The reviews are slowing down! I want moar! :V I NEED THEM! Going to start doing the replying via private messages thing I used to do. Not really sure why I stopped doing that. Underlined means the dragons are talking. (Humans can't understand)
It was a struggle to hold on to a Night Fury going full-speed without a saddle. It was nearly impossible to cling to a Night Fury going full speed without a saddle who's not used to having a rider while said rider has the flu. For that, Hiccup should be commended. Trying to elaborate as much as possible in what little time they had to earn the dragon's trust and faith in his plan, he explained, "We can't go for her directly, they'll be expecting that. First we have to figure out where they're getting their bolas and weighted nets and destroy that store. Without the threat of the bolas, the other dragons will be able to get closer, and we can make this a fair fight. One thing we have going for us is shot limits. They don't have Night Furies, we do. Now, as far as I know, Night Furies have no shot limit, and they're the only species of dragon with that-" He paused to cough, partially because a bug went down his throat, but also from the illness, "-the only dragon that can do that."
The Night Fury smirked at this, "You know your dragons, don't you?"
Hiccup grinned, "My first and best friend is a Night Fury. Of course I know dragons." He paused before remembering, "Toothless... They have him, too. I managed to cut Flamewing free before I got away, but Odin knows if they've got him again or not." Hearing the shouts of Outcasts getting closer, he said, "Don't get any closer this low to the ground. Toothless blew up the bola launcher, but they can still throw this high, and they've been using dragons to drop those weighted nets." With a tip of his tail, the boy and dragon soared into the sky, and began their hunt for a pile of bolas.
Below them, the Vikings were waging war against the Outcasts. Dragons were neck-and-neck, taking on three or four to one, and the Vikings weren't faring much better. Thankfully, as Gobber had said, their dragons still had all their shots left, so they at least stood a chance. Not to mention Flamewing had amassed a small army of Night Furies that were fighting alongside the Vikings. Astrid managed to sneak away in the fray to cut Toothless free. "Hey buddy," She greeted as she began to work on the ropes. The dragon met her gaze with eyes brimming with concern. "I know you're worried about Hiccup, I am too, but we have to trust him. If anyone can get us through this, it's him."
"Maybe if he weren't sick. This is all my fault, I should never have come back here." Now free, the dragon sprang to his feet and raced to the edge of the clearing where Hiccup had disappeared.
"Toothless!" Astrid called, assuming the dragon would ignore her, but to her surprise, he actually stopped dead in his tracks. His ears perked up and he looked to the sky. "Toothless?" It was then that she heard-
"NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!" Spitelout shouted out of habit, and, similarly, the rest of the group, and even the Outcasts, stopped fighting and pressed themselves to the ground. There was a sonic whine followed by an explosion, and a familiar whooping from the sky.
"Alright! Now! Flamewing, they're unarmed!" Said voice from the sky shouted to those below as a beautiful blue Night Fury swooped into the scene.
"Hiccup!" Astrid beamed. Of course he would come save the day, just in time, on the back of a strange dragon. Taking his signal, Flamewing gestured for the other Night Furies to resume their attacks, while he ran to his mate and the fallen dragon beside her to free them. The blue Night Fury landed beside Astrid, and Hiccup more or less fell off of him.
A bit dizzy, Hiccup announced, "They're out of bolas and weighted nets... The only thing left to take care of is their dragons. I'd rather not kill them just because they're on the wrong team. They don't know any better."
Helping the boy to his feet, Astrid asked, "Never mind about that! Are you okay? You set yourself on fire not long ago, you know!"
"Occupational hazard," Hiccup mumbled with a lopsided grin as his father, Gobber, Spitelout, and the other teens approached them.
"Hiccup, you look TERRIBLE. I mean, worse than usual!" Snotlout concluded, looking the boy over.
"Yeah, where'd you get that awesome bruise?" Ruffnut wondered aloud, pointing to a purplish mark on the boy's face that had probably come from falling out of a tree.
"Ah, kay, okay, can we talk about this later, please?" Hiccup asked, gesturing to the mayhem going on all around them, "I need to stop the dragons from killing each other."
Astrid folded her arms over her chest, "What you need is some sleep."
"And I couldn't agree with you more. I will, just as soon as this is over." Hiccup's eyes scanned the crowd for his dragon, but he couldn't see Toothless' tail fin anywhere.
"I want to see this," The blue dragon came forward and nosed Hiccup roughly in the stomach, "Let's go, human."
Taking one last look around for Toothless, Hiccup sighed and obliged, climbing awkwardly onto the Night Fury's back, "I'll be back soon... probably."
"Hiccup!" Astrid whined, but he was already gone.
Exhaling, Hiccup said, "I saw a Monstrous Nightmare down by the beach earlier. He looked exhausted... That's probably the best place to start." They came to land by said Monstrous Nightmare who looked up at Hiccup lazily and snorted. Hiccup fell off of the blue dragon and made his way closer to the Nightmare, who tensed. "Alright, alright, I'm not gonna hurt you..." He held his arms up as he slowly circled the dragon, who watched his every move. "Those Outcasts really wore you out, huh? Just how many of them crammed on your back?"
"Four," The dragon mumbled, not really thinking Hiccup would hear him anyway, "But it was that wooden contraption that was most cumbersome."
"Wooden contraption? The bola launcher!" Hiccup realized, startling the Nightmare by understanding him. Remembering how heavy and hard to move that thing had been (granted, he wasn't nearly as strong as a Monstrous Nightmare,) Hiccup winced, "That must've been rough. And it's not exactly a quick flight over here either." He paused, considering, "They really don't care about you at all, do they? You're just slave labor to them." The dragon said nothing, and it was then that Hiccup remembered something he almost always carried with him. After some groping around he finally managed to find what he was looking for. "This might cheer you up some," He said softly, extending a hand full of dragon nip. The dragon eyed him, shrinking his head back a bit. "No, no, it's okay, it won't hurt you. It's called dragon nip." Finally, the dragon seemed to get a whiff of it and moved in to take the stuff from Hiccup's hand, chewing it happily.
The sapphire dragon rolled his eyes, "And this was your plan? Feed a Monstrous Nightmare dragon nip?"
Hiccup shunned the nonbeliever and asked, "There, how's that feel?"
"Purple! It feels very... purple," The Nightmare decided, a rather content look on his face.
"Purple? Alright, I'm just going to go ahead and assume purple is a good feeling," Hiccup decided, shooting a sideways glance at the Night Fury before continuing, "Say, could I ask you for a favor? I can show you where I got that dragon nip from." The dragon perked at this, eyeing Hiccup. "I need you to convince the other dragons that the Outcasts are evil. They've been attacking the island I'm from- with the dragon nip- for ages, and they just want to use you to get to us. That's why they came here in the first place. With Night Furies, they'd be unstoppable! We're not like the Outcasts... To us, dragons are... members of the tribe. We feed and look after our dragons better than we do some of our human residents, and we'd never make any one dragon carry so much weight. We all work together, as a team. That's what Berk is all about. For the Outcasts it's more of a "One for all and all for one" situation. There's a reason they're called the Outcasts."
The dragon cooed, "And if I do this, you'll show me to the dragon nip?" Hiccup nodded fervently, hoping he wasn't making a mistake with this promise. "Very well then, I'll hold you to that promise." With this, the Monstrous Nightmare took to the skies, and Hiccup, once again on the sapphire dragon's back, followed and watched as the Nightmare got the attention of the other dragons... And then, the fighting stopped. At least, between the dragons. The Outcasts, being former Vikings, had stubbornness issues.
Alvin was outraged. " 'ey! Wha's the matter with my dragons?!" He snapped, breaking free of Stoick's choke hold to get a better look. "Go on, get 'em!" Alvin commanded, but the dragons did no such thing. Instead, they dropped from the sky and, one by one, grabbed Outcasts in their claws and flew off with them.
"Well, that was a nice touch I didn't see coming." Hiccup murmured in approval. The dragon beneath him began jerking about mid-flight and the boy had to hold on for dear life to keep from falling. "Are you- are you laughing?"
"So STUPID!" The dragon chuckled, "To think that it only took one, and one that listened to a human no less! A HUMAN! Stupid dragon!"
Hiccup was unamused. "And what do you call what we're doing here?" That silenced the dragon, who finally came to land in the clearing once more, rearing up to dump Hiccup off of his back. "Ow, okay, I deserved that," The teen admitted, allowing Astrid to help him to his feet. The Monstrous Nightmare landed beside Hiccup expectantly, and the boy smacked a hand to his forehead, heaving a sigh. "Right. You... probably want me to hold up my end of the deal now."
"That's right." Astrid replied, "You've got some explaining to do."
"Not you Astrid, I promised this Monstrous Nightmare I'd show him where the Dragon Nip grows wild if he convinced the other dragons to turn on the Outcasts. It's complicated, but I'm going to have to ask you to show him where it is. I'm in no condition to fly right now, so I'm going to be stuck here for a while longer."
"You were just flying a minute ago," Stoick pointed out.
"I mean long-distance, that was an emergency situation." Hiccup glanced around and noticed Flamewing was approaching him. Not good. If his father found out he could magically talk to dragons... He didn't want to know what would happen. "Look, just, take care of that for me, and I'll see you in a few days." He said, backing away from his fellow Vikings.
"Hiccup!" Astrid began, but Stoick rested a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright, Astrid. Hiccup's safer on an island full of dragons than he'd ever be on an island full of strangers. You take care of yourself, son. We'll come back to check on you if you haven't returned in three days' time." Stoick told the boy, meeting Hiccup's gaze.
A bit nervous about how the Night Furies would react to that, Hiccup said, "I'm pretty sure that won't be necessary, but thanks, dad."
"Well then, let's get going. It's a long flight home, and we don't have much daylight left." Stoick commanded, and as everyone mounted their dragons, Toothless finally came out of the underbrush and nudged Stoick, looking up at him hopefully. Of course, Stoick was not a man who was particularly good at reading emotions, so he simply said, "Take good care of my boy, Toothless." With this, the group of Vikings took off, headed home, to Berk.
Hiccup didn't have much time to wonder what that was all about, because the moment their dragons were out of sight, Flamewing was on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Toothless was about to rush in to the rescue when help suddenly came from an unexpected source. The blue dragon stepped forth, baring his teeth, "Let him be, Flamewing. He helped us just now."
"Sky!" The great dragon hissed, but backed down nonetheless, "Why do you defend him?"
"He came to my rescue," Sky replied thoughtfully, "Our rescue. We'd still be fighting if not for him."
"He rode you," Flamewing growled, "Does that not enrage you?!"
"It would have, had I not agreed to it. Like it or not, Flamewing, he's the reason why we're all still here and not at war." Sky glanced back at Hiccup, "He's clever, for a human, and he knows dragons."
Seeing that he no longer had to defend Sky's honor, Flamewing calmed down some and set his eyes on Hiccup, "I suppose I should thank you for cutting me free."
"It was... nothing..." Hiccup managed before falling face-first into the grass.
When he awoke, he found that he was lying on much softer, yet uncomfortable, ground, in nearly complete darkness. There was a fire that barely managed to illuminate the corner of the "room" he was in. It couldn't truly be called a room, as it was a cave, but nonetheless... As his eyes adjusted to the light, Hiccup picked up a handful of floor, which, on closer inspection, he found to be Night Fury scales, several inches deep, that coated the room. It must have taken ages to amass this many scales, and Hiccup couldn't begin to fathom how many dragons had shed their scales here. Glancing up, he noticed a black mass across from him. After staring for a moment, he was finally able to make out the shape of a saddle on a sleeping Night Fury's back. Never had he been happier to see Toothless, and he would have jumped over the fire to give his friend a hug if he weren't worried about startling him. Instead, he called out, "Toothless!" Grass green eyes opened slowly, and, much to Hiccup's disappointment, the dragon rolled over, turning his back to Hiccup. The boy's heart sank, "Talk to me, bud, what's wrong?" Instead, Toothless got to his feet and left the light of the fire to Odin-knows-where. "Toothless..." Hiccup was, understandably crushed. What had he done wrong? Suddenly, he had the feeling he was being watched. Turning, he saw an uncomfortably high number of eyes upon him, glimmering in the fire light. "Toothless-" He called, alarmed now as he sat up, backing up against the wall as the eyes edged closer.
"They're more afraid of you than you are of them," A calm voice assured him, and into the light stepped Sky, the blue Night Fury from before. "They ran off when you started to wake up."
Finally, he was able to make out the forms of at least a dozen tiny Night Furies behind those glowing eyes. One, a tad smaller than the rest, was the closest to him. "H-hey there little one," He tried, not entirely sure what young Night Furies were capable of.
Noticing that the human's eyes were on her, and that she was being addressed, the smallest Night Fury stepped forward into the light. She was, to say the least, unlike anything Hiccup had ever seen before. Pure snow white with blood red eyes, not a fleck of any other color on her. She edged closer than any of her fellow hatchlings dared, sniffing at Hiccup as she made a half-circle around him, as much as the walls would allow. Finally, she sat down in front of him and looked him in the eyes for a moment with that same intense curiosity he'd seen on Toothless so long ago. "You smell funny." She announced. The laughter of the other Night Furies seemed to scare her. She flattened her ears back against her head and lowered her belly to the ground, "I mean, your leg," She clarified, "It doesn't smell like the rest of you."
"Oh!" This made a bit more sense to Hiccup, "You mean this?" He reached down, the sudden movement causing the rest of the Night Furies to recoil in fear, but not this little one. He removed his prosthetic leg and held it out to her.
The young dragoness sniffed the strange thing and then, suddenly, retracted her tiny teeth and bit down on the prosthetic. When it didn't give like normal flesh should, she pulled back and blinked, "What is that?"
"It's a fake leg, like Toothless- ... Pixie's, left tail fin." He tried to explain. This seemed to shock her.
"My tailfin?!" She whirled around and began to chase her tail, trying to sniff it. Hiccup noted with vast amusement that young Night Furies tails are shorter proportionally than older ones.
"Not yours, the traitor's. The alpha's son." Sky told her, then to Hiccup, he added, "It's custom to name the runt of the litter Pixie. It's intended to embarass them into proving their worth, to make them work harder to earn their place in the pack."
Hiccup smirked. He'd learned so much about Toothless in these past few days it wasn't even funny. "It's Viking tradition to name runts "Hiccup."" When the dragon didn't seem to understand why he was being told this, Hiccup added, "My name is Hiccup."
Props to AlexjohnD for the idea to make the name "Pixie" a tradition. xD Love it.
But what the heck is going on with Toothless, right? Well, I know, but... You'll know. Any guesses?
Also, I'd like to ask- what do we think about Berk? Should I write "meanwhiles" while Hiccup is on the Isle of Night? Or just assume life goes back to the usual. I'm sure I can come up with some shenanigans that makes them see how much they need Hiccup, but would you be interested in said shenanigans? Let me know~