With you ~ ?????? ????????? ? ???! ??

8. Stoick's New Friend

"Oh, okay. Sorry about that." Tuff said from on top of Belch as we landed.

He chuckled, "Nice to see you, Chief. You're looking very fit. Your hands seem to be rough and well-worked. Anyway, welcome to Rumblehorn Hel." He said simply.

"You weren't kidding about having dragon problems." Stoick observed.

"Is anybody hurt?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid answered, "Well, sort of." She turned to look at Gobber.

"Hello, lovies. Who'd like some figgy pudding?" The blacksmith said, and eye halfway closed and holding up a boot.

We all winced,  "What's wrong with him?" Stoick asked.

"Well, Chief,  you can start with a peg leg. And then you added in the hook and the bad breath, weird neck. I mean, look at his neck." Tuff listed.

"He'll be fine. He got hit by a watchtower." Snotlout simply said.

Just then, Gobber's hearty laugh could be heard, "Ah, you're killing me." He said, swinging his hook at a confused Toothless. "Who knew you were such a card? Ho ha ha!"

"Hiccup, these Rumblehorn attacks are getting out of hand. We have to do something." Astrid declared.

The chief hit his fist into his palm, "Okay, first things first, we start with the-"

Hiccup cut him off, "Astrid, Tu, you search the eastern coastline." My brother winked at me. "Ruff, Tuff, you have the west." They saluted. "My father and I will take the middle of the island. Fishlegs and Snotlout, you take care of Gobber and keep fixing the base."

"Got it." Fishlegs responded.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute there, dragon master." Snotlout protested before Gobber tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hello, little fella."

"How come I have to stay behind?" Snotlout continued as Gobber started to growl and grab his head.

"I'm a dragon. Ya! Heh."

"Okay, fine, you wanna hunt the unstoppable, blood thirsty dragon instead?" My brother offered.

"Bloodthirsty dragon, huh?" Snotlout put a finge on his chin.

"Ohh, look at my tail. Do dragons chase their tails or do they  breathe fire on them? I don't know."

"On second thought, I don't wanna give you guys unfair advantage. So I should probably stay behind and protect one of the archipelago's national treasure." Snotlout cupped Gobber's face.

"The sun is a shiny potato covered in drawn butter. "

"And the moon is a scoop of ice cream." Snotlout added.

Hiccup made a face and my father hummed. From the corner of my eye I saw Chip scramble back to our hut.

Astrid and I flew side by side. We passed by a trio of Edge Nadders  who looked fine.

"Looks good there." She said.

"Yep!" I agreed awkwardly.

She Sen me a sideways glance before returning to looking for the dragon. My heart fluttered just being in her presence, making me a little bit awkward, since I'm not used to being alone with her

We finished put scouting with no sign of the Rumblehorn and returned back to our trashed base.

It was dark when Hiccup and our father returned.
Stoick slipped off of Toothless and said, "Where's Gobber?"