Unfortunately for the Dragon riders, there was no time for a break. The pirates who had captured and imprisoned Phantom had come from the Northern side of the island, where there was no watchtower. Hiccup immediately set to work at constructing one using the stone carved out of the mountain from the Dragons Lair.
Phantom was practically back at full health, and volunteered to come and help, if only so he could be close to Shadow. Boulders and stones were being carried over and set in place as they worked methodically. Phantom stood on the ground, holding the plans, and watched with admiring eyes as Shadow flew overhead.
The Black Moon male couldn't help but admire Hiccup too. Not in the same was as Shadow of course. But he admired how the young Viking handled the others, who he learned in a short amount of time were not the greatest bunch.
Hiccup handled them well, just as an Alpha should, with firm command and democracy, but not without a strong sense of authority. As a leader, he was brilliant, as an inventor, he was vastly intelligent. All of his good qualities drowned out the fact that he was thin and lean, whereas the others were bigger and stronger. He was one who used brains over brawn, and Phantom could respect that.
"Where's Ruffnut and Tuffnut?" he called from Toothless's saddle. Almost as if to answer his question, they heard a loud whoop of pure glee from the side of the mountain.
Hiccup groaned when he saw the twins astride their Zippleback sliding down the snow on the mountain. If they weren't careful they could start an avalanche and bring it down on top of them.
"Snotlout, Fishlegs, bring them in now." He commanded firmly. The two riders flew their dragons over to get them to stop messing around. But too late, the snow and ice started to crumble and fall down the mountain at breakneck speeds. The twins tumbled off their saddles and into the powder, from which Fishlegs and Snotlout rescued them from.
But Barf and Belch the Zippleback continued to tumble down the mountain, wings and legs flailing everywhere, with no hope of escaping. Hiccup reacted on instinct, and flew Toothless towards the two headed dragon to rescue it before he went over the edge of the cliff and be lost in the ocean depths below hundreds of feet of snow.
Shadow had grabbed Phantom as the ice came too close, there was no hope for the watchtower to avoid the frozen onslaught, but from the sky they were fine.
Hiccup only just managed to save Barf and Belch before they went over. Breathing heavily from the rush of adrenaline, the young man and dragon took the weakened dragon onto a secure space, one by one, the other riders landed with them.
Hiccup was still breathing heavy, and disengaged his metal leg from the stirrup to stand on the ground, but Shadow saw something wrong with it. "Hiccup, wait!"
Too late, his leg hit the ground and he fell onto the ice. Sharp pains shot up his leg, and for a few moments, he lay there gasping from pain. looking down, he saw that the metal was twisted and warped, and unusable. Thankfully he had a spare.
But with every step, Hiccup limped because of the pain, and he continued to stumble around. Good thing Barf and Belch kept helping him.
Even after the avalanche disaster, everything seemed fine, but by the time morning came around the next day, things started getting out of hand.
.
Shadow was on her way to the clubhouse for breakfast, with Phantom in tow, when movement caught her eye. Hiccup had just opened the big mechanical door to his cabin, when a massive pile of fish cascaded down on his head. The two humanoid dragons froze when they heard the big squelch.
"Ruff, Tuff, oh I got another shift with your name on it!" shouted the angered future chief. He struggled to get out of the pile of fish without falling over, so Shadow chuckled and went over to help him out. Toothless was bounding around him and eating some of the cod.
"Really, you are eating the evidence." He droned sarcastically. Toothless just laughed.
Shadow approached while smirking, then offered a hand to get him out. Phantom walked to stand next to the two of them, grabbing one of the fishes that had wedged itself in the back of his collar.
"Is this a regular occurrence?" he asked the two. Unfortunately, they nodded.
The trio just moved on away from the smelly pile while Toothless ate his fill. But the longer they walked, the more Hiccup struggled. He continuously limped on his left leg, but he refused to take a break until they made it up to the club house.
.
The day continued on mostly like normal, well, if you count having a Hideous Zippleback creepily following you all day as normal. It had barely been a few hours, and already, Hiccup was down to his last spare prosthetic. Unfortunately for everyone, this just made Hiccup more and more angry, but Barf and Belch were staying unnaturally close.
As soon as Gobber gave his opinion on the matter of why the two headed dragon continuously followed him, he growled in anger. Phantom raised his head in shock at the guttural sound coming from him, but stayed silent and observed.
As soon as his prosthetics were back in order, everyone left to get back to their job of building the watchtower on the Northern side. Shadow had been excused from this so she could give Phantom a tour of Dragons Edge.
The human formed dragons wandered around the base together, with Phantom's eyes mainly on hers. But every once and a while, they stopped at a particular spot to inspect the gear. The two of them were inspecting the Dome, still currently under construction, when some warbles and purrs caught their attention, as well as Hiccup's cries for help.
But when they looked up, they saw Hiccup bored and hanging upside down and calling for Barf and Belch to rescue him. Immediately, Shadow knew what he was up to, and she shook her head in disappointment, he was such a bad actor. The two headed dragon saw this too, and didn't fall for the stupid trick.
Phantom just watched with an amused smirk.
.
The next 'incident' happened when Shadow was showing her brethren the best places to hunt in the forest on the island. They were stalking their way through the trees in pursuit of a boar, when they first heard it.
Shadow sniffed the air with her powerful nose, and her ears twitched as she focused on the noise. "Oh no. Hiccup!" She bounded off in an instant, and broke through the trees that barred her path.
There he was, standing stock still in the middle of the hill, whilst fifteen or so massive logs rolled down the hill towards him. He could see them, but he wasn't moving. "Hiccup, move!" she screamed at him. But he still didn't move.
Without warning, she lunged forward, running on all fours to where he stood frozen. She cannoned into him at full pelt, knocking him backwards and the two fell to the ground, rolling out of the way of the massive logs.
Once the dust settled, Shadow unfurled her winds from around them both and looked up. Hiccup's eyes were wide and he was shaking. But before either of them could move, Barf and Belch's heads loomed over them, licking the two of them with their forked tongues.
Phantom ran over to the two of them and helped them both up, checking for injuries. Thankfully there were none. But when Hiccup took a step, and his left leg gave out under him, Phantom realised that he might have missed one. Hiccup gasped in pain and grit his teeth.
Hiccup couldn't walk, his leg was hurt from the prosthetic digging into him when he fell, and the prosthetic itself was broken.
Shadow held onto him, and made sure he was supported before turning to Phantom. "Can you do me a favour and scare the living daylights out of those two twins please? I don't want them to even think of doing something like this again."
Phantom smirked devilishly and nodded, then left to track down the runaway brother and sister, as well as keep the Zippleback away from Hiccup before anything else happened. He should be find, she thought, it was the twins that should be worried.
If her memory of Phantom served her well, they would be having nightmares of ghosts for weeks.
And she did not feel sorry for them either.