Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD

A/N: Replies to guest reviews. First reviewer – I got Skulder's name from School of Dragons, and I don't think it's meant to be a mashup of Mulder and Scully – but you never know!

Second reviewer – glad to be back!

Third reviewer – thanks for the review, glad you like the footnotes :D

Skin and Bones – Chapter Two

"DRAGON HUNTERS!"

At this damning proclamation, a reaction rippled all across the Great Hall. Heads came up, tankards were dropped from startled hands, dragons nearby flinched away in alarm. The riders leapt to their feet, knocking back benches and reaching for weapons. Ruff and Tuff, who had exclaimed in the first place, continued pointing their fingers accusingly at Harald and Skulder. "J'accuse! Lying filth!" Tuffnut shouted right in Harald's face, who stared at him in alarm and bewilderment.

"What in the name of Thor are you two yelling about?" Astrid demanded impatiently. Honestly, she should have known the now conspicuous absence of the twins was a hint that something was amiss. "There are dragon hunters? Where? How many?"

"Slow down, we can't answer so many questions at once, A – I mean, Chief" Tuffnut corrected himself hastily at her glare. Then his sister explained, "Duh, they're right here! These guys are dragon hunters!"

All eyes were on Harald and Skulder in moments. The latter rambled nervously, "You – we're not – I wouldn't – t-there must be some mistake!"

Harald's expression of alarm smoothed into a neutral stare. "We are not dragon hunters. We are merchants; of fabrics, if you must know. Leathers. Tapestries, clothes, sometimes armour... Where in the world did you get the impression my crew and I were dragon hunters?"

"Oh, yeah?" Ruffnut got right up in his face, but backed up quickly when Leopold screeched at her. "Alright, mister, if you're a fabric merchant, then where are all your fabrics? Huh? How come the only thing we found in those crates were dragon bones?"

"We sold our wares at the last…Wait a minute, how do you know about all this? Have you been on my ship?" Harald demanded, clearly furious.

Ruffnut, naturally, was oblivious to this.

"Yes, and I've gotta say, I don't like the cut of your jib! And your mainsail isn't much better; plain canvas, I mean really?"

Suddenly, Skulder gasped, eyes wide. "My specimens!" he cried, tearing out of the Hall. Harald was hot on his heels, and the rest of them weren't too far behind either. They sprinted through the village down to the docks; one to check on his precious cargo, and one to check on his ship. Damn it all, hadn't the bo'sun thought to leave a guard? If those two had found anything more than a few old bones…

Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs caught up first. They found Skulder checking the crates on deck and Harald amongst the rigging, checking it and the sails for any sign of sabotage. "I don't think the twins will have damaged anything on purpose" Astrid called to him, "they're odd, but they're not as dumb as they seem. And they're not malicious."

He spun on his heel and strode over to the side of the ship, looking down over it at them. "Why would they even come on board? Does this happen to every innocent sailor who weighs anchor in your waters?" he demanded angrily.

Astrid gave a long-suffering sigh and replied, "Captain Harald, there are two things you need to know about life here on Berk. The first is not to question the twins. Nobody knows why they do anything, not even themselves. They probably saw your ship, thought 'ooh, shiny new thing!' and decided to take matters into their own hands." She paused, and then added, "Berk will cover the costs of anything they might have damaged accidentally. We can probably replace it ourselves, if needs be." Oh, she was going to have words with those two…

Harald looked at least a little mollified. "Glad to hear it…still, it doesn't look like anything's been too disturbed. Unless they've messed with Skulder's specimens" he remarked.

Skulder mopped his brow and came over to stand beside Harald, looking relieved. "They'd opened one of the crates, but nothing else has been disturbed. They must have taken one look at the contents and jumped to the wrong conclusion" he deduced.

"Yeah, they do that" Hiccup agreed. Then his curiosity got the better of him. "Skulder? What were you saying about specimens?"

"Ooh, specimens of what?" Fishlegs couldn't help but ask.

"Bones!"

Everyone jumped. The twins had appeared, with their uncanny knack for turning up at inopportune times and places. Ruffnut folded her arms and insisted, "We saw what we saw. A crate with a dragon skull in it. Bet you thought you were clever, huh?" she sneered at Skulder, "wrapping the skull up and burying it in sand, like that'd hide it?"

"You monster" Tuffnut glared at Skulder, "What did that poor dragon ever do to you?"

"The iniquity!"

"The cruelty!"

"That's what I said!"

"Okay, that's it! You two", Astrid glared pointedly at the twins, "are going to apologise to captain Harald and Skulder for trespassing and vandalising, or else."

It was, of course, Tuffnut who asked "Or else what?" The next thing he knew, his neck was encircled by the curve of Astrid's trusty axe. The look in her eyes didn't bode well if he decided to press his luck, and for once, his meagre self-preservation instincts kicked in. "Uh…right. That 'or else'. Alright, alright, we're sorry. Happy now?" he huffed, stepping back away from Astrid's reach.

"Yeah, we're really sorry" Ruffnut nodded hastily, "now can we please get back to busting these guys for being dragon hunters?"

Skulder and Harald began to protest, loudly, that they weren't dragon hunters. "Then would you mind telling us just why you have crates full of dragon bones aboard that ship?" Astrid inquired.

With the air of someone who had explained this far too many times to far too many people, Skulder replied, "Because I collect them. For study, not some macabre…well, it is, I suppose, but – look, I didn't kill that dragon. I bought all these skeletons from…well, from hunters…" He had the decency to look ashamed. "They'd have just been thrown in a pit otherwise. I was going to explain all this, I swear."

For a moment or two, the only sound was the waves. Astrid broke the awkward silence first. "You…collect dragon bones."

"I study them. Like Bork the Bold…not just dragons either, there are all sorts of...the point is, I simply have too many specimens now to be lugging them around on my own. These crates contain just a few skeletons between them, and I had to replace them recently after my last ship ran aground. I'm very grateful for Captain Harald's kindness in offering to sail me here" Skulder admitted.

"Oh, it was no trouble, really" Harald replied nonchalantly, "Any reason to go to new frontiers. I'm actually quite glad we came here and met you all" he remarked, looking at Hiccup in particular in a way that reminded a wary Toothless of a predator eyeing their prey.

"Ohh…so you want to build somewhere to store your collection?" guessed Fishlegs.

"Not just store, display. I want to build a museum; Skulder's Museum of Cryptids!" he declared, spreading his hands out as if holding up an imaginary banner. He cleared his throat and said sheepishly, "I, ah, need to work on the name."

"Cryptids?"

"Just a little term I coined" he said modestly. "I got it from 'cryptic' – you know, mysterious, dangerous, misunderstood…dragons are the most numerous and varied kind of cryptid, but there are other creatures out there..." Skulder gestured at the ship and inquired, "Would you like to come and see? Although, your dragons – I'm afraid they might want to wait out here" he said apologetically. Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs and the twins shared a look, and one thought. Why not? Their dragons stayed behind – one more reluctantly than the others – as they followed Skulder and Harald below deck.


Down in the cargo hold was Skulder's collection – papers, squicky looking things preserved in jars, books, things in crates or swaddled in cloth. It looked half like the deck of Trader Johann's ship and half like an alchemist's storeroom.

"I fear I have a lot of explaining to do" said Skulder, facing the others. "Now, you already know that I never thought of myself as much of a warrior, especially against giant fire-breathing reptiles…but I still wanted, in my own way, to help turn the tide of the war. I'm sure many people think I left out of cowardice. The truth is that I sought to investigate dragons, in some futile hope I could find something, anything, that could be used against them. The old saying 'know your enemy' and all that. I always did admire Bork…

"So I sailed, with a few friends, right out of the archipelago. Such a large and frightening world it was…but right from the beginning, I noticed something odd. The dragons out there…didn't act anything like the ones we had been fighting back on Berk. Oh sure, villages got raided now and again, but not over and over. They seemed content to leave us be so long as we didn't provoke them…alas, we lost Clueless that way. You've no idea how relieved I was to see that Speedifist, Heyral and Wartihog had made it back, when they decided to return to Berk all those years ago. I had feared…" he trailed off, a dark look on his face.

"If you were worried about them, why didn't you follow them back to Berk? Or send a message to them?" inquired Astrid. She wasn't being accusatory, she just genuinely wanted to know.

Skulder gave her a sheepish grin. "Well, it was partly that sending a message is so unreliable, and partly because…okay, I admit, I am terrible when it comes to staying in touch. Especially when I have my mind set on something." He began to pace back and forth, agitated. "You see, I still wanted to learn all I could about dragons, but over time it went from trying to find a weakness, to just studying them in general. They were – they are – such fascinating creatures."

Astrid raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Well, this sounds familiar. Hiccup, are you sure Skulder isn't part of your family tree as well?" she asked jokingly. He rolled his eyes at her.

"No, they're not related. Hiccup and Snotlout are, though" Tuffnut announced out of nowhere. Everyone stared at him. Oblivious, he mused "Although, I suppose if you go back far enough, all of us are related. Really, really distant relationships, but still. We're all one big happy family" he beamed. "…What?"

"What makes you think Snotlout and I are related?" Hiccup demanded. In all honesty he'd known, vaguely, that there was some kind of family tie between his father and Spitelout…one he'd never cared to look at all too closely. In fairness, the feeling was probably mutual.

"And what do you mean, we're all related?" inquired Astrid.

"Elementary, your Chiefliness" Ruffnut declared, throwing an arm around Astrid's shoulders. Astrid promptly twisted out of her grip. "Think about it. We're a small tribe, living on a small island, and for the past six generations at least, we haven't been able to leave said island. Dragon raids, remember? Kind of hard to mix and mingle when you're fighting for your lives. Pretty much every family on Berk has a few family ties to at least one or two of the other families on Berk."

"For instance, in your case Hiccup" Tuffnut picked up the thread, "Your, ah, paternal grandmother, that's your dad's mom, actually married into the Haddock family from House Jorgenson, and her brother went on to father Spitelout, poor guy, which makes her Snotlout's great-aunt and you his second cousin (1). Skulder is the grandson of Fishleg's great-aunt, which makes them second cousins. Also, did you know that your great-grandfather was Hamish II's brother? (2) Which means that Hamish is actually your great-great uncle…and Snotlout's too, I think. It gets confusing after a while, but really, it's quite fascinating."

There was a long, stunned silence. Fishlegs was the first to break it. "I don't know what's more disturbing; the idea that Hiccup and Snotlout are related, or the fact that everything the twins just said made complete sense."

Hiccup couldn't help but ask, "Tuff, how do you even know all of this?"

"You guys always forget I studied under the village officiator, don't you? At least until he jumped off that cliff…I've seen the tribe's genealogy records. That means family trees" he added to Astrid.

"I know that" she snapped. "Now hold up, if our family trees are overlapping – then how are we related?" she demanded, gesturing between herself and Hiccup.

"Uh…by marriage?"

"I mean, how do our family trees overlap?"

"Does that really matter?" asked Hiccup. "We already know we're not closely related, not enough for it to matter that we've married and had a baby. I mean, what, are you gonna divorce me if we turn out to be, I dunno, fifth cousins twice removed or something?" he asked jokingly.

Astrid realised then that she was probably overreacting. "No…you're right, it doesn't matter. On second thoughts, Tuffnut, I don't want to know."

He gave her a pitying look and said, "There, there, Astrid. Don't worry, your old uncle Tuffnut will explain everything…I'm not really your uncle, though. Just to be clear."

She glared at him. "Just to be clear, one, I am your Chief. Two, I'm a year older than you. Do not patronise me. And I just said I don't want to know how mine and Hiccup's families overlap!"

"Okay, okay. I was just going to tell you that the Hofferson clan originally came to the island from the Meathead tribe – we did mix and mingle a bit back in the day…buuuut that's all I'll tell you for now."

"Huh" said Ruffnut. "Weird. You'd think Snotlout would be the Meathead." Her unintentional joke (if it was unintentional) had them all chuckling, even Skulder. Harald, on the other hand, seemed rather bored. He'd already heard Skulder's tale, and the diversion to family trees didn't hold his interest. He cleared his throat pointedly.


"Heh. Ahem. Um, sorry about that, Skulder" Hiccup said apologetically, once he'd caught his breath. "Uh, you were saying?"

"He was going to tell us why he has all these gross-but-cool dead things lying around" Tuffnut announced.

Skulder harrumphed at him and straightened his clothes. "Quite. As I was saying, I began to form an interest in dragons for their own sake…at a, err, safe remove, of course. I'd read the Book of Dragons, I knew Bork had copious notes on them, but it still seemed like knowledge was missing, you see. I wanted to know more about…about their inner workings, how they ticked. Unfortunately, the only way to study that was to…" Skulder had the decency to look abashed. "Well, I'm sure you can guess."

Hiccup felt his skin crawl. He looked around, feeling cornered, and hesitantly inquired, "So…what's in all the jars? More bones?" There were indeed many large clay jars dotted around, each topped with a carving of dragon heads and marked with symbols carved on the side.

"Ah, no, those are canopic jars. I took the idea from the Ancient Egyptians. A lost civilisation from a faraway land, they mummified their dead and used these jars to preserve the, ah, vital organs. The heart, liver and so on…" Skulder explained. "They believed that the spirits of their dead would need their earthly bodies in the afterlife, so they couldn't be allowed to rot."

"So, the jars are full of…?" Hiccup eyed one jar with a Nadder carving atop it and a sketch of a heart in the side, and felt a bit queasy.

Skulder nodded, and said apologetically, "I'm afraid so. I know it's not the most pleasant of topics…" He looked Hiccup in the eye and insisted, "You must believe me, I never intended harm on dragons; having to turn to, to hunters for means to study them was not my idea of a good time, and I made it clear that I didn't agree with" –

Hiccup held up a hand. "Skulder, I – I understand what you were trying to do" he admitted, frowning. "It's disturbing, but I do understand. That's not what bothers me. Whether you meant to or not, you bought dragons – dead dragons – from hunters. You gave them business, and a reason to keep slaying dragons. You've been studying the bodies of…murder victims" he swallowed. Skulder's eyes widened, as if he hadn't thought of it that way before. "Still…I'm sure your studies could be useful…somehow."

"Hiccup's right. I mean, I don't like the idea of cutting up a dragon corpse" Fishlegs shuddered, "but if it's for research...? Besides, Bork was more interested in dragon behaviour and their outward physical traits – claws, fangs, fire, venom. What they'd use to attack us. He didn't really have much to say about what was going on inside them. Skulder, your notes could further our understanding of dragons so much; and maybe we can use that knowledge to help them."

For the first time since they'd come below deck, Skulder smiled. "Really? Because I've learned some fascinating things. Nothing new, I'm sure, but in any case…oh, Harald, would you mind giving me a hand? Ah, thank you." With the other man's help, he hefted a long bone wrapped in cloth onto the 'table' formed by several stacked crates. Skulder unwrapped it with great care, revealing a femur that was almost as long as Hiccup was tall. Oddly enough, it was only half of the bone, split lengthways down the middle.

"This is from a Deadly Nadder, but the species isn't really important. Now, there's a narrow cavity in the centre here where the marrow would have been, but what's really interesting is what's around it. You see? A triangular lattice (3)." Skulder pointed out the inside of the bone, which was filled with an almost web like maze of small holes. Looking closer, it was clear that the holes were gaps between triangles, interlocking and interweaving like the reeds of a basket.

"Wooow" Tuffnut drawled… "I don't get it."

"Me neither. Come on, bro, let's get out of here before they go all dragon geek on us" Ruffnut declared. She and Tuffnut made a break for it, but Astrid blocked their path.

"Hold it! You two are forbidden to come aboard or go below deck on this ship, and if you're leaving, then you're going to tell everyone that your accusation was a mistake and that Skulder isn't a dragon hunter."

There was a pause, and then Tuffnut pointed back at Harald. "What about him?"

"Yes, him too! Oh, just go already" she sighed, exasperated. Once they'd left, she looked back at the bone and asked, "So, um, what is so special about these tiny little triangles?"

Hiccup explained, "A triangle is the strongest flat shape. It's naturally rigid, you see. Oh, I get it" he brightened, "the hollows and gaps in the bone make it light, but the triangular lattice makes the bone tough and strong…and less likely to break on impact."

"Exactly!" Skulder enthused, "which explains how dragons are able to fly despite their size, and still pick themselves up after a crash. Their bones are natural shock absorbers!"

"I never thought to look inside their bones" Fishlegs remarked. "Skulder, this is fascinating! Kind of morbid, but fascinating nonetheless. We should compare your notes to ours and Bork's, see if there are any gaps."

"Well, like I said, I have notes and specimens of more than just dragons. For the past few decades, I've dedicated my life to the study of cryptids" Skulder announced, with a non-too-small note of pride in his voice. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Oh! Wait, wait, wait, there's something...blast it, where did I…aha! Here it is. Now this, this is something truly extraordinary."

Skulder held up a long, scarlet case with golden filigree. Leo flew down and sniffed at the case, until Skulder shooed him away. He unlocked it with one of the keys hanging from a string around his neck, and opened to reveal… a single feather, the size of an eagle's; at the bottom of the shaft it was a bright tangerine, merging seamlessly to ruby tones. It shone – it really, truly glowed – with a fire-like light. They could even see little flickers and whorls dance across the barbs, as if the feather itself was made of flame. Everyone except Harald stared at it, entranced. "It's beautiful…" Astrid murmured.

He smiled. "It is indeed, isn't it? There's quite the story behind this – for another time, I think – but for now, let's just say that this was a gift from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX himself. It is a feather shed from the wing of his tame phoenix" Skulder revealed.

"That…that's a phoenix feather?! As in, the legendary immortal bird of fire, phoenix? And you've met someone who owns one for a pet?" If Fishleg's eyes got any wider, they'd be in danger of falling out of his skull. Hiccup was equally delighted. Talk of studying dragon corpses made him uneasy but this was something he could get genuinely excited about. A phoenix feather!

"When you're an emperor, you can get away with having rare, mystical birds as pets. You should see the rest of his menagerie. His phoenix is named Aionios; it means 'everlasting'." Skulder closed the case again and cleared his throat. "Forgive me. I just wanted to show you that not everything I dabble in is so…so disturbing. I know all of this must be of little interest to you, but…"

"No, no…it's not that this isn't, err, interesting, it's just…well, you said it yourself. I don't know…I need to think about this. I'm not saying having a museum dedicated to dragons – and err, anything else you've studied – is a bad idea, but most of…this…" he gestured at all the canopic jars and wrapped up bones. "Probably couldn't go in it. I'm sorry, Skulder, but I need to put our dragons first, and they're probably not going to be on board with this idea."

Skulder gave a solemn nod. "I understand. Thank you, for giving me a chance. I really do appreciate the welcome home" he said, smiling gratefully at both Astrid and Hiccup.


With that, Hiccup decided he had had enough. Being surrounded by the bones and organs of murdered dragons…he could tell Skulder hadn't meant any harm, but he was regretting agreeing to come down here. He moved back towards the ladder up to the deck, saying "I'm just going to go and…" he gave Astrid a look that meant check on our daughter who's inherited my inability to stay put.

She nodded and declared, "Oh, yeah, me too. Lots to do…I have to prepare for Dagur's arrival tomorrow. You're attending the treaty signing, by the way" she told her husband pointedly. He smiled good-naturedly and replied, "Yes dear, whatever you like." Then he dodged a punch aimed at his shoulder. Ah, they knew each other too well.

They all emerged from below deck; Harald's crew were there, trying to look as if they were doing something useful. He gave them a disgusted glare and snapped "Bo'sun!" The man in question snapped to attention. "I want a word" Harald warned, before turning to Skulder and Fishlegs. Hiccup and Astrid had already gone to their dragons and mounted off. "I'll see to it that your specimens are well guarded, Skulder. It's quite a collection you have here, after all…it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it."

"Oh, yes. Quite. Thank you, captain" Skulder said gratefully. He and Fishlegs left the ship and trudged up towards the village proper, Meatlug waddling behind them. Skulder sighed in a resigned sort of way. "He's not really interested in my work. He just wants to get all this 'unwanted cargo' off his ship and get back on course. I suppose I can't blame him really; I have made him and his crew go miles out of their way. They don't normally travel this far north, you see."

Fishlegs frowned. "If he's not interested in what you do, then why did he offer to bring you here?"

"Well, it was sort of out of the blue" Skulder admitted. "I couldn't afford a ship of my own, sadly, so I was trying to find someone to bring me here. He heard I was wanting to go north and offered to sail me here from Iceland on the spot. Did it for practically nothing."


They found Helena and Aegir with Ebony and Selena, the three youngsters asleep under her wing. After taking them back home, and making one more circuit of the island to be sure none of their subjects were panicking about dragon hunters, Hiccup and Toothless returned home and Hiccup began fixing dinner for when Astrid came home.

*So he did have dragon bones?* asked Toothless, eyeing the slab of mutton Hiccup was using in a stew. True, he preferred fish, but he wouldn't turn down a nice, juicy piece of…Hiccup slipped him a chunk surreptitiously. It was a good thing Astrid wasn't present.

"Yeah. He's been studying them, he said; he bought the bodies from hunters and added them to his, uh, collection" Hiccup explained. He grimaced. "I did point out what was wrong with that."

*You mean, everything?* Toothless shuddered. *He collects dragon bones. Isn't that sort of strange?* The only kind of humans he knew of that would keep dragon bones like that were hunters, and the ones that wanted to look impressive, like Dagur before he – well, before pretty much summed it up.

"Well, yeah, but he's always been like this. I went into his house once as a kid and there were a load of insects pinned to cards on his bedroom wall. He's a collector…a really weird, morbid collector. I doubt he means any harm by this; he probably didn't think he was hurting anyone. It's not like he knew you guys are people too."

Toothless rumbled uneasily. *I still don't like this. What if he decides he wants to add another dragon to his collection? Such as a rare Night Fury?* he suggested cautiously. Hiccup reached over to run a hand back across his head. "Don't worry, bud, that's not going to happen. Skulder is a lot of things, but he's not a dragon killer. He looked like he'd seen a ghost when I said he'd been studying murder victims."

Hiccup groaned a bit. "I don't know what to do…I mean, I like the thought of a museum dedicated to dragons; but it just seems wrong to fill it with dragon skeletons. Especially if the skeletons are from dragons who were hunted. A museum would help people learn about you and get them interested; but you're not just specimens to be studied, you're people too; but this could help human people see th"-

*Hiccup?*

"Yes?"

*What is a museum, anyway?*

"Oh, it's…it's a place where we put things from our history, so younger generations can see them and learn from them" Hiccup explained (4). "The Meathead tribe has one dedicated to themselves, and a library. Although, their museum is just one big room and the library is a bookshelf at the far end" he admitted with a wry grin.

*So this friend of yours wants to make a museum and fill it with things about dragons?*

"Well, he says he's been studying other creatures – cryptids, he called them. I…I kind of want to hear more about those, to be honest. I mean, he has a phoenix feather with him. Do you have any idea how incredible that is?!"

*It's just a bird, isn't it?*

"Just a-!" Hiccup spluttered, before catching sight of the mischievous gleam in Toothless' eyes and realising he was being teased. "Ha, ha."

*Well, he can put all this other stuff in a 'museum' – but the skeletons have to go. Our subjects won't want the bones of their kin shown off like mating trophies; some of them might rebel, and then things will get broken and people might get hurt* Toothless said decisively.

Hiccup sighed. "You're right. I'll tell him tomorrow" he agreed.

*Good. Now what are we going to about the rest of them?*

"Rest of who?"

*The people this old friend of yours came here with. I don't like them; especially not that captain and the Biter.*

"Leo hasn't done anything to you."

*He's weird, Hiccup. The other Biters told me, he won't talk to them, at all.*

"Well, he's probably just shy. Why exactly do you think they're up to no good?" Hiccup inquired.

*It's their captain. He looks at us like we're prey, like he's hunting us* Toothless insisted, *And he…reminds me of someone. Someone bad. I'm just…not sure who* he admitted. It was right there, like a faded scent he couldn't quite track. He just had this feeling…

"Toothless, I think you're being paranoid. Harald and his crew are traders, merchants. You've seen their ship, they don't have any net traps or cages. They couldn't hunt dragons even if they wanted to."

*They have crossbows. I saw them.*

"That doesn't…look, not everyone who uses crossbows are dragon hunters. Dagur's armada uses crossbows and they don't hunt you guys; heck, we have people here on Berk who use crossbows."

*Hiccup, I'm telling you, there's something off about them. You should trust my instincts – when have they ever been wrong?*

"Never" Hiccup shook his head, and looked his other half in the eye. "Toothless, it's not that I don't trust you. It's just that we can't accuse Harald of anything, much less of being a dragon hunter, without proof. Unfortunately, saying 'I think you're up to no good because my dragon is getting bad vibes from you' isn't going to cut it, I'm afraid."

Toothless slumped. It made sense, he supposed, but it was still annoying. *So what are we going to do?*

"We'll keep an eye on them, we wait, and if they do something suspicious then we'll call them out on it. Don't worry, bud; after tomorrow, Harald and his crew will leave to get back to their own trade routes, and we'll not have to think about them again."


(1) You don't have to be a genealogist to know that family trees can get confusing as heck. If I've got this wrong, just let me know.

(2) Chuckheart, a portmanteau of the names of Hiccup II's human brothers from the books, Chucklehead and Thugheart. It was either that or Thughead...

(3) Part of my 'how dragons work' headcanon. If you want an idea of how I picture the inside of their bones to look: .

(4) I know they didn't have museums back then. It's… artistic license.