It had soon come down to the final competitors for dragon training and each day Astrid grew more and more suspicous. I decided not to go today but to look after Toothless and Shadow today. I mean, no one's going to miss me there. I brought plenty of dragon nip to keep the two calm and off of each other's nerves.
They seem to be tense around each other most of the time but that's only when they remember that the other is there. Shadow has mixed feelings about Toothless, I've noticed. He wanted me to help Toothless with his tail and at the same time he'd growl at him for a stupid desicion made like when he burnt the Terror.
For a while, the two Night Furies rubbed against their own pile of dragon nip; stretching, yawning and letting out soft groans. I sat back and thought about what we'd be doing today when Hiccup got back from dragon training because I think that we should get our dragons better aquainted so they weren't at each other's throats every second they were near the other.
Toothless began fading in and out of consiousness, falling asleep on the dragon nip. Shadow was a little more restless, though. After a while, he began to sniff it then jump away a little then claw at his pile. I cocked an eyebrow, Shadow was one crazy dragon. Well, I've heard that pets begin to take on the characteristics of their owner so I guess it makes sense.
I got up after a while, my butt starting to hurt a little from sitting so long. I walked over to the water and threw water onto my face, I was still half-asleep and I needed a wake-up call. I was slightly alarmed when I felt a presence behind me since I didn't hear anything. I would've turned around if I got the chance but something shoved me into the water.
I threw my head up over the water and looked towards the shore, "Shadow, why would you do something like this to me?" I asked, "Don't you have dragon nip to attend to?" He looked back at his pile which had nothing wrong with it then back at me and sat down at the water's edge.
"Next time, I'm pushing you in the water." I said in a playful grumble and began to climb out but someone didn't let me. Shadow used his head to and shoved me back into the water. He chortled at me.
I huffed and whipped my wet hair out of my face with a pout. "Thanks, Shades." I said sarcastically and got out, dripping wet.
Shadow looked at the sky and then back down at me. He wanted to go flying. I looked between him and Toothless, Toothless may be grounded but he's not defenseless. I thought about how well hidden this cove is. I felt really bad for Toothless. He couldn't fly without Hiccup and I don't know the positions needed for flying him but I could try and improvise, maybe.
I walked over to him. "Toothless." I said softly and he looked up from his pile of dragon nip. "Do you think I could try flying you?" I asked and knelt down. He gave me a skeptical look, he was doubting I could fly him. "Toothless, I know that I'm not the smartest but I could try. I mean, Shadow wants to go flying and I know that you probably don't like being kept here." He looked away from me and laid his head down again.
"Understandable, I wouldn't trust me either." I said and Toothless perked an ear at me. "Shadow, you can go flying without me if you want. I'll stay here with Toothless." Shadow looked between me and Toothless, I looked at Toothless and it would have seemed like they were having a silent conversation; like they were psychic or something.
Shadow flew off, leaving me and Toothless. I sat down, "So, Toothless, how've you been?" He flicked an ear and sighed. "Okay, you don't want to talk. I understand. I can get to talking a little too much sometimes and not many people see this side of me but I can start ranting sometimes and-" Toothless gave me a look that said one thing... 'Shut up'.
"Oh, okay." I said and looked at the ground. Toothless took a deep breath and walked away from me, lying on the other side of the cove.
Well, it's not like him and Hiccup hit it off well, either. I thought, thinking about everything that happened between the two and laughed occasionaly.
Toothless suddenly shot his head up flicked his ear; he must have heard something. I looked in the same direction and saw Toothless trying to fly out of the cove. I decided to give him a helping hand and leapt on his back, he turned at growled at me. "Trust me." I said, he kept a glare on me and after a few moments his eyes softened a little and allowed me to get situated before getting him to fly out of the cove.
"Are we doing okay so far, Toothless?" I asked, flying him shakily. He slapped me with his ear. "I'll take that as a 'no'." I said and tried to situate the tail differently, we began tumbling through the sky a little. I angled it again and we began heading straight for a tree.
"No, no, no!" I said and angled the tail again, we began falling. I angled it again and finally got it right. I breathed heavily as Toothless began flying normally. "How does Hiccup do it?" I asked with a look of horror stuck on my face. "What did you hear, Toothless?" I asked, "It must be important if-" I was cut off by a small explosion in the distance. I angled the tail to get Toothless there but I still didn't know how to work it and we began falling, I tried fixing the tail angle to where I had it before and balance Toothless out and I was shocked when I got it working again.
Toothless was relieved and began looking for what made the explosion. He began flying faster and we got there to see nothing. I looked around, "Toothless, did you see anything?" He looked around and saw nothing. "I wonder what it was." I said.
"What do we do now?" I asked and Toothless let out a long sigh. "Do you want to try flying some more? In case something ever happens to Hiccup so I can direct you?" Toothless didn't like the sound of that and groaned loudly. "I'll try and land you, then I guess." I said and Toothless didn't like the sound of that even more since he groaned louder and began flapping his wings harder.
"So I'll try and learn how to fly you and I'm a first timer at this so you can't get mad at me." I said and Toothless didn't respond. I angled the tail down and we began flying upwards, I angled it up and we began going down, left is still left and right is still right.
"So far, so good. We aren't tumbling or losing balance anymore so that's progress." I said. Toothless didn't respond again. I kept the tail down and we flew higher, "This is really nice, Toothless. It's like a bonding time for us." I said. He didn't respond. Shadow at least tries to talk back, I wonder where he went. I also hope he's okay.
"Toothless, what's up with you and Shadow?" I asked, keeping the tail steady and flying him straight. Toothless stiffened a little when I mentioned Shadow and huffed. "Shadow seems to care about you but does get irritated with you at times. You only seem irritated with him. What's up with that?" Toothless, once again, huffed.
"Maybe we could try and work things out between you two. We're going to need you guys to at least cooperate with each other if we're going to make it through this dragon/human war." Toothless seemed to consider what I'd said but other than that showed no response.
I've been flying Toothless for hours just to make sure that I had the positions right and making sure they matched with different speeds. So far, everything works. It was nice and dark now, Toothless seemed to enjoy it as well. "And you doubted me." I said with a cocked eyebrow. Toothless looked back at me as if to say 'I still doubt you.'
My face fell as I wasn't amused with this. "I think we're ready to land now." I said and was about to turn him around but he suddenly shook his tail, wanting me to leave it alone. "Um, Toothless, I think we're done. Let's go land." I said, we began manuvering through a mist with tons of other dragons. I heard a human voice and Toothless heard it too. I angled us so we could get to where the voice was and I saw another Night Fury, not just any Night Fury, though. It was Shadow and I know him anywhere.
"Hey, Shadow." I said quietly and his eyes lit up when he saw me, he trilled and I rubbed his neck. "What is it, Shadow?" I heard a familiar voice ask. I angled Toothless around so we could see him. "Hiccup, what are you doing here?" I asked, his eyes widened when he saw me. "You're flying Toothless?" He asked a little alarmed and Astrid was as well. "Yeah, Hiccup. I've spent most of the day learning the positions of the tail and they're all memorized." Hiccup nodded a little, "I've been showing Astrid that dragons aren't as bad as they seem." Astrid had her chin resting on his shoulder. "Oh." I said.
"Toothless was a little angry with me when we almost crashed." I admited and Toothless huffed. Hiccup smiled, "Shadow went insane while you were gone." I glanced at Shadow who wasn't taking his eyes off of me. "How so?" I asked, "Well, he tried to kill Astrid, he didn't want her on his back, he shot at her and made a small explosion,"
So that's what that was. I thought, referring to the explosion that occurred while looking for whatever Toothless was after.
"When we were flying he was spinning and swerving and diving into the water. He went absolutely crazy." Hiccup said. "And?" I asked as if it was nothing new. "He went crazy, that's it." He said. "Oh."
All of the dragons began swerving, dove and flew into the opening of a mountain or volcano. It was blazing red on the inside, hot, stuffy and all of the dragons that were hauling in kill were dropping it into the bottom and we watched it disappear into the smoke. There were so many dragons here and they must be dropping their food down there for a reason.
"What my dad wouldn't give to find this." Hiccup said. Toothless and Shadow flew behind a few stalagmites and looked down at the dragons dropping their kill. "They aren't eating any of it." I said. "I'm satisfied to know all of our food's being dropped down a hole." Hiccup commented.
A Gronckle came up, opened its mouth and a small fish slid off of its tongue and into the hole. It scratched the back of its head with one of its hind legs and was about to fly off but a beast came up and swallowed it. All dragons recoiled at its appearance and squeezed together. Hiccup, Astrid and I were all wide-eyed.
The beast's throat rumbled as it lowered itself back into the hole but its head came back up and looked at us. "Come on, boy, we've gotta get out of here." Hiccup said and the beast was about to jump at us but we flew away but that didn't stop it from trying again, all of the other dragons were flying off in fear of it as well.
We got back to Berk without any troubles or any wounds. "It makes sense!" Astrid said, "It's like a giant beehive; they're the workers and that's their queen. It controls them, let's find your dad."
I got off of Toothless and stroked his head, he was calm and then I looked over to Shadow who was a little shaken by the whole thing. I went over to him and before I could put a comforting hand on him, he pushed his head against me softly with a soft trill. I was comforting him all I could and he seemed to be calming down pretty fast.
I looked over at the two speaking just to see Astrid kiss Hiccup's cheek, "That's for... everything else." She said and took off. Toothless stood next to Hiccup and looked at him, "Ah, w-what are you looking at?" He asked and Toothless looked away.
Shadow didn't seem to be too happy with that kiss and nudged me from behind, like he wanted me to tell Hiccup something. "What?" I asked in a whisper. Shadow let out a soft groan and nudged me again, making a head gesture towards Hiccup. Okay, either this dragon was really smart or it is really obvious that I like Hiccup or both.
"Hiccup. I have to tell you something." I said and Hiccup was all ears. "Well, Hic, I'm afraid for the dragons." Shadow did a swift turn, hitting me in the back of the head with his tail. "That was a sign of affection, Hic. Don't worry about it." I said. Shadow groaned, got up and shook his head.
"I'm afraid for them, too." He said. "Especially if Toothless gets into any type of trouble, he can't fly without me." Shadow began walking around us and got behind Hiccup. "I know, Hiccup." I said, "I'm afraid for him, too." I said as I looked at Toothless, who was back to drinking water.
"Uh, Hic?" I said and before he could ask 'what?' he was lifted by Shadow's head and lips collided, I jumped back and he leapt off of Shadow and looked away. I put my back to him and pinched the bridge of my nose. I looked at Shadow through the corner of my eye and he inspected me closely, almost like he was dreading the answer. I looked back and saw that Hiccup\p had his hands on his hips with his back to me as well.
"Toothless, let's go." Hiccup said softly and tried to climb onto Toothless but he jumped away from him. "Toothless, stop messing around." He said. He reached for Toothless again who began running my way now. I tried to step away but Toothless hit me from behind with his tail and sent me into Hiccup again but this time it was a brief moment of eye contact. His face was red and he was breathing slightly heavier than he should be. He's embarrassed... might as well not make this anymore awkward than it needs to be.
"Sweet dreams, Hic." I said and turned around. I was ready to walk back home if I had to. I couldn't believe that Shadow had done that, they probably thought they were trying to help. When Hiccup's lips touched mine it didn't feel like I'd thought it would, it just felt like flesh hitting flesh. I could just be speaking from inexperience but there was nothing 'magical' or 'mind-blowing' about it. It may have also been because it wasn't intended by either us and it was Shadow's doing. All 'romantic' or whatever kind of feelings that I had were beginning to fade but I could still feel a strong bond towards him. Strangely, enough I wasn't heartbroken in the least. I guess we were meant to be just friends after all. That's just as good, he's been for me all of these years and I couldn't imagine having a better friend then him... okay, he may be tied in first place with Shadow. Actually, he's just behind him. Sorry, Hic but it seems like Shadow's the new number one.
Speaking of Shadow, he leapt up next to me with a questioning trill and made a head gesture back to where Hiccup had been. I smiled at him, "Thanks for waking me up, Shadow. Hiccup and I aren't meant to be together." I said and Shadow actually seemed relieved. What was that about? Maybe I'm just bad at reading emotions.
"What now?" I asked him and Shadow nuzzled me with his head. I pet the top of his head, "You're a good boy, Shadow." I said and placed a soft kiss on the top of his head. He gave a slimy lick to the side of my face which caused me to laugh and I wiped my face with my sleeve.
"Well, Shades, I'm kind of tired. I don't know about you." I said while stretching. Shadow tossed me onto his back and began flying off. I hurriedly grabbed onto Shadow's reigns since it was so sudden. He flew back to Berk and landed behind my house again.
I looked around and most Vikings were busy talking about how they thought Hiccup would kill a dragon tomorrow. Shadow heard them and let out a growl, "Shh!" I hushed him and he stopped. "We can't take the risk tonight." I said and looked around more; I looked at the door's size and then Shadow's.
"Come inside." I whispered and pushed the door open, it should be large enough. Shadow's eyes widened a little and he looked at me, then the door, then back at me. "Go ahead." I said and he took two cautious steps towards it then looked back at me for reassurance. I nodded and he walked inside with me following.
It was a little dark inside and we could only see what was lit up by the fires that were lit outside. Shadow easily navigated through, though and I eventually found the fireplace in the dark room, "Shadow, could you light this?" I asked. His green eyes flashed towards me and he shot out a very small shot that was just enough to start the fire. "Thanks." I said.
He smiled, satisfied with himself and laid down. I threw in some more wood into the fireplace and looked over at Shadow, lying next to the fireplace. I was about to sit on the couch but something began pushing me back up, I looked back and saw Shadow's tail. I looked at him and he made a head gesture for me to lie down with him.
I cocked an eyebrow and smiled at him, "Fine." I said and he moved to the side slightly. I lied down with his and he repeated the position that we were in the last time we slept together; wrapping his head lightly around mine, throwing a wing over me and his tail next to my side.
"I was pretty worried about you." I said, Shadow trilled. "Toothless isn't much of a talker. Kind of boring." Shadow held back a chortle. "Either way, I feel like Toothless and I have gotten closer. Soon, we'll take care of all of that tension between you two. I hope." I said, eyelids fluttering a little.
"Good night, Shadow. Sweet dreams." I said, and he trilled softly. We cuddled closer together and fell asleep.