Chapter 46: Progress

Eira and Ingrid enjoyed Snoggletog at Berk. They were especially happy to have each other during the holidays. The dragon riders slowed down their activities for several weeks during the darkness that took over this part of the year. Eventually, with the new year, they got back into the swing of things. Fortunately, that did not mean fighting dragon hunters at the moment.

Ingrid resumed her lessons with Snotlout. Eira understood the reasons for this, but she did kind of miss seeing them all of the time. So, it was a surprise when Snotlout came to her hut asking her to go with him.

"What's this about?" she said as they walked through the forest.

"That's a secret," Snotlout said mysteriously.

Eira did not know if she liked the sound of that or not. Eventually, they arrived at the nearby pond. The young girl gasped when she saw the picnic laid out for them. "Oh, wow."

"Do you like it?" Snotlout said with a hopeful look.

Eira smiled at him. "This looks lovely. It was very thoughtful of you."

"I know, right?"

Eira started for the food. "Did you cook?" She could not remember ever seeing him cook, but that did not mean he did not know how.

Snotlout rubbed the back of his neck and gave a sheepish smile. "I may have asked Ingrid for help."

"That's alright. Ingrid is an excellent cook."

"This may also have been her idea."

Ah, so this was her sister's influence. If this was part of his 'training,' Eira thought it must be working. The two of them sat across from each other next to the pond, and Snotlout dished out the food. "You and Ingrid seem to be getting along well."

Snotlout grinned. "Yeah, she's great. Is everyone from Torvald so nice?"

Eira chuckled lightly. "I'm sure we have plenty of grumpy people. Not that I've ever met them. Everyone was nice to me, unfortunately."

Snotlout gave her an odd look. "You want people to be mean to you?"

"It's not that. I want them to be real. A lot of people were nice to me out of obligation. I never knew how they really felt or if they actually liked me."

"Of course they actually liked you." Snotlout bit off a large piece of mutton. He opened his mouth to speak again but caught himself and swallowed first. "You're a likable person."

Eira blushed. "Thank you." She did not know what to say after that, so she focused on her good. "This is good."

"I know! We'll have to make Ingrid cook for us more often."

Eira smirked. "I don't think she'll appreciate being used like that."

Snotlout shrugged. "It's worth a shot."

Eira laughed. "I'm the one who has to live with her."

The two of them continued to chat casually. It felt just like old times. Eira appreciated that they could still hang out like this without too much additional pressure. She was unsure which steps to take to progress their relationship, but she figured it would all come with time. For now, she was happy they enjoyed each other's company.

"Your idea was perfect!" Snotlout said as he entered the clubhouse for his training with Ingrid. "Eira loved the picnic, and your food was great."

Ingrid smiled. "Good. I'm glad I could help out. Maybe next time you could think of something like that on your own."

Snotlout blinked. "Why would I do that when I have you?"

Ingrid laughed. "I won't always be here. Come on." She walked past him to the door. Curious, Snotlout followed.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to take a trip. I want to see how you interact with different types of dragons."

Snotlout grinned. "That will be easy!"

Ingrid looked back at him with a small smirk. "We'll see."

The two of them reached the stables and mounted their dragons. Ingrid led the search across the ocean for the particular dragons. Snotlout wondered what she was looking for. He saw plenty of dragons around. The flew past several islands before finally settling on one. Snotlout was confused but followed her when she suddenly descended.

Then he saw them. A herd of dragons were gathered in an open plain. "What are those?" he said.

"Thunderclaws," Ingrid replied. "They're a tracker class dragon."

Snotlout frowned. "That's not fair! I've never seen them before."

"Exactly! I want to see how you interact with an unknown dragon."

"Fine." Snotlout grumbled to himself as he started for the dragons. He stopped in front of the nearest one. "Hello there. I'm Snotlout." The dragon did not even look at him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" He walked around to face the dragon's head. When he was still ignored, he reached out to touch the Thunderclaw. The dragon drew his head back and snorted loudly. Eyes wide, Snotlout scrambled back.

"That wasn't too bad," Ingrid said with a laugh.

Snotlout shot her a look. "I could have been hurt!"

"Thunderclaws are docile dragons. Besides, Hookfang would have stepped in if you were in danger."

Looking at the Monstrous Nightmare's amused face, Snotlout was not so sure. "Let's move onto the next dragon, and this one better be good!"

"All dragons are good," Ingrid said as she mounted Shadowwhisper.

This only made Snotlout worry more. Fortunately, the next island they stopped at was close by. This time, they came across a large dragon that appeared to be snoozing in the middle of the forest. Snotlout immediately relaxed. "A Hotburple I can handle."

"Then go wake him up," Ingrid said.

Snotlout confidently strode up to the dragon. "Hey, big guy. Time to wake up." The dragon did not move. "Why is everyone ignoring me today?" He looked around the area and spotted a large rock. "Do you want a snack?" He picked up the rock and held it to the Hotburple's mouth. The dragon's eyes opened, and he snatched up the rock, making a pleased sound. "That's a good dragon." He gently rubbed his side before return to Ingrid.

The girl nodded in approval. "Excellent. It's time to move on. We'll find a stoker dragon."

"Oh, I've got that one down!" Hookfang was a stoker class dragon, after all.

It was not a Monstrous Nightmare they found, however, but a Typhoomerang. Snotlout hid his nervousness at approaching the large dragon bathing in the sun. "Hi," he said, giving it a weak smile. This dragon did notice him, and he bent his head down to sniff him. Snotlout chuckled nervously and pat his head. "Okay, bye now."

"We're halfway done!" Ingrid announced.

The sharp class dragon they visited was a Shivertooth. This dragon appeared to ignore Snotlout at first, but when the Viking looked away, the dragon knocked into a tree to cause snow to fall on his head. Snotlout left muttering about 'prankster dragons.'

Then they visited the ocean to find a Scauldron. This dragon Snotlout simply greeted from Hookfang's back. Finally, they needed a mystery class dragon. Unfortunately, Ingrid brought them to the island where the Armorwing lived.

"This is not going to go well," Snotlout said as they trudged to his nest. "This dragon stole an important family artifact!"

"Then this is your chance to make up," Ingrid replied.

Snotlout had a bad feeling about this. The Armorwing appeared to be resting on a pile of metal. When he heard Snotlout, he immediately got up and snarled. The Viking swallowed hard. "H-Hello there. Remember me?" The Armorwing growled at him. "Okay, maybe you should forget who I am. Look, I now we had our problems in the past, but I'm willing to forgive you. What do you say?"

The Armorwing only appeared angrier. Snotlout froze when the dragon took a step towards him. "Shadowwhisper, help out!" Ingrid said from behind him. The Hobblegrunt immediately put himself in between Snotlout and the Armorwing. The two dragons stared at each other until the Armorwing backed off.

Snotlout let out a breath of relief. "Thanks, Shadowwhisper, I owe you won." He looked back at Ingrid and frowned. "Did I fail this one?"

Ingrid shook her head. "Not at all. You responded appropriately. I think you did a great job today. You have a lot of experience with different dragons and a good instinct on how to approach them."

"Really? I mean, of course I do." Snotlout froze when he heard the Armorwing move. "Maybe we should get out of here."

"I agree wholeheartedly!"

And so, they called it a day.

Several weeks passed since Ingrid began her training with Snotlout. This time also contained some action with dragon hunters that, unfortunately, Eira forced her to avoid. Nevertheless, the young girl was enjoying her time at Dragon's Edge. One day, she decided to show everyone how far her student had come.

Since her picnic idea had worked out so well, Ingrid helped Snotlout make a meal for all of the dragon riders. She did the majority of the cooking of course, but she had Snotlout prepare the place settings and make the clubhouse look presentable. She made sure to inspect everything before giving it her approval.

The knock on the door occurred right on time. "I'll get it," Ingrid said, dancing to the door. She opened it to reveal the riders gathered around. "Welcome! Please, come in."

"Wow," Hiccup said, looking along the table. "This looks nice."

"Take a seat. Anywhere is fine." Ingrid watched the riders choose a place at the table. They all seemed impressed with the arrangement.

"Hey, where's the food?" Tuffnut complained. "We can't eat fancy plates."

"Patience, my dear Tuff," Snotlout said. "The food is back here." He nodded at the spread in the far wall of the clubhouse. "Hand me your plate and I will serve you."

"Wouldn't it be faster if we served ourselves?"

"Serving yourselves has the potential to create fighting and chaos, and we can't have that."

"Why not?" said Ruffnut. "That's the fun part."

Snotlout let out a 'tsk' sound. "We are not your barbarians. Your plate, Tuff."

"Fine," Tuff said, reluctantly handing over his plate, "but you better give me enough meat. No green stuff."

"I'll take his green stuff," Ruff said as she held out her own plate.

"One at a time," Snotlout chided her. He smiled at Tuff. "I will return promptly."

Once he was gone, everyone gave Ingrid bewildered looks. "What did you do to him?" Astrid said.

Ingrid chuckled. "He's quite willing to alter his behavior if he has a good enough reason."

"If getting a girlfriend was all he needed, I would have-" Astrid paused as if reconsidering her words. "- found someone else to date him."

Ingrid shrugged. "People are resistant to change but respond to incentives. They won't want to change unless it's necessary to get what they want."

"You seem to understand a lot about people," Hiccup said. "Kind of like Eira."

"Oh, yes," Eira said, nodding enthusiastically. "Ingrid is great. Her approach is a little different than mine, though, and I love bouncing ideas off of her."

Ingrid grinned at her. "Right back at you!"

"Here's your plate, sir," Snotlout said upon his return. He carefully set the food in front of Tuff. "I hope it is to your liking."

Tuff brought his nose close to the food and sniffed. "This will do."

Snotlout proceeded to serve everyone in this matter. Finally, he brought out Ingrid's plate followed by food for himself. Everyone had a pleasant meal with a delightful conversation (which Snotlout insured by changing the topic every time the twins spouted something absurd).

Afterwards, Snotlout insisted on cleaning up, and everyone was happy to oblige him. Ingrid wanted to help out, but first she needed to speak to her sister. She met with Eira just outside the clubhouse so they could talk in private.

"So, what did you think?" Ingrid said with a hopeful smile.

"Your food was great, like always," Eira responded.

"No, I mean Snotlout."

"Oh. That was nice, I suppose. It would be weird if he acted like that every day though."

Ingrid nodded. "I agree, and that's not the point. He just needs to know how to act like this so he can when it is needed, like meeting our parents."

Eira's eyes lit in understanding. "Yes, that should be no problem." She paused. "I hope he hasn't caused you any trouble."

"Oh, no! He's been very fun to work with. You chose a good one."

Eira gave her a tentative smile. "Thanks. I couldn't have done it without your help."

For some reason, the weight of that responsibility bothered Ingrid more now than in the past.

The dragon riders watched from above as Hiccup and Astrid sparred in the training dome. Of course, Astrid won. Still, Eira admired the way they matched each other and moved in sync. As soon as they were finished, Fishlegs came racing over to shout down to them: "Hiccup, I've been looking all over for you. Johann is here and he wants-"

"Johann!" Hiccup said with a goofy smile. He seemed to still be mesmerized by Astrid's presence. "Oh, great! Where is he?"

Fishlegs blinked. "Uh, at the dock."

"Of course. The dock." Hiccup moved toward Toothless.

"I'll come along," Astrid said.

"Oh, unexpected," Snotlout grumbled. "All you two do is hang out together. It's like we aren't even here."

"They're just caught up in their relationship," Eira said. She had to admit, it was kind of sweet. With all the had work those two put in, they deserved to take some time for each other.

The rest of the riders ended up making it to the dock on foot just in time to hear Johann going on about something. "Hey, Johann," said Snotlout, "are you telling one of your famous stories again? I've got a spare few hours."

"A few hours would only begin to describe the adventures of my recent past," Johann exclaimed. "Wow! And I mean, 'wow.'"

"Oh, I don't actually care. I think you're boring."

Fishlegs jumped onto the ship next to Hiccup. "Ooo... what's this?" he said.

"A map," Hiccup said carefully, folding up the paper. "Of an island that has something I need."

Snotlout crossed his arms and frowned. "Let me guess, the power couple is going on vacation. Well, bon voyage, muttonheads!"

Eira gave him a sympathetic look. "They just want some time alone."

"What's wrong with time with us?"

"You do have your own relationship to focus on, you know," Ingrid said. By now, everyone had left the dock and started for the clubhouse.

"Yeah, why don't you and Eira act like that?" Ruffnut said.

"Perhaps your annoyance with Hiccup and Astrid is a projection of your feelings of dissatisfaction with your own relationship," Tuffnut said.

Snotlout glared at them. "That is not what's going on! We're perfectly fine. Right, Eira?"

"Right," Eira said, pushing down doubts before they could arise. "The situation is different, anyway. Snotlout is just worried Hiccup is not being a proper leader." And criticizing him on that point wasn't exactly something new.

The twins exchanged a look. "If you say so," said Ruffnut.

The dragon riders arrived at the clubhouse and watched as Hiccup packed his thing. "Hiccup, we were supposed to begin the annual Dragon Census tomorrow morning," Fishlegs said.

Hiccup gave him a guilty look. "Oh, I forgot about that, Fishlegs. But, hey we're only gonna be gone for a day or two. It's not like the dragons are going anywhere, right, Fishlegs?" He smiled at him weakly. Fishlegs appeared unimpressed.

Tuffnut shook his head sadly. "Forgetting important moments among friends and colleagues is the first sign of shifting priorities..."

"Thus leading to doubt creeping in," Ruffnut continued, "and the loss of emotional fortitude. I love when doubt creeps."

Astrid stared at them. "What does that even mean?"

"Don't blow people off," Snotlout retorted.

"I'm sure they'll spend time with us when they're back," Eira said, though she was a bit worried about Hiccup's dismissive attitude. Everything had to work out. She could not take any dissension in this group.