Adaptation-Chapter 2
He was a Night Fury. And all of a sudden, so was the human. Will this work out, or will there be only suffering? And what about the female? Will they ever come to terms with what he did? It's up to Toothless to solve this mess!
Toothless lay motionless next to a sobbing Hiccup, until suddenly the sobs stopped and the newly-turned dragon got up and stared at him. "Toothless…explain the reasons behind this." They heard a rustle of leaves and another black dragon surged from the trees. "Hiccup! Where are you?!" She noticed two jet-black dragons standing by the water and she joined them. "You idiotic lizard! What have you done?" The dragon in question sat down, and they two did the same. "Now, Toothless, why did you do this?" Hiccup was playing the peace-keeper, keeping Astrid from lashing at his best friend in rage. "I'm sure you know what you now are…don't interrupt. You are the fastest and most powerful dragon that ever existed, except our ruler. You are a Night Fury." "That's very pretty, but why?" Hiccup wanted to know why, not minor details, he could figure those out himself. "It's a long story." "Well, bud, no one's going anywhere so soon, so I guess you owe us a long story."
Toothless closed his eyes for a minute. "If you want a long story. Night Furies are rare, very rare. Most dragons lay 4 to 20 eggs, depending on what kind of dragon they are. But Night Furies aren't like that. We are very lucky if our females lay 2 eggs even once. So, with the amount of times we get killed or seriously injured by angry Vikings…we have a population problem. So, when get a chance to grab and transform Vikings, we gladly take that chance, because we need all Night Furies we can get, especially females, so we can keep the species. Some of us say we only lay one egg per year, others say some females can lay 2 eggs…the fact is, I never saw a female lay 2 eggs. Plus, we only transform the strongest. The intensity of the transformation makes the weakest go insane, and we don't need that."
Astrid scowled. "So why is he here?" She pointed at Hiccup, who kept a straight face that made Toothless' heart break a little. He quickly was in front of her growling angrily. "You don't even know half of what he's capable. How do you expect him to be himself when the whole village wanted him either dead or away?" Astrid could have sworn she saw tears in Hiccup's Night Fury eyes, and it made her consider what Toothless had said, and she suddenly felt sad just looking at him. It was like she was seeing his whole life in his eyes. The pain and suffering that his village didn't want him, his friends hated him and his father didn't love him…it broke her heart in two. "Hiccup…is it true? Was it that bad how we treated you?" His only answer was curling up in a black ball of scales so they wouldn't see his tears, but her very sensitive Night Fury hearing caught the faint sobs that escaped his mouth. She felt guilty of her actions and that he went through all of it without breaking. She admired him for that, but also felt awful that it was her fault that he was now crying. Toothless wrapped a wing around him, and there was hate and anger in his eyes as he glared at her.
Eventually the sobbing faded and he asked Toothless to continue. The older dragon sat near him as h continued his long story. "I know what you are going through. I was a human too. I had a pretty good life, but I lacked love from my family, so I ran outside during a dragon raid to my village, which, coincidentally, is what you now call Berk." The astonishment on Astrid and Hiccup's faces was clearly evident. "I was a young, bold warrior, so the Night Fury in charge of that raid carried me back to his nest and transformed me. We all resent being transformed for some time, but we get used to it, and flying is always fun." Hiccup smiled and bumped him gently. "We could say so, right bud?" Toothless laughed and wrapped a wing around his friend. "Tomorrow I will teach you to fly. " Hiccup smiled like a kid in a candy store, which made Astrid groan in frustration and curl up under the shadows for the night "I sure hope this is all a dream."
The next day, Hiccup was the first to wake up, excited for flight lessons. "When will we begin?" Toothless, completely awake as well grinned. "Right now! Climb on that rock and face that tree on the other side. Then, on the count to three, spread you wings and straighten you tail with your tail flaps open. When I say 'three' jump and just let your wings carry you across the water to the other side." Astrid stayed under the shadows of some tall bushes, pretending to still be asleep while despising the fact that Hiccup was perfectly happy as he successfully glided back and forth across the cove with a childish grin on his draconic face.
Toothless was overwhelmed at how fast Hiccup learned. He didn't fight his instincts at all and his technical mind rejoiced while analysing every detail, every reflex, every muscle and bone. Even a simple glide was a wonder of what we would later call Physics. By the end of the day he was starting to learn how to curve and tilt his flight path. Toothless eventually had to stop him. "Hiccup, take a break. You're new at all this and you shouldn't make your wings so tired. Relax and eat some of the fish available at this lake" He gladly did so, discovering how good raw fish smelled and tasted now that he was a dragon.
Astrid wasn't so easy to teach. She didn't want to be a dragon and wanted to keep her instincts at bay and control her actions, like she always did. This led to several splashes into the water or hits against the hard ground. That was until she saw how well Hiccup dealed with this and how, yet again, he was getting better than her and getting all the attention and praise while keeping her in the shadows. This hurt her pride and flared her competitiveness, which led her to heeding the advices and relying on her instincts. She was flying about three days after Hiccup mastered the flight patterns of a fully grown Nigh Fury. He would come back with a mouthful of fish for them each day and she tried to keep up with his abilities. One thing she was indeed good was at the landings. She had all the grace and swiftness required of such majestic creatures as Night Furies, while Hiccup did something like a controlled crash. Toothless was impressed, and at the same time sad that he couldn't go fly with them. Without his rider, he couldn't fly like he once did. He could instead glide, but whenever he tried to curve, he wavered and crashed.
He was stranded there, an easy prey for Vikings. This stung at Hiccup's heart. He didn't want to leave him behind, but he would have to when his own father found the cove. It was a death sentence. "An injured dragon is a dead dragon."