What is most remembered in history, are grand battles, cataclysmic events, and groundbreaking discoveries, simple discussion, however, could be just as powerful as any of upper mentioned events, even if much less glorious.
Hiccup absent-mindedly rubbed Toothless' arm, staring at the entrance to the great hall.
"It's time, bud."
The Dragon looked at him intently, trying to relay his support, and it seemed to work, since Hiccup relaxed and scratched him pleasantly.
"Thanks, bud, you know the deal, but don't worry, if it fails…"
The dragon nuzzled Hiccup so hard that it sent him stumbling, interrupting him, and sent him a pointed look.
"Okay. No talking about that, it will not happen, no pressure, yup!"
Hiccup chuckled humourlessly, and was faced by a glare of an unamused dragon in turn, which quickly turned into a playful soon enough resulted in a short bath by a draconic tongue filled with wriggling and disgusted groans.
"Perfect. Just perfect. Good that Vikings don't care much about attire. Not thanks to you, you useless reptile."
The dragon laughed and headed towards the great hall, his human following suit, their moods lightened successfully by Toothless's antics.
Upon entering they were faced with glances of every kind, ranging from gratitude, through analysis, to anger. The duo strode forward and between the tables, quickly spotting Stoick waving at them and heading in his direction.
"So, son, you remember what to do?"
Hiccup shrugged.
"I havn't made speeches before. Are you still sure that I should do it?"
Stoick nodded with a wide smile which could be discerned only by the movement of his beard.
"You got it, son. Don't worry. If you care about something, you will have little issue with speaking about it aloud. The hardest thing is keeping yourself cool, but that never was much of an issue for you anyway."
Hiccup nodded, still a bit unsure, but with rising determination he took to the edge of the Chief's table, overlooking the entire hall.
"Law Speaker, sir? Are we ready to begin?"
The man sent him a glance, before shaking his head.
"You should sit. Your wounds aren't yet completely healed."
"I'm-ouch!"
Just at this exact moment a bolt of pain shot up on his knee, invalidating his argument, the law-speaker raised an eyebrow at him patronizingly, and the 15-year-old sighed.
"Fine, they will just not take me seriously for being weak, just perfect."
Bjørn Hofferson just chuckled.
"They are not going to ignore that they owe their lives to you. Most of them, at least."
Hiccup shrugged, sitting on the chair with the help of Toothless's head. He was still amazed at how such an overwhelmingly big and strong creature could be so gentle, but he digressed.
"Yup, but that doesn't mean they are bound to share my opinion, or even vote on it"
"Indeed."
The staff slammed against the ground, silencing the hall and drawing attention towards the Law Speaker, as well as the boy and night fury.
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III will have an opening voice, does anyone disagree?"
There were only head shakes and low grumbles; the prestige the heir earned in battle was truly legendary, above anyone else, even the most revered warriors.
That was, with the exception of Mildew. The old smelly human twisted his nose and shouted.
"I do!"
"Why?" came the Law Speaker's response. The elder huffed in indignation.
"Why? You should be the one seeing it, he already broke the law by leading dragons here, we are abided by law to defend this place from them!"
"The dragon's legal status is the topic of this Ting, as such, the presence of one is justified. Do you have any other complaints?"
The retort was completely indifferent, and Mildew shook his head and glared as Hiccup proceeded.
"This is a great day. Well, it was a few days ago, but no matter. Umm, what I mean is…"
Toothless sent him a supportive look, and the teen nodded to him with gratitude, before shaking his head and inhaling.
"The Dragon War took three hundred years, spanning seven entire generations. And now it has ended, but not as we thought it would. Yes, we attacked the nest, but we saw that that dragons weren't the actual enemy, it was one dragon that was killed by humans and dragons, together. Dragons never were responsible for what was happening. They never even had a choice. As ludicrous as it sounds, they are innocent."
There was a brief pause as Hiccup eyed the crowd.
"But now, we have not only won, not only made sure that the next generations will not have to fear that they will wake to their very homes burning despite our best efforts to watch the skies, but we've also made new allies!"
Hiccup gestured to Toothless.
"Our very enemies became our friends, despite all the death we inflicted upon each other, so we should treat them with respect. We know they aren't animals, so pretending they are is downright foolish and ignorant. They deserve the same treatment as any human being."
Bjørn nodded towards Hiccup.
"Thank you, Hiccup, so you propose to treat dragons as if they were humans?"
He nodded his head.
"Like people, yes."
The Law Speaker nodded as well, and cleared his throat.
"Does anyone disagree?"
This time it wasn't just Mildew.
It took a lot of time before a speaker emerged from the crowd, evidently chosen to voice the shared opinion of an aggravated group. And to Hiccup's irritation, it was Spitelout.
The man snickered while passing Hiccup to the speaking spot; the teen sent him a flat expression in response.
"It seems that the boy is getting a little ahead of himself; those are dragons, not humans. They aren't like us, they don't think like us, they are more alien than any other outsiders ever were. Because of that, treating them like humans is not something we should do."
"People," Hiccup cut in when the Viking drew breath; this earned him a stern look from the Law Speaker, but one remark wasn't enough to induce more action. Spitelout promptly ignored him and carried on.
"We were always wary of outsiders, especially after what had happened to the Berserkers and the Meatheads, and this.
Snotlout paused for a while and drawd his breath after millisecond of indecision.
"This is like if we suddenly forgot about it."
The Law Speaker frowned and nudged verbally.
"Your point, Spitelout?"
"We shouldn't treat them like humans, because we can't trust them to comprehend even the most basic of our laws and customs! They may be intelligent, but they are wild beasts nonetheless."
The Law Speaker nodded.
"Is that what you wanted to say, Spitelout?"
"Yes."
"Good. Hiccup?"
The teen basically leaped onto the spot, helped by Toothless to his position, already running a multitude of counters in his head before settling on one that he deemed most persuasive to the tribe at large.
"There already is assent to giving outsiders a trial period to learn our customs; dragons may be more different from us than other humans, but since they aren't animals, they can step out of their primal instincts and adapt as the situation demands it. There is no reason why they shouldn't be able to fulfill all the requirements to officially join our tribe."
There was some grumbling he didn't pay effort attention to decrypt while he inhaled.
"How many of us were living in far away lands, and came here to seek refuge from destruction wrought by warlords and the Blitz?"
Toothless's eyes rapidly narrowed and he froze completely for a second, Hiccup glanced night fury's way, before shaking his head, focusing on the matter at hand.
"They are more similar to us than they seem at first glance. We should look for similarities, not differences. If we were to do the latter, we would never be a unified tribe in the first place! Give! Them! A! Chance! We did that for a lot of people; there is no reason to stop now."
He knew he made an impression, made them think, so he left the spot before the council table.
Spitelout looked at him intently, but did not advance; instead, it was Mildew. The Vikings seemingly forgot about how they detested him in the heat of the discussion.
"Now, boy, the fact that most of the tribe owe their lives to you doesn't mean that they need to do as you please."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. From where this come from?
Only a second later he realized that he had spoken it out loud.
"From where!? You are walking in here with your pet, undermining centuries of tradition, and expect us all to do the same!? You are-"
The staff slammed against the ground, silencing the croaking squeaks of Mildew.
"Don't."
One word said by Stoick the Vast made Mildew gulp, Bjørn squinted, inhaling, but Hiccup was faster.
"Guys, you are all wrong!"
This earned him a confused stare not only from his father, Mildew, and Bjørn, but also from the rest of the humans in the hall. Hiccup placed a hand on Toothless's shoulder, and the dragon's eyes narrowed in sudden realisation, but it was too late, Hiccup not even glancing at him while speaking.
"No one here owes their lives to me; it was Toothless who flew, it was Toothless who struck Red Death, it was Toothless who delivered the killing blow."
Hiccup snickered.
"Me? I was just moving a bad excuse for a tail-fin."
The teen stepped back, spreading his arms towards the night fury.
"You owe your lives to him."
That made the entire hall fall completely still and silent in shock, the dragon in question slowly sat at his haunches, never breaking eye contact with the crowd.
Bucket, of all people, was the first to break the silence.
"Well, I guess we can call you a Hairy Hooligan for this deed!"
Bjørn rubbed his beard thoughtfully as the first whispers began, but they halted immediately as he spoke, testament to respect he earned as a Law Speaker.
"It wouldn't be unseen for an outsider to be welcomed into the tribe after performing a mighty deed immediately, however, this does not offset the need for him to be part of one of the five clans."
Stoick smiled below his beard, stepping closer with the confidence only a walking mountain amongst humans could feel.
"Toothless the Gleypir Slayer, I formally invite you to become part of Clan Haddock."
If there is a word more silencing than complete silence, now would be the perfect time to use it. Nevertheless Hiccup smiled wide, as did Stoick, Astrid, Gobber, and for some reason, Tuffnut.
The dragon looked at Stoick with wide eyes for two seconds before bringing his snout towards the chief and closing his eyes, the giant of a Viking extended his hand, placing it on the dragon's nose, meanwhile stepping a bit closer and placing his battle-hammer at the dragon's shoulder. The dragon startled at the touch of cold iron, opening his eyes, but relaxed at Hiccup's supportive and hopeful gaze.
Stoick stepped back, holstering his battle-hammer back at his belt and placed his hands on his hips.
"Welcome to the Hairy Hooligan tribe, Toothless Haddock."
The dragon gasped a little, sending Hiccup a both bewildered and giddy look, he understood it meant that he was part of their family, and it made him feel happy!
His friend—his nest-mate—was equally giddy, barely believing what had just happened. Stoick chuckled and patted him on the back with enough force to stagger even the dragon a little. But very little, Toothless comforted himself, and he quickly forgot about it as he received congratulations from several humans.
Mildew seethed the entire time from when the entire point of this Ting was cleverly circumvented by the boy – and the dragon welcomed to the chief clan! – until twilight, an wicked plan forming in his mind with each failure to make Vikings see that they should oppose it. There were few and only fewer that agreed with him, and most of them even detested him!
When the time to vote came, he understood that he would lose this one. There was no denying that, but it was just the first round. Now with memories of battle fresh in their minds, the Vikings will feel honor-bound to help this dragon, but with time however…
But as much as he needed to let the night fury's new status slide, he had an ace in his sleeve to take care of other dragons. So, when voting was finished, counting began and people of Berk started to leave, he tossed it out.
"Why are captives allowed on the loose, chief?"
Stoick turned to him, frowning, failing to see his newest ploy.
"The dragons that were captured and kept in the ring; those are captives, and should be under guard in prison."
Hiccup, catching what Mildew meant before he explained, was already by Stoick's side.
"They fought for us. We can't treat them like captives anymore."
"They just lost, and besides, the law doesn't work like that."
But of course, the Law speaker must have been lured in by those Mildew's words, everything according to the plan.
"If we are to take their legal status as prisoners of war, they indeed should be kept under lock and made to work, sold, or otherwise utilized for the betterment of our tribe as a whole."
Mildew was beginning to smile, it worked! At least five dragons will be put in their place, which was a start to be sure. Boy, however, wasn't done yet.
"Bjorn, fighting with dragons was always the foundation for release from captivity, even if not immediately inviting them into our tribe with exception of truly mighty deeds, correct?"
The Law-speaker nodded at Hiccup's remark, and Mildew grumbled under his nose and left, already knowing what will happen; dragons will be liberated from captivity and offered the chance to join the tribe.
With time, he promised himself.
Routine repeated the next morning, after she was awakened by jaws closing around her neck, having slept certainly not enough.
This time, she grited her teeth and touched the ground with her snout, keeping her sight away from the humans, using her entire willpower to bend her knees and curl her tail in a submissive pose. Fires of her anger raged below the surface, making her tremble with the conflict between instinct and thought.
The smell of food swallowed this conflict into a swirling abyss of waking hunger, and the dragoness swiftly reached for it, managing to shove thin strips of very dry meat into her maw. The process was slow and awkward, but no one was in a hurry to remove her restraints.
After coaxing her hunger a little, she drank water from a bowl, slurping hideously because of her inability to lap at it. And just like that, the prize for her humiliation was consumed, and she wasn't even fully sated.
Looking back up at humans, she hummed thoughtfully, after just a few seconds discerning the reason: to make her more desperate to please them. A growl resurfaced, but Mater managed to suppress it before the humans punished her. Nevertheless, they noticed, and one of them chuckled mockingly, taking every last bit of self-control she had to not lash out.
The human with a lighter shade of fur pointed at an open cage standing nearby, and the dragoness entered it, trying hard to not think how she willingly let them imprison her.
The cage was closed, but her paws remained free, and the memory of that panicked dragon resurfaced: if submit, fly, more food, less binding. Apparently subjugation was a gradual process, so it will take quite some time before she will again take to the air.
Well, at least she wasn't painfully suspended this time, the dragoness thought before losing consciousness, just as six dragons were attached to her cage.
"It isn't a good time for having a hatchling, we are in the middle of–"
"We can manage Fulgi. I already made plans. Part of Blitz can take care of them, we can carry them in nets we stole for carrying wounded, we have enough."
"It will slow our progress down significantly. It is not a good idea."
"It is a better idea than stagnating, or suffering serious losses leading to severe imbalance between the opposite sex's population. The plan is going well, but sooner or later there will be complications, and a greater number will allow us to absorb greater losses. And at some point we will need more of our kind to finish off the survivors."
His plans were as stainless as always, and the dragoness snorted, seeing that she can't win this one, or, for that matter, any discussion with him.
"Good."
The male only nodded his head absently, his mind on another issue already, but she wasn't finished yet.
"However you are going to be behaving like a sire, not a strategist, it means paying attention to your family."
The dragon hesitated for a while, already opening his mouth to complain, but stilled and shut it close after facing her zealous glare.
"I will do my best."
"No, you will do better. Nothing short of the best childhood is going to suffice for our hatchlings."
The dragon gulped, but nodded again, a smile working its way onto his face.
"As you wish, my Empress."
"I am not an Empress!"
The indignant reply was met only with a gurgling chuckle, and the male ran from his raging mate.
Mater-Fulgur woke when the sun was proceeding to sink and looked around her, at the number of limbs and claws and—no, at one hundred and fifty ensnared Nocta Furaes in flight, and realized another reason why they were flying at day: by sleeping at night, they were less visible in their most vulnerable state, and when flying in full force at day, they could defeat even a big chunk of Blitz as she remembered it… though after all those years, their numbers had likely increased significantly.
Her thoughts turned back to her dream, and she whimpered, reminded of recent happenings she tried not to think about, just before the mind-wracking droning of the hungry one faded.
But it was not the time to mourn her son, as they were preparing to land. Cold, decades-old anger resurfaced in her eyes, mixed with heart-breaking sadness, and blame—for failing to protect her little one yet again.
Upon landing, she realized that half of the Nocta Furaes carrying her cage were the same three from yesterday in uncomfortable harnesses and all. One of the other three she recognized was the same male who both captured her and explained to her what was happening here.
"Moonlight."
The albino looked at her with neutral curiosity.
"Your son told you already?"
He nodded, and she held back a snarl at the human gesture, keeping her sight on what truly mattered.
"If the Blitz can do it, then we are in, but how could you know if they can?"
"Don't talk to these Blackhearts!" exclaimed her capturer. Moonlight pressed his ears to his neck tightly. She huffed.
"The more that are on board with this, the greater the chance of us getting free from human clutches."
Before she even finished, he was already shaking his head.
"No way, only humans can do that. Tail fins submit to them, not us."
She would have snapped if not for the muzzle.
"Blitz can do everything humans can, and more. Fake tail fins are already on you, so the only thing we would need to do is allow you control over it without human help. That will be far easier than most of the things we have done."
Now they all were listening intently.
"When others like us attack, don't fight them. Instead, expose the humans who you are subject to to them. Also, try to get ready for landing. Spread this message amongst everyone you can reach. Our liberty depends on it."
They nodded but stayed in place, obediently waiting for their humans to give them permission to leave. Looking at them pleadingly was painful as always, but she was quickly distracted by humans heading straight towards her.
Again, the cage was opened, but this time she wasn't dragged out of it. Instead, a human pointed at a place just outside it, while the second one, the one giving commands earlier, stayed back with folded arms. The command was obvious, and she complied, half from the knowledge that it is the optimal course of action, and half just because she wanted to get outside of this cramped prison.
Mater-Fulgur was ordered to walk several times more before a human walked up to her and into her personal space, making her growl in warning. It hesitated, but then, without warning, it touched her. She leaped back, feeling as if she was scorched by the place the human hand made contact with her scales.
But she soon realized that it was futile; she needed to get over this sooner or later, unless they happened to stumble upon a Blitz tomorrow.
So, the dragoness took a submissive pose again, and after a while, felt a touch on her arm and cringed, but stayed in place, forcing herself if not to relax, then at least to not break the human's spine by leaping at it.
She heard a click, and after a while, tugging, she unfurled and realized that she was on a leash.
The human wanted to lead her on said leash.
It couldn't force her to move, though, it barely managed to make her feel it. Mater-Fulgur sent it a disinterested look before complying, finally finding a comfortable middle ground for her psyche: obey from necessity, but show pointedly that she isn't happy doing it.
The nocta furae was led to some baskets smelling strongly of fish and was given one of them. This was finally a satisfying dish, but her throat was getting parched from lack of water. Thankfully, they soon headed towards a small pond with eight nocta furaes leashed to poles around it.
She eyed them. Around half paid attention to her arrival, but the other half was uninterested, and one was outright asleep. Additionally, she realized as she was being leashed to the ninth pole, they had similar restraints, if a bit less overall. The one sleeping was even saddled.
In short, this was a group that wasn't yet broken in.
Besides them, there were twelve unbound, ensnared nocta furaes around, watching them—guards, she decided.
There were an equal number of humans as well, and she realized that she had already been claimed by the one that led her here, from the others congratulating him. Or, what she perceived as it anyway.
This human had skin lighter than others here and was quite tall. It wore a shirt made from what looked like dragon scales, and sported marks on its face, as well as carried a big sword at its bel, and had visible muscles, quite impressive for a human but just a pest for a nocta furae like herself.
Her attention was drawn away from it and towards a waking saddled nocta furae. He shook his head, and she spotted additional parts to his muzzle, mainly, there was a bit in back of it—her blood boiled; it was a bridle!
The dragon sent a betrayed glare to the guards.
"You promised not to butt your nose in!"
"We promised that we would let you do it only if you were perfectly sure."
Came the remark, and the restrained dragon growled in frustration.
"I am perfectly sure! You all persuaded me to not detonate until I reconsider after flying, but you stopped me anyway despite me making up my mind after flying!"
Mater-Fulgur sat in bewilderment, sending the dragon an incredulous look.
"Why would you do that!?"
He rolled his eyes, groaning.
"Here we go again. I don't want to live like this. I hate being subject to someone else's whims, so I want to make the one decision that is still my own."
He was definitely frustrated; likely, he had answered this question a multitude of times, she mused.
"Better to be than not-"
"To be, I know you are all very fond of this saying, but I strongly disagree. Now, let me end myself."
The dragon inhaled deeply, and the dragoness interrupted him.
"There is another way out. I am from Blitz! We just need to meet them and let them take care of the humans, and we will be free again!"
The dragon blinked, surprised, but just after a second, his eyes turned blank.
"Ah yes, gossip of a nest of our kind that fought with humans on equal terms."
He chuckled humourlessly, and Mater-Fulgur's pupils narrowed.
"It. Is. NOT. Gossip. It is as real as I am."
The dragon just slumped and looked at the ground passively.
"It is from where I got my name, translating it to our kind's speech. I am Mother of Lightning."
The dragon's gaze targeted her for a split second before sliding onto some rock in the distance.
"Well, I guess it is only fair to introduce myself. I am Skyler."
"You know where the expanded speech comes from, right?"
"Rrrr, some of our kind started spreading it, alongside claims of members of our kind destroying human nests that made it, but if that is the case, why are there humans here?"
He was passive to an unhealthy degree now, and she realized that in a matter of seconds he could detonate his Blackheart if she didn't catch his attention.
"There were a lot more humans before our action. We couldn't catch all of them in one go, especially since we focused on making as much damage as possible, not exactly a meticulous way of doing things."
Skyler just shook his head with closed eyes, but it was easy to discern that he was thinking hard. It was working.
"There are always too many of them. If you kill off some, then others will arrive. And often with new, unexpected, deadly things."
Skyler opened his eyes and was faced with a smug grin.
"Everything is finite, and everything has weaknesses. All it took was meticulous analysis of their behavior on a larger scale, and we found out how to break them."
His ears, alongside the ones of everyone around, picked up in interest.
"I was seeking revenge after humans killed my family. I gathered others who thought like me, and we would end up just like everyone else, doing some insignificant damage before dying, if not for one suggestion."
Skyler squinted at her, with analytic intellect shining from behind resignation.
"And just what is this weakness?"
Mater-Fulgur's expression was getting fonder and fonder, and after tasting the impatient silence for a few seconds, she inhaled.
