The Nightfury snuffed and opened an eye, there the boy was curled in a ball, sleeping. Last night he had made it very clear to the human that if he was to attempt to escape it would mean certain death. Of course he hadn't been serious, but he couldn't risk losing the hatchling, not after all the trouble he'd gone through. His already unhappy mood dimmed even further as he realized that even if he kept the boy, there would be no way to deliver him, he had lost a tail fin which would forever keep him grounded. He continued to stare at the hatchling, curled up on the ground, he looked so lonely and cold. The Nightfury almost felt guilt for taking the boy.
Hiccup woke up to find that he was still in the cove, he considered trying to escape, but he valued all his limbs. The dragon had lost a tail fin, and oddly enough Hiccup almost felt sorry for the Nightfury. But why had the thing not killed him, he'd been fully at the beasts mercy? Gobber and everyone else had always said dragon would always go for the kill, but why hadn't this one? Why hadn't the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, not gone after the kill? If it had been a Terrible Terror or perhaps even a Gronkle it would make more sense, but still not make any sense at all. But why had the most feared dragon not killed him when it had the chance? Something didn't add up.
He pulled himself off the ground and found the dragon looking at him, he did a double take. Was that guilt in a dragon's eyes, in the eyes of a creature he had been taught was a heartless killing machine? Could it be? When the Nightfury noticed him staring, it snarled and half glided toward the other side of the cove, crossing the small pond in the center. The dragon spun around lighting a ring of fire around itself and settled down to rest with a grunt, tucked in its wings and wrapped its tail around its head to shield its eyes.
Hiccup watched the dragon in its slumber, his curiosity tugging him toward the beast. It was a Nightfury, here was a living, breathing Nightfury and he had to know more, but on the other hand this was a living, FIRE breathing Nightfury, that also had the tendency to kill anything that got near it, or at least that was what the book of dragons said. The boy sighed, his life preserving instinct won, he'd stay as far as possible from that beast or as far as one could stay, trapped in a cove. After all he had far more important things to do, such as figuring out how to find food.
After a few minutes into its nap the dragon detected movement, he unfurled his wings and straightened its tail, and checked to make sure the human was still there, he found it kneeling by the pond. The Nightfury huffed and slowly got up, better make sure the human wouldn't fall in. When he got closer he noticed the boy wasn't wearing a shirt, and then he saw the thing in its hands. The human had knotted together some short of net and was trying to catch something. The dragon settled down, now this would be fun to watch.
Hiccup was frustrated big time; his hands were sore and riddled with wounds from trying to cut his shirt with a dragon scale. It had worked perfectly, slicing the fabric with ease, but had also sliced the skin of his palm just as well.
He waited by the edge of the small lake, carefully keeping his shadow off the surface of the water. Finally a group of fish swum near him and he quickly sprang up and pulled the tiny net through the water, trying his best to capture the fish. His hands stung as the water touched his open wounds, finally he pulled the net out to find two medium sized fish. Hiccup whooped with joy until he turned to find the Nightfury staring at him with a bemused look on its face. He instantly froze, and the dragon growled and stalked away.
The Nightfury scolded itself; he needed the human hatchling to be scared of him, so it wouldn't dare try escape, at this rate the boy would just get up and walk out, and he knew he wouldn't be able to kill it. He just never had the heart, unlike the rest of the clan.
He heard a curse and his ears perked up, his head turned to find the boy hunched over, rubbing together two sticks over a ring of rocks filled with wood. The dragon cocked its head, he'd observed humans doing that and normally a flame erupted from the ring of rocks, but for some reason nothing happened. He grumbled, humans seemed to need the fire to live and he supposed that if the hatchling died it would be bad for both of him. The Nightfury pulled back its head and shot a fireball precisely into the ring of stones making sure not to hit the boy. The human flew backwards in panic, but when it realized what just happened, it turned toward the dragon a mixture of bewilderment and amazement on its face.
Hiccup huffed in annoyance, he'd thought catching the fish would be the hard part, but he had been very wrong. There wasn't a piece of dry wood in the entire cove; it must have rained yesterday, before he'd been captured. The boy faltered, his grip on the sticks loosened as his thoughts wandered off. Suddenly blue fire was barreling toward him; he flung himself backwards, scrambling to escape the flame. When no second fireball was shot he turned to see his fire pit burning brightly, then he stood up and walked toward the fire mesmerized. When he was sure it was real, he turned to the dragon, had that beast just helped him build a fire?
He shook his head, the dragon had probably sneezed or something. Then he picked up the two fish that lay on a flat rock and skewered them both with a stick and held them over the fire, might as well use it.
What was that human doing? Why was it burning that perfectly fine fish? For a second he considered stealing one of those tasty looking fish before it was ruined, but decided against it. Dragons hated the mere idea of being dependent on humans, in fact all those animals they stole from the humans? They just dumped them into a fire pit, who were they kidding they didn't need that food; they just stole it so the Viking wouldn't have it. Now that he thought of that, it sounded pretty cruel, just dumping all their food in a lava pit, but dragons had a lot of pride, so eating stolen food was not about to become one of their habits.