Dragon Prince Ch.9
I own my imagination not HTTYD if I did Snotlouts' ego would downsize at some point.
Toothless was surprised when the night fury hatchling visited him earlier than he was use to, not that he complained when he saw the huge woven basket full of freshly caught fish the boy was struggling to carry along with some unknown object. The half-fish he had the day before had been somewhat of a tease for his empty stomach, dragons have enormous appetites and the basket full of fish, that could probably fit two of the hatchling inside with room to move, was a much more "dragon sized" meal. The boy was talking but Toothless couldn't force himself to listen.
The black dragon happily ate the food and he was enjoying his first proper meal since he lost his ability to fly that he didn't notice the black and yellow eel hidden among the silver scales of the salmon and cod until his snout was less than half a foot away from it. Only once its sour and acidic scent burn his air ways did he give attention to the child.
"Get that vile thing away from me!" The Night Fury roared. He felt stupid, every dragon could sniff out an eel in their sleep and avoid them but, there he was, an incredibly smart dragon that was wide awake, with an eel practically in his mouth. Just thinking about how close the slimy, rubbery meat of the eel was to sliding down his throat was almost enough to make him involuntarily bring the fish he devoured back up.
"I said around the same thing when I first tried eel too." Hiccup said absently, grimacing as picked up the dead snake-like creature and throwing it off to the side, completely missing the brief looked his friend gave him before the dragon continued with his meal. He wiped his fingers off on his fur vest afterwords and made a mental note to wash it in the very near future otherwise the smell would drive him insane.
Cautiously, Hiccup approached Toothless's injured tail with the false fin he spent the entire night creating, muttering unconsciously in his nervousness. So many of his inventions failed and really didn't want this one to, it was a matter between his only friends life and death. If he couldn't help Toothless fly again what use was he? He wasn't a proper viking in any sense of the word, disaster seemed to follow him when ever he stepped out side and on top of that, as far as anyone knew, his birth parents didn't even want him!
Hiccup shook his head and focused on his task, he had to get the prosthetic on Toothless so he could make the adjustments that would allow the dragon to fly again. It was easier said then done, every time his line the fake tail fin up with the real one, Toothless would move to reach more fish and Hiccup would have to realign the two. When he finally got the tail-piece properly attached he sat back to admire his work when suddenly, Toothless launched himself in the air taking Hiccup with him.
Toothless had been aware that the boy was playing around with his tail and so he didn't think much of it, he just kept moving his tail and playing along while he ate, until he felt his tail balance out for the first time in days. The Night Fury's mind was so blown that he completely forgot everything and launched himself into the air.
The elation the black scaled dragon felt was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He didn't even think about how he was flying or why, he just let himself enjoy the feeling of the wind rushing past him. It was truly remarkable, to do the impossible, to fix what was irreparably broken was simply magical.
"YES! I did it!" Toothless looked back and saw the hatchling was clinging to his tail and holding the contraption he noticed earlier open, it was strange how small the child was, he didn't even feel the boy's weight.
Toothless snorted, so it wasn't magic after all, and turned rather sharply to land when once again his tail lost its balance and he skidded across the small lake before he sunk into the water. It was by far his best landing since he became a downed dragon.
"YEAH!" Toothless saw the hatchling pop adorably out of the water with wide exhilarated green eyes. He must have fallen off during the sharp turn and landed in the water with Toothless. Oops.
(Line)
The Zippleback heard the lock to their cage door opening and blasted the doors wide to throw off any attacks from the vikings they knew were out side their dark cell. Then they proceeded to create a giant cloud of gas so they could examine their opponents with having to worry about being attacked, they had heard an interesting story from the Gronkle about one of the viking hatchlings and wanted to see if there was any truth behind it.
The Gronkle had said that the small green-brown viking child with pretty eyes had the scent of a night fury hatchling. Of course the Zippleback had been curious and asked the Nadder who was let out of her cage next if it were true but she told them that she didn't get close enough to the boy to analyze his scent properly. That didn't discourage the Gronkle though, she kept trying to convince the other dragons to smell the hatchling when they got the chance.
This was the Zippleback's chance, they quickly made their way through the their cloud of gas, getting rid of the viking children that didn't match, having a bucket of water thrown on it in the process, the Gronkles description until only one remained.
It truly was a small child and it was green and brown with very pretty eyes. They were so big, vivid and familiar, they seen eyes like that before.
"Brother, where have we seen eyes like those before?" One of their heads hissed to the other.
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Brother." The other responded.
The Zippleback stepped forward the sniff the boy curiously, before backing away very Gronkle was right, the child did indeed carry the scent of a night fury hatchling but also something else, on the fur the hatchling worn was the lingering scent of an eel.
As curious as they were, the Zippleback did not like that smell and so the Zippleback kept backing away from the boy as he continued to move towards them. They growled at the child to leave them alone from the corner they toke refuge in and he did, after they were back in their cage with the door locked once more.
"So, did you smell it? The night fury scent?" The Gronkles kind voice was just loud enough to be heard from her own cell.
"The child smelt of eel-"
"- and very faintly of other vikings,-"
"- but he did carry the scent of a night fury hatchling,-"
"-as well as the Night Fury." The Zippleback said taking turns talking between their two heads as their kind like to do.
"Does that mean-" the Nadder spoke up before getting cut off.
"The Night Fury was on this island and didn't free us? Yes it does." The Nightmare growled bitterly.
"He's probably just trying to keep the hatchling a secret. Imagine how the Queen would react if she heard of the boy? She might destroy this entire island just to find him and do who knows what." The Gronkle growled back at the Nightmare. Ending the conversation, the Gronkle doesn't usually get angry but when she does it's best to leave her alone.
(Line)
The Queen sat in her hive full of workers thinking. It wasn't something she would spend much time with, she had to control thousands of dragons every day, always giving countless orders and dealing out punishments to those that disappoint her.
It was hard work, being a monarch, but if she didn't control the dragons and force them into some kind of government who would? No one that's who, and without a proper leader to govern them the dragons would descend into chaos, fighting amongst themselves for dominance. They should have been grateful for what she was sacrificing for them.
The Queen spent every second of every day reinforcing her absolute control over them and still they don't bring enough food back every time. Was it wrong for her to think that after generations of servitude would allow them to do their jobs right?
All she asked of them was to make sure the vikings died but, no the stupid peasants destroyed their ship instead. Not one human died, how many more generations must she wait for the insolence to be bred out?
(Line)
Gobber liked to say he was an extremely experienced man. He fought in many battles, traveled around a bit in his youth and had many hidden talents. That being said he had never in his whole life seen or heard of a dragon behaving like the Zippleback did when Hiccup backed it into its cage.
The beast seemed almost scared and a little confused when it saw the lad, which is impossible as far as anyone knew dragons don't have emotions, or as if it wasn't sure what was happening. Then small, delicate Hiccup made it shrink in fear and cower in the back of the cage before he closed the door and acted like what he did was normal.
Then again when has anything about Hiccup been normal? As baby he developed extremely fast, then once he became a toddler his growth seemed to take on a pace that would make a tortoise seem fast. Then there was his odd obsession with trying to keep as many a live as possible, including the enemy, and that led to some of his unique inventions that were suppose to tie the enemy up, or trap them in a cage or net, sometimes disarm them or knock them out. Gobber couldn't count all the times one of Hiccups' experiments went wrong and demolished a building and Gobber was force to tell Hiccup to give up on it.
Often Hiccups' differences made the other kids pick on him but, perhaps now that his abnormalities seemed to helping him fight dragons, Hiccup may have the chance to have the friends he always craved.
(Line)
Hiccup quickly ran to his house and set to work washing his vest, it smelt absolutely horrible and by the way the Zippleback reacted, it was noticeable. He would have to wait for it to dry before he got to work on his idea, by then Gobber and the others may have passed off what he did in the ring as a fluke and hopefully not question him. It would not be good if someone found out about what he was doing in the woods prematurely, besides it gave him more time to think. After all, after the day he had Hiccup needed to do some serious pondering.
He wasn't sure, he could have imagined it but, before he went to dragon training, when he was feeding Toothless he could have sworn he understood the dragon. It could have been a combination of overactive imagination, body language and sleep deprivation but Hiccup heard words within the Night Fury's snarls.
What could that mean though? Was he going mad? Can he talk to dragons? If he could where did the talent come from? His birth parents? The gods? Was he cursed? There many questions circling around his head, some of them completely random, but he knew most of the answers could come from the mysterious Night Fury hidden in the cove and all he had to do with his possible language skills was ask his friend.
(Line)
Astrid was worried. Hiccup had nearly been eaten by a dragon by two heads and then he isolated himself in his house. Normally she'd chalk it up to him trying to avoid his tormentors and continue with whatever she was doing knowing that if he needed or wanted to talk about something he would find either Gobber or herself but today something was off.
Actually something was off for a few days, Berks' young heir was up to something and Astrid had to find out what. She didn't know what to call it but she had the feeling that whatever the twelve-year old was doing was dangerous. She just hoped she could figure it out before he hurt himself.
Sorry I had two tests, a quiz, a birthday party, a funeral and prayers to attend to this week other wise this would have been out last week. Thanks again for all the favs/follows/review.
Pepsi out.
P.S Sorry.
