For Imperial_Saga

[dragon_trainer]

-1-

[There's a blacksmith shop set up, full of tools arranged haphazardly on heavy wooden tables. An open fire pit in the middle of the shop makes the space within uncomfortably warm.]

"This? Yes, I think I could repair it. Not completely familiar with its construction, but I suppose I could improvise."

-2-

[A boy of around fifteen or sixteen is leaning on a black dragon the size of a horse, though shorter and wider, with large black wings and a face the shape of a shovel blade. The dragon is...watching a ladybug walking across his front paw, perhaps wondering if it might be good to eat.]

"Sure, Toothless and I can give you a ride, though no sharp objects allowed on board. It's just for your safety and your safety only."

-3-

[Where there's smoke, there's fire.]

"Toothless! No! Bad dragon, that is NOT supposed to be on fire!"

Comments

3

[nomen_est_numen]

"Hm?"

Blinkblink.

Shen looks back at the sound, notices the smoke, traces it to its origin, and a sharp, high-pitched squawk escapes him.

Hiiiiis... tail feathers are on fire.

"Not again!" He whips said tail feathers through the air so fast that the fire is essentially left behind. He then rounds on Hiccup and his dragon, panting.

1

[cursed_valentine]

I advise extreme care. The gem set in the chain is quite valuable. And dangerous.

2

[maxwells_silver_scythe]

[Duo eyes the dragon suspiciously.]

I'm gonna regret this later, aren't I?

Re: 3

[dragon_trainer]

And Hiccup rounds on Toothless. "You know better than to set fire to...talking...birds..." And he trails off, staring at the furious and apparently articulate fowl.

Toothless appears to pout. Why can't he flame broil the giant chicken? It's the fanciest chicken he's ever seen and certainly the largest, but smells pretty good and Toothless is hungry.

Re: 1

[dragon_trainer]

"Dangerous, hmm?" Hiccup turns the gem and chain over and over in his hands, studying how the fire reflects within. "Is it, er...a magical stone?"

Viking lore tells of magical stones, but Hiccup has never seen one in person, let alone been asked to repair jewelry containing one.

Re: 2

[dragon_trainer]

"Probably not. Toothless here has always caught me when I've fallen off. Isn't that right, big guy?"

Hiccup gives the dragon a scratch under the chin, and Toothless stops his intense study of Duo long enough to enjoy the caress. When he opens his yellow-green eyes once more, he decides that if Hiccup is this jovial around Duo, then Duo must be a friend. Carefully, he steps forward to sniff at Duo's hair.

*SPRFL* No, you silly dragon, Shen is not for eating.

[nomen_est_numen]

Most folks would back away slowly or run screaming at the sight of a hungry dragon. Shen, however, as we have established time and again, is not most people. He's not sane enough to be most people.

There's a quiet metallic sound and a knife appears between the feathers of his right wing, held there as though said feathers were fingers. It's a gorgeous knife, shiny and intensely sharp and crafted to blend in with the plumage, with texturing along the shaped blade. It's also pointed at a spot somewhere above the Viking boy's nose. Shen's gaze flicks between boy and dragon. He opens his beak to say something else and thus cement his articulateness, but this is most likely when he's solidly interrupted.

[cursed_valentine]

Forged in the fires of the Netherworld, the Psypher is a terrible stone that feeds on the souls of the departed to fuel its terrible power.

A careless blacksmith is but child's play to it.

Re: *SPRFL* No, you silly dragon, Shen is not for eating.

[dragon_trainer]

This is not the first time that Hiccup has had a knife pulled on him. He is a Viking, after all. Not that he enjoys it. He just generally knows the rules of this game. This is the first time a bird has ever pulled a knife on him before, though. A talking bird. Hiccup is still a small boy from a small town and the idea of talking animals just about breaks his brain. Perhaps this is why he mostly notices the craftsmanship on the blade before wondering if he's in danger.

"Hey, that's a really nice blade you have there, Mr Chicken. Love the intricate lines, though that cuts down on practicality..." Hiccup may be pondering, in a far corner of his mind, about how he might go about crafting one in his own shop.

Toothless does not see the beauty of sharp things. A weapon is a weapon, and now there is one pointed at /his/ boy. But Hiccup had said the words "No" and "Fire", so he simply steps beside Hiccup and roars as loud as he can right into the face of the strange chicken.

[dragon_trainer]

"Really." Hiccup's smile goes away a bit. Careless? Him? Surely this stranger doesn't know of Viking winters, sitting around with nothing to do but work on tiny, careful, intricate projects. He holds the stone up to his ear, perhaps to see if he can hear these souls of the departed fueling the inner workings of the stone.

"Right, um. Let's see now." Hiccup takes a good look at the jewelry to see what needs his repair.

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen is about to reply along the lines that he is a Peacock, not a Chicken, when--

"RRAAAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!"

Shen remains perfectly still, the wind from the roaring blowing his clothing and plumage back in several beats of fluttering and rippling, eyes closed.

The roaring stops.

There is silence, save for the dripping of dragon spittle from nearly every part of the Peacock in question. He hasn't moved an inch, knife still pointed at Hiccup's face. His eyes open, blinking.

"...."

He very deliberately attempts to flick the ropy strands of goo from his other wing.

"As I was going to say," he states with deliberate cadence, "I am a Peacock, not a Chicken, and I am not edible." His gaze moves from Hiccup to the dragon. "By anyone or anything."

Flick.

[cursed_valentine]

It is the chain where you should be focusing your attentions. The stone is not easily damaged. It requires mending around the Psypher's setting, and the lower chains have begun to corrode. Mayhaps it requires replacement entirely.

[dragon_trainer]

"A...pee cock. Heh. Really." This teenaged boy is amused. Of course he is. Does the bird understand what he just called himself?

But now the well-spittled bird still insists on standing there with the knife in hand...wing...something, and Toothless is, while out of range, slightly, growling in frustration that the stupid bird doesn't know when to drop the sharp thing. Hiccup sighs and takes a step backwards. It's going to be one of those days.

"Well, I'm sorry, sir...or ma'm, hard to tell with birds...for what my dragon has done to your tail. However, you'll need to put the knife away now, or my dragon will make you drop it. He doesn't like to see me threatened, and I don't think I can stop him if he decides that it's lunch time."

Hiccup is bluffing, somewhat. He would do his best to prevent his dragon from doing in Shen, as holding out a small knife isn't that big of an offense, and this talking animal thing is very interesting.

[dragon_trainer]

Hiccup checks the setting and sees the damaged areas. "Yes, I can solder that back into place quite easily. As for the chain...Do the chain links have to be made out of any specific metal? I have some jewelry chain of similar size in the back, it's silver. Will that do?"

[nomen_est_numen]

"You've never heard of peafowl, clearly. Hm. Your loss."

His gaze flicks between Hiccup and the dragon. He could kill the boy in an instant, but the dragon would be a fight and not a fight he's willing to engage in without any kind of artillery backing him up. He puts the knife away and takes an only slightly more relaxed stance.

"Very well, I will accept your apology." He looks down at his spattered self. "This... was the finest silk in the province..." He turns slightly and flicks his tail, sending a great spatter of spittle in the direction of dragon and boy. "...which hopefully can be cleaned. At any rate, I need a bath, now." He shivers his feathers in disgust, but hasn't walked away quite yet.

[dragon_trainer]

Hiccup and Toothless are spattered with drops of spit. Hiccup wrinkles his nose and wipes it off his face, though this hasn't been the first time he's encountered dragon spit. Toothless, for his part, licks his wing clean and then snuffles at Hiccup's bag. Defending his human deserves a treat, right?

Hiccup sighs and rolls his eyes, can't quite believing that he's trying to make up to a talking giant chicken. "I'm afraid I can't offer you any compensation...for your...whatever a silk is. Unless you want a herring...they're pretty tasty." Rummaging around in his bag, he brings out a herring, whole and smoked, and pushes Toothless' interested nose away from it.

[cursed_valentine]

Silver is far too flimsy. The Psypher is a weapon, only hard steel will suffice.

Hope you don't mind a super late tag.

[maxwells_silver_scythe]

"Hey! Watch the hair, bucko. Alright lets just get this over with."

He kind of pushed the dragon's head out of his face as he backed up and started divesting himself of sharp objects. Turns out, he had an impressive number of knives hidden on him.

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen stares at it. He can likely smell it, if the squinting is anything to go by.

"Ah-eh... nnno.... That's... quite all right."

No worries

[dragon_trainer]

Toothless is a bit taken aback at being shoved away. Not many humans are brave enough to walk up and give him a push! That hair did move so entertainingly when Toothless breathed on it, though. Perhaps, he thinks, when Duo is not paying attention, he might get to bat at it a bit. The strange stuff that grows out of human heads amuses dragons to no end.

The dragon takes careful note of all the knives, though. He narrows his pupils as he studies the sharp blades as they pile up. But, when Duo has thrown the last knife down, Toothless nods his approval to Hiccup and lets hiccup climb up onto the saddle.

"You'll have to hold on tightly," Hiccup advises, holding out a hand so Duo can grab on and mount up behind him. Toothless even raises a foreleg so Duo can step up easier. "To...anything. To me, to the saddle, to the...well, I wouldn't advise you try and hold on to the wings, they move a bit too much..."

[dragon_trainer]

"Hmn. Really. Thought birds liked fish." Not going to let such a prized fish go to waste, Hiccup tears off a strip from the side of the fish and gulps it down.

"You're missing out, this is some of the best herring. Especially the little eyeballs." He slurps one out and chews with a blissful expression.

Toothless is drooling and prancing with his front paws as he watches each morsel of smelly fish disappear. Hiccup turns to the dragon and holds up the fish. "You want some, boy? Okay, SIT."

Toothless sits with a thump that makes the ground shake a bit, and is rewarded with a fish head which he crunches down, bones and all.

[dragon_trainer]

"Ah, I gotcha. Steel, I can do. My background's in weaponry. Knives, swords, hammers, letter openers, little tacks you can put on people's chairs...So...how is this Psypher stone used? Will it...shoot me with fire or something if I get too close with the tongs or say disrespectful things about the block it was chipped off from?"

[cursed_valentine]

The gem is the agent of destruction, the chain merely the instrument upon which it is swung. The gem may be touched and stricken, but do not look into it. You would not enjoy the sight.

[maxwells_silver_scythe]

"Right."

As he climbs on behind Hiccup, Duo reflects on how bizarre it is that he is feeling more nervous about falling off then he is about being eaten by the dragon.

[nomen_est_numen]

"Not where I'm from and certainly not raw," Shen replies, appearing slightly woozy. He makes a few incoherent sounds as Hiccup slurps up fish eyeballs and by the time he's got the dragon seated on the ground, Shen is staggering away. The nauseated bird leans against a tree, panting.

[dragon_trainer]

Not even a smile at my bad joke? Tough crowd. Hiccup thinks to himself as he brings the necklace in and sets it on a table.

"Alright, this should take me a couple days, but I'll have the links and the setting repaired, no problem."

Hiccup starts by filling a ceramic container with bits of metal and, holding the vessel with tongs, offers it to a black shape at the back of the little shop.

"Toothless, wake up! Okay, here you are buddy. Good boy. Little spark, little spark!" With a high pitched rushing noise, the scene is illuminated to reveal the black shape as a dragon, breathing a small steady stream of fire around the sides of the container.

[dragon_trainer]

There are handholds on the saddle, if Duo cares to grab onto those. If he's feeling more friendly and casual, Hiccup is wearing an enthusiastic collection of belts and straps to hold him on to his dragon. Hiccup clips his harness into the saddle's loops and snaps what Duo may recognize as an odd prosthetic foot into a geared stirrup on the dragon's left side.

"Ready to go, boy?" Hiccup pats Toothless on his short scaled neck.

"Rrrrouffnn!" replies the beast and executes a little gallop which, when he spreads his wings wide and beats them towards the ground, propels him and his passengers into the air.

[cursed_valentine]

[Ingway's gonna give your Dragon a Spock eyebrow here.]