Imprinted
Summary: Toothless hears a strange sound in the woods and when he goes to checks it out he gets more than bargain for.
Spring in Berk was not the warmest, but it was still better than the other seasons that they had to endure. The sun shone a lot through the clouds allowing tons of places for the new residence on the island to be able to sun bathe. On this particular day, a large black winged reptile found its way near a small pond to rest. He let out a soft growl as he turned over on his back to allow the rays to warm his soft under belly. Unfortunately, for the dragon his wonderful catnap was about to be cut short for off towards a nearby tree the dragon's ears picked up a soft chirping sound. Now he tried his best to ignore the noise, but it only seemed to be growing louder, so out of aggravation and a little bit of curiosity, he stood up and went to find out what the source of the noise was.
He stalked over slowly making sure not to scare whatever the animal it was off. When he was near the tree, he lifted his large head to peer over the roots to find a small nest filled with white hatched eggshells and one very yellow fluffy duckling sitting on its newly hatched shell calling out to his mother. The Night Fury cocked his head and looked around to see if the mother was still around. When coming up empty handed the reptile decided to leave the baby duck knowing its cries would soon call the mother back to the nest. The only thing the Night Fury did not except was there to be so many feathers around the nest and when he went to leave, he stirred some up making him sneeze. The sneeze caused him to announce his presence to the hatchling. The one thing he did not want happen happened. As Toothless went to walk back to his spot he hear the call of the duckling behind him Turning around his eyes grew as he found out the baby duck had now imprinted him as its mother and was now following him.
The poor little thing did not know what to do as it tilted his head to look over at its large scaly mother waiting for her next step.
In his panic mind Toothless did the only thing he could think of, he scooped up the duckling in his large mouth and set it back unharmed into its nest and tried to run and hide from the little guy. When he peered over to the nest he found the yellow-feathered baby gone and he panic even more at where he went. The answer was brought to him when he heard a small peep behind him and his face fell. The duckling was not going to leave him be unless he ran far enough away and that is what he did. He placed the duckling in its home and ran back to his own in Berk.
Toothless was now in the arena with all his other fellow dragons and their riders, who were in some sort of lesson involving self-defense. He found the whole process boring and unappealing, but knew it was an important lesson for the teens especially for his rider. He looked and yawned at the twins going at it with their weapons and when he was about to lay his head down his whole body stiffen. There walking straight into the crazy fight was the same baby duckling from the pond. Right when one of the twin's boots was coming down on the small bird, he launched himself. He moved so fast that no one saw him until he knocked both teens out of his way as he protected the baby with his body. He growled and bared his fangs at them both for their recklessness, while everyone yelled at him.
"Toothless! What are you doing!" his rider, Hiccup asked him. The dragon did not response to him as he held his ground protecting the small webbed friend.
The twins had another opinion, "hey Hiccup learn to control your dragon!"
"Yeah!"
Toothless once again growled at the idiots and was thankful that some of the teens still had some brain function, especially the blonde, "Hey Hiccup looks like he's holding something."
Hiccup listened to his girlfriend and peered over at his dragon noticing the same thing. He walked over to him, "what do you have there Bud?"
Toothless wanted to tackle his rider at being so smart. He started to unfold his arms to show the boy what he was protecting. Hiccup looked and smiled picking up the small baby duck showing everyone making the two girls awe over the tiny thing. The duckling on the other hand chirped and started to bite Hiccup's long sleeves and hands only in succeeding to make him laugh, "Feisty little thing aren't you?"
Snotlout just laughed trying to put on his tough guy act, "Seems to me that your dragon is just a wuss." The façade didn't last long thought when the duck chirped and went to stretch out one of his webbed feet out and yawn making the hard headed Viking to coo over the fluffy duckling. When caught by their wide eyes he brought it back threatening to beat their heads in.
Toothless shook his own at the boy as they turn back to the question Fishlegs had asked, "but why is a duckling here and why did Toothless protect it?"
His green cat eyes rolled and he easily made Hiccup place the baby down and he started to run in a big circle with the yellow feather bird following him as fast as his webbed feet could carry him. Everyone found the scene adorable and caught on that the hatchling had imprinted on to the large Night Fury. Hiccup just scratched his head wondering what to do, "I guess I have a new pet."
Toothless stop and sat in front of the auburn teen and quickly shook his head not liking the idea at all. He could not, nor had the time to raise anything baby like especially a different species. All decisions were final thought when the tiny duckling had managed to climb on top of the lizard's head and made itself comfortable enough to fall asleep. His face fell as his rider laughed at him, "Well we can't just leave him Toothless he'll follow you no matter what or he'll end up starving to death."
Toothless sighed and knew the human was right and honestly, he really did not want a tiny impressionable innocent being's blood on his claws. Besides, he really could not blame Mother Nature for how ducks recognized their mothers.
The dragon regretted his thoughts as soon as they made it back to the home and the duck was removed from his head. The tiny thing had left a surprise of his waste on Toothless' head while it was sleeping. His rider cleaned off his dragon after getting over his laughter as the duck made their home his. As Hiccup followed the duckling's movements with his eyes, he knew deep down they needed to find the real mother and soon because he seriously doubted that a dragon could raise a duck.
It was a couple hours later when Hiccup, Toothless, and the newly named Peep sat around the pond where the dragon found it waiting for any sign that the mother duck was still looking for its hatchling. The sun was starting to set and both males were giving up hope, but when the teen started to raise off the ground they all heard a loud quack followed by several chirps. Taking a look all were happy to see the mother duck searching for her lost offspring in the nest. Hiccup quietly and quickly moved the duckling closer praying that Peep would not run back over to Toothless.
Thankfully, the mother saw him and she automatically nuzzled and cleaned off her baby and when she did Peep finally imprinted onto the right species. They knew this when she began to walk away and he started to follow her and the rest of his siblings.
The proud fearless Night Fury watched his yellow friend waddle out of the area and he felt a twinge of something grow inside his chest, but he could not quite name it. Hiccup had the answer thought as he patted his friend's shoulder, "well Bud it looks like in one day you found out how it feels to be a father and watch your baby leave the nest, no pun intended."
The dragon's response was with a slap to the trainer's head with his tail fin and he walked away. Walking away though he would not deny the fact that he would indeed miss his little duckling that imprinted on him this wonderful spring day.
A/n: Story was inspired by my uncle who just so happen to get two new baby ducks of his own this spring who happen to imprinted themselves on his daughter. They are adorable like all fluffy small baby things are.I also couldn't help but imagine if one would think Toothless was his mother and this is what I came up with. Please Review.