IT'S BEEN A YEAR. I KNOW.
Quite a crazy year, actually. I had had a lot of things going through my head that just didn't let me write or do anything I wanted to. Add college to that but I'm not stressing you out with my life. And I'm also not going to apologize bc I've been doing important stuff that kept me for writing this and I regret nothing BUT I do want to THANK all of you for the follows and favorites! Those and the reviews have really help me go through the year! So, thank you SO MUCH to both old and new readers, I love all of you!
Anyways, I finally managed to get this chapter out, it's a bit sloppy bc I've been writing it through the year and I mixed two chapters I think (if not three, this is by far the longest chapter I have ever writen) into this so I could keep the story going and reach the plot points that are the interesting stuff. I just let my favorites parts and the ones that would have a significant role on the futures chapters.
I do have a few things I want to say about this fanfic (I'm not quitting, don't worry) but I'm saying them at the end of the chapter, right now let's get ON WITH THE STORY!
Chapter fourteen: The Book of Dragons
Toothless was more than determinate to fly again.
He left the camp in the middle of the night to find a village and woke me up early to go and repair his saddle.
Unfortunately, there was only one blacksmith who was drowning in work and the mechanism wouldn't be ready until a few days.
So we were grounded.
I walked into the forest after thanking the blacksmith and called for Toothless once I knew no one would hear me. Oddly, the dragon didn't show.
"Toothless?" I repeated, now concerned. I felt someone staring at me and my concern disappeared. "Oh, no," I said feebly and began to run.
The black Night Fury landed behind me and followed. "I don't want to play!" I shouted but, according to the dragon, running meant play. I gave a tight turn, almost tripping with my own foot. It worked for a second, but only because I took him unprepared.
Toothless quickly turned and pounced on me. I tried to run faster but he tackled me from behind, taking me down with a loud "Ouch!" His paws pinned my arms to the ground and he snarled victoriously.
"It doesn't count, I wasn't playing," I groaned as he sat on my back.
"Of course, it counts," He purred happily, "you ran."
"If I didn't, you would have pounced on me anyway and said it counted because I wasn't 'paying attention to possible threats.'" I didn't even try to shake him off. I already knew he wouldn't move and I couldn't lift with him on my back.
"If you knew I would do that you shouldhaveattacked me. Then this is all for nothing!"
"This is all for nothing," I mumbled but - of course - the dragon heard. He finally stood up and frowned at me. "I'm not fighting. I don't like to. Playing with you is fun but…" I didn't finish; I just stood up and walked away, shaking off some of the mud and dirt.
Toothless growled lowly, but seeing I didn't answer, he asked, "But what?"
"I don't even see myself as a warrior. And I rather not fight. I don't want to fight dragons… and I know I can't fight Vikings."
"You can,"Toothless insisted.
"No, you don't understand…" I turned to him almost yelling. I returned my voice to its normal volume. "I don't want to. It… hurts," I hugged myself. "I was accused of treason on Berk, and if I fight them -to save dragons- I'll just keep betraying my kind." Toothless cooed and made himself a place under my arm; I petted his head. "I won't let any dragon get hurt if I can, and I'll fight if I need to, but I'd rather not."
"I'll fight for you," Toothless purred, "You don't have to if it hurts."
I hugged his head. After a short moment, he added: "We still get to play, right?"
I chuckled. "Yeah, we still can play,"
"Good, because I'm winning," He said, bouncing away and taking a playful position in front of me. "And when are we flying again?"
"Yeah," I said carrying the word and clapping my hands awkwardly. "The new saddle will be ready in a few days." Toothless' expression fell. "It will be just a few days," I quickly said.
"I- It's okay," he said, looking away, his tail swinging softly around him. "What do we do until then?" He asked, facing me again.
"Well, now thanks to you, I'm gonna take a bath," I said as I looked down to my clothes.
"Bath?"Toothless asked, tilting his head.
"Yes, you know… to get dirt and bad odors off your body."
The black dragon grimaced. "We don't take baths," he said, slightly disgusted.
"Well, we –humans- do," I said slowly. "Now, let's go find a river or a pond before I break Gobber's record." I gestured to Toothless to begin walking but the dragon began to sniff me. "What are you doing?"
"You don't smell bad," the dragon frowned, "why take a bath?" I raised my arm and smelled my own armpit.
"I do smell bad! And I haven't taken a bath in… I don't even know how long it's been!"
"You don't smell bad; you always smell like that!"
"I- I don't- I don't smell like this always!" I said, disgusted. Did I really smell like this?
"Yes, you do. It's your natural scent, but now it's stronger."
"Well, I don't want it to be stronger," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"I like how it smells," the dragon said calmly, "it smellslikeyou."
Though the comment –kind of- made me feel better, I scratched my skin. "I don't like how it feels. I'm all sweaty and I have dirt and ashes everywhere," I looked at my nails, now with dirt and sweat under them; I grimaced and hid my hand from myself.
Toothless rolled his eyes and finally began to walk. "I'll never understand you, humans," he muttered and I pretended I didn't hear.
…
This was, by far, the strangest bath I've ever taken.
I don't usually take baths outside. It had always frightened me that someone could watch me. I'd rather take baths in the comfort of the washing room –that was both for washing ourselves and the clothes.
But the weird part wasn't that. First of all, Toothless wouldn't take his eyes off me when I began to take my clothes off. It gave me an unsettling feeling. I had taken off my clothes in front of him before, all of the many times we fell into the freezing pond. Of course, I had never taken them all off and he had never stared at me.
"You mind?" I asked more bitter that I meant to. Toothless made a confused growl. "Can you stop staring?" I asked more kindly, "It's making me incrediblyuncomfortable."
Toothless frowned, confused, and looked away rolling his eyes. "Humans," he sighed. I half-finished getting my clothes off when I caught Toothless spying.
"What's with you and staring?"
He looked away again. "It's just that you have lots of spotsall overyour body.I've never noticed before."
Spots? Frowning confused, I looked down at myself, at my freckled body, and understood. "Oh! they are freckles, buddy," I chuckled.
He looked at me again, walking closer and tilting his head. "What are they for?"
I shrugged, "Nothing, I guess."
"They are just for decoration?"
"Yeah, and by the way, you have spots too." Toothless frowned and inspected his body. His eyes lit up, noticing the gray spots on his scaly skin. The dragon began to jump excitedly around me at the new discovery.
I giggled and scratched his head when he stopped. "And... it's okay to see. It's just that I don't really like when people stare at me," I told him with a smile.
I was about to unknot my breast bindings when my own words reminded me to look around first. "Is someone else close?" I asked Toothless, my eyes searching for anyone hid behind a tree or bush.
Toothless raised his ears for a moment and looked around too, then shook his head. I could finally enter the water. The river was deep but I stayed close to the edge and sat on some low rocks - the water covered most part of my body.
On our way here, I had picked up some plants and made a soap. It wasn't the best one I've made but will do its job. Since I had no brush, I had to scratch the itchy sensation off my skin with my own nails; that let horrible red lines on all my body. Then, the second weird thing happened:
We heard a screech, not far from us and coming from above. Seconds later, the younger Nightmares landed by the river.
"What are you doing here?" I asked confused, half laughing; in response, the dragons jumped to the water, splashing Toothless and me all over and taking almost all the soap off me.
Toothless hissed and shook the water off before walking away. I laughed, looking at the Nightmares swimming. "You know, for a dragon that likes to set itself on fire, it's weird that you also like to swim." Maybe it helps them to cool off.
The bright orange dragon swam close to me and I extended my hand to her. Inferno looked at me with big, bright yellow eyes... and bit my arm -gently- pulling me to the deeper part and making me yell.
Toothless screeched as I hugged Inferno's neck for dear life. "It's okay, buddy," I said, though the fear was still clearly in my voice. Inferno growled, confused. "I-I don't know how to swim," I said ashamed. For Thor's sake, I lived on a mass of earth surrounded by water! This was ridiculous- I was sixteen!
Inferno made a happy sound and pushed me to her back, giving me a ride to not-so-deep waters where I could be standing but the water still covered me.
"Thank you," I smiled and the Nightmare purred and nuzzled me. Then her siblings splashed us. Some of the water entered into my mouth making cough.
Toothless hissed and jumped into the water with me. "You'll end killing her," he said annoyed and Inferno hissed back, laughing and throwing water at him with her wings.
I covered myself with my arms. "C'mon, guys." Toothless growled and accepted the challenge, standing on his back legs and doing the same to completely cover the younger dragons with water and, unfortunately, me too.
"Toothless!" I laughed, wiping the water off my face and splashing him back. Bad idea. A war of water began and as always in this games with dragons, I was losing.
The game changed to who-can-hold-the-human-longer. I was standing on Inferno's back as she was swimming away from Toothless who was chasing us with his tongue out.
I laughed and stood on her raised head as Toothless tried to catch me when the third weird thing happened: we heard voices.
"Over here! I heard something!" I froze for a moment that was only interrupted when my foot slipped from Inferno's head making me fall into the water.
Toothless quickly snatched me out and swam to the edge where my clothes were. More voices were getting closer. I looked around and hid behind some rocks, holding onto them.
"You have to go," I told the dragons. Toothless grumbled, not liking the idea. "I'm gonna be fine! If they see you, you are not. Now go to the camp. I'll catch up with ya'."
Still grumbling, Toothless got out of the river and ran off, the Nightmares following in the air.
"It was from here," a man said, making me duck behind the rocks as an entire party of men followed behind, all holding weapons. As the men quickly gave a look at the air, the one who spoke spotted me and I felt the blood rushing to my face. "Oh!"
This is exactly why I didn't like to take baths outside.
"Ugh, sorry, miss," the man said, drawing the attention of the other men to me, though they couldn't care less and looked away, searching. Some of them looked at the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of a wing or tail.
"Well, hello there," a young man, about twenty-something, said with a grin. The first man slapped him on the arm, erasing his smile.
"Sorry, miss," the man said again, "but- didn't you happen to see-" he cut himself with a very pissed off expression, and without even looking at the younger man, he took his head and turned him back. The young man huffed and walked away.
"Didn't you see a flock of Monstrous Nightmares?" I nodded and pointed to the other direction they had taken. Another man, seeing this, began to shout orders and they ran off.
"Thank you, miss," the man nodded and added hesitantly, "do you- do you want me to pass you your..." he said pointing to my clothes.
"Yes, please," I smiled awkwardly and extend a hand to take the clothes. The man apologized one more time before leaving.
I waited to make sure they were wayfar from here before I pulled myself out of the water and quickly put my tunic on, even though I was still wet. I made a ball with the rest of my clothes, not bothering to put them on and walked away, pretty sure my face was still as red as a dragon's fire.
…
Toothless rushed to me when I arrived at the camp.
"I'm fine, bud," I said as he circled me, inspecting me up and down in search of injuries. The Nightmares came close too and looked at me worried. "Guys! I'm fine, really!" I said exasperated and changed into dry clothes.
The Nightmares quit looking at me but Toothless followed until he made sure I was completely safe and sound. After that and a very annoyed look from my part, Toothless climbed a tree and hung on a branch to sleep.
I took out my old sketchbook and sat on the grass to draw Toothless while I waited for my hair to dry. Inferno got curious and curled around me as she watched me draw. The dragon stood up and sat in front of me after I finished Toothless and stood very still.
I giggled at her behavior and began to draw. She was the first dragon that actually stood still while I drew them, though she would demand to see every once a while.
The rest of the day went on drawing, playing and insisting the two older Nightmares that they didn't have to bring us food. But they insisted back, at least until the "human and night-person duo" could fly again.
The dragons were rather interested in seeing us fly again and I had to admit it: I was too. That night we had flown like no other. Of course, we had been practicing every night so we no longer needed words to communicate; we just used our bodies.
But that night... it had been different.
When I try to recall other nights, I remember thinking where to move, how much so I didn't make us lose balance. I remember noticing Toothless' movements under me.
That night wasn't like that. I don't remember thinking of my actions- I just did it, I just knew. Maybe that's what Toothless meant when he said they don't need to know how to do things, they just do it.
Before, I couldn't image how that could be possible. For doing something you had to learn, you had to practice. And dragons don't have to practice. Of course, I did have to learn how to fly and I did practice. But now it came naturally.
So natural I felt like... like...
No. I was getting crazy.
Inferno got me out of my thoughts; nuzzling and purring around me. I laughed and scratched her scales. I felt an oily sensation on my fingers. It didn't feel like Toothless' saliva- maybe because this was another kind of dragon- or maybe it wasn't saliva after all.
"Is this saliva or sweat?" I asked Inferno. She tilted her head.
"Sweat?" she asked. It surprised me. It was the first word she had ever said to me.
"Yeah, you know uh..." How did I explain that to a dragon? "That your body... uh... puts it out?" This would be easier if the dragons' vocabulary was larger. This felt like talking to Snotlout.
It took me a couple of seconds to notice how stupid the thought had been- the "dragons' vocabulary" part at least. Simply a year ago, I would have thought it was crazy that someone could talkto a dragon, and yet, here was I.
The nightmare seemed to understand and she nodded. "Who would say it. Dragons can sweat," I felt the weird slime on my fingers again. It had a green, almost transparent color. "Hold still."
I stood up and ran for an empty bottle. When I returned to Inferno, she was watching me very confused. "Don't move," I told her and began to try and collect the weird gel.
"What are you doing?" A long, tired growl sounded behind me as Inferno stepped apart and away from the bottle.
"Trying to collect this thing," I said, walking to the weirded-out Monstrous Nightmare who kept moving away.
"Why?"
"It can come in handy." I finally jumped to Inferno's back –that just freaked her out more- and quickly tried to fill the bottle. Suddenly, Inferno jumped, making me fall from her back. "Inferno, come on!" I raced after her again.
It took me good three hours to collect something in the bottle and I ended up covered down to my elbows with the weird slime.
"This is quite dangerous," I said, wiping my hands on my clothes. I gave a look at the bottle. It wasn't much and I had spent hours collecting it. I sighed and pulled the bottle closer to see exactly how much it was.
The smell was strong and made me dizzy. I shook my head, trying to somehow get it away, but it only made it worse.
"Fuzzy?"
I tried to focus my eyes on Toothless, but in my blurry vision, I could only see a blur of black that was getting strangely bigger and bigger until it consumed everything.
…
"She is waking up!" A dragon that I didn't quite recognize roared and someone else licked my face.
"Are you okay?" That was definitely Toothless. "GET OFF!" His roar almost left me deaf and the licking stopped. "Fuzzy?"
Slowly, I opened my eyes. My head was still spinning and the light was too bright. I was surrounded by Toothless and all the Monstrous Nightmares.
"Yeah," I answered Toothless' question. He turned his face to Inferno with an angry glare. Inferno's face turned to one of it-wasn't-my-fault. "It's just… the smell was too strong," I said in Inferno's defense.
Toothless turned to me, still annoyed but trying to calm down. "You are a human. It doesn't affect us as it does you. You could have gotten poisoned!"
"I'm fine buddy!" The dizziness was almost out of my head. "I guess it was too concentrated," I shrugged and looked at the bottle still in my hand.
"I should write that down," I muttered.
"Why write it?" Toothless asked, still looking me up and down as if expecting to find a wound.
"It can come in handy," I simply said.
"Can you stop saying that!" Toothless growled bothered. Seeing as the Night Fury was about to throw another tantrum, the Monstrous Nightmares walked away.
"I forget things easily," I shrugged, "If I have everything wrote down, I can check it anytime I need."
"And why would you need to check it?"
"When the time comes, you'll thank me." I stood up, a bit clumsily, and searched through my things for the new notebook I had taken with me from Berk. Toothless' eyes were glued to my back and I could almost feel his disgust with the whole situation.
I sighed and sat again.
"Look," I said slowly. "Since I met you, I've been discovering new things about dragons. It has only been a few months and I have learned a lot of things that no one knows! And all this," I said gesturing to the family of Nightmares that were now playing, "will die with me. If I write this down, someone may find it after I die and see that you are good. And maybe that someone will be brave enough to face everyone else and show them."
Toothless huffed, not completely convinced. But he sat at my side and let me do my thing.
I began to draw and write everything I knew. The dragon sizes, how to get close to the different species: it's easier to approach a Deadly Nadder from the tail, you simply had to smooth down their spines (of course if you don't get impaled first), most Gronckles have a kind nature once you show them you can be trusted.
Dragons lovefire. To see it or even to rest upon a recently scorched place. Timberjacks can learn to make campfires, you just need to show them how a few times.
They bury eggs on coal to keep them warm and constantly breathe fire onto the eggs. Toothless said that there were other ways to keep them hot, but since I haven't seen them and his explanations weren't the best, I didn't write it down.
"CAUTION: the eggs explode when they hatch." With that note, I wrote that the worst were the Gronckles. It wasn't a good idea to stay close to one of those. And if you hear a crack from any egg, you better find a place to hide.
…
"Toothless, wake up!" I shouted as I ran into our camp, the new mechanism under my arm. Toothless' ears perked up and his sleepy eyes turned to me. I held up the mechanism for Toothless to see and he quickly jumped to his feet, almost tackling me.
"Okay, okay. Settle down." He sat on his haunches and waited as patiently as he could for me to put the saddle on.
Toothless' excitement woke up the sleeping Monstrous Nightmares and spread the feeling. I smiled up at Toothless and he gave me a gummy smile back.
"Let's go, Bud," I said and jumped to his back. I patted his neck. "Let's take it nice and slow," I said as a joke for our first flight. Toothless seemed to get it because the way he took off wasn't in any way "nice and slow".
"AhhhHAHA! Woooohoooo!" I didn't care if we were close to a village. I didn't care if someone could see us or hear me. I had to wait for what felt like weeks for this, even when it had only been a couple of days.
Soon, we began to do tricks on the air - twisting and going upside down. Most of the time I didn't know what I was doing, but I followed Toothless' body without a problem.
The younger Monstrous Nightmares joined us in the air, flying around us and challenging us to a chasing game.
The older Nightmares joined in the middle of the game and we raced each other in the sky, playing something like tag. But this one was more dangerous. It wasn't the friendly push to the other. It was a tackle.
Inferno won.
My excuse: the game was way too rude and I almost fell off the saddle seven times. And to be honest, the excitement of being on the air again didn't let us think right or move in time. I'm not trying to put up excuses, I'm just telling the truth. If it had been other day in any other situation, we would have totally won this game.
We didn't land again. The Nightmares turned to us and called for their offsprings. They gave a very loud roar of, "Thank you,"to which Toothless responded with an equally loud one from both of us.
"Thank you for everything," I told them. "I hope we see each other again."
Inferno growled and looked at me with sad eyes. This was a goodbye. "I'll miss you," I told her.
They turned away and so did we.
I patted Toothless neck. "Okay, boy. Show me what you got." I stuck my body to the saddle and we flew away as fast as we could.
….
It took me a couple of hours to realize that all my belongings were somewhere in the forest, in our old camp.
Toothless and I had to turn back for them. By the time we were on track again we were hungry. We kept flying trying to find a source of water; we were too into mainland and any coast was in sight.
After a few hours, we found a lake surrounded by a Viking village. I sighed and changed pedals to land, "So, no fishing then." I said as we went down to the forest, "You'll have to hunt, buddy. Ow!" he slapped me with his ear, "What was that for?"
"It was an accident," he growled. It clearly hadn't been an accident.
"You do eat more than just fish, right?" I asked him, rubbing my cheek as we landed.
"Yes, but I rather fish." He said laying down. "why don't you go to the human nest and get some?" he asked with a yawn.
I kneeled and untied the fish basket from the saddle, "Being feed for months hadn't done any good to you."
"Moons? Do not exaggerate."
"Uh, it was at least a month on Berk. We spent most part of winter on that nest and the last month close to the village. I've been bringing you food for a long time."
Toothless thought for a moment, "that doesn't change the fact that I want fishy." He decided and shifted to take a nap.
I sighed and stood up, "Useless reptile," I muttered.
"Stupid mammal," I could hear Toothless say.
So, with a lazy dragon and a rumbling stomach, I walked to the village to buy some food. I quickly found the market and asked them to fill the small basket I owned. After having Toothless' "fishy" I walked around buying other food there and there.
Some fruit, meat, bread, and even cheese. I quickly realized how fast my money bag emptied. Weeks of work were gone in one day.
"I'm telling you, she can control the dragon, a Night Fury!" a young, skinny, tall man at my side said. I froze, I needed to go.
"No one had ever seen a Night Fury and survived," a man some years older than the first one but shorter said, he sounded kind of bored and tired. I looked at the old woman that was attending me as she put the almonds in a small bag. She was taking too long, I needed to go!
"She did! And it's under her control." The first one said, "I'm telling you. She can do it with other dragons too."
"That's impossible."
"I'm telling you! My cousin was there, she used a torch to hypnotize it and talked to it to control it, the Monstrous Nightmare didn't attack her." Nervously I put the hood of the cloak up.
"Well, I'm telling you," the man said mockingly, "that's ridiculous, a wee lass can't do that!"
"I'm telling you!" the young man insisted, "she returned with her Night Fury and freed another dragon, it didn't attack her either."
"And how exactly did she pass unnoticed in the village?"
"That town has a lot of people and lot of kids get in there, especially in winters. One of the blacksmiths says she worked for him. But… no one seemed remember her name."
No one remembers? They… they didn't give me away? I relaxed a bit, they knew about me, but they didn't know who I was or how I looked like.
"The lass comes from the Barbaric Archipelago," the owner of the next stand said, "Didn't you hear? She is a traitor. She left her tribe for the damned dragon." I swallowed, feeling uncomfortable again.
"I'm telling you, that girl is crazy."
"You bet, she was born in the heart of the war and she chooses a dragon."
I stopped hearing after that. The old lady handed me the bag and I gave her the money, quickly walking away.
How did they know?
About what I did on Berk, about what I did on the other village. Maybe we weren't as far from the other village as I thought. Without noticing I arrived where Toothless was.
Toothless sniffed the air, walking up and turning his sleepy eyes to me. The dizziness quickly flew away when he saw me.
"We have to go," I said and tied the basket to his saddle.
"What happened?" he asked worriedly.
"Nothing it's just… we aren't as far from the other village as I would like to." I jumped to his back, "people have heard of us here, it's better if we stay away."
We flew to the mountains, soon we spotted dragons, coming and going all over the place. It couldn't be a nest; it would be too big. All the line of mountains as far as I could see had dragons flying over it.
I smiled as we made our way down. I couldn't believe I was more comfortable and felt safer being surrounded by dragons than with my own species. Maybe I was crazy.
But I couldn't care less right now. I felt safe, we were safe. And that was what matter. And even more important: we could finally eat.
The mountain range was the household of many dragons. It wasn't a nest, just a big place where they were safe. The mountains were too dangerous to climb and even more with dragons flying around.
And Toothless and I couldn't feel more comfortable there. Every day we advanced across the mountains, meeting new dragons and learning new things. Toothless wasn't very open to the new dragons and was a bit nervous when I played with others, afraid that I would get hurt, but they seemed to know they shouldn't play too rude. Still, I got some bruises from it.
Toothless let me play and wander around, writing and drawing the dragons. There were Nadders, Gronckles, Timberjacks, Nightmares, Terrible Terrors, that weird white-skulled dragon that I needed to find a name for. And once we even saw a Thunderdrum.
They were all different colors and sizes, their ages going from hatchlings, babies and what Toothless had explained to be called, short-wing and boar-wing; basically "teens" and "adults". And it turned out dragons didn't mark their ages with years; hatchlings were newborn dragons, they were called like that for a few days, then they were tiny-tooth.
Tiny-tooth dragons cover the first few months that is when they grow up the most and very fast; they are able to glide and somewhat fly. When they can fly correctly and control their fire they are called short-wing. The boar-wing were the ones that had a "mark". Toothless said it was different to every species, some get extra frills, some horns got larger or their frills wider.
In a few days, the new notebook was half filled with information and I couldn't be more excited and proud of myself. Some of the information was simple things and some didn't really matter but this was new information, things no other human knew and that was enough to make me happy.
And Toothless was getting fonder to the idea of me drawing and writing, maybe because he noticed it made me happy. One day he even was willing to "help" and began to draw on the ground with a long branch. Soon the other dragons began to take branches, roots, and even saplings to draw too.
In no time, the small piece of forest outside the caverns we were in, was filled with scribbles. One going over the others making a big mess without form and I was trapped inside along with other dragons there and there.
"Dance!" Toothless roared happily.
"Dance?" I asked him confused.
"Yes, like when we meet!"
I laughed, "that wasn't dancing, buddy,"
"I don't care, do it!" He growled, excited. I looked around, searching a way out. Slowly, I began to walk across the drawings, careful to don't step on any line, which was more difficult than that day with just Toothless. There were too many lines and all together barely let me places to put my feet.
A bit clumsy -not really knowing if I really was getting out of the mess or getting deeper into the scribbles- I walked around, my arms lifted a bit to let me see better the floor.
I found a rhythm on the way I was moving and got carried away, moving quicker with smooth steps and circles. And like the day I meet Toothless I began to sing, that same melody I have grown so fond of.
Toothless joined in my "dancing" and jumped around me, avoiding the lines too. I laughed as more dragons joined, some of them cooed trying to imitate the notes. Terrible Terrors flew around and bigger dragons jumped around, some not carrying on stepping on lines.
I thought for a small moment, then sang: "Let the wind carry us, to the clouds, hurry up, alright" Toothless stopped and looked at me, tilting his head. I stopped circling too and looked at him, "we can travel so far as our eyes can see," the other dragons quiet down listening carefully to the new tune the song had taken.
"We go where no one goes," I sang with a growing smile, Toothless' ears lifted, liking the song and he jumped around me again, "we slow for no one, get out of our way!" I tried not to laugh as I kept dancing around on the drawings, singing a melody while trying to come with another part of the song.
"I'm awake when up in the skies. There's no brake up so high, alright," I sang after a moment.
"Let's make it our own, let's savor it!" Toothless sang in a coon, making me burst out a laugh.
"We go where no one goes!"
"We slow for no one!"
"Get out of our way!" we finished together, almost in a scream. Half laughing half singing I kept dancing with Toothless, completely forgetting the lines under us until I tripped over my own foot, a gentle reminder that I had two left feet and that I suck at dancing.
I fell over my but, still laughing; Toothless bit my clothes and pulled me up. I couldn't stop laughing to keep singing after it, and with no music, the dragons slowly returned to their business.
"I guess that's all for today," I said between giggles, "man, I didn't know dragons liked songs."
"Our songs are different that yours but we do,"
"Different how?" I asked.
"They are more feelings than melodies and words," he explained, his face went a bit grim for half a second, then he purred and nuzzled me, "I like yours more."
I rubbed his head and looked up at the sky. The sun was getting close to the horizon and it had been a while since I had a full night of sleep, we were always flying.
"Let's search a place to sleep," I told Toothless. We walked inside the caverns going around the nests, Toothless was sniffing everywhere to make sure we didn't choose an already occupied spot.
Distracted by the colors of the sky, that could be seen through some holes on the walls, I walked away from Toothless using boulders to climb up to a hole in the wall that lead to a small cliff.
I sat down, letting my legs hanging off. I looked at the sky as it turned to a beautiful pink… it was a beautiful view. I have always loved sunsets but no matter where we traveled none seemed to reach the beauty of Berk's.
Toothless walked to my side and sat down, his tail curling around me and hanging with my legs. We looked at the sky and the thick forest that awaited us.
"Why didn't you attacked me?" I suddenly asked. The question left my lips the second I thought it, taking Toothless off guard. "When we meet, I mean," the question had been bugging me since it happened and now I finally had the chance to know but I never asked.
"You freed me," he said as if it was obvious, "a life for a life," I remained in silence, wanting to ask about the cove but –as the other dragons- too many questions bothered him, maybe tomorrow. Dragons don't like to talk much, it had been something important I had learned, especially these last weeks. I couldn't do too many questions or they will get irritated.
After a moment of silence, the Night Fury sighed in resignation. I smiled and crossed my legs turning to him, ready to hear his explication. "We, night-people, are taught to ignore humans: if they approach, you leave. It's an easy rule to remember and that's what I did… or what I mean to, then I realized I couldn't fly," he said lifting his tail to look at the prosthetic.
"You frustrated me," he said and looked at me slightly annoyed, "no matter what I did, no matter how much I ignored you and tried to get away you were still there!" the dragon fell in silence, frowning at the ground. Then he admitted, "I got curious… why didn't you kill me? Why don't you go away? Humans attack fire-people, humans run away when we threaten them, but you… you wanted to get close."
"I got to the conclusion that you are not like your kind, you are different," he said softly, looking away to the sunset, "I guess I'm too."
"So any other Night Fury would just keep ignoring me?" I asked after a short while.
"Yup… well, if you kept showing as you did I think any other would have killed you," he said as it was nothing.
"Huh…" I said, slightly horrified. I blinked and rather to focus on the sunset and not what a truly angry Night Fury would look like. I hugged my knees and rested my chin on them, looking how the sun got lost on the horizon and the stars started to show. "How many Night Furies are on your birth-nest?" I asked suddenly nervous of the promise of going there.
"A lot," Toothless' answer wasn't so reassuring.
"Are there any other nests with Night Furies?" I asked slowly.
"Not that I know… I think there was one northern than the fog-circle but I'm not sure, I haven't gone further," he said and sighed sadly, letting his head lay on his paws, "there's… there is not a lot of our species, we are dying. Actually, we are not supposed to leave our nest because if we die we are just killing our own. What I did was selfish."
I tried to change the subject, making another question seeing Toothless was up to answering, "How much have you seen of Midgard?"
"More than you," the dragon chuckled then thought for a second, "I'm not sure," he said slowly, "the world is pretty big."
I looked at the sunset one more time, a bit anxious at the idea but I said it out loud anyways, "We can go see your nest," I suggested looking at him.
Toothless growled, "I have already seen my nest, it's nothing spectacular, there are better places to see."
"You want to go somewhere else?" I said liking more that idea.
"There was a place to the west, in another island where sometimes blue-little-fires appear. I once saw one. They like to play."
We fell in a comfortable silence. I rested back on Toothless' body and looked up at the stars. And as I looked at the shiny dots I felt so small. The world is pretty big and we have seen nothing of it.
A small smile slowly grew on my lips. We will see it all, every island and every dragon. After all, we go where no one goes.
…
Time was passing faster than I thought. Spring hit and the weather began to get warmer, flowers began to bloom and fill the view with different colors. Toothless and I flew more flow, sometimes I didn't even think when changing pedals and now we made tricks as we go, twisting and diving and going as far up as we could just to let us fall.
When there was a water source with no village close we would go fishing, sometimes other dragons joined us. Toothless had begun to hunt for the times where we couldn't find any near water source or a Viking town. I had forced myself to remember the little I knew of skinning, sometimes Toothless hunt deer, foxes, wolfs, bears, elks –or at least that's what I thought they were- and I sold their skins on markets.
The day was just beginning and the only reason I was up was because I didn't sleep at all. Still, I was widely awake. Something just the wind and the excitement of being on the air could do.
I walked through a town, looking around and quickly finding where to sell the furs. I didn't waste much time on selling them, I didn't have much today, and the money I received was less than one would normally do with a day of work.
I had to hold myself to ask for a job in every town we went to. Having a job would mean we would have to stay for a while and I wanted to keep moving for two main reasons: one, I didn't want anyone to know about me and two, I wanted to explore and know new places.
We had left the beaches of Norway behind us and moved to explore Sweden's beauty. To a place where no one had heard of the Dragon Conqueror.
I shook my head to get the thoughts out and put attention to the last deal I was doing. Getting just six copper coins, I opened my money bag to see at the small bunch of copper coins and the four silver ones and with a sigh I put the money inside.
I took an apple from the following stand and looked at it longingly, it had been a long time since I last ate a fresh fruit but even an apple was a luxury now. I looked away with an annoyed grimace and walked away, on Berk I never had this kind of problems.
"Hey!" a man shouted behind me, "where do you think you are going with tha'?" he asked pointing to my hand, I followed his finger and saw I was still holding the apple.
"Oh! Sorry," I said walking back at the stand and putting back the fruit with the others, "I didn't- ouch!" the brunet man had grasped my wrist with more force than necessary and yanked me forward.
"We don't tolerate thieves here," he hissed trough his mustache, "do ye know what happens to thieves?" he asked, pulling out a long knife. I swallowed, looking between my hand and the knife.
"I-I'm no thief, it was just a misunderstanding," I stammered, twisting my hand to get off but his grip just got harder. "I h-have money!" I shouted terrified as the man played with the knife, "I can pay it to you!"
The man raised the knife; I almost didn't think about it: I pulled out my own knife and quickly made a cut on his forearm before he could do something. With a yell he let me go to grasp his injured limb.
Without him holding me I fell back, knife still in hand. I looked around, we had called some's attention before but now everyone was looking at us. All eyes turned to me, my heart was all I could hear as it slammed against my ribcage. Run. A small, hurried voice yelled inside me and I didn't hesitate to follow.
I scrambled to my feet and broke in a run. Vikings were yelling behind me, I didn't dare to look over my shoulder, I knew they were following me. I ran into the forest, jumping roots and avoiding trees, trying to figure out where I was and where Toothless was.
But the men knew this woods and I didn't, they quickly caught up, getting on my way as I tried to take left. I yelped, trying to get to a stop to don't slam against the man, my feet slipped but I quickly recovered, racing to the opposite direction.
I didn't know where I was or where I was going but I didn't stop even when my body began to remember me that I hadn't slept, eaten or rest in a long while. The ground began to lean up, making it more difficult to run through and I heard the men getting closer. I had to stop running as a cliff got on my view, I almost didn't make it ending on just the edge.
I almost couldn't breathe and my knees threatened to give up. I looked back, catching the glimpse of helmets and heads. Please don't fail me now. I cupped my hands around my mouth and let out a dragon-like roar from the bottom of my throat. Letting it feeling raspy and sore.
"There she is!" someone yelled and with a tired groan, I ran once again, following the edge of the cliff.
The Vikings following me spread up, surrounding me from my right and behind me, cornering me against the cliff, I looked down worriedly. Suddenly, a black mass jumped from the bushes and I could help but let out a relieved sigh as Toothless ran bellow.
He looked up to me and to the men a few steps behind. "Jump!" he roared. I looked down to him, the ground was getting even higher than it was before, I swallowed and looked over my shoulder, a blonde short-haired man was just behind me, sword at ready.
Without thinking it anymore I leaned left and leaped off. I realized too late that Toothless had been left behind and I let out a terrified scream as I fell. Toothless speeded up and jumped, flapping his wings a couple of times but he was too low and too far.
We weren't gonna make it… or so I thought.
My body slammed against his back and I hanged to whatever part of the saddle I could so I wouldn't fall off. I took the handles and pulled me to a sitting position, putting my feet in their rightful place and changing pedals to fly off before we even touched the ground.
I heard the Viking men gasping in horror and cursing as we rushed straight up, following the cliff's wall, the air almost taking them down.
"By Thor!"
"What is that?"
"She turned into a dragon!"
I chuckled, changing pedals again and flying away from human civilization, I patted Toothless' neck, "perfect timing!" I congratulated him but he looked at me annoyed, "What?"
"Do you always have to get in trouble?"
"Hey, it comes with the Being-Hiccup combo," I said and poked the back of his head playfully, "and now you are stuck with it so you better get used to that."
Toothless rolled his eyes but then twisted his head to look at me, "did they hurt you?" he asked worriedly.
"Almost," I admitted and sighed, scratching where the man's hand had been, "I think it's better if we stay away from Vikings for a while again."
"Did they know?"
"No, but they do now…" I patted his neck, "it's better off this way, let's just find a place to rest, I could really use a nap," I finished with a yawn.
We changed direction returning to the low parts of the mountains, reaching a holey slope that instantly connected to the inner chambers. Dragons were flying around, landing and taking off. But as we landed I noticed there was something odd about it, the dragons weren't playing around and there wasn't the curious welcome we usually get. I frowned confused and followed Toothless as he searched for a place to nap.
Slowly, I stopped walking at the sight of a dragon laying alone, no other dragon got close making a large circle around it. It was one of those white-skulled dragons and it didn't look so well, it looked sick.
"Fuzzy?" Toothless asked when he realized I wasn't on his side anymore and returned with me.
"What's wrong with it?" I asked, my eyes glued to the dragon and the concern clearly on my voice. I looked at Toothless after he didn't respond me and saw the same concern in his eyes.
"He gave up," Toothless said lowly, "sometimes when you lose something or someone important you stop caring, they don't eat, don't fly. Their wings get weak and that just makes it worse because even if they wanted to fly they can't do it anymore."
I looked at the dragon again, more worried than before. "Let's go" Toothless said and began to walk away. I hesitated for a moment then stepped forward. "Fuzzy!" Toothless hissed alarmed, "leave him alone!"
The white-skulled dragon barely looked at me as I made my way to him. Other dragons stopped on their tracks and growled lowly, telling me to let him alone. But, as Toothless' warnings, I didn't listen. I knelt at his side and caressed the smooth white scales of its head with soft strokes.
I finally got the attention of the dragon and as it looked at me I could feel the immense sorrow of the dragon. My chest felt heavy and it got hard to breathe, an invisible, cold hand clenched my heart tighter and tighter as I kept eye contact. My eyes began to well up with tears, the feeling just too overwhelming to keep it inside but I refused to get my hand off the dragon.
"I'm sorry," I whispered with a broken voice. And through the own sorrow of the dragon, he looked at me confused. You don't have to apology for everything, I remembered Toothless saying. "I know it's not my fault, but no one should feel this way," I said, still in a low broken voice.
The red and white dragon gave a small whine and looked away. I stayed by his side, I couldn't just leave him here, not feeling like this. I kept caressing his head trying to think on something, then I remember: dragons loved songs.
I began to hum, my voice a bit broken and hoarse but in a few seconds it turned to its normal tone. The dragon purred for half a second and it gave me the hopes I needed and began to sing, "Let the wind carry us, to the clouds hurry up…" the dragon looked at me for a moment, curiosity in his eyes but then looked away again burying my hopes deep down.
My heart broke and I looked over my shoulder, searching for Toothless' help. The black Night Fury was sitting at the edge of the circle along with other dragons, looking curiously but giving us space. But there was something else in Toothless' eyes as he looked at me and at the dragon at my side, he locked eyes with me and nodded encouragingly, gesturing me to continue.
I turned to the dragon, my hand still on his head and sang again, "we can travel so far as our eyes can see. We go where no one goes, we slow for no one…" I got no response but kept trying, "I'm awake when up in the skies. There's no brake up so high, alright. Let's make it our own let's savor it."
The dragon reacted this time, his attention fully on me. I took his head and stood up with it, "we go where no one goes," I walked backwards lightly pulling his head and he stood up and followed, a smile crossed my face, "we slow for no one, get out of our way!"
I kept humming and guiding the dragon outside, his eyes wide open and fixed on me the other dragons followed and took off as soon as we were on the opening. I walked away from the dragon and jumped on Toothless' back.
We took off too and stood stationary outside the cave. The red and white dragon looked up, to us and to the sky, then looked at his wings. "Oh no," I muttered as the dragon hesitated.
My heart dropped: he turned around.
"No, no, no. Come on, you can do it!"
The dragon turned again, was he… going in circles? He opened his jaws, making crackling fire, his wings flapped and he went faster, the circles wider making him a blur of sparkles that jumped everywhere.
"Holy-" I pulled from Toothless' saddle, flying back and away from the fire that had reach us. The dragon took off, still in circles and then he shot straight to the sky. "Yeah!" I laughed as he almost took us over. Toothless roared happily and quickly moved to follow.
I looked at the dragon as it twisted with ease on the air, his wingspan fully open. The way he took off… it was like a typhoon! And those turns like a boomerang! Typhoomerang. I thought, finally coming up with a name for the dragon.
"I knew you could do it," Toothless said proudly, taking me out of my thoughts.
"I didn't know I could," I admitted.
"If someone could do it, it was you. You already made me fly,"
"It was just the tail," I said like it was nothing but Toothless quickly interrupted.
"No, it wasn't," he said and I could hear and feel some kind of desperation and anxiety on him, "I thought I was going to die… I was ready to die, I was just waiting for hunger to kill me or a Viking to find me and do it, then you found me and I thought it all will be over but you freed me and help me fly again!"
I couldn't talk. He was ready to die when I first found him in the woods, he had given up. I still could remember how afraid he looked, how he turned his head away in defeat.
I looked up at the Typhoomerang as he circled above us surrounded by his nest-mates chirping happy because he was up in the air again. And a small smile appeared on my lips.
"What you are doing is not just helping around, Fuzzy, you are giving us hope," Toothless said looking up too, "You are the first human we ever meet that doesn't attack us and kill without reason. And… I know you are worried you are not like the other Vikings but… you are better than them."
I patted his head, leaning to a side to look at him, "Thanks, buddy."
…
Mud splashed all over, it had gotten hard to run but I didn't stop anyways, sword still on hand. I heard a loud roar behind me that told the short time Toothless had given me to run was over and now he was chasing me.
It had rain the past few days but that hadn't stopped us from flying and playing fights. So, with mud till my knees, I ran through the forest not really knowing where I was or where I was going but it surely was away from Toothless.
The Night Fury snarled loudly, obviously getting closer, he wasn't even trying to be quite. I prepared myself, hand gripping on the sword. The dragon roared just behind me and a cold shiver ran through my spine. Even knowing he wouldn't hurt me hearing that chasing you would horrify anyone.
I turned around, knowing Toothless had already pounce and swung my sword as I crouched. The dragon passed over me, the sword barely touching his exposed belly. I had wrapped the sword on old scraps of leather that I got on a village so I wouldn't actually hurt Toothless.
About him hurting me, I knew it wouldn't happen. He knew how much force he could use for my bones to don't brake and how much he could claw without tearing my skin.
The black dragon landed, his paw slipping on the mud and falling. I didn't laugh, yesterday Toothless taught me the hard way that, if I laughed, I got distracted and lose easier. Instead, I ran away before Toothless stood up.
I slipped more than once but I quickly recovered, looking over my shoulder I saw Toothless running a few meters behind me at the same speed I was, he narrowed his eyes and went faster. I looked forward again and pushed myself to speed up.
Toothless growled and I tightened my grip again, waiting for his next move. The ground underneath me cracked and a huge amount of rocks, mud, and trees slipped through the mountain slope.
"Toothless!" I yelled as I fell and slid with the ground, Toothless roared frightened. I tried to anchor with my heels, or grasp to something but everything around me was falling too and picking up speed with every second.
I looked up, Toothless was still on firm ground. He looked at me, terrified and shocked. He blinked, shook his head and jumped. Clumsily, growling and hissing he began to make his way to me. I looked at my feet again and tried to find some support again realizing horrified that we were getting closer to a cliff where everything was falling off.
"Uh, Toothless?" I said, voice filled with fear as I got closer and closer to the edge. Suddenly there was a sharp, agonizing pain on my right shoulder and I let out a pained scream.
Toothless whimpered at my side and I realized what was the source of the pain: Toothless was biting my shoulder. I was hanging from the cliff; things were still falling at my sides but the dragon had somehow found a firm place to stand.
The dragon hesitated, opening his jaws a bit. "No! don't let go, don't let go!" I yelled, even when the pain was so unbearable it blacked out my vision. I tried –more for Toothless' sake than mine- to don't scream but groans and whimpers still left my lips.
I kicked the air, trying to step on something and my hands reached up to hold on Toothless so my shoulder wasn't the only thing carrying my weight. Toothless pulled me up to safe ground, tears sliding from my eyes. The dragon released me and quickly bit the back of my clothes and threw me to his back making his way to the top of the hill.
My left hand gripped my shoulder, trying to somehow ease the pain. I didn't look up, crouched against the saddle as Toothless got us out of there and to a safe place. As soon as he stopped running I flopped to the ground. Unfortunately, I fell on my right side, the hit sending a wave of pain all over my body and this time I couldn't contain the scream.
I didn't dare to look at the wound, that would just make the pain worse but Toothless got to my field of vision, covered in mud and mouth dripping blood and then I knew it was bad.
"You are hurt," he said, his worried voice breaking, "I-I didn't mean to hurt you I just-"
"It's okay, bud. It's just a scratch," I said with a high pitched voice. It wasn't a scratch, and I needed to nurse it but I just couldn't look. I took a deep breath and removed my hand from the wound and looked at it.
Oh, gods…
This time I couldn't hold the scream, though it came out faltering and I had to put back my hand on my shoulder. The pain got stronger and I groaned breathlessly, looking up at the cloudy sky just so I didn't have to look at the wound.
From my collarbone to my armpit and my arm was a deep dotted line where the teeth of the Night Fury had been, and I knew it was the same from behind. Even through the pain, it amazed me how easily he had done such a deep cut but I could check on that later, right now I had to heal this.
"Can you fix it?" Toothless asked, looking worriedly at my shoulder and at my reaction.
"I may need to go to a village for help," I admitted, I could barely bare to look at it, I couldn't do this by myself. It wasn't for how bad it looked, I had help Gothi nurse some nasty wounds back on Berk, I even had helped to amputate some limbs a couple of times but it was on someone else, I wasn't the one feeling the pain.
I somehow managed to sit up, "You have some sharp teeth buddy," I said breathlessly, holding back tears I looked at Toothless, trying to smile and show his it wasn't that bad, even when it was. But my try of a smile fell at the sight of Toothless' worried face.
"I- I really didn't-" he stammered.
"Hey, buddy it's okay,"
"No, it's not okay! You are bleeding! I bit you!"
"Yeah but it you hadn't done that I would have fallen!" I yelled moving my shoulders and hurting myself more. "Let's just… focus on finding a village," I said between groans.
Toothless helped me to knees and he laid on the ground so it would be easier to me to slip on the saddle. It didn't take us long to find a small town at the edge of the river and Toothless landed as close as we dared to go.
I got off the saddle grunting and walked to the Village after telling Toothless to stay hidden. I clenched my shoulder, my feet moved clumsy and my vision was blurry, maybe for the pain, the loss of blood or because Toothless' teeth were poisonous. I hoped it wasn't the last one.
Someone gasped making me look up, somehow I had made it to the village, a woman was covering her mouth horrified and had called the attention of other Vikings around.
I tried to slip out a small "Help" but the only sound that left my lips was a whine that I had to shut up with gritted teeth.
"Warn the healers!" A man yelled and ran to my side, "By Thor…" he gasped as he looked at the bloody mess that was my shoulder. He put a hand on the back of my shoulder, where I couldn't reach and blood was dripping out, I hissed in pain and my knees couldn't carry with my weight anymore. I would have fallen if the man hadn't held me, "I'm going to carry you, aye?" he said softly.
I looked up to nod but as I looked at the men's face another kind of pain hit me square in the chest. He had green eyes topped with thick red brows, his red hair tied back in a braid, his beard was short but held a few tiny braids… he painfully looked like my father.
One of his hands slipped under my knees and he lift me softly. I closed my eyes but to shut the pain away and to stop looking at the man. It may had been just my blurry vision but I could swear he looked just like my father.
From his eyes, his nose and mustache to the kind and soft voice he talked when I was hurt. My eyes closed harder as I told myself to don't think about that. A door opened and I was put down on what I think was a bed.
"Oh, gods! What happened to you, child?" a woman asked looking at my wound.
"Dragon," I said with a feeble voice as the woman opened my collar and pulled the tunic over my shoulder. I didn't dare to look and rather turn away.
"Here," the man said softly handing me a bottle, "will make the pain duller," I didn't dare to look at him either, not wanting to know if he actually looked like my father or if it had been just my mind playing tricks.
I took the bottle and gave a long drink, "No, not all of it!" the woman said snapping the bottle off my hand, "why did you give this to her? She is too young for it!" the woman said as I began to get dizzier. My vision blurrier than before, just letting me see a blur of colors in front of me, I blinked a few times trying to get out shapes of things but to no avail.
But the man was right, my shoulder felt numb and if the pain was still there I couldn't quite catch it. I giggled as the colors began to make weird shapes, my shoulders shaking.
"See what you did?" the woman said though her voice sounded like coming from under water, she told the man to leave before he had another great idea and called another woman to help her.
They were talking and making questions but I didn't know if those were to me or between them, my drunken and blood-drained brain could just make out a few words.
Bite. Shape. Size. Kind. Dragon. Not seen. Don't know. Too deep. And they mentioned some dragon species… were they trying to know what bit me?
"Night Fury…" I managed to mumble out. Both women went silence then the first woman sighed annoyed.
"You too?" she said.
"What?" I said confused and the woman continued to rant about something.
"Lot of people… searching… dragon… girl… close to the nest… crazy… getting hurt…" those were some of the words I could make out as she put white things over my shoulder and put out red ones, then she took a shiny little thing. I looked at my shoulder as she worked on it, I think she was stitching the wound.
I looked away again, lost in the colors as they slowly began to take forms. The ceiling, a crossbeam... another crossbeam, some columns, and the walls. The infirmary was as big as Berk's, there were eight beds, one in front of the other in two columns, the headboards against the walls.
But as the place began to get clearer the pain did too and I hissed as the needle poked my skin.
"Someone is getting back to reality," the young voice of the second woman said quite cheery, she was going to say something else but the door slammed against the wall as someone kicked it open.
"Deadly Nadder!" A black haired man yelled and entered the room with a semi-unconscious boy hanging from his side. People I didn't know were inside the room ran to his assistance.
"I'll take care of her," the young woman said softly taking the needle from the others hand. The older woman changed her attention to the bed with the boy.
"How many shots did he get?" she quickly asked.
"Four," the man said breathlessly.
He was dead.
Or will be soon. I knew how poisonous Deadly Nadder's spikes could be. One, maybe two, were enough to cause temporal paralysis. Three can knock you out and let you unconscious a couple of weeks. Four you may be lucky to survive.
Of course, the place you had been impaled had a lot to do as did your size. That boy was a bit bigger than me, four spines? He won't make it.
A good half an hour or so later the healers proved me wrong because the boy was still alive and good, still unconscious but alive.
"How-how did you do that?" I stammered as the first woman walked to me to check on the bandages the other was putting on.
The woman looked at my shoulder then at me with soft tired eyes, she sighed, "If I teach you, you have to promise you won't search the Night Fury and the girl again," she said with a warning tone.
"Count on it!"
…
I returned to the forest at night, my shoulder was covered in bandages and a sling held my arm close to my body. It hurt horribly and sent jets of pain through my bones with every step I gave. The bushes rustled and the Night Fury jumped out fully camouflaged by the darkness, his eyes were the only thing that shined with the moon that had dared to go out tonight.
"You okay?" he whined looking me up and down and circling me as he sniffed my shoulder, he hissed stepping away and sneezed shaking his head.
I couldn't help to laugh, "bless you," I said.
"What did they put there?" he said as insulted.
"Herbs," I said, "they are supposed to make the pain go away but they are not helping a lot." I looked at my shoulder as if I could see the wound under the bandages and the tunic.
"Sleep, it will help," he said, slowly walking to me and sniffing again but for afar.
"How does sleeping would help?" I asked stupidly pocking the bandages and hissed as the pain cut trough.
"Do not touch it!" Toothless growled and pushed my hand away with his snot, "sleep helps fire-people, I don't know if it's the same with humans but it can help."
I frowned, still confused. The dragon explained: "when we are badly injured we ground ourselves, we find a safe place and we sleep. That way all your energy focuses on healing and not flying, hunting or even eating. When it's too bad be even enter in hibernation."
I rose an eyebrow, when we are injured we often are told to rest, though it was more than nothing so we don't hurt ourselves more. I looked at my shoulder, "I wouldn't say I'm badly injured," I commented and Toothless stabbed me with his eyes.
"Okay, okay, I'll sleep," I promised raising a hand in defeat, "but we need to go, people know we are here."
I got on the saddle, still thinking of what that woman had said. It wasn't just that they knew about us, no, they were searching for us. Taking the risk of getting close to a dragon nest just to see us, kill us or worse: trap us.
My mind had been spinning with that information since I understood what it meant. Night Furies were weird dragons, killing one would be a great sight of bravery and Vikingness. And a person who could "control" dragons… man, it was the perfect weapon for war…
…..
OKAY. Now with the things I wanted to say. I have next chapter ready but it's plot important so I have to check it VERY well before posting it, I don't want to make any mistakes but I'll try to have it updated soon (next week maybe).
Speaking of updates, I'm going to try and write a chapter per month, if not a chapter every two month. Friendly reminder that I'm on medical school and I don't have all the time of my live to write. That's exactly why I didn't have the time to write in a whole year.
Also! Something I'm very excited to tell you is that I'm making a comic for this fanfic! It's been a while since I wanted to do this and I began it already, the first 3 pages are up on my Deviant Art (link on my profile) they are just the intro but I'm very happy of how they turned out. I got a bit carried away with lighting and backgrounds, the chapters are going to be a bit simpler because I want to keep an updating schedule of 2/3 pages per month (I'm already a month behind but whatevs, I have a test next Friday and I have to study. So, no time for drawing)
Oh! And if you have the Amino app don't forget to join the H.T.T.Y.D. Amino, I'm somewhat active in there and I post a lot of Fem!Hiccup content, specially fanart (yeah, yeah. I make fanart of my own fanfiction. I just love gender bend AU's and I absolutely love mine)
A little last thing is that I'm NOT making this fanfic a Toothcup, simply because I don't ship them. All over the fanfic is gonna be mentioned how much they love and care for each other but it's all friendship. If you DO ship them then go on and keep shipping them, if you want to see that love as romantic love go on, I'm not going to stop you. But for the "canon" of this fanfic (and future Fem!Hiccup AUs I want to write) their love is a fraternal, platonic love. I hope you understand this.
And I think that's all for now, hope you enjoyed this, don't forget to follow, favorite and review! I love reviews! And if you got any saying my PM is always open (I'll answer you when I have the time)
