Chapter, 1 - The Ripple Effect

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Tuffnut woke to commotion in the village. He grinned wildly the only time people got riled up like this was when visitors came. He lifted the loose plank in his floor quietly and pulled out the charm.

He had a hidden inner pocket in his breeches that he slid the flat stone into. He practically leapt out of his house. Sure enough the Berserkers were all about. He immediately spotted her. Long auburn hair in a herringbone braid. She was a definite shield maiden and the sword at her hip showed her strength her name was Thyra.

Tuffnut casually walked by them to the forge, only to catch a snippet of their conversation. It was Thyra speaking. "My husband is still down at the docks, he should be up soon and then we'll go get some ale, eh girls?" The words hit Tuffnut like boulders. He sagged and walked into the forge. He had brought macey with him more as an excuse than anything but it did need repairs. "Hey Gobber."

"Tuffnut! Lad!" The old smith looked at Tuffnut curiously. "Whats eating ye?"

"Nothin really. Just got bad luck." He set the mace on the table between them.

Gobber shrugged. "Do ye mind helping me around the forge? The berserkers don't know how to take care of their weapons. I've got a backlog bigger than the attitude of a monstrous nightmare."

"I won't be much help."

"A viking who can't hone an edge?" Gobber asked sarcastically, drawing a grin from Tuffnut.

Hours slid away in the company of the old smith until the sun found itself high in the sky. Tuffnut stopped the wheel. "I'm gonna go find my sister."

Gobber waved a hand signaling Tuffnut to just leave. The young viking stumbled into Eret as he walked out the smithy. "Snotlout and I are going to a pond Fishlegs found, do you want to come with?"

Tuffnut thought about it for a moment before putting his fingers to his mouth and letting a piercing two-tone whistle ring. Soon enough a Hobblegrunt fluttered down. "Eret, meet Dumbluck." The dragon chittered and purred when Tuffnut scratched it. Its color changing from purple to yellow. "How far do we go?"

Eret grinned, "Follow me, Snotlout should already be there."

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Tuffnut sat with his back against a tree, the water was colder than he'd thought it would be so he was content to just talk to his friends in the water. Fishlegs looked up at the sky, "I've gotta get back to the village, my dad wants help with cleaning the house. Here girl." He called to Meatlug, the gronckle ambled over slowly. Fishlegs slid on his clothes and left.

Eret sighed. "I suppose that's my cue as well. Valka needs me for some business with the council." Eret hadn't bothered to take off his pants, but he did leave his shirt off as he walked over to Skullcrusher. He stopped and shoved Tuffnut into the water. "Not cool!" He yelled. Snotlout laughed behind him.

"Deal with it." He said simply, flying off before Tuffnut could exact revenge.

Tuffnut crawled out of the water and peeled off his soaking clothes.

"You may as well stay in." Snotlout said. "Nothing else to do until your clothes dry."

"Yeah yeah. I know." Tuffnut noticed the stone was missing. He threw up his hands in aggravation. "Oh come on... It must have fallen in the water." He groaned.

"Whats wrong with you?" Snotlout asked.

"I just lost something is all."

"Well quit being a wimp."

Tuffnut turned around and grinned wickedly. He ran and jumped into the water, colliding with Snotlout. The two vikings wrestled at first, then fought, soon they were swinging fists and moving about the shallows. After a bit the two stood, panting heavily. Tuffnut had a black eye and Snotlout came away with a busted lip. They glared at each other before laughing hysterically.

Snotlout flopped back into the water and was followed by Tuffnut. There they lay, floating around the water's surface. Spontaneously they restarted their battle, culminating as Snotlout pinned Tuffnuts arms behind his back.

Snotlout suddenly realized how smooth Tuffnuts skin was or how good he smelled. "Aren't you going to let me go?" Tuffnut asked. Snotlout snapped out of his trance and almost flung Tuffnut away.

'What just happened?' Snotlout wondered.

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AN- I've wanted to do this ship for a while. This will have chapters for the sake of my workload and cause this is a just for fun side story.