So sorry it's taken so long for an update. I hope you all enjoy this.

NOTE: I DO NOT OWN HTTYD

Chapter 7: Bonding

A day after Toothless and I made our pact, Hiccup and Zenna return to the Cove. As usual, Toothless and I happily greet them with toothless smiles. Then they show us these saddles. Toothless and I look at each other and grin. "They wish to ride on us again!" I say excitedly. "But they gotta catch us first!" Toothless laughs.

When Hiccup and Zenna approach us, Toothless and I playfully crouch and wiggle our rumps. 'Try and catch us first!' I think as the two of us begin a game of chase around the Cove! "Hey!" Hiccup shouts and gives chase. "Aw, come on! Get back here, please!" Zenna yells, joining in the pursuit.

"Yeah, not happening!" Toothless laughs as we run around, evading Hiccup and the saddle with every turn. "Come and get me, Zenna!" I taunt as my human chases me. Zenna suddenly trips, making me worry, and yelps in pain. Worriedly, I go to her and see the wound on her right knee. Crooning comfortingly, I lick the wound and nuzzle her. Zenna smiles at me and, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, places the saddle on my back!

'I've been duped!' I think in surprise as I see Toothless worriedly approach Hiccup, who is panting from running around. No doubt that, since he is a runt, he easily gets tired. Then Hiccup places the saddle on my mate's back, much to his surprise.

"You sneaky little Viking…" Toothless rumbles as Hiccup gets on him. Then we proceed onto the more exciting part-flying!

The saddle feels strange but comfortable and it assures me that Zenna isn't having a hard time on my back. I smile as we fly around the Cove. Zenna is kind enough to let me maneuver which way I think is best while also opening my mind to new tricks like spirals and midair flips as she guides me with her firm but gentle hand. Toothless is doing well, too, as Hiccup pulls on a string to keep his left tail fin open. But then, Hiccup yanks on the string the wrong way while Zenna decided to get me to do a midair loop trick without holding onto the saddle.

Splash!

I wait patiently at the shore as the three of them wade out of the water. Toothless shakes the water off and licks Hiccup's hair, the boy laughing as he playfully splashes water at his snout. Zenna is giggling but she is also shivering slightly. I immediately make a makeshift fire pit with what stones and leaves I can pile up neatly with my tail and set it aflame.

"Good thinking, my starlight," Toothless croons and nuzzles me, using the old nickname he had come up for me when we were starting out as mates. I warble lovingly at him and lick his cheek. "You two must be really close…Lucky…" Hiccup says, looking a bit sad. "Hey, ease up, Hicc. You'll get Astrid to like you someday," Zenna smiles and pats his shoulder. Toothless and I both cock our heads at the mention of this Astrid. "In case you're both wondering, Astrid's another girl in our village. She knows how to wield an axe like nobody's business and, I may hasten to add, is Hiccup's future girlfriend!" Zenna says tauntingly. "Oh, shut up!" Hiccup playfully gives her a mild shove which she returns.

They stay with us for a little while as their clothes dry off and, when it is time to leave, feed us fish and give us belly rubs before promising to return tomorrow morning to feed us breakfast and, hopefully, sneak in a little flight or two outside the Cove.

They uphold that promise and, the next morning, we are flying out of the Cove. Hiccup and Zenna are wearing these strange leather clothes, which they explain to me and Toothless are riding vests, so they can stay strapped to our saddles. Hiccup had also figured out a way to modify the stirrup on the left side so Toothless' tail fin can open by itself. What ingenuity humans have!

Currently the four of us are flying over an open field. Zenna and I are trying this corkscrew maneuver and we just about got it when, suddenly, Toothless and Hiccup lose altitude and crash! Us girls immediately fly over to where they crash landed, where I see Hiccup standing up with a confused look on his face as Toothless rolls around in the grass.

The grass smells so wonderful that, as soon as Zenna is off my back, I bound over to a patch and start rolling around in it. "Thor Almighty, this feels and smells so good!" I purr, wanting to rub my entire body in the grass. "Oh, yeah…Ooohhh, yeah…that feels good…really good…Yup, I'm in Valhalla right now…" Toothless groans in pleasure. Whatever this stuff is, it is amazing! As we roll around in this heavenly patch of grass, Hiccup and Zenna gather samples and look at it.

"What should we call it?" I hear Zenna ask Hiccup. After a minute he says, "How about…dragon nip?"

Toothless and I purr happily. Dragon Nip is a good name. We approve!

"Okay, you two. Let's get back to the Cove before anybody sees us," Hiccup calls to us playfully. Toothless and I both look at him with pleading looks. "Nooooo…Five more minutes…" we both whine, making Hiccup and Zenna laugh. "We'll come back later. We promise," Zenna assures us. That sounds fair so Toothless and I get back on our feet and we fly back to the Cove.

"We'll see you and Stryka later, bud. But now Zenna and I have to go back to training," Hiccup says to Toothless while petting him. Toothless looks at him strangely, knowing fully well that what Hiccup meant by training he meant training in how to kill us dragons. I know this as well and look at Zenna carefully. 'If you are friends with us, then why do you two still continue to train on how to fight us?' I think, a bit suspicious.

And, as if she had read my mind, Zenna replies, "We don't like learning how to kill your kind as much as we don't want to hurt you two. But if we stopped coming to training, people will know that something is up. And if that happens…" before trailing off and looking at Hiccup worriedly. He looks back at her worriedly but smiles a reassuring smile.

"Toothless…Stryka…we won't let that happen. No matter what, Zenna and I will protect you two," he tells me and my mate. And with a few pats on our snouts, they leave. When they're gone, Toothless and I look at each other and smile. We trust Hiccup and Zenna. They would never hurt us.

That same afternoon, our humans return and they have stories to tell. "And when the Gronckle charged at us, we quickly took out the sprigs of Dragon Nip we had stuffed into our pockets and held it up to its nose. We thought it wasn't enough but, when we looked, the Gronckle was practically in ecstasy!" Zenna recounts to me as she removes my saddle. Hiccup had already taken off Toothless' and is giving him a vigorous scratching. I laugh as I see my mate happily thump his tail and stretch his body out. Pretty soon, Zenna does the same to me and I love it!

'Ooh…Ooohh, yeah, yeah, yeah! Right there! Ahhh…that feels nice…' I sigh blissfully before I hear a thud! I glance over at Toothless and I see him on the ground asleep, rumbling contentedly. "Whoa…" I hear Zenna breathe out before her hand scratches my chin and I know no more.

When I wake up I see Zenna holding her right foot while Toothless wakes up from his nap and tackles Hiccup playfully, the emerald-eyed boy laughing. Zenna sees me awake and smiles painfully at me. "You and Toothless both went down for the count when we scratched under your chins. Your head kind of landed on my right foot. Ouch…" she said, wincing a bit. Horrified at what I'd done, I go to her and gently nuzzle her aching foot. "Sorry…" I warble to apologize. Zenna smiles and hugs my head. "It's okay, girl. It was an accident," she reassures me.

They take us back to the Dragon Nip fields, where Toothless and I happily roll about in for hours while Hiccup and Zenna sit and talk about things that seem too complicated for even themselves. They talk about the plans for tomorrow, what kind of tricks they would try out with us, how to make Toothless fly better and, interesting of all, tease themselves with questions about life in a deeper meaning.

As I roll around in the Dragon Nip, I can hear the questions they ask but do not answer.

"What do you think Valhalla really looks like?" Hiccup asks.

"If we were to die from illness, do you think the Valkyries will still come for us?" Zenna asks this time.

"What could possibly be the true meaning of our place here? Do you think the gods just made us for their amusement over the trivial troubles of mere mortals?"

"Is everything really planned out by fate? Or do we have the option to forge our own path through life?"

Such great questions from such young individuals!

On another wonderful day, after they had told me and Toothless a story of how they used the discovery of our weak spots to successfully make a Nadder drop to the floor in training before things got nasty with that Astrid girl's axe, Hiccup and Zenna let us play around the Cove. Hiccup is busy looking over plans he had made for Toothless' tail fin and Zenna is just fiddling with her silver pendant.

That's when I see it.

This little dot of light that beckons me to come and get it. I wiggle my rump and pounce on it! But the light darts out of my reach! "Come here, you…" I growl a low growl and pounce again! This time I catch it and try to keep it in my paws but, to my amazement, the dot skims over my pitch black scales and evades my grasp! I hear Zenna say, "Hey, Hiccup! Check this out!" but I pay her no heed for I am trying to catch the light like a hunter chases its prey. Pretty soon I see another dot of light that Toothless eagerly pursues. "Hold still my little glowing friend…" my mate warbles as he also tries to catch the light. "This could be useful…" Hiccup murmurs.

After countless failed attempts to catch the lights, Toothless and I look at our humans and we see that they are the ones who made the lights. Zenna's silver pendant and Hiccup's smithing tool had created the lights we were playing with! They duped us again! In retaliation, Toothless and I pick them up and toss them into the pond! Hiccup and Zenna scream as they fall into the water with a loud splash while Toothless and I laugh and rub heads together.

Revenge is a dish best served cold and wet!

The next day, however, our two humans turn the tides in their favor by challenging us to a water war. Even though dragons prefer to stay away from water since it keeps us from lighting our fire, Toothless and I roar and shriek with delight as we playfully chase our humans in the Cove's pond. When they get tired of swimming, Hiccup and Zenna cling to us as we slowly swim about. On those hot summer days, we find comfort in the pond's cool waters and the crisp winds of the skies as we fly. The more time we spend together, the better Zenna and I fly. We can now do flips, spins, corkscrews and all sorts of tricks. I even let Zenna free fall off my back, as long as I am right behind her to catch her.

Then one day they arrive late. Toothless and I are already pawing at the ground worriedly when Hiccup and Zenna finally show up. I snort and nudge Zenna with a scolding look. 'Where have you and Hiccup been?' I think before I see that my girl has a worried look on her face, almost as if she had seen something scary.

"We need to be more careful. If she manages to follow us next time…" Hiccup says as he attaches the newly-modified tail fin to Toothless. "…we are toast," Zenna finishes the sentence for him, making a throat slicing gesture, as she places my saddle on my back. Toothless and I look at them worriedly and lick their faces comfortingly. They laugh and the incident is forgotten.

Hiccup then leads Toothless to a nearby cliff overlooking the ocean, drives a wooden peg into the ground, ties one end of a rope around it and ties it to my mate's saddle.

"You're gonna practice flying tethered to that?" Zenna asks him as she and I fly up into the air and hover in front of our boys. "Yup," Hiccup replies and clicks on the stirrup to open the tail fin. "We gotta practice first before we do some real flying," Toothless tells me as he lifts off the ground a few feet. I roll my eyes at him and flap my wings to gain altitude. "Dude, if you wanna really fly, you gotta get up into the open air. As in go high up," Zenna laughs. "My thoughts exactly!" I nod as the two of us fly higher up into the sky and do a few spins in the air! "Woo-hoo!" Zenna whoops, exhilarated, and I roar with excitement with her.

As we swoop past the cliff, I see Hiccup constantly testing the tail fin. He pushes on the stirrup and Toothless lands. When Hiccup opens the tail fin a second time, the wind suddenly grows stronger and the rope snaps! Zenna has me go up and do a power dive so we can go over to them and check on them.

All of a sudden, Zenna is dangling upside-down in my face!

'What the hell…?' I think while Zenna mutters, "What the hell…?" in confusion. When I land, I stand on my haunches so Zenna can roll onto my back. Toothless shakes his head woozily as he gets to his feet, Hiccup awkwardly dangling by his side. "Oh great…" Hiccup groans. Zenna tries to get off of my back but something has happened to the safety line that tethers her to my saddle. That means she was stuck to me. Not that I mind. I like having my human around anytime.

"We're gonna have to go to the village for this," Hiccup mutters. Zenna merely stares at him with wide violet eyes. Finally she speaks. "You want us to bring two Night Furies into the village to repair their saddles in the forge?" she asks, stunned. "We'll do it under the cover of night. We just need to sneak into the village, fix the saddles up real quick and head out the back. If we're lucky, we won't attract any attention," he tells her. "If we are lucky…" Zenna points out to him.

Toothless and I can only gurgle in confusion as they lead us out of the woods. When we smell the scents of the human village, we begin to get scared. And the sky slowly darkening does nothing to calm us. But when I feel Zenna's gentle hand stroking my snout, I feel calm.

I can only hope that Toothless and I can make it out of the village with our precious humans alive tonight.

Read and review whenever you all want ;)

-GuardianDragon98