The Other-worldly Protector

89. Heather's return

"Fishie's got a girlfriend!" Snotlout yelled as he burst into Kiara's hut, making her jump from the table she was at. "Wait, what's all this?" he asked, stalking over to the table. On it were pens, a notepad with a hastily scribbled list, a dismembered phone—her phone which has been out of battery for months now—and chicken cawing suspiciously as Snotlout neared, but the main and most bizarre attraction was a scatter of potatoes connected by thin metal wires jabbed into the potato flesh with metal spikes. "It's...A flop," Kiara groaned. "See, I'm trying to make a battery but the only one I ever saw being made was a useless potato one, which doesn't even—"

"Yeah, yeah, lost interest," Snotlout waved her away and leaned against the tabletop. "Now back to me —uh, I mean Fishface!"

"So he beat you to a girlfriend," Kiara said, smirking. "That's hardly surprising with your charm."

"Ha-ha. FYI, I have heaps of charm."

"Of the woman-repellant kind."

"Like you'd know."

"Oh I do," she said, "And so does every Defender of the Wing you tried to hit on." As he grumbled something, she plumped into her chair and crossed out something on her notepad. "What's surprising is that he found someone while we're all living out here," she mused, then abruptly dropped her pen and snapped her head to face Snotlout. "Ruffnut?!" she asked, astonished. Chicken squawked indignantly.

"Pfft! Not even close," he laughed. "No, no, I just discovered he's been pen-pals with Heather the whole time she's disappeared on us."

"Wait seriously?"

"And more importantly, disappeared on me! She was gonna be the future Mrs Jorgenson. We totally had a thing going."

"As if," Kiara snorted. "But hey! Since Fishlegs has contact we can invite her back!"

"We already did while you're here... poking potatoes or whatever. Hey, where are the twins? They're the ones I HAVE to tell. But they disappeared on me! I mean, seriously, what's the point of Fishlegs having a love life if the three of us can't annoy the crap out of him for it?"

"They left early in the morning to find Harald."

"Huh?"

"The guy that—"

"Your hunter buddy!"

"Yup."

"So they took on your wild goose chase. Ha! Muttonheads."

"I dunno. Our sleuths extraordinaire were confident they can pull it off." She pointed her pen at him. "Even said they's be back within hours."

"And you believe them?" Snotlout asked, fiddling with pieces of her dismantled phone. Kiara rapped her pen against his knuckles. "Oi!"

"Hands off. And yes, I believe them. I think they have a dodgy contact or two who has dealings with the hunters."

"Hmm. It's probably Gruffnut." Snotlout had said it as an offhand comment but when Kiara thought about what she knew of the twins' troublemaking way-faring cousin Gruffnut, the explanation fit. "You know, you can be smart when you're not trying," she said.

"Well, you can shove—wait that was a compliment? Ew." He shuddered. "That feels icky coming from you."

"Well occasionally you're bearable," Kiara said, shrugging, then scrunched her nose and turned away, "when I can't see or hear you, of course."

"Ha, better."

"Come on, chicken," she beckoned and the oversized bird jumped into her arms. "Let's get ourselves to a bearable distance from Snotboy."