Land of the Dragons (HTTYD Fanfiction)

Chapter 10

This may very well be my favorite chapter in the book so far! I spent ages working on this interaction, because doing this right is integral!

Since the day had been completely full, dragon riding and team training had been moved to Day 5, and the afternoon trial period switched to evening. When the team hour had finished, every Berkian had managed to find a team, and went home with new friendships.

The tightest of the bonds by far, however, was the friendships of Soren and Lila's team, or the A-Team, as the original riders now called them.

Hiccup had discovered the concept of the A-Team back at Berk, in room where Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III had explained all about the adventures he had, up until the time when they left Berk.

Ever since Hiccup had heard it, the idea had been tickling in the back of his mind. But it hadn't been until the formulation of the rescue plan had come that he had figured out how he might do it. So, when he watched the group of six riders bond, he knew he had found them.

When the hour was over, the Berkians headed to dinner, and the original riders hung back to discuss. When everyone was gone, they waited, then burst out talking.

"What should we do about the A-Team?" All the other riders were familiar with the concept. "I don't thing we should tell them," Christopher reasoned, "Training them like all the others will increase their skills more than getting special leeway. We can train them independently after the patrols are secured." Hiccup nodded. "Seems like a good idea to me."

~/|\~

Soren woke up to a different unfamiliar ceiling.

This one was black and leathery, and right above his head. He tapped it curiously, and it shrank away, unfolding to reveal his normal room. "Hey bud!" he said, climbing out of Darkfyre's wings. Darkfyre moaned, and tried to roll to his feet, then collapsed on the floor again. Night Furies were not morning dragons.

Soren practically had to drag Darkfyre out of his hut, and to the Great Hall. But when Darkfyre saw the feeding station, he immediately brightened, and bounded off to eat.

Now free of the weight, Soren was able to enter the Great Hall at a normal pace, and was beckoned over by Lila, who had already saved their team a table.

"What took you so long?" she asked. Soren groaned. "I had to drag a Night Fury all the way here because he didn't want to get up! I don't know what they do in the wild!" "Sleep, probably." Lila smirked, "They are, after all, Night Furies!"

"Actually, I believe I can second that!" Philip said, as he plopped down. Christopher lent me some of Hiccup III's notes on Night Furies, and he says "The only way to get a Night Fury up at a reasonable time is by bribing them with a lot of fish, or blackmailing them with a bucket of water. The latter usually ends up with the rider soaked, not the dragon, though."

Lila laughed. "Well, good luck doing that every morning!" Stefen, Ruffnut and Tuffnut took this moment to plop down at the table. "So!" Stefen said, "What do you think we'll be doing today?" "Hopefully something with awesome destruction!!!" Ruffnut said. "Actually, I think that was mostly yesterdays thing," Soren commented. "Awww!" Tuffnut said. Lila laughed, and they went back to eating.

The day did, in fact, start with destruction. Annie spent the whole morning teaching people how to ride. It started as chaos, and didn't get much better as time went on.

The Berkians would attempt to mount, but the dragons were not used to being mounted, so they would accidentally buck their riders off. By lunchtime, the Berkians all had plenty of bruises, and no dragon riding experience.