Thank heavens you're here, [your Viking's name]. I thought I saw Fishlegs and Meatlug flying rather shakily and losing altitude. I would have followed them but there are some hatching Terrible Terror eggs that need my urgent attention. If you thought their rooftop singing was bad, wait until you hear a newborn Terror crying!
I fear those two may have crashed somewhere in the Wilderness. Will you go check on them and make sure they landed safely?
1- Head to the Wilderness to check on Fishlegs and Meatlug
Perhaps we were both in too much of a rush. You see, Heather found a cranky Gronckle that wouldn't let her get close enough to find out what was wrong with him. She knew that the old dragon was close friends with Meatlug so she sent us a Terror Mail right away.
Are you feeling okay, my bright-eyed little princess? You've never been so uncomfortable in your saddle before. I'm worried about your Gronckle friend, too, but I don't want you to get hurt.
Maybe it's the saddle. When we crashed I could feel the saddle straps coming apart and the six metal rings that held them together snapping. Can you pick them up while I see what's bothering my girl?
No wonder the saddle came off. The rings are completely covered with rust. They were ready to break at the slightest tug, and our crash was a lot more than that!
Rust is a reddish-brown compound called iron oxide. We call it a compound because it's made up of two or more separate elements like 'iron' and 'oxygen'.
Rust forms on iron when the metal is exposed to oxygen and water for a long period of time. The iron goes through a slow chemical reaction and becomes iron oxide, which is a lot weaker than the strong metal.
Meatlug must've brought us down because she felt the saddle straps breaking apart. That's why she made sure we ended up on a grassy patch. Great quick thinking, girl!
However, the only way we'll both feel safe is to make sure the metal in our saddle is completely rust-proof. As our resident blacksmith, Gobber would be the best Viking to talk to about this (once he stops complaining about how much work he's gotta do). Would you give him the rings at his shop on Berk?
Great Odin! This metal is as crumbly as stale bread. Back in my day, I saw many a rusty bolt make quick work of our finest battleships. They sank to the depths along with all my fine axes and swords.
Rust is the sword enemy of all blacksmiths but fear not, [your Viking's name]. The brown and flaky demon won't defeat us this time. I reckon that galvanization is the perfect way to keep the metal from rusting.
We'll give the iron a protective layer of zinc so that the air and moisture can't get to it. There won't be any sneaky chemical reactions after I'm done with it.
I use this on Bucket's metal fishing buckets and the metallic frames that make up the roofs of our huts. Let's get started. If [your Dragon's name] would be so kind as to light us a good fire, we can get this zinc bubbling. Thor knows Grump won't be lightning any forges... he's been sleeping for three days straight!
5- Have [your dragon's name] shoot the zinc bath to light the fire
Great work. It takes a brave Viking to try his hand at blacksmithing. I should know, since I'm always one hand short! You seem to have the keen eye of a shield polisher and the elbow grease of an axe grinder.
In my shop, I galvanize in two steps. We'll get going with the surface preparation to clean off all that dirt, grease and oil. Next, we melt the solid zinc and dip the clean iron into the molten zinc bath. The zinc coats the metal surface evenly and keeps the iron away from all that air and moisture.
We'll get this tarnish off the rings before you can yell 'Hairy Hooligans!' Tap on the molten zinc bath to clean up the rings and coat them with the protective layer.
6- Tap on the zinc bath to clean and galvanize the iron rings
All it took was a wee bit of cleaning and a tough metal coating to make the rings as tough as a Rumblehorn's nose. You can take them back to Fishlegs; I'm sure they'll do a find job at holding the straps together.
7- Give the galvanized rings to Fishlegs in the Wilderness
I've never been much of a metalworker so thank you for helping out, [your Viking's name].
Oh dear! Meatlug still doesn't look comfortable in that saddle, does she? I had a nasty feeling that the rust wasn't the only reason that she didn't want to wear it. There must be a bigger problem that we can't see. What to we do now?
