Chapter Four: Ruff and Tuff

After dropping Valka and Gobber off, the ship's captain warned them that this string of islands was nicknamed "Las Cinco Muertes," which Gobber had translated to the Five Deaths. The captain said that he would not wait even off shore of the island for fear of the stories he had heard. He gave them a radio signal to call for when they needed to be rescued and he would rendezvous with them within a half hour. He left promptly.

"Rescued," Valka scoffed as she set up some of their supplies. "These are magnificent creatures worthy of protection and studying. I'm sure they're intelligent and gentle to boot. They probably only attacked Vikings when they were provoked, like most dangerous animals today."

"Valka, you and yer deadly animal obsession."

Valka chose to ignore Gobber's comment, being used to his off-handed humor. "C'mon, let's scout a bit. See what's in store." She grabbed her camera as well as a staff that had been given to her by one of the tribes in Zimbabwe. The staff was crucial in undoing poacher's traps without harming anyone. It didn't look like BioSyn had arrived yet, but it was a big island, so she couldn't be too careful. Gobber switched out his normal prosthetic hand for a hard metal one—easier to disarm the traps as well as self-defense. As usual, Valka scouted ahead, moving with an almost acrobatic ease through the dense brush. Since their adventure in Zimbabwe, the staff had become almost part of her being when she traveled as though it were an extension of her body that allowed her to gracefully cruise through the dense foliage. Gobber felt a little odd not carrying a video camera with him and not having her look back every ten or so steps to tell the audience what was happening.

Suddenly, Valka stopped. Slowly she placed her staff on the ground and pulled the camera from around her neck. From her crouched position she began to focus the camera on the adolescent Gronckle in front of her. She smiled broadly and snapped a picture. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that the new age cameras automatically set the flash on when the lighting wasn't quite right. The sudden bright light startled the young Gronckle who cried out for its parents.

"Sweet baby Thor in a thunder storm," Gobber swore as he watched the angry parents and the rest of the pack hover towards Valka. You'd think after all of these years she'd remember to check for a flash first. Ah well, excitement is getting' the best of 'er again.

Valka slowly backed away from the scene as the adult Gronckles hovered closer. They emitted a low growl and fired a warning shot at Valka's feet. She quickly, perhaps too quickly for the Gronckles' liking, snatched up her staff and continued to back away. She called over her shoulder to Gobber, "Look at this! Parental instincts! The pack is protecting their baby!"

"Yes I see. Welp, you betta get outta there quick or else Stoick'll have my head for not protecting his baby."

Valka didn't have time to process Gobber's quip as the Gronckles fired another shot, much closer to her this time. She glanced around and quickly dove into a nearby fallen tree trunk. She covered her head, preparing for the worst. But it never came. Tentatively she uncovered her head and peaked out of the hollowed trunk to see Gobber standing completely awestruck. Valka crawled out from the trunk, brushed herself off and grabbed her staff before standing next to Gobber to see what he was staring at.

"Why did they leave? What happened?"

"Dunno. Hard t' say. It's like somet'ing called them off. Their eyes dilated to slits an' they robotically hovered away."

Valka hummed. She turned on her heel to survey more of the area and to her dismay…"Oh my gods! Fire, Gobber! At our campsite!" Valka pointed above the tree line. She took off running towards their camper, and Gobber hobbled behind—his prosthetic hindering his running slightly. Even after all of these years of having it, it could still sometimes be a pain in the butt when it came to situations like this.

"Who're they?" Valka asked, gesturing to the two blond teenagers that were wrestling one another for the cooking utensils. "BioSyn? But they're just kids." Gobber didn't concern himself with their identities, instead he threw sand onto the flames to put them out quickly.

Ruff finally wretched the ladle from Tuff's hands and smashed her brother over the head with it. Ruff shot to her feet and saluted Valka and Gobber, using the ladle instead of just her hand. "Lex 'Ruff' Thorston reporting for duty."

"Ha you said 'doody'. Ow! OW!" Tuff complained as his sister smacked him over the head. "My name's Timmy but everybody calls me Tuff. So I'm Tuff Thorston." Valka eyed the twins curiously.

"What exactly are you doing? And why are you here? How did you even get here?"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Tuff complained from his position on the ground, displaying his palms openly at Valka. "One question at a time, missy."

"We're cooking enough eggs for everyone 'cause we were hungry."

"Burnt enough fer everyone is more like it," Gobber muttered. Gobber switched his metal prosthetic arm back to his normal fiber glass one.

Suddenly the names and the faces clicked for Valka. "What are you two doing here? Why would Hammond send her grandkids along for this?" Valka asked Gobber over her shoulder.

Tuff stood up and proudly said, "Oh Grandma didn't send us per-se. It was more of a rouge mission to sneak aboard and see more dragons."

Valka blinked slowly in disbelief: the twins had snuck aboard on this crazy mission to disarm BioSyn and protect the dragons at all costs. And Hammond didn't know. Gobber, being used to mischievous pranks and disobedience of the simplest orders after having watched after Hiccup for many years, immediately took the reins of the situation and used one of the satellite phones to try to call Hammond. All he received was static for a while and then a startled, nasally "Hello" on the other line.

"Hiccup?"

"How did you get this number?" Hiccup asked through the satellite phone. "Wait, what? Say it again, these phones are terrible. Gobber? Gobber? Can you hear me now?" Hiccup rolled his eyes at the stupid prototype.

Astrid perked up upon hearing the familiar name. Fishlegs leaned in, clearly interested in the new development as well. He nudged Astrid and silently asked whom Hiccup was talking with. Astrid explained quickly, "His crazed one-armed, one-legged uncle. He used to work with Valka on the nature documentaries."

"You mean Gobber Van Owen? The Gobber Van Owen!" Fishlegs said excitedly. Hiccup waved his hand dismissively and then cupped it over his free ear, trying desperately to hear what Gobber was saying on the other line. To make matters worse, a helicopter hovered overhead.

"That's strange," Astrid commented. "The chopper sounds really close. They don't usually fly this close."

Hiccup threw the phone across the camper in frustration. "I lost him. All I could make out was something about dragons and my mom and the zoo. None of it made sense. I'm going to make Hammond new phones during our break for Snoggletog. This is ridiculous."

Just then the camper door swung open and Snotlout sauntered in. "You two. Oh, and I guess you as well," he all but dismissed Fishlegs, "You're coming with me. We're on a rescue mission to Site B to pick up Hammond's grandkids."

"Site B?"

"Yeah, long story. More dragons, Hammond's an optimist, which is code for 'she's an idiot and likes to find creative ways to kill people!' Look I'll explain on the way. The helicopter pilot doesn't like being grounded on the island for longer than he has to. Let's go."

Hiccup shook his head. "We'll come, but I'm not leaving Toothless behind, especially not if we have to do what I think we have to do."

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Fine. We'll be Dragon Riders again. Find me a Monstrous Nightmare and then we need to go."

Hiccup smirked. "Well, it just so happens that there has been a Nightmare hanging around the campsite for the past few weeks. We've nicknamed him Hookfang."

"Hook…fang?"

"One of his fangs on his bottom jaw is crooked," Astrid explained. "C'mon he'll be perfect for you. He's got a nasty lil' temper and I think he's his own breed of alarmist." Snotlout muttered under his breath that he was "not an alarmist" and followed the dragontologists outside.

As the group stepped outside of the camper they were greeted with an extremely excited Night Fury. Toothless hated when the humans hung out inside the camper because he couldn't fit. He wanted to make sure that his overeager, one-legged human was safe. Especially since Toothless knew what kinds of stunts Hiccup liked to try while riding him, he couldn't be too sure that Hiccup wouldn't try something equally as daring without Toothless.

[a/n] Hope you're still enjoying it. I can't wait for the Rex/camper scene...but that's a few chapters out ;)