Chased by Snotlout plus the twins into the woods, check; losing them in said woods, another yes; accidentally lost herself as well, unfortunately, yes. Hicca had been wandering for hours through the woods, trying to find her village unsuccessfully, and was getting more paranoid by the minute. She kept hearing twigs snapping and moving around her, and had a feeling of being watched while she walked, but saw nothing whenever she looked.
She happened upon a small crevice that dug somewhere and decided to follow it sheerly for the heck of it. All other thoughts were momentarily swept away by the breathtaking beauty of the cove she found herself in.
It was wider across than it was deep, with a small lake in the center, scattered boulders around the edge, and tree roots growing from the walls. If she ever found her way back, this could be her own private escape. She noticed a medium-sized cave over on one side and thought of the possibilities with setting up a small 'home-away-from-home' in this cove. The black dragon watching her from above had different plans, focused on Hicca instead of the setting.
He had been tailing her ever since she lost the other Vikings quite skillfully, and had noticed her for her comparatively slim build in relation to the other humans. He could scent the sadness, disappointment, and fear on her, a cloud of negativity that followed her through the forest. He tailed her to see what he could do to help, not knowing why he felt so protective of this Viking, just knowing that his emotions were screaming at him to shield this fragile girl.
Hicca had just finished writing plans in her journal and began heading for the mountain, easily visible from the cove, figuring that she could circle it to find her village if necessary. The unseen dragon continued to follow, keeping as quiet as possible and blending into shadows when necessary. She found her village surprisingly quick and decided that the cove was a perfect hideaway. She dodged a run-in with the night watchmen and slunk back to her house, praying to Odin that her father wasn't home yet. Her prayers were answered, and she walked tiredly up the stairs to her room, plopping onto her bed and falling asleep instantly, her barely audible snores whistling through the house.
She woke up next morning, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and grabbed a hunk of bread from the kitchen for breakfast, deciding to avoid the great hall this morning. The comforting smell of hot metal and hard work set her at ease, and she joined Gobber in bad song while she worked, outclassing him (and everyone else) with her natural gift. Everyone called her voice, "the one thing Odin got right with you"; while Gobber said that her voice was a lovely trait among many. One of her rare smiles had graced the world when he said this, turning into a laugh at Gobber's enormous belch soon after.
She kept up her singing while hammering in a finishing touch on a sword, changing tune with Gobber as he moved on to the next red-hot workpiece and she sharpened the nearly finished sword. Astrid came by in the afternoon, demanding a sharpening, receiving sass and her newly sharpened ax in moments. One shouting match later, and Hicca was back at work, somewhat gloomier than before.
"I shouldn't have taunted Astrid like that, it was rude," muttered Hicca, eyes focused on their work with less zeal than before, emerald eyes dimmed fractionally.
"If ya wan' rude, listen to tha' lass talkin' to Snotlout after he demands a date; my ears were ringin' fer weeks after, and I was on the other side o' the village!" claimed Gobber, managing to elicit snorts and giggles from Hicca with his out of proportion tale.
"One would almost think that she's related to the boneknapper, huh Gobber?" said Hicca, still giggling.
"Lass, we've gon' over this: the Boneknapper is a silen' killer, it makes no noise at all!" said Gobber, fake exasperation in his voice. He smiled with the fresh giggles that had come from Hicca. They bantered and worked happily through the rest of the day, getting into contests and bets the whole time. Hicca started home happily, but suddenly started running halfway back, fearing for her health, Snotlout and the twins once more on her tail. They had blocked her route home, and so she drove through the forest, hoping desperately that she would lose them.
She got lucky when dodging through some bushes, narrowly missing a badger nest underfoot. Her pursuers weren't as fortunate and were scratched harshly for their troubles. Hicca kept running, going all the way to the cove before she stopped. She panted harshly, leaning on her knees for support, trying to catch her breath.
She heard flapping and the rustling of scales - sure sounds of a dragon - and swung her head up to find a midnight black beast swooping towards her. She screamed, tripping over a rock in her panicked dash for the entrance, and slammed her head on the ground hard enough to knock herself unconscious. She came to slowly, the side of her head sticky and wet, and slowly looked around, panicking when she saw the dragon in front of the entrance. She'd been out for less than a half a minute, and the dragon was walking towards her.
She cowered against a boulder, arms over her head, sure that she was about to be burned to a crisp. She hyperventilated for a minute before stiffening: something was licking the side of her head. Her paralyzing fear didn't let her run, and she sat there with wide eyes as the dragon lapped at her bloody temple.
The dragon purred inaudibly while he licked the Viking clean, hoping that the vibrations might comfort her. His logical side was telling him to either backoff or outright flash burn the girl, but his instincts were tackling that, and telling him to comfort her. She stopped bleeding after a while, and the dragon stopped then, wrapping the small Viking in his wings and coiling around her for warmth. His wing became a canopy, and the already half-asleep Hicca nodded off in the safety of dragon body heat. She woke up the next morning with the mother of all bed head, and not a scale in sight as proof of the dragon. Her fishy hair spelled it out clearly though: a dragon had comforted and helped her. She washed her hair in a stream on the way back, confused by her encounter. She spent that day half in her own thoughts, managing to not hit her hands in the forge somehow, wondering about the dragon.
'Dragons always go for the kill. That was definitely a dragon, so why didn't that one? What makes it so special?' a sudden thought occurred to her. 'What makes ME so special? I'm a nobody, a weakling, a mistake, and yet I'm the one to survive meeting what I can only guess was a Night Fury without so much as a knife and got cuddled by it to boot!' Her musings carried her all the way through the village and into the forest, stopping as she found the cove again.
She nearly bolted upon realizing where she was, but her curiosity stopped her. Why didn't that dragon attack her? Why did it HELP her? She needed answers, and the only place she could possibly get them was in the cove. She released a sigh at her stupidity and walked into the cove. She found the Night Fury sun bathing on a wide rock, rumbling in bliss as the heat made him sleepy. The odd sight had Hicca at a loss for words, and she wondered what to do. Her feet shuffled with indecision, and the dragon rolled over at the sound, just enough to look at her with a single eye, brow raised in curiosity.
She stammered and stared into the sea-green orb. "I-I-I… uh, hi… I know w-we've already met… b-but I-I didn't introduce myself, or-or-or thank you for helping me af-after I banged my head up." He rolled over fully, relaxed and calm, setting Hicca at ease. "So, despite not knowing if you can understand me, and likely being insane for talking to a dragon, thank you for doing what you could to help me yesterday… and for keeping me company. You're the first… anyone to do so, and it was much appreciated, even if I was unconscious at the time." He stretched luxuriously, producing pops and booms from his spine, before getting up and trotting over to Hicca.
She about had a heart-attack as he started moving, but was shocked into silence by the lick to her cheek. She didn't know how, but she suddenly knew that he'd understood, and was giving her a 'you're welcome' as only a dragon could. She smiled at him, and he looked a little confused about the expression, before giving a smile without any teeth.
"Toothless? But the other day you had…" she muttered, looking into his mouth. She jumped back when he unsheathed his teeth, watching confused as the dragon made a chuffing sound. She suddenly realized: he was laughing at her! She pulled all the stops on her snark, sass, and sarcasm as she replied to his taunt.
"Oh, excuuuse me for being surprised at a lizard who doesn't have any teeth. My mistake for assuming that you were so young, oh ancient one, toothless with age." She gave a low bow to the 'old lizard,' whose narrowed eyes displayed his irritation. He bumped her chest with his head, tripping her onto her butt with a yell of surprise. "Wanna play like that, huh? Alright then," she said, grinning. She bopped his nose, sending it into a twitching frenzy. She ran from him as fast as possible, shouting "You're it!" over her shoulder. He caught on after a moment of confusion, and the two chased each other around the cove until Hicca was sweaty and the dragon was smug.
"You know…" Hicca huffed, catching her breath, "I can't… call you 'Dragon'… or 'You' all the time… but I think I found… a name for you… how does 'Toothless' sound?" "Toothless" snorted at the name, somewhat indignant, and turned his back to Hicca with as much contempt as he could manage. "Uh-huh, I've found a name for you…" she paused for effect, quietly walking near his ear. "… Toothless." He pushed her onto her rear with a paw, rolling eyes at her chuckling form.
The name Toothless grew on the Night Fury, and so did Hicca. They spent many afternoons together in the cove, Hicca always making certain she wasn't followed before entering the woods, and growing closer to one another in both an emotional and physical sense. Accidents became teasing, and teasing turned into flirting. After one particularly bold lick on Toothless' nose, she realized something even madder than befriending a dragon while lying in bed.
"I'm falling in love with a dragon…" she whispered to the rafters overhead, a confession that excited and frightened her.