Scritch scritch scritch... (Open)

[robinwing]

Can you hear that? The scratching of someone writing from that house, it's really loud. That would be Alfrun, working on the plans for a one handed dragon riding system. She was leaning down far enough that she was not visible through the closed window, under which her desk stood. To her left sat her bed, as this was her room, under which there were many things, such as old inventions from before she lost her hand, that she could no longer use or complete, depending on how far she'd gotten with them. On her right, stood another table, with tools scattered on it alongside a half finished dragon saddle. Next to this was a set of shelves, mostly filled with books on various subjects, from dragons to plants and back again.

Alfrun was having trouble with the theory on her dragon saddle. There were a few thing that, while operable with only one foot, were not with only one hand. The design hadn't really changed much since Hiccup, and this annoyed her slightly that no one had tried to see where it could be made better, and now the task had fallen on her. She sat scribbling away at the plan, frowning in concentration, until she shoved the paper away from her and pulled a blank piece closer. She didn't start on this piece at once, taking a moment to lay her head on the table in frustration. This was not going to be easy, and would be taking her a long time.
"Gah..." She groaned, slightly muffled by the table and the paper on it.

[banditfly]

"Stop it... Okay, okay! ...I'm going!"

Milkwort glared over his shoulder with exasperation. He could barely take two steps before being nudged again, the refrained but still forceful shove nearly making him fall over each time. He was walking along one of the intertwining roads of the village, passing the houses that led uphill toward the center of the town. There was located a round plaza that was always filled with villagers and their dragons. Even wild dragons came over to settle down and eat from the massive bowl that was installed right at the center. This bowl was always full of fish free for all the dragons of the island. Each fish that was tossed in was handpicked so that only the dragons' most favorite types of fish were in there. Every dragon knew this a J-B was no exception.

Milkwort felt another rough shove to his back. "Hey! Keep that up and I won't even take you there," he warned. The Hideous Zippleback's two heads pulled back at that, all four eyes giving him an unappreciative glare. Milkwort shook his head slowly. The dragon had learned nothing from that terrible scuffle with Aya's dragon a while back. Not even the ugly burn marks scarring one side of Bully's face or the gashes that were still healing on the dragon's hind legs were enough to teach him anything.

He had to admit, though, the Zippleback had let up on his constant teasing of him just a bit. Milkwort had never told his father the whole story about what happened out in the fields, though it was obvious something had. His father had given the two-headed dragon a quite intimidating threat, as Milkwort was very aware he was the only human J-B feared, and then told the Zippleback never to leave Milkwort's side. Usually J-B took out his frustration on Milkwort after being yelled at by his father, but this time both heads were being remarkably well behaved. Even if they did keep shoving him as he lead them to the plaza.

The two heads seems to be pouting as they continued on and a small groan caught Jerk's attention. It came from a house they were passing by and the bolder of the two heads just couldn't resist exploring where the sound had come from. He swiveled his long neck toward the window even as his body kept moving past and peaked inside. He saw the human girl lying her head on the table and sniffed her hair curiously.

[robinwing]

Alfrun lifted her head when she felt something sniffing at her hair, and nearly fell out of her chair at what she saw. A zippleback head seemed to have decided it would satisfy it's curiosity of the human girl it saw in the building. That human girl would be Alfrun, whose eyes had widened.
"Oh! Hello there!" Alfrun greeted, voice shaking slightly in recovering shock. She moved back to a more stable position on her chair.
"Where did you come from" She asked the zippleback head, moving to look out the window. She wondered vaguely which head this was, the gas head or the spark head, but figured it was probably unimportant. Sadly, she found she couldn't find a way around the head and over the desk that she could see the ground from. All through this, she kept her wooden hand at her side, using her other hand for balance and other things, including resting on the window frame to try to look through, and lightly patting the zippleback's head to move it so she could see.

[banditfly]

Jerk moved back just slightly when Alfrun finally looked at him, but he didn't pull out of the window. He was actually quite uninterested in the girl and was scanning the room, breathing in deeply to scent for anything that he could eat. He was disappointed when all that came to his nose was ink and dirt from the plants. He frowned when the girl came closer to him to try and look out the window and then let out a low rumbling growl when she touched him. Though the other head may have tolerated it, Jerk was far from human-friendly and harbored quite a hatred for them in the belief that they enslaved dragons against their will.

At this point, the body of the Zippleback had walked as far away as it could from Jerk's head before feeling a tug. Bully stopped and looked back to see his twin inside of the house. He turned their body around to get closer, as Bully was also very curious and wondering if Jerk had found some food. Milkwort didn't realize his dragon wasn't following him anymore until a few steps later. Suspicious about J-B being so quiet, which usually meant they were plotting some kind of trick to torture him with, he turned around.

"Whoa, whoa! Hey! Get out of there!" The boy barked, running over with his arms in the air. Jerk pulled back fast, hitting his head on the windowsill and possibly chipping it with his horns. By the time Milkwort reached them, both heads were reared back in the air beside on another. Their weakhearted owner sighed and hung his head for a moment before brushing his hair back with a hand and looking up again. Then he saw the girl in the window.

"Wha--! Oh, man. I didn't think anyone was in there--Are you okay?!" He asked quickly, making a silly little dance with his feet in surprise. He ran over to the windowsill and looked over at the girl, scanning her body up and down for any slashes or bite marks. When she seemed unharmed, he sagged and sighed again, thoroughly exhausted. "I'm sorry... He's a... bad dragon." Milkwort frowned. Saying he owned a bad dragon made him feel like an incompetent owner. He then blinked, realizing something.

"Hey... You're, uh... Alfrun, right? From training class?" He asked, a small smile making a way to his features. Even if he didn't talk to too many people during the sessions he still made an effort to remember names and faces.

[robinwing]

Alfrun had retracted her hand when the zippleback had started growling, but when it's owner called to it she moved to look down at the ground outside straight away. She noted that this boy was Milkwort, whom had shown to be extremely introverted, as he spoke to no one.
"It's alright, he didn't hurt me." She assured, smiling quietly. She raised an eyebrow when he said thet the zippleback, whom she seemed to remember was named Jerk and Bully, was a bad dragon, being a firm believer that there were no bad animals, just bad owners. She had seen Milkwort in class, and just couldn't place him as a bad owner. Perhaps they had had a bad owner before Milkwort and hadn't quite warmed up to him, so she didn't say anything. She nodded when he said her name.
"Yes, Milkwort. Or don't you prefer to go by Milk?" She reacted, and inwardly cringed, normal people don't know that much usually on the first conversation without being told. She couldn't help it, that time she had reacted without thinking, but usually what tips people off that she knows more than normal people do is that she tailors her actions to things about them she shouldn't know, but I digress.

[banditfly]

Milkwort heaved another sigh of relief in hearing that Alfrun was indeed unharmed. He didn't know what he would do if J-B hurt someone else. It was one thing for him to attack dragons, but people was out of the question. Of course, he didn't like his troublemaking dragon to attack anyone ever. This Zippleback of his was going to make him lose all the potential friends he could have in this village by attacking all of their dragons.

He cheered up a bit when Alfrun regarded his name, but suddenly felt a tad awkward at the next thing she said. Though it was true he did like to be called Milk, only those who were particularly close to him did. At this very moment, the only person who was was his mother. He had never made an attempt to get very close to his classmates, though he would still sometimes regard them as his "friends." Some of them even called him by his last name, Cyclops, which he liked even less. He had to look down for a minute as he responded.

"Yeah... You can call me Milk if you want," he spoke quietly, suddenly a little nervous. He had never been a social butterfly, even before that traumatic even that made him deathly afraid of flying. Talking to anyone he wasn't close to took him out of his comfort zone and he suddenly felt torn between remaining in the company of another human being or getting away. He cast a glance inside the window and spotted all the sheets of paper, some crumpled up. He had two choices now: Ask what she was doing or dismiss himself for her sake.

His cowardice overpowered his courage and he gave in. "I-I see that you're busy, so... I'll just get going," he stammered with a sheepish smile, starting to turn away. J-B spent no time hesitating at his cue and began stomping forward, impatiently slowing down so that his human owner could lead the way to the plaza.

[robinwing]

Alfrun leaned forward out the window, noticing the direction Jerk, Bully and Milkwort seemed to be going.
"Are you going to the fish bowl in the plaza?" Alfrun asked, thinking about how she'd been planning to go there a while, but had been putting it off. She stepped away from the window, picking up her notebook and hooking it to her belt. She walked down the stairs to her house's ground floor, hopping the last one. She was smiling from ear to ear, thinking about how sometimes wild dragons would eat at the bowl. It was an amazing study opportunity, into the behaviours of wild dragons. It could give a whole new insight into how these creatures may live beyond where human eyes reached, in their natural habitats. She opened the door, and smiled at Milkwort quickly, before starting toward the plaza herself. She does swing her arms when walking, since her hand did move naturally enough not to look odd when she swung her arms like this.

[banditfly]

Milkwort's quick shuffle to his dragon's side was cut short at Alfrun's words. He looked back, surprised to see that she was no longer in the window. A little unsure, he waited where he was in case something happened. J-B's two heads snorted in unison, quite tired of all the delays. It wasn't even that they were hungry, either, and Milkwort was quite aware of this. They were simply greedy and impatient and he did his best to ignore them as they shifted their short legs loudly on the pavement.

He looked toward the door as Alfrun stepped out and smiled instinctively in response to hers. He wasn't sure whether he was happy or not that she was coming along. He watched her start toward the plaza and cast a glance back at the door curiously. Spinning around quickly and almost tripping himself, he caught up beside her, though not too close, and settled to her pace. The Zippleback heaved a broken sigh as though to say "finally!" and began stomping ahead of them. "Um..." Milkwort weaved the question through his mind, wondering if it was rude or not and finally decided to just get on with it.

"You're not bringing a dragon?" He asked carefully. He tried to remember her from class and knew that something always seemed to be missing when she was there, but for some reason he couldn't remember just what that something was. Not that he minded there not being another dragon in their company. The last time J-B met someone else's dragon, disaster was all that came out of it. It just seemed a little odd for someone to leave their work to go to the dragon bowl without a dragon.

[robinwing]

Alfrun swallowed slightly, a little self-conscious of her lack of dragon, though she was fully aware that this was because everyone else had one, and she felt left out.
"You probably noticed in dragon training. I don't have a dragon." She answered. She looked at Milkwort, and deduced his next question from his body language.
"I'm going to the fish bowl because of all the different dragons that go as well." She preemptively answered, starting to smile as she continued.
"It's a great opportunity to see all sorts of behaviours in dragons, mostly wild, but tame too. It could give a whole new insight on how they interact with each other, and what untamed dragons behave like in the wild, where we can't see them. I've always wondered whether the Seadragunis Giganticus Maximus was truly a 'queen' dragon, like in a beehive. There might not be a hierarchy at all for all we know, and the Sea Dragon that lived three hundred years ago wasn't supposed to be there." She rambled on, smiling more as she continued. She really loved learning, and got quite excited when an opportunity presented itself.

[banditfly]

Milkwort blinked at her first answer. Ah, that was it! What seemed to be missing with Alfrun at training was her dragon. A slight twinge of jealousy struck him at that. No dragon... how nice that must be. He cast an unpleasant glance toward J-B, who was ignoring them entirely, both heads stretched high to see if they could spot the bowl. Milkwort would have given anything to get rid of his dragon, but his father wouldn't let him. At this point, he was still looking for a replacement. Maybe he would find one at the bowl. He stifled a sigh, dubious.

Her next answer surprised him. Was it that obvious that was what he was thinking? He suddenly felt a little self-conscious, hoping he didn't come off as rude. But Alfrun seemed to be enjoying herself as she went on. Though what she was talking about was nothing he could relate to or even find pleasure in talking about, he felt a little cheered up in seeing her smile and thus a less reserved.

"Giganticus Maximus?" He held his elbows as though frightened. "Why do you want to know about a terrible dragon like that?" It was ironic how much they had alike yet were completely different. Milkwort loved to learn, too. He even had a dream of writing a book about nature. He was willing to learn everything about the wilderness except the part about dragons. Strongly believing they were savage and destructive beasts that posed no benefits to nature whatsoever, he was only interested in studying the parts of nature that were uninvolved with dragons.

"I don't really care for dragons..." He admitted quietly, looking away. Realizing that probably sounded odd, he added, "wild ones, I mean." Though in all honesty he just plain hated dragons.

[robinwing]

Alfrun spotted the slight tense when she mentioned that she had no dragon, and though her reading ability and rational side told her jealousy, the irrational side tried to convince her it was nervousness, because having no dragon meant she was different. Thankfully, she'd had plenty of experience in disregarding the irrational side in favour of her mind, and noted that he was jealous, evidently, of her lack of dragon. She understood his second act of body language easier, as it was quite obvious that her answering him before he asked unnerved him slightly. She listened to his question of why she wanted to know, and promptly gave her reason.
"Well, first off, it isn't really all about the Giganticus Maximus. I want to know if normal dragons, with no influence from the Giganticus Maximus, naturally have a 'queen'. Also, I want to know because I believe there is no such thing as an inherently evil animal. I wonder what made the Gigenticus Maximus dragons kill for sport, when I can't think of any human influence it could have had." Alfrun explained. She spotted how Milkwort almost said he disliked dragons in general, and took note that he apparently had a small fear of dragons. That helped her understand his jealousy earlier, he wished he didn't have a dragon.

[banditfly]

Milkwort nodded his head rythmatically as Alfrun explained, pretending to be interested. He couldn't think of a thing to say in response and honestly didn't care to. He really didn't want this subject to go on any further, unable to fathom what could possibly be interesting about dragons. Instead he started to wonder just why Alfrun didn't have a dragon. If she liked them so much, he would have half expected her to have more than one. He then remembered something about her hand.

Paralyzed, he reminded himself, glancing down at her waving hands, not certain which one it was. He suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy for her. That must be tough. He would know what it's like to not be able to do something you're passionate about. For the sake of Alfrun's feelings, he chose not to bring it up aloud.

J-B suddenly gave a squawk and sped up. The road had leveled out and widened to reveal a circular enclosure of shops and houses surrounding a bare courtyard. In the middle stood an enormous bowl where several dragons were already towering over and perched atop of, snapping greedily at the fish inside. The Zippleback ran right over and settled in a spot in front of the bowl. The heads lowered at the same time and aimed for the same fish, winding up bumping into each other. Suddenly irritable, Jerk and Bully then began to hiss and snap at one another, as though arguing who would have that particular fish within the bowl of hundreds of fish.

Milkwort held back and looked away, hoping no one would associate the loud dragon with him. J-B could be quite embarrassing, especially when his two heads fought needlessly like that. He hoped Alfrun wouldn't think poorly of him because of J-B's childish behavior. He couldn't concern himself over that for long, though, as the large dragons flying overhead, some carrying humans and some not, soon captured his entire focus. He stared up at them unhappily and then quickly looked back to the ground, trying to pretend they weren't there.

[robinwing]

Alfrun noticed Milkwort look at her hands, and spotted the flash of sadness. She noted that he had remembered that one of her hands was paralyzed, and was sympethetic. She raised her fake hand, it falling limp from the wrist down, covered by her glove.
"This is the paralyzed one. I don't have a dragon because of this hand." She stated, trying not to be too obvious that she read his body language and followed his train of thought. She looked up when Jerk and Bully squawked and ran off, following their route to see the plaza and the fish bowl. She understood his apparent embarassment when the heads started fighting over one fish, which she supposed would be an embarassing situation for the owner, especially one who owned the dragon against his own wishes, and didn't much like dragons. She spotted Milkwort look up, and then look back down. She glanced up herself, and saw all the dragons flying overhead. She moved off to the side of the plaza to lean on a wall, ready to observe.

[banditfly]

Milkwort flinched when she raised her limp hand. He wanted to punch himself in the face for being so obviously rude, though he had thought he was being discreet about it. "I-I'm sorry..." he muttered quietly, apologizing for two reasons. He looked away and in the corner of his eye saw Alfrun move away. He couldn't blame her if she didn't want to be in his company anymore, though when he looked he saw that she was doing just as she said she was going to do when she got here. He could easily recognize the critical eye of an observer watching a scene with the intent of research and learning. Milkwort looked up and tried to look at the dragons under the same light.

A large dragon suddenly flew overhead and a billowed a gust of wind against his back. He staggered more than was necessary and quickly moved to a wall of his own, catching his breath. Study these dragons? Impossible. The boy slowly slid his back down the wall to a sit. He crossed his arms over his knees and leaned his head in them, staring at nothing. Everyone else in the plaza was walking around without a worry and even having fun running around with their dragons and playing games. Why was he the only person in this entire village who couldn't fathom a good relationship between a human and a dragon?

Jerk and Bully had ultimately wound up tugged at the same fish until it broke in half. After that, the bickering died completely as they picked at the bowel apart from each other. As Jerk concentrated solely on gobbling up the tastiest fish in the bowl as fast as possible, Bully looked up and glanced about the plaza. His narrowed eyes finally rested on the familiar form curled up in the back.

Without acknowledgment to his twin, who was just about to snap at a deliciously rare trout, Bully turned their body around and began trotted across the plaza. Jerk shrieked in protect, trying to pull back to the food, but Bully managed control and made a beeline for Milkwort. The boy didn't notice them until their shadowed completely covered his body. Looking up in surprise, he leaned back quickly, bumping his head against the wall in the process.

Bully slowly lowered his head toward his master, who was stilling pushing against the wall as though he could somehow dissolve right through it. Bully watched him carefully before rolling his eyes and heaving a few times. Finally he opened his mouth a half a fish covered in stringy saliva fell out at Milkwort's feet. Such was a common gesture for dragons. It basically meant, "this half is yours." It was intended as a sign of mutual friendliness. Milkwort cringed from the fish, grimacing, unable to comprehend its message. Jerk growled quietly in displeasure, his head leaned back as far as possible from them.

[robinwing]

Aflrun watched this scene unfold, realising that maybe Milkwort's dragon just had one head that didn't like him. She walked over and leant against the wall nearer him, and turned towards him.
"That's common enough." She explained, smiling. "It's the dragon giving you food, it usually means friendship." She continued. She wondered which head this was, Jerk or Bully, as it didn't seem to have as much animosity as the other. She looked at the other head briefly, and saw that it was trying to pull back to the food, understandable enough. She turned back to Milkwort.
"I suspect. I'm not sure, but I suspect, the first friendly interaction between Hiccup and Toothless would have been the same action." She went on, excitedly. She wished there had been more of Hiccup's notes on Tothless's behavior that had made it into legend, than so much about the Seadragunus Giganticus Maximus and the battle in which he defeated it.