A/N: School... sucks... Must I say anymore? NOW! Let's start screwing stuff up!
Volcano Quest
A bit later in the afternoon, most of the ash cleared up, and breathing no longer became an issue. Everyone was let out of the Great Hall.
"So, how are you gonna prepare for the Quest?" Camicazi asked Hiccup.
Hiccup smiled. "Oh, y'know, just come up with a few new things," said Hiccup, not giving anything away.
"Hey! Hey Hiccup!" came a voice from behind them. They turned around to see Fishlegs running towards them, a book gripped tightly in his hand.
"What's up, 'Legs?" asked Hiccup.
"Well, I found this book," explained Fishlegs, out of breath from running through the knee-deep ash. Doubling over, he handed it to Hiccup.
Hiccup took one look at the cover and immediately knew that it would be important. The printed words on the leather cover were: "Volcano Monsters."
"Do you think this is talking about dragons that might live in an erupting volcano?" asked Hiccup.
Fishlegs, after finally regaining his breath, stood up and nodded. "If there are any dragons in that volcano that the Dragon Manual didn't talk about, then they're gonna be in that book."
Suddenly, Snotlout ran out of the hall. He ran right between Hiccup and Fishlegs, knocking them both over with a powerful shove. He kept running, only slowing down to turn his head and laugh.
"That's right, you better run!" shouted Hiccup, spitting ash out of his mouth. Too bad Snotlout was out of earshot.
"Hiccup, where's the book?" exclaimed Fishlegs.
"Right here," said Hiccup, reaching into the square imprint in the ash in front of him. However, the book was not there where it had fallen only two seconds ago. Hiccup gasped. "Where is it!"
"Looking for something, boys?" asked Camicazi. Hiccup froze. He knew that tone. He stood up and faced Camicazi.
"Give it back!" he demanded.
"Give what back?" asked Camicazi, smiling. She then held up her hand, and in it was the red leather book. Hiccup wasted no time in pouncing on her. They both rolled around in the ash, fighting for the book. Fishlegs stood awkwardly to the side and watched.
At that moment, Toothless and Stormfly came padding out. They stood next to Fishlegs, observing the spectacle. As a matter of fact, the twins were doing the exact same thing inside.
"What are they doing?" Stormfly asked in Dragonese.
"Well," said Toothless, "they're either fighting over that book or they're performing some kind of strange mating ritual."
"TOOTHLESS!" shouted Hiccup and Camicazi upon hearing the Fury's words. They both sprawled away from each other, dropping the book. Hiccup was blushing so deep that you couldn't see his freckles, and Camicazi's Mood Scale had turned a deep shade of scarlet, along with her cheeks.
"What? What did I say?" asked Toothless.
"What did he say?" asked Fishlegs.
Hiccup and Camicazi blushed even deeper. That was when they both saw the book. Grabbing it at the same time, they had a sort of tug-of-war. Hiccup's grip held firm, and he eventually wrestled the book from Camicazi's grasp.
"Ha!" he shouted, standing up and holding the book over his head. His victory was short-lived as Camicazi slugged him in the gut. Hiccup doubled over, but still clutched the book to his chest.
"You may have won this one, Haddock," whispered Camicazi, that thieving smile never leaving her face, "but I'll get to the Fire Diamond first."
"Dream on, Sunshine," gasped Hiccup, looking up at her and smiling his usual lopsided smile.
Camicazi kissed Hiccup's forehead before quickly walking away, the glint in her eye telling Hiccup to sleep with one eye open tonight.
"Camicazi, wait up!" cried Stormfly, bounding off after her human. "I'm still hungry!"
Hiccup stood up and walked back over to Toothless and Fishlegs, who might as well have been eating popcorn as they watched the spectacle. Hiccup handed the book to Fishlegs.
"Read it good," he told Fishlegs. "I didn't just wrestle a five foot Bog-Burglar for nothing!"
Fishlegs clutched the book tightly and nodded so hard that his helmet almost fell off.
"Awesome," said Hiccup. "I'll be in the Forge. C'mon, Toothless."
"Later, round human," Toothless said to Fishlegs, even though he couldn't understand him. He trotted off after Hiccup and Fishlegs ran back home to read the book.
"Okay, so I found out that this one is fireproof," said Hiccup, pointing to the long russet metal stick sitting on the table, "and this one melts." He pointed to the silver one sitting next to the russet one.
"Okay, fireproof stick, check!" exclaimed Toothless. "Now let's test the other thing!"
"Do you think they'll work?" Hiccup asked Toothless, looking at the tiny silver claws on the end of each finger on his gloves. Following Toothless's advice, Hiccup had tweaked the Night Fury scale gloves so that they now had the small claws at the end. They would help in a close-combat fight, but there was also another thing. Hiccup and Toothless walked outside and located a nice large boulder.
"Just hit it?" Hiccup asked.
"Yep," said Toothless. "Give it all your scrawny muscles can give."
"Thanks," muttered Hiccup sarcastically. He flexed his right hand, not wanting to injure his left, and punched the boulder. The shock wave reverberated up his arm, but his hand was okay.
"Okay, tell me how that works," said Hiccup, flexing his fingers to make sure nothing was broken. His hand didn't even hurt!
"The claw extensions go into the glove and run down your fingers and the back of your hand, giving the glove and your hand extra strength," explained Toothless, looking proud. "Now try the other thing!"
Hiccup shrugged and, with his left hand, slashed the rock with his claws, cupping his right hand below the strike zone. The claws sent a shower of sparks onto his right glove. But when they hit the glove... they stayed lit! Hiccup was holding a spark!
He was speechless for a while as he watched the still lit spark. It was almost as if someone had hit the pause button right after he had struck the rock, leaving the sparks suspended in their ever burning state.
"How the..." Hiccup's sentence was cut off when he was knocked over by a small blue blur. He dropped the sparks and sat up, seeing Brightclaw attached to his prosthetic leg.
"Please don't go to the volcano!" exclaimed Brightclaw, staring up at Hiccup with his wide orange eyes.
"What? Why?" asked Hiccup, sliding the Terror off of his leg. Brightclaw just wrapped his thin body around Hiccup's head.
"Brightclaw, I'm afraid he has to go," came another voice. The voice was deep and it had a strange accent that could later be identified as a British accent. The voice was coming from on top of the boulder, and it was speaking in Norse. Hiccup and Toothless slowly turned their heads and looked up.
Sitting on top of the boulder was another Terrible Terror. However, this dragon was smaller than Brightclaw. And most of it's scales were black. The Terror had a few white scales on his chest, and the scales around his eyes were white, almost as if it was wearing glasses.
"But Muskett," moaned Brightclaw.
"Brightclaw, you know he has to go on that Quest," said the black-scaled Terror, Muskett. Hiccup and Toothless were completely shocked at the fact that this dragon was speaking Norse. The only other dragon they knew that could do that was Stormfly!
"Whaaaat's going on heeeeere?" asked Hiccup in a weirded out sing-songy voice.
"This is Muskett," said Brightclaw, pointing to Muskett with his tail.
Muskett bowed formally. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance," said the dragon politely.
After Hiccup and Toothless dug their jaws out of the ash, Toothless couldn't resist asking a question. "Where did you learn to talk?"
"I was born with the knowledge," explained Muskett. "Unfortunately, though, I don't possess the ability to speak Dragonese. I can understand it perfectly like any other dragon in the world, but alas..." Muskett shrugged.
"So... why are you called Muskett?" asked Hiccup.
"I was named after a strange type of weapon. Apparently a musket is some sort of mobile cannon that humans can carry on their belts or shoulders. My parents traveled a lot before I was hatched, so they must have seen it somewhere," said Muskett. "Perhaps America!"
"There's no such thing as America!" they all exclaimed at the same time.
"Say what you want," said Muskett, turning his head away from the group. "I don't care!"
"Whatever," said Hiccup, standing up. He pried Brightclaw off of his head, only to have the dragon wrap around his arm. "Brightclaw, why don't you want me to go on the Quest?"
"B-because it's dangerous!" exclaimed Brightclaw.
"We're Vikings, we go on Quests, and they're usually always dangerous," said Hiccup. "It's an occupational hazard. You know that. Now what's the real reason?"
Brightclaw looked away nervously. "G-go ahead, Muskett. T-tell them..."
Hiccup and Toothless looked up at Muskett.
The Terror sighed and started explaining. "Brightclaw's right, it is quite dangerous. However, if you don't go soon, the Fire Diamond will collapse on itself and cause the whole volcano to erupt! But if you manage to get it out of the lava, then it won't implode."
"Wait wait wait wait," said Hiccup. "Who ever said anything about the Fire Diamond being surrounded by lava?"
"Well, you didn't think it was just going to be sitting there out in the open, did you?" asked Muskett, gliding off of the boulder and landing on Toothless's head.
"Well, then where would it be?" asked Hiccup. "What part of the volcano?"
"Most definitely it would be located in the-" Muskett paused for a moment, looking around. "-the... top! Yes, most definitely the top part of the volcano right around the rim!"
Hiccup narrowed his eyes at Muskett's sudden suspicious behavior. Just before he could ask anything, however, Toothless saw something.
"Hey, who's that going up to your house?" asked Toothless, looking up at Hiccup's house. The others looked up there just in time to see a figure enter through the door. They couldn't tell who it was in the dying light, though.
"Let's go check it out," muttered Hiccup. He and Toothless quickly made their way to the Haddock residence, with Brightclaw and Muskett still following. None of them noticed the dark figure crouched behind the boulder. That very figure had heard every word Muskett had said, and if any of them had looked back, they would have seen the dark figure creeping towards the Forge.
None of them turned.
A few minutes later, they arrived at Hiccup's house. Hiccup went inside first, but he almost collided with Ruffnut. The girl was looking pale and slightly depressed. She quickly squeezed past Hiccup and the dragons, back out the door.
Hiccup quickly went inside, where his father sat at the table.
"Oh Hiccup, will you ever stop coming home with more than one dragon?" asked Stoick upon seeing the extra two Terrors.
"Hey, come on, I didn't know there was a Vorpent hiding in my coat!" exclaimed Hiccup. "Now what was Ruffnut doing here?"
"She came to tell me that she and her brother aren't goin' on the Quest," said Stoick.
"What?" gasped Hiccup. "Why?"
"It seems her and her brother got in a fight, and her brother fell into a bush of poison ivy. The healer won't let him go, and her parents are making her stay," explained Stoick.
"But that means Camicazi and Snotlout don't have partners," said Hiccup. "Does that mean we're all gonna have to work together on the Quest, like normal Vikings should?"
Stoick opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by a knock on the door. "Now what?"
Stoick stood and walked to the front door, Hiccup close in tow. They were both shocked to see Camicazi standing on the other side of the door. Well, Stoick might have been shocked, but he remained stoic (no pun intended).
"Camicazi, don't tell me you're not going either!" exclaimed Hiccup, squeezing around his father's massive arms to stand in front of Camicazi.
Camicazi only shrugged. "I'm sorry." She turned to Stoick. "I'm sorry I can't go. My dragon has food poisoning and- WHOA!" she exclaimed. She and Hiccup managed to duck in time to avoid being run down by Toothless as he sprinted out the door. Stoick has simply stepped aside.
"Hiccup, can you come take a look at her?" asked Camicazi.
"Sure," said Hiccup. He turned to Stoick. "I'll be right back, Dad."
Stoick nodded, knowing that Hiccup was safe as long as Camicazi was with him.
Camicazi and Hiccup ran/limped towards Camicazi's house. The door was already ajar from Toothless's entry. When they went inside, they found Stormfly asleep on a pile of blankets on the floor, a small puddle of vomit in front of her. Toothless was sitting next to her, staring. Her Mood Scales were a sickly green color.
Hiccup stepped around the puddle of sick and sat down next to Stormfly's head. She cracked her eye open and looked at Hiccup for a moment before smiling and closing her eye again. He gently rubbed her long neck, trying to get her to relax.
"What happened?" Hiccup whispered to her.
"I ate a fish made of s***," said Stormfly, making everyone in the room blush. She shifted a bit and lay on her side. Toothless laid down next to her, rubbing his head affectionately against her neck.
Hiccup stood up and turned to Camicazi.
"Well?" she asked.
"Not much you can do for food poisoning," said Hiccup with a weak shrug. "Just make sure she gets plenty of water, and when she stops throwing up, try feeding her something different, like a rabbit or something."
"But I don't like rabbits!" moaned Stormfly.
"It's either rabbits or limpets," said Hiccup, turning around. Stormfly's eyes widened in disgust at the thought of limpets. They tasted like boogers!
"Fine..." she muttered.
Hiccup turned back to Camicazi again. "Do you want me to stay?"
"No," said Camicazi. "You still have to go on that Quest. Because if you don't, the Snotlout would win by default and..." She shuddered. "Looks like it's up to you, Snotlout, and Fishlegs."
Hiccup smiled a bit. He then turned around and said to Toothless, "C'mon Toothless, let's go."
"Do I have to?" asked Toothless.
"Yes," said Stormfly, giving Toothless a playful kick in the ribs. He stood up and looked down at her.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" he asked, his green eyes wide with worry.
"Yes," said Stormfly, smiling. "It's just food poisoning, it's not like I'm dying or anything."
"Are you sure?" asked Toothless. "What if it's not food poisoning! What if it's some kind of mutant virus that eats dragon innards! Or what if it's a parasite or something!"
"Toothless, I'm pretty sure I don't have a parasite or a mutant dragon eating virus," said Stormfly, trying not to laugh.
"Toothless," said Camicazi. Toothless swirled his head around and looked at her. "I'll take care of her, don't worry. Now you two should get going."
Camicazi led Hiccup and Toothless to the door. They managed to shove Toothless out first.
"Are you sure you guys are gonna be okay?" asked Hiccup, standing half in and half out of the door.
"I don't think you should be worrying about us," said Camicazi. "I'm actually pretty concerned for you guys. There aren't any girls to keep you in line... except Fireworm..."
"Don't worry about us," said Hiccup, smiling. He leaned forward and kissed Camicazi, but they were interrupted a few seconds later by Toothless.
"Uh, Hiccup..."
Hiccup pulled away, rolled his eyes, and turned to his dragon. "What?"
"Did we leave your dad home alone with Brightclaw and Muskett?"
Hiccup's eyes opened wide and his face went pale. He quickly turned back to Camicazi. "I gotta go!" With that, he and Toothless took off up the hill. Camicazi smiled when Hiccup tripped and face-planted. Toothless grabbed Hiccup by the back of his shirt, set him upright, and the two continued running.
Hiccup burst through the door to find Brightclaw and Muskett flying around in circles, Stoick running around in a rage trying to grab and strangle the smaller reptiles. Brightclaw made sure to stay high up where Stoick couldn't reach. Muskett, however, was flying at Stoick's eye level. This would have been dangerous except for the fact that he was flying so fast it was difficult to see him. Maybe that's why his parents named him Muskett.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" shouted Hiccup.
Everyone screeched to a stop. Except for Brightclaw, who didn't stop in time to avoid the wall. Muskett was hovering right in front of Stoick, who took the opportunity to grab the speedy dragon.
"What happened?" asked Hiccup, walking forward and attempting to pry his father's hands off of Muskett.
Stoick dropped Muskett, who fell to the floor and dizzily stumbled away towards Brightclaw, who had almost given himself another concussion. Thor only knows how many he had gotten in the past year.
Hiccup took in the condition of the room. There were a few new scorch marks on the walls, and Stoick's beard looked burnt.
"Dad?" growled Hiccup.
"Uh... I'd rather not talk about it," said Stoick, actually looking a little embarrassed. "I'm just gonna go to bed. Make sure ya get your sleep too. You've got a busy day ahead." Stoick turned and disappeared into his room.
Hiccup looked at Toothless, who simply shrugged.
"I believe we've overstayed our welcome," said Muskett, now fully recovered from almost being strangled by Stoick. "Let's go, Brightclaw."
The two odd Terrors flew into the air and out the window.
Hiccup and Toothless just stood there for a minute.
"Well, I'm tired," said Hiccup.
"Yeah me too totally pooped," said Toothless quickly. His eyes rolled back into his head and he flopped down into the floor, his tongue hanging out, pretending to snore.
"Toothless," muttered Hiccup. He grabbed Toothless's front paw, sticking up in the air, and started pulling him towards their room. Toothless didn't budge. "C'mon, reptile!"
Suddenly, Hiccup lost his grip on Toothless's paw. He lost his balance, stumbled backwards, and fell to the floor, banging his head.
"Ow," he moaned, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.
Toothless immediately jumped up. "OhmyGodsHiccupI'msosorryareyouokay!"
"Aha!" exclaimed Hiccup. Before Toothless could react, Hiccup made a miraculous recovery and he latched himself to the back of Toothless's neck. "Now you can't flop over onto your back," said Hiccup, smiling.
Toothless groaned and thrusted his head down towards the floor, almost throwing Hiccup clean off. The scrawny boy managed to hang on.
"To the room!" exclaimed Hiccup, pointing towards their room. Toothless smiled and trotted into their room, depositing Hiccup on his bed. Hiccup laughed a bit and gave Toothless a good rub down.
"Okay, now I really am tired," yawned Toothless, stretching and curling up in a ball by Hiccup's bed.
"Me too," said Hiccup, also yawning. He unstrapped his prosthesis from his shin and placed it on his bedside table. He also took off his gloves and took out his special dagger, the one made from the Shadow Dragon talon. He placed it next to his sword, smiling proudly at the trophy. If anyone tried to steal it, they would have to go through Toothless, who was currently snoring.
"See ya in the morning, Toothless," muttered Hiccup, falling asleep.
That night, Hiccup had dreams of volcanoes. He had dreams that he and Toothless were flying as fast as they could, an unbearable heat at their backs. Hiccup slowly started to realize that his arm was hurting, but just as he started to look down at it, he was roughly shaken awake.
"Hiccup! Wake up!" shouted Camicazi.
"Wha-" stammered Hiccup, sitting bolt upright. "What's wrong?" he shouted. He quickly hopped out of bed... and toppled over, one foot short. Luckily, he landed on Toothless, who was woken by the impact.
Hiccup quickly grabbed his prosthesis and strapped it onto his shin, standing up. "Camicazi what's wrong?"
Looking outside, Hiccup could tell that it was early early morning; so early that the sun hadn't even come up yet.
"Snotlout's gone," said Camicazi, her voice grave, letting show how deeply p***ed off she really was. "He's already heading for the volcano."
A/N: Sorry it took me so long! See, I told ya this chapter would twist the story up! Yes, it was Snotlout hiding behind the boulder. Also, I debated between having Hiccup come in and see Stoick fighting with the two dragons, or being lectured by Muskett. I guess the lecture would have been pretty funny, but oh well. Let your mind run wild with that possibility. So! We just cut the playing field in half, and you know that I'm bound to make more things go wrong! Muahahahahah! So... that's all I can think of to ramble about. If you wanna rant... DO IT IN A REVIEW! So review! Bye!