━━ chapter eighteen
family values

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

    ━━Vikings have a strong sense of community. It's important for Vikings to be a part of a family, and to celebrate that connection. For Gobber, Bork Week was important to him especially. Valkyrie often forgot that Gobber the Belch was a lasting relative of the Bork the Bold. (Of course, he wasn't always called that. He had a name before that: Bork the Unfortunate, but that's a story for another time). Without Bork, the Book of Dragons would have never existed, and they wouldn't be where they are now. Sure, back then, dragons were killed, but he was the first to take a moment and look at the dragons and try and understand them.

    For Bork Week, the Dragon Riders had a special chance to show off their training: a parade across Berk.

    And to do this, they had to practice their dragon calls.

    As Hiccup finished his call to Toothless, he glanced back at the others watching, hoping they understood. Snotlout scoffed, crossing his arms from where he sat on the fallen branch in the cove. "That's why you brought us out here? To honk into the wind?!"

    Fishlegs rolled his eyes. "Just wait, Snotlout."

    "Dragon calls," Snotlout scoffed, taking out a medallion from his pouch. "Whatever." Holding it up against the sunlight, he tried to hold in his snickers at the Twins who followed the beam of light darting back and forth like domestic cats.

    Hiccup arched a brow. "Uh ... guys?"

    Snotlout snickered. "Idiots."

    Valkyrie looked up from where she was making a new flower crown by the water. "Snotlout," she chided.

    "So stupid..."

    "Seriously?" sighed Hiccup.

    "What?" Snotlout shrugged. "It's fun." At the looks on their faces, he rolled his eyes and put the medallion away. "Fine!"

    The Twins gasped when the light disappeared. Tuffnut slammed his hand on the grass. "Ugh! Gone again."

    Hiccup sighed and returned to his dragon call. Cupping his hands to his cheeks, he let out a loud warble that he had perfected to sound very similar to that of a Night Fury's. The riders all looked to the edge of the cove, expectant.

    Snotlout threw his head back, "Aaaaaand nothing. Can we go now?"

    Toothless's roar echoed across the trees. Snotlout fell silent. Astrid smirked, crossing her arms and jutting her hip out. "You were saying?"

    The Night Fury hopped down, just in time for Valkyrie to finish her flower crown. She showed it to him and he grinned, bouncing over and lowering his head so she could set it on. Snotlout gagged. Looking away, he mumbled. "Fine. I hate to admit it, but that was pretty cool."

    "Not as cool as that disappearing shiny thing," Tuffnut leaned back against the log. "You can never catch it."

    Astrid arched a brow at the Twins, but decided to just leave it.

    "Fishlegs," Hiccup smiled at his friend, "you wanna show us your dragon call?"

    Fishlegs puffed out his chest proudly. "Thought you'd never ask," stepping forwards into the centre of the Cove, he practiced some breathing excercises to warm him up. "The call of the Gronckle is as unique as the dragon itself ..." he stretched out his arms and legs, "... raw, guttural, intense, yet with subtle lilt━"

    "J━j━j━just do it, already," mocked Snotlout.

    Fishlegs glared at him. With a deep breath, he let out a deep-throat growl that rattled the birds from their nests. Valkyrie arched a brow. That sounded painful. Over the edge, Meatlug fluttered down happily, giving her rider an affecitonate lick right across the cheek. Toothless sat down next to Valkyrie, settling his head in her lap so she could pet him.

    "Well done, Fishlegs!" grinned Hicucp.

    "Oh, I'm not done," said the pudgy Viking. "Watch this━" with an even deeper and louder growl.

    Tuff recoiled away. "I don't even wanna know what part of his body that came from ..." he glanced at his sister, thinking, "... Or do I?"

    Fishlegs finished, breathless. "Whoo!" he exclaimed, swaying forward. "I gotta take a knee."

    Up above, a whole herd of Gronckles flew over. They hovered, waiting for Meatlug to join them with an exchange of excited chatters. Fishlegs waved after her, "Be home for dinner! You're having granite!" he turned to the others and cheekily added, "That's her favourite."

    "Okay," Hiccup propped his hands on his hips, "anybody think they can beat that?"

    Astrid flicked her braid down her back and stepped forward. "I'll give it a shot. Watch this."

    She jumped up onto the fallen log and cried out into the morning. With specialised clicks of her tongue, she was able to immitate a Nadder's call, and immediately, Stormfly led a flock of them in perfect formation across the Cove. She finished, smirking down at Valkyrie as if to say, beat that.

    "Oh, challenge accepted," Valkyrie stood up and Toothless warbled, annoyed that she stopped petting him. "I bet you I could get double that in Windstrikers."

    "Oh, of course," said Astrid casually, throwing a hand out. "Be my guest."

    Hiccup sighed, rubbing his brow. "Not a competition..."

    "It's always a competition," Valkyrie gave a little sway to her hips to knock Astrid off her pedestal and stand up instead. Digging her boots into the wood, she settled her lower stomach for a deep breath. She fixed her mouth into the right position, and bellowed her best Windstriker's call━a flurry of purs and squawks.

    (She had been practicing, determined to win. Obviously).

    Finished, she dusted off imaginary dirt from her hands. There was silence.

   Snotlout frowned at her. "You did nothing."

    "Ah━ah━" she held out a finger to silence him, "━give Zeph a minute..."

    There was an echo of a Windstriker to the East. Following, in just seconds, was a herd of Windstrikers. Zephyr led them with a small spin in the air, and they all shone the patterns on their wings to the sun, creating a reflection of a rainbow in the water.

    Valkyrie smugly smirked at the others, blowing casually on her nails.

    Hiccup smiled, proud of her.

    "Oh, that's dumb," Snotlout rolled his eyes. "You had way more time than us because Hiccup probably told you like a week in advance."

    Valkyrie jumped down from the log, crossing her arms. "And?"

    "It's unfair."

    "Not my problem," Val accepted the high-five Astrid gave her. Snotlout grumbled, discontent as he crossed his arms moodily. Val giggled and happily came to a stance next to Hiccup as Zeph settled down and gave her a small snuggle with his neck. He licked Hiccup on the cheek who made a face, wiping the slobber away.

    As he did, Tuffnut held up a hand, "Uh, I have an important question."

    Hiccup sighed, scratching Zeph under the chin. Toothless bounded forward for attention. Hiccup scratched him on the ears. "Is it actually important this time?"

    "Uh, yeah. It always is. Like, why are we even doing this anyway? I don't get it."

    "Well, first of all, you never know when you're gonna be separated from your dragon," said Hiccup. "And the only way to communicate is to call it."

    Tuff frowned at his sister. She shrugged. "Sorry," he pursed his lips. "Didn't get it."

    "Second of all," Hiccup rolled his eyes at Tuff's antics, "it's Bork Week, and my dad asked us to put on a dragon air parade."

    "Why do we care about this Bork guy anyway?" Ruffnut whined. "Wasn't he a dragon killer?"

    "Hey, Bork only killed dragons in self-defense!" said Fishlegs, offended she didn't know. "He studied them, wrote about them, lived and breathed them!"

    "And without him," went on Hiccup, "there would be no Book of Dragons."

    "And without the Book of Dragons, there'd be no━"

    "Reason for you to live?" Snotlout finished for Fishlegs. He and the Twins laughed. Astrid came over and gave them each a smack across the head. (She punched Snotlout extra hard, though, and he fell back off the fallen trunk with an, "OW!").

    "No Dragon Academy, actually," Hiccup corrected, annoyed. "And there'd be no really cool dragon air show."

    Snotlout sat back up, crawling to the top of the log again. He sent a glare at Astrid. She smiled, amused. "So, when we do this really cool dragon air show━" he mimicked Hiccup in a very honky voice before gesturing to Toothless. "Who's he gonna fly with?"

    Toothless purred, showing Zephyr his flower crown, ignorant to the tone of the conversation it suddenly turned to. Hiccup's gaze softened, sad and placed his hand on Toothless's snout. "I'm ... I'm working on that."

    Heading back to Berk, Valkyrie was happy for some alone time with Hiccup (or just alone time without Snotlout and the Twins gagging at her every second). But she knew he wasn't in the mood for a walk, too busy mulling over what Snotlout had said. Val tried to distract him, taking his hand and talking about how much she loved the new mallet he made her with the wires for the flowers (isn't he the best?), but he just smiled, his eyes off somewhere else.

    In the end, Valkyrie took him to sit by the edge near the Dragon Sanctuary. Zephyr and Toothless went off to play, running after each other and rough housing. Zephyr liked to tap at Toothless with his shorter two front limbs as he sat back on his behind, and it annoyed the Night Fury so much he leapt forward and they went rolling in the small flower patch.

    Valkyrie nestled herself close beside Hiccup, reaching out to pick a small grass flower. Hiccup watched Meatlug and her Gronckle friends sadly fly across the horizon.

    "Don't let what Snotlout said get to you," she finally decided to say, picking away the roots and starting to braid the strands at the nape of his neck. "He's just being Snotlout."

    "No, but ..." Hiccup sighed. He took one of the flowers she had and fiddled with it in his fingers. "I've just been thinking, Val. And ... Zephyr has other Windstrikers. Hookfang has a whole herd of Monstrous Nightmares. And Toothless ..." he frowned at his best friend still playing with Zeph. "Toothless has no one."

    Valkyrie twisted his hair and secured the flower down at the bottom, tieing it off. "He has you," she said to him simply. "You're his family. And he looks pretty happy with that, if you asked me," she nodded to Toothless bouncing away from Zephyr, flaring back his wings with a grin on his face.

    Hiccup's shoulders dropped and he gave Val a gentle side look. "You know what I mean."

    "Yeah, I do," she tucked the long hair starting to cover his eyes behind his ear. "But I also know that Toothless is going to be just fine." She pressed a sweet kiss on his cheek. Hiccup gave her a weak smile.

    Behind them, a Nadders squawk casued them to glance back. Stormfly landed amongst the grass with Astrid on her back. "Hey!" she called to the love-birds. "Sorry to interrupt your date or whatever━" (Val rolled her eyes), "━but Hiccup, your father and Gobber are looking for you. They wanna see you in the Great Hall. They looked serious."

    She took off after that, most likely to go and practice her dragon calls. Hiccup sighed, his face going blank. "Yeah, great," he muttered sarcastically as he began to stand up. "Happy Bork week to me." Glancing down at Val, he said, "I'll see you later, I guess." He bent down to give her a chaste kiss on the lips before whistling to Toothless and they were off.

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

    ━━"Okay, so, let me get this straight," Snotlout leaned forward in his saddle as the Dragon Riders all soared in formation towards the horizon. Val threw her eyes up to the heavens. Here we go again. Hiccup had been given all of Bork's personal notes on Dragons, which was the best present ever for someone like him. He was entrusted with them now, and in searching through them, he found a whole set of papers about Night Furies never put in the Book. And with it, mention of a whole island of them. (And so here they were, on the search for the map). "To find this island, we have to find Bork's cave?"

    "His last known place of residence," said Fishlegs.

    Astrid turned up her nose, "Who would live in a cave?"

    The Twins soared past her. Tuffnut grinned. "Who wouldn't?"

    "There must be something in there about the Isle of Night and where we can find it," said Hiccup, leading the formation down in through a sweep of sea stacks towards the upcoming island.

    "Bork's notes said his cave was cut into the mountains right above Odin's shield," pointed out Fishlegs.

    "Hiccup," Val called, darting around a sea-stack. "Can you promise me something?"

    "Yeah?" he frowned back at her.

    "Please don't end up living in a cave." 

    He rolled his eyes, amused. "Wouldn't dream of it, Val..."

    They neared Odin's Shield. It was a rocky cliff island in a cluster of islands to the South-East of the Berkian Archipelago. They got a lot of their metals from here. Hiccup pointed to the cluster of cliff-facedmountains behind it, "Right there! That must be it."

    The group of Dragon Riders landed on the edge of Odin's Shield, taking a wide glance at the landforms around them.

    "Um, so wait," Tuffnut spoke up, and the others glanced back at the Twins, "so, how do we know what we're looking for?"

    Astrid rolled her eyes. "It's a cave," she said. "Look for a big hole in the side of a mountain."

    The Twins nodded. "Hole, check━", "━Mountain, on it."

    The Hofferson sighed, shaking her head. She turned to Hiccup. "You know, we don't have to bring them every time."

    Val raised a hand, "I agree."

    Hiccup looked like he might say something, (probably give them the Why the Twins are Important Speech again) but was cut off by a terrible wail coming from Snotlout. It pierced their ears, making them all cover them and wince.

    "What in the world was that?" said Fishlegs as Snotlout finished.

    He crossed his arms over his chest, very proud of himself. "That is a Changewing call, my friend. Surprised you didn't know that."

    "I would if it sounded like one," muttered Fishlegs. "This is a Changewing━" he made a sound that Valkyrie could best describe as a shriek.

    Snotlout grumbled to himself, not expecting to be shown up. "Bet you can't do a Thunderdrum..."

    "Puh━lease," Fishlegs held up a finger. He cleared his throat. "At least challenge me..." and so, with the displeasure of the others watching, Fishlegs screamed and bellowed out into the water. The rest of them shouted, annoyed. He finished with a little giggle.

    Hiccup sighed, relieved and turned Toothless towards the moutain-face. They wandered through the boulders and rocks, looking around for any cave until the chief's son gasped and pointed up. "Hey! I found an opening!" His gaze landed on the set of cliffs across the canyon.

    Snotlout appeared at his side, clinging onto Hookfang's saddle as the Monstrous Nightmare clung to the rock face vertically. "Man, that Bork was a dweeb, but boy, he could climb like a mountain goat."

    The Riders readied to set off.

    That was until a roar echoed behind them.

    Valkyrie felt chills up her spine. "Fishlegs!" she snapped back at the pudgy Viking and his Gronckle. "Can you stop with the dragon calls?!"

    Fishlegs looked very small in his saddle. "Actually?" he squeaked out. "That wasn't me. Mine's far more authentic."

    Around the side of the cliffs, swooped in a purple wild Thunderdrum. Valkyrie's shoulders fell. "Oh, come on!" she cried out, annoyed.

    Astrid let out a nervous chuckle, "You wanna tell that to him?"

    Fishlegs glanced back. He whimpered. "Oh ... where did he come from?"

    "Where did he come from?!" Valkyrie grew furious as Zephyr took off, bouncing his head nervously at the wild dragon. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you called for him?!"

    "Not the time, Val!" Hiccup shouted. "Everyone━head for the cave!"

    They took off, speeding across the canyon. Valkyrie gritted her teeth, feeling the Thunderdrum's calls rattle at her ears. But as they reached the other end, they had to pull up. Because where the cave opening had been before, was now just a stretch of rock.

    "Wait," Ruff's eyes widened. "What cave?"

    "We just saw it!" exclaimed Astrid, frustrated. "There was a hole!"

    "Yeah, and now the hole's gone," said Tuff, pointing it out.

    They all ducked close to their saddles as the Thunderdrum dipped over them and up the side of the cliff, roaring. Hiccup winced, covering his ears. "Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff━you guys look for the cave opening. We'll lure the Thunderdrum away. Fishlegs!" he turned to the Viking. "Thunderdrum call."

    "Gods," muttered Fishlegs, "wish you'd make up your mind."

    "Fishlegs!"

    "All right!"

    They took to the air, heading back the opposite way. Fishlegs cleared his throat and bellowed out. The Thunderdrum spun back around mid-air, answering back with his own call. Fishlegs squealed in fright and edged Meatlug to fly faster.

    Back by the cave (or where there had been a cave), the Twins and Snotlout tried to figure a way inside. As behind them, Fishlegs screamed and flew in circles with the Thunderdrum on his tail, Ruff and Tuff decided to ram straight into the stone.

    Snotlout watched them fall down, dazed. "Idiots," he muttered. He faced the stone, chest squared like the Jorgensen he was. "It was right here!" he said. "I swear it was." He punched at the stone. Beside him, something shimmered into view.

    Snotlout froze and glanced to his side. A dragon of burnt-orange red and acid-dripping saliva narrowed her eyes at him. "Ahh!" he screamed, trying to get away. "Oh, no! AHHH!" the Changewing snatched him up by the back of his britches. Snotlout yelled and flailed his arms as they flew up third landings on the cliff face. The Changewing settled down, gazing at the Viking struggling from her maw. "Hey! HEY! Put me down! HOOKFANG!"

    His dragon leapt up from the perch he had settled on, watching from down below. He lit up his skin, startling the Changewing into rearing back, dragging Snotlout with her. He only just missed the column of fire the Monstrous Nightmare shot. "AHHH! No! Go away, Hookfang!"

    His dragon rolled his eyes and flew away.

    Valkyrie, Astrid and Fishlegs continued to keep the Thunderdrum busy as Hiccup left in search of