Here's chapter 2. A bit of FYI, the first part of this chapter is one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie, especially the musical score that plays while Hiccup is stepping between the lines of Toothless' drawing (Forbidden Friendship is the title of that song) The soundtrack is SO worth buying.
DISCLAIMER Just like before, I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or it's characters. The idea of this fiction is the only thing I own. And just so you know, it's becoming a pain and time consuming to type the full title, so from now on, I'm referring it by 'HTTYD'.
888
CHAPTER – 2 I am Flying
I decided to nap in a small tree. I hung from the branch with my tail and my wings wrapped around me. But it was a fitful sleep. I would have enjoyed it more if the nagging in the back of my mind weren't constantly warning me about dropping my guard near a human. When I opened my eyes, I noticed said human was sitting on the same stone he was propped against when I regurgitated half the fish onto his lap. Though his back was turned to me, I could tell he was deep in concentration. In his hands was a stick that he dragged along the ground. I snuck up behind him to observe what he was doing and I noticed he was using the end of the stick to carve shapes in the soil. Shapes that vaguely resembled myself. This told me much. The human was interested in knowing more about me if he was able to etch my likeness in soil with only his thoughts as reference. This gave me an idea. I pulled a small tree from its roots by my teeth, and proceeded to use to drag it along the ground to mimic him on a greater scale. I stole glances at him as I etched more into the ground.
Once I had completed my task, I stood back and marveled at my creation. The human, however, seemed unsure of what he saw, at least that's the impression I got from his expression. As he stood to get a better view of my masterpiece, his foot stepped on one of the etches. I growled at him, threatening him not to mar my creation. He raised his foot off the line and I calmed down. He then tested my patience with his foot by stepping on the line a few more times, each time earning a threatening growl. When he finally realized that I did not want him to ruin what I've done, he carefully stepped between the lines almost in some form of crazy dance. He took such care not to step on marks that he didn't realize that he stopped directly beneath me. When he felt my breath course the back of his head, he looked at me, almost in admiration. When he slowly reached up with his hand, I warned him with a slight growl. I was still unsure about his touch, though I was sure he meant no more harm.
Realization crossed his eyes and he turned his head away. Again, he slowly brought his hand towards me, even slower than before. I watched him for a moment and I realized at the vibe I was receiving from him now was submissive instead of aggressive. Perhaps he has earned my trust… I leaned forward and touched my nose to his hand, and I felt him relax, like some great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. In that moment, the two of us connect in someway, and I was not bothered by that. I snorted when I withdrew, wondering why such a thing meant so much to the human, and I leapt away.
888
In the afternoon of the next day, he had returned. This time, he carried with him two large objects, one was a large casket, though smelled of delicious fish, seemed too cumbersome for him to carry on his own, yet somehow he had. The other object was a contraption that was beyond my understanding, but it did not seem to be a weapon, so I ignored it entirely. He placed the basket on the ground and used his foot to knock it over, the fish contained within spilled out upon the ground in a beautiful display. I circled cautiously, as was my habit, and sniffed at offering. Among the tasty fish, I could smell the faint stench of something evil, wicked, and vile! Once I realized what it was, I drew back, my fangs bared and my throat growling in disapproval. The human picked up the limbless, finless abomination and held it aloft. I screamed at the thing. Did he not know that eating one of those is poisonous to dragons?
He quickly understood my freight and was fast to be rid of the thing. He tossed it across the way, and once it was far enough, I instantly relaxed. In his body language, I saw that he was apologetic, and thus I accepted. He was only a human, how could he have know what was deadly to us dragon kin? For all I knew, those things were a delicacy among his kind. I pray to the Dragon Gods it is not. That would be disgusting. I nudged a few more fish and was please that there were no more of those dangerous things and began to greedily swallow the fish, satisfying the annoying growls in my belly.
As I ate, the human seemed to have wondered off, but I was too engorged to notice. I was starving and could not allow myself to be distracted from the meal the human offered. I even placed my head into the basket to snatch the few cod and salmon that were still in the back. Once all of the fish were gone, and the basket fell from my head, I stood with a full belly. I shifted a bit to feel my strength return, but as I did so, I could feel something else. Something familiar. Something that should have been missing. I was shocked at what I believed it to be…
I could feel the ghost of my tail fin!
Had the human's fish magically re-grown my missing fin? Slowly, I spread my wings, daring to hope that my fin had indeed grown back. If it had, I would be able to fly! Flying is my life, surely the human would be able to understand that.
With excitement in my heart and the adrenaline of the hope, I leapt above the lake, flapping my wings, and praying to the Dragon Gods that I could return to the skies. But my faith must have falter. As I neared a cliff wall, the ghostly fin seemed to vanish, and I found myself plummeting back to the earth. I needed the balance to sustain my flight. Yet just before I struck the ground, it had reappeared and in one swift movement, I soared back up, flapping my wings and climbing as high as I would dare. The fin then twisted, guiding me back to the cove. As I flew just above the water of the lake, I realized my tail was heavier than before. I glanced back and took note of the human riding me, holding on to the contraption that was attached to my tail. He would DARE put a human object on me? And to add insult to injury, it was an ugly mimic of MY fin! Furious about this, I snapped to the side, throwing him off of me and into the water. But just as I had, the ghost fin that allowed my flight balance failed again, and I too crashed into the water of the lake. For just a moment, I was free, but it was then taken away from me. Taunting me. Teasing me.
Why, oh why was this happening to me?
888
The following weeks were perhaps just as bad. When he returned with another human contraption, I was against him putting it on me. But after bribing me with more baskets of fish, I couldn't exactly refuse. I would be fed, and he gets to do whatever it was he was attempting. It wasn't until later I realized that the contraption he put on my back would allow him to ride me. Normally I would be against it, but when he rode me, he was able to influence my ghost fin, and thus, I was able to fly! There were many mishaps and mistakes that took place before the human seemed to grasp what he was trying to do, but I became lenient with him, so long as I was able to fly. It was even during one of these mishaps that I discovered a whole field of tall Dragon Nip to roll around in. It was so intoxicating; I couldn't refuse any ludicrous idea the human had. And the way he used his stubby fingers to scratch at my neck! It was Valhalla! Especially with that quick stroke on the chin…
The following day passed by with excitement as he tested how I would respond to his controls over the ghost fin. But perhaps the most exciting and scariest event was after he was unable to unattached himself from me and he coaxed me back to his village in the night. I was completely uncomfortable sneaking around the human domain while avoiding the ones that most likely wanted my head as a trophy. However, the human was insistent that I go with him to some form of dwelling where his equipment was. It smelled of soot and was cluttered with rubbish. When I knocked over a pile of that rubbish to pass through, the voice of another human called out to. While still attached to me, the human jumped through part of the wall to greet the other and hopefully deter them from long enough for him to continue his work. But this was getting too risky for my taste. I quickly pulled him back through the dwelling and through another exit to avoid the other human from spotting us and sounding the alarm. With the aid of the night, I flew back to the cove with my human rider.
888
It was now the third week, and my rider and I flew casually over Berk. He seemed willing to have a real flight instead of being teetered to the post on the tip of a cliff. And today was perfect for a flight. The clouds were pure white, the sky was cerulean blue, and the ocean below was as calm as a dragon with it's neck scratched (with a stroke under the chin). At first the flight was leisurely. Too slow for what I was used to, but the human seemed unwilling to go at the pace I was accustomed. So be it. We went into a soft turn, then dove towards the ocean and flew mere feet above the waves, and under a towering rock crag where sea birds roosted. Not my normal scenery, but it'll do. With the humans' guidance, I somehow then drifted towards a rock tower. Was he expecting me to land on the vertical rock face? I rebound off of it in annoyance, only to collide into the face of a second one. What was he doing? I suddenly slapped at him with my ear fin, hoping he would understand that if we are going to fly, we have to cooperate, not fly into rocks! He understood my meaning and tugged at the contraption. I then found myself climbing straight up and I could hear his cries of joy behind me as I rose higher and higher.
As we reached the zenith of our climb, something happened. My rider had somehow slid upward, higher than me, and once I realized he was off my back, he couldn't operate the ghost fin. I gave a horrifying scream as I found myself and him suddenly plummeting downward. Even if we landed in the ocean, falling at this height would most likely kill us. My mind went into a panic as I tried to recover him as he too tried to climb onto my back. I attempted to flap my wings to get closer to him, but the rushing winds served only to spin me out of control. He controlled the ghost fin, which aided me in flight. I suddenly realized that we needed each other to survive. I could hear him screaming as I was. I again attempted to get closer to him only to have my tail inadvertently slap him across the face, but that little impact spun us closer together in our fall. In an effort of desperation, he reached out to me, and he managed to get a hold. As he settled himself back into the saddle on my back, the forest below came into view and it was rushing towards us. I roared at the human to do something and when he pulled back on the ghost fin, my wings deployed outward to slow our decent, but it would not be enough I realized. We were still going to crash! The trees disappeared behind us and what appeared in front of us were more rock towers, but these were too close together to simply rebound off of. Then the human did something I would not have expected. He angled the ghost fin with enticed me to steady out and the pair of us dove under, over and around the rock crags at a high speed, a speed I was familiar with. It quickly changed from fearing death, to the excitement of the chase. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I wondered for a brief moment if the human felt the same. In split seconds, we twisted, rolled and swerved until we were clear of the towers, and as we slowed down from that sudden experience, he gave out a loud cheering sound, which I too shared. But I also released a blast of plasma in front of us and allowed the ring of fire to envelop us. During the excitement, I had forgotten that humans were not fire proof.
888
We had settled down on a deserted patch of island where I fed on freshly caught cod. I regurgitated half of my first fish and presented it to him to apologize for flying him through that ball of fire. I was glad he wasn't seriously hurt, but he did look annoyed. Although he didn't accept my offer the same way he had the first time, I understood his hesitance. Something about eating a fish that came from a dragon's stomach unsettled him, but I trusted him enough that his refusal did not upset me. What did upset me was the sudden arrival of a flight of Terrible Terrors. I bared my fangs and growled at them while I used my front legs to conceal the fish that was mine. When one got too close, I snapped at him while another Terrible Terror quickly snagged the half of fish I offered to the human, and dragged it away to chew on it for itself. These little dragons were not even as tall as my legs are long, but if there are enough of them, they can be troublesome. I watched as another Terrible Terror tried to steal from the first one, but was quickly chased away by a spit of fire from the first. I watched in annoyance. But I should have kept a closer eye on my own fish as one suddenly stood up and began hopping away. The third Terrible Terror tried to drag it away in its jaws, but I was quick to snatch it back. Surprisingly, the little dragon held on until I jerked the fish away, and quickly swallowed it whole, laughing at the Terrible Terrors misfortune.
It clawed at the ground and I could tell by it's gesture it meant to spit fire at me, but as it took in a breath, I puffed a breath of plasma down its throat. For a moment, it inflated half a size larger and fell to the ground; it's insides briefly aflame and smoking. Disoriented, it crawled away on unsteady legs, wisps of smoke exiting from its nostrils. But the human that was sitting against me took pity on the dragon and tossed one of his fish to it. The Terrible Terror quickly gobbled the cod down and out of gratitude, snuggled against the human's side where it promptly fell asleep. I marveled at the human and his ability to quickly accept what he doesn't understand, and I wondered if there were any more humans that would be willing to accept us dragons. Not as enemies, but as equals…
888
I apologize for the short chapter, but I liked how it ended. More to come shortly.
Until Next Time ;-)
Theo~
