Chapter 124: Not Lout The Medal/I Saw A Skybreaker

Snotlout casually whistled as he strolled through the windswept scrublands. He deftly twirled his hammer in one hand, holding his lantern up with the other, and took a moment to observe his surroundings. He could see much of the south side of the island from his position several dozen meters up the volcanic slopes. On one of the southern beaches, Snotlout spotted a cluster of orange lights and a line of dark shapes next to the water. Confused, Snotlout scratched his temple, and wondered, "... Who's campsite is that?" Realizing that he'd just thought out loud, Snotlout hastily looked around for any other orange lights that might be moving around in the dark. He spotted none, shrugged, and told himself, "Eh, it's probably nothing important." He resumed walking, starting to sing, "Well, I've got my axe, and I've got my mace, and I've got my wife with the ugly face, I'm a viking through and through..." as he strolled down the slope, looking for a way around a long, deep gully that blocked his path.

Snotlout lunged on top of a rock, swinging his hammer at an imaginary foe. "Hya! Snotlout Jorgensen!" He leaped up and scampered over an irregular cluster of rocks. "Hoo! Ha! Super viking!" He slid down the smooth side of a boulder and found a log wedged between two of the rocks. Grinning, Snotlout lay down on top of the log, putting his lantern and hammer down. "At home in the wilderness- AAAAAAAARGH!" He landed in the river below with a loud splash. Surfacing with a gasp, Snotlout swam back to the bank, and hauled himself onto the rocky shore, spluttering, "Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold!" "Rawk! RRRaaaugle!" Snotlout looked up and found himself face to face with a Terrible Terror. He shoved himself up into a crouching position, musing, "Oh, it's just a Terrible Terror." "Reeeee!" "Raaauugle!" Snotlout stood up and shrugged. "Three Terrible Terrors... I can handle three Terrible Terrors." Snotlouts hand curled into fists, and an overconfident smirk spread across his face. "Bring it on, wild dragons, I'm ready for you!" The central Terrible Terror hissed and started to advance. The other two Terrible Terrors began to spread out, flanking Snotlout. At the same time, more Terrible Terrors flooded out of a small hole in the rock, surrounding Snotlout. He threw up his dukes and challenged the Terrible Terrors, "Ok, you want some? You want a piece of Snotlout? BRING IT ON, YOU LITTLE-" The Terrible Terrors all attacked at once. Snotlout screamed, "MAGNI'S BICEPS- NOT ALL AT AAAAAAUUUGH!" He fell back into the river, the Terrible Terrors swarming in an angry mob above the river.

As soon as Snotlout surfaced again, he was attacked. Several Terrible Terrors tried to dive bomb him at once, prompting Snotlout to scream, "AAAAAUGH! OH NO!", and dive back under the water. The Terrible Terrors dropped into the water after him, raking Snotlouts back with their sharp claws, biting at his clothing, grabbing him and trying to pull him out of the water. Snotlout thanked his lucky stars that he had remembered to wear his dragon scale armor and his extra tough leather vest for the drill. He tried to dive deeper, and escape the flock, but the Terrible Terrors just kept coming. They started flapping upwards, and more latched onto Snotlout, dragging him upwards. The flock pulled Snotlout out of the river and into flight. As soon as those Terrors that had grabbed Snotlout pulled him out of the water, others swarmed him, biting, clawing, swinging their tails at Snotlout. A few even spit fire! Panicking, Snotlout roared at the Terrible Terrors and delivered a rapid fire barrage of fisticuffs and feet at the attacking flock members. They were too fast- but Snotlouts struggling made it difficult for his assailants to keep hauling him upwards. Snotlout briefly spotted the log- and started flailing in its direction. This dragged the Terrible Terrors towards the log- and into other flock members. Confused, some of the Terrible Terrors started attacking each other. Snotlout kept swinging himself towards the log, flailing at it with all his might. Gradually, he worked the flock closer and closer to it. With one last mighty swing, Snotlout threw himself onto the log, breaking free of the Terrible Terrors grasp. With a collective squeal, the flock descended into chaos, letting Snotlout collect his hammer and his lantern, and flee the fight.

It was only once he had calmed down that Snotlout realized that he'd lost one of his most prized possessions- his Thawfest medal- which he'd won during last year's games. He exclaimed, "Magni's Calves! Dad's gonna kill me if he finds out that I lost the Thawfest medal... GAH!" A breakaway group of Terrible Terrors hurtled right at him, the Thawfest medal clutched in the claws of one of them. It now seemed as if they were fighting over the medal. Grinning, Snotlout waved his lantern at them and roared, "HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!" The Terrible Terrors continued fighting over the medal. Snotlout rushed them with a shout, and lunged at the medal. His fingers closed around the strap, and he tore the medal out of the flocks grasp. Snotlout hit the ground running, and the breakaways began to chase after him, attracted to the glint of the moonlight striking the medal's surface. He sprinted as fast as he could across the flat, off black surface of a volcanic salt plane, kicking up a cloud of ash as the Terrible Terrors continued to fly after Snotlout, squawking and trying to snatch the medal away from him. Snotlout slowed to a stop by the coast of a salt lake and started laughing. He had escaped the breakaway Terrors... or so he thought. A Terrible Terror snatched the medal right out of Snotlouts raised fist and the fight resumed over the water. In disbelief, Snotlout shouted, "HEY!", and then began scrambling up and down the beach, picking up random pieces of wood and vines. He quickly scraped a small raft together, shoved it out into the water, and then leaped onto it. His momentum kicked the small raft forwards- into the ongoing Terrible Terror fight... and started to sink with Snotlout on it. He barely had time to yell "SNOTLOUT! SNOT LOUT! OI! OI! OH, COME ON!", before he sank fully under the water as the Terrible Terrors continued to chaotically wheel and scrap overhead.

Ruffnut wandered through the forest, keeping her spear pointed in front of her as she walked. The last time she had been in a situation like this, she had gotten lost in the woods trying to get help for her twin. As soon as she thought of Tuffnut, Ruffnut asked herself, "I wonder how Tuffnut's doing right now... he hasn't lost control of the dragons has he?" She didn't notice the Monstrous Nightmare until she nearly walked into it. With a gasp, Ruffnut looked up at the dragon. It glared down at her, and started to get up from a sitting position. A stray bead of saliva dropped from its open jaws. Ruffnut told herself, "Monstrous Nightmares- fast in a straight line, bad at turns! He's probably as afraid of me as I am afraid of him, right?! Nope, I'm definitely more afraid!" She backed up a few steps, trying to put the point of her spear between herself and the Monstrous Nightmare. It slunk forwards, and opened its mouth. An ominous glow began to illuminate the back of its throat. Ruffnut broke into a blind panic and fled.

The Monstrous Nightmare began to chase Ruffnut through the woods, firing off a series of kerosene shots. Ruffnut barely dodged the blasts, jinking, leaping, and tumbling at random. The Monstrous Nightmare kept coming, spurred on by Ruffnuts terrified behavior. Ruffnut dove into a patch of bushes, and tried to barrel through them, hoping to lose the Monstrous Nightmare in the foliage. It lunged into the brush after her, setting itself on fire as it crashed through the shrubbery. Ruffnut burst out of the other side and ran through some random campsite, nearly bowling Widowmaker over as the Monstrous Nightmare tore its way into the campsite. Ruffnut barely noticed her yelling, "OH NON! PAS ENCORE!", as the Monstrous Nightmare crashed into Widowmaker mid lunge, sending her flying into the shadows again. The Monstrous Nightmares jaws crashed shut mere inches behind the end of Ruffnut's back hair, and she panicked, jabbing her spear at it with a scream.

The spearhead ineffectively bounced off the Monstrous Nightmare's nose horn, and it began to advance towards Ruffnut, its scales still very much on fire. Ruffnut backed away and thrust the spear at the dragon again. With a sharp clack, it clashed against the horns protruding from the back of its head. The Monstrous Nightmare again lunged, and Ruffnut scrambled backwards, still trying to hold the dragon off with her spear. She turned and ran again, and the Monstrous Nightmare resumed chasing Ruffnut through the woods. She ran across a log bridge, and hurtled over another random log. The Monstrous Nightmare was momentarily confounded by the presence of so narrow a bridge. It leaped across the river, setting the bridge on fire with a mid leap shot. It now crashed into the other log, causing it to crash to the ground. That log too was set on fire. Ruffnut ducked into a small clearing, hoping to lose the Monstrous Nightmare on the other side of the clearing. It continued to chase after her, cornering her at the edge of it. Panicking, Ruffnut shouted "LEFT! LEFT!", darting around a tree. The Nightmare sat down right in front of her. "Uhh- RIGHT! RIGHT!" She nearly crashed into the Monstrous Nightmare. Ruffnut ran another loop around the tree. A skybreaker emerged from the shadows, also staring at Ruffnut. She screeched to a halt and shouted, "IT'S LIKE HE'S INSIDE MY HEAD!"

At that moment, squealing erupted from the trees, followed by a bellow. A pack of wild boars burst out of the bush with Snotlout right in the middle of it, wildly swinging his hammer at everything around him. Both dragons were distracted by the sight of more appetizing prey- they lunged at the pack of Boars, which blindly charged into the dragons, knocking Snotlout over and briefly trampling him. Snotlout managed to get back up and break away from the hogs, exclaiming, "I HATE THIS DRILL! I COULD HAVE BEEN TRAINING FOR THAWFEST, BUT NO- RUFFNUT?!?" Ruffnut agreed, "PBBT! Stupid Drill, am I right? Wait, what are we doing here again?" Snotlout groaned, "You have got to be kidding me!" Ruffnut laughed, "Ha ha ha ha ha- I'm just messing with you! Oh, by the way, I totally scared the crap out of that purple lady with that Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlouts jaw hit the floor. "What do you mean you scared the crap out of- wait a minute! The uh- Widow Lady?!? Here?!? On Dragon Island?!? Forget the drill, we've gotta go find the others!" Ruffnuts jaw dropped. "Oh. Oh no. My brother hasn't lost control of the dragons has he?!?" They both started running at the same time.