AN: Warning! There is child abuse in this chapter. Nothing extreme but it is there. You have been warned!
Eight years had passed since Hiccup had seen his old friend. He, along with the other kids his age were in their mid teens and most of them were running around trying to put out the multiple fires around the village. Hiccup on the other hand, was on the cliffs looking for a dragon to fire his new machine at. He and the other teens had been told by their parents how dangerous dragons were. Especially the one that doesn't take food, doesn't miss and can't be seen.
The Night Fury. Do not engage this dragon. Run and hide and pray it doesn't find you. The day his father told him about the Night Fury, he just gave him a dumbfounded look. "Hiccup listen." Stoick said. "Now that you're in the forge during raids we need to talk about what you need to do if you get attacked. Most of them are pretty easy. Just run. Get to someone and have them deal with it. And don't worry they'll be fine." His father's face became more serious than before. "Hiccup pay attention. There is one dragon were to be honest Hiccup, I don't know what to tell you. If you see it, you must hide. It will not hesitate to kill you."
"What one is that?" Hiccup asked. He started to go through his mind, thinking of all the dragons he'd seen the dragon manual. His father's voice snapped him out of his thought.
"If you see a black dragon you must hide. No one who has encountered this dragon has lived to tell the tale. Please be careful." Stoick said sternly.
'A black dragon? Toothless and his mom were black. But they were nice. He couldn't be talking about them. Could he? I hope not. I really liked them.' He thought to himself.
Hiccup forced himself out of his memory just in time to watch a catapult tower be destroyed. He couldn't watch as the bright light stung his eyes. He quickly shut them, which triggered another memory.
He was five again. In the forest, some time in the early morning. He was looking up through the trees, wondering what it was like to fly. Soon a few figures were just above the treetops. He followed the shapes as best he could until he was in a clearing. He looked up again now able to see them clearly. Toothless and his mother were flying. He giggled loudly, which caught the attention of the dragons. Toothless' mother landed softly near him, and quickly checked him over. Before Hiccup could move closer to her, Toothless barreled into him. They both fell with a huff. Toothless licked his face a few times.
He reopened his stinging eyes. He watched the sky for a few moments. He heard the tell tale sound of the Night Fury. He moved his hands to cup his mouth, but bumped his machine which caused it to fire. He heard a loud screeching sound, and watched something drop the the sky.
Hiccup made his way into the village, as the final dragons were making there way out. Hiccup was near one of the large fire stacks when a large hand gripped his shoulder. "What are you doing out? What is he doing out?" The owner of the hand asked.
Hiccup looked up to his angry father. "I-I was on the cliffs." His father's grip tightened on his shoulder. Hiccup grit his teeth at the intense pain in his shoulder.
"Why weren't you in the forge!? I told you to stay there when there's a raid!" Stoick yelled at his son. His grip tightened again forcing Hiccup to his knees. Hiccup tried to loosen his father grip.
"P-pl-ease let go. It hurts. Please. I was hunting a d-d-dragon. That's w-why." He stuttered. He suddenly felt himself in the dirt, and loud laughing above him.
"You? Were hunting a dragon?" Stoick laughed. "Don't lie Hiccup. We all know you're too incompetent to hunt a dragon." Hiccup could hear the snickers and jeers around him. His saving grace came in the form of a large bald man.
"Oi. Stoick!" The deep accent roared. "What are ye' doin'?" He asked, but it was very obvious to him what was happening.
"Oh, just pickin' on Hiccup. The nuisance. Come join the fun, Gobber." Stoick chuckled. Gobber stepped near his friend, who was standing over his son. Gobber looked around the small gathering of other vikings. He didn't like everyone treating his apprentice like trash.
"Git' outta er' 'iccup." Hiccup didn't need to be told twice, as he raced out to the forest. He'd prove them wrong. He ran, and ran until he knew no one could find him. Then he started his search. He walked around in the low light until he found what he hit.
He hesitantly approached the downed dragon. Looking over its streamlined body, checking for any obvious cuts or bruises. Once he finished doing his small inspection of the dragon he returned to its front. He stood for a moment looking down at what he'd done. Not happy about what he did, he started quickly cutting the ropes binding the dragon. They slowly loosened from the dragon's body, allowing it to move.
The dragon pounced on Hiccup, pinning him to a rock. It sniffed at him, then looked up. It stared intensely at Hiccup before bounding off into the darkness. After a few seconds Hiccup could be longer see the dragon in the darkness.
Unknown to Hiccup the dragon didn't go very far. After a few leaps it jumped into a tree. It watched the boy as he fell over from shock and passing out for almost an hour. The dragon considered moving from his position to see if he was still alive. While battling himself on to check the boy or not, Hiccup came to.
The dragon hopped from tree to tree following Hiccup back to the village. Once out of trees he stopped following. Watching as the familiar smelling boy made his way deep into the village.
The next morning Hiccup woke up and made his way to the smithy. But before he did he made his way to the edge of the forest and peered in. He contemplated going out to look for the dragon. He was confused as to why the dragon hadn't killed him. He sighed as he remembered his old friend from long ago. Hiccup took a moment to think on how big Toothless likely would be now and then he came to the realization. His eyes grew wide and his heart sank.
'Only if I'd realized it earlier. We could've... Maybe we... Now he's gone again. Not to mention hates me like everyone else.' He thought to himself. He slowly turned back toward the village and smithy to start work for the day. He took one last long look before entering the forge and going to his station.
After a while his father stepped in to talk to Gobber about a new hammer and wanted his opinion on new ships. Before they could finish their conversation a loud horn was blown and people were yelling to take cover. A few villagers ducked into the smithy for cover. Stoick approached them, wondering what was going on. They weren't being attacked by another tribe. They would have seen the ships days before they could dock. And it wasn't another dragon raid, they would already know and it was too soon for another.
"What's going on out there?" Stoick asked the villagers. "Why is everyone taking cover?"
The two villagers were shaking in their boots. "N-N-Night Fury." One said. I other nodded, confirming what she said. Hiccup was listening in on what was happening. Not that it was hard in the small space.
"A Night Fury? Are you sure?" Stoick quickly asked. They both nodded again. Stoick turned to Gobber and looked around haphazardly. "Oh gods." He said just above a whisper. "What have we done to anger one of Loki's kin? Please gods spare us."
Toothless had camped out at the edge of the forest after the boy left to the village. He knew the scent of the teen from somewhere. He dug through his memories late into the night before he remembered a small human. A non threat, even to the point that his late mother didn't see him as one. He kept trying to remember the boy. He closed his eyes, focusing on the lingering scent in his nostrils.
He started to remember something. It started out dark, but he could hear something howling and then sniveling. He focused hard on the memory. Now he could see the small boy curled into himself. Crying in his knees. Each time he, or his mother even came remotely close he'd freak out and howl again.
Eventually he was able to get close enough to the crying boy to touch his nose to the boy's head. Immediately after he'd done so the boy clung to him, now crying onto the dragon's shoulder. His mother quickly trotted to they. She tried to calm the boy down the same way she did him, but it wasn't working. The was now whispering something into his shoulder
"I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to." He cried over and over. "He blames me for it. I didn't mean to kill her. Mom. Mom. Mom." He wailed. His mother resorted to the thing she knew would calm him down. She took the boy's outer skin off. He was helping her along until it was free. Now he could smell it again. Fear. Not like anything he'd scented before. It was unique to the boy.
He knew who the boy was now but something about the memory drew him back. The boy was now half naked his pale skin flush in the cold morning. He was still sniveling and say that it wasn't his fault. His mother started to groom him slowly. He watched as she carefully went over all the exposed skin. While his mother was calming the boy, he noticed something off. The lower half of the boy's back was light purple and very noticeable. He followed it down the boy's back and it kept getting darker as he went down below his lower outer skin. His curiosity got the better of him as he bit Hiccup's leggings, quickly stripping them from his legs.
The boy tried to cover himself as best he could but it was no use. Toothless continued his search for the purple color. He quickly found the source. The boy's butt was almost as black as his scales. He wasn't a human expert but he'd seen stuff like that on other dragons. They didn't show up on his or his mother's body, their skins were too dark for them to appear. Bruises, a big one, and the severity of it. He looked up to his mom, who was now also looking at his huge bruise.
"There hurting him." Toothless growled to his mother. She just stared on at the boy's body.
She hesitated before speaking back. "It'll... Make him stronger." She lied. She didn't want to say that, but she hoped that her son would drop the subject if he believed it. Unfortunately for her, he didn't believe it.
"The males I see like this don't look stronger." He challenged. "They look like they're never going to look for a mate again." His mother looked at him. 'I need to keep a closer eye on him. If he knows about mating already, he might try to pick a fight with someone.' She thought unhappily.
"Can we stay with him tonight?" Toothless asked, putting on his biggest puppy dog eyes. His mother sighed loudly.
"No." She said firmly. Toothless looked down. He knew that there was no changing her mind when she used that voice. "But we'll stay a bit longer. If this happened today he'll want to be around someone who cares for him." She smiled warmly at her son. Toothless crashed into his mother.
"Thank you. Thank you." He yipped, before turning back toward Hiccup.
He was pulled from his memory when he heard loud sigh. He opened his eyes just to watch the boy walk back into the village. 'Damn, I missed him.' He scolded himself. 'Now I'm going to have to do something stupid.'
He watched the villagers as they milled around the town. After a few hours it seemed like most if not all of them had gone inside so he decided to make his move. He hopped out of the tree he was in and started making his way into the village.
He sniffed the ground where the boy stood hours prior, barely able to find his scent he followed it as best he could. Unfortunately for him, he was caught and sent the entire village into a frenzy. The few people who were out started yelling to take cover and a loud horn was blown. He picked up his pace a bit until the trail stopped. When it stopped he stopped. He looked around until he came across five sets of eyes looking at him from an open window. He turned to face the eyes checking to see who they belonged to. He saw three large men and a woman. They there were a smaller person.
"No way." Hiccup whispered to himself as he stood. He began to climb through the smithy's window when a large hand grabbed him causing him to wince. A loud growl was heard from outside and the hand let go.
Hiccup walked out towards the dragon. He could feel every villager watching him as he got closer and closer to the Night Fury. He stopped mere feet from the dragon. What happened next surprised every single villager. He closed the gap between them and hugged the Night Fury.
The villagers sucked in a collective gasp. Murmurs ran through the village. Everyone asking each other how Hiccup was able to get that close to the dragon, much less hug the beast. This all stopped when a loud voice boomed over the village.
"Hiccup!" The voice yelled. "Get away from that devil!" Hiccup spun on his heel to look at his father. Toothless moved back onto his haunches, towering over the incoming Stoick. He pulled Hiccup back into his stomach, protecting the boy. Stoick took a step forward, which made Toothless low growl become louder and almost unearthly.
"Hiccup, what is going on?" Stoick asked.
Hiccup didn't know where all his confidence was coming from when he spoke up. "This is Toothless. He's my friend. And I suggest you take a step back." Stoick unconsciously took the step back. His son had never spoken to him like that. His whole world was turning upside down right in front of him.
Hiccup looked around himself as Toothless, people had started coming out of their cover to look at Hiccup and the Night Fury. Hiccup didn't like the people crowding around them.
'There are too many chances he could get hurt. Or worse.' He thought to himself. He removed himself from the angry dragon's grasp and started walking. Toothless got down from his haunches and followed Hiccup. The people watched as they entered the house. Minutes later they came back out. Hiccup had a pack on his shoulder and a torch in his hand. He looked down on the large group of people. A moment later he threw the torch over his shoulder.
By the time they were in the middle of the group again the house was puking flames and smoke. The whole village split as they walked through. The only person who didn't was Stoick. Hiccup wasn't surprised that he didn't move but he knew what to do to make him.
Hiccup stepped up to his father looking him dead in the eye. He reached up and grasped the blue shell necklace his father never took off since it was a gift from his wife.
"You wouldn't." Stoick growled. Hiccup smirked.
"I caused her death. I might as well cause yours as well." He ripped the necklace from his father's neck. Blue beads and shell flew everywhere around the market place. Stoick fell to his knees. Holding back his tears as he tried to gather the beads and shells around him. Hiccup grabbed his father's collar forcing him to look at Hiccup.
"You did this." He said before walking off into the forest. They never saw him or the Night Fury again. But every single villager, especially the chief, always feared that they would come back and finish what they started.