...Blehhhhh. This chapter tho. It's like a bunch of explanation and I just...
Sorry for this one.

Chapter 25: Impossible

All thoughts about returning to Toothless were forgotten in a moment. Hiccup couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even think a single coherent thought.

His mind was spinning, and his vision swam a little, so he leaned on Soot, desperate not to pass out or fall over or do something else equally stupid. When he regained his balance, Drago had already moved on, ordering his men with a meaning that Hiccup had missed.

He could do nothing but watch as Drago's men milled about, fulfilling whatever he wanted them to do, which looked like unloading their ships. Hiccup didn't stick around to watch. Instead, he took Soot back inside, leading him back to his usual cage, so that Drago's men didn't hurt him if they tried to put him back.

Soot was not happy about this development, and Hiccup stayed with him until he fell asleep and stopped whimpering.

And then it was time to face Toothless.

And time to face what Drago had said.

The words terrified him. He could only pray he had heard wrong, that this was some kind of dream or something.

His Heir.

Drago's Heir.

No, that couldn't be right. This was impossible. Hiccup was the heir to Berk. Not to some Dragon Master and his army.

Hiccup's mind was playing tricks on him. He would probably wake up soon, curled up with Toothless, his back aching from lying so long in such an awkward position.

That was, at least, what he hoped would happen. He closed his eyes, and waited.

When he opened them, he was still with Soot, who was asleep, tail twitching as he dreamed.

"I have no idea what I'm doing."

Hiccup had taught many dragons to breathe fire. A handful of orphaned or abandoned baby dragons, a few hatchlings that exasperated Vikings had brought to him. Some had been easier to teach than others. However, he had always had Toothless by his side to help translate or demonstrate or just be there.

Now he was on his own with a dragon that didn't even know he was a dragon. It wasn't Soot's fault, really, but it made Hiccup's job that much harder when the Bewilderbeast had imprinted the way he had on Hiccup and Drago.

Imprinting on Drago. The thought made Hiccup's empty stomach churn and bile rise to his throat.

He pushed the thought away and refocused on the issue at hand. How could he teach a dragon to breathe fire (or ice, in Soot's case), when Soot didn't even know he was supposed to breathe anything significant? The Viking sighed, and Soot waddled up to him, his usual happy self.

"I don't know how to explain this in any way you might understand," Hiccup started, putting a hand on the smooth scales right before the spines that started on the top of Soot's head.

Soot did not, of course, understand, and instead purred before pulling away and bouncing around Hiccup in a let's do something/I'm excited to see you/I'm happy! kind of way. Hiccup wondered if he was still too young to spew ice; after all, he knew very little about the Alpha species. The only experience he had was limited to the Bewilderbeast in his mother's sanctuary, and Drago's first Bewilderbeast.

The first Bewilderbeast. Hiccup wrapped his arms around Soot, trying not to think about what had happened to the giant creature when it had failed Drago for the last time. He had not seen it, thank Thor, but he had been informed of what had conspired.

Soot licked his face with a cold tongue, shaking morbid thoughts from Hiccup's mind. Before the hatchling could dash away, the Viking put a hand on his head. "Alright. Fire….er, ice…" Hiccup then tried to imitate the sound of gas bubbling in the throat. While Soot wouldn't be using gas (or would he? The Viking made a note to investigate the source of Soot's ice-spewing later), hopefully he would still get the idea. Hiccup knew he was good at dragon sounds, any dragons that heard him would whirl around, staring at him. Toothless was especially unnerved by it, though he usually ended up encouraging it, in the end.

Hiccup tried this for several minutes, trying variations and even mimicking many of the sounds he heard Toothless make on a regular basis in desperation. Soot followed him around, making strange chirps and imitating Hiccup.

And then it hit him.

Soot wouldn't recognise any basic dragon language, sounds, or signals. He had hatched in complete isolation, aside from Drago. The closest thing he had to any dragon interaction was the smell of Toothless on Hiccup. Oh, gods, Soot had completely imprinted on him and Drago.

Hiccup sat down on the cold stone ground, and stared up at the ceiling. What did he do with this? He wasn't sure even a Dragon Master could raise a Bewilderbeast properly. Said Bewilderbeast was now sniffing at Hiccup's chin, licking it once or twice. "What do I do with you, huh?" Hiccup asked him.

Soot didn't answer, deciding he wanted to play. He batted at Hiccup's hand with a rather large paw. Not knowing what else to do, Hiccup humoured the Bewilderbeast and played with him.

If Soot couldn't learn how to become a dragon, then maybe his destiny as Drago's tool would never come to pass. Drago wouldn't give up easily, though.

Hiccup was right. Drago kept pushing, demanding Hiccup teach the baby Bewilderbeast how to breathe his ice. Hiccup was at a loss. He had seen a dragon imprint on another animal before. He had a dragon imprint on him once, however, this dragon also had Toothless's influence to help her adjust. And she had turned out just fine. Mostly.

Soot had nothing.

Hiccup had nothing, either. No more energy to do anything. When he wasn't arguing with Drago over the Bewilderbeast's abilities- "I need Toothless. I need another dragon. It doesn't matter, he's never seen another dragon, he can't learn until he knows who he is. I can't teach him to be something he doesn't understand. It's impossible. Any dragon would work. Even if it was just a Hackatoo or even a Deadly Nadder…"- Hiccup was with Toothless.

Toothless wasn't doing all that well. His wing was infected, and while Hiccup had been careful in keeping it clean, there wasn't much he could do without proper medical supplies. When he had first started healing, all Toothless did was sleep. Now, he refused to sleep.

It took Hiccup hours to coax him into closing his eyes, and even then Toothless would only catch sleep in snippets- at tops, a half hour. And then he'd wake up, and Hiccup would have to start all over again.

Hiccup couldn't remember the last time he had slept: taking care of the Night Fury took all his time and effort. And when Toothless was finally sleeping, Hiccup would be marched over to teach Soot how to be a dragon. Which wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

Drago had gotten so desperate that he started bribing Hiccup: medical supplies if Soot breathed ice. Hiccup was nearly in tears with frustration. Until Toothless was better and he wasn't worrying over the dragon every single moment, he couldn't focus on finding a way to teach Soot how to be a dragon.

The next few days (months? …years?) felt like they were on a infinite loop: lulling Toothless to sleep, playing with Soot, repeating the same argument with Drago over and over and over again.

In the rare moment of sleep he got one night, he dreamed of Astrid.

He dreamed about some conversation he had with her, one that he didn't remember upon waking up. She had been angry with him, but it hadn't mattered.

He hadn't thought about her in a long time. It gave him a feeling of nostalgia when he woke up. Astrid felt like a thing of the past. Like he had last seen her lifetimes ago and not just three months ago.

They were supposed to get married.

He was supposed to marry the girl of his dreams, the beautiful, strong Astrid who grounded him, and kept him out of trouble.

Now she was just the girl of his dreams.

He didn't sleep after that. He didn't want to torture himself with the impossible.

Don't know where that last bit came from. I don't know. I just needed to be done with this chapter and so.
I'm done.

Here's a rant no one asked for
Gah I hate writing you don't understand all I want to do is write this one scene. Like I just want to skip to it but I can't and this story is so long and keeps getting longer. It's honestly like my muse has grabbed hold of it and won't let go and is trying to stretch it as much as he can. Also, the chapters are so short that they start driving me insane. They're easier to write that way, but going back over them (and heaven forbid, reading them) makes me want to pull out my hair. Don't worry, I will see Dragon Master to its completion, but this story is pretty darn painful sometimes.

Some good(ish) things to point out about my fan fiction life:
The amount of time it takes me to write this story is truly sad. Sometimes I have to walk away for a few days just to put my thoughts back together to finish a chapter, and for that I'm really sorry. I wish I could pull the same stunt I did for the HtTYHuman (less than a year, hah), but for this one, I just can't. (Probably a good thing considering how bad HtTYHuman is ((rewriting it is so fun, ohmygosh. So many ideas, and so much more depth and so much less cheesiness and stupidity and failure))).

It would probably help if I could focus on one project at a time. But right now I'm piecing together my next big story. It's very different (it's not about torture ((What?! Really?! Glass NOT writing about characters being ripped apart? Big surprise there!))), but I think it'll be a lot better than this one since I've got a very strict structure for it already.

And that's just one of the many, many, many stories I'm working on right now. It's ridiculous. I have over 100 HtTYD stories I've started outlining. I'm NOT KIDDING. That doesn't include non-HtTYD stories/crossovers. So if I take a long time updating, maybe knowing that I'm working on other HtTYD junk will make you feel better?

And as usual, many thanks, internet cookies, and love for those who support this story. It means more to me than any of you could ever know. Thank you for your patience, your kindness, and your ever-persistent and irrational belief that Hiccup and Toothless will make it out of this fic okay. It brings me joy. (You can't tell but I'm grinning in a very evil way.)
Really though, thanks.