The 'Dragon Defender'

On A Whole New Scale

(A.N - Hey, I made a chibi of Indigo for fun and thought you guys might like to see it. It's not perfect and I'll probably make some adjustments in future but here's a pretty basic idea of what I've always imagined Indigo to look like. Wish I could've gotten a scale texture into her armour but I didn't have the time or energy today tbh so here's what I do have. Hope you guys like it :D)

"Hey. Artemis. I'm... sorry for last night."

I look up at Hiccup as I'm making the walk up to Gothi's hut with Adriana. I only hum in response, not wanting to get into it. If he's really sorry, he'll show me. He'll drop the whole Morphwing thing. Then again, I don't have much faith that he will.

"Are you going to see Asher?" Hiccup asks, changing tack. "Yeah," I confirm. "Hopefully he'll be up soon."

"I haven't heard much about him from Gothi yet, so I'm gonna guess that means there's nothing new," Hiccup notes. "Would you guys like a lift up? Toothless can handle all three of us for a short flight."

Toothless grunts in protest, so I shake my head. "We're good, thanks. Toothless doesn't seem up for it, regardless."

"Then we'll walk with you," Hiccup decides, landing Toothless on the walkway just behind us. I sigh, but nod in reluctant agreement, not willing to fight him on this right now. "Sure."

It takes a good few minutes, but we eventually make it up to Gothi's hut. Asher is still sleeping in her medical area. He looks much better now; he's gaining colour back to his tan skin and his injuries have healed nicely, despite us not having been here long.

Gothi turns to us as Adriana and I approach Asher. "How is he?" I ask her, cutting to the chase. She offers an unusual reassuring smile and nod. I take that to mean he was doing well.

"Thank you for taking care of him, Gothi. I owe you one."

Gothi brushes this off and turns back to Asher, checking him over. Adriana has knelt beside him, holding his hand. "Hey, Ash. You're looking a lot better. Hopefully you'll wake up soon. We can go home then. You're probably gonna make me fish for you even once you're completely better, aren't you? Just to see how long you can get away with it. We're both gonna know when you're fine. I'll do it either way, though. If you want me to."

I listen to Adriana speak, frowning slightly beneath my mask. Hiccup is busy talking to Gothi about Asher's condition, so I join her, setting a hand on her shoulder.

"In- uh, Artemis is here, too," Adriana catches herself quickly. "She's been with me this whole time."

Adriana looks to me expectantly for a moment. "Uh, hey," I mumble. What am I supposed to say? Gothi and Hiccup are right there, too, so I have to be careful. "Everything's going okay here. You're safe... a Morphwing showed up the other day. Black scales. Purple eyes. It was like he was just checking in; he was here and gone."

Adriana smiles a little at this. "We'll take you home soon, Asher. I'm sure Selene will be happy to see you. And Mela-... uh. Melanie?" She looks to me for confirmation that this was the name we were going for. I nod, pleased and impressed that she remembered. "Mm. Melanie."

I hear Hiccup approaching, watching as he crouches beside us. "Gothi says he could wake up at any time now. He's recovered a lot quicker than she expected. And not a lot of Vikings can take the wounds he did."

"He's strong," I note, Adriana nodding in agreement. "He must be," Hiccup agreed, rising back to his feet. Well, foot. "I'll give you both some time alone with him. Head back down whenever you're ready."

Hiccup leaves us be. The moment he's out of sight, however, Gothi taps my shoulder. I look to her, seeing her holding some dragon scales in her thin hand. Dark blue scales with a slight reddish-brown tint.

Asher's scales.

I look up at her for a moment, feigning confusion. "Where did you get these?"

Gothi gives me an 'I'm not stupid' look, pointing her staff at Asher. I look between him and the scales, trying to buy myself time to think. Adriana is looking worried at the moment, having noticed the scales and immediately put two and two together.

"I haven't seen a Morphwing with these scales before," I muse, trying to keep playing the fool. "Did one get in here? Did they do anything?"

Gothi shakes her head again, looking annoyed now. She once again points at Asher. "I don't know when he would've seen a Morphwing," I tell her. I'm just praying at the moment that she didn't see him transform or anything. There would be no way to hide this.

Then again, I can still hypnotise Gothi, so if worst comes to worst...

Gothi goes to hit me on the head, but I catch her staff before she can. I look her in the eye for a minute, warning her against doing that again, then release the staff.

She does it again.

"Is this really worth fighting over?" I question her, releasing the staff again. She narrows her eyes, but relents. She still points at Asher, though. She's definitely convinced. What do I do about this?

"Asher?"

I look down to Adriana and Asher, seeing that the latter is starting to shift - the movement kind, not the transformation kind. I kneel at his side as he softly groans, then his ice blue eyes finally crack open.

"Ngh... Adri... Adriana...?"

Adriana breaks out into a grin and hugs Asher, who dazedly wraps his arm around her, visibly confused. "What...? Where are we?"

"Berk," I answer, watching his eyes dart to me. "You got injured by a Typhoomerang, so we brought you to Berk to be healed. I'm going by Artemis while we're here, okay?"

"We're on Berk...?" Asher tries to sit up, but Adriana gently pushes him back down again. "Just rest a bit longer," she tells him. "You've been asleep for a few days now."

"A few days?" Asher looks completely perplexed at everything we're telling him. His eyes move sluggishly around the hut, settling on Gothi. For a moment, he grows a little tense.

"Who's she?"

"This is Gothi," I introduce. "She's Berk's healer. She's the one who's been taking care of you."

"Oh." Asher calms down again when he hears this. "Thank you, Gothi. I owe you for this."

Gothi flaps her hand dismissively, then totters out of the hut for a minute, leaving us alone.

"I hate to move this on so quickly, but she found your scales," I warn Asher, showing him the scales that Gothi gave me. "What?!" Asher gapes. "I... did I morph?!"

"We didn't see it," Adriana answers worriedly. "She doesn't really speak, but nobody else has told us that she saw anything unusual."

"I can make up some excuse," I offer. "For all we know, you could've just, ah... found them before the Typhoomerang showed up."

"Do what you want, I can't get my head around everything right now," Asher mumbles, one hand reaching up to rub his face, as if attempting to rub away the haziness. "Are we really in a human settlement?"

"Yeah," I confirm, frowning beneath my mask. "I trust the people here not to harm us, even if they knew what we are."

"Didn't Gothi just try to hit you, though?" Adriana points out. "She'll just hit people on the head if they annoy her," I shrug it off. "Gothi doesn't discriminate. And I highly doubt she'll kill."