A little present for you all to ring in the New Year ;)

It's 2019. By now, some countries have been blessed with the premiere of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World in their territories.

For those who have watched the film, I implore you to refrain from posting any spoilers in the reviews. It's premiering in the Philippines this February, I've already seen some spoilers in the form of screenshots of crucial scenes on Pinterest, and I'm trying my hardest to forget ever seeing them so that I may enter the theater with a fresh outlook.

Because, by Loki, I WANT to cry when I watch this movie so bad.

SO NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS, PLEASE!

On with the story!

NOTE: I OWN NOTHING. ALL RIGHTS TO HTTYD GO TO CRESSIDA COWELL AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION.

Chapter 10: To Build Trust

The salty, smoky smell of roasting meat and fish permeated the air as Gobber and the teens hung out at one of the watch towers that night.

Astrid and Zenna avoided eye contact with each other, the latter still feeling irked by the former insulting her brother's good name. Astrid couldn't bear to look at Zenna's black eye so, instead, she focused on listening to Gobber as he regaled them all with tales of his earlier dragon fighting days.

"…And with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole," said Gobber, waving his roasted chicken in the air as he went on. "And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg!"

Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and Fishlegs were amazed by the tale. Hiccup and Zenna both smiled and rolled their eyes, having heard the story billions of times before.

Erland yawned, dropping another raw fish and a chicken leg into a bucket he kept behind his seat. He planned to head back to Embla's cave and leave her with some supper before he went to bed tonight.

Fishlegs, fascinated by Gobber's story, proceeded to ask a most disturbing question. "Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by… crushing his heart, or something," he suggested.

"But wouldn't his hand be too chomped up to actually be of any use?" Zenna piped up, holding up a speared salmon over the fire.

Fishlegs' face fell. "Oh yeah… Forgot about that…" he said before his face brightened up. "Unless the dragon swallowed his hand whole!" he exclaimed.

Snotlout grimaced. "I swear, I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!" he proclaimed.

Erland snickered. "With a face like yours, Snotlout, the dragons will fly away screaming before you even get a chance," he retorted.

Hiccup, Zenna, Gobber, and the Twins laughed. Even Astrid managed to crack a smile.

Snotlout, his face red as a tomato, sent Erland a death glare, the newcomer giving him a cheeky grin.

Once he stopped laughing long enough to wipe the tears from his eyes, Gobber shook his head at his students. "Ah, it's the wings and tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away," he told them.

"A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

At those words, Hiccup and Zenna looked at each other, their smiles gone.

'I've doomed him,' thought Hiccup. 'He might be safe now, but… sooner or later, somebody's going to find him and his mate. As long as he can't fly, he won't survive. Unless…'

Zenna followed Hiccup's gaze, looking down through the watch tower's wooden slats and into the cold darkness of the now dead forge, and realized what her surrogate brother was thinking. She locked gazes with him and discreetly turned her head towards the watch tower's stairs.

Erland watched them, his sharp green eyes flickering in light of the fire. His lips twitched into a smile. He knew a cunning plan when he saw one.

Gobber then yawned. "Alright, I'm off to bed. You should be, too," he informed the other teens. "Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?" he asked a gleefully excited Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs.

Tuffnut confidently leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. "It's gonna be me. It's my destiny. See?" he said, the others crowding around him to get a better look at…

"Your Mom let you get a tattoo?" Fishlegs gasped.

"It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark," Tuffnut clarified.

"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before," Ruffnut remarked, unimpressed.

"Yes, it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now."

While the others were distracted by Tuffnut's tattoo/birthmark, Hiccup and Zenna quietly slipped away. Erland chuckled to himself, "There go a pair of misfits." Before noticing Astrid watching them. He gave her a pointed stare. "Suddenly curious as to where they're going or what they're up to? Hmph. Funny, you never even bothered to care at all about what they were doing before and, now, all of a sudden, you're concerned about them, Miss 'Proper Warrior'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Astrid said nothing but visibly shrank under Erland's icy look.

The night air turned colder as the teens left for bed. As Gobber was dousing the bonfire, Erland approached him.

"So what new form of torture are you making them face tomorrow, Gobber?" he asked.

Gobber carefully ran his fingers through his mustache. "Ah, see there, I've got a wee problem with that. Tomorrow's lesson is going to be with the Hideous Zippleback. Two-headed beast, twice as tricky." The blacksmith's eyebrows furrowed as he thought hard. "My plan was to split the young'uns into pairs. Problem is, I've got seven recruits. I could put the odd one in with another team but, well, that wouldn't be fair now, would it?" he explained.

Erland nodded, understanding Gobber's dilemma, then grinned. "Well, what if you had a new student?" he suggested.

Embla startled awake at the sound of fish being thrown onto the floor. Opening her eyes, she reared her head back and hissed.

"Easy there, Embla. It's just me."

Snorting in surprise, Embla saw Loki standing before her with a lantern in his right hand and an empty bucket in his left. A neat pile of fish and chicken legs sat at his feet.

"By the green blood of my ancestors…" Embla shook her head. "Do you have any idea how late it is?" she asked.

"Clandestine meetings are best done during the night," Loki replied, shrugging, then left to fetch water. Upon returning, he watched Embla eat, cringing every time she threw up half-eaten fish and globs of acidic spit.

After a while, however, she seemed to recover some strength and finished the last of the fish. The light of Loki's lantern illuminated her scaly hide, which was now turning from faded yellow to a light crimson.

"You seem to be doing better," the former god observed.

"A few more stems of wild ginger and I should be well enough to leave this cave," Embla told him, bringing her head closer. Her catlike eyes had a calming effect on Loki, who slowly lowered his lantern and set it down on the ground.

Feeling the magnetic pull of the Changewing's hypnotic gaze, Loki managed to snap out of his daze and grinned. "Nice try," he said to the stunned Changewing. "But it's going to take more than hypnosis to mess with me."

Embla fumed. "Damn it…" she muttered, looking away, embarrassed.

Loki let out a soft laugh, emerald orbs twinkling, then carefully extended his right arm until his palm was just an inch away from Embla's nose.

Embla looked back at him and tilted her head. "What are you up to now, Serpent Tongue?" she asked.

"I'm not the only one on this island willing to help a downed dragon," Loki replied, bowing his head.

"Eyes forward, Loki. I might just bite your hand off," warned Embla, her yellow eyes narrowed into slits.

"By all means, do as you please." Loki peered up at her, smiling softly. "I'll still have the one other hand anyway," he said with easy confidence. But, deep down, on the inside, he had his doubts.

He knew that this was a stupid idea, copying Hiccup and Zenna, but he was willing to take his chances. He'd lost all of his magic. He was little more than useless now without it.

Yet, oddly enough, fate had granted him with the ability to talk to dragons.

He didn't feel comfortable talking to Gothi about everything that's been eating away at him ever since he woke up on Berk. Hiccup and Zenna… they wouldn't believe him. And even if they did, chances were that they'd never want to go near him ever again once they found out the truth.

And, in spite of years of keeping secrets, Loki found himself wanting to find someone to confide in. He needed someone to talk to, to just listen.

If that someone was going to be a dragon who's begrudgingly allowed him to help her, then, by the Norns, he was willing to risk losing a hand.

So it was a great relief for Loki to feel Embla's soft warm snout brush against his palm. He looked up into the Changewing's eyes and smiled.

"You're an odd one, Loki," said Embla, her snout not leaving his palm.

"So I've been told," Loki chuckled then yelped as Embla's flexible tail suddenly wrapped around his waist and lifted him up and carried him to Embla's side. He relaxed once he was back safe on the ground only to look bewilderingly about as Embla curled up around him.

The Changewing regarded him with a twinge of sadness. "I've lived for twenty years, and have only seen humans do nothing but capture and kill countless others of my kind. I've seen men set fire to the forests I've lived in and smash my sisters' eggs. Twenty years… I've only known humans to be savages, brutal, ruthless…

"And now here you are, a god disguised as one of them, risking yourself to care for me while I'm stuck on this island of dragon killers…

"Why?"

Loki felt his face grow hot. "Can't a god be a good Samaritan every now and then?" he asked and tried to squirm away only to be pinned down by Embla's glowering stare.

"Don't make me hypnotize you, Lie Smith. For once in your life, speak the truth and nothing but the truth," said Embla with an air of finality.

Tearing his gaze away from Embla, Loki caved. "To tell you the truth… I don't' really know myself," he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. "But, hey, why not? I don't have anything to do except wait for the Norns to restore me back to my true self, which, by the way, could take forever."

Now it was Embla's turn to look bewildered. "You mean they've stripped you of your magic?" she asked.

"All I ever wanted was to be my broth- to be Thor's equal." Clenching his fists, Loki proceeded to vent out all of his frustrations to the one soul willing to listen. "I did everything I could to prove to the All-Father that I was worthy to be his son. Everything! Only to find out that I was nothing more than a stolen relic, locked up until he could use me. And for what?

"A peace treaty with Laufey! The leader of the Frost Giants! My-my real father…" his voice broke at that moment.

Sighing, Loki slumped against Embla. "I was a runt, cast out by my own kind. Then I was wronged all because I tried to do something right. All my efforts in vain… So I let go… Fell off the Bifrost and, now, I'm stuck here. No magic, no family, no home…" he muttered then looked up at Embla, his eyes hollow.

"With regards to your first question, why I even wanted to help you in the first place… Maybe I just want to have another go at doing the right thing, maybe I'm just bored and being able to communicate with you has been the second most interesting thing to happen to me so far… Not like it's going to make any real difference, though," he admitted despondently.

For a minute, Embla stared at him. Then her eyes softened and she gently nuzzled Loki. "Well, if it means anything coming from me… I think you're doing something right. And you are making a real difference. Most humans would have butchered me by now since I'm downed, too weak to fly away or put up much of a fight. You haven't. And, perhaps this is long overdue but… thank you for helping me, Loki," she said gently.

A small spark lit up Loki's eyes. He smiled, gently stroking Embla's head. "You're welcome," he said to her telepathically.

Back in the village, Hiccup and Zenna were busy. A sword and a shield, two things made for killing dragons, were both taken apart to create the unimaginable: a prosthetic tail fin for a downed dragon.

Hiccup hammered out the connecting rods for the tail fin's skeleton while Zenna stitched together scraps of leather and oiled sailcloth to make the fin itself. Putting the components together, the two best friends looked at each other.

"We are breaking every single rule our tribe has when it comes to dragon killing, Hicc," said Zenna, running a hand over the completed tail fin.

"I know, Zen, but…" Hiccup looked at the designs he had drawn up, the parchment harmlessly lying on the table while he held up the tail fin. "I can't just let Toothless stay in the cove forever. He's got a mate, probably a few babies back home… wherever home is for them…" he murmured.

"Toothless?" Zenna raised an eyebrow. "Out of all the possible names you can give to the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, you go with Toothless?" she asked, her violet eyes sparkling.

"Hey, he's got retractable teeth and he's toothless when he hides them away in his gums. The name makes perfect sense," Hiccup replied, grinning.

Zenna laughed, shaking her head in amusement. "When you and Astrid have kids, I pray to the gods that she names them," she said jokingly, wheezing when Hiccup gently elbowed her in the ribs.

They left the forge late, Hiccup holding the tail fin, Zenna holding the rolled up parchment containing the design plans. They bumped into Erland at the plaza, the young man taking one look at their cargo and smirking.

"I hope that Night Fury won't mind you strapping that contraption onto his tail," Erland said, gesturing to the tail fin.

Hiccup paled. He hadn't thought of the possibility of Toothless rejecting his invention.

"Where'd you come from, Erland?" Zenna cocked her head to the side.

"Oh, I just went out for a little walk to get ready for bed," Erland yawned. It was quite extraordinary, his mortal form needing eight hours of sleep. Back then, he could manage staying awake for a full day or two without getting tired. "See you tomorrow!"

Hiccup and Zenna watched Erland leave. Glancing at each other, they both shrugged. It wasn't strange to go out for walks at night. The only problem to worry about was the possibility of being attacked by dragons in the dark.

Still, Hiccup and Zenna thought as they went home, why did it feel like Erland was hiding something?

A bajillion thanks to my excellent editor, WolfWitchHuntress1318, for beta-reading and editing this chapter.

Next chapter… it's going to be fun, I promise you ;)

Until then, Happy New Year guys!

-GuardianDragon98