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sco07ut · 3 years ago

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i’ve got rtte on the mind so rvb race to the edge au but i mostly ignore canon and also pick and choose lore from the movies and book series at will (also largely ignored). as always i didn’t do any worldbuilding and all the “””plot”” is about grimmons so keep that in mind when nothing makes sense

ok just learnt how to make a cut so adding that now x sorry

the reds n blues are the dragon riders but don’t ask me how they all ended up as the dragon riders bc i only have ideas for grif n simmons (who knows maybe i’ll have thought of something while writing thi s up)

hiccup as church, idk they’re both main characters with sucky ‘dads’(creators?)

toothless as a dramillion called switcheroo. ik it’s like the whole point of the series but church n switcheroo don’t have the whole prosthetic leg/prosthetic tail going on i just didn’t think it fit very well? i didn’t want his dragon to be a nightfury bc imo it doesn’t really fit his vibes. switch is a dramillion bc of their multi-shot fire type, i was kinda hoping it’d be reminiscent of the different ai

astrid as texas, love interest moment😟 but ya both are badass blondes who everyone is scared of and they only have romantic feelings for their pathetic little boyfriends

stormfly as a deathgripper called grimsting. those things are fucking terrifying !! they have the black colour scheme n their weird little front legs remind me of mantis legs and as we all know, mantis ladies rip off their mans head & i think tex would do that to church if given the opportunity

ok quick note for tuffnut and ruffnut befor i get into it. we’re disregarding all the lore outside of rtte idk who ruffnut marries or whatever in the movies and idc at this point . so, donut and caboose are like, interchangeably ruff n tuff (but like donut is Mostly ruff n caboose is Mostly tuff, it’s just not set in stone) but they’re not related ! they’re just friends

tuffnut as caboose (most of the time), they’re really stupid that’s pretty much it. idk just in rtte tuffnut really gives me caboose vibes and and his pet chicken, chicken can be freckles :))

belch as a gronckle called bait, gronckles are basically like cute little puppies and also i think the size difference of caboose’s massive frame on a tiny gronckle is funny. dw about the name

ruffnut as donut (most of the time), again it’s mostly just vibes. when ow as rewatching rtte i could just see him as ruffnut aslo! the weird little fling between throck (who is wash in this au) and ruff reminded me of their season 16/17 relationship i can’t remember which one but uh the one where they fix time together and lowkey flirt

barf as a hobblegrunt called awe, it’s a dragon moodring, enough said

snotlout as tucker, i don’t even need to explain this one c’mon. womaniser meet womaniser, yes ik tucker has development or whatever but a key part of his character is that he can’t get any woman to sleep with him and a key part of snotlout’s character is that he can’t get any woman to sleep with him. they’re also both over-confident and kind of annoying (sorry this feels a bit mean idk why i’m tearing these guys a new one i actually really like snotlout my stupid little glup shitto)

hookfang as a razorwhip called dreadbeast, i did initially consider giving him that dragon that wears metal and tools as armour but changed my mind bc i think razorwhips are a bit cooler and tucker with a razorwhip-spike sword is a cool concept yk

oohoo now we’re gettin to the good stuff

fishlegs as simmons, come on!! it’s a perfect match!! nerdy little men who are the smartest idiot in a group of idiots, they both feel under appreciated in their leadership roles and get bullied by snotlout and tucker respectively for not being able to pick up women. i think the friendship between fishlegs and hiccup could be reflected nicely onto simmons and church but that’s probably just bc i’m dying for content of them together. i’m plucking that one bit of book lore that says fishlegs is of berserker descent (but was raised on berk by adoptive hooligan parents) bc i think the connection to the skrill is cool, it explains his very red hair and also taps into knife!simmons energy. it also becomes a relevant plot point in the au!

ok i’m so mad a massive block of text was just deleted abt simmons and his dragon and i cba rewriting so this is the abridged version. meatlug as a skrill called stormwrought, simmons stumbles across a singetail, singetail tries to eat him, random skrill on the hunt for a meal spots the singetail and tries to eat it- effectively saving simmons from the singetail. simmons loses an eye, arm and leg but survives and becomes a hermit studying dragons all day. by chance, he comes across the same skrill that saved him and studies it for a while until the skrill faces off against a much bigger singetail that nearly kills it, simmons is like oh shit and helps the skrill kill the singetail for good, gaining the skrill’s respect and it allows simmons to become its rider. (revelant info: simmons being a berserker knows their methods on how to reel skrills in by using metal and since half his body is partially metal the skrill takes a liking to him)

heather as grif, i initially jusg made grif heather bc of the fishlegs/heather relationship thing but then i was like wait this kinda works bc kai can be dagur since she’s literally batshit insane. oh and also heather is canonically the best chef out of the dragon riders and i feel like that’s reflective of grif’s entire personality x

windshear as a rumblehorn called slobgobbler, i absolutely love this pair, rumblehorns are the best trackers out of all the dragon species, and yes that’s probably so that they can follow objects or people or whatever but the prospect of grif making his dragon sniff out delicious food for them is something that tickles me. plus it’s very fitting of grif’s character since the madman managed to sniff out genkin’s pizza

dagur as kai, so this is another fun one, i think kai being a villain is a very under-utilised concept bc who doesn’t love sexy female villains?? so in this au, grif n kai’s mother takes the place of heather and dagur’s father (oswald the agreeable), however, instead of travelling alone prior to the shipwreck on vanaheim, she’s with kai, and an accidental fire is what causes the boat to capsize. kai manages to escape however, and returns back to their tribe (in this au they aren’t berserkers bc i wanted simmons to be a berserker, they’re just some unnamed tribe idk . ) grif doesn’t handle his grief well and leaves the tribe, blaming kai for their mother’s supposed death. kai also doesn’t handle her grief well but she channels it through her new position as the tribe’s chief. after that her story basically follows dagur’s in the sense that she eventually has her redemption

i’ve decided that shattermaster can stay as shattermaster and sleuther is still sleuther except i’ve changed his name to ravenous. i didnt see the point in changing that, instead of fishlegs/simmons training her to ride a gronckle caboose can do it instead. like in rtte canon, she has shattermaster first while learning to ride dragons and then bonds with ravenous after shattermaster dies

ok cool bit over now we’re just going back to listing

throck as washington, as afore mentioned, donut and wash’s relationship in season 17(?) reminded me of throck’s wee crush on ruffnut, and also throck’s whole ass personality just reminds me of wash minus the whole ‘graarr i’m evil’ moment w/ the meta

mala as carolina, i debated over this one a bit bc i think kimball would fit mala’s personality a little bit better but having mara!lina means there can be a kai x carolina wedding <3 plus it allows us to have the carwash duo as super cool ninjas

atali as kimball, so after i concluded that kimball wouldn’t be mala i was like who’s the next coolest woman, ah yes, the one who flies. kimball and the other (female) lieutenants (basically just simmons’ squad) are the wingmaidens w/ jensen being minden

ok i only just thought of this one but jensen got me thinking abt the other lieutenants and uhh palomo is gustav. that’s all + grey is gothi

alright villain time ! rubs my hands together like an evil little fly

johann as felix, now ik felix wouldn’t be betraying kimball in this situation, but i really liked the ‘pretending to help but was secretly a traitor the whole time’ parallel going on between them, plus they’re both good with throwing knives !! and were both foiled by their desire to gloat and hear themselves talk

viggo as locus, redemption arc redemption arc redemp . ok but in all seriousness both viggo and locus treat their respective wars as just a job instead of getting emotionally invested in it like johann and felix. viggo has his weird little obsession with hiccup, locus has his weird little obsession with wash . ultimately they both realise that their actions were wrong and try to make things better

krogan as sharkface, idk tbh. they’re kinda just there?? as the muscle of the team??

um anyway! i think that’s it for the characters ik i haven’t covered anyone but this post is getting too long anyway and i’m too tired to think of any more. i’ll just add in the extra ones if they come to me x

next post is more rtte!grimmons <3

#rvb!rtte au

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dukesnukes · 4 years ago

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hello, i am here to bother you again! are we allowed to save the duke edits and use them on our friends? me and my friend love the Duke Nukem meme compilations, i especially like the ones where he goes "i love my wife" and other wholesome stuff like that, i hc Duke as someone who acts Ruff n' Tuff™ but actually has like 5 kittens at home and watches Disney Princess movies bc he's not toxically masculine and totally feels that princess movies are not unmasculine or anything

oh sorry, im kinda...i just really like Duke Nukem

ID SAY HES NOT TOXICALLY MASCULINE AT ALL!!!! JUST LOOK AT THIS GAY SHIT HE SAID TO A SOLDIER HE WAS WORKING WITH ON THE BULLETSTORM DLC!!!!!!!(WHICH TOTALLY MAKES HIM CANONICALLY BISEXUAL, BY THE WAY!!!!)

YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY USE THEM WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!!! THATS WHAT I MAKE THE COMPILATIONS FOR!!!!!!

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kmp78 · 4 years ago

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"She’s a down-to-earth Miss All-American Cali girl who loves yoga and all that hippy dippy health stuff, and he’s a ruff-n-tuff NYC dude." Kinda why it didn't work out with her and Brad either. Despite pretty much being the king of Hollywood, he doesn't seem like the Cali type." Also why it didn't work out with him and Angelina either. But she's a whole nother story.

Yeah there is not a man on this planet that could deal with Jolie's psychosis... 😬

And speaking of psychosis...

Remember this one? 🤭

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dzamie · 5 years ago

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What is your opinion on the third movie htyd?

It was visually fantastic. The plot was bad, and the characters were less than stellar. Still a strong movie, but definitely the weakest of the three. Here’s a read-more because I T ‘ S R A N T T I M E B A Y B E E

The light fury was fantastic. She looked beautiful, was sufficiently wild and catlike again (my main complaint against the 2nd and 3rd movies is that Toothless acts way more like a dog in them), and I love her cloaking ability. Shoving Hiccup off of Toothless only for Toothless to dive towards him, was mirrored beautifully with shoving Toothless to safety, then diving towards Hiccup to save him, too.

Toothless was... back and forth. I suspect I would’ve liked the mating dance scene had I not seen it in the trailers so many times already - as it was, it was hard to watch. I liked him pining for his ability to fly when Light took off and expected him to follow, and his exchange with her when she shoved Hiccup off was hilarious. I’m never a big fan of “infatuated at first sight” plotlines, though, so he definitely had the weaker part of the romantic subplot. And the lightning thingy was really cool, but I wish they’d used it between him discovering it an using it against the controlled dragons - not only would it follow the “rule of 3,” but it also would’ve made it seem less like “it’s not a deus ex machina if we show it once before” and more like something he could’ve practiced or played with, especially when flirting. Also, not really digging how Toothless is suddenly ruler over all the Hidden World. He took down one Bewilderbeast. ONE!! And it’s not like Light is clearly, undisputably Queen Of Hidden World by being a light fury, because there are other light fury families in the background! It seemed like a decision made to give him a reason to stay in THW instead of just... having a nest with Light somewhere away from Berk (for her comfort) but within a reasonable flight (for his).

Hiccup was dumb. I can only imagine that this took place about five years after HTTYD2 or even more, because that is an awful lot of trust to put on the line for some whackadoodle plan that has no guarantee of fruition. In the first movie, some Vikings were a little on the edge about finding the Nest, despite knowing that it must exist, and that finding it would be objectively better than not doing so. In 3, Hiccup somehow gets them to all agree on something that is incredibly unlikely to exist, they have no idea where it is, and it’s unknowable if their lives would improve or worsen from finding it. Also? After that big, climactic battle where Berk only wins because both Vikings AND dragons were working together? “Oh well I guess we don’t need each other, and we’re probably better off separate.” NO YOU DUMBFUCK GO GRAB YOUR BIG SCALY DOG AND SET UP A TIMESHARE

The other riders were actually really good. I loved Tuff’s “come, cry into my long, manly beard” stuff, and Ruff annoying the hell out of Villain Guy. Valka, too; she continued to move far more in sync with Cloudjumper than the other riders did with their dragons, which is great because they’ve presumably been flying together, isolated from Vikings, for over two decades. Actually, just typing that makes me even madder about the “uwu we can’t live together anymore” ending. Those two spent TWENTY YEARS happily together, there is NO WAY either of them would just be “oh okay, bye then.” Nope, even if everything else happened like that, Valka would either become That One Dragon Lady or Cloudjumper would just... “Valka. I hope you’re ready for a couple more decades among only dragons.” Like... “oh, Chief Hiccup said dragons are going away” “aye well the last chief said dragons were evil killers and to slaughter them on sight and look what Hiccup did. Looks like disobeying stupid orders runs in the family.”

Villain Guy. Whatever his name is. I’m calling him VG because I don’t respect him. He looks smart not because he IS smart, but because he’s never in the same room as people who can walk and think at the same time, except for when he’s threatening Hiccup. His motivation is roughly the same as Drago’s, but instead of combat ability and a goddamn Bewilderbeast, he has an endless potion of Plot Contrivance. Ah, yes, we know that Berk will go west because Sherlock Holmes But Unlikable has declared that furies don’t like the cold, despite Toothless loving to play in the snow and having the time of his life - it can’t possibly be that the map has your army one way, islands on a straight shot west, and literally nowhere else to go. How devious of you, to have put off killing Ruff and that other dragon for long enough to get the basic idea of following an unwitting pawn to your destination (a destination that YOU KNOW THE LOCATION OF ALREADY). Like yeah dude I get it you think you’re the Joker or Moriarity or something and you’re in it for The Thrill Of The Hunt, but, like, you don’t arm your men with anti-dragon weaponry at all when it comes to finally swing that trap shut. What happens if, somehow, your masterfully masterminded master plan of mastery fails to capture the Alpha, because who knows maybe alpha furies are magically immune to Plot Venom? Well, I guess you just lose. Helluva linchpin if you ask me.

Seriously, I suspect the guy only retains control of that huge fleet because the three numbskulls whose men they actually are are so ridiculously incompetent that he simply went “hey let’s toss a coin, heads I get your army tails you give me your army” and they responded “yeah that seems right.”

“Furies mate for life” boy wouldn’t it SUCK if Light already had a partner before you caught her? Wouldn’t it be JUST MISERABLE for you if Light decided that actually, fuck Toothless, he’s too human? Wouldn’t it just RAIN ON YOUR PARADE if it turned out that mating for life is a behavior only exhibited in cruel, forced captivity and thus is not present in Light, a wild fury, or Toothless, a fury who, the very moment he expressed desire, got Hiccup to build him a working tail? Wouldn’t it be just MAGNIFICENT if Toothless was already mated to Hiccup and Astrid? anyway my point is that this guy’s presented as a mastermind and he’s about as much a mastermind as Monster Musume’s generic protagonist.

HTTYD3 was a beautiful move and I don’t regret a single second nor cent I spent on it. But boy, could it have been so much better.

#how to train your dragon #text #asks #anonymous #the hidden world #dragons #Anonymous

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theplaid-wearingmoose · 5 years ago

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Sister Grimborn Part 5 ~Hiccup x Reader~

Your name: submit What is this?

The men at the Grimborn camp had seen plenty of rage-filled destruction at the hands of Viggo, but none as serious and frightening as this. Splinters of wood flew everywhere as Viggo angrily hurled tables, chairs, anything he could get his hands on. Hunters that couldn’t get out of the way in time were thrown back by Viggo’s fist connecting with their jaws. Even Ryker made sure to stay out of the way of his little brother.

“That scrawny little worm has meddled too much into our business.” Viggo growled to no one in particular. His knuckles were white from clenching his fists in anger. “He and the rest of those pathetic Dragon Riders need to be destroyed.” Viggo began to pace back and forth, angrily muttering to himself. Ryker approached cautiously, not wanting to show fear but also not wanting to have something chucked at his head by Viggo. “And what about the runt?” He asked. Viggo paused. “Yes....our little sister. When we retrieve her from those foolish Dragon Riders, we will have to question her. Although he can be more ruthless than he thinks, Hiccup does not have the stomach for torture. If she told them our plans, she did it willingly. And for that she will have to be dealt with severely.”

“What do you want done with her when we get her back?” Ryker asked. “Bring her to me. I will deal with her personally.” Viggo growled. “For now, prepare some men for an attack. They believe we are coming tomorrow morning. We will send only a few ships. This will give me time to mobilize a new attack. I have something special planned for Hiccup and his little friends.”

~Dragon’s Edge, 2 days later~

“Did you watch Y/N train yesterday??” “Yeah it was awesome! She almost beat the dome!” “She’s really bonding with her dragon. They work together so well. Hiccup doesn’t even have to help her, it’s crazy.”

The rest of the Riders had watched you and Mako train together over the past couple days. They were all thoroughly impressed. Well...everyone except Astrid..

“Um have you guys forgotten that she lied to us? There was supposed to be a massive attack from Viggo and Ryker, who are her brothers might I remind everyone. The only “attack” that came was a handful of small scouting ships and we took care of those easily. It was nothing like the plans she brought. Don’t you guys think that’s a little suspicious??” Astrid demanded, furiously. The rest of the Riders stood there silently for a minute. Snotlout snorted. “I think Astrid might be jealous of Y/N.” He laughed before letting out a scream and ducking as Astrid launched her axe over his head. “I am not jealous of Y/N Grimborn. Her brothers are vicious dragon hunters. I’d never be jealous of her.” Ruff and Tuff chuckled to themselves. “Pretty sure Snotlout meant you’re jealous of her and Hiccup.” Ruffnut snickered. Astrid’s face turned bright red. “I am not! Hiccup can be with whoever he wants! And we’re just friends!” She shouted before spinning on her heels and storming out of the main hall towards Hiccup’s hut.

You and Hiccup were standing at his desk, going over the plans you had drawn out from your brothers’ attack. “I don’t understand why Viggo would only send a couple ships. You think he did that as a diversion?” Hiccup asked you. You sighed. “Most likely. He probably assumed I told you all about the original attack and just did that to throw us off. If I know my brother, he’s probably planning something much worse for us. And since I’m here, I have no idea what it is.”

“Hiccup we need to talk!” You jumped and turned your head towards Astrid, who had just come bursting into Hiccup’s hut. “Thanks for knocking, Astrid.” Hiccup said, sarcastically. Astrid glared at him and folded her arms. “We have to talk about this whole attack thing. You don’t think it’s odd how we’re told about this big attack and no attack even comes?” She asked. “Actually Astrid, we were just talking about that.” Hiccup replied, nodding his head towards you. Astrid’s eyes narrowed as she looked at you. “What exactly are you playing at?” She demanded. You sighed again, just wishing she would either try to trust you or just leave you alone. “I’m not playing at anything, Astrid. I was just telling Hiccup that I guessed Viggo assumed I’d told you guys the plans and he changed them to throw us off. My brother is a lot of things, but he’s not stupid.” Astrid scoffed and turned to Hiccup.

“When are you gonna see that we can’t trust her, Hiccup! She’s a Grimborn and no amount of dragon training is gonna change that. If anything, that makes her even more dangerous!” Hiccup stood in front of you and glared at Astrid. “Okay that’s enough, Astrid. You don’t even know her! You aren’t even trying to get to know her either. Y/N is one of us now and you’re just going to have to deal with that. Just because her brothers have done bad stuff doesn’t mean she’s like them. You better learn how to get over this because we can’t afford to have this behavior on the team. It’s ridiculous and could get somebody hurt. I’m serious.”

You were stunned. You’d never seen Hiccup act that way before, especially towards one of his own. Astrid let out a frustrated yell and stomped out of Hiccup’s hut. Hiccup turned back towards you and took your hands in his. “I’m sorry.” He muttered. You squeezed his hands gently. “It’s alright. I know it’s gonna take some time. There’s not really much I can do besides try and prove to her that I’m not like Viggo and Ryker.” Hiccup sighed and pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. “I’ll do what I can to keep her from bothering you.” You smiled and lifted your head to kiss him. “Much appreciated.” You said, forcing a grin. Hiccup could tell you were still upset about what Astrid said. He could hear the sadness in your voice and tried to think of a way to distract you from all the stuff with your brothers. He looked behind him at Toothless and Mako who were busy lighting balls of scrap paper on fire. He turned back to you and gave you a mischievous grin.

“Fancy a race?”

#sister grimborn #race to the edge #Hiccup Haddock #hiccup x reader #hiccup httyd #httyd imagine #hiccup imagine #hiccup how to train your dragon #hiccup x reader fluff #hiccup x reader smut #how to train your dragon

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mullet--head · 6 months ago

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400 FOLLOWER DTIYS

There aren’t any specific rules for this or time limits, just a little fun thing to celebrate :)) tag me in your posts so I can see ‘em :3

#mullet draws #mullet dtiys #art #my art #digital drawing #digital art #original character #ruff n tuff stuff #furry community #furry anthro #furry art #furry character #sfw furry #anthro art #anthro dog #ruff n tuff princess #dtiys

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theluckiestwitchatblackwell · 5 years ago

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First Choice

New chapter time! I was inspired by something to start on this chapter instead of TLO but there’s more on that in the authors notes over on AO3 and FFnet. Read the chapter under the cut and please reblog/review!!

*Flashback*

Leaving his meditation garden, Fishlegs made his way to the Thorston hut, the first logical place she might be.

As he approached, he froze as he watched Tuffnut lead Ruffnut by the hand from woods behind their hut to the front door. He almost dropped the little bunch he held in surprise, as Ruffnut’s head was slightly drooped and her pace sluggish, and Tuffnut glanced back every few seconds to make sure she was still upright. Reaching the porch, he wrapped an arm behind her shoulders and led her up, closing the door behind them gently. Maybe… I should come by later, he thought.

At dinner, he looked out for the twins to see that only Tuffnut had entered the Great Hall. Seeing him struggle to carry two plates and two goblets, he quickly finished the little food left on his own plate then hurried to take a plate and goblet before he dropped them. He glanced at Fishlegs, gruffly saying,”Thanks.”

“Oh, it’s no problem! I actually wanted to give something to Ruffnut while I was there.”

“Didn’t I tell you and the other yak breath to leave her alone not this morning?”

“I mean, y-you did but… I thought she might like some herbs from my garden. I know her supply o-on the Edge is running low and-“

“Great, I’ll take them. She’ll appreciate it.”

“W-Well they’re at my hut, so…”

“So, go get them.”

“Okay!” Fishlegs squeaked, more scared of the slowly agitated Thorston brother than he was determined to cheer his sister up, as he hurried to his house, taking care to not spill any food or drink. Shoving the stems in his front pocket, he carefully hurried to meet Tuffnut at the Thorston hut, following him upstairs to their room.

“Uh… Ruffnut? I brought-“

“He brought you some medicinal herbs.”

“N-Not just that! I brought some wildflowers from my garden too!” He set down the plate and goblet on her bedside table as she rolled over, and he presented the little bunch to her. The corners of her mouth upturned ever so slightly, small enough that Fishlegs almost missed it, then fell again as she said, “Just put them on the table, I’ll deal with them in the morning. Thanks.”

Fishlegs blinked, not expecting such a dull response from her, despite seeing her this way earlier in the day. “Uh… goodnight, both of you.”

He set the flowers and herbs down beside her plate and shuffled out of the room, glancing over his shoulder as Tuffnut sat down at the end of the bed and they got to work on eating.

*Flashback over*

He only wanted to go check on them, he told himself. That’s why he was going to the Thorston house again, but in the cover of the waning night sky as dawn broke over the horizon. He was 100% not expecting to watch Snotlout run out of the house at full speed. Did… did he stay the night with them? I know they’re all close but… Fishlegs’ eyes dropped as he turned and shuffled back to his own house. Who am I kidding, they tormented me together as children. Their bond is stronger, how could I have a chance… ___________________________________________

“It was kinda nice of Fishlegs to help you bring the food back last night.” Ruffnut began.

Tuffnut paused minutely, before continuing to load fish into a basket. Ruffnut stood by, leaning against a pole, helping in exactly no way at all. “I guess.”

“Then again, he’s just kind of a nice dude, y’know? Smart but so oblivious. Maybe that’s why it-“

“Stop, Ruff. You know you’re just trying to make excuses.”

She let her arms drop from their crossed position, along with her eyes, and sighed. “I know.”

She heard him mumble under his breath. “What was that?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

She rolled her eyes, “Sure, and our boar pit at the Edge isn’t the best there is.”

“What would you rather I do, sis? Let you have your wishful thinking and watch you torture yourself further or nip it in the bud and stop you from overthinking?” He stood, motioning for her the take the other side of the basket and they started for the stable behind their house.

“I don’t know, but if either of them make themselves interested in me, I have to make a choice eventually, don’t I? No use sulking about it now. We’re Vikings.”

He dropped his side of the basket abruptly, eliciting a cry of indignation from her.

“What happened to you? You were crying last night to me about this and now it’s all ‘we're Vikings?’ I’m not complaining, I don’t want to see you cry, but it’s just… sudden.”

“I don’t know what happened. Now c’mon, they’re hungry.” She tugged on the basket as he took the other side and continued on. Tuffnut would seal his lips for now, for her tone implied she didn’t want to talk about it. __________________________________________

Entering the Great Hall, the group was relieved to see Ruffnut had joined Tuffnut, and was looking to be in slightly better spirits. Astrid was the first to meet them, when they were not ten paces inside.

“Ruff, I am so sorry, we-"

“-we didn’t think about how-“ Hiccup had joined them.

“Guys, shut up. It’s fine, really. I’m okay now.”

“Are you sure?” They said together, worried still etched on their faces. Ruffnut gave them a small but sincere smile. As they headed back to the table, she whispered to Tuffnut with a hard nudge to his ribs, “Did you tell them?"

He nudged her back just as hard, “I’m not stupid, of course I didn’t it was probably Fishlegs.”

She rolled her eyes. “Such a Fishlegs thing to do.”

They arrived at the table to find two filled plates across from each other.

“You guys-“

“We didn’t know if you would both come tonight but Fishlegs thought it would be a nice gesture.”

Ruffnut smiled at him while Tuffnut frowned slightly. They sat down, Ruffnut taking the seat closest to the doors, which was conveniently beside Snotlout.As she sat down, he mumbled to her, “Hey, can I see you outside after dinner? Just us two.”

“Uhh, sure,” she mumbled back, casting a glance at him with apprehension, before facing her brother again, who had lowered an eyebrow in question. She shrugged her shoulders and looked down to her plate, missing the little dawn of realisation in his eyes, and he glanced at Snotlout before starting on his own food.

Finishing quickly, Snotlout excused himself and hurried to his house to collect the delicate crown he created, then stood outside the Great Hall. He didn’t have to wait long.

Inside, Ruffnut wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stood up, saying, “Snotlout wants to see me outside.”

Tuffnut, not finished with his food, immediately stood up and said, “Let’s go then.”

Hiccup held out a hand to motion to Tuffnut to sit and quickly said, “H-hey, Tuff, let her go speak to him alone, alright?”

Both twins turned to stare at Hiccup, both confused.

“But-“

“No, Tuff. Finish your food.” Hiccup’s authoritative tone surprised everyone, most of all Astrid. She’d not heard her fiancé speak with a tone quite like his father’s Chief “I mean business” voice, but it shocked Tuffnut enough to make him sit down, as Ruffnut slowly headed out.

Outside, Snotlout caught her wrist as she pushed the door shut behind her. “Hey, come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Not far, just around the corner really.”

Around the corner turned out to be behind a row of huts, facing the bay. Moonlight shone over the water and illuminated their faces as they sat with their legs hanging over the cliff. The starlight also glinted on a bit of metal that caught Ruffnut’s eye.

“Whatcha got there?”

“Oh! Uh… well, it’s for you?”

He pulled it out, and Ruffnut’s jaw dropped and she let out something between a sigh and laugh. “A crown?”

“Yeah, the metal is kinda flimsy though, and it took me forever to carve it all out but Hiccup helped me and-“

“Wait, Hiccup? So you told them?”

He somewhat flinched under her narrowed eyes, expecting her to be angry, but hastened to explain. “Hiccup wouldn’t help me unless I told him why I was making it, but he didn’t tell me he was going to tell Astrid! I’m just not good at forging stuff, but you deserve to… y’know…” He gestured to the crown. “To be treated like a, uh, a queen.”

Her eyes softened and she hoped the moon wasn’t bright enough to show the blush that was definitely spreading across her face. She couldn’t be mad at him really, Hiccup and Astrid were bound to find out eventually, she told herself. She took off her helmet and looked at the intricate designs that were carved into the crown, turning it in her hand to discover a flower engraving, and her name below it.

“That’s the front. I know your favourite flower is the-”

“Lily-of-the-valley,” She said while tracing the flower with a finger. "Too bad they don’t grow a whole lot here. How did you know it’s my favourite?”

“It’s the only flower you pick when we find them. Are… are you going to put it on?”

“Of course I am, I’m just admiring it. Did you two spend all day in the forge?”

“Almost. I spent all last night in there too.”

She looked into his face, and really saw how exhausted he was for the first time. Dark circles under his arms, hunched over posture, it was a wonder he was still awake honestly. She held a hand to his chin and moved his face to the side ever so slightly as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. Letting go of him, she turned back to her crown, taking it in two hands and placed it on her head gently.

“A perfect fit…” She turned her head to face him again, and caught him staring at her in awe. “What?”

“I, uh…” He had the decency to look flustered. “Nothing, it just, um… it suits you.”

She smiled, and carefully took it off, placing it beside her and replacing it with her helmet. “I don’t want it to fall over the cliff,” she explained.

“Took long enough to find you two!” Ruffnut’s angry brother’s voice broke their comfortable silence after a few moments, both of them turning to meet him as he stormed around the side of the hut they were behind.

“C’mon, we’re going home.” He took hold of her arm and dragged her to her feet, grabbing the crown next to her.

“Wait-"

“Ruff-"

“It’s late, you’ve been out here for like half an hour. I’m tired,” Tuffnut added in a whiny tone. His sister sighed, shaking her arm out of his grasp. “Just wait a second, alright?”

She made a half turn and held out her hand to Snotlout, which he took gratefully. Not letting go, she said, “Goodnight, and thank you for the crown.” He squeezed it lightly, the small gesture conveying all that he needed to say, though he added, “Sleep well.” _____________________________________

“Do you want me to stay with you again tonight?”

“Yeah, just one more night.”

Changed into their night clothes, they squeezed once again into Ruffnut’s bed holding each other how they had the previous day and night.

“What do you think of it?”

“Think of what?”

“The crown Snotlout gave me. I didn’t think I wanted one until I saw it.”

“Oh, it’s okay I guess.”

Tuffnut had to admit, he was impressed with the work. He had realised that Snotlout paid more attention to her than he had originally thought, knowing her favourite flower and the kind of designs she would idly draw when they were in theory classes for, ahem, dragon killing training not three or four years beforehand. He tightened his hold on his sister. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up yet. It is Snotlout, still.”

“Yeah, I know.” And from there, conversation slowly drifted off, until all he could hear was her slowed, even breathing indicating she was asleep. And he too could now could sleep peacefully.

Buy me a hot chocolate?

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despiteherself · 6 years ago

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Snotlout, and Dagur?

snotlout:

favorite thing about them: snotlout says what he thinks and whilst sometimes he’s insensitive, i think being able to say what you mean is admirable. he’s a strong character, and firm in his opinions and i like that. i like that he’s a sensitive jock, that’s always fun, that he cares, deeply but struggles expressing it due to his upbringing. least favorite thing about them: sometimes he’s mean to the others for no reason and it’s :/ often he says insensitive stuff but it’s coming from a different place then the rude/mean things with no reason and i don’t like that. the story resolved but i didn’t like when he pushed hookfang to almost death. or when he’s mean to gustav all the time. favorite line: this is hard. maybe the thor line. or any line where he’s like “who died and made u chief?” bc it’s funny and ppl acting scandalised about it are silly. brOTP: SNOTSTRID……..ULTIMATE BROS…………snotlout & tuff, snotout & ruff , i mean, the whole gang tbh. snotlout & gustav OTP: fishlout, snotlout/eret maybe idk , daglout. nOTP: rufflout die, random headcanon: he’s only part-jock and he translates astrid’s jock speak for tuff when tuff asks.

jk. a better headcanon: snotlout actually gets really good in the forge. he learns under gobber, but gobber finds him annoying so often gets hiccup to teach him. and they get to have lots of fun learning experiences like that time they were stuck on beserker island. it really helps them grow as people, and it’s fun spending time getting to know ur cousin whilst hammering a bit of metal.

unpopular opinion: he’s gay. he only likes men. ONLY. song i associate with them: im skipping this bc i dont associate characters with songs. favorite picture of them:

dagur:

favorite thing about them: i love how wacky his lines and how much he overthinks and gets all worked up it’s fun. he wants to be a good brother, andh e tries really hard but he’s not quite sure how. i love how kind he is to gustav - especially when the gang were mean to him - like. making gustav feel important :,) least favorite thing about them: uhhhhhhhhh. hm. this is hard bc i enjoy characters for their flaws as well, but i guess he was really pushy and mean and like. he literally murdered heather’s foster family. the whole brother and sister thing kinda falls a part a bit when you dig into it bc dagur was a massive prick ??????? and whilst i don’t think he was rushed into redemption completely i wish they paid more attention to it. favorite line: “not that i don’t love a good fruit bath.” but dagur has such FUN lines. he gets to say heaps of wacky stuff. “you shifty sky vermin!!!” brOTP: dagur & the gang, dagur & gustav, dagur & heather OTP: hm. tuffgar nOTP: dagur/mala, dagur/women he’s gay godnight. random headcanon: i feel like dagur has a phase where he wants hiccup and heather to marry so he can call hiccup brother officially. heather sorts him out. unpopular opinion: are there unpopular dagur opinions? i don’t like him with the triple stryke and i wish he still had shattermaster. i felt like a gronckle was perfect for dagur, and sleuther was astrid’s dragon. song i associate with them: n/afavorite picture of them:

#astridthevalkyrie #ask meme

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burdenedwithgloriousfandoms · 6 years ago

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HTTYD 3 was a heckin great movie and here's my opinion why

(Also why Dreamworks is awesome and my little thank you)

WARNING SPOILERS (duh) and also lots of ranting. Strap yourselves in kiddos off we go

- the animation.

Jesus fucking chRIST it's amazing. I'm not over it. Dreamworks I love you this is the best goddamn thing skshsjjsgksjshakkahuebadgfjdkk tHE ANIMATION It was already spectacular in httyd 1 and it's just improved so much I can't even

Wait lemme go on a rant about why I love Dreamworks so much. Okay so you see the thing with Dreamworks is with each of their animated universes they have a particular style (eg. compare Shrek, HTTYD, Voltron, She-ra... Etc) that they do really well in for that show/movie.

This means that all their stuff isn't the same old thing again and again (ok I don't want this to turn into a Disney vs Dreamworks debate bc A. This is meant to be about httyd anyway - maybe sometime I'll do a post on it... B. I know a lot more and am way more into Dreamworks.... Etc (but Dreamworks is better lmao) but anyway basically I find Disney is really repetitive)

Another thing about Dreamworks is they A. don't take themselves tooooo seriously and are always ready to try out something weird and new (eg. Shrek lmao) and B. USUALLY try to be inclusive (canonical LGBTQ rep (yes httyd has that!! It's just subtle) (also Shrek) (even more so with newer shows... shE-RAAAAA) (Again I find Disney often doesn't do so well at the above. Correct me if you think I'm wrong but don't shout at me pls) They also have loads of little quirks like the Dreamworks intro thing always being different (not sooo much in the older stuff but still.)

Ok let's get back to HTTYD im sorry

-plot n stuff (this is where it gets real SPOILERY and that's your last warning) Ok so some of the plot (mainly the villain showing up out of the blue like a Monster of the Week and not having any background (hE INFERRED HE'D BEEN ON BERK BEFORE DID HE COME FROM THERE I MUST KNOW what was that line meaning help) was a bit meh but the rest of it made up for that a hundred times over.

Ok so basically I expected to cry. But not in the way I did.

Lately a lot of fandoms have been throwing feels at me, and they've all had a particular style of doing it, so I expected more of that.

The feels I mean are the ones where characters I love are killed or lose stuff in the big battle filled finale (or not finale exactly eg. IW) and I cry a bit but usually that night or the day after because I just feel empty and slightly let down.

But that's not what we got and I am so damn glad.

The whole movie wasn't a big enormous dragged-on battle or lead up, and the battle didn't feel like the one in HTTYD 2, which I was glad for (it worked better in that movie than it would have in this). It was also resolved pretty well (fuckkk the scene where Hiccup was falling,,,, Alexa) and there was breathing room (not much but more than we had in IW and VLD) to come to terms with the fact that the fight is done before the movie fucking sucker punched us right in the gut with the dragons leaving.

Yup, as soon as Hiccup started saying goodbye I broke the fuck down. And cried silently the entire rest of the movie and a lot of the credits.

But the thing with this is that it gave us an ending that was kind of fulfilling. It was bittersweet. We can cry and mourn this beautiful franchise that has been such a part of our lives with good memories of it going out strong and sad though wonderful.

Yeah I was just waiting for the 'there were dragons when I was a boy' and yeah I cried even more but I was smiling while crying through that whole last scene with the marriage and then especially the scene with Hiccstrid & kiddos meeting Toothless & family again.

That was the fulfilling ending and even though it's so damn sad it was so damn beautiful sorry I'm ranting but still.

- there were plenty of jokes and funny scenes without becoming too silly or juvenile (which a lot of things fail at) Also jokes for the older fans too (ruff lmao) (and the whole thing with Gobber and Tuff talking to Hiccstrid about getting married) There were plenty of scenes that were just genuinely hilarious and had the whole cinema laughing, which is a very beautiful thing

- I was initially worried about the introduction of the Light Fury especially because when we first saw it I literally went 'that's every 8 year-old's OC dragon why'

But it worked out pretty well, see below for more

- the movie had romance without being too focused on the whole romance thing (I mostly mean the dragons) I was worried this wouldn't work and be cheesy or whatever but it did pretty good so yay The romance was still quirky and funny and had the whole cinema laughing at times, yet at other times it was just really beautiful (also the damn animation hhhhhh is this true love I feel)

In the end I just want to say:

Goodbye HTTYD. You've been such a wonderful part of my life and I can't thank you enough. I'll never get over this damn franchise, I love it so much.

Even though [i]of course I want more, I think that here is a perfect place to leave it.

(....though I'm not going to complain if there's little a Christmas episode or maybe a small Netflix show set between httyd 1&2.........)

So yeah, thank you How To Train Your Dragon. Thank you Dreamworks, the cast and crew. Thank you Cressida Cowell. Thank you Hiccup and Toothless and Astrid and Stoic and every character (apart from Traitor Johann that bitch (also basically everyone who has wanted to kill dragons except for Dagur bc we love him)).

Thank you HTTYD fandom too (you'll always be here and that is a wonderful thing)

The friend I went it see the movie with and I stayed til the very end of the credits.

I've probably picked up the habit from Marvel... But I like to see the very end of things properly.

There was one other group left at the end, sitting in the very front seats. They were a bunch of teens (varied in age and gender), and when the credits finished, we all stood up and clapped.

These movies have been part of so many people's lives and for that, I say thank you one last time.

Goodbye, How To Train Your Dragon <3

(Also can we please please please have an editors corner or how it was made sorta video for this movie. Love from an animation nerd)

#httyd 3 #how to train your dragon #how to train your dragon: the hidden world #httyd #imma miss this franchise <3 #please reblog with your own thoughts!! I'd like to see what everyone else reckons #httyd 3 spoilers

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astrxd · 7 years ago

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Blade Work

A/N: I was frustrated with their portrayal in Mi Amore Wing so... This happened, really fast? :’) I’m out of practice, but I figured I’d share it anyway.

In her opinion, this was kind of rushing things. But, hey — as apprehensive as she was of the idea of marrying someone you’ve only known for upwards of a couple of months, give or take, Mala has always come across as a very sound-minded, reasonable woman. Astrid had no doubts that the Queen of the Defenders of the Wing could handle herself, and that didn’t change if she was in a relationship with Dagur. (Dagur, as in Dagur the Deranged, except he only displayed intermittent signs of slight insanity.)

...Of course, she’s seen the queen’s blade work, so she was more so concerned for Dagur than Mala. Seriously. If she could, Astrid would marry her blade work. Gods. It was that good.

She resolved to break the news to Hiccup as soon as she got the chance to talk to him alone.

They were set up in his hut, Toothless and Stormfly out on the deck. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in swirls of color, and all riders and dragons were enjoying some well-earned time to themselves. Ruff and Tuff were spending their break hounding Mala and Dagur about the wedding, unsurprisingly, but what was less of a shocker was that Astrid was with Hiccup.

“You know, with all the talk of weddings,” she started, fingers idly running over the shallow grooves of her axe head and making mental notes of where to later grind the metal while Hiccup ruminates over a few sheets of parchment. Her initial statement doesn’t pique his attention, but she doesn’t mind — she still had a couple more tricks up her sleeves. The blonde sets down her weapon and rises from her perch to look over Hiccup’s shoulder. “I started thinking. About, you know, about my own wedding—“

Hiccup had been chewing on the end of the stick of charcoal he was writing with, lost in thought, but when Astrid pipes up again, he pulls it from his mouth and his expression twists in disgust. Astrid barks out a short laugh, arms folding as she leans against his desk to watch his face go through a series of rather impressive contortions. “I’m–I’m sorry, what?” He sputters. “Did, did I hear that right, Astrid?”

“Yes, dork,” she confirms, but not without rolling her eyes, “you heard me.” Astrid catches his cheek in one hand and uses her other thumb to smudge the coal away from his lower lip and chin. Hiccup’s eyes are blown wide as he looks up at her and gods, she feels awful for finding this funny, but she’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet. “I was just thinking—“

“About? Thinking, thinking about?”

“Would it be possible—“

“If?”

“—I was just considering—“

“That?”

“Stop interrupting me!” Astrid tries to sound annoyed, but she can’t help the laughter that bubbles through her chest and past her lips. As a precaution to keep him from babbling, she presses his cheeks together until he looked… Like Snotlout posing in front of any reflective surface ever. But cuter. Hiccup tries to manage an apology, except all that she hears is a muffled ‘uhm shurry.’ “Jeez. Let a girl speak, would you? I was trying to say that, if Dagur wasn’t going to marry her, I would marry Mala—“

He makes a noise of pure indignation, hands flying to catch her waist, and Astrid struggles to contain her laughter at the urgency of his reaction.

“Mala’s blade work,” she finishes, moving her hands down to Hiccup’s shoulders. His relief is tangible and she shakes her head. “You need to start letting me finish my sentences, babe, or else you’ll give yourself a heart attack and you’ll blame me.”

“I find that, with most matters that have to do with my heart, it’s appropriate for me to blame you.” The sheepishness that had shone through his expression only moments ago has lapsed into something tinted with — was that… Pride? Oh, he was proud of himself for that comment. (Odin, help her. She was in love with him.) Astrid lifts a brow at him.

“That was…”

“Cute?”

“What did I just say about interrupting me?” Astrid warns, but there’s this broad grin on her face and a bright glimmer in her eyes. Hiccup laughs, one arm looping around her waist and tugging her close.

“Not to,” comes his dutiful response. “But, on the other hand, when do I ever listen to you the first time you tell me not to do something? It–it usually takes a couple of interventions. Two, three sometimes — maybe even four.” They share a smile, a knowing look… And it only takes so long before their foreheads are touching. Astrid has developed a certain fondness of standing between his knees while he sits. At first, when they were young, it had been a thing of pride; she was so used to being taller than him that, once those tables turned, Astrid found that looking up at him was strange and uncharted territory. Now, though — now, she just liked the proximity.

“...Okay. In all seriousness — how do you feel? About the Dagur and Mala lovey-dovey stuff?” Astrid bites her lower lip. The only thing that got under her skin was the fact that the others had the audacity to assume that she and Hiccup weren’t serious. While they weren’t obligated to prove anything to anyone, it was just — ugh. Ugh.

“Truthfully?” Hiccup snorts. “I’m glad that’s not us.”

Astrid raises a brow.

“No, no, no — hey, you–you stop that face right now. No. Astrid, I would love to marry you.” (Her heart flutters.) “I meant that I’m happy for them, but I like…” Hiccup moves his palms from her waist to catch her hands. He issues them a firm, reassuring squeeze. “I like us more. And I also like that you–you don’t ever punch me as hard as Mala punches Dagur.” She laughs, pulling a set of her fingers from his to gently slug them into his chest.

“Oh, but I could, you know.”

“Yes, I know. I also think you could hit me harder, and I don’t know if that’s something to be scared or proud of, frankly. Proud of, I think?”

“Good answer.” Astrid smirks, her fingers uncurling so that they were splayed against the flat of his chest. “I like us, too, Hiccup. So please never call me—“

“Astrid-poo?” Hiccup guessed — correctly. Astrid’s expression twists in utter distaste and he finds that funny. Hiccup mockingly pouts at her, fingers starting to flutter against her sides. “Astrid-poopy-poopy-poopy—“

She catches his wrists, keeping him from tickling her any further, and leans in to stare him down. “One more poopy and I’ll give you something to be really scared of, Haddock.”

He grins, tilting his head up to meet her halfway.

“Yes, ma’am, milady.”

Satisfied, she touches his cheek and kisses him gently. Astrid’s smile is sweet when she pulls back. “Better. Also, Hiccup?”

“Hm?”

“Sparring practice, five AM sharp tomorrow.” A slow grin appears on her face. “Bring your fire sword. We're doing blade work.”

“...I'm not saying 'yes, ma'am, milady' again, you know.” She pecks his cheek and snorts. “Y'just did, babe.”

#LMFAO??? idk tbh #it was quick n rough so...... i hope it's not terrible #hiccstrid #fanfiction #my writing #i'm not BACK back i'm still trash @ fic oop #like 1.2k words of what the fuck am i doing

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bellamara-cogswick · 7 years ago

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Bella's dad is a big ruff n tuff guy that was going to be a bruiser but instead followed his dreams to be a zeppelin engineer. He spoiled her by making her lil toys. (Included some progress stuff bc I though they were cool 😎)

#wow goblin #warcraft goblin #goblin #illustration #doodles #my artwork

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wolfie-dragon-rider · 7 years ago

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Blind Spots Chapter 13: Invisible Friends

A/N: *Hesitantly raises head out of hole I digged for myself* Hey guys. Can we, uh, pretend that when I said the next chapter would come in two weeks, I meant three months? I am really sorry. I had a really bad bout of writer's block, and I kept changing the order of the chapters. Mostly because I didn't want to write this one, it was a hard one to write. Now that it's done I'm glad, though. I hope you like it too! And I hope to keep to a more regular update schedule from now on, though I won't promise anything concrete. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

---------------------------------------

Kirsten tried to suppress her laugh. She really did. The situation was way too serious for laughter.

But the sight before her was just too rare and too adorable to waste. Her normally so disciplined and strict daughter, giggling like mad in between coughs. Astrid was holding her Terrible Terror, Sneaky, with an iron grip while cooing nonsense at it.

Eel pox. It changes people's personality in crazy ways.

"Astrid, you're suffocating Sneaky! Let him breathe!" Kirsten said, pushing lightly at her daughter's hands. Astrid violently shook her head.

"No! My dragon! He's cute, and I want to hug him and kiss him and snuggle him!" she stated, before doing just that. The Terror looked terrified, not used to this much affection. Stormfly chirped worriedly, nudging Astrid with her beak.

"Oh, but I'm not forgetting about you, Stormy! Who's a good dragon? You're a good dragon! You're the best-est, prettiest, awesome-est dragon in the entire world!" Astrid said loudly, raising one arm to put around Stormfly's neck and pulling her down to the bed. The Nadder cooed at the compliments, but still looked worried.

Kirsten knew that eel pox was dangerous, and that Astrid should get a dose of medicine soon. But Astrid being this affectionate was rare, and she was going to savor every moment of it.

Her daughter sneezed loudly, snot flying through the room since both her arms were busy holding dragons. Kirsten jumped back a little, before touching Astrid's forehead. Disturbingly hot.

"Still sick?" Tolfdir said, walking into the room. His nose was bright red, and he kept sniffing. Kirsten had tried to tell him that he was falling victim to the pox as well, but he didn't listen. Damn stubborn Hoffersons. At least his personality hadn't changed yet, as far as she could tell.

"Dad! I'm not gonna train with you tomorrow! I'm gonna hug every dragon on Berk instead!" Astrid shouted when her unfocused eyes found her father.

"Okay, she definitely needs a big dose of medicine. I'm gonna tell Gothi," Tolfdir said, looking shocked at the thought of his child skipping combat training.

"You better get a dose for yourself as well!" Kirsten called after him, hearing the front door close a moment later.

"Hey, mom! I love you! You're amazing! And you tell the best stories. Except for that one with Loki and the horse. That one was gross. And your lessons for a happy marriage, those freak me out. But other than those I love your stories, and I love you!" Astrid managed to say, releasing Sneaky to grab her mother's hand instead. The Terror jumped away with a loud screech, flying out the window as fast as he could.

"Oh, uh, thank you! I'm glad you like them. And I love you too," she said, unsure of what to say. Astrid was never this open with her, let alone confessing her love. Of course Kirsten knew that Astrid loved her, but to hear it out loud made her smile uncontrollably.

"I love you as much as I love Hiccup. I want to hug Hiccup. And kiss him. And I kind of want to take his clothes off. But I know I'm not allowed to until we're married. Do you think he wants to take my clothes off?" Astrid asked, pressing a big kiss to Stormfly's beak. Kirsten wasn't sure whether she felt disgusted or amused.

"I'm sure he does," Kirsten said, rubbing her daughter's hand, hoping to soothe her.

"Really?" Astrid's eyes opened wide, and Kirsten couldn't stop her laugh at the happy expression.

"Yes, he loves you very much. That's why he's flying out today, getting the ingredients for the cure," she said, and Astrid's face lit up with pure love.

"He's the best! But sometimes he's stupid!" she exclaimed. Kirsten wished she could record this somehow, and show her later. And maybe Hiccup as well. It would embarrass them to no end.

But maybe the memory would do. Yes, eel pox may be bad, but there could be an opportunity here as well...

"So, what do you like about Hiccup?" she asked, smiling when Astrid told her everything she needed to embarrass her daughter for years to come.

For once, Hiccup was the first to arrive at the Academy. He couldn't remember that ever happening.

The main reason he'd often be late was that is was quite difficult to get out of bed on time when you've worked on projects for half the night. Stoick would often complain about the noise keeping him awake, and Hiccup was sorry for that. But time flies when he is working on a new invention, and without seeing the sun disappear below the waves and the shadows lengthen in his room it was quite hard to notice that it was bedtime.

Maybe he could build some kind of hourglass that he could see or measure himself. Hmm, it could contain little levers or weights that would tip over if enough sand had trickled down. Tricky to calibrate, but Astrid could help with that. Hiccup's hand moved towards his copper notebook before he even realized it. A snort from Toothless reminded him to focus on what was really important. The eel pox epidemic.

Hiccup would need some help dealing with it, though. Normally he didn't mind arriving late, hoping the twins and Snotlout had already expended most of their energy at each other, making them more likely to work with him.

Figuring he might as well be productive, Hiccup moved to the large cages and storage areas in the back, feeling around for some supplies for the long day ahead. As he grabbed a big saddlebag he heard a soft hissing sound.

Toothless growled, but before Hiccup could investigate laughter echoed from the arena.

"That was a good one! Now faster!" Tuffnut shouted, moments before a loud bang rang out. Hiccup ran out with the saddlebag, stumbling when something small hit him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, grateful for Toothless catching him and pushing him back to his feet.

"Since no one else is here yet, we figured we'd train our Terrors a bit more. Butt and Head are getting better and better at flying into each other!" Tuffnut said.

"Yeah, and into other people," Ruffnut sniggered, and Hiccup realized what had just hit him.

Things like this were why he preferred to show up late.

"Whatever, my Terror is still cooler. It took me an hour to pry him off my leg this morning!" Snotlout shouted, flying in on Hookfang, and Hiccup mentally sighed. He was not in the mood for this, especially without Astrid to help him keep order. Rather than comment on the argument, he opted to keep their focus on each other, and instead put the oddly heavy saddlebag on Toothless.

Just as the twins and Snotlout started arguing, buzzing wings entered the arena. Moments later there was a heavy thud, followed by loud footsteps.

"Hey guys. I've got the list of ingredients we need to collect for Gothi," Fishlegs said, and Hiccup sensed him holding out something. The blind boy reached out, grabbing a piece of paper. There was an awkward silence while Hiccup examined the paper.

"Uh, Fishlegs, you know I can't read this, right?" Hiccup asked, feeling like the temperature dropped several degrees when he drew attention to his blindness. It wasn't an easy thing to discuss, even after so long.

"Oh, right. I'll just… read it aloud, then," Fishlegs said, awkwardly reaching out to grab the paper again.

"Let's see…. Buckthorn root, a dozen rock blossoms, a handful of goat weed, one daga plant, some redblood grass, Night Fury saliva, Fireworm gel, various types of seaweed, fifty bogbeans, two dozen juniper berries, and oyster plant. Oh, and a bloodbane eel, but Gothi had one already," Fishlegs listed, and Hiccup tried to figure out where those ingredients could be found.

"Okay, that's a lot of stuff. It's probably best if we split up for that. On that note, does anyone know where Astrid is?" Hiccup asked as Fishlegs grabbed something from Meatlug's saddlebag. Probably a book on herbs.

"Her mom came to see us this morning. Said we had to tell you that Astrid is sick with eel pox, and can't come. Oh, and that she loves you very very very very much. Astrid that is, not her mom. Apparently that was a direct quote from Astrid. Though maybe her mom loves you as well. I'm not sure," Tuffnut said, before getting punched by his sister.

"Idiot. Of course she doesn't. She was laughing way too hard for that. Though she did say we should hurry, so let's get going," Ruffnut said, sounding surprisingly worried. Hiccup nodded.

"I checked the book of plants, and it looks like the herbs we need are roughly in two directions. The buckthorn root, redblood grass, daga plant, and juniper berries can all be found in the western isles. The rest are mostly water plants, those grow to the south around Breakneck Bog," Fishlegs said.

"Okay then, let's split up in two groups. Fishlegs, you and Ruff and Tuff go to Breakneck Bog and collect those water plants. Barf and Belch should lead you through the fog there. Snotlout and me will go to the western isles to collect the rest," Hiccup said, grabbing his notebook and knife to write down what ingredients he had to collect.

"Wait, what? Why do I have to go with you?! I'd rather go with the twins," Snotlout said. Hiccup took a deep breath, wishing Astrid was here.

"Because the western isles are furthest away, and Toothless and Hookfang are the fastest dragons. Now, can you get some supplies? It's gonna be a long trip, so we should bring lunch. We need a map to navigate the isles as well," he said calmly, hoping Snotlout wouldn't complain this time. Thankfully he just walked towards the back, muttering, while Hiccup scratched the herbs' names into an empty sheet of copper.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time. Get the ingredients as quickly as you can, and then meet back at Gothi's," Hiccup said as he finished writing '24 juniper', before putting his notebook in the saddlebag. For a moment he thought he felt the bag move as he swung his metal foot over to mount Toothless, but he dismissed that thought. It was probably another phantom sensation.

"I'll be back first!" Ruffnut said as Hiccup hooked his foot into the pedal. He heard Snotlout's footsteps returning, before mounting Hookfang.

"No, I'll be back first! I'm way faster than my stupid sister!" Tuffnut shouted. A moment later a slapping sound echoed around the arena.

"We're riding the same dragon, idiot. We'll be back at the same time," Ruffnut said, and Hiccup felt very thankful he didn't have to spend the entire day with the twins.

"Well that's no fun. Still, we'll be back before Fishlegs," Tuffnut said, mounting Belch and flying off.

"Wait, you're not gonna leave me behind, are you? Oh, why do I always have to go to Breakneck Bog…" Fishlegs muttered unhappily, before following the twins.

With the other riders gone, an awkward silence settled over the arena.

"Well, let's go," Hiccup said after a few seconds, setting the pedal to the up position and signalling to Toothless to fly.

They flew in silence for a while, Hookfang's large wings clearly audible next to Toothless.

"So… How's your dad?" Hiccup eventually asked, mostly to break the heavy silence.

"He has eel pox. Otherwise same as always," Snotlout said, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Hiccup said. Snotlout didn't answer, and the only sound was the flapping wings again.

Hiccup considered asking more questions, but if Snotlout didn't want to be friendly, then he didn't really feel like being friendly either. So he stayed silent, instead thinking about how to build an hourglass he could feel.

They flew for an hour or so, and eventually Hiccup was nudged out of his mental calculations by Snotlout saying he saw land.

"Those must be the western isles. Let's figure out which is which, we don't want to land on the wrong one. These plants should grow on every island, so we might as well pick the safest," Hiccup said.

"Pff, what's the worst thing we could find? The Snotman will defend you," Snotlout said in a patronizing voice, and Hiccup resisted the urge to sigh.

"Well, how about an army of Outcasts? Outcast Island is down there. As are some other dangerous ones. Fireworm Island, Changewing Island, Eel Island…" Hiccup replied.

"Wait, Outcast Island is here?!" Snotlout shouted. Hiccup groaned softly.

"Yes. Yes it is. Northern end of the western isles. If you look at the map you can see it. But we're not gonna land there. I'm thinking we should land on Healer's Island, there are no dangerous dragons there. Can you look up what its shape is?" Hiccup asked. A long silence followed.

"Snotlout… you did bring the map, right?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"You never said I had to bring it! I thought you had one!" Snotlout said, and Hiccup groaned loudly, not caring if Snotlout heard it.

"Snotlout. I can not read a paper map. Why would you think I'd bring one?" he slowly asked.

"I don't know! Normally you and Astrid deal with that kind of stuff!" Snotlout shouted, and Hiccup sighed deeply, resisting the urge to start shouting himself.

He wished Astrid was here. But she wasn't, she was sick and it was their job to find the cure. So he took a deep breath before leaning back to reach into the saddlebag.

"Okay, I'll check my notebook to see if it contains a map. If it doesn't, we'll just have to pick an island random-" Hiccup shrieked when something warm brushed past his hand. There was a small hiss, like the one he heard at the Academy. This time Hiccup recognized the sound.

"Sneaky?" he asked as the little dragon climbed up his arm before flying off. Suddenly Hookfang ROARED. A moment later Toothless growled in pain. Instinctively, Hiccup set the pedal to 'down', thinking they should land as soon as possible.

"Hookfang, calm down! It's just a stupid Terror! Listen, you stupid beast!" Hiccup vaguely heard Snotlout shout behind him, but his senses were overwhelmed by Toothless roaring 'Urp'.

He wasn't sure what was going on beyond the fact that Sneaky had apparently hidden in his saddlebag, but he didn't doubt Toothless' judgement. He tried to set the pedal back to 'up', but it was stuck.

"Toothless! It's… I can't… Something's wrong!" he yelled. They were losing altitude fast, and with the pedal stuck there was no way they could get lift.

They were going down.

"You stupid Nightmare! Can't you obey me for once in your damn- AAAAH" Snotlout yelled, but Hiccup didn't pay attention. Toothless roared at him, and Hiccup knew what the dragon wanted him to do.

"Okay Toothless. One, two, three!" he said, undoing the safety ropes, before jumping out of the saddle.

As he jumped, Toothless flipped, grabbing Hiccup in his paws before folding his wings around him. They fell for another terrifying second before landing in cold water with a loud bang.

Toothless shielded Hiccup from the worst of the impact, but he still felt a pain everywhere when they hit the water. Toothless released him before grabbing him in his jaw, lifting him above the water, and swimming away.

Hiccup groaned when Toothless gently put him down on some kind of beach. He heard sputtering somewhere near him, but he felt too dizzy to focus on it. He wondered if he broke a rib.

"Hiccup! You okay?" Snotlout shouted, spitting out water between words. Hiccup groaned, but thankfully the pain seemed to be lessening. So nothing broken, just bruised.

"I'll live," he managed to say, reaching out his hands to scratch Toothless. "You okay, bud?"

The dragon responded by licking him happily, and Hiccup smiled despite the pain when Toothless touched his chest.

"What the hell happened? What was Sneaky doing here?!" Snotlout shouted.

"I don't know, he hid in the saddlebag," Hiccup groaned, sitting up and feeling his prosthetic. Thankfully that didn't seem to be broken either.

"Why the hell didn't you notice him!" Snotlout said, as Hiccup adjusted his blindfold a little so it covered his scars fully. He kind of wanted to wring the water out, but not in front of Snotlout.

"Oh, maybe because Astrid specifically trained him to be sneaky? It's kind of in the name, you know," he said. "What happened up there? After Sneaky got out?"

"Hookfang freaked out, shot some fire that hit Toothless. Then when I shouted at him, he set himself on fire, so I jumped off into the water. I… I don't see him around here..." Snotlout sounded worried, but Hiccup had very little sympathy as he felt Toothless' tail to survey the damage. It seemed to have caught fire, the cloth half-burned off.

"I guess he flew back to Berk. Maybe he didn't want to deal with your shouting," Hiccup said, snarkier than he intended.

"Hey, it's not my fault! You shouldn't have released Sneaky! Hookfang felt like he had to fight!" Snotlout shouted, and Hiccup snapped.

"And hit me and Toothless?! At least Sneaky did what he was trained to do! Your dragon just made us crash-land, and then left us on this island! I don't even know where we are!" he shouted, before focusing on the tail fin. He realized with a shock that Hookfang's fire seemed to have partially melted the iron spines, and two of them were now stuck together. That explained the jammed pedal.

"If you had just checked the bag to see if anything was in there before we left this wouldn't have happened," Snotlout muttered. Hiccup took a few deep breaths.

"But it did happen. Now just… let me think for a moment. I have to see if I can fix this," he said, and thankfully Snotlout kept silent. Hiccup heard him sit down on the sand, taking off his boots to pour the water out. Hiccup grabbed the notebook from the saddlebag, glad it was still there. Though if he didn't dry it soon, it would rust. What a mess.

"Okay, so this is bad. I don't have a map, so I have no idea what island we're on. And Toothless' fin is broken, so we can't fly back to Berk," Hiccup said, closing the notebook after not finding anything useful in there.

"Can't you just repair it?" Snotlout asked, and Hiccup sighed.

"Not without a forge or something. Two bars on the fin have melted together, and I need something hotter than a campfire to separate them," he explained, feeling the fin again. "If I could separate them I could use part of my vest for a new sail."

"Well, then Toothless is freaking useless! What's the point of a dragon who can't fly after crashing!" Snotlout said, and Hiccup wished he had anyone other than Snotlout with him here. He'd even take the twins. Toothless growled softly when his name was mentioned.

"Well, at least Toothless is here. Your dragon flew off and left you behind, remember?" he said, before standing up. The pain had decreased to a dull throbbing, so he figured he could walk. He grabbed his cane from Toothless' saddle and walked in the direction he figured was inland, Toothless following close behind.

"Where are you going?" Snotlout asked.

"To get those ingredients. If we're stuck here we might as well collect them before the rescue party shows up," he said, glad when he heard Snotlout standing up.

"And when is that going to happen?" Snotlout asked, coming closer.

"Well, I hope that when Hookfang or Sneaky come back to Berk alone, they'll realize we're stuck and send the other riders out to find us. But that could take a while, since the twins and Fishlegs have to come back first," he said.

Snotlout stayed silent, thankfully.

"Now let's find those plants and hope that we don't run into any Outcasts or dangerous dragons. Redblood grass is obviously red, juniper berries are purple and kind of scaly. Buckthorn root is black and gnarly, looks like a claw. And daga plants are bright pink, with big flowers. I'll need your help to identify them, because of… you know," Hiccup explained.

He swore he could have heard Snotlout mutter, "Of course you need help," but chose not to comment on it.

Soon enough they entered a thick forest, and Hiccup hoped this meant it wasn't Outcast Island. He had never been there, but legends said it was a desolate place.

"Is this buckthorn root?" Snotlout kept asking him, shoving random pieces of treebark in his hands. Hiccup couldn't help but think Snotlout was just pestering him now, but he couldn't afford to antagonize his only human companion. If only Toothless could recognize plants…

"No, this isn't it. I told you, buckthorn is black and gnarly, this is smooth," he said, tossing the bark away.

"Well, sorry I don't know anything about plants. I don't know what it looks like," Snotlout muttered, and only Toothless gently nudging him stopped Hiccup from snapping.

"Just look for black trees with claw-like roots," he said while feeling a nearby bush for juniper berries.

"I don't see any! Are we even on the right island?" Snotlout asked. Hiccup flinched when his hand touched a thorny vine. Definitely not juniper.

"We're definitely on a Western Isle, and these plants should grow on all of them. So it's here somewhere. Maybe look for Daga instead, the pink flowers. Or red grass," he said. Snotlout puffed.

"Red grass? We've been walking on red grass for the past five minutes!"

Hiccup froze, clenching and unclenching his fist for a few seconds until he was sure he had his anger under control.

"And… you didn't think this was something you should mention? I did say we were looking for red grass earlier," he slowly said as he knelt down, feeling the grass. It felt moist, like redblood grass was supposed to.

"I… I couldn't remember! You said a lot of things!" Snotlout shouted as Hiccup plucked a few handfuls of the grass, sighing deeply.

"Four things. I listed just four things. Things I need your help for. You understand that, right? I can't find those plants on my own," he said overly slowly, like he was talking to a five-year old.

"Of course I know that! Everybody knows you need help!" Snotlout said, and Hiccup couldn't stop himself.

"What's that supposed to mean? What is your problem, Snotlout?" he asked, icily.

"My problem? My problem is that I'm stuck here with someone who is completely useless at finding plants, which is what we're here for, right?!" the other boy shouted loudly.

"Well, you're obviously pretty bad at it as well! Look, neither of us are happy to be here, but we are, and we're gonna have to work together here. I'm not here to be friends with you, Snotlout. I'm here to find those ingredients and cure Astrid and the others," Hiccup said, surprised by the venom in his voice. Toothless growled, backing him up.

A short silence followed. "Fine. Let's just find it and get the hell out of here," Snotlout snarled.

For the next half hour they searched in relative silence, eventually finding a bush of juniper berries and a field of daga plants. Hiccup didn't say it out loud, but Toothless had been a lot more useful than Snotlout in locating the daga plants, somehow understanding that they were looking for pink flowers. Now all they needed was the buckthorn root.

"Maybe we need to be further inland to find buckthorn. Let's go in that direction," Hiccup suggested. Snotlout snorted.

"How would you even know that that direction is inland?" the boy laughed.

"Because the sound of waves is coming from the opposite direction. Now let's go," Hiccup said. However, he hadn't bothered to feel with the cane before he turned around, and his face hit a tree branch.

"Dammit," he swore, burning scratches on his face adding to the throbbing pain in his chest.

"Hehe, watch out where you're going," Snotlout sniggered, walking past him.

"Very funny. Never heard that one before. Really original. Helpful too," Hiccup said as Toothless licked his face, crooning sadly.

"What, are you expecting me to hold your hand? Give you a piggyback ride?" Snotlout said with a childish voice, and Hiccup clenched his hand to a fist.

"I'm not a child. I can walk by myself," he said, moving his cane to sense the ground and follow Snotlout.

"Doesn't seem like it," the boy chuckled when Hiccup reached him, and he sighed. Toothless moved between them, shielding them from each other.

"Do you think it's funny or something?" he asked. Somehow he sensed Snotlout tensing.

"No, I think it's weird. You're so freaking helpless. You can't do anything by yourself. You can't defend yourself, can't find your way home. Your dragon can't even fly by himself. And yet you get everything you want. The girl, the chiefdom, the academy. I don't get it," Snotlout said slowly, and Hiccup wasn't sure what to say.

"I can do a lot of things you can't. And you would be helpless too if you were stuck here alone," he eventually said, not wanting to reveal too much about his combat training. Only Astrid and his father knew about that.

"I wouldn't even be stuck here if you had been able to look inside that bag!" Snotlout shouted. Hiccup was about to shout a retort when a roar echoed through the forest. The argument was instantly forgotten.

"What was that?" Snotlout whispered, barely audible over Toothless' growling.

"It sounds like a scared dragon," Hiccup said. Suddenly another sound reached them.

"Was that a wolf howling? Are there wolves on this island?!" Snotlout shouted before being hushed by Hiccup.

"Be quiet. We should check it out," he said, walking in the direction of the growls and howls as quietly as he could.

"What?! Are you insane? Why aren't we running?!" Snotlout whispered loudly, before changing his tone. "Not that the, uh, the Snotman would ever run from anything!"

"Because I'd like to know what we're running from first. We don't even know if it's wolves. And maybe that dragon can help us," he said, holding onto Toothless with one hand, ready to mount. They might not be able to fly, but if they had to fight he'd rather be on his friend's back.

"You're gonna get us killed! This is why I hate working with you!" Snotlout said, not listening to Hiccup's attempts to shush him.

"In case you forgot, you literally tried to kill me the last time we were alone together, so forgive me if I'm not exactly comfortable with you either," Hiccup shouted as his anger finally overflowed. Snotlout took a step back.

"That… That was… I… That was different! That was before…" he stuttered, and Hiccup couldn't help feeling smug hearing the other boy lost for words.

"Before I got everything I want?" he asked snidely, sighing when Snotlout started stuttering again.

"Listen, Snot, I'm not interested in your excuses. I just want to get to that dragon. If we can train it, and it's strong enough to carry Toothless, we can get back to Berk and go our separate ways," he said, another pained roar reinforcing his point.

"Fine. But I'm only following you to make sure you don't get eaten. Astrid would kill me if that happened," Snotlout said.

For the next minute they sneaked through the forest, making sure they remained downwind from the sounds of dragon roars and wolf cries.

"Do you see any fire?" Hiccup asked. For once, Snotlout didn't complain that Hiccup couldn't see it.

"No, nothing. It's getting dark, so if it breathed fire I should be able to see it."

"Weird. Maybe it ran out. Still, we must be very close," Hiccup whispered, sensing Snotlout nodding beside him. Toothless felt tense under his hand.

"There are wolves there. In a clearing. But I don't see dragons," Snotlout whispered as Toothless shifted to a fighting stance. Another roar echoed. "What? Where did that come from?! There's nothing there. Those wolves are circling around nothing!"

"Quiet. I think it's a Changewing," Hiccup whispered.

"A Changewing? How are we supposed to train a Changewing? They're feral! Plus they're freaking invisible! I'm not riding an invisible dragon!" Snotlout whispered loudly, and Hiccup took a deep breath. He was not in the mood for an argument.

"I don't care one bit if it's visible or not. If we help it drive off these wolves, maybe it'll help us. You and Toothless fight them off. I doubt I'll be able to help with that. I'll approach the Changewing," Hiccup said, not waiting for a response from Snotlout before nudging Toothless forward. Thankfully the dragon was not afraid of a few wolves.

"You're insane! I'm staying here!" Snotlout whispered, barely audible when Toothless roared loudly, drawing the attention of the wolves. He wasn't sure, but Hiccup thought he counted about 4 different growls. Toothless charged forward, luring them away from the panting Changewing. Hiccup crouched forward, wishing he had a fish and hoping desperately that the wolves would not consider him a threat.

"Hey there. We're here to help. You're hurt, aren't you?" he whispered, following the subtle rustling of grass as the dragon moved back. The iron-like smell of blood was thick in the air, and Hiccup's hands touched bloody grass.

Behind him he heard Toothless launch a plasma blast, making one of the wolves cry out in pain.

"That's my dragon friend. You can be my friend as well. I'll take care of your wound," Hiccup said, trying not to let the fear show. A cornered dragon might accept help it normally wouldn't, but it could also lash out. Slowly, without sudden movements, he stood up and extended his hand to the Changewing. It was probably still invisible, but Hiccup could sense the tiny sounds as it stepped on grass, the subtle scent of blood and fish, the movement of air as it breathed out. For a brief moment he was lost when Toothless fired another shot, the bang and resulting cry far louder than the Changewing.

"Are your friends and family gone? We're trapped here as well. How about we help each other?" he said, lowering his head and raising his hand higher. Just when he sensed the dragon sniffing his hand he heard animal footsteps closing in on him from behind. His breathing quickened as he turned around, pressing the button that would reveal the sharp tip on his cane and turn it into a small spear.

He raised his weapon, hoping to hit the wolf as it jumped him. Behind him he sensed the Changewing moving back further. Hiccup felt a bit of hope amid his terror when he realized the dragon had the chance to run away, but didn't for some reason.

"Get away from my cousin!" Snotlout's voice pierced the air without warning, and it was followed by a loud slap. The footsteps stopped as the wolf moaned. "You messed with the wrong guy!" Snotlout shouted as the wolf turned its attention to the one who hit him. Hiccup didn't hesitate, charging forward and stabbing where he smelt wet dog. A loud cry of pain echoed through the clearing as the spear pierced the wolf's side. Hiccup felt it hit a rib.

"You bastard!" Snotlout screamed, hitting the wounded animal with what sounded like a rock. Everything became a blur as Hiccup pulled the spear out and push it in again, slightly to the left. Blood spurted out as it slid between the ribs, piercing organs with a sickening sound. Somewhere Toothless blasted again, and he heard animals running away.

Finally the wolf stilled, and Hiccup quickly pulled the spear out and moved into a battle ready stance, adrenaline still pumping through his veins.

"I.. I think they're gone. Holy shit. We did it," Snotlout said between quick breaths, clearly as tense as Hiccup. Toothless growled, before licking Hiccup's face. The wet sensation broke him out of the red haze, and he breathed deeply, dropping his weapon.

He nearly screamed when he sensed something behind him, quickly realizing it was the Changewing. Trembling, he turned and raised the hand not covered in wolf blood.

"What are you doing?" he heard Snotlout say, but he ignored it, focusing instead on the invisible dragon.

"I told you we'd protect you," he whispered, and a moment later he felt warm scales touch his hand.

"I didn't know you had that hidden weapon in your cane."

It was the first thing Snotlout had said in a long time, and Hiccup stopped bandaging the Changewing's paw for a moment. After the fight they had decided to build a campfire, both to keep other wolves away and to cook some fish. Snotlout had just returned from gathering wood, and Toothless spat out a pile of fish, the stench of which made Hiccup gag. Still not as bad as the dead wolf, though. Hiccup felt sick when he thought about it too much.

"There's a lot you don't know about me," he simply said, focusing on tying the large leafs around the wound. He wished he had better medical tools, but leafs and grass would have to do. The Changewing he decided to call Blendin seemed okay with it, nuzzling him affectionately.

"I suppose. I didn't think you could fight like that. Or find that Changewing. I… I couldn't have done that. It was invisible," Snotlout slowly said as he dumped an armful of wood next to Hiccup.

"I have a lot of experience finding things I can't see. Just because I can't see… color, or distant things, doesn't mean I can't 'see' anything," he replied, reaching his spare hand behind him to pet Toothless before grabbing a fish to give to Blendin. He sensed Snotlout moving around the burning campfire, grabbing some fish and something from the wood pile. Probably sticks to fry fish on.

"I suppose. I, uh, I shouldn't have said you were useless. I don't think I could have stood against that wolf if you hadn't stabbed it," Snotlout said as he sat down. Fat dripped down on the fire, making it sizzle.

"And it'd probably have killed me if you hadn't distracted it. We did it together." Hiccup slowly said. Toothless curled up next to him, looking over his shoulder at the Changewing."Thanks for that. You probably saved my life."

"I didn't do it for you. Astrid would have killed me if I didn't bring you back alive," Snotlout said in a more tough voice, though Hiccup doubted he was telling the truth.

"Sure, sure. On that note, we still need to get back. Blendin here can't carry Toothless, and I'm not leaving without him. I guess we'll have to wait for the others," he said, finishing the makeshift bandage. Blendin the Changewing leaned over to nudge his chest. Hiccup smiled, before yelping when he felt his neck burn. Blendin quickly drew back, and Hiccup realized a drop of acid had fallen from the dragon's mouth.

"Wait a minute… Toothless, give me your tail. Snotlout, I need your help for this," He said, grabbing Toothless' broken fin, quickly finding the jammed bars with his fingers.

"What are you doing?" Snotlout asked warily.

"We don't need a forge to separate the bars! We can use Blendin's acid! We just need to get a few drops on the joint right here," he explained, pointing at the correct spot and hoping Snotlout could see it. Toothless warbled softly, tensing slightly at the mention of acid, but not moving his tail away.

"Okay… can you get Blendin to… drool?" Snotlout eventually said. Hiccup was surprised he didn't complain, but he would take it.

"I think so," he answered.

It took a while, during which the forgotten fish were hopelessly burned, but they managed to get a few drops on the iron, with only one resulting burn on Snotlout's hand. The boy yelped loudly, clutching his hand.

"It's only fun if you get a scar out of it, right?" Hiccup said, scratching at his facial scars in an exaggerated manner, and Snotlout chuckled.

"I guess I deserved that. For all I did to you. I felt really bad, you know. After the battle. When you were so hurt and I was okay. I felt like it should have been the other way around," Snotlout said as he sat down and started roasting more fish.

"Then why didn't you say that? Astrid said you apologized while I was asleep, but why couldn't you do it when I woke up?" Hiccup asked as he took his flight vest off, before measuring how big Toothless' fin was.

"I don't know. It was scary. And then… then you got everything, you know? And it was all so confusing, and it was hard to feel bad for you when everyone coddled over you," Snotlout slowly said. Hiccup sighed, grabbing his knife to cut a tail fin from his leather vest.

"I hate that, you know? The coddling. People asking me if I need help for every little thing. Changing rules to make it easier for me in games. Everyone seems to always imply that I'm… less than them. Less capable, less smart, less mobile, less everything. Something to be pitied. How am I supposed to prove I'm as good a Viking as everyone else when they keep lowering the bar for me?" Hiccup said, surprised by how good it felt to say these things out loud.

Snotlout was quiet for a very long time, the only sounds coming from the crackling campfire and the breathing of the dragons. Hiccup carefully cut a new fin from his flying gear, trying to figure out how to tell his dad he'd need more leather.

"So we should be tougher on you at the Academy?" Snotlout suddenly asked, handing him a roasted fish. Hiccup laughed.

"Just don't exclude me when you do things. Don't go 'We want to do this, but Hiccup can't do it, so we won't'. Ask me first. I'm the expert on what I can or can't do," he said. A gust of wind blew through the camp, and Hiccup shivered without his vest. He reached out to the wood pile to throw another log on the fire, but froze when his hands touched it.

"Snotlout? Is this wood… black?" he asked, trying not to sound too incredulous.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because it's gnarly. This is buckthorn root, Snotlout! The thing we've been looking for for the past two hours. And you're burning it!" Hiccup couldn't stop his laugh at the end. Thankfully, Snotlout laughed with him.

"Hehe, I guess that's why you came along. We needed someone who read nerdy books about stupid plants. That's everything we need, right?" Snotlout said, chewing on his fish.

"Yup, that's everything. And I think I fixed the fin," Hiccup said as he pulled on Toothless' pedal, feeling the fin move back and forth. "I guess we can fly home on Toothless together. We just have to say goodbye to Blendin."

The Changewing didn't seem to want to part, though. It whined loudly, nuzzling against Hiccup's hand.

"Hey, what's wrong? You can go back to your family now. They must be worried!" Hiccup asked, scratching the smooth scales. Blendin shook his head, pushing harder against him.

"Maybe he doesn't have a family," Snotlout said. Hiccup frowned.

"That would make sense. Changewings normally travel in packs, but this one was alone. I also think he's smaller than what the book of dragons said. Maybe he's a runt who got kicked out," he said sadly, petting Blendin with both hands.

"We can take him with us," Snotlout suddenly said. "You trained him, so he should be able to stay on Berk, right? And, uh, just because he's a runt, doesn't mean he's useless." Hiccup wondered if this was Snotlout's way of apologizing for his abuse.

"I guess we can. Fishlegs would love to study him! Let's get on Toothless, and see if he follows us. Let's not ride him yet," he said, turning to Blendin. "What do you say? Wanna come with us?"

Not much was said after that. They quickly ate the last of the fish before mounting Toothless. Blendin stayed close to Hiccup, and when they took off he could hear his wings right behind them.

"You know cousin, I think working with you isn't as bad as working with the twins," Snotlout said as they flew away, Toothless seemingly knowing which direction Berk was.

"You're not so bad either." Hiccup suppressed his laugh. He figured that was the closest thing to a compliment he was gonna get from Snotlout. But maybe that was okay.

They didn't say much more as they flew back, but Hiccup could loudly hear Blendin flap his wings, excited for a chance to start over, with newfound friends.

And maybe he wasn't the only one.

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#blind spots #httyd #fanfiction #hiccup #toothless #astrid #snotlout #fanfic #blind hiccup

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