ON WITH THE SHOW!
Notice: I may have told some of you that we had two chapters left in this story; the characters have now told me differently and it's more like five including this one. Also, I am still assembling a Nightfall soundtrack and the list of suggestions that I agree with will be posted at the end of the story rather than piecemeal.
Nightfall, Part Seventeen
When Hiccup and Toothless had left home this most recent time, they had done so without a destination. When they are exploring, they go wherever they will, because they wish to. They do not travel meaning to go somewhere. They simply need to wander. When they leave the nest they set no direction, just hunting for elsewhere, following the wind by day and picking a star by night and chasing it across the sky. But they are not lost – Toothless has an excellent sense of direction and they can always find home by the stars.
Now they are doing so as fast as possible, fleeing for home and safety with nightmares and terror behind them. They save their breath for flying but their minds are racing as fast as wings, trying to make sense of all that has happened to them and trying to forget it at the same time, to set their tail to it all in their minds as they have with their bodies and leave it over the horizon so that the fear and confusion and horror will stop.
They speak to each other constantly without words, with the way Toothless breathes and the small sounds he makes as Hiccup presses close against his shoulders and the back of his neck and rubs his paws across black scales, thrumming back in a low, worried vibration more feeling than noise.
The two-who-are-one fly almost silently, but they do so intimately aware of each other's mood and thoughts, because they are sharing them.
Hiccup cannot make sense of why an Alpha who had tried to steal them, who had put lies in the teeth of another to carry to them, would let them go. The young dragon would have done anything to keep himself and his dragon-heart alive, would have stayed away from home forever and submitted to the will of the pfikingr Alpha if it had meant that Toothless would live. They had fought and the Alpha had won his surrender.
The humans had shot them down but then they had let them go. The human chfff with the red fur had said the same words that Uh strrrrTT had said, that he was their mother's mate. And that was not so but he had believed it. Hiccup had seen that he believed it even as he had not hurt them.
But even trying to untangle that knot of tails is better than thinking about the monster, the eater of dragons that had wanted to eat them too, that had tried so hard to trap them and make them belong to her with their minds dulled and their unity shattered and their heart-fires banked and guttering under the weight of her hunger.
He shudders and Toothless growls, smelling the fear and horror of his heart's-love, picking up speed and beating his wings as hard as possible to take them upwards, searching the air for a good wind, a taking-them-home wind that will blow even their scent away from the creature in the fogs.
Hours later it is Hiccup who insists that they set down, feeling the tension in his partner's body grow too much and sensing that their flight is hurting Toothless, wounded so recently. His muscles must be burning and his throat dry.
Down down wait no flying wait down now you easy us down resting peace easy good now down! he yelps, pulling on the flying-with to break Toothless' increasingly rough flight and using his lesser weight to throw the bigger dragon off-balance, suggesting and encouraging rest.
Toothless refuses no no no no and rallies.
They argue for a while – Toothless wants to get home as fast as possible to the nest where they know they are safe from the monster that had tried to command them, but Hiccup will not allow him to hurt himself doing so. They are far away now, they are fastest of all in their nest and they are alert now, they are ready; the monster will not find them if they are watching for her because she is loud and big and angry and they are small and clever together. Finally he convinces his dragon-love to rest by pretending that he needs the rest, which is a lie a bit but done in love.
A heavily forested island, which they have landed on before and know is safe as long as they watch for traps, provides them with food and clear water and shelters them until Toothless is breathing better and his wings hurt less. Hiccup delays them a little longer by the simple strategy of lying down and refusing to move, watching Toothless carefully to judge when he is really ready to fly again rather than insisting that he is. His love should know better than to lie to him, Hiccup believes, willfully ignoring that he is doing much the same thing.
They hunt fish and no traps hunt them, and they rest together on watch for nightmares that are real, and then resume their journey home.
In time with the flight of the sun far above them, higher than they could ever go although they have tried but it flies in air that is not friendly to dragons, ice replaces open water and they are traveling through fangs of it that they know. Hiccup purrs with delight at the cold clear smell of the air of home, resting his cheek on Toothless' head and humming joy returning us together joy.
And then from above they hear a shriek, a welcome sound, a flock sound. One of their family is hunting and has seen them, and is glad that they are home.
Toothless calls a tired greeting back in passing, but the dragon-pair wants to be back in their nest and sleeping safely and do not stop.
The ice of their king, protecting their home – the relief of seeing it again is indescribable. They have been away longer than they meant to, longer than they wanted – but now they are home. They have survived everything, things they hardly dare to remember, and they are home.
More flock-mates greet them as they fly in over snow and through the twisting tunnels that lead to one of the large open caverns where dragons can gather and share warmth among the enclosing stone. Hiccup knows them all by their voices alone – in the pure darkness of the north the pair can hunt with many dragons all around them, and the half-darkness of the nest as the stars chase the sun away is unchanged from what he has lived with all his life.
Tomorrow, tomorrow they will look at everything with new eyes and be glad to be among their family again where they belong. Tonight they want only to sleep without dreams.
The flock has grown used to the two dragons being away quite often, and their just-for-us nest, the nest that is just right for them, is undisturbed even among a flock of dragons where fighting over things and stealing from each other is a fun thing and a good game. The top of the overhang of rock is a place where others can perch, but the space underneath and behind the rock fangs that bite up surrounding it is theirs. No one else sleeps there but them; there they can hide together and watch the others and simply be in perfect contentment. It is their own small cave and their own private world.
Even their toys and their tools – and one can easily be the other – are undisturbed. The precious bits of paper that Hiccup has scavenged or stolen and drawn all over are still pinned beneath a good flat rock that was in the water and still smells like ocean even though it has not been there for a long time now. The stolen pfikingr things that he uses to make and care for his scales and his claws and his wings have not been moved. The stolen holding-things that Hiccup has put his colors in have not been knocked over this time and they have not colored all the stones again in the red and the brown and the yellowish and the purple but not the black charcoal that is easy to make with dragon-fire and so he does not keep.
Without seeing any of it, Toothless stumbles into their nest and feels his beloved-companion slip from his back and down to the stone worn smooth from dragon-scales and still slightly discolored from when Starwatcher chased Hiccup into the nest and they knocked the colors all over but that is familiar and funny now.
Trusting Hiccup to know what he is doing in their own home, the black dragon flops down and purrs happily. It is nice and cool on muscles that are sore even if they did stop. And it is safe.
The relief is a physical thing, uncurling through their bodies like when there is a coal inside the wing that burns until it can be stretched away.
From behind him, he feels Hiccup lean his front paws and chest on his spine and stroke down it reassuringly. The bigger dragon rumbles love love love love love and feels a soft cheek rub against his scales, absolutely and unconditionally returning that love.
Toothless is already almost asleep when he feels his companion's clever paws undoing the ties that bind the flying-with to him and pulling it away; the dragon shifts reluctantly when Hiccup cannot do any more without his cooperation, but the moment it is free of him he goes back to sleep, knowing even as he does that Hiccup is purring too.
This, this is home; this is where he belongs, Hiccup knows as he wraps the leather into the smallest tangle he can like a hatchling curling up safe. Home is Toothless sleeping at his side, it is the smell of the many dragons that make up the one scent of the nest, it is the cries of his family as they play and hunt and quarrel with each other; it is the sound of the distant waves through the stone and the drip of smaller waters.
Home is no monsters, no humans, no threats, no fear. And each other.
It is perfect. Hiccup never wants to leave again even as he knows that he will not think that forever.
He puts the flying-with out of the way in the place where it goes and climbs over the sleeping dragon to his place at Toothless' side. It is where he has been all his life and is the only place he ever wants to be.
Hiccup is never going to move again.
He is going to lie here, awake but not awake, with Toothless warm against his back and a dragon-wing over him and their hearts beating together perfectly like even their bodies are purring. He will float in the right now like on calm sea waves that move him but do not sink him when the sun is on his face and the cool sea water is on the rest of him, fearless and content, and it will be perfect forever.
Happy love good happy home us home us family together home now safe happy, the young dragon hums and purrs to himself and his still-sleeping companion, closing his eyes again because there is nothing to see and that is how it should be.
He has no way of telling how long he has been asleep and he does not care. It is a long time – when he stretches ever so slightly just because he can his body is stiff. Hiccup chirps a str-e-e-e-e-tch noise and settles down again.
Before he can go back to sleep, a new noise changes his mind – a familiar hough.
Smiling his dragon's smile, Hiccup rolls out of the stretch to peek out from under Toothless' wing.
At first he sees no one and wonders, tipping his head to one side curiously and whistling a disappointed where no here no?
Then the ground just outside their nest past the rock fangs twitches, a broad-finned tail lifting into view briefly before smacking back down, and Hiccup looks up past the claws wrapped around the lip of the rock ledge above to the familiar face upside-down looming over them.
Cloudjumper knows they are back.
The instant he sees that Hiccup is awake, he starts growling.
They are in trouble.
Gone Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss you-both where gone worried worried you-both reckless gone far gone, he rumbles in irritation worry searching annoyed frustrated.
His adopted son flattens himself to the rock meekly and whimpers back a hopeful appeal, rolling onto his back to claim obedience and better behavior in future and see the dragon he loves like a father at the same time.
Cloudjumper happy good joy Cloudjumper no angry Cloudjumper us sorry sorry back us home us good us brave us back sorry sorry, he promises as Toothless wakes up and lifts his head to join in the protest and the greeting at the same time.
They were away for a long time and they have worried Cloudjumper and they are sorry but they have been very brave!
But Hiccup is so happy to be back that the remorse doesn't last long, and the cringe turns into a delighted wiggle and a flip back over again to pounce at the irresistibly tapping tail.
This is a game they have played in the past and when he was smaller Cloudjumper could lift him all the way into the air with it when he managed to make contact. But he is unhappy with them today and snaps it away so that Hiccup's leap misses and he tumbles to the rock unhurt.
Instead, Cloudjumper reaches out with his wing-claw and leans over the ledge to pin him down, overshadowing their nest entirely and extending one wing to briefly separate the dragon on the ground and the one still in the small cave, which he knows the two-who-are-one do not like. You! he snaps. You gone you hurt worried worried worried! His tail lashes, and nest-mates who have come to greet the returned pair or happen to be in the area dodge or are knocked into by the bigger dragon's tail, and the area clears for a while until Cloudjumper has finished scolding the wandering pair.
This happens often and the nest is used to it.
Toothless howls with irritation mine mine mine at the barrier between him and his beloved-companion and makes little diving leaps at the edge of the wing until he manages to dodge past the dragon-wing and the rock fangs. He does not get far – Cloudjumper cuffs him with that waving tail for good measure.
The smaller black dragon snaps at it and rears up, flaring his wings in protest, only to fold them tightly again when golden eyes snap around to see the scars on them and widen.
Hurt? Cloudjumper demands, lowering his heavy head to look closer and growling but not at them. His snarl promises vengeance on whoever has hurt them, is angry angry but it turns into a reluctant mutter of good you back.
Hiccup is not intimidated anyway. He knows Cloudjumper loves them and wants them to be safe and well and happy but they need to wander. And now that he is awake he remembers that he has questions, but he does not get to ask them before Cloudjumper releases him and climbs away up onto a faraway ledge where the sunlight from outside streams into the heights of the cavern, pretending to ignore them and sulking.
Sitting up, Hiccup shakes himself all over and finishes the stretch he started before Cloudjumper interrupted him, yawning morning morning happy you happy love us home good home safe good to Toothless, who purrs and pushes him back over with his nose.
He will stay on the ground for now if that is what his family wants of him, so for a moment Hiccup considers going back to sleep right where he is. It is not as comfortable as their nest but it is home. Flight is his life but it is good to have the solid stone beneath him, to know that it will not shift under his paws and leave him drowning in ocean.
Instead he rolls back to those paws and scrambles after Toothless as stomachs rumble and remember that they were flying very far before.
Questions can wait. The fear is over and there is time. And part of him wants to forget and does not want to know.
They have been away so long! It was a different season when they left and eggs that were laid before they left have hatched now.
There are new hatchlings to meet and to play with, and Hiccup is very glad, because playing with them will help him forget everything that has made him doubt what he is and that tried to harm them before. So he climbs easily to the high ledge where the dragon he thinks of as something like Sun Chaser has made her nest.
Hiccup identifies his flock-mates by the way they act or things that they have done that were special or the way they look or sometimes just as an awareness and recognition of who they are more than any name ever can. And while the sounds he makes to call them do not always mean the words a human would use to describe the name, they are the right noises because they are the noises he uses and the ones they recognize and use for themselves.
He is eager to see the hatchlings that are not eggs anymore. They are family, the hatchlings and the young dragon; they belong to the same flock and one day they will fly and hunt and play and fight together.
Toothless waits below, engaged in an ignoring match with Cloudjumper, who is lurking wherever the dragon-pair goes today, as if they are going to run off again immediately. They would not do that. They have come home where they belong.
But when Hiccup croons a curious greeting to his little brothers and sisters, they do not know him; they are afraid of him. They sniff at him and retreat to the other side of the nest, peeping and frightened, hiding behind wings that do not fit them yet. One of them hisses at him.
Horrified, he drops to the bed of the nest and bares his stomach and throat submissively, defenseless and trusting, to look up at Sun Chaser, who knows he is here and knows him and knows that he is no threat to her hatchlings, whimpering no threat no danger small good me family good no threat why why frightened upset sorry why?
Sun Chaser knows he would not hurt them, so she only rests a paw on him and does not attack as she would if anyone else was upsetting the little ones – besides, he is too small to fight with too roughly and his family knows this. They play with him fiercely, they knock him down and aside and wrestle with him, but they know that they should not bite too hard or claw too deeply. Hiccup has broken bones before, but never under the paws of his nest-mates.
He lets her sniff him, and immediately she growls, but not at him. Stink you human stink! she scolds. Human threat danger avoid you fly-away no play humans bad danger you avoid! You you know hatchling no!
He does know! He does! He was taught the smell of human as a hatchling just like every other little dragon in the nest from the pfikingr metal things and fur things that smell most strongly that they steal and then use to teach hatchlings the scent. He was warned to avoid it because humans are dangerous. He does know that!
…doesn't he?
Hiccup shudders, pawing at his skin as if he could scrub the smell away just by wishing. He wants it gone!
Something crumbles under his soft-claws and he pulls them away from his jaws to look.
There is dried blood caught under the soft-claws and he remembers biting the Alpha to make him let go and let him go back to Toothless to cut him loose from the trap. There is human blood on him and he had forgotten!
Now he tries to get free, and Sun Chaser lifts her paw immediately.
Hiccup tumbles down the slope that he had just climbed, bolting past Toothless, who cries out after him in distress, but he is making the same noise and they blend together as one.
He knows the nest perfectly, can move around it in the dark, even when there are many dragons all around, and unerringly races for an underground lake that is seawater so not to drink but fine to wash or fish in. Without stopping he plunges into the water, splashing it everywhere and shaking not from the shock of cold but from anger.
Gulping in a breath, the young dragon submerges himself in the icy salt water, clawing at his own skin in the darkness.
But by the time Toothless catches up with him he is crouched in on himself on the shore, soaking wet and silent with pure unhappiness, paws wrapped around his head to hide from thoughts he is too intelligent not to have.
He knows it does not work that way. He knows he cannot wash off the stink of human – all he will do is make it clearer even though the Alpha's blood is gone from his skin. He also knows that his body is lying and he is not human. He is a dragon and he belongs with Toothless, who has found him in the dark and is purring to comfort him.
You mine, Toothless reminds him.
Hiccup hugs him wordlessly, taking deep breaths and comfort from his presence. Yes yes yes, he agrees.
Stink not-want stink human, he complains a moment later.
The black dragon sighs, thinking, then urges him up up go us.
The flying-with is still tangled up in their nest, but they do not need it just to be together, only when they fly very fast and very far and sometimes upside down because that is fun. When he is on Toothless' shoulders as he should be the black dragon carries him back up into the light.
Hiccup does not question where they are going. He trusts Toothless.
Before very long, they are back in the central cavern where so many of the flock rest or wander through or can see from other roosts in the nest. Toothless drops to a resting crouch and twists his head to catch his partner's back paw and pull him down, batting him like a hatchling to rest between the bigger dragon's front paws.
Licking Hiccup's fur briefly, Toothless sits up and yelps for attention, calling the flock.
Dragons are curious – he soon has many, many nest-mates looking at them wondering what new entertainment this is. It is not the entire flock – there are far too many of them to fit in this single cave, and many of them will be out flying and hunting – but Hiccup knows everyone and they all know him.
Despite himself, even though this family has loved him all his life, part of him doubts. He crouches just a little against Toothless' chest, but looks back at them all.
Hiccup flock yes flock Hiccup family yes ours yes ours yes yes! Toothless declares, and roars an assertion and a challenge to anyone who disagrees, curling his tail around his beloved and embracing him with his paws.
The young dragon knows every voice in the nest, but even he cannot pick out who first agrees yes yes ours flock Hiccup ours family yes! as the consensus echoes off the cavern walls.
He knows that Deep Water is the first to pounce to their side and rest her jaw on Toothless' shoulder and smile a dragon-smile at them together; he sees Cliff Diver all but knock his mate aside in his haste to join her; Hide-and-Seek slips past them both to lick him enthusiastically and press against Toothless' side, joining her voice to the chorus of yes ours family yes Hiccup flock!
Mine hatchling mine, Cloudjumper snarls in case anyone doubted, temporarily abandoning the pretense of sulking and spreading all his wings at once.
Ours yes ours Hiccup family! the flock chatters. Hiccup ours!
Purring and chirping and crooning their agreement and their acceptance and their love, their family curls around Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss so that they are back where they belong, clamoring to declare that he is theirs.
Hiccup finds himself laughing a dragon-laugh and trying to hold back the strange ocean at the same time, petting every nose and paw and tail that gets through to nudge him and trying to purr family family love all flock family belonging good love back to them.
Need you traps biting! Survivor reminds him, turning to show Hiccup the gash down his side that would have killed him if a dragon-boy with clever paws had not been able to release the trap and stitch the wound closed to keep the blood inside so the scales could heal. Good you good good!
He is protected by Toothless' paws – no one ever questions that he belongs to Toothless above all – but he does not hesitate to shove Ice Claws back when Silent pushes him into the young dragon too hard, or yelp with amusement at Pawprints when he dives down on top of the group rather than trying to push through, or growl back at Wolf Fighter when she growls at him playfully, and before long they are at the center of a purring mess of dragons as if it were coldest of all outside and they are huddled together because heart-fires are stronger together.
Leaning back against Toothless, who breathes into his fur and hums being right smugly, Hiccup is too happy even to purr.
This is his family. He belongs.
Everyone knew, he realizes, except him.
And no one cares.
They love him anyway.
For some time they all purr together, sharing his joy, and Hiccup pets everyone he can reach with his clever paws in gratitude and love, until Treetop cranes his head over the group and whistles curiously.
Heads come up across the cavern, and the whistle is picked up and repeated in many different voices, eyes turning to Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss.
Most dragons are territorial. They have a range or an island that is theirs and they stay there and hunt there and defend it.
But wanderers like Hiccup and Toothless bring back interesting stories.
By then Hiccup is sprawled on his back leaning on Toothless' shoulder and with his back paws resting on Morning Singer's back and Shadow Hider curled up on his stomach, all of them perfectly comfortable. He looks up at Toothless and hums, considering. Storytelling involves moving.
Yes yes curious yes eager yes, Lookout puts her paws on Melancholy's back and chatters until he growls at her. Unflustered, she nuzzles him and resumes begging yes good yes you please begging please yes?
Hiccup cannot refuse them anything right now. Yes yes, he agrees.
Hiding game! Hide-and-Seek cries, and everyone looks away or moves a bit so Hiccup and Toothless can consult about which story they want to tell without spoiling it, clearing a space for the storytellers to work in and arguing with each other as they shuffle for room. Small dragons climb onto bigger dragons and a few take off to perch on ledges to watch.
Dragons appreciate a good story as much as anyone else.
Finally Hiccup chirps for their attention and their audience turns back to them. They will tell a good story rather than a scary one – neither of them wants to think about any of that right now, not when they have been home only a little while.
Toothless starts. He raises his head and swishes his tail to get everyone watching him, then prances around the open space with Hiccup on his shoulders, spreading his wings and looking around and down as if they are flying a long, long way. Hiccup closes his eyes and yawn-stretches to show that it is night in the story, sprawling on the bigger dragon's back and pretending to sleep.
He can sleep as they fly if he does it carefully and the wind is not fighting them.
Toothless yelps look and cranes his neck to look down at the rock, pretending it is a lot further down than it is. He folds his wings back as if descending, while Hiccup acts waking up and being excited to land, which they show as a big jump into the center of the open space and sitting down.
Hiccup slips from his partner's back and explores the space as if it were an island, chirping curious greetings and asking where dragons dragons here? He tips his head, listening; sniffs the air; calls out again. Toothless does the same, and they meet up again in the middle and whistle confusion at each other, smell dragons no dragons where dragons?
They flop down together and sigh.
As their flock watches, Hiccup points upwards and tells them sun now! Toothless looks up, looks around, calls out for dragons again, deliberately ignoring his fellow storyteller, who moves away from his side and hides among their audience, stalking as if hunting. He rubs his scale-skins against the stone and dons his dragon-claws to tap against it as well, hissing a hostile threat.
Toothless looks over at him and is puzzled. Dragon where? he whistles.
Their flock looks back at Hiccup, who grins at them, puts a paw on his skins, and then places it on Survivor's. This! he gestures. He sidles over to Melancholy sinuously, repeats the action while Toothless pretends not to be able to see him. Sneaky hiding, Hiccup tells them all.
Then he springs to the ledge that Silent is watching from, once again showing them that his scales match hers and he is hidden against her, and then to a momentarily empty rock. He has rock scales now – and then Stormracer scales when Stormracer lands almost on top of him, come to watch.
In the middle, Toothless worries many dragon many where dragon worried threatened hunting. He gets to his feet and growls, whipping his tail around to protect an imaginary Hiccup and trying to find the hiding dragons.
Hiccup snarls silently and mimics the way the dragons on that island had moved, low and quick and slithery like eels. A shudder runs through the cavern at his imitation, and some growls start.
As he snakes towards Toothless, ready to pounce at the tail or the pretend-Hiccup they are imagining behind it, the black dragon raises his nose and looks suspicious. He looks around exaggeratedly, then closes his eyes and tips his head to listen and smell.
Now Hiccup abandons his pretense of being a hunting dragon, leaping to the place where he was in the story, and pretends to see for the first time what Toothless is doing. He puts a paw on Toothless' shoulder and when the bigger dragon ducks it towards him, springs onto his back where he rides – but then dismounts again on the other side and shows that he is a hunting dragon again by choosing Fierce to have scales like this time, and then Crystal Finder, and then the stone between him and Toothless again as he crosses it.
Toothless uses his tail to point out all the dragons that were sneaking up on them, many of them and all around the two of them, then whips it quickly and springs up into the air, hovering some distance above his audience.
Into the gap where he just was, Hiccup pounces, snarling like the hunting dragons had done, and then screams angrily at the miss – and then pretends to be jumped on many times by other dragons, rolling around as if under attack by all the others, fighting invisible enemies.
Above him, Toothless screams and prepares to dive.
So Hiccup as all the hunting dragons at once freezes, looks up, makes himself big and scared, and dives for the audience, pressing himself against Hawk Eater and hiding.
Toothless lands again and roars triumphantly, and Hiccup returns to being himself again, perching on Toothless' shoulders and laughing with him at their enemies' confusion.
Toothless sits down and Hiccup slides to the ground where they both grin at their audience to show that the story is over.
Their flock purrs and chirps their approval – they do not have dragons that can change colors here, and it is a good story when the two of them get into trouble and get out again.
After one more story – about small-cousins even littler than hatchlings that are friendly but try to steal food – Toothless notices that his beloved is beginning to smell sad and worried even though Sun Chaser has brought her hatchlings to listen to the story and they will play with Hiccup now because they know he is family and he smells like dragons the other dragons of the nest.
Go you come we go, he urges, nuzzling Hiccup, who croons at him from where he is petting Warmest and follows immediately.
They curl up inside their nest together and shut out the rest of the flock, Toothless on his side with his back to the rock fangs and half-unfolding a wing to create an even smaller cave in which his beloved can hide. Sad, Toothless murmurs. No sad Hiccup-beloved sad why?
Hiccup curls into his side and rubs his cheek against the dragon's ribs and the joint where wing meets back. Happy, he purrs, but he does not smell like it. Family here good good nest love safe happy good peace belonging good family flock good safe yes.
His dragon-beloved does not understand. Hiccup sad! he insists.
The young dragon hides against him for a moment, closing his eyes against black scales and listening to his breath and heartbeat.
Monster hungry hating hungry angry monster, he cries quietly, and Toothless shudders and growls.
No.
Monster there far, Hiccup worries.
No no-here hate danger bad avoid! Hiccup hurting sad why?
His beloved struggles to explain. Here nest us nest good safe good, he says, then growls. Monster nest bad scared dragons no safe bad.
Toothless watches as Hiccup pulls away from him, almost pacing back and forth across their nest, quick and rough and angry and frustrated, except he does not have room to pace properly and only moves his clever paws back and forth across the ground, shifting his weight and shaking his head like his neck is stiff after sleeping too long and trying to make it hurt less. He yowls confusion and struggling quietly.
After a moment, he digs through a pile of things that he has collected and kept, coming up with a stolen holding-thing that he dips his bare paw into and then smears it in a long splash across his face, whimpering.
It is red dirt, one of the dirt colors that Hiccup likes to use to make patterns have color too. On his skin across his jaws it looks like blood.
Us, Hiccup says, holding out the stained paw to the bigger dragon, and then curls up on the ground, looking at it.
Scared, he whimpers. Monster dragons scared sad dragons scared nest no safe…
Toothless knows already that the red dirt tastes bad – it tastes like blood almost as much as it looks like it, and not the good-to-eat taste of hunted prey – but he shifts so he can reach Hiccup and pins him down to lick it off him. That done, he drops his jaw onto his companion and looks at him expectantly.
The little dragon huffs at him, but is too distracted by thinking to object. Instead, he wraps his paws around Toothless' head so that it is the embrace the black dragon always means it as.
Monster pfikingr scared, he says.
His beloved looks incredulously at him but does not pull away. He will never do that.
Monster dragons scared, Hiccup thinks aloud. Dragons raiding pfikingr fight kill raiding dragons…
Toothless snorts and raises his scarred wing as an example.
The smaller dragon croons agreement and sympathy and love. When he squirms away it is only to get more red dirt before pulling the wing down so that he can lean over it. He pets at the scales of Toothless' wing with the dirt, making the scars stand out in dark red against jet black, vocalizing his anger at the injuries and the pain and their fear.
When there are no more scars to show there is still more red to give its colors to them, so Hiccup puts his paws against his own face. It is not the bloody stripe of blame and guilt and blood-on-them that it was before, but it is a reminder of it. Now he brushes aside his fur to draw red from the top of his face to the back of his jaw, framing his determined eyes. Realizing that his long fur will mostly hide the marks, he draws another stripe down the line of his snub nose.
And then he sits back on his heels, looks at Toothless firmly, and says the pfikingr word "mama" before returning to speaking in the way they know best.
Mama human no bad dragon love mama us hatchlings. Hiccup sighs. He can accept that she might have been human because it changes nothing. Pfikingr she Uh strrrrTT angry sad scared she, he remembers. Pfikingr Alpha – he makes himself as small as he can to say this properly – us go no thief.
They owe him for that – the human Alpha with the red fur is not their king but he spared their life.
It is true. Toothless does not like it but he understands what Hiccup is saying.
The whole place is wrong. It is a trap that is biting dragons who are their kin and humans who are not always all bad and wandering dragon-pairs who are two-who-are-one.
And they hate traps.
They destroy traps.
There is sun above them and the green plants under their paws that like the rock and the clear water and the good air. This is the best place in the nest; it is the heart of the nest.
It is his domain.
The king of dragons is at peace when they approach him, great eyes closed, but they wait and they are rewarded with those eyes turned on them.
Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss could be lost in those eyes, but they are never afraid that they might drown.
Majesty, Hiccup greets his king, the king of all dragons, crouching as low as he can and turning his clever paws upward, offering them at the king's service. Beside him as always, Toothless bows his head submissively, trustingly.
Distress, he cries. Appeal-for-help.
Little-beloved-one, their king knows them together. His acceptance of them and love for them is a weight but the best of weights, like a hatchling carried on Hiccup's shoulders or in his paws, like the little dragon himself on Toothless' back.
They meet his eyes, and he looks into them, and they feel as he feels.
Knowledge.
So you know what you are.
Resignation.
It was always going to happen.
Regret-for-pain.
The king wishes that they could have been spared that pain.
Curiosity.
What will they do now?
He gives them permission to look away, but they do not need to consider the question. Hiccup reaches up to Toothless and the black dragon curls himself around his beloved one. They breathe each other for a moment and then Hiccup cries out to the king as he'd challenged the mad queen, but in acceptance rather than defiance, offering as his scales and his wings and his fire all that is good about them, their love for each other, their joy in flight, their contentment to be as they are, their courage…their choice.
Hiccup knows what he is – what they are. No one will ever be able to convince him – them – otherwise.
This is what he wants – he is half of Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss and that will never change.
Pride.
It is simple and absolute and endless, and the young dragons shudder with the intensity of it.
Majesty, Hiccup begs when he can think again, and cries out his fear and anger and horror, warning the king of a great and terrible threat.
Command.
Together they meet the eyes of the king, and show him their story and their request.
Hiccup has complete faith in his king's protection over him and his other half and his family, but he dreams of even more.
He dreams that the enslaved dragons of the monster's nest can be free to be happy the way he and his family are, that the evil will never touch the small-cousins that like to play and to argue and that had accepted him so readily for what he is, that dragons like them who like to travel or wander or must do so and must go near that place will not be trapped like Tt-(click)-th-phuh-ss would have been if they had not had each other.
He even imagines better for the humans – pfikingr that had hurt the one he loves most in all the world and that had fought him, but also a pfikingr she who had fed them and could laugh and liked pictures and brought new things to play with and tried to talk to them and had trusted them enough to ask for help even when they couldn't give it. They had turned away from her. And an Alpha who believes that he was their mother's mate and had tried to steal them but then had let them go when Hiccup had begged for their lives. They owe him now.
If humans can show mercy…
…then they do not deserve to suffer for the greed and the madness and the evil of a dragon – an Alpha! – that eats other dragons.
Protection.
The great king does not want them to be afraid in their wanderings.
Sympathy.
It is an evil that cannot be ignored. He will help them.
Curiosity.
What do they wish of him?
The dragon-pair bow together, crying their gratitude and willingness to return despite their fear as long as they are together. They snarl and shudder and show him their hatred of the creature that traps dragons and eats them. They want to hunt her like prey and fight her like an enemy to help their cousins escape this trap.
Caution, the great king advises them. Calm.
He is too great a king to be too quick a warrior, and he is reluctant to kill or to hate.
Intention.
They will tell their story to the flock, and lead those who wish to break traps with them. And the king will come with them to protect them and guide them as they steal the enslaved dragons from the jaws of the creature that is that worst of things, an eater of dragons, and teach her that she is not as all-powerful as she believes.
The Alpha desires Freedom for the imprisoned ones his wandering dragon-pair has found and felt for.
Before him, the two-who-are-one take comfort and courage from each other and resolve to be clever and fearless and worthy of the task he has set them, the little dragon who was born human taking his place on the back of the wandering black dragon where he belongs, making them something more together than either could ever be alone.
Although he is among the greatest of all dragons, and ancient, and has seen the flock that he protects change and uncountable numbers of his subjects die in their time, the king of dragons looks at them with love and rewards them for their heart.
Mother.
Now it is the king of dragons who shows them a memory, of a human woman kneeling before him with empathy in her heart and passion in her mind and a child with a dragon's soul in her arms.
Love-for-Valka.
She stands in his memories asking for his blessing with fire in her eyes, imagining a better world for both her children, not fearless but courageous.
Proud.
The king believes she would be very proud of them both.
To be continued.