It's Always the Quiet One

Chapter 7: The Night before Everything Changes

Valia was now sitting beside Hiccup at the watch tower for dinner with Gobber and the other teens. Valia had a somewhat displeased expression on her face, as she had no clue how Gobber talked her into doing this after what happened at training that day. Gobber was currently telling them the story of how he lost his hand and foot, which is a story Valia and Hiccup had heard a hundred times before. Valia was reading a book while Gobber was telling the story, as an attempt to avoid eye contact with the other teens. She also had her gloves tied around her belt, as she didn't want to leave at home and risk her baby dragon getting accidentally hurt by them.

Gobber: ...and with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg.

Fishlegs: Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?

Valia stiffened a laugh, and Hiccup gave his sister a blank " really? " look as he knows how her mind is sometimes.

Fishlegs: Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by... crushing his heart, or something.

This earned Fishlegs weird looks from the others except for Valia, she just flipped the page of the book she was reading.

Snotlout: I swear, I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!

Valia looks up from her book to just raise her brow at her cousin in response to what he just said.

Gobber: Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon.

Valia quickly noticed the horrified look on Hiccup's face when Gobber said that, and she seemed to be the only one that had noticed it.

Gobber: Alright. I'm off to bed. ( To the other teens: ) Oh, and your goal before going to bed, is to have a small bonding moment with Valia, to help prevent her from killing all of you before the dragons do.

Hiccup and the other teens were quickly surprised by this, and Valia...she quickly closed her book with a displeased expression and began putting on her clawed gloves in response, causing Hiccup and Astrid to give her blank looks while the others were slightly concerned about their own safety at that moment.

Gobber: Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?

Tuffnut then spoke as soon as Gobber left, too much of Valia's annoyance.

Tuffnut: It's gonna be me. It's my destiny. See?

Valia quickly and calmly went back to reading her book as Tuffnut showed everyone his " tattoo " while Hiccup took off, Valia didn't try to stop him as she had a good idea what he was going to do. While Astrid noticed Hiccup's absence and watched him leave in confusion.

Fishlegs: ( gasps ) Your Mom let you get a tattoo?

Tuffnut: It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark.

Ruffnut: Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before.

Tuffnut: Yes, it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now.