Shout-outs next chapter, I promise. My e-mail is being a bully. This is my FIRST update today, and I hope you enjoy this one. :D
Hiccup sat on a rock, Toothless sitting next to him, as Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and the dragons worked on the treehouse. Astrid took command, spurting out different instructions to different people, who scrambled to do as she asked.
"Snotlout, watch where you're swinging that axe!" said Astrid, ducking when Snotlout hacked at a large, thick piece of wood.
"I'm trying!" Snotlout complained, swinging his axe once more, nearly cutting off his head in the process. "This board doesn't want to cut in half!"
"Then do it harder!" said Astrid. She looked to the side, watching as Fishlegs, who was at the top of the tree they were building on, hammered nails into it, making sure it was stable as he went. "Fishlegs, you almost done with that first section?" Astrid called up to him.
"Yep!" Fishlegs answered, hammering another nail into the wood, securing it to the tree. "Just a few more nails and a few more pounds of the hammer, and we are done with the first plank of the platform!"
"Good," said Astrid. She turned around, just in time to see Ruffnut swing one of the saws at her brother. Tuffnut ducked and swung his own back at her. They parried with the tools and went into hysterical laughter. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, what are you doing with those saws?" Astrid asked.
"Playing tag!" said Tuffnut, blocking a blow from Ruffnut.
"Yeah!" his sister agreed, lowering her "weapon" to face Astrid.
"With saws!?" said Astrid angrily.
"It's complicated!" said Tuffnut. "You wouldn't understand." He and his sister started fighting once more.
"Guys, stop getting distracted!" said Astrid.
"We never get distra - OH, is that a butterfly?" said Tuffnut, staring at the fluttering insect with awe.
"You guys are as bad as Stormfly," Astrid grumbled. "You done, Fishlegs?" she called up to him once more.
"Done!" said Fishlegs. "Meatlung, could you bring me another board?"
Meatlung growled and complied, gripping another piece of flat wood in her teeth before flying back up and laying it next to the first one. Fishlegs thanked the dragon and then continued hammering.
"You almost done, Snotlout?" said Astrid, wincing when she heard his axe slice through the wood. "We need that third piece as soon as Fishlegs finishes that second one."
"I can't do it!" Snotlout grumbled, throwing his axe on the ground and crossing his arms, sitting down on the ground like a child throwing a fit. "I just can't do it!"
"Do it, and be ready when Fishlegs is!" said Astrid.
"I can't do something like this so quickly!" said Snotlout. "Give me ONE good reason why I should do this!"
"I'll give you FIVE good reasons!" said Astrid. "One-" She put one finger down. "-two-" she put another down, "-three-" another, "-four-" another, "-FIVE!" She made a fist once all her fingers had been counted off, holding it close to Snotlout threateningly.
"Those are good reasons!" said Snotlout, scrambling for the axe and hacking at the wood again.
"That's what I thought you'd say," said Astrid.
After another hour, the entire floor of the treehouse was built and steady. Hiccup listened to them work, laughing whenever Astrid got mad at the twins or Snotlout, enjoying the sound of the hammer banging against the nails, only because it reminded him of the forge, where he spent a majority of his past life.
After that was done, Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs and the dragons took to making the walls. They built them in a remarkably short amount of time, thanks to the dragons.
By evening, the treehouse was nearly completed. The only thing left to do was build the roof, and then the rope swing, neither of which would take all that long if they did a good and diligent job on it, and worked together.
"Should we call it a night?" said Astrid. It was getting darker, the sun slowly sinking behind the isle of Berk.
Apparently, no one thought it was a good idea to be stopping at that moment. They were too excited, and too hyped up about the treehouse to take a break, even if they were going to work on it again the next morning.
"No!" said Tuffnut. "We're almost done! Let's just finish it up, and then we can call it a night."
Astrid smiled. She hadn't really expected anyone to want to stop. "Okay," said Astrid. "Then let's get a jump on it, and try to finish it before it gets too dark to work."
"I'll time you!" said Hiccup. "Ready...set...GO!"
The dragons and riders scrambled with building parts, fashioning a sturdy roof as well as finding a rope long enough and secure enough to be a safe swing. While Snotlout and the twins took to tying the rope to one of the overhanging branches, Astrid and Fishlegs worked on the roof.
They hammered, sawed, their dragons brought more pieces, and then they repeated. They continued the cycle over and over and over again until the treehouse was deemed completed a few hours later, just as it became dark. Once it was, Astrid and the others jumped away to look at it.
"Done!" Astrid shouted.
"Roughly three hours since I started counting," said Hiccup, clapping slowly. "Well done."
"Wow," said Fishlegs, standing back to gaze at their finished work. "Not too bad."
"I think it's awesome!" said Tuffnut.
"Not my finest work," Snotlout boasted arrogantly.
Astrid rolled her eyes. "We'll try everything out tomorrow," she said. "It's late now, and we should be getting back to the village."
"Can do," said Hiccup. He got on Toothless' back and sighed. He couldn't fly the dragon, so maybe the dragon could run, that way at least he didn't feel so bad about everything.
So, Toothless ran back to the village, the other dragons and riders following them from the sky.
...
"We should reach Berk by this time tomorrow, sir," said a soldier.
"Good," replied the leader. "And then this time tomorrow, that Dragon Boy will be ours."
