Today we meet one of your favorite dragons. Give her a warm welcome!
- Is everyone on with the capture plan?
- Just one thing. Dragons have pretty good smell, at least Toothelss does, so maybe we hide downwind?
Stoick nodded, satisfied, while the rest of the group gave me uncomfortable stares. I was the dragon rider, and if
they wanted to get their hands on their own dragons they needed me. And this was obviously bothering them.
- Alright Hiccup, now it's your turn. How do we tame the dragon once we captured it?
I looked over at the group. There was Stoick and Spitelout, two of the village's best warriors, because the trapping part would require some fighting. Astrid was in because she couldn't stand me flying when she couldn't, which had pulled in Halldis in their competition. Fishlegs was in because this was his idea, after all. Lastly, Snotlout didn't want to be left out of the fun. I walked in front of them and pulled the dagger from the sheath. I held it menacingly in the air.
- First thing first, if someone was running at you with a knife like this, what would you do?
The answers were a mix of different methods of killing, from arrows to swords to thrown axes.
- You get the point, you'll fight back. And the same is true for dragons. The only difference is that since they don't have weapons, they'll try burning you to death instead.
I sheated back the dagger. The looks I received were focused but were slipping towards bored. Was I really so annoying to listen to?
- And that's the secret. If you're a threat, the dragons fight or flight will kick in, and any connection is impossible. So, DON'T be dangerous. NO screaming, NO sudden movements and NO weapons. The advantage is that the dragon won't try to kill you either.
Apart from Stoick that didn't blink, they looked shocked. Thinking about it, it must have felt like being given a death sentence. Spitelout, spoke up nervously.
- You-you want us to give up every way to defend ourselves? And trust the DRAGONS not to kill us?
- Yeah. That's how you gain a dragon's trust.
After an awkwardly long time witouth a word I understood they weren't gonna take it.
- I mean, you don't have to be completely defenceless. Shields can't be used to hurt the creatures, and we can have hidden archers. But, the less of a threat you are the more the dragons like you. They aren't horses that will run forwards when you kick them.
They calmed down a bit, but more convincing was needed. I looked over at the small pile of fish. At any moment a dragon could fly here and start eating the bait, and if they didn't learn how to deal with the beasts by then...
- Then, why do they attack first in the raids? We aren't armed in those first few seconds.
I looked over to Astrid. She had a mix of curiosity, doubt and focus on her face.
- Every second they delay our warriors might save this lives. And from what I've seen by Toothelss, they should be intelligent enough to know that.
By this time what I told wasn't really knowledge. I was just making guesses based on my experiences with my night fury. I hoped that would be enough.
- Next step is gaining trust and support, so you bond to the dragons one to one. It's much easier to convince a dragon that you are a friend than that all vikings are.
- So it's always the same person that rides on the same dragon?
- It's always the same person that rides and takes care same dragon. So, yeah.
I looked back to the group.
- Now how do you make a dragon like you? Any suggestions?
Okay, being the expert was fun. I couldn't remember the last time so many people had listened to me for so long.
- You treat them good and kindly. Every dragon has probably his or her own favourite food and things to do. For Toothless that's fish, flying and scale scratches, but find what works for your dragon.
I realized something. We had agreed to tame three dragons included Toothelss for the defence force. So the largest part of the group would be left empty handed. I took the grass out of the pocket..
- Last thing: dragon love this plant scratching their skin with this, maybe 'cause it helps against parasites. Anyways, it can be found in a few places on the island so use it. More questions?
It wasn't even noon when we sat down, hidden behind some bushes. We were on a beach about three kilometres from the village, far enough for dragons to dare reaching here but close enough to be able to get back quickly. After the big meeting the group had been put together to transform Operation Baldhead into practice. We divided the plan into three phases. Getting dragons, getting dragons stop trying to kill us and getting dragons to defend the village against the raids. Right now we had set up a pile of fish as bait and were waiting to start phase one.
A lone gronkle appeared in the sky accompanied by the familiar buzzing sound of the wings. The dragon hovered curiously around the pile before landing and starting the meal. We exchanged a few glances to make sure everyone was on before Stoick gave the signal, quietly.
- Three, two one, throw.
Spitelout, Halldis and Astrid threw the nets wide open into the air, that were held open by spinning weights. The gronkle had barely enough time to blink before the nets hit, two of them on the wing and one on the tail. The dragon attempted to fly off only to fall on it's side.
- It's stuck! Go, go, go!
I ran up behind the gronkle carrying the rope and shield. Stoick, Snot and Gustav did the same, while the net throwers had to pick up their own ropes before joining us. Our task now was simple: knot whatever you can until the beasts is immobilized. Fisglegs was first on the spot.
- I got the wings!
- I'll take the tail!
I was the one that had said "no screaming", so I got a bit mad at myself. I quickly pushed the ropes in front of the hind legs and over the tail before pulling the knot together. The dragon was trashing around but not too aggressively. It was less than Toothless when I was threatening him with the knife. As soon as the knot was ready, I walked up in front of the dragon, after making sure that the mouth was well shut.
- I calm it down now.
After a split second of confusion, Stoick gave me the go. I looked at the creature in the eyes, but it was too busy trashing to notice me. I tried sounding as reassuring as possible.
- Calm down. We're not trying to hurt you.
The dragon gave me a few curios glances. The rest of the group was now catching up with more ropes.
- Look at me. It's all gonna be fine. Don't worry.
To everybody's surprise, the dragons movements stopped while it looked at me. The dragon looked scared, but there was a mix of curiosity in there. I moved my hand towards the nose.
- Yes, that's good. Keep like that. It's all gonna be fine.
My hand touched the rough scales on the gronkle's snout, making the creature shiver slightly. But soon enough, it relaxed under my touch. A few seconds later I heard Snot's voice.
- And we're done!
I pointed a finger at him.
- What did I say about being loud?
- Okay, phase one is done! what have we got?
Halldis answered to him, while I looked over at the beast. It looked afraid and a bit angry. An absolutely perfect and helpful mood for something you were trying to tame.
- The gronkle can't move but is unharmed, and so are we. Good job everybody!
- Is it male or female?
By now I had got used it the strange looks they gave me. It was Spitelout to answer.
- Uhh, I think female.
Astrid confirmed his words.
- Should we find a name for her?
- You wanna name that lug of meat?
- Snot, do you even know what lug means?
His face immediately turned red.
- Yes I do! It's a large amount of something!
We burst into laughter at the poor teen. We would have to face more challenges in the future, but right now a bit of fun wasn't that bad.
- Is it now that we cut in the wing?
My head snapped at my dad.
- WHAT?!
If he was surprised over my raise in voice he didn't show it.
- We cut in the wings and build a replacement that needs humans to work. Wasn't that the plan?
- Why would you do that?!
- So that the dragons have to trust us? Isn't that how you managed to tame the night fury?
I watched him incredulously. After all the effort I put in earning Toothelss' trust...
- You think that Toothless listens to me just because he needs me?
- Um, yeah? Come on, I can't be the only one that thought of this. He needs you to survive.
Just about everyone in the group confirmed his belief, leaving me staring in disbelief.
- You're wrong. You're all wrong. That's not the reason he's following me.
- Then why?
There was a change in Stoick's voice and I could tell his patience was running low. I hadn't really thought that all the changes Berk did had to go through him. And I had just caused lots of change.
- Friendship and loyalty. That is how to you train dragon.
There was an uncomfortably long silence. I could feel everyone staring at me like if I was a madman.
- Aww, you've found a friend. Isn't my little cousin cute?
They burst into laughter, at me this time. "damn you Snot" was the only thing I could think of. Even Stoick was amused, and I could see his self control was fighting hard for stopping him from laughing at his own son.
- You're gonna handicap the dragons for life!
- And why exactly is that a problem?
They didn't stop laughing. My mind started to wander towards effective ways to burn a village to the ground.
- You don't know the first thing about dragons! But I do. So we're taming her my way or we're not taming her at all.
Stoick let out an exasperated groan.
- You grounded the dragon and gave him his flight back. That is your way. And since your way worked, we're gonna use it. Are you gonna help us or not?
I weighed the options. Witouth my help it would probably take months for the defence force to be completed, and that poor gronke would not enjoy the process.
- She is going to hate the person that grounds her. So that person is going in alone and has to accept that you will never be able to ride the lug of meat.
Stoick nodded, satisfied. After a couple seconds Spitelout took a step forwards.
- I'll do it. Where do I have to cut?
I looked over at the gronkle. The wings were tiny for a dragon, so cutting off a small part would be sufficient. I tought back to the wound on Toothless' tail.
- Cut the skin between two... fingers? What are the thick parts on the wing called? One side should be sufficient to stop her from flying. But you won't be able to ride her if you do. Are you sure?
Spitelout nodded and started to walk off.
- I don't think it's possible for dragons to hate me more than they already do.
We watched as Spitelout walked towards the immobilized gronkle. If she looked afraid earlier it was nothing in comparison to her expression when Spitelout walked towards her and climbed on top of her body. He took out a dagger, similar to mine, and witouth warning pushed it down in the left wing. The dragon trashed around as hard as the ropes allowed witouth effect. After half a minute a flap of skin fell on the ground, soaked in blood. The wound in the wing was still open. Spitelout jumped off her back and walked back towards us.
- What now?
- Does anyone has bandage? If we help her it will be easier for her to help us back.
Even tough they had planned to ground the dragon, noone had thought of bringing something to heal the wound. After a couple seconds it was Astrid that the took initiative.
- Maybe I've got something.
She took off her coat and ripped a piece off using her kinfe. When she was done she gave me the strip of fur and put on what was left of the cloth.
- I cleaned it this morning, so it shouldn't get infected. Is it enough or do we need more?
It took me a moment to understand what had happened.
- Aren't you gonna freeze?
She rolled her eyes.
It was up to me, 'Legs and Astrid to get that wound cleaned. We didn't use more people not to scare her too much, but since a single viking had been enough to ground her for life, I had doubts of how much it actually helped.
- I know it hurts girl. We're gonna help you.
I walked up in front of the gronkle and started scratching her skin. The dragon seemed to relax a bit, and slowed down her trashing. Until Astrid climbed on her.
- She's a friend, don't worry.
The poor creature turned her head as much as the ropes allowed, and looked at Astrid with pleading eyes. The viking had soaked up a piece of cloth using water from a flask, and proceeded to drag it along the wound. A shiver came from the dragon below her.
- 'Lout did a good job, it's a clean cut. She didn't even lose that much blood.
The gronkle whined as Astrid cleaned the last of the blood. She threw the now deep red cloth on the ground, and started putting on the bandages.
- See? We're helping you.
- We should get back to Berk. And we should get her there too.
I looked at Fishlegs, not letting up the scratching.
- Why?
- It's gonna get dark in a few hours. Plus, we'd have to walk over half an hour to do anything if you want to keep her here.
- And how exactly do you plan to move two tons of flightless dragon?
We turned towards Astrid. She was almost done with the bandage, that had only a little bit of red on it. I thought back to what I had done with Toothless.
- I might have an idea.
After a few minutes we had removed the nets and only the ropes were keeping the dragon still.
- Are you sure this will work?
- Pretty sure. Plus, we keep the mouth bound.
- Fine. Here goes nothing.
Standing at both sides of the gronkle, Astrid and Olof proceeded to cut using their knives. In a couple seconds all but one of the ropes were on the ground, and the gronkle stood up. Stoick and Halldis looked at the scene from the wood, bows tense in case things started to go south.
- Do you mind following us?
The dragon looked at me suspiciously. She carefully flapped her left wing and her face turned to horror.
- It's Spitelout's fault. We're gonna help you instead.
I took out the fish.
- If you follow us you get food.
It took her half a minute of and repeated glances us, wings and the fish to make a decision. The dragon started walking towards me. I wanted to shout "Ha! What did I tell you?" but I remembered the "no screaming rule".
- It's working.
The track home was long. The excitement for the fish wore off soon once she realized her mouth was locked shut, so the only thing that made her go forwards was the tiny amount of trust we had gained by cleaning the wound. This and the fact Stoick insisted to we had to keep hidden archers meant that we moved excruciatingly slow. By the time we reached the village it was almost dark. Dozens of eyes turned towards us as we entered the village with what had to be killed on sight this morning. Snotlout welcomed us and led us to the structure where the gronkle would be housed. He had come back with his dad after grounding the creature to build something we could put it. With only about three hours of time to work I doubted the result would be... pretty.
- What have we got?
Snotlout showed a smile.
- It's flightless, so we don't need a roof. We've already put some fish in there. What do you think?
I looked at the structure. My expectations were already low, but they had somehow managed to take it one step further. A hole in the ground with a couple of fish thrown in there. Probably made from an existing hole that had just been dug wider. Astrid didn't seem to mind how the dragon would be kept.
- How do we get her in there?
- We had been thinking of a ramp, but that's not done yet, sooo...
The gronkle looked at what would be her new home, and at the fish in it. Maybe for a dragon it wasn't too bad? I noticed the glances everybody was exchanging.
- Three, two, one, GO!
I looked over to see the group, save for me and Fishegs, charging shoulder first into the poor creature. She fell into the hole with a thump. Laughter came from them.
- We forgot to unbound the mouth!
They stopped for a few seconds. Then Halldis said "nothing we can do about it now" and went back to joking.
- I know you're all tired and want to go home, but I want to say a couple things first.
Stoick had gathered us for a briefing to end the day.
- We did great work today getting the lug of meat, but there's a lot left to do. We need to capture one more dragon and train them for defence, and I doubt that will be easy.
- But we'll make it because we're vikings!
How did Snot manage to have so much energy?
- Exactly. Also, Hiccup, we need to train the night fury too. Can you get him here tomorrow?
- I'll do.
We were sent home moments after, but I stopped back at the hole. The fish were scattered on the ground from the gronkle's repeated flight attempts. Another loud thump could be heard when she inevitably fell back down in the mud.
I walked back home pondering if I should eat something before crashing in my bed or not. Unfortunately, my father had other plans.
- We need to talk.
I hadn't even stepped indoors when he said that. I sighed.
- Is this about the night fury?
- No, it's because you still haven't learned all the ancestors of the Haddock family.
I could feel he was irritated. He was sitting on a chair in the dining room. I sat down in front of him.
- So let me get things straight...
- Show me what you got.
After an annoyed glance he went back to talking.
- You shot down a night fury, found it, spared it, flew on it and showed it off to a village where killing dragons is how you measure status?
The accusative tone could not be mistaken. But since it was the truth, I'd have to stand up for my actions.
- Yeah.
- Why?
- I wanted to help this village.
It was a lie. The best for Berk had been the very last thing on my mind when I had kept the knife out of Toothless' neck. He gave me a suspicious look, so I tried to sell it better.
- The times I tried to fight the beasts I ended up almost helping them, so I thought tha
- You think I can't tell when you're lying?!
His fist slamming into the table caught me by surprise. The glance he gave me afterwards made it clear he was clean out of patience.
- I don't know! It just kinda, happened? He was wounded, he was suffering, he was afraid and...
I waited a second before continuing the sentence. Stoick would not be happy.
- It felt like the right thing to do.
Stoick squeezed his eyes shut, hard. It took half a minute before any more sound got out of him.
- You did something that went against what everyone has ever said... because you believed it was right?
I had to admit. This sounded a lot better than "I freed the enemy because I didn't want a fifteen year old girl to kill him and get the status".
- You've done the same thing.
I could tell these words had hit him hard. With about thirty years of ruling some of his decisions had been unpopular. Sometimes they payed off, sometimes not.
- Fine. I respect your decision. But can you tell your moral compass to stop trying to kill everybody?
- Dragons on our side will help the village.
- I hope so.
I was dead tired. But there was something I wanted to talk about too.
- Don't you think this seems kinda... rushed?
He raised an eyebrow.
- What do you mean?
- I mean, I show off Toothless, and in the same day we decide to use dragons as a defence weapon. So we go out and find a gronkle, ground it, and throw it into a hole, witouth taking the time to be sure that we're doing the right thing. And tomorrow you want to get the dragon battle ready with basically no plan?
Stoick nodded calmly.
- Maybe it's rushed. But time is a luxury we can't afford right now.
Uhh, what was he talking about now? After seeing my confused expression he started explaining.
- A raid could come this night. And this year, they're getting hard to counter. We can't afford the lives and food lost much longer. So we'll do just about anything that helps. And if that means rushing things to get a dragon defence force up and running, so be it.
I didn't think things had gotten this desperate. But maybe I should've understood when seeing the ever emptpier pantry or the ever more common funerals.
- What if the lack of planning backfires?
- That's a risk we have to take. Plus, you've tamed one dragon. Even with your help, how much planning can we really do?
I managed to get my shoes off before I crashed into the bed. Today had not gone as anticipated and I had plenty of things to worry about. But the old yak furs had never been softer.
- GET UP!
What? I managed to give away a "hmm".
- You're lucky. Next step would be an water bucket.
Dad. Dad wanted me to get up.
- Wh-what time is it?
- Time for you to get Toothless to berk. A gronkle is strong, but "the best fighter in the world" is stronger. There's already enough light to see where you're going.
I groaned. Could you never catch a break?
I hope you gave her a warm welcome, because Berk sure didn't. Also, somebody asked if there would be hiccstrid in this fic. Answer: probably not. If this makes you sad you should read one of the 1800 hiccstrid fics on this site. Over 200 of them are M rated ;). The reason is (among other) that Hiccup hasn't grown up into a sex god yet. Also I can't write lemon because this fic is T rated and I don't like waterboarding. Hope you've had a happy new year and see you next time!