Love in the Time of Dragon Riders 3 (HTTYD FanFic)

Chapter 14: Fighting from Dragons

Chapter 14

Astrid's P.O.V

Hiccup paced in front of us riders. In his hand he heald a dagger and was twirling it through his fingers, his brow was scrunched; I could tell he was trying to think up an exercise to do. I heard Ruff yawn loudly; like a chain reaction everyone yawned. We had been training non-stop, from dawn to dusk. Yesterday we had been going over aiming, whether it was archery, knives, or axe throwing.

Finally he stopped. 

"Today's exercise is a bit different from the things we've been doing." He said facing us, tapping the dagger leisurely against his leg. I remembered a time when Hiccup had been terrified to put his hand on a weapon. That was until he started working with Gobber, he still wouldn't use them. It was only when we turned twelve did his dad force him to carry a dagger. It made me realize just how much Hiccup had changed. “I understand if you don’t feel comfortable performing this task.” He continued snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Just tell us what were doing will you!” Snotlout exclaimed angrily. Temper had been running high for several days now.

“You’ll be fighting from your dragons.” There were a few intakes of breath, but looking around people seemed reasonably eager. “There’ll be 3 stations, you can choose which one you want to do, and you don’t have to do each one, though I would advise it. The first station will be all about aim, archery, knife or axe throwing, while your speeding towards a moving target. The second one will be swordplay; you will fight from your dragons back, try not to hurt anyone. And the third station is a coordination test,” he thought about this for a few seconds “I would like you all to do this one. So who would like to do the first station?”

There were a few hands, Willow, Glenn, both archers, Heather, Skefill and Starkard, all skilled with knives. Hiccup nodded before explaining what needed to be done, they rushed off to get the needed equiptment. “Station 2?” He asked I stepped forward raising my hand slightly, he smiled before looking at the other trainers, Skylar, Snotlout, Holti, Ruff and Tuff.

“Ok, yours doesn’t really need anything but your weapons, try not to land any bad blows.” I nodded along with the others. I began to draw my blade from its sheath at my waist. Hiccup shook his head. “It’s to dangerous to use your sharp ones, we’ll be using blunt ones.”

“Awwww.” Said Tuff

“In that case, we’ll do the coordination thing.” Ruff grumbled. Hiccup rolled his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

“Those are the weapons, get started while I explain the coordination test to the twins and Fishlegs.”

Willow’s P.O.V

We had placed the shields exactly were Hiccup had told us to with the little stands in front of them. Then we lined up, Glenn was first. Tempest leapt into the air hovering as Glenn asked him to blast the stand. I heard the whistling sound as the plazma blast shot directly to the stand, it flew off knocking them over one after the other. Not waiting to see if they were all loose, Glenn and Tempest weeled around after the rouge shields. He strung his bow letting loose a carefully aimed arrow, it shot the shield straight in the middle. It was over in a matter of seconds, the shields lay on the ground all of them with an arrow in them.

Next it was my go. I stood on Felix’s back balancing as I drew my bow preparing to knock the stands. Felix’s fire couldn’t produce a thin enough flame to get rid of the stands without blowing the shields up. I let loose arrow after arrow, each one knocked over two stands. I waited until they were all gone to turn my attention on the shields. Felix sped forward tucking his wings in slightly to gain more speed. Down went 1 shield, then another four, a 6th arrow knocked down 2. I reached back to get another arrow, my hands grasped thin air and I realized I hadn’t topped my quiver up this morning after losing several arrows in the sea yesterday. Panicking I looked at the distance between the cliff at the end of the hill and the rolling shield that was gaining momentum going faster and faster. I ran quickly along Felix’s wing closest to the shield, drawing the one dagger that I carried (they’re not really my thing) I hurled it powerfully at the shield. It hit with a thump, knocking the shield over, it slid slightly before coming to a stop. It snapped in 2 the dagger falling onto the grass in between the two halves. There was a smattering of applause as I collected my arrows careful not to snap them, then I picked up me dagger and slipped it back into my belt, who knew it might come in handy.