DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING

A.N.

Hello everyone! You may or may not be happy to know that this is a relatively shorter chapter. You'll get some more cute scenes that you'll probably recognize from the movie, though they're extended a bit. I guess that's becoming a habit too.

But we're getting much farther into the movie, so that's good.

I can't tell you how much I want to write a httyd 2 fanfic after this, but I'll probably have to wait until it comes out on DVD. Otherwise, I'd need to memorize every line and action from the movie, and that's pretty much impossible for me.

Well...enjoy this chapter, anyway! Review if you can or want.

ALSO, it has come to my attention that I sometimes forget to describe things in depth. Most of the time, I write TV show or movie screenplays, so my writing is pretty action based. I'm not good with imagery and colors and all that stuff. But I'll try to improve.


As Toothless would soon find out, Vikings were, by far, the most stubborn creatures in the world.

Over the course of the last few days, Toothless had fallen more times than he had in the rest of his life. Every afternoon, the boy would come with some new Viking device, and he would add it to the strange thing on Toothless's back (he was soon able to identify it using one of the boy's Viking words: "saddle"). Then, he would mount the dragon and urge him to take flight, and Toothless, being the fool that he was, would oblige.

It wasn't that Toothless didn't enjoy flying anymore. In fact, it was still his favorite activity. However, whenever the boy was on his back, it seemed that he was more prone to falling. With every tumble, the human ran a greater chance of being injured-it wasn't like he had wings to save himself. And even if he did, they probably would have been awfully weak-just like the rest of the Viking boy's muscles (Maybe he was so clumsy that he even enjoyed falling?).

Plus, what was the fun in flying when you could barely stay in the air?

But the dragon had to admit-some falls were more fun than others.

One of such falls had occurred quite recently. On that day, Toothless had been excited because the boy had arrived earlier than usual, meaning that they would have more time together. As usual, he gave chase for a while, and the boy followed reluctantly. Their race hadn't lasted very long, though, because the Viking knew that Toothless would slow down for him, and he had thus put little effort into it.

Finally, Toothless became bored, so he settled down to let his friend climb onto his back. He was no longer uncomfortable with the child sitting there, straddling the saddle. The pressure of his small weight was now familiar, like he had grown accustomed to a new scale. It seemed that the boy was a part of him now, just like the tail-fin prosthetic, or even his name-Toothless.

As was custom, the Viking boy had urged him to take off, and Toothless complied. Their flying was quite tentative for a while, cautiousness highly practiced by both dragon and rider. The dragon kept his wings stiff and his legs extended to catch them if they dropped. He also refused to allow himself to get distracted by the sensation of flight. As a result of their acute focus, they managed to fly out of the ravine, rising high over the island that had long been Toothless's prison. Dark green pine trees rapidly passed under him, like human hands reaching up from the ground. But Toothless was far out of their reach, his wings extended widely and his dark, scaly skin vaguely reflecting the warm sunlight.

For a moment, all was right with the dragon's world. He was flying again, free of the gorge like he had been before his encounter with the Vikings. But things were even better now. He had found a friend-a friend that could ride with him, who would play with him (albeit reluctantly), and most importantly, wouldn't hurt him. His usually-constant loneliness had disappeared in favor of a sense of belonging-a sense of being wanted.

But then things had started to go wrong. The boy kept pushing Toothless farther along, despite the troubles he was having with controlling the tail-fin. Eventually, the string was accidentally pulled the wrong way, and both dragon and rider had toppled dangerously to the side, thus falling into the tall, grassy field below.

Once again, the boy had been separated from Toothless. The latter could still smell him, though, and blood was not redolent, so the dragon could only assume that the child was okay. Besides, Toothless had something more important on his mind: the grassy field.

It was so soft, and it smelled better than anything the dragon had experienced before. Within a few moments of sitting there, Toothless had unexpectedly found himself rolling in that long, bright green grass, simply enjoying the sensation. It was such an animalistic thing to do, and Toothless liked to think himself smarter than other dragons-but he could not stop himself. Something about the grass had appealed to his most basic instincts-relaxing him and filling his head with pleasant thoughts. His tongue even lolled out, and his neon eyes closed in delight.

He continued to aimlessly roll around for a while. It wasn't long before the boy came back, standing over him with an intrigued expression, his dark green eyes flickering between the plants and the dragon playing in them. He let Toothless play for a while, standing quietly, before pocketing some of the grass in his thick, brown furs-just like he had done with the eel.

Eventually, the boy was able to express his desire to leave to Toothless, unsuccessfully attempting to drag the dragon from his new favorite place. Unfortunately for him, Toothless simply would not budge. He was too comfortable in his current location.

It took a lot of coaxing, but finally, Toothless allowed the Viking to mount him again. It wasn't so much that the boy had been convincing, but more that the dragon had gotten bored-like always. With their last fall in mind, Toothless allowed the child to mount him, flying off very, very carefully.

When the boy had decided to leave, the dragon could not help but feel sad. He was lonely again-without flight, and without fun.

It was almost silly how dependent he had become on this...human. Before, he had been perfectly content with isolation. He had even thought it was part of his nature. Still, that much was somewhat true-Toothless didn't get along with other dragons or Vikings. But this boy...this boy was special. Everything they did together-whether it was drawing, racing, flying, or even falling-for some reason, felt right. And maybe that wasn't normal, but Toothless wasn't exactly a normal dragon, and he suspected that his friend wasn't a normal Viking either. They were both unique outcasts, and perhaps that was why they got along so well.