Hello dear friends.
Many of you have wished to read some more about Toothless and his family. So here is a oneshot, that Revanhun wrote for me as a present. In my turn, I much like to share it with you.
Enjoy.
Thank you Revanhun, for your friendship and your present.
Myriads of Memories
The dim, golden light of the morning sun's first rays gently beamed through the branches of the forest, drawing a yellow patch to a sleeping Night Fury's face. Toothless' eyes snapped open instantly; he licked his foreleg and used it to rub the last remains of dream from his eyes as he sat up. Suppressing a yawn, he turned his head to glance inside the small lodge he shared with his family.
His five hatchlings, Tumble, Boulder, Pinecone, Fireweed and Heather were all in a pile, little legs, wings, tails sprawling everywhere, over and under each other. Next to the heap of hatchlings was Silverwings, snoring softly. Her wing that had covered the children had slid off. The sight alone was enough to warm Toothless' heart on the cool, early spring morning. He carefully tiptoed over his mate, and nudged her with his nose. Silverwings' ears twitched, then her eyes cracked open.
"Hiccup asked me to help him out in the forge." he said in a low voice "We'll meet in the afternoon."
"Alright." Silverwings whispered, and raised her head to nuzzle her mate goodbye "Take care."
"See you soon." Toothless walked outside, heading down the slope. After distancing himself enough to be out of sight, he began to rush towards Berk, a sly grin on his face. He purposefully slept at the entrance of their home, to wake up early today. Because today was a special day.
A very special one indeed.
Silverwings found the morning bath to be more difficult than usual. Normally, she shared this responsibility with her mate, but not only Toothless had left early, but also the hatchlings seemed to be more excited and energetic than usual. Just when she had about finished with Boulder, who couldn't stay still for a moment, she heard quick flaps of wings and thuds on the ground, as if dragons just landed in front of their home.
Going ahead of the problems, she spoke up strictly.
"I'm going out first, you stay put!"
The five hatchlings nodded excitedly, and stayed put. Well, more like bounced up and down, but they didn't rush out to greet the newcomers, which was at least something.
Silverwings stepped out of the lodge, to be greeted by Thump and Sunrise, who were standing behind a huge basket of fish.
"Good morning, Silverwings!" Thump greeted her "How about some nice and easy breakfast?" With that, Sunrise knocked the basket over, making the fish slide out.
"Oh! That's... very nice of you!" Silverwings said warmly, and called her younglings "Come out, my young ones and greet our guests."
The permission let the bunch loose, and they rushed out to eagerly nose the Nadder and the Gronckle, chirping happy Hi's and Hello's in the procedure, then turned their attention to the deliciously fresh snack.
They all watched the little ones gorging for a few moments, then Sunrise broke their silence.
"Hey, Silverwings?"
"Yes?"
"You know" she began "I know you're an expert huntress and all, and I've just heard that someone spotted a huge boar up around the mountains."
"I think I know where this is going..." Silverwings smiled at her, waiting to continue.
"So how about, for the sake of variety, exchanging our fish-diet for some real meat?" Sunrise asked.
The promise of actual meat was awfully tempting. Prey was scarce around the Isle of Berk, and eating the Vikings' domestic animals was forbidden, so most of the time, dragons had to do with fish. Which was nice, and certainly nutritious enough, but fishing was not comparable to the excitement and reward of an actual hunt.
"I'd like to" Silverwings said "But the-"
"Oh I'll take care of the young ones!" Thump added in a chatting tone "My hatchlings are playing on the meadow next to the village, with Meatlug watching over. I'd be happy to take yours too; at least they can spend some time with other dragons."
"Well... I'm not sure."
"Aww, Mammy, pleeease...?" Pinecone whined, coming up and nuzzling her mother's foreleg.
"Pleease?" Heather joined in.
"We'll be good, Mammy!" Tumble promised.
"Yeah, extra good!" Fireweed added.
"Alright, alright!" Silverwings sighed, then smiled at her hatchlings. "You can go with Thump and play with the other younglings, while Mammy's away. But you do what Thump, Meatlug, and the other grown-up dragons say, okay?"
"YAY!"
"Sure thing, Mammy!" Boulder stated, looking very serious.
Suppressing her chuckle, Silverwings nuzzled all of the little ones, then turned towards Sunrise.
"Let's head out! It's been a while since my last actual hunt, but I bet I can show you a few tricks!"
The sun was nearing to its peak, signalling half of the day had gone. This couldn't comfort Silverwings at all, who was becoming increasingly hungry and dissatisfied as they endlessly circled around the mountains in an effort to find that huge boar Sunrise heard of. But despite all their work, the best they could find was a few hoof prints on the muddy ground, and even those were several days old, according to Silverwings' observation. But they went on for a few more hours of fruitless search, before she'd had enough.
"Are you sure this boar was around here?" She asked Sunrise, shooting an annoyed glare at her.
"Well... I've heard it like that." she said shyly "But let's call this hunt over; maybe we'll catch something next time!"
"Yeah. Maybe." Silverwings sighed, and they both turned towards Berk. They flew in an uneasy silence, until Sunrise spoke up again:
"Look, I think Toothless is waiting for you down there!"
Looking at the direction the Nadder mentioned, Silverwings spotted her mate too, who was standing in the clearing in front of their home.
"Go down and meet him, you two will catch up with the rest of us in the village!" Sunrise said, and entered into a shallow dive, sweeping away from the Night Fury without even waiting for an answer. Silverwings shot a puzzled glance at the disappearing Nadder, then slowly descended and landed beside her mate.
"How was your hunt, Love?" He asked cheerfully.
"As you see" Silverwings answered a little grumpily "We've failed to catch anything."
"Oh well." he nuzzled her "I'm sure it wasn't your fault."
"I don't know. I feel like I'm fooled. And I don't like it."
"I'm sure that no boar could ever fool the queen of my heart!" Toothless stated "Come on, let's take a look at what the children are doing."
They both walked the distance to the village of Berk. But as they entered the village, and walked through it Silverwings noticed that it was strangely empty.
"Why does everyone acting strange today?" She asked out loudly.
"What do you mean?" Toothless asked back with an innocent look on his face.
"Well, you rush to work at dawn, Thump and Sunrise serve us breakfast, and then Sunrise separates me from the younglings and keeps me occupied for hours while everyone else is away and doing something. And by 'everyone else' I mean most of the village. So, I'm all ears, Nighthawk."
"Okay, you got me." Toothless admitted with a guilty smile on his face, ears flattening on his head. "You know, Vikings like to keep track of the passing time, so they invented something they call a 'Calendar'. Twelve full moons equal to a year in their terms, and they measure lots of things in years. Age is one example."
"And?"
"They also like to remember to days which have some sort of significance for them, like the birth of someone. So they mark that in their calendar, and they celebrate it every year."
"That's a nice thing..." Silverwings thought out loud "Although I don't think any dragon could remember the day it was born. I certainly don't know when I was."
"Oh, that's not a problem." Toothless continued in a chatting tone as they were walking towards a huge barn which stood at the edge of the village, right next to the meadow. Concern stirred up inside Silverwings, when she saw that the meadow being empty too. She opened her mouth, but Toothless was faster:
"You know, exactly twenty-four moons, namely two years ago" he began while he walked up to be in front of her, tail tapping the barn's door "we saw each other for the first time."
With that, the barn's door snapped open, and a huge flock of dragons and Vikings swarmed out from it.
"SURPRISE!"
"So I figured" Toothless continued, trying to voice above the cheering crowd, as many more Vikings and dragons came out from the houses of the village, too "That that exact moment deserves a little anniversary."
Silverwings was speechless. The crowd's first 'Surprise!' call almost scared her out of her scales, then all the younglings came bouncing around and nuzzling her. Many Vikings grabbed musical instruments and began to play, while the crowd moved to the meadow, setting up bonfires, bringing benches and tables.
"Nighthawk... just... how?" She stuttered.
"It took me quite some time" Toothless laughed at her "I had to explain it to Hiccup, which wasn't easy. But eventually he figured it out, and decided to help out with-"
"The gifts. Bring over the gifts!" Stoick's booming voice echoed through the field.
"Gifts?" Silverwings asked.
"During these anniversaries" Toothless explained "People give gifts to each other to show affection."
Despite all her efforts, Silverwings couldn't keep herself from dropping her jaw when she saw what the Vikings meant by 'party'.
"That's a present from the whole village." Toothless said, motioning towards a cart which had a huge boar on.
"There we go, the boar was in the village the whole time!"
"This comes from Astrid. She made it with the help of-"
Their three daughters cut him short, as they screamed while Astrid carefully carried something huge and round. She put it down in front of the Night Furies. Silverwings had no idea how to describe it, but it's deliciously sweet smell already made a pleasant impression on her. Something like a strange, white stick was at the top of it, burning with a tiny flame.
"This is called a cake." Toothless said "Heather, Pinecone and Fireweed were around the edge of the forest today, collecting berries and other things for it. I bet it tastes wonderful, why don't you blow that candle and take a bite?"
"You want me to blow up my gift?" Silverwings asked in disbelief.
"No, of course not!" Toothless laughed "I forgot to explain that the burning thing on the top is a candle, extinguish its fire and make a wish before eating from the cake."
Still unsure about what to do, Silverwings carefully leaned to the cake and opened her mouth. With a breeze of air, she blew the candle, and after her wish, she took a closer look at the cake. The sweet, fruity scent did its job, and she decided to bite down on it.
A multitude of wonderful tastes exploded inside her mouth, making her growl in pleasure as she chewed, swallowed and quickly took another bite.
"Mmm... This is amazingly tasty!" she mumbled happily as she sat up again, licking her lips.
"Oh, there's a spot here." Toothless chuckled, and made it his job to lick his mate's face cleans.
"And you little ones all helped to make this for me?" Silverwings lowered her head again and their three daughters rushed up to nuzzle her.
"The boys were active, too." Toothless went on with the announcements, as Boulder and Tumble approached them, too, dragging something wide and long on the ground.
This thing was actually known by Silverwings, as she saw one when she visited Hiccup and his family's home. Then she learned that Vikings like to decorate the interior of their homes with many things, preferably something colourful. So they used rolls of white things they called 'canvas' and put many colourful things on it. Silverwings was completely amazed when she saw her sons dragging and proudly presenting a painting to her. They had made it with their own paws – which was indicated by the red, green, yellow, and blue spots on their legs – with the help of Hiccup's children. The painting was a variety of shapes with vivid colours, put together into a chaotic but tasteful mess; there were so many colours on the canvas, there weren't any white spots left.
"By the grace of the winds, you all are so ingenious!" Silverwings exclaimed, and hugged all of her hatchlings "You've made Mammy happy, so very happy..."
"And last but not least" Toothless quietly smiled at them while Hiccup walked towards them with a small package in his hands "Hiccup offered to craft something, and I did my best to help him out."
When Hiccup arrived in front of Silverwings, he opened the package. Something thin and long appeared in his palm, and Silverwings was amazed again, how shiny it was.
"It is called a 'necklace'." Toothless commented "Vikings wear it on their necks. I helped Hiccup to find the silver for it, and heated the forge while he crafted it. He will put it on to you, if you'd like to."
"Please." Silverwings stammered, and leaned a bit forward as Hiccup put the beautiful thing around her neck. He was about to head back, when Silverwings licked him on the face, earning a laughter from him, and another loud cheer from the crowd around them.
The festivity continued, with the Vikings making music and singing, other ones and dragons bringing more gifts for her, others wishing the best, and it all blended into a colourful whirlwind of events, Silverwings had a hard time trying to focus one thing at a time. The party went well into the evening, and as the first stars appeared, they found her and Toothless lying next to each other, as they silently watched their younglings play-fight and chase or be chased around by other younglings.
With so much care and affection Silverwings felt so moved, she could barely hold her tears back. The sight of her children playing and her mate purring beside her, placing his wing on her back stirred up myriads of memories inside her. She remembered and marvelled upon how far she had come. During the years, she had been through a lot: love and loss, grief and happiness, dangers, adventures, fortune and misfortune, but everything in her life became focused, erased and re-done on one single day.
On the day, when a strange, crippled male came into her life, running instead of flying.
This thought led to another, and she placed her paw upon Toothless' as she spoke up:
"This day is yours too, you know." She said to him "It is about both of us, you deserve gifts, too."
A dreamy smile appeared on Toothless' face, as he leaned close and nuzzled her lovingly.
"Maybe." he said quietly "But you gave me the gifts of my lifetime already. I have everything I've ever wanted."
Silverwings gasped and snuggled up close to her mate.
"I love you Nighthawk."
"I love you too, Happywings."
THE END
Nice huh? Please check out his own story: Revanhun "Ways of Fate". Highly recommended!