Animal House

"Animal House" is the third episode in the DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk series. It was aired on September 14, 2012.

Overview
Vikings are living peacefully among dragons now, but the farm animals are too afraid of the dragons to produce any milk or eggs for food storage. With the first dangerous storm of winter approaching Berk, Hiccup and the gang must prove to the animals that the dragons aren't scary before it's too late.

Plot
The episode opens showing a scene of a Monstrous Nightmare and Deadly Nadder as they fly through the sky above Berk. Everything seems fine, until the two dragons, seemingly not paying attention, crash into each other, starting a fight. The viewer is then shown where the dragons are fighting, which appears to be above a small farm. The sheep, terrified, attempt to run from them, but only bump into one another, and are unable to flee, due to being trapped in a pen. Bucket and Mulch soon arrive, and chase the dragons away, before returning to their regular duties of milking and gathering eggs. Bucket proceeds to lift a hen off of her nest, but discovers that she was not sitting on an egg. He then asks Mulch if chickens lay eggs, and Mulch irritably asks him if they need to go over which purpose each animal serves. Bucket replies that he has not forgotten, but quickly proves that he is lying, by lifting a sheep and checking to see if it had lain an egg. Mulch then points out each animal, stating that the sheep provide wool, the chickens lay eggs, and the yak provides milk. He then attempts to demonstrate the proper way to milk the yak, but when he attempts to milk her, she does not appear to give any.

Meanwhile, Astrid and Hiccup are in the mountains, having a 'Dragonboarding' race, in which they slide down the mountain slopes on their dragons. When Astrid pulls ahead, Stormfly launches some of her tail spikes in an attempt to make Hiccup and Toothless slow down. In retaliation, Hiccup and Toothless pull ahead, and Toothless extends his right wing, blocking Astrid's view, and making it impossible for her to dodge a branch filled with snow, which hits her in the face. She then protests, but Hiccup cheerfully feigns ignorance, saying that he has no idea what she is talking about. Stormfly then decides to let out a burst of fire, which melts a pile of snow in front of Hiccup and Toothless, causing them to temporarily spin out of control. Hiccup then hears a rumbling noise behind them, and turns around to see that they have started an avalanche. He then attempts to take off with Toothless to escape, but is horrified to discover that his prosthetic tail fin has frozen shut. The avalanche begins to gain on them, and Hiccup calls out to Astrid, trying to warn her. She turns around to look, and then takes off on a berm of snow, unaware of the danger her friend is in. Hiccup then leaves Toothless' saddle and climbs towards the prosthetic fin, attempting to manually pry it open, but fails to do so. Astrid then notices that they are rapidly approaching a large abyss. She turns around and attempts to help Hiccup, despite his protests telling her to go back. Unable to fly away, Hiccup and Toothless drag Astrid and Stormfly into the trench with them, the snow trapping them inside. When Astrid and Hiccup wake up, it is completely dark, and Astrid says that she is freezing. The two huddle together for warmth, and discover that their dragons are still with them, working together to burn a hole in the ice until daylight filters into the trench. Hiccup and Astrid discover that while they were unconscious, their dragons protected them, by blocking the snow with their wings, creating a makeshift room that prevented them from being crushed. The dragons watch them with endearing looks, and the two quickly separate from their embrace, embarrassed.

The scene then changes to a few hours later, with Bucket and Mulch having called on the assistance of Stoick and Gobber, who is now examining the yak. Gobber then concludes after he finishes examining the yak, that she is not giving milk. In way of explaination he tells Stoick a story regarding his mother and his goat, and how the goat was also unable to give milk, much like the yak, because she was afraid of his mother. He then states that the animals are not laying eggs or giving milk because they are afraid of the dragons, who are around more often, due to the war between Vikings and dragons having ended. Moments after Gobber's conclusion, Bucket clamps his hands onto his bucket and begins to cry out in pain. Mulch then asks him if his bucket is getting tight again, and Bucket tries to deny this, but is interrupted by another wave of pain. Mulch then explains to Stoick that Bucket's bucket tightens when a storm begins to approach, the storm being worse the tighter it gets. He then comments that the bucket is incredibly tight, predicting a terrible storm. Bucket then says that he doesn't like storms, because he might get struck by lightning and wind up being even less intelligent. At Stoick's disbelief that a storm could hit so early in the season, Mulch reminds him that the bucket predicted the Blizzard of Olaf. However, Stoick and Gobber dismiss this, not wanting to judge the weather based on the tightness of a bucket. The two go to visit the elder Gothi for a second opinion, relying upon her expertise; namely weather prediction via chicken bones and goose feet. They inquire about the storm, and Gothi draws strange figures on a smoothed patch of dirt, while Gobber interprets them for Stoick. Gothi's reply is a short, 'What do you think?', leaving them to guess for themselves. She directs their gaze at her house, and that it is boarded up, sand bags piled up by the door. They then take this to be a 'Yes', and ask her how she knew, the goose feet, or the chicken bones. She then writes another message, and Gobber tells Stoick that she could hear Bucket's screams all the way from her house, proving that the bucket is accurate in predicting the weather.

At the top of one of Berk's defensive catapult towers, Hiccup and Astrid are sitting with Fishlegs and Snotlout, recounting what happened. They state that it was almost as though it were the dragon's instinctive nature to protect them. As Hiccup and Astrid comment on this, they appear to be completely oblivious of how close together they are sitting. Fishlegs states that they could have simply used their body heat to stay warm, which brings their attention to where they are sitting. Once more, they are embarrassed, and shift away from each other. Snotlout, trying to either tease or flirt with Astrid, asks if she is still cold, offering a hug. However, Astrid rejects him by elbowing a support post, causing a snow drift from the catapult to fall on him. Ruffnut and Tuffnut then arrive to deliver a message to Hiccup, saying that his dad needs him, and seems to be angry. Hiccup notes that his father has looked like that since the day he was born, and then sarcastically states that he is sure the two things have no connection.

Hiccup and Toothless arrive at home, to discover that Gobber and Stoick are requesting his assistance to help the animals get over their fear of the dragons before the winter storm comes. If the village becomes snowed in, they might not be able to hunt or fish for months, leaving them dependent on the livestock for their survival. Hiccup repeats his father's earlier statement, saying that they're still in the middle of winter, and that devastating winter isn't due for another month. Bucket and Mulch report in with an empty milk pail, saying they still got nothing after trying to milk one yak for three hours. Hiccup protests that the dragons aren't trying to be scary on purpose, and that they don't even eat farm animals; they eat fish. Gobber points out to him that dragons are also large, fire-breathing reptiles, which terribly frightens the animals. Hiccup agrees, and is at first given a week to fix the issue before the storm comes, but when Bucket suddenly cries out in pain again, Mulch changes the time of the storm's arrival to be in three days and six hours.

The next day at the Dragon Academy, the teens have rounded up all of the livestock in Berk, and are attempting to show them that dragons aren't dangerous. They first try to show the animals that dragons are friendly, attempting to see the dragons from their perspective. Fishlegs, in particular, goes so far as to go down on his hands and knees and walk around, making sheep noises. However, upon seeing a Monstrous Nightmare from the position of a sheep, he also openly admits that the dragons are scary, and hides behind Meatlug. The trainers then attempt to show the animals that dragons are afraid of things, too, by demonstrating their aversion to eel. This also fails, as the Monstrous Nightmare who fought in the sheep's pen is spooked when Hiccup accidentally drops the eel, and it slithers toward it. As the Nightmare turns to flee, its tail sideswipes an unfortunate sheep into the opposing wall. The teens then try to help the animals get over their fear by showing what the dragons have in common. Fishlegs brings out a week-old Terrible Terror egg, and three chickens appear to calm down upon seeing it, one even jumping on top of it as though it were a normal egg. This gives the trainers a glimmer of hope that their effort is working, until the egg explosively hatches. By the time the storm arrives, the teens have not made any progress, and Gobber orders them to be herded into the barn.

Unfortunately, it is discovered that the path to the barn has been completely blocked by snow, the only location left where the animals can be safe being the Great Hall. Much to the Vikings' dismay, the dragons once more frighten the animals, and this time, there is not a pen to contain them. The animals, terrified, flee into the blizzard. Hiccup mounts Toothless and prepares to take off after the animals. Gobber attempts to stop him, saying that his father would kill him if he allowed anything to happen to Hiccup, and tries to get Astrid to stop him, only to discover that she is also going to try to find the animals. Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut mount their dragons as well, and follow shortly after. Once in the blizzard, Toothless manages to rescue a lamb from falling to it's death, while the rest of the teens try to catch the other animals. Gobber and Stoick go after the teens, and are quickly mistaken for yaks, due to the silhouettes of the horns on their helmets. Stoick and Gobber tell the trainers that they will have to return to the Great Hall, and that they can follow their footprints back. To everyone's dismay, however, the snow has already covered Stoick and Gobber's tracks, and the blizzard has left them with little to no visibility. Stranded in the severe weather, the two men notice that the teens are already start to freeze. Gobber and Stoick huddle with the younger vikings between them and try to conserve as much heat as possible. Toothless observes this and and brings this to the other dragons' attention, and together, they form a circle around the vikings, spreading their wings to block the snow and wind, and breathing small patches of fire onto the ground for warmth. Toothless then sees the lamb he rescued from earlier, and leaves the circle to try to convince it to join the humans in the center. At first, the lamb is hesitant, but Toothless gives it a nudge, and it enters the circle. Soon, all the other animals, drawn to the warmth, come to the dragons, until all of them are safe.

The dragons manage to hold out in the storm until the next morning, when the weather finally improves. The group arrives with all the animals, and the other vikings are overjoyed to see that the animals are no longer afraid of the dragons, riding on their backs, and curling up under their wings. Hiccup and his friends are the next to arrive, and announces that the chickens are laying eggs again, meaning that the animals are no longer hindered by fear. With this happy conclusion, the episode ends.

Trivia

 * It is hinted by Ruffnut that Tuffnut is afraid of the dark
 * It is possible that the Monsterous Nightmare and Nadder that appear in this episode are Bucket's and Mulch's

Transcript
The full transcript can be found here