33. Team work
Turns out snatching Eret from the ground in front of a group of vikings wasn't the best idea Hiccup had, but it was fun. He could hear Storm's delighted cackle in his mind, even though she wasn't with him. She had taken Stormfly and went to find Astrid while Hiccup went to get Eret with Skullcrusher. Hiccup flew to the arena and let Eret down from Skullcrusher's claws, Storm came a few moments later and let Astrid down.
"Saddle up your dragons for training, we'll be right back," Hiccup told them while getting on to Barf and Belch, Storm just gestured to the saddles that were propped up near the entrance, she got onto Hookfang and told Meatlug to follow her.
The panic on everyone's faces when the dragons took their riders was incredibly funny, at least to Storm, she had to fight to keep her laughter in, the tribe already thought the pair was evil, insane cackling while snatching people from the ground would not help their reputation.
Getting back to the arena was easy, getting Fishlegs to stop screaming was not as easy. After he did stop screaming and after the twins stopped trying to scare him, Snotlout demanded to know why they were there. Hiccup of course answered.
"Training."
This was met with confusion, after all, the gang had chores to do, buildings to repair and training wasn't exactly their priority. Storm rolled her eyes, she lifted her helmet a bit and whispered loudly, like telling them a badly kept secret.
"Dragons make work go fast," She nodded a few times in quick succession, Hiccup snorted because she looked like a little kid that just told someone her biggest secret.
After the explanation the gang went about getting the saddles on the dragons, while the pair was double checking if everything was strapped correctly Stoick entered the arena. He went unnoticed for a moment, then Hiccup noticed him but brought no attention to the man who was observing the preparations.
"There you are," the Chief finally said startling the gang, a few shouts of 'Chief' were heard, he dismissed those with a wave of his hand and turned his attention to the pair. "Should I ask why my people have been coming to me with reports of dragons kidnapping vikings?"
"Not really, we needed our students to get here as fast as possible and your people will do well with understanding that a dragons taking someone doesn't immediately mean death," Hiccup answered with a small shrug.
"Hmmh," Stoick hummed. "Where will they be going?" he asked gesturing to the gang.
"Eret and Skullcrusher, and Fishlegs and Meatlug will be helping with transporting the lumber," Hiccup gestured to the mentioned pairs, "The twins and Barf and Belch will help with removing and destroying unnecessary rubble, Snotlout and Hookfang will be helping out with fishing and replenishing your supply, and Astrid with Stormfly will be going around and helping keep buildings from collapsing in themselves, Stormfly's spikes are great for temporary fixtures."
"Myself and Chief will be supervising and teaching them how to properly do those things," Storm added.
"How do you know how to do all of that?" Fishlegs asked, he was shocked just as everyone else that the pair knew how to use dragons for basic repairs.
"We do live somewhere Fish," Hiccup said instead of answering. "Your people should already know we're coming, right?" He asked Stoick.
"They should now," The man answered.
Showing everyone how to do their assigned jobs was surprisingly easy. The pair started with the twins, taking them to the ruined barn and making them listen to the vikings who were responsible for the rubble collection was easier than expected, but the promise of destroying the trash was enough to get them to behave. Getting the viking to stop threatening the dragons was harder, but doable.
Next Hiccup took Snotlout to the fishing boats and Storm took Astrid to one of the houses that needed repairing. Hiccup did need to fight Snotlout a bit, but at the end the threat of making Snotlout help the fishermen without Hookfang was what made the short man behave. The fishermen didn't have a problem with Hookfang after the dragon scared a school of fish directly into the nets.
Showing Astrid how to make Stormfly shoot one precise spine wasn't difficult, making the viking that were rebuilding the house relax was hard. The vikings weren't very keen on a dragon shooting poisonous spines near them, but after Astrid talked to them, and threatened them a bit, they finally relented and stopped swinging their tools in Stormfly's direction. Storm's quiet and intimidating mood on the back of the Deadly Nadder helped immensely, not that the vikings would actually confess that the girl scared them.
Getting the lumber was the most time consuming task. The dragons could transport it with no problems, the most time was consumed by getting the trees attached to the dragons. Chains needed to be used and figuring out the best way to stack the logs and showing the process to the lumberjacks took longer than expected, but it was done.
Hiccup stayed with Fishlegs while Storm got a lift from Eret back to Astrid. Hiccup stayed so he could survey and help with the transferring and Storm knew that Astrid had the hardest job of making the vikings she was working with to trust Stormfly and Storm's help and presence wouldn't go amiss.
Stoick had made a few appearances through the day, once in time to stop the twins from burning a new pile of logs delivered by Fishlegs and Meatlug, twice to make Snotlout get back to work and once to stop Hookfang from eating the freshly caught fish that was left near the docks. He managed to catch Hiccup in the act of teaching Eret how to level trees with Skullcrusher's help, much to the present vikings' ire. Everything he saw paled in comparison of catching the end of Storm's shouting match with one of his people who was on the ground.
"IF YOU STOPPED WAVING YOUR HAMMER EVERY TIME SHE PASSES NEAR YOU, SHE WOULDN'T STARTLE YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"
Stoick later figured out what the argument was about: the vikings who were helping with the repairs were nervous with a Nadder being so close to them, and their natural response when they saw the dragon near them was fight. This poised a problem because every time the dragon shot a spine one of the jumpier vikings tried to fight the dragon, even with Astrid on its back. Storm had managed to stop this from escalating and even tried to get the viking to go help somewhere else, because with the dragons' help the work was going smoother and faster than ever before and one viking really didn't make a difference. When Stormfly finally retaliated and shot a spine near the viking it all came to a head, the viking tried to fight her and Storm did not let that happen and punched the man. What Stoick saw was the end of the altercation and the end of the vikings' want to fight the Nadder.
Everything else went smoothly and the important work was done by the evening. Storm sent Astrid to get Snotlout and told her to head for the clearing afterwards. Hiccup met up with Storm near the entrance to the woods and they made their way to the clearing together. They took a while getting there as the forest floor was muddy and puddles were slowing them down.
"Everything went surprisingly well," Hiccup commented, Storm hummed in agreement. "Maybe integrating dragons will be easy."
"Don't get your hopes up Chief, I got into a fight with one of the vikings," she shrugged at Hiccup's stunned look. "They will need some supervision, I don't have the time to go around punching everyone." She laughed.
Hiccup chuckled in agreement. The rest of the way they stayed silent, trudging through the mud. The pair reached the clearing where Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs and their dragons were.
"I sent Eret to get the twins," Astrid explained the missing people. "Hey, Dragon boy I have a problem with Stormfly and I could use your help." She said and a moment later Fishlegs spoke.
"I need to know how to help Meatlug!"
"You go help Fishlegs," Storm stopped Hiccup from going to Astrid. "You know more about Gronckles and I'm sure I can help Astrid." Hiccup agreed easily and Storm didn't miss the infuriated look that Astrid tried to hide.
Astrid's plan to talk to Hiccup was effortlessly simple and Storm saw straight through it. She made her way to Astrid without another word, when she reached the viking she found that Astrid didn't even have a question or problem to start the conversation.
"So what's wrong with Stormfly?" Storm asked.
"Nothing," Astrid fumed.
Storm rolled her eyes and grabbed the viking's arm, dragging her farther away from the others. Astrid tried to get out of her hold but failed and was forced to follow. Storm lifted up her helmet.
"Listen, I don't know why you wanted my brother alone with you," Storm lied in a whisper, "But let me tell you: not now. We got a lot of shit going on with your Chief and this is not the time for your ideas."
Astrid huffed at her, but relented and didn't say anything else. She tugged her arm from Storm's hold and crossed her arms, they were left standing side by side as they observed Hiccup talking with Fishlegs. Neither of the girls noticed the twins flying in their direction. The twins' gleeful laughter was their only warning before they were splashed head to toe in mud.
Snotlout was cackling, Fishlegs had his hand covering his mouth in surprise, Eret reached the clearing a moment after and watched the scene in shock.
"Oh Thor," Hiccup whispered. "What was that!?" He shouted at the twins.
"Revenge!" the twins answered without an ounce of regret. "We've been planning this from the moment they poured water on us!"
"Fuck!" Storm yelled as she tried to get the mud out of her eyes, she could already feel one of her eyes hurting from the mud that managed to get beneath her eyelid. She felt a tear escape from the irritation.
"Are you kidding me?" Hiccup growled at the twins as he went to Storm and made her look up so he could see her irritated eye. Astrid got off easier as she was just dirty. "This is not the same as what they did to you! They were getting you back from the pranks you pulled on them!"
"Yeah, but-" Tuffnut tried to say something, but Hiccup didn't let him.
"STOP." He ordered, then gently asked the women, "What should their punishment be?"
"Whatever Storm decides," Astrid answered, looking at Storm with concern who's eye was watering harshly. Astrid didn't like standing there covered in mud, but at least she wasn't hurt, because mud in the eye was not a pleasant experience.
"You decide," Storm told Hiccup. "I wasn't in the mood for this kind of nonsense before and I'm certainly not in the mood now, if I have my way we will be down two trainees." She removed Hiccup's hands from her head and turned to Astrid. "Show me a good bathing spot, Chief has this under control."
Passing by the twins on their way out of the clearing the women send them a pair of harsh glares, even though Storm looked a bit ridiculous with one of her eyes tightly shut, the message was clear: the twins got off lightly. Astrid gripped Storm's forearm when she stumbled on some foliage helping her walk, Storm didn't mind.
When the pair's back's disappeared, Hiccup turned to the twins with a harsh glare that rivaled the ones they got from the women.
"You two are bathing every one of these dragons, I want them spotless. You have until sundown." He growled.
"But that's not fair," Ruffnut whined.
"It's not fair that you hurt Storm?" He yelled. "They got you wet and you were dry in an hour and for that you hurt one of them!" He yelled while pointing in the general direction of where the girls disappeared. "Dumping water on them I would understand, but this I don't. We will be observing your punishment." He said gesturing to the other three men who had long gone quiet and were watching everything unfold.
"Get to it!" he encouraged while leaning on a nearby tree. He rubbed his forehead in annoyance, this was not a good situation. He was very annoyed and he still had the fucking letter to read!
