Published 9th/dec/2021

Tuffnut's POV

I wake from my dreams, which consisted solely of pranking Stoick in increasingly absurd ways in case you were curious, to find the fire dying down to mere embers. Sitting up, I look around to see the dragon lying down, presumedly asleep and surrounded by fish, which I am assuming are dead because they're not flapping around like Ruffnut when she contracted that food poisoning from our food once. I don't know why, we're perfect cooks! Sure we've poisoned people a couple times but really, you can't make a yak pie without slaughtering a couple goats! Anyway, seeing the fish seems to wake up my stomach, because it starts growling like a rabid beast.

"I want me some fish," I mumble not very quietly as I stand up and crack my back in a really exaggerated fashion. I have no idea how long I was asleep. I look at the dragon again. I don't feel like getting my own fish. Surely I can take some of his. Just one. Two maybe? I think I see some sea bass in there. Maybe I can find some salt lying around and make it a delicacy.

I slowly creep over towards the sleeping dragon, hunched over as I step as quietly as I can. "Sneaking...sneaking...sneak...king." I whisper as I move. Finally, I'm over there. "Eeeaaasssy does it, tuffster!" I whisper as I slowly reach out towards a fish. Oh I'm so good at this! I should quit my day job and be a spy...I don't have a day job. Or a night job. Or any job. Whatever, details.

As soon as my hand closes around the fish, the dragon springs to life. It jumps up in my face and screeches, causing me to scamper back with a loud yell and the fish clutched in hand. It growls at me, it's slit eyes sending shivers down my spine worst than that time I walked in on Mildew and Gothi, and it bounds forward towards me. I let out another yell, falling over in the sand as the drsgon snaps it's teeth at me. It snatches the fish right out of my hand and I sit there, frozen. Then, it swallows the fish whole.

"N-nice dragon." I exclaim, nervous as the dragon eyes me. "Y-you don't wanna eat me, I taste like bad cod and-and off meat, Ruffnut said so! Y-yeah, she once said 'Tuffnut, you taste like bad cod and off meat! You smell worse than me' but I think she was just jealous because I don't soak my hair in fish oil—" I cut myself off when the dragon turns around and walks away from me, it's eyes' pupils wider from the slits they were.

I sit up slowly, watching it ignore me as it starts eating from its pile of fish.
Greedy dragon. Couldn't even spare old Tuff one fish.

I start to be dramatic, as usual, and begin whining as I stand up. The dragon just huffs smoke out of his nose and turns his head to make direct eye contact with me as he swallows another fish. I let out an offended gasp, to which he responds with a throaty noise that sounds, almost, like laughter.

"You're a bully dragon, that's what you are!" I huff half heartedly. The dragon looks away again and the next thing I know, a fish is flying at my face. I let out an offended cry as it slaps me in the forehead.

"Oh so that's how it is! You tease poor, starving, lonely Tuff and then throw a fish at his face!" I exclaim dramatically, picking the fish up off the ground. "And now it has all sand through it!" I groan. Judging by the dragon walking away, I decide to suck it up and eat the fish. This time, I decide to walk over to the fire and cook it over that.

"Hey, dragon! This things nearly out! Gonna help ole Tuffnut out or is he gonna have to start a fire with his hair again...a truly horrifying smell." I call to the dragon. I watch him turn his head and look over at me, before opening his mouth. I barely have time to duck out of the way before fire barrels past me.

"Whoa! Crazy dragon! You nearly hit me!" I exclaim, sitting up. I pause. "Do it again." The dragon unfortunately ignores my request and returns to its fish, which makes me pout. I turn to look at the fire, which is now glowing tall and bright. I wonder how long the wood will last?

"Hm, not a bad aim! I had a third cousin who could shoot peas out of her nose and right into the soup! From across the room! It was hilarious." I explain as I walk to the fire and find a stick to stab the fish with so I can cook it. "I don't think it was appreciated at my great uncle Starvenut's funeral though. He died because a dragon sliced him clean in half! Yeah, and ate him. Brutal!" I chuckle, then realisation draws in and I look over at the dragon.

"You're...not gonna eat me are you?" I ask, but the dragon is too busy eating fish to ignore me. I guess not! I shrug and continue my story. "Yeah, and they could only use his feet and his boots for the funeral, cause they were the only thing that remained. Terrible, I know, because those boots were soo fashionable that time of year! I would have been a celebrity!"

Not that I think the dragon is getting sick of me, because who could, but he leaves his fish and slinks into the water, disappearing out of sight. "Rude! No one appreciates good conversation these days!" I scoff, before noticing the fish is on fire. Quickly, I pull it out and desperately blow on it, but it makes the fire bigger. I then resort to shoving it in the sand and dirt, which thankfully snuffs it out. "Now it's got even more sand in it!" I pout, picking it up. I decide to eat it anyway, because I think maybe the sand will act as a seasoning for the fish. It turns out that sand is not a good seasoning, cause it didn't do much, just made it grainy.

I notice, after I finish the fish, that the dragon has not returned yet. "Probably feels guilty for ruining my fish." I joke to myself. Damn, kinda wish someone was here to witness my jokes. Like my sister, she understands me!

The dragons POV

When I tell you how loud that creature sleeps— I was very tempted to put it out of its misery beucase surely the sounds coming from its mouth are not healthy. Ridiculous! I barely got any sleep! And the moment I do, it tries to take from my food pile! Mine!

Seeing how it behaves, I'm lead to believe it has not been educated in how it should act around other beings. I wonder if it makes a habit of stealing others food and yapping constantly. Like a newborn. Made me feel guilty enough to give up a fish. But I guess it needs it, with how skinny and hairless it is. I even relit the fire, partly because I couldn't stand it's complaining but also partly because I thought it might die from the cold.

Eventually, though, I decide to leave my den and go for a swim, for I fear I might snap and kill the defenceless creature.
But that's the strange thing, I note as I ease through the water and out of my den, why should I not kill it? It was lucky enough that I came across it and saved it, nonetheless feeding it! It's very lucky. I don't often spare the life of creatures I come across, but to tell the truth I believe his kind is fairly harmless in the water. Sure, they have weapons and sure they actively kill other dragons, but they're in my world when they're in the water; not theirs. And this one is fairly harmless, hasn't tried to attack me. I still wonder why it was in the water yesterday, how it got there and why it was alone.

I've heard stories of offspring thought to be weak being sent out to sea, but this one seems too old. Perhaps their sea vessel overturned? Perhaps it fell into the water and it's kind was unable to find it? I guess I will never truly know the answer.

After a little while of swimming around, catching and eating fish, as well as a small encounter with a Thunderdrum, I decide to return to my den and see how the weird two legged creature is going. After all, I feel like it's not all that bright, per say, and may injure itself.

Emerging around the familiar rocks, I swim around them and towards my den. But, as I swim closer, I notice a figure at the base of the entrance. Immediately on alert, I get defensive as I edge closer. Just in time to see the figure turn which gives me a better view. It's the human. Oh, I thought it may have been a threat or something. It takes a second for it to register. Wait a second! He can't swim!
I speed forward towards the creature, seeing it spin round and round as it surveys its surroundings. What in the nine realms would make this creature think it was ok to go swimming after nearly drowning and making it very obvious he CAN'T swim?! Oh, I was right about him not being smart.

Tuffnut's POV

Ok, in hindsight I should have seen that going into the water was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

But in my defence I just wanted to see where I am! How was I supposed to know the dragons den is in the middle of the ocean?!

And besides, What's a little bit of danger? It's, like, my middle name! It's actually not, my middle name is LaVerne.

So yeah, after braving the cold water and pulling myself through it blindly (it turns out that I don't have laser eyes...disappointing) I found myself emerging into the ocean. Pretty empty, a few fish in the distance. Luckily no sharks. Although I do want one of their teeth. I wanna have Ruffnut stab me with it. I also wanna get eaten by a shark, I bet it would be an awesome death.

After a few seconds of peering around, and looking how far from the surface I am—very, very far—I find my hand slipping from the edge of the rock I've been clinging to—the one at the entrance of the den— and before I know it, my fingers slip off and I've drifted too far away. Panic sets in, almost (very close) more panic than I felt when we woke the chief up accidentally one time, and I start struggling desperately as memories from before flash in my mind. If only I hadn't scared my swimming coach off when I was ten, but how was I to know she was afraid of chickens... well that was actually common knowledge, and I definitely knew, but I didn't think she'd react quite THAT bad!

As I'm trying to figure out how to swim for the second time in two days, a faint sound catches my attention—like a deep rumbling sound—, and I turn my head trying to see if I'm going to get my shark wish to come true.

But there, swimming towards me is the dragon. I watch it swim towards me and stop in front, tilting its head and opening its mouth, for that deep rumbling sound to come out again. Bubbles float out of its gills which makes me jealous, because I can't breathe underwater and my lungs are starting to beg for death—more than the time I begged for death after walking in on mum and our uncle Henrik when I was eight. That was so gross, and I'm not talking about his beard.

The dragon makes the noise again, before narrowing its eyes and surging forward, which makes me flinch and shut my eyes. I open my eyes when I feel myself move, and I look around to see the dragon clutching me in its paws and swimming up through the den.

Before I know it, we're out of the water and I'm able to take in the wonderful air. The dragon backs away from me and snarls quietly, his tail flicking to spray sand in my face as punishment. Wow. I can feel the disappointment. Is this how Hiccup felt after all his screw ups?

"Yeah yeah, bad idea to go swimming considering I can't." I wince, wiping sand off my face. "Sorry dad." I tease. The dragon narrows his eyes again at the last word, before huffing and walking off. I watch curiously as mist sprays over his body again and he appears much drier. Wish I could do that, I think as I move to sit next to the fire in a holes of drying off.

As the minutes pass in silence, I start thinking about my predicament. We're pretty deep in the ocean, this cave is the only thing that has air. And from all the time I've spent in here, I've noticed the water rising and falling by the hours. Which means there's less air when the current changes. See, I'm smart!

I wonder how I'd be able to reach the surface without running out of energy or air? I can't swim, we've established that. And from all my competitions with Ruffnut as a kid, I've figured out that I can only hold my breath for like a minute and a half before I get the urge to either start talking, or breathing. Did you know it's pretty hard to speak without breathing? Trust me, I've tried.

Anyway, the question still begs. How to reach the surface? Hmm, if only I had some sort of filly submersible, hollow vessel that could propel itself easily underwater. Like a boat but inside out. Nahhh that's ridiculous! How would I even get in?

"Hey, what do you think about an underwater vessel being hollow inside?" I ask the dragon, "How do you think it would push itself to travel though water? And how could it change deep-ness?'

I hold up a piece of dry wood from the fire to demonstrate, but the dragon just turns and shoots a tiny fireball that destroys the wood into a ball of flames, which makes me yelp and drop it into the fire.

"Oh...still angry, I see." I note, pointing at the dragon. "Yeah, people are always angry at me. 'Tuffnut, stop tipping the yaks!', 'Tuffnut, if you push mildew over again I'll have to punish you! I know no one likes him but you can't push him off a cliff!', or 'Tuffnut, if you think releasing the Boulder we have been pushing up this hill all day is a good idea, then you can go fix all the houses it just crushed!' I don't know why people get so angry with me, it's not like anyone died!" The dragon has been looking progressively angrier the longer I speak, which makes me think that he doesn't have a sense of humour like I hoped he would.

"Anyway, how about I tell you about the time Hiccup Haddock set fire to the barn full of baby animals? Yeah?" I don't wait for an answer. "Awesome! So it was early winter, and we hadn't been raided for a few weeks but the barn was there, and I guess Hiccup was doing something in there cause danger follows him everywhere and next thing you know it's on fire! And so Stoick goes..."

And there we go!
Thanks for reading, sorry it's a bit short. Just got out of school a while ago, but next year is coming around awfully quick which means I'll be going to university.
I haven't enrolled in my courses yet but will do so in the next few days. I'm not sure how my schedule will be next year, hopefully I won't be on campus every day cause that's just gonna be annoying for travel time and petrol. Anyway, I don't know how it will affect how much I update. Hopefully not too much.

Random quote: (don't remember if I've used this one but oh well)

Me: *cheerily* I'm having a crisis la la la la la
(Context I couldn't find the YouTube video I hasn't finished watching)
My sister: you're having a cry sis?
Me: *looks up and stares at her blankly while she laughs very proud of herself*

Ok bye.