𝙃𝙏𝙏𝙔𝘿 : 𝘼 𝘾𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙩 𝙁𝙪𝙧𝙮

CH-9: Night Talk & First Flight

That evening, Gobber had set up a fire up at one of the towers outside of the arena, with the other teen Vikings sitting alongside him, as he told one of the stories. Cassie was also with them, to keep an eye on Braedey.

As Gobber set the fire up in the Watchtower for them to eat, he started telling us a story of how he lost his hand and leg to the dragons. As everyone had chicken, Braedey was having fish after he met the Night Fury.

"...And with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole!" Gobber shared his story with us on how he lost his hand and leg. "And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg."

After showing us his missing leg, all the teens, except for Jasmine and Braedey, were in awe at what he went through.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?" Fishlegs now asked to Gobber. "Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by... crushing his heart, or something."

Cassie now looked to Braedey, who now looked to be deep in thought and not listening to the others, then looked back as he watched the others.

"I swear, I'm so angry right now!" Snotlout barked as he held his piece of mutton. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot." He said to Gobber. "I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!" He pointed to his face for emphasis.

Cassie leaned over to Diane. "I don't think his face will survive the fire of the dragons." She whispered. Diane snickered in amusement already imagining the pain of Snotlout.

"That's funny." Jasmine snickered in response to what Cassie said. She then looked over at Braedey, but she noticed the look in his eyes: he didn't seem to be listening to what was going on around him, but thinking about something else. It got her curious as to what was happening inside his head, but now wasn't the time to ask questions.

Gobber shook his head. "No. It's the wings and the tails you really want." He corrected Snotlout, making Braedey look at the fire since he knew it. "If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

That's when Braedey thought of something he could possibly do for Shadow. Something the two of them could do together.

Gobber yawned, now meaning that he'll head to bed. "Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be, too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honour of killing it?" Everyone, minus Braedey and Oscar, were getting excited. The former was thinking about something else.

Tuffnut leaned down and puts his arms behind his back. "It's gonna be me. It's my destiny." He bragged as he shows something to them. "See?"

Fishlegs gasped at the mark he saw. "Your Mom let you get a tattoo?" He asked.

"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark." Tuffnut corrects Fishlegs.

"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before." Ruffnut reminded to her twin, never knowing about the mark.

"Yes, it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now." Tuffnut argued with his twin sister.

While they were talking, Astrid took notice that Braedey is gone, only seeing that he left his fish. As they continued to talk, Astrid made it to the stairs and saw that Braedey was walking down the stairs, looking like he was in a hurry to somewhere. Once Astrid saw the Martin boy leave, she went back to her spot around the fire, never caring about Braedey to where he's going or what he's up to. Cassie and Jasmine had also taken notice, but they didn't raise any concern at the given moment. They took a guess that Braedey was just feeling tired.