How To Train Your Dragon: Shivering Cove

Chapter Six

Hiccup was sifting through the pine needles, searching for something he could mend the tail fin with, or replace the spring. There was no way they could keep going if he and Toothless couldn't fly. He hadn't said a word to Emyra all morning out of guilt.

She came up behind him with Blizzard at her side. "Do you have much gold?"

Hiccup stopped his rummaging for a moment, but didn't look around. "Enough."

"Nice to know you're still capable of speaking. Would you mind if I took five or six pieces to trade around for the parts you need? There are plenty of Vikings around to trade with."

"What do they think of dragons? I don't want anyone getting attacked."

"They fear them, but if I'm with one of the dragons, they'll be fine. Everyone's getting used to tolerating dragon riders."

"You don't think I'd be able to find something here?"

"Nothing fireproof, that's for sure. What do you need?"

Hiccup passed her the broken stirrup, which was lying beside him. "The spring's missing - I need something hard and strong, but loosely coiled. And you can see here that the main problem was this part melting slightly, meaning this pulley can't work, hence the whole thing jammed, so that part will have to be completely replaced. And there's this kind of fire-proof resin which you need to paint over some parts to make it fireproof, so a large bottle of that would be great."

Emyra crouched down, and he finally looked around. "Are you sure you're better?"

"Getting there," he replied, stifling a sneeze. "I'll be fine. Won't go swimming."

"Good. I'll be back in a few days."

"A few days?"

"The Vikings are about half a day off, and they might not have this resin stuff. I'll do my best."

Hiccup nodded, then asked, "Why did Darkflight's scales glow crimson? I thought that was an alpha thing - Blizzard's still alpha, isn't he?"

"Yes - but it's not an alpha thing. All dragons have the potential to do something similar. I think..." She trailed off, unsure. "I think it has something to do with protecting something else. Something that means a lot to them. Darkflight protected me, Toothless protected Berk, and you. I suppose some evolutionary ability meant that dragons were able to adapt to protect what mattered most to them."

Hiccup paused, considering this. "That makes sense. Drago's bewilderbeast never took on any such form."

"Drago?"

So Hiccup explained what had happened since the discovery of Itchy Armpit.

"Wow..."

"I don't think he has anything to do with...this. This is-"

"Something Else."

"...yeah."

He looked at her properly for the first time, taking in her appearance. Her hair was a slightly darker colour than he remembered it - like a mix of honey and caramel. It wasn't streaked at all, and it was dead straight. It was slightly longer too, although she must have cut it since he last saw her. It reached a couple of inches past her shoulder blades. She always parted it on the left, her left, relatively far over, but not on the side of her head. She might have had a side fringe the last time he'd seen her, but it had grown long, and it was tucked behind her right ear, on which there was a small white scar.

He'd never really noticed the colour of her eyes either. They were a chocolate brown with slightly blue-green edges. They weren't quite your typical almond shape - they were a bit narrower closer to her nose. Her eyelashes were long, but not thick. A few pale freckles ran across the bridge of her nose, and here cheeks were flashed with a small amount of pink colour.