I AM NOT DEAD. Just wanted to put that out there because I haven't updated in a while.
I actually am suffering this horrible thing called school. Exams are in a few days... EEEEEEKKKK
Alright. So, be warned: this is a pretty long chapter by this story's standards. About the length of the other two chapters combined! I tend to drag things out... But, at least more for you to read!
Enjoy the final chapter!
Chapter 3
Toothless was bored.
He had been alone for most of the morning. Just sitting. Watching. Thinking. Moping.
Gods. He wanted Hiccup.
Grumbling again, he laid his head down and sniffed at the grass. The other dragons had decided to go on a morning flight. Without their riders… well, they didn't have much to do. Usually, they were put to work using their fire, talons, and teeth—things that the Vikings didn't have, yet needed for their duties. So that left the dragons with nothing to do. And now, they had all the free time in the world. The question was what to do with that time. It was so… strange to be able to just rest. What had he done before Hiccup had befriended him? Terrorized villages? Hunted children? Mated with lightning?
As Toothless shifted, he felt his mechanical tail hit the ground. He growled at it.
Toothless could've gone on that flight with the others. He had a working tail now, and certainly enough energy built up to run around. But he just hated that tail.
He had grown to like to depend on Hiccup. In the air, they were one. Not a dragon and a Viking, but a blur in the clouds. Diving and zipping and zooming through air. Functioning as a sole creature. Unstoppable.
Toothless sighed.
Hiccup…
He wanted to run away and go find his rider. But he was a leader. He would not abandon the task Hiccup had given him. He would see it through till the end of this horrible day. But only for Hiccup.
But that still didn't mean that Toothless wouldn't miss him.
"I'm boooooooooorrrreedddddddd," moaned Tuff. "I miss blowing up stuff."
"Wish Barf and Belch were here. We can't make that big of explosions without them," said Ruff with a sigh.
"Without them, we only create minor havoc. And, sister, is not good enough. Remember that promise we made when we were seven?"
"Of course! Do as much damage…"
"...with whatever time you have," Tuff finished. "Great words. We've always been so smart."
The Riders were back on the civilized part of the Edge. It had taken nearly a half hour to get Hiccup down from that tree with some… well… not-so-flattering techniques. The group had agreed that what had happened at the Freya fruit trees would stay at the Freya fruit trees.
Ruff and Tuff were wandering around the Edge, frustrated at the little destruction they were able to create. Astrid was training with her axe while Snotlout assured her that he could do everything she was doing—but he just didn't feel like it today. Fishlegs and Hiccup were at Hiccup's forge working on an invention. It sounded boring to the twins, so they strayed away to look for trouble. They hadn't had much luck yet. If only their Zippleback was—
Suddenly, Tuff was struck with an idea. He opened his mouth to tell Ruff, but in a moment's decision, he ruled against it.
He couldn't devastate much of anything without his dragon… but with him…
Tuff could sneak away and go find Belch. Explode a couple of things, call it a day, and come home. Easy! And he knew where the Zippleback was—the other side of the island.
Yes, yes… This could work! Now, to get away from Ruff…
"Hey, sis?" he said, stopping.
Bored, Ruff turned to face him. "What?"
Tuff jerked his head over towards his hut. "I'm so stupid! I promised Chicken that I'd take her on a walk. Silly me, I forgot about it until this exact moment, so I'd better, uh… go… Mhm!"
"Chickens don't go on walks, bro."
Alarm bells went off in his mind. He couldn't conceal his horror. She knows!
Realizing that he couldn't get out of this, Tugg sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'm going… I'm going to go see Barf and Belch, okay?"
Ruff did a double-take. "No way."
"I know, I know… Hiccup'll be mad at me, but…"
"No, that's not what I meant." Ruff grinned at Tuff's puzzled look. "I had the same idea! Thor… could this be…"
They bonked helmets.
"Twintuition!"
"No one will even know we're gone!" giggled Tuff. "It's like we were always here… It's just as devious as we need it to be!"
Their smiles widened. No one would be as clever as them to think of this...
"No, no, no—just a little—Fishlegs! Not that much!"
"Ooh! Sorry, Hiccup… Not used to using fire manually."
"I… agh, I guess I've grown out of habit, too. It's fine. Let's try this again…"
Hiccup and Fishlegs were trying to finish the Alleviator. But without their dragons' steady stream of fire, it was a little hard.
Okay. It was very hard. Fishlegs was ashamed by this. He knew that he depended a lot of Meatlug's lava, but not this much… Oh, how he wondered what his girl was doing right now. He missed her. And some of her Gronckle iron would really help with this project…
Fishlegs looked up, startled.
Hiccup was confused at his friend's sudden movement. "What?"
"Oh—um-—nothing, Hiccup!" he squeaked, trying to cover up his surprise. "Just… thinking."
And he was thinking. But about Meatlug…
What if…
What if—
What if he snuck out to see her?
His chest swelled up with hope. He could see his girl again today! Just for a couple of minutes though… Just—you know—to say hello. And maybe to get a little of her lava for the Gronckle iron. After all, it wasn't like he was going to use her all day.
Yes! He would do it. Alright—time to set this plan into action...
"Uh, Hiccup?" he asked, trying to be casual.
Luckily, Hiccup was distracted with something and only glimpsed up. "Yes, Fishlegs?"
Fishlegs drummed his fingers on the table. "Well… I think something at my hut would really help with this. So, um, I think I'm going to grab it. Yes. Going to go grab… it… So… bye."
He backed away from their work table with a nervous smile. He was all too aware of Hiccup's perplexed expression as he exited the hut.
"Hang in there, Meatlug," he whispered to himself. "Daddy's coming!"
Astrid was fed up with Snotlout. He wouldn't stop going on about how great he was. How handsome he was. How much better he was. She'd like to pick him up and throw him back to Berk but forcibly restrained herself.
I am calm… I am calm…
She wasn't. However, she knew she needed to be, or… well, that was bad news for Snotlout. What made her calm? What made her feel—relaxed?
The answer came immediately. Stormfly. Taking a flight on her Nadder always made her feel one thing she could never or rarely experience on land: at peace. And she needed to feel that right now.
"Snotlout?" she interrupted the boy's monologue, which was titled, "My Great Deeds."
Snotlout glanced over. "Yeah, babe?"
Stormfly, Stormfly, think of Stormfly… calm… peaceful… happy…
"I'm done with training," Astrid replied. "So I'm leaving."
"You—oh. Alright. Okay. Well, then—see you later." He winked. "We all know you can't stay away from all of this."
Astrid's grip tightened on her axe, her fingers itching to just swing it once. "Yeah. Let's go with that."
She tossed her weapon to the side and ran out of the training area. Oh, how she needed some peace right now… Stormfly… This was the only way she was not going to commit murder on her day off.
What happened here? Snotlout thought, angry.
Astrid couldn't just leave him like this! He had had a plan. Woo Astrid over with a long talk of his truly amazing feats. And it had seemed to be working… until she suddenly got all tense and quiet and left. Hmm… he needed to get her attention… what usually got girls' attention?
His head snapped up.
Being macho.
Not that he wasn't already macho. He was. But he needed more of it… he needed to show that he was in charge. That he was a leader.
A smirk crept to his lips.
"Oh, Hookfang…!"
"Er—guys?" said Hiccup peeking around the corner. "Where'd everyone go?"
It had been ten minutes since Fishlegs had left. Hiccup had thought it was strange that he never came back and gone to check on him. And he was glad he did.—because no one was left in the area.
His mind raced. Had the Dragon Hunters somehow sneaked inside and kidnapped them? Were his friends in danger? Panic ran through his head… Oh, Thor, what was he supposed to do…?
Get Toothless, he thought with a nod. And the other dragons. I'm just a one-legged Viking with a lot of stupid plans without my dragon.
He knew he had said before that he wasn't going to go to the dragons for help with anything, but he hadn't expected all his teammates to vanish. This was the only way. His mind made up, he cast one last look around the Edge, then ran down the steps of the Clubhouse.
Don't worry, guys… I'll find you.
Turns out, the other dragons were bored, too. A few missed their riders. Not Hookfang—he was enjoying the peace of not having Snotlout yell at him to do something every five minutes.
Perhaps we could go back to our riders, Stormfly offered to the others, to cure our boredom.
Meatlug's eyes shone. Yes, yes, yes—great idea, Spine-thrower!
Hookfang grumpily shifted his wings. I don't know… The boy, Snotlout, can be overbearing.
At the mention of the Riders, Toothless sat up. I, too, would like to go. I feel uneasy without Hiccup.
Barf lifted his head. That's only because you—
—can't fly by yourself, finished Belch.
No, Toothless shot. What if our riders are in trouble? You know how much they need us. They could be in all kinds of danger. Lava-spew, think of your boy in peril. Spine-thrower, what about that girl you so dearly love? Green-heads, I know you have a bond with those twins of yours. And, Fire-flame, would you still be so unwilling to go see Snotlout if his life was in jeopardy?
The dragons pondered Toothless's questions.
Stormfly flapped her wings. I am going to my girl, no matter what!
But the leader boy, Hiccup, said we were supposed to stay away, Hookfang tried. By doing that, we'd be disobeying our… our masters.
The group was not impressed with this.
Since when do you ever listen to a human? scoffed Toothless. It's settled. Say 'scales' if you agree to go find your riders with me.
Scales, chorused all of the dragons except Hookfang.
The Nightmare finally growled, Fine. But only for a little while.
Toothless smiled gummily.
"Um—well—it was all Ruff's idea!" Tuff shoved his sister in front of him. "Take her. She's the naughty little troublemaker… sneaking out against the king's wishes..." He wagged a disapproving finger at Ruff, who sighed in frustration.
Hiccup couldn't help but smile. To his surprise, he wasn't angry.
"No, it's fine. We all broke the rules. Still, of which, I'm very disappointed. I thought that we were better than this."
It hadn't been long until the riders had all bumped into each other on their journeys. First, Ruff and Tuff had stumbled into Astrid, then Snotlout, and then Fishlegs. And finally, Hiccup had run into them a few minutes later. Everyone was ashamed but also amused with themselves. They knew they really were that helpless.
"Well," said Fishlegs. "At least our dragons obeyed Hiccup. They never tried to come find us—"
No sooner than the words had come out of his mouth, they all heard rustling in the trees.
Snotlout whimpered. "What was that? HOOKY, HELP US!"
He noticed Astrid's irritated look, and straightened in response.
"I mean—huh, what's that? 'Cause… 'cause I'm gonna kill it for you, babe. Yup. Since I'm so awesome. And I can kill—yup."
The vegetation rustled again, and the riders tensed.
"Guys, we don't have our dragons," Hiccup whispered. "Whatever this is, we're going to have to fight it off ourselves. Are we ready?"
"Yes," said Astrid, Fishlegs, the twins, and Snotlout.
"I said—are we ready?"
"Yes!"
Hiccup nodded. "Then, let's—oh, gods! Thor... of course it's you..."
Toothless had just jumped out of the trees. His eyes were shining mischievously.
"Toothless! You weren't supposed to—agh!"
The Night Fury had knocked over his rider to his back and started to swat him playfully. The others laughed at the scene.
When Toothless was finished, Astrid smiled mournfully. "This all makes me wish that… oh, Stormfly!"
One by one, the other riders' dragons appeared from the forest, starting with Stormfly. They reunited with hugs and hearty laughs. Even Snotlout gave Hookfang a comforting pat and muttered, "Missed you too, Fangster…"
Hiccup held up his hands to quiet everyone down—and to get Ruff and Tuff to stop trying to blow them all up ("Making up for missed time," Tuff tried to explain).
"Alright, alright—settle down, guys. I've got an announcement."
When the riders and their dragons all silenced, Hiccup began to pace. Toothless sat nearby and watched with interest.
"Everyone here went against the rules," started Hiccup, sending a displeased look over his friends. "You disobeyed my orders. Sneaked out with permission, and made me worry that something had happened. Thor—at first I thought you guys had been kidnapped by the Dragon Hunters. Riders. We need to be honest with each other… and listen to what we all have to say. I'm not happy with anybody's actions. But," he continued at everyone's dispirited countenances, "I did do the same thing… and I can't blame you for not listening to me. Our dragons are amazing. Powerful. Talented. And most of all, our best friends. It was wrong to separate us all like that, and I'm sorry."
Snotlout looked around in disbelief. "Did dragon boy just apologize? Woah! Hookfang, you remember this the next time you're all high and mighty." The Nightmare snorted, rolling his eyes.
Hiccup came up to Toothless, who regarded him with cautious eyes.
"I guess I was right," said Hiccup. "We really can't survive without you guys…"
A smile broke through his face, and he knelt in front of his Night Fury.
"But… is that such a bad thing?"
Toothless cooed. The answer was clear.
No, it wasn't. Because dragons had become the riders lives. They were their friends. Their comfort. Their family. They were the Dragon Riders, after all. And what good were Dragon Riders without dragons?
NO GOOD, THAT'S WHAT. You couldn't even climb down a TREE, Hiccup, for Thor's sake!
Well... another story finished! Thank you guys for sticking with me through this! I hope you all liked it, and THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH FOR EVERYTHING. Your feedback, likes, and follows mean SO MUCH to me. THANK YOU.
Until the next story!