Chapter 12
Claudia and the Lean-To
A couple guards moved through the dark of the Cadrian camp. The large fire pits continued to burn to keep the arriving night away, but the guards still carried torches with them as they moved out to the perimeter. A guard stopped at a standing torch and lit it, the glow throwing a circle of light on the sand. He moved on to the next, and the next, marking out the edge of the camp. Yet the light from Kiefer's lean-to outshone them all.
She thought about what her dad said. She wouldn't mind, really, but if Kiefer liked anyone on the island it was clearly Astrid. The way he looked at her, the way he gave her attention . . . He talked about her about her prowess as a warrior, called her pretty . . . And why wouldn't he like perfect Astrid? She waspretty, she wasa tough warrior. She was smart and good with dragons. She even knew her way around the house and could be a nurse when the situation called for it!
What hope did Hiccup have? Tiny, runty Hiccup. She wasn't pretty. She didn't know how to dress. Her frame was too slight, she didn't have much up top. She was clumsy and couldn't cook. So what if she was the Dragon Master? What did that mean to an empire that had fought entire wars over dragon training?
She should just back off and let Astrid have him. Oh how her chest hurt at that thought!
She followed the light of his tent, cast all the way across the beach and to the ocean. The pair of Night Furies lazed there, blending more and more into the world as the sky turned to pitch.
"Hey Bud?" She called over her shoulder. Toothless's head once again popped up over her bed. She smiled and nodded out the window. "Want to go meet the Night Furies?"
It didn't take long to reach the beach. She hadn't yet taken his saddle off for bed, so all she had to do was throw on her bearskin vest and she was able to fly him most of the way down. She landed a good fifty feet from the perimeter — she didn't want to concern them — and approached on foot.
"Hold!" A gruff woman's voice called out as she entered the torchlight. She stopped immediately and waited as one of the blue-clad soldiers stepped out of the shadows on the other side; her hand rested on the hilt of her longsword. "Who goes there?"
Hiccup held her hands up and stepped further into the light. "I'm Hiccup. Daughter of Chief Stoick. I . . ." She glanced at the Night Furies, then at Kiefer's tent. " . . . I'm here to speak with Lord Kiefer."
The guard's angular eyes gave her an incredulous once over before switching to Toothless just behind her. Although the guard was armed and armored much like the one that had followed Kiefer on his tour, she wasn't wearing a facemask, so she could see the guard's pointed face shift from suspicion to curiosity to understanding. Her hand fell away from her swords and she nodded. "Follow me, then."
As she crossed the line of torches, it suddenly dawned on her that she was meeting with Kiefer privately and the crickets in her chest awoke. She took a breath to steady herself. Even though she had wanted to meet the Night Furies, she wanted this, too.
"Lord Kiefer," the guard called into the lean-to just after they arrived. "I have a young lady here to see you."
"What?" Kiefer sounded surprised. The shadows shifted inside. "Who?"
"A Lady Hiccup, my lord."
"Just Hiccup," she murmured to herself. The guard didn't notice or ignored her.
There was a pause. For a moment she worried about imposing on him. What if he wasn't finished writing his log? Her eyes fell to the sand as worry gripped her.
"Show her in then."
The guard stepped back and motioned her forward. She stepped into the light of the lean-to and found Kiefer smiling pleasantly at her from where he was sitting beside his desk.
"Hiccup. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
He nodded at the guard, who quickly left. Hiccup couldn't formulate a response at first. She glanced around at the cot on the opposite side of the lean-to, then at the back where the sleek Night Fury laid — Claudia.
Claudia was even sleeker than Toothless. He face was thinner and her body more tapered, and she was a little smaller, too. She lifted her head and fixed her golden eyes on Hiccup, making her feel small and intrusive.
"Uh, I . . ." Hiccup started as she tried to look back at him. Toothless followed her into the light as she failed to think of an excuse to visit him.
Suddenly, Claudia shot to her feet, her eyes fixing on Toothless. She stood as tall as she could, letting out a growling warble as she bared her teeth. Just as quickly, Toothless crouched flat and showed his toothless gums. He crooned softly.
Hiccup's eyes darted between them in alarm before she moved between them, a hand held high to protect her dragon. What had Toothless done to make Claudia threaten him so?
"Oi, Claudia!" Kiefer stood and shoved his dragon's head. She lowered herself and looked at him, chastened. "No flirting! Save it until we get home."
She rolled her eyes but Kiefer set a glare on her. She finally laid back down. She still watched Toothless out of the corner of her eye, baring her teeth — or was she grinning?
"Sorry about that. Night Fury drakenas can be a bit forceful."
Hiccup looked back at her own dragon, who seemed to relax a bit. "Drakenas?"
"Right, sorry. Drakena and drako. Like mare and stallion, or ewe and ram."
She nodded, still feeling out of sorts. She would have to tell that one to the Academy. "She was flirting with my 'drako'?"
He laughed. "Yeah, she probably thinks he's exotic. Don't you babe?"
Claudia warbled but didn't take her eyes of Toothless.
"So what can I do for you?"
She looked back at him again. She finally noticed he wasn't in his armor anymore, instead wearing a fine, shiny blue nightshirt of some kind and loose trousers. Her worry about a possible dragon fight drained away as the crickets in her chest became skittish again. A thought entered her head and she shouted it before she could stop to think.
"Aurvandil's Fire!"
She paused. Not a bad idea!
"Uh, I was wondering — i-if you wanted to see it. I can show you. Uh, it should be in about an hour. And it's an hour north right now."
"So we'll be just on time." He nodded in approval. "Sounds like fun. Let me grab my gear."
He stepped over to his leather armor hanging on what looked like tree branches fashioned into a crude armor-stand. He undid his belt and laid it on the desk, then started to pull off his shirt. He glanced over at her, then nodded outside. "Would you mind, Hiccup?"
"Huh? Oh!" She spun around to observe a bit of propriety. Even so, she couldn't help but imagine what was happening behind her as she listened to the shuffle of cloth, the clink of metal rings, the stretch of leather; Images of his toned body flew through her head. Visions of his muscles rippling his olive skin sent a weird warmth deep below her belly; she shifted her weight to her other leg as she searched for something else to think about.
Toothless was still acting oddly. He was fixated on the other Night Fury — the drakena. Drakena and drako. Good words. Of course, he was a drako tilting his head at a drakena, so he must be feeling much the way she was, looking at someone so . . .
She turned and fixated on the beach ahead of her as her cheeks warmed against the cooling air. Huh. The light was unlike anything she'd seen. It was clearly coming from the desk side of his lean-to.
"What's making that light?" She called over her shoulder.
"It's a lamp," he said in a distracted voice. "A dragon breath mixture warms the scales of an illuminavortus — uh, how to translate that? Something like Luminous Horror. You don't see them much past the Blinkered Bog, but they use the light of their scales to blind their prey."
She listened intently. She couldn't help but crave the knowledge of generations of dragon trainers. "Do you get the scales after they've shed?"
"No, those don't have enough light left in them. Since we feed them, they don't really need the scales, so we harvest them. They grow back, of course."
The light went out suddenly and she turned around before she could stop herself. Unfortunately, he was fully clothed already. Fortunately, rather. Whatever. He nodded at the lamp, a brass canister connected by a small tube to a ring of grey, pointy scales that were still glowing faintly. "What do you call the two-headed dragons? Zipplebacks? Their breath makes up the base of most of these mixtures. There's also some Luminous Horror breath and another dragon's, but it's all kept in this canister. A small stream, lit by a bit of flint, provides the heat."
"That's ingenious. I've thought about trying to capture Zippleback breath, but I haven't figured out how. I've never seen workmanship like that."
"I'll pass along your compliments." He smirked. He turned around and motioned at his drakena to follow. "Come on, babe. Let's watch the sky light up."
