Life on the Edge

2.12 Maces and Talons, Part 1

Dragon bones. A spiral-shaped island. Glowing algae. Heather. A board of Maces and Talons. A vaguely familiar dark-haired man.

Ragnar comes out of his vision with a quiet gasp. He sways a bit in his saddle, thankful Nightshade had already landed when his Sight took over.

She chirps in concern, turning her head to see her Viking.

"I'm fine, girl," Ragnar tells her.

Nightshade evidently disagrees as she turns to look at Hiccup instead. She squawks to get his attention and, when she has it, motions at Ragnar. Hiccup sees the way he's pressing against one temple as he dismounts and quickly understands the situation.

"Rags, are you okay?" he asks, hurrying over and gently grabbing his waist to steady him.

"I'm fine," Ragnar says again. "Just... a little confused."

Hiccup vaguely hears Snotlout and Tuffnut going on about something in the background, but he's far more focused on what's right in front of him. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asks, checking his eyes for any signs of that familiar gray fog. "You're back with me? Back in right now?"

Ragnar gives him a fond look for the obvious concern. "Not that kinda confused, Hic. I'm just not sure what to make of what I Saw."

The look he gets in return is no less worried and he knows exactly why. Ragnar bites back a sigh as he absentmindedly pats Hiccup's hand where it still rests near his hip.

By the Norns' good will- fickle as it may sometimes be- he doesn't usually See anything while flying. The one time he did he nearly fell out of the saddle.

Needless to say, Hiccup had not been happy.

"Bam!"

The simultaneous yell catches their attention, and they look over at Snotlout and Tuffnut who are still busy celebrating how well they feel they did in the Riders' latest confrontation with the Dragon Hunters.

Astrid walks over to join them with a scowl at the new 'best friends'. She shakes her head and focuses on the two of them. "We have to pull Heather out," she says. "If I hadn't reacted, her cover would have been blown."

Hiccup checks to make sure Ragnar's okay one last time before he drops his hands and steps back. "I wanted her out weeks ago," he reminds her, "and somebody talked me into-"

"I know I did, but things were different then."

"How?" Hiccup and Ragnar ask in unison.

"It's way too dangerous," she insists.

Ragnar tilts his head a little. "I thought you said things were different? It's always been dangerous."

Astrid gives him a frustrated look. "This has gotten crazy, guys," she tells them. "And she hasn't even met up with this Viggo character."

"Exactly," Hiccup says. "Viggo Grimborn leads the Dragon Hunters. If we can take him down, the whole Dragon Hunter army will be without a leader, and they will collapse."

"Astrid, this might be our best shot," Ragnar tells her. He does his best to be gentle about it because he knows she's worried about her friend. "We don't know anything about this Viggo guy except that he leads the Hunters. Any information Heather can give us is good information."

Astrid glances behind her briefly at Snotlout and Tuffnut rolling around on the floor wrestling like Terrors only to quickly shake it off and refocus. "If something happens to Heather-"

"Nothing is going to happen to her," Hiccup assures. "She's way too smart for that and, if she thought for a second that they were onto her, Windshear would get her out."