Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and I never will. All rights go to Dreamworks, who made the movies and the series, and Cressida Cowell, the author of the books. This particular fanfiction, unlike my other HTTYD fanfics so far, is set in the Race To The Edge series.
A/N: Just so this fanfic is easier to read, italics is for when the humans are thinking or to emphasize a word. Bold will be used when the dragons are talking to either each other or the humans, so with this logic, the bold italics represents when the dragons are thinking.
It was a regular day at the Edge, but nobody was training right now. They'd done so all morning under the watchful and stern eyes of Hiccup and Astrid, and they felt that by now, their dragons deserved a rest and some good lunch inside their stomachs.
"Right, gang, get yourselves over to the stables, we're taking a lunch break," Hiccup instructed, diving downwards on Toothless towards the stables. "More for the dragons' sake than ours, really. It's been a long day."
"Thank Thor, Hiccup," Snotlout complained, angling Hookfang's horns so he followed Hiccup and Toothless. "If Hookfang doesn't get enough energy, his muscles will get smaller. I don't want a scrawny dragon. He'll remind me of you if he doesn't eat enough."
"Worry about your own muscles, idiot! And shut up about Hiccup!" Hookfang snarled. To hide his embarrassment at being compared to Hiccup (nothing against the boy, but he hated being compared to a human on a physical level), he sets Snotlout's boots on fire.
"Argh!" Snotlout yelped, taking his boots off before his feet burned. "Doesn't setting me on fire get old for you, you pig-headed dragon?"
"Nah," Hookfang answered lazily, setting Snotlout's hands on fire as he gripped Hookfang's horns like a child clutching a toy. Snotlout squealed girlishly, making Hookfang and the other dragons grin. Astrid snickered. "And if you call me pig-headed again, it won't just be your hands."
When they get to their stables, the riders take their dragon's saddles off and hang them on the wall for easy access the next day. Fishlegs empties a huge barrel of assorted fish (no eels, of course) onto the floor for the dragons to eat. Hiccup takes this time to see if there was anything that needed to be added and/or improved on or around the Edge.
"Since we don't need to worry about rogue dragons, Dagur, or dragon trappers, let's see if there's anything that could be changed around here. You know, for efficiency, effectiveness, comfort, just make sure to pitch in at least one suggestion," Hiccup announced, catching the ears of all the dragon riders. Soon, ideas were coming in from the other riders faster than a flock of Terrible Terrors carrying messages.
"Hot tub!" Snotlout mentioned, sighing happily at the thought of lying in one for hours at a time. "You can thank the Snot-man for bringing a bit of Vallhalla to the Edge! That's a great way to spend your free time, especially if you bring a lady in there with you!" He winked at Astrid, who recoiled with disgust.
"But a better use of time would be to teach Snotlout the words 'Don't hit on Astrid; Hiccup got to her first'," Astrid replied, smirking. Snotlout's face fell at the blatant rejection and Hiccup bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing.
"Boar pit!" Tuffnut cheered, as Ruffnut high-fived him. "Boy, does that boar pit need some improvements. For example, way more boars so there's more entertainment for the excited, screaming spectators . . . like us, for example!"
"We could always dig more boar pits," Ruffnut sniggered. "That really would be an improvement."
"We need more medical equipment," Fishlegs meekly pointed out, the first sensible suggestion so far. "And more antidotes for poisonous substances. We know that Dagur's men are carrying poisonous arrows now, and our dragons might get hit and become ill."
"A better storehouse for food," Astrid suggested. "The one we've got now is good, but it's in need of some serious repairs to its roof. Besides, Stormfly keeps getting in and stealing chicken at night. We need one that's completely dragon-proof."
"Cut it out, Astrid, that's embarrassing!" Stormfly growled angrily. Toothless stuck his face into the pile of fish in front of him so Stormfly didn't hear him laughing at the livid look on her face. His head emerged from the pile with a mouthful of fish so big he can't fully close his mouth. He also had a few on his head, making Stormfly giggle. After swallowing the fish slowly so he didn't choke to death, Toothless lowered his head to let the fish roll off it and caught them with his long, wide tongue. He was about to keep eating, but his sharp hearing picked up on an argument between Barf and Belch and a disgruntled Hookfang. He steeled himself in case it became more than just a verbal argument. More often than not, he had to break them up before things got ugly.
"This is ridiculous," Hookfang growled, claiming a large pile of fish for himself. "You don't need twice as much fish because you have two heads. You still share a stomach, and all that fish is going to the same place!"
"Yeah, but each head must be fed separately," Belch argued. "If there's only one pile, we'll end up fighting over it."
"And when we fight, explosions happen! So watch out!" Barf warned.
"I know that you don't want just one pile, but that doesn't mean you need enough fish for two dragons!" Hookfang countered, bringing up a valid point. "Take enough fish to feed one dragon and divide it in half, if you have to! I'm sure you don't need that much, anyway!"
Barf was about to let off a stream of foul-smelling, flammable green gas, but Belch stopped him. "Barf, stop. Hookfang won't understand anyway."
"Are you saying I'm dumb?" Hookfang snarled.
"Possibly," Barf replied, with a smirk. That was all it took for Hookfang to aim a stream of fire at the Zippleback, who growled at him and caused an explosion strong enough for the walls to shake. This explosion was what made the humans in the room straighten up and take notice . . . literally.
"What's happening?" Hiccup shouted, over the noise of explosions and splintering wood beams that were supposed to go on the fire. Then he saw the fight. "Oh, no, no, no! Hookfang! Barf! Belch! Enough!" Toothless abandoned his lunch when he heard the commotion and went to break up the fight by dragging Hookfang close to the door. Stormfly took Barf and Belch to the other side of the room, and the Night Fury caught her hissing that if they dared to try that with her fish, she'd kill them. He smirked at the threat. Typical Stormfly.
"What were you thinking?" Toothless asked Hookfang. "It's only fish, and you're both getting a meal. There's no need to argue."
"Didn't you hear them?" Hookfang fumed. "They had the nerve to tell me that because they had two heads, they needed more food than anyone else. Then they tried to say that I was dumb and wouldn't understand. How dare they?"
"Hookfang, calm down," Toothless cautioned, blocking Hookfang's path with his wing as the Monstrous Nightmare tried to attack Barf and Belch again. Hiccup ran over, grateful to Toothless for breaking up the fight before it got any worse. "Maybe they thought that you wouldn't understand because you only have one head, and they have two."
"Thanks, bud," Hiccup whispered, before using a sterner, authoritative tone of voice on the errant dragons. "You two know not to fight in here, and not to start fires or explosions inside. Back to your stables, the both of you, and you're staying in there until you've calmed down!" Turning to Snotlout and the twins, he orders, "Keep your dragons away from each other, or the fight will start all over again."
"Come on, Hookfang," Snotlout muttered, slightly embarrassed that he had to lead a grown dragon away to his stable like a parent taking their child to their room. The twins dragged Barf and Belch out a few minutes later, although there was some disagreement as to which route they should take to get to the stables, meaning that Barf and Belch felt like they were being ripped in half.
Hiccup busied himself with cleaning up the mess the dragons had caused while fighting. "Man, I bet those dragons would just love to have their own special pile of fish," Hiccup muttered. Then he had a genius idea and literally dropped everything (in which case, it was the broom he was using to clean up). "That's it! To stop fights about fish, I'll make sure the dragons have separate baskets of fish that they get to keep for themselves!"
"That's a great idea, Hiccup!" Astrid encouraged. "Maybe we should fill it with the sort of foods our dragons like the best, so there aren't any mix-ups!"
"And maybe we can paint labels on them, too!" Fishlegs chimed in. "I'd say a dot about the size of the palm of your hand that matches the dragon's scales should act as a fairly good code as to which basket goes to which dragon."
"Hey, what are you all talking about and why doesn't it involve me?" Snotlout asked arrogantly as he pushed his way past the twins. "And why's Fishface babbling on about dots and baskets? I demand answers!"
"Yeah, fill us in, Hiccup! I have a dragon too, you know!" Tuffnut shouted. "You can't see him because he's in his stable calming down after a fight, but you know I have one! Now, what were you talking about?"
"You don't have a dragon, you have half a dragon, and I got the other half!" Ruffnut disagreed. They were about to fight, but Hiccup stops them just before he was left with an even bigger mess to clean up after. (Like human, like dragon, apparently.)
"We were talking about getting the dragons their personal baskets of fish so they don't fight over it and set the Edge on fire," Hiccup explained.
"Ha! I knew being around Hookfang and I would spark your creativity, Hiccup! You remember that when you become chief!" Snotlout cheered. Astrid and Fishlegs rolled their eyes. If a sentence could be used to describe the looks on their faces, it would probably be "Nothing ever changes with that guy".
"Hey, Hiccup? Can I be in charge of putting the fish into the baskets?" Tuffnut volunteered. "How hard can it be, anyway? It's just fish."
"Look, bro, that's a two-person job, and everyone knows that two is better than one," Ruffnut grinned.
"Tuff, Ruff's right. If you do it on your own, it may not be done in time and you'll get tired easier and quicker. Both of you can do it," Hiccup decided. The twins cheered, and headbutted each other.
"Hiccup, it's great having this rule in place, but when does it start?" Fishlegs asked.
"Tomorrow at breakfast," Hiccup answered. "It'll make it easier for them to get used to it that way."
"So, all those in favour, raise a hand," Astrid announced. Everyone raised a hand, and Astrid counted them. "I guess that's everybody," Astrid said after a while.
"This is going to work out great," Fishlegs chimed enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, over at the stables, it was a fairly quiet place, for both good and bad reasons. Hookfang was sleeping his anger away, so you could hear content snores coming from his stable. That was the good kind of silence. The type of silence Barf and Belch had was also quiet, but not in a good way. Even the faintest noises seemed to become louder, like the dripping sound of a leaky bucket, or the hooting of night owls. This was the sort of quiet you got when an angry and vengeful person (or in this case, dragon) is left alone with nothing but their thoughts for company. And nothing good ever comes of that, believe me.
"This shouldn't have happened to us," Barf ranted, pacing around the stable angrily. "We need more food than any of them! We deserve more food than them!"
"But how do we get it?" Belch asked. "We tried just taking it, and look where that got us."
"We'll think of something," Barf comforted, gritting his teeth. "Don't you remember that Hiccup was talking about making some changes with our food as we were being led away? He said he was doing it so we wouldn't fight."
"Yeah, and there was a vote taking place," Belch recalled. "Let's ask Toothless or Stormfly about it in the morning. They'll know all about it and will be happy to talk to us. Until then, let's catch some sleep."
Soon, quiet, satisfied snores can be heard from Barf and Belch's stable. The bad silence doesn't seem so bad now.