The Courtship of Toothless Chapter 2

"Shall we check up on the lovebirds?" New-night-fury asked his mate the next morning.

"I'm sure they're getting along just fine without our help," Night-fury-mother-of-twins replied with a hint of a smile. "Why don't we wait until she comes flying back here to show off what she's learned?"

"I suppose we could do that," he answered. "But he can't spend all of the next three or four days with her in the cove – he has a nest to oversee. Suppose we fly to the cove this afternoon and take over the lessons for a few hours, so he can get home and do what Night Furies do?"

She thought about it. "Okay, but we'll do a high-altitude flyover and check out the situation first. If it looks like they're getting personal, we'll just keep on flying."

"Deal," he nodded. "Meanwhile, here come our first customers of the day." A small troupe of very young dragons was headed for the Nest, so the two Night Furies flapped down to ground level to meet them. It turned out that there was no problem; they just wanted to know how to tell a good Viking from a bad one, so they could attract a good rider when they were big enough. Night-fury-mother-of-twins was perfectly competent to handle that issue, so New-night-fury took wing for a casual flight around Berk. He took such flights several times a day, just to watch for surprises and bad situations while they were still small and easy to solve. Besides, any excuse that got him into the air was a good one. Astrid liked to fly because of the places she could go and the speed with which she could get there; Hiccup, like Toothless, loved flying just for its own sake.

It looked like a typical day on Berk, if any day in a Viking village shared by a flock of dragons could be called "typical." People were going about their business, ships were floating in and out of the harbor, sheep were stuffing their faces with grass, and an assortment of Nadders, Gronckles, and other dragons were lazily watching it all before dozing off for the day. Dragons didn't need anywhere near as much sleep as humans did, but it was in their nature to love sleep, and now that they had no enemies to watch out for, there was nothing hindering them from snoozing twelve hours or more out of each day. Sleeping dragons meant no problems for a Night Fury to sort out. He gained altitude, turned a few lazy loop-the-loops, and glided on a thermal for almost half an hour.

Life was good.

He glanced down, and realized he was flying near the cove. He was at high altitude, like Astrid had suggested, so he adjusted his course so he could see how Guana was doing with her flying lessons. After looking for a bit, he found one Night Fury, motionless on the ground; there was no sign of the other one. That didn't look like a flying lesson, or anything else good. He pivoted in mid-air, settled to earth with wings wide so he didn't whistle on the way down, and thudded to the ground next to the Night Fury who was lying there.

"Guana? What's wrong? Where's Toothless?"

She looked up at him sadly. "He went back to his nest; he said he had to check up on things there. I hope he never comes back." She stood, a bit awkwardly. "Hiccup, please, I'm begging you – get me out of here!"

"What happened? What's wrong?" I wish Astrid was here, he thought.

The other Night Fury shook her head and looked away. "I don't want to talk about it. Just get me out of here. Take me back to Berk where I belong. I'll teach myself to fly somehow."

"Guana, I feel like I'm partly to blame for... whatever the problem is. Please tell me what went wrong."

Her wings drooped. "I can't put it into words. Please... just get me out of here."

"I can't help with the problem unless I know what the problem is!" When she didn't respond, he added, "Would you at least look at me?"

She turned reluctantly and looked in his eyes for a moment... and was suddenly struck by a full frontal assault of his emotions. He was very worried about her – was she sorry she'd become a dragon? Had she and Toothless had a fight? Would he, the Night Fury who mediated conflicts between other dragons, have to somehow mediate between two Night Furies? She also saw his love for his wife and children and for Toothless, and a residual glow from his love of flying.

All her life, she had kept her emotions under wraps. No one wanted to hear about the little burned girl's troubles. Enthusiasm over becoming a dragon was the first really powerful feeling she'd let herself feel in years. Now, someone else's emotions hit her full-force in the face, and it was too much to handle. She sank to the ground and hid her face with her tail again, whimpering.

Hiccup had also gotten a full load of emotions all at once. On the one hand, he was familiar with TrueSight and wasn't taken by surprise. On the other hand, Guana's emotions at the moment were as powerful as a thrown warhammer. Right in the middle of the tableau was her revulsion at Toothless for having transformed him and Astrid without asking them. Spread around that emotional wound were a host of other issues – disappointment that Toothless didn't meet her dragon ideal, fear that she would never escape the cove, regret that she hadn't stayed in Berk and let the other dragons teach her to fly, dread that dragon life might hold more unpleasant surprises in store for her, and a nagging unease that she might not be able to learn to fly at all. All this was spread across a background of remembered pain, physical and emotional, that stretched back farther than she could remember.

It took both of them a few seconds to recover from the shock of each other's feelings.

"What was that?" Guana finally asked, very quietly.

"It's called TrueSight," Hiccup answered shakily. "It's how we dragons share our feelings. It eliminates misunderstandings and lets us understand each other, even when we can't put our feelings into words."

"Does this happen every time you look a dragon in the eyes?" she wondered.

"No, both dragons have to be willing," he replied. "It's customary to ask first, but you were having trouble expressing yourself, and I had to know what was going on. The fact that it worked means you wanted me to know how you felt – you just couldn't say it."

Suddenly, she felt angry. "Do all Night Furies take liberties with other people's lives, without asking them first?" she demanded.

"Guana, you wanted me to know what you were feeling; otherwise, the TrueSight wouldn't have worked. Among other things, I saw the trouble you're having with Toothless. I think it would be good if you came back to the Nest and talked to Astrid about this, woman-to-woman. All I can do at this point is help you out of the cove, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. This place is close to escape-proof for a non-flying dragon."

"That's me," she agreed sadly. "I can't even glide yet."

"I assume that means you've tried it a few times, but you haven't gotten the knack?"

"That's an understatement," she sighed. "The first time, I went crooked and splashed. The second time, I looked back and splashed. The third time, I flapped when I shouldn't have, and did a face-plant into that cliff."

Hiccup glanced around the cove. "He started you jumping off from that rock over there?"

"Yes," she said, surprised. "How did you know?"

"He started me from that same rock," Hiccup said. For a second, his thoughts went back in time to his first days as a Night Fury, and his first flying lessons. Then he looked across the cove. "You must have done some serious flapping, to overshoot the grass that badly."

"No, just twice. Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Two flaps took you all the way across the cove and into the wall? You might not be as much of a prisoner here as you think you are. I assume Toothless gave you the speech about having a dragon's flying instincts and all that?"

"Yes," she nodded, "for all the good they do me."

"I think they'll do you a lot more good than anybody else realizes," Hiccup said, with a calculating look. "We're going to take a shortcut through a lot of Toothless' lessons, and try doing it my way. If you promise you'll do exactly as I tell you, the instant I tell you to do it, I think I can get you out of here and back to Berk. Deal?"

"That depends on what you're going to tell me to do," she replied nervously. "I've already broken my face on one cliff; are you going to crash me into another one?"

"I can't make any guarantees, seeing as how you'll be the first student in the New-night-fury Flying School," Hiccup replied, "but if you really want to get out of here and make your life a little better, (a) I really think this will work, and (b) you don't have many other choices."

Guana took a deep breath. "Okay. What do I do?"

"Start by getting up on that rock and getting ready to glide, just the way Toothless taught you."

She did so. "All right, I'm ready. What next?"

"Close your eyes."

There was a long pause.

"Hiccup, when you were a person, you had a reputation for crazy, destructive ideas that never worked. Is this another one of those? Because it sure sounds like one, and if it is, I have to say, 'No, thanks'."

Hiccup stood at the base of the rock and looked up at her. "This isn't a Hiccup idea; this is a dragon idea. The plan is to get Guana completely out of the equation, and rely entirely on those dragon instincts. I know you've got them and I know they work, because when I was transformed, I had them and they worked perfectly. I was never cruel to you before, and I don't want to see you hurt now. Will you trust me, please?"

Slowly, she eased her eyes shut.

"Okay, straighten your tail; fan the fins into a flat V-shape. Get ready to jump." She heard and felt him take off; when she heard his voice again, it was above her and to one side. "Get ready... jump!" he shouted. "Now, flap! Keep flapping! That's good! Angle your tail up, just a little – stop! Now level it off, and keep flapping! Tuck up your legs – that's good. Flap in more of an oval pattern, not so much up-and-down. Now you're getting it. A few more flaps... good. Now stretch out your wings and glide, just like Toothless taught you." After a few seconds of silence, he quietly said, "Open your eyes."

She opened her eyes. She suddenly felt as though she'd never opened them before.

They were about half a mile above the forest of Berk. The tops of the tallest trees were far below them. Off to her right, the sea was a turbulent sheet of gray; she could see three Nadders fishing, but they looked tiny because they were so far below her. Above her was the ever-present cloud layer, now closer to her than it had ever been before. Hiccup was flying beside her, and while she was still learning about Night Fury facial expressions, it was pretty obvious that he was smiling at her.

"I'm... I'm flying!" she gasped, then shouted, "I'm flying!" She began to slide off to the right.

"Close your eyes!" Hiccup ordered. She snapped them shut. "Okay, I can see we're going to have to work on focus. But now you know you can do it – the instinct is in you, in your wings, in all your muscles. You just leveled off, probably without even realizing it. Bring your tail just a hair to the left – that's good! Now straight. Good enough, we're back on course. Flap twice more, just to gain a little more height, and then open your eyes again."

They went through this cycle three times before they reached Berk, which took barely ten minutes. She couldn't seem to stay on course with her eyes open. Finally, Hiccup figured it out.

"It's because you're looking all around. When you move your head to one side, it changes the air flow across your body and your tail, and it throws you off course. We're almost there, but while we're up here, I'd like you to try something. Look to your right, and at the same time, twist your tail just a tiny bit to the left."

She tried it. "I think it worked! I'm still flying straight!" She threw her head to the left, and turned her tail to the right. "That was it! I've got it! Oh, this is wonderful! Hiccup, I'm really flying!" They completely overshot the village and were headed out to sea, but he didn't have the heart to cut this first flight short.

"Hiccup," she asked suddenly, "do you like what you are?"

"I love what I am," he answered, without hesitation. "Life is so much better for me, now that I'm a dragon! The day Toothless transformed me might have been the most important day of my life."

"Did you feel that way at the time?" she wondered.

"At first, no," he admitted. "It was a terrible shock, and I didn't take it like a good Viking. But then, I never was a good Viking. As soon as I realized that I did things as a dragon a lot better than I did them as a human, I embraced my new self, and I've never had any regrets. Well, sometimes I wish I could hold my tools and make stuff for the Nest, instead of drawing plans in the dirt and waiting for Gobber to make them, but aside from that, I love being a dragon. I'd never go back, even if I could."

He finally talked her through a broad, gentle turn to the left and headed them back to Berk. She looked at the village as it slowly grew larger in front of her, and quietly said, "This is why I wanted to be a dragon."

"You're doing great, but now comes the fun part," he said, a bit nervously. "The landing. I'm not the greatest landing teacher – I still can't do it as gracefully as Toothless or Astrid do it – but I can bring you in safely. I think. The idea is to pitch yourself up and back, like this." He demonstrated in mid-air, then quickly caught up with her again. "Your wings slow you down, your tail comes up to bring your head and body up, and you land on your hind legs first, then your forelegs a moment later. If you come in too fast, just let your legs fold up and do a belly landing; it's not graceful, but it's better than breaking a... Guana, are you listening?"

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I was just looking at all the old familiar buildings, and figuring out which one is which from the air. Show me that again." He did so. "I only get one chance to get it right?"

"You only get one first landing, but you'll get lots of chances to get it right. I'm not sending you on a suicide mission; I'm just bringing you back to the Nest, so we can start making things better for you. Do you see the clearing in the center of town? That's your target; it's a bigger open space than the yard in front of the Nest, and we can walk from there to home in a minute or two. I'll be right behind you, talking you in. But this time, you should keep your eyes open, okay?" When she didn't answer, he added, "You trust me, right?"

"Yes," she quavered, "but that ground looks awfully hard."

"You'll do fine," he answered. "Okay, we're on final approach. Angle your wings up a little to slow you down. That's good; up a little more... good. Keep your tail straight, and flatten your fins. Don't flap – we're just gliding. Tail up a little bit... legs down... okay. When I say 'flap,' give one good flap and pull your tail up. Okay? Get ready... flap!"

Her first landing was more of a controlled crash; her legs buckled, and the impact knocked the wind out of her. He thudded to the ground just behind her a moment later. "They say any landing you can walk away from, is a good landing," he noted.

"Why couldn't Toothless teach me your way, instead of starting with gliding?" she asked weakly as she struggled to her feet.

"His version gives you a lot more confidence," Hiccup answered. "You learn to land when you're gliding slowly, so you aren't afraid to land when you're flying fast. You learn what your tail can do at low speed and low altitude, so there's no fear when you go for some real speed. Besides, my way means you can't fly without a wingman, and if you'd seen how close you came to those trees when you took off... for a second, I thought there was going to be another Hiccup disaster like the ones you were worried about."

"That's so reassuring," she muttered. "And you're going to teach me all about flying now?"

"No, we're going to teach you all about Toothless," he replied. "That's the real issue, right? You thought he was the perfect dragon, but now you think his heart is blacker than his scales. We have to address that."

"Do you seriously think you're going to change my mind about him? After what he did to you?" she demanded. "You, of all people, ought to be the last one who'd defend him!"

"I'm usually first in line to defend him, Guana, but this isn't about defending anyone or anything. It's about knowing the truth. We Night Furies are the impartial judges of the nest; we have to put the truth ahead of personal feelings. When we get conflicting stories, we figure out what's true and what isn't. We learn when to make a decision and when to try and find more facts. It's all so we can keep the peace, and keep the trust of all the dragons. I think you'll agree, peace and trust are in play here, right?

"This isn't just about you and your flying instructor, or you and your future mate, Guana. It's your first real lesson in what it means to be a Night Fury."