Ten minutes into dinner, Mari had had enough of listening to Astrid boasting about how much better she was and that that was why she was picked over this 'Snotlout'.
"Come on girl lets go exploring a little," she said to Snowdrop, picking up her dinner and leaving, following the white dragon into the nest and towards the forge.
In the forge, Hiccup was working on a new Gronkle Iron handle for his flame sword Inferno.
'Running low on this stuff aren't we bud?' he asked Toothless who was pretending to be sleeping in the corner 'Oh well, I'll ask Marble and Limestone to make me some more tomorrow.'
"Night Ryder?" Mari's voice called out to him, making him pause and turn around to see her.
"Yeah, Mari?" he asked taking the Deathsong Amber goggles off, his mask still on.
"You mind if I have the rest of my dinner here?" Mari asked looking around, avoiding his eyes "I'm not up to going back to the dining room and Astrid."
"Nah, I don't mind. It'll be nice to have someone here who talks back to be when I say something to them," Hiccup said looking to Toothless and moving to the other side of the bench so he'd be facing her "Other than that how you feeling being here?" he asked.
"It's ok," Mari said taking a small bite out of the fish "You're dragon nest is a lot bigger than I thought it would be."
"Well, big dragons need big nests," Hiccup said drawing some designs out to carve into the handle when it cooled down enough "And I have a few 'Big Dragons' here."
"What are you making?" Mari asked after a moment, curious.
"New handle for Inferno," he said scribbling out one he just drew, pulled out his sword to show her, which she took, and started again "The old one's gotten a bit battered and worn down over the years I've been using it."
Finding the button, Mari stretched out her arm and pressed it jumping a little when the blade covered in flames show out the end.
"Wondering how it works?" Hiccup asked looking up after crossing out another design, getting a nod from her.
"Well to put it in the short version, one end coats the blade in Monstrous Nightmare saliva," he said pointing to the flame covered blade "The other, sprays Hideous Zippleback gas which when sparks hit it, blows up."
"How long did it take you to make it?" Mari asked curious retracting the blade and giving it back.
"A couple of years," Hiccup replied, returning to his designs "It started with me and Toothless exploring the outer Archipelago when we started to hear the strangest of sounds, that Toothless seemed drawn to..."
With that he was telling Mari the tale of the Death Song and it got Toothless, making him unable to help Hiccup get out of there, and the fact that it's amber, which it shoots at its prey to stop them from moving, was impervious to anything except heat.
"So, just so something like that never happened again I got to work on my first flame sword," Hiccup said coming to the end "A little later I got an idea to add Zippleback gas too, and after a few mistakes, explosions, failures, and a few years, I got Inferno."
Mari had been listening and paying attention to Hiccup throughout the story, and now she looked at the sketch pad that had five pages of failed designs.
"Can I try drawing something?" she asked smiling.
"If you like," Hiccup said ripping out the used pages sharpening the pencil and giving them to Mari while he checked on the handle.
"What exactly do you want on it?" she asked before she got started.
"Dragons mostly," he said "But I'm not sure which ones I want, or how I want them to look."
Thinking, Mari got to work.
While this had been going on in the forge, in the dining room, the other's had finished eating and were making their way to bed.
"I'm sure it was this way," Camicazi said looking around the tunnel and not seeing anything that would help tell them where to go, or where they were.
"Maybe it was the other way?" Heather asked looking back the way they came, and saw the Razorwhip that had brought her here, hiding behind the wall "Hey girl..." she said slowly going over to the dragon.
"Heather!" Astrid hissed a little, pulling her back "What are you doing?"
"Um, I'm going to ask that dragon to lead us to the bedrooms," Heather said shaking Astrid off and trying again.
Slowly the Razorwhip came out and sniffed her all over judging her, before coming back to stand in front of her and tilted her head asking what she wanted.
"Can you lead us to the bedrooms please girl?" Heather asked kindly, reaching out her hand to stroke the dragon, who purred a little as she did.
Stepping back, the dragon nodded and started to lead them back the way they came for a bit, and then down a side tunnel.
Eventually they made it.
"Thanks, girl," Heather said smiling and petting the dragon before heading inside.
"Yeah thanks," Thuggory said petting her too.
"You did great," Camicazi said hugging the dragon.
Astrid did nothing to show her thanks and just went into the room.
Growling a little, the dragon moved her tail to right behind Astrid's head, aiming for the ponytail.
'You better not be thinking, what I think your thinking Windshear,' Hiccup said making her stop step back and look at him, Mari Toothless and Snowdrop beside him.
'But she deserves it Hiccup,' Windshear said looking into the room towards Astrid.
'I'm sure she does, but we've got the whole time they're staying here to force her to say sorry,' Hiccup said coming over and petting her. 'For now focus on getting to know Heather more.'
Nodding Windshear turned to go to bed in the nest, feeling that the humans didn't want a dragon in there with them, at least for tonight.
"Well goodnight, Mari," Hiccup said to Mari bowing a little making her blush "And thanks for all the great designs you made."
"You're welcome Night Ryder," she said smiling petting Snowdrop and Toothless a goodnight before going into the room herself.
Now with his guests all in there and soon to be asleep, Hiccup went to the dining room to get himself something to eat, the dragons close behind him.
