To The End - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD)

40. Untangling truths

Hello! Just a little note before we continue. I have an Instagram account dedicated to HTTYD/RTTE that I post to religiously, if anyone wants to check it out! I post a ton of picture edits, and probably about 70% of my content is Tuffnut 😅
IG: @ htty.thorston

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Victor sighed and placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. The coldness of his skin soaked through Iris's woolen dress, sending a shiver through her body. Noticing this, he offered, "please, come inside; you shouldn't be in such brutal cold in your condition."

"Thank you," Iris responded with a thoughtful smile, "but I'm going to stay out here."

Victor nodded in understanding, "you're restless." Standing next to her, he looked down at the water, "but fear not; everything will be as it should be. I promise."

Chills shocked Iris's body once again, and she realized now that it wasn't the cold weather causing it. It was Victor. How could he promise that everything would be alright, when he admitted earlier that he'd no idea this cure would work?

Just then, Tuff's familiar yell echoed through the air. Iris looked to the upper deck where Eret stood with a hand to his forehead. Tuffnut was all tangled in the ropes of one of the sails, hanging upside down a few feet above the deck. He gave Iris an embarrassed smile, "I, uh, meant to do that. You know, get the blood flowing, and all.."

Iris bursted into laughter, causing Victor to give her a look of shock. "I don't believe I've ever heard you laugh so hard before," he observed with a sideways grin.

"Well, I didn't always know Tuffnut," she explained, still laughing.

Victor gave the tangled man a curious look, "he is quite..interesting. A bit of a fool, I must say."

Iris was awestruck by this comment. Although he said it with a friendly face, Victor was never one to call someone out on a flaw. She instantly felt the urge to yell at him for downplaying her love. However, Iris remained calm and simply explained, "he's smart in his own ways. Always thinking, never running out of ideas. He's gotten me and our friends out of many hard situations before."

Iris recalled the story of how it was Tuffnut who made Hiccup realize Johan was a traitor a couple years back. And it was Tuffnut who had gotten the plans for the Shellfire. His imagination had proven useful numerous times; he might've been slow to pick up on things, but Tuff was no fool.

"So I've heard," Victor responded with an impressed tone, "you're lucky to have found someone so unique."

Now that he was sounding back to his old self, Iris smiled again. Victor was right; Iris was lucky, indeed.

***

After a full day's sail, their ship met the shores of the island of devilish dervish. Victor and Eret hopped over the sid of the ship onto the sandy beaches. Tuffnut, however, helped Iris to climb down to side. Since he couldn't convince her to stay behind, he figured the only thing he could do was keep her safe on the mission.

When Iris made it to the ground, she let out a deep breath and held her stomach. She felt as if she were twice as heavy as usual, and half as strong. When she noticed Tuffnut's worried glance, she smiled and assured him, "I'm alright, I promise."

"If you say so," Tuff responded, his expression softening immensely.

"Alright, so," Eret began with a serious look on his face, "what are we looking for?"

"Giant deadly dragons, the size of a typhoomerang, and darker than a night fury," Tuffnut explained dramatically.

Eret gave him a crooked grin before turning to Victor as if to re-ask the question. Victor chuckled, "tracks. They should be sleeping right now; contrary to popular belief, devilish dervish are not nocturnal. Instead of using their black scales to hide in night hunts, they prefer to be seen and feared."

Tuffnut gave him a nervous look, "well, that's unsettling."

Iris remained silent as the four began to enter the thick woods of the island. She found it interesting that they seemed to be going to a very specific spot on the island. And when she saw a pair of footprints in the ground them at were not from them that night, she stopped.

"Iris?" Eret questioned when he noticed her hault. The other two men turned around. Iris was staring at the older pair of footprints with fury in her eyes. It was the same fury that Tuff saw in those eyes when they first met, the fury that he hadn't seen in them since.

Everything seemed to fit together in her head now. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, reaching over her shoulder to unclip the spear from her sash. She snapped it into it's twin form and stuck the dull ends to the ground. "..I trusted you," she growled, still not looking up from the ground.

Tuff felt his heart jump; what was going on. He glanced at Eret to see the older man was just as confused and alert. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw Victor, a smirk on his face as he unsheathed his sword.