Hiccup loved his dragon. He loved most dragons, of course, but he loved his dragon most for a lot of reasons.

One of those reasons was the particular way Toothless had decided to lay claim on his human: quite demurely in comparison to the other dragons. Toothless mother-henned him, making sure he ate (regurgitated fish…), helping him balance when there was ice on the ground, that sort of thing. He drooled on him on purpose sometimes. He tried sitting on him once. Other dragons... well, they -

"EW! HICCUP!" called one of the younger children. She ran to him, her tunic sporting a sizable wet spot. She looked furious, for a seven-year-old. Hiccup, for his part, tried not to laugh in front of her.

"Uh oh," he said, trying to look serious. "Looks like your Terror just claimed you. You two are stuck together for life, now, you know that?"

"Wha-?! He PEED on me!" she screeched. "Tell him he's a bad dragon!" She stomped her foot on the slushy path.

"Well, I would," Hiccup shrugged, setting hands on his narrow hips, "but that's just their nature. See, in early spring, dragons have this thing where they mark their chosen humans to keep other dragons from stealing them."

"It's gross!" she whined. "Do they all pee on their people?"

"Uh..." Hiccup glanced over his shoulder at Toothless, who (thank the gods) had never, ever, laid claim to him in such a fashion. "Yeah," he half-fibbed. "They all do. Just be glad you don't have one of the bigger dragons yet."

"Why?" Ah, innocence.

"No, Stormfly, wait – ARGH!" As if on cue, Astrid was seen backtracking away from her dragon as the Nadder turned her tail end up at her rider. What came next needs no description, but the little girl stared in horror anyway, eyes wide as saucers as Astrid stomped over to Hiccup. Hiccup, for his part, did not feel like laughing at all, considering the physical harm that would come to him if he did.

"Tell me Toothless does this to you," she growled dangerously, soaking wet from head to toe.

"Um," Hiccup stalled, only for a split second. "Hey, it's their nature, what can you do?"

Astrid took that to mean exactly what it meant. Toothless had never once peed on or sprayed him. So she did the only appropriate thing.

She hauled back her fist and punched Hiccup as hard as she could.

I have a puppy. This came to mind. I'm sure you can guess why. This did serve the good purpose of lightening my wet-leg-woes, though. I think this is the shortest piece I've ever written. XD Still, I like it enough to post it. Just a fair warning, I almost never write humor, but this idea was way too funny to pass up. I only hope I did justice to the concept in the way I delivered it, because I am no good at humor. I can do wonders with sarcasm, though. ^^;

Thanks for taking the time to read!

~mjb