Bloom gets into town with Brightfire, only to find Gobber trying to sell his weapons as household items - shoot, Gobber's whole job was making weapons to fight dragons with. Now that they aren't fighting…he's out of a job. And Mildew puts on a fake pity act for Gobber, lamenting how it's a shame such a great Viking should fall on hard times.
Hiccup comes over a moment later and tells her she missed quizzing the other riders about dragons.
"Hiccup, I probably already know most of what you were asking about by heart. And I'm betting you let the team with the twins have a head start and they still lost badly."
"Probably to the first, yes to the second. And it ended when the twins decided to have Barf and Belch demonstrate their shot limit by shooting at Astrid and Fishlegs. And then Astrid had Stormfly shot spines at the three on the other team."
"See? Didn't miss much."
"Well, you missed Hookfang flaming Snotlout."
"Ok, I missed something."
That night, Stoick has a good headache from chiefing all over the place. Married a couple at dawn, stopped kids from tipping yaks in the fields around breakfast time, then went back to the newlyweds to settle their first fight in the afternoon. "Ah, sometimes I wish there were two of me."
The fire in the fireplace blazes six feet in the air, scaring Stoick and Hiccup pretty good, as Bloom suddenly says "There are two of you, Dad! Gobber!"
"Gobber? He's way too busy making- I mean he was, until- which is good- Except for Gobber."
Hiccup catches on at once, and says "Bloom, that's brilliant!"
Stoick says "I could use a right hand. Alright, he starts tomorrow morning."
Hiccup grins and quietly whispers to Bloom "That works out pretty good, because that's kinda the only one he's got."
Of course, Bloom's hopes get burned to a crisp when she overhears Gobber's idea of 'diplomacy' - whacking people over the head with a club and asking questions later. She hurriedly shakes Hiccup awake, saying "Hiccup, we've got a big problem!"
"Wha…? What is it? Something wrong with Toothless or Brightfire?"
"No, they're fine. It's Gobber!"
"What's wrong? He sick?"
"No, but I think he might've taken a few too many blows to the head!"
She and Brightfire tail Gobber around the village, and break up a fight between Bucket and Mulch - and then save a ship from sinking because Gobber fixed it by plating it with steel.
Bloom mutters "Oh, this was so not my best idea ever. Sorry, Dad."
Stoick shows up right about then with a mob of angry people - the parents of a baby girl he named Magnus, Bucket and Mulch, and a few other angry people. "Gobber, what are ya doing?"
"Checking another item off the list, Stoick!"
Bloom yells "Somebody get to the ropes on this thing to pull it back up!"
Brightfire, Stoick, Mulch, and Bucket all pull, but its only with Bloom's mysterious powers that the ship doesn't sink into the ocean.
Stoick says "Gobber, steel doesn't float."
Bloom gets off Brightfire and asks "You okay, girl?"
"Yes, but that ship is too heavy for anything other than busting something open."
"Let's get you a pile of fish. That sound good?"
"Perfect."
That night, Stoick has a two-ice-block headache and Bloom is rubbing the spot between Brightfire's wings that she loves to have scratched or massaged. A chin scratch is good to, but she loves this just as much.
And…Gobber won't be chiefing tomorrow. So Hiccup and Bloom have to find some new job for him to have.
Bloom sees the rather desperate look on Hiccup's face, and quietly says "Hiccup, please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."
The next day, Bloom and Brightfire are in the ex-arena and she says "You were thinking what I thought you were thinking! Why is Gobber helping train dragons?!"
Astrid exclaims "What?!"
Hiccup makes a 'pipe down!' motion with his hands, and says "Gobber's spent his whole life…studying dragons. If we can tap into that, we'll be that much better off."
Bloom gets in front of Brightfire protectively, saying "Studying dragons is one thing, Hiccup. Killing them is another! Which do you think Gobber spent more time doing?!"
Astrid says "I'm with Bloom here, Hiccup. This is a terrible idea."
Hiccup groans, and says "Well, Dad put Bloom and I in charge of finding Gobber a new job, so…"
The gate slams open, and Gobber runs in…with his whole cart of weapons. All the dragons move backwards nervously, Bloom hearing 'oh no's and 'we're dead' from all of them. Hiccup asks what's going on and why he brought the weapons, and Gobber says he thought they could train the dragons by threatening to kill them - because that's how his father taught him to swim.
All the dragons bolt at that, Brightfire included.
Bloom doesn't blame them one bit, she does run after her dragon and grab onto the end of her tail right above the tailfin though.
Hours later, all the others finally land back in the arena and start complaining about being sore - except for Bloom. Hiccup's never had a problem, and Astrid points out the fact that he's got a saddle - he made it himself, with some unknown help from Bloom.
That gives him an idea though - Gobber can design the saddles!
Bloom passes, having no desire for a saddle, but the others eagerly accept.
That night, Hiccup and Toothless are outside the smithy and hear Gobber singing a special song of his - one he only ever sings when he's really happy. Hiccup says "I think we did a good thing here, Bud."
The next day, Gobber unveils the saddles he spent all night on…and everyone's excited, right up until he pulls the cloths away and reveals he put weapons on the saddles. Hookfang's has a flamethrower, Meatlug's has four large maces, the twins' saddles each have catapults, and Astrid's has a horn that grows four times its size.
Astrid's is easily the best of the saddles, because Meatlug can't get off the ground with the maces and Fishlegs on her, Hookfang goes nuts when Snotlout puts his on him, and the twins can't aim their catapults and each ended up hitting their dragon's heads.
Bloom quietly puts her hand to her face, whispering "I knew it…"
Gobber immediately gets some new ideas when it's clear the current saddles aren't working out right, which is what he said when Hiccup first went to him with the saddle idea.
And this time, when Snotlout got spined to the wall by Stormfly, he decided he'd go for a record and wanted to be left up there.
That night, Stoick tells Hiccup that he's got to do what's best for the Dragon Academy - which, unfortunately, isn't Gobber. And what's best usually isn't easy. Gobber's like family, which is why it's going to be so hard - but it's also why Hiccup has to do it.
Bloom's waiting with Brightfire and Toothless for Hiccup to get out of the Smithy, as she offered to go on a late-night flight with him to cheer him up, when there's suddenly an explosion in the town.
Not again! When she gets there, Hookfang is going nuts, spewing fire everywhere and rubbing the side of his head on things.
Snotlout nearly begs for help, and says he was just rubbing Hookfang's head - and he usually loves that, but this time he freaked out. Bloom says "He's been touchy about the side of his head for a few days now…he hasn't eaten anything lately, has he?"
"Not for days, Bloom."
She walks out, being the one in the village completely immune to fire - people are saying it's a blessing from Freya, and her wings from Odin - and says "Hey, big guy. Something wrong?"
"My mouth! It aches!"
She looks back and says "His mouth hurts. Hey, big guy, let me see." She gets a faceful of sulfur-breath, but then sees what's wrong just as Hiccup and Gobber run up to see what the noise is about. "He's got a bad tooth! And he's rubbing his head against things to try and get the tooth out. Touching it hurts, I'm betting taking out will suck, but that's what's going on."
Snotlout nearly cries in relief, and Gobber casually says "I can take it out."
Everybody looks at him, and Hiccup asks "You can?"
"I've forgotten more about dragons than most men will remember. Yes, I can take out a bad tooth."
Snotlout and Bloom keep Hookfang calm as Gobber approaches - the dragon is understandably freaking out, as he suggested they train the dragons by threatening to kill them - and the tooth is out in moments.
After that, Bloom calls "Gobber! I think I have an idea for you."
The next day, Gobber is the new dragon-dentist. And is very happy with that role, singing that same song from a few nights ago.
AN: Hey, everyone! here's the next chapter - I know, I've been bad about updating this story... Anyway, I'm almost done with two of my classes! Should have more time to update then! Anyway, enjoy! Please review if you've got suggestions!
BTW, Menatron, the Angel of Ideas, has a few challenges for anyone to take up - head to their profile page and look under crossover ideas. 22 and 23 sound interesting, but I've already got lots of ideas to work on of my own.