Episode 15
Crash Course
"Speech"
'Thought'
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(3rd POV)
It had been a nearly a week since Cinderwing had returned to Dragon's Edge, and so far it had been a doozy as he's been secretly delivering letters between Heather and Fishlegs in place of the Terrible Terrors that would normally do it per Fishlegs request when Snotlout had gotten curious. Cinderwing hadn't minded of course, in fact it was quite exhilarating to sneak around Dragons Edge again, but instead of hiding from the riders to keep himself hidden, he was sneaking around them—sometimes in plain view—to get to Fishlegs' hut to deliver Heather's letters. He especially enjoyed toying around with Toothless after he had gotten a little too curious, Toothless had chased him around the Edge—and some of the nearby islands—each time, and each time Toothless had lost Cinder within the first few minutes of the chase. Stormfly knew, as Cinderwing saw no point in hiding it from her, she could smell both Heather's and Windshear's faint scent on him from a mile away so she would find out eventually, much sooner than anyone else. She was good at keeping it secret, especially when she had no reason or intention to tell the other dragons, but she did mention that she would tell Astrid if she found out how, which he was more than fine with.
It didn't take much longer before the twins started to get in on this game of chase, especially when it was Snotlout who convinced them that Fishlegs was possibly testing something that was explosive, and that he was having Cinder transport it because even he would never let them get their hands on that type of stuff. ...Unless it was special circumstances that would involve some Dragon Hunters. Other than that, Hiccup and Toothless had quite the adventure about two days ago, one that ended with them being saved by Dagur the Deranged. Yep, Toothless had told him—and only him—about it, and though he had only given Cinder the butt end of the story, Cinder had begun to remember most of what happened during that event. After all that, the only other thing Cinder's been doing was hanging with Stormfly, as well as training with her to help her achieve longer bursts of blue magnesium blasts.
Okay, enough with the recap, today the dragon riders were at one of the cliff side beaches of Dragon's Edge, taking shots at the cliff itself to collect boulders for the catapults. Cinderwing was helping out of course, and if he remembered correctly, they would soon or later encounter a Fireworm Queen, it would be his first time seeing one in person so he was quite excited. Both he and Toothless shot multiple low power plasma blasts at the cliff top, before a few fairly sized boulders began to fall from the top. "Hah!" Hiccup began cheerfully. "Great shooting, you two." He complemented, earning proud croons from both dragons. "Perfect for the catapults." He added, with Meatlug and Hookfang catching the boulders not a moment later. "Nice catch, girl." Fishlegs praised his dragon as they flew toward the pile of boulders they had gathered, with a net underneath to allow them to easily carry them off the ground, with Hookfang quickly passing in front of them. "Your athleticism is nothing short of breathtaking." He patted Meatlug's cheek, with said dragon attempting to lick her rider's hand only to accidentally drop their boulder. "Oops." She muttered with a shocked expression, with Fishlegs letting out a sheepish chuckle before he leaned left, allowing Meatlug to more easily turn back to get another boulder. "Whoo!" He exclaimed as she quickly sped up. "So fast!" He commented, pretending as if they didn't lose their boulder. "Good girl, Meatlug." Meatlug smiled with a hint of nervousness. "Yep, we definitely didn't lose our boulder." Cinderwing snorted, his acute hearing picking up her mumbling.
"They know that they don't have to worry so much about it, right?" Toothless queried in a more rhetorical fashion, knowing how timid the Gronckle and Viking duo can be at times. "Eeh, that's just how they are." Cinderwing replied to Toothless' mostly rhetorical query, moving his arms in a shrugging motion due to his wings currently being used for flight. A loud explosion suddenly sounded out from the twins direction, this was in fact just one of many surprisingly precise explosions that came out from both Barf & Belch's mouths as they carved the twins' faces into the cliff. "Yeah, okay, shoot another one." Tuffnut said as Barf began to spray the cliff with gas. "Little to the right." Ruffnut added, with the left head of the Zippleback complying. "Now go down, down." Tuffnut continued, with Belch finally igniting the gas once Barf finished spraying some lower down, causing another explosion. "Yes, perfect. Uh, nice shot." Tuffnut rushingly complemented. "Hit it again!"
The Zippleback quickly responded to their male rider's request, Barf rapidly spraying gas with Belch igniting it once more into an explosion. "Whoa!" Ruffnut exclaimed, before she shifted her posture, gazing at their creation with a ponderous gaze. "Hmm. What do you think?" She questioned her brother. "I think we need to chisel the jawline more." Tuffnut began, with a surprisingly good French accent even though none of them had met anyone who spoke the language, at least to Cinderwing's knowledge. "Make them more in and of our visage." Tuffnut finished, with a short pause of silence. "Agreed." Ruffnut nodded. Hookfang soon came to a stop above the sculpture, a net full of small boulders hanging from his chest, with an irritated Snotlout in tow. "Will you guys do something that's actually important?" He questioned irritably. "Yeah, you four always goof off while we do all the work. I'm fucking tired of it." Hookfang commented, with the quadruple of pranksters all scoffing in unison, with of course only the Zippleback able to understand him. "What could possibly be more important than this?" Tuffnut asked as he pointed to their sculpture, and Ruffnut crossed arms." Yeah. This is obviously more important./And fun." Barf & Belch said one after the other. Both Snotlout and Hookfang looked down to see the sculpture, which was a surprisingly near perfect display of the Thorston twins' faces. Both Cinder and Toothless flew a little closer to get a better view of the sculpture. "Hey, you gotta give credit where it's due. They did a great job." Toothless nodded in agreement to Cinderwing's comment. "They should really take this up as a hobby other than pranking." The orange-striped Night Fury added.
"I'm sick of this." Hookfang rumbled in agreement to his rider. "If these clowns aren't gonna pull their weight—." Snotlout began, gesturing a hand toward the twins before Ruffnut interrupted. "Hey, boyo! Never talk to a girl about their weight." She stated, with Tuffnut chuckling. "No wonder he can't land a girlfriend. Am I right?" He joked, raising his hand toward his sister for a high five, only to be denied by a shake of her head. Astrid let out a quick chuckle at the joke, with Cinderwing, Toothless and Stormfly letting out short snorts of amusement. Hiccup let out a barely audible sigh. "Guys, let's get all these catapults loaded before the sun goes down?" He said tiredly.
They all turned to the forest at the sudden sound of trees creaking as they fell, closely followed by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching. "What was that?" Astrid asked, squinting her eyes. "Probable excitement." Cinderwing said, eyes shining with anticipation as a grin grew on his lips, getting confused glances from the other dragons. "I don't know, but it's crumbling my eyelids." Ruffnut replied, gesturing toward her face sculpture that had a few pieces falling off. "Whatever it is, it's big." Stormfly said, as she, and most of the other dragons began to move erratically in the air with worried anticipation of what could be coming their way. Another loud thump sounded out. "Whoa! What are you doing, Hookfang?!" Snotlout asked with a near unreadable hint of worry, another tree getting knocked down a moment after. "Somethings coming towards us." Hiccup stated as the falling trees were now visible, showing that whatever was knocking them down was heading straight towards them. "Something big!" Fishlegs exclaimed as the mysterious creature—that was obviously a large dragon—was getting closer. "Oh, Thor! Oh, Thor!" Fishlegs whimpered.
"We need to leave." Toothless lightly screeched to Hiccup. "Let's get out of here." Hiccup said, almost as if he understood the Night Fury, who had immediately turned to fly away in the opposite direction. Cinderwing smiled with amusement as the others quickly followed behind Toothless, be he himself turned to follow with a chuckle. The dragon riders continued to speed through the forest as the mysterious dragon continued its destructive path toward them, with Stormfly and Hookfang being unable to gain their normal speed or get as high an altitude as the others due to them carrying the boulder filled nets. "Stormfly!" Astrid's eyes immediately became filled with worry when she noticed this. Hiccup turned to look over his shoulder. "Astrid! Snotlout! Cut your boulders loose." He called out. Snotlout carefully—but quickly—turned around on Hookfang's saddle to make an attempt to pull the knots loose, trying and failing multiple times. "I'm trying. It's tangled!" Just as he announced this, Astrid grunted as she cut one of the ropes, inadvertently dropping her boulders down toward Snotlout and Hookfang.
Snotlout glanced back to see the boulders heading towards him before yelping. Cinderwing was quick to destroy the boulders with a burst of plasma blasts before Hiccup could tell Toothless to do the same, unfortunately, this had frightened Hookfang—though he would never admit it—enough for to lose focus, his instincts immediately taking over to try and remove the nets with a foot, getting it caught in the net and throwing him off balance enough to where he was forced to crash land after struggling to remove his foot. Snotlout grunted as they hit the ground, his eyes widening as he saw the dust cloud closing in as it knocked down a few more trees before he began to scream, with the dust cloud falling to reveal a bright yellow, ten-legged dragon with red eyes, screeching before she suddenly stopped the moment she recognized Snotlout and Hookfang. "Are you alright?" She roared in a more relaxed tone. "The Fireworm Queen?" Hiccup said out loud, with everyone else beginning to calm down, and Cinderwing to land just in front of the downed Hookfang with a mischievous smile, earning a curious, but wary glance from the yellow dragon. "Heh, didn't think you'd fall for a queen." Cinder joked. "Don't even." Hookfang grumbled, not fully realizing that an old companion was behind him. Snotlout chuckled nervously, with Hookfang glancing back to side eye him. "I pretended to be scared, so the dragons wouldn't be." Snotlout let out a short scream as Hookfang quickly got up and turned around to greet the Fireworm Queen, with Snotlout laughing as he got back on his dragon's saddle.
"Hi, Queenie! Uhh, how are you?" He asked, nuzzling her nose in a dragon's version of a hug. "Not good. I have come to find you to request for help in retaking, and protecting my hive from a particularly large Egg-Eater." Cinderwing walked closer to Queenie as she replied to Hookfang, stopping just a little further away from her than the Monstrous Nightmare was, a safe distance especially since she still lightly hissed at him. "He's alright, he's cool. And of course we'll help." Hookfang quickly said to calm her down, getting a wary hum from the Fireworm. "First time meeting a Fireworm, let alone a Queen, and I have to say I was expecting you to have fire constantly surrounding your body." Queenie narrowed her eyes at Cinderwing, her scales brightening to a scorching yellow as she heated up, burning away the grass beneath her, and even under Cinderwing and Hookfang. "Hmm, toasty." Cinder grinned, before a tail spine pierced the ground near his paws, getting him to glance up at Stormfly. "Can you please stop provoking her?" Cinderwing rolled his eyes as he turned his head back toward the Fireworm. "Alright, alright, Birdie. I'll stop messing with Hookie's girlfriend." This had earned an immediate glare from the Monstrous Nightmare. "She's not my girlfriend!" He growled, getting a confused tilt of the head from Queenie, who did not understand their use of human terms. She then shook her head before continuing to explain her situation, threateningly hissing at Hiccup and Toothless when they landed a bit too close for her liking. "Whoa, no, no, no, no." Hiccup raised a hand. "Take it easy, girl." He said with a calming tone in an attempt to calm her down, only to get an annoyed huff from Queenie. "Just trying to figure out what's going on."
"Curse our language barrier." Queenie murmured, before making a few more gestures, turning to walk away before quickly coming back. "Even though they don't understand us beyond body language, we'll help you either way." Hookfang stated, with Cinderwing waving a hand dismissively. "It's not too hard to get them to understand you, as long as you know how to do it." He shot a miniature plasma blast at the ground to get the riders attention just as Snotlout was about to speak up, pointing at Queenie before making a walking gesture toward her with his claws, before finally ending it by holding out his right arm in her direction, and waving his left arm around in a half clockwise motion. Snotlout and the twins stared at the Night Fury in confusion, whilst Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs all glanced at each other before nodding. "She wants us to follow her." Hiccup said, with Snotlout crossing his arms. "I was just about to say that." He grumbled truthfully. Cinderwing glanced at the other dragons with an arrogant expression. "My charade skills have become impeccable."
"Follow her? Where? Why?" Fishlegs queried. "Maybe it has something to do with these." Hiccup pointed out the claw marks on the left of Queenie's bottom jaw. Stormfly and Meatlug finally landed on the ground behind Toothless a moment after. "Dragon Hunters?" Astrid theorized questioningly. "If I had to guess, she needs help defending herself." Hiccup assumed, getting an immediate snort of laughter from Toothless and Stormfly. "It was close enough." Cinder mumbled. "And, since the Fireworm Queen and Hookfang have a history, he's the only dragon she trusts." Fishlegs stated, earning the smallest of nods from Queenie, one that was only noticed by the dragons. "Well, if she came looking for back-up, she came to the right dragon. "Snotlout began, praising Hookfang—who had smirked—as usual. "Those hunters want to mess with the Queen? They're gonna have to go through me and Hookfang." He finished confidently. "Hell yea!" Hookfang screeched. "Come on, Your Highness. Lead the way!" Snotlout said.
"Finally!" Queenie roared, turning to fly off in the direction she originally came from. Cinderwing looked at Hookfang with a cheeky smile. "Alright, gang!" Cinderwing began cheerfully,spreading his wings in preparation for flight. "Let's go help Hookfang's girlfriend!" He immediately launched into the air, avoiding the stream of fire that the Monstrous Nightmare had shot at him. "She's not my girlfriend!" Hookfang launched into the air after him, with Meatlug, Barf & Belch being the first to follow behind him. Stormfly glanced at Toothless, chuckling. "I'm still surprised those two have become best friends." She said, taking to the skies, closely followed by Toothless. "I can sort of get it, but still don't really understand how either." He replied with his own chuckle.
(Scene break)
"Stay close, Hookfang. Come on, on her tail, come on."
It has been a couple hours now, the sun was beginning to go down and they were still following Queenie to her nest. Cinderwing had begun flying upside-down in boredom during the first hour, and on the second hour he began speeding up until he had passed the Fireworm Queen, then circled back until he was behind Meatlug before repeating the process. "Snotlout, wait up!" Cinderwing blinked slowly as he passed Toothless and Hookfang and honestly, it sometimes baffled him that his fellow Night Fury couldn't catch up to Hookfang or Stormfly as easily as he could, until he remembered that Toothless always had Hiccup on his back in order to fly in the first place. Queenie glanced at him as he slowly began to pass her. "Hey, you." Cinder glanced back at her, before slowing his pace to match hers. "Yo." He greeted her casually with a short wave. She looked at him strangely with confusion before continuing. "Why do you keep doing that?" She questioned, with Cinder making a gesture for her to elaborate, one that she didn't understand. [Sigh]. "Can you please elaborate?" Queenie grumbled. "Why'd you keep going around us all in circles?" She elaborated, the irritation becoming more evident in her tone.
Cinderwing stared at her flatly, before shrugging his forearms. "I mean, I know, but I also don't know. It's pretty confusing." He replied, not saying what he was originally going to, as it would come off as offensive and disrespectful to the Fireworm, especially since she was clearly very skittish about getting to her nest as fast as possible. The fact that she started a conversation, even if it was probably out of annoyance, would be baffling to anyone close to her. "The easiest way to explain it is...." Cinder hummed thoughtfully as he pondered how to explain. "...that after a while of doing something; like flying for example, I get really bored and feel the need to do something else." He glanced at her. "Usually, Toothless, Hookfang and I would race to stave off the boredom, but we can't because we're following you to your nest." Queenie seemingly—to Cinderwing—took that to offence, so he quickly elaborated. "Like, don't get me wrong. Helping you take back your nest is very important, and I'm glad to help a friend of Hookfang's." The Fireworm Queen stayed silent to allow him to finish, but not without a huff of slight indignation. "It's just... well you wouldn't understand it unless you've been around the same humans that I have, but the human terms are called; autism and ADHD, the former basically means that I think very differently to another Night Fury—Toothless being the only other one—and the latter being that I have trouble focusing on something for extended periods of time without something interesting happening." He finished, basically explaining ADHD in a nutshell.
Yea, he had that as well, but it was pretty minor, that and the Dragon Riders were an interesting group overall. "You know, I don't know why I haven't just been talking with Birdie this whole time." Cinder realized. "So, uh, I'll see you when we get there." He shifted his wings to an upward angle, allowing himself to essentially be pushed back by the wind until he was next to the Deadly Nadder. Queenie sighed, she supposed the Orange-striped Night Fury was an interesting fellow, so she'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he was truthful about not meaning to offend her.
It was about 20 minutes later when Queenie flew down toward a cavern entrance, warily looking left and right before skittering inside, the dragon riders landing at the entrance before following her in one by one due to space restrictions. Astrid was the first to notice that something was off. "No arrows, no footprints." She stated as she observed the area around her. There was no trace of hunter activity whatsoever. "No sign of Viggo or Ryker. I don't get it." She finished with a confused tone and expression. Snotlout glanced back at her. "She didn't do all that damage to herself." He stated, quietly hoping that what he'd just said was true. "So, if it's not hunters then it's something else." The Dragon Riders continued to follow the Fireworm Queen in silence, passing by many stalactites and stalagmites as Queenie followed a specific path of turns and straightaways. It was getting to the point where they were more than deep enough within this cave system that they could immediately get lost if they were to lose track of the glowing yellow stoker class dragon.
A while later, Meatlug walked through a small puddle of some kind of green goo, though she hadn't paid it any mind. A moment after that, something had dripped down from the cave ceiling and onto Fishlegs' arm, he lifted it to see what it was, revealing that it was the same goo as the one from the puddle. "Huh?" He glanced around warily. "Guys, I have a sneaking suspicion we may not be alone." He voiced his suspicion as they continued their way through the cavern. Both Cinder and Toothless' ear nubs twitched at the sound of rocks falling, rolling across the ground and being crushed. "Something's digging up rocks up ahead." Cinder stated, alerting the other dragons before they could hear the noise. He crouched down to a prowling stance, swiftly passing Queenie as she entered a larger cavern space, turning a corner to spot a large black, yellow-striped dragon growing as it dug into the wall as if it were searching for something. 'A mystery class dragon if I remember. Don't remember the name though.' Cinder mused. Queenie was next to turn the corner, hissing quietly when she saw the dragon, recognizing it as the one who had chased her out of her home and the one who was trying to find her hidden hive and devour her unborn hatchlings. "What is it, Your Majesty?" Snotlout asked, it was a more rhetorical question than anything, but he knew how smart the dragons were.
"Egg-eater!" She snarled, uncaring for whether or not he understood her.
The Dragon riders—still riding their dragons, mind you—slowly turned the corner to the mystery dragon, with Fishlegs and Hiccup immediately assuming it as a possible boulder class dragon due to its size and build. "What is that?" Astrid whispered—a mixture of confusion and curiosity in her tone—yet getting no answer. Fishlegs opened his pouch, pulling out a deck of cards that were seemingly hand made, quickly shuffling through them. Tuffnut soon noticed this when he'd glanced at Fishlegs. "What are those?" He asked with genuine curiosity, his query had also gotten the attention of the others, causing them all to glance in the same direction. "These are my dragon cards." The big-boned Viking answered, not bothering to lift his head as he continued looking through the cards. "I've been working on them for months." This had earned Cinder's curiosity, he had essentially no memory of the dragon cards—not including the fact that his memory of the show's events would always come and go—but from what he could recall, they were never seen or mentioned again. Either way, he quietly trotted up to Fishlegs and Meatlug, followed along by Toothless, to get a closer look at the cards, with Hiccup and Fishlegs soon entering one of their nerdy conversations as Snotlout would put it. Cinderwing snorted.
"Nerds." Toothless was quick to growl at him. "Hiccup's not a nerd." He retorted, knowing the word to be an insult as it was usually used by Snotlout. "Yes, he is." Cinder rebuffed Toothless' retort, using his wing to slap his shoulder. "I knew it." Toothless was unable to get back at him when Fishlegs spoke up after finding the card he was looking for, forcing the two Night Fury's to cease their bickering if they wanted to know anything useful about the mystery dragon. "It's a Cavern Crasher. I've never seen one in the flesh." Fishlegs soon began to excitedly mumble about the information on the cards. "Ooh." He chuckled. "Mystery class. Whoa!" Grinning, Cinderwing turned his head to look at Toothless, who had stared back at him with a deadpan. "Nerd." Stormfly and Meatlug sighed at their antics, Hookfang huffed with irritation, Barf & Belch simply chuckled quietly, and finally Queenie growled silently with impatience. Her growling had quickly gotten the attention of the riders, so Hiccup quickly spoke up to snap Fishlegs out of his trance. "Uh, Fishlegs?" Said Viking glanced up from his cards to see everyone staring at him. "Care to share, or...." Hiccup queried. Fishlegs chuckled sheepishly before glancing back at his cards, only this time reading the information out loud. "The Cavern Crasher is a scavenging mystery class dragon. It's known for pushing dragons out of their homes and taking over."
"So, basically what a Queenie already told us." Cinder commented with a deadpan. "Why would it do that?" Astrid asked, observing as the Cavern Crasher continued to dig up stone. "I'm not entirely sure." Fishlegs admitted. "Warmth? Shelter? Protection?" He theorized. Queenie turned to Cinderwing. "Can't you do that thing with paws that you did earlier?" Cinderwing glanced around the immediate area, not finding anything that could pass for an egg, and he didn't have the time to carve something either. "I could, but there's nothing here that looks like an egg." He denied, though he was a bit glad that he wouldn't have to use charades to communicate with the humans. "I find it hard to believe a dragon that big would need protection." Astrid commented with a sliver of wariness, the only dragon that she could think of that would have a dragon like the Cavern Crasher needing protection from being the Red Death. "That's why the Queen came to us for help." Hiccup said, Queenie rolled her eyes.
"I only went for one of you." She clearly still hadn't placed her full trust within the riders. "She couldn't get it out of here all by herself." Hiccup finished. "Blah, blah, blah." Snotlout mocked. "We found the culprit. Now let's get to work, and am-scray this agon-dray." He added with a touch of pig-Latin. "Yeah!" Hookfang growled, rushing toward the Crasher. "Snotlout, I wouldn't...." Fishlegs was too slow to warn his fellow rider as Hookfang's sharp roar had already alerted the Crasher of their presence. The Cavern Crasher turned, easily spotting Hookfang, growling ferociously before charging towards him with incredible speed for something its size. Hookfang immediately shot a stream of fire at the Crasher that was seemingly ineffective against the dragon as it simply washed over its body before it responded with its own blast of greenish flames aimed toward the Monstrous Nightmare. Snotlout yelped. "Ah! Come on, Hookfang. Watch out!" Hookfang attempted to pounce on the Crasher, only to miss as it scurried away, climbing up onto the ceiling.
"Aw, fuck." Cinderwing's gaze immediately shifted to the ceiling, before he twisted to shoot a rapidly charged plasma blast at the Crasher when he heard it behind him. Unfortunately, his blast had only gotten it to retreat back up onto the ceiling with an angered snarl, before it hopped down behind Stormfly and shot a fire blast that had nearly hit Astrid had the Nadder not dodged in time. Stormfly growled when her magnesium blast had missed her target. "Are there two of them?!" Astrid questioned worriedly, still a bit in shock from nearly being scorched. "Nope!" Fishlegs answered with a hint of excitement. "Extremely fast, especially for a dragon that big." Caught in his own enthusiasm, Fishlegs failed to notice that the Cavern Crasher was above him, about to clamp its jaws onto his head. Luckily enough for him, Hiccup had. "Fishlegs!" Toothless shot a plasma blast at the Crasher, Cinderwing following suit a moment after. The Cavern Crasher quickly scurried onto the ground and away from the dragon riders, with most of the dragon shooting their fire blasts at it. "Get him, bud!" Hiccup exclaimed, with Toothless firing another plasma blast that briefly stunned it, allowing Cinder—who had climbed onto the ceiling—to hit it with an electrical charged plasma blast that had earned a short roar of pain.
Growling, the Cavern Crasher crouched a little lower to the ground, green slime rapidly seeping from its back before it began sprinting past everyone, leaving a trail of slime. "Look out!" Toothless and Stormfly jumped out of the way of the Crasher before it rammed into them. Cinderwing's grip on the ceiling tightened. "Ugh, that's disgusting." He mumbled his comment as the slime covered dragon made its way toward an exit. Snotlout briefly screamed with irritation when he noticed this. "No, you don't!" Hookfang shot a stream of fire at the Crasher just as it reached the exit, only for the slime to burst into flames, following the trail of slime until fire surrounded the dragon riders. Everyone screamed in fright at the sudden burst of flames, with Cinderwing being more disgusted than anything. "Oh! What is that stuff?" Snotlout asked, equally as disgusted as Cinder, who had decided to remain on the ceiling for the time being.
"Now, that, my friend, is a flaming trail of awesome!" Tuffnut exclaimed, amazed with how hot the flames became in such a short time. "See if they're still awesome when you're the one getting burned by them!" Stormfly snapped at him, not that he understood her fierce chirps. "Ah!" Astrid pushed her body a little closer toward her dragon's neck, who had also lifted her wings to protect her rider from the flames the best she could. "We can't get through these flames." Astrid called out, earning disgruntled expressions from the twins. "Okay, and then Astrid swoops in and kills the fun." Tuffnut said with a mild amount of annoyance. Cinderwing screeched in surprise as the cave ceiling rumbled, the once small—but sturdy—stalactites he hung suddenly collapsed, causing him to fall directly into the flames. "Ow! Shit!" He cursed at the intense heat of the flames—though it wasn't as bad as being hit by lightning—rushing to where Toothless was as there was just enough space for them both to fit.
"Whoa!" Fishlegs exclaimed, nearly being hit by a falling stalactite, with small rocks falling on Astrid and the twins. "Ah!" She grunted. "Hiccup!" She called out, hoping that he had some sort of plan to get out of here. The stalactites continued to fall with some crashing into the ground in front of both Cinder and Toothless. "Whoa!" Hiccup exclaimed. "Got any ideas?" Toothless asked Cinder, who had shaken his head in denial. "Not any non-destructive ones!" Queenie soon screeched with irritation. "Move!" She laid down onto the flames, momentarily sniffing out a small portion, but more than enough to allow the dragon riders to make their way through the exit that the Cavern Crasher had taken. "Okay, everyone out!" Snotlout exclaimed, with Hookfang being the first to leave the fiery cavern as well as leading everyone through an assortment of tunnels before Queenie skittered off into a nearby tunnel. "Whew!" Fishlegs exhaled loudly. "It would appear that we're in the middle of a territorial dispute." He commented after putting together everything that'd just happened.
A serious expression quickly crossed Hiccup's face. "Okay, guys, the Queen needs our help, so we're gonna—." He was quickly interrupted by Snotlout. "No, no, no. No time for thinking. We need action." He said with intensity. "That's why she came to me and Hookfang." He added. Cinderwing glanced at the Monstrous Nightmare knowing, before nodding. "Yeah, Snotlout, that's fine, but—." Snotlout cut Hiccup off once again, a softer expression dawning his face. "She saved Hookfang's life, and a Jorgensen always repays his debts." Snotlout stated as the roof was slowly starting to collapse once more. "So that's exactly what we're going to do. We're gonna save her life." This had only served to frustrate Hiccup further. "But you can't go by yourself!" He yelled. "I'm not by myself. I'm with Hookfang." Snotlout countered, no matter how poorly it seemed. "And we're doing this alone. Now, Hookie!" Hookfang rushed out through the tunnel that a Queenie had taken, just as the entrance had begun to cave in behind him, but not before Cinderwing had slipped through to follow them into the lower chambers
It didn't take long for Snotlout to start complaining about why Cinder had followed them before Hookfang growled at him to shut up, leaving them to continue flying through the tunnel in silence. "You know I can find her pretty easily if you let me, right?" Cinder warbled, he had echolocation after all, so why make this any more difficult? "This tunnel has not had two splitting chambers so far." Hookfang stated the obvious. "So, I don't see the problem in taking the lead." He added, briefly glancing back at the Night Fury. "But... you can take the lead if there's a split path." Cinderwing smirked, but kept his comments to himself for the moment.
It didn't take long before they had caught up to Queenie, the Fireworm Queen's position being given away by the light she naturally emitted from her body. "There she is!" Snotlout exclaimed when he noticed her glowing yellow light. "I see you brought one of the Dark Chasers." She murmured, though it sounded just like any other screech she'd made to the human. "Listen, uh, Queenie," Snotlout began, coincidentally giving her the same name that Hookfang had given her. "You brought us here because you needed our help—." He was unable to finish as Queenie began to shoot a stream of fire into a narrow tunnel—one that she could fit into no problem—melting the rock until there was enough room for everyone to pass through unhindered. "I think it's a shortcut, Hookie." Hookfang rolled his eyes at the obvious statement. "I can see that." He muttered. "Good idea!" Snotlout complemented, though the yelling was quite needless.
"Done." Queenie murmured, before skittering into the shortcut. Cinderwing looked up at Hookfang. "Fiery hotheads first." He gestured to the tunnel. "Oh, you really shouldn't have." Hookfang replied with a roll of his eyes, making sure to smack the Night Fury hard with his tail as flew into the tunnel, with a chuckling Cinderwing following behind him. The moment the tunnel opened up, spreading out into a larger tunnel that was a little bigger than before, Queenie began to take flight once more to regain her pace. After a few minutes, Snotlout began to feel nervous with being in such a small space for so long. "Uh, I'm not sure the Cavern Crasher is down here." He said, glancing around nervously. "No, shit." Cinderwing snorted. "Wow, we're deep." Snotlout commented. "This might be the deepest I've ever been." Hookfang began snickering, having already been infected with Cinderwing's human based humor long ago after many different questions about what he knew.
"I don't like this, Hookfang." Snotlout quietly whined. "Maybe we should go back." Hookfang snarled at the terrible suggestion. "Are ye fucking mad?!" He harshly wriggled his head, attempting to hit Snotlout with his horns. "Hookfang! Ow, what the-?!" Snotlout yelled, with said dragon only calming down when Cinderwing had shot Snotlout's helmet with a miniature plasma blast. "That was by far the most idiotic suggestion he's ever made." Cinder snarled. "Okay, okay. It was just a suggestion." Snotlout hurriedly said. "Brainstorming. There's no wrong answers in brainstorming." He added. "I have the feeling you just gave the first wrong answer." Hookfang rumbled mockingly.
"We're not far." Queenie stated as they continued their way through the tunnel.
(Scene break)
After flying through a new set of tunnels, Queenie began to lead the other two dragons down a tunnel that had led them down into another chamber, with the Fireworm Queen landing on the ground—both Hookfang and Cinderwing doing the same—before trotting toward a chamber entrance that had light coming from inside. After entering the chamber, Snotlout, Hookfang and Cinderwing's eyes shone with awe, memorized at the sight of the honeycomb-like structure within it. "Is it strange to think that this is beautiful in its own way?" Cinder asked, to which Hookfang shook his head. "No, I don't think so." He replied with honesty. They watched as Queenie carefully climbed the rocks that were surrounded by the "honeycombs", carefully observing them for even the slightest hint of movement. "Now I get it." Snotlout realized in a calm tone, having dismounted Hookfang's saddle a moment earlier. "That Crasher thing doesn't just push dragons out for no reason. It's scavenging for eggs." He gestured to the honeycomb-shaped eggs that covered the cavern walls. "It's been trying to get here all along. To her hive." Snotlout placed his hands on his hips. "What a jerk of a dragon." He added. "It really is." Hookfang softly growled in agreement.
"This is why she came for us, Hookfang. She knew we would help. And that's what we're gonna do." Hookfang nodded in agreement, gazing up at Queenie. Snotlout turned to him. "Uh, did you hear me, Hookfang?" Snotlout questioned. "Help her." He gestured toward the Fireworm Queen. "Oh, right. Uh, don't know if she'll let me touch her eggs though." Hookfang chirped as he walked over to the honeycomb shaped eggs. "Jeez, what's wrong with you?" Snotlout asked rhetorically, crossing his arms. Cinderwing observed Queenie as she checked on her eggs, he didn't even bother trying to count how many there could be. "I pity you if you had to lay all these eggs like other dragons." Queenie glanced down at Cinder strangely, before turning back to continue what she was doing. "You are a strange one, Dark... no, Cinderwing." She commented, pausing briefly before using his name.
A moment later, one of the eggs near Queenie's snout began to shake, slowly shifting towards the edge of the other eggs it was on before Queenie gently grabbed it with her jaws, then climbed down to the ground. She turned her head towards Hookfang, watching fondly as he caught a newly hatched Fireworm with his snout when it fell from its egg. She then turned to Snotlout, slowly walking closer before gently dropping the egg into his now outstretched arms. Snotlout glanced up at Queenie, his nervousness clear on his face. "You want me to.... Me?" Queenie nodded. "I'm Snotlout." He chuckled. "I'm completely irresponsible." Queenie began purring, before nodding in affirmative. "Okay. Okay. Okay, I got it. I got you." Snotlout muttered, with Queenie walking away to find more eggs that were about ready to hatch.
Whilst this interaction was happening, Cinderwing had noticed an egg on the higher end of the structure beginning to slide out of its slot, so he walked over to where it may hit the ground if it did fall. Whilst normally, his first instinct would be to get Queenie's attention, she was in the midst of giving Snotlout an egg to hold, and by that point it had already begun to fall. In quick succession, Cinderwing stood on his hind legs and caught the egg before it could hit the ground, carefully inspecting it to make sure there were no cracks. The egg itself looked like a hexagonal prism, or a lantern with a spiky appearance. Cinderwing's eyes became slits when the egg had begun to hatch, cracks began to form along the tinted-glass-like surface of the top of the prism before the incredibly small Fireworm broke through with an adorable roar. He watched as the little one crawled onto his paw, attempting to climb up to his shoulders before he gently guided it back to his paw.
By this point, the interaction between Queenie and Snotlout had ended, with the mother dragon holding her wary gaze on Cinderwing, watching him handle the newly hatched Fireworm with surprising ease and care. "See, nothing to worry about." Hookfang said, Queenie humming in response. "He's very gentle with younglings, clearly even more so with newly hatched hatchlings." He added, to which Queenie sighed with reluctant acceptance. "I suppose you were correct." Hookfang then walked over to Snotlout as Queenie climbed the wall to find more loose eggs, with Snotlout having just finished singing a lullaby to the baby dragon in his hands. "My mom used to sing that to me." He said softly, his fondness filling his tone. "Oh, it's just so freaking cute," he cooed. And so freaking [screams] hot!" The Fireworm rapidly began to gain its natural heat in his hands, causing Snotlout to scream in pain even more loudly. "Get it off!" Snotlout harshly waved his hand to get the Fireworm off in an instinctual response to its intense heat—though he had no intention of doing harm to the hatchling—eventually throwing it, before gasping in relief when Hookfang caught it on his snout. The Monstrous Nightmare quickly returned the hatchling to Snotlout after he removed his helmet, dropping it into the helmet just before Queenie turned to glance down at them, curious at the sound they were making. Snotlout briefly chuckled sheepishly. "Baa, baa, black yak. Go, you crazy black yak." He sang, before glancing back up at her with a nervous laugh, to which she tilted her head curiously.
Cinderwing huffed indignantly at Snotlout. 'He should never be allowed to hold another hatchling after this, ever again.' He thought angrily, visibly pissed at the fact that Snotlout had thrown a baby dragon, no matter how unintentional it was. He glanced back at the little Fireworm when he felt gain its fire, which was actually pretty hot for such a small creature, singing soft coos and warbles to calm it down from its brief tantrum of him not being its mother/Queen before it walked over to where Queenie had gathered the rest of her newborn hatchlings. Cinder was careful to watch his step, mindful of the little dragons, it got to the point where he simply began to slowly slide his feet across the ground, gently pushing the Fireworms out of the way before he was finally able lower his paw to the ground to allow the Fireworm to slide off, making sure to only place his free paw on the ground where there were no hatchlings.
[Screech!] [Screech!]
[Screech!] [Screech!]
Cinderwing slightly winced at their screeching, barely needing to glance around him to see that he was surrounded by the hatchling Fireworms. He sighed. "How am I supposed to get out of this predicament—and they're climbing on me now." A deadpan expression crossed his face, which only deepened when Queenie—surprisingly enough—started laughing at him. He turned to look up at her as she was currently on the wall. "You're really laughing at this?" Cinder used his wings to gesture to his own body, as his paws were currently preoccupied being smothered Fireworm hatchlings. "Is it really so preposterous for me to laugh at what I find adorable?" She queried honestly, tilting her head. Cinderwing nodded. "It is when you," he pointed at her with his tail. "Have mostly been hostile toward me, I'm surprised that you even let me near your hive let alone hold your young." Queenie hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose you'd be right to think that, and I have been hostile toward you." She then climbed down, walking toward him to speak face to face, her hatchlings immediately scurrying away.
"...But, seeing how close you are to Hookfang, and the amount of praise he's been giving you in an attempt to get me to tolerate you. It has... slightly changed my view on you." Her eyes quickly narrowed. "But make no mistake, if you even leave a scratch on my hatchlings I—." She began her threat, only to be interrupted when Cinder had unintentionally placed a paw on her snout when he had raised it in a gesture for her to calm down, the audacity of this action shocking her into silence. "Ok, ok. I get it. Motherly rage, you'll burn me alive with the fire of the sun." He paused as he noticed that his paw was touching her snout, before slowly pulling it away and onto the ground. "Sorry." Cinder apologized, earning an annoyed, yet embarrassed, huff from the Fireworm Queen. "Just... don't ever do that again." She muttered before moving to gather all her newborn hatchlings into a single area. "Duly noted." Cinder nodded, before moving to assist.
It didn't take long to gather up all the hatchlings, it was pretty easy since they all just listened to their mother. He didn't really understand why most dragons feared Fireworms, the heat they naturally emitted from their bodies was more than tolerable, though he supposed that they would burn you tremendously in high numbers. Though in Cinder's opinion, they were all fucking adorable, and as mentioned before, the heat they emit was more than tolerable for him to handle. He glanced at Hookfang. "You know—." Cinderwing was interrupted by a loud roar that echoed across the chamber, frightening the hatchlings and causing them to screech instinctively at the sound of danger. "Egg-eater!" Queenie hissed, all of them turning to the chamber entrance as the roars of feral hunger continued. Snotlout quickly began guiding the Fireworms further away from the chamber entrance. "We'll just get them out of here. That's all." As he said this, more dozens Fireworms immediately began to hatch, falling from their eggs and onto the ground.
"Oh, of course!" Snotlout placed a hand on his helmet. "Isn't this just my luck!" He complained, with the freshly hatched quickly joining their siblings in screeching at danger. "[shushing] Please be quiet. Please be quiet." He pleaded. "QUIET!" Queenie roared loudly, though since the Fireworms had just hatched, they had no intention of listening to anyone. Snotlout looked up at her. "As a dragon expert, I don't think that's gonna help right now." Cinderwing—still mindful of where he stepped—walked a little closer to the chamber entrance as Snotlout had begun to sing a lullaby to the hatchlings. "🎶Hush, little Fireworm. Don't you roar. 🎶Or that thing's coming through the floor." The hatchlings were beginning to quiet down... surprisingly enough. "If it does then we're all done. 🎶Cause it's gonna fry us like the sun." It was a terrible lullaby that surprisingly succeeded in its purpose, though it didn't stop the three adult dragons from staring at him with an; What the fuck was that, look of slight bewilderment.
Snotlout sighed in relief, but he only had a brief moment of respite before the hatchlings began to screech again, only much louder this time. "Why do babies always make you pay like that?" Snotlout questioned, to which Queenie tilted her head. Cinderwing bent down so he could be somewhat eye level with the hatchlings, before he began whistling a calming tune, one of the few types of music from his past that he could remember clearly enough to use in the moment. [Ninjago overture: slowed]. The sudden sound had quickly gotten the hatchlings attention, as well as getting them to quiet down for as long as the tune lasted. Cinderwing sat up, sending a smug expression toward Snotlout, who had waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I guess yours was better." Unfortunately, the silence was short-lived, as another loud roar sounded out from the chamber entrance. Cinderwing sighed. "I swear, when I have hatchlings of my own the first thing I'm gonna teach them is when to be quiet when there's danger on the way."
"Yeah, make sure to tell Storms that when you're about to have hatchlings together." Hookfang teased with a brief chipper smile, before turning his gaze back towards the chamber entrance. Cinderwing didn't even bother to refute his teasing, as he was more concerned about how the roaring had suddenly stopped when the chamber began to shake, with dust falling from the ceiling along with a few very small pebbles. "Okay, guys, this is it." Snotlout began doing his best to sound confident. "It's us four against that huge, mucus-shooting, nasty killer dragon." Cinderwing huffed. 'Oh, he would not want to know the things I have done to the Dragon Hunter grunts.' He mused. Snotlout's confidence quickly died down as he glanced at each of the other three dragons. "Or... maybe the three of you can take this one." All three of them snarled at Snotlout, with Cinder smacking his helmet off with his tail. "Ow!" Snotlout whined. "Okay, okay, it was just a suggestion." He said in his defense. "A stupid suggestion." Queenie muttered. "Well look at that, you're catching up to speed already." She was confused as to what Cinder was referring to, not knowing that it was how they usually insulted Snotlout's bad suggestions.
Snotlout took a few deep breaths before brandishing his axe, a renewed confident expression crossing his face. "It's go time, dragons." He quipped. It suddenly got quiet, too quiet. The entire chamber had stilled, the only sound to be heard being the low growls of the adult dragons, and the frightened chirps of the hatchlings. Before the Cavern Crasher suddenly burst out from a newly created hole above the chamber entrance with a loud, ferocious roar that echoed across Queenie's hive. Crawling down from its dragon-made entrance, the Crasher let out another roar as Snotlout tightened his grip on his axe. "Hey, Crasher." He greeted rhetorically with a slightly crazed smile. "Nice of you to show up. We were expecting you." The Fireworm hatchlings soon resumed their screeching a moment after he finished, the Cavern Crasher licking its lips before sprinting towards them.
"Queenie, now!" Snotlout quickly exclaimed as he raised his axe, said Fireworm Queen following—more so on her own obligation to protect her hive—his command, shooting a continuous stream of fire that created a small wall in flames in front of the Crasher. Green slime exuded from its back before it began to slowly push against the flames until Queenie was forced to stop, unable to continue the stream of fire before it lost most of its firepower. The Crasher roared threateningly at her, with Cinderwing creeping closer by an inch. "Okay, that didn't work so good." Snotlout stated, glancing back at his dragon. "Do we have a plan B?" He asked rhetorically. "No? Probably should've had a plan B." He muttered. Hookfang glanced at Cinder, both dragons nodding to each other before firing plasma and fire above the Crasher, causing a portion of the large boulders to fall from the ceiling and onto the predatorial, egg-eating dragon.
"Good thinking, you two." Snotlout praised. Cinderwing growled. "Don't celebrate so early." He said as the Crasher snarled from under the rubble. "Oh, that would be down right horrifying in the right setting." Cinder commented, disgusted with how the Crasher slipped out of the rubble with a flattened skeleton that inflated with slime oozing from its back. "Die!!" Queenie screeched, wings splayed out to make herself appear larger. The Crasher roared back at her, spewing combustible slime from its tail, onto her face before blasting her with green fire that caused the slime to violently burst into flames, the Fireworm Queen screeching in pain before falling to the ground, with the Crasher knocking her aside in quick succession. Cinderwing snarled at the Crasher, who was larger than him in terms of mass, jumping in its way as it attempted to get past him and to the hatchlings, lightning sparking across his scales.
"Hookfang! Hatchlings!" Snotlout exclaimed with urgency, pointing toward the hatchlings as he and Hookfang rushed towards them. The Crasher was able to avoid Cinder long enough to spew a slime shot at some of the honeycomb eggs, knocking a portion off that had nearly fallen on top of the hatchlings. Cinderwing tactically retreated closer toward Snotlout and Hookfang, his dorsal spines beginning to charge with electrical energy. "Okay, Hookfang, Cinder, this is it. Moment of truth." Snotlout said, a hint of nervousness escaping his confident tone. [Squeak]. Snotlout glanced down to see that one of the baby Fireworms had walked up next to him, looking up at him. "Don't worry, little guy." Snotlout began. "Uncle Snot and Cousin Fang are here." He added comfortingly. "And I guess Cinder too." Cinderwing mentally snorted. 'If anything it would be Papa Fang.' He quipped, trying to bring up his own mood, but not taking his eyes off the Crasher as his dorsal spines slowly glowed brighter and brighter.
The Cavern Crasher stomped a step closer with hunger filled snarls, visibly pondering on whether it should risk taking hits from Cinder's electrical plasma blasts—not knowing about his ability to shoot beams of lightning charged plasma—in order to get what it desired, or to—. "Snotlout!" Snapped from its pondering, the Crasher—along with everyone else—turned its attention toward the chamber entrance. "Hiccup! Don't come down here!" Snotlout called out his warning. The Crasher fully turned around, shooting green fire into the entrance that ignited the trail of slime it had left behind. However, before it could fully turn back around Cinderwing quickly hit it with a 30% charged plasma beam that pierced into its thick hide with medium effort, cutting open its left shoulder, leaving a gash that quickly began to bleed heavily.
[ROAR!]
Pain, that's all that the Cavern Crasher could feel in this very moment, its left arm below the shoulder had nearly been severed, the only reason it hadn't was due to its rubber-like bones that allowed it to collapse its skeleton. But that didn't mean that its bones weren't damaged, as they had been charred due to the carbonization process it had just gone through, meaning that it would have to remove its left arm if it wanted to retain its incredible crevice-traversability.
"I got an idea." Hookfang quietly rumbled toward Cinder, who glanced back at him. "Alright, spill." Cinder replied, watching as slime began pouring heavily from the Crasher's back as lumbered toward them. Hookfang briefly pointed his head toward Queenie. "I'm going to combine my fire with hers. Just make sure Snotlout doesn't get burned too much." Cinderwing shifted his wings before quickly turning around, urging the hatchlings to get behind a fallen piece of the hive. At the same time, Hookfang had hurriedly moved on top of Queenie. "Hookfang, what are you doing?" Snotlout rapidly questioned. "We're in the middle of a fight!" Said Monstrous Nightmare's body was soon covered in flames, instigating Queenie—in her unfocused, dazed state—to ignite her body in fire as well, causing them both to burn brighter and hotter than they ever have before.
"Whoa!" Snotlout shielded his eyes from the bright light of the flames. "Get moving already!" Hookfang roared at his rider. "They're combining their firepower." Snotlout said aloud. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Cinder snarked as Snotlout jumped behind the same cover as the hatchlings, with the Night Fury quickly spreading his wings out to cover the gaps between the fallen honeycombs to further protect the hatchlings and Snotlout from the enormous burst fire that quickly came after. The combined fire of the two Stoker class dragons rapidly engulfed the surrounding area, the Cavern Crasher letting out a bellowing roar of pain at the high temperature that only got hotter as Hookfang began to hover in the air, carrying Queenie as he roared, small flickers of blue fire briefly appearing. Cinderwing had also begun to feel the burn from the intense flames, wincing in pain, eyes clenched shut, slightly regretting his decision to act as extra protection against the fire, something that he quickly brushed aside as he had no guarantee that the hatchlings would remain unscathed with how recently they hatched.
And Snotlout too, he guessed.
It just goes to show how soft he really was when hatchlings and younglings were involved. Luckily for Cinderwing, the wave of fire ended a moment later, with Hookfang gently setting Queenie on the ground—who had slowly begun to stand up a moment after—before landing beside her. Cinderwing slightly slumped against the honeycombs, wings drooping to the ground as he let out a soft, barely audible sigh of relief. He could tell that he had burns scattered across his back, and minor they may be, they still hurt, one thing was for sure, he would not underestimate the firepower of a stoker class dragon ever again. Cinder briefly glanced at Snotlout as he peeked his head up from behind the cover, eyes widening as he saw the Cavern Crasher about to spew slime at them from its tail, with Snotlout quickly ducking down behind cover, and Cinderwing charging an electrified plasma blast as he turned to the mystery class dragon. The Crasher raised its tail above its back, flicking it toward Cinder, Snotlout and the hatchlings... only for its tail to make a squirting sound, like an empty bottle.
Cinder's eyes became slits as a feral smile creeped up his lips, ignoring Snotlout's obvious statement of how the two Stoker class dragons having cooked the mucus off the Crasher to instead take a gander at Hookfang and Queenie, the former having a feral grin similar to himself, and the latter having a wrathful expression on her face before she blasted the confused Crasher in the face. "Get out of my hive." She snarled hatefully. "You just fucked up." Hookfang screeched, the Cavern Crasher quickly backpedaling as Cinder prowled forward alongside the two Stoker class dragons. "Hah!" Snotlout laughed briefly, looking down at the three bold hatchlings that had climbed the honeycomb to better see what was happening. "Well, kids, it looks like our Crasher just crashed." He quipped. "Why don't we show it the door?" He finished, before shouting as he rushed to move between Hookfang and Cinderwing with renewed confidence.
The Crasher backed away before burrowing into the ground, coming up behind Snotlout to try and get to the hatchlings before getting blasted by Quennie, followed closely behind by Hookfang and Cinderwing. They all shot streams of fire at the Cavern Crasher—a beam of plasma for Cinder—pushing the egg eating dragon back, with Cinder cutting off his plasma beam shortly after before he rammed head first into the Crasher, taking advantage of its injured left front leg to force it off balance, pushing it into the ground before stabbing his claws into its shoulders and lifting it up to be hit by Hookfang's and Queenie's fire blasts. The Cavern Crasher snarled, twisting its body around and smacking the Night Fury away with his tail before making another attempt to reach the eggs, which was quickly thwarted by Hookfang.
"This guy will not give up!" Snotlout said, annoyed. "Maybe you need some backup." Snotlout glanced at the chamber entrance to see Hiccup and the other dragon riders flying in, circling around the chamber until they were behind Hookfang, Queenie, and Cinderwing. Snotlout laughed as his gaze followed Toothless. "Right. But remember, you're only backup." He replied, reminding Hiccup of their earlier conversation. "Oh, I know, pal." Hiccup replied. Hookfang joined the dragon riders in the air, bombarding the Crasher with fire, lava, combustible gas, magnesium and plasma, the mystery class dragon shooting green blasts of fire after regaining enough slime. They continued their bombardment, circling the Crasher before landing beside each other in a line of defense of the hatchlings and eggs, all the dragons shooting blasts of fire and plasma, volleys of lava, and bursts of combustible gas, magnesium and plasma.
It didn't take much longer of the Crasher taking heavy fire—especially to its injured leg—before it finally decided that retreating to survive another day was the more beneficial option, turning to quickly skitter through the chamber entrance to get out of there as quickly as possible. The hatchlings immediately surrounded their mother the moment the danger was gone, with Queenie purring with joy at the sight that all her children were alive. "It's actually quite adorable." Toothless commented with a tilt of his head, the humans cheering a moment after. Hookfang briefly lowered himself to let Snotlout dismount his saddle before going to meet the other dragons as they were interacting with the hatchlings. They were all quite surprised to see how gentle the Zippleback was with the little ones, especially when they were the most chaotic of the group of 6 dragons, this included Cinder.
Grunting, Cinderwing glanced up at Stormfly when she lightly kicked his tail, eyes narrowed with a knowing frown. It was clear that she noticed the burns on his back. "What stupid, irrational idea did you come up with to get those burns?" She queried, her tone filled with angered worry. Stormfly knew how hard it was for him to get burned, the fact that they were only minor was a testament to that. "If you think that protecting the hatchlings and Snotlout from an intense wave of fire—that nearly turned blue by the way—a stupid, irrational idea, then yes." Cinder replied calmly, getting the Deadly Nadder's expression to immediately become sheepish, a small blush growing on her face as a hint to her embarrassment. "Ahem." She fake-coughed. "Then you clearly made the right decision."
Cinderwing chuckled, gently setting down the fireworm in his paws onto the ground before he turned to her, pushing his body into hers for a hug, with Stormfly partially wrapping him with a wing in acceptance, both of them beginning to purr quietly. "Aww./That's adorable." Their eyes snapped open at the sound of the twins cooing, the two dragons snapping their heads toward them with low growls. Astrid walked up behind the trouble-making twins, placing a hand on their shoulders. "Alright, you two, let's leave them alone." She said with a knowing smile towards her dragon. "And you say they aren't mates?" Queenie queried, getting a nod of affirmation from Hookfang a moment after. "Nope. But it will happen sooner or later." He said, adding to his confirmation.
(Scene break)
"And that's just about everything that happened." Cinderwing said, recounting the events of the previous day. Windshear chuckled, a soft smile on her lips as Heather rubbed her neck as she read the letter Cinder had brought her from Fishlegs. "With all that, you can't keep denying your huge soft spot for younglings." She the Razorwhip said, getting a huff of mock indignation from the Night Fury. "Not to mention how much more playful you are with the Rescue Riders then you were with Toothless." "Okay, first of all, I'm getting better at opening up and being more playful with the others." Cinderwing stated rapidly to counter Windshear's own statement. "Very slowly, I might add." She added with a cheeky smile.
"Secondly, most of the rescue riders are as energetic, if not more energetic than me." He added, more so speaking about Aggro than any of the others on the rescue team due to their bond and how similar their personalities were. "Besides, Toothless wouldn't be able to handle all of me—okay, no that sounded wrong." Windshear immediately started laughing at Cinder's expression, though she didn't completely understand what had him so suddenly upset, she knew enough to know that it was embarrassing. "Yeah, that's enough for tonight. Conversation turned awkward and is now over. Fucking stupid—argh!" He grunted as he stood up before heading into the roost, leaving the still laughing Razorwhip with a very confused Heather as he closed the gate behind him.
On top of the Roost, Aggro could be heard giggling at Cinder's embarrassment as well, her body shaking from her muffled laughter. Cutter glanced at her. "You know, I find it weird that you know what he's talking about." He said, before hopping to his feet. "So, how about you tell me this inside joke so I can laugh at it?" Aggro glanced back at him for a moment... before shaking her head. "Nah." Shocked by her sudden denial, Cutter's eyes narrowed, his body lowering closer to the wooden floor of the balcony, tail wagging with playful intent. Aggro didn't need words to understand what he was gonna do, immediately launching into the air with excited laughter as the Razorwing chased her.
(End)