How It Came To Be (An LBR story)

Chapter VIII

When Hiccup arrives at Berk, he starts to show Paul and Rachel around a bit. He shows them the direction of the arena, where the Great Hall is, the forge where Gobber was working on things, and the main square.

"Peaceful little place," Rachel comments.

"Thanks. It's been a while since anyone has tried anything," Hiccup states.

"Tried what?" Paul asks.

"To kill me," Hiccup plainly answers. The brother and sister exchange a glance that Hiccup missed.

"Wait here, let me get my father," Hiccup says as he enters his house.

"He's bound to be cautious around us," Paul says.

"All boys are the same. Just let me work my magic," Rachel rubs her hands together.

"He wouldn't go for you if you were the last girl in the world," Paul teases.

"You're just jealous because I always get the attention from boys while the girls basically ignore you," she counters. Paul just chuckles to himself.

Hiccup comes back outside with a humongous viking with red hair and a huge beard. The Viking looks them up and down, examining them. Then he extends his hand.

"I'm Stoick, chief of Berk. Glad to have you around," he finally says.

"And we're glad we found your son chopping wood," Paul shakes his hand. "We were wondering the woods after out little raft shattered on the shore and we heard a noise. Luckily it was friendly and not bandits."

"Yeah. I don't know what we would've done. Paul doesn't have his dual swords and I can't use a weapon because I was never trained," Rachel chimes in, a sad look in her face.

"I can quickly change that," Hiccup grins. "I'd be glad to train you."

"Then it's settled!" Stoick claps his hands together. "While your boat gets repaired, Hiccup will train the girl to fight."

"But I don't have anything," Rachel says.

"Don't worry. We have training weapons at the academy," Hiccup states.

Paul went with Stoick to the forge while Rachel goes with Hiccup. They go to Toothless, not wanting to walk all the way to the academy.

"Ever ridden a dragon before?" Hiccup asks her. Rachel has a look of shock on her face.

"You mean we're to ride this!?" she exclaims.

"Yes, yes we are," Hiccup smugly grins.

They mount Toothless, Rachel having trouble staying on. She wrapped her arms around Hiccup for support. They take off, going high into the sky. Toothless does his flips and spins, going crazy to try and lose Rachel. Hiccup tries to get him to stop, but Toothless is relentless until they arrive at the academy. 

"Toothless! What in the world were you doing?" Hiccup nearly yells at him. "We needed a ride, not a rollercoaster."

Toothless just stares at Rachle, his eyes narrowed and ears pulled back. Hiccucp follows his gaze, and finally understands that Toothless was only looking out for his best friend.

"Ah, I get it now," Hiccup pets him. "Don't worry bud, she's ok in my book." Toothless calms down, but only a little.

"And who is this?" Astrid asks, arms crossed.

"Don't worry, babe," Hiccup goes to her and kisses her on the forehead. "She and her brother are here only until their boat is fixed.

"Babe?? This is going to be hard."

"Ok, if you say so," Astrid complies. 

"Hi, my name is Astrid," she introduces herself.

"I'm Rachel."

"Over there are the twins," Hiccup points. The twins were at it again.

"I'll stop them.." Asttid trails off.

"And this is Fi-"

"Fishlegs, at your severvice," Fishlegs bows, making Rachel giggle a little bit.

"And I am the great Snotlout Jorgenson!" Snotlout flexes. Rachel only rolls her eyes.

Everyone goes to a different station to hone a skill. Hiccup takes Rachel to the sparring area and hand her a blunted sword.

"Where's yours?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me. I'm here to teach you how to properly wield a sword," Hiccup answers.

Rachel goes slow, the blade unruly and in her hand. She takes wild swings and long strokes and Hiccup easily evades them. Every once in a while he adjusts her grip and her posture. As she gets going, her swings become more forceful. Hiccup actually has to watch her every move to make sure she doesn't hit him. Even though it's a blunted blade, it'll still hurt. 

In the distance, Astrid watches Hiccup avoid the attacks. She grows more worried with each passing second as Rachel's attacks gets faster and more precise.

"I don't think she was telling the truth," Snotlout says, appearing behind her.

"I don't think she was either. Look at her technique. It's clearly one of a trained swordsman," Astrid's voice fills with worry.

She fingers the pendadnt Hiccup gave her. She has never taken it off for any reason, fear of losing it. It was a token of Hiccup affection for her, and she felt like she needed to keep up with it to show that it means a lot to her. 

"We'll scout Rachel and Pual, make sure they're here for the reasons they say they are," Ruffnut says. 

"Yeah," his sister agrees with him. 

"I'll look into any information they give us and try to piece it all together. Maybe I can find somethng in what they say," Fishlegs offers.

"Thank you, guys. He's already had too many attempts on his life. We've gone a good while without anyone bothering us, save the few raiders who never caught wind that we have dragons," Astrid says. 

The gang disperses. The twins head to where the siblings stay. They snoop through their belongings and read some journals and notes but find nothing. Snotlout and Fishlegs observe the siblings, each picking out different features. Fishlegs watches Rachel, trying to pinpoint her aggressiveness. Snotlout goes to look for Paul after he dissapeared.