How to View Your Dragons Chapter 9

"No, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers, and that's their queen. It controls them," Astrid was saying as they approached Berk.

"What makes sense?" Hookfang asked the flat panel. "What was she talking about?"

"They skipped a few of Hiccup's words," Toothless explained. "He had just asked, 'Why would the dragons stay in that cave when the giant dragon eats them? Why would they give up all their food like that? It doesn't make any sense.' "

"Okay, that makes sense," the Nightmare nodded.

"But she was wrong about the queen dragon," Meatlug said firmly. "That monster wasn't like a queen bee at all! The queen bee lays all the eggs; she keeps the hive alive. The queen dragon was more of a parasite on the nest, taking without giving. A beehive without a queen bee will quickly die out; our nest without that queen would have been a lot better off."

Astrid went on, "Let's find your dad."

"No! No!" Sizzle shouted at the screen, flapping his wings in agitation. "Bad idea! Very bad!"

"Don't bring the head dragon-slayer to the nest!" Meatlug roared.

"No, no! Not yet," Hiccup said, as though agreeing with them. "They'll kill Toothless. Astrid, we have to think this through carefully."

"Yes! Think carefully!" Stormfly urged him. "Take a few months so you get it right. There's no hurry."

"How would bringing the Vikings to the nest result in them killing you, Toothless?" Barf asked.

"The chief would want to know how Hiccup found the nest and how he got there," Toothless answered. "That trail would lead straight back to me, and nowhere else. I'm glad Hiccup was thinking clearly this time, even though it meant disagreeing with his chosen mate again."

Astrid was astonished. "Hiccup, we just discovered the dragons' nest - the thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here. And you want to keep it a secret? To protect your... pet dragon? Are you serious?!"

"YES!" all the dragons chorused.

"Yes," Hiccup said, with absolute certainty and steel in his voice.

"And I'm not his pet dragon!" Toothless added. "I'm his friend!"

"I guess she still doesn't completely get it," Stormfly said sadly.

"Judging by her face," Meatlug added, "I don't think she's used to being contradicted."

"Especially by Hiccup!" Belch chimed in.

Astrid recovered her composure. "Okay. Then what do we do?

"Just give me until tomorrow," Hiccup answered. "I'll figure something out."

"What did he come up with?" Stormfly asked Toothless.

"I'm not sure," Toothless replied. "Maybe that disaster in the training ring the next day was supposed to be part of his grand plan, and it just went wrong."

"No argument on the 'went wrong' part," Hookfang nodded. "I almost killed him!"

"And I almost killed you," the Night Fury agreed.

"We didn't see that part," Meatlug said. "We just heard a lot of scary noises while we were locked in our cells. What happened in the ring that day?"

"I'm sure you're about to see the whole thing," Toothless said as he turned back to the flat panel. "Every miscue, every mistake, every misunderstanding... it was not a bright, shining moment for any of us."

Astrid thought for a moment. "Okay." Then she punched Hiccup in the arm. "That's for kidnapping me!"

"Hit her back!" Hookfang urged Hiccup's image. "Be a male! Don't let her humiliate you like that!"

Hiccup looked to Toothless, who was taking a drink at the water's edge. "So... hit her back!" the dragon said, and returned to his drink.

Then the girl kissed him on the cheek. "That's for... everything else." She looked embarrassed and ran away.

Now Hookfang looked confused. "Was she trying to eat him, and then she had second thoughts?"

"You imbecile!" Stormfly scolded him. "That's called a kiss. It's a human gesture that means affection. She still doesn't get it about us dragons, but she's completely changed her mind about Hiccup."

"Nobody ever made that gesture to my rider," the Nightmare said, miffed.

"Yeah, and there are some good reasons for that!" Meatlug smirked. "Trust me on this one; I'm the one with the sensitive nose."

On the panel, Toothless stepped up next to his human companion. "Be patient, my friend," he burbled. "She's changing her mind about you. You'll mate with her soon enough."

"W- w- what are you looking at?" Hiccup demanded.

"Is that how he thanks you for trying to encourage him?" Hookfang burst out.

Toothless shook his head. "No, that's how he thanks me when he can't understand what I'm saying."

"Scene change!" Sizzle crowed. Now they were looking at the dragon training ring, which was surrounded by hundreds of shouting, cheering Vikings, the entire tribe of Berk.

"Oh, so beating us up has become a spectator sport now?" Meatlug said indignantly.

"Not us," Hookfang corrected her. "Just me. I think this is the part where Hiccup was supposed to kill me."

"Did he succeed?" Sizzle asked.

The other dragons glared down at him.

"It's a reasonable question!" the little dragon said, flustered. "I mean, Hiccup has been doing things right for a while, so maybe he... he..." He saw Hookfang scowling at him. "Oh. Never mind."

"Well, I can show my face in public again!" Stoick said with a chuckle.

"Why did he say that?" Barf wondered.

Belch answered, "Maybe he got a new face that wasn't so ugly."

Barf scrutinized the image on the panel. "Nope."

"No," Toothless decided. "He means he used to be ashamed because his only son wasn't much of a Viking. Now that they all think that Hiccup is a dragon-fighter, Stoick thinks his own reputation has been improved as well."

"How could a man be ashamed of his own son when the son hasn't done anything wrong?" Meatlug said sadly. "That makes so little sense, it's scary."

"The way the Vikings think of things," Stormfly reasoned, "Hiccup didn't do wrong. He was wrong. That's why Hiccup keeps saying, 'You just gestured to all of me' when someone is scolding him. There wasn't one single thing he could say or do that would meet with their approval."

"Except killing dragons," Hookfang added.

"Or tricking us into playing dead," Stormfly went on, "and tricking the rest of them into believing he was a mighty dragon-fighter instead of a D-spot tickler."

"Hey, wait a second!" Barf burst out. "Our riders are always talking about some guy named Loki who's good at tricking people. If Hiccup is tricking his whole tribe, then does that make him a follower of Loki?"

"He might be the best trickster in the tribe, if he's got them all fooled," Belch nodded. "Our twins like to trick people, but they've got nothing on Hiccup! Maybe we should give him more respect."

Stoick calmed the laughing crowd. "If somebody told me that, in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from, well, being, uhh, Hiccup... to placing first in Dragon Training... well, I would have tied him to a mast and shipped him off, for fear he'd gone mad! And you know it!" The crowd cheered.

"I'd like to tie him to a mast," Meatlug muttered. "How can he mock his own son in front of the entire tribe?"

"And how can the entire tribe think it's funny?" Stormfly added.

"But... here we are. And no one is more surprised, or more proud than I am." They saw Hiccup, looking hurt as the tribe laughed at his past failures. His face hardened as his father said, "Today, my boy becomes a Viking! Today, he becomes one of us!"

Sizzle watched all the Vikings cheering. "Does that mean every one of those people had to kill a dragon before they were considered part of the tribe?"

"It sounds that way," Toothless nodded.

"That's a lot of dead dragons," Hookfang commented.

"You could have been one of them," Stormfly shot back, "if someone other than Hiccup had won that last round of Dragon Training! Someone like my rider, for instance. Killing you would have been her final test of worthiness."

"That puts a question in my mind," Toothless said. "The Vikings' goal was for their hero to kill the dragon in the ring, but what if it had gone the other way? Hookfang, if you had killed Hiccup that day, what do you think would have happened?"

"That's an easy one," the Nightmare said with a hint of a shudder. "Remember how fast the Vikings swarmed the ring when they came after you? That's what they would have done to me if I'd killed their hero. They wanted me dead, and it didn't matter how. They wanted to watch me die at the hands of their skinny new champion, but I think they would have been almost as happy to kill me themselves before the day ended. I definitely owe Hiccup my life for that."

"They wouldn't have been happy to see Hiccup die," Meatlug observed.

"Probably not," Hookfang nodded, "but remember, these are Vikings! Most of them would rather go out in a blaze of glory than live to a ripe-old age. Dying in the ring would have been a very Viking-like ending for Hiccup. Chief Stoick would have been sad that his family line had ended, but the others would have written a song about the valiant Hiccup and the mighty dragon who slew him after a fierce fight, and both of us would have gone down in their history."

"Maybe Stoick would have taken another mate and sired another hatchling to take his place someday," Sizzle suggested.

"He hadn't taken any other mates so far," Barf interjected, "and he already thought his son was a failure. So if he meant to continue his line with a son he was proud of, he would have already done it."

"Not if he missed his former mate," Belch disagreed. "Sometimes a dragon will refuse to mate again after losing a mate that was especially dear to him. Maybe that happens with humans, too."

"Yeah, that's possible," Barf agreed. "When he was telling Hiccup about their helmets, it sounded like he still missed Hiccup's mother."

Toothless shook his head. "There's one big problem with that line of thinking. Hiccup has told me that Vikings don't marry because they're attracted to each other. They marry for duty; it's an obligation that they all owe to the tribe; and if love happens afterward, then so much the better. Stoick was the Alpha of his tribe, and one of his duties was to provide his own replacement. He'd written Hiccup off as unworthy years ago. It was just a matter of time before he would be forced to take a mate and raise up a successor for himself."

"What if he didn't?" Hookfang asked.

"Then another relative would take his place when he died or became too feeble to lead the tribe," Toothless replied. "I think that would have been your rider, Hookfang."

The Nightmare's eyes went wide. "My rider could have been the Alpha?!"

"Yes," Stormfly agreed, "if you had killed Hiccup in the ring. Of course, if you'd killed Hiccup, then the other Vikings would have killed you, so Snotlout never would have become your rider, and you wouldn't have lived to see the day anyway."

Hookfang shook his head. "There sure are a lot of 'what if's swirling around the life of that one skinny little Viking."

Sizzle chimed in, "It's as though someone wrote a script all about us, with Hiccup at the very center of it."

Toothless snorted. "That's ridiculous! I mean, I don't want to be harsh, but that could never happen. It was all an amazing string of lucky breaks... or not-so-lucky, sometimes."

"Be careful with that dragon." Astrid had come up behind Hiccup instead of joining the cheering throng around the edges of the training ring.

"It's not the dragon I'm worried about," Hiccup answered, with a glance toward his father.

"Paws!" Hookfang nearly shouted. "Did I hear that right? Hiccup was more afraid of his own father than he was of me?"

"Yes, you heard him right," Meatlug said.

"I don't get it," the Nightmare said with a shake of his huge head. "Stoick can't claw and bite, he can't fly, and he can't breathe fire. Even if he wanted to hurt his own son - and, for the moment, it looks like he doesn't - how could he be a bigger threat than I am?"

"It's because Hiccup didn't see you as a threat at all," Toothless explained. "He knew how to get along with dragons, and how to subdue us in a fight without hurting us... and without getting hurt himself. You've all seen how he reacts to the sight of a new dragon. No fear! It doesn't matter how big we are, or how powerful, or how scary-looking; to him, we're just a friend whom he hasn't met yet. That kind of self-confidence, which is right on the edge of being cocky, got its start when he learned to deal with me, and now that's how he deals with every dragon in existence. He figured it would work with you, too." The Night Fury paused. "Was he right?"

"Well... yes," Hookfang admitted. "I think we're all about to see how that worked. Play!"

Astrid looked concerned. "What are you going to do?"

"Put an end to this. I have to try. Astrid, if something goes wrong... just make sure they don't find Toothless."

"I will. Just promise me it won't go wrong."

"Paws! My turn," Meatlug said. "What if something did go wrong? Toothless, would you have let Astrid take care of you and ride you, the way Hiccup did?"

Toothless hesitated. "I never thought about that. I don't know. Oh, I'd have eaten all the fish she gave me, with no complaints. But riding me? Without Hiccup?" He shivered. "Just thinking about life without Hiccup gives me the jibblies. I really don't know if I would have let her take his place."

"Even if that meant never flying again?" Stormfly pressed him.

"Flying with Hiccup isn't just flying," the Night Fury tried to explain. "It's different. It's better somehow, because he's there. Flying just for the sake of flying... it used to be enough. But Hiccup isn't the only one who has changed. I've changed, too. For me, flying means flying with Hiccup, and flying without Hiccup is pointless, like eating fish bones when there's no fish on them."

"Is that why you destroyed the automatic tail that Hiccup made for you at Snoggletog?" Meatlug asked him.

"Exactly," Toothless nodded. "I didn't want to fly without him, and I wanted him to know that. I felt kind of bad, ruining that tail when he put so much work into it. But it goes deeper than pride in his workmanship. It goes to the very heart of who I am."

"And Hiccup is in your heart?" Stormfly asked compassionately.

"Yes," the Night Fury said firmly. "When I look at him, I see myself. How could I want to be separate from him? How could I want to do anything without him? How could anyone take his place?"

Barf whispered in Belch's ear, "He's in love."

"I heard that!" Toothless exclaimed, flicking his ear flaps. "And you're wrong, but you're also right. I'm not 'in love' with Hiccup in any kind of romantic way. But I do love him, with all that I am. Real love isn't about emotions, anyway."

"It's not?" Belch asked.

"Of course it isn't!" the black dragon shot back. "Feelings come and go; even the strongest passions never last for more than a few years. If love comes and goes like that, then it's not real, because real love lasts forever. Real love is about commitment, not about emotions. Real love isn't something you feel; it's something you do. If you get the feelings, too, then so much the better, but that's a nice bonus that life gives you sometimes. It's not the real thing."

Meatlug had to smile. "It sounds like you're quite a love expert, Toothless."

Toothless shrugged. "When I was younger, I took some lessons from the trolls in the Valley of the Living Rock. But that's enough about me. Shall we get back to the moving pictures? Play!"

Gobber stepped around the corner. "It's time, Hiccup," he said jovially. "Knock 'em dead."

"He sounds pretty confident in Hiccup's ability to kill me," Hookfang commented.

"They're all confident in him now," Toothless replied, "even though he hasn't landed a single blow on a dragon in his entire life. Except one," he quickly added, "and nobody saw that one except for him and me."

"So they all think he's something that he isn't?" Belch asked. When Toothless nodded, both heads of the Zippleback chorused, "Loki!"

Hiccup looked mournful as he stepped into the ring, gazed at his helmet, and put it on.

"It fits him," Stormfly noticed, "but somehow, it looks like it's too big for him. Just like the responsibility of being a classic Viking didn't fit him."

He made his way to the rack of weapons, heaved a shield onto his arm, and selected a dagger for his weapon.

"Hmm," Stoick murmured to Gobber. "I would have gone for the hammer."

"Does he think Hiccup is suddenly strong enough to swing a full-sized hammer?" Barf exclaimed.

"He's thinking of Hiccup as a Viking warrior," Belch said. "Details like lack of muscles aren't even entering his mind."

"How could they?" Sizzle chimed in. "The chief's head is already full of muscle!" All the dragons except Toothless and Hookfang snorted.

Hiccup drew a deep breath and let it out. "I'm ready." The Vikings in charge of the cell door leaned into their levers, the beam that held the door shut was pulled upward...

...and with a crash and a roar, Hookfang burst out of his confinement, aflame from nose to tail, and very, very angry.

His first thought was not attack, but escape. He crawled halfway around the ring walls, unleashed a blast of flame that the spectators barely dodged, and climbed onto the roof chains, looking for a gap he could fit through. Only then did he notice the tiny human waiting for him on the ring floor.

Meatlug considered the look on Hiccup's face. "I don't think he was as ready for you as he thought he was."

"Why not?" Stormfly asked. "He'd seen Nightmares before. These moving pictures started with him slamming his door shut to keep out a blast of Nightmare fire, and that same dragon, or one just like him, almost killed Hiccup before Stoick intervened. Why does he suddenly look so nervous, or even scared?"

"It's because he's alone in the ring with me," Hookfang decided. "You have to admit, I can look pretty scary when I want to."

"What was going through your mind?" Toothless asked him.

"Well, I wanted to get out more than anything else," the Nightmare answered. "They didn't let me out of my prison cell every few days for exercise and the chance to beat up some Vikings, like they did with most of the rest of you. They captured me, stuck me in that cell, and left me there until they were ready for their hero's big moment.

"When I saw that hero, I knew I was supposed to fight him and kill him. That's what Vikings do, right? They kill dragons! Like we said earlier, I had a feeling that, even if I won, I wouldn't live to see the sunset. But what else was I supposed to do? Surrender and let him kill me? Hardly! If they wanted a fight, then I'd give them a fight to remember!"

Meatlug had a question. "What did you think when you saw how small the Vikings' hero was?"

"I didn't notice the difference," Hookfang admitted. "To me, they're all small."

The huge dragon settled to the ground with a subdued snarl. The spectators all around the ring grew quiet as their hero and their nemesis came face to face. Someone shouted, "Go on, Hiccup! Give it to him!" The dragon advanced on him, strong and confident. Hiccup gave way... and cast his knife and shield aside. The dragon glanced at them, puzzled.

"Did you know what he was doing?" Toothless asked.

"I thought it was some kind of trick at first," Hookfang explained. "A normal Viking would have run right at me, swinging his weapon for all he was worth. A clever one would have faked to one side, darted to the other side, and tried to stab me in the neck or chest, right where the upper scales meet the belly scales. A show-off would have cut me in the face first, so he could brag about drawing first blood. The last thing he should have done was disarm himself! That's why I didn't flame him from head to toe. He was breaking all the rules, and I had no idea what he was up to, so I didn't commit myself to any kind of attack. First, I had to see what his plan was."

"It's okay, it's okay," Hiccup said soothingly, both hands outstretched and empty. The dragon had lowered his head nearly to ground level; now he looked up at Hiccup's head, or more specifically, his helmet.

With a no-turning-back look toward his father, Hiccup reached up, took off the helmet, and cast it aside. "I'm not one of them," he said firmly. Several Vikings around the ring gasped in shock; Hookfang glanced toward them, alert for trickery.

"Paws!" Meatlug shouted. "He rejected them! Now that he finally belonged to the group, he completely rejected the destiny they planned for him."

"The destiny he used to want more than anything else," Stormfly added.

"He rejected the people as well," Toothless continued. "They all heard what he said. He was casting himself adrift from his own culture, from his own family, from everything."

"Everything except dragons," Hookfang said, "and I have no idea how he thought we could help him."

"I think he meant to change their minds about us," Toothless went on. "He had no Plan B if he failed. He gambled everything on showing all those stubborn Vikings that they were wrong about us."

"That wasn't smart," Stormfly said with a shake of her head. "Doesn't he know that Vikings have stubbornness issues?"

"Hiccup is very smart," Toothless defended him, "but sometimes he could use a little more common sense. This looks like one of those times. Play!"

"Stop the fight," Stoick ordered.

"No!" Hiccup answered.

"Is that the first time he's ever contradicted his father?" Belch wondered.

"Probably," Toothless nodded, "and it took a dragon to bring out his real courage."

"I need you all to see this," Hiccup went on, hand outstretched. "They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them."

"Hookfang, your expression has completely changed," Meatlug noticed. "You look happy! What's with that?"

"Well, for one thing, it meant I might live to see another day," Hookfang said. "If the hero doesn't want to fight, then there can't be a battle, right? So maybe that day wasn't going to be my day to die. Also, I was... curious. I'd never heard of a Viking putting himself in a dragon's power like that. He'd thrown his weapon away, and his hand was out where I could easily bite it off. But he obviously wasn't afraid of me biting him, or of me in general. That was the first friendly face I'd seen since they captured me, even though he was a human. I'd been imprisoned and alone for what felt like forever, and now, instead of their hero being warlike, he wanted to be friendly? I responded to that. Any sane being will respond to kindness. I really needed a friend."

But Stoick leaped to his feet, bellowed, "I said, stop the fight!" and slammed his war hammer against the guard rails. Hookfang heard the crash of a Viking weapon from behind him, the peace suddenly ended, and the war began again. The Nightmare had no enemies in sight except Hiccup.

"Oh, this is going to be bad," Sizzle said nervously.

o

A/N
Shortly after posting this chapter, the story passed the 5000-view mark. Thank you, one and all.