Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

The Dragon of Wanheda

"So… this is what brought you out here?" Clarke studied the strange object thoughtfully, both impressed at the design and curious about how it could do what she had been told it was capable of.

"The Dragon Eye," Hiccup nodded at her, taking the elegantly-carved tube back from her, sitting in the main 'meeting area' with Fishlegs and Astrid as their dragons squatted around them. "We found that when dragonfire illuminates the lenses, it displays a range of information about certain types of dragon."

"And," Fishlegs added with a smile, "we've found that we can get new information if we mix different lens combinations with the light from different dragons."

"Impressive," Clarke said as she looked at the Eye with new appreciation. "Where did you get it?"

"Hiccup found it on a dragon hunter ship a while back, and we followed the first lens out here," Astrid explained. "We've found a few more lenses since we got here-"

"You did?" Clarke looked more eagerly at the other blonde. "Where was that?"

"Well, Gustav- he's kind of a junior rider who lives back on Berk- found a couple of lenses when he visited us a few months back, and Hiccup and I actually found a couple more while we were investigating Lycanwing Island," Fishlegs explained.

"…Is that what you were referring to when you said the lycanwing was just a myth to keep people away from something?" Clarke looked with new curiosity at the large Viking.

"You remember that?" Hiccup asked in surprise.

"I was curious what could be on that island that might be such a big deal that you still didn't want to tell me about."

"Uh… sorry we didn't-"

"I get it; you don't want to share all your secrets with the new girl too quickly," Clarke nodded at the one-legged young man with a reassuring smile, before she looked more thoughtfully at the lens. "So… could I borrow it?"

"Borrow?" the three other Riders said simultaneously as she looked uncertainly at her.

"Just for tonight," Clarke clarified as she indicated her tower. "If mixing lenses and dragon fires reveals different information, I'm just curious to see if anything happens when Griffin tries to light it up."

"He doesn't actually generate fire-" Fishlegs began.

"But he does generate heat in the back of his throat before he lets off a heat blast that might be some kind of illumination," Clarke interrupted, Griffin opening his mouth to demonstrate the aforementioned glow. "If it doesn't work out, we've lost nothing, but I'd be interested to see the result."

"You're sure?" Fishlegs looked curiously at her. "You did say you can't read our language, and these runes are… well, they're tricky…"

"Just give me a chance," Clarke smiled. "At the very least I can let you know if I found anything interesting; if nothing stands out, we've lost nothing."

"That… seems fair enough," Hiccup nodded, as he handed Clarke the Eye and the lenses. "Just be careful with them, OK?"

"No problem," Clarke smiled as she took the offered objects, already contemplating what she might learn from this new opportunity.

She appreciated that she still needed some time to really get to grips with the written version of their language (which she'd call 'Norse' just to keep it simple, even if she had her doubts about whether it was real Norse or just whatever the park would have made up for their games), but if there was anything on these lenses that she and Griffin could pick up…

Clarke had no idea how she had slept the previous night after spending so long studying the lenses. She'd noticed Hiccup and Astrid leaving later that afternoon, following a small figure that she had tentatively identified as some kind of tiny dragon, but she had decided to focus on her own self-assigned study of the Dragon Eye and hope that they would tell her if they needed her. The twins and Snotlout seemed to be having a semi-argument down in the Edge, but so long as they weren't going to do anything too stupid she felt comfortable leaving the others alone, particularly with Fishlegs to keep an eye on the rest.

The Eye itself had proven to be a fascinating device. She was fairly sure that it had been designed as part of the Dragon Sanctuary's old games, but that didn't mean that the information it provided was any less interesting. She hadn't been able to clearly read any of the information it gave her, but by comparing each lens and combination of lenses to Hiccup and Fishlegs' existing notes, she'd soon confirmed that Griffin's flames did turn up a few new details on each lens that the other Riders hadn't found yet. She'd had to take care when copying out the additional runes, but it still felt good to find something new.

Maybe not anything world-shattering, but good to know I've contributed something…

The simple joy of discovery was something Clarke hadn't let herself appreciate since she first came to Earth and learned that she and the rest of the 100 weren't the only human life on the planet. Every day she spent on the Edge, it was as if the Riders had given her more opportunities to help when she hadn't even known she was looking for them. Where the rest of the Ark residents and the Grounders had basically forced her to lead them and then everyone started complaining when they didn't like what she did, the Riders continued to ask nothing more of her than that she care for Griffin and chipped in to help around the Edge.

Snoutlout might have an inflated opinion of himself and the twins might be so eccentric Clarke privately wondered if she should work out some way to give them medication for some sort of mild psychiatric disorder, but they were basically good people who recognised their limits even if they wouldn't say it explicitly. Fishlegs just had some self-confidence issues despite his intelligence, and Hiccup and Astrid were practically made for each other in Clarke's view even if Astrid was having trouble admitting it, Hiccup's compassion and intelligence well-matched by Astrid's courage and combat prowess. Thinking back on what she'd learned about their experience as part of a team, the fact that Clarke had just been invited to join their morning briefing, she had to spend a few moments resisting the urge to come down with a broad smile on her face at this new sign that she had been accepted as part of the wider group.

"So," she asked, as she sat down at the table to look around at the Riders, "what was with last night's trip?"

"There was a trip last night?" Tuffnut looked at Clarke and Hiccup in surprise. "Why wasn't I informed?"

"Because you were off doing whatever you were doing with your new best friend?" Ruffnut pointed out as she waved a disdainful hand at Snotlout.

"Hey!" Snotlout yelled indignantly before he looked over at Clarke. "And how did you know about it when we-?"

"I'm your lookout right now, remember?" Clarke countered (she couldn't quite get over how easy it was to fall into this simple camaraderie; she'd never have felt comfortable enough to just… tease her old allies like this). "That doesn't just mean looking for things coming to this outpost."

"And on that topic," Hiccup said, in a cool voice of authority that prompted all six of the others to turn and look at him, "last night Astrid and I got a message from Heather; the hunters are after the Flightmare."

"Flightmare?" Clarke repeated, even as the rest of the teens looked anxiously at each other. "I think my dad told me about those… remind me, what kind of dragon is that?"

"A dragon that glows a brilliant blue at night and releases a mist that paralyses its victims," Astrid said, the blonde Viking's tone particularly cool. "One of them… let's just say it's one of those dragons we don't look into training."

"There are dragons you can't train?"

"More there are dragons that are too wild, too big, or just too dangerous to train," Hiccup clarified. "If we can leave them alone, they're not too bad, but… well, as an example, Toothless has a bad history with Whispering Deaths and they're basically immune to most attempts we might make to calm them down before training."

"…I probably don't want to know what that's like in person," Clarke noted, mind flashing back to an image in her father's pamphlet of a dragon with a massive mouth full of teeth and a strangely spindly body.

"Probably not," Hiccup nodded. "Anyway, the point is that, even if we can't train the Flightmare, we know that the hunters can't be allowed to capture it, so we're going to need to go after it…"

"And we're bringing Clarke along?" Ruffnut grinned.

"Not yet," Hiccup shook his head before looking back at Clarke. "It's not that I don't think you're capable, but… look, this could be our best chance to get the leaders of the hunters while he's off-guard-"

"So you can't afford to be worrying about how the new girl will perform under pressure," Clarke finished for him, nodding in understanding. "Fair enough; I'll keep practising at this end while you're away."

"Thanks," Hiccup nodded at her, before nodding at the Dragon Eye. "And you might want to keep that on you; I'd rather we didn't just… leave it lying around if we've got someone to keep an eye on it."

Clarke nodded in understanding even as she fought the urge to give Hiccup a grateful hug; the thought these people trusted her with the safety of the most important thing they had just reinforced how she felt like she belonged here.