TAW Tales: How to Train Your Shifters (#1)

~ Chapter 7 ~

"Okay, so this is pretty much where we spend all our time," Fishlegs said as entered the Training Ring. It was this huge stone bowel with a chain-mail roof, sitting on a massive cliff outcrop overlooking the sea.

"We use to fight dragons here, but now we train them," Astrid added as we gazed around us in awe. But I couldn't help the feeling of uneasiness that gnawed at the back of my mind.

Stoick had said 'see what you can get out of them'. I didn't like the sound of that. I decided that if there was going to be any trouble, we would be best morphing into our animals. At least, I figured it would stun them to see a bunch of people suddenly turn into animals.

"Yeah, we train 'em to do cool stuff," Tuffnut said, grinning. "Like this!"

He and Ruffnut jumped on the necks of their dragon and set about practically destroying the place. One of the heads (Like I said, I have no idea which one is which) breathed out a highly flammable green gas, while the other one emitted sparks from it's mouth that set the gas off.

We hit the deck as a cloud of green gas billowed out above us, and after one clicking spark from the other head, the cloud exploded. I put my hands over my head and braced myself as the heat wave blasted over me.

"RUFFNUT! TUFFNUT!" Astrid shrieked furiously. "What did Hiccup tell you about practicing that in the Training Ring?!"

"Yeah, but Hiccup's not here right now," Tuffnut smirked. "So why not let us have our fun?"

"Because," Astrid said forcefully. "We're supposed to be interrogating these people!"

"We are?" Ruffnut looked excited. "Why didn't you say so? You know how good at interrogating we are, Astrid!"

At once, the twins bounced over on Barf and Belch and thrust their faces right up to me, who happened to be closest.

"Where'd you hide the jewels?" Ruffnut demanded.

"Yeah, and how did you steal them?" Tuffnut added fiercely before hesitating. "Wait, isn't it 'where'd you hide the gold'?"

"Alright, back away now." Astrid seized each twin by their hair and hauled them away from me. Then she stood looking at me with her hands on her hips.

"Hm..." She murmured thoughtfully.

"Uh, shouldn't we get, like, a pit of Fireworms or something to make this more interesting?" Snotlout yawned, leaning on Hookfang casually.

"Hookfang, fire!" Everest cried in delight.

The Monsterous Nightmare immediately engulfed himself in flames, setting his master's backside on fire.

"YEOW!" Snotlout dove into the nearest water trough, making a satisfying hissing noise as the fire was extinguished.

"Stop messing around," Astrid scolded them. "I'm trying to interrogate someone over here!"

"Look, I promise you I don't know anything about why we're here," I assured her. "And neither do any of my friends. We just want to find out how to get home."

"Do we really?" Winter called from across the arena. "I kinda like it here. It's like a dream come true!" She was sitting on Stormfly's back, leaning down and scratching the Nadder's cheek.

The bird-like dragon was making happy gurgling sounds, her eyes rolling up blissfully. Then Winter switched to scratch Stormfly's chin and she collapsed onto her belly. Winter leapt off gracefully and landed like a cat on both feet.

I sighed. "What about Mystical?" I reminded her. "Are you just gonna forget about her and your brothers and stay here forever?"

"My brothers, I could leave," Winter told me firmly.

"But Mystical...?" I prompted.

Winter thought for a moment, then drooped. "Yeah, okay, I guess I couldn't leave her. She's probably upset right now without me."

"That's what I thought," I said smugly.

"Who's Mystical?" Fishlegs asked curiously.

"My snowy owl," Winter replied glumly.

"You have a snowy owl?" Astrid asked. "That would mean you live somewhere cold, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, no, we live somewhere hot," Winter replied casually. I could see that Astrid was thinking hard about whether Winter was kidding or not.

"She's serious by the way," Moon added in helpfully.

"Well, okay," Astrid said uneasily. "And what island do you live on?"

"Let me just tell you you won't find it here," I said.

"Why?" Fishlegs inquired.

"Because." I paused. "I think it's in another world."