The Soul of a Dragon

Chapter 20

Snotlout

Stupid Hiccup wants us to go on another stupid patrol again. He's stupid. I'd much rather be lying in the sun and enjoying some poetry.

I burst out laughing so hard, tears start to fill my eyes. Enjoying some poetry. I laugh again. Yeah, right. That's sounds more like Fishface.

Vara is flying to my right and looks at me with an amused but questioning expression. But then her shoulders begin to shake with laughter, too, and we're both almost falling off our dragons.

"What's so funny?" Ruffnut asks but she only directs the question at Vara.

"Yeaaah, I want to laugh, too!" Tuff steers Belch over Ruffnut and Barf. I always wondered how the dragon manages to fly straight while they do that criss-cross thing.

"Go back to whatever hole you guys crawled out of, Nuts," I say rolling my eyes.

They both sneer at me and, for the first time since days, Ruffnut quickly looks at me. I don't imagine the guilty emotion on her face. Whatever, she made her choice. The Jorgensons don't need to chase women, they come to us like moths to a flame. I look to my right again and catch Vara narrowing her eyes at me.

"What," I snap at her.

She shakes her head and says disappointed, "Don't think I didn't see the way you looked at each other. How you looked at her." I don't answer but my grip around Hookfang's antlers tightens until my knuckles whiten from the pressure. Vara and I have been becoming close friends, despite us knowing each other for only a few weeks. I gave her a hard time though, it's hard for me to trust people. But she pushed through because somehow we understand each other, she can read me like an open book. And I usually admire that about her, but right now it's really fucking annoying.

Like I said, she doesn't need me to say something for her to know what I'm thinking. She gives me a short compassionate look, then throws a pine cone – where the hell did she get that from? – at my head.

"Owww?!" I complain and rub the spot where it hit me. Part of me is astonished at her perfect aiming ability, another part is even more irritated. If she wants to play dirty, we'll play dirty.

"Let's show them," I whisper to Hookfang and for once, he seems to agree with me and smirks. I pull on his right antler to fly twirling to Vara's other side. For a split second, I fly upside-down above her and grin widely. She just blows air into my eyes, causing me to tear up. What kind of childish game is she playing at?

As soon as Hookfang and I are on their right, I tell Hookfang to use his strong tail to bring the girls off course. But Aria, Vara's light fury, has apparently been watching us calmly the entire time. Her eyes are halfway closed in boredom and she minimally bends to her left to avoid getting hit. This, however, brings Hookfang's out of balance and he starts to wobble.

"C'mon, Hookfang. Stop this nonsense," I shout at my dragon, to which he replies with suddenly diving straight down towards the ocean's surface, causing me to lose my seat. The only thing keeping me steady, is me clinging onto his antlers. The sharp wind is making my face feel numb and I scream like a little girl. "Okay, okay, okay, you win. You win!"

Hookfang returns to our previous position on Vara's left, a satisfactory and sadistic gurgling laughter erupting from deep within his throat. Stupid beast.

Vara giggles uncontrollably and Aria wears a smug expression. I knew it, everyone hates me.

"Hey, what's that?" Astrid shouts from her front position next to Hiccup. This tears us from our banter and both Vara and I urge our dragon forward to find out what's going on. In the middle of the vast navy blue of the ocean is a small wooden ship, soft waves sway it back and forth.