"When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, hath put a spirit of youth in everything." - William Shakespeare – Sonnet 98
Shame
Astrid came to visit a couple weeks after the Blott, and Stoick was out collecting firewood when she arrived at the door. Hiccup struggled with opening the door for a while before it finally complied and swung inward.
She quickly entered with a bag slung over her shoulder and briefly looked around.
"Is he here?"
No.
"Ok, I've brought something for you."
He stared at the bag, wondering what could possibly be inside. She reached in and pulled out scrolls and leather-bound books, which she then ran down the hall with and hid in his room.
"They're not much, just a few I found around the village. You'd be surprised how many people had them stored away, though they never used them of course."
He grabbed one at random and looked at the cover.
The Protective Properties of Purple Plants.
"I think that one is about plants from the mainland. Which ones are good for healing, eating, even curses…" she added with a grin.
Oh well, it's something to do with the time.
Thanks Astrid
How is everyone?
"Oh you know, staying warm. Doing all the usual fun things that we do in the winter."
So nothing
"Exactly. Hmm, have you tried to fly outside recently?"
Uh, not since flying through a cloud.
No
I had an accident last time
"Well, you are still in one piece. It cannot have been that bad."
You'd rather not know Astrid…
"I've been thinking about getting Stormfly up and about. She's been a bit jumpy since the feast. No one has actually tried to fly in this weather yet, as far as I know."
That sounds fun, it would be nice to get out of the house for a while.
"Do you think you'd like to also?"
Sure
Where to?
"I've never been up to the summit of Mount Thor. I think it could be fun to go up there. Cold, but fun."
He considered it. It certainly sounded fun, and any opportunity to be outside and to stretch his wings would be welcome.
Toothless might want to come too
"Sure, of course he can come. I'll be sure to bring some fish for you two. Umm, I've been wondering if you… if either of you can make fire."
I don't think so
He was trying but couldn't do it
"Did you try?"
He shrugged plaintively.
How
It makes no sense
"Yeah, I can only imagine. We can have Stormfly cook the fish for you then. Tomorrow?"
Yes.
She gathered the incriminating papers and slipped back outside. He settled back down by the fire with a random book under a paw. Maybe he would crack it open later.
Toothless stirred, took one glance at the thing he had, and went back to sleep with a grumble.
Toothless glanced out the window at the piles of white snow.
"You want flying? Why?"
"Get out of cave. Stretch wings. Astrid want flying."
Something felt strange about going flying in the coldest-season like this. There was no real need to do it now. Flying for fun was entirely appropriate in the warm-seasons when there was plenty of food.
"Does sire know?"
"No."
He looked outside again. There was no wind to make the bone-biting chill worse and the sun was out to warm his scales a little. Perhaps a short flight wouldn't be so bad.
"When we go?"
"Now."
Grr, not much time to stretch first.
He got to his feet regardless.
Hiccup struggled with the door again for a moment, and then they were both outside. Toothless started stretching his wings as soon as he could. It felt very good as he had not done so in preparation of flying in many moon-cycles.
Astrid, fully bundled with thick pelts completely covering her up, gloves on her hands, and a heavy scarf wrapped around her head, was waiting for them both at Stormfly's stable. However, the Nadder did not seem incredibly excited at being awake and out in the cold. Then she noticed both of them and got excited. She got to her feet and hopped over to them.
It was still a rather a new experience for Hiccup to be nuzzled and licked by a dragon as a dragon. Sure, Toothless had gently rubbed against him before, but this was rather different. She was humming deeply, and he could feel it in his chest. There was something protective and strangely comforting about it.
"Good girl, I think she likes you."
Oh, you think?
As if that wasn't enough, Toothless was chuckling at him.
"What funny?"
"Storm-Flier is being like your dam."
He shook off the thin layer of slobber and gave him a withering look. He barely resisted the urge to nip at Toothless's tail.
"Alright girl, ready to fly high today?"
Stormfly's hesitance was now completely gone, and she crouched down to let Astrid climb on. The three of them were aloft moments later. The snow-capped pines and bare trees passed smoothly as they flew on toward the mountain.
Even though there was no real wind to speak of, it was still very cold in the open air though not too cold for them to fly in. The worst of the winter was already over with after all.
Being back up in the air again after months of being stuck inside was very liberating.
He ended up flying alongside Astrid and Stormfly. It was his first chance in a long time to actually watch Astrid up in the air. It was clear that she and Stormfly were very well practiced at flying together.
Toothless roared and lunged at his tail, which he whipped out of the way just in time.
"Why?" he shouted over the wind.
The gleam in Toothless's eyes showed that he wanted to play.
Tag the tail eh… alright Toothless, you are on!
He dove down and around Stormfly. A quick glance behind him showed that Toothless was close on his tail. A quick dash followed up and over Astrid before flipping around. It was time to go on the attack. Their gazes locked for a split second.
He ducked under Toothless and stretched to touch his tail. His strike was too slow as Toothless whipped his tail out of the way.
Hiccup felt something brush against his own tail though.
What… grr…
He looped around and followed Toothless, his frustration lending speed to his flight. Toothless glanced back at him and dove for the trees. He followed closely behind as Toothless wove through the treetops.
It was a bit scary flying so close to the trees. One mistake, one stray gust, and either of them might crash into the trees with certainly terrible consequences.
Toothless roared in delight, tipped on his side, and dove through a gap in a pine. Hiccup stared in shock and surprise as Toothless vanished from sight.
He whipped around the tree himself, wary of the likely counterattack.
There looked like there was a dark shadow flying between the trees themselves, but he could not be sure.
Where is he?
He slowed down and listened carefully. Any flapping at all would be easy to hear, as was Stormfly's even now.
The first warning he had was a very faint whistle from behind. He reacted without thinking and pitched to avoid the strike.
Toothless flew past him and slowed to a glide next to him. There was no sign that he still wanted to play.
Both of them were rather winded.
"Better…" Toothless gasped.
He was too tired to respond himself.
At least I only got tagged once.
Stormfly flew over to them. He could not hear what Astrid was yelling over the wind.
I'll tell you about it later…
The rest of the flight up the mountain passed in relative silence and peace, except for one moment. Hiccup felt a shiver that had little to do with the cold when he passed Toothless's old lair.
They ascended higher until they were at the very peak of Mount Thor. The small flock circled the peak, looking for a place to land.
The three of them hovered for a moment before landing on the rocky, snow-capped clearing. A thin layer of ice covered the snow underneath in places. The rest of the clearing's packed snow was perfect to write in.
Hiccup walked over to the edge of the sharpest precipice. The entirety of Berk lay beneath him. The snow-capped trees leading up the mountainside, the ice-cold bays, even the wispy smoke-trails from the fires in the village were all visible. And the sight from the other side of the peak was no less spectacular. The island of Berk stretched out almost to the horizon itself, green specks peeking out from underneath the white blanket that covered the island. That was the deep forest which one rarely entered except to hunt.
They could just barely see the blue crescent of the ocean wrapping around the far side of the island.
"Wow, just look at that."
Astrid stood on the ledge next to him and looked out as well. She knew she was standing on special ground, on the highest place on the island. And it was likely that no one had ever been here before.
"Have you ever been here?"
No, he shook his head.
"So we are the first people to ever stand up at the summit of Mount Thor. I've never been here before now. Never thought to fly up here before."
The cold wind gusted in their faces.
"It's so beautiful up here. It feels odd though, like it is hard to breathe."
It can be hard to fly up high
Feels like I keep falling
Astrid held out a mittened hand and waved it through the air.
"There is nothing there, but what is wind? It can't be nothing. It must be something, something that wings can push on. Like… thin water. Does that make sense?"
He nodded vigorously.
I think about flying like swimming
But it feels like there is less there up here
"I guess there is a lot we don't know about the world."
Stormfly waddled over to them with a bugle of annoyance and snuggled up to Astrid.
"Hey girl, you doing well?"
Stormfly trilled happily and nudged her hand.
He then noticed something, a smell that was quite welcome since he had skipped breakfast this morning.
Fish?
"Oh right, one moment."
She took a couple frozen fish out of her bag and coaxed Stormfly to light some firewood as Toothless wandered over to investigate. He grumbled when he saw that he had to wait for the fish impaled on little sticks.
"I saw you and Toothless playing."
We were playing tag
"Oh, were you? It looked very fun. Is it tail-tag?"
Yes.
"That was amazing. I didn't know you were such good fliers already."
If only he could blush.
"Are there any other games that dragons play?"
Hide and seek
"Who is better, you or him?"
He nodded at the hunter who only had eyes on the impaled cod slowly roasting on a spike.
"I'm not surprised."
A minute elapsed while she let the fish cook.
"Hmm, looks like these are done."
She then handed the fish on a stick off to both of them, Hiccup's one having been de-scaled beforehand.
On the top of the world, eating fish, and with both Toothless and Astrid at his side, everything felt perfect. He thought about the coming year. Other tribes were going to come calling on Berk, perhaps with dragons of their own in tow. And when they did, he was sure to play a special role in establishing relations.
I wonder what will happen. Hopefully nothing bad like Mildew.
It was the first of Einmánuður, the month that marked the change from winter to spring. The weather had broken weeks ago. While winter had arrived suddenly one brisk afternoon, the thaw was very slow and gradual with tree buds bursting through the remaining ice on the branches and the grass and weeds pushing up through the slush of melted ice.
Stoick held a hammer and knelt on his knees on the side of his house. He carefully fitted a nail into the groove and swung his hammer.
Slam! Slam! Slam!
The remaining chill in the air notwithstanding, he wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped back to look at his handiwork. A pile of wood shavings and unused nails lay on the ground around his discarded saw. His fingers and palms hurt terribly, but his long project was finally completed.
The new door to Hiccup's room was finished.
It had a simple lever, push down to open and lift up to lock, and the periphery of the door had leather carefully fitted to close most of the cracks. The major difference between it and a normal door was of course that it was far wider, large enough for an adult Fury to enter through.
He still remained as determined as ever to find a fix for Hiccup. Even so, he was practical, and he knew there was nothing he himself could do for Hiccup right now. Months of watching Hiccup, and Toothless for that matter, sleeping by the fire and months of preparing food for them made an inevitable problem very evident.
They were both growing at an alarming rate.
They looked like they had each put on the weight of a ram from the first snow of winter to the first day when the icicles started melting. Not only that, but they had grown long enough that they did not both fit in the nest-like bed arrangement of blankets near the fireplace. He had to lay out a couple pelt blankets alongside each other, one for each of them next to the fire. Even with that though, their tails still stuck several feet out on the floor when they forgot to curl them in. He had almost stepped on Toothless's tail more than once, though that unpleasant encounter hadn't actually happened yet.
Unless something… magical… happened soon, or at least within a couple years, it was entirely possible that Hiccup would not be able to fit through the front door.
Though, Hiccup's room would definitely not be big enough if it ever came to that. With time, he would be able to build a larger room. It could actually be an enjoyable task. Something to lose himself in, something involving craftsmanship, honest work with his hands was something he knew and could appreciate.
He heard a hum from behind him. There was only one person that could be.
"Well, it's done. Give it a try."
Hiccup walked up to the door, grasped the lever, and gave it a tug. The door squeakily swung inward with a push.
"Go on, close it from the inside. See if it works."
Hiccup walked fully inside, turned about, and closed the door with a satisfying click. Just to check, he shoved at it as well and it did not budge. He repeated the process and found that it opened from inside just as easily.
He grunted in satisfaction. This would be far more convenient for when he and Toothless wanted to come and go.
"Alright, it works. Uh, I hope you like it."
Yes, he nodded.
He left and sought out Toothless to explain it to him. Toothless wanted to see it himself and was pleasantly surprised to learn how to work the two-leg cave-mouth thing. It was much easier than the other entrance to the cave, and they were both spending a lot more time out and about since the weather was getting far warmer.
The wild dragons had finally returned. One by one they filtered in to reclaim their preferred roosts on the island. Some of them were recognizable from last year and made themselves at home again in the village as though they had never been gone. With the arrival of spring and the dragons came a new problem.
Hiccup was woken up from an afternoon nap by the sound of roaring off in the distance. It sounded like a dragon fight.
What? Not again…
He had noticed that the dragons had been acting a bit stranger than usual in recent weeks. They seemed snappier and confrontational with each other. He couldn't remember them ever behaving like this last year. Even now, they tended to sit across from each other and growl. It had finally culminated in an actual fight that left a Nightmare limping away in defeat with several deep and bloody scratches.
It was quite disturbing seeing the vicious side of dragons again. Even though they were not trying to cause any damage, it was not hard to imagine a fight leveling a building, setting fires, or crushing someone by accident.
He rolled off his bed without disturbing Toothless and walked outside with a massive yawn. The noise seemed to be coming from a small clearing behind a barn on the edge of town. He flew a short distance and saw the two responsible Nightmares. He landed next to the clearing and prepared to dart out to try something.
His eyes bugged and he went completely stiff in shock.
The two Nightmares were actually a male and a female, and it was completely obvious what they were doing. There was no other reason why they would be completely wrapped up in each other's limbs and on top of each other.
He blinked and managed to look away while shaking his head in alarm. Doing so did not help with the sounds the two dragons were making. As far as he knew, no one had ever actually seen dragons in the act. And he had the… privilege… of being the first.
With an unintended squeal of alarm, he turned tail and ran back towards home. Only when the sounds somewhat died away behind him did he pause and catch his breath. And it all made sense now. It made sense why the dragons had been fighting; it had been the males fighting each other for status.
That's it. I'm scarred for life. Why… why would they do that! Right there!
Some of the people were coming out of their houses and heading toward the noise as well. He kept going right on back to home.
They have no idea what they are getting into…
He ran straight inside to his room and nudged Toothless awake. Toothless lazily opened one eyelid while groaning at being woken up.
"Toothless, why…"
He didn't know exactly what he was trying to say. This was not something that had ever precisely come up in his discussions with Toothless.
"Why what?"
"Not know how to say. Come, I show you."
Toothless reluctantly got to his feet and followed Hiccup outside. What could Hiccup possibly need to show him at this time of the day?
Hiccup brought him to a small clearing where he saw many two-legs and two mating fire-scales.
"Why?" Hiccup asked him.
"What?"
"Why are they... doing that..." Hiccup groaned while nodding at the pair.
"To make eggs," Toothless answered after staring incredulously at Hiccup.
"Yes, I know that, but there?"
"Why not there?"
"Because others see them."
"Why is that bad?"
Hiccup was at a loss. It was shameful what the dragons were doing. That kind of thing should be done in private, but they were making it a very public matter. Maybe they truly did not care if anyone else saw them.
"It is bad for others to see them mating."
Toothless was very puzzled.
"Why is it bad? I think it is good."
"Good! Why would it be good?"
"Because other males see that the female is taken. No more reason to fight over her. It shows the nest that the two are a pair."
"That… still seems bad."
Toothless just rolled his eyes and turned to walk to the nearest fish station. Hiccup reluctantly followed behind him.
Hiccup would think it strange. He has never seen mating before.
He paused and turned to face Hiccup, a question on his mind.
"Hiccup, what about two-leg mating?"
Hiccup audibly groaned again and closed his eyes. He hopped off the main path and lay down on the grass. This was going to be a difficult talk.
"What about it?"
"I have never seen two-legs mate. Your sire does not have a mate now. Why not? Do females lay their eggs in the wood-caves?"
"Toothless, two-legs do not have eggs."
Now it was Toothless's turn to gape dumbly.
"What! No!"
"Yes. The… hatchling grows in the female and then… comes out."
"No egg?"
"No egg."
Toothless blinked rapidly in confusion.
"I do not understand. Do they mate where others can see?"
"Not all the time, usually it is in their caves. The males give the females a… shiny two-leg-thing to put on their finger. That shows that they are each other's mates."
"And do the males fight each other for them in the new-seasons?"
"They don't really fight… well, sometimes they do, but they don't call it fighting."
"But they do fight."
"Some… most fighting is before the pair is made."
"What about your sire now? Why no new mate?"
Hiccup paused noticeably before answering.
"He still like and want first mate, want…"
Hiccup took a moment to form the sounds, fully aware that he had never spoken the name before in this way.
"… Valka."
Toothless wondered at the sire's way of thinking. There was no reason to want something that one could never have, doing so would only make one unhappy. That was also what he thought was most problematic about Hiccup's fixation on becoming a two-leg again.
Valka. That had to be the name of Hiccup's dam. Two-leg names seemed to always have some meaning behind them, even if a silly one.
"What your dam name mean?"
"Two-legs tell stories of the place where dead go. A place where fighters get… said well of by others. A place where they eat much food and live without dying. Valka is a short way of saying name for that place."
Toothless thought of the stories his dam had told him. That the kin who had many hatchlings and protected other kin would have their life-breath live. That the sky-lights were the life-breaths of kin before, freed at last to soar beyond the clouds without ending.
It seemed that there was another similarity between his kin and two-legs. They both had stories of what happened beyond the dark mouth of death.
With a nod to each other, they both got up and started out again.
A question that had been on his mind for a while was on the tip of Hiccup's tongue. He was rather reluctant to ask it because it was a personal and very embarrassing question. But Toothless never seemed embarrassed by anything so…
"Did you ever… mate?"
Toothless's head, normally held proudly, drooped noticeably.
"No."
"No?"
"I had no mate. No eggs. No hatchlings."
.
"I was the only Night-Fury-kin until you."
"No other type of kin?"
Toothless froze and gave him a look that clearly suggested that he had just said something very absurd.
"No other type would be good. Fire-scale, spike-tail, or any other kin are not right. Only like us. If not all of them are gone…"
The sadness in Toothless's voice was unmistakable. Something about the idea of being the very last of his kind and to never even have a chance at having children was terribly sad.
"I not think we alone," Hiccup kindly said.
"No, why not?"
He waved a paw out toward the sea.
"World is big. Other Night-Fury-kin must be there."
"I like that. I want to be a good sire. My sire wanted me to have many hatchlings."
"Yes Toothless, you will."
Toothless hummed at the idea for a moment before a gleam showed in his eyes.
"Hiccup, we will get you a mate."
Hiccup stopped walking as he made sense of what Toothless had just said.
"What!" he recoiled at the mere thought.
"Yes, and you can have many…"
"No! No! No!"
"Why no?"
"Toothless! That not good. I not real kin."
"Yes, you are."
Hiccup shook his head again. Why didn't Toothless understand?
"No Toothless, you know I still two-leg inside!"
"No you not. You have wings, tail, everything you need to…"
Hiccup almost shrieked. He got right up in Toothless's face with a not-subtle growl.
"No! I will not have a kin-mate!"
He ran on ahead, leaving Toothless behind. That Toothless could even suggest that idea was… shameful and sent shivers down his spine.
It would be strange enough for him if Toothless ever did find a mate, but that was Toothless's life to live. The idea of helping to raise Toothless's children, as he certainly would want to, had certain appeal. They would be dragons brought up from the start to not fear humans and taught how to read and write, if he had any say in it. It would be a marked change from the way dragons had always lived.
But for him to have a dragon-wife and…do that… absolutely not! Never!
"You are twisted, Hiccup," Toothless shouted at him.
"Says a kin who licks his tail."
"You!"
He darted ahead of Toothless's attack. They arrived at the fish station and managed to wiggle their way between the other dragons and grab a few fish of their own. Toothless just went ahead and gobbled down the fish that he wanted while Hiccup picked up the ones he wanted so that he could take them back with him to the house and carve them up first.
He almost managed to forget what had just happened when the same pair of Nightmares walked up to the fish station that he had just left.
It's a normal thing, don't think about it.
Both of the Nightmares in question were among the group of dragons that had chosen to live on Berk, but were not attached to a human household like Stormfly was to Astrid.
What would happen when one of those dragons that was so attached mated? Would it leave? Become violent or protective? Want to lay its eggs here?
This is complicated.
They arrived back at home, and Hiccup pushed open the door before trotting into the kitchen to carve up the fish. He had learned how to cut a whole fish decently with only his claws. While he did so, he kept thinking about the recent discussion he and Toothless had been having.
What exactly did it mean for a dragon to take a mate? What would they do, besides the obvious?
"Toothless, what do mates do after mating?"
"The male will protect the female and make sure she has enough food. She will drop the eggs and keep them warm and safe. Moon-cycles pass. Then the hatchlings break their eggs and the sire and dam protect them until the grown hatchlings leave."
"How big are they when they leave?"
"Different for different kin. One or two season-cycles is normal."
Only one or two years old? That seemed rather cruel for small creatures to wander out in the world with all its dangers before they were fully grown.
"How many eggs?"
"Many for some kin and few for other kin."
"What about Night-Fury-kin."
Toothless gave it some thought.
"Only one each season-cycle. That is what my sire and dam had."
"Only one? Not many."
That was an interesting revelation. It might explain why there were so many Gronkles, Nadders, Nightmares, and Terrors, but not many Night Furies.
Toothless started munching on his raw fish.
"Hiccup, you said that two-leg males do not fight each other for females each season. How do the females decide?"
Sigh.
"Toothless, it does not work that way for two-legs. They do not take new mates each season-cycle."
Toothless was again confused. That was different from almost all other creatures.
"When is two-leg mating season?"
"Two-legs do not have a mating-season. They can make a hatchling any time in the season-cycle."
Toothless's head almost spun in confusion. A creature that did not have one mating season, impossible! The more he learned about two-legs the less sense they made. While he was trying to figure out the strange ways of the two-legs, Hiccup asked one of his usual strange questions.
"What do kin feel for mates and hatchlings?"
"What do you mean, feel?"
Hiccup was not sure how to say it. Love was a concept that he himself had limited experience with. Desire, he certainly was familiar with, but he knew enough to know that love was something more than just desire. He also did not know what the correct word was because Toothless had never told him.
Or maybe because there was no such idea for dragons. It seemed that dragons had no concept of marriage and hatchlings were the only real priority. They were purely practical and stayed together only when needed from what he knew. Not that there was anything necessarily wrong with that, but something seemed to be missing.
That raised more questions which he was slightly concerned to know the answers to. Do dragons love? They certainly cared for others and could show affection, but was that all it was?
How different are they really from humans? What did Toothless feel? And why did it seem so important all of a sudden?
"Two-legs do not only want young from their mates. There is… safety and comfort for both. It is also better for their young. Two-leg young are very small and need help from both sire and dam for many season-cycles."
"Most kin do not need help after the first season-cycle. The mates might stay mates again if they had a good nest together," Toothless explained.
"Most kin?"
"Not all. Night-Fury-kin need sire and dam longer."
"Why?"
"We are smaller. We do not have fire yet."
"And the sire and dam, do they stay a pair?"
Toothless thought back to when he was a hatchling. His sire and dam had been a pair from the start of his life. And what Hiccup said about two-leg hatchlings needing a lot of attention from both the sire and the dam was certainly true about hatchlings of his own kind since they started life very small and relatively defenseless.
The similarities were rather apparent now that he thought about it. Having both his sire and dam stay together through the season-cycles made it likelier that everyone would survive and be healthy. Though it was also entirely possible that his sire and dam had only stayed mates because they could not find any others of his kind.
"They want to stay mates, I think. It is good for the hatchlings."
"I like that Toothless. It feels good."
"Hiccup, do you know the sky-mating?"
"What?"
"Most other kin only stay mates when they have hatchlings together. Some kin can stay mates as long as they live. They mate in the sky so all can see."
The thought was a bizarre combination of shameful and plain strange. How would that even work?
"Why?"
Toothless ruffled his wings in a shrug.
"I already say why. It shows that they are a pair. And two-legs do many strange things also. No eggs and no mating season… I need to think about that," Toothless shook his head.
Then he took off and flew out over the forest.
Hiccup did similarly, though he flew to one of the sea-stacks. It was always a nice place to get away from everyone else. He could sun himself out of everyone's way and think in peace.
Wow, what a day… Never thought I would learn so much about how dragons… do that… Not even Fishlegs knows this much.
He thought of Astrid having to deal with this problem. She had never said anything about this before, so maybe it was only something that started happening this year. Or rather, only something that the humans of Berk had a chance to see this year. There had not been any eggs or hatchlings that he was aware of among the dragons that returned in the past.
I should probably go talk to her.
He turned away from the setting sun across the horizon and returned to the village where he decided to wait by Astrid's house. It wasn't long before she appeared. It was clear that it had been a long day for her.
"Oh, hi," she yawned.
He glanced toward the Academy.
She paused for a moment to consider.
"Oh, why not? Plenty to talk about."
She shut the gate behind them as they went in to make sure that no one would spy on them. They slipped inside her office, and he waited as she lit a fire and candles. Then she collapsed on the ground without even bothering with the chair.
"Did you see them this morning?"
His exasperated expression was answer enough.
"I guess we knew this would happen eventually. They feel safer now and have plenty of food. This is the season for it too. I just wish they were more… discrete about it."
I don't think they feel shame
"Why not?"
Toothless thinks that is good
All of them seeing makes other dragons not fight
She thought about it.
"I guess so. Did he tell you anything good for me to know?"
Oh, did he ever.
A lot
I'll write it up for you tomorrow
"I look forward to it. Do you know if they want to stay together in the same barn after they… you know?"
I think so
"Great, add it to the list of problems. I've been thinking about all this. It's a real mess. The stables and barns aren't all built for two. Will the dragons stay here? What if one of the pairs is between dragons here from the village? Which human family will keep the eggs, if any at all? Will there be disputes between families? How many eggs and new dragons will there be? Will families start trying to breed dragons like cattle?"
Sigh.
"There is a lot that can go wrong."
He thought for a moment.
Occupational hazard?
She looked at the paper for a moment without reacting. Then she laughed heavily, a full hearty laugh that would certainly give them away if anyone was even remotely listening.
"I… I guess so… You're right, no point worrying about something we can't know about."
She glanced outside.
"It's getting late, probably don't want him wondering."
He nodded, and she blew out the candle. As was their custom, he darted out first and made his way home while she waited a few more minutes so no one would notice the clandestine meeting.
She couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was changing on Berk. After she had been called to the clearing this morning, she had gone to the other riders and asked if any of their dragons had been involved in that way. None of them thought so.
It was surely only a matter of time.
It was an afternoon a few days later when the matter finally hit home to her.
Astrid heard the telltale sounds of two Nadders fighting each other and went to investigate.
Oh great, not again. Just let it be out of town.
Sure enough, there were two bull Nadders shoving, hissing, and flaming at each other on the slope near the cliffs.
But there was something else that gave her pause and made her breath catch.
Stormfly was the only other Nadder in the area, and she was watching the fight with clear interest.
Oh no… I… of course this would happen.
It was one matter when it was someone else's dragon or a pair of wild ones. But her own Stormfly? It felt like something was going to be lost, that she would not be the sole object of Stormfly's interest.
She nervously walked up to Stormfly's side, and her dragon, normally so attentive to her presence, did not even glance at her.
It actually hurt a bit.
One of the Nadders got flamed in the face and flew off, whimpering in pain. The victor, a large, green-yellow bull, roared at it and flared his wings in triumph.
Then it turned its attention toward Stormfly and began to prance her direction, eventually stopping only a stone's throw away. Stormfly was humming happily while considering him.
Astrid felt awkwardly out of place.
"Well, I'll leave you two alone then…" she whispered.
She gently patted Stormfly's leg and started to turn to leave.
The male apparently objected to this and lunged at her while hissing dangerously.
Stormfly's calm, appraising demeanor vanished instantly and she pounced, knocking into the larger male and shoving it aside. She stood in front of Astrid and screamed at the male, who backed off in clear confusion. A couple moments of them grumbling and growling at each other from distance ended with the male turning around and flying off.
Stormfly grunted once as he turned tail and flew away. Then she turned around to her human, who was still on her back on the ground. She keened softly and nuzzled Astrid's belly.
Astrid slowly stood up using the horns on Stormfly's head and softly rubbed her jowls. It had been a long time since a dragon had been aggressive toward her. Creatures certainly were more aggressive when moved by these passions. And Stormfly had thought of her and moved to protect her despite everything else she must have been feeling.
"Thanks girl, sorry that didn't work out. You wouldn't want that one anyway… too grouchy."
Chirp.
They were about to leave when another bugle echoed out and Stormfly hissed in caution.
Oh no… it's coming back…
But it wasn't.
A gold and blue Nadder swooped in and landed next to them. This one she recognized from the bright blue pattern on his crown and back. Plus, he was still wearing the saddle that Finnbjorn and Katrina used on their almost-daily flights with him.
"Blueback!"
He glanced once at her and then started staring at Stormfly.
"I wonder why you are here…"
Both dragons silently considered each other. Blueback grumbled and tentatively advanced after a minute. He tried to sniff at Stormfly, but she hissed at him and he quickly backed up.
Astrid could tell that he was plenty interested, but Stormfly was barely acknowledging him, except to growl or glare at him.
I'm intruding. I should leave.
She stepped out from behind Stormfly's wing and turned for home. No sooner did she do so than Blueback, his head slightly bowed and deadly spines perfectly flattened, chirped very intently at her.
Then he took several steps toward her.
Stormfly moved to protect her and loomed above and behind her as Blueback stopped just feet away. Slowly, he stuck out his tongue and licked Astrid's face.
She raised a hand and wiped off the slobber.
"Ugh, why did you…"
Stormfly was very happily rumbling at him now.
Oh, you clever guy…
Stormfly seemed to forget about her and advanced to start sniffing and nudging him. Astrid used the opportunity to make her escape and backed up to the crest of the hill while the two Nadders slowly circled each other.
There was something, if not romantic, then perhaps poetic or artistic about how the two were flicking their tails and wings, preening, prancing, and calling to each other. They both very briefly hopped into the air and hovered in place before landing.
She was quite aware that this was probably something no one had ever seen before. This was apparently how dragons wooed.
The oddly beautiful dance ended with Stormfly briefly flaring her wings and roaring at him. But this was her very happy roar, which he gladly returned.
Then Astrid turned around and continued down the hill. While dragons may not feel shame, she certainly didn't want to see anything more.
I guess I should give Finnbjorn and Katrina the good news. Of all the Nadders on Berk, he is one of the nicest and smartest. And now we don't have to worry about either of them leaving us.
Hiccup could probably tell her what to expect. She couldn't help but think of a bunch of cute little dragons hopping around the island. Gnawing on everything. Burning everything.
Oh great, add that to the list of will-be problems.
She made her way back into town and proceeded straight to Finnbjorn and Katrina's house.
"Astrid!" Finnbjorn greeted her at the door, "what can I do for you?"
"Mr. Reynirsonn, we have a… situation."
His brow furrowed in thought.
"What kind of situation?" Katrina asked as she too came to the front door.
"Ah… a good one, don't get me wrong. One involving… Stormfly and Blueback…"
Finnbjorn and Katrina shared a knowing glance.
"You mean that you saw them together?" he finally asked.
"I left right when they actually started, but yes, I did."
"What do you think about it Astrid?"
She gave as nonchalant a shrug as she could.
"It's a normal thing for them to want to do. It was actually a bit sweet to watch them wooing. I'm not sure what it will change, if anything. I doubt that he will stop being your dragon or she mine, I don't think they want any of that to change. I'm actually glad she picked him. You've both done a very good job with him, and he has always had a good temper."
"That's what we liked about him," Katrina mentioned.
Finnbjorn and Katrina then whispered for a moment before he addressed her.
"Astrid, don't worry if there are any eggs. We won't cause any problems."
"Thank you, I hope everyone is that agreeable in the future."
She left them and returned home, casually glancing into the stable. Naturally, it was still empty.
Oh well, she'll be back eventually.
She flopped down on her bed for a rare afternoon nap. But she could not wipe away her silly grin.
"Little Stormflies…"
Hiccup lounged on the roof of the Great Hall and looked out over the village.
Everything was good now.
All the fighting had died down as most of the dragons finished pairing off. No traces of the aggression everyone had seen remained. It didn't really change much else in the village. Where there had been one dragon before lazing about under the sun, now there were two. A few more dragons now frequented the fish stations, but there were also more dragons available to help catch fish or other game.
He watched as Blueback chased Stormfly around the village. It had become one of their favorite activities since becoming mates.
The only dragon from the village that had not taken a mate was Gustav's Flame, probably because he was not an adult yet. All the riders had gradually encountered the awkward reality at some point. Fishlegs had been drawn to him, hungry for all that he knew.
That talk had lasted all afternoon and surely added several pages to the Book of Dragons.
His gaze was drawn away from the village and out to the horizon. Something else had been on his mind for a while now. He was sure that his wings were now strong enough for a long flight, and there was one place in particular that he wanted to go.
The place where the bell of fate had been wrung; his tribe saved and his life changed, possibly forever.
Dragon Island.
He leapt from the rooftop and glided, looking for Toothless until he found him.
"Toothless, what name place where Monster dead? Place where other kin-nest."
"Fire-mountain-nest."
"I want go to fire-mountain-nest."
"Why?"
"See place, see more kin, see dead monster, and…"
He paused.
"…see where I become kin."
Even though Toothless did not shy away, he did avert his eyes and look a little nervous.
"Toothless, I not angry at you. You not be sad."
"I am angry at me. Much bad there."
"What bad?"
"Bad things in past. Dead kin, thralls, bad voices in my head, wanting to drop you to monster. Much bad."
"Toothless… all that not now. Bad things not now."
Somewhat mollified, Toothless looked out over the sea, deep in thought.
"It is long flying. Can you fly far enough?"
"Yes, good sun to fly there?"
"Yes, good sun. Go now?"
"Wait."
He flew back home and ran inside. He hastily scrawled a note to his father to detail where he had gone and why. There was a good chance that his father would have forbidden it, so it would be better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case.
"We fly now."
And they were off, just the two of them, with Toothless leading the way. The wind was behind them and aided their flight. Berk quickly fell away behind them until all he could see was a speck of green below a permanently snow-capped peak. Then even that was gone.
They flew on in silence.
It was one of the eeriest things he had ever seen. There was nothing but blue in every direction. No other dragons, no birds, and absolutely no speck of land anywhere in sight.
It would have been complete solitude. To be the only living thing that mattered from horizon to horizon. So it would have been without Toothless at his side. To glide onward toward their goal, the warm sun on his back and the ever-present push of air against his wings, brought a serenity and peace which made the time pass in the blink of an eye.
He glanced up at Toothless several times, wondering why he wasn't in the mood to play any games along the way. It would not have been surprising if Toothless had swooped down on him or offered to play tail-tag, but none of these had happened once.
He knew Toothless's body-language well enough to recognize when he was worried, even when in flight.
Why is he so worried?
Then they both spotted it at once. A single solitary peak on the horizon.
Toothless dropped back next to him.
"There!" he shouted.
The mist still hung over the entire island, obscuring the sea-stacks below and the shore. Wispy, shadowy figures seemed to dart through the fog. Or maybe they were only his imagination. They dove together into the mist and flew slowly.
They passed the shattered and collapsed columns of old spires, spires that had been crushed and splintered from massive impacts.
A massive, bone-trembling roar echoed in his memory.
"This way," Toothless called.
Hiccup spied the husk of a longboat dashed on the rocks far below. Land eventually came into view through the mist. Rocky land with massive boulders, a sandy beach, and a central mountain.
There was not a sound as they both passed over the burned, shattered husks of old transports. Most had been carried away by the seas, but a few remained as witness to the violent past.
They both alighted on the rocky beach and looked around.
The island was almost perfectly silent. There were no roars, no beat of wings, no sound at all save the lapping of the gentle tides. It was as though there was nothing living on the island at all, not even mice or bugs.
But it was not perfectly still. He could feel something in his feet, in the very ground itself. A very faint tremble or shuddering. Something told him that the ominous feeling was too faint for a human to feel.
"There," Toothless stared into the mist.
How Toothless knew which way, he could not know. He just followed.
There were signs of old campsites everywhere, rocks piled in spheres with ash and wood in the center, pots and pans, discarded weaponry, and more. They passed right on by it all.
And a massive shape gradually loomed over them. A tree-stump that sprouted out from beyond a pile of rocks and up into the mist.
But it was not a tree-stump.
It was a bone.
Hiccup noticed that many of the small rocks they had stepped on were not actually rocks, they were scales. An unbidden growl crept into his throat.
He jumped from rock to rock until he reached the precipice. Then he stared wide-eyed at the sight that followed.
The monster's fall had carved a hole as deep as a house and as wide as the Great Hall itself into the rocky beach. Around this hole were shattered pieces of bone and rocky scale. He could see what looked like what remained of the beast's skull on the side closest to the cliffs. Only half of the head was still there, the rest had shattered. The other side of the crater held the surprisingly whole club-like tail.
The spines were cutting towards him with both of them too slow to react. There was a phantom pain in his chest.
He shook his head once to free himself of the memory.
There's nothing left but bone and scale. How could everything else be gone?
There should have been a smell. With how large it had been, it had to take a long time to rot, though maybe two years were enough for it. There was no remaining flesh from all that he could tell.
"Hiccup!"
There was something in the way Toothless shouted, something slightly fearful. He hop-flew over to where Toothless was standing.
"What?"
"Here."
Slowly, he turned away from Toothless and followed his gaze. The area of the rock was clear of any debris and was blackened in a way very distinct from the rest of the beach. Nothing else in the world could have possibly held his attention as he tiptoed closer.
He only froze when he stepped on an old, mottled, black something that was definitely not a rock.
A scale…
The middle of the blackened area seemed to have a crevice, a hole cut into the solid rock itself. His mouth agape in awe, he stopped on its edge and looked down.
The rock seemed to have melted. It even had wavelike, flowing patterns of crystal melted into the solid rock of the cavity. Anyone could see that something unnatural had happened here.
Toothless joined him and looked down into the hole. Neither of them said anything for a long time.
"This is where your sire found the egg, our egg."
Where I lost my humanity…
Staying at this place made him feel like he was covered in bugs. Something was too creepy or unsettling about it. He turned away and noticed something that definitely did not belong there.
A rusted Warhammer lay several paces away. He walked over to it and pawed at the pommel in recognition. It had hung over the hearth at home for years, his father telling him that it would be used in the final battle to end the war with the dragons.
It had, in a way.
He stood over the hammer and stared at it.
What must he have been feeling, thinking that I was dead?
He heard Toothless cautiously padding up behind him.
"What you think?"
"Much strange. Not know what I should think."
He lay down and gave a deep sigh.
"Why you need make new egg? Why not make hurts be not?"
"Only way I know then. I tried to heal your hurts, but I was hurt also. You were made new with me."
Hiccup turned back around and rested a wing over Toothless's back with a soft hum of comfort.
"I not angry Toothless. You did what you thought needed done. I happy we both live."
Toothless nuzzled him back. They comforted each other for a moment before they both stepped back from the magical crater. Hiccup then walked along the monster's shattered and broken length. The bones that were still intact were bleached a deathly white. Interestingly, the bones that were broken open were very thin and hollow with only an inch or two of actual bone. The rest was filled with a spider-web like weave of thin bone. It was quite unlike any other bones he had ever seen.
That's why it could fly. Its bones weighed nothing.
He thought of his own limbs.
I wonder if all dragons are like that. Strange.
The sound of something gliding through the air disturbed him. He looked up and saw Toothless precariously perched on top of the shattered skull.
What is he doing up…
Toothless lifted a hind leg and started peeing on the skull.
Hiccup closed his eyes with a groan of embarrassment.
Ugh Toothless, why do you have to do that?
He looked at the empty eye-sockets. Even empty, they felt creepy, almost as though they were following him even without having any eyes within. He could clearly remember those massive eyes narrowing on both him and Toothless in anger and hunger. Why was its corpse so intimidating? It was dead and would never threaten anyone again.
Toothless glided down from his perch and landed next to him with a very savage and happy growl.
"I am happy it is dead! No more preying on kin and no more thralls!"
"And no fighting two-legs."
Toothless happily bobbed his head in agreement.
"Yes, no kin fighting two-legs. Good."
Hiccup looked over at the rock wall. The place where the monster had forced its way through and out into the open stood out quite prominently from all the collapsed boulders. It actually looked like the tunnel into the depths of the mountain had collapsed behind the beast, leaving no way in.
But he remembered that Toothless had taken him in through the mountain's peak. While he was here, he might as well see everything the island had to show.
"We should go in nest."
"Why?" Toothless seemed skeptical.
"See other kin. I want see where they have nest."
Toothless grumbled and looked up toward the mouth of the mountain. There had not been any good memories in the belly of the mountain in his previous flights here. But there was no monster now, so maybe it would not be so bad. There was one other thing that had been bothering him about being back here. Where were the other kin? There ought to be kin out fighting for territory, cleaning themselves, sunning themselves, or hunting for food.
"Follow me," Toothless told him.
They both leapt into the air and spiraled higher up the slopes of the mountain. His concerns grew greater when they broke the mist-bank and saw no kin anywhere in the skies.
Something is wrong.
They both alighted on the precipice and looked down into the mountain's depths. The massive opening fell straight down into a dark cavern. Stranger than that though, the smell of rotten fish, of the foul yellow rock, was terribly potent.
But most ominous of all was the heat. The warmth was so strong that there was even a wind, intense thermals spewing from the mountain's depths.
With a grumble of suspicion, Toothless fell from the ledge and started slowly gliding down. Hiccup joined him not a moment later.
Small recesses and caves of various sizes were cut into the chasm wall. These were probably the places where dragons had roosted and hidden themselves for as long as memory. There on his left was the same ledge that Toothless had landed on long ago.
It feels like just yesterday that Toothless was carrying me and Astrid down here. Oh what Fishlegs would give to see all this.
A faint flash or sparkle of color caught his eye, and he looked down onto a ledge far below. It definitely looked like a dragon. More familiar dragon-like shapes caught his gaze a moment later. There were small groups of them all over the nest. Brown Gronkle hides were blending into the rock, Nadder scales, normally so lustrous and shiny, seemed oddly dull in the dim light, and the generally-red Nightmares were easy to overlook in the red glare emanating from a massive pit.
He banked toward the nearest ledge on which lay a single solitary Nadder. He landed beside it while Toothless flew toward him. He felt oddly dizzy as soon as he landed and felt the rock underfoot, though that could have just been from the heat and the smell.
He hopped around its side and leapt back with a roar of fright when he saw its head.
The body had decomposed. Its eye sockets were as empty as the monster's outside and its bleached teeth stood out in sharp relief. Every bit of soft flesh had shriveled and withered while leaving the scales and leathery portions of its thick skin apparently untouched.
It still lay as though it was merely resting on its side. There were no signs of a fight or injuries. The dragon must have died suddenly without any clear cause.
He was starting to feel very thirsty and his tongue hung from his mouth as he panted in the heat.
The sight of the dead Nadder being too much for him, he turned about and looked out over the entire cavern. The full horror of what he was looking at finally hit him.
The other dragons were still not because they were resting, but because they were all dead.
No… they're all….
There were easily a dozen dead dragons visible from where he sat right now. Only his father's disowning of him and his first awakening to dragonhood trumped the pain of the moment.
And his dizzy feeling started to become a full, throbbing headache.
Toothless saw that the spine-tail-kin was long-dead. The other still bodies in the dead-nest were surely no different. But nothing that he could see had killed them. Predators that could not be seen were the most dangerous of all.
Every one of his senses was fully alert and all of them were screaming danger! This many kin do not die in the same place in the same way unless something killed them.
He saw Hiccup start swaying slightly on his feet and grimacing with pain. Just as he started to feel his own head hurting.
Something told him that they needed to leave right then.
"Hiccup! Fly!"
Hiccup just looked around in confusion.
Without thinking, Toothless dove down and landed next to him. Hiccup had trouble focusing his gaze on him.
"We need to fly now!"
"Fly…" Hiccup muttered.
The world felt like it spun a loop around him, and his eyelids started to feel heavy.
"Fly!"
He leapt, hoping that Hiccup would do so as well. He couldn't force Hiccup to fly, and whatever had happened to the other kin was sure to happen to them too if they stayed.
He heard the slow and unsteady beat of wings behind him.
They both made their way over to the thermals, Hiccup struggling mightily. A quick glance back showed that Hiccup's flying was unsteady, pitching from side to side. And then they were both gliding higher with minimal effort on the warm air. Toward the bright blue sky overhead.
Every few lengths they ascended, he felt and smelled a noticeable difference in the air around them both now. There was a heavy, suffocating something that was growing fainter the higher they flew. It was easier and more wholesome to breathe.
They finally emerged at the top of the mountain and landed as soon as they could. Hiccup practically belly-crashed in his exhaustion. They both lay there and breathed deep of the clean air. With every breath, the splitting pain in their heads began to ease.
"Tooth…less… what… happ…ened?"
"Bad… air."
"Bad… air?"
"Grr… Air with no life... Bad air down there."
"The kin… all dead."
"They did not know about bad air."
The way Toothless seemed to dismiss it seemed a bit callous. Perhaps a few dozen dragons were dead down there. This may have explained why so many of the dragons that had fled after the battle on Dragon Island were never seen again. They had returned home at some point and never left.
"Toothless, I not like fire-mountain-nest."
He grumbled in agreement.
"Yes, bad place. No life."
Hiccup groaned as he got to his feet.
"You saved me."
Toothless rolled his eyes and grumbled.
"Yes, I do that much. You silly kin. Now what we do?"
Hiccup looked out at the late-afternoon sun.
"It much far for flying home-nest this sun, yes?"
He considered it. It was a long flight, especially since they had flown there just this sun and just been through a near-death experience.
"We stay here for night and fly at sunrise."
In agreement, they both glided down the mountainside and back down into the ever-present fog. They found a surviving sea-stack and landed on it. Toothless walked around and found a place to lay down.
Hiccup refrained from joining him and, deep in thought, kept looking up toward the mountain. He could still see the empty skull that he had stared into in shock. All the apparently-preserved bodies, so horrific up close.
To think that he had been in this very cavern a couple years ago and there were hundreds of dragons living here back then, but now it was a place of death even more than back then. At least the battle in the caverns under Mount Thor had happened hundreds of years ago and had acquired a degree of solemnity over the centuries.
But what had killed them here? What did Toothless mean by bad-air? It was as though something in the air had been choking him and making it hard to think. But whatever it was could not have been there two years ago. This was probably something else about the world that no one knew.
He turned around and walked over to Toothless, who noticed how glum he looked.
"Hiccup, you look sad."
"I am sad," he rumbled.
"Do not be sad, Hiccup."
"How are you not sad, Toothless? The kin here are dead!"
Toothless cocked his head in thought.
"They are not us. They were other kin. Being sad is not good."
Hiccup growled softly at nothing in particular.
"You should care about them."
"Hiccup, that is not how kin are. Kin care about their own kin most. Those kin were not my kin; they were not from my nest."
Toothless lifted a wing and made room at his side. Hiccup's frustration with Toothless's different way of thinking remained, but he also remembered Toothless's voice calling to him and giving him a reason to fly, to stay awake.
Toothless had saved his life once again.
He walked over to Toothless, and they curled up together as had become habit during the winter. Being together was the only comfort to be found on this gods-forsaken rock just off the gods-forsaken island.
Being away from the village had one noticeable drawback though. There was no ready supply of food.
"Grr, I am hungry, Toothless."
Toothless', tail twitched in annoyance at being reminded that he had not eaten anything either. He glanced out at the waters around fire-nest-bad-air-death-island.
"If I had fire, I would show you how to get fish."
"How?" Hiccup asked.
"You make a ball of fire in your mouth, you hit the water with it, and it kills the fish. Then you fly over the water and eat floating fish from the water."
"I do not know how. Two-legs do not make fire from inside them."
"It is not hard. Like flying, you learn it and do it."
Toothless lay his head down on the rock and closed his eyes to doze. Hiccup stayed awake a while longer, listening to the silence of the island, the gentle lapping of the sea below, and watching the rolling, ephemeral mists that obscured most of the island from view.
Everyone needs to know what happened here.
Nothing on the island moved the rest of the afternoon and throughout the night.
Hiccup woke up when Toothless got up and stretched in the morning. He yawned and ruffled his wings while looking out over the island. The mist was even thicker than he remembered it being yesterday, though it made sense that the sun had not yet had the chance to burn any of it away.
Another long flight to look forward to, only this one was surely to be into the prevailing wind.
And dad is going to be furious with me. Wonderful…
They each flew off to do their morning routines and take care of necessary business. He was flying back to the pillar when a strange desire took him. Though there was a creepy feeling to the place, he felt an odd desire to return to the magical crater one last time. It took a little bit of searching to find in the mist but he managed it anyway.
Once again, he found himself standing on the melted rock and looking into the depression. He knelt at its edge, reached into its depths, and drew his sharp claw-tips across the smooth, flowing rock.
The emotion welled up and overflowed. A gasp forced its way out at the old memories of what transpired here in a previous life, and he felt a sharp, piercing grief at all that he lost. His place in the village, the respect he had always hoped he would earn, and Astrid's affections.
Several deep breaths were necessary before he managed to calm himself and stop shaking.
What is wrong with me?
He slowly backed away from the place, still feeling an odd chill pressing down all around him. He spread his wings and was about to jump when he saw his father's rusted Warhammer again.
He stared at it for nearly a minute without knowing precisely why. Then the crazy idea presented itself.
No, it actually wasn't too crazy. He was far stronger now than he had been as a human, so it shouldn't be hard to do.
Slowly and carefully, he wrapped his claws around the hammer's middle. Lifting it was easy enough, but his limbs were definitely not meant to carry weapons like this.
Awkward though it was, he carefully pinned it against his chest and took to the skies. Toothless was waiting for him as soon as he got back. He landed clumsily, still clutching the weapon with both forelimbs.
Toothless's eyes narrowed on him.
"Why do you have that bad-killing-thing?"
"I take it to my sire."
"It is bad. He try to kill me with it."
Oh, right…
"Not now. I want give it. Two-legs give thing-gifts."
Toothless grumbled, understandably unhappy, but he said nothing. He just stared at the terrible thing for a while.
Maybe he will drop it… Toothless thought to himself.
"We should fly now, I am hungry," he finally growled.
"I am also."
They leapt into the sky and set out for the open sea. Hiccup let Toothless take the lead since he knew the way. He glanced back once at Dragon Island. He certainly had no desire to ever return. It held too many bad memories for him.
The sun slowly crept higher into the sky as they flew on, Hiccup holding tightly to the hammer the whole time. The same monotony he had suffered yesterday plagued him again as the soft swells of the ocean passed beneath with nothing in sight but water all the way out to the horizon.
How Toothless knew which way to fly was a complete mystery.
"How you know where fly?" he shouted.
"It feels good!" Toothless yelled back.
Oh great, that was completely unhelpful. Maybe it's just one of those 'gotta be a dragon to understand it things'.
The sun was very high in the sky by the time they first spotted Mount Thor's solitary peak. And not a moment too soon either, as they were both feeling the strain from a long flight against the wind.
They flew in over the cliffs and split up, Toothless heading straight for the fish station and Hiccup to drop off his cargo at home. He landed and trotted over to the door to let himself in when he heard someone come running up to him.
It was his father, and he sounded angry.
"I've been worried sick. What is that in your…"
Stoick's mouth hung open rather dumbly as he stared at what Hiccup was clasping against his chest. It was something no dragon had any business holding.
His old Warhammer, its rusted iron showing its long exposure to the elements. The same weapon he had abandoned on Dragon Island.
He slowly advanced as if in a daze. Seeing the weapon again was a reminder of things he desperately wanted to forget. But at the same time, a traditional Nord isn't truly himself without his weapon. Maybe his fingers would remember their old strength if they grasped his hammer.
Hiccup nervously held it out for him to reclaim.
The pommel felt strange in his hands once again. It had been so long since he regularly wielded it or practiced with it that he had lost his rough calluses on his palms and fingers. The metal would need a lot of work to repair and clean. But it would once again find its place above the hearth.
"You went to Dragon Island. That's a long way. Why?"
He followed Hiccup inside and to the table.
To see where I changed
"It was… strange. I found your… egg… in that crater. I thought the gods had done something that day."
.
"And you found my hammer, and brought it back."
Hiccup nodded slowly, but his tail was twitching nervously.
They are dead, dad
"What? Who is dead?"
The other dragons there
"Really? How many?"
Every one that I saw
"How?"
Hiccup just shook his head.
I don't know
They just died there
That was something he had never heard of in all his years of being a Chief. A terrible thought crossed his mind. What if there was some disease on Dragon Island? What if it was only a matter of time before Hiccup too…
"You didn't eat anything there, did you?"
Hiccup seemed to quickly grasp his implied fear.
No, and I don't think it was sickness
Stoick visibly relaxed at hearing his reassurance.
It was something in the mountain
Bad air is what Toothless said
"Bad air? Never heard of it."
He paced for a moment in thought.
"That does explain a bit. We saw so many dragons there that day, but only a few dozen came here. I wondered where they had all gone."
He had become a very good judge of a young Night Fury's emotions, even if the drooping ears and hung head rather gave it away. It was another reminder that Hiccup, for all he had seen and been through, was still unhardened by life. He couldn't see dead bodies and not be affected by the sight. Add on top of that the pain that he had to have felt from being at the place where he died, where he lost his humanity somehow. Of course Hiccup was distraught.
"Are you ok, son?"
Hiccup nodded very slowly.
"No you're not, come here."
Once again, he found himself hugging his dragon-son, Hiccup's head resting on his shoulders. That Hiccup could do so while standing up showed how much he had grown over the winter. Soon, he would probably stand even taller than any person when he tried.
The deep rumbling that he could feel in his own chest as he rubbed circles into Hiccup's neck was oddly soothing but still very strange considering who they were coming from.
Then he stepped back.
"I know it must have been hard for you to see those dead dragons, but these things happen. You see it, you survive it, you grow stronger, and you praise the gods that you are not dead too. Think you can do that?"
Hiccup perked up a little bit and tried to force a smile.
"It's good to have you back. Dawnbreaker too, even if she needs some work. Now run along and get yourself some fish, we had a good haul yesterday. I'll get the fire going for you."
Hiccup did not bother wasting any time and darted outside, leaving Stoick inside to think while stoking the fire. He glanced at the prodigal hammer. How many times had he swung or flung the weapon into a dragon's skull? Some hides were too armored to break, but a weapon designed to crush would still be effective. Effective, it certainly had been.
It would now return to above the hearth where it belonged, hopefully never to be wielded against a dragon again.