23. Right? Part 1

Snotlout was the first to leave the table. He was annoyed at the others, they were his friends and they should've covered for him. So what if he did something bad? He didn't do it to them! Or any person for that matter. All he did was try to discipline his dragon and he got a dislocated – it was dislocated Ruffnut, not sprained! – shoulder because of it.

A dislocated shoulder, Thor knows how many weeks of doing chores around the village and nightmares were the things he got today. Those stupid 'Dragon demons'. What did they know about keeping dragons? They showed only kindness to the dragons and they still needed to ask for permission to ride them! Well Snotlout showed only kindness once and his dragon left!

But… the 'demons' got him back. It didn't matter if they knew it or not, they got him the dragon that was his true companion back to him. Hookfang was the one thing that was left from the past, the one thing that could remind Snotlout of his cousin.

His cousin. Hiccup. The name no one had the courage to say in public. After his cousin left, the dragons soon followed.

Snotlout got three months of happiness with his dragon, before the dragon left. During the three months Snotlout did everything he could to make the dragon happy and he still left. Crying was something he hadn't done since he was seven, but after his Nightmare left… Snotlout cried. Alone in his room, in the middle of the night when no one could see or hear him. During one of these nights Snotlout promised himself that he would not lose another friend like that, he thought that being nice was not the answer.

Snotlout had forgotten about that promise long ago, but the 'demons' unwittingly reminded him of it. He looked at their faces and something reminded him of his cousin. Of the skinny, clumsy boy that held dragons closer than family. Snotlout was reminded of his promise and that led to him being 'suspended' from training. He was actually happy that that was the worst of his punishment, the look he saw in the female's eyes…

It's not like they can keep him from training. He was the heir! Snotlout would let the pair cool down for a few days and then he will give them a half-assed apology and they will let him right back into training! Right?

The twins were the second ones to leave. They were still excited about the day's events. The fight they witnessed and the flying was keeping their adrenaline up. The fact that they were the only ones to notice that the dragons weren't new was awesome too.

The energy would be the thing keeping them up. They didn't have a lot to think about, not like the others, well maybe they did need to figure out what kind of pranks they could pull on the 'demons' and not get killed. Because other than that, the twins weren't afraid of the pair, and the pair seemed to value their presence.

When the twins had asked to have their lesson before Astrid, they were not hopeful. They were surprised when the 'demons' agreed and let them go first. And the lesson wasn't boring, the twins did great. Ruffnut was genuinely surprised when they didn't get scolded for their shitty landing, but the 'demons' decided to fill the day with surprises.

The first surprise, to the twins, was that the clearing was a real place and the 'demons' didn't take the gang to the middle of the woods to get rid of them. Then the female 'demon' knew they wanted to scare her and didn't say anything, which meant that she had a sense of humor and by extend the male one did too. The twins knew that the pair had a strong presence and a reputation to match, but seeing the two work was another thing entirely.

"If we ask, do you think they would teach us how to move that fast?" Tuffnut asked his sister.

"They should, I mean that is training. Right?"

Fishlegs hurried to his home. He left just after the twins. He still wanted to go over all of his notes and try guessing what classifications that the dragons could be. He was deep in thought, mostly about Eret's earlier words. 'The people you got this information from, probably already have a book like that.' That was true, he knew that, but still. He wanted to do something for dragons just as someone had done just five years ago.

Fishlegs couldn't stop the war between dragons and humans, but he could write a book so people would know how to take care of different breeds. That was what he was good at and he would put their names on the book also!

'Lest you do it behind their backs and become in league with Snotlout.'

Remembering those words made Fishlegs shiver in fear. With the way the 'demons' hold themselves and with the fact that they were smaller than the average viking would mean that they were weaker. The way they acted in the clearing proved that they were not existing under normal viking rules, after all they lived with dragons.

The 'Dragon demons' showed themselves to be very smart people. Fishlegs still couldn't figure out how they knew about the meeting or how they appeared in the mist that day. He was a little embarrassed to admit that until he saw their faces he thought that they were some kind of demons, not people who chose a different life than normal. They were people who understood the importance of freely given information.

Fishlegs decided to ask them if he could create the book he wanted to. The pair was made up of intellectual individuals and they would certainly agree. Right?

Stoick had left the table and its occupants a while ago. Now, nursing a cup of ale, he could help but think about how ridiculous his life had become. Five years ago he pushed away the only family he had because he couldn't believe that living with dragons was possible, he lost his son and now he was desperate for help, from people who lived with dragons.

Dragons had saved them before, multiple times and the moment he had decided that living with them wouldn't be a bad thing and ordered the (at the time) teens to go find his son, the dragons left. And so had the opportunity to find his son. He still tried, but after two years of voyages and no news he gave up, because no ship could reach as far as a dragon could.

Fishlegs' notebook, full of dragons no one in the archipelago had heard about, had restored hope in the Chief. Those 'demons' had been further than anyone else he knew, they have seen dragons others had a hard time imagining, they surely met people. Maybe, just maybe, they met Hiccup. Maybe they knew where he was. The 'demons' had agreed to help. They were good people as long as dragons were treated with respect. If he asked and they knew something they would tell him. Right?