renegades, httyd

xii. Icestorm Island

renegades
chapter twelve

    "Help! Dragons at my camp! Dragons at my camp!"

    The new voice startled me. I rushed to slip on my yak-skin hood, throwing the furs over my head and following Hiccup into the heavy snow outside, climbing out of the cave we had hidden in. All four of the dragons had left, and my heart raced at the thought that they could be hurt.

    But the sight I saw instead was far from that. Hiccup and I faltered, sharing an incredulous glance at the sight of a man running around in circles as Winglash and Saber tormenting him. They ran with him, thinking he was playing while Toothless bounced his head down at the baby Groncicle. With a gurgle, he dropped half a fish down into the snow for the baby to eat. The Groncicle slurped it up.

    "Dragons!" The man screamed.

   I arched a brow.

    He was tall and lanky (much like Hiccup in that matter), covered from head to toe in furs and yak skin that made it hard to see his face. On his back was a travellers bag; with a bedroll, satchel and hatchet. Some part of him seemed familiar, though I have no idea where I had seen him before.

    It was not until he raised his hatchet and with a scream, held it up to hit Winglash that Hiccup stepped in.

    "Whoa! Whoa! It's okay! It's okay!" He almost stumbled over the snow in his hurry to reach the man. I followed, readying my axe for a fight. "We're friends! These guys won't hurt you. They're just ... playing."

    "They're trying to kill me!" The man brandished his hatchet like a sword in front of him, pointing it at Toothless who growled. "Ah! It's a Night Fury! Oh Thor, this is it!"

    "No, no, Toothless," Hiccup held a hand on his dragons snout. I took this as the cue to race to Winglash and whistle her back over. Hiccup signalled Saber to fly to his shoulder. She obliged. "It's okay, the man's just startled... We have walked right into his camp after all."

    The man's knees quivered. He lowered the hatchet, staring at the Terrible Terror on Hiccup's shoulder in amazement. "How did you do that? Who━" he glanced over at me, and I could see his face━a little frost-bitten, red at the nose and thin cheeks. "Who are you?"

    "I'm Hiccup, this is Estrid. We're travellers, just like you! And these are our dragons. Toothless," he pointed to each in turn, "Saber, Winglash, and our new friend the baby Groncicle. They won't hurt you. Estrid, go on, show him."

    I didn't know how I was supposed to show this crazed man that our dragons were friendly. But I noticed that half of his camp was covered in snow. He must have been trying to shovel it out. With a whistle, I signalled for Winglash to melt the nearest pile of snow covering up a workbench. She eagerly agreed, squawking out a Deadly Nadder's flame that melted it right into water.