"Toothless" looked over at me and perked up, obviously excited to meet someone new. He started wiggling in place, wanting to pounce on me and greet me in the only way he knew how. Luckily, Hiccup stopped him.
"Hold on bud, he's obviously never seen a dragon this close up before. Give him time." The dragon deflated at having to wait. But, getting impatient, he sank to the ground and started slowly crawling towards me.
I was staring down a literal dragon. Something that shouldn't, couldn't, exist. My sword was in my hands before anyone could react. Toothless pulled back in shock. This random human had the audacity to pull a weapon on him and his human! His ear flaps went back, and his teeth came out. (The irony, I think my heart just stopped!) I backed myself against the wall. Hiccup moved between us and pushed his head back.
"Whoa bud, don't! He's just scared!" Hiccup turned towards me and raised his hands to show no intention of harm. He stepped to my left, showing Toothless in his full dragon-y glory. "Hey hey, it's okay. Toothless won't hurt you, he's a nice dragon, see? If you put away the sword, he'll put away the teeth, how about that, huh?" Slowly, the adrenaline and fear stopped clouding my judgement, giving me control again. I looked over, seeing Hiccup holding up his hands in a calming gesture, and Astrid and Fishlegs watching from the door. I saw Toothless had relaxed a bit, but he was still wary. I slowly lowered my sword, the blade tip touching the wood floor.
As soon as I did, Toothless perked up, his pupils widening in curiosity. My eyes slid over to Hiccup once more as he slowly stepped over to me. I reached up and put the sword back in its sheath.
And then proceeded to collapse against the wall and sink to the floor in a heap. Hiccup stood there and waited till I looked up at him.
"How is this possible? It's a, dragon." Hiccup smirked, putting his hand out.
"Let's try this again, shall we?" I slowly nodded and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up, and I looked in between him and the dragon. Hiccup nodded and walked over, gently pulling me along with him. Toothless stood stock still as he watched me, only his eyes and ear flaps moving. Hiccup stopped me about three feet away from Toothless, and he held up his hand so the palm was facing outward.
"Just hold out your hand like this. If you want, you can look away. This is how you gain the trust of a dragon. You're showing them that you trust them completely. This is how I first came in contact with Toothless." Toothless chuffed at him. "Okay, second time." I gave him a weird look. "I'll explain later. Go on." I slowly drew in a breath and let it out. I closed my eyes and slowly brought up my hand. I was visibly shaking. Hiccup's breathing was completely calm, as was the dragon's. Then again, I hadn't met one before, so I didn't know what was norm-!
Something rough and warm came into contact with my hand. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Toothless pressing his head into my hand, his own eyes closed. I slowly brought my hand back after a moment, and looked at it.
"I just touched a dragon. A real, dragon.
"Yes, yes you did." I slowly walked over to the bed and sat down, still looking at my hand. Toothless crawled over, still wary of my weapon, but less so now that that experience was out of the way.
As he cuddled up to my leg, I instinctively reached down to scratch his ears, when I remembered this wasn't a dog, nor was it any animal I'd ever seen before. I looked into Toothless' eyes, and he started purring. I smirked slightly.
"Of all the sounds a dragon could make…and you choose to purr…" Toothless looked up at me with big innocent eyes, pupils dilated. Next thing I knew, he was on his back, pleading with me with said eyes. I smiled and hesitantly got on my knees, I reached behind his left shoulder and started scratching. He squealed(of sorts) and collapsed. I looked at him in shock.
"Didn't think that'd work on a dragon…" Hiccup walked over and poked Toothless in the nose with his real foot. Toothless snorted, then sneezed, coming out of his "petting coma".
"GAH! Come on Toothless! Now I have to clean that off!" I actually laughed. When Hiccup looked at me in surprise, I just smirked at him and scratched Toothless in the same spot. He squealed again and collapsed.
"Really?" Hiccup just shook his head and bent down to poke Toothless in the chin. He sighed after getting no response other than his tail twitching. That's when I noticed a fake tail fin strapped to it. "Well…now that you've knocked out my dragon, how about we show you around? Oh, I almost forgot. What's your name? I've told you mine and Toothless', so it's only fair." I stood up, holding out my hand for him to shake.
"Call me Rai, Rai Taiki."
"Alright, now that that's settled, let me introduce you to my friends." We walked over to the door way of the house and held out his hand in a pointing gesture towards the girl, who apparently doesn't like being patient. "As I'm sure you heard, she is Astrid," He dropped his voice to a whisper, "don't make her mad, no matter what." I gave him an understanding look, before he suddenly hit the deck. I barely moved aside in time to avoid a double bladed axe, which burrowed itself in the wall of the house. "ASTRID! What was that for?!" Hiccup yelled as he stood back up.
"Don't think I couldn't hear you, Hiccup." She folded her arms and smirked at us.
"And that's why I warned you about her." *shing* "I'm kidding!" The second axe was planted firmly into the wood floor near her feet. Apparently, the first axe woke up Toothless, because he poked his head around the corner. I of course noticed a black form moving off to my left, and snapped my head around in time to see Toothless coming over in literal leaps and bounds.
"Um, Hiccup…" I started to warn him.
'Screw it!' I rolled sideways as Toothless plowed right into Hiccup, missing his intended target, me, and they both rolled right off the edge. I gasped and ran forward, but as soon as I looked down, they went shooting up into the sky. I almost fell backwards as my head tilted back to keep up with them.
Hiccup gave a shout as they did a quick barrel roll, and then came in for a landing. Everyone moved to give them space, and they were both slightly panting from the quick adrenaline rush. Hiccup tried to dismount, but in his haste, he stumbled and fell on his butt, making Toothless throw his head back and a sound that could only be laughter. I helped Hiccup stand up and he gestured towards a set of stairs.
"Shall we?" Hiccup and the others gave me a tour, pointing out different areas. Once I thought about it, there were places for dragons to land or nest all over the Edge. We eventually covered the entire area, and walked back to the house we were first at.
"And that over there is the hall. Meetings, meals, and just a place to hang out. I'm mostly at the forge, there, my house, or out flying with Toothless."
"Man…How long did this take you to build?" Astrid interjected, exasperation obvious in her voice.
"Too long. With Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut not working as hard as the rest of us. They pretty much goofed off once they had their own places built, not wanting to work at all." She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Don't worry, I know a few guys like that too, just give them the more menial tasks, keep them busy." I said as we all relaxed in Hiccup's house. Turns out, they moved Hiccup's bed to the lower level while I was using it, just in case I woke up in the middle of the night, not wanting me to fall off the top level. Which I appreciated. "You still didn't have to give up your bed for me Hiccup."
"It's fine, Toothless actually makes a really good pillow."
*Wack*
"OW! What was that for Toothless?!" The dragon just gave him a look and chuffed at him. "I am not calling you fat! You're just really warm at night when it get col-!" He ducked under another tail swipe. "Would you cut it out?!" The rest of us just laughed at his expense. My current situation resurfaced as I was laughing, and my mood plummeted.
'Always when I'm in a good mood…' I stood up and walked out to look at the setting sun. It probably had about ten minutes left before it was gone. I looked out over the ocean, looking at the surrounding islands that were in view.
After a few minutes I heard uneven footsteps come up behind me. I looked over my right shoulder as Hiccup placed his hand on it.
"What's wrong? You left without saying anything." I sighed and looked out towards the sea, the fading light of the sun reflecting off the gently moving ocean.
"Just the fact that I have no idea how I got here, or how I'm going to get back." I looked out at the setting sun, when he turned me to look at him in the eyes, probably wanting to get his point across.
"I know you're worried about where, and/or when, you are. But we're going to figure this out. You've got us, not to mention our dragons, and you don't need to worry about anything except what's for dinner." A fire blast suddenly shot up into the air, exploding like a firework over the hall. My first instinct was to reach for my sword. Hiccup's hand stopped mine though. "That was the dinner alarm, no one's attacking the Edge. I forgot to tell you about it earlier." I started to drop my hand, only to gently clap him up the backside of the head. "Ow! Hey! What's that for?!"
"You should've told me." I gave him a sideways smirk as I walked over to the dinner hall, remembering the path we took earlier. He caught up and tried to come up with an excuse for himself, only for us to reach the hall before he could finish. Everyone looked up, and Astrid and Fishlegs waved at me. Waving back, I went and sat across from them. Then a voice spoke up.
"So, I heard you're afraid of dragons, that's gotta suck. Did you hide whenever there was a raid? Bet your parents are real proud of you! HAH!" The young man(-child) started laughing, the twins joining in. Hiccup looked up in shock and appall.
"Snotlout! That was uncalled for! Up until today, he didn't even think dragons existed!" I waved Hiccup off. I would deal with this. I turned to look at Snotlout, who was sitting on my left. I made sure the light of the fire glinted off my sword's pommel, right in his face. He blinked harshly, trying to get the light out of his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't get to introduce myself after you stormed out earlier. My name is Rai." I held out my hand, seemingly ignoring the direct insult. He took it as a silent challenge, and shook my hand, trying to crush it with his own. I quickly pinched a nerve in his hand, and his fingers failed to move. I turned and looked at the others, but Snotlout didn't appreciate his hand being debilitated and made it clear.
"What did you do?! Why isn't my hand working?!" I turn back to him and pinched the same spot, and it started working again.
"I'm sorry, but I need this hand, and I'd rather someone I just met not try to crush it."
"I was just testing your strength!"
"I've got strength, don't worry about that, but it's brains and how you go about things is what really makes a man." Astrid and Hiccup gave Snotlout a couple of looks, and he went back to eating after shooting them both a scowl. I looked at the bowl of stew Fishlegs pushed in front of me.
"Here, try this. It's a Cod and Salmon mix, it's really good!" I didn't eat a huge variety of fish, but I tried it anyway, not wanting to be rude. I was surprised at the taste.
"Okay, who's the local Chef around here? I need to thank them." Fishlegs flushed in embarrassment and raised his hand. I jokingly waved my spoon at him. "You, my good viking, are an amazing cook." He blushed even harder.
'I really just said "my good viking". Wonder when I accepted that…?'
"W-well, heheh, I-I don't know about amazing but, I guess I know my way around the kitchen…?"
'Needs a self-esteem boost huh? I'll have to work on that…'
"Are you kidding? I don't eat a lot of fish, definitely never liked salmon, and here I am eating it. You, my good sir, need to stop doubting your self." Fishlegs just looked at his bowl, red from the attention. I eventually finished my bowl and sat back. I looked over to Hiccup and Astrid, noticing their heads tilted towards each other in private conversation. The twins and Snotlout were laughing at a joke, and Fishlegs was reading a book, obviously about dragons.
'As much as I don't want to accept it, I could get used to this…if I had to.'
««{{¤}}»»
After dinner Fishlegs gave me the book he had been reading, and I had curled up in the makeshift bed they'd made for me on Hiccup's first floor. The book was an encyclopedia of dragons. It had their exact measurements, such as wing span and claw length. It even included statistics, such as how many times they could use their abilities like fire blasts. Also some interesting facts about each dragon.
For example, Toothless, or rather the Night Fury as a whole, was known as the manifestation of Lightning and Death itself. Apparently next to nothing could keep up with them in terms of speed, and no other dragon had the deadly aim that they did. Another thing the book noted, Toothless was the only Night Fury that they'd ever seen, and they're always keeping a look out in hopes of finding more.
'Huh…Toothless and I are in the same position in a way. He's the only Night Fury that they know of…and I'm the only one…from the future…' I got up and leaned against the doorway of the house. The ocean itself was bluer than back at the coast at home, and the sand was brighter and softer. 'I wonder how this even happened…GAH!' I glared out at the horizon in frustration. 'Why can't I remember anything?! All I remember was hearing a sound…and when I turned-…' I walked over to my bed and sat down, crossing my legs and furrowing my brow in concentration. Once I steadied my breathing and heart rate, I sorted through my memories of the night of the tournament.
««{{Flashback}}»»
I had just accepted the third place medal, bowing so one of the judges could place it around my neck, and shaking the judges' hands. Turning to the first and second place contestants, I shook their hands, congratulating them and excepting their congratulations as well. In my mind's eye, I looked closer at their faces, trying to pinpoint any emotions that might betray how they really felt. There was nothing. We were all ecstatic about our placements, and I saw the first place person take a calming breath. Obviously they were both in the same boat I was, not expecting to place, or at least, not that high.
I "fast forwarded" to as I was walking home. Passing alley after alley, house after house. There was nothing other than me. No footsteps, no dogs barking, not even anyone on the streets walking by. It's like this is all my imagination, pretending that I'm in this weird viking past instead of being at hom-.
'Wait!' I cycled back through my memory again, stopping as my past self looked to the left at a sound. I stopped playing through the memory, and I looked to the right. I had been passing an alley at that moment, and when I looked closer, there was a person dressed in all black, crouched and ready to strike with a metal bat. There appeared to be a black and purple swirl sitting floating just above the ground behind them.
The weird swirl felt off, almost like it held power even when in my own mind. Then I felt like any happiness in my life was being sucked out of me. I started to panic as a sense of dread filled my mind and lost control, snapping out of my trance. I sat on the bed panting. I wiped my brow, finding that I had started to sweat.
'So, this isn't a dream…I was attacked. I was sent back here, to the past.' I looked up as I heard feet thumping on wood. Hiccup and Toothless ran into the house. Toothless sat next to me, gently rubbing me with his head, while Hiccup looked at me with concern.
"Are you okay? You yelled suddenly, and you're sweating…?" I looked up and made eye contact with the first person I'd met in this time.
"Hiccup…I…I was attacked."