Lightning And Death Itself Chapter 8
A/N
To the many readers who have favorited and/or followed this story, and especially to the reviewers: thank you! The pressure has been building, and this is the chapter that blows the lid off. I hope you like it, but you'd better fasten your flying harnesses – it's going to be a wild ride.
o
"...and that's how dragon society functions. Any questions?"
Hiccup had one. "Toothless, how does that transformation thing work?"
Toothless sighed. "You and your curiosity. I hope you never change, but sometimes...
"The transformation works like this. You blow out a special fireball, which flattens into a thin disc; the mechanics are different for each dragon species. You consciously dump all your Power into it. Then you focus your mind completely on the change you want to see happen. When you make contact with the disc, you change. It happens quickly, but it takes your mind a minute or so to recover from the side effects, so it's best done either on the ground or at high altitude."
"That sounds pretty simple," Hiccup commented.
"That's just the big picture; it's a lot more complicated to actually do it," Toothless replied. "Changing one thing into another isn't an easy process. I'll start explaining it to you when we get some slack time; it's not something you need to know right away."
"Can that change be anything at all?" Astrid was suddenly very interested.
"Anything except to reverse the results of another transformation. When Power opposes Power, you get the biggest fireball you can imagine. If you tried to use your Power to turn yourselves back into humans, you'd destroy yourselves, and half of this cove as well. Please don't try it."
"So we really are stuck like this," she said, her head drooping.
"Is it really that bad for you?" Hiccup asked compassionately.
Her eyes narrowed. "How could you ask a question like that? You left nothing behind! I had a family! I had friends! I had a life and a future! I came this close to winning dragon training! If it wasn't for you and your cheating tricks, I would have been the hero of the village!"
"They were not cheating tricks!" Hiccup retorted angrily. "I just learned more about dragons than anybody else, thanks to Toothless, that's all! It was like knowing a shot limit, or finding a blind spot. Are those things cheating?"
His voice softened. "I'm sorry about the people you left behind. Like you said, I left nobody, or almost nobody, and I'm sorry enough about that. And I'm sorry you had a life and you can't go back to it. I left my life behind, too. But I'll be honest – I'm not even a little bit sorry about that.
"Look at me, Astrid. Don't look at me and see a dragon; look at me and see Hiccup! I can fly! I can make fire and put it right where I want it! I can catch fish, and do things I never even dreamed of! And I can do them without messing up twenty times first! Can you even imagine how that makes me feel? Me, Hiccup – I'm doing things right! For the first time in my life! It's like a dream!
"You never had to struggle like that. You're used to doing things right. You worked and you trained and you practiced, and you became the town's best young warrior! I did the best I could, and I was never anything but... Hiccup."
He took a deep breath. "Toothless was right. I miss my dad and some of my friends, but I don't want to go back. This is a better life than anything Berk ever offered me. I know you don't feel that way, but please stop talking about Berk and being human as if that's all there is."
Her mouth fell open. "I can't believe what I'm hearing! You've been a dragon for, what, two days? And you're ready to leave behind everything you've ever known? Are you serious?"
"Yes," he said emphatically. "I've been Hiccup the Useless for a lot longer than two days, so I know what I'm giving up. I don't know everything about being a Night Fury, but it has to be better than what I used to be. Go ahead and try to find your way back, but if you find a way, I'm not taking it. I'm a dragon now. I can be competent, confident, successful... I might even be happy."
When Astrid had first met Toothless in this cove a few days ago, Hiccup had introduced them as though they ought to be friends. She had given him a shocked, angry, betrayed look, just before she ran away. Somehow, her Night Fury face conveyed that same look to him now, just before she ran away again.
"Dat da-dah, I'm dead," he sighed.
"She won't leave the cove," Toothless told him. "Give her time."
Hiccup turned to face him squarely. "We might not have that much time! The Vikings could find us here any minute, and then what do we do? Or what if this Mother dragon decides today's the day to call all the dragons in? You say I'll know the way, but what do I do when I get there? Just fly in and say, 'Hi, Mom, I'm home'?"
He paced back and forth. "Astrid can barely fly, and you can't fly at all. That leaves a lot on my shoulders, and I'm still totally new at this."
"You may be new at it, but you learn very fast," Toothless answered. "Amazingly fast. Everything I've taught you just comes naturally to you. There isn't much more for me to teach; it's just a question of you practicing and working out the details. Like you said – from now on, I'm treating you like a dragon and nothing else, because that's what you really are. Congratulations."
"Gee, thanks, I won't let it go to my head," Hiccup said. "But speaking of details, can you glide across the cove again? I want to watch how you use your sub-wings in a glide."
"Okay, we've got some time." Toothless climbed as high on the rock walls as he could, turned, and launched himself into the air. He knew he'd be fine as long as he glided straight and level, but as soon as he tried to turn, he'd lose control and crash. He looked for a landing zone that was right in front of him.
He noticed Hiccup staring at him intently. Suddenly, the other dragon shot out a blue fireball. What was he doing? The ball turned into a colorful, crackling disc right in front of him. Oh, no.
He couldn't turn. He couldn't climb. He couldn't do anything except fly right into it. Was Hiccup turning him back into a human to destroy him, to get revenge on Astrid's behalf? He doesn't know how to control –
His senses were overwhelmed by the overload. He was aware of falling into the water, so he held his breath until he could think straight. And when he could think straight, he was furious!
He stormed up to Hiccup, shaking the water off as he went. "You idiot! What were you trying to do? Do you think the Power is some kind of toy for you to play with? It's meant to help dragonkind, you get one chance, you're playing around without knowing what you're doing, and now you've wasted it! You did nothing with it, and it's gone forever!" He lashed his tail angrily.
His TAIL!
He spun in shock, and stared at the two perfect tail fins that gracefully fanned open and closed.
"I hope you like it, bud," Hiccup said shakily. "You did say dragons use the Power to heal serious injuries, in themselves or in a friend."
Toothless turned back to face Hiccup. He was speechless. He looked back at his tail again for a moment. Finally, he asked, "How did you do that? I only gave you the broadest overview..."
"It's like you said. This stuff comes naturally to me. I figured it was worth a shot."
Toothless shook his head in amazement, mingled with a bit of dismay. "You were supposed to use the Power to make a new Night Fury."
"I did, sort of," Hiccup said. "You thought you were as good as dead because you couldn't fly, so now you're kind of alive again. Isn't that almost as good as making a new one?"
They stared at each other in wide-eyed silence. Hiccup expected his friend to leap into the air and fly, but he just stared. At last, Hiccup nodded and opened himself for TrueSight. Toothless' only emotion was a soft-solid wall of gratitude, like the fog that fills Berk's harbor early on a summer morning, colored around the edges with amazement at Hiccup's achievement. Hiccup was mostly feeling relief. Relief that he'd taken a chance and succeeded, and also relief that he had righted an old wrong.
"What old wrong was that?" Toothless asked when the moment passed.
Hiccup braced himself. "Buddy, there's something you need to know about how you lost your tail."
Toothless smiled. "I knew that. I always knew. It wasn't a coincidence that you were the only one who came looking for me in the woods."
"And you weren't mad at me? You never..."
"That was in the middle of a war," Toothless answered softly. "We were trying our best to destroy each other, and sometimes people get hurt that way. I knew it was nothing personal. When you offered me peace in the middle of that war, the least I could do was forgive."
Hiccup leaned forward until his head rested against Toothless' head. "Bud, if I'd known you, I never would have taken that shot."
Toothless closed his eyes. "But if you didn't take the shot, you never would have known me."
They remained in that position for a very long time.
Then, suddenly, Toothless grinned and broke the contact. "Okay, hot shot! Now I can give you a real flying lesson! Catch me if you can!" The two Night Furies sprang into the air at once, and from then until nightfall, they whipped and darted back and forth so quickly, it was impossible to tell which was which. From her sulking place among the trees, Astrid watched them and felt a quick pang of envy.
Hiccup was quite overmatched in their games of aerial tag, but he watched his friend closely. His technical mind could appreciate how the slight twist of a wingtip, or a change in the angle of the leading edge of a wing, could give Toothless his unmatched maneuverability. He began adding skill to his flying instincts. As the sun went down that night, Toothless was still much the better flier, but he had a rival in the making.
But for Toothless, it wasn't about winning or losing, or even about teaching. It was just about the sheer, exuberant, lost-and-found joy of flying!