Chapter Text
Saying goodbye to a life that had only been yours for a year was a strange experience. Eret had been surrounded by dragons for a large amount of his life; he’d spent year after year capturing them, becoming the self-declared greatest dragon trapper alive, before having his opportunity to escape from Drago’s grasp. The last year of his life had been the happiest. Initially, he’d tried to avoid speaking unless spoken to, something extremely rare for him being the charismatic, self-centred person he’d become, but his fear of being rejected, hurt even by the people of Berk kept him quiet and obedient as soon as it was clear he would be staying. However, similarly to how rescued dragons were welcomed to the island, he was treated with predominantly a kindness he wasn’t used to, and he started to be himself again, but a better version. Living alongside dragons as equals had been an experience he’d never forget.
One of the hardest parts of the day they left, however, was not only saying goodbye to his new life, but watching others say goodbye to theirs. The blank expression Chief Hiccup had worn for the few days after, Valka flightless without her dragon, and the so unusual silence of Snotlout.
He’d spent longer than he’d necessarily care to admit watching Snotlout for the first few days without the dragons. The lack of comments in his direction was almost unsettling considering how much of a constant it had become in Eret’s life. He’d never quite understood what was going on in that guy’s strange little head, but it could sometimes be entertaining, if a little annoying. Watching how he mourned over the loss of Hookfang brought a strange ache to Eret’s heart.
The Isle of New Berk was somber. The usual enthusiasm was replaced with grief, but they were vikings and regardless, they carried on. Hiccup had held a meeting for the council explaining that he wanted the island mapped. They had been sorted into two groups, Eret being with Tuffnut and Fishlegs, and the other group consisting of Snotlout, Astrid and Ruffnut.
Eret’s group had been sent to cover the East of the island. Fishlegs was incharge of drawing out the map, while he pointed out all the nooks and crannies, including water and food supplies, and easily defensible places. Tuffnut was giving a dramatic reading of the book he was currently writing, ‘New Beginnings: a Viking’s Guide to Life after Dragons and Abandoning your Island of Seven Generations’. At first, Eret had been deeply disturbed by Ruffnut, understandably, and as he got to know Tuffnut, he’d had a pretty similar reaction, though for different reasons. However, as Ruffnut gave up on her pursuit of romance, Eret began to notice how smart the twins were, and how good of a team they made. While they disguised their genius with humor and silliness, it was still definitely there; whether it was their scientific explanation or philosophical thinking, writing abilities (no matter how strange their books were) or survival instincts, Eret had a lot of respect for the two of them.
“There’s a cave over there,” began Eret, pointing to the left of them, “in an easily defensible space, close enough to the main village… could it be useful for storage and gold?”
Fishlegs’ eyes lit up. “That’s a good idea, we could store all the boats there until we’ve built the docks to avoid any rain damage!”
“Chapter Three: Find storage. The last thing you need when moving to a new island is to ruin all of your boats before you’ve built the docks!” exclaimed Tuffnut, writing down as he spoke.
Eret turned back towards him in the tree he had climbed for a better vantage point, raising an eyebrow.
“Tuffnut, I just made that point. If you’re going to steal our ideas, at least give us credit!” he laughed lightly.
Tuffnut narrowed his eyes. “Tip: give strong tall viking’s that could beat you in a fight credit where credit is due…” he added dramatically, making a note of that in his book as well.
Eret mock saluted.
Fishlegs had wandered over to a large lake, peering down at the others that surrounded it, leading up to the cliff edge.
“At least we have a good water supply. We could make a pulley system and a well to bring it back to the village, or I suppose we could make a stream leading closer…”
Tuffnut ran over, surveying the area with a keen eye. He pointed to one of the lakes. “This here, I claim as a bath for Chicken. And me, but mostly Chicken.”
Of course. Although…
“Actually, Tuff, that’s not a bad idea! We could section off an area, maybe the big lake over there, as a bathing area. It’s a better idea than just using the water from a well or whatever we decide to build to fill baths.” suggested Eret.
Fishlegs squealed with excitement. “On the Edge, we found a type of plant that could keep water clean… maybe they have some on this island!”
Eret had heard vaguely of the Edge before. Apparently the six of them had moved away for a while and built their own temporary island. He wasn’t sure on many of the details, but it was brought up from time to time.
“And so the quest to new life continues with the lookout for magic plants that make water clean…” Tuffnut continued, as they carried on their map of the East side of the island.
Snotlout had not been impressed when his cousin had forced him to go map out the island. He was even less impressed when he was informed that he was not the leader of the group, and if there had to be a leader, it was Astrid. He was not impressed at the idea that Eret was most likely the leader of the other group, because why would anyone choose the guy they’d only know for a year when the option of himself was available; he was the cousin of the Chief, after all! After a few days of quiet and limited viking interaction, he felt he had a lot of complaining to catch up on.
“And don’t get me started on Hiccup letting the dragons go. Do you know how much quicker it’d be to map out the stupid new island if I had Hookfang? A lot quicker. I can’t believe he made that decision without consulting the rest of us first! That should be a group decision , but as always, Hiccup gets to be in charge.” he ranted.
“Well, he is the Chief, so it’s kinda his job to boss people about.” Ruffnut pointed out, walking along a fallen down tree just ahead of Snotlout.
Astrid had been far ahead of them for most of the journey, scouting and mapping by herself. She’d been doing everything at very high speed since the dragons had left; that was just her way of expression. However, she had slowed down as Snotlout had moved his rant to the subject of the dragons, and gave him an uncharacteristically kind look.
“Snotlout, I know you miss Hookfang. We all miss our dragons, and that’s okay. It was more of a two way decision for the dragons to go back to the Hidden World anyway; we were putting them in danger by keeping them here, and they were putting us in danger. It was just time to say goodbye.” she explained, placing a hand on his arm.
Snotlout looked around the forest. "I know! I know, it's just... without Hookfang... it's all so quiet, now...". Being surrounded by nothing but trees and rocks allowed him to imagine they were back on the Edge, as if the last few years hadn’t happened. The dragons were still around, his Uncle, Chief Stoick was still alive, as was his mother, and he still had a home to go back to.
“Uh, guys?” Ruffnut exclaimed, “You might want to put this giant hole on the map! People might fall in!”
He and Astrid both looked towards her voice to see her head sticking out of the ground, a grin plastered across it. The two of them couldn’t help but laugh for the first time in a while.
After a long day of mapping, walking, climbing and listening to Tuffnut narrate his book as he wrote it, Eret joined the rest of the Tribe for dinner by the fire. It was a cold, dark night, lit by only the twinkling stars and crackling fire. The warm, comforting glow engulfing the surrounding areas somehow only brought the attention back to their missing friends.
He saw Snotlout sitting in the outskirts of the crowd looking rather glum. He made his way over.
"Come to gawk at my sick new scars?" Snotlout asked sarcastically, not bothering to look at him.
“Well, I just came to see how the day went, but judging by the fresh scars on your arm, I’m going to say your exploration was either difficult, or you still haven’t figured out how to use cutlery.” Eret smirked in retaliation. Snotlout glared at him.
“I’ll have you know, my friends were in danger of being brutally killed by a wolf so I stepped up to save them.” he responded.
Eret raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you say. I think I’ll go find a more interesting conversation, if you don’t mind.”
“I never wanted you to start this one…” Snotlout muttered.
Eret rolled his eyes, however glanced back at the other man with a grin on his face as he walked towards the crowds.
Later, he found Astrid, and remembering his conversation with Snotlout, asked, “Has Snotlout been to see Gothi yet? Those scars didn’t look so good. Wolf claws, he said.”
Astrid laughed. “Wolf claws? No, he just fell in a bush because he was walking backwards like the muttonhead he is.”
Snotlout had walked past at that moment, and very dramatically yelled, “It was a very spiky bush, okay? It could have been poisonous!”
Eret didn’t stop laughing for a while.