"Talk about a blind date," Snotlout muttered after a while. "Did you introduce the others to dragons this way, too?"
Hiuccup laughed. "No, just Astrid. The twins found the Zippleback on their own and Meatlug left the cave before Fishlegs and I reached it."
"Oh," Snotlout said. "Where's Gobber?"
"Still where we left him... He's probably inspecting my forge by now."
"You aren't going to make your dragon bring him here?"
"Why should I? He's spent too long fighting them, he won't trust that easily." Hiccup told him.
After a few minutes in which Hiccup chatted to both Hookfang and Snotlout, Hiccup excused himself to convince Toothless to go find Astrid and the Nadder. He wanted them to come back so he could talk to all the Vikings at once, rather than wasting time speaking to each of them alone.
Hiccup waited until they were outside and away from the others before speaking. "~Come on, Toothless. Please? You know it won't take long to find them...~"
"~I don't like that Viking girl,~" Toothless replied adamantly.
"~She apologized!~" Hiccup exclaimed. "~Gods, Toothless! She was the first to apologize, and the only one who wasn't scared into it! What else do you want?~"
Toothless huffed, then muttered, "~It would be nice if she stayed away.~"
"~Why?~" Hiccup asked emphatically. "~Why don't you like her?~"
"~You like her,~" Toothless mumbled accusingly.
"~I- What?! Is that why you hate her so much? Because I like her?~" Hiccup stared at the black dragon.
"~You're going to go away with her, back to that village... Aren't you?~" Toothless narrowed his eyes.
"~Never!~" Hiccup exclaimed, surprised. "~Toothless, I hated it there! You know that, Bud. I will never set foot in Berk again, and that's a promise.~"
"~But you want her to be your mate,~" Toothless stated flatly.
"~I, well, um... I- Oh, shut up!~" Hiccup fumbled, going bright red. "I- I- She's not my mate!"
"~That's a yes.~" Toothless told him.
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "~Even if it was a yes, it- She, er, we wouldn't work out.~"
"~Why not?~" Toothless wanted to know.
"~Well I- She's- It's just...~" Hiccup broke off and sighed. "~She's a Viking. The best Viking our age, Toothless. I'm- Well, I'm me.~"
"~So?~" Toothless growled, angry that his Hiccup still felt this way about himself. "~You're more than good enough for her! She's not good enough for you!~"
Hiccup shrugged. "~Toothless, leave it. Please? It's just not going to work, okay?~"
Toothless huffed, flexing his wings. "~I'll make sure it does!~" With that, he leapt into the air, speeding off in search of Astrid and the Nadder.
Hiccup watched him go. "~Useless reptile...~"
Then he turned and walked back toward the dragons' cave. "Hey, Fish!" He said when he reached the bulky Viking, who was sitting beside Meatlug and telling her all about his childhood.
"Yeah, Hiccup?"
"You're going to learn to fly. Meeting over there, okay?" Hiccup gestured vaguely behind him, at the grassy slope the dragons liked to take off from.
"Okay..." Fishlegs said, sounding a lot more nervous now.
Hiccup nodded. "It'll be fine, Fishlegs. I've gotta go round up the twins. See you there in a few minutes." Fishlegs nodded, and Hiccup continued on toward the small explosions and yelling that marked the twins' location.
The twins had evidently impressed the Zippleback with their loudness and scynchronicity, and the four -three?- were tangled together in a mess of legs, arms, long necks, hair, and tails.
"Barf, do it again!" Ruffnut was saying, grinning madly.
"No, his name's Belch!" Tuffnut corrected. "Do it again, Belch!"
The dragon, clearly enjoying himself, let out a burst of gas and lit it. The twins cheered, and Hiccup rolled his eyes.
"Hey, um... Listen, uh... Ruffnut, Tuffnut!" The twins didn't spare Hiccup a glance, but he knew how to handle them. "I bet you two would never be crazy enough to learn to ride a dragon!"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut turned to stare at him. "What?" They asked in unison.
"Ride a dragon?" Ruffnut added, eyes wide.
"Awesome! Where do I sign up?" Tuffnut asked.
Hiccup grinned. "Just meet me at the landing field in five minutes." He turned to walk away, then paused. "Why don't you just call the right head Barf and the left Belch?"
The twins looked at each other, then at their two-headed dragon.
"I never would have thought of that!" Tuffnut grinned.
"Dumbass," Ruffnut said.
"Hey! Take that back!" Tuffnut yelled. Hiccup rolled his eyes and walked back around the hill to the dragons' cave.
"Snotlout? You still in there with-"
"Yes! His name's Hookfang!" Snotlout informed him from inside.
"Uh... Kay." Hiccup said, not sure how he was going to tell his cousin that his dragon was a female. "Uh, can you two come outside for a minute?"
"Sure! Come on, Hookfang... Come on! What're you waiting for?"
Hiccup smirked as the newly dubbed Hookfang told him that Snotlout was being much nicer before Hiccup got there. "~Why is he being so rude now?~"
"~He thinks he's got to impress everyone by being tough and Vikingly,~" Hiccup explained.
"~Ridiculous human,~" Hookfang snorted as she followed Snotlout into the light.
Hiccup shrugged, then turned to his cousin. "I see you two're getting along nicely. Snotlout, how would you like to ride her?"
Snotlout's eyes went wide. "Ride? Like, in the air? Flying?!"
Hiccup nodded. "Well, yeah. That is how dragon riding works."
"I know that!" Snotlout snapped.
"Everyone else's going to learn," Hiccup told him. "So, are you coming?"
"I- Okay." Snotlout said.
Hiccup led them over to the grassy takeoff hill, where Fishlegs and the twins were waiting with Meatlug and Barf and Belch. Instead of addressing them, Hiccup looked up at the sky.
"Uh, what are you looking for?" Fishlegs asked after a few minutes.
"Toothless. And the Nadder, with Astrid on her back." Hiccup explained. "Oh, there they are."
They all watched as the two dragons came in for a landing. Toothless didn't even wait to furl his wings before bounding excitedly toward Hiccup, pouncing on the dragon rider in his excitement.
"Whoa!" Hiccup cried as he was knocked flat on his back. "What is it, Toothless?! Is something wrong?"
"~Dragon rider, Hiccup! A dragon- There's a four-winged... I think you'd call him a Stormcutter... Huge dragon, and there's a person!~"
"~Calm down, Toothless!~" Hiccup exclaimed, laughing. "~What is it?~"
"~Hiccup,~" Toothless said, looking into Hiccup's eyes. "~I saw a person riding that four-winged dragon.~"
"You saw what?!" Hiccup yelled, forgetting about Dragonese. "A person? Who, where? Gods, this is amazing!"
Toothless got off of Hiccup and bounded around in a circle, almost as excited as his rider. "~I was going to find your Astrid and I saw this huge dragon in the distance, he's so much bigger than me, and there was a person, with a mask and horns and a strange staff, but they disappeared in the clouds -I don't think they saw me- and I found Astrid and the Nadder flying out of a storm cloud- Can you believe it? So I told the Nadder to come back, and I came back too!~"
"~That's wonderful Toothless, -Astrid's not mine, by the way, and you know it- Gods, another dragon rider!~"
"What's going on?" Astrid asked, sliding off of her Nadder. Hiccup noticed that she was soaked again, but he was too excited to care why.
Hiccup got to his feet, grinning madly. "Toothless saw a dragon -A Stormcutter- with a rider! I'm not the only one! Gods, I can't wait to find them and meet them, wow... This is just..."
"Oh," Astrid said, surprised. She watched as Hiccup and Toothless celebrated, leaping around and playing together. She'd never seen Hiccup so happy before. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, thinking of the flight the Nadder -Stormfly- had taken her on. She'd never felt so free before... Was that how Hiccup felt?
"Hey," Snotlout strutted over to her. "This's Hookfang." He gestured at the Nightmare behind him. "Wanna go for a ride?"
Astrid rolled her eyes. Would he never give up? "No thanks. Stormfly's already taken me through a storm cloud today, I don't need to be lit on fire or anything as well."
"Hey, watch this!" Ruffnut called. "Barf, gas Tuffnut!"
"Wait, Ruff-" Tuffnut started, then groaned as Barf breathed gas all over him. "Belch, don't-" Belch lit the gas, and Tuff staggered out of the explosion, slightly blackened and grinning. "Do it again!"
Fishlegs stared at him for a minute, then shook his head. "This is Meatlug," He introduced his Gronkle to Astrid and the twins.
"Meatlug?" Astrid raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"It fits her, okay?" Fishlegs said defensively, shrugging.
Stormfly nudged Astrid's back, and she turned to scratch the dragon's nose. "This is Stormfly," She said to the others.
"Barf and Belch," Ruffnut said, pointing at the two-headed dragon.
"I was gonna say that," Tuffnut whined.
The Vikings turned their attention back to Hiccup as he stood up, brushing himself off. "Um, the first thing about dragon riding, right. Right. Um, Toothless?"
"~Spread your wings,~" Toothless supplied helpfully.
"Right." Hiccup said, still distracted by the news of another dragon rider. "Spread your- Toothless, they're Vikings. They don't have wings!" Toothless gave him an innocent look, which Hiccup rolled his eyes at.
"How about getting on?" Astrid suggested.
"Right!" Hiccup said brightly. "Getting on!" Toothless snickered, and Hiccup sent him a look. "~It's harder than it looks to teach this sort of thing!~" Hiccup defended himself.
"~You're floundering like a hatchling on his first flight,~" Toothless informed him.
Hiccup scowled. "~Then you do it!~"
"~They can't understand Dragonese,~" Toothless said smugly.
"~I'll translate,~" Hiccup countered with a smirk. "Toothless's taking over the class," Hiccup explained to the Vikings. "I'm demoted to translator."
"~You're mean when you feel like it, Hiccup.~" Toothless grumbled. Hiccup grinned and translated that into Norse.
"~Come on, Toothless. How to ride a dragon.~" He prompted.
The Night Fury rolled his eyes. "~Alright. Well, as you said. First you have to get on.~"
"Yes, get on. We already got that, Toothless." Hiccup said.
"~And then... You hold on... And, um...~" Toothless shrugged.
"Okay," Hiccup said. "So, get on and hold on tight."
He slid onto Toothless's back, and Astrid, following his example, climbed back onto Stormfly. Fishlegs tentatively climbed up onto Meatlug's back, holding his breath in case something bad happened.
The others had a bit more trouble getting on, especially the twins, since their dragon only had one back to sit on. "Try sitting up here, Ruff." Hiccup suggested, motioning toward Barf's neck. "And Tuffnut on the other side."
Snotlout got up his courage and slid onto Hookfang's neck.
"~Now spread your wings!~" Toothless said happily.
"Alright, hold on." Hiccup instructed. "Now lean forward, you're going to want to move with your dragons, like-" Toothless took off, and the rest of Hiccup's sentence was lost to the Vikings as their dragons followed him into the sky.