Ohmygosh guys 12 follows, 6 favs, and 8 reviews just over the course of like three days (i think)?! That's insane! Thank you guys so much for y'all's encouragement!
So before this chapter starts, I would like to address the fact that many people (many being like three but that's half the comments so) guessed Toothless for the dragon! SOrry to say, but nope! I was actually going to split this chapter in half to leave the mystery for another chapter before I actually revealed it but then I realized that this chapter would be too short so unfortunately it just lasted for a bit.
But I will congratulate SuperFan . Tastico for being the one person to guess correctly! And on their first guess out of three! Love having fellow book readers who recognize the details I said to set this dragon apart from the others!
So without any further ado, here's some more kind of crappy dialogue with some (hopefully good) blending of characterizations.
Also, I don't own anything and all bold words are in dragonese!
The dragon started, losing its grip on Hiccup's helmet for a brief moment before tightening its claws and making a grating screech as a result. The golden eyes widened at the strange draconic word that had left the boy's mouth, disbelief and awe swimming in their warm depths.
Meanwhile, Fishlegs and Camicazi were staring in utter confusion at the scene before them. The dragon itself was odd, but in comparison to Hiccup making an honest-to-Thor dragon growl, it kind of took second place.
"You are a curious one." The dragon replied in earnest, purring and tilting its head. "Not many vikings take the time to greet us, let alone in our own language."
Hiccup blinked, his brain taking a moment to digest exactly what the dragon had said. Sure he knew their language, he had grown up around dragons after all, and Phantom was a particularly patient teacher, but conversing back with a dragon in their language was a difficult task for humans. Not only were their vocal cords not exactly made for such strenuous noises, but many of the words sounded similar and could lead to horrible misunderstandings if translated wrong.
Therefore while Hiccup might have had a near impeccable understanding of the dragons, it was difficult to say more than a few words on his Norse born tongue.
"Well," Hiccup replied slowly. "I have tended to make myself a bit of an outsider."
The dragon hummed, a cordial sound that resonated through the metal of Hiccup's helmet. Then it moved from his helmet to his shoulders, curling around them like a scaly impersonation of a winter scarf and blinking those wide golden eyes at the boy.
"You seemed familiar when I spotted you in the heather," The dragon said and sniffed at the bits of Hiccup's hair that poked out from under his helmet. "Not sure from where… But I see no harm in travelling with a fellow outsider for the time being."
The dragon settled comfortably and laid its head down, eyeing Fishlegs and Camicazi indifferently as they stared with mouths agape.
"Hiccup, what in the name of Odin was that?" Camicazi asked, her blue eyes wide and staring at her best friend in a brand new light.
"Uh, well," Hiccup stuttered out, seemingly sheepish. "I learned how to understand Dragonese when I was little and Phantom helped a bit with teaching me words but I still have a few issues with pronou-"
"YOU CAN TALK TO DRAGONS?" Fishlegs screeched, startling the Terrors that were perched in the nearby trees.
"Uhm… yes?"
"That's incredible!" Cami said, completely disregarding Fishlegs' mini freakout. Then her words caught up to her and she scoffed. "For a boy, anyway."
"H-how?" Fishlegs said, staring at Hiccup like he had turned into a dragon. "I mean, we've been friends for years and I'm just now learning this?"
Hiccup shrugged sheepishly and smiled a little. "Sorry, Fishlegs. It just… kinda didn't seem all that great, especially since my dad kind of outlawed the use of Dragonese."
That, at least, was true. Dragonese had been outlawed by Hiccup's father when he had first become chief, declaring that in order to properly intimidate your dragon, vikings must not stoop to the level of dragons by speaking their so-called "barbaric and uncivilized" language.
FIshlegs paused then huffed, grinning at his best friend apologetically. "Alright. I guess that makes sense."
"So while that is cool for a boy," Cami said, crossing her arms skeptically. "How do we know you're not just yak-dunging us?"
Fishlegs gave Cami a strange look. "Honestly? You really think Hiccup of all people would joke about that?"
Cami just raised an eyebrow in response. "Fish, we're talking about the most sarcastic viking the Archipelago has ever seen. His deadpan is the stuff of legend."
Fishlegs opened his mouth, ready to retort, but stopped and squinted at her. "Fair point."
Hiccup, watching from the side, threw up his hands in disbelief.
"Hmm," The dragon said, raising its head to gaze up at the sky. "While this bickering is entertaining, I must say it is getting dark…" He craned his head to once again meet Hiccup's eyes. "Don't you vikings need to find camp?"
"The dragon's right, guys," Hiccup spoke up, catching their attention. "It's getting dark and we need to get back soon if we don't want to be dragon food."
Cami smirked and started running, blasting past the two boys and the dragon and making them all blink at each other as she quickly exited their line of sight.
"Meet you boys back at the beach!" She called from somewhere far ahead of them, leaving Hiccup and Fishlegs to just look at each other with stress plain in their expressions.
Meanwhile, the dragon just laughed, a strange, rough sound that sounded a bit like sandpaper grating harshly against a craggy rock.
"I like her," It drawled with a wistful smile. "She has spunk."
A beat passed before it yawned, revealing the most curious feature that Hiccup was briefly stunned by. Its jaws were filled with sharp little fangs but within the span of a second, they had disappeared into his gums leaving shiny pink muscle in their wake and giving the dragon the appearance of being toothless.
Hiccup shared a look with Fishlegs who seemed as puzzled as him. The dragon noticed them both staring at it and glared, lazily gesturing with a paw in the direction that Camicazi had run in.
"Staring at a dragon's gums really is impolite, you know," It said and adjusted its position on Hiccup in preparation for the journey ahead. "And if I were you two, I would hurry after the blonde one. She seemed fairly determined."
Of course the boys stood no chance of catching up to Camicazi, the small Bog-Burglar having had a sizeable head start added with the fact that the boys were twigs. When they finally reached the edge of the woods they were both panting heavily while Cami simply watched them approach from her perch beside a tree.
She smirked at them. "Took you boys long enough. What? The dragon slow you down?"
Through his slow breath, Hiccup shook his head. "Cami… don't ever… do something like that… again."
Cami just shrugged her shoulder noncommittally. "No promises." Then she turned and skipped off down the beach.
Night had since fallen, and so there was very little light left on the island except for the blazing fire down on the shoreline. Hiccup and Fishlegs hurried after Cami, and saw that the other viking teens had already settled around it and were sharing stories pertaining to their first day on the island. Snotlout and Dagur were heading the conversation, enlightening the teens with stories of how they hunted down some Monstrous Nightmares and even saw a couple of Rip Roarers fighting over a mate. Dogsbreath was grunting and snorting in time with the story while the Thorston twins sat beside him, thumping each other on the helmets.
The only real civilized conversation was happening between Astrid and Thuggory on the other side of the fire, away from the crazier half of the group. Astrid actually had an adult Terrible Terror sitting on her lap, a male with unique turquoise scales that was purring as she rubbed its head. Thuggory was in awe of how she had already trained and subdued one dragon, questioning her for any tips she had.
Meanwhile, the trio snuck up to sit beside Thuggory, the Meathead heir greeting them while Astrid just nodded in acknowledgement. Thankfully, neither Snotlout nor Dagur had noticed their reappearance, or so the trio thought, and the dragon on Hiccup's shoulders was acting as a heating pad as it napped, completely unnoticed by the new company.
"...even some Stormcutters were flying about!" Snotlout continued, gesturing with his arms, a wide grin upon his lips. "But I have my sights set on the Devilish Dervish! Not only is it one of the toughest dragons to subdue, but it is also one of the fiercest!" His gaze swept the group, only slightly irritated when he realized his ego was not being admired. But then his eyes landed on Hiccup, flanked by Fishlegs and Camicazi, and his mouth twisted into a sinister grin.
"And then there's the precious Hope and Heir of the Hairy Hooligans!" Snotlout announced, causing the group to fall into silence. Snotlout walked over to his cousin, smug at his lack of apparent progress with the dragons.
Although it wasn't like Snotlout had made any either.
"Scrawny wittle Hiccup," He crowed as Dagur laughed maniacally and stopped on his left. "I'm sure our oh-so-great heir will have the greatest dragon of them all… or maybe, for all of our sakes, he'll get stuck with a Chickenpoxer, or maybe a Zebra Mount!"
Chickenpoxers and Zebra Mounts, for those who are not aware, are some of the laziest and most unremarkable dragon species. Not only do they have little to no practical use, but the Chickenpoxer is particularly prone to narcolepsy and the Zebra Mount flies about as slow as, well, a zebra if one grew wings and attempted to fly out of the savanna.
Hiccup ducked his head, the picture of submission, but was in reality rolling his eyes at his cousin. He was just trying to avoid a beating. But in doing this, the small brown dragon still curled around his shoulders became all that more noticeable.
The sight made Snotlout cackle and almost fall to the ground in pure hysteria, followed by Dagur and Dogsbreath who guffawed at the sight.
"THAT?" He exclaimed through joyous laughter. "THAT'S your dragon? It… it's a runt!" His eyes suddenly widened in realization, causing him to laugh so hard he started snorting. "A runt of a dragon for a runt of a viking!"
Now at this point, Snotlout and his lackeys were nearly crying tears of mirth they were laughing so hard. Camicazi was rising to her feet, just seconds away from drawing her sword, while Thuggory looked ready to throw his hammer. But unnoticed went the source of the mocking itself.
The small brown dragon, unremarkable as it was, was being roused due to the loud noises penetrating its light nap. It was cross as a result, but tried to pick out what was being said to see if it was something it could just try to sleep through.
It wasn't.
The dragon had awoken during another one of Snotlout's taunts, directed once more to the boy and the dragon.
"This is too rich," He was saying, an unappealing smirk on his pig-like face. "Just wait until Uncle Stoick hears about how his son disappointed him this time- with the most unremarkable dragon on the island!"
Just as the boys fell into hoots of laughter once more, the dragon registered the words, and fully awakened, peeved, and ready to defend itself against the bully. Shaking itself, Hiccup finally took notice and started to make a move to stop the dragon. But it was already in motion.
Climbing once more to perch atop Hiccup's helmet, the dragon hissed at Snotlout and flashed its fangs that were once again detracted. When the boy went to make a snide comment, the dragon leaned forward, looking at the boys with those haunting golden eyes.
"I would have hoped that descendants of Grimbeard would have more sense," The dragon drawled in impeccable Norse, taking immense pleasure in how the group became shock still. "Daring to insult the Wodensfang, dragon brother of Hiccup the First? That's just asking for trouble."
Ah and the dragon has been revealed!
This is the beginning of the longer chapters, since this one was the longest so far at about 1,900 words. Some other characters made their appearance, albeit briefly and I am hesitant to do much with Astrid as I don't want to force romance between her and Hiccup nor Cami and Hiccup (if i ever decide on one or the other).
If y'all didn't catch it, Wodensfang is not exactly like his book self since I deferred to kind of mush his personality with that of Furious from the books (although that does not rule that dragon from being featured later). Also, any and all dragon names are from canon- whether that be book or movie; more often the books since those give me more range and information to dish out.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please favorite, follow, and review as they keep me happy and help drive my writer's block away! (Although I will never hold chapters hostage from you guys *smiles*)