Ch.3: Explanations

A couple of minutes passed and Rapunzel led Toothless to a secret entrance at the castle. The dragon had been sprinting like a panther through the forest for nearly 15 minutes, and was getting a bit tired with Rapunzel, Hiccup and Mari on his back.

"That was awesome! I didn't know you were that fast," said Rapunzel as she got off the saddle and went up to the entrance to open it. "Only I know about this entrance. I use it to sneak away from time to time."

She opened a door, revealing a staircase that led to an underground tunnel.

Toothless looked at the entrance and was luckily big enough for him to go through. They went through the door and walked through a tunnel.

When they reached the end of the tunnel, Rapunzel opened another door and they entered a hallway that seemed to lead straight for Rapunzel's room. They ran as fast as they could, Toothless being careful with the unconscious Hiccup on his back. When they reached the door, Rapunzel opened it and closed it as soon as Toothless got inside.

Unfortunately, they were spotted by two guards, who went to find the King to inform him.

At the throne room were the King, the Queen, the Captain of the guards and his daughter, Cassandra. They were discussing the flying object they shot down, but couldn't find when the doors opened and the guards, who spotted Rapunzel and Toothless, walked in.

"Excuse me, King Fredric. There's something you should know," said one of the guards, as he bowed to the King.

"If it's not about that flying object, I don't want to know about it, Stan," said King Fredric.

"Well, then I guess Rapunzel bringing a big, black thing with wings and a tail is not important," said the other guard, and everyone turned their attention to them.

"What did you say, Pete," asked the captain.

"We just saw Rapunzel leading something to her room," said Pete.

"Yeah, and it was big and black. It also had bat–like wings and a long tail," said Stan. "But the strangest thing was that it appeared to be carrying a boy on its back."

"I think it might be that object we shot down," said Pete.

"Do you think or are you sure," asked the captain.

"It doesn't matter. If there's something dangerous in the castle, we must take care of it," said King Fredric firmly and turned to Pete and Stan. "You two go back to your duties. We'll take care of that thing Rapunzel brought in."

"Yes, King Fredric," said both Pete and Stan with a bow and left the throne room.

"Let's go see Rapunzel," said the King firmly and everyone left the room.

It took them around 3 minutes to get to Rapunzel's room. King Fredric slowly opened the door so that everybody could see inside. They expected a lot of things, but they didn't expect to see a boy laying down on Rapunzel's bed.

"You're the cutest baby I've ever seen," came Rapunzel's voice and they opened the door a little bit ore and saw Rapunzel sitting on a chair, holding a baby, but they were frightened to see a black reptile laying down next to the chair.

Suddenly, a groan was heard and the reptile immediately went over to the boy on the bed.

"What happened," asked the boy as he slowly opened his eyes and the reptile started licking him. "Okay, okay, Toothless. I'm happy to see you, too. Wait a minute." The boy sat up and panicked. "Where's Mari?"

"Don't worry, she's been taking care of her," said Toothless.

"What are you talking about," asked Hiccup.

"Hi there," said Rapunzel as she slowly walked up to the duo with the baby still in her arms. "I think she's yours." She handed Mari to Hiccup and he hugged her.

"Thank Thor you're okay," said Hiccup softly.

"So, is she your sister," asked Rapuzel.

"Actually, she's my daughter," said Hiccup.

"Daughter," asked Rapunzel, confused.

"Yeah," nodded Hiccup. "By the way, thanks for looking after her."

"No problem. But I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Rapunzel, the Princess of Corona. What's your name," asked Rapunzel.

"I'm Hiccup," said Hiccup, and Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. "Don't ask. On Berk, parents believe hideous names will scare of gnomes and trolls."

"I take it this 'Berk' place is where you come from," asked Rapunzel and Hiccup nodded. "I can't say I've heard of it."

"Probably because it's a 2 or 3 days flying on a dragon," guessed Hiccup.

"I see. So what brings you to Corona," asked Rapunzel.

"To be honest, we weren't actually planning on coming here. We were just trying to find a place where Toothless and I could be accepted," said Hiccup sadly.

"Toothless," asked Rapunzel.

"Yeah. That's his name," said Hiccup, gesturing to the Night Fury.

"Why do you call him Toothless," asked Rapunzel.

"Show her, bud," said Hiccup and the Night Fury opened his mouth to show his gums.

"Wait, I swear I saw teeth earlier," said Rapunzel when suddenly Toothless brought his teeth out. "Retractable teeth? That's amazing. He's amazing!"

"You know, I'm surprised you're not scared of him. I mean, he is a Night Fury," said Hiccup and Rapunzel looked at him.

"Of course I'm not. Toothless is the first dragon to ever come to Corona," said Rapunzel.

"Wait, so you don't suffer from dragon raids," asked Hiccup.

"No, we don't. Basically, nothing exciting ever happens around here," said Rapunzel. "But wait, you suffer from dragon raids where you come from?"

"Yeah. But i guess I should start from the beginning," said Hiccup and Rapunzel nodded and sat on the bed. "Okay, it all started 300 years ago when the war between dragons and Vikings started. I come from an island called Berk. We constantly suffer from dragon raids. A few weeks ago, during a dragon raid, I shot Toothless down. Nobody believed me so went to look for him by myself and I found him tied up in ropes by an invention I made. I was gonna kill, but then I looked in his eyes and I saw myself. I saw that he was just as scared as I was so I let him go. He bounced on me and I thought he was going to kill e, but he let me live. Unfortunately, the fall damaged his tail, so I made him a prophetic tailfin that I need to control in order for him to fly. We had a little bumpy start, but we eventually became best friends."

"Wait, if the people on Berk killed dragons, wouldn't that mean that they would kill Toothless as well," asked Rapunzel a little frightened.

"Without a doubt. Especially since he's a Night Fury and to Vikings, the Night Fury is also known as the unholy offspring of lighting and death itself," said Hiccup.

"But why didn't you kill him. You would've been a celebrity," asked Rapunzel.

"I just couldn't do it. If I did, I'd never forgive myself. Besides, I already was a celebrity," said Hiccup in a hurt tone and tears started to form in his eyes.

"Really? Why," asked Rapunzel and Hiccup couldn't take it anymore, and got off the bed.

"Because of being me! Look at me. Vikings are supposed to be big with a lot of muscles, but I'm not! I'm small and weak. I was bullied, called names, tormented ever since my mother was taken away by dragons and that happened when I was still a baby! Everybody called me 'Hiccup the Useless'. My own cousin gave me that name. My father didn't care about me. He didn't let out of the house. I was a walking disaster of nature! I wanted to proof so bad that I can be one of them. I asked my father to give me a chance, but he refused. But everything changed when I met Toothless. When I let him go, I realized that I couldn't and would never hurt a dragon, but just then my father decided to grant me my wish and put in dragon training with the other teens."

"What's more important for a father than to look after his son," asked Rapunzel.

"Taking care of the village since he's the chief," said Hiccup.

"Chief? That means he rules, right? Kind of like a king," asked Rapunzel and Hiccup nodded. "And if you're his son, then that makes you the prince of Berk."

"Yeah, you could say that," said Hiccup.

"Okay, but why did you run away," asked Rapunzel, confused.

"Because I got at the top of the class in dragon training, but I didn't hurt the dragons. I used tricks I learnt from Toothless," said Hiccup. "I was chosen to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, but I knew that would never happen so I left with Toothless to look for a place where we could be accepted."

"So you ran away since you couldn't kill the Nightmare," asked Rapunzel.

"Not quite. I ran away so I could protect Toothless," said Hiccup. "Sooner or later, someone was gonna find him and I just couldn't let that happen. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him."

"That explains a lot of things, but where does your daughter come in all of this," asked Rapunzel.

"A few hours after we left Berk, we found her abandoned on an island and I just couldn't leave Mari like that so Toothless and I took her with us," said Hiccup.

"Who would abandon their child just like that," asked Rapunzel, irritated.

"I bet it were Vikings. I can't think of anyone else," said Hiccup.

"Those Vikings sound like the only things they know about are being tough and killing innocent dragons," said Rapunzel.

"I'm starting to think the same," said Hiccup.

"I can't believe how badly you were treated by your own people ad your father didn't do anything about it," said Rapunzel.

"I swear if I ever see one of those Berkians again, I'll make sure they pay dearly for what they've done to you," said Toothless angrily and Hiccup chuckled quietly.

"I don't want you to do that, bud. If you do, you'll just proof their point about you guys being mindless beasts," said Hiccup and noticed Rapunzel looking at him strangely.

"Did you understand him," asked Rapunzel.

"Yeah, after we left Berk I've been able to understand what he says," said Hiccup as he petted Toothless on the head.

"That's incredible," said Rapunzel.

"I know. By the way, sorry about earlier," said Hiccup. "I didn't mean to explode like that. It's just, I couldn't take it anymore."

"That's okay. I understand," said Rapunzel and Hiccup fell on his knees and burst into tears.

Rapunzel couldn't just watch him like this and gently hugged him, which surprised him a little. Toothless walked up to them and wrapped his wings around them.

"Thank you," cried Hiccup. "I was never actually hugged before."

"Hiccup, I promise that I won't let those Vikings cause you harm again," said Rapunzel softly when she suddenly got an idea. "Wait, you could stay here!"

"What," asked Hiccup as he broke free from the hug. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, I'll just talk to my parents. I' sure they'll allow you, Toothless and Mari to stay at the castle," said Rapunzel happily and this tie it was Hiccup who hugged her.

"Thank you so much," said Hiccup. "No one has ever done something nice for me before."

"No problem," said Rapunzel.

"There's no need to talk to us," came a voice and the trio turned around, and saw Rapunzel's parents, Cassandra and her father standing at the doorway with narrowed eyes and Toothless stood protectively in front of Hiccup and Rapunzel, growling at the four unfamiliar people.

"Toothless, calm down. Easy, bud," said Hiccup as he stood in the dragon's eye view and scratched his scales, calming the Night Fury down. "It's okay. They won't hurt us."

"They better not if they don't want to be blasted," said Toothless, still glaring at the four people at the doorway.

"Hiccup, is Toothless okay," asked Rapunzel.

"Yeah, he acts like this when he sees danger or someone that might hurt me. He's just following his instinct to protect," said Hiccup.

"Wow! I guess having a dragon as a best friend is pretty amazing," said Rapunzel.

"You don't even know," said Hiccup.

"We're still here," said King Fredric, catching the teens' and the dragon's attention.

"Oh, right. So, for how long you've been standing there," asked Rapunzel.

"For the past couple of minutes," said Queen Auriana.

"So you heard what Hiccup and I talked about," said Rapunzel.

"That we did. What I want to know is why this boy was flying over Corona," asked the King, looking at Hiccup.

"In my defense, we weren't planning to fly here. Toothless, Mari and I were just passing by," said Hiccup.

"So you're not going to stay," asked Rapunzel sadly.

"Most likely not," said Hiccup, and Rapunzel looked sadder.

Hiccup was about to go up to the bed and pick Mari up, but Toothless suddenly jumped onto him, knocking him to the ground.

"Ouch! Toothless, what's gotten into you," Hiccup asked his dragon, but the Night Fury only stared at him when he suddenly started licking his rider. "Oh, okay, okay, Toothless. Okay, okay, I get it. We'll stay so stop licking me."

Toothless stopped covering Hiccup with saliva and got off his rider, and Hiccup got back on his feet.

"Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile. You know that doesn't wash out," said Hiccup, disgusted as Toothless laughed. "Yeah, yeah, embarrass me in front of the Royal family why don't ya?"

Rapunzel and her family watched the two's interaction with amusement. They've read about dragons in the books and they knew that they were ferocious, fire–breathing beasts, but what they're seeing was actually the complete opposite of what they knew.

"Mr. Hiccup, would you like to wait here with your dragon and your–," said King Fredric as he gestured to Mari.

"She's my daughter," said Hiccup.

"Daughter, right," sighed the King and looked at Hiccup. "Well, the three of you can stay here while me and my wife talk to our daughter in private in the throne room."

"Thank you, your highness," said Hiccup with a bow and the king nodded, and everyone exited Rapunzel's room, and Hiccup turned to Toothless as he picked Mari up. He couldn't believe that the baby was sleeping this entire time. "Well, guys, looks like we'll be staying here for a while."

Toothless growled happily and Hiccup laughed as he petted him on the snout.

To be continued…

Hi, everyone. Here's the 3rd chapter. I hope you liked the talk between Hiccup and Rapunzel. What will King Fredric and Queen Auriana decide? Will they allow Hiccup and Rapunzel to stay in Corona? Find out in the next chapter, which will be posted in November or December. Until then, have a nice day. See ya.

R&R