Hello all!
it is morning, and so as promised in my last chapter I have another slightly longer chapter for you all. this one ends on a cliff hanger, but I'm actually pretty excited to write the next one. and no, this is not the end of the story, I see this arc alone going till chapter 45ish. after that is gonna be a bit of traveling/companionship arc then the end. so... late 50s early 60s?
anyway, I realized I was so tired last night that I completly forgot about my usual 'Hello all!'
Chapter 41- "Meathead"
(Heather's perspective)
We returned to the icy mountain, and almost immediately Valka rushed to us.
"Where were you?!" she asked
"At Drago's." Thuggory answered simply.
"What?!" she shrieked.
"I don't think we'll have to interfere with Drago anymore." I assured her.
"Oh no, once you interfere with Drago, you can't stop, he will hunt you down." she replied.
"We're always on the move, there's nothing for him to track us to." Cami answered.
"Drago will find a way, he is relentless." she explained.
"Then we'll be ready for him. The combined might of the dragons and the Meathead, Berserker, Hooligan, Peaceable and Bog tribes should be more than enough to halt him." I stated.
"Oh no, they won't. Drago has amassed a massive armada, larger than all them combined, and that's only counting ships and men, he has at least as many dragons as I, maybe more so. And that's all considering, the tribes agree to fight Drago, and agree their war isn't with the Dragons." she answered.
"Look, we've got what we came for, now it'd be best if we returned and told Dagur." Hiccup cut in.
"What about Stoick?" Avery asked.
"What of him? It's her tale to tell." Hiccup said while gesturing at his mother.
As we were packing up, the timberjack sat just outside our camp.
He had his head down and looked sad.
I assumed that meant he wouldn't be coming with us.
"Hey pal." I said as I walked up to it.
It crooned softly.
"I guess you're not coming?" I asked.
It shook its head sadly, it then turned and looked at Glacier.
"You like it here?" I asked.
It looked at Glacier again.
"It's ok, you can stay, it'll be good for you." I answered
It crooned once more before shoving its face into my chest.
"Aw yeah, I'll miss you too." I sighed as I began to pet the top of his head.
He kept nudging me worriedly.
"I'll be fine." I assured
A nearby Stormcutter watched us.
It was grey, white and dark blue.
It slowly stepped forward.
The timberjack noticed and looked up at it over my shoulder.
Both stood tall with me between them as they began to communicate.
After a moment the timberjack knelt down and pushed the top of its head into my chest, it crooned softly before stretching out its neck and pushing me away. I slid on the icy floor and was stopped by the chest of the Stormcutter.
I'm fairly certain I had seen this Stormcutter, mostly he was at the top of the cavern, and he was always watching over everything he possibly could.
"So… wait… now you're my dragon?" I asked, confused.
"Your Timberjack has entrusted your care to this Stormcutter." Wodensfang explained as he fluttered over and landed on my shoulder.
"Thank you for the translation." I said as I scratched behind one of his horns.
He purred and leaned into my hand.
"So you're basically my guardian dragon now?" I asked the Stormcutter.
It crooned in response.
I returned to the camp after saying bye to my timberjack.
The Stormcutter followed me.
"Hey Hiccup, there's a bit of a problem." I said as I arrived.
He looked up out of the bag hanging from Toothless saddle
"Yeah what is it?" he asked.
"My timberjack has decided to stay here, and this Stormcutter is taking its place. I don't have a saddle for him, and I don't think you have the tools or materials required to make one?"
"Yeah I don't, we'll have to find a place that has the proper equipment and materials. I'll also need time to create the idea of it." he explained.
"Ok, so… would someone mind if I ride with them?" I asked.
"I'm not sure if we should leave just yet." Hiccup mentioned.
"I'd like to get measurements of Cloudjumper, and talk to my mother about his biology and what parts should be unrestricted. And, it gives us an opportunity for a better goodbye." he explained.
"Cool!" Thuggory shouted before running off and standing on the ledge overlooking the Wilderbeast.
"C'mon Shipwreck" he called, and in an almost comedic fashion the dragon raced to him and knocked him over the ledge and splashing into the water surrounding the slumbering Bewilderbeast.
"Oh no, it's not like I gotta pull out a bunch of warm, clean, dry towels now, to save your life, just to pack cold, dirty, wet ones up in an hour…" Avery grumbled as she began scrounging through the bags Nurse had hanging from his side.
I chuckled before heading off to say a proper goodbye to my Timberjack.
In an hour, we all returned, Hiccup with a paper of dimensions and notes, Thuggory swaddled in towels while Shipwreck carried his wet clothes, Avery blushing profusely and actively avoiding Thuggory, Myself with nothing new… not like there was an extra tear stain on my cheek or anything. And Cami… Cami came back with an entirely new dragon.
"Well, I got the informa… and let me guess. I'm gonna have to make another saddle?" Hiccup asked Cami.
"I guess so." she answered sheepishly.
The long serpentine-like dragon was about Toothless' size, maybe larger and it was a shimmering silver color, it's belly was a slightly dimmer shade of silver, but still nearly blinding. I couldn't tell if it was the light, but each scale seemed to be rippling… it's mouth was long like that of a crocodile, and it had four short legs, but each were strong enough to hold itself tall and seemed moderately flexible.
"Ah, this… I really don't know what species this is, it resembles a grapple grounder, but it's skull is more elongated. At first I thought it was a grapple grounder with a defect of some kind, but it then exhibited the abilities of a changewing. I really have never been able to determine it's species." Valka explained.
"Well all I know is it seems to have taken a liking to you." I noted as it coiled its long neck around Cami's shoulders and rested its chin on the top of her head.
"Well, I thought you'd never get a dragon, you'd be flying with Hiccup every time. 'Two lovers riding atop a fearsome dragon!' " Thuggory jokes.
"Y'know nobody can take you seriously when you're shivering in all those towels." I replied.
Valka leaned in to whisper something to Thuggory.
Whatever she said made Thuggory suddenly go quiet, he gulped and his eyes widened a little.
I noticed Hiccup had seen, he however did not seem confused, but more disbelieving.
I approached Hiccup to ask him.
"What's up with Thug and your mom?"
"Eh, you'll see, it has to do with Avery." he replied.
I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him but he didn't elaborate.
"I think it's time to return to Dagur." Cami commented.
We agreed and said a strained bye to Valka and bye to my Timberjack.
We then flew out the mountain. I rode with Avery, and Cami of course rode with Hiccup.
Normally I'd ride with Thuggory, we were good friends, and… even though we'd confirmed neither had feelings for the other… I didn't feel comfortable riding behind him while he wore nothing but 8 layers of towels.
"Hey guys, I really don't think I'm gonna be able to fly all the way to Berserk in nothing but towels…" Thug complained.
"I mean, Meathead is kind of on the way, we could stop by." Hiccup observed after contemplating a map.
"Yes please!" Thug practically begged.
"How about the rest of you?" Hiccup asked
"I'm good with it." I said.
Cami nodded.
"I'd love to go…" Avery said
"to research more medicinals of course." she added a tad bit defensively.
"Well, it's decided then. We stop off at Meathead, if I have time I can probably get Heather a saddle, if I have a lot of time and resources I might even be able to get you one, Cami." he said.
We nodded and altered our course so we were heading slightly more south.
We arrived at Meathead Island a few days later. In which Thug did change into his clothes and so I felt comfortable riding with him again. But he still didn't have many changes of clothing, so he was going to pick up a few while we were here.
As usual we landed in the forests towards the back of the island. Landing on a small beach with about 3 shipwrecks and a large cave.(1)
The dragons stayed in the cave while we headed into town.
We walked into the village, and Thuggory was recognized immediately.
"TTTTTHHHHHHUUUUUGGGGGGGGGYYYYYYYYYY!"
Soon his father was sprinting down the mountain to meet us, he tripped about half way down the hill and began to roll towards us. When he rolled close to us, he somehow managed to shoot out, tackle Thug and continue rolling down the hill, now with Thug
When they finally stopped they were laughing hysterically.
"Hey Cami, is that how you kidnapped Hiccup?" I remarked
"No." she answered.
"There was rolling involved." Hiccup corrected.
Cami glared at him for a beat before a very dizzy Thug, and his even dizzier father approached.
"I am Moga…" he introduced facing to our right.
He frowned and turned to our left and began again.
"I am Mogad…"
He moved to face our right once again.
"I am Mogad… WOULD YA STOP MOVING!"
To save us the time, we just told him he was already facing us.
"I am Mogadon Meathead, chief of the Meathead tribe. How may I help you?"
"Just stopping by, Thug needs clothing, I need medicinal herbs, and Hiccup needs access to a forge, if possible."
"Oh… so Thuggory isn't coming home to proclaim he's found himself a bride."
"Why is everyone pressuring me to find someone!" Thug whisper-shouted beside me.
I quirked an eyebrow at him as this is the first I'd heard of that.
Mogadon saw me and Thug whispering and winked at me and then subtly-not so subtly nudged his head towards Thuggory twice.
I just rolled my eyes.
Mogadon led us through the village, every now and then Thuggory would get overly excited and interrupt to explain exactly what his father had been, or something completely unrelated, he derailed the tour about 3 dozen times.
"...And this is the house I grew up in!" Thug shouted in excitement.
He practically dragged us inside through the kitchen and upstairs.
He completely ignored two of the closed doors, however he did gesture at the first one
"This is Dad's room, used to be a storage room, we've since moved the storage space to the shed out back." he explained.
He then pulled us to the room at the end of the hall.
"And this is my room, I've got my Whetstone, I even have a rack for all my stuff!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"I can see that." Avery muttered.
I was looking at the doors he'd walked right past, I assumed they were just closets or something, but my curiosity demanded I open it anyway.
Thuggory noticed and yelled at me
"Heather. Don't." he said dangerously.
I gingerly released the door handle and took about 8 steps back.
Hiccup and Cami seemed to understand something I didn't, at least I wasn't the only one out of the loop, Avery looked as confused as I probably did.
She shuffled to my side and leaned towards my ear to whisper to me.
"What was that all about?"
"I have no idea."
Cami saw us whispering and mouthed 'later'
Thug continued on with the tour of his room, quite a bit less excited however.
The tour soon ended and Thug had left us at his and Mogadon's house so he could go and greet his tribe members.
That left me, Avery, Hiccup and Cami as Mogadon went to reintroduce/greet/welcome his son to the island.
"What was that all about?" Avery asked, getting right to the matter at hand.
Cami sighed before she stepped forward to explain.
"Thuggory… lost his Mother and his Sister, and still grieves them from time to time. I'm not certain, but I assume the reason his father moved into the old 'storage room' is because the two forbidden rooms were Edna's and Mogadon's, and Devina's. And those rooms, after their deaths, were sort of like a taboo; disturbing the peace in the room left after their deaths."
"Oh, I didn't know." Avery sighed sadly.
"You didn't know? I was the one about to open the forbidden taboo door?!" I exclaimed.
"Neither of you knew, you can't feel bad about not knowing something, especially if no one even told you it." Hiccup comforted.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I agreed.
We went downstairs and stood in the living room.
I flopped into this absolutely massive cushioned arm chair, I'm fairly sure the four of us could have sat in it side by side. Avery went rummaging around in the kitchen area, Cami sat on the windowsill just looking out the window, Hiccup began drawing ideas for the Stormcutter and Cami's dragon's saddles.
There really wasn't much to do, and the near silent hut only added to the boredom, Cami and I were sighing, Hiccup was sketching and Avery was knocking around with some wooden bowls with different herbs in them.
"Ummm… guys. There's like… a mob, or… or something." Cami relayed from the window.
The three of us looked at each other, silently debating who'd be the one to get up and check.
I sighed and hopped to my feet and walked over to the window.
"Umm ok… yeah people are rushing towards the docks." I confirmed
"Can you tell why?" Avery asked, coming back from the kitchen.
"No." Cami answered.
I moved away from the window and opened the door, leaving the house I hoped to get a better perspective.
There was a large army of ships headed towards the docks…
(1) ok... anyone else ever play the old How To Train Your Dragon Wii game? by activision, that was a blast in my childhood. this is a reference to one of the frequented locations, it's not on Meathead island, it's behind Berk, but IDC it's my story, I get to reference what I like, how I like.
anyway question:
what is the etymology of the word etymology?