Part 3 ~ Chapter 17
Hiccup's attention was torn from his drawing as he felt frantic tugs on his tunic, seeing that it was his son with the Night Fury journal in hand and a pleading look.
"What is it bud?" Hiccup asked as he closed his own journal with the charcoal stick between the pages, setting it aside as he put his full attention on his eldest.
"Can we read this now? I really wanna know what it says about our species, Dad." Toothless asked with puppy eyes.
Hiccup stifled a laugh and nodded. "Of course we can Toothless."
Toothless smiled joyously as he claimed the spot next to his father and placed the journal on the table, opening it to the first page.
"You want me to read it or do you want to bud?" Hiccup asked with a soft smile.
Toothless thought about the offer then shook his head. "No, I can do it."
Hiccup chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Alright, fire away."
Toothless laughed a bit as he pushed Hiccup's hand away then he looked down at the journal and began to read.
"Table of contents..chapter one: Night Fury Isles, chapter two: Aging, chapter three: Bonding Process, chapter four: Mating Process..gross.."
Hiccup stifled a laugh at his son's reaction. "Well that is definitely a big part of things bud. I mean how else do you think our species has survived this long?"
"Still gross.." Toothless mumbled then shook his head and finished reading off the chapter titles. "And last but not least, chapter five: Abilities. Huh. Why only five?"
"Maybe the author didn't see a reason for more than that. So, you wanna go in order or hop around in this? Although, I'm banning chapter four till you're older. You're way too young to be reading about that stuff." Hiccup said, finality in his words about said subject.
"Like I'd wanna read about that." Toothless said with a shudder. "May as well just read it in order though."
Toothless then flipped to the first chapter and began reading it over, being careful to not mess up any of the words as he did.
"'Night Fury Isles is the island specifically for our species. Unlike most islands, it does not stay stationary. It is sentient and moves location constantly to protect those who reside there. Not only does it move to protect us, but there is also a mist barrier that keeps any threat from entering. This barrier is very thick, to the point that you cannot see what the island looks like from the outside or see the world beyond it.' Cool.."
"Well that's interesting. Who would've thought, eh bud? A moving island." Hiccup said in fascination.
Toothless nodded in agreement then continued to read.
"'To find the island, though, is a difficult task. Since it is always on the move, there is no way to track it. The only advice I can give is to follow your instincts and trust that the island will reveal itself to you on its own accord.' Aw, bummer. But I guess it makes sense with the whole sentient moving island thing."
"Yeah, but hey. Maybe one day we can go look for it as a family. Who knows, maybe there's other Night Furies there." Hiccup said as he placed a hand on Toothless' shoulder.
The hatchling smiled and nodded. "That would be awesome."
Toothless then refocused and flipped to the next page, which was a set of drawings and more information on the Isles.
"'In addition to the island being the perfect hideaway from the dangers of the world, it also has the capability of bringing us back from the dead. But, the catch is that it will only bring us back if there are other Night Furies that miss us very deeply and wish for us to come back more than anything in the Nine Worlds.' Whoa..reincarnation? That's insane."
"Talk about too good to be true. This island sounds like a fever dream." Hiccup said as they looked over the drawings.
"Wonder how it's actually done..like do they just come back as they were when they died? Or are they reborn and have to age up all over again?" Toothless asked curiously.
"Don't know. It's probably explained further in the chapter though."
"Oh. Right, duh." Toothless said as he lightly hit his forehead, then went back to reading. "'Depending on how the dragon died and the types of people who wish them to come back, their reincarnation varies. There is not a set way for the Night Fury in question to be reincarnated.' Well that answers those questions."
"It sure does." Hiccup said with a small laugh, then he flipped through the rest of the chapter, taking notice that the rest of it was just drawings of things on the Isles and depictions of what the island is capable of. "Seems very illustration heavy. Not a bad thing though, honestly. You still wanna keep reading or do you want me to take over?"
"Um.." Toothless thought as he glanced at all the drawings then looked back at his dad. "Can I keep reading?"
"Of course. I'm not gonna stop you. Just wanted to see. Go ahead bud." Hiccup said as he gestured to the journal with a soft smile.
Toothless smiled back then put his full attention on the journal again as he resumed reading.
"'While most dragon species age quickly, we Night Furies age like humans would. This is because we were blessed with the ability to transform into humans to blend in with them as a way of protecting ourselves in dire situations. Because of this, females go through human pregnancies and can choose whether to go through the human way or the dragon way of carrying their hatchlings. This changes how a hatchling will gain their other form. If they are born human, they will gain their dragon forms as they reach their third winter of life. If they hatch as a dragon, they will gain their human form the same way a human-born hatchling would.'"
Once he was done reading that page he noticed that there were just drawings and raised a brow in confusion.
"That's it? Why is chapter two so short?" Toothless asked.
"Not much more needed to be explained about it bud. Pretty simple thing to explain." Hiccup said with a shrug.
Toothless nodded slightly and flipped to the next chapter, beginning to read it in intrigue.
"'Something very special for our species is the bonding process. There are two types of bonds. The parental bond and the species bond. The parental bond is when a hatchling in a desperate situation will bond with the first human it comes into contact with, leading to that human transforming into a fellow Night Fury to raise the hatchling as their own.' Hey, that's what happened with you and Kala, Dad."
Hiccup chuckled as he nodded. "It sure is. But I am curious about this species bond it mentioned. What's so different about it?"
Toothless shrugged then went back to reading the chapter.
"'The species bond, compared to the parental, only happens with matured Night Furies. Like the parental bond, it can only happen to a human. How the species bond is activated is by a human witnessing a Night Fury transform into their human form. When this happens, the human will lose any romantic interests they had beforehand and gain feelings for the Night Fury.' Ugh..gross.."
Hiccup shook his head as he stifled a laugh. "Well that answers that."
"'Even though the human gains romantic feelings for the Night Fury, this does not mean that it will end up in a romantic relationship. How things proceed between the two all depends on the Night Fury. They could keep the bond relationship platonic and be there for the human as they go through the transformation, or choose to be in a romantic relationship with the human and become mates.' Gods, I hope that never happens to me.."
"Well then I guess you'll have to be very careful about where you transform and who you transform around when you're mature then, won't you?" Hiccup said as he ruffled his son's hair playfully.
Toothless laughed and pushed his hand away. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. Don't transform around humans once I'm fifteen unless I wanna end up bonding with them. Duly noted."
Hiccup smiled and rested his arms against the table as he crossed them loosely, his eyes focused on the journal again. Toothless followed suit and went back to reading.
"'It should be noted, though, that humans that have transformed into Night Furies cannot initiate bonds themselves. Only pure Night Furies have the capability to initiate bonds and they can only form one of each kind of bond. But, once the Night Fury has matured or the human that witnesses has already been bonded to another Night Fury, the parental bond can no longer be created. This should also be kept in mind when it comes to the species bond. If a human has already been bonded to another Night Fury, there cannot be a species bond created between human and dragon.'"
"Well that explains why no one else in the tribe has transformed into Night Furies. Which is definitely a good thing." Hiccup said with relief.
Toothless nodded in agreement. "Mhm. These limits make sense, too. If they weren't there, then the whole world would probably be Night Furies."
Hiccup laughed a bit and nodded.
"Yeah, yeah it would be."
Toothless then flipped the page and noticed the chapter split into a separate process. The second section of the chapter was information on the transformation process for each bond, paired with drawings to depict certain things that happen during the process, just like in the previous chapters.
"I think I can wait on reading this part of the chapter. Don't really need to know any of this right now since I'm still a hatchling and don't even have a parental bond. Plus, I already kinda know the ins and outs of the parental bond transformation because of you going through it." Toothless said with a shrug.
"Yeah, you've got a point there. Maybe once you're old enough to read through chapter four we can read through the transformation process so you're aware of what could happen." Hiccup agreed as he took the journal and flipped to the last chapter, making sure to keep the pages out of Toothless' line of sight as he did. "Do you wanna read the last one, or are you done?"
Toothless tapped his chin in thought then shook his head. "I'm done."
Hiccup nodded and began to read through the last chapter.
"'As with most dragon species, we Night Furies have our own special abilities. One that was mentioned earlier on in the journal is the ability to transform into humans. This ability allows us to blend in with the humans that roam this world just like we do. With this form, we keep scales to cover our chests and nether regions to keep us safe from humans that would wish us bodily harm. Not only that, but we can have scales appear anywhere on our bodies for that same reason.'"
"Whoa..that's so cool! I never knew that we could do that!" Toothless said excitedly as he bounced in his seat.
Hiccup chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty cool isn't it? Will definitely be of use."
Toothless nodded quickly and looked at the journal in wonder as he waited for Hiccup to continue reading, which the elder Night Fury obliged.
"'Our scales can also appear from anger, starting from the eyes and spreading slowly across our bodies the more enraged we become. Before the scales appear, though, our eyes will change form to that of our dragon form, but the whites of our eyes will stay unless we fully transform. Another thing that can appear is our wings and tails. This creates a form called the hybrid form, which allows us to communicate with humans while being able to fly and use our claws as self-defense.'"
"Okay, I knew about the hybrid form, but it's still cool that they explain everything about it." Toothless said and Hiccup nodded in agreement.
"Sure is." He said before he flipped the page and went back to reading. "'While most dragons use fire, as you may know already, we Night Furies use plasma instead. This could be in the form of blasts or a constant stream. Depending on how it is used, matured Night Furies typically have a shot limit of six. Another ability we possess is echolocation. This allows us to know where things are in vast or dark areas and allows us to communicate with one another and other dragon species that have this same ability.'"
"Cool..does it say what age you've gotta be to learn how to do that?" Toothless asked as he leaned closer against the table with curious eyes.
Hiccup scanned the page for the answer. "'Although hatchlings learn to use their plasma at a very young age for self-defense reasons, the echolocation cannot be learned until the dragon is matured.'"
"Aw mannn.." Toothless whined in disappointment as he slumped against the table.
Hiccup chuckled and shook his head with a small smile. Toothless then noticed there was more information and sat upright again with a curious look in his toxic green eyes.
"What else does it say Dad?"
Hiccup found where he left off and resumed reading. "'Another ability that is rather useful for our species is the ability to understand dragons and humans in whatever form we are in. With this ability comes the knowledge of understanding both the human language and the dragon tongue, which allows us to speak both fluently in the form it corresponds with.'"
"Wow. That's pretty useful. And makes sense, honestly. Would be weird if we couldn't do that. And hard to have conversations." Toothless said as he looked at the drawings in the journal.
Hiccup chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah it would be."
He then flipped through the remaining pages and saw that the rest was just drawings showing each kind of ability.
"And that's everything. Well, besides the sections that we didn't read through that is." He said as he closed the journal and placed it on the table, putting his full attention on his eldest again. "So, what'd ya think bud? You find out what you wanted to?"
Toothless nodded with a joyous smile. "Yup. I'm glad we were able to get this. It's nice to be able to know more about our species."
"It sure is." Hiccup said with a smile.
Their attention was torn away when they heard small claws against wood, only to see Kala coming downstairs with her plush clamped gently in her maw by its scruff, her teeth sheathed to keep from puncturing holes in the fur.
Hiccup smiled and picked her up when she pawed at his leg. Kala then snuggled close to his chest, dropping the plush into her front paws as she fell back asleep.
~~~HTRYNF~~~