Chapter 7: Reign of the Fireworms
"Okay, that's 542, 43…" Fishlegs Ingerman counted as he and Meatlug flew by. He then spotted another Night Terror. "Oh, there's one hiding under that tree trunk! I see you, little guy. You're 544." He said, beaming with excitement. "Isn't this exciting, girl? The first annual Dragon's Edge Census. Once we get all these Night Terrors counted, we move on to the Gronckles." He then hugged his dragon excitedly. "Ha ha! Maybe you'll make some new friends."
They then landed and spotted a flock of Night Terrors sleeping. "Okay, there's a big flock." Fishlegs commented before counting. "575, 576…" He was keeping track on a parchment when a Fireworm dragon landed on it. "Oh, hello."
The tiny dragon suddenly set itself on fire, burning the parchment as well, causing Fishlegs to jump back in shock. The Fireworm then flew away. "What is a Fireworm doing this far out?" He asked Meatlug. "They aren't supposed to be anywhere near our island." He then shrugged. "Eh, it could have lost its way." Taking out another parchment, the teen went back to the task at hand. "Now where were we, Meatlug? Was it 576, or was it 675?"
Just as he was trying to remember, Fishlegs and Meatlug both smelled something burning in the air. The duo looked and saw another Fireworm dragon setting a nearby bush on fire! "Whoa! Whoa, whoa." Fishlegs tried to douse out the flames, but in doing so caused his second parchment to catch fire as well. The Ingerman teen immediately dropped it.
After having one too many encounter with the Fireworm dragons, Fishlegs went back and reported his findings. The Dragon RIders then flew back to the clearing which was on fire.
"It began with one Fireworm, and as we were flying back, we kept seeing more and more." He explained.
"Do you think they're migrating?" Astrid inferred.
"If they were migrating, the whole island would be on fire." Hiccup pointed out.
"Not necessarily." Fishlegs started.
"Here we go!" Snotlout said, rolling his eyes.
"When Fireworms migrate, they send out scouts to see if their migration route is safe." He explained.
"If this is a stop along that route…" Hicca started to say.
"An entire flock of Fireworms could be coming through here." Astrid finished.
"Well, I say bring 'em on! I love those little scorchers." Tuffnut said, grinning.
"Are you still gonna love them when they all land here and burn our entire island to the ground?" Raeda asked, crossing her arms.
"Yes!" Tuffnut answered, before thinking over it. "Wait, no. Wait, is that a trick question? Because it's pretty tricky."
Astrid ignored the Thorston boy. "Fishlegs, how much time do we have?"
"Uh, it's hard to say. If it's a full migration, the rest of them could be here as soon as next week." The dragon expert answered.
"Huh, Good to know. It's been nice knowing you, island. Snotlout is outlout!" Snotlout declared.
"We're not abandoning the island, Snotlout." Hiccup stated, stopping his cousin.
"Uh, yeah, we are. Watch." Snotlout turned Hookfang around so that they could leave, only to be stopped by Hicca and Midnight.
"Hiccup's right, we put too much hard work into this place to just leave. Snotlout is not 'outlout'." Hicca said firmly. "We're staying. Now let's get to work."
Annoyed at this, Snotlout reluctantly gave in. "Fine! But I still like my plan better."
The Dragon Riders split up and worked for a few hours to prepare defenses against the Fireworms.
They regrouped back at the Clubhouse.
"Okay, Astrid, you and Fishlegs filled the watering troughs, right?" Hiccup asked.
"Yep! Topped off all the barrels too." Astrid reported.
"Ooh, I found a perfect cave for the Night Terrors. High enough and desolate enough so the flames won't get near them." Fishlegs added.
"Great. Raeda, Snotlout, how are the fire breaks coming along?" Hicca asked.
"Making good progress. If Fishlegs prediction of when the Fireworms arrive are correct, then we should the Edge protected by then." Raeda reported.
"Perfect. Good job, guys." Hicca praised.
"Now if the Thorston twins would finally get back, we could find out what they've done." Hiccup said, looking around for any signs of either of the blonde twins.
"Oh, I can tell you what they've done." Snotlout spoke up. "Zero, zip, zilch. I'm forgetting something. Oh, yeah, goose egg!"
"On contrary, my fine fellow, we have done quite a lot actually." Tuffnut said as he and Ruffnut flew in.
"Did you clear the brush?" Hiccup asked.
"Uh, no." Tuffnut answered.
"Build a fire break?" Hicca asked.
"Nope, not that." Ruffnut said, shaking her head.
"How about water? Did you bring any back?" Astrid asked, even though she had a good feeling what the answer would be.
Sure enough. "Couldn't. Too busy." Tuffnut said.
"Busy with what?!" Hiccup questioned in disbelief.
"Finding something awesome." Ruffnut said.
The Thorston twins, brought the other teens and dragons to one of the cliff which had a big rock.
"Behold! We call it the Namey Rock." Ruffnut prevented.
"And why is that?" Astrid asked, feeling exasperated that the blonde twins were getting excited over a rock of all things.
"Duh, 'cause it has our name all over it. Cool, huh?" Tuffnut asked.
"Oh, yeah." Snotlout said sarcastically, also feeling annoyed. "I mean, no. Man, you two are completely ridiculous."
But neither twins were fazed by this. "Ridiculous? Perhaps. But answer me this... where's your Namey Rock?" Ruffnut challenged, putting a finger to the back of her ear to wait for Snotlout's answer. The boy in question didn't bother dignifying that with a response.
Feeling curious, Fishlegs went to the so-called 'Namey Rock' and read it's contents. His eyes widened as he read it. "Uh, Hiccup, Hicca, you two might want to come take a closer look at this." Confused, the auburn twins went to check out the rock. "I think it's a claim stone."
"I, Magmar Thorston, hereby claim this island in my name and the name of all my family present and future, forever and ever." Hiccup read out-loud.
"And what else?" Tuffnut asked, feeling smug.
"'And ever,' apparently." Hicca said.
Tuffnut then recognised the name of the owner of the claim stone. "Ha! Long-lost great Uncle Magmar! Oh, my Thor! Wasn't he the one who could pass an entire cod through one nostril?"
"And debone it at the same time?" Ruffnut recalled with a look of admiration on her face. "It's really a lost art."
"It's lost for a good reason." Raeda said, trying her best not to picture it.
"People just don't appreciate the craftsmanship." Tuffnut grumbled, crossing his arms.
Snotlout was in disbelief of the whole thing. "Oh, come on! That stone is a fake. It's so obvious that these two made it up." He gestured to Ruffnut and Tuffnut.
"I don't think so! For one thing, everything is spelled correctly." Fishlegs pointed out.
"Also I doubt Ruff and Tuff would know how a claim stone works." Hicca added.
"Okay, you two may have a point." Snotlout couldn't help but admit. Doesn't mean that he liked it.
"Let me get this straight. These two own this island?" Astrid asked, gesturing to the Thorston twins. She really hoped that her ears were deceiving her.
"It would appear that way." Fishlegs reluctantly admitted.
"Oh boy." Raeda muttered.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut were the only ones happy about this discovery. In fact, they were ecstatic. They started dancing around.
"Yeah! In your face!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
"We are so in charge of this place!" Ruffnut gloated. "Whoo-hoo!"
"Oh, preach, sister." Tuffnut preached.
"Well! According to this stone…"
Her twin put a hand on her mouth, cutting her off. "That was a rhetorical preach." He then noticed Snotlout getting on Hookfang. "Hey, where are you going, subject?"
"Ha! You may be in charge of this island, but you're not in charge of me." Snotlout retorted.
"Ah, ah! Respect the crown." Tuffnut warned. "Don't make us get ugly."
"That ship sailed a long time ago. Ugly!"
"Clearly, we'll need a dungeon." Tuffnut said, glaring at Snotlout.
Hicca tried to diffuse the situation. "Okay, let's all just take a breath and calm down."
"The first thing we need to do is get this claim stone authenticated." Hiccup said.
The Haddock twins wasted no time getting Stoick and Gobber from Berk. As soon as they came back to the Edge, they made a beeline for the stone.
Gobber took a few minutes to inspect the stone. "Mm-hmm. I see."
"Well, Gobber?"
"Give me a minute." The blacksmith/ dragon dentist said. He chipped off a piece of the stone and sniffed. "Very interesting." Then to the others surprise and disgust, he ate the piece. "Tastes right to me, Stoick. This claim stone is 100% authentic."
The Thorston twins resumed their victory dance.
"Aw, yeah!" Ruffnut cheered.
"Authentic!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
"100%! No more percents to be had, folks."
"That's good, right?"
But the others were not as enthusiastic about this report and started voicing their complaints.
"All right, that's enough!" Stoick shouted, getting everyone to quiet down. He then sighed. He dreaded saying this, but there was no way he couldn't not do this. "It looks like this island officially belongs... to the Thorston twins."
Once again the blonde twins started dancing.
"It's our island now! We got the island." Tuffnut sang.
"We got an island! And you can't have it." Ruffnut sang.
"Ahem!" Stoick said loudly, clearing his throat. Understanding what they need to do, Ruff and Tuff kneeled down in front of the Berkian chief. The older man unsheathed his sword.
"Is this actually happening." Raeda whispered to Hicca.
"I'm afraid so." Hicca whispered back.
"As Chief of Berk, I hereby declare that under Viking law, the living heirs to Magmar Thorston are indeed entitled to full ownership of this island with all the benefits that comes with it." Stoick declared, tapping to blade of his sword on the blonde twins shoulders.
"Now what?" Tuffnut asked, once the chief finished.
"Don't ask me. It's your island." Stoick said, placing the sword back in its sheath.
And cue the singing once more.
This is our island
It's not your island.
You cannot have it!
Because it's ours
Hiccup stopped his dad and Gobber before they left back to Berk. "Now, Dad, Dad, Dad, you can't be serious."
"You're not leaving us with this, are you?" Hicca pleaded.
"Uh, yes, I am. Welcome to my world." Stoick said. As long as those two muttonheads weren't on his island, he doesn't have to deal with it.
"Only now it's your world." Gobber said with a chuckle.
"Seriously? Of all the islands in this entire Archipelago, we chose to stay in the one island that these two own?" Raeda asked, once again questioning the kind of luck that they manage to attract.
"Great, what do we do now? Any ideas?" Fishlegs asked, once the two adults were gone.
Snotlout's eyes lit up as he got an idea. "Oh, we could always...You know." He put his thumb across his throat to illustrate his suggestion.
The others understood what he was trying to say.
"We're not killing the Thorston twins, Snotlout." Hicca said firmly.
"Please tell me we're not giving them the island." Astrid pleaded.
"Actually, we are. We are giving them the island." Hiccup admitted reluctantly.
Snotlout started laughing at that, thinking his cousin was only joking. He was the only one to do so. He stopped when he saw Hiccups' serious face and realised it wasn't a joke. "What?"
"First of all, we don't really have a choice." Hiccup said. "And second, once they find out being in charge isn't everything it's cracked up to be, and they have to deal with the Fireworm problem on their own, they will beg us to take the island back."
"And if they don't?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup couldn't come up with an answer, and they watched as the new owners head-butted each other to celebrate.
A few hours after the new island owners were appointed, Hiccup and Hicca were in the Clubhouse with Toothless and Midnight. Both humans were reading while the dragons were sleeping.
"Okay, a little higher." They heard Tuffnut's voice say from outside. "No, no, no, to the left. Yes! No. Little to the right." The Night Furies woke up at the sound of the Thorston boy's voice.
"Would you come on already?" Ruffnut asked from outside. "My entire body is going numb. Feels kinda cool."
Now curious, the Haddock twins got up and went to investigate, just as Tuffnut said, "Hey, let's ask Hiccup and Hicca."
"Let's ask Hiccup and Hicca what?" Hiccup questioned, as he and his twin looked upwards where the Thorston twins were on their Zippleback, holding up a sign in front of the Clubhouse.
"Our new Thorstonton sign." Tuffnut answered. "Does it need to be a little higher?"
"Thorstonton?" Hicca said, reading the sign.
"Yeah, the name of our island." Ruffnut explained.
"It came to us in a dream." Tuffnut said with a dazed looked. He then let go of the sign, making Ruffnut carry the full weight, much to the blonde girls dismay. "That's right... same dream. It's a twin thing. You two understand, right." The auburn twins said nothing as they exchanged looks before looking back up at Tuffnut. The blonde boy continued. "Anyway, thoughts on the sign?"
Unable to hold onto the sign any longer, Ruffnut let go of the sign, causing it to break on the ground.
Her twin didn't seem too bothered by that. "You know what? Never mind. We've got more important things on the agenda today."
"I agree. We need to keep fireproofing the island." Hiccup said, relieved that the new rulers are now thinking of the safety of their island.
"Yeah, we're not going to get much time till the Fireworms arrive." Hicca agreed, thinking the same thing.
However that wasn't the case. "No, no, no, that's not it. We need to give out job assignments." Tuffnut said.
"Job assignments?" Hicca repeated.
"Oh, we got some good ones." Tuffnut said excitedly. "Come along, you two. Don't be late." With that the blonde twins took off, leaving the auburn twins to exchange looks.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Hicca asked rhetorically, as she and her brother got on their dragons and followed their rulers.
Soon everyone was gathered in the Academy, which was a fireproof dome that can open and close by a lever. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were in the center, assigning the jobs.
"All right, Fishlegs." Tuffnut said, reading a parchment paper. "Says here you are now the official poet laureate of Thorstonton."
"Do you even know what that means?" Fishlegs asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We were hoping you would! It's your job, after all." Ruffnut answered. Fishlegs did not have a response to that.
Tuffnut then turned to Astrid. "Astrid, you are the official royal brush-clearer. We don't want Thorstonton burning down, after all."
"At least the thought has registered to them." Hicca said to her twin.
"Or do we?" Ruffnut questioned, Tuffnut thought about it for a moment, seeming to consider the possibility.
"Nevermind." Hicca said face-palming.
Astrid was indignant about her new task. "I'm not clearing brushes for you two! I'm not clearing anything for you two!"
"Come on, Astrid." Hiccup pleaded. He still believes in his idea that Ruffnut and Tuffnut will give up their power once they see how difficult it is to rule an island.
"We don't really have a choice." Hicca pointed.
"Oh. You'll do it. And you'll like it, little missy." Tuffnut declared firmly, causing the shieldmaiden to glare at him.
He then turned to Snotlout. "Snotlout, you, my friend, have an excellent , sir, are our new sergeant at arms.
The Jorgenson boy thought over his new position. "Mm. I like the sound of that... 'arms'."
"Knew you would. All right, Hiccup and Hicca." Tuffnut then turned to the auburn twins. "You are our new stable boy and girl."
"What?!" Hicca and Hiccup said in disbelief, as Astrid tried and failed to hold back her laugh. Raeda wanted to as well but she knew better since her turn hasn't come up yet.
"Come on, Hiccup and Hicca. We don't really have a choice." Astrid mocked, repeating what the duo said to her.
"And finally Raeda." Tuffnut said, turning to the last girl on the list. "You are going to be the fire girl."
"The what?" Raeda questioned.
"The fire girl. When we ask for a fire, you will make one." Ruffnut explained.
"So, uh, here's a question." Snotlout piped in. "What's a sergeant at arms do, anyway?"
"You enforce the rules." Tuffnut replied. "If someone doesn't follow them, you make sure they do. And if things get really nasty, you show them to the fancy new dungeon and give them some yak dung tea. Got it?"
Snotlout seemed to be the only one happy with his new job. "Dungeon! I like it. Better than 'stable boy.'" He said smirking at Hiccup and Hicca's direction, causing the two to glare at him.
"Okay, and speaking of new rules, without further adieu…" Tuffnut said, putting away his parchment paper.
"Yeah, no more further 'adieus.'" Ruffnut continued, taking out her own parchment paper and unrolled it. "Anyway, rule number one: everyone must bow to your rulers when they enter the room."
Her brother then took the paper and continued reading. "Rule number two: everyone must also bow to your rulers when they exit the room."
Ruff took over reading once again. "Everyone must bow to your rulers when they are in the room."
"So basically we just bow all the time?" Hiccup asked.
"Ooh, stable boy, coming in for the big win." Tuff said. "That deserve a bow... from you."
Hiccup gave an annoyed groaned and, rather reluctantly, bowed to his ruler.
Ruff then continued with the rules. "Next, there will be a small fee for landing your dragons on the island."
"And another small fee for taking off." Tuff added.
"There will be a fee for sleeping."
"A fee for waking up."
"A fee for eating."
"And a small fee for drinking."
"You have got to be kidding me." Raeda said, rubbing her templates.
"How about breathing?" Astrid said sarcastically, crossing her arms.
But the sarcasm was lost to the blonde twins unfortunately. "Good idea! Mark that down." Tuff said to his sister.
"Way ahead of you." His sister said, jotting it down.
"Moving on, the letter 'S' has been officially removed from the alphabet." Tuff declared. "So you're going to want to avoid words like sword."
"Severed leg." Ruff added.
"Severed-head."
"Cyclone!"
"That's actually a 'C.'" Fishlegs corrected.
"Notlout, quiet him!" Tuffnut ordered, not happy at being corrected.
But the boy in question was just confused. "Notlout? Who's Notlout?" Snotlout asked.
"That's you." Hicca told him.
"Do you two realize that there is an 'S' in the name of your island?" Astrid pointed out.
But the two rulers weren't having it. "Ilence, ubject! How dare you ay such thing?" Tuffnut said.
"Any other rules?" Hicca asked, wanting this to be over.
"Yes one more." Ruffnut said, reading over her paper. "Any form of artwork is hereby ban in Thorstonton."
"What!" Raeda demanded. "You guys kidding, right?"
"Nope." Tuffnut said. "Thorstonton needs less of the aesthetics and more of the pyrokinetics. Heh, heh. So hop to!"
Angered by this new rule, Raeda took out her Gronckle Iron bow to strike at the blonde twins while their backs were turned. Hiccup, however, stopped her before she could, trying to get her to calm down.
Tuffnut then took the parchment to make sure they went over all the rules. However, before he could read anything, a Fireworm dragon landed on the paper and set it on fire, causing Tuff to drop it. "Table boy, table girl, clean that up." He ordered.
Once he managed to get the bow away from Raeda, Hiccup and Hicca tried to get rid of the Fireworm dragon. "Okay, while we're doing this, you guys need to stay on top of this Fireworm thing." Hiccup said to the two rulers, hoping they would listen.
Hicca extinguished the fire while her brother picked up a stick to try and pick up the tiny dragon, but that only result in stick catching fire. Midnight then fired a plasma blast close enough at the Fireworm to scare it away.
"It's starting to get pretty real." Hiccup said to his twin, before looking up at the sky.
Soon everyone was off doing their new assigned jobs (most were very, very reluctant in doing so). The Haddock twins were at the stables scrubbing Barf and Belch, as order by their rulers. The blonde twins then appeared to check on their work.
"Uh, aren't you forgetting something?" Tuffnut asked, crossing his arms in expectation.
"What?" Hiccup asked. Hicca then got his attention and made a bowing gesture. "Oh, right. Sorry." The auburn bowed in greeting.
"That's better." Ruffnut said.
"Now let's have a look at your work, table twins." Tuffnut said. He examined Barf and Belch's scales and seemed impressed. "Hmm, good. That's nice attention to detail."
"Uh, we have a problem." Ruffnut said, looking at the bucket of water that was used.
"What? What's the problem?" Hicca asked, as Tuffnut went to see the problem.
"Pathetic." Tuffnut said, seeming pick up on what it was.
"Disgraceful." Ruffnut agreed.
"Unacceptable."
"What is it?" Hiccup asked in exasperation.
"This water is lukewarm. We pecifically asked for scalding... sorry, calding, if I'm not miskaken." Tuffnut informed the two workers.
"Oh, you are not mitaken, brother." Ruffnut agreed.
"Fine, scald... calding it is." Hiccup said, struggling to follow the no 'S' rule. "Toothless-Toothle... Plama blat!" It was a good enough command to give to the male Night Fury, who immediately blasted the bucket of water, causing Ruff and Tuff to be covered in smoke.
"Is that calding enough?" Hicca asked.
"I'm keeping an eye on you, Mr. Night Fury. My good eye." Tuff warned. The Night Fury merely snorted in response, clearly not favoring the new rulers of the island.
"Wait, are you telling me you have a bad eye?" Hiccup questioned, feeling surprised.
"Wait, are you telling me you have a bad leg?" Ruffnut retorted, in her brothers defense. Neither Hiccup nor Hicca could think of anything to say in response. "Thought so."
"And the weirdness continues." Hicca sighed as the blonde twins flew away on Barf and Belch.
Astrid had just landed outside her hut, when she was met with the two rulers.
"That's a two-mackerel landing charge, little lady." Ruffnut informed her. Giving an annoyed huffed Astrid payed up. "Two more mackerel. Are you keeping track or should I?" She asked her brother.
"No, I got it." Tuffnut said.
"Look, I don't have any more mackerel. And if I did, I wouldn't give it to you for your dumb take-off and landing charge." Astrid said.
"Excue me. Are you calling the laws of this land dumb?" Tuff challenged, daring her to answer.
"You don't like 'dumb'? How about dopey? Brainless, dimwitted, moronic. Shall I go on?" Astrid mocked. She didn't care what Hiccup or Hicca told her, this was insane and she will not stand for it any further.
"Notlout!" Tuffnut called out, enraged by Astrid's behaivour.
"Coming in hot!" Snotlout called. He and Hookfang landed next to the group with the Jorgenson boy saluting his two bosses. "Ergeant at arm Notlout reporting."
"Take this mutineer to the new dungeon, and her little dragon, too. Give her some time to think about her attitude." Tuffnut ordered.
"Dungeon? Are you serious?" Astrid asked in disbelief.
"Do we look serious?" Tuff countered.
Frustrated and annoyed, Astrid decided that getting arrested was a lot better than dealing with those two, so she and Stormfly just went with Snotlout and Hookfang.
"You know, that's a good question. Do we?" Tuffnut asked turning to his twin, once the four were gone.
"I don't know. Here, give me your best serious face." Ruffnut said. Her brother did as told. "Whoa, pretty serious. Okay, what about me?"
"Oh, yeah. Okay, we look pretty serious." Tuffnut decided.
The Thorston twins decided to fly back to their hut, but were shock with the sight they were greeted with. All around their hut, basically every space surrounding it, was the letter 'S' painted in different colors.
"What. The…." Tuffnut trailed off.
The culprit was standing right next to it, looking very proud. "Like it?" Raeda asked rhetorically as she stood with Sparkfire. "My latest work. It's titled 'Ruff, Tuff, your new rules are Sssssssstupid."
"What is the meaning of this?" Ruffnut demanded.
"This is simply me acting out in defiance of your new leadership." Raeda explained with a smirk. "And I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself, right Sparkfire." The purple Nadder squawked her cheers for her rider.
"We will not stand for this! Notlout!"
As if on cue, Snotlout and Hookfang arrived at the hut. "Eargent, here ir!" He saluted.
"Take thi inurgent to the Dungeon." Ruffnut ordered.
"Ye ma'am!"
"I will only go with Snotlout because a life in prison is a lot better than a life with no freedom of expression!" Raeda stated.
Dinnertime soon came and the blonde twins were dining with Chicken in the Clubhouse with their new poet Fishlegs, entertaining them with his new poem.
Or at least trying to.
There once was an island named Thorstonton
Where everybody wanted to have fun, fun, fun.
We sang and we danced
And we all peed our pants
When the ruler came up with a great pun... pun, pun…
He looked at his leaders for their opinion. Chicken just gave an unimpressed cluck. "The chicken is not amused." Tuffnut said. "Notlout!"
As if he was hiding and waiting for his cue, Snotlout and Hookfang once more appeared. "Ir, ye, ir, right here."
"To the dungeon with him." Tuffnut declared.
Hookfang then dragged Fishlegs out of there. "No, the chicken is wrong! The chicken is wrong!" The poet argued..
Tuffnut was outraged at that. "How dare you? The chicken is never wrong." He then soothed Chicken's ruffling feathers. "Shh. I'm sorry you had to hear 's it, quiet. There we go."
Hicca and Hiccup were still cleaning the stables when they saw Snotlout and Hookfang herding Astrid, Stormfly, Raeda, Sparkfire, Fishlegs and Meatlug into one of the cages.
"All right, giddy up! Get back in line! Back in line!" Snotlout ordered.
"Snotlout, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked.
"Never you mind, table boy. This is official Thorntontonston business." Snotlout stated as the prisoners went it. He then locked the door on them. "Welcome to your new home, jailbirds."
"You could not hold it together for a longer time?" Hicca asked Raeda.
"I make no apologies for my actions." Raeda said.
"What are you in for?" Hiccup asked Astrid.
"Funny." Astrid said sarcastically. "Exactly how long are you two going to let this go on? Have either of you seen all those Fireworms?"
"Yeah, the migration is picking up steam." Fishlegs added. Meatlug then farted. "Ho ho ho! She does not deal well with prison food."
Raeda covered her nose. "Despite this, I still have no regrets."
"All right, all right, Hicca and I'll talk to them." Hiccup said to the prisoners. "I'm sure I can get this all straightened out."
"I hope so."
After spending some time looking for the blonde twins, the Haddock twins found them flying above a forest which is on fire. They went to them. "So you guys surveying the damage?" Hiccup asked the two island-owners with a hopeful expression.
"No, we're looking for a place to build our summer palace." Tuffnut answered.
"That might be a nice area once the fires burn the vegetation away." Ruffnut added.
"Any thoughts, table boy?" Tuff asked.
"Yeah, just one. Have you considered the fact that if you throw everyone in jail, there's no one left to actually build your summer palace?" Hiccup pointed out.
The blonde twins exchanged a look. "We're listening." Tuffnut said.
"And what about the Fireworm migration?" Hicca added. "Don't you think it might be a good idea to have everyone working so that we can stop Thorstonton from burning down?"
"I see your point, but I also see something else." Tuffnut said.
"Oh, yeah! What? What's that?" Hiccup asking, thinking they were finally getting somewhere.
"Toothless and Midnight are flying as fast as Barf and Belch!" Ruff pointed out.
"And by Thorstonton law…" Tuffnut started.
"That is illegal!" His twin finished.
So much for that.
Raeda was running a mug across the prison bars when Snotlout escorted the Haddock twins and the Night Furies into the cell.
"So what you two in for?" Astrid mocked.
"Astrid, please." Hiccup said.
"What? Just trying to be funny." The Hofferson girl said innocently.
"We get it, we should have handled that better." Hicca said, leaning against the wall.
"Any chance we could get Snotlout to put us in different cells? No offense or anything, but it's starting to get a little crowded." Raeda said.
Before anyone could say anything else, the prisoners were greeted with a strange sight once Hookfang landed at the stables. Snotlout got of his dragon and then proceeded to drag himself to their cell, protesting along the way. He opened the door, threw himself and as soon as Hookfang got inside, locked the door.
"Snotlout?" Hiccup asked.
"What did you do?" Hicca questioned, since Snotlout was the only one who actually liked his new position.
"I was framed." Snotlout explained.
"By who? We're all here." Raeda said.
"All right, that's it. We're breaking out of here." Astrid declared.
"Great! Then we go back to my plan." Snotlout said, making a throat cutting gesture.
"Guys, guys, we're fine. There's nothing to worry about. I mean, the twins can't be that oblivious!" Hiccup said.
"You're putting a lot of faith in two people who thought it was a good idea to ban arts." Raeda said.
The twins in question were in their 'S' filled hut, kicking a newly acquired sheep back and forth. The sheep landed in the middle and, seeing its' chance, made a break for it. Tuffnut chased it outside, only to stop when he saw another Fireworm. "Whoa, check it out! Fireworm!"
Ruffnut came outside and saw the tiny dragon as well. "Burns with the heat of 1,000 suns." She said in awe.
"Ah, those little guys." Tuff admired. Another Fireworm then landed next to its' companion. "Oh, look, it has a little buddy!" The tiny dragon had plenty of buddies as more came and landed on the hut. Then to the two humans alarms the smaller dragons set their hut on fire! "Whoa! No! Stop, stop!" Tuffnut yelled as he and his sister tried, unsuccessfully, to put out the flames.
Tuff then turned to his twin. "As the ruler of Thorstonton, I'm ordering the ruler's sister to do something about this Fireworm problem."
"What do you want me to do? I'm not the boss of them." Ruff argued.
"Well, if we don't do something, they're going to burn Thorstonton to the ground."
"Just like Hiccup and Hicca said." Ruff recalled.
"This is all your fault!" The blonde siblings accused each other.
Back at the prison, the prisoners were keeping track of the smoke.
"That smoke's getting close." Astrid noted. "And where there's smoke…"
"There's Fireworms." Raeda finished.
"As much as I want the Thorston twins to realise their mistake, at this point, we can't keeping for them to come around any longer." Hicca said to her brother.
"You're right, and we won't." Hiccup decided. "Experiment over. We are getting out there and stopping them before there's nothing left of this island."
"Finally." Astrid breathed out, glad that there's an end to this madness.
Hiccup walked to the lock. "Toothless, plasma blast."
But before the Night Fury could fire, the Thorston twins quickly ran up to the cell.
"Hey, guys?" Tuff said as he and his sister were almost out of breath.
"Now's our chance. Hookfang, destroy!" Snotlout commanded.
But Hiccup got in between Hookfang and the blonde twins, forcing the Monstrous Nightmare to keep its' mouth shut. "Oh, hey, rulers! How's stuff in the old kingdom?"
"Having lots of fun with all the smoke and fire?" Astrid asked, catching on to what Hiccup was doing.
"Yes." Tuffnut said before rethinking his answer. "No. Okay, fine! As it turns out, we can't save Thorstonton by ourselves. So we talked about it, and we hereby decree that you can all come and help us put out the fires."
"Ah, that's a shame, 'cause from where I sit, you guys are on your own." Hicca said. "I mean, rules are rules, right?"
"You have to help us save our island! It's all we've got!" Ruffnut begged.
"I don't know. Guys?" Hicca asked.
"I think you've got to stick to your guns." Astrid said.
"I agree with Astrid." Raeda said. "You make a rule, you follow it through. Otherwise it's... you know…"
"Anarchy." Fishlegs finished for Raeda. "I'm with them."
"Come on, you guys, please? Is there anything we can do? Name it, we'll do anything." Tuff said desperately.
"Well, now that you mention it, I suppose we could consider one possibility." Hiccup said.
"Anything!" Ruff and Tuff both said.
"I'll make you two assistant rulers." Tuffnut offered to the auburn twins, who weren't impressed. "Ruler's best pals? Second string rulers?"
"No, we have a better idea, actually. We divide the island up amongst all of us." Hiccup proposed.
"We all own it. There's no ruler, no sister of the ruler. We're all rulers." Hicca added.
"What? That's blasphemous!" Tuffnut exclaimed, jumping back. "You can't do that to the ruler." Suddenly, one of the Fireworm dragons came and towards the Thorston boys' trousers, setting it on fire! "Whaaaaa! Owwww! Whaaa! Okay, you guys can have whatever you want! The island's all of ours! Just get these things out of here!"
Once they were released and Tuffnut was able to put out the fire, the Dragon Riders wasted no time jumping into action. "Okay, Fishlegs, gather up all the Night Terrors and take them to the cave." Hiccup ordered as they flew through the air.
"On it." Fishlegs said, before he and Meatlug flew in a different direction.
"Okay, guys, we need to redirect the Fireworms around our island and onto the next one in the chain." Hicca informed the rest.
"You really think it's gonna make a dent? I mean, look at them all." Astrid said.
"Do you have a better idea?" Hiccup asked. "We don't really have a choice!"
They then flew towards the flock of migrating Fireworms.
"Stormfly, fire!"
"Sparkfire, blast em!"
"Come on, Barf, Belch, do it for Thorstonton!"
Despite the dragons best efforts, it didn't seem to deter the smaller dragons as they began to descend onto the island.
"This is working, we need a new plan!" Hicca said to her brother.
"Fall back! Maybe we can at least protect our base!" Hiccup ordered. They landed back on Dragons' Edge. "Let's get started on building a fire break!"
The Dragon Riders and dragons worked non-stop on building firebreaks to protect the Edge. Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were digging a trench, Snotlout and Raeda were taking down every nearby tree in sight and Hiccup and Hicca were any burning shrub they could find.
"Just keep digging, guys." Hiccup urged Astrid and the blonde twins. "The fire can't get past it if there's only dirt." They got deterred by a cloud of smoke. "Oh, I can barely see, bud. If this gets much worse, we're gonna have to bail out."
"What do we do now?" Astrid coughed. "It's getting really dangerous."
"The cave!" Hicca remembered. "We'll go there and wait it out with the Night Terrors."
"Uh, Hicca, you may want to come up with another plan." Fishlegs said as he and Meatlug rejoined the group.
"Why?" Hiccup asked.
"I couldn't find the Night Terrors. I called them till my lips almost fell off. They're gone." The Gronckle rider explained.
"I told you we should have bailed on this place." Snotlout said.
"No, we're not bailing. This island is ours." Tuffnut said firmly.
"Tuff?" Hiccup warned.
"It's all of ours." The male Thorston corrected. "And no one burns our equally-shared island to the ground but us."
"I may have to disagree with you there." Hicca said.
That's when their attention was caught by the sight of a large dragon heading their way.
"What the... is that…" Astrid asked fearfully.
"Fireworm queen!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "If she's here, then the entire flock can't be far behind it."
"Well, that settles it. Grab what you can. We're out of here." Hiccup decided.
"Uh, Hiccup, that's not the Fireworm queen." Snotlout pointed out.
Hicca squinted at the larger dragon and saw that her cousin was right. "The Night Terrors! They're protecting the island by forming a Fireworm queen!"
"There's not going to be anything left to protect if all of those Fireworms land here." Astrid stated.
"Well, we just won't let them." Hiccup said.
"Okay, I sense a plan." Raeda said.
"I'm gonna lead the Night Terrors out to sea. Hopefully the Fireworms will follow. You guys stay behind and put out these fires." Hiccup said.
"Be careful, bro!" Hicca called, before Hiccup and Toothless took off.
"Come on, bud! All right, bud, we need to get the terrors' attention and turn them out to sea." Hiccup said to his dragon as they flew towards the Night Terrors. "Alright, gang, let's take a little trip, shall we?" As soon as they caught up to the Night Terrors, Hiccup gave the command. "Toothless, now!" The Night Fury gave a plasma blast towards the Night Terrors, signalling them to follow. The Night Terrors, still in their Fireworm formation, followed Hiccup and Toothless. "Yes! Nice job, bud."
True to Hiccups' prediction, the rest of the Fireworm started following who they thought was their queen. "It's working!" Astrid noted as she watched the tiny dragons being led away from their island.
The next task was to find a suitable island to drop the Fireworms off. Hiccup spotted an island that he and his twin explored earlier. It was completely void of any inhabitants. "There we go, bud. That island's all rock. Perfect stopover for these guys. Going down, gang!" They descended down on the island, with the "Fireworm Queen" and her followers mimicking. Once they were close enough, the Night Terrors dispersed and the Fireworms happily settled in to their new home.
"Now that is something to write about." Hiccup said to Toothless. "And Fishlegs thought the Book of Dragons was finished."
With that they all headed back to their home, making sure the Night Terrors were not following them.
Once Hiccup and Toothless made it back, they worked with the others to extinguish the flames around the Edge. It was going to take a lot of time and resources to fix the damages, but everyone was just glad to be done with the whole days events.
The Dragon Riders and dragons then gathered around the claim stone.
"Ruff, Tuff, you guys did the right thing." Hiccup said to the former leaders. "I just hope you learned something in all this."
"Yeah, we sure did. Leading blow." Tuffnut did. "Oh, we don't have to do the "S" thing anymore. Leading blows."
"Seriously blows." Ruffnut agreed.
"You know what, though? At least we have our cool claim stone to remember our glorious reign!" Tuffnut pointed out. However the moment of happiness for the Thorston twins was short-lived when Meatlug ate the claim stone. She then spewed some lava at the twins feet. "No respect. No respect at all."
Laughing at them, Snotlout started singing and dancing in celebration to the end of the Thorston twins short-term reign. Soon the others started joining him. Ruff and Tuff looked at each and shrugged before joining in as well.
It's everyone's island!
This is our island
It's everyone's island