Chapter Nine: Poor Fishlegs

To say that this trip was less-than-enjoyable for Fishlegs would be an understatement. Possibly the understatement of the century, which was a real bummer because the trip started out on such a positive note. He did get to meet two of his idols, Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson after all.

However, after being attacked by the Red Death and climbing down a 50-foot wall to save one of Hammond's grandkids, he had the fantastic task of keeping the grandkids from getting themselves killed by provoking dragons. First it was the Typhoonmerang and its babies, then the Timberjack, and then the Fireworms. Somehow, with all three species the twins ended up practically unscathed despite their provoking antics, while Fishlegs bore the marks of their labors. And after finding a suitable tree for the trio to sleep safely in, poor Fishlegs was woken up by being pushed out of the tree by Ruff and Tuff, both who accused the other of doing it. It was sufficient to say that Fishlegs was prepared to go home.

"I'm tired."

"Me too."

"Well maybe if you two slept like I told you to instead of playing pranks on me and pushing me out of a tree then you wouldn't be tired," Fishlegs snapped.

The twins raised their eyebrows at one another. "I wasn't tired then."

"Yeah me either. I'm tired now."

"Will you two be quiet?" Fishlegs whispered as they approached a large herd of Gronckles. Several of the Gronckles were fighting over food and others were circling one another, battling for the right to mate with a female. "Listen, Gronckles love rocks so we're going to toss some of these bigger rocks in a that way direction to get them to chase it. Otherwise we're going to have to go all the way around them."

"Throw rocks, got it!" Tuff said.

"Yeah! We're good at that!" Ruff added.

The twins picked up several rocks and threw them in the direction Fishlegs had wanted. Fishlegs stood in shock, not because the Gronckles predictably had chased after the rocks, but because the twins had actually listened to him for once. He had expected them to hit one another first. Man, they really must be tired.

The female Gronckle watched as the males of the group hustled after the rocks that the twins threw. She turned to face the direction that the rocks came from and sniffed the air. As Fishlegs picked up a large rock and threw it towards the other Gronckles, he said quietly, "Here ya go, girl. Enjoy."

Once the Gronckles had moved, Fishlegs motioned for the twins to continue their journey back towards the Visitor's Center. Just before they passed out of the forested part of the park into the safari zone, Ruff pointed up into a pine tree at an iridescent egg. "Hey, what's that?"

"Oh! I know, pick me! Wait…no I don't know."

Fishlegs' eyes widened. "That's a Changewing egg. Oh no, this is not good. That means there's Changewings in the area. That means they've escaped their enclosure too." His panicked mind was moving at a mile-a-minute. He was trying to remember all of the facts his read about the Changewings from his University classes.

Ruff shook her head, "That's not an egg. That's a stone of good fortune! Just like the ones that Mom showed us!"

"Oh yeah!" Tuff said as he started to climb the tree. Fishlegs grabbed the belt loops on his jeans and pulled him back to the ground. "What? I want it! That's a lifetime's worth of good fortune!"

"No, it's a dragon egg. A highly dangerous color-changing, acid spitting, dragon egg."

"Wait, are these dragons invisible?" Ruff asked.

Fishlegs nodded, "They can change their scales to blend in completely with the environment. They're extremely territorial and will spit acid on anyone who stumbles on their territory or their eggs."

"So you're saying that if, like, a tree were spitting hot burning acid…" Tuff started.

"…That would be one of those dragons?" Ruff finished his sentence.

"Yes! Wow, I'm impressed that you got that on the first try."

"We're not stupid."

"Besides there's one on that tree behind you."

Fishlegs let out a high-pitched scream before pushing the twins out into the safari zone. Behind them the Changewings were firing acid. "Invisible dragons that shoot acid, just greeaatt…"

The trio ran towards the center of the safari zone where the small lake was. The twins shouting and Fishlegs' high-pitched screaming startled the dragons near the water and they flew off to perch safely in the trees.

Without hesitation the twins leapt into the water. Fishlegs threw his hands up in despair. "C'mon, Fishlegs! The Changewings won't get us in the water!"

"Where exactly did that logic come from?" Fishlegs asked, but before the twins could answer a Changewing fired acid behind him, nearly missing his left ear. Fishlegs squeaked and jumped into the water. The twins were already swimming across the lake to get to the other bank. As Fishlegs followed closely behind them he noticed that the Changewings had in fact stopped chasing them. "Huh, this must be the edge of their territory."

As Fishlegs stepped onto the other bank, Ruff said, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Fishlegs silently prayed that it was the roar of an engine and someone had come to rescue him from these two terrible terrors. And no, he wasn't talking about the miniature green dragons.

"It's coming from over there!" Tuff pointed.

"Oh, it sounds completely terrifying!" Ruff said.

"Let's go find it!"

"Wait a minute. We don't go towards the weird scary sound!"

Ruff and Tuff rolled their eyes. "Uh, yeah we do." "Uh, we always do."

As the twins ran off, Fishlegs glanced at his body, which was currently covered in mud, bruises and shallow lacerations. Fishlegs looked up at the sky and moaned, "I'm not going to get out of this alive, am I? And it won't be a dragon that kills me, but them…"


Astrid and Snotlout returned to the Control Room to find it still in darkness save for the two flashlights. They flicked on their own flashlights and shined them around the room to get their bearings. Hammond was perched on top of one of the desks with a container of ice cream in her lap. Heather, on the other hand, was pacing nervously through the Control Room.

With her mouth full of ice cream, Hammond said, "I brought extra spoons. This ice cream is really quite spectacular. Spared no expense." Astrid merely hummed in agreement.

"What, Arnold isn't back yet? What's taking him so long?" Snotlout complained.

Between spoonfuls of ice cream, Hammond said, "This is just a delay. All theme parks have delays. When Disneyland opened for the first time in 1956, nothing worked!"

"Yeah, but Joanna, when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride breaks down, the pirates don't EAT the tourists," Snotlout pointed out.

"You look whiter than a ghost, Astrid," Heather said.

"Yeah, that's because the only Night Fury you created flew off with her boyfriend," Snotlout laughed and Astrid glared at him through her blonde bangs. "What? It's the truth!" Astrid nonchalantly shot Snotlout with the tranquilizer gun in his foot. Since they were meant for the dragons and not for the humans, Snotlout was out cold in less than a second.

A single tear, half from rage, half from despair trickled down Astrid's cheek. Joanna put down her ice cream container, hopped off of the desk, and walked over to Astrid. Hammond placed her hand on Astrid's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Dr. Hofferson." Astrid simply nodded.

Heather sighed, "That's it. Something's wrong. I'm going to the maintenance shed myself." She grabbed a pair of walkies and thrust one into Joanna's hand. "I'm on channel three." Out of habit, Heather reached for her badge to swipe against the keypad, but shook her head and laughed quietly to herself as she opened the door manually. In front of her stood… "Dr. Haddock?"

"Hiccup!" Astrid all but launched herself at Hiccup, accidentally knocking Heather down in the process. "How did you get away from the…Night Fury! Get down!" She pushed Hiccup forcibly back into the Control Room. Toothless saw the violent behavior and charged up a plasma blast. Hiccup immediately put his hand up, silently telling Toothless not to shoot. Toothless closed his mouth, licked his lips, and watched through the glass as Astrid pulled Hiccup further into the safety of the Control Room.

"No, no, ah, ow! Astrid, no Astrid! It's okay he's a friend. He brought me here. Ow, ow, Astrid!"

"A friend? Hiccup, he's a NIGHT FURY!"

"Yes, I am in fact, well aware of that, Astrid. Meet Toothless. Toothless, meet Astrid," Hiccup gestured between the pair. Through the glass of the window, Toothless hissed and bared his teeth. Astrid shot Hiccup a glare that read, he's not very toothless, you idiot.

"And what happened to your leg?" Astrid demanded.

"Red Death rolled the second car on top of it. I made a splint, but it's pretty badly broken."

Astrid helped Hiccup towards a chair and pulled a second chair in front of him for him to prop his leg up. She slowly undid the bandages, apologizing quietly every time Hiccup winced or hissed in pain. Toothless paced outside of the Control Room, debating on whether he should blast the windows or not. It seemed like these humans were helping Hiccup. And the hunter human was on the ground asleep, or dead. Toothless hoped the latter of the two was true: he didn't like that hunter human.

Hiccup glanced over his shoulder and smiled at Toothless, who retracted his teeth and grinned back. Hiccup poked Astrid and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, "See? Toothless." Astrid smiled at his dorkiness.

Seeing that the situation in the Control Room was under control, Heather stepped back over the unconscious Snotlout and opened the door again. She carefully shimmied past the Night Fury and hurried down the hall in search of Mr. Arnold.

Hammond handed Astrid the first aid kit and together they resplinted Hiccup's leg. With proper tools, this splint made his maneuverability slightly better. At least it didn't hurt as much to put some of his weight on it. Hiccup thanked Astrid, and she kissed him chastely on the cheek. "Of course, babe."

"So what happened to him?" Hiccup nodded his head in the direction of the still unconscious Snotlout.

"I thought you were dead," Astrid brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"Ah, that explains it."

"You really are quite violent, Dr. Hofferson," Hammond said.

Astrid shrugged. "Must be the Viking blood."

[a/n] Sorry for the delay. Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is enjoying it!