How To Train Your Dragon

6: The Idea

"Nadders are quick and light on their feet. You have to quicker and lighter." Gobber says. He is standing outside of the arena with his arms crossed on one of the bars of the dome. The elder of the village is watching us today. She is the oldest, her back hunched from her many years so she leans on a wooden staff, her hair is gray and frizzy, her face heavily wrinkled and her eyes gray, her body boney and her hands gnarled, and she wears gray robes.

Today Gobber has set up a maze for us with ten feet tall wooden walls. A Deadly Nadder leaps over our heads and balances on the top of the walls watching us. Nadders look like parrots, with only two back legs and eyes on the side of their head. They have frills of spikes around their head and spikes laying flat on their tails. When the spikes stand up, duck because Nadders can fling the spikes at you by flicking their tails.

This morning I was able to add straps to a shield so it attaches to my arm and I don't have to hold it. I have my shield on my left arm, holding my bow in my left hand leaving my right hand free to draw and shoot arrows. I take a right turn and nearly collide with my brother. Hiccup is standing beneath Gobber looking up at him. "I noticed that the Book of Dragons never mentioned Nightfurys. Is like a book two or a Nightfury 101?"

Gobber rubs his face with his good hand. "No one has ever met one and lived to tell the tail. Now get in there!"

I take my brothers arm and pull him into the maze. We take a left and then a right, Hiccup still awkwardly holding his axe in one hand and his shield into other. Turning another corner we find Astrid and Snotlought kneeling by the base of a wall, the Nadder just around the corner. I kneel behind Snotlought and Hiccup kneels behind me.

Astrid rolls across the gap when the dragon's back is turned and runs down the passage on the other side. Snotlought follows her, then it is my turn. I can't roll like Astrid did so I dash across the gap. Halfway across the Nadder turns and faces me. I stand in front of it in it's blind spot, so it can't see me.

"Blind spot! Yes!" Gobber shouts.

I hold my breath feeling nervous. For a second I feel a wave of confusion then curiosity from the Nadder. Fishlegs shuffles behind the dragon diverting its attention. It turns and I run over to Astrid breathing hard. Hiccup attempts to roll across the gap but his shield drops, clattering. The Nadder swings around again as Hiccup jumps to his feet and stumbles over. Astrid, Snotlought, and I scatter.

The dragon gives chase after my brother. Hiccup dashes wildly around as the Nadder chases him slamming into walls and nocking them over. I trip and fall, twisting away from a falling wall just in time. All the walls have fallen now.

Hiccup collides into Astrid, her axe lodging in his shield. They fall and the dragon dashes toward them. "Ooo! Love on the battle field!" Tuffnut calls. I ignore him, my eyes fixed on my brother.

Astrid struggles to get her axe out of Hiccup's shield. She stands up putting her foot on his face and pulling at her axe. At the last second the shield comes of his arm and Astrid hits the Nadder in the head with it, shattering the shield. The dragon stumbles away shaking its head. I feel a flash of pain that makes me wince.

Astrid rounds on my brother. She looks down at him as he curls on the ground. "Is this a joke to you? Our parents' war is about to become ours. Choose which side you're on."

 

~oOo~

 

Hiccup and I are in our room. I am looking out the window facing the forest, debating on whether or not I have been feeling the dragons' feelings. Hiccup lays on his bed staring at the sketch of the Nightfury in his journal, a distant look in his eyes.