Chapter 17

The day after that little prank, Hiccup and Toothless walk through town when they spot Stoick walking in their direction. "There he is." Hiccup says and they run up to Stoick. "Hey, Dad!"

Stoick smiles upon seeing Hiccup and Toothless. "Ah, hello boys. What can I do ya for?"

"Dad, we have some exciting news to tell you." Hiccup and Toothless look to each other before looking back to Stoick. "Dad, Toothless and I have decided to have a union."

The red Rumblehorn now had an even bigger smile on his face. "That's wonderful! I am so happy for you two!" He wraps his wings around both of them so tight, they struggled to breathe. Their gasping was all Stoick needed to hear to pull away. "Uh, sorry. Still don't know my own strength just yet, but I hope you know I'm coming from the right place."

Toothless coughs a bit before saying, "It's fine, sir. We're just happy that you're happy for us."

Stoick nods before he asks Hiccup, "So, when is the ceremony?"

Hiccup replies, "We still need to work that out. We just thought we'd tell you since you are my dad and I hoped you would give us your blessing."

"Me? Not giving my son the blessing to have a union ceremony of his own? Surely you must be pulling my leg. I will admit, when I first found out that my son was in love with a human that was once his dragon I did find it to be just a little bit odd, but it does take a blind eye to not see how close you two have gotten over the years. I suppose it was just a matter of when it would happen."

Hiccup chuckles. "Yeah, I suppose."

Stoick then pauses before saying, "You know I remember when I had my union with your mother. Ah, she was and still is the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. She wore the most beautiful white dress you could imagine, one that was fit for a queen. We had the ceremony, we danced, we laughed, and we had the time of our lives. It was also perfect because no dragon attacked us that night, as if they knew it was a special night."

Toothless says, "Well, I don't think I was an egg yet by then so you can't really thank me for that, but I guess that is nice to know."

Stoick nods. "Of course. Anyway, I remember it being the most magical night of my life. Especially because nine months after that night, she gave birth to the smallest baby I had ever seen, one that I knew would one day grow up to make me proud."

Hiccup couldn't help but point out the obvious. "Right, it only took about fifteen years for that to happen."

Stoick sighs. "I know. I know I was hard on you all those years, but if you think about it, me being tough on you did push you to do something bold such as figure out how to train your dragon rather than kill it."

Hiccup looks to Toothless and says, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

Stoick pats Hiccup on the back. "Well then, I am happy to hear the news and do let me know when and where. I could have Gobber make you two a few rings, although I don't think a normal wing will suit you now, will it Hiccup?"

Hiccup looks down at his large dragon paws and says, "I see your point."

Toothless rubs Hiccup on the neck before saying, "Well, an abnormal person deserves an abnormal ring."

Before Stoick left, he asks, "By the way, have you told anyone else about this union?"

Hiccup answers, "The only other person I've told is Astrid and Toothless hasn't told anyone else. We do want to keep this on the low, just for now."

Stoick nods. "Understood. Well, I'm off, I'll probably see you boys later tonight."

Stoick says goodbye and walks away. After Stoick left, something occurred to Hiccup, making him look down with a quizzical look on his face. Toothless notices this, and asks, "Ok, now what's on your mind?"

Hiccup gives Toothless side eye and asks, "Toothless, we've been able to talk to each other for a few months now, yet there's still some basic questions that are still left unanswered. Like, what is your actual name?"

Toothless smiles and explains. "In dragon tongue, my name is Paulo, meaning little. I got the name because, well, I was the runt of my litter. I had two brothers that were both bigger and were able to learn things like hunting and shooting much faster than I was. Everything I tried to do just ended up causing disaster for someone, mostly my parents."

Hiccup's eyes widen at the amazingly familiar story. "Wow, we really aren't that different. I used to be the small screw-up of the village too, especially to my dad. It was only after meeting and befriending you that I was able to find my place in the world."

Toothless nods. "Yeah, it is kind of crazy how our stories lined up so well. Also, I really don't mind you calling me Toothless. In fact, I actually prefer it over my real name. I will admit, the name did sound a little silly when you first started calling me that but over time it grew on me."

Hiccup smiled. "Well that's good, I was worried I was offending you by calling you Toothless. Now, my next question, how old are you?"

Toothless puts an arm over Hiccup's neck. "That, my mate, is a simple answer. We are actually the same age. Dragon years and human years are exactly the same."

Hiccup smiled wider. "Amazing, it's like we're the same person just in two different bodies."

Toothless chuckles. "Yeah, it would seem that way."

Just then, something Toothless said clicked in his mind. "Hold on, you just mentioned that you had family, what happened to them."

Toothless's smile fades as the memories come back to him. "They…are dead. All of them. Mom, Dad, brothers, every one of them slaughtered by some crazy white haired human who seemed to have a knack for killing Night Furies. I was lucky to get out of there in one piece. I-it was the first time I had ever seen a human and I completely despised them for years afterwards." Tears formed as he was saying this.

Hiccup's mouth was wide open as he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He uses his wing to wipe the tears and says, "I'm so sorry. I-I didn't know-"

"*sniff* It's fine. I guess you had to find out at some point."

Hiccup cautiously asks, "When did this happen?"

"Many years ago, when I was still a hatchling. After that I had to teach myself how to survive, all on my own, something I was glad I did because I am certain that I would've been dead within the week otherwise. From then on, any human ship that I came across I had to destroy in hopes that I see the white haired man again so I can get my revenge, but never had the luck that I needed."

Hiccup held him even tighter in his wing before asking. "So, what changed? When did you realize that you could trust humans?"

Toothless locks eyes with Hiccup and just says, "You. That's what happened."

Hiccup's eyes widen. "Me?"

Toothless nods. "You were the first human that showed any sort of care towards me. You released me when you had the perfect chance to kill me. You will always be the first human that I could ever trust enough to consider you a friend and a mate, and could not be more grateful because of that."

Hiccup smiles. He couldn't help but feel honored by hearing this. But, this did make something else occur in his mind. "So, what about the Red Death? How did you end up with her?"

Unfortunately this just made Toothless clench his fists in anger. "Her, I came across purely on accident. I was flying along one day when I came across an island covered in thick fog. I went in there because I could feel that something was going on in there, and I had to investigate. I got to the nest, she saw me but spared my life because she knew that Night Furies were so rare and she had me join her rather than kill me for trespassing and at the time, I really was in no position to turn her down.

I will say, the time that I spent with her was easily the worst five years of my life. She just saw us dragons as her pawns and had us raid many villages, including Berk, just to feed her with no sort of reward to speak of. She wouldn't bat an eye when a dragon got sick, injured, or killed. And on harsh winter days when food was scarce, she wouldn't even think twice about eating some of us. Any hatchlings born under her control were put to work as soon as they could fly.

It was why I wasn't even surprised that she didn't send some sort of search party when you shot me down. I mean, she would act like I was her number 1 but in reality, I was as expendable as any other dragon." Toothless lets out a deep sigh. "I've been pushing those terrible thoughts away for a while now, hoping that I would forget them in time, but I guess you just can't hide from your past forever."

Hiccup sits for a few minutes to let all of that sink in. It was quite a lot to hear about, pretty much made his life of being an outcast for 15 years look easy. He holds Toothless even tighter and says, "You're right. A tough past can always come back to bite you one way or another. But listen, all of that is over. Now, you have people and dragons who can support you and love you more than you'll ever know. And most importantly, you have a mate that can do all that and then some."

Toothless looks to Hiccup then hugs him tight around the neck. "Thank you Hiccup. You're right, what happened is what happened, it's what I have now that is more important than anything in the world, and what I have, is you."

They lean into each other, just about to kiss when Hiccup's ears perk up upon hearing something in the distance, making him look away. Toothless asks, "What's wrong?"

Hiccup didn't say anything, he just leaped to the top of one of the buildings, looked out into the open ocean, and saw a large pack of Changewings and Monstrous Nightmares coming their way. In the front of the pack was the red Triple Stryke seen at the Union Temple which only meant one thing.

"Dagur." Was all Hiccup had to say before he leaped off of the building and stood next to Toothless.

"What's going on?" Toothless asks.

"It's Dagur." Hiccup replies. "He's coming towards us with an army, it looks like they want a war."

Toothless nods and they both separate to warn the village. Toothless made his way to the war horn tower where he blows the horn, letting the village know that there's a war about to happen.

Hiccup finds Stoick and says, "Dad!"

"I know, son. I could smell them from miles away. Alright, we don't have much time so gather as many dragons as you can to form an air squad. I'll get the humans geared up and ready in case some of them make it to here."

"Wait but Dad. Are you sure we're ready? I mean, we haven't had a single battle since the transformation-"

"Hiccup!" Stoick interrupts. "I understand, however right now we are in a desperate time so we're going to have to figure it out soon." Hiccup gulps before nodding and going to gather dragons like Stoick said.

As he was leaving, Stormfly runs into him asking, "Hiccup! I heard the horn, what's going on?"

"Dagur is what's going on." Hiccup replies. "I need you to find Astrid and the others help me gather as many dragons as you can." Stormfly nods and she and Hiccup run off in opposite directions.

In a cave underneath Berk, Astrid could see Dagur's army approaching. She smiles wide and says in a somewhat devious tone, "Hiccup, you will soon be mine."

Things are about to go down. How will it all play out? Find out in the next chapter, when it's ready.