AN/ This chapter has taken way too long to write. It seems that every time I take a break from writing it takes a few weeks to get into gear again. Sorry for the long wait. As always, I thank my beta, toothlessgolfer, for reading this chapter over.
I have been wondering one thing though, what shall I call Night/Nótt? Which name should I use when referring to her? I gave her these two names because 'Nótt' is her 'Night Fury name' (Like how Martröð is Toothless' 'Night Fury name', as some of you may recall.) and Night was supposed to be her nickname of sorts, like 'Toothless'. I have made this needlessly complicated, haven't I?
The plan was to just use 'Night' most of the time, but a few of you seemed to prefer 'Nótt'. Probably because it sounds exotic and exciting and it has a character that isn't on most of your keyboards.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I want your input on this so I'm going to put up a poll when this chapter goes out. Please do vote on it or send me a pm telling me your thoughts on the matter.
P.S. If you're curious, 'Nótt' is Icelandic for 'Night'. (Original, I know.) It's pronounced like 'note' except with a sharper 't' sound.
An Unexpected Gift
Chapter Fourteen
S
I was walking towards the forge to repair a hammer for Edda when a thought struck me. What if Hiccup never manages to turn human again? He's a smart boy and he still surprises me with his accomplishments, but transforming from a dragon into a human is tall order for anyone. What if he's reached his limits on this one?
Well, he won't become chief when I retire, which means Snotlaut would inherit my post. I'll probably make Astrid the first woman to become chief to prevent that from happening. I'll also have to say goodbye to the prospect of human grandchildren. What if he finds himself a female Night Fury and they have... eggs or... hatchlings or whatever the right term is? That would be something to get used to, but by that time I'll be well used to getting used to new things. Hiccup has turned my world on its head!
But whatever happens, I'll be there for him. It's the least I can do to make up for for being such a terrible father I the past.
H
Well, this was interesting. Extremely interesting. Turns out that Night Furies typically don't get along with other dragons at all. It was about to say the reason why, but that part of the page was smudged so I couldn't make out anything coherent. Maybe the reason Toothless wasn't like this was because his enslavement to the queen forced him to live near other dragons long enough that he got used to them.
The book also confirmed my suspicions that Night Furies were territorial, which explained the lack of other Night Furies in this part of the archipelago. Perhaps if I could just get far enough away I might find another one. Another possibility is that a young female might find Toothless, since soon after reaching adulthood they wander until they find an available mate.
Of course, traveling far to find a male Night Fury would be unwise, since said Night Fury would see it as an attack on their territory by another Night Fury and attack either Toothless or me. But enough internal rambling, I have more important things to do.
I quickly found Toothless perching on my house. I was surprised he wasn't flying. Well, he looked pretty exhausted so he probably had been flying and was just on a break.
"You ready to learn how to fly yet?" He asked once he spotted me.
"Yes, I've just been thinking about some of the things the book Gothi has told me. Did you know Night Furies were territorial?" I asked him. He looked interested judging by his raised earflaps.
"Really? I never knew that. It does explain something though." He answered, jumping down.
"Explain what?" I asked, quite curious.
"Ever since you fully transformed, I've felt increasingly annoyed when I'm around you. Every little thing you do sets me off just a tiny bit. Nothing major, I haven't let it get to me at all, but it makes sense that I would get irritated when there's another male Night Fury in the territory I didn't know I had. My instincts must be trying to get me to drive you out of it by making me annoyed by your presence." This is also very interesting. Turns out Night Furies are much more ruled by their instincts than I thought. This means eventually I'll probably feel the same irritation towards him. I wonder whether this will get worse and if so how far it will go. If it goes far enough it could drive us apart, but I truly hope that does not happen.
Wait, just what instincts do I have? Then an even more alarming thought hit me. What's it going to be like during mating season? What if a female of our kind pops up, and then becomes interested in me? Will I be able to resist her, or will the urge to mate be too strong? Will I even want to resist? How much will my body have changed my mind by then? I don't think I want to know the answers to any of these questions, so my course of action remains the same: find the Bewilderbeast.
There has been one thing I've been meaning to ask Toothless since yesterday. It's been gnawing at the corner of my mind the whole day.
"Yes, that might become a problem. We'll see how it develops, and then talk more about it. There's one thing that's been gnawing at my mind though. Yesterday, when watching Astrid leave, I started purring. Yeah, purring! It's driving me insane thinking about it! Do you have any idea why... why are you laughing Toothless?" Toothless was literally rolling around in the grass from laughter. It took him a while to calm himself down. I counted forty-eight seconds. Eventually though, he stopped.
"You purred at her? You must really love her then. Dragons purr when they're very content, as I'm sure you know. Mated dragons have been known to also purr when looking at their mates. It is seen as a great flattery to purr at someone on purpose. But purring at someone without trying to? That can only mean one thing, that you are extremely attracted to Astrid and care about her deeply. I suppose you humans call it 'true love'. You sure you two aren't mates?" He said smugly. Great... now my attraction to her would be even more obvious than before? Pretty much everyone on the island knew about us but it still felt strangely embarrassing.
"For the last time, we're not mates! Humans do things differently!" I hissed at him. He just chuckled.
"You know, it would be much easier for the two of you if you just transformed her. No more perky human customs and such. You could just get it over with and have hatchlings next winter." He said. What? Doesn't he see the many glaringly obvious problems with that plan? Also, hatchlings? Does he honestly think I'm ready for something like that yet?
"Do you have any idea how many problems there are with that plan? I'll run the risk of killing or alienating her, I'll probably be banished from the tribe, I'm not yet ready to have offspring of any kind, and I don't want to hurt her. I've heard things coming out of Mildew that make more sense!" I said. He seemed unconvinced.
"Have it your way. You ready to start learning to fly yet or do you have any more questions?" He asked. I actually have quite a lot of questions left, but they can wait. This is more important.
"No. No important ones anyway." I replied.
N
That one-armed 'dragon god' as he calls himself tried to control me again today. All he got was a sore arm from swinging that ridiculous staff of his. When will he learn that his tricks won't work on me?
"Why don't you submit to the human-alpha? Why do you still not accept that he's the strongest, night hunter?" A lowly nadder from the cell next to mine asked. Pathetic, the lot of them.
"I have nothing to say to weaklings, prey." I said to her for the thousandth time. Every so often one of the other dragons would try to convince me to submit to him. Me? A Night fury? Laughable!
T
We arrived at the ever-so-useful clearing a little while later.
"As before this will be all about trusting and following your instincts. Now we're going to try gliding. Remember earlier today when you completely overshot the other boulder by gliding past it? Try to do that again." I said. 'Normally' I would have told him exactly what to do and how to do it, but that would have made him overthink everything, and that would just have gotten in the way.
"Aren't you going to tell me how?" He asked me, as I thought he would.
"Let's just try this first. If you don't make any progress, I'll try your way." I said.
"Okay, here we go..." He said as he walked towards the boulder.
He leaped up the boulder (rather gracefully, I might add) and got into the 'jumping position' I had taught him earlier today. He jumped, spread his wings and kept them spread, completely forgot that the tail was there to stabilize him, tumbled out of control, and crashed. I had expected as much.
"Don't forget that you have a tail for a reason. Use it to stabilize yourself." I said to him.
"I thought you weren't going to tell me what to do." He said as he got his face out of the mud.
"I didn't say that I wasn't going to nudge you in the right direction." I replied, sitting down. This was going to take some time.
His second attempt ended much the same way, but this time it was because he forgot to keep his tailfins symmetrical, which made him unstable. Hence the crash.
He actually achieved relative stability during his third attempt, but he didn't spread his wings enough and didn't really manage to glide. He was definitely making better progress when left to figure things out on his own rather than being told what to do.
He went on like this for some time, until on his twentieth attempt he actually managed a half-respectable glide. He was overjoyed.
"Did you see that Toothless? I did it! Does this mean I can move on to the next step?" He asked me. I thought he needed more practice. I felt a small tinge of annoyance towards him, and perhaps that influenced the difficulty of the next task I set before him, even though I had decided not to get stuff like that get to me.
"We move on to flapping when you can successfully glide across the clearing ten times in a row without crashing." I said. It pained me to see the disappointed look on his face, but it had to be done. He needed better control over flight and a better feel for the air before he could continue.
He worked really hard well into the evening before he accomplished my lofty goal. Well, it was certainly lofty for him. He had failed and crashed many times but he learned an incredible amount from those failures. That experience would certainly come in handy when he'll take to the skies.
I was actually surprised at his quick progress. He had been awake as a dragon for only a couple days, and he was already gliding quite well.
"Well done Hiccup! I can see that you are very tired, and that it is late. We shall continue with the training tomorrow. Let's get something to eat." I said to a thoroughly exhausted Night Fury. We have incredible endurance so him being so tired is a testament to how hard he worked.
After going back to the village and haven eaten, Hiccup said that he was going to go to sleep. I was getting sleepy as well and was about to suggest returning to the clearing when he said that he was going to sleep at home this time. I had no objections so we both slept there.