Talulahh's POV:
Let me fill you in.
"Umm." Dahlia spoke up, looking pale. "Viggo Grimborn...is my father."
We all looked over at her, our eyes widening in unison. "But...I thought you didn't know your father because he abandoned you. And isn't your last name Berg?" I spat out questions.
"My parents didn't abondon me until I was six. I still remember them from when I was younger. And I took my mom's last name, since they never got married." Dahlia explained.
My eyes narrowed. This gives us an even higher chance of her being a spy.
It had been a week since then. I still didn't trust Dahlia. I was also mad at Heather.
Hiccup had informed me that Astrid was upset with the twins. And he had gotten a letter from Johann. The trader was being attacked by Dragon Hunters. Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were going to save Johann, while the rest of us would stay behind.
"You are not leaving me with these two muttonheads." Astrid motioned to the twins as the others were getting ready to leave.
"You are not leaving me with her." I motioned to Dahlia.
"They knows we're standing right here, right?" Tuff asked. I rolled my eyes and nodded.
"Look, Johann is surrounded by Dragon Hunters, and his ship is taking on water. We have to get out there and help him." Hiccup explained.
"Then let us saddle up Stormfly and Sapphire. Well be there in-" Astrid got cut off.
"You guys need to stay here and hold down the Edge. And make sure nothing happens to the Dragon Eye." Hiccup handed my girlfriend the object.
"I can't believe what's happening. This actually may be the worst day in history." Astrid complained.
"Snotlout, and I have the only working dragon armor, and Meatlug is immune to the Dragon Hunters' arrows." Hiccup reasoned. "It just makes sense for us to be the ones to go."
"Hiccup, please! For all that is sacred in Thor's world. You cannot leave me with them." Astrid begged. She looks good beg-nope. Not the time.
"Hey, it's not like we woke up this morning hoping to spend 24/7 with you, Astrid. You are not exactly a picnic. And I think you know what I'm saying. You have never been a blanket on a grassy Knoll with delicious food. But, we are team players.we will do what is necessary for the good of the group. Hence, we shall remain behind and enjoy your good company,my fair Astrid. Even if you have more blankets or glassy knolls to offer." Tuff said dramatically.
"I'm not opposed to spending time with you. "Dahlia said sheepishly.
"Oh, Thor." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Shut up...please. "
"We'll be back by tomorrow, at the latest. Just do the best you can. Okay? And try to get along, please?" Hiccup asked of us.
"No need to worry, young Hiccup." Tuff assured.
"No promises." I glared at Dahlia.
"Oh, Astrid." Snotlout spoke up. "I know these next 24 hours will be difficult for you. Unable to look into these deep romantic, yet hauntingly beautiful eyes, shimmering like gold dust in the wind-"
Astrid pinned him against Hookfang, holding his arm behind his back in a painful way. "Okay, so we'll see you when we get back. Have fun." Snotlout sounded strained. Astrid sighed and backed away from him. "Don't talk to any strange Dragon Hunters!" He called out.
"Got it!" I gave him a thumbs up and a silly smile.
They flew away, leaving the five of us alone. "Okay, I think the first team building exercise er should preform is that of going back to sleep. I mean, as a team, of course." Tuff offered.
"Couldn't agree more." Ruff smiled. "What say you, Astrid?"
"We have to go hide this." She held out the Dragon Eye, motioning between herself and I. "And when we get back, I expect you to be sweating profusely from hard work."
"Let's go." I said, grabbing my girlfriends hand.
"Uh, what do I do?" Dahlia look at me.
"Go make sure the twins don't kill themselves." I answered.
With that, Astrid and I walked off. "I mean, it's not so bad being with you." She said.
We were stacking logs. Ruff and Tuff wouldn't shut up. "Quit talking." Astrid called back. "You lose focus when your lips are moving."
"There's a thing called multitasking, babe." I called, helping Dahlia move a log. On the other hand, Tuff started to mock my girlfriend.
"Real mature, guys." Astrid said, unimpressed.
"We've done all of these already?" Tuff looked at the pile for logs. "Man, er are kicking some serious-"
Astrid cut him off. "No, no, no. That's your first one. All the others, Talulahh and I did. Go team." The twins tossed the log at the pile, causing all of them to roll off the edge. I started a new pile and sighed.
"You know what?" Astrid asked. "Talulahh and I will get the rest of the lumber ourselves. You three start lashing together some poles for the first level of stairs. Do you think you can't handle that?" Astrid walked away.
"She didn't let us answer." Tuff said.
"That's what they call a 'rhetorical question'." Ruff told her brother as I left to follow my girlfriend.
Dahlia and the twins tried to set up poles as Astrid and I gathered lumber. We came back to see the twins gone. I heard yelling and looked up. The two were riding a zip line to our watch tower.
They hit the base of the watch tower and fell. Right onto our fresh stack of lumber. Once again, it went plummeting into the ocean.
"Guys, you have got to try this! I know that landing a little tough, but..." Tuff trailed off.
"We know this wasn't what you were planning, but we really think we're on to something here. The stairs have they're own use for sure, but the can truly come in handy." Ruff explained.
Astrid dropped the logs she was holding. "It can, huh?"
"Yes. In the right situations-"
"And what situations would these be exactly, Ruffnut?" Astrid cut her off.
"Well, I mean, we could..." Ruff tried to come up with something.
"You have no clue, do you? Didn't think so." Astrid said, her anger rising.
"Is that a retalkrical question?" Tuff asked.
"And do you know why? Because, the two of you don't think. You don't plan. You just come up with these crazy ideas and you forge ahead, with no regard for logic or what your even supposed to be doing. What am I gonna do with you guys? Seriously. Tell me." Astrid ranted.
"Well, you can start by being kind." Ruff bit back. "Oh, wait, you can't do that because kindness is nowhere in that scrawny little body of yours."
"What?"
"Easy, sis." Tuff put a hand on Ruffnut's shoulders.
"Back up, bro. I got this."
"Do you know what your problem is, Ruffnut?" Astrid asked.
"Oh, you bet I do. I've got a list of problems so long, I can't even keep track. Question is, do you know what your problem is, Astrid?" Ruff replied.
"My problem? Are you serious?"
"Allow me to lay it out for you, my flaxen-haired friend. You have no respect for th people around you who are just trying to help and be apart of the team. You have no respect for Fishlegs, certainly none for Snotlout, and you couldn't have less respect for the two of us!" Ruff raised her voice. "Now, you can go ahead and shame the others. You can move this entire island of dragons if you wish. But I am not gonna stand her and listen to you insult the entire nut family tree!"
"Enough!" I yelled. Everyones head snapped to look at me. Ruff walked away. "She's wrong, you know. I... do. I... Respect you guys." Astrid said.
"Oh, please. You can barely even say it." Tuff walked away.
Astrid turned to me. "You're on my side, right?"
"Um...picking sides isn't really my thing." I said.
"Of course." She muttered.
Astrid, Dahlia and I were sitting in Astrid's hut when Tuff ran in.
"Tuff, you okay?" Astrid asked, shooting up out of her seat. I was quick to follow. Tuff doubled over, breathing heavily.
"Tuffnut, breathe. What's going on?" Astrid put a hand on the boys shoulder.
"You have got to do something about those stairs. I mean, there must be hundred of them, there's over ten at least." Tuff breathed out.
"That's it? The stairs?" Astrid asked.
Tuff was still out of breath. "No, no. It's Ruffnut. They got Ruffnut."
"Who did?" I asked.
"The Dragon Hunters."
"Ugh! This is all my fault." Astrid said as we flew. Tuff was on the bcal of Stormfly. And Dahlia was one River, who still didn't have a saddle. And I have to admit, River is adorable.
"Oh, tell me about it." Tuff responded.
"I shouldn't have been so hard on her." Astrid continued. "She's just Ruff being Ruff. She can't help it."
"Truer words, A. Truer words." Tuff agreed. Astrid elbowed him. "Sorry. Just trying to help you work through, you know, the shame, all the bad things that you did, all the things you should feel bad about, you know, get some closure."
We landed on the watch tower on the far side of the island.
"They're may not be a Ruffnut to apologize to." Tuff looked out onto the horizon. "In fact, there may not be any of us at all." There were dozen of ships heading towards us.
We ran into the clubhouse. "Okay, what's the way plan. We have to get my sister back." Tuff said as a started scribbling down a note.
"First thing is to send and SOS to Berk." I said, sending the Terror off to deliver.
"We need reinforcements, fast." Astrid added. "The auxiliary team."
"How do we know he'll get back here in time?" Tuff asked, watching the Terror fly away.
"We don't." Astrid pulled out a bunch of weapons.
"Well, how do you know they'll get back here in time?" Tuff asked again.
"We don't."
"Okay, there us a terrifying lack of clarity in those answers." Tuff said nervously.
"It's all going to be okay, Tuffnut." Astrid assured. "We're gonna hold down the Edge, defend this base, and we will get you sister back. Okay? Say, 'Okay, Astrid'."
"Okay, Astrid."
"Okay, there is no way we can defend the Edge against an all-out assault with only three flyable dragons. But maybe, we can slow them down until help gets here if we use our spears and arrows sparingly." Astrid proposed her idea.
"Wait! I know an even better way we can slow them down." Tuff gasped.
"Not now, Tuff. I need to think." Astrid brushed him off.
"No, seriously, Astrid! You need to hear this. Listen to me!" Tuffnut pushed.
"All right, what? What is your idea?"
"Okay, well, as you know, tricking is my area of expertise. I am the official Dragon's Edge Trickster. Trickster extraordinaire. The Mayor of Tricksville." Tuff listed.
"We get it! We all know how tricky you are. " I said, sharpening my sword.
"But, they don't!" Tuff replied. "So, I figured, we trick them into thinking there are more of us than there are. We can start with our scareships." Tuff referred to his dummies. "Then we can build our own little tricking army. It'll be awesome. Wait. I think j just had another idea. Woah! Do you know how many Loki-ish thoughts are running through my mind right now?"
"Tuff-"
"It's like a hurricane of practical jokes pounding on the inside of my head." Tuff ranted. "Woah, here comes one-"
"Tuffnut!" I yelled.
"Yes?"
"This is not the time for pranks or Loki-ing." Astrid told him. "This is a time for strategic thinking and precise preparation. There are times in life when you have to be serious. Deadly serious, or people can die. We can die. Ruffnut can die. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand. I am taking it seriously." Tuff argued. "I'm seriously a trickster. And I seriously have some ideas that can help."
"Tuff, listen to me." Astrid said. "You know all those times early in the morning when it's still dark outside and I'm out by myself on Stormfly?"
"Uh, well, I do now. Wait, is this gonna get weird?"
"No. What I'm doing is training. Day an night, I train myself for situations just like this. That's ehh were gonna do this my way." Astrid put her foot down.
"But I have ideas. Good ideas." Tuff kept argueing.
"And, I believe you."
"No, you don't. The only thing you believe is that I'll mess this up and get us all killed." Tuff bit back.
"No. That's not true. The only thing I believe right now is that we're wasting time argueing, when we should be preparing. Come on, there's a lot of work to do." Astrid said.
"That's my sister out there, Astrid. If this goes wrong and we don't save her, I couldn't live with myself." Tuff looked down.
"You know what? You're right." Astrid said, surprising me. "You do what you have to do. And I'm gonna set up our defenses. And when the time is right we'll come together and decide which one to use."
"Awesome plan." Tuff smiled. "I like it!"
They both ran off to set things up. I turned to Dahlia. "Come with me." I told her as I started walking to my hut.
"What do I do?" Dahlia picked at her nails.
"I'm sorry that this has to be your first real fight, but if you follow my lead, you might just pull it off out there." I told her.
"Here." I tossed her a spare mace I had.
Dahlia struggled to catch it. "Thanks." She said, strained.
"Now," I walked outside of my hut. "You're inexperienced with fighting in the air. And you don't yet have saddle. But if you can avoid the arrows and fire back, you shou be good. If River does get shot try to direct him away from the ships. I'll swoop down and get y'all if you do." I said. Tightening the ropes on River.
"Got it... I think."
"Good."
"Umm." She started. "If your father is anything like you, I bet he's really scary, too." She muttered.
"He is. Ever heard of Stoick the Vast?" I grinned.
"He's your father?" Dahlia's eyes widened.
"Yep."
I Finnished setting up my defenses and went back to the clubhouse to meet the others. "It's time." Astrid said. I nodded solemnly.
I hugged Sapphire's snout as Chip rested on my shoulder. "If we don't make it out, I'm glad I spent my last day with you two. I love y'all." I smiled.
Tuff pulled out a crate. "Whatcha got there?" Astrid asked.
"Ta-da!" Tuff pointed to his crate of weapons. "Only the solution to all our problems. I call Macey, but you can have any of the others, except maybe this sword and this axe. Can't decide, huh? Yeah, I can understand that."
"Tuff, these weapons are all for close combat." Astrid pointed out. "If we get to that point, there's four of us and we're done."
"Oh. Well, no, I know that, but-" Tuffnut started.
"Listen, we don't have time. Just do me one favor." Astrid said.
"Fine. But-"
"The ballista on my roof, you know how to use it, right?" Astrid asked.
"Uh, it's a massively destructive weapon, isn't it?" Tuff said in a 'duh' tone.
"It is. So, get up there, and massively destroy things. But on my command, not before. Got it?" Astrid instructed.
"Got it. Come on, Macey." Tuff ran off.
We looked out at the approaching ships. "I love you." I told Astrid.
"I love you, too."
"Come on. " I motioned for Dahlia to follow me and ran off, chewing on my lip.
Word Count: 2677