Chapter 23: The curious incident of the dragons in the night (part one)
It was early in the morning and Delvin was fully prepared to turn barf and belch into a pair of boots
"I swear to god, I'm taking this out of the twin's pockets" Delvin vowed as he stared at the zippleback which was laying in a pile of torn and shredded boots, barely stopping himself from cutting off at least one of the dragon's heads with his halberd
Last night had been boot night and just like everyone else on the island Delvin and his mother had placed their stinking boots on the doorstep, a once in a weeknight where everyone did the same, letting their boots air out for the night
And to his surprise and outrage in the morning, he had found them to be missing. Trudging barefoot was obviously unpleasant, especially with his bad leg which ached more than usual due to the hard ground, he had walked past the numerous also bootless doorsteps of the village as he searched for his shoes
He normally woke up earlier than usual so of course, he was the one who first found the culprit behind the shoe-napping, following the zippleback traps to the dragon academy where he now stared at the culprit. As he was beginning to reconsider his earlier decision to not kill the dragon hiccup, stoick and the rest of the village showed up, all walking over barefoot
"Found our shoes!" Delvin called over, pointing towards the pile of ripped leather behind him as he walked over to the others
"Come on guys, just cause a zippleback is sleeping next to a pile of our shoes doesn't mean…" hiccup began, sounding nervous before folding halfway through his sentence, understanding how he sounded "okay… he ate the shoes"
"We know" Astrid pitched in from beside him, directing a glare at the twins, who owned the dragon, before walking over to the pile and picking out a pair of shoes that were her own, a pair of yack leather boots that Delvin had made for her last snoggletog with a sad look
What? Even Viking women like shoes
Soon enough most of the people nearby began to complain, getting bitter at the sight of their shoes being destroyed, especially seeing as most only had one pair, meaning that they would have to work in the cold
"Oh shut it! Listen to yourselves!" gobber yelled at the gathering crowd, looking at them like they were a bunch of complaining toddlers "We're Vikings! Everything is cold! I'll fix your damn shoes, just shut it!" he said as he waved off the crowd with a condescending glare
"You heard the man!" Stoick agreed with a clap of his hands before he two picked up his pair of tattered shoes from the pile "gobber'l have your shoes fixed in no time, so go back to your mornings!"
"They don't destroy things on purpose!" Hiccup reassured the gathered Vikings as he ran a hand through his hair, looking towards barf and belch "they're dragons! They do dragon things! We just need to keep an eye on them! Which is what we're going to do!"
"What?" Delvin asked as he looked at hiccup, knowing he was about to feel rather annoyed
****
"I'm not wearing that" Delvin growled, keeping a grinning Astrid at a distance with the point of his halberd as she tried to put a sash on him. The sash, literally just said dumb on it, which apparently stood for "Dragon united monitoring brigade".
Hiccup of course was in charge of the name, that little one-footed troll
"Come ooon! It'll be fun!" Astrid smiled as tried to slip past his halberd, moving like a hungry snake, weaving and bobbing around him, before suddenly charging with a tackle and knocking him down "put it on!"
"I'd rather die with dignity!" he hissed back at her as she kicked away his halberd and knocked him onto his back. All he could do was struggle against her as she slowly lowered the sash over his head "Nooooo! Snap-pine save me!" he yelled
Hearing his master's cries the dragon ran over to him, picking his attacker up by the back of her shirt and hanging her off a nearby weapon rack as Astrid struggled against him, never losing that demonic grin "join the dumb side!" she cackled
"You were supposed to destroy snotlout! Not join him!" Delvin cried as he pointed to the oblivious boy wearing the same sash as he argued with gobber a few meters away
"You will join me! Now or someday soon!" Astrid continued to yell, like some villain that had been momentarily defeated before finally calming herself down and pulling herself free, dropping the sash "I'll wait" she giggled
"Well that was… disturbing" hiccup muttered from a few meters away, watching their exchange
"This is all your fault" Delvin grumbled as he knelt and picked up his halberd, only to suddenly feel a lightweight on his shoulders as Astrid looped it over him from behind, causing him to look at hiccup and yell "Avenge me!"
"No! Come on we had a job to do!" hiccup sighed as he walked over to the still kneeling Delvin and offered a hand "come on, we need to patrol and make sure no more issues happen"
"Fair enough" both he and Astrid nodded as they returned to their serious attitudes, hoping on their respected mounts, although Delvin "accidentally" got his sash caught on one of Snap-pines scales, shredding it
"From there they separated for the night, each taking a separate sector of the village with Delvin patrolling the fishing grounds
The night was cold and dark so as Delvin patrolled the island he couldnt help at times that he felt he was being watched, causing him to wrap his cloak around him tighter as he looked around, although he did at one point hear what he believed to be footsteps, he eventually discarded it as a figment of his imagination
"Must've been the wind," he said shaking his head
But come morning…
"Hiccup!" the voice of stoick rang through out the village
the feast hall had been destroyed
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone