It was not fine.

Within the first few hours, Dogsbreath had succeeded in making everyone and nearly every-dragon feel uncomfortable and unsettled. Something about his mere presence was enough to set off the red flags and alarm bells in everyone's head, and the fact that he was always sneering menacingly didn't exactly help things, either.

Well, it rang the alarm bells in everyone except Snotlout.

Unpacking all of Dogsbreath's things so he could temporarily move into Snotlout's hut was easier said than done. For one thing, there was Seaslug, Dogsbreath's blue-scaled Gronckle. Now, Seaslug wasn't as aggressive as his rider, but he wasn't as friendly as, say, Meatlug, either.

In fact, he was just about as prickly as Hookfang was. And, well, having two dragons with the same prickly personality crammed into a single hut wasn't the most ideal of living situations, and sending them both to the stables wasn't a great option either, seeing as neither of them wanted to leave their obnoxious riders' side.

But, being Vikings, Snotlout and Dogsbreath were both too stubborn, and managed to make do, with the two dragons on one side of the hut, and everything else on the other. Now there was Dogsbreath's other stuff to deal with. And being the loud, boisterous Vikings they were, they chatted, too.

"Oh-ho, man!" Snotlout said, grinning. He picked up a bronze trinket from one of Dogsbreath's saddlebags, some sort of figurine of a powerful warrior, and looked at it nostalgically.

"Isn't this the thing we stole from Hiccup when he got it for his birthday?" Snotlout asked, examining the object. Huh, he should probably return it.. after enlightening everyone about how totally heroic and awesome he was for finding and returning it, of course.

"Useless cried for hours because o' that," Dogsbreath replied with a grin and a nod, "He was always such a cry-baby!"

"Tell me about it!" Snotlout agreed, although something in his.. self, for the lack of a better word, felt heavy when his friend had called Hiccup by the old cruel nickname. Hiccup was never useless, things were just... complicated.

He brushed that thought aside. Okay, so maybe Dogsbreath's views of his admittedly pretty cool cousin haven't changed, but Doggie was still awesome, and he'd be damned if he himself hadn't said or done similar things to Hiccup in the past, so he probably wasn't in the place to judge. It was probably fine.

"We must've been like, four, or five, right?" Snotlout wondered out loud, eager to distract himself from such thoughts. Introspection wasn't really Snotlout's strongest of areas, and it hurt his head to think about.

"Tha' gives me an idea, actually!" Dogsbreath suddenly exclaimed, "Let's pull off some ol' tricks, show 'em all who really owns this island!"

"Like old times?" Snotlout asked curiously, and oddly cautious. Wait, why was he being cautious? Dogsbreath was cool!

"Like old times," Dogsbreath confirmed.


Planning a prank with Dogsbreath was... different than what Snotlout was used to. The pranks that Ruffnut and Tuffnut always did were all about explosions, destruction, grossness and all-around slapstick, and could, quite frankly, be too confusing and complicated for Snotlout to understand.

But all that Dogsbreath did was walk into the clubhouse, and place a tiny, metal pin atop a chair, the sharp end facing upwards.

Maybe he was misremembering things, which was a likely possibility considering his usual muttonheaded-ness, but Snotlout remembered Dogsbreath's pranks being a bit more... flashy.

"Uh... that's it?" Snotlout couldn't help but wonder. Dogsbreath merely grinned evilly, and pointed to a pile of crates where they could hide behind.

After a while, Fishlegs and Meatlug wandered in. Fishlegs' head was, as usual, buried in the Dragon Manual that he held in his large hands, completely unaware of his surroundings.

"Alright, Meatlug, so we don't know much about the Sand Wraith's mating habits yet, but it's said that-" As Fishlegs rambled on, he pried one of his hands off the book to pull a seat closer to him, and sat down.

"Y-OUCH!" The effect was instant. Snotlout snickered as he watched his book-loving friend pull the pin off of his bottom with a wince, and then watched in confusion as Fishface brought a hand to his head, looking dizzier than he'd ever seen him.

"Ugh," Fishface groaned, steadying himself by grabbing onto the table and bringing the needle closer to his face to see.

"What the- diluted Triple Stryke venom?" The Rider exclaimed, examining the weird goo on the pin before pocketing it with a roll of his eyes, certain that this was some sort of prank, "Ugh, at this rate, we're gonna deplete all of Midgard's willow-bark supply.."

Snotlout looked on, his mouth agape as he heard Fishface's comment. As Fishlegs and Meatlug left, Snotlout turned to look at Dogsbreath with an odd look.

"How in the name of Loki did you manage to get Triple Stryke venom?" Snotlout asked incredulously. Dogsbreath laughed heartily, the ring on his nose flopping up and down as he did so.

"Ma' parents went tradin' all over the world!" He finally answered, chuckling, "Did'ye think they wouldn't give me a few toys?"

"Woah.." Snotlout gasped in awe. This was even better than old times, this was gonna be fun. Really fun. If Dogsbreath had Triple Stryke venom, who knows what kind of other cool stuff he could do?

Something in Snotlout's chest fluttered as his mind whirled around the possibilities. Hookfang and everyone else were awesome, but it was still kinda.. what was the word? Oh yeah, it was nice to have a friend outside their little group. Nobody could be as awesome as himself, of course.