The Great Endeavor - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

1. The Storm

It was a good day for the dragon riders. After Viggo had fallen into the volcano with the dragon eye, all was quiet in the surrounding seas.

"This blows," Tuffnut complained as the zippleback flew in pace with Hookfang.

"Totally blows," Ruff agreed.

Then Tuff added, "nothing could blow more." He paused, thinking for a minute before clarifying, "well, accept for wind, I guess; the wind could blow more."

Snotlout growled in frustration. "What are you two mutton-heads talking about?" He demanded.

"There's no one trying mercilessly to hunt us down and kill us anymore," Tuffnut explained with a frown, as if it were normal to be sad about.

Snotlout face-palmed and asked, "and why does that 'blow'?"

"Life's gonna be so boring now," Ruffnut argued, "we're just bummed out."

"Then again," Tuff began, holding a finger out to make his point, "this does give us more time to prepare for Loki Day."

Every one of the dragon riders heard this and groaned in agony. Loki Day was a month away, and no one was looking forward to finding out how the twins would spend it. "Didn't you guys learn you lesson last year?" Fishlegs reminded them.

"We sure did, Fishlegs," the male twin responded with a devious grin, "we learned that we'll need to be much more sneaky this time around." He then turned to Ruff and began to consult quietly, "I was thinking about getting the dragons involved this year; Barf and Belch could be extremely helpful, with their explosive gas..."

Ruffnut listened with excited eyes, nodding as her brother went on. She added in points of her own, as well. The two were so deep into their conversation that they didn't see what was going on around them.

"Is that a storm up ahead?" Astrid wondered aloud, squinting her eyes at the horizon.

Finally, the twins stopped talking. Tuff looked ahead to where what looked to be a huge black blob hung in the sky. It was quite far away, at least a mile, so no one could tell for sure what it was.

"I'm not sure," Hiccup replied suspiciously, "I've never seen a storm cloud like that before."

Fishlegs held a spyglass up to his eye. He spoke as he examined the dark mass, "it's definitely a cloud...very thick and compacted...there doesn't seem to be any rain."

"Great, a creepy massive black storm cloud," Snotlout spoke in sarcasm, "why are we still flying toward it?"

Astrid rolled her eyes and called to the black haired boy, "it's just a cloud. And if there's no rain or lightning, there's nothing to worry about."

"It's probably smoke pollution from a forest fire," Fishlegs suggested.

At this, Hiccup frowned, and worried, "I hope it's not from the Edge." Toothless gurgled in concern and sped up. "Come on, guys!" Hiccup shouted to the others. The five dragons darted away in the direction of the smokey cloud. But the closer they got, the stronger the wind began to whip, until they reached the outskirts of the black storm cloud.

"Uh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Hiccup confessed as Toothless stopped going forward.

Snotlout struggled to keep his helmet from flying off as he yelled at Fishlegs, "you said it was just smoke!"

"I said 'probably'," Fishlegs clarified nervously.

"Hiccup, we need to get out of here," Astrid shouted over the howling wind.

The leader nodded and yelled to the others, "we'll circle around from farther back; hopefully the storm isn't over the Edge."

Everyone and their dragons turned tail and left. As they flew away, Tuffnut crossed his arms and pouted, "and yet another dangerous adventure, cut short by Mr. Buzzkill."

"That's not an adventure," Fishlegs scolded them, "that's a powerful storm like we've never seen before, that could've killed us if we flew into it."

The twins exchanged a look before looking back to Fishlegs. "How is that not an adventure?" Ruffnut wondered.

Fishlegs sighed and decided to just let the two siblings believe what they wanted. As long as the storm was behind them, everything would be alright. He looked over his shoulder for a moment, but it seemed like the storm was just as close as before. "Uh, Hiccup?" He called nervously.

Turning around in his saddle, Hiccup was about to ask what was wrong. But the massive stroms cloud looming at their backs answered his question. "What?!" He shouted in surprise. Thinking quickly, he ordered, "everyone, to the right! Maybe it just needs to pass us by."

The dragons turned in the wind. Snotlout's helmet went flying as they did. Everyone watched in horror as the storm cloud seemed to consume it. And even when they changed directions, the cloud followed, until they were also sucked into the black fog.

Everything went black. The wind inside of it tossed the riders around mercilessly, stealing screams from their throats. Even the twins had to admit that this wasn't as fun as they'd hoped. Nothing could be seen through the thick darkness. And soon, their minds went dark as well.