Hello and welcome to my first HTTYD fanfiction. I had been playing around with ideas for a fanfic for weeks now so I decided to make a slightly AU, slightly Toothcup continuation that picks up during the scene "Stoick's Ship". Yes there are Httyd2 spoilers so if you haven't seen the movie don't come crying to me when I spell out the whole climax. Also I added elements from the book which I just finished reading, such as Dragonese, and Toothless' adorable stutter.
please let me know how you like this, and I'd really appreciate constructive criticism.
It started a few weeks after Toothless started helping me perfect my dragonese, I still can't determine any physical reason why it started happening other than my mother's words on the day my father died, "You have the heart of a chief and the soul of a dragon." Grief overwhelmed me that day, I could not think of anything more than my best friend as I slowly raised forward my bow in front of me.
My hands were shaking so hard I could barely draw back much less aim the bow steadily. If only I could keep just this one thing close to me, to imagine that my father had just sailed away and never returned, to leave the cause of his death up to my imagination but I had been right there, right behind the blow. I wanted to keep just his face as long as I could, I didn't want to set his ship ablaze for that meant he would be gone forever. The ashes of his spirit would rise up from the waters to leave us for Valhalla.
I'd like to say I did it on purpose but my hands were shaking so much I cannot say I could have struck his pyre if I wanted to. A tear graced down to my fingers holding the string beside my cheek and even though I never wanted to loose that arrow, my fingers slipped because of that one tear beckoning me to let it go, and the arrow flew. It soared as fast as Toothless like a dragon with fire pouring from its mouth, straight and true. I had not really been aiming and the arrow landed in a clatter beneath the pyre, too cowardly like myself to actually set it ablaze. I missed, but there was nothing I could do about it now.
Beside me, though I did not look was loosed the flaming arrows of my friends, each whispering in their own way goodbye to their beloved chief. My arrow only sang of guilt. Why had I not listened to my father!? I screamed in my heart. He had been right all along and my heart was breaking to admit this time I had been wrong. I had gotten used to always knowing what was best for the tribe and the dragons, I thought I could change any human's mind about them, I could change his after all.
Fire blazed up from the ship as it sailed away through the fog and smoke descending in the cool air from the aftermath of the battle of the Bewilderbeast. The massive white body of my mother's great alpha dragon laid half in the water and half in the wreckage of their sanctuary. Everything my mother had worked to protect for twenty years was destroyed, every dragon now enslaved by a monster a thousand times worse than the queen from dragon island. I am not referring Drago's Bewilderbeast, but rather Drago himself.
Why the hell didn't I listen to my father?! was it because I was too busy running away from the responsibility he had wanted me to take hold all my life. I was a tiny, useless, weak, runt of the litter, Hiccup! An accident! Nothing like my father envisioned be and that was why I strove to do everything differently from him, because I have always been my own person, not following any of the norms of our Viking tribe. Actually I had become so used to not being what my father wanted me to be that I had given up.
"I was so afraid of becoming my father…" I whispered as my mother neared by quietly as we watched Stoick's ship burning in the distance, "Mostly because I thought I couldn't…" my voice cracked through the tears even as I tried to hide it. I always looked up to my father, even when I knew I had no chance of being like other Vikings. I tried anyway, I tried over and over I even tried to do the most dangerous, rash, half-witted things just to get his attention and make him proud of me. That was how I met Toothless after all.
I was only thinking of myself, how I could better myself and show off how good I was at something, anything! And I became the first Viking to actually train dragons, even my mother could not say that she had trained her many dragons to be ridden by several hundred pound Vikings. Least of all was the fear that I would never grow to be as strong as he was, I had Toothless to give me strength, and now I don't even have him.
"Because who could become someone that great… that brave… that selfless?" The tears bitterly stung my face, I had been singed somewhere during the battle… maybe it was the edge of Toothless' plasma blast that was meant for me. My knees buckled but my mother came before me slowly trying to hold me up if she could. I barely knew her. No, I had barely known my family as a whole, we only had a day together as one and nothing hurt worse than the love I had seen from my father towards my mother when it was over in an instant.
Toothless! My mind cried out, I could feel it deep within my being begging for him to return to me. I always knew Toothless and I had a deeper bond than the other dragons and riders. Sometimes if our altitude was high enough and the wind was strong enough like when we were freefalling, I could feel his heart in synch with my own even when I jumped from his back and fell alongside him. His voice was ever so stronger than a human's stronger than even my father's booming Scottish accent.
I could hear Toothless' pain, his heart called to my own. He had been taken once by a stronger dragon and it broke his will for so long. I could feel how deeply he longed to take control, fly into the Alpha's face and claw into it breathing fire into its eyes until the dragon's learned never to test a Night Fury ever again. Toothless longed for his revenge but I held him back, partly because I had taken off his tailfin off, and partly because even though I could not see it or be there for Toothless right now, he was grieving my father's death as I was with more guilt than I had.
I remembered to painfully that day in the ring five years ago when Toothless had come to rescue me from Hookfang. I could not even say his protectiveness over me was an excuse, he was always like that but… I knew the danger. I had seen it in Toothless's eyes that day when he pounced on my father, ready to kill him if I felt threatened. Nothing would stop him if he wanted to protect me.
The fire in Toothless' belly welled in his mouth as green smoke ready to ignite once he had balled it up. Why did I always fear it when Toothless tried to protect me? Because I was afraid he would eventually do something like this. But not to Dad! He knew I loved Dad! He would never hurt him! maybe Toothless was too broken by how I had pushed him away to fight the Alpha's control. Maybe it was all my fault!
If I smiled or not during the flight back to Berk, it was because of Tuffnut's obnoxious complaints as he bounced up and down on the baby dragon's back, or because of Gobber remark that my plan to reach Berk in the nick of time was, "poorly conceived."
Words only came to me as I could barely cope with my grief, I was acting like my old self, "It's a good thing I never listen!" why did I say that? Wasn't that the reason we were in all the trouble we were now? All I could think about for the rest of the day was now much I needed to get to Toothless, then everything would be alright. The feeling came again as we reached Berk, my heart raced and I knew everything Toothless was thinking, I could smell the fear in his heart and his grief which was different from my own.
He felt as if he had betrayed me and I had condemned him for it. I pushed him away, that was my fault! I spotted him and my heart nearly exploded with happiness and anger. He was alive, and flying unharmed so far, but that horrid man, Drago Bludfist was riding my dragon. Toothless! I called to him through my heart, singing in Dragonese softly so that no else could hear it.
Drago yelled at me, staring at me like I was insane but I was already locked into Dragonese, I could not understand a word he said. "Toothless!" I cried getting closer to him slowly. He was trapped, his narrow pupils staring right through me emptily, but I could feel his heartbeat, he was trembling, terrified of what Drago might make him do to me. "Hey…" I soothed him, just trying to get a response out of him, "It's me bud!"
His eyes were clouded by the Alpha's control, crying out to me but not knowing I was there. Drago heard the rumbling in my throat as I trilled and growled in Dragonese to my best friend. "It's me! It's me, I'm right here!" I promised him, aware how great a comfort it would be to him in his blurry blocked vision to know I was there for him. His heart fluttered, feeling my presence and feeling a warmth from my being sent out to his.
That's it… I thought, he knew I was there for him, now he had to fight. It had taken a bola net and a stupid, useless, scrawny, fishbone of a boy to get him free from the Green Death, and it wouldn't take anything less to free him from the Alpha. "Come back to me!" I urged, reaching out to him as I had in the cove when our friendship was formed, only this time, he was the one who was looking away.
Drago tried to distract me but recognized slowly that I was speaking to Toothless in the dragon's tongue and he had to puzzle despite how much he expected me to fail. He laughed, "try…" he sneered, "…to take him!" he humored me. It was risky enough that I had to fly on that baby dragon right in front of Toothless, I knew well enough how dangerous Toothless was. But with Drago humoring my madness, I thanked the gods that he didn't move.
I could no longer fight the tears, I know why Toothless could not fight as hard as he could last time, his guilt. Even though he couldn't see me now, or when he had struck Dad, he remembered me pushing him away and he knew what he had done. "It wasn't your fault bud!" I cried, the tears stinging my burns. My eyes hurt for a different reason though, they were clouded like Toothless' with tears, but I could see as he did, I could see the essence of Drago's Alpha chaining Toothless' mind stronger than the Green Death's. "They made you do it," I assured him, my voice cracking. Toothless' pupils dilated as he tried to take control and look at me, just to prove to himself through the shroud of the creature that controlled him that I was really there, that I was not screaming insults at him, and that I was not trying to kill Drago while that monster was still on his back.
As he tried to focus I reached out my hand to him getting closer and closer, praying that the Alpha would not make him lash at him, just as I prayed he would not bite me when I tried to touch him for the first time. The Alpha was below us, smug, I could hear its laughing as it stared at my hand which was covered in leather armor over all but my fingers. Toothless' heart leaped and he shook his head trying to get control of himself, he saw my hand, the hand he trusted with everything in him and he fought. He fought harder than ever in his life, harder than he fought to fly again after losing his tailfin, harder than he fought to strike the Green Death in the clouds, harder than he fought to save me as we fell the day I lost my left leg.
"You'd never hurt him," I crooned in a familiar Dragonese purr which any human could understand as a show of affection. I loved him, I loved him more than anyone in my life, I could never push him away, even as I remembered all the times that I had.
Toothless made out my silhouette as I got closer, his pupils panicking to dilate and focus on me. "You would never hurt me!" I promised, assuring him that I could never stay angry at him for any reason and I regretted what I did to him outside the sanctuary. My eyes mimicked his own, dilating frantically and pouring tears as I laid my hand on his nose. Instantly our eyes switched, his eyes widened to focus on me and my grew narrow suddenly becoming slit as I took the control from the Alpha. But I was human, even as the Alpha tried to control me while I was in contact with Toothless I stopped it and destroyed the chains holding my friend captive.
"Please!" I cried out to him my pupils as narrows slits like his were, "you are my best friend!" the growls from my throat becoming louder as I became more confident speaking in Dragonese to Toothless. Drago was entirely confused, he didn't know if I was speaking some spell or not to the dragon he rode but it was working. "My best friend!" I repeated, blinking away my tears as my eyes took on the form of a dragon's, a Night Fury's, Toothless'.
Toothless shook off the remainders of the invisible chains blinking erratically until his pupils stayed round and he tried to smile at me, happy, he could see me, but he was scared. I smiled brightly, he'd done it! That crazy reptile had actually done it, "'at-a-boy, that's it!" I shrieked overwhelmingly happy to see his smiling face, "I'm here!"
"Hiccup!" Toothless cried for me, growling, moaning, and trilling whilst his ear flapped vibrated sending out songs in Dragonese I had yet to understand, "Hiccup!" he screamed, "Hiccup! Hiccup! My Hiccup!" he roared in sheer delight, "I'm sorry!" he had to say, tears would have come to his eyes if he could cry as a Human could, "I'm here!" he repeated as I had, "I'm here…" he whispered, "I won't ever leave again!" he thrust his face into mine, caressing me as best he could while in the air.
"No!" Drago shouted raising his staff over my poor dragon who was all too happy to see me. "Enough!" Dragon screamed, bringing down his staff to beat Toothless across of face but Toothless grabbed the staff in his very tooth-full mouth and used the leverage to yank Drago off my saddle.
Swinging them both around so that Drago fell, "Have this, you, y-y-y-y-you wingless fireworm! I'll I-I-I'll Fry you to a frazzle! Y-y-you—" Toothless shouted in a roar, fighting the stammer I had fought to train out of him. Toothless immediately looked directly to me, I shouted for joy just seeing his happiness, adopting my human language in a shriek. "Hiccup!" Toothless shouted at me just proud of himself but then he realized, "I can't fly!" he pleaded as he started to lose control because no one was at his tail.
As Toothless fell I jumped from the back of the baby dragon I was riding and dove after him. Drago hit the Alpha's horn and stayed on it but Toothless and I were at a freefall. There was that feeling, my eyes didn't change back, and I felt Toothless' elated heart as he felt mine. We were one again and nothing would break our bond. It was a fire in our hearts that grew larger by the second, one that had been growing from the moment we first touched. "Almost there, buddy, almost there!" I shouted down to him as he tried to slow his fall and I tried to speed up mind to just reach his saddle.
Hastily I got my fingers around his saddle and clung to Toothless' back. I switched out my prosthetic for my riding foot and as soon as I could I latched it to Toothless' saddle and pulled it into position inches above the water at the Alpha's feet. We'd done it, together as one. My eyes changed back, the rest was easy! I wasn't really afraid of anything not the spray of ice the Alpha spread over Berk. As long as my friends were safe I would take any risk in the sky.
The Alpha roared as if sending out more chains after my beloved Toothless. His ears vibrated as he tried to block it out but without my help it was much more difficult. I hugged his head, "You gotta block him out, Toothless!" he urged him holding his ears. We flew around the remains of the dragon racing track and reaching out a grabbed tore a red flag.
"I c-can't take the sound!" Toothless whined shaking his head to try and dismiss it, "W-what are you doing?" Toothless quivered still scared from having lost himself as I had lost everything.
Spreading out the flag I let the warmth of his scales seep into me, "Do you trust me, bud?" he assured him. Toothless looked up at me too terrified, and only closing his eyes as I brought flag over his eyes and tied it behind his ears, "We can do this…" I whispered in Dragonese, "you and me…" Toothless purred and steadied his flying to scared to turn or even flap his wings without seeing anything.
I closed my eyes, laying my hand on his forehead, our bond tightened, "as one…" I whispered ever so softly, only a Night Fury's hearing could have heard me. Toothless' heart calmed and I opened my eyes, my pupils narrowed to slit again, Toothless gave me his eyes and trusted me with everything in him. We could only do this together!
The Alpha only tried harder to take control of Toothless as we flew upon them closer and closer at high speeds. Drago screamed ferociously but so did all of the tribe of the Hairy Hooligans for me and Toothless. Toothless whimpered not able to focus on them as I could, "Shut it out, Toothless!" I insisted holding his ears.
"What are you going to do!?" Toothless growled at me, scared, but he trusted me, I know he did. I know he could feel it as I locked his tail in position and I know that he knew what I was planning to do. "Not this again!" he pleaded in Dragonese, "Every time you jump off my back to do this, you nearly kill yourself! I can't—"
"We can!" I assured, "I'm not leaving you, I'll still be in your heart!" Toothless' thoughts quieted for a mere second listening as I pulled my prosthetic off his saddle and took Inferno from my thigh flipping it to the side of the Hideous Zippleback head. "Now!" I shouted without holding anything back. I jumped from Toothless' back, getting my wrists through the loops of my wings suit and spreading my own wings to fly over the Alpha, spreading Zippleback gas over it and Drago.
Toothless flew on his own, soaring above Drago and the Bewilderbeast more freely than he ever had since he lost his tailfin. The blindfold flew off and Toothless looked down at me and smiled. I relished the sight of Drago's shock and frustration upon seeing me flying and the dragon's flames blasting from my hand. I was more dragon than human at this point, with dragon eyes, and dragon's fire at my very fingertips. Flying was the best thing ever!
The explosion threw Drago off the Bewilderbeast and sent his staff away from him but just out of reach. Toothless and I whooped for joy until we both realized how helpless we were apart. The alpha's tail raised before we and without Toothless I could not gain any altitude. Toothless was right, if I kept using my wing suit I was going to kill myself, and if that didn't happen right now it would eventually.
The memory of the Green Death's boulder-like tail flashed before my eyes and I cringed, "Not again!" I shrieked fearing for my good leg. Toothless could not effectively control his flight without me but in the position I had left his tail he might be able to help me, I roared in a dragon's voice only loud enough to reach him through his heart, "Toothless, hurry, it's now or never!"
I knew Toothless was panicking, but I was wrong, he was happy, confident, and trusting in both me and himself. His eyes narrowed decisively and he split apart his dorsal spines which my mother had showed him how to do, and in the nick of time he caught up with me, getting right under me and with a single beat of his wings I was right back on his saddle. We pulled up, and soared skyward without even gracing the Alpha's massive tail.
Both of us happily shouted for joy, roaring and growling and for a few moments I actually felt like a dragon, kin to my best friend, "We did it!" I screamed as we descended again, finally fully confident in each other. We sang dragon's songs for the mere seconds before we reached Drago who was crawling to his staff.
I jumped off Toothless once we hit the ground trailing Berk's muddy, sandy soil as Toothless' tail skid against the earth that felt so good beneath our feet. I released Inferno with a flick of my wrist and the flaming sword shot out from its canister before I threw it at Drago, hitting his hand and burning it terribly. Toothless prepared a plasma blast, letting Drago know he was so that the devilish man would not dare move lest he be killed by lightning and death itself.
I stared down at the man, forgetting my words in Norse as I tucked my wings away into my flight suit. It was over now, nothing could fear me. Not even the curled smile on Drago's face as he signaled the Alpha to breath ice all over me. I knew Toothless would be there to protect me, it was his protective nature, and there was no denying it, even in that ice for those few seconds, I felt very safe. I felt it was a gift. I was able to be closest to Toothless in his arms as my father had found me after we defeated the Green Death, I was given a gift of quiet to gather my thoughts before the larger end of the battle, like surviving the loss of my leg.
I don't really know it was minutes or an hour, I don't really have any way of knowing what my friends, or my mother felt when I was trapped in that ice. They must have been scared but I was with Toothless, nothing scared me or him. Toothless let his instincts guide him and within seconds his warm body melted enough room for us to breath the air from the evaporated water. Suddenly Toothless' body started glowing and he tensed looking immediately to me, "Hiccup…" he whispered shocked in himself.
I stared deeply into his eyes allowing him to finally notice my pupils were slit, "Toothless," I trilled in Dragonese, "you're so much stronger than other dragons, it's time for you to take back your place, before the Green Death took you, above the Alpha!" the words in Dragonese flowed from my throat, half them I didn't understand but I knew what I said. Toothless deserved more than to be my trusted friend, more than to be controlled by any other dragon, he needed revenge to punish those dragons, and taking control of them, once he realized this in himself was never easier.
"Hiccup…" he whispered again, trilling my name, "it's time for use to take our place, I can't do this alone, will you stay with me, forever?" the blue light from Toothless' spine and jaw grew brighter and he breathed on my face tightening our bond which could never be severed as it was nor as it is. I was only scratching the surface before, Dragonese was a small step in a journey I had already started. The Night Fury was as powerful as Thor himself, with gods given power he had already, years ago, started transferring to me, that was how I could speak Dragonese and no one else could.
Toothless pulled me under his belly as he released the plasma blast he had been storing up and let it out, he let it go! He let go of all those sorrows and feelings I had been suffering as well as his own. I could live like this, I knew I could, but only with him at my side, no in me, and I in him!
Barely a scrap of ice was let when the smoke receded and there was Toothless curled over me in his protective manner. Why had I always been afraid of Toothless' protectiveness over me when I felt this safe under his care? Toothless roared, furrowing his wings and not letting me out from under him until everyone around him cowered and groveled.
Toothless was done being a slave to the larger dragons, to the Green Death, Drago's Alpha, he was through with submitting to anything bigger than him, like a three hundred pound Viking, or a disability I caused him by taking off his tailfin with a bola net. "Coward!" he screamed up at the Alpha in a voice louder and more booming than any Viking, but the only voice I could compare it to, was Dad's. It had no accent, but the strength and twinge of every language known to humans, hundreds, dialects I had never heard.
Toothless looked to me almost for approval, "I'm going to end this!" he insisted, "I have to!" his voice purred to comfort me as if he assured as I had, you can trust me.
I smiled back and nodded ever so slightly, "go get him!" I growled encouragingly.
Toothless then looked back to the Alpha and prepared his fireball, but before he unleashed it or said anything else he burst up above me landing on the one remaining shaft of ice he had not obliterated and faced the alpha shouting, "You're a coward!"
The Alpha roared back at him as my mother rushed to my side with a worry stricken face but my eyes stayed on Toothless, telling her what I already knew, "He's challenging the Alpha!" Toothless was so much more powerful than it, and it was time he proved his place!
Toothless furrowed his wings, "You enslave dragons, you are nothing but a slave yourself, and you hide behind that worm you call a master!" Toothless unleashed his plasma blast striking the Alpha in the face as he had imagined, "You're nothing but a coward who has no free will!" he screamed unleashing another, and then another.
The alpha growled in a deep low voice I understood slowly for unlike Toothless' it did have a dialect, deep and frothy like the sea, "You cannot say you have more than me, Human's pet!"
Toothless did not let up, firing fireball after plasma blast tormenting the Alpha, "your species is dying as mine is and you killed the only other one of your kind. How can you hope to keep the title of Alpha!"
The mighty Bewilderbeast smashed the rod of ice where Toothless perched but Toothless saw it coming and flew up to another higher and more majestically, with such control over his flight I had never seen from him. the Bewilderbeast moaned, "Night Fury, I am the last of the Alpha Species, you cannot challenge my reign!" he declared.
Toothless fired another shot and something happened, the Alpha was losing control and the dragons around it started to come to their senses swarming around it. Faintly at first, I heard Stormfly's voice when she saw Toothless fighting to reign over all dragons, immediately she started to sing in Dragonese. "Set hatchling's nests ablaze, protect them from the cold, build your nest outside the cave, let not a soul come near, teach sparrows and Terrors to fly, yet do not make a sound, fly home, my dark scales come home!"
My mother and all of Berk stared up at the sight amazed as the dragons started swarming down over the island away from the alpha. "Can you hear that?" I asked her, nearly tearing but from the beautiful song I had never heard before.
"my fleeting wings, above the winds, far faster than the rip tide, thy scales are bright to light the night, and carry us to morning." All the dragons chimed in making a beautiful noise.
My mother stepped closer to me startled, "They're singing…" she whispered realizing it.
I wiped away a tear, if only she could understand it, they were singing about Toothless. "Rain, gale, snow, lightning, hale, nothing ever slows you, now flames alight, at your riders might, will carrying you to morning." Toothless flew down to me guarding me and ignoring the music but I couldn't help myself it was so beautiful, and it the tune seemed remarkably similar to my parent's love song, For the Dancing and the Dreaming.
"Hiccup…" Toothless urged softly, focusing only on the Alpha as he whispered, "ride me!" in a growl that was masked by his roars to the Alpha, only I heard him say it. I climbed onto Toothless' back as Astrid, my mother, Eret, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, and the whole island of Berk stood behind us supporting us through everything.
Toothless flew up higher, which he could only do with my help and perched on the highest spire of ice he could find. I screamed at Drago to give up and let it end, he could never earn a dragon's loyalty as I could through friendship, bonds, and love, but Toothless was holding an entirely different argument with the Alpha.
They were beyond words in Dragonese and Toothless lowered his head screaming in a roar louder than ever I'd heard, "I am the Alpha, do not challenge me!" for a my friends got behind me, the dragons got behind Toothless. "With me!" Toothless said to them, "Fight with me!" he roared louder, "Fire with me!" at his signal he blasted one fireball at the Bewilderbeast and after him all the dragons breathed fire onto the monster.
"I do not need your size!" Toothless shouted, "I do not need to be as strong as you! Dragons will follow me anywhere, to hel and back, because I fly with Hiccup, the conqueror of all dragons and human tribes. He is mine!" fire rained from the sky like hailstones on a summer day, and Toothless gazed deeply into the Bewilderbeast's eyes while I awed at the sight of so many dragons firing in unison.
It was too much for the great alpha dragon, who had chains on his tusks. Drago ran to hide among the Alpha's frills screaming at his beast to fight but the Bewilderbeast knew he was indeed Drago's slave. Stormfly shot a blast of magnesium flame at Drago which knocked off his prosthetic arm making him only madder. Finaly the Bewilderbeast inhaled to fight back with one last chance of winning this, he prepared to breath ice. However, Toothless was much quicker than him and shot a plasma blast that severed the beast's left tusk.
It scared me just a little, the Bewilderbeast's horns were such an important massive weapon as it fell I realized just what this great dragon had lost, just as Toothless and I had lost, his left tusk, Toothless' left tailfin, and my left foot. The tusk fell into the sand on Berk's beaches while the Bewilderbeast flailed wildly for its size in pain and devastation.
Toothless roared in a shrill scream, "I am the Alpha!" he declared as all the dragons sang in a loud triumphant chorus behind him, "leave now and I will spare your life!" Toothless roared until he was out of breath and then tucked his wings on either side of me.
Finally, the Bewilderbeast moaned, lowering its gaze and crying out apologies as it submitted to Toothless as the new Alpha of the dragons. I laid a hand on Toothless' head as he bared his teeth, "The Alpha," I declared to Drago, "protects them all!" Toothless was the Alpha and there was no longer anything Drago could do to fight that. The Alpha obeyed Toothless' order and dove into the ocean with Drago still on his back, likely drowning him, if not I don't know what has become of him.
With the Bewilderbeast out of sight, Berk hollered and cheered wildly for Toothless and I. However, both of us had a mind to make sure the Bewilderbeast was actually gone and had no intention of resurfacing. Confirming this, we soared down to the ground and landed just in time to see all the dragons landing on Berk perching on the remains of houses and trees. However, most consistently, they landed around me and Toothless, looking directly at my dragon.
Toothless' ears lifted expectantly as if he wanted them to do this and conveyed it to them through his humming, vibrating his neck furls. Cloudjumper soared down from the heavens, acknowledging as he faced Toothless in a soft voice, "I looked down upon to Night Fury… I believed you were young and foolish which was why you lost your tailfin, but now I see, all you have accomplished as come through that price and meeting this boy was set in stone by the gods."
Toothless held his head high trying to be as tall as the Stormcutter acknowledged his status finally and bowed his head lower than Toothless' body. Toothless lowered his wings, acting as snobbish as Cloudjumper had acted towards him when they first met but he was owed that much. It didn't take long, and with this, all the dragons bowed to Toothless, acknowledging him as the new Alpha after my mother's Alpha.
Toothless merely smacked his lips proudly and roared up to the heavens beckoning every dragon to do so also. Toothless, beamed retracting his teeth and looking to me, "Hiccup, I am already loving this!" he declared to me only.
I laughed heartily, bringing my hand to his nose and petting him, proudly for, I was indeed proud of him, "you never cease to amaze me!" I whispered in Norse, laying my forehead on his, "thank you…" I whispered.
Suddenly, Toothless grinned, "So we're friends again…" he wondered in a mischievous tone and not giving me a chance to answer before he licked me in the face over and over until I turned pink, wet, sticky, and the whole village was laughing at us. The next hour passed over him, which pretty much consisted of all the dragons reuniting with their riders, and Eret finding himself acclimated into the tribe by adopting Skullcrusher, Dad's dragon. It was my suggestion, and it saddened me some, but I couldn't imagine what it would be like for Toothless if he lost me, I'm sure Skullcrusher felt a bit crushed himself.
Dragons and Vikings, what used to be the worst of enemies now seemed like they went well together. My knees quaked with every moment I was standing on Berk again without Dad. My mother tried to comfort me, telling me how proud my father would have been, but it wasn't until Astrid tried to make me feel better that it actually helped. I hid what I had lost, I tried to laugh, but all I wanted was to hold her and never let her go in fear that I might lose her too. The whole tribe gasped as I kissed her passionately in front of everyone but I had no intention of hiding how I felt about her.
Gently, Gothi tapped me on the shoulder and I felt my heart implode. She never said a word, but I knew what she wanted from me. Not a hug, not to express her fond pride of all I'd done for the village, not to grieve with me, not even to congratulate me. I thought it was a choice, I thought I had to meet certain requirements, like being a buff, meathead Viking before I could ever measure up, but it was just blood. Plain, hot, sticky blood that I had coursing through my veins, faster and faster with every second, that was what entitled me.
I thought I might pass out, my heart was racing and I felt ever dizzier, my eyes must have become slit again and I felt more and more dragon like I wanted to fly away and discover every land out there beyond Berk. This had always been my train of thought, every time this was brought up by my father. He hadn't been pressuring me like it was my choice, he father couldn't always be around to protect me knowing I would make mistakes, but he could only prepare me for what duty I had to fulfill.
It was not my choice, but now, after how long I had evaded it, I accepted my responsibility. Gothi had me kneel down to her height as she took some charcoal from a burnt house and I closed my eyes as she drew on my forehead, a rune I had never seen before. It had wings like a dragon, a rider at its breast, and a tail running down the bridge of my nose, and it's meaning was a secret to all but me.
Before she too bowed before me like the dragon had to Toothless, she spoke. I had never heard her speak before but the words which trailed out in aged tones of one who loved me like her own, spoke to my heart and to my soul, "Chief of Dragons, Sála-Dreki."