Hiccup turned away from his father and returned to the rescued dragons. Toothless followed him and stood next to him and the Rumblehorn. Hiccup stepped near Skullcrusher.
"Anything?" He whispered.
"She definitely has plate rot and is going to need that taken care of immediately. I can't really see if it's gotten into the scales underneath." The female in question looked embarrassed about what they were talking about. Hiccup looked up to one of the holes leading outside.
"We should have enough light to do it right now, if she's okay with that?" The three of them looked at her. She turned away a little, but Skullcrusher wasn't going to have any of that.
"Come." He ordered. "You are not well and need help. You may be scared but we're here to help. Now follow me." He began his ascent outside. "Be there soon so we can get this done, Hiccup." Hiccup waved his hand.
"Don't worry, it's my first priority. Toothless and I will be up there the second we figure out what to do with the rest." Hiccup turned to Toothless. "Bud would you go into my tools and find a bucket and fill it with water and bring it up there. And find one of my knives and a hammer I guess. When you get up there would you heat the water please?" Toothless smiled.
"Of course Hiccup." He pressed his head into Hiccup's side. Hiccup laughed and wrapped his arm around Toothless neck. "Love you Hiccup."
"Love you too big guy. Now go." He pointed towards their sleeping area. He turned around again and rejoined Dusty. "I'm going to go pull that Rumblehorn's plates off would you please keep an eye on this?"
"Yeah I can."
"I don't know how long it's going to take to pull the plates but if I'm not back before it's too late could you, or someone, doesn't matter, find them a nice place to sleep. Maybe near Queen." Hiccup stopped and looked at The Fireworm Queen. "Queen or Princess as your name?" She stopped for a second.
"I'm getting a name? I haven't done anything. You should give a name to someone else." Hiccup rolled his eyes.
"Names aren't a status symbol. Everyone will get one eventually, it's just about finding the right one for each of you. There a way to distinguish you from another. He's Dusty and your…" He waited.
"Queen."
"Alright then. Place them near miss Queen so they can stay warm for tonight, if I'm not back." Hiccup started to walk away before turning back. "And I promise I won't need you tomorrow. I know you haven't had the chance to spend a whole day with Color since she got back. I'm sorry about that." He started to walk away again but stopped by the group of humans. "Dad would you come help me with this?" He continued walking. Stoick started following him.
"Help you with what?" They started the climb.
"I have to pull that female Rumblehorn's plates off. She hasn't been able to keep them healthy and now there rotten and pretty much useless to her as protection. Plus it could get into her scales under them and that's going to be much worse for her. I'd have to descale a good portion of her and that's immensely painful. Like being skinned alive." The two men climbed up and met the three dragons outside. Stoick stood around as Hiccup began to prep for the 'surgery'.
"You get everything I asked for bud?" Hiccup asked as he leaned down to look at his whole tool box.
"Shut up. I couldn't get what you needed out of it so the whole thing came with me." Toothless sniped.
"Well I guess I have every tool I need just incase. And the water?"
"It right here." Toothless picked it up and placed it near Hiccup. Hiccup moved over to the other two dragons waiting for him. Skull crusher facing away, talking quietly with the female. Hiccup cleared his throat.
"You two ready? Or I guess, are you ready?" He asked the female. She didn't say anything and he could see the fear in her eyes. "I know this is scary. And I know that you probably wish that I wasn't human. But all I want is to help, and right now you need it the most. I'm giving you a chance to say no, but I have to remind you that if we don't pull these plates off that you could die. And while this is still going to hurt like crazy, it's going to be much safer than you doing it by yourself with a tree or stone. I know that isn't exactly comforting but it's the truth."
She took a deep breath then nodded.
"Thank you. Now I'm going to need you to lie down." The female did as he asked.
Hiccup started by pulling at each of the plates, seeing if they would come willingly by themselves. Four were easily removed, and another came out with a bit of wiggling it. Hiccup went to his toolbox and pulled a knife from it. For the next couple hours Hiccup slowly cut the remaining plates away from her skin. Each one as rotten as the last. With all of them gone Hiccup was able to look at the regular scales underneath. He ran his fingers along them. He didn't like the feeling of them, they were soft just like the plates. On top of that the female hissed at him when he pressed a bit harder into them.
"I'm sorry but it got into your regular scales. I'm going to have to descale you too."
"Is it going to hurt?" She asked. Hiccup clenched his jaw.
"Yeah. It's going to feel like your dying. But it's the only way. If we don't do something about it, it could spread, and it won't just feel like you're dying, you will be." He said with a heavy heart. "Look I know that you probably still don't trust me and that I'm doing this because I like it or something. But that isn't the case. I do truly care for my dragons and those who pass through my lands. Plus I think that if you'd let me, I could create something to replace your plates. Something even more protective. Believe it or not I have something already in the works. I've been working on armour for some of the dragons here. Mostly for those who use their defensiveness more than their speed. Like Skull crusher here." Hiccup turned to Toothless. "Would you go get Skullcrusher's armour from my workbench? Please." The Nightfury nodded and swiftly left. "Okay while he's gone let me look and see what I need to take off.
Hiccup looked the area that was previously under the plates and chose a few spots to lift and remove some of the scales for markers.
"Okay, good news is, I won't have to take as much off as I thought. Bad news it's still a pretty big section and is still going to be very painful. I have dragon nip for you but it's probably not going to help that much.
