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Chapter 13: Secret
(Toothless)
Such a lively little creature; little eyes, little feet… little wings; so tiny and fragile, and yet, that little feathered creature, curiously pecking his snout, was still able to fly by itself, just as he once could, before his tail had been maimed. And fly the little bird did, when Toothless huffed with an annoyed pout. His eyes had begun to hurt from keeping them crossed too long in the attempt to watch the small animal nervously explore the spaces between his muzzle-scales for food.
He could not help feeling a faint, perhaps unfair touch of spite towards the innocent bird, as it fluttered hastily into the thick foliage of the forest. But what did it matter? Life had not been fair with him either. He had been too young when he had gotten himself captured by the queen's spell, just on the verge of his sixth mating season. Even the mind of a mighty Night Fury was not able to fight against her vile will at that age, and perhaps at any age; Toothless was not planning to have that assumption ever tested. He still felt just as young, though his body had grown since the day of his enslavement.
Years had probably gone by, while his mind was being kept captive in that horrible semi-conscious state, to obey the queen's bidding, to satisfy her insatiable hunger, to damage, degrade, and ultimately corrupt his own pride. How many years? He'd rather never find out. So, Toothless had stoically accepted his physical growth, relegating the unclear memory of his lost time to the depths of his consciousness, determined not to think about it. Accepting the loss of his flight had been a much harder struggle, and, in a sense, it still was.
He did not hate Hiccup for it. He could not hate Hiccup for it. Although the boy had never openly apologized for being the one who had shot him down that night, Toothless was already aware of his rider's feelings on the matter.
The little human had eventually spared his life the next morning, when Toothless had woken up, free from one type of bondage, immediately into another, and a tailfin poorer. So, no, he could not hate Hiccup, even though he had truly wanted to at first. After everything the boy had done to help him fly again, hatred was unattainable. That little boy with curious lonely eyes, that gangly biped who had shown him how humans smiled, was likely the last creature in the world he could have hated. There were some moments, though, such as this day, when Toothless felt rather… irked.
Whenever Hiccup was not around, or at least within the reach of his sense of smell, Toothless would lose the only means he had to fend off that suffocating feeling of having fallen back into bondage, hideously tied to the earth like any other inferior rat, or squirrel, or boar, or… even as any human. He sometimes wondered how creatures as intelligent as humans could manage to stay sane without flying. How could their minds accept such a hideous fate so easily?
It was not important, as long as Hiccup stayed with him. When Hiccup was by his side, even when they were not up in the air, Toothless felt whole again, as if his tailfin had never been lost.
Hiccup, however, had recently decided to work in a foreign village, hoping to obtain some hunting weapon.
A pointless waste of time.
Now that they had fled from Berk, Toothless would always be there for Hiccup, so why did the boy keep trying so hard? He had nothing to prove to anyone any longer.
Regardless, try as he might not to resent waiting for his rider, Toothless could not bear to be parted from him for even a single wingbeat, and the fact that Hiccup was his only means of flight was not the only motive, though it was surely a more-than-reasonable source of anxiety. The soft sounds of the forest, and even the stray rays of sunlight, breaking through the leaves and warming his scales, did little to soothe his nerves.
It was still rather early, a short while before midday, when strange noises began disturbing his uneasy slumber. Distant human voices among the trees, cries and yells of running people getting closer.
Toothless rose worriedly. Had he been spotted? Should he need to hide? Before he could make a decision, the breeze carried a mixture of scents to his nostrils. In that mixture, there were some familiar smells, one of which belonged to his own rider.
The situation became immediately clear. Hiccup was being chased by a group of undoubtedly ill-intentioned humans, and some of their scents Toothless could remember from Berk itself.
Toothless required no further thought. His only means of flight was in peril. His little human friend needed help.
Again.
Toothless tracked the source of the sounds in the forest. It was not long before he could see the running boy, and, just a few wingspans further, a group of Vikings, hard on Hiccup's heels, some of their weapons dangerously unsheathed. Even Hiccup was carrying something, though it looked much less menacing. Was that the new weapon for which he had been working? It did not look particularly powerful. It was just a thin stick, with a rope coiled to one end.
Toothless half-roared to help his rider spot him, then prepared for Hiccup to climb on his back.
"Toothless! We're leaving!" The panting boy cried, sweat dripping from his forehead.
"There's the Night Fury!" A strong woman bellowed.
"Don't let them fly!" Shouted another man, whose voice Toothless had heard before. It was Hiccup's uncle, the one who was in the arena when they had escaped from Berk. His name, Toothless recalled, was Spitelout.
When Hiccup reached him, he hastily mounted on his back, and, as soon as the breathless boy sat upon him, Toothless bolted in the opposite direction.
In the meantime, the Vikings chasing them got much closer, but Toothless could not fly yet. The forest was so thick with trees that no average dragon could extend their wings. So, Toothless hurried towards the clearing where they used to land in the mornings, each time they got on Balheim. It was very close, but so were their pursuers.
Toothless was faster, of course, but before he could gain some distance, another man roared: "I've got this!"
"Toothless! Watch out!" Hiccup yelled, looking back.
Without slowing down, Toothless turned his head to see an axe flying straight in their direction. In that breakneck situation, he could not run the risk of throwing his rider off his back, as the boy was not yet fully settled into the stirrups, so Toothless decided not to dodge. Instead, he hastily sucked in some air, mixed it with gas inside his throat, and shot a small blue fireball at the twirling weapon. His aim was as good as ever, and the shot stopped the axe, but part of the blue ball of flames continued towards their attacker, and exploded onto his shield, making the man stumble and fall in a cloud of splinters and smoke. Unfortunately, the man looked relatively unhurt, but there had been no time to charge a more powerful shot.
It was the brawny woman's turn to shout: "Allow me!"
Toothless did not wait for Hiccup to warn him this time, and as soon as he heard her voice, he sidestepped beside a tree, keeping his pace. He nonetheless looked back to see the result of his evasion.
"Shit!" The woman exclaimed at her failure, still running after them.
Something was off, however. Toothless did manage to dodge the flying weapon, but the axe had not seemed aimed at Hiccup. It appeared to be aimed at his own back instead, perhaps only at his tail. This was rather odd. In fact, the previous man had also seemed to aim at the tip of Toothless' tail, perhaps where the prosthetic fin was fastened.
Could that have been a coincidence? Were they not trying to kill them? They could have aimed at Hiccup, or at some of Toothless' more vital parts. Sure, they could have killed them after managing to keep them on the ground, but, given the situation, Hiccup's back or even a wing were much easier targets.
Are they only trying to stop him from flying away? Toothless wondered as he ran. Maybe they were not actually trying to kill his rider, but why only aim towards the tail? Were they trying to keep him alive too? Perhaps he was just overthinking this, but he still found it curious. So, though he did gain some distance, Toothless did not increase his speed, hoping for further clues.
Promptly, Hiccup began shouting from his back: "Toothless, faster! They'll gain on us again! Why aren't you-" Before the boy could finish his sentence, they had reached the wide grassy clearing.
Toothless kept running forward, until he made sure that all their pursuers had emerged from the treeline. Then, he took to the sky with a powerful jump, much to Hiccup's relief.
Spitelout bellowed a loud "Fuck!", tossing his horned helmet on the ground, panting.
Toothless flapped his wings to rise higher, but he didn't leave the area. They had reached a safe distance now, yet his acute ears could still pick up on the voices of the Vikings below. He wanted to hear what they were saying, ignoring Hiccup's tired tugs at the saddle.
"Toothless! Let's leave!" His rider squealed breathlessly from his back, but Toothless yowled for the human to wait. He kept circling the clearing from up high, with his ear-plates trained towards the earth, listening at the crew of bickering humans.
"Damn Night Fury broke my shield!" Said the first man who had attacked them.
"When did Stoick's runt become so fast?!" A second man exclaimed, gasping for air. He had been slower than the others.
"Maybe we should've told 'im about yer little deal before he started runnin'. Eh, Spitelout?"
"You idiot!" Spitelout spat back. "We need to hold the Night Fury first! Otherwise what makes ya think he'll cooperate?!"
The first man, who was removing wood splinters from his forearm, decided to intervene: "At least we should have told 'im his exile is for just two years. He might have gotten distracted if we did, then we could have caught 'im better, and lured the Night Fury later."
"Are you soft in the head too?!" Spitelout shouted again. "What makes ya think he'd have stopped to listen when ya were chasing him with yer axe in hand?! Who told ya to take out yer axe?! And what if ya had hit him?"
"I was aiming for the tail-thing!" The first man replied defensively. "And we're up against the Night Fury. We didn't know when it was goin' to turn up! I had to be ready. And who would've thought the little shit could run like that anyway?!"
"Jorunn's right," the second man added. "We all thought we'd have him by one stretch of the hand. Wasn't he born a cripple or something? This kid could almost win the Thawfest games."
Spitelout looked exasperated. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, when the burly woman finally decided to speak:
"Well, now he knows we're after him," she began, both hands clasping her broad hips, "what do we do, Spitelout? He probably thinks we're trying to kill him. He won't stay still for us to catch the Night Fury. How will ya blackmail him without a hostage?" The woman asked, but then continued. "Next time we find him I say you just kill the boy and be done with it. Don't worry 'bout me telling Stoick… never really liked the man anyway."
Jorunn, the man with splinters of broken shield in his forearm, snorted cheekily. "Ya're just sayin' that 'cause he only had eyes for Valk-"
"I won't soil my hands with blood of my blood, Brunhilda!" Spitelout spat angrily again, interrupting Jorunn's teasing remark.
"Tch!" The woman named Brunhilda scoffed, twisting her lips with disdain.
"Why aren't they leaving?" Asked another man, looking up towards them.
"Toothless!" Hiccup hissed in his ear, as if on cue. "Come on! Let's go!"
The young human's ears were clearly unable reach the voices below, and he had grown restless, so Toothless decided to finally glide out of his circular trajectory. He flew west, towards their island. As he did so, he heard one last remark from his rider's uncle.
"I don't know… keep yer eyes up," Spitelout said. "But, if what Brunhilda says is true, if he thinks we're tryin' to kill 'im, maybe he'll just fly far away, and stay away for good. But I can't afford to hope for that yet. We'll find them apart again. Next time bring the bolas, even for the boy. A bruise or two won't matter if we have..."
Toothless failed to hear the rest of the conversation. He had flown too far, and not even his Night Fury ears could pick up such distant sounds. He could now mull over on what he had heard, and so he did, frenziedly.
A deal with Hiccup? Two years of exile? Keep me hostage? What does Spitelout want? Blackmail? What is 'blackmail'? It does not sound good.
If what he understood was correct, it was a good thing that they had managed to escape, but for very different reasons than those Toothless had formerly expected. In fact, even Hiccup did not seem to know what the other Vikings wanted from him. Perhaps it was better this way. Perhaps it was a good thing that Hiccup had not heard about his banishment being for only two years. Perhaps it was a good thing if Hiccup thought they wanted to kill him. And, apparently, that was exactly what he had inferred from the situation:
"I can't believe they were looking for me all this time!" the boy complained once they were halfway back to Old Balheim.
"Why won't they just let me rot in exile?! If they just came to kill you by finding me first, then I'd quickly end up dead too! I mean, they must know I can't make it out here by myself! Unless... Unless, they meant to take me back. But I'm an outcast, and outcasts are executed. And I've likely been disowned too, so... Either way I end up dead! Does my father want me d-... no, I…" Hiccup exhaled wearily, lying with his back along Toothless' spine, but keeping his feet in the stirrups.
"I can't believe he wants me dead," he whispered, his voice catching in his throat, though Toothless heard him anyway. "I just... can't. I'm not his son anymore, but still, even he wouldn't go that far. Right?" He paused to calm his breathing.
As they flew, Toothless tried cooing softly at him, but there was nothing he could say, not in a way that his rider could hear at least, though even if there had been a way, Toothless still did not know what he could have said. Night Furies were capable of many things, but giving consolation to other creatures was not one of them.
Once his voice was back to normal, Hiccup sat up again. "What if it's just Spitelout who wants to kill me," he said. "Still… no, this makes no sense. If Spitelout is out here, it's because my father sent him. Maybe I should have heard if they had something to say-"
Toothless barked his disapproval immediately.
"Yeah, you're probably right. They were throwing axes at us, weren't they?"
Toothless crooned agreement.
He was thankful for Hiccup's human hearing, and, although it made him feel slightly ashamed to admit it, he hoped his rider would never come across the information he had just gathered, for he could still see the boy's uneasy attachment to his birthplace.
Toothless felt a very conscious fear of that attachment. He feared that, if Hiccup ever found out that those men had not meant to harm him, even if their intentions were not entirely good, he would, at some point, demand to go back. Toothless could not run that risk. He was going to do everything in his power to keep Hiccup as far away from Berk as possible, which meant they couldn't stay on Old Balheim anymore, they had to move even further. Fortunately, this time Hiccup's thoughts were aligned with his.
"Ugh! To Helheim with them!" He said. "I guess we'll have to leave these islands too, and find another place even more south."
Toothless crooned again for agreement.
"Summer ends in a few months," Hiccup continued. "Spitelout won't be sailing when the sea starts to freeze. Who would have thought we'd be safest during winter, eh bud?" He scratched his side affectionately.
Toothless replied with a particularly strong purr, fueled by both the scratches and the relief that came from seeing Hiccup dismiss his renewed thoughts of home so quickly. Perhaps he needn't have worried so much.
"At least I got the bow. Look!" Hiccup extended his new weapon above Toothless' head, so he could observe it while flying. "I kind of had to steal it though. But I wouldn't have, if Spitelout hadn't found me," Hiccup confessed. "I never stole anything before. At least I almost finished a very good axe to pay for it. Still… I did steal more arrows than I was promised as I left. I didn't have time to count them. Let's just hope Balheim's weaponsmith doesn't start chasing me as well, right?" He said the last part almost seriously, though there was finally mirth too in his words.
"So, what do you think? Do you like it?" He asked, shaking the weapon above Toothless' head.
Toothless let out a generic warble. He did not know how the weapon worked. It looked rather harmless to him.
Hiccup seemed to understand the meaning behind that sound. "I'll show you how it works another time. First we have to get our stuff from our camp."
Not long afterwards, Toothless landed in their camp on Old Balheim. He waited for Hiccup to prepare for leaving. The boy gathered his pelts, clothes, pots, pans, and all the other tools that humans appeared to require in order to survive.
Once Hiccup was done cramming everything in his usual basket, he tied it to the saddle.
"Alright," he said, before checking his surroundings one last time. "I'm glad I didn't build a house on this island; it would have been a completely wasted effort. Right, bud?"
Toothless huffed dubiously. He could still not see the point of Hiccup building a shelter, when his own wings could provide his rider with all the shelter that he was ever going to need.
"Trust me, when winter comes, even your wings can't protect me from the cold all the time," Hiccup explained, responding to Toothless' thoughts.
Toothless cocked his head. He was regularly surprised by the boy's ever-improving ability to understand him. It was uncanny. Without even trying to communicate words with his rider's mind, Hiccup would occasionally understand him regardless. Perhaps Toothless was never going to need to actually use words with his rider, though it would have still been a useful thing to be able to do.
"Off we go, bud," Hiccup said, jumping on the loaded saddle. "Let's just hope we find land before nightfall."
They were quickly among the clouds once again.
"Wait!" The boy yelled against the wind. "Let's go south and east! Spitelout saw us fly west from Balheim, so we should be harder to find if we go east instead. Don't you think?"
Toothless welcomed the clever suggestion by veering his one tailfin and twitching his wings accordingly, which was all the signal Hiccup needed to adjust the prosthetic fin with his foot-pedal.
Noon was replaced by late afternoon, when Toothless spotted the first large island on their path. It was very big, about the size of Berk, but, unfortunately, it appeared to be already densely populated. Two mountain peaks, one of which an apparently spent volcano, emerged from the sea, and old forests coated their steep sides. A sizeable village extended from one shore, deep into the island. It was likely that the humans were even more numerous here than on Berk.
"This must be Thargran. Home to the… what was it? I'm sure I heard the tribe's name before. Their crests were all over the ships in Balheim's docks," Hiccup explained. "Let's just keep this island as reference, and find some place nearby."
So, they flew past Thargran, until Toothless spotted a few dragons on the horizon, flying towards the distant skies to the east; they were probably too far for Hiccup's human eyes to identify them. It was a small flock of the kind that Vikings called Gronckles, and they were travelling freely, clearly unbound from the queen's control. Perhaps they were close to some nesting grounds, Toothless thought, and gradually steered towards them, thinking there were higher chances of finding land in that direction. He was soon proven right.
When his rider noticed the second island on their path, he prompted Toothless to land. He needed to rest and eat, but very soon they were flying once more, as that island was, according to Hiccup, both too close to Thargran, and too small to have an adequate amount of wildlife. They needed to look further.
The setting sun began to warm their backs, tinting clouds and waves in all shades of orange and yellow. Hiccup had always seemed to regard this time of day as his favourite for being in the sky. The boy had never said so, but Toothless could tell by observing how his rider behaved during these flights.
Promptly, Hiccup sat up straight, spreading his arms like a second pair of imaginary wings. He then wiggled his fingers against the air, and, whenever Toothless glanced behind, he would see the sincerest fraction of a smile upon the boy's face, mixed with the smallest hint of excitement or fear; likely a fear of falling, or being blown away by the wind. It was the same expression Hiccup had worn when flying for the first time.
Although it was slightly harder to keep his speed when Hiccup sat up like that, Toothless never complained. He just flapped his wings a bit faster to maintain his altitude. For some reason, he reveled in the notion that his rider could actually feel what it was like to have wings. To any dragon, and even more so to a Night Fury, flying was the very thing that made life worth living. Toothless could not begin to imagine why, but sharing his wings with a human made the experience all the more interesting.
They had left Balheim at midday, and it was already past sundown when Hiccup finally chose a place where to settle.
Showered by the cool tinges of twilight, this island appeared to be less than half the size of Old Balheim. The deep, shady mouth of its lone but tall volcano housed a small glacier, which was the source of the island's many thin waterfalls and rivulets. Most of the mountain's feet seemed permanently concealed in low, misty clouds. The forest was rich with both slender saplings and proud old trees, heavy with needles or dark-green leaves. The resources seemed abundant, and the clearings plentiful, and, most importantly, it was not inhabited. Not by humans at least.
"This place looks nice. What do you think?" Hiccup said as they approached. He sounded pleased, but his voice did betray some exhaustion.
"This could very well be our next home. Seems big enough, and I think I see water, and… there! There's sand!"
Toothless veered towards the northern shore, which appeared slightly more hospitable thanks to its sandy beach, whereas the southern side was almost entirely trailed with cliffs. The island was indeed uninhabited by humans, but the clear scents of a small number of dragons soon reached his nostrils.
Despite the fact that mating season was soon about to begin, the resident dragons didn't give off any particularly aggressive scents, nor did they seem particularly ill-inclined. In fact, one dragon appeared quite welcoming to the mighty Night Fury, or so Toothless believed when they landed, for the little Terrible Terror (as Vikings used to call them) was instead more interested in his rider, who had just slid off his back, and, after removing his rather tattered boots, was now enjoying the sand with his bare feet.
The small twitchy dragon approached curiously, sniffing the air with short, nervous breaths. He was mostly bright green, but the top of his head and the tips of the tendril-like fins on his back were colored red. The Terrible Terror squawked to get Hiccup's attention. Toothless refrained from growling. Free Terrors were mostly harmless, especially when alone.
"Hey, little guy," Hiccup said, forgetting to remove the heavy basket from Toothless' back. He crouched lower on the sand and extended a welcoming hand to pet the small animal. "Do you live here?" he asked, as the little Terror leaned gleefully into his hand, clearly enjoying the friendly scratches.
"AAUGH! Thor's fff…" Hiccup screamed and hissed, making Toothless jump in alarm.
Toothless was ready to tear the little green beast apart, when he noticed that what had caused his human to yell was actually a tiny crab, which had bitten Hiccup's bare foot. The crab was immediately flung in the air by the boy's sudden jolt of pain.
Before Toothless could relax again, the Terrible Terror readily shot a small, but very quick ball of fire towards the tiny crab, before it fell on the ground. He then rushed to the dead creature and picked it up with his teeth. He finally offered it to Hiccup. It was an unusually friendly gesture for the often selfish species.
Annoying little thing, Toothless thought to himself. He couldn't help feeling left out, which was very much a new feeling to him, one, he realized, he did not like at all. Besides, his annoyance was justified; his prosthetic fin was chafing his tail, the basket was still weighing on his back, and his rider had completely forgotten about both.
"Nice shot!" Hiccup exclaimed, picking up the dead, semi-cooked crab. He did not seem to refuse the offer, though he did not eat the crab either, much to Toothless' relief.
"Thanks, little guy. How about a name? I'm going to call you…" Hiccup hummed thoughtfully, "Sharpshot!"
Sharpshot?! Toothless huffed, rolling his eyes. How about 'Barely-Decent-Shot'?
Yes, Toothless decided, this tiny, jolly, and annoyingly lovable dragon was definitely too friendly for his liking. Without Hiccup seeing him, he squinted at the little Terror.
To Toothless' utter shock, in an unbelievable display of impudence, the little Terror stuck his tongue out.
