Deceptive Harmonies(discontinued)

6)

Ailith laced in front of Astra who had an ice block wrapped in a leaf against the back of her head. Don't ask why there's ice in the middle of a clearing in the woods on the Edge, cause I don't know.

"To stay, or to go?" Ailith asked for the nine hundredth time.

"I don't know, Ailith! I miss my brother but I know he'll be even more protective of me if I return. And if dad found out! Oh, he'd never let me leave Berk!" Astra thought of the worst scenarios.

"I don't know either! I also miss my brother! But what if he's different? Or what if my dad is different, like in a bad way. Being older I'm the protective one but still I feel Snotlout will be overly protective of me if I go back to him!"

"Then it's settled." Astra stood up. "We-"

"Go back!"

"What?"

"For ODIN'S SAKE! I don't want to go back but at the same time I do!" She exclaimed.

"Ew feelings!" Astra said as she gave a disgusted shiver. Ailith stared at her for a second before starting to laugh aloud, she leaned forward in her fit of laughter and Astra joined in a few seconds later after judgementally staring. It's been so long since the two had laughed together. It was nice.

Ailith caught her breath and composure and then straightened herself. "You know what? I want to see my brother!screw our fears." She said, Astra looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"That's the gods damned most craziest thing you've ever said."

"For reasons beyond, I highly doubt that."

***

Harmony sniffed a box on the beach Astrid had lead the group to. She had nothing to report to Austa who watched carefully, so she busted it open. "Empty." She announced to the group who searched for any clues of where Astrid's dragon and the hunters could've gone.

"There has to be some clues here. Something!" Astrid exclaimed frustratedly.

"How many cages were there?" Hiccup asked as he kneeled down in front of an empty crate.

"Remember all the cages we saw on the Reaper?"

"Yeah?"

"Double it."

"We got nothin'." Tuffnut stated as he and his sister joined Astrid and Hiccup.

"Just a bunch a trash. Turns out these dragon hunters are also litre bugs." Ruff complained subtly.

"Yeah, there should be some penalty or fine for littering, I mean, am I right people? What if everyone was this careless and considerate?! Where would be then? Huh?" Tuff asked, shaking his sister by the shoulders. "Where would we be then?" He then began to cry. "Oh no." He saw the future practically. (Genius' out of their time, the twins are, I'm tellin' ya!)

"Coming here was a bad idea. What did we hope to find anyways?" Snotlout complained aloud slightly as he shut an empty boring chest and walked off, stepping on a green shard. "AH! Something bit me! I'm allergic to sand crabs! They make my toes fan out! Ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!"

Austa curiously walked over with a raised eyebrow at the lads dramatics. She sort of sees where he gets it from, she scoffed at her thoughts and kneeled down to examine the palm of his foot.

"Wow, look at you, rushed right over to help me. Well, you know what that means, sweet-cheeks..." Snotlout's flirter, but Austa plucked the green shard from his foot, shutting him up with a scream.

"This is a dragon hunter arrow." She stated, handing it back to Astrid who recognised it instantly.

"Or that." Snotlout complained subtly.

"Stormfly was hit with one of these right before she was caught, I've never seen her act so out of control." Astrid explained as she herself examined the shard, Austa standing up beside her. Fishlegs came and requested to examine it, Astrid handed it to him and when I say examine, he examined the thing.

"Interesting." He said at the visual. He sniffed it and admired it more with narrowed eyes. "Unexpected." Then...he licked it, making Austa snigger and hold her hand over her mouth to prevent laughter. "Tangy." He finished, which broke Austa as she began to laugh.

"Mind, clueing us in on want tangy and unexpected mean?" Hiccup requested in mild confusion.

"Oh for the love of- it's refined dragon root." Austa stated, using her already known knowledge on the hunters.

"Exactly! At high concentration, it can overwhelm a dragons senses completely, causing them to forget how to fly." Fishlegs explained.

"That's exactly what happened to Stormfly!" Astrid stated.

"Think of it, just one quiver of these arrows, could detonate an entire flock of dragons!" Fishlegs said before he handed the shard to Hiccup for him to examine.

"How are we going to find her? We have no idea where they're going!" Astrid asked, starting to lose hope. Hiccup placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe not." He began.

"But we do know where they've been." Austa added dramatically. The group looked at her after her input curiously. "The reaper. That's what y'all were thinking right?"