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
Out of everything Clarke had experienced on the ground, rain was one thing she was still trying to decide if she liked it or not. On the one hand, the variation in the daily atmosphere was a great improvement on the monotony of the Ark, where the environment was always kept on a fixed temperature, but it was all too easy to be left feeling cold and uncomfortable after so long walking around in the weather.
God, it had been a nightmare trying to organise the drying schedule on the dropship when it had all started; she still wasn't sure how Bellamy or anyone else had managed to get enough people to go along with the first draft of the schedule where some of them would be given privacy while their clothes were drying out elsewhere. The Edge at least offered Clarke more privacy for whenever she wanted to get clean, even if she had to go with Astrid and Ruffnut so that they could be sure Snotlout or Tuffnut wouldn't walk in on them (the boys weren't exactly perverts but they didn't seem to fully get the idea that the girls might want to be alone sometimes), but right now there was the more urgent matter of the current storm.
The rain had just been a few small showers the last couple of days, but the weather was clearly getting more intense now, and the latest patrol had returned with a warning of multiple storm fronts heading for the island. Clarke had needed assurance from the other Riders that her house was secure enough against anything save for the highly unlikely event of a direct lightning-strike, so at least she wouldn't have to rebuild it this soon. Even with that assurance, she had still taken care to secure her few borrowed books in a suitably waterproof chest and hide them in a hatch in the floor (she was amazed that Hiccup had thought to add that detail; considering his technical background, the young man was truly brilliant).
"Clarke?"
"Fishlegs?" Clarke turned to look at the large Viking currently hovering above her on his own Gronckle. "How's everything?"
"Snotlout and the twins just confirmed that we have multiple storm fronts heading right for us," Fishlegs said, his tone surprisingly firm for the usually anxious Viking. "We need to lock down the Edge before they start to hit."
"Already got everything important locked up," Clarke nodded at him reassuringly, before she looked over his shoulder and sighed. "Why is Snotlout trying to cover up that… whatever it is over his door?"
"…That's his 'S'," Fishlegs answered.
"His 'S'," Clarke repeated, looking at the hut in bemusement. She could see that it kind of looked like the letter now that Fishlegs had pointed it out, but it still put her more in mind of a lightning-bolt, and either way it seemed a strange thing to put on a hut. "He seriously bothered with something that… decorative?"
"I guess we just got into the habit of… doing things up a bit once we didn't have to worry about them being burnt down every night-"
"Yeah, but that's just… I mean, the twins' hut might look a bit odd, but…" Clarke trailed off, realising that she didn't have any particular reason to be so dismissive of Snotlout's design style beyond the fact that she thought of him as an arrogant idiot. She idly wondered what it said about her that she tolerated the twins' eccentricities but thought of Snotlout as annoying, but this wasn't the time to analyse what that said about her taste in friends.
"Yeah, I get you," Fishlegs nodded. "Come on, we need to get the dragons to the stables before the storm starts in earnest. If my calculations are right… well, this is going to get ugly."
"OK," Clarke nodded. "I already sent Charlotte and Griffin there, so I'll just take one last check here and then join you all at the clubhouse?"
"That works," Fishlegs nodded. "I'll get Meatlug to safety and join you there."
As the larger teen hurried off towards the stables, Clarke made her way to the main clubhouse, smiling in relief as she saw Hiccup and Astrid already waiting there.
"Ahead of the game as always?" she nodded at the two young Vikings.
"Hiccup left the stables stocked with food and water and made sure the dragons had all settled in," Astrid confirmed. "By the way, Charlotte's looking well; good job looking after her."
"Thanks," Clarke smiled, suddenly struck by a brief sense of guilt at the inadvertent reminder that she hadn't done as good a job looking after the 'original' Charlotte before she pushed that thought down again. "How long would a storm like this normally last?"
"The worst of it shouldn't be more than a night, but we can probably expect a couple of repeats before everything's back to normal," Hiccup observed, looking anxiously out the windows.
"Hey, so long as I don't have to completely rebuild my hut, I think we can tough it out."
"Yeah," Snotlout said as he and the twins walked in, the shorter Viking visibly sulking as he looked out the door towards his own hut. "Still can't believe you wouldn't let me take the S down…"
"And that's why we told you you overdid it on your hut," Tuffnut smirked at Snotlout. "You should have just-"
"OK, everyone's here and the dragons are all cozy in their pens," Fishlegs interrupted as he hurried into the clubhouse, thankfully saving the group from hearing the twins justify their elaborate designs.
"Did you lock the main doors?" Astrid asked.
"Astrid, Astrid, of course," Fishlegs chuckled. "Who would forget something like that?"
Clarke could almost see the moment when Fishlegs started to question himself as his expression shifted. "I mean, I guess it is possible… but I would never… but then again, there's a first time for everything…"
"I'll go check," Astrid groaned, hurrying out of the clubhouse. Before any of the others could do more than utter a cautious sound of protest, Astrid had grabbed a zipline and vanished down to the lower level.
"Should we-?" Clarke began.
"It's risky enough sending one of us out there like that; we're better off waiting here for her to get back or actually call for help," Fishlegs said, even as the anxious expression on his face made it clear that he didn't like the idea of waiting any more than she did.
"Astrid will be fine," Hiccup said, in a tone of voice that made Clarke think he was only partially trying to convince himself of that. "We just-"
Clarke jumped in shock as a bolt of lightning seemed to hit the island just a short distance away from them, followed by a new glow of light that Clarke definitely didn't like the look of.
"The stables!" Fishlegs yelled in horror. "They're on fire!"
"What?" Clarke, Snotlout and Tuffnut yelled at once.
"That's it; I'm going-!" Snotlout began.
"No," Fishlegs yelled, grabbing Snotlout's arm. "If we go down there we could just make everything worse; we need to let Astrid handle things!"
"That's just-!" Snotlout began to protest, before a familiar black shape ran across the ground towards Hiccup.
"Toothless?" Hiccup looked at his dragon in relief, but soon placed a comforting hand against the dragon's neck when the Night Fury began to make anxious rumbles. "Hey, Bud, it's OK; Astrid will get everyone out, but we can't just go out there and-"
Hiccup's attempts at assurance ended abruptly as a second lightning-strike took place, seemingly defying whatever rule Clarke had heard about lightning never striking the same place twice. This time none of the group objected when Hiccup swiftly leapt onto Toothless's back and flew down towards the stables, particularly as the smoke coming from the building suddenly grew thicker. Clarke tried to see anything through the smoke, but when Fishlegs and Snotlout let out an anxious yell, she looked up and cursed at the sight of the various dragons flying away through the smoke, their flight patterns so erratic that it was clear none of their partners even knew where they were going. She briefly worried that she would have to find some way to calm down the others before they all ran off into the storm, but fortunately Hiccup provided a suitable distraction when he and Toothless flew back into the clubhouse with Astrid in his arms, her face and upper body covered in soot.
"What happened?" Fishlegs asked, as Hiccup put Astrid down on the floor with a folded blanket as a pillow. "Is she OK?"
"I don't know," Hiccup explained as he stood back up. "Toothless and I found her like this as the stables were collapsing."
"What about my Hookfang?" Snotlout cut in urgently. "Did you see him?"
"Speaking of wayward dragons, nobody happened to see one Barf and Belch?" Tuffnut put in in a more tentative manner.
"They just flew off after they got spooked by the storm; nothing likes bad weather on that scale, after all," Clarke cut in before they could start complaining any further, as much to calm her own anxiety as to assure everyone else's. "Trust me, I'm just as worried about Griffin and Charlotte as you are about your dragons, but right now we have to focus on Astrid."
"She's right," Hiccup said. "We know that our dragons can handle themselves, but we don't know what happened to Astrid."
"Sure, Toothless is right-" Snotlout began.
"I'm worried about Griffin and Charlotte and I'm not going to let that stop me from helping Astrid," Clarke glared indignantly at the short Viking. "We're supposed to be a team; doesn't that mean we should be focused on helping each other rather than arguing about who did or didn't do what?"
"…Clarke?"
"Astrid!" Hiccup looked at the other blonde with a relieved grin. "You're OK; we're right here."
"Where?" Astrid asked, her eyes worryingly fixed as she sat up and looked around. "I don't see you… is Clarke there? Why's it so dark in here?"
"…It's not," Hiccup said, looking anxiously at Clarke as Astrid continued to look around herself as though the well-lit clubhouse was a dark cave.
"What are you talking about?" the Viking girl said, still looking blankly at her surroundings as she tried to walk, her hands outstretched in front of her. "It's pitch black… I can't see any of you… somebody say something…"
"Uh… your hair looks really nice," Tuffnut said. "I mean, considering all the fire and lightning and debris-"
"OK, that's it," Clarke cut in as she held up her hands. "Everyone but Hiccup and Toothless needs to leave Astrid and I alone so that I can… examine her properly."
"Hey, what gives you-?" Tuffnut began.
"She's a healer, remember?" Fishlegs hissed at the male twin in exasperation as he grabbed Tuffnut's arm and led him out of the hut, as Ruffnut did the same for Snotlout.
"Clarke?" Astrid asked, looking around for a moment.
"I'm here," Clarke stepped forward, taking Astrid's face in her hands and examining her eyes more closely. She hadn't encountered this often, but her mother had treated this a couple of times back on the Ark when some console or computer screen had malfunctioned and the sudden shift in light had been too intense for them to adjust in time.
"OK," she turned to address the rest of the room. "Hiccup and Toothless can stay, but the rest of you get down to the other side of the clubhouse, all right?"
"Huh?" Snotlout asked. "Don't we-?"
"This is… healer/patient confidentiality, and I'm going to need Hiccup to help me keep Astrid under observation, but that doesn't mean you all need to know exactly what happened to her," Clarke said firmly. "We'll tell you more if Astrid wants to tell you more, but until then, back off."
She wondered what it said about herself that just her words managed to make four trained teenage warriors back off when she was sure that she had nothing like their own experience to fall back on if they actually had to fight. Deciding to focus on the matter at hand, she turned her attention back to Astrid, who was waiting anxiously but patiently for her diagnosis. "It's flash blindness."
"Flash blindness?" Hiccup and Astrid repeated as Clarke stepped back from the other blonde.
"When the lightning struck the stable, Astrid must have been looking straight at the lightning-bolt; I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't right in front of her."
"It… it was," Astrid said, her tone now showing a sense of apprehension as she seemed to look in Clarke's direction. "Wh… what's flash blindness?"
"Basically, the light was so bright that it must have overwhelmed her eyes, causing them to shut down. From what I remember, you should regain your vision if your eyes have time to heal, but it… well, it could take a while."
"A while?" Astrid repeated anxiously.
"Hey, it can happen," Hiccup grinned encouragingly. "Remember Bucket? He got his sight back after a lightning strike."
"And now he has to wear a metal bucket on his head," Astrid observed bitterly.
"…The name was changed later, right?" Clarke asked, deciding not to question why someone would 'have' to wear a bucket. "Because I really question the odds of someone who was already named Bucket getting stuck with a bucket on his head."
"Let's just say his original name didn't work any more and changing it made sense," Hiccup observed, before he turned back to Astrid. "As for Astrid, I'm just saying … oh Thor, what am I saying?"
"I… I know what you're trying to do," Astrid said, turning to face him and reaching out with her left hand. "And I appreciate it, really."
She turned around as though trying to find something for a moment before she spoke again. "Clarke?"
"I'm here," Clarke stepped forward.
"Can you… help?"
"I can recommend a few ways to make sure things won't get any worse, but… well, if you have someone else you could talk to about this, it would probably be best to get a second opinion to be sure we're doing everything we can," Clarke said, taking Astrid's other hand in comfort. She'd picked up on a few herbal remedies that could be used to treat injuries both during her time with the Grounders and whatever research she'd managed to do here, but with something as important as eyes she'd definitely prefer a second opinion if possible.
"…Thanks," Astrid said, nodding at Clarke with a slight smile, squeezing the hand she was holding. "Whatever you can do…"
"We're grateful for it," Hiccup nodded at Clarke before he turned back to Astrid. "Once the storm eases up, we can take you to Berk and see what Gothi can do for you."
"In the meantime, you need to rest, and I'll see about getting… something together for you," Clarke put in. She hesitated for a moment as she separated her hand from Astrid's, but finally gave into the impulse and moved forward to give the blonde a quick hug, struck by a need to show her appreciation of the other girl's faith in her. "We can look for the other dragons once the weather's improved."
It was just another reason to appreciate the Edge; where Octavia's first reaction to Clarke letting her down was to lash out in anger and start blaming her for not being able to save the village, Astrid accepted that Clarke was doing her best and appreciated what she had to offer.
"I'll be right back," Clarke said as she turned to leave the hut, heading back to her own place to gather some of her rudimentary medical supplies. She was fairly sure one of the books she'd received had some kind of recipe for a healing salve of some kind that might at least make sure Astrid's eyes didn't get any worse, but she'd need to go over it with Fishlegs to be sure she hadn't missed something about how that stuff might affect eyes…
"Hiccup?" Clarke heard Astrid call out to the young man as he helped her lie down. "Are you still here?"
"Yeah… I'm still here, Astrid."
"Will you and Toothless stay with me a little while?" Astrid responded, an unusual apprehension in her voice. "Just... until I fall asleep?"
"Of course," Hiccup said, as Toothless let out an affirming rumble and settled down beside his rider and the other girl, his tail encircling them against the central table in a protective manner. "We're not going anywhere, and Clarke's going to do everything she can to help you."
Even if it was good to hear proof that her new allies- her new friends- had faith in her, what mattered most to Clarke right now was the simple devotion and trust demonstrated between the two in that short exchange.
Clarke didn't know what Astrid had ever been worried about; Hiccup was being far too tender towards Astrid for his feelings to be based on nothing more than settling for the only convenient girl on the island.
Too bad we've got bigger concerns than that right now, if we can't protect Astrid's eyes and find the dragons…