To The End - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD)

28. Grim Discovery

"No.." Hiccup breathed in awe.

"Hiccup?" Astrid's voice suddenly echoed through the Great Hall. Hiccup was jolted from his thoughts and turned to see his betrothed peaking in through the entrance. "There you are," she spotted him and smiled, entering the building to meet him.

"Astrid, what are you doing still awake?" Hiccup asked nervously as he scattered the papers around to hide the name.

The young woman have him an odd look of suspicion at his actions, "..what are you doing still awake?" She turned the question to him and tried to peak behind him.

Hiccup gave up immediately; he knew he'd have to tell her eventually. With a grave look, he handed her the guest list, "we..might have a problem."

Now even more confused, Astrid took the list and began to skim it. Her eyes widened when she saw the name. "What?" She exclaimed in shock, "Victor..he's a Grimborn? But how..?"

"He must be either Ryker or Viggo's son," Hiccup explained, his words heavy with tension.

Astrid set the paper down slowly, "wouldn't we have heard of him?"

"I guess not," Hiccup concurred with a sigh. He rubbed his forehead in stress.

"But, he's Iris's friend, he has been for years," Astrid tried to make sense of it, "and he respects dragons. Maybe he doesn't even know his heritage."

Hiccup glanced back down at the guest list as memories from their time on Dragon's Edge replayed in his mind. It had been two years since Viggo had died, two years of silence from the dragon hunting tribe. "Well, I hope you're right; for all of our sakes," he muttered. But his mind wouldnt let it go; Hiccup knew that sleep would not come easy to him this night.

***

A few days had passed since the wedding, and Hiccup had finally finished his secret project. He stopped by Iris and Tuff's home to drop off what she'd lent to him a while back.

"Hey, Chief," Tuff answered the door when Hiccup knocked.

Hiccup widened his eyes; he'd expected Iris to answer, forgetting that the male twin now lived there too. "Tuff! Hey, uh," Hiccup began awkwardly, "is Iris around? I need to give something back to her."

"She's got the arena this morning for the sand wraiths," Tuffnut explained with a shrug, "I can take it though." Knowing there was no way around it, Hiccup sighed. He handed Tuff the bundle he held. The blonde man gave him a confused look, "uh, why did you have one of Iris's uniforms?"

"It was for my project," Hiccup spoke vaguely, not wanting to give away the surprise quite yet. He was glad at the fact that Tuff probably wouldn't figure it out, too. "Which, I'll be revealing later today," he went on with a grin, "so be in the arena waiting when Iris is finished with the dragons, and tell your sister to do the same."

The chief then ran off, Tuff staring after him curiously. With another shrug and a grin, he went back inside and folded the dragon scales for his love. He'd never cared much for keeping tidy or folding clothes, but he knew that Iris hated when her armour had kinks from being improperly stored. He hummed lightly and smiled as he placed the small stack inside the top drawer of their dresser; that was where all of the sand wraith clothing went. Then, Tuff made his way to the Thorston home to talk to Ruffnut.

***

The twins and Eret were in the arena watching Iris work with Arrow and the other sand wraiths. The once overly-proud species had adapted smoothly to the transition into life with vikings. Toothless had also joined in on this day. He and Arrow were mimicking what to do in a dragon on dragon battle while the others watched curiously.

"Dragons..training dragons," Eret observed with an impressed tone.

"I know right?" Ruff spoke with a laugh. She crossed her arms and grinned at the dragons, "I guess when you can talk to dragons, it's easy to get them to listen."

Tuff smiled as he listened to Iris's clicking and watched her body language and asked rhetorically, "is there no end to that woman's talents?"

"Hey, guys, Ruff," Astrid greeted as she entered the arena as well. She leaned up against the wall with the others. "Any ideas what Hiccup's newest invention might be?" She asked the three.

"No clue," Ruff responded shortly, "he's your betrothed; if anyone knew, it'd be you." Just then, the sand wraiths began to stampeed out of the arena, led by Toothless and Arrow. Iris laughed as she watched them trample Snotlout, who was just about to come in.

Snotlout stood up when it was over and held his head, wondering dizzily into the arena. "Well, good afternoon to you, too," he mumbled in frustration.

Soon after his entrance, Fishlegs and Hiccup arrived with everyone's dragons. The chief was wheeling a large cart covered in a cloth. "Arlight, everyone here?" He looked around to make sure the whole gang was ready. Then, with a sly grin, he removed the cloth from the cart.