Another Nightmare book 1

Chapter 9

Hiccup kept developing the prosthesis as days progressed. After initial crashes and "talking" with Toothless, he concluded that a simple rope wouldn't be enough. He simply couldn't use it to adjust the tailfin in all of the necessary positions that flying required. He used every chance to use the forge alone. Luckily with Stoick away, Gobber had to take care of some of his responsibilities. This usually left Hiccup with a couple of hours to use the forge in the afternoons. Otherwise, he would have had to do the work during the nights. He preferred sleeping in the cove with his only friend.

Hiccup's life outside the cove only consisted of watching dragon training, avoiding other teens, and working in the forge just long enough to keep Gobber satisfied. The moment he couldn't keep working with the prosthesis, Hiccup ran back to the cove. It was his safe haven. Everything else, his normal life, had become a necessary evil that he tried to get done as fast as possible. It only showed how little he had to live for in the village. Every morning Hiccup wished he could just stay with the one living thing who had accepted him for who he was. Then he jogged through the forest just in time to follow the others training to kill dragons like Toothless.

After spending every day with the most feared dragon in the world, Hiccup started feeling amused when seeing other teens' fear and struggles against the dragons in the ring. There had been some progress among the trainees. Astrid was especially developing into a real dragon killer. She had always been a fierce and gave her fullest to learn the best ways of killing. Snotlout didn't have enough brains to think and fight at the same time, but he had decent skills and brute force. The Twins spent as much time fighting each other as they spent fighting dragons. Then there was Fishlegs.

The largest teen might have known more facts about dragons than most adults, but it didn't make him a good dragon killer. All those facts just told him how dangerous the dragons could be and Fishlegs wasn't the bravest among the Vikings. Hiccup knew this already, and could easily see it from his vantage point during training. Fishlegs would tremble behind his shield and wince whenever the dragons as much as looked at him. This, combined with Hiccup's constant absence, had led to more problems for the large boy.

"Fishlegs, you're such a screw up."

"Get out of my way."

"Who cares, if you can't use it to kill something."

Viking youth had the need to reinforce their position by stepping over others and, with the village's official talking fishbone constantly nowhere to be found, they had turned to the next easiest prey. Fishlegs had never done anything to help Hiccup when he struggled to get through the day without getting beaten, but, knowing what that was like, Hiccup couldn't help but start feeling pity.

He stayed back at the ring one day after training was over until Fishlegs followed the others out of the ring. The training had gone much like the others. Gobber had chosen the Nadder as the opponent for the day, much to Fishlegs' disappointment. The Gronckle was bad enough, but the Nadder was bigger, faster, and had hotter flame. Fishlegs hadn't been able to make himself charge the dragon. None of the others had said anything to him but their looks told what they were thinking. The large boy walked out of the ring head down. He didn't even notice Hiccup joining him until he was walking right next to Fishlegs.

"How are you doing?"

"Oh... Hiccup, well um. Not well."

"Others are bullying you because you aren't doing well in training. Because you are different than them for not charging at dragon without second though."

"..."

"I know how it feels. I got lots of experience of these things."

"How do you manage with it?"