35Disclaimer: 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
With the other Riders off on one of their mysterious raids and the twins taking part in some kind of training flight that seemed to be focused on how much gas Barf could produce in the sky, Clarke was left to wander the rest of the island with only Griffin for company. She was under orders not to actually get on her dragon and try to fly anywhere, but she appreciated that she was being given greater freedom the longer she stayed with the other Riders, rather than still being treated as the outsider.
She wasn't sure if that talk with Astrid had prompted the other girl to speak up on her behalf, but Clarke had been watching the other girl whenever she saw Astrid along with Hiccup, and she wasn't entirely surprised to see that Astrid kept on getting just that little bit closer to the one-legged Viking whenever she could find a reason to do so. She didn't think either Hiccup or Astrid had actually told each other how they felt yet, but Clarke wasn't going to judge them for waiting a bit to take that final step; her own relationship experience might suck, but you didn't have to be experienced to know that basically forcing others to be happy wasn't a good idea.
That said, even if she missed having someone to talk to, she actually liked the fact that the other Riders had left her relatively alone on the Edge. The twins might be nearby if she tried to fly away, but it was as though leaving her like this was a sign that they trusted her enough not to do anything on the island itself. After taking a moment to grab a couple of chairs and other small items of furniture from outside the huts and move them up to the top of her tower for the future, Clarke found herself taking a brief look at the open doors of each hut, smiling at such details as the water trough beside Snotlout's hut, the double doors of the twin's hut, the simple interior of Fishleg's with a rock pool off to the side, and Astrid's metallic hut filled with all kinds of weapons.
When she reached Hiccup's hut, Clarke wasn't entirely surprised to see the range of alternate tail-fins for Toothless laid out on the walls, and thought she saw a small hatch in the floor, but her attention was soon caught by two objects positioned on a kind of 'hatstand' in one corner of the room. Briefly pausing in thought, Clarke decided to ignore her old rule to stay outside and nipped into the hut to take a closer look at the stand, her eyes widening as she realised just what she was looking at.
"Wings…" she whispered, reaching out to touch the large pair of cogs at the top of one set of wings on the stand. Moving her fingers along the cogs to the long rods at either end, Clarke held out the rods at one end of the set-up and confirmed her initial assessment that this design must have been based on Toothless's artificial tail-fin, the rods locking into position once the wings had been spread out as appropriate and slipping back into position once she adjusted them appropriately. The second set was a simpler design, as it was just a couple of large bits of leather with straps on one end and a couple of short chains on the other. For a moment Clarke wasn't entirely sure if it was another set of wings or something else, but she soon worked out that the straps must be intended to go around the wearer's arms while the chains somehow attached to the user's feet, and it even looked as though the wings could basically fold up onto the wearer's back until he needed to use them.
"Nice," she nodded in approval at the two wingsuits, before she glanced back at Griffin. "You have to admire Hiccup, really; he might think he's from a thousand years ago, but without professional equipment to work from, this stuff is brilliant by any definition…"
She trailed off slightly as she saw Griffin looking at her with an almost sarcastic expression. "Hey, I'm not saying I like him like that, but I'm allowed to admire a guy as a leader and inventor without wanting to… do stuff with him, you know?"
She still wasn't sure just how intelligent Griffin was in that context, but the way the dragon chuckled slightly at her was enough to assure her that he at least understood that she was trying to be flippant about the situation, even if she wasn't sure if he even understood the implication that she might be attracted to Hiccup in the first place. Returning to her original plans, Clarke walked along the paths around the Edge for a few moments before she turned off to head into the woods around the compound, soon settling into a comfortable pace as she walked through the woods, Griffin walking alongside her.
The sun was in the sky, the air was warm and refreshing, there were a few birds singing, her dragon paced peacefully alongside her… Clarke didn't think she'd had a truly peaceful walk through the woods since…
God, even her first walk along Earth hadn't been this relaxing; she'd been so worried about what she might find that she hadn't been able to appreciate the beauty of it, and after that every time she'd gone out she'd had to keep an eye out for Grounders or Mountain Men or wild animals…
What did it say about the life she lived that she'd had to go all the way to a small island inhabited by dragons to find a place on Earth where she could go out and just be sure that she was safe to relax?
And I never would have found this if Griffin hadn't called out while I was at Arrow Station…
"It's… nice here, isn't it?" she looked over at Griffin with a warm smile, suddenly overcome by a sense of gratitude towards her dragon. "We're safe from random attacks, we're both making friends, nobody's actively looking for me, you're not a 'special' target of the dragon hunters, and I'm learning more about how to… well, help you?"
Griffin nudged her with his head and let out the low rumble that Clarke had chosen to interpret as him approving of her efforts to take care of him.
"Thanks," Clarke rubbed his horn; scratching him under his chin triggered some kind of nerve that made most dragons just fall over, but the horn-scratch just seemed to be something he liked. "And… well, is it selfish of me to like the fact that someone else was in charge when I got here?"
This time Clarke was sure Griffin looked at her with a quizzical expression in his eyes after that last comment.
"I mean," Clarke said, waving a hand as she looked at her dragon, "I ended up becoming a leader for my people before we met because it seemed like I was the only one who really appreciated the scale of the problems facing us, but here… I get that I don't know everything they're dealing with here, but it's like Hiccup's already dealt with most of the problems and he's not the kind of guy to create new ones…"
She was interrupted when she heard a sound coming from behind her, spinning around to see a cave in the cliff. Glancing over at Griffin, she grabbed a broken branch and walked carefully into the cave, the dragon close behind her, before she pulled out a small flint and struck a few sparks to light the branch. After walking a few metres into the cave, passing a range of stalagmites she soon saw a pair of small dragons circling around on the ground in front of her, each about the size of a dog, with red eyes and a large mouth, putting her in mind of a short-necked, smooth-backed, smaller version of Griffin. The two dragons looked at her with an expression that she could only think of as caution, their lips curled back as though they were about to snarl even as they didn't actually seem to be making a particular sound.
"Uh… hi?" Clarke said at last, holding back the hand holding her burning branch to silence Griffin as she looked cautiously at the other dragons; judging by the way they flinched, she guessed they didn't like light that much. "I'm… Clarke; this is… Griffin."
The small dragons were still letting out a cautious growling sound as they looked at her, but they seemed to be willing to wait rather than attack. After a few moments of staring uncertainly at each other, the dragons turned and moved briskly back into the shadowy rear of the cave, Clarke moving cautiously after the dragons until she saw a sword impaled in the ground nearby.
Clarke appreciated that she was probably just letting herself get distracted by the sheer 'cool' factor of what she was looking at here, but even a casual glance at the sword made it clear that it was an impressive weapon. There were fine golden runes carved into the handle and along the blade, and the leather wrapped around the handle was very well-preserved, assuming that one of the other Riders hadn't left the weapon here for some reason. Reaching out to the sword, Clarke placed her hand on the hilt and pulled at it for a few moments, but the blade proved to be resistant to her efforts. After studying it for a moment, Clarke glanced back at Griffin with an inquiring smile.
"Could you…?" she began, indicating the weapon in the ground. Actually appearing to nod in understanding, Griffin walked up and tugged on the sword while scratching at the ground with his claws, his own powerful neck and jaw muscles forcing the sword out of the ground with relative ease. Grabbing the blade between her palms, Clarke took the weapon from her dragon and grabbed it by the hilt, giving the blade a couple of experimental swings before she held it up in front of her.
"Nice," she decided, nodding in approval at the weapon before she glanced down thoughtfully at herself for a moment before pulling her old holster out of her inner jacket pocket (she couldn't even remember what had happened to her gun after Arrow Station), hung it back on her hip, and forced the sword into it. As she'd hoped, the blade cut through the bottom of the holster with sufficient force, but left the main body of the holster intact enough for Clarke to be fairly sure the sword wouldn't just slip out at a moment's notice.
Looking beyond the sword, Clarke noted the small dragons she'd seen earlier at the bottom of a sudden incline. Mentally judging the distance, Clarke 'skidded' down the floor with her torch in one hand, raising the light when her hand brushed over some kind of carving. Her torch was bright enough to reveal that there was a strange collection of runes carved on the walls. For a moment Clarke wondered where the dragons had gone, but the sight of another, deeper pit beyond the runes answered that question.
As soon as she was on Griffin's back, the dragon leapt down to the bottom of the pit, landing with cat-like grace in an even darker part of the caves. A brief search was enough to reveal the presence of more of the strange white dragons, but a loud roar from Griffin was enough to make the new dragons back off.
"OK, easy…" Clarke said, reaching into her pocket to pull out a few small strips of something that put her in mind of tales of beef jerky, tossing them onto the ground in front of the dragons. The dragons sniffed at the meat uncertainly for a moment before one of them took a bite from the meat in front of it, followed by the rest of the dragons doing the same. The group seemed to smile at her, but then moved aside as Clarke walked further into the cave, the torch raised as Clarke studied the area. Looking around, Clarke noted a small assortment of boxes and other basic furniture, including a couple of old lamps and worn-looking books, with a stone throne against one wall that suggested to Clarke that this had been some kind of outpost before it was abandoned.
"Nice place you've got here," Clarke said, smiling tentatively at the dragons as she looked around the cave. She didn't know if this place had developed over time or been part of the storyline of one of the park's old games before the apocalypse, but right now her bigger question was finding out more about this cave. Following the path to a large entrance area at the other end, Clarke found herself in a significantly larger cavern.
"OK, now this is really nice," she observed, raising the torch to get a better look at the scale of the area. She appreciated that a flaming stick didn't give a good sense of the area as a whole, but-
Her thoughts were cut off when the sun came in through a small hole in the ceiling, illuminating a far larger cavern while prompting a range of snarls and screeches from the dragons as they retreated from the light.
"Ah," she said in understanding. "That's why you're all hiding out back there, right? The light's too bright for your nocturnal vision…"
Glancing up at the hole, Clarke made a few mental calculations before she slung her legs back over Griffin and directed the dragon towards the hole. The Windstriker had to give his wings a couple of powerful beats to reach the roof, but once he came in close enough he quickly folded his wings against his sides and dived through the hole, spreading them as soon as he was outside the cave and turning in the air. Observing the location of the hole, Clarke made a few mental notes before she turned Griffin around to head back towards the Edge.
Once she reached the outpost, Clarke got off the dragon and headed for a pile of wood off to the side of the training arena that had been previously pointed out to her as the place where the other riders kept supplies for potential repairs. Based on her look at the hole when she'd left the cave and her knowledge of Griffin's size, it wasn't hard for Clarke to pick out a few appropriately-sized bits of wood that she could use to create a suitable hatch, and the Riders had even left a simple saw, hammer and nails lying near the pile that she could use to do the rest of the work.
Not sure if any of this is historically accurate or not, but I'm not going to complain about any of it…
She had a brief concern when it came to the question of whether she should fix the hatch in place or not, but was spared that concern when she found an interesting-looking collection of cogs and levers that put her in mind of devices she'd seen in Hiccup's hut in particular, along with some of the features in the interior of the dome. She would need to take a few bits of rope to be sure that she could get the right length set up in the end, but if she was right about just how intelligent the dragons were…
A curious rumble from Griffin prompted Clarke to look up as Barf and Belch came in to land beside her, the twins getting off to look curiously at her work.
"What's all this about?" Tuffnut looked uncertainly at her. "Trying to be Hiccup on top of being our Gothi?"
"…No," Clarke shook her head, deciding not to question what 'Gothi' was a reference to. "I'm just trying to put something together to… actually, I think I've got it all sorted here for the most part; if you give me a few moments, I might be able to show you what I found."
"And there are dragons in there?" Ruffnut looked at the hole in surprise.
"Nocturnal dragons that can't move into this part of the cave because the sunlight panics them," Clarke explained, indicating the gear system as she adjusted the position of the newly-assembled hatch. "From what I've seen in your huts, if I've got this right, the dragons should be able to control the hatch at their end once I can train them in how to use the pulley system, and we've got the other switch here so that we can either go down there or bring them up if we need their help."
"Neat," Tuffnut grinned as he looked down into the cave, before he looked over at Clarke. "And you came up with this yourself?"
"Well, I watched a few friends put similar things together before I… came to the Edge," Clarke shrugged. "I wouldn't like to try and put something like this together on my own from scratch, but you had some interesting parts lying around in storage, and it's easier to put things together when someone else did the hard work."
"How come we never found this place?" Ruffnut observed as she stuck her head through the hole before Clarke grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back. "Hey!"
"Do you really want to risk getting a large wooden object in your back when you're standing over a drop like this?" Clarke pointed out, indicating the hatch in her hands. "Your dragon's too big to fit down there even if he wouldn't have to get the hatch open if that happened; I'd rather not have to tell Hiccup you got hurt because of me."
"Eh, he'd get it," Tuffnut shrugged as his sister grinned nonchalantly.
"Well I wouldn't," Clarke countered. "I've already had one friend suffer a debilitating injury because I didn't think things through, so you're keeping your head out of that hole; clear?"
"Uh… right," Ruffnut stepped back with a tentative nod as she stepped back to look over the hatch as Clarke held it in position. "So… you think this'll work?"
"It's just a matter of adapting some of the features I've seen you use in your huts and put it together here; if we're right about the intelligence of the dragons, I think it should get the job done," Clarke nodded, assessing the position of the hatch. "I'll get a few iron nails to keep everything in place and then nip into the cave to set up the pulley system; if everything goes well, they should have more living space by tomorrow and still be able to get out for a flight when it's dark."
"Hey guys!" a voice called out from above. Turning around, Clarke and the twins saw the other four Riders flying overhead, the four dragons landing a short distance down the hill so that their riders could walk up to join the others.
"Raid go well?" Tuffnut asked.
"We came, we saw, we kicked some ass," Snotlout grinned. "What did you expect?"
"How about you guys?" Hiccup looked curiously around at the trio. "Is everything OK?"
"All fine; just wondering what it says about us when Clarkie here found a whole nest of dragons living here that none of us knew about," Tuffnut said.
"You did?" Fishlegs looked at her with a new grin.
"I did," Clarke nodded, returning the grin before glancing over at Tuffnut with a cooler stare. "And for the record, don't call me 'Clarkie'."
"Check," Tuffnut held up his hands apologetically, before he looked over at Fishlegs and indicated the hole. "And from what I saw, whatever's in that cave looks like it's basically a bunch of white Night Terrors; wonder if Smidvarg left his siblings behind to join the black guys and they're all just stuck inside?"
"Smidvarg?" Clarke looked between Fishlegs and Tuffnut curiously. "Night Terrors? Did I miss something?"
"Oh, the Night Terrors were some of the original dragons here before we set up the Edge," Fishlegs explained with a grin. "You haven't seen them around because they've been patrolling other parts of the island, but they're basically part of our security system; they pretend to be giant dragons to drive off the smaller ones."
"Ah," Clarke nodded. "Nice touch."
"So you found a whole bunch of white Night Terrors in there?" Hiccup looked at her in surprise before fixing the hatch with a curious stare. "Wonder if Smidvarg was part of that group or he's just some kind of… odd one out…"
"Something to look into later," Clarke observed. "Anyway, these dragons seem to basically be stuck in a small part of that cave because they were nocturnal and couldn't cope with the light from the crack, so I thought I'd set up something to cover the hole that they could open if they wanted."
"You set that up?" Astrid asked in surprise as she studied the hatch.
"I borrowed a few things from the workshop; I figured nobody would mind," Clarke explained.
"Nice," Fishlegs nodded in approval as he examined the mechanism leading up to the chain. "Where did you find the cave?"
"It's round the other side of the mountain," Clarke indicated the woods with a vague wave of her hand. "Just let me finish up here and I can show you where I found it."
"Great!" Fishlegs grinned, quickly hurrying back down the hill to get back on Meatlug and flying off. Rolling his eyes, Snotlout walked back down to Hookfang and took the dragon into the air after Fishlegs, closely followed by the twins, leaving Clarke and Astrid exchanging glances as Hiccup examined the hatch.
"This is… actually pretty good," he nodded in approval as he looked back at her. "I take it the chain and gear arrangement is so that the dragons can open it themselves?"
"I'll sort it out once I get back down there, but do you think it works?"
"Looks like it'll all fit together, really; how did you do it?"
"Just adapted a few things I'd seen in your huts and then asked myself 'What Would Raven Do'?"
"Raven?" Astrid asked.
"A… friend from… before I found Griffin," Clarke said, suddenly struck by the notion that this was the first bit of specifically personal information she'd given any of the Riders about her life before joining them…
"Talking of the workshop," she said, eager to turn the topic to something else, "I noticed that you had an interesting bit of work in your hut-?"
"You were in his/my hut?" Astrid and Hiccup looked sharply at Clarke.
"I just glanced through the door when I saw it was open and took a look at something that was already basically out in public; that's it," Clarke held up her hands reassuringly before she looked more curiously at Hiccup. "Anyway, when I was looking inside, I saw that… well, those wings you're making?"
"Oh, you mean the Dragonfly?" Hiccup smiled.
"That's… an interesting name," Clarke observed.
"Oh, don't encourage him," Astrid said, even as the appreciative smile on her face showed that she admired Hiccup's skill. "We've had to talk him into a balance between exploring the idea and getting so caught up on it that he just ignores the risks…"
"Hey, I got it working, didn't I?"
"After more than a few crashes," Astrid observed with a wry smile before she looked back at Clarke. "He ended up having to get saved by Toothless because the original version was too rigid; it took a run-in with Speed Stingers to make him realise that he needed something more flexible."
"That makes sense," Clarke nodded. "Anyway, getting back to the topic of the wingsuit, I just wondered if you'd considered… well, making any more?"
"More?" Astrid looked at Clarke in surprise, before she looked back at Hiccup with an intrigued expression. "Actually… I mean, if you've worked out the kinks…"
"You want one?" Hiccup looked at her with an eager grin.
"Well, like you said, if we're ever separated from our dragons, it can't hurt to have the ability to glide for a bit…" Astrid observed with a thoughtful smile.
"Besides, what if we could just fly with the dragons?" Clarke added. "I mean, being able to just kick off and fly on our own… I'm not saying that I don't like flying on Griffin's back, but can you honestly say that it wouldn't be cool to be able to fly alongside Stormfly?"
She'd jumped on the idea as something to stop the others asking questions she wasn't ready to answer yet, but the more she tried to sell it, the more she suddenly found herself eager for her own set of wings…
