the curious incident of the dragon in the nighttime (part 2)

Walking into the main hall sleepily Delvin took one look and could see that the dragon that damaged the great hall sure as hell wasn't a normal one

Claws marked the walls and pillars, clawing large grooves into the wood and stone, tapestries were shredded and furniture was upended. But no scorch marks and food still on the tables?

Walking over to the group that had already gathered, he moved between Astrid and the twins, watching Hiccup argue with his father. Hiccup was arguing that they had been watching the dragons all night and that no dragon would just do this for the sake of destruction.

"He's right Stoick" Delvin pitched in, pointing around him towards the damage "no normal dragon could do this, if it had gone feral there would at least be scorch marks and if it was hungry there sure as hell wouldn't be food laying everywhere"

"Well it was definitely a monstrous nightmare" Fishlegs told them as he inspected some of the claw marks with an eager grin "you can tell by the spacing and the depth! Simple stuff really!" the boy exclaimed proudly

God that boy needed to learn how to read a room

"Well, there's only one monstrous nightmare that i didn't have accounted for…" Snotlout spoke sheepishly from beside Astrid. "While i was detaining a suspect that wasn't showing a sufficient amount of respect for the sash-'' He started, looking towards gobber with a scowl

"I showed the perfect amount of respect for a sash that literally says DUMB" gobber pitched in from beside the still scowling Stoick

"While i was detaining SAID suspect-" Snotlout continued, speaking over the blacksmith "i may have gotten carried away and lost sight of hookfang, for a few…"

"Seconds?" Ruffnut asked

"Minutes?" Tuffnut followed his sister's example

"Hours" Snotlout finished, still looking nervous especially when he looked around to the damage and the angry looks on everyone's faces "but surely hookfang wouldn't…"

He stopped there, everyone knew that if any dragon would damage something out of sheer spite, it would be hookfang. They'd all seen the dragon use his own master as a chew toy enough times when snotlout refused to give him extra fish after dinner

"For god's sake" Hiccup complained, putting a hand to his head and glaring at Snotlout before turning his head to look at his father "come on dad, the dragons have done so much for berk in the past few weeks!"

"That may be '' Stoick nodded, still scowling as he looked out the door of the great hall and onto the dragons patiently waiting for their owners, although hookfang and Snap-pine were presently wrestling like young cubs. Hookfang, while annoying at times, was one of the few dragons that could actually play with the seregios, on account of his sheer size, despite his young age "but as it stands they need to be punished for their actions… they will be confined to the dragon academy until all the damages have been repaired

***

"This is so unfair!" Snotlout complained as he led hookfang into the training area of the Academy, taking off the large dragons saddle and somehow completely oblivious to the glare everyone else sent him when he opened his mouth

"Well if you had just kept an eye on your dragon we wouldn't be in this situation!" Astrid said angrily as she walked stormfly over to a bundle of hay she had brought in preemptively "this is your fault!"

"Hey!" Snotlout exclaimed as he swung around to Astrid with an offended look, putting his hands on his hips "no one can control me or hookfang, you can't keep us down!"

"I'll have to put you down then!" Astrid growled as she approached the boy, axe in hand and gritting her teeth. Snotlout promptly hid behind an unconcerned hookfang as the girl approached him menacingly, before letting out a grin as Delvin walked past, snatching the girl's weapon from her hands "see, Delvin understands!"

But Delvin just paused, turning to his cousin with a dark look as he began to pat Snap-fang who apparently was feeling restless in an arena that to this day smelled like dragon blood. "Be more mature Astrid… just beat him to death" he ordered her as he walked over to hiccup and ignored the screams

Hiccup appeared to be talking to one of the walls, practicing lines for when he would try to persuade his father that it was unfair to lock away dragons for just being dragons, which in all honestly was a silly thing to do

Because a stone wall was far less stubborn than Stoick

"Any ideas?" Delvin asked as he sat leaned against the wall, looking towards hiccup with a hopeful look, masking a large amount of annoyance he was feeling, after all it wasn't HIS dragon that had done anything wrong "because in all honesty the best I have is just making stoick disappear and having you become chief early," he said, unsure himself if he was joking

Shaking his miserably Hiccup sighed before turning to look at the miserable dragons and riders in the academy, all of who looked rather sad and resentful of their circumstances "nothing concrete, just some ideas for arguments" he told him before looking towards the great hall where is father was likely trying to repair the great hall and calm the masses of angry Vikings "i'll try my best" he offered as he got on toothless and flew over

Following after him delvin ignored the scowls he was receiving from the people below, he could practically feel their anger bouncing off his skin, but just as he was beginning to tune them out a feeling hit him

He felt like he was being watched! The same feeling he had felt last night on patrol!

Spinning around in his saddle Delvin turned to the origin of the feeling, searching the streets below, only to see the wisp of a cloak disappear behind one of the longhouses "there!" he told snap-pine to quickly land at where he was pointing. Jumping off with a crunch of dirt, delvin grabbed his halberd, running after whoever it was that he saw, only to find them gone, no footprints or cloaked person

However he did find something, or Snap-pine did, hearing his dragon let out a low chuff, he turned to see them burying their heads in a nearby bush

"What did you find bud?" he asked gently pushing the large and scaley head of Snap-pine to the side, there caught on one of the bush's bristly branches was a lock of hair, black like his own but much longer. "Now what do we have here…"

However, before he could inspect much further a shout pierced through the air

"Fire!" a voice yelled in the dark, panicked "the nightfury set fire to the workshop!"

Oh, you had to be joking.