Rune rose quickly from his bed in the early hours with his eyes springing wide open as he yelled "YES!!" and woke Sandstorm from his slumber. The dragon grumbled at his owner wondering what could've caused him to wake up at such an unholy hour. It better be a good reason or something drastic would happen.
"I had a dream Sandstorm and in that dream I created an invention that had a huge effect on the way we fought"
This certainly appeased the dragon's curiosity who looked to know more about what he was talking about.
"It's all coming together now. Yes, I see, I see" Rune said as he began to sound more and more like a mad man.
"C'mon, let's go draw up the plans" Rune said hopping out of his bed.
"Has anyone seen Rune today? He's always here by mid-day and this is getting towards evening time" Sten asked brushing Eruptor's teeth.
The sun was high and the team assembled in the stables attending to their dragons and other dragons who called the stables home alike. Rune was scheduled to meet up with them there but he was nowhere in site.
"Maybe he's out exploring Sand Wraith island or hit it off with Hiccup in expanding the map. You know how those two are" Thyra said carrying two buckets of water.
"Or he could be at Gobber's forge, I heard he and Hiccup have been working on something over the past week" Forde chipped in carrying a bucket of fish.
Spikethorn rubbed her head on his back expressing her desire to have one. He let her have her pick from them.
"Don't worry guys, I'll go find him" Vyra said.
"Sure you would know where he is" Sten said carrying a message in-between the lines.
"I know what you're trying to say Sten and the answer is no" she said walking out of the stables.
"Those two are totally dating" Forde said standing next to Sten.
"Totally" he said as the pair shared a fist bump.
"When will you guys grow up" Thyra said rolling her eyes as they got back to work.
Vyra left Stormbreaker behind at the stables opting to go out alone. She approached the forge and found Sandstorm looking at what Rune was doing inquisitively, she shook her head and smiled.
"So this is where you've been all day" Vyra said walking into the forge.
"Yeah. Had an idea for an invention and I've been trying to implement it" Rune said from the work table with the wooden boards in front of him filled with drawings of dragon scaled suits, Hiccup's next flight suit design and the mobile steps that the Crimson Goregutter landed on in the third movie.
He was hard at work trying to draw out what he had envisioned on a sheet of paper.
"So what is this all about?" Vyra asked eager to know what he was up to as she leaned on a wooden beam.
"So imagine Zippleback gas getting shot out of a small metal ball with a piece of flint inside the ball with a timed spring coil load that strikes causing it to explode" he explained as he showed her his drawings.
"Doesn't Hiccup's sword already do that?" Vyra said.
"That's what I've been trying to tell him" Gobber said walking past them with some metal sheet in hand.
"Kind of but this is different"
"Different how?" she questioned.
"Well first of all, the gas that shoots out of Hiccup's sword has to be ignited manually by him but mine can ignite without me being there. Secondly, he can only let out the gas as far as his hand can reach but I can throw mine at the enemy before they get to me" he explained and she seemed to get the point.
"So what are you calling this invention of yours?"
"Z.E.P"
"Z.E.P?!" she said confused at his choice of naming.
"Yeah, Zippleback Explosive Projectile or Z.E.P for short"
"Now that makes more sense"
She watched him complete his drawings and then he stood up examining his plans, ensuring that every detail was intact and not misplaced. Vyra looked at him and her heart warmed with butterflies beginning to fly around in her stomach. What passion he had, Rune was very passionate about whatever he does and that was one thing she loved about him. Then she got a closer look at his eyes and realized something.
"Have you slept at all?" Noticing the bags formed under his eyes and how his eyes looked red.
"Yes" he lied.
"Gobber, what time did you meet Rune here?" she asked.
"I met him already hard at work here and it already looked like he had been here a couple hours before" Gobber answered.
"Rune!" she said outraged at the amount of stress he had put his body under.
"What? So I was here a couple hours before day break, so what?" he said as he carried bits of Gronckle Iron to go melt.
"You're putting your body under a lot of stress and it's not good. So many people rely on you, I rely on you, it wouldn't be nice if our leader get's taken out because he's overworking himself" she said.
"Leader? If anyone's the leader it should be you not me. I just want to go about my business in peace"
"No" Vyra said snatching the iron out of his hands.
"Hey! You better listen..."
"No you listen, you're going to get some sleep now and that's final" she said with a serious tone and expression.
"Woah" Gobber mumbled as she led him out of the forge with such authority.
Rune was very unhappy being led back home to get some rest, he wanted to stay back and get to work on his experiment.
"I know you want to work but this is for your good"
He mumbled and grumbled in words under his breath and made sure she couldn't hear them as Sandstorm trailed them behind.
"Besides, I can fill you in on what you guys did when you were drunk"
That seemed to pacify him as he looked interested.
"Well, I couldn't say no to that" he said giving in to Vyra's moves. "So, what did we do?"
"Well for starters, you confessed your love for someone in front of us all" she giggled.
His heart sank, what in Odin's name did they do that day. "Please tell me, what did I say?" he begged.
"I'm not telling"
"Why? How can you bring up such a topic and not want to give me the details?"
The two conversed on their way home until they got to his doorstep with Sandstorm not waiting a minute more as he darted to Rune's room. He was a loyal companion and wouldn't complain about staying at Rune's side until his bed came into play.
"Sandstorm, he'll head straight to bed once he's tired" Rune said chuckling a bit.
"You see, at least one of you appreciated my effort" Vyra teased.
"Yadda, yadda, yadda, now tell me who did I confess my love to?" he asked again.
"I'm not telling you" she insisted.
"Okay then, then I'll just got feed myself to a Whispering Death or any wild dragon I see" he threatened.
"You wouldn't" she said knowing it was just a trick.
"Is it?" he said.
She took a look into his eyes and knew that look of resolve all too well.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. I can't have the blood of one of Berk's finest on my head"
"Yes" he cheered.
"But then you have to promise me to confirm whether it's true or not. Okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll tell you whether it was true or just the liquor talking"
"Well there you were sitting on a table and then you declared, 'I love Vyra Hofferson'" she said shyly.
Rune wasn't expecting this, he thought he would have said something like Thyra or Ruffnut under the influence of the bottle but for him to be so open, it was just to be good to be true. Now he had also given his word to confirm it or not, what was he going to do.
"So, was it true or not? Do you really feel that way for me?" she questioned him with boldness.
"Well errr....." Rune said scratching his hair as his cheeks went bright red.
"I knew it, it was the bottle talking. Sorry for coming at you like this" she bowed her head and apologized.
"No, don't get it that way" Rune said taking her by the hands.
His touch caused him to look into his eyes and caused his heart to go racing as he forced himself to swallow a huge gulp.
"It wasn't the bottle talking Vyra. It's actually how I feel about you for as long as I can remember. You're an incredible person and getting to know you has been a thrill and I just wanted to say..."
He was cut off by Vyra's lips pushing into his catching him of guard. His body became hot, his cheeks red, palms sweaty, the sensation was on another level, her soft petal like lips had his head spinning as he tried to gather his thoughts.
"You don't have to say anything Rune" Vyra said after pulling away.
"I like you too" she added.
Rune was just left there, standing in one position still trying to process what had just happened having being left flustered.
"See you tomorrow" she giggled as she walked away.
"Damn" he said under his breath still left in shock.
A dragon giggle finally got him thinking straight again as he turned around to see Sandstorm laughing.
"How long have you been there?" he asked as Sandstorm gave him a mischievous look.
"You really are a mischievous dragon aren't you" he said scratching his dragon's chin as they walked into the house.
The next day came and Rune was hard at work in the forge just like yesterday, he had already built the shape of the frag size type of balls and was working on making the canisters for the Zippleback Gas when Hiccup walked in.
"Hey there Rune, whatcha working on?" he asked glancing over his plans.
"An explosive projectile" he answered.
"An explosive projectile?" he said with his project suddenly gaining his interest.
"Yeah. I looked at your plans for your sword and thought about making something we can throw to emit Zippleback gas and explode rather than waiting for the enemy to get close enough to execute it" he explained as he carried seven canisters in a tray.
"That sounds like fun. But how is the Zippleback gas going to come out and bet lit up?" he asked.
"Well releasing the gas is easy cuz I'll be using a button for that but that also engages the spring coil attached with a flint at the end to spin out and strike another piece of flint or metal. If you look at my plans, you'll get a better view on what I'm talking about" he said walking to a wooden table to get to work assembling the pieces together.
Hiccup turned to the work station and looked at his plans and soon began to nod his head slowly in understanding.
"These are really good" he praised seeing his attention to detail. "So what are you calling them?"
"Z.E.Ps"
Hiccup was thrown aback by the name.
"Zippleback Explosive Projectiles" he stated and now it sounded more relatable.
"I look forward to seeing them in action. I have somethings to handle at the great hall but will be back to check on your progress"
"Alright, see you later" Rune said as he fixed the canister into one of the balls.
"Come on Toothless" Hiccup said to his dragon who was playing with Sandstorm.
Rune began assembling the parts together and soon found that creating the timing mechanism for the spring coil and placing the pieces of flint and metal were by far the hardest part. In four hours, he had his canisters filled with gas and had coupled the first Z.E.P together.
"Alright Sandstorm, let's see if this works" he said to his dragon who got excited to see what he had accomplished.
The two flew to the forest of Berk where there would be no casualties if his experiment went wrong.
"Alright, first Z.E.P test, is a go" Rune said hitting the button on top of the ball and he threw it.
Gas sprayed out of the ball as soon as it was on the ground and Rune and his dragon raced behind a rock to shield themselves from the explosion that was about to happen. Rune had planned for them to go off in five seconds after the button had been hit and after waiting for ten seconds and there was no explosion, he knew he had gotten something wrong.
"This isn't how it was supposed to go" Rune said stepping out of his hiding position.
"It ought to have gone off by now" He said approaching his creation.
Just as he was five feet away from it, the Z.E.P explode throwing Rune to the floor and causing Sandstorm to wince knowing the pain Rune had gone through.
"Guess I know what the problem was" Rune coughed with smoke on his face and singed hair that stood up straight.
The second one had been equipped with a much more shorter timing mechanism to unleash the power of the spring for a quicker explosion.
"Let's hope this works" he said holding the ball in his hands
Less than two seconds after the ball left his hands, it exploded before they could even get to cover carrying both he and Sandstorm into a tree ahead.
"And that one was definitely too quick" he said with a cough as Sandstorm groaned.
The third time now, Rune increased the sequence of the timer not as much as the first but more than the second hoping to find a sweet spot.
"Let's hope this one works better than the others" he said as he and his dragon stationed themselves behind the rock after learning from their recent experience.
Rune hit the button and threw it over as he began counting in his mind and just a little over five seconds, the Z.E.P went off much to his excitement.
"It works! It works!" he cheered jumping around as his dragon watched him celebrate.
"This is so amazing Sandstorm. I can't wait to show the others" he said with excitement.