That night, Aranon found a patch of berries. They were the kind that steals the feeling in one's ears, and makes their eyes lose focus. It had a narcotic effect on him, and he slept heavily in his warmed rock bowl. His tail was curled around his body, acting as a cushion for his head, and the steep scoop in the rocks cradled his body and fit with his wings as if formed just for his purposes. The sparse grass that grew in the cracks smouldered from his fire.
Hiccup was less than impressed with him when he came that afternoon. The sun was past its peak and Aranon was still sleeping in his nest.
Aranon lazily watched the Viking come into the cove carrying the saddle, then let Hiccup search the cove for him, as he didn't know about the Night Fury's resting place. But he finally slithered out of his nest when the pup became anxious, and drowsily nudge his human in greeting.
"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed, then quieted when Aranon winced from the loud and sudden noise. But then he scowled, "You were sleeping?" Aranon rumbled in annoyance. The boy's voice grated on his ears, all he wanted was to sleep his intoxication off, was it too much to ask? But Hiccup showed the dragon the saddle, which was longer, and sported two large metal rings towards the back, along with a chest band that would connect the two. "I worked on it last night – you have no idea how hard it was to get this past Gobber."
Aranon had to admit, he was fascinated by the new saddle design, and today, it was much easier for Hiccup to put it on him, since the dragon was much more complying. The strap around his upper neck was almost the same, but was more comfortable and Hiccup had added a small cover over the hand hold, and the metal links were kinder on his hide after being ground down. Hiccup had a harder time explaining to the dragon that the harness wouldn't work properly if Aranon didn't put his legs through the metal loops. After a heated – rather one sided – argument, Aranon accepted his loss and testily thrust his legs through the metal loops.
"I hope you're happy." Aranon snorted.
But Hiccup was busy under the Night Fury's chest, linking the two leg loops by the chest strap of the harness. "You're doing great, Toothless – compared to yesterday, anyways." He continued by checking all the straps. Running his fingers under the leather girths like the day before. He stood back to admire his handiwork, arms akimbo. "No bad, eh, Toothless?"
Aranon shifted his shoulders in experimentation. The harness made minimal noise, and was just on the fine line between uncomfortable and comfortable. Not bad at all. Hiccup rummaged through his bag and picked out a coil of rope, "This is trial one," Hiccup said with determination, "Hand steering." He took a deep breath, "This is going to end so badly."
Aranon beat his wings furiously, it was a new struggle to lift both himself and the pup, even if Hiccup didn't have substantial weight, but it didn't help that he was still recovering from last night's berries. The Night Fury felt his prosthetic shudder and slide on his tail as Hiccup yanked on it in his battle with the wind.
The Night Fury set his face in concentration, determined to stay in the sky, but when Hiccup yanked on the rope at the wrong time, the two of them jerked off to the side, tumbling in different directions.
The dragon shrieked in indignation when he skidded to the ground, tripping heavily over his front legs and flipping over his head and onto his back with an almighty thump. The breath whooshed from his lungs, and Aranon lay on his back, struggling to draw his first breath. He closed his eyes, like when he was a pup, Torok would knock him around on his father's command, and closing his eyes had always helped him regain his composure. The Night Fury always found that the trick was to breathe outwards first, to get back into the rhythm, then resume normal breathing.
"Toothless? Are you alright?" Hiccup rushed over to Aranon, "Oh gods, I killed him! I couldn't kill him on purposed so I killed him by accident?! What kind of sick minded god would do this to me?" Aranon continued to struggle for the exhale. He considered kicking the human, but that wouldn't help much. "Toothless, speak to me! Or – you know – whatever dragons do." Aranon had tied his chest into a knot, but he finally let out a small exhalation.
He choked on the first inhale, the sweet air of the cove fighting against his natural recover pace. Aranon wheezed on the next few breathes, then flipped over. His head pounded from lack of oxygen, spots danced in his vision, and his wings splayed uselessly on either side of him like the forgotten playthings of a pup. "Berries and flying... don't mix." It sounded to Aranon to be sagely advice. Of course he already knew that and heeded it from all his excursion on the berry patches on the Crescent Isle – one would have to have a sober friend keep them from taking flight white intoxicated. Aranon was usually the sober one, and this incident reminded him exactly why.
Hiccup laughed in disbelief, taking in the scene of the shaky dragon. Aranon was less than amused. A black tail whipped through the air and caught Hiccup upside the head. The Viking grasped the back of his head, "Toothless, wha-" He ducked again when the tail came back from the other direction, but it clipped his crown.
"This is all on you, Hiccup." Aranon growled, snatching the rope from the Viking's hands with lightning speed. "We are never going to fly like that again." With that, he bit down and the rope snapped, and the frayed ends falling to the ground.
"Toothless..." Hiccup grumbled, picking up the frayed rope, "Now I'm gonna have to splice this together. That's more work on the pile tonight." The boy threw the cord back at Aranon's face. "Make me a pyre when I'm destroyed in the arena tomorrow from lack of sleep."
Aranon raised his head in annoyance, narrowing his eyes. He advanced on the human, making himself as large as he possibly could, "We are not flying like that again." He snorted. Hiccup cringed under the Night Fury's intimidating stare.
"Fine. I'll fix the rope and think of something else – happy?"
Aranon was far from happy with his human.
This isn't exactly what I had in mind." Aranon grumbled unenthusiastically.
"Toothless, it'll be fine," Hiccup persuasively tried to advertise the idea of tying the newly spliced rope around his ankle. But the dragon wasn't buying it. The human had enough trouble with his hand-eye coordination as it was; the hand-foot was going to be catastrophic in this case. That made Aranon shiver when he imagined the outcome of this venture. The pup had made cords to hold him on the saddle by a hook connected to a new human-harness, but the dragon was skeptical. Hiccup slapped the rumbling dragon on the rump testily, "Excuse me, Mr. Night Fury, but I'm pretty sure that I am the genius human inventor. Not you." He threw the one rope end over the dragon's wing, then took it up again and brought it to Aranon's tail.
The dragon huffed and rolled his eyes. "When Speed Stingers fly."
Hiccup finished hooking the rope onto the prosthetic fin, "My genius will amaze you one day, Toothless. And I'm pretty sure it's hard to impress a dragon – especially a Night Fury like yourself," he said as he threw himself into the saddle. He knotted the rope onto his ankle, then tested the system by tugging on the rope. "You ready, Toothless?"
"Of course not."
Hiccup turned around to try to mirror Aranon's living fin position with the prosthetic. If he does that the entire time we're flying, we're doomed. Aranon thought with exasperation. "Alright Toothless, let's get this show on the road – ah – sky."
"Did you seriously just say that?" Aranon snorted as he worked up his wings, a fierce expression on his face as he anticipated flight. "That is ridiculously cliché, even for you."
The Viking patted the side of the dragon's neck, "Let's take it nice and slow today, alright bud?" Aranon snorted in response, eager to be off. "Okay, okay, calm down."
Aranon shifted on his haunches, "Enough talk." Before his human could protest, they were in the air. The Night Fury pumped his wings with vigor; no restraint could hold him from trying to go as fast as possible. Hiccup attempted to lay streamlined to the dragon's back, but was the greatest resistance of Aranon's speed, as he kept lifting his chest and twisting to look back on the prosthetic. He would catch the wind and Aranon could feel the resistance keenly.
But, Nótt, he was flying. Albeit it was slow and arduous as he was hardly staying the air at the speed at which Hiccup set with his obvious lack of coordination, but he was actually in the air without falling uselessly back down.
The dragon chirped happily as they exited the cove. He swung his foot out and clipped the top of a tree with his claws. The spruce swung dangerously as the tip splintered off, the needles rustled and cracked. The Viking on his back gasped in surprise, "Toothless, watch your feet! Honestly, you were worried my footwork would be awful." Aranon barked impertinently at his rider, who responded by slapping the dragon's neck, "Get over it, ya big baby."
Aranon snorted and returned his attentions to his flight. They were passing over a small meadow located in the forest; the sun touched every stalk of grass and lit them like ribbons of Arvendol's Fire. Hiccup tugged savagely with his foot on the rope in his battle with the wind, which resulted with them plummeting to the ground like their previous attempts at flight together.
When they hit the ground, Hiccup was tossed forward, away from the dragon, and the rope snapped and flew away like a spider web in the wind. Aranon swore loudly, flipping himself over. He shook his head. And everything was going so well too.
Something caught his nose, and suddenly he couldn't think straight anymore. Aranon shook his head to clear it, then he completely understood what was going on. Dragon Nip!
Before he could stop himself, the fearsome Night Fury was rolling in the stuff, happier than a Gronkle in a rock pile. He crooned happily as he rolled in the large patch of grass, rubbing his head forcefully against the substance more intoxicating than berries. "Oh, I needed this so bad," Aranon said giddily, all dignity flying out the archipelago with a Valkyrie-like voice, singing off-key in its drunkenness.
Hiccup stood, completely dumbfounded at the dragon's behavior, at the edge of the Dragon Nip patch. He continued to watch Aranon with awe, but a grin made its way across his face. He snatched up a handful of the grass and shoved it into his belt. He approached the dragon, but Aranon unintentionally swept his wing under the boy's feet. Hiccup thumped down hard on the dragon's wing, he coughed hard when he regained his breath, but yelped when Aranon pulled his wing in to his chest.
Hiccup had his arms tucked between himself and the dragon, so he began to slam his fist against the Night Fury's sturdy chest in protest, "Toothless! Let me out or so help me-" Aranon never the chance for Hiccup to finish his sentence, for he had opened his wing, eyes glinting cheekily. Before Hiccup could stop him, the dragon curled in and dragged his large tongue up the side of his pup's face. "Gah! Toothless, cut that out!" Hiccup pushed Aranon's head away in disgust, then rubbed his long auburn hair out of its spit-stiffened form with an awkwardly positioned arm. The Night Fury gave his human a throaty purr of pure contentment, nestling his head next to Hiccup, who was still cradled in his midnight wings.
"You may be a smelly human," Aranon purred, then smiled toothlessly at the scowling Viking, "But you're my smelly human."
"You're so messed up right now," Hiccup stated in disgust. "You wouldn't be doing any of this right now if it wasn't for this grass."
"You love me," Aranon gave his human another lick, and the Viking's sopping hair stood on end from his forehead. "Admit it." Hiccup hissed in annoyance, and when the Night Fury's tongue came out for another lick, his hand shot out and snatched on one of the two ends. His piercing green eyes conveyed an obvious message – 'No'. The human slapped the dragon's tongue with his right hand when he testily let go with his left. Aranon tugged his tongue back to himself, nursing the hurt with an irritated expression.
"We need to get you away from his meadow. Now." Hiccup wriggled his way out the bottom of Aranon's wings, then righted himself, smoothing out his twisted tunic and tugging his hair back over his forehead defiantly. Aranon was somewhat attentive now that his captive had escaped from his grasp, but the Dragon Nip was making his thought process fuzzy. He watched his tail flick in front of his face with a concentration he had no idea he was capable of, chirring every time the prosthetic clicked open in its stunning display of leather and metal – to Aranon, it was like a beautiful butterfly. Hiccup groaned, "This is so wrong."
Hiccup sidled over and grasped the handle on the saddle, tugging with all his scrawny might at the neck of the Night Fury. But after finally realized that it would be impossible to move the dragon without his consent, the human gave up. Aranon barked happily at him, oblivious to the fact that the human was still scowling at him. Didn't the human feel the narcotic effect of the Nip?
The human sighed, bent down, tugged a clump of grass from the ground and waved it in front of Aranon's face. "Do you want the grass?" He asked enticingly, the Night Fury's enormous eye followed it with profound interest. Hiccup pretended to chuck the clump away but discreetly kept it in his hand, "Go get it!" Aranon bounded after the imaginary clump enthusiastically, chirping as he pounced after the non-existent object of interest. Aranon accidentally overshot on a jump, then slid to a stop in a disordered jumble of limbs like an uncoordinated pup. He worked himself back into order, feeling the hazy feeling in his head disappear as the scent of the grass evaporated.
He sneezed to clear his nose, then shot a poisonous glare at Hiccup, who was casually coming in the dragon's wake of flattened and torn up grass. The Viking laughed, "Gods, I can't believe that worked! Toothle-" His eyes widened when Aranon's narrowed, "Oh no." The Night Fury leapt up and tackled the human, trapping him under his heavy forefoot, his pupils were slits. "Toothless, come on, you know I had to do that." Aranon made his displeasure clear in an ear splitting roar, directed at the human's face like on their first, fateful, meeting. But Hiccup took it with remarkable calm. He flicked the dragon's nose, "I believe you are in the wrong now."
Aranon huffed at his human irritably. How dare he take him away from the amazing Dragon Nip? But Hiccup's obnoxious smile made it impossible to stay angry with him. "Damn you, Hiccup." Aranon puffed, blowing air into the pup's face. He lifted his weight, moving his body off to the side and placing his weight on three legs. "Never take a Night Fury away from his Dragon Nip," Hiccup sat up, his silly smile still plastered on his face, laughter building up in his throat. "For the love of Níðhöggr, it's not funny!"
The dragon's tail swung out, hitting the boy upside the head. Hiccup's smile disappeared, "Toothless!" He hissed. He bolted up and slapped the dragon's foreleg, "What is your problem?" His smile twisted into a frown. "Stop hitting me with your tail, honestly, normally I have a lot of bruises, but you'll give me marks even Gobber will notice – then what?"
Aranon's eyes lit up, "You'll come and live in the cove – then I won't have to wait until afternoons to fly." He nudged Hiccup; it was a pretty good idea. He chirped with anticipation, wondering if Hiccup would actually do that for him.
"Come on Toothless," Hiccup huffed in exasperation, placing a hand on the dragon's saddle to help pull himself up, "we should be getting you back to the cove – it's almost sunset."
"I think you need to smooth your scales the right way and stop acting like a priss." As soon as it left his mouth, the Night Fury felt as if he had regressed to a flippant yearling – although he meant every word he had said. He butt his head against Hiccup's chest in challenge, "You'll never attract a mate if you go to sleep before sunset." His tone was disapproving and grumpy, like he was the boy's sire, forcing him to get in better odds with the females.
"Shut up and let's go." Hiccup didn't understand dragon speech, but he knew the tone, and was obviously unimpressed. He headed back in the general direction of the cove.
Aranon followed the pup into the forest, "I'm just saying, that's not the way I went about impressing the female population. Courting, most times, requires muscle – which you obviously lack." He trotted beside Hiccup now, who was now lengthening his stride in an effort to keep ahead of the Night Fury, "So you are at the disadvantage here, you need to make up for it with your brains, or perhaps your charming demeanor, otherwise all the rogues will fly off with your females and your blood will die out."
Hiccup ignored him and kept walking. Aranon easily kept up with his human, like a giant black shadow wearing a saddle. The trees above them filtered a green light, making the ground dappled with red and green luminosity, Aranon's back and wings were a playground of the dancing light. The rolling ground was littered with twigs and was strewn with logs, some of the logs were scored with tooth and claw marks, they must have been some dragon's claw sharpening tool during the winter of scarce food and poor hunting.
"You might also want to pick a mate that is larger than you, so your pups become a decent size – gods forbid your pups to scrawny like you."
He felt no shame in what he was saying, though normally he would, it was all the effect of the Dragon Nip, refusing to wear off. Aranon was aware that he would probably regret this later, but at the moment, he was too preoccupied with giving Hiccup his unneeded and unheard advice. "Here we are, bud," Hiccup said, pointing towards an area absent of trees. Aranon realized it was the cove, as it was a gaping hole in the ground. "We didn't get too far today, did we?"
Aranon came up behind the boy's shoulder, ears flattened with disappointment. They had probably only flown approximately forty feet. "No. No we didn't."
Hiccup hissed in frustration. "How in Hel's name am I going to get you to fly at this rate?" Aranon nudged him, trying to convey that he wasn't going to drive Hiccup crazy with this problem. If the human lost sleep over this, he wouldn't survive in his 'arena', as he was always reminded Aranon of. To try to divert the human from his moping, Aranon leapt up, then dipped into the voce, his wings like giant shadows spanning from his body.
He had been getting the hang of gliding with his uneven tail, and had waited for the past while for the perfect opportunity to show Hiccup, and this might be as good a time as any. His glide to the cove floor was shaky, but a definite improvement existed between the time of his initial maiming and this moment. Aranon looked back up to the ledge in anticipation of Hiccup's joy, but the Viking's face just furrowed into more misery than before. "I'll see you tomorrow, Toothless." Without another word, Hiccup turned his back to Aranon and disappeared into the trees.
There you have it folks: Aranon gives relationship advice, Dragon Nip is seriously messed up, and ropes are clearly not the way to go with the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death Itself.
FUN FACT (For Whovians like me): David Tennant contributed his voice talent to HTTYD – as Spitelout Jorgenson.
While some people describe the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless is that like 'a boy and his dog', I think it's more of a 'brother from another mother' relationship. I mean come on, Toothless is pretty intelligent on his own and has a very strong mentality and sense of self, and at times Toothless shows human qualities like sarcasm (he probably got that from Hiccup).
Review. Eat ice cream. Hug your best friend. Doodle character sketches in class. Buy a Sonic Screwdriver on Amazon. And Review.
Have a great day!