Can I just say that amyboomerang and I had a BLAST coming up with ideas for and writing this? I really hope you enjoy it.

Talons and Toddlers
Part Two

Finn had always been interested in shiny objects—darting lights, beads, buttons, silverware—and currently one of his mother's daggers which had fallen beneath the family table. He toddled cheerfully across the room and picked it up to examine it. A second later a replacement tail fin slapped it out of his hands. Finn looked up into Toothless' face, which was staring intently into his own. For a moment he was almost afraid… but, then began to giggle and clap his hands. Toothless did not understand this little human.

A moment after the knife had been cruelly snatched from him, Finn noticed something else of interest. His mother had left her food on the table, and it looked like such fun paint. Knowing very well that neither of the large creatures his parents kept seemed to be permitted to be near him, (something about them being "too big" and the possibility of "crushing them") he decided that the now nearby ledge which was the dragon's face would make another convenient step his journey for self-satisfaction. He climbed up, using the mouth as a foot hole and grasping the top of his head for support, and then tumbled cleanly onto the table as his stair pulled back in surprise. Finn's little fingers were instantly drawn into the berry porridge, crushing the small fruits between his hands with a laugh. Toothless, now having shaken off the feeling of being used as a staircase had barely a moment of reprise before SQUELCH—his face was smeared with berry juice. In shock the dragon stood still for a moment while the finger painting commenced.

Even the most patient of dragons would begin to snap at this moment. He growled his discontent with the situation, yanked his head back, and tried to wipe the liquid from face with a taloned foot. His tail swished with agitation, rubbing against the doorknob and cracking open the door. Finn, who had been cheerfully embellishing the top of the table with his artwork, looked up at the noise (because he looked forward to his parents praising his masterpiece) and, seeing the door now open, suddenly got a marvelous idea. Right through the crack in the door he could see the most wonderful thing a tiny boy could see—a mud pit. The rain that morning had left a soft, squishy pool of dark liquid begging to be played in. He quickly dropped from the table to a chair, and from the chair to the ground. He ducked beneath the still preening dragon and raced as quickly as his little legs could carry him right out the door and into the mud.

Toothless stared out the door for a moment, letting the escape sink in. Suddenly it occurred to him—his human would probably not like it if his young left his pen. He lunged through the door after the little boy, leaving a now quiet and curious Adrianna completely alone.

Stormfly had also noticed the redhead plunging headfirst into the mud pit below her. She let out a croon before standing up from her comfortable sunbathing rock to follow him. Not eager to get herself dirty (Nadders are prestigious about their appearance after all), she stood awkwardly at the squishy bank. Toothless reached the bank of the pit a second later at rapid speed—a little too rapid. He could not manage to stop, and ended up sliding across the mud like ice, right over the playing child. Stormfly almost snorted in amusement. Toothless steadied himself and shook the mud from his face, when a voice echoed across the island from the arena.

"SNOUTLOUT, WHAT IN THOR'S NAME POSSESSED YOU TO THINK THAT THROWING A SHEEP WOULD CALM A DRAGON DOWN?!" It was his human. He did not sound happy. Toothless' first reaction was to dart after the voice, but a splash of mud hitting his nose quickly brought him back to reality. Finn was beginning to build a mud house, and Toothless appeared to be the guest of honor.

Stormfly, in the meanwhile, had found the most secure bank on the mud pit to perch while she used one foot to try and pluck the child from the mud. She did not see her owner appreciating her lifting the young by its head, so she needed to grasp it by its removable skin. It kept moving, however, which did make this task difficult. Especially on one foot.

"Daddy!" A high-pitched, distinctly feminine voice floated across the lawn. Both dragons froze and looked across the grass to where Adrianna was toddling her way onto the swinging bridge which served as the road to the Academy. "Daddy, I coming."

They exchanged a look, and after a moment silently agreed. Toothless darted towards the bridge, allowing Stormfly to focus her attention back on the job at foot. Only, the young had disappeared. She looked around frantically, finally spotting it, free of its upper skin, darting towards the village faster than a young Nadder after a scampering mouse. She let out a sigh of frustration, taking off after the child at a rapid pace.

Adrianna, meanwhile, intent on following her father's voice, had become slightly preoccupied with the sight of the ocean slapping at the multitudes of sharp rocks down beneath the bridge. She giggled at the sight of some fish leaping in the water in the distance, and had almost forgotten her objective when another scream echoed from the Academy.

"TUFF, WHEN I SAID IT NEEDS TO COOL DOWN FIRST I DIDN'T DOUSE IT IN WATER. THAT'S JUST GREAT, NOW ITS WET AAAAAAND FURIOUS." There was a pause. "AND SHOOTING SPIKES, DUUUUUCK!"

Adrianna giggled again. Her father sounded like he was playing over at the Academy. She wanted to play too. In her rush to turn back to her path, she lost her footing on the bridge and tumbled off to the side. She let out a gasp—

And had Toothless been a split second later, he would have been tasked with wordlessly explaining why it was his human had left the house the father of two and returned the father of one, assuming Stormfly could get the other young under control. The little girl, now grasped between his teeth, was giggling madly, hiccupping and saying "Fly, fly!"

Not now, he thought, understanding very well this command. He returned to the lawn outside of the house before collapsing to gasp in heavy breaths of air, the child now sprawled on the lawn, dripping with dragon saliva. "Ewwww…."

Toothless closed his eyes. He was exhausted. He was certain he had only closed his eyes for a moment to regain his composure, but when he opened them he discovered the young was gone. She had vanished like a Changewing into a forest. Actually…

Finn loved his Uncle Gobber's workshop. There was so much to play with. Panpipes, blocks, toys, and the occasional forgotten weapon which had fallen under the workbench. Gobber was usually pretty good about keeping his forge child friendly since so many of the children in the village tended to run through its open windows and doors while playing. He usually closed it up pretty tightly when he was not in just to insure no one got into anything they shouldn't, but as it so happened in his haste to go help rescue Magnus, along with most of the population of Berk it seemed, he had forgotten.

Finn was going to have a blast. Hopefully not literally, or at least someone would have hoped this if they had been there.

Finn's first act was to start pulling the crates of equipment and toys out from under the workbench. Uncle Gobber's toys were the best. Some of them were even sharp! Most of them he called "tools" but a few of them were called "Don't touch that!" Those were his favorites. He located one of the smaller "Don't touch that's" which featured a pointy ball and a stick. He tried to lift the stick up and giggled as it flopped back to the floor as soon as he released it. Small dents began to form in the dust beneath his feet, which fascinated him. He bent down to examine them, and in doing so, something else caught his eye.

Across the back wall, which was made entirely of stone, Finn spotted an orange light glowing from the farthest down of two holes. The fire danced, small but strong and free, in the back of the furnace. Gobber had obviously forgotten to completely extinguish the flames in his haste to head out. He obviously had not realized how mesmerizing they were to little boys. Finn crawled closer to investigate.

Stormfly had lost the young almost as soon as they had entered the village. With most of the villagers at the Academy watching the current spectacle, you would have thought that it would be easier to spot one little boy. However, the little one had dodged between buildings and quickly shaken her off the trail. She ran through the abandoned plaza, looking between every house before a loud, familiar giggle finally clued her into his position. Her head snapped to the side, and out of the corner of her eye she could see movement through the door to the forge. She rushed forward just in time to spot a pair of little feet poking out of the hole at the base of the forge where the fire was lit. The orange glow further gave her a sinking feeling about what the young was doing, and let's face it, humans are about as fireproof as wood.

Her immediate response was to snap her beak into the plush removable skin which covered the lower half of his body and drag him, squirming, from the furnace. He let out a shriek of indignation as she lifted him up into the air and tried to back out of the forge, unfortunately backing into work stations and causing them to crash to the ground. She turned in shock to check on the tables, and as she did the little one managed to wiggle his way out of his removable skin and fall, headfirst, to the ground. Fortunately a pile of work aprons caught him as he bounced to the ground, and the little boy lost no time in scampering away, now only clad in his tiny boots.

Stormfly dropped the removable skin and darted after the young. It was not going to escape again.

Toothless was following the squashed flowers and muddy footprints of the smallest human through the woods behind the Haddock home. In the distance he could hear a tiny voice singing cheerfully as she adventured through whatever she had been discovering. Toothless, nonetheless, was having an inordinately difficult time tracking her down. It was almost as though she started to go one direction, got distracted, and then went another. She was worse than a Terrible Terror chasing a spark of light.

"I fan da dwagon undar the staar," Toothless did not understand any of the words the human was singing, and it was not helping him uncover her whereabouts. "Der was a daddy and a mommy and der was a Finn and dey were wit the Addie and da—oooh…" The singing cut off suddenly as the child obviously had found something to occupy her again. Toothless hoped desperately she was not going to leave that distraction for a while.

Suddenly there was a loud SNAP, a terrified scream, and Toothless realized his wish had probably just been granted, albeit not how he had expected.

He raced after the crying voice as quickly as he could.

Stoick awoke in the fiery haze of the healer's hut, and sat up. For a moment he was not one hundred percent certain what had awoken him. His head was throbbing, the room was spinning, and he had the distinct impression that the herbs the healer had given him to help with his cold (which she had called "pneumonia") had done more than give him a little extra pep for the day. In fact, he was going to have to have a word with her about lying to a chief. He was certain he had told her he did not have time for a sick day.

He swung his legs off the edge of the bed where he had been sleeping when a loud squawk outside the window caught his attention. He looked up just in time to see a blur of pink and brown disappear beyond the frame, followed by a rapid and angry sounding blur of blue. He shook his head to clear his vision, just in time to catch the blur again.

"Did I really just-by Thor…" he muttered. He could have sworn his grandson, stark naked and covered in mud, was running through the plaza pursued by a ruffled looking Nadder. He shook his head slowly. Maybe he did need the sick day.

Stormfly was doing her best to herd the small human back towards its pen, but it was doing its best to elude her flapping wings and nudging beak. He dodged under wagons, raced through the open doors of homes (and leaving behind evidence she wasn't certain the inhabitants would enjoy). One elderly couple sitting down for lunch had to endure his parading through their home almost three times. Stormfly would stick her head in, caw indignantly, and try to squeeze through the furniture which was still standing before he rushed out through the back door. She was beginning to tire, and her patience had long since run out.

The little boy had stopped to splash his hands in the excess water and mud that had gathered in one resident's flowerpot. She crept up behind him slowly, holding her breath in so as to not alert him to her presence. Slowly, slowly… her head lowered so it was beneath his backside and then, quickly before he could escape, she snapped her head up, tossing the little boy with a startled "oof" into the air. Taking to wing immediately, she grabbed his ankles with her feet, her talons clamped around the last of the removable skin. It was time to go home. No arguments. For once, the child seemed to be too busy cheering to notice.

Toothless followed the screaming sobs to a large, high tree by a clearing in the forest. Looking up, he spotted the little girl suspended, flailing, in a dragon trap. It was strangely reminiscent of another time a blond human had become trapped in a net, and Toothless, just relieved she was no longer mobile, was almost tempted to leave her there until his human could control her. However, the dragon's pity won out, and he rescued the crying child. He climbed the tree nimbly to the top to take a closer look at the contraption. He had the strange feeling shooting it from beneath may end up being slightly dangerous—unless of course this child had been meant to look more like Gobber than Astrid in limb count. When the young noticed the dragon climbing the tree, she quieted down a little and seemed to reach out to grab him.

"Toofwess" she said. He paused and looked at the child. Neither of the young had ever said his name before. He felt a strange swelling of pride within him. He crooned gently and reached out and nudged the little girl with his nose. She rubbed his nose enthusiastically. "Toofwess come." She stated.

He pulled back and focused his eyes on the rope. After a quick calculation, Toothless gathered his plasma and spat a small blast of it at the rope, cleanly severing it in two. The little girl let out a screech of fear as the net plummeted towards the ground, but the descent was stopped almost immediately by Toothless' strong jaws snapping around the top of the net. She dangled beneath him as he slowly backed down the tree.

He put her down only for a moment, during which she tried to stand from within her encumbering confines. He looked around the forest quickly, trying to regain his bearings before gathering the child up again and heading home. He hoped beyond hope that Stormfly had captured the other young.

Stoick was feeling a little woozy, but well enough to stumble towards Gobber's workshop to find out what had happened while he was sleeping. He was beginning to become concerned about the distinct lack of people in the village. Even his earlier hallucination, as bizarre as it had been, had not worried him half as much as this. Unfortunately for him, just as he had finally convinced himself thoroughly that he had been hallucinating, a familiar giggle caught his attention. From above.

He looked up almost straight into the familiar, albeit upside down face of his grandson as Stormfly flew him overhead.

"Yep," he said slowly, turning around to return to the healer's house. "Still naked. Shouldn't have gotten out of bed."

Stormfly and Toothless arrived back at the Haddock residence at around the same time. They shared a meaningful look as if to ask what had happened to the other, as they were both now dirty, distinctly worse for wear, and carrying a young who was far too pleased with themselves for their current condition. After a moment, they both decided quite decisively that they did not really want to know. They squeezed in the door and headed to the playpen, where they deposited their charges and pushed the gate back closed.

Toothless collapsed with a thump on the right side of the pen, curling closely around it. Stormfly turned momentarily to emit a series of spikes before the gate so that even if the children had possessed the energy to escape again they would have been unable. She then also lay down beside the pen, and between them the two dragons completely enwrapped the pen.

Though sleepy, both dragons stayed awake enough to tell whether or not the children were about to do something risky (or rather Finn, as Adrianna was rather well ensconced), they both managed to make out the sound of their humans approaching in the distance. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation in excited tones.

"I think we learned quite a bit about Whispering Deaths today. Like that they are attracted to the noise of singing Terrible Terrors."

"Good something in the village is," Astrid replied wearily. "Once they learn how to do it, they never shut up."

"True." Hiccup replied. "But it's good that Magnus escaped with only a few minor injuries, and, you know… the gaping hole in her shoulder."

"She'll be fine, and in any case, scars are cool. I mean, look at the gaping hole in your leg."

"Ha, ha." Hiccup replied sarcastically. "Thank you. I do take it as a sign of my most rugged Vikingness." There was a brief pause. "Why is there a shirt out here?"

"Hmm?" Astrid seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Must have come off the laundry some time during the night. It looks like one of Finn's." She went to investigate as Hiccup opened the door.

"Come on, guys, you know you aren't supposed to be near the kids. They may pull your spikes out, or try and pry open your mouths and—well, that's different." At that moment the dragons had backed wearily from the pen and Hiccup had finally caught sight of his sleeping offspring beyond them.

" I guess I'll just have to rewash it with whatever he's wearing now," Astrid said as she came through the door, closing it behind her (she was very paranoid about the children running outside without supervision).

"His birthday suit?"

"His what? No—oh… Well," she looked at Finn feeling rather perplexed. "I guess that needs washing too."

Hiccup and Astrid stood quietly looking at their children, almost too tired and shocked to be able to respond. Finally Hiccup thought that the obvious should be asked, "Why is our daughter in a dragon trap?"

"And why is our son naked?"

"And better question," a voice boomed through the open window, "why were your son's skivvies in my workshop?"

This was so much fun. I cannot wait to share the third part with you as well. We're working on the second story and every time either one of us really thinks about how ridiculous the plot is, we start laughing. It's that funny. I hope my incredibly depressing Little Miracles chapter has been slightly redeemed.

~KateMarie999