A/N
I'm furious. I've got things to do, a mind uncooperative, and I'm angry about it. Screw laziness.
End A/N
"So, do you suggest that I continue fighting her? It's an odd way of romance, I have to say." Hiccup commented to Toothless drily.
Toothless shrugged, face neutral. "If that's what you have to do; after all, you are engaged together because of combat." Toothless commented, referring to that one time.
Hiccup put his head down in shame; "I was too angry back then, it was a stupid decision. Now the village thinks I'm a freak, my dad is just plain confused, and Astrid is slightly suspicious of everything I do, even though I've told her it doesn't matter."Hiccup complained.
Toothless shrugged, somewhat accepting his complaint but, at the same time, he was here to build relationships between Hiccup and the rest of the village soooo…. "How can you be so sure that it really doesn't matter; you do seem to be attracted to her in some way, even if you don't care to admit it." Toothless accused, gaining a smug grin as Hiccup's eyes widened in shock.
"Why would you say that? I thought you were my friend, not romantic adviser!" Hiccup said, at first just surprised and then allowing a little bit of humour into his tone; he was sure Toothless wasn't trying to be that mean.
"And who says I can't be both?" Toothless replied, his smug grin getting even bigger.
"Insufferable reptile." Hiccup said, facepalming and shaking his head in playful disbelief.
"You like me though."
"That is true." Hiccup replied, taking his hand away from his face to nod. "But sometimes you just mess with me." He continues.
"Like good friends do." Toothless said back, laughing.
Hiccup sighed and just turned around. "I'll go off to the village's Blacksmiths for a while; should get my mind off things." Hiccup commented.
Toothless was a bit miffed. "Why do you have to relax in the village? You have me here." He said, annoyed at the prospect that Hiccup would leave him so casually.
Hiccup was a bit wary of his irritation. "Calm down; I do care about you deeply, but I was a human beforehand, so I do human things to calm down, like metalworking." Hiccup explains.
"Fine, but I'm going to follow you, so you don't have a repeat of that ambush." Toothless says.
Hiccup nods, knowing that Toothless can do that with his cloak and it was likely going to be the only way Toothless would agree with him. With that settled, he goes into the village, soon losing sight of Toothless as he disappears to follow him inside.
He is greeted with suspicious eyes, as usual, but he is careful to stay moving long enough that they don't have much time to do anything. Eventually he gets to Gobber who, being Hiccup's mentor, is a bit more lenient.
"Well hello there, nice to see yeh in the forge. Althoooough…. I didn't expect you to come back here; after all, ye've got a magical ability that lets you make anything you like, don't ye remember?" He laughs. Hiccup does so too, but remorsefully; knowing, with some guilt, that he left his old teacher behind.
"Still, why are ye here?" Gobber then asks.
Hiccup nods, understanding that his old mentor would be curious about his reasoning. "Well, I've been a little bit busy, of late, and I wanted to go somewhere to get my mind off things. That place is here; I've always enjoyed working metal and the tranquillity that comes with doing a job well." Hiccup said, to Gobber's appreciation.
"It looks like my apprentice isn't all dragon-minded after all! I'm glad ye came back here, Hiccup." Gobber congratulates. "Just try not to burn anything to the ground this time, eh?" Gobber then jokes, causing Hiccup to blush as he remembered all the times he accidentally did just that… and how easy it would be now.
"I'll be careful, Gobber." Hiccup promises.
Gobber gives him a pat on the back "Good to hear, now how about ye get to it?"
Hiccup nods again and then somewhat giddily goes into the main metalworking part of the forge, eager to begin. He lifts a blade up and marvels at its previous construction which, by virtue of Hiccup's experience with the weapons, he knew to be over 200 years old. Such a sword was a little bit damaged… well it was very damaged, but that's what you got when a Viking swung something.
Stoick met Gobber at the door, where he remained on rest as he had for a few days now. Stoick had been doing his normal chiefly duties, which had been much less intensive since the dragon attacks had stopped, and then he'd decided to drop by to talk to his childhood friend. "Gobber, old friend, are you still lazing around here? No more orders to fill?" Stoick said, with an edge of humour.
"Ay, Stoick; no one's needed any metal repairs or weapons since the dragons stopped. I only needed to finish a few last orders and then I was free. It feels weird, not to worry every night, but I've certainly enjoyed being able to sleep for once!" Gobber said, equally happy.
Stoick smiled to him, glad that everyone was fine at the moment, and was about to leave when Gobber mentioned something else. "Also, Hiccup's decided to do some forging inside. Seems like he didn't forget and, by the look on his face, I'd say he enjoys this work." Gobber said. Stoick was quite surprised that Hiccup had actually come into his old workplace, but resolved it with a wider grin, feeling he'd just been given the opportunity he needed to talk to Hiccup a bit more. Still, he would talk to Gobber a bit more about Hiccup's achievements until then.
Since staring wasn't going to do anything to help, Hiccup flared up the forge fire for some immediate use. During that time, Toothless appeared from his previous cloak. "Why do you fix weapons? You do know that they are used to kill the likes of us, right?" Toothless asks, concerned.
"If I do my duty for this island and dragon kind right, it won't have to be. If you went around the village you'd see that a lot of us like to frame weapons; that's most likely what's going to happen to this one if there is no war for it to be used in." Hiccup said, placing the blade into the hot coals for it to begin heating to its working temperature.
"You're that confident that you'll succeed?" Toothless asks initially, before expanding; "It's good that you're optimistic, but if it doesn't happen, then that weapon will be used to hurt dragons, and it will most likely kill them, considering how hard you Vikings swing weapons." Toothless said, still incredibly concerned; wincing at the sight of the blade and with a shifting of his feet that portrayed his distaste.
Hiccup sighs. "I know…. There is a part of me that is concerned that I won't succeed, and that I've built the very weapon we use to kill you." He says, "I… I guess that I was just following my old routine." Hiccup says guiltily, not finding any way to excuse himself in front of Toothless; after all, it was kind of like fixing a bounty hunter's weapon right in front of a possible target of said bounty hunter; not very comfortable.
He lies the weapon aside and souses the flames. "I shouldn't endorse violence, I'm here to make peace, not war." Hiccup said, slightly conflicted between his old pastime and his friend. "I think perhaps I'll consider some ideas to help people in their normal life in my room." Hiccup continues, as a compromise, before walking to his little, hidden-away drawing room to do just that. Toothless watches him go, glad that Hiccup had decided on such a rational and helpful mindset.
Still, being alone in a room full of weapons was not the best place to leave an intelligent dragon hateful of such weapons. Within moments he'd melted them all down into sludge with his plasma streams quite casually. After that was done, he went in behind Hiccup, to see that he was designing some kind of half pipe idea.
Seeing that Toothless had come in, Hiccup moves it to the side so his dragon friend could see it better. "I'm thinking of using these to transport water from the mountains down to every house. The only problem is…" Hiccup said, annoyed by this slight detail. "…The cranes are too large and slow to build this quickly; they would most likely take several years to build this from the mountains to every house in the village." Hiccup comments, missing out a certain fact.
"You do realise that dragons can move and carry things up into the air much better than these 'cranes' of yours." Toothless commented calmly and Hiccup was dumbstruck, forgetting about the obvious fact that dragons could fly. "You're right. Say, we've needed cranes for a long time, imagine if we'd just gotten along? Then we could've built something together." Hiccup stated, with awe at the idea.
Toothless nodded. "Now I think about it, I'd agree; we're better together than apart, but it seems the threat of the Queen's army makes it next to impossible for us to get on; she is a ruthless tyrant." Toothless says, spitting out the part about the queen with hatred.
Hiccup looks at him for a few moments, wrapping his mind around the truth that he'd said, which took a while. However, wouldn't he have to go to war against her for peace? Surely so, but at the same time bloodshed was hateful now for him, because of Toothless, so what then? He couldn't leave her alone, as the tyrant Toothless had described, and he couldn't go to overt war against her because that would lead to violence, and then most likely death.
Thus, he was left at a dilemma, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he pondered the morality of it.
Toothless saw his attitude and attempted to make the decision easier for him. "Hiccup, I know you're wondering about how to deal with her; because I've been doing the same ever since I had a mind free to do so. Also, I know you've just rejected violence, but listen: I won't normally advise for murder against dragons, but now I also feel that it's wrong to kill humans, because of you. She, though, is a beast, I doubt you'll be able to reason with her and there is nowhere you can lock her up where she can't escape. Because of that, I encourage you to kill her; for the sake of all the dragons under her regime and, yes, the humans on this island." Toothless said, with finality.
Hiccup was a bit surprised that Toothless was telling him to kill, but at the same time his reasoning was valid. He was about to add some thoughts of his own to that argument, but then he heard a war cry come from behind him.
"DEVIL!" Stoick said, immediately going from relaxed to warlike as soon as he saw the Night Fury in the room. He brought up his axe as Toothless whipped around and looked into his eyes. Initially shocked, Toothless' eyes narrowed in confrontational style and he lunged towards Stoick; going towards his axe. He manages to dislodge the weapon, tossing it aside and then trying to pin Stoick under his large weight, not taking into account Stoick's strength; which was easily enough to throw off the offending Night Fury.
Toothless flipped around in midair from the chuck, landing on his feet and ready to engage him once again. Stoick got to his feet but then he froze as he saw Toothless was charging a plasma blast and pointing it directly at his chest.
Knowing that such a shot could break apart catapults, Stoick rushed towards Toothless, picking up his spear; intent on killing him before he could release the blast. Toothless in turn saw his incoming strike and released his own shot; the projectile sparking off Toothless's mouth on its way to the target. Stoick swung his axe in an overhead, suicidal pattern; making sure that even if the beast killed him it would be slain.
Then a smooth, fury metal shield appeared between them; breaking Toothless's shot before moving up to deflect Stoick's axe.
Both contenders looked at the owner of the shield with differing expressions, but Hiccup wasn't interested in how they felt at this point in time. "Dad, Toothless, stop it and sit down." Hiccup said, wary for if the fight heated back up again. Toothless obediently sat, with a curious expression, while Stoick rested somewhat, but he didn't want to sit down with a Night Fury in the house.
"Dad, please sit down, it's for both of your benefits." Hiccup said, with a strong yet quiet determination to make him do so.
Looking at him with suspicious eyes, Stoick sat down on Hiccup's chair, and then glared at Toothless while Toothless glared right back.
"Tell me why I shouldn't be tearing this devil's head off its shoulders." Stoick said, without any subtlety. Hiccup sighed, since this attitude was to be as stubborn as his namesake.
"Well, mainly because he isn't currently trying to tear your head off your shoulders." Hiccup replied back.
"Did you see it fire at me?! That seems close enough to 'tear your head off your shoulders'" Stoick replied, irritated.
"You went at him with an axe. Anyways, that's not important. I just want to make sure you two aren't at each other's throats."
"It kills us, Hiccup; that dragon is a killing machine and you say that you don't want me to kill him first?" Stoick said with disbelief, still showing no signs of repenting on his kill-dragon rules.
"Only when I was under her influence." Toothless replies to that statement, but Stoick can't hear him.
"Dad, I know that you hate dragons, but he's with me, as well as a few other dragons; they won't hurt you as long as you don't hurt them." Hiccup said, trying to get some sense into him.
"Right, as though those things can actually reason; you may have gotten that one sitting like a trained sheep, but it has no morals." Stoick replied.
Toothless, extremely offended by his slander of him, hissed loudly in his direction. Stoick looked at him with an unhappy scowl in distaste for the scaled monstrosity.
Hiccup sighed again, these two were bickering like idiots now. "You two need to get along at some point. But I can't do that now, so I'll see you later Stoick." Hiccup said, going off towards the entrance while Toothless followed; giving a flash of his teeth towards Stoick before his frills rotated back up to speed and he vanished into thin air right in front of Stoick.
"Disappearing devil." Stoick commented, slightly fearful from his realisation. Then he got a light, but basically only playful slap from Toothless. It surprised him, of course, but he couldn't help but think that it could have ended his life right there.
"Perhaps it's not quite as bloodthirsty as I originally thought." Stoick commented to what he thought was now an empty room, but Toothless gave him an invisible kiss for his positive line of thinking, causing Stoick to instinctively recoil at the feeling of saliva suddenly on his face. He heard a laugh from the air in front of him and, irritated, wiped the offensive saliva from his skin.
Hiccup, having no idea about what happened, just decided to leave as casually as he could, only to bump into a large crowd of curious villagers. In response he could only smile awkwardly and shift away; luckily for him they weren't that interested at the moment in stopping him, knowing how badly it went last time someone tried to do that; in fact he could pick out their discomfort with him which, rather than making him proud, just made him sigh, out of earshot, from making himself even more of an outcast by his actions.
Also, the only way for him to be properly accepted, it seemed, was to have Stoick continue being on his side which, judging by their most recent encounter, may be easier said than done.
To add to this uneasiness, he knew that he had the source of a lot of the villager's frustrations behind him somewhere, hidden in invisibility for now, and it only hastened his departure; turning on his nozzles once he was safely out of sight.
With deft movements and an extraordinary speed while crossing the terrain, Hiccup was able to quickly get back to the shelter he had constructed. Plus, there was a feeling of elation which helped to numb his previous guilt, which Hiccup was glad for. What he wasn't expecting for was, in the very moment he was slowing down, still in his happy state, was for Astrid to just catch him out of the air.
Not only was the stop so sudden, but also unexpected; Hiccup didn't even think of himself as a weakling anymore, since his changes, but this put him back in his place.
After recovering from the unwelcome stop, Hiccup looked at Astrid with a disappointed look. "What was that for?" He asked, looking comical just strung up like a piece of cloth on a clothesline on Astrid's hand, increased strength or no.
"Well, I thought it might be nicer if you stopped here and talked, rather than running around like a mad thing." Astrid commented casually, which made Hiccup sigh; somehow he'd forgotten that people didn't talk at breakneck speeds.
"Alright, alright fine. But why do you want to talk?" Hiccup asked, getting settled into this little talk.
"Why were you in the village?" Astrid asked right back, straight to the point.
After a little while, Hiccup answered. "I thought I might go back to the village to do some metalworking, to get-"
"You don't need any weapons, Hiccup, in fact none of the villagers want weapons at the moment, from what I can recall and the fact that the village hasn't been attacked these past few days." Astrid stated.
Hiccup sighed haughtily; "You didn't let me finish, I went in to take my mind off things." Hiccup argued.
"Well that's good to know; that you're still somewhat human and not a dragon hermit." Astrid teased, leaning casually on her axe handle as the blade muddied itself in the somewhat soft ground.
"Dragon hermit?!" Hiccup said, angry until the humour settled in.
"Absolutely."
"Well if I'm that, then you are too."
"I guess so." Astrid replied, unbothered.
It was at this point, in their little conversation, that Toothless and Stormfly became visible/ joined them respectively. The new arrivals were enough to pause the talking, but not stop it.
"Hello Toothless, hello Stormfly." Hiccup greeted politely.
"I'd say the same." Astrid agreed, glad to see them too.
End of chapter.
I am glad to have finished it. Still, I've been extremely out of practice these past few months, so I don't think this is my best work, but I will try to get better.
I also thank all of you who came back with feedback on the story and I'd love to see any more suggestions you would like to offer.