Chapter 5 - The Legend Of The Six:
As Hiccup left the forest, he was very unsure as what to do. So he headed to a place where there was always something to do.
He could hear the bangs and smashes of welding well before he reached the place.
Arriving at the forge, he met its main occupant.
"There yeh are." He spoke, taking the sword off the fire and placing it on the bench. "Look I'm sorry if I-"
"It's okay Gobber. I'm fine." Hiccup lied. He walked around the blacksmith and found his apron. He placed it on and started to gather some weapons to fix.
"All right. Yeh pile is here. Those weapons yeh're gathering we'll do tomorrow. If yeh have a question or anything, let me know." He indicated to a rather large pile of weapons that were damaged.
Hiccup groaned at the sight of the large pile. "Will I get time to make any weapons? I much prefer making them than fixing them."
"That depends on how quickly yeh finish that pile of work. If yeh don't start soon, I'll make your pile even higher." He threatened.
Once again, he took the threat seriously.
His first weapon he saw as he was preparing the forge with the bellows, as Gobber was already welding some on his pile in his forge, was a huge axe.
The wooden handle was quite short, but the head was rather large and solid. It was blunt by the look of it and needed sharpening.
That would take considerable effort to lift up and onto the bench for the sharpening wheel.
He had sharpened many axes before, but this was the largest one he'd seen.
He looked at the fire, after having heaved the bellows a fair amount. The coals were bright orange, and the heat was tremendous.
He let the bellows go, and walked over to the pile. He braced himself, shook his hands and cracked a knuckle or two.
Then he bent down, grasped the handle and pulled.
He could never have expected what had happened next.
Because he was so expecting it to weigh a tonne, like it looked, he pulled it so hard so he would be able to lift it up.
Instead, he pulled it up so fast that it went into the roof. He accidently released it as he was raising it because of the surprise, and now it stuck out of the ceiling.
Why in the name of Odin is it so light?! It's like a feather!
He reached up and pulled it out of the ceiling. Now holding it at arm level and examining it.
It looked solid, very heavy and strong. Hiccup simply could not understand why it was so light.
He placed it onto a bench.
"Hey Gobber?"
"Yeh?" He called out, not stopping his work.
"Why is this axe so light? It looks so heavy." Hiccup asked, hoping to get an answer. Maybe it was made from some different type of metal.
"Yeh, heavy isn't it? Thought it'd be a good one for ya to start off with. Always do the hardest first. Ain't that what I always say?" He replied. Still continuing his work.
"No, I said it was very light! Not heavy!" Hiccup said loudly, correcting him.
Gobber stopped his work and turned around to face him.
"What do yeh mean 'light?' It's not light at all! That's Stoicks axe as a matter of fact, he has that huge one. It's very heavy." He then went over to Hiccups pile and picked up the axe.
"See? Even I find it a bit heavy. Stoick likes heavy weapons. I prefer the lighter ones. It's not that heavy to me because I hold heavy weapons all day, hence why I leave the smaller ones to yeh. I thought I'd let yeh get a taste of what heavy weapons are like."
Hiccup was dumbfounded.
Gobber went back to his own pile and resumed working.
As if just to check if his muscles had changed in the past minute, he went back to the axe in question and picked it up with one hand.
He experimented and managed to balance it with two fingers at the head/neck joint. It felt light indeed.
Okay. This is seriously getting weird. What is happening to me?
He decided to ignore it for the moment, and started working.
Surprisingly, he got his work finished in a few hours at least without stopping. He was sweating, but he didn't feel that tired. Gobber on the other hand, looked exhausted.
"By Thor almighty! How on earth did yeh finish all that so fast?!" Squawked Gobber. Staring wide eyed at the new pile of shining, sharp weapons.
Hiccup didn't answer.
"Well, seeing that yeh've done that much today, which I wasn't expecting, I'll let ya off work for the rest of today and tomorrow. And you don't have to make any weapons either. Good work boy!" Cheered Gobber clapping him on the back as he exited the forge.
"Thanks." He muttered.
"Oh, don't forget dragon training in the morning! We're with the-"
"Deadly Nadder, I know. You said before!" Hiccup called back.
"Wait! One more thing. Meself, and the recruits are meeting in the Great Hall tonight after dinner to discuss tactics and learn about dragons. Make sure yeh're there!"
"Okay!" Hiccup yelled back.
Now in the afternoon, as Hiccup walked away, he looked up and saw some ominous looking clouds not far into the distance. A storm was brewing.
He walked and walked. Not knowing where to go. He walked through the village, into the Great Hall where he ate a little bit of food, and back again. And all the while, trying to decide if he should go back into the forest. At last he sat down in a chair at his house.
Eventually, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer.
If the Night Fury could answer all these riddles, that would be great. Plus the dragon seemed quite nice and calm. It didn't seem threatening or aggressive apart from when I shot it down.
So Hiccup stood up from the armchair in his house, and went out the door.
He looked down and suddenly noticed his birthmark was glowing blue, but not as bright as it has been. He covered it as quickly as he could with his sleeve, then glanced towards the forest.
He could see a black blur amongst the top of the trees, and recognised it as the Night Fury.
It was looking right at him, and then it went through the canopy and disappeared.
He looked at his mark again, and noticed it was getting dimmer till it went out and back to normal.
Maybe it glows whenever the Night Fury is near me.
"You okay kid?"
Hiccup jumped in surprise.
He looked in front of him, and saw a passing Viking gazing at him. It was Snotlout.
"Fine, thank you." Hiccup shut the door, and began walking towards the forest.
"You know, it's rude not to ask how I am going too, runt."
Hiccup could hear Snotlout's pace quickening to catch up with his own. He feared that Snotlout might beat him up again.
"Ahh, that's a good idea. How about a nice walk in the forest, just the two of us?" He taunted.
Hiccup stopped, suddenly realising that almost every time he went in the forest his birthmark went blue, so he couldn't go in with Snotlout there.
He turned around. "Actually I might just-"
Next minute Hiccup was on his butt. Clutching a bleeding nose.
"That's for being Hiccup." He said. Withdrawing his fist with a smug smirk on his face. Gods Hiccup really wanted to wipe that smile off his face one day.
Then he aimed a kick and was about to land it in his chest, except Hiccup caught his foot and pushed him.
Snotlout tumbled backwards and landed on his back.
Hiccup got to his feet, and so did Snotlout.
"Since when did you fight back?" He chortled.
Hiccup didn't answer.
Snotlout smiled. "I'll see you tonight."
Then the bully boy once again turned around, kicked some dirt at Hiccup before walking away.
Hiccup turned around once more and headed into the forest.
He remembered what the Night Fury said last time he saw him.
"I won't find you should you come back here next time. You should find me if you need me."
How am I supposed to find it? Hiccup thought. I'm not exactly a tracker.
Then the answer came to him.
Of course! My birthmark. It seems to light up really bright whenever it's near!
He pulled his sleeve up to his elbow, and examined it.
It wasn't blue in the slightest, just completely normal, at black.
Hiccup started walking, glancing every few seconds or so to see if there was any change in colour.
Eventually, he noticed it turn a faint blue.
That's good.
But as he kept walking in the same direction, it started to fade again.
"No no!" He said out aloud.
He walked back towards on the path where it was its brightest, which wasn't very bright.
He realised he'd have to turn. The dragon didn't want to be seen, so he knew now he needs to get off the main tracks.
So he took a right, and watched carefully. It faded again after a bit of time, no brighter.
He went back to the spot again, and took a left.
Slowly, it started to brighten. So he kept walking in the same direction, making an odd turn here or there.
Eventually it got so bright that-
"WHOA WHOA WHOA!"
He very nearly fell into a very large opening in the ground. He took several steps back and breathed in a sigh of relief.
He was so concentrated on looking at the dragon mark that he hadn't looked where he was going. It looked like a five metre drop into a cove. It had a lake in the middle but most of it was flat, very short grass. Like moss. The place looked like a meteor crater.
He got his notebook out and studied it. Noticing that this cove wasn't even on the map.
He observed the cove, and then noticed a familiar looking dragon at the other side of the place. It was lying down, and looked asleep.
Great, now I have to figure out how to get down this retched wall.
Just as he put one foot on a rock ahead of him to go down the wall, his other foot slipped on the slippery moss ground underneath him, and he fell frontwards.
He yelled in a panic as he fell, but remarkably he landed on all fours, his hands and feet. What was more, it didn't hurt at all. As if falling down a five metre drop that was merely an inch.
Hiccup just knew the Night Fury would be awake and staring at him right about now. He could sense it probably not far behind him.
He slowly turned around, and there it was as expected.
The dragon had moved to perch on a boulder a fair distance away. Its eyes wide open, ears raised, and tail wagging a little.
Hiccup was unsure whether he should approach the dragon, or if the dragon should approach him.
Eventually, he didn't want to stand there forever, so he gradually walked over to the rock.
The Night Fury did similar. It slowly slid off the rock till it was walking on its paws towards him.
At a closer distance, they both stopped at the same time.
"Hello again."
"Hello there."
Hiccup half laughed at the timing of both phrases. They said a similar thing at the same time.
"What is your name?"
That was the first, most logical question Hiccup could think of.
The dragon tilted its head to the side. "Name? Is a name some sort of classification of dragon species?"
Hiccup shook his head. "No, it's just what Vikings call each other. Every person has a different one. It's a way of identification. Each person has a name unique to them and them only."
"Hmmm, interesting. Nothing like that exists in our nature. We call each other by our species. Like I would call you human, or viking. You would call me a Night, or a Night Fury." The Night Fury replied.
"That's silly, how would you tell one dragon from another?"
"We don't. We don't hold any secrets to any one dragon that another dragon cannot hear. That's against our code. Everything is shared." Answered the dragon.
"Well, can you call me by my name? I'm Hiccup Haddock. But just call me Hiccup." Hiccup said.
"Okay. Hiccup it is. Strange name though. And what shall you call me? I do not have a name. Unless you would be so generous as to grant me one?" Asked the Night.
Hiccup thought for a minute or two.
"You're sure you don't want to pick your own name?" Hiccup wanted to double check, just in case. Manners matter.
"Certain. I have no idea what to name myself."
"All right, you're a male right? So how about Toothless?"
"Yes I'm male. Toothless?" The Night Fury then bared its teeth. "What kind of name is that? It's not even true anyway. Why would you choose that?"
"Because the first time I saw you retract your teeth it gave me a hell of a surprise. And the image stayed in my mind." Replied Hiccup.
"Okay then. I'm happy with it." The Night Fury nodded, its tail wagging behind him. "Now then, let's talk about more serious matters. What questions have you got for me?"
Hiccup sighed, and sat down. "Oh, where to begin…" he muttered.
"Okay, how about this," Toothless started, "Seeing that you've probably got plenty of questions for me, can I ask you one myself before you begin? I only want to know one answer."
"Yeah sure. Go ahead."
"When you found me in the woods when I was all tied up, why didn't you kill me?"
That was a similar question I was going to ask you. Hiccup thought.
"Okay. Uhh… the reason I didn't, is that you seemed so helpless. You were all tied up from my bola launcher which shot you down, and you had never done any harm to me. It just didn't seem right to kill a living creature that hadn't done anything to harm me, and couldn't harm me tied up. It seemed unnecessary to kill just for the sake of killing."
"But I have attacked the village many, many times. I've probably killed lots of Vikings. Didn't that influence your thoughts?" Asked Toothless, sounding utterly curious.
"It did a little." Hiccup nodded. "But to me, in that moment, you looked as frightened as I was. As I have been most of my life. When I looked at you, so helpless, fragile, scared, I saw myself."
Toothless didn't make a sound. Or a movement.
At last, he said, "Hiccup." The dragon closed his eyes. "Thank you."
"Had any other Viking shot me down, they would have killed me without hesitation. Thank you very much. I owe you my life, even though you did almost kill me."
Hiccup felt his face go red. Unsure of what to say.
He had just been thanked by a dragon.
"What surprises me more," Toothless continued, "Is that is exactly why I didn't kill you either after you released me."
"Really?" Hiccup asked, interested.
"Oh yes. I was just about to leave you there and fly away, but then I saw your mark."
Now they were getting into waters that Hiccup wanted to cross. This was the information he wanted to receive.
"What is my mark? Why did you touch it? Why did it glow when you touched it? Why does it glow now? Why doesn't it hurt? Why-"
"Slow down slow down. I can't answer everything at once." Ushered Toothless.
Both of them took a deep breath.
"The mark on your right arm is Night's mark. In other words my species mark. As you call it a Night Fury mark. Rumours, speculations & prophecies have spread among dragons about a Viking legend being born with a Night birthmark. The wisest said that he could have been born anywhere. And now of all dragons to find him, I have."
Hiccup was just about to interrupt, but Toothless stopped him. "Please don't interrupt, I have a lot more to explain." Hiccup just nodded in reply.
"The wisest were the oldest living dragons of our time. They were three dragons. One was a Bewilderbeast and the other two were Night Furies. They have long since passed, and their prediction was altered, modified and changed over the course of time through rumours and speculation as I said before. Nevertheless, the basic principle remained."
"I however, know the original statement. 'Six humans shall be born within several thousand years, each with a different dragon mark. They all will unite and follow the path to peace and justice of their time. One Viking will be the leader and will be destined to be the wisest of them all. The one born with the Night's mark is the leader and will be aided by a Night of whom the Viking will pick up some strengths, traits & characteristics from. He shall gather the other five, and together they will conquer the corruption and evil of their time.'"
"I know the original statement, unlike all the other dragons, because, the two Night Furies who were the wisest at the time with the Bewilderbeast with that prediction, were my great grandparents."
"I met them once before they passed, only once. And they told me this." Toothless finished.
Hiccup was totally at a loss.
Then he burst out laughing.
"Are you seriously saying that I am a Viking leader, who is supposed to gather up five people of whom I am to lead and help to conquer something? I think you've got the wrong Viking here." He chuckled.
Toothless closed his eyes.
"I know, this is going to be hard to accept." The dragon muttered.
"ACCEPT?!" Hiccup exploded. "Who said I was going to agree to this?! What if I don't want anything to do with this? Don't I get a say? I won't be forced to do this!"
Toothless said nothing.
"I don't want any characteristics of a Night Fury! What am I going to start sprouting wings and a tail soon? I don't want any of this! I just want to go back to being an average normal Viking!"
Toothless still said nothing.
Hiccup stopped yelling, and started to relax.
"I'm sorr-
"Don't even think about apologising." The dragon interrupted.
"This is completely out of your hands, you didn't have a say. If it's anyone's fault, its mine. Maybe I shouldn't have told you this."
Toothless's ears went down, and his eyelids drooped a little. He looked miserable.
"I'm sorry Hiccup."
Hiccup now walked over to the Night Fury.
"It's okay. I shouldn't have talked like that. I'm not normally like that. I'm sorry too. It's just quite a lot of information to digest." Hiccup tried to comfort.
A crackle of thunder was heard, and signalled the rain. Large, freezing droplets came pelting down from the heavens above. Just as Hiccup realised how dark it was, it was nearly nightfall.
"Quick! There's a cave over here!" Toothless growled, as if angry at the rain.
He ran over to a cave just beneath the entrance of which Hiccup came through. It was quite large, and a fair amount of space for Toothless to move around in.
Hiccup was freezing. And it was very dark in the cave, he could barely see.
"I better g-get b-back to the v-village to warm up." Hiccup said, his teeth vibrating and chattering.
"Nonsense. Stay still." Commanded Toothless.
Suddenly, a purple blast of fire shot out from Toothless's mouth and ignited a pile of wood. Then Toothless turned and faced Hiccup, opened his mouth and blew.
But no fire came out, instead, very hot air was blown onto Hiccup, and what a comfort it was. It warmed him up a fair bit, but his clothes were still damp and cold.
"I need to take these off." Hiccup said.
"Take what off?" The dragon asked, now looking at him.
"My clothes."
"Your what?"
"Oh." Hiccup chuckled. "These layers of clothing, similar to skin. We Vikings wear them to keep warm."
"Right." Said Toothless. Thought not entirely convincingly.
Hiccup removed his brown fur coat, then he took out his notebook, which was luckily dry due to having a protective fur coat around it, and placed it on the ground. Then he took off his shirt, and placed it and the fur coat next to the fire. With the notebook a further distance away.
"Good grief. Is that what human skin actually looks like?" Toothless muttered, staring at Hiccups bare chest.
"Hey, do you mind! And yes it is, we all look like this underneath." Hiccup folded his arms in front of his chest, self-conscious.
He sat down next to the fire, now taking off his boots and placing them near the fire too. And enjoying keeping his feet warm close to the fire's heat.
"Is that it?" Toothless asked.
"Is what it?"
"Is that all your, what did you call them, cloths?"
"Clothes, and no. I keep my pants on."
"Why?" Toothless asked. Sounding curious. "Aren't you cold in those areas?
Hiccup blushed. "Of course I am. But I'm not going to take off my pants. I got to have some privacy."
"Have some what?"
Hiccup sighed. "Oh for Thors sake I'm not going to explain the entire way of how humans work!"
"Who is Th- Oh sorry, never mind." Toothless looked at the fire and then lay down. Flattening his body against the rock, and his face not far from the fire.
There was a silence for a while.
"Humans are stupid."
Hiccup laughed.
"We are not. Shut up you nosy dragon."
Toothless moved his tail around the cave till he banged it against the Vikings head playfully. "I will not be insulted. Thank you very much."
"Oh and you expect yourself to get away with calling my species stupid and batting me on the head with a piece of fabric?" Taunted Hiccup.
"How dare you call my tail fins a-"
Hiccup had leapt up and threw himself at the dragon, scratching everywhere he could on the dragon's sides.
"Ahh stop it! No it- ahh! Tickles! Stop!"
Toothless rolled onto his back, and Hiccup still managed to cling on, suddenly he noticed something odd, but then Toothless hooked him in his pants with his paw claw and tossed him off gently.
"Hang on a second. My mark! It glowed purple when I touched you!" Hiccup got to his feet again.
"Oh yes, I forgot to say that." Toothless rolled back onto his belly and lay down, as Hiccup went back over to the fire and sat down next to it.
"Those colours when I put my paw onto your mark were just the glowing lights of activation. Yellow was meaning it was activating, when it flashed yellow that meant it was done. Then it turned purple, which is the colour your mark will turn now every time you touch me or I touch you. Also as I'm sure you know by now, it turns blue when I'm near you, the brighter the blue, the closer I am.
"By activating it, that meant many Night characteristics are going to transfer to you. Your mark is unlocking the traits over time. Steadily and slowly so you can adapt. Example being your running speed and stamina, you will be able to run faster, further and for longer than you could prior. Your strength will increase. You will get stronger, though it won't show. You will be stronger, you already are, dragon strength is in your muscles. But it won't show it.
"Your eye sight, sense of smell, hearing and sense of awareness will increase. You'll be able to see at night far better than you could. You'll be able to smell lots of things you wouldn't normally. Your hearing will be greater and you'll be able to distinguish sounds more efficiently. Your sense of awareness will improve too, you'll be aware of things you wouldn't normally notice. You'll be able to become very stealthy if you chose too.
"One last thing I want to make clear that you might have already guessed. No. You are not turning into a Night. You are not turning into a dragon. Because all of these things are not physically noticeable by other Vikings. In other words, your appearance will not change, and these changes are not reverse able, as far as I am aware."
Hiccup could barely believe this. It sounded like a dream come true.
"That sounds…amazing. It's just, I hope I don't change. I still want to be me. I don't want so much power that I end up changing myself."
Toothless spoke up, "I understand. I'm sure you won't. And don't worry, we have plenty of time. Night's live for hundreds of years. And I'm only young, as are you, plus with your mark now activated, you may end up living longer than a normal Viking."
Hiccup nodded, but then had another thought.
"Hang on a moment, what was this thing about bringing peace and justice, conquer corruption and evil? I don't know of any corruption or evil..."
Toothless breathed out a long breath, Hiccups guessed it was a sigh.
"Hiccup. This world is far larger than you know. This is the other side of the scale. There is a fair amount to explain and fair amount we need to find out before we even consider starting."
Hiccup nodded in understanding. "All right. Don't tell me now. I don't want to know. I'm not ready for anything massive like this. I want to focus on my life here on Berk for the moment."
"Of course, I understand." Responded Toothless.
Hiccup stood up and put his clothes back on and placed his notebook in his pocket in his fur coat. "Anyway, I have really got to go, I need to get to the Great Hall to eat and talk with the others unless they've already gone. I'll come back tomorrow, I promise."
Toothless stood up too. "Sure, I understand. Here, I'll give you a lift."
"A wha-"
Toothless pushed his head quickly between Hiccups legs, so he slid down his neck and sat just before his wings.
"Ow, this is very uncomfortable." Stated Hiccup, matter-of-factly. Hiccup noticed his birthmark went purple.
"Hold on." Cautioned the dragon.
Hiccup gripped onto whatever he could, his arms wound around the dragons neck and he leant forward.
Toothless leapt out of the cave then took off into the now drizzling rain.
It was a very painful experience, not one he wanted to do again. He couldn't see a thing, barely hang on and it was painful on his crotch.
Gladly Toothless landed less than 15 seconds after he took off. He landed in the forest but just before the edge. Hiccup slid off him, clutching between his thighs. His birthmark turned blue. It shone in the moonlight.
"I'm not doing that again anytime soon. Unless I have a saddle or something." Moaned Hiccup, slowly getting to his feet.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Are those your vulnerable parts there?" If Hiccup wasn't in pain or getting cold because of the drizzling rain, he would have blushed to his core.
"Whats left of them." He muttered.
"I'm sorry."
Hiccup nodded, turned around and began limping away. "I better go, cya later Toothless."
"Wait…"
Hiccup turned around, and Toothless was right in front of him.
Toothless just closed his eyes, seemingly to try and find the right words.
Hiccup instead, closed his eyes, took one hand, and placed it gently on Toothless's snout.
Even though he couldn't see it, he knew his birthmark was bright purple. A wave of trust and friendship spread through them both like lightning. A connection had been made. Neither of them had had really good friends for a very long time.
Hiccup removed his hand and walked towards Toothless, and placed his head against Toothless's.
They liked each other already. They were going to be the best of friends. Soulmates.
They were situated like that for over a minute, till Hiccup was just getting too cold.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it." Replied the Night Fury. "Take care of yourself."
"You too."
With that, the dragon took off into the air, and disappeared into the night. Hiccup sped towards the village. Using the dimming blue light as a torch before it went out.
Finally he arrived at the Great Hall, as soon as he opened the doors, the other teens were standing there.
They went past him without even looking as if he didn't exist and walked down the steps together, except Hiccup noticed Astrid wasn't with them.
Hiccup walked inside and saw a few Vikings around some tables. Astrid was around one table, talking with Gobber.
Hiccup approached, and took a plate of chicken and vegetables.
"Where have yeh been?" Wailed Gobber, as he finished his conversation with Astrid and she left the hall.
"I..uh, fell asleep."
Gobber relaxed, and sat down opposite him.
"Well, I don't blame ya. After all that work yeh did for me today. All I was saying to the recruits were some suggested tactics and advice. We also had a few discussions on what went wrong and right. By the way…" Gobber went over to the other table he was at previously, picked up a book and brought it over.
"This is the dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of. I recommend yeh give it a read. It might help ya. I'm off for the night. See you at training early in the morning."
"See you." Replied Hiccup.
Gobber got up and left.
Hiccup could hear each footstep he took and each breath he in and ex-haled. He was starting to notice his hearing improvements.
He could also hear the conversations some other Vikings were having at other tables around him.
Then he breathed in through his nose and nearly died of delight as he smelt the chicken below.
He devoured it.
Once done, he brought the book over to him.
He read a few pages, some parts were interesting. Like how it explained dragons habitat, food/diet and breeding patterns. But then there was a section for each dragon on the best and quickest ways to kill it.
Some were disturbing, others were disgusting. He found one phrase in particular that was on almost every single page. 'Kill on sight.'
Then he found the page he was looking for. Night Fury.
Speed unknown. Size unknown. Hiccup read it to himself. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you.
Well, I found one. And befriended it, what do you say to that? Stupid book.