Chapter 17: Not a Bad Deal
Things turned out good.
The guy wasn't really that bad. His name was Conall, or something like that. After a couple of days of just calling him "hey, you" "guy" or "boy" Hiccup had got tired and asked his name. She had ignored him when he asked hers.
Little by little Hiccup was getting information out of him, he wasn't stupid, he knew that and tried to ask back but every single time she was forced to answer she would say good bye and leave.
Hiccup had been acting like a jerk with him, she knew that, and she felt bad about it. But she didn't trust him enough to share information yet. The only trust she had on him was that he wasn't going to attack her; after a week and a half she had stopped going to their trading spot with Toothless.
It had been a week since then and the amount of money she had… well, she didn't know how much she had. Hiccup had no idea of how money worked here, and the boy kept refusing to share that information to the point she even thought he wasn't giving her the whole money.
Hiccup had let it pass, after all, the last days as Conall went from his family's farm to the town she had taken fruit from his cart without paying. That probably make them even.
The little information she did have was about the land. Turns out there were three towns close and a village a bit farther. Farms enclosed the towns area everywhere, thing that make Hiccup question why she hadn't seen any of that before.
After an aerial night-check, Hiccup and Toothless had seen the extension of the farms, the towns and the river that Conall had refer to "water canal" before.
His family's farm delivered to all three towns, fruit and vegetables mostly. And that was all she knew about it, he didn't seem to want to talk about that.
On the bigger map, they were on Scotland. When she asked why he knew Norse if they didn't like Vikings, he had explained that in the northern lands there was a lot of people who spoke Norse. The Kithnes, Catnes, Caithness?
Something like that.
And when Hiccup had asked why all the hatred for Vikings, turns out they had get raided by them multiple times. Hiccup found that weird, back on the Archipelagoes tribes didn't have the time or resources to raid others, they were busy enough getting raided by dragons.
There were tribes that had their disagreements but most of them had ignored each other rater than search a fight. And most of them had already signed treats of peace. Having help from others on times of need was more important than destroying each other.
Anyways, Hiccup figured Conall should be really interested in knowing about dragons if he was still keeping up to all her nonsense after three weeks. Hiccup would make him go buy food for her and Toothless once a while, specially for fish. Toothless loved that.
At least the fish, not the guy.
She would make him sell the few skins she could get her hands on, without mentioning the fruit she takes form him. Receiving the money and information without giving anything in return.
Over the curse of the last days Hiccup had notice he was getting more and more irritated. And after thinking about it she had decided to share a little bit of information to him, Toothless was in total disagreement but Hiccup was afraid she would lose their little deal if she didn't.
Hiccup reached their usual trading post and was surprised of not seeing him there, she was always the one late. She looked around just in case and ended up resting against a three while she waited.
Not even a minute had passed when her brain began to overthink, what if he already got tired of this? He decided to sell her stuff, keep it to himself and not show up again. What if he had told someone? What if he told everyone? Were all these weeks just to gather up enough people willing to go against a Night Fury?
What if rumors had already reached these lands and he figured out she was the Dragon Conqueror and was telling EVERYONE SHE WAS HERE, AND THEY WERE COMING FOR HER AND TOOTHLESS… Toothless! She had left him alone! What if they already were on the camp! What if they hurt Toothless!
"Good, yer already here," the familiar voice said not far away.
Hiccup turned to look at the black-haired boy with a look of slight panic that quickly disappeared when she saw no one else with him.
'Oh, never mind' She thought, now calmed.
"Yes, and you are la…" Hiccup's voice faded away as she looked at Conall, "What… what happened to you?" she asked.
The boy was severely bruised, he had a black eye and a wound on his arm that he was pressing tightly with his hand.
"Doesn't matter," he answered shortly, "here's yer stuff," he tossed a little bag to the grass between them, the coins tinkled inside "I have to go,"
Hiccup looked at the bag, a little guilty, Conall turned around and walked away.
"Wait," Hiccup said, jogging shortly to grab his shoulder and stop him, "let me see that," she said, softly putting a hand on his wrist.
"I'm fine," Conall said annoyed, stepping back from her touch.
"I didn't ask if you were fine," Hiccup said firmly, "I told you to let me see," Conall frowned at her but said or did nothing, she squinted "did you get in trouble because of me?"
"Now yer going to say ye care?" Conall scoffed.
"No." Hiccup said on a dry tone, "now let me see."
"I said I was fine!" he said through gritted teeth.
Hiccup looked at him with a deadpanned expression, she had helped Gothi to heal some wounds after raids enough times to know how proud Vikings acted when they were badly wounded. And this man may not be a Viking, but he had the pride of one.
"No, you are not," She said and walked past him to pick up her bag, "come on," she said without stopping.
"What?" Conall asked confused, "where?"
"Just come!" Hiccup said loudly, knowing there was no other way around people acting like that. They walked in silence for a few minutes, Hiccup leading the way several steps before Conall. He looked at her and around the forest warry, trusting her as much as he trusted the forest.
"Where we going?" He asked, missing the angry tone.
"Just shut up and come," Hiccup said, not sure if he would go if she told the true.
As they walked closer to the camp Hiccup began to think it might be a bad idea. Now he would know where they were and Toothless wasn't really going to like him there. They already fought over the whole 'giving information' thing.
All she wanted to tell him was her name and now she was leading him to their campsite. Suddenly, the Night Fury jumped between the trees with a loud snarl.
"Whoa, whoa! Easy there!" Hiccup got on his way, arms open wide to not let him pass, Conall backed away as Hiccup tried to calm the dragon who didn't stop growling and trying to get pass Hiccup.
"Hey, it's okay. I brought him here." Hiccup said, that made the dragon stop and look at her with sharp pupils, growling deeply, "He's hurt, I'm just going to clean that wound, calm down."
"Wait, is that all this is about?" Conall asked, "I don't need yer help!"
"See? He's fine!" Toothless growled.
"That cut's deep, you do need help." Hiccup said trying to calm both males, "it can get infected and you could die."
The other two stayed in silence for a moment, looking at Hiccup annoyed. She rolled her eyes and kept walking.
"Come! Both of you." Hiccup called. Toothless gave a last snarl at the guy and walked closely at Hiccup's side, the boy several steps behind.
They arrived the little camp. The turned off campfire was surrounded by Hiccup's stuff, an open notebook with drawings inside had been left outside her bag, along her map that now had a misshaped part of the island they were in.
There was a big piece of burned grass where the two would sleep. Aside it, Hiccup had left her bag that was barfing out her clothes and other belongings.
Hiccup walked to the map, folding it and closing her notebook so Conall couldn't see them. She took the notebook with her and went to her bag, throwing everything out.
Toothless breathed out a low flame to the campfire, lighting up their camp and walking to Hiccup's side.
"Sit down," Hiccup said, not looking at the man as she searched between her stuff for her bottle of water and the little bags she had made to separate the medical herbs she had recollected for her own care.
Conall muttered something on another language, Hiccup didn't know exactly what he said but she figured out where it was going.
"What was that?" She asked, looking over her shoulder.
"I am not stayin' fer this nonsense!" Conall said harshly, "I don't want yer help!"
"It is going to get infected if I don't help you," Hiccup said in a severe tone.
"It's not going ta get infected," Conall said his voice slowly raising, "it's not that bad and I can take care of it! I do not need-"
Toothless roared above Conall's voice, preparing to pounce and curling his tail around Hiccup. Conall instantly shut up, looking at the dragon alarmed. Hiccup patted Toothless neck, looking down to her bag again.
"Calm down, bud." Without taking her eyes off her things she talked to Conall, "And you, sit down, I'm not asking."
Conall sat down, muttering something under his breathe. Toothless growled in the same tone, saying something Hiccup had never understood to translate but knew he probably was cursing. Hiccup took what she needed and walked to the boy.
Hiccup sat by Conall's injured arm, Toothless sitting aside Hiccup, making the boy uncomfortable.
"Seriously?" Hiccup asked he dragon incredulous, "Go take a nap or something."
Toothless growled and laid down behind Hiccup, he looked at Conall with sharp eyes, his muscles tense and his tail moving aggressively. Hiccup rolled her eyes, knowing that stance wasn't going to change.
"He's very overprotective, just ignore him," Hiccup said, and the dragon snorted, refusing to be left ignored. Hiccup still did, "Now let me see," she said, uncapping the bottle.
Conall hesitated but got his hand off his arm, letting Hiccup see the deep wound. Without the pressure, blood quickly began to drip and slid to his elbow.
"Not that bad, huh?" Hiccup said deadpanned and let water fall on the wound, cleaning softly with a piece of cloth. Conall flinched with a hiss, making Toothless tense more.
"Don't be a baby," Hiccup told him.
Conall kept eye contact with the dragon, Hiccup couldn't tell if it was good or bad but on the bright side he had stop moving.
"Are… are all dragon's like that?" Conall asked a bit hesitant.
"Like what?" Hiccup said, not getting her eyes from the wound.
"Overprotective."
Hiccup hesitated a little, "Some of them," she said, "depends on the species and how attached they are to things."
"How many species there is?" he asked after a little bit.
"I need to focus, so I need you to shut up," Hiccup said to keep him quiet. After a little while of cleaning she sighed, "I'm going to need Death Lily."
"Death what?" Conall almost yelled, startling the dragon.
"Don't worry, it's just bad naming." Hiccup said, not carrying to suppress her smile. "It's actually quite helpful, but a bit tricky to make." She turned to her dragon, "make yourself more useful and get to boil water, okay?"
The dragon growled, not happy with the idea of leaving her alone with the boy.
"I'm going to be fine, now go."
Grumbling and complaining in a language just she could understand, Toothless stood up, took Hiccup's small metal pot on his jaws and left with it.
"It can do that?" Conall asked.
"He," Hiccup corrected him and handled him a clean piece of cloth, "put pressure on it, I need to make the Death Lily."
Hiccup took two of the little bags and put some of the leaves on a bow, smashing them together with a round rock.
"Dragons are smart," Hiccup said, more like a warning, "some more than others but if you know how to train them you can make them do a lot of things."
"Ye know a lot about this," Conall mentioned, looking how Hiccup took another piece of dried plants to put on the mix.
"Yes," was the only answer. They stayed in silence for a moment until he got another question.
"How do ye know all this stuff?"
Hiccup slowly stopped, confused by the question, "the basics of taking care of a wound?"
"Yes, aren't ye too young ta know this?"
"I'm 16!" Hiccup said, slightly offended, anyone above 10 knew how to take care of a simple wound, as you grew up you get taught to take care of mayor wounds.
"What? I thought ye were younger?" He said confused, making Hiccup pull of a face, "Yer still too young to know this."
"No, I'm not." Hiccup said on the defensive.
"Ma older sister is 19 and is just learning to do this," Conall said, "she is going ta get married, so Mother is teaching her."
"19? Are you kidding me?" Hiccup said in a high-pitched voice, "what about you? You said you could take care of it."
"I… I don't know," Conall hesitated, "ma mother and aunts are the ones that know,"
"Do you know at least how to clean it?" she asked bewildered.
"Just put water?" he guessed.
"Gods, how are all of you still alive?" Hiccup exclaimed, returning to smash the plants. They fell into silence again, this time it was a bit less awkward.
"So, how ye know about this?" Conall asked again pointing at her hands, "are ye daughter of a healer or something?"
"What? No," Hiccup said weirded out.
"Then how?" he asked, "the only way someone yer age can know some of this here is being child of healers."
"You really live in a weird place," Hiccup said, thinking if it was a good idea share her past with him. It was just how she learn this, it wasn't that important. "Everyone my age knows how to do this and more," she said a bit hesitantly, "the village I'm from gets raided constantly by dragons, people always get hurt, we have to know how to help from a very young age."
"Don't other adults do that?"
"The adults that don't get injured are too busy reconstructing the village," Hiccup said, "Elders take care of wounds, and if you don't have a job, you have to help. I stopped helping on that long ago, but I still know how to do it."
"Wait," Conall said surprised, "ye… ye have a job?"
"Had," Hiccup corrected him, "kinda lost it when I got away."
"But… yer only 16, ye can't have a job."
"I have had a job since I was like… I don't know 9?" Hiccup shrugged, "thought it wasn't that serious back then, just some days, I began to take it more serious at 10."
Conall was looking at her with an open jaw and big eyes, not believing a word she was saying. He was going to say something but Toothless arrived at the camp, carrying the pot on his jaws from the handle. Toothless, gave Conall a furious look, making the man swallow his words.
Toothless looked at the small fire and tilted his head. He looked around and left the pot on the ground. The dragon walked around the campsite and returned with a few branches on his mouth, he feed the fire with them and put the pot on its place before returning to Hiccup's side, nuzzling her head affectionately with his.
"Thanks buddy," Hiccup said sweetly.
"Amazing," Conall said with a smile, looking at the work of Toothless.
"Told you, they are smart." Hiccup said proudly.
"It…" Conall shook his head and corrected himself, "he… he likes ye a lot, doesn't he?"
"Yes,"
"How long have ye had him?"
"Had him?" Hiccup asked offended, "I don't own him, he is not a pet. Toothless is my friend."
"How long have ye been friends, then?" Conall corrected.
"Quite a while," she said and stood up to go to the campfire. Hiccup put inside the pot the mush she had made with the leaves. She cleaned the bowl and took the petals of a bright red flower, smashing them on the bowl.
"Not going to elaborate on that answer?" Conall asked slowly, walking to the campfire too.
"No," Hiccup simply said, her eyes on her work. Conall hummed a bit annoyed and sat down at her side, not saying anything, at least not for a while.
"What did ye work at?" He asked.
Hiccup thought for a moment, noticing the huge opportunity she had now, "I was a Blacksmith's apprentice." Hiccup said as if it was nothing.
"A blacksmith?" Conall said, not believing it, "no, ye can't."
"Why not?" Hiccup asked.
"That takes a lifetime ta learn!"
Hiccup chuckled, "I never said a was a full trained blacksmith," she calmed herself a little, trying not to smile that much, she had made herself an image of meanness and arrogance with Conall, she couldn't ruin that.
"I was an apprentice," Hiccup explained, "had been since a very young age. The village's blacksmith is... a close family friend, my father sometimes let me with him when he was too busy to take care of me, and I helped a little. I had always been good learning with just watching and I made a lot of questions, so I knew theoretically how everything was made."
"When I was 9 or 10 -don't really remember- he spoke to my father and took me in as an apprentice." Hiccup said, taking a forgotten wood spoon from the grass and cleaned it up with her sleeve before mixing the boiling water.
"Since then I've been working as a blacksmith," Hiccup thought a little, then said: "Since I left my village I've got to work with other blacksmiths on different towns," the lie came out easy, as long as Conall didn't ask for specific information about that it'll be good, he didn't have to know it had been just one town.
She still had more experience on working than him, it seems.
"So, ye still not a full blacksmith?" Conall asked.
"You are considered a blacksmith when you have enough experience." Hiccup said, "Thing I do have but given the fact that I'm always moving I haven't have enough practice lately. But I do know how to make any kind of weapon, parts of catapults, gates, hinches, chains, and machines of my own."
"Machines?" Conall said confused, "machines for what?"
"I made a lot of designs to…" Hiccup's voice trailed off, her hand slowing down with the mixing. She eyed Toothless nervously, "to… kill and… take down dragons."
"I… I thought ye got along with them?"
"I do," Hiccup said, quite fast, "but, it hasn't always been like that… that's… that's another story. I don't do them anymore." Just talking about it left a heavy feeling on her chest, and even Toothless's soft purr of it's okay didn't easy the weight.
She had never admitted that out loud. She knew it was true, she knew what her intentions had been with dragons before, what her intentions were with Toothless when she first saw him. She still made up designs on her head to keep herself busy.
But it had been so long since Hiccup last thought about it. Killing dragons wasn't something she thought herself of doing anymore. In the back of her mind was the fuzzy memory of wanting to kill dragons, but it seemed so foreign right now.
It hasn't been all bad. Hiccup reminded herself.
"But thanks to those machines I was able to do Toothless' mechanism," Hiccup said, her tone still a bit grim. She didn't want to keep talking about this. The water began to give a sweet smell, so Hiccup took it out of the fire with a piece of cloth.
"What about you?" Hiccup asked to get the attention off her. "Got a job?" She took a spoonful of water and drip it on the bowl, mixing it with the red flower. The sweet smell disappeared almost instantly.
Conall groaned, putting a disgusted face at the new smell, "No," he said, "well, not exactly. I work on my family's farm, but I don't earn money for myself with that. All goes to my family." He sighed with a smile and looked up dreamily, "but soon I'm going to be old enough to get a job outside my family and finally get money."
"You don't get paid?" Hiccup asked, "not even a little?"
"I… used to," Conall said a bit uncomfortable, "but we are kind of going through rough times, the farm needs the money so all of it goes to the family." Hiccup finished the mush and gestured him to get his hand off his arm to put it on.
"This is going to sting a little," Hiccup warned him as she smeared the paste on his wound, "and it will get worse in a couple of hours, that's why we call it Death Lily."
The man didn't say a thing but made a face when Hiccup began to press on his wound. After a few seconds of saving himself the pain he grunted.
"I told you," Hiccup said, taking a clean bandage to put around his arm.
"This is not a little," Conall hissed, his body was tense, but he let Hiccup do her job, silently looking at her hands as they craftily moved around his arm.
"Does someone in your family knows how to do Nimble Tea?" Hiccup asked when she finished. Conall shrugged, making her sigh, she reached for one of her water bottles and emptied it on the grass. "It's from a plant named Blue Sunrise, just make the tea as any other and add this,"
Hiccup filled the bottle with the boiled wither with herbs, then handle it to Conall.
"It works as a pain reliever. Don't say you are not going to need it," Hiccup quickly added, raising a finger to stop him from complaining, "You will, it only gets worse. Good side of things it'll heal in no time."
Conall took the bottle a bit hesitant, "Thank you," he said.
"Just, bring it back when you are done with it." Hiccup said, "I just have two of those." The boy nodded and awkwardly stayed in the same place, "You can go now." Hiccup said, returning to the harsh tone.
Conall seemed a bit startled for the change of demeanor but stood up, hesitated to say something, his mouth opening and closing more than once, but then opted to say nothing and left.
Toothless and Hiccup watched him go. As soon as he disappeared on the trees, Toothless turned to Hiccup with a huff that blew her bangs away.
"What?" Hiccup asked.
"You brought him here?" the dragon growled, "You said you were just going to tell him your name and you told him about your old nest!"
"We just talked about jobs," Hiccup said like if it wasn't a big deal, "It's not like he could make a lot with that. Besides, now that he knows that, I can make him help me get a job!"
"What? The whole point of him helping us was so you didn't have to risk yourself into the human nest!"
"I know!" Hiccup whined, throwing her head back, "but it's so boring just being out here, without doing anything. We already explored the area twice, I want to do something else."
"Then we could just forget about this and leave!" Toothless snarled, showing his teeth to Hiccup.
She opened her mouth, her face one of utter disbelief, "Don't snarl at me," Hiccup said offended. Toothless snarled again. "Hey, stop it!" she said, "We need the money and we need him working for us," the dragon growled, "Okay, no job for me but we still need him on our side."
He calmed a little, but he was still angry.
Hiccup crossed her arms, "If it makes you feel better, he doesn't know my name yet,"
"No, it doesn't." Toothless said calmly, then roared in her face, blowing her hair back, "BECAUSE YOU BROUGHT HIM TO OUR NEST!"
Hiccup did nothing to stop the dragon, just closed her eyes, her arms still crossed while he basically left her deaf. When he stopped his drama, she calmly stuck her pinky in her ear with a grimace.
"You have been quite loud today." Hiccup mentioned, the dragon huffed at her and walked of, he set fire to the already burned grass and lied down on the warm ashes.
With both angry, they stayed away from each other. But as always it didn't last long, it just took Hiccup to pack up a few things to get some order in the camp before she walked to Toothless, sitting close to him.
Almost immediately he had stood up, just to sit down again, now circling his body around her. Hiccup smiled and rested against him. She said nothing, not an apologize, not a comforting word, not an explanation of how her plan was going to work.
It could make it worse. And she didn't want it to be worse. She didn't like discussing with Toothless, they barely did, at least for something serious. And the dragon had quite the demeanor.
Both stubborn and both willing to prove their points, it was better if both of them just say nothing. And that's what they did, Hiccup softly caressed his scales and Toothless purred softly.
"It's almost sunset," Toothless purred after a very long silence.
"There is still a good couple of hours of light left." Hiccup said, "Let's better wait for the night, just in case."
The dragon grumbled, not liking the idea but doing nothing to complain.
"We still could go to that field," Hiccup suggested slowly, and the dragon's ears perked up instantly, he looked at her with big, round pupils and in no time he began to push Hiccup to stand up.
Hiccup laughed as the pushes got the wrong result and he ended up pushing her to the ground, "Okay, okay" the girl laughed, pushing the dragon's head away so she could stand up. "Let's go," she said and jumped into the saddle. Going on his back would make them arrive sooner than if they both walked or ran.
Hiccup jumped down the saddle as soon as they got there and gestured to the dragon to go off. Toothless happily jumped inside the tall grass and ran away, this time Hiccup did not try to follow. She sat under a tree and took a deep breathe.
Toothless was right. She was not going to admit it out loud and less in front of the dragon, but she knew. Yes, the guy had keep up at her instructions and bring her the money she needed without anything in return, but she did not trust him for more than that.
Just today she had already thought he had sell them out. He didn't but it was still a possibility.
Hiccup had to pay him back, she knew that too. If she didn't give him anything, the possibilities for him turning against them were bigger.
And Toothless didn't want her to give him anything. And if she was being honest she didn't either.
But today proved something. If she gave him a little bit of information, he also gave her information. Now she just had to think on a way to not give up a lot and still gain from him.
Learning his language was still on top priority, maybe she could teach him better Norse in exchange? Tell him a thing or two about how things worked on Berk and see how they work in here.
The other problem was Toothless. She didn't want to fight with him, even less about this. They didn't stay angry at each other more than five minutes today, but it still had hurt her. She needed to talk to him on this new "plan" of hers. But that could wait until tomorrow.
…
"FUZZYYYYYY!"
The Night Fury's roar was the first thing she heard that day, followed by her own panicked yell. Hiccup looked around confused, until she saw her dragon, snarling in front of a man. She squinted her eyes, forcing her brain to wake up and recognize him.
"Conall?" Hiccup asked with a slight raspy voice. She stood up to calm down the dragon, walking to him and resting a gentle hand on his neck, "What in Helheim are you doing here?"
"Helheim?" The man repeated in confusion.
"What are you doing here?" Hiccup said, now truly annoyed.
"I…" he said, his eyes on the dragon again, "I came to thank you," he said and handled her a small bag, "Ma mother also says thanks."
"What is that?" Hiccup asked, not making any motion of taking it.
"Breakfast?" Conall said, "she made it for ye." Slowly, Hiccup stepped forward and reached out for the bag. She looked inside after returning to Toothless' side, as soon as she opened it the sweet smell of actual human food reached her nose.
Hiccup closed the bag quickly, both to don't look too impressed and hungry and so her mind could stay in track.
"You just came for this?" Hiccup asked, not missing the harsh tone.
"Hum, yeah? You welcome?" Conall responded a bit annoyed. And their relationship was back to normal.
"You came to say 'thank you', what should I thank you?" Hiccup asked, making her dragon smile a little.
Conall rolled his eyes, "Whatever," he said, waving his hand dismissively at her and turning around.
"Wait, let me see your wound." Hiccup said, stopping the man.
"I thought you were angry?" Conall mentions emotionless, turning to look at her.
"I am, you woke me up," Hiccup answered and sat down, putting the bag aside and waiting for him to sit with her. "But if I do this now I won't have to see you until tomorrow,"
The boy mumbled something under his breathe, too low for her to listen and she doubted he said it on Norse, either way. He sat down in front of her and they stayed in silence as she took off his bandage and saw how much had changed.
From one day to another it wasn't going to be much, but the Death Lily could do miracles sometimes. Depending on who's hand put it on.
"You shouldn't come here," Hiccup said out of nowhere. After giving no explanation whatsoever, Conall asked.
"Why?"
"Him," Hiccup shortly answered, gesturing with her head to the angry dragon sitting behind her, his tail swiping side to side. "He doesn't like you," she said and the dragon snorted in agreement, Hiccup looked up to Conall through her bangs, a frown deep in her brow, "And neither do I."
"And yet, yer helping me," Conall muttered.
"I'm helping you because I know how to," Hiccup said, "and if I know how to help I'm not staying aside without doing anything." Saying that phrase made her heart sting. The memory of the Ladies suddenly coming to the top of her head. She ignored it.
"If you want to know something about dragons know this:" Hiccup said, taking the bandage and putting it on again with a little more force than necessary, "They are territorial, and Toothless already claimed this place as ours."
"Ow!" Conall yelped as Hiccup pulled from the bandage. She didn't mind him and kelp talking.
"If you come without permission again a cut in you arm is not the only thing you'll have to worry about." She finished and gave him the best deadly look she could muster.
Conall visibly stiffened, his eyes shifted between dragon and rider before nodding. Hiccup finished with his arm and asked.
"You still use the Dead Lily?"
"Uh, y-yeah," he said, a bit shaken for her early statement. He cleared his throat and said again, "Yes,"
"Good," Hiccup said, "keep using it until it's all over. Then come back here, just then." She said, making herself clear, "for anything else we'll see each other on the usual place. And come in the afternoon, not in the Thor forsaken morning."
Hiccup stood up and walked to Toothless, so she could give the man her back. "I don't have anything for you today, you can leave." She kneeled at the dragon's side and pretended she was checking the mechanism, she had been too tired last night to take it off.
Conall stood up and gave a step back, "um… Thank you… uh…"
"Hiccup," she said dryly.
"What?"
"The name's Hiccup," she said, looking a bit over her shoulder with a serious expression. The man nodded.
"Then… thank you, Hiccup," Conall said and left their camp, looking at his arm and pocking the bandages slightly.
Hiccup sighed and rolled her eyes, dropping herself at Toothless' side.
"If you hate him so much, why you keep helping him?"
"Well, if he is dead he can't help us" Hiccup reasoned. Toothless growled, shrugging in agreement. "He seems to respond well to threats," she chuckled and playfully elbowed her dragon, "I think that has more to do with you."
"I don't know, you are getting pretty intimidating," Toothless joked back, headbutting her. Hiccup laughed and reached out for the bag Conall had brought.
"Well, we are up early," Hiccup said, resigned that she was not going to sleep now, as tied as she still was for their night flight. "What do you say we go to that cliff we found to have breakfast? The one with the cool view?"
Toothless immediately let out his tongue in excitement, stealing a smile form Hiccup. She quickly stood up and climbed to his back to take off.
They flew low over the trees to not be seen, flying fast but careful to their destination. The scenery on these lands wasn't so bad. Hiccup did miss the tall mountain that always held dragons on its caves.
She missed not being able to fly up high on the days, not bothering if someone sees them because seeing a dragon on the air was as common as seeing a bird. And it was kind of disappointing to get on the air and have no other dragon to join them.
But they had learned to make it work. None of them really liked to live there but it would only be fore a few weeks more. As soon as Hiccup will have her hands on enough money and resources they will be off. Back into the dragon's world and away from the human's.
They landed on the cliff and Hiccup went to sit down on the edge, letting her legs fall over. Toothless followed to her side, laying down around her and letting his tail join her legs.
They could see a lot from there. The vast infinity of the forest, that big clearing of tall grass, the three villages, each one more far than the other. And even a wide river almost hidden between the trees.
It was a beautiful day, the sun shinned brightly, there was barely a cloud in the sky and the air blew softly, moving the trees and the grass in graceful waves that made the forest an ocean of green.
And it broke her heart that they couldn't fly over it all.
Toothless growled sadly, thinking the same she did and laying his head aside her lap. Hiccup put a hand over his head and softly scratched his scales.
"I know, bud. I know." She said and sighed, looking at the long day of doing nothing before them. "but we'll be out of here soon, I promise. And we'll go wherever you want next. Away from any human."
Toothless purred at the gentle strokes of her hand, then opened his eyes to look at her for a moment, "nest?" he asked and a small smiled appeared on her lips.
"Yes, we'll go to your nest if you want to."
Hiccup pulled out the bag Conall had given her and inspected the insides. There was an apple and an enormous sandwich, filled with at least five kinds of meat and some vegetables. The smell was enough to catch the attention of the Night Fury and Hiccup pulled out some slices of meat.
"Not so annoying when he brings food, huh?" Hiccup asked the dragon, playing with the slice over the dragon's head as he curiously sniffed on the meat. Toothless gave it a few licks, wanting to eat it but not take it from her, the thing is, now it had slobber all over. Hiccup dropped the meat and Toothless shallowed it whole.
Hiccup gave a bite on the sandwich and looked off to the horizon, to the three towns where they couldn't even think to get inside.
"Well," she said and swallowed, "we're out of business,"
"We could leave," Toothless instantly responded.
"We will leave once I have enough to survive out there," Toothless huffed, why was he so against that idea? "hey, I know dragons get pretty independent very fast," Hiccup said and took another bite, "at least most of them. But humans are different, we relay on our parents and our tribes a lot, even as adults."
Hiccup's eyes got lost on the green of the forest, her mind drifting to all the traders she knew. They lived by their own, but they were adults and have been on that business for years, they knew how to keep out of trouble and how much close they could get to dangerous situations without ending killed or banned out of places. People loved traders.
And people hatted her. Maybe it was just a matter of time? Maybe in a couple of years she would learn to stay away from danger, maybe… maybe people even forget about her existence. Was that possible? If she stays away enough time, would people forget she exist? Think she was just a myth, just stories of the many carried by traders? Something someone mad up?
In part, that thought comforted her. Being forgotten. If no one knew who she was she could still step into villages and towns to get what she needed, definitely not staying there long enough for them to find out about Toothless. She had enough experience with that.
On the other hand… being forgotten… Her name meaning nothing. Not that it had a lot of meaning now. But could that really happen? Berk… would they forget her? Would the next generation even know her name? The name of the heir that chose her lot with the dragons and ran away. Would they change her story? Say a dragon took her off like her mother, that she died on a raid. Would they even mention her existence?
Hiccup's eyes dropped to her lap, and she lowered her sandwich, not hungry anymore. Toothless cooed at her side and Hiccup let the food on the ground close to the dragon's mouth for him to take.
Toothless pushed it to her, not accepting it. But she didn't want it either, her eyes were locked into the horizon as a soft breeze blew over them. Toothless cooed her name, worried for his rider and the sudden change of mood.
"I don't want to be forgotten," Hiccup said softy. She really didn't want to, but that was a fate that wasn't on her hands to control.
…
The next week was… odd. To say the least.
Hiccup and Conall kept meeting on their usual trade place but they weren't trading anymore. Hiccup had given him a week to get better before going back to their usual business -thing his family didn't seem to have spare him from.
If she was being honest, she felt a bit guilty for what happened, for a reason she could not put a finger on. Conall had said more than one time that it had nothing to do with her and that just gave her the impression that she was going soft on him.
That would have to change as soon as he's better.
Along that and the fact that now Toothless was joining to their meetings, Hiccup just felt like this deal was going backwards. They were not getting any progress that's for sure, they were stuck in the same. But Toothless babysitting her and Hiccup going a bit softer by the day on Conall made her feel worse than just stuck.
So she used the free time she had -that was most of the day- for going around, putting on traps. Toothless stopped hunting daily, what gave them more time to play and explore together and less skins to gather.
Still, in a few days the skins Hiccup had collected were more skins than she should have. Conall couldn't just go into town with a big bag of animal skins to sell without looking suspicious. And people being suspicious of Conall equaled Conall being on trouble, and Conall being on trouble equaled Hiccup being on trouble.
And Hiccup had decided she had live through enough troubles for a lifetime.
Hiccup arrived at their usual trading place followed closely by Toothless, a bag of skins on her hand. Conall was already there, it had taken them a few minutes more than usual to arrive. The grass had been stepped over way too many times already and a path to their camp was showing so they had decided to change their paths every few days starting today.
Conall looked at her from the ground where he was sitting quite patiently, something weird to see on the man the first days they meet. But something told Hiccup that he was probably getting softer on her too.
She didn't like that idea. Couldn't they just keep begin jerks to each other? To not give each other decent greetings and to just say a cold bye to part ways? Instead of those awkward "good morning" and "Hello" and the now-usual "thank you" Conall gave her as a good bye?
"Hey," he called, and his eyes landed on the bag, "back ta business?" he asked raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah," she said, it sounded more tired than cold as she intended to.
"Didn't sleep again?" Conall asked, still weirded out by her decision of not sleeping on the night. But the night belonged to Toothless and so did she, so the dark skies were theirs to take.
Hiccup sat down by his injured arm with a sigh, "It's not as bad as it looks."
"It does look bad," he said, gaining a verry pissed off look from the girl, "I mean that ye look tired. Night's for sleeping, ye should try it." Conall's eyes turned to the dragon who had sit down at a considerable space behind Hiccup, but still was watching their interaction carefully.
"If the dragon cares about ye," Toothless buffed at him, "he should let ye sleep."
"Okay, first of all: he does care about me," Hiccup said as she removed the bandages, "second: I like to be awake at night and I like to fly." She inspected the now almost close cut, it had been deeper than she thought, and it taken more times to heal at a point where he could use his arm without a problem.
"Besides with no other dragons around it's the only safe time for us to do so," she added lowly, the sadness on her voice was way too clear but she acted like she hadn't say a thing and went on to put a new healing paste on his wound.
"This one doesn't sting," Hiccup said, Conall still flinched at the touch as she pressed the paste on his arm. "oh, don't be a baby." He stood still and quiet for a couple of minutes.
"Ye still look too tired," Conall said, breaking the beautiful silence, "since first time I saw ye. How long have ye been doin' that?" Hiccup shrugged and took the bandages back, asking herself the same question. For how long had she been using the night to fly instead for sleeping? It certainly began before arriving Scotland.
"I have always enjoyed the night," she said carefully tying the bandage's ends, "and I'm not a morning person, this look at this hour is normal."
"Yes, but ye-" he began but Hiccup interrupted.
"You are ready to go!" She patted his shoulder hard, making him hiss. "See you on the afternoon," she stood up and walked back to Toothless.
"Yeah," Conall said with a grimace, rolling his shoulder. He took the bag of skins and left after the awkward "thank you,"
…
If their afternoon meeting was good or bad she couldn't really tell. Conall was angry, for a moment she thought he was going to yell at her. Hiccup and Toothless had been racing each other the whole day, she obviously hadn't win a single time, but she had gotten so into it that she didn't noticed how far they were from their camp.
Toothless had refuse to carry her the way back, he said it was her price to pay for not winning, but Hiccup had the feeling it had more to do with Conall than herself.
And now the man himself was pissed.
"Hey," Hiccup said as she walked to him, quickly trying to catch her breath.
"Hey," he mumbled, staring angry at a tree.
"Sorry, I'm late," Hiccup said before he could say anything to her, "I got a little carried away with Toothless," he just hummed as an answer.
Wasn't he going to yell at her? To direct at her his angry stare? Call her names? Taunt her even in front of Toothless? Say he doesn't care and walk away? Nothing? Hiccup pulled out her lower lip and shrugged, better for her.
She sat down with him and went on the usual routine, throwing careful glances at him once a while. When was he going to snap?
"Are… are you okay?" Hiccup asked slowly, not sure she will like the answer.
"Yes," Conall said shortly, putting at end the conversation. Weird. Usually, he was the chatty one and she was the one who shut him up with a single word. Not even five second passed when he talked again, "Actually: no."
Here we go, Hiccup thought. But the ass whooping she was expecting didn't came. He was angry, alright, but it wasn't at her. He was angry at his family. She had never heard him talk bad about his family.
Conall didn't really talked about them but when he did he told her a ton of good stuff. How close they were and always stick together, even when he confessed to her that their farm was getting problems and they could lose it.
The chances of bringing the farm to their glory were almost none existent. And yet, they still were trying.
From the broken Norse of Conall she could barely make out the situation. It wasn't hard to understand him. He didn't know a lot of words, he skipped some, and his accent threw her off sometimes, but it wasn't really hard if you tried it.
The problem was that he was yelling and talking so fast that it barely gave her a chance to understand.
The farm was worse. Someone on one of the towns had spread a rumor that their food carried some kind of disease so the little people that kept buying from them didn't want their products anymore.
Conall wanted to get a job on town. Help their family from the outside. But they didn't want to. They wanted him on the farm, helping with the animals or to reconstruct the old buildings.
Then Hiccup stopped understanding him completely. He began to throw words in other language in the middle of the sentence and the more he vented the more he forgot he was supposed to talk Norse. Whatever he was saying, he was still pissed off.
He was gesturing wildly with his other arm as Hiccup still tried to check the cut, but he was moving so much she was afraid she would just hurt him more.
There were times he would turn at her and say something that sounded like a question. Hiccup would put a serious expression and nod, like she really knew what he was talking about.
She had to admit it. She liked it.
The way he spoke so fluidly was mesmerizing. Hiccup had got so used to hearing his broken Norse and funny accent she had forgotten the guy could speak more languages. She wanted to ask how many he knew but it probably wasn't the time.
Then Hiccup noticed something, the bandage on his arm had got little spots of blood. He had opened the wound? It was almost closed!
"Um… Con- Conall? uuuh… hey, Conall" Hiccup began to say between the boy's rant but he was so into it that he didn't listen. It wasn't until half a minute later that he hissed in pain and looked at his shoulder.
"I think you opened it." Hiccup told him, and he groaned frustrated "okay, you need to calm down. Let me see that."
He stood still, huffing, but still. Hiccup took off the bandage again, indeed, it was open. Not all, but enough to bleed.
Hiccup cleaned the wound again, taking off all the new medicine she had put on it and bandaging up without nothing else.
"Teach me," she said suddenly.
"What?" Conall asked over his shoulder.
"Your language, teach me,"
"What for?"
"One, you stopped talking on Norse like 10 minutes ago and I haven't understood a single thing." Hiccup said, finishing the bandaging and resting back on her hands, "two, I'm not going to stay here forever, I need to move, and I need to communicate."
"It's not easy learn new language,"
"You know like five," Hiccup pointed out.
"Seven, actually." Conall corrected her but she kept talking.
"I already know more than one, I know how it is." She said waving off, "And I learn fast." Conall looked away, thinking about it. Why was so hard of a decision? "Come on, just a couple of hours a day."
"Just a couple of hours?" Conall said, "I don't have that kind of time, didn't ye hear what I was telling ye?"
"Since you began to speak in other language: no." Hiccup said without too much enthusiasm, "besides you just spent half an hour waiting for me and another half venting out about your family, I think you do have the time."
Conall gave her a pissed off look that quickly changed with her next words.
"I'll pay you." She said, and his expression dropped a little. "I'll give you… one quarter of the earnings for the skins." The boy looked away a deep frown on his brow as he thought about it, now more seriously.
"I can't just show up with money," Conall said.
"You can say you did got a job," Hiccup suggested and Conall scoffed.
"Yeah, like if that is not going ta get me in trouble."
"Well… then… you can sneak it into their money," Hiccup said shrugging slightly. "little by little so they don't notice."
"Ye really want ta do this, don't ye?" Conall said dead panned.
"Yes," Hiccup said, leaning forward a little, "I'm not going back to my Village and I need to learn more languages if I'm staying out here. Yours can be a start!" Conall looked away again, "And I can teach you more Norse if you want, too."
The boy sighed and stood up, was that a 'no'? He began to walk away and just when Hiccup was going to drop off the last of her hopes he stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"Let me… let me think about it." He said, "see ye tomorrow,"
"Sure," Hiccup said, the hopes on learning a new language going up again. "See you tomorrow."
Conall left and Hiccup stood up. Toothless watched her carefully and after a few steps towards their camp he asked, "You can learn other human speaks? Is that a thing humans can do?"
"Well, yeah." Hiccup said, "Don't you?"
Toothless frowned slightly, "All fire-people speak the same, Alphas also speak an ancient speak but we based ourselves on instinct to understand that."
Base on instinct to understand a language? Hiccup thought that was weird but well, it hadn't been that different to the last half hour with Conall.
"And we learn to understand different human speaks but not talk them." Toothless continued, "I thought you were the same."
"No, I can actually learn to speak them," Hiccup said, and they fell in silence as they keep walking to the camp, night began to fall in rather quickly and she wondered if Conall would make it in time to his farm. He really did not have the time for this.
But she had…
"Hey, do you… do you think I can learn to speak yours?"
"My what?"
"Your language," Hiccup said and gestured at him, "You know, with all those little noises you make."
Toothless tilted his head, "I don't think your body can make the same noises we do," it took him two seconds to think about it before he jumped in front of her in a playful position, "But let's try it!"
Hiccup laughed at the dragon's enthusiasm as they arrived at their camp. He ran to set the campfire on and sat down next to it, head tall and proud. Probably feeling important but certainly looking like a dork.
Toothless cooed, that was a sound Hiccup knew. She had made it before, back on Berk, the night she had decided they would leave. But how did she do that? Hiccup walked slowly to Toothless as she thought of it and sat down in front.
Hiccup curled her lips and let out a coo from the back of her throat. Toothless immediately gave her a gummy smile, his eyes were shinning, and it wasn't because the light of the fire reflecting on them.
Hiccup smiled too. For the last week she had felt like they had gotten stuck, but now she had almost convinced Conall to teach her his language and she was learning the dragon's. Things were going to change.
This was a huge step forward.