Crossposted from AO3.
Note 2014: This piece is the best thing I've ever written, I'm very proud of it and hope that you will enjoy it!
This was written for a fanfiction contest on and can be associated with my short one-shot "Storm-Dancing".
Enjoy!
Updated Note 12-12-2015: Oh wow, this piece. I love this piece. It came to be when I wanted to enter a fanfiction contest - I hadn't written any fic in a while. One of the rules was that it had to include at least one canon character, which I was worried about because I'm terrible at keeping the human characters in character. Then it occurred to me - why not write about Toothless and his life before the Red Death?
That's how this piece - which I like to refer to as "I give Toothless a family, then rip it away and give him Hiccup as compensation" - came to be.
This has so many firsts. The first time I wrote romance (that I admit to the existence of). The first time I wrote angst. The first time I completed a multi-scene fic - hell, the first time I completed something longer than 1000 words. It's still my longest completed work, although it will soon lose that title as I am going to finish the rough draft of my NaNo-winning original novel if it kills me.
Basically, this fic holds a special place in my heart, and I sincerely hope you love it as much as I do.
Updated Updated Note 11-25-2016: So, I realized I'd posted this on AO3 but never here, so here it is :) I'm super proud of this piece, even if it's no longer my longest completed work - I finished the first draft of my novel in late October (but it still needs a lot of editing, so does that count as finished anyways...?) Anyway, enjoy! Once I've uploaded the three current chapters, it will be marked as complete, but I may upload more timestamps in the future. The first chapter is the complete story, others are timestamps or epilogues :)
Enjoy!
"Ika, you're crazy!" Nael roars through the howling storm. "We can't fly in this! We have to go home!"
His lifelong friend laughs as she whirls past him, perfectly at ease in the raging storm. "Stop fighting it, Nael! You have to work with the storm, not against it."
This seems completely counterintuitive to Nael. If he lets the storm take him where it wants to go, how is he supposed to get to where he wants to go? He and Ika aren't even supposed to be out here - they're only seventeen summers old, two summers away from being fully grown Night Furies. They're not allowed out during storms.
"How am I supposed to get where I want to go if I'm letting the wind take me wherever it wants?" Nael roars his thoughts into the wind. "That doesn't make sense!"
Ika swoops in front of him and hovers, looking at Nael with that expression universally understood as 'you are completely missing the point.' "There's no destination here, Nael," she points out. "The point is simply having fun flying through the storm."
"Yes, flying through it. Not being tossed around like a fish in the claws of a couple hatchlings!" he replies sarcastically. "I'm going home!" He turns around, struggling against the wind.
Ika somehow picks out a single wind from the swirling maelstrom, soaring to block his path again. How does she do that? Nael wonders. It can't be that hard to find, there are winds blowing in every direction, but to use only that wind and not the others?
Then he remembers all the nights Ika has snuck out to fly through thunderstorms. I guess she's just had a lot of practice.
"C'mon, Nael," Ika coaxes. "Give it one more chance." Lightning flashes behind her, silhouetting her against the blackness.
Nael is about to reply when the two young dragons hear a furious roar cutting through the thunder. Both turn, guilt on their faces, to see Nika, queen of the Kisarae - their tribe of Night Furies - winging her way towards them with fury written all over her face.
Nael groans. "Great. Your mom noticed we were gone."
Ika groans as well. "We are so dead."
"Do you have any idea how worried we were about you two?" Nika fumes, pacing back and forth across the cave she and Ika live in. Riya, Nael's mother, silently glares from the side of the cave, her eyes burning into Nael's soul - or at least it feels that way.
"That storm could rip two bits of skin and scales like you to pieces! What in the name of the Ausra did you think you were doing?!" Nika continues.
"We're not that small," Ika protests, but a glare from Nika silences her before she can protest further. Nael, being less impulsive than Ika, remains silent despite sharing Ika's indignation at being treated like disobedient hatchlings when they were nearly full grown Night Furies.
Nael really does feel bad for worrying Riya and Nika so much, but for some reason all he can think about as he watches the dragon queen's angry pacing is her name. Even though most Night Furies now speak Universal Draconic like almost every other species, all of their names still come from the ancient language of the Night Furies. Nika's name means joy, and Nael's thoughts are full of how little her name matches her now. Riya's name, however, fits her perfectly - Nael's mother's eyes burn like the flame she was named for.
Nael is jolted out of his thoughts as Nika continues her scolding. "You know the rules. No dragon under the age of nineteen summers is allowed out during a storm. Especially a storm even most experienced fliers would think twice about flying!" She stops pacing and glares right at the two young dragons. Riya still says nothing, but her eyes burn like green embers. Nael is almost more afraid of his mother's silent fury than Nika's enraged scolding.
"I had no problems flying that storm," Ika mutters under her breath.
Nika's head snaps toward her daughter. "What was that?"
Ika raises her head and stares at Nika defiantly. "I said, I had no problem flying that storm."
Nika freezes and Nael groans inwardly. Ika, why can't you ever just keep your mouth shut? he thinks, expecting Nika to yell again.
Instead, her demeanor suddenly changes completely, her furious expression softening. She laughs, reaching out her wings and pulling Ika into a hug. "Of course not, faeler. You're the best flier I've ever seen."
The use of the ancient word causes Ika to squirm and complain, "I'm seventeen summers old! I don't think you can call me "little one" anymore."
"You'll always be my little one," Nika tells her, stepping back, and Riya finally speaks.
"Don't think there will not be consequences, however," she says. "Nika and I need to decide what those consequences will be. Go to the other room until we call you back."
Ika is out the door as fast as her legs will take her, and Nael is right behind her.
It is a warm, sunny day, and Nael and Ika are fishing the way many hunting pairs their age do - taking turns between fishing and "guarding the catch", which of course actually means sunning yourself on one of the huge rock pillars that are clustered around the best fishing spots. Currently, Ika is fishing, and Nael is watching her.
Ika dives again and again, coming up with another fish each time. The absolute image of graceful power, she dives smoothly into the water before emerging a few seconds later with a fish in her jaws or her claws, a few powerful wingbeats bringing her high above the water once more. The sun sparkles off of both the water and the star-like emerald speckles that give her her name - sky of stars.
She is beautiful, and Nael has fallen in love with her.
Ika and Nael are thirty-seven summers old, which means that as next in line to be queen, she will soon have to choose from the throng of suitors eager to be her mate. Nael doesn't think he has a chance, as there are many more suitable choices for her than him. He'll miss this once she's chosen, though. Surely, she'll want to spend her time with her mate, not spend days on end with Nael lazing around together or fishing.
Ika returns to deposit her catch and Nael takes off for his turn at fishing, wondering who Ika will choose.
Perhaps it will be Kisar, whose name means wind and who is considered the most handsome male in the tribe with his spiral markings, the same shade as Ika's emerald stars.
He dives for a fish and rises again, still thinking.
Or maybe she'll choose Skular, who was named winter for his frosty white streaks and who is the best fisher of all the Kisarae.
He dives again.
Nael's thoughts continue in this same vein for his entire turn, catching far fewer fish than normal in his distraction. Not once does he consider that he, with his unmarked hide and mediocre fishing skills, would ever be chosen by the beautiful princess.
He lands to deposit his catch, but Ika hesitates before taking off to fish again. "Is something wrong, Nael?" she asks. "You seem a bit… distracted."
"I'm fine," he replies. "Just thinking about how much I'm going to miss this when you've chosen." He doesn't need to explain what he means by 'chosen'. They both know.
She looks at him quizzically. "But I've already chosen," she says. "I chose a long time ago."
Nael's heart drops like a stone. "Well, congratulations," he manages, trying and failing to sound happy for her. "Who's the lucky male?"
Ika looks at him like he's missing something. He probably is. "Isn't it obvious?" she asks.
Nael's face must tell her it isn't, because after a few seconds she leans into him and says, "I chose you."
A wave of disbelief almost crushes Nael as he stutters, "You- you chose me to be your mate?"
"Yes," she says. "That is… if you want to be my mate. You do want to… right? I mean, if you don't, it's fine, we can just be friends…" She looks up at Nael, and he can see uncertainty in her eyes, eyes as blue as the cloudless sky above them.
Nael presses his forehead to Ika's. "Of course I do," he says softly.
They stay like that for a long time, contentment wrapped around them like the rays of sunshine streaming from the skies.
Nael and Ika laugh as they whirl together through the summer storm.
Nael smiles as he remembers the storm over thirty summers before, when Ika had coaxed him into storm-flying with her when they were just seventeen summers old. So many things have changed since then, and tonight is a night for celebration.
For one thing, Ika has just become queen when her mother stepped down. Although Night Furies can live to be hundreds of summers old, it is tradition for a queen to step down when they reach the age of one hundred summers, not only so that one queen does not rule the Kisarae for too long but so the queen is always young and strong. But that is not the most important thing being celebrated as the two Night Furies dance through the storm.
They are also celebrating the first storm of the summer, which every Night Fury celebrates - although Nael and Ika are the only ones who do so by flying in it. But that is not the most important thing, the thing that has filled Nael's heart with excitement and joy.
The most important thing they are celebrating is that only a few days ago, Ika laid an egg. And from the color of the egg - a male hatchling's egg is pitch black, but a female's egg is a deep midnight blue - it will be a daughter, a princess who will be queen someday.
So Nael and Ika dance through the storm with more joy than they ever have before, spinning and diving and swooping through the air with effortless ease and Nael understands why Ika loves storm-flying so much.
It's because strange as it seems, flying in a storm is freedom. If you can fly through a storm, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, and not even nature itself can stop you.
After the storm, Nael and Ika curl up in their nest around the precious egg they already love so much. Nael tells Ika an idea he had during the storm as the fading thunder rumbles gently outside, and she thinks it is perfect.
A month later, when the egg finally hatches and Nael and Ika introduce their daughter to the world, they name her Jayna.
It means freedom.
Nael soars over the open ocean, searching for the perfect fish. He's promised Jayna he'll bring her a saroknir fish, as it's her favorite. He smiles, thinking of his one-summer-old daughter. Her energy appears to be boundless - she's already trying desperately to live up to her name, always trying to sneak out of the cave when she's not supposed to - and she constantly finds some way to cause mischief. Yesterday, she launched herself at Nael, starting a playful pretend fight. When Nael let her win, she proclaimed that since she had defeated the king of the Kisarae, everyone had to do what she said from then on. Ika's pointing out that the queen had authority over everyone, even the king, only led the hatchling to launch herself at her mother in another mock fight which Ika wisely did not let her win.
Nael's smile fades as his thoughts drift to the rumors that have been spreading around the whole area. Dragons from all species and tribes have been disappearing - thankfully none from Nael's tribe, at least not yet - and dragons are saying they are being taken by the Red Death. It's impossible, of course - the legendary demon with the power to control the minds of dragons is merely a story to scare hatchlings into being good. However, the disappearance of so many dragons is still extremely worrying…
Nael beams triumphantly as he spots a huge saroknir fish below, all thoughts of imaginary demons chased from his mind. Jayna will be ecstatic when he brings this back! He hovers, preparing to dive, and -
YOU WILL OBEY.
Nael suddenly can't move, can't think, and he is falling, falling -
DO NOT RESIST.
Nael sees the ocean getting closer, sees the saroknir getting bigger, and it reminds him of Ika and Jayna -
YOU ARE MINE.
Nael hits the water and remembers nothing for a very, very long time.
Pain!
Pain in his side, his wing, scars he doesn't remember, but most of all pain in his tail -
The pain of something binding him, digging into him, restricting his movements -
Oh, Ausra, his TAIL -
Nael wakes up confused, trapped, and in pain. He feels the weight of something on his leg and hears the noise of some creature, but his brain is still too muddled to identify it or make sense of the words it's speaking. He jerks his leg sharply and the weight disappears, the creature crying out, and he identifies it as human.
There are no humans living anywhere near the Kisarae. Where is he? What happened?
Then he remembers the terrible voice in his mind, the fall -
The rumors had been true. The Red Death was real, and it had taken him. He could be anywhere. Any amount of time could have passed.
He could have done anything.
Some instinct warns him at that moment to open his eyes, and he does… to see the human standing over him. With a dagger.
It's smaller than I expected. I thought humans would be bigger, Nael thinks distantly.
The human raises the dagger and says, "I'm going to kill you, dragon."
Nael's blood runs cold.
"Then I'm gonna - I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father," it continues.
Why? What did that infernal demon make me do to you, little human?
"I am a Viking. I am a VIKING!" the human yells at Nael.
Nael moans, partly from the agonizing pain in his tail and partly from the realization of what he must have done. Vikings are what humans call themselves when they are part of a tribe, he knows that. Nael must have done something terrible to the human's tribe.
He understands. If something happened to the Kisarae, he would not rest until he had revenge. The human has a right to its vengeance.
Nael looks into the human's eyes and is surprised to see fear. Even with the dragon tied up, helpless, and at his mercy, the human is still afraid.
Oh, Ausra, what have I done?
"I'm sorry," he moans, and lets his head fall to the ground, closing his eyes and waiting for the knife to slice through his skin and end his life.
But the end doesn't come. Instead, after several moments, the downed dragon hears the human say softly, "I did this."
The next thing Nael senses is the sound of the knife against the ropes and the feeling of them loosening. He waits for all the ropes to be cut - one, two, three - and then snarls as he pounces on the human, pinning him to a rock with a paw that looks huge against the tiny creature's chest. He glares fiercely into the human's eyes, searching for answers to the questions burning in his mind.
Why did you free me? How long have I been a demon's plaything?
What have I done?
At first, he sees only fear as the human tries desperately to escape. But then something changes, and a spark of something new flares and grows in the human's eyes.
It looks like… curiosity?
Nael draws his head back, taking a deep breath, and roars his pain and confusion and fear into the human's face before retreating into the woods. He spreads his wings and takes to the sky, ready to search for his family…
At least, that's what should happen. Instead, he crashes back down to the ground, roaring in pain. He tries again, with the same result. Why can't he fly?
That's when he finally turns to see what is causing such intense pain in his tail, and his wails of anguish echo through the forest.
Nael's left tail fin is gone.
He will never fly again.
Nael sits in the middle of the cove he's fallen into, head hanging and wings drooping. The stone walls are covered with marks, and the cliffs are littered with scales that have been scraped off in Nael's attempts to escape.
Nael doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know what he's done. But he does know how long it's been, and he almost thinks it was better not knowing.
A Night Fury's age can be told from many things. Their head frills, their scales, their spines, and so many other tiny things. Nael has checked every one of these tiny things.
And his body is no longer that of a fifty-summer-old dragon, but one that is one hundred fifty summers old.
So Nael sits by the lake in his beautiful prison, wings drooping and mind numb.
One hundred summers.
Ika won't be queen anymore. Even Jayna could have stepped down by now and handed her title to her own daughter, who Nael has never even met and most likely never will.
He will die here, in this cove, grounded and alone.
Nael's heart clenches as he remembers the fear in the human from earlier's eyes. What could he have done to cause such fear? In one hundred summers, he could have done anything…
With a burst of fear he thinks of his family. What if the Red Death has made him hurt the Kisarae? What if they remember him not as a lost friend but as a ruthless monster?
What if they aren't alive to remember him as anything at all?
The fear overwhelms him and he launches himself up the cliff again and again, trying with renewed fervor to escape.
He has to get out. He has to find his family.
He has to make sure they are alive.
Nael claws once more at the rocky cliff, trying desperately to escape. Maybe this time he can finally get out…
He feels his claws slip and falls with a roar, twisting in the air and gliding to a halt on the other side of the lake that fills much of the cove. He shoots a plasma blast at the ground angrily, imagining he is shooting at the Red Death.
I'm going to kill that flaming demon, he vows silently. I hope it rots forever in the center of the earth and never sees the Ausra again!
He tries once more to fly out, leaping into the air and beating his wings once, twice, three times… He's almost there! He's going to make it!
The air shifts just slightly, something that normally Nael wouldn't even notice.
But with only half a tail, the tiny disturbance sends Nael crashing to the ground, landing on his side by the lake. He lies there for a moment, defeat overwhelming him. Why should he keep trying? Nael is hungry, lost, and exhausted. He's been grounded. He's going to die. Why delay the inevitable?
Nael sees a flash in the water and hears a splash, and he lifts his head, ears perking up. Perhaps he can solve one of those problems.
He pads the few steps it takes him to get to the edge of the lake and stares into the water. He's never fished from land before, only from the air, but it can't be that different, right? It's probably still basically the same, after all…
Nael spots a pair of fish flitting beneath the surface and plunges his head into the water, snapping at the fish and attempting to snare at least one of them.
He fails.
As Nael withdraws his head from the water, he hears something clatter on the other side of the cove. His head snaps up, his eyes locking onto the source of the noise.
Said source turns out to be the small human from before, frozen with its eyes wide and hand outstretched as if to catch something.
Why is the tiny Viking here? It has brought Nael nothing but confusion. It freed Nael from the very trap it had set (well, he assumes it set a trap, as how could a human as tiny as this one overpower a possessed Night Fury?) and now it is back, staring straight at the grounded dragon.
They stare at each other for a few seconds, not moving. When Nael makes no move to attack the little creature, its expression of frozen fear turns again to open curiosity as it cocks its head to one side. Nael mimics the human, his own curiosity growing. Why would the human come back?
After a few more seconds of looking at each other, the moment breaks. The human flees from its position on the cliff, picking up a rectangular flat thing lying in front of it and disappearing back into the forest.
Nael stays staring after the human for a while, surprised to find that he wishes it had stayed.
At least then he wouldn't be so very alone.
The human is back. Again.
Nael heard it approaching long before it reached the cove's one ground-level entrance (which, annoyingly, is just barely too small for Nael to fit through) and is now perched on top of a rock. It's the perfect position - he can clearly see the entrance, but the human can't see him.
The tiny, crazy creature is now creeping towards the entrance, a large round wooden thing held in front of it. It tosses a fish into the cove, probably hoping Nael will come out to eat it. The Night Fury's mouth waters at the smell of the fish, but he holds back. There's another smell coming from the human.
Metal. The human has a knife. Perhaps it changed its mind about setting him free.
When Nael doesn't take the fish, the human begins to advance before stopping suddenly. It ducks under the wooden thing, and the rather amusing reason for its stop becomes clear as it tugs at the thing: the round piece of wood is stuck in the crevice. The human sighs before picking up the fish and cautiously walking further into the cove, looking around but not seeing Nael crouched on top of the boulder. Humans must have terrible senses.
The dragon prowls silently down, finally catching the human's attention as he drops noiselessly to the ground and stalks across the cove until he is right in front of the human, although still some distance away. It holds out the fish nervously, and Nael's head stretches out towards the mouthwatering aroma until another whiff of that metallic smell causes him to snap his head back and his retractable teeth out.
"You won't fool me, human. I can smell the metal," Nael growls. The human seems confused, then puts a hand to its waist, pulling back its vest to reveal a knife - one that Nael recognizes as the same dagger that it planned to kill the unmarked dragon with before. Its hand hovers near the handle, as if it's planning to take the dagger out. Nael growls louder. "Don't you dare."
The human hesitates before pulling out the dagger and holding it straight out from its body, dropping it on the ground before kicking the knife up and balancing it on his foot. Nael snarls, a quick, sharp sound. "What are you doing?"
The human answers his question by kicking the knife towards the lake. Nael watches it arc through the air and into the water with a splash. With the threat gone, the hungry dragon's attention is completely focused on the fish in the human's hand. He snaps his head back, focusing on the fish, and begins to creep hesitantly towards the human, crooning wordlessly. He retracts his teeth - he doesn't want to scare the fragile creature, not when it's giving him food - and extends his head, mouth open. "Give that to me," he warbles, the noise bubbling from his throat.
But the idiotic creature doesn't follow Nael's frankly very sensible suggestion. It just stares at Nael's teeth - or lack of teeth - in apparent confusion.
"Huh. Toothless," it says slowly. "I could have sworn you had -"
Nael's patience runs out and he extends his teeth lightning fast, snapping his head forward and snatching the fish from the human's hands.
"- teeth," the human finishes in a shocked tone as Nael snaps up the fish, letting it slide down his gullet.
Once he's eaten the fish, the still-hungry dragon looks contemplatively at the startled human. The fish-scent is all over it, so much so that Nael can't tell if that was the only fish or if there are more. He leans forward, trying to sniff the human more closely, but the creature moves away. Nael keeps sniffing, and the human keeps backing away, making panicked noises. Why won't it let him sniff it? Finally the human falls against a rock, unable to back away anymore, and as Nael gets closer he whispers in a frightened tone, "I don't have any more!"
Nael draws back. Has the stupid thing given him the last of its food? He may be hungry, but he's not going to let the thing starve to death because it gave him the last of its food. What an idiot.
His throat convulses in the same way it did so many times when Jayna was still too young to extend her teeth, and after a few seconds he hacks up a partially digested piece of the fish straight into the human's lap.
This seems to surprise the creature, who looks down at the fish and then back at the waiting dragon. Nael does the same, looking meaningfully first at the fish and then at the human. It seems to suddenly understand, looking down at the fish and then at the dragon in apparent panic. Then it raises the fish to its mouth and takes a reluctant bite, but doesn't swallow. "Mmm," it hums, holding the fish out to Nael. "Mm-hm!"
Nael motions towards the human with his head. "You have it. I'm not taking your last food," he says.
"Mm!" it hums almost indignantly, letting its hands (and the fish) drop back into its lap. It swallows, a pained expression on its face, and swallows again, shuddering. Nael mimics the shudder, amused by the human's reaction. It then stretches its mouth open, baring its teeth in what appears to be the human version of a smile. Nael attempts to mimic that, too, stretching his mouth open - with his teeth retracted, of course, as he doesn't want to frighten the oddly entertaining creature that brought him food.
The human's smile fades, wonder and that relentless curiosity filling its eyes, and it reaches out, trying to touch Nael.
Nael's teeth shoot out. "How dare you," he snarls, turning away and padding over to an open area of grass for a nap. He turns in a circle, a low-energy stream of plasma turning a circle of grass to nice, warm cinders before laying down. He covers his face with his remaining tailfin and pretends to sleep, leaving his sensory frills on high alert.
It's a good thing he does, too, as when Nael snaps his tail up to look at the human sitting next to him, he sees it reaching out to touch again. The human pulls back his hand, and Nael puts his tail down, but the human tries to touch his tail again, apparently still not learning that the dragon doesn't want to be touched. Nael stands up then, grumpily stomping off to find somewhere the infernal human can't try to touch him.
There! A tree, with branches high enough to be out of the human's reach and strong enough to hold Nael's weight.
Perfect.
When Nael opens his eyes, the world is purple in the glow of twilight.
Unable to sleep on the ground without the human attempting to touch him, Nael had eventually draped himself over a tree branch, hanging upside down with his tail hooked over the branch and his wings wrapped around him. He'd expected the human to leave, having lost the opportunity to touch.
But against his expectations, it stayed. And apparently, when humans can't touch sleepy dragons, they talk to them instead.
Nael has learned a lot in the past hours as he floated in the fog on the edge between sleep and waking. He's learned that the human's name is Hiccup, and that it's the son of the chief, which is apparently what Vikings call their king. He's heard about how his tribemates think he's useless, how even its name is the Viking word for the runt of the litter, and he's heard far too much about Astrid, the fierce female Hiccup is infatuated with despite her treating it with the same contempt as the rest of the tribe.
But now the human has stopped talking.
Nael moves the wing hanging in front of him, looking at the spot the human's voice has been coming from for hours. The creature is still there, staring at the ground, dragging a stick across the dirt.
Nael's curiosity leads him to drop from the tree and pad over to sit behind Hiccup. He is astonished to see that the human has created lines in the ground in a pattern that looks like a Night Fury! "How did you do that?" he asks admiringly.
The human merely glances at Nael and continues refining the pattern. Nael watches for a few more moments, fascinated, before an idea occurs to him. He looks to the side, towards the trees, and spots a young sapling, its trunk thin - about the same thickness as Nael's foreleg or a little smaller - and straight. Perfect.
Nael goes eagerly towards the sapling, taking it in his mouth and snapping it off its base with a loud crack. He prances back over to the human, dragging the splintered sapling through the dirt, and dances around Hiccup, at one point glancing at it to see his expression of incredulous disbelief. He continues his work, making a few more lines before stopping and dropping the branch at his feet. "There," he says with a small, satisfied noise, admiring his creation.
It doesn't look like anything, just a swirling mess of overlapping lines, but Nael made it and that makes it the most amazing of creations. And in the center of it all is Hiccup, standing now, staring around him in amazement.
He starts to walk out of the lines, but steps on one in the process. Nael growls. "Don't step on it."
The human seems startled, but doesn't take his foot off the line. Nael continues growling until the human lifts its foot off the line, when he immediately turns the growl into a croon. He has to be very obvious about his mood, as it became clear that the human can't understand Draconic when he said wistfully, "I wish I could understand what you're saying." It was subtle, but Nael managed to pick up on the hints and work it out.
Hiccup looks contemplatively at Nael - and whoa, when did he start thinking of it as "Hiccup" instead of just a human? - and then puts his foot back on the line.
Nael growls again. "Stop that." Hiccup lifts his foot, and Nael's growl softens again. Then the idiot puts its foot down a third time, and Nael takes back any thoughts he might have had about humans potentially having equivalent intelligence to dragons. His growl is fiercer than the two times before. "Don't make me take that foot off of you."
The human lifts his foot again and then puts it down - on the other side of the line. Nael lifts his head from the aggressive position he'd unconsciously lowered it to and croons once more. "That is acceptable."
Hiccup smiles and begins to carefully make his way out of the maze of lines Nael has created, turning and spinning as he searches for places to put his feet so it almost looks like he's dancing.
When he exits the maze, he has his back to Nael. He stops just before running into the dragon's nose, seeming to sense Nael's closeness. Nael huffs out a breath against the human's back and he turns slowly, wonder again in those oh-so-expressive green eyes. He stares at Nael for a few moments before reaching out with his hand again. Nael growls uncertainly and shies away, but doesn't flee this time. Hiccup withdraws his hand and seems to come to a decision, closing his eyes and turning his head away…
...before reaching his hand out once more.
Nael stares at the hand that has stopped just in front of his nose and at the human who waits, his face turned away, letting the dragon make the decision of whether they touch or not.
He's looking away from Nael, leaving his hand in front of one of his most dangerous weapons, trusting him, and the dragon is overwhelmed.
There's no way Hiccup knows the significance of a touch. Night Furies do not touch casually. Only family, mates, and very, very close friends will touch each other outside of a fight. But Nael does know its significance, and he knows if he touches the human's hand he will stay with him, become part of his family. He will give up his intentions of going to find his tribe, will vow to stay with Hiccup as long as he can because Hiccup will be his family.
The human knows none of this, of course. But Nael does, and could never bring himself to go against any of it.
As he hesitates, he thinks of a saying his mother used to tell him in the ancient language of Night Furies. It went 'Kirlae sikon faran, nir nikarae sikon utir' - or, 'the fury of the storm is terrible, but the joy of the storm is love.' He has no doubt that he is in a storm right now. Life has been tossing him all around and he no longer knows up from down. Being controlled by the Red Death and losing his flight definitely qualifies as the fury of the storm. But as he knows from his many storm-dances with Ika, there is joy in storms as well. Hiccup could bring that joy back to the storm of Nael's life.
He knows that if he could ask Ika she would want him to be happy. So would Jayna, if she turned out anything like her mother…
He's known the fury of the storm for a hundred summers, even if he doesn't remember it. Maybe it's time to know the joy of the storm again.
Nael decides. He will give himself to this tiny human, love him with all that he is, protect him with his life. He will bring joy to Hiccup's storm as Hiccup will bring joy back to his.
Nael reaches his nose out to press against the human's - against Hiccup's waiting hand, and as he does he leaves the name of Nael behind him, accepting the name Hiccup has given him in its place.
He is Toothless, now and forever.
-THE END-
Note 2014: This is all for now, but I am considering adding more of the "Forbidden Friendship" scene. Please tell me if you think that would be a good idea.
Thanks for reading!
Glossary of Dragon Words
Nael = Night
Ika = Sky of Stars
Kisarae = Nael and Ika's tribe, literally "of the wind"
Kisar = wind
Skular = winter
Jayna = freedom
Ausra = living stars, where Night Furies go when they die, the Night Furies' gods
Nika = joy
Riya = flame
Kirlae sikon faran, nir nikarae sikon utir = The fury of the storm is terrible, but the joy of the storm is love (Night Fury proverb)
Saroknir = a type of fish
Updated Note 2015: Really, if you read this I can't thank you enough. All I can ask is if you enjoyed the story, yeah leave a kudos, but more importantly a comment! I don't care what you say. It can be pointing out my mistakes cause I've made a hell of a lot of them (just do it nicely!), it can tell me how much you enjoyed the story, it can be a comment or a question about the writing or the world (I spent way too much time thinking up the Night Fury religion, then didn't use it much in the rewrite. I also put too much thought into the use of "it" and "the human" versus "him" and "Hiccup" in the last couple scenes.), it can just be a single, unpunctuated, all lower case sentence about some random thing you did or thought while reading my fic (the Ausra know I've left a lot of those. A single, unpunctuated, lower case comment is one of the highest forms of praise possible in Rékaland.) Just please, tell me what you thought and how I can make it better!
Also, I'm planning on posting a bunch of epilogues and timestamps - I've already got a couple written, one set after HTTYD2 where Nael/Toothless reunites with his family and one before the first scene that was inspired by a Well Pennies song (although that one's kinda... lost... eek!). If you want to suggest any others, go ahead - more of Ika and Nael's friendship/mated life, more of Tiny Jayna (I love her!), Kisar's reaction to Ika announcing she's chosen a mate (because, as you know if you read the original version of this, it was apparently very funny), Smol Nael getting bullied for his lack of markings (because tbh sadly he probably was), whatever... tell me, and if I think I can, I'll write it!
(also, feel 100% free to write fic involving my original characters or my language, as long as you give me credit and i can see it before you post)
Updated Updated Note 11-25-2016: So yup, here's the story! I had to edit the source code to get rid of ao3's formatting, but I might have missed something, so if you see any formatting errors please tell me :) Please leave a review if you liked it, I love getting feedback! Also, if you'd like to check this story out on AO3, my username there is TokiMudkip :) /shameless plug
Some notes on dragon religion in this story, since the original scene where it was partially explained was cut for being WAY too sappy:
In this story, the dragons believe in what they call the Ausra, which means the living stars. Basically, they believe that when a dragon dies, their soul goes to live in the stars, and every star in the sky is the soul of one of their ancestors. So, Toothless's wishing that the Red Death would "rot at the center of the earth and never see the Ausra again" is probably the worst thing you can wish upon a dragon, because it means that they would be as far from the heavenly light of their ancestors as it is possible to be. Also, although it's no longer mentioned in this story, the darkness between the stars is called the Sora, but it's not viewed as a bad thing - the dragons (or at least the Kisarae) believe that without the darkness for comparison, the stars couldn't shine as brightly. So basically, the Ausra need the Sora to shine brightly enough for their still-living descendants to see. There was originally this whole scene where Nael compared Ika to the Ausra and Ika compared Nael to the Sora but I realized it basically existed because I started shipping my own characters and had no other purpose, so it was cut. :)