Ferosianinja gave me the challenge of writing a fic about Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the Twins encountering a Snaptrapper. I don't think this is quite that they had in mind, but it was the best I could come up with. Enjoy!
Four by Four
"Um, can someone tell me why we're doing this again?" Fishlegs whimpered, looking around them nervously. Everything about this screamed 'BAD IDEA' like an angry Thunderdrum, and the large, timid Viking was getting more and more anxious by the second.
"Oh come on!" Snotlout scoffed. "Don't you wanna do something and NOT have Hiccup take all the credit for once? Think of how much everyone's gonna love us when we bring all this chocolate back to Berk!"
"If. If we get back. Which we won't if we can't figure out where Berk is, which we can't because we're lost." Fishlegs reminded them, wishing once more that Hiccup or Astrid were there. Oh what he'd give for someone with a brain…
"Whatever. At least we got plenty to eat." Ruffnut snickered as she snuck another sweet out of the bag she was carrying.
"Hey!" Tuffnut whined. "I wanted that one!"
"So what, Dungbrain?"
"Come over here and say that to my face, Dragonbutt!" Fishlegs sighed heavily as both of the Thorston twins dropped their bags and began brawling right in the middle of the forest, once again wondering how he'd gotten himself dragged into this mess.
Sneaking off to get chocolate from Trader Johann was one thing, but taking a shortcut through the forest to take their quarry back to Berk? And then, to make matters worse, the ever brilliant Snotlout had made them leave their dragons behind in the village, so Hiccup wouldn't be able to follow them if he figured out they were missing.
We're gonna die out here in the middle of nowhere. Fishlegs thought with a whimper. He just hoped his mom would take care of Meatlug for him once he was gone. Hopefully, she'd remember that she liked when someone scratched her between her toes…
While Fishlegs was pondering this, a low, dangerous growl came from somewhere in the forest around them, making the boy freeze as his heart leapt up to his throat.
"Um, did you guys hear that?" Fishlegs squeaked, eyes darting left and right to try and discover the source of the noise. Ruffnut paused in the middle of hitting Tuffnut- who she had in a headlock- with the boot she's wrenched off of his right foot as Snotlout frowned and turned the map he was holding upside down for the third time in the last half hour.
"Uh, no." Snotlout scoffed dismissively. He looked like he was about to say something else, when the growling noise came again, louder and closer this time. Immediately, Ruffnut dropped her brother as all four young Vikings crowded close together, looking anxiously into the darkened forest around them as they drew their weapons.
"Told you." Fishlegs muttered, feeling vindicated despite his fear. Snotlout elbowed him in the stomach in response, making the larger boy grunt in pain.
"Anyone else kinda wish we brought our dragons with us?" Tuffnut asked, tightening his grip on his knife.
"Che. I don't need a dragon to take care of some stupid growling thing." Snotlout insisted arrogantly, stepping away from the group. Fishlegs cringed when the boy raised his voice to shout into the forest around them. "Hey! You wanna fight? Well come out here and face me, mano a mano!" As Snotlout's challenge echoed loudly through the forest, the growling immediately fell silent. Turning back to the others, Snotlout flashed a smug grin. "Yeah, that's what I thought. See? You just gotta show these things who's boss."
That was when four long, serpentine heads all shot out from the nearby shadows, jaws snapping at the four Viking teens who all screamed loudly in response before fleeing in the opposite direction.
"Yeah, you really showed him who's boss!" Tuffnut snapped sarcastically at the dark-haired boy when Snotlout overtook him.
"Shut up and run!" Snotlout screamed back.
"Guys!" Fishlegs shouted shrilly from the rear, where he was struggling to keep up with the other three. "It's gaining on us!" Unfortunately, this quickly became a less pressing issue when four more dragon heads erupted from the trees in front of Snotlout, cutting off their escape and nearly taking off the brunet's head.
"There!" Ruffnut shouted, pointing to a small opening in the mountain not far away. Without any further prompting, all four teens raced for the gap, diving inside for shelter from the dragons. The cave entrance was so small that Fishlegs had to suck in his gut to get in, but it offered them the protection they needed, and that was more than good enough for the Vikings.
"What were those things?!" Tuffnut demanded.
"Snaptrappers." Fishlegs responded automatically. "Four-headed Dragons that lure Vikings into traps, then devour them."
"Sick." Ruffnut said, though she sounded impressed. "So it's kinda like our Zippleback?"
"Blah blah blah who cares!" Snotlout snapped. "Why the heck did it attack us?! We didn't do anything!"
"It might've been because of the chocolate." Fishlegs theorized. "Snaptrappers use the smell of chocolate to lure its prey. Maybe they smelled the chocolate we were carrying and thought we were a new Snaptrapper hunting in their territory?"
"So we ditch the chocolate, we ditch the dragons." Tuffnut reasoned, tossing the bags he was carrying. Ruffnut quickly followed suit, but Snotlout looked outraged at the suggestion.
"But I traded three of my best swords for this stuff!" Snotlout whined, hugging his bag close. The others gave him hard looks until finally the boy caved. Grumbling, Snotlout reluctantly shed his treasures as well.
"Okay, so now what?"
"Run?" Suggested Fishlegs, feeling a little out of his depth. He didn't know how Hiccup could do this leading stuff, it was a lot of pressure.
"Okay, so run." Snotlout prompted impatiently, reminding Fishlegs that he was blocking the entrance. Which meant he would have to be the first one out of the cave. Once again, Fishlegs really, REALLY wished Hiccup had come along with them. He was small enough that he probably could've squeezed around Fishlegs and gone first.
Whimpering slightly, Fishlegs poked his head out of the cave, peeking around to find that the coast was clear. There were no signs of either dragon in the immediate area, but the smell of chocolate still perfumed the air, so they were probably still close by. He'd have to move slowly and carefully, to avoid drawing attention to himself and agitating the dragons.
Or he could fall out flailing and screaming when someone gave him a hard push from behind.
"That wasn't funny!" Fishlegs snapped as he pushed himself off the ground, turning around to glare at the three cackling Vikings behind him. He was a little sour that he didn't even have a clear guess over which one of them had pushed him, since any one of them would have.
"Yes it was." Tuffnut snickered. "Anyways, I dunno what you're so scared about. The dragons are gone, see?" Fishlegs was about to reply to this when a roar cut through the air and a head snapped out, almost grabbing Snotlout before he jumped out of the way.
"Does that look gone to you?!" Fishlegs demanded as he scrambled to his feet. The four teens started making their way back to the cave, but a bolt of fire shot by above their heads, hitting the cliff wall and causing an avalanche of rocks that blocked their sanctuary. Slowly, with a growing feeling of dread, Fishlegs turned and looked up at the two four headed dragons growling down at him and his friends as the Vikings crowded together once more.
"Uh, not that I'm worried, but… does anyone have any ideas?" Snotlout asked shakily.
"Well, Snaptrappers are supposed to like rain and mud." Fishlegs offered meekly as he backed away from the dragons that were slowly herding them towards the mountain
"Oh, THAT makes me feel better!" Snotlout snapped. "What a relief! All we have to do is make it rain!"
"You don't have to sound so hostile about it, you know…"
"Hey Tuffnut, remember that time we were flying home, and we forgot about that rope?" Ruffnut asked suddenly. At first, Tuffnut looked surprised at his sister's words, but then his eyes lit up and he grinned widely at his twin.
"Oh yeah!" Tuffnut chuckled, making Snotlout groan.
"Oh great, we're about to get eaten by four headed dragons and they're thinking about the good old days." Snotlout complained, more to himself then to Fishlegs. The twins ignored him though, and instead ran forward to face the dragons head on.
Each twin took on a different Dragon, Ruffnut going to the left and Tuffnut the right. When the four headed reptiles snapped forward to try and bite either of them, the twins dodged deftly, eventually making their way to the creatures' underbellies.
"What are they doing?" Snotlout demanded, looking baffled at the twins' actions. Fishlegs paid more attention to the dragons, though, and was surprised at how effective the twins' strategy was.
"By getting underneath them, the twins are a lot more protected from the dragons." Fishlegs realized, with no small amount of surprise as he watched the Snaptrappers lumber around awkwardly to try and reach either one of the twins. "Most of the danger that the Snaptrapper presents is in the claws and the heads, which can strike almost anywhere due to their long necks, but there's no way the heads can get at something that's under their bodies."
As Fishlegs finished explaining this, Ruffnut and Tuffnut wormed their way out unseen past the Snaptrappers' tails. Tuffnut then proceeded to pull a length of rope out of his bag, tossing one end to his sister. The movement caught the eye of the Snaptrappers, who quickly focused on the twins again with angry hisses. Unperturbed, the Thorston twins each bellowed out a war cry as they ran forward, fearless as the eight heads shot forward to attack. Stunned, Snotlout and Fishlegs watched with gaping mouths as the twins looped and jumped and scrambled around like half crazed monkeys, rope trailing along after them and eventually getting both of the dragons so tangled together that neither could even hope to possibly move.
"That… that was brilliant." Fishlegs said, feeling a little confused as he watched Ruffnut and Tuffnut celebrate their victory by knocking their helmets together. The twins never did anything smart before. Ever.
"Yeah." Tuffnut snickered. "Just because these things have more heads then us, doesn't make them smarterer."
There. That was entirely Fishlegs' point right there.
"Besides, we accidentally got Barf and Belch all tied up in a rope a few weeks back. It took us hours to undo it." Ruffnut added.
"Yeah great, woo-hoo dragon down! Can we go now?!" Snotlout demanded irritably, looking nervous as the dragons growled and fought to free themselves from their bonds. Realizing that they had better make their escape while they could, the four young Vikings ran off, leaving the Snaptrappers behind.
Four hours later, the tried, hungry and dirty group finally made their way back to the village, where they were greeted by Astrid and Hiccup.
"What happened to you guys?" Hiccup asked, concern warring with revulsion as he took in their appearances.
"Don't ask." Fishlegs moaned. He was never going to listen to anything Snotlout said ever again. Ever.
"Well where have you four been all day?" Astrid inquired instead. "You missed all the excitement! Hiccup and I found a couple of Snaptrappers all tied up about an hour ago when we were flying. Hiccup managed to calm them down with some dragonnip as I cut them free. They was so grateful that before they flew off, they led us to this cave full of chocolate! Enough for the entire village! Isn't that great?" All four teens stilled at this news, and Snotlout's jaw almost hit the ground when one of the younger villagers came darting around to throw her arms around Hiccup's waist, grinning up at the brunet with chubby cheeks, missing teeth and chocolate stains.
"Thank you, Hiccup!" She said sweetly before running off to join her friends in partaking in more of the sweet treat. Sighing, Fishlegs quickly scurried off to find Meatlug as Snotlout began making indignant choking noises and turning an ugly shade or red, once again mentally promising that he'd never go on any group expeditions without Astrid or Hiccup.