Noche only stopped pushing Astrid along when they got back to the beach and a new thought entered his mind as he saw Hiccup.
Rushing over to the boy he began sniffing at his leg, or rather his lack of a leg.
'No. NO!' he cried looking up at the people around his brother demanding answers, but they all just backed away.
'They had to do it Noche,' the Spike Tail Astrid had been riding said. 'They said if they didn't then he would of been put in danger that everything else got infected. It... It had to come off.'
'Did... Did he feel anything while... While they did?' Noche asked looking to Hiccup again.
'No. He was knocked out,' she said sniffing Hiccup herself.
[][][][]
While the dragons were looking over Hiccup, Astrid was getting the same speech from the Vikings all bowing their heads in grief and despair.
"So what now?" she asked looking to the dragons.
"The Night Fury, me, Hiccup and another person will use the raft Gobber and Spitlout made to reach home," Stoick said showing her the floating pieces of tied up wood. "When we get their I will send out more boats and that Viking back with them to show them where to go, while I take my boy back home."
"I volunteer to be that extra Viking, Chief," Astrid said standing tall getting no argument from anyone.
With that the Chief, his son, his son's dragon and the girl, while using the girls dragon, set off back to berk, at a fast, but a steady pace that would take a few hours to get there.
***A Dragon Soul***
For the first fifteen minutes all was silent. Stoick kept switching his gaze to the girl, Astrid he thinks her name was, and seeing that she kept looking towards Hiccup.
"So since when have you cared for Hiccup so much Astrid?" Stoick asked trying to think up a conversation.
"Since yesterday since he and Toothless kidnapped me to show me dragons weren't that bad," Astrid said stroking Toothless' nose seeing Stoick's confused look "I found him trying to leave the Island because he of the decision Elder Gothi gave on who should kill the Nightmare," Astrid said Stoick nodding along saying he was listening. "I revealed myself as he was looking over his basket of things, which I think is still at the cove to be honest, and then Toothless came out and tried to attack me."
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'Only because you were hurting my brother,' Noche mumbled turning away a bit.
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"As I was running back to the village Toothless grabbed me and flew me up into a tree, where Hiccup said I needed to give him a chance to explain why he has a Night Fury and going against our beliefs on what dragons are," Astrid said smirking a blush coming to her face now, though Stoick didn't mention that. "After some rather harsh aerobatic skills done by this guy," she said gesturing to Toothless "I said sorry for how I was acting and he calmed down. After a bit that was when we found the nest." Astrid finished.
"Why did you not tell me about the Nest when you got back?" Stoick asked confused.
"Hiccup didn't want you killing his friend." Astrid said looking to the boy.
Shocked Stoick looked to the dragon. 'Was the dragon Hiccup's only friend?' he asked when another thought came to him. "Why did Hiccup call him Toothless? Bit of an odd name for a dragon if you ask me?"
"Well..." Astrid said smirking a bit "It's because he has retractable teeth. Toothless. Smile for me please," Astrid said getting the dragons attention.
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Hearing the request, Noche gave his signature gummy smile to the King, popping his teeth back and forth ever once in a while, before returning to circle around his brother.
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"Amazing," Stoick said never seeing or knowing of a dragon who could do that before.
For the rest of the voyage there was silence, other than the gently humming like tune, Toothless was giving off.
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Noche had been sung this song by his mother when he was a cub, and it had been stuck in his head since they left the island the nest was on.
'Don't worry, my baby
You have nothing to fear
I promise I'll protect you
And I will always be here -
- just for you'
'I love you my child
And hope you can see
That you can always -
- count on me'
'You can trust in me
And I hope that I you
So that I will have
Nothing to fear too.'
It had always been the song she would sing when he was afraid of something, like thunder storms, or his he had any bad Sleep-Stories.
"SHIPS APROCHING!" Noche heard someone call making him look up to see they were back at Berk.
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"HANG ON," someone else cried "THERE'S DRAGONS TOO!"
"HOLD YA FIRE!" Stoick cried quickly but carefully getting up. "WE HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS THAN A COUPLE OF DRAGONS!"
Letting the boat come into port the Vikings who had stayed saw what their Chief had meant gasping when they saw Hiccup and heard the story on how he got like that.
Using her staff to bat her way to the front of the crowd, Gothi bowed before Toothless showing him respect, before slowly moving forward to check on Hiccup.
Calling her granddaughter over to translate her pictographs to the crowd she sprinkled some sand and wrote.
"Granny says... 'It's not as bad as it could have been,' the little girl said 'But we need to get him to his house quickly as possible... Once there and after she has checked over him... No one but his dragon, his friend,'" She paused to point to Astrid 'And his dad will be allowed to see him'."
Following Gothi's orders Stoick carefully picked up his son and at a good pace, made it to his house. First thing he asked for was for Hiccup's bed to be moved to the bottom floor.
Carefully two of the men who stayed brought down the bed and set it next to the fire.
Ever so gently, Stoick placed Hiccup down too, once again saying how sorry he was when the boy groaned.
"Er... Chief," someone called from up stairs, "You might want to come and see this..."
Making sure Gothi was taking care of Hiccup, Stoick made it up stairs where Astrid was sitting over a small box full of pieces of paper with tally scores.
***A Dragon Soul***
Not believing what she had just seen Astrid tried to keep her eyes clear as she was leading the voyage of new ships back to the nest, cursing the speed of the ships and the Vikings wanting to get back to Hiccup and say how sorry she was.
"7368," She whispered to herself again "How could I of ignored him 7368 times Stormfly?" she asked her dragon speaking of one of the tally charts in the box she had under her arm "When did he begin that one for it to of reached that score?"
Not understanding what was wrong, Stormfly just kept flying straight and let out a cry when the beach came into view snapping her rider out of the trance she was in.
"Ok lets do this then," she said landing and blocking the boats either way. "Before we set off for home," she called pouring out her voice so all could hear her. "Did anyone know about the tally charts Hiccup kept under his bed?"
There were some confused looks and mumbles of 'What's she talking about?'
"I did Astrid," Gobber said stepping forward. "I was the one who suggested he began keeping them when he was 8 and he wanted some way to calm down."
"Why you asking dear?" Astrid's mum asked who had come on one of the boats behind her.
"Because THIS BOX is the one he kept them all in," Astrid said holding the box up. "And there are a few you lot need to hear. You might want to get comfy. This is going to take a while."
With that she lifted the lid and began reading them out.
***A Dragon Soul***
The moon was high in the sky when Astrid placed the lid back on the box, and everyone was shock at the amount of pain they gave the boy.
While the dragons were growling and scraping at the ground that these beings would let so much happen to one of their own children, just because he was different.
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'How could they do all of that to the Prince?' a Spike Tail in the crowd said 'How could they 'Blame-Him-For-All-The-Destruction' 5329 times? It was us doing most of that. In fact it was the Queen that did it.'
'My question,' the Flame Skin Snotlout had come here on 'Is how my rider, the Prince's Cousin could of Tripped-Him-Up-And-Laughed-About-It-Afterwards 6931 times. He's meant to be his family. He's meant to look out for him.'
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As the dragons continued to argue over what tally that was called out was the worse for the Vikings to of done to the boy, said Vikings began to pile onto the ships all but Gobber's heads bowed in shame at the pain they caused Hiccup, some even having tear streaks down their face.
Slowly they made for home this being the most silent Viking Voyage ever recorded in history.
AN - Toothless' lullaby is a rewording thing I made up using the 'River Scene' from Dreamworks 'The Prince Of Egypt' during the song 'Deliver Us'