They call me the Commander

Stubborn Dragon

We spent the next half hour revisiting our old stories of hunting and searching for trolls, pranking villagers and getting into trouble. Our laughter echoed throughout the cave. I hadn't felt so happy in ages.

Another thing that had changed about Hiccup was scars. Scars and burns of all different sizes littered his face and neck.

Hiccup must have caught me glancing at the little white lines sprinkled on his face.

"The one downside of leaving Berk." He ran his finger over a scar that stretched over his palm. "it's much more dangerous."

"How do you manage to get so many scars?" I queried.

"Oh, y'know, Swordfights, Torture, untamed dragons, that sort of thing..."

"Torture?!" I exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, yes. They think it's the best way to get the answer they want out of me. But, it's never worked." He shrugged.

"Who is they Hiccup?" I asked.

When I said that, his face contorted into a scowl.

"Grimmel the Grisly and his men."

"What do they want from you?" I looked him in the eye.

"He wants me to train him a dragon army," his eyes flashed with hatred. "Which I'll never, ever do."

"Except," He continued, "They've been at it for a while now. And Grimmel has proved that he means business. He has armadas of ships full of cages that could hold 3 times the dragons I have. He's sneaky and smart and won't let anything get in his way, not a life, nor a soul. He is pure evil with a capital E."

"Speaking of evil, have you heard of Dagur the deranged? He raids, taunts and robs us on Berk." I said.

His eyebrows raised. "Have I heard of Dagur the deranged? Of course, I have! Though, he calls me 'brother' too much. And he still raids you? I told him he should stop that, but hey, he's a berserker so he will definitely not listen to me! Though, Berserkers make good allies..."

"You're allied with him?!" I was disgusted.

"I most certainly am. I pretty much just beat the heck outta him and he said 'let's be friends!' Boom. Easy."

"But he's-"

"Insane, deranged, unreasonable and utterly, completely mad. I know." He smirked. "While him and his sister live o-"

"Sister?!?" I cried.

"Yes, sister. Her name is Heather and she has black hair, green eyes, a Razorwhip called Windshear and a double-sided axe."

"Sheesh. Where is everyone else?" I said.

He turned around. "No idea. Let's go find them. But first, I bet you can't catch me!" he said, a playful smile on his lips.

"Challenge accepted!" I called, running after him.

I saw him dash into the forest, so I followed him. I was always faster than Hiccup, but honestly, I think he would be faster now. The only sound he made was the creaking of his prosthetic foot's hinges. I lost sight of him for a couple of minutes and I continued to run in the way I last saw him. Eventually, I lost him and stood under a tree to catch my breath. "Fine! You win!" I called into the forest.

Something hard hit me on the head and landed on the ground. An acorn. I waited for Hiccup the reveal himself from wherever he was hiding. Another acorn rebounded of my head.

Then another.

And another.

I looked up in the tree and Hiccup was crouched on a branch, holding a handful of acorns. He dropped them all on my head.

"Ow! You idiot!"

He cocked his head and smiled. He advanced down the branches of the tree and when he got to the lowest one, he stopped. The lowest branch was above my head by one and a bit of my arm's length.

He swung down so that he hung by the branch by his knees. His face was level with mine except he was upside down. "For once, I win!" he said, grinning. He tilted his head suddenly and became quiet. "Do you hear that?"

I concentrated on trying to hear what he could. "No..."

"I think I know where your friends are." To my surprise, he didn't pull himself up back onto the branch to get off, but let go of the wood with his legs and dropped onto his hands. If I had tried to do that, I'd probably break my arms. He walked on his hands away from the tree before standing back up.

"Are you sure you can't hear anything?" he asked, tilting his head once more.

"No."

"See, if you turn your head like this," he put his fingers under my chin and tilted my head. "And listen."

I heard a faint yelling in the distance, probably from Snotlout.

"How did you know that?" I asked, fascinated.

"All it is, is moving your head in the right way, so you can catch soundwaves. I learnt it from dragons."

"Dragons?"

"Yes. Dragons taught me everything that we didn't get taught on Berk. Like how to be really quiet when needed, how to climb trees and how to trap fish without weapons. Actually, pretty much every change I've had since leaving Berk. Well, except dragonese. I always knew that."

"Dragonese? What is that?"

"Well, it's simple, the dragon's language."

" The tongue of the mighty dragon! Sweet thor, we have to tell Fishlegs!" I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the sound of Snotlout's screams.

The gang were at the water's edge trying to catch fish. Toothless was slumbering away by the poorly fire.

As we stumbled onto the beach, the gang looked at Hiccup.

"Hiccup, your dragon is broken! We told him to get fish and he didn't!" she pointed at Toothless and stomped her foot like an angry toddler.

"Maybe if-" I said as I walked to Toothless.

"Hey Toothless?" Toothless opened one eye. "Can you please get me a fish?" I smiled and scratched his chin. Toothless warbled and ambled toward the sea. He returned 30 seconds later with a fish in his teeth. He came, dropped it at my feet, and continued to sleep.

"See, easy!" I sung, waving the fish in Ruff's face.

"How did you do that?" Tuff said.

"Because she treated him nicely. Toothless is stubborn and will not do what you want until he gets what he wants" Hiccup replied.