Tip the Dragon Scales

Chapter 4

Ragnar tilts his head as he watches Hiccup crouch beside a broken bola. The rope has clearly been cut by a blade and he silently reminds himself to gather it before they leave. It's unlikely anyone else will come this far into the forest, but it's best to be careful.

"So... why didn't you?" Hiccup murmurs, weighing the bola in his hand and clearly thinking back to Gobber's comment.

"Well, you let him go, right?" Ragnar reminds him. He shrugs. "Maybe he was just repaying a debt. You know, a life for a life and all."

Hiccup gives him a curious look. "You really think dragons are capable of thinking that way?"

"I think a lot of beings are capable of more than most would think."

Hiccup sighs. "You and all your wisdom," he mutters to himself. He shakes his head and looks around before he starts off in the same direction he remembers the dragon leaving.

Ragnar takes a second to shove the bola into the ever-present bag at his hip before he follows Hiccup over a fallen log and through a nearly hidden crevice between two large rocks. They come out into a cove of some sort. It's green and lush with a small lake in the middle.

Hiccup looks around the cove, unsurprised but still a little disappointed to see no signs of the dragon. "Well, this was stupid."

Ragnar shrugs. "It's a nice place," he points out. "There's that if nothing else."

"Yeah, but-"Hiccup cuts himself off with a startled gasp when a large black blur goes shooting by.

The dragon clings to the rocky wall and tries to climb up, claws digging ineffectively at the stone as it falls back down before it glides unsteadily across the water and stumbles to a stop on the far side.

While Hiccup quickly ducks down behind a large boulder to observe the animal, Ragnar freezes where he stands.

He's Seen scattered and foggy images of Hiccup with a dragon before. The last couple of months have been filled with incomplete visions of the like; it's part of why he was so ready to believe Hiccup about shooting down the Night Fury.

Now that he's actually seen the dragon? Now that he has a form to fill the previously indistinct shape?

Ragnar's eyes grow hazy and images flash through his mind.

Hiccup. A sleek black dragon. An extended hand. Two sets of matching green eyes.

When his eyes clear and he comes back to the present, Ragnar finds himself looking into those same green eyes. They're filled with concern, and he manages a weak smile.

"I'm fine, Hiccup," he assures him.

Hiccup automatically scans the blond's form, looking for some kind of sign he's not okay despite knowing he wouldn't actually see it anyway. His visions are nothing he can really help with despite how much he wishes otherwise.

"You sure?" he asks quietly, conscious of the dragon on the other side of the cove.

"Yes," Ragnar says firmly. He grabs Hiccup's arm and drags him over to the same boulder he'd been behind before. "Come on. I thought you wanted to see your dragon?"

Hiccup stumbles slightly as he follows him. "He- he's not my dragon," he protests.

Ragnar gives a noncommittal hum and bites back a smile as he thinks back to his latest vision. "Not yet maybe," he says to himself.

Luckily, Hiccup is too focused on the sketch he's making of the Night Fury to hear him, so he doesn't have to try to explain.

They both watch as the dragon tries to climb up the stone walls again only to fail, wings flapping ineffectively. Frustrated, it shoots a plasma blast at the ground in front of it.