23 New Berk City
Olvor stood a few feet away from her front door and stretched her arms up over her head as she indulged in a long slow yawn. The distant clouds glowed a bright yellowy orange in the pre-dawn light and it looked to be another perfect day for flying as she considered when she should depart Berk for Dragon Island.
"After breakfast defiantly" she told herself "or maybe after lunch."
Shivering a little in the cold morning air, Olvor knew she had made the right decision to bring Hiccup back home and into Gothi's care where he would no doubt recuperate much quicker than in a cold, damp cave. With two light taps to announce her arrival, she opened the door to Stoicks house to find Gothi stoking the fire as Stormfly lay close by curled up on the floor; the alert dragon raised her head and turned toward the door at the sound of Olvors entrance, but settled once again as soon as she saw it was only another friendly face.
"Rraark."
"And good morning to you too Stormfly" Olvor rubbed the contented dragons face as a sleepy eyed Astrid rose up from the bench on which she had slept the night away.
"Any change in Hiccup?" Astrid got straight to the point.
"Give me a chance; I just got here so why don't you go and get some breakfast for Gothi and me while we check him out?"
Now full of energy after a good night's sleep, Astrid pulled on her boots and made for the door.
"Come on Stormfly."
She held the door open as the dragon ducked under the lintel and the pair made their way through the town to the surprise of a few early risers, who were still not used to seeing a young girl with a pet dragon. It appeared to many as if the dragon were chasing her as she fled until she turned around to run backward while coaxing the beast to run faster. As they arrived at Astrid's home, she signalled the dragon to stay out before going inside to the kitchen. Throwing open the window shutters, she grabbed an armful of kindling wood from the box by the stove and returned outside.
"Okay Stormfly give me a small flame."
She rolled her hand away from her mouth as a signal to the dragon who took a deep breath and shot a flame out over the town square to the surprise of a frightened onlooker as Astrid lit the ends of the wood just as she had the night before.
"Good morning" she called out to the shocked and wide eyed villager before re-entering the house. After placing the burning kindling under the hot plate, Astrid ran off to the hen house.
Down in the arena Ruffnut and Tuffnut led their Zippleback out of the former prison cell (now dragon pen) into the morning light. Snotlouts Nightmare had refused to go inside the night before as it still saw the cage covered arena as a place of battle and oppression, so Snotlout had taken it home with him since his house was empty; both his parents were still on Dragon Island.
"Whadda ya say dragon" Tuffnut asked "do ya wanna get some breakfast?"
"Of course he does" his sister replied "and so does mine."
"But... wait... yours is mine aren't they?"
"You just stay off my side of the dragon" Ruffnut demanded.
"Err... which is your side again?" he asked a little confused.
"The right side of course."
"Oh... so my side is..."
"The wrong side" Ruff grinned smugly.
"Yeah the wrong si... hey wait."
"Just grab the basket, get on the ugly one and let's go fishing."
Tuffnut did as he was told and soon the siblings were flying off on their two headed dragon down to the sea. Each head took turns guiding the body in flight while the other head would pluck a fish from out of the water as they flew. When both heads were gastronomically satisfied, Ruffnut got the attention of her side of the dragon and pointed to the sea; the idea was soon communicated and the right head pulled another fish from the sea and offered it to her.
"Hey moron" she called to her brother "gimme the basket."
Tuffnut held out the basket to his sister who pointed to it and the fish; after looking inside the basket, the dragon looked back at Ruffnut.
"Go on then" she encouraged and eventually the dragon dropped the fish in.
"Good dragon" she smiled and scratched its neck and then pointed down to the sea again.
Both heads soon got the idea and began to enjoy how they had managed to train the two young Vikings into scratching them in exchange for a worthless fish; soon the basket was full and so they turned around to fly home again where they landed in the village square causing several villagers to leap back in surprise.
"Wow" Ruffnut observed "it's not like Dragon Island; everyone is so jumpy here."
"Don't worry sis; I have an idea" Tuffnut declared proudly as he jumped up onto a stone block.
"Fellow Berkians, please listen to my cry. My humble sibling and I have just returned from a fruitful session of dragon fishing and we now have this basket filled to over flowing with fine fresh fish, blemished only by a few small teeth marks. If you would care to share in this plentiful bounty, please do not hesitate to help yourselves at no cost to you; save for a scratch on the chin in gratitude for a job well done."
A few people approached cautiously and slowly took some fish from within the basket.
"So all you want for these fish... is a scratch under the chin?" one asked.
"That is correct my good villager."
The man shrugged his shoulders and scratched Tuffnut's chin.
"NOT ME YOU IDIOT; THE DRAGON!"
"I knew there'd be a catch to it" and he threw the fish back in the basket.
Tuffnut went over to his two headed buddy and gave it a hug.
"Oh come on people this wonderful dragon got all these fish for you because he... or they... or... whatever, only wants to be your friend."
"I don't know boy" the man replied "it don't seem right havin' a Zippleback around a barfin' and a belchin' all over the place."
"Hey... cool names" Tuffnut grinned "do you hold copyright?"
"Don't worry about the teeth" Ruffnut reassured the people "it bit me last night when I tripped and stood on its tail; it didn't hurt... much."
The man moved slowly closer to Tuffnut and the dragon, held out his nervously shaking hand and placed it under the left heads chin. The dragon gave one of its deep guttural purrs and sat down as the other villagers stepped closer to try their hands with the friendly beast. Astrid chose that very moment to walk on by with Stormfly and a tray full of breakfast for Olvor and Gothi.
"Hey Tuffnut" she called out "good work."
"Thanks but the dragon caught all the fish."
Astrid smiled and shook her head "Can't even understand a compliment" she chuckled to herself. She felt something tug at her skirt looked down to see Little Freya, Freya's daughter with a fish in her hand looking up.
"Hello Freya; I was with your mother yesterday and she'll be home soon."
The five year old looked at Stormfly and asked "Would your dragon like a fish too?"
"I think she would, so why don't you hold it up for her."
Stormfly looked to her pet girl for a clue when the small person offered her the fish, but there appeared to be no protest or jealousy so she opened her mouth a little and gently lifted it from the little girl's hands.
"That's it Stormfly; good girl" Astrid reassured the dragon.
Stormfly swallowed the fish and then bent down to the small person who wrapped her arms around the big blue neck in a firm hug; Stormfly was very glad that her girl was mature enough not to get temperamental when the dragon played with other people, unlike that poor Zippleback's pets who were always fighting.
"Hey Ruff can you give me a hand with this tray for a minute?"
When Ruffnut took the tray, Astrid bent down and picked up Little Freya and placed her on Stormflys back.
"Come on then" she took back the tray "let's go deliver this breakfast."
Little Freya giggled with delight as she rode Stormfly across the square, but someone did not like what they saw.
"I don't think Big Freya would approve of you putting her little girl up there" came the accusation.
"Oh you should see her mother's dragon" Astrid replied sweetly "it's a Monstrous Nightmare."
It had often been said that Snotlout Jorgenson was not stupid, but he was very lazy and had been known take the easy path even if it was not the wisest thing to do. Taking a Monstrous Nightmare home for the night was not a wise idea at all. When the dragon had refused to enter the arena last evening, Snotlout had not tried to encourage it, or allay it's fears simply because he just couldn't be bothered. So he had taken the dragon home to spend the night with him and now he had to live with the consequences.
The average Viking home is not known for its delicate, craftsman built and highly polished furnishings, but rather for a more basic decor of tables and beds made from logs cut lengthways, benches and chairs made with axes (not lathes and planes) so it would take a lot to damage the average Viking home; the Monstrous Nightmare is a lot of dragon.
"Astrid you gotta help me!" Snotlout pleaded.
"Umm... no I don't think I do."
"Oh come on; I helped you out with that Scauldron."
"You nearly shot my head off!"
"And I helped you bring Hiccup the legless wonder back to Berk" he had struck at her weak spot "I risked my own life for someone who will probably die anyway, but when Snotlout needs help..."
Astrid cringed at his blatant insensitivity, but he was right and she did owe him some help.
"Alright just let give Olvor and Gothi their breakfast and I come and help."
"Thanks; meet me at my house." Snotlout ran off satisfied to have his way once more.
After giving Gothi the tray, Astrid lifted Little Freya from Stormflys back. She had a very difficult time trying to separate the two new friends without promises of many more rides to come, but when girl and dragon finally arrived at the Jorgenson home, Astrid had to admit that she had underestimated the size of the problem.
"Wow!" was all she could say but it did sum up the situation perfectly.
"Wow? Is that all you can say?"
"Err... far out?" she commented predicatively.
"So what do I do?" cried the desperate Snotlout.
"Are you kidding me? You clean it up of course; haven't you ever cleaned your house before?"
"No... well... it's always sorta been clean when I got home."
"Did you think the house trolls just did it for you?"
A look of distinct panic crossed Snotlouts face.
"House trolls? Where?"
"Come on bright boy I'll show you what to do" Astrid entered the former domicile.
"Hmm... I think the first thing we should do is to get this dragon outside."
A sleeping dragon can be a peaceful and relaxing sight, but if that dragon has a tendency to twitch and swish it's tale as it dozes, it is not a good idea to let it sleep in a confined space.
"Come on dragon, wake up."
Astrid was surprised to find some of Mrs. Spitelout's underwear hanging from the Nightmare's teeth as it stood.
"What the..." she stared wide eyed.
"Mom likes to keep a cured ham with her clothes; she says the smell keeps dad... interested."
A brief shiver moved over Astrid from top to toe as she removed the articles from the dragons face.
"It's a smell that obviously keeps dragons interested too" she noted "do you want to get this hook fanged menace out of here please?"
As Snotlout led the Monstrous Nightmare out to join the other dragons in the morning light he subconsciously began to refer to the beast by its new name, but later he would claim it was he who had thought of it.
"Sit here Hookfang and stay out of trouble."
He would also later claim that the name had been inspired by the dragon's fierce countenance and would even come to believe so himself as he had no memory of the first time it had ever been mentioned. Astrid spent some of the next hour cleaning up Casa del Jorgensen. She spent most of her time trying to explain to Snotlout how to help, but she eventually managed to remove herself from the house and was surprised to find only Hookfang sat outside the door.
"Stormfly?" she called but the dragon was nowhere to be seen.
As Astrid walked down the hill toward the square she heard two distinctly different voices saying exactly the same thing. This would have been strange enough in itself, except that they were both saying 'Rraak' repetitively.
"Oh now I've seen everything" Astrid declared as she stood with her hands on hips.
Standing near the edge of the village square, Little Freya bobbed up and down with her hands in her armpits while flapping her elbows. Standing opposite her was a certain blue dragon, wings out and moving its head up and down in perfect unison with the tiny Viking. As she watched, the pair began to move their heads from left to right in what could only be described as the first time in history, anyone had ever danced with a dragon; some of the villagers stared amazed and a few even began to clap their hands in time with the dance as Ruffnut walked up and joined in Astrid's astonishment.
"Who'd have thought it Ruff; my dragon has rhythm." And she went to join in the fun.