"Caged birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly." - John Lennon

Gladiator

Five suns passed with him being given only minimal water and meat. The Alpha had learned its lesson from the last time and was not trying to fully starve-kill him. Instead, it was only giving him enough to keep him alive and suffer the deprivation.

His belly rolled and voiced its intense displeasure almost constantly. He found himself getting angry and growling at every passing two-leg but most especially at the Alpha male. It was the one responsible for his suffering now. More than that though, it seemed to enjoy sitting outside his trap and either talking to him or giving him commands, none of which he ever obeyed.

He eventually turned around, presented the Alpha with his waste end, and ignored the Alpha as best as he could. He also did a lot of sleeping, except for this particular night due to the pain in his belly.

Will it ever stop? No, it wants to break me. Two-legs are patient hunters.

It was very frustrating seeing the other kin that the Alpha brought to show him being fed and watered properly. All that they had to do was bow and submit to this Alpha's will.

A clever idea started to worm its way into his liver.

What if I pretend that it broke me? Pretend to submit to it. Make it think that it grounded my life-fire. It will not know the difference.

The idea didn't sit well with his liver, but it was the best idea he had been able to come up with to get more food and water.

He waited patiently until the Alpha returned for its next attempt to test him.

The two-leg arrived as expected and leaned against the trap as had become the routine. However, unlike their previous meetings, he did not growl at it or show it any anger. Instead, he kept his head bowed and tried to look as docile as he could, despite how much doing so twisted his liver.

"Kin," the Alpha commanded.

He glanced up and saw the Alpha and its not-friendly teeth-showing. Then the two-leg reached out its paw and pointed at the ground.

"Down kin."

Very reluctantly and hating that he had to do so, he sat down and lay his head on his paws. He did not let his tail twitch with anger.

Several moments passed.

"Good kin."

The Alpha sounded very happy and relieved. It called to several of its thralls who immediately rushed over, bringing water and fish which they placed in his trap.

He gladly ate the fish and emptied the bucket of water as the Alpha happily chittered at its thralls. He remained submissive until well after the Alpha and its thralls walked away. Only then did he allow out his heated but muted growl. He also glanced at the sharp, curved claws on his paws.

I hope I can claw at it one sun. Winds and stars above, let me kill that two-leg.

He felt almost like he had stepped in waste. It was wrong to bow and show weakness to a two-leg. It hurt his own feeling of his strength as a kin.

But it did get him what he needed.

The Alpha wants to play this game. Let it. I am not like the weak kin. I am strong.

He sat at the edge of the cave, waiting for sire to return. It was his sun now to start to learn how to hunt. And especially to hunt more than the small buzzers or crawling things in the cave-den. They did not make good eating or fill his belly anymore.

The first sign of sire's return was a great wind and a rushing sound, so great were sire's wings that they seemed to stretch across the sky itself. Then there was the soft thud of sire's feet as he landed.

He had to still his tail and patiently wait as the great kin walked up to him. Then sire lowered his head to him and greeted him with a deep rumble.

"First of mine..."

He purred as sire licked him in greeting.

"Me hunt!"

He bared his tiny teeth and pounced on an imaginary four-leg-fur-tail. Sire rumbled in amusement at his great life-fire. Then he followed sire outside the cave, having to almost run to keep up with sire's great strides. They walked until he started to get tired, watching all the while his sire's movements. It was important for him to learn everything about how sire kept watch and remained alert for any danger or prey.

"Stop," sire whispered.

So he lay flat in the tall grass and remained still and hidden.

"What?" he softly chirped.

Sire lowered his nose to the grass and started sniffing. Then sire looked over at him with a very happy rumble.

"Four-leg-fur-tail prey..."

He leapt up and found the scent trail as well.

"Where prey?"

"You find it," sire answered.

That sire wanted him to be the one to hunt down the prey gave fire to his liver. He promptly began following the trail through the bushes and grasses with sire right behind him.

They eventually found the prey's den, a hole dug into the ground under a bush. He fixed his eyes on the entrance and stared, waiting for the four-leg-fur-tail prey to appear. He got bored and impatient very quickly.

"Now what?"

Sire curled himself around him and part of the bush.

"Now you would wait. This prey knows you are there and will not leave the den. You will need to be quiet and very patient to hunt well."

"But I want eat now."

"Food comes to kin who wait. That is the game of the hunt. You found where the den is, that is good. You would come back to the den in future suns when the prey is not looking for you."

Then sire got up and rumbled to him.

"We go back to our cave-den now."

The idea didn't excite him at all, but he was starting to get sleepy after being active since the sun flew at its highest. His tail drooped as he shuffled along behind his sire all the way to the cave-den. He stumbled a few times in his exhaustion but always kept walking. Once back inside its cool darkness, he buried himself in the warmth under his dam's wing.

Sire had not needed to pick him up and carry him back to the den.

He paced back and forth in the trap next to the fighting valley, kneading his claws at the ground as the tension built. The thundering cheers of the two-legs around the arena outside continued to grow louder.

It was clear to him deep in his liver that this was his sun to fight. To risk life and limb for the amusement of two-legs. But what would he be made to fight against, kin or two-legs? He wasn't sure which was better for him. It depended on if the two-legs were given killing-weapons, how many there would be, and if they were proper fighters instead of the weak thralls he remembered seeing.

As for fighting other kin, it would be the first time he had to properly fight tooth and claw against another kin in many season-cycles. The fight with the sky-light-eater-kin had been a short one with mainly his fire. And a little help from Astrid.

I can win the fight whatever they have.

He scratched at the heavy rope tightly pinning his wings in around his side. The bindings were still too strong for him as they always were.

The trap's mouth opened, and he leapt out into the fighting valley. Several thralls came over and took hold of the reins strapped to his head. They worked their paws at the muzzle and removed it from him. He resisted the urge to bite off their paws and started to take in his surroundings. The walls of the top of the cliff were absolutely filled with two-legs, all of which were clearly looking at him. The Alpha was roaring in its tongue to the audience while pointing at him. It was too difficult for him to clearly make out what the Alpha was saying, but it clearly had something to do with him.

Then the Alpha gave a signal, and the other trap began to open, revealing a pair of two-legs with their rounded fire-blockers and false-teeth-sticks. He was very surprised though that the two-legs were almost pushed out into the open by thralls with long sticks. These two-leg fighters were not true fighters in their livers.

It would be easy to win the battle. But there was something about seeing them that cooled his inner-fire and made him not want to fight. These two-legs had not done anything to him yet and certainly looked afraid of him, as they should be. They also were making no moves to advance toward him.

As long as they do not try to kill me...

The roaring from the gathered audience began to fade as nothing happened. The two-leg not-fighters in the fighting-valley stood still with their eyes on him as he sat on the ground and remained coiled to jump if need be.

They do not want to fight.

The thralls looked around at each other in confusion and even the Alpha looked uncertain. More surprising though was the audience of two-legs outside the valley. They had went from roaring in approval to hissing and moaning in clear disappointment.

Those creatures are sad that there is no fight? They want to see death?

He slowly shook his head and felt a sadness in his liver as realized the truth. They liked the fighting and death. It was not only a nest-bonding ceremony for them.

There is no end to how like Monsters two-legs can be.

Then the thralls began using their long tooth sticks to push the two-leg not-fighters toward him. And he growled and leapt in surprise as a sharp pain erupted in his flank. He spun around and swatted wildly at the thralls that had poked him with their sticks. The strike barely missed opening their bellies, and they stepped back in fear.

Try that again, give me a reason to kill you.

The not-fighters were pushed directly up in front of him, within pouncing distance. They held their blocking weapons and short tooth sticks cautiously as they fearfully regarded him. He curled his lip at them and showed them his teeth in warning. But they did nothing aggressive toward him.

The Alpha shouted something very angrily at the not-fighters who were wisely trying to not fight. All the while though the audience continued making its noises of disapproval. Some of them even started to stand up and walk away.

At a signal from the Alpha, the fearful, not-fighting two legs were called away, clearly eager to get away from him. Other thralls crowded around him and restrained him. The Alpha began shouting something placating to the crowd, as though the gathering needed reassurance in some way. Then it gave a signal to the thralls gathered at the large trap on the other side of the valley. His liver cooled when he realized why.

They are going to release a kin to fight me!

Sure enough, the Alpha stepped back and the other trap's mouth began to open. A large, male spine-tail hopped out and flashed its spines while hissing loudly. His own captor-thralls also set him free and vanished from the fighting-valley.

This kin did not appear to be afraid or willing to back down. He tried to flare his wings in warning before being reminded of the ropes that bound him to the ground. The male fixed him with its angered gaze, lowered its head, and charged.

As had happened several times before in his closest life and death battles, time seemed to slow as the male approached. He threw himself to the side at the last moment, barely dodging the snap of the kin's teeth at his tail. The spine-tail hurled several of its tail spines at him but missed wildly.

He knew that he could keep away from the kin because he was faster, but it was far larger than him. This was not a fight that it would be good to make last long.

He started backing up, seemingly in retreat, until he felt his tail touch the wall. Then he roared defiantly to the male. It responded to his challenge with a throaty roar, lowered its head, and charged again.

The plan worked perfectly.

He let his fire-air build in his throat until there was enough for a small burst of fire. His fire-air mixed with the air in a bright burst of startling purple light. The shot struck the male on the forehead; not hard enough to cause it great harm, but enough to startle and confuse it while also angering it.

Once again, he leapt smoothly to the side as the male ran into the wall. The impact caused a loud crash, and the kin dropped to the ground, stunned and unaware.

He relaxed and stepped back after snorting with derision toward it. And then something very surprising happened.

The two-legs up in the audience started cheering and roaring in clear approval. They were happy that he won the fight.

That felt strange and twisting. Hearing their calls and roars made him feel like roaring as well, made him feel warm in his liver and stronger in his limbs.

The two-legs on home-nest-island almost never roared for me... only once in the battle of two-leg-nests.

The spine-tail eventually struggled to rise and swayed wildly on its two feet. It tried to take a step in his direction but fell to the side in a daze. The two-legs' roaring turned to their strange, high laughter.

With the battle clearly over and him the victor, the thralls came forward at a signal from the Alpha and bound him again while others tended to the spine-tail. Despite the discomfort of the ropes, he held his head highly and proudly as he was led out of the fighting-valley and back into the underground trap.

He lay down on his belly and slowly munched on the large fishes he had been brought, presumably as reward for his most recent victory. The Alpha had apparently been pleased with his first fights over the last few suns and had thought to reward him with good food.

There was one fight in particular that had thoroughly left his liver twisted in confusion.

A large two-leg, a true fighter, had been released into the fighting-valley. It clearly had no desire to avoid a combat. He had managed to ground it by biting its false-tooth-weapon in two pieces and by striking its legs with his tail. That was a clear defeat as the two-leg went to the ground screaming in pain. He had left the grounded two-leg alone instead of killing and eating it after the battle was ended. That had disappointed nearly all the two-legs in the audience and also the Alpha.

Why do they like watching the fights and seeing death and groundings? Kin will watch a fight to learn who is stronger and might be a threat, but this is different.

There being nothing that he could do with his time in the cage, he settled on trying the one thing that seemed most useless. Something that he had not done since before being made a thrall.

He lowered a single claw to the stone ground and traced out the three words he knew best. His claws couldn't make a mark in the rock, but he perfectly remembered how to write it out.

I am Toothless

Then he softly laughed at the word-twisting.

This is a different place now. I cannot be toothless in here.

He thought about the name Hiccup had given him. No-teeth. Before, it had seemed a type of double or trick-speaking because he was obviously not without teeth. It was something teasing that he could also laugh about along with Hiccup's silly name. Now though, it seemed a mocking name, a lie that diminished him and his strength. But even despite that...

That is no different from pretending that the Alpha broke me. And it is all I have left of Hiccup.

This fight was not going well. The two attacking two-legs were surprisingly skilled and nimble. One of them had managed to bite his side with its small paw-held tooth. Now they were both working together, the two-legs standing at each other's side and advancing with their blocking-circles held before them.

The audience roared and called out in suspense at every thrust of a tooth-weapon. His talons clenched at the dry and dusty dirt.

His main strategy in previous fights against two-legs was to avoid them for as long as he could. They always carried too much metal protection on their delicate bodies and made themselves weaker the longer the fight lasted. These ones though were pacing themselves and being careful to not tire themselves. They were clearly accomplished fighters.

He grumbled to himself that he might need to kill these two-legs, something he had managed to avoid doing so far. There was one more trick he had not yet been able to try against them. He gathered his fire-air in his throat and released a hot ball of glowing fire into the ground at their feet.

The dust and smoke were hurled up into their eyes in a hot cloud which forced them both to look away. The first one had no clue that he had leapt toward it until he knocked into its protection with his shoulder, sending the two-leg tumbling to the side and rolling head over feet. He allowed himself a smug grunt of satisfaction.

And a burning pain erupted in his shoulder from the other two-leg's false-tooth-stick biting deep into his flesh. His vision went red. There was a loud roar, and a purple flash filled his vision.

Then he stood panting in the middle of the fighting-valley as smoke curled around him.

Directly in front of him was the bottom half of the attacking two-leg's body. The upper half was scattered in pieces around where the two-leg had stood. There were bloodied pieces of meat and limbs everywhere. The smoking, twisted metal and burned life-water on the ground were further evidence of the destruction that had been wrought.

He quickly glanced over at the other two-leg curled up against the side of the valley and sobbing, its fighting-breath clearly broken.

The battle finally over, he turned back for his trap, feeling far more exhausted than he should for a fight of that duration. The crowd of two-legs was roaring its acclaim at the performance, but this time he noticed something different about it. There was more screaming in fear.

Even the thrall two-legs who attended to him looked and smelled of fear. Fear of him. Their life-organs beat far faster than was normal. The thralls noticeably kept their distance even while leading him by the rope.

And it felt good.

They were learning their rightful place, learning that he was a great threat. The greatest threat. Their fear-scent made him feel alive and strong. Maybe they would learn to be gentle and submissive around him.

As two-legs should be!

The idea tickled at his tail long after they locked him back in his trap. Something else was different about this after-fighting time though. Several thralls brought the Alpha over to his cage. Then they started arguing and growling at each other. They were clearly talking about him. Several of the thralls kept pointing at him and yelling until they all bobbed their heads in agreement while the Alpha stood impassively.

Rot take me for not learning more of their words...

A silence followed while he licked at his stinging wounds, neither of which were life-dangerous.

Then the Alpha purposefully walked over to his trap and gave him the down command. All the thralls were carefully watching. He obediently went down on his belly and stared at the ground without making a sound. Then the Alpha stuck its paw into the trap and gave the 'come' command.

He got up and approached the paw, narrowing his eyes on it. It looked so weak and frail. One bite was all it would take, and he would get some revenge against this terrible creature.

He slowly stuck his head under the paw and let the Alpha pat his nose. Then the Alpha backed away from the trap. The Alpha, clearly pleased, then called out to its thralls in satisfaction at something. The gathering broke up shortly after with the thralls dispersing, albeit with many backward glances toward him. He looked up when only the Alpha was left. It turned and smiled at him.

"Good kin."

The Alpha then turned and started to walk away but it paused and looked back at him in... Confusion? Worry? A hint of alarm?

Then it also left.

That was twisted. They were arguing about me. Why? Maybe the Alpha wanted to show them that I am not dangerous to them. Let them think that if it comforts them.

The final two-leg swung its false-tooth at his shoulder and struck its target. His fire struck back and tore the offending two-leg to pieces. He reared up to roar his victory to the audience of two-legs, but the area was almost completely empty. There were no thralls in the valley.

There was only one two-leg standing on the cliff up above him. A short, thin two-leg youngling with brown fur on its head and brilliant green eyes.

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup stared out at the fighting-valley, a shocked look on his two-leg face, as he beheld the charred corpses and scattered pieces of flesh.

"You, Monster!"

"No, Hiccup, I... I did not want to."

"Toothless, we don't have to kill them!"

"It would have killed me," he whimpered.

Hiccup then gasped and clutched his paws to his frail chest, which suddenly sprouted a bright red stain. Hiccup reached a paw inside his own chest and pulled out his motionless life-organ. Then Hiccup's little two-leg body fell from the ledge.

He jumped to catch Hiccup, but the distance was too great...

And he woke up with a shiver of fear as he caught his breath.

Only a bad sleep-vision...

There were a couple of thralls out in the darkness. They were attentively watching him. They eventually left after he settled back down and appeared to go to sleep.

I had to do it. That does not make me a Monster.

Many suns passed without his being taken up to the fighting-valley. He started paying more attention to the other things happening inside the underground place. The two-leg thralls all had their own unique traits, some of them were angrier while others were gentler toward him and the other kin. He made a point of not growling or snapping at the nicer thralls. Several new kin were brought in and a couple ones he remembered seeing in other traps vanished, likely victims of a fight. There were several of the kin in here who were clearly the dominant ones, primarily the fire-scale he had seen on his first sun up in the fighting-valley. And also himself as more of the fights progressed.

The tedium was broken when the thralls came to his cage and fitted the muzzle on him as usual. However, they did not take him to the fighting-valley. Instead, they led him to a different place underground past several other traps. This change in the routine put him on alert.

The larger place they led him to already had several two-legs inside it. They were fighting and struggling with a small spine-tail female. He stared in alarm as it looked for a moment like they were trying to ground it for some reason. The struggle finally ended with the spine-tail tied down on its back in an obviously very uncomfortable position. Then the thralls who stood around him started herding him forward toward the other kin.

What are they doing?

He stopped walking to avoid stepping over her, but the thralls wouldn't stop. They kept pushing at his flanks and poking at him with sharp sticks until they forced him to crawl up and onto her. She squirmed and hissed at him in protest. That made it very clear what was happening.

They were trying to mate him to her.

He completely froze for a moment and then reared back with a growl. He hissed and tried to swipe at any of the two-leg thralls within reach. The two-legs around him kept shouting, poking, and prodding at him.

Why had they thought that he would want to mate with a spine-tail? That was certainly one of the most thought-twisted things any of them had ever thought. They were not the same type of kin, and it was the wrong season for it. If she had been a Night Fury like himself, then maybe. Even that would have been bad because of the wrongness of two-legs forcing them together instead of them choosing each other as mates. In addition to all that, he suspected that he wasn't quite old enough to sire any eggs yet.

The Alpha came over and assessed the situation after questioning his beta. The Alpha glanced from him to the she-kin. It gave another series of commands to the thralls, who again pushed him over toward the spine-tail. Knowing that it wouldn't matter and that fighting wouldn't help him at all, he reluctantly climbed back on top of the spine-tail, which also squirmed in protest. He had no desire to mate with her. She definitely agreed seeing as how she snapped at and tried to bite him.

After several moments of nothing happening, the thralls hauled him back at a dejected signal from the Alpha and led him back to his trap. They left him the usual bucket of water and a large fish. It was only after he was once again locked away and alone that he seriously thought about what had happened. He even had no appetite for the food he had been left.

Nothing in all his captivity had made him feel smaller than their attempt to use him to make eggs. Up above the ground, under a warm sun, with a she Night Fury whose interest he had won and who wanted to make an egg with him, that would be very good. This left him rightly feeling nothing but revulsion, as if he had eaten rotted meat.

Why would the Alpha want me to mate? Does it think that I can give a spine-tail an egg? Twisted!

He reflected on his experiences in this two-leg trap-nest. None of the female kin had proper mates from what he could tell. They were all kept separate from every other kin. The two-legs wouldn't take eggs from their dams, would they?

Yes, they would.

It made some sense in a horribly twisted way. That would be one way to always have more kin in their trap-nest. Make the males do most of the fighting. Take the eggs and hatchlings some other place. The hatchlings would never learn the things they needed to learn to survive and be true kin. They would know nothing except what happened inside the walls of this trap or whatever other bad-life the two-legs had planned for them. This would be their whole world.

His isolation weighed on him anew. Climbing onto the spine-tail brought him nothing, no feeling of excitement and eagerness. In his prior life, he hadn't been of age to mate when he had started protecting the kin from the two-legs on not-now-home-nest-island. Once he had been of age though he had occasionally ranged far from that place in search of other kin like himself, but he had never found any. That knowledge and the emptiness it always brought had cooled his life-fire to the very idea.

He closed his eyes and thought of the skies beyond the walls of this trap, always present and always beyond his reach. His sleep-vision was of a she Night Fury, as alone as he was and waiting for a mate that would never find her, perched on some distant mountain.