22. Explanations
No one dared to speak first. Nervous glances were shared by all, excluding Stoick. It has been almost two weeks with the 'Dragon demons' in Berk and the training was happening every day. After the first few days the villagers stopped coming to watch the lessons, the pair used to quiz and give lessons by word, they did not go by Gobber's teaching methods. There was no 'Learning on the job', at least not until today. The uneventful days deterred the villagers and by the time the first week ended no one came to watch the training and no one was there to report to Stoick.
After training the gang all had their own chores and what not, they never made time to find their Chief, who was always hard to find in the argument prone village. Stoick didn't even know that they stopped getting lectures and started actually training, that they met their dragons, he didn't know why they left to the clearing today. He didn't know about the fact that the gang had seen the 'demons' faces. Those facts discouraged any of them from speaking, because they didn't know how to begin. Stoick had become fed up with the silence from the group.
"Today," he started, aggressively stabbing his finger on the table, "Snotlout found me to tell me you were going to some clearing in the woods with those two, then he came back saying he got threatened and beat up by the 'demons' for no reason. I want to know what kind of things they are doing, because if they think that they can get away with hurting my people they have another thing coming."
Eret audibly snorted in disbelief, all eyes turned to him. They looked at him like he was crazy, Stoick was visibly angry and laughing at him would do no good.
"No offence, but what would you do to them if they did hurt someone for 'no reason'?" Eret asked, he did not care that he seemed crazy. But it was clear that Fishlegs had failed to inform the Chief of what had actually happened. Astrid seemed to understand that also as she sent Fishlegs a questioning glare, the large man only avoided her eyes, and stared at the table with a guilty look.
"I would-I would-" Stoick suddenly stopped, the anger in his voice was unmistakable, but it was clear that he was finally thinking about the situation without an angry outlook.
He stopped to think. The fact was, that the moment that Snotlout had come to him saying that he was attacked without reason, Stoick saw red and ignored anyone else that tried to talk to him, including Fishlegs. He was only able to calm down with Gobber's help.
"If somethin' bad had happened, they all would've came back." Gobber told him. And that eased the Chiefs mind for a while, until the twins came back alone. Then he saw Astrid and Eret enter the hall and sit down without talking to any of the people at the table, he became angry again, they left as a group and came back in pairs, something did happen. The atmosphere at the table was tense from the moment all of the young vikings sat down, that was obvious and his presence hadn't helped. His voice was calmer when he spoke again.
"I need to know what happened today and how they are training you. Because that - " he pointed at Sotlout's shoulder that was in a splint, which neither Eret or Astrid had noticed. " – doesn't seem like normal training to me."
"Snotlout lied," Astrid was the first to speak, her heated glare pointed at Snotlout. "He didn't get attacked for no reason, he was about to hurt Hookfang and the 'demons' stepped in."
"Who's Hookfang?" Stoick asked.
"My dragon."
"Not anymore!" Cackled Tuffnut, his sister joining him.
"Did you see the look in their eyes? I'm disappointed that the worst you got was a sprained shoulder, because I was sure they were going to kill you!" The female twin continued cackling.
"They gave you dragons? Why was I not informed of this?" At his question Astrid cringed in shame as he was looking right at her when he asked. She was the leader if the group and it was her responsibility to keep the Chief up to date.
"You're very hard to get a hold of and I thought that either one of us, or one of the villagers had told you," she answered honestly, anxiously rubbing her hands together at the look that Stoick gave her. "But I see now that I was wrong."
"Yes Chief, we all have dragons," said Fishlegs, trying to get the conversation on track again. "At least we all had them this morning, but I'm not sure Snotlout has one anymore." The man gave Snotlout an uncharacteristic glare, after all Fishlegs was the one that wanted to know as much about dragons as he could and if Snotlout's stunt will cost them the valuable information, he would do something he would regret.
"What does that mean?" Stoick questioned, getting a bit annoyed, every question the group answered just raised more questions.
"I think it would be best if we started from the beginning, how much do you actually know about the training we got?" Astrid inquired, leaning on the table.
"The last thing I was told was that they were still lecturing you at the academy, which was a day before everyone left you alone at the arena."
"Yeah, they were doing that for a while. They actually told us a lot about different dragons, some we didn't know existed – "
"I wrote everything I could remember down after the lessons," Fishlegs interrupted Astrid, he then put down his notebook on the table in front of Stoick. "I have it right here."
Stoick picked up the notebook with interest. The best book about dragons in Berk was the Dragon manual and it taught how to kill, not like what Fishlegs had written down: hygiene habits, eating habits, mating practices, migration patterns. While not all of the dragons had that information written down, some of the dragons were only mentioned, it was still a lot of new information.
"You could write a new book with this," the Chief commented. "It would be very valuable, and with your name on it, it would bring you status."
"I know!" Fishlegs exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "It would be one of a kind and other tribes would wa-"
"Let me stop you right there." Eret interrupted, he ignored the glare that the Chief sent him, and he knew that his behavior was out of line, but he did not care. "First, I did not take you as someone who stole other peoples' work. Second, the people you got this information from, probably already have a book like that and if they don't it's for good reason."
"How do you know that?" Stoick asked skeptically. Actually all of the people at the table were giving him distrustful looks.
"It seems that you all forgotten that I was a dragon hunter just four weeks ago," his voice betrayed his irritation. "That career path should come with a warning: 'Getting the dragons won't be your biggest problem, keeping them will'. I used to see those two more than I saw land, and sometimes you don't fight, sometimes you decide to talk."
"What kind of wimpy dragon hunter were you?" Asked Snotlout with disdain.
"A sensible one," Eret sneered back, he pointed at Fishlegs. "I'm not telling you to not do it, I'm just advising you to actually ask those two if you can. Lest you do it behind their backs and become in league with Snotlout."
That seemed to scare Fishlegs a little, he would certainly not hold out with the murderous glares pinned to him. The 'demons' were his main (and only) way to learn about new dragons, at least until he got the hang of flying again, but then again, if the two didn't let him relearn he would have no means to get the information himself.
"Okay, where was I?" asked Astrid, wanting to be done with the tense atmosphere that was created. "Oh, right. After about a week and a half the girl left and without explanation we were thrown into actual training, that was meant to help with our stamina, and it did help. We have to do those on our own now. Then the girl returned and we were introduced to our dragons." She stopped making sure that Stoick was keeping up.
"You say introduced, we say reunited!" Ruffnut exclaimed. The others, except Tuffnut, stared at her in confusion. "What? Don't tell me you don't know."
"They don't!" gasped Tuffnut, then in fake anguish he cried. "How can you be so negligent to forget?"
"What is happening?" whispered Fishlegs, he got no answer as the others also had no idea.
"No wonder they left us the first time! Were we ever this careless?" cried Ruffnut in fake agony.
"Just tell us what you mean!" shouted Astrid, getting fed up with their acting. The twins suddenly stopped, looking unimpressed.
"The dragons we got?" started Tuffnut.
"Are the same ones that left us," Ruffnut finished for him. Everyone's eyes widened in shock.
"Ho-how…?" questioned Astrid, not really knowing what she was asking exactly.
"We were calling our dragon Barf and Belch before they left, and this dragon accepted the name very quickly, and honestly? The selection was the same, I mean how could you not notice?" rambled Tuffnut.
"That is a weird coincidence," mumbled Fishlegs. "It is a coincidence, right?" he asked the others. They gave reassuring nods, although none were actually sure. If it wasn't a coincidence then the 'Dragon demons' had somehow figured out which dragons left, tacked them down, figured out which dragon was bonded to who… and that would be too much work for anyone.
"Ask them yourself the next time you see them. Now I would like to get some sleep tonight, so please, continue." said Stoick.
"We... we were reunited with our dragons," Astrid physically shook off the surprise from the earlier revelation. "We bonded for a bit, then-and then Hookfang accidently smacked Dragon boy into the wall of the academy, and-" she nervously swallowed, "-and they took of their helmets…"
"WHAT?" Bellowed Stoick. "Why did none of you tell me this?" he demanded and was met with fearful silence. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. "Next time tell me immediately if something like this happens again."
He got mumbles of agreement. He decided to not say anything else in that department, he knew that this was stressful for all of them as much as it was stressful for him, and he didn't need to see the 'demons' daily like the gang did. He gestured for Astrid to continue as she still hadn't explained what happened with Snotlout.
"The helmet thing happened yesterday," she said, her tone was a bit defensive. "And today we got to fly with our dragons. It was so amazing to be in the air again!" her enthusiasm was shared with almost everyone at the table.
"Speak for yourself, those two didn't let me fly for no reason," Snotlout stated, and the gang couldn't understand if he seriously thought that the 'demons' had no reason.
"There was a reason," Fishlegs stated plainly.
"They were showing us how to properly fly with the saddles that they had and they were observing our knowledge and skill we still had, or in Eret's case, how we handled flying. We had to call our dragons to us and get on them ourselves, which involved asking the dragons if we could fly with them, and Snotlout…" Astrid stopped talking, she didn't know how to explain that Snotlout had royally messed up.
"He started shouting at Hookfang, his Nightmare, and tried to get on him without the dragon's permission, that was the start of his mistakes," Eret took over, seeing Astrid struggle for words. "Then, after Hookfang caught on fire so Snotlout couldn't touch him, Snotlout started shouting more and when the Nightmare didn't react, this one-" Eret pointed at Snotlout, who looked angry that the group didn't lie to save his ass, after all Snotlout was the heir and what he did reflected on the village. "-thought that it would be smart to punch the dragon."
"We were all watching this happen, I asked the 'demons' if we should do something, but they didn't answer me. They were just standing there, their faces were set in this murderous expression – "
"Then once Snotlout raised his hand, they both moved and BAM!" Tuffnut interrupted.
"The man had caught Snot's fist and was holding him immobilized!" Ruffnut recounted with wonder in her voice. "Then the female 'demon' literally growled at Snotlout asking him what he was doing. Their eyes were full of murder, it was awesome." She let out a dreamy sigh.
"The he did mistake number two happened," continued Eret, the least affected of the group, as even Stoick was looking at the gang in concern. "He insinuated that the dragons were servants. And let me tell you they did not like that." Eret let out a humorless chuckle, the reality of what could have been catching up to him.
"If they are that dangerous, I'm not sure I want you to continue your training." Slowly said Stoick, seeing the various looks of fear on the young faces. What caught his eye was that Eret, who had the most experience with the 'demons', didn't seem afraid, he seemed tired. He met the ex-hunter's eyes and Eret shook his head.
"No, we should continue training, they weren't angry at us for his mistakes that means that they want to help, and Snotlout still has a chance at riding Hookfang. And to tell the truth, he got off easy." Eret said lost in thought.
"I wrote down what they told him when I reached the village, that's why I couldn't try to speak to you until after Snotlout did Chief," said Fishlegs. "They said something along the lines of: 'Until you go down on your knees and beg Hookfang for forgiveness, you're not getting in the saddle.'"
"The choice of begging is up to you," Stoick forced out. "But lying is unacceptable, regardless of how you handle the training, you will complete any given task in the village without complain, am I understood?" he angrily asked the cowering man.
"Yes Chief," came a mumble.
"Hmm, I would like a meeting with the 'demons' in the future," Stoick said after a second. "Ask them when they can meet with me and report to me when you have their answer."
Stoick left the table, and its occupants deep in thought. The day finally caught up to all of them and one by one they left the table. The day's exciting and frightful events wouldn't let them get much sleep, but maybe they all needed the time to think about everything.
