The Human Dragon and the Estranged Crow
A How To Train Your Dragon fanfic
Based off of Le'letha's "Nightfall" and "Stormfall" fics
The night is long and bitter cold and Tt-(click)-th-puh-ss find themselves wishing for the surrounding of warm scales and warmer breathes of the Nest. Instead it is dark and gloomy and the stone beneath them nips at their warmth so that they curl together tighter and closer to better share the heat of their heart-fires.
There are no sleepy wurrs or chirps or rumbles all around them, no chatter of dragons recounting their day or complaining of being trapped by the ice and wind when they want to fly but to fly would mean death. There are no voices of hungry hatchlings and fledglings who may be seeing their first winter or their fifth, begging and cooing at their nest-mates and mothers for something to eat because there is not always enough for the whole nest even when the King brings them food from the deeps of the ocean.
It is only quiet, except for the roar of the hungry winter wind outside, and cold, and darkness, the the two of them who are one, and the One-Eye pfikingr who hates Hiccup for the skin he has even though in heart he is all dragon. There's a part of him that understands the hate and there is a part that does not like that he is hated for it, but he supposes in some way it is better to be hated as human than to be hated as dragon. Dragons are good things. Humans can do good things and can make things which are useful, but most are hunters of his dragon family. He does not like them, and most are bad to him, but some are not as bad as others.
He wonders then what the One-Eye thinks of himself as, if he hates humans. He has human skin just as Hiccup does, but maybe just like Hiccup, it is the wrong skin. He is different from Hiccup still. He looks as pfikingr do and wears pfikingr things, he smells of pfikingr and he walks as they do, and Hiccup does none of these things, but the One-Eye hates them.
Its inarguable that he does.
Maybe hates them even more than Hiccup himself does, though this is only a guess. But he remembers the power of his voice, the disdain and mad-hate in the One-Eye's snarls that rattled him in his scale-skin and made him want to retreat. So strong in conviction that it is almost like an impersonation of an Alpha. Not a true Alpha though, more of a challenger that wants to be one, but it has no flock behind it, no others who follow its voice.
Not unless he is an Alpha of ravens, anyway. Maybe it is that. Ravens are not big. The One-Eye is not big either. At least not by the standards of most pfikingr Hiccup has seen that are not still hatchlings, and especially not by the standards of dragons. Maybe a small Alpha of ravens makes sense then. Maybe the One-Eye thinks he is a raven in the wrong skin, and maybe the ravens follow him because he is bigger and stronger than them. If that makes him anything like Hiccup, then that makes more sense why he would not like pfikingr. It also makes sense that he would speak as dragons do because ravens are good mimickers of sounds and they are tricky.
It does not tell him why the One-Eye would be among pfikingr he hates, unless he was caught. Maybe as the pfikingr of Buh-rrrK tried to catch him and make Hiccup theirs, but he was not theirs. He belonged to the Nest and the King of Dragons and Toothless-soulmate, and he had Toothless to be his wings and take him far away from that place once his injured wing had healed. Sometimes he came back to see that the dragons there were doing well and still living in peace with the humans. Sometimes the red-furred Alpha would try to coax him closer, to nest there instead, but he was not pfikingr even if those ones were not as bad as others.
Maybe this was much like that, only the ravens were not big enough to carry the One-Eye away from there, and so he was trapped to a human nest. What is different with these ones though, or at least what he hopes would not be the same if he had been trapped in Buh-rrrK, is that these pfikingr are mean and they cause hurt. Hurt that leaves many scars of the skin.
Its not a thought he likes to have. He does not think now that the red-furred Alpha or Uh StrrrT would want to hurt him if they caught him, but there was a time he believed they would. When he anticipated they would be just as all other pfikingr who laid traps and left wounds and scars and wanted to kill his kin or even make them fight each other. He does not want to think that they still could, but seeing the wounds left on the One-Eye by other humans creates newfound doubts. It also plants the idea that the pfikingr hunting dragons now who held the One-Eye with them would do so to himself and his Toothless-heart of mine as well if they were caught.
All pfikingr are to be wary of, but these ones even more, when they will turn their claws on their own, or at least those who might look like their own. He has been a human hatchling among dragons all his life, but even then, his Nest has never once harmed him. They treated him as any other dragon, cared for and loved him despite his shape, and it is a place he has always belonged. He cannot imagine a Nest where his dragon-kin would have scolded him and scored him with claws and teeth, no matter his shape. He cannot begin to think of a reason why the pfikingr would do so to their own. Its unfathomable. A wrong-thing that should never be.
And yet, for the One-Eye, it is.
Even perched away as they are, he can hear the plaintive whimpers and whines of the One-Eye in sleep, which plainly speak begging and fear and surrender and pain and please please please no, his small form curled together on itself until he almost seems to become nothing more than a faint shadow on the ground himself. At first when it starts, Toothless is more alert, not moving from where they are curled but scenting the air, picking out distress that is as tangible as a scent as it is a sound.
Neither of them dare to put their paws closer to him though, and after a time Toothless-much beloved snorts and buries his nose back into their shared scent, breathing out warmth beneath a stretched wing that traps it to them, making rest more tolerable. They take turns to watch and listen, but never once does the One-Eye rouse to disturb them, and they are awake again before he is. They only dare stalk closer to see that he has not completely frozen over in death during night, but that he hasn't is satisfying enough they worry little over anything else, not even the ravens diving and scolding them for getting close. Only that there are still trappers and dragons in danger and the snow and harsh wind has let up.
They perch themselves at the mouth of the cave just before the snow piles begin, and newly woken, the cold nips more harshly, so Hiccup wiggles his way under Toothless's chest to sit and observe the outside. He can feel the purr within Toothless's chest against his back as he presses up against it, chattering and shivering soft complaints of cold you warm good better yes me here-for-now you warm cold outside. Toothless houghs a dragon's laugh and drapes his wings a little to keep most of the breeze still slinking about from reaching them.
The snow outside is heavy and all tracks that led here are completely gone now as if they were never left, so at least the hunters will not have a trail to follow and find them now because of the One-Eye's travels. The clouds now drop nothing, but they hold the promise of more snow, covering the sky just as thickly as it covers the ground and the sea.
Hiccup wonders aloud quietly about the traps and the dragons. There must be more traps, he thinks, but he hopes not. They did not go over the entire island though, so there may have been dragons that they missed. Its a distress he voices sad angry dragons traps biting out there cold trapped you think?
Maybe could be hope not Toothless returns with his own concern, his nose and his ears alert for sounds of dragons that might still be out in the snow. There is nothing, and they two mutually wish for the silence to be because any other dragons were not caught and are merely hidden away as they are, escaping the cold and storm in their nests. Could be find them yes we find good dragons you us break traps calm easy love you.
Hiccup purrs appreciation love you yes yes break traps good us save dragons yes yes. There's a momentary pause as Hiccup thinks of it more and as he feels Toothless shift to angle his head around. Hiccup follows his partner-love's eyes to the One-Eye, who finally stirs from sleep to have the ravens immediately land on him and preen and coo. Arching his back in a trembling stretch, he swivels around under Toothless's chest and crawls out from under his belly, even as the One-Eye immediately focuses in on him with a mean glare.
Toothless rumbled a soft careful you caution don't-trust watching Hiccup move closer, but he only moves so close. Even if it turns out to be true that the One-Eye does not consider himself pfikingr, he still was in shape and would fight and hurt if allowed too close. The itch of the scratch over his nose now and the metal claw-thing's bite at his shoulder the day before spoke well enough to that.
He stopped far enough away to leap back if the One-Eye lunged, eyeing him carefully. They do not know if there are more traps and more dragons, but maybe the One-Eye knows even without needing to search. Maybe, if he likes dragons more than humans, he will even tell them where. Ravens are tricky birds, but he would still trust one more than a pfikingr. He will have to ask which one the One-Eye is later, but the dragons come first.
The One-Eye snarls and bristles at him without lunging, demanding What? You? Looking. What?
Hiccup whistles curious dragons outside where?
The One-Eye doesn't seem to understand, squinting his eyes and tilting his head back as if to ask what?
Hiccup stops to think a moment. By now he has simply accepted humans do not understand him well, but this one understands dragon speak, or at least he thinks he does, so he tries with more elaboration.
Outside danger! Traps dragons biting human hunters trapping hunting dragons traps alert where finding searching you know where?
He can see that the One-Eye understands him now, but only shakes his head. He cannot tell if it is simply refusal or I-don't-know, but he thinks the One-Eye must know. He found some of the traps on his own and knew where to go. He must know where more are! He growls frustration you know you know you!
He sees the One-Eye think about it more, and his only eye speaks reconsidering thinking planning maybe. His eye speaks very loud of planning things. He hopes they are things that will help dragons, but he knows it could also be a trap. He gets up and paces with his claws clicking on stone, bristling agitation frustration and voicing you know you know trap breaking now now? Dragons hurt trapped help you help where where?
The One-Eye stares back at him. He stares back. For a long time, they both stare each other down and their eyes speak of Challenge but no one leaps and eventually the One-Eye sighs and looks away, deciding that a lunge would not be worth it. Hiccup is glad of that. He doesn't want to fight. He wants to stop the traps so they cannot bite dragons.
The One-Eye stands, and its only now that Hiccup turns to leap onto Toothless's back and tangle his claws in the fly-with, his partner already bunched to fly out of the cave before the One-Eye can think to turn his sharp-claw on them again. They do not go far, landing on a higher cliff and waiting until the One-Eye emerges. He only grunts unhappily at them and begins to walk through the snow, but there is still a touch of thinking-planning in his eye and something like purpose to his gait as he walks on and is followed by his raven shadows.
They wait until he has gone some distance ahead, and then begin to fly and follow. The ravens watch them closely as they near and stay close to the One-Eye, but do not try to chase them. They are not too worried about falling behind if they must; even if they lose sight of the One-Eye, snow tracks are easy to follow. Though the ravens watch them carefully, the One-Eye pays them no heed at all as they glide between trees and perch on large branches which have lost their leaves, tracking-stalking to see where he goes and hoping that he is leading them to more traps.
The One-Eye does not see them even when he should have, and they cannot tell if he is simply pretending or if he is deeply focused on something. Toothless, who has seen his dragon-boy become entranced with a thought or task many times, settles on deeply focused. It is a look of playing-with-ideas and having many and throwing some aside and playing more with others. It is a look Toothless knows all too well, when he must watch for danger because his dragon-boy is too busy to watch out for himself. He likes the things Hiccup thinks of when he becomes very focused (sometimes); he does not know that he will like what the One-Eye comes up with.
It is a look like trying to lay a clever ambush, he thinks, though he does not know who the ambush would be for. He hopes for the hunters who want to trap dragons, though he does not dismiss the possibility the trap may be for them. It is a trap Toothless will keep tucked at the back of his thoughts and watch for, voicing his concerns worry concern trapping leading us maybe careful caution us we careful don't-trust wary trap maybe tricky planning-something.
Hiccup meets his partner's worries with yes yes careful us together clever maybe trap caution yes of course.
They can tell the One-Eye is pinning some of the plans under his paws, even though he has let others free, and they will most certainly have to be careful, but they are clever and they expect it. They will not be easy to trap and they are much wiser to these things now than they have been before. The One-Eye is little threat compared to things they have faced before like the Knotted Man. They will be okay so long as they are together and clever.
There comes a point when the One-Eye slows at the edge of a small cliff, and there is something in his eye and posture that they do not like but cannot place why. It is something that has been bothering them for some time now, ever since the pounce in the snow where they discovered he had wounds that bled. It isn't quite a thing that they distrust, which is confusing on its own, because pfikingr are a thing to be distrusted. Its something else, a discomfort deep in their gut but not one that tells them to run.
It is something heavy, something like defeat, shoulders drawn and head down low in submission. But it has an even worse feeling to it than simply submission and they have not been able to figure out yet why it bothers them. There is almost a touch of something there echoing hurt inside them and that is the most confusing of all. The One-Eye is pfikingr and helps hunt dragons, as far as they can tell. There is no reason to ache or sympathize with him, and it is a feeling that they do not like, yet it remains all the same and cannot be shaken.
Its an itch in a place they cannot reach and do not have a way to explain, but as the One-Eye stands at the edge of the cliff, it slowly becomes more clear and the itch more reachable. He stands at the edge, and for a moment they can almost catch an impression like a fledgling trembling to fly for the first time but held to the ground by hesitation and has not decided yet whether or not to take the first leap.
It is a curious and strange thing because, even though Hiccup has never questioned whether he could fly and made it so with his own wings when they would not grow on their own, he knows pfikingr cannot fly and do not have wings as he and Toothless do. He knows for sure the One-Eye does not have wings, unless he only trembles at the edge wishing that he had them. That is something Hiccup can understand; but it is not the thing that bothers him.
What he realizes keeps nipping at the back of his mind is not that the One-Eye is looking at the sky seeking to enter it, its that he's looking down at the fall. He is toying with the idea of falling, and that fall is a far one that someone with no wings might not survive. He does not think the One-Eye is so foolish to think so, and the more he watches, the more he realizes that his blue eye is hunting the sharp rocks and wanting to leap at them.
He quietly yowls into Toothless's ears confused not-like what doing? Falling-looking wanting-to-fall why? Confused agitated anxious see you see that?
Toothless snorts and shakes his head, agreeing don't-know strange wrong not-like see yes yes strange curious confused bad feeling yes.
Hiccup thinks on it more, anxiously drumming his claws lightly over Toothless's scales in thinking pondering and whistles quietly in timid question falling hurting death-chasing think you?
Its an idea that has Toothless recoiling and wrinkling his nose, slinking backwards on their branch perch as if ready to flee from the idea. It is an idea he does not think he would have thought of, but Hiccup is good with ideas he would not have thought of. It is a wrongness, something that goes completely against all of his own instincts. He would never chase death and he does not know of anything that would want to.
For a dragon to want to die is a wrong thing for sure. He can think only of a few things that would make a dragon wish for and chase death, and even then, it is not a chasing-hunting kind of wish. It is a laying-down-and-giving-up kind of wish-that-is-not-a-wish. It is submission, but not a want.
Sometimes dragons die of a deep, deep loneliness, a loneliness Toothless could only compare to if his Hiccup-best-partner were to be taken from him forever as their mother was, or that Hiccup might feel if the reverse were true.
Other times it is a sickness so foul that it is a tangible thing that makes one suffer slowly that will never become better, felt by all the Nest. It can be smelled and seen and tasted and heard in the air. It is a kind of sick that makes even beloved ones recoil and avoid them because it is a kind of death-sick that will spread to the whole nest, that claims not only hatchlings and old and already-sick but the very strongest of all. Even then, a sick dragon that knows death is coming for it will fly from the Nest, make death chase it far away so that it will be the only one claimed.
But this, they don't think, is that kind of sick. It is nothing they could smell or see on him. It is a sick in the eyes that they sense, a bone-deep longing and tiredness and defeat, while his body lies and speaks defiance. It is like a prey-beast that they have tracked long and tirelessly until it has been worn down by the hunt too much to fight, and so it gives up and shows its throat and belly to sharpened fangs without resistance and waits to be killed because that is all it has strength left for.
It is even more than that though. It is as if a prey-beast were to hunt after the predator first, only to show its throat once it had found it. It is so far in the direction of wrong it completely defies anything they know to be real. The thought of such a sickness blows a cold wind up their spines and makes even their heart-fires shiver and its then that they manage to pin down the itch that had been taunting them beneath their claws.
It is a sadness towards something that still has the gift of life and yet chases down death only to show its throat and throw it away. There is little sympathy for a pfikingr trapper-of-dragons, but dragons and even pfikingr know to survive and fight for their own life and celebrate the lives of their nest and mourn when lives are lost. He knows from Uh StrrrT that even if pfikingr and dragons are enemies, they want the same thing; to not die and to not have their nest-mates die. Death is a natural thing, but it is a thing to run from, to fight away and threaten when it comes too close for all but the very-old-tired who have escaped its claws for their whole lives. It is not a thing to simply submit to even though it is the most ultimate hunter that eventually pounces on all things.
They cannot imagine showing their throats to death and even less so seeking it out, and they cannot even begin to guess at why another would, neither dragon nor raven nor pfikingr.
Even though the One-Eye stands ready-to-leap, he does not and instead finds a safer way down the snow and rocks. It is only a few short minutes that he plays with the idea, but it is jarring enough to rattle the two-who-are-one and leave them wondering what would lead another to chasing death in such a way.
They shake it away though, Toothless doing so with a loud, concluding snort and bad no-like death-chasing bad caution wary stay-away careful us danger alert careful you you protect caution. Hiccup is reckless enough on his own. He knows that if the One-Eye is even half as reckless, and especially if he wants to chase and pull the tail of the biggest hunter that is Death, he does not want him anywhere near his dragon-boy. If they want to pull tails, they will do so back at the Nest, pulling Cloudjumper's and then begging forgiveness only to do it again. A game without bad risks.
Yes yes careful will-be yes bad feeling don't-like caution wary sympathy Hiccup agrees, but he still hums pfikingr traps biting danger still searching have-to-find.
Toothless is not so sure that it is something they should do, even with traps about hurting dragons. He is not unsympathetic, but this is a new risk they do not know and winter bites even worse than traps. They are taking many risks and some of them he knows and some he does not. He can't be sure which of those worries him more.
He gives Hiccup a look over his shoulder as he tells what he thinks they should do, giving a low growl as unsafe here bad danger alert wary death-chasing danger and jerking his head you me we us home together safe nest no traps biting here wind snow biting traps biting bad place we go better.
He knows it isn't going to be enough to convince Hiccup that they should leave dragons here to be bitten by traps and hurt by pfikingr, but he holds a slim hope like a slippery fish in his paws that the other will listen and agree. Hiccup almost agrees, weighing what they should do, but inevitably his heart is out to help their cousin-kin and he will not be easily dissuaded.
Go look-see maybe dragons maybe no look-then-decide. Its a fair enough alternative. They do not know if there are any more dragons here or any that have been caught. If there are no dragons, there is no reason to stay even with traps biting. Toothless only hopes that staying to see if maybe-there-are-dragons that it will not get them into trouble as happens so often.
They continue to follow the One-Eye through the woods until they find the pfikingr nest, staying back in the trees where they can easily see everything. The deep snow makes it even easier in some ways, the pfikingr having little but a cave and their ships to hide in. They will not be able to sneak well, especially when the snow is so deep and makes walking difficult.
For a while, they wait and watch for any activity like pfikingr swarming out to find and hunt them, but nothing suggests hunters coming for them, and after a time, sitting in the cold is unbearable, even more so because of the mind-itch about the death-chasing. Eventually Hiccup grows bored and restless enough to suggest they hunt for something to eat, partially to take their minds off of it. Maybe they can break open the river further away with fire and find fish too cold to swim away. It is not a bad idea, though it harbors only a few fish.
Still, in winter, they are hard pressed to complain of any food they can find, and for once it is a time Hiccup can stand to have fish that taste a little bit burnt so that he can bite into them at all. More recent snowfall makes them nervous to remain outside, and so they slink away to the same cave as before to rest and wait it out in case it gets heavy again. There is much snow that falls throughout the night and once again buries any tracks, but the wind doesn't howl as loud or the wind bite as badly.
That is good, because the death-chasing thoughts still linger, wanting to make them itch like little buzzing bugs that keep landing on them or hatchlings that have not learned yet that Go-Away sometimes really means Go-Away. They do not like to worry over pfikingr things, but this is an itch that won't leave. Tugging at the tail of death can only bring trouble.
When morning comes and it is lighter again outside, they return to perch in the trees and look at the pfikingr nest, but little seems to have changed, and they are still unsure if there are dragons nearby, but there are cages meant to trap dragons and that is enough to be concerned about.
For a while, they wait, and watch, and are thinking of maybe leaving to return to the Nest and the King when one of the ravens flies overhead and calls out, diving for the pfikingr nest. They brace for possible shouts or the pfikingr to be alerted and come after them, but none of that happens. Instead, after a while more of waiting, the One-Eye reappears, slinking through the pfikingr camp like he is sneaking. Only when he returns up the hill and into the trees does he walk properly.
He stops to catch his breath and glance up at them, and the look in his eye says he has a plan for something. For a moment he only watches them and they watch him in return, before he turns his eye to look ahead and keeps going into the woods.
The dragon-pair croons at each other curious wondering wary alert caution follow watch alert curious, getting up from their branch perch to follow from a distance and see where the other plans to go.
A/N: Look at me actually getting back into writing something for once.
Anyway this is a chapter I really wanted to do and I think would have been the biggest reason why dealings with this character would be different than any other human Hiccup and Toothless have come across before. I don't imagine that things like suicide fit anywhere in their previous world view and to find out its even something that exists would be jarring for them. But I also thought "that would make a very interesting dynamic for them to have to deal with". Anyway, more to come at some point.