A Switched Perspective

Chapter 1

With death cheated of its prize, Dagur rode his dragon in formation with the others, feeling that he had now earned their trust. Just a few hours ago, he had been knocked off his dragon and into the freezing Nordic waters, sure that this was the end, when Hiccup appeared out of nowhere and pulled him back out into the air. Hiccup had been shaking with fear, looking like he would actually be sad to see Dagur dead; Hiccup's relieved hug felt better than anything had ever felt before.

Now Dagur was the one who couldn't stop shaking; flying into that trap was the bravest and most foolish thing he had ever done, but it was worth it. Astrid smiled at him, the boys treated him as an equal, and even Heather seemed to admit that her brother was really on her side.

In Dagur's numb hands rested a strange device; when he landed in Dragon's edge he was turning it over and over, trying to see what awesome abilities it could possibly have. Hiccup saw it as they entered the main clubhouse, and Dagur handed it to him, hoping the young dragon expert would know what to do with it.

"I have no idea what this does, but it looks pretty cool. Where did you get this?" Hiccup asked, his curiosity peaking. Dagur grinned, explaining, "I was flying over one of Vigo's ships and there was this big chest on the deck. I picked the lock because I thought it might be useful, but it was just this." Hiccup handed the device back to Dagur and shrugged, "Maybe it will be useful somehow. I'm reasonably sure it won't explode, so just fiddle with it."

After dinner, Dagur sat at the little corner table and looked at the device, frustrated. It was a slender, black tube, criss-crossed with strange symbols and tiny bits of colored glass which Dagur couldn't see through: the twins had dubbed it a Glassfire for whatever reason. The two ends of the Glassfire were glass globes, stained a deep violet. Dagur tugged at the ends and tried pressing different parts of it, with no result.

Then he saw that there was a deep groove circling the tube's center: Dagur twisted it left, then tried right- and one of the bulbs started to glow! The little bits of glass on the same half glowed as well, a whole rainbow of colors shining brightly. At the same time, the other half of the tube remained dark.

Dagur grinned; at least something had happened. Snotlout chuckled and said, "Looks like a nice night-light. Is it broken?" The twins leaned in far too close to Dagur's face to poke and prod at it: they did mean well, but help from the twins is often times no help at all. Dagur set the Glassfire on the ground in front of his crossed legs and tried to twist the other side, then his own, but it seemed to be stuck in its open position.

Drawn by the bright lights and noise, Toothless ambled over to Dagur from his spot next to Hiccup, who was trying to work on his flaming sword Inferno. The nightfury cocked his head to one side and stared at the tube, then sniffed it curiously. Toothless made a happy burbling noise, and before anyone could stop him, he had the half-glowing tube in his mouth.

"Toothless, no! This is not food buddy!" Hiccup had been at Toothless's side in an instant, and he made his dragon spit out the device. Dagur was trying to clean off the dragon slobber when he suddenly noticed- the Glassfire was vibrating, and sparks were shooting out of the sides. Dagur yelped when the sparks burned his hand, and then the light reached a blinding intensity, forcing everyone to close their eyes against it.

The light disappeared just as quickly as it had increased, and the first thing Hiccup saw through the black spots floating across his eyes was Dagur, swaying uneasily. "You... said it wouldn't... explode..." groaned Dagur. His eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed, caught by Heather just before his skull could connect with the hard ground.