Sylvi sat straight up in her bed, painting slightly. There was a slight tingling running up and down her back. She bit her lip nervously. Something was off. She carefully slipped out of her bed and crept to Hiccup's room. He always cheered her up when something woke her up at night.
"Hiccup?" she whispered, pushing his door open. Nothing. The room was deserted. "Hiccup?" she called again louder, stepping into the room. Her eyes fell on the dragon toy their mother had made for Hiccup before she was carried off.
Before Hiccup was carried off.
Sylvi sucked a breath in. He wasn't here. He was gone. Taken. Tears welled up once more as she remembered, and she didn't try to stop them.
"Sylvi?" a voice behind her said . She whirled around and threw herself at her father's big chest. Stoick gently stroked her back, trying his best to be comforting. He was never really good at that.
"Why'd it take him?" she sobbed. "Why? Why not me? He could still be here!"
Stoick sighed, fighting back his own questions. "If you had been taken, then Hiccup would be wondering the same thing."
"Then why'd it have to take anyone?" she asked, looking up at his exhausted face.
"Life's not fair, little Valkyrie," he replied, meeting her tear filled eyes. "I've felt that way for years."
Sylvi pulled herself closer to her father, sobbing into his chest once more. She didn't protest when he lifted her, carried her back to her room, and placed her on her bed. The two of them stayed there, Sylvi crying, and Stoick trying to keep his own emotions at bay, until Sylvi fell asleep.
Stoick tucked her in, watching her chest rise and fall with her even breaths. He stood there for a moment, watching her, before he turned back to his own room where he'd been trying to sleep when he had heard Sylvi's calls. At least she can forget for a little while. She shouldn't have to lose someone, let alone her own brother, this young. He stopped, hand lightly resting on his door handle, as he thought of his son. His breath hitched slightly. When will it end? When will families stop being torn apart to appease some monster's appetite?
When will the dragons leave us alone?
ᛏᚺᛖ ᚾᛁᚷᚺᛏ ᚠᚢᚱᚤ ᚲᚢᚱᛋᛖ
Hiccup felt like his wings were going to fall off by the time he finally reached Berk. Flying away from Berk while in the grip of a dragon's tail hadn't been quite as exhausting as flying back to Berk. Then, Hiccup wasn't the one who had to keep them in the air. He had only to go limp and imagine his inevitable death. He didn't have to pay attention to how far away they had flown or where they were headed. But now, he was the one who was in charge of not letting himself drown. By the time he crash landed on his home island, he felt like had flown across the whole archipelago. Hopefully I'll never have to do that again.
As he lay on the cliff he had landed on, trying to regain his breath, he finally allowed himself to think about what he should do next. He certainly wasn't flying that far again, at least not until he strengthened his flight muscles. And he had already determined that he couldn't return to his village.
So that only left one option.
Hiccup groaned and pulled himself to his feet, staring at the woods he had conveniently landed next to. He sighed. At least I know most of the forest. Slowly, he dragged his aching body into the wooded area of the island, letting his sore wings trail behind him. He wished he could let his chest drag, too. Who knew flying required core body strength?
It felt like he'd been walking for hours when he finally came to a stop…and it was an unintentional halt. Hiccup, not watching where he was going, walked off the edge of a cliff. Hiccup yelped, snapping his wings open in a desperate attempt to stop his fall. However, his sore wings couldn't keep him from falling, and the only thing he accomplished was slowing his fall a little.
Hiccup rolled to his stomach, moaning. Today had not been a good day. He stared at a piece of grass just at eye level, watching it wave back and forth. Maybe I'll take a nap and deal with this mess later, he thought drowsily, letting his eyes slowly sink closed…
"Is he alive?" a voice to his right said. Hiccup let out a humph. Guess I'll have to rest later.
"Did you hear that?!" the voice gasped. "He huffed! He's alive!"
"And why on Midgard wouldn't he be alive?" a more feminine voice asked.
"Well, he just fell off a cliff, and his wings didn't look like they worked," the first voice replied.
"I'm alive," Hiccup sighed, forcing his legs to lift his body and turning towards the voices.
Only to almost fall over backwards and run for his life. Two small black dragons stood in front of him, watching him. His mind flashed through all the common dragons that flew in the raids, but he knew of no dragon with pure black scales.
With the exception of the dragon no one's ever seen.
As Hiccup froze, the Night Fury on his right yelped and dove behind the second Night Fury. Popping his head out from behind her, he yelped, "Did you see that? He moved! It's a living dead!"
"Stop being such an idiot, Green Eyes," the Night Fury in front said, whacking Green Eyes with her tail. Hiccup started to panic. They're speaking Dragon. I was speaking Dragon. I understand Dragon. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?
The Night Fury noticed Hiccup's look and sighed. "Now look," she scolded, "you've scared him." Turning her full attention to Hiccup, she asked, "Are you alright?"
"No," Hiccup whispered, backing away from them until his back was pressed against the rock behind him, which, in his opinion, wasn't far enough. The Night Fury stepped closer to him, blinking large, sky blue eyes. "Is there anything we can do to help?"
Hiccup started to laugh hysterically, which only made him laugh more at the sound that wasn't his laugh. "No, I really don't think so," he rambled. "I mean, today's been kinda crazy with getting kidnapped from home and then taken to a Magiker who's clearly gone crazy and then turned into a dragon so I can't go home again, and now I'm with some of the most dangerous dragons in the archipelago–"
"Wait," interrupted Green Eyes, slinking out from behind his friend, eyes narrowing distrustfully. "Go back to the part where you said 'turned into a dragon'."
Hiccup swallowed. Hard. Now both dragons were looking at him with mistrust. I slipped. They know now. Oh Thor, I am sooo dead. "Yeah," he said hesitantly, trying to side step around them, "I wasn't born a dragon. See, there was this Magiker with this weird gem, and he changed me from a Viking into a dragon. I'm not trying to cause trouble. I can leave just as soon as my wings are rested."
"A Magiker, huh?" Green Eyes asked, inching closer. "There are stories about Magikers, and very few of them are good." Green Eyes stopped a few inches away from Hiccup's face, causing him to flinch back. The Fury closed his eyes and gave the former Viking a good sniff.
"Eh, he smells totally normal," he said, sitting back. He sized up Hiccup before glancing at the other Night Fury. "He looks fine, too. What do you think, Blue Eyes?"
Blue Eyes sat, wrapping her tail around herself carefully. "He smells fine," she agreed. "The Magiker left no obvious taint on him, aside from him apparently being a Viking beforehand, and the adults' stories said that you can always tell if the Magiker's controlling someone pretty obviously. So I think he's safe." She paused, tilting her head a little. "Unless you're planning on killing one of us for no good reason so you can go back to your village."
"What? No!" Hiccup yelped. "I can't go back! They'll…they'll kill me." The two dragons looked at each other before Blue Eyes came over and nuzzled him. Hiccup stiffened but didn't pull away. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "That would probably be our fault."
"Not ours," protested Green Eyes. "It's the fault of whatever forces the adults to raid."
"Forces?" Hiccup asked, sniffing slightly and looking at the dragons in confusion.
Blue Eyes sighed. "The adult dragons don't raid the village for no reason, or for food. Something forces them to."
"But they won't tell us what," Green Eyes added. "Whenever we ask, they always say 'Just be happy you're not forced'."
"So, you guys don't raid?" Hiccup asked. Green Eyes shook his head.
"We help the adults, but we don't take food. We're smaller, faster, and our shots are powerful. They're supposed to become stronger than a Monstrous Nightmare and a Gronckle's combined!"
"But it's not yet," Blue Eyes said, giving Green Eyes a look.
"You called those species the Viking names," Hiccup observed. "You can understand us?"
"Can we understand your Viking language?" Blue Eyes repeated. "Yes. And not all dragons call themselves by your Viking names. Many who raid do so simply because they've heard it so many times for so many years. It's also easier to know when to warn someone else by listening to your chatter if we know what you call us."
"But we've never heard our name," said Green Eyes. "We're never allowed close enough to understand what they yell."
"Night Fury," Hiccup stated without thinking.
"Night Fury?" Green Eyes repeated, scrunching his nose as he mulled it over. "How does it sound in Viking?"
Blue Eyes slapped him with her tail. "He speaks Dragonese now, you idiot!" she hissed. "He can't just tell you!"
"I can try," Hiccup said, carefully watching their reactions. He giggled. "It's called Norse, not Viking, by the way."
Green Eyes' ear flaps raised, and Blue Eyes looked thoughtful. "Norse, huh? Go ahead and try to speak it," she said.
Hiccup licked his lips before trying to speak. "Nigh, Ni, Night Fury." He blinked at the still air that greeted the human words. It still didn't sound exactly like him, still kind of growly, but it was certainly his voice.
"Wow," Green Eyes breathed, looking awestruck. It lasted for all of two seconds. "Can you teach me?" he begged, bounding around the Viking dragon. "I mean, we're the same species, right? So if you can speak it then we should be able to speak it, too, and…"
"Green Eyes!" Blue Eyes yelped, freezing the other dragon mid sentence.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"I'll teach you if I can," Hiccup said, shifting slightly, "but I'd have to stay here. Won't your mom mind?"
Green Eyes shook his head vehemently. "We don't have a mom," he said simply. "We found each other years ago, and the other older dragons raised us from hatchlings. No one will mind if you stay here."
"Oh! I'm, I'm sorry," Hiccup said. "I lost my mom a long time ago, too."
"Come on! I can show you around," Green Eyes said, bounding farther into the cove. Hiccup took one step to try to follow the energetic dragon and nearly fell over. Blue Eyes was immediately beside him, propping him up.
"Green Eyes!" scolded Blue Eyes.
"Sorry," Green Eyes said, slinking back. "I forgot. You're probably exhausted."
"Yeah," Hiccup agreed, having forgotten until just now how he had met these two. "Is there somewhere I could take a nap?"
"Yes," Blue Eyes said, signaling to Green Eyes to take his other wing. "There's a nice little nook that we like to sleep under."
The nook wasn't far away, and soon Hiccup was curled up ready to sleep in a spot he never could have dreamed he could sleep in. But right as his eyes were about to close, Green Eyes' shadow fell over them. He blinked and looked up into the Night Fury's eyes.
"What do you want?" he asked.
Green Eyes hesitated for a moment before glancing back over his shoulder. "It's just," he started, then sighed. "You have such a unique name. Hiccup. Most dragons name their babies after their scale colors or scale patterns, like Yellow Circle, or Pink Stripe. But even those names aren't that unique. You hear about three Gronckles named Brown Spot meeting all the time. Parents just have too many babies that they know for too short a time to give them all special names. Blue Eyes and I got named after our eye color since our scales don't have anything unique about them, but I'm kind of tired of being called a color. Would you mind giving me a new name? Like yours?"
"Can you ask him that when he wakes up?" Blue Eyes asked, appearing on the other side of Green Eyes, but her voice wasn't as scolding as usual. Hiccup could see that she wanted to ask the same question. Hiccup sat up a little, looking over the two dragons and trying to think of what someone like Mulch would name them. He then immediately dismissed that idea. But he couldn't help remembering something he'd overlooked when he first saw the two Night Furies.
"What do you think of Toothless?" he asked.
Green Eyes looked very confused. "But I have teeth."
"Aren't they retractable or something?" Hiccup pointed out. "Blue Eyes didn't have teeth when she first spoke to me."
"Oh, yeah!" Green Eyes exclaimed. He then proceeded to open his mouth and extend and retract his teeth.
Hiccup stared at him. "I really want to know how that works," he muttered before asking, "So, is Toothless fine?"
"Fine with me!" the newly named Toothless said, shivering with excitement.
Blue Eyes shoved him aside. "What about me?"
Hiccup tilted his head a little. Her cool personality reminded him a little bit of Astrid, but her curious side reminded him of Sylvi. He had no idea what Astrid would name her, but Sylvi would probably be gushing over those blue eyes in a field of black. But she wouldn't name her Blue Eyes…
"Eclipse," Hiccup stated. The female Night Fury rolled the name around for a moment.
"Eclipse, as in the moon and the sun?"
"Yep."
She nodded. "I like it."
"Good," Hiccup said, crashing to the ground. "I think I'm too tired to think up any more names."
"We'll leave you be," Eclipse promised, starting to shove Toothless away. She paused for a moment. "And thank you."
"No problem," Hiccup said, giving her a weary grin. Eclipse attempted a smile back before leaving him in silence.
Hiccup shut his eyes with a sigh. He was as close as he could be to home, and while it hurt to be unable to speak to his family again or let them know he was as all right as he could be under the circumstances, it felt nice to know he had friends here.
And maybe they could break this spell someday. Hiccup just wasn't going to worry about it right now.
ᛏᚺᛖ ᚾᛁᚷᚺᛏ ᚠᚢᚱᚤ ᚲᚢᚱᛋᛖ
The years passed by, and these new realities began to become normalities to the twins. Hiccup soon learned that, in one final curse, Tyrann had given him the ability to become human when the sun set, only to be returned to his Night Fury form with the dawn. Hiccup quickly lost hope that he could visit his family this way. Not only would he only be able to visit at night, but his dragon form left a black streak in his hair, making him seem that much more inhuman. He had little doubt that even the most unskeptical person he knew (his father) would think he was a changeling, come to taunt him.
So he stayed away.
He didn't forget he could change, though. On nights where there were no raids, he would often shift and work with the true dragons on speaking Norse. Hiccup quickly realized that, similar to when he was in dragon form, the other language was difficult to speak at first but easy with just a little practice, meaning he could speak both Dragonese and Norse in either form. Toothless and Eclipse had more trouble, but both were able to learn Norse after many nights. As the friends grew, Toothless began taking Hiccup for rides on his back while he was in human form. Hiccup loved feeling the wind hitting his natural human face, and Toothless enjoyed letting Hiccup direct him, letting Toothless focus mostly on just flying. Hiccup would sometimes ride Eclipse, but the boys most often flew together, daring their female companion to race.
During the day, Hiccup met the other, older dragons who had raised the Night Furies. He was amazed by the difference in personality. Sure, the Monstrous Nightmare was still temperamental, and the Zipplebacks were just as tricky, but they showed more personality than one. One Nightmare called Black Stripe was eager to teach him how to aim his flame that he had dubbed the plasma blast, and a Deadly Nadder called Silver Spots all but adopted him. They didn't care that he was, in reality, a human. All they needed to know was there was a young hatchling who had lost his family, and they were surprisingly accepting of that. Many even had questions about the Vikings that didn't have to do with attacking them. And while he never went too far from Berk, Hiccup learned more about the island and creatures living on and around it than he had ever thought possible. But the nights when he stayed a dragon he learned much less.
Whenever he asked the dragons about the raids and why they did it despite the revelation that dragons prefer fish over any other type of meat, their eyes got distant and they would only say the dragonets were lucky they didn't know. The other Furies didn't have better luck. But they continued to help them during the raids, and Hiccup began to join them. He and the other Night Furies were careful not to hurt any of the Vikings, but Hiccup knew it was impossible for the adults, so he tried to stay away from where the fighting was thickest.
Quite often he would see Stoick, waving his hammer as he ordered Vikings around and fought dragons simultaneously. He once thought about landing in front of him and telling him what had happened, but he never did. It was too risky. Stoick would never believe a talking dragon. So Hiccup kept his distance. He also looked for Sylvi, but Gobber must have gotten better at keeping Haddocks indoors, because he almost never spotted her, and when he did, it was only a glance. Eventually he stopped looking. What was the point of reminding himself of what he had lost? And the years dragged on.
As for Sylvi, she turned all her frustration and pain into fuel for training herself for dragon combat. For the first few raids after Hiccup was taken, she hid in the Haddock house, covering her ears and trying to ignore the shouts of warriors that seemed to double in sound overnight. Slowly, the voices quieted and she returned to Gobber's forge. While she wasn't quite as much trouble at first, she never stopped making designs for new dragon trapping machines, and she kept and redesigned many of Hiccup's old ones. And when she was by herself, she trained.
While she knew she wasn't as good as Astrid and Snotlout could pretty easily overpower her, she kept practicing. She made twin short swords slightly longer than half the length of a normal sword and used those as her preferred weapon. And while she trained, she dreamed. Dreamed of killing the silver dragon that had killed her brother. Dreamed of proving to everyone that, despite her size, she was a Viking. Dreamed of taking down a Night Fury in her brother's name. That dream never died. That's what Sylvi Haddock thought of and longed for with every practice stroke, every pencil line, and every slam of a hammer on a stubborn piece of metal.
I want to give a shout out to 4ndr1 for being the only person to review who wasn't asking for commissions! Thank you! It was very appreciated!