Family bonding
Snap-pine was… well, agitated was an understatement
The moment Delvin had arrived at the dragon arena, where Snap-pine had been imprisoned while he was unconscious he had tried to talk to the dragon, only to get a less than polite response when the dragon had immediately roared at him and sent a few dangerously close scales in his direction
"Alrighty then" Delvin muttered rolling back his shoulder and giving a few stretches, tying the bag of mushrooms to his wrist and cracking his neck "i guess I'll just have to beat you into submission!"
"What?!" Astrid demanded, looking at him with her jaw dropped before looking back at Snap-pine who was glaring at them while clawing at the stone walls of the arena "you can't be serious!"
"Deadly serious" Delvin responded as he leaned his halberd against a nearby wall and gave a final stretch "he clearly doesn't understand me right now, so we go with the universal language of violence!"
"Then I'm going with you!" Astrid yelled, brandishing her axe
"Nah" Delvin denied with a shake of his head as he moved towards the lever that opened the doors of the arena "with the state of mind he's probably in, he's unlikely to hold back even subconsciously unless it's me. Meaning I'm probably the only one who could lose this fight and survive… not that i plan on losing, mind you"
…
"Fine" Astrid complied, not looking happy
Delvin checked his gear a final time before grabbing hold of the lever and nodding for Astrid to back up, however as he did so he turned towards the trees surrounding the arena and gave a shout
"If you want to watch, just do so, i don't really mind all that much!" he called, causing Astrid to give him a confused look that soon turned to a mistrustful and irritated one as a sheepish-looking heather walked out of the treeline
"Sorry!" The girl responded with a slight tremble in her voice "i got lost and just followed you to find my way!"
"Uh huh" Delvin nodded, obviously not believing and not caring
How the hell did this terrible acting win over the entire crew? He thought he taught them better than that! Bloody Hiccup and his always seeing the good in people!
And then he opened the door to the arena and got dragged in by the legs
"Oh, so that's how you want to play huh?" Delvin roared as he felt himself slam to the floor as Snap-pine snarred his pant legs on the upturned scales of his tail and promptly pulled him under the rising gate
"Delvin!" Astrid yelled from the sidelines out of worry
However, she didn't have to worry long as Delvin soon grabbed a rock off the ground as he was moving a beat the scales assaulting him in an anticlockwise swing, causing them to fall free off the Seregios's tale.
Jumping to his feet Delvin quickly found himself face to face with the dragon he raised, although, unlike his usual puppy-like manner, Snap-pine was snarling at him, teeth bared and prepared to feast
Launching himself forward, using one of the walls as a push point Delvin shot forwards, straight towards the vital point that sat under Snap-pine chin hoping to end his quickly but the dragon only dodged by flapping his wings and latching towards the roof of the arena like a bat and gave him a his
"Fine then!" Delvin yelled, feeling slightly exasperated, picking up a mace from a nearby weapon rack and glaring at the dragon as it slowly climbed down from the roof, once more taking position in front of him and roaring, scales fully extending like a lethal pinecone
"Crap!" Delvin had time to yell as he threw himself behind the rack from which he had taken the mace, dropping down
*THUNK* *THUNK* *THUNK*
Scales pierced threw the wood, only a few centimeters from his body, and caused the weapon rack to collapse as its now unstable build couldnt withhold its weight
"That's it!" Delvin yelled as he picked up a second mace, now holding one in each hand as he ran towards his dragon "time for you to go to bed!" he yelled as he began beating at Snap-pines head with the maces, causing the dragon to yelp and roar as it felt his blows directly
When your kids misbehave, tough love is the answer
Continuously bonking Snap-pine with the mace, Delvin kept yelling and growling, not allowing the dragon to escape or retaliate as he began beating it into unconsciousness "this is for your own damn good, NOW. GO. TO SLEEP!!" he yelled as he shifted to deliver a final knockout blow
Snap-pine could only release another rebellious and feral roar that was cut off as Delvin leaped into the air and slammed both maces into his head, putting his body weight behind it and knocking the dragon out cleanly (ish) before collapsing and sitting on his ass with a pant
He could hear Astrid slowly approaching from behind him but instead of addressing her he got up and made his way to the head of snap-pine, prying open his jaws. As he was pouring the mushrooms from his bag into Snap-pines moth, the same mushrooms that he had taken from the caverns he spoke, ignoring the shell-shocked Heather and speaking to no one in particular
"It was a dragon," he said, his voice cold and calm despite the situation, he knelt down and gently stroked the neck of his giant lizard of a friend "on the queen's island… or more realistically under it. It was… terrifying" he admitted, causing Astrid to grow slightly shocked
She hadn't seen him say that anything scared him since the nadder incident, not during dragon training and not when they had fought an army of monsters. So what the hell was on that island!?
"It breathed a mist, it appears to shut down humans healing processes and with dragons… it drives them insane entirely" he continued. He looked over and he could see Astrid looking concerned and heather looking surprisingly empathetic, with real empathy and all
"It turned snap-pine against me" Delvin growled as he got up and began to walk out, towards Gothi's shack, she would heal snap-pine, "and for that, it will die"
****
"He's nothing like the others" Heather muttered
"Of course he's not" Astrid responded, giving her an annoyed look before walking away "He's Delvin"