Sorry for the wait, guys, but May's approaching along with final exams, and the teachers are really pushing it. But whatever. Thanks for all the responses you guys gave me! It really makes me happy!
This story will be fast-paced, but I will try my best at the pacing, so now, let's end this note and let you enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: Already at the beginning. Not gonna repeat it.
As soon as Hiccup heard the snores from the baby dragon, he plucked her off his head and held it like a cat in his arms. Toothless gazed at the small dragon a little jealously. He could never be hold like that, he knew. He was way too big, and if Hiccup had found him as a hatchling, then he would have been dead by now. After all, Toothless was over fifty years old, and he was still just a teenager dragon, not even through with puberty yet.
But at least he could hold Hiccup and supported him when he was about to fall, Toothless reassured himself as they walked into the kitchen. The smell of cooked fish and roasted game birds hung in the air. Stoick had left a fair amount of foods behind, mindful of his son's dragon's appetite more than anything else, for Hiccup ate little but gorged down books like they were sea treats. It was actually the Night Fury who was wasting away their food storage. Sometimes the big Viking wondered how the beast could float in the air, let along carrying anyone.
Hiccup flopped down in a chair and took a deep breath as they reached the dinner table to calm the slightly jabbing pain from his foot. He gently set the sleeping baby Night Fury down the table, then began to reach for the bowl set near him, containing a sort of stew made of fish and a game bird's leg was in it as well, big and meaty. Suddenly his stomach grumbled again, and with great thankfulness, Hiccup dove into his meal.
While the boy was eating, Toothless glanced at him one last time before dropped his gaze to the table and scowled. No fish. Well, roasted fish was there, but Toothless liked them raw. He went up the stairs toward the family's fish store for his breakfast instead of settling with the cooked fish. He was given a supply of fish from Stoick, but if it runs out before the monthly restock, he would have to hunt for himself. Thinking back about that point, Toothless thought Hiccup should really leave out the tinny-tiny unimportant detail that the Night Fury was very capable of hunting in stormy days. The fact that he could hunt didn't mean he want to.
And now that the hatchling was here, no doubt he would have to share it with her…
Oh, yes, the young hatchling.
As he snatched up two fish from the (sadly reducing in size) fish store, Toothless thought about her. Night Furies were rare indeed, and most of them were hostile, even with their ever-lasting loyalty if you manage to somehow earn it, but this one…this one was different. She didn't try to kill a human when he brought her close to Hiccup, only expressing what seemed like unquenchable curiosity and – how strange – optimism.
Even stranger, she appeared in this island today, but Toothless had spent a lot of time exploring Berk and a lot more islands close by, and it was clear that the young one couldn't handle any sort of long-distance flight at her age. She was at the most three to six years old, and the way she flailed as Toothless carried her told him that she hadn't tried serious flying yet. The wings weren't in a rhythmic beat that was necessary to keep the dragon upright in the sky, and the young dragon seemed like she liked running more than using those wings.
So how did she get here? Berk is unreachable unless by boats or dragons, and Toothless didn't think a black, squealing, bat-winged mass of a young dragon could escape the hundred pairs of dragon and human eyes if she had indeed gone by boat. And if she had, there would've been a commotion by now. As far as he knew, Toothless was the only Night Fury before this hatchling came by. His parents had gone separate ways, and Toothless should have been able to sense them had they decided to venture here. If they were alive. It had been thirty years, after all, since they parted ways.
With the unsolved question still in his mind, Toothless trotted back into the kitchen, listing off probabilities. Well, either way…as long as she does not pose a threat to either his rider or his fish, Toothless was pretty much fine with it.
Hiccup had finished his meal in the five minutes that Toothless had taken to go get the fish. He'd gone around town trying to find that pendant yesterday without a break and then came back here and went straight to bed, too exhausted to even think about eating, which resulted in Hiccup nearly starving for a day. Now he was sitting with his cheek propped up on an elbow and was staring at the baby Night Fury curiously, a frown over his face.
"I don't get it," he said as Toothless approached them and dropped one fish down on the floor before starting to chew on the other. Hiccup ran a hand through his hair the way he always did when he was frustrated or was being faced with a problem he couldn't solve. "How can she get on Berk? News would've flown through the streets by now if she'd arrived here by water."
So their minds have been on the same track, Toothless observed, giving his human a sound of agreement.
"Perhaps one of the other dragons picked her up from a nearby island?" Hiccup suggested, almost to himself. One of Toothless' ears pricked up. Oh? He hadn't thought of that. The boy started standing up, this time his steps firmer and easier, but Toothless still stood up with him, green wary eyes following the boy's feet.
It turned out he was fine. Hiccup limped into the room, and just when Toothless was about to follow, he limped back out with his fur coat, putting it on and starting to the door. "C'mon, let's go ask around to see who got the little devil here," Hiccup grunted, dropping by the kitchen to pick up the baby Night Fury, but he paused in the doorway, his eyes wide. Toothless yanked his eyes toward the dinner table as well, following Hiccup's gaze.
The Night Fury was gone.
And at that moment, a dish from one of the shelves fell down and broke.
"Crap!" Hiccup yelped as he hobbled toward the direction where the dish just fell down, while another three were about to join the third and the quick-foot figure of a grinning tiny Night Fury darting in and out behind the furniture in the kitchen, gleaming white fangs bared. Her older cousin leaped to his feet and caught the other three dishes in time before they could break and set them down on the floor, then growled a warning to the young one.
She ignored him. Instead, she paused only to grin at him playfully and gave a mini-roar that was not fully developed yet and then started running around again. Hiccup was busy trying to catch her as she darted by, but she was, of course, quicker than him and with that peg leg of his, there was no way in a year she could be caught.
Toothless' growl deepened into an irritated snarl. It was all a game to her, wasn't it? Well, then it is time she learns respect.
As the tiny dragon jumped again, this time right across Toothless' face, the elder raised his tail, and his eyes narrowed to slits as she came near, then he swung the powerful limb toward her, Night Fury's natural deadly precision making sure he wouldn't miss.
The tail knocked the young dragon backward, sending her tumbling head over tail and then slammed against the wall, upside-down. She remained in that position for awhile, violet eyes wide with shock, and then righted herself again, this time shrinking back from Toothless a little bit, a tinge of fear in her eyes, but she stood still, at least. Toothless thought he had been a little rough with her, but he said nothing and trotted past the youngling to pick up a fallen dish with his teeth and handed it to Hiccup.
"Thanks, buddy," Hiccup smiled and stood to return the dish to its proper place, then went over to the tiny dragon, who was about to bounce away but at Toothless' look, remained still. He knelt down and reached out a hand to her, but he didn't touch her, only letting it hover from the dragon's skin by an inch or so. Hiccup knew that the best way to get on the good side of a dragon is to let them make the first move.
The hatchling stared at the hand thoughtfully for awhile, sniffed it, licked it, then she gave him a fang-filled grin and launched herself into the boy's chest, nearly knocking him back. "Oof!" Hiccup puffed out, but he regained his place with help from Toothless' head, which had been leaned against his back to prevent his fall. Really, that dragon might as well be a loyal maid.
As dragon and rider were dealing with this, the hatchling had made her way up to the top of his head, where she had previously been, and sat there contentedly, but she glanced back at Toothless with a question in her eyes, as if to ask, Is this okay?
Toothless merely snorted indifferently in reply. If dragons could beam, the hatchling would have.
0o0o0o0o0
The moment some Vikings caught sight of the mini version of Toothless (thanks to her extra loud noises that she produced on purpose), news flew faster than even the Night Fury himself. As Hiccup tried to make himself heard above the big crowd of curiosity that had formed around him, dragon and Vikings alike, he suddenly thought bringing the tiny hatchling outside so soon had been a mistake. The young dragon, however, was enjoying all the attention she was given. She climbed down to Hiccup's shoulder and rubbed her head against a young woman who had extended a hand toward her, squealing with delight. After this, the villagers just got louder with excitement and pressed closer.
But of course, Toothless wasn't there for nothing. With one threatening roar, he got the crowd backing down and gave Hiccup his necessary space.
"Okay, thanks, buddy," Hiccup told the Night Fury – the bigger one – and Toothless backed off, but kept a warning eye on everyone. Now that he had their attention, Hiccup pointed to the black dragon clinging to his shoulder, eyes sparkling with amusement. "Did any of you dragons bring this one to the island?" he asked the thirty or forty heads of all shapes, colors and sizes dangling above and mingled in the crowd of humans.
There was silence for a few seconds, then as one, the dragons either shook their heads or made a noise of negative. Hiccup's shoulders slumped a bit in disappointment as the din of conversations started again. "Oh, alright. Er, I think I should get going now…" he began and started in the direction of the Dragon Hold, formerly the place where they kept captive dragons for training, but now where the beasts slept and fed if they hadn't yet to desire a "bonded" who would take care of them, but he was only three steps away from where he started when a bellow echoed.
"Night Fury!"
Some fifty heads turned to the direction of the shout, off to the western coast and far away from the only two Night Furies in Berk and anywhere in a six hundred miles radius.
Well, they were the only two Night Furies in Berk.
A furious and desperate roar came from the direction of the dock as well, followed by an explosion that made Hiccup's hair whip back from his face. It was only fleeting, but before the explosion, a comet of blue fire was seen in the sky.
Immediately, the crowd roared into action. Mounts were collected, saddles were secured, weapons grabbed and battle cries were shouted as the Vikings returned to their true motherland – the battlefield – only this time on dragon backs. Toothless and Hiccup exchanged a single glance before the boy ran as fast as he could inside his house then returned moments later with the saddle they used. Toothless dropped down obediently and let Hiccup secured the saddle and then climb in, then waited for the boy to prepare his prosthetic leg for the tailfin pedal, and with a gentle kick on the side, the Night Fury returned to his motherland, the sky.
The little dragon, through all this excitement, had been temporarily forgotten, but she held tight onto Hiccup, and now that they were in the sky, she crept down his shirtfront and dropped into the empty space on the saddle in front of Hiccup and stared at him with accusing eyes.
"Oh, crap, I forgot to leave you behind," Hiccup exclaimed as he saw the dragon, who squeaked back indignantly. But any more exchange was cut off by Toothless' sudden warning roar. Hiccup looked up just in time to see a sapphire fireball flying their way.
Pressing himself almost flat on the saddle (and pressing the little Night Fury into a pancake), Hiccup bit his lip and slammed down the pedal, and Toothless dived, letting the fireball whistle past their head harmlessly, heading toward a Zippleback and was destroyed with a crack of lightning before it could hit Berk.
"Okay, fine, you stay, but don't fall off," Hiccup told the little dragon, who growled in agreement and turned away, her claws digging into the leather and wings folded neatly by her sides. She wasn't going to bother him. She just wanted to be around to watch something epic.
Now that he was free, Hiccup looked up and scanned the sky for the shooter. Then he spotted it and his heart dropped.
Ten dragons pretty much identical to Toothless, each swooping and throwing balls of destruction with unbelievable grace, hovered in the sky, banking, kicking, roaring, clawing at the dragons who charged at them, dodging all and everything launched in their direction.
Hiccup's throat constricted. Ten Night Furies. How in the name of Odin is Berk going to survive this?
Toothless let out a growl, momentarily yanking his rider away from the terror of ten of his kins in the sky, where they are the deadliest. "Alright, buddy, let's go for the tail," Hiccup said, thinking quickly, then he glanced down at the hatchling and suddenly understood. "Actually, scratch that one. Go closer to the dragons where we can talk –"
"Hiccup!" a familiar voice shouted, and said boy turned to face the speaker. It was Astrid, astride her Deadly Nadder, Wreck. Why? Because the dragon was a complete wreck when flying over the sea in the first weeks of training, since he kept looking at his reflection in the water and threw his rider off.
"Oh, good morning, Astrid!" Hiccup tried a grin and failed, then quickly turned his attention back to their opponents. He winced as a Gronkle took a blue blast to the face and plummeted toward the ocean. He urged Toothless forward, and he obeyed, with Astrid following him.
"What are you going to do?" the blonde Viking (Junior) shouted over the winds, roars, battle cries and powerful fire blasts and a list of dragon missiles surrounding them.
"I think I know what they came here for!" Hiccup shouted back, dodging another ball of blue flying at him. As he rose again, he could see Astrid's puzzled face and pointed to the Night Fury sitting before him. "It's this! The others might've come back for her!"
Astrid's eyebrow rose as two round, unnaturally large orbs of violet turned to meet her blue ones, and even through the battle, Hiccup could hear her say, "Toothless had lots of relatives coming for a visit, doesn't he?"
"Hey, it's not his fault this dropped down on Berk," Hiccup protested defensively, pulling Toothless up as another ball of blue flew his way. The baby Night Fury squawked loudly in – did Hiccup hear that right? – delight as the ball whistled right under Toothless' belly, shot too close to the fake tailfin for comfort. Luckily, it didn't catch on fire.
Wreck stopped a blue ball dead in its track with his fire, while Astrid brandished her battleaxe. "Well, what're you gonna to do calm them down? We can't just invite them to the ground for negotiation! That'll be too dangerous!" she shouted, then suddenly wished she hadn't said it.
But Hiccup had already heard, and that idea had already started taking a solid form. "I know," he told her, his jaw set with determination. "But I will stay in the air. I can't move fast on the ground." With that, he guided a reluctant Toothless toward the dragons.
Behind him, Astrid cursed her friend's mind, but as she guided Wreck to follow the chieftain's son, she figured she should have seen his thoughts by now. Hiccup was clever, but his successes came because he took risks. High risks.
0o0o0o0o0
If Toothless hadn't known his rider better, he'd guessed that Hiccup was officially off his rockers. Night Furies are dangerous creatures, and the only thing that stopped this Night Fury from eating the boy or killing him right the moment he freed him from that tangle in the forest was because of his surprise at being released by the very same one who shot him down and not later was because he was wounded and Hiccup had helped him, and events kept going like rolling a snowball. Not that Toothless had rolled one before, but he heard the humans used that phrase to describe a chain of events.
These ones, however, were wild and angry, and somehow, the thought of Hiccup having a hold on the hatchling they were looking for didn't comfort the dragon any. Any dragon beside Berk's residence has the tendency to fear or hate the two-leggers that dominate most of the planet. They might have no scale or no breath-weapon, but their hands and feet and brains were certain to create more destructive weapons than any dragon could ever wield any time in history. Even their favorite fish wouldn't do. No, even their favorite human meat wouldn't do.
But he trusted Hiccup. The boy always knows what he was doing…well, mostly. And it wasn't like they had any choice. The Night Furies will blast Berk to smithereens and hunt down every dragon, tear down every house until they were either killed or the young one was returned to them.
"Okay, buddy, just a bit closer," Hiccup said in a whisper, snapping the dragon out of his worry, and he responded, banking a little closer to his kins. The dragons' gaze snapped to them as soon as they neared into talking distance. Now Hiccup commanded Toothless to hover. He knew he would not have long; a dragon can only hover in the air for a fixed amount of ten minutes max, any kind and every kind. Any longer than that and they will have to move on or drop.
Nine of the Night Furies suddenly roared in rage and was about to charge them, but the last, the biggest and the one who had the most scars on his body gave a warning growl, and they all backed off respectfully, but murderous eyes still followed Hiccup and Toothless. The boy swallowed. These Night Furies were nothing like the sight Hiccup was used to from being with Toothless for so long. Their eyes, different colors that ranged anywhere from snowy white to blood red stared at them, accessing movements and analyzing them, intelligent orbs of murderous contempt.
Despite the leader's warning, one of the ten, a Night Fury with blue-white eyes, drifted closer to Hiccup and Toothless, purring wistfully. In response, the hatchling sat up straight and squealed back, but she didn't sound the least impressed. In fact, she started backing off toward Hiccup rather than trying to get off the saddle like a lost child finally being able to find her parent.
Something isn't right here, Hiccup thought as he stared at the hatchling, who had now pressed her rump flat against his stomach, spitting columns of smoke and tiny sparks of blue, her violet eyes narrowed hatefully. But the dragon who had approached them had looked enough like her mother, so why…?
Hiccup was forced out of his thoughts as the leader of the flight grumbled impatiently. "Oh, er," he cleared his throat nervously. Speaking to hostile dragons like Nightmares or Nadders he could deal, but with such intelligent beings as this, he felt like he was talking to a bunch of hostile warriors, all wielding swords and shields and were threatening Berk more than tamable dragons.
Pff, what am I thinking? They are just that!
"Um, I thought you dropped this," Hiccup began, taking his hands off of the harnesses and reached toward the young dragon sitting before him, not touching her, but merely holding out his hands near her so she could make the decision herself.
The Night Fury, predictably, didn't move. She didn't bite Hiccup, but she looked at his hands with distaste, pressing herself further against him.
Toothless let out a warning growl. Immediately, the young dragon's ears sagged and she crawled forward, allowing Hiccup to pick her up and held her out.
As soon as she was held out, the Night Fury (female, Hiccup guessed, as he saw that her body was lither and more graceful than Toothless' and some other in the group) glided forward gratefully, but the warning growl, this time for her leader, stopped her dead. She went back to hovering desperately a fair distance before Hiccup and Toothless and her daughter, with the young one's eyes burning into hers with loathing and fury.
The leader's electric blue eyes accessed his kin and the human on his back, then studied Hiccup thoroughly. He saw no sign of any kind of trickery coming up or preparation to strike as his daughter nears. All he could read from the wide, determined green eyes and the set jaw was controlled fear – very controlled fear. The old dragon snorted and made a signal for his daughter to go on. It had been centuries since a Night Fury accepted a rider, and this one didn't seem too bad, even if he was still a little young.
With one grateful grunt, the female glided toward Hiccup once again, not bothering to look the least suspecting as her sole goal was to get her hatchling back safely.
But then it all went wrong.
When the female was close enough and was unsheathing her teeth to catch the hatchling, a Monstrous Nightmare approached them from behind, and it shot at the nearing female Night Fury, blasting her out of the sky with a pained screech and sending her plummeting to the sea.
An anguished and furious roar echoed from the rest, and the next thing Hiccup knew, he had fifteen flying balls of deadly blue fire sailing straight for him.
"Dive!" Hiccup shouted, pressing the pedal and Toothless responded, diving just in time to duck the shots, but they weren't fast enough to stop one from setting Toothless' tailfin (the fake one, thankfully) on fire.
"Odin's toenails!" Hiccup swore, immediately swiveling to hand, roughly pressing the little dragon back to her previous seat in front of him and pressed himself flat, once again, against the saddle.
They would make it without any hardship with the new and improved prosthetic, Hiccup knew, if they didn't have six murderous Night Furies on their tails. Any subtle amount of trust they've gained with them had now been blasted away, just like the mother Night Fury.
A pang of guilt and worry twisted Hiccup's stomach, and even though he knew he ought not to, he still turned back, and he saw three of her group had managed to catch and support her, and was heading back to land as well, but far away from Berk, to the greenery-covered (and much, much bigger) piece of land behind the rock where the city resided.
But then six more flying orbs of destruction decided they wanted to kiss them, and Hiccup had to concentrate on maneuvering Toothless to Berk's safety with the burning tailfin and all.
Luckily, they didn't have to make it all the way there by themselves. "Ya need a hand?" a familiar voice called, and the fire on Toothless' tailfin was extinguished, and Ruffnut's face loomed into sight, with the head of her Zippleback imitating the same grin, although it looked kind of weird on his draconic face.
"Ruffnut!" Even to his own ears, Hiccup sounded like somebody had decided to take the sky's weight off him.
The blonde girl grinned back. "Of course. Hey, Tuffnut, mind takin' the baddies on the left?" she called to her twin brother, and was replied instantly by him, his voice coming from Hiccup's left.
"No prob, but yer sure yer could handle the ones on the right? They look a bit tough for you, yer know?" he sneered back, swiveling around to blast his foes with a crackle of lightning.
"Who you callin' weak, you no-brain weakling?!" Ruffnut yelled back, and they dropped back behind to deal with the approaching Night Furies while Hiccup guided Toothless to land, no longer the threat of a burning tail to them, but he knew the damages must be fixed immediately or Toothless will not be able to fly, but even as he flew and increased speed as much as he dares to, Hiccup could hear the shouts and insults the twins were throwing at one another instead of their foes, but they would be fine, he figured. They might argue like there was no tomorrow, but they knew how to fight.
When he was several minutes' flight from reaching land, Hiccup became aware of Astrid, who was still sticking with him. "Go help them!" he shouted over the winds. "We'll be fine!"
The blonde girl hesitated, but then nodded firmly and turned her dragon around, shouting a battle cry as she charged back toward the fight. Hiccup felt a bit down at losing her company, but it was necessary, he told himself.
"HICCUP!" a bellow sounded from Berk's shore as they neared, and the boy couldn't help but sighed in relief. He knew that voice anywhere.
"Dad!" Hiccup shouted as soon as Toothless landed with a soft thump, unlatching his left foot from the saddle and jumped off to stagger toward Stoick the Vast, chieftain of Berk and conveniently, Hiccup's father. The little Night Fury had once again made herself at home on the boy's shoulders and stayed there, silent for once.
"No broken bones or singed flesh?" Stoick asked distractedly, then not waiting for an answer, he turned to the catapult team. "Fire!" he roared with a voice enough to impress a dragon, and large boulders made of burning straws soared through the air, toward the Night Furies.
Of course, it was hopeless, for the dragons broke apart faster than fish when a harpoon was stuck in the middle of their midst, but before Hiccup could comment, the other dragons hovering nearby positioned themselves between the Night Furies, not allowing them to rejoin with each other again. Suddenly Hiccup saw the tactic. Stoick wasn't trying to hit the dragons; he was trying to tear them apart for easier control.
Next to Hiccup, Toothless growled, his body tense as he watched his kins desperately dodged attacks after attacks at close range. Agreed, they came here to attack Berk, but it wasn't easy to stand aside and watch your kind get slaughtered. His rider, as always, picked up on the dragon's feeling quickly.
"Dad!" Hiccup called again, grasping his father's arm. The big man turned to his son curiously. "Let them go," he told him, his eyes fleeting back toward the divided team of speed demons. They were dodging and launching attacks just fine, but soon they will be worn out and they will fall. "They came here for a reason, and they attacked me because I, er, there's a little accident involving a misunderstanding of target."
One of Stoick's eyebrows rose. "And what's their reason?" he demanded, then caught sight of the pair of violet eyes staring at him from his son's shoulder and swore. "Odin's beard! Next thing we know, an army of your dragon's cousins will migrate here and take over Berk!"
But Hiccup was hearing none of this. "Please, Dad, let them go," he pleaded, trying his best to sound reasonable and not desperate. "I'll talk to them later, okay? And maybe the next time they return, they'll be more levelheaded. You can't kill off ten of Toothless' kind because they came here to find their kid!"
Stoick understood immediately, but as he opened his mouth to say something, a large explosion sounded behind them, and he whirled around to face the threat.
Most of the dragons on their sides were falling down to the sea, while the rest plunged after them for the hope of saving the rider if not the mount, and the six Night Furies were, once again, hovering in a straight line.
The leader roared once, his eyes directed at Toothless, then Hiccup, and then as one, they turned and vanished into the higher skies.
Naturally, none of the humans understood what just happened aside from the fact that they have won, for the time being, and cheers and whoops could be heard, but Toothless was able to understand what that elder had said, and the words and not the venom in them chilled him. He stared at the place where the Night Furies had previously disappeared to, and then his eyes swiveled fearfully to Hiccup, who was scratching his head and talking to his father.
"In the name of the Night, traitorous one, we will come back, and this time, your precious rider will pay for your treachery."
Ah, the wonderful feeling of dread! Read and review! All comments appreciated!
~the Apprentice