"Dragons and Guardians: Riders of Berk
Author's note: Remember readers, Hiccup rides on Toothless's back while Aniu flies using her wings. And Barf and Belch is one dragon. Nava and the other guardians also fly while their wings and Nava and Aniu don't have dragons but they're still part of the gang. This note is here just to avoid confusion.
This chapter will introduce a new villain who knows Nava and Aniu. And he will be causing trouble for the main characters in later stories.
Chapter 3: Animal House
"Here on Berk, we've made peace with the dragons."
It was a beautiful day on the island of Berk. A green Monstrous Nightmare flew over the village where Vikings were doing their daily routines.
"We're finally living and working together. And it only took us 300 years."
A Deadly Nadder helped a man lift a heavy barrel into his house. A second Nadder chirped and flew up to meet the Monstrous Nightmare where they locked talons, spun each other around, parted and kicked each other.
"There's one slight problem. We forgot to tell the animals."
Roaring at each other angrily, the two dragons flew towards a farm and landed in the sheep paddock. Three sheep bleated in terror and in their haste to get away, kept running into each other, but they managed to run to the far side of the paddock where their fellow sheep were cowering.
The two dragons roared and circled each other until Mulch and Bucket arrived on the scene. "Oh, not again." Mulch groaned."You go on now. Go away. Shoo." Together, he and Bucket shooed them away from the paddock so they could work in peace. "You know you're not supposed to be in here."
"All right, everybody, time to earn your keep." Mulch announced as he walked towards a yak. Bucket peeked into the chicken coop and saw no eggs. "It's chickens who lay eggs, right?" He asked meekly. "Do we really need to over this again?" Mulch asked in frustration. They went over it a million times before but Bucket always forgot.
"No." Bucket said but he lifted up a sheep to check if there were any eggs under it. "Mulch sighed. "Apparently, we do. Pay attention, Bucket." He said. "Wool. (pointing at a sheep). Eggs (pointing at a chicken). Milk (pointing at a yak). Is that so hard now, see."
Bucket still looked confused. "Oh, observe." Mulch groaned, he sat on a stool, reached under a yak, grabbed its udder and pulled. "Just grab the udder, like so and pull." But no milk came out. Mulch kept pulling until the yak had enough and kicked him away from it. "Uh-oh. I think we're empty. That's not good." They had to tell Stoick right away.
Meanwhile, Hiccup and Toothless, Aniu, Nava, Astrid and Stormfly were racing each other down a snow-covered mountain by having Toothless and Stormfly slide on their stomachs. Nava and Aniu (in their dragon forms) were also doing this.
"Wooo-hooo!"
"Yeah!"
"All right!"
"Ha-ha-ha!"
The six of them were having tons of fun as they manoeuvred past trees, rocks and other obstacles. Astrid glanced behind her at Hiccup and Toothless who were catching up. Smirking, she had Stormfly fire some tailspines at them. "Whoa!" Hiccup yelped as he and Toothless barely dodged them. "Hey, Astrid."Hiccup complained.
"Whoops! Did I do that?" Astrid asked innocently. Toothless sped up and blocked Astrid and Stormfly's line of sight. "Hey, not fair." Astrid complained. But then Toothless lifted his wing and Astrid screamed as a tree branch slammed snow into her face.
"So, it's gotta be like that, huh?" Astrid yelled. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Hiccup said, playing dumb. Aniu and Nava laughed at them. Narrowing her eyes, Astrid tapped Stormfly's back and the Nadder shot fire at a large pile of snow. It exploded, causing Hiccup and Toothless to spin around uncontrollably. "Hey!" Hiccup complained. "It was her idea, but I approve." Astrid told him before laughing.
While all of this was going on, a guardian the same age as Nava and Aniu named Heep hid behind a snow-boulder. He had dirty yellow hair and dark yellow eyes. His wings were black, dark yellow, deep yellow, light yellow and white. He wore a yellow tunic, black pants, a brown vest and boots.
He lived in the same village that Aniu, her parents and Nava had lived in before they moved to Berk. And he hated Aniu and Nava for reasons he could not explain. One reason was they were much more powerful than him and everyone liked them while they ignored him. The reason was because he was arrogant, selfish and power-hungry. And he often bullied others too. He was also weaker than the other guardians. They could fly so much better and faster than him and they were much better at magic. The guardians used to treat him with love and respect like they did with their fellows and other creatures but he kept being mean. They suspected he was rather insane as well.
Right now, he was staring at Aniu, Nava and their new friends with a hateful look in his eyes. A light blue glow of magic flickered in one hand. Concentrating hard, he made the light grow. He was never good with ice magic. Then, he casted a spell that would cause a big avalanche. Once he was certain it had worked, he shot an ice blast at the Night Fury's prosthetic tailfin. It froze over and none of them noticed. Smirking, he left, flying away on weak wings.
Hiccup and Aniu chuckled before they heard a loud rumble from behind them. Glancing over their shoulders (or in Aniu's case: wings), they saw a large avalanche of snow headed straight towards them. "Oh,no." Both teens gasped.
Frantically, Hiccup tried adjust Toothless's prosthetic tailfin but it didn't work. "His tail's frozen!" Hiccup yelled when he saw the cause of the problem. "Astrid!"/ "Nava!"/ "Stormfly!" Hiccup, Aniu and Toothless screamed.
Confused at their friends shouts, Astrid and Nava turned their heads and saw the avalanche. Letting out gasps, Nava and Stormfly spotted a snow ramp up ahead and slid up it, launching themselves up into the sky where they flapped their wings and hovered. "Yeah!" Astrid screamed when she realized her dragon, Nava and her were safe. But she realized in horror that Hiccup, Aniu and Toothless weren't safe yet.
Aniu succeeded in doing the same but Hiccup and Toothless fell back to the ground when they tried sliding up the ramp. "Hiccup, Toothless!" Astrid, Aniu and Nava yelled. Stormfly screeched in alarm. Hiccup crawled down Toothless's back to pull the prosthetic tailfin open, wishing he could use fire magic.
Astrid, Stormfly, Aniu and Nava noticed a gorge opening up. "Hold on!" They screamed and flew down to help. "No, go back!" Hiccup yelled. Astrid grabbed Hiccup's hand and tried to pull him up onto Stormfly but they were too late as they, Toothless, Aniu and Nava fell into the gorge and everything went black.
Hiccup groaned as he sat up and placed a hand to his head. It was cold and it was so dark he couldn't see anything. "Astrid, Nava, Aniu?" He called out hesitantly, shivering. "Over here. Hiccup, I'm freezing." Astrid's voice sounded near him. "Me too." Aniu's voice said. "I'm not feeling the cold as much as you are but it's still cold." Everyone heard Nava say. Due to ice being his signature element, Nava didn't feel the cold as much as other people did.
"Come here, guys." Hiccup said. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him. "Where are the dragons?" Toothless roared from wherever he was and fired a plasma blast upwards, briefly illuminating the darkness. Stormfly also fired up a fire blast. "Toothless?"/ "Stormfly?" Hiccup, Aniu, Astrid and Nava asked.
Another plasma and fire blast later, sunlight filtered in from a hole in the snow roof. "Yeah." Astrid sighed in relief. "I see daylight." Hiccup exclaimed. "We're gonna get out of here." Aniu said happily. "Look what they did." Nava said. "They saved our lives."
"We might wanna be careful of when and where we are going to go Dragon-snowboarding again." Aniu said. They saw that Toothless and Stormfly had opened their wings, forming a wall around them. Then Hiccup and Astrid realized they were hugging each other and so were Aniu and Nava. Blushing and stammering awkwardly, they let go of each other. "So, we're good now?" Hiccup asked, still blushing in embarrassment. "Good-good as new." Astrid stammered before punching Hiccup on the shoulder. "Ow!" Hiccup yelped, still not used to Astrid's strength and punches.
"Sorry about the hug." Nava said. "It's alright. We used to give each other hugs at random times when we were kids." Aniu said. "All right. Now, what about Toothless's tailfin?" Nava asked, examining the prosthetic. "I have no idea on how it froze." Toothless said. Nava nodded before realizing something. "Heep!" He hissed in anger. "What about him?" Aniu asked. Nava showed her the tailfin and she gasped. 'I'd recognise Heep's magical signature anywhere." She said.
"Who is this Heep?" Hiccup asked. "And why does he sound so bad?" Astrid asked. "And how do you recognise his magical signature?" Stormfly asked. "Heep is a guardian just like Nava and I but he was our childhood bully." Aniu said. Then she and Nava proceeded to tell their four friends about him. "Everyone guardian has a magical signature that's unique to everyone elses. When a guardian casts a spell, usually nature magic, their magical signature can be found in the leftovers of the spell. That makes it easy to know which guardian had casted that spell." Aniu finished.
"Now let's get out of here." Nava said. Everyone agreed and Nava and Aniu flapped their and flew out of the hole. Hiccup and Astrid got onto Toothless and Stormfly's backs and followed them out. Together, the six of them flew back to Berk.
Meanwhile, Bucket and Mulch had got Stoick, Gobber, Fengo and Namara to come over to their farm and look at the yak. "Ah, uh-huh." Gobber said, who was under the yak. "Just what I thought, she's not giving milk, none of them are."
"We know that, Gobber. We want to know why." Stoick said impatiently. "This reminds of the time I moved my mother in with my goat." Gobber said. "She was mean, ornery and ate everything in sight. My goat was so scared of her, she couldn't give milk."
"So what are you saying, Gobber?" Fengo asked. "Mothers and goats don't mix. Same with farm animals and dragons." Gobber told them. "We stopped fighting the dragons so now they're around all the time. The animals are spooked." Behind him, the Monstrous Nightmare flew towards the ocean and roared, scaring some sheep into playing dead. "Like I said, spooked."
Suddenly, Bucket started groaning in pain, clutching his head as if he had a monstrous headache. "Uh-oh, your bucket's not tightening up on you, is it?" Mulch asked him. "No, I'm just...FINE!" Bucket finished his sentence with a scream as his bucket tightened up even more.
"Well, whenever his bucket gets tight, it means a storm is coming." Mulch informed Stoick, Gobber, Fengo and Namara. "It does?" Fengo and Namara asked in unison. Back at their old home, guardians usually flew out and predicted the incoming weather by examining clouds, temperature, time, etc.
"No storm. Everything's fine." Bucket said hastily. "Bucket." Mulch chided. "I don't want there to be a storm. If lightning strikes me bucket I could end up less intelligent...owwww!" Bucket wailed.
Mulch gently tapped Bucket's bucket with his hook-hand, earning a pained whimper. "Oh, ho, ho. That's one tight bucket. And the tighter the bucket, the bigger the storm." He said.
"But that's crazy. Storms don't hit this early in the season." Stoick protested. "And besides, who ever heard of predicting the weather with a bucket? Ha, that's what chicken bones and goose feet are for." Gobber exclaimed.
"If you recall, that bucket of his predicted the blizzard of Olaf." Mulch reminded them. "That was a bad one. It took us a week just to dig Mildew out. Owww!" Bucket said quickly. "And the rest of our lives to wonder why we bothered. Trust the bucket, Stoick." Mulch said. "You trust the bucket. I want a second opinion." Stoick said, walking away with Gobber, Fengo and Namara.
Stoick and Gobber rode on Fengo and Namara (who were in their dragon forms) as the two guardians flew up to the top of a slim mountain on the outskirts of the village where Gothi (the elder of Berk) lived.
"Gothi, I've come for your council. Is there gonna be a storm?" Stoick asked once they landed. Gothi started drawing with her staff in a patch of dirt she always had outside of her house.
"What's she saying, Gobber?" Stoick asked his best friend. "She says: 'what do you think?'" Gobber translated. Both men, Fengo and Namara looked at each other and shrugged. Gothi sighed (one of the only sounds she was able to make) and pointed at her house. The windows were boarded up and sandbags were all over the place.
"Oh." The four adults said. "How can you be so sure?" Stoick asked. "Was it the chicken bones or the goose feet?" Namara asked. Gothi wrote in the dirt patch with her staff again. "Uh-huh. Yep. She says she could hear Bucket screaming from way up here." Fengo translated. He, Stoick, Gobber and Namara stared at each other in shock.
"And then Toothless and Stormfly used their wings to block the snow." Hiccup recounted to Fishlegs and Snotlout on an abandoned catapult. "I never heard of anything like that. Not even in the Book of Dragons." Fishlegs said in awe. "Well, we were completely set on getting rid of them instead of properly studying them." Aniu said.
"I know! It was incredible! It's as if their protective instincts just kicked in!" Astrid exclaimed. "Yes, most dragons are very protective of anyone they care about." Stormfly said. "We'd do anything to protect our riders and families." Toothless added. Nava translated their words to the people who couldn't understand dragon language.
"Who'd believe it? The dragons we fought for years came to our rescue." Hiccup said, gesturing to Toothless and Stormfly who were sitting behind their riders, looking quite proud of themselves. "Yeah, if it weren't for them, we would've frozen to death." Astrid admitted. "Or buried alive." Aniu added.
"You know what, you four could've used your own body heat to keep each other warm." Fishlegs said innocently. Hiccup and Astrid, Aniu and Nava glanced at each other, blushed and quickly moved away. Who would do that?" Hiccup asked quickly in embarrassment, glancing at Astrid. "That's crazy." Astrid said."Or Aniu and I could've used our fire magic." Nava muttered, blushing as he glanced at Aniu.
"Hey, Astrid. If you're still cold..." Snotlout flirted, holding out his arms and blowing a kiss. Astrid glared at him and slammed her elbow into the catapult she was leaning against. A large pile of snow fell off and landed on Snotlout, burying him. "Hey!" The Jorgenson boy's muffled indignant protest sounded. Astrid smirked.
"Hey, Hiccup, Aniu." Everyone (except for Snotlout was trying to unbury himself) turned around and saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut walking towards them. "Your dads are looking for you." Tuffnut said. "Stoick looked angry." Ruffnut said. "My Dad's looked angry since the day I was born." Hiccup said sarcastically, standing up and mounting Toothless. Aniu walked to the edge of the catapult and spread her wings. "But I'm sure there's no connection." Aniu and Toothless flapped their wings and flew towards the Haddock House.
When they went inside, they found Stoick pacing nervously."With a bad storm coming, we could be locked in. We might not be able to hunt or fish for months." The chief said.
"But it's way too early for a storm." Aniu protested. "We're in the middle of winter. Bad winter isn't due for another month." Hiccup also protested. "Not according to Gothi." Stoick said. "Well, what are Aniu and I supposed to do?" Hiccup asked desperatedly. "I can't control the weather. Although Aniu has elemental magic, she can't control the weather either."
"No, but you two can control dragons." Stoick told them. "We wouldn't really call it controlling." Fengo and Namara (who were also in the room) muttered. "If they don't stop scaring the animals we won't have any provisions to live on."
"We would have some provisions left if every chubby Viking on Berk went on a diet." Aniu whispered. Hiccup heard her and stifled a laugh behind his hand. Bucket and Mulch chose that moment to walk inside, both carrying buckets. "Any luck?" Stoick asked, grabbing Mulch's bucket and tipping it upside down but it was empty.
"Not a drop." Mulch said miserably. "And this is after yanking on that poor yak for three hours." Stoick, Fengo, Namara, Hiccup, Toothless and Aniu glanced at each other. "But it's not like the dragons are trying to be scary." Hiccup said desperately. "They don't even eat farm animals. They eat fish." Aniu said. "True, but they're huge, scaly and breathe fire." Gobber said. "And now that we've made peace with them, they're everywhere. The animals are terrified of them."
"My fellow dragons and I are trying not to scary to the farm animals but as soon as we come anywhere near them, the animals run away." Toothless said, but only the guardians understood him."Here's where you two jump in and say: 'we'll fix this'." Stoick said to Hiccup and Aniu. "Okay. But how long do we have before the storm hits?" Hiccup asked. "About a week." Mulch said. "No problem, more than enough time." Aniu said confidently. But Bucket grabbed his bucket and groaned in pain. "Correction: Three days and six hours." Mulch told them. "Uh, okay. Less time might be more of a problem." Hiccup stammered.
Two days later, the weather had picked up. Dark clouds filled the sky and it was getting colder. "Come on, big boy. You can do it." Hiccup said as he and Astrid tried to push a yak closer to a Monstrous Nightmare and a Deadly Nadder. "Come on. You'll like them if you get to know them."
"Hiccup, when trying to help a person or in this case a yak to get over their fear of something, it's not a good idea to force them." Nava said. "They must get used to them in time and rushing it is not a good idea." Aniu agreed with her boyfriend. "The dragons look scary but they're just big, scaly reptiles." Astrid said soothingly.
"Just like Snotlout." Tuffnut snickered. Snotlout angrily grabbed him and prepared to punch his lights out but stopped. "You're the guy right?" He asked in confusion, not wanting to hit Ruffnut. "No." Tuffnut squeaked in a girlish voice.
The two dragons roared at each other. The yak mooed and ran away, scattering some chickens. Fishlegs tried a different approach. "Okay, what if we looked at this from an animal's perspective." He suggested, dropping onto his hands and knees and walking around in circles in front of the dragons. "Oh, hello. Mr Dragon. I'm just a little sheep here. Walking, doing sheep things. Baa! Baa!"The dragons simply stared at him, wondering he was doing. "You know, they don't really seem so big and scary..." Fishlegs said before the Monstrous Nightmare roared in his face. The large Ingerman teen yelped and ran back to Meatlug, hiding under her. "Sorry, but I'm siding with the sheep on this one." Fishlegs whimpered.
"Look, I've learned that once you have a positive experience with something you're afraid of, it isn't so scary anymore." Hiccup said, herding three sheep towards the Monstrous Nightmare. "And that's what we'll have to do with these sheep. We've gotta prove to them that they have nothing to fear."
Behind him, the Stoker Class dragon sniffed the three sheep and sneezed, accidently spitting out fire and setting a sheep's tail on fire. It was a well-known fact on Berk that Monstrous Nightmares accidently spit out fire when they laugh, cough or sneeze. Nava caught the sheep and Aniu used water magic to put out the fire. "Oh, at this rate we'll never get any milk or eggs." Hiccup groaned in frustration. "What did we ever do to deserve the god's hatred?" Aniu asked, staring up at the already dark and ominous clouds that filled the sky.
The wind was howling like the storm that would come and snow was piling up around the village. "Ah, just as I feared." Stoick muttered grimly as he examined the food storehouse with Gobber, Fengo and Namara. "We haven't had time to fully stock the food storehouse. If this storm is as bad as we think it is, we're never gonna survive." He held a plank of wood to the doors and used Gobber's prosthetic hammer to hammer in nails.
"Not with this inventory." Gobber agreed. "We're going to need everything we can get from those chickens and yaks." Stoick said. "I'm not really comfortable putting my fate in the hands of a brainless, flightless bird and a big, woolly beast that sleeps in its own dung." Gobber told him. "Well, luckily our fate isn't in their hands, it's in my son's." Stoick replied. "And Aniu's hands." Fengo said. "I'm sure Aniu and Hiccup are doing very well." Namara said optimistically. If only she knew what was happening in the arena.
The farm animals were running all over the place. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs were simply standing by and watching the chaos instead of helping while Hiccup, Astrid, Aniu and Nava were trying to calm the animals down. "Another way for the animals to overcome their fear is to show them that dragons are afraid of things too." Hiccup said.
"Remember Magnus the Merciless. He was a pretty scary guy." Astrid said. Fishlegs shuddered. "I was afraid of him until I learned that was afraid of the dark." Astrid finished. "So during the day, Merciless." Tuffnut said. "And during the night, Tuffnut." Ruffnut joked before saying "Ow!" as her brother punched her on the shoulder. "Hey, that's a real problem." Tuffnut snapped.
"I'm just saying that knowing he was afraid of something made him less scary to me." Astrid said. "Yes, let's show the yaks that dragons are afraid of things too." Hiccup said, grabbing two eels from a basket and showing them to the dragons. The Monstrous Nightmare and Deadly Nadder roared and reared back in terror.
The yaks mooed and looked at each other, beginning to think the dragons weren't so scary after all. "I think it's working." Astrid said happily. "Now, we're making progress." Nava smiled. But one of the eels slid from Hiccup's hand and slithered towards the dragons, revealing it was still alive. The Monstrous Nightmare roared and accidently hit a sheep with its tail, sending the poor animal flying into the wall and sliding down it unconscious.
Hiccup groaned in frustration. "Don't worry." Astrid said, gently placing a hand on her boyfriend's back. "Worry? I'm not worried. Do I look worried?" Hiccup said, trying and failing to look unconcerned.
The next day, a lightning storm had started, signalling the storm was well on its way. Vikings gathered together and evacuated into the Great Hall, bringing with them whatever necessary valuables and supplies they would need. "Bring in everything you need!" Stoick ordered from where he was standing in front of the Great Hall's doors. Gobber, Fengo and Namara were beside him, helping any Vikings who needed assistance. "We don't know how long we'll be hunkered down!"
Bucket was being carried in a wheelbarrow pulled by Mulch up the stairs, whimpering and clutching his head in pain. "How' s Bucket doing?" Fengo asked. "Look at him." Mulch said in response to the male guardian's question. "He usually loves a wheelbarrow ride."
"I could use a pain reliever spell on him. It will temporarily take away most of the pain if he needs it." Namara said. "Yes, please." Bucket whimpered. At that moment, a loud thunderclap tore through the sky. Bucket's whimpering increased."Mulch, Namara and I will take care of Bucket." Stoick said. You, Fengo and Gobber will go find the kids and bring them here." With those words, he and Namara grabbed the wheelbarrow Bucket was in and dragged it up the stairs and into the Great Hall. Mulch, Gobber and Fengo nodded and headed towards the Dragon Academy arena.
The teens were all shouting as they tried to get the dragons and farm animals under control. "Hey! Calm down. Get back over here." Astrid ordered, standing in front of the Monstrous Nightmare as it tried to chase some chickens. "You know what I'm learning from this?" Hiccup asked, holding two chickens in his arms. "Chickens are, well, chicken." Gently, he put them down in front of the two dragons. "You don't say?" Aniu asked sarcastically.
"What if we showed them how much they have in common with the dragons?" Fishlegs suggested. Hiccup, Astrid, Aniu and Nava stared at him in confusion. "They both lay eggs, right?" Fishlegs asked, taking a dragon egg from his pocket. "A Terrible Terror laid one last week."
"Um, Fishlegs, are you sure that's a good idea?" Nava asked. "And do the parents of the egg know you have their egg?" Aniu asked. Two Terrible Terrors flew over to them. "It's alright. He asked us politely and we said yes." The male Terror said. "Only after he said he'll give it back once he's done with it." The female Terror told them.
Fishlegs gently put the egg on the ground in front of three chickens. The clucked curiously and surrounded it. One hen was brave enough to sit on the egg. "All right, see? An egg's an egg. Right ladies?" Hiccup said hopefully. Just then, the egg hatched. The three chickens were blown away by the resultant explosion. The two Terrible Terror parents went over to their young hatchling. "Until it explodes." Hiccup and Aniu muttered.
"Everybody out! The storm is here!" Gobber shouted, throwing open the gate and running into the arena. Sure enough, snow was falling heavily from the sky. "Wait! We haven't made any progress with the animals!" Hiccup protested. "Your father wants everyone in the Great Hall, now!" Fengo snapped, flying over to his daughter and her best friend, his wings were lightly covered in frost.
"Take the others. I need to stay and keep working with the animals. They're still afraid." Hiccup said. "I'm staying with him." Aniu said stubbornly."You can't get eggs from a frozen chicken! We've gotta get the animals into the barns!" Gobber shouted, herding everyone (teens, dragons and farm animals alike) out of the arena.
But when they got to the barnyard, the barns were completely covered in ice and snow. "So much for the barns." Gobber and Fengo muttered. "There's no other place to hold them!" Mulch yelled over the wind. "The Great Hall!" Hiccup shouted. "It's the only place we've got left!" Aniu shouted, folding her wings around her body for warmth. Nava walked forward and wrapped his wings and arms around Aniu in an attempt to keep her warm. "Thanks." Aniu sighed, leaning into her boyfriend's embrace. "Anytime." Nava smiled at her.
"So, we're going to have the dragons and the animals under the same roof. We know that won't work." Mulch said. "We have no choice. Let's go." Hiccup said. So off they went, making sure everyone stayed together and didn't lost. "All right, keep the dragons and farm animals separate!" Gobber hollered.
"This way!" Astrid and Nava cried out, both herding a sheep back towards its herd. "Come on! Come on! Let's go! This way, guys!" Fishlegs tried to help them out. Suddenly, a lightning struck a tree directly in front of Stormfly, the Deadly Nadder shrieked in alarm and her tail smacked Hookfang across the face. The Monstrous Nightmare roared, set himself on fire and reared up causing the animals to run away.
"Hey, I've got this under control." Snotlout boasted, standing in front of three yaks galloping straight towards him. But instead of stopping them, Snotlout got thrown into the air by the first yak, landed on the ground and then got trampled. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow. Okay, everything hurts." He whimpered.
Two yaks ran in opposite directions past Fishlegs, causing him to spin around and fall onto his stomach. Ruffnut, two sheep and a chicken ran over him as Ruffnut tried to catch the chicken. Hiccup and Aniu tried to catch two sheep only to face-plant into the snow. Both teens got up and groaned when they saw the farm animals run into the forest.
Hiccup narrowed his eyes in determination and ran back to Toothless. Aniu, realising what he was planning to do, spread her wings. "Where are you going?" Gobber asked when he noticed Hiccup sitting on Toothless's back. "I'm going after them." He said. "Forget it, Hiccup. We'll never get them rounded up in this storm." Gobber yelled.
"With Toothless and Aniu I can. We have to try. If we don't ,we starve to death." Hiccup said seriously. "No, your father would kill me if I left you and the others out here!" Gobber shouted. "Just let them go, Gobber." Fengo sighed. "They'll just do it no matter what you say. Aniu, please be careful."
"I will, Dad." Aniu promised. "Sorry, Gobber." Hiccup said as Toothless flew into the sky. "Hiccup! Come back here! Aniu, you too!" Gobber shouted as Aniu flew after her surrogate brother and his dragon. "Astrid, Nava, will you two talk some sense into...no, not you too! Astrid! Nava! You're not going...get back here, all of you!" Gobber yelled in desperation. But no one listened to him and once the dragon- riding teens were on their dragon's back, flew after their leaders."We'll come back as soon as we can, Gobber!" Aniu shouted. Gobber could do nothing but stare at them, dumbstruck. "Well, there they go." Fengo said, knowing just how stubborn Hiccup and Aniu could be.
In the Great Hall, Vikings were gathered around the fire pit, trying to keep warm. Every fire pit and torch had been set on fire to provide light and warmth for the Vikings by Arrow (Deadly Nadder, Stormfly's mate), Firesnow (Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang's mate), Clobbertail (Gronckle, Meatlug's mate) and Lefa and Rila (Hideous Zippleback, Barf and Belch's mate).
"How long do you think this storm is going to last?" Clobbertail asked. "Don't know." Lefa said. "It should let up soon." Rila said hopefully. "I wonder how our mates and their riders are going?" Firesnow asked. "Hopefully, they are doing well and I hope Snotlout and the twins arenot being muttonheadsa and misbehaving." Arrow said.
Just then, Skyflier, Forestflier, Violet (Stormfly and Arrow's hatchlings), Ignitis, Infernia (Hookfang and Firesnow's hatchlings) and Boomer and Banger (BarfBelch and LefaRila's hatchling) ran up to were joined by two of Meatlug and Clobbertail's twelve hatchlings who were named Stonecruncher and Sweetiepie. Stonecruncher was a male Gronckle with dark grey scales and dark brown spots. His sister Sweetiepie was a real sweetheart with deep pink scales and deep purple spots. All of the hatchlings were only a couple of months old and had already learned how to speak and walk around. They would learn how to breath fire and fly in a few years time.
"Hey, Daddy." Skyflier said."When's Mummy coming back?" Forestflier asked."She'll be back soon." Arrow said, nuzzling his children. "I hope she and the others are okay." Violet said quietly. "I bet my dad will be blowing stuff up." BoomerBanger piped up. The little green and blue Zippleback inherited his father's love of blowing stuff up. "Uncle Snotlout is pro-bab-ly getting burned by Dad." Infernia said. "Yeah, cause Uncle Snotlout keeps annoying Dad and bossing him around." Ignitis agreed with his sister. "Come on, young ones. I think it is time you went to sleep."Firesnow said gently. "But I wanna saty up and wait for Mum." Stonecruncher whined. "We could sleep until they get back and you'll wake us up, right Dad?" Sweetiepie asked, looking at her father. Clobbertail sighed. "I suppose so." He said.
The eight young dragons had lay down to sleep when the main doors to the Great Hall were blown open by the wind and several people cried out. "Move those tables against the doors." Stoick ordered. Two Viking men obeyed but seconds after they had done so, the doors were thrown open again and Gobber and Fengo burst in. "Stoick, the barns have been covered in ice and snow! The animals have scattered!" Gobber yelled. Namara ran to her husband.
"Where's Hiccup, Aniu and the others?" Stoick asked. "Fengo and I tried tah stop 'em, Stoick. They went after the animals." Stoick sighed and walked towards the doors. "I'm coming with you too. My daughter's out there." Namara said. Then the doors opened again and Mulch and two yaks walked through them. "I caught these two." The farmer/ fisherman said. "I figured at least with these we'll be able to start a new herd."
"You might wanna check their genders, Mulch." Gobber said as he, Stoick, Fengo and Namara left the Great Hall. But when Mulch bent down to check the yaks genders, he realised he was standing in the way of the doors and the two men were glaring at him. "Oh, uh. Never mind, boys." He said awkwardly, walking further into the hall and allowing the two men to close the doors.
Back out in the forest, it was night time, very cold and hard to see. Toothless (with Hiccup on his back) and Aniu (in her golden-brown Fury dragon with emerald green spines and Monstrous Nightmare markings dragon form) flew at the head of the group. Both of them spat out blue and green plasma blasts to light their way and provide a small, brief amount of heat.
"You find as many as you can! We'll herd them back to the Great Hall." Hiccup ordered. "Can we please swing by my house? I'll like to get my heavy coat!" Fishlegs asked desperately. "Check this out." Tuffnut said to his sister before smacking himself across the face. "I'm so cold, I can't feel my face!" Ruffnut reached over and smacked Tuffnut across the face to see if her brother was telling the truth. "Didn't feel it!" Tuffnut yelled despite still feeling the pain from the strike. "That takes all the fun out of it." Ruffnut snapped.
Toothless and Aniu flew down into a valley and saw a bunch of farm animals running around. "There they are! Come on!" Hiccup shouted. The gang flew down and tried their best to wrangle the animals into a herd. "Yaks to the left!" Fishlegs yelled. "Chickens to the right!" Snotlout shouted as Hookfang flew past Meatlug, accidently clipping her side and sending the Gronckle and her rider into a spin. "Hey, I'm flying here!" Snotlout yelled back at them.
"Chickens, over here! Follow me this way! Come on!" Snotlout yelled but Hookfang saw a tree up ahead and moved to avoid it. 'Hey, where are you going? Aah!" Snotlout screamed when he and Hookfang narrowly missed another tree. "Sheep! Hey, sheep! This way! Baa!" Fishlegs called down to a flock of sheep running away from him and Meatlug. "Baa! Baa! Hey, it's working! Baa!" But then he and Meatlug got stuck under a fallen tree. "Oh, come on." Fishlegs groaned.
"We've got them!" Astrid and Nava (in his silvery-blonde Deadly Nadder with sapphire blue Monstrous Nightmare markings dragon form) yelled. Both Stormfly and Nava fired some tail spines at the sheep, trapping in a makeshift pen. "Gotcha!" Astrid and Nava exclaimed triumphantly. But Hookfang (who had somehow lost control of his flight pattern) and Snotlout (who was screaming loudly) knocked some tail spines down, freeing the sheep.
"Snotlout, what are you doing? You're all over the place!" Astrid shouted at Snotlout. "You try herding chickens with a dragon that doesn't listen to you!" He shouted back at her."Hiccup! Stray sheep!" Astrid yelled as she noticed three sheep that had separated from their flock. Hiccup and Toothless turned and flew past Astrid and Stormfly.
The three sheep were running along a narrow ledge when the smallest sheep suddenly slipped and fell off the ledge and slid rapidly down a snowy cliff before flying off the edge. The young sheep let out a terrified bleat as it fell to its death. Or it would have if a certain Night Fury hadn't flown down and grabbed it in its paws. The sheep looked at its saviour and Toothless down at it and gummily smiled before putting the sheep down beside its parents.
"Good job, bud." Hiccup smiled at his dragon. Just then, Aniu, Astrid, Stormfly and Nava flew up to him. "Hiccup, the storm is getting worse!" Aniu yelled. "I can't see anything!" Astrid shouted. "I don't think we'll be able to do this much longer!" Nava called out.
"Come on, bud. Give us some light." Hiccup begged. Toothless spun around and fired a plasma blast. Its light illuminated three silhouettes up ahead. Two of them seemed to have wings. "Stray yaks! 12: 00!" Hiccup yelled, pointing at them.
"I see them and they are huge!" Tuffnut shouted. Barf and Belch flew through the storm and grabbed the silhouettes in all four claws. "I got the yaks!" Tuffnut yelled. Ruffnut smirked at him. Then a voice yelled. "Put me down! Right now!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked and saw Stoick, Gobber, Fengo and Namara dangling from Barf and Belch's claws.
Barf and Belch flew down and dropped them. Gobber landed on his face. "Do I look like a yak to you!" He shouted angrily, holding himself up on all four fours. Then he noticed he had landed beside a yak. "Stoick looks a bit like a yak." Barf said. "Yeah, just look at the horns on his helmet." Belch agreed.
Toothless and Aniu landed in front of Stoick and Hiccup dismounted and walked towards his father. "You shouldn't be out here, Hiccup." Stoick told his son. "Dad, I'm sorry I let out you down." Hiccup said. "It's not your fault, son. I'm taking all of you back." Stoick said.
Behind them, Astrid, Stormfly and Nava landed. "Which way?" Gobber asked. "Follow our tracks." Stoick ordered. But there were no tracks to be found. "The tracks will already be covered by the falling snow." Namara said. "And these four picked us up from where we were and flew us over here." Fengo said, glaring Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Barf and Belch.
"So much for that idead." Gobber replied. "Sir, what do we do now?" Fishlegs asked, walking up behind Astrid,Hiccup, Aniu and Nava. The three Viking teens shivered. Aniu and Nava tried their best to warm their friends up using fire magic. Stoick looked around and saw that Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout were also shivering. All the dragons were relatively unaffected by the cold.
"Everyone, come together." Stoick ordered. Every Viking and guardian huddled together in a group hug, trying to keep warm. Toothless (who had been lying down to sleep) saw the problem and called out to his fellow dragons. "Come on, we have to help them." He said. Growling in agreement, Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf and Belch got up and walked towards the group.
Hiccup and Aniu raised their heads and saw the dragons surrounding them in a circle. One by dragon, each dragon reared up and spread their wings to shield the Vikings and guardians from the weather. "What are they doing?" Stoick asked curiously. "They're protecting us." Hiccup and Aniu simultaneously replied. "It's their natural instinct." Astrid and Nava realised in awe. Hiccup and Aniu smiled at their respective girlfriend and boyfriend.
Then Hookfang, Stormfly and Meatlug spat a fireball onto the snow-covered ground in front of the people they were shielding. Toothless smiled before he heard a sheep bleating. Turning his head around, he saw the family of three sheep huddled together shivering. The Night Fury ran towards the sheep and the two parents ran away, still scared of the black dragon.
Toothless stopped beside the little sheep and gently butted it with his head. The little sheep stared at the dragons with fear in its eyes but hesitantly forward until it entered the circle where it was greeted with kind draconian faces. Feeling the heat and warmth from the fires in its woolly coat, the sheep turned its head and bleated at its fellow farm animals.
Summoning their courage, they began moving into the circle. Once every animal was in the circle, Toothless ran back to them and closed the gap. The little sheep decided to sleep in front of Toothless. Everyone smiled at this. "Your dragons are really something, son." Stoick said to Hiccup. "Yeah. They are." Hiccup said in agreement. Toothless reared back his head and fired a plasma blast into the sky. The other dragons followed suit. Then, they all lay down and went to sleep, knowing the dragons would protect them.
When the sun's light crept across the land, the dragons woke up and shook the snow off themselves, also waking up the Vikings, guardians and farm animals. Stoick looked at his son and nodded proudly. Hiccup smiled back at him happily. Then everyone began their trek back to the village.
The villagers and dragons were eating breakfast in the Great Hall when the doors opened."They're back and they're all right!" Mulch exclaimed when he saw Hiccup, Aniu, Astrid, Nava, Stoick, Namara, Fengo, Gobber, the rest of the Viking teens, the dragons and farm animals enter the Great Hall.
Everyone cheered. "And the animals are all right too!" Bucket pointed out the plainly obvious. "Uh-oh. Here come the dragons." Mulch sighed, gently elbowing Bucket in the stomach. Hookfang roared and let the three sheep riding on his back dismount.
"Will you look at that?" Mulch remarked in wonder. Arrow, Firesnow, Clobbertail, Lefa and Rila walked forward to greet their mates with their children following. "Hey, everyone!" Astrid and Nava yelled to get the people's attention. "The chickens are laying eggs again!" Hiccup and Aniu yelled, both holding chickens in one hand and a chicken egg in the other hand.
The Vikings all cheered."I was right. Chickens do lay eggs." Bucket said happily. A Viking walked up to Fengo and Namara and whispered in their ears. "Aniu." Both guardians said. "The renovations to our house is finished. You've got your own room. We can live with us now."
"Really?" Aniu exclaimed. "Yeah, really." Fengo laughed at the expression on his daughter's face. Aniu looked at Hiccup to see his reaction. "That's great news." He said. "I'll miss having you as a roommate though." Aniu chuckled. "At least our houses and rooms are right beside each other." She said. "I can just glide from my window to yours in my owl form."
"Well, Aniu. You better pack your stuff up if you want to move into your new room." Namara laughed. Everyone around them smiled and stared at the dragons, farm animals and Vikings mingling with each other happily. Gobber grabbed four fish from a basket and fed them to Barf, Belch, Lefa and Rila.
"We made our peace with the dragons when we saw that we could trust them."
Stormfly and Arrow lay down to sleep with their children and some sheep tucked under their wings.
"All of us."
Stoick and Hiccup smiled at each other and turned around as the doors to the Great Hall closed.
"Aniu and I have found that life on Berk has got a little warmer."
Everyone, I'm so sorry about the wait. It's the second chapter's one month anniversary. And this month has been crazy for me. I've been reading lots of different fanfictions, going to school and my mum had to go to hospitals because of her sinus problems. And the Call of the Death Song expansion pack for School of Dragons is coming around the first week of September. The trailer is awesome. I've got my Razorwhip all ready for it.
Updated: 26.08.2015Australian Time
This chapter was 13 pages long on Microsoft Office Word.