"It's a known fact that Serpents are very aggressive and vengeful creatures." Alyssa sat mixing something vial at a table in the corner of the room. "The stories about serpents sinking ships go back as far as the dawn on man. Unfortunately, the vengeance of these particular creatures isn't very well known…most likely because no one's ever lived long enough to figure out they were being hunted."
This thought sent a chill down Embers spine. "Wait, then it's not going to leave me alone? Ever?"
"Well, seeing as it tracked you all the way here, and then attacked the village, I'd say no. The only way you're getting away from anything is if you fly out of here. Then again, if you fly it could still follow you." As she finished the batch of medication for Marble, Alyssa poured it into a fishes mouth and held it out to Ember. "And if you can't get away, then there's only two options left to you."
"Two?" Taking the fish from Alyssa, Ember walked over and crouched down next to Marble. Seeing him sleep so soundly gave her a bad feeling about waking him to a fish full of medicine. However, at this point she would have shoved the fish down his throat to make him well again. "And what might those choices be?" Extending one hand, she propped open his mouth and placed the fish inside.
"Well choice A, would be that you somehow kill the serpent. Without destroying the environment of course." Finding the sight of Ember trying to force feed the fish to a sleeping dragon entertaining, Alyssa cracked a bit of a smile. "Of course, choice B would involve you getting eaten and the village being saved." A wide grin crossed Alyssa's face.
"Why does that make you smile?" Hiccup sat across the room with Toothless sprawled out by the fire. "I mean it's not like we can just let her get eaten. We're Vikings, we're not into the whole human sacrifice thing." Catching Alyssa's quick glimpse at his leg, he retaliated. "That's because of something WAY different."
"What I don't understand, is that if the serpent is after her, why is Ember still alive?" Fishlegs question was well founded but didn't find its answer where he had expected to.
"Ember ran away screaming like a little girl after she led if to the other side of the woods." Frankie turned to Ember with Beryl in her lap and a smile on her face. "Didn't you Ember."
"Hey! You ever been chased by something ten times your size and trying to blast you with fire?" Seeing Marble finally taste the medicine, Ember did her best to hold his mouth shut as he thrashed in disapproval.
Both Hiccup and Toothless glanced in a rather 'matter of fact' kind of way.
Catching their reaction Ember groaned. "You two don't count!"
"She's right, she was without a dragon, and she did ONLY lead it away." Frankie looked to the floor as Beryl rolled around and bugged Toothless. "I mean she didn't kill it."
"Uh…thanks?" Not quite sure whether to take her words as a compliment, Ember shook her head and sighed.
Marbles fit of discomfort and disapproval ended, and nearly immediately his eyes opened and his energy perked up. Other than the odd taste in his mouth he felt fine, and looking up at Ember he gave a thankful croon.
"Um…you're welcome…" She hadn't noticed the subtle differences in his attitude until now, and thinking them over she pondered what might be going on in Marble's head. "So…" Trying to pull her attention away from the now healthy looking Night Fury, she continued to speak. "I don't like option B, so how do we accomplish option A?"
"Well I'm not the one to come up with plans, and I said when I came here that I wouldn't help any of you islanders. So if you're asking me, you're on your own." Turning to Fran Alyssa held out her hand. "Where is it?"
"Alyssa, you left every cent we had in the hut back on Uzuri. I couldn't afford to get you any juice. Water will just have to do for now." Looking around the room Frankie turned red. "What? I do the shopping and I say we can't afford it."
"…What are you talking about?" Ruffnut stood with one hand on her brother's shoulder about to push him over. "I was barely paying attention, but even I know you're talking about something off topic."
Other than the confused croons from the dragons in the room, the majority of the group was silent. No one could quite guess how Frankie had gotten so off topic, and remembering that Alyssa had initiated the subject change, everyone turned and looked at her.
"Ok…we were talking about me being hunted and possibly killed by a sea serpent…and now you're talking about juice?" Ember sat a bit away from Marble forgetting the strange attitude he had taken toward her. "I need help not flavored water!"
"Sorry, it's my fault the subject changed. She usually has my juice waiting for me after I mix potions and medication." A blush engulfed Alyssa's face as she rubbed the back of her head. "It's kind of like my reward for working."
("Ok, um…how old are you?") Shaking her head, Ember started to attempt to get everyone back on track. "Wait, so what am I going to do about the sea serpent?"
"I suppose you could always kill the sea serpent." Frankie looked over from her Place next to Alyssa. "However, that would pose a problem, seeing as no one has ever successfully killed one." Thinking hard, her mind conjured up the perfect plan.
"Yes, you could kill it." Fishlegs jumped into the conversation wielding his vast knowledge. "But if you killed it with an axe or a spear, you would contaminate the environment with its toxic blood."
"That's true, but if we had a weapon that could kill it without spilling too much blood, there would be no risk of pollution." Fran looked over at Fishlegs trying to sound knowledgeable. "Plus there's the armor problem. Small weapon can't pierce the armored scales that cover the serpent's body. You would have to have something strong enough to get through…Maybe something super sharp could do the trick…that's it!"
"What's it?" Astrid could see the look of inspiration on Frankie's face, and couldn't help but feel that something less than helpful was about to burst out of her mouth.
"I have a plan." Frankie rubbed her hands together in a scheming fashion and smiled. "Here's the plan. We get the serpent into a cove, a small cove with super deep water would be best. Then, after it enters the cove we harpoon it like whale on all sides…we would need rope or strong chain."
"We have a lot of chain in the shop." Hiccup smiled not quite following, but still trying to be as helpful as he could under the circumstances. "I can get you as much as you think you'll need."
"No, it can't just be any old chain. It has to be made to withstand extreme force" Fran looked puzzled again. "After we get it into whatever cove we can find, we have to be able to chain it up somehow. So maybe smaller rings could help with the strength and flexibility of the overall chain. However, that still leaves the problem of how we get the chain to stay in place, and how we get them around the serpent without putting ourselves in danger."
"Well, perhaps you could use arrows." Ember now sat closer to Frankie than she had before, and listened intently. "Maybe we don't have to get the chain around the serpent…maybe we could shoot the chain into its scales with super sharp cling arrows."
"Cling arrows?" Tuffnut tilted his head and looked at Ember with a strange face.
"They're arrow's I designed myself." Ember smiled proud of herself. "I have a lot of time alone back where I come from. I like to take that time to invent new types of arrows for hunting and trapping. Cling arrows are simply arrows with prongs at the end to keep them from slipping out."
"If we attach a strong chain to the end of the arrows, and shoot them into the Serpent, we could keep the serpent where we wanted it." Frankie looked exceedingly happy with her plan. "Only one problem." Her smile faded to a frown.
"Oh? And what problem would that be?" Ember seemed surprised by Frankie's sudden deflation.
"Well Problem one would be that we don't have a cove, and we can't carry out the plan here." Folding her arms together, Frankie looked around the room. "Problem two is that even if we could get chain light enough to shoot at the dragon, who other than Ember, is able of accurately shooting a bow and arrow?"
"True, with my wrist as damaged as it is, I can't shoot an arrow to save my life." Lifting her arm, Ember examined the now slightly swollen red ring around her wrist. "Oh…and I guess another problem would be…how do we secure the serpent once the chains are in place? I mean don't get me wrong, we are a force to be reckoned with. I mean with the muscle and upper body strength, no one would dare doubt our skill." Looking from person to person, she could see the scrawny features she had so inaccurately referred to. "But even with all of that, we still can't hold a sea serpent."
"True. But what if we had a large rock or something? Or we could attach the chain to a tree maybe?" The brilliance and quick thinking Hiccup was known for was once again being put to use.
"You're brilliant Hiccup. Now all we need is a location and bait." Alyssa smiled getting on board with the plan at last. "And I know who would make perfect bait."
Without even a word spoken, everyone in the room turned to Ember with an evil plotting grin.
"How did I not see this conversation ending like this?" Ember would have been worried had a few disapproving growls not echoed past her from behind. ("Marble?")
Curling his tail around in front of Ember, Marbles eye slits narrowed as he growled defensively. No one was going to touch his rider, or use her for such a dangerous task.
No one was going to put Ember in harm's way as long as he had something to say about it.