Lightning And Death Itself Chapter 4
A/N "Rus" is an old name for Russia, specifically the western parts where Vikings had an influence.
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Hiccup looked at Toothless steadily, forcing his tortured mind to slow down and listen to what he was hearing. "Are you telling me," he finally said, "that you used to be a human? That a dragon transformed you just like you transformed us?"
Toothless nodded slowly. "It was a long time ago, a long time ago. I lived in a village on a river, in a land called Rus. I was the third son of a father who lived for his bottle, and a mother who lived for any man she could get her hands on. I was a young, bold warrior, ready to take on the world. My name was... what was my name? Semyon. I never liked that name; I haven't even thought about it in years. I like 'Toothless' better, because it was given to me by someone who really cares about me.
"Anyway, one night, the dragons raided my village. I was out there in the dark, waving my spear and looking for something to kill, when something big and black caught me from behind and carried me off into the air. The rest, as you say, is history."
"Very touching," Astrid scoffed. "Why do you do this transformation-thing to us? If you really want to hurt us, why not just burn us instead?"
"I don't want to hurt you!" Toothless exclaimed. "If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it twenty different ways by now. You just don't understand – this is the most amazing gift I could ever give you!"
"If it's a gift, I'm sorry, but I don't want it," she said, beginning to lose her composure. "Please take it back. I'll call it even; I'll never attack a Night Fury again. Please, I'm begging you, turn me back into what I should be!"
Toothless shook his head. "What's done is done. And there isn't much chance you'll meet any other Night Furies anyway, aside from the ones in this cove."
"Yeah, yeah, Night Furies are very rare, we get it," Hiccup said. "You've explained why we ought to be so excited about this, but why is it so important to you?"
"I told you, it's a long story," Toothless answered.
"Well, if you're from Rus, then you must love telling long stories," Hiccup shot back. "We're not going anywhere tonight; we've got time to listen. I can't speak for Astrid, but I can't even begin to come to terms with this if I don't know all the reasons why."
"I'll never come to terms with this," she half-sobbed. "Am I really as ugly as you are?"
"I resent that," Toothless growled. "We Night Furies are among the best-looking of all dragons, even if those silly Nadders do say otherwise. As you spend more time in your new body, you'll get used to it, and you'll realize what an awesomely hot babe you are in the dragon world."
Astrid's eyes contracted to angry slitted pupils. "How dare you talk to me that way!" Without thinking, she blew a small, bright blue fireball at him. It knocked him sideways, but he stayed on his feet. She looked shocked at what she had just done. He gazed at her evenly.
"Very good, Astrid. You're starting to tap into your dragon instincts already. Of course, I'm going to have to teach you how to control your fires, just like I'll have to teach you how to fly."
"You can teach us all that in the morning, Toothless," Hiccup cut in. "Right now, you owe us a long story."
"Fine." Toothless lay down in the grass and crossed his front paws. Hiccup sat in front of him; Astrid stood a few feet away.
"Dragons lay eggs once a year, as you may or may not know. A female Nadder usually clutches three or four dragonets at a time; a Gronckle can crank out a dozen or more. They need that many to replace their losses, mostly at the hands of men. But a Night Fury lays only one egg each year. Compare that with how often we get shot at by angry Vikings with sharp objects, and you can see we've got a population problem. That's why we're so rare.
"As I said, every dragon has the Power to make one great transformation in his life. Most dragons use that Power to heal themselves of some terrible injury, or to heal a friend. But we Night Furies have to use our Power to make other Night Furies. It's the only way we can keep ourselves from dying out. Every Night Fury has the solemn duty to create another dragon just like himself. Humans are our only candidates; turning another dragon into a Night Fury never works out well, and no other creature is intelligent enough."
"So when we both went riding on you, that was a two-for-one deal you couldn't resist," Hiccup said.
Toothless nodded. "Yes, it was a rare chance to pull ahead in the population race. But it was much more than that. Astrid, I can't be dispassionate about this, because I'm so close to Hiccup, but if you asked any other dragon, they'd say you're the more valuable of the two of you."
"Why? Because I'm a warrior and he's not?"
"No, because you're a female and he's not," Toothless continued. "We don't carry off just anybody, you know. The weak, the fearful, the brittle – they never survive the transformation. Their minds break and they go insane. We take only the brave and the strong. That means warriors. I don't have to tell you, there aren't many female warriors, and we almost never get a clean shot at them. We need every strong, brave female we can find, because we desperately need female Night Furies. We have got to have that one egg every year, from as many sources as possible."
"How many Night Furies are there?" Hiccup asked suddenly.
"Very, very few," Toothless answered, flicking his tail back and forth. "We never get all together, so there's never an accurate nose count, but I'd be surprised if there were more than twenty of us in the whole world. It's very possible that we three are all that's left."
Astrid's eyes had narrowed again. "So we're just breeding stock to you? I'm some kind of brood mare, and Hiccup is going to be my stallion?" She formed a mental picture of Hiccup as a human, tried to apply the word "stallion" to him, and laughed in spite of herself.
"Astrid, I don't know if it was luck or destiny that put you and Hiccup on my back at the same time tonight. But you were both there, you were both well-qualified for the transformation, and I did what I had to do. I know Hiccup will be better off; he'll admit it once he thinks it over. With you, it's not so clear. But for the race of Night Furies, it was a complete win. We gained a female, we pulled ahead by one in the population race, we –"
"You mean, by two," Hiccup corrected him.
Toothless hung his head. "No, by one," he said very softly. "Now that you can't ride me, I can't fly any more. That means I can't hunt for food, and I can't escape if the Vikings come after me. My end is certain now; it's just a matter of time. By giving you everything, I gave up... well, everything."
They stared at him, shocked into silence.