Welcome to my new story "THE SCARS OF FREEDOM", Toothless is, again, the main character. And this is in a HTTYD AU that splits off from the VERY beginning of HTTYD1, just read it and trust me, you'll understand why in the first few sentences. I would also like to thank Draconicbeing2.0 for beta-reading this chapter.
So anyways, with all that out of the way, let's get right into...
CHAPTER 1: FREE
The Night Fury went into a dive bomb towards the Viking catapult tower, except this one was abandoned, empty. He just wanted to let out some pent up anger and frustration.
He sent a ball of hot plasma at the tower and the entire tower went up in flames. He flew through the tower and opened his wings, flying high into the air.
That's when he felt something fly right past him, and he heard it land in the water. He looked over to see a bola floating in the water, a bola meant for him.
He turned to the source to see a young Viking boy and a mechanical contraption. That boy had been trying to shoot him down for weeks. And now he just got very close, but...he had missed.
The Night Fury flew off into the dark sky, back towards the one place he hated more than anything in his life...the Nest.
3 YEARS LATER
The Night Fury flew along with his fellow dragons, heading towards an island and village that they had raided so many times that it all blurred together. An island called Berk.
The Night Fury let out a draconic sigh of loneliness, despair, and emptiness. He had no friends, no family, and no one to talk to. He was an outcast among the dragons, and all because he was unique, new, unknown, a species of dragons the others had never seen before.
He had given in to the Red Death's control years ago. He had put up one hell of a fight against it...but eventually...he just gave up. He had no reason to go on being free...he had no purpose in his life.
The raid started and went along as normal for the Night Fury. He blew up catapult towers and watched out for other dragons. It was almost an automatic process, as he had done it so many times before that it was burned into his memory.
Then, he spotted the same kid and his bola launching contraption. The kid had been trying for years to shot him down, but always failed. The kid was close to giving up; the Night Fury could just feel it.
He rose higher and higher into the air, preparing to go into a dive and destroy a catapult tower. And then it hit him, or to be more specific, a bola hit him.
The ropes of the bola wrapped around his body like a snake strangling the life out of its prey. He took in a deep breath before his throat was constricted. He started falling down to Earth as his wings were tied to his sides.
And then he hit the water, and all the heat in his body disappeared in seconds. He started shivering and shaking in the cold frigid water as it dragged him under.
He wanted to roar, to screech, to call out for help. But he knew no one would answer him. If anything, they would be happy he was gone...no one loved or cared about him...he was alone...
He closed his eyes and quickly lost consciousness, ready to pass on and leave his miserable empty life behind.
But life had other plans for him.
The first thing the Night Fury realized was that he was alive, and that he could breathe with water filling his lungs.
His eyes shoot open and he found himself on a warm beach, the water hitting his hind legs and tail.
*Oh...ah...not the best way to wake up...* The Night Fury moaned in Dragonese, the famous language of the Dragons. He tried moving only to find himself constricted by the bola.
*Oh great...so it wasn't a dream...* The Night Fury said and used his claws to cut the nearest rope, and it worked. The bola quickly fell off his body and he stood up, shaking the sand off his back.
*Alright, back to the Nest and my useless, miserable life* The Night Fury said in sadness and spread his wings; he quickly pushed himself off the ground and into the air.
Only to hit the ground five seconds later with a roar of pain. Something was wrong...very very wrong. He quickly shot up to his feet and did a quick check of himself.
He still had all of his limbs...except for his two tail fins. Both gone and two large cuts on his tail where they used to be. Dried blood covered his tail with a slight stinging in the wounds.
His ear flaps fell, his wings dropping to the ground, and his pupils turned to slits of despair. He had been mutilated, the only thing in his life taken away. And he had taken it for granted.
He would never fly again.
For the next few days, the Night Fury starved and went thirsty. He was slowly inching closer to death, ready to die and leave this miserable, empty, cold world behind.
He lay in a cave, whimpering and whining in pain. His stomach hurt, his legs hurt, and his tail hurt. Or to sum it all up, everything hurt.
He closed his eyes and then opened them again; he stared up at the star-filled night sky outside the cave. He took in a deep breath, his chest rising and falling as air filled his lungs.
That's when he had a realization; it came so suddenly that he shot to his feet in shock.
He could start again, a new name, a new identity, and a new location. He didn't ever have to think about the Red Death or the Nest again. He would never again be forced to raid islands. He was FREE.
He let out a roar of happiness and ran around HIS island a bit, letting out some energy and enjoying this newfound sense of freedom that he had never felt before.
He could begin again...he WILL begin again. He was no longer enslaved...
He was free.
The very first thing the Night Fury did with his new freedom was to fill his belly full of fish and water. He had NEVER had such a big filling meal before, so he collapsed in his cave while moaning in pure bliss.
He caught sight of his reflection in a small puddle of water sitting on one side of the cave. He looked at himself in the small puddle and wondered. Could he have a name?
Names had been forbidden in the nest, so no dragon can get close to another dragon. But he wasn't in the nest; he was free and able to do whatever he wanted.
So he could have a name, but what would it be? He stood there for a few moments, trying to come up with a name, and then he decided to look at what made him unique.
He had really dark scales, as dark as the night sky, which is why everyone called him the Night Fury. But they didn't seem too unique; other dragons had dark or black scales.
He had the ability to fly really fast, but know that he couldn't fly...it was practically like taunting and teasing himself.
He didn't have the ability to fly, which for a dragon was pretty rare. Only Speed Stingers couldn't fly. But if he called himself flightless, it would be like he was taunting himself.
He has retractable teeth, the one thing no other dragon in the world had. He had the ability to send his teeth into his gums and bring them back out again whenever he liked. He didn't know why he could do this, he just could.
As he stared into the pool of water, his toothless mouth open, he found the perfect name for himself.
His name was Toothless.
The now named Toothless decided that he had to get off the island; it would only support him a little longer. There were only a few days' worth of fish in the huge pond on the other side of the island, and there were no animals he could hunt.
He thought of HOW he was gonna get off the island. He couldn't exactly fly, and swimming was suicide at this time of the year.
That's when he remembered that humans liked to build long 'boats' that carried them across the water, called ships.
Toothless thought...maybe he could build a ship? It's never been done by a dragon before. That may mean it's impossible, but that may also mean it just hasn't been tried before.
So, he gave it a go. He started using his claws and fire to bring down entire trees. He cut off all the branches on the trees and placed them in one big pile.
He gathered vines and tied them all up in 'ropes'. He used the 'ropes' and trees to make a basic boat. It was a good size, and would work for him.
He stockpiled as much fish and water as he could on the boat, and then he set sail for lands unknown. Ready to start his life anew.
1 year later, and Toothless was proud of himself.
His boat had gone from kind of small and wooded, to huge and made of metal. His ship, the Nightstar, had entire corridors and rooms, along with the main control room and a deck.
He himself had changed most of all. He had grown an entire foot in height, and his scales had darkened in color. He had adapted pretty well to not having flight, learning to survive and thrive around it.
He even learned and now spoke some human languages, such as Norse and Latin. He had gone and saved many villages, human or dragon, from threats just because he could. Because it felt RIGHT.
And now, he lived solely on the Nightstar, alone but content with life. Little did he know he would eventually meet someone from his past, someone he barely knew but yet knew greatly.
Toothless yawned and looked at the mechanical clock sitting in one corner of the room, one of his many projects and inventions that he used daily. It read that the time was 7:31 AM.
*I should just go back to sleep for thirty more minutes...yeah...that sounds...nice...* Toothless said and laid his head back down, ready to fall back asleep and have some nice dreams.
And then, the entire ship SHOOK and the impact alarm started going off. Toothless shot up and ran through the corridors, all of his sleepiness gone.
He entered the control room and used his mouth to pull a lever, causing the ship to anchor itself. He quickly ran above deck to see just what the Nightstar had hit.
The Nightstar had hit a ship, and not just any ship, a burning ship. Toothless was about ready to go back downstairs and into the control room when he realized there might be humans or dragons aboard that ship.
He quickly jumped from the Nightstar to the burning ship, the flames licking his scales but not burning him.
He made his way below deck and found a large amount of burnt human bodies. He didn't know how this had happened. Had the ship been set aflame by a dragon? Was it an accident? Sabotage?
That's when he spotted one human, the only human still alive and unburnt, but unconscious. Toothless quickly threw the one human onto his back and made his way above deck, the entire ship creaking as he did.
He jumped from the burning ship and back onto the Nightstar, and just as he did, the burning ship started sinking below the waves. The flames died out as water filled the entire ship and brought it down to a watery grave.
Toothless quickly took the one human into the control room and laid him on the cold, metal floor. Toothless pulled a lever, and the ship unanchored itself and went adrift again.
Toothless used his paw to move a slider up, activated the heating system. He quickly activated all the lights in the control room, and he started piloting the ship towards the south using a few buttons and levers.
He then looked towards the boy he had saved. The boy was wearing a red shirt and leather tunic, along with two shoulder pads on his arms.
The boy's hair was auburn and his face had a tiny scar on his chin. Toothless was about to walk deeper into the Nightstar to go and mess around with the engines when he realized something.
He froze right on the spot and imminently turned to face the boy in shock, anger, and disbelief. How could he not recognize the same person who took away his flight?
Rage overtook him and he was ready to pounce on the boy and rip him to shreds, take the shreds to the Red Death and...
He took in a few deep breaths while closing his eyes, trying to wipe that image from his mind. The mental control the Red Death had had on him was still slightly there, but mostly gone and fading away. In a few months' time, it would be completely gone.
But that didn't stop his rage; it only stopped his want to kill. He took in a deep breath and start repeating something he had said once to someone a long time ago.
"Never cruel or cowardly, never give up, never give in. That is who I am," Toothless mumbled in Norse and went back to piloting the Nightstar. He would take this boy to the nearest inhabited island and dump him there. He was not his problem.
Hours later, and the boy was still out. Toothless stared at the control panels that hanged off of a glass pillar in the center of the control room. The glass pillar was filled with orange light, and had a couple of moving parts in it.
"Arggh," The human boy moaned and grabbed his aching head. He slowly blinked his green eyes opened and looked around to spot Toothless sitting in one corner of the room.
The boy's eyes widened and he jumped up; he quickly started backing away while his breathing grew heavy.
"D-Dragon! NIGHT FURY!? Dad! Gobber! HELP! ANYONE!" The boy yelled and then coughed loudly. Toothless just continued staring into the center column.
"Relax kid. You don't need to have a heart attack right after I saved your skinny butt from a burning boat," Toothless mumbled in Norse and used his tail to hit a lever, causing the Nightstar to go slower.
"YOU CAN TALK?! WHAT IN THE NAME OF THOR!? DAD! GOBBER!" The boy yelled again and Toothless placed a paw on his ear. Lovely; this human loved to scream.
"I've saved many humans, and none are this annoying OR loud when I bring them onboard my ship. So can you please be a bit quieter? You're gonna give me a headache," Toothless said and used his paw to activate the ship's shields, just in case.
"SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP!?" The boy yelled and Toothless sighed before using his tail to slap the boy, and that shut him up.
"You just slapped me!" The boy yelled while rubbing his stinging cheek, and Toothless sighed.
"That's what happens when you yell at me while onboard MY ship, also what happens after you take away my ability to FLY," Toothless said and showed off his finless tail, and the boy got confused.
"What do you mean? I've never even managed to get close to a dragon! Let alone injure one!" The boy yelled and Toothless growled.
"One year ago, the last time a Night Fury appeared in a raid on Berk, you managed to hit him with your bola launcher. I was that Night Fury," Toothless growled and kept staring at the control console.
The boy seemed to come to a realization, as the pieces came together in his head. He DID hit the Night Fury, and this is that Night Fury.
"Y-You're the Night Fury...THE NIGHT FURY!?" The boy yelled and tried to escape the room. He had heard that the Night Fury was the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. If he didn't escape, he would be killed and eaten!
"Oh relax. I don't eat humans. At least, I don't care enough to try," Toothless said with a bit of sarcasm as he moved around, putting himself as far away from the boy as possible without leaving the room.
Eventually, after nearly an hour of trying to escape the control room, the boy finally stopped trying to escape. And he turned to the Night Fury in worry, panic, shock, and...curiosity.
"W-What ship did you find me on? Please describe it!" The boy asked and Toothless took a moment to think.
"Well, it was a long ship, a Viking long ship. Around thirty or so passengers, all dead except you. They burned in a fire. The ship had a symbol of a dragon on its sails, and it had a good number of baskets on board," Toothless described and the boy let out a surprised croak.
"Did...did the dragon symbol look like this?" The boy asked and pulled out a piece of cloth with the symbol of a dragon on it, the same symbol.
"Yeah, exactly like that," Toothless said and the boy started crying while backing up against the wall.
"B-But then that means...my dad...and Gobber...are...oh gods..." The boy said and started sobbing, hiding his face in his palms.
Toothless just stared, with the deep feeling of pity emanating from his giant green eyes. He wanted to comfort the kid, but he knew that anything he did would only make it worse. He just needed to wait it out.
Eventually, hours later, the boy finally stopped crying and settled down to heavy breathing. And then eventually, the boy fell into a deep, uneven sleep.
Toothless finally picked the boy up and took him to one of the Nightstar's many spare bedrooms. He laid the boy down and covered him with a blanket; he then left the room to go back to piloting the ship.
He didn't even know the boy's name, and he had to take care of this human. But, well, that's just what he's used to doing. Except now, he had to figure out what to do with the boy.
He had no idea where the Island of Berk was, and even if that's where the boy wants to or has to go, he has no clue what to do with the boy.
So, he decided that he'll just have to learn the boy's name, get to know him, and eventually maybe become friends. The only other thing he can do is just throw the boy overboard, but he isn't cruel enough to do such a thing.
He went to his workshop and started messing around with his inventions. He would wait until the boy woke up, and then he would try to be nice and friendly.
That is a WRAP on CHAPTER 1, CHAPTER 2 "MAKING THE BOUNDARIES" will be out...whenever.
Sorry about the sorta cliffhanger, but i am the KING of CLIFFHANGERS! AND IT IS MY DUTY TO PUT ONE IN EVERY CHAPTER! (I'm just joking, but still, i might include quite a few cliffhangers here and there)
So, anyways, this is JustANormalHTTYDFan, over and out.