(A/N: Welcome to the new chapter, everyone. This is going to be a special chapter because it's going to be a reunion between Helene and Smog. I've been eager to write this for a while now because I have been itching to show how their friendship has persisted and grown over the three years since they separated.
This takes place in the episode "Snotlout Gets the Axe", which is the only episode in RTTE that features Smothering Smokebreaths. It is what I consider to be more of a filler episode in the show, but it's still decent in my opinion. Since Smothering Smokebreaths only appear in this and none other, I figured that this would be a good chapter for a reunion.
I forgot to mention this at the end of the last chapter, but its update marks the one year anniversary of this story! :) I knew that this story would take a hell of a lot longer than the last one because this is six seasons instead of the two "Secrets and Silence" was. I just want to say thank you for staying with me and my story for this whole year.)
U-X-V-X-U-*-o-*-U-X-V-X-U
In the weeks following the riders' first encounter with the Dragon Hunters, a new and formidable enemy, life for them was taking a lot of twists and turns. In more ways than one, their lifestyle was becoming greatly hectic.
Only a couple of days after their fight with the hunters, Dagur commandeered one of their ships and attacked Berk. Astrid's parents' house was destroyed in the attack; fortunately, they were at the docks when it happened. The house would be repaired soon enough, but its destruction made Astrid upset.
Even though her parents were unharmed, she was furious that Dagur would have the nerve to demolish her home. She decided that the only way to protect the town from any more damage was to have another team of Dragon Riders, one trained by her.
Many villagers signed up, but she only accepted six - Gustav, Spitelout, Sven, Bucket, Mulch, and Gothi. She trained them vigorously and ruthlessly, before they were even given a dragon. Gustav, who already had a dragon and shoveled feces for two years, collapsed from exhaustion after only a couple of hours of training.
Every task she gave them, she would yell at the top of her lungs and call their efforts failures. Even when they were passed out, she would continue to bark orders at them like Stoick.
This went on for the remainder of the week and both Hiccup and Helene knew why, she didn't want to leave Berk and risk her parents' lives. Hiccup sympathized with her, he didn't think he would be able to leave the island if the same thing happened to his father, or even to Ladok. Helene was upset like she was when the attack occurred, Mr. and Mrs. Hofferson were like second parents to her, she lived in the house for a year and on and off for three.
Eventually, she let them all have dragons, Gustav was ecstatic to finally be reunited with Fanghook and the others were happy to have one of their own. Spitelout got a blue and orange Deadly Nadder he named Kingstail, Sven got a yellow Monstrous Nightmare he named Scythetooth, Bucket and Mulch got a blue Hideous Zippleback they named Whip and Lash, and Gothi got a purple Gronckle that Gustav named Lugmeat since she was unable to name him.
Even with dragons, that did not make Astrid's treatment of them any less harsh; if anything, it was becoming worse. She trained them to work together, but with only one professional Dragon Rider in a confined space with five people that had never ridden a dragon before, it was bound to crash and burn.
If Astrid wasn't the one yelling at them, they were yelling at each other. And if the amateur riders struggled to work together, the dragons were no less cooperative. It wasn't uncommon to see a dragon throwing off its rider - no matter the level of experience - but watching what was happening to them was pathetic.
As the days passed, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins were sent back to Dragon's Edge to guard the base. Meanwhile, the remaining riders were trying to get Astrid to leave Berk, enticing her by reminding her that Dagur was still on the loose. Nothing they did could get her to come with them, they were starting to consider leaving her on the island and going to Dragon's Edge alone.
Then, they received an urgent message from Fishlegs that Dagur was closing in on the base! Astrid didn't want to leave, but they needed her to come with them; with Dagur's army amplified with Dragon Hunter soldiers, it was all hands on deck. Before departing, she gave a strict order to her trainees to not follow them, telling them they were not ready for it.
When they arrived at the base, they were met with a sight that was more than what they wanted to see. Their friends were barely able to fend off the assault of Dagur's enhanced fleet and they fared little better when they arrived. The fleet was bigger than the one he would usually have tailing with him and filled with hunters armed with dragon root arrows.
Then, just when it seemed they were pinned down, Astrid's team suddenly arrived and fired at Dagur's ships. Since the six of them were mostly amateur riders, the hunters struggled to read their movements and they avoided the arrows.
Ships sank and those that remained fled, Dagur was on one that was sinking. The riders aimed to capture him and take him to Outcast Island, but before they could, he was grabbed by Heather. She had been sent to find him when he 'borrowed' the fleet.
Helene wanted to go after them; more than anything, she wanted to throw both of them in a cell, family or not. Hiccup convinced her not to, saying that Ryker would do more than chew both of their ears off.
Astrid was livid that her team defied her direct order and followed them. When she asked whose idea it was to disobey her, they all said it was theirs and started to do what she would force them to do, push-ups. When they did that, instead of feeling angered, she felt proud.
She decided that her place was on Dragon's Edge and that Berk - and her parents - was safe with them as their protectors. She dubbed them the Dragon Riders' Auxiliary, or the A-Team for short, and declared Gustav as the leader since he had the most experience with dragons.
After the new auxiliary team departed for Berk, the following week was uneventful. One thing or another occupied them until something major would eventually happen.
Ladok noticed that Helene had been spending a lot of her time caring for the Grapple Grounder eggs she was entrusted with. She was trying to create an adequate environment for them, in preparation for the day they eventually hatched.
It was almost an obsession for her, but he decided to let her do whatever she thought was best. He had experience with dragon eggs and told her to ask him if she needed assistance or suggestions.
It was slow for the most part, otherwise, with the occasional flight course every once in a while. With no emergencies happening, a bored Snotlout wanted a competition on who could hit a target while flying close to it.
He was upset when Hiccup decided to make it a training course, but became excited when he discovered that axes would be used instead of their dragons' fire. He bragged to them that he could hit the target on his first try and they decided to let him, if it meant getting a laugh out of it.
He circled the perimeter of the training arena on Hookfang while everyone else watched from the ground. "Coming in hot!" He laughed proudly, "That's right! Get some, Dragon Hunters, get some! Snotlout, Snotlout, oi, oi, oi!"
Ladok shook his head and rolled his eyes, 'He passes one training course and he thinks he's an expert.'
"Tell Snotlout he gets a six from me," Helene told Ruffnut and Tuffnut.
"Even if he somehow makes it?" Ruffnut asked.
"He loses points for being a muttonhead," she replied.
As he began to fly closer, Hookfang's smooth flying suddenly became rougher due to the close proximity to the ground. He ended up missing the target and being thrown off of Hookfang, landing at the feet of the twins. They held up five and seven fingers respectively.
"The judge from Outcast Island gave you a six," Tuffnut whispered to him.
"So did the judges from Berserker Island and the far north," Ruffnut whispered as well.
"Uh, nice effort, Snotlout," Hiccup awkwardly praised. "We all need to stay sharp, especially with those Dragon Hunters on the loose. Astrid, you're up!"
"You really should loosen your grip there, boy-o," he heard a familiar voice comment. "It maximizes the bone-shattering potential."
He sat up from the ground and saw his father, Spitelout, with his dragon, Kingstail. On his dragon's back was something wrapped in a sheet of purple silk.
"Dad?" he questioned, bewildered.
"Spitelout! What a…" Hiccup trailed off, trying to think of an appropriate adjective to say.
"What a pleasant surprise!" Ladok finished for him.
"Thank you," he whispered gratefully.
"I have your back," he whispered back, smiling.
Spitelout grabbed a javelin out of a barrel and examined it, "Dull."
Snotlout laughed, nervously and arrogantly, to impress his father, "Yeah, I was just telling them that, Dad. Hey, did you see that-"
He covered his son's face with his hand as he informed them on why he was on their island, "I come with news from Berk. There's to be a union tomorrow between two proud houses. Our family, House Jorgensen, and…"
"What kind of muttonhead would marry into the Jorgensen's?" Astrid remarked to Hiccup with laughter in her voice.
"...Astrid's family, House Hofferson!" Spitelout finished.
Hiccup and Ladok snickered at the irony of the announcement. Meanwhile, Astrid was in shock, "Wait… did he just say, House Hofferson?!"
Fishlegs gasped, "This is unprecedented. There has never been a union between these two families! Hoffersons have always disliked Jorgensens and-"
"Jorgensens have always irritated Hoffersons!" she scoffed in disgust. Then, she realized a thought that terrified her, "Wait, this means Snotlout's gonna be… family?!"
"What's the problem, cuz? This is just going to bring us…" Snotlout wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "...closer." She jabbed him in the stomach with the butt of her axe.
Spitelout smiled at her, "Welcome to the family, lass. Now, on to business!"
Kingstail bowed slightly so that his rider could grab the item on his back easier. He unwrapped the silk, revealing an ornate axe with engravings in the metal and handle. It looked to be quite old and taken care of very well, it was shiny with minimal damage.
Snotlout's jaw dropped, "Woah! The Jorgensen Family ceremonial axe! There's never been a union without it!"
Spitelout swatted his hand away as he reached for it, "Aye, and as you know, it will need to be present tomorrow at Berk's secret matrimonial site, the Island of Friga, to chop down the ceremonial birch for this union to be official. So, you, Snotlout, will be delivering it."
"Sweet!" he squeaked with joy and pride.
"That's quite an honor, Snotlout," Hiccup commented.
He slowly picked up the axe with awe and excitement, "This privilege is only given to the bravest and most virile member of the Jorgensen clan… and you guys are looking at him! Boom, baby! Woo!"
Ladok rolled his eyes, his arms crossed, 'Asshole.'
"Yeah, I would have done it myself if I wasn't already responsible for procuring the beasts for the union's ceremonial four hundred boar feast," Spitelout mentioned.
"But I'm the family's natural second choice for the job," Snotlout claimed arrogantly.
"Of course Hedgelout isn't available, he's still missing at sea…" his father uttered, slightly disappointed.
His son's arrogance dropped significantly, "Third choice. That's still good, right?" Hookfang puffed smoke into his face.
"Ah, and then there was Griplout…" he continued.
"Griplout?" Astrid repeated.
"Are you talking about the Jorgensen that lost both his arms in that freak mutton accident?" Hiccup asked.
"Aye, he just couldn't get a good enough hold on the axe with his teeth," he bared half of the teeth in his mouth to demonstrate his claim.
"Full of louts and dumbasses," Ladok remarked to Helene. She covered her mouth to suppress her laughter.
"Remember, a lot is riding on this boy-o. No axe, no wedding. No wedding… well, hopefully you're smart enough to at least figure that out," he chuckled. Snotlout looked nervous and crestfallen. "Well, I have to be on my way. Boars don't grow on trees, you know."
Although Snotlout's nerves and pride were shaken, Astrid was rather relaxed, "Thank Thor I don't have to go to that ridiculous-"
"Oh, lass! Your family is expecting you to represent your family at the ceremony," he informed her. "So better get a move on!"
'Of course,' she thought.
She growled and crossed her arms, very much upset. Hiccup held up his fist to his mouth as he chuckled.
"You too, Hiccup!" Spitelout notified him.
"What? Me?" he questioned, shocked. It was Astrid's turn to laugh.
"Aye, Stoick's orders," he responded. "You're representing the Haddocks. You and your brother."
"What?!" Ladok exclaimed.
"He said it would be a good learning experience for ya," he replied.
Toothless warbled in protest, much to his rider's agreement, "Yeah, tell me about it."
"Is it wrong if I jump off a cliff right now?" his brother grumbled.
"You're not the only one thinking about it," Hiccup muttered.
"And you too, Helene," he told her. "Alvin wants you to represent Outcast Island as the future chieftess of Berk's closest ally."
"Shit," she uttered blankly.
Spitelout mounted his dragon, "See you at the ceremony! Onward, dragon." He flew off to run his errands for the wedding, "Spitelout, Spitelout, oi, oi, oi!"
"Now I know where Snotlout gets his stupidity from," Ladok remarked.
"Don't worry, Dad! I got this!" Snotlout called out to his father, even though he likely didn't hear him. Hiccup, Astrid, Ladok, Helene, and Toothless looked at him doubtfully, "What are you all looking at? I can do this!" He accidentally flung his family's axe into the training arena.
He ran to retrieve the axe while Fishlegs reveled in the thought of the ceremony, "Don't you just love union ceremonies?"
"Don't know, never been to one," Tuffnut responded.
"What? Really?" he asked.
"Yeah, us Thorstons are not exactly the marrying kind. We're more of the mutton kind," he answered. Ruffnut sniffed her armpit.
"Well, as luck would have it, I'm somewhat of an authority on Viking union ceremonies. What do you say you both meet me at my hut later and I will teach you everything you need to know," he offered.
"Great!" he smiled. "Because we know very little about most things."
Astrid groaned in frustration, "Can you believe this? One of my relatives is marrying someone in Snotlout's family! A Hofferson is marrying a Jorgensen!"
"What are you complaining about? My cousins work with the Dragon Hunters," Helene casually replied.
"Okay, yeah, I guess I'll give you that one," she remarked.
The next day, on the day of the wedding ceremony, the invited riders left for the Island of Friga. None of them were particularly looking forward to it, mainly because Snotlout was upset about not being the first choice for delivering the axe and Hiccup, Ladok, Astrid, and Helene did not wish to go at all.
Snotlout looked at the axe with a scowl, "Last one picked. He could have more faith in me than that!" He noticed the others staring at him, almost to the degree of glaring, "What? What did I ever do?"
"Well, there was that time you brought those Changewing eggs and nearly destroyed the village," Astrid pointed out.
"Fishlegs' fault," he grumbled.
"There was the time you charged people for water during a drought," she continued.
"And nearly killed the village," Hiccup finished.
"Screaming Death's fault," he grumbled again.
"What about flying into a waterspout and crash landing us on Outcast Island? That was terrific," he remarked sarcastically.
Naturally, he blamed someone other than himself, "Act of Thor."
"Act of Snotlout!" she yelled at him.
"This is going to be a long flight, isn't it?" Ladok muttered into Helene's ear, as they were flying on Ripwave together that day.
"You have no idea," she rolled her eyes.
"Hey!" Snotlout protested after he was reminded of something else that he did. "That wasn't all my fault! Alvin-" He convulsed for a couple of moments after he received a small jolt of electricity from Ripwave.
"Don't you even think about blaming my Dad!" Helene bawled at him.
When he recovered, he claimed, "All I know is when I ride in with this axe, I'm gonna shove it all their Jorgensen faces. Booo!" He started impersonating his father's voice as he tossed the ceremonial weapon in his hands, "No axe, no wedding, boy- oh! Ah!"
The axe slipped out of his fingers and tumbled down past the clouds, out of visible view. He looked at everyone else with a panicked expression on his face.
"Toothless, power dive!" Hiccup ordered. Toothless flew down sharply in a nosedive, followed by the other dragons.
"I don't see it!" Snotlout shrieked, anxious.
"No shit, we still have our heads in the clouds!" Ladok shouted.
They eventually came out of the clouds and saw an island. It was the only one for miles, a small patch of land surrounded by an ocean.
"It's gotta be down there! We have to go and get it back!" Even though Snotlout knew the chances of the axe landing on the island were slim.
"It could be anywhere! That island isn't exactly tiny, if it even landed there and not in the ocean," Astrid smirked tauntingly.
"We're finding that axe!" he persisted. "We have till sundown."
They landed on the ground of the island and started looking through the bushes for the axe. The brush was very thick and some of the bushes were thorny; very difficult plants to be surrounded by and search.
Astrid accidentally pricked her finger on a thorn, "Ack!" She licked off the blood. "Hey, is it too late to call Griplout?"
Snotlout laughed sarcastically, "Hoho! That's funny! Keep it up, Astrid, keep it up!"
He continued looking for it and saw a bright light in the corner of his eye. That was when he found his family's axe, sitting on a mound behind a hedge.
He laughed boisterously, his pride restored, "There it is! See? I'll just grab it and we can get back in the air. Problem solved!"
The dragons suddenly all began to growl nervously and tensely. They sensed an unusual presence close by.
"What is it, bud?" Hiccup asked Toothless.
"Are you alright, Ripwave?" Helene patted her dragon to calm her down.
"What's gotten into them?" Astrid inquired.
Snotlout climbed to the top of the mound to retrieve the axe, "And it's in one piece? This could have gone way worse."
He grabbed onto the hilt and tried to pull it out. When he did, the mound shook under his feet, which vibrated through the ground, seemingly causing the earth to shake. He shrugged it off and attempted to pull out the axe again.
This time, it shook again, violently, and the 'mound' rose off the ground. Snotlout fell off and the 'mound' was revealed to be a dragon, an angry one that roared at them with clear hostility.
It was a greenish gray dragon with an armor of scrap metal covering its body, including Snotlout's family axe on its back . It stood on two legs, had an underbite, and one of its horns was missing, broken off years ago.
"Okay, now it's way worse!" he shouted.
The armored dragon growled, then roared at him again. He screamed and Hookfang grabbed onto him with his teeth, pulling him out of the way of its wrath.
The dragon swung its metal-covered tail at them like a mace. "Watch out!" Hiccup yelled. The rider's dragons crouched and they lowered their heads to avoid it.
It roared at them again, Snotlout clenched his fists and brazenly ran to the dragon and up its back, grabbing the axe. It bucked like a wild horse to throw him off, but he wouldn't let go.
"Hey! This is my family's axe! Give it up!" Snotlout demanded.
"Snotlout, let go of the axe!" Hiccup enjoined.
"No way, Hiccup!" he vociferated. "I'm not leaving this island without it."
The dragon began to fly up with Snotlout, still trying to shake him on its back. He was forced to hold onto the hilt tighter to avoid a certain death.
"He's gonna get himself killed," Astrid blankly uttered.
"What else is new?" Helene asked sarcastically.
The remaining riders and Hookfang flew after the dragon to save Snotlout. Hookfang fired at it, trying to get it to fly back to the ground, where it would be slightly less dangerous for his rider.
The dragon used the armor on its hide as protection, causing the flame to almost hit Snotlout. "Hey! Watch it!"
"Keep blasting, Hookfang. We'll get in close. Astrid, follow me. Helene, Ladok, keep that dragon distracted," Hiccup ordered.
Ladok gave his older brother a thumbs-up, "You got it, Hiccup."
Helene gripped her saddle, "Let's go, Ripwave."
Hookfang shot another flame at the dragon and it retaliated by unleashing a white-hot torch-like fire. Stormfly and Hookfang were flying next to each other and while he flew out of the way, the flame skimmed past her eyes, causing her to become temporarily blind.
Without her eyesight, she panicked and alarmed her rider, "Steady, Stormfly!" She instinctively headed for the ground and Astrid tried to settle her dragon, "Up, up! Whoa!"
She chose not to listen, she would fly into a volcano for her rider, but not while blind. She landed on the ground roughly, causing Astrid to fall off her back.
She ran up to her, seeing that something was clearly wrong with her, "Stormfly, what's wrong?" She noticed that she was blinking a lot, as though she had seen sunlight for the first time after being inside of a dark cave for months. "Hang in there. Watch out, guys! That blast does a number on the eyes!"
The armored dragon's fire nearly made contact with Hiccup and Toothless, "Whoa! Good to know."
Wanting to avenge her friend's loss of sight, Ripwave began to charge her electricity for an attack. Helene saw this and quickly intervened, "Ripwave, no. Snotlout is still on that dragon."
Ladok immediately realized why she stopped her, "Her electric blasts would cause both of them to fry."
Another torch-like flame was fired, this time at Ripwave. It missed, but she, like Stormfly, started to lose her eyesight and had to land. She rubbed her eyes with her front claws in an attempt to ease the sharp pain she felt.
Helene gave her dragon a scratch, trying to help her feel better, "It's okay, Ripwave. You did your best."
Hiccup saw the effect this dragon's fire had on the other dragons and didn't want Toothless to be next, "Okay, bud, let's stay clear of those blasts." Toothless fired a plasma blast and, just as it did when Hookfang released his blaze, it shot its flame at him and Hiccup. "Toothless, look out! Toothless!"
He too flew down to the ground due to the close proximity of the fire to his body and tailfin system. The dragon landed and Hiccup hastily went through the saddle bags as it prepared to unleash another flame.
"Hang on, bud," he told him as he took out his metallic shield. "Things are about to heat up!" He got in front of Toothless and crouched as the fire was shot at them. It eventually stopped, he looked at his shield, it was red and burning hot, but still in one piece, "Thank you, Gronckle Iron."
Hookfang soared down and continued to fire down on the dragon. Both Astrid and Ladok encouraged him to keep going to save his rider.
"Don't let up, Hookfang!" she yelled.
"Pour it on!" he shouted, slightly enthusiastic.
The metal-covered dragon decided that it had enough of the riders and flew away, throwing off Snotlout from its back. His family's axe, however, was still stuck in its armor.
"It's gone," Helene uttered.
Snotlout was close to crying, "And so is the axe."
He stood up from the ground and looked up at the sky, it was mid-afternoon and only getting later. He clenched his fists and a growl rumbled in his throat, which only he could hear. He started to run into the forest to find the dragon and his axe.
"Snotlout, where are you going?" Hiccup asked.
He turned around briefly to respond while still running, "There's still time!"
Hiccup gave Astrid a look, she knew what it meant and vehemently declined, "No!"
He gave a similar look to his brother and he raised his hands, "Leave me out of this."
He gazed at Helene, she didn't say anything, she just shook her head. He was alone in his argument to convince Astrid.
"Astrid, we have to," he urged.
"This is his mess, let him clean it up," she retorted. He looked at her intensely and she caved in reluctantly, "Fine!"
He craned his neck to look at Helene and Ladok, "Are you guys coming?"
"Not really much of a choice, big brother," he answered blankly.
"He's going to need all of the help he can get," she remarked to Ladok as they all began to follow Snotlout.
They caught up to him and had Stormfly use her tracking skills to locate the armored dragon. Eventually, they found it, at a cave filled with and surrounded by piles of scrap metal. It appeared this dragon collected metallic objects and chose which ones to weld to itself, adding to the armor.
"There he is," Hiccup muttered as they hid in the bushes, watching it.
It looked through its piles and picked up a helmet with its mouth. It placed it on its back and used its flame on it, making it a part of its sheathing.
Snotlout was worried, "If it welds my axe to its body, I'll never get it back."
Hiccup could already sense what he was thinking of doing, even before he likely did, "Easy, Snotlout. We can't risk another dust-up with ol' Armorwing over there."
"I cannot go to that wedding without the axe," he persisted.
"But we can't close enough to pry it free," Astrid pointed out.
"Not without blinding our dragons," Ladok added.
An idea came to Snotlout's mind, "Hey, you know what's near here? Hiccup, hand me your map."
He raised an eyebrow at his request, but gave it to him nevertheless. He looked at the map and discovered that a certain group of islands was close to the one they were on.
He laughed victoriously, "That's it!"
"What's it?" Hiccup asked.
"We can't get close to that dragon, but something else can," he mentioned.
"You know, you never make much sense, but this is bad, even for you," Astrid remarked.
"We have an axe to steal and I know the perfect guys for the job." He held up Hiccup's map, "We're going to Breakneck Bog and we're training us some Smothering Smokebreaths."
They left the isle of the Armorwing and went to Breakneck Bog, which was not too far away. Although the others were highly skeptical about Snotlout's plan, there was the reminder in the back of their minds that they were all to be in attendance for the wedding. It was all of their necks on the line if the axe could not be recovered in time.
Frankly, Helene was excited about going to Breakneck Bog for the purpose of finding Smothering Smokebreaths. She was the only one who knew how to effectively handle them, as she was the first and sole person to successfully train one of these dragons.
She never told them that Smog and Twirl had expanded their family, she mused that they would be stunned to see how many offspring they had. As far as any of them knew, they were leading a pack and surviving off of ships they took apart.
When they landed, Astrid voiced the concerns all of them were thinking about, "Can I just remind everyone that Smothering Smokebreaths cannot be trained?"
"That's not true," Helene reminded her.
"Yeah, but this island isn't the smallest and there are four others too. Do you really think we can find him?" she questioned pointedly.
"I'm always able to find him," she responded.
"Well, yeah, but you trained him. He's your dragon," she replied.
'And don't you forget it,' she thought proudly, with a smile that reflected it. "Ladok, you're about to meet my first dragon."
"I can't wait," he gave her a small smile, even though she had her back to him. "I've heard so much about him."
"Hey, since he's your dragon, why don't you find him for us?" Snotlout remarked. "We have somewhere to be in a couple hours."
Although she did not approve of his tone of voice, she did her dragon call for her first dragon anyway. The whoops carried through the wind, echoing against the desolate trees.
When nothing happened, he scoffed, "We're wasting time! Let's just find another nest."
"Hey, this is your idea, Snotlout!" Ladok snapped. "None of us even want to be here! Our families dragged us into it!"
She appreciated him standing up for her, even if it was not transparent. He was such a great friend to her.
She gazed towards the forest when a familiar chittering hit her ears. What she heard was validated by what she saw and smelled, smoke.
Smoke spilled out of the forest and surrounded them, circling them like the outer rim of a whirlpool. A line of smoke emerged from the cycle like a snake ready to strike and landed in front of them. When it cleared, the riders could clearly see that it was Smog, Twirl, Smokey, and many other small dragons that resembled Smokey when he was a hatchling.
Smog smiled and chirped happily, excited to see his friends again… and Snotlout. He was especially happy to see his trainer, Helene, and good friend, Ripwave.
There was one person he didn't recognize and that was the lizard-like individual sitting behind his best friend. He could see that she was comfortable with whoever it was, so he was calm, but he would be vigilant just in case.
He flew onto Ripwave's saddle, next to Helene, squawking at her. She laughed and scratched the back of his head, "I'm happy to see you too, boy. So is Ripwave." The said dragon warbled, whipping her tail excitedly, which alarmed Ladok.
She felt a weight on her two shoulders and saw Twirl and Smokey sitting on each side of her. She shook her head and rolled her eyes with a smile and a laugh, they always had to have her attention too.
The smaller dragons that looked like Smokey used their little wings to land on everyone else. They were friendly yet playfully mischievous, cuddling with them one second and biting their hair, ears, or horns the next.
Ladok gently removed one of the little dragons from gnawing on his horn, holding it in his hand, "You look like a Terrible Terror."
"That's because they're Smoke Terrors, a Smothering Smokebreath and Terrible Terror hybrid," Helene explained.
"Ouch! Hey!" Snotlout shouted at the Smoke Terrors, which were chewing on his hair and ears. "Tell your Smokey he needs to call off his brats so we can get my axe back!"
"They're not Smokey's children," she replied matter-of-factly. "They're his brothers and sisters. And there are a lot more than just these guys."
The others were shocked, there were over a dozen Smoke Terrors surrounding them and to hear they were all his siblings was astonishing. Smog and Twirl both winked at the stunned riders.
Helene decided it was time to tell her dragons why they were on their island, "Guys, we need your help right now. Snotlout's axe was stolen and we need it back before the sun goes down."
Neither Smog nor his family liked Snotlout that much - even though they didn't mind Hookfang. He was loud, arrogant, sarcastic, and not very intelligent. However, they all liked Helene and if she was asking for help, they were happy to assist.
Smog let out a high-pitched squawk and she knew what it meant, "He says they'll help us out."
"Perfect, have him and his pack follow us to the Armorwing," Hiccup told her.
On its home island, the Armorwing was asleep inside of its cave, surrounded by the metal it collected, its 'treasures'. After being chased by the humans and their dragons and throwing off the obnoxious one that was on its back, it was exhausted.
Then, it was awakened by chittering and metal clanging against other metallic objects. It left its cave with growl, roaring and spreading its wings when out in the open to investigate the sounds.
Suddenly, it was surrounded by lines of smoke and its crude armor started to disappear, piece by piece. When it took a closer look, it could see that it was a swarm of Smothering Smokebreaths, another dragon that collected metal. The Armorwing had seen this species plenty of times, they stole from each other often.
One of the Smothering Smokebreaths removed Snotlout's family axe from the Armorwing's body and gave it to Smog. He gave it to Helene and she gave it back to the rightful owner, Snotlout.
He laughed gleefully, "Yes! Yes!" He pointed the axe at her with a wink, "Thank you!"
Ladok glared at him, 'She's not interested in you, Snotlout. She's just being a friend.'
The axe was back with Snotlout, but the Smothering Smokebreaths were still taking metal from the Armorwing. Hiccup was worried, he didn't expect them to take so much of it. They stripped off nearly the entire outer shell of the armor, revealing a metallic skeleton underneath.
What made him even more worried was what he saw when more of the armor was removed. He gasped, "No scales! That's why he needs metal."
"What's happening?" Astrid asked.
"The Smokebreaths think the Armorwing is one giant piece of metal. We can't let them pull its armor apart, it'll be defenseless," he responded.
"Just like the Boneknapper. It uses bones to construct a coat of armor because of its thin scales," Ladok chimed in.
His brother nodded, "Exactly."
"So, what do we do?" Snotlout asked.
"Hele, tell Smog to call off his pack," Hiccup told her.
She nodded and turned to her first dragon, "Smog!"
He didn't need to be told what to do, he already heard everything. He screeched at them, getting the attention of most of his pack. They stopped what they were doing and retreated; however, some of them didn't. The younger, adolescent dragons continued to steal from the Armorwing. He roared at them, but only a couple listened, the rest did not.
He tried roaring again, only to get the same result. He squawked at Helene, shaking his head as best as he could.
"He can't get them to stop," she informed everyone else. "They're not listening, they've gotten too carried away with this."
"What should we do, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.
His brain rushed to come up with a plan, quickly. The Armorwing was weary and dizzy from trying to fight off the Smothering Smokebreaths, its legs were on the brink of collapse.
An idea formed in his head, a risky one, but it was the only one he could think of. "Follow me," he instructed.
He started flying closer to the Armorwing and everyone followed him, including Smog. Toothless grabbed metal objects from the Armorwing's collection in his claws and the other dragons did the same.
"We need to weld these items together to lure those Smokebreaths away. Smog, are you willing to help?" he asked the small, gray dragon.
He chirped, agreeing to help with his plan in any way he could. He threw the metal he grabbed and unleashed his fire, concentrating on it for several moments to make it pliable. He caught it in claws when he was finished, since he welded metal for his very survival, it did not hurt him to hold the scorching hot object. The other dragons threw the metal they took up into the air as well, following his lead.
He shot his flame up at each of their items and tossed his own again. He used his fire on them again, spinning and creating a spiral of flames and heat. When he was done, all of the objects were welded into one large, metal, sphere-like nest.
Toothless caught the finished nest and held it up to ensure the adolescent dragons would see it. Smog roared one more time, which caught the attention of more of them. When they saw it, their eyes lit up and they abandoned what they were doing to the Armorwing, those who did not respond to his roar followed.
Smog would scold them later for not listening to him, but, for now, the Armorwing needed assistance. The poor dragon collapsed from exhaustion after they finally left it alone, it was gasping for breath as it tried to regain its strength.
He was not fond of his species' natural enemy, but that did not mean he was not sympathetic. He started to grab metal pieces from the Armorwing's collection and the other dragons began to do the same. He set them in front of the armored dragon and they did the same.
It was suspicious of their possible underlying motives and arose to its feet and weakly raised its wings in an attempt to show them that it was still strong. To prove that they were well-meaning, Toothless presented a sheet of metal and Smog offered it a shield.
They gave the Armorwing some space and it started to sniff the items they offered. It picked up the sheet of metal and placed it on its back, where it was bare from the Smothering Smokebreaths' frenzy, welding it to the armor that still remained. It picked up the shield next and put it on top of the hot, softened metal.
When it was done, it spread its wings and growled at them. Whether or not it was grateful and chose not to show it, or simply hostile no matter the circumstance was debatable.
"Well, I think we earned its trust, but I still wouldn't push our luck," Hiccup uttered, slightly wary.
"Me either," Ladok muttered in agreement.
Smog flew over to Helene and nuzzled his face and snout against her forehead, purring, just like the way they used to. While they continued to nuzzle, she scratched the back of his head.
"Thank you for helping us," she smiled when they separated, her hand still on his head. He squawked good-naturedly.
Astrid looked up at the sky and gasped, "Sundown! Snotlout, you need to get out of here!"
Before he could reply, Hiccup interjected, "She's right, go. We'll be right behind you."
He and Hookfang left, rushing to get the axe to the Island of Friga in time. The others followed after him a couple of minutes later after they made sure that everything with the Armorwing and the Smothering Smokebreaths was taken care of.
Smog and his pack flew along side them until they reached their island. Even though he knew he would likely be seeing his two close friends very soon, he wanted to see them a little longer before it time to return to his family and the rest of his pack.
He squawked at his pack members and chirped at Helene, telling them they were close to Breakneck Bog. She understood what he was saying and waved goodbye, "Thanks again, Smog! We'll see you soon!" Ripwave briefly sparked her tendrils as a friendly gesture. He chirped and squawked once again before they descended to their home.
By the time they finally arrived to the Island of Friga, it was dark and all was quiet. When they landed, tables and chairs were overturned and boars were scattered throughout.
Snotlout's pride and heart broke, "Oh, no. Hookfang, we're too late."
"Snotlout, we'll say it was our fault," Hiccup offered.
"Yeah, we can say we're the ones that made you late," Astrid added.
"No," he declined. "It was my fault. I got this."
They watched with heavy tenseness as he walked up to his father with his family's axe in hand, who stood at the edge of the cliff the ceremony was supposed to take place on. Ladok wrapped his arms around Helene's waist as he held his breath, she didn't mind, she could tell how worried he was.
Snotlout stood next to his father as he started to say everything that was on his chest, "I know what you're going to say, Dad. I messed up again, I ruined the union ceremony, and I let you down and all the Jorgensens down. But you have no idea what I went through to get this here. I risked by life and my friends' lives fighting a gigantic, torch-breathing dragon for this stupid thing. And if that's not good enough for you, then I guess I'm never going to be good enough for you! I said it! So, here is your stupid axe, and sorry about the ceremony."
Shockingly, Spitelout smiled and chuckled, "What in Thor are you going on about, boy-o? There's not going to be a union!"
"Wait, what?" he asked, confused.
"Oh, a brawl broke out at the rehearsal dinner. It's a good thing you didn't get the axe here in time, it would've gotten really ugly," he mused. He gave his son a pat on the shoulder, "But nice work anyway, son. I knew I could count on you. Whelp, if we're done here, I have four hundred boars to return."
Snotlout sniffled, close to crying tears of joy, "He knew he could count on me."
Spitelout left the island on Kingstail with a couple of the boars, "Spitelout, Spitelout, oi, oi, oi!"
"I guess all's well that ends well," Astrid remarked nonchalantly.
Helene smiled, "I know, right?"
"And it looks like there won't be Hofferson-Jorgensen marriage after all," Ladok whispered in her ear, releasing his hold on her.
She covered her mouth to suppress her laughter, "You got that right."
Hiccup yawned, "Come on, Snotlout, let's head home." He muttered to himself under his breath, "And hope the twins didn't tie up Fishlegs and set the base on fire."
Snotlout was in his own little world, "He knew he could count on me!"
"Snotlout?" he tried to get his attention, but he got no response from him.
Astrid rolled her eyes, "Hookfang, grab Snotlout and let's get out of here." Hookfang grabbed his rider in his talons and they left the island. "It's a wonder why any of our relatives could possibly consider marrying each other."
"He knew he could count on me!" Snotlout repeated again, oblivious to being over the ocean.
'I don't think any of us would object if dropped him, Hookfang,' Ladok thought with an eye roll.
U-X-V-X-U-*-o-*-U -X-V-X-U
(A/N: Maybe it's just me, but I can imagine Snotlout having stars in his eyes! Lol!
I know, it took me another eternity to update again, but do you see how long this chapter is? It's crazy! This is one of my longest chapters for this story! (I also just had my birthday and midterms, so I deserved a little break.)
How did you like having Smog back? I missed having him in the main story and I was so happy to write a chapter with him in it. Smothering Smokebreaths, sadly, only have three episodes in the entirety of "Riders/Defenders/Race to the Edge" and I have written about all three of them. There's still four more seasons to write and I might consider having another chapter with Smog, his pack and family in it later on.
But, oh my God! I'm tired! I've been working on this for another month and I've had constant writer's block most of the time. So, I'll see you when I can get another chapter done!)