Lightning and Death Itself

by Cke1st

Toothless uses a little-known dragon ability to alter the outcome of the romantic flight... and the very nature of his passengers. Rated T for subject matter; the language is all K. Dragon!Hiccup, dragon!Astrid, some Hiccstrid, no slash. This story got its one millionth view on July 7, 2018 - thank you!

86. First Contact, Chapter 5

First Contact Chapter 5

The Stormcutter cocked his head to the left, then to the right, trying to make sense of what Hiccup had just told him. "This human female... my friend... is your mother?! How is that possible?"

"Were you there when I explained to everyone that my mate and I were both transformed from humans?" Hiccup said. It was hard to talk, his throat was so tight.

"Yes, but I... oh! She birthed you as a human, and then you were transformed!" His eyes widened. "But… that means you were the tiny pink human hatchling I was looking at, back in the human village, all those years ago! You were the one she ran into the house to protect! If it weren't for you, she and I never would have met, and the two of us wouldn't be here together! And now you're here as well… it's as though a circle has been closed." With a completely straight face, he added, "You aren't so pink anymore."

"Yeah, I noticed that, too," Hiccup forced himself to say. "But I don't think you understand. I've spent my entire life thinking she was dead. My father – her mate – still thinks she's dead. This is a reunion that was supposed to be impossible. I'm not prepared for this, any more than she's prepared to learn that her only son got turned into a Night Fury."

The Stormcutter's huge eyes got even bigger. He finally said, "Did I do wrong by bringing her here?"

"No, I'm convinced your motives were good," Hiccup tried to reassure him, "and I'm convinced that she was better off here than she was at home. But if there was some way you could have told us you meant to keep her alive… that would have been better."

"I couldn't," the Stormcutter said, a bit apologetically. "Even if the male human had given me time to communicate – which he didn't – I don't know how to make those marks in the ground that you're making. There was nothing I could do."

"I understand," Hiccup replied. "But it sure makes this hard between my mother and me."

"Please, tell me what she is thinking about this," the Stormcutter urged him. "Does she need comfort? Is this a time of celebrating?"

"She... she doesn't know yet. She knows that we're from the same town, so she thinks I know her son, and she's begging me for news about him." Hiccup hung his head. "Should I tell her anything at all?"

"We are dragons. Lies do not suit us," the Stormcutter said solemnly. He lowered his head and rumbled in Hiccup's ear, "This is going to be a very emotional moment for the two of you. Perhaps I should leave you alone."

"It would be better if you stay," Hiccup forced himself to reply. "She may want a familiar face nearby when she learns the truth. As you said, she might need comforting, and you seem to be the closest friend she has."

The bigger dragon blinked in surprise. "Maybe you can imagine how much I care for her. You surprise me, Night Fury. I'll stay. But please... don't drag this out. Don't torment her. Tell her the truth. Now." Hiccup nodded and turned back to face her.

She had been waiting with barely-concealed impatience for the dragons to finish their dragon-language discussion. Again she took Hiccup's head in her hands, forcing him to make eye contact. "My son is dead, isn't he?" she asked, her eyes beginning to water. "That's what you're keeping from me, isn't it? Please – I've spent eighteen years wondering. Even the worst news would be better than not knowing." Her voice was quavering. "Tell me the truth! Is Hiccup dead?"

It took all his strength to write five short words.

NO,
I'M NOT DEAD,
MOM

For a few seconds, it was as though time had stopped. The human and the Night Fury stood motionless, not making a sound, staring at each other.

Then she began to laugh. Hiccup didn't expect this and had no idea how to deal with it. It was almost a relief when her laughter suddenly turned to sobbing in mid-breath and she fell on her hands and knees, pounding the ground with her fists and screaming, "NO! NO! NO!" She broke down crying. "After eighteen years, this is NOT how my family reunion was supposed to work! Oh, gods, no-o-o!"

Hiccup rested his muzzle against her shoulder and let out a comforting croon. She pulled away from him and bumped into the wing of the Stormcutter, who had also edged closer to her. "Cloudjumper, I can't deal with this!" she cried. "Get me out of here! I need fresh air! I need to think!" She made a hand signal that the Stormcutter obviously recognized. The big dragon extended his forewing as a step; she bounded onto his back without even looking, and they were in the air and headed for the exit tunnel a moment later. Hiccup took a second to make up his mind what he should do; then he followed them.

The sun had gone down while the Night Furies were telling their tale to the Alpha; the exit tunnel was nearly black. Hiccup's superb night vision took a few seconds to adapt, and he almost flew into the walls once or twice before he could see properly in the dark. After that, he had no difficulty following the big Stormcutter as he swooped and spun through the narrow tunnel. In less than a minute, they burst out of the cave and into open air.

Hiccup flew behind and to the left of the bigger dragon. He knew he was nearly invisible to humans in the dark; the Stormcutter would know he was there, but his mother wouldn't. He wanted to stay close, but he definitely didn't want to upset her any more than she already was. Stormcutter-brown-likes-the-female-human glanced back at him now and then, but made no attempt to get away from him. That would have been a waste of time anyway – a Stormcutter could never outfly a Night Fury, except in low-speed maneuvers. They flew in silence through the night sky.

"I love dragons," the woman told her dragon friend through her tears. "I loved my son. I am not a hysterical little girl. Why am I acting this way? You'd think I'd be glad that the two great loves of my life came together. Well, except for Stoick, of course, but he'll never understand about dragons." She gasped. "What does he think about Hiccup being a dragon? Did he chase his own son away? Is that why Hiccup is here?" She covered her face with her hands. "Hiccup is a dragon. My son is a Night Fury. How am I supposed to react to that? Cloudjumper, if you were ever going to learn how to talk, now would be the perfect time!" Her dragon looked back at her and tried to make a comforting sound, but his voice box was limited. She managed half a smile anyway, and scratched his brow. "I guess I'll take that. I know you're doing your best."

The Stormcutter looked back toward Hiccup. "What should happen next?"

"Just fly with her for a few more minutes," Hiccup replied. "I think flying comforts her as much as it would comfort us. She needs to sort out her thoughts. Then land someplace where I can write on the ground. The two of us have to talk this out."

She suddenly looked all around. "I heard another dragon out there! Cloudjumper, what's going on? Who's there?" The big dragon flapped his four wings and gained height and speed; Hiccup made no attempt to keep up with him. He fell far behind, but stayed close enough that he could keep an eye on the human/dragon pair. If this was going to be their big reunion, getting his mother more agitated was not the way to start things off. But he didn't want to lose her.

After about ten minutes, dragon and rider began to descend toward a small island that stood out in the ice. Hiccup followed them in. He heard the thud of the Stormcutter's feet as he landed, followed by the much lighter sound of his mother dismounting. As he circled for a landing, she was examining the ground, as though she was looking for something. Suddenly she shouted, "Aha!" as she picked up a good-sized rock with both hands and threw it on the ground in front of her. Twin metal jaws snapped out of the ground and slammed together. They were four feet across and edged with serrated teeth.

"That's one dragon trap that will never catch another dragon," she said with satisfaction. She found the buried chain that connected the trap to a nearby tree and pulled it up. "Cloudjumper, you know what to do." The Stormcutter blasted the chain with a prolonged burst of fire, scorching the ground around it. Then he picked up the trap in his mouth and pulled hard; the heat-softened iron chain snapped. Then he tossed his head and sent the trap flying. It hit the water fifty yards away with a dull splash. That was when she saw the Night Fury land a few feet away from her. She tensed up, but didn't back away as he approached her.

"The first thing I have to ask you," she began shakily, "is, can you prove it's really you?"

I AM HICCUP HORRENDOUS
HADDOCK III,
SON OF STOICK THE VAST
AND VALHALLARAMA

She rubbed out her name with her boot. "I always hated that name. I don't know what my parents were thinking when they named me. Oh, I guess it could have been worse – they might have named me Nymphadora or something like that. My friends always called me Valka." She took a deep breath and let it out. "I guess it's you. My only son is a dragon. How am I supposed to react to this?"

I'M 18 – I HAD TO GROW UP.
I JUST GOT LONG
INSTEAD OF TALL

She laughed nervously. "Hiccup... when Cloudjumper picked me up and carried me off, the last human face I saw was yours. You have no idea how many times I tried to imagine what your face would look like, if I ever saw you again." She chuckled ruefully. "I guess my imagination wasn't good enough."

I TRIED TO IMAGINE YOUR
FACE TOO, MOM

"In that whole village full of people, your face was the only one I missed! You and your father, of course. After all these years of living with dragons, my only regret was that I couldn't have grabbed you and taken you away with me, so I could have raised you apart from all the traditional Viking hatreds, and brought you up with these amazing creatures instead. I just knew you'd be better off in the company of dragons than with the Vikings." She shook her head. "At least I got that part right. Hiccup, I have missed you so much!"

THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU
EVER COME HOME?

She shrugged sadly. "I couldn't. I can't fly, I can't walk across water, and none of the dragons was willing to bring me home again. When Cloudjumper brought me here, I thought he meant to fatten me up and feed me to the babies; I spent my first week in the nest trying to hide. And getting very hungry! I finally took a chance and ate some of the fish he was bringing me, and I started learning how to live here. I realized he wasn't planning anything bad, and eventually, I began thinking of the dragons as my friends and the nest as my home."

SO YOU WERE A PRISONER, AND YOU
DECIDED YOU LIKED IT HERE BETTER
THAN HOME? IS THAT WHY I WENT
THROUGH THE HARDEST YEARS OF MY
LIFE WITHOUT MY MOTHER? IS THAT
WHY DAD STILL THINKS YOU'RE DEAD?

"He… he does? Is he all right?"

HE MISSES YOU EVERY DAY.
HE NEVER REMARRIED

She shook her head sadly. "That stubborn fool! I told him, if anything ever happened to me, he should find someone else! I wanted him to be happy."

I DON'T THINK THERE WAS ANYONE
ELSE WHO COULD MAKE HIM HAPPY

She sighed. "Maybe it's good that I was unable to come home. I never had to make that decision for myself; it was made for me. I loved your father, but I could never make him understand that dragons aren't the monsters he thought they were! Even when they were raiding our town, I knew that, but now that I've lived among them… Hiccup, you have no idea! They're clever, they're curious, they have feelings, they… oh, what am I saying? I'm talking to a dragon!" She shook her head again. "This is so hard for me. I had these mental pictures of what you'd look like if I ever saw you again. Sometimes I thought you'd be tall and strong like your father; sometimes I thought you'd turn out thin and thoughtful like me. The one thing I didn't imagine was… this!"

YOU JUST GESTURED TO ALL OF ME

"Hiccup… was it that hard, growing up without me?"

He pondered for a moment. Should he tell her the truth? Would it make any difference at this point? Should he start his new relationship with his mother by lying to her?

I WAS THIN, WEAK AND CLEVER.
I MADE A TERRIBLE VIKING.
DAD WAS ALWAYS TOO BUSY.
GROWING UP ALONE WAS HARD

She took his huge head in her hands and looked him in the eyes. "Hiccup… I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. It wasn't my idea to be carried off by dragons. If I'd hit Cloudjumper with my weapon when I had the chance, he probably wouldn't have wanted me." She sighed again and looked away. "You went through all that misery, just because I couldn't kill a dragon."

YOU MEAN, WOULDN'T

She looked startled. "What do you mean?"

THAT'S HOW MY LIFE CHANGED.
I WOULDN'T KILL A DRAGON

"So your life got ruined because you took after me and did what I did?"

MOM, I LOVE BEING A DRAGON!
THE DAY TOOTHLESS TRANSFORMED ME
TURNED OUT TO BE THE MOST
IMPORTANT DAY OF MY LIFE,
EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T FEEL
THAT WAY AT THE TIME

She read those runes twice to make sure she understood him. "Hiccup, the first time I flew with dragons, I was being carried here by Cloudjumper, and I thought I was going to die. The second time, I rode on his back, and I thought I'd finally come alive for the first time! The view, the wind in my face, the sense of freedom… it was like I'd lived with my eyes closed all my life, and then suddenly opened them. I think that was the key to finding contentment among the dragons here."

I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL.
IT WAS THE SAME WITH MY
FIRST FLIGHT. WE SEEM TO HAVE
A LOT IN COMMON

She looked at him intently. "Hiccup, this is important to me. Tell me, with no room for confusion: are you really happy as a dragon, or are you just saying that to try and make me happy?"

I WAS A TERRIBLE VIKING, BUT I'VE
FOUND MY PLACE AS A DRAGON.
I'VE TAKEN A MATE, RAISED HATCHLINGS,
WON BATTLES, MADE FRIENDS,
AND EVEN CHANGED DAD'S MIND
ABOUT DRAGONS.
I'D NEVER GO BACKTO BEING HUMAN

"Okay… now you're pushing the limits of what I can believe! Are you trying to tell me that Stoick the Vast no longer hates dragons?"

WHEN HE REALIZED THAT HIS SON
WAS A DRAGON, HE HAD TO CHANGE.
BELIEVE ME, HE FOUGHT IT.
HE'S SHARING HIS VILLAGE WITH
A NEST OF DRAGONS NOW

She got a faraway look in her eyes. "I'd give just about anything if I could see that for five minutes."

HERE'S ONE DRAGON WHO IS
WILLING TO TAKE YOU HOME

Again, time seemed to stand still for them. As she thought it over, the Stormcutter leaned over to murmur in Hiccup's ear. "Are things going better?"

"Much better," the Night Fury nodded. "She's accepting me for who I am, and she's contemplating a visit to her old home."

That startled the bigger dragon. "I don't like that idea. What if she doesn't want to come back? I might never see her again!"

"Our village is a day and a half's flight away from here. We can bring her back to visit, or you could visit her freely – Berk is a dragon-friendly place now."

"But what about everything she does for us in this nest? She treats our wounds, she breaks the trappers' snares, and rescues the ones who get caught… I don't think the King is willing to lose one of his most important subjects. I'm not willing to lose my friend."

"Don't panic yet, Stormcutter. First, let's see what she wants to do. She may not want to go, and if she goes, she may not want to stay. If she does… we'll burn that bridge when we come to it."