Chapter Ten: Changewings in the Kitchen
As Fishlegs and the twins continued their journey towards the Visitor's Center, Ruff complained, "My glutes hurt!"
"You don't have glutes, stupid!" Tuff responded.
"Sure I do, they're right….right….here!" Ruff pointed to her shins. Fishlegs pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Here?" she tried again, this time pointing at her triceps. Almost apologetically, Fishlegs shook his head once again. "They're right…here?" She pointed to her knee caps, hoping that the third time would be the 'charm'. Fishlegs crinkled his nose and shook his head once more.
"See? I told you, you didn't have glutes! Mutton-head!"
"I'll show you who's a mutton-head!" Ruff shouted and launched herself on her brother. She ripped his helmet off and used it to hit him in the head. Fishlegs quickly tried to pry the twins apart and much to his dismay…
"You bit me! Y'know I'm starting to think the dragons would be more tame than you two."
Tuff laughed, "And less invisible and acid-spitting-y like them!"
"Like who…?" Fishlegs glanced behind him and saw the three Changewings flying behind them. He rolled his eyes and hurried the kids up the last stretch of hill to the Visitor's Center. They easily pushed open the intricately engraved wooden doors, and Fishlegs knew that since those doors did not lock or even latch shut that the Changewings would be able to enter the Visitor's Center just as easily. The emergency lights were on, but did not provide a lot of light.
The trio ran past the cafeteria and both of the twins looked longingly at the food on the tables. Fishlegs shook his head and ushered the kids into the kitchen. He shut the door behind them and they hurried to crouch on the opposite side of the countertops. He knew the Changewings were problem -solving and highly intelligent, but he doubted that they would be able to open a door that latched shut. He just wished that it had a lock.
They leaned their backs against the kitchen countertops and listened as the dragons rummaged around in the cafeteria. They heard the clatter of silverware and dishes onto the floor. It almost seemed as though the dragons were searching for something. Then, they heard talons tap against the small round window of the kitchen door. The dragons were directly outside, clicking and hissing to one another.
For the first time the entire trip, the twins looked absolutely terrified. There was no excitement of "we might die" behind their blue eyes, not like there was when they were facing the Red Death. There was no giggling like they had done when they "accidentally" set the Timberjack on Fishlegs. The pre-teens glanced up as Fishlegs with wide eyes.
Tuff said, "Lexi is scared."
"I am not! Timmy is scared!" Ruff replied, smacking her brother upside the head.
"Will you two please be quiet?" Fishlegs whispered, angrily.
The twins pretended to zip each other's mouths shut and they crouched down behind the pantry alongside Fishlegs, who was trying—and failing—to calm his racing heart and unsteady breathing. The trio could hear the Changewings snapping at one another and the lull of their camouflaging scales changing and re-changing as they approached the door problem in front of them.
"Hush little Viking, don't you cry…" Ruff sang the lullaby their mother used to sing to them when they were scared of thunderstorms.
"Or the Berserker will poke you in the eye…" Tuff continued with her.
"Don't let the enemy see you afraid…"
"Or he's gonna gut you with a rusty blade…"
"If the dragon hears your moans…"
"He's gonna mash up all your bones…"
The twins tried to stifle their giggles at their lullaby, which instantly made them feel slightly better given the situation at hand. Fishlegs looked at them with his mouth agape. "That is a messed up song."
"Mom used to sing it to us 'cause she was scared of thunderstorms," Tuff jabbed his thumb in his sister's direction and laughed. Wait their mom made up that song? Fishlegs thought incredulously. Suddenly the twins' twisted sense of humor made perfect sense.
"I'm not scared of thunderstorms, you are. I was scared of you." Ruff pushed him over, accidentally knocking some spoons off of their rack.
Fishlegs hurriedly shushed the twins. "Don't make noise…oh dammit, never mind. Just shh…"
"What?" "Why?" Fishlegs pressed his forefinger to his lips as the Changewings tried several times to knock down the door to the kitchen by ramming into it. Luckily, the door was thick and the force of the dragons did not knock the door down. Still, the twins tensed up. Fishlegs began to crawl further into the kitchen, using the cabinets and pantries as cover. He motioned for the twins to follow, which they did.
As they crawled further into the kitchen the regular lights flickered on, which automatically turned the emergency lights off, illuminating the kitchen fully. Fishlegs made a mental note that that meant the power must have been turned back on completely.
As they crawled further away from the door, they heard growling, clicking and hissing at different intervals and pitches. "They're communicating," Fishlegs gasped. Using its snout the Changewing pushed the handle of the door down, successfully unlatching it. The Changewing pushed the door, once…twice…and with the third push of its snout the door swung open completely.
"It's inside."
"Thank you for that assessment, Ruff. I know," Fishlegs replied. "Stay low and follow me…and don't talk. Maybe we'll get out of this alive."
As Fishlegs was talking they could hear the sound of talons on the tiled floor. It wasn't just one Changewing in the kitchen. All three were here. The theories about them being pack hunters, well, they definitely weren't just theories anymore. The three dragons were working as a team to hunt down the humans.
"We're gonna make it out alive," Tuff whispered, confidently.
"I hope so, Tuff, I really do," Fishlegs said.
Tuff reached into his pocket and pulled out the iridescent egg. "Well, I know I'll get out alive. I have the stone of good fortune."
Fishlegs made a motion to strangle Tuff. "You stole the dragon egg? After I told you not to? No wonder they're after us!" Fishlegs snatched the egg away from Tuff and made a motion to throw it, but Ruff stopped him.
"No. They dragons think we have their stone of good fortune…"
"Their egg. They think we have their egg, you thick-skulled idiots," Fishlegs corrected, a little too loud. The Changewings perked up at the sound of his voice and immediately camouflaged against the silver kitchen appliances.
"Whatever!" Ruff continued. "If you throw it and break it, they're gonna be more madder. And, then we won't even have the stone of good fortune to protect us." Unfortunately for Fishlegs, he couldn't actually argue with her logic on this one. He carefully put the egg into his pocket.
Tuff grabbed a butcher knife from the block. Fishlegs looked at him incredulously as if to say, How are you going to stab an invisible dragon? But, much to the surprise (and partial relief, for he didn't want to have to explain to Joanna Hammond why her grandson was mutilated), Tuff pushed the knife across the kitchen tile and it slammed against the steel dishwasher. The clatter drew the attention of the Changewings.
Ruff, picking up on her brother's plan, stood up and grabbed an orange from the countertop. "Hey, dragons! Here's your egg!" She hurled it across the kitchen. The Changewings panicked, and as the three dragons raced to catch what they feared was their egg, the trio rushed out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind them.
They ran across the cafeteria. Tuff stopped briefly at a table to pick up some Jell-o, meanwhile his sister and Fishlegs urged him to hurry up. "What? I'm hungry. I haven't had anything to eat today…and you know what Mom always says…"
"Mom will kill you dead a second time if you get eaten by a dragon, numbnuts!" Ruff said. Tuff rolled his eyes and put the Jell-o down before running to catch up with the other two. Behind them the Changewings slowly opened the kitchen door once more. Upon seeing the fleeing humans, the lead Changewing hissed and camouflaged itself once more. They flew around Fishlegs, Ruff and Tuff and de-camouflaged, hissing and clicking at the humans.
"Get down. Their challenging us, otherwise we'd already be dead," Fishlegs advised and the twins swiftly obeyed. The lead Changewing approached Ruff and sniffed her helmet. Ruff squeezed her eyes shut as the Changewing pressed her snout on either side of Ruff's cheeks. "She thinks you stole the egg."
"Yeah well that was all me!" Tuff stood up to place himself between his sister and the dragon, only to be met with the other two Changewings in his face hissing at him to stay put. "Okay, pushy dragons, she stole your egg."
Slowly Fishlegs pulled the iridescent egg from his pocket. Upon seeing the egg, the Changewings began to hiss louder. He handed the egg to Ruff, who slowly offered it up to the dragon, "Nice dragon. Here's your egg. Please don't eat me. Or burn me with acid."
The lead Changewing inspected the egg before delicately picking it up onto her snout. Although the egg muffled her clicks and hisses, the other two Changewings understood the objective. The humans must be made to pay for stealing the egg. On either side, they charged up a blast before…
…the lights flickered and the whole room shook. The Changewings glanced towards the sky, almost annoyed that it happened and then turned their attention back to the humans. When the ground shook a second time, the dragons camouflaged once more and flew away from the Visitor's Center. The ground shook a third time and Fishlegs, Ruff and Tuff could hear a loud roar. The lights flickered once more. "Control Room."
Meanwhile, back in the Control Room…
The lights in the Control Room emitted a low hum as they warmed back up. "Looks like Heather got us back in business, Joanna," Astrid commented. The emergency lights in the Control Room turned off. Snotlout slowly sat up, clutching his head. He and Astrid exchanged glares.
"She's the best of the best. I spared no expense," Joanna replied nonchalantly as she picked up the phone to dial for a helicopter. As she punched the numbers on the keypad, the Night Fury outside of the Control Room emitted a low growl and crouched into a predatory position.
"What is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked. The lights flickered and the room shook. "Uh, is that a normal thing for the system reboot or…?"
"Grandma!" The twins rushed into the Control Room. Hammond dropped the phone receiver and hugged her grandchildren tightly. Tears streamed down her eyes at the sight of her grandkids and she completely forgot about Hiccup's question all together. Toothless was caught off guard by the little humans running past him and briefly cocked his head to the side before returning to his attack position. The ground shook once more.
"What happened to you?" Astrid asked, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow at the disheveled Fishlegs.
"Their mother named them aptly. Trust me." Fishlegs replied.
The phone beeped incessantly from hanging off the base for too long. Hammond reached over and replaced it on the base. Almost instantaneously, the phone rang. Hammond picked it up, "Hello? Heather? … I can't hear you real well… Heather? …Yes I see that the phones are working… Hello? …Speak up, I can barely hear you. … What do you mean you can't talk louder? …Heather? Heather!"
Outside of the Control Room, they could hear a loud roar. Hammond thought to herself, Could this get any worse? Fishlegs' eyes widened with worry. "That sounds like the roar of a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus."
"Oh so you're the expert on dragon calls?" Snotlout mocked.
Fishlegs crossed his arms. "I'll have you know that part of our coursework at Berkeley is to create the resonating chambers of the dragons using a 3-D printer. Once the chambers are printed we can recreate the sounds that the dragons made during the time of the Vikings."
Snotlout rolled his eyes, "That sounds like a load of bull—"
"Snotlout! There are children in the room!" Hammond chided.
"What did Heather want?"
"What? Oh! She's trapped in the maintenance shed by some dragons. She needs us to rescue her," Hammond said.
"Who's gonna rescue us, then?" Fishlegs squeaked as the room shook and the Red Death roared again.
"Smell ya later!" Ruff called over her shoulder as she hurried out of the room. As she shimmied past Toothless she whispered, "Nice dragon. I didn't steal any of your eggs. Please don't incinerate me."
Tuff followed quickly behind his sister. As Astrid helped Hiccup towards the door, she sniffed the air. "Does it smell like something is burning to…ahh!" She screamed, startled by the water spouting from the ceiling.
"Can we move any slower?" Snotlout demanded. "I'd like to get out of the building before the dragon burns the whole thing to the ground." Astrid shot him a glare and nodded her head in Hiccup's direction, silently trying to remind Snotlout that Hiccup was injured. "What? I don't have time for you two love birds to leisurely walk through the Visitor's Center. The Red Death is burning the place to the ground!"
"Yeah we kinda got that," Hiccup replied dryly as he continued to hobble with Astrid's help towards the door. With his leg freshly and properly splinted he could put more pressure on it; however, the adrenaline had finally worn off and he was really starting to feel the excruciating pain of the multiple breaks in his bones. Toothless nudged Hiccup as he passed, and Hiccup smiled, "Thanks, bud. I know he's being a pain." Toothless cooed before following behind the humans.
[a/n] I am so sorry for the delay. Now that school's out for the summer I hope to be posting new chapters more frequently. And I know, this was a mix of the raptor scene from the first JP and the third, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! Thanks for reading!