Chapter 3

Fishlegs took his out his dragon cards and started shuffling. "Where is it, where is it… here… long… but not long enough… that's why the second wound is there… together as one wound with two channels… long enough. I was right." Fishlegs pulled a card out of his deck and held it in front of the others.

"A speed stinger?" Hiccup asked.

Fishlegs' face brightened up. "Exactly! The tail of a speed stinger has a long top barb and a short lower one. Now, normally speed stingers only pierce the skin with the long barb to inject the paralyzing venom, but this one seems to have been strong enough to stab the entire tail into the Informant's back. That's why the second, smaller barb is creating a wound channel of its own."

Astrid took the card out of Fishlegs' hand and inspected it. "Can a speed stinger be strong enough to actually stab that deep?"

Fishlegs frowned. "Well, not an average Stinger. But dragons, just like humans, can be stronger or weaker. Also, there is the possibility that someone used a Speed Stinger tailbone as a weapon, which would create the same wound."

Hiccup clapped in his hands to get everyone's attention. Well, everyone except Snotlout and the Twins. "So we have three leads. The Ghost legend, the speed stinger and the speed stinger knife. That's a whole lot more than we had before, but I don't think well be getting any further today, so I'd say we camp out for the night and continue tomorrow. Sound good?"

"No, I have a better Idea." Heather said grinning.

Five minutes later they were standing in the entrance of a resting place called the Gronckle's fire.

A slim man with a high-pitched voice greeted them. "Oh, hello, miss Heather! Always nice to see a friendly face these days! Here for a room? Or maybe more, for your friends?"

"Do you know everyone here?" Fishlegs asked. Heather just shrugged.

"Mister Graystone, nice to see you again, and yes. Although give these three the cellar room. I don't think they'll mind." Heather told the man and motioned to Snotlout and the twins. He nodded and asked them for ten silver coins, which Hiccup handed over. Mister Graystone led the four of them to their rooms and handed out the keys.

"We only have double rooms left, so you'll have to split up. I hope that's not too big of a problem?" Heather shook her head, immediately grabbed a key and before Astrid could react, ripped Fishlegs into her room, leaving Astrid and Hiccup alone. Astrid glared deviously at the now closed door, because she knew exactly what Heather was doing.

"Uhm, well, it seems like we are taking a room together then?" Hiccup asked sheepishly. Astrid sighed. "Seems like it." Hiccup took the key out of the keeper's hand and unlocked the door.

"The walls are pretty sound proof by the way, so don't worry." Mister Graystone said grinning, as he walked back downstairs to greet the next customers. Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other, but immediately turned away again, their cheeks burning red.

It was silent for over half a minute until Hiccup spoke up again. "Uhm, well, ahem… So, what now? Its pretty late, but we could still do something, if you want."

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup scratched his forehead. "Well, since were hunting a master of shadows, we could start making a collection of all we know and get a visual picture of how our enemy works. Apparently connecting the whole thing with some yarn helps the brain understand it better. Or at least that's what I read in a book."

Astrid cocked an eyebrow. "You want to turn this room into a spider-web?" Hiccup shrugged. "More or less."

After fifteen minutes, a portion of the wall was filled with notes, pins and some yarn.

"Aaand… how should that help?" Astrid asked as she looked at the grand scheme. Hiccup cleared his throat. "Well. Here we have the stab wound with to lines leading to both the Speed stinger and the Speed stinger tail-knife. The speed stinger can survive almost anywhere, but they are known to hunt often and in packs. So, if Speed stingers were on this island, the locals would probably know by now, this leaves two possibilities. Back to the tail-knife-thing OR An entirely new species. Another possibility, someone trained a Speed stinger."

"Wow, not bad…" Astrid responded seemingly impressed and sat down on the bed. "We surely have the esthetics down for out investigation." Hiccup huffed. "Well, thank you, milady. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh really? As far as I remember, all I did was stand next to you and do nothing, while you went on a yarn killing spree."

Hiccup shook his head smiling and sat down on the other side of the bed. "It's already pretty late and we should really get some sleep. I'd like to be well rested for whatever happens tomorrow."

"Yeah, me too." Astrid stated, as she started unbuckling her armour.

After ten minutes, Astrid was already under the blanket, while Hiccup was still tearing off piece after piece of his flight suit. "You're really taking your merry time, aren't you…" Astrid joked.

"It's a flight suit with countless features and gadgets. It's bound to take a bit longer. Plus, you don't have to take off your entire leg." Hiccup defended himself.

"Well then hurry up."

"Why so impatient? Eager to have a heater beside you or something?"

Astrid's cheeks burned. "NO. I don't need a heater. I'm…I'm… warm."

"That's good, because I'm technically colder than you, since my missing leg means a lot less blood in my body."

Thankfully for Astrid, Hiccup wasn't Heather. He had the ability to get her out of an embarrassing situation with the power of technical talk. Heather would've probably pressured her into an even more embarrassing situation.

Hiccup finally got rid of all his gear and joined Astrid in bed.

"Happy now?"

Yes, she was happy, but her hugging made words unnecessary. Sleeping next to each other wasn't weird anymore, since camping in the wild made for some quite interesting situations. But sleeping in each others arms, that didn't happen all too often. And Hiccup savoured every moment of it.

"Hey, are you still awake?" Astrid whispered into the void. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Hiccup sighed. "The Ghost is giving me too much to think about."

"Are you scared?" Astrid's question was short, but it hit like a gronckle. Because in her voice Hiccup could hear that she was scared herself. She'd never admit it of course, but he knew her too well. And honestly, he was scared as well. An ancient assassin who can basically become the shadows, can break into any building and can kill any person. It was nightmare fuel, especially considering that they were now trying to hunt that thing.

"Don't worry." Hiccup answered and held Astrid a bit closer.

"Thanks." Astrid stated and buried her head into Hiccups shoulder. After another few minutes the two of them faded into a deep sleep.