It seemed that the blonde female had once again taken the responsibility of keeping an eye on Farran by the time morning arrived. This fact quickly became apparent to the tired hunter as he received his usual alarm call. Funnily enough she too decided to inform him of the twins upcoming hijinks. Farran hoped that for their own sake they wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything on him since he would not be nearly as 'forgiving' as their teammates would. For now however, it was back to the routine of questioning. Only this time the rider chose to go about it in an entirely different way. She seemed to try a more persuasive technique, asking if there was anyone back at the hunter bases that would miss him and tried planting seeds of doubt that the hunters would take him back even if he did escape. Instead of going for force like last time, she had chosen the way of words. Something Farran seemed confused by.
Surely she had noticed that her previous attempts, the ones involving her dragon were far more effective than what she was trying now. Because this? This was not only ineffective but also pointless. Farran had no reason to believe a single word that came out of their mouths. As he had deduced yesterday when forced to assist in cleaning the beach they were nothing more than dragon-loving thieves, and thieves were usually natural liars.
By the time it had reached midday, she had once again been unsuccessful and had had enough. Besides, she had to meet up with Hiccup and discuss their next assault on the hunters before they could trap and sell more dragons. Something she made sure to mention to Farran before leaving. Whether she did it out of casual conversation or to make him angry he didn't know but it did make his skin crawl just hearing of it.
As the day went on, Farran received a new visitor. This time it was the larger rider. Fishlegs, if he remembered correctly. His incredibly affectionate beast waddled alongside him.
"Hey, you've come across tidal dragons before haven't you? Like say, when you visited that island with Heather?"
The question surprised Farran. Why did this rider want to know about that? Was he interested in the abandoned ship and was trying to discover its location? Doubtful, Heather would have told him that anyway. Maybe he was more interested in the dragon? That seemed far more likely.
"Why does it matter?"
Fishlegs quickly went on to explain that he had come across what he believed was a new dragon species lurking in their lagoon. He described the beast as a multi-headed creature which made some sort of weird buzzing noise. Whatever it was didn't sound too familiar to Farran. The only multiheaded dragons he knew of were the Zippleback and the snaptrapper. His knowledge of Tidal class dragons however stretched further but so far, the rider could have been describing anything.
"I can't say I've heard of it." He informed him honestly. "Why ask, and more importantly why come to me about it?"
"Well I... kind of hoped that you'd have a clue on what it could be, since no-one else believes me about it..." He timidly admitted.
"I can tell you one thing. It whatever it is you saw really is a dragon and you plan on going back out there, know that no good will come of it."
The rider gave a short chuckle. "Oh please, tidal class dragons aren't aggressive towards humans. Not unless they attack them anyway."
"Then you should ask Heather about what happened between her and the saltchucker."
The smile on Fishleg's face slowly disappeared and took on the form of concern.
"What do you mean? Did something happen?"
"She didn't tell you? She thought she could tame a new dragon and it almost cost her her life if it wasn't for me... and her dragon." He mumbled regrettably. This in turn cause the plump rider to take a step back.
"You're lying, right? Please tell me you're lying."
Farran approached the cell and stared at Fishlegs with a rather unamused grimace. "I do not lie. Especially not on something as serious as that. If you don't believe my word, ask Heather herself the next time you see her. See whether she is willing to tell you the truth."
Fishlegs allowed his words to float around in his head before deciding that he had gotten the information that he needed.
"Well, anyway... thanks for letting me know. We'll be sure to let you know what we find."
Before Farran could ask why the rider thought that he would care over the possibility of discovering a new dragon, he was already heading towards the exit, moving as fast as his feet could carry him. His gronkle wasn't far behind.
Farran pictured the look on the young Vikings face as he mentioned that Heather had nearly been killed. If he had gone into detail of what the dragon could have done to her if he hadn't tackled her out of the way, he would have been certain that the rider would have fainted. A missed opportunity. It was clear that he cared for her. A sweet sentiment to be sure, but considering their professions it would seem unlikely that anything would come out of it as far as he was aware.
True to his word, after about an hour since the hunter last saw him, the rider had indeed returned, along with all the other riders and dragons. Farran had never seen the place so crowded, nor had he heard it so noisy. All of them except Hiccup kept on arguing about how the whole thing was some sort of Loki prank. Farran kept his eyes on the leader, the only one looking and approaching him. He picked at the cell doors locks and it opened.
"You know for a prisoner, you don't exactly spent all that much time behind bars do you?"
"What is the reason this time?" Farran spoke despite having a good idea already.
"I'm assuming that our pal Fishlegs told you about some new creature he discovered?"
"He did."
"Well before we first locked you up, Heather mentioned that she and you came across some kind of dragon, something we've never seen or even heard of called a saltchucker, which by the way I'm curious to learn more of later. If that's what we're dealing with then it'd be good to have someone along who has experience with it, just in case things get rough."
"Wouldn't your dragons be more than enough to protect you?"
"We'd also need to know exactly what we need to look out for, as well as details on what it looks like, its behaviour patterns, eating habits and so on. You know, either we could do that or you can remain here in your cell for the rest of the day. Your call." He smiled smugly.
Farran considered the offer. On one hand he could possibly explore more of the island and exploit any useful locations that could become beneficial should the hunters launch another invasion. On the other he would yet again be helping the riders with another one of their duties, even if it was something minor. After a brief moment he agreed to help. This brought another problem to light.
Fishlegs had apparently trapped the thing in the lagoon so time wasn't of the essence. However they still needed to get down there fast, meaning that once again, Farran was forced to ride a dragon. Thanks to Heather he wasn't as reluctant to climb onto the back of another dragon but it still felt wrong.
In the end, he decided to go for the slowest, and apparently the friendliest dragon in the group. The gronkle, which Fishlegs introduced as Meatlug. The dragon, for whatever reason seemed delighted at the idea of being chosen and with Fishlegs going on about how special his dragon was, the man eating beast acted more like a puppy than a dragon. A 5000 lb puppy that shoots balls of fire.
Minutes later they were already nearing the lagoon. The journey had been silent from all except for Fishlegs, whom Farran was sitting behind as he constantly kept making predictions on the dragons... everything. Thankfully the rider on top the red monstrous nightmare interrupted him.
"I cannot believe that we're doing this!"
"Why not? It's the perfect chance to discover a brand new species-"
"Not that Fishface! I'm talking about the hunter sitting just two feet away from you! I mean really, am I the only one who thinks that letting this guy out of his cell is a bad idea?"
Farrans frown lessened. Finally, one of these riders seemed to have some form of common sense. No doubt that this one was clearly the brains of the group, or at the least the most sensible.
"Snotlout, there's six of us and one of him. Not to mention our dragons will be keeping a close eye on him in case he's actually stupid enough to try anything." Astrid reasoned irritably.
This seemed to be enough to keep the rider silent as he pouted and muttered something under his breath. After a moment he soon redirected his anger on the twins riding the zippleback.
"Speaking of people I don't trust, where did you two hide my axe? I know it's Loki day but come on, it was my favourite one."
"Okay, let's fan out and find the creature." Fishlegs quickly interrupted. "Don't get too close to the water."
"How do we even know it's real?" Snotlout pressed on.
"Because it bit me!"
Looking at the injury the rider claimed to sport, Farran didn't see much of a bite but rather what looked more like a burn mark. Everyone seemed to think the same as Astrid pointed it out.
They were now right above the lagoon. Each rider had brought along with them a bucket of fish guts and scraps, aka chum which they planned to spread over the water. Farran knew well what they were trying to do. He had seen plenty of fishermen do this dozens of times before. The science behind it was that the chum acted as bait in order to lure in bigger fish. This could sometimes backfire as it could also end up luring sea dragons too, meaning that chumming was usually done near land or shallow enough waters. Here however, a sea dragon seemed to be exactly what they were fishing for. The hunter was curious to see the results. If he could, perhaps he would be able to learn from this rare experience for his own purposes. Coming with the riders was already beginning to pay off it seemed.
Before the riders had the chance to go through with their plan however, it seemed that whatever lurked below the surface was aware of their presence. The bit of lagoon underneath Snotlout and his dragon begun to bubble. Hiccup was quick enough to spot this and attempted to warn the stubborn rider. Before he got the proper chance to the bubbling water exploded upwards and a large figure leapt out of the lagoon at the monstrous nightmare, getting close enough to shock them with a small voltage of electricity.
Farran was caught off-guard from the beasts sudden appearance. The second he spotted the thing he thought he was staring at some sort of enormous manta ray. Other than the spines protruding from its back and thick tail, the animal clearly resembled one. Unlike the hunter, the riders seemed more familiar with the strange beast.
"That's... that's not a creature at all." Fishlegs gasped.
"It's a dragon."
"And not just any dragon. It's a seashocker!"
The hunter felt a knot in his stomach. He had never heard of a seashocker before. Clearly from the few seconds of behaviour he had witnessed from it, the dragon was aggressive too. It could easily jump high into the air as well showing that not even the sky was safe from it.
"Right so, what say we get back to dry land right now so we don't end up getting zapped like Snotlout? We should be safe there." Hiccup pointed out.
The riders followed the suggestion and landed right at the edge of the lagoon where it was seemingly safer. Thankfully the seashocker had no legs meaning it couldn't get them on land. If it tried it would be stranded like a ship out of water.
As they planned their next move, Farran allowed himself the chance to catch up on his thoughts. Through the span of a few seconds he had not only discovered a new dragon but had also become aware of some of its abilities. He wondered if Ryker was aware of this creatures existence and if so what the extent of both its power and value was. He picked up from the riders that it was a deep sea dragon which explained why he had never seen or heard of it before, but it also asked the question of what other dragons could be lurking beneath the waves? More as bizarre as the seashocker or perhaps gigantic leviathan sized monsters capable of dragging hunter ships down into the deep dark ocean? It was a haunting thought and one Farran didn't want to dwell on. Especially since one of the riders seemed to be trying to catch his attention.
"So Far-Far, could we borrow a moment of you time?"
Farran turned his attention to one of the few riders he had yet to interact with. A flaxen-haired Viking who looked similar in many ways to the female rider he had captured at the lookout tower. Her twin no doubt.
"What do you want?"
"Word on the block is that you're an expert in hunting dragons, right?" He whispered in a weirdly sinister tone.
"I am not an expert but I have dealt with killing them on a couple of occasions."
"Right. Right, so in that case you wouldn't mind checking those tracks behind those bushes over there then?" He pointed over to said bushes lying just a few feet away. Farran looked at them then back to the rider who nodded in confirmation.
The hunter cautiously approached. Something didn't seem right. Why would the rider ask him of all people to check for dragon tracks? Then it suddenly struck him as to what Hiccup had told him yesterday, about the twins and Loki day. No doubt that they were playing a trick on him of some kind. For now, he decided to play along and analysed the ground, the sky, the nearby trees, virtually anything that could serve as a hidden trap. It didn't take long for him to spot an area covered with leaves and twigs, probably hiding something underneath. The supposed trap was poorly put together. Clearly no serious effort was put behind making the tangled mess of leaves and twigs look more natural, just more piled on top of each other. Clearly trapping was a poor skill to these riders, or at least the male twin.
Perhaps he should be taught that the hard way.
"Yes, good call." Farran replied, pretending to take on a curious tone. He could imagine the sickly smile of the rider morph into one of confusion.
"Uh, come again?" He asked.
"You're right. There are tracks, no doubt belonging to something small... bigger than a terrible terror, but still small. Not to mention that they're in front of the bush right here, not behind it. See what I mean?"
Farran stood up and stepped aside for the rider to walk forward and inspect the so called tracks for himself. Farran resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Apart from maybe his sister, no-one else would have fallen for this admittedly weak trick. The rider bent down and checked in the exact position where Farran was standing just a mere few inches from the trap. As he did, the hunter calmly walked behind him.
"I'm not seeing anything." He spoke. "Where abouts were these tracks again?"
"Right in front of you."
With a swift, and rather hard boot to the backside the rider flew forwards into the shambles of leaves, which upon being disturbed revealed to hide a rather large hole which swallowed the rider. As he screamed, Farran heard his twin sister yell. For a moment he expected for her to be rather upset about her tricked, and probably hurt brother. Instead her yell turned out to be nothing more than a fit of laughter, much to Farrans confusion.
"LOKIED!" She yelled down the hole with a smile on her face and went as far as to pat the hunter once on the shoulder who continued to stand there, truly believing that these people were insane. As she continued to mock her brother from the safety of the stable dirt, Farran walked away until he reached the one rider he liked the most, or putting it more accurately, hated the least. Fishlegs.
For a moment, he wanted to just ask. How, just how such a small team of riders who have shown to be naïve, hesitant and now uncaring for each others safety, even going to the point of mocking them was capable of standing up against such an organised army of dragon hunters and even more incredulously hold their ground after weeks if not months of fierce combat that only the toughest of the tough could prevail from! He so badly wanted to ask and receive that answer. However, knowing how frustrated and maybe even desperately he would sound asking, he held off on it. Maybe when he had calmed down he would be able to then. For now, he would just have to suffer silently.
Thankfully the next couple of hours would soon prove to be worth all the torment he had been put through for the last several days.