Harrow woke on the next day back in the hard bed of the guest lodge. He stretched, groggy, and sat up. He had returned to the lodge the previous night late after having struck up an unexpectedly companionable conversation with the Thorston twins, Tuffnut and Ruffnut. Their tales of derring-do and mischief had elicited so many questions, and those questions only had them go on to tell of even more unbelievable escapades.
He had found himself amazed that the village of Berk still stood after all that they had done. Or, more so, that the Hooligan tribe hadn't decided to exile them somewhere far away.
Harrow yawned, swung his feet over the edge of the bed, and stood up. He went over to the hearth and prodded the smoking heap of ash within to uncover the bed of red-hot embers he had banked the night before. He held out his hands, welcoming the warmth.
There was a knock at the door behind him. The image of Gobber the Belch appeared unbidden in Harrow's mind.
The knock sounded again as he headed for the door, followed by a now-familiar rough feminine voice. "Hey! Harrow, are you awake in there?"
This was somewhat of a surprise, a much more welcome surprise than what Harrow had been expecting to deal with.
He opened the door and found not only Ruffnut, but Tuffnut as well. Without waiting for an invitation, Ruffnut pushed past Harrow. Tuffnut followed, carrying a stack of garments in his arms.
Harrow blinked, puzzled. "Uh, come on in, I guess…"
"Don't mind if we do." Tuffnut said, smirking. "We never stand on ceremony, anyway."
Ruffnut hummed her agreement and walked back over to where Harrow lingered by the door. She grabbed him by the shoulders and moved him bodily into the center of the room.
"Hey!"
"Quite your whining!" she snapped at him, "How am I supposed to get your measurements, otherwise?"
"Measurements?!" Harrow echoed, even more confused than before. "The hell are you on about?"
"Hey man, just let her do her thing." Tuffnut suggested to him breezily. "It'll go faster if you don't make her have to do things twice, you know?"
Ruffnut grabbed Harrow by the wrists and had him spread his arms out at shoulder-length, a business-like look on her face. Without facing her brother, she extended a arm and snapped her fingers. Tuffnut dropped the bundle of garments on the nearest guest bed and took a length of string from where it hung around his neck. Harrow observed that this string had knots tied into it every so often, realized it was how she intended to get her measurements off of him.
"Hold still." Ruffnut told Harrow. "No matter how much this might tickle."
She took the measuring string from her brother and held it to his left arm, wrist to shoulder. She did the same with his right. He watched as her lips moved, as she murmured under her breath, mentally making notes. Next she measured across his shoulders. Then it was from his shoulders down to his waist. He gasped in surprise as she walked around him and embraced him, her front flush to his back, resting her chin on his shoulder as she measured around his waist.
This went on for a few moments more as she got his leg measurements. When she was finished, she handed the string back to Tuffnut, who offered her a little book and a charcoal stick. She wrote down the measurements she must have held in her head, her tongue stuck out to the side in concentration.
"Alright, that's done." Ruffnut intoned cheerily, pocketing the little book. "Thanks for being such a good sport about it, Harrow."
"Uh, yeah… no problem." Harrow muttered, wondering why his heart was racing. "But, was it really necessary to spend so much time on the, uh... inseam?"
Ruffnut gave him a dirty grin and a wink. "Wouldn't want to make things too tight, now, would we?"
Tuffnut groaned. "Thor! Control yourself, woman!"
"Oh shut your mutton hole, Tuff." Ruffnut snapped back at him. She tossed Harrow another sidelong glance. "It's all in good fun, anyway."
"Yeah, but you don't have to creep him out." Tuffnut protested. To Harrow he added, "Sorry, man, I've been trying to tell her about this great thing called personal space."
Ruffnut rolled her eyes. She grabbed the first garment off the pile they had brought with them, a fur vest, and threw it at Harrow.
"Put that on." she directed.
Harrow caught the vest, looked down at it, then looked back up at her. "What's this for?"
"Listen, we gotta get going here pretty soon." Ruffnut replied, watching him handle the vest. "Hiccup wants you to come with us on our patrol, since Snotlout is doing punishment chores for his dad, and everyone else is busy today."
"Really? Was the chief okay with that?" Harrow asked. He put the vest on and found it was just about a perfect fit, and was very warm.
Tuffnut leaned by the door. "Must be. Hiccup wouldn't have told us to come get you, otherwise. Or, we could totally be going behind Stoick's back again. It is easier to ask forgiveness rather than permission, as they say."
"That does make, uh… some sense."
"Here, try these on while you're at it." Ruffnut told Harrow, pushing a few more items of clothing from the pile into his chest. "We're going to be flying, so we need to make sure you're dressed warmly enough. It can be pretty damn cold up at cruising altitude."
That statement made Harrow freeze. "So, wait… I'm getting on an actual, real-live, honest-to-Thor dragon?"
"Yeah." Ruffnut drawled, eyeing him. "Is that a problem for you?"
"Ah, no… er, only I've never flied before…"
"Don't worry abou it." Tuffnut said amiably, waving a hand. "There's really nothing to it. We'll take care of the hard part, you'll just be able to sit back and enjoy the ride. There's really nothing like soaring through the air, hundreds of feet off of the ground, with nothing between you and a long fall to your death!"
Harrow simpered, found his mouth suddenly dry. "Heh. Oh, uh… shouldn't we go and eat, first? Wouldn't want to go on a patrol on an empty stomach, am I right?"
Ruffnut shook her head. "Nah, bad idea. We'll take some stuff with us, but you really don't want to load up and then find out you can't handle turbulence."
Tuffnut grimaced. "Yeah, Barf and Belch really don't like it if you're, uh… barfing over the side…"
Harrow groaned. "Hel's teeth…"
"Hey, hurry up and get those things on!" Ruffnut snapped at him. "We ain't got all day!"
Harrow shot them a look. "Fine! Wait outside, if you don't mind."
Ruffnut leered at him. "Where's the fun in that?"
Tuffnut sighed, long suffering, and grabbed his twin by the shoulders and steered her out the door, shutting it behind him. From beyond the door came the muted sound of him catching a fist to the face, courtesy of his sister.
Harrow took off the things he had been wearing for the last two days and put on the new clothes, a thicker green tunic and pair of beige trousers. He put the fur vest back on over the tunic and strapped his boots back on before opening the door and stepping outside.
Ruffnut was sitting on her brother's back, his face mashed into the ground by one hand at the back of his head. "This is what you get for being a meddling busybody!"
Tuffnut whined something in reply, but his words were muffled by the presence of mud and grass.
"Alright, I'm ready." Harrow said, closing the guest lodge door behind him.
"Finally!" Ruffnut huffed, and stood up. Tuffnut rolled over and spat out a wad of dirty grass. "I'll get you for that, bride of grendel!"
Ruffnut flicked her fingers dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, you're all talk. Get up and quit fooling!"
"Here." Harrow offered the male twin a hand up, which he gratefully accepted. Tuffnut looked Harrow over and remarked, "Hey, looking sharp, buddy."
"Thanks… I guess."
They fell into step, Ruffnut at the lead, Harrow, and then Tuffnut bring up the rear. They made their way through the village, turning towards a causeway that led to a stone enclosure with a great reinforced wooden gate at the bottom of a broad ramp. The sounds of dragons calling and moving around rose from the structure, which Harrow surmised was the aforementioned stables.
The smell of dragons hit him as soon as he mounted the ramp, wafting up the passage with the breeze. A sort of dry musky odor with hints of sulphur and something indefinably earthy. It brought back memories of being on the Dragon Hunter ship. The scent wasn't exactly the same, it didn't reek of blood, fear and pain as it did before, but it was enough to stop him cold in his tracks.
Tuffnut, not paying attention, walked right into him and bounced off. "Whoa!"
Ahead, Ruffnut turned around to see what was going on with them. She noted the look on Harrow's face, the expression that had come unbidden to his face.
"You're not afraid, are you?"
Harrow bristled at her tone, snapping himself out of the reverie that the smell of dragons had put him in. "No! It's just… the scent of dragons brings back memories, that's all."
"Getting hungry?" Tuffnut asked, hanging off of Harrow's shoulder like an old friend.
Harrow shoved Tuffnut away with a glare. "Poking fun at the whole eats dragons thing, huh? You realize that happened about three hundred years ago, right?"
"Well, better get used to the smell." Ruffnut told him without an ounce of sympathy. "It only gets stronger from here on out."
"Helps to cover other smells." Tuffnut quipped, grinning. "You could eat as much boiled cabbage as you wanted to before going for a flight, and no one would be the wiser!"
Harrow grimaced, took a step away from the male Thorston. "Duly noted..."
Beyond the gate, the dragon stables opened into a large circular stone arena. Fishlegs was there giving a Gronkle a rub down with what smelled like lingonberry oil.
"Good morning, Tuff, Ruff." the dragon scholar greeted them. He blinked when he saw Harrow in their company. "Oh, hey, Harrow… what brings you to the academy?"
Harrow shrugged indifferently. "Here on Hiccup's orders, turns out."
"Really?" Fishlegs replied, quirking one blonde brow. "Huh, so Snotlout really isn't going with you guys?"
"Nope." Ruffnut said simply, not sounding at all upset about the fact. She sauntered over to the far side of the ring and pushed open another set of reinforced wooden doors. From what Harrow could see, there were stable stalls beyond the threshold.
Fishlegs frowned thoughtfully as he refreshed the soft cloth he was using with another coat of oil. "Okay, so no Snotlout on this morning's rotation. I guess Hiccup must have had a talk with the chief about letting Harrow help out. I'm kinda surprised that he agreed, honestly."
"Well, it was either that or let us go on our own." Tuffnut pointed out, grabbing a heap of what looked to Harrow like riding tackle. But these saddles didn't look like they were meant for horses. "Which he should have totally allowed, by the way!"
"Don't you remember the rule of two, Tuff?" Fishlegs asked, rubbing a spot under the Gronkle's chin that made it tremble with pleasure. "Two riders minimum for patrol duty, just in case something happens. No exceptions!"
Tuffnut nodded, scowling. "Right! Me and Ruff make two, I can at least figure that part out."
"Doesn't count the same for us, Tuff." Ruffnut said, reappearing from the stable's interior. Behind her ambled a massive two-headed, two-tailed dragon whose scales were the color of pond scum. The odor that wafted from the beast held a slightly fetid edge to it. It mixed with the lingering fragrance of the lingonberry oil, making for strange combination for the nose.
"Why not?" Harrow asked, eyeing the dragon with a sense of trepidation. Both heads had zeroed in on him, being the new factor in an otherwise completely familiar environment.
"Obviously because they can't trust us not to screw something up, or blow something up, or generally to just get into trouble." Ruffnut replied, somewhat resentfully. "Isn't that right, Fishlegs?"
Fishlegs simpered, withering under her pointed gaze. "Uh, well… that is, ah, certainly one way of interpreting the rule…"
"How else are we supposed to interpret it?" Ruffnut asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hip. Then she threw a look at Harrow and her lips twisted into a smile. "But don't worry, Hiccup found us a suitable replacement for Snotlout."
"Yeah!" Tuffnut crowed, nudging Harrow with the back of one hand. "Wait till you get a load of flying with us! It's going… to… be… EPIC!"
"Indeed it shall, dear brother." Ruffnut purred. "But first things first, we need to introduce Harrow to our dragon." She walked over and grabbed Harrow by the arm and just about dragged him over to stand in the shadow of the two-headed beast.
"Harrow, meet Barf and Belch."
The two heads descended on their snake-like necks, each topped with a trio of horns. One central horn, much thicker and stronger than the other two, which pointed straight back from their bulbous skulls. Each head sported a pair of large yellow eyes with slitted black pupils. Said eyes were watching Harrow carefully, now, roving up and down his body. The head on the left sniffed him while the one on the right licked his face with a forked tongue.
"Uh, hey there…" Harrow muttered, wincing as the warm saliva dripped down his cheek. "Never seen a dragon like you before…"
"Barf and Belch are a Hideous Zippleback." Fishlegs supplied from where he had finished up rubbing the Gronkle down. "Guess their not common where you're from, huh?"
"Not really." Harrow replied, reaching out with his hands toward each head. They looked over his empty appendages with some curiosity. "We mostly see Scauldrons, Thunderdrums, the occasional Nadder or Nightmare. Nothing like these guys here."
"Okay, the time for the meet and greet is now officially over." Ruffnut announced briskly. "Let's get geared up!"
"Way ahead of you, sis!" Tuffnut exclaimed, dragging the riding tackle over to where Barf and Belch waited patiently.
Harrow stood back and watched as the two dragon riders went about saddling their dragon with practiced ease. Or, in this case, each rider saddled an individual head. The whole process didn't take more than a minute from start to finish.
Then, the twins swung themselves up into their respective seats. Tuffnut rode on Belch, Ruffnut rode on Barf. Or maybe it was the other way around? Honestly, it was hard to tell the two heads of the Zippleback apart.
And through it all, Fishlegs watched with a thoughtful expression. "Hey, guys?"
"What?" Ruffnut replied crossly, leaning on Barf's horns.
"Uh, how's Harrow going to ride with you? You only have two saddles."
Tuffnut blinked, scratched at his head. "Oh. I knew we forgot something..."
"It's a simple fix." Ruffnut said with a crafty smirk. "We'll double up on one saddle. And by we, I mean he'll ride with me."
Fishlegs and Tuffnut exchanged a puzzled look between themselves. Since when had Ruffnut ever volunteered to share anything?. Then they both looked over to where Harrow still stood, watching.
"How about it, Harrow? That sound alright with you?" Tuffnut asked. "I mean, you could totally ride with me. That is, unless you don't mind my sister's fish-scented hair flying in your face the entire time."
Ruffnut's face colored spectacularly. "Hey, you're one to talk! Your's smells like curdled yak-milk!"
"It's moisturizing!" Tuffnut shot back, scowling. "And your hair smells like a barrel of mackerel left out in the sun!"
And there they went, off on another vitriol fueled Thorston twin shouting match. Harrow was beginning to understand just how commonplace they were on a day-to-day basis. That part, at least, wasn't exaggeration.
Fishlegs shook his head. "Oh Thor, they're never going to head out on patrol at this rate."
"Guess I'll take one for the team." Harrow muttered, stepping toward the feuding dragon riders.
"Muttonhead!"
"Yak-ass!"
Ruff and Tuff had reached that inevitable point of their argument where they were reduced to simply shouting the first insult that came to their minds. They had coaxed their dragon heads together so that they were shouting in each other's face, nose to nose.
"Hey, guys?" Harrow called up to them, but they went on as if he was merely the wind.
"Bearded Goat-face!"
"Stinking Bridge-troll!"
"GUYS!" Harrow shouted. That got the twins' attention. They both looked down from where they were perched, frowning and glaring impressively.
"WHAT?!"
Harrow clamped down on his temper. He usually didn't allow just anyone to speak to him in that manner. He had killed people for less in the past. But, this was anything but usual circumstances.
So, he forced himself to calmness, and said, "I'll ride with Ruffnut, if it gets us moving."
"You will?" Tuffnut groaned, contorting his face in disgust.
"You will!?" Ruffnut looked elated, then she cast a triumphant look at her brother and crowed, "Ha! In your face, Tuff!"
Tuffnut scoffed. "Yeah, you say that now, but wait till he spews all over you when he can't stomach the stench!"
Ruffnut's parting shot was a stiff-armed punch to the face that rocked Tuffnut in his saddle. Absently, Harrow admired both Ruff's ability to dish out a punch, and Tuff's ability to take one so well.
Ruffnut was practically bouncing in her seat when she reached down and offered her hand to help him up. Harrow hesitated for a second, judging how prudent it would be to slap her hand aside and climb up on his own, but decided against it. He took her hand and was surprised at how strong her grip was. She hauled him up beside her and he managed to throw a leg over the scant bit of the saddle that wasn't occupied.
It was a strange sensation, swaying on the back of a dragon's neck. Everything else seemed so much further away, so much smaller. He wondered idly what it would be like to fight from dragon-back. The bounty-hunter in him, dormant as of late in his role as a shipwreck survivor, began to calculate the benefits of such a tactic for the future.
Suddenly, Ruffnut leered at him from over her shoulder, a crazed grin twisting her lips. "Hold on tight. It's going to be a bumpy ride!"
Harrow had about a split-second to comply before Tuffnut sang out, "Up, Barf! Up, Belch!"
Barf and Belch wasted no time in spreading their wings and leaping up into the air. The twins cackled and howled their glee as the Zippleback pumped its wings and gained altitude, wheeled once around the academy, and set off on a roughly westerly heading toward the sea.
Fishlegs watched until they were out of sight, one hand raised to shade his eyes against the sun as it crept to it's zenith in the sky. "Somehow I feel like that may be the last time we ever see Harrow alive, Meatlug."
The Gronkle, who had been trying to nap through all the commotion, merely rumbled in contented agreement.
Madness, this is sheer madness! Harrow thought to himself as he clung to Ruffnut with a deathgrip. The daredevil woman didn't seem to notice, or if she did, she didn't seem to care. In fact, by the rising flush on her cheeks, maybe she even enjoyed it. That thought gave Harrow a jolt. Then, he reasoned it was more likely windburn was the culprit.
They were going pretty fast. Barf and Belch, while certainly one of the heftiest dragons Harrow had ever seen in his brief experience with the beasts, still managed an impressive pace. The Isle of Berk rapidly disappeared behind them.
Below them, the waves became a blue-grey blur on the sea's surface. The wind roared by Harrow's ears and tore through his hair. His exposed skin was numb within the first twenty minutes and he felt the chill of the high air like a knife even through the thicker garments he wore, even the fur vest. The sensation of uncontrolled acceleration panicked him, he would not be ashamed to admit.
But that wasn't the worst of it. Oh no, not by a longshot. The twins goaded their dragon into a series of aerial acrobatics the likes of which Harrow had never experienced before: screaming climbs up to where the air become thin, death-defying dives almost down to the very surface of the sea, barrel-rolls and hard banking turns that nearly dislodged Harrow from his precarious perch. All the while, Ruffnut and Tuffnut whooped and laughed and carried on like it was all in good fun. They were having the time of their lives as they lunged from one maneuver to another with not a moment's respite.
For Harrow, it was perhaps one of the more profoundly frightening things he had ever experienced, even more so than some of the more close-run jobs of his life as a bounty hunter. His arms were like a vise around Ruffnut's middle and his legs similarly were locked around Barf's neck, his muscles clenched till they ached with the strain and the cold. His stomach churned, rose into his throat or fell into his toes, or knotted itself all at the whim of the dragon beneath him. He could feel his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his ribcage. He was certain that it would burst, and he'd be dead before he ever hit the water racing by far below.
By the Aesir, are they trying to scare me to death?! Harrow wondered miserably, a groan escaping from his tightly clenched jaw. He had screamed himself hoarse and now clamped his mouth shut against the rising tide of bile at the back of his throat.
Finally, mercifully, they ascended above the sparse cloud cover and the wild gyrations and sudden movements smoothed out into blessed level flight.
Tuffnut looked over at Harrow with a giddy smirk. "Wasn't that awesome?!"
"No, it was most certainly not! It was gods damned insane!"
"Aw, come on, you can't tell me you didn't find any of those tricks just the tiniest, teeniest bit thrilling?"
"If by thrilling, you mean horrifying?" Harrow growled, glaring. "Yeah, I found them all to be thrilling. Gods! I can't believe I agreed to go along with this!"
Ruffnut cackled and glanced at him over her shoulder, smirking. "Don't be such a stick in the mud, Harrow. If you didn't come with us, you could have just ended up on another ladder beside Snotlout."
She had a point, much to Harrow's consternation. "You could have at least warned me about… you know, all of that."
Ruffnut cackled again. "And ruin the effect for you!? No way! Besides, it got the intended result."
"What are you talking about?"
"Let's say if you clung any tighter to me, I'd start worrying about my continued purity." Ruffnut replied, leering. "Not that I'd mind much…"
"Ugh!" Tuffnut cried, sticking out his tongue as if the very idea made him sick. Harrow released his grip on Ruffnut so fast that he nearly fell off Barf.
"Hel's teeth!" Harrow hissed, glaring at Ruffnut's back. "Why the hell do you keep saying things like that?!"
"Hey, can't a girl have a little fun?" Ruffnut huffed archly, turning to fix her eyes on the horizon. Spurned, her posture stiffened as she hunched forward in the saddle. "Sorry if the idea of touching me makes you uncomfortable!"
"It's not that…" Harrow muttered, feeling like a muttonhead at his overreaction. "I just… you caught me off guard…."
"Don't worry about it." Ruffnut replied, her tone flat, hurt. She held herself ramrod straight. "Won't happen again."
Harrow sighed, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt in his chest. He looked over in appeal to Tuffnut, who simply shook his head. The trio flew on for a while in uneasy silence with only the flapping of Barf and Belch's wings and the whistling of the wind.
At length, Tuffnut spoke up. "Hey, what exactly are we looking for while we're out here, anyway?"
"Dangerous wild dragons, signs of Dragon hunter presence, that kind of stuff." Ruffnut drawled listlessly.
"Oh, so… maybe we ought to check out that island down there." Tuffnut replied, pointing down and to the right of their flight path. Harrow looked and saw an island covered in dense forests with a series of mountain peaks in its interior. The coastline was ragged, sheer cliffs. Through the canopy of the forest there shone the unmistakable gleam of metal as the sunlight struck something on the forest floor.
"Huh." Ruffnut grunted, intrigued. She had picked out the telltale, too. "Excellent observation, Master Tuffnut."
"Why thank you, Lady Ruffnut." Tuffnut replied, bowing in an overly theatrical manner in his spoke like he was reading from some script, over enunciating his words. "Shall we descend to investigate, dear sister?"
Ruffnut gave a small nod. "We shall." Then that familiar twisted grin was back on her lips. "Okay, Barf, Belch, take us in!"
Barf and Belch gurgled something that might have been an affirmative and dove toward the island, furling their wings to spill the air from underneath them. Harrow bit off another curse, went to grab ahold of Ruffnut, then thought better of it. Instead, he grabbed the edge of the saddle in a white-knuckle grip.
They landed in a grassy clearing by the coastline, due south from where they had spied the unusual metallic gleam. It was a great relief for Harrow to hop down off of Barf and onto solid ground. Ruffnut shot him a glare as she dismounted, frowning. He looked away, still feeling like a complete jack-ass. How was he going to clear the air?
Tuffnut wisely decided to ignore the tension between his sister and Harrow. After all, he wanted no part of whatever mess the newbie had just got himself into. The idea of his sister potentially liking Harrow made his stomach heave. "Alright, let's go see what we can see."
"Right behind you." Ruffnut said. She beckoned to their Zippleback. "Come on, Barf, Belch!"
So, with the twins leading, Barf and Belch following, and Harrow bringing up the rear, they made their way into the forest. The air was still and close within the forest's understory. The smell of leaf mould and earth was potent, rising from the forest floor. About fifty yards in, they encountered a swift-flowing stream as it snaked it's way around the roots of the trees. The moist sand at the stream's banks held a collection of imprints, some of them recent.
"Looks like dragon tracks." Tuffnut observed. "And their fresh. Couldn't have been maybe a few hours since they were made."
"Yeah, but what dragon made them?" Ruffnut wondered, crouching to look more closely at the markings. She traced the outlines with a finger, frowning.
Barf and Belch mimicked her posture, bending their necks so that they could both peer over one of her shoulders.
Harrow stood a few paces removed, looking around at the scenery. He noticed the stream flowed from further inland, which was no surprise considering the terrain in that direction rapidly ascended as one got closer to the mountains. Downstream, the stream's course took it out from under the forest's eaves and over a sheer cliff. The canopy overhead was quiet. There was no bird calls nor was there evidence of squirrels or other woodland critters.
"Times like this I wish Fishlegs was here." Tuffnut was saying. "He'd know what kind of dragon made those tracks just by looking at them."
Ruff straightened up. "Well, he isn't here, so it's up to us. Whatever made these tracks could be nearby."
"Good thing we came armed, eh?" Tuffnut said, smirking. He patted the head of a mace that he had hanging from a loop on his belt.
Ruffnut's hand drifted down to trace the head of the axe that hung from her belt. "Yeah. Who knows, maybe we'll even get into a fight!"
Harrow keenly felt the absence of a weapon of his own. "You guys don't have any backups I could use, do you?"
"Nope." Ruffnut replied flatly, not sparing him a glance.
Tuffnut was a little more helpful, pulling a short sheath from his belt. He tossed the sheath to Harrow. "Here, take my spare."
Harrow caught the sheath and pulled on the leather wrapped handle, expecting a dagger. He was sorely disappointed. "Tuff, this is an eating knife! What in Thor's name am I going to do with this?"
Tuffnut shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, man, that's all I got. But seriously, you need to try to come prepared to these kinds of outings."
Temper flaring, Harrow clenched his fist around the eating knife's grip. "How am I supposed to do that if the chief won't allow me to handle a weapon yet?!"
Ruffnut scoffed. "Suck it up, beggars can't be choosers!" She waved them on. "Come on, let's head upstream and see what's making that gleam."
Harrow growled, but sheathed the eating knife and stuck it in his belt anyway. He followed after them, walking just behind Barf and Belch.
They found the source of the gleam not far away, maybe another fifty paces upstream from the dragon tracks. Someone had left a trap, a contraption like a giant set of iron jaws driven by heavy springs, by the water's edge. Set between the jaws was a pressure plate. There was blood on the trap's serrated teeth, fresh on top of dried. Fresh blood congealing into old was splattered around where the trap lay as well, evidence of having been triggered on some hapless prey animal in the recent past.
"Odin's beard!" Tuffnut swore, going for his mace. "A dragon trap!"
"And that means one thing!" Ruffnut tensed, pulling her axe free as she looked around. "Dragon hunters!"
Harrow felt his stomach clench. He hadn't anticipated running into Viggo's men so soon. And here he was, without armor and armed only with a gods damned eating knife!
"Listen!" Harrow hissed, "Do you hear anything?"
All three of them were silent for a long moment. Barf and Belch looked around to either side, their two heads incredibly useful in this situation.
"I don't hear anything." Tuffnut said at length, "Maybe there are no Dragon hunters around right now?"
Ruffnut relaxed, but kept her axe in hand. "Maybe. But if they're here on this island, they're really close to Berk. We were only flying for an hour, maybe hour and a half tops."
"Too close." Tuffnut added gravely. "Very much not good."
Harrow decided to play clueless. "Who are you guys talking about?"
The twins exchanged a look and then both looked at him. "Really?"
"What? Should I know something?"
"Well, I guess not." Ruffnut sneered skeptically. "I forget you come from someplace that's the ass end of no-where."
Tuffnut jumped in when he saw Harrow open his mouth to retort, saying, "What she means to say is, the dragon hunters are an old enemy of us Riders of Berk. We thought we'd left them out beyond the Archipelago when we came back to Berk for the anniversary."
"Guess not." Ruffnut muttered. "I bet that this is all a part of some plan set up by Viggo."
"Who?" Harrow asked, playing clueless to the hilt. "He some sort of hunter bigshot?"
Ruffnut rolled her eyes and muttered obscenities while Tuffnut supplied an explanation. "He's the hunter's leader. Viggo and Hiccup have been locked in a war of wits for the ages for a while now. He's really, really dangerous."
"Gotcha." Harrow muttered, and hoped he looked suitably alarmed. Of course, this as all old news for him. Viggo was a dead man, as far as he was concerned. It was only a matter of time. He motioned to the trap before them.
"So what do we do about his thing?"
Tuffnut grinned. "Why, we do what Thorstons do best, of course!"
"Uh, which is...?"
"We blow it the Hel up!" Ruffnut crowed, punching the air with both fists.
Of course. Harrow thought. Had to ask.
Ruffnut shoved him back a few steps. "Alright, back up!" Then, to her half of the Zippleback, she called, "Barf, do your thing!"
The head in question complied, spewing forth a billowing jet of noxious green gas. The gas gathered around the trap in a foul cloud, slowly expanding outwards.
"Spark it up, Belch!" Tuffnut sang out, then he and his sister both dove behind a thick tree trunk. His half of the Zippleback obliged, working it's jaws to produce a vibrant spark, which leapt out and ignited the slowly expanding cloud of fumes with a resounding boom!
The gas exploded into a fiery starburst. The trap was reduced to smithereens and smoking fragments of iron, some of which flew through the air like shrapnel. Harrow dove for the mould-covered ground and covered his head, praying to whichever god would listen.
"YEAH!" Tuffnut roared, dancing around like a fool. "That was epic!"
"Ahhh! I never get tired of that." Ruffnut added, dusting herself off. She looked over and smirked when she saw Harrow lying prone on the ground, eyes squeezed shut, muttering obscenities. "Do you need a new change of undies, Harrow?"
"Ha, ha, very funny. You are a riot." he replied sarcastically, lifting his head. He picked himself up and checked himself over, looking for any new holes he might have acquired. The ground where the trap had been was a shallow crater now. Water from the stream was quickly filling up the new depression.
"So, are we going to blow up every trap we find?" Harrow asked, already knowing the answer.
"Totally!" Tuffnut replied without hesitation. "It is our duty, both as Riders of Berk and as Thorstons, to consign those fiendish contraptions to a fiery end!"
"Hear, hear!" Ruffnut crowed, laughing.
"Well, just give me more warning next time." Harrow muttered.
Snorting indelicately, Ruffnut waved off his concern. "You were fine, quite being such a baby!"
Tuffnut once again saw Harrow prepare himself for an angry reply, and headed him off, saying, "Come on, let's see if there are any more traps around. They're not going to blow themselves up!"
They spent an hour muddling around the western edge of the island, looking for more evidence of Dragon hunter activity. They found two more traps, one a wing binding design and the other a snout-snare. Both devices were pristine and gave every indication of having been newly installed. That fact troubled the twins for all of five seconds, before they blew each contraption to Hel with the aid of their trusty Zippleback. Then, they moved on, following the coastline north.
Harrow's stomach grumbled. Tuffnut's followed suit a second later, as if in sympathy. "Huh, guess we should eat something." the male Thorston muttered.
"Ugh. You men and your stomachs! Is that all you think about?" Ruffnut griped, rolling her eyes. "There could be a horde of Dragon hunters on the other side of that treeline, and you two would be thinking about yak steaks and mead!"
"Can't fight on an empty stomach, sis." Tuffnut pointed out. "Besides, aren't you hungry, too?"
Ruffnut scowled and waved him off. "I'll eat when we get back to Berk. We have to stay focused right now, got it?"
Tuffnut grinned. "Hey, you're starting to sound like Hiccup!"
"Am not!"
"Sure you are!" Tuffnut gushed, warming to his subject. "He's always denying the plainly obvious, like how tired or hurt he is. And then he's always yammering on about staying on task, or keeping our minds on the mission. Am I right? I'm totally right, aren't I?"
"Tuff, she looks like she's going to deck you one." Harrow warned dryly.
"Yeah, but that's like her default, so I'm not really worried."
Growling, Ruffnut aimed a half-hearted fist at her brother, who deftly sidestepped the attack. "Hey, here's an idea for you two muttonheads, why don't you go eat yak-shit and die?"
"Ah Ruffnut, such a kind and caring soul." Tuffnut teased. "You'll be glad to know that I brought something far, far more appealing to snack on."
Harrow quirked an eyebrow, dubious. "Dare I ask?"
In response, Tuffnut walked over to Belch and motioned for the head to bend down to him. Obediently, his half of the dragon did so, and Tuffnut flipped open a storage compartment on the side of his saddle. He produced a small leather satchel tied off with string. He fell back to walk alongside Harrow and opened the bag with a flourish. Inside, Harrow could see a mound of dried berries, shelled nuts, and clumps of toasted oats that looked like they had been drizzled with honey.
"What's this?"
"A Tuffnut Thorston creation that I'm tentatively calling trail mix." Tuffnut explained. "Give it a try, let me know what you think."
Harrow held out a hand and Tuffnut tipped the bag and poured a modest amount into his waiting palm. It looked good, and upon bringing it to his nose, smelled good. He glanced at Tuffnut, found him watching closely. He actually looked anxious about whether or not Harrow liked his "creation".
Astrid and Heather's stories about the pranks these two pulled on people came to mind as Harrow hesitated. He regarded the little pile of food more critically, wondering if this was one of those pranks. Still, he couldn't afford to alienate both of the twins while out on patrol. He made up his mind to give it a shot.
In any case, he had always had a pretty strong constitution.
He popped the whole lot into his mouth and chewed. It tasted sweet and salty, with a pleasant crunchy texture from the oat clusters and nuts. His stomach took it, held it with no ill effect, and demanded more.
"Hey, this is pretty good!" Harrow marveled, jamming his hand into the bag for another handful. "What gave you the idea?"
Tuffnut grinned and looked pleased with himself. "Well, I was hungry one day, and it was still hours before nattmal. I looked around the kitchen and found all this random stuff, nuts and berries. Ruff wanted to go boar riding, so I just threw it in a bag and took it with me."
"Ruff, have you tried this stuff?" Harrow called up to where she was leading them. He took another handful and stuffed it in his mouth. "It definitely takes the edge off."
"Yeah, I've tried it." Ruffnut replied laconically. "It's alright. For something my muttonhead brother came up with, that is."
Tuffnut accepted the backhanded praise with grace. "Well, how about that idea you had last Snoggletog? You know, about freezing milk and…"
A blood-curdling roar reverberated through the forest, echoing off the trees. It froze the three Vikings in their tracks and cut off what Tuffnut had been about to say. The words died on his lips and his mouth hung open in shock, eyes bugging in his head. Barf and Belch lifted their heads higher into the air, on alert and watching for threats, assuming a belligerent posture. The roar repeated itself, and Harrow thought it came from off to the east.
Tuffnut cowered behind Harrow, shuddering. "W-what in Thor's name was that?"
"Whatever it is, it's big and pissed off." Harrow observed dryly, brushing off Tuffnut's grip on his shoulders. "Should we go and check it out?"
"I really, really wish Fishlegs was here right now." Ruffnut muttered. "He'd know what kind of dragon makes a call like that."
"Well, he's not." Harrow snapped. "It's you and your brother, Riders of Berk, right?"
Glaring, Ruffnut sneered at him. "Yeah, and our misfit sidekick. So what?"
"So, I didn't think Riders of Berk choked up when danger presented itself." Harrow replied. "Especially not the infamous Thorston twins."
Ruffnut scowled and crossed the distance between them in two great strides till she stood almost nose-to-nose with him. When next she spoke, it was a soft deadly voice. "Are you trying to say that we're afraid?"
Harrow, no stranger to intimidation, returned her stony gaze placidly. "No, what I am trying to say is it's up to you guys to figure out what to do, since you're the experienced dragon riders here and I'm just the sidekick, remember?"
Ruffnut studied his face intently, searching for a sign that he was mocking them. Mocking her. She turned away when she found she couldn't read him and huffed in annoyance. "Yeah."
Tuffnut, who watched the exchange from the sidelines, breathed a sigh of relief. He had fully expected there to be blood.
The mysterious roar echoed again through the forest. All three of them exchanged uneasy looks.
"Could be a dragon in trouble." Tuffnut suggested. "What would Hiccup do in this situation?"
"He'd go and find whatever is making that noise and see if he could help it." Ruffnut deadpanned. "Like a great big sappy fool."
"Then let's go." Harrow said, taking the lead.
Ruff huffed again in annoyance and hurried to follow after him. She shoved him aside as she overtook him, regaining the point position of the group. Tuffnut sighed, and motioned for Barf and Belch to follow. He wondered how long she was going to stay upset.
The roaring repeated periodically through the forest. They had no trouble following the sound and tracked its source to a little dip between hills. There, they found another Dragon hunter trap, a very different specimen from the others. It was snout snare device composed of some kind of metal that Harrow had never seen before. But that wasn't the only thing that made it unique. This one had still had a dragon in its clutches. And not just any dragon, either.
It was a Changewing.
The dragon itself was roughly sixty feet long, maybe eight and a half tall at the withers. It's body had a wide, flattened oval shape, with bright red skin and had a pair of delicate looking wings. Each leg ended in a claw with four long talons. It had a short neck and a head like a broad spade and had a vicious looking underbite lined with jagged fangs. A sharp looking nasal horn perched at the blunt tip of it's face and a pair of sturdy looking horns that emerged from either side of it's head like a crescent moon. It's piercing yellow eyes sat close together atop its head. Two long antennae emerged from the back of the dragon's skull and were covered in little leaf-like protrusions.
The dragon had it's snout trapped in the snout snare's jaws, clamped in a way that prevented it from opening it's jaws. There was a raw, bloody shank of venison in the dirt nearby that had obviously served as bait. The dragon roared, or tried to, and Harrow realized that was the sound that could be heard throughout the forest. It had only seemed strange and threatening because of the long distance and distortion. Up close, it sounded muffled and more than a little distressed. It thrashed and hissed, using its front claws and its prehensile tail to try and free its face from the trap's jaws. Then, sensing the presence of three humans and a Zippleback, it froze and stared.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut stopped and stared back. "Whoa!"
Harrow had heard of this particular breed of dragon before. They were an elusive predator throughout the Meridian, preying on wild boar, deer, smaller dragon breeds, and any unfortunate Viking that crossed their path.
Aside from not being particularly choosy eaters, they were known to be incredibly cooperative amongst their kind and unusually inquisitive. Harrow remembered hearing about Changewings carefully observing and then mimicking human behavior, to a degree. They usually lived and hunted in well coordinated packs arranged around family units.
And now, here was a real life exemplar of the species in the flesh. It gazed at them steadily. Harrow could imagine that the dragon was trying to figure out what they wanted, whether they were a threat or not.
"Okay, so we found out what was making all that racket." Tuffnut said, not taking his eyes off the Changewing. "What do we do now?"
"We leave it alone." Ruffnut declared. "Changewings are too dangerous. It'd try and kill us as soon as we freed it. And, with all the noise it's making, if there are Dragon Hunters about, they'll be on their way here to finish it off."
Tuffnut shrugged and turned on his heel to leave. "Fair enough!"
Harrow grabbed him by the shoulder. "Hold up. You guys are honestly telling me you'd leave a dragon to die in a trap like this?"
Ruffnut looked at him like he was the drooling village idiot. "Duh! It's a predator, Harrow. It eats other animals, other dragons even! Hel, it would probably try to snack on us, if it could!"
Tuffnut nodded gravely as Ruffnut was starting back the way they had come, beckoning to Barf and Belch.
"Listen, Harrow, take it from us. We've had a lot of experience with Changewings. Trust us when we say that it's better to just let nature take it's course here."
At first Harrow seemed to understand, seemed like he was going to let it go and leave with them. But then he abruptly turned on his heel and started to approach the Changewing.
Tuffnut swore. "Thor's balls! Harrow!"
"Harrow!" Ruffnut shrieked, livid, "You jack-ass son of a whore, get back over here! You do not have my permission to die!"
Harrow ignored them. He was astounded that these so-called dragon riders would be so callous in this sort of situation. Leave and let the Dragon Hunters kill this defenseless creature? Not on his watch! Because defenseless it was, with it's head immobilized and it's jaws forced shut. It couldn't flee and it couldn't fight.
It was strange, but seeing the changewing like this elicited memories of being shackled up in a Dragon Hunter cell and beaten.
The Changewing had gone deathly still. It tracked his movements with its eyes, unblinking. He thought he glimpsed the talons of its claws clench and relax, once, twice. It was preparing to fight, he realized. He looked down at himself, unarmored and unarmed save for the eating knife in his belt. If it chose to attack him, it would be a quick end indeed.
But, he crept closer, hands out and open to the inspection of the dragon. It hissed, low and angry, and clenched its talons again.
He murmured to it, softly, something like a chant, "Easy, easy now… not going to hurt you… easy…"
"Don't look it in the eyes, for the love of the gods!" Ruffnut screeched. "It can hypnotize you!"
Harrow winced as the dragon snarled, shook itself violently in response to the sudden disturbance. The prehensile tail came around and swiped at him. He scrambled backwards, fell over, his heart racing in his chest.
"Whoa, whoa… easy! Easy, I'm not going to hurt you…" he chattered to the angry dragon. "Take it easy…"
"Ruff, maybe we shouldn't, uh... shout." Tuffnut could just barely be heard, speaking softly to his sister. "It aggravates the Changewing."
"Well, Harrow acting like a suicidal muttonhead aggravates me!" Ruffnut whisper-shouted back, angrily.
Harrow rolled his eyes. Here he was trying to free a deadly predator dragon and they were back there trying to piss it off even more than it already was.
He stood up, slowly, and shot a glance back towards where the twins stood watching. Ruffnut glared at him, arms crossed. Tuffnut shrugged, smiling apologetically.
Lets try this again, he thought to himself. He addressed the Changewing again, still mightily pissed off and wary. He cooed nonthreatening words at it, and for the most part it allowed him just a tiny bit closer.
Close enough to inspect the mechanisms of the trap. The snout snare trap was designed much like all the others they had seen on the island, to trap a particular part of the dragon's body and hold it painfully against all attempts at escape.
As such, it shared some common characteristics with those of the leg snare and the wing bind, like heavily reinforced frame construction, some sort of trigger and tightly wound springs to drive the jaws of the trap.
In this case, it looked like the bait had been laid onto a pressure plate. The weight of the bait ensured the plate was depressed in the locked position, keeping the jaws open. When a dragon came along and tried to take the bait, the pressure plate popped up, unlocked the springs and the jaws slammed shut.
Right on the snout of whatever hapless dragon had been trying to eat the bait. Like this poor Changewing, for instance. Harrow wondered if by again applying pressure to the plate the jaw could be released. But, in order to do that, he'd need something to manipulate the trap. That was the safer bet. There was no way in hell he was going to try and get closer and get his own limbs into the mix.
That was a surefire way to end up needing a hook and a pegleg.
There was a tangle of fallen tree limbs nearby under a rotting tree. Some of them still looked sturdy and heavy enough to be of use. Moving carefully so as not to alarm the changewing, Harrow went over and grabbed one of the straighter limbs. Then, he went back and tried to put his plan into action.
That plan was nothing more complicated than sticking the tree limb into the trap and pressing down on the trigger plate as hard as he could. This simple plan went swimmingly well, until he realized that the trigger plate required a lot of force to move.
Harrow swore quietly to himself. He wasn't strong enough. He looked back to where Ruffnut and Tuffnut were standing alongside Barf and Belch, watching his progress anxiously. He waved at them, beckoned to them, and they emphatically signalled they weren't coming any closer. Squashing his frustration, he instead walked over to them.
"I need some help." he said.
