Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Stoick gets back. Or got back. Whichever. Ruff is almost sad, but dragon training will be over, and there’s no question who’s winning this one. Absolutely none. Astrid doesn’t even stand a chance, and when Hiccup takes down the last Gronckle, the onlookers break into wild cheering.

He won, and that’s awesome!

Astrid breaks into a long wordless scream and thrusts her weapon into Hiccup’s face, yelling at him until Stoick breaks it up, declaring Hiccup the official winner of the Trial of Flame.

Snotlout scoops Hiccup onto Fishlegs shoulder as the crowd oohs and ahhs. For once, Ruff knows she’s doing a genuine amount of it. She’s so happy. Hiccup is awesome, and she’d gladly follow him anywhere forever. Much more than Astrid. Astrid’s always been pretty annoying, and she’s mean.

Hiccup’s taking off for the woods again, and the twins finally get to use their superior slothing skills to track him.

Tuffnut for once generously suggested they find the place they saw him that day and search the whole forest. Which is great. Not much fun or fire-setting, but if they find this magical place Hiccup went to that spawned fancy dragon-fighting abilities, maybe they can get some, too.

They search behind the rock a lot, but no Hiccup there.

“Maybe he moved out into the woods,” Ruff suggests, and then something cracks nearby again.

They scurry forwards, heading the sound source. There’s a space in the rocks just up ahead, probably leading into a trap, dead end, or a fancy void.

Hiccup’s voice drifts from down below, and the twins scurry through the strange area and down to the rock below, overlooking a large cove. It’s really nice here, and ohhh, a lake! Swimming down that waterfall would also be fun.

“Let’s pack,” Hiccup is saying to empty air, flipping the top of a large basket open. “Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation… forever.”

“Whoa,” Tuffnut asks, “What’s got him so miserable?”

“Not me,” Ruff answers, and Hiccup’s head whips up, eyes going wide.

He lets out a muffled shriek, scrambling to his feet. “Wh – what are you doing here?”

“Did somebody say vacation?” Tuffnut jumps down from the rocky ledge. “I wanna go on vacation! Give us a few minutes. We need to pack our straw helmets and tales of Viking horror to read by a nice, lush beach with warm, soft sand.”

“Ohh,” Ruff whispers blissfully. “Yeah, take us with you!”

“Guys,” he protests, moving forwards, hands raised. “Now’s not a great time for –”

Something sounds behind him, and they all freeze.

“Was that a dragon?” Tuffnut shrieks. “Are we gonna be eaten? We’re dead!”

Ruff slaps her hand over his mouth and tackles him into the grass. Tuff shrieks, and then they’re a pile of flailing limbs as he yells in annoyance, and another nearby growl has them both freezing, lifting their heads to see none other than a giant black dragon blinking at them. Its eyes are huge and green, but every last scale is black.

“W – what’s that?” Tuff asks.

“I don’t know,” Ruff whispers back, frozen. “Maybe it doesn’t see us.”

“I don’t like the way it’s eyeballing me,” Tuffnut agrees.

“Run on three,” Ruff whispers.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tuff, Ruff, don’t move,” Hiccup interrupts, jumping between them and the dragon like a complete lunatic, one hand raised towards each placatingly. Like that could stop a dragon? “Don’t go anywhere, you’ll startle him. Toothless, it’s okay, they’re friends.”

“Toothless? What’s Toothless?” Ruffnut squeaks panickily, staring in frozen terror at the dragon towering over them. It could kill them in a heartbeat, and rest in peace, the entire Nut Family Tree

“Uh, sorry, I’m not being eaten by a dragon!” Tuff screams and runs for his life.

Ruff runs after.

They scramble climb back into the woods nearly takes falling three full times, and they’re sprinting through the trees when a dragon’s roar echoes from behind them, and the next thing she knows, her and her brother are being lifted shrieking off their feet.

The ground is so, so far down below and air is slapping their faces and Ruff reaches up wildly to keep her helmet from falling off and being smashed to smithereens against a tree far below, or maybe being turned into a meteor. And she screams, but actually, dangling mid-air with a claw wrapped carefully around her, the ground hundreds of feet beneath her feet and air slapping her entire body is actually an amazing feeling.

“This is awesome and scary!” Tuffnut yells, waving his arms in the air. “Drop me! Drop me, I wanna fall!”

“I thought you guys would be scared,” Hiccup exclaims, leaning off the dragon’s back… because Hiccup is… on a dragon’s back. Yeah, he’s on its back.

Ruff squints up at him, sunlight glaring in her face. “What are you doing up there?”

“Uh, flying. Guys, it’s a really long story. Think it’s about time it came out now. Toothless, this way.” And then Ruffnut is being dropped onto a high up tree branch, and the entire tree shifts as the massive black dragon sits atop it right next to her and her brother, both of them dangling from the branches.

“Come up here,’ Hiccup offers, extending his hand towards them. Ruffnut grabs it first, climbing onto the dragon’s back behind Hiccup.

“Oh, what’s this?” she asks, poking at the strange leather thing on the said dragon. “It looks like a saddle. A dragon saddle?” Dragons can have saddles?

“That’s because it is a dragon saddle,” Hiccup replies. “It makes flying more comfortable.” He helps Tuff on, and the dragon slowly lifts out of the tree, which immediately snaps back to its full height, swinging wildly and dropping pine needles everywhere. Yikes. “I did shoot down that Night Fury,” Hiccup tells them over his shoulder as the dragon takes off. “It was him.” He pats the dragon’s neck. “I named him Toothless. He, uh, lost his tail when he fell.”

“Can we go back to the part where you shot down a Night Fury?” Tuffnut requests.

“Yeah, right.” He blows out a long breath. “So, I found him in the woods, and I should’ve killed him, but I couldn’t. I hid him. I helped him.”

“And he didn’t eat you?” Ruffnut asks, confused. That doesn’t make any sense.

“He didn’t eat me,” Hiccup confirms. “He’s actually pretty friendly. Once you get to know each other, anyway. That’s what I was telling you that night int eh Great Hall. Dragons aren’t what we think they are.”

“This is amazing,” Tuff oohs, leaning over Toothless’s side to look down at the ocean.

“Take us for a spin!” Ruff requests.

“Alright, bud, let’s go!” Hiccup pats the dragon’s neck again, and it makes a deep grunting growl in the back of its throat, and takes them downwards in a spinning, spiraling dive.

Ruffnut shrieks with glee as the wind violently slaps against her face, tearing at her hair even if Hiccup somewhat blocks the wind. The dragon spins and spirals, diving over the ocean, winding between sea stacks. This is awesome. This is the absolutely most awesome thing she has ever done in her life.

“This is amazing!” Tuffnut yells.

“Yeah!” she shrieks.

“Why do we fight them again?” her brother asks. “’cuz I forgot.”

She shrugs, equally confused. This is the absolute, most fun thing Ruffnut has ever gotten the honor of in her entire life. And she’s set fire to the Great Hall. And wrecked forge once or twice, plus annoyed a lot of farmers. But this still gets top bonus points, no question.

Hiccup laughs. “I don’t know. I – I can’t believe this. I never thought anyone would understand why I’m out here, why I want to do this.”

“Uh, why wouldn’t we?” Tuffnut asks. “Did you ask?”

“Well, no, I guess not. But most of Berk would never understand. I should’ve told you about this a long time ago.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” Ruffnut agrees dryly as they keep flying… and flying.

***

They fly through the sunset and into the night, dance beneath the flashing light of an aroura. Much cooler from up close. Ruff’s personally always loved seeing the sky change color. If only it would do that in the daytime.

Long story short, all is great – until Toothless suddenly growls and jerks sharply.

“Whoa, what’s happening, bud?” Hiccup asks worriedly, leaning forwards, and suddenly another dragon flies past.

“Ohh, more dragons!” Tuffnut crows. “Awesome!”

“No, not awesome,” Hiccup hisses. “Keep quiet, and get down. Something’s not right here. Toothless, get us out of here.” He crouches against Toothless, keeping down in the foggy darkness, though dragons can see where people can’t, anyway.

Ruff looks over her shoulder, shrugs, and crouches low against Hiccup’s back. Tuff presses against hers, and they stay in a clinging, quiet pile on the disobedient dragon’s back.

“Looks like they’re hauling in their kill,” Hiccup murmurs, peering through the darkness.

“Uh, is Toothless going to eat us?” Tuffnut inquires worriedly.

“No,” Hiccup hisses. “But stay quiet.”

“How is you talking ‘being quiet’?” Ruffnut asks, leaning over.

“Quiet!” he hisses, and she shuts up.

Toothless keeps flying, gliding in silence through the clouds of nearby dragons, swerving through sea stacks and mountains, heading towards a strange, creepy reddish glow.  It’s hot in here, uncomfortably hot and kind of cool. Something red glows beneath. Lava maybe? Are they inside a volcano?

“What my dad wouldn’t give to find this,” Hiccup mutters as they look at the dragons flocking everywhere. Ruff sees every kind of dragon they’ve fought in the arena. That’s kind of fun – wait.

“Are they dropping our food down a giant hole?” Ruffnut whines.

“Yeah, it’s really satisfying,” Hiccup agrees dryly – and then a giant, giant dragon rises from the glow to chomp another dragon out of the sky.

“Whoa, that was a dragon?” Tuffnut yelps. “I thought it was a rock!”

“Me too,” Ruff agrees, edging back.

“Giant… dragon-eating dragons. Cool.”

“Not cool!” Hiccup hisses, diving for Toothless. “Let’s get out of here!”

Ruff grabs Tuff this time, who made it back on in front of her, and Toothless takes off full force, dodging the flying dragons are narrowly missing the massive dragon’s next chomp as it pulls a Zippleback down.

That’s not nice. She likes Zipplebacks.

“Can somebody tell me what we just saw?” Tuffnut inquires.

“A giant dragon eating little dragons,” Ruff offers, because she has no more ideas.

“No, that was the Dragon’s Nest,” Hiccup replies. “We’ve found it. And now we know why the dragons are attacking. Their – their queen or whatever it was will eat them if they don’t bring her enough food. They don’t have a choice.”

Ruff… somewhat followed that, and she’s mind blown. Dragons are officially fun. At least most dragons are officially fun. “So… what do we do?”

“I I don’t know.” Hiccup looks helplessly at Toothless, who snorts softly at him. “My final test is tomorrow.”

“And we’ll get to see you kill a Nightmare!” Tuff cheers.

“No, I won’t,” he hisses. “I won’t kill a dragon. I tried to kill Toothless once already, and I couldn’t. We couldn’t have been more wrong about them. I – I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Please don’t tell anyone what you saw.”

“Not a problem,” Tuffnut replies, giving him a thumbs up as they walk away.

***

“What do you mean, you saw the Dragon’s Nest?” Fishlegs asks. “That’s impossible. The dragons don’t have a queen species.”

“Yes, they do,” Ruff argues.

“No, they don’t! I read the Book of Dragons –”

“Books don’t tell you everything, little Fishmeister,” Tuffnut crows. “The dragons have a giant queen, and we know, because we flew there on a dragon.” Ruffnut nods assuringly.

Fishlegs blinks at them, completely confused. “Monstrous Nightmares, Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, and Zipplebacks can’t have the same nest,” he argues. “That doesn’t make sense – actually, that doesn’t make sense.” Tuff looks at Ruff, confused, and she shrugs, equally clueless. She has no idea why the boy is suddenly acting like the whole world started making sense. Fishlegs is so confusing. And boring. “But you still never rode a dragon.”

“Ha.” Ruffnut scowls, actually annoyed by now. “We know more about dragons then you, and at least we don’t get it from boring books.” She stalks off, annoyed, stopping to hear Snotlout’s cackling.

“Riding a dragon?” he asks. “You really need to improve your Loki-ying.”

“Next time,” Ruff suggests as they walk out. “We should fly in on a Zippleback. How does that sound?”

“I love it!” Tuff cheers, throwing his arms up. “Let’s go!”

“Wait, how do we stop it from eating us? Never mind. Let’s go ask Hiccup.”

***

“Can you please, please just promise me to keep Toothless safe, and more importantly, hidden if something goes wrong?” Hiccup asks in annoyance with his eyes closed.

Wow. They can’t be that bad, could they?

“Sure,” Tuff shrugs.

“Guys, the last time I said to do something, you told the whole town.”

“You told us not to…” Wait, he said not? “Oh,” Ruffnut fumbles. “Right. Sorry.”

Hiccup slaps a hand on his face with a miserable groan that somehow manages to make her feel like she did something actually wrong. “Please, Toothless’s life is at stake here.”

“Okay,” Ruff promises, seriously, because Vikings are all dumb and underappreciative. “We’ll keep him safe.”

Stoick actually thinks Hiccup’s a dragon killer. Ruffnut cannot believe him. She barely knows Hiccup, and she certainly isn’t his dad, but even she knows Hiccup has not a shred of fight in him. “What are you gonna do?” Tuffnut asks for her. “Your dad thinks you’re gonna kill it.”

Hiccup sighs, fingering his helmet as he looks fearfully at the arena’s doorway. “Tell them the truth.”

Whoa. That’s more of a spine than she thought Hiccup’s even had in his scrawny little body. “Yeah, Full Loki!” Ruffnut crows with glee and flings an arm around her friends’ shoulders.

“It’s time, Hiccup,” Gobber says, the arena door finally lifting. “Knock him dead.”

“Show ‘em how it’s done,” Tuffnut adds with glee, crossing his arms to watch.

Gobber looks at the twins oddly and heads off. Nearby, Ruffnut spots Astrid, lingering in the shadows as she approaches, rigid and angry. Ohhh. She’s mad she lost the Top Slayer title. Heh, heh. This is gonna be fun.

Hiccup stands in the center of the arena, helmeted, shield and knife in hands. “I’m ready,” he says, and the door slides open.

A Monstrous Nightmare bursts out with a bout of flame, sparking and furious, a surge of fire tearing nicely through the netted top as the dragon struggles to break free. Ruff just oohs in glee as half the front of the audience ring catches fire. Well, just the seats. That’s sad.

Hiccup drops his weapons and backs away from the dragon, hands raised. He pulls his helmet off and drops it on the ground.

“Is he trying to get eaten?” Astrid hisses.

“No idea,” Tuffnut offers, playing dumbly.

The girl grunts, gripping her axe tightly.

“I need you all to see this,” Hiccup calls out. “They’re not what we think they are. We don’t have to kill them.”

“I said, stop the fight!” Stoick roars. Something slams, and then the dragon is charging forwards with a furious roar.

“Whoa,” Tuff asks. “What’s he gonna do about that?”

Ruff watches, frozen, horrified, and mostly, panicked. But he’s Hiccup. He’s got to have something up his tiny little sleeves, right? But what if this time, he doesn’t, and he gets fried to death/

Astrid moves first, shoving her axe under the door and sliding beneath.

“Whoa, what’s she doing?” Tuffnut exclaims. “Is she going to help him?”

She’s heading for the weapons alright. Not that it’s gonna mean much in a minute. But that doesn’t make sense. Astrid wouldn’t care less if Hiccup was hurt or fried or eaten. Ruffnut does. She doesn’t know why, but she really does, because Hiccup isn’t Tuff.

Astrid grabs another axe from the weapon ring, and Ruff’s brain finally clicks.

“She’s gonna kill the dragon!” Tuff yelps at once.

“And steal Hiccup’s role as Top Slayer, future Chief, and dragon trainer! Let’s go.” Ruff ducks beneath the door, ignoring the yells she hears behind. She’s not a hero, nope, more one to watch the chaos unfold, but she’s not letting Hiccup get barbecued, and nor is she letting Astrid kill that dragon.

Tuff tackles Hiccup away from another fire blast, and they both roll over, gasping and basically dead, which leaves Astrid for Ruff.

“Hey!” Ruff yells, grabbing a random mace from the weapon cart and brandishing it threateningly. “You’re not stealing Hiccup’s moment!”

“Moment to get fried to death, maybe,” Astrid answers, bracing the axe to throw it. She’s going to kill the dragon. She didn’t get her own glory moment officially, but she’s trying to steal Hiccup’s, and Ruff won’t let her.

She tackles her with a yell, and both weapons go flying. “You are not killing that dragon!” Ruff yells furiously down at her. Astrid grabs her arm and twists her off with a yell of frustration, diving for her axe again –

And then a familiar Night Fury roar splits the air and the arena fills with smoke as Toothless wrestles the dragon off his rider.

Wow.

Ruffnut watches in awe as the Nightmare backs, terrified, back into its pen.

And then the yelling starts, people tackling Toothless. Astrid grabs a shield and moves to join right in. Ruff scrambles to her feet and tries to grab her again, but an elbow to the gut sends her down. Toothless is fighting for his life, and none of Hiccup’s desperate pleas for them to stop are making them stop.

“Don’t hurt him!” Ruffnut yells, scraping herself from the ground, stomach throbbing, still winded. “Look at him, he’s adorable!”

“Yeah!” Tuff shouts from somewhere. “Don’t hurt Toothless!”

When Ruff fights her way closer to the center, the dragon is already pinned beneath dozens of weapons and Vikings, green eyes wide and terrified, and for the first time in her life, nothing feels like a game. This is real. Toothless is about to get beheaded and Hiccup is crying quietly but struggling and thrashing against Astrid’s unyielding grip as she hauls him back.

“Leave him alone!” Ruff snaps, shoving her way over to them and ripping Astrid away. She doesn’t care if the girl hits her or whatever. He’s not going to hurt Hiccup.

“Yeah, you’ve done enough!” Tuffnut yells angrily, pulling Hiccup away from her – not that it helps, anyway.

“Put it with the others,” Stoick orders, throwing his axe aside and turning to them.

Astrid’s glowering at the twins like all that’s wrong in her beauty queen world is them. Ruff likes that. Ohhh. It makes her feel like she accomplished something.

But then the Chief comes over, grabbing Hiccup by the back of his tunic and dragging him from the arena, and there’s no more keeping him safe. “Stoick’s not actually going to hurt him, will he?” Ruff throws out there.

Astrid scoffs. “He should. The idiot nearly got us killed. Bringing a Night Fury here? Not that you two were any better. But, oh, where’s that a surprise?” She flings her axe aside and stalks out.

“Ouch,” Tuff ventures. “Who yakked her mutton?”

Snotlout falls in step with them as they head out, wondering, mostly at a complete and utter loss of what to do. Just this once, nothing feels fun anymore. “Hiccup? I can’t believe it,” he says finally.

“Yeah. Me neither. Dragons were so fun,” Tuff says sulkily. “Toothless was awesome, and now he’s about to get beheaded.”

“Uh, toothless?” Fishlegs asks, freaked out, as always. “Did you see that thing’s teeth?”

“We saw his teeth, and his name is Toothless,” Ruffnut snaps, irked.

“The Nest thing wasn’t entirely a lie?” Fishlegs ventures.

“Nope, not at all,” Tuffnut grumbles, turning around to keep walking Backwards down the street until he trips over a rock and goes on his back. Ruff cackles.

“As we said, Fishmeister,” Ruff crows. “We know wayyy more about dragons than you.”

“Yeah, way up there,” her brother seconds as they saunter off.

***

They find Hiccup in the Great Hall, carefully wait outside for Stoick to pass and hope he didn’t see, though from how he’s yelling at everybody and glowering, Ruff’s pretty sure he wouldn’t notice them right in front of him. Never a bad side Ruff wants to get on. Okay, maybe she does. Just not today. She and Tuff have cleaned up enough of post-dad problems with Snotlout, and he’s always a mess afterwards. She’d rather not do the same for Hiccup, but she’s never seen Stoick this mad at him, either.

Hiccup is sitting on the floor, shadowed from the doorway in the entirely vacant room.

This was supposed to be his big day, and it turned into this.

He doesn’t look hurt, or beaten or bloody or any of the things Snotlout usually does, but he’s crying nonetheless. And Ruff has no idea how to deal with somebody crying. Tuffnut is a crybaby, but whenever he starts bawling, she either walks out, ignores him, or smacks him… well, usually. Sometimes she’ll think of something to make him feel better. Once in a while.

She has no idea what to do for Hiccup.

She finally just awkwardly sits by him and pats his shoulder, because that usually helps Tuff.

Tuffnut wraps Hiccup all in his arms, snuggling the much tinier Viking against his chest. “There, there, my tiny, scrawny little Viking, that was awesome. You did great. I don’t care what anyone else said.”

Still nothing. “Uh, what do we do?” Ruff asks her brother.

“Don’t ask me,” he whines. “Maybe you can sing one of those lullabies Mom used to sing when we were young and you were afraid of the dark.”

Ruffnut bristles furiously. “Me? No, you were afraid of the dark! I was afraid of you!” She shakes Hiccup’s shoulder. “What if you come camp out at our house? We can hide from everybody there.”

It takes forever, but he does finally go back with them. And its hours before he finally talks, bundled in the corner of their bed after staring vacantly for eternity.

“Remember that item when you told me if a Thorston doesn’t pass the induction trials at nineteen, they’re disowned by the entire clan?”

“Yeah, sure,” Tuff answers for them. “Why’s that important?” Ruff elbows him, somewhat catching on, and Tuff deflates with a quiet, sad “ohhh.”

He looks too tired to cry now, and Ruff remembers how she thought once that she’s lucky to have her brother, for as annoying as he is, because they’ll never shake each other, and they’ll never be alone. Hiccup, for his part, has absolutely no one.

Literally no one now.

“I can’t go home,” Hiccup says again. “And Toothless is gone. I…”

“At least he’s still alive,” Ruffnut offers.

“D – dad’s taking him. They’re all going to the Nest first thing tomorrow, and – and they’re never going to make it out.”

So… Toothless is going to die. And so will Stoick. And So will everyone.

Berk would be a lot… emptier. Quieter. And Toothless will be gone.

Nothing feels fun anymore.

They spend a long time that night huddled together in silence.

***

It’s dawn when the Chief takes their every last ship and leaves. Ruff would say she can’t believe him, but it’s right up with stupid, and her, Tuff, and Hiccup watch from the highest, farthest ledge to watch them take Toothless away. And Ruff is really, really mad. She’s mad at anyone who makes Hiccup cry.

They watch the sails of all of Berk’s ships slowly disappear into the distant ocean, restless and despondent. She would honestly do anything to make something just happen. She’s mad, and even more annoyed that for once, she has no idea what to do.

“So, uh,” Tuffnut offers. “What do we do now?”

“Nothing,” Hiccup halfway snaps. “There’s nothing we can do. My dad’s going to get everybody killed at the Nest and all of this is because of me. Why couldn’t I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods? It would have been better for everyone.”

“Because he’s cute as a puppy,” Tuffnut offers.

“And awesome,” Ruff agrees.

“And Toothless,” Tuff seconds.

Hiccup looks between them and sighs.

“But I still got everyone killed.”

“But that was so awesome,” Tuffnut whines. “You tamed a dragon. You rode a dragon! Don’t you know how awesome that is?”

Hiccup has absolutely no idea how effortlessly awesome he is, does he? Sure, he’s tiny and skinny but he’s amazing. “Yeah, and you had the whole village fooled,” Ruff reminds. “We aren’t actually going to let the adults get all the fun, are we?”

“Y – yeah, maybe not.”

“So, what do we do?” Tuff offers.

“Probably something stupid,” Hiccup settles on.

“Great!” Ruff crows. “I can’t wait to ride a dragon. Can we get the Zippleback? He nearly ate me. It was awesome.”

“Ruff, Tuff, we gotta get the other trainers together,” Hiccup says finally, picking up and brushing himself off. “Think we can handle that?”

***

“I should have you all locked up for this,” Astrid grumbles, tramping after the rest of the gang, way in the very far back.

“If you’re planning on getting eaten, I’m definitely going with the Gronckle,” Fishlegs offers.

“Zipplebacks on me!” Ruffnut cheers. “I love poison.”

“You were wise to seek help from the world’s most deadly weapon,” Tuffnut crows, poking Hiccup’s shoulder. “That’s me.”

“Y- yeah,” Hiccup squeaks. “Po-poison’s fantastic.”

“Guys, is anyone going to tell me what the actual plan is?” Astrid demands, irritated. “Do you even have one?”

“Yes, actually, I do,” Hiccup answers. He sounds a whole lot more self-assured, though Ruff’s still pretty sure he’s terrified. “We connect with the dragons in the arena, fly out to the Nest, and save everyone from getting….”

“Eaten!” Snotlout crows. “I love this plan! My dad’s gonna be mad, but I’ll finally have saved him from imminent doom.”

“Yeah!” Ruffnut agrees gleefully – seeing Spitelout’s face will be so funny. And Stoick’s – she cannot wait to see that. He’ll be so cranky.

They head into the arena, opening the hatches, and out patter the dragons. Hiccup goes for the Monstrous Nightmare first. “Alright, remember,” he says. “No weapons. Don’t be threatening. No sudden moves. Stand in a line, here.” He motions towards the others, then raises his hand towards the Nightmare to slowly let it out.

Despite its wild aggression yesterday, the dragon seems totally cool about him today. Wow. Mood swings.

Ruff half expects someone to get eaten, but when Hiccup grabs Snotlout’s hand and splays it on the dragon, nothing goes wrong… she thinks.

Hiccup heads off to get ropes to tie everybody to their dragons, mothing to Fishlegs to bond with the Gornckle. Ruff picks the right head, and Tuff gets the left. Hiccup takes her hand and raises it, palm outwards towards the Zipplebacks, that leans into her and her twin, grumbling and blinking at them with giant gold eyes. It’s cute, ugly, dumb, and perfect.

Ruffnut hops onto the dragon’s neck.

It has a set of nicely placed and grab-able horns. Whooaaa, she never knew how yankable these looked.

Ruff grabs and yanks. The dragon barfs its nasty green gas.  Tuff yanks his own, and it spits sparks. The explosion sails cleanly over Hiccup and Astrid’s heads.

“Hey, watch it!” Astrid yells. Hiccup ducks barely phased.

Ruff cackles. “I love you,” she tells the dragon head, leaning over to look at him. He tilts his head and chatters vaguely in her direction.

“My last pick, I’m stuck with the Nadder,” Astrid grumbles, looking at the final dragon.

“Relax,” Hiccup replies. “I’ll fly her for you until we reach the Nest. You should have the hang of it by now.”

“Can we go already?” Tuffnut whines. “I really, really wanna be up in the air again.”

“Don’t say I didn’t tell you this is going to go wrong,” Astrid grumbles, but they take off in a flurry of wings, leaving Berk far behind.

***

Ruffnut, actually, as usual, has absolutely no idea what’s going on. She doesn’t care, either, except that riding a Zippleback is really, really cool, and the enormous red and black dragon queen is stomping around, the entirety of Berk’s fleet is up in flames when they arrive.

And it’s glorious.

“Look at us!” Tuffnut yells gleefully. “We’re on a dragon! We’re on dragons! All of us!”

“Let’s move it!” Hiccup yells out and starts shouting out orders. “Snotlout, Fishlegs, hang in its blind spot. Make some noise, keep it confused. Ruff, Tuff, find out if it has a shot limit! Make it mad!”

“That’s my specialty!” Ruffnut crows with glee as they swoop away.

“Since when?” Tuff asks, cranky. “Everyone knows I'm more irritating! See?” He swings upside down, and Ruff glowers at her stupid brother, their dragon diving towards the queen as they yell at her.

Ruffnut doesn’t need a good reason to name call. She never does, and she’s more than gleeful to have one, especially at the nasty queen who enslaves and eats her subjects. They’ve got a lot of words to say, and definitely do well at drawing its focus, which is sweet.

Hiccup and Astrid flew off in search of Toothless. Hopefully she won’t throw him in the ocean.

It’s just chaos and flames and more chaos until Fishlegs and Snotlout go down. Fishlegs goes ground, and Snotlout gets stranded on the dragon’s massive head. Astrid swings past, yelling orders, and Ruff doesn’t have sense to ignore or get mad – logic, instinct, and maybe a teeny bit of genuine fear kicking in.

They dive to get Snotlout, and Tuff tries to be the hero of the day, and when Ruff turns to yell at him, it’s only to find Snotlout riding on the Zippleback’s back.

“I can’t believe that worked,” he says breathlessly, and then Astrid’s yelling a “he’s up!” and Ruffnut looks up with pure and genuine relief as a small black figure streaks skywards.

They land in the soot and smoke to let Hiccup take it from here, a single plasma blast enough to have the queen on their tail.

The skys flash, flickering and smoking, live with fire.

She has no idea how long it lasts, just that everyone – everyone – is watching.

And then there’s a crack of fire, a deafening explosion, and the dragon queen is crashing head-first towards the mountain. The ground quakes beneath their feet, a ripple of smoke and flame blinding, then quiet.

Dead quiet.

No Hiccup and Toothless flying from the smoke, no cheering, nothing.

Stoick moves first.

Ruff is picking herself up, coughing, lungs aching, and their chief is already running into the smoke, yelling for his son. There’s no answer, not even a rustle, until the smoke settles enough that Toothless’s gray-covered black form comes out, breathing shallowly against the rock. He can’t be dead? Can he? They can’t be dead. Ruff’s seen a lot of people die, and its always kind of sad, but she can’t imagine going back to Berk without Hiccup.

He's important

A Zippleback head slithers up next to her, whimpering. Ruff turns to hug it, uncaring that it’s the wrong head.

With a final, quiet whimpering groan, Toothless shifts, wriggling, then unfolds his wings to reveal Hiccup tucked against his stomach – mostly safe.

Ruff knows she’s not the only one to let out a deep sigh of relief. The dragons gurgle happily as cries of relief go up through the crowd. She sees definitely Snotlout wiping tears away.

“You’re crying,” she says with glee, leaning over to him.

“It’s the dust!” he snaps, sniffling.

“Stupid dust, huh?” Astrid sasses, breezing past to where Stoick and Gobber are hovering over Hiccup.

Ruff wants to go to him, but she doesn’t actually know what to do. Everything is weird. The fun is over, but the aftermath can be kind of messy. That’s why she likes causing more. Then you don’t need to worry about the after.

“We need to head back for Berk,” Stoick says finally, standing, his son in his arms.

The twins flinch in unison when they see him, the ash still coating his body, blurring before Ruff can tell where the ash starts and the burns begin. His clothes look singed, face too coated in soot to see, though there’s a slight rise and fall of his chest which is the only sign of life she sees in him, body dangling limply in his father’s arms, one foot mangled… badly.

“I’ll take Hiccup to Gothi.”

“The boats are gone,” someone calls out.

“Then we take the dragons,” Stoick snaps. “These children rode them here. They should know how to get onto their backs”

“Are you looking at us, Chief?” Tuffnut pipes up, raising his hands. “’cuz I got nothing.”

“I’ll show you,” Fishlegs offers.

“I’ll fly you back, Chief,” Astrid offers, motioning her Nadder forwards.

“Wait,” Gobber interjects, motioning to Toothless. “What about him? He can’t fly. That’s what the tail prosthetic’s for.” He nudges it with his foot. “What? No one else figured that out?”

“A Zippleback could carry him,” Fishlegs offers, and it’s settled.

Hey, babysitting duty can’t be that bad.

***

It is. That bad.

Ruff is kind of at the edge of her sanity when their Zippleback lugging Toothless and grumbling all the while, finally dropping him exhausted when they reach Berk. And no fancy flying or spinning, which is so not cool. She wants fun, not hauling, thanks.

But Toothless did need help, so…

“Alright, spit that gassy – uh, barf!” Ruff orders as the dragon blinks at her, neck slowly wiggling back and forth as it hovers over her head. She crosses her arms and huffs. “Barf!”

The dragon barfs green gas, and she jumps aside with a yelp.

“Yeah! Got it!”

Snotlout laughs. “That’s what you’re teaching it to do? Barf? Hookfang and I got way more cool moves.” He laughs and pats his Nightmare’s neck.

“Hookfang?” Tuffnut scoffs. “Lousy name. He can’t compete with the awesomeness that is Belch!”

“And Barf!” Ruff agrees angrily, then pauses. “Wait, Barf comes first.”

“Belch comes first!” Tuff accuses angrily.

“Technically, the dragon as you put it barfs and then belches,” Fishlegs offers, leaning on his Gronckle.

“Yeah!” Ruffnut yells with glee. “It’s Barf and Belch!” Tuffnut crosses his arms and sulks. She snickers at her stupid brother. Victory!

“I think we’ve all named our dragons by now,” Astrid shrugs, still riding her Nadder. “Everyone, this is Stormfly.”

“And this is Meatlug,” Fishlegs introduces.

Ruff takes a minute to process, then breaks into laughter. Great name for his dragon, no joke.

She just wishes Hiccup was here to see this.

“That was some stunt Hiccup pulled off out there,” Astrid continues. “Stormfly and I are going to work on some of our own.”

“Go on and cheer,” Tuffnut calls after, pointing. “You’ll never beat a Night Fury.”

“It’s Astrid,” Fishlegs shrugs. “She’ll keep trying.”

“Well, she’ll fail,” Tuff agrees evilly, snickering. Ruff snickers along with him, though inside, she feels empty. Hiccup’s still in with Gothi, and Toothless hasn’t left his side even once since. Sort of like the twins when one of them is hurt. Maybe Hiccup’s finally got his worthwhile tagalong.

Ruff opts to keep her head down whenever Stoick passes, because she does not take happy to his… well… what’s it called? Anything, really. She’s mad. Very, very mad. Hiccup nearly died because he was being an idiot.

“I wish I got the legendary war wounds,” Ruffnut complains.

Tuff cackles. “I wish you got them, too.”

She smacks him. Though the joking is actually lightening for once… a little bit. She could really do with some sort of reassurance. They haven’t heard a single real word about Hiccup. The burns looked bad. What if he doesn’t make it? She’s… well, worried, and Ruffnut hates being worried more than almost any feeling in the universe.

Aloof and carefree is much, much funner.

***

The twins are out with the other trainers…. Who can’t really be part of the Dragon Killing training anymore, because Berk doesn’t kill dragons. There’re actually dragons walking the streets, wrecking stuff, and it’s amazing.

Ruff hasn’t seen this much chaos in her life, and it’s glorious, but Hiccup’s been out for a week now. That makes it a lot less fun – until she finally sees the chaos by his house.

There are people there.

A lot of people gathering together, and a second look tells her Hiccup is finally outside, leaning on Toothless for help. He’s lost his foot, yeah. Ruff can recognize the twisted metal limb anywhere.

“Oh, that looks like it hurts,” Tuffnut offers, hopping off Belch.

Ruff jumps down, sauntering over to him. His face is somewhat burned, still a little red with a few scrapes and blisters that’ll probably heal with barely a scar. Really doesn’t want to know what the rest of him looks like.

“I’m okay,” Hiccup replies, looking around. “I still think I’m dead. This has got to be Valhalla.”

Berk is pretty different, in his defense. Ruff would’ve died, too. It’s great. She’d like a few more fires, though. But the just broken stuff is fun, too. She could watch this all day.

“How’ve you been, T?” Tuff asks, leaning over the Night Fury, who yips happily up at him, grinning. “See?” he asks pointedly. “Cute as a puppy.”

“Yeah, yeah, he’s cute,” Hiccup agrees with an eyeroll. “We get it, Tuffnut.” He lowers himself onto one knee beside his dragon, rubbing his head, and he purrs, grinning happily.

Astrid approaches from the side, and Ruff quickly positions herself in front of her friend, scowling. She brushes past her, anyway. “Hey, Hiccup.”

“Hey,” he says, clamming up.

Ruffnut frowns. Hiccup is so jittery about people still. Even when everyone nearby is cheering.

“I guess you did pretty well up there,” Astrid shrugs.

“Thanks,” Hiccup replies with a shrug.

Stoick turns to Hiccup, and Ruff grumpily slouches back to let the Chief talk – she has the sense to know that. And Gobber shows up with a nice, fancy, new tail for Toothless. With the Berk insignia and all.

“What do you say?” Hiccup asks his dragon. “Want to take it for a little spin?”

Toothless yips happily.

“Not without us!” Tuff yells, and they scramble for Barf and Belch.

Flying beside Toothless is actually a lot funner than on him. He’s big, bulky, and it was too crowded. But Barf is so much fun, just narrow enough for Ruff to not have to spread her legs too far, perfect to just sit. And besides, Barf is great at explosions.

And she’s beside Tuff instead of behind him, so…

Hiccup’s missing a leg, badly burned and in definite pain, but that’s somehow not enough to stop them from enjoying the flight, chasing him in crazy dives and weaving spirals all across Berk, dodging homes and random structures, then out to the sea stacks.

Somewhere on the way, the rest of the trainers pick up their tail.

Except they’re not dragon trainers anymore… they’re dragon riders.

Ruffnut could definitely get used to this. Way cooler. And way more chaotic. Ohh, and she gets to light the fighters instead of watch them. They are going to do something amazing.