How to Train Your Dragon

Chapter 12: Everything Goes Wrong

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The whole village of Berk was standing around the arena as Stoick stood up on a stage to address the crowd.

"Well I can show my face in public again." He joked. "If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from being, well uh...Hiccup to placing first in dragon training, well I would've tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad."

The crowd cheered and laughed at his statement.

"But here we are. And no one is more surprised, or more proud than I am. Today, my boy becomes a Viking. Today, he becomes one of us!" Stoick announced.

The crowd cheered again, and Hiccup was waiting on a ramp that sloped down into the arena, his helmet in his hands.

Astro and (Y/n) came up behind him. "Be careful with that dragon." Astro warned him.

"It's not the dragon I'm worried about." Hiccup commented as he watched his dad step down from the stage and sit in a large stone chair, front and center.

"What are you gonna do?" (Y/n) asked him.

"Put an end to this. I have to try." Hiccup insisted. "(Y/n), Astro, if something goes wrong, please make sure they don't find Toothless."

They nodded.

"We won't. Just...promise us it won't go wrong." (Y/n) countered.

Just then, Gobber came up to them. "It's time, Hiccup."

Hiccup nodded and walked out into the arena, placing the helmet on his head. Gobber closed the gate behind him, and (Y/n) grasped Astro's hand in hers and squeezed it. He reciprocated by placing a comforting arm around her waist and pulling her close.

The crowd cheered as Hiccup walked over to a rack full of weapons and picked up a shield and a small blade. He held up his shield and stared straight ahead at the doors that contained the Monstrous Nightmare.

He looked up. "I'm ready." He announced.

The giant wooden bar holding the doors closed lifted up, and not a second later they burst open, and the Monstrous Nightmare, his body aflame, burst out and started running around the arena. He crawled along the walls and up along the ceiling. Its neck turned and saw Hiccup. The dragons body was no longer on fire and it slowly crept towards him.

Hiccup dropped his shield and his knife, making the crowd murmur in confusion.

"What is he doing?" Stoick asked Gobber.

"It's okay, it's okay." Hiccup soothed. He reached up and took the helmet off. "I'm not one of them." He threw the helmet down and the crowd gasped with shock.

Stoick furrowed his brows in anger. "Stop the fight."

"No!" Hiccup argued. "I need you all to see this. They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them."

"I said stop the fight!" Stoick bellowed, banging a hammer on the rails.

This startled the Monstrous Nightmare, making it snap at Hiccup, who yelped and started running away.