How to train your vessel - Book one

Welcoming party

"Are we there yet."

"No Snot, but we're 5 minutes closer than the last time you asked."

"Since you want to be all smart about it Fish, how do we know Hallownest isn't months away from us? We don't know how far or long that guy travels from home."

"Just have a little faith in the Wanderer, we'll get there eventually, even if it takes months this is our only chance."

The fact that only the Wanderer knew where Hallownest was became something everyone was painfully aware of, though it was certainly far enough from the fighting back home. Yet flying so far just to face the Exiles was something even Dagur, Alvin, Mala, Heather, the Wing maidens, and many others wished to forget about for as long as they could.

Weeks passed quickly without stop, the dragons would keep taking turns sleeping and carrying the boats and other structures to their destination, others and their riders would fly far ahead to gather extra food and water while all of Berk stayed far above the range of any arrows or catapults. Berk would fly over many battles on the trip, parents would teach their kids tactics by using the boats as examples. Hiccup was eventually ready to fly again, the Wanderer used Toothless to fly on his shift so Platinum would be able to guide everyone when they were off their shift. But as a result Hiccup and Platinum never got to see Toothless.

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Strange shadows danced across the ground, the small Light Fury didn't know why her friend was so content with walking when flying was so liberating. But now the bee's happy beach walks had brought them to looking for what cast these shadows. There was nothing in the area that could be responsible, there wasn't any trees or plants near by, they wouldn't look like that even if they were-

"... Gods I'm an idiot."

Looking upward the short-wing saw many large and small dots in the sky, some looked like dragons attached to giant cylinders, but that would be crazy. Her protector gazed upward with round optimistic eyes, he buzzed his wings over to her and they launched into the air with the trio of terrors close behind.

On the bright side the little dragon wasn't going crazy. Countless dragons swarmed around and lifted massive objects she'd only ever seen stone models of before. Being born and raised in an arena meant her life was stone and iron walls with windows mocking her with the outside, so wood was a strangely soothing sight. Even still she wanted to keep her distance, humans didn't bring good news.

Living in fear of a race vastly stronger than you, able to decide they don't want you anymore and sever your head was all too real for enslaved dragons. Born to feel weak and useless, raised to fear men, bred to serve them no matter what. The arena method was just the easiest way to enslave a dragon, her father was a farm work dragon from somewhere called Farloom, wings clipped and bred to be strong enough to plow and carry crops for red people. 

Her mother was considered a failure of a litter meant to serve the same lands queen, she wasn't big enough to be an intimidating guard and couldn't fight anyway because of deformation result of forced inbreeding. But she was forced to breed with her father because she had the speed wanted by the arena business. Fathers strength and mothers speed were the only reasons she lived, and she often questioned if she wanted to. At least things had improved with this stranger-

"Hey!"
"Hey!"

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a light blue Deadly Nadder with a blonde human on its back, apparently she had started gliding below the cloud line where she stood out against the ocean through the gaps in the clouds. Her little friend happily waved at the human and dragon, the former of which gave him a confused wave back.

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The little bee and Pale Wanderer seemed able to understand each other without speaking, the Wanderer started showing the bee how to fight. Astrid had helped multiple times, often as a sparring partner for the short vessel. At this point she could only hope and pray that eternal silence wasn't a trait all of Hallownest's inhabitants shared.

The only good news that came as of late was the fact they were a only few days away. In that time Astrid was training the young Light Fury, she made her a small bed from some animal furs and taught her some basic tricks like 'shoot' and 'bed time'. Thankfully the Light Fury was a very quick learner, but disturbingly obedient, doing too much without question in Astrid's opinion. Maybe someone had trained her to obey without question when she was young(er)? That could make her an arena dragon, perhaps one the bee rescued from the arena he attacked? If so Astrid will have to try to show her to have some free will... Somehow. 

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The small dragon was as skiddish around other dragons as she was around people. Understandable since the Light Fury being born and raised an arena dragon seemed increasingly likely. Thankfully she'd grown clingy to Astrid, Stormfly, and the orange-eyed Night Fury. Just a short-wing and she was slow to trust, but here she was happily cuddling up into a ball under Stormfly's wing while the bee tugged Astrid over. 

After the small fighter laid on her lap under Stormfly and next to the Light Fury, probably deciding he was going to keep her there for a while, they heard and felt a rumble. Astrid quickly got up and grabbed her ax while the bee did the same with his nail. Stormfly groomed and soothed the baby for a second before running topside with her rider.

Night Furies with horribly disgusting monsters on their backs flew through the air, the rumble definitely caused by a plasma shot going into the hull of one of the flying ships. Dragons panicked all around while Berks own Night Furies launched into the air, much to Astrid and Stormfly's dismay however, Toothless insisted on joining instead of getting rest like he'd supposed to have been doing for a while now.

The three attackers circled and weaved through the ships in vain attempts to shake the five defenders. One raider had his Night Fury spin around and bite the blue-eyed dragon while reaching out with a spear to slice the wing membrane and muscle of the pink-eyed shadow, bringing all three tumbling through the air as the raiders and defenders bit and clawed each other. 

Hiccup finally got to ride with Toothless after so long of having different schedules. But the second, four-scythed mantis with wings jumped off it's Night Fury and tackled him, throwing both off and away from any dragon. The dragon it was riding whipped around and grabbed Toothless, completely ignoring the alpha's orders to explain herself.