Chapter 10: Dad meet Toothless
Hiccup laid there on her bed for a few more moments contemplating what had happened seconds ago. Toothless was still near the foot of Hiccup's bed, but was now perched on the beam of wood that connected the posts. Unconsciously one of Hiccup's hand came up to her lips, touching her bottom lip softly. A pale pink blush spread over the tops of her cheeks as she thought of the kiss.
"I can't believe Snotlout kissed me. I can't believe I just LET him kiss me."
Suddenly Hiccup was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of her door slamming against the wall with enough force to nearly break it off of its hinges.
"AAAAAAARGH!" Stoick the Vast yelled when he entered the room.
"Aaaaargh!" Hiccup shouted, startled.
The red head girl jumped to her feet, grabbing her switch blade knife from her brown leather belt. Toothless simply turned his head to the Hooligan chief, and looked him over with board, half lidded eyes. Hiccup stared at the large, bearded man in front of her; sighing in relief that she wasn't under attack. Stoick laughed loudly as she put away her knife; Hiccup mentality smacked herself for not remembering she had it when Snotlout showed up looking evil earlier. Stoick the Vast stepped over to Hiccup and patted her on her shoulder twice, still laughing.
"That a girl! Always keep your guard up." he said, placing his huge fists on his hips.
Stoick threw his head back and laughed once more. Hiccup gave a small nervous chuckle, wondering if he ran into Snotlout or Fishlegs on his way home. Toothless, apparently tired of watching this scene, hopped down to the floor. Newtsbreath and Hookfang, Stoick's hunting dragons, came padding into the room. Toothless ignored them as they paced around him, even thought their yellow eyes were glinting evilly. Each was about the size of a leopard, and they were as delighted by his arrival as a couple of giant cats might be by that of a cute little kitten.
"Greetings, fellow firebreather," hissed Newtsbreath as he gave the newcomer a sniff.
"We must wait," purred Hookfang menacingly, "until we are alone and then we can give you a proper welcome."
He gave a vicious swipe at Toothless with one paw. A claw like a kitchen knife almost nicked Toothless on the rump, almost being the key word. Toothless opened his wings and flapped them once, dodging the swipe with ease and flying over a few feet above their heads. Hookfang and Newtsbreath, who didn't take failing at anything lightly, chased after the hovering Night Fury. The three dragons flew fast around the room sometimes running on the walls to turn. Hiccup, using her common sense, hit the deck and took cover from the hectic pursuit; Stoick stood, turning this way and that, watching it, with his face turning redder in anger. Newtsbreath let out a few bursts of fire at Toothless, who dodged them expertly. One stray burst caught Stocks huge orange-red beard on fire. Hiccups eyes widened, and she gasped, if there was one thing you never do it was mess with a Vikings beard. One of Stoick's eyes twitched, he brought up a giant hand, and with one pat, put out the fire.
"DROP TO THE FLOOR YOU HORRRIBLE REPTILES!" yelled Stoick.
Hookfang and Newtsbreath dropped to the floor immediately. Toothless gracefully flew to the pillow, that was now laying near the center of Hiccup's bed, just on the edge of it; he landed on it and raised a nonexistent eyebrow at the other two dragons and Stoick. Hiccup stood up as Stoick turned to her.
"You see?" said Stoick, "That's how you deal with dragons."
Hookfang took another swipe at Toothless and missed; Toothless glided to Hiccup and laid across her shoulders. The ebony scaled dragon brought a clawed paw up to his mouth and faked a yawn. Hookfang growled at him and looked very ready to pounce. Toothless simply smirked.
"HOOKFANG!" bellowed Stoick.
"My claw slipped," whined Hookfang.
"GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I MAKE YOU INTO HAND BAGS!" yelled Stoick, and Newtsbreath and Hookfang slunk out, muttering obscene dragon curses under their breaths.
"As I was saying," said Stoick the Vast. "THAT'S how to deal with dragons."
Stock was looking at Toothless with uncharacteristic anxiety.
"Daughter," said Stoick, hoping there might be some sort of mistake, "is this dragon, your dragon?"
"Yes, Father," Hiccup answered.
"It's very...well...it's very... STRANGE, isn't it?" said Stoick slowly.
Stoick was not an observant person but even he could not fail to notice that this dragon really was remarkably different from the other dragons around.
"...and it isn't very sensational looking."
There was an awkward silence. Hiccup momentarily pondered what was wrong with everyone's eyes to where they could call Toothless unimpressive and ordinary. She knew what she was going to say, but she took a second to think of how to say it to her father.
"That's because it's an unusual breed," she said at last. "A unique and violent species called the Night Fury, very distant relations of the Monstrous Nightmare, but far more ruthless and so rare they are practically extinct."
"Really?" Stoick surveyed the Night Fury doubtfully. "It looks more like a black gecko with wings to me."
Toothless gave a low growl and his eyes narrowed. Hiccup cleared her throat and gave the dragon on her shoulders a warning glance from the corner of her eyes.
"But, in all respect father, that's where you are WRONG." continued Hiccup. "To the amateur eye it looks less intimidating than a Common or Garden dragon. But if you look a little closer at the original Night Furies characteristics."
"The black as night scales," Hiccup gestured to Toothless. "the wing-like flaps on the tail," she pointed to the flaps, "the extraordinary wing span," Toothless, playing alone, spread his wing as far as they would go, and Hiccup gestured to Hiccups face just under his eyes "and the piercing green eyes are what sets them apart from ALL other dragon breeds."
"By Thor, you're right!" said Stoick.
"And it's not just your average Night Fury either." said Hiccup, going after one big thing to stop her father from insulting Toothless. "This particular dragon is of ROYAL BLOOD."
"No!" said Stoick, very impressed. Stoick was a terrific snob.
"Yes," said Hiccup finishing it off. "he is the offspring of King Daggerfangs himself, the reptilian ruler of Wild Dragon Cliff. The Royal Night Furies tend to start out at an average sizes but they grow into creatures of IMPRESSIVE -even GARGANTUAN- size."
"Very excellent burglary than, daughter, absolutely incredible!" said Stoick, giving a great laugh and ruffing his daughter's hair. Stoick's stomach gave a plaintive rumble like a distant underground explosion. "Time for a little supper, I think."
"Since when?" saidToothless. Hiccup fought back a laugh.
"Clear up this mess, will you, Hiccup?" Stoick asked.
Hiccup nodded that she would; Stoick smiled at his only child and ruffled her hair again. He strode off, relieved to have his faith in his daughter restored.
"You know that half of what you said was a lie, and the parts that were true were overly embellished, right?" Toothless asked.
"Yeah I know, but what Dad doesn't know won't hurt him." Hiccup replied.
"You do that a lot don't you?" Toothless asked.
Hiccup just looked at him for a few moments, then looked forward once more, and let out a big sigh.
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When she was going to bed that night, Hiccup didn't want to leave Toothless in front of the fire with Newtsbreath and Hookfang.
"Can I take his to bed with me?" she asked Stoick.
"A dragon is a working animal," said Stoick the Vast. "Too much hugging and kissing will make him lose his vicious streak."
"But they will kill him if I leave him alone with them."
Newtsbreath gave an appreciative growl. "It would be my pleasure," he hissed.
"Nonsense," boomed Stoick, unaware of Newtsbreath's last remark, as he didn't speak Dragonese. He gave Hookfang a friendly cuff around the horns. "They just want to play. That sort of rough-and-tumble is good for a young dragon. Makes him learn to stick up for himself."
"Oh, Dad, don't you know anything about dragons?" Hiccup said thinking on her feet.
"Huh? Why of course I do!" Stoick said, trying to mask his confusion.
"Then you know that dragons of royal blood, if they are roughhoused with too much at a young age they get stressed and frustrated, and that reduces their performance in hunting, flying, and pretty much everything that they are trained to do." Hiccup said, trying to sound convincing.
Stoick looked at her blankly, not getting it, then faked understanding to not look look like a fool in front of his daughter. "Of course I knew that! I was just testing you! Go get some rest, Hiccup, and take the Royal Night Fury with you." Stoick laughed loudly.
Hiccup nodded but said nothing to Stoick. Hookfang extended his claws like switchblades and drummed them on the hearth; both hunting dragons looked at her pointedly. Hiccup got a guilty lump in her throat; she HATED having to lie to her father like that but at times he gave her no choice. The Viking girl swiftly scooped Toothless up in her arms and went to her room. She released Toothless from her hold and the emerald eyed dragon hopped onto the bed and turned to her.
"I can't believe he bought that one; I mean honestly is your dad a complete idiot. Even Tweedledee and Tweedledum knew you were lying."
"Look, my dad may not be the brightest person on Berk, but he IS a good Chief." Hiccup said.
"Yes, a real dumbass amongst idiots." Hiccup was about to argue, but Toothless smirked and added. "At least there are a few intellectuals around here; maybe there is hope for these people yet."
With that Toothless curled up at the foot of Hiccups bed, falling fast asleep. Hiccup climbed into bed and thought about what the dragon at her feet had said. She smiled down at the lightly snoring Night Fury.
"Hmm, maybe there is hope for the Hairy Hooligans." Hiccup thought before closing her eyes and trying to sleep.
Toothless snored throughout the night, but Hiccup didn't care. Hiccup spent the whole of winter on Berk in various states of "very cold," ranging from "fairly chilly" to "absolutely freezing." At night, too many blankets were considered sissy, so Hiccup generally lay awake for a couple of hours until she had shivered herself into a light sleep. Now, though, as Hiccup stretched her feet out near Toothless's back, she felt waves of heat coming off the dragon. The waves gradually creeping up her legs and warming her freezing cold stomach and heart, even traveling right up to his head, which hadn't been truly warm for almost six months. Even her ears burned contentedly. It would have taken the snoring of six strong Sea Dragons to have woken Hiccup, so deeply did she sleep that night.