Dragon Drabbles

A Dagger and A Bola

The heavy wooden door creaked open as Hiccup pushed it. "Astrid?" he called into his home. No response. The newly-appointed Chief of Berk shrugged; he wasn't surprised. While he spent the day helping out around the village, attending trade negotiation meetings and training dragons with their new riders, Astrid often went off to the woods to train (battles still happened after all - not as often, but once in a while a tribe would be angry they wouldn't give their dragon secrets) or to talk with Ruffnut. And since he knew Ruffnut was helping the new Zippleback riders, he figured it was previous one.

He stepped inside the main room, the floor creaking under his dragon's weight as Toothless entered the room. For a Chief's house, it was fairly simple. A few chairs, a table, a fireplace made of stone, and an area for preparing food further into the house.

Above the fireplace was a wooden loft area with a large slab of gray rock on it; where Toothless slept most nights. Once in a blue moon, the Night Fury would act as a guard dog. These few times had been quite comical, when Hiccup looked back on it. At the time, after his wife had almost tripped and face-planted into the hard stone outside their door (which Toothless conveniently blocked) she furious - which entailed to lots of yelling on her part - and he had been terrified. Now, he could laugh about it. At least when Astrid wasn't around.

He sighed, happy to home after a long day. His left leg ached, and he was grateful to finally take off his blasted prosthetic. He easily sat in his chair, Toothless sitting next to him on the floor, and the dragon's tail wrapped fully around the chair and very tip of his tailfins coming onto Hiccup's boot - a sign of protectiveness. The still slightly scrawny Viking smiled at his dragon.

"Long day eh bud?" he said. Although Toothless couldn't really respond, he makes a crooning noise that Hiccup knows is his 'comforting noise' and the dragon rests his head on his rider's lap. Hiccup absentmindedly scratched behind Toothless' ear plates, and the Night Fury purred in contentment. Hiccup leaned back further in his chair, glancing at the staircase that led to the upper floor (however there's a pulley system of sorts beside it to make it easier for Hiccup to go up) and then at the fire place.

A measly dagger hung proudly on the wall of stone, and it was the first thing anyone would see when they walked into his house. Hiccup could still remember being a young boy in the forge, just learning how to craft weapons with Gobber. It had been the first dagger that had passed the blacksmith's judgement, and the little boy had excitedly shown his father. Stoick had been happy, clearly hoping that learning to make weapons would help the un-Viking-like boy wield them.

The real reason it was there was that it was The Weapon. The weapon that cut the ropes from a downed Night Fury in an act of mercy. The weapon that was tossed into the lake at the cove - leaving an unsure boy unarmed and completely at mercy of a dragon's claws - and later retrieved by the dragon and boy with matching badges of sacrifice.

Hiccup smiled at it. "We've come a long way since then, eh bud?"

Toothless made a rumbling noise of happiness. His rider took it as a sign of agreement. Then Hiccup stretched, slapped on his prosthetic again and stood up. "Want to flying?" His dragon instantly perked up, his hind quarters wiggling with excitement. Hiccup chuckled softly. "I'll take that as a yes."

The duo walked out of the house, passing Astrid on the way who knew her husband well enough by now that he was going flying but stopped him and pecked his cheek. "Be safe," she told him sternly.

"Aren't I always?" Hiccup replied. He started to walk past her as she made her way towards the house.

"As long as you don't lose another limb!" she called. Being Vikings may be an occupational hazard, but Hiccup pushed that phrase to its highest limit.

Hiccup laughed and quickly got onto Toothless' saddle. "Usual place bud."

The Night Fury took off, soaring into the bright blue sky of Berk. Clouds rolled overhead, and they had fun twisting and turning in them. Soon, they were just off Raven's Point, near the cove, and that was where Toothless landed.

It was still their special spot. No one else knew the location, save for Astrid, but either she knew it was just his and his dragon's place, or she had forgotten the way there - nobody else had ever visited them there, and they preferred it that way.

After dismounting from his dragon's back, Hiccup walked over to a tree in the cove, close to the one Toothless had hung upside down from like a bat - he would never forget that day he bonded with his dragon. He reached inside a small whole in the knot of the roots, and withdrew a tangled mess of cut rocks attached to rocks. He gave the bola a fond look.

"Remember this bud?" Toothless sniffed it and snorted with distaste, but then gave Hiccup his usual gummy smile. It had helped him meet his best friend after all. Hiccup chuckled again. "Yeah, sorry about that by the way." Toothless nudged him in the back, as if to say Don't apologize. If you hadn't hit me down, I never would've met you.

And despite the fact that on the odd day, Hiccup would glance at Toothless' red tailfin and feel a twinge of guilt, he wouldn't change a thing either. This bola and dagger had helped to give him the best friend anybody could ever ask for - and it had revolutionized Berk to a better, bigger and brighter future than ever before.

Hiccup put the bola back in its hiding place. "Want to do some more flying?" he asked. Toothless made a rumbling noise in agreement. Hiccup hopped upon his dragon's back again, and they quickly rose through the air.

Once they were high enough, Hiccup fell from his dragon's back to enjoy the pleasant and exhilarating sensation of free-falling. Toothless always seemed to enjoy it too.

He smiled joyfully at his rider, and Hiccup returned it with his crooked smile.

At the time, the dagger had been such a small, obsolete thing. At the time, the bola had been just like any other. But now, ten years exactly since that fateful day when small, weak Hiccup did the unthinkable and let a dragon go, the two objects were some of Hiccup's most prized possessions.

Quickly, Hiccup got back in the saddle to keep them from crashing into the trees of the forest, and the pair successfully zoomed over the tips of the trees. Hiccup whooped happily, and Toothless gave a joyful roar.

It was hard to tell who was more thankful for the dagger and the bola.