Taming Hearts

Chapter Three: The Next Challenge

The first thing Erick Larson thought about when he woke up that morning was that his very best friend, Adrianna Haddock, would be getting her own dragon. She had been incredibly excited for him when he had gotten his a year and a half previously. It had been a very cold flight out to Dragon Island on Snoggletog Day but he had hardly noticed because he was far too preoccupied with Charger, who had greeted him by headbutting him and then carrying him off on his snout. Fortunately for Erick, Charger had finally stopped doing that but he did have a tendency to get overly excited and be far too exuberant when greeting strangers. No one had ever met a Deadly Nadder quite like him. And now he would finally get to meet the dragon his best friend had adopted.

The eleven-and-a-half year old boy hopped out of bed and quickly got dressed so that he could watch for the Haddocks on a cliff near the arena. It provided the best view of Berk and he wanted to be the first to spot them as they triumphantly flew in. Charger had hopped around like an overly excited Terrible Terror at the sight of his rider's excitement.

"Oy, settle down... I said settle down!" Erick shouted to his dragon, putting up his hands so that the Nadder wouldn't catch him off guard by doing exactly what his name suggested.

After a lot of excited squawking, Charger finally settled down and followed Erick through the village, occasionally prodding his boy forward with his snout. Gobber stopped what he was doing to watch the pair; he always found them quite amusing. He watched as an overly excited nudge in the back sent Erick flying forward into the dirt. Fortunately, the boy didn't fall on his face because the Nadder quickly caught his shirt in his mouth and pulled him back up.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he called to them as Erick brushed himself off.

"Near the arena." Erick replied amiably.

"Ahh. Waiting for your special lady to introduce you to her new friend?" Gobber winked at him quite knowingly.

"Annie and I are just friends!" Erick retorted irritably.

"Yes, of course you are." Gobber chuckled to himself as the boy bolted off, a spring in his step that seemed impossible to hide.

Erick nearly flew without his dragon as he headed to the cliff. He passed a giggly group of girls with their recently acquired dragons and a large gathering of boys his age, all of whom seemed to be practicing axe throwing for the upcoming Thawfest games. Erick paid them no heed, even when they called out to him. He was going to lose Thawfest anyway so why bother wasting his valuable time throwing axes at trees and watching the other boys beat each other up for fun?

He was out of breath when he finally got to his favorite observation spot. Charger sat down behind him and allowed him to lean on his emerald green back as he dangled his feet over the edge. It was a hundred foot drop and Erick would have been far too frightened to sit down there without his dragon present. And now he could share this spot with Adrianna. At least... when she got there.

"What do you think, Charger?" he asked, turning his head to the side and looking at the back of his dragon's head. "Think we can out-race her?" The dragon cooed unconcernedly. Of course they could. Erick grinned, his dimples becoming visible on his face. "Yeah, I thought so. Though you really need to work on your turns. Don't run me into any more boulders!" Erick rubbed his upper arm, wincing as he found the fresh bruise from the previous day. He rested his head against the warm scales. "Gods, you're comfortable. Maybe I should just sleep on you from now on." The dragon immediately turned his head so that he was glaring at his human. Erick's smile widened. "Oh don't give me that look! You hate bedtime! Maybe staying in the same spot all night so you don't throw me off will keep you from sleeping all morning."