Learning To Fly Chapter One- Cleaning Up Messes

Helen woke up to a lot of noise coming from outside. This was usual, due to living in Berk, where the town was populated by Vikings, but this noise wasn't any noise. It was THE noise. She could hear dragons roaring and Vikings roaring back. She could hear buildings being burned and she could smell the smoke; wait, smoke?

'CRAP' she thought, and quickly ran out of her burning room. 'Great, just great, first I'm late to get to the Forges, and second, my room is on fire!' She half ran/half fell down the giant stairs in her rush to get away from the flames. Helen was approximately four foot five, which was small, seeing as how she was a Viking and she was sixteen. She wore black pants under an oversized black tunic, which in turn, was under an oversized grey fur vest, a dark brown belt, and had grey fur boots. There was a wooden handled knife in a sheath on her belt, which was cleverly hidden by her vest. Her hair was black and, unlike the other Viking women's, short. Also unlike the other Viking women and teenage girls, Helen didn't have that girlish figure. She hadn't quite developed yet, most likely because she was always running away from Dragons. Her eyes were bright green and, amazingly, unafraid. Helen pulled open the giant wooden door that was more than four times her size, only to close it quickly when a Monstrous Nightmare breathed fire at her. After she was brave enough to open it again, the small Viking ran outside and tried to dodge past the Forges but, as usual, didn't quite make it past. Gobber the Belch caught her by the back of her shirt and pulled her through the window into the Forges.

"Oh, Gobber, hey, I didn't see you standing there…" Helen said to cover up for the fact that she had, once again, tried to get into the battle with the others.

"Yeah, right, you were tryin' to get out there again. You aren't ready for Dragon Fighting." The large man accused in response. He was more than three times the size of Helen, which was still short by Viking standards, with a long blonde mustache that was tied into two braids. His metal helmet covered the small patch of hair that he had left, and came down just above his bushy blonde unibrow. Both Gobber's left hand and right leg were replaced by prosthetic limbs, as they had been bitten off by a Dragon in the Viking's younger years.

"Yes I am! I can fight! I need to get out there, I can just go, and then two minutes later, I will have killed a Dragon, my life will get infinitely better." Helen complained, this was the usual argument that they had whenever there was a Dragon raid.

"You can't even lift a sword! How do you expect to kill a Dragon? A Terror could take you down without even breaking sweat!" Gobber felt very pleased with himself for coming up with that last comment, but Helen quickly countered it.

"First off, Dragons don't sweat; they have scales, not pores. Second, you didn't learn how to kill dragons by hanging out in the Forges during a raid; you got out there and fought. Third, there are other weapons than a sword, I can use those. And finally, you aren't giving me a chance! I could probably take down one of the smaller dragons, not a Terror, because that's lame, but maybe a small Nadder, or a miniature Zippleback." See, Helen wasn't built for lifting, or fighting, she was built for running and dodging, and thinking. She was very good at thinking, which got her made fun of a lot. The other teens made fun of her for the fact that she used more than two percent of her brain. She would come up with ideas, new traps, modified versions of Viking weapons, in hopes that she could fit in better. It didn't work.

"You aren't ready, besides, I need your help here. And even if I din't, You'd be more trouble than help. If you want to be a Viking, you have to stop being all of… THIS" Gobber said, gesturing to ALL of Helen.

"You just gestured to ALL of me!"

"Exactly!"

"Ahh... I see where you're going with this, you sir, are playing a dangerous game, keeping all this raw Viking-ness away from a fight. There will be consequences!"

"I'll take my chances. Sword, sharpen, now." Gobber ordered, handing Helen a sword that was nearly as big as she was. Helen lifted the sword easily and dropped it on a rotating stone used for sharpening metal objects, such as swords. All of a sudden there was a loud screeching sound and everyone who was conscious ducked down and yelled, "NIGHT FURY!" Gobber looked up just as one of the watch towers exploded.

"Man the fort Helen, they need me out there." He then looked at Helen, slightly worried, "Stay. Put. There… You know what I mean." He looked back once before leaving, running into the fight and screaming at the top of his lungs.
As soon as he was out of sight Helen grabbed her net thrower, that she had invented herself, and ran out of the Forges. She ran until she got to the last remaining watchtower, and quickly set up the mechanism. Waiting, she mumbled to herself, "Come on, gimme something to shoot at, gimme something to shoot at…" Then she saw it, the silhouette of a Night Fury, the most feared Dragon of all. This Dragon was never seen, it never stole any food, and it never missed. The telltale screech sounded before the watchtower exploded, and Helen followed the shadow of the Dragon briefly before firing her machine. The weighted net flew through the air and hit the Night Fury, taking it down.

"YES! Did anyone see that?" Helen asked, overly excited that she had actually hit a Night Fury of all things. Then she heard a growl from behind her *I did* Turning, Helen saw a Monstrous Nightmare, possibly the same one that had tried to barbeque her earlier.

"Besides you." She said with dread in her voice. Then she weighed her options, she could stand there and get burned, or torn apart, or she could run and hope someone from the village would help. She chose the latter. Screaming, she ran into the village and hid behind a pole, hoping that the Dragon wouldn't know where she was.

*I can smell you human* the dragon growled; then proceeded to set the pole on fire. Helen looked around the side of the pole to see where the Dragon was, slightly concerned that it could smell her. The dragon however, went around on the other side, so as to stay hidden. Just as the Monstrous Nightmare was about to attack, Stoic the Vast jumped out of nowhere and punched the Nightmare in the face.

*Ow! That hurt you jerk!* the Dragon tried to cover Stoic in molten fire, but found that he was all out of said molten flame.

"You're all out." Stoic told the Dragon, stating the obvious, and clenched his hands into fists, ready to attack. Just as he was going to beat the living crap out of the Nightmare, he got distracted by a small something. A Terrible Terror had just bitten him in the rear.

*Leave my friend alone, asshole!* the Terror squeaked. While Stoic was distracted the Monstrous Nightmare escaped.

*Thank you for your assistance, I will repay the debt!* The larger dragon called back to his friend and, with that parting remark, was gone. Stoic ripped the Terrible Terror off his posterior and shoved it in a bag, then tossed the bag to one of the Vikings nearby. The Large Viking turned to face Helen just as the pole she was standing behind collapsed, along with the giant bowl of fire on top of it, which then started rolling down the street lighting any wood it came into contact with on fire.

"Hey… dad." Helen said, feeling a bit ashamed. Her dad gave her The Look and she immediately tried to make things better.

"Okay, but I hit a Night Fury."

"Ugh, Helen, we've gone over this before…" Stoic began, but Helen interrupted him.
"I know dad, I know. But this time I really hit it, I saw it go down! Judging by its trajectory and the amount of squirming it was doing, it probably crashed just off Raven Point! Let's get a search party out there and we can…"

"NO! You think this is some sort of game? The Ice is about to set in and I have an entire village to feed! We don't have the time OR resources for you to be running around and making things worse! Get back to the house!" Looking to Gobber he ordered, "Make sure she gets there, I have her mess to clean up." Stoic The Vast then left to find the giant dish that was probably still on fire.