Talking is all well and good, but actually acquiring what you are talking about requires more than just words... or does it?
Quick note, ** means dragon speech, just to avoid confusion, I never used it before, because dragons that were talking did not understood humans.
An unusual duo, a human and a night fury, dropped from high altitude and towards a small islet with a patch of green around a small pond of water with a crescent of caves behind it. The island itself was encircled by around a dozen sea stacks, give or take a few.
*Trespassers!*
A green and yellow-scaled nadder screeched upon seeing them; the night fury sped up to him, swiftly catching up.
*Wait! We only want to talk!*
The dragon eyed the Night Fury warily, especially the human-things that covered him and the human itself.
*You land, we get rid of the human. You free.*
Toothless-Toni rolled his eyes; it was the dozenth time it was happening.
*I am free. Human friend. I was grounded, tail damaged, human repaired it.*
The Nadder was still a bit uncertain but wasn't screeching anymore and led them before his pack: a little above a dozen dragons, a mix of nadders, gronckles, and two zipplebacks. A big, grizzled monstrous Nightmare stepped forward. Tooth-Toni sighed in exasperation.
*What do you want, Flawed?*
The Night Fury immediately perked up.
*You are not from the Hungry One nest.*
The dragon hummed in agreement.
*No, I flew here, not knowing of its existence, to find a comfortable nesting place. Did humans do something to decrease its power? Dragons are no longer under its sway, despite there being no way for it to end.*
The Night Fury straightened.
*In fact, I was the one to kill that Starborn.*
A dismissive snort was his response.
*Impossible, nothing can beat Starborns. And even if it was physically possible, there is no way thee could disobey it.*
*Its command was faltering since I arrived here myself; it couldn't give many orders and relied mainly on commanding what to be scared of. It never gave any commands after it exited its nest to fight with humans, so I guess that's when it broke.*
He still seemed unconvinced.
*You can fly to its former nest if you want. Its corpse is lying on the shore; quite big, you wouldn't miss it.*
The monstrous Nightmare grunted noncommittally.
*What have thee come here for? To gloat?*
Proles Tonitrua composed himself.
*No, to offer to join our flock.*
This elicited a snarl from the apparent alpha and all the dragons of his flock.
*Join!? We are strong enough on our own!*
*It's not just about greater strength, but the ways humans could help. I would be grounded for the rest of my life if not for Twig's help.*
The Night Fury pointed with his ear at the human at his back.
*If some bone breaks, be it a leg, wing, or even ribs, they can make it grow back to how it was, instead of being twisted for good. If wing membrane is damaged, they can repair it. And that is just the beginni-*
*They can repair wing membrane, you say? Good, I have one subject that could use it. Follow me.*
They flew up towards the pond and the crescent of caves behind it, then entered one to the left. Hiccup gasped; Toothless nodded.
"Hiccup, can you repair her wing?"
"I... I, Toothless, this is another Night Fury!"
"Yes, how does it matter, Twig? Can you do it or not? Does it make things harder?"
The dragon asked worriedly, but still accentuating the nickname, already seeing how hard it could get to persuade the alpha if this failed. The teenager shook his head.
"It... It is no problem, just... this is another Night Fury!"
Toothless gave him a flat look.
"Yes, there was one female in the nest with me, and there are a lot of others out there. What is so amazing about it?"
At the stuttering that followed, Toothless basically shoved the saddlebag into Hiccup's face, promptly taking charge."How can you be so...grr," he muttered.
The human unbuckled the saddlebag and stepped towards the dragoness, taking in her dark grey scales and their reflective dark-blue patterns.. She had quite stubby proportions and completely white eyes, accentuated by irises as black as the void as all dragons had.
Her right wing had a visible tear on it, and she didn't even growl defensively when seeing Hiccup approach her, only closed her eyes and whimpered.
Hiccup kneeled before her head. "Shush, shush, I am here to help, don't worry. Toothless, can you explain what I am going to do to her?"
The Night Fury groaned.
"Fine, but you owe me cod for this. And I have teeth."
"But your name is too long." The dragon half-lidded his eyes and stepped forward. "Fine, Twig." Hiccup's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything, focused on the task at hand.
*You, female. This human is here to repair your wing, not to kill you.*
Her head perked up, and her irises widened.
*He can do it?*
*Humans can do a lot of things considered impossible by us.* Toothless replied impassively, cutting the talk short.
That is, before Hiccup interfered.
"It will hurt a lot, too much for the pressure point to keep her unconscious." He frowned adorably (from Toothless's perspective, at least.) "Can you talk to her? It should be easier to endure the pain when focused on something else."
The Night Fury groaned again. "Fine." He turned his gaze to the dragoness's eyes. *So, what is your name?* She was about to reply when Hiccup inserted the needle, his dexterous hands bringing string to it amazingly fast. She turned rapidly to the human, but Toothless was between them before a second passed, ready to protect his delicate friend if she was to lash out. The dragoness wasn't even snarling though.
*He is helping you. It may hurt, but without it you will be grounded. Now, calm down.*
After a brief hesitation, she backed away, awkwardly shuffling her paws to lay down, somehow failing to assume a comfortable position, and he sat, but kept a wary gaze on her.
*I... I am- ouch, I am Pebble.* Toothless's eyes squinted; now he was borderline curious. *That is an unusual name for our kind.*
*That is because... Well, it will sound crazy, but I-I wasn't hatched of this ki-kind.*
If Toothless's look was to be any flatter, his skull would need to deform. *Aha, sure, I was a Gronckle before too.*
Pebble perked up. *Really?* But got flattened to the ground by the flatness of his look. *I mean, it is sort of-very, wrrr, weird, but I swear it is what happened!*
Toothless sighed. *So what happened?*
She perked up, one of her front paws somehow managing to slide across the rugged stony surface, her cheek somehow tipping into the ground in the process; Hiccup, thankfully, had not inserted his needle again yet. If not for all common sense, he could believe that she was made Night Fury yesterday, especially if she was a Gronckle before, with those much more stubby limbs.
*I w-was submitting fish to the Hungry One, and then... the jaws! It... It ate me, and then, it was... dark, and I was... fuzzy? Ouch!*
Hiccup looked up with a pointed look. Toothless sighed. He really needed to figure out a way to teach him dragon speech.
*Don't move, or jerk, or twitch, it will only hurt more then.*
*O-okay! As I- rrrr, where was I?* she asked incredulously, and Toothless managed to smother a groan.
*Hungry One ate you.* She quickly nodded, and he blinked. *Why would you do that?* At her incredulous look, he nodded as well.
*Well, you are doing it when saying yes, or-or do I have this wrong?*
He assessed her for two seconds before responding.
*No, you got it right.* And thought to himself she is more than she looks like.
*Aaa! Sorry, we-ll, where I... yes, it was dark, fuzzy, warm and cramped.*
*It sounds just like getting eaten whole.* She nodded excitedly despite his suspicious tone.
*Aaand I was crammed into something, and then I slept, a-and after that I- I- I awoke just above the Hungry One den! I crawled to some caves and then there was a fight! I hid, and then there was no one left, and I got hungry, but the duo-headed thing that lived there carried me here.*
*I don't believe you.* She inhaled, but another needle move made her squeak in pain, interrupting. Toni utilized this opportunity to change the topic. *How did you tear your wing?*
*I, rrr, I was helping as much as I could, but I don't know how to fly with such big wings, and I…fell. On a tasty-looking rock.*
Toni shook his head and walked over to behind her, overseeing the wing. It was already nearly sewed together, though her pattern was curious; there was a resemblance of an irisless eye on her back, directly between the wings, and a curved shape with four lengthy protrusions stretching all the way to the wrists of her wings, two on each wing.
Peculiar.
*So, are you finished?* The alpha monstrous nightmare stepped into the cave, squinting at the female's wing. Hiccup nodded, and Toothless did as well, but also confirmed it vocally.
*Good. That bodes well. Wouldn't you want to become part of my pack? This human is useful, and you could teach this...Flawed to be useful as well.*
*No, I will not leave my pack.*
Alpha snarled but did not move to subdue the Night Fury; instead, he walked closer and investigated the sewed-together membrane, at one point poking at it and inducing a yelp of pain.
*Don't touch it, it needs time to heal.*
Yellow eyes turned to him. *How long?*
*I don't know. Bigger wings take longer to heal. It could be... many moons, maybe as many as the teeth of nights.*
Alpha snarled. *And she has to lay all this time?*
He nodded, but corrected himself and confirmed aloud. The grizzled dragon looked deeply displeased.
Hiccup waved at his friend and, after receiving a report of the situation, quickly relayed an idea.
*My pack can take care of her until she is alright.* After a moment, he added something he had forgotten about: terms. *In turn, you will come with us to see our nest with your own eyes.*
*I have a pack to lead. I can't just leave them.*
*They are not mindless. They can take care of themselves for a while. Besides, you will not need to feed her, and my pack will need to send someone to take her. So this is really to your advantage.*
After a few seconds of consideration, Alpha agreed.
They flew back to Berk, Toothless occasionally peeking back at Alpha suspiciously. Hiccup shushed him, but to no effect. As they reached their destination, they were greeted by dragons from vassalized packs and Stormfly with her rider, cheerfully.
"How did it go?"
"Pretty well, I would say. The Alpha of the pack is with us to see everything for himself. It is time to show him the "awe route". But Astrid, we found another Night Fury!"
She nodded dutifully, and Hiccup groaned.
"Really? No one besides me is excited about this?"
Toothless's deadpan was detectable even for his rider despite him being unable to see his face, and Hiccup gritted his teeth and steered the Night Fury down into the town proper.
Fishlegs was nearby, strapping some bags to Meatlug's saddle. Hiccup approached him. "Hi-"
The teenager jumped and turned around in fright, only to find Hiccup.
"Hi, hi Hiccup? Sorry, I am in a hurry!"
"I was hoping to get your help with the 'awe route' for this big guy." Hiccup pointed at the Alpha. Fishlegs drooped, clearly disappointed.
"Sorry, but I really can't, I need to go."
"Where are you going exactly?" The teenager asked with innocent curiosity, but that made Fishlegs nervous. Meatlug blinked at him innocently.
"To... to... to the dragon island for... re-research! Yes, to research the Red Death."
"Okay... Can I go with you next time?"
"Aaahh, ummm, well... you are busy as of late. So-"
"You should know that I will not pass up the opportunity to study dragons, Fishlegs."
"Fi-fine. Fine."
They showed the monstrous Nightmare the same things as they did other visitors:
Ways of preserving food far beyond the point it would normally be edible, which allowed them to stockpile it for the winter, at the very least easing famine as long as it was done in advance.
Treatments of all kinds, letting potentially crippling injuries become nothing more than inconveniences, or even replacing lost paws with prosthetics of various kinds.
Creating wooden dens that could house them during harsh seasons, eliminating the need to search for natural ones that were limited in number, and allowing them to much more safely and comfortably endure harsh weather.
Thankfully, at least for Hiccup's sake, the Alpha deemed it enough before they got to weaponry and armor.
*I have seen enough. To deny those possibilities is to fail as a leader. Where is your Alpha?*
*Thornado!*
At Toothless's roar, Thunderdrum came to them with Stoick on his back. Toothless proceeded to explain the entire ordeal as the Chief and his companion went to land in the town square.
*This is the deal: we will provide all the humans with unique abilities and food as long as they are not desperately needed for ourselves, and your pack can relocate to one of the territories on this small land. There are still good ones left. In turn, besides providing help to the humans with various tasks, your pack will fight alongside ours if we are in conflict with anyone, and respond to orders of our Alpha as if they are your own, including you yourself. Besides direct conflict, you are allowed to lead them as you please, with the exception of attacking other packs that have agreed to this offer. You can, of course, renounce this deal at any moment. Is this all clear?*
*Yes.* He responded levelly and inquired, "How many packs have agreed to it?*
Tooth-Toni smirked. *That is funny, it is hard to say. Many of them aren't even in packs, or their packs don't have Alphas.* They arrived at the edge of the square. *But overall, it is a lot of Fireborns, number of limbs numbers of teeth.*
Alpha's gaze locked on Thornado. *Is he your Alpha?*
Toothless-Proles — wrrr, it stuck so much that he could very well just give in — rolled his eyes and responded with the voice of someone who had told this same thing a hundred times over. *No, it is this human that was sitting on his back, and I don't care if you can't discern which human is which. Scent him if you must, and don't forget, I am done dealing with this.*
Alpha grumbled his agreement, and Stoick approached. Hiccup prompted Toothless to ask the final question. *So, do you accept the deal?*
The monstrous Nightmare crouched and curled his neck, staring intensely at Stoick as if-
*No. I CHALLENGE THEE!*
The roar startled everyone and made quite a few Vikings, including Stoick, unholster or unsheathe their weapons.
"Whoa, whoa, what- what is happening?" Hiccup asked warily with his arms spread wide. Toothless responded bluntly.
*He is challenging Stoick for his status.*
"W-what!?"
"Hiccup! What is this all about?" asked Stoick, flipping his hammer.
"He, this, well." A quick thwack of Toothless's tail threw him off his rambling. "Challenged you for chiefhood."
Stoick simply nodded. "Bring it on, beast!"
Alpha set himself aflame, and the fight began. The nightmare flamed, and Stoick evaded the attack swiftly despite it being sent in a wide arc. Stoick closed the distance, readying his battle hammer.
The nightmare smirked and thrust his curled neck toward the human, intending to bite his opponent with the full force of his jaws.
This plan, however, was cut short as his head was banged away by the battle hammer despite moving too fast for a creature of his posture to possibly react. Unless we talk about Stoick.
The chief struck again, managing to land a hit on Alpha's ribcage when he leapt above him to the other end of the square, throwing him off-balance mid-leap.
The dragon swiftly regained his footing and assumed a battle stance, only to face the hammer already on its way directly to his snout. His spindly neck was forced back by the force of the blow. The dazed dragon tried to re-assume his stand, but Stoick was ready to strike with his fist directly at the dragon's eyes — the only part of the body not aflame. Before jumping toward him, Stoick managed to unsheathe his dagger but was thrown away by a powerful strike of the dragon's massive wing.
Stoick didn't have time to stand up, managing only to raise his dagger before the dragon was already running toward him. Hiccup gasped.
"Dad! You need to close your eyes and-"
Stoick's free hand connected with the charging dragon, disappearing into his throat.
"Expose your neck to-"
The dragon's eyes suddenly bulged out, and he was thrown to his side. Stoick placed the dagger directly on his opponent's throat.
Hiccup shrugged. "Never mind." The dragon, however, followed his instruction to the letter, closing his eyes and exposing his neck. Also loosening his jaws so Stoick was able to get his hand out when he stood up, thankfully it wasn't bitten off, but there was quite a lot of blood. Stoick, though, did not react to it in any way, as if not feeling pain... Knowing Stoick, it could be the case. Or he was just being Stoick. It was hard to tell due to his Stoick demeanour.
"Sooo, what now?" asked Hiccup to no one in particular.
However, Bjorn was there, present as always during negotiating contracts with dragons, and responded gladly in his booming but emotionless law-speaker voice.
"This... dragon has lost the challenge over Chiefhood. By our laws, his status now belongs to Stoick."
That made Hiccup perk up.
"Toothless, does it work this way for dragons as well?" The Night Fury nodded. As if to prove his point, the ex-alpha bowed to Stoick.
"This is fun and all," Hiccup said, "but what do we do with his-"
*Ours,* Toothless interrupted.
"Yes, our flock?"
The law-speaker cleared his throat, obviously on the spot. "In this case, it is safe to assume they behave as if conquered, since their leader surrendered unconditionally. That said, there are no examples of this happening in our history, so the decision belongs to the Chief."
Stoick nodded, then waved Toothless closer. "Tell him to bring the flock here, and I want three Zipplebacks to go with them with a net to get any wounded and crippled as well."
The teens were in the general vicinity and groaned upon being forced to work. They shut up when Stoick gazed at them.
Mildew screeched from the crowd, finally managing to reach the square. "This is outrageous! What, they are part of our tribe now? They will eat all of our food stockpiles before the devastating winter hits!"
Stoick's glare silenced the old, stinky man.
"Your concerns are noted, but we have more than enough food stockpiled thanks to the dragons' help all the way to spring. About the status of this flock, in order for them to be members of our tribe, they need to do everything that is expected for this. However, they are now my subjects, even if not Hairy Hooligans, and I will provide them with at least the minimum of care that entails. And no, they are not equal or superior to members of the tribe in any way. Don't worry. They will help us just like other dragons."
Afterward, the crowd dispersed, despite Mildew screeching about 'how close we were to being ruled by a dragon!' After all, everyone knew that Stoick is... well, Stoick.
Hiccup just standing there made Toothless worry a little.
"Hiccup, is everything okay?"
He didn't react, and Snotlout passed by with a grin and a snarky remark.
"Sleepy again, fish bone?"
Hiccup was just awake enough to place a hand on Toothless's shoulder before the dragon pounced at his cousin. When Snotlout disappeared around the corner, trying to smother a yelp, he crooned with curiosity at Hiccup.
"It's just just my insomnia."
They entered their wooden den and went up before Toothless asked a question verbally.
"What is it?"
"Umm, something that... makes you fall asleep too late."
"So you just have your activity moved more towards the night? I don't see a problem."
"Well, I need to still wake up when everyone else does, to do things with them, and that's why I'm not entirely... thinking, sometimes...like that time when you rescued me from Hookfang, before fighting the Red De…uh, Hungry One."
Toothless assumed his elegant (not cute!) thoughtful pose.
"And what did you do that was stupid?"
Hiccup squirmed a little. "It doesn't matter."
But there was no putting the terror back in the bag with this dragon. "It does. Tell me."
Hiccup sighed. "I tried to show them that dragons aren't like they thought and to befriend that monstrous nightmare. I... may have thrown off my helmet and said 'I am not one of them' to calm him down, and this kind of agitated them, and... you know the rest."
As the Night Fury digested the data, Hiccup went to his desk and started bringing out drawings. Toothless perked up.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"I can't sleep anyway, so I just- Toothless!"
"You are dangerously dumb when you don't sleep, so you are going to start sleeping now!"
"But it doesn't work this way! It will not-"
Toothless warmed up the stone while keeping his human pinned by his paw to the ground, before picking him up and curling up around him on the stone slate he slept on, tugging Hiccup with all his paws tightly and wrapping them both in a black leathery cocoon of draconic wings. Insomnia or not, Hiccup wasn't going anywhere this night and fell asleep just a tad before his usual time.
They flew, nearly one hundred dark dragons, all of them ensnared by the need to fly, and the only way for it to happen was obedience toward the very creatures that maimed them, shown direction by reins pulling at the front straps of bridles or tugs on collars, few by the way humans on their backs leaned. The destination was in sight: a human nest of awe-inspiring size and much less awesome smell, at the edge of a grand watery expanse that sported a lot of things that humans used to swim across it. He had never seen any particularly close, but he could already discern that they were fishing with the very same creations used to capture dragons all the way from the sun-movement away.
They landed before it, inside a forest separated from the massive human nest by a moment of flight — once their scouts returned of course. As they settled down, three humans and their slaves took off towards the nest, just like many times before. He groaned, already knowing what would await them upon arrival.
Moonlight walked between his kind that despised him, completely unfazed, and stopped near the fool that wanted to detonate his blackheart, enduring his presence. This one, at least, didn't have that resentful gaze like the others. There was something in his insides that piqued his interest, and he deemed this moment good to ask about it, quickly making up a reason for conversation.
*Your blackheart is peculiar.*
He didn't elaborate, waiting patiently for the dragon to ask himself and break the rule of not talking to the ones perceived by most as the misfits. The dragon winced and froze for a second with slit-pupiled gaze but inquired eventually about his statement.
*What do you mean? Is- is something wrong with it?*
He tasted his power over him for a while, the power of fear, and fear of sudden and unexpected death, no less for a small while, just enough to see him writhe with agitation and pathetic, mindless fear.
*I wouldn't say wrong... more like... different. It is stable from what I can tell, it is just that it seems to be... thinner at the edges and more... filled. Also elongated, with the wider ending pointed straight at your manubrium. If you were to detonate, it will likely have a different effect than usually.*
*Aaand how could you know that?*
Moonlight smirked patronizingly.
*I have Gaze. Why do you think I stare at the sky so much?*
The dragon's eyes squinted, as he recalled what he had seen Moonlight do when not bothered by anyone, and looked back at the object of this consideration more warily.
*What is with Gaze and looking at the skies anyway?*
*I will tell you, but only if you tell me where our newest addition is.*
*Near this skinny human alpha's nest with her human.*
*Good. As you likely know, Gaze lets me see a lot more than anyone else. Skies are overall fascinating due to the abundance of... easily visible things there. For ones with Gaze anyway. Recently, a few more very unique things appeared, but I will not bore you with the details, as it does not seem to pique your interest.*
Moonlight moved, not waiting for a reply, knowing perfectly well what reaction the dragon displayed; he could reveal everything, but if one didn't have a Gaze, then one could never understand what any of it meant.
*Wait, with Gaze you don't need directions!*
He smirked, it seemed that this one isn't as dull as he feared, only blinded by morality.
*Indeed. You aren't as close-minded as it would seem.*
Their slavers' temporary nest had been assembled by that time, just as always when they landed to rest for the human alpha. It was composed of fascinatingly intertwined and woven plant parts, and stiff wood — more durable than usual dried wood — was plainly visible. The dragoness he searched for was off to his right, one body length and 23 claw-lengths from the nest's edge. Uh, he spent too much time analyzing every single piece of human... things. A better word is required for it, I hope Blitz came up with one; otherwise, my opinion of them will drop. Regardless, he reached his destination.
*I have two questions about our liberation plan,* he said. *First. Do you have any idea where Blitz may be?*
She jerked a little. *We should have many nests now, with scouts sent regularly out to observe and disrupt communication between humans. I don't know where they are. When I went after my son and got caught within the influence of the Hungry One, this part of the plan was just getting started. I guess you can say that I'm just waiting for them to stumble upon us.*
Moonlight responded levelly. *Good that I have Gaze, for ones with this particular ability, any and every one of our kind is as visible as a star even in grand distance. Eleven are staying three nights of flight away. As establishing contact with them is required, we should send someone.*
She purred. *That is something at least.*
He nodded, not caring if the gesture was understood. *Since we are here to stay for the winter, I think it is the best time to go. Anyone could easily cross this distance on paw in this timeframe. Now onto the second topic; ones that crossed the certain line are...*
*Concerned what will happen to them when we succeed. I can make it so whatever happened here will not be taken as their own action. After all, they were all forced to obey those cruel and disgusting creatures.*
Moonlight purred, satisfied with the answer. *There is just one more thing before I will embark on this trip. Besides of course you making sure that nearly no-one tries to stop me or alert the humans..*
*Alert the humans? Why would anyone want to stay this way?*
He gritted his teeth and cringed, the human on the side looked his way warily, but a purr and wide irises he made calmed him down again.
*Interrupting is rude. Anyway, the ones that I am concerned about trying to stop me are the ones raised by humans. It is also what I was going to tell you about; that when spending winter in the human nest, we have to produce offspring. Everyone. So choose someone you can enjoy, because it is going to happen, regardless of what you do.*
She backed away slightly, with slit pupils. That again garnered the attention of the human, but she ignored him entirely.
*So you will not be there to be this... enjoyable male?*
He smirked.
*I know I am not who you would like, and the one that goes to search for Blitz should be able to correct their bearing, and only I have Gaze here. It isn't something that should be left to chance.*
She squinted suspiciously.
*If it is so important, then why are you telling me about it just now?*
Moonlight chuckled.
*That is because it always takes a few days for us to move into the human nest, but once there, the chance of escape decreases exponentially, so I would prefer to go tomorrow. Can you inform others of the plan? I doubt they would listen to me.*
She glanced at her human, but he nudged her away gently and replaced her at the place she stayed at; the human sent him a suspicious look, but his face cleared soon, and he didn't call her back. He even nodded to him, as strange as it was.
He wondered briefly what this was about. The thought of the human suspecting some plot wasn't entirely unthinkable, though they never showcased that they knew about dragon's intellect. However, the chance of one that would just let them do it was non-existent. After all, these were creatures that understood well that to achieve what they want, it is necessary to bend everything else to their will.
Even as she walked away, her expression was plainly visible to him, alongside her internal parts, their workings, and temperature. She was clearly troubled, now considering humans not as mindless monsters but as fellow sapients on the opposing side, wondering if bringing death upon them is the right thing to do. He also spotted the moment she steeled herself, deciding that it has to be done, that there is no workaround, and began speaking to others. Moonlight idly followed those conversations, alongside expressions and inner workings of all participants.