Chapter 18: Losing Myself
Dragonese, as Hiccup decided to call the language, was extremely hard. But in a few days, she had learned a few things. It wasn't much, but between howls, clicks, and the weird growls, Hiccup had learned the important words.
She now knew how to say "Toothless" "Little Viking" "fire-people" and "friend". She had not learnt to say "fuzzy", obviously, because that wasn't her name and just Toothless could call her like that. The moment she tried to say it he had gotten mad at her in a very childish way that got her laughing on the ground for a while. She had to promise she wouldn't say it to finish the dragon's tantrum.
Hiccup spent most of her days repeating those four words. Understanding each day more about the dragon's language. They just needed some words and they could make a lot of sentences with that. That's why at first, she just understood some words from Toothless, that was all he was really saying. After her brain got used to hearing it that way, she had automatically begun to hear full sentences.
And now with just those four words she could say Toothless was her friend, she could say Toothless and Little Viking were friends, and she could say that Little Viking was a friend to all fire-people.
And that was what she repeated all day long. At first, Hiccup thought it would annoy Toothless, but he seemed happy about it. Very often he would praise her with "that sounded better!" other times when she messed up, he would just repeat what she had said to correct her.
One time they spent the whole day growling "friend" to each other.
Toothless couldn't be happier.
And Hiccup couldn't be happier when, a whole week later, Conall had finally come to his senses and agreed to teach her what she now knew as Scottish.
Of course, he didn't agree without "a few" conditions that ended up being a lot of conditions. The only ones Hiccup cared to remember was that they would meet up earlier to cover at least an hour. They had changed their meeting place for the night, so it would be closer to his farm and he didn't have to walk that much on the forest so late.
Hiccup still didn't understand what he had against the night forest, but she was no one to judge, and she was in no position to argue about it. She really needed those lessons.
With their meeting place moved, Hiccup decided they should move the camp too. On Toothless' bright side, the huge field they had found was now closer and they were now more far from the village, so there were less possibilities of getting caught.
On Toothless' not-so-bright side, Conall was now allowed to their camp, and he should not be allowed to their camp.
Hiccup had calmed him down, saying it was just for emergencies. But… Conall ended up there almost every night.
She had begun to get softer on him. Toothless had told her thousands of times, and she knew that, but she couldn't help it. Being rude wasn't really on Hiccup's nature, and it was harder to keep up the lie if she was spending more time with Conall. Five minutes of rudeness was okay, but an hour? That was just… not her.
Hiccup had sworn to Toothless he was just there so she could learn more about them. But she had talked to Conall about Vikings and about her time on Berk, even when she tried to avoid that theme.
But what she really tried to avoid talking about was dragons. It was kind of hard when your whole life circled around them.
It didn't help that Conall would purposely make her questions about dragons or Vikings on her Village. She had to answer him on his language, it slowed down the peace in which she talked, and made her really think through what she was going to say, but it made her talk, nonetheless.
It had been two weeks since she began speaking Scottish, and a whole month of Dragonese. And at this point she didn't know in which one she was worse at.
"So this, um, Nadder you said? How are they?" Conall asked her.
"Uh…" was all Hiccup could answer at the moment, she looked at the fire that illuminated her little camping site. What could she say that wasn't hard or dangerous to say? "They are tall, not the biggest dragon but… their fire is the most… intense? Yeah, intense. Even when they are from the Sharp class and not Stoker," Hiccup said, thinking on other things she could say about them with words she knew and not give up that much information.
"Hum… they… they like when you smooth their spines." Hiccup said that one without fear, because: what kind of Viking on all of their good senses would pet a Deadly Nadder's tail?
"They have spines?" Conall said with raised curiosity.
"Well, yeah, they are Sharp class."
"I have no idea what you mean with class,"
"Oh, you know, a classification?" Hiccup said, now on Norse.
"No, I know what that means, but you classify them?"
"Yes?" Hiccup said, thinking it weird if they didn't, "there is Sharp class, Stoker class, Boulder class, Fear Class -that I personally like to call Mystery class, but that is another subject all together." She said to drive the conversation away from that theme.
"Okay, then… spines?" Conall said back in Scottish.
"Yes," she said, switching too, "on their tails, and they can shoot them at will. They are… poisonous? They can paralyze you and even kill you… both because they are sharp and for the poison."
Conall nodded at her, encouraging her to continue. Hiccup kept thinking, what else?
"They just have two legs and two wings. A long horn on the nose and a crown of spikes." She gestured as she talked, showing numbers with her fingers and mimicking the horn with her arms and the crown with her hands.
"Hey, not bad." Conall congratulated her, back on her language.
"Thank you," Hiccup said smiling a little cocky, "I told you I learn fast."
"Yeah, you were right," he admits, "but your accent still shows a lot," he said with a playful grimace.
"Little steps Conall," she said.
"So, do all Vikings know this classification thing, or is it just your Village?"
"Every Viking inside the Barbaric Archipelagoes learns the dragon classifications on Dragon Training." Hiccup said.
"I thought you were the only one who trained dragons?"
"I am. Dragon Training is where we got trained to kill dragons."
Conall grimaced, "not your favorite subject, is it?"
"No," Hiccup lowered her head, her mood significantly lowering too. She stared at the fire for a short while, "all my life I wanted to be old enough to be on Dragon Training," she admitted, "but… just the day I decided I didn't want to kill dragons my dad had the great idea to get me started."
"Oh," Conall said, a little awkward, "and… the other Vikings? The ones outside the archipelagoes? You had said that any of you had a lot of interactions with them, do they know about it?"
"Yeah, of course they know. That we don't interact with them doesn't mean we don't communicate." Hiccup said, resting back on one hand and gesturing with the other, "Word gets spread with traders, inside and outside of the Archipelagoes. And we've got a book, the Dragon Manual, everything we learn about dragons is in there, it began generations ago with the first Vikings to set foot on the Barbaric territory."
Hiccup gestured widely, happy to tell that story, "Actually, Gobber, the guy who thought me to blacksmith is the great-great-great grandson of Bork the Bold,"
"Bork the Bold?" Conall said, almost laughing.
"Yes, don't laugh about it," Hiccup leaned forward a little, "he is the guy who started it all, thanks to his research we have the Dragon Manual, he is the one who came up with the classifications. And Gobber is the one who trained us on Dragon Training."
"Same guy for different jobs?"
"It's a small Village," Hiccup shrugged. "Copies of that book had been sent out across the Barbaric tribes and out of the Archipelagoes. Each of us had been adding to it through the years as new dragons had been discovered or we learn new things about them."
Hiccup made an awkward pause, "Honestly… Vikings don't read that much, there is few of us who actually enjoy it. Lot of the information gets passed from generation to generation as parents tell us their stories, so there isn't really that much copies out there."
"You should write one," Conall said out of the blue.
"What?" Hiccup was taken aback by his comment.
"A book," Conall explained, "with all the things you know about dragons."
"Yeah…" Hiccup looked away, rubbing the back of her neck, "maybe."
The boy looked up at the darkening sky, "It's getting late, I need to go." He stood up and gave a few steps away before turning back to Hiccup, "Tomorrow you'll tell me about all that dragon classification thing, you better practice."
Hiccup smiled and nodded, "Sure, see you tomorrow," Conall waved at her and left. She sighed tiredly, well, at least he had warned her for the next day's conversation. Now she could plan out what she was going to say.
Hiccup turned around and found a very angry Toothless looking at her, "Oh, come on. Get that face off, he is already gone."
"You keep telling him about fire-people."
"He asked," Hiccup shrugged, standing up to get ready for their night flight.
"But you said you weren't!" the dragon growled accusatory.
"Toothless, calm down. It's not like I'm telling him how to get close to a dragon. It was just a dragon's description."
"No. It was not." Toothless snarled.
"Hey, don't snarl at me." Hiccup quickly got on the defensive.
"You are doing exactly what you said you wouldn't do!" his snarls got louder, his wings instinctively raising up to make himself bigger. But he could not intimidate her.
"Well, what if I am?" Hiccup yelled back, "I don't want to be the only one who knows dragons are good, this is the reason why I wrote the book in the first place!"
"And look how well that turned out," Toothless growled.
"It's not going to be like that," Hiccup said harshly.
"I don't trust him!"
"I do." Hiccup said and Toothless got quiet, the girl began to calm down, thinking she had just put an end to the conversation, but the dragon squinted at her.
"You… Do you like him?"
"What?"
Toothless sniffed her, "You do! You want him as a mate!" he said accusatory.
"What in Helheim are you talking about? NO!" she said disgusted.
"Don't lie, you smell."
"Smell?" Hiccup asked and was very tempted to smell herself to see what the dragon was talking about, but no, that was ridiculous. "You don't smell if you like someone? And I DON'T like him! I can barely tolerate the guy!"
"We both know that's a lie," he hissed, "and you can smell, all animals smell when they want to mate."
"I don't want to- stop saying that!" Hiccup yelled, her cheeks burning red, but the dragon just looked away annoyed. "Okay, you know what? No flight tonight."
Toothless' eyes grew big in surprise, turning his head and staring at her for a few seconds. The dragon squinted, not believing what she just said.
"I'm serious." Hiccup said determined. Toothless huffed and turned away. "And where do you think you are going?"
"Somewhere away from you and your smells!"
"Okay, fine! Leave, you big baby!" Hiccup sat in front of the campfire, arms and legs crossed as she began to mumble to herself between huffs.
"Like him!" she scoffed, "as if!" she took a stick and poked at the fire, "as if I'm gonna like an over pretentious know-it-all that think he is smarter just because he knows more languages."
Hiccup waved the stick around, putting her free hand on her chest, "I know multiple languages too, not just Norse. I know French and Latin… a little bit… and I'm learning Dragonese that is way harder than any of those, mind you." She finished her last sentence looking at where Conall had walked off, directing her words to him.
"Your accent still shows," she mocked him, "like if his didn't. Accent. I don't even have an accent."
Did she have an accent?
Hiccup knew her voice got… harsher, when she was angry, enough to begin sounding like her dad and Goober and the older Vikings of Berk. But did she really have an accent?
"Do I have an accent?" she asked Toothless, raising her eyes from the flames and searching for the dragon, forgetting for a moment that he had walked off.
"Agh, what a baby," Hiccup poked at the campfire again, a little harsher than she intended, making red-hot sparks burst out of the flames.
"I'm a human, of course I'm going to make some human friends…" She said to herself and to the no-present dragon. Hiccup froze for a moment, when she finally snapped out of it, she shook her head and corrected herself, "No. Not friends, Conall is not my friend. He's… he is an ally. Yeah, he is an ally."
"I'm planning on staying away from humans! From everyone! I'm just doing it so in the future it can just be the two of us!" Hiccup sighed and slowly stopped pocking the fire, she raised the stick and stared at the burning point. She was doing this for the two of them.
There had been times when she had done things just for herself. She had been selfish before, many times she had made decisions to protect herself first, and Toothless and others second. She had tried to change. And she had… at least a little.
But there had been times before when Toothless had warned her of her actions, and she had ignored it. And she had paid for it. They had paid for it.
When she decided to jump inside that pirate ship, when she stepped and stayed in that first town, when she began the book of dragons. All those times and more it had backfired one way or another.
And he had always been right. Maybe Toothless was right this time too. He was just trying to protect her, since they became friends his only goal was to take care of her. And all she had done was be mad at him. Maybe she should apologize?
No. Hiccup knew he wouldn't apologize for anything. Neither will she.
And speaking of the king of the Nine Realms. Toothless walked back to the camp, Hiccup lowered her hand, back to poking on the fire. She ignored him. And Toothless ignored her too, sitting on the other side of the camp, firing up a patch of grass and lying on its ashes.
But, if Hiccup remembered correctly, the dragon said that part of the camp was uncomfortable. It didn't take Toothless too long to regret his decision. He stood up, moved a few feet to the side, and rested down again.
Inside Hiccup's mind, she was still arguing with herself if she should apologize or not. Part of her said yes and get this stupid fight over already. She was getting cold and Toothless being around her would make her a lot of favor.
The other part was asking: why? Why would she even apologize for? 'Sorry' didn't even exist in Dragonese, dragons don't care if you say that so why is she going to say it? And why has she always had to be the adult in the situation? Toothless was the one making drama, he should be the one apologizing.
The dragon stood up again, walked a few feet closer, and laid down again. After a few seconds his head bolted up and turned to Hiccup, but she was still pocking the fire, lost in her own thoughts. The dragon rested his head over his paws as fast as he had raised it.
A few minutes had pass and he moved again. Little by little he began to move closer and closer until he was just a meter away from Hiccup, resting closely at her left. Not even a minute had pass since he last rested down when he raised up his head.
"Are you still mad at me?" Hiccup didn't answer, "fuzzy?" he purred.
"No," Hiccup said, and it was true, she was not mad. She was just annoyed, and it was clear on her voice.
"That's not true," Toothless said and rolled on his back so he was now pushing his head and neck on her, "Fuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyy" he whined, nudging his head on her side.
A smile began to play on her lips as her side began to tickle, "What?" she asked, trying to keep sounding annoyed, but it was hard to do.
"Don't be mad at me,"
"I'm not mad," Hiccup said, "you just annoyed me."
"That's the same,"
"No, it's not."
"Do you still like me?"
Hiccup smiled softly, her shoulders relaxed, and she let down the stick she had been pocking at the fire with.
"Buddy, I love you." She said warmly. Toothless purred and nuzzled against her, Hiccup rubbed his neck, making the purrs louder.
"Do you like him?" the charm broke.
"No," Hiccup said disgusted and moved away. Why did he had to bring it up again?
"Don't go," Toothless purred sadly, rolling to his tummy.
"I'll stay if you stop talking about him."
"Okay," He quickly agreed and got to his feet to move closer to her and curl tightly. Hiccup sighed and rested her side on his neck, her arm hugged him as she softly scratched his scales. The dragon purred lightly as he faded off into sleep.
He didn't demand for a flight or nicely asked for one. He didn't say sorry, but he did respect her decision on the no-flight thing, and he had been the one who got closer to her. And now Hiccup wondered if that had been his way on apologizing.
She still didn't understand that well some dragons' behavior. The "sorry" thing, being one thing that had always stuck up to her. Hiccup could understand how you could show someone you were sorry through actions but inside the dragons' mind it was a little… different.
Back when they were spending their first winter on the dragon's nest, some of them had taken her stuff and had made up to it by giving her other human stuff that wasn't hers or just giving her something else completely useless, like a pile of leaves or a stick. It happened a lot, and they had apologized on they own way but… it wasn't really that efficient, on her point of view.
Hiccup closed her eyes, letting that be a problem for tomorrow. She could use for a whole night of sleep.
…
The next morning Toothless and Hiccup had come into an agreement. Toothless had promise not to butt into her conversations with Conall, as he had done several times already. And she had promise not to talk about dragons.
At first, she had worried and wondered how she was going to ignore the dragon-related questions, but right now she saw it was going to be quite easy since he wasn't shOWING UP!
The sun kept moving on the sky and all Hiccup could do was watch the shadows of the trees grow as time passed. She let out an irritated sigh, after a whole hour had passed, and stood up.
"You know what? Let's go." Hiccup said, making Toothless stop chasing squirrels and run to her. "I guess the day is just going to be for the two of us." She smiled as the dragon took a playful position.
"Run?" he asked, "run, run, run." It quickly turned into a chant as the dragon drummed the ground with his paws.
Hiccup laughed, "I don't know, I was more in the mood to…" she cleared her throat and clicked her tongue three times, "Fly"
Toothless completely froze for a moment, he had never trach her that word. Slowly, a gummy smile began to appear on his face, his tongue looping out. He began to drum his paws on the grass again, swinging his tail in excitement.
Hiccup laughed again, "I suppose I said that right," the dragon cooed, and Hiccup leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees to be at the dragon's eye level "but you don't have your saddle on, I race you to the camp."
Toothless immediately raced off, as always. His tail swung after him, hitting Hiccup on the back of her head and taking her down, as always.
"That's cheating!" Hiccup yelled from the ground. She stood up with a groan and chased him up as quick as she could. She still didn't know if he did it on purpose or not, either way, she knew he wouldn't regret it.
That day was a rather calm one. They flew close to the trees for a while as they got away from the towns they knew, and then they really could get to fly.
It had been a long while since they didn't fly like that. So on the open, without hiding, and without a worry. With the heat of the sun kissing their skin as the chill air rushed pass them. They flew to the clouds and flew among them.
There was still something missing. And they both knew what it was: there were no other dragons around to fly with them. But that didn't mean it wasn't fun. And it did not mean they couldn't make things more interesting.
"I got an idea." Hiccup said, unplugging herself from the saddle and getting her feet off the pedals. Toothless looked back at her with a worried expression, "Let's fall," she said, crouching on his back.
"What?" before he could say it was a bad idea, Hiccup jumped off the saddle, "Fuzzy!"
"Woooooohoooooooo!" was the only thing he could hear from her. Toothless tucked his wings and fell too. He knew the winds and he knew his wings, so he easily -but not as easily as he would want to- moved to be closer with Hiccup.
She was completely upside down, cutting the air as an arrow on her way down, a smile not fading from her face. Toothless got closer and looked at her with an annoyed grumble, but she just laughed. The dragon tilted his head, curious at the girl's decision.
If he remembered correctly, she had been quite afraid of falling down their first times flying. And now here she was. Jumping off and falling free style on the air. A place that was totally not her element.
Toothless smiled, showing her his gums. No, this was totally her element. She may have not grown up on it, but she had grown up to own it. He looked down to the ground, it was still too far away but he was not taking any chances.
"Too close," he said and turned around, giving Hiccup his back. She reached out for the saddle and pulled herself to her place. A moment later they were soaring over the cliffs and trees, quickly gaining height again to return to the clouds.
Hiccup's heart was still pounding fast and hard against her chest, a smile on her lips fired up by the adrenaline. And Toothless could hear it, he could hear her heart and her heavy breathing.
And he could feel she wanted to do it again.
But as fun as it had been, and as much as he loved seeing her smile like that. He knew that they were NOT going to do that anytime soon.
"Fall," Toothless said. Hiccup caught her breathe on his back first, her brain quickly coming back to reality.
"Fall," she said, growling a little and them making a few clicks on her own human way of Dragonese.
"Fall," Toothless agreed, happy and proud of his human. She was quickly catching up on his language. She had even said a word he never thought her! Maybe he should teach her more words? Even harder ones! "Not fall," he said next.
"Oh, come on!" Hiccup whined.
"Not fall," Toothless repeated, "dangerous."
"Like if you didn't like it," Hiccup said, leaning forwards.
"Dangerous," Toothless said, pretending to be bothered but so obviously smiling.
Hiccup rolled her eyes, "Not fall, dangerous." She said between clicks and growls.
"Good! Don't forget that one!" Toothless said, knowing it would annoy her more.
"Hey, and how do you say: 'You are a dumbass'" Hiccup said, leaning forwards once again. Toothless growled and shook his head to smack her his ear. "Aw!" Hiccup quickly sat back, caressing the sore spot.
"You dumbass," Toothless said either way, and Hiccup had the feeling he meant it.
"You dumbass," She repeated.
"No, you dumbass" the dragon corrected her.
"Dumbass," Hiccup said again.
"No, you are saying it wrong, dumbass."
"Are you insulting me, or are you correcting me?"
"Both," he said, Hiccup put a hand on her chest pretending to be upset. "Let's just leave that one for latter, what else do you want to know?"
"Uh…" Hiccup thought about it for a moment, looking around to find something she would want to know the name of. But right now they were just surrounded by clouds, and she already knew that word. A smile slowly grew on her face, "what about… jump?"
"Oh, that's easy." He said and cooed at her.
"Okay," Hiccup smiled and quickly crouched on his back again, "JUMP!" she said as she jumped off.
"NO!" Toothless roared, snapping his jaws at her to catch her, but the little Viking was way too far away, and he had no other option but follow her.
Hiccup laughed as he caught up. "That's a good word!" she yelled back at him, closing her eyes and feeling the air as it rushed by, opening her arms slightly and extending her fingers, a smile lingering on her lips.
The dragon smiled, as annoyed as he was, he loved seeing her this happy, this exited. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, it was a wide, sincere smile, filled with love and excitement.
Toothless drew a paw at her, he hesitated a little but patted her shoulder lightly, making her twirl. She panicked a little at first but laughed as she spun on the air slowly, she stopped just in front of him.
Hiccup looked at the ground approaching. "too close?" she asked, using full Dragonese. The dragon agreed and turned around for her to hop in. this time they flew back to the ground. Landing on a clearing.
"I'm starving," Hiccup said, sliding off Toothless before they landed. "What about-" She turned to Toothless, but he swept his tail under her feet, taking her to the ground. "Ow!"
"That's for jumping off again," Toothless said, walking off, "start a fire, I'm going for food."
"Yes, sir." Hiccup said without too much enthusiasm, rubbing her butt as she stood up. "Fire…" she muttered, then began to mess around, growling and making clicks with her tongue as she searched for good sticks for the campfire.
"Start fire," she said in Dragonese, "staaaaaart fire. Fire, fire, fire." She kept on saying again and again as she did her job. At this point she as going to learn Dragonese faster than Scottish.
"Little Viking fire," Hiccup said, kneeling on the grass and preparing the campfire, "Toothless food,"
After she set it on, she allowed herself to lay back on the grass as she waited for Toothless, knowing his part of the job as going to take longer. Maybe they should had brought food before they flew off their camp.
Hiccup sighed, boringly looking up at the sky, fully knowing she was not going to fall asleep. She had plenty of that last night. "Little Viking fire, Toothless food." She repeated and added, "Conall dumbass."
She shook her head, not wanting to talk about him. If Toothless heard her he would start a tantrum again.
"That's for jumping off," she mocked him. Her butt still hurt.
"Little Viking no fall, no jump," she said, "dangerous, Toothless mad." Hiccup closed her eyes and said again, "Little Viking no fall, no jump. Dangerous, Toothless mad." She sighed and added a new phrase for her new mantra, "Toothless dumbass, Toothless like fall."
Still with her eyes closed she repeated, again and again the same words: "Little Viking no fall no jump. Dangerous, Toothless mad. Toothless dumbass, Toothless like fall." She kept saying it over and over until the words began to catch a meaning for her brain, and they stopped being words, they were full sentences.
"I'm not going to fall or jump. It's dangerous and Toothless gets mad. Toothless is a dumbass, he still likes to fall."
"Little Viking is a dumbass, she always does dangerous things. She is going to stop doing them."
Hiccup nodded and repeated, "Little Viking dumbass, Little Viking do danger-" she suddenly opened her eyes, "HEY!" she raised on her elbows, looking at her dragon as he let down his pray and hiss-laughed in his own dragon way.
"That was uncalled for," Hiccup said sitting up.
"You still say it wrong,"
"I thought I was finally getting it right."
"No, you are missing the feeling,"
"What?" Hiccup asked confused, what had the feeling to do with pronunciation? "okay, whatever. What are we going to eat?"
"You this," he said, tossing her a squirrel and sitting by a quite large deer, "me this."
Hiccup looked between the two prays, specially at the size difference. "seems fair." She said and pulled out her knife. "Just don't mess up the antlers, I can sell those."
In a few hours the two of them had already eaten, walked off the little camp, and found a new way to entertain themselves.
At that moment both were tiredly floating on a large lagoon, Hiccup resting on Toothless stomach on her underwear. Her clothes were waiting for her on the shore alongside Toothless saddle.
"How do you say… Free fall" Hiccup said slowly.
"We weren't going to do more of those." Toothless warned her.
"Okay, okay." Hiccup accepted her defeat, "How do you say…. Eel."
"I don't like them,"
"I know you don't, bud." She said, "but I want to know how they are called." Toothless growled shortly, "okay…" Hiccup thought about it for a moment and then repeated the word.
"Eel," Toothless approved with a grumble so she kept talking, "Then… Toothless not…" Hiccup thought a second, "how do you say 'like'?" he purred, "Thank you." She said before continuing: "Toothless not like eel, Fire people not like eel, also Little Viking not like eel."
"They are disgusting."
"Yeah, they are… disgusting." Hiccup said in Dragonese.
"Not bad," Toothless congratulated her, twisting his head to look at her.
"Thank you," she said proudly.
Toothless let his head float on the water again. "If you want to go back on time to meet with Conall we should be going back now."
Hiccup raised on her elbows, "and since when you care if I'm in time to meet with Conall?"
"I don't," the dragon quickly said, "but you do, today you seemed a little disappointed he wasn't there." Before Hiccup could complain about how she was absolutely not disappointed, Toothless asked, "Should we get going?"
"Nah, he didn't come on the morning, now he's going to miss the night too. We'll see him tomorrow." Hiccup decided, laying her head over her crossed arms. "Besides, I rather being here with you," she said, and the dragon purred in agreement.
Hiccup smiled and scratched his exposed neck, the dragon purred in delight, and she scratched him faster, for a moment both of them forgetting they were floating in the middle of a lake, until Toothless moved the wrong way, making himself breathe in water, and Hiccup to fall on the lake.
She managed to swim back to the surface, where Toothless -still snorting water- was already waiting for her, close enough for her to reach. Hiccup breathed heavily and held up to Toothless to don't sink.
"You really need to learn to swim,"
"Yeah, probably." Hiccup said, pulling herself to his back, "You okay?" the dragon snorted again, "we should get off the water anyways, I need to get dry before we fly back."
They…. Well, Toothless swam them to the shore. Where Hiccup finally step on ground and twisted her hair, wringing out the water. She then took her waist band and used the cloth to dry herself. It was a quite slow process of drying that Toothless still didn't understand. The Night fury simply shook his body, sprinkling the water off his body… and unfortunately…
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, covered in water again she shook her arms to get some of it off. The dragon laughed at the sign, even after she gave him her version of a murdering look.
Hiccup smiled and shook her hands to get some of the water on the dragon's face. Toothless huffed, shaking his head, not liking the take back. The girl laughed softly, and each went to do their own thing.
After Hiccup was dry, she walked to Toothless and sat at his side. Crossing her legs and slipping inside her blue long-sleeved shirt that she had grown quite fond of.
"Why you always change skins?" Toothless asked, looking at the blue shirt and brown trousers.
"I already told you," Hiccup said, making a small braid on her left side, "We can't run around naked, because it's weird and cold. And if our clothes get too dirty, we have to wash them, and if they get too small, we have to change for bigger ones."
"But you already cleaned the other ones," he said, "Why not use them again, they still fit you."
"Yeah but… they are too torn apart already, comes with the 'living with dragons' repercussion." she said, pulling her hair back to braid it the usual way. "besides, I like this one."
"I liked more the other one," he said a little upset, "Wont this one get bad too?" he asked, Hiccup's hand slowly lowered from the back of her head as she realized that he was right.
"Yes…" she said, stretching the word, "but, that's why I'm not planning on using it when we get back with dragons, just when I'm around humans."
"But we are not around humans…" Toothless said a little suspicious, "what are you planning?"
"What? Nothing," she said, picking up her hair again. She stopped and after a second of thinking she let it loose and made another tiny braid on the side of her head, this time on the right. "It's just in case I ever have to step inside a village or town. I don't want them to think I live on the wilderness."
"You do live on the wilderness,"
"They don't have to know that," Hiccup said, tying the two braids on the back of her head, "it can rise too many questions." Hiccup smiled, spreading the lose hair on her back.
Toothless purred and twisted his head at Hiccup's new look. He stood up a little and began to sniff her head.
Hiccup laughed, "bud, what are you doing?" he buried his nose on her lose hair with a loud purr that tingled her neck. "Toothless!" she laughed, twisting to get off the dragon's reach.
"Fuzzy," was all the dragon said as he kept nuzzling against her hair. When he finally got off her, he snorted, "I do like this,"
Hiccup kept laughing, "Glad you do," she said and stood up, dusting off her clothes. She walked to the edge of the water and looked at her reflection, "It's been a long while since I don't have my hair lose." Toothless joined her reflection and the two observed quietly the water for a moment.
It was a beautiful little moment. It was so simple and mundane, and yet, Hiccup couldn't help to smile at it. As much as she missed Berk, she was happy of how much her life had turned because of that dragon.
The Night Fury locked eyes with her through their reflection, and somehow, Hiccup could feel he felt the same way. She smiled softly at him and he gave her a quite big toothless smile, accompanied with playful eyes and danger on the side. Her smile quickly disappeared.
"NO," Hiccup warned him, but she ended up on the water anyways.
Hiccup stood up, gasping of air, and dripping wet. She searched for the dragon, but he was already running away.
"TOOTHLESS! You-" she growled in Dragonese "you DUMBASS!"
"Now that's a perfect pronunciation!" he growled back from the distance and waited until she was done throwing curses to get close.
After a quite cold and wet flight back to their camp, Hiccup was forced to change back to her green clothing. It was already getting dark and cold, so the others wouldn't be dry for use that night. So much for the dragon's delight.
They picked up their dinner and flew to the cliff that overlooked their new territory. They watched the sunset together, admiring how the darkness began to take over the trees. Soon they were going to meet the sky again.
None of them tired of doing so, even when they had already spent most of the day flying. Hiccup often wondered how Toothless' wings never got tired.
But what was Hiccup wondering right now, hoping for, was if she would see Conall again tomorrow.
