The trader and the rider

Chapter 13

-Hmm. Pretty good turnout -said Hiccup as we got closer to the island.

The place was full of Vikings surrounded around a big hut. A storage house. Apparently, Snotlout's dad, Spiteloud, had been trying to build a storage house for Berk for a while, but the last time he did it got destroyed thanks to some Singetails. Now, however, Spiteloud had finally found a nice place to put the storehouse, and that he did. It was a big building, and it looked pretty damn good. Snotlout was pretty proud of the accomplishment, even if it was his dad who built it. I knew he had a... "weird" relationship with Spitelout, but not wanting to be too noisy, I didn't ask him about it. But it was apparent he seemed even cockier than usual; he looked like he wanted to prove something to someone. "Daddy issues" I thought to myself, but I didn't say anything.

-Of course it's a good turnout, Hiccup. The people love the Jorgensons -he answered with a grin.

We landed on the island and let the dragons go play around. Sometimes I forgot my dragon was actually pretty young, as he had been born no more than nine years ago. Sure, that meant that for woolly howls he was already an adult, but he was still young. So seeing him playing with Barf and Belch sometimes surprised me. Now he was playing with them, as they had grown closer after Tuff and I started to spend more time together.

We followed Snotlout between the crowd of Vikings. He had a big grin constantly and he puffed out his chest. I would have paid attention to what he was saying if I hadn't seen a really shiny knife in a man's pocket sticking out slightly. I touched my pockets to see what I could trade for it and found a really nice rock in the shape of a gronkle. "I love crowded events" I thought to myself as I traded the things and added the knife to my belt. Soon enough I saw another objective, and another, and another. That was a gold mine.

After a great session of trading in which I managed to trade some nice stones, a belt, and a dragon fang in exchange for a leather bracelet and some other random stuff that caught my eye, I decided to go back with the others. The twins had some food in their helmets and they were apparently enjoying it a lot. The others were talking to each other, so I went to talk with Tuff and Ruff.

-Hey, where did you go? -asked Tuff.

-I saw shiny stuff.

-Understandable.

-You guys?

-We saw free food -answered Ruff.

-Ah, makes sense.

Stoick appeared before the door of the storage house, and he cleared his throat. Everyone got quiet and we all looked at him.

-In every Viking's life, there comes a time when you have to take a chance. Risk everything. Today, we celebrate a man who took the initiative. We now have a new off-Berk storehouse, thanks to-

Spitelout opened the door, pushing the chief out of the centre of attention.

-Spitelout Jogerson, of the great Jorgensons!

Everyone cheered and clapped as a cockier and older version of Snotlout came down to meet everyone.

-Spitelout, Spitelout, oy, oy, oy! -cheered Snotlout, and he went to his dad's side.

We all stayed in our place and looked around. No one else wanted to go with Spitelout but we didn't really know what to do.

-Who wanna see me balance my helmet with one horn on my head? -asked Tuff out of nowhere.

-No way you can do that -said Astrid, raising an eyebrow.

-Yes way, he has an amazing sense of balance -assured Ruff.