Fishing for Trolls [Rating: K]
He could see his own face in the still water.
It was a quiet little stream which meandered through Berk's thick forest to the ocean shores, and a merry one, in its own ways, merely contentedly drifting between mossy rocks with not a care in the world.
If only Hiccup could feel as calm as the stream.
For he could see his own face in the still water, and while the water was tranquil, Hiccup's own countenance could not be more raw in grief.
Sometimes fish below the shallow surface of the stream splashed beneath his mirrored image, distorting his face with dancing ripples. His reflection then wavered. His pained expression, however, remained a constant.
If anything, it hurt more to see the fish.
Toothless appeared to be of the opposite mind. As soon as he noticed the small swimmers in the water, he eagerly plunged his head into the stream. He did not manage to catch anything, though; thus Toothless sat back upright, staring intently, intently, intently at the water, not even daring to blink for fear of missing movement. At times Toothless twitched, almost diving back in, but the fish did not reappear.
"Toothless. No. Don't," Hiccup mumbled as the dragon started yet again – at a drifting twig now, not a fish. The dragon turned to stare at the young Viking man and cocked his head curiously to one side, eyes wide with concern. He then returned attention to the stream, but this time to try to understand at what Hiccup stared.
It was just the reflection of the two of them in that stream. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Hiccup remembered when there were other faces in that water.
Neither had been happy at the time, yet Hiccup's memory of the event was nostalgic nonetheless. Suddenly he could not only see the faces, but hear a high squeaky voice of a young boy, the deep gruff voice of a thick-bearded man, and the swish of two fishing poles being laid out before them.
The recollected reflections in the water spoke.
"But I'm booooored."
"You have to be patient to catch fish, Hiccup." The father's deep voice was barely straining onto patience at this point, despite the fact he was attempting to lecture on that same virtue.
"Whaddif I don' wanna catch fish?"
"Son, we're going fishing. That's what we do when we fish."
"But the guys who use those boats to get fish… don' they geddenough?"
"The fishermen who row into the ocean to fish do get enough fish to feed the entire village."
"Then this is stupid. I wanna look for trolls."
A boy stepped up and defiantly marched away from the quiet stream. His reflection in the waters disappeared.
But Hiccup's adult face remained.
So did Toothless'.
Toothless probably had his own memories circulating through his head, similarly unwanted, similarly painful. Hiccup remembered the dragon attempting to fish in the cove back when he first lost his left tailfin and lived, alone and abandoned. The dragon had been frightened and in pain himself for those times he fished. Probably, there was much more to his past – and much more hurt – than Hiccup himself knew about Toothless.
The dragon had not caught anything at the time, either.
Hiccup and Toothless could both see their faces in the water, and both their expressions were grim.
But even as they both stared at their mirrored images… they made eye contact.
Neither were alone.
For the first time, the stream reflected back the image of smiles.