บท 10: Chapter 10: Knowing him part 1

Astrid woke up quite later than usual. She stretched a bit while sitting on the bed and then got off the bed and walked over to the window to see the outside. She was shocked when she noticed it was almost midday. Back at Berk she would wake up early in the morning everyday, but for some reason she slept longer today. She quickly went down stairs and saw Fishlegs quitely eating a piece of bread and some boiled eggs while reading a book. The twins were fighting over something and Snotlout was watching them fighting.

"Good morning guys." Astrid said as she approached them.

"Hey Astrid." Fishlegs greeted her.

"Hey." The twins greeted her and returned back to fighting.

"You're looking great babe." Snotlout tried to flirt but one glare from Astrid shut him up.

"Where's Hiccup?" Astrid asked.

"Well he went out after preparing our breakfast. He said he had some work to do." Tuffnut said as he got up from the ground as he and his sister had stopped fighting.

"Gotta say, this book is very interesting. It has so much information on the natural habitats and eating habits." Fishlegs said in amazement.

"Shut it Fish. No one in here is interested in all that nerdy stuff." Snotlout laughed.

"Where did you get that from?" Astrid asked Fishlegs as she pointed towards the book in his hands.

"Oh this. Hiccup gave me it when he saw me wandering in the library." Fishlegs said.

"Wait, there's a library in here!?" Everyone in the room asked with shock.

"How boring." Tuffnut said.

"Yeah. I can't believe Hiccup is so…...nerdy." Snotlout said.

"Nerdy but hot." Ruffnut said as she began daydreaming about Hiccup.

Snotlout, Tuffnut, Astrid and Fishlegs gave her a weird look. Feeling their looks Ruffnut snapped out of her trance.

"Uh, I, uh, I am going out for a walk." Ruffnut awkwardly said and quickly left the house.

Others kept staring at her as she left and when she did, they returned back to what they were doing. Astrid went to the bathroom and washed her face. After finishing her breakfast with a few slices of bread and two boiled eggs she left the house to look for Hiccup. She first checked the forge but he wasn't there. She just found some big crates. She left the forge and followed a dirt path leading towards a nearby hill. She followed the path and after a few minutes she found herself in a rocky field on the side of the hill. There were trees scattered around. After a few minutes of walking on the dirt path she saw Ruffnut lying on her stomach on the ground. She was watching something. Seeing this Astrid decided to check out what's going on.

"Ruffnut!" Astrid called out as she walked towards her friend.

Ruffnut looked back and saw her. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Astrid.

"What are you doing here?" Astrid asked.

"Shhh. You will make him aware of us." Ruffnut whisper yelled.

This got Astrid curious.

"Who is him?" She asked in a low voice.

"Come and have a look for yourself." Ruffnut said in an equally low voice.

Astrid walked over to Ruffnut and saw that she was lying next to a huge hole in the ground. She crouched beside Ruffnut and saw inside the hole. But what she saw made her eyes go wide. The hole in the ground was as big as the Cove near Ravens point but it had smooth Stone brick made walls and floor, similar to the kill ring back at Berk. But that's not the shocking part. The shocking part was that Hiccup and Toothless were inside the hole. Hiccup was shirtless and had a big sack tied to his back which probably contained weights and was doing push-ups while Toothless was watching him and growling lightly everytime Hiccup did a push-up.

Astrid just stayed like that as she watched Hiccup doing workout.

"Woah, since when did he start doing workout?" Someone said in a low voice.

Astrid got freaked out and her instincts kicked in as she turned around and grabbed whoever that person was behind her and proceeded to punch that person. But she stopped when she saw that the person she grabbed was Tuffnut. Snotlout and Fishlegs were also standing near them.

"Astrid it's me." Tuffnut fearfully said.

"What are you doing here?" Astrid demanded.

"We got bored by staying indoors so we decided to take a stroll and found this dirt path which led us to here and we saw you two watching something so we came here to check what's happening." Snotlout blurted out fearfully.

"I was perfectly fine with staying at home." Fishlegs said.

"Shut it guys. Hiccup just stopped doing push-ups." Ruffnut quietly said.

All of them stopped and returned back to watching Hiccup.

Hiccup's P.O.V

"And 100." Toothless said as I did my final push-up.

In the past five years, with the help of Toothless I learnt how to talk to Dragons and understand what they're saying. I call this language Dragonese. It makes interacting with Dragons a lot easier and the Dragons trust me more because of that.

(A/N:- Whenever someone is speaking in Dragonese the dialogues will be in italics and underlined.

Example-Normal speech= Hello there.

Dragonese= Hello there.)

"Finally." I said as I sat on the floor and began to untie the sack on my back "100 Push-ups are done."

I dropped the sack beside me and the rocks inside it spilled out of it. I wiped off some sweat from my forehead as I tried to regain my breath.

"Come on Hiccup. You need to stay strong and fit. And don't dare to say that the axe wound is hurting. I know that it's all healed up." Toothless said in a stern tone.

"You're starting to sound like an annoying trainer." I said out of annoyance.

"Come on get up. You still have one more exercise to do before you spar with the pack." Toothless barked.

"Okay, okay. Give me a few moments to rest at least." I said.

Ever since I ran away from Berk I began to workout every day to improve my strength and physical abilities. Toothless has been making sure that I don't skip a single day. At first it was easy but as I grew older Toothless started making the exercises harder. After resting for some time I got up and walked over to the wall of the training arena. There were two metal rods sticking out of the wall. I had attached them on the wall when I built this arena to do pull-ups. I grabbed the rods and began to do pull-ups.

Normal P.O.V

The gang was in shock. They were already gaping when they heard how many push-ups Hiccup did. But when they saw Hiccup doing pull-ups their jaws were hitting the ground. In a matter of some time Hiccup had done 50 pull-ups.

Hiccup's P.O.V

I dropped on the floor after doing 50 pull-ups. Today's workout is almost over. There is only one last thing to do. I took deep breaths and swung and shook my arms to get rid of the pain and tiredness.

"Ready for the final thing Hiccup?" Toothless asked.

"I was born ready." I said as I felt well rested.

Just then Toothless let out a mighty roar. In a few moments I heard the sound of wings flapping. I looked up into the sky and there I saw four familiar Dragons. Those Dragons were none other than Hookfang, Stormfly, Meatlug and Barf and Belch. Hookfang is a Monstrous Nightmare with red scales, Stormfly is a Deadly Nadder with blue and golden yellow scales, Meatlug is Gronkle with brown scales and Barf and Belch are a Zippleback with green scales. Barf is the right head and Belch is the left head. They were the very same Dragons that I had rescued from the kill ring five years ago. Over the te we bonded quite well. They landed in the arena and surrounded me as Toothless walked over to the other side of the arena.

"Ready for today, fleshy?" Hookfang smugly said.

"Oh come on Hookfang. You know it's not that easy to defeat me anymore." I said.

"Remember the rules guys. No maiming each other, no fire breathing." Meatlug reminded everyone with concern.

"Don't worry about that Meatlug. It's just a friendly spar." I told her.

"You may begin when I give the signal." Toothless said.

I got into a battle stance along with the Dragons. Toothless let out a roar and with that the spar began. I and Hookfang ran towards each other. He swung his right wing, trying to hit me with his claw but I duck under it. I then punched him hard in the jaw. Hookfang took a step back as I punched him two more times with both of my hands. He tried to bite me but I stepped aside just in time to avoid it. I then kicked his head. Hookfang's head hit the floor as I backed away. I then heard a squeak and looked back to see Stormfly charging at me. I quickly stepped aside as she tried to bite me and punched her in the face and backed away a bit. Just then Meatlug rammed into me, throwing me away. I dropped on the floor and rolled away a bit. I got up back on my feet and Barf and Belch in front of me. They turned around and swatted me with their tails. The impact made me skid back a bit. I then got up back on my feet and ran towards Barf and Belch. They only had enough time to look back at me as I jump kicked Barf. Before I fell on the floor I pushed my leg forward against Barf's face and pushed myself back as I did a backflip and dropped on the floor. Before Belch could comprehend what happened I ran towards them and jumped on top of Barf's neck and jumped again to reach Belch's height and punched him. I landed on the floor and without waiting another moment I turned towards Barf and Belch and grabbed Belch who was dazed because of the punch and slammed him on the ground.

Belch went unconscious but Barf was still awake. So before he could do anything I grabbed him and scratched him in his sweet spot under his head, making him go unconscious. I then looked forward and saw Meatlug and Stormfly ready to charge at me.

"Come on! Hit me!" I shouted as I walked towards them.

Stormfly raised her spikes and shot them at me. I ran aside to avoid the spikes. I saw that Meatlug was flying towards me so I ran towards her and when I was close enough I grabbed her lower jaw and skid aside as I dragged her downwards. Meatlug crashes on the floor and flips over.

"Two down, two more to go." I thought with a smirk.

Stormfly growled a bit and then ran towards me. I charged at her and skid under her and swept one of her legs from under her. Stormfly crashed on the floor, right on her face. Before she could get up I sat on her neck and scratched her sweet spot. I then got off her and turned around to face Hookfang.

"Looks like it's just you and me." Hookfang said.

"Don't try it." I warned him.

"You underestimate my power." Hookfang said and flew towards me and shot a blast of fire towards me.

I barely managed to avoid it as he landed in front of me. I managed to avoid the barrages of attacks he threw at me and backflipped away from him.

"Hey! That's against the rules!" I exclaimed.

"Do I look like I play by the rules?" Hookfang smugly said and ran towards me.

I was kind of expecting this from Hookfang. I avoided his attacks and then punched him in the face as hard as I could. Hookfang dropped on the floor but tried to get up. He was dazed, so I took advantage of the moment and punched him a couple more times and finally interlocked both of my hands and brought them up and slammed them down on hookfang's head. Hookfang dropped on the floor unconscious.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Today's champion is Hiccup!" Toothless teasingly exclaimed.

I laughed at this and Toothless also joined me.

Normal P.O.V

Astrid and her friends were both shocked and amazed. They had seen Hiccup taking down Dragons in the kill ring during their Dragon training 5 years ago. But bare handedly defeating a Monstrous Nightmare, a Deadly Nadder, a Gronkle and a Zippleback all at the same time is on a different level.

"That was awesome!" Both Tuffnut and Ruffnut said in a low voice.

"I have never seen Uncle Stoick do something as badass as that." Snotlout gasped.

"Is it just me, or was Hiccup really talking to those Dragons." Fishlegs Suddenly said.

"What do you mean fish?" Tuff asked.

"Didn't you notice how he was talking to the Dragons while sparring? Or with Toothless. It's like he can understand them." Fishlegs explained.

"Yeah, that is weird." Tuffnut said.

"Guys, he has been living with Dragons for the past 5 years and has been studying them. Maybe he figured out a way to understand what the Dragons are saying." Astrid said.

Hiccup's P.O.V

The Dragons slowly got up. With our spar my training is complete for today so I decided to leave. There were some things I needed to take care of. But I couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. My instincts are almost never wrong and I know it is not the Dragons. So I quickly climbed up the walls of the arena and found Astrid and her friends on the ground above the arena. They were talking among themselves and didn't notice me. I sneakily made my way towards them and suddenly appeared in front of them. This startled the gang. Snotlout and Fishlegs even screamed.

"Relax guys. It's just me." I said as I chuckled.

"Hiccup!" Astrid angrily said and walked over to me and punched my arm.

The punch hurt a bit but I have endured harder hits. But it looked like the punch hurt Astrid more than me.

"Damn, is this arm even real? Why the heck does my hand hurt so much after I punched you?" She said as she shook her hand.

"Uh, because of the muscles I guess." I joked.

Suddenly Ruffnut grabbed my arm and began massaging it.

"Oooh, you have some really tough muscles." Ruffnut weirdly said.

I pulled my arm out of her grasp and awkwardly said,"Thanks…. I guess." I heard some noises looked at my left and saw Toothless snickering. I just rolled my eyes and said,"Come on let's go. I have some work to do."

I left that place and walked towards the forge followed Astrid and her friends. Toothless was walking by my side.

"So mind if I ask why were you guys spying on me?" I Asked.

"We actually got bored in the house so we decided to explore the island and stumbled upon you." Fishlegs quickly said.

That sounds like a logical explanation.

"Uh huh." I said.

"So Hiccup, do you train like that every day?" Astrid asked.

"Yup." I replied.

"Wait. Like that! Everyday!" Astrid almost shouted.

Turned around to face her and started walking back as I spoke.

"Yeah. It begins with a 5 mile run in the woods above the hill. After that I do 100 squats, 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups and finally a little spar with the Dragons." I casually said.

"Those Dragons, they looked kinda familiar." Fishlegs said.

"Actually those Dragons who were sparring with me in the arena were the same Dragons I had rescued from the kill ring at Berk." I told them.

"Wait, you were that guy who rescued those Dragons 5 years ago!?" Tuffnut exclaimed.

"Yup." I said and turned around and walked properly and said "Guys I have some work to do, so I am gonna go. You may explore the island but don't harm the Dragons." And left them.

I hoped on Toothless and he flew me to the forge. There four Nightmares were already waiting for me.

"Hey guys." I greeted them.

"Hello Hiccup." They greeted me back.

"Okay. It's time." I told them.

I then brought out the crates stored inside the forge. Most of the crates contained swords, daggers, shields, armours and single-handed axes made by me. While the others have things like expensive sea shells, and expensive stones normally used to make jewellery. I loaded the crates on the satchel on the back of the Nightmares. When it was done I mounted Toothless and we all flew towards the sea shore.

(A few minutes later)

After a short flight we were flying above the sea shore. I looked around and soon found Trader Johann's ship anchored at the shore. Johann used to be a secret Dragon hunter. But he along with some other Dragon hunters joined me and became my allies. Johann is quite helpful. He can bring me resources I can't easily find on the island. Like high-quality leather, paper, books, ink, and metals which can't be found in Archipelago.

I landed near his ship and Johann came out of his ship.

"Ah, Master Hiccup! It's been so long since we met!" Johann greeted.

"Johann, I told you a thousand times that you don't have to call me Master Hiccup. Just call me Hiccup." I said as I dismounted Toothless.

"And you know that I am gonna call you Master Hiccup anyway." Johann said.

We both chuckled a bit at that.

"So, you got what I asked for?" I asked him.

"Yes Master Hiccup. I have got the leather, books, metal and other materials you asked for. Hope you have the payment." Johann said as he gestured to the goods kept on his ship.

"Yes I do." I said as I gestured to the crates on the back of the Nightmares.

"Then what are we waiting for!?" Johann loudly said and soon the crates were on his ship and the crates and satchels he brought me were on the back of my Dragons.

"It's always a pleasure to do buisness with you Master Hiccup. I will be looking forward for our next meeting." Johann said as he set sail for another island.

I mounted Toothless and we all made our way back to the forge. After unloading the cargo I and Toothless went back to our house to have a little snack. When we reached there we found the gang inside the living room.

"You guys are here? I thought you wanted to explore the island?" I asked them as I entered the room.

"Well yeah, but we had a problem." Snotlout said.

"Well you see Hiccup, we aren't much familiar with this place and we don't want to get into trouble…" Ruffnut began.

"What we want to say is, can you please show us around?" Astrid suddenly said.

I just stood there staring at them, unable to comprehend what just happened.