Learning from the Masters
A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfic
Based off of Le'letha's "Nightfall"
Hiccup still trembles with want want want fly up you us at his Toothless-half. The clouds had already let loose promised rain but it was light and the winds were still strong enough that he could glide above but he wanted Toothless to join him and for them to go up up up high above the sea and land again while the winds remained good.
The fact that the E-e-kTT could not join them now didn't matter. He did not need any but his Toothless-mine as company and did not particularly care if E-e-kTT could fly or not though it would be a lie that he was completely disinterested because maybe he could figure out a good way to make a tail and it was so so so amusing to watch a pfikingr try to fly even if he crashed at the end.
That is fine though. Every hatchling crashes on their first flight. That is just the way things are.
Hiccup is long passed the point of crashing. He has been flying a long time – too many seasons to count, he only knows it has been many – and Toothless has flown on his own wings even longer. He has mastered all that he knows of flying.
For a first try, E-e-kTT did not fly too badly, but by comparison of the two-who-are-one, he is clumsy at flying and that is to be expected.
He finds humor in it anyway, even if he rumbled some sympathy because the fall looked like it hurt and the first wings that E-e-kTT made broke. It is not as bad as a dragon's wing breaking, crafted things can be made again good as new without hurting or taking time to heal, but it is unfortunate that his first try ends that way.
Hiccup doesn't ponder it long. Things that bother Vikings are generally not things that bother him, unless they are things that also bother dragons, and E-e-kTT does not look bothered either way unless thinking hard is being bothered.
He thinks less of it and more of the wind under his own wings as he twirls and catches the air to go higher. Flying is the best thing and in that way he can understand why E-e-kTT wants to be able to do it. Flying is like breathing for him and his Toothless-love; it is necessity. It is living and joy and laughter and goodness.
Briefly he wonders if all pfikingr wish to fly or if it is only this one, and maybe other creatures stuck on land like most preythings or creatures stuck in the water might envy it. He doesn't know, he wonders about it, but it isn't a thought he explores for very long because it is not a problem he needs to solve for himself. He enjoys flying on his own, but he has always been able to reach the sky because of his flock, long before he made his own wings.
The winds are too good and he is too happy and free now to think of it. He occupies his attention with Toothless as his flying-partner love joins him in the air and they croon love love love you me we us devotion happy love flying good yes yes love us flying together happy flying together me you us.
For a while they occupy their attention with only themselves and the air, and then with some time hunting the waters for fish, but eventually the winds begin to lessen, and the rain comes harder. They like the wind, but they prefer to be out of the rain if they can help it and return to the cave before they can get much more wet.
The first thing they do when they return is check on the rescued dragons and roll a barrel that has lots of fish to them. Some of them still smell of sickness and infection and wounded blood-scent. Most of them eat properly and are recovering well even so. Many of them will be able to fly at least a short distance away soon, and they know they will also feel better once the dragons are able to leave. They want to make sure E-e-kTT is not lying about letting them free.
One of them who heals the best and is the proudest is a cousin with red skin and wings bigger than Cloudjumper's, but it is all wing and head and neck with a very small body. The all-wings cousin greets them contently with a you you here good you relaxed friendly you here fish fish mine fish? while there is a rock-skin cousin and a loud cousin that perk up at the promise of food and a many-heads cousin that is less interested.
They greet back relief glad good good yes fish fish you-and-you-and-you-and-youyouyouyou fish eat yes fish fish fish you fish. All but the many-heads cousin eagerly dig in and they further encourage it you too you too eat fish fish good stronger good fish eat yes yes.
The many-heads cousin looks at the fish skeptically that the two-who-are-one nudge their direction and softly growls at them no no want no want fish sick bad no you fish you no want bad sick refuse disgust no.
The all-wings cousin is quick to try to sneak the fish but Toothless stomps and they growl at him no you no bad! Youyouyouyou fish not-for-you no bad leave fish you!
The all-wings cousin huffs at them, unhappy that they defended the fish when the many-heads cousin did not want it, but the many-heads cousin must eat so it can get better and fly away from this place. Dragons who stop eating are dragons who do not survive, and sometimes sick-feelings lie about eating. They insist again Youyouyouyou eat fish fish good stronger good no sick better eat you good yes yes fish fish!
The many-heads cousin refuses again. This goes on for a while, even Hiccup growing frustrated with the dragon's stubbornness that could rival his own, but they outlast the dragon/s in patience and it finally does eat. They linger for a while to see if it really does get sick enough that the food comes back, but it doesn't, and they leave the dragons alone to rest.
They go to find where E-e-kTT is, which is hunched over a wood space where the pfikingr keeps his paper things. Right now he is not busy with wings or drawings or parts of trees but instead entertaining the crow that seems to E-e-kTT what Toothless is to himself.
E-e-kTT dangles something from his paws that Hiccup recognizes as a spring only because of the many traps he has dismantled with his own clever paws. It is a very long spring that wiggles back and forth in the air in a way that tantalizes even him and his Toothless-heart of mine to want to play with it.
They will not get that close though, and the spring is not nearly as tempting as something like paper or food would be, so instead they stre-e-e-e-e-tch out across the stone floor and rub away itches against it, all the while still watching their surroundings carefully even now. They have been given little reason to believe this a dangerous place, but it is still a pfikingr nest, and while there are some humans that are less-bad than others and not enemies to dragons it is better to be careful.
They are sure that E-e-kTT sees them, but he is often unconcerned with them, or good at pretending so at least. Instead he taunts his crow-partner with the spring, dangling it to and fro, and it plays along rolling on its back and trying to grab it with claws and beak. It is hard to tell, but it is watching them warily even as it plays and manages to grab hold of some of the spring and is lifted up to dangle by E-e-kTT. It finds it fun to swing back-and-forth from and Hiccup laughs his own amusement.
E-e-kTT sets the bird back down and manages to pull the spring away from it, pressing it down between curled soft-claws/toes and holding it so that the gaps in the spring vanish and it is a solid piece. The crow flips back onto its paws and stares at it, experimentally mouthing it and crawing in a way that Hiccup reads as impatience.
E-e-kTT lets it go and the spring flies in the air, still good and not broken or loose like some of the ones Hiccup has played with after breaking traps meant for his kin.
The crow flinches back as it leaps in the air and then hops after it, but the spring comes in his and Toothless's direction, and he springs after it faster. The bird doesn't dare get too close to him or his dragon-love, but fluffs up its wings and complains with several raucous sounds that need little translation: its easy for Hiccup to figure out the meaning as mine mine mine mine mine!
Hiccup doesn't feel like sharing it back. It flew to him so clearly it wants him to play with it more and he counters back no mine mine mine now mine silly bird mine! and spreads his own wings to assert his message and challenge. The bird gives up because it is far smaller than him but side-eyes him with a quieter and shorter kre sound of spite. E-e-kTT turns his attention between them, but does nothing to get it back, which is good because Hiccup will not give it up easily anyway.
Hiccup purrs pride victory mine now mine ours gloating silly bird mine silly win us yes mine ours before turning his attention fully to the spring in his paws, testing it by pulling from both ends and letting one side go so it SNAPs and finding that it is a very good spring and it will make a fun toy. It makes an interesting whoosh-ooo-whoosh-ooo-whoosh-ooo sound when he spins it around by one end, letting most of it fly freely around and around and around.
Squishing it down proves more difficult than he'd first thought because the spring is so long and it wants to leap as soon as it's pushed into a crouch. He's determined though and presses it down between both paws even as Toothless is watching him and waiting for it to pounce and the spring is wiggling to get away and at one point it leaps sideways and smacks him in the face.
Toothless laughs yowp yowp yowp at him and in all playfulness Hiccup laughs the same sound right back, annoyed though not with Toothless so much as the spring that doesn't want to make playing easy.
He finally manages to squish the spring all the way down and then let it free, watching it leap into the air and partway across the cave. Toothless, wasting no time, pounces after it to reach it first before it could fully escape, pinning it under his larger paws. Curiously, he lifted one up to glance at his captured toy, and as soon as he did, it sprung into the air again seeking freedom, almost leaping at his face too.
Hiccup took his turn to pounce and devoted more time to studying it once it was his again, stretching it as far as he could stretch his paws out and seeing how it would move when he let it go, either with both paws or only one, making it snap audibly when he only let go of one side or the other at a time.
Laying on his back and purring at the entertainment, he pressed it down against his chest and let it leap upwards only to catch it when it came back down. Then, again. That was when Toothless was faster, biting it out of the air and rumbling a purr of his own.
No! Hiccup protested. Mine!
You no mine now Toothless teased, making a crunching sound with it in his jaws as he gnawed it with his teeth though it didn't break the spring.
Hiccup whined and wriggled on his back, using his rear legs to push him across the stone so he could grab the remaining end of the spring dangling from Toothless's jaws, sinking his claws into it. Toothless paraded around unhindered with a happy look, dragging Hiccup about the ground as his dragon-boy refused to let go of the toy.
Mine mine mine mine! Hiccup insisted.
No mine mine no you mine Toothless replied unashamedly, towing Hiccup around even as the other twisted around and put up a valiant tug-of-war, the bigger dragon gingerly stepping around his other half as he did so.
Mine mine give you give mine want want want! Hiccup insisted, holding onto it only with one paw at that point. The other he used to find that one irresistible spot of Toothless's jaw to scratch and coerce his partner-love into defeat and let him have it back. It worked, sort of, since Toothless let it go, but it worked a little less on account of the larger between them falling forward right on top of Hiccup and knocking the breath from him.
It's more of an inconvenience than anything else. They might sometimes play rough but Toothless and the rest of the Nest have never and would never hurt him.
Toothless thrums affection and playing and smug through the underside of his jaw against the smaller dragon under him. Hiccup hums back silly you amused love you love you and scratches his other-half's scales in the best places that make the bigger dragon splay out like a beached jellyfish and forget everything but the attention. He doesn't even mind Toothless's bulky head on top of his chest, which would make it somewhat difficult to spring up if one of the pfikingr attacked them, but he is still watching for that even now.
E-e-kTT though, who is still watching them passively, probably won't let them be attacked. At least not by his own flock of humans.
Its while he's distracted - on one side by Toothless, and the other by E-e-kTT and his human flock - that Hiccup doesn't see the crow that is steadily sneaking up on them in his blind spot until it already has a hold of the spring and hops away so that his claws snatch only air and stone when he twists around to catch it by surprise and keep the object, causing him to screech in exasperation at it.
He should know better than to turn his back to a crow. Unlike seagulls, they are truly sneaky thieves.
By now, Toothless is aware of it and Hiccup's shift in mood. They like to steal things that interest them, but they do not appreciate being stolen from in return, a fact Hiccup makes very obvious with mine thief bad you mine give sneaky bird no give mine!
If the crow understands, it isn't listening, continuing to the wood table and hopping up to its ledge in an easy bound and short flutter of wings, walking in a way that says pride mine tricked-you smug with its motions, setting the spring in its beak down and sitting over it as if it was a branch to perch on. Even when E-e-kTT put a paw out for it, the bird crawed at him and nipped possessively, unwilling to give it up to anyone, even its human partner.
When E-e-kTT left it alone, the crow went back to watching Hiccup and Toothless with its head quirked to the side with a look that dared them to try and take it, confident that they wouldn't. With it being so close to E-e-kTT, that was true.
They were already closer than they would be to most other pfikingr. Uh strrrTT they might get close enough to touch. The St-t-t-t-t-kk that was their mother's mate before she was Cloudjumper's and part of the flock, Hiccup would get close enough to touch.
E-e-kTT? No. Not yet, at least.
E-e-kTT said he was friends to dragons, and he showed it with saving the wounded dragons and not hurting the dragons he also captured and letting them free again after he drew them, but they still remembered being captured and separated and Toothless's wing being hurt by a flying sharp-thing and that E-e-kTT is cleverer than most. They still want to be cautious in case it is a lie.
Besides, there is something else Hiccup wants even more than the spring and if he makes too much of a problem he knows he might not have his chance to steal it. The spring is a good toy, but it is not the best one.
Their attention is drawn by a whistling sound that Hiccup uses to voice question. It is E-e-kTT making the sound this time instead. He makes a motion directed at them both but a little more at Hiccup than Toothless. Hiccup recognizes the words human and dragon in there, though there are other sounds he doesn't know. Even so, he's able to decipher the meaning.
"Nuh," he denies. He gingerly touches a paw to Toothless's head, vocalizing, "Drakkkn," then at himself, repeating it. His form looks human, but he is dragon. Before Uh strrrTT, everyone in the Nest realized his appearance except for him and simply didn't care, so he could not be bothered to care now either. He was simply a dragon born in the wrong skin.
E-e-kTT didn't protest or ask for further clarification, so it was a good guess he understood. It opened a path of curiosity though, Hiccup taking his own turn to question.
You crow you? It was fairly easy to communicate with gestures and a similar croaking sound that crows made.
E-e-kTT seemed to ponder that a moment, letting his eyes and posture talk more freely than he seemed to with other pfikingr. That is good though, because it speaks better to Hiccup and Toothless than pfikingr words do.
"No..." E-e-kTT hums after a moment, scratching his smaller bird partner with soft claws in affection. There were other sounds that were lost on the dragon-man, and then a "Yes". They could see it was one of those things that was harder to communicate with their limited range of common language.
You flying want want yes bird flying you? Hiccup inquired, trying to make a motion like swooping up and down with a paw and bird noises. He seemed to be on the right track with that, and continued on with a motion to his chest and heart-fire, "crow hrrt, isss?"
E-e-kTT considered that, seeming to ponder more if he was understanding the concept correctly, before nodding slightly.
"Isss. Crow hrrt," Hiccup repeated, nodding in acceptance and then wrapping his paws over Toothless's head and purring a together sound and "Drakkkn hrrt." They were content like that, but another thing crossed Hiccup's mind and he couldn't help investigating the thought.
He whistled and directed to the large noprey things that the humans rode on their backs with something much like his and Toothless's own fly-with. They had spent time around the creatures but knew little about them, but if E-e-kTT was a crow at heart then what was his relation with the nopreys that could run with him on their back and hunt and fight dragons?
He clarified that his curiosity was of those specifically with a throaty click-cluk click-cluk sound that their hard stone-like paws made most often walking over rock.
E-e-kTT motioned to Hiccup and Toothless first, making the pfikingr sound for "Dragon", and then motioned in the direction of the large creatures with a new sound Hiccup didn't know.
"Hh-rrsss," he tried to repeat. E-e-kTT nodded in approval before whistling towards the large animal and making another sound. One of the many Hh-rrsss's perked up and began towards them in a heavy walk, its head and whole body swinging side-to-side. At first its head was down but it stood up taller when it got close, its eyes and nose large and taking in their scent.
E-e-kTT stood from his sitting perch, though he kept one arm tucked close to his body where it probably was still hurting from the fall at the end of flying, and walked a circle around the larger creature so that his side was facing it until reaching one broad shoulder, scratching it with soft claws. The hh-rrsss was less occupied with his presence and more with the dragon-pair close by, evaluating what it should think of them.
E-e-kTT softly called for Hiccup and extended a paw in invitation, exuding relaxed confidence. Hiccup was less so, clamoring onto Toothless's back and resting his chin on the black dragon's head. He still remembered the kick that left his Toothless-half-beloved hurting and stunned even if he hadn't felt it himself. He rumbled his uncertainty and wariness against Toothless as he tried to decide what to do. The hh-rrsss had dangerous rocks for paws and was not afraid to fight a dragon even like Toothless who was equally big in body alone never mind wings also, so if it chose to attack or that he was a threat, he knew it could become a huge danger.
Wary big horse threat possibly safe you think maybe?
Unsure maybe safe could be Toothless returned, but he couldn't know for certain. The only good interaction he'd had had been with a cage between him and it, where heavy-striking paws could not reach. Cautious investigate maybe safe we us.
Hiccup nodded, and staying on Toothless's back, they crept closer hesitantly, ready to leap back or away if it became threatening. The hh-rrsss shifted uneasily and eyed them with large eyes that were a contrast of dark and white, flaring its nose and looking tense. E-e-kTT crooned reassuring sounds at it and grabbed a hold of leather pieces tangled around its head, standing partially between them and it. There was a motion at his eyes before E-e-kTT blew softly into its nose.
Hiccup perched higher with his paws on Toothless's head and craned upwards, blowing their shared scent at its nose like E-e-kTT showed him to do. Even closer like this, it had one of the biggest flared noses he'd ever seen and it looked like it would be very soft. Just as he would not trust a pfikingr to touch Toothless though, he wasn't sure he felt comfortable being bold enough to try the same, and there was also the matter that it might bite with strong teeth or kick out.
The hh-rrsss angled its ears and stepped back undecidedly, still contemplating how it wanted to view the two of them, but at the very least it didn't appear afraid or ready to lash out. After a short while, it stepped closer, acting equally as cautious of them as they were of it, but its confidence was growing as was its curiosity, inhaling both of their scents. Eventually it was close enough that a snort blew Hiccup's fur away from his face.
It was a little too close for comfort, and Hiccup moved to push its nose away as he was also pulling back, and found that indeed its nose was very soft. One of the softest things his paws had ever touched, softer than even the softest rabbit fur from baby hares, and he cooed his surprise and pleasantry at the velvet sensation.
After a moment, the hh-rrsss pulled away and yawned at the air, angling its ears back and fluttering tired eyes. E-e-kTT gave it another pat on the shoulder and it turned away to return to where it was before. E-e-kTT yawning in turn indicated he would be soon to follow, pushing a paw under the crow's chest to perch there instead of on the spring, though it was quick to pick his shoulder instead. The blue-eyed male regarded them for a moment and made a noise Hiccup vaguely recognized as a good night sound before heading for his own nest of furs.
They crooned back a dragon's good night sound and settled down, but not to sleep themselves, instead only relaxing and waiting and watching as the pfikingr all went about readying for sleep. They had to wait for a while into the night, but it would be worth it. The spring was a good toy, but he wanted to get his paws on an even better one.
A/N: The spring idea actually came after I dismantled a spiral notebook that had a really sturdy plastic/metal spiral spring that I was randomly messing around with out of boredom and I thought to myself "this is something Hiccup would probably find to be a fun toy". Only explanation for that part of this chapter~