Here is a new chapter today, hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 4: You're not Alone
The next day arrives and I sit idly on top of a rock just thinking quietly to myself. I had looked behind me to inspect my tail fin and the other missing half before I sigh softly, I guess my tail is never growing back...
Last night couldn't have been a dream...Friea actually was here...it all just felt too real. Real or not what if she's right? What's the best way to go forward? Is that Viking even going to show his face here again anyways?
Suddenly, I hear something! I sniff the air, and thanks to my dragon senses I know exactly who it is...it's him! I duck, lowering my body to stay hidden from the boy. He had climbed down from the cliffs above and is out in the open looking for me. In the kid's hand there appears to be a raw fish.
I give a smug look while I'm hidden, forget the fish...maybe I can eat him instead...though, I doubt he'll have much of anything but bones...
Seriously though, I think about what to do: he brought me food...he knows I'm starving here. As he passes by the rock a familiar voice rings in the back of my head:
He's not like the others,the sound of Friea's voice can be heard, reminding me of what she said to me before.
I finally decide to act...I'm too hungry and too desperate at this point...
This kid, no matter what his intentions are, could help me get out of this cove...I figure I might as well play along long enough and maybe he'll help me out of here and we can just go our separate ways.
I let my presence known to him: I climb down like a cat stalking his prey before he gasps in surprise upon discovering me. I keep my head low and the rest of my body higher as a show of warning to the human.
He simply reaches out to me: offering the food to me. I narrow my eyes to him, "you better not try anything smug, kid" I growl before moving forward to him. Man...what am I even doing...what if it's poisoned or something?
My slit eyes widen into a more welcoming form (circular in fact) as I approach him. I open my mouth to receive the raw fish. Suddenly, I notice the weapon on him, and I pull back in retaliation, giving a low growl. The Viking backs away slightly, holding the fish against his chest in response. He moves the vest he is wearing aside to reveal the same dagger he had before, and he realizes his mistake.
I growl at him, especially when he reaches for it. He backs away even more and unsheathes the dagger, though he moves it away in a non-threatening manner before dropping it.
I growl again in dragonese, moving my head toward the pond as a gesture to tell him to throw it in, "get rid of it."
He picks it up and with his foot throws it into the water. Once it is gone, I decide to lower my guard in response.
"Alright then, gimmie the fish" I mutter. Unbeknownst to me, I look like a curious cat or kitten observing its owner: my ears flick as I wait for the boy to make his next move. Once again, he offers the uncooked creature to me, and I slowly and cautiously make my way to the strange warrior. I open my mouth wide again and he gives a questioning look on his face: he has noticed my lack of teeth.
"Huh...Toothless...I could have sworn you had..."
To grasp the fish, I unsheathe my fangs and dig them into the dead animal. I pull away with it amazingly fast as I devour it whole. Seeing as how hungry I've been these past few days; it isn't surprising that my animal side took over. I lick my muzzle in satisfaction afterwards.
"Teeth" is all the teen can say as a result.
Okay, he gave me something to eat, but I don't have anything for him. This might be a bit too much, but I want to see just how committed he is in gaining my trust.
I start walking towards him as he backs away nervously.
"No, no!"
He probably thinks I'm still hungry and I'm now going for him...which amuses me somewhat.
I am only inches away as he backs into a rock, "I-I don't have anymore!"
I didn't think I'd do the same thing Friea did that one time before, but I regurgitate what I had just ate, which lands on the boy's lap. I lift my front paws and I sit on the grass before waiting for him to eat it. We just stare at each other for a few seconds before I decide to give him a little hint by looking down to the slimy fish. Realizing what he must do he gives a sigh of disapproval, yet he slowly brings it to his mouth and takes a bite. He has a chunk of it in his mouth and pretends to enjoy the experience as I laugh on the inside. Let's take this a step further, why not?
"Swallow it" I murmur, doing a 'swallow' noise with my throat. Amusing to say the least he gives a shocked expression, but ultimately follows through. Afterwards I jokingly smack my lips together as he gives an awkward smile. Something I forgot to mention earlier: dragons can't really smile. What I mean is that we can't really emote as well as a human and there's really no reason for dragons to smile when they literally dragons, right? Anyways, I can't smile that good, but I decide to smile back to the boy; however, what he sees though is an even more awkward, yet totally cute to anyone else, smile from me. I show my mouth without any teeth present and the muscles around my face shake from the inexperience of smiling in this body.
The next thing he does is reach out to me with a hand, and that's when a thought crosses me: what am I doing? Being a dragon for this long and seeing just how barbaric these Vikings and the humans are in the world, I felt nothing but contempt for them all. Like, what help is this kid going to be for me anyways, honestly!? Maybe if he was bigger and could actually lift stuff like a DRAGON he could maybe get me out of here! I really just think he's just doing this out of pity, 'cause he KNOWS I'm useless without my missing wing.
I immediately snarl at the defenseless human before retreating to the other side of the cove. I decide to just rest for a while, and I ignite the ground below me before resting on top of it.
Just as I do, I spot a bird on top of its nest flying away.
Man...I just wish I could just fly out of here like them...the things I took for granted...
As I watch the fellow winged beast fly away, my attention turns to the boy, who is now sitting across from me.
Wow, he really can't take a hint. I don't want to see you right now, go away. I curl up and shield my face with the tail fin I still have left. I can sense he's about to touch me and I move away my tail to show my face to him.
"What are you doing kid!?"
He stands up and walks away as if he didn't notice me here and I just grumble in annoyance. We both turn away and walk in the opposite direction.
Some time passes by as the sun begins to set. I tried resting for a bit since I didn't really have much sleep the night before. I had anchored myself on a tree branch with my tail, and as a result I kind of looked like a bat.
Anyways, I am woken up by sounds nearby. I had thought the Viking had left, and he did...but now he's back again. He's sitting on a rock with his head faced toward the ground.
What is he doing, I ask myself before moving over to investigate. I walk up behind him and I can see the kid drawing something in the soil. As I watch him: I begin to realize that he's drawing some kind of animal...it kind of looks like a dragon...wait...that's a Night Fury...it's...it's me...he's drawing me!?
So these Vikings CAN do something besides killing dragons and yelling at the top of their lungs, I think to myself. I give a soft closed smile, that's actually really good...wait...I got an idea!
I stand up and walk away on two legs, grabbing his attention. I head for a small young tree to use. I grip it with my teeth and uproot it and I return to the teen with the tree in my mouth.
"I'll try to draw or write something back to him!"
I still don't remember my human name but maybe I can still introduce myself to him this way. And so, I try the best I can to write a sentence out for him, but ultimately...I'm unable to. It's hard, so I decide to just keep scribbling around to show how I'm also "creative." It's worth a shot, I can't draw or even write in this body, but this will have to do. The teenager just watches silently as I dance around him with the tree still in my mouth: still drawing in the ground for him.
Once I finish, I make a short grin of satisfaction...at least I can make something as a dragon, even if it is random scribbles in the dirt. The other creature looks around, checking my "artwork" before accidentally stepping on it, and I growl to him in retaliation, "hey, don't step on it, you dunce! I didn't step on yours!"
The human child lifts his foot afterwards before I stop growling at him. He just starts messing with me a few times before finally moving around my scribbles until...he almost backs into me...
He turns around as I look down toward him. He then suddenly extends a hand to me like before, but I give a warning growl to the human before he almost gives up; however, something in him tells him to try again. This time, though, he looks away, making himself vulnerable and I just stand there speechless.
Then my mind goes back again to Friea...the other night she had also said:
Please trust him...trust yourself
Is it true? Can this human child really be trying so hard to be my friend despite everything? After everything that has happened...should I even bother? Is it even worth trusting this Viking? I just don't know...why do I feel like this? Can it, can it just be because I'm a dragon now, or the fact I've finally found somebody I can relate to in this strange world?
Oh gosh...I still see his hand reaching out towards me. What should I do? What is the right thing to do? I hear her voice again calling to me...reaching out to me...it's like she's whispering in my ear:
You're not alone
Not alone, not anymore...maybe...in many ways this kid is just like me...we're both similar in many ways...we both don't really belong in our respected realms...we're both pretty awkward...I mean hell, we might as well be brothers or something! My thought goes back to the day I first met him in that place...where I was tied up. He was about to kill me, but he saw something in me that stopped him...and when I tried to do the same...the same feeling overcame me!
I can't stand to hesitate any moment longer: I suddenly close my eyes and place my muzzle against his hand in return.
Once he feels my face touch his soft hand: he turns to me with a surprised face. I pull away
But...but...he's the reason I'm like this...he's the reason why I can't fly now! What am I doing, this is stupid!
I then narrow my eyes to him, giving a soft growl of disapproval before leaving. The Viking watches me in silence, pondering the significance of the moment that had just occurred.
...
Night arrives and I'm by myself again. I am next to the pond by the time the northern lights appear in the sky once again. I don't even need to turn my head to know who's next to me now.
"You're overthinking things" I hear Friea's spirit say to me as I sigh, "kind of hard to say."
"You are" she retorts, sitting down next to me, "actually, you did better than I expected" she adds as I roll my eyes:
I say quite coldly yet jokingly to her, "Are you here to haunt me or something Friea, waiting to take me with you or something?"
"Trust me, I would have done it already, but you have a purpose here and I really don't, except to keep you company and make sure you don't do anything stupid of course."
There's silence in the air as we both watch the lights move across the night sky.
"You know...he's like you in many ways" Friea says as I just lay there, grumbling.
"I figured," I say as I shake my head to her, "I don't even know his name or what he really wants."
"You don't know your name either. Look, it's simple, he wants to be your friend...more than that he wants to help you. He really is different from the other humans I've seen, but so are you. You two have a purpose and they have brought you together. I know what it is, but you have to find out yourself the same way he will" Friea explains to me.
"I'm just confused Friea...HOW can he help me?"
"Like I said before...you have to trust him...you have to give him a chance. I don't know how to make you human again or how to send you back to your realm, but this is the path you might have to take to figure everything out."
"I don't care about that right now; I just want to get out of this dang cove" I retort before she gives a soft smile to me.
She stands up and walks away before she suddenly stops, "Toothless, I actually think that name suits you" the dragon says before disappearing and I'm left to think about what she's said again.
Toothless...yea...it's better than SheepBrain...I'll give it another shot, I'm confident the kid will show up again tomorrow.
...
Alright, if it isn't obvious the chapter was the famous scene from the first movie: Forbidden Friendship, and what a beautiful scene it is! Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all next time!