𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘

Chapter-3

     "It's an absolutely horrible title if you ask me." Hiccup continues, walking over to Gobber and Toothless and inspecting the riding gear. "I mean, I can guess where there can be confusion? But I don't master or control dragons, so," He says moving down the tail of his friend until he finds the piece place of the missing piece. "Ah!" He lets out in satisfaction. "So tell me. What brings a Berkian ship so far from the island?"

     Now it is Gobber's turn for sarcasm. "I could ask you the same thing."

     "Not sure about that, but go ahead." The man replies while smiling under his mask, enjoying the conversation.

     "What's the Dragon Master doing so far north?" Gobber asks, still feeling incredibly nervous about the black dragon pinning him to the beach as it gave a low hiss from Gobber's inflation.

     "If you promise to not hurt him or me he'll let you go." Gobber gave a quick nod before being released from the dragon's talons and standing up. "Now, to answer your inquiry. I lost track of distance while on an evening flight." Comes his simple reply.

     "So what you're telling me is that you, the master of all dragons, simply lost track of time?" Gobber's face scrunches in his confusion.

     "Yes," The man says while playing with the broken piece of metal in his black-scaled, gloved hands. "Here, Bud. See if you can hear this up." At this point, Fishlegs starts to wake up and Astrid is very slowly coming to her senses. Fishlegs lets out a scared squeal, earning him a rather bored expression from the night fury. The man mumbles to himself to the extent of an 'oh Thor' before hitting the side of his friend's head lightly, his dragon nearly gapes at his actions, looking at the man's head, before mimicking the man right back with his own force. "Just heat up the metal." The man tells the dragon while rubbing the back of his head.

     The night fury starts preparing blasts small and near non-explosive as he can manage. The dragon releases several shots in tiny waves of flames as Fishlegs watches in awe—as for Gobber, well, he watches in uncontrollable nervousness and uneasiness.

     Astrid slowly sits up with effort while rubbing the area on her head where the butt of her ax had hit her. Noting her waking up, the man walks over to her, his identity still shrouded. He cocks his head at her appearance, he's been haunted by dreams of a Valkyrie of similar physical and superficial attributes before. Her crude metal armor, a similar look to a metal he used to be experimenting with, making him chuckle to himself as he examines the fur coat she wears, what stops his sniggering is the site of a black-scale necklace hanging around her neck. The man crouches down next to her on one knee and leans in closer to the black object.

     Astrid is in no doubt surprised by his sudden and very close proximity, he looked further away before. "What are you doing?" She gasps out with anxiety, losing her sense of pride. The masked figure says not a single word to her as he reaches out after ungloving his left hand to touch the scale necklace. "What are you? Some sort of pervert?" Her anxiety getting the best of her as she painfully inches her way back from his presence. Taking notice of her wincing the man looks down to her abdomen, the source of the pain, where a large gash is caused by his dragon's prosthetic. Instead of grabbing her necklace again, he gently pushes her onto the sand and takes off his sword from his shin. Extending and igniting the blade, immediately frightening Astrid as she starts sweating from the sheer heat of the blade.

     "Relax." The man whispers softly.

     "What are you-!"Fishkegs is quickly shut down by the harsh warning growl that follows his phrase by the black dragon. "...Okay." He says backing down, his own fear getting to him. Astrid struggles in the man's strong but gentle touch, wincing at every movement she made with her hips and torso.

     "Relax." The man says more forcefully, pulling her shirt up just enough to see her wound, bringing his sword close to her wound. "You're bleeding." His obvious sarcastic remark has little effect on lightening the feeling very present in her face. He shushes her agony with his hand to her mouth as he presses the burning sword to her bleeding abdomen, cauterizing the wound. "Now please, for your own sake. Stay on the ground." He stands up and turns to the two others. "A thank you would be nice. I did just save this one's life, I know how your medical care is practiced." He walks over to Toothless like that event hasn't just happened.

     The man leans on his dragon's side, looking at the piece of metal and his friend. Gesturing to it only made the dragon whack him with one of his large ear flaps before the dragon continues to heat the metal piece. The group of three look around at each other with obvious questions and complete confusion.

     "Uh, you, what's your name?" The man asks pointing towards the aging man.

     "Gobber." He replies still rather dumbfounded. His name makes the man pause for a brief moment. If this is Gobber, then the larger boy has to be Fishlegs and the girl, Astrid.

     "And what of them?"

     "Those two would be Astrid and Fishlegs. They're youths on Berk." Gobber explains briefly.

     "Ah."

     "What's it to you?" Astrid speaks up, attempting to sit back up.

     "What did I say about staying on the ground?" The man asks in disbelief. "Five years of reputation and what do I get for it?" His dragon lets out a laugh at his rider. "Oh, can it." He says leaning down to grab the metal after putting his glove back on from earlier and goes to the dragon's tail while reshaping the metal. He unclips the wire to the metal fin then places the new ring in its place along the tailpiece. Coating its contact point in monstrous nightmare gel he put the piece in place and lit the gel, also by using his sword to create a makeshift weld. He slips the wire back through the loops before reconnecting the wire to the fin piece. Going to the saddle he checks his work and makes sure it is functional again before turning his attention back towards the group.

     "Any questions?" The man says, raising his hand. He knows he's smart, and he also knows that everyone always has a question about or for the almighty dragon master. Three other hands almost instantly shoot up at his question and he smirks beneath his mask. He pointed in the direction of the girl, finding it only fair since he did just burn stomach.

     "Who are you really?" Astrid asks.

...:::\ \ \| A/N |/ / /:::...

~ edited version ~

Well, what do you think? I'm curious to know how my writing style is since I'm clearly biased to my own sort of style. And to go along with the last chapter, I had described Hiccup's suit of dragon-scaled armor with my own twists, and I based it off of promotional-esc pictures taken at some sort of event (I'm not sure what).

As always, if you have any questions and/or feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.