Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gerard had always felt like an outcast. He was the son of the chief of their tribe, but he wasn’t amounting to much. Even his little brother was being better at things than him. Not brute force or leading, exactly, but Mikey was certainly more-liked. Gerard, who was more interested in art and less in becoming the chief, didn’t really mind this. It gave him more time to be by himself and make his art, even if it made others not like him too much. It was especially bad, considering he was 16 and hadn’t even hurt a single dragon. Mikey hadn’t either, but at least he had more time to do it. His father was seriously considering exiling his eldest son until he killed a dragon, and Gerard saw nothing wrong with that, except he wouldn’t be able to see Mikey again. That was the only drawback. His brother meant everything to him, as he had nothing and no one else to turn to.

All of this was running through his mind as he walked through the forest, heading to the cove. He’d found the space several years ago and went there when he wanted to be alone or just wanted to draw, as it always gave him inspiration. His notebook tucked under his arm and a satchel around his chest, he made his way down the rocky slope with ease from much practice, skipping to a stop just short of the pond. He took a perch on one of the rocks and began to draw, starting with the pond, watching as the fish swam to and fro. Art always gave him an escape from the world, no matter where he was. However, as he continued to draw, he began to notice something different in the cove. There were less fish and marks in the ground. This caused Gerard to pause in fear and look around. The only thing he knew of that could cause those marks was a dragon.

From a young age, every viking had been taught to be aggressive towards dragons, for they were evil and destroyed the vikings’ livelihood through their crops and their homes. Gerard wasn’t as sure about the teachings but even he knew dragons were dangerous and aggressive towards vikings, so if one was around, it was to be avoided at all costs. But, as he didn’t see any sign of the dragon, he relaxed only slightly. He had been planning to also make some sketches of dragons from the Book of Dragons he’d tucked into the satchel, but the proposed presence of one had made it too dangerous to stay. He grabbed his stuff and ran out of the cove, heading back to the village. As he did so, he looked to the sunny sky and saw smoke coming over the tops of the trees. A dragon attack was going on. He should steer clear of it, but if he did, that that would be the final nail in the coffin for him staying in Berk. Besides, his little brother could be in danger, and so he went towards the village.

Even from the distance he was at, he could see the bolas flung to bring down the attacking dragons. One even crashed near him and Gerard jumped. He glanced at it, seeing a Monstrous Nightmare light itself on fire to get rid of the ropes. They had the nasty ability to have their fire be able to stick to anything, including themselves, and an equally nasty temper. Gerard ran on and soon came to the edge of the village. He saw a Hideous Zippleback poke both heads into the windows of a home, where it soon filled with a green gas before it was ignited. Those were especially hard to deal with, having two heads instead of one. Gerard flinched from the ensuing explosion and kept running, grabbing a shield on the way. He had to stop for a moment to bring it up to stop spines from hitting his body. The Deadly Nadder flew on, giving a caw. Their tail spines were very poisonous and could be shot, so he was lucky he had the sense to grab the shield. Gerard kept it close as he continued on, bringing it up a second time when a Gronckle ran across his path. Those things could eat anything, mainly rocks, which they shot out again mixed with their fire. It didn’t notice him and Gerard was able to progress. He headed to his home, which resided on the second highest hill in the village. He had to find his brother.

“Watch it!” snapped a viking. The teen looked back to see Bob, another viking in the village. He was younger than Gerard but considerably bulkier and had no qualms about killing dragons. He was known for being able to take on the stocky Gronckles and the pissy Nightmares, which gave him a lot of respect. Anyone who could take on the Monstrous Nightmares and win was a good viking to have around. Bob then ran off and Gerard looked around, trying to spot some others he knew. He saw Ray at the bolas with some others, his curly hair poking out from under his helmet, and there was Pete at one of the towers that lit up the sky, making sure it didn’t get knocked down by a dragon or something. Everyone in the village was helping to fend off the dragons except for him, and sometimes, that made Gerard feel bad. Then he reminded himself that he couldn’t exactly take on dragons with his pitiful frame and weak fighting skills and so it didn’t bother him too much.

“Have you see Mikey?!” he called at a passing viking. Mark, he thought the name was.

“He’s with Billie and Tré!” answered the viking before charging headfirst to deal with a swarm of Terrible Terrors. Tiny beasts, but dangerous nonetheless. Gerard paled at the answer and began searching for the dragon hunters. They held an especially large grudge against dragons after what had happened many years ago. When Gerard had been only five, the village had been attacked, like now, except it came with a rare dragon that had never been seen before. It had attacked the village and taken nothing except Billie and Tré’s best friend Mike, where they had vowed revenge on dragons ever since and had been trying to find the mysterious dragon who had taken their friend (and presumably ate him). They weren’t the worst fellows, they could actually be really goofy, but when it came to dragons… Gerard shivered. He needed to take his brother away from them and protect him until the attack was over. They were relatively easy to find. Just look for the cluster of dragons attacking the same two vikings.

“COME ON!” Billie roared, swiping his sword at a diving Nadder, “IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!” He brought up his shield to block the Nadder’s fire breath and stabbed it in the chest. Tré gave a battle cry worthy of the gods as he lobbed off one head of a Zippleback with a single swipe of his greatsword. The other head cried out in pain before it was also severed from the body. Gerard could hear small cheers from the side and looked over to his brother. He ran to Mikey, furious.

“What are you doing here?!” he hissed, “Get back to the village!”

“But this is so much cooler!” Mikey whined.

“Village, now!” Gerard grabbed Mikey’s hand and took his back to the village. Mikey tried to resist but was forced to run as they heard flapping above, looking up and seeing a Nightmare coming down on them. Gerard pushed Mikey ahead of him as they ran, the Nightmare landing with a thump and a roar before it began to chase them.

“To the house!” The elder shouted. Mikey needed no prodding, heading straight for the nearest home. It wasn’t completely dragon-proof, no home was, but it was protect them for a small time. The ran inside through a broken door and jumped to the sides as the Nightmare sprayed its fire. Luckily neither of them were hit and the hid to the sides of the doorway as the Nightmare pushed its head in. it looked around for them, but with its large head, it couldn’t turn much and so was forced to back out. A jet of the sticky fire streamed into the house one last time before the Nightmare left it alone and Gerard and Mikey found themselves trapped in the burning home.

“GEE!” He was on the other side of the room, separated by the fire. Gerard had to get over to him, somehow. Glancing around, he spotted a collapsed rafter that bridged over the fire, not yet consumed by it. He climbed up a chair and hopped onto the rafter, running across it to join his brother. By this time they were both coughing, choking on the smoke, and Gerard had them crouch, keeping an arm around his little brother.

“We’ll be okay, just a little longer.” he promised. He wasn’t sure if they would get out of this alive, as there were no windows on their side and there was no way out. Mikey began to cry through his coughs and Gerard held him close, prepared to face the fire first if it meant Mikey would be okay. Suddenly, though, the fire began to dim. Gerard looked up as he heard water splash and the fire sizzle and saw that an opening was being made in the blaze. He tugged Mikey along towards the opening, right where the front door was, and a hand reached out to him. He grabbed it and they were pulled out of the burning home and back into the clear air of the village. He looked back, to thank their savior, and his words died in his throat.

It was Frank, a bucket in one hand as he panted from the flames. Gerard would never admit this out loud, but he’d fallen for the younger viking, amazed at how he had no fear of anything and helped with everything. He’d been taken into the village as a baby, found on the shore amongst the wreckage of a ship, and had always been different from the other kids, a little like Gerard himself. He even had his hair trimmed weirdly, keeping it long in the front and back but short on the sides, and his size for his age was a mystery as well. Many called him a Hiccup, for he was like the runt of the tribe. Didn’t stop him from doing lots of things other, larger vikings could do, though.

Sometimes, rumors swirled around about where Frank could have come from. Some thought he could have come from a viking tribe far from Berk, even possibly a Berserker or a literal Outcast, for they knew he hadn’t come from Berk. Some thought that a dragon could have stolen him from his home and then dropped him somewhere else, for he had large scars on his arms, from just below the elbows to his shoulders, two marks on each arm, and these had been on him even before he had been found. Wherever he had come from, though, many were certain he had been involved in the shipwreck. And Frank said nothing of anything that had happened, both not knowing the truth and because he tended to keep to himself despite his outgoing nature.

“You okay?” he asked. Gerard nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.” He blushed a little, “Thanks.” Frank shrugged.

“Hey, I’m on firefighting duty. It’s my job.” With a wave goodbye, Frank ran off to put out more fires. Gerard sighed. Mikey jabbed his side.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

“To get you to stop daydreaming.” Mikey explained. He looked around, “At least the Nightmare’s gone.”

“Almost.” Gerard muttered and pointed. Mikey followed his gaze and winced. Approaching them was their father, and he didn’t look too happy. Dragons were now flying away with their loads and sometimes one was struck down, but not all of them. As always, it was probably their fault.

“Both of you. House. Now.” Their father ordered. There was no use arguing, so they hung their heads and did as they were told. They were also accompanied by Travis, the resident blacksmith and a friend of their father. He could also be reasoned with, unlike said father, easier for Mikey to do than Gerard, as he trained in the smithery under Travis.

“We didn’t do anything wrong!” Mikey complained to him. Travis sighed.

“Yes, except you got yourselves into trouble. Again.”

“How were we supposed to know that we’d get attacked by a Monstrous Nightmare?”

“Doesn’t matter, both of you should’ve been home when this happened.” He gave Gerard a look, knowing that he hadn’t been home to keep his little brother out of trouble. Mikey may have been better liked than Gerard, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get into his own brand of trouble.

“But it’s all over now.” Mikey tried to reason.

“Just get home.” Travis pointed to their house.

“C’mon.” Gerard grabbed Mikey’s hand and took him home. The younger was sullen the whole time and flinched when Gerard closed the door harshly. Not only did he have a mad father to deal with, Gerard wasn’t any happier.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” he hissed, “You know to avoid Billie and Tré!”

“They’re not dangerous!” Mikey argued.

“Yeah, but what they do can get you killed!” Gerard poked Mikey in the chest to make his point, “They’ve been doing this for a decade, Mikes. They know what they’re doing and have only lost a few toes for their trouble, as well as a hand in Tré’s case. You’re a lot younger, smaller, and less experienced! You need to practice in the arena before taking on the dragons with them!”

“Ger-”

“Listen to me when I say that I don’t want you with the Hunters while they’re fighting until you have more experience fighting dragons, understand? You’ll probably get this lecture again from Dad when he gets here, so just don’t say anything.” Mikey growl but didn’t say a word. He knew Gerard was right, at least about the lecture. Grumpy, he took a chair at the dining room table, crossing his arms.

“So what were you doing when the dragons attacked? In your drawing cove?” Gerard said nothing, so Mikey knew he’d hit it on the mark, “Dad’s gonna be so mad at you again.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” Gerard said lowly, looking away to the fireplace, “I would’ve been away longer if it hadn’t been for the cove.”

“Why? What happened? Did you get attacked by a dragon?” Gerard shook his head.

“No, but I was sure one was around. You wouldn’t believe how big the gashes were in the ground!” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“I’m sure it was nothing.” He rested his head on his arms, “You spend so much time there and don’t come back with anything except dumb drawings. You never play with me anymore.” Gerard’s face took on a saddened look.

“Mikey...” Before he could say anything, the door was opened by their father. He wasn’t as mad as earlier, but that didn’t mean they weren’t about to get chewed out.

“Come here, boys.” he sighed. They were hesitant to do so, “It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re both alright.” They understood his worry and immediately ran into his arms. Being one of the biggest and strongest vikings on the island, he easily lifted them into his arms and hugged them tightly.

“Good boy for keeping him safe, Gerard, but stay in the village from now on.” Their father said, “And Mikey, stay in the house next time.”

“Yes sir.” They pulled away after the hug and watched as he went to the kitchen table, pulling out a scroll from his clothes. They knew he needed to be alone and headed upstairs. After all, Fall was coming (even though Spring was just ending) and he was the chief, he had an entire village to feed. He didn’t need their trouble to make things worse. As they got ready for bed, Gerard noticed Mikey’s nervousness.

“Something wrong?” He took a seat at the end of his brother’s bed. Around Mikey’s side of the room were instructions for inventions and a worktable while the walls on Gerard’s side were covered in charcoal drawings of various things, including dragon sketches. Sometimes Gerard had to use the worktable for his drawings, and so it had a few of them scattered about on the surface. Mikey didn’t mind this, as the drawings sometimes gave him ideas for inventions.

“Yeah.” Mikey nodded, “Do you ever think this will stop?”

“The dragons attacking us?” Mikey nodded again. Gerard reached over and rubbed his brother’s head, “I don’t know, but I’ll always be here if anything happens, okay?”

“You promise?”

“I promise. Cross my heart.” Gerard made the motion over his chest and Mikey smiled.

“You don’t have to be so extra, Gee.” The elder gave a calming kiss to Mikey’s forehead.

“Yeah, but I like to be. Goodnight.”

“‘Night.” The younger yawned and turned over. Gerard made sure the covers were snug around him before Gee returned to his own bed. He went to sleep, but it wasn’t easy, especially with the nightmares that plagued his dreams.

“Listen up!” Chief roared over the talking vikings, “Winter is coming and the dragon attacks have only increased! If we don’t get rid of them now, we may not survive the Winter!” They were all gathered in the Great Hall after what had happened that day, worried about what would happen next.

“But how?” called one viking.

“We hit ‘em where it hurts: the nest!”

“But anyone who goes searching for it never comes back!” protested another.

“If we can find it, then it’ll all be worth it.” said Chief, “And anyone who stays behind will have to keep an eye on Gerard and Mikey.” Hands shot up, causing Chief to reply, “That’s what I thought.”

“One was bad enough, you’re asking people to keep an eye on both of them?” Travis asked as the vikings began writing their names down on the scroll for the expedition.

“I can’t bring one of them along with us. And you have to stay behind regardless.” Chief said. Travis blinked.

“I do?”

“You, Matt, Mark, and Tom need to help train the younger vikings for fighting dragons, just in case.” He rubbed a hand across his eyes, “I can’t have my boys nearly getting themselves killed again.”

“Then why not ask-” Chief gave Travis a look that said, ‘Mention them and you’ll be stuck with the boys longer than you thought possible,’ causing Travis to correct his statement, “Okay, yeah, I won’t go there.”

“Thank you.” Vikings began filing out of the hall and Travis got up from his seat to stand beside Chief, “Are you afraid of not coming back?”

“A little.” Chief admitted, “I’m afraid of what could happen to my boys. Neither of them are ready to lead. I don’t know if Gerard ever will be ready. He spends too much time drawing in the forest and less about learning how to deal with the village.”

“You’re worrying too much.” said Travis, “When the time comes, they’ll be ready.”

“You have way more confidence than I do, Travis.”

“Sometimes I have to have it with how you worry so much.” They walked together to the entrance and watched as the other vikings returned to their homes. The only home that didn’t go dark was that of the Dragon Hunters, who seemed to never sleep. They were always working on another way to kill dragons or use their parts for weapons, as far as anyone knew. Things were quiet for a moment as they stood there, gazing into the sunset.

“...If anything happens, make sure the boys’ll be okay.” said Chief.

“I will.” Travis agreed, nodding, “When will you be leaving?”

“In a week, as soon as we have the supplies we need. I’ll also need to talk to them about weapons and armor.” Chief nodded to the hut of the Dragon Hunters, “They’ll know what to do. I wish I could bring them along, but it seems they’re staying behind.” Travis shivered.

“I love those guys, they’re good friends, but I just hope they won’t decide to suddenly go berserk while you’re gone. They’re on a loose leash as it is.”

“We grew up with them, Travis. They only thing they’ll go berserk on are dragons. With so many of us gone, they’re our best bet of protecting the village.”

“Good point, but be careful.”

“I will. I’m not leaving my sons without a father unless I have to.”

Every kid in the village was now signing up for dragon fighting lessons while the adults were gone, everyone except Gerard. He’d been taught to despise dragons, but he could never imagine himself killing one. He could always draw the scene, but it just wasn’t him , y’know? And so he fled into the forest again to sketch. He was careful as he approached the cove, wary of the dragon that had made its mark there. He hoped it wouldn’t return and so he searched around for signs of it. Nothing could be seen until he got to the edge of the cove and looked down into it. From this height, he could see the marks in the ground clearer and his jaw dropped. It wasn’t random, it was a drawing, filling up about half the cove, depicting a tree on the other side of the cove. It wasn’t perfect, more like a stick drawing than anything, but it was a drawing nonetheless.

Was the dragon trying to draw? Or is this just a coincidence? Gerard silently thought. Wondering if he’d get a response, he hopped down into the cove and carefully tried not to step on the drawing. Picking up a stick, he drew a Gronckle beside the tree, flapping its wings as if trying to fly to the top. Nodding at his work, detailed despite the restrictions of the ground, he walked over to take a seat on one of the rocks and drew in his sketchbook. Sometimes he’d come up with ideas for stories and recorder them in the book, but he never did anything with them because there was no one he could share them with. And so he only drew. He drew and drew and drew until it was lunchtime, where he headed to the Great Hall. It was beef stew that day and, after taking a bowl, Gerard tried to find a place to sit. Several of the tables were occupied by other vikings his age or close to it, such as Bob, Ray, Pete, even Frank was there, which was a feet in and of itself, seeing as he tended to keep to himself when eating. Seeing no free spots on mostly full tables, he took a seat at an empty one and began looking through the Book of Dragons for information on what dragon was creative enough to draw like that.

‘Deadly Nadder: Beautiful but deadly, kill on sight.’ It looked like a gigantic chicken with spikes and Gerard tried to remember what the status was for killing one, wondering how hard it would be to do it. He came up with just being noticed, and he didn’t really need that. He was noticed alright, but for all the wrong reasons.

‘Gronckle: Strong and sturdy, kill on sight.’ It looked like it was made of boulders rolled into one another. The status it’d give him would at least get him a date, maybe even Frank. That’s be nice, if people knew he liked men.

‘Hideous Zippleback: Sneaky and cunning, kill on sight.’ It looked like two snakes on legs joined together. Two heads, twice the status. They were actually a relatively easy dragon to kill if you got their heads to fight each other. Gerard thought that’d be a good dragon to go after, if he could ever bring himself to kill one.

‘Monstrous Nightmare: Bad-tempered and mean, KILL ON SIGHT.’ Didn’t need to tell him twice. It was long and snake-like like the Zippleback, but its forearms were also its wings and it had bigger horns. Only the toughest, best vikings went after those. Gerard winced as he remembered what had happened the previous day. No way was he tangling with one of those again. He flipped through the rest of the book, trying to spot other dragons they knew of and searching for who could have done the drawing, but none of them seemed to fit the picture of a creative dragon. Of course, that could just be because of the one dragon’s personality and the book was biased, but he still couldn’t come up with anything. He flipped to the end of the book, to the last page, and gave a pause.

‘Night Fury: The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. NEVER engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you.’ Ominous much? There was no drawing and no statistics about it, for it had never been seen. It only attacked at night, though, and was a sureshot. It never stole food, never showed itself, and never missed. They’d lost a lot of catapult towers whenever it decided to terrorize them. Gerard closed the book. Even though it was mysterious enough to fit the picture, he doubted that the drawing had been made by one. After all, they’d never been seen and seemed to keep to themselves. Lunch was now over, as others were putting away their dishes, and so Gerard did the same. He glanced over at where Frank was, talking to others who were friends with him and probably didn’t even know Gerard existed, and turned away. He didn’t need to make this any worse than it already was. Clutching his sketchbook and tucking the Book of Dragons back into his satchel, he went back out to the cove. And when he returned, he found that he’d been answered. Besides the tree and the Gronckle, there was now an image of a man chasing the dragon, most likely a viking. Gerard raised an eyebrow before taking a stick again to add to the drawing, but not before putting down his satchel and sketchbook. He put in a Monstrous Nightmare, preying on the viking and saving its fellow dragon, then turned away. He froze when a large shadow passed over the cove. The dragon had returned.

Gerard stayed in place, hoping it would ignore him, and didn’t dare look at the dragon, wherever it was. He heard it land with a thump and a flap of the wings, snorting. He heard its claws scratch the ground as it came close and squeezed his eyes closed when he felt its breath brush against him in a wave. Whatever it was, he was sure it was very large. He waited for it to do anything, anything to him, but there was nothing. It seemed to just stay behind him, panting, and and was probably looking at the drawing. Then it scratched the ground again a few times before it stopped and Gerard was pushed forward by a large gust of air. He landed in the pond and came to the surface, gazing up. He didn’t see anything in the sky. The dragon was already gone. He climbed out of the pond, glad he’d left his things behind, and looked at the drawing. It now had a human clinging to the side of the tree. Gerard stared at it, then grabbed the stick and added storm clouds. He didn’t know what was possessing him to talk with a dragon through drawings, but who knew. He then fainted, glad to have survived the encounter.

After he woke up and ran back to the village, Gerard couldn’t help but make imaginative sketches of the dragon, trying to figure out what it could be, even though he hadn’t seen even a scale of it. He knew it had large wings and had to have been gigantic based on the shadow, but that was it. It was creative, though, and certainly not mean, so it wasn’t a Nightmare, though he could be wrong. It was also fast, based on how it had arrived and left. Not many dragons were fast, so that helped narrow it down, but he still didn’t have a good idea of the kind of dragon he was dealing with. None of the main dragons were fast enough to be that fast, not even the Nadders, and the only known ones to be that fast were the Flightmare and the Skrill, but they didn’t seem large enough. The only thing that was mysterious enough to fit everything was the Night Fury, but he didn’t want to be certain just in case he was wrong. In fact, this might be a whole new dragon species!

If he could keep talking with it and studied it, he could add it to the Book of Dragons before he decided to do anything about it. And all his observations would make him known for better reasons, at least, like Bork the Bold, who had first created the Book of Dragons. Other vikings have added onto it since and have also gained recognition, and if he could do the same, then maybe his father wouldn’t dislike him anymore. And, if he was going to discover a new species of dragon, he might as well start listing everything he knew about it and add onto that as he went.

Very large, at least in the wingspan. (Measurement: Bigger than a Nightmare’s?)

Very fast, like a Skrill or Flightmare. (Measurement: Appears and disappears in seconds.)

Creative? Draws with me.

Didn’t kill me on sight, so has had interactions with peaceful vikings or unafraid of vikings?

Gerard stared at his findings and sighed. Right now, it was classed as a Mystery Dragon, seeing as next to nothing was known about it, and it would be hard to learn more if he didn’t do the right things.

“Gerard?” Quickly he closed his book and turned to see his father. He’d been sitting on his bed and now he watched as his father came up the stairs. Mikey was probably eating dinner downstairs and so the two older males were alone with each other.

“Yeah, Dad?”

“Son, I know that you don’t think too much of fighting, but you’ll have to be the chief someday and I want you to step up to that.” said his father, “And so I had Mikey sign you up for dragon fighting classes with him.” Gerard blinked.

“W-why? Don’t I do just fine with what I already do?” His father shook his head.

“No, Gee, you don’t. You actively avoid the village as much as you can and you don’t have any friends, so I think this will be a great opportunity to get out, make friends, and start learning how to be a chief.” Gerard frowned. He wanted to argue about it but knew what his dad was like, and so he left it be. He nodded to show his agreement, no matter how reluctant it was, and his father smiled, “Good boy. Lessons will start after the ships leave port, and I want you to be up bright and early your first day.”

“Yes sir.” His father turned away, “And Dad?”

“Yes?”

“...Do you really think going after the nest will help?” It wasn’t made in a condescending tone, just a worried, curious one, and Gerard’s father nodded.

“I truly think this will work. If it doesn’t...” He shrugged, “We may have to leave home.” Gerard didn’t like the sound of that. Berk had been his home for as long as he could remember and he didn’t want to leave it if he could.

“At least be careful.” he said. He’d say this again in a few days time when his father left, but he still said it this time. His father smiled.

“I will, Gee. After all, just being a viking is an occupational hazard.” Gerard couldn’t help but crack a smile at that, where his father then returned downstairs. His smiled then dropped as he thought about the days to come. He didn’t look forward to dragon fighting, but it’s not like he could back out of it. And he’d do his best to please his father, even if he would probably get killed in the process. It’s what his father wanted, right?

Right?

Chapter Text

In the few days before dragon fighting classes would start, Gerard returned to the cove and talked with the dragon through the drawings. Nothing was ever taken away, it was always added onto, and slowly, a small village of drawings popped up around the original one, the one of the tree. It wasn’t just dragons and humans, though, there were ships and flowers and other animals, too. It grew and Gerard was becoming appreciative of it, loving it for the beauty it was and for something he couldn’t quite understand. It was a good feeling, though, it made him feel happy. And, as they continued to speak in drawings, a few times Gerard found scales left behind. They were round and black, and few dragons were colored black or even had round scales, so he knew this was a strange one he was playing with.

Playing… Were they really playing with each other, or was he just being an idiot for assuming that? It felt like they were playing, though. And so far, nothing had happened to them since the first time he’d ‘met’ the dragon, so maybe there wasn’t much to worry about. That didn’t mean he didn’t stay cautious, though. And, eventually, he decided to ask the dragon a question, though indirectly. He left the ground alone, carefully stepping over the drawings as he went over to the wall of the cove and took out a charcoal pencil to write.

‘If you can understand this,’ he wrote, ‘it’s nice to meet you. I’m Gerard.’ It was a longshot, but he was lonely and thought he’d get more information from the dragon like this. He then went back to drawing before he had to return to the village. And when he did, there was another dragon attack going on. Except this one was worse with the addition of the elusive Night Fury shooting down their towers. At least this time Mikey stayed home and he and Gerard watched from their window as the vikings tried to use bola-throwing machines to knock the mystery dragon out of the sky, but they always missed. They couldn’t see it well, and it might be exceptionally fast. Both teens ducked when they heard the distinct whistle of the dive-bombing Night Fury and one of the torch towers was hit with a blast, sending it to pieces as the torch part of it began rolling down the incline of the village, plowing down or burning anything in its path. The boys winced. The night right before their father was supposed to leave and he’d have a huge mess to clean up. At least it wasn’t their fault this time.

The next morning, after the attack, the vikings set off. Their children watched them go, some more apprehensive than others, all hoping for their parents’ safe return. Travis then had then file into the dragon fighting arena, where they trained all young vikings and explained to them how the classes would go.

“So listen up!” ordered Travis with a roar, trying to get the large group to listen. Beside him stood Matt, Mark, and Tom, who’d be helping him in the arena with his teachings, “Because of the size of the group, you’ll all be splitting up into smaller ones that will train on different days! Over time, one of you will be picked as top of your class and will get to kill a dragon!” This caused many to cheer, “So do your best to fight these dragons and survive!”

“Wait, what?!” exclaimed Patrick.

“Group 1 will be Gerard, Ray, Mikey, Bob, and Frank! You’ll all be training today with Mark!” barked Travis, “Group 2 is Pete, Andy, Joe, Patrick, Josh, and Tyler! You’ll be training with Matt! Group 3 are Brendon, Ryan Ross, Spencer, Jon, and Jacky! You’ll be with me in two days! And finally, Group 4 are Ryan Seaman, Derek, Ronnie, Zakk, and Christian! You’ll be with Tom! Dismissed!” Groups 2-4 left the arena but gather above it to watch what would happen, as well as Billie and Tré, who would decide who would be the top of the class. The two, who were usually goofy, stared down into the arena with stern, cold looks, searching the children for any hints of being dragon killers. Gerard swallowed. This wouldn’t be easy. The door to the arena shut as soon as everyone except for their group and Mark was gone. He wasn’t the largest of vikings, usually finding himself in bed with a back injury most of the time, but he was a good friend to Travis and knew his way around things.

“Okay, so, what Travis didn’t tell you is that you’d be facing a variety of dragons and the four of us specialize in each dragon. Today, you’ll be sent right into the ring with your first dragon.” He walked over to the wall, where a row of switches were.

“Wait, so no training?!” Ray asked.

“Nope! You’ll learn on the fly! Just grab your shields and get ready!” He pointed to the side were some shields had been propped up and they raced to grab at least one. Before they could all get one, however, Mark pulled the lever, which took the block off one of the doors and released a Gronckle. As it flew up and banged against the chains crisscrossing the top of the arena, Mark went on, “Today we’ll be learning about shot-limit! Who knows what a shot-limit is?”

“How many times a dragon can breathe fire before refueling!” said Bob, ducking when the Gronckle began to swoop.

“That’s right! Gronckles have six shots in ‘em, one for each of you, and if you get hit by one, you’re out of the lesson for the day! So, whoever’s last one standing gets to be top of the class for the day!” Mark gave a chuckle, “And if you can knock him out, I’ll be impressed!” The Gronckle tried to land on Frank, who rolled out of the way, and it gave a growl. Usually five-against-one were good odds, but with Mikey and Gerard having no experience fighting and the others with only a small bit, even Bob, they were more like the ones who were going to get beaten. Suddenly the Gronckle twirled around and fired behind it, hitting Ray’s shield. The force of it forced the teen backwards onto his back as his shield smouldered, “Ray, you’re out! Five shots left!”

“How is this thing so agile?!” Frank complained as the Gronckle charged Mikey and Gerard and almost bit down on the elder of the two.

“That’s just what a Gronckle is! Full of surprises!” Mark said, “Stay focused so you don’t get fried!” Gerard didn’t know about getting fried at the moment, he was just trying not to get eaten. Even though Gronckles ate rocks to survive, they could easily bite a viking in half. And he didn’t even have a shield yet! As he glanced back, he noticed something strange about the Gronckle’s gait. It tended to use one of its right front foot more than its left and there was a discoloration around the ankle of its left front foot. Had it been injured in the past and the wound hadn’t properly healed? If so, that may be the only reason he was still alive at the moment. If it wasn’t limping, it probably would’ve caught him before now. He ducked as the Gronckle decided to fire another shot and bolted when Mark said he was out despite not being hit. The door to the arena wouldn’t open until the Gronckle was back in its cage, so Gerard and Ray stood by Mark as Mikey, Frank, and Bob tried to survive. Bob and Frank did pretty well, with Frank’s speed and Bob’s strength they were able to make it dizzy for a while as Mikey hid behind his shield, trying to come up with a strategy. He was never one for physical things but wanted to prove himself by killing dragons, and right now he looked terrified. Gerard wanted to get back out there and help him but it was against the rules and was forced to watch.

Frank and Bob were good at confusing the Gronckle, picking up stray weapons to bang on their shields to disorient it (as Mark told them) and so the Gronckle tried to leave them alone, not seeing them as easy targets. It was about this time that Mikey finally came up with a plan that would allow him to survive and so he began to move, which attracted the Gronckle’s attention. It snorted when it saw the small human but mused that one viking was one viking too many and decided to end this quickly. It charged Mikey, who dodged but had to let go of his shield, as it was too heavy for him to keep up with in a dodge, and now the young viking was defenseless. Bob and Frank tried to get its attention to allow Mikey to recover but it wasn’t going to be fooled by that, focused on Mikey and stopping his escape routes whenever he tried to run. Gerard realized it was getting too dangerous now as the Gronckle blasted and nearly hit Mikey, where Mark called him out but held Gerard back from entering again to help his brother. And, of course, the Gronckle didn’t understand the concept of ‘over’ in this situation and continued to pursue Mikey, causing the young teen to run.

“Billie! Tré!” Mark called, also realizing that things were getting dangerous. He didn’t need to ask twice, as one of them banged a sword hard against the chains of the cage, causing the Gronckle to look up. It cowered when it saw their dark looks and quickly backed away, leaving Mikey alone. Gerard swept his brother up into a hug as soon as Mikey was close enough.

“Are you okay?” Gerard whispered. Mikey nodded.

“Yeah. Was really scary, though.”

“I know, but you’re safe now.” Mikey nodded again and they stayed close, Gerard’s arm wrapped around the younger, as they watched Frank and Bob fight the Gronckle. Eventually Bob was shot out, leaving Frank against the Gronckle, who had two shots left. Frank goaded the Gronckle into chasing him and, at the last second, dived out of the way and got it to crash into a wall. This didn’t knock the Gronckle out, as they had great stamina, but it certainly surprised the dragon enough to allow Frank to get a swipe on the side of its belly with a stray sword, making a small wound. The Gronckle cried out, shocked at the pain, and growled at Frank but fled back to its cage. It’d had enough for one day. Mark closed the doors on it and clapped his hands.

“Amazing! I haven’t seen anyone get a hit on that one since we caught it, nor have I seen anything as tense as that! Frank, you get the grade for today! The rest of you, practice for tomorrow! And Mikey? I’d like to talk to you for a moment.” Gerard was forced to let go of Mikey as Mark pulled him over to the side to talk, everyone else filing out as the crowds dispersed above. Gerard looked up to see the Dragon Hunters still gazing into the arena and realized that they were the whole reason the Gronckle was limping, thanks to their traps. It was also terrified of them, but then again, who wasn’t? It gave Gerard a sick feeling thinking about it for some reason, so he focused back on his brother, who was coming back to his side.

“What was that about?”

“He was just telling me to be careful and not nearly get myself killed.” The boy said grumpily, “He also said not to freeze and keep moving like I had at the beginning.” Gerard nodded.

“Makes sense, but it seemed your impression of a rock also worked pretty well.” Mikey jabbed him in the side.

“Not funny!” he growled. Gerard rolled his eyes. It seemed Mikey was in one of those moods again, angry for a few hours and then he’d calm down. At least Gerard could use those hours in the cove, drawing. Mikey had plenty of other people to play with, he knew, and hoped his little brother wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

When Gerard got back, as he’d suspected, there was no response. He didn’t expect the dragon to understand the runes. He sighed after gazing at the results and turned around, only to see something lounging on a large rock outcropping not too far from where he stood. Gerard froze in place, staring at the huge black dragon, at how it lounged leisurely like a cat and stared at him, as if contemplating on eating him. It looked like it had a wingspan bigger than a Nightmare’s and was possibly even longer than a Zippleback, was pure black, like its scales were sucking up every piece of light, and had a few gray spots on its body, indicating scars or something like that. The most prominent feature was the long gray slash over one eye, which was a bright yellow compared to the green on the other side. The pupil was also strange, as it wasn’t a slit like the other but a square shape, making this the first dragon to ever have two different-colored eyes that Gerard knew of, not to mention the pupils. He nearly fainted then and there from the fear and excitement pumping through his body.

“H-h-hi.” he stuttered, hoping the dragon wasn’t planning to kill him, “I-I-I’ll just b-be going now...” Gerard slowly stepped to the side as the dragon watched him, the eyes following his every move. Eventually he was able to scramble out of the cove and ran all the way back to the village, slowly calming himself down, and then he panicked again when he realized he’d left his sketchbook back in the cove. He went back for it, terribly needing it but cautious about the dragon, and when he got back, he found the dragon nosing through it. It would turn a page with one of its claws and was very gentle with the book, especially since its claws were bigger and longer than the journal in every way. Suddenly it glanced at where Gerard was and the teen ducked down, holding his breath and hoping it hadn’t seen him. He heard the dragon tramping around a little before it took to the sky again, accompanied by a rush of air, and Gerard looked over the edge of the cove. He didn’t see his sketchbook anywhere and hoped it hadn’t been taken by the dragon or, worse, fallen into the pond. However, as he looked under some rocks, he found the sketchbook, which was undamaged.

“Why would a dragon care about this kind of thing?” he wondered aloud to himself, looking into the sky, “And why did it not kill me again?” There was no sign of the strange dragon, but now he had to draw it, to commit it to his memory, because whatever it was would make very pretty drawings indeed. He’d drawn every other kind of dragon except it, in various poses, and now he would have a challenge once again. Not only that, but now he could properly document it.

Size: Large, possibly more than a Nightmare or a Zippleback.

Length: Unknown, possibly as long as or more than a Zippleback.

Wingspan: Unknown, kept wings folded, maybe more than a Nightmare.

Shot Type: Unknown, probably fire.

Shot Limit: Unknown.

Speed: Still very fast.

Characteristics: Pure black with gray spots (scars?), different eyes (My left: green with slit, my right: yellow with big pupil and large gray scar)

Age: Broad Wing or Titan Wing

Notes: Still creative, interested in the sketchbook; still didn’t kill me on sight.

As he closed the sketchbook with the new notes, he thought, What the hell is with this dragon?

The next day, instead of the Gronckle, Group 2 had to face off against a Deadly Nadder. Gerard watched as Matt directed the group through the maze against the dragon, instructing them to be quicker and lighter to survive against this speedy dragon. The group didn’t seem to complete, though, they were working together rather than fighting, especially Tyler and Josh. It was almost like those two could communicate without words, allowing them to avoid the Nadder and stay in its blindspot when they were caught, but eventually, the teen who was at the top of the class was Andy, who broke off half of the Nadder’s nose horn with a stray hammer. The dragon ran back to its cage in pain and Gerard couldn’t help but wince for the poor thing. It probably wouldn’t be fighting for a few days after something like that.

“Where are you going today?” Mikey asked, trotting to Gerard’s side when he prepared to leave, now that the lesson was over.

“Back to the cove.” Mikey stuck out his tongue.

“Cove cove cove, it’s always the cove! Why don’t you go somewhere else for a change?”

“Mi-”

“C’mon!” Mikey grabbed Gerard’s hand and pulled him along, regardless of what he wanted. It looks like learning more about the mysterious dragon would have to wait.

Mikey dragged him to play with some of the other teenage vikings, who were playing a game of fotboll. Gerard wasn’t exactly the sportiest person and tended to avoid that stuff like the plague, but Mikey wasn’t going to have any of it. And so he was made the goalie at one end while Spencer was at the other, and they had to keep the ball from going into their goal. It was easier said than done. Most of the time Gerard wasn’t a good goalie, dodging the ball instead of catching it, and was nearly knocked out a few times, especially when rowdier vikings were trying to kick it into the goal. Gerard was pretty sure Ronnie was trying to purposefully take off his head for some reason with those maniacal kicks. Eventually, though, the game was over and most of the day had already passed, so everyone headed home. This was the first day when Gerard hadn’t been able to draw with the dragon and he hoped that this wouldn’t make the dragon stop. He was curious and wanted to know more, he couldn’t let this pass away, but he also had to take care of his brother. He had that much he couldn’t do without, even if it meant missing out on the dragon.

“After the lesson tomorrow, can I come with you?” Mikey asked as Gerard stirred the soup pot that hung over the fire. He’d set it up to make beef stew tonight and shook his head at Mikey’s question.

“Not at the moment. I’ve got something going on down there right now and it’d be too dangerous.” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“First, the cove’s not dangerous. And second, what you could be doing that’d make it dangerous for me?”

“A lotta things.”

“But if they’re dangerous for me, then they have to be dangerous for you, too.”

“Not really.” Gerard corrected, “And I promise, when things are done, I’ll take you to the cove and show you what I’ve done.”

“...Okay.” Mikey didn’t really get why Gerard wouldn’t let him come along, but he didn’t argue. He knew that, once he had his mind set on something, Gerard wouldn’t budge. He was as bad as their father in that way. That depressed Mikey a little, so he needed to ask, “Gee?”

“Mikey-”

“It’s not that. I just wanna ask…When will Dad be home?” This caused Gerard to pause.

“...I don’t know, Mikes. I know he’ll come back safe and sound, but I don’t know when.”

“I hope he comes home soon.”

“I do too.”

Out on the sea, the ships were finally coming up on the edge of the map, where the fogbank was. It was the last unexplored territory this way that they knew of and was the closest place that could possibly house the dragons’ nest.

“Steady!” caustioned Chief, “This is it. Let’s not back down now.” And so, with trepidation, they sailed into the fogback. But, as they entered, above them, a shadow exited the bank. It flew over their heads and was too far away to see clearly, so they couldn’t tell what it was, only that it was flying away from them.

Chapter Text

Now that they had seen each other, Gerard was more confident in talking with the dragon. He was now drawing in front of the dragon, adding onto the mural they’d created together, and in turn the dragon was allowing Gerard to draw it as it rested on the rock, observing everything. And as he drew the dragon, Gerard noticed something strange about it, even more strange than everything else it already was. As it relaxed, its green eye would widen, showing its emotions, but the yellow one wouldn’t widen or compress, as if it was stuck that way. Gerard felt pity for the dragon.

“Hey.” Gerard tended to talk with the dragon as he drew, even though he knew it couldn’t answer him, “I wanted to ask you something.” The dragon grunted, indicating that he could speak, “So, is there something wrong with your eye?” The look he got said, ‘Why do you wanna know?’ and the dragon began looking high and mighty again. Gerard sighed, “Look, if there’s something wrong with your eye, then that can’t be good, right? If I can figure out what it is, then maybe I can help you.” The dragon grunted again, as if to say, ‘I’m fine.’ Gerard shook his head, knowing the dragon wasn’t going to be nice about this, and went back to drawing. The dragon observed him, then looked away when Gerard glanced at it. The human rose an eyebrow but didn’t say anything and, when he was finished sketching the dragon, he showed it to the black creature. It watched the drawings, then looked at him. It leaned away to grab something in its mouth and then threw it to Gerard. The boy was able to grab it and fumbled with it for a moment before securing it, blinking when he realized what it was.

“A spear?” One end was sharper than the other and Gerard didn’t know what to do with it. The dragon climbed off the rock and showed its true size, spooking Gerard with how big it was. It then nudged his side, directing him to the pond, and then gestured with its head. Gerard got what it was trying to do and found it surprising at how a beast like a dragon could come up with a plan like this. He knew what he was dealing with certainly wasn’t a dumb beast, and this really proved that. As a demonstration, the dragon crept up to the water and gazed into it, waiting as still as a statue. When it was certain, it darted forward and caught a whole bunch of fish in its mouth. After swallowing, the black creature gestured for him to try. Gerard nodded and moved around to a different part of the pond, a place where the fish hadn’t been attacked before, and waited. When he felt confident enough to strike, he couldn’t hit what he thought he hit, causing disappointment. The dragon had him come back to its side and stuck a claw in the water, as if trying to show him something.

“Oh, I get it.” Gerard pointed, “In the water, your claw looks different because the water’s distorting it, right?” The dragon nodded, “So I have to assume the same thing when I’m trying to catch fish.” The dragon nodded again. The human returned to his spot and, when he struck again, he was able to spear a fish. He didn’t want it and so offered it to the dragon. The black creature sniffed at the offering, glanced at Gerard, and, when the human didn’t take it back, opened its mouth.

“Huh.” Gerard squinted, “I could’ve sworn you had-” Then teeth suddenly shot out of indents in the dragon’s jaw and it bit the fish away, eating it in one bite. Gerard jumped back, holding his hands close, “-teeth...” The dragon chuckled at his reaction and Gerard sighed, “Don’t fucking scare me like that.” The dragon continued to laugh and Gerard smiled, “Hey, if you’re teaching me things, then I ought to be able to help you with your eye. Deal?” He held out a hand to shake. The dragon shook its head and flew away, the force of the air throwing Gerard into the pond. When he surfaced, the dragon was gone. Gerard sighed again, but he wasn’t going to give up in helping the dragon if it was trying to teach him things.

It was now Group 3’s turn to deal with dragons, starting with a Hideous Zippleback. As soon as the cage doors opened, a wave of gas flew out and covered the arena, preventing anyone from seeing anything clearly. Travis instructed them on how to handle the dragon, as they’d only have buckets to use to deal with it and dragonscale capes. Any dragon that breathed fire was able to be stopped if you doused its head in water, but that was trickier to do with a two-headed dragon like the Zippleback, and so they had to have teamwork if they wanted to survive.

“Remember, one head breathes gas, the other head lights it! It’s your job to figure out which head is which and survive!” cautioned Travis, “Be careful, though, because the Zippleback could light everything up at any time, and if that happens, hide under your capes! They’re made of fireproof dragon scales and will keep you from getting burned!” The group nodded and Gerard watched as Brendon, Jacky, Spencer, Ryan Ross, and Jon tried to keep their own against the sneaky dragon. Because this lesson was about teamwork, they were split into two groups, Brendon, Jacky, and Jon in one with Spencer and Ryan in the other. Gerard watched as slowly, the Zippleback picked them off one by one until it was just Spencer left. He had the advantage of seeing the dragon heads, determining which one sparked and which one breathed gas, and so he just waited with his bucket. He could hear the dragon moving in the gas and he waited for it to appear. The gas-spilling head had more of a curved nose horn and the sparking head had bigger teeth, helping to tell them apart.

Spencer jumped and dodged when the dragon tried to sweep him off his feet but fell over when the second tail also came around, knocking the bucket out of his hands and spilling it. The dragon appeared out of the mist and seized its chance, both heads striking at once, but were forced to call off the attack when a crossbow bolt got lodged in one of their tails, pinning it to the ground. They looked up and cowered at the sight of Billie and Tré and scampered back to their cage.

“You okay, Spence?” Ryan and Brendon pulled him to his feet.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay.”

“Good. You get to be top of the class today.” Travis said, “Just be careful, for dragons will always go in for the kill when your guard is down. Understood?” The group nodded.

“Yes sir.” Gerard watched for another moment, then took out his sketchbook.

So why didn’t you? he thought, examining the drawings of the dragon.

“Hey!” shouted one of the kids, “I think Trader Alex is here!”

“Really?!”

“Yay!” Half the children in the village headed down to the docks to see the young trader. He was always a welcome sight in the village and gave them many supplies they needed, not to mention a fun guy to be around. He’d only started trading with Berk a few months ago and everyone loved him. He also came with friends, who were just as lovable as he.

“Hey there!” Jack waved hello as the teens approached.

“What did you bring this time?!” asked Derek in wonder.

“A whole bunch o’ things!” said Rian. Gerard, who had followed his brother as Mikey ran to the docks, watched as Alex, Jack, Rian, and Zack unloaded the ship. He smiled at how happy his younger brother was at the celebrities and turned around, planning to go back to the cove when he bumped into someone.

“Easy there!” His wrist was caught before he could fall over and he was righted.

“Uh, thanks.” He looked up to see Tré there, smiling warmly, so much unlike his dragon hunting personality. Tré held up his prosthetic, now equipped with a double-bladed axe and Gerard grew nervous. If the Hunters ever discovered that he had met a dragon, they’d kill it and he wouldn’t be able to study it.

“No problem.” The older viking looked over his head and at the boat, “Y’know, sometimes I wonder about those guys.”

“Why?” Gerard asked, trying to edge around Tré.

“They’re the same age as most of you, they should still be with their tribe, yet they’re trading supplies and weapons.” Tré shook his head, “I don’t like that at all. They need a home somewhere, not just their boat.” Gerard looked at the group of traders. He hadn’t really noticed it before, but now that he looked closer, he found that Tré was right. He frowned, then glanced back at the older viking. If he didn’t step up and be what his father wanted him to be, would he end up like the traders? It was scary to think about.

“Excuse me.” He pushed past Tré and began running to the forest. Tré stared after him with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged and headed down to the boat, wanting to ask for more supplies and news.

“Nope nope nope nope...” Gerard had taken off some of his clothes and was trying to scrub himself in the pond. The dragon, who was also there with him, gave a confused caw. Gerard said, “I think I need to leave the island and that the Hunters we have here can smell you on me.” The dragon rolled its eyes and gave another caw, as if to say, ‘Elaborate.’ Gerard sighed, “Look, we just got a visit from some traders today and I realized that they’re the same age as me and if I don’t kill a dragon, my father’s gonna exile me and I’ll be like them and I won’t see Mikey and I’m terrified of that. Also, I’m serious about the Hunters ‘cause they could smell you on me and pop up and kill you at anytime, so we should stop seeing each other and-” The dragon used its tail to smack him, as if to say, ‘Stop rambling.’ Gerard rubbed his head, “Okay, yeah, you have a point.” He sighed and stopped scrubbing, “But if they come hunting for you, don’t blame me!” The dragon snorted.

After he got dried and dressed, Gerard commenced fishing with the dragon, though mainly it was just the human spearing fish while the dragon watched. He only stabbed a few and fed them to dragon, as he didn’t like fish much, and sat with the dragon as it ate. He scribbled in his sketchbook, drawing the dragon, and tried to come up with something to call it. He couldn’t keep calling it ‘the dragon,’ he knew that much, and he still wanted to figure out what kind of dragon it was.

“Hey.” The dragon opened one eye to acknowledge him, “So, as humans, we like to tell dragons apart by giving them ‘species’ names. I’m still trying to understand you, so I can’t give you that yet, but I do wanna call you something so I don’t have to keep calling you a dragon. Is...is that okay with you?” The dragon grunted and closed its eye. It didn’t care, “I’m gonna take that as a positive response and name you Muse. But now I don’t know about gender...” Gerard was not a fan of defining gender, but he didn’t want the dragon to get mad at him, so maybe it was best to give the creature a gender, “Do you lay eggs?” The dragon nodded. Gerard smiled, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lady Muse.” Muse smacked him over the head with her tail again, “OW! Y’know, I don’t even know why I’m still talking with you about all this.” The dragon chuckled. It stopped as soon as it started, however, head fins twitching as if they could hear something, then turned to look at the top of the cove and growled whilst standing. The human looked up and saw a strange dragon peering over the edge, staring down at them.

It seemed to be just about as big as Muse, if not bigger, with clawed wings like a Nightmare’s, and all Gerard could see was the top of it. Muse growled before quickly taking off and disappearing into the sky, causing Gerard to be pushed into the pond for the third time since they’d met. Gerard wasn’t liking the recurrence as he got back to the surface, only to be face-to-face with the new dragon and screaming, diving back under the water to escape it. He was grabbed by one of his shoes and tugged back into the air, being held upside down by one of the dragon’s clawed wings. Because of how large its head was, it was hard to tell anything else about the dragon and he felt just about to faint as it dragged him up to meet its eyes. He didn’t stop there, however, as it took him up and he saw someone standing on the horns just above its eyes, where no one had been standing before.

It was a person in armor, made of bone and wood, with a mask that resembled the dragon it was standing on. In one hand was a shield, the other a strange staff. Gerard was lifted until he was eye-to-eye with the human, even upside down, and the younger gulped nervously. He didn’t know that anyone could have such a connection with a dragon, but there it was, right in front of him. Hopefully they’d give him mercy, since it was another human he was meeting. Then the masked being raised the staff and Gerard closed his eyes, not wanting to be hurt, and flinched when he heard a rattling sound. He was then miraculously lowered to the ground, let go of, and the dragon took off, leaving him alone in the cove. Gerard stared up in the sky for a moment, watching the dragon fly away, and said, “Fuck you, Muse.”

“Gee?”

“Yeah, Mikes?”

“I hate doing chores.”

“You and me both.” Despite most of the adult vikings being gone from the island, that didn’t mean the children were stopped from their chores.  As Mikey made sure the chickens stayed away from the coop, Gerard got the eggs and carried them in a basket. They also had sheep to shear and yaks to milk, among other things, but at least they didn’t do this often. It was the middle of the day, quiet yet tense, as if a storm was about to break, despite the clear sky.

“You done yet?” Mikey shooed away some more chickens.

“Almost.” Gerard double-checked everything. He wouldn’t take all the eggs, but he’d take enough to trade in the village and get them some food. He slammed his head on the roof of the coop when quickly standing up in response to horns ringing through the village.

“The dragon raid alarm!”

“Damn it, get inside!” Gerard climbed out of the coop and the two brothers fled into the house. They weren’t too worried about their animals, yet they kept an eye on the skies as dragons began to descend. Rarely did dragons attack in the daytime, but it gave the vikings an advantage in fighting them. Several were brought down by catapults and there was no need for the torches, so that was good. Few things were taken in this raid, but they all knew the dragons would be back that night. It always happened after a daytime raid, and so, once the dragons were gone, everyone began preparing for their return. Even Gerard and Mikey went out to help, preparing the torches and bola-throwers among other things. Gerard was not good at mechanics, not like Mikey, but that was how he found himself when his little brother made an excuse to return home and he was left to prepare a net launcher, alone. Well, not quite, as Ray soon came over to speak with him.

The curly-haired viking always wore a helmet to help cover his unruly hair, even if it didn’t do too much, and was one of the few who were friends with Gerard, despite not talking to him much. They were also about the same age and, if anything ever happened, Gerard knew Ray would help him out. It was just the way Ray was, for which Gerard was glad. The only trouble was, he didn’t know if he could trust Ray with his secret. If he didn’t feel like he could tell Mikey, he certainly didn’t think he could tell Ray, despite their trust.

“Need any help?”

“A little, yeah.” Gerard used all his strength to pull the catapult part back, “Could you help set this?”

“Hold still.” Ray reached down and helped Gerard maneuver himself to where the catapult hooked on the lever so it wouldn’t accidentally fling forward, “There we go.”

“Thanks.” Gerard wiped sweat from his brow.

“Where’s your brother?”

“He went home, some excuse about making sure our fireplace wasn’t burning for some reason.” Gerard rolled his eyes, “And I thought I was the bad liar.” Ray chuckled.

“If you want, you can head home.” he said, “The rest of us have this under control. I know you don’t exactly excel in brute force, but thanks for trying.” Gerard snorted.

“It’s not really hard to see.” He smiled, “Thanks a lot. You guys need anything, just give a whistle.”

“Will do.” Ray waved goodbye as Gerard left, and the teen made his way past other preparing vikings before heading home. He wondered why Mikey had excused himself when he was so much better at this kind of thing than Gerard was, then shrugged it off. No matter how much he wanted to be a ‘bloodthirsty’ viking, Mikey could never really do some of the things the other kids could. He’d frozen up during the dragon fighting lesson against the Gronckle, despite his interesting in watching Billie and Tré slay dragons, and was more of an inventor than a fighter. Anyone could see that. Maybe he’d given in to his own fears and just backed out on this. It made sense. But as Gerard entered the home, he didn’t see Mikey by the fireplace in the main room. This caused him to frown, still, and try to listen and see if he could hear his brother elsewhere. Yes, in the loft where their room was, he could hear noises. He climbed the stairs and opened the door to find Mikey scribbling away at his invention table, as if trying to come up with a new idea.

“So, why’d you leave me alone like that?” Gerard glanced over the drawing, seeing nothing interesting, “If you wanted to work on your inventions, you could’ve said so and I would’ve let you go.”

“Sorry, Gee.” Mikey truly did sound sorry, “But like I thought, the fireplace was still going, so I put it out!”

“Huh. I thought I doused it before I left...” He shook his head, “Just don’t back out on me next time, please.” Mikey looked at his brother.

“I won’t.” he promised and Gerard knew he meant it.

As the days went on and summer became stronger and stronger, Gerard slowly bonded with Muse. The name gave them more familiarity with each other, and when Muse used her tail to knock him into the water, Gerard decided to finally get back at her and threw some water at her. She gave him this immensely confused look before he continued to throw water and she got the idea. Gerard’s eyes widened when she opened her wings and he tried to scramble away, only for Muse to cause a small wave that threw him deeper into the pond.

“Fuck you!” Gerard shouted once he was on the surface again, Muse’s trilling laughter filling the air. It was because of incidents like this that they got closer, even as Muse tried to push Gerard away when he got too close. Eventually it came to a point where Muse became so comfortable with Gerard’s presence that she allowed him to touch her, but only in small bits, such as on the nose or her paws. It slowly expanded and soon Gerard was allowed to touch her ears, her tail, her wings, and they showed each other that they weren’t threats unless threatened. Gerard grew this trust even more when he decided to show Muse how to be a more efficient fisher, but he needed her trust in return, as it included a net. Muse was not happy about it when Gerard explained it to her and showed her the net and left him alone for several days, but she eventually came around and he showed her what to do.

“So, you grab two parts of it and spread it apart, like this.” He showed her, “And you dip it into the water. It could help you catch more fish than you ever dreamed!” Muse gave a suspicious caw, unwilling to believe Gerard’s words. The dark-haired teen rolled his eyes and handed the net to her, “Then you try.” Muse contemplated this, then suddenly flew into the sky with the net, her gusts knocking Gerard into the pond for the umpteenth time. He let it slide this time and waited on the shore for her, drawing as he did so. They continued to add onto the drawing and were careful where they walked and sat, as it had become so large there was little room for themselves anymore. Muse returned quicker than Gerard had thought, carrying a net full of wiggling fish, and she had to admit that he’d been right.

After this event, Muse trusted Gerard a little more. That didn’t mean she didn’t stop causing him to fall in the pond, but she now tried to consider him a friend. At least it was a step in the right direction and, now that they had trust, Gerard was trying to study her a little more. But he found that he was doing it less and less, just enjoying his time with the mysterious dragon in such a way that he’d only felt this way when he was with Mikey. This caused him to sadden, realizing that he’d come to prioritize Muse over his own brother, and sought to fix this by spending a few days with Mikey. However, this was harder than it looked, as his little brother seemed to want nothing to do with him, sneaking away at every opportunity, and Gerard couldn’t understand it. Wasn’t Mikey the one who wanted to spend time with him? Why was he ignoring Gerard now? It didn’t make much sense. And when he finally left Mikey alone again, he confessed this to Muse.

“I don’t know why he’s doing this! I thought he would’ve loved to have me around again, but he keeps avoiding me! I don’t get it, I don’t get it at all.” Gerard was leaning against Muse’s side as he explained, the dragon’s ears perked to listen. Muse gave a small growl, then brought her head close to smell Gerard. The human didn’t know what she was doing but allowed it, then watched as she began drawing something in the dirt. It looked like a Nightmare, but it wasn’t, the wings were too large, and Gerard gave Muse a confused look.

“What is this supposed to mean? What does this dragon have to do with what’s going on-” It suddenly hit Gerard, “Mikey’s raising a dragon in secret. You smelled that dragon on me because of him. Am I right?” Muse rumbled and nodded. Gerard stood, “Crap, this is bad!” He turned to her, “Look, I’ll see you tomorrow, thanks!” And he ran back to the village. Having to traverse the forest and the cove every day, he was getting better at climbing and running and made it back to the village in no time. As he ran, he nearly plowed into some of the other young vikings, but was unable to dodge when Frank stepped into his path. They collided and fell to the ground, the basket of fish the smaller boy had been hauling knocking over and spilling some of its load.

“Sorry!” Gerard apologized, trying to get back to his feet quickly, but it was hard when he was tangled up with his crush.

“Easy!” Frank snapped, also trying to untangle himself, “What the hell has you in such a hurry?”

“Sorry, need to see my brother. I’m gonna kill him when I get my hands on him!”

“If he’s pissed you off, I wonder what he did this time.” Everyone had a temper, Frank especially, but Gerard was one of the few known not to get angry as easily.

“Can’t explain, gotta run.” Gerard finally freed himself and, with an apologetic glance back at Frank, kept running to his house. He threw the door open when he got there and shouted, “Mikey!”

“Hey Gee!” greeted the younger, poking his head out from the top of the stairs. Gerard gave him a dark look that made the boy take a step back, “What’s wrong?” Gerard had been planning on getting onto his brother for hiding a dragon, but now that he had time to think about it, he realized he’d also have to reveal Muse and didn’t feel comfortable doing that yet. He still had to find the dragon and get onto Mikey, though, so he quickly came up with something else that he knew Mikey did that he could get angry at.

“What the hell, Mikey?” he exclaimed, “I keep asking you not to visit the Dragon Hunters!” When he saw Mikey’s shocked and embarrassed face, he knew he’d hit the mark.

“They’re still good guys!” he protested, “At least, when they’re not hunting dragons.”

“They’re still too dangerous for you to hang around!” Gerard took the stairs to go to their room, “I don’t want you getting hurt!”

“They won’t hurt me and you know it!”

“Maybe, but what they do is really dangerous!” Mikey quickly followed him as he threw open the door, causing it to bang against the wall. The bottom of Mikey’s sheets moved slightly but Gerard pretended not to notice, not wanting Mikey to know he already knew. Could he really do this? If he tried to take the dragon away from Mikey, what would happen? Was it even the right decision? He knew that, if anyone discovered he was friends with a dragon, they’d banish him and kill Muse on the spot. He didn’t want the same fate for Mikey. He pretended to notice something about the bottom of Mikey’s bed and questioned, “I didn’t think you liked to keep stuff under your bed.”

“J-just an extra blanket.”

“Bullshit.” Gerard crouched and reached for the covers.

“Wait-!” But it was too late. As soon as he’d grabbed the edge of the sheets, something zoomed out and attached itself to the teen’s face. Gerard screamed and tried to pry the thing off, feeling claws dig in as it kept its grip. He couldn’t even tell what it was besides the fact that it was a baby dragon and it seemed determined to claw his face off. Mikey managed to get a hold on the situation by trying to pull the dragon off, saying, “Bunny! Bunny, stop!” With a tiny screech the dragon let go but got out of Mikey’s grip and fled out the window. Mikeyy ran out of the room to follow the dragon and Gerard did too, knowing this was partially his fault. He’d only wanted to protect Mikey from the fate he knew he’d eventually have, but he didn’t want things to go this way!

“Bunny!” Mikey called, then gave a small whistle. The dragon was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding.

“How long have you been hiding it?” Gerard asked. The younger of the two gave him a glare.

“Why should I tell you? You’re the reason she ran away.” He turned back to the village, “Bunny!”

“Do you know how much trouble you’ll be in if someone finds out?”

“What about you?” Mikey shot back, “Don’t you know the consequences by befriending that dragon?”

“W-what dragon?” Gerard stammered, sighing at the look Mikey gave him, “How long have you known?”

“Weeks.” Mikey looked around for ‘Bunny,’ “I could tell something was going on with you, so I followed you one day and found you with that dragon.”

“And Bunny?”

“I’ve...had her since I discovered you and your dragon.” Mikey looked terribly embarrassed, “It was the day Trader Alex and his friends came by. They let us onto the ship and I found a dragon egg onboard. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I didn’t want something happening to the poor dragon. I mean, it was just an egg, there was no need to take it from its home...” Gerard softened.

“Another reason why you’d never be able to be a dragon hunter.” He tousled his brother’s hair, “Now, let’s go find Bunny.” They looked all over the entire village for the young dragon, which Mikey described as, “Like a baby Nightmare, but the wings are way bigger and the horns are thicker. She’s purple, too.”

“How do you know it’s a ‘she?’”

“I just know.” With the sun starting to fall, it was becoming harder and harder to look for Bunny. They were also trying not to disturb the rest of the village, so they couldn’t call out for the dragon, and with her purple coloring, it was harder to see her. After spending at least two hours looking, Mikey was on the verge of crying.

“W-w-what if she got hurt?” he whimpered, “S-she’s just a baby!”

“Well, we know no one else has found her yet.” Gerard assured, “Otherwise the rest of the village would know.” He pointed to the woods, “Maybe she went into the forest to hide. I’m sure she’s just as scared as you are, since you probably raised her in the house while I was gone.” Mikey nodded and they went into the forest. Gerard led the way, knowing the area like the back of his hand from all his journeys to the cove, and without the danger of other vikings about, they could call out for Bunny. They combed the area as best they could before Gerard led the way to the cove, thinking she might’ve gotten stuck there, and when they arrived, they were right. A small dragon was curled up on top of Muse’s head, who herself was curled up in one of the few patches of ground without a drawing. Gerard didn’t think she slept there, but it seems she did it sometimes. Telling Mikey to stay at the top of the cove, Gerard climbed down, slightly disturbing Muse. The sleepy dragon blinked her eyes and glanced around, coming more awake when she saw her viking friend.

“Hey, sleeping beauty.” he said, “I need to take that dragon off your head, okay?” Even though he’d been nice to her, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something to the dragon on her head, and so Muse growled at Gerard. He backed off a little, raising his hands in a gesture of, ‘Okay, got it.’

“It’s okay, Muse. The dragon on your head, she was raised by my little brother.” When Muse gave him a skeptical look, Gerard added, “Ask her yourself.” Still suspicious of Gerard but curious, she gave a growl and moved her head to where she slid the dragon off and onto the ground. The tiny dragon had a light blue head and neck, yak-like horns, yellow eyes, and everything else was purple. She yawned, blinking open her eyes, and then saw Gerard. With a caw she scrambled back and hid behind one of Muse’s trunk-like front paws. This caused the black dragon to growl at Gerard again.

“Just ask her, will ya?” he pleaded. She rumbled something to the tiny dragon, as if whispering to her, and hesitantly, the tiny dragon answered. She also peeked out from behind Muse’s leg, looking at Gerard and studying him. Both still seemed suspicious of his claims, so then he asked if Mikey could come down and prove it to them. Muse allowed it with a nod and so Gerard helped his brother down to the cove after gesturing that he could enter. As soon as she saw him, the tiny dragon yipped and crawled across the ground with amazing speed, climbing up Mikey with glee and wrapping herself around his head. The boy was laughing at her gesture of affection and Muse could see that they clearly trusted each other. She walked over and nudged Gerard, glancing at Mikey when she got his attention, and so he told her, “This is Mikey, my little brother, the one I told you so much about.” Muse nodded, then bedded down again. She hissed whenever Mikey tried to come close until Gerard showed her that he wasn’t a threat, using the tiny dragon as a prime example.

“I mean, look at them.” he gestured at his brother and his dragon, “Mikey raised her from an egg. If he wanted to do anything bad to her, wouldn’t he have done it by now? He probably would’ve even shown her to me if he wanted something bad to happen.” Muse had to concede that Gerard had a point and so allowed Mikey to touch her, but only her nose. He was frightened of her and respectfully so. He’d never seen something like Muse, but neither had he seen anything like the tiny dragon, so they were both mysteries. As Gerard relaxed against Muse and Mikey cradled ‘Bunny’ (what he called the tiny purple dragon), they talked about some things.

“So Bunny’s the reason why you’ve been avoiding me?” Gerard asked. Mikey nodded.

“I didn’t want to, but I was afraid of what you’d do to her.” The younger brother was scratching her scales as she growl-purred, “Even though I knew you had Muse, I didn’t know what you’d do with Bunny. I mean, have you seen anything like her?”

“She looks like some kind of weird Nightmare, but she’s too different to be just ‘different.’ You get what I mean?”

“So a mutation?”

“Exactly.” Gerard nodded and reached a hand over to scratch Bunny. The young dragon growled at his hand, but as Gerard had showed Mikey, the young boy took Gerard’s hand and helped show Bunny that his big brother was no threat. Slowly, Bunny accepted the gesture and let him pet her, “...Both of us are horrible liars.”

“You said it. I mean, I could see through your lies and I’m sure you could see through mine.” Mikey cuddled Bunny, “At least we have these guys.”

“But what are we gonna do? We can’t let anyone else know. I could tell you had a dragon thanks to Muse, but you won’t be so lucky with anyone else. I only wanted to take Bunny away to protect you, but now I can see that it wouldn’t help.”

“I don’t know.” Mikey looked at Gerard, “I don’t wanna lose her, Gee. I like her too much.”

“I can see that.” Gerard leaned back against Muse again and looked into the sky, “...Well, there’s one thing that could work.”

“What?” Mikey was ready to hop on it as soon as he said it.

“One day, after we’d started to trust each other, this dragon appeared with a masked human. I haven’t seen them since, but I think the human and dragon trusted each other so much that they learned to work together.” Gerard turned to Mikey, “If we and the dragons can trust each other that much, maybe we could work together to show the other vikings that dragons aren’t all that bad and that we can work together instead of fighting.” He glanced at Muse, “What do you think?”

“That’d be great! Then we wouldn’t have to be separated from our dragon friends!” Muse wasn’t as sure, shaking her head. Bunny didn’t exactly understand what was going on and crawled into Mikey’s jacket, curling up against his chest. Gerard reached up to rub Muse’s side.

“Just give it a chance. I showed you that not all vikings are bad, I showed you how to fish better. I only want you to trust me and try this.” Muse stared at him, contemplating, then slowly nodded and licked his hand. She’d never done it before but he trusted that this was a sign she was willing to try it. Gerard smiled and said, “Thanks, Muse.”

“Then what do we do first?” asked Mikey.

“Trust each other.” Gerard said, “We’ve done that. Now we just need to learn how to work together.”

“Like riding?”

“Maybe. What do you think, Muse?” The midnight-colored dragon bared her teeth, “Seems she’s not on board.”

“I hope she comes around to it.” Mikey rubbed Bunny, “Depending on how she grows up, maybe Bunny could be ridden. I mean, there’s all sorts of ways she can help as a baby, but she needs to grow up, too.”

“True.” After a little more sitting around, the brothers had to leave. They bid goodbye to Muse and took Bunny with them, planning on continuing with Mikey’s idea of raising her at home until she got too big.

“So, what’s the deal with Muse’s eye?” Mikey asked.

“You noticed?” Gerard was surprised. Muse had been keeping her damaged eye out of Mikey’s sight, but it seems he still noticed. Probably because of how she kept her eye out of his sight.

“Sure I did. Is...is she blind in that eye?”

“No, she can still see. She just hasn’t let me try to help with it yet, so I don’t really know what’s wrong.” He tapped his eye, “Like, the black part of her eye, the pupil, it was way bigger than it should’ve been and didn’t change, like get smaller or bigger, and the color part was different.”

“The iris, you mean.” Mikey corrected.

“Yeah, that.” Gerard nodded, “I’ve never seen anything like it myself. Have you?”

“No, but if it doesn’t seem to bother her, then hopefully it’s not anything big.” Mikey wrapped his arms around his chest, keeping Bunny in the jacket as they caught sight of the village, “Dad’s gonna kill us if he finds out.”

“Not if Billie and Tré get to us first.” Gerard murmured, stopping them for a moment, “Let’s make a promise, here and now, not to reveal our dragons to anyone unless we know they can be trusted and double-check with each other.” He held out his hand, “Deal?”

“Deal.” Mikey shook hands with him, “I never wanna lose Bunny.”

“Muse is a bit harder to keep around, but I don’t wanna lose her either.” With the promise in mind, they continued on to the village. As they did so, they didn’t notice the eyes watching them from the forest, knowing yet dangerous, kind yet defensive. Two sets of eyes, one of a dragon, another of a man, both who knew too much.

Chapter Text

It was Group 4’s turn to do dragon fighting and Mark had said that, once everything was finished, they’d tell the boys about the schedule for the next several weeks. Going into summer, they’d just been doing crash courses with dragons, so what would they do for the next set of weeks?

“Ready?” asked Tom, hand resting on the lever that would release the next dragon. So far they’d seen the Deadly Nadder, Gronckle, and Hideous Zippleback. All that was left was the Monstrous Nightmare, right? Ryan Seaman, Ronnie, Derek, Christian, and Zakk were all pumped to deal with the vicious dragon, but were a little worried when they weren’t given any protection or weapons to deal with it. Tom then pulled the lever, saying, “Here we go!” Instead of one of the large doors opening, a small block was pulled away from a tiny door and out came-

“A Terrible Terror? Really?” asked Christian, half appalled, half amused. Ronnie was laughing.

“This’ll be so easy!”

“Watch your mouth, kid.” Tom warned, “This little devil is a lot more dangerous than he seems.”

“Yeah right.” Ronnie crouched to be at the same level as the Terrible Terror, “What’s it gonna do, bite me?” That it did, suddenly lunging at Ronnie’s face and clamping hard on his nose. Its tiny, almost invisible teeth made the bite hurt even worse, not to mention the venom. As the boy fell backward in surprise, trying to pry it off, Tom went on, “They’re bad enough in packs but even one can be ferocious in its own right. Anyone wanna tell me what Ronnie did wrong?” As the rest of the group responded and Derek helped Ronnie pry the Terror away, the other kids above broke into laughter. Alone, Terrors were quite comical dragons and this was no exception as the dragon let go and pranced away, head held high as if it had done a great deed.

“That hurt.” groaned Ronnie, holding his swelling nose, “That very much hurt.”

“As it should.” Tom said. He then instructed them on how to handle a Terror or, if push came to shove, a whole pack. It was quite easy, as distractions really helped, especially if you had something shiny to throw away. As Tom demonstrated, throwing a few screws for the Terror to chase, Gerard got an idea.

Could I do a similar thing with Muse? Not throw away screws, but have her chase light? He wrote down the note in his journal to check later and eventually, Derek was given the status for the top of the class and everyone was called out of the arena. They were told to stand a small distance away from the cage as Travis began to explain.

“The next few weeks we’re gonna do some reading to study dragons-” Many vikings groaned at that, “-and then we’ll go back into fighting them before it’s decided who’s the best viking.” He gestured to the top of the arena, “This is who the best viking will fight.” There was nothing for a few moments until the metal shrieked as a huge dragon shot against it, as if trying to escape. Everyone jumped and the dragon roared, spitting liquid fire into the air before gaining a grip on the chains. It was bigger than any dragon they’d ever seen before, even Muse, and it had six large, distinguishing horns. It was a Nightmare, certainly, but the horns were much different. Instead of all of them going back, two curled around the sides of its head and two straight up with the remaining two looking like shorter normal horns, making something like a six-piece shield. The scales that stretched from its neck to its belly were bright red while everything else were black or dark orange, giving the illusion it was wearing a coat of soot and ash, maybe even living coal. Sometimes tiny flames flared up between scales, appearing like it was oozing fire right from its body.

“That is the Demon.” Travis muttered as the large dragon crawled around in the arena, “The only Nightmare we’ve been able to catch and one of the baddest dragons you’ll ever meet. It’s not quite a Titan Wing but we think it’s close. It’s only been shown with demonstrations, but whoever gets to the top of the class gets the chance to kill it. Good luck.” The class was very nervous. A regular Nightmare they knew they could deal with, but that thing? It would be suicidal to even get close!

We’ll probably try not to do so well in class or even sabotage ourselves so we don’t have to deal with it. Gerard thought as the Demon hissed menacingly before crawling back to its stall. Despite being there for a short time, the arena was covered in burn marks, evidence that this dragon was bad news. As the crowd of young vikings broke up for the day, murmuring to themselves and each other, Gerard was not only approached by his younger brother but by Ray as well. He was surprised to see the curly-haired viking coming to him again but didn’t think much of it, greeting Ray warmly as he came close.

“Hey dude. What’s going on?”

“Nothing much.” Ray shrugged, “Pete, Jacky, and I are about to do a little exploring because Pete thought he saw a new cave in the woods. Wanna come?” This caused the brothers to frown.

“I didn’t think you were the exploring type.”

“He’s not.” said Jacky, suddenly appearing behind Ray and causing them all to jump, “But someone’s gotta keep Pete outta trouble, right?”

“Can’t you do that?” asked Mikey, hiding a little behind his brother from the other boy’s surprise appearance.

“Pete’s more than I can handle by myself.” Jacky admitted, “The only ones who can handle him alone are Joe, Andy, and Patrick but they don’t wanna go exploring.”

“And you can’t convince him not to go?” Gerard asked.

“We tried.” said Ray, “Stubborn as fuck, he is.”

“Well, we’ve got other plans.” Gerard said guiltily, “Sorry we can’t go.”

“Plus, we’re not suicidal.” Mikey got a jab in the side for that, “OW!”

“Shut up.” Gerard hissed, giving his baby brother a glare. Mikey glared back but didn’t say anything else.

“Wish us luck, at least.” Ray sighed. And with that, the vikings shared goodbyes and split their own separate ways.

“What was that for?” Mikey rubbed his side.

“One, you were rude, and two, if you grow up too be a little shit I’ll get blamed for it.”

“I’m already a little shit, though.”

“Then I don’t want you getting any worse. Besides,” Gerard rubbed his arms as if a chill had come over him, “I just got a bad feeling about it after you said it, like something bad was gonna happen.” Mikey frowned.

“Do you think we should go with ‘em, then?”

“No.” Gerard shook his head, “But we might wanna check on ‘em later, just in case.” Mikey nodded. They headed back to the house to pick up Bunny, not surprised to find her sleeping in the unlit coals in the fireplace, and Mikey had to tempt her out with a fish before she’d join them. They hid her in the younger boy’s jacket before heading to the woods, Gerard bringing along one of his larger journals for a project he was working on. When they arrived, Muse was nowhere to be seen but it wasn’t troubling. Gerard sat down and took out his journal to draw while Mikey played with Bunny, trying to teach her a trick or two.

“You know what I’ve noticed while playing with her?”

“What?” Gerard glanced up from his drawing, eyebrow raised.

“She can’t really fly. At least, not yet.” Mikey had Bunny resting on his arm like she was a bird, scratching her chin and making her trill, “Of course it’s probably because she’s a baby, but you’d think she would, with those huge wings.”

“Well, maybe she flies differently from a normal dragon. Put her on the ground and see what she does.” Mikey did so And Bunny chirped, then hopped back to him. She nuzzled his leg, clearly not wanting to leave him.

“C’mon, Bunny, show me that you can fly!” Bunny chirped again, as if confused on the request. It was at that moment that Muse appeared, dropping down out of nowhere with a small thump. She growled a greeting, sniffing the boys and Bunny before laying down and yawning. Neither boy wanted to disturb her, but with how Bunny didn’t seem to understand Mikey’s request, they would have to ask her to give a demonstration.

“Muse?” The black dragon opened one eye to gaze at Gerard, “We were wondering if you could help show Bunny how to fly?” Muse gave a groan but sat up. Her ear-flaps were up as she gave all of them a suspicious look.

“Y’see, I’ve taken care of her for several weeks but she won’t fly.” Mikey explained, “So, could you try showing her?” Muse snorted, then barked to Bunny. The smaller dragon sat up to attention and watched as Muse slowly spread her wings. The darker dragon then flapped them a little, showing Bunny what to do before doing a large flap to take to the air. This gust sent Mikey on his butt and Gerard was thrown into the pond, his journal flying free and not touching the water.

“MUSE!” shouted Gerard, angry. The dragon was hovering just above the cove, chuckling, then landed in a pounce. She gestured with her head for Bunny to try. Bunny yipped, then began walking on her wings, as if trying to figure out how to copy Muse. She was walking in a circle, her steps awkward because of her wings.

“Bunny?” Mikey asked, worried for his dragon. Then Bunny began to walk faster and flap her wings, where sparks began to come from her mouth. She got faster and faster and was soon flying low to the ground, still surrounded by sparks, causing Gerard and Mikey to raise their arms to shield themselves. Bunny flew higher, loosing her sparks as she landed on Muse’s head and chirped.

“Wow.” Mikey gasped as Gerard crawled out of the pond.

“You said it.” agreed the other, twisting part of his clothes to get the water out, “She looked like a typhoon when she was spinning, then came back like a boomerang!”

“Yeah.” Mikey got back on his feet and held out his hands, where Bunny glided to land in his arms. She trilled as the boy rubbed her head, knowing she had done something good, “You know how we talked about how she was a mutation of a Nightmare, kinda?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe she’s close enough to be related, but different enough that she’s a new species entirely?” Mikey held Bunny out and the tiny dragon flapped back to Muse’s head, “A ‘Typhoomerang.’” Gerard contemplated it for a moment, then nodded.

“I can see that. I’ve been trying to document Muse, knowing she’s not a dragon we’ve ever seen before, so we could do the same with Bunny.” Gerard walked over and picked up the journal, “I’ll write it down later. Right now, I’m trying to copy all these designs.”

“I was gonna ask about that.” Mikey tapped one of the designs with a foot and jumped when Muse growled at him.

“Oh yeah, don’t touch the pictures.” Gerard gave him a glare, “Muse and I drew these together as we got to know one another, so please don’t mess with them.”

“Gotcha...” Mikey backed away from the dual glares and sat down on a rock, Bunny joining him. He gazed around the cove as Gerard went back to drawing and Muse laid down again, Bunny curling up in his jacket, and took note of the scales scattered about. Carrying Bunny, Mikey went over and gathered the scales, careful not to step on the images, returning to his seat to study them. He knew they had come from Muse because they were black and large, oval and surprisingly sturdy. Curious, he pocketed the scales, wondering what could come out of studying them. After a while the boys had to leave, with how the sun was starting to set, and so they bid Muse goodbye before heading home. They trekked through the forest silently, Bunny asleep in Mikey’s jacket, but soon came across Frank and Bob. Both groups were surprised to find each other, the brothers more nervous.

“Hey, have you guys seen Ray, Pete, or Jacky around?” asked Frank.

“Um, no?” Mikey said.

“Is there something wrong?” asked Gerard.

“No one’s seen them all day.” Bob explained, “None of them are back yet and some of us went out looking.”

“And you haven’t done the same for us because..?” Mikey gave a gesture for him to continue, annoyed.

“You two go off all the time and you don’t get into trouble. Ray, Jacky, and Pete are different.” Bob said.

“If you don’t see Pete after an hour or two, it usually means he got himself into trouble.” Frank shrugged, “But if you find them, tell them to get back to the village.” Frank and Bob gave their goodbyes before hiking away. Gerard and Mikey shared a look before Gerard led them down a shortcut back to the cove. Muse was grooming her wings, having not left yet, and perked up when the boys appeared again.

“I know we said we were going back home but we need to ask a favor.” Gerard said, “Some of our friends went out to explore this cave and they haven’t come back yet. Could you help us look for them?” Muse narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, eyes glancing away as if to think. Slowly she nodded and the boys breathed sighs of relief.

“Great, let’s go.” Miikey started back to the top of the cove. Gerard understood that Muse still wasn’t comfortable with the older boy riding her and so he climbed with his brother and Muse took to the sky. She flew away, apparently to go look as Gerard searched the ground for a moment before grabbing a dead branch. He reached over and scratched Bunny’s head to get her awake, causing her to give an irritated chirp.

“Set this on fire, please?” Gerard held the branch close to her mouth. Bunny gave him a dark look before giving a small burst of flame, lighting the branch.

“I’m gonna go look for the guys. You both need to head home.”

“You can’t go by yourself!” Mikey protested.

“I don’t want you getting hurt, either. The caves around the island are dangerous and it’s my job to keep you safe.” Gerard gave his brother a small smile, “I promise I’ll be fine. Muse’ll be with me, y’know.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“At least get your dragon home.” Gerard pointed to Bunny, who was curling up tighter, “It’s gonna get cold tonight and I don’t think she could stand that.” Mikey held Bunny close, trying to warm her a little, then sighed as he gave into his brother’s reasoning.

“Be home soon. They’re all tough, too.”

“I know that, but they’re also my friends.” Gerard pat Mikey’s shoulder before going away. Mikey stared after him.

“They’re my friends, too...”

Gerard stepped carefully, one eye always on his torch so he didn’t accidentally cause a forest fire or something. There were hundreds of caves across the island, Pete could’ve chosen any of them to search, but he couldn’t give up hope. He’d asked Muse to help, he wasn’t going to let her do it alone. He had to build up trust with her somehow. It also made him wonder why she’d decided to help him, especially with the sudden favor. Maybe they’d gotten closer than he suspected? He hoped so.

As he approached the first cave he saw, he found Muse waiting at the entrance. It was too small for her to enter, but not for Gerard. He crouched at the entrance, staring into it as if he could see his friends inside, then called out. There was no response except for his own echo, but he tried again. When it failed a second time, Muse gently pushed him aside and gave a small screech into the cave. Her ears were parked, twitching as she listened to something, then shook her head. She backed away before taking off, pushing Gerard to the ground again.

“At least it’s not water...” he muttered. He went to the next cave as Muse presumably followed from the sky, getting the same result again and again, but they weren’t giving up. Gerard also took some time to think about what Muse was doing at the caves, her small screech and twitching her ears. He wondered if it helped her somehow, like telling her what was in the cave without needing to see it. It would certainly help if that was true, and if not, why the hell was she doing it? The viking shook his head as he joined Muse at another cave, this one similar to the first. He allowed Muse to do her screech first was surprised to hear very human yelps in return.

“Fuck! I knew a dragon would come to eat us!”

“Shut up, Jacky! We’re safe as long as it can’t get in here!”

“And we can’t get out!” Yep, all three of them were in there.

“Guys!” Gerard called.

“Gee?”

“Did you chase away the dragon?”

“What the hell are you waiting for, give us a rope or something!”

“I don’t have one on me, but I’ll get one!” Gerard look around, trying to study where he was in the rapidly fading light, even with his torch. Frowning, he knew he had no choice if he wanted to make sure his friends would be okay and so told them to stand back before throwing the torch down to them. Dragons may have been fireproof but there might’ve been other things down there that they needed to chase away. Plus, the warmth would really help in the cold that always came with the night.

“You stay here.” Gerard ordered to Muse, then began making his way back to the village. He had a vague idea of where it was and so followed his instincts, trying to spot the lights so that he’d know where it was. A few times he had to stop and calm himself, trying not to let the darkness get to him, but slowly, he was sure he was getting back to the village. But upon turning a corner, he jumped when he saw Muse suddenly in front of him.

“I told you to stay there!” he hissed. Muse rolled her eyes and gestured with her head for him to follow. The boy did so, wondering what she wanted, and gasped when he finally came out of the forest on a hill near the village. He turned to her and saw this knowing look that kept him from saying anything. She then turned back into the forest and disappeared. Gerard stared after her, then shook his head and ran to the village.he’d try to figure out the enigma that is his dragon friend later, he had human friends to save.

It didn’t take long for him to obtain a rope and run back. He wanted to tell someone he’d found the group but no one was around, so he’d have to do this himself. When he got there, Muse was waiting. Gerard looped the rope around a tree and trailed the rest of it down to his friends, calling, “Here’s the rope! Can you see it?”

“Got it!” There was a small tug, then a larger one as the guys began climbing up. Gerard was nearly dragged back from the weight and so did his best not to get pulled around the tree. Unfortunately, because of his lack of muscles, this only worked for a short while before he lost his grip. The rope snapped back and almost fell into the hole before Muse snapped her claws around it, holding it steady.

“FUCK! DON’T DO THAT!” screeched one of the guys. Probably Pete or Jacky. Gerard looked to the dragon before giving a slow nod.

“Just don’t let them see you, okay?” Muse nodded back, then leaped into the branches of the tree, tugging the rope behind her, there were more yelps before the guys were steady again and climbed out of the hole, Gerard helping them out. All were wet and shivering a little, as well as a scrape or two, but other than that, they seemed to be fine.

“Remind me...to never go spelunking with Pete again!” Ray growled, giving the other boy a glare.

“How was I supposed to know we’d get trapped?” Pete protested.

“Let’s just get back to the village, fuckers.” Jacky said.

“Follow me, I’ll lead us back.” Gerard offered. He looked up into the tree, following the rope, but the dragon was gone. He tugged the rope back down and helped his friends back to the village, wondering why she had helped.

The boy didn’t like being lauded as a hero, especially with all the attention he was getting. It felt nice, yes, but it was pushing his anxiety against the wall, not to mention the problems it caused trying to get to Muse. Yet, he didn’t mind Frank’s attention. He was finally being noticed by the smaller viking and it felt wonderful. He just wished it could be the two of them and not a whole damn crowd. As much as he wanted to be with Frank, he had to get away somehow.

“You okay?” Gerard blinked out of his thoughts and turned to the side. There was Frank, giving him a curious look. They had been walking alone on one of the walkways, looking over the beach. He hadn’t even noticed he hadn’t been paying attention to Frank.

“Sorry. Just a lot on my mind.”

“Is it Mikey? Just being the kid of the chief? All the dragon training? Even though I don’t see how you could be stressed over all the paperwork we’ve done...” Frank blew the curl of his hair out of his face. He needed to have it trimmed.

“I guess it’s kinda all that combined?” Gerard gave a sigh, “Ever since I helped Ray, Jacky, and Pete back here, no one’s left me alone. You haven’t left me alone, but I don’t mind.” Gerard blushed a little from the last half of the sentence, “It’s driving me crazy.”

“Well, if you want, next time someone comes up to us, I’ll help you get out of it.”

“Really?” Frank nodded.

“Sure. You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m your friend.” Wish I was something more. They walked along for a while before they were approached by some of the other kids and Frank made good on his promise, moving to talk with them as a distraction, letting Gerard slip away. The older viking hid in the Great Hall, watching through a crack in the door as things happened, then turned away. He owed Frank so much.

Glancing around, wondering if there was another way out, his eyes landed on the back wall, where there was a whole line of painted shields. The boy paused for a moment, then walked up to them. He’d seen them many times, they hung over his head literally and figuratively. They were the portraits of previous chiefs and their sons, giving a small line of history for the tribe, all except for one. The very last (since he hadn’t had his portrait yet) was of a woman, not slim or bulky, and standing beside her was a strong viking boy. That was the portrait of his father and grandmother. Gerard knew his mother died when he was young, soon after having Mikey, but his grandmother had disappeared, leaving his father to lead the tribe. Sometimes he’d sit under the portrait and draw, taking inspiration from it, and somehow, he knew she wasn’t dead. Elena the Wise hadn’t led the tribe for years by herself without getting into a fight or two, he’d heard from his father how she’d battle vikings and dragons alike and still win. She was out there somewhere, and one day, he’d find her.

“Gerard?” He turned back. Frank’s head was poking into the Great Hall, “I got ‘em to go away, but you might wanna head home before more of ‘em show up. I doubt it’ll work a second time.”

“Thanks, Frankie.” The smaller viking blushed.

“Don’t call me that.” It wasn’t said with venom and Gerard smiled. He glanced back at the portrait one last time before joining Frank outside.

Chapter Text

When Gerard managed to return to the cove, he didn’t find Muse waiting for him. In fact, it was the mysterious dragon and its rider that he had encountered before. He briefly considered turning around and hightailing it out of there, but then he saw the look in the dragon’s eyes, calm and waiting. He wasn’t able to see the rider’s because of the mask but he had the feeling the rider was the same way. So, slowly, Gerard descended into the cove and slowly approached the duo.

“Who are you?” he asked, “Why are you here?” The rider was silent but shook the staff, causing a rattling sound. The dragon bent down until the rider leapt off, landing on the ground with grace and ease. The rider lifted their hands and took off their mask, revealing them to be a man with short brown hair and blue eyes, angular and tall and certainly older than Gerard by several years, yet still youthful.

“My name is Mike.” he said, “I came here looking for that Night Fury.” Gerard was surprised by this before becoming angry.

“You can’t just take her!” he exclaimed, “She’s my friend!” The man’s lips twitched, as if he was trying to form a smile.

“I could see that.” he said, “We’ve been watching.” He tilted his head, the mask now tucked under his arm, “You’re pretty good at taming dragons, especially one like her.”

“Taming dragons?” Gerard shook his head, “No no no, I’m not a dragon tamer! She and I, we’re just friends.”

“I doubt that.” He sat down on a rock, the one that Gerard usually sat on, “Night Furies are smart dragons, one of the smartest I’ve ever known. She comes back here, back to you for a reason. I want to understand that.”

“You can’t just take her away, though!” Gerard protested, “If she doesn’t wanna go with you, then she won’t. Especially if she’s as smart as you say she is.” This time, Mike gave a smile.

“True, true. But she also has obligations she needs to go back and deal with.” Mike leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “You’re the son of the Chief, you have a lot to live up to, don’t you?” Gerard stiffened.

“How do you know that?”

“I have my ways. Anyway, that Night Fury, she’s the same, kinda. She has to come home and help lead her pack, whether or not she likes it. It’s her job.” Gerard crossed his arms.

“And how do you think you’re gonna make her go ‘home,’ then?” he asked, “She’s ran away from you at least once, she knows who you are and isn’t gonna fall for any tricks.”

“We know that, which is why we wanna ask if you can convince her.”

“Me?! I can’t do that! I barely avoid getting drowned by her as it is!”

“If there’s anyone she’ll listen to, it’s you. And in turn, I could help you learn how to tame her.”

“I don’t know.” Gerard muttered, “She’s a wild dragon and deserves to be that way.” Mike shook his head.

“Wasn’t always a wild dragon. You’ve seen her scars, she’s had a long past behind her and that includes being friends with vikings, once upon a time.” He stood, “At least consider the offer.” He put on his mask and rattled the staff. The dragon lowered its head to allow Mike to climb on.

“Wait!” The dragon paused, having spread its wings.

“Yeah?” Mike’s voice was muffled behind the mask but he’d heard Gerard.

“What if she catches on? What if she kills me?”

“She won’t kill you. Catch on, probably. Kill you, no.” And with that, they left. Gerard stared after them, then shook his head.

“I can’t do this. I won’t . She left for a reason and I’m not gonna ask, even if I wanna know why.” Gerard left the cove and wondered what lengths Mike and his dragon would go to to make Muse go home.

“Dinner’s ready!” he announced. Bunny yipped as Mikey sat at the dinner table, both tired from a long day of bonding and training but hungry as ever. Gerard handed his brother the bowl of stew he’d made before flipping the cover off a basket for Bunny. The dragon was small but she could certainly eat, that was for sure. She downed the basket of fish long before either brother was done with their food and growled for more, giving them a pitiful look to get what she wanted.

“No.” Mikey said, “You’re not getting us with that look again.” Bunny kept trying until, seeing her efforts were in vain, huffed and flew on Mikey’s shoulders. He had to shoo her away from the food before the brothers could talk.

“So how was your day?” Gerard asked, glancing at Bunny. The tiny dragon was still perched on Mikey’s shoulders, eyeing their food greedily.

“Good.” Mikey gave Bunny a glare and she looked away, giving some sort of noise similar to a whistle, as if conveying her ‘innocence.’ When he looked away, she went back to staring at the food. Gerard took pity on her and threw a small piece of meat for her to eat, which she did, “Don’t do that, you’re teaching her bad things!”

“She’s fine.” Bunny crawled onto Gerard’s shoulders and gave a purr-like sound as she nuzzled his head, grateful for the treat, “Anyway, you remember when I told you about that dragon tamer I met?”

“Did they come back today?”

“Yeah.” Gerard nodded, “His name was Mike. He came to see Muse but met with me instead.”

“Why does he want Muse?”

“Said she has to go back ‘home’ and deal with some things. Compared it to how I’m the Chief’s son.”

“What are you gonna do?” Mikey wanted to know.

“Nothing. He’s not using me to get to her, even if it’d be nice to be able to tame a dragon.”

“Then what’s he gonna do when he finds out?”

“I dunno, but he’s not getting Muse.” Gerard reached a hand up to scratch Bunny’s chin, making her trill, “I’m not gonna return to the cove for a while, just in case he might come back, so I’ll be staying here with you and Bunny after dragon fighting.”

“I hope Muse doesn’t take this the wrong way.”

“Well, it’s not like I can tell her what’s going on without Mike seeing me.” Gerard sighed, “I think she’ll understand.”

“Let’s hope so...”

The next day, after they learned about Snaptrappers (something like the big brother to Zipplebacks with four heads instead of two and a love of chocolate and the rain), Gerard and Mikey were heading back to their home when the alarm went off again. Immediately they ran to find cover, ducking inside their house just as dragons descended on the village. They watched from the window as the events went on, ducking again when a Zippleback landed on their roof. One head slithered in through the window they’d been peeking out of and looked around, sniffing. It quickly caught their scent and looked down, screeching at the sight of them. Gerard pushed Mikey forward as they got to their feet, getting his brother away from the head as it tried to snap at them. When they got out of range it growled and clicked its mouth, making sparks. They suddenly caught the scent of something rotten coming from upstairs and knew that the other head was now gassing the house. If the smoke got close enough to the sparking head, their house would go up, with them in it!

Suddenly there was a small screech and from the coals in the fireplace leapt Bunny, biting down on the Zippleback’s nose. It squawked and shook its head, trying to dislodge the tiny dragon, who wasn’t able to keep a grip and flew off somewhere outside. Mikey tried to move to go after Bunny but Gerard held him back. He’d just gotten an idea of what to do and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Hide under the table and don’t move, no matter what happens.” Gerard ordered. Mikey did so without fuss, leaving the elder to stand alone against the one head. It hissed now that the tiny dragon was gone and tried to snap at him again but couldn’t reach. There was no sign of the gas yet but Gerard knew he didn’t have a lot of time. He grabbed his mother’s old helmet off the mantle and, with horns in front of him, he attacked the Zippleback by stabbing it in the eyes. The helmet was just the right width to get both eyes and the dragon cried out, blood instantly coming up from the strike. It quickly withdrew and there was another screech overhead as the other head felt the pain. The house shook as the dragon took off and Gerard panted, still holding the helmet.

“I did it.” he gasped, then looked down. He winced at the blood on the horns but knew it had to have been done.

“Gee! Are you okay?” Mikey was out from under the table. He nodded.

“Yeah.” He threw the helmet onto the table, “Let’s go find Bunny.” They ventured out into the chaos and looked around, wondering where Bunny had landed and if she was okay. It was the afternoon, so there was no need to worry about Night Furies, which caused Gerard to think about how Mike had said Muse was a Night Fury. So Gerard had been studying one. Was she the one that had been attacking them? It was scary to think about and he needed to have a long talk with Muse when he saw her again.

“Bunny!” Mikey called, keeping his voice low enough so that people wouldn’t be able to understand in the chaos but high enough for Bunny to still hear. The small dragon didn’t come scurrying back immediately and, after getting divebombed by a Nadder twice, Gerard had them go back to the house, “But Bunny-!”

“We can’t go out there right now, it’s too dangerous!” Gerard said, “She’ll be fine for a while as long as she hides.” There was a large screech and they saw the Dragon Hunters dealing with a Monstrous Nightmare, “And steer clear of those two.” Mikey swallowed. The biggest threat to Bunny were Billie and Tré, but hopefully she had the sense to keep away from them. This battle lasted for a while, seeing as the dragons were doing more rampaging than usual before they left, taking a good haul with them.

“Our parents are gonna kill us...” groaned Josh when the vikings met up after the attack to assess the damage.

“But we’re alive, aren’t we?” said Tyler.

“Listen up!” Billie got their attention, “We’re gonna suspend classes for a few days until we can make repairs. Patrick, take Andy, Bob, and Zakk with you to the wood storage. You four are in charge of making sure we have enough for repairs and sending people out to get more. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” The four saluted him.

“Both Ryans, you’re in charge of making the repairs.” Tré added, “Take anyone you need, ‘cause I’m sure the whole village is broken somewhere or another.” The two boys gave him a salute and then they were mostly disbanded. However, Gerard was called over to talk with the Hunters. He sent Mikey home before he approached the two men, noticing a peculiar glint in their eyes, something he hadn’t seen before but would come to know quite well after spending time around them.

“You both safe?” was the first thing Billie asked, “Neither of you were hurt?”

“No sir.”

“Good. There might be a new dragon about, so keep on your toes.” Gerard’s heart almost stopped.

“N-new dragon?”

“Yeah, tiny little thing, ‘bout the size of a Terror.” Tré mimed a shape in front of him as if to express the dragon’s size, “Some of the other vikings thought they saw it. Give us a call if you spot it.” And with that, they started doing their clean up of the place. Some of the older vikings were with them, helping clear out the dragon corpses and scavenging anything they could use, especially the teeth, horns, and pelts. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it and besides, the Dragon Hunters basically gave the village about half of its armor from the dragons themselves. Gerard watched them for a moment then turned and rushed back to the house. They had to find Bunny and fast .

“Mikes!” Gerard put his head in the window, “We need to go find her, now! Don’t ask, just c’mon!” Mikey ran out and followed him as they went to the forest, hoping Bunny had had the good sense to seek shelter there instead. Upon reaching the cove and seeing no one around, the brothers grew terribly worried.

“Bunny!” Mikey cupped hands around his mouth to make the sound echo, “Bunny!” Nothing. They turned back and headed to the village, once again hoping the baby dragon was okay. Mikey murmured to Gerard, “She’s still a baby and anybody will turn her in to the Hunters!”

“She’s okay, Mikey. Nothing heard about her yet, so she’s still okay.” Gerard assured, even though he didn’t feel the same. Upon reaching the village they searched around the house first, looking for clues but found nothing, and so they expanded their search. When asked what they were doing, they said they were observing the damage, trying to help, and so they weren’t questioned too much. It was when they arrived at the docks that they heard the small, weak cry.

“Bunny!”

“Wait!” They ran down the docks, following the cries until they came across Bunny. She was huddled under a small space under one of the platforms, barely hanging on as it was. One wing was secured in the wood while the other hung uselessly by her side. Seeing them made her give a cheerful chirp and try to fly, only to land in the water. Being only a baby she had no idea how to swim and floundered a bit before Gerard pulled her out, holding her in his lap as they sat on the docks. They knew no one had come around to this part of the village yet and so tried to do a preliminary check on her. When the older brother touched her hanging wing, Bunny yelped and snapped at his hand, growling.

“She’s hurt...” Mikey said sadly, “I think her wing’s broken.”

“Let’s take her home and see if we can’t fix her up.” Viking medicine was not used on any kind of flying animal before, so they would have to make things up as they went to help their tiny dragon friend. Carefully she was stuffed into Mikey’s vest and they ran back to the house, avoiding anyone they could. When they were home, Gerard had Mikey take Bunny upstairs while he scoured about for supplies, trying to remember what was done for a broken bone. When he found everything he thought he might need, he went upstairs and found Mikey sitting on his bed, Bunny in his lap. The dragon was making distressed noises and it tore at their hearts.

“I need you to put her on your desk and hand me a pillow.” said Gerard. Mikey did so and watched what his brother came up with. First Gerard ripped open the pillow and took out the feathers inside, putting them around Bunny’s wing. She tried to bite one before Gerard made her sit still. He then took some strips of cloth, binding her wing to her body once he’d aligned it, creating a soft barrier between the two with the feathers. It was so she wouldn’t drag it or accidentally try to use it. She whined a little about the wing pushing against her tummy but stopped trying to mess with it when Mikey gave her a stern look and gently maneuvered her head away. Gerard sat back and gave a long sigh, saying, “That’s the best I can do from what we do to fix our broken bones. I don’t know if she really has one, but this should help, at least a little.”

“Why nothing stiff? Don’t we usually put planks around broken bones to keep them steady?”

“Take a look at her wing.” Gerard took Bunny’s unhurt wing and spread it out, “Her wing is like a hand, not a leg or an arm. I could’ve tried to bind it with planks but it would’ve been awkward and may have hurt her. This is better for her as long as she doesn’t mess with it.” He flicked the dragon on the nose when she tried to bite the cloth again. She yelped and growled but stopped, thankfully. Mikey took her into his arms, careful of her hurt wing.

“When do you think she’ll be better?”

“I don’t know. We’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s mostly touch-and-go.”

“Then let’s hope for the best.” he murmured. Gerard made a noise of agreement.

A few days after the attack, once most of the repairs were made, the children were allowed to go back to class. No one wanted to go back to classes but did so, knowing they’d get in trouble if they didn’t. Brendon could attest to that. The Dragon Hunters were dead serious about them learning how to fight dragons.

“Okay, today we’ll be learning about what happens when you have a downed dragon.” said Mark, the teacher for today, “Who knows the saying that goes along with that?”

“A downed dragon is a dead dragon.” said Bob.

“Right on. When a dragon can’t fly, they can’t run. That’s why we use bolas and nets to ground the dragons if we can. Their flight is the second-most dangerous thing besides their breath or anything else they can do.” Mark explained, “But because we’ve always killed dragons after we ground them, we’re not sure how it affects them. They fly everywhere, so having to be grounded for a long time must do something to them, right?”

I wonder if he’s right. Having a tendency to doodle, Gerard glanced down at his small drawing of a Night Fury, What will happen to Bunny? He glanced over at his brother. Mikey had stiffened up a little and Gerard knew he was thinking the same thing. When Mikey looked to him, worried, Gerard mouthed, ‘She’ll be okay.’ Mikey gave a slow nod but didn’t look like he believed his brother. Gerard sighed to himself at the look and they stuck through the lesson, trying not to fall asleep. After it was over, Gerard had Mikey go home and keep Bunny company as he gathered his things and went to the Dragon Hunter’s hut.

“Why?” Mikey had asked.

“There’s something I need to ask them.” And that was all he could tell Mikey. As he walked through the village to the hut, he glanced around nervously. Because of what they did, the Dragon Hunters’ hut was away from the village, at the edge of a cliff over the sea. Gerard could only wonder why they didn’t have a hut on more solid ground as he went up the steps, holding his nose and trying to ignore the blood on the stone steps. He knocked on the door, glancing at the dragon-horn door handle. They truly did use everything they could scavenge from a dragon, didn’t they? He jumped when the door suddenly opened and found himself facing Billie.

“Hey, Gerard!” The man smiled, “What are you doing here? Is your brother with you?”

“Not today.” Gerard adjusted his bag, “Look, I wanted to ask you guys a few things.”

“Right. Come on it.” The boy would rather not but knew he had no choice and so went inside. It was a fairly large hut but was covered head-to-toe in dragon-related things. On the walls were mounted skulls of dragons, even some Gerard had never seen before, including one that made him stop in his tracks.

“What’s that one?” Gerard pointed to it. Billie followed his hand and frowned.

“Not really sure, actually. We call it a Deathly Galeslash.” The skull looked similar to a Nadder’s but different, wider and thicker, “It looked like a Nadder but had four wings and not as many spikes, along with a finned tail. It’s the closest we’ve gotten to the dragon that killed Mike.”

“And what did that dragon look like?”

“Take a look for yourself.” Billie pointed to the wall, at a large piece of paper with a drawing. Gerard studied it for a moment before swallowing, uneasy. It was the same dragon that had been with Mike.

“And what was he like? Mike, I mean.” Billie stared at him for a moment, but then the boy realized he really wasn’t. He was staring off, as if remembering.

“The greatest guy ever.” The man’s voice was quiet, mourning, “He was taller than the two of us but really smart, or as smart as a viking could be, y’know? He actually… he saved us from that dragon.” Billie grit his teeth, “That’s why we want to find it, to get revenge on it, for Mike’s sake. He sacrificed himself for us and we’re not gonna let that lie.” Gerard slowly nodded.

“Alright. And where’s Tré?” The boy didn’t know why he’d asked and had the feeling he’d regret it.

“Downstairs.” Gerard glanced around, but there were no stairs going down, only up.

“Where?” Billie smiled.

“Down here.” He reached down and lifted up a trapdoor. Gerard had to cover his nose from the blast of terrible stench that wafed from it. That must be where they took what they needed from the dragons and the young viking was surprised that there had been no smell sooner, “Wanna see him?”

“Not today, but thanks.” Gerard edged away from the trapdoor. Billie shrugged and let it drop back down, allowing the boy to breathe again, “Thanks again for answering my questions.”

“Anytime. Gets lonely out here, y’know?” That caused Gerard to pause. For all their fanatical hunting, they were just normal people with everything else except dragons.

“What does Mikey do when he comes?”

“Just talk. He’s the only guy that comes out here anymore, y’know? Hasn’t been back in weeks, though.” Gerard slowly nodded.

“Maybe we’ll visit sometime.”

“That’d be awesome.” Billie let Gerard out the door, “Now be safe, ya hear?”

“Got it.” Gerard watched the door close behind him before making his way down the steps and running back home. He had to go home the long way, avoiding any fans, but at least he’d gotten some more information on Mike, but it wasn’t making much sense.

Mike was probably the same Mike that had once been Billie and Tré’s friend, but the dragon he was riding was the one that had stolen him away. If it had attacked them, as Billie had implied, why was he not dead? How were Mike and the dragon friends? It didn’t make sense, but he had to find out somehow. It still didn’t help with avoiding leading Muse to Mike, but it gave Gerard more information about him. The more he knew, the more he could use against Mike. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, Gerard opened the door to his home and found Mikey feeding Bunny some fish, helping her a little as he held her in his arms.

“How is she?”

“I don’t know.” Mikey murmured, face sad, “She was moaning a little when I came home, staring out the window.”

“Poor girl.” Gerard took a fish from the basket and hand fed it to Bunny. The dragon yipped happily and gobbled it down in seconds. Licking her lips, she chirped for another, “You may be in bad shape but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna be doted on.” Bunny huffed.

“So, what did you ask?”

“I think their friend Mike is the same Mike as the dragon rider, back in the cove.” Mikey gasped.

“How?!”

“I don’t know and I don’t think I can ask him without giving up Muse. We need to find somewhere else to meet with her without letting Mike know, somehow, a place that’s big enough for Muse to fit.” Mikey slowly nodded.

“Do you think he was right, though? That Muse needed to go ‘home?’” Gerard was quiet for a moment, reaching out a hand to stroke Bunny.

“I don’t know that either. If I ask her, I get the feeling she won’t take it well.”

“But what if Mike was right? What if she’s really needed? What if she ran away from home?”

“She couldn’t have, not unless she was driven away. You’ve seen her scars. But… Mike said she’d had experience with vikings before, that she was once their friend. So maybe the scars came from them, but that doesn’t explain why she might’ve left her pack behind.” Gerard put his head in his hands, “I don’t want her to leave, though. Besides you and some of the other guys, she’s my only friend. She even understands the art I make, no one else does.” He lifted his head, “But if she needs to go home… If she does, I don’t know if I could do it, if I could bring her to Mike or even convince her to go home.” Mikey nodded.

“It’ll be okay, Gee.” He took one of his brother’s hands, holding Bunny with the other. The dragon cooed and rubbed her head against Gerard’s hand, “We’ll figure something out.”

“Thanks, Mikes.” Gerard tried to smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Mikey frowned but didn’t say anything. His brother was torn over this and they had no idea what to do, how to help, barely any idea what to do about Muse. What could they do about this except wait and try to come up with a plan? Mikey just hoped they wouldn’t take too long because he had the feeling that the longer it went on, the less patience Mike would give them and if he was friends with a dragon, then they had little chance if he decided to attack them.

What could they do?