Learning from the Masters
A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction
Based of Le'Letha's "Nightfall"

"So, Viktor, I believe it was, right?" Embrik glanced up as Alekt appeared at the long-table to join the small breakfast group, taking a seat in front of a plate of food, already laid out. His pet crow perched on the edge of it and picked a crumb off the side of his plate, before hopping onto the young man's shoulder. "Tell me, how did you know it was a Night Fury we were dealing with? Supposedly no one knows what they look like."

Alekt started to eat as he waited for the older man sitting beside Embrik to speak, closing his eyes as he chewed as if not quite awake.

"Aye, I've never quite seen one like that. Not so clearly anyway," the man stated, taking a bite of food himself, all the while continuing to speak. "They're a mighty rare species, but there were a few more when I was a lad, an' I've seen and heard them in raids back then. Believe me, I seen plenty o' dragons in my lifetime – blue dragons, red dragons, green dragons, brown dragons, grey dragons, heck, even rainbowy dragons – but the only species with black scales like that," he thumbed back towards the cages, "is the Night Fury."

Alekt nodded his head in understanding, satisfied with the answer he received.

"I see," the brunette hummed, munching slowly.

"I'll tell ya, though," the man continued when silence followed. "Of all the strange things I've seen in my lifetime, never have I witnessed a man that rides a dragon. That is the oddest thing in all of this."

"Neither have I," Alekt admitted softly. "But there's always a first for everything, isn't there?"

"So… have you managed to get a word out of him?" One of the other men asked curiously. "Other than those god awful animal noises he was making all night, like a damn beast 'imself?"

Alekt hummed idly, then made an odd noise that sounded somewhat like hissed words, but it was hard to be sure.

"Perhaps," he mused finally. "I picked one sound out of what he was saying. Tthhhh-ss."

There was a moment of baffled silence.

"And just what in the icy north is that supposed to mean? 'just sounds like an angry cat to me. Sure he wasn't just hissing and snarling at you?"

"I think it's what he calls the Night Fury," Alekt clarified. "He seemed to get excited more than angry when I repeated it back to him, although I'm not sure I'm saying it entirely right. And he also said drakkn, which I think is meant to be 'dragon'."

"Maybe you're just trying too hard to find some semblance of speech in that damn dribbling nonsense he snarls. My mongrel back home speaks better 'an he does. Who knows if a dragon says anything, anyway?" The man that spoke grumped and rolled his eyes, taking a swig of mead from his tankard.

"All creatures speak, in their own way," Alekt hummed in that same detached, apathetic tone, like ice itself, that always unnerved Embrik, even listening to it spoken to someone else. "You're simply choosing not to listen."

The man grumbled something incoherent but didn't otherwise argue, only shaking his head in disagreement and returning to eating. Embrik didn't speak, only sort of picking at his food as he watched Alekt out of the corner of his eye.

Alekt had seemingly lost interest in the men just as much as they had in him, instead turning his attention to the crow sitting on his shoulder, which had gone from scarfing down bits itself, either torn off the plate or handed to it, to attentively trying to shove a scrap into its master's mouth with its beak.

He couldn't help but wrinkle his nose slightly as Alekt actually parted his lips and accepted the offering, without seeming to think anything of it. He warbled something to it and it puffed up happily, picking up another scrap and nudging it up to his lips, uttering a wide array of soft noises Embrik hadn't the slightest idea crows could even make before seeing Alekt and his bird interact. All he'd ever thought crows could do was make the same caw caw caw sound.

Just like dragons. Were they like this sometimes too? All he'd ever heard from them were roars and snarls and the hiss of fire escaping their jaws. Maybe Alekt was actually onto something…?

Embrik halted those thoughts with a shake of his head. He wasn't onto something, the guy was just crazy, that's all! Everything he talked about was crazy. Flying Vikings. Dragons they could use to help Vikings fly, without worrying about all of them getting killed by said dragons. The guy talked to birds and now some deranged dragonic wild man for crying out loud who couldn't speak, only snarl and howl like he were a dragon himself! And now a Night Fury… he'd seen how that monster had leered and snarled at Alekt when he'd gone up and touched it like it was just some… some… common dog.

There was something not right about a person who could waltz up and pet a Night Fury of all things without being terrified silly, as if it wasn't the embodiment of death and destruction itself, and well known for it at that!

What was worse, he wasn't sure that even if the man's reckless lunacy got every one of them killed, the guy probably wouldn't even care, from what he'd seen. How were they supposed to trust someone like that, who didn't even bat an eye at all the same things that other sane people did? How their two groups had become allied, even out of necessity, he'd never know. From every angle, it seemed like a bad investment to him.

"So Alekt," Hartvig's graveled voice rang, just before the scar-faced older man appeared, Embrik's eyes following him. He couldn't help but wonder if the old gashes were left from a bear or a dragon. Both seemed equally possible. "Have you decided on today's tasks?"

Embrik almost bristled at how casually and heartily Hartvig spoke to him, as if he were speaking to an equal of his own tribe. So sure, Alekt outranked all of them while on this trip, but he didn't agree that he should, nor that someone of Hartvig's stature and prowess should be answering to him. Did the man have no pride at all?

"I have, actually," he hummed, picking the crow off his shoulder with a hand under its breast. The bird fluttered on his hand, then promptly shuffled back onto his shoulder, refusing to leave it despite Alekt's efforts. "I want a hunting party to take some of the horses and head northeast to the marshland. There was a pack of boars there digging for food in the mud about a week ago, and what meat we have left will turn to rancid carrion soon enough. Six men or so should do. You can lead them, if you wish."

The man nodded his head, patiently silent for the boy's remaining orders.

"Three horsemen will patrol the other areas of the island. Have them check the nets and water traps as they go, and bring back anything good that they might have caught. Between all of them, I want every man on the lookout for more dragons, or potentially, dragon riders. We don't know if he," he directed with his head towards the cage of their dragon-man captive. "-is alone. We need to be prepared if there are more."

Embrik couldn't help but glance around nervously. Could there be more like that first man and his Night Fury? What a ludicrous idea! But so was the idea of even one dragon rider. Who had ever heard of such a thing, anyway? And yet, they had one within their possession. How many more could there be? One more? A small band? An army? What could they possibly do against an army of dragon-riders though, much less if they also rode more Night Furies? Huddle in a corner and beg not to be torched into cinders?

"I want four men scouring the side of the cliff and the inside of the cave. Find every entrance and exit out of here. Any path that leads outside, have it sealed. I want nothing able to enter or leave unless it goes through that front entrance, much less trying to surprise us again. The remaining six will stay here with me and hold down our camp."

Hartvig nodded his approval, offering up "I'll see to it that the men get the message," before he went to bark out orders.

"Embrik, you will help me tend the dragons this morning," Alekt told him before he had a chance to go busy himself elsewhere. Embrik couldn't help but give the other, who was only a little bit older than him and so much shorter and leaner, an incredulous look. He wanted to argue, but held his tongue, despite the burning desire to refute such an order. But it was an order and he was outranked here.

Instead he settled for passive silence, only nodding to show that he'd heard and returned to finishing his breakfast.

Once he was done, he stood to follow Alekt, who hadn't bothered waiting, already having unlocked the first cage, carrying a bucket of fish with him. Embrik immediately paused and second-guessed following with his own bucket of water as the beast inside, a Monstrous Nightmare, snarled at them.

He couldn't help but note that even the crow had favored perching on the top of the cage door, well away from the dragon, and Embrik's eyes nervously shifted to Alekt, who didn't even hesitate to approach, stopping just outside the range of how far it could travel on its chain.

The beast gave him a deadly glare and huffed smoke from its nostrils, but the teen merely crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet casually, and held out a limp, dead fish.

The beast's focus instantly shifted to the food, nostrils flaring in interest, licking rows of sabre fangs hungrily. It momentarily looked back at Alekt with narrowed eyes, uttering a reverberating growl that rose the hairs on the back of Embrik's neck, expecting it to light Alekt up with flames.

Warily, it crept forward in a low prowl, one clawed wing at a time, continuing to sniff audibly. It extended its neck for the fish, opening its jaws.

If it doesn't burn him to ash, it's definitely going to take off his entire arm, he couldn't help but think nervously. Maybe if the idiot got eaten they'd all get to call off this insane trip and go home though. He wasn't entirely sure he didn't want that at this point. What were they even going to gain out of this, anyway?

Ever so gingerly, the Nightmare grasped the head of the fish and yanked it away, leaving Alekt intact. Maybe that was just because it couldn't reach that far. It ravenously wolfed down the fish, and Embrik couldn't help but imagine that that might soon be one of them.

Alekt only held out another fish, the reptile giving him the wary eye, but gaining more confidence. Because that was just what they needed, a dragon confident that Vikings were more of a source of food than they already were for the beasts!

It took a second fish from Alekt, gulping it down. When it tried to snatch a third, he placed a hand on the horn of the dragon's nose, pushing its head down to the ground. The dragon screeched low in its throat and tried to pull its head away, snarling fangs at him. Embrik was sure he could see embers starting to ignite all down its body. Alekt didn't move. The dragon did, arching its body up with head still pressed to the ground.

The young man simply waved the fish past its nose, letting it smell the food. Its eyes were still trained on Alekt for a short time, but its hunger was too distracting, and its eyes started to follow the fish instead, a mournful sound, almost like a whine, rising from its chest. When the dragon deflated and lowered its body again, losing its aggressive threat display, he let its head go and let it take the fish eagerly, choking it down whole.

When all of the fish were gone, Alekt left the bucket of water for it and went to leave, locking the cage up again. The Nightmare eyed him with a mix of wariness and something else Embrik couldn't identify. He didn't try to for more than a few seconds anyway. What else was there to identify in a dragon other than hunger and death? It was probably just disappointed it didn't get the chance to eat either of them as well as the fish.

Alekt ordered him to get another bucket of water and fish and bring them to the next cage, where he did the same with a Raincutter. The Sailback and Hobblegrunt after that were only given water, with no attempt on Alekt's part to interact like the first two. The pet crow followed them the whole way, though it kept an even safer distance than Embrik did. He couldn't help but think that between master and bird, the bird was the smarter one for it.

Then they came to the Night Fury.

Embrik could feel its eyes on him before he could see them, piercing green with black slits, and a gleam that told him that this beast was deadly and it fully knew it. Even chained immobile and muzzled so it couldn't fire a devastating blast of lightning, it gave him a mighty glare as if staring straight into his soul and snapping its jaws around it.

He only now realized he'd paused in his steps from afar, and the dragon snorted out a loud, almost bellowing rush of air, almost like it was mocking his cowardice. He wasn't sure whether he should feel a rush of embarrassment or relief to have stopped some distance from it. He was glad to have its eyes off him when it shifted its attention to Alekt, those green eyes narrowing and the dragon snarling in a way that Embrik couldn't help but get the impression was something akin to a personal challenge.

Without a doubt, that thing hated Alekt way more than it hated him.

"I see you still remember me," Alekt mused in glacial monotone, coming to stand at the other side of the dragon, both eyeing each other down. The beast visibly snarled at him, and Embrik could almost swear he saw just a flicker of emotion cross Alekt's face. He wasn't sure what emotion, though if he had to guess, he'd have to say it was probably amusement. "I guess you're still mad about the bolt, aren't you?"

The man reached a hand out and touched its shoulder, delicately pulling back the wound and looking it over with keen eyes. The Fury uttered a noise that Embrik thought must be a roar, but it was muffled by its muzzle-closed jaw, jerking against the bars and making them rattle and clang. He heard another noise but he wasn't sure if it was the dragon or the dragon-man responding to it from one of the other cages.

Alekt gave it a pat on the side like most men did for a common horse, only if that horse was big and had deadly fangs and claws and breathed death from its jaws and wanted to kill you for touching it.

"It will heal over time, though your memory of it might not fade so easily, I can only guess."

"I don't think you should be speaking to it so casually," Embrik hissed, unable to bring his voice to more than a whisper. "It's not like it understands you anyway. It's just a dumb beast."

He wasn't sure whether the Fury actually did understand him or it just didn't like that he was speaking period, pointedly shifting its glare to him now and snarling. He instinctively stepped back, going slightly paler, and the dragon snorted in a smug sort of way. Now he was almost sure it was laughing at his fear, however it was that dragons laughed.

"Not everything intelligent is the same or speaks the same as you do," Alekt reminded, in a way that Embrik couldn't help but think he was being scolded like an ignorant child.

Great, now the dragon and the loon were making fun of him!

He couldn't help but flush and want to clock both of them in the head, only the dragon would probably kill him if he did it to the Fury, and Alekt… he wasn't sure what Alekt would do, but tales of his clan's brutality before the alliance and the cold disregard for everything the other always displayed were enough to make him hesitate.

If Alekt noticed his anger at all, he didn't show it as he circled around to stand in front of the Fury, though the dragon certainly did as it bore into him with those gleaming eyes, as if reading his very mind. Up until its attention went back to Alekt anyway, with far more hateful intensity.

At least it doesn't look at me like THAT. He didn't know how Alekt could stand it. Not in the least. If looks alone could kill, Alekt would already be scorched into fragments of only bone left, muzzle or no.

And then he actually crouched down in front of its face, where they could both look each other squarely in the eye.

He's suicidal. That must be it. He WANTS to get killed by that dragon, Embrik was starting to convince himself. That or he was having way too much fun staring into the eyes of lightning and death itself while the creature was bound and unable to live up to its namesake, silently taunting it. He could see Alekt secretly – Hel, not even secretly – being that arrogant.

He reached a hand out to touch the creature's nose like he had the Nightmare, and instantly it snarled pure loathing from every ounce of its form. Even heavily chained, its legs and wings bound, it was a breathtakingly horrid, menacing creature. Embrik almost forgot that it was bound and was ready to turn and flee as it tried to jerk its head away, looking for all the world like it was ready to eat Alekt whole, the end of its tail lashing wildly against the bars in the far back and once again uttering a muffled roar of utter disdain.

Alekt hissed something audibly and the dragon faltered, its eyes widening for a moment. Alekt repeated the sound that Embrik had heard him utter at the table, saying he'd thought it might be the creature's name.

"Tthhhh-ss?"

The snarls and roars died into a low, steady rumble, growling deep in its chest, but it looked more confused and taken by surprise than angry, tail still batting back and forth, but more slowly now, as if in contemplation and deep thought.

Its eyes were focused intently on Alekt as though it expected him to do or say something, what Embrik assumed to be ears twitching upward slightly, like a dog brought to attention. After a moment, it seemed to remember itself, what it was, and more importantly, what Alekt was, and shook his hand off its nose, snarling. Alekt reached back out, but it jerked its head to the side, showing off its fangs as best it could, hissing in warning.

Alekt – the idiot – finally seemed to catch the hint and let his hand rest across his lap instead, still staring at the dragon. It turned its head to stare straight at him again as well.

He uttered a sound like before, "Tthhh-ssss", and fell back into some of that bird-like, soft warbling, the only time that his voice actually changed octave or pitch from how he normally spoke. It seemed almost unnatural that his voice could go from such a dry, dead quality when he spoke to other people, yet he could exercise such a broad range of noises Embrik himself couldn't even begin to make even if he tried when he fell into that bird-chatter of his.

What's more, the dragon seemed as though it was actually responding, uttering its own series of snarls, hisses, growls, and low, long groans, likewise with much more range than he'd ever heard come out of a dragon. They sounded kind of like angry or irritated noises to him – then again, when did dragons not sound angry and vicious? – but like they were more deliberate. Like maybe it was actually saying something, and not simply growling dumbly.

Alekt reached a hand out again and he watched the dragon's wary passiveness turn angry again, trying to pull away and snarling. Alekt's hand traced to the leather strap that muzzled it, continuing to croon and clack at it. The Fury didn't relax, but it stopped trying to pull away, glaring distrust at him, and groaned back at him lowly.

"Embrik," Alekt spoke, actually startling the younger male. In an instant, his voice had already become level and emotionless again, one blue eye peering back at him.

"Y-yes?" he stuttered, still struggling with his shock at the very idea that Alekt might have just been having a conversation with a dragon. A dragon, of all things!

The odd male motioned for Embrik to step closer, and when Embrik did, he did so with great hesitance, eyeing both Alekt and the beast, which was now eyeing him back again. Gods, he hated those eyes.

And what did Alekt want with him all of a sudden anyway?

Maybe he's going to lure you in and let the dragon eat you. Maybe that's what they were talking about. He'd probably like that. He's probably sadistic enough under that indifferent demeanor to enjoy watching a dragon munch on your spine. Maybe he wants to see if it eats by ripping its prey apart or swallowing it whole. Maybe the dragon was just asking him how you taste.

"The bucket," Alekt directed, catching him off guard, though he wasn't sure why that came as such a surprise. He eyed Alekt's outstretched, free hand as though it was something alien, before finally handing it over.

He was quick to step back, watching as Alekt set the bucket in front of the Fury and moved slowly to loosen but not remove the leather strap keeping its deadly jaws shut. The creature eyed him every second that he did so, and Embrik almost wondered if the creature was going to try to kill them as soon as it could open its jaws even a little.

It didn't, instead continuing to stare at Alekt in the same alien way that Embrik had moments before, before tentatively turning its eyes to the partially overturned bucket, and started to lap at it, then eyed Alekt out of the corner of its eye again. Like a dog.

It just…licked up all the water, and then… didn't try to kill them. He wouldn't exactly call it 'tame' but it was a lot more docile than he ever expected to see out of the beast. And then, though it did try to pull away and made a noise he was sure was protest, Alekt re-secured the leather strap so it couldn't open its jaw anymore, and then Alekt ran a hand over its head in a praising sort of way before he moved to close the cage and leave it alone again.

"This is a dream," Embrik muttered to himself, under his breath. "I'm just dreaming. None of this is real."

Alekt didn't show any signs that he'd heard Embrik's words, though he didn't expect the other to say anything about it even if he had. Instead, the blue-eyed brunette simply picked up the bucket, and casually started to walk away.

Embrik watched him go for a moment, then rushed to catch up. Okay, so Alekt still completely freaked him out and he definitely still thought there was something intimately wrong with him, but he'd just seen the guy do something no one else had ever done and he had to hear about it.

"How did you do that? You talked to it, right? I mean… what did it say to you?" He flushed slightly as he realized he sounded like an overly enthusiastic child wanting to hear some incredible story he'd never heard before but had been hinted at, but it wasn't every day you saw someone have a conversation with a fire-breathing monster like that!

Alekt stopped and turned to face him. Embrik found himself trying to read his face, but it was just as impassive and impossible to read as always, making him quickly grow frustrated.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Alekt shrugged after a moment of deliberation, nonchalant. Embrik gaped.

"You…don't- but…-" Embrik glanced over his shoulder at the dragon, then back at Alekt, motioning behind him at it helplessly. "That what was all that? I-I mean… you made some sounds at it, and it made some back, and…" he trailed off, feeling very lost.

Alekt shrugged again, the crow suddenly appearing and landing on his shoulder.

"Improvisation," he answered, idly reaching a hand up to scratch behind his pet bird's neck. The crow croaked a low sound and craned its head down as Alekt scratched it. "Dragons are still animals, like any other. They don't really use words with specific meanings like people, more just… broad implications. Even so, they don't all think and communicate the same way, just similarly, the same as different lands have different languages. I know how to speak and understand crow, not dragon, but they're similar enough that I can basically fake my way through it until I get a better hang of it."

Alekt turned away dismissively, while Embrik couldn't help but stand rooted to the spot, too dumbfounded to move.

So… he'd basically pulled the wool over every one of their eyes. He'd tricked both Embrik and – from what he could tell –the dragon into thinking he could actually speak dragon. Just like that. He was never speaking it at all, and Embrik had never realized, and probably the dragon hadn't fully realized either.

With that revelation, he was also realizing something else.

"I really have to work harder on being on his good side," he deadpanned to himself, starting to understand why anyone would forge an alliance with such a clan once known and feared for its blatant callousness, hoping that there even was a good side to appeal to. He doubted as much. "I'm easily, unavoidably dead if a guy that fearlessly tricky ever decides we're no longer on the same side."