"Wait up! We don't have four legs that allow us to run at superhuman speed!" shouted Ruffnut as the dhole sprinted far ahead of her and Tuffnut.
"Technically, sis, humans have four legs if you count our arms! But we've become so accustomed to two legs, we don't need to gallop like most animals!"
The Twins boosted their running speed when the mammoth behind them roared with fury and smashed most trees that got in his way.
"Our pachyderm pursuer here is big, plump, and doesn't gallop, yet he still hasn't lost a pace!" Ruffnut countered with a frustrated voice.
"Sometimes size doesn't matter in the animal kingdom!"
Two male mooses that were locking antlers in front of a female released their grip when the wrath of a raging mammoth thundered into their ears and all three dashed away to avoid an unpleasant death. The dhole continued to lead the Twins on their race through the lands of Oros, forcing any animal on their path to flee or fly for their lives, except for a female badger that remained in her spot even after the mammoth came into her view.
"Little badger! Run if you don't want to get squished!" Tuffnut exclaimed whilst waving his arms at the smaller creature. The badger was adamant in standing her ground even after the Twins ran by her. As the mammoth continued to charge, the badger let out a series of rasping growls and guttural grunts that made the gigantic beast stop in his tracks. When he focused his sight on the small black, white, and grey mammal, the mammoth reared on his hind legs with a high-pitched trumpet before turning around and ran back to where he came from. The badger snorted with confidence, which earned her the Twins' jaw-dropping incredulity and the dhole's whimpering head-tilt.
An idea then crept into Ruffnut's mind as she intuitively grabbed a piece of meat from her bag before kneeling. Its scent glided into the badger's nose and turned to the Twins behind her.
"Badgers can be quite headstrong and picky, sis."
Ruffnut shushed her brother as the badger sauntered closer and saw the meat on the female human's right hand. No signs of fear came from Ruffnut's tranquil pose. She simply allowed the badger to come forth to sniff and investigate. A tickling yet warm sensation manifested when the badger's nose twitched against her fingers. A breath of relief gusted from Ruffnut when the badger held her hand with her paws so she could feed on it comfortably. After she was finished, the badger immediately nuzzled her head with Ruffnut's palms to show that both of them have initiated a bond.
"Aren't you a ferocious cuddle monster?" cooed Ruffnut. "That mammoth sure knows to not mess with you? Am I right?"
"I thought badgers are tough and fearsome beasts," Tuffnut argued. "You don't look too vicious to me."
When the badger noticed Tuffnut's approaching hand, her instant reaction was clamping her jaws on it. Tuffnut yelled in pain as he jumped up and down, struggling to strip the dangling badger from his wrist.
"Ow! Ow! That hurts! That seriously hurts!"
Finally, the badger loosened her grip as Tuffnut grasped her in the nape. He was exasperated when she vocalized something akin to a human cackle before casting her to the ground. Tuffnut held onto the bite-mark while Ruffnut giggled and the badger began a friendly wrestling match with the dhole.
The terrain became softer and somewhat slicker as the Twins and their animal companions treaded east. Sometimes they had to cover their eyes from the sun that was still ascending on the horizon. Flies and mosquitos also became more frequent since they were entering a more humid region of Oros. Red cedars and alder trees were replaced with maples and temperate hills gave way to flat swamps. Tuffnut noticed a sack of supplies hanging on top of a tree and the dhole went to retrieve it after it was shot down. The sack gave the Twins special purple leaves, leopard skin, dhole skin, bones, and the arrow that Tuffnut launched.
As noon approached, the quartet could see a massive waterfall rumbling in the distance, but they also heard muffled words coming to their ears.
"Is it just me or is someone else talking inside my head?" asked Tuffnut.
"Are you sure it's not our conscience, bro?" Ruffnut questioned back. "It sometimes likes to tell us riddles to mess with our minds."
"No way. My conscience always tells me everything loud and clear."
"What's it saying now?"
"I currently can't hear it because of this new voice."
The Twins decided to focus their hearing by ignoring the noises nature was giving and isolated the strange voice somewhere beneath the ground. Curious, they looked east and saw a clearing ahead of them. Upon reaching their destination, they turned back and saw a leopard skin draped as a clothed door to a cave. Tuffnut and Ruffnut looked at each other before they slowly entered the cave. The dhole and the badger remained outside to act as sentries.
In the cave, they found a hefty, bearded, and barely-clothed Wenja with a headband made of leopard skin facing a stone wall adjacent to a campfire with a starling in his right hand. He proceeded to spin the twittering starling around and threw it straight to the wall, killing the helpless bird as it slumped to the floor. The Twins cringed at the sight with the Wenja grumbling in disappointment. He then reached into a basket and grabbed another starling to repeat the same action.
"Hello?" Tuffnut's question halted the Wenja with surprise and made him turn to the starling in his hand.
"Bird speaks?" he asked before crouching. "Tell Urki how to fly."
The starling merely chirped as Tuffnut and Ruffnut exchanged shrugs.
"Please tell Urki how to fly."
With a slow yet awkward pace, Tuffnut slowly advanced to Urki and reached his hand out.
"Hello?"
Tuffnut placed his hand on Urki's shoulder, which prompted Urki to jump with shock and released the starling to fly away from the cave. Urki waddled after the bird without leaving the cave.
"Fly away, little bird," he said. "Fly away."
Urki then turned to the Twins who were equally jumbled at the sight.
"What was that all about?" asked Ruffnut.
"Urki wants to fly like a bird real bad," was Urki's response. Tuffnut then noticed a feather wedged on the Wenja's beard and decided to pull it away.
"Yeah, you'll probably need feathers to do that," Tuffnut explained as he presented the feather to Urki. Within seconds, Urki's eyes twinkled with wonder and grabbed the feather to fiddle it in his hands.
"Of course," he whispered. "I have no darn feathers!"
"Nope, you don't have any at all," added Ruffnut. Urki then laughed and started to pat both siblings with excitement.
"You two are very smart! Smart Wenja!"
"Look at that, bro. One of the few people who appreciate our insight."
Tuffnut chuckled alongside his sister as Urki circled the cave, flapping his arms as if they were bird wings. When he finished, he set his sight on the Twins.
"Both of you! Find more feathers for Urki so that Urki can fly! So that Urki can fly!"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut blinked in confusion as Urki ushered them to the exit with glee and excitement. When they were just about to leave, they saw Urki pretending to fly with delighted howls and cheers. Ruffnut circled a finger near her head, only for Tuffnut to hush her and leave the cave with him.
Two ravens circled above a dead deer near the pool of the great waterfall with caws of hunger and enthusiasm. Before they landed, two arrows pierced straight through one of them and the surviving raven flew off to safety.
"That was my kill, Ruff."
"Dream on, Tuff. I ended its suffering."
Tuffnut rolled her eyes as the dhole went in to retrieve the dead raven to his friends. The twins plucked the feathers when they heard quacking sounds up above. With the shade of the trees, they noticed a flock of mallards soaring around in an attempt to find the appropriate landing.
"That one's mine too," Ruffnut declared as she nocked an arrow and fired it to the sky. One mallard was hit and plummeted into the pool with a trail of feathers and blood. She then sprinted towards the floating body, hopping over a recoiling tortoise, and leaped with a splash. The lifeless duck was nearing Ruffnut when she heard an arrow whizzing near her. She turned back and saw something with fins and scales sinking into the murky water. With her right hand clutching on the duck, Ruffnut dove down and saw a bleeding yet dead bitefish with an arrow on its head. She grabbed it with her left hand before surfacing to breathe and swam to the shore with Tuffnut standing in front of her with his bow.
"You should be thankful that I killed that bitefish that was about to, well, bite you," proclaimed Tuffnut as Ruffnut smacked water out from her left ear. When she was finished, she gave him a brief hug
"It's almost always nice to have you as a brother," was her confession before skinning the bitefish and plucking the duck's feathers alongside Tuffnut.
The Twins and their animals strolled towards the direction of the waterfall when a leopard pounced from the taller grass and growled at the pair. The dhole and the badger responded with growls of their own and sent the leopard fleeing to the deep forest.
"Keep running if you know what's good for you!" exclaimed Ruffnut.
"Smart Wenja! Up here!"
Both Tuffnut and Ruffnut heard Urki's unmistakable voice as they turned around to see him waving near the edge of a wooden platform located high on the ledge of a cliff adjacent to the waterfall. The Twins' eyes widened with anxiety and understanding before they looked down and noticed a heap of compiled dried grass that would act as a cushion for the worst-case scenario.
"Maybe we should get Hiccup or Fishlegs for this," Tuffnut suggested.
"We've come this far so it's too late for either of them," argued Ruffnut. "But then again, this should be entertaining. We'll see if Urki passes with flying colors."
Tuffnut could not help but smirk at his sister's mischievous suggestion and decided to follow along with the plan.
A flock of doves watched with inquisitive coos as Urki stretched his legs and arms for his upcoming flight near the wooden platform. He had placed an empty shell of a tortoise over his head that would act as protection. When his feet were warmed up, he turned to his right and beamed with joy when Tuffnut and Ruffnut arrived with him dozens of plucked feathers in their hands.
"Thank you! Thank you, Smart Wenja! Thank you!" Urki proclaimed as he grabbed the feathers. "These will make Urki fly! Now go, go down there and watch Urki fly! The first Wenja to fly!"
Tuffnut and Ruffnut shrugged at one another before heading down to spectate the inevitable.
The Twins, the dhole, and the badger sat not far from the grass heap, waiting for Urki to see how Urki's 'flight' would go. Within a minute, Urki leaped from the wooden platform holding the feathers and began to scream with panic as he plummeted straight to the grass heap with a soft thud. Tuffnut and Ruffnut clapped with positive sarcasm whilst the dhole and the badger tilted their head sideways with puzzlement. They then walked towards the grass heap to lift the moaning Urki on their shoulders.
"But feathers… should have… made Urki… fly…" moaned Urki with a dazed voice.
"At least your head is fine," was Ruffnut's reply before she conked the tortoise shell with her fist. "We gave praise for your, unusual methods."
"We're birds of a feather, Urki," Tuffnut said. "But for now, let's get you back to the Wenja village. We don't want to keep Chief Hiccup waiting."
With the mid-day sun shining the way, the five companions head west whilst listening to Urki's constant flabbergasting throughout their trek.
