Heart of a Berserker: Trust (School of Dragons)

Chapter 10

A/N: I like Harald's boat. It's very fun-looking.

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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."– Mark Twain

Chapter 10

Harald and I wound down by relaxing in Fishlegs' hot tub. Bolt and Leopold really enjoyed it as well! Fishlegs chattered on about random dragon facts, to which Harald took great interest. All in all, it was quite relaxing after the hard work of the morning.

Finally, we approached Hiccup at the center of camp, dragons by our sides. "Hey, Brennda," he greeted me. "Astrid said you've been doing... training?"

I shrugged. "Training, having fun..."

"Testing me," Harald said.

I feigned a look of shock. "And why would I do that?"

Hiccup frowned. "Brennda..."

"I'm afraid she doesn't like me very much," said Harald.

To this, Hiccup smiled. "Oh no. If she didn't like you, you'd receive polite indifference. She doesn't waste energy on those not worth her time."

I glared at him. First of all, how did he know that? Second, why did he have to give me away like that? Third, why did he have to be right? I was perfectly happy living in denial.

"Good to know, mate," Harald said, giving me a sly smile.

I crossed my arms in annoyance. "Anyway, what are we doing?"

"I want to see how well you two work with your dragons," Hiccup said. Toothless stepped forward, and the Viking took a flower from his jaws. "Dragons like flowers, so you will work with yours to find some. But it has to be this flower." He held out the blue flower for us to see. "It's a chrysanthemum, and it grows in the winter. It comes in a variety of colors, any of which will work for our purposes."

"Is it a competition then?" I said.

"Yes. I want to see which pair can find the most flowers."

I glanced at Harald to see if he found the whole idea stupid, but he had on his usual cocky smirk. "Sounds easy," he said.

"You're on," I muttered. He was even confident about flowers. I had to beat him now.

"I'll give you 15 minutes," Hiccup said. "Good luck."

Bolt and I dashed into the woods. It took a minute for me to realize we had to slow down if we actually wanted to find any flowers. Bolt put his nose to the ground while my eyes scanned for flowers. The chrysanthemums stood out because not many flowers bloomed in winter. Soon, I had a handful and Bolt had a mouthful.

We stopped when Hiccup and Toothless landed in front of us. "Time's up," Hiccup said. "It looks like you two did well."

I grinned. "We sure did!"

"Let's go find Harald and Leopold."

I took to the air after him, feeling pretty confident. There was no way Harald could beat me with his little dragon. Bolt and I were the best team. We found them at the edge of the treeline. They had their backs to us, but when we landed, they turned around. I looked in surprise to see them with no flowers.

"Did you not take this seriously at all?" I said.

Harald smirked. "I took this very seriously, mate. Show them, Leopold."