Lightning And Death Itself Ending #1-a
A/N What will Hiccup do – stay in the nest or return to Berk? I couldn't decide which of two endings was best for this story. So I'm posting both of them. Here's the first half of ending #1.
o
Hiccup was discovering yet another advantage to being a dragon. Dragons heal very rapidly from injuries. It was only three days ago that Gobber had removed half of his wounded leg, working quickly while Fishlegs knocked him out with handfuls of dragon-nip grass. Already he was well enough to fly and stand upright. Gobber had checked out the wound today, pronounced it surprisingly good, and then shaken his head. "What's the world comin' to? I carved up a dragon with me sharpest instruments, to help 'im live!"
Hiccup wasn't even close to fully recovered, of course. Astrid and Toothless had limited him to easy tasks that didn't require any walking. Today's project was supervising the release of the dragons from Berk's training ring. They had been cooped up in tiny holding cells for years, and only released for short periods so young Vikings could learn to fight them. They were frustrated and belligerent, and no one could blame them. Hiccup's role was to speak their language and calm them down so they wouldn't attack the humans who were setting them free. His classmates in the final dragon-training class had been given that dubious honor.
As they approached the ring, Fishlegs looked thoughtful. "Hiccup, this is going to sound totally weird, but I'm going to miss that Gronckle. I mean, we kept trying to kill each other over and over, but we never did, and I got used to seeing him every few days. He's kind of cute, in an ugly sort of a way."
Hiccup scratched on the rocks that surrounded the ring.
YOU COULD MAKE FRIENDS
WITH HIM IF YOU WANT TO
"I could? Yeah, I want to! Uhhh... how?"
WHEN HE COMES OUT,
OFFER HIM A LITTLE DRAGON-NIP.
IF HE LIKES YOU, RUB HIS NOSE
SAY NICE THINGS
"Okay. If you say so." All of Fishlegs' training had been to fight dragons, even though he hadn't been very good at it. The idea of approaching one with no hammer, no shield, nothing but a few blades of grass, left him feeling 97% helpless. But Hiccup said it was good, and a dragon should know about these things, right?
Hiccup approached the doors. "Is there a Gronckle in there?"
"Yes!" came a female voice. "I'm Gronckle-lugs-much-meat-back-to-the-Mother. You sound like a Night Fury. Can you get me out of here? Please?"
"The humans are about to let you out, sister. Don't attack them! Everything is different now. The Mother is dead, the wars are over, and we're done fighting humans. The big one wants to be your friend."
"That one? He never did me any harm. Okay, I'll check him out. Just get me out of here!"
Hiccup turned and gestured with his head to Tuffnut, who swung the handle and opened the doors. The Gronckle shot out of captivity, but instead of searching for rocks and targets, she hovered and slowly rotated from side to side. The door to the ring was open; she could escape with ease.
The big human stood to the side, looking extremely nervous. "Nice dragon, nice dragon..." As the Gronckle got closer, Fishlegs held out a few blades of the grass.
The Gronckle took a suspicious sniff, then a bigger one. Her face lit up, and she flopped to the ground, waggling her stubby tail back and forth. Her rumbling growls meant nothing to the humans, but Hiccup heard, "Oh, baby, you know what I like!"
SHE LIKES YOU
Fishlegs rubbed her nose as Hiccup had suggested; his face also lit up. "Oooh, you're such a cute little dragon! We're going to be friends forever! Hiccup, what should I call him?" The Night Fury started to scratch the Gronckle's name. "That's kind of long. Can I call him Lugmeat? No, Meatlug!"
Hiccup pointed at his previous message, trying to call attention to the word "she," but Fishlegs was oblivious. Oh, well; he'd find out soon enough.
Some people say twins think alike; others say they share telepathy. All Hiccup knew is that Ruffnut and Tuffnut nodded to each other, walked up to him, and said in perfect unison, "We want the Zippleback!"
"And I want that Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout exclaimed, caught up in the moment. "The most awesome Viking should get the most awesome dragon, right?"
Hiccup realized his morning had just gotten a lot busier than he'd planned.
That afternoon, he was back in the nest, explaining everything that had happened. He had a rapt audience; the other dragons were very curious about humans, now that they weren't the enemy any more.
"I might want to make friends with a human," Nadder-turquoise-loves-her-own-reflection said. "It would show them there's no hard feelings, and it would be nice to have someone who can scratch where it itches. Maybe he'd even shine my scales for me. Humans are kind of ugly, all soft and pink, but I could get used to them." Many of the others agreed.
"But that means you'd have to leave the nest and live with them," a Nightmare commented.
"Oh. I hadn't thought of that," said the Nadder.
"I know!" exclaimed Small-night-fury. "We can start a new nest in the village! It's a safe place now; there's plenty of room and lots of interesting people. Best of all, it's close to this nest, so if we want to visit or if any of us changes our minds, we can go from here to there any time we want!" Everyone liked that idea.
"This new nest will need a Night Fury, won't it?" asked Gronckle-grouchy-questions-everything. They all looked at their three Night Furies, who looked at each other.
"I'll go," New-night-fury said. "My father really wants me to come home, but I hate leaving all of you. If I could take a bunch of you with me, that would be the best of both worlds."
Small-night-fury slid closer to New-night-fury. "Wherever you go, that's where I'll go." Several of the dragons nudged each other and winked at that.
"I'll stay," said Night-fury. "Someone has to keep this crazy nest under control."
New-night-fury looked sad. "We'll be separated, bud."
"Not by much; we're less than half an hour from you. It took you longer than that to walk from the village to the cove when you were human. We can see each other every day, just like we used to, except now, we can both fly."
The next morning, Stoick awoke to find a message carved in the ground in front of his house.
AT NOON, I'M COMING HOME
WITH A BUNCH OF DRAGONS WHO
WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH
HUMANS LIKE THE TEENS DID.
WE'LL ALL LIVE IN BERK TOGETHER
Stoick did a facepalm. "A whole village full of dragons! Walking in our streets and roosting on our houses! What is this? Punishment from the gods?"
Hiccup was as good as his word. It wasn't the first time a cloud of dragons had descended on Berk. But it was the first time they landed without attacking, and it was the first time they were welcomed instead of fought off. The catapults remained unmanned, and the night-vision torches were filled with fish as a peace offering.
The whole town turned out to watch them arrive. Some came out of idle curiosity, but many came because they'd heard about the teens and their dragons yesterday. They wanted to make friends with a dragon themselves, or at least see their neighbor do it so they could think it over.
As soon as the dragons landed, they began searching the crowds of people for someone who caught their eye. New-night-fury and Small-night-fury guided the dragons, while the humans got advice from the teens, especially Fishlegs, who quickly emerged as an expert. The pairing-off process went almost without a hitch, and Berk's society was radically transformed in a day.
Some of the dragons preferred a limited independence, and didn't bond with any humans; they were tolerated in town. Most of them made a special human friend and enjoyed spending time with that friend, even to the point of going flying with them. Those dragons were welcomed, and wandered the streets freely. It was common to find them resting on the roofs of the houses they once tried to burn.
But two special dragons were more than tolerated or welcomed. They were honored. They were given first pick of the fish that the dragons ate, and they were greeted by name wherever they went.
Everyone in Berk learned to tell their Night Furies apart on sight. Astrid was the smaller one, and Hiccup was easy to recognize, with half of his left hind leg missing. Gobber had offered to make him an artificial leg, but Hiccup had declined.
3 IS ENOUGH FOR THE GROUND.
I'M A CREATURE OF THE SKY
Stoick and the Hofferson family had formally agreed that their children would be a couple, but they didn't call it engagement or marriage. Hiccup had explained (after talking to Toothless about it) that dragons didn't marry, but chose partners and kept them until they both agreed to choose someone else. Hiccup and Astrid had chosen each other and agreed to never choose anyone else, and said so with scratched runes in front of witnesses from both families. That satisfied the proprieties for all concerned.
A special house was built for them; the humans called it the Dragons' Nest, or simply the Nest. It was the first time in history that a building was designed with input from dragons. The ground floor had a high ceiling; it was open to the elements and empty, except for a human-sized stairway to the second floor and a fire pit, which the dragons could light on cold winter days. New-night-fury and Small-night-fury used that space to hear and deal with the problems that came up among the other dragons of Berk.
The second floor was also open, for easy take-offs and landings, but had shutters designed by Hiccup that the dragons could raise and lower by pulling on ropes with their mouths. The second floor's main features were a large, smooth stone pad, suitable for two Night Furies to sleep on; a smaller stone for Toothless, who was a frequent visitor; a long, shallow sandbox for writing messages to Stoick and the other humans who visited them; and, off in the corner, an empty wooden box about two feet square and half a foot high.
"I still don't know why you two insisted on that box," Stoick said to them one day. "It's just taking up space. What's it for?"
Astrid wrote out the reply, with a sideways smile at her mate.
CONGRATULATIONS, GRANDPA.
I'M GOING TO LAY AN EGG!