Heart of a Dragon Whisper (An RTTE Fanfic)

Chapter 15

I sat in the clubhouse of Dragon's Edge, sketching the Hotburble a hunter named Axel had said was called Grump, Lilac lying on the ground next to my chair. It had been two days since the auction and I had just flown back to the Edge last night while everyone was asleep. Leafblender had flown in, camouflaged, and landed just outside my hut, so I could clean up before anyone saw me. I was able to wash off the black paint on my face and I changed, putting my black clothes back in my chest of clothes and just threw the golden coin onto my desk as the sun started to rise. 

"Hey, you're back!" Storm exclaimed. I looked up to see her and Starfire just walking in. 

"Yeah. I got back last night and didn't want to wake you all up, so I sat in here and sketched some dragons." Storm walked over and looked down at my sketch, frowning. 

"That kind of looks like Grump." Storm commented. Oh crap... I almost forgot that the riders escaped with the help of Grump. 

"Grump?" I asked, pretending to have no clue who that was. 

"Oh, right. You weren't at the auction. Gobber made friends with a boulder class dragon named Grump. He's the only dragon that can bite through dragon proof metal and he looks exactly like that." Storm explained, seeming to buy my lie. 

"Oh... So Gobber has a Hotburble now?"

"If that's the species that Grump is, then yeah." I nodded, continuing to shade the sketch of Grump. When I finished, I looked up to see Lilac and Starfire having a nice chat, so I decided to ask Storm about the auction, not that the stuff she would tell me was new, but I wanted to hear her perspective on the event. 

"So how did the auction go? Did you release any dragons?" I asked. 

"Yeah, but it didn't come without a price." Storm grumbled as she sat down in a chair opposite me, sharpening her knife while she propped her feet up on the table. 

"Price?" 

"Stupid Viggo got away with all of Berk's gold!" I acted surprised to hear this. 

"What?! How?!" 

"Hiccup came up with the brilliant idea of sending my dim wit brother in as a diversion, so we could get the damn manifest!" Storm complained, studying her knife before continuing, "Then again, freeing a whole bunch of dragons is a benefit. Not to mention we have new information on the hunters." This was news to my ears. I sat up straighter and tilted my head to the side. 

"New information on the hunters?"

"Yeah. Apparently, Viggo had a new hunter. Female, wore all black, always had the hood of her cloak up, and she's around Viggo almost all the time. Heather, Astrid, and I almost got caught by her when we were sneaking around." Oh Thor. If the riders found out I was that hunter... I didn't want to know what they'd do to me. "Melia, you okay? You look a little pale." Storm's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Umm... Yeah! Yeah, I'm... I'm fine." I stated, nervously, standing from my chair so fast that it toppled over.

"You sure?" 

"Yeah! I just... I just need some fresh air!" I exclaimed, laughing nervously as I backed into something solid. I whirled around to see Astrid with her arms crossed, Hiccup just behind her, both of them frowning at me. 

"Where did you get this?" Hiccup asked, holding up the gold coin I had left on my desk. Crap! As I looked at the gold coin, I realized putting it right out in the open was probably not a good idea.

"I can explain." I said, quickly, not sure what else to say. 

"Damn right you can explain. For starters, why don't you explain why you told us you were going to see a dragon friend when you were actually pretending to be a hunter so you could spy on Viggo" Astrid remarked, a smirk replacing her frown. Wait, what? I repeated Astrid's words in my head before realizing what she meant. They know I'm the hooded hunter and they think I was pretending so I could spy on Viggo. 

"Well, when he had captured me, I guess he thought he could trick me into thinking I was insignificant. Expendable. After he 'down graded my self esteem', he offered me a position as a dragon hunter. He said that since I was so good with dragons, I would make a great addition." I lied. 

"He seriously thought you'd fall for that?" Storm asked, putting her knife down. I nodded. 

"Apparently. I made him believe I believed him by saying yes. I used his offer to my advantage." Suddenly, a thought came to mind. "Other than you three, who else knows?" 

"Heather. Why?" Astrid asked. 

"Let's just keep it between us five. If we all remember Heather's attempt on spying on the hunters, it was easier when just Astrid knew. I believe the fewer knowing, the better." I explained. They nodded in agreement and with that, I collected my charcoal pencil and sketchbook in hand, and walked up to Hiccup, taking the golden coin from him before walking to my hut.