Disclaimer: I do not own httyd
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews!
Musiclover435: Thank you, I do try to update regularly.
Sam1727: Thank you, and I do intend to complete this story.
Hicca looked around her immediate area and, satisfied that the Nadder was nowhere nearby, asked Gobber,
"You know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night furies. Is there another book? Or a/spanspan style="caret sequel? Maybe a little Night furt pamphlet?"
She was cut off by the wall behind her exploding, and she ran.
"Focus Hicca! You're not even trying!" Hicca absorbed what Gobber was saying while she ran.
"Today... is all about attack. Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter." Fill this arena with ice, and they'd see just how quick and light she could be.
"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" Of course he was.
"Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike." If she did, she'd be exposed, so no thanks. Behind her, the twins started to argue.
"Do you ever bathe?"
"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot." Umm... how would that help?
"How about I give you one!" Worst idea since Odin places Midgard in the hands of Ask and Embla. Seriously, he had to have been drunk. She heard an explosion, then commentary from Gobber,
"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much." If she wasn't still running, she would have laughed. As soon as she felt safer again, she asked,
"Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?" After all, she had managed it.
"None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale." Gods. "Now get in there." Not if she wanted to not blow her cover.
"I know, I know, but hypothetically..." she trailed off as she noticed Ash making shushing motions, crouched behind a wall with Snotlout.
"Hicca!" She hid with them, but the Nadder attacked. She ran, and listened to the others talking.
"Watch out bro. I'll take care of this." Then, "The sun was in my eyes, Ash." Of course it was. What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that, but I don't have time right now!" She would have laughed if she wasn't talking to Gobber. Again.
"They probably take the daytime off. You know, like a cat. Has anyone ever seen one napping?" Twin yells echoed through the arena.
"Hicca!"
"Hicca!" She turned around to see the walls collapsing, and Ash landed on top of her.
"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!"
"He could do better." Ruffnut gestured to herself.
Ash barely had the chance to register that he was on top of Hicca, or the slight squish under his hand when he stood up, as he lifted his battle axe (still attached to her shield) and whacked the attacking Nadder in the face with it. He then whirled back to face the girl below him, her face screwed up in pain.
"Is this some kind of a joke to you? Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on.
He didn't realise just how much of an effect those word would have on her later. Or understand the teasing he got from Snotlout later that day.
Hicca peered over the edge and, satisfied she wasn't about to be eaten, tossed the fish into the cove. From behind her ice shield, she watched as it was left alone. She walked forward to retrieve it, but her shield was stuck in the rocks. Sighing, she let it melt. She picked up the fish and peered around, looking for the Night fury. Behind her, it crouched on a rock, ready to spring.
She held out the fish in a silent plea for it not to eat her. It continued to approach, but adopted a non-threatening posture, so she felt at least partially safe.
Then, it hissed. She followed it's gaze to her ice dagger, strapped beneath the furs she hadn't had time to remove.
Trying not to think about the fact she was about to become nearly defenceless with one of the most deadly creatures on Midgard, she let the dagger melt.
As soon as she did, the dragon relaxed. His pupils widened, giving him an almost cute expression. Looking closer, she noticed...
"Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had..." impatient, the dragon let it's teeth slide out and grabbed the fish. "... teeth." The teeth retracted again, and he looked expectantly at her, sniffing and backing her against a boulder.
"Uh, no. No, I don't have any more." The dragon seemed to consider her for a moment, before dumping half of a half digested fish in her lap and sitting back to watch. She gave him a confused look.
He looked at the fish, then back at her.
He didn't want her to...
Sighing, she gingerly picked up the fish, taking a small bite and offering the rest to him.
He looked at her and made a swallowing motion.
Shuddering, she complied, and offered him a shaky smile.
To her eternal shock, his lips pulled back in a toothless smile of his own.
She decided to push her luck, and she reached for him.
He hissed, and half-flew to the other side of the cove. He burnt a patch of grass and lay down to sleep. Hicca pulled on her skates and followed him, sitting down cross-legged to hide the blades under her thighs. The dragon looked at her, and put his tail in between them.
She reached out to touch it.
He scampered away.
She knew better than to follow him again.
The night fury woke up, and stared around the cove. Had the strange not-so-squish stayed?
For some reason, he hoped she had.
He spotted her sat on an inexplicable lump of ice on the now-frozen lake (again, inexplicably). She was using those strange contraptions on her hind paws, dragging the blade at the base along the ice. He walked up behind her in an attempt to find a reason for her strange scribbles.
It looked surprisingly like him, when his face was reflected off ice or water. She had to be incredibly skilled to create a perfect a likeness of another living creature as this. Briefly, he wondered if he should have a go. It might make her happy.
And for some reason, that made him happy.
He picked up one of the strange metal poles around the edge of the cove (he later realised they were holding up those floating-flame-things) and started to drag it across the ice.
After a few seconds of strong resistance, the ice started to give was under his makeshift drawing tool.
He realised that the human was melting the ice beneath him, and smiled to himself, sketching aimlessly. The human simply watched, seeming fascinated, as he finished his drawing. She stood up, and started to walk on those strange blades over to him. She stepped on one of his lines.
He hissed in warning.
She lifted it off.
He purred in gratification.
She put it down again.
He hissed.
She picked it off.
He purred.
She put it down, on the other side of the line. When he didn't hiss, she gave him a huge grin, and started to leap.
He'd never seen anything like it. She was graceful and fast as she leapt across the ice, spinning and twirling, never once stepping on any of his lines.
Her movements were beautiful and careful, dancing to the near-silent swish of her paw-contraptions. So this was what they were for.
All the squishes he'd ever seen had always been lumbering, slow to his own eyes, thinking only of death and pain. He'd never seen one value anything else.
But maybe, he thought as the girl slid across the ice, they should.
She slid to a stop, one paw outstretched behind her as she glided out of his maze and to a stop a mere terror-length in front of him. She looked at him, and stretched out her front paw.
He reared back a few terror-tail-widths.
She sighed, and turned her face away. She extended her paw towards him again, stopping just before his nose. Letting him decide. Trusting him.
He had never had someone who trusted him before. Maybe -
Maybe they weren't so different after all.
Maybe she needed someone just as badly as he did, even without realising it.
Maybe she wanted to be trusted too.
He leaned forward, scales touching skin.
She looked up, and met his eyes.
Neither bothered to move for a very long time.
Hicca stood at the cliff edge, and raced for the water again. She needed to get her anger out before she saw Ash again. How dare he touch her like...
Instead of water and ice, she was met with air.
Air, as she hurtled over the wave, freezing the water behind it.
And the next wave.
And the next.
And the next.
For the first time in her life, she had done something entirely of her own accord. With no outside assistance, nothing but her own determination and skill.
She could do it, she realised. She could run, on and on forever, stopping only for food, maybe an hour of sleep when she felt like it. She could run, and never look back.
But, for the first time, she had something and someone who wanted her to go back.
Someone worth going back for.
Toothless.
Her dragon.
No, more than that.
Her friend.
Her soul-brother, who had seen her for her. And had not walked away.
A grin splitting her face in two, she let out a whoop of ecstasy and planted her foot, spinning round and racing back for the now-distant shore.
Hicca raced up the steps to the top of the tower, arriving just after the other teens sat down. She grabbed a fish and started to cook it, hiding her laboured breathing. She heard Gobber finish speaking as soon as she got back to normal.
"...and with one twist he took my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face. I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg.
"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon. Like if your mind was still in control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart or something." How exactly would that work?
"I swear I'm so angry right now. I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight," sucking up the the teacher much? "with my face!" How? Would he bite through it?
"Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Was that to be Toothless's fate?
No.
She wouldn't let it be.
Hicca began to quietly sneak towards the exit.
"Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow we get into the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honour of killing it?"
"It's gonna be me. It's my destiny. See?"
"Your mom let you get a tattoo?"
"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark."
"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before."
"Yes it was. You've just never seen me from the left..." That was all she heard, because she was racing for the blacksmith's as fast as her legs would carry her.
Ash stared down the stairwell, watching Hicca disappear. That in itself wasn't unusual: Hicca disappeared from somewhere on an almost daily basis.
"What set this time apart was her franticness, the way her eyes went wide and fearful when Gobber said 'A downed dragon is a dead dragon' before hardening in determination.
It was probably nothing - he was likely just being paranoid. She was probably just working on one of her inventions.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
A feeling that would only grow stronger over the coming weeks.
Hicca stood in the smithy, smiling down at the piece of paper in from of her. It was likely past midnight, but the lack of sleep was worth it. This would be her greatest project, and she did not want to get a single thing wrong.
Because she was going to get Toothless to fly again.
She walked over to the pile of weapons marked as 'irreparable' and dumped them in the fire, using the bellows to heat them up. Then she started to shape the now pliable metal into rods, wearing gloves of ice to protect herself and freezing each rod solid when it was done. Then she started to connect up the rods, allowing the fin to be in different positions at the same time. After that, she cut leather, fitting it to the shape of the fin she had already planned out.
When she had stitched it all together, she held it up, pleased by her own work.
It was time to introduce a dragon to his new limb.
Hicca slid into the cove, and pulled on her boots as she yelled,
"Hey, Toothless!" Toothless walked over, eyes wide and happy.
"I brought breakfast. I hope you're hungry." She tipped out the basket next to her, resulting in a large pile of dead fish. Toothless dug in excitedly.
"Okay, that's disgusting. Uh..we've got some salmon ... some nice Icelandic cod... and a whole smoked eel!" Toothless reared back, hissing at the long rope-like creature in the pile. She snatched it away hurriedly, tossing it into the fish's pond.
"No, no, no! It's okay. Yeah, I don't like eel much either." Toothless started to eat again, and Hicca began to move to his tail in an attempt to attach the tail without alerting the dragon.
The Night fury dug into the food pile, ignoring the friendly squish behind him.
"Okay. That's it. That's it, just stick with good stuff. And don't you mind me. I'll just be back...here. Minding my own business..." he was just searching around the basket for more when he felt it.
The weight on his tail.
The Gods had given him his tailfin back!
He spread his wings, and leapt into the air. But no... the tail wasn't moving! He was going to crash, he was...
The tail spread at the last second, sending him up and out. It was then that he heard the yell behind him.
"It's working! Yes! Yes! I did it!" The squish was on his tail. That crossed the line. Friend or not, he wasn't going to let her hitch a ride like a parasite.
He directed them over the lake, and tossed her in. That way, she'd get a soft landing. But his tail wasn't working again! He was going to crash into...
He hit something smooth and cold, and slid to the ground with no injuries. He looked up to see a slide of ice, presumably what had helped him with the not-so-amazing landing. The squish was stood in her paw-contraptions near a similar slide, yelling,
"Yeah!" He realised what had happened.
The squish had given him a new tailfin, but he couldn't control it without her. He couldn't fly without her.
For some reason, he didn't feel as bad as he should have about it.
A/N: Please review I love to read them! And 2,714 words! I am really outdoing myself on this.