Skullette. That was all that ever mattered, and all that ever will matter. Her fantasizing about what a future boyfriend might think about her was interrupted by banging on the door. "Skullie! You've gotta come out for the egg choosing!"

"Do I need a dragon? What if I get a Gronkle? They're nuisances and you can't sit on them properly."

"Shh, you'll hurt Toby's feelings!"

"Toby couldn't care less, he thinks worse about me." Skullette stalked out of her house, a mutual glaring contest going between her and the Gronkle that her father seemed to love so much more than her.

They joined the crowd heading towards the nesting cliffs, their bodies being jostled as eager young Vikings tried to push to the front. Skullette shoved the helmet of one of the eager children down onto his head then pushed him into his brother. Chuckling maliciously, she jogged to catch up to her father.

The children had never seen dragon eggs before, so they were supposed to just randomly choose one and hope for the best. Hiccup would be there with his girlfriend Astrid. Even though Skullette liked being able to get a full nights sleep, she sort of wished Hiccup hadn't figured out that the dragons weren't necessarily born malicious. Well, unless you counted what they were calling the Royal Dragon. Hiccup, who was in charge of all dragon related matters, gestured to her to come up. Stoick was smiling on the sidelines with his Monstrous Nightmare resting its head on his shoulder.

She nervously climbed up to him and looked at the eggs. "I really don't want a Gronkle," she said, pulling at her auburn hair anxiously.

"I assure you that there is very little chance of that," said Hiccup, smiling reassuringly. There were round balls of what looked like granite, softly glowing egg shaped things, tiny almost translucent eggs (those were obviously Terrible Terrors). There were striped ones of varying colours, and green eggs with a single red stripe seemingly splitting them in half. A slight tremor made everyone stumble, and Skullette put her hand out.

Instead of connecting with stone, it connected with a smooth, scaly surface. As soon as her hand connected, she felt it cracking. She stepped back, not noticing that the charcoal drawing of a skull and crossbones that she'd made on the palm of her hand was now permanently on it. The egg shattered, a brief burst of purple revealing other black eggs. Tiny and incredibly large blue eyes peered at her from their fallen position on the floor.

The hatchling pushed itself up, fell over, and tried about four more times before it succeeded in remaining upright. Skullette's hands flew to her mouth. "You've got a Night Fury, just like me," said Hiccup.

"What will you name it?" asked Astrid.

"Him," said Skullette. "He's a boy. And his name is Andraemon." She knelt and held her hands out. Stumbling, the newly christened Andraemon stumbled over to her hands and she lifted him up into the sunlight. His scales were a bottleneck green, and one of his legs was a little stunted.

Her father looked slightly disappointed, but smiled encouragingly. She smiled back and blinked as Andraemon wriggled until he could stand in her arms and rub his head under her chin. Hiccup gestured to the next child as she carefully climbed down, sticking Andraemon inside her shirt. He poked his head out the top and looked around at everyone inquisitively.

Her father put a hand on her shoulder and steered her through the crowd, accepting congratulations for her as he went. When they got back, Toby looked at Andrae and growled, to which Andrae replied with a tiny fireball. While Skullette giggled, her father sent her inside and threatened to put a muzzle on Andrae if that scenario repeated. "Yes Dad," she said sullenly. "Come on Andrae, I'll show you my room then take you to my secret place. Just you and me." She paused on the stairs and sighed. "We'll have to stay there for awhile, Toby is out to get you and I'm not going to risk your head being bitten off like my best friend's Terrible Terror." Andrae whined, looking at her concernedly. "It's okay, I'll never let that happen to you."

Andrae twirled around on the floor as Skullette lifted the last of the supplies into the cave. "Home sweet home for the next while," She said, grunting as she lifted a basket of fish and carried it into a corner. She lifted one out and looked at Andrae, who was sitting and wagging his tail. "Yes, little charmer, this is for you. However, you can't deal with bones yet." She took a sizable bite and started chewing as Andrae whined at her, pacing around her feet.

She spat the wad of chewed fish into her hand and sat cross-legged on the floor, lifting him into her lap and giving him access to the food. He growled happily and started inhaling it. After a couple of portions, he was full and fell asleep on top of the fire she had set up. Sighing, she made another one and cooked what was left of the fish for herself. "Goodnight Andrae," she murmured, then kissed him on the head and fell asleep in a cocoon of blankets.

Something nudged her the next morning, continuing to do so until she was out of her cocoon. "Who...?" She trailed off as she stared at the dragon in front of her. He was the size of a sheep, instead of a Terrible Terror. "Andraemon?" He nodded enthusiastically and rubbed his head against her arm. "Nice to see you too. I've gotta sneak back and watch the lessons about dragon care. I'll be back soon, so you just stay hidden." She grabbed a dagger, clenched it in her teeth, and descended as Andrae watched.

When she reached the bottom, she waved to him and darted off. Andrae rumbled uneasily and retreated into the cave, hiding himself in the shadows. While he did this, Skullette was using scurrying and flinching to see if there was anyone else around and to keep herself safe. Well, undetected was a better word choice, seeing as she wasn't in any danger other than the danger of discovery.

Hearing wings, she ducked and scurried under some fallen logs. Her father flew overhead on his Gronkle. "Come on Toby! We have to find Skullette and Andraemon before something happens to them." She quietly prayed that they wouldn't find the cave before sneaking off again towards the village. When she reached the village, she looked for a way to get to the arena. That's where all lessons took place, and the path to it was brightly lit.

Spotting some kids carrying baskets of food to the arena, she smiled and went to grab one. With her height, she'd be mistaken for one of the kids who already had a dragon, and the Terrible Terrors loved attention, so she could pretend one of them was hers. Astrid came and told them to make sure that they didn't put eels in with the other fish ever, before going off with her Nadder to hunt.

The kids enthusiastically talked about their dragon flight lessons with Hiccup, and their dragon-back fighting lessons with Snotlout... Or the ones that used to be with Snotlout. Gobber had had to temporarily replace him because of flares in temper. Skullette watched the children in the ring, their dragons beside them. Oddly enough, none of them seemed to have had the sudden growth spurt that Andrae had.

After ten minutes, the kids started fidgeting. At that time, Astrid and her Nadder landed with something. "That, kids, is a Viking that crossed me." The kids started screaming. "I'm kidding!" They breathed sighs of relief... "But no, seriously." ... and they started screaming again. When the lesson actually took place, Astrid started explaining that you were basically your dragon's parent, so if they couldn't deal with bones in food, you had to remove them. Of course, for certain dragons like the Zippleback and Night Fury, they needed their food to be chewed for them until they grew teeth. The other dragons had gums that were tough enough to chew foods like fish on their own.

She also explained that there is no better hunter than a dragon. Gronkles were best with creatures that stayed close to the ground. Rabbits, deer, and other creatures like that. Nadders could go after those, and birds as well. Zipplebacks could fish, and Monstrous Nightmares and Night Furies could hunt bears and wildcats. Terrible Terrors eliminated pests in the village. When the dragons stopped raiding, the rats started coming. However, the tiny dragons kept them at a minimum.

Skullette observed the feeding methods before heading off with the other kids. On the way, she stopped and convinced one of the Nadders to let her use it for lessons. Unlike Astrid's Battlespike, this Nadder was not blue but purple. They went into the forest for this, but not close enough to the cave for Andrae to be able to see her once in the air.

The Nadder liked her very much, seeing as she hadn't pulled at its neck because aerial maneuvers freaked her out. The other dragons had quickly crashed. They were going back to the arena now. When they got there, Gobber and his Bonenapper were not what awaited them. Instead, it was Snotlout and his Monstrous Nightmare. The human of the team looked awful, with the beginnings of dark bags under his eyes and almost bloodshot eyes. "Welcome to dragon-back fighting. Fire and I will be teaching you how to do it, and showing which weapons are best to carry on which dragon."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Fire is an unimaginative name," said another boy, cutting off the first.

"Who's teaching this lesson? You or me? I can name my dragon whatever I want!"

"Mind yourself Snotlout, you wanted to get back to teaching so you'd better keep your temper," said Gobber from the sidelines. The lesson went fine, with a rapier being for a Night Fury, and a light battle-ax for the Nadder. One of the kids asked if they could use a hammer while riding their Nadder instead of a battle-ax, but Snotlout said that it would be impossible. His temper had flared a little, but he'd remained in control.

Of course, he snapped when one of the kids actually threw his axe. The Monstrous Nightmare it had flown towards barely managed to dodge it. Snotlout's expression was livid as Fire flew to the kid as they all came in for landing. "Explain why you did that please," he said.

"I- I didn't mean to let go. I was daydreaming..."

"You don't daydream while you're on a dragon carrying a weapon! You could have crippled that dragon for life! She never would have been able to fly again!" The boy cowered, and before Snotlout could really get going, Gobber came in with Fishlegs who steered Snotlout out while Gobber gave a speech on safety.

"Skullette?" called a voice that she recognized as her uncle Bob. "What you doing on a Nadder? You got a Night Fury I thought." Everyone stared as she leapt off the Nadder and dashed off. Surprisingly, the Nadder followed her and lifted her onto its back before taking off.

"Why are we here again?" asked Ruffnut.

"To look for Skullette and her Night Fury. Her Dad asked us to."

"After we'd already got looking for her in the first place," pointed out Ruffnut.

"Shut up," said Tuffnut, banging against her with the head he was holding onto. Their Zippleback's heads exchanged a look then rolled their eyes. "Your hair must be suffocating your brain."

"Our hair is the same, idiot."

"No it's not, yours is tied in knots that are pulverizing your brain while suffocating it."

"They're not knots! They're braids!"

"Same thing isn't it? The effect on your brain is the same." Before Ruffnut could try and hurt him, they heard the unmistakable rhythm of a Nadder's flight. Below them and slightly to the side was a Nadder with Skullette on it. "Skullette..." murmured Tuffnut in a slightly dreamy voice.

"Okay, you used to be just an idiot, but now you've sunk to fuzz-brained idiot." Oddly, Tuffnut did not seem to notice this particular insult. "Tuffnut? Are you okay?"

"Yeah..."

"If you're going to try and impress her, I suggest you bathe. You taking a bath would impress anyone," said Ruffnut, grinning.

"Okay thank you for getting me here, but you have to go now. I have my own dragon, and he needs me." The Nadder who Skullette was calling Violet for the moment nuzzled her. "Yes I know he can't fly yet! But I don't want him to get jealous!" Violet seemed to understand, seeing as she nodded and walked off as Skullette climbed to the cave. "I'm back Andraemon! Andrae?" Skullette looked around and finally found that there was a Gronkle terrorizing a green shape. "Toby," she growled. "Out, now." Toby glared at her and plonked himself down more securely.

Violet suddenly flew in and landed, then screamed in Toby's face. The Gronkle fled like it was his mother chasing him. Andrae unfurled and came over to her. Violet hissed, causing Andrae to flinch. Skullette smacked Violet on the nose. "Andrae is my dragon, be nice to him or you'll have to leave. Andrae, this is Violet, she's here to help us until you're large enough to fly."

Andrae growled at Violet, who snorted at him. Skullette sighed and sat down. "I'm going to get a lot of headaches in the next while aren't I?"

One of her headaches was on its way in the form of Tuffnut. The blonde teen was riding on the Zippleback with his sister. "Okay, so if you're going to ask her to go hunting with you, shouldn't you be doing this on your own?"

"You wanted to come," said Tuffnut.

"... either you're dreaming, or you actually think I care about this." Tuffnut glared at her and was about to toss a fishbone at her, but the sparking Zippleback head turned its neck to look at him, making it sort of hard for him to hold on. "Whoa... Your victim has a sweet hideout."

"Victim?"

"Well duh, no one would willingly go somewhere with you."

"You do."

"Because I have to make sure you won't brain yourself with a twig." Ruffnut punched his shoulder lightly. "Now pay attention doofus. You can't stutter, and if she says no it's not that big of a deal, okay? If she agrees, I'll walk home so you have alone time. If something you do causes her to die, she'll be pissed and never talk to you again."

"But how would-?"

"Go!" Ruffnut shoved him off the Zippleback and he walked inside the cave.