Everyone has their place in the world. Some are born into their place.
Others discover their place.
And some make their own place.
But then, the world changes and you can't keep up...
o0o0o
"Toothless, I'm going on a morning ride with Lua today, okay?" Hiccup saw the dragon's expression sour a bit "I know, I know. But I'm worried about her."
"Well... Lua has been acting strange and she won't tell me anything. I hope you can make her feel better," Toothless growled softly.
"I promise I'll make it up to you later," Hiccup assured him, giving a final pat before walking toward Lua. "Alright, Lua, let's start this ride calmly—" but the Skrill shot up into the sky.
Toothless tried to follow on the ground, climbing onto one of the houses to watch the Skrill and his best friend fly away without him.
o0o0o
After some time, Hiccup finally managed to get the Skrill to fly calmly. She seemed excited to have someone join her morning flights.
"You've got a lot of extra energy today, girl," Hiccup said, rubbing the side of her neck.
Lua purred and even closed her eyes for a moment, until Hiccup stopped. After a few more minutes of flying, they landed in the forest.
"Look, I know I can't understand you," Hiccup said, gently holding her face. "But Toothless and I are worried about you disappearing the other night. We didn't see you until morning and thought the worst. What's going on, girl?" he asked softly.
Lua looked away. Even if she could speak plainly, she wouldn't tell—this wasn't anyone's business but her own. She grumbled about it and then looked back at Hiccup, licking his hand.
Hiccup made a disgusted face and wiped it on his pants.
"Alright then, Lua? You can count on us, we're your family too," Hiccup said warmly.
"I know..." she murmured when Hiccup climbed back into the saddle.
They soon flew back toward the village.
o0o0o
They returned to Hiccup's house. From there, Hiccup stayed with Toothless and Lua went back to being just herself.
Soon, they headed to the Dragon Academy, where they were starting a new training session with the others.
"Every dragon has special abilities that define its place in the world. Which dragon has the best flamethrower power?" Hiccup asked.
They were in a quiz competition. Astrid quickly raised her hand.
"Ah! Deadly Nadder!" she answered.
"Its magnesium fire burns as hot as the sun," Fishlegs added.
"Correct! Point for Team Astrid," Hiccup marked on the stone board with chalk. "Which puts the score at one hundred to ten."
"And they started with ten," Astrid teased, and Fishlegs chuckled.
"Oh yeah? But it's not over yet!" Tuffnut pointed. "Wait a sec, what team am I on again?"
"Next question. What's the shot limit of a Zippleback?" Hiccup closed his notebook.
"This is so boring," Lua muttered with a bored expression.
The dragons were sleeping to survive the boredom, but she wasn't sleepy at all.
"Team Snotlout," Hiccup said to Tuffnut.
"They can't even count to that number," Astrid said bluntly to Fishlegs, who giggled.
"Oh yeah? Let's find out! Barf! Belch!"
Hearing their names, the two-headed dragon woke up.
The Zippleback fired its six blasts so the twins could count.
"Looks like it's three," Tuffnut said, holding up three fingers.
"At least..." Barf began.
"...he got half right," Belch finished.
"See? We can count!" Ruffnut said proudly.
"It's six. You're half right, five points," Hiccup gave them that one.
"Yes! We're up to thirty!" Ruffnut cheered, high-fiving her teammates.
Lua blinked in disbelief.
(Even I'm not that bad at math) she observed, now finding things interesting.
"Alright. Our turn. What happens when you fire at the owner of a Deadly Nadder?" Astrid snapped her fingers to wake Stormfly.
"At your command, Astrid!" Stormfly launched her spines.
The twins and Snotlout got pinned to the wall by the spines—better than being skewered, at least.
"No fair! She didn't give us time to answer!" Tuffnut complained, outraged.
"I have a question," Snotlout climbed out, irritated. "What happens when I sic Hookfang on you?!"
"He burns you," Lua answered with a yawn.
"Okay, okay! Enough, everyone! That's it for today. T-The training was very productive," Hiccup tried to stop the chaos before it escalated.
"Prepare to face the Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout woke Hookfang with a few taps on his neck.
The dragon woke up startled and immediately ignited. Lua had to move fast since she was lying nearby—Hookfang's body temperature was one of the highest among dragons.
Snotlout ran off with his rear literally on fire.
"Third time this week!" he yelled, throwing himself into a water trough.
"That's odd, he never ignites like that when you're on him. Is he okay?" Hiccup asked.
"He must've realized who his real master is," Astrid suggested.
"There's room for two in here," Snotlout said, making Astrid dunk him deeper.
"Oh, Hookfang," Lua called when she saw him in pain. "What happened?"
"Nothing, just a little toothache," he snorted before calming. "Did I hurt you?"
"Not at all. Fireproof scales, remember?" she showed more of her back, wiggling a bit to emphasize.
Hookfang snorted and smiled slightly. Toothless observed the interaction with a frown.
"Alright then..." Lua thought for a moment. "Wanna go get some fish?"
It was almost lunchtime anyway.
"Of course! Always! Hope I can get some salmon!" Hookfang was practically drooling already.
"Careful not to let it drip," Lua chuckled as they walked out of the arena.
"Hookfang!" Snotlout called, but the dragon ignored him.
"He'll survive a few minutes without me," Hookfang said—his smile faltering briefly. "I hope."
Lua laughed and left with him. On their way, the young dragons teased each other playfully. Toothless watched silently, then snorted.
o0o0o
Later that night, Toothless and Lua were at Hiccup's house. The two dragons noticed he seemed sad and discouraged.
Lua nudged him and Hiccup forced a small smile before it faded again.
"You know Gobber made this for me," Hiccup said, tapping his prosthetic leg. "I only managed to make your tail and the saddles because of what he taught me. I have to do something to help him."
They heard a heavy thud — Stoick had come home after a long day as chief. Lua wondered what they were going to do, but Toothless gently grabbed her tail with his toothless jaws.
Lua turned and huffed, pulling her tail away. Toothless purred, motioning for them to sleep — the once nocturnal dragon now lived a daylight schedule.
Lua thought for a moment, but decided to leave human problems to humans.
o0o0o
The next day, Lua didn't feel like staying with Hiccup or Toothless, so she went for a solitary flight. She spotted Stoick and Gobber talking. Curious, she perched on a rooftop to listen.
"...Got a full day ahead. Here's your half," Stoick said, tearing a paper and handing it to Gobber.
"Ohhh, this is going to be interesting," Gobber said after reading.
"Don't forget, Gobber, some situations need delicacy and diplomacy," Stoick warned.
"No problem! I'm great at.. that," Gobber's voice betrayed zero confidence.
"Seriously? You know how to talk to people with tact and sensitivity?" Even Stoick doubted him.
"Oh, I thought you meant hitting them on the head and asking questions later, but I'll try."
Lua doubted him too — a lot. But she decided to keep an eye on him. His first stop was the Great Hall, where dragons weren't usually welcome. She saw a couple storm out angrily.
"Calling our baby Magnus?! What is Gobber thinking?!" the woman fumed, carrying a heavily bundled infant.
(Yeah... this won't go well.) Lua found it amusing — maybe not for Gobber, but for her.
o0o0o
Next was Baldur and Mulch, who started arguing because Mulch didn't want to pay for the sheep he took. Gobber "resolved" the issue by giving them weapons and letting them fight to settle it.
After that, he tried fixing a ship... with iron.
Well, everything he tried turned out a disaster. Poor Stoick — he was going to have a major headache.
o0o0o
The next day. The Riders and dragons were in the arena when Hiccup gave them shocking news.
"You want to bring Gobber here?" Fishlegs asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. It'll be great, no one knows more about dragons than Gobber," Hiccup said nervously.
"Will that even work?" Lua tilted her head.
"I think—arh!" Hookfang growled irritably.
"What's wrong?" Lua asked him.
"Nothing," Hookfang snorted.
During Hiccup's explanation, Gobber burst through the arena doors, dragging a cart full of items behind him.
"I'm back! Miss me?!"
The dragons were startled — and uneasy.
"First, welcome, and second... ah, why did you bring these, um..." Hiccup gestured vaguely, searching for a nicer word for "weapons."
"The weapons?" Gobber asked, pulling out a tool that was part-sword, part-axe, part-club, and everything else. "I figured we'd train them with death threats! That's how my dad taught me to swim."
The dragons swallowed hard, memories triggered instantly. Gobber slammed a club on the ground, making Lua jump.
"Class has begun!"
The dragons agreed on the best option... Run. Yes, run or Fly for their lives.
o0o0o
After some time, they managed to gather them again. Hiccup noticed the other riders were exhausted and sore. He slid off Lua's back and Toothless pounced on him, licking him out of excitement after waiting so long.
"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked.
"I should ask you that! How did you stay four hours on Lua without getting sore? Gods, the dragons didn't even want to think about the arena after what Gobber did," Astrid said, stretching.
"Yeah... makes sense. Sorry. It's just, I don't know what to do with him," Hiccup admitted.
They suddenly saw Ruffnut kicking Tuffnut.
"Can't you two go five minutes without fighting?" Hiccup asked.
"It's fine. I asked for it," Tuffnut explained. "Trying to get the feeling back."
"Wanna return the favor or what?" Ruffnut asked eagerly.
"I've always flown for hours on Toothless or Lua and never had problems," Hiccup said.
"That's because you have saddles," Astrid pointed at Toothless and Lua, who growled at being pointed at. "And I don't even know why Lua has her own saddle."
"Jealousy kills, dear," Lua said proudly.
Lua turned and saw Hookfang rubbing his jaw against the ground, clearly in pain.
"Hey, you okay?" Lua approached.
"Just an annoying ache, nothing I can't handle," Hookfang puffed out his chest.
"You know you don't have to act all macho around me, right?" Lua said.
"And who said I was doing it for you?" Hookfang retorted.
"Oh, the audacity."
Toothless watched, discouraged — he should be the one talking with Lua, not Hookfang. Stormfly nudged him, and Toothless rolled his eyes.
o0o0o
So... Hiccup had Gobber try making saddles for the riders' dragons, but nothing went as expected. Too many weapons—or they were unusable—or extremely heavy.
"Good thing we have our saddles," Lua said to Toothless as she watched the chaos.
She felt bad for Stormfly and Barf & Belch — the Nadder suffered temporary hearing loss and the Zippleback had bumps on their heads.
Lua sighed and felt grateful for meeting Hiccup and befriending him back in the first book-movie.
o0o0o
Lua was enjoying her nighttime flight before dinner when she saw flashes of light in the village. Curious, she flew toward them.
"Hookfang!" Lua exclaimed when she saw the dragon looking possessed.
The dragon was out of control, igniting himself and blasting fire everywhere. He slammed into houses and roared in pain. Lua roared to get his attention. Hookfang responded with a fire blast aimed at her—she barely dodged.
Toothless saw this and grew furious. It wasn't enough to attack his best friend before — now he was attacking Lua? The Night Fury launched himself at Hookfang's neck, biting to protect them.
The two dragons wrestled briefly until Toothless backed off, still growling.
"You two! Stop!" Lua growled at them both.
They would have continued if not for Gobber, who arrived with old dragon-hunting weapons — clearly intending to put Hookfang down. Hiccup tried to stop him, but when he looked into Hookfang's mouth with Gobber, they understood what was happening.
Hiccup allowed Gobber to do what needed to be done, leaving everyone confused and worried.
Gobber jumped onto the dragon and held his mouth open. Hookfang thrashed, but Gobber managed to hook something and yank it out.
Hookfang threw him off and roared in pain, but soon everything stopped, and he seemed much better.
"You didn't kill him!" Snotlout cried, relieved.
"For a toothache? Never." Gobber held up the rotten tooth.
Hookfang and Snotlout embraced joyfully—until Snotlout realized and pulled away, embarrassed.
"Hey, that's enough," Hookfang said, setting him down. "I-I don't know why he did that."
The dragon snorted and walked away. Everything seemed fine again.
o0o0o
Apparently, even if you lose your place...
Lua flew over the village and saw Gobber's new spot.
You can always make it again — make it better than before.
Lua smiled at the sight. Her heart beat with excitement and anticipation. She was eager to know what her story would become, who she would turn into.
Even if you're questioning yourself, sooner or later, you'll find yourself.