Safe Out of Sight Chapter 7, a how to train your dragon fanfic

"Better run along home and avoid the collision…" ~ On the Steps of the Palace: Into the Woods

Chapter Seven

Hiccup had to move quickly to calm Toothless, who had immediately jumped between him and the unfamiliar human, eyes narrowed and snarling.

"Easy, Toothless! She's a friend," Hiccup soothed. The moment the dragon's teeth were bared again, Regan had proceeded to duck behind the boulder from which she had observed the scene before. "He's just tense," Hiccup called, positioning himself between the girl and the Night Fury while keeping a reassuring hand on Toothless' neck. "You scared him."

Regan quickly righted herself, coolly brushing off her skirts in an attempt to conceal her hasty retreat, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her. "I scared him?" she asked incredulously. Hiccup nearly chuckled aloud at her reaction; she and Astrid may get along nicely were they ever to meet. He paused, recalling how Astrid had continued to respond after meeting Toothless for the first time, how her surprised intrigue had so quickly transformed into a skepticism that sent her running. Towards the village. Just looking at Regan, it was apparent she was prepared to do the same.

"Ah, Regan, this is Toothless," Hiccup introduced. Aware the girl posed no threat to his human, Toothless sat back on his haunches, eyes wide and inquisitive. Curiosity piqued, Regan tentatively stepped forward; it was astounding to her that the beast could transition seamlessly between ferocity and docility in a matter of seconds.

"He looked pretty Toothful to me," she deadpanned. At her comment, Toothless proceeded to pull back his lips to reveal a gummy smile. Both she and Hiccup laughed at the gesture, but Hiccup did so to cover up his jittery nerves. She was interested and at ease…for now. Hiccup needed to keep her that way long enough to tell their story. Now that she had seen Toothless, there was no going back. She was either fully committed to their side or to her village, and Hiccup would do everything in his power to ensure it was the former.

"I've only ever heard legends," Regan continued, appraising Toothless in awe. "They were always described as dangerous beasts to be slaughtered."

"Extremely dangerous, kill on sight," Hiccup reiterated from the dragon manual where the phrase was inked countless times; he was going to have to get to rewriting that atrociously inaccurate text. "I know, but we were so wrong. Toothless showed me just how wrong we were…"

"We?" Regan interrupted. "You mean your tribe?"

Hiccup nodded. She interjected again before he could even draw breath to continue. "Were your people victims of the Raids?" She spoke of them as if they were foreign events that she had observed from a separate world.

Again, Hiccup nodded. "Were yours?" Regan shook her head.

"There were no dragons in my old village. By the time my father and I came here, they hadn't raided in months."

Hiccup immediately thanked Odin that he had thought to keep Toothless hidden in the forest. The villagers here were obviously not on the best of terms with dragons, save Regan and her father. A naivety, Hiccup realized, that could serve him well in this situation. Slowly, Hiccup could see the apprehension draining from her features as she marveled at the dragon, her mind absent of centuries of war and prejudice that had poisoned the inhabitants of Berk. She was clean slate, and his best potential ally here.

"So…you've never had any contact with dragons?"

"No," Regan affirmed, shaking her head. "I only know what I've heard in tales." She failed to look at Hiccup at all as she spoke, unwilling to tear her eyes away from Toothless, who was posing proudly, positively glowing in the undivided attention he was receiving from this new human. Hiccup lowered his eyelids at the dragon, who snorted and puffed his chest out further in response.

"It's a good thing they don't treat you like that back home. You wouldn't be able to carry me and your inflated head around." Before Hiccup could snigger at his own insult, he found himself on his rear in the snow, the victim of a quick and precise tail swipe. It surprised Hiccup when Regan failed to joined Toothless in his amused chuckling.

"You ride him?" she asked.

"Yes, when he's behaving," he replied as Toothless grudgingly helped lift him to his feet.

"That's…wow," she breathed, doing her best to cloak her amazement, but allowed herself to grin in admiration nonetheless. Hiccup was astounded by how much meeting Toothless had changed her demeanor. Her entire aura no longer reeked of hostility of disdain for Hiccup, but rather a curiosity that he had not yet seen her display. Despite all the callousness she had shown before, she was slowly but surely letting down her guard. Toothless seemed to have that effect on people. At least, he did when they saw him behave like an overgrown puppy. If only the Hooligans could have been so open-minded months ago instead of so frustratingly dead-set in their tradition, Hiccup thought wryly, he might have found himself in a much different situation.

"I should probably head home. My father will wonder what's happened to me."

Hiccup's eyes lit up as he put two and two together. "The man with you yesterday?" Regan nodded.

"He'd normally be resting by now, but since it's the first night of Samhain, I'm sure he's still awake. And looking for me…"

"Samhain?" Hiccup asked, unfamiliar with the term, but quickly able to decipher its meaning. "My village just started their winter celebrations too! Vetrnætr," he said, clarifying the foreign title. "I doubt I'll get back before they're over though."

At the mention of the holiday they shared, Regan finally tore her eyes away from Toothless to regard the boy. To Hiccup's amazement, there was no trace of disgust or skepticism that had emanated from her at their first meeting, nor was there the pity he had recently received from her. She now observed him with the same intrigued curiosity with which she regarded Toothless, a being with whom she had had little previous contact (only negative, at that) and had proved in a matter of minutes that he did not live up to the judgments she had formed. They were more alike than she ever could have imagined. Grinning, she stepped away.

"You owe me an explanation as soon as you show up tomorrow," she demanded; though the ice had left her voice, she did not shy from tossing out commands, and Hiccup found the impulse to obey as irritatingly strong as ever.

"Of course," he replied.

"Good." She nodded to Toothless in farewell. "I'll see you tomorrow then…" she began, slowing her footsteps.

"Hiccup," Hiccup supplied. She nodded again before turning to sprint down the remainder of the hill and towards the village.

Of all her unprecedented actions that evening, Hiccup found her reaction to Toothless the most bizarre. After seeing the beast approach three armed men, vicious and snarling, and send them running with their tails between their legs, she treated him like a new puppy. As if on cue, Toothless began nudging the back of the boy's head with his nose. "Alright bud, we can go back now." Chuckling, Hiccup turned to scratch the dragon's neck. "You are just a giant puppy, aren't you?" For a moment, Toothless regarded the boy through half-lidded eyes, then proceeded to flash his rows of razor-sharp serrated teeth. "A giant puppy that could kill a grown man in a single chomp," Hiccup amended, and Toothless grunted his approval of the revised description.

As they made their way back into the woods, Hiccup glanced down the hill at the village to which Regan had retreated. She had asked for his name, which meant she no longer viewed him as a threat. Nor as a charity case, which would almost have been worse in Hiccup's current opinion. They were not yet equals, but at least they were now on the same side.

The cacophony of joyous shouts and antics that echoed throughout the hall was as warm and bubbling as the mead that fueled them. On the second night of Vetrnætr, the Hooligans feasted over an abundance of food unlike any had seen in the previously war-torn village: lamb that had not been stolen away in raids, fruits that had been permitted to grow in uncharred fields, and, of course, plenty of mead to go around.

The chief, however, sat separated from his people, observing, but not partaking, in their merrymaking. Despite having emptied his first tankard, his nerves were far too worn, stretched thin across a chasm of uncertainty and indecision, for any proper celebration of the village's abundance. Everything before him, the feast, the frivolity, the wonderful weightlessness of their new lives, was possible because of Hiccup. Hiccup had been courageous enough, heroic enough, to stand and proclaim his blasphemous new ideas to a village built on traditions centuries old, stood up to Stoick, because Hiccup knew he was right. It devastated the chief that his son was not there to see the rewards of his sacrifices.

"Normally, I'd suggest yeh go join the party," Gobber said, seating himself beside Stoick with his tankard. "But under the circumstances…"

"Not tonight," Stoick replied, his stare still trained on the crowd before him. Gobber bit his lower lip; he hated seeing the chief so uncharacteristically lost at such a celebratory time. All of which pained him even more to be the bearer of bad news.

"I actually found yeh tae bring a message. From the Meathead chief." Stoick quickly pulled his attention from the crowd.

"Mogadon?" he asked, perplexed. "What could he possibly want at this time of the season?" Gobber exhaled heavily before continuing.

"He wants yer aid in launching raids on the south."

Stoick nearly choked on his mead. After taking a moment to swallow properly, the chief fished for a response in his state of shock.

"Raids? Now of all times?" Why, after centuries of defensive warfare, would Mogadon think Stoick would even dream of launching his people into offensive attacks?

"I know. But yeh know Mogadon…"

Stoick snorted. He did know Mogadon, and knew that a plan that ridiculous would have to be borne of a Meathead.

"Of course we will not be sending warriors to help him conquer the southern lands." He was not about to risk the safety of his people for some superficial, self-glorifying goal. Not again.

"I suspected yeh'd say as much," Gobber replied coolly.

"Let's hope Mogadon did as well."

The chief stood gruffly, unwilling to battle with the boisterous atmosphere of the mead hall any longer. At least not that night. "I'm headin' out."

It was unlike the chief to leave his people during such festivities, and the sight of his friend leaving through the great doors of the Mead hall impressed upon Gobber just how much he was struggling. Wherever Hiccup was, Gobber hoped to Thor he was doing something damn well worth a silver bar the size of the isle.

Stoick even surprised himself with how helpful the outside air was; the coolness washed over his senses, lovely for a moment, but left him cold and unsettled. Though the decision concerning Mogadon's request was certainly already made, he still felt an unrelenting disconcertion that refused to subside. How could the Meathead tribe launch a war on the south? Now of all times, when news of dragons' successful integration in Berk was beginning to spread throughout the Archipelago…

"Why now, indeed."

It shouldn't have surprised Stoick to hear Old Wrinkly speak since the man had been sitting beside him for the past several minutes, but his senses were not the sharpest due to his frenzied thoughts and empty tankard. "'Tis an interesting time to launch an offensive attack," Old Wrinkly continued, "Especially when Hiccup has so abruptly disappeared." Stoick's stomach plummeted very nearly to his heels.

"Yeh're not sayin' that…Hiccup?" he spluttered, but the old man raised a hand and shook his head.

"No, I'm not suggesting your son and the Meathead tribe are in any sort of secret cahoots." He chuckled at the absurd thought, but Stoick did not. His nerves were far too worn to find any humor in Hiccup's absence. But Old Wrinkly could find the humor in anything. Calming himself, Old Wrinkly continued. "No, I'm only suggesting you think more seriously about speeding up that rescue mission of yours. We wouldn't want the boy to have any nasty run-ins with Mogadon and his men now would we?"

Stoick stared at his father-in-law, baffled by his uncomfortably cheery demeanor when delivering such unsettling predictions. However, he overlooked the old man's quirkiness long enough to understand the underlying severity of his message; Hiccup was now in real and imminent danger with the Meathead tribe on open seas with murderous intent. Vetrnætr or no, it was time to find Hiccup and make him safe.

BumbumBUM

My apologies for the slow update, I was in the process of choosing a university to attend in the fall and preparing for our massive end of the year showchoir performance the past few weeks. Also went to Florida and got some sun, so that was fun xD. All the writing I got done there had to wait till now to get typed up and edited. I promise a quick next installment is on the way!

As always, constructive feedback is thoroughly appreciated! ^.^