Chapter 4

"Mom! Are you hurt? What happened out there?" Hiccup asks.

"I don't know how, but Grimmel is tracking us."

"Gaaah! This is all because of the Hobgobblers!" Gobber remarks.

"He has a hundred ships, maybe more. With enough cages for all our dragons."

"If Grimmel is leading them here, we have to take him out of the mix."

"Uh…and how do we do that?" Tuffnut asks.

"By going there to capture him."

"Capture him?" Gobber asks.

"I'm with him! Who else?!" Tuffnut asks, jumping up.

And so, the gang prepares to go to Grimmel's base. With one person being left behind.

"Eret, I'm a part of this team. I'm going." Becky says in her purple and blue armor, her arms folded.

"I'm telling you, you're staying here."

"What, so Hiccup made this armor for me for nothing?!"

"No, not for nothing, but, my love..."

"Becky, I'm with Eret on this one. That baby is way too close to being due for you to be anywhere near battle. I'm sorry.

"I promise we'll be careful, darling." I kiss my wife's forehead.

"Alright. I'll stay here." Becky says, her mother approaching to keep her company.

"Good. We'll be back. Hopefully with Grimmel in chains."

~.~

We reach the base, but Grimmel spots us and sends his Deathgrippers after us.

"Okay. Split up, we'll be harder to catch." Snotlout says.

"I was thinking we should split up…just because." I say.

"I like your instincts." Valka tells me. We walk off individually and split up.

"What is this?!" Snotlout asks.

~.~

"Where's your dragon when you need him? Hmm, Chief? Must have forgotten all about you. First rule of the hunt: Separate the prey from its pack. You've just removed yourselves from the equation." Grimmel says.

"Why are you doing this?" Hiccup asks.

"Really? I didn't think you cared. Well, unlike you, when I was a boy and I came upon a Night Fury, I killed it where it slept! That simple act of courage made me a hero in my village. So, I decided to kill every last one, bringing real peace to the people of this world. Until you came along preaching that dragons are something other than thieves and murderers. Psssh. That nonsense dies now. Starting with you."

"But you have dragons of your own."

Grimmel laughs.

"These? They're dragon killers. Drugged into obedience with their own venom. Not even your precious Alpha could control them. They serve me."

Grimmel pushes a drug into the Deathgripper next to him.

"And only me. Allow me to demonstrate."

Grimmel whistles.

"Take cover!" A Deathgripper shoots acid, and Astrid tells us to split up, so we do, running. We dodge the acid as Valka calls for help.

We escape, not noticing we've left a very important member of our team behind.

~.~

We arrive back on New Berk.

"Thor Almighty. Guess we won't be needing this then, huh?" Gobber asks, pointing at a wooden structure.

"I led us right into his trap."

"Yeah, nice work, Chief. Right, Ruff?" Tuffnut asks.

It's then we realize that Ruffnut is not standing next to Tuffnut. Becky is going to be pissed.

"Wait…" Hiccup says.

"Uh…" Tuff's eyes widen at the sudden realization.

"Where is Ruffnut?" Hiccup asks.

"We—we left her behind!"

"WHAT?!"

Oh, no.

We flinch and turn to see my wife walking towards us, fuming.

"Sis, I can explain…" Tuffnut starts. Becky smacks him upside the head.

"What was that for?"

"For forgetting our sister! My labor coach?"

"Ooooh. Right. It was foolish of me to forget her. I'm sorry."

~.~

"Everybody, stay put! We will get Ruffnut back! Don't worry!"

"Pfft. Worry? If they're stuck with Ruffnut, I'm more worried about them." Tuffnut says, chuckling. Becky and I glare at him.

~.~

(Normal POV)

Ruffnut is in a prison cell, relaxed.

"Why the long face? I mean, mine's long, but yours is really long. All face and no brain. Like you got stretched at birth. Do you have a twin, too? Tuffnut took up all the room in Mom's belly. Otherwise, I'd have a rounder head and more brains, that's science."

Grimmel starts getting annoyed at her but keeps working on what he's doing. Ruffnut sits down.

"My braids are like little Zipplebacks, see…" Ruffnut starts playing with her braids.

"Rawr-rawr. Yeaaah. Even the mold spots look like eyes. So cute. They even have little horns and everything just like Barf and Belch. Except me and Barf can't stand Belch so they're really just Barfs. It's warm in here." Ruff stands and walks to the cage door.

"I know what you're thinking. You've never had a prisoner this hot."

She sits down again, and Grimmel looks more annoyed.

"All the boys love me. Except Eret, who totally lost his chance, even though he's with my sister."

"Your sister?" Grimmel asks, curious.

"My adoptive sister. She tried to kill herself so we took her in. She used to be with Hiccup, but then Astrid tried to kill her, can you believe that? Now she and Eret are expecting their first kid, so I'm excited to be an aunt."

"Interesting." Grimmel says.

"Anyway, that ship has sailed, boys, sorry. And Hiccup is practically married to that round head, Astrid. But Snotlout and Fishlegs, they're basically in my hand." Ruffnut is now swinging upside down.

"How far along is she?"

"What?"

"Your sister? How far along is she in her pregnancy?"

"Seven months. Last successful pregnancy she had, the father murdered the baby after he was born. It was Drago, just so you know. We can't say that name in front of her or she'll have a panic attack, which sucks for her, but it's also kind of annoying. Don't tell her I said that."

"Last successful pregnancy?"

"She, uh...had a miscarriage last year. It broke her more than Drago ever did. Anyway, I just can't choose, you know. Snotlout's a beefcake but almost too pretty, you know? Sometimes I think he's more in love with himself than me. There's only room for one beauty in this relationship. Fishlegs would keep me alive longer if I had to eat one of them. Stranded on a glacier somewhere. But he never shuts up about dragons. Do you hate it when people never stop talking?"

(Btw, props to Kristen Wiig for recording all this lengthy dialogue!)

"Yyyeeessss, I dooo."

"Bleh, bleh, bleh. It's sooo boring."

"Can't we just feed her to your dragons?"

"What do you have to eat around here? I'm allergic to fish, you should know that. That's all they have in that stupid new island."

Grimmel suddenly looks alert.

"Do you have any clams? They're like little mouths with slimy food inside that's already chewed like the way Mom used to do it."

"Enough!"

"Until I turned twelve and she was like…'Chew your own food!' and I was like, 'No, I don't like it!'"

Grimmel opens up Ruffnut's cage door.

"Most annoying creature to ever cross my path!"

"Awww…"

Ruffnut starts poking Grimmel's face with her Zippleback braids.

"Oops, you let the dragons out. Gonna get ya. Gonna get ya. No, this one's gonna get ya."

Grimmel blocks his face with his hand, then opens the Scuttleclaw's cage and throws Ruffnut's helmet at her.

"Take him and go, please! I beg you! The Deathgrippers will have to forego dinner."

"Ewww. You feed your dragons…dragons?"

"Go!"

"Where's your bathroom? I gotta…"

Grimmel looks at Ruffnut, angrily.

"Okay! Gods! No wonder you have gray hair."

Ruffnut puts her helmet on and gets on the Scuttleclaw.

"Stress is not good for you. So long, losers!"

~.~

(Eret's POV)

"Woohoo! Yeah!" Ruffnut exclaims, appearing on the Scuttleclaw.

She gets off of it. Thank the gods she's alright.

"Ruffnut?" Becky asks.

"Miss me?"

"How did you escape?" Astrid asks.

"I annoyed them til they let me go."

"Wai-wait…Grimmel LET you go?" Hiccup asks.

"So dumb. They couldn't handle me. See, everyone thinks Tuffnut's more annoying but – "

"But hold on." Astrid starts.

"Ruffnut! Focus. Were you followed?"

"I never look back, Hiccup."

"Eret, get Becky out of here. Now. If there's even a chance she'll get hit with that venom…"

"Say no more, Chief. Come on, love. Let's get you and the baby somewhere safe." Becky nods and I lead her back to the village.

After leaving Becky with her parents, I head back to the group.

"No!" Hiccup exclaims. Grimmel has knocked Toothless unconscious with the Deathgripper venom.

"Now our little game must come to an end."

Our dragons fly towards Grimmel's airship to protect their alpha.

"Call them off, Alpha! No reason for her to die, too!" Grimmel says, mounting onto his harpoon and aiming it at the Light Fury.

Toothless calls the dragons off, and they stop flying as the rest of the riders arrive at the scene.

"What are they doing? They could totally take him!" Snotlout asks.

"Not with her life on the line." Hiccup says.

Toothless roars at Grimmel's Deathgrippers and tries to make them fly away, too, but they threaten Toothless instead.

"Save your breath! The only alpha they respond to is me!"

Toothless gives up and looks at Hiccup.

"Awww, don't feel too badly. You tried your best! But, you are nothing without your dragon."

Grimmel whistles, causing his Deathgrippers to fly to the other dragons and prevent them from flying past them. Grimmel flies away and Toothless urges the other dragons to follow him anyway. They follow and Hiccup runs to the edge of the cliff.

"Toothless!" Hiccup calls. He stops running and watches as the dragons fly away; he then starts pacing.

"Oh, that is just…ugh, great! Now what?" Tuffnut asks.

"I think it's time for number two to become number one." Snotlout says, pushing my arm.

What is this guy's problem?

"Go. He'll listen to you." Valka tells Astrid.

She walks off and we can just hear their conversation.

"Don't say it." Hiccup starts.

"I wasn't going to." Astrid says, putting up both her hands.

"I shouldn't have dragged you out there. He wouldn't have flown me back. She wouldn't have followed."

"Yep."

"Aah! I feel like the same screw up I was before I met Toothless."

"I can see that."

Hiccup stops pacing and looks at her.

"Are you just gonna stand there and agree with everything?"

"Well, you're right. You're back to where you started. But I was the first to believe in you. And I have watched you doubt whether you're worthy ever since. But you know what? I am the person I am today because of you. I never told you that, but it's true. You are the bravest, most stubborn, most determined…knucklehead I know. Toothless didn't give you that, Hiccup. He just made it –"

"Easier."

"And now it's gonna be a lot harder. So…what are you gonna do about it?"

"Eh…probably something stupid."

"That's the Hiccup I know."

Hiccup kisses Astrid on the cheek and walks towards us.

"Suit up, gang! We're gonna get them back."

"What?" Fishlegs asks.

"He's lost his mind." Ruffnut says.

"Now that's marriage material. At last, faithful pupil, you are ready." Tuffnut and Hiccup nod at each other.

"How come I didn't get this kind of teaching?" I ask Tuffnut.

"Because you and Becky were already technically married before we met. Besides, even if you weren't, there was nothing for me to teach. You guys were made for each other, even though you both still have a lot to learn about each other."

"Thank you, Tuffnut."

"You're welcome."

"Umm. How are we gonna get our dragons back…without dragons?" Fishlegs asks.

"Trust me." Hiccup says.

~.~

"So…jump off the cliff…in these. That's the best you've got?" Ruffnut asks as she expands her dragon flight suit.

"No. You guys are the best I've got." Hiccup says.

"Aww. I'm with him, who else?" Ruffnut asks.

"Ruffnut…that was my line." Tuffnut says.

"Be safe, guys. I don't want anymore of you losing limbs! Or your lives!" Becky calls as she sees her siblings and friends off. She winks at Hiccup. He winks back at her.

"Let's go!" Hiccup exclaims. He and Astrid run to the edge of the cliff.

"Try to keep up!"

They both jump off of the cliff and expand their dragon flight suits, flying to the Dragon Trapper ships, the rest of the gang - sans me, Valka, Gobber and obviously Becky - following them.