Defying The Rules

Meeting In The Great Hall

Thalos made it back to the village. It was getting dark out, so he knew they were probably starting soon. He quickly made his way to the Great Hall. The others were already there. He sat down next to Snotlout and looked around. Where was Hiccup? Everyone was here except him.

The gang and Gobber started talking about the training with the Gronckle. Snotlout was saying how he did an amazing job, the twins were bickering about how one did better than the other, and Fishlegs just listened.

"I would just like to say, when I'm killing the dragon in front of the village, it's going to be the most epic killing ever." Snotlout said with a mouth full of chicken.

This, of course, got everyone, Fishlegs included, in a uproar. Shouts of "What do you mean 'when!?' I'm going to be killing it" and "I could beat you any day" and things like that.

Thalos sighed and finally spoke up. He made sure to speak plenty loud so he was heard. "How about, instead of saying what we did right, we say what we, not each other, did wrong." He cleared his throat, and everyone was quiet. "I'll even go first." He thought a moment. "I need to work on my reflexes. The dragon's attacks were way to close to me."

Gobber nodded approvingly. By the look on on his face, he liked the idea. Thalos was glad of that. "Alright, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" He asked, looking at the group.

Thalos groaned. Great. Now that opens up the opportunity for others to answer the question. Tuffnut was about to speak, but Thalos eyed him and made a motion of zipping up his mouth with his hand, telling him to be quiet. Surprisingly, Tuffnut abliged, and stayed quiet.

Finally, Astrid spoke up. "I mistimed my summersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

Thalos raised an eyebrow. When did that happen? She looked perfect the whole time. He shrugged his shoulders. Well, being hard of herself was probably a good thing.

"Yeah, we noticed." Ruffnut added sarcastically. Obviously she was thinking the same thing as Thalos. No one noticed Astrid's "mistake."

"No, no, you were great. That was so, 'Astrid.'" Snotlout said, being flirtatious, again. Thalos groaned and rolled his eyes.

"She's right." Gobber corrects. "You have to be tough on yourselves."

Out of a no where, a creak from the doors sounded. Everyone turned to see Hiccup walking in, late. "Where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber asked the teens, watching the scrawny boy make his way to the group.

Thalos face palmed when the gang started throwing out ideas. Great.. just great.

"He showed up." Ruffnut suggested.

"He didn't get eaten." Ruffnut's brother adds.

"He's never where he should be." Astrid said. Hiccup sat down at the table next to the table the students were at. Thalos really felt bad for him. He was always picked on, just because he was smaller than everyone else.

"Thank you, Astrid." Gobber commended, grabbing the Book of Dragons and walking to the table. He turned his back to Hiccup and placed the book on the table everyone else was at. "You need to leave and breathe this stuff." He paused. "The Dragon Manuel. Everything we know about every dragon we know of."

Bangs of thunder were heard outside the door, and soon after, the sound of pouring rain joined in. "No attacks tonight." Gobber informed, due to the rain. "Study up." With that, he left the Hall.

"Wait, you mean read?" Tuffnut groaned.

"Yes." Thalos replied dryly.

"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut added.

"Still yes." Thalos said. These twins drove him insane sometimes.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout complained.

Thalos groaned. "Because you can't kill the stuff until you know more about them. They'll kill you instead." He was getting irritated. He was already irritated that Gobber defeated the purpose of his self-evaluation idea, and now these guys were being to lazy to read.

"Oh! I've read it like, seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..." Fishlegs started ranting on, but he was cut off with Tuffnut making a mouth with his hand and closing it, telling him to shut up.

"Yeah, that sounds great. There was a chance I was going to read that..." He began.

"But, now.." Ruffnut finished. Thalos shook his head. Could these twins not say anything that wasn't degrading?

"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff." Snotlout said, getting up and leaving. Quickly, everyone else, aside from Hiccup, started leaving. Fishlegs even left with them, rambling on about some other dragon in the Book.

Hiccup said something to Astrid, but Thalos didn't hear what it was. All he heard was, "Read it," from Astrid, and saw her push the book towards Hiccup and walk away. Thalos sighed and sat next to him.

"We can read it together." Thalos said, bringing the book to the table and opening it. Hiccup smiled and started reading it, starting with the dragon classes: Strike, Stoker, Tidal, Mystery, Sharp, Fear, and Boulder. Thalos wondered which of those the Xeno'jiiva would go into.

The book listed many different types of dragons. Thunderdrums, Whispering Deaths, Scauldrons, you name it. It had them all. All except the Xeno'jiiva though. He and Hiccup spent a good hour or so reading it. There were a lot of dragons in the it.

When they got to the page on Night Furies, everything was unknown. No picture, size, speed, nothing. Everything was blank. Guess the Night Fury really was a bit mystery in the dragon world, huh?

They stayed up somewhat late reading. When they finished, they put the book away and started heading home. The village was very quiet, for a lot of the adults had gone sailing, searching for the dragons' nest, hoping that if they destroyed it, the raids would stop.

Many Vikings had gone on that trip and never came back. If Thalos was honest, he was worried about his dad. Something could easily happen to him. He had already lost a mother. He didn't want to loose a father too.

He made it to his house and headed up to his room. He had eaten dinner in the Great Hall. He really needed to eat more consistently. He had skipped lunch today, and other meals the last few days. That couldn't be healthy.

He went to sleep somewhat quickly. He had stayed up pretty late with Hiccup, so he was tired.

The next day, he got up, got dressed, and ate. He quickly made his way to the Arena. He was one of the first ones there, so he waited.

Gobber arrived shortly after, and started setting up the ring. He was setting up what appeared to be a maze with high, wooden walls. Thalos helped him though, not quite sure what it was for. It didn't take long for the rest of the students to arrive.

"A maze? We aren't kids, Gobber." Snotlout said, looking around.

"Some people are more childish than others." Astrid shot, eyeing the brown-haired, arrogant Viking.

"Are you flirting with me? Cause-" Before Snotlout could finish, Astrid punched him, causing him to fall down to the ground. Thalos slightly grinned at that. It was about time the flirt got a good beating.

Hiccup arrived late, as usual, and Gobber spoke. "Alrighty. Today, we are doing something a bit different."