The stranger arrived.
=0=
"No Gobber, I don't think that would work," Hiccup said patiently, after the man had finished describing exactly how the Great Basement, as they had started calling it, should be equipped with full defenses, including boiling oil to throw over their enemies, side by side with a wall with harpoons in it.
"Why not, lad?" Gobber asked forlornly. He was rather attached to the idea.
"Call it a hunch."
"Chief." Hiccup turned to see Mulch standing in the doorway to the smithy, scratching his head.
"Yes, Mulch?"
"There's a trader here. I thought I should tell you."
"Thanks, Mulch. I'll come along in a minute." In the corner, Toothless warbled.
"Right you are, chief," Mulch said, and walked away past the counter and out of sight.
"But lad, think of all the advantages! No one expects to be attacked in a basement!"
"Gobber, no one's trying to conquer the basement."
=0=
The stranger sorted through the items. Where was the one which was needed?
Ah…
=0=
"Greetings, citizens of Berk," said the merchant. He was dressed in flowing white, with green highlights on the sleeves. He looked young, with a pale, pleasant face and striking green eyes. The gathered crowd waited for the inevitable explosion of verbal flowers.
The merchant raised an eyebrow. "I… have wares?"
The crowd still waited. The merchant looked from face to face for a sign of what it was he should be doing.
"Look, I don't have all day. Are you going to buy something or not?"
The Berkians looked at each other. This wasn't what they were used to. Johann would be narrating his travels right now. One Berkian hesitantly spoke up.
"Have ye travelled far and wide?"
"Yes?" the merchant said, equally as hesitant. "Lots of faraway lands. It's where I got the merchandise from, you see." He indicated the various items on his boat.
"Did a king offer you his daughter that you thought was a pig?"
The merchant just stared, at a loss for words.
"If I thought she was a pig, I wouldn't have gotten the offer," he said uneasily. "Look, I'm just here to sell you something." He looked around and picked up some random article of merchandise.
"Squid ink? Anyone?" he said, a little desperately. The crowd grumbled. They had expected more.
"Ye got ta tell tales," someone called out, "or yer not a proper trader, friend."
The merchant looked shocked. "Tell tales? You mean lie?"
"Not fib, not fib," someone else clarified. "Tell stories. Talk about yer adventoores."
The poor merchant was at a loss.
"I-I don't-" he began.
"Sorry," Hiccup said, shouldering his way through. "I got caught up in something. Welcome to Berk, trader…?"
The merchant looked mystified at the inflection at the end of the sentence before realization dawned.
"Trader Fannar. Are you chief of Berk, by chance?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Only your… fine people expect me to be lying-"
"Oi! We said no fibs!"
"Oh. Sorry."
Hiccup sighed and scratched at the back of his head. It was a bit of a nervous habit. Somehow, it was always right. He filed away the trader as a character to be investigated.
"We're just used to traders who talk about their travels and narrow escapes and all those adventures," he said tiredly. "Sorry you had to go through this."
"Oh. No, it's no trouble. Thank you."
Hiccup turned to the assembled Berkians, who watched him like a colony of ants. It was a strange comparison, he found himself thinking, but it was what fitted at the moment.
"Alright. Fannar isn't going to do what Johann did. If you want to buy something, do it. But please, don't ask him to tell you any stories."
"What about bedtime stories?" someone called. Laughter rippled through the Berkians. Hiccup looked back at Fannar, who shrugged.
"Depends on whose bed it is," he replied, which was met with a hysterical response and a few cheers. The Berkians seemed to settle down after that, and began investigating his ship after he moored it to the dock. It was a larger ship compared to those of other traders. He must have been quite successful.
"What's this?" Hiccup said, poking at a sack of what seemed like stones.
"Amethyst geodes," the trader replied as he helped Gobber carry another sack down to the docks.
Hiccup looked back at Fannar in suspicion. The trader came back to the ship.
"Really amethyst geodes?" Hiccup asked. The merchant shrugged.
"It is what it is."
"You don't mind if I test that, do you?" Hiccup said.
"Sure. Just pay for the geode you break open," Fannar told him. He walked off to a crate by the mast and began rummaging in it. There were some distinct wooden and metallic sounds, and he came back with a hammer and chisel, which he handed to Hiccup.
Hiccup extracted one of the supposed geodes. It just looked like ordinary stone, if a little smooth.
"Did you polish this?"
"Some people use them as decorations. About half of them are polished. The rest are rough."
"Why not just do all of them then?"
"Others might not want it polished, mister chief."
"Just call me Hiccup," Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third said.
"Yes, mister Hiccup."
Hiccup set the chisel to the stone, and began to hammer at it carefully. Little chips of stone bounced off. In a minute, he had a good wedge, but he still couldn't see a hint of anything crystalline inside. He set the chisel at a good position, and brought the hammer down. The stone split open to reveal sparkling purple crystals inside, with some hints of white here and there.
"Wow," Hiccup breathed. "Is this pure amethyst?"
"Almost. Can I have my payment now, by the way?"
"Oh, right. How much?"
"Three silver."
Hiccup rummaged through his pouch and picked out three silver coins, which he handed to the trader. They were whisked away to some unknown crevice with a faint clink. Hiccup relaxed. Only a true trader could be so careful with his money.
Fannar walked over to Snotlout and gently pulled a necklace out of his hands. Snotlout looked vaguely annoyed at the words that Fannar was saying, but he relented and handed over an indiscernible amount of coins, which was just as quickly secreted away. The necklace was handed back, and Fannar went to see to another customer.
Something snuffled behind Hiccup. He turned to see an orange cat with a white underbelly and feet. The white reached up to the chin, from where the orange took over. The cat blinked curiously at him. It had a red collar.
Hiccup reached out to pet it. The cat tolerated it for a moment, then yawned and jumped into a crate with a blue cloth draped over it, where it curled up. Hiccup just sat and watched it for a bit. It was a lot like Toothless, he thought, except that it acted a little more haughty. Toothless had some more excited, dog-like mannerisms.
=0=
When no one was looking, the stranger drew out the stone, and paused for what they saw.
It glowed an emerald green.
The stranger nodded, and tucked it away.
=0=
Snotlout crashed to the floor, quite possibly in debt. He got up, grumbling at the length of cloth that had tripped him up.
"No worries, friend. You broke nothing."
Snotlout turned and saw Fannar standing there with a vaguely unnerving smile. It looked like it didn't belong there. Those eyes, green and striking, like a snake, seemed to bore into him. Snotlout didn't like the effect.
"Alright," he mumbled, and sidled away, nearly tripping again over the twins, who were whispering to each other behind a crate.
He didn't want any part in whatever stupid shenanigans they were going to pull, even if his darling Ruffnut was involved, so he hurried away before anyone could say they saw him there.
=0=
The stranger knew the matter should be investigated.
But… ah… which one of them had set it off?
Later, perhaps, when the world was dark…
=0=
Hiccup watched as the merchant sneakily peered at Snotlout from behind a crate. It was extremely obvious to see that he was keeping an eye on the one person to trip and fall on the boat. Somehow, though, Hiccup doubted Snotlout was aware of it. It had the quality of being obvious only to the people who weren't being watched.
Hiccup looked back down at the cat, which still lay in its crate, watching him lazily. Those slitted green eyes blinked slowly, to the point that you began counting under your breath to see how long it would take until the next blink arrived. Continental drift was faster.
"Do you like it?"
Hiccup spun around. Fannar was completely noiseless, as stealthy as-
Hiccup glanced down. Yes, that seemed to fit. Stealthy as a cat.
"He's mine. His name is Egg."
Hiccup spluttered with shocked laughter. Fannar had said that so seriously, like it wasn't anything strange at all.
Egg.
Hiccup wheezed, doubled over, unable to care about Fannar watching him. He thought about it again and laughed a little more.
Oh gods. Egg.
Hiccup steadied himself and straightened, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. Fannar studied him with a faint smile. Hiccup smiled widely back, on the brink of laughing again.
"That always gets a reaction, but you've laughed the most, I think," Fannar said thoughtfully, still smiling. "Interesting."
"What's interesting?" Hiccup asked, finally managing to stuff the hilarity somewhere else for further study.
"Oh, nothing, mister Hiccup. Spend as much time with him as you like, but don't touch the tail. He doesn't like it if you touch his tail." Fannar began to walk away, then turned back. "Oh, and if he tries to bite you, don't worry about it. He takes care not to do it too hard. I think you will find it easier to just let him have his way."
And with that, Fannar whizzed away between the various items again, leaving Hiccup with Egg.
"Hi there… Egg."
The cat blinked up at him. Hiccup knelt down.
"You have a funny name," he said, running his hand along the top of the head. Egg closed his eyes and let the petting happen.
=0=
The stranger surreptitiously looked back at the stone. It glowed a faint green again, before settling back into its normal, mundane red, devoid of any kind of illumination.
The list was narrowed down to two options, then, with all others as secondaries in case of failure.
Now care would have to be taken…
=0=
Night had fallen, and Fannar was still here. His ship, moored to the docks, served as his sleeping place for the night. The twins were snickering about something, and Hiccup had searched the entire boat as quietly as he could, but failed to find anything. With any hope, whatever the twins had planned was on Berk and wouldn't blow up the trader's vessel.
Hiccup clicked his tongue, and Toothless trudged up the stairs towards him. Hiccup made the gesture for sleep, and the dragon sagged onto his wooden slab, heating up the platform as an afterthought.
Hiccup, too, sank into his bed. He'd done all he needed for today. All that was left to let things play out.
He wondered what would happen.
=0=
The stranger climbed up the wall with all the ease of a cat. Somehow, they managed to jump using only their arms. Masked and hooded, with two swords strapped to their back, the stranger could probably have dealt with any late night drunks who happened to catch them. They looked forward to testing the capabilities of any guards who passed by.
The stranger hopped into the window, and held the stone out, letting it soak in the presence of the room. The occupant was gone, but there would be traces, if there was any source at all.
The stone remained red.
Time to check the other one then.
The stranger jumped down all the way to the ground, landing with hardly a whisper, barely a crunch of dirt.
Target two.
=0=
The stranger reached their destination without running into resistance apart from one unfortunate thief. The not-so-innocent passerby would now be spending the rest of eternity in darkness, at least until the occupants of the hut checked their attic.
If anything, perhaps they would be thankful that nothing was stolen.
Even the thief would have disagreed on this. The stranger chuckled inwardly. Such ungratefulness.
The stranger hopped into the window. Oh good, the occupant was here this time. They held out the stone…
=0=
Hiccup whirled out of bed, grabbing Inferno from the floor on the way, and catapulted himself to right in front of the hooded person who had crept into his room. The orange glow of Inferno was immediately in competition with the emerald green glow from something clasped in their hand. The light blazed out from between the clenched fingers as the masked figure snatched it out of Hiccup's reach. Apart from that, they didn't move at all.
"I know it's you, Fannar," Hiccup snarled as the rest of the gang tumbled into the room, righting themselves instantly and settling into various battle ready positions. Toothless was up and growling deep within the recesses of his throat. Valka and Gobber, along with Eret, were there too.
Under the hood, the stranger cocked an eyebrow, and looked beyond them.
Fannar came into the room, clapping slowly. Immediately, about half a dozen weapons were pointed at him. It didn't seem to faze him much.
"You tried, I suppose. But look at the eyes, will you? Look at the eyes. You think I can change that?"
Hesitantly, Hiccup looked at the figure again.
The eyes, the only features visible, were wood brown.
Fannar's were reptile green.
"Someone I hired," Fannar said. "I can't exactly run up walls myself. Besides, they owe me a favour, so I thought I'd cash it in."
"Who- who are you?" Hiccup said, the confusion gone to be replaced with rage.
Fannar tilted his head, and smiled with his teeth. It was undoubtedly genuine, and the thought terrified Hiccup. No genuine smile should intimidate this much. It was… draconic. It was the way someone smiles at seeing a meal they enjoy. But somehow, Fannar's smile managed to accommodate compassion. The effect was deadly.
Fear fed the fire, and rage evolved into fury, which boiled in Hiccup's gut.
"Tell me right now!" Hiccup screamed, stalking up to Fannar and waving Inferno in front of his face. Some weapons were turned towards the masked figure to compensate.
"But of course, mister Hiccup," Fannar said, completely unfazed by a blade of fire whirling across his face. He pushed the weapons out of the way, and bowed.
"My name is Myre Fang," he said as he straightened. "I am here for your island."