How to Train Your Friend

Chapter 6

Putrid Realization

It was about another week before the Nadders began to feel well enough to continue on. The Alpha's wing had recovered, mostly. It had healed over more than enough for him to be able to fly without much trouble, but he'd still need to stop every so often to rest for the next month or so. The other dragons in the herd also began to grow stronger, as with the restoration of their leader, the moral of the herd was slowly returning. Each dragon awoke in the morning refreshed and dignified, as if they'd flown thousands of miles towards their new lives.

Jorvar woke up early the day that the herd was supposed to leave Berk. He claimed that it was because he wanted to observe how Nadders act before beginning a migratory flight, but in truth, everyone in the Academy knew that he just wanted to spend more time with the crimson Nadder before she was forced to leave. It was true that he had refused himself the pleasure of further bonding with her, but that didn't mean that all contact among them had stopped. Jorvar was still the only one that the crimson Nadder would accept handfed food from, and the only one that she got even remotely intimate with. Hiccup would often see her brushing up against Jorvar and nuzzling him with her nose, and even though Jorvar pretended to be annoyed, Hiccup's experienced as a Dragon Trainer saw that Jorvar was growing attached to the Nadder.

It was odd the way that Jorvar and the dragoness interacted. Even though the Nadder hardly ever left the Academy, as she'd stopped following Jorvar home, she was still seen creeping up behind him when he was moving about through the Academy. Astrid pointed out to Hiccup that young Nadders are especially prone to imprinting, and that it was possible that the Nadder could've adopted Jorvar as its parent or sibling. Hiccup found this to be a curious thought, but he brushed it off soon after. It was clear to him that no Nadder, regardless of age, would be treating a human like she was unless it somehow found a way to bind with said human, and no matter what it was that Jorvar had done, the Nadder had somehow developed affection for him.

Jorvar was feeling exceptionally one-sided about the Nadder, or course, this was self-inflicted. He tried his best not to develop an emotional attachment to the Nadder, but daily contact with her made it next to impossible to constantly have to force her away. Within a few days, the Nadder was continuing her usual pattern of brushing up against him an sniffing him curiously, and Jorvar couldn't do anything but laugh, occasionally stroking her nose in response. Hiccup also saw that within this time, Astrid was also growing used to Jorvar being back on Berk, and she found his interest in Deadly Nadders was something they had in common. Though she had never made any advances to try and breach the gap between them, Hiccup was sure that her tolerance of him would soon turn into friendship, and the sooner that happened, the better off the entire Academy would be.

On the day the Nadders departed, it was relatively clear with hardly a cloud in the sky. The winds were gentle, so it was ideal for the Alpha to be flying on such a day. The Nadders had all gathered directly outside the Academy, and were preparing to take off direct from the cliffs above the sea near where the wooden walkways ended. Soon enough, the Alpha dragon roared, and all the Nadders started to flap their wings. It was a moment before Jorvar noticed that the crimson Nadder wasn't moving. She looked as though she refused to flap her wings, and was instead flinching. Her tail was drooping, and even though Toothless was the only dragon on Berk that could express his emotions through his eyes, it was clear that the Nadder was reluctant to go anywhere.

Hiccup walked up behind Jorvar and placed his hand on his shoulder, something he realized that he frequently did to him. Jorvar turned around and looked at Hiccup reclusively, for he knew what Hiccup was telling him to go and do, without ever saying a word to him. Though it'd be difficult, Hiccup nodded and left Jorvar to his own. The dragon trainee bowed his head and breathed heavily. Directly after, he approached the crimson Nadder. The Nadder leaned into him, and made a small growling noise, but it wasn't a growl of irritation. The growl vibrated more, and sounded as though it was pleading than threatening him.

"I know…I know…" Jorvar began, "But you have to go, you belong with them, not me. Go…go on now…" This time, Jorvar did physically push the dragoness away from him, and she walked towards the edge of the wooden boards. She started to flap her brownish wings, and soon, the entire herd was in the air. It was a dazzling display of all kind of color, and it looked like a soaring rainbow after a fresh rainfall. Amid the flying mass was a single red spec, and Jorvar watched it longer than anyone else had. Snotlout, the Twins, and Fishlegs had long since left the Academy to head back to the village, but Hiccup, Astrid, and Jorvar, along with Toothless and Stormfly stayed back to watch the herd disappear over the horizon. It wasn't quite yet noon when the last several dragons vanished over the water, and Jorvar sighed. "It's for the best, right? A young dragon needs to stay with its family." And he turned towards the walkways and headed back towards the village. Astrid was beginning to mount Stormfly, and Hiccup was doing the same to Toothless when Jorvar stopped and turned around, yelling to them before they took off. "Hey Hiccup…! Where's the Book of Dragons? I feel like doing some research."

"It's on the table at home." Hiccup called back to him. Near everyone in Berk knew where the Book was being held, and there was no one on Berk that meant the Book harm, so there was no harm in yelling this information. Jorvar nodded and faced towards the village and began to jog back to Hiccup's house, as Jorvar's new house was still being built. Hiccup grasped Toothless' reigns and stole another look at Jorvar as he headed towards home. He wanted to say something else to him, but he felt that there was nothing he could say to Jorvar that would make him feel any better. Under his breath, Hiccup whispered to Jorvar, "I'm sorry, Jor…" And they flew off to patrol the island.

Jorvar found himself wandering home. He felt like a nomad sojourning around the deserts of world. He didn't bother trying to pretend to himself that he was confused as to why he was so distracted, for in the safety of his own mind, he knew perfectly well that, despite the short time he'd spent with the crimson Nadder, he hadn't wished it to leave so suddenly. He didn't deny that he'd formed a bond with it, and trying so desperately not to create one happened to be the very thing that caused it to materialize. Walking down the planks that led back towards the village on the southern end of the island, Jorvar stole a glance behind him, expecting to see that large, near lumbering creature happily prancing along, following his every move. He saw himself running in the opposite direction away from it, only to be toppled over shortly after, as he always failed to outrun the dragoness. When he came back to the world, out of his daydream, he accepted that he was alone, and that the dragon had left Berk with its family, as it should've.

The Viking strolled into the village casually, and many people greeted him as he went by. He waved back, trying to act courteous, but no matter how much the people of Berk smiled and made physical gestures of acceptance and fortification, Jorvar could only ever manage a winch and a brief grin. Dragons were abundant all over town, and he saw many resting underneath the lifted houses. There were some Terrible Terrors causing ruckus around the well, but that was ordinarily seen, and it was no cause for alarm. Before Jorvar started having any extra fantasies about the non-existent adventures he'd have with the Nadder, he started speed walking home. He nearly tripped a few times, but always managed to regain his ground.

Stoick and Gobber had agreed to build the Asvald's new house near the Chief's; this was so that Hiccup and Jorvar could be near each other. Jorvar passed the outer frame of his new home. He saw that Stoick, Gobber, his and father were all assisting the process. His mother wasn't anywhere to be seen around the area, he only guessed that she was in town somewhere by food or trying to make new acquaintances. Jorvar continued up the steps into Hiccup's house, his temporary home, and pushed the door open, and then just as calmly closed it behind him.

Jorvar ignored the stew that was in pot over the fire. He wasn't hungry. Instead the wafting fuses passed through his nose as if he didn't have one, and he moved on up the stair to the room that he, Hiccup, and Toothless shared for the time being. The Book of Dragons, as Hiccup had said, was sitting on the desk where Hiccup recorded new data about the dragons on Berk. Jorvar scoffed, but more in a sly way, and went over to the desk the Book was on and sat down in the chair. He grabbed the chair and pulled it in closer to the desk and placed a hand on the cover of the Book. He'd never actually touched the Book of Dragons, and its leathery covering felt almost greasy in his hands. He guessed that Fishlegs or Gobber had been handling it recently. He placed an elbow on the desk and his palm met his forehead, and after he deemed himself comfortable, he positioned himself to begin flipping pages and taking notes.

The exterior light that illuminated Jorvar's small workplace had faded away by the time he found himself in the section of the book about Deadly Nadder. Jorvar had been given a small notebook by Hiccup to take notes and indications for himself as he learned throughout the day, and when he started his excursion in the Book of Dragons, it only had a few pages filled out. When Jorvar flipped the page and saw that the next section covered Deadly Nadders, the notebook was about halfway filled. When Jorvar first caught a glimpse of the Nadders in the Book, he was tempted to turn the pages until the next dragon appeared, for his notebook already had lots of information on Nadders from the week he'd spent taking care of them. However, he decided that if nothing else, he'd do it for the sake of having some closure. Jorvar couldn't live in emotional isolation around Nadders for the rest of his life, so he opted to just accept the fact that his near-friend, which happened to be a Nadder, was gone, and there was nothing he could do but continue learning.

As Jorvar continued to glance back and forth between his notebook and the Book, constantly paraphrasing the illegible notes that Fishlegs had marked in, he began to notice something peculiar. Once he turned to the section about Nadder behavioral patterns, things started seeming odd. One passage marked down read:

Deadly Nadders, contrary to their name, aren't at all dangerous to members of their families. Within a herd of Deadly Nadder, each dragon contributes to the overall benefit of the herd, and each dragon is acted upon kindly by the other dragons that surrounds it.

Jorvar was taken aback by this passage by so much that he found himself speaking aloud. "Kindly…? I don't know if I'd consider the herd's behavior towards her as 'kindly.' If anything…" Jorvar ran several memories through his head, and remembered a number of instances where he saw other members of the herd snapping at the crimson Nadder, sometimes even fully biting at her to get away. She was also prone to food thievery when Jorvar wasn't hand-feeding her. He read on:

In the herd, the family bonds of the Nadders are very strong, and it's rare for any Nadder to isolate itself from the rest of the herd. The exception to this is when a Nadder joins a herd of dragons that does not consist of family members. Such instances are common with young females, who often become the broodmother of the Alpha Male of the herd.

"The broodmother…? As in the mother of all the Alpha's hatchlings…?" Jorvar exclaimed. He flipped the page and examined a picture of full grown female Nadder, and then ran an image of his dragoness through his mind. On the outside, they were near similar, the only difference being height. Jorvar was sure that on the inside though, the female pictured was mature enough for breeding, while the crimson Nadder certainly was not. Even though Jorvar wasn't a Dragon Master, he could pull the pieces of the puzzle together without foreign influence.

The crimson Nadder must've been separated from its herd, so it joined the group they had seen it with. However, this caused her to hide from the group constantly, which explains why she was rarely seen around the rest of the herd. As such, when Jorvar came along, her protective instinct came forth and she cared for him like family, as she singled him out as the outcast of his group, much like she was. It was only afterwards that Jorvar began to bond with the Nadder for real, and she returned the affection, signaling the change of her view of Jorvar as sibling to companion. This also meant that if the crimson Nadder stayed with the group, the second she was mature enough to breed, she'd be forced to carry the Alpha's eggs, over and over again, season after season. Jorvar was well aware that repetitive breeding of any animal, dragons included, could take a hazardous toll on the creatures health, and in a creature as young as the Nadder, it may even kill it. The pieces drifted together in Jorvar's mind so quickly that by the time the entire process was finished and he had his moment of realization, he was already standing up and rushing down the stairs and out the door into the village. He needed to warn Hiccup about this, the Nadder needed to be saved.

Jorvar dashed through the midafternoon light as he swiftly moved through the town. He didn't know where Hiccup and the others had gone, for the last time he'd seen them, they took off away from the Academy and flew somewhere beyond the island. Soon enough, after dodging multiple people within the small town, Jorvar saw Gobber's saddle shop, formerly weapons shop, come into view. Gobber, if anyone knew where to finds Hiccup and the gang, he did. He ran up to the window and tapped on the wood. Gobber spun around and a smirk formed on his face.

"Hey Asvald…need something…?"

"Hiccup and the others…any idea where they are…?"

"Sorry Jorvar. Last time I heard anything about them they were out patrolling the eastern side of Berk. And that was…" Jorvar had already sped away before Gobber finished. The one-handed Viking only shook his head as he watched the novice dart off into the woods.

Jorvar hopped over rocks and ducked under branches as he sprinted through the woods. He scanned the skies as he ran, and this almost caused him to trip on several occasions. He listened for roars, pulsating air, or even simple a wingbeat, but it wasn't until he found himself near the cove that he getting signs that his search was coming to an end. Up through the trees, he caught a glimpse of a flash of black, followed by blue, green, brown, and then orange red. It was them! He could tell, but they were flying so fast, and they'd never hear him if he yelled. Thinking quickly, Jorvar positioned himself within an area that had a small break between the trees above, and found the sun to his left. Using the metal in his right wrist bracer, he directed a beam at Toothless' head, a refraction that Hiccup would surely see.

Hiccup did see it, though it was faint. He stopped to gaze at it for a moment, and even Toothless was confused as to why his rider had halted so suddenly. Hiccup looked behind him and saw a flashing light coming from back the way they had come, and he ordered the rest of his party to stand by while he inspected it. Barely a second passed between Hiccup's command and his flight towards the flashing light, and in the next moment, he was on the ground, staring at a baffled Jorvar. "Jor…?"

"Hiccup…the crimson Nadder is in some deep trouble." Hiccup raised an eyebrow, and even Toothless shook his head. The dragon rider was getting ready to speak, but Jorvar cutting him off, already expecting his response. "I looked over some behavioral patterns of Nadders, and the way they acted doesn't indicate that she a member of their family. If I'm right, she just going to be repetitively bred like a dog. Sort of like a relinquished mother, endlessly having children she most likely doesn't want." Hiccup's jaw fell open, and Toothless was confused as well.

"Uh Jorvar…could you run that by me one more time?" Hiccup had understood what Jorvar said, but everything else said afterwards wasn't registering in the minds of Hiccup or Toothless. Jorvar altercated with Hiccup, trying desperately to make him understand. Once he slowed down, Hiccup understood the message. "You're sure about this…?" Hiccup withheld his concern in case Jorvar had been wrong.

"Very…" With that, Hiccup gestured for Jorvar to join him on Toothless' back, and shortly after, they were off.