Living with dragons has its ups… and its downs, much like real life. You need to stay calm. Keep a clear head. Not always easy with Vikings. In our own way, we're very reasonable, unfortunately, the weight of dragons isn't. And so, Hiccup had to spend four hours coming up and designing a solution to that problem. And once he had it, he ordered every Viking on Berk to build the perches, which was his solution, and install them. And it took only 3 days.
"It's okay, girl. Just take it easy." Astrid soothed the Deadly Nadder, who she was flying to one of the perches, to test if they would hold up. The blue Nadder gracefully landed and judging by how the perch didn't fall, it was successful.
"Yes it works!"
"Way to go!"
"So we built these things so stuff wouldn't break?" Tuffnut asked, after no destruction
"I don't understand you people." Ruffnut agreed with her twin.
"Guys, I feel your pain, but we are running out of wood in the forest to continue fixing our houses." Ferno walked up to the twins, flinging his arms around their necks.
"And they tricked us into helping them build them. I feel so used … and sweaty." Tuffnut and Ruffnut left the arena, with disappointed looks and depressed faces.
-000-
But when a problem is caused by something Vikings don't understand, they lose all sense of reason… and that can become very dangerous.
"Perches for dragons! Some of your best work." Stoic toasted a mug to his only son, in the company of his stepson and best friend. He looked into his mug. "Although we may need to move the one over the well." He showed Gobber and Ferno the mug full of rusty, disgusting, orangey water.
"And the perches are just the beginning, we can build landing areas for them, maybe stables in the caves underneath the village and-" While he was rattling on, his brother found a way to get the mug out of his hand and toss is away somewhere.
"Easy son, remember Berk is still for people." Stoic interrupted Hiccup's daydream that was only going to happen if he began Chief, which wasn't any time soon.
"Vikings before dragons." Gobber stated, instantly getting a growl from a certain Night Fury. "Yeah I said it, deal with it."
There was a boom outside.
"What was that?" Ferno asked, jumping off his chair.
The four opened the door and found zaps of lightning hit simultaneously different parts of the town.
"The lightning is hitting everywhere…" Hiccup analysed.
"It usually doesn't strike here in the village." Stoic informed.
"Thor must be angry. The only other time I can remember lightning ever striking Berk…" Gobber reached back into the long and distant part of his memories.
"Barnstat." Stoic and Gobber said in unison, with equal amount of dread in their voices.
"Barn-who?" Hiccup asked.
"Stupid name." Ferno voiced his opinion.
"Jorgen Barnstat, drifter, sailed into town. He was stealing from widows and old men." Stoic explained.
"To punish him, Thor gave him a lightning bolt right to his helmet when he was fixing the mast on his ship to get away." Gobber explained further.
"By the time Thor was finished with him, our whole fleet was on fire!"
"We shipped him off the island and Thor hasn't hit the village since."
"Fascinating." Ferno said, bored.
"Threw him off the island…? Pretty harsh." Hiccup commented.
A zap of lighting came a little too close for comfort. The group dispersed.
"Gobber, organise a Bucket Brigade. I'm going up to the Great Hall." Stoic stated and jogged up the steps to the massive Town House.
The Night Fury, offspring of lighting and death panicked at the storm and disappeared, Hiccup close behind him. Ferno ran to the town centre to help put out the fires, stopping by the shed to grab the Boneknapper.
-000-
The gang gathered on the outskirts of the town square.
"Yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Tuffnut said, pointing to a burning house.
"I've always liked Thor." Ruffnut commented.
"Oh, I love these storms! When it rains I cancel bath night and just stand outside with nothing but a sponge and a bar of soup."
"Huh, and you wonder why you can't get a girlfriend." Ferno smirked, from the Boneknapper.
Snotlout glared at him. "Says who? Oh right … the guy without any female love."
Not true, there's a girl 100 miles away carrying my child. Yeah … and I bet she'll kill me if I ever get a girlfriend.
"Guys! Fire!" Hiccup barked gesturing to the burning houses. "Ferno take over. I gotta find Toothless." He jumped behind Astrid on Stormfly and flew off.
"Urgh, hate it when he gives me the job. Alright guys, on your dragons! Get a bucket of water! And put out those fire!" Ferno yelled.
"Why? This is awesome." Tuffnut argued.
Ferno rolled his eyes. "As much as I want to agree with you … NOW! On that Zippleback!" He demanded.
"Urgh, fine. You and Hiccup are starting to sound like twins. And that's our job." Ruffnut said, stretching and getting on her Zippleback head.
The remaining teens' dragons each grabbed massive buckets of water and poured them on the burning houses. "Twins, put out the Larsons! Snotlout, take out the Odinsons! Fishlegs, the butcher's workshop!" Ferno ordered the teens, himself flying to the now burning food store. "I hate cooking anyway." He said, sarcastically, after the fire was put out.
-000-
"Mildew wants to banish Toothless." Hiccup yelled coming into the room, slamming the door behind him, while his brother was resting his eyes, having sweet dreams about his family future. Hearing the deep low voice of his brother, he groaned.
"Tell me something I don't know." Ferno stated.
"Apparently, the lighting followed him, and so that must means Thor is angry with Toothless!" Hiccup paced around the room, eyes full of rage, whilst the said Night Fury settled on his rock bed.
"Argh, this isn't gonna stop is it?" Ferno spoke to the ceiling. Then spun on his bed and faced the Dragon Trainer. "Look, who cares what Mildew says? No one is gonna let the saviour of Berk get flown out to sea. Now can I sleep?" Ferno pulled the cover over and flopped to one side, clutching the ring in one hand.
-000-
"Another storm is coming." Hiccup said, looking off into the distance, where bulbous grey clouds were forming.
"Thor tore a hole in the Great Hall. Maybe he's hungry? I know I am." Tuffnut said, lazily looking at his sister.
"We need to make Thor happy. But what do you get the God of thunder and lightning?" Hiccup walked up to the one of the two only people that was going to take this seriously, Fishlegs.
"In the past, I've heard Thor's enjoyed a sacrifice or two." Fishlegs informed.
"Let's sacrifice Tuffnut." Ruffnut offered.
"Okay, what time should I be there? There better be fire involved." Tuffnut was so bored he agreed to being sacrificed.
"There see, if Thor is angry, let's sacrifice him, he's probably the reason Thor is angry in the first place." Ferno slapped a hand on his brother's shoulder, already annoyed with the constant yapping.
"Nobody is gonna be sacrificed!" Hiccup quickly stated.
"Not yet anyway." Snotlout smirked.
"Yeah, while we're sacrificing Tuffnut, would it be too much a problem to sacrifice Snotlout as well?" Ferno asked what would be the remaining group.
"I had an aunt who was cursed by Odin once. She had to pay tribute to him by sailing to the end of the world." Astrid told.
"Did it work?" Fishlegs asked.
"I don't know. I guess she couldn't find it because she kept showing up in the opposite direction."
"The Gods have never been mad at anyone from our family." Fishlegs suddenly panicked. "Knock on wood." He tapped a wooden steps. "Hop on one foot." He hopped to Snotlout. "Slap a Jorgenson." He poked Snotlout and giggled like a girl. Snotlout in return pushed him over, and stood on Hookfang's head.
"If I were Thor, I would want a giant statue. Of myself, Snotlout, as Thor!"
"You do know we're trying to make him happy?" Astrid put a hand on her hip and frowned.
"Exactly!" He started making out with his biceps.
"I think I just threw up in my mouth." Astrid made the gagging gesture.
"You're not alone." Ferno said deadpanned, from his spot on Shriek's saddle.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Hiccup said, the clogs of his brain already working.
"It's not an idea, it's a reflex." Astrid looked at him strangely.
"What-? No! I-I mean the statue."
Astrid almost gagged again. "There I go again."
"No! Not Snotlout! - Thor!"
"Hmn, Berk has never given Thor a statue." Fishlegs wondered.
"Well then it's high time we did!"
"All this for the love of a dragon, touching." Ferno groaned, imagining how much work it would be to make a statue.
-000-
The group started on making the statue. The Twins did the elbows, Snotlout tried to make the knees, Astrid; the cape, Fishlegs moulded the trousers, and Ferno worked on the face and helmet.
"Attention! Attention everyone! Okay, so, I know we're not exactly Thor's favourite people right now. But I am confident that this beautiful statue will go a long way toward s getting us back in his good graces! So without further ado!" Hiccup pulled the cloak off the statue, receiving the 'aahs' and 'oohs' from the villages.
"Well done! Thor will appreciate this tribute, and will smile upon us once again!" Stoic addressed the villagers.
The villagers began to disperse after a while, and disaster showed up.
"You really think this is enough to appease the mighty Thor, while you allow a Night Fury in your midst?! You're foots! All of ya!"
-000-
"Unbelievable. Even more lightning than from the last storm." Hiccup said, as he, Stoic, Gobber and Ferno watched the storm outside the house. Lightning zapped and stormed the island.
"I don't understand, we gave Thor a giant statue." Gobber commented.
"Maybe he's more into sacrifices." Ferno put forward, looking at the village being devoured by flames.
"It was a gallant effort, boys, but it looks as though this is not what Thor wanted." Stoic ignored his stepson's comment, walking into the house.
As a lighting zapped somewhere near, and Gobber instantly backed away from the Night Fury he was standing next to.
"Gobber, what are you doing?" Hiccup cocked his eye brow.
"I love Toothless, I'm just airing on the side of caution." Gobber answered.
Toothless purred against Hiccup's side, who began to scratch his head, accompanied by the Boneknapper rider. "Hey, don't worry, bud, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. No matter what some people think!" Hiccup glared hard at his mentor, who sheepishly looked around.
-000-
A mob was beginning ro form I the village, headed by the ugliest head, Mildew. The villagers were getting extremely impatient with the daily destructions of their homes.
"You don't think Thor is angry because of Toothless, do you?" Hiccup asked his father.
"What does he have to be angry about? He's practically a saint." Ferno patted the scaly head of the Night Fury.
"Of course I don't…" The angry mod was outside the Chieftain's House.
"Open up, Stoic! We've come for the Night Fury!" Mildew yelled outside.
"…But I'm afraid they do… Get Toothless to a safe place, I'll try to reason with them." Stoic tried to shoo away his two sons, but the older grabbed him by the arm in protet.
"But…"
"Just go!"
"Safe travels, old friend." Gobber patted Toothless' head.
"Not so dangerous now, is he?" Ferno smirked, running up the stairs, following the black dragon and brunet boy.
-000-
"We can hide Toothless in the Cove for now." Astrid said, looking over her shoulder and seeing the mob talking to Stoic. The Haddock Brothers with their dragons had stopped behind the Hofferson's households.
"They'll just find him … no, we have to leave." Hiccup said, showing the same kind of determination and stubbornness as when they found the Dragon Nest.
"We?"
"He can't make it on his own … and I wouldn't want him to." Hiccup explained, rubbing the Night Fury's side.
"And there's no way I letting you fly out in the middle of a storm, on a dangerous mission of escape, with little chance of survival, without me." Ferno said, getting in his saddle.
"Knew you were going to say that." Hiccup sighed, then looked back at Astrid. The two just stood there for a few seconds, not exactly sure what words to say to each other.
Finally, Astrid made up her mind, "You better go." Hiccup nodded, mounted Toothless and flew out.
"Really? Is that the best that you two can do?" Ferno sounded disappointed.
"Ferno! You coming or not?" Hiccup hissed. The two brothers flew off to the unknown.
-000-
The four flew through the grey skies, in rare silence.
Ducking the mighty thunders of lightning. But one incredibly lucky zap, managed to hit Toothless, square in the prosthetic, making the Night Fury and his rider fall, hundreds of meters below.
"Hiccup!" Ferno yelled, steering his dragon, at high speed to follow the Night Fury. The Boneknapper just managed to catch the Night Fury in its claws, saving his brother and brother's dragon from a painful crash landing, but not himself. The massive Boneknapper made a crater from its fall, throwing its rider off his back.
"Ferno, you ok?" Hiccup called out.
"I'm fine. Nothing too serious." Ferno called out from the tree that he landed in.
"Wait a second, this is where the lightning hit." Hiccup inspected the tail, not hearing how his half-brother fell out of the tree clumsily behind him. The Dragon Trainer looked at the village that was currently being raided by lightning. "Metal! … I wonder?"
Bolas spun out of nowhere and tied the almighty Night Fury, trapping him.
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, as two blurry Vikings pinned him to the ground.
Ferno, finally getting up, unsheathed his sword and hit the two buff adult Viking on the head with the hilt. He was pushed against a nearby tree by a third Viking and his sword was withheld from him. The Boneknapper was drugged with the spoilt smell of Dragon Nip.
"Oh great." Ferno rolled his eyes.
"Leave him alone!" Hiccup yelled to the captors of his dragon.
"Don't try and stop is, you'll only make it worse for your precious dragon."
Toothless was put on a truck, tried up ad driven off to the village. "Toothless!" Hiccup yelled from being pulled to the ground.
"Say your goodbyes."
"Toothless!"
When the Night Fury was away, the two brothers were released.
"Come on, we have to catch up to them." Ferno said, probing his fainted dragon. "Ah, whatever, you're a useless cause. Looks like we have to get there on foot. Let's go." He steered his brother to run to the direction of the village.
-000-
"We need to get to the Forge." Hiccup stated as they came into the village.
"Right, to get weapons." Ferno agreed.
"No, actually anything metal."
"Why?"
"I'll explain everything later."
"Maybe you can explain everything now?" Ferno said as they came round a corner.
-000-
"Hiccup! Ferno! They've got Toothless! They're about to float him off to sea." Astrid and the rest of the gang got to the Forge, with panic written on their faces.
"I know. Why do you think I have – this?" Hiccup showed them a wooden and metal spear.
There was an awkward silence as none knew what the Dragon Trainer had in mind. "Oh, tough one. How many guess do we get? Five?" Tuffnut quipped in.
"Oh, Gods … Astrid- fly me to the docks." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the Deadly Nadder.
"Oh great." Ferno muttered, as two claws clutched his shoulders and the four of them soured to the skies.
-000-
They arrived to the following sight. Toothless was centimetres from the water and, Stoic, Gobber, Mulch and Bucket were the only thing in the way of the angry mob and Toothless.
Stormfly dropped the Fire-bearer and flew towards the angry mob, knocking some Vikings over.
"Stop!" Hiccup hopped off the Nadder and stood between the mob the mob and Stoic's small group. "You could get rid of Toothless, you could throw him off the edge of the world, but it's not going to stop this lightning from destroying Berk." There were some grunts of disagreement. "It's the metal. The lightning is hitting the metal! Just think about it. We never had a lightning storm like this since we put up those perches, that statue, right? And they're all made of metal!"
"Oh, ba! You ever heard of anything so insane?!" Mildew stirred up the fury of the mob.
"Yes, his name is Mildew the Unpleasant." Ferno whispered to the Toothless-defending group he had now joined.
Hiccup ran up to Toothless' tail. "Y-you see? This is where the lightning struck Toothless. On this connecting rod … this metal connecting rod." There were still some sceptical people in the mob. Stupid Viking stubbornness. "Look if you don't believe me I can prove it!" He hopped onto the blue Nadder again. "Fly me up." Astrid steered the Nadder to a ship's mast.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Astrid asked, concerned about his plan, whatever it was.
"Sure? Uh, that's a strong word. It's really more of a hunch." After seeing her shocked and worried face, he decided that it was the wrong thing to say to the girl that spent three months by your bedside worrying while you were in a coma. "I'll be fine. Go!"
"Oh boy, here he goes again…" Gobber muttered.
"I'm going to mush his head if he doesn't get off that mast in the next 15 seconds." Ferno cracked his knuckles.
"He doesn't make it easy. Hiccup!" Stoic yelled.
"You'll all see for yourselves! When I attach this metal rod to the top of this mast, the lightning will be drawn to—" He never finished that sentence, and everyone's throats dried to know why. A lighting flashed across the sky and zapped the scrawny teen that stood on the mast.
"Hiccup!" Both Stoic and Ferno yelled at the same time.
Toothless had managed to get free of his bonds and dived into the water, after his rider. After some moments of tense silence, the Night Fury pulled out of the Dragon Trainer.
"Hiccup…" Stoic, Ferno and Gobber ran up to him.
-000-
There was a rattle from upstairs, making Stoic, Ferno and Gobber look towards the second level of the Haddock House.
"You think he's up?" Ferno questioned.
"Only one way to find out." Stoic stood up and walked up the stairs, leading Ferno and Gobber.
"My boy! You're alright!" Stoic pulled Hiccup into one of the most suffocating hugs he ever gave. "You took a lightning bolt to the head." He ruffled to thin auburn hair.
"You know what you are? You're either a genius or an idiot who got lucky." Ferno said, glaring at his older brother.
"Yeah, I don't know the answer to that question either." Hiccup admitted. "So everyone knows that Thor wasn't mad at Toothless?"
"They do now." Stoic assured him.
"Until we figure out why Thor was angry at the metal, we're all walking on eggshells." Gobber spoke.
They came out of the house to find some Vikings putting down the metal statue.
"Oh, we worked so hard on that statue. Kind of a shame we have to just scrap it for parts." Hiccup slumped in disappointment.
"Well, maybe we don't have to. Why don't you take it to one of the high points on the island and leave it there?"
"Good idea Chief! I would have thought of it myself … but I'm not the chief." Tuffnut said, him, Snotlout and Ferno standing in a line, all having the same idea.
"Oh we'll handle that for you." Snotlout gave the thumbs up.
"You guys, thinking what I'm thinking." Ferno threw his buff arms around is friend's shoulders.
-000-
"I'm not sure that's what my dad had in mind, guys." Hiccup looked unsurely at the statue of Thor … that was directly outside Mildew's house.
"Hey, that's the way I understood it." Snotlout defended.
"And it serves him right." Ferno added.
No matter how much things change around here, Viking are still Viking. They're not afraid to admit when they're wrong. It's just the time when they find out that they are wrong that can be with consequences.
-000-
Ferno was designed as a character to voice your (yeah, you!) thoughts about the movie and the episodes. So if there is something specific you always wanted to yell at the characters, post it in a review.
Please people, make my day!