Hiccup's Bride Alternate Chapter 40

"Absolutely out of the question!"

Hiccup, Thora and Thuggory had gone to ask Mogadon, chief of the Meatheads, how he felt about his son's fiancée bringing her dragon to Meathead Island when she got married. Mogadon minced no words on the subject, bellowing as usual.

"We kill dragons on Meathead Island; we don't ride them. You can tell me they're peaceful from now until Ragnarok comes, but until they leave their fangs and their claws and their fire and their tail-spikes behind, they are not welcome on this island, except as trophies on my wall!"

"That's going to be a problem, sir," Hiccup said respectfully. "You see, your future daughter-in-law isn't willing to be parted from her dragon friend."

"Can she leave it on Berk, and go to visit it now and then?" Thuggory suggested.

"How could she go and visit if she doesn't have a dragon to ride?" Thora countered. "She'd have to go by ship, which would take her away from her new homeland for at least four days in a row. That's no way for a future chief's wife to run her life."

"Besides," Hiccup added, "dragons can be very stubborn. Stormfly would probably follow Astrid's ship back here, and then you're right back where you started."

"Suppose I killed it?" Mogadon wondered.

Hiccup's face darkened. "Do that, and kiss our treaty goodbye. Berk's trained dragons are under the same protection as Berk's Vikings."

"Says who?" the Meathead chief demanded.

"Says me, the future chief of the tribe," Hiccup countered, mustering his courage to contradict this much bigger man. "Maybe my father will feel the same way, or maybe he won't, but I can personally guarantee you that, if you kill Stormfly, my first act as the new chief will be to show you what dragons can do when they and their riders get mad. You won't like it."

Mogadon began a savage retort to this insolent boy, but remembered that Hiccup's tribe had dragons and his tribe didn't, and he was on the verge of turning those dragons loose against himself. "You make it sound like I have no choice here," he growled.

"Sir, you're the one who arranged the marriage between your son and Astrid. If you didn't do your homework, and failed to find out that she comes with a dragon, that's not her fault, or mine, or Thuggory's. If he marries Astrid, then the Meatheads get a Deadly Nadder as part of her dowry. It's either that, or you break the engagement."

Mogadon knew he couldn't do that without bringing disgrace on his family name. Engagements could be broken because of deception, or because one of the young people had broken the social rules, but riding a dragon wasn't a disqualifier in any Viking's book. He sighed. "Then I suppose the Meatheads have just adopted a dragon."

"Not just one, Father," Thuggory said hesitantly.

"WHAT?!" the chief bellowed. Bellowing helped him feel better when he wasn't sure of things. "You said she had one dragon, just one! Now you're saying she's got more than one?"

"No, sir," Hiccup said soothingly. "It's the principle of the thing. If the chief's wife rides a dragon, but the chief doesn't, what will people think? They'll think his wife is stronger than he is. They'll think she's running the tribe! You can't have that, can you?"

"Absolutely not!" Mogadon roared. Then he stopped and tried to think about what he'd just agreed to. "So... if she rides a dragon and he doesn't, then what are we going to do about it?"

"We're going to get your son an even better dragon!" Hiccup exclaimed. "A big dragon, a powerful dragon, a dragon worthy of the chief of the Meatheads! People will see his dragon flying through the sky and say to each other, 'That's a chief up there!' "

"Yes!" Mogadon shouted, banging his fist on the arm of his chair. "That's what we're going to do! Hey, wait a minute – what do you mean, 'we'?"

"Thuggory and I can do the job," Hiccup said in a conciliatory tone. "We don't need Astrid's help, or anyone else's help. This can be just between us future chiefs."

"That sounds wise," Mogadon said, beginning to settle down again. "But... what if someone else tames an even bigger dragon than Thuggory's dragon? Then what happens?"

"You don't want that to happen, do you?" Hiccup urged him, with a quick wink at Thuggory.

"No!" bellowed Mogadon.

"You don't want just anybody to train their own dragon, do you?"

"No!" Mogadon bellowed even louder.

"You want to keep this thing under control, right?"

"No! I mean yes!" Mogadon roared.

"So all you need to do," Hiccup explained, "is make a law for the Meathead tribe that dragon training is only for the chief and his family. That way, you keep the whole thing under control, like a chief should do. Does that seem reasonable?"

After a long, threatening pause, Mogadon rumbled, "I guess so. I'll have to talk to my brother about it, but it sounds like a good idea. Thank you, Hiccup son of Stoick. You've helped me solve a hard problem with my future daughter-in-law. I won't forget this." He nodded, which Hiccup and Thuggory took as a sign that they were dismissed.

Once they were a safe distance from the chief's house, the two future chiefs slapped hands. "I can't believe that worked!" Thuggory burst out with a laugh. "You talked him into giving us everything we wanted, and he didn't even know he lost the debate!"

"My father once told me that arranging a good peace treaty can be even more satisfying than winning a battle," Hiccup grinned. "We just arranged Part One of the Meatheads' peace with the dragons. Once you're the chief, you can change the dragon-training laws so anyone can train them, and that will be Part Two. In the meantime, Astrid's dragon is safe, and you have your father's permission to train one of your own."

"I can't wait!" Thuggory exclaimed. "Oh, but wait – what about Alfdis? How do you plan to tell her she can't train a dragon now?"

"I don't plan to tell her anything of the kind," Hiccup smiled. "She's your cousin, so she's part of the chief's family, right?"

Thuggory began to laugh. "You thought of everything!" Then he turned sober for a moment. "When I'm the chief, I'm going to have to keep an eye on you. It's great, watching you in action while we're friends, but if Berk and the Meatheads ever became enemies, you might be the biggest threat I could imagine."

"Can you imagine anything that could turn our tribes against each other?" Hiccup asked earnestly as he wrapped his arm around Thora's shoulder. "We have a treaty that's sealed by my marriage to this beautiful Meathead girl, and it will be double-sealed by your marriage to a Berk girl who's a friend to both of us. We never fight over fishing grounds, we aren't trying to claim the same land, we both benefit from trade... why would we ever disagree?"

"I don't know," Thuggory said slowly. "I'm just trying to think like a chief, the way my father taught me to. That means having a back-up plan for anything that might go wrong." He glanced slyly at Hiccup. "You can't tell me there's anything wrong with that! I've seen how you think – you always have a plan for everything!"

"Well, almost everything," Hiccup admitted, and patted Thora's belly. "Sometimes, life surprises me."

o

The next time they flew to Meathead Island, Thora's arm was out of its sling at last, and Astrid flew with them. There were two good reasons for bringing her along, to Hiccup's way of thinking. One, Astrid wanted another try at getting to know her fiancée, and two, today was Dragon Training Day for Thuggory and possibly Alfdis. That meant ferrying one or two passengers to Dragon Island on dragonback, and Toothless would be hard-put to carry them, plus Hiccup and Thora, all at once. Stormfly's size and strength would be invaluable today.

Thuggory was ready to go in half a minute. Before they brought up the subject with Alfdis, they talked it over with Megadeth and Annthrax. Alfdis' parents were hesitant.

"She won't be the only dragon trainer on the island, will she?" Megadeth wondered. "If she was, she'd probably lose her dragon to a slayer in a week or less."

"No, sir, she won't be the only one," Hiccup answered. "Thuggory is going to train a dragon today also, and when he marries Astrid, she'll bring her dragon to the island. Once Thuggory becomes the chief, there will almost certainly be more riders."

"What kind of dragon is she going to train?" Annthrax asked. "Will she get a Night Fury like Toothless?"

"As far as we know, Toothless is the only Night Fury for miles around," Astrid said. "Dragons and riders with similar personalities seem to be drawn to each other, according to Hiccup, so she'll probably get a dragon that's curious, fairly smart, and isn't looking for a fight."

"The whole idea of a dragon that isn't looking for a fight still seems strange to me," Annthrax commented. "I mean, I've met your Toothless, and I saw all the tame dragons when I was in Berk for your wedding, but... we have such a long history of trying to kill each other! I can think of a few Meathead warriors who won't like the idea of dragons on the island."

"The new law is that dragons can only belong to the chief and his family," her husband told her, "so if any of those warriors gets any ideas, he'll be dealing with a chief's dragon, which means he'll also be dealing with an angry Mogadon. Most Meatheads don't want to deal with him when he isn't angry."

They discussed the logistics of feeding a hungry dragon, and made some good guesses at how much time Alfdis would have to commit each day to training her new friend once she found him. At last, Megadeth nodded and said, "Alfdis has our permission to train a dragon. Thora, you can go find your little sister and tell –"

"YES!" came a shout from just outside the door.

"I think she knows," Hiccup commented.

"I don't have to tell that little eavesdropper anything!" Thora added with a touch of irritation. The door banged open and Alfdis burst inside. She ran straight to her father, hugged him and thanked him, repeated the performance with her mother, then turned to face Hiccup.

"Okay, I'm ready," she announced. "Let's go find my dragon!"

"Hiccup, please take good care of our little girl!" Megadeth exclaimed.

Hiccup wrapped his arm around Thora's shoulder. "I've already had some practice at taking care of one of your daughters, sir," he grinned. "We'll be fine."