Fin glowered at the table. Four sisters. How could this be fair?! What did he need four sisters for? Mum could have had one boy, and one girl - if she had to have twins at all- and then it'd be fair. But four sisters! The girls were winning.
Fin looked across the living room, at the cradle by the fire where his new baby sisters were sleeping. At least they were sleeping. If Noula cried a lot, she was nothing in comparison to these two. He hadn't slept a wink since they came home! If one wasn't screaming, then the other was screaming, which would wake up the other one, and Noula would join in because she didn't like them at all and sometimes Mum was so tired she sometimes cried and Dad always looked like he wanted to cry when Mum cried, and Leify cried, and Liv cried and Fin felt like the only person in this family who wasn't crying all the time! It was ridiculous!
He'd taken to spending far more time with the dragons, pretending that cleaning the stables took far more time than it actually did. Thunderdrums made less noise than his family at the moment.
It had been about two weeks since the babies had been born and it had been rubbish the whole time. They were always eating weird things that Nana Haddock had cooked (which were no-where near as good as Mum's cooking) because apparently Mum wasn't well enough to cook, and Mister Fishlegs had been taking them to school in the morning instead of Dad, which was cool actually because Mister Fishlegs knew loads and loads about dragons, probably more than his dad even knew and told him loads of cool facts, but there were smelly nappy smells all over the house and the only quiet place was his bedroom, and that wasn't even that quiet.
"Why do they cry so much, Dad?" he'd asked a few days after they'd come home from Nana's.
"They're new." His Da had replied, whilst bouncing one of them who he'd just managed to get off to sleep, "Everything is new and scary for them, and they don't know why they're uncomfortable when they're uncomfortable, and crying is their way of asking for help."
Fin understood that, sort of, but surely they'd be used to everything by now. It's not like they did much except drink, sleep, winge and poo.
Fin had suddenly developed a fondness for Noula, who seemed positively angelic compared to the new ones. At least Noo could nearly walk, and sort of talk, and only really cried when she was scared. And she knew what a dragon was, even if she only called it a "da". She could at least try to say "Dra". Fin picked her up, and took her outside onto the step, where Mum was sitting and watching the village.
"Noula," Fin had decided it was time to teach her to speak properly. "Can you say 'dragon'?"
Noo smiled gummily at him. "Da!"
"No, not 'Da', Noula, it's 'Dra', with a 'r' in it"
Noula scunched up her nose "Urrrr"
"That's it! Say 'Dra'!"
"Da!"
"No, Noula, 'Dra'"
"Da!"
"You're missing out the 'r'!"
"Urrrrrrrr"
"Drrrraaagon" he said slowly
"Durrrrrrrrrrr"
"That's it!"
Noula looked very pleased with herself.
"Da!"
Fin hit his forehead in exasperation. "Dra! Drrrraaaaaa!"
"RRRRR!" Noula growled,
Astrid, who had been watching with amusement, laughed. "That's the noise a dragon makes Noula."
"Or the noise Dad makes when he's snoring." Fin added cheekily, avoiding a smack round the head from his mother.
"RRRRR!" Noula growled, smiling and enjoying the attention.
The door opened behind them, and Leif and Liv walked through, followed by Hiccup.
"I hear a tiny dragon!", Hiccup smiled, tickling Noo under the chin.
Astrid looked at him, eyes a bit wider than they were a moment ago. She started to get up.
"The babies..?"
Hiccup gently pushed her back down again. "Toothless is watching them, they're asleep."
Toothless had taken it upon himself to keep a proper eye on the two new little humans. Why on earth the fully grown humans insisted on producing far more hatchlings than they could handle, he had no idea. I mean, they couldn't even keep the fourth one from nearly killing herself twice a day, why on earth did they think it was a good idea to have another two?!
At least these ones couldn't get up to trouble. He sat and looked into the crib, where two pink faces were nestled in a huge nest of blankets and furs. They eyes were squeezed into lines, above their little upturned noses, and tiny lips that twitched in their dreams.
They're not very well evolved, thought Toothless. A baby dragon can walk, and eat by itself, and can even fly a bit. These can't do anything for themselves. Even the one that has been here for two summers now can't even walk yet, and get's food everywhere but her mouth when she is given something to eat. How do they survive at all? The little humans have to be kept warm, because their own fur isn't sufficient for that, and Toothless can't help but wonder what would happen if they were left to their own devices.
Absolutely no-one could tell them apart yet, so they'd decided not to name them until their personality started to show them apart a bit.
Toothless was pretty sure he could smell the difference. Both Fin and Astrid thought they could tell which one was which from their cries, Astrid reasoning that one had a higher pitch than the other, while Fin said "you can just tell". Hiccup had absolutely no idea how to tell which was which, and Liv was sure that one of them (though no-one knew which) was definitely prettier than the other - or at the very least less squashed looking. Leif didn't really have much of an opinion, and Noula didn't like either of the very much at all, and thought of them as one entity: "the enemy".
It felt as if nearly all the village had visited so far, all of them suggesting names and giving hints and tips about how to tell them apart, how to look after them, how to nurse them, send them to sleep and a gazillion other things. Suddenly, it seemed, absolutely everyone was an expert on twins. Except, he felt, Hiccup.
In all honesty, the real reason they hadn't named them yet was because they hadn't thought of name's they liked yet. They'd already discussed that they could put a bracelet on one, and not on the other, to tell them apart.
NA: Sorry it's not particularly long, I've been mega busy. Got any name suggestions for the twins?
