Snart's Saga, Part I Chapter 29
Snart began making his report in the Mead Hall while he ate. Hiccup plied him with questions, and Fishlegs wrote down everything and added some questions of his own. When he was done with his meal, they walked back to the Academy, still trading questions and answers. They were still going strong when the sun went down.
"You still haven't got to the best part!" protested Ruffnut.
"Which part is that?" Snart wondered.
"The part about you and Astrid alone on that island," leered Tuffnut.
"I already told you everything about that."
"But you didn't say anything!" Ruff said.
"Exactly."
"Oh, come on!" Tuff objected. "You expect us to believe the two of you were alone on a desert island for almost two weeks, and you just treated her like your sister?"
"That's what I expect you to believe, because it's the truth. And I'll thank you not to tell any lies about me. Or her, for that matter."
"You're no fun," muttered Tuff as the two of them stalked away, leaving Hiccup and Snart in the darkening arena.
"Really, nothing happened? Nothing?" Hiccup asked earnestly.
"Nothing, as in 'nothing'," Snart answered. "I'm sure she told you the same thing. Hiccup, she's pretty, she's nice, but there's no attraction between us."
"Where is the attraction? With Ruffnut?" Snart answered by clutching his throat and making gagging noises. Hiccup chuckled.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't worry a little, thinking of the two of you out there by yourselves. I won't worry again, about either of you. And thank you for helping take care of her out there."
"She didn't need much caring for. We helped each other fifty-fifty. In fact, now that she's been through this experience, you should think very seriously about giving Astrid her Dragon Master pin. But now I have a question. What's going to happen to all the little dragons that came back to Berk?"
"They'll be trained, like any other dragon. They're very appealing to children who get nervous around a full-sized dragon. The next generation will grow up with dragons all around them as friends, not enemies."
"I'm with you on that, Hiccup, as long as they remember that a little dragon isn't a pet. It might be good for us to check up on the dragonets now and then, and make sure they're being cared for properly."
"Snart, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were acting like a stepfather to those dragon babies!"
Snart paused. "Maybe I am. But I still think we need to keep an eye on things, especially in homes where the adults aren't dragon trainers."
"If you can do it without being nosy, then go ahead. If anybody complains, you're on your own."
"Deal," said Snart. "And now that I've had a decent meal for the first time in almost two weeks, I'd like to remember what a bed feels like. I'll be back at the Academy tomorrow."
The next day, after dealing with some Academy business, Snart walked through the streets of Berk. He saw several young dragons; as Hiccup had suggested, they were mostly in the care of children, under the supervision of parents. He was pleased to see Skybaby's green daughter learning some basic commands from a girl who wasn't much taller than the little dragon. He took a moment to tell the girl's mother she was doing well.
He wasn't so happy to find the magenta dragonet. She was playing catch with a small boy as his parents watched. The child wasn't being cruel or thoughtless. But the dragon had a copper ring fastened around its neck, and the ring looked tighter than it ought to be. He waited until the game was ending, and tried Astrid's honey-and-the-hatchet tactics.
"Oh, you've made friends with my Skybaby's daughter! Very nice. It looks like you're taking good care of her. Would you mind if I took a quick look at her, to make sure she got through the migration okay?"
"Go right ahead, Dragon Master," the father said respectfully. The boy looked on curiously as Snart ran his hands over the dragon. He didn't expect to find anything wrong with her, and he didn't. But he checked the copper ring, and sure enough, it didn't leave much room for the dragon. It was made in two pieces, with a hinge and a clasp; it couldn't be adjusted.
"Sir, Frue, may I say something to you privately?"
"Noseblow, go get us a bucket of water from the well," the father ordered. The boy ran off obediently. "Is there something wrong with the dragon?"
"Not at all, ummm...?"
"Boartooth. This is Nestegg, and my son is Noseblow."
"Boartooth, there's nothing wrong with the dragon. She's in fine shape, and your son treats her well. Who actually trained her?"
"I did," said Boartooth. "I'm letting Noseblow work with her as much as he can handle. Now that dragons are our friends, it will be good for him to grow up with one."
"I agree, and I'm glad to hear that from you. My one concern is that ring around her neck. It's a bit tight, and it will feel tighter as she keeps growing. It's going to keep her from eating properly; she won't be able to swallow her food, probably in a week or two."
"Is it that serious?" Nestegg asked anxiously.
"Not today, but it will be," Snart assured her. "If it stays on too long, it could even keep her from breathing."
Nestegg was about to say something, but Boartooth motioned her to silence. "My son really likes that ring. He says it's a sign that she's his dragon. None of the other dragons wear one."
"There's a reason for that," nodded Snart. The magenta dragon had wandered over to where he was standing, and leaned up against him. He stroked her neck absently as he continued. "Many dragons wear a saddle or a harness as a sign of ownership, and we think the dragons really like it. But a sign like that has to have some 'give' to it, so the dragon has room to grow. This Nadder will be as tall as you are before summer gets here. If you want something around her neck, I'd suggest a leather belt, with a shiny buckle so you can loosen it as the dragon gets bigger."
"That's not what my son wants," Boartooth said, with a trace of anger.
"Sir, making your son unhappy is the last thing I want to do," Snart said quickly. "If it was just a matter of style, I'd mind my own business. But —"
"Then why don't you do just that!" ordered Boartooth; Nestegg hid behind him. "You said yourself, there's nothing wrong with the dragon. You let me handle my son and my household, my way. Or are you saying I'm raising my son wrong?"
"This has nothing to do with your son, or with you," Snart retorted; the magenta dragon hid behind him. "This is about an intelligent, sociable creature that's too small to protect itself, and soon won't be able to eat or breathe. As a member of the Dragon Training Academy, that is my business."
"I think you should leave now," growled Boartooth.
"That ring needs to come off, sir." The two of them stared at each other until Noseblow returned with the bucket of water. Snart stepped away. "I'm going to be watching this situation, sir. As soon as there's a clear problem, I am going to act on that dragon's behalf. Please deal with it before I have to." Snart turned and stalked away.
Two nights later, as the Academy was closing up for the evening, Hiccup pulled Snart aside. "I got a complaint about you from one of the villagers," he began.
"A villager named Boartooth?"
"He said you threatened him. Tell me what happened."
Snart related the story from start to finish. When he was done, Hiccup looked unhappy.
"I believe you," he said. "And it does sound like there's going to be a problem. But this could make the Academy look really bad. There has to be some way to work this out so everybody's happy."
"I know that's what you always try to do, Hiccup. And most of the time, it works. But sometimes, people just aren't reasonable. I figure that ring will be getting too tight in about a week; we need to do something by then if Boartooth doesn't."
"What are you going to do?"
"I plan to visit their house with a fish, about this big. If the dragon can't swallow it, that means the ring is too tight. In that case, I'm taking the dragon to visit Gobber, who will remove the ring and work it into a copper belt buckle. Gutrumble, the leatherworker, has made some gorgeous belts with tooled and painted dragons on them; I'll buy one for the dragon, to go around her neck in place of the ring, and I'll pay Gobber for his work."
"The only thing wrong with that plan, Snart, is that you can't just take their dragon away without asking."
"What do you mean, 'their' dragon? People don't own dragons; dragons belong to themselves. Do you own Toothless?" Hiccup had to shake his head. "If you can think of a better plan, Hiccup, I'll do it. But I will not let that little dragon die."
"I think we both need to think real hard about a better plan. We've ended the war between Vikings and dragons. I don't want a war between Vikings and dragon trainers."
Snart tried very hard to come up with a better plan. He asked Astrid's advice; he consulted with Stoick to learn more about Boartooth; he visited other families with young dragons. He came up with nothing.
Two days before his self-imposed one-week deadline, he slowly walked past Boartooth's house, Skybaby a few steps behind him. He didn't have a goal in mind, except perhaps to hope that they'd taken off the ring themselves. He couldn't see the young dragon, but he did see some motion at the window. Boartooth came boiling out, ready to shred Snart verbally if not physically; but the sight of Skybaby stopped him in his tracks.
"What do you want here, Dragon Master?" He spat out the title like an insult.
"I brought your dragon's mother by for a visit."
"We don't want you here. You can go now."
"My dragon hasn't seen her daughter since they returned to Berk. Are you so heartless that you'll stand between your dragon and her mother?"
"I don't hear the dragon complaining," Boartooth growled.
"Sir, look at this dragon." Skybaby had grown slightly over the past few months, but she was still small for a Nadder. Even a small Nadder dwarfed a human, though. "Look how big she is; look at the size of her neck. That's how big your dragon should be in about two years. Do you think she'll get that big with that tiny ring around her neck?"
Boartooth took a long look, then took a long thought. "What am I supposed to tell my son?" he asked. Nestegg stepped out the door and stood near her husband.
"Tell him it's so his dragon can grow big and strong, like you. I have an idea for him to mark the dragon that he might like."
"That's easy for you to say, Dragon Master," Boartooth said, not quite so belligerently. "You don't have to listen to him crying all day."
"Is that what this is all about — you don't want your son to cry?"
"I hate it when he cries," Nestegg cut in. "It breaks my heart. We'll do almost anything to keep that from happening."
Something in Snart snapped. He took a step toward them, leaving the safety he got from being near his dragon. "Life is going to make him cry a lot more than this before he's done! We all have disappointments; things go wrong for all of us; and the sooner we get used to that and learn to deal with it, the better off we'll be.
"I'm sure you have big dreams for your son; you probably want him to be a brave warrior when he grows up. But if you don't teach him to handle a little disappointment now, how will he learn to handle warrior-sized problems later? He'll grow up expecting everything in life to go right, and when it doesn't, he won't know what to do about it."
"Like Dagur?" Boartooth asked.
"Yes, very much like Dagur," Snart went on, warming to his subject. "We all know about Oswald the Agreeable and how easy-going he was. I'd wager a gold mark that he was just as easy-going with his son. He never taught him to handle hardship, so when Dagur was grown, he was nothing but a spoiled terror who couldn't handle it when he didn't get his own way, and doubly dangerous because he had a large and powerful tribe ready to obey his every whim. And I know you don't want Noseblow to grow up like him."
"That's big talk from a young man like you," Boartooth growled. "You have a pretty soft life; you have a dragon that follows you everywhere, the town gives you food and shelter, all you do is fly around all day. Who are you to lecture me on how hard life can be?"
Snart stepped right up to the bigger man. "Sir, when I was five years old, my sister was killed by a wolf. When I was thirteen, both my parents caught a fever and died, and left me with the family farm and no idea what to do with it. I was rejected by everyone in my own village; I had no friends at all for years. My first dragon went to sleep one night and was dead when I woke up the next morning. My second dragon flew away one day and never came back. I've known hunger and cold, I've faced storms and angry warriors, and I've dodged fire from a dragon whose head was the size of your house.
"I know a thing or two about how hard life can be, sir. But I survived, and do you know why? It wasn't because I'm tough or because I'm strong. It's because I just never considered quitting. I cried, I got over it, and I kept on going. Because crying isn't the end of the world."
There was another long silence. Finally, Nestegg asked, "Are you a dragon trainer or a parent trainer?"
"Training a dragon and raising a child aren't so different, Frue. You have to be firm, you have to be consistent, you have to expect that the child won't understand your motives, and you have to put what's good for the child, long-term, ahead of what's easiest for you, short-term."
"How many children have you raised?" asked Boartooth.
"None, sir. But I've trained three dragons, and I've pacified many others, including yours. Skybaby, here, used to wail and keen if I got more than ten feet away from her. Believe me, it hurt me to hear her cry! I've worked with her, though, and now she's willing to let me out of her sight for an hour or more without a problem. She's not perfect, but none of us are, and I'm still working with her."
Boartooth sized up the dragon, then the rider. "Tell me about this plan of yours to mark my son's dragon." Snart described his idea for the belt and buckle. Boartooth slowly nodded.
"Could there be a ship on it, too?" Nestegg asked. "You're right about him wanting to be a warrior some day; he loves his toy longship."
"Sure, we'll ask Gobber to engrave a longship into the buckle. Your son will have a dragon marker that's uniquely his. It'll grow as the dragon grows, and as he grows, too. In fact —" he leaned closer to them and lowered his voice "— I'll bet that when the other children with small dragons see it, they'll want one, too." That made Nestegg smile. Boartooth nodded, and Snart knew he wouldn't have to kidnap any dragons in the night. Hiccup would have his everybody-happy answer.
He had to smile as he walked back to the Academy. "Skybaby, I'm beginning to think there's nothing you and I can't handle together."
