Defying The Rules

Questions and Dragon killing training

Thalos took heavy, slow breaths as he looked at the massive, blue dragon. He didn't make a sound. The beast stared at him a few moments, then slid its head along the bottom of Thalos's arm, moving closer to his chest.

The Viking gave a nervous grin and slowly pet the Xeno'jiiva's head. The dragon pressed its nose against Thalos's chest, moving it around and sticking it into his vest. It was then Thalos realized the dragon only wanted more fish.

"Sorry." He said, his hand still on the dragon's head. "I don't have any more."

The dragon looked up at him, and in that moment, the creature jolted its head and sneezed, covering Thalos with mucus. The Viking clamped his eyes shut and took his hand off the dragon. He groaned and gave a frown of disgust.

Thalos wiped his eyes and slowly opened them, looking at his snot-covered body. "This is disgusting.." He mumbled, only to look up at the dragon and see it lift its head and give a slightly higher pitched roar. Was it laughing at him? Seriously? Could a dragon even laugh?

"Are you going to sneeze on me every time I touch you?" Thalos asked the dragon, quite a bit annoyed.

Thalos did notice something odd about the mucus though. It was blue. In fact, it was a light blue, similar to the color of the dragon itself. It wasn't green like most dragons' snot would be. Thalos shook his head. That didn't matter. What mattered was that he was covered in slimy, gross, snot.

Shouldn't Snotlout be the one getting sneezed on? After all, the word "snot" is in his name. He's practically begging for it.

Thalos started trying to wipe off some of the snot off of his body. He would certainly have to change clothes before Dragon Killing Training today.

Then he thought a moment. Wasn't it kind of ironic that he had Dragon Killing Training, but was frequently visiting a dragon and not trying to kill it? He wasn't even telling anyone about it. He was feeding it and petting it. What was wrong with him? That went against any kind of Viking tradition.

Come to think of it, he hadn't even really had a reason, life-involved wise, to try kill the dragon. It had never really tried to hurt him. For the most part, it left him alone, aside from the last couple of times he came here. It had actually protected him from a wild Monstrous Nightmare! That wasn't anything like dragons he had seen or heard being talked about.

Why was the Xeno'jiiva so different? Why hadn't it tried to kill him? Was it because he never attacked it? Thalos never really had the guts to pick up his ax in its presence. Maybe it never saw Thalos as too much of a threat?

He shook his head. He really didn't have time to stand here forever and think about this kind of thing. Dragon Killing Training did start soon, and he couldn't be late. He didn't want to gain that kind of reputation.

Thalos looked up at the dragon, only to see it sniffing around. "I have to go." He finally said. The dragon lifted its head up from the ground and snorted.

Thalos waved to the dragon and started heading back. He tried to be quick. He didn't have much time to waste. He got in his raft, rowed to the beach, got off, and jogged back to the village.

Once he got there, he made his way to his hut. As quickly as he could, he changed clothes and washed his face and hair. Who knows how thorough his job was, but he didn't care at this point. His arm was throbbing from all the movement, but he ignored it and kept going.

Once he was cleaned up, he grabbed his axe and headed to the Arena. Everyone was already there, aside from Hiccup. That made him feel a little better. At least he wasn't the last one here-not that Hiccup was the best person to compare himself too. However, it was only about a minute or so longer before Hiccup actually came in.

"About time." Gobber said to Hiccup, a little bit of annoyance in his voice. He looked towards the group then walked over to one of the levers to one of the gates. He put everyone in a group.

The one legged and armed man handed everyone a bucket full of water. The Vikings looked at them in a bit of confusion.

"Today is about teamwork." Gobber said, pulling the lever, giving way to massive puffs and clouds of green-ish colored smoke. "Work together and you might survive." He said.

"Well that's comforting.." Thalos heard Snotlout mumble. Thalos just rolled his eyes.

"Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which." Gobber continued.

The teens stayed in their groups and stuck together. The groups parted and separated from each other due to the lack of visibility through the smoke. Astrid was with Ruffnut, Fishlegs was with Hiccup, and Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Thalos were a group.

Thalos could hear some of the people from the other groups whispering. The tension and nervousness radiating off everybody was pretty obvious. It was one thing to fight a dragon with one head when you could see it, but it was another to fight a dragon with two heads when you can't see it.

"Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attack, crushing its victims in its..." Thalos heard Fishlegs start to whisper, until Hiccup cut him off, in an annoyed and stressed tone.

"Will you please stop that!?"

Thalos turned to Snotlout when he started speaking loudly. "If that dragon shows either of his faces, I'm gonna-" He paused when shadowed figures started to come up in the fog. "There!" Snotlout shrieked.

"Wai-" Thalos started to speak, but Snotlout threw his bucket of water at one of the figures.

"Hey!" Astrid shouted, both her and Ruffnut coming into clear view.

"It's us, idiots!" Ruffnut said angrily. Both she and Astrid were soaked.

"Your butts are getting bigger. We thought you were a dragon." Tuffnut, Ruffnut brother said with a snicker. The two girls glared.

"Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure." Snotlout added quickly in attempts to make amends with his crush, Astrid.

However, that didn't help at all, for Astrid elbowed him in the stomach and Ruffnut threw her bucket of water at Tuffnut. It was clear the two were angry. They were about to hit Thalos, but he managed to plead his innocence.

Suddenly, something grabbed Tuffnut and dragged him into the fog. He screamed and everyone's fear level increased dramatically. Astrid froze. "Wait" she whispered, tense and on edge.

Out of now where, a tail came in and slid under everyone's feet, causing both the girls, Thalos, and Snotlout to fall to the ground. Tuffnut shot out of the cloud of smoke in a stumbling run, shouting, "Ohh I am hurt! I am very much hurt!!"

By now, Hiccup and Fishlegs had come up upon the group. They were both freaking out. Thalos groaned and started sitting up. His, Astrid's, and Snotlout's water was all on the ground. Now all that was left was Fishlegs's and Hiccup's. If Thalos was honest, he wasn't exactly happy with those odds.

"Our chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now.." Fishlegs says fearfully, huddling close to Hiccup. Many sounds and rustles could be heard. What was horrifying was the fact that the teens couldn't see anything through the fog.

"Look out!" Hiccup shouted to Thalos. Thalos glanced over and saw a green head attached to a long, green neck coming in his direction. He quickly rolled out of the way, and the head started moving towards Fishlegs.