How to Train Your Dragon the Mystery of A Boy and a Dragon

Chapter 14 Bog Burglars Raid on Berk

Special Thanks to DragonWriter0316 and Fantasia Komix for helping with grammar and fixing some of the scenes within this chapter.

Hiccup

Just a mere few minutes had passed since Ronde's rant, but as I looked around, I saw that the others were also shocked at his fiery demonstration of anger. It had been a while since I saw anyone with that degree of fury. When he threw the bow to the ground hard enough to shatter it, I was conflicted on whether or not to feel amazement or fear.

My gaze rested on Astrid. Everyone was trying their best to retain their composure, yet the shaken look in her eyes told me that Ronde's shouting cut deep. My brow furrowed.

Snotlout shouted at no-one in particular as he struggled to remove the arrow from his helmet, which was stuck to the wall. "Can you believe him? Yelling. And. Screaming. Like. That!" he stopped between each word, for he had given up on the arrow and braced his feet against the wall, using his weight to pull the helmet itself down. Fishlegs' jaw tightened. My mouth opened to try to prevent the inevitable argument.

He beat me to the punch as he stalked over to Snotlout, my attempt to head it off a bust. I closed my mouth. I wished that I could later say that I wasn't expecting it [For Fishlegs was usually the peacekeeper sort], but I had watched beforehand as Snotlout frayed his patience to the breaking point.

"After everything you said to him, I'm surprised he didn't do anything worse," Fishlegs said to the boy. Snotlout turned and glared at him. "It's not my fault that everything I said about him was true!"

I had had enough of this, for the two looked like they would happily knock each other's blocks off. "Snotlout, you need to stop this right now," I ordered. He turned on me, angry confusion marring his face. "Why are you defending him?! He's an outcast!"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Even if he is, he's trying to amend everything he's done so far," I growled. Snotlout had no room to talk, and he knew it. When Alvin the Treacherous brought back his unconscious body after a particularly asinine stunt, he tried to play it off as a move to capture the criminal. His recklessness resulted in a suspension from the Dragon Riders. Time after time again, Snotlout has quit and rejoined the Riders, his behavior going off an on at the drop of a hat. Everyone knew that he was ultimately dependable, but he had become isolated from the group.

He pointed at me. "Then what has he done to redeem himself?!"

"He stayed in our village to face punishment for his actions. He had every opportunity to escape, but he decided to stay." 'Along with saving your life despite your attempts to turn us against him. Despite your repeated challenges to goad him into retaliating.' I stared him down.

"That may be true, but why would a person not run away if he knew he was going to pay some sort of punishment? He's obviously after something!" Snotlout yelled back desperately.

"After what? He spends his days helping the village. The first week, he was trying to look for a place to sleep. What could he be after?" I asked. Granted, I had thought about that at first when we first got to the Foreverwing's island, but his actions during the event had at least earned him my respect.

I almost said more, but Astrid finally spoke up "As the person among us who was the most involved in that incident, I'll say this about the matter." She was still shaken, but she held herself strong. "I don't know how many times I've had to say this, but hopefully now will be the last. I don't excuse him for kidnapping me and putting on that show." Snotlout looked smug until she continued with, "However, after everything we've witnessed on his island, I probably would have done the same thing."