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.
Barf and Belch certainly did get used to their new lifestyle . . . maybe a bit too much. All that luxury living without having to lift a claw to get their food meant they began to gain weight. However, the (considerable) weight piled on gradually, too gradually for the twins to notice at first. However, a whole two weeks later, they finally received an indication that there was something off . . . along with the other riders and their respective dragons.
It started with an innocent comment from Astrid . . .
"Hey, let's go for a race around the Edge!" Astrid piped up, feeling full of energy and wanting to burn it all off doing something fun. "It's been ages since we've done that, and I'm tired of just sitting around!"
"Great!" Hiccup said, already grabbing Toothless' saddle and tailfin as he headed for the door. Toothless had been wide awake since Astrid said the words 'race around the Edge' and immediately made a beeline for the door. "Hey, Astrid, Toothless has given his seal of approval, so I guess we can go."
"Quit making jokes, Hiccup!" Toothless growled, embarrassedly. "I'm going crazy just staying in one room! It's boring!"
"Fine, fine, you big baby," Hiccup teased, scratching Toothless' ears. "Where does it start?"
"Where does what start?" Snotlout asked. "It better give me something to do today. I'm bored out of my mind here!"
"Race round the Edge," Hiccup casually answered, making Snotlout grin. "I'm guessing you want in?"
"Heck, yeah!" Snotlout cheered. "I'm so winning this! Prepare to be left in the dust, folks, and that dust will be made by Hookfang and I! Snotlout, Snotlout, oi, oi, oi!"
"A race?" Fishlegs asked excitedly, as the twins trailed in his wake, grinning. "Even I could use a break from the books every once on a while. That, and Meatlug's getting tired of testing out different Gronckle iron formulas."
"Fishlegs wanting to get away from a book?" Tuffnut laughed. "This must be a first, huh?" Fishlegs shot them an angry look that said shut up now. Stupid as he was, Tuffnut got the message.
"Uh, if we're having a race, I'll need to get our dragon," Tuffnut quickly babbled, trying to fill the awkward silence after Fishlegs gave him that look. "Barf! Belch! There's going to be a race around the Edge! Get over here!"
That's when Barf and Belch flew in, expecting happy greetings from their friends who hadn't seen them in about two weeks . . . but were met with shocked silence. Dragons and humans alike were staring at the Zippleback with shock. Nobody could believe one dragon could gain so much weight in the space of just two weeks. Both heads were confused. Why are they doing that? Barf thought.
I don't know, but maybe they just haven't seen us in a while, Belch replied. (The two heads of a Zippleback can hear each other's thoughts as if they were saying them aloud, which means they can essentially read each other's minds and talk to each other inside their own heads. Pretty cool.)
"Ruff, Tuff, is your dragon all right?" Fishlegs asked. "It's just - he looks different."
"How?" Tuffnut said, taking a quick look at his dragon. "He looks fine to me."
"Barf and Belch are perfectly healthy and they almost never get ill!" Ruffnut yelled, getting in Fishleg's face. "Are you saying that we don't take care of our dragon?"
"What?! No - I just wanted to say-" Fishlegs stammered.
"Good!" Ruffnut yelled, making Fishlegs take a step back. "Come on, misters, we need to get your saddles on so we can go flying." As each twin produced a saddle, both heads lowered themselves so the twins could reach. However, it seemed that the twins' heights wouldn't be a problem.
"What is with this saddle?" Tuffnut grunted, trying to fit it around Belch's neck, which was now considerably thicker after their time of 'luxury living'. "I think it's shorter."
"Same with mine," Ruffnut replied, just as confused as her twin brother was. "You know, maybe we shouldn't have washed them with berry juice and boiled river water. That must have been what made them shrink. Weird, isn't it? They've never shrunk before."
"You clearly don't have enough muscle to do that, muttonheads," Snotlout sneered. "Let me try." After several attempts to force the saddle onto Barf's and then Belch's necks, which they found to be very painful, he gives up and hands the saddle to Hiccup. "The saddle's too small for their dragon. Can you see what's wrong with it?"
After studying the saddle for a few minutes and then trying to place it around their widened necks with no success, he finally concluded. "I see what your problem is. The saddle just need to be let out. I'll do it for you after the race. No big deal."
"But I can't ride Belch without a saddle!" Tuffnut protests. "What do I do for the race?"
"The race can't be that long, Tuff," Snotlout teased. "Unless you're too scared to fly without your precious saddle."
"You're on, Snotface!" Tuffnut growled. "Saddle or no saddle, I'm beating you!"
"We're beating you," Ruffnut clarified. "We have the same dragon, remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Then how about a little wager?" Snotlout bets, fully confident that he'll win now that Barf and Belch have become fatter. "When I win, you two idiots will do my chores for a week. If you win, I'll do your chores and your sister's for a week. Deal?"
"Deal!" the twins agree, each shaking one of Snotlout's hands. Snotlout grinned. He couldn't lose.
At the starting line, Astrid explained the rules. "We start here, at the clubhouse, then we turn right at Fishleg's topiaries and head for the sea stacks, where I've put four small flags labelled 1, 2, 3 and 4. I've set it up that way so we all know who the last two riders are. From there, you stop at the stables and let your dragons rest up. Winner gets bragging rights and all chores reduced in half, which will be added to the workload of the last two riders. Any questions?"
"Yeah, just one," Tuffnut says. "If we get there, and three riders have been before us, there'll only be one flag left, and there are two of us. Who gets the flag?"
"Sort that between yourselves," Astrid dismisses, getting onto Stormfly. "On your marks . . . get set . . . go!"
The riders take off, Hiccup and Toothless taking the lead with Stormfly and Astrid close behind them. Barf and Belch, however, aren't having much luck.
"Come on, Belch, faster!" Tuffnut goads.
"You can do it, Belch!" Ruffnut encourages.
But amount of persuading could make their dragon fly faster. Barf and Belch, who were completely ignorant of their own weight gain, didn't know what was wrong with them. They felt tired and bloated, looking extremely sluggish as even Meatlug flies faster than them. Exhausted, they took a right at Fishleg's topiaries (or as the twins called them 'fancy-looking bushes') and searched for the flags that were supposed to be at the sea stacks where Astrid left them . . . only to realize that there was nothing there.
"Hey, sis, I thought a flag was supposed to be here," Tuffnut wondered. "What happened to it?"
"Can't be helped, brother," Ruffnut shrugged. "We're having some pretty strong winds today. Must have been blown off the sea stacks. It's probably in the ocean now." (There was barely a breeze to be felt that day.)
"Let's just complete the rest of the race," Tuffnut decided, and so, Barf and Belch's rest was cut short as they slowly flew back to the stables. Maybe there, they'd finally get to rest and eat. It had been a long race, after all.
"Where in Thor's name could those muttonheads be?" Snotlout muttered. "The race finished hours ago."
"Maybe they're planning a prank or destroying something on the Edge?" Fishlegs suggested.
"We'd have heard that," Astrid discounted. "There are many words you can use to describe them, but quiet isn't one of them."
Just then, the twins flew in on an exhausted Barf and Belch. "Own up, Astrid!" Tuffnut demanded. "Why did you lie to us?"
"Lie to you about what?" Astrid asked.
"You said there would be four flags, but there were obviously three! You, Hiccup and Snotlout took a flag each, leaving Fishlegs, Ruffnut and I flagless!" Tuffnut accused. "Are you trying to humiliate the Thorston clan?"
"They're doing a pretty good job of that on their own," Snotlout muttered.
"Hate to burst your bubble, Tuff," Fishlegs interrupted, "but there's something you should hear. I wasn't left flagless, even if you were. And I should know." Smirking in a manner that was extremely uncharacteristic of him, Fishlegs reached into his pocket to reveal . . . the fourth flag.
"What?" Tuffnut protested, as Snotlout laughed so hard, he had to lean on Hookfang for physical support. (If he didn't, he'd be on the cold, hard floor, making the sound of victory a little less satisfatory.) Hookfang, who knew about the bet, was laughing pretty hard too, but at the twins' dragon more than the actual twins. You couldn't blame the twins for not flying fast, since they couldn't actually fly, and had no wish to be able to fly after the numerous failed Dragon Fly tests they'd witnessed. (Thanks, Hiccup.)
"You two must have really slowed down, huh?" Hookfang sniggered. "What happened to you? Meatlug beat you, and she's usually the slowest one here! But I guess that's going to change!"
"Hookfang!" Toothless chided. "Snotlout won a bet, not you! Shut up!"
"But it's funny!" Hookfang insists. "They're slower than everyone but Meatlug, but now even she's beating them! You've been beaten by a girl!"
"And so have you," Toothless reminds him. "Didn't Astrid and Stormfly get the second flag, and it was you and Snotlout who got the third flag? You've been beaten by two girls! Come on, you two." And with that, Toothless led Barf and Belch away, leaving a speechless and enraged Hookfang behind.
"Thanks," Barf and Belch chorused gratefully. "That was embarrassing!"
"OK," Toothless said, trying not to accidentally let slip that Barf and Belch had gained a surprisingly large amount of weight, and everyone on the Edge had noticed. "Anyway, I'd just like to ask you something. Why don't you eat with us anymore? We've been wondering where you'd gone."
"We've been helping Ruff and Tuff fill the baskets of food for your meals," Barf explained, as both heads swelled with pride and self-entitlement. "So we have to eat in the storehouse, as the twins can't get us to the clubhouse in time for breakfast anyway." In reality, they'd eaten so much fish from the fishing nets they'd collapsed to the floor with a bad stomach-ache, and because the twins thought they were too tired to fly, they ate their meals in the storehouse instead of eating with their friends and turning 4 dragons into a group of 5.
"Oh, OK," Toothless dismissed, before turning away from the Zippleback, thinking that their story really didn't add up. He then found Hookfang and the other dragons, who were already gossipping about Barf and Belch's sudden weight gain. Stormfly saw him and motioned him over. Well there goes any chance of me going unnoticed, Toothless thought. Might as well go and talk to them, since I can't get out of it now.
"Hey, Toothless," Hookfang called. "You went over to talk to Barf and Belch, didn't you? Did you see how different they looked after they gained all that weight? No wonder they've become slower!"
"Yes, why?" Toothless answered, confused.
"Do you have any idea why it's happening?" Meatlug asked. "I'm worried about them! Maybe they're not gaining weight at all. They could be extremely bloated and the reason they were the slowest is because they're too lethargic to fly their fastest! Oh, I hope they're OK!"
"Meatlug, eating all the food you see just because you can see it isn't an illness," Hookfang argued.
"Then why are they gaining weight?" Stormfly asked. "We know they're getting more food than us, but where from?" That's when Toothless' eyes went wide.
"I should've known," he groaned. "I was talking to them a minute ago, and I should've known it then, but I didn't."
"Should've known what then?" Stormfly coaxed.
"Are you OK?" Meatlug fretted. That's when Toothless couldn't keep it in any longer, and, in a fashion similar to what Hiccup might do under serious amounts of stress, he blurted it out.
"I think I know what happened to Barf and Belch!" Toothless shouted, quickly looking away from his friends in shame. The outburst shocked the other dragons, since this wasn't like Toothless at all, but it wasn't long until it was silently decided that they wanted in.
"Look, Toothless," Stormfly encouraged, barely containing the glee in her voice, "take a few deep breaths, calm down, and tell us everything you know about it, from start to finish. Don't leave out a thing."
"Hookfang was messing with Barf and Belch for being the slowest dragon in the race, and I led them away from him so they didn't fight. Once we were away from everyone, I decided to ask them why they weren't eating with us anymore, and they said that they'd been helping their riders fill our baskets with fish every time we had a meal. They ate in the storehouse because they couldn't get to the clubhouse in time. I think they filled our baskets with fish, and then set about filling themselves with fish, and that's why they look so different!" All the dragons gasped at this.
"How long have you known?" Meatlug probed.
"They only just told me," Toothless answered.
"That explains everything!" Stormfly exclaimed, outraged. "I can't believe those two! That fish is for us, too, and our humans!"
"That reminds me of the first time we noticed they were missing, and I said that they must have been stealing from the storehouse," Hookfang reminisced. "When I said that, I meant it as a joke! I didn't want to be proven right!"
"But there's got to be more to it than that!" Toothless pondered. All the dragons looked at him curiously. "If they stole straight from the fish that our riders had stored, or from our baskets, they'd have been caught and punished, so they must have taken from a supply that they expected to be gone, like the fish that was going into our baskets! They filled our baskets with fish, then ate some of the fish that was still in the net so we didn't notice anything odd, and neither did the twins!"
"Toothless, you are a genius!" Hookfang congratulated. "But knowing this is all well and good, so if you could figure out a way to stop it before it gets worse, that would be great!"
"Any plan that I come up with may have to involve Hiccup knowing what's happening, as I can tell that he knows Barf and Belch are gaining weight," Toothless explained. "But let's only involve Hiccup and the other humans if we can't stop them ourselves. They're still our friends, and I don't want them to get into trouble."
"Agreed," the other dragons chorused.
"Toothless!" Hiccup called from the forge. "Get to the forge! I need you to help me with a few things!"
"Well, what do you know? Speak of the Hiccup, and he shall be heard," Toothless muttered, as he walked off. "See you later!" And with that, Toothless strolled off to the forge, and let himself in through the door.
"Oh, there you are, Toothless," Hiccup breathed, scratching Toothless' neck gratefully. "Can you heat up this block of metal for me? I'll need it to make the saddles for Barf and Belch." Toothless complied, heating the small, palm-sized block of metal until it became red-hot with white-hot edges. "Thanks, bud. Don't know what could have happened to Barf and Belch in the space of two weeks, but it can't be good for them."
You don't know, but I do, Toothless thought, wracked with guilt for not knowing what to do about it. I would tell you, Hiccup, honestly, but if I do, Barf and Belch will be in big trouble and they'll hate me forever. He was supposed to be a leader, and here he was not knowing what to do like some hatchling, and he hated it. He drowned his worries in the sound of metal pounding metal, and he let that sound wash over him and calm his mind until Snotlout barged in two hours later.
"Hiccup, I need a favour!" Snotlout grunted. "Can you sharpen my daggers for me? Hookfang's been cleaning his claws on them again, and I need them for knife-throwing practice!"
"Fine," Hiccup agreed, "but only if you agree to take these saddles to the twins and make sure to ask them if they fit Barf and Belch properly. They'll get mad if they don't get their saddles back soon. They've been loudly complaining that riding a dragon without a saddle is painful since I took them away to fix. Do you know where they are?"
"They were at the watchtower last time I saw them," Snotlout remembered. "It won't take long for me to find those muttonheads." Snatching the saddles, Snotlout jumped on Hookfang and took off, as Toothless looked at the loudmouthed boy with annoyance.
"Yeah, sometimes I'd like Snotlout to be a little quieter too, bud," Hiccup sighed as he downed tools and sat next to Toothless. It wasn't long until Hiccup's nimble fingers itched at, and eventually started scratching at the Night Fury's neck. Unlike Hookfang, Toothless loved it when his neck was scratched, finding it soothing while Hookfang thought it was too tickly and fought to get away. He purred happily as Hiccup went to the spots near his ears, which sent Toothless into a special type of nirvana.
Today wasn't so bad after all, Toothless decided, stretching out like a cat as he suddenly realized how . . . tired he was. The race may not have awakened his appetite, but he was a little sleepy. He felt Hiccup slump onto his side and figured he wasn't the only one who could use some rest. Toothless picked up Hiccup by his tunic and decided to take him to his hut. He was dead to the world right now (Hiccup, not Toothless).
"You know, they look adorable like this," Stormfly mused, as she watched Toothless carefully carry Hiccup back to his hut, deftly opening the door with his tail while balancing a now quietly snoring Hiccup in his jaws.
"Did you seriously think Toothless would let Hiccup sleep in a hot, dangerous forge?" Meatlug chided, before gazing at the touching scene that could make even Mildew, the man who hated dragons more than anyone else on Berk, go "Aww". "Although it is really cute."
"If it wasn't Hiccup who was asleep, I'd get him to sketch this," Hookfang snickered. "Oh, well, I'll tell him all about it tomorrow. Until then, let's go to sleep."
"Fine," Stormfly mumbled, as the three dragons flew off.