Instead of walking away and finding something to do, Astrid watched Stoick look over Plates.
"What's wrong with it?" Astrid asked innocently.
"Her." Stoick replied.
"What's wrong with her then?"
"She got sick. Hiccup called it uhm, scale rot? Oh, plate rot. She was part of a group that Hiccup saved shortly after we arrived. She and a number of others were being transported by a group of dragon hunters. They attacked the ship and saved all but one."
"Wow, I wouldn't have seen that coming."
"They'll know not to pass through Hiccup's territory anymore. It was brutal to watch those men get ripped to shreds in the water and made into lunch."
"And Hiccup was okay with that? Should we be concerned about dragons eating humans?" She asked.
"Hiccup turns a blind eye to the violence when it involves the safety of his people. Don't hurt them and you won't disappear down a dragon's gullet. And no you don't have to worry about being eaten. Only on special occasions does that happen." Stoick moved around Plates and Astrid followed. As she moved both dragons chuckled.
"What are they laughing about?"
"Probably about how scared you are."
"I'm not scared." Astrid defended.
"And yet here you are, talking to me and not going out to make a new friend." He peered over to her. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Well unlike everyone else I'm not going to take what Hiccup says at face value."
"And you shouldn't but also if you're not going to interact with them you'll never get anything else." He patted Plates on the side and moved around to her front. "Everything is still looking good. I know it's annoying to be constantly checked like this but we have to make sure it doesn't come back."
Astrid watched Stoick talk to the dragons and watched as Skullcrusher began to rumble and make noise at the same time to Plates.
I suppose other than Hiccup I'll be the one looking over you, since I'm your mate's human." Skullcrusher huffed at that. "Oh what? We all know." Stoick picked up Plates' armour and knocked on it, making it jingle and clank. "This stuff is not quiet and you think we wouldn't notice the scratches in it and the clear bite marks from you trying to mark her?" Skullcrusher growled low in his throat. "In fact how bout I keep this stuff safe for you two?" Stoick took the Rumblehorns' horn in his hand. "Go get her big man." He ordered and let go. Skullcrusher nudged Plates a few times to get her to move. She tried to get around him to get her armour but he nudged her further and further away until she gave up and followed him. "Well at least I got to send one person I watch over to get married." He laughed to himself.
"Do the dragons understand us?" Astrid asked. "I know Hiccup said something about it."
"Some can, yes. Those who care to learn at least. Many don't bother since they don't interact with Hiccup much. So Toothless tends to translate for him. But there are others who are learning in preparation for interacting with us. Luckily for me Skullcrusher is one of those who wanted to learn. Plus being one of two Rumblehorn here he sort of had to learn. A bunch of the 'leaders' here are learning actually. Gives them a chance to talk with Hiccup about issues their species are having. This place may be cramped right now but it runs better than any village I've seen." Stoick sat down with the armour in his lap and a rag in hand. He started to clean and inspect the armour more closely than before. "What are you still doing here, lass? Go make a friend." He looked up at her. "I don't want to make it an order."
Astrid clicked her lips and left. With her arms crossed she walked back to her friends and sat down grumpy.
"What's wrong, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked.
"Stoic all but ordered me to befriend one of these things." Astrid grumbled.
"Isn't that like why we're here?" Tuffnut asked.
"I didn't get off the boat to make friends." Astrid defended.
"Uh, then why are you here? Cause I heard we could have a dragon as a pet." Ruffnut continued.
"Hiccup said they're not pets." Fishlegs corrected.
"They act like pets." Ruff rolled her eyes.
Well Hiccup's notes said that it's likely because they use touch and scent to identify each other. So I'd guess it's like they have no personal space so they don't mind being touched by those they trust."
"Even you guys just trust what he says." Astrid sighed.
"What else do you want us to do? He's been living with them and knows them better than anyone. Should we not trust him?" Fishlegs asked, confused.
"I don't know. It just feels wrong to trust what he says. He befriends the Night Fury, runs away, kills our friend, and now we're just going to do as he says?"
"That's not fair, Astrid." Ruff said.
"Yeah" Tuff immediately followed.
"He wasn't our friend anymore. He had no reason not to do what he did. We've accepted that. Even Stoick did. Things have changed. We're different, Hiccup's different. We can be mad about Snotlout but that was a long time ago and everything's different now." Fishlegs explained.
"Must you always be the voice of reason?" Astrid deadpanned.
"Someone has to be." Fishlegs shrugged.
"Whatever. Have any of you actually gone out and tried to friend one of these things?
"Oh yeah. We saw one that was shooting fire into the air. Hiccup said something about signals or something but I was just looking at the explosions." Tuff said.
"I didn't even hear the signals thing." Ruff followed. "But we were thinking of finding some stuff we could bring it, and see if it'll set it on fire for us." The pair high fived.
"As for me, Gobber has a Gronckle that isn't really cut out for the forge. He's sorta hoping I could maybe take it off his hands. He doesn't want to push it out and hurt its feelings."