Chapter 37
The day never went exactly as we planned. Instead of waking up to go fix Mildew's roof, I woke up having to hunt down everyone's boots. And where we found them made my heart sink. They were piled around Barf and Belch in the academy.
"So there's a bunch of boots piled around a Zippleback, that doesn't mean…" my Dad showed me a tattered boot. "…okay fine he took the boots." I admitted defeated.
Everyone was upset and Mildew was only making things worse. "How long before something is done about these creatures Stoick, how much more can we stand?" he yelled getting the crowds attention.
Everyone was agreeing with him again, thankfully Gobber stepped in. "Listen to yourselves, 'my feet are cold.' You're Vikings everything is cold. I'll fix your boots for you, you'll be back to work in no time." He said appealing to their pride as Vikings.
"You all heard Gobber, you'll be getting your boots back as good as new." My Dad said calming everyone's frustration.
I heaved a sigh of relief, but Mildew wasn't done. "That's it, no consequence for these dragons?" he questioned in disappointment.
"They took our boots Mildew. The world isn't coming to an end." My Dad deadpanned.
"Oh, don't be so sure, dragons are wild beasts. There's no telling what else they'll do behind our sleeping backs." Mildew argued darkly.
I wasn't going to just stand there and let him talk about Toothless like that. "They don't destroy things on purpose." I argued. "But you do have a point Mildew, they are wild animals and they need us to keep an eye on them and rest assured we will do just that." I didn't like saying it, but I couldn't let Mildew know about my secret.
Everyone in the village knew what I could do, but Mildew never found out and Toothless and I planned to keep it that way. Who knows what he would do if he found out.
I whispered for Barf and Belch to leave and as they did, I noticed something strange about the footprints. Barf's and Belch's were deeper than the ones we found, no deeper than mine. But I had other things to think about, like how to make sure the dragons don't get blamed for anything else again. I had an idea.
I asked the others to meet me at the landing outside the forge. "We're going on night patrol." I said revealing my idea.
Needless to say there were some who were not so pleased with the idea. "Guys, we have to do this, you heard Mildew, he wants the dragons banished." I said getting their attention about the seriousness of the situation.
"Permission to shoot first and ask questions later." Ruffnut asked.
"Permission to skip the question." Tuffnut asked.
"We're just patrolling, no one is shooting anyone." I said quickly knowing what they had in mind.
"I have a question, what's fun about that?" Tuffnut asked disappointed.
"It's not supposed to be fun it's a Hiccup idea." Astrid answered.
"Exactly." I said but then realized what she was implying. "What?"
That night, I remained in my human form and rode in the saddle to patrol the village with Toothless. Just in case Mildew saw us. Everything seemed okay. No one was out late and all the dragons seemed to be okay.
"Well Mildew will be pleased to know what dragons do at night, they sleep like everyone else." I commented to Toothless.
We spent the rest of the night patrolling the forests and around the village again and again to make sure we didn't miss anything. It was almost day break when we were called to the Great Hall and what we saw made my heart skip a beat.