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

Looking over her papers, Clarke smiled as she sketched out the last few details of her 'patient records'. She wasn't sure that any of the other Riders would actually get the point of this, but it could be interesting to get a proper record of some of their past injuries beyond the obvious details like Hiccup's lost leg…

That last bit of 'paperwork' drawn up, Clarke left her hut and began to walk around the Edge. The rest of the group had made sure there wasn't any obvious dangers before they left to find the missing dragons, but when that just consisted of Hiccup making sure nothing was on fire it couldn't hurt to be sure that there wasn't anything else he might have missed.

As she walked through the outpost, Clarke was once again struck by the relative ingenuity of some of the huts. Snotlout's design in particular still struck her as more than a bit egocentric, but she could work with that as a personal quirk; at least he actually did something useful and didn't try to hurt anyone, unlike some of Murphy's more bone-headed actions.

Frankly, she was impressed at how Hiccup kept everyone under control. There was some tension at times, she would admit to that, but it was never anything more serious than you might get in any kind of power structure. For all that she'd heard Hiccup had been the outcast for years before he tamed Toothless, the rest of the group all seemed to accept his command decisions, voicing objections only because they knew he'd listen to them but accepting his final choice.

And he'd never do that…

Clarke forced that thought down; as much as she hated what Lexa had done in leaving her people to the Mountain, she couldn't ignore that the Grounder Commander had a long-standing history with the residents that trumped any tentative alliance she'd formed with Clarke. Faced with stopping a known enemy and risking her people for a potential friend… Clarke liked to think she would have made a different choice herself, but at the same time she could see the 'logic' behind it…

Hiccup, on the other hand… considering that he'd kept Astrid by his side for purely emotional reasons when he could have just coldly insisted she stay here in the Edge with Clarke, Clarke could see he was a more emotionally available leader-

The sight of a large box near the edge of one of the outer walkways drew Clarke's attention; she'd never had reason to come out this far before now, but something in that design looked familiar. Walking over to examine the box more closely, Clarke took a moment to work out what she was looking at before she recalled some of the old films she'd watched with her parents before everything went wrong, in particular a few with scenes set around the Empire State Building.

Obviously this design was much larger and the wood gave it a kind of 'steampunk' feel, but unless Clarke was barking up the wrong tree, this looked like some kind of telescope or binoculars.

"And he made this with a Viking background?" Clarke said out loud, once again impressed at Hiccup's ingenuity. However she looked at this, the more she found out about Hiccup's genius the more she wondered what he would be capable of if he knew enough about her own tech-

The idea actually startled Clarke even after it crossed her mind. She'd been getting so comfortable here in the Edge she would have been certain that she didn't have to think about going back to the mainland to deal with the Ark and the Grounders, but right then, the thought of what Hiccup could do if he knew what Raven knew…

That wasn't just missing a few key people from her old life, that was all but explicitly missing the wider culture-

Her self-analysis was cut off when she heard a familiar squawking, roaring sound from further down the coastline near the current edge of the outpost. Forgetting her plan to just stay with the Edge, she ran in the direction of the sound, the strange noise continuing for a few moments as she left the planks and ran along the grassy coastline until she finally reached the source.

"Barf and Belch?" Clarke said, unsure if she should laugh or sympathise at the sight of the two-headed dragon that had somehow become tangled around itself since it fled the Edge, its necks wound around each other. "What happened to you?"

The dragons started at the sound and sharply turned to look at her, its tail sweeping along the ground in a manner that nearly knocked Clarke off her feet if she hadn't managed to jump up in time.

"OK!" she said, holding her hands up as the dragon (was the singular the right term when the dragon had two heads?) looked at her in what could have been surprise. "You're on edge, and I can understand that, but-"

Seeing one head starting to spark around its fangs, Clarke remembered one of her lessons about dealing with a temperamental dragon and grabbed a half-full bucket of water someone had left behind earlier, throwing it onto the two heads before the other head could open its mouth and start producing gas. The water wasn't anything worse than what they might have encountered in a rain shower, but it seemed to be enough to bring the damp dragon heads to their senses as they looked at Clarke with a calmer expression.

"Sorry, but… well, you blowing stuff up here wouldn't really help anything," Clarke pointed out, indicating the battered buildings before she walked up to the two-headed dragon. "Now then, could you just… give me a moment to get you untangled, and then we can… see about finding the rest of your group?"

For a moment Clarke just stood and anxiously waited, but when the two heads bent down to her level and let out a low, affirming grumble, she chose to take that as a good sign. Carefully taking one head in her hands, Clarke began to carefully move it back over its 'sibling', taking care not to scratch the head on the other's quills.

Even once she got this done, getting this dragon to fly anywhere would probably be a difficult operation, considering that Barf and Belch had always been controlled by two riders. Frankly, Clarke recalled hearing a story about how the dragon had once refused to fly anywhere when Tuffnut was caught in a trap and Ruffnut had to try and walk back to the village herself, but hopefully the fact that neither rider was here right now would help her persuade the dragon to at least take her somewhere…

Hiccup still wasn't sure if this had been a good idea. He appreciated the idea of making Astrid feel useful despite her current injuries, and he had faith that Clarke at least had some idea of how to take care of herself even without her eyes, but the notion of going out with Astrid the victim of such a serious handicap…

He would never voice it out loud, of course, and he refused to give Astrid the impression that he doubted her abilities, but there was a difference between unnecessary doubts and showing genuine concern for an injured… teammate.

"OK," he said, hoping that a professional approach would help them break down their plans so that Astrid wouldn't have time to think about her own helplessness, "I'm thinking that, as jittery as the dragons were, they probably wanted to get as far away from the storm as possible. So, if we take this stream down towards the beach-"

"No!" Astrid cut him off. "I know my dragon, Hiccup. She's more worried about me than she is about herself, which means she would be trying to find her way back towards the Edge, upstream."

The explanation sounds good to Hiccup, but before he had a chance to express his thoughts, Astrid started walking towards the stream and ended up tripping over a rock just in front of her feet.

"Astrid! Whoa!" Hiccup called out, trying to grab her arm only to find himself pulled over with her. He just managed to adjust his position so that he was holding himself on top of her without actually being on her, and even then he really hoped she didn't notice certain signs of how he felt about this position…

"Are you OK?" he said at last, trying not to think about the disturbing way the blindfold hid her beautiful eyes.

"Uh, I'm… I'm fine," Astrid replied (Gods, Hiccup hoped she was just embarrassed about the accident). "We should probably get going?"

"Yeah," Hiccup said, not yet willing to tell Astrid she should go back as he helped her back to her feet. "That's exactly what I was gonna… get going."

"Did you hear that?" Astrid said.

"Hear what?"

"Something's coming at us," the blonde said, even as Hiccup was still trying to identify what had attracted her attention. "It sounds familiar…"

Hiccup's questions were answered when a familiar purple form came charging into the clearing, the island's newest Gronckle resident alternating between running along the ground as fast as possible and occasionally leaping into the air as though she had partially forgotten how to fly. Hiccup was just about to pull Astrid and himself to safety when he heard a more familiar call and a burst of brilliant orange flame came down from the nearby cliff, striking the ground between them and Charlotte.

"Stormfly!" Astrid called out in relief as the familiar blue-and-yellow dragon landed beside them and looked firmly at the currently-panicked Gronckle. The flame attack had diverted Charlotte from the initial charge, but the purple dragon's eyes still flickered anxiously all around her, clearly too afraid to register who she was with.

If it had been any of the other dragons, Hiccup would have tried talking to them himself, but given how new Charlotte was, coupled with how she'd spent more time with Clarke than him so far, he had to focus on other issues right now…

"OK, Astrid," he said, turning his attention back to his current human companion, "there's a rock formation ten paces to your left; hide behind it and you'll be safe-"

"'Hide'?" Astrid repeated indignantly as she 'looked' at a point about two feet away from his face, her gaze something obvious even with the blindfold over her eyes. "I'm not going to hide! Stormfly!"

Hiccup cursed himself for ever thinking that Astrid would accept an order to stay back even as she ran into the fight between the dragons, only for Stormfly to back away and then grab Astrid by the back of her top, tossing her off behind the indicated rock formation.

"OK," Hiccup said, already aware that he was going to have to apologise for all this later as he climbed onto Toothless's back. "You, stay here."

"Not fair, Hiccup," Astrid said, sounding unusually sulky for the confident warrior he was familiar with. "So not fair…"

"We'll discuss it later," Hiccup said. "In the mean time, just… stay safe, OK?"

"Fine, I'll hide," Astrid said bitterly, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Exactly what an experienced Dragon Rider should be doing in a time of crisis…"

Hiccup chose not to respond to Astrid's complaints as he nodded at Toothless, the Night Fury leaping into action with Stormfly close behind. The two dragons had worked together for so long that it was relatively easy for Stormfly to follow Toothless's lead even without Astrid giving instructions, Stormfly using a mixture of spine-shots and flames to force Charlotte back until Toothless could fire a plasma-bolt directly at the Gronckle. With long experience of just how much force to use in a crisis, Toothless was able to deliver enough of a blow to stun Charlotte without causing any long-term damage, allowing him and Stormfly to literally leap onto the purple Gronckle and pin her down. For a moment Charlotte still looked around herself in a blind panic, straining to get back up, but a few middling roars from Toothless- not the Night Fury's loudest roars but enough to get his point across- eventually seemed to calm Charlotte down. The dragon still looked anxiously around herself, but Hiccup doubted it was anything more serious than the realisation that Clarke wasn't here right now, and hopefully the other two dragons could keep her calm until he could get Charlotte back to the edge.

"…hey girl," Astrid's voice broke into Hiccup's thoughts. Turning around, Hiccup was surprised that Astrid was actually fairly close to the Nadder's position, reaching out cautiously towards where Stormfly was standing. He swiftly reminded himself that Stormfly was making those low screech-like sounds the Nadder often made when she was standing around; now that there wasn't any fighting sounds to distract her, he could see how it might not be that hard for Astrid to identify her dragon's position.

"Nice job," he nodded at Astrid, trying to make his encouragement clear.

"For being able to find a dragon when she's standing still?"

"For knowing where that dragon is and how to touch her when you can't see," Hiccup corrected, Stormfly letting out her own reassuring sound as though wanting to affirm that she agreed with Hiccup. "It's OK to face that you need help sometimes, Astrid; nobody's going to think less of you."

"…And what if I think less of me?"

Moments like this helped Hiccup see how all of his friends had grown since they became dragon riders; he doubted that the Astrid who'd first started riding Stormfly would have been able to bring herself to show this kind of weakness to anyone.

Which makes it all the more important I help her through this when it's just the two of us… and the dragons, but they can keep a secret.

"Astrid," he said at last, hoping he would say the right thing but recognising that he had to at least try to do this now or lose his nerve, "just because Stormfly was trying to protect you doesn't mean you're… I mean, it was pretty cool, if you think about it."

"I'm having a hard time finding anything cool in all of this," Astrid said, bitterly indicating the cloth wrapped around her head. "This was just Charlotte having a bad day; what am I going to be like when it's a genuine threat?"

"Look," Hiccup reached over to place his hand on Astrid's upper arm, "obviously, I can't even imagine what this might be like for you. You're… well, you're Astrid. You're strong, you're invincible-"

"Not any more," she replied, turning around to 'look' at him, fear and sorrow apparent despite her eyes being hidden under the blindfold. "What if this is it, Hiccup? What if the rest of my life is like this? What then?"

"Then we'll deal with it," Hiccup assured her, placing his hands on her arms. "Just because you can't see doesn't mean you're helpless."

"But that's exactly how I feel."

"Astrid, you and I have been through everything together," Hiccup continued, his hands moving down her arms to take hold of her hands in turn. "You don't think we can handle this? Astrid, you have me, no matter what. Okay, whatever that means, whatever you want it to mean. I am with you. There will always be a Hiccup and Astrid. Always."

Astrid sat in silence for a few moments, but then she raised her head to face him more directly.

"You… really think so?" she asked, her voice sounding so much smaller than usual.

"You don't have to define yourself by being able to do things the way you always have," Hiccup assured her. "You've only been like this for a day; of course you're going to have some trouble adapting to what you've been through, but you can't just… one tough day can't make you give up."

"…You'd know about that, huh?"

Hiccup knew what Astrid meant by that, but at the same time he wasn't sure how to deal with it. It wasn't as though any of the Riders ever outright forgot about the fact that Hiccup had basically been the village pariah before he found Toothless, but for the most part nobody brought it up on their own. Hiccup had no problem telling people like Clarke about his past if he felt it worth sharing the details with them, but it was a rare moment when one of his team acknowledged how they had treated him back in the old days.

"How… did you do it?" Astrid asked, rubbing at her blindfold as though trying to dry tears out of her eyes while looking at him. "We were such… and your dad…"

"There were good days and bad days," Hiccup shrugged, emphasising it with a chuckle when he reminded himself Astrid couldn't see it. "I mean, sometimes even Gobber's attempts to be supportive just amounted to him assuring me that I was too small for the dragons to bother going after during a raid…"

He reached over to take Astrid's hand, looking reassuringly at her once again. "But I never let myself lose hope that things could get better, and you've got a lot more to give you that kind of faith than I did back then. Clarke's already confirmed that you've got a good chance of getting your sight back if you're careful, and you know Stormfly and I won't abandon you…"

Astrid didn't say anything, but the way she leaned over to rest against him said a great deal that she wasn't apparently ready to say verbally. When Stormfly walked over to squat on the ground beside Astrid, the blind woman immediately reached over to stroke Stormfly's snout even when the dragon hadn't made any particular sound to indicate that she was there.

The sound of a familiar screech prompted Hiccup to look up, only to be unsure if he should just smile or outright laugh at the sight above him.

"Barf and Belch, right?" Astrid asked.

"And ridden by Clarke," Hiccup observed, just as Charlotte let out an eager snort and flew up to the Zippleback, somehow managing to take up a position between its necks so that she could apparently lick the Edge's healer. "What does it say about us that Barf and Belch were the ones who stayed closest to the Edge?"

"Probably they just couldn't agree on where to run to and didn't end up going very far," Astrid observed with a shrug as the other dragon began to descend. She tilted her head as though listening to the chaotic chatter up above as the various riders enthusiastically greeted their 'proper' dragons (including an exasperated smile as Snotlout and the twins tried to get back on their dragons before Clarke and Fishlegs insisted they land first), followed by the reassuring thump as the other dragons touched down around her and Hiccup.

"Hey Charlotte," Clarke's voice said, clearly checking on her still-missing dragon before turning her attention to Hiccup and Astrid. "How are you?"

"Fine," Hiccup nodded at the newest Rider. "Charlotte was having a bit of a panic at first, but… well, we got her to stop."

"Have you been fighting with my dragon?" Clarke folded her arms and looked critically at the other two.

"Just enough to be sure she didn't do anything-" Hiccup began.

"It's fine; I'll talk with her about that later," Clarke said, smiling reassuring at Hiccup before she looked at Astrid. "How about you, Astrid?"

"…I'm OK," Astrid nodded, reaching up to cautiously run her hands over her blindfold. "It's… not easy, but I'm making it all work."

"That's all anyone can do," Clarke mused as she reached over to put a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "For what it's worth, I still think you'll get better eventually; we just need another opinion to be sure it's all going to come together…"

Looking around at the assembled dragons, Hiccup was left with a new sense of hope that Astrid was going to be all right; if they could gather their lost dragons back together this quickly, how hard could it be to treat Astrid's condition when Clarke had already started to help her?

He'd still send for Gothi to get her input once they'd made more progress repairing the remaining storm damage, but they had made a good start…