Chapter 2
Somehow, every newcomer ends up causing trouble for the Dragon Riders in some manner or fashion...
Talbot sat silently at the fireplace-table in the middle of what the odd group of people he'd met called "the Clubhouse." He did not wish to know these people; anyone and everyone he met ended up getting hurt because of him. If luck was with him, his cane would be fixed quickly, and he'd be out of their hair before nightfall.
His gold dragon-headed cane really did mean a lot to him. His father had given to him as a gift shortly before his death. It was the only thing he had left to remind him of his family, and the home he could never return to.
He remained still and quiet as the largest of the group - Hiccup said his name was Fishlegs, which was the most ridiculous name Talbot had ever heard - examined the cane's golden handle curiously. Nearby, the remaining five Dragon Riders and their dragons waited patiently for the dragon nerd's conclusion.
Astrid sighed. "Hiccup, he's been at this for a while."
"Trust me," Hiccup said, reassuringly, "if there's anyone who knows dragons, it's Fishlegs."
Toothless warbled in disagreement.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Fishlegs was truly and completely stumped. The cane's golden handle was clearly molded into the shape of a dragon's head, but it didn't match any species he'd seen before. Its snout was long and narrow, like a wolf's, its twisted horns curved inward, and set inside its eyes were glittering bits of onyx.
The pudgy Ingerman finally set the broken cane on the table next to Talbot. The dark-eyed boy watched him in eerie silence.
"The shape of the handle doesn't seem to match the head of any dragon I know," said Fishlegs. "I'll have to consult the book, and the Dragon Eye."
Talbot looked intrigued, but he remained silent.
"I don't see what the big deal is," scoffed Snotlout. "Just fix the stupid cane, and off he goes."
"The big deal," Astrid said, "is that he just showed up here, on the Edge, completely out of nowhere. He could be working for the Dragon Hunters, for all we know."
"I assure you," Talbot droned, "I know nothing of these Dragon Hunters you speak of. I'm not what you would call a 'people person'." He made air quotes on that last part.
Ruffnut groaned in disgust. "He's so gloomy. Too gloomy."
"Yeah," said Tuffnut. "Like Snotlout when he spilled his yak butter parfait."
The Jorgenson faced them like a raging storm cloud. "You bumped my arm, and you know it!"
"Guys," Hiccup sighed, "Astrid has a point. Until we know more about Talbot, we need to handle this carefully."
He knew the risks of letting a complete stranger stay on Dragon's Edge. If it turned out Talbot was working for the enemy, then all the riders, and their dragons, would be in danger. Still, he couldn't just cast the poor guy out all by himself, at least not without fixing his broken cane first. And what if Talbot was actually telling the truth?
Hiccup approached the table to grab the two halves of the cane. Talbot's eyes followed him as he moved, like a hawk observing a field mouse from high in the air. An inexplicable chill trailed down Hiccup's spine.
"You can bunk here at the Clubhouse for the night," the lead rider told their guest. "In the meantime, I'll get started repairing your cane."
"Can you finish it before tonight?" Talbot asked. "I need to leave as soon as possible."
"Why?" Snotlout questioned with a condescending scoff. "Scared of the dark?"
Talbot glared up at him through his black bangs. "I'm not overly fond of what accompanies it," was his cryptic answer.
Hiccup had to admit he was starting to feel quite unnerved by this strange young man. He grabbed the two halves of Talbot's cane and lifted them up to observe the damage. The staff had been snapped in half rather messily - there were jagged splinters of wood sticking out at all angles. He couldn't just stick the two halves back together; there was too much damage. He'd have to replace the staff altogether, and that required making the right measurements and gathering the correct material.
"This won't be an easy fix," Hiccup said. "At best, I can have it done by tomorrow." He thought for a minute before adding an uncertain, "Maybe."
"Tomorrow?" It was like Talbot had been struck by a lightning bolt - his posture went from slumped and reserved to straight as a board and alert as a watchdog. "That won't do at all. If I don't get off this island right now, bad things will happen. Very bad things."
Hiccup wasn't sure how to react to that. It was clear that Talbot was trying to warn them about something, but what?
"What bad things?" Astrid asked, scowling at the dark-eyed stranger.
Talbot started, then slumped his shoulders. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he grumbled.
Of all the people Hiccup had met, Talbot was by far the most mysterious. Even more so than Heather. While it was true that she hadn't been honest with them from the beginning, she was much more sociable than Talbot.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," said Hiccup. "If anything does go wrong, we have our dragons to protect us."
As if on cue, Toothless padded up and curled protectively around his rider. The Night Fury eyed Talbot warily.
"You'd best stick close to that dragon of yours," Talbot said lowly. "He's wise to beware me."
Admittedly, this strange young man was starting to scare Hiccup a little. Earlier, he'd thought that Toothless was being a little overprotective, but he'd learned something important when they met Torch a few years ago. Communication between rider and dragon was crucial; if Toothless, or any of the dragons really, detected something amiss, they had to heed the warnings.
"He's not the only one," said Astrid. "Try anything funny, and you'll have to answer to my axe."
Talbot raised an eyebrow at her. "Believe me," he said, "the kind of business you'll get from me is no laughing matter."
Astrid tried, but the only sound she was able to produce in that moment was an exasperated growl. She was starting to really dislike this stranger. Just who did he think he was?!
"Why don't we get back to work?" said Hiccup. "Before things get too out of hand."
"Yes, you should," Talbot droned. He eyed the sun, which was slowly shifting toward the horizon every second that passed, with a grim expression. "The sooner you fix my cane, the sooner you'll all be safe from me." He looked Astrid right in the eye. "I'll get right out of your hair, and you'll never have to see me again."
She grunted.
"Alright, then," Hiccup said, shrugging. "I guess this meeting's adjourned."
"Finally!" cheered Tuffnut, throwing his hands up.
His sister joined in with, "Back to the Boar Pit!"
Talbot raised an eyebrow at the nutty twins but didn't question them. He'd already done ten times more talking than usual today.
"I'll do more research," Fishlegs announced to no one in particular as he shuffled his way out of the Clubhouse.
"And I'll get started on fixing the cane," Hiccup said. "Astrid, you and Snotlout can stay here and keep an eye on our new acquaintance."
The pig-headed Jorgenson made a noise that could be best described as a mix of a grunt and a scoff. "Why do I get babysitting duty?!"
Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but Astrid beat him to it. "Because we're a team, and we all have responsibilities. It's either keep watch over this guy or go patrol the Edge, your choice."
While Snotlout shrank under her piercing glare, Hiccup couldn't help but smile. He could always count on Astrid to help keep the order within the group. It thrilled him to even think about how she had his back whenever things got challenging.
"What is the purpose of your face?" Talbot asked suddenly.
That broke Hiccup out of his stupor. "Huh?"
"You were making a weird face," the dark-eyed boy elaborated. "I've never seen it before. What does it mean?"
He's never seen anyone smile before? Hiccup was dumbfounded. What had this poor guy been through?
"That's it," Snotlout declared, marching for the exit. "I'm out. No way I'm dealing with this weirdo on your behalf, Hiccup!"
Talbot watched the bulky teen leave silently. Once Snotlout was out of sight, he told Hiccup, "Your friends are weird."
"You don't know the half of it," the lead rider snarked in reply.
Hiccup didn't know how long he'd been working to fix the broken cane. He'd stopped to eat lunch, and then dinner, but other than that everything else had been tuned out.
Talbot had seemed very eager, maybe even desperate, to leave, and Hiccup knew all too well that it was also in Astrid's best interest that Talbot left Dragon's Edge. Even if it turned out the stranger wasn't working for the enemy like they feared, it would give them all peace of mind at least.
It took most of the afternoon, but Hiccup was certain he'd found a match for the wood that had been used for the cane's staff - an Ash Tree. He thanked his luck stars he'd thought to gather some of that wood for material the last time they'd visited Askeblad Island on a dragon scouting mission. The tricky part was getting the measurements just right; Hiccup wanted to preserve the cane's original appearance as much as possible, assuming it did mean as much to Talbot as he'd claimed.
"Hiccup?"
Even now, three years after the end of the great war, hearing Astrid say his name made his heart leap...and so did the sight of her leaning in the doorway to his personal hut.
"Are you gonna work on that cane all night?" she asked, somewhat teasingly. Behind her, the sky had darkened and the moon was rising, casting an eerie glow.
Hiccup blinked. He'd been so caught up in his little project that he didn't notice how much time had passed. "Uh, no, I'm not," he answered. "Didn't even realize it was dark already. How's Talbot doing?"
"You mean other than being suspiciously quiet?" Astrid said with a slight growl. "He's fine. I left Stormfly to guard him."
"Good idea," said Hiccup. "We should probably take turns watching him, at least until morning."
Toothless crooned in agreement. He'd stay up all night, if he had to. There was something about that stranger that wasn't quite right, and he would protect his best friend with everything he had.
All of a sudden, a loud, guttural roar echoed through the clear night.
Hiccup jumped nearly a foot in the air at the abrupt noise. "What was that?"
No sooner after he'd asked, there was a terrified squawk.
Astrid knew that sound anywhere. "Stormfly!"
Hiccup didn't know what he was expecting when he and Astrid arrived at the Clubhouse, but it definitely wasn't a complete and total mess.
That wasn't an exaggeration - the table had been smashed to pieces, there were scorch marks all over the walls and the ceiling, and the floor was littered with torn fabric. And in the far corner, shaking like a leaf and looking completely and uncharacteristically terrified, was Stormfly.
Talbot was nowhere to be seen.
It might have been a stupid question, but Hiccup couldn't help asking, "What happened here?"
Astrid scoffed. "I knew that guy was trouble."
"Yeah, but what happened?" Hiccup enunciated.
The answer he got wasn't from the young woman standing next to him. Or from any human, for that matter.
Rather, it came in the form of an unusually deep-sounding howl.
Hiccup shifted nervously. "Is that a wolf?"
"It didn't sound like a wolf," Astrid said, a hint of suspicion in her voice.
One thing was certain - there was a very dangerous creature on Dragon's Edge. Probably something they'd never face before. And if that was the case, they'd need all hands on deck to figure out how to handle it.
"Get the others," Hiccup said without hesitation. "Toothless and I will investigate." He started, but stopped when he felt her hand on his wrist.
"Be careful," she told him softly.
He gave her a nod that said, "I will," and a whole lot more.
In hindsight, going toward the strange sound with only Toothless to protect him wasn't the best idea Hiccup had ever had. But he had no way of knowing exactly what they were dealing with. They'd encountered never-before-seen species of dragons before, and he didn't expect that this one would be any different.
He found the creature by the stables, gorging itself on the baskets and barrels full of fish that were meant for their dragons to feed on. The floorboards creaked under Hiccup and Toothless's footfalls, and the dragon spun around to glare at them.
It was large, about twice the size of Stoick, with crimson scales and a long, slender body. Its snout was narrow and pointed, like a wolf's, with wickedly sharp teeth that glinted in the moonlight. Two enormous wings adorned its side as its dagger-like claws gripped the wooden floor. It had two twisted horns that curved inward and its obsidian eyes had no white in them at all; they were orbs of pure, menacing black that sent shivers down Hiccup's spine.
Its head looked just like the gold handle on Talbot's cane. Could Talbot be connected with this dragon somehow?
Toothless growled at the dragon, who snarled back.
"Hold on, bud," Hiccup said, placing one hand on the Night Fury's snout. "He's probably just hungry. Let me try and calm him down."
Toothless growled in protest, but it was no use. Hiccup was already advancing on the dragon, step by step, his hand outstretched. The dragon's obsidian eyes stared into his, its tail curling behind its body.
"It's okay," Hiccup said soothingly. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help."
The next few seconds were all a blur, but at the end of it Hiccup was pinned to the stable floor, the red dragon's claws digging into his chest while its snout hovered right in front of his face.
Toothless pounced on the dragon, landing right in the square of its back, his claws and teeth digging into its scales. The red beast didn't even acknowledge the Night Fury, its focus was entirely on the young man it had pinned.
It was a predator, and Hiccup was its prey.
The dragon's fangs sunk into his shoulder, and he screamed. His hands somehow found the dragon's horns, and he pulled with all his might, trying to pry the creature off him. He could hear Toothless thrashing and roaring, the sound of flapping wings approaching, and Astrid's voice call out his name.
Then he blacked out.
Well, that got dark fast. But, really, there's only so much material that you can fit into a twenty-something-minute-long episode. (I don't mean to disappoint, but I don't plan on this story being too much longer.)
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