Language Learned

Vorpent was sitting by the window of his castle, watching dragons fly around his island. He was still ruler of the dragons, and they followed him. But not willingly. Every time a dragon disobeyed Vorpent of Death, that dragon would be swallowed whole by Death. The dragons were too afraid to fight because of what the pair was capable of.

Vorpent alone could knock out over 35 dragons with nothing but a mere training spell. Death could swallow about 26 dragons without getting full. The large dragon flew in through the window Vorpent was looking through, not startling him in the slightest.

"Master Vorpent, we may have a problem," said Green Death as he approached his Master. "I swear, Loki's planning something strange."

"What do you mean?" Vorpent asked, slipping off of his window seat.

"I think the girl and dragon are growing feelings for each other." The green dragon walked over to the crystal and an image showed Hailey and Toothless asleep in the cave. Death turned back to his Master. "See what I mean? If their feelings are true to each other, then their powers will grow stronger than we anticipated."

"What do you suggest we do then?" Vorpent walked over to the image of the girl and her dragon.

Death sighed. "I have no clue, Master. These feelings harness more power than we have ever fought! The dragon – oh what was his name again? – ah, Toothless, is seeming to gain powers as well. Look at his forehead. There is a bright blue lightning bolt above his left eye." Vorpent looked in a little closer, and Death was right. A blue lightning bolt was forming above his left eye.

"The Night Fury will be gaining powers as well as the little human." The man sighed as the image faded away. "Toothless's increase in powers will only increase the chance of us being killed. But the human girl does not know of the rule of being a Rider."

"Why is that a go—ah! I get it. But we still have to increase our powers. I still haven't grown to my full size yet."

"Yes, I know. You may still be a young sea dragon, you are very powerful. We just have to increase our powers. But first, let's gather up an army." Vorpent and his dragon walked out of the castle and towards the flock of dragons. The human counted every dragon. Four were missing. A Nadder, a Gronckle, a Zippleback, and a Monstrous Nightmare. Vorpent muttered a four-lettered curse word in Dragonese. Dragonese was his first language. He had been speaking it for over 200 years. His age, never revealed. Only his dragon knew his age. But Vorpent casts a spell on himself every night to keep himself looking like a young adult.

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The sun had just risen over the horizon, creating a pink/orange/purple cloudless sky. Hailey stretched as she wormed her way out of Toothless' grip. As she walked out of the cave to get some fresh air, she gasped. Four dragons were standing in front of her, or more like lying down. There was a deep scarlet dragon on top of a boulder, an amber/brown dragon with its head stuck in the ground, a lime green dragon with two heads tangled in vines, and a sky blue dragon with yellow spikes floating in the pond.

They're dragons, she thought as she stared at the scattered dragons. I wonder if they understand English. Toothless does. She took a shaky breath before taking one step out of the cave. "Um, hello?" she said quietly as she took another step. The dragons looked up, confused before laying their heads back down, as if they didn't understand those two words the girl had said. She sighed. Alright, English is obviously not working. Maybe I could try making those warbles that Toothless makes.She thought about the warbles that Toothless makes and tried one that resembled 'hello'. She put two fingers to her voice box and warbled.

"Hello?" she warbled. It startled her as her warble resembled that of a Night Fury. She understood what she said, and it looked like the dragons understood, too. The blue dragon walked out of the water and towards the warble.

"Alright, show yourself, Night Fury," said the blue dragon in a distinctly female voice. "I heard your warble! Come on." She scanned the area. Maybe I can speak Dragonese. Hailey thought. That's awesome! She turned around and walked back over to Toothless. She attempted another warble, or growl in this case.

"Toothless, wake up!" she growled. It surprised her that she was able to get Dragonese out of her throat. His head shot up and turned towards the voice he had heard.

"Was that you, Hailey?" he asked in Dragonese (obviously). She nodded. Toothless' eyes widened in surprise. "Since when can you speak Dragonese?" She shrugged. She then thought of something that would mean 'come one.'

She took a deep breath, and growled, "Come on! There's four dragons out there!" That hurt her throat a little which caused her to cough. She stood up and signaled Toothless to follow her. They walked out to the mouth of the cave, and the four dragons were standing right in front of them. Toothless whispered to the girl, "Say, 'what are you doing here?'" Hailey nodded as she reviewed his warbles. Then she repeated them. The dragons seemed startled as they saw a human speak Dragonese. The scarlet dragon stepped forward.

"Why should we tell you, human?" the dragon asked sounding male.

"Hailey, show them your hand," Toothless whispered to the girl. She nodded and showed the dragons her right palm. The dragons again were startled. Hailey drew her hand back in confusion, while Toothless just rolled his eyes. "You guys get startled way to easily."

"I just need to ask this," said the blue dragon. She turned towards Hailey and gave her a questioning look. "Are you his human?" she gestured to Toothless with her head as she said 'his'.

Toothless walked in front of Hailey just in case the other dragons tried something. He then spread his wing and covered Hailey. The dragons, again for the third time that day, were startled. The Night Fury had made a gesture that was not to be taken lightly. He didn't care if he was doing this to protect a human. To him, Hailey was worth it. And he would protect her no matter what.

Toothless glared at the dragons. "I guess you could say that."

Hailey tapped one of Toothless' ear plates, making him face her. "Could you lower your wing so I can talk to them?" she asked in Dragonese. She was starting to get the hang of it. He stared at her for a second, before facing the dragons and lowering his wing. But he still stood next to her, in case he needed to get her out of there.

"Look, can you guys just tell us why you're here?" She smirked as she realized speaking Dragonese was becoming easier than English. Hopefully that wouldn't become a problem at school.

The green dragon stepped forward and the head on the right asked, "Well, you know about Vorpent, the Evil right?" Hailey assumed the right head was male. Vorpent the Evil? What a name. she thought and nodded. "Well, we were part of his dragon army."

"Dragon army?" Hailey squeaked.

"Oh yes. He has over 400 dragons working for him," the left head continued. "All different kinds of dragons. We were lucky enough to escape while he was distracted. It took a lot of our strength to escape his powers."

"Since there's an electric force field surrounding the island," the right head explained. "we were all shocked multiple times to where we could barely even fly right. That's why we were all scattered all over the place."

Hailey couldn't believe what she had just heard. Vorpent the Evil has a huge dragon army and an electric force field surrounding the island. She didn't even know how to use her powers! How was she supposed to deal with this? Oh man, what am I going to do?' she thought. 'I don't even know how to use my powers!She brought her hand up to her forehead.

"I could probably teach you," Toothless said to Hailey, surprising everyone including himself. "Um, Hailey? Could I talk to you inside the cave?" She nodded and they both walked to the back where the other dragons couldn't hear them.

"What could you teach me?" asked Hailey. "And why did you just ask that out of no where?"

"I, um... I think I can hear your thoughts," Hailey was thoroughly confused now. Toothless wanted to test something though. "Here, you try and hear mine!"

"Toothless, do you re–" "Just try to, okay?" Hailey nodded.

'Hailey, can you hear me thinking?' Toothless thought. Hailey's eyes widened in surprise and nodded. "Told you it would work."

"Okay, how did that happen?" Toothless shrugged.

"Oh well. But hey, that's pretty cool!" Toothless nodded and they both walked back to the mouth of the cave. The four dragons were waiting patiently for the two to return.

"Alright, we are going to hide in the forest, but we will visit often. Bye!" said the amber/brown dragon. They flew up and into the forest.

"Well, we have the rest of the day to ourselves. And I have an idea on what I can do to keep you in the air." said Hailey. "Let's go into the cave and we can get started."