"This is Berk. Boasting the kind of balmy fun in the sun climate that will give you frostbite on your spleen. The one upside is our annual holiday. We call it Snoggletog. Why we chose a stupid name remains a mystery. But with the war long over and dragons living amongst us, this year's Snoggletog promises to be one to remember."
As usual, Toothless just had to get me up at dawn. I tried vaguely to ignore the pounding on my roof and snuggle under the warm furs for a bit more sleep, but Toothless only pounded harder. At this rate he might actually pound a hole into the ceiling.
So I sat up. "Okay okay, I'm comin'." I grumbled sleepily. Not really seeing anything in the room I grabbed blindly for my helmet. I rarely went without it these days. It was a gift from both of my parents. It signified the first time my father showed any sort of pride in me. Placing it on my head in the morning made me feel like that wasn't just a dream.
Another knock on the roof made me rush outside and look up to greet my best friend. "Well good morning, Mr. Bossy!" I cheerily teased him. In response he laughed at me. I mimicked his laugh before walking toward the side of the house where he would always jump down.
The silence in the village was almost deafening. Nobody else was up yet. "Do you always have to wake me up so early to go flyiiiiing?" My prosthetic leg slipped on the ice. If not for Toothless, I would have been doing some rather painful splits. He always catches me when I fall though. "Stupid leg."
Toothless coos worriedly for me when I grumble, so I quickly reassure him. "No thanks buddy, I'm okay. Yeah w-we can go flying now." As I reach out to pet his head he burps. Right in my face. The acrid stench of half-digested raw fish and burning plasma hits me all at once and I pull back involuntarily. "Ew, ew, what? Ew! Ugh! Toothless!"
He seems to smile at my discomfort for a second before reassuring me he didn't do it on purpose. I glare at him for a second, halfheartedly, before mounting up for our morning flight. I can feel his muscles tense under me as I click my prosthetic into place, and we're off.
It doesn't take us any time at all to get above the clouds. "C'mon!" I challenged. "Let's see what you've got today!" Taking the challenge immediately, Toothless turned left into a dive. I couldn't help but cheer as the wind rushed past us. Toothless, as always caught himself right before the water. Sometimes I think he wants to see just how closely he can cut it without getting wet, but either way it's fun.
In front of us I see a perfect outcropping to try our new trick again. "Kay, you ready?" I ask Toothless, knowing he sees it too. He coos at me in response. I remove my prosthetic from his saddle and stand, ready to jump the ledge. "Easy…" I say more for my own sake than for his. He knew when to throw me. I didn't aways know when to jump.
For the first time, we timed it perfectly. I jumped just as he threw me, sailing over the outcropping spectacularly before landing on his back and clicking my leg back into place. "Yes! Finally!" We'd done it. Toothless did his own sort of dragon cheer in coo form.
After finally getting our trick right, we turned into a leisurely flight. I couldn't tell you how long we flew, but after a good while I decided we should try again, just to see if we really had it down. Just as I asked Toothless if he wanted to, we suddenly flew into a dragon migration. It took me a few seconds to catch on to the dodging maneuvers that he was doing, and my helmet got knocked off by an errant nadder wing.
My hand immediately went to my head, "Oh no. My helmet!" Toothless evidently heard me and immediately went to dive for it. I had to cling to the saddle from the unexpected dive.
"Toothless! No!" I shouted repeating the word several times as we dove. He didn't seem to be listening though, so I pulled up on his saddle. "Whoa, whoa wait. Toothless, stop." He looked back at me before coming out of the dive.
"We'll get it later bud." He didn't seem to believe me, as he was still looking all over the surface of the water for it. "We need to get back and find out what's going on." He seemed a bit grumpy about this, but turned around anyway to head back to Berk.
As we got in range, I could see Stormfly take off, revealing a clearly distressed Astrid. What was going on? Were they being controlled? No, even Toothless was affected by the queen. He would have followed them if that was it.
We landed quickly and I jumped off Toothless before running toward Astrid to hopefully get some answers. I called her name and her response was immediate. "Hiccup, what's going on?" She demanded. Oh no. "Where are they going?" She gestured to the rapidly disappearing dragons.
I stared after them for a second, wondering the same thing before I was swarmed by desperate villagers. Immediately my first thought was to get away. For most of my life the only thing that happened when I got surrounded by people was a beating. When they started assaulting me with questions instead of fists though, I calmed a bit. "Stop, wait-"
"Calm down!" my father's booming voice cut into the crowd. "Give him a chance to speak!" He pushed a villager out of the way to step toward me before condensing everyone's questions into one simple "Hiccup, where are all of our dragons going?"
I felt horrible. He finally turned to me for help and the only answer I could give him was a weak, "Dad, I don't know." The first thing in my entire life he asked of me, and I couldn't help him. I could see the disappointment in his eyes as he sighed before a dragon interrupted us.
Stormfly had come back for Toothless! Only for a moment though. It seemed as though Toothless told her he wasn't coming and to go without him. So she did. It eased a lot of my worry though. If Toothless knew where they were going and wasn't worried, then they were definitely coming back. Right?
Everyone was gathered in the great hall that night. They were all worriedly talking about how Snoggletog was ruined because the dragons were gone. Me and the other teens leaned up against the wall as my father reassured the villagers that they would come back.
I just hope I was right when I told him that.
We left together right after that. "That was depressing." Ruffnut complained as we walked down the path away from the great hall.
"I know!" Astrid quickly responded. "I was looking forward to spending the holiday with Stormfly." They had to have a good reason right?
Tuffnut glared at a whistling Fishlegs before demanding to know what he was so happy about. When he brought up Meatlug, Fishlegs responded with a suspicious, "Me? Oh, yeah." He feigned tears a bit before adding "I miss him so much." He turned eerily cheery again when he bade us good night before quickly shuffling off. We watched him go with varying degrees of suspicion.
Astrid gasped as if realizing something. "I've got an idea." It had nothing to do with Fishlegs then. "Let's come up with a bunch of new holiday traditions. You know, to bury the sadness."
Everyone sighed. I felt a bit bad that nobody was supporting her so I spoke up, "Actually, Astrid might be on to something." I said, smiling at the other teens.
"Easy for you to say." Tuffnut retorted. What? "Your dragon can't go anywhere without you." He gestured to Toothless, who was staring out over the water looking for something. He clearly had somewhere he wanted to go.
What did that have to do with Snoggletog traditions or Astrid? "Must be nice." Ruffnut muttered before they all walked away.
While Toothless had nothing to do with making Astrid feel better, Tuff hadn't been wrong. It was my fault that Toothless was stuck on Berk while the other dragons could leave when they wanted, or needed to. I had shot my best friend down. And even though now he could fly again as long as I was in the saddle, it wasn't the same as the freedom the other dragons had.
And it was my fault. As soon as I found a system that worked, I had stopped working on Toothless's tail. I hadn't kept at it until I had a way for him to fly by himself. Instead he was selfishly grounded without me.
I had to make this right. My mind started going over possibilities as I headed toward the forge.
It took me all night and several concept drawings before I finally had it right. With a few more adjustments, Toothless would be able to fly. On his own. Without me.
I heard Astrid call for me and quickly responded, letting her know I was here. "Here." She said, offering me a mug of…something. "Happy Holidays, from me to you."
I grabbed one without pausing to look in it. "Thank you M'lady." She asked what I was up to before I had the chance to try it, so I set the mug down on the workbench. "Okay, you're going to think I'm crazy, but I just couldn't stop thinking about what Tuffnut said last night." I told her with a sigh. "Toothless can't come and go like the other dragons, and that's just not fair. I was up all night and… I think I found a way to fix that." Finished with my explanation I drank from the mug she gave me.
I immediately regretted it. I never knew something could taste this horrible. I couldn't swallow it. But I couldn't just spit it out right in front of her. How insulting would that be?
Oblivious to my discomfort, Astrid said, "No way! You built him a new tail? So he's going to be able to fly without you."
I nodded making an affirmative noise before she went on, "Wow, what a great gift." I set the mug down and made another affirmative noise. "What if he never comes back?"
My eyes flicked to her so fast I almost forgot I was trying to hide the fact I wasn't swallowing. Realizing she expected something, I made a sadder noise. She laughed at herself then, "What am I saying? Of course he will." She reassured me.
I nodded at her making another affirmative noise. "Well, I'm a'go spread some holiday cheer!" She told me before heading back out of the forge. "You're amazing!" She called as she ran off. I watched her go with relief before spitting out the drink on the floor.
I turned back to my invention solemnly. What if he didn't come back? What if he really just wanted to be a free dragon again. I couldn't blame him if that was the case, but still… He was my first friend. I was scared to pick up that new tailfin and walk home with it because I didn't know if he would come back.
But that selfishness was why he was still grounded in the first place. I couldn't trade his happiness for mine, so pick it up and go home I did.
When I arrived, Toothless was on my roof, knocking for me to get up like he always did. The sight filled me with hope. "Tooothless!" I called. He responded immediately. "Come on down bud! I got something for you." I told him with a smile, indicating to the new tailfin I was carrying.
He sniffed it as I held it out. "What do you think of that? Yeah." He cooed at me. I walked around him to put it on him, but the silly dragon tried to follow me, which caused his tail to pull away from me. "Would you just- Settle down." I told him, laughing.
"Toothless, Come on bud-" I managed to grab his tail, "let me get this on you." He looked back at me with another coo as I strapped my new invention to his tail. "Yeah, you are going to love this." I tapped his tail to let him know it was ready and he pulled away from me.
He certainly didn't seem to like it at first. He thrashed his tail this way and that trying to get it off. "No, no, no, no! Toothless!" I didn't want him to break it before he even realized what it did! "Stop! Please Wait! Toothless please!"
In that instant he snapped the fin open and stopped. He stared at it for a few seconds before moving his other fin. It worked correctly. He opened and closed it a few times and I sighed, panic gone. "There you go. See? Got it?" I questioned as he worked the new mechanism.
He turned his head back to me, eyes no larger than slits. As they had been when he was under the queen's influence. A sudden terror gripped me as he stared back at me, but I smiled hopefully. He hadn't taken off yet. "Toothless," I reached forward to pet my friend, but to my surprise he pulled back from me. He turned around to take off, almost hitting me with his wing.
I ducked and by the time I looked back up at him, he was flying away. Why hadn't he let me touch him? It wasn't like it would have taken that much longer. I wouldn't have stopped him from-
I stopped. Like when we met. In that cove, he didn't let me touch him. It was the same. After all this… he didn't trust me? He was that happy to get away from me?
I stared after him for a moment longer before throwing myself into Snoggletog preparations so I wouldn't think about it too hard. Like Astrid said, he would come back. They all would.
Three days later I was lying in bed, unable to sleep. I was pretty sure it was almost morning when I heard a sudden knocking on the roof. I sat up, not quite believing it. When the knocking continued, I jumped out of bed, ecstatic.
Toothless had come back. I shouted his name as I ran outside. "I knew you'd come baaa-ooh." I slipped on that stupid ice again running around the house, but this time he didn't catch me. I slammed onto my back. Looking up, I saw that it was my father who'd been fixing the roof and my good mood deflated.
"Morning Son!" He shouted down to me.
"Oh, hey Dad." I responded, getting to my feet.
"Glad you're up." He said cheerily. "I was looking for yer helmet." I flinched. My helmet. The one that a nadder had knocked into the ocean. The one I hadn't gone back to find.
"My-my helmet?" I stuttered.
"Odin needs a place to put your goodies." He responded. Of course. Snoggletog was tomorrow. With brooding over Toothless I had completely forgotten.
"Yeah right I'll uh…I'll get right on that. Great." I turned to walk away.
"Hold on." Dad walked up to me. I stopped and turned to face him. "Hold on." He repeated. "Alright, come on. What's on yer mind? Out with it."
"Well, it's been three days Dad. I…I just thought Toothless would be back by now." I looked down. As if I had any more right than anyone else to be upset. I felt bad about feeling bad about it.
"Oh, I'm sure he's with the other dragons." He tried to reassure me.
"Yeah? I wish I could be that sure." When Stormfly had come back for him, he seemed fine with telling her to go without him. Why would that have changed?
He sighed deeply. "Listen, I know what it's like to miss someone you love this time of year." He must have been talking about Mom. "But what do we do when they can't be here for the holiday?" I had a sneaking suspicion the answer wasn't 'mope'. "We celebrate them. And I imagine that's exactly what Toothless would want you to do." I was surprised. I think that's the first time I've ever heard my father use his name. I sighed before he asked me "Right."
"You're right." I responded. Of course he was.
"Good!" He shoved my shoulder, touching moment over. "Now go get that helmet. We've had enough disappointment around here."
Sure. Of course Dad. It wasn't like it was sunk at the bottom of the ocean or anything.
I grabbed a set of oars and headed toward the docks. If I could find it, I would. I didn't want to disappoint him again. When I was almost there, I ran into Fishlegs carrying an entire basket of fish. "Oh Fishlegs, you hungry?" I teased. "There's enough fish there to feed a dragon."
He laughed before scurrying off. A dragon. Fishlegs hadn't seemed bothered by the dragons leaving and had been acting suspiciously since they had. Now he was carrying around a basket full of fish? He couldn't have…could he?
After making sure he left, I snuck into the storehouse behind him only to be met with the desperate face of Meatlug. He had! But Fishlegs was the least of my problems as Meatlug suddenly broke the chain and flew out, taking me with her. "Meatlug?" I demanded. She looked at me for a second before returning to her task.
Astrid shouted at me as we flew overhead asking where I was going. Truthfully, I responded "I have no idea!" before we were out over the ocean. I vaguely heard Fishlegs shout something, but we were too far out to hear.
It took me a few tries, but I eventually swung myself up onto Meatlug's back to ride her correctly. I may not have had any control of where we were going, but she would probably lead me to the other dragons so I was fine with it.
She almost hit an outcropping as we flew through the fog, and I couldn't help but ask, "Meatlug, where are you taking me?" She didn't respond, but we did almost hit the head of a sunken ship.
Soon after, we ducked back under the clouds to see a small island with a cove covered in dragons. Meatlug landed and let me get off before wandering away. I looked around, seeing many adult dragons and even more baby ones.
Baby dragons! "You guys come here to have babies." I say aloud to no one in particular. I watch a nadder regurgitate fish for the young. So that's why all dragons could do that. "Whoa."
I look down to see a gronckle pushing its eggs into a small pool of rather deep water. Walking over, and trying not to trip over baby gronckles in the process, I watch the eggs hatch beneath the water. The hatchlings quickly swim up.
I can't help but coo at how cute they are as the climb out of the pool to go greet their mother. Then I notice one of the eggs she hadn't pushed in the water. "Hey look over here." I told her. "You missed one." I went to pick it up.
Apparently that was a mistake. The egg exploded, throwing me back a good ten feet. I guess I know why the mother hatches them underwater. I quickly look back up and see the hatchling land at my feet, none the worse for wear. It stretches and yawns cutely before going over to its mother.
"Man it's a good thing those don't hatch on Berk." I said to the mother gronckle. She didn't really acknowledge me. I stood up then, realizing it was nearly sunset. It was time to look for my own dragon.
I called his name as I walked, trying to imagine what it would be like if Toothless had hatchlings too. It would be awesome, but it slowly became clear that Toothless wasn't here.
He hadn't left to find the other dragons. He hadn't followed them like Meatlug had. He had left for some other reason. Suddenly I was even less sure than I had been about his return. He had been very quick to leave once he could. My hopes were up when Meatlug brought me to this island. She left just as quickly as he had, and I had hoped it was for the same reason.
Apparently not. Maybe he really had just left.
"Oh Toothless…where are you?" I asked no one again. I came to a ridge and looked over, seeing a very familiar dragon. I couldn't help the smile that came across my face.
"Hookfang!" I shouted at Snotlout's dragon as he raised his head to look at me. I ran forward to hug him and saw another very familiar dragon. "Stormfly!" I ran up to her. "Oh. You have no idea how happy I am to see you guys! And you have-babies?" I asked as my feet were swarmed by tiny nadders.
I reached down toward them. "Aww look at you guys. All happy and-together." I laughed as they pushed each other to get at my hand. "Who knew you were leaving to celebrate your own sort of… holiday?"
I stood up. "I should get back to my holiday." It was Snoggletog after all. I turned back to my nightmare friend. "So, what d'you say there Hookfang? Think you could give me a ride back home?" He acknowledged the question by motioning me to get on his neck.
I climbed on and he took off, hovering in the air for a moment. I took the chance to shout down at them "I'll see you all back on Berk when you're good and ready! Okay gang?" Stormfly apparently took this to mean it was time to go now and took off to join us in the air, quickly followed by the other adult Berk dragons.
"Oh, no! No, no!" I shouted at them. "I uh…think I just started the return migration." I muttered, quickly noticing that the hatchlings were trying to follow on the ground. "Well if you insist."
A few brave hatchlings tried to follow us into the air, but quickly flew back to the land they took off from. They weren't ready for a full flight yet. "Oh boy, this is never going to work." We hovered for a moment before I remembered. The ship Meatlug and I almost hit could carry them. "Oh, hold on." I told them. "I've got just the thing."
I turned Hookfang toward the old ship, noting that a few of the other adult dragons followed us. I hopped down onto the deck looking for anything we might use to carry it and found coils of rope probably meant for the sails. I didn't care. It would work.
We got the ship into the air without much hassle and the remaining adult dragons helped herd the hatchlings on board. When they were all loaded up, we started the return flight to Berk.
It was early Snoggletog morning by the time Berk came into view. I guess I was bringing the whole village one heck of a present. I could hear them all cheering as we approached the island. The dragons slowly set the ship down before letting go of the ropes they'd been clutching for hours.
Slowly, tiny heads began to peek out of the ship to see where their parents had set them down. As the hatchligns started to leave the ship, Hookfang landed and I slid off his neck. The villagers swarmed the dragons, and I couldn't help but smile.
Snotlout greeted his dragon with a cheer, Astrid with a hug. Then my father walked up to me, giving me a bone-crushing hug from behind. "Well done son." He told me before setting me back on my feet. "Everyone!" He roared. "Grab your dragons! To the great hall! We finally have something to celebrate."
I enjoyed walking through the great hall looking around at everyone enjoying themselves. I smiled as Fishlegs and Snotlout cooed over their dragons' hatchlings.
It hurt a bit though. As happy as I was for everyone, I couldn't really be happy for myself. My dragon was the only one not here. The pit in the bottom of my stomach reopened as I watched people reuniting with their dragons.
Was Toothless really not coming back? He hadn't left to lay eggs like the other dragons. Had he really just not wanted to stay with me anymore?
My thoughts were interrupted by Astrid saying my name. I turned to give her a smile. "Hiccup. I know this must be really hard for you seeing everyone with their dragons. But you really did a wonderful thing!" She exclaimed softly, lifting my face to look at her as I looked down. "Thank you." And she kissed me. It felt wonderful.
It was short, but sweet, and she pulled me into a hug when it ended. I hugged her back. I couldn't help but to ask, "Astrid, where did Toothless go?"
She shook her head, softly saying she didn't know. A few seconds later she pulled back, and said in a much less kind tone, "Wow, man. Wouldn't want to be you right now." Yeah thanks! What was up with this change? "I mean, you brought back everyone's dragon, except yours."
Why did she have to remind me? "Yeah." I responded. "You know; this is not…helping." I didn't want to be mean, but talk about throwing salt in an open wound Astrid! She got a gleeful smile, and for an instant the only thing I could see was how the kids my age seemed to relish in my pain, but I quickly shut that thought out.
Then she spun me around. Everything seemed to slow down as I saw a jet black dragon coming into the hall. "Toothless! Hey Bud" I shouted, not caring who heard me as I rushed forward to hug my friend. He seemed confused for a second before cooing at me happily.
And I remembered why I had been so upset just a moment ago. I pulled back and wagged my finger at him, "Bad dragon. Very bad dragon." I told him, watching as his eyes followed my finger. "You scared me to death. Don't you ever stay away that long again, and- what is in your mouth?" I barely had time to ask as suddenly my head joined whatever it was.
Toothless pulled away and I adjusted my helmet, trying to get the slobber off of it and my hair. "Yeah, you sure found my helmet." I told him, wiping slobber out of my eyes. Wait. What?
"Wha-hey! You found my helmet!" He reached his head forward to nuzzle me. "That's where you've been? Buddy, thank you. You are amazing." I told him before hugging him again.
I couldn't get up fast enough when Toothless started knocking on my roof the next morning. I could barely believe he was still here. It seemed that all my worries about him leaving forever had been for nothing.
I walked out the front door, yawning. Suddenly I was grateful for him waking me up before everyone else. He cooed at me. "I'm comin' Toothless!" I yell up at him. "Alright bud. Come on down. I was just…" I trailed off turning the corner and realizing he already was down. Laying in front of him is our old saddle and his old fin.
"Toothless, what'ja pull this out for? You don't need this anymore" I lightly kick it. "Come on, let's get going." I approached him, trying to get on, but he pulled out of my reach. Instead he sadly looks back down at his old saddle.
My mind is not comprehending what it is he wants. "Would you quit fooling around? You have a new tail now." I try again, but again he pulls away from me. "Toothless?" I ask.
He looks at me for a moment before turning to look at his new tail. He works it a couple of times before looking back at me and smashing his tail on the ground. I panicked, yelling at him to stop, but he ignored me and kept smashing it until he managed to fling it off of his tail.
He pulled his old saddle in front of him and nudges it before looking up at me again. He wanted to fly the way we always did. He wanted to depend on me. Any lingering fear I had about my best friend leaving forever dissipated as I felt a smile tug at my lips.
"Winter in Berk lasts most of the year. It hangs on with both hands and won't let go. And the only real comforts against the cold are those you keep close to your heart. Turns out, that was the best Snoggletog ever. That year I gave my best friend a pretty great gift. He gave me a better one.