Some days fared far better than others.
On the good days, he could step amongst the streets of Berk, walk up and down the pebbled pathways with mental stillness if not full mental ease; could greet Hooligans around him with a smile and nod; could speak collectedly at councils and meetings; and could find laughter and kisses with Astrid, teasing words and tender touches, play at Dragon Racing games, and all in all feel the vibrancy of being a hale young man. A young village leader. For inevitably, even on the good days, he found himself pressed under a near overwhelming number of duties.
The busyness helped him, in truth.
But despite the cycle of good days and bad days and every gradient in between, the nights invariably were harsh. He could keep himself occupied or piggyback on the company of friendly Viking souls during daylight, but no one was around him at nights to busy his spirits. Nothing but dark thoughts visited after sunset.
Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third rolled over in bed with a belabored sigh.
Though his father's rumbly, bear-like snores had always kept Hiccup awake in the past, now that the house fell completely silent at night every night, he found himself sleeping worse. Sleeping little. Thoughts, thoughts, unwelcome thoughts plagued him, prevented internal rest; images more real than the bedpost just beyond him flashed across his mind's eye; and the horrid, high-pitched banshee screech of a killing blast still rang through Hiccup's ears.
Toothless somehow had understood and gone to sleeping outside these pasts two weeks.
The flashbacks could hit hard, after all. And the nightmares, too, when sleep in its rare moments came. Then Hiccup would wake to the mental image of a blast torpedoing to his chest – or, even worse, the squelch of heated blood from Astrid's body dripping between his fingers.
It might have been for the best sleep evaded him now.
Briefly, upon sitting up and curling his blanket around him, Hiccup pondered if his other still were awake, yet after glancing through his window and spying a late moon amongst midnight stars, he dismissed the mental inquiry. Valka would be fast asleep now. Undoubtedly. He needed not step down the stairs to the first floor and check.
Sighing yet again, Hiccup pulled himself down supine yet again, rested his head on his pillow, and rolled over to get comfortable.
Then turned over immediately again to revert his attention to the window.
An upside-down head and a pair of glowing bug-eyed pupils peered into the house.
Toothless. Checking up on him. Perfect time for a best friend to arrive.
"Hey bud," Hiccup murmured quietly, voice croaking. "You can't sleep either?"
The suspended dragon head poking through the window cocked his head to one side, then rumbled quietly in his throat to answer an affirmative. He followed that comment up with an inquisitive moan.
"Yes, I'm doing fi –" Hiccup stopped before his tongue completed the lie. He answered "fine" to near enough any polite Hooligan who asked over his own wellbeing, yet his best friend deserved the truth. Staring up to the dragon's bright yellow-green eyes, Hiccup responded, "It's a bit tough right now. Like every night."
The dragon dropped down into the room and padded over to Hiccup's bed. He prodded the chief's arm with his nose.
"I was hoping it'd be a little easier, now – now – now –" his voice cracked "– that it's been about a month. Sometimes, though, it's almost worse."
Toothless nudged him again. Hiccup removed his arm from Toothless' reach and rolled over.
"Couldn't I at least get one night off from… from all this?"
The bed suddenly jolted, two legs bucking off the ground like a rearing bull. With a gasp, Hiccup slid into Toothless, who had plopped both his front feet on the very edge of the bed and tipped it toward himself. He pressed his nose insistently into Hiccup's rib and began groaning.
"Toothless! Toothless, no! What – what are you doing?"
Thunk. That latest nose shove dunked the chief on the floor, head and knees crashing to the wood below, rear sticking up like a small mountain peak.
"Toothless," Hiccup hissed, pulling himself out of the undignified bent position and standing upright to glare. The Night Fury sat down, wiggled his hindquarters, and rustled his wings. Two pupils stared beggingly at Hiccup. Each wide iris could have been larger than the moon outside. Shifting impatiently, Toothless moved his eyesight briefly to the saddle plopped in the corner of the room, then reverted his stare to the baffled, bleary-eyed Viking.
"You… want to fly? Now?"
Toothless burbled a "yes".
"But it – it's – everyone's sleeping! You should be, too!"
Toothless whacked his tail adamantly against the floor.
"Okay! Okay! Shhhh. You don't want to wake Mom. You've convinced me… I'm coming." The chief quietly pulled a thicker vest over his tunic and bent down to adjust the setting on his peg leg. "Let's fly."
Toothless took him immediately south – not even letting his rider provide any say on the matter – and soared down to a quiet location containing a mirror of still water bathed in moonshadow. Short smooth-faced rock cliffs surrounded the cove water; the rest of the area was blanketed in grass and speckled with liberal clusters of deciduous trees and stoic pines.
Old memories flooded Hiccup's mind.
"The cove… where we first became friends."
He recognized at once why Toothless had taken him here. Why the dragon so insistently had forced him out of bed in the first place. He wanted to comfort Hiccup and remind him of happier times.
Of course that past had strayed far from perfect, too. Hiccup had hated masquerading as a dragon killer amongst the Vikings while visiting his secret friend here. Anxiety frequently had clouded the teenager's mind as he feared someone would discover his double life, while a desire to be accepted by anyone tugged his heart another way. And his father, while still alive at the time, had been far from supportive.
But… but here in this cove, here in this milk-washed, moonlit world, Hiccup had found internal peace. Rest. Rejuvenation. Acceptance. Happiness. Laughter. Friendship.
He stared out at the shallow water now, mulling over those old times.
They were gone in many respects. That childhood was over. Nevertheless, that friendship which began in the cove still lived today.
And it had grown.
Gratitude washed over Hiccup, and with a bit of returned energy and a bittersweet smile, he said, "Come here, you!" and lunged toward Toothless in an attempted tackle hug. But though he aimed for the dragon's neck, a seemingly sure target, Toothless danced back with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He pulled up a paw to teasingly swipe at Hiccup, and next thing the both of them knew, they were half-sparring, half-chasing one another around the clearing.
"No fair, you have a longer arm reach than me!" Hiccup exclaimed with a short laugh as the dragon swept another foot toward the Viking. Hiccup dodged to the side, but not quite in time; for, while he thought he had ducked enough to the left, he felt a sudden pull on his vest. He stumbled backward, exclaiming, "Toothless, let go."
The dragon pulled up the plates on his head to suggest he had.
Hiccup still stumbled as Toothless drew his paw back toward his body, and as Hiccup was pulled around, he realized at once that the dragon's claw had gotten snagged into the fabric. Twisting, being wheeled backward against his will as the dragon moved, Hiccup exclaimed, "Whoa whoa whoa, hold still! You're caught on me."
Toothless shook his foot to rid himself of the claw snag.
He only succeeded in rattling Hiccup about, the chief flopping about like a beached fish. His toe remained caught in Hiccup's clothes.
"Here, here, let me get out of this, just slip my sleeves out…"
But before Hiccup could get himself out of the mess by removing himself from the vest, Toothless shook his foot one last time.
Hard.
Hiccup heard an enormous r-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-p and then he was suddenly flying backwards and everything was cold and then there was this equally loud SPLASH.
Hiccup was flung backward, suddenly shirtless, crashing into freezing cold early spring water. He plunged under for a moment, pushed himself up to the surface, and spluttered.
In the night, Hiccup could see Toothless staring at the ripped vest and shirt – still snagged on his toenail – with a rather curious expression.
Pulling himself of the water and shivering, clutching his hands around his wet and dripping chest, Hiccup grumbled, "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"
Toothless puffed up his neck and chortled.
Hiccup reached into the cove water and splashed it at the dragon, hitting him right on the nose. The dragon widened his eyes as though offended.
"Oh come on. You got me wet. I have a right to get even." Hiccup laughed and drew the dragon's head in for a hug. "Thank you, Toothless," he said, the darkness of the night no more bearing upon him. He shivered in the chilly air nonetheless, and suggested, "Now let's go back before either of us catch a cold."
Dragon and rider rose into the sky. The cove had been the place Toothless' tail was mended by Hiccup's hand. And that same cove was a place of healing for Hiccup's heart.