"Ah, Hookfang, this is the life," Snotlout sighed, nesting his back on Hookfang's sleeping body. Hookfang only grumbled and rolled over in response.

It was a quiet night on Dragon's Edge. Well, as quiet as it could ever be considering the chaos that seemed to erupt there every second. The Dragon Hunters had been unusually quiet in the past few days and were nowhere to be seen, and so there wasn't really much to do aside from the daily chores that everyone had to do. Snotlout had finished his hours earlier, and decided to take this opportunity to relax outside his hut.

Yeah, Fishface was probably cooking supper or something, but the rider still figured that getting some good ol' beauty rest first was a better idea.

"Ya' think I scared those Hunters with my awesomeness?" He asked, gazing up at the stars. He wasn't really expecting much of an answer, Hookfang was sleeping, after all, but nothing could really stop Snotlout from inflating his own ego. It was a bit of a habit at this point.

'Jeez,' Snotlout thought with mild annoyance, 'Hiccup must be rubbing off on me.'

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden screech of a Terrible Terror. Snotlout groaned at the interruption of his moment of relaxation, and watched grumpily as the small dragon landed in front of him, carrying a rolled-up letter in tow.

"Uh, that's weird," The Jorgenson said, untying the parchment from the dragon's claw, "Mom already sent me a letter yesterday, who's this from?"

Snotlout opened the letter, skimming through it. It was filled with a bunch of words he didn't really understand, but he got the jist of the message. He folded the letter, and grinned. Widely.


Hiccup had a pounding headache. Okay, so maybe that was partially his fault. He did spend most of the day overthinking the Dragon Hunters' absence and had gone patrolling with Toothless for thrice as long as he usually did, and he may or may not have accidentally hit his head several times in the process, but he was legitimately trying to relax this time.

Fishlegs had cooked the night's supper, and so he and the other Riders had gathered in the clubhouse to eat. Well, all except Snotlout, who everyone figured had gone to take an early nap.

Hiccup's headache was certainly not helped by his boisterous cousin suddenly barging into the clubhouse with a manic grin on his face.

"GUYS, GUYS, GUYS!" Snotlout shouted, "You're not gonna believe what happened!"

Hiccup groaned from his spot on the table, "Snotlout, not so loud, please!"

"Oh, let me guess!" Tuffnut raised his hand eagerly, as if he were a school-child being picked for an answer, "You wrote a musical about tragedy and loss?"

"You had your first cognitive thought?" Astrid snarked from the side.

"You finally lost your v-"

"Okay!" Hiccup slammed a hand over Ruffnut's mouth. He did NOT need that mental image, "Snotlout, continue?"

Snotlout, Hiccup noted, was practically dancing as he spoke, hopping up and down as if he was a five-year old kid again. He actually looked like he was about to explode with excitement over whatever had happened!

"DOGSBREATH'S COMING OVER TOMORROW!"

"WHAT?!" The others had yelled in unison.

"Wait, Dogsbreath?" Astrid questioned, her eyes still wide with disbelief, "As in, Dogsbreath the Destructive from when we were kids?"

"Didn't he and his family move out of Berk when we were like, ten?" Fishlegs asked. He was quivering slightly, having not exactly the most pleasant of memories with the older man, and he that knew most of the others had pretty much the same thoughts about it.

"His parents are retiring and decided to move back to Berk!" Snotlout squealed, "Isn't it awesome?!"

"Uh, no?!" Ruffnut groused, "The dude was, like, a huge jerk!"

"Yeah," Tuffnut agreed, "He was even worse than you were!"

"Oh, shut up! You just didn't know him like I did!" The shorter viking stubbornly boasted, "He was like, the brother I never had!"

"Am I a joke to you?" Tuffnut complained.

Snotlout frowned, "Okay, fine. The older brother I never had!"

"Come on, guys," Hiccup consoled, having long since given up on alleviating his headache, "It's been seven years since we last saw him, maybe he's changed?"

"Hiccup, he literally tried to set you on fire once," Astrid sighed, "I don't think someone like that even can change."

Okay, she had a point, Dogsbreath was crazy, but then again...

"We have to give Dogsbreath the benefit of a doubt," Hiccup insisted, "I mean, in case you haven't noticed, a lot has changed in the past few years."

The rest of the Riders groaned at the reminder of their shared past, and reluctantly gave grumbles of agreement. Meanwhile, Snotlout silently cheered. He was gonna see Dogsbreath again! It'd been forever!

"It'll be fine. Besides," Hiccup said optimistically, "It's just a little visit, w-what's the worse that could happen?"