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.
AN: To clarify in advance, when I refer to 'trader's tongue' as a language, it's intended to refer to English as characters like Johann and other traders never felt a need to develop another language after the attacks as they were constantly on the move, unlike how Trigendlish was implied to be developed to communicate in a manner the Mountain Men couldn't understand and the people of the Archipelago would have eventually started speaking Norse for reasons I'll explore over time. I won't write detailed extracts in other languages, but I'll always make it clear who's meant to be able to understand what, so I hope you enjoy the result regardless.
The Dragon of Wanheda
Looking at the newest-discovered dragon rider as she flew after him, her Windstriker maintaining a fairly good pace as the dragon followed Toothless, Hiccup wondered if he was being too trusting in making this kind of invitation on such a brief acquaintance. He didn't recognise the attire of any of the people who'd been trying to capture Clarke or her dragon, which at least suggested that they weren't traditional hunters like the kind working for Ryker, but the fact that they'd been trying to kill the dragon while Clarke tried to protect it at least earned her the benefit of the doubt, and since she hadn't expressed any desire to go back to her own tribe, it couldn't hurt to give her the option of joining them at the Edge.
It was probably a risky decision, but Hiccup had a feeling that he could trust Clarke even this early in their association, and at least he could offer Astrid some clear evidence as to why this couldn't be a repeat of their initial meeting with Heather. Glancing back at his new associate, he was glad to see that she seemed to be adjusting well; she'd started out just perched on the dragon's back, but just like the rest of his 'team' on that first flight to Dragon Island, Clarke turned out to be a quick study despite her inexperience, swiftly grasping the essentials of how to find a comfortable posture and maintain her balance without significantly affecting her dragon's natural flight pattern.
"Doing good back there?" he called back to her, once again reminding himself to use the trader tongue rather than Norse. He was glad that his father had always insisted he and the other young Vikings learn the language to deal with Johann on their own rather than relying on others to do the talking, although he wondered how Clarke had come to use it.
"Getting to grips with it, anyway," Clarke replied, smiling back at him as the dragon- 'Griffin', Hiccup reminded himself- briefly picked up the pace to move closer to Toothless before it fell back once again. Hiccup made a mental note to check over the information they had on Windstrikers as soon as he had the time; he was aware of the dragon's type, but it wasn't a species they'd encountered before now, so they'd need to work out what Griffin was capable of long-term.
Always assuming she wants to stick around, of course…
"You really never flew a dragon before now?" Hiccup asked, deciding now was as good a time as any to get a better feel for Clarke's actual knowledge of dragons.
"Until I found Griffin I thought there weren't any left," Clarke responded, the two dragons adjusting their flights so that their riders could more easily talk. "Like I said, I had to… get away from home for a while… and then I came to the beach and found Griffin near the station."
"Station?"
"That… metal structure," Clarke replied, her tone tentative as though she wasn't sure how best to explain this to him. "My people and I… well, I was basically part of a scout party sent to check out the… land… where you found me and make sure that we could live there, but when the rest of our… fleet… were going to arrive, they ran into trouble and had to split up and landed in different areas."
"And I take it that's the reason that… 'station' looked so battered?" Hiccup asked, recalling the torn metal of the structure in question. He'd only had a chance to briefly take it in, considering that the fight had immediately caught his attention once he saw the dragon being attacked and Clarke's subsequent urgent desire to get away meant that he didn't feel right pressing the issue, but he would have to go back and take a better look at some point; he really wanted to work out how something metal could have ended up in that sort of shape…
"Yeah," Clarke replied. "My best guess is that Griffin found the station a few days before I got there, and… well, something fell onto his wing when he was looking around."
"So you decided to try and help him?" Hiccup looked at her inquiringly, Toothless already flying slower to make it easier for Hiccup to ask his questions. "I'm not saying I think you were wrong, but if Griffin was the first dragon you ever saw… I mean, I knew about them all my life and I had a bit of a panic attack when I first found Toothless, and he was actually tied up when I got there."
"Really?" Clarke said, before she shrugged and continued her story, even as her thoughtful expression made it clear she'd be asking Hiccup for more details later. "Anyway, like I said, my dad was a big fan of dragons when I was growing up and my mom taught me how to treat injuries. There was no way I was going to let a dragon die when I thought it was the only one I'd ever find, and I managed to calm him down enough to convince him to let me examine his wing and treat it."
"Huh," Hiccup said, glancing at the Windstriker's wings to confirm that both seemed in good shape before giving her an approving nod. "Sounds like you did a good job."
"For an amateur?"
"For anyone," Hiccup clarified. "Speaking from experience, it's not easy getting a dragon to trust you out of the blue."
"What do you mean?"
"I was pretty much the first person in Berk to train a dragon, and I had to deal with three centuries of cultural experience telling me that dragons would always go for the kill when I met him. From what you've told me, I take it you at least believed that Griffin wasn't any more dangerous than any other injured animal when you found him?"
"Well, obviously I knew he was dangerous, but… yeah, I never thought he was going to bite my hand off just because he liked eating people," Clarke conceded, looking at her dragon with a slight smile. "Actually, I think Dad told me once that they can't eat people…"
"Really?" Hiccup looked at her in surprise. "Where did he hear that?"
"Just… something my dad read once; maybe it wasn't even true…" Clarke said, waving an awkward hand before her eyes fixed on something up ahead. "Hey; what's that?"
"Our destination," Hiccup said, following Clarke's gaze and smiling at the island ahead of them as the Edge finally came into view. "Dragon's Edge, our own little home."
"Nice," Clarke nodded approvingly at the small outpost in front of her, growing ever closer with each flap of Griffin's wings, before she turned her eyes back to Hiccup. "How many of you are there?"
"Only six of us out here, but we've got a couple of other houses set up for guests," Hiccup explained. "We came here about a year ago to explore the islands in this area, learn a bit more about other dragon species… stuff like that, you know."
"So… you created all this yourself in a year?" Clarke asked, as Toothless fell into a small patrol pattern to give Griffin and Clarke a chance to take a look at the Edge themselves. "Nice job."
"We each set up our own personal huts and a few extra huts for meeting rooms and any guests," the young man explained, before he redirected Toothless's flight path towards the central training area, waving briefly as he saw Astrid and the twins heading for the dome.
"Hiccup?" Astrid looked curiously at him as Toothless came into land next to the dome, closely followed by Griffin's more tentative approach. "What… who's this?"
"Clarke and her dragon Griffin," Hiccup replied in trader's tongue, getting off Toothless with practised ease as Clarke made a more awkward descent. "I was making sure the Skrill got somewhere safe, reached a larger land mass, and found Clarke defending the dragon from some people who were trying to kill them both on the coast."
"How many?" Ruffnut asked, following Hiccup's example and speaking in trader's tongue as she looked at Clarke with an eager grin, while the other girl rubbed at her sore legs after she got off her dragon.
"Uh… six," Clarke said, looking uncertainly at the three new faces, one hand still on Griffin's neck for emotional support. "So… who are you?"
"Ruffnut Thorston, and this is my brother Tuff," Ruffnut grinned.
"And this is Chicken!" Tuffnut added, holding up the bird in question with a satisfied grin.
"Chicken," Clarke repeated as she stared at the bird before looking past it at Tuffnut's eager grin. "You named your chicken… 'Chicken'?"
"Keeps it simple," Tuffnut said, still grinning broadly at her.
"Astrid Hofferson," Astrid suddenly stepped in, shaking Clarke's offered hand even as she studied the other girl in an appraising manner. "So how did you meet your dragon?"
"Found him with an injured wing on a coast, treated it, and then… well, Hiccup can tell you the rest," Clarke shrugged as she patted Griffin's neck, giving him a small smile as the dragon snorted in her face. "It's still new, but after seeing… well, now that I know it's possible, I like to think that Griffin and I are hitting it off."
"Nice dragon too," Ruffnut nodded at the other girl before glancing at Hiccup. "What one's this again?"
"Windstriker," Hiccup clarified. "They basically attack with hot air rather than actual fire."
"Seems a bit of a weak point," Tufnut observed.
"Hey," Clarke glared at the male twin as Griffin let out an accompanying growl. "Don't go dissing my dragon just because he doesn't breathe fire!"
"Yeah, well, Barf and Belch's gas is way cooler than-" Tuffnut began.
"Barf and Belch?" Clarke cut him off, before she looked between the twins with a sudden smile. "Let me guess; you both ride a… Zipplebacks are the two-headed ones that breathe gas and then generate a spark, right?"
"You know that?" Astrid looked at Clarke in surprise.
"My dad was… he was a bit of an amateur scholar when it came to anything dragon-related," Clarke explained. "He always told me stories about them when I was growing up, helping me memorise the quirks of each species, and we always wished that we could see them even if we spent years thinking they were all gone…"
"What happened to him?" Astrid asked, her expression softening as she studied the other blonde, evidently recognising the wistfulness from her own experience missing 'Fearless Finn' after he left Berk.
"He… he died a couple of years ago," Clarke sighed, as Griffin moved over to rub his head against her side in a surprising gesture of comfort. "He… well, the leaders of our people were in trouble, and they objected to my dad wanting to tell everyone about it."
"Huh?" the twins looked curiously at Clarke, and even Astrid and Hiccup looked confused.
"It's a long story," Clarke said. "What's important is that a few months ago, about a year after my dad died, I basically ended up becoming part of an expedition to try and find a safe place for our people to live, but then… well, things happened and I had to get away from the rest of the group."
"Uh… you didn't… get exiled or anything like that, right?" Tuffnut asked.
"Not like that," Clarke smiled reassuringly at Tuffnut before her smile faltered again. "My people have a home, we made some new allies, and I only ever did… I just wanted to save my people, but things…"
She shrugged in a helpless manner that suddenly put Hiccup in mind of the way he had felt when he saw his father take the entire fleet off to the nest.
"We've all been there," he nodded at the mysterious new blonde.
"Anyway," Astrid said, looking thoughtfully at Clarke for a moment before she glanced at Ruffnut, "if you don't have anywhere else to go, and you've got your own dragon now… well, if you need somewhere to stay, we might be able to work it out."
"Really?" Clarke looked at Astrid with a smile. "You want me to stay?"
"If you want to stick around," Hiccup clarified, suddenly feeling a need to elaborate. "I mean, we came out here to explore the islands, but it's not all just going around flying on dragons; if you and Griffin go out there on your own-"
"Someone's trying to hunt dragons, right?" Clarke cut him off.
"How did you know that?" Tuffnut looked sharply at her. "Can you read minds? Can you read his mind? Can you read my mind? What am I-?"
"I can't read minds," Clarke interrupted Tuffnut, even as she gave him an amused smile before she turned back to Hiccup. "I just realised that you gave the impression that you were surprised to see me defending Griffin when we met but you weren't put off by my attackers, so I'm guessing that you're used to dealing with people who are more interested in hurting them?"
"Oh yeah," Tuffnut nodded.
"I'm in."
"Just like that?" Astrid looked at Clarke in surprise.
"Like I said, my dad loved to tell me stories about dragons when I was a kid," Clarke said, reaching over to place her hand against Griffin's horn. "Now that I know the dragons are still here, if I can do anything to help keep them safe… well, I'm doing it."
"That's… great," Hiccup smiled slightly at Clarke before looking over at the others. "Ruff, could you maybe… show Clarke and Griffin to the stables?"
"On it," Ruffnut said, placing an arm around Clarke's shoulder and leading her towards the stables, Griffin walking behind them.
"Hiccup," Astrid looked at him in a pointed manner after the other two women had walked into the stables. "I thought we had a discussion about just… bringing people to the outpost after Heather?"
"Hey, that worked out pretty well-"
"I meant the first time she came to Berk," Astrid corrected Tuffnut.
"And I got that, Astrid, but I really don't think we have that kind of situation here," Hiccup said. "The people attacking her really weren't dressed like traditional trappers and their tactics were completely random, as though they weren't even sure what Griffin was never mind how to capture him."
"They could have been faking it," Astrid observed.
"Maybe, but it would have been pretty easy for them to stage a situation I'd more easily recognise as a threat; why go to the trouble of pretending to introduce new players to this situation when they could have found someone who'd act like she knew some of it already?" Hiccup pointed out. "And as her story… I mean, I get that people lie, but I also think she raises too many questions if she's a trap."
"Too many questions?" Tuffnut repeated, strangely curious for someone who normally just dived into the situation.
"Like… I don't think she's lied to us about anything, but the way she was talking about how her dad was executed… OK, that's a difficult topic for anyone, but even if I try and take that into account, I'm still not that sure she was telling us the whole truth either."
"And all that stuff about her being part of an expeditionary force for her people," Astrid nodded thoughtfully. "Like you said, she isn't lying, but there's something there that she isn't telling us…"
"So do we ditch her?" Tuffnut asked.
"No," Hiccup shook his head after a moment's thought. "She's already bonded with Griffin, and she's definitely got people after her back where she came from; if we can help her feel comfortable here, maybe we can learn what really happened to her before she came here and give her a chance to go home."
"Spreading the good word, huh?" Astrid smiled at him.
"Is that a bad thing?" Hiccup asked.
"OK," Tuffnut nodded at the two. "I volunteer my place."
"You're already sharing with Ruff; I don't think you're the best qualified to get another roommate."