Great news, we'll get to see a new POV this chapter. Hopefully I remained true to character.
After Toothless and I return to the canyon and unfuse, we agree that more work on the tail is needed. So I hang around for a bit. It's warm today and, still a little sweaty after my earlier exertions, I decide not to put my tunic and vest back on. One of these days I will have to figure out why I lose my tunic but keep my pants every time we fuse. (Though since I can only hang on to one piece of clothing, I'm glad it's my pants.) Granted they are rather tight. Maybe I'll start wearing a kilt when I'm not in the forge.
"So, Shade Fury?" Toothless projects.
"We need to be called something, don't you think? The name those Terrors used is an apt description."
"Do you think two-legs big-horns will use it?"
"If they hear the name, maybe? It's easier for me, anyway. Humans give things names to better identify them. It's why I gave you a name." Something suddenly comes to mind, "Toothless, did you have a name before you met me?"
Toothless tilts his head. "When we need to identify another, we project the idea of the one we look for. If you were to… trans-late? Yeah, translate, I would just be Night-wing, but I prefer Toothless." He pauses momentarily. "By the way, what does Toothless mean?"
I freeze up. Well, he was bound to learn of this sooner or later. "I called you Toothless because when I offered you fish the first time, your teeth were retracted into your gums." I gesture to my own gums for emphasis. "The name stuck when you did your gummy, toothless smile."
Toothless understands and narrows his eyes. "Are you telling me you named me 'has no teeth?'" He looks quite miffed, not that I blame him.
"If it helps, Berkian custom kinda requires us to give our kids hideous names. You want to know what my name means?" I slowly back away.
"It doesn't help, but keep trying." He lowers himself to the ground, looking ready to pounce. Great, any farther and I'll have to swim away.
I put the fin down next to me. "My name translates to 'runt of the litter.' I was born early and have remained smaller than the other members of my tribe because of it." I lie down, grass tickling my bare back. "Because of this, I've been seen as a mistake my whole life, I try to fix things by building devices that will let me be as good as them, but they either don't work or backfire in the worst possible outcome. It's a miracle nobody has died from my inventions." The stars are bright tonight. I stare at them until they grow watery and the light blurs. "That's how I became known in my village as Hiccup the useless. A very apt description." It must be starting to rain, despite the clear, cloudless sky. Drops trickle down my cheeks and into my hair. My throat feels tight. I swallow, hoping I'm not coming down with something. Maybe I should just go.
Toothless takes that moment to pounce. Good news, he doesn't crush me. Bad news, I am now pinned under an angry Night Fury. "You are not useless, Hiccup. Sure, you're smaller than other two-legs big-horns, but you shot me from the sky. Me! Nobody in your nest has even seen a member of my race, let alone had the opportunity to kill one at their leisure." Toothless presses his forehead against mine. "After letting me go, before I got to know you, I wanted to warn others of what you could do so you'd be stopped if one of your… inventions were used against us. The only thing that prevented me from ending such a monumental threat to the Queen and her subjects was my pride. One of the nest's strongest acknowledged you as a threat. The only other one I've acknowledged as a threat is this one." Toothless projects an image of Stoick the Vast taking on and winning against a Monstrous Nightmare with a shovel. "Remember this, Hiccup, behind this…" Did he just gesture to all of me? "Soft exterior," oh, he found a word for it, something nobody in my village has done, "lies a warrior, one that, given the right incentive, could tear down even the likes of the Queen." Toothless sits back on his haunches. "So promise me you'll stop calling yourself useless. Because you're not."
I'm not sure what comes over me, I just stand up and hug him. His scales are warm against my bare skin. Toothless wraps his arms around me, returning the hug. "Thank you, Toothless." I look up at him. "Thank you for being there for me, for being my friend." Toothless looks down at me, doing his gummy smile.
Then he ruins the moment by licking me across my face, and a slobbery one at that!
"Toothless!" I back up and wipe the slobber off. "What the Hel?!"
"Just because your name sucks doesn't mean mine has to." He bends down, ready to pounce. "Run, little two-legs sharp-eyes, and pray the Night Fury doesn't get you."
I don't get far before I'm pinned down by Toothless. Something wet, slimy, and ticklish runs from the small of my back to the nape of my neck. I try to suppress a full body shiver. He flips me over and I just feel the dirt sticking to my back. With my chest exposed to the vengeful dragon, he strikes.
I thought it was ticklish when he groomed my back, but this is even more effective. "Toothless, stop! That tickles!" I plead
"It's supposed to." He moves from my chest up to my face. He pauses mid-lick on my forehead. "I taste blood." He narrows his eyes. "Your forehead is red and swollen, with several lines across it." He sends me an image. It's odd seeing myself like this, but I see the bump and scratch marks. When I rub my forehead,I can feel the bump. I don't remember hitting anything with my face recently. And it's not sore, just itchy.
"I have been scratching it a lot lately." I rub the bump.
Toothless's breath blows my hair back. "Try not to scratch." He looks up. "You should head back."
I jog over to the boulder where I hid my vest, tunic, and boots. "We'll begin the healing process tomorrow." After dressing, I hug Toothless around the neck. "Thanks for today, and what you said. About me not being useless."
Toothless returns the hug with his arms and wings. "Never forget it."
Usually, when I vent my spleen on trees via battleax, it works like a charm. But even reducing a spruce to splinters does not ease the tension brought on by Hiccup and his unorthodox tricks in dragon training.
I don't understand it. Everything he does in dragon training should end with him in serious peril, or at least a little maimed. Instead he's taking down dragons barehanded and being praised. The first few times I thought it was a fluke of some sort, but I'm now convinced he's learned something new about our enemy. It wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't suddenly so secretive.
I heft my ax out of the tree and throw it at another well-used target. My ax strikes the spruce dead center, almost splitting it in two. But instead of calming me, it further kindles my Hiccup-shaped rage.
Every day, without fail, he leaves the village in the afternoon to go who knows where in the woods. When he returns, he goes straight to his house and remains there until he doesn't even show up then, not reappearing until dragon training the next day.
I toss my ax at a thick branch, slicing it right off the tree. One look at the smooth cut almost cheers me up before I start obsessing over Hiccup's sudden talent during dragon training again.
The last thing I saw him do that was out of the ordinary was when he snuck into the food stores with a basket and left it there. After he left, I entered the storage hut and found the basket full of freshly caught fish. At first, I was impressed with his haul until I'd realized these fish were deep-sea dwellers. How did Hiccup catch these without a boat?
I find my ax on its side in the foliage. My mind wanders to another of Hiccup's strange new habits.
He's also been scratching his forehead quite often for some odd reason. I might not have noticed had he not been bleeding from his forehead every other day.
I imagine my next target with Hiccup's face on it. My ax sinks deeper into the tree than intended and it takes a moment to yank it out from the wood.
I don't care if whatever Hiccup's doing is benevolent or malevolent. The only thing I know for sure is that Hiccup is hiding something. Something he doesn't want the village to know about, and I'm going to find out what. But how?
I pause mid-throw as a memory is recalled.
As Hiccup and I made our way to the village, the boy seemed flooded by a sudden rush of courage. "Hey, Astrid, is there any chance you could help me with dragon training?" I paused and looked back at him. I was still frustrated with Hiccup's proven ineptitude but curious about his sudden interest in improving. I guess he took what I said to heart.
"I'll think about it." I hefted my ax from one shoulder to the other and jogged into the forest for some peaceful solo training.
Hiccup wanted to train with me. Perhaps I'll use that to find out what he's hiding. I doubt Hiccup will say no. Despite what Ruffnut may think, I actually notice Hiccup and Snotlout's advances. Between the two, or anyone in my age group for that matter, Hiccup is my first choice. But only because he's the least objectionable option, not because I like him. I rub my temples, I've had this conversation with Ruffnut so many times my response is automatically tripped. Knowing what needs to be done, I continue training and plotting how I'll uncover Hiccup's little secret.
It's been a week since I called myself Shade Fury, and both myself and my components have greatly improved.
With the red Terror's memories, Hiccup manages to heal our tailfin to the point where I don't need the prosthetic to fly anymore. Toothless's tailfin spines still have some growing to do before a fin can be attached, unfortunately. But progress is progress.
Luckily, Hiccup has made far more progress. Thanks to some lessons from Toothless and the Windstriker memory stone in Hiccup's home, he's learned to control his soul fire in some rather impressive displays of wind and fire.
But as for me, I'm doing things with soul fire even the Queen might not know of. My greatest ability is my namesake shade, which allows me to become incorporeal. It's no trump card and has been difficult to figure out, let alone make practical. It is worth it though, the number of things I can do with my shade is near-infinite.
Ooh, I see some tuna in the strait, dibs! The fish don't stand a chance against my plasma. After snatching the sea-prey from the water, I land on one of the low but wide sea stacks. I balance on my hind legs and set the fish down. Before I light the fire, I glance at my unusually vivid reflection in the water.
My red, no, auburn hair has grown out, my sensory organs poking out of the messy locks. (I've learned the hard way that when hair sticks up, there's nearby lightning.) The hair makes a habit of covering my second set of green, slitted eyes, but as it barely hinders my vision I ignore it. My crescent-shaped memory stone shines with a deep blue color on my chest. Since my tail causes an imbalance walking on two legs, I've wrapped it over my right shoulder, under my memory stone, and back across my left. This has the end of my tail resting square in the middle of my back. The last thing I do is wrap my wings around my body to create a sort of cape.
Overall, if I had to use one word to describe my appearance, the word regal comes to mind.
As my attention goes back to my face, I notice a faint blue glow on my forehead.i climb down the seastack to get a closer look. Theres definitely some odd blue glow right in the middle of my forehead.
"What is that?" I crawl backward up the sea stack. Once I'm at the top, I unfuse into Hiccup and Toothless.
I look at two-legs sharp-eyes Hiccup, who is clearly as perplexed as I am by the glow on the Shade Fury's forehead.
"What was that glow?" I ask. Hiccup shrugs his shoulders.
"I don't know." Hiccup starts scratching his forehead again. Before I can reprimand him on his bad habit, I'm assaulted by a horrible sound. Like claws on stone. Hiccup stops scratching to cover his ears and the noise stops.
"What in the name of the Queen was that?!" Hiccup moves his hands from his ears to his forehead. Instead of scratching he starts rubbing the area and an odd squeaky sound emanates from it.
"Toothless." Hiccup's voice is full of panic now. "Is there something on my forehead?"
Hiccup moves his hair out of the way. Sitting there, right in the middle of Hiccup's forehead, emitting a faint green glow, is a round, faceted memory stone.
I hope you enjoyed that moment of bonding, I'm rather proud of that one. Those that saw the Image that came with the story should have seen this twist coming. Hiccup now has a memory stone on his forehead. lets see what happens.
Guest: Glad you liked it, I have mixed feelings about cliffhangers myself. Mixed because they are fun to write but anxious to read.
Fanreader26: It's a good name, kind of a Valkyrie image comes up. But I feel that kind of title is specific to female Nadder fusions. maybe it can be a name for a brigade of sorts, I'll hang on to it.
Meps: Thank you, I try. as for a picture of the Shade Fury, there should be one attached.
I hope the description of the Shade fury was satisfactory, and don't forget to review, I love hearing your feedback. Next chapter we'll see a ship.