We run from our fears, such that we can learn to turn around and face them. We hide from our enemies, such that we can learn to come out of our hiding spots and fight them. We fall down on our knees, such that we can learn to pick ourselves back up on our feet again. The world is a giant battlefield after all. Those that stay down, stay down for good.

Author's note: Hello reader! Thanks for clicking on this! Special hello to those that found my reddit post(s) and followed them to here!

Chapters may contain a (R) besides it's name. It stands for Revised, which means that it has either been reviewed by my betas, Mercury or Nora, or it has been rewritten for more details. There is no scale that exists which can show how grateful I am for them being my betas! The amount of R's just means the amount of times it has been revised, this is purely just for my own records.

Enjoy the story!

I was torn apart. My black scales cracked open and my heart was split into two.

"It's okay, It's okay..." My mother comforted me.

"NO!" I shot back, shaking my head in rejection of reality. I flapped my wings in a desperate attempt to cool myself off.

"You've got to go, the magma is rising-"

"No! Not without you, Mom!"

"Nono, don't look at me, look behind you. You see that light at the end of the cave?"

I looked at the light my mother was pointing at, blinking away grief-filled tears.

"That's where you need to go. That's the destiny that awaits you."

The ground shook violently and the walls glowed red from magma.

"But... Mom... I can't leave you behind-"

"No, son, you have to. I believe in you. I'll build up some boulders to stop the magma from reaching you."

"But- Mom-"

"GO."

"But-"

"GO!"

I ran towards my mother and stared into her bright green eyes. I saw my own green eyes in the reflection. Nuzzling her forehead with my forehead for the last time, I turned around, but my paws found no energy to run towards the light, and away from my mother.

I took one last look at my mother. She smiled at me warmly, Her bright green eyes shimmering from now-forming tears.

The smile decoded to "I love you."

I turned around with all my willpower and ran towards the light, dragging my tail behind me. My own tears dripped onto the floor, glistening in what little light there was in the tunnel.

The ground rumbled beneath my paws as the cave behind me collapsed.

"Who's this?"

"A pro-hatchling Coal Smotherer!"

"Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? Where are your parents?"

"He's visibly shaken from fright, fear, and hunger, we should take it back to the nest!"

"Oh, poor little one... What did you go through..."

I approached a small cave, and waited outside in the moonlight for approval to come in.

The Humming-dragon, an elder that was in the dark corner of the cave, nodded, approving my request.

"E-elder?" I shakily asked.

"Yes, little one?" She softly replied.

"Do- do you know where my mother is?"

The elder slightly dipped her head and frowned.

"I'm not sure myself too," The elder honestly replied.

"I- is she dead?"

The elder dipped her head even lower.

"I- is she?"

"Oh, come here, little one, You've been through too much…" She lifted a wing, silently telling me to come under her wing.

I slowly walked over and snuggled up against the Elder, and she placed her wing over my body as a blanket. I purred at the warmth.

The Elder smiled, seeing my comfort. "Sleep well, little one, you've got a big journey tomorrow. We are flying over seas to another island, like we do every 365 moons."

I whimpered. "I don't want to go anywhere… I just want my mother…"

"Sorry, little one, but you have to. We are going to the Crescent, where we will make use of the volcanic heat to incubate our eggs. We will stop by the Land of the Horned Hairless Monkeys (Humans) mid-way."

"Can't I just stay here, in this cave?"

The Elder sighed. "You're going to be vulnerable if you are alone here, you need to come with us for your own safety."

I whimpered again, and snuggled closer to the side of the Elder. She tightened her wings around my body.

I covered my eyes with my paws in a miserable attempt to shield myself from reality.

I just want my mother…

9 years later

I was a dragon. A free, wild, Coal Smotherer. Why such a stupid name you may ask, the legends say that its because of our abilities to control fire, especially on coal. I couldn't deny it – I did make myself a warm, coal bed with my breath before sleeping every night, unless I felt like dangling with my tail.

Our leader, a Purple Skin-Firer called Fanghorn, squawked to get everyone's attention.

Grumbling, I stumbled out of my cave, cleansing my forehead with my paw as I did so.

It was a rather small cave, compared to what others had. I was able to stretch my body to its fullest when I was inside, while barely touching the sides. It wasn't a luxury, but it could be worse. The Shaming Caves where all the shameful dragons stay are faced directly into the sunrise, taking away the shadow of the cave, and with it, privacy. I enjoyed my dark cave. That being said, it could also have been better, the leaders got the caves with trickles of water that run through them.

I looked up at the sky. It was a very faint purple, the sun barely above the horizon. I was going to go back to sleep when my neighbour, A Green Humming-Dragon called Rollrunner with blue eyes and a red scruff, greeted me.

"Hey Coal Smo! Nice to see that you actually responded to the roll call this time!"

"Yeah… it's not even morning, why are they waking the nest? I'm going back to sleep, I don't care." I mumbled.

"Oh no you don't!"

Fanghorn flapped his massive wings, blowing some pebbles off the ground, and landed in front of my cave. Not giving my sleep deprived ass time to react, he picked me up by the scruff, and yanked me towards Rollrunner.

"Get up, Sleepy-scales! We got no time for your tomfoolery! Rollrunner, keep an eye on him. Do not let him go back to sleep."

"Sir yes sir!"

Fanghorn nodded with a smile. "Coal Smo, you really need to get a name. It's weird to call you Coal Smo."

I grumbled something incoherent.

Fanghorn took off to wake up the others and run his leader errands. Once he was out of my sight, I rolled my eyes to the back of my head, immediately went limp and plopped on the floor, kicking up dust.

"Oh no you don't!"

Rollrunner picked me up by my scruff despite my protests.

"What's with every dragon and my scruff?"

"Stop trying to sleep and we won't do it!"

"Why are we awake anyways?"

"We're going to The Crescent, remember?"

"Oh right… But I don't want to go…" I whined.

"It's nature, you can't go against it."

"Well I reject nature!"

Rollrunner stared at me in disbelief, flabbergasted.

I groaned in despair.

By the time roll call ended, the sun was above the horizon, tanning the skies a blue-yellow and giving the clouds a beautiful glow. Several hatchlings, around 700 moons old, flew in front of me, play-fighting with each other. I stared at them to cure my boredom.

"Alright nestmates! We will depart in 10 minutes! Last minute preparations are now or never!" Fanghorn announced somewhere in the distance.

"Alright, I better go and check on my own mate now, Coal Smo. I'm starting to miss her-"

I swung my paw around in the air as if I was trying to brush air towards Rollrunner, shooing him away.

"Just be on your way before you start another lecture on how beautifully amazing she is. Please."

Rollrunner shot me a glare, before taking off to the right.

I got up and walked in a circle in front of my cave for the last time in the next few moons. My mind flashed through different scenarios, including trying to hide from sight so I didn't need to leave this nest. However, that didn't last long.

Fanghorn gave his distinct, high-pitched roar – the signal for the nest to start the journey. Very reluctantly, I took off.

The entire island erupted with activity as Dragons emerged from every crack and cave in response to Fanghorn's roar. A humongous rectangle formed in the sky as each dragon took their place in the formation. I was at the very back.

I spent the journey watching the waves below, like I had for every year of the previous 8 years. Chatter was heard from all directions, dragons squabbling with each other and catching up with each other.

After five agonising hours of flight and listening to Spikedart-Throwers (Nadders) boast about how much fish they caught last week, the Land of the Horned Hairless Monkeys finally came into sight.

"There it is! Find a tree and rest your wings, find a stream to take a drink, but please, DO NOT approach the Human nest. We rest for two hours and carry on towards The Crescent." Fanghorn announced.

The flock gave chirps of acknowledgement, I gave a much more exhausted one.

It always surprises me that flying time crawls by, but resting time flies by.

Fanghorn gave his distinct high-pitched roar, and the entire forest sprung into life, dragons taking off from trees everywhere. I tried very hard to dodge several Humming-dragons. I took my position at the back of the flock, as I was not fully mature yet and according to the elders, because I didn't have much ability and might slow down the flock, causing disruption.

I like to put it as "Being unimportant and useless".

Fanghorn took his position at the front of the flock, and directed us towards The Crescent. The entire flock of colourful dragons simultaneously faced one direction, which impresses me every time.

We flew over a patch of grass, where a human with a weird machine-like thing stood. I'm guessing it is just a device to observe us? Humans made some very weird things.

I heard a distant bang, but didn't pay attention to it, and focused on keeping my spot in the flock.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a giant screen of square holes made by stitched branches flying, right at me.

I was a Coal Smotherer, damn it! We're known for our speed and manoeuvrability! I could easily have dodged it, but I was frozen.

And then it hit me.

The monstrosity wrapped around me. My tail slashed, but the branches slashed back harder. My wings were stuck in place, and my tailwings screamed from the pain the branches gave me. I tried to flap my wings, but they were almost stuck in place. I could barely stay airborne, but I still tried to catch up with my flock. They strayed further and further, not caring about my non-existence.

And then it hit me.

One of the stones tied to the corner of the square branch blanket spun around and hit my cheek with a crack, sending a sharp jolt of pain, which knocked me out. I regained consciousness a few seconds later, realizing that I was tumbling out of the sky.

And then the ground hit me.

With a loud THUD, I crashed into trees and rocks, slid over mud and pebbles over the length of 3 Skin-Firers. I stopped by hitting a thick tree with an audible crack, where I laid down and gasped for air.

The forest was so eerily quiet, without a single animal anywhere close, without a single sound around except my heavy breathing.

I tried and tried to thrash myself free from this monstrosity, never have I been entangled like this! I am a dragon! I am free, and fly wherever I want! Yet this stupid lump of branches has taken away all of that freedom! I continued to struggle, wiggling, trying to flap my wings, swinging my tail, but all that did was dig the branches deeper into my scales.

Eventually I tired myself out, panting for breath, gasping in pain.

I laid there for hours.

My eyes snapped open as I heard the rustlings of leaves. I could smell the thing making the noise: it smelt of sweat, hot air, as well as frustration and fear. Yes, we can smell emotions.

I heard it get closer and closer, until his head emerged from behind a stone. He gasped, and swiftly shrunk back. I could hear his heartbeat get faster, as well as his heavy breathing.

He emerged again slowly as he studied me carefully. I did the same. For he was so thin, like a walking fishbone. Green eyes and brown dots all over his face, with the signature horns on his head, fear written in his eyes. A Human!

I slightly scrunched up and growled when he held out a tiny thing, shiny, sharp and thin, which smelled of metal. Flashbacks of the elder's stories played in my mind at the gadget. He pointed it at me, to which I snarled at, and he reacted by drawing it back immediately.

He looked into my eyes. I looked into his green eyes.

He continued staring for a minute, but then suddenly jolted into motion, right towards my exposed stomach.

I shrieked in alarm – how did he know that that was the weakest point in a dragon? He took out his sharp shiny stick and stuck it next to my stomach. He grabbed a branch of the monstrosity that entangled me and began rubbing his sharp shiny stick on it.

Realizing that he was going to stab me, I immediately swung my tail around and hurriedly knocked him off his feet. He yelped and quickly started scrambling away. I didn't waste a second – using what remaining energy I had, I charged up a fireball in my mouth and fired it at him.

He screamed.

His scream was so loud it might as well have been a weapon. I immediately started feeling lightheaded, started to hear a continuous high-pitched shriek in my ears, and started seeing colours I have never seen before. I struggled to keep conscious as my mind is bombarded with senses.

Out of the corner of my eye, where there was still a little bit of vision left, I saw that he was laid down on his side, clenching his upper leg, tears flowing out of his eyes – his lower leg a Humming-dragons' length away from him, smoking and smelling of roasted meat-

I fell into unconsciousness.

As I slowly came to, I could feel my head thumping. I groaned at the faint but existent pain, I felt and heard a fire crackling, smelled fish somewhere, and smelled roasting meat over the fire too. Wait, that can't be the Human's leg, right?

OH RIGHT! The memory of the scene washed over my mind, and I snapped my eyes open. Everywhere I looked, it was wood, wood and wood. The room was dark and gloomy, like a cave, with weird things scattered everywhere, But in the middle, a tree slab with four legs (table) and four smaller tree slabs with four small legs each (chairs) around the big tree slab. It had fish on it, in a half circle of wood (bowl). I tried to reach out to it as my stomach grumbled, but a sudden wave of pain forced me back on the floor.

I grunted. Everything felt sore, and I could smell wounds all over me.

And then it hit me.

I was inside a Human's nest!

I immediately shrieked, making everything in the room shake. I heard a scream which was not mine. The same scream I heard right before I fell unconscious, but much farther away and much lower in intensity. I felt a little dizzy, but soon recovered after that. I heard footsteps close in.

The Human that I last saw came down a wooden slope with corners. He glanced at me, and let out a relieved sigh. He quickly jogged to where I was, but I let out a hiss, because he was going to stab me. He immediately backed away, and quickly pulled back his peelable fur, revealing that he had nothing in his pockets. I cocked my head in confusion.

I stared at him. Studied him like the first fish I received from my parents. Green eyes, brown dots all over his cheeks, brown head fur, green primary fur, brown hairy secondary fur, black leg fur, light brown feet fur - his left leg is now replaced with a wood mixed with metal stick. Wow, Humans can grow back legs, which look weird I admit.

He must have smelled that I was confused, because he suddenly started speaking: "Hey Bud. Finally awake after 2 days huh? I'm sorry I shot you down."

HE SHOT ME DOWN? ON PURPOSE?

"I was testing my new Net launcher design, but Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third had to screw something up like always and forgot to aim at nothing, and proceeded to shoot down a Night Fury."

I had to hold back a laugh – not only might he mistake it for a roar, but also to not cut him off. Who gives themselves such a stupid name? And it seems like he shot me down by accident, and it seems like the Humans call us Coal Smotherers "Night Fury". Now THAT'S a much cooler name.

"Well uh, you apparently got really angry when I tried to cut you free, so angry that you very kindly blasted off my entire leg."

So THAT's what he was doing. Sorry Human. But the sarcasm really hit me hard.

"but I guess that's payback for me. You just had to get back at me, didn't you bud? After you lost your tailfin."

…

WHAT?

I immediately swung my head and tail around, despite my body's painful protests, and my eyes widened in terror. It was gone. My left tailfin, completely gone, and with it, my ability to fly. I froze in place as I processed the fact that part of my body was just ripped off.

"Woah! Did you just react to my words? Wow, I never thought that a dragon would actually understand my words." He waved his hands around. "Out of all the people in this town."

His sentence gave me enough time to sort out my thoughts. I felt like I was going to burn the place down into ashes purely with my thoughts. This Human, this… monster, shot me down, ripped off my tailfin in the process, and still has the audacity to speak to me?

Finally detaching from staring at my lost tailfin, I stared down at the Human, whose name is Hiccup may I add, and watched him take a step back as his eyes widened.

I clenched my throat muscles, took a huge breath, and charged up the largest fireball I am ever going to make. This time, I wasn't going to just take his leg.

I'm going to take his soul.

Hiccup gasped, and ran. He ran and ran and ran, his legs taking him so fast that his body is a blur.

But then he realized he was just running around and around the 4 legged wooden slab.

Inside his tight nest, I could easily blast him dead on. Mumbling "I'm sorry, Dad.", he got on his knees, submitting.

Finalizing my blast, I aimed at his drooping body, with his knees on the ground.

But instead of feeling the shockwave of the blast, I felt my throat crack. It was like a desert, harsh, rough, and dry. My throat was just unable to slide the projectile out.

My fireball quickly deflated and smoke bellowed out my nostrils. My chin landed on the ground with a hard thump. I started coughing, trying to push up mucus from my lungs to lubricate my throat, but there was no mucus to push out, and soon my coughs turned to wheezes.

I needed water. And fast.

I was limp on the ground and breathing heavily. Hiccup approached me with caution, smelling of not fear or hostility, but of concern and confusion. He looked at my lips, and asked: "do you need water?", to which I vigorously nodded.

He walked up the cornered slope, stumbling on his own left leg, and soon returned with a big semicircle of wood filled with water. I chirped at the sight.

Plonking down the container in front of me and splashing some water onto my face, I slurped up all the water in 3 seconds. I nudged the container towards him, demanding more. Hiccup looked at me with an amazed face.

"Wow, you sure do need a lot of water, give me a second, I'll be right back." He exclaimed, and walked towards an empty wall. He was going to just walk into a wall?

But then he grabbed a wooden thing sticking out the wall, twisted it, and pulled. A giant slab of wood dislocated itself from the wall, twice as tall as Hiccup, revealing a dark dimension, like a portal to the skies of the Dead. I gasped.

Hiccup noticed, and let out a small chuckle. "It's a door, bud. I guess you don't see many of these things on your island."

He walked out into the darkness, and soon returned with a giant circular block of wood with black rings around it. Grunting, he slammed it in front of me, and went towards a corner of his nest, grabbing a sharp, shiny, pointy stick with teeth. I growled at the weapon.

He immediately took a step back, and quickly explained, "I'm not going to hurt you with this, okay? This is a saw, Inside that barrel is water. I'm going to cut the barrel open. You want water, right?"

I chirped in agreement.

He cautiously took a step towards me, while keeping the "saw" close to his own chest. When I showed no response, he took more cautious steps and approached the barrel.

"Open wide!" He exclaimed like he was trying to feed me. I didn't – he can easily hurt me with my mouth open.

He raised an eyebrow, and said, "alright then. You're gonna want to very soon anyway."

Stabbing the barrel and rubbing his saw against it, the wood made a harsh noise that I have never heard before. A few seconds later, water gushed out of the hole he cut open like a waterfall, and my eyes widened in excitement, my ears perking up. I positioned my open mouth under the waterfall, letting the water fall into my mouth. It was like a never-ending streak, water flowing out of seemingly nothing.

Hiccup chuckled, and said: "well you're probably hungry too. There's fish on the table, if you want to eat."

He took a fish out of the semicircle wood, and held it up to me. Licking my lips, I pulled my mouth away from the waterfall, and stared at the fish in his hand. With an uneasy smile, Hiccup held the fish closer to me.

Not wasting a second, I opened my mouth, ready to swallow the food.

"Toothless? I can swear you had-"

SHING!

I slid my teeth out, and quickly gulped down the entire fish.

"-teeth."

He watched in amazement as I swallowed my food. I stared at the remaining fish on the table, and Hiccup quickly reacted by bringing the entire thing to me. I stared at the food in front of me and cocked my head in confusion.

"Why are you treating me with such kindness even after I tried to kill you, twice?" I asked.

"If you're thanking me, you're welcome. I know I am a very lovable person." Hiccup replied.

I rolled my eyes at his sentence, and began gulping down the fish he gave me. He sat down next to me on the floor, and began to talk to the ceiling with a relieved tone.

"2 days ago I made a net launcher and went to test it. I thought that would finally impress my dad, but he only wants me to become a warrior."

Sigh.

"Holding a sword, going to war on the high seas, that's not what I want. I like to design things, build things, invent things. Not smear blood all over my face. But he's Chief Stoick the Vast, famed to be the greatest warrior, I just had the horrible fate of being his son. But I'm such a mess up, he doesn't even allow me to live with him, after I burnt down his house, thrice. But I guess this is better for me, I can work on my designs with very little disturbance, being this far away from town."

I paused my meal, and glanced at him. Tears started forming in his eyes.

"After I found you, and you blasted off my leg, I had to crawl back to my house. Luckily it wasn't far away, and your fireball burnt my wounds closed. 2 hours and I was back. Nobody would care enough to visit me or help me, so I built myself my own prosthetic. 1 day and I'm done, I'm quite proud of myself too." Hiccup chuckled to himself.

"I'm still not used to walking with this, but I came back for you. You were unconscious, so my other leg isn't in any immediate danger. I knew you must be tired, hungry, alone, scared, your flock seems to have abandoned you, so I decided to bring you back to my house with that sled. I know I'm weak, but don't underestimate a determined Viking." He pointed to a strange slab with two very flat legs.

I sighed in relief, now I know how I got here.

"My net launcher was found by Snotlout. He knew I made it, but he just assumed it was abandoned. So he brought it to town and showed it to everyone. Everyone gave him all the credit, despite him knowing nothing about how the thing works. The creation that I worked on for weeks, stolen by him, just like that."

This Snotlout guy doesn't sound like a good guy.

"I just want my Dad's approval, him to be happy to see me, for once in my life, Is that too much to ask for?" He sniffed his nose, Tears running down his cheeks like a river. "He doesn't want me as his son. I'm not the son he wants. I'm not his son."

Hiccup buried his head into his knees. He was broken, and constantly sniffing, smelling like salt. Now I trusted him completely – he literally opened up in front of me. He glanced at me.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I'm such an idiot, crying like a baby in front of a dragon." He said to himself.

I approached him, and sat next to him, giving him a friendly nuzzle. He was shocked at the sudden act, but I softened my eyes and made eye contact.

"thank you dragon, for listening to me. You're the only thing that ever cared about me."

He dug his head into my side, and cried. I felt the tears from his eyes run down my scales.

I stayed like that for the entire night.

I slowly came back to reality, letting sleep drip away from me slowly. I slightly jolted in shock, since I expected to be in a small cave, babies running everywhere, dragons flying about, not a Human nest with a burnt-out fire. I ran my paw along my side, but upon feeling nothing other than my own scales, I started looking around, searching for Hiccup.

Said Hiccup jogged down the cornered slopes. His face lit up when he saw me awake.

"Hey bud! Finally awake huh? Look, I am very very sorry for destroying your tail, maybe destroying your life too, but look, I'm making you a new tail! Had me up all night designing it, but I've got a design. Look!" Hiccup shoved a big, flat, yellowish blanket that smelled like wood in front of me.

I widened my eyes in amazement – It's outlines looked exactly like my own tailfins! At the bottom corner was a bunch of complicated looking circles with teeth crowded together (gears), and a big stick attached to it. I can't ask for more – This human, despite me trying to kill him twice, blasting away his leg in the process, still treated me with kindness and respect, and went the extra mile to make me a new tailfin. I had to give something back to him!

Going to the door, I grabbed the wooden bump on the door, and twisted it just like Hiccup did. The door magically opened, revealing a blinding white light. As my eyes quickly adapted, I realized I was on the gravel shore of a huge lake, with a small overhang blanketed in rich grass, a waterfall gushing out of cracks in the rockface, and the forest behind us.

I snapped out of admiring the view, and quickly jumped onto the gravel shore, diving into the lake.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Hiccup exclaimed.

I emerged from the lake with a fat cod in my mouth, ten more in my stomach, jumped onto the shore, and walked back into the Human nest. Fishing was a bit harder than I expected without my tailfin, but I still managed. I plonked it down in front of him, and nudged it to him with my paw.

Hiccup gave me a surprised expression. "This is for me?" He asked.

I nodded. Hiccup's eyes immediately started forming tears again.

"This is the first time I received any gift, let alone from a dragon…"

I picked up the fish with my paw, and shoved it into his mouth.

"Ahh! Okay okay, I'll eat this! But I need to cook it first!"

I tilted my head in confusion as I watched him spit out fish slime. What's "cook"?

Hiccup grabbed the fish, and headed to the burnt-out fire. He dropped the fish on the side, picked up a stick, and started spinning it on the unlighted charcoal. What is he doing?

As a small scent of smoke came from the fire pit, I realized he was trying to make a fire. How is spinning a stick supposed to light a fire? Simply shooting a small fireball into the fire pit, it exploded into a small fire, sending Hiccup tumbling onto his back.

"Right, I forgot you guys could breathe fire." He said rather embarrassingly.

He picked up the fish, stabbed a stick through the fish, and placed the fish on top of the fire.

I watched the fish carefully, expecting it to explode, Until I smelled a delicious scent of roast coming from the fish. Luckily for Hiccup, I ate already, or else his fish would be in my stomach.

As the fish started to sizzle, Hiccup turned to me, and said rather reluctantly: "Can I call you Toothless? Since you got retractable teeth and such..." He anxiously rubbed the back of his neck.

Although it wasn't the best name, I think it's fine, and besides, it's better than him calling me 'dragon' or 'night fury' or whatever the heck 'bud' is. So I replied by grumbling, and proceeded to rest my chin on my paw.

"I'll take that as a yes!" he happily announced.

A minute later, he took a round container from above the fire, and shook its contents out from a few small holes onto the fish. The powdered white substance that came out of the container smelled… exotic.

It smelled spicy, hot, and a bit pungent, stinky even, just like my fireballs but without the stinky part. I got closer to the fish and furiously sniffed at it, trying to figure out what the exotic substance was.

"it's garlic, powdered garlic." Hiccup explained. "I like to spice up my food with it. But it's quite expensive, us being this far north, so I don't use much. Wanna taste it?"

I vigorously nodded.

He sprinkled some garlic on the floor in front of me, and I proceeded to lick the spot greedily.

It was an explosion of flavour in my mouth.

Its flavour was pungent and strong. Spicy and hot. Sticky, almost wet texture, bitter yet sweet, stinky yet delicious. It was like the world opened a giant door for me, giving me access to an entirely new dimension.

I must have looked like a mess, since Hiccup stared at me in amusement. Slurping my tongue back into my mouth, I immediately clambered all over Hiccup.

"Woah woah woah hold on there Toothless this garlic is expensive and I can't have you eating all of it because I need it for my food or else I can't eat my bland food ah-hahahahaha that tickles stop stop AHHHH!-"

After he finished eating the fish, I went back outside to the lake, because one fish is not enough to clear my debts with him. I swallowed a big portion of a school of salmon, went back into the nest, and spat it all back out in front of Hiccup.

"Woah! I can't eat all this fish! Why are you giving me so much fish anyway?"

I just cleaned myself with my paw, ignoring his disgusted face.

Hiccup stood with his hand held to his chin.

"Hmm, Wait a minute, if you like fishing so much, why don't you keep doing that, and I can sell it in town, and then I will be able to buy us more garlic!"

I didn't care what 'sell' is, but if I can exchange all this fish for that delicacy? Do you need to ask?

I started jumping around Hiccup in circles with my tongue hanging out, excited at the thought.

"I'll take that as a yes! But please Toothless, don't swallow and regurgitate the fish, like you did over there. Nobody would buy dragon-stomach-acid-covered fish." He pointed to the pile of fish that seagulls are already stealing from.

Easy enough!

Hiccup now had two jobs: to sell fish in town, and to build my tailfin. Every early morning before the sun came up, we would wake up. I would go and catch fish in the lake and dump them on a 'wheelbarrow', he would work on my tailfin.

As soon as the skies started turning dark red, Hiccup would take all the fish I proudly caught and take them down a path, towards town. He never allowed me to follow him though – he insisted that I would scare people and cause havoc. So every morning, once he was out of my sight, I would fly above him and stalk him in the sky…

or I wish I could. My tail would flutter out of control every time I tried. So I ran into the forest beside the trail, and followed him there, hiding in the shadows, thankful for my black scales. Through the cracks in between two human nests, where I can get a good view of Hiccup, I saw it.

'Town' was a huge place – a giant stone, shaped like a Human, stands proud in the centre. There were humans going everywhere, every time. Chatter fills the air. People carrying fruit, meat, metal, wood, and occasionally something that looked like wood, but lighter in colour and with a lot of holes, and smells like fire, with a smell that I have never smelled before. (bread!) I would like to try to eat one of those.

For the first few days, Hiccup would try to talk to people that passed by. They would just ignore him.

Occasionally, a group of young Humans around the age of Hiccup would approach him. They would tease him, punch him, make fun of him. It took everything I could to stop myself from rushing out and biting their necks off.

For the first few days, he was not able to sell a single fish. I would rush back to his nest before he did, and I would watch him come back home with the entire wheelbarrow full, and would let me eat the entire thing. His shoulders would be drooped low, and would sadly go to work on my tailfin.

I would try to comfort him and give him friendly licks, but he would softly push me away.

But Hiccup persisted. Each morning he told me to go catch more fish from the lake, and each morning he would take a wheelbarrow full of fish to Town.

Each day people ignored him when he spoke up to them.

Each day the group of teenagers would come and tease him.

Each day he would come back reeking of disappointment.

For a week, this loop continued.

Until it didn't.

One fateful day, I saw that a Human stopped to talk to him when Hiccup spoke up. They talked for a while, but I could not hear what due to the surrounding chatter. Eventually, the Human gave Hiccup a few metal disks, and Hiccup gave him a fish. Did he just sell his first fish?

When the skies started to tint orange, I saw a total of nine people talk to Hiccup. Five gave him metal disks, and he gave them each a fish or two back. Instead of his usual disappointed face, his face held a small smile, as he stared at the pile of metal disks in his palm.

That evening, he came back, smiling at last. Running towards me with a wheelbarrow not quite as full, and he approached me, panting for breath.

"Hugh- Ah- Hugh- Ah- guess what, Hugh- Toothless, Ah- I sold eight fish today! The others saw how big and fresh and cheap my fish were, and decided to buy some!" he announced.

I chirped in excitement. Finally, a step closer to my beloved garlic!

This time, he walked back in the house not reeking of disappointment with shoulders drooped low, but had a joyful scent with his head held high, going to work on my tailfin, again.

I couldn't help but miss the feeling of wind rushing past my face in flight.