And I quote from Rapunzel: I am a despicable human being!
I told one of my reviewers that I'd be updating yesterday. Evidently, I am a liar. I really have no excuse. Forgivesies?
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Hiccup
We watched the dragons make off with their prize of the day. Hordes of food went with them as they soared over the burning village. They had clearly won this battle.
I could feel everyone's eyes on us. Disdain and annoyance thickened their glares and make my hairs stand. Toothless was quiet by my side, and I could feel myself getting ready to be yelled at. I shifted from foot to foot while Toothless remained perfectly still.
Dad didn't say a word. His radiating anger was burning into my skull which was more than enough to let me know he was not pleased.
"Okay but we got the Stormcutter," I said bluntly. Toothless face-palmed.
Then I was suddenly grabbed by the collar. Toothless was grabbed by the ear, and he had to bite back a surprised yelp.
"Daaad," I pleaded as we were dragged through the crowd that had gathered to watch. "This isn't like the last few times. This time we really got it! Toothless help me out here!"
"Yeaaah, Hic's serious, Dad." Toothless grunted as he tried to pry Dad's hands open. "It's not far from the woods if you want to see it. I mean—"
"STOP!" he shouted, effectively shutting us both up. We stood at attention before our very furious father. He took a deep breath before he continued, "Just…stop." He gave me a pointed look. "Every time you step outside, disaster happens. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here, and I have an entire village to feed!"
I opened my mouth to make a smart-alecky and—probably—stupid comeback, but he then turned to Toothless.
"And you."
Toothless barely concealed a flinch. I took note of how Toothless clenched his fist upon being addressed. He could take lectures better than I, but the spark in his eyes told me exactly how he felt. He wasn't sorry.
"What were you thinking!?" Dad asked angrily. "I trust you to take care of your brother during these raids, and what do I see?" I scowled at that. I'm not an invalid! Toothless didn't even bother saying anything. "I know you like to goof off with him, but this is unacceptable! Of all the reckless, irresponsible—"
"Dad it's not his fault!" I finally said, stepping forward. "It was my idea; be mad at me."
"Hiccup," Toothless whispered warningly.
I ignored him and went on. "He was still keeping an eye on me like he's supposed to, I promise. I didn't mean to get us into trouble. I-I—"
"Enough!"
Aaand there went my speaking window. I bit back my words while Toothless gave me a sympathetic look. Dad's fiery eyes never left us.
"Get back to the house. Both of you." He looked around the crowd and asked loudly, "Where's Val?"
Mom pushed her way through the crowd, apologizing to a few whom she actually shoved to the ground. I felt horrible when I saw the look in her eyes. The fear in them melted away the moment she caught sight of us. Without hesitation, she ran up to us both.
"Boys!" She pulled us into a brief hug, before looking us over frantically. "Are you hurt? Either of you?"
"No, Mom," I said quickly. She had a nasty habit of panicking if we didn't answer fast enough.
Toothless also mumbled, "No," much to her relief.
"Val." Mom turned to look over to Dad, who was still giving us his signature scowl. "Make sure they get home. I have their mess to clean up."
Mom nodded even though he'd turned away by now. She led us both away towards the house, and we followed her like prisoners being sent to the execution grounds. A pretty accurate simile considering this was Mom we were talking about. Gobber soon joined us, hitting me over the head.
"You were supposed to stay in the forge," Gobber said in a low voice so no one else would hear.
I shrugged. "Yeah…well…"
Then we'd walked past the other teens. I got looks that ranged from irritated to entertained at the expense of my dignity. The look of disapproval from Astrid probably stung the most.
"Quite the performance," Tuffnut said mockingly as his twin sister cackled at us. "Can't stay out of trouble even with your babysitter nearby." Toothless growled in the back of his throat from behind me.
Snotlout was quick to jump in. "I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!"
"Thank you, thank you. I was trying…" I said bluntly before trudging away from them.
Glancing back, I watched as Snotlout went up to Toothless. All Toothless had to do was give him a glare, and Snotlout immediately closed his mouth. Toothless's eyes trailed over to the others, and none of them made any stupid comments to him. Lucky.
The walk home was silent, but Mom's irritation was palpable. She was just as upset at us as Dad was, but she had a very different definition of punishment compared to Dad's. Her method was more…private…and…guilt-trip provoking…
"I can't believe you boys," she finally said.
"Sorry, Mom," Toothless mumbled.
"You could have been killed. Do you have any idea how horrible that would be for your father and I?"
You? Sure. Dad? Not really, I thought darkly to myself. I had to bite back the comment while it was at the tip of my tongue. "We were just trying to get rid of that Stormcutter," I protested instead.
"You shouldn't have been outside at all!" She gave us both scathing glares before turning to lead us home again.
Toothless and I traded looks. An upset Mom was never a good thing. She would be fuming all day long, and we hated to have her mad at us. It was rare, but it happened enough times for Toothless and I to decide how much it sucked.
We'd probably be apologizing again later today.
After a beat of silence, I just had to point out one thing. "We really did get the Stormcutter though."
Gobber chuckled. "Sure you did," he said with a shake of his head. I scowled.
"No, Hic is telling the truth," Toothless argued. "It was attacking me, and he used his crazy new contraption to shoot it down with a bola."
"It's true!" I ran ahead of them as we got nearer to the area where the Stormcutter had been. "See, it's just over…" I trailed off when I witnessed the craziest sight. "…there…" It was nowhere to be seen.
Toothless caught up with me and looked just as dumbstruck as I felt. "What the…."
By this point, mom had caught up with us. The two of us, Toothless and I, were still looking at the dragon-less spot. There was no sign of it. No bola. No body. Not a hint of blood, dragon's or human's, was found anywhere. There was no way anyone could have killed it and dragged it off in such a short span of time. It was just too big!
Toothless and I exchanged dumbstruck looks.
"Hm. No dragon here," Gobber said bluntly.
Mom looked around anxiously, as though she almost expected the dragon to ambush us. Then she sighed and looked at us with sympathy. "Are you sure it was here?" she asked.
I nodded vigorously. "Yes."
"I could've touched it, I was so close to it!" Toothless exclaimed.
Mom frowned at that, but she seemed to be at a loss over what to say to us. Then she finally sighed. "I'm sorry, boys." As she led us towards the house, she called back, "Come along, you two."
I sighed in defeat and followed. I almost didn't catch the frown Toothless was sporting.
Toothless
I probably should've been upset about the dragon disappearing, but I wasn't. The puzzle it left behind was far more frustrating. What had happened to that dragon? It couldn't have broken out of those ropes without leaving behind evidence. And it didn't lumber off, considering, once again, no evidence was available to back up that theory. No tracks, no broken trees, no nothing. That could only mean one thing…
Mom, Hiccup and I went inside our house, which stood over the village like a guardian and was the largest hut on the island. Mom made her way to our small kitchen while Hiccup and I climbed the stairs to the loft where we slept.
In hindsight, I probably should have asked Mom to check over my hands again. She was always fretting over that, and I know that giving her something to focus on would have helped her find some semblance of peace to start the day with. For her, if she already had something under control, then the hour wasn't a complete loss. She already had enough on her plate, and it wasn't even high noon yet. Hours of stress and lost time were no doubt ahead of her. But I didn't do so in favor of hiding out in the loft to gather my thoughts together.
Hiccup flopped onto his bed and whipped out his sketch book. He started doodling aimlessly while I sat on my own bed absently tugging on the wraps around my hands. Thinking hard, I was really not liking the idea that the dragon could still be out there.
"Boys?"
"Yeah?" Hiccup called.
"I need to head to the Great Halls for a clan meeting. Can you behave yourselves for a bit while I'm gone?"
I rolled my eyes. "The house will still be standing when you get back. I promise," I replied for the both of us.
"Good."
I waited until I heard the door close firmly shut. Then I sprung out of bed and fished a map out from our desk.
"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked.
I grabbed an extra dagger from under my blanket and looked up at him. "I'm going to look for that Stormcutter."
Hiccup gave me a bewildered look. "What!?"
I ignored him while I grabbed my crossbow and checked it for tuning. "Hiccup, what do you think happened to that thing?" I got no answer, so I explained, "It had to have flown off. Maybe its back wings weren't wrapped up. It wasn't completely able to fly, most likely, but it could at least get away from the area. It couldn't have gone far in its condition."
"Wait wait wait! Y-you just told mom—"
"That the house would still be standing when she got back." I grinned at him. "I never said we would still be in it."
Though slack jawed at first, Hiccup soon broke into a grin of his own and jumped out of bed. "You're evil."
"I know."
And with that, we ran down the stairs and out the back door.
