Asher heads to the arena in the center of the Edge, and finds Dagur in there with a kind of dragon he's never seen before. Tall, big back legs, and a long tail...he's just glad Berk doesn't have to fight these, that was a fast reaction time between being noticed and the dragon going on high alert. Asher coughs in near-embarrassment - he's not getting flustered over being kicked out of Bloom's hut, he's not - and says "So, I got kicked out by a dragon…"
Dagur shrugs as he keeps feeding Sleuther, and says "First off, I'd keep my distance from Sleuther if I were you. He doesn't like strangers after the Dragon Hunters had him in Dragon Fights. Easy, buddy, easy…"
Asher gulps and takes a few steps backwards as 'Sleuther's' tail move high into the air and snaps together, then watches in amazement as Dagur calms the dragon down with a handful of Dragon Nip and a few claps. "Second, what did the dragon look like?"
"Well, I only saw the head…long nose, horns on its head. Bloom called him Torch, if that means anything. Also...how'd you just do that?"
Dagur nods, and says "That's his name. He's a Typhoomerang, you guys on Berk don't have them. They live near islands with Eels as they're the only species of dragon that can eat Eels safely. Bloom saved Torch from some other, bigger dragons, healed him when he was hurt, then reunited him with his mother - she'd gotten taken by Dragon Hunters, hence why he was getting attacked in the first place. He's been a good friend ever since. As for calming Sleuther down, its something Bloom figured out early on after we brought Sleuther here."
Asher groans, and asks "Does every single dragon Bloom comes across end up being super protective of her?!" Is he seriously going to have to fight his way through a wall of dragons to get to Bloom?!
Dagur shrugs, and says "Pretty much, yeah. Most all of them like her well enough, at least. Considering the detail that she saves them with no hesitation or thought that they could hurt her, they like her the best."
Asher sees something on Sleuther's wing, and grimly says "That had to hurt…" It's a scar, a long one. Almost as long as his wing, and at least a hand wide.
Dagur grimaces when he sees where Asher's looking, and says "Yeah. I bet it did. He was covered in scars like that when we first saved him. Wouldn't let even Bloom get near him, she had to float the fish we brought for him for a solid two weeks. Inched her way a little closer each day, until he was comfortable enough for her to be in arms reach. Took another week, though, for him to let her touch him. And then, only with Dragon Nip in hand. He lets me get near after a month of Bloom helping me gain his trust."
"What happened, though?" Not even the dragons in Warrior training were that beat up, not even at the end.
Dagur grimaces at him, and says "Dragon Fights. One of the crueler ways the Dragon Hunters make money. They capture dragons, and the most vicious or defiant of them get sent to the fights. Sleuther here was the reigning champion for months, and he had the scars to prove it. Razorwhips, Nightmares, anything mean enough to maybe pose a challenge and give the crowd something to see were thrown in there with him. He beat them all, but at a cost to himself. Physically and mentally. Like I said before, most dragons like Bloom almost on principle. Sleuther here didn't like anyone for a long time." Case in point, the large dragon growls at Asher and locks his tail up again when he takes a step too many closer.
When the two men get to the Clubhouse, Stoick immediately asks "How is she? Is Bloom alright? I saw the Nightmare take her to that Hut." And GObber subsequently talked him into waiting at the Clubhouse halfway to the Hut, saying Bloom most likely wouldn't want to see him.
Dagur crosses his arms, and says "She's sick. We think she's having a reaction to the Dragonroot arrow she took last night."
Mala sighs, and says "Bloom reacts to the oddest of things. You know that?"
Gobber says "She's never been sick in fifteen years! Now, she suddenly gets sick out of nowhere?"
Heather just shrugs, and says "She's allergic to Blue Oleanders, to. Wouldn't stop sneezing when we were camping with a bush nearby. And then, when we went to get a Snow Wraith tooth…she just sorta shut down. We think its because of her magic - she was using it to keep us warm in the middle of the blizzard a Snow Wraith generates when it hunts, and, well, the next time she rested, she slept for days. No joke." Stormfly and Hookfang tried breathing fire on her, which got sucked into her body but didn't wake her up, and Brightfire, her Terrors, and what seemed like half the Night Terror population was always at her side.
Stoick goes pale, then asks "How do I get to her hut?"
All the Riders exchange glances, and Heather says "Chief Stoick, if Bloom wouldn't want to see you when she's not sick…"
Mala adds "Lets just say she's not that great to be around when she's sick. Actually, she's dangerous to be around when she's sick." And not just because of her temper either, which gets considerably shorter when she's sick.
Snotlout laughs, earning a glare from Asher and Gobber, and asks "Just how dangerous could she really be? Its not like she could really focus long enough to do more of that fiery stuff, right?"
There's a heavy silence among the Riders that says he's dead wrong, and then Dagur pinches the bridge of his nose and says "Snotbrain, you're an idiot. Magic was never a choice for her. You think she learned how to use it? No, she learned how to control it. Else Berk would've burned down to nothing but ashes a long time ago. She loses control of her magic whenever she gets too incredibly angry and that control slips…or when she can't focus enough to keep that control up easily. Last time she was sick, she was sneezing fire and random explosions, coughing up embers and orange sparkles, and any fire we got started burned ten feet high if she coughed."
Heather crosses her arms, and says "Your forgetting the dragons. They flocked to her side when she got sick. We think her magic has something to do with dragons, but we're not sure. It would explain how they like her so much, though."
Asher frowns, even as Stoick leaves the room, and asks "I thought you said the dragons like her because she helps them…"
Mala shrugs, and says "That factors into it to, doubtlessly. But dragons have liked her long before she left Berk. What other explanation is there? They helped her learn to control her magic, were friends to her when nobody but Gobber wanted her around, what else but magic would make that possible?"
Asher nods, and says "Good point." He goes to find Stormfly after that, and Snotlout joins him to look for Hookfang. If they happen to be at Bloom's hut, that's no fault of theirs.
Stoick's heading to Bloom's hut - all the way up that cliff, did she have to make it that far away?! - even after what he was told. He knows he never got to know her, knows he was never there for her - and knows, unfortunately, that all of that and much more is likely to be thrown back in his face the minute Bloom sees him. Seems the only thing she learned from her time with Vikings was their stubbornness.
When he finally gets to the right Hut, after a good ten minutes of crossing bridges - only Bloom would put her Hut on a cliff that high, honestly - he has to stop and stare at the sight greeting him as he catches his breath. No less than three large, dangerous dragons are in various positions around the Hut. There's a Nightmare draped - yes, draped - across the top of her Hut, the Deadly Nadder Asher rode on is sitting to one side of the building, the Gronckle is on the other, and he thinks there's something behind it where he can't see. Nevertheless, he heads in when the dragons keeping guard outside the hut don't react other than to look at him.
The sight he finds is Bloom lying down on her bed - and her Light Fury with its head on her abdomen, effectively trapping her there. There's also three Terrors curled up to her in various spots, and a dragon's head that looks a bit like its wearing a skull is poking through the window…right above her bed. In hindsight, she likely put the window there for exactly that reason.
Stoick finds one of the Terrors' high-pitched growl rather amusing, in all honesty - what exactly does it think it can do against him? - but it immediately gets Bloom's attention. Her eyes snap open, her free arm immediately goes for what he assumes is a hidden weapon strapped to her leg, and she gets a glare on her face that spells death itself. Which doesn't lessen very much when she recognizes who it is that her Terror alerted to, though she does take her hand away from her leg without a weapon of some sort.
Brightfire's eyes go from hugely dilated to narrowed dangerously in a way he remembers from the dragon raids that stopped three years ago, and the dragon head growls in a way that says he's dead if it can reach him.
"Stoick." Bloom's voice brings his gaze back to his…what's he supposed to call her? He publicly disowned her, so she's technically not his daughter at the moment. He meets her blue gaze, and isn't very surprised to see wariness in its depths. "What are you doing here?"
"Ah…right…" Stoick looks around as he rubs the back of his head, then sits down in a chair that creaks ominously as it takes his weight. "I was hoping to talk."
Bloom snorts derisively - which sounds even worse when she's congested as much as she is - and says "You said plenty the last two times we talked. You know, me throwing my lot in with the dragons, and before that how I was the most unviking-like Viking on the island and you almost gave up on me. Remember that? And, before that, it was you talking at me and not listening to a word I said."
Stoick winces, and says "I know I messed up. A lot…" Bloom doesn't say anything this time, but her gaze is cold and accusatory. "I turned a blind eye to your training, and…" He trails off, but Bloom seems to know exactly where to pick up.
She angrily says "You were utterly blind to everything about me, Stoick. Every. Single. Thing. You never noticed when I started blowing up things by accident whenever I got upset, never listened when I tried to tell you how the other kids you brought here with you were treating me all of a sudden, never said one word of encouragement or acknowledgement when Gobber made me his apprentice. Its like I never existed except when you wanted me to do something!"
Stoick opens his mouth to retort, but Bloom snaps "No, Stoick! For once in my life, your going to shut up and LISTEN! You were never there for me! Not once in all the time since you adopted me! You want to know why they started bullying me? Because I was different. Because I went on a damn walk through the forest that nobody else ever went into for whatever reason! And I went for that damned walk because I was bored out of my mind! Everyone else was with their own parents, but mine was busy chiefing around Berk! You were so busy being there for everyone else in the village that you were never there for me! I tried so hard to get your attention, to get some praise or approval, but every single time you just brushed me off like I was worthless! Like I meant nothing to you! Which, by the way, was proven correct when you told me you nearly gave up on me, and said I was the 'most unviking-like Viking' on the entire island! Add to it the detail that you admitted - and the entire village agreed - that I was never one of you, and what did you expect me to do but leave?!"
To Stoick's utter shock - and guilt - Bloom bursts into tears at that point. Probably due to the fever, as well as over a decade of pent-up anger directed at all but one resident of Berk.
Asher and Snotlout had just found Hookfang and Stormfly when they hear Bloom start shouting - and they never knew she was quite so angry at all of them. Or at Stoick in particular.
Snotlout winces as Bloom yells about how Stoick was always too busy being the chief of Berk to spend any time with her, and asks "You think she'll ever forgive us for the bullying? Because, she's hot."
Asher glares at him, then reluctantly says "Probably not. Not without a miracle, at least."
When they hear a sound neither of them have ever heard from Bloom before, both of them peek their heads through the door - Bloom's crying. And not just a little, like that time Asher ran into her at the Village the night before the final test, she's full-out sobbing into Brightfire's scales with her arms wrapped around the white neck. Her three Terrors are readjusting their positions next to her, and Brightfire is doing the best imitation of a hug a dragon can possibly manage - a pretty good one, to, if they're being brutally honest.
Torch, meanwhile, is glaring at a stunned Stoick like the Chief is about to be dragon-food. There's also a growling sound from outside, and Stormfly stalks in and smacks Stoick over the back of the head with a wing before unceremoniously kicking him out. Literally, as she kicks him out of the room. Only for him to get snatched up by Hookfang and taken to the Clubhouse by the angry Nightmare.
Both Asher and Snotlout stare at the display, and Snotlout says "Wow." Which is entirely accurate, what else do you say when you watch a Deadly Nadder literally kick someone out of a room?
When Asher looks back into Bloom's hut, Brightfire's grooming the red-head's hair while her Terrors cuddle up to her and lick her face as her whole body trembles. Torch, meanwhile, has taken up Hookfang's spot for the moment and is staring down at them with constricted pupils - and Asher only notices when Snotlout points that detail out. "Uh…"
Asher backs away quickly with Snotlout following, only to be found by Heather and Windshear two minutes later demanding to know what exactly happened and why Hookfang looks like he wants to chew Stoick up and spit him out on the other side of the snow-covered mountain. Asher says "Well, he and Bloom talked…Bloom went off on him and started yelling…then she broke down crying…"
Heather groans, then says "Well, Hookfang looks like he wants to dump Stoick out in the middle of the ocean. And not in a way that leaves him alive. Snotlout, you come with us. Asher, you see if you can try to help Bloom even a little."
Snotlout snorts, and says "Yeah, right. She doesn't like anyone from Berk but Gobber. And he's not really the touchy-feely kinda guy."
Heather just shrugs, and says "You're the one who likes her, Asher. Seeing as the usual cold Viking approach never worked even a tiny bit, try something else." She shrugs unhelpfully, then Windshear flies up and grabs Snotlout in her mouth before taking off towards the Clubhouse.
"Hey! Why me?!"
"Because, Snotlout, you rode Hookfang and he seems to like you well enough! You get to talk him down!"
"WHAT?!"
AN: Hey, everyone! So, I'm heading on vacation for a week starting tomorrow...so, here's something to tide everyone over! As for Bloom's breakdown...honestly, it was going to happen sometime with Stoick and company around. Especially since she's sick.
Enjoy! More updates coming soon! Please review!
