The Gift of the Princess (HTTYD)

Dragon Training

Chapter 7: Dragon Training

Eira spent the evening going over what she knew about the reasons Dagur and Viggo switched sides. By morning, she had a general idea how she wanted to approach her next interactions with Krogan. She went over her thoughts with Hiccup first, of course, and he encouraged her to give it a try. She fetched Swiftwings before starting off with Krogan, telling him she had a feeling she would need the dragon that day.

They walked in silence for the better part of an hour as had become their routine. Eira almost enjoyed it now. She loved her friends, but it was nice to get away from their loud antics. "So," she said at last, "I have a question."

"Don't you always?" Krogan muttered without looking at her. He walked slightly ahead while she followed behind. "I suppose you'll ask it no matter what I say."

Eira acknowledged his statement by ignoring it. "Why did you originally join Drago?"

Krogan glanced back at her, his expression unreadable. "Straight to the point now, are you?"

"This time there's something specific I'm looking for. I'm not trying to play games. I want to know what motivates you."

"What motivates me? I've already told you-"

"Yes, you're concerned with your own survival. I get that, but I'm talking about what's beyond that. Survival is a basic instinct. Animals may be ruled by it, but humans need more."

Krogan looked away. "I would beg to differ."

Eira sighed. It looked like she had to approach this a different way. "You had to have at some point desired something. For example, Dagur enjoys the thrills of adventure and battled and Viggo finds satisfaction in obtaining knowledge and developing strategies. What is your thing?"

"I don't have a thing."

Eira bit back her frustration. After her talk with Ingrid, she realized Krogan might not be intentionally acting difficult. His subconscious might have barriers even he was not aware of. "I'm going back to my original question. Why did you join Drago? I know you needed to survive, but there had to be more to it. Did you want revenge on dragons?"

Krogan said nothing at first, but then he slowed his pace and spoke: "I wanted revenge, but Drago made it clear his purpose was greater. He claimed to want to liberate people from the oppression of dragons. He said we needed to protect people so they would never know the pain of what we went through." He paused and stopped walking completely. "He may have meant it, but people are not much better than dragons. He gained power, and power-"

"-power corrupts," Eira said, nodding. "I get it." The royal family of Torvald was very aware of this fact, which was why they had measures in place to limit their own power and encouraged people to solve problems on the most local level possible. Then she remembered how Dagur and Viggo were only able to change once they lost some power and became resentful of those above them. That Krogan was now in a similar situation gave her hope. "Is the same true of you? You wanted to protect people?"

Krogan cast his gaze to the ground. "That was... a long time ago. It is not who I am anymore."

"Maybe not, but he's still in there somewhere."

"Good luck bringing him out."

Eira took a moment to signal to Swiftwings. The Windwalker snorted before flying off. Krogan glanced at her but said nothing. Eira gave him a small smile. "Well, you are a warrior, and you do want to protect yourself, so you should fight with us against Drago if it comes down to that."

Krogan looked at her with raised eyebrows. "You would fight him?"

"If he attacked, yes. I'm not a pacifist."