Dragon Swap

Well, I did a section for NSFW short stories, so I figured I should do a section for SFW stories as well.

Starting with a story that I have been sitting on for almost 2 years now and is a story concept that I came up with months before I even started writing. Well, I think that it is finally time to share it.

Just for a bit of reference, this takes place during the time of Race to the Edge.

Enjoy!

It was one of those rare moments on Dragon's Edge where things seemed to be quite peaceful and Hiccup was taking advantage of this peace by sketching out design concepts for his flight suit.

Of course, as the old saying goes, where there's peace there's bound to be something to come along to break that peace.

As Hiccup was just finishing sketching out a new concept, one that would hopefully allow him to turn in mid-air easier, he heard the familiar sound of Fishlegs yelling at nearly the top of his lungs. "You are unbelievable, Snotlout!"

"I'm unbelievable?!" Snotlout yells back, causing Hiccup to look up from his paper. "You're the one who can barely keep up with the rest of us when we're in battle."

Hiccup rolls his eyes. "Oh, gods, not this again." He was a bit frustrated as this wasn't the first or fifth time that morning that he heard Fishlegs and Snotlout yelling at each other, so he gets up from his desk and walks out of his hut to see the two of them standing in the center of The Edge's dome.

"You need to get that dragon of yours under control before he destroys the whole island!" Fishlegs yells.

Hiccup yells down, "Guys! Could you please stop fighting?"

Snotlout yells back, "My dragon isn't the problem here!"

Fishlegs adds, "You're right, it's his trainer," he jabs Snotlout in the chest, "that's the real problem."

Snotlout swats Fishlegs's hand away. "Oh, you asked for it!" Snotlout proceeds to crack his knuckles.

Hiccup rolls his eyes again, scoffs and looks to Toothless saying, "You know what to do, bud." Toothless then fires a light plasma blast that strikes right between Fishlegs and Snotlout, making them stop in their tracks from the purple burst and look up to Hiccup, who was angrier than ever. "You two. Club house. NOW!" He yells as Fishlegs and Snotlout look to each other and sulk off to do just that.

Once inside the club house, Hiccup had Fishlegs and Snotlout sit well apart from each other while Astrid and the twins stood on the opposite side. Hiccup was pacing around the spot of the hut as he figures out just what he was going to say when Tuffnut whispers, "Wow, I haven't seen Hiccup this mad since I used his spare leg to scratch my-"

"Would you shut it?" Astrid asks. "Hiccup's already angry as it is."

Tuffnut holds his arms out in a 'what gives' way. "What? I was gonna say back. Besides, how is it my fault that his leg looks like a back scratcher?"

"Just be quiet." Astrid replies.

After a few minutes of pacing, Hiccup stops, puts his hands together, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath before facing the other Dragon Riders and saying, "Ok…now, I just want you two to tell me…what in Thor's name are you two arguing about this time?"

Fishlegs and Snotlout then start talking over each other as they attempt to explain Hiccup what's going on, so much so that Hiccup couldn't even make out a letter of what they were saying. He holds up his hands and says, "Ok, clearly we're going to get nowhere here…Fishlegs, why don't you give your side of the story first?"

Fishlegs smirks and looks over to Snotlout saying, "I'd be glad to."

(Half an hour earlier)

"Meatlug and I were just minding out own business, putting in new plants for our meditative garden." Fishlegs had already dug a few small holes for the new plants while Meatlug carried the plants themselves on her back. "When suddenly, a certain Monstrous Nightmare decided to stop by and destroy everything."

Hookfang pops his head up from the corner and sets one of the bushes in the garden on fire, which Fishlegs went to quick work to try to put out, but the flames spread so quickly that they engulfed the rest of the plants with the exception of the ones on Meatlug's back.

Furious, Fishlegs goes to find Snotlout and start yelling at him. "You are unbelievable, Snotlout!"

(Back to the present)

Hiccup nods to the story. "Ok…and what were you doing during this, Snotlout?"

Snotlout, with his arms crossed, smirks and replies, "Uh, obviously I was doing important Dragon Rider business."

Astrid asks, "Admiring your reflection?"

Snotlout blinks to that. "…Maybe."

Hiccup sighs deep. "What is going on with you two, lately? You guys used to be best friends and now you can't spend 5 minutes with each other without fighting."

Fishlegs and Snotlout attempt to brush that off and say it's not true, but then memories of the past few days pop into their heads, memories of them bickering over the seemingly littlest of things.

3 days ago, Fishlegs yelled at Snotlout for stealing some of his dinner, 2 days ago, Snotlout yelled at Fishlegs for bumping into him while walking back to his hut and the previous day, they began a shouting match for reasons that they couldn't even remember.

Snotlout then comments, "You might have a point."

Fishlegs sighs. "Look, right now my issue isn't with Snotlout in particular, but I am just gonna say this, if I was Hookfang's trainer, I'd at least attempt to get him to listen and stop destroying everything."

Snotlout then scoffs. "Yeah? Well, if I was Meatlug's trainer I could get her to actually learn how to fight."

Hiccup sighs deeper and then his eyes widen as an idea pops into his head. "Hey! That could be a neat idea. What if we swap dragons for a day? Just to see what it's like."

Astrid then points out. "Uh, didn't we already do something like that?"

Ruffnut replies, "Yeah, I remember. Astrid and Snotlout wouldn't stop fighting so the two of them swapped dragons for a bit and they soon became friends again."

Hiccup points to Ruffnut. "Yes, you have a point, but the difference here is that this time, WE won't be deciding who gets which dragon." The other riders look to each other in amusement.

Minutes later, Hiccup had all of the riders and their dragons assemble in The Edge's dome, he and Toothless stood on one side while the others stood on the other side in a half circle, where he announces the plan. "Ok, here's how this is going to work, each dragon is going to choose a temporary new rider. It is their choice entirely, so if you don't like it then tough luck."

Tuffnut then adds, "Hey! Tuffluck was going to be my name before my parents realized they like the word nut."

Hiccup nods. "Right…anyway. Each new dragon/rider pairing will train with each other for the rest of the day then, later this afternoon, we'll get back together and see how everyone did. Remember, this is just a little experiment, this is not a comp-"

"A competition?" Ruffnut asks. "Did someone say competition?"

Tuffnut adds, "Heck yeah! I love competing! Especially when I win. Ok, anyone who doesn't do well has to be on stable cleaning duty for the rest of the month."

Hiccup facepalms himself. "Why did I even mention the word?"

Astrid asks, "Hiccup, can you actually stop us from making this a competition?"

Hiccup looks up in thought. "Fair point. Alright, fine, it's a competition. Now then, let's just get to the task at hand." He pats Toothless on the head. "Alright, bud, go and pick your new rider."

Toothless steps out into the center of the dome where the other riders begin calling to him.

"Toothless!" Snotlout calls.

"Toothless! Come here!" Ruffnut adds.

Fishlegs adds, "Come on, Toothless! I'll scratch you in that special place that not even Hiccup knows about!"

Toothless looks to the other riders and, after about 30 seconds, he walks up to Astrid and purrs as she holds his head. "Alrighty then." Astrid comments.

Hiccup nods. "Ok, Astrid and Toothless will be pairing up. Who's up next?"

Astrid replies, "I'll go." So she and Stormfly go to stand where Hiccup was standing and Toothless stays where he was. Astrid pats Stormfly on the head and says, "Alright, Stormfly, you ready girl?" She then whispers, "Remember, anyone but Snotlout." With that, she lets Stormfly walk to the center where the other riders began calling to her.

"Oh, Stormfly!" Fishlegs calls.

"Stormfly! I'm right here!" Ruffnut calls.

Snotlout, who looked a bit disinterested, mumbles, "Yeah, Stormfly."

Stormfly thinks about this decision a bit before walking over to Ruffnut and resting her head on her hands. "Oh, sweet!" Ruffnut says.

"Wow, Ruffnut and Stormfly." Hiccup comments. "That is something I did not expect."

Ruffnut shrugs. "What can I say? We gals have to stick together."

With that, the twins and Barf & Belch go to the other side while Astrid steps out of the circle and goes to join Toothless. The twins were rubbing their respective Zippleback head when Tuffnut says with tears running down his face. "Belch…dear Belch…it's been a true honor and privilege to serve with you these past few years. I just hope that you don't forget all the incredible times we shared, all the stuff we blew up, all the pranks we pulled, and all the boars we wrangled. Yeah, good times, right?"

Ruffnut then points out, "Uh, you know this is just for the day, right?"

Tuffnut darts back and replies, "Will you let me have my moment? I just hope that you find happiness with your new rider. Now…get on!" Tuffnut pats Belch on the head and Ruffnut shrugs to Barf as they send the green Zippleback to the center.

Hiccup, Fishlegs and Snotlout then begin calling out to the two heads.

"Barf! Belch! Remember that life debt I owed ya?" Hiccup asks.

Barf & Belch then look to each other as Barf whispers something into Belch's ear. Belch nods to whatever Barf said and the two of them lean into Fishlegs and Snotlout with Belch going to Fishlegs and Barf to Snotlout.

Snotlout then asks, "Wait…I gotta share a dragon with Fishface? And I gotta ride Belch?"

Hiccup points out, "Actually, that's Barf."

Snotlout then smiles. "Oh! Barf. I'm good with that…but that still means I gotta ride with Fishface! C-can I switch?"

Hiccup shakes his head. "Sorry, Snotlout. Once the dragons have made their decision, it's final."

Snotlout then crosses his arms and pouts as Fishlegs comments, "You can just feel my enthusiasm about this as well."

With that settled, Ruffnut walks over to rejoin Stormfly, Tuffnut stands next to Hiccup and Fishlegs walks off with Barf & Belch as they wait for Snotlout to finish while Snotlout goes to the other side with Hookfang saying, "Hookfang, oh Hookfang. As you can see, there's only 2 choices left, the right choice and the other choice. You know which is which so…hop to it!" he says before pointing to the other side of the circle.

Hookfang steps to the center and looks between Hiccup and Tuffnut who were both calling out to him. Hookfang then remembered how Tuffnut would use his gel to light up piles of boar dung, something that Hookfang was gonna do himself, so he walks over to Hiccup stands next to him.

Tuffnut then asks, "Wait…so then, which dragon do I get?"

Hiccup replies as he scratches Hookfang's chin. "See for yourself."

Tuffnut glances to the right and sees Meatlug standing right next to him with a big smile on her face. "Meatlug? I gotta do this competition with Meatlug?...heck yeah! That's what I wanted the whole time!"

Hiccup nods then says, "Ok, we have the rest of the afternoon to train and get to know our new dragons. Let's meet at the seastacks to the South of The Edge to see how everyone did." With that, the riders disperse with their new dragons.

A few minutes later, Astrid had gone back to her hut to grab some things to use to help train with Toothless when she hears a knock on her blue door. She opens the door and sees Hiccup standing there, hands behind his back. "Hey there, Astrid."

Astrid replies, "Hey, Hiccup. What's going on?"

Hiccup shrugs and replies, "Oh, nothing much, I was just walking by and, uh, wanted to drop off this." He holds up a dragon saddle stirrup. "It's a stirrup that connects to Toothless's tail and accommodates your foot better."

Astrid smiles. "Aw, thanks." She says as the takes the stirrup from him.

Hiccup nods. "Yeah, uh, here I can slip it on for you if you'd like." He starts to walk in before Astrid stops him.

"I'm fine, Hiccup. I change out Stormfly's stirrups all the time."

Hiccup nods. "Of course! Of course, I-I didn't know what I was thinking. Oh, that also reminds me, if you need help figuring out how to work Toothless's tail, you can give me a ca-"

Astrid interrupts him. "Hiccup, I'll be fine. Remember our academy days when you taught all of us how to work Toothless's tail?"

Hiccup nods. "Oh yeah, that's right. Tuffnut somehow ended up making the tail catch on fire after being on Toothless for 5 seconds."

Astrid nods. "And I do promise that if I am having issues then I will come to you, but for now I will be fine. Now, don't you have a Monstrous Nightmare to tend to?"

Hiccup smiles to that. "Great to hear! Yeah, perfect, yeah you're right, I do need to get to Hookfang before…well, I don't know what's going to happen. I-I'll see you guys later." With that, Hiccup walks away and Astrid was left standing there, smiling while shaking her head before she closes the door and proceeds to slip on the stirrup.

It was a fairly calm afternoon on the island that Dragon's Edge sat on. Birds were chirping, Night Terrors were napping, and a large, green, two headed dragon was uncontrollably flying in all directions.

Barf & Belch were zooming in all sorts of directions while Fishlegs and Snotlout were barking different orders and holding on for dear life. Due to the difference in weight compared to Tuffnut, Fishlegs was sitting at the base of Belch's neck while Snotlout took Ruffnut's usual spot on Barf. Fishlegs yells out, "Belch, up!"

But that was followed by Snotlout yelling, "Barf, down!" This of course caused the Zippleback to spin and begin to lose altitude.

Trying to settle the situation, Fishlegs yells, "Belch, straighten out!"

But Snotlout yells, "Keep going, Barf!" This of course made Belch stop but Barf kept going down, causing all of them to continue to go down.

Just before hitting the tree line, Fishlegs yells out, "Ok, Stop! STOP!" Both Barf & Belch stop spinning and begin hovering before Fishlegs states, "This isn't working!"

Snotlout replies, "You're telling me! Now I wish I had a dragon with only one head like normal!"

Fishlegs adds, "NO! Listen, if we are going to win this thing then we have to work together, as a team. Got it?"

Snotlout stares at Fishlegs in silence then looks down to Barf and realizes that Fishlegs was right, if the twins were able to fly Barf & Belch, then so can they, so Snotlout sighs and replies, "Ok…we'll do it your way."

Fishlegs nods. "Great. Ok, Belch let's-"

Just then, Ruffnut and Stormfly zoom by right in front of them going from their bottom right to top left, making Barf & Belch stop right in their tracks. Snotlout shakes his fist at the two of them. "Hey! I'm flying here!"

Stormfly does a series of flips, spins and turns with Ruffnut yelling with pure joy. She looks to her left and comments, "Ha! This is so much easier now that it's just me! No Tuffnut that I gotta talk to just to go forward."

Stormfly squawks in delight to Ruffnut having fun before Ruffnut adds, "I can't even imagine what sort of time Tuffnut must be having."

Meanwhile, Tuffnut sat in his hut along with Meatlug and stared her down, the two of them holding eye contact for a good deal, neither of them saying a word to another.

Seconds later, however, Meatlug's tail shakes as she lets out a fart, to which Tuffnut took a sniff before wafting his hand in front of his nose. "Hooooo, oh yeah! That was a good one!" He writes something on a sheet of paper before saying, "Ok, Meatlug, that was andesite, now let's try river stone." He tosses a stone towards Meatlug and she catches it before eating it.

Tuffnut then sits back down on his stool, puts his hands together and says, "And now we wait."

On the other side of the island, Hiccup and Hookfang had been gliding along, staying right above the tips of the trees as Hookfang goes over each and every tree. After a bit, Hiccup pats Hookfang on the neck and says, "Ok, just like we practiced."

Hookfang nods and proceeds to do a spin before lighting himself on fire before diving in and charging right into a target that Hiccup set up somewhere in the middle of the forest. Hiccup has Hookfang land and he hops off before patting the Monstrous Nightmare's neck. "I don't know what Snotlout keeps complaining about, you're actually quite easy to train."

It was then that, through the corner of his eye, Hiccup notices something large and black zoom past him. "Uh…stay here." He rushes off to follow the black figure and watches it land in a semi-open field.

Hiccup hides behind the bushes just as he hears Astrid comment, "You really are amazing, Toothless!" Toothless replies with a grunt.

Hiccup comments, "Ok, you seem to have flying down, but that can't be it."

Astrid then says, "Alright, Toothless, let's see that sonar ability I've been hearing about." Toothless nods and roars out in front of him, sending purple sound waves, detecting something nearby before firing a light blast at it, he hits the object and it rises, revealing to be a hidden dummy. Astrid shakes her head. "That will never stop amazing me."

Hiccup shrugs. "Ok, you can get him to do things that come natural to him. Big whoop."

Astrid then says, "Now, let's see something new." She pulls a lever on Toothless's saddle, locking his red tail fin before Toothless goes to the other side of the field and leaps forward, maintaining a simple glide for a second and firing a blast that hit a second, nearby dummy.

Hiccup's eyes widen. "Whoa! We've been working on that move for weeks now and I've never seen him do it with me."

Toothless sets down in front of Astrid to which Astrid pats him on the head. "Oh yeah, there's no way we aren't going to win this competition."

Seeing how well Astrid and Toothless were working together caused a stir in Hiccup's stomach, and a few thoughts to come to his head. He wanted to ignore it, but he just couldn't shake the feeling. Deciding that he's seen enough, Hiccup begins to step away, only to accidentally step on a fallen tree branch.

Astrid heard this and looks to her left before smirking. "Interesting. Uh, Toothless? You mind firing a blast in that direction?"

Toothless does just that, firing a small blast that strikes right below the bush Hiccup was kneeling behind and causing him to leap up. "AH!" Seeing that he was ok, he sighs a bit before realizing he had been caught. "Oh, uh, hey there, Astrid! Toothless! Uh, didn't see you guys there. Wh-what's up?"

Astrid crosses her arms and replies, "We're just training. Why? What are you doing behind that bush?" Toothless grunts in suspicion.

Hiccup rubs the back of his neck, smiles wide and replies, "Me? Oh, you know, I was just…uh…looking for Hookfang. Yeah, that, uh, that rascal got away from me again."

Astrid raises a brow to that. "You're looking for Hookfang."

Hiccup nods. "Yep!"

Astrid nods. "I see. So…is that someone else's Monstrous Nightmare standing next to you."

Hiccup looks up to the right and sees that Hookfang was standing right next to him, smiling. Hiccup facepalms himself, "Now I see what it's like to be Snotlout." He mumbles before looking up to Hookfang and saying. "Uh, oh! Hey, I found you! Uh, looks like now it's my turn to hide."

Astrid puts the already raised brow down to raise the other brow. "Oh, so you two were just playing hide-and-seek?"

Hiccup nods. "Yeah! That's it! We, uh, we've been training hard all afternoon so I figured we could use a little break."

Astrid nods to that. "I see. Well, if you don't mind, Toothless and I have some REAL training to do." Toothless grunts in confirmation.

Hiccup nods. "Great! Great, yeah, uh, she's right, we should get back to it, mister. We, uh, will catch you guys later!" He nudges Hookfang and whispers. "Go! Just go!" as they quickly walk away.

Once they were gone, Astrid looks down to Toothless and asks, "What exactly DO you see in him?" Toothless grunts in a 'tell me about it' tone.

Later that day, just as planned, the riders meet up on a collection of Sea stacks miles South of Dragon's Edge, all of which sat on their new dragon in a circle, as Hiccup announces, "Alright! Time to see how everyone did with their new dragon. Who wants to go first?"

Ruffnut raises her hand. "Oh! Oh! Me me me me me!"

Hiccup chuckles to that. "Alright, alright. Ruffnut and Stormfly, you guys are up first."

Ruffnut pumps her fist. "Yes! You ready, Stormfly?" Stormfly squawks before she leaps off the sea stack and begins overing in the air before diving down to a rockier area where they successfully dodge rocks. Soon, Ruffnut pats Stormfly and asks, "Alright, time to show them. Stormfly…spikenado!"

With a nod, Stormfly points her nose up to the sky, extends her tail downward, and begins spinning while sending a flurry of spikes in all directions. Astrid comments, "Wow! I actually never thought of a move like that."

Once Stormfly was done, she stops spinning and heads back to the group before landing on the sea stack that she leaped off from while the other riders give them a round of applause. "Nice job, Ruffnut!"

Ruffnut takes a bow. "Ah thank you."

Hiccup then says, "Ok, how about Tuffnut and Meatlug?"

Tuffnut nods. "Ready and willing. Let's show them, Meatlug." Meatlug lets out a 'gronk' before she begins hovering around. Meatlug then takes a dive towards a rock that just came out of the water's surface when Tuffnut says, "Wait for it…wait for it…Now! Gas Bomb!"

Meatlug then spits a wad of lava before turning around and farting on that lava, making it blow up right in front of the rock and sending the lava everywhere. Once that was done, they head back up to rejoin the group.

Hiccup comments, "Well, that's…interesting. To put it lightly."

Ruffnut, who was wafting at her nose, replies, "Yeah, but could do without the aftersmell."

Tuffnut sits up on Meatlug proudly. "Hey! You work with what you got, and what I had was a true tank."

Hiccup replies, "Moving on. Uh, how about our quad pair of Fishlegs, Snotlout, Barf and Belch?"

Fishlegs looks to Snotlout and asks, "You ready, Snotlout?"

Snotlout looks back to Fishlegs and replies, "Ready, Fishlegs."

Fishlegs smiles. "Hey! You called me by my real name!"

Snotlout replies, "Heh, don't get used to it. Let's go, Barf!"

Fishlegs adds, "Belch, it's showtime."

Barf & Belch begin to fly off and get to a cruising altitude before Snotlout yells, "Barf, surround us!"

Barf lets out his gas breath and surrounds the four of them in the green gas, this was followed by Fishlegs yelling, "Belch, light it up!" The Zippleback emerges from the gas cloud as Belch sends out its sparks to light the gas ball and send off a big explosion.

The two of them fly back to the rest of the group, who were giving them a round of applause. Tuffnut comments, "Encore! Encore!"

Hiccup comments, "That was great, guys! Hey! You two aren't fighting anymore!"

Fishlegs and Snotlout's eyes widen to the fact as they look to each other again. Fishlegs comments, "Huh, it's almost like being on Barf & Belch forced us to start working together again."

Ruffnut shrugs. "Well, yeah! That was their idea."

The other riders look to Ruffnut in confusion as Snotlout asks, "Wh-what do you mean?"

Ruffnut replies, "What? It wasn't obvious? (Flashback to earlier) When they were deciding who they wanted as a new rider, Barf whispered to Belch the plan of having Fishlegs and Snotlout ride them so that they can work together and stop fighting so much. (Back to the present) It was their plan all along."

Snotlout looks down to Barf and comments, "Huh. Guess you have more going on in your head than I thought." Barf coos to the comment.

Fishlegs looks to Snotlout and says, "And I guess we really can work together now."

Snotlout nods. "I'll say. From now on, you can call us…FISHSNOT!" All the other riders stare at him with looks of shock and a bit of disgust. Snotlout pauses a moment before adding, "…That sounded way cooler in my head."

Hiccup adds, "And with that now lodged in my head, I'd say it's my turn." He pats Hookfang on the neck and Hookfang takes off, soaring around the sea stacks before Hiccup spots a decent sized rock. "That looks like a good target." He comments and Hookfang nods.

"You know what to do!" Hiccup says before, just like before, Hookfang does a spin, lights himself on fire and dives in, striking the rock dead on and smashing it to bits. Hookfang then keeps himself lit as he points his nose to the air and begins spinning, creating a fiery vortex that surrounded him and Hiccup.

All the other riders sat there in awe over the trick as Snotlout comments, "Ok, I have got to ask Hiccup how he did that."

After a few more seconds of spinning, Hookfang stops, unlights himself, and heads back to the group. Astrid then comments, "Hiccup, how you manage to train dragons never ceases to amaze me."

Hiccup nods. "Thank you, Astrid. Well, gang, it looks like we all did well with our new dragon, just goes to show that any dragon is trainable, if you apply the right technique."

The other riders then look to each other before Fishlegs points out, "Uh…aren't you forgetting someone?"

Hiccup blinks to that. "No…we did you and Snotlout."

Fishlegs replies, "That's not what I meant." He gestures over to Astrid who was sitting on Toothless with her arms crossed and with a smirk.

Hiccup blinks and chuckles a bit. "Oh…right…Astrid and Toothless…uh, if you guys aren't ready we could-"

"We'll be fine, Hiccup. Let's show them, Toothless." Toothless grunts in response before he spreads his wings and darts off of the sea stack he was on. All of the other riders watch to see what the two of them do, Hiccup especially kept close watch.

Astrid got a bit of distance with the intent of performing a trick, when she notices a very familiar group of ships with flags that show a large sword slashing through a serpent-like dragon.

Before the ships could even notice, she bolts back to the other riders and yells out, "Dragon Hunters! About 3 miles South."

Hiccup lets out a deep sigh. "Are you kidding me? Ok, everyone get back on your original dragon-"

Astrid adds, "Hiccup, there's no time!"

Hiccup realizes the fact and nods. "Ok, just stick with the dragon you have, let's go!" The other riders follow Astrid and Toothless as they find the ships again.

Once the ships spotted the dragons and riders, they began firing rope nets, dragon root arrows and cannons, as expected, and the riders do their best to dodge them. Hiccup commands, "Don't smash any ships until we free any dragons."

Some arrows and a canon ball begin to fly towards Astrid and Toothless, so she pats Toothless and says, "This calls for a self-glide." She locks Toothless's tail and leaps off of Toothless, making him go down a bit as they dodge the arrows before Toothless blasts the canon ball away from them and Astrid lands right back on Toothless's back.

Hiccup comments with a worried face. "Wow…" he was so distracted by seeing his girlfriend and his dragon work so well together that he almost failed to notice a bunch of dragon root arrows being fired towards him and Hookfang, but Tuffnut dives in and yells, "Meatlug, gas bomb!"

Just like earlier, Meatlug dives in, spits some lava and farts on the lava, making a burst of lava that destroyed the arrows. Hiccup comments, "I'm both grateful and…" he wafts the air away from his nose. "a bit grossed out."

In a flash, Ruffnut and Stormfly leap up onto one of the ships and Ruffnut yells, "Stormfly, Spikenado!" Stormfly, spins like before, sending a flurry of spikes, some of which strike the locks of some of the dragon cages, releasing the dragons inside.

Hiccup and Hookfang dive towards the stairs to the lower deck of the ship as Hiccup yells, "Hookfang, flame smash!" Hookfang spins to avoid the oncoming dragon root arrows before he flames up and dives below deck, unlocking any dragon cages in a flash and bursting out towards the bow, freed dragons following them and does the same to the other ship.

Hiccup then yells, "Alright, fire away!"

Fishlegs yells to Snotlout, "That's our cue!"

Snotlout nods and they have Barf & Belch fly around the ships before Barf lets out his gas breath in a ball around them. Snotlout yells to the other riders, "You guys might want to stand back!" The other riders begin to fly away as Fishlegs has Belch shoot out sparks to ignite the gas ball, smashing the ships to smithereens.

Once that was done, they head back to join the other riders.

The riders get back to the sea stacks that they were sat upon earlier when Hiccup says, "Well, despite that interruption, I think we all really came together and showed what we can do, no matter which dragon we are given. In fact, I think we should just forget the competition, as we all did great!" The other riders cheer in agreement.

Snotlout then asks, "Hey, uh, this has been great but, can I have my dragon back?" The other riders ask roughly the same thing.

Hiccup chuckles to that. "Yes, alright, we can get back to our own dragon." So the riders leap onto their original dragon and begin hugging them.

Tuffnut hugs Belch's neck tight and says, "Oh, Belch…I knew you wouldn't forget me!" A tear forms in his eye.

Fishlegs hugs Meatlug and says, "Hey, Meatlug. Did Tuffnut take good care of you? I bet he did, yeah you're a good girl. Once we get home, I'm finding you the biggest piece of limestone that I can find!"

Snotlout pats Hookfang and says, "That'll do, Hookfang. That'll do."

Astrid rubs Stormfly's head and says, "It's good to have you back, girl." She then whispers, "Once we get home, you'll need to tell me exactly what Ruffnut did to you."

Hiccup sighs and asks Toothless, "So, you had a great time with Astrid, didn't you?" He looks to Astrid as a few thoughts come to mind.

Later, after dinner was eaten, Astrid was just heading back into her hut when she hears Hiccup speak up behind her. "Hey, Astrid?"

She turns around and sees Hiccup standing there, looking a bit sad. "Uh…hey, Hiccup. What's going on?"

Hiccup sighs and replies. "Astrid…if you want Toothless…you can have him."

Astrid's eyes widen and her jaw nearly hits the ground as she processes that comment. "Wh-what?"

Hiccup sighs. "I saw the way you and Toothless were working together earlier, you two seemed like a really great match, heck you even taught him some things that I couldn't so…if you want him, I can take Stormfly." He looks down to the ground as Astrid pauses for a moment.

She crosses her arms and asks, "And what kind of person would I be if I did that?"

Hiccup looks up with a bit of shock. "Wh-what do you mean?"

Astrid replies, "Hiccup, look at the facts. Did I train Toothless in the first place? Did I first build his tail device? Did I sit by his bedside when he got sick and vice versa? Did I spend half a day cleaning up dragon puke after he got into that pile of rotten fish?"

Hiccup rubs the back of his neck. "Heh, that was a rough day for both of us. I had to take about 20 baths just to get the smell off of me."

Astrid then adds, "Exactly. You and Toothless are clearly meant for each other, you two are closer than your dad and Gobber, I'd have to be a blind idiot to not see that."

Hiccup replies, "Oh, you mean Snotlout's cousin, Darklout? You know, say what you will, he does seem to be able to get by."

Astrid shakes her head. "That's not my point. You set up this experiment of swapping dragons so we could see what it's like to have each other's dragon, not so we could possibly trade dragons permanently. Besides, is the normal left stirrup on Toothless's saddle made for anyone else's leg?"

He looks down to his uniquely shaped metal leg and sighs. "I…I hear what you're saying, Astrid, I do, but I'm still having a bit of trouble believing you."

Astrid then pauses for another moment to think. "Well…maybe this isn't our decision to make." Hiccup looks up with a bit of confusion.

Just like before, Hiccup and Astrid gather on either side of The Edge's dome and had Toothless placed in the center. Astrid then says to Toothless, "Alright, Toothless. The choice is yours. You can either stay with Hiccup, or come with me. Either which will be fine with me."

Toothless looks between Astrid and Hiccup, running the decision through his head. Looking over to Hiccup and he still had a bit of a look of sadness and was kind of just looking down at his feet, or…foot.

He didn't even realize that Toothless WAS looking at him until he glances back up and sighs. "It's all up to you, bud." Before looking right back down.

Toothless looks back over to Astrid who could sense the emotions running through Hiccup's head, so she mouths the word 'go' to Toothless.

Toothless receives the message, grins a bit, and turns around before walking right over to Hiccup, purring as Hiccup felt the Night Fury's head go into his arms. Hiccup looks up to Astrid and mouths 'thank you', making Astrid smile wide.

Once that was out of the way, the three of them head back into their huts to sleep off this unique day.

On another note, Snotlout had a bit of a sleepover at Fishlegs's hut that night, and the two of them were up almost all night laughing, telling stories, playing games and enjoying each other's company.

The End.

Thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, then please let me know.

Take care and I'll see you next time!