ON WITH THE SHOW!

Nightfall, Part Four

Although – perhaps because – Hiccup has ready access to fire, he does not use it in an organized fashion. He cannot cultivate and feed a flame or build a fire pit. He does not know how to start a fire from sparks. He has never needed to; Toothless is half of himself, when would Toothless ever not be there? It would not occur to Hiccup to light a fire for warmth, not when he has slept from a very young age in caves full of dragons, in the same nest as the heat-generating black dragon and under his wing when the other dragon outgrew him enough that he could do so. Likewise he does not use it to protect himself – while he is aware that he cannot breathe fire like his nest-mates, he has accepted it as just another peculiarity of the type of dragon he is, like his paws. And he would not think to start a fire to see after the sun goes down; experience has adapted his eyes to exploit levels of darkness that would leave a human blind. He can hunt and move around using nothing more than starlight and sound.

Their limited range and the restriction to hunting on land or at the water's edge mean that, for now, Hiccup and Toothless must forage essentially all the time, day or night. They are hungry, and they will probably be hungry until they can fly again and are not trapped in a single place and they can hunt properly. They're accustomed to it, really – dragons take a lot of feeding.

Until Toothless catches him doing it, Hiccup makes sure that anything substantial they catch or fish out of the water goes to his dragon-half, deliberately acting that he is catching more than he is and giving the fish that he actually does have to Toothless, letting the darkness hide his deception.

Hurting you hurting you fish! Hiccup protests when the black dragon cuffs him into the wet sand and screams at him, having caught on to the ruse. Fish fish fish you! he insists.

Toothless thumps him again roughly when he tries to come back up to his paws, snarling and keeping him on his back. Before the dragon-boy can get his wind back, the black dragon picks up a fish and drops it squarely on his face.

You you fish! Toothless retorts.

Hiccup shakes it off without trying to get up, refusing to eat it as Toothless-beloved clearly wants him to. Hurting you fish good love you fish fish you love love.

Toothless growls.

Fish you fish, Hiccup reiterates stubbornly, growling back and refusing to back down despite the fact that he's flat on the ground and his stomach has chosen that moment to make a hungry noise. He is hungry, but he can scavenge and eat things that Toothless cannot, and Toothless is hurt and needs the food to heal properly. When Toothless heals, they can leave and be safe and in the sky again. Toothless can carry him if he is too hungry to fly, but he cannot carry Toothless if he doesn't heal. He hasn't done the math – Hiccup's concept of numbers runs to the singular this/me/you, the plural us, and the superplural many – but he can think about the future and understands the give-and-take of getting there.

You fish, he insists. Fish you fish better good flying flying no here nest safe go good good good, and, a whistle, now!

Toothless eats the disputed fish, but he grumbles the whole time about stupid you hatchling little you stupid stupid you fish fish you stupid, with a reckless or so thrown in there for emphasis.

Magnanimous in victory, Hiccup croons love love love you love and manages to get all the way up off the sand to press close to his dragon-love and nuzzle along his side.

The other dragon manages to drop a scrap of fish into his mouth when he opens it to make a particular crooning sound and then laughs at him smugly.

Hiccup houghs and eats the bit of fish. But he still makes sure most of his catch goes to Toothless.

The dragon and the dragon-boy who are two halves of a whole do not exactly have a sleep schedule. They sleep when they are tired and relatively certain they are safe and nothing will ambush them in their sleep, except hatchling nest-mates, who are not dangerous. They eat when they are hungry and they can find food to eat. Whether it is dark outside or the sun is up does not particularly matter to them.

When they have woken and talked to and groomed each other, and Toothless' wounds have been checked, they emerge from their cave to check their area for threats or possible food. They do so to a miraculous sight illuminated by midmorning sun.

Weighted down by a rock on the beach, well out of range of the tide or sea spray, is an entire stack of large pieces of paper.

Hiccup stares in shock, softly and spontaneously yelping to himself/Toothless equally. He loves to draw – their nest back at home is covered in designs that he's added to the rock in chalk and charcoal. He draws incessantly, because it makes him happy and it helps him think about things he doesn't have words for – he drew his scale-skins and his wings before he made them – and his nest-mates like to see him do it. His decorations and designs are slowly spreading throughout the network of caves. They get rubbed out quite often as dragon-scales brush against the stone, water from dragons who have been in the ocean is tracked in, or fire is blown and the patterns are charred away, but he doesn't mind, because it means he gets to do it all again. He makes patterns that look like things and patterns that look like feelings and patterns that look like nest-mates. He doesn't remember learning to do so – it's too far back and happened to someone who was something else. He doesn't know this either; he draws as instinctively as his dragon-kin breathe fire.

The walls of their sea-cave here have already acquired some absent-minded sketches in charcoal from a Toothless-charred stick and a chalk from rocks found on the shore, and the paper he hunted away from the she threat stalking just last night is covered in small drawings of his thoughts that are rapidly using up both sides. Hiccup has learned to use the space he has effectively, and he's as observant of his surroundings as any hunter and forager. Toothless features predominantly, quite lifelike, because Toothless is as much part of his thoughts as – and synonymous with – his concept of me.

Once, he found – well, stole – some crude paints. They were his favorite toy ever until he ran out, which happened quite quickly, and then he spent a considerable amount of time trying to make new ones out of things. The results were even cruder than the originals but he loves them, and some of the more permanent designs scattered around their island nest-home and many of the ones he has put onto paper – he hoards those drawings carefully and treasures them – have colors added to them.

He has never seen so much paper in one place before. Usually he steals it a page at a time on raids or, occasionally, when his kin find shipwrecks and come to tell him so he can take it apart for what he wants. Shipwrecks are good, except for the one that had still had pfikingr in it yelling one of the few Norse words he recognizes as meaning himself and his Toothless-half and their nest-mates. He would mispronounce it "drakkkn", but he knows what it means. They had screamed loud angry pfikingr sounds at him and their long-claws had tried to cut him so he had shrieked back at them and flown away. Paper, he has learned, burns so easily, but it dries out well enough.

Hiccup is overwhelmed. Paper paper paper paper paper, he hums, stunned. He doesn't have a concept for this much paper all at once. He only has a word for paper because he'd invented it. His kin didn't need a sound for it – it didn't interest them. But the way he talks about paper has spread to the rest of his kin and now they all know what he means when he or someone else uses the sound. (His word for it is actually fairly close, by sheer chance – a stuttering purring noise that comes out as pprr pprr pprr pprr. Hiccup does not know this.)

It's simply too good to be true, and he crouches at the lip of the cave and stares, too wary and cautious to approach something new and different and unfamiliar without making very sure first it's not a threat.

Confused paper confused confused paper look you you? he whimpers.

Toothless stands over him protectively and follows his gaze, rumbling. The paper on the beach has upset his Hiccup-beloved and so he doesn't like it. Careful watch careful trap slow, he warns.

Trap paper trap? Hiccup wonders aloud. He thinks about it, vocalizing trap trap rage hate trap fear trap fear pain trap. He hates dragon traps; when he was a little hatchling who couldn't fly yet he had stepped into a rope one and been caught. His screams of outright terror and indignation had drawn his entire flock to him: the ropes had been torn open and the outraged dragon-boy released, but there are other and bitier traps out there that he has seen and in many cases rescued his kin from – his nest-mates love his clever paws – so he is afraid of them.

The other dragon sniffs the air, and senses she threat hunt stalk.

Hiccup is utterly heartbroken, frustrated and upset. Paper paper trap sa-a-a-a-a-d want no want trap paper bad angry trap bite hurt paper threat sad sad trap want want bad no no no, he cries, a mixture of distressed noises and body language and gestures. Howling his unhappiness and disappointment, he crouches on the shelf outside the cave the same way Toothless does and puts his jaw on the rock between his front paws. Sa-a-a-a-a-d, the dragon-boy wails quietly.

Toothless curls around him and grooms him comfortingly, purring safe safe happy love you me love safe us good good calm love. Before very long Hiccup is grooming him back, scratching soft-claws under flying-with and nuzzling against the soft spots under the other dragon's jaw and along his neck, thrumming his own love and devotion to his other half. He only casts a few regretful glances over at the amazing stack of paper, but Toothless catches him at it.

Trap bad no no! the black dragon commands him.

Yes yes me good careful promise yes, Hiccup croons, rolling on to his back right under the bigger dragon's jaws and baring his throat in surrender and submission, proving with his absolute trust that he believes what Toothless says to him.

When Toothless lowers his jaw to the vulnerable dragon-boy beneath him, it's an affectionate lick and not a reproving bite, so Hiccup coils back to a crouch, rubs his cheek against Toothless' own, and purrs adoringly.

Love you love you love you, he's saying. You me us good safe.

Once he knows he can't have something he wants, Hiccup moves on, because sulking is not a survival skill. This is entirely different from wanting things that he doesn't have, like his wings. One is a problem to be solved, the other is something he can't change.

He wants the paper, but he can't have it, because it's probably a trap – why else would there be paper that smells like the she threat from the day before there?

He wants food. That can be arranged. Food gets priority; the paper gets ignored.

The wind catches his wings as Toothless urges him over the edge and he forgets his disappointment in the rush of flying flying flying happy good flying, he chirps into the air as he banks and spins, catching an updraft for a brief joyous moment that brings him all the way to level with the cave again – he folds a wing momentarily to turn in midair and whistles up up up to Toothless, who grins a dragon's grin at him – and then dives out of it, pulling up just in time to avoid a hard flat water landing and settling into the water almost gracefully.

He's never quite managed to master the direct sharp dive from air into water that is one of the ways that Toothless fishes when they find a whole school close to the surface, although Hiccup flies with him in that maneuver all the time. Until he knows the waters in this inlet better he's not going to risk trying it out here. There could be rocks he doesn't know about – there often are.

In case he needs to dive from sky to water here in the future - fear flee water dive water safe? water dive water flee scared, he vocalizes to himself – he gulps in air and submerges, creating a mental map of the water's currents and upwells and undertows and landscape the same way he would the same features and landmarks in the air. He comes up again with a better idea of the area and a large nearly-dead fish that he promptly transfers to his mouth so he can use his paws for swimming. It flails weakly and he bites down into it until it stops without thinking about it, heading back in to the shore where Toothless-love has arrived.

Hiccup insists – successfully – that Toothless eat the fish, demonstrating that he doesn't need it himself by digging for shellfish, which the black dragon does not have the patience to either find or eat.

He traces a wide arc around the stack of paper as he scavenges, clicking regretfully at it once. He does not know where the trap is set, only that there must be one. There is no other conceivable reason for it to be there; anything tempting that appears from nowhere and smells of pfikingr has to be a trap. This evasive movement brings him to the scrubby forest edge, which might contain other things he could eat.

Prowling around one tree, something occurs to him. He looks up into it, and balances on his heels to push one paw against the trunk. The top of it sways when he pushes again harder, and he watches the pattern of the branches, noting a broken one, a scuff there, a crumpled clump of needles there, its position on the shore… He makes connections and forms wordless ideas.

Hiccup calls out his dragon-companion's name. He's missing some of the sounds that would belong in the full Norse version, and he does not readily combine vowel sounds and consonants in the same concept sound, which is why it emerges as a clicking, hissing "Tt-th-ss!" He deliberately adds the crooning tone that makes it the adoring Toothless-love.

Toothless follows his dragon-boy-half and twines around him, licking bits of fish from his own muzzle and then his Hiccup-love's fur in a single motion and humming a wordless general questioning noise.

Up? Hiccup requests with a whistle. The bigger dragon lets him climb onto his nose and rears up, broken wing trailing uncomfortably, boosting him up into the tree. Toothless then watches anxiously as the dragon-boy climbs further into it. The last time he saw Hiccup-beloved climb a tree like this, he fell out of it.

The black dragon had been making playful little mock-attack swoops down at him at the time, and it had been a windy day, but Hiccup had simply unfolded his wings and Toothless had caught him long before he would have hit the ground anyway.

Still, Toothless knows he can't do the same here and now. He's grounded. He doesn't like having his other half out of his reach, and reminds the climbing dragon-boy of this in a mixture of low, liquid cries and chattering noises. The working wing flutters reflexively – he wants to leap into the air and go after his partner.

Hiccup, the more reckless of the pair, never worries about falling out or off of anything, and he climbs freely, testing his idea even as he chirps reassurance to Toothless on the ground below him. Before very long, he's reached the same branch that he thinks the she threat might have been on last night, and discovered that he can see their sea-cave nest clearly.

Bad bad look she threat us safe no safe nest bad angry scared, he mutters and chirps, descending from branch to branch more quickly than he'd climbed. He's still vocalizing the same thought when he reaches a place where he has a clear leap from tree to ground, landing crouched and ready to take off again if he's alighted somewhere unexpectedly dangerous, front paws braced lightly on the ground.

This bad bad this bad angry hunt fight no she threat stalk, he growls to Toothless, half-rising and brushing against and around the tree that lets the she threat watch them and shoving his shoulder against it, making angry sounds. He had been more interested in stealing the paper from the she threat and as long as she had been relatively still and not directly trying to hurt them he had been content to avoid her. But seeing her appear in the top of the tree stalking them had frightened him, until he remembered that pfikingr flying no and saw that she wasn't trying to take his paper away.

Hiccup has been stealing from Vikings for most of his life; as soon as he gets his paws on something he wants he considers it his.

She had gone away, so that was all right. He did not want her to come back but she threat stalk trap hunt stalk no stalk trap angry, he mutters.

Now Toothless flips his tail around and uses it to pull his dragon-boy, still making disgruntled noises, away from the objectionable tree. He purrs at Hiccup to quiet him, licks him thoroughly when that doesn't work at first, and then nuzzles him. Hiccup crowds in close to him, rubbing scales against scales and purring.

If his dragon-boy doesn't like this tree, then Toothless doesn't either. He slams his full weight into it and listens to the crack! that results. The impact sends a shock through the broken bones in his off-side wing, but not too much pain, so he does it again. It doesn't go down immediately but after a few more blows, a targeted blast of fire/power, and some industrious undermining of the roots the trunk snaps critically. It doesn't collapse completely, not all at once, but it does stagger and sag, top dropping quite a lot lower than it had been and becoming very unsafe to even try climbing. Toothless wouldn't let his Hiccup-self up in that, and would carry him away by the scruff of his neck scolding him if he tried. That's surprisingly effective.

Fortunately, Hiccup shows no further desire to climb the tree. Instead he thrums adoringly at the black dragon and pets and caresses him affectionately, chirping gratitude and love.

As it happens, the broken trunk contains a squirrels' nest, which Toothless eats the blind and squirming contents of quite happily. Further scavenging among the wreckage reveals a dislodged bird's nest with eggs that Hiccup can eat, which he does, picking out woven-in feathers from the structure of the smashed nest, playing with the texture and admiring the colors of them. He puts them into his fur and whistle-chirps bird bird me bird Hiccup bird and laughs, imitating the whistles and calls of birds and making little mock-leaps at Toothless, purring as the black dragon bats him around on the ground teasing bird chase bird you bird chase love. All in all, it's a successful effort, and dragon and dragon-boy are pleased with themselves and each other.

They lap up cold water from the snowmelt cataract that runs past their cave and down the cliff to the sea, splashing each other playfully in the process, and then Toothless curls up on the sand so that Hiccup-beloved can check the splints on his wing, which he insists on doing, complaining hurting you hurting bad bad hurting worry you love you us good we? anxiously as he does so.

He wants to bind the wing in close to the other dragon's body, keeping it still and in tight to reduce the shock from his movements. Hiccup does not have the vocabulary to explain this, so he draws what he wants to do in the sand to illustrate it to Toothless, asking yes good you love yes no hurting better yes yes me you better love yes?

The black dragon looks over his sketch and refuses. The broken wing is throwing his balance off but it would be worse if he couldn't even extend the wing, even if he can't move it properly, and trying to run or climb up to or down from their sea-cave with one wing bound up would be like flying in uncontrollable storm winds. No no up go bad storm-air-warning moving flying this good no hurting good.

The dragon-boy tries to insist, yelping. The dragon huffs a breath at him and prods his chest with his nose, pushing him away from the drawing. He puts one front paw on it, scuffing it out. No no no, he says, but tempers it with love you love you good you.

His other half forgives him their disagreement instantly, crooning loving sounds and scratching soft-claws under his jaw and rubbing their skins together soothingly, delighting in being with him. Toothless dozes off as his beloved-companion does so, knowing that Hiccup will keep watch and look after them.

Satisfied as much as he can be with the condition of the wounds even if Toothless won't let him bind the wing the way he thinks it should be, Hiccup curls as far as he can fit into the space between the black dragon's front leg and his side, pressing his skull against Toothless' ribs and listening to his heartbeat. He purrs his devotion to his sleeping partner-love, thrumming deeply in his own chest and sending the vibrations through both their bodies.

Even in his sleep Toothless hums back at him.

At ease in his own environment and with the dragon who is half of himself, Hiccup is content for the moment. It's a condition quickly spoiled when he spots movement in the forest.

The dragon-boy shifts attentively, tensing and raising his head to stare. His mouth half-opens in case he needs to scream a warning, but does not cry out yet.

The movement at the edge of the trees resolves itself into the she threat, who emerges into the open space tentatively, looking around.

Hiccup pays very close attention. She's upright and moving and he doesn't know what she'll do next.

The first thing she looks at, if he's following her gaze, is the stack of paper, which has remained undisturbed. She makes unhappy Viking noises and does something awkward with her front legs. For a moment she does nothing else at all, although the noises continue.

The she threat's attention – and Hiccup's, watching both her and her likely focus – moves to the broken tree, which comes to her attention as a dislodged clump of needles blows across the gritty, rocky sand and brushes against her. Her mouth opens, without making Viking sounds or baring her teeth.

Then she makes more noises, none of which the dragon-boy understands. Her tone makes more sense to him, though – she sounds angry and maybe a little scared. Hiccup prepares to wake Toothless and run or fight, scratching soft-claws against his scales and making soft sounds of worry and possible distress.

When pfikingr sound angry and scared they try to hurt dragons.

Toothless' green eyes open, but he does not move. Neither does the dragon-boy – if they stay still she might not see them and might go away again.

But she looks at them.

She threat she threat no bad scared no scared she threat angry, Hiccup snarls. Toothless growls, moves from sleeping-relaxed to awake-alert-crouch and begins to breathe in a whistling breath to blast her away, a noise that comforts the dragon-boy as much as it is meant to threaten an enemy.

The she threat makes more Viking sounds and waves her paws in the air, staring at them and changing color. Hiccup bristles under the stare, watching the paws for any sharp-claws that might suddenly appear in them, and continues to join his own growl to Toothless'.

She backs off under their display of power and danger, lowering her paws and stepping away. She keeps making noises, though. He doesn't recognize any of them until the one that sounds a bit like his name. It's not close enough for him to respond, though.

Then, to his surprise, she tries again, calling out sounds like the way the St-t-t-t-t-t-kk had made them.

At that, Hiccup tips his head slightly to the side, interested. He whistles a small curious note under the burgeoning shriek still building in Toothless' throat. The black dragon hears him, though, relaxing slightly and letting the power return to the heart-fires in his chest.

Both sides are very quiet for a moment, evaluating and reevaluating each other. Hiccup hasn't moved far from his original spot on the ground, but he is sitting up as alertly as his dragon-self.

Recovering, the she threat makes the sounds again, raising one paw – dragon and dragon-boy growl at it in unison – and extending it towards them.

A moment later, she brings the paw in to her own chest and makes a new noise.

Then she makes it again.

Toothless rumbles a question at the dragon-boy, no more than a vibration running through their hearts. For a moment, Hiccup stops staring at the she threat – Toothless will watch her – and nuzzles in to his dragon-love's side reassuringly. Calm wait wary wait peace calm careful, he hums to Toothless.

He turns his eyes back to the she threat, still staring at him. Hiccup works his jaw awkwardly, trying to imitate the noise. "Uh st-t-t-t-tt," he gets out.

She sounds happy when she repeats the new noise, following it with more sounds he doesn't know and can't sort out.

Then she does a good thing.

Uh st-t-t-t-TT points at Toothless and makes a curious sound.

The dragon-boy perks up immediately and puts his paw on his dragon-love's nose, rattling "Tt-th-ss!" Then he hums love happy love us we love, nuzzling against the warm black scales of his side and neck and jaw and rubbing scale-skins together.

Toothless purrs back and licks his dragon-boy affectionately, returning the devotion and adoration.

They keep part of their attention on Uh st-t-t-t-TT as they do so, of course. Just because she's not a threat right now doesn't mean she can't be so in the future.

She grimaces, trying to make the noises of the dragon's name and failing. Instead, she says something to them neither dragon nor boy understands, and backs away slowly. Moving to the paper – trap trap bad trap angry sad, Hiccup complains to Toothless as she does so – she picks up a single sheet from beneath the rock holding it in place.

Uh st-t-t-t-TT makes more noises and holds the paper out in front of her.

Paper worried worried she threat paper trap bad worried, Hiccup vocalizes suspiciously. Toothless shifts just a little bit on the gritty sand so he can curl his tail around, protectively, in front of the dragon-boy now crouched just off his right foreleg.

Us safe good us love, Toothless reassures him, touching his nose gently to Hiccup's side.

Still holding the paper, she takes another couple of slow steps forward towards them. The noises she is making are soft but still meaningless.

Another step, and she has gotten too close. The dragon-boy bristles, hunching his shoulders and baring his teeth, roaring a warning as he sets his front paws into the ground and moves so he can either pounce on to the attack or leap away in retreat if need be.

Toothless joins in, summoning up his heart-fire whistle and opening his jaws just far enough to reveal the brightening glow.

Immediately, Uh st-t-t-t-TT crouches down to the sand, almost like one of their nest-mates who has lost a fight and is submitting to the winner. She puts the paper down, and then moves backwards without rising back to her paws and without taking her eyes off them. When she's gotten far enough away that Toothless has swallowed his fires again and Hiccup's growls can only be heard as a rumble through both their bodies, she sits back on her back feet in a crouch not unlike Hiccup's alert stance and points at the paper, and then at dragon and dragon-boy.

Paper, dragons. Dragons, paper. Paper, dragons…

She backs away further, almost to the edge of the scrubby forest, and sits down differently, curling her back legs awkwardly. How could she possibly jump from…?

A sea wind blows in, ruffling Hiccup's fur and the needles of the trees and the paper, which starts to blow away.

Want want want paper paper want yes trap? trap?

Toothless growls careful trap careful me guard protect.

Gradually, Hiccup slinks towards the paper, one paw at a time, keeping a careful eye on the Uh st-t-t-t-TT in case she tries to leap at him or pulls out a sharp thing.

She does neither, and he snatches up the paper and retreats to the safety of his dragon-love's embrace, sending sand flying and pressing himself up against the black dragon as if frozen by the brief absence.

Hiccup buries his face in the bigger dragon's ribs and hides for a moment. The unbroken black wing comes up and folds over him.

When he comes out, the Uh st-t-t-t-TT is still there, but she hasn't moved.

"Uh st-t-t-t-tt," he says at her.

She raises an empty paw again – he flinches away reflexively, but she points at the trap trap bad paper. Except, Hiccup thinks, looking down at the piece still clutched in his paw…

The paw moves from the trap trap bad paper to the dragon-boy and his dragon; back to the paper; back to the dragons.

Tentatively, Hiccup lifts a paw at the trap paper trap, and puts it against his own chest and then Toothless' nose.

The Uh st-t-t-t-TT makes a happy noise, waves both front paws up in the air above her head, unfolds her back legs, and gets up. She waves one paw in the air again, makes sounds that include the way she said his name earlier, and turns her back on them and goes away.

The dragon-boy stares after her for a while, pressed close against Toothless' heart-fires and trembling with tension and puzzlement.

Confused confused angry confused pfikingr bad trap no trap pfikingr paper trap angry us confused worried us scared bad want GO us! he howls and gestures finally, frustrated and baffled.

Toothless, who is equally confused and worried, can only croon reassurances of the total and unconditional love that they share – us we love you me us we love love love us – to the dragon-boy who is part of him.

Love you love, Hiccup croons back at him. Nest safe us nest go? He adds a dragonish sound for which there is no good single human concept, involving curling up in a nest together and being together and at peace, ideally in the dark and warm.

The dragon-boy scrambles onto the bigger dragon's back and they retreat to a safer place where there are no pfikingr.

But he takes the bit of paper with them.

To be continued.