A/N-Have to ask what everyone thinks so far. There's been a little action, but the next couple chapters are where things heat up. Also, hope everyone enjoyed the extra chapter earlier this week, though don't expect too many occasions like that. Finals week is coming up, so the one-chapter-a-week deal is the best I'll be able to pull off anyway.

As always, read and review!

Chapter 5

The Eel Bow

"Alright, what've ye got in mind?" Gobber queried as we all squeezed into Hiccup's tiny back room. I sat down at the desk and found a blank sheet of parchment. Hiccup handed me a "pencil" and I started drawing out my idea. "You'll probably have to redraw this, as I suck at drawing anything other than snakes and plants, but I hope it gives a rough idea," I explained as I caught the confused eyebrows.

After a couple minutes I had completed a rough sketch, and held it out. "In order to actually have a chance at scaring off a dragon like the Shadow Lord, it would have to be able to fire quickly and in succession, meaning multiple shots at a time or being able to reload by just pulling back the string or other mechanism," I explained. I gave Gobber the sheet. "We also know that dragons hate eels, though I have yet to inquire as to why, which is the reason for the odd arrow design." Gobber nodded. "I was gonna say, I've nae seen arrows like that before." "They're designed to hold pieces of eel, fresh or dried, in the tips, and hopefully break apart on impact so that it's scattered about," I continued. "Also, hopefully the three levels mean we can figure a way for it to shoot up to 3 arrows at a time."

"This is going to take a little while," Hiccup said, "but I think I can get the arrows done relatively quickly." Gobber nodded in agreement. "I'll start working on the bow," he offered, then glanced at me. "If ye want te get any eels, ye best get down tae the dock immediately. They should be bringing in the catch soon, and they tend tae throw most o' the eels back now." I nodded. "You can keep everyone else out of the forge while we're working, right?" I asked as I turned to leave. Gobber just gave me a deadpan glare. "Alright, alright, just asking."

I found an out-of-sight dark corner and morphed Shadow Dragon, and melted out of sight. It made it a lot easier to travel around the village in that way instead of wasting time weaving between houses and people who get in your way, especially what with the population of the village at that point being up 50%. When I reached the docks I materialized and changed back behind the main storehouse when no one was looking, and headed toward the nearest fishing boat. Sure enough, almost right away I spotted Bucket about to toss one of the black and yellow worms overboard.

"Hold up!" I shouted. It worked; Bucket stopped and looked over at me. "Don't throw that over!" I yelled up, walking up the plank. He gave me an odd look. "Why not? We don't really eat them anymore." He smiled. "But I never liked eel anyway." I nodded. "Well, I need it for Hiccup." Bucket smiled and nodded. "Is he workin' on something new?" he asked. "Sort of." "Does it have te do with the dragon problem?" I nodded again, and Bucket shrugged and handed me the slimy creature. "Okay, have fun!" Then he turned back to dealing with the fish. I nodded and quietly muttered, "Sure, we will."

I hadn't yet tried taking other objects with me when I went Shadow, so on the way back to the forge I did have to walk, and, naturally, it took much longer since there is no straight path on Berk. However, as I made my way back, I began to notice that wherever the slime from the eel was touching my skin, a tingling sensation was building up, and getting worse. By the time I had reached the forge, my hands were downright burning and stinging. I dropped the eel on a bench and ran over to the bellows, shoving my hands in the coals to burn the slime off. Almost immediately the sensation died off.

"That was weird," I muttered. Hiccup gave me a strange look. "What, you sticking your hands in the fire? Or the fact that you being part dragon means you didn't get burnt?" I shook my head and glared at him. "No, Captain Obvious, there is something on the eel that was making my hands burn. The fire seems to have burnt whatever it was off though." Gobber looked up from where he was studying my drawing, and gestured over to a far bench. "Well, if ye need somethin' te protect yer hands so ye can cut it up, there's some leather gloves over there somewhere on tha' bench there." I walked over and rummaged around through the pile on the shelf, and sure enough, found a thick pair of gloves. I grabbed them and put them on, then picked up a sharp knife and went to work on the eel.

So, first off, I had never liked even cleaning fish. An eel is ten times worse, covered in what looks like snot and overall just disgusting looking especially when dead. By the time I had managed to cut it into proper sized pieces, I had to stop about 3 times to keep from throwing up and the sight. When I was done, I quick-froze the chunks to keep them from going rancid before they were needed, and looked at Hiccup.

"That bad, huh?" he snickered. I nodded. "Yes, that bad. I guess I'm more dragon than I thought." I glanced at the frozen eel pieces, and then used the gloves to sweep them into a bucket so that they wouldn't just be sitting out in the open.

Past that, I stood guard outside, keeping people from trying to get into the forge to talk to Gobber and Hiccup. Unfortunately, that meant steering away a lot of large, often foul-tempered Vikings, many of which were the visitors and didn't know or respect the role I had earned in the village. Many a curse word flew my way that day when I wouldn't budge from the door. Luckily, I wasn't completely alone in my task for most of it.

After a particularly grumpy Viking had been shoved away from the shop, I heard a very recognizable and welcome voice call out, "Need a hand?" I turned to greet Astrid as she jogged up, axe in hand as if she'd just come from training. I nodded at her question. "Yeah, the visiting tribe isn't exactly the friendliest. What have you been up to, anyway?" she shrugged. "Eh, not much, taking care of a few household chores and then doing a little training in the woods." "I guessed as much," I commented, nodding to her weapon. She returned the gesture. "I also gave Bitwolf a good punch to the face," she continued, and glanced at me. "He is really hard-headed, you know. Still isn't heeding your advice," she said, and nodded to the forge, "and still thinks he's better than Hiccup."

Astrid then glanced at the forge directly. "By the way, what exactly is so secret that they're keeping the windows locked up though?" "Remember the weapon Hiccup needed to build?" "Oh, right. What is it, anyway?" I shuddered. "An idea I really shouldn't have come up with. It's an eel bow." Astrid crinkled her face in response. "What, dare I ask, is an eel bow?" "It's a modified crossbow; it shoots multiple arrows at a time. The arrows are loaded with pieces of eel at the tips, to deter the Shadow Lord." I glanced at my hands. "Unfortunately, I had to be the one to cut up the eel."

Astrid turned a bit green. "You're kidding, right?" I shook my head. "No, not kidding. It was gross, but even worse, it was stinging my hands as I carried it up here. I had to burn the slime off to make it stop."

Astrid causally leaned back against the forge in thought. "You think that's why dragons don't like eels? Because it burns them?" she asked. I shrugged. "Maybe. I haven't asked Toothless about that yet, but now I need to." I looked over at her. "But, then what causes the burn?" I queried. "A defensive irritant? Something in dragon skin that reacts with the eel? Is it poison?" Now it was Astrid's turn to shrug. "Well, you said you need to ask Toothless about it, and none of us have the answer." I sighed. "Yeah, I really have been meaning to, but it keeps slipping my mind." She gave me a sidelong glance, letting me know she doubted it was just me forgetting, but then we both just went back to guarding the door.

As the day wore on, word spread rather quickly through the small village that no one was going to be permitted into the forge for business of any kind, save for the chief if he showed up (Berk's chief, not the visiting one), and the number of people stopping by dwindled until it numbered only the rest of the teens and Stoick. But, by late evening, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, only Astrid and I were anywhere near the smithy. I took a glance toward the door, perking my ears. There was barely any noise coming from inside at the moment. I looked at Astrid.

"It's gotten unusually quiet in there," I muttered. She nodded. "I was just thinking the same-"

CRASH! "Augh, Hiccup!"

We both gave each other the same look, then Astrid cracked open the door and peered in, before bursting out laughing. I came over to look as well, and joined her in her fit of giggles. "Well, well, me and my big mouth," I giggled. "I should've known you'd manage to knock something over sooner or later in here." There, on the floor, was a large bucket of unused metal shards and pieces now strewn across the floor. Standing above the mess, and looking very guilty and embarrassed, was Hiccup and a large hammer, half the size of his head. He looked up at us and groaned.

"Oh, come on now, am I really that much of a klutz to you guys?" He griped. "Yep," came Gobber's short reply from by the bellows. "And thank you, Gobber, for summing that up," Hiccup grumbled.

"Well, back to the situation at hand," Astrid began, "how's the bow coming along?" "The arrows were harder than I thought," Hiccup replied as he began gingerly picking up the metal shards, "but I've got around 30 of them done, and I think that should be enough." He gestured to the workbench, and I walked over, picking up one of the finished arrows. I looked it over briefly and nodded. "Looks good. How is the crossbow itself coming?" I asked, turning to the head smith. He shrugged. "Still have te attach the strings and a proper trigger, but I think it's nearly finished." He picked up the weapon and held it out, and I took it to look over.

It was better than I had expected, though I had little skill in weapons making to begin with. There were three stacked firing grooves where the arrows would be released from, one on top of the other, and on either side were compartments for extra already loaded arrows, so that it would be no more than a pulling back of the strings to reload. I handed it back to Gobber, and he got to work installing the trigger system.

The evening dragged on, punctuated only by occasional snippets of conversation, but otherwise fairly dull. I kept the bellows properly heated since Toothless and the Terrors weren't around to help, and finally, at nearly eleven at night, the bow was finished. Hiccup held it up, and just barely was able to hold it level to the nearby wall. "Let's test it out," he said. I nodded in agreement, and grabbed three of the arrows out of the quiver we had stashed them in. Hiccup took them, and loaded them into the side chambers. He pulled the triple drawstring back into position, and I heard the arrows roll into place. Then, Hiccup took aim at a small target on the wall (okay it was an old shield, but what's the difference?), and pulled the trigger.

SSCCCHHEEEWWWWW! THUUNNNKKK!

All three arrows speared across the room, hitting the target at high speed. Not only did the tips splay apart like they were supposed to, but the shafts themselves embedded themselves a good inch deep into the wood.

Astrid whistled. "I think we may have found the perfect weapon for you," she commented. Hiccup blushed slightly. "We-well, at least we know it works," he stuttered slightly, looking it over again. I was about to reply, before I was cut off by a very loud yawn from Gobber's direction. We all glared at him, and he shrugged.

"Personally, I think it's time te get off te bed," he grumbled. "Especially if ye are all goin' on a hunt tomorrow, so you'll need yer strength. Now," he continued, walking toward the back of the forge, "where are we goin' te put that thing? We don' want anyone messin' with it." I nodded. "Agreed. I'll just take it with me tonight," I offered. "I overheard a couple of people planning on trying to sabotage our little excursion, so I don't want to take any chances." I looked at Hiccup. "Can you take the arrows and, uh, 'arrow filling'?" He crinkled his nose. "Only if they're completely frozen." I smirked and looked at the bucket. "Actually, I decided they would work better dried, so I did that earlier." I picked up the handle and held it out to him. He gingerly took it. "Well, I guess that's better than melting eel chunks," was his reply.

I turned toward the door, and stuck my head outside, looking around the plaza in all directions.

Something moved. I snapped my head in that direction and tuned my night vision. "Of course," I muttered when I spotted him. Bitwolf was already down here, waiting. I motioned for Hiccup to take the rear exit, and then slid along the side of the forge, keeping the bow hidden and myself in the shadows, until I ducked into the slight alleyway between the forge and the storage shed. There, I morphed to Stealth Dragon, and launched myself into the air.

I didn't fly home, but instead glided over to the building Bitwolf was hiding behind, and landed silently on the roof above him. I peered over to see him staring at the forge as Hiccup snuck out, and Gobber casually walked out the front to his house. Astrid also left, running toward her own home. I leaned down just as Bitwolf began moving forward, still invisible to his eyes.

"Give it up already, you won't find it," I whispered. Bitwolf jerked in surprise and turned, his eye sweeping right over and past me. "Who's there?" he growled, taking out his axe. "Take a guess," I hissed in reply. "Might as well give up the search, I have the weapon with me. You're not going to get anywhere with this." I launched into the air with that, leaving Bitwolf spluttering in frustration, and curved toward my own home, the bow safely between my paws.