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"Remind me again why we're following a tipoff from Johann?" Snotlout asked, for what may well have been the ninth time, dropping his head forwards to knock against Hookfang's horns.
"Because we have no other information to go off." Astrid said, also for the ninth time. She was exercising a remarkable amount of restraint if she did say so herself. Hadn't even tried to knock Snotlout out of the sky, and she'd only cursed him to a painful miserable death twice.
"And none of you thought that, maybe, that was a sign that this is, I don't know- a terrible idea?" He shouted, lifting his head to turn his venomous glare onto Astrid. She levelled the flattest look she could manage back at him.
"The alternative is that our houses keep getting burnt down." Ruffnut said, hanging upside down from Barf's head in between them.
"Which would be bad." Fishlegs called from where he was dutifully taking up the rear. "Please tell me you know that letting a madman continue to burn down our houses is a bad thing!"
Ruffnut shrugged, grinning widely. "The alternative is actually us having to go back to Berk and explain to the chief that we couldn't find this guy."
"His name's the Dragon Conqueror." Tuffnut added helpfully. Or unhelpfully. Astrid honestly never knew with him.
"I refuse to call him that. It's stupid."
"You're stupid." He shot back, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Actually pouting.
"This whole mission is stupid!" Snotlout exclaimed.
"If this guy does actually eat people I am going to feed you to him." Astrid told them all.
"I thought the goal was asking him nicely. Diplomacy?" Fishlegs said, sounding genuinely upset at the idea of violence in a way Astrid really felt he should have grown out of in the last three years.
"Diplomacy is for people who aren't arsonists." Snotlout said.
"Technically the only house he's burnt down is Stoick's." Tuff added.
"The chief's house. That counts as a declaration of war." Astrid reminded, only for the fourteenth time.
"Pretty sure it's only a declaration of war if you know who did it."
Astrid startled, turning towards the voice she'd just heard whisper in her ear, only to find no-one there. Not even a disturbance in the breeze. She spun her head around to the other side, hand straying towards her axe.
"What happened?" Snotlout asked, already gripping his own axe, no trace of the argument they'd been having just seconds ago visible on his face. The other three looked over too, instinctively drawing in tighter.
"Someone else is up here."
Like her words were a cue, a low rumbling started above Astrid, a cacophony of dragons all loading up their shots as one. A shadow settled over the group but looking up only showed Astrid a dark writing mass of tightly packed dragons. There was no sign of any individualities, let alone a person.
"Looks like more than one somebody." Ruff said lowly. There was a slow steady stream of gas leaking out of Barf's mouth.