Dragon Treasure, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 5 - Interview, part 2 (rough draft)

A/N: WARNING for references to physical and sexual child abuse in this two-part chapter.

o.o.o

The boys went to play in the backyard both before and after lunch. Stoick filmed a lot of it, watching in fascination as Hiccup put Toothless through his paces, and as the two horseplayed and wrestled.

Even when Toothless was mock-snarling and pawing at the boy and grabbing him in his jaws, Stoick noted that the dragon was very careful. It was more obvious here in person than it had been on the surveillance feeds - despite the great difference in size and strength, Toothless never left a scratch on Hiccup. He apparently had the ability to retract all his teeth, which he did every time he bit the boy, so that it was only harmless gums which closed on Hiccup's flesh. It made sense now why Hiccup had never cried out in pain or showed signs of injury when the men watching the feeds thought he was being mauled.

The training was very different but just as fascinating. In addition to a wide range of tricks that would have been used during performances, there were also more practical commands.

"Guard Me" seemed to mean that Toothless was to protect Hiccup while avoiding casualties if possible. "Fury Mode" called for unbridled aggression - Stoick winced at the patches of burnt grass now marring his beautiful lawn; Armando would have his work cut out for him when he came back. "Hurt Mode" prompted the dragon to cringe and whimper, acting like he was injured and terrified. In "Safe Mode," he acted as cute and friendly as a dog. There was also "Standby," which kept the dragon alert but neutral at Hiccup's side, and "Hush," which seemed meant to calm Toothless when he sensed a threat.

"That's very impressive," Stoick remarked, still filming. "You taught him all of that?"

"Yeah."

"Did you ever see the other animals being trained?"

"Yeah, Dominic was the animal trainer. But he hated Toothless, so he didn't bother us too much."

"Dominic would train the lions and tigers with treats?" Stoick said, his tone carefully conversational.

Hiccup gave a bark of laughter, if the suggestion was ridiculous. "He'd hurt them if they disobeyed, and he wouldn't hurt them if they did. They hated him, too."

"You never hit Toothless, though."

"No! I'd never hurt Toothless!"

"Looks like you have a much better way of getting Toothless to do what you want."

"Duh! If you give Toothless some food for doing something, he'll want to do it."

"What happens if you don't have any food to offer him?" Stoick asked, curious about how the boy would word his response.

"I tell Toothless he can't tell me he loves me until he does what I ask. That's the only way I could get him to attack me in the ring, to make it look real. I had to give him soooooo much love after every performance, or else he'd refuse to do it at the next rehearsal and then we'd get whipped." Hiccup threw himself at the dragon. "Hey, you! I love you!"

Toothless made a happy croaking noise and allowed himself to topple over on his side.

"Hey, you~" Hiccup sing-songed, apparently imitating how he'd praised the dragon after performances. "Hey, Toothless~ Hey! Good job, right? We did a good job, yes, Bludvist should be happy, lots of money in his pocket tonight~ Maybe he'll give us some extra fish, yeah? Yeah~?" He scrubbed his hands all over the dragon's chest and belly and side. Toothless squirmed in pleasure until he couldn't take it anymore and flopped upright, pinning Hiccup under his foreleg. He started vigorously licking Hiccup's face and neck as the boy continued to stroke and croon at him.

"I see," Stoick murmured. He smiled a little. "I still can't get over the fact that that's a dragon who's got his claws and teeth all over you... You're very brave, Hiccup."

"Why?"

o.o.o.o.o

The next morning, Marta served Hiccup a light meal consisting mostly of fish, which he seemed much more pleased with than the previous breakfast. After he ate, Stoick settled him in the living room again. Hiccup leaned against Toothless, obviously not looking forward to what was coming.

"So, Hiccup... I suppose you've guessed that I need to continue interviewing you today."

"What do you want?" Hiccup asked wearily.

"There are some things I'd like to have some clarification on, but for now, let's tackle the hardest part. I need to ask you about the abuse, Hiccup. We know that you were harmed during your time at the circus, but we don't know the full extent of it."

Hiccup was wordlessly stroking his dragon's scales, as Toothless gazed at him with a worried look.

"Can you tell me about all the people who hurt you, Hiccup? Their names if you know them, and how they hurt you, and how often. Do you think you'll be able to talk about that?"

"..."

"You've already told me that you were physically beaten by Bludvist on a regular basis."

"Yes," Hiccup mumbled.

"Was he the only one who ever hurt you?"

"...No."

"Who were the others? Do you know their names?"

"...Zeke hit me a few times, if I got too close to him when he was drunk...he'd hit anyone smaller than him...he's been gone for a long time, though. Dominic would whip me sometimes when we were rehearsing with the other animals, just to be mean. Grott hit me a couple of times, he was drunk, too - he'd grab me when I was in my dress and then he'd remember I'm not a girl and get mad at me. Sasheena tried to hurt me once...she stole the key and came into the cage and started kissing me and biting me and sticking her hands in my clothes. Toothless chased her off before she could hurt me, though, so I don't know if that counts."

Which sort of led to the next question. "Were you ever sexually abused?"

"What?" He didn't understand the term, or the word 'rape,' and Stoick had to explain in unpleasant detail. Hiccup's face seemed to drain of color, and his fingers gripped Toothless so hard that the dragon whined softly. "N-No. No."

"All the other minors at that place were forced into prostitution when they weren't performing. Ruby and Seth have been open with us about it. Sasheena hasn't been cooperative and we haven't been able to get Kieran to say a word, the poor lad - but we already have evidence that they were both being sexually abused as well. ...It wouldn't surprise us if you'd been victimized in that way, too."

"...T...Toothless...protects me...he won't let anyone...hurt me..."

"What if someone were to overpower Toothless?" Stoick asked quietly. "What if someone were to tranquilize him so that he couldn't protect you? Did anyone ever do that, Hiccup?"

Hiccup gasped, then continued fighting for air as if he couldn't breathe. Toothless pressed his head against the boy's chest, pinning him to the front of the couch, and Hiccup's arms wrapped tightly around the dragon, fingertips tracing patterns over the black scales.

"Don't try to fight it, Hiccup," Stoick murmured. "Just let the feelings come. You're experiencing a panic attack right now, your body is reacting to the trauma in your memories." He continued to talk for a while in a calm, measured voice, giving Hiccup explanations to focus on. "You're afraid, but it's all right, you're not in danger. You're safe here, no one is going to hurt you. You can take as long as you need to ride it out. You feel like you can't breathe, but that's just your mind playing tricks on you; you still have the physical ability to breathe just as well as ever. Nothing bad is going to happen to you right now, you are safe here in this house with your best friend at your side."

Hiccup sat staring at the ceiling, with Toothless leaning on him and licking at his skin. When he seemed to have gotten over the worst of it, Hiccup closed his eyes and whispered haltingly, "They shot him. They shot him...he fell asleep, they had the key, I couldn't stop them. I tried, but I couldn't. I was too small and they were so strong, Toothless was gone; he left me, they...they..."

He cried into the dragon's neck for a while. "I felt like I was dead," he sobbed when he could speak again. "It hurt so much and they threw me back in the cage and I couldn't move, I kept thinking I was dead but I wouldn't die...Toothless tried to take care of me...he woke up and he knew they'd hurt me and he tried to take care of me, but I just wanted to die and I wouldn't die..."

After a long time, he spoke again in a low, dull voice. "I wouldn't get up when Bludvist called me. He hit me but I didn't care, it hurt but I didn't care I wanted to die, but Toothless attacked him and he started beating Toothless and I...couldn't...let him...hurt Toothless...I tried to get up but it hurt, he...he knew...he knew what they did to me..."

Hiccup drew in a shaky breath, anger finally bringing some life back into his tone. "He got so mad at them for wasting tranq shots." Still clutching Toothless, Hiccup looked directly at Stoick for the first time that day, his eyes blazing. "That's why he didn't whore me out like the others. Toothless wouldn't let anyone touch me, so they would've had to tranq him every time, and tranq shots are expensive."

He gulped in a breath. "I couldn't work afterward. He beat us so much that I tried, but I couldn't, and Toothless wouldn't obey me anyway. All he wanted to do was protect me and help me and love me, but Bludvist wouldn't let him and he'd get mad, and...it was such a waste of time. Days; we couldn't even make it into the next show, Bludvist was furious.

"That's when he made me off-limits. No one could pay enough to make it worth it. Bludvist beat them and tried to take it out of their pay, the cost of the tranq shot and for me and Toothless missing the show, but they ran off and he never found them."

Hiccup was quiet for so long that Stoick finally wondered if he should speak. That was the exact moment when Hiccup took a deep breath and said with tears in his voice, "I don't know if it was better or worse the second time. I don't even remember his name, but he had these gold rings on his fingers...he...he heard Sasheena talking about me, he heard what had happened back then...

"He shot Toothless and he missed the first time but it landed past the cage and I couldn't reach it, the second shot hit him and I tried to stab myself with the dart but there wasn't anything left in it, I couldn't fall asleep..." He gritted his teeth. "He did what you said, he raped me. I thought I could get away this time because I was bigger than before and he was alone, but...I...couldn't. And he...he raped me and I wanted to kill him-"

A terrible smile stretched Hiccup's mouth. "I didn't let Toothless take care of me that time. I made Toothless comfort me without helping me so that Bludvist could see in the morning. He knew what happened and he yelled at me and hit me for letting him do it, and he hit Toothless for not protecting me, but then he took him out and started beating him...I heard him screaming...I heard him begging, but Bludvist didn't listen to him and he deserved it, and I'm pretty sure Bludvist killed him. I'm glad." Hiccup smiled that awful smile again. "He wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. He wasn't going to let him run off and escape like the others did. He wasted a tranq shot and a Night Fury act, so he paid for it."

After a moment, Hiccup's face crumpled. "Seth and the others, they always got tips...well, not Kieran, he just cried. But Seth and Sasheena and Ruby, they got money and food and favors; the men would have to pay Hunter to go into the harem, but then they also had to pay them, too... I don't know how they did it. I don't know how they could smile like that after they'd been, been 'raped' like you said. But those men hurt me so much and I couldn't even get them to pay me...I'm weak and useless just like Kieran, the only thing that makes me better than him is that I've got Toothless..."

There was a part of Stoick that loved his job, loved helping the helpless and bringing hope to those who had none. That was what kept him going for so long, what made him balk at choosing a different career. However, there was a much bigger part of him that was often heartsick, witnessing the worst of humanity on such a regular basis.

It tore at him to see and hear what these kids had been subjected to, how their hearts had been broken. His soul raged at the monsters who would do such terrible things to children, who would hurt them so badly and make them feel so unloved and worthless, and then convince them that it was their own fault.

He couldn't keep silent anymore, but Hiccup didn't show any reaction when he tried to explain. Stoick eventually had to give up; he clenched and unclenched his fists and tried to think of a different subject. "Did you train Toothless to do that?" he finally asked.

"Do what?"

"The deep pressure therapy and tactile stimulation."

Hiccup gave him a blank look.

"When he presses against you and licks you during your panic attacks. Did you teach him that?"

"No," Hiccup said, looking a little annoyed. "He comforts me when I'm upset. He loves me, I didn't have to teach him that."

Perhaps someone else had trained Toothless, though it seemed rather bizarre that anyone would think to train a dragon as a service animal - particularly if Toothless had always been in the circus. "You said Toothless was just a baby when you first met him?"

Hiccup gave a very deep, long sigh. "I don't really remember anything before I came to the circus," he said in a wooden voice. "I know it was Christmas; I know that Hiiro Yui guy got assassinated. Momma scared me. I was glad when those men went away with her into the building, but then she was gone and I was scared, too. I didn't know what was happening back then, I was too little and stupid, but now I know that she was whoring herself out for money to buy more drugs."

He sighed again, petting Toothless as if the repetitive motion was a lifeline. "I was watching the baby dragon. They had it tied up, it was so angry; it was Toothless, you know. He hated being chained up. They opened the cage to feed him and he managed to get loose, he couldn't shoot fire because I think he was too little, but he screamed and shot something at them, I don't know what but it was hot. Something caught on fire. Everyone was yelling and running around, I was scared and trying to stay out of the way and hide..."

He smiled a mirthless smile. "I heard the cage door slam, and I looked up and saw I was inside the cage. I got caught in the cage with the dragon, and no one wanted to come too close and let me out again. I was so scared, because I was stupid back then and didn't know that Toothless wouldn't hurt me. They just wandered around outside and talked about me and Toothless, and talked about trying to get me out, but they never did.

"I tried to stay as far from Toothless as I could, but there was nothing to hide behind. He didn't notice me for a while, he kept screaming at them and trying to get out of the cage and shooting that hot stuff at them, but then he coughed and nothing happened and I knew he couldn't shoot anymore.

"He was scared then. He backed away and tried to hide in my corner, but he bumped into me and he finally noticed me and got really scared. He was hissing and he jumped away and kept staring at me like he thought I was going to attack him, so I lay down flat on the ground."

Stoick generally tried to be silent when children were giving their stories, not interrupting unless absolutely necessary, but he was too surprised by this. "You were a four-year-old locked in a cage with a raging dragon, and you lay down flat instead of curling up to protect yourself?"

"He was scared. He thought I was going to hurt him, so I tried to show him that I wouldn't hurt him."

"Were you still scared, too?"

"Yes," Hiccup barked out with a harsh laugh. "I was an idiot. Both of us were dumb; we hid at opposite ends of the cage for a whole day, thinking we were gonna hurt each other. Stupid."

"What happened when your mother finished working?"

Hiccup's look of scornful self-deprecation vanished, and he went pale again. His breath started coming a little short, and Toothless pressed back against him. "...She...finally she came out, and...saw me... I asked her to get me out, I asked her over and over, but Toothless was hissing and she didn't want to get close to him, either.

"Everyone kept talking about how Toothless hadn't hurt me yet...his name wasn't Toothless then, by the way; they called him Deathwing in the ring and 'the lizard' the rest of the time. Well, they still do that. But I don't like those names, so I started calling him Toothless because he looks like he doesn't have any teeth when he sucks them all into his mouth like that. That was later, when I was older and could talk better; I don't know what I called him before that. I don't think I called him anything, he was just my friend, but I didn't know how to say it."

Stoick, knowing that this rabbit trail was an attempt to avoid the painful memories, gently steered Hiccup back on track. "Your mother was just as frightened as everyone else was, hm?"

Hiccup exhaled tearfully. "I don't want to talk about this."

"I know. I know it must be very difficult and painful to tell me these things. We can stop for now if you want, but keep in mind that people are going to be asking you about these things for a very long time - months, probably; maybe even years. The more you talk about it, the easier it is to talk about."

"I don't want to..."

"All right. In that case, do you think you'll be up to continuing this tomorrow, after you've had a chance to rest? We need to know everything we can so that we know who to prosecute, and what exactly to prosecute them for. I want to get these men off the streets, so that they can't hurt anyone else the way they hurt you and Kieran and Ruby and the others."

Hiccup swallowed.

"We can take a break now, though. I'll call Marta-"

Hiccup flung back his head and cried out angrily, then plunged back into his story. "He hadn't hurt me! They were stupid, too; OBVIOUSLY Toothless isn't dangerous and wouldn't hurt me, but they all thought it was something special about me. Bludvist was staring at me with those eyes and I was so, so scared, I was way more scared of him than I was of Toothless, I was glad to be in the cage when he was looking at me like that. I was dumb and didn't know he had all the keys.

"M-Momma...she...didn't want to get me out." Tears trickled steadily down his face. "She didn't want to get too close. Sh-She...she said - she said, I had a gift, I could charm dragons and make them obey me, she said-" He had to pause for a minute to sob. "She said if they paid her 200, they could keep me as a dragon trainer. Bludvist gave her 50, and she-" Toothless licked him again, whimpering as if he was crying, too. "She took it and she LEFT ME."

Hiccup slumped into Toothless as he cried. "She left me...she sold me...she let them have me for 50 credits and walked away, I know she bought drugs with that money and she's dead now, I know she's dead now, I never saw her again. She left me. She sold me."

Tears were slipping down Stoick's face now, too. He moved to embrace the boy, but Hiccup screamed at him, and Toothless growled softly. "Hiccup...Hiccup, I'm so sorry..."

"Why did she leave me?" Hiccup wailed. "She left me there, everything is her fault. I hate her so much, I hate her so much, I hate her so...much...!"

Hiccup lay curled tightly against Toothless for a long time. Despite the dragon's growls, Stoick edged close enough to lay a blanket over Hiccup, and to leave a plate of food and a bottle of water close to him. Hiccup didn't touch it, though Toothless shifted his head to nibble quietly at the fish and water Stoick set down for him. There was nothing else Stoick could do for Hiccup until the boy recovered, so he sat down with his computer to work. He stayed in the same room to keep an eye on the pair, but also because he knew that a mere presence, even without any direct interaction, was enough sometimes.

To be continued...

Author's Notes: Ftr, a "harem" is a place where a polygamous man's multiple wives and concubines are kept; the term is also used collectively for the women themselves. The 'circus' in this fic uses it as a euphemistic name for the brothel area; the term is not used literally.