The next morning, the mercenaries and vikings awoke together and met each other at the dining room for breakfast. Even though an alliance had been formed, it was still slightly uncomfortable. They were so different in many ways. Not to mention how clueless the mercenaries were about the world they were in.
As the group ate, Hiccup and the other dragon riders related the story of their battle with the dragon hunters to the mercenaries who were dually impressed with some of the actions that had taken place. When the story had been finished, a few of the mercenaries clapped and Heavy yelled, "Very Good!" Then Engineer told Hiccup that he and the other mercenaries were planning to build a house for the nine of them on a patch of plain grass at the edge of the forest that covered most of the island, next to the arena. The other riders were a little hesitant about this proposition but Hiccup assured them that it would be fine and told Engineer that they were allowed to do so.
After breakfast, the whole group went down next to the arena where the riders dragons were waiting. Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut decided to take a spin around the island to make sure everything was in order and got onto to their dragons. Snotlout just lumbered over to Hookfang and leaned against the Monstrous Nightmares belly, enjoying the heat emanating off it. On a small flat rock, Engineer laid out a few plans he had drawn up earlier for the house they were going to build. Hiccup, Medic and Spy gathered around the plans as well to understand what was needed. Hiccup offered for the dragon riders to help the construction, but Engineer declined saying kindly, "I really appreciate the offer partner, but you have given us your hospitality. Not to mention, you fellas just got out of a war. You deserve to relax."
Hiccup was about to insist, but Engineer held up his robotic hand and Hiccup fell silent, knowing the discussion was over. Still, he decided to observe the mercenaries at work. He knew they must be a good team in battle, but what about other tasks such as construction?
After reading over the plans for a few minutes, Engineer walked over to Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, and Sniper leaving Medic to survey the plans a bit more. Spy decided that his uses in construction would be very limited and instead turned to Hiccup and struck up a conversation about the different tribes in the Viking Archipelago.
Meanwhile, Engineer was assigning jobs to his comrades. "Alright boys, we are going to do this quick and efficiently like the building of a mini sentry. Pyro, I need you to use them axes to chop down those trees so we can get wood. Soldier, I want you to use one of the axes the vikings got to chop the fallen trees into separate parts and no you can not use you pickaxes or shovels. Sniper, I need you to find vines and anything that is the equivalent to rope in the forest. Heavy, you will be in charge of carrying the logs and planks towards me and Demoman. We will be constructing the building and you will all join us when we have enough. Understood?"
There was a collective cheer from the others and they began to set off. However, just as Demoman was skipping alongside Engineer, excited to work, he heard his name being called from the aren and turned to see Fishlegs standing next to Meatlug. Demo stopped and waved happily. Fishlegs waved back for a second before yelling, "I was planning to teach you a bit about Gronckles, but if you are busy we can do it another time."
When Demo heard this, his face cracked into a huge smile and without another word, ran towards Fishlegs and Meatlug. Engineer turned to see the Scottish cyclops run out on the job and was about to yell at him to come back, when he saw how happy Demo was as he patted Meatlug and fed him a rock. Engineer closed his mouth and smiled, happy to see his comrade so excited and decided to leave him to it. Besides, with Pyro, Soldier, Sniper, and Heavy working on getting resources they should have enough in a short amount of time. And then with them all working together to build the structure... well, they maybe able to do it in one day! Engineer grin grew wider at this thought and he joined his comrades and friends to help them grab resources as well. However, he had forgotten one person in his excitement to get the construction going and as he joined Soldier to cut some logs Heavy suddenly said, "Where is tiny Scout?"
The Bostonian mercenary in question was walking through the unknown forest and congratulating himself on such a brilliant escape. He had known that Engineer would have made him do something boring and hard to help build the structure. So as they had been exiting the dining hall and making their way down to the arena, Scout had quietly walked away from the group in a bored fashion before breaking into a run when he was sure they wouldn't spot him. He could have gone down to the beach, but he suspected he would be found easily by one of the dragon riders. So he decided to venture into the forest and find out what lurked there. Unlike most people, Scout was so cocky he could walk into an unknown and possibly dangerous forest without worry just because he had small black iron sword with him (The Three-Rune Sword).
As he walked, he spotted a few small dragons that he remembered Fishlegs calling Terrible Terrors. He didn't understand why they were called that. They were the length of his arm and looked no more dangerous than a hawk. Scout just scoffed when he saw them and continued on deeper into the forest.
He was just about getting bored and considering if he should head back, when a cliff wall loomed ahead. But more significantly was that at the foot of the cliff wall straight ahead of Scout was a small cave, the inside of which was too dark to see. Scout sped up a bit to see the first decently exciting thing he had come across since he had left the others and stopped in front of the cave entrance.
The cave was nothing special and was quite small. The inside was still very dark even when looking from just outside. But there really was nothing to it. Scout groaned a little. He turned around and was about to head back when he noticed the five creatures now in front of him.
They were all the same species of dragon. With a theropod-like structure, like a Raptors, with sail-like appendages on the head, back and legs. On their backs they have tiny wings that were completely useless, making these creatures flightless. They were quite long and slightly taller than Scout. They all sported a thin tail that ended in a red barbed stinger, like that of a stingrays, which Scout was almost positive was full of venom. Their skin was a plain greenish color except for the one in the center. This one was slightly larger than the other four and had red stripes and highlights on its face and back.
As Scout stood there, stunned at the sudden appearance of these creatures, the middle one, Scout assumed he was the leader, began to make a rasping sound from his mouth towards the others who responded in kind. It took a second for Scout to realize that they were communicating. He began to step to the side and see if could just step around them, but the creatures noticed and snapped their heads to look at Scout and growled threateningly, stopping the mercenary in his tracks.
Scout's cocky demeanor had vanished. He was getting more and more terrfied as the creatures contemplated him with thier red eyes, their long heads and mouths opening and closing as they communicated. Suddenly, the leader zipped towards Scout with incredible speed and stood in front of mercenary, fixating its red eyes on Scout's face. Scout stared at the creature, mouth a gape. It wasn't that he was crapping his pants in fright, but because of the speed the creature possessed. It was just as fast as him, if not faster... No! It can't be! He was the fastest!
As these thoughts began to travel through his self-centered brain, Scouts face hardened. His hand, which had been inching towards his Three-Rune Sword now came in front of his face with the other hand in a sign of surrender and he finally spoke, hoping that they could understand him.
"Woah, pally! Don't be so freakin aggressive! I ain't no bad guy. But I gotta say your speed is freakin impressive!"
This took the dragons (Scout was sure they were some sort of dragon) by surprise. They had fully understood Scout as all dragons can understand human speech somehow and had exchanged confused looks and few cries of confusion. The leader then turned back to Scout and stared intently at him and Scout took that as a sign to continue what he was saying.
"But i'm also really fast. Now I could leave here fighting or we could settle who ever is faster with a race. If you win, you can kill me or do whatever you want. If I win though..." Scout thought for a second. What could he ask of a dragon. Then he remembered the dragon riders and a crazy idea popped into his head and he grinned at the dragon and finished, "you have to be my dragons!"
Scout almost thought that the dragons would kill him on the spot. To his relief, they just turned back to each other and once again continued to communicate with each other (its basically how Velociraptors communicated in Jurassic Park, thats how these guys were communicating). They continued for a few minutes, talking to each other in a language that Scout could begin to understand since it was just rasping animal sounds to him. Just when he thought he was screwed, the leader turned back to him and did something that Scout could understand. It nodded.
Scout smiled widely and straightened up. "Alright pally's heres how this will be. You five can all race me at the same time, but there will be no fighting! This is a pure race. We are going to race to the arena at the place where the vikings are. You know the place?"
The dragons nodded and Scouts smile broadened and crouched down into a runners pose.
"Cool knuckleheads, are you ready to race them?"
The five dragons responded with their cries and lined up on each side of the mercenary and crouched as well. There was a few seconds of calm silence. Then Scout yelled, "GO!" and the race began.
The six competitors raced through the forest, jumping over branches and bushes at incredible speeds. The dragons were surprised to see the human they were racing jump high once and then somehow jump again in midair to even higher heights to get over a tall bush and land on the other side without losing any speed. However, this no real advantage and as they sped along, they were all completely neck and neck.
Scouts heart was pounding as poured all his speed into his feet while listening to the sounds of the dragons nimble webbed feet with claws at the end run across the forest floor at his speed. He looked ahead and concentrated and made his feet go even faster to the point where he was as fast as if he was using a Baby Face Blaster at full boost. This gained him a small temporary lead as the dragons were watched astonished as this human ran with them as if he was one of their own. They to began to push themselves and soon the race was level once more. What was more, they were already very close to the finish line and Scout knew this. Ahead the tress were getting farther apart and Scout could even see the plain where his fellow mercenaries were beginning to construct the base of their new house. He closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could, the dragons doing the same.
Engineer and the crew of builders were just finishing up placing the large base of tightly lashed together planks which were somehow very effectively done by Engineers Wrench (TF2 Logic! If hitting sentry's, dispensers, and teleporters with a wrench repairs and upgrades them, this ain't so far fetched). They were just admiring their work when Hiccup, Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut landed next to them. When they had noticed the disappearance of Scout, Engineer has asked Hiccup to go find Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut who were already in the sky at that time and look for Scout. He would have gathered the team and looked himself, but he knew that this would be quicker. Hiccup agreed without hesitation and took off on Toothless to find the others. It had been an hour since and they had come back with no luck. Engineer frowned and looked out on the horizon, worry consuming his heart. Fishlegs, Snotlout, and Demoman left the arena and joined the rest of the group, their looks reflecting the others. Not even a day has passed and something has gone wrong.
"Is this usual for him to run off?" asked Fishlegs tentatively. The mercenaries exchanged looks. It was hard to really run off in a battlefield that wasn't that large. And though Scout was fast and used his speed to get out of sticky situations, it did not exactly mean he would abandon his team. Demoman was about to answer when they all heard something coming from the forest and turned their heads towards the edge of the forest. The sounds of multiple things rustling through the trees at incredible speed. The dragon riders and mercenaries lowered into defensive stances as the rustiling came closer.
Suddenly, six blurs ran out of the forest at unbelievable speeds and blew past the group who were completely taken aback by the sight and had almost not processed what had happened. They all turned to see where the things were running to and they saw them go straight towards the arena. Just before they began to run after them, one figure got a little ahead of the others and came to a stuttering halt at the center of the arena with the other figures stopping next to him a half a second later.
The dragon riders and mercenaries ran towards the arena and were astonished at what they saw. Scout and five raptor like dragons were standing there panting. Before anyone could say or ask anything, Scout smiled broadly and gasped, "I-i... won."
The five other dragons croaked feebly as they gathered their strength back. The leader straightened up a little and stared Scout in the eyes. Then five other dragons surrounded the group with their riders and were followed up quickly by the eight other mercenaries, all armed with a certain weapon.
"Leave Scout alone Speed Stingers!" Hiccup called out as Toothless growled at the dragons. The Speed Stingers formed a tight circle and hissed at the intruders. The other mercenaries began to advance menacingly and a fight was about to break out when Scout finally was able to make his voice heard.
"Wait, stop!"
Everyone turned to him shocked. He finally straightened up and said to everyone, "they aren't trying to kill me. I ran into them while walking through the forest and was amazed by their speed. I challenged them to a race and they accepted. And if I won they would be my dragons." He finished rather proudly and turned to the five Speed Stingers. The leader stepped toward Scout and after a moment bowed its head towards the mercenary, the other four following suit.
"H-How?!"
Scout, the Speed Stingers and the other mercenaries all looked up to see Snotlouts face agape in astonishment. He wasn't the only one though. All the other dragon riders were also in a state of shock at the scene they had just witnessed.
"Whats the matter chucklehead?" Scout asked. Snotlout spluttered for a second but couldn't seem to make the words form. Hiccup took up the reins and said, "Speed Stingers were thought to be completely untrainable."
The mercenaries also took up expressions of surprise and stared at the dragons who were not circling around Scout in a non-threatening manner. It was more of how a dog or cat walks around a new owner. Scouts surprised face was quickly replaced by his signature smirk and said smugly, "Well it seems that they can, though I haven't really trained them."
Fishlegs then cleared his throat and said, "Then you need to join me and Demo's classes. If you are going to be the owner of these dragons then you need to know what to do. Especially with these dragons."
Scout was about to groan but then looked at the Speed Stingers who were around him and realized how cool this could be. Five fast followers with him...
He looked up at Fishlegs and smiled and gave him a thumbs saying, "Alright I'm fine with that."
Engineer then stepped up and called to everyone, "Alright fellas, with that settled we need to get back to the task at hand. I want this house finished before nightfall."
The other mercenaries murmured in agreement but Hiccup stopped for one last thing. He turned to Scout and said, "You need to name them."
Scout was taken aback by this, but quickly recovered and looked over his new dragons. They looked back at him with their red eyes and just staring back at them, five names came to mind. He pointed at one regular one and said, "Charlie." He pointed to another one and said, "Echo." He pointed to another and said, "Delta." He pointed to another and said, "Blue." He finally pointed at the leader and said, "Red."
There was a short silence as everyone contemplated the new names. Then Snotlout drawled, "those are really stupid names."
Scout just scowled at him and headed inside with Fishlegs, the Speed Stingers and Demoman following behind him. As for the rest of the group, the returned to building the structure, but this time Engineer accepted the help of the other dragon riders when Medic and Spy pointed out that this could not be done over night without the help of the dragons. This proved very true as the dragons were able to being resources twice as fast and even speed up the construction as well.
In just under three hours, the two story house was complete. The first floor contained a living area, kitchen, bathroom and four bedrooms for Scout, Soldier, Heavy and Engineer. The second floor had two bathrooms and five bedrooms for Demoman, Pyro, Medic, Sniper and Spy. The construction had been done so quickly that they even had time to paint the outside red and build a small side room on the side for the Speed Stingers that was attached to Scouts room on the first floor. The other mercenaries thought it would make Scout happy and at least shut him up for a bit and the dragon riders thought it was a good idea to keep the Speed Stingers happy. As Fishlegs was telling Scout and Demoman, Hiccup told the others of the Speed Stingers strange venom that paralyzes victims in just one sting, though it wears off after a while.
"Interesting..." Medic whispered sinisterly as he wondered about the contents of such a poison, but the other mercenaries glared at him and he huffed into silence. There was no way they were taking a chance of Medic doing experiments on dragons.
As night fell, Scout and Demoman rejoined their fellow mercenaries after a long lesson on Speed Stingers. Surprisingly, Scout hadn't minded the learning experience so much and was even more happy to see the side room built for his new dragons. As the dragon riders and mercenaries separated for the night Scout went to his new room and showed the Speed Stingers their new room as well. It was just a small square area with a few logs here and there and five round stone plates as beds (Dragons prefer stonebeds). But the Speed Stingers seemed to adore it and ran around for a bit before they tired out and each went to a stone slab. Scout followed suit and climbed into bed. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was each Speed Stinger carving their respective name on their slab before climbing on and curling up to sleep.