━━ chapter fifteen
bing! bam! boom!

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

━━Valkyrie woke up to deafening noise. She jumped up in her bed, hair all over the place, head dizzy as she tried to come to terms with being woken so suddenly. Zephyr perked his head up from where he decided to sleep by her bed last night and let out an annoyed squawk to the window.

"What? What?" she let out, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The room around her began to shake and she fell off her bed━ "Oof!"

Zephyr peered down at her before taking her shirt in his teeth and picking her up. Valkyrie dangled there for a few seconds, yawning, "Thanks, boy..." the room shook again from what sounded like roars outside and both Val and Zephyr winced, rearing back. "What was that? Come on, boy," Valkyrie's feet hit her floor and she quickly got ready. "We need to check that out."

They stepped out into the village, and it was absolute chaos. Wagons and crates were upturned, produce spread out along the cobblestone and grass. Villagers were shouting furiously as bright blurs zipped around, letting loose curious blasts of sonic booms that made Valkyrie have to cover her ears.

"Baby Thunderdrums?!" she let out, confused.

Zephyr hunged his head under his wing, not liking the noise at all.

"Come on━" Valkyrie hopped onto his saddle and they took to the air. It wasn't hard to find Hiccup trying to chase the Thunderdrums with Toothless. They were fast little buggers, zipping around buildings and under walkways with loud, booming squawks.

She pulled Zephyr into a hover beside him, "Should I even bother asking what's going on?"

"Out of control baby Thunderdrums," explained Hiccup. "Yep, that's what's going on."

A blue baby Thunderdrum blasted him right in the ear in passing. Valkyrie ducked with a gasp, watching him go . "And I'm guessing you'd like them under control?"

"That would be preferred, yes," Hiccup winced as he rubbed at his ears. "Can you help me wrangle them into the Academy?"

"Thought you'd never ask! Zephyr━dive!"

The two of them shot down. To join the fray, Hott and Astrid were both woken up and annoyed to see all the rukus. Fishlegs raced out with a gasp, beyond excited to see the baby dragons━until they let out a boom! and he flung backwards. Meatlug caught him with a clatter.

Valkyrie twisted around with Hiccup after these dragons, but they were small, slippery and fast━and loud. "Wow!" she let out as she had to pull Zephyr out of the spin before they crashed into Sven's house. "These guys are slippery little guys!"

"No kidding," Hiccup veered in next to her.

The babies swooped over the Twins who ducked Barf and Belch down just in time. They popped back up with wide-eyes and delightful gasps, watching the dragons pass.

"Whoa!" grinned Ruffnut. "What are those things?"

"They are loud and destructive dragons," stated Hiccup, ears still ringing. "We have to stop them."

"Au contraire," Tuff held up a finger in a posh voice. "We must own them."

"Immediately."

Hott finally joined, hair and helmet askew as he pulled Spikemoth up beside them. "Need any help?" he offered.

"Plenty," sighed Valkyrie, pointing after the Thunderdrums.

"Okay, what do I get out of it?"

She shot him a scowl. "How about not a punch in the face?"

"Wow, you woke up on the wrong side of the yak this morning..." his voice trailed off to see the Twins try to go after two babies at once, spreading Barf and Belch's necks out until they snapped back in and they went tumbling into Hoark's house.

Valkryie winced to see the Viking wake up and wave an angry fist. "Why does his house always get destroyed?"

She went to continue when a flaming Monstrous Nightmare swooped past. "HEY!" she shouted after Snotlout who dived in after the Thunderdrums. "I have right of way here!"

"No one follows your stupid flight-road rules!" Snotlout shouted back after her.

Valkyrie gritted her teeth and cried back down, "One day you'll be thanking me! That's a fine!"

"HA! Like you could catch me!" Snotlout turned around to face the front; his face dropped to see them heading straight towards the ocean as the Thunderdrums swooped back up. "Whoa! Whoa! Coming in too hot━pull up, pull up━!" Splash! Hookfang belly-flopped right into the ocean.

"I'm not even going to ask," said Astrid as she hovered in beside Valkryie.

"Nope, just wrangle them into the Academy."

"Got it━let's go, Stormfly!"

Valkyrie got back into the high-speed chase. She dipped Zephyr down and they zipped after the Thunderdrums. Her and Hiccup could perhaps only be the ones with the fastest dragons that could keep up. But these dragons were little, and they could evade them easier into small crevices and pop out onto the others. And Zephyr, with his large wingspan could barely keep up in the twist and turns of the village.

"SILENT SVEN!" she screamed at the Viking who was just pulling himself back up from his last endeavour with the Thunderdrums. "DUCK!" he dropped to his knees as they swooped past, glaring after them. Valkyrie winced. "SORRY SVEN!"

Mak and Erik━to no one's surprise━cheered the Thunderdrum's on in their destructive business. Until Asrifth had to pull them out of the way before the babies could split their eardrums from their roars. Valkyrie's father stepped out with her mother, both of them very confused━

"DUCK!" Hiccup shouted. Valkyrie's parents dropped down. "SORRY MISTER AND MISSES FRODE!"

(Gods, he's lucky they love him to bits, Valkyrie thought to herself).

Valkyrie almost had them, ready to cut them off when Stoick stepped in. She had to pull back, almost running right into the babies if Zephyr couldn't stop so well. But the force made her fall back off her saddle and hit the wood with a thud. She quickly covered her ears when Thornado let loose a blast that calmed the baby Thunderdrums down in an instant. They landed, shuffling together and hanging their heads down in apology.

Hiccup landed next to Valkyrie, hopping off Toothless's saddle to check whether she was okay. Zephyr turned his nose up at the baby Thunderdrums and picked Valkyrie up for the second time that morning. She sighed, swinging back and forth in his hold.

"Sorry, lass!" Stoick told her. "But Thornado and I had to do something."

"Well done, Dad!" Hiccup was surprised, or impressed━probably both.

Valkyrie tapped her finger twice towards the ground, and Zephyr understood the singal. He plopped her back down onto her feet.

"Look at that!" Fishlegs landed with the others not far off. "They're putty in Thornado's hand! Paw ... Claws ... oh, whatever."

The babies peered back at them, and despite waking her up in a very destructive way, Valkyrie cooed and immediately knelt down. She held her hands out and began to pet them and play. Thornado huffed at her and she stopped, startled.

Stoick laughed, "Look at him! He's telling yeh they're in the naughty corner! Don't praise them for the destruction, Val."

She pouted for being scolded and stood back up, walking over to Hiccup and crossing her arms. "But they're cute," she grumbled to herself and elected for petting Toothless and Zephyr instead.

"Okay," said Tuffnut as Belch slithered his head down to gaze at the babies curiously. "We want that one━" he pointed to the purple one.

"No!" said Ruff. She pointed to the green. "That one!"

"It's such a hard decision!" Tuff gazed wistfully at the blue. "Okay, we'll take the set!"

"Quiet!" snapped the chief. All of the teens looked up. Stoick wasn't their father, but he may as well be, with all the things he's had to deal with from them. It seemed in the past year, he's gained another seven children. It was seriously giving him grey hairs. (Hiccup has seen them). "Hiccup, I want you to get those troublemakers off this island now!"

Tuffnut sighed, misunderstanding him. "Okay, we'll go," he mumbled. "But know this. Our mother will miss us."

"Not you," grumbled Hott. "The dragons!"

"Oh!" the younger Twin realised with a laugh. "You had me there for a minute, chief. Because we're also ... troublemakers."

"If we're sending them off Berk," then said Hott, "can we send Mak and Erik off, too?"

"Hott!" scolded Valkyrie.

"What?" he shrugged. "Don't tell me you haven't been thinking about it."

"Of, course, I haven't! They're our brothers!"

"More like annoyances."

"Hott..."

"Fine!" he crossed his arms on Spikemoth's saddle. "Gods, Val, you're such a mum."

She gritted her teeth, "I'll show you who's a mum in a second━" she held up her hand to punch him until Hiccup stopped her.

(Stoick sighed━yep, grey hairs. He already had a group of pesky Thunderdrum babies in these Riders, he didn't need three more).

"Dad," Hiccup tried to reason with him, pulling Valkyrie back away from her brother as he did so, "don't you think we'd be better off training them? Think about it, they're fast, powerful ..."

"Destructive," he finished for him, "loud, and out of control."

"Uh, Chief," Tuffnut held up a finger, "you're kinda making Hiccup's argument for him."

"You're just saying that because you want them as pets."

Ruffnut gasped, "Astrid! How dare you accuse of such a thing!"

She rolled her eyes.

"The lad's got a point, Stoick" Gobber made his way through the group of them, having followed after hearing his friend's loud voice. "A squadron of Thunderdrums would be tough for Dagur and the Berserkers to defend against."

The teens all looked up hopefully━all for their own reasons, of course. Stoick sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thought about it. The idea of a squandron of Thunderdrums must please him a little bit, considering he rode one and might command them like a hero. "You really think you can get them under control, son?" he asked Hiccup.

His son nodded, "You know we can. I mean, look how great Thornado turned out to be!"

This hit Stoick right. He glanced down at his dragon and gave him a proud pat. Thornado purred. "Well, he is quite spectacular."

"We can do it, chief!" said Fishlegs. "Please, let us try."

He gave in. The Twins head-butted, already thinking of idiotic names for the Thunderdrums, Valkyrie was sure. "All right, fine. But the first sign of trouble, they go. Thornado isn't their mother or a babysitter. He's got chiefly duties, just like I do!"

"Dad, you won't be sorry, I promise. I already have a whole plan laid out on how to train them!"

Stoick nodded and he and Thornado swooped off. The baby Thunderdrums squawked after their senior.

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━━Training the baby Thunderdrums was turning out to be a disaster. The might not be causing trouble in the rest of the town, but they were sure driving Valkyrie mad in the Academy. Hands clamped to her ears, she winced at each loud, deafening squawk they let out as they played, shooting back and forth in their flock around the arena.

"Okay!" let out Astrid, glaring at Hiccup as she, too, clamped her ears shut and raised her voice over the roars. "Now would be a good time to roll out that big plan of yours!"

Hiccup chuckled nervously, "Right! Right," he said. "Big plan! Uh ... okay."

Valkyrie slumped, "Let me guess," she sighed. "You have no plan."

Hiccup went to defend himself, but gave up, slumping as well. "You ... you're right. That would be correct."

"Well, don't you think you better get one before our ears explode!" shouted Snotlout furiously.

"Wait━" Tuff pulled his hands from his ears, eyes wide with shock, "━our ears can actually explode?!"

Ruff gasped and pulled her brother towards the Thunderdrums, "Let's see!"

She held it right in front of the purple baby and he let loose a great big shriek that pulsed around Tuffnut's head. "YES!" he shouted, though his voice seemed muddled amongst the waves of sound. "EXPLODE! EXPLODE!"

"Oh, come on!" Valkyrie rushed over and tried to pull them away, wincing at her own ears aching at the loud sounds. "Don't encourage them, stop━stop!"

"The Twins or the Thunderdrums?" asked Fishlegs.

"Neither!" cried Astrid.

Valkryie finally managed to pull the Twins away and they went tumbling across the stone. Her ears rang and she glared at them, pulling and trying to clear them up. Tuffnut laughed, having enjoyed his experience far too much. Ruff, however was very disappointed. "Val!" she whined. "Why would you do that?!"

"You're welcome!"

The teens continued to watch the Thunderdrums shoot around, wrestling each other exploring all the cracks and crevices the Academy had to offer.

"All right, so━uh━" Hiccup tried to think over the noise, "━I guess the first thing we should do is name them."

"NO!" shouted Snotlout. "First thing we need to do is get them to SHUT UP!"

"Over here!" Fishlegs raced forward with a clump of grass in his hands. He dropped the Dragon Nip onto the ground and the Thunderdrums raced to it, sniffing and quietening down. They slumped into a pleased stupor. Fishlegs sat back, sighing in relief. The rest uncupped their ears. "Dragon Nip," he smiled. "Old School, but effective."

"Great," sighed Hiccup, pulling Valkyrie up back onto her feet. "But we can't have them laying around in a haze doing nothing all day."

"Yeah," said Hott, tugging his ears. "That's what the Twins are for."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tuffnut stood back up and propped his hands on his hips. "That was uncalled for, Little Frode! Don't judge━we already did something today!"

"Yeah!" his sister was at his side immediately, agreeing.

"What? What did you do?"

They glanced at each other, seriously considering the question. "What did we do?"

"We named them," said Tuff, gesturing to the Thunderdrums.

"Oh," grumbled Astrid, "this should be good."

"Oh, it is," nodded Ruff as they walked over to the babies.

"Ready?" the teens watched, silent but unamused. "Now wait for it ..." He pointed at the green dragon, "Bing━!"

Ruff gestured to the blue, "━Bam━!"

"━and ..." Tuff faltered on the purple, and came up with on the spot, "Lloyd. You can thank us later."

The rest of the Riders shared sceptical looks.

"Uh ..." spoke up Fishlegs. "Call me crazy, but I'm thinking there might be a more logical choice than 'Lloyd'."

"Like what?"

"Uh ... Boom?"

"Oh, yeah ... I guess that could work," Tuff snickered with his sister and added. "No way. How about ... Darren?"

Ruff sighed, shaking her head at the purple baby Thunderdrum as if she was apologising on Fishlegs's behalf. "Sorry, Lloyd."

"All right," sighed Hiccup, walking up to the baby dragons, "now that's all taken care of, let's try some actual training."

"Uh, voting is still open on the Lloyd thing, though, right?" none of them answered, leaving the Twins frowning. "Right ...? Okay ... okay, just checking. Darren's still on the table, though, right? No?"

First up, Hiccup tried his usual━the old-school hand trick. The Thunderdrums immediately let him pet their snout, and he grinned, suprised it worked so quickly ... He spoke too soon. As soon as he looked away, he was blasted right off his feet. He landed by Snotlout who cackled. Next up, Astrid tried to have a go. But it went downhill pretty quick. The baby Thunderdrums became entanced by Stormfly and wouldn't leave her alone, jumping onto her back, her tail and her wings. Astrid tried to get them to stay still, but it was as if they couldn't hear a word they said. In the end, Stormfly grew annoyed and threw them off. They hit the ground. ("Huh," had said Astrid, "well, that should teach them ..." until they returned to Stormfly for more). Hott tired a more straight forward approach. He thought that by yelling at them, they would understand, because Thunderdrums yell all the time right? Nope. They thought he was playing a game with him, and when he yelled, they yelled back━louder and louder until Valkyrie shouted at him to, "SHUT UP!"

Snotlout, for once, came up with a good idea. He set up targeted barrels with the idea that they should have something to aim their destruction at. Hookfang demonstrated, blasting the barrel to shatters. Snotlout replaced it with another, turning to the babies. They just stared at him. "Here!" he grew frustrated, pointing at the target. "Here, Thunderdums! Do I need to spell it out for you━WHOA!" all three of them let loose a blast that knocked him and all the targets over. Hookfang laughed in the back of his throat. Fishlegs tried to use their mischevious nature to their advantage, hoping that maybe they could be good at disarming attackers. This, however, ended up in a shield and sword toss with Fishlegs stuck in the middle, trying to get his weapons back. Even Meatlug joined, which caused for her rider to gasp, betrayed. She just licked him. Valkyrie tried to use her improved Thunderdrum call, hoping that maybe it would have the same effect that Thornado's roars did on the babies. At first, it seemed to work. They stopped and tilted their heads, listening━until they all flocked towards her and set her crashing to the ground. Valkyrie squirmed as all three Thunderdrums licked her and jumped on her stomach. Zephyr had to roar at them to get them off, huffing in his annoyance. The Twins were the last to try and train the unruly babies. They were successful ... just not in the way the others hoped. They had trained the young dragons to copy their belch's to extreme accuracy.

"Hey, uh," Hiccup sighed afterwards, arms crossed, "not to be a wet blanket, but how is this helping anything?"

"How is it hurting?"

Ruff jumped forward and belched out a, "'C'" The Thunderdrums let loose a blast and she and her brother were knocked into Snotlout, destroying his freshly rebuilt target barrel set-up.

"See?" Tuff jumped back up, grinning. "They love it!"

Valkyrie's head fell into her hands.

The chaos continued into late afternoon, and they had no progress whatsoever. The Twins didn't help━they egged the Thunderdrums on, stirring them up by grabbing onto their tails and letting themselves be dragged across the stone. Valkyrie had been trying to make a flower-crown when they darted past, breaking apart all of her flowers. She threw it to the side, furious. Toothless whined, pawing at his ears.

"I know, pal," grumbled Hiccup, ducking out of the way of the wayward Thunderdrums. "Excruciating comes to mind."

Despite the little babies being cute, Valkyrie was seriously considering Stoick's decision to send them away. That was until they suddenly stopped. The three young Thunderdrums landed in a line, their loud booms turning into little purrs.

"Huh," said Hiccup, frowning. "Would you look at that? Finally getting through to them."

"Well, someone is," Valkyrie pointed to the entrance where Thornado had decided to step down through. She looked around for his rider, but the chief was nowhere to be seen. Thornado had come down himself.

Hiccup smiled softly at his father's dragon and walked up to him. "Okay, Thornado," he spun a finger around in a circle, "How about a little follow the leader?"

He understood and took off. The baby Thunderdrums followed and they circled around the arena, not a destructive noise. Valkyrie slumped, beyond relieved. Hiccup grinned. "That was promising," he glanced at Toothelss, "eh, bud?"

The group of Thunderdrums set back down. Astrid crossed her arms, impressed.

"Yeah!" she said. "I hardly recognise them."

Tuffnut gasped in horror, hands cupping his cheeks. "What did you do?!" he cried, running over and falling to his knees dramatically. "You've ruined them! Oh, Lloyd! I'm so sorry, Darren!"

"Thornado?" the chief's voice echoed outside. He came here in searching for his dragon and sighed to see him with the babes. "Thornado!" He looked back, purring. "Come now, we have chiefing to do."

He glanced back at the babies, and Valkyrie frowned to see him almost ... sad. He slowly walked back towards Stoick, head low. Val shared an exchange with Hiccup, who seemed to have noticed the same thing.

Stoick noticed the lack of screaming baby Thunderdrums and huffed, impressed. "Well, that's an improvement. Well done, Hiccup." He turned to leave, Thornado at his side.

Hiccup winced, "Well, no, Dad, it's actually ..." he didn't hear him and he sighed. Valkyrie groaned when the baby Thunderdrums started up again, racing after Thornado. "Oh, for the love of Thor━Tufffnut, the gate!"

"Got it!" he ran to the metal gate of the Academy. But instead of closing it, he just held his hands out. The Thunderdrums escaped with no trouble.

"Tuffnut!" scolded Astrid.

"What?" he let out. Hiccup glowered, and he realised. "Oh. Okay, a little clarity next time would help."

Valkyrie tugged at her, "What other clarity do you need?!"

"Well, close the gate, Tuffnut, could work. Or perhaps, please close the door, Tuffnut━ooh! How about: Tuffnut, your esteemed deadliness, would you be so kind to close the gate for me?"

They had left him there, not even listening to his words as they took off after the baby Thunderdrums. But the inevitable came to the hard realisation of the Riders. They had to say goodbye to these dragons; they had to find them another home. Either that, or Berk will be worse off for it.

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

━━"Okay, Bing, Bam and Boom, welcome to your new home: Dragon Island!"

Valkyrie knew it was the right thing to do, and she knew how much she'll regret trying to train them when nothing was working━her ears will regret it. But gods do these little Thunderdrums look adorable, peering up at them with their eyes as they tried to explain that this was where they were going to have to stay from now on. Dragon Island was a perfect place; it had a lot of shoreline caves for the Thunderdrums to settle in, food, plenty of places to let out as much shrieks as they wanted to.

But it was still hard.

"You're gonna love it here!" when on Hiccup. "Plenty of room. Lots of new dragons to annoy ... I━I mean, meet. You know, here, you can be as loud as you want. It'll be great!"

A silence settled over them. Valkyrie kind of felt ... horrible and guilty over this decision.

"Whoa..." murmured Ruff. "This is kinda sad."

"Yeah," muttered Tuff, a little tearful. "Reminds me of the time our parents took Sam, our pet yak, out to that farm to live."

Valkyrie glanced at them. She winced, having a feeling she knew exactly what happened to him.

"Yeah," sighed Ruff. "I would have cried all night ... except for those delicious yak steaks we had for dinner!"

Astrid glanced at Valkyrie and Hott, eyes wide as they realised. Oh, gods━Val gave them all a look to stay quiet.

"Oh, nothing better. And to eat them in those soft yak jackets?"

Snotlout wasn't bothered by the farewell to the Thunderdrums. He just shrugged and said, "Okay, great! Check you later━" he and Hookfang took to the skies, already heading back towards Helheim's gate and then Berk. The others followed not long after.

Valkyrie stayed back, watching the baby Thunderdrums purr and chirp. Zephyr nuzzled her to say, come on. She sighed and hopped onto the saddle. She gave them a final glance back at the baby dragons before taking off beside Hiccup.

He glanced at her and frowned. He ran a hand along Toothless's scales, and she realised he was thinking the same thing as her. Valkyrie met his gaze and pursed her lips. She held onto Zephyr tighter.

"Saying goodbye is always horrible," she murmured softly. "I don't ... I don't think I could ever say goodbye to Zephyr just like that."

Toothless purred up at his rider, concerned by his frown. Hiccup sighed and gave him a scratch. "Yeah ..." he agreed. "But we won't have to say goodbye to our dragons. Will we, bud?" he hugged his dragon from his saddle. Toothless huffed an agreeance. Valkyrie smiled at them.

"Yeah," she nodded, knowing he was right. She hugged Zephyr, too. "You'll be here forever, I just know it, Zeph━" he nuzzled at her. "We're going to take on the world. And you know what," she sat back up as they caught up with the others. "We will always be able to visit Bing, Bam and Boom."

"Sure," said Tuffnut, hearing the end of their conversation. "Except, they won't be there."

Valkyrie and Hiccup frowned. "Why not?"

"'Cause they're right behind you."

"What?" They glanced back. Hiccup sighed to see that Ruffnut was right. The three Thunderdrums had caught up, too, happily flapping their wings to follow. Bing shoved Boom to the side a little, cackling a small chirp in which his brother boomed a blast that knocked him sideways. "Oh, great. What do we do now?"

"I'll tell you what we do," said Snotlout, leaning forward in his saddle with a grin. "We ditch 'em!"

He spun Hookfang back around and zipped in through the small flock. The sibling Thunderdrums followed him back to Dragon Island. He darted into a cave and they shot past. Snotlout took the chance to ascend back up to the clouds to the others, laughing. "We did it, Hookfang! Stupid babies!"

Valkyrie arched a brow, "Uh ...?" she pointed behind him.

He turned around. Bing, Bang and Boom were still following. "Oh no."

Thinking he was playing a game, they let loose a blast that knocked him straight off the saddle. He tumbled towards the ocean. Hookfang did nothing to save him.

"Uh ..." Hott winced. "Hookfang?"

The Monstrous Nightmare huffed, glancing over a his name. Hott pointed down. Only then did he realise his rider was no longer on his back and his eyes widened in fright. He quickly darted down at Snotlout's scream of, "HOOKFANG!"

"Wow!" chuckled Astrid as Snotlout hit the water. Hookfang pulled him out, drenched. "That was fun! Let's try Snotlout's plan again."

They guided the Thunderdrums back to Dragon Island, keeping them there for a few moments with a pile of fish. They ate away and the Riders, hiding behind boulders, silently backed away. They took to the skies, taking the long way back to Berk hoping the Thunderdrums wouldn't follow. And they didn't. They arrived at Berk Thunderdrum free.

Landing back home, all of the Riders were very proud of themselves. Stoick walked up to meet them, Thornado at his side ...

And three baby Thunderdrums surrounding him.

Hiccup blanched. "Oh━what?! I just━are you━how?!"

Stoick grumbled a, "Never mind. It looks Thornado and I are gonna have to give you dragon training geniuses a hand."

They set off again in a smaller group this time. Hiccup, Stoick and Valkyrie returned to Dragon Island with Thornado keeping Bing, Bam and Boom in line. Val drifted back in next to Hiccup as Stoick took the lead, the baby dragons trailing in formation right behind.

"I hope this works," said Hiccup.

"Thornado has a way with them," Stoick called back, glancing over his shoulder briefly. "It'll work."

Boom got out of line and Thornado immediately roared; he drifted back in with his brothers. Stoick gave his dragon a pat, "Attaboy, Thornado. Sometimes, you need to show teenagers a little tough love." Hiccup sighed, embarassed and his father shot him a, "That's right, I said it."

Valkyrie chuckled.

For the last time that day, Bing, Bam and Boom were put down on Dragon Island's shores. Hiccup hopped off Toothless saddle to approach them, crouching down to say, "Okay, so this is it. Listen, guys, Berk just isn't the island for you. There's too many Vikings and not enough places for you guys to play."

They stared up at him. As if understanding, they began to make whimpering noises, padding up to him. Hiccup slumped, "Oh, no, no, no," he shook his head, standing up and looking away. "Stop making that whimper sound━don't make this any harder than it already is."

"Let Thornado have a word with them," offered the chief, taking his son's place. Valkyrie sat Zephyr down beside Toothless and held out a hand. Hiccup took it and she gave it a squeeze, smiling sadly.

Hiccup got back onto his saddle as Thornado gave the younglings a short roar. They listened, sitting back. Stoick nodded, satisfied. "Well, that's done. Put that in the Book of Dragons. Come on, Thornado, back to Berk."

They pushed off the ground and into the air. Valkyrie heard the squawks of the baby Thunderdrums, finding herself look back. They hobbled to the shore, gazing up at them. She felt that tug in her heart━the need to go back and pick them up and take them to Berk, despite the consequences.

"Don't look back," Stoick told her and Hiccup. "Remember, tough love."

There was a roar below. Valkyrie tried to listen to the chief and not look back. But it seemed Thornado didn't understand this. In hearing the squawks and roars, he suddenly reaered back and pulled against Stoick's struggles back to the island. "Whoa! Thornado!"

Valkyrie and Hiccup spun back, too, and they gasped at what they saw. In just the moments they had left them, a whole gang of wild dragons surrounded the baby Thunderdrums, snarling and backing them into a corner by the rocks.

"Looks like they might not be welcome on Dragon Island, either," said Hiccup. "Maybe that's why we found them out on the sea stacks to begin with. They were probably chased there!"

Thornado growled down at the wild dragons, eyes narrowed. Valkyrie kept Zephyr in a hover, not sure on what to do. Stoick set his jaw, and decided, "Well, I guess we're not gonna let any wild dragons bully our boys, are we?"

Hiccup arched a brow, "Tough love, huh?"

His father didn't say anything. He just dived his dragon down. Valkyrie and Hiccup followed.

With a sonic boom from Thornado, the Monstrous Nightmare taunting Bing, Bam and Boom was flung to the side. Valkyrie cried out defiantely as Zephyr tail-striked a Nadder backwards before zipping out of the way of the dragon's poisonous spines. The baby Thunderdrums all looked up, surprised. Thornado landed and they scurried to him, nuzzling his snout in thanks. Then, he and Stoick charged the wild dragons approaching. Hiccup was there to take care of the Nightmare that tried to take on the baby dragons from behind. Valkyrie took care of the Zippleback from the side, scaring him away with a heat-blast from Zephyr.

But more and more dragons just kept coming. They were soon backed into the corner with Bing, Bam and Boom. Zephyr snarled, rearing his wings back threateningly. The wild dragons didn't care; they knew they were outnumbered.

"Hiccup, Valkyrie!"

They glanced back to see Stoick cup his ears. The two of them quickly followed just in time as Thornado, Bing, Bam and Boom all let loose everything they held in. Valkyrie hunched at the blast she could hear even when clamping her ears shut. The Thunderdrums worked together, putting their power together to create a sort of tornado of sound. All of the dragons surrounding them were knocked unconscious yards away.

Once they were done, Valkyrie let her hands drop, and her ears still rung.

"HA!" shouted Stoick after the dragons.

Hiccup let out a sigh of relief, "Whew, sure taught those wild dragons a lesson."

But Valkyrie only just winced. From the trees, cliffs and boulders, only more and more dragons took their place. "Yeah, this time," she mumbled.

Hiccup groaned, tugging at his hair. "What are we gonna do with these guys?" he looked helplessly down at Bing, Bam and Boom who shuffled back, terrified to the protection of Thornado. "We can't take them with us, and we can't leave them here!"

Stoick's shoulders sagged slightly. Valkyrie found herself frowning as he glanced down at his dragon nuzzling the baby Thunderdrums reassuringly. Some part of his face fell, and she saw the strong facade he always held falter. Then, he took a deep breath, nodded and slipped off his saddle.

Thornado glanced at him, and an understanding passed between the dragon and his rider. Valkyrie felt her heart squeeze, because deep down, she had a feeling she knew, as well. Stoick knelt down beside the Thunderdrum and began to unlatch his saddle.

Hiccup's eyes widened. "D━Dad?" he let out in a whisper. "Are you ... okay?"

Stoick the Vast sighed. "Yes, son," he said softly. He placed a tender hand on Thornado's snout. "I think we both know what we have to do, don't we, Thornado?"

His hands took the saddle from Thornado's back and he pulled it off, stepping away. Hiccup's face fell as he finally understood. "Dad," he breathed. "What are you doing?"

Valkyrie felt an ache in the back of her throat. She ran a hand down Zephyr's scales and he let out a low, mournful squawk.

"I'm setting Thornado free," said the chief. He locked eyes with his son. "Do what any chief would do in this situation ... or any father." He sighed at his dragon. Thornado peered up at him sadly, and Val could feel her eyes well up with tears. "These boys won't survive without you. Right now, they need you more than I do."

Thornado purred, but Stoick shook his head. "Ah, I understand. I'd do the same thing. It doesn't mean I won't miss you." He knelt down and Thornado nuzzled his snout into his palm, closing his eyes. Valkyrie wiped her tears from her cheeks. Stoick hung his head respectfully to his dragon. "Take care of your new family."

Then, he stepped back. With a bow, he left his dragon to his new family. Thornado stepped forward a little, but stopped. He let out a soft, sad cry as Stoick mounted Toothless behind his son; his own family.

"Goodbye," he told him. "Old friend."

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

    a/n: *cries in hidden world*

    Also no matter how many times I watch this episode, saying goodbye to thornado hURTS.