Ch. 12- Returning to Dragon Training

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"Oh, look who's finally back," Twinkle, a boy from my class, said, bitterly. He wore dark brown pants with a lighter brown shirt, his straight hair stopping a few inches past his shoulders.

I wasn't very well liked in my class, and my extended absence from my injury didn't help my popularity at all. The other kids were jealous because I was allowed to skip class. They didn't understand how much pain it took for me to do so.

"It's about time you showed up, dork," Periwinkle, Twinkle's girl twin, said in the same tone. She had the same hair length when her hair was braided, as it always was, and had similar clothes to her twin, though they fought a lot. They were Ruffnut's and Snoutlout's kids and had never really like me for a) being shy and never talking to them much and b) being the chief's only daughter. They got all the other kids to hate me as well, not that I cared much. They'd be even more jealous if they knew I had a secret pet Night Fury.

"Yeah, dork," Comet, another boy, shoved me. He was tough, being the youngest of six, with short black hair that stuck out a few inches from underneath his helmet, a big mouth, and a few freckles across his slightly chubby cheeks. He had a thin brown long sleeve shirt and a darker shade of brown pants.

Hachette and Yorkie snickered, softer than the twins but still did. Hachette and Yorkie are brother and sister. Hachette's original parents died soon after she was born and was adopted by Yorkie's birth parents. They were a few months apart in age and rarely fought. Both were intelligent when it came to dragons, Hachette knew a bit about plants and other wildlife as well. They were Fishlegs' kids though, so who could blame them. Hachette had long brown hair and matching eyes she kept in a high ponytail, she had on a blue skirt with brown leggings and a light purple shirt. Yorkie had short blonde hair and blue eyes like his father. As usual, he wore a blue short sleeve shirt and brown pants. They were usually the nicest ones to me, not bullying me in anyway, just standing on the sidelines, watching.

"Now, now," Gobber interrupted, "None of that," he said, helping me up. "Dragon training it starting."

Unlike when dad was a little kid, we didn't harm or kill dragons. We learned all about them and from time to time did an lesson with a dragon, learning what to do with wild dragons or something like that.

Normally I just sat there and drew, waiting for class to be let out. But every now and then I surprised everyone with my knowledge.

Today's assignment, survival with a wild dragon. A trained Nadder was what we were practicing against. Easy, I yawned playfully.

The faster this assignment was over the faster and longer I would be able to get to Emerald.

I quickly got into its blind spot before someone else distracted it. I quickly scratched the top of its rough neck before scratching once on the underneath. In pleasure, the Nadder fell to the ground, purring.

Even though everyone should have known how to do that simple trick, they all stared at me.

"Its that it?" I asked, awkwardly. "Because I, uh, have to, um, go. Okay, bye!" I dashed out of there and headed back home.

"Hey, Star, how was school?" mom asked, caring to Stoick II.

"Good. I'm going to go see Emerald," I said, rushing up to my room, grabbing my two main journals from under my bed before closing it and shoving them in my bag before running out the door.

"Bye," I barely heard mom call.

I made it Emerald in record time, crying about how mean the other kids were to me, again. Em waited patiently, an arm slightly around me as I cried on her shoulder, for my emotions to disappear again. "Thanks, Emmy," I said, petting her head when my emotions were back in check.

As a reward to her, and for happiness and freedom for me, we headed to the clouds.

"Ready, Em?" I asked before closing her tail as I took my foot out of its holder and jumping off her, eyes closed.

As I fell towards the wavy blue ocean, I felt stress and care free. When I opened my eyes I was still quite a way from the ocean and saw Emerald next to me, also heading head first into the choppy waters. She looked into my eyes as I laughed, seeming to be laughing herself as she gave me a gummy, toothless smile.

That smile was why dad named his Night Fury Toothless.

Gently, Emerald pushed my shoulder with her paw, making me turn in circles while free falling. Soon enough, she turned so I could get on her back and I got on, opening her tail in a nick of time. Her tail barely hitting the water as we flew just barely above it.

An eel jumped out of the water and made Emerald do a weird twist to get away from it. Dragons hated eels. Eels made them horribly sick. I've never seen how sick, but dad has when he was fifteen and Toothless ate an eel. He said it was not pretty and to never go to eel island with a dragon.

"Okay, okay, Em. Calm down. Let's go back to the clouds where there are no eels." Gladly, she quickly shot up.

I was so caught up in the joy of flying, that I didn't notice someone else was up there with me.

I was wearing my flight suit and mask so they didn't know who I was.

Emerald and I were just above the clouds. Every now and then I'd lean over and touch the wet clouds.

I leaned back, lying down on Emerald, enjoying the sun from up here.

All of a sudden, a head appears from the cloud, then the rest of the body. Slowly and steadily until the bottom of their feet touched the top of the cloud, making it look like they were standing on the cloud. I sat up on Emerald, who stopped flying and faced the mysterious figure. (Like when Hiccup first saw Valka in the second movie. Pretend she's also wearing the same outfit)

"Who are you?" I asked, making my voice sound different then my normal one.

Then the figure slowly sank back down.

"Okay, Em. That was creepy. Let's get outta here, 'kay girl!" I screamed on 'girl' pulling the word to make it a bit longer as I was pulled off my dragon. "Emerald!" I cried, watching as her tail closed shut and she fell through the clouds. "Emerald, no!" I tried to be free of the dragon's claws that were wrapped securely around my skinny arms.

"Hey!" I shouted up to its rider, the figure I had seen just moments before. "Hey! We have to go back! My dragon can't fly without me! She'll drown in the ocean!"

I was returned silence.

"Hey!" I shouted, louder. "My dragon! We have to get my dragon! Please! She's my best friend! My only friend! Please! She can't fly on her own! She'll die! We have to go save her!"

My cries went by unanswered. The rider simply ignored me until we landed at a nearby island.

The dragon set me on the ground before landing a few feet away. The rider slowly walked down the wing.

The dragon looked like Cloudjumper, grandma Valka's dragon. I narrowed my eyes at them for a few seconds before I heard another set of wings flapping close by.

I turned around to see Toothless set Emerald gently on the ground before landing next to her.

"Emmy!" I gasped, hugging her. "Oh I'm so glad you're okay! I thought for sure you'd drown! Oh I'm so sorry! I thought I'd lost you. Oh I'm so glad you're okay!" She chuckled before licking me a few times. "Ewe! Stop, Em!" I rolled backwards and stood up, wiping some of her saliva off. "Emmy! You know that doesn't wash out!" I laughed.

Someone behind me cleared their throat, catching my attention. I quickly turned around and saw dad. Oh the gods. Please let this end in my favor! Please, please, please!

I check to see if my helmet was on. Yes! I cheered in my head when it was.

"Hi," I said, making my voice slightly deeper, knowing from Blade that my mask did that without any help so this made it even deeper, but still not that deep.

"Hey," dad said, taking off his helmet. "Long time no see, huh?"

"Yup. Now what do you want?" I asked, bitterly.

"To talk."

"You didn't have to kidnap me and Em-" I stopped before I revealed her name. That would make it obvious on who I was.

"I know. I know, but would you have slowed down for a talk?" he reasoned.

I thought about it for a moment. He had a point. "Good point. Now, I gotta go."

"Wait!" he shouted, grabbing onto my upper arm as I got on Emerald. "Wait," he gently pulled me off Emerald, making her growl.

"Em, behave," I told her.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You look familiar. Mom, doesn't she look familiar?"

The other rider took off their skull like helmet. Grandma Valka! "You're right, son," she said, cocking her head to the side a bit.

"Look, I gotta go," I tried pulling out of his grasp. He started to lift my helmet. "No!" I shouted, holding it down. "No one can see my face!" I cried. They looked at me, confused. "Em, help!"

Emerald immediately came to my rescue, firing a plasma blast right next to us, making dad let go of my arm. I ran to Emerald and hopped on.

"Hey! Stop! Secret, stop!" called dad. He remembered the fake name I told him.

"Go, Em. Hurry!" she shot into the sky, firing another plasma blast at the water, using the steam as a cover to fly away.

I didn't take Emerald straight to the cove, worried that they were following. Instead I took her to a island nearby Berk, and landed next to the all to familiar cave.

Though we rarely did it, sometimes we spent the night here. On the rare nights I needed to get away or almost got caught, on days like this. I had a small basket with some extra supplies in case of an emergency like this.

At sunset, I decided that we would stay the night here. I set up a little camp and at dark we went fishing for our dinner. Thanks to a large net and some teamwork, in a matter of minutes we had more than enough to eat.

We had a large dinner and then started to think about heading over to sleep at the cove tonight, but quickly decided against it. Berk would be the first place they looked for me.

Although, mom and dad would be worried about me. But then again dad would probably guess that I was with Emerald 'spending the night at her place' again.

I sighed, turning to Emerald. "Want to head back to the cove?" I asked. As sleepy and tired as she was, she jumped up and bounced her way to the entrance. I laughed, "I'll take that as a yes." I quickly packed up and his the basket behind a couple medium sized rocks before hopping on Emerald and flying to the cove.

We landed silently and I took off her gear as well as mine.

"I should be back soon, okay?" I said, petting her nose.

I ran home as quickly as possible. No longer afraid of the night filled forest surrounding me.

The moment I walked through the door I ran into someone. "Starfire, where have you been?" dad asked, impatiently tapping his foot.

"With Emerald," I answered, innocently. He narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. "Can I stay with Emerald tonight? Please, daddy?"

The look in his eyes told me he had an idea. "Sure. Go ahead. Be back before dark tomorrow."

"Thanks, dad," I said, giving him a hug before heading up to my room to grab a n all black cloak, then the kitchen to get a loaf of bread and leftovers from dinner, which I had missed. I put it in my bag and gave dad another hug. "Night, dad."

"Night, Star," he said.

I ran outside and into the village, hiding between a couple houses in the middle of the village and put on my cloak. I saw a Night Fury fly barely over the village and past me.

Slowly I made my way to the forest right behind my house then made a dash to the cove, where a different Night Fury was waiting for me.

"Hey, Emerald," I said, petting her on top of her head with one head and another under her chin. "It's late. Let's get to bed." We made our way to our hut and split my dinner in half before eating the chicken. "Delicious!" I laughed.

I laid down in my bed on the grass and covered up. Emerald snuggled up next to me. "Night, Emmy," I said before closing my eyes.

I heard a chuckle outside the hut and jumped up. Emerald heard it to. I grabbed my helmet and put it on. "Emerald, stay here," I told her, running out of the hut with my fire sword in hand, fired up.

Someone ran out of the cove before I saw them. "Who's there? Who's there?! What do you want? Come out where I can see you!" I said, one sentence at a time.

Not once did I get an answer.

I went back in the hut and didn't get another disturbance all night.

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