Chapter 12: Suspicion
Bonetoss and Snakewhisp made it back to the field of dragons. Without being seen by the beasts, they had arrived at the spot where they had slept overnight. With their job done, they could pack up and head back to the village. Confident that they were going to get praised for their work, they began to pack up their belongings and try to erase all evidence of their presence there.
"So, you think that boy embarrassed himself out there?" Snakewhisp grinned.
"That boy's a walking menace. There's no way he could've killed the Shadow Lord Dragon."
"What do you think Wolfbane has planned with this mythical dragon?"
Bonetoss shrugged. "I'm sure he wants to get rid of Ivar so he can have the glory of killing it. We've all been living underneath Ivar's shadow for too long."
The two Vikings chuckled, but as they finished their laugh, they were greeted with the sound of growling. Both Vikings froze in place and cautiously looked up. Standing in front of them was a Night Fury. The dragon's eyes were full of rage, as bared his teeth to confirm his anger.
"Th-th-that's the night fury!"
"He looks pretty mad," Bonetoss replied.
"Maybe if you carefully reach for the spear…" he pointed to the spear, laying up against a treeto their right, with his eyes."
"Me? How about YOU get that spear! I'm closer to the dragon than you; he'll rip my arm off!"
"And your arm's more important than mine?" Snakewhisp responded.
Toothless roared, shaking his head as means to intimidate the Vikings. It worked; Bonetoss made a dash for the spear out of panic. The dragon leaped, and landed between the Viking and the weapon. He made it clear to the two Vikings that they had made a wrong decision going for that weapon. He swung his head violently like a wild, untamed beast ready for a fight.
"Forget this, I'm running!" Snakewhisp replied, running in the opposite direction of the dragon. Bonetoss was in full agreement, and join his friend, heading back to the village.
Toothless continued to romp around until he was certain the Vikings were not going to come back. Once he was convinced, Toothless snorted as he shook his head; his job of protecting the dragons was done for now.
Ivar was too furious to talk with anyone. Even from the shop, he could still feel his rage radiating into Berk's atmosphere. Hiccup was too scared to leave the shop to find out if the word of what had happened had spread through the village, yet. He took this time alone to look at his invention. If Ivar's Vikings had not tried to fire the weapon, he would have had an easier time figuring out what exactly went wrong with it.
He backtracked in its original assembly order, to better keep track of what worked and what did not. Perhaps he could discover what he had missed. As he slowly disassembled the crossbow, he could not find any flaws with his logic. "I don't get it, what went wrong?" He said out of frustration.
He began to look at the individual pieces and fidgeted with each moving piece. When it came to the hook that was supposed to grab and stretch the string, he noticed that there was no coil resistance.
"Hmm, that's strange."
He dissected that piece of the crossbow, and saw that the hook was deformed and installed completely wrong. The problem was so obvious; there was no way he could have made this kind of mistake. There could be no doubt that someone else had tampered with the crossbow overnight.
"So, I heard about the catastrophe, this morning," Bitwolf entered the shop at the most inopportune time.
"Well, you know how it is; stories always manage to get distorted the more times it gets told." Hiccup replied.
"Sometimes, but this is YOU, we're talking about. Is there really ever a need to exaggerate your stories?"
Hiccup frowned, trying to keep himself from getting angry. "What's your problem? Have I offended your family honor or something?"
"Not at all, I just should've known better than to trust your ability to make an invention that works."
"My crossbow worked just fine," he said defensively. He had to choose his next words very carefully, because someone messed around with his invention, and it had to be someone in Bitworlf's tribe. "It just ran into some—problems."
"Astrid defended you, and I decided to go along with this deception; now, you've just embarrassed us all. The least you could've done was put the weapon together properly."
Hiccup paused, taking careful notice to what he had just said. How did Bitwolf know what the problem was? He never had a chance to see the crossbow before it was taken out on the hunt. The adult Vikings would not even care to know, what exactly went wrong; all they cared about was that it did go wrong.
"You can try to embarrass me all you want, I don't care, but to embarrass your friends like that—to embarrass Astrid—is not an act of a good friend. A friend is supposed to be honorable and dependable."
"I'm very dependable when it comes to my friends," Hiccup protested.
"You may think so, but would your friends agree?" Bitwolf turned and made his way for the door. When he opened it, he found Gobber standing there, ready to come into the shop.
Gobber had heard the conversation, and he looked down at the boy with a frown on face. "Out of the shop with you, lad."
"Yes, sir," Bitwolf replied.
Gobber stepped aside to allow the young Viking to leave. Once he was gone, he stepped into the shop with a disheartened Hiccup. "Don't let him get to you, Hiccup. He has no idea what he's talking about. You're as loyal as they come."
"That's not what's bothering me," he replied turning to the table where his weapon was sprawled out in pieces. "I don't think this was an accident. I think the crossbow was sabotaged, and I—I think it was…"
"Now, hold your horses, Hiccup. Your weapon was not sabotaged. We were up very late last night working on it, and we were both tired. We probably made some mistake in the end."
"I'm telling you, I don't think it was us, at all. I wouldn't make this kind of mistake."
"No one's perfect, Hiccup, and no one is certainly blaming you for what happened." Hiccup's raised his right eyebrow, challenging his last statement. "Okay, no one is blaming you besides Ivar... and Bitwolf… and Wolfbane… Okay, pretty much everyone from Ivar's tribe. The point is, we'll find a way to get through this mess."
"Yeah, but will I have any friends left when it's over." Hiccup said, walking out of the shop.
He had no idea what to do now. Despite Gobber's assurance, he was certain that Bitwolf sabotaged his weapon, but the question was, why? Was this all about trying to steal Astrid's heart? If that was his intention, then Hiccup would have to make sure he disappoint him. He needed an alley to keep an eye out on him, and see if his suspicion was correct.
"Hey, Hiccup!" Fishlegs was walking by, and greeted him when he saw him leaving the shop.
"Fishlegs!" This was perfect. Of all of his friend, other than Astrid, he was the one he trusted the most. He was certain that he would hear him out.
"Rough day, I hear."
"You have no idea," Hiccup responded. "Listen, I need your help. I need you to keep a close eye on Bitwolf."
"Why?"
"I think he messed with my crossbow. I don't know why, but I need you to see if he does anything else strange."
"You think he ruined your weapon on purpose?" His eyes revealed shock and surprise.
"I—am fairly certain of it, but I don't want you to tell anyone else about this. There's no point raising suspicion, not just yet."
"I don't think he would do something like that; he's like a hero class level eight or something. His knowledge of dragons is like—plus 10!"
"I understand that, but please believe me; my weapon did not malfunction on its own." Hiccup pleaded. He really needed him to listen and to trust him.
Fishlegs was definitely thinking carefully about the request being made of him. He respected Hiccup, and probably even wanted to believe him, but he could not forget about the past. He could also not ignore the fact that Bitwolf seemed to be interested in Astrid. He did not want to get stuck in the middle of a war between two friends fighting over the same girl. "I'm sure it was just an accident. There's nothing to worry about."
Hiccup doubted that his other friends would spin the situation that way. That was why he could not trust the others with this task, and now apparently, Fishlegs was not willing to get involved with this. He could not mask the disappointment that he was feeling. "Okay, fine, but please don't tell anyone about this. I need to find out the truth for myself."
"I won't tell anyone," the chubby Viking smiled and headed off in the direction of the dining hall to find some food to eat.
Hiccup needed some time away from the village to think. Truthfully, he was not quite ready for the wave of criticism that he was going to get. He made his way into the dragon's field. A few dragons were flying overhead, just for the sake of spreading out their wings a little. Other dragons were on the ground playing or hunting for fish.
He found toothless relaxing alone in the center of the field. The Night Fury raised his head when he saw him coming towards him. Hiccup expected the normal warm welcome; what he got was something totally different. Toothless charged at him with his teeth bared. The terrifying sight of the angry Night Fury was enough to cause Hiccup to stumble backwards. Toothless stopped short of pouncing on him, but he angrily romped around before him, snorting and growling.
"Toothless, what's the matter with you? It's me!"
Toothless did not seem to care. His anger did not subdue; he continued to shake his head and growl. He took a small lunge forward which succeeded in pushing Hiccup back further. The dragon was doing everything in his power to get him to leave. "What's wrong with you? Why are you so angry?"
Toothless was becoming more aggressive towards him, the longer he stayed. He had no choice but to abide by the dragon's wish and promptly depart the field. "Ok, ok, I'm leaving."
Hiccup turned and walked quickly away from Toothless, who remained on edge until he was sure that he was not going to come back. As he headed back for the forest, his mind was reaching for an explanation for Toothless' strange behavior. This made absolutely no sense, at all.
As he reentered the woods, he stopped for a minute to think. There was no doubt that the dragon recognized him; Hiccup could see it in his eyes. For some odd reason, Toothless was angry at him.
He started to search for a large rock, so he could sit down and think, but as he did, something caught his eye. Leaning up against a tree was a spear. "How did that get here?"
He walked to the weapon and closely inspected it. He did not recognize it. Looking around the area, he noticed that the grass was trampled upon. Among the trampled grass was a metal medallion. Bending down and picking it up, he used his fingers to inspect it. It was an emblem medallion. Every tribe of Vikings had their own emblem branded onto their armor, or painted onto flags, but this emblem was not Berks. The medallion belonged to someone from Ivar's tribe.
Hiccup felt sick to his stomach; someone from Ivar's tribe knew about the dragons. If he had to guess, he would say, that whoever it was, had a run-in with Toothless and had done something to show aggression towards him. Toothless's reaction now made perfect sense.
He needed to tell this to his father about this new problem, but first, he had to convince Toothless that these Vikings were not his friends. With a deep breath, he made his way back into the field where it did not take long for Toothless to notice his return. The dragon once again stiffened his body and bore his teeth. He stomped on the ground with his two front teeth to try to intimidate him. Hiccup would not be scared off this time.
"Calm down, Toothless," Hiccup urged, as he raised his hands to try to ease closer to the dragon.
He, then, showed him the medallion. Toothless almost went ballistic on him. Either he recognized the emblem or the scent of the Vikings on it; Hiccup could not tell, which was the case. "Whoever these men were, they're not from our village. They did not represent me." He turned to the side and threw it as far as he could.
Toothless immediately became at-ease, retracting his teeth and looking at Hiccup with a curious look on his face. He had finally gotten through to the Night Fury. He slowly reached the palm of his right hand out towards Toothless. The dragon returned by bending downward and placing his nose into his hand.
"I don't know what's going on, Toothless; but I promise, that I'm going to find out, and set things right."
