oh oh son of a half troll snot goblin." I muttered under my breath. We were so screwed. He handed us two battle axes which I found to be heavy and uncomfortable. He did not listen to our collective Protests and instead picked up a bag that I had not noticed until that moment. 

"Well I'm off, train hard and well I'll be back." He started toward the door.

I ran up and hugged his arm tightly, I had always had a better relationship with my father than He had with Hiccup. I was the mediating force between the two of them, I kept the balance and peace in the household...most of the time.

He patted my back and looked back at Hiccup, a slight bit of pride, hope and love showing through his usual stoic facade. Then he was gone into the night.

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The next day I awoke with a pit in my stomach. The sky was clear but my conscience wasn't I left that poor wounded beast to die. The two of them were probably hungry. I walked down the stairs after dressing myself and set to making porridge. After a couple of minutes Hiccup Joined me looking just as tortured. I ladled the now cooked mush from the large cauldron over the fire into two bowls and gave one to Him. I sat and quickly slurped down my breakfast, I was naturally a fast eater but today I was going to try and filch a few things before either of us were needed for training. 

If Hiccup noticed the rapid pace in which my food disappeared he didn't act like it. I dunked my bowl in a bucket of scolding water and swished it around getting it clean enough for tomorrow. I grabbed a small satchel from a peg by the door and walked to the back of the cabin. I snatched up a needle and tanned deer sinew and assorted herbs that were labeled for what they were used for. Gothi had given them to me with vague instructions after my visits to her had become annoyingly frequent. Then I headed back to the front where some of my winter rations were hidden I stuffed a small fish in the satchel as well as a small bone hook. I turned to see Hiccup studying me suspiciously.

"Preparing for the worst. I don't think we'll get beat up that bad." He stated wryly giving me that dopey lopsided grin of his. 

"Well... you know how clumsy I am, I'll probably do more damage to myself than the dragons will to me, sooooo." I shrugged at the half truth of my need for the medicinal supplies. 

He rose to his feet and we left the house heading for our potential doom. 

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 I walked a little ways behind Hiccup I was caught up in my thoughts as per the usual. Eventually we made it to the gate of the training ring. I heard the slightly oafish conversational banter of our generation and smiled slightly, nothing really changed over the years it seemed. Hiccup being the chief of sass that he is cut in and sarcastically said.

"Yes Pain LOVE it." I snickered under my breath and whipped my light auburn braid over my shoulder in an attempt to look haughty. Hiccup just gave me an exasperated look and Fishlegs chuckled nervously. I had always been quite fond of the boy of all of our peers he seemed to be the most mature and civil when it came to me and Hiccups company.   

"Uh Hiccup and suitable over here already killed a Nightfury so does that excuse them from training or." Snotlout interjected nastily.

"Just because my name can be translated to be the word 'suitable' doesn't mean that it is my nomenclature, if you can't recall that minuscule sliver of information it leads me to wonder if you even have a brain at all." I retorted. I know brevity is the soul of wit but if that means I can't use my reservoir of extensive and confusing vocabulary in my insults then I officially overrule that verdict. 

As expected a slightly confused look seeped into Snotlouts eyes, Ruffnut and Tuffnut snickered behind his back. 

"She means you're dumb if you can't remember to call her by her real name." Hiccup translated conversationally looking a little proud of his younger sister. Suddenly Gobber called us all to attention. 

"Throughout this training we will be hitting each of these separate dragons." He gestured to the cages before us naming each dragon that they housed as he passed them. Fishlegs gave a statistic for each one. I believe they went along with a board game he enjoyed.

Finally Gobber stopped in front of the cage farthest to the left of the arena. His hand rested on the lever right next to it. I knew what he was gonna do before he did it because well ... This was GOBBER for goodness sake of course that's how he would do it.

"And Finally the Gronckle." I stepped back three paces. 

"Uh aren't you going to teach us first?" Snotlout asked, huh I guess he can deduce something. 

"I believe in learning on the job." Gobber said matter-of-factly. I backed up one more step before he swung down the lever and a smallish warty dragon shot through the door.

The rest of the training was a blur of running and hiding until someone got the brilliant idea of grabbing shields, I think it was Astrid. Eventually each of my pears got picked off leaving one shot left and the two Haddocks and a Hofferson in the ring. 

The Gronckle pinned my brother to the wall and prepared to kill him I got the slight sense of dejavu and managed three steps in an attempt to aid him when Gobber yanked the beast away and threw her back into her cage.

" A dragon will ALWAYS go for the kill." I caught the words as Hiccup slowly rose to his feet.

"So why didn't you." He mumbled under his breath. 

"Come on." I said.

"What?" 

"We are going back to check on them." I stated simply.