The first to know

How the Turn Tables

We spent a full four hours in the cove. It didn't feel like it though (possibly because me and Scoot were catching on some lost sleep, dragons make remarkably good pillows). Hiccup told me he spent the entire time coming up with revisions to the tail fin and thinking about making a saddle so that he could help Toothless fly. At which point I told him he was crazy, and then immediately agreed to help. 

"Goodbye Scoot." I placed my hand on his nose. He purred at my touch.

"See ya bud." Hiccup said giving one last rubdown to the dragon. 

"See Scoot didn't react, therefore I can call him bud and neither of them will be confused." Hiccup Just rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah but it feels a bit like plagiarism don't you think."

"No actually, Like I said it's pretty universal, If Scoot likes it, I will continue to use that as his nickname."

Hiccup rolled his eyes again.

"Well it's not like you would save any time, they have the same amount of syllables." 

"On the contrary nicknames can be just as long as given names but they are still used as a term of endearment. Let's say 'John', it has the same amount of syllables and letters as its nickname counterpart 'Jack'."

"You're impossible." He finally stated.

"We're vikings, we have stubbornness issues." I replied slyly 

To prove my point I bent down to look Scoot in the eyes and said."Do you like the nickname 'bud'?" He licked my face and purred in agreement.

"HA you see, Scoot Whitenose Haddock 'Bud' the II has spoken." I declared with glee

"If you get to give him a full name and a title then I do too, it's only fair after your horrific copycat syndrome made itself known to me."

"Go on then, we'll match."

"We are twins. We already match."

"Touche." 

He made a dramatic show of straightening out his arm and touching each of toothless' shoulders.

"I dub thee, Toothless Nightfury Haddock 'Bud' the I."

"See I'm a good sport about plagiarism."

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We finally started making our way up to the village when I got a whiff of something fishy on Hiccups vest. 

"Ugh, why do you smell like..." I leaned forward and sniffed the air surrounding my brother. "...eel?" 

"Oh Yeah!" He snapped his fingers and pulled his vest to the side. There, draped on his shoulder like it was an exotic fur, was the slimy smoked eel that we had put in the fish basket. 

"What in the world are you doing with that. You don't even like eel."

"Well when Toothless was eating breakfast this morning he stopped mid-way and started growling at none other than this, he was utterly terrified of it, It could come in handy during training."

That would've come in hand around the village 300 years ago. I mentally growled, maybe I was still a little grouchy. 

"You're right I probably will."

"You want some, just in case."

"No, you can have it I don't want to risk winning." It was only half a joke we both knew we couldn't afford to go against the monstrous nightmare, we didn't stand a chance.

We walked the rest of the way in tense silence. 

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Hideous Zippleback, great. In the dragon world they were practically the Thorsten twins hands down. Inseparable, Identical, annoying.  

We were separated into groups, as I was the odd one out I was placed as back up in the girls group though I was glad to be among my own, my brother looking like he would have liked backup. Of course as soon as the gates the green flammable gas that was the Zippleback trademark choked the arena. 

I suddenly felt something wet on my back. Apparently the other girls did too because the next second Ruffnut is yelling.

"Hey it's us, idiot." I agreed with the tail end of that statement. 

"Oh your butts are getting bigger we thought you were a dragon." He gave a chuckle after which I wanted to bash the indentation of his skull into the rock walls of this pit. 

Snotlout tried to fix the fumble by saying. "Not that there is anything wrong with a dragon-eske fig-" He was cut off by a flying bucket to the face served by Astrid.

The four of them quickly devolved into a brawl, I was the only one who had a bucket at this point. 

Then something odd happened.

I heard Hiccup before I saw him.

"Back." That was pretty much all he said but that wasn't the important part. It looked like he was herding the very frightened beast back into the pen with nothing but his hands. If I hadn't known the truth I would have been convinced that he was suddenly possessed by some magical creature. It sure looked like it.  

After getting the irate dragon back through the gate I watched him superstitiously throw the eel into the cage with it before shutting it behind him.

He turned around and looked embarrassed by the open mouthed fished eyed faces of wonderment our peers were giving him. I smirked.

"Ok is that it because I gotta- Yeah." He walked past us and grabbed the collar of my shirt and dragged me with him as he went.

Eventually we went home after a quick stop at the forge where he drew up a rudimentary sketch of a saddle.

"I can go home and finish the details, but... You wanna pull another all nighter with me."

I sighed jokingly.

"Fiiiiiinnnnnne."