The Zippleback, Monstrous Nightmare and Gronkle flew over the treetops towards the Cove at Raven Point. It was just after breakfast so the sun was still on the rise. They were supposed to be cleaning the academy under Hiccup's orders, but they had all run off the moment his back was turned. They promised themselves they would clean it. Eventually. The flight took no time at all and soon they were circling down to the ground next to the lake.
"What are we supposed to be looking for again?" asked Snotlout.
"Look for clues that a dragon has been here recently. Footprints, scorch marks, food remains…" trailed Fishlegs.
"Uh, what about shed scales?" asked one of the twins.
"Yea, that too. Wait. Did you find something?" he asked. "We found a whole lot of somethings."
They all walked over to one of the caves in the cove where a small camp had apparently been set up. They found a pile of dead fish by a fire pit, probably a day old, a nest of grass and leaves big enough for a Night Fury to lounge around in, and black scales everywhere.
The twins were holding a handful each and showing them. One thing was certain, they weren't Night Fury scales. There were probably hundreds there or all different sizes, enough to cover an entire dragon.
"That amount of scales could make Toothless a full body cover." Gasped Fishlegs as he inspected one. "Forget that, this many could make Hookfang a blanket." Said Snotlout as he stared at the twins full hands.
"By the amount we can see here, a dragon must have shed its whole body, but what confuses me is the fact that shedding takes up to a week and a half. There isn't any other signs of activity, just this newly set up camp. From what I can gather, all this was only built a day, maybe a day and a half ago. And if a dragon was inhabiting this space there should be more footprints and signs of life." Said Fishlegs.
He was by far one of the best at discovering things about the habitats and nests of dragons. He could draw accurate conclusions of abandoned camps very quickly.
"Well, how come there are so many scales if a dragon couldn't have been here for more than a day?" asked Ruffnut. She was currently trying to string together a few of the scales into a necklace with some string she had.
"I don't know, what if it was carrying them all with it. Like it was collecting them." Said Tuffnut. He had three scales in each hand sticking out between the gaps in his fingers as he made a fist. He seemed to think the scales were sharp enough to be a weapon of some sort.
"Can a dragon shed all of its scales in one night?"
"I don't believe that's possible, and even if it somehow did, it could cause the dragon to bleed a lot." Said Fishlegs to Snotlouts question.
"You mean like that?"
They looked up at Tuff, who was pointing to a large puddle of drying blood on the ground amongst the scales. Fishlegs gasped in shock and then realisation.
"That's exactly where Shadow was laying on the ground when we found her. Why would she be surrounded by dragon scales covered in blood? This doesn't make any sense." He thought out loud.
"Ok ok. Let me see if I can figure this thing out." Sid Tuffnut, holding his hands in the air. "This strange new dragon flew here from Thor knows where, makes itself a camp, starts screaming its lungs out after midnight, sheds all of its scales at once, it disappears, and when we show up the next day, we find a strange, wild, hostile girl in a pool of blood right in the middle of all this weirdness."
"Yea that seems about right." Said Ruffnut, stringing her new necklace around her neck. "It makes no sense at all, yet makes the most sense too. Weird how the world works isn't it?"
The three of them hummed in agreement. Then Fishlegs spoke up again. "We need to tell Hiccup about this. Right now. That girl is hiding something and we need to figure out what it is."
"Should we confront Shadow about all this?" asked Ruffnut. "Maybe its possible that we can catch her in a hospitable mood and she can tell us what in Thor's name happened."
Snotlout scoffed. "I highly doubt that."
"We wont mention anything to Shadow about what we found. But we will tell Hiccup. Maybe he can try to get answers out of her, and he can confine with us about what she says, so we can see if the stories and evidence matches. If they don't then we will know if she's lying." Said Fishlegs as he thought.
"Lets get back to Hiccup."