"I heard what you said."
Astrid heard Tuffnut speak behind her. She trudged through the underbrush beneath the clubhouse to reach the path of forest she would lead Tuffnut through on their way to their watchpost near the island's docks.
For only a moment, Astrid's heart made a tangible bump in her chest at Tuffnut's comment. Her heart did that at other times when someone disagreed with her defense tactics to ward off dragon raiders. "What're you talking about? I didn't say anything," she grumbled. She wished Tuffnut would stay an idiot and lose his sense of hearing for a change.
"Does 'peabrain' ring a bell?"
"What's it ta you?!" Astrid shouted. Tuffnut was getting on her nerves.
"For your information, Astrid, my brain is like a coconut."
"It's full of air?"
"No?" Tuffnut stated in bewilderment. "It's way--way bigger than a pea!"
Astrid rolled her eyes.
The sky was pocked with twinkling dots when Astrid glanced above. It looked to be five hours until daybreak. She had her axe to chop the wood for their fire, she had her binoculars, and she carried a bag of snacks. She regretted trusting Tuffnut to remember the other supplies on his way out of their clubhouse. "If you're head's so big, how come it didn't remember to bring us any blankets?"
"Eh? I did."
Astrid faced him over her shoulder for the first time. His hands were filled with two blankets. His blue eyes, shining in the pale, white moonlight, were big and nearly comical. She had been wrong.
"Keep up." Astrid said with a frown. Her blonde pigtail swished forward.
Tuffnut hugged the warm burlap spreads against his chest. He heard his pet chicken that Astrid had forbid squeak under his shirt.
Astrid stilled. She swiveled around. "Is that what I think it is?!"
"I can't leave Chicken! She needs me." Tuffnut argued quietly. Chicken ba-kawed! in approval as Tuffnut petted her feathermane.
"You are unbelievable!!" Astrid yelled. Her thoughts refused to stay in her head. "Of all the bumbling idiots to be stuck with--why don't you just go back?!" I can watch this place myself! Astrid thought.
Tuffnut watched Astrid stomp ahead. He consoled Chicken, "don't listen to her. You're my bumbling idiot, and don't you forget it." He made a sad face and lowered Chicken to the ground to scamper home to her cage in his bunk.
Astrid sat in front of a crackling campfire on a sandbank and kept her eyes on the black sea of the island. A jagged line of white moonlight bled from the horizon and gave the surrounding area of marinal plants a glow. The waves heaved loud noises intermittently against the matted sands of the shore.
Tuffnut sat across from Astrid with his hand slumped against his cheek. He felt bored with no hen's beak to prod his finger in until it was bitten.
"Odin's boot," Tuffnut spoke. He looked in Astrid's eyes with a grim smile that looked askew on him. "This is boring."
Astrid thought it was surprising for Tuffnut to admit it first. She was secretly pleased he was still willing to speak with her. She was mulling over a notion to apologize for not being so nice. They were still comrades even though they barely made provision to speak to each other on any other day on the Edge.
Tuffnut blinked slowly at his lap with his blonde lashes low and the corners of his mouth limp. The helmet atop his dreads glinted orange-red from the flames in between he and Astrid.
Tuffnut's forlorn appearance didn't suit him. Astrid believed he would look in the same way if he was the only one left awake in his bed when everyone else in the camp had slept for the night. The fire snapped and Tuffnut took small notice before sighing again from his nose.
I'm sorry, Tuff. You're not a pea-brain. You're actually kinda creative sometimes, Astrid thought. She conceived a better phrasing.
Don't take everything I say so seriously.
Astrid tensed her lip. She thought of something else to say.
What's on your mind?
"You wanna know what the best dessert is in the entire world?"
Astrid kept her eyes fixed on the sea. What was she kidding? There were no ships. She wished to ignore Tuffnut, but the Twins had a way of making anyone wonder what would come next from them. "What?" She asked.
"Jelly tarts with yakbutter."
Astrid didn't reply. Tuffnut's mind was obviously occupied with his ridiculous dessert petition for Hiccup. She did offer Tuffnut a molasses biscuit to curb his hunger. They had many hours to go at the post.
Tuffnut thought Astrid would be interested in debating the utility of desserts with every meal. Instead, her hand stretched out a brown wafer to him from her pack. He took it and ate it and he dreamed it was his mother's tart.
"Hey, Tuff. You're not really a pea-brain," Astrid said. "You're actually, um..." Creative, Astrid thought in a hurry. Funny? Dorky-in-a-kinda-good-way? Dependable? "...um..."
Tuffnut interrupted quietly, "you know nothing about me." Their fire crackled and popped for a space of time.
Astrid had heard him. There was no doubt he was still too sensitive about what she'd said. Astrid replied carefully, "I don't. But... we could pass the time if you tell me about you...and then I talk about me." At that point, the silence was uncomfortable. Her next word was an order. "Deal?!"
Tuffnut looked appeased by the suggestion, although he took a while to respond. His fingers drifted to his first bequeathed item, a tooth pendant, from a special someone. The ivory had heated in front of the fire and activated his memories. "Whaddya want to know?" he asked Astrid, twirling the tooth's necklace into coils.
