As Stoick's commanding voice boomed out that by tomorrow Hiccup was to take all dragons away from Berk, Toothless felt Hiccup slide to the ground by his side murmuring just one word "No" and sighed to himself this was going to be a long night and he really did not want to think about tomorrow just yet. Several gentle nudges to his rider later had Hiccup coming back out of his shocked stupor and climbing onto his back. Turning a tear stained face to Stoick Hiccup shakily said "Well our last night together for a while will NOT be spent with you, come on bud let's go".
By unspoken agreement they flew to the cove where Hiccup shakily dismounted and after they had both lit a fire (working together in perfect sync as always, though Toothless did have to prompt Hiccup to start) burst into tears again slumping to the ground. Toothless curled round his distraught rider trying to provide some source of comfort whilst himself not feeling too great either. Since the battle with the Queen or as Hiccup had named her the Red Death they had never once been apart, sighing to himself again and licking Hiccup's face he felt annoyed too. He knew Hiccup's sire didn't want to hurt his son but by doing this he was hurting Hiccup in the worst possible way. A humourless chuckle escaped as Toothless was ashamed to admit he needed Hiccup just as much as he needed him and he really, really wished he could plasma blast that pesky Mildew then eat his stupid sheep.
After a while of sitting there, just the two of them, Hiccup gently took off Toothless' saddle placing it careful in a lean to they had long ago built together to store it in then started rummaging through his pockets, cursed, got up and fetched a stick and started scribbling on the ground. Interested Toothless came over to see what he was drawing only to see funny symbols not a picture and Hiccup kicking it away again in frustration "Argh! No that won't work, this is hopeless I need to and WILL find a way to prove Mildew set you all up bud" Toothless settled himself around Hiccup for comfort again and warmth too as he had seen that slight shiver Hiccup tried to hide and watched as he repeatedly scribbled ideas then scuffed them out again getting more and more frustrated.
After a while Toothless noticed Hiccup stifling yawns so he dowsed the fire and nudged him towards where they usually slept in happier times spent in the cove together. Hiccup sighed and said "OK I'm coming bud but I've got to find a way, I've just got to" he hugged Toothless tightly and he wrapped his wings round Hiccup (his clumsy form of reciprocating) and mused to himself he would miss this. He was confident however that Hiccup would eventually find a solution as he always does and he trusts Hiccup implicitly. Gently unfolding his wings from Hiccup he licked his tears away and (although it was the last thing he felt like doing) he gave Hiccup one of his signature smiles. This seemed to do the trick as it made Hiccup shakily smile back "Thanks bud, I needed that" nudging Hiccup again Toothless walked over to their 'bed' and was followed by Hiccup. Firing the ground to warm it, he settled down and wrapped Hiccup up against himself, wings covering him and attempted to get some sleep.
Morning came far too quickly for Toothless' liking. He let Hiccup sleep for as long as he could, enjoying having him there with him where he knew he was safe but knew he was just putting off that dreaded moment. After a while he heard Hiccup's stomach grumble and sighing to himself gently unfolded his wings and gave Hiccup his usual morning wake up when they sleep in the cove together, very thoroughly licking his face. "Yuck! Get off me! Toooothless! OK, OK I'm awake you crazy reptile" despite himself Toothless felt himself smiling and chuckling at this familiar reaction and Hiccup was smiling too. Then the smiles fell off both their faces as they remembered what was going to happen today, for a brief happy moment they had both forgotten. They both moved towards each other and embraced, Hiccup Toothless noticed was shaking again so he pulled him closer and wrapped him up tighter.
After a while Hiccup gently detached himself, walked over to the pond and splashed his face. He turned to face Toothless and he saw a look of fierce determination on his face, the same look he had seen when they faced the Red Death together and he felt proud, he knew Hiccup would definitely find a solution and they wouldn't be separated for long. "Right then, time to face this head on bud" Hiccup said smiling at Toothless, he smiled back at him making Hiccup's smile stronger "But breakfast first though" and shakily walked off to fetch Toothless' saddle. Toothless watched him not feeling very hungry for the first time in a while (the last time being when Hiccup was in a coma, he barely ate then he mused) and doubted Hiccup was truly hungry either.
Hiccup put the saddle back on him and as Toothless moved over to the lake said "Nope let's get you a proper breakfast and have a decent flight together too shall we bud?" Toothless nodded at him, the unspoken part being who knew when they would be able to again, he never doubted that they would though. After his usual thorough safety check, Hiccup climbed on and they took off into the sky. Toothless swooped and soared and was happy to eventually hear Hiccup whooping as he instinctively changed the gears to suit the moves Toothless was doing. After a while of this happy flight together Toothless dived towards the ocean, blasted some fish and dipped down so Hiccup could scoop them up into a basket he had strapped to his back. When he felt they had enough he flew off back to the cove knowing that neither of them felt like doing any of their usual tricks today.
Hiccup gathered some more wood for a fire, Toothless lit it for him and watched amused as he cooked his one fish over it. He had long since given up trying to get Hiccup to eat more than one and they had eventually compromised by Hiccup taking one offered to him by Toothless (usually he made sure it was one of the larger ones, though today he knew Hiccup wouldn't manage to finish). Toothless devoured the rest and waited for Hiccup to finish his which he was pleased to see he did. Hiccup sighed, got up and extinguished the fire "No sense in prolonging it any further bud, let's go" he said, climbed on and they set off to the plaza where they knew everyone would be.
Toothless wasn't surprised to see they were the last ones there and was pleased in a way as that meant they wouldn't have to wait any longer, though he also didn't want to leave just yet as that would mean leaving Hiccup behind. They all walked down to the docks where Toothless noticed some of the Vikings were launching one of their ships, he realised this was how Hiccup and the others were going to return home and shuddered, he had not been on one since the battle with the Red Death and knew Hiccup shared his dislike of them too. Growling he relaxed as Hiccup placed a hand on his head "Don't worry bud, lucky for you, you don't have to travel on that, we're flying of course" Hiccup climbed on and they set off towards Dragon Island, the boat following them.
Toothless shuddered as they landed, this place held some pretty horrific memories for him, he knew the other teens dragons weren't particularly keen to be back here either but it was worse for him, he had nearly lost Hiccup here. Hiccup climbed off him and slowly started to remove his saddle then stood by his side for a while, hand resting on his head not speaking. Toothless watched the others as they had their saddles removed also, only Stormfly and Meatlug seemed to realise what was going on it seemed.
The dreaded time came to part with Hiccup and Toothless found that now it was here he DEFINITELY did not want to. He could see Hiccup was struggling too then as he started to walk away from him Toothless couldn't help it, he followed anyway. Hiccup stopped him as he knew he would but looked like he really wanted Toothless to come with him anyway. Hiccup he could tell was struggling not to cry again as he promised Toothless he would be back as soon as he could and to trust him. Toothless knew he did indeed trust Hiccup and hoped he wouldn't be waiting long.
Hiccup had asked him to look after the other dragons so he dutifully kept a close eye on them for a while but then started to feel home sick so went over to his saddle and curled up. It was comforting as it had Hiccup's scent on it, he sighed deeply, he really did miss Hiccup and hoped he was OK. Suddenly he was startled out of his sleep by a noise and went out to see what was going on. Uh oh two of the teen's dragons (or was it technically three, he wondered) were fighting each other. Barf and Belch should be OK but oh boy he thought, why did one of them have to be Hookfang? He and Hookfang never have really got on well with each other but Hiccup was relying on him to keep the peace so he went over anyway.
"Hey, hey, hey what's going on here? Come on please stop fighting" predictably his attempts at peace keeping didn't go down too well with Hookfang "Keep out of this, you're not the boss of me" sighing Toothless thought that Hookfang was just like his obnoxious rider Snotlout. Turning towards Barf and Belch he noticed they looked more upset than angry "Are you two OK?" he asked "Not really, see Ruff and Tuff promised they would be back for us and we believed them see" "But then Hookfang here said they've abandoned us" "And now we don't know what to believe"
Toothless sighed to himself as Hookfang continued to rant about how they never should have trusted humans, turning to Barf and Belch he said, "Trust Ruff and Tuff, they said they would be back and I'm sure they will be just as soon as they can." Nodding their heads at Toothless Barf and Belch said "Thank you for reassuring us" "Yes see Ruff did seem to be very upset" "Tuff too" "But then Hookfang started to make us stupidly doubt them" "Thanks Toothless"
"Huh I can't believe you're siding with him" Hookfang snorted "They just left all of us here with no explanation, they've abandoned us all." Toothless sighed and was about to speak when Stormfly approached and beat him to it "Actually I believe all of our riders explained what was going on to us and that they would be back as soon as they can, it's not our fault you don't listen. Plus I saw you run off as Astrid was saying her goodbye to me, you never gave Snotlout a chance to say goodbye. Also for the record my rider was almost in tears as she did, Astrid is a warrior, she doesn't ever cry. She will be back as will the others." Meatlug chimed in too saying that Fishlegs promised he would be back and she trusted him whole heartedly . She knew he would be soon and was content to wait for him.
Toothless left them all there knowing that now none of them were going to fight each other. He went back into his little shelter where Hiccup had placed his flying gear and curled up near it, closed his eyes and inhaled the comforting scent that was Hiccup. He tried to get some sleep but knew it would be impossible, he missed Hiccup and hoped he was OK. The night was a long and hard one, he missed the comforting sounds of Hiccup sleeping in his bed near him and only managed to sleep when exhaustion finally overcame him.
When he woke the next morning, everything felt wrong, it took him a while to realise why then when he did he sighed and remained curled up by his flying gear. Stormfly found him there a while later she had brought some fish with her for him. "Morning Toothless, here these are for you" "Morning Stormfly and thanks but I'm really not hungry." "Come on Toothless you need to eat something, you know better than any of the rest of us that Hiccup will be back for you just as soon as he can" "Thanks I know he will but I really miss him, we haven't been parted once since the battle till now. He needs me Stormfly and, and I need him too" he said miserably. Stormfly draped a wing over him supportively "Eat your fish Toothless, you will be no good to Hiccup when he returns if you've starved yourself again."
Toothless knew she was right and realised she had even brought him his favourite, Icelandic Cod, he smiled as he had a flashback memory. Back when Hiccup was in a coma after the battle he stopped eating as he was too worried about Hiccup but Astrid insisted he ate. Every day she brought freshly caught fish she and Stormfly had caught for him but each time he refused. Eventually Astrid told him off much in the same way as Stormfly had just done and he grudgingly ate the fish she had brought for him that day. After that he ate them every time and it wasn't long before Astrid realised his favourite fish was Cod and got Stormfly to catch that particular fish for him.
Having finished the fish Stormfly had caught for him Toothless knew he should be a little more social and mingle with the other dragons for a bit but he just could not face it. He sighed to himself, well he had always been known as a solitary dragon, preferring his own company before he met Hiccup. Oh Hiccup, he really did miss him.
All of a sudden his nose twitched and he sniffed again, yes he wasn't imagining it. That was Hiccup's scent and he was coming closer, at last! Oh wait, there are others with him too, their scents unfamiliar and knowing Hiccup as he did he very much doubted these people were friendly. Sure enough he heard Hiccup's voice protesting the use of a sword to get him to move. Growling he slowly edged closer to where he knew Hiccup was and was really angry to see him being roughly manhandled onto Dragon Island.
Snarling he got into a battle ready stance, determined to protect Hiccup and then nearly smiled as he saw how scared Hiccup's sure to be torturers were of him. Huh? What was Hiccup doing? Ohhhh this must be one of his brilliant and clever plans. Toothless couldn't restrain himself however when Hiccup walked towards him. He had missed him so much and he could see and tell Hiccup had missed him too. As they were reuniting with each other Hiccup whispered his plan to Toothless. Hmmm clever, he pretended to be fighting Hiccup as stealthily his rider reattached the saddle and he carefully made sure to hide Hiccup from view whilst he was doing this. Feeling that all his flying gear was safely attached he crouched to allow Hiccup to climb up into the saddle and spun round to reveal what they had been doing. He felt so proud of Hiccup as he told them he wasn't a dragon conqueror but he was a dragon trainer and gave Hiccup one of his best ever trademark smiles in response to his comment of returning home.
Ohhh of course they couldn't be allowed to leave so easily. Toothless ducked and dived desperately avoiding some pretty nasty boulders that were fired at them. He had to keep Hiccup safe. Then he was confronted with the very thing he had been dreading. One of the men below fired a crossbow at them and Toothless knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it in time. Subtly angling himself so that it would hit him not Hiccup he braced himself for pain that never came. Looking around he saw Stormfly blast away another arrow which was again inches away from them. "Thanks Stormfly" he called out to her "No problem, you would (and have before) have done the same thing for me" she called back.
Just as Toothless was dodging another bola (he really hated those things) thrown at them he heard a shriek and turning towards it he saw Astrid tumble down from Stormfly's back onto one of the boats. She was promptly taken as a hostage and Toothless knew he had to rescue her somehow as she was important to Hiccup. Hiccup told them all to hold their fire but of course Hookfang didn't listen and fired anyway. Just as he was feeling annoyed with Hookfang (and judging by Hiccup's yelling, he was equally as annoyed with his cousin) Toothless noticed steam rising from the water where Hookfang had fired. Smiling he started firing just as Stoick pointed this out to Hiccup and gave the command to fire at the water. This created a massive cloud of fog and the enemy couldn't see them (and therefore stopped shooting) however they with their superior dragon eyesight could easily see everything.
I helped guide Stoick in the fog and he rammed his ship into the enemy's. Our foe was knocked slightly off balance and Astrid grabbed an oar and bravely fought her way out of his grasp. Before he could grab her again I rammed into him and grabbing Astrid flew her to safety and a very relieved Stormfly. A quick fight between Stoick and the enemy where Stoick was easily the victor then we blasted their ships (oh yeah, that felt good). Finally now we could return home. I did a quick loop in the air to show my joy that we were reunited once more and judging by Hiccup's whoops he enjoyed it just as much as I did.
When Stoick asked Hiccup what he thought he was doing letting Alvin capture him (Hmmmm so that's his name, I will remember that one) I was touched to hear Hiccup answer that he knew he had to get to me, everything would be made right then. Yes, together we are an unstoppable team. As the shores of Berk approached Hiccup said "Welcome home Toothless" and leaned over slightly to hug me, oh that felt good. It also felt good as first Stoick put Mildew in his place and then Hiccup did too.
Full of smiles Hiccup jumped back into the saddle and said, "Let's go to the cove bud". We flew off to our favourite place together and landed in much better spirits than the last time we were there together. Sliding down and smiling as I instinctively steadied him, Hiccup hugged me again and I wrapped my wings round him, breathing in his scent.
Reluctantly after a while we both broke apart from our embrace and Hiccup yawned, looks like he got just as little sleep as I did last night. "Oh bud, I really missed you, I am nothing without you there by my side" Hiccup said "You mean everything to me and I don't actually think I could live without you". How I wished I could speak to him too, he voiced almost exactly how I feel about him. Licking him I then nudged him so he came closer, laughing he said "Ugh you know that doesn't wash out but I love you too" He curled up by my side, I draped a wing over him and we both got some much needed sleep, together, side by side just as we always should be.