Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

The Dragon of Wanheda

"The last time I saw the creature," Fishlegs finished explaining as he led the re-assembled Riders back towards the cove, "it was heading for the deepest part of the cove."

"Is it more like a giant fish or a big snake?" Astrid called over. She and Fishlegs were carrying buckets of fish in anticipating of an effort to lure out the alleged creature, although Clarke had to wonder if that would amount to anything.

"I don't know, it was hard to tell from underwater," Fishlegs said. "Everything looked kind of fuzzy and misshapen."

"You sure you weren't looking at Meatlug?" Snotlout asked.

"Snot," Clarke glared over at the other Rider (and what did it say about her life where calling someone 'Snot' wasn't an insult), "were you not listening when he said this dragon pulled him off Meatlug? That's not something a reflection could do."

"…Shut up, Clarke," Snotlout grumbled.

"Well, whatever's out there, we'll find it now," Hiccup said. As Clarke and Griffin flew on in front of some of the other Riders, she heard Snotlout ask the twins about the location of an axe of his, but she wasn't going to bother paying attention to that; if Snotlout was missing a weapon he didn't need right now, that wasn't an urgent issue.

"OK, let's fan out and find the creature," Fishlegs said as they approached the cove. "Don't get too close to the water."

"How do we know it's even real?" Snotlout called out from behind Fishlegs.

"Because it bit me!" Fishlegs called out, holding out his right foot.

"That… doesn't look like a bite," Clarke said, sending Griffin back and up so that she could lean over and take a better look at Fishleg's injury. "It's hard to tell, but it… it looks more like a burn."

"Grab your buckets," Hiccup said as they approached the cove area. "We're gonna chum the water to see if it'll show itself again."

"Not me," Snotlout said resolutely. "No way; Loki Day trick- hey!"

"This is Fishlegs," Clarke glared at Snotlout as he rubbed at the back of his head. "He's not going to pull that kind of trick on us; unlike some people here, he's not a git with a poor sense of humour."

"Hey!" Snotlout and the twins said indignantly.

"I was more talking about Snotlout," Clarke said; she might feel that the twins went too far at times, but unlike Snotlout they seemed to know when their actions crossed the line between a bad joke and being outright cruel to someone.

"Still doesn't mean I'm going to take part in this," the shortest rider protested even as the others pulled ahead to look at him. "I mean, how dense do you all have to be to…"

To his credit, Snotlout trailed off when he realised that the others were all looking at something underneath him, but it still took him a moment to realise what had happened. As though on cue, there was a sudden eruption of water and something leapt from the cove that put Clarke in mind of a manta ray with a series of sharp fins on its back, which managed to reach Hookfang and deliver some kind of electric shock before it fell back into the water.

"That's… that's not a creature at all!" Fishlegs said, his tone conveying a kind of shocked excitement.

"It's a dragon," Hiccup said grimly.

"And not just any dragon," Fishlegs said, now clearly just excited at his discovery. "It's a Seashocker! A Seashocker! Right in our cove! And I found him!"

"You mean you trapped him," Tuffnut put in, even as the riders flew over to land at the beach.

"Not intentionally," Clarke put in before anyone else could say anything too harsh, the riders all getting off their dragons to better discuss what they had just witnessed.

"I-I gotta tell you, Fishlegs," Hiccup said, taking a moment to study the cove before he turned back to the other Viking, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'm not sure I'd believe it."

"Right?" Fishlegs grinned back at him.

"Is that a big deal?" Clarke asked. "I mean, I'm reading that Book of Dragons, but I don't think I've found these guys yet…"

"Don't worry about it," Fishlegs grinned over at her. "Seashockers are rarely seen on the surface because they're deep-water dragons… which also explains why it didn't take my bait earlier; it only eats deep-sea fish!"

"OK, can we step back from the onslaught of dragon knowledge?" Tuffnut asked.

"With pleasure, brother," Ruffnut grinned, walking backwards in a purposeful manner, only to suddenly fall into a pit that had been dug just behind where she was standing.

"Loki'd!" Tuffnut grinned down the hole at his sister.

"What?" Ruffnut yelled up at him. "I thought we were on the same team?"

"Sorry, sis," Tuffnut grinned. "A team is only as strong as its weakest player."

"As soon as I get out of this hole, it is on!" Ruffnut countered.

"Just wait 'til she sees the snake I put down there," Tuffnut grinned, followed by a scream from the pit.

"You are truly a master," Snotlout.

"OK," Clarke looked over at the male twin. "Putting aside how you dug something like that without anyone seeing you, you… didn't put a poisonous snake in there, right?"

"Hey, I'm not that much of an idiot; I want her shocked, not seriously hurt," Tuffnut assured her.

"And you dug that hole when?"

"When Fishlegs said he was going out here to look for something, I just nipped on ahead to dig the hole there," Tuffnut explained. "I figured we'd end up here to talk about whatever was out there even if we didn't find anything, and I know where Ruff always stands in relation to me; I just had to be sure I set it up so that she'd walk into the right spot at some point."

"Huh," Clarke smiled at Tuffnut. "Nice Batman gambit."

"Nice wha?"

"It's an idea from my culture," she explained, recalling some of the old stories she'd read with Wells back in their childhood. "Basically it refers to a plan that only works because the person making the plan anticipated exactly how other people would react to what he was doing and incorporated their reactions into his own plan."

"And that's smart?"

"Tricky to do, but smart when you can pull it off," Clarke nodded at him.

"How lucky are we?" Fishlegs said, apparently ignoring the twins' actions as he and Hiccup looked out at the cove. "To be able to study a Seashocker this closely?"

As though in response to Fishlegs' comment, the creature that was apparently the Seashocker emerged from the water once again. Now able to get a better look at it, Clarke was surprised to see that the creature actually had two heads, with the fins on its back splitting from one line into two around its neck, although its general shape still made her think of a manta ray more than any of the other dragons she'd seen so far.

"OK, but we have to be careful," Hiccup said, after the Seashocker had dived back underwater. "We don't want to hurt the dragon."

"When would I ever hurt a dragon?" Fishlegs said. Clarke found herself recalling the comment about these things usually living in deep water, but decided not to bring it up; Fishlegs had enough sense that he wouldn't keep the Seashocker here if it was going to be dangerous for the dragon in question. With the twins essentially 'grounded' until Ruffnut could get out of the pit, Clarke and the other Riders got back on their dragons and took up position above the cove, looking down at the swimming Seashocker from what Hiccup had calculated should be a safe distance to prevent them being shocked again.

"Look at how fluidly it moves through the water…" Fishlegs said, as the Seashocker swam/flew through the water below them. "Truly masterful…"

"What's it even doing here?" Snotlout asked, which at least assured Clarke that she hadn't just missed something obvious.

"It must've gotten separated from its pod," Hiccup suggested.

"Maybe during the storm?" Clarke put in. "I mean, it was probably very churned up with all that wind."

"That makes sense," Astrid nodded at Clarke before turning back to the dragon in the pool, which was swimming rapidly around in circles. "It… looks kind of agitated."

"Great idea, Fishlegs," Snotlout said sarcastically. "Let's mess with the angry zapper-heads."

"Yeah, I… actually think I agree with Snotlout on this one," Hiccup said. "The Seashocker looks pretty stressed; I think we should help it out of the cove."

"I know, I know, I know, but after I get some measurements," Fishlegs said, still looking urgently down at itself. "Astrid, can you position yourself near the tail, and then I'll come over here and…"

Clarke couldn't hear the rest of Fishlegs' words as he flew down closer to the water, but she stayed close to Hiccup in case of any new orders.

"He's not listening to you," Snotlout said as Hookfang moved in closer to Toothless.

"I know," Hiccup observed.

"This is a really bad idea."

"Yes, it is."

"You should listen to me more often-"

"I don't think that's ever going to apply," Hiccup cut him off.

"I second that," Clarke said, satisfied that things were in order up there before she flew down towards Stormfly and Meatlug as they stayed in place around the middle of the pool. If the Seashocker attacked again, at this distance she should be close enough that Griffin could step in to help out if Astrid or Fishlegs were in danger, but he would also be far enough away that he wouldn't be at risk of being attacked himself.

"Based on the Seashocker's length and coloration, I'd say it's a healthy, young adult male," she heard Fishlegs mutter as the dragon swam below them. Clarke was about to ask how he could confirm that when she noticed the Seashocker starting to crackle with a new wave of electricity, followed by it turning around and charging towards the other two. She barely had to shout a warning before Stormfly and Meatlug had moved up to avoid the Seashocker's attack, Griffin flying further up to avoid the same attack without her instruction.

"All right, Fishlegs, I think we've seen enough," Hiccup called down.

"Don't worry," Fishlegs said with what Clarke definitely felt was excessive calm. "This kind of impulse behavior is completely age appropriate-"

"But that doesn't mean it's not dangerous-!" Clarke tried to protest, before the Seashocker leapt out once again, the latest jump so high up that it only just missed Toothless. Now keeping an eye on the swimming dragon below, Astrid had Stormfly dodge the next attack and then fire a series of spineshots at the aquatic dragon as it returned to the water. Fishlegs called out a plea for the others to stop, and even Snotlout seemed ready to get Hookfang to calm down as the Nightmare lit himself on fire, but Clarke couldn't blame the Nadder for her actions when she could feel Griffin rumbling anxiously between her legs.

Dragons, Clarke mused to herself as she looked down at the swimming attacker. Remarkable creatures, but you have to be careful when you're meeting them