Parenthesis = a character making a comment during first person or third person narration.
Parenthesis in bold = me ruining the flow of the story to say something, sorry ^^'
Normal text = story.
Hyphen = speaking.
Quotes = thoughts.
Hyphen or quotes followed by bold text = dragonese.
Centered text in italics = flashbacks.
I'm starting this one right after posting the first two chapters, so I hope I have time to do some progress on this story before I have to slow the pace. Also, for anyone that might have noticed this, I won't bother correcting the word "Viking" as my autocorrect just does what it wants with it, and correcting this word would be a hassle in itself that I am not willing to go through, especially if Word just continuously corrects it randomly for the entirety of this story.
Anyway, nothing more to say, let's get straight to it.
Ps : Currently publishing with only a few round of corrections, so errors might've slipped in more frequently this time, sorry. Also this chapter will contain an important talk with backstory, relevant to the story later.
Chapter 3.
Magic and mischiefs.
- Busted, was Toothless' only remark as, a few hours later, Astrid had finally found out why Hiccup had been acting weird during the night.
Both Thomas and Hiccup shot him a glare.
Surprisingly, making them believe he was from another world had been easier then he thought, what with magic making nearly anything possible.
Especially when Toothless had (partially) revealed what he had seen during the night.
But for now, the night fury thought it best for he and Stormfly to be the only ones aware of what the boy truly was.
"In time…," Toothless couldn't help but feel a little bit of guilt at hiding things from his friends.
- So, asked Astrid (not before having delivered a punch to Hiccup), there are clearly things we will not be talking of in front of others, but what will we tell them?
Thomas intervened.
- Well, obviously I'll first need fitting clothing, mine… well, do I even need to say it?
Nods of agreement.
Hiccup used the silence to take his turn.
- We will mostly need an alibi for how you got on Berk, not to mention here out of all places…
- Can't we use an excuse about magic? Let's say attempting to warp somewhere?
All Thomas got in return were confused glares.
- I am unsure if OUR magic can go to such extent, commented the black dragon.
- And from what I recall, I think human sorcerers are just as rare as night furies are, no offense Toothless.
- None taken, he chuckled.
- Not to mention, magic is not the most well perceived thing in our culture, declared Hiccup.
- And even after all that is taken care of, we'll have lots of questions to answer, Astrid sighed.
- What questions?
She looked at the newcomer as if to say "are you stupid or what".
- First, how about NOT telling the others for the part about magic?
Both boys winced at the tone, but the message was passed : no talking about supernatural stuff.
- If I may…
Toothless got up and sat closer.
- Maybe the others could help us, he suggested.
Thomas nearly scowled while Hiccup looked in disbelief.
- What?!
- But Toothless, you know the others…
That's when Hiccup understood.
Not the others.
The others.
The dragons.
- Oh, you meant "them", right?
The night fury gave a nod.
- What's he saying?
Of course, they had forgotten Astrid.
- Basically what he's saying is that we could ask the other dragons for help.
She immediately brightened at the idea and gave Toothless a hug and a scratch.
- You're a genius!
Cue the dragon making a gummy smile and his tail thumping right and left joyfully.
- I am!
Hiccup and Thomas chuckled.
Stormfly then let out a loud panicked squawk.
- Wait, we may be on the way to have a solution regarding Thomas' alibi, but what about ours?
After translating for Astrid, the five of them exchanged a glance.
They hadn't thought of that.
Luckily, Astrid had left a letter, so maybe they could use that precedent excuse to their advantage…
- We could say we went to the beach and slept there, exclaimed the Viking after a few minutes.
- Yeah but we didn't went to it, how will we prove we slept there?
He smiled.
- C'mon, Astrid, don't tell me you don't know what a fake proof is.
[After leaving Thomas at the cove]
Hurriedly, they fled to the beach and made it look like there had been activity. They made obvious prints in the sand, put some small bits of wood that would burn rapidly, and even left some fishes (courtesy from Toothless and Stormfly) near the fire.
Now all they had to do was go back to the village before anyone became too suspicious.
[With Thomas]
Once the riders flew away, I sat down.
I was utterly lost, I might have Hiccup and Astrid on my side, but that still wasn't any improvement. Here I was, in a world I could barely imagine, let alone hope to understand fully, as if the matter of this world existing in a time during which Vikings still were around wasn't confusing enough, now I had to deal with a completely new environment, not to mention the dragons.
"Dragons…," I sighed.
If I didn't know any better, I might've thought I'd have gone insane.
I didn't know whether to hope this all being real, or images conjured by my mind.
For now, reality or phantasm, I had to find a way back to my world, I couldn't leave Niko alone for too long, not with what had happened yesterday (if by some miracle the time zone of both worlds were in sync, at least I could know the duration of my stay on this island when I got back).
…
"Who am I kidding?" I looked at the sword still coated with blood, then the collapsed cave, "I will surely be here for a while."
- Might as well get used to it, I finished in a resigned whisper.
Getting up, I looked around for anything to do, anything so I wouldn't just think of… that, while the others were away.
I barely made a first inspection of the cove before my stomach rumbled.
Thankfully, Hiccup had managed to get some fish with Toothless, for once I was glad dragons are fire-breathing creatures!
The fish had been enveloped in leaves and put near the rock I had been sitting on.
"Eh, at least I can't complain about Vikings' cooking," I smiled.
However, it wasn't long before I was back to searching.
I did passed a few minutes trying to clean my sword, but the blood had dried on it, so it was harder than expected, but I managed to get it back to some state of acceptable cleanness.
I did everything I could, I skipped stones on the pond, sharpened sticks laying here and there, dug a few holes (as silly as it sounds, I thought maybe I'd find something, can't blame me for trying, right?) and then got so bored I didn't expect what happened next.
I fell asleep.
It must have been for only a few minutes, but immediately as I sat up on the rock (which my head had hit, ow), I felt that something was… off, somehow.
I looked at the stitches, nothing wrong there, but then something caught my eyes.
Black.
Black claws.
Right where I should have had nails.
I blinked and shook my head, confused, felt a strange prickling and when I looked back, my hands were completely normal.
I shrugged it off and paid it no more attention.
"I wonder how long they will take before coming back," I pondered while lying in the grass.
This was going to be a long day.
[At the village]
- Hiccup?
The boy gave the dragon a look.
- Not now buddy, everyone's gonna be waiting for us, he muttered so no one would catch the odd conversation.
When he met with Astrid at the hall and they entered, to their surprise, only a few turned their way, the "few" being comprised of Stoick, Gobber, and their friends, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins.
- Hey guys, where d'ya go tonight, asked Ruffnut while gesturing to the couple with a chicken drumstick.
Both blushed.
- Ooooo, said her brother, mind giving us juicy details?
Ruff bashed him on the head with her chicken.
- Hey, what was that for?!
- Gods, even I have more decency then that and do They know I am not a model, his sister replied with an annoyed glare.
- At least I show interest!
- Well tell your interest it can go to Hel or get lost in your empty skull.
- Want to see what's in there, and with that, they both became enraptured by their quarrel.
Nearly everyone sighed at the sight.
- A normal day here at Berk, Astrid couldn't help but smile at the twins.
For a strange reason, she felt as if something was missing, but she shoved the feeling back to the deepest parts of her mind.
Hiccup wanted to say something when Toothless nudged him.
- Hiccup, I have to-
The gaze he was sent cut him off.
"I guess I can wait, the island is not going to blow up in the next five minutes after all," he thought with irony.
- As I was going to say, we spent the night on the beach, I had taken Toothless for a ride and Astrid, well…
She took it as her cue.
- I… had terrible nightmares last night, and I wanted to forget them, so I got Stormfly out and off we were. I bumped into that doofus a few minutes later.
He shouted that he wasn't a doofus, much to everyone's amusement, and soon they were all laughing. Even some dragons followed by chuckling lowly.
Gods did these humans ever cease to impress them.
Suddenly, a hand nearly slapped Hiccup face first into his plate of food.
- So! I was just wondering, how is your latest project coming along boy?
He grinned at his mentor.
- If anything to go by, it hasn't exploded the forge yet.
Gobber laughed.
- Don't worry lad, I still have spare bricks from last time, ha!
No on seemed to get that one.
The twins looked at each other, Tuffnut made a "he's bonkers" gesture to which his sibling responded by a shrug.
Fishlegs and Snotlout both stared at nothing, which made them look silly.
And Hiccup finally groaned.
- Don't remind me…
The last prototype for Inferno was disastrous, he had forgotten to keep the zippleback gas separated from the nightmare saliva, so when he had tested it and ignited the sword, boom, suddenly, half the forge was blackened and the wall in front of him had a hole in it.
Since then he had worked on creating small canisters capable of holding the gas safely, the igniter had been trickier to incorporate though, since he had to redesign it. Where the gas and saliva had been kept apart by two compartments with an external igniter, now there had to be enough place for the mechanism that held the canisters in place, and to be able to replace them, thus the once empty handle was much heavier than other prototypes, but so far the sword had ignited without incident, and he was nearly finished integrating the igniter.
Back to the present, Gobber had taken back his place at the chief's table, and the groups' talks went on.
- Hey, wanna know something I overheard my dad and Stoick talk about yesterday?
Hiccup stared in disbelief.
His cousin eavesdropping? Surely he couldn't be that intelligent.
- Shoot away, Astrid replied.
He made sure no one was listening to them, leaned over the table and made a pause that felt more annoying than dramatic.
- Apparently, the Bog Burglars are coming over after Devastating winter, it's been planned for some time already but they just couldn't find the right time to visit.
Immediately his cousin perked up.
If the Bog Burglars were coming to Berk, then that meant that Camicazi was likely to come too!
"It's been so long since I last saw her…"
He couldn't help but sigh, their last encounter went back to a few months before he shot Toothless and that everything had changed, sometimes for the better and others for the worst.
- I hope you're not the kind of person carrying their purse around at all times, he joked.
Everyone knew that the tribe's name was coming from their story filled to the brim with events relating of trickery and stealing, one of them even told how an important shield had been stolen here at Berk. To say the Bogs had many friends would be to say that the Berserkers were done going at war with everyone.
Still, no one could deny their recent efforts to be forgiven.
- Eh, we'll see when they get here.
- I agree with Astrid, people can change a lot over the duration of four years, Fishlegs stated, not so subtly reminding everyone how things were before.
- Yeah, let's not bring back unpleasant memories, we should just get going and do our chores for today.
They nodded and the gang each went their separate ways.
That's when, as he and Toothless where to cross the entrance, Hiccup heard his father calling his name.
- Gods what is it this time.
Nervously, he approached the table where Stoick, Spitelout, Gobber and few others where siting.
- Son, he simply said, crossing his arms.
- Lemme guess, why I got out during the night?
Nod.
"Quick, think, think, anything…"
- I, uh, I couldn't sleep well so me and Toothless went on a night flight, then we kinda bumped into Astrid and we ended up at the beach and-
Sigh from the chief, who shook his head.
- Alright, I don't need to hear more, but next time, please warn me by leaving a letter, I don't have time to send a search party when you are just flying somewhere and everything's okay.
Hiccup slumped slightly.
- Alright, I won't worry you like that again.
Stoick nodded again before he went back in the conversation at the table.
The night fury gently pushed the boy's hand.
- Let's go, we have things to do before helping Thomas.
That made him perk up, he had managed to forget about him!
Without replying (otherwise others might find it weird), they went out.
After a few minutes, they were in the forest.
- So, what are we doing today?
- I think there was something about a stray timberjack scaring others in the deeper parts of the forest.
He became silent and Toothless looked up at his friend.
- And?
Sigh.
- And as usual dad gave me the job of calming it down.
The dragon thought about it before grinning.
- Well, good timing for you to understand our language, right?
He smiled.
- I guess.
[Meanwhile at the Hofferson's house]
Astrid swore.
Stable cleaning.
"Ugh, at least it could be worse…"
She sighed, picked up her gear and was ready to leave when she eyed a bag she knew contained dragon nip on a shelf.
She paused, recently, the dragons had became slightly agitated when entering the stables, as if there was something in there that they didn't wish the humans to find.
- As he says, we can never be too prepared, she murmured, lost in her thoughts.
She looped the string around her neck for easy access, and went to do her job.
She barely took a step out.
- Hey Astrid.
- Oh hi Fishlegs.
- So, he asked innocently, what are you doing?
She grimaced.
- Cleaning the stables.
- Oh.
- Yeah.
She returned the question.
- Oh, me? Not much, actually, I'm just going to get some fish.
He gestured to the empty basket he was holding and something rattled in the bottom.
She raised a brow.
- Uh…, he looked inside with her.
Both eyebrows rose.
- Please, Fish, don't tell me you really, she trailed off before looking away, feeling embarrassed.
Unsurprisingly enough, he had the same reaction.
- I… maybe..? Weird, he pulled out the thing that was in the basket, I have no idea how the manual could possibly have ended up in there.
- Me neither.
They looked at each other, then back at the book.
- That's strange-weird, they both said at the same time.
Astrid laughed while the chubby Viking had a shy chuckle.
- I guess I'll just, he put it in a pocket.
She rolled her eyes, but still smiled.
- I'll see you and the others later, she said.
He waved as she went away.
Fishlegs didn't move for a few moments, casting a glance to his pocket.
- But I could've sworn…
His mumble died on his lips as he shook himself and continued towards the shed were the fishes were stocked for the winter.
[In the forest]
- We're near…
- What does a timberjack smells like anyway?
Toothless tiled his head, thinking.
- Like… grease, and… sap, burnt sap, maybe from all the wood they cut and burn during cold nights. It becomes like a permanent smell, they nearly bathe in it due to their lifestyle.
"Uh, that would be interesting to add in the manual."
- Though I'd prefer you ask Stormfly, as her scent is better than mine, the fury finished.
- Although I don't understand the "grease" part as… oh, he seemed to understand something.
The dragon waited for an explanation.
Which never came.
Finally, he nudged his rider.
- Dragon to human! We may be able to discuss properly, but that doesn't mean I can read your thoughts!
He blushed before replying.
- Sorry… I mean, we know that a timberjack's fire is mostly based on oil, right?
Nod from the other.
- And oil from living beings is?
Toothless frowned, but just for a moment as he realized what Hiccup was implying.
- And oil is a greasy combustible!
- Exactly, so maybe that's where the odor of grease comes from.
The more he thought about it, the more the dragon found it to make sense.
He was about to talk when he heard something, while Hiccup noticed something.
- Cut trees…
- I hear flapping…
They slowed their pace and walked carefully towards a small place where the trees had been slightly more spaced.
There they saw the remains of wood.
- Looks like-
A roar interrupted the boy, moments later a giant shadow blocked the sun.
"Please don't be mad," he silently prayed.
- What are you doing are?! Go away!
Turning around, the duo saw the timberjack flying just above the trees, looking suspiciously at the black dragon.
"He knows," the Viking realized, "he knows that if he lands to fight, he won't be agile enough to go between trees, whereas Toothless is just as agile on the ground as he is in the air."
- We're not here to steal your home.
The brown one let out a humorless laugh.
- Yeah, right, and I can eat rocks.
- You're not a gronckle.
- And you're not my father.
- At least you know that much.
Hiccup, who had simply looked up and down between the two dragons, stepped in before things went too far.
- Woah woah woah there, calm down, both of you, no one is insulting anyone or stealing anyone's home, okay?
- A human that can understand dragonese, I'll have seen it all.
- Please don't get me started, moaned the teen in despair.
Toothless growled in annoyance.
- Could you PLEASE land before we break our necks trying to look at you?
With a sigh, he complied, landing as far as the small area allowed from the duo.
- Just stay away, the timberjack warned them, his tail ready to lash out if they came too close.
Hiccup raised his hands in front of him.
- Okay. Okay, we're not approaching, look, we're even going away.
And both backed from the brown dragon, who permitted himself to relax slightly, his sight still scrutinizing each and every of their move.
"Gee, are all wild dragons this distrustful?"
- You know, we were searching for you, recently you've been seen near our village and your… attitude, kind of… uh…
Toothless rolled his eyes.
- Long story short you're scaring our humans.
The boy stared, shocked.
- "O-our"?!
Well, that was a kind of rough way to put it.
They paid him no attention.
- Me? Scary? Oh please, as if they haven't killed any of my species before, why should they even fear me?
- First, your wings are sharp enough to cut down trees, that's not something most dragons can do.
- Tch, the strangely nearly human-like sound disturbed Hiccup, who flinched from his surprise but finally stepped in once more.
- Please, listen, he said, starting to feel a headache, your kind are loners, you want your privacy, we totally get that, but you hunt too close to our village and many are uncomfortable with this situation.
- And just why should I even be concerned by this? They are scared, so they'll stay farther away and I have more space to hunt, sounds more of a winning situation for me, right?
- Well, you're not wrong, but-
- So how is it wrong? I came to harm towards none of your people, the dragon rumbled in annoyance.
- Can't you just consider hearing us-
- Just what do you think I am doing right now, the wild beast was becoming more and more irritated at the human's persistence in futile convincing.
Toothless crouched, feeling the tension in the air the same way the air felt just before a storm began pouring water and lightning around.
"This is going nowhere," he eyed his rider, sensing Hiccup's patience melting like snow during the warmest of days.
- Still doesn't looks like you're truly listening.
- What I said to your friend counts for you too, you're not in any position to give me orders.
The response had been hissed back in an angry tone.
- And how would you, a puny human, even convince me otherwise, even with that night fury of yours, I could simply put the forest on fire and claim back my home once you two have flown away.
When he heard the tone of the dragon (which, to make matter worse, recalled the human of Snotlout's previous behavior) and the idiocy of such plan, Hiccup, having reached his limit with this dragon, snapped back.
- BY THE GODS, HOW CAN YOU BE THIS STUB-
He clamped a hand against his mouth, and both dragons stood there, looking at the other, then back at the startled human.
Hiccup's breathing quivered, his eyes wide.
He had roared.
Like a dragon.
For a moment, nothing was said, and all he could do was look to the ground, confused.
Hesitantly, he managed to look in the timberjack's, then Toothless' eyes.
- D… did I… spoke…, his words came soft, barely more than a whisper each.
The black dragon cooed, trying to comfort the human.
- Hiccup, it's okay.
He looked to the wild dragon, who gave a sigh, and nodded with a gesture of his head in the main direction of the village.
- You should go home, I'll stay and talk the other problem off with the timberjack.
Hiccup, as if in daze, barely nodded back and, with an unsure footing, went in direction of their home.
When sure he was away, they looked to the other.
- I… haven't seen him this way in a long time.
- Was that the first time he spoke dragonese?
Nod.
The dragon seemed to think of something, then asked a strange question.
- When he yelled at me, did you see his eyes?
He glared back at the brown dragon, asking silently if that was a joke.
- Please don't give me that look, I'm serious.
He simply huffed in response.
- Yeah, what his eyes?
- … they shone.
- W-what, the fury recoiled in shock.
- His eyes shone. You, a night fury, should know better than me what this means.
Toothless glanced, uncertain, in the direction where Hiccup had left.
- B-but…
Sigh from the brown dragon.
- I am quite aware that this human has predispositions for magic, but as it is clear the two of you are close to each other, you should be the one to announce the news to him, not a lonely dragon he doesn't know.
- That's quite the change of attitude you got there, he mumbled.
- I will simply do as if you hadn't said this. How did it happened? As much as I know, our previous nest lost the knowledge of magic when the queen took over, and with our… reputation, I highly doubt any other nest would be willing to help us train in magic once more.
The black one raised a brow (metaphorically speaking, I know dragons have no brows, duh) at this statement.
- … I suspect you might be older than you let on.
The other simply smiled.
- On that part, you are right, but let me reiterate my question. How did this human absorb so much magic? His body easily dispose of enough a reserve to start producing his own magic naturally… in fact, maybe he already has.
- What is THAT supposed to mean?!
- Urgh, guess you weren't told this one.
The timberjack took a deep breath.
- You might want to get comfortable.
They both laid down.
- I am all ears, starts when you want.
- Right, he gave a sharp nod, I might start from the beginning. Even before most nests existed and those already were without king or queen, humans had their own sorcerers, no matter how rare, we know these powerful beings once existed, before being chased by their own.
- Yeah yeah, the old same story, they were burned, never heard of again and then the war of the nests began, I know that part.
- Oh dear… Anyway, as you so kindly reminded me, the war began when the humans started to establish their homes too close to the comfort of some nests, who began to inspect them. Eventually, after a few dragons were brought down, the real war broke between our species, sometimes due to nests being taken over by tyrants, ours being a good example of such scenario, the other in retaliation. A life for a life was the saying back then.
- Quite the stupid one.
- Would you please?! As we know, most nests stopped the fight, those who didn't possess a real home on ground simply travelled, others, again, like ours, dissimulated their locations by diverse means, creating cave-ins, digging complex series of tunnels to get humans lost, or even using nature to our advantage, as our used the fog around the island to hide safely. What we don't know, however, is how, sometime after the main part of the war, near to every nest lost contact with each others.
The black dragon growled, unhappy.
- Yeah, I know some who went through that, apparently bad stuff happened during the first few years.
The older dragon squinted at him.
- If you are so clever, maybe you should be the one telling me what happened.
Toothless only gave a yawn before replying.
- As you wish. Most nests became isolated mostly in fear of leading humans to each others. A kind of status quo was established, the war was over, but we still raided human settlements, either for supplies or to claim back land.
For a moment, he stopped, the eyed the timberjack.
- And what does any of this have to do with Hiccup anyway?
- You see, most humans have capabilities for magic, but not all can use it, and sometimes, dragons and humans would share their own magic.
- I don't even know how to use mine, he simply growled.
- For an unknown reason, some humans were actually better at learning the use of dragon magic than normal one. With time, the most powerful of them assimilated the magic until… they changed. The first drakes were, and even today some remains.
Unable to stop himself, the night fury yawned.
- And how is that relevant to what is happening with Hiccup?
- I was coming to it. Descendants of the drakes still carries the ancient mix of our two species' magics, most unaware of what they really are. Some of them, with time, learnt to use this power, even though in a limited manner, they couldn't shapeshift entirely from human to dragon, but it was undeniable that they were something else. These beings were given the name of "halflings".
Finally, the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in Toothless' head.
- You don't mean!
The timberjack was giving off the impression he was smirking.
- Indeed, you little friend is one of them. How he came to use magic I think only you can know, you two give the feeling that you are related in more ways than one.
- … uh, he kinda took a blast of magic in the face yesterday.
- Really?
- Yup.
- … owch.
- Yeah, because being flung around a small cave by furious winds is really fun and all, can't wait to try again.
- I think you've been rubbing off one another.
- Are you sure we don't know you? Because that statement was too accurate for comfort.
He snorted.
- Nah, simply a wild guess.
The next moment he was serious.
- But you should break out the news to him soon, keeping this a secret will do both of you no good, even make things worse the longer you'll hide it. I suggest you drop him a few hints here and there, he looks intelligent enough to find the truth by himself.
- Isn't that contradictory?
- Not really, if he doesn't find out on his own, just don't wait for too long, your relationship would suffer from this situation.
- Okay. Still, back to the first thing that got us here, can you please stop scaring the Vikings? We kinda need that wood to pass through the winter.
- If you keep whining like that I might just say yes, but on one condition.
Toothless about it, single condition couldn't them much, right?
- What is it?
- Just make sure they stay clear from this place. And I've seen these baskets of fish they bring back each day. One of them. Full. I'll return it after the winter.
- Okay, just let me write it down oh wait right I can't because I have clumsy claws and don't know a single rune.
- Now you really sounded like your friend, sheesh.
[Later]
After nightfall, Hiccup and Astrid having discussed, sent Stormfly with some supplies to the cove, no one would think it strange, some dragons were restless at night, just like humans, no matter how rare it was to see one unable to sleep.
Looking by the window, Hiccup sighed, he still had a hard time getting over this sudden ability to speak dragonese.
He remembered every words. He shivered.
They had felt strange rolling out on his tongue, yet somehow, familiar, easy to pronounce, as if he had known how to say them for a long time, but never dared to speak them to someone.
Toothless was already sleeping near him.
Slowly, he sat down on his bed and took off his metal leg.
He tried to lighten up his mood by thinking back to their fight with the Queen.
"I wonder what she was roaring at us," he managed to chuckle, "probably some stupid curses and swears, powerful but with the mind of a hatchling."
But his smile rapidly dropped.
With another sigh, he finally laid down.
He had to fight the urge to curl in a tight ball, as emotions began to overflow his mind.
Excitement, fear, joy, pride and shame, anger and hate, he didn't know what he really felt.
"I don't know what I am anymore," Hiccup closed his eyes on this painful thought.
[While this happened, back at the cove]
- Thomas, she chirped while landing.
Immediately he was there.
- Hi Stormfly, he said, still uneasy around the beast.
She playfully nudged him.
- No need to be nervous me, or any of us for that matter.
- … if you say so.
He gently took the bag that was around her head and she turned around.
- I hope I can have time to be here tomorrow, you sound like someone fun so far.
He grinned.
- Uh, thanks, goodnight.
- Yeah, goodnight Tom.
With a few flaps, she was off, leaving a stunned human behind.
"Did… did she just nicknamed me?"
A few moments later he was chuckling.
A dragon just gave him a nickname.
If he wasn't in another universe, then this was one both terrifying and cool heck of an hallucination.
He opened the bag to find clothes, they looked like a cross between what Astrid would wear and what Hiccup would.
A faded brown pair of pants, old boots used and patched, a vest of dark fur and a grey long-sleeved shirt.
So far they seemed like they could fit him.
"At least there's that part done."
He stuffed back the clothing in the bag and used it like a pillow against the wall of the cove.
Moments later he was asleep, dreamless.
[? ? ? ? ?]
Liquid drips, yet every drop of it resonate like hard, cold metal.
Something rattles.
A vast expense of pure darkness. Something is there. Something is kept, held, in this fake void.
Tired growls like thunder shakes invisible walls, yet they hold. The captive has tried before, all they could do, yet the walls never broke, never showed any weakness.
No life.
No death.
The something inhales sharply in sudden fear.
Bloody red shines darkly on tern scales. Smoke billows from symbols engraved in the links.
The familiar burst of energy.
And the pain that follows.
Forgotten.
In the entrails of the earth. Where even the water doesn't dare seep down to, where nothing should live.
Forbidden.
The seals the only image in its mind.
Yet, hope.
Unexpectedly, a new image.
Not home, not anymore.
It sees it, somehow, it feels better, reminiscences of better times crawls their ways back to its mind.
The pain ease.
Even if for a moment only.
It shakes fearfully.
Something is wrong.
Non-existence.
Crimson.
Blinding like a sun of blood, pumping like a heart.
It roars as the pain becomes of intensity never felt before, the light too much.
Too bright, too painful.
"MAKE IT STOP"
The void shreds.
For some reason I had lots of fun writing the ending, I don't know why knowing it, poor [REDACTED].
I might be a bit sadistic because looking back to all my other fics, there's always one of the characters having some kind of deep trauma that fucks 'em up. Maybe I just like playing with their sanity a bit too much.
Also, I'm surprised I even finished this chapter, what with exams driving me up the walls (two weeks, one exam each day). Also, as the oc characters generally are given that "shipwreck" excuse in other fanfics for HTTYD, would any of you have an original idea? It's not as if I can just teleport Thomas to a beach and place the remains of a ship (okay, I could since I'm the one writing but even then that's a bit too much) there and be like "done". I would really like some involvement from others (I know the site forbid interactive stories, but sharing an idea is just that, plus the mods are (sorry if anyone in charge of this site reads this) never doing their job, heck, even the site itself doesn't) or at least some feedback. If something is wrong, don't wait until this story is finished because then it will be too late. I don't liked repeating myself, at all, but I really need some help. I really want this story to shape into something that both me and you can enjoy, not something that only I can enjoy, that's not the point of this site.
Anyway, I hope you like that chapter, I can't promise anything, but I will try to write this as often as I can, and you can always look on my profile to see which story is in progress (okay I concede that this time I sound a little like broken record). Btw, "in progress" includes "just being on my mind and getting ideas", doesn't necessarily mean I'm currently writing it.
Enough of my blabbering, I'll see you in the next chapter.