Well as I was going through my emails, I noticed quite a bit of them dealt with some people deciding to follow me. Why they want to is beyond me but it got me realizing I've been doing a lot more reading than writing fanfictions.
So to remedy that, I decided to go ahead and set my little idea to keys and board. While I'm not 100% sure I should have even posted this, I do know I'll never know if it's decent unless I post it. If it's as bad as I think… meh. At least I tried.
This takes place a little after DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk season finale (episode Cast Out Part II) and before HTTYD 2. I still haven't gotten over that emotional scene so you know who is up and about. (Pretty sure most have seen it by now and know who I'm talking about, but I don't care. Saying/ writing it just makes it too real!)
Without dragging this on further, here ya go. Read, enjoy it, review/favorite, I don't care. Just you looking at this story is considered a victory to me.
Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. I'm just posting this for my (and your) amusement and will not be gaining any profit from my writing (At least not yet).
With their great chief Stoick back (no offense to Hiccup), a shaky truce established with the Outcasts (with Mildew joining them), the Screaming Death content to leave them alone (much to everyone's relief), and Dagur the Deranged taken care of (much to everyone's greater relief), it seemed only appropriate for the residents of Berk to throw a great feast. Knowing that their time of peace would probably end soon, better to celebrate now and struggle through the hard times later. And repeat the cycle once again.
Despite an unexpected thunderstorm raging outside the doors of the great hall, the festivities inside the large room stayed in full swing. The small bonfires roared with a steady supply of wood as small children danced around them, playing games with each other and their just as small dragons. Always keeping one eye on the tiny troublemakers, the adults exchanged stories and laughter with each other through bites of food and chugs of their beverages. Even Stoick retired from his head seat to talk with his tribesmen, and prove that he could still out do all of them whether in drinking or storytelling.
While most of the villagers' dragons found their own shelters from the rain outside the hall, a good number found themselves basking in the hall's warmth and friendship with the humans. A few bored ones snatched pieces of choice meats from the unknowing adults' plates, a few took over the task of watching the young ones (both human and dragon), and the rest simply lounged around, too full and warm to go anywhere else.
Through all the chatter and crowds, Berk's dragon riders stayed in their own corner, laughing about their most recent adventure. The twins and Snoutlout greatly exaggerated their part of the tale, not noticing the other teens' knowing smiles nodding with their story. Every now and then, Fishlegs stressed his own part, as did Astrid when she felt the need to say so.
"With a great battle cry, I-"
"If you had been there you'd have-"
"Nothing got past me-"
"Please, if it wasn't for me-"
"All of you are wrong. It was me who-"
And so the conversation continued, everyone adding in their own spins while their dragons seemed to be discussing with themselves as well. Whether or not they understood what their humans were saying wasn't clear, but they appeared to be telling their own versions of the adventure as well. Like their human counterparts, the dragons nodding in agreement with what one said or hissed out a 'true' telling of what happened. The only difference between their conversation and their humans' were the slews of hissing, snaps, and growls that were devoid of any malice.
At the edge of each group, the pair who made the greatest difference simply watched the exchanges with amusement. Hiccup, because he couldn't spin a great tale of battle to save his life, and Toothless, who just didn't feel like showing up his comrades (this time at least).
Neither minded though since everything had worked itself out in the end and there would be plenty of other battles to be fought in the future. After all, there's never such a thing as a boring week on Berk.
As the night wore on and the storm seemed to let up, some of the villagers with morning jobs or small children and dragons paid their neighbors good night. The ones remaining gave them a loud good bye, returning back to their rowdy discussions as their drinks continued flowing and their minds came up with new tales.
Growing tired of their previous discussions, the teens moved on to simpler subjects.
"So tomorrow," Hiccup started. "I was thinking we could fly around to the areas the Screaming Death sunk. See if there's anything new that came up."
"Oh come on, Hiccup," Snotout, rejected, pushing aside his plate. "We just got done dealing with that thing. Let's just take a break. Race each other around Berk or one of the other islands."
"For once, I'm agreeing with Snotlout," Astrid replied. When the large boy looked like he was going to say something that might anger her, she quickly continued. "Let's just relax for a while. No crazy villains to worry about, no crazy dragons out to kill us. This is the perfect time to catch our breaths until the next onslaught."
Thinking it over, Hiccup glanced around the room and began to see what his friends were talking about. Since the whole mess started with Outcasts, Dagur, and a bunch of dragons coming out to get them, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to slow down for a minute. Catch some fish, terrorize some birds, enjoy some free flying; yeah, that idea sounded good.
His acceptance of a break, however, led to a major group discussion about what to spend the day doing. They weren't going to set fire to anything (No that is not up for negotiation, Tuffnut and Ruffnut) and they weren't feeling up to any cross island adventures (How is that even relaxing, Snotlout?).
So as they talked, their dragons slowly lost interest and made their way back to their homes. Giving their riders a gentle nudge (or pound in Hookfang's case) to alert the teens to their leave, the large beasts left until all who was left was Toothless. Normally he would leave as well, but with the rain making everything slippery, he didn't want to risk Hiccup accidently slipping on his way up to the house. Plus, the boy still had yet to finish his tasty looking cod and no way was Toothless just going to leave that fish uneaten.
Making sure no one was looking, the Nightfury carefully grabbed the now cold fish by the tail, slowly sliding it off the plate until it rested against his chest. Feeling a bit mischievous, he slunk over to the other side of the hall and finished off the fish in two bits. Looking out to see if Hiccup had noticed his dinner's disappearance, Toothless found his gaze caught by a slight movement by a table full of loud men across the hall.
At first, the dragon didn't notice anything that would catch his attention at that distance. It was a just a group of men, laughing, drinking, a mug moving across the table on its own, fists pounding on tables… Wait, a mug moving on its own?!
When one of the men went to grab his drink, he was surprised he had to reach out over the table and grab it. His surprise quickly faded to indifference as he chugged his drink. Everyone was starting to become a little dazed due to the alcohol in their systems so he had probably moved that mug further than he initially thought.
Blinking, Toothless turned away and noticed another table with a person's plate of fish move by itself. When the fish's consumer, mildly surprised at the plate's movement but not worried, reclaimed their dinner, however, they found that their utensils couldn't cut through the fish's body. A quick check with their finger revealed confusion on how their food, which was nearly steaming a second ago, was now cold as a block of ice.
As that person warmed their fish back up over one of the fires, still wondering about the rapid cooling, the dragon took that time to see if there was anything else funny going on. He noticed some mugs and plates moving on their own, a few people yelling as their drinks overturned seemingly on their own, two people tripping over thin air, and one person's chicken dinner disappearing in what appeared to be a blink.
Many villagers ending up taking that as a sign that it was time for them to leave, as did the observers who decided they might have been festive a little too long as well. It was getting very late anyway.
Noticing this, the teens also finished up their conversation and the remains of their near forgotten dinner. When Hiccup noticed that his cod was missing, he sent a playfully glare to Toothless, who merely 'smiled' in innocence, still trying to figure out the night's strange happenings. Toothless' easiness, however, vanished when he saw something flicker near Hiccup.
Suddenly defensive, he slowly stalked back over to his friend's table and saw a faint shade of a human figure pass a slender hand over Hiccup's mug. The image blinked out just as Hiccup picked his mug up to finish off his beverage.
Before the rim met his lips, however, the brunette gave out a loud cry and threw the container to the group. In the resulting commotion from the other teens, both Hiccup and Toothless swore they heard a slight hiss as the mug hit the ground and a coiled creature with black skin and a flash of fangs near its mouth fell out. With a blink however, the fangs vanished and the mysterious creature turned out to be an eel, clearly dead with its red and black striped body nearly glowing in the firelight.
"Hiccup! Are you alright?" Astrid asked, gently placing her hand on the boy's shoulder as everyone stared down at the ground. With a dazed look in his eyes, Hiccup slowly nodded and carefully slid out of the bench seat.
Astrid stood with him as he worked to avoid stepping in the overturned contents of his drink, and especially avoiding the eel that was staring up at him with its dead eyes. Shaking his head, Hiccup let out an uneasy laugh and turned to the others, saying, "Alright guys. Good joke. Not sure how you managed to sneak an eel that size into my drink, but it was clever anyway."
Picking up on his attempt at dispelling the tension, the rest of the teens chuckled as well but pushed their own mugs aside as they stood up from their seats. With hasty goodbyes, all of them left with Astrid staying behind to ease Hiccup while Toothless snarled at the eel, casting one eye around the hall.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Astrid asked again, wanting to make sure her close friend was okay. Neither of them cared to notice how close their faces were to each other while her hand gently patted one of his shoulders, the other allowing itself to be held by one of his own.
Hiccup shook his head and carefully brought her arms down, smiling down at her. "Yeah, don't worry. It wasn't poisonous or anything. I'm sure it was just one of the others trying to play a little joke. Nothing a good night's sleep can't fix."
"Alright then, if you're sure," Astrid said, clearly convinced as much as Hiccup.
As the teens conversed quietly for a moment, Toothless slowly took his eyes off the eel, shaking his head from the memory of eating one of those vile things. His ears picked up a small sound beside him, almost like laughter, and from his peripheral vision, he the caught the shade of the shape that was near Hiccup before. Quickly turning, he tried to hold back his moan of frustration when he only saw empty space. The echo of the laugh however still rang loudly in his ears.
Toothless' musings were cut short when he saw Hiccup and Astrid quickly back away from each other, obviously just noticing their close proximity. Apparently, neither human had heard the strange noise or saw the shape just now. Letting out a small chuckle from the back of his throat at their actions, the dragon went over to Hiccup as the boy embarrassingly said, "So, yeah. I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow then."
"Oh, yeah. Of course," Astrid responded, trying to hide her slight blush by pulling a lock of hair back behind her ear. Just as quickly though, she gave the boy a slight punch to the arm, both laughing quietly at the return of normalcy. Not saying anything else, the girl ran out of the hall, casting another look at the overturned contents of the mug from the doors of the great hall before turning away.
With only Toothless left, Hiccup let out a shaky breath and leaned against the table in an obvious show of uneasiness. Toothless let out a gently coo, gathering enough energy and strength to flick the eel away with his tail. Hiccup quietly laughed at the display before standing back up, saying, "It's late, bud. We should get back."
Nodding in agreement, the dragon followed his human towards the hall's exit. The storm's remnants had blew away, leaving behind a clear sky full of stars numerous and bright enough to cast the village in a soft glow. Glancing back to the hall, Hiccup shook his head at the incident and carefully began his trek down the steps.
Toothless was just about to follow when something compelled him to turn his head back in the hall. All he saw was the remains of the feast and shadows cast by the small flames. The table they were at didn't appear to have anything amiss and the mug was still overturned. The eel he had flicked away was half wrapped around the column it had hit when it collided after its brief flight.
Just as he was about to turn back around, his sharp eyes caught those of a figure resting casually against the column near the eel. The dragon stood transfixed as the figure, human in shape but seemingly more than that, brought a finger to their lips before flickering out in the next second.
Toothless just continued staring at that spot, feeling something strange wash over him, when Hiccup's voice called out from below. "Toothless, is something wrong up there?"
Shaking his head, the Nightfury rushed down the steps to join up with his rider. The boy smiled and the pair began their trek back home.
Before the pair entered the wooden structure, passing by the empty shelter to the side, a whispered statement caused Toothless to quickly turn around just as Hiccup opened the door.
Finding nothing once again, the dragon moaned in annoyance while Hiccup looked on with confusion, saying, "What's wrong, bud?"
Rather than respond, Toothless gently pushed the two of them through the door and didn't relax until Hiccup had closed and bolted the door back up. Stoick, waiting for his charges to get home before retiring, looked up from some documents and asked, "What's got the two of you spooked?"
"Oh, just some stupid prank my friends pulled on me during dinner, that's all," Hiccup replied. Patting Toothless' head in reassurance, for both their sakes, he went over to his dad to discuss some village matters that were on his mind.
As the humans droned on, Toothless' thoughts turned to the statement he heard outside the door. The voice matching the tone of the laughter from earlier.
"Well, Toothless is a better name than Blackie."
So yeah, that's basically it for this. It's probably obvious who the figure is, but maybe it's just me. I do have a few more scenes (at least two) that I'll be adding to this as I finish them so this story isn't quite done yet. After that, I don't know what I'll do.
Any who, thanks for reading and if there are any glaring mistakes, please tell me! I'm in 'no school' mode so my nitpickiness about spelling and grammar is on vacation. If you have any ideas on the (mysterious?) person, feel free to take a guess.
Until next time then.