Everyone knew it was Snotlout's turn to cook when the clubhouse caught fire.

And if that were not enough of a hint, the high-pitched, petrified screams sealed the deal. "HOOOOOOOOKKKKKFAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNG!"

Smoke roiled in the air, huge mushroom clouds bursting into the skies with more intensity than an explosion could ever muster. Snotlout could have sent smoke signals across the entire Barbaric Archipelago with these clouds. As it was, all he did was run around, screaming, hands on head, while his abashed dragon followed right behind him.

"PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT!"

Hookfang released an enormous puff of air, hoping to blow out a rapidly-growing tongue of flame dancing on the rooftop. He only succeeded in blowing the fire to a new location, where it continued to spread and grow.

There was looking to be more fire than clubhouse now.

"I knew we shouldn't have let him cook!" Astrid screamed, sprinting toward the clubhouse with a water bucket in hand. "I knew this would happen!"

"THIS WASN'T MY FAULT!" Snotlout wailed. "HOOKFANG, COME OVER HERE AND HELP! YOU DID THIS! NOW PUT AN END TO IT!"

The dragon blew on more flame, multiplying tongues of fire on the side of the clubhouse.

"Get AWAY, Hookfang!" Snotlout corrected frantically. He shoved the dragon's snout away. And even though Hookfang did rumble off himself, Snotlout was in enough of a frenzy he could have pushed several tons of dragon away on his own. Astrid came running up to splash water on that portion of the house a moment later.

Hiccup, with a shrill whistle, signaled Toothless. The Night Fury launched himself toward the Viking, and in half a second, both of them were flying in the air. As Hiccup rushed over Dragon's Edge and took in the damage, he shouted out to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, "Ruff! Tuff! Get over here to put out the fire!"

"Noooo thank you," said Ruffnut, leaning back and settling herself comfortably in a chair. Tuffnut lay on the ground at her feet and did not stir a muscle, either. Both of them, facing the fires, exuberantly watched the clubhouse burn up and cheered on every failed attempt to douse the flames.

"Yeah! That's it!" rooted Ruffnut. She whooped, overjoyed, at the drama. "That's it! Catch Astrid's roof on fire, too!"

"NO! NOT MY ROOF!" Astrid hollered. "SNOTLOUT, IF YOU DON'T GET ME A BLANKET TO DOUSE THE FLAMES IN TEN SECONDS, I'M THROWING YOU ON TOP OF THE FIRE!"

The twins hooted in excitement. "Burn him burn him burn him burn him!"

Meatlug hovered past, mouth clamped shut as she shuttled water to the center of camp. Fishlegs, flying over, squeaked, "Okay, but we really need your help, you guys!"

"Ask help from the ghost chickens you've murdered!" Tuffnut screamed. Neither twins moved from their vantage point of the scene.

Snotlout squealed, "How about you put that vendetta aside? We're all going to be ghosts!" He was running around, his pants – as custom – on fire. But with everything else on fire, too, he didn't seem to notice. Fishlegs was running right behind him, trying to chase Snotlout down so he could douse the young man's rump. And Meatlug was running right behind him, water sloshing out of her mouth and splashing uselessly everywhere except on top of the flames.

"This… is going completely nowhere," Hiccup mumbled frustratedly from his viewpoint in the sky. He spotted Astrid, one of the few human beings actually doing something productive. "Astrid!" he called out. "Get on Stormfly and follow me!"

The Deadly Nadder dipped in a moment later, and soon Hiccup and Astrid were flying off together. "We need to get this straightened out now," Hiccup said. "You'd think with all the fires we've had on Berk, we'd be a little bit better dousing this one."

"Okay, but are you actually surprised?"

"Alright, no," Hiccup admitted. He directed his attention to Fishlegs' hot tub, pointing to the water below. "We've got some large tarps near the stables. We can have the dragons grab each end and use it to carry all the water from Fishlegs' pool to the clubhouse."

"On it!" The two swept in, dragons grabbing the cloth, and then turned around to reach Fishlegs' hut. In the background, they could hear Snotlout wailing, "Why don't dragons waterbreathe?" while Ruffnut and Tuffnut were chanting, "Spread! the! fire! Spread! the! fire!"

Toothless and Stormfly dumped the water on top of the clubhouse only just in time. All at once, the water splashed over the charcoaled roof and drenched out every tongue of flame from the doorway to the cooking stove. They even dumped Fishlegs and Snotlout with water; the latter, moaning happily at losing the flames on his butt, moaned, "Sweet relief," and then slumped face-first onto the walkway. Only Ruffnut and Tuffnut appeared disappointed at this success. "I guess we'll have to arson the fort tonight to finish the job," one Thorston said to another.

"No one is going to do arson," Hiccup demanded. He strode onto the walkway near the charred ruins of the clubhouse and gazed at his group of friends. Everyone's faces and hands were blackened from smoke. "And we're going to try our best not to repeat this incident."

"Yeah, I think someone deserves exile after this," said Tuffnut.

Astrid smiled. "I rather like this idea…"

Snotlout's blue eyes widened at once. "It was an accident," he insisted, gesturing frantically toward the half-collapsed sort-of-clubhouse. "And it was all Hookfang's fault anyway."

"Whoa, whoa, I believe you," Hiccup responded. "And no one's exiling anyone. We get it. Accidents happen. Just… watch Hookfang closely next time?"

"Right. Guess we'll go hungry though." Snotlout appeared rather deflated and disappointed. But then he paused, sniffed the air, and after one sudden whoop quickly rushed into the clubhouse. No one could stop him. Thankfully, he charged out safely just a moment later… busing several steaks on a cracked plate.

"Wait… really?" Astrid asked, realizing what was happening.

"They didn't even get burnt!" Snotlout exclaimed. "Oh yeah. That's right. Who can burn down an entire house but still get his dinner cooked right?"

"I'm not sure that's a bragging right…" Fishlegs pointed out. However, his eyes did light up slightly at sight of the cooked meat.

And so the group found themselves eating on logs near the ground that night, seated around a campfire, and enjoying Snotlout's cooking. Hiccup, taking a bite into the meal, remarked pleasantly, "Hey! This actually isn't half bad!"

…to which Snotlout snapped back, "Of course it isn't! You never give me enough credit!"

But then a sudden crash made everyone jump. With their hearts pounding, all the youths turned around. Something had fallen from the crisped remains of the clubhouse… reminding them precisely why they didn't tend to give the young Jorgenson too much credit. Everyone groaned, rolled their eyes, and turned away from Snotlout at once.