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The war with Alvin is escalated, now a war with Dagur was tacked onto the very bottom of the list, and then – then this. There’s chaos everywhere, Whispering Deaths and the Screaming Death breaking through the surface of Berk, yelling and fires and sinkholes breaking across the island’s surface.
Hiccup can barely keep up with the Screaming Death as it is, and the other riders are being swarmed by the Whispering Deaths. Astrid and Snotlout flew right into the chaos, using their fire to distract a group of them, trying to lur them away. Their decision, mostly, but Hiccup worries anyway.
The twins, for as ridiculous as they are, were sitting back to watch for a while.
Hiccup tries not to be annoyed at them. They should just get to be kids, but this is ridiculous. He keeps flying, dodging a few flying spikes and fire blasts – arriving just on time to see a Whispering Death sneaking up on the twins.
“Look out!” he yells to them, Toothless firing at the dragon, which quickly turns away, screeching.
“Whoa, thanks!” Tuffnut calls back, startled.
“Can you get in there?” he asks, waving downwards, “We really need some help chasing these things off our island before we have nowhere to live.” He doesn’t have to stress that further, does he?
“Yeah, we get it!” Ruffnut complains, pulling barf around, and the twins take off – thankfully. Because Hiccup can’t focus on pulling those two out of trouble when he has to save their home, too.
***
Babysitting the twins can be exhausting, no question. Maddening, yep.
But also, straight up worrying when the duo went out to deal with dragon traps, and turn out to just… not come back. And then Stoick calls Hiccup in to warn him about fire weather, and he takes off immediately. The twins are known for starting fires, which Hiccup typically fines at least endearing, even if it can be exhausting and get him in a lot of trouble, but they still have fun?
But, point being, they should’ve been back, and the twins mean fire, which right now could kill them and most of Berk.
Of course, he finds them right in the center of chaos, a forest fire heading their way, and…
A typhoomerang?
And there’s Tuffnut, of course, strung up nicely in the middle of a literal dragon trap, something that Hiccup still wants to know why no one took down a very, very long time ago. Those things could’ve killed dragons a long time ago. Or, you know, at least hurt them.
But Tuffnut, in a dragon trap, seriously?
But that’s honestly a lot less important than the fire creeping their way, or the Typhomeraang who undoubtably caused the fire standing over the twins. “Okay… everybody, stand back,” Hiccup warns, expecting a snarky comment form Tuffnut at least about how he can’t stand at all.
And then the dragon roars, and something about it is familiar. “Wait a second,” he murmurs as the dragon lowers its head, eyes shining with excitement. “I know you.”
And then the Typhoomerang is wrapping its wings around him in a dragon-hug, even if Toothless immediately responds in kind protectively. That’s familiar, too, and when the dragons let him go, he gets a better close-up on the dragon’s face, and its markings are very familiar. “This isn’t just any Typhoomerang. Ruff, Tuff, don’t you recognize this guy? Look at him. It’s Torch!”
“What?” Ruffnut squawks, “No way!”
“Hiccup, Torch is, like, this big,” Tuff says, holding his hands about six inches apart – which actually is entirely untrue. Torch was about the size of a Terrible Terror the last time he was here, but if he’s here again – and Hiccup is really happy to see him, and know that he remembers them, then the twins are in one less danger. “And he calls himself the dragon conqueror.”
“Uh, no, I don’t call myself that,” Hiccup argues, brows rising in genuine disbelief, though he doesn’t know why he’s surprised when he’s talking to Tuff. “And this is Torch. He just grew. A lot. That's what happens when you, well…grow up.”
The twins seem confused, The T’s go right back to their old rivalry, and the fire keeps viciously burning in the background, interrupting the reunion, which brings them back to the trap problem. The twins, as it turns out, genuinely have no idea how to get out of the trap, and apparently nobody brought anything that can cut through the ropes, either. Not for lack of trying.
They are ridiculous.
Hiccup climbs into the trap itself to struggle with getting the thing deactivated, but the thing is entirely jammed. Even if they were trying, they probably wouldn’t have been able to get it open, and there’s no time.
“We need to get out of here. That fire’s headed straight to Berk,” Hiccup warns, jumping down. “Torch, you give us a lift?”
Thankfully, he does, flying them back towards Berk.
Hiccup honestly has no idea how they manage to work together through the chaos and put the fire out. Toothless, Barf and Belch, and Torch, all working together, which feels like a joke, except it’s actually happening as they reduce the flames safely into a few remaining smolders, and fly back for the town.
“Astrid!” Hiccup yells, because this is her thing. “We gotta get some people out to handle the rest of that fire.”
“Fire?” she asks.
“Yeah, you didn’t see the smoke?” Snotlout asks, rubbing Hookfang’s horn.
Hiccup’s losing it. “You saw the smoke and no one did anything?”
“Yeah, it was pretty far away,” Snotlout shrugs. “And I’ve got a flaming dragon. What’s the deal?”
“The deal –” Hiccup cuts himself off before he can start straight up screaming. He doesn’t need to be mean. “Never mind. We just need to put out the rest of that fire.” He already nearly lost Tuff to the thing. That was… terrifying. At least his moronic friends are safe.
***
“Ruffnut!” Hiccup yells, his voice all but shattering across the crashing ocean waves and many jagged rock structures that rise from the ocean. It’s still raining, and the winds are strong enough that even he and Toothless are struggling to stay in the air, aloft and safely above the ocean enough that they won’t be taken out by the next passing wave. “Tuffnut!” His throat is starting to feel horse from yelling, but there’s no answer. There’s not even the slightest sign of anything.
“Has anyone else seen anything?” he asks over his shoulder, half pleading and desperate.
“Not a thing,” Astrid murmurs, shielding her eyes from the rain, or at least trying too. “The nights are long, though, and we can’t all stay up through this storm.” Snotlout pulled back already, injured from the Skrill’s attack earlier. Hiccup would’ve called everyone in if not for how the twins just disappeared.
The Skrill disappeared, too, and he’s hoping it escaped at least, but there was so much chaos, and if Dagur was anywhere close to getting his hands on the twins, Hiccup would never forgive himself for leaving them. He can’t. They’re Ruff and Tuff, his best friends – except Toothless, of course.
But he would never let anything actually hurt them if he had the choice, and choices are starting to get a little… not his decision.
“I’d hate to say it, Hiccup, but maybe we need to head back for Berk,” Fishlegs finally speaks up, “Maybe they already passed us and went home. You know they don’t like staying up late.”
“Not unless they’re setting things on fire.”
“Which is impossible in this weather,” Astrid calls back.
“I know. They must be lost.” They could be captured, too. “Fishleg’s right. We better circle back to Berk just to check on things.” Even if he doesn’t want to.
As it turns out, after checking in with Stoick and a few other people, the twins haven’t made it home. Meatlug, after already being up for over an entire day, is too exhausted to keep flying, which drastically complicates things.
It leaves Hiccup… alone.
Which is fine. He’ll go out alone again, miss another entire night of sleep if he has too. He has to find the twins.
***
Winter’s come and gone, and it’s just thawing barely enough in warnings for the harvest, except when the dragon riders get stuck on to plow through Mildew’s now-abandoned cabbage field, it’s only to unleash more chaos into their lives – somehow.
Especially when somehow, they unearthed dragon root on them, and Stormfly and Hookfang lose it. Their riders get them to calm down, but next things next, Barf and Belch are in, blazing and firing. “Pull up!” Hiccup yells at them, panicking.
“Pull up? Are you crazy?” Ruff calls back.
“This is awesome!” Tuff cheers, so on the chaos goes.
Fishlegs and Meatlug dive for the dragon root. The twins are, maybe, honestly Wrestling with their dragon, but even if they are, it’s not nearly enough to pull the dragon out. Barf and Belch, now completely feral, are actually about to fire at Fishlegs and Meatlug.
Hiccup, hating himself all the while, has Toothless fire, forcing them back just a bit. He hates to fire at them, at the twins – but they don’t really have a choice. “I’m so sorry about this,” he calls over the chaos.
“We’re not!” the twins yell in unison, and Tuffnut cackles. “This is the best day ever!”
Toothless has a fire a few more times to keep pushing them back, thankfully out of the dragon root’s scent – he reacts to it, too, apparently.
Astrid, riding Hookfang, does some sort of wing-blast to knock the dragon out of the sky, where the twins crash over their dragon’s horns, probably passing out.
Fishlegs gets the dragon root out of there, which means they’re – safe.
Hiccup could almost cry in relief at this point.
The twins are already getting up when he makes to landing near them. “Are you okay?” he asks worriedly.
“Yeah, we’re great,” Tuffnut mumbles into Belch’s head with a tired wave.
“This is the most fun we’ve had in forever,” Ruffnut adds gleefully, pushing herself up.
Well, yeah, of course they say that. Hiccup guesses they really are safe.
***
But, also, with the oncoming spring also comes the late-winter yearly-sickness spree, and when Eel Pox rolls around, everyone takes a hit. Hiccup doesn’t think there’s anyone on Berk who doesn’t on some Degree or another. Even his dad comes down with it.
He and Fishlegs nearly got themselves killed trying to pull the cure’s ingredients form the nearby islands, and by the time they make it back to Berk, everything is chaos. Snotlout is in the height of his fever, curled up in the far corner of the Great Hall, mostly just crying hysterically. Hiccup pauses worriedly to check him over, but his cousin is clearly hallucinating bad enough eh barely even recognizes Hiccup right now, so he quickly backs out.
Astrid is a shivering lump on the floor, bundled up with several other Hoffersons. She’s with her family, and therefore hopefully safe.
Stoick is as stoic as ever, and despite being sick, is still doing his best to hand out the cure and other things to the people coming into the Hall in the dozens.
Hiccup’s up to feeling a little off, but is just as exhausted from the entire debacle where Toothless ate an eel, and heads off in search of the twins… who aren’t hard to find.
They’re in the arena, Tuffnut balanced carefully on Belch’s head, dropping feathers and mumbling about the speed they hit the ground with.
“Shall we try again with a yak?” Ruffnut asks.
“Uh… what are you guys doing?” Hiccup asks warily, he and Toothless braving to walk down the steps.
“Testing the speed where they’ll hit the ground,” Ruffnut offers.
Hiccup rubs his aching forehead. “The yak will, obviously. It’s heavier.”
“To the contrary, my friend,” Tuffnut babbles, clearly delirious. “We hypothesize the true delay is from air resistance, not the weight.”
Hiccup just blinks at them, slow and tired, suddenly grateful he brought a dose of the medicine with him. “Uh, Tuff? Everyone knows that’s not how it works.”
“We’ve made a few important breakthroughs,” Ruffnut corrects, proudly holding up a notebook paper covered with…
That is Ruffnut’s handwriting alright, only messier, and a wild merger of Norse, Spanish, and… French? Is that French? Someone please tell him there’s not really a few words of Latin in there, too.
“Oh, look at that, a talking shadow,” Tuffnut mumbles out when he sees Toothless, who makes a sound somewhere between worry and amusement. “Oh, that’s so cool. It has eyes.” Belch grumbles behind him.
“That looks amazing,” Hiccup tells them tiredly taking the notebook and snapping it shut. Whether he’ll ever mention tis again is a decision for a different day. “But can you guys please come in for the night? I got you something to drink, and you should feel a whole lot better after.”
He’s thanking anyone listening that the twins actually come with him after that.
***
Outcast Island is chaos. It’s always a nightmare here, honest, mostly because Hiccup’s every trip here was just fighting. He’s never been here for anything else, and he can’t imagine every willingly coming here for anything else.
Dagur took his dad. He took Stoick, and was going to kill him in exchange for Toothless, and Hiccup had to get him out, but it had so many moving parts, it’s luck alone that saved them. Or might save him.
He and Toothless are surrounded and out of shots when the green Zippleback gas drops in, and Hiccup looks up to see the twins swooping by, cackling.
“Whoa, this is chaos on a level I've never seen before!”
“I know. I want to live here. Forever!”
And they’re both cackling, blasting everything in fight, surrounding Hiccup in a wall of fire that forces all the Berserkers and attacking Outcasts back and away.
He could cry in relief. “Boy, are we ever glad to see you guys.”
“Don’t thank us yet,” Tuffnut calls, his sister snickering gleefully. “Things are gonna get a little crazier.”
Ruff snickers, the twins high-five, and off they are, twirling and blasting through the fight and chaos as the Whispering Deaths finish tearing the area apart, and then the Screaming Death comes to add his bit to the madness, and the group flies out entirely.
The war is over.
All three wars are over, and Hiccup can’t show how relieved or overwhelmed he is to see the dragons fly away, or Alvin take Dagur down to the dungeons or whatever he’s doing with him. Quite simply, Hiccup feels nothing short of relief.
All the wars he’s been fighting to settle the dragons into Berk are over, and they can relax. Berk will have its first turn of quiet, something he can still barely imagine. Berk has been at war for three hundred years before Hiccup was even born.
“It’s gonna be so boring back on Berk,” Ruffnut complains as they head home.
“Tell you what,” Hiccup says, smiling, air on his face as they fly across the ocean, headed home for real the first time, free, Toothless purring happily at the newfound calm. “Now that this is over, we can go out exploring or do whatever we want to do. As long as we don’t start another war.”
“Maybe we can find some stones of good fortune,” Tuffnut offers.
Headache returns immediately. “Guys, those are Changewing eggs.”
“Changewings seem to follow those things,” Ruff agrees.
“Then we’d bring them back to Berk…” The twins look at each other.
“Yes!” they yell in unison and break into cackling.
“They’re Changewing eggs,” Hiccup murmurs tiredly, but hey, now that the war is over, Vikings will have to find a new way to amuse themselves, right? Whatever they do, they’ll do… together.
They’ll always have his back, and he’ll always have theirs.