Kova, Son of Kallu, a trapper on Eret’s crew. He’s not from Eret’s tribe but they got along super well. His sister is Sifgrid the Insidious <3
He loves to boast about everything, he’s the type to show off his scars and tell you the most outlandish stories about them. I particularly like the burn scarring on his arm, from when he claims he wrestled a Monstrous Nightmare to the ground by its’ horns. A prideful twat, Kova is more likely to give you subtle jabs then outright express his discontent for someone. That’s really the only way he survived being recruited by Drago 🤷
httyd OC dump! from left -> right we have Kova (a cocky dragon trapper), Jev (a lanky dork who wants to travel the world and research dragons but feels stuck on an isolated island) and Sif (she washed up on Jev's island and helps him research dragons by exploring on her own dragon. they are best friends. formerly a dragon trapper, she's Kova's younger sister). Kova does not like Jev!!
drew Sif and Kova as kids! Kova was forced to include her in games, even if she makes a terrible pirate.
some sketches of Sif's cowardly monstrous nightmare, Roscoe (experimenting with what his saddle might look like. I took heavy inspiration from western riding) and Jev's elderly nadder, Stove
a rare instance of Jev seeming annoyed by Kova. in reality he's largely unbothered about him
+ some modern AU genderbend! Kova is a vain sorority girl on the tennis team and Sif lives in a rural town with Jev. their relationship is strained and they barely talk <\3
Summary: Set between Httyd 2 and THW. A slightly darker AU. A Dragon Trapper has the final night of his life when the shadows around him begin to move.
Warnings: Character Death
Rating: Teen and Up
Genre: Whump, Spooky
Dead Dove: No
Words: 400
Prompt: Shadow
Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon
Characters: Hiccup, Toothless, Dragon Trapper
Whumpee: Dragon Trapper
Whumper: Hiccup, Toothless
Caretaker: /
Pairing: /
Author’s Notes: I think Hiccup and Toothless get to be a little evil sometimes. As a treat. <3
Enjoy!
The Dragon Trapper is so certain that he's being watched.
Making his usual patrol around the ship, passing cages with trapped dragons inside of them, he can't say exactly what it is that makes him feel this. He's walking, the ring of keys on his right hip the only sound made other than his footsteps.
He feels alone, though he shouldn't be the only one up on deck tonight, not with the threat of those Dragon Riders. Yet, he hasn't seen anyone else for quite a while now and maybe that adds to his paranoia.
Spear in one hand, fidgeting with his other, he walks on. Prickles on the back of his neck, a slight hitch in his breath. Fear makes his heart race inside.
What is it? Is it the foggy night? There are torches on this ship, it shouldn't feel as dark out here as it does, yet he stares at every shadow that he passes. They are deep and the flickering torchlight almost makes them appear to move. There are no eyes there, no unwanted visitors, so where is this feeling coming from?
Is it that the dragons have gone eerily quiet?
The Trapper just notices that none of them have made a single peep in a while. Dragons aren't quiet creatures, not usually and not like this.
And neither do they stare at him like they know something he doesn't.
Turning around, swallowing a lump, he tries to stay in control of his breathing. He tries not to show the dragons that he's afraid, that he's picking up on what they aren't telling him. Licking his lips, grip on his spear tightening, he takes a look around behind him. The feeling of being watched worsens and he gets the alarming sense that he feels as though he's staring right at it.
But where is it? What is it? It's getting harder to stay in control of himself. It's here, something is here.
It's too late that he realizes that the shadow he's staring at moves. It's not a shadow, it's a living thing. Green eyes glint at him, almost appearing to glow in the darkness. There's the sound of something metallic and a sword glints in the torchlight before catching fire itself.
That's all he sees before his life suddenly ends. And like everyone else on this ship, he doesn't even get the chance to scream.
On the topic of Eret, who do you think invented the traps? Improved on them? Figured out which ones work best for each dragon? Eret is clearly pretty clever, but I can see him figuring out how to use the tools he has in amazing ways rather than inventing them himself. Not to mention the size the forge must be to build those traps!
I think most of the traps were a slow evolution of experience and tweaking. I do headcanon that Eret didn’t start out on Dragons (only when he went south, away from a familiar life, and excelled at larger game), so he was raised with the passed on knowledge of traps, as well as animal behavior. What works, what won’t, which and where and all that.
So I imagine his dragon-trapping days started out of necessity, using traps he was familiar with. And as he encountered more people who fought dragons on a regular basis, he came into contact with those traps and methods, and it was sort of a melding of both experiences.
As he moved around, hitting up villages for trades and dragon-removal, he would speak with the blacksmiths (“I need something like this... but bigger.” “Can you make this weighted at all? It might help.”) and over the years improved the weapons he used.
In a way, I think he did have a tiny hand in the invention process. Mostly applying what he’d learned on the field worked and what didn’t and asking those skilled in engineering to construct something out of it.
