Hello! Quarantine is messing up my sense of time and I wasn't sure when the last time I updated was. So, I'm going to update now. I was planning on using the quarantine to write more, but I am lacking in motivation so that hasn't really worked out... Anyway, enjoy!
Key:
"Draconian"
"Sign Language"
'Toothless' Connection'
'Hiccup's Connection/thoughts'
"Norse"
Implied Words
Toothless finished eating his fish at the same time that Hiccup finished putting the tail together. 'Well bud, do you wanna try this out?' Toothless nodded his assent but gave him a baffled look.
'What is… brrd?' Hiccup fidgeted. The word had just slipped out of his mind and, of course, Toothless didn't know slang.
'Uh… it means friend.' Toothless' expression didn't change. 'Um.. I don't really know how to explain it. It's someone that you spend a lot of time with. You're not related by blood, but you trust and care about each other. You play and talk and spend time together just because you can. Because you care about them.' He looked down at the fin in his hands sadly. 'I've never had someone like that. It just sort of slipped out.' Toothless nodded in understanding.
'You are talking about Wing-Mates. I am happy to be your Wing-Mate if you agree to be mine. I also have never had one before. The only one I have ever been close to are my Clutch-Mates.' Hiccup paused and looked up from where he was tying the fin on to Toothless' tail, asking what that word meant. 'We were hatched from the same clutch.' Hiccup remained confused.
'What's a clutch?'
'Our Dam laid our eggs on the same day, so we are Clutch-Mates.' Dam probably meant mother so... Siblings! Toothless had siblings!
It was unexpected. Especially since there had only ever been one Night Fury spotted over Berk. Maybe they were a solitary species.
'Where are they now?' Toothless made the dragon version of a sigh and curled into himself.
'Dead. Your kin killed them long ago. When I was still so young that I had no claws. All that is left of my Pack, of my Kin-Kind, are a single egg and myself. I do not know when they will hatch. I do not know if they ever will.' Oh. So Toothless was the last Night Fury. He was alone. Like Hiccup. Only Hiccup wasn't the last Viking, so he didn't really know what it felt like.
He wanted to ask how they died. It was famously near impossible to kill a Night Fury and he was sure he would have heard of someone that had at some point. Before he met Toothless, Hiccup would have bragged to everyone he came across about killing a Night Fury.
Instead, he asked a different question. One that changed the subject to something lighter.
'Do they have a name? The Hatchling in the egg.'
'No. You are welcome to give them one. I am sure that they would love it.' That gave him free reign then. Toothless had said that young Night Furies were clawless… Clawless! It certainly gave the names a theme. And no one would think to name a Night Fury 'Clawless', so it was unique. Toothless and Clawless.
Now they needed a sound to go with the name. Something similar to Toothless'. He tried the sound he made for Toothless' name, replacing the yelp with a chuff. It sounded like a breathy, throaty growl. It worked. He repeated the sound to Toothless. Then told him what it meant through their Connection.
'Clawless. Funny. I like it. I am sure that they will as well, when they hatch.'
By now, the artificial fin was fully secured onto Toothless' tail. Hiccup checked how well the two fins matched. Almost perfectly. Wait. He watched Toothless' fin move while the other one stayed on the ground. They needed a way to control it. Oh well. He'd come up with something later. Now was the time to see if it worked.
'We ready? I'm gonna have to sit on your tail to make sure the fins match each other. We can find something to make them match automatically. But we need to see if this works before we can do anything more with it.' Toothless' nodded, waited for Hiccup to get secure, and spread his wings. Hiccup held the fabric fin in one hand, ready to adjust it when need be.
Then, Toothless flew.
Flying wasn't quite like he had imagined it, though he hadn't imagined ever flying while he was clinging for life to a dragon's tail. The wind was strong and the cold hurt his face. He felt weightless and heavy at the same time. He felt distant from everything. From the village, from his father and Gobber and everyone else in the village. He felt free. He glanced up -or down, considering Toothless was currently flying upside down- and saw the trees pass by beneath them. He could see the forest and the mountains. The hills and slopes. Even the cove and his hollow! It was amazing. Hiccup wanted to stay up there forever.
They curved back down and flew over the cove. Right as they were passing over the lake, Hiccup lost his grip on the tail fin and both of them went crashing into the water.
When they had both resurfaced, Hiccup cheered and jumped in the water while Toothless watched, clearly unimpressed with falling into a lake.
'We did it! It works! Soon, you'll be able to fly again!' He turned to Toothless and smiled. His mask had been knocked off his face on impact with the water, revealing his scars, and his smile. Toothless gave his own gummy smile in response.
'That is good. I take it that you enjoyed flying.' Hiccup nodded violently and, having found his mask, tied the piece of cloth back up to cover his face. Toothless tilted his head at the boy 'You do not have to have that here, or at all when with other dragons. Scars, especially battle scars, are something to be proud of. No matter what affect it has on your appearance. They are a sign that, although the world is hard and cruel, we are survivors.' Huh. Hiccup had never really looked at it that way. Battles scars were trophies, yes, but not when they changed the way you look in such a drastic way. Hiccup had often wondered what he would have looked like without his scar. Would he have been handsome? Probably not. But it would look better than he does now.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was high up, not at all covered by the trees and high walls of the cove. Damn it! He was late!
He ran out of the lake, picking up the eel on the way out, it would have been mean to keep it there. He rushed out of the cove, calling to Toothless through their Connection.
'I need to go back to the village! I'll see you tomorrow, and I'll bring some things with me to help with the tail!' Toothless roared goodbye and translated through their Connection. Hiccup repeated the roar back to him. "Goodbye"
Hiccup turned up at the arena wet, with the eel stuffed underneath his vest. He had tried to wring the water out of his clothes on his way through the forest. It worked, to an extent. His hair was still dripping, though. The others gave him odd looks. He quickly signed an excuse.
"Fell" Astrid raised an eyebrow.
"Into a river?"
"Lake." The other recruits snickered.
They were prevented from continuing the conversation when Gobber forced himself into the middle of the group and pushed buckets of water into their hands.
"Today, you're facing the Hideous Zippleback. I'll explain what you need to do once you're in there." The recruits nodded with varied degrees of confidence, or lack thereof. "Good. Now get into groups of two." The teens did as told while Gobber walked out of the arena.
The girls paired with each other sort of automatically, and Snotlout and Tuffnut paired up almost immediately, leaving Hiccup and Fishlegs together. The large boy gave Hiccup a nervous smile. He crinkled his eyes to give the impression of him smiling back, even though Fishlegs couldn't see his mouth.
When Gobber had found a position on the edges overlooking the arena, their teacher signaled two Vikings already in the arena to open the cage. They did so and immediately ran out of the arena, closing the main gate behind them.
Almost immediately, the arena filled with a faded green gas that made Hiccup's eyes sting. Automatically he drew closer to Fishlegs; both covering each other's backs. From above them, he could hear Gobber begin the lesson.
"Today is about teamwork." Okay, that explained the groups then "Now a wet dragon head can't light its fire." Oh, that's what he wanted them to do. "The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky." Because nothing can ever be easy on this island. "One head breaths gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which." But their heads are identical. That's the point.
Behind him, Fishlegs started shooting off dragon knowledge, which would normally be interesting, but in this situation it was just annoying.
"Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attack, by crushing its victim's-" He was cut off when Hiccup slapped a hand over his mouth. Then, he carefully took his hand away and brought a finger to his lips. Be Quiet. Fishlegs nodded and both turned back around to look into the fog.
Distantly, they heard the other to groups arguing over something. Then, it went quiet. Suddenly, Tuffnut ran past them, screaming.
"Oh, I'm hurt! I am very much hurt!" Hiccup and Fishlegs shifted closer to each other.
"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now."
A head emerged from the mist and both boys turned to face it. It approached Fishlegs. The quivering boy threw half the bucket of water onto the head. All three parties were still until the head started gurgling up gas.
"Oh. Wrong head." The Zippleback blew gas into Fishlegs' face and he dropped the bucket, running to the edge of the arena and screaming as he went. The second head emerged after his departure, sparks just barely missing the gas in the air. Gobber shouted an encouragement.
"Now, Hiccup!" He threw the water up as far as his arms allowed. The water continued up but missed the Zippleback's head by about half a metre. 'Oh, come on.' Great. He was going to die… wait.
He heard Gobber call out his name behind him but he ignored it. Toothless had said that almost all dragons hated eels. And that the only ones that didn't weren't common on Berk. He had an eel in his vest.
Slowly, carefully, making sure the dragon could see what he was doing, he reached into his vest. He lifted the end to show reveal the eel over his shirt. The dragon flinched back. He smiled in relief. Toothless was right. Not that he had doubted him. Still, Hiccup was glad he hadn't been mistaken.
Slowly, he took a step forward, the dragon took a step back. He kept walking forward. They kept walking back. He pushed his arms out to encourage them into the cage behind him. By now, the gassy fog had cleared and he could see Gobber and the other recruits staring at him out of the corner of his eye. Time to speed this up.
When the Zippleback was inside the cage, he took out the eel from his vest, being careful not to let the others see it. He threw it as far as he could, which wasn't very far, but it still landed in the cage. The Zippleback curled up against the wall to get away from the eel. They were making a low sound in the back of their throat. He recognised it from when Toothless was screaming. "Danger"
He felt sorry for them. He would come back to take the eel out later. He made his way around to the doors of the cage, keeping his eye on the terrified dragon inside. The doors were heavy, but he managed to push them closed. Just before the gap in the doors closed, Hiccup whispered in Draconian.
"Apologies"
He only just saw the Zippleback freeze and look up at him before the doors closed completely.
He nodded to himself and turned, freezing when he noticed the stares of the other Vikings. He shifted nervously and took a few side steps.
"Done? Yes? Goodbye." He switched his position to running out of the arena. He could feel their stares on his back but he ignored them.
Reviews are welcome. See you next time!
