24 Get Down and do the Funky Dragon

Olvor put down her plate after finishing the breakfast that Astrid has prepared; it had consisted of scrambled eggs on grilled bread with Yak butter, fried ham and eggs with a boiled egg each. She glanced at the peaceful look on Hiccups face as she pondered what she had just eaten.

"You know Gothi if those two should ever get married, my wedding gift will consist of two chickens and a pig. That should keep Astrid supplied with breakfast ingredients for a while."

Gothi was often known to smile, but this was one time the elderly woman actually laughed out loud.

"Well I suppose I should leave Hiccup in your capable hands and go see Snotlout about getting back to Dragon Island; is there anything else I can do for you before I go?"

The Elder shook her head as Olvor looked over Hiccup's leg one more time before walking to the door. The new day brought a new Berk as the people of the village slowly became accustomed to their new lives as Dragon Riders rather than Dragon Fighters; just as the Vikings on Dragon Island had done the day before. The sight that greeted Olvor at the town square was both unexpected and delightful as some of the villagers pampered a Zippleback on one side and others watched as two girls danced with a Nadder on the other.

"You will never cease to amaze me Astrid."

"Don't blame me for this Olvor" she stopped bobbing up and down and approached the doctor "it was Little Freya that started all this."

"It's wonderful to think about the kind of place Berk is going to be for children now; when Freya grows up and has a family of her own, they will have no memories of dragon raids and the village being destroyed."

"Just think of what we can build here now" the realisation of Berks future suddenly hit Astrid like wet haddock, but then she was suddenly hit by a wet haddock; the twins were arguing once more and had started to throw fish at each other.

"Excuse me Olvor but I have to crack some Thorston skulls together."

As Astrid left to attempt some rather violent peace negotiations, Olvor off went in search of Snotlout at the arena. She instead found his dragon curled up in the morning sun outside the Jorgenson home and although the cleanup had progressed well, Olvor was still presented with a scene of domestic horror as an overwhelmed Snotlout tried to determine what could be saved and what was a total lost cause.

"What on earth..?"

"DON'T BLAME ME; IT WAS THE STUPID DRAGON" screamed the frustrated boy.

"Alright Snotlout calm down... I'll help you get all of this lot sorted out."

It did not take Olvor long to realise that the only way she was going to get Snotlout to fly her back to Dragon Island, was to give him her help first and so she continued what Astrid had started in trying to show Snotlout how to separate his big mess into smaller messes before tackling each of them one at a time. She still had hope they would be on their way back to Dragon Island within the hour, but after about twenty minutes they received a visit from Astrid with some surprising news.

"Hey you two" she called "you may want to come and see this."

As they left the dark house and went out into the brightening day, Olvor shielded her face from the glare as Astrid pointed out over the ocean. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the outdoor light and began to make out many small silhouettes far off in the distance. It was not long before she could make out the largest of the shapes, but had difficulty believing what her eyes were telling her. Olvor could see four large dragons carrying one of the Vikings fishing nets and suspended within it, was Hiccups Night Fury, Toothless.

A large group of dragons flew with them, but it was difficult to make out how many there were. At first she thought twenty or thirty but soon she saw that it was over fifty and most of them carried a Viking passenger and several bore two. The main group flew Toothless over to Gobber's forge and placed him gently on the ground. Astrid ran down to greet them with Stormfly following behind and Little Freya close at their heels. Olvor noticed trouble coming when she saw that Spitelout Jorgenson was approaching on the back of a large Gronckle and would soon be at his front door.

"Snotlout" she called in hushed tones through the doorway "Your Dad's here so listen closely and follow my lead."

"O…okay" the mildly panicking Snotlout replied.

After giving Snotlout some quick instructions as to what to say she made for the door.

"I'M SORRY OLVOR" Snotlout called from within "YOU'LL HAVE TO GO BACK WITH SOMEONE ELSE WHILE I CLEAN UP THIS MESS; AND PLEASE TELL MY DAD WHAT HAS HAPPENED."

"What on earth HAS happened?" Spitelout asked Olvor as he slid off of the Gronckle.

"We had a little bit of dragon trouble this morning when one of the beasts caught the scent of your wife's ham. The dragon came looking for it while Snotlout was helping me with Hiccup and it's made a bit of a mess. We're all still getting used to living with huge unwieldy beasts, but you will be pleased to know that Snotlout has taken it all on himself to get everything fixed up. He really is a very responsible boy."

Listening from behind the door, Snotlout took his cue and came out of the doorway with his part of the 'Con-my-dad' plan ready to go.

"Thanks for all you help Olvor and I'm sure mom and dad will want to thank you too when they... Dad, your back!" he smiled "wait till you hear what happened here last night."

"Olvor told me that a dragon got inside and made a bit of a mess."

"That's putting it mildly, but it was entirely my fault for not being more careful. The dragon obviously needs a bit more training but I'll get on to that as soon as I've finished here."

He had laid on the charm so thick that anyone else would have known instantly that he was lying but fortunately for Snotlout, his father thought his son was virtually perfect so he fell for every word.

"Good work son and don't blame yourself; none of us are really sure exactly how to deal with dragons yet and I'm glad to see that you're on top of the situation. Stoick has asked me to help make the village 'dragon ready' so let me know when you're done and I'll come and inspect."

As Spitelout and his Gronckle flew off toward the forge, the relief on his sons face was very plain to see but he had failed to notice one minor detail.

"Umm... what do you think may happen if he talks to Astrid down at Gobbers workshop?" Olvor asked.

"OH NO!"

Fortunately for Snotlout it is possible to outrun a Gronckle over a short distance if the runner is desperate and the dragon is not, and so he managed to reach Astrid as she fussed over Toothless a few seconds before his father arrived.

"Please don't tell my Dad about Hookfang sleeping in my house last night."

Astrid smiled an evil smile and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Certainly Snotlout, no problem. You can count on me."

"Thanks Astrid, I owe you one" and he ran off back his home to finish off the clean up.

"Yes" Astrid told herself "you owe me big time; I am going to enjoy this."

Olvor wandered down to the forge area to have a word or two with the new arrivals. Although dragons and Vikings were landing all over the village, she noticed the four dragons carrying Toothless back, were ridden by people who could answer all of her questions. At the front, Sigrid and Freya had piloted their Nightmares while Odd and Gobber carried the back of the net while riding on a Nadder and a Gronckle respectively.

"Good morning" she called out "and what brings you all to Berk on this fine day?"

"Well in my case, a Gronckle brings me" Gobber joked "but I'll bet you did not expect to see all of us so early in the day."

"I didn't expect to see any of you at all... not until I got back to Dragon Island this afternoon."

"Quite a lot happened after you left, so we changed all our plans over a pleasant dinner of fish, fish and more fish, but I'll let the others fill in all the details because I have some very important tasks to see too. Come along Pigg."

And so without another word, Gobber picked up a large bundle that had been in the net with Toothless and trotted off to his workshop with his Gronckle doing likewise.

"He named a dragon Pig?" Olvor was aghast.

"With two G's" Odd informed her as he patted his Nadder at the base of its neck "and this handsome creature is Windrunner."

"Windrunner" Olvor considered "much better than Pigg... just don't tell Gobber I said that."

"And over here" he gestured to the two Monstrous Nightmares "we have Cuddles and Buttercup."

"You have got to be kidding me."

While Big Freya introduced her daughter to Cuddles, Sigrid joined Odd and Olvor to let the doctor know of the latest in current events. They sat on a bench near to the back of the forge from where a pleasing warmth emitted thanks to Pigg.

"With about thirty craftsmen working on her, the Sharktooth was ready to leave late in the afternoon and she even set sail with Gronckle assistance; we even spotted them a few hours ago making good time so we should be welcoming Olaf and his crew back later tonight."

"And the more dragons we befriended" Odd continued "the easier it became as the Vikings with dragons helped train the newest ones just like Fishlegs did. Before we knew it, we had enough air transport to head back to Berk straight away. Stoick will be bringing back the last group later once everyone has mastered the finer points of dragon control."

Olvor began to look a little concerned at the news; she had hoped to get the chance to talk to Stoick alone back on Dragon Island, but if he were to return to a hero's welcome before she could explain her actions in the Great Hall, then her fate would be sealed and he would have no chance to pardon her before the tribe found out that she had lied about speaking in the Chiefs name.

"What's wrong Olvor" Odd noticed the fear in her eyes.

"Not out here" she said secretively "come back to my house where we can talk in private."