When Alvin returned to the room and got Dagur, Farid left to go to his next appointment. The ride to get there was not too time-consuming and the doctor reached an area with a lot of acreage. In the middle of the property was a large building. A sturdy fence surrounded it and after approaching, Farid saw a peacock staring at him. It was not the only animal there. The visitor also saw a gazelle grazing, blissfully unaware of a cheetah watching its every move. Much like the herbivore, Farid was oblivious to something watching him. His eyes moved to the door of the building when a brown-haired young man with a prosthetic left leg exited. He smiled, then it faded into a chastising expression.

"Come on, Bud, you know you almost gave three people heart attacks just last week by doing that."

Confused, Farid noticed the speaker's gaze was not on him. Turning around, he saw a black jaguar that was only a mere few feet behind him. Seeing this made him understand why those other visitors' cardiovascular health was put to the question. Like the man, he had a prosthetic left back paw. The fierce look on the jaguar's face changed into a playful expression and he calmly walked past the newcomer and over to the trainer.

"Don't mind him. He's really harmless–just equally ornery. I'm Hiccup. I think my dad said you'd be coming over here today, right?"

Hiccup extended his hand which the doctor shook.

"Yes, I'm Farid," he said, eyes struggling to move from the wild cat. "I heard you knew Dagur before his incarceration. Would you mind telling me some of what you know about him?"

"I wouldn't mind, but I don't know how much it can help."

"Anything would," Farid assured him. "If I can learn more about him before the date of the crimes, I might be able to understand what happened better."

Hiccup nodded and led the way into the building. As soon as the door opened, it looked like a zoo. There were wolf puppies playing, draco lizards gliding back and forth on little plants, a peregrine falcon curiously observing it all, and these were only some of what Farid saw.

"You have quite the variety of animals. Out of curiosity, what made you get into this profession?"

Hiccup stopped for a moment and rubbed his chin in thought. "I guess I just wasn't cut out for following in my dad's footsteps. I've always had an interest in animals, so I bring injured or lost animals here and train them so they don't try to kill each other or me." He chuckled. "That can be the hard part sometimes, but it's always worth the effort." He patted the jaguar who lovingly nuzzled his head against him. "Toothless here was the first animal I trained. He was part of some traveling circus and escaped. Everyone thought he was dangerous, so you could imagine my…surprise when I saw a seven-foot long carnivore emerge from the woods and say hello."

Farid watched the two in amazement. "He was lucky to have found you."

"I think we were both lucky. I'm not really sure what else I'd be doing with my life if it weren't for him inspiring me to get on this path."

Toothless stood on his hind legs and placed his front paws on Hiccup's shoulders like a hug. The trainer happily laughed, but the joy on his face did not last long as he recalled the meaning of Farid's visit.

"But you didn't come here for stories about animals," he said, somewhat reluctantly. "You want to know about Dagur."

Hiccup gestured to some chairs and the two sat down.

"I've known Dagur since we were kids. His dad and mine were friends. Their work brought them together, Oswald being a judge and my dad being a warden. So, whenever he and his wife would come by for a visit, they'd bring Dagur. I still remember the first time I met him.

"My dad and his parents started talking about some type of legal issue…I think it was about a drug lord or something, but that part of my memory is a bit fuzzy. Whatever it was, my dad didn't want us to hear about it, so he suggested that we play outside. There's a forest not too far from where we live. I didn't go into it a lot since I'd always manage to fall into some groundhog hole, but I made the mistake of mentioning it. As soon as I did, Dagur wanted to see it for himself. I couldn't convince him to let it go and followed after him. We went further and further until we reached a section I'd never been in before. The whole time, he kept talking about all the animals that might pop out from behind the trees and try to eat me.

"I think he must've started to get to me because everything began looking like some hungry creature. I got so distracted by those thoughts that I didn't even notice I wasn't following him anymore. So there I was, just lost in the middle of the woods. I tried to retrace my steps, but I was getting more lost by the second. Nothing looked familiar anymore. Suddenly, something leapt from some bushes. I wound up falling backwards down a hill and hit my head so hard on a tree trunk that I blacked out. When I woke up, I was back in my home, being carefully watched by my dad. He'd been worried about me being out there for so long. I guess he found me and brought me back. Apparently, that thing which had scared me half to death had been Dagur. He and his parents were gone by the time I woke up, but he didn't leave without giving a parting gift. By the door to my room, there was a hollowed out piece of wood with a mouse inside."

Hiccup shook his head at the memory. "My dad got a bit extra protective after that and wouldn't let us spend time together unsupervised. Any other time they came by, we'd have to stay within eyesight–which I didn't mind. Dagur only seemed to get stranger each time. He started keeping this knife on him and I always thought he'd try to cut me with it."

Farid was taking some notes and glanced up from them to look at the trainer. "Did he ever threaten to use the knife on you?"

"No, but he seemed like he wanted to use it on somebody. He'd always talk about the different ways he could use it to attack people. Sometimes, he was just lost in his descriptions. It was like he was envisioning the perfect scenario. I'd try to leave unnoticed when he did that. For the most part, I think the supervision kept anything too bizarre or dangerous from happening."

"Do you remember any interactions between him and his father?"

"Not a lot, but I know they seemed to always be fighting. My dad told me that Oswald even seemed scared of Dagur at times."

"For his life?"

"I think so, but I couldn't say for sure. I know things got more strained between them when Dagur's mom died. You could feel the tension a mile away. They stopped visiting after that. I didn't see Dagur again until high school. He was a junior when I enrolled as a freshman. I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to high school. Seemed like I would be the perfect target for anyone who liked to pick on fellow students. It wasn't a great feeling to learn Dagur was there too. I tried to stay away from him and hoped he wouldn't notice me, but it didn't work. It was like he was the top dog because even other bullies knew not to mess with me instead of him."

Farid lifted a brow slightly. "The other bullies stayed away from you?"

"Yeah, it wound up being our first time meeting in years. Some seniors were about to shove me into a locker, but as soon as they saw him coming, they scattered. It became a well-known fact that no one besides Dagur could mess with his 'brother.' That's what he used to call me."

"Was he like regular bullies?"

"Nothing about Dagur is 'regular.' His bully style could've fallen into the cruel and unusual punishment category. He'd come up with these odd challenges like juggling raw eggs he'd somehow sneak in. One of the stranger ones I remember is having to eat a Carolina reaper pepper by itself without drinking anything to cool off afterwards. They'd be odd things like this and if you couldn't do it, you'd have to wrestle and the winner would pick the next challenge–which basically meant getting squashed against the floor until he got bored, so he always got to pick. The school didn't even have a wrestling club, so there was a special spot in the gym he designated for that."

"Besides wrestling, did he ever fight you?"

"Surprisingly no. I always just assumed that was because it would've been too predictable. He wasn't the type of bully who was going to give you a swirly. He was the type to make you think he'd kill you if you couldn't jump off the roof of the school and land silently." The young man paused and a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "I think besides me, there was only one other kid who got the same treatment. The two of us ended up bonding a bit because of that and the fact that we both preferred learning to athletics. His name is Fishlegs. You could probably learn more about Dagur from him too. I can ask him if he'd be willing to talk to you if you'd like. We're still good friends. He normally takes the day off from work on Wednesdays, so he'll be free tomorrow."

"That'd be great. Thanks! I don't have any appointments in the early afternoon, so if he's fine meeting then, I could meet him wherever he'd want to talk."

"Knowing him, he'll still be at the lab."

Hiccup chuckled as he thought of his friend. Then, he shook Farid's hand again when he rose to leave.

"Thank you for your time today."

"No problem," Hiccup said with a smile.

He and Toothless walked the visitor out. Before he was completely gone, Hiccup spoke up once more.

"Do you think there's hope for him?"

"I think there's hope for anyone willing to make the most of the opportunity."

The trainer looked to be neither in agreement nor disagreement and waved goodbye as Farid drove away from the building. As he returned home, correctional officers were making the rounds to be sure no one was up to anything nefarious. One officer with a blond mustache as well as a prosthetic left hand and right leg was keeping an eye on some prisoners who were particularly irritable. They also seemed to have lost a significant amount of weight rather suddenly. Staring at them with suspicion, the man's gaze only moved when someone started heading towards cell 1250.

"What're you doing, Alvin?" he asked, eyeing the other officer with skepticism. "You're supposed to be doing rounds too. You're not on food delivery tonight."

The other man just shrugged. "Sven called in sick earlier. I figured I'd just take care of his duties tonight. Not like this takes long, Gobber."

Gobber frowned slightly then relaxed. "You have a point there. I didn't hear that about Sven, though."

"He just told Stoick. That's how I found out."

Not continuing the conversation further, Alvin went past the other officer until he reached the door leading to the cell. He unlocked it and entered the room. It was dark and quiet. There was another wall which separated him from the inmate, but it was so dark that he could not see it or anything else for that matter. A chill went down his spine and he turned on the light. Through the small bit of glass on the door, he saw Dagur smiling at him. Scowling, Alvin opened the hatch for the food and tossed it in, making the plate's contents fall to the floor.

"Good to know we're still friends," the inmate said, tilting his head to look at the food.

Alvin pointed at him. "You might feel like you have an ally in the doctor, but remember that at the end of the day, he isn't the one who's here."

"How could I forget about your pretty face?"

Dagur started laughing to Alvin's annoyance.

"Listen here, you lunatic," he said roughly. "What have you been saying?"

"Words mainly, but I have made up some new ones lately. Wanna hear them?"

Alvin started to say something, then stopped and chuckled. "I don't know why I was worried. There aren't enough brains in that skull of yours to make use of this situation."

Smugly, he turned and left the prisoner again, turning out the light before he left. When he was gone, Dagur's smile disappeared, replaced by a hateful glare.

"You keep thinking that, Alvy," he whispered, "and we'll see how much you like surprises."