(A/N: I hope everyone had a great and fun Thanksgiving with friends and family and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this chapter. In case you forgot, this chapter is based off of the episode "Gone Gustav Gone". My hope is that this comes out better than the last one (even if I don't particularly like Gustav's character) because I didn't enjoy writing it very much and I just don't like what I believe the last chapter's episode stands for.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, I'm going to wrap this up so you guys can get to reading. As I said, I hope that you guys enjoy reading this chapter and I'm praying that this turns out better than the last.)
X-X-X~V-o-Y-o-V~X-X-X
It has been a couple of weeks since Fishlegs was turned into Thor Bonecrusher after believing his allergies were caused by Meatlug. The riders have returned back to Dragon's Edge since then and resumed researching the Dragon Eye and searching for Dagur and the other escaped Berserkers.
The first week passed relatively slowly at first, until Fireworms suddenly made an appearance on their island. It was only a few dozen in the beginning, but then the numbers of the small glowing dragons grew exponentially to hundreds, with only more coming shortly.
The arrival of so many Fireworms at once could be a disaster to everything they built and they immediately got to work on stocking up on water. It was while this was happening that the twins made a discovery that quickly became a nightmare for everyone else. They discovered that their great-uncle had discovered the island before they did, which meant the island rightfully belonged to the Thorston family, and therefore the twins.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut immediately got to work on making Dragon's Edge into a new "empire" they named Thorstonton, acting like utter tyrants to their friends. They began to impose laws on them that served no purpose other than to annoy them. Those laws were completely tedious and ridiculous, with the threat of a prison sentence in the stables as the mandatory punishment.
One by one, they all broke one law or another and got themselves locked up. By this time, the Fireworms had arrived and began setting fires all over Dragon's Edge. When the twins came into the stables to ask for help, they all refused. They finally agreed to help when it was decided that ownership of the island would be divided equally amongst all eight of them.
They tried to fight off the Fireworms and chase them off their base to stop the fires, but it was fruitless, it was thousands of fiery dragons against only six larger ones. Fortunately, they were not the only small dragons on the island. Smidvarg and his flock of Night Terrors flocked into the formation of a large Fireworm and chased them away. Most likely the Fireworms believed the Night Terrors were their Queen and flew away in the belief that they had upset her.
With the crisis dealt with before it could become too serious, they spent the next week fixing the singed areas of the base. They had just finished fixing the base after Skullcrusher repeatedly attacked it not long before the Fireworms arrived and they were fixing it again, Ladok wondered if this would become something as routine as riding dragons.
When the reconstruction was finished, Hiccup decided to take some time to study the Dragon Eye. His brother and dragon were with, and while Ladok was very interested in learning about whatever this artifact could teach them, Toothless was less than enthusiastic.
"Okay, give me a slow burn, bud," Hiccup requested from his dragon.
Toothless opened his mouth wide and it glowed purple with his plasma. The light passed through the Dragon Eye and illuminated a projection onto the wall.
Every time this happened, Ladok was in awe of what this little artifact could do. He was always eager to see the new projections it produced for them to study.
The image it showed this time was one he thought looked familiar to him and he asked Hiccup about it, "Isn't this something we've seen before?"
"Yep," he responded. He bent his knees slightly to better view the base of the Dragon Eye where the light travelled through. "What happens if I push…" he pressed on one of the mechanisms that surrounded the purple gem lens.
When he did it showed an image of a Dragon Class symbol. The Class it was showing them was the Strike Class, which happened to be the same Dragon Class Toothless belonged to.
Ladok smiled, "Cool, it's showing us Dragon Classes."
"Yeah. What do you say we check out the Night Fury, bud?" Hiccup asked Toothless. The dragon merely groaned and curled up on the floor, closing his eyes. "Try to contain your excitement, would you?" Toothless raised his head to chuckle sarcastically at him before groaning again. Ladok still smiled and shook his head slightly with his fingers on his forehead.
Hiccup began to play with the gems and mechanisms, "Now, Monstrous Nightmare gem plus Night Fury equals…" the projection suddenly died out, "...nothing! Okay."
He picked up the Dragon Eye and directed it at the tip-up door of his hut. That was when the door suddenly flew open and showed Astrid at the entrance.
"Oh! Astrid class!" he chuckled.
"What's up?" Ladok asked her.
"Guys, we have a problem, a huge problem," she stated.
"Dagur?" Hiccup questioned, his eyes wide with fear of the possibility.
Ladok was yet to see Dagur, but from what he heard he was an insane, obnoxious man who wasn't afraid to stand up against any dragon, including the legendary Red Death, if it meant he could wear its skull as a helmet. He also had a weird habit of calling Hiccup "brother", which made his cold blood boil; Hiccup was his brother, not Dagur's.
"Worse," she responded.
"What could possibly be worse than Dagur?" he rhetorically asked.
That question was answered when a purple Monstrous Nightmare suddenly made a sloppy landing on his deck, accidentally landing on top of Astrid. On that Monstrous Nightmare was a short teenager that looked like a mirrored reflection of Snotlout, Gustav.
"Gustav!" the boy proudly declared.
"Gustav?!" he exclaimed.
"Gustav," she grumbled.
'Astrid may be right about this one,' Ladok mentally commented.
Gustav wasn't just a smaller version of Snotlout, he was clumsier too. Although he had only seen Gustav and never interacted with him, Ladok knew he was an even worse headache than Snotlout and the twins combined. He might be a little biased, however, in that belief, he never had to take care of children.
Hiccup handed the Dragon Eye over to Ladok, who hid it behind his back. "Gustav, what are you doing here? I… I mean, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?"
Gustav's dragon, Fanghook, went over to Toothless and smacked him in the head with his tail. Toothless growled, but that did not deter the Monstrous Nightmare from climbing onto his back.
Snotlout then came into the hut, "Hiccup, did you hear Gustav is…" he saw him standing there already, "...standing right beside you. Perfect."
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and Helene came into Hiccup's hut and saw Gustav in there with him and Ladok. While everyone was focused on Gustav, Helene was more focused on Fanghook.
Four years ago, she went undercover on Outcast Island as Heather in order to regain the book of dragons. That was the first time she met Alvin - who later turned out to be her father, but she didn't know this at the time - and he forced her to train a dragon, that dragon was Fanghook. He saved her life and the life of her Smothering Smokebreath, Smog.
She didn't see him again for over a year, and by that time he was being trained - rather poorly - by Gustav. She heard from her friends a few months before that day about Gustav's attempt to become a Dragon Rider, she was recovering from her illness at the time and never saw anything.
She saw how Toothless was miserable underneath Fanghook and decided to help him, "Fanghook! Come here, it's me!"
Fanghook immediately got off of Toothless, much to his relief, and went up to her. He nudged her with his face and raised his chin slightly, pleading for her to scratch it, which she did.
Meanwhile, Tuffnut and Ruffnut were talking with Gustav. "You're looking a little different there, Guster," he commented.
"Yeah, I'm growing a beard," he pointed at his chin. The 'beard' he was referring to was nothing more than a small tuft of a few stubbles; a hairless feline would laugh at him.
"Really? Let me see." He laughed when he saw how little he had, "Ha! Even Ruff has more hair on her chinny-chin-chin than that!" He plucked the hair from his chin, causing him to wince.
"Ow!" He held the spot on his chin where the hair was pulled out.
Ladok could not stop himself from cracking a smile at the sight. The twins were a headache, but even he had to find what they were doing to Gustav amusing.
His smile faded and was replaced with a closed mouth grimace when he noticed him looking at the Dragon Eye. He didn't not trust Gustav - or children in general - to handle it without breaking it.
"Hey, what's that thing?" he asked as he reached for the Dragon Eye.
He held it away from him, out of his reach, "Not for you."
"Aah, c'mon," he whined nonchalantly. "Can't I just take a look at it?"
"No," he immediately denied. He used the base of the Dragon Eye to hit him on the head, causing his helmet to close the gap between the inside of it and his scalp.
The inner brim of the helmet was over his eyes and he struggled to lift it. Ladok calmly walked around him to set the Dragon Eye on Hiccup's desk.
"That's the Dragon Eye, Gustav," Fishlegs explained. "It's very old and very fragile. It isn't something to just be touched."
Gustav was still trying to get his helmet off his eyes. He was stumbling all over Hiccup's hut and walked into the wall where all of Toothless' tail fins were, a couple of them fell to the floor. Toothless growled seeing him so reckless with his prosthetic tails.
"Gustav, Gustav, over here." Snotlout held him off the ground by one of the horns on his helmet, finally freeing him and dropping him to the floor. He put the helmet back on his head as he stood up, "So, when are you leaving?"
He adjusted his helmet and smirked as he responded, "Oh, that's funny, Snotlout, but I'm not leaving. I'm moving here." Snotlout gasped and everyone else had wide eyes at this declaration.
Tuffnut started laughing, "Yeah, yeah, you are." He playfully punched Ruffnut's arm. "Imagine… he would never…" He stopped when realized no one else was laughing, "Wait, he's serious?" He grumbled as he and his sister began to walk out of the hut, "I'll get the stake and the firewood."
'Can I light it?' Ladok thought, the corners of his mouth curling upwards.
Hiccup immediately stopped them from leaving and actually going through with their plan, "Oh, hold on, hold on! No one is burning anyone at the stake."
"Hiccup's right. Let's just throw him off the cliff," Ruffnut told her twin.
"Guys, I'm sure there's a simple explanation," Hiccup claimed. "Please tell me there's a simple explanation, Gustav."
"Yeah, very simple," he said. "You said when I was ready, I could join the Dragon Riders. Well, I'm ready and here to join. Where's my hut?"
"Uh…" he looked around his hut at everyone, but they were all upset with him, even his own brother and dragon. Helene had once confided in him that she was concerned about his "people-pleasing nature" - as she called it - and now he saw exactly what she was talking about. "Can we talk about this outside? It's, uh," he pulled on the collar of his tunic, "it's a little crowded in here."
Everyone went outside, but only Hiccup, Astrid, and Ladok stayed. Gustav wanted to stay to be involved with their conversation, but he quickly grew bored and left with Fanghook after they began talking professionally about their duties as Dragon Riders to divert him.
"Astrid, I'm gonna need you to look after him," Hiccup told her. "You see, I-"
"Wait a minute, why do I have to watch him?" she retorted.
"Well, I would do it, but I'm making some, just…" he struggled to get the words out of his mouth.
"Major breakthroughs with the Dragon Eye," Ladok finished for him.
He nodded nervously, "What he said."
She didn't think they were giving her a good reason why either one of them couldn't look after him themselves, "So?"
"Well, I did promise him that when the time was right I would train him to be a Dragon Rider," he admitted. "But I didn't think that said time would be today."
Ladok shook his head, 'Of course you did.'
"What am I supposed to do with him in the meantime?" she questioned.
"I- I don't know, just keep him occupied," he answered.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Great, so now I'm a babysitter."
He laughed nervously, "Babysitter! No. I mean, come on, he's- he's sixteen. How much trouble could he possibly be?"
Suddenly, they all heard the familiar frightened shrieks and chirps of the Night Terrors. The albino Night Terror, Smidvarg, landed on Hiccup's deck, looking very exhausted.
"Smidvarg!" Hiccup gasped.
Ladok picked up the tired white dragon and held him in his arms, "What happened to you?"
In the air, in front of the hut, was the rest of his flock in their Night Terror formation, and Gustav flying on Fanghook. The rest of the Night Terrors were trying to scare him away, but he was more entertained than anything else.
"Hey, Hiccup, did you know they could do this? Awesome!" He laughed as he flew through their formation, causing them to separate and regroup.
"Please? I just need more time," he pleaded.
"Fine! Gustav, arena, now!" she demanded as she climbed onto Stormfly.
"By the way, your timing, impeccable," he complimented Smidvarg. The said dragon screeched angrily into his ear.
"No offense, but you probably deserved that, big brother," Ladok remarked, still holding Smidvarg.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he responded, cleaning out his ear with his finger.
The rest of the day was misery for the riders and their dragons. Gustav was just as immature as he was when he was thirteen, and they found out the hard way.
Astrid took him to the arena for training exercises, which ended in a disaster. She asked him to throw up a target that Stormfly would shoot with her spines.
He didn't hear a thing she said, he was daydreaming about a fantasy about her. When she took to the air, both him and Fanghook were about anything but the training exercise; just as Gustav had a crush on Astrid, Fanghook had a crush on Stormfly.
When she told him to throw the target, he didn't hear her and Stormfly instinctively released her spines. Because the target was still on the ground, it caused Astrid to fall off her dragon and onto Gustav. Disgusted and upset with him, she sent him to the twins.
He was still daydreaming when Ruffnut and Tuffnut found him sitting outside of their hut. He said he wanted to help them out and that he had already gotten a start on it by filling in the hole underneath their hut. That 'hole' wasn't a hole at all, it was their boar pit.
They were mortified when they found their boar pit filled in with rocks, with no sign of their boars anywhere. Tuffnut was balling his eyes out and distraught to a certain degree that he even made a weak attempt to take out a couple of rocks.
Ruffnut sent him away while she was trying to comfort her twin. Fishlegs found him and took him back to his hut, where he proceeded to take him and Fanghook to his hot tub.
He told him that what he needed was to center his scatterbrained behavior in order to have more focus. When he told them to breathe, Fanghook accidentally set fire to his topiary garden. He tried to put it out, but only made it worse by breathing on them again.
Fishlegs then sent him to the stables, where Helene was tending to the Night Terrors. Gustav tried to flirt with her and get her attention, but she was busy with Smidvarg and his flock. Ripwave electrocuted him whenever he annoyed her, with or without her rider telling her to.
Most of them were exhausted and she was worried that Gustav's harassment would be bad for their sleep cycle. Night Terrors were nocturnal by nature, they slept for twelve hours a day and they were awake for the remaining twelve; from sunrise to sunset, they were asleep, and from sunset to sunrise, they were awake. It was the afternoon, they should have been asleep, but a few were awake and she was concerned that it would have a negative effect on the entire flock.
She ignored Gustav when he tried to talk to her, but paid attention to Fanghook when he wanted to be next to her and even scratched him. He eventually decided to leave and went to find Snotlout.
Snotlout decided to help perfect Fanghook's aim and Gustav's flying skills. He had Hookfang fire at a trio of barrels, then had Gustav have Fanghook do the same thing. Fanghook was a little overzealous about the practice and hit Snotlout's head with his tail.
Then, they were flying through the air and Snotlout was teaching him how to fly while his dragon's body was on fire - a trick that he had not yet mastered himself. While they were flying, Gustav decided to challenge him to a race and gave himself a head start by telling Snotlout that his rear was on fire.
When Snotlout realized he was lying, he was so upset that Hookfang's body ignited. He eventually caught up to him and flew ahead of them. Gustav kicked the side of Fanghook's neck to get him to fly faster, but instead he shot a flame at them. Although it was avoided, the back of Snotlout's head was able to catch fire, but he didn't notice.
Once the race was finished, Snotlout was so frustrated with him that he dragged him back to Hiccup's hut, even though Hiccup and Ladok were not there. Gustav tried telling him that his head was on fire, but he didn't believe him and walked away - only to quickly discover that he was telling him the truth.
That was the last time they saw him that afternoon. When they couldn't find him while Fishlegs was making his mother's crab cakes for dinner, they split up all over the base and island to find him and Fanghook. It was during that search that they also discovered that the Dragon Eye was missing as well.
When that search was unsuccessful, they decided to search on the nearby islands. That was when Hiccup found them with the Dragon Eye on an island filled with fragile caves that were known to collapse at the blink of an eye.
Hiccup was beyond upset with him and paced inside of the clubhouse, "Of all the irresponsible, insubordinate…"
"Don't forget idiotic, imbecilic, inane," Tuffnut chimed in. "What? There are a lot of words for stupid. I mean, come on, people say that more than my proper name."
Hiccup got back to the topic at hand, "Of all those kinds of stunts you could have pulled, this was the worst! Do you know what Dagur would do to get his hands on the Dragon Eye?"
Gustav felt very guilty, "I just thought if I came back here with the treasure, you guys would accept me."
"First of all, there is no treasure. Second of all, we've already been there and that entire island is honeycombed with the most unstable caverns we've ever encountered," he affirmed.
He felt close to crying, "I'm sorry, I just-"
He interrupted him, "You could've been killed, Gustav. Fanghook could've been killed. Look, this isn't Berk, Gustav, the rules are different out here. You have to be smarter than this."
"I just wanted to prove myself," he said sadly.
"Oh, you have," he responded, still very much upset with him and his recklessness. "You have proven that you are not responsible enough, you're not mature enough, and you're not trustworthy enough to be one of us. Now, it's been a long day, we all need some rest. We'll talk about this in the morning."
Morning came and when Hiccup went to talk to Gustav, he couldn't find him, he was gone again. At first he thought he might have gone back to the island he went to the other day or back home to Berk. He gathered the other riders together just in case.
They searched all the places they had previously checked, including the dangerous island he went to. When the search came up fruitless, they regrouped to discuss it.
"Anything?" he asked Astrid.
"I checked the clubhouse, your hut, even the stables," she reported. "He's not there."
"Nothing else is on fire around here, so he must be gone," Fishlegs surmised.
"Well, we have to find him," he stated.
"Or… do we?" Tuffnut asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, why are we worried? Shouldn't we be celebrating the fact that he's gone?" Snotlout remarked. Ladok nodded, his arms crossed.
"Not until we know he's safe," he upheld.
"Well, we could ask Fanghook," Ruffnut uttered.
"And, Ruffnut, how do you suppose we do that?" Snotlout retorted.
"Turn around," she replied, smirking slightly.
He did so and saw that Fanghook was in fact behind him. The young purple Monstrous Nightmare growled.
Fanghook groaned sadly and went over to Helene, seeking comfort from her. She caressed his snout soothingly and Ripwave nudged him to try to help him feel better.
Tuffnut went up to him and grabbed his snout in his hands, "Fanghook, where's Gustav, boy? Where's Gustav?" Naturally, he couldn't talk and only groaned again. "Ah! He's not talking, you guys. He's completely shut down. Typical."
Fanghook rubbed his face against Helene, still wanting to receive more comfort from her. He closed his eyes as she gently dragged her fingers up and down his snout and jaw. He opened his eyes and snarled when he noticed Hiccup approaching him.
She immediately began talking to him and continued the same gentle, soothing gestures to calm him, "Hey, hey, Fanghook. Hey, it's okay. Easy, boy, easy. It's only Hiccup, he's not going to hurt you."
Hiccup decided to take this opportunity to check him for any injuries or anything that might tell them what happened to Gustav. "Well, doesn't look like he's injured. That's good."
"But he's definitely upset," Fishlegs observed.
Ladok noticed something attached to Fanghook's horn and reached up to grab it, the Monstrous Nightmare was too distracted with Helene touching him to take notice. It was a note of some kind and when he unrolled it his cold blood became colder.
He spoke up and got everyone's attention, "You guys, look at this."
"Let me see that," Hiccup urged, his hand stretched out. He obliged with his request by giving it to him. He read it and informed the others of the situation, "It's from Dagur. He wants to make a trade, the Dragon Eye for Gustav."
He immediately decided to do exactly as the note told him and got the Dragon Eye out of his hut, without creating a plan to ensure that it wouldn't happen as Dagur wanted it. Although Gustav was a headache, he still owed it to Fanghook to get his rider back.
"I don't like this, Hiccup," Astrid told him honestly as he put the Dragon Eye into Toothless' saddle bag.
"Well, we have no choice," he responded.
"You sure we have no choice? Like, none?" Tuffnut asked. "Zip? Zilch?"
"This is all my fault anyway," he uttered.
"Ninguno?" Tuffnut continued.
"I never even gave the kid a chance," his voice told them that he felt completely guilty about the whole situation at hand.
Tuffnut still continued, "Ni… Portugal?"
Hiccup was beginning to grow tired of what Tuffnut was trying to do, "Tuff, that's not really helping at all."
"Yeah," he agreed.
"If I wasn't so busy tinkering with this thing," he took out the Dragon Eye, "I don't know, maybe I could've kept him busy."
"Uh, yeah, nobody can keep Gustav busy," Fishlegs deadpanned.
Hiccup climbed onto Toothless and Astrid tried to make him reconsider his decision, "At least let us back you up out there."
"Dagur was very clear, I have to come alone," he responded. "We don't know what he'll do to Gustav if I don't follow his demands to the letter. No, we can't risk it. I'll be careful, I promise."
As they watched as they flew off with Fanghook, Ladok remarked, "Of course he means he won't be careful at all."
They anxiously waited on their base for hours for Hiccup to return. When he finally did return, he was without Gustav, Fanghook, and the Dragon Eye.
He told them what Gustav was planning to do, he was leading Dagur into a trap on the island with the unstable caverns. Knowing Gustav, however, he wouldn't be able to do it alone and would probably get caught even with his dragon.
With the island's caves known to crumble at the slightest step, he wanted to go alone to get Gustav and Fanghook. Ladok, however, wanted to go with him, he wanted to meet Dagur for himself.
One way or another, he convinced his brother to let him go with him and Toothless. They waited out of sight for them to arrive on the island. Once they heard the signal from inside of the caves, they would go in.
As soon as they heard a ruckus from inside of the caverns, they knew that was their cue. They found Dagur laughing as he cornered Gustav.
"Gotcha!" he taunted.
"No, we've got you," Hiccup declared, revealing their presence to Dagur. "Good work, Gustav."
There wasn't much light in the cave, but Ladok could fairly well with only a fraction of the normal amount of light a human would need. He discovered that Dagur was as insane as he was described to be with his messy red hair, scars, and armor with a Skrill on the chest plate. He had only seen images of a Skrill, but he had always wanted to see such a rare and powerful dragon.
Dagur still had blurry vision from Gustav's assault on him with the Dragon Eye, but he thought he could see someone or something holding onto Hiccup, sitting behind him on Toothless. He honestly didn't think much about it, he was already insane.
"Oh, what's the matter, Dagur?" Hiccup jeered. "No barbs? No comebacks? I thought we had a shorthand, I thought you loved that stuff."
Dagur suddenly reached behind to grab Gustav's wrist. He pushed him forward towards them and took the Dragon Eye. He laughed with a smirk on his face as he tossed it in his hand.
"Dagur, you hand over the Dragon Eye," Hiccup demanded.
"I don't think so," he waved it teasingly.
"I'm not asking," he affirmed. Toothless snarled and shot a plasma blast, creating a hole in the cavern floor.
He looked down at the large hole in the ground, "Oh, it's a long way down, isn't it?"
"Dagur, you've got nowhere to go. It's over," he asserted.
"It's over? Really?" he mocked. Then, he did the unthinkable, he dropped the Dragon Eye. "Whoops."
Gustav tried to get it back and ended up falling into the hole. Hiccup immediately went after Gustav and Ladok held onto his brother as tightly as he could.
"Hiccup!" Gustav cried.
"There, Toothless!" Hiccup pointed down. "Ah!"
Ladok reached down and grabbed Gustav's arm, "Got you, Gustav."
Hiccup sighed in relief, "Let's get out of here."
"I thought you'd never ask," Gustav held on to Ladok's arm.
The cavern was crumbling around and above them, rocks fell on them like rain. Hiccup struggled to keep Toothless calm and steady, but unfortunately they all ended up falling through the hole.
Toothless roared and growled as he struggled fruitlessly. He couldn't fly without Hiccup, and Hiccup, Ladok, and Gustav would fall to their deaths without Toothless.
"Don't worry, bud," Hiccup tried to reassure Toothless. He moved his arms and legs like he was swimming. "Hang on, bud!" Finally, he managed to reach his dragon and put his prosthetic into the pedal, allowing Toothless to fly again. "I'm gonna have to come up with something in case that happens to us again."
Ladok landed on the saddle behind him and held onto him, "Maybe after we grab Gustav and get out of here."
Gustav was screaming for his life as he fell through the cavern. Fanghook flew through a separate cave and caught his rider.
"Fanghook! Yeah!" Gustav cheered. "Thanks, boy."
They flew downwards until they reached a cavern mouth that took them out of the crumbling cave. More rocks followed them out and the caverns were still rumbling around them.
"You guys okay?" Hiccup asked.
"Yep," his brother replied.
"Yeah," Gustav responded. "Hiccup, I'm really sorry."
"I'm sorry, too, Gustav. You're still irresponsible, immature, and reckless, but the way you handled yourself with Dagur, maybe you do have what it takes to be a Dragon Rider… someday," he smiled.
"Someday?" he repeated. "I will take someday!"
"Now, what do you say we get out of here?" Hiccup suggested.
Gustav and Fanghook flew ahead of them and just as they were about to leave, Ladok saw something and asked, "What's that?"
Hiccup saw what he was looking at, it looked like a chest. He got down from Toothless and grabbed the chest and opened it to see its contents.
He held up something that looked similar to the lenses the Dragon Eye used, "What in the name of Thor is this?"
More rocks fell onto them as a rumble rang throughout the caverns, making Ladok very nervous, "Hiccup, let's get out of here!"
"I couldn't agree more," he got back onto Toothless. "Let's go, bud."
It was the late afternoon hours by the time they made it back to Dragon's Edge. Gustav started packing, it was time for him to go back to Berk.
"Gustav, I-" Astrid began before he put his finger on her lips.
"Uh-uh, stop right there, sweets. I can't stay, my Mom would kill me. She usually notices I've been gone after about three days." He got onto Fanghook, who nudged Helene one more time. "Alright, Fanghook, let's go. You take care, babe," he gave a wink to her, which she rolled her eyes at. "Don't worry," he took to the air and began to fly away, "Gustav will be back soon!"
Both Astrid and Helene were disgusted and glad that he was finally gone. However, Helene would be lying if she said she wouldn't miss Fanghook, but she already had her dragon.
Astrid saw Hiccup holding a chest and asked, "What's that?"
"Oh, just something I found at the bottom of that cave," he answered. He held up the lens that was inside.
Fishlegs could feel his heart rate soar, "Oh, a new lens!"
"Yeah, there was treasure in those caves after all. The Dragon Eye was giving us clues on how to find it all along," he proclaimed.
"We just weren't looking in the right place," Ladok smiled.
"And if there's one of these out there, that means there has to be more. Ooh-hoo-hoo!" he excitedly cried out.
"Huh, and to think, we never would've found that without Gustav," Astrid commented.
"Awesome, so let's just tell Gustav," he teased them playfully.
All together, they were quick to decline, "No! No, no, no!"
Everyone looked up at the sky and waved to Gustav and Fanghook as they flew away. They were relieved to see him leave, but were grateful that he was able to help them begin what they suspected to be a huge mystery that was the Dragon Eye.
X-X-X~V-o-Y-o-V~X-X-X
(A/N: I know, it's another update on a weekday, but I would rather sacrifice a day rather than another week. So, with that in mind, how do you think it turned out? Better than the last one? Worse? The same? Whatever the case, I hope that you guys liked it.
In the next chapter it'll be the episode "Quake, Rattle, and Roll". I know, I just did an episode on Fishlegs, but this one is different from "Big Man on Berk" because the morals are different and pure.
I considered writing a Snoggletog special for Christmas (and I still might), but I just did a special for Halloween and I don't want you guys to be overwhelmed. If you want me to, I'll do it, just know that "Quake, Rattle, and Roll" would likely come afterwards.
Anyway, please let me know how you feel and what you would want me to do. If I don't get anything, I'll just decide what might be best for the story and the development of the characters. See you then!)