Do You Mind? Chapter 8
A/N Fun fact: this story started as three completely separate story ideas – the dragon mind-reading story, the lost-world story, and the Ruffcup tale. None of them were going anywhere in my mind, even though I thought they were all good ideas. On a whim, I merged them all together, and... well, you know what happens when you put more than one plotbunny together. They make lots of little plotbunnies. This story is the result.
o
"Fishlegs? Are you ready to get off this rock now?"
"Am I ready? I've been ready since yesterday, Meatlug! You set a new record for napping when there were important things to do!"
"What could be more important than getting enough rest?" Meatlug stretched and yawned. "Anyway, I'm getting hungry, so we might as well fly down and find something we can eat. Can you think of any reason why I might have a stiff neck?"
"You mean, aside from the fact that you fell asleep in the sky and fell straight down until we wiped out on this cliff, head-first?"
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you. No wonder you were grouchy yesterday. Are you all right?"
"Yes, aside from a stiff neck, and an empty belly, and sore muscles everywhere from sleeping on solid rock, I'm fine."
"I've been sleeping on solid rock all my life, and my joints don't hurt. You just need more practice."
"Meatlug, my big boulder-class beauty, I don't want to argue with you, but I'm not a dragon and I can't do what dragons do. I can't sleep on rocks, I can't nap all day, and it makes me very grouchy to go a day without food. Can we please fly down to the ground where I belong?"
"Seeing how that's where the food is, I guess so." Fishlegs climbed onto Meatlug, who lifted off easily, and they descended the sloping face of the rocky spire until they came out of the fog layer and could see again.
Near the base of the spire, they found the bundle that Meatlug had been carrying. The food had been ransacked by small animals, judging by the footprints, but the tent and sleeping gear were still in good shape. Fishlegs wanted to tie it back onto his dragon, but the ropes were broken in multiple places, so he made a mental note to come back to this spire when night was approaching.
They spiraled outward for most of the day, looking for something that looked appetizing to either of them, without success. They saw some strange creatures in a swamp; they were about seven feet long and looked something like the "crocodiles" Fishlegs had seen in a book, but their tails were too short, and their skin looked too soft. They didn't see any signs of the other members of the group, either.
Still, Fishlegs found a quiet pleasure in spending the whole day with his dragon, without distractions. When Meatlug wanted to take a midday nap, they landed on a hilltop covered in ferns, and Fishlegs leaned back against his slumbering dragon and took a nap himself. It wasn't hard, seeing how he hadn't gotten much rest on the cliff all night.
"I knew you could do it," was the thought that awakened him. He'd slept half the day away! "I woke up half an hour ago, but I hated to disturb you. You looked so peaceful."
"We need to get back to that spire so I can set up my tent."
"We'll get there," Meatlug thought back. They took a direct route, and got back to the spire minutes before the sunlight vanished. Fishlegs did most of the work of setting up the tent in the dark, lit only by the glow from the fireballs that Meatlug shot into the ground every minute or so.
"Now I can sleep comfortably." At least he hoped so; he was very hungry.
"Now you're getting the right attitude."
The Gronckle lay sprawled in front of her boy's tent. They both slept very soundly that night.
o
When Astrid and the boys awoke, Hookfang and Barf and Belch were happily fishing in the lake. Stormfly was standing by the shore, shaking her head and looking cross.
"Astrid, could you ask those boys to tell their dragons to settle down? They're making so many waves and ripples, I can't see my reflection in the water!"
"You ought to eat now, Stormfly. When all of you are done, the lake will be still, and you can see your reflection then."
"But what if something makes me dirty between now and then?"
"Do you mean the way the salt crusts on your scales after you swim in the ocean? This is fresh water; there's nothing here that will make you dirty. Going fishing will just make you cleaner."
"Oh, goody! Fishies, here I come!" Stormfly leaped into the air and was soon busily stuffing her gullet with the fish she caught. Astrid shook her head and smiled at the same time, and joined the boys for a quick breakfast from the food they'd brought.
"Okay, here's the plan," she began. "First, I'm going to pop up above the clouds and see if Toothless or Meatlug is up there waiting for us. If not, we're going to do what we did yesterday, but we'll go further because we've got all day to do it. Does anybody have any other ideas we might try?"
"How about if we all yell, 'Hiccup, where are you?' real loud?" Tuffnut asked.
"Even if it worked, that won't help us find Fishlegs," Astrid replied. "We kind of have to do it the hard way."
She and Stormfly spiraled upwards again. They returned about five minutes later. "Nobody's up there," she reported.
"So much for an easy answer," Lout commented. "That means we have to keep searching this place, right?"
"I think we've got a feel for this place now, so we'll cover a lot more ground if we split up," Astrid said.
"Fine with me," Snotlout agreed.
"Uhh… I'm still not sure about that," Tuffnut replied.
"What's the matter?" Lout taunted him. "You almost sound afraid of something!"
"I'm not afraid!" Tuff snapped back. "I'm just… nervous."
"Nervous, afraid, same thing," Snotlout grinned. "You sound just like your sister!"
"Seeing how they're twins, that shouldn't surprise anybody," Astrid cut in. "Tuff, you can fly a pattern with me if it makes you feel better." He nodded gratefully. "Okay, Lout, you and Hookfang fly north until you find the valley wall, then go west until the valley ends, then come back here. We'll go south and west, and we'll all meet back here around lunch time. Stay high so those land-dragons can't get you."
"Which way is west?"
"Turn left just before you crash into the rocks," she snapped. Snotlout nodded and waved as his dragon peeled off to the north.
The Nadder and the Zippleback winged southward. After a few minutes, Astrid called, "We'll have a better chance of finding our friends if we spread out a little bit more."
"Okay," Tuff said. "I just… wanted to thank you. For sticking up for me back there."
"Not a problem," she nodded. "Are you doing okay?"
After a moment, he answered, "I miss my sister."
"I'm sure you do," she nodded. "I miss all our friends."
"Ruff isn't just another friend!" he burst out. "She's… kind of my other half. We do everything together, even though we drive each other nuts sometimes. Together, we're awesome. Separate, we're just the idiot twins. It's been years since we were apart from each other this long."
"That really must be rough on you," she replied. He gave her a funny look. "No pun intended. I'm sure she's fine."
"I'm not so sure," he said. "I'm taking this harder than I thought I would. We're just so… so used to each other! I feel like like half my brain is missing. She might be feeling the same way, and that's not good."
"I can't say I know how that feels," she replied. "The closest connection I have is to my dragon, and I know that's not the same thing."
"Ruff reminds me of a dragon sometimes, but I'd still rather be with her than without her," Tuff admitted.
"Does she know you feel that way?"
"I guess so," he said reluctantly.
"You never talked to her about it?"
"Guys don't talk about stuff like that," he said dismissively. "Besides, she probably knows it anyway."
"Tuff, this whole thing with the dragons reading our minds has been strange, with some good moments and some bad ones. One thing it's reminded me of is that people can't read each other's minds. I used to wish we could, but with the troubles I've had with Stormfly lately, now I think it's good that we can't. That means we have to talk to each other about the things that matter. What if both of you spent your whole lives never telling each other how you really felt?"
"Don't girls just know that stuff somehow?"
"We're good guessers sometimes, mostly because you guys can be so obvious," she smiled. "But nobody is a mind reader. Even girls tell each other what really matters, just so we're sure."
"Huh." Tuff looked thoughtful, which was an unusual expression for him. "Maybe I'll say something to her after this whole mess is over. When nobody else is watching."
"I think that would be good," she nodded. "By the way, thank you for being willing to talk about this with me."
"You're safe," he replied. "I know you won't talk about it with anybody. Except Ruff." After a few seconds, he added, "How are you doing? Are you worried about Hiccup?"
She took a deep breath and decided to give him a straight answer. "I'm not worried about him, exactly. As long as Toothless is with him, he's safe, wherever he is. It's him and Ruff together that I worry about."
"She knows Hiccup belongs to you. I wouldn't worry."
"When people get under stress, or if they're in danger, it pushes them together," she said. "If she's nervous about being apart from you, that's stress for her. If Toothless is hurt, that's stress for him. Throw in one or two of those land-dragons for the danger, and those two could… I don't want to think about it."
"You really think he'd do you wrong?"
"I know a girl can turn his head if she wants to; Heather proved that," she said sadly. "I know he wouldn't start anything. That's why I keep asking about Ruff. I'm not saying she's bad or anything; I just… I need you to tell me something hopeful."
"Can I lie?"
"No," she said flatly.
"Let me think about it," he said. Barf and Belch slid further away from her, widening their search path and making it impossible to talk to each other.
Now and then, one of them would see something that might be a sign of one of their friends, whistle and point at it, and they would spiral down to look at it. It always turned out to be an odd-shaped rock, or a set of footprints from one of the local creatures, or (in one case) a large turtle. There was no sign of any of their friends. They flew until they could see the rock walls of the valley, turned to the west, and continued until they reached the valley's western end. A small river flowed out between two tall rocks; it sounded like it became a tall waterfall on the other side.
As they turned back toward their camp, they saw Hookfang approaching. "Good timing," Astrid called as Snotlout came closer.
"Did you two have a nice little flight together?" he leered at them. "Boy and girl alone together for hours… who knows what happened? Maybe I should tell Hiccup about this."
"Shut up," Tuff and Astrid said in unison.
"Ooh, now they're even reading each other's minds, just like dragons!" Lout grinned. "Hiccup should be worried, right? Maybe, when we find him, I'll tell him all about..."
His voice trailed off as Barf breathed a green cloud at him. Hookfang veered away sharply before Belch could spark it.
They flew home in silence.
Once they landed, the dragons plunged into the lake, leaving the teens to light their own fire to bake their lunches. "Did you find anything?" Astrid asked Snotlout as the damp firewood snapped and sparked.
"Just a huge land-dragon with a neck as long as its tail," he answered. "It was wading in the swamp and ignored me."
"That means they aren't in this end of the valley," she decided. "I figure we've searched about a quarter of it so far. We'll go as far east as we can in the afternoon, and if we still haven't found them, we'll need to move our camp tomorrow morning." They nodded in agreement.
Their afternoon search was just as fruitless as their morning's work. It might have been fruitful; Snotlout flew within a hundred yards of Meatlug and Fishlegs as they snoozed on their hilltop, but didn't notice them. Lout was bored and a bit sleepy, and thought the Gronckle was an odd-shaped rock. Hookfang was distracted by three of the terror-soars that were circling nearby, and didn't notice Meatlug at all. They saw no sign of Toothless, Hiccup, or Ruffnut.
After their supper, while Snotlout was trying to encourage Hookfang to get out of the water, Tuff pulled Astrid aside. "The most hopeful thing I can tell you about Ruff is that, if things were normal, she'd never lay a finger on Hiccup."
"Things aren't normal, are they?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Not even close."
They all slept by the lake again. Snotlout slept easily, Astrid not so well, and Tuffnut tossed and turned for hours.