renegades, httyd

xlviii. Family

renegades
chapter forty-eight

"How long do you suppose we're supposed to stay out here for?"

Meanwhile, across the waters from Harald Forkbeard's ship, three from a team of four sat waiting in the rock garden of Fishlegs for a moment of relaxation as instructed by their friend in order to calm a fight they had recently in the clubhouse at Dragon's Edge. Speedifist, Clueless and Wartihog sat, shoulders slumped, sulking in the afternoon for what felt like an hour, but must have just been a few minutes.

"What?" Wartihog turned to Speedifist, glowering. "Can't sit still for long?"

Never one to let down a challenge, Speedifist narrowed his eyes back at his friend, "I can sit still for a long time."

Wartihog arched a dubious brow. "Can you?"

"Yes, I can, watch━"

"I can sit still longer than you━"

"You want to bet? Look at me━"

"━yeah, I wanna bet━"

"━I'm sitting still━"

"━I will beat you━"

"━I'm still sitting still━"

"━you're moving your hands━"

"━I will beat you in a way you've never been beaten before━"

"Shut up," Clueless snapped in between the two of them. This was why they were here in the first place. They listened to him, and the three friends sat in silence. It was awkward, knowing that there should be someone else with them. Even the thought of her turned the air sullen.

They were supposed to return to Berk, but after Estrid disappeared, they refused to leave. The boys had stayed on Dragon's Edge, amongst arguments, desperate searches and everyone on the verge of exploding at each other determined to find a way to get her back. But in the past few days, all there has been was arguing, dry ends and Hiccup cursing his failure against Viggo, not only losing the Dragon Eye, but losing Estrid as well. And maybe arguing just disguised how, right now, none of them knew what to do.

Simoulatenously, all three boys glanced at each other, knowing they all thought the same thing. Speedifist frowned out at the ocean, "Do you think she's alive?" he murmured.

"Yeah," said Wartihog immediately with no hesitation. "Yeah, she's got to be. It's Estrid ... she's alive."

Clueless took a deep breath, feeling a lump in his throat. "We have to find her. If it was the other way around, she'd drop everything to find us."

"We have nowhere to start," sighed Wartihog. He dropped his head into his hands. "Everyone's arguing because we have nowhere to start."

"But we can't just let that stop us," argued Clueless. "Right?" he was tearful. "That won't stop us, right? We can't let that stop us."