Disclaimer: I don't own How to Train Your Dragon or its characters, only my original ideas.
Note: In this story I use the term 'thunder'. For those of you who don't know, a 'thunder' is one of many terms for a group of dragons, in this case being used in a familial sense. I imagine that a dragon's thunder is like their family, and that is my portrayal here. Also, feel free to review! They make my day when they're good, and show me how to improve when they aren't. Thanks, and enjoy!
Meeting
When Valka first sees the other dragon rider, she is filled with the usual disgust. All of Drago's men use force, fear, and cruelty with the animals, so why would this one be any different? She ignores the fact that Drago has never let another ride the dragons before – maybe he's training an apprentice of sorts. She does give the rider some credit for being able to handle a Night Fury though, and for feeling comfortable enough to lay back on the dragon.
The Night Fury grumbles in warning to its rider when it sees her. This one has been trained well. The rider is young she can see. He complains about his father as he turns to face her before he is clearly taken aback at the sight of a stranger. Valka feels a brief moment of shock that her mask hides. Does Drago have a son? If so, then this rider is more than he appears.
The Fury is on edge, picking up on its rider's anxiety. A barely audible hum fills the air, and the dragon relaxes. Below Valka's feet, she can feel Cloudjumper's muscles ease. Behind the dragon-mask, her eyes widen. The boy is channeling dragonspeak, and appears to be unaware that he is doing it as his focus almost entirely on her.
They sink below the clouds, and from above Valka can hear the Fury's distressed voice, and the low rumbles of the rider's speech. They are now too far away to hear the hum, and Cloudjumper is tense once again. Driven by an impulse, Valka has Cloudjumper erupt from below the clouds, to see how this boy and the dragon respond when startled.
The Fury halts in the middle of a wingbeat, pulling up to position himself between the sudden threat and his rider. Valka and Cloudjumper circle them, and her eyes are drawn to the brief flash of red on the dragon's tail before it is obscured by the clouds. The Fury is stirring up the clouds below to provide a small amount of cover for himself and his rider. Seemingly unconsciously, the rider is pressing closer to the dragon's neck, protecting its blind spot and weak spot even as the dragon protects him. Valka decides to learn more about this strange boy – this person who is a rider yet a protector, this dragonspeaker human, this potential son of Drago.
She points her staff at him, signaling to the others she brought who are nearby that he is the one to grab. Sensing what she is doing, Cloudjumper stops in front of the strange pair. The boy's eyes are wide, and he is speaking uncertainly, though it is hard to tell if he is talking to her or the Fury he rides at first. They both hear the screech and wingbeats of the other dragon too late. It snags the boy in its claws, and the moment he is separated from the Fury, they both begin screaming. The Fury drops like a rock through the air, and the boy strains to join him.
For a brief moment, Valka wonders if perhaps some form of sorcery has connected the two, but soon dismisses the idea. No sorcery that exists would be powerful enough to hold a dragon if it didn't want to be held, and no dragon would. She turns her attention to the Fury just in time to watch it crash through the ice. Why wouldn't it catch itself? If not sorcery, what is going on here? Is this some new weapon Drago has developed? Was the dragon injured as it flew earlier? There is now another reason to take the boy. There are too many unanswered questions.
The dragon below flails above the water, unable to take flight. Though she does not know what is wrong, Valka will not allow this dragon to die. She swirls her staff to mimic dragonspeak, and hears the answering buzz from below. Good. The dragon will live. As they fly, she turns her attention to the confusing boy she'd taken. The sound from her staff had momentarily caused the boy to stiffen, until he continued to yell back at the dragon he'd been taken from. She herself goes rigid when several of his shrieks sound like the noises a dragon makes when being separated from the rest of its thunder.
He only goes silent when he has no more breath, and is gasping for air. His dragon out of earshot, he turns his attention to his own situation for what seems to be the first time. The boy's gaze drifts among the dragons surrounding him quickly, and Valka notes that he is not afraid, despite their size differences and the fact that he is completely at their mercy. His gaze instead holds curiosity, and a slight wariness that is to be expected. His gaze soon reaches Valka herself. He studies her for only a moment, and she is almost taken aback when he addresses her directly for the first time.
"Hey! You left my dragon back there! He can't fly on his own, he'll drown!" His voice holds barely concealed terror, and the confusion that Valka feels grows. He speaks about the dragon possessively, like one would with an expendable object, yet feels such fear at the thought of the dragon's death. He is a contradiction wrapped in a mystery, and she almost wishes that she had left him alone instead.
She can tell the moment he hears the dragonspeak from the nest. He freezes, and his attention is no longer even remotely on her. They round an iceberg and the impressive spikes of ice that form the nest's walls come into view. As they approach, Valka is torn. Keep the strange rider from the dragons until she knows more, or see how he reacts when surrounded by unfamiliar ones to learn more? She glances one more time at the boy, and sees that his eyes are slightly unfocused, and that his body is nearly vibrating with the thrums of dragonspeak in the air. Her decision is made.
Valka directs the dragon carrying him to drop him in a ring of dragons nearby. They warble in surprise and irritation from being woken, and by a stranger no less. At first he seems disoriented, and when he stands, he stumbles for a moment. He very quickly notices where he is, yet to Valka's surprise, doesn't seem to immediately care.
"Hey! We have to head back for my dragon!" He only seems to grow wary of his situation when one of her dragons begins to move forward with a snarl and a glare. Valka though is stunned. Even surrounded by unfamiliar dragons who are displeased with him, he is still worried about the dragon he was riding? She watches as he visibly forces himself to put the matter of the dragon – his, apparently – out of his mind.
The boy reaches down to his leg and she hears the distinctive sound of metal. Valka feels a brief moment of panic. Was the boy armed? Did she make the wrong decision by letting him get close to the dragons? A sudden burst of flame reveals a sword that is lit on fire. Yet again, this boy has surprised her. How did he do that? She is not the only one entranced, she soon notices. The snarling dragon from before is now placidly following the boy's sweeping motions. Along with nearly every other dragon nearby.
One dragon behind the boy is not so easily impressed. It steps forward with a hiss, and the boy spins around. He retracts the burning sword, and reaches down to his leg to withdraw something that Valka can't see, and several clicks and clinks later, he is spraying a gas into the air. She scents the air, and realizes that it is the breath of a Hideous Zippleback. How did he do that? Valka realizes that she seems to be wondering that a lot with this peculiar boy.
A quick click later, and the gas is ignited, illuminating their surroundings briefly with flames. They are all left momentarily blinded. When their vision returns, Valka notices that none of the dragons appear hostile towards the boy. In fact, they all look like they would roll over if he asked it. She begins to feel a trickle of both fear and admiration. Who is this boy?
He suddenly rises from his protective crouch and fearlessly walks towards the dragon who had previously been snarling. It is now rumbling in welcome and contentment. Valka watches with growing unease as the boy meets no resistance to his approach. When he reaches out a hand and is moments away from touching the dragon's snout, she slides forward. Perhaps she was too quick to dismiss sorcery. There is clearly something going on here that she cannot explain. The boy backs up in mild fear as Valka approaches, and she begins to circle him. He addresses her directly for the second time.
"Who are you? The dragon thief?" She had to give him credit. This boy was smart. At her lack of response, however, he grew more nervous. "Uh, Drago Bludvist? . . . Do you even understand what I'm saying?" So. Not Drago's son then. At his last sentence, he was growing frustrated, partially due to his confusion and fear. Valka chose not to respond. She raised her staff and swirled it through the air, creating a hum like dragonspeak to set a final test in motion. The boy stiffened once again in recognition at the vibrating hum.
A dragon flew over the others, weighed down by its heavy load. It deposited the limp Night Fury on the ground. Valka felt a brief moment of worry that she had sent its rescue too late and it was unconscious. The boy sprang into motion even before the Fury had been put down, and a loud thrum filled the air. The Fury's eyes snapped open and it shook itself off, even as its gaze searched frantically.
"Toothless!" The boy shouted, the thrum not stopping. Valka tilted her head at that. If the boy wasn't mimicking dragonspeak like she'd thought, by using his voice, how was he doing it? She watched as he flung himself onto the Fury's head and neck. "Oh, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. I'm glad to see you too, bud. You really had me worried there." His voice was a murmur as he pressed himself into the dragon.
The Fury, Toothless it seemed, radiated relief as his gaze lit up. It gave the rider several warbles, and a quiet rumble was the response. Valka watched as the dragon licked the boy several times, and as the rider ran his hands over the dragon's face, much like dragons did when reassuring each other. One nuzzle from the dragon later, Valka had seen enough. It was clear that the rider cared for his dragon deeply, and was unlike any rider she had ever encountered before. He was able to tame her own thunder within minutes, and seemed to respond to and create dragonspeak. Well, time to test the other one now.
Valka rattled her staff, mimicking a dragon's clicking noises, and the dragon behind her opened its mouth and held in its fire, creating something like a brazier. Its neighbors soon copied it, until the ring was lit up and every person within it could be seen clearly. Toothless curled himself around his rider, his eyes darting warily around the circle. Valka caught sight of his spine ridges raising in mild fear. Despite his fear, he snarled in warning at the entire circle, clearly daring them to try to harm his rider. Curious.
She laid down her staff and shield as she crept forward, recognizing that if she kept her hold on either the Night Fury would probably attack. She subtly slid a hand inside a hidden pocket on her suit, coating her hand in Stun Spores from the Sleep Lilies in their hidden paradise. Toothless snarled as she approached, and the rider seemed nervous. Valka noticed that he instinctively pressed himself into the dragon, showing no sign of fear whatsoever that it would attack him.
Within moments, Valka was close enough for the Spores to work, and she raised a hand and flicked her fingers, sending the Spores directly into the dragon's nostrils as he inhaled. As predicted, the Fury collapsed upon the ground, and Valka brushed her hand over its chest as she passed, both to soothe it and to remove any remaining Spores from her skin.
An alarmed thrum filled the air around the young man before her, and his eyes flicked from her, the percieved threat, to the dragon he cared so deeply for who was passed out on the floor. He apparently chose to focus on the current threat and began to back up. By now, Valka wanted to see if the rider bore any of the markings or tattoos that designated a Chosen, as it was one of the only believable explanations for his talent. She raised her hand so that she could examine his face, and at the sight of the claws at the end of her sleeves, the rider's eyes flicked to her in fear.
"Uh, uh . . ." he stuttered leaning away from her reaching hand. The movement revealed a scar on the side of his chin that shone pale in the dragon fire. She gasped in shock and pulled back her hand in a single movement. Valka backed up in surprise, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
"Oh," she breathed, the sound barely audible from within her helmet. "Hiccup?" She was almost afraid of the answer, and the look of confusion on the boy's face almost hurt. Her chest felt too tight, and the air too thin.
"Uh," the rider said uncertainly. It wasn't much of an answer, but the look on his face pretty much confirmed her suspicion. In need of air – and, if she was being honest with herself, wanting her son to see her face if it really was him – she removed her dragonskin helmet. Her view no longer as constrained, she took in the young man's features fully. The more she looked, the more convinced she became that it truly was her son standing before her.
"C-could it be? After all these years?" Valka stood, and took several steps closer, trying to absorb the information that her eyes and heart knew but that her mind was still trying to learn. "How is this possible?" Her son looked startled at the turn of events, and more than a little weirded out at an apparent stranger knowing who he was.
"Uh, should I . . . should I know you?" he asked, a slight tremor in his voice as he tried to understand what had caused Valka to be in her current state. She didn't want to admit how much the words stung, but she knew that she deserved that pain after leaving him for twenty years.
"No." she said sadly, lowering her gaze in uncertainty. She flicked her eyes up at him several times as she spoke her next words, needing to see some reaction even if it was negative. "You were only a babe. But a mother never forgets." Her last words were more intense, more sincere, than she had originally intended, and Hiccup – for that's who he was, she now knew – gasped in shock. He seemed to be getting ready to either shout or have a panic attack, and Valka hurriedly shushed him, not wanting to alarm the dragons.
Neither of them were ready for the following conversation, and she needed a way to stall long enough to gather her thoughts and calm herself down as well. Her eyes drifted to the Night Fury who was beginning to wake up, and she suddenly had an idea. She would lead him to the sanctuary, and then she would see just how far his interest in dragons would go, even as she stalled for time. She met his gaze head on.
"Come." she said, before darting off into the tunnels in the rock, leaving her son to follow after her.