Another Nightmare book 1

Chapter 18

Hiccup felt unusually at ease when he came back to the kill ring in the morning. He was still hiding a Night Fury in the forest, but at least there was another other human he shared this secret with now. Hiccup hadn't even recognised before how stressful it was to hold things from everyone else, living in constant fear of being exposed. He was still living in fear, but Fishlegs had been the one to most likely discover his secret, which had happened. Thankfully it ended well. Fishlegs seemed to be trustworthy plus he and Meatlug seemed to share a careful interest of each other.

Apparently, Gobber chose to let the Gronckle recover from the previous day, for now, and gave Stormfly another chance. Fishlegs might have preferred training with Meatlug, but he still seemed slightly less afraid than usual. It was either because of his better knowledge of dragons' intelligence or his trust in Hiccup's powers. It was probably the later, since Stormfly, and Hiccup's introduction of her hadn't really given that good of an impression.

Now free from Hiccup's control, the blue dragon stepped outside; carefully. Her tail rose, ready to strike the dragon trainees, but she didn't attack yet. The dragon looked around until her eyes met Hiccup's. Hiccup couldn't imagine how scary it must have been to have her free will controlled like he had done.

'Go after them, otherwise Gobber will lock you up again,' Hiccup warned her.

'Just stay out of my mind!' Stormfly answered unhappily.

'As long as you don't hurt them too badly...'

Now more confident, Stormfly charged at the twins, who had started bickering with each other. The training was on. They got their feet swiped out from under them; they proceeded to run into each other after scrambling up. It was actually quite entertaining to watch.

'Watch out behind you!' Hiccup alerted Stormfly.

The dragon reacted to his warning just in time to dodge Snotlout's hammer.

'I told you to stay out of my head!' Stormfly lifted her head and roared at Hiccup's general direction.

'I can't. The queen might be able to control you again if I pull out. I was just trying to help.'

'I can take care of these hatchlings on my own! The hardest part is not hurting them too badly.'

Stormfly reinforced her thoughts by slamming her tail on a now unarmed Snotlout. Hiccup couldn't stop a chuckle when his cousin slammed into the wall below him.

'I know, I know', Hiccup thought.

"Hey Useless! What's so funny?!" Snotlout shouted from below.

"Nothing," Hiccup answered quickly. 'Stormfly, can you attack him again?'

'Will you force me if I don't want to?'

'No...'

'We'll see,' she scoffed and ran off after Astrid.

Hiccup sighed. He didn't know what to do with Stormfly.He wouldn't force his will on her again, but she would be difficult to deal with. He didn't expect any other dragon to become as close a friend as Toothless, but he would have preferred to be at least in good terms with them. Stormfly didn't seem to share his wish. At least she kept her promise to not hurt anyone too much, even if it was for self-preservation rather than in the interest of keeping promises.

At least Meatlug and Sharpshot were friendlier. Hiccup hoped the Zippleback and Monstrous Nightmare would be more like them; especially the Monstrous Nightmare. Those were really dangerous, and Hiccup didn't want to burn his hand trying to touch one. Especially not when he was trying to save the dragon; getting burned by the nightmare would only lead to violence knowing how protective Toothless was.