Chapter 10

Toothless

The sound startled him. He had been considering the strange nature of his wound, when the harsh knocking resounded through the house. Almost before the sound had finished Hiccup had sprung to his feet. The boy didn't notice anything different, but Toothless saw that his gait had changed. He sprung in a single fluid motion off the bed, and landed on the balls of his feet, absorbing all of the impact in his knees. As a result, his landing on the floor made no sound whatsoever and as he walked, he never dropped off the balls of his feet so his stride was silent as well, his knees constantly flexed. He quickly whipped off his tunic and tossed it over his head, where he knew it would land somewhere near the bed. He crossed to the small chest against the far wall and donned a new tunic that covered the mark on his shoulder, and quickly, silently, strode toward the door.

Directly outside the door was the stair case that would take him down to the first floor. Hiccup only descended the stairs half way though. There in the center of the room was Stoic in the midst of walking towards the door. Both his own and Hiccup's anger flared, but he had been correct. Hiccup, now forewarned, was able to keep control of his own emotion, though his upper lip still lifted in a silent snarl. That rather amused Toothless. As far as he knew, humans didn't snarl, or make any similar gesture with their lips. But apparently his Hiccup did.

Then a strange urge overtook Hiccup. He knew that whoever it was at the door would want to speak to his father concerning matters of the village, but what if it was Astrid? He didn't want to be seen. Still as silent as a hunting dragon, Hiccup leapt off the stairs and caught one of the rafters that supported the floor of his bedroom; or rather the entire second story, and lifted himself up into the shadows supplied by the lack of windows and many beams of wood.

"You're becoming quite agile." Hiccup started and became confused.

"What do you mean?"

"You were never able to swing yourself around in such high places before, with only the power of your arms. On the night I came to get you, you leapt right out of your second floor window and hoisted yourself onto the roof without appearing to overexert yourself."

"Hmm, I guess I did. That's weird I never even thought about it! I just kinda.."

"Did it?" He chuckled as he finished Hiccup's sentence for him. That was when Stoic opened the door.

"Ahh there you are Gobber. And Astrid as well. Good, good come in, please." Hiccup tensed and froze in place, crouched on top of a rafter in a gloomy corner. They would not notice him unless they were really looking. The three Vikings sat down in chairs by the fire making loud creaking noises as they did.

"Gobber, your report first please." Gobber took in a deep breath and let it out as he scratched the place where his false leg met his flesh.

"It's not looking good Stoic. About a third of the herds were safely locked inside the mead hall before the battle started getting tense. Then they fell on us like a rain of fire. We only had half of the village available as you know. We were outnumbered at the very least ten to one. I've never seen so many dragons in one sky before. The defense was not well coordinated either. We lost at least half of those that fought. Most of the residences have burned down. I was stuck in the shop for the whole night without Hiccup's help though I was able to keep the stall from burning. We have a temporary living and medical quarters set up in the mead hall, cause it's the only place big enough."

"That's strange. I didn't think the damage looked nearly as bad when I was out there. And the other teens didn't seem to be overly concerned either."

"You weren't exactly paying much attention to the carnage though now were you? You were too busy comparing humans to my own glory. And that pack of adolescent savages wouldn't notice something serious unless it walked up and bit them."

"You're telling me that more than half of the sheep are gone?" Stoic pressed. Gobber only responded with a grim nod.

"Humans are so very weak. They have to rely on food that is pre stored and seared until it's barely even food anymore. It's far better to hunt down a young buck when you hungry, or fish up some nice cod. "His comment distracted Hiccup entirely.

"I didn't know that you could eat red meat! I thought you lived entirely on fish!"

"Actually I didn't realize that I could eat it either until very recently. But eventually I became hungry enough to try it, and it turned out to be quite tasty." He felt Hiccup join him in reliving his memory of his first taste of venison. They were completely engrossed in talk of hunting and Hiccup was just demanding that he be taken on the next hunting trip, when below they heard Stoic say,

"Now then Astrid. What's all this fuss about dragons?" Hiccup stiffened yet again and kept himself absolutely still. Astrid took a deep breath, and launched into her story.

"Hiccup always disappeared after dragon training. And nobody ever knew where he went. I was determined to find out. I followed him away from the village and into the woods. He found out I was following him though and he got very angry. Anyway while I was leaving, I saw this huge black dragon walking through the trees. It didn't notice me though, so I ran back to the village. No one would have believed me so I decided to wait and tell you when you returned sir." Astrid fell silent and slumped into her chair.

"Ha! She didn't even try to involve me in the story! I'm a little put out. How dare she down play my role!"

"You're getting enough attention as it is as a mighty dragon slayer within the ring." Hiccup gave a little half smile.

"With me in the village she can't tell the truth because the truth involves her lopping my arm half off."

"Although it's a little weird that your arm wasn't crippled at the very least. Did I ever show you what happened after you fell unconscious?

"No."

Memory flooded Hiccup's mind. He saw himself lying prone on the ground, the threat of Astrid had been dealt with. He saw through Toothless' eyes the care with which he nudged and prodded the ax, until it fell from his body with a sickening squelch. He felt no pain however as his body had not been alert to feel it. Toothless then destroyed the ax, in his mind, cleansing the evil object with fire. That object had violated the sanctity of HIS Hiccup's body. And it therefore had to be destroyed. Once that was done, he returned to his Hiccup and began cleaning the wound. That was when strange things started to happen. He watched in fascination as his shoulder began to twitch and spasm, as if there was something running around beneath the surface of his skin! The joint was moving slightly and through Toothless' ears he heard small grindings and crunches. It sounded like bone knocking and scraping together. Then he noticed that with every twitch and crunch, his shoulder shifted into more and more regular positions. The ax had definitely hit bone and shifted many things away from where they should be. Now before Toothless' eyes, they moved back and mended of their own accord. Then Hiccup saw Toothless notice something even stranger. Behind his own closed eyelids, a soft green light was emanating. It looked almost as if he would find a green flame if he were to peel back those eyelids. Eventually however, the glow faded, and the shoulder ceased its movements.

He felt Hiccup come back to himself.

"What do you make of THAT?" His boys head was spinning. Theory after theory came whizzing into his mind and then out again each more ludicrous then the last, faster and faster until it got to the point where Hiccup was starting to lose control of his own thoughts. Toothless administered a small mental slap. Hiccups mind ceased it's raging and was silent. "Hiccup, our lives are just getting stranger by the hour. And by the looks of it, it's only going to become more and more abnormal. You need to take a deep breath, and stop freaking out when something weird happens okay?" Slowly, very slowly, Hiccup's breathing slowed and his heart rate calmed.

"I guess after I accepted conversations with a dragon so readily, I don't really have much of a reason to freak out about this.

"…absolutely sure? It wasn't just some shadow? Maybe even a large wolf?" Hiccup started he'd been distracted from the conversation below yet again.

"Sir I saw it in the plain light of day. There isn't any wolf I know of that is plated in scales, and has wings on its back." Stoic heaved an enormous sigh, and seemed to slump slightly in his chair. The room was silent and all eyes were on the chief, watching for his reaction. For a few minutes the enormous man was utterly motionless.

Finally, a low and rumbling voice said, "If there is a dragon in our woods, it is most likely injured. That is the only reason I can think of for any dragon to linger on Berk. It must be grounded, and it will therefore be vulnerable. Though it will be desperate, and for that we must take precaution. As soon as the repairs are complete and we can scrape together enough members for a hunting party, we will take vengeance for this latest of their atrocities."

It felt as though a Stone had dropped into Hiccup's chest. He had stopped breathing; his heart had actually skipped a couple of beats. A cold sweat had broken out across most of his body and his mind kept repeating the same word, over and over again.

We will take vengeance. We WILL take vengeance We will take VENGEANCE!

"Hiccup!" No response.

"HICCUP!"

Hiccup's reply was dull and monotone. "They're going to hunt you Toothless. They won't stop. Vikings have stubbornness issues. They want to kill you." And with that last thought a flame of fury burst to life within the cold blank confines of the boy's mind. Rage was consuming his boy, making his muscles tense and his lip curl back.

With barely a split second to spare, Toothless enveloped Hiccup's mind with his own. The boy's contracted muscles locked as Hiccup struggled to wrestle back control of his body. He had been a tiny second away, from leaping down onto his father and tearing at his flesh with his bare hands. The silent struggle continued as Gobber heaved himself up and left to supervise some portion of the village repairs. Astrid stayed. Hiccup suddenly changed focus. Astrid. She had already tried to hurt Toothless. She deserved to die!

Hiccup's mind however was somewhat underdeveloped. He had no idea how to shield his thoughts so as to prevent Toothless' control. It was easy to hold the boy in check until he had calmed, though that calming took a rather long time. As the girl and the chief sat starring into the flames of the hearth below, Hiccup slowly regained control of his emotions. Finally Toothless released him and his rigid body relaxed and slumped against the beam at his back.

"Thank you Toothless. I- I don't know what came over me." Before Toothless could say anything a voice from below said,

"Excuse me chief, but is Hiccup here? Could I talk to him?"

"He's upstairs resting, but you could go and check to see if he's awake." Now it was Toothless' turn to tense. What right did SHE have to be in the same room alone with HIS Hiccup? How dare she? She who had wounded him in such a way! Hiccup was already in motion, swinging down under the rafters behind the backs of the Vikings. His feet landed silently on the middle of the staircase just as he heard Astrid rise to her feet. With silent feet he climbed the stair quickly and charged through the open door of his room. Throwing his Tunic off toward the chest he sprawled across his bed waited, with one eye cracked open to observe the door.

Astrid came slowly into view. First the top of her head, then the rest of her body followed. Toothless felt his lip curl and a guttural snarl ripped its way through his throat.

"Don't worry bud. She isn't going to try anything in my own house with my father downstairs." Astrid paused at the door before slowly stepping into the room. Each of her steps was accompanied by the rustle of her boots sliding across the wooden floor. She stopped beside the bed and stood staring down at Hiccup.

"I don't care; she is still standing FAR too close to you."

"No arguments there. She smells horrible." And it was true. Astrid reeked of the sour odor of humanity. She was about as human as you could get. Hiccup was only barely able to control his face, and stop it from contorting into the mask of distaste that it wanted to assume. She smelt nothing like Toothless with his spicy, musky, sweet scent. Just the memory of that scent was enough to make him completely forget about the girl standing over him. Suddenly he found himself sitting in the sunshine alongside Toothless and that feel of the dragon's nose on the skin of his neck. He shivered.

"Once again Hiccup, I'm flattered. But you've closed your eye and I don't smell the girl anymore. Perhaps she's gone." For the second time that day, the blood rushed into Hiccup's face. He slowly opened one eye and then the other as it became apparent that there was no one else in the room. Yet the sour odor of human still hung in the air.

"The moment that night falls, I'm getting out of here and coming back to you Toothless."

Toothless felt a very loud purr, vibrate through his chest.