You have to make a choice.
Those words are the ones rolling around in my head as I walk home. Either I get my act together and try to be better in training to become a true viking, or I throw away all regards to my family's history and fail my dad. In all honesty both are pretty bad choices.
Suddenly I'm reminded of the difference shown by the Night Fury and the Gronckle from training. The Gronckle would have, or should have, killed me had it not been for Gobber. The Night Fury had a very clear shot and had me pinned, but it didn't even harm me. Scared me out of my wits, yes. But he didn't kill me when he could have.
It's a stupid idea, but I have to find out more about the Night Fury. I feel almost connected to it in a way. Or maybe it's just me being sorry for shooting it down. Either way, I plan on going back to the cove to see if it's still there.
After a short meal at home. I grab a small knife and tuck it into a loop on my belt. As I walk out, I remember how the dragon was trying unsuccessfully to catch a fish to eat, so I grab a fish from the small pile I had made from fishing a few days ago. The last thing I grab is a shield. You never know, I might have to cover myself from an attack.
The walk to the cove is filled once again with thoughts concerning everything from training to a particular blond, blue-eyed boy. I try to focus on the last at hand. At the moment, I have no idea how I'm going to approach the dragon. Maybe I'll just throw the fish from where he can't reach me… Nope, not a good idea. Knowing my terrible aim it would probably hit the Night Fury and then I would be toast. Literally.
I still don't know what to do by the time I reach the cove. Guess I'll have to wing it, I think to myself as I approach the entrance. Walking closer I find an entrance to the floor of the cove through a small passage through the rocks. I raise the shield as I get closer and toss the fish a few feet ahead of me. I crouch down behind the shield after I throw the fish in case the dragon comes this way.
Not hearing anything, I get up from my crouched position and take a few steps forward. The only problem was my shield. It had gotten stuck in between two of the rocks in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. I try pushing and pulling the shield, but it won't budge.
Well, here goes nothing. I drop down and crawl under the shield and enter the cove. The fish lies a few feet ahead of me, so I walk quietly and pick it up. I look around the cove while taking small steps towards the water. It's seemingly empty, and the Night Fury is nowhere to be seen. Did he find a way out? My brow furrows in thought, no he couldn't have. He couldn't fly the last time I saw him and that was yesterday.
Where are you? I question in my head.
I hear a scuffing noise behind me. Turning around slowly, I see the Night Fury slowly crawling towards me. As it approaches me, I notice that its eyes aren't as narrowed as they had been when I had let him go. He almost looked… curious.
He doesn't look curious for long before he starts to growl at me. His eyes narrows and the pupils of his eyes turn into slits as it eyes the dagger at my belt. It's the same one I almost killed him with. He probably remembers it. I reach toward the knife, but his growling only gets louder. I flinch. The only way for him to relax is to get rid of the knife, but he'll get angry if I reach towards it.
Keeping eye contact with the dragon, I grab the knife from my belt and hold it as far as I can from my body before dropping it on the ground. Then I kick the knife into the water with my foot. The knife makes a small splashing noise as it hits the water.
The Night Fury's growling stops as it sits back on his hindquarters. The pupils of his eyes dilate and his ear plates are twitching and aren't flattened against his head like they were before. If I wasn't so scared I would have awed at how cute the dragon looked. Instead I hold the fish out to the dragon with slightly shaking hands.
He gets onto all fours and crawls cautiously towards the fish in my outstretched arms. When he's close enough to grab the fish, he opens his mouth. Oddly enough, there are no teeth in his mouth. I blink in surprise.
"Toothless," I say out loud while watching the dragon. "I could have sworn you had-"
I stop speaking in surprise. Teeth had risen out of the gums of the Night Fury's mouth and he quickly grabbed the fish and swallowed it.
"… Teeth," I finish, my mind back in defense mode. Apparently, Night Furies have retractable teeth.
After licking his lips, the Night Fury looks at with his wide and curious eyes. He makes a humming noise as he begins to sniff at my clothing, pushing me a few steps back.
"N-no no," I try to get him to stop coming towards me. My backside hits a rock and I fall to the floor with my back against the rock. I realize that the he's looking for more fish.
"I don't have anymore," I say as he continues to sniff my vest. He then raises his head and makes a weird face. After making somewhat of a gagging noise, he regurgitates half of the fish onto my lap.
"Ew." I look squeamishly at the slimy fish on my lap and hold it up to keep it from staining my clothes. The Night Fury has sat down and his hindquarters and is watching me intently. I sit awkwardly while holding onto the fish, not knowing what to do with it. The dragon makes a cooing noise and looks at the fish and then back at me.
Oh gods, he wants me to eat the fish, I think to myself. I lift the raw fish to my mouth as the dragon watches intently with his wide eyes. I cringe at the fish before taking a deep breath and biting into the fish. The fish is slimy and makes me gag, but I don't swallow it and keep it inside my mouth.
"Mmm-mm," is all I can say with my mouth full as I hold up the rest of the fish to the dragon. He looks at the fish and then to me, then makes a swallowing motion. My arms fall as I make an exasperated noise, realizing what the dragon wants me to do. I brace myself and swallow the fish, the raw and disgusting taste almost making me sick. But I manage to keep it down. I shudder at the taste before giving the Night Fury a weak smile.
Still sitting across from me, the dragon opens his mouth and he gives me gummy smile. I giggle at how he tries to copy the smile I gave him. I set the fish down on the ground and bring myself up to my knees. I try reaching out my hand to touch the dragon's nose, but his smile quickly become a snarl and he narrows his eyes again before he turned away, gliding to the other side of the lagoon.
Standing up so quickly I almost lose my balance, I follow the dragon. He doesn't seem as scary to me as he did just a few minutes ago. Coming to where the dragon is laying on the ground, I sit down cross-legged next to him. He's facing the opposite direction, but after watching a nearby bird take off in flight, his gaze eventually turns to me. I give him a small wave and a smile. He rolls his eyes in annoyance and lays his head back down, using his tail fin to block me from his sight.
His tail fin still looks off, it only has one fin on the right. The left side must have gotten hurt when I shot him down. Wanting to get a closer look at his tail, I scoot closer and reach out to touch the tail. Right as I'm about to touch his tail, he lifts it up and looks at me. I stand and turn away quickly as a reflex of being caught.
I decide to leave my new dragon friend alone for a while. I walk to the edge of the lagoon. It's really beautiful here and it's a wonder no one's ever found it before. Well no one that I know at least. To pass the time, I pick up a few smooth, small stones and skip them across the surface of the water. My dad had taught me after a futile attempt at teaching me how to fish. Holding the stone how he taught me, I throw the stone and give it a small flick. The stone skips across the water a few times before it falls into the water with a small plunk.
After a while, I get bored of skipping stones. I look to where I left the dragon to see that he is hang upside down from a tree branch. It wouldn't be a good idea to wake him up, so I sit down on a rock and pick up a stick and start drawing absentmindedly in the dirt.
I keep calling him the dragon or the Night Fury, but I think he at least deserves a name after I, you know, shot him down and hurt his tail fin and all that. I think back to when I gave him the fish, how he had no teeth. Toothless. It's not that bad of a name, actually. Bringing my attention back to the drawing on the ground, I try to draw Toothless's face. I'm almost done when a dark figure plops down beside me.
Toothless watches me draw and follows the movement of the stick with his head instead of just his eyes. After a short while he gets up and waddles away on his hind legs. There's a loud crashing sound, and he comes back with a small uprooted tree that he's dragging across the ground. He continues to drag the tree across the dirt, making twists and turns to draw loops and turns. I sit on the rock and watch until he's finished and looking proudly at his artwork. I stand up and turn in a circle, trying to figure out what he drew. My feet wander a few steps, but I stop cold when I accidently step on one of the lines Toothless drew and he growls. His growling stops when I lift my foot back up off the ground. When I put my foot back down on the line he begins to growl again, and I once again lift my foot up. The next time I place my foot down, it's on the other side of the drawn line. Toothless's ear plates raise in curiosity and I smile.
Keeping my arms up for balance, I step over the lines around me and move towards the edge of Toothless's drawing. I turn and take a few steps backwards. I back into something solid and feel hot breath on top of my head. Turning around, I find see Toothless looking down at me with his green eyes wide. Slowly, I bring a hand up, but he his eyes narrow slightly and a very low growl comes from his mouth. I sigh and turn my head the other way. What I do next is bordering crazy. I close my eyes and put my hand out in Toothless's direction, my head still turned the other way and facing down. Then there's nothing to do but wait. After a beat of silence, I feel something warm and scaly press against my hand. I breathe a sigh of relief before opening my eyes and looking up.
Toothless's eyes are closed and he keeps his nose against the palm of my hand. Then he opens his eyes and gives his head a small shake. He looks at me with a slightly annoying expression before taking off back to where he was napping earlier. I smile to myself. Not all dragons are bad, and this just proved it.
A few hours later I sit around a fire on top of a watch post with Gobber and the other recruits. Gobber's telling everyone the story of how he lost both his arm and his foot while we eat our dinner. While everyone else is paying attention to the story, I stay quiet and zone out often. I already know the story like the back of my hand. Gobber told me the story at least once a month when I was younger. He always forgot that he had already told me, but I never told him that. It's best for Gobber not to know those types of things, he gets a little sensitive when people don't want to listen to his stories.
As everyone gasps at the right moments in the story, I smiled at the memories of Gobber telling me funny stories as he babysat me at the forge. Fishlegs then talks about how weird and cool it would be if people still had control of their lost limbs after the dragons had eaten them. All of us, myself included, throw him confused and questioning looks. He doesn't notice and continues to play with the two chicken legs in each hand.
"I swear I'm so angry right now," Snotlout growls. I roll my eyes.
"I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll bite off the legs of every dragon I kill. With my face."
Okay, now that's really weird. Now it was his turn to get questioning looks from everyone.
Gobber speaks next. "No, it's the wings and the tails you want." He breaks off a piece of the wing of the chicken he's eating. "If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."
My eyes widen. Toothless is missing a tail fin. That's why he can't fly away. The rest of the conversation is ignored as I come to realization: I have to help Toothless fly again. And I think I know how to do that.
Hicca gets up abruptly, leaving her untouched fish where she was sitting. No one noticed her leaving as Tuffnut was speaking about how it was his destiny to kill the dragon. No one, that is, but Asher. As she walks towards the stairs, he rose from his seat and followed to the top of the stairs leading down from the watch tower. By the time he reached them, she was nearing the bottom of the steps. He frowned. Where is she going?
He had noticed that Hicca was unfocused and quiet these past few days. Well more unfocused and quiet than usual. And she seemed to always be in thought about something. Even though he didn't want to admit it to himself, he cared about Hicca even though he never let it on. Asher was never one to show any emotion other than collectiveness. But to him, Hicca was different, and it slightly annoyed him that he felt that way about her.
With a sigh, he turned away from watching Hicca's retreating form and went back to his seat beside the fire. Now it was he who was lost in thought. Something was up with Hicca, and he had to make sure she didn't hurt herself again.
A/N
Well hello there everyone! I wanted to have this chapter up on Sunday but that didn't exactly work out unfortunately. But I wanted to get this up as soon as possible, so here it is! So what do you guys think about the different narration at the end of the chapter? Do you like it? I'm kind of thinking of doing that more often, so let me know what you think! Thanks again to all of you lovely people who have review and followed the story. It really does make my day when I get a notification saying a got a review. Hope you all have a great rest of the week! Until next time :)