THE TRANSLATOR, httyd.

the translator, six.

the crickets chirped. hiccup stared at the fire as gobber animatedly recalled how a dragon had eaten gobber's hand.

"... and with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole. and i saw the look on his face: i was delicious. he must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg."

hiccup ignored the way how his classmates gasped and 'ooh'ed, and how snotlout swore he would avenge gobber's 'beautiful hand' and 'beautiful foot'. to be honest, hiccup kind of wanted to thank the dragon for biting gobber's hand and foot off; he wasn't able to sleep for two months because of the stench.

gobber's words imprinted themselves in hiccup's head. "if it can't fly, it can't get away. a downed dragon is a dead dragon. alright. i'm off to bed. you should be, too." 

hiccup remembered how toothless's tail got shot down. the only reason why toothless was still alive was because elina was feeding him and slowly healing his wounds, but hiccup knew he had to fix it. he shot down the night fury, so he had to pay the responsibility.

he didn't sleep that night.

the next day, per elina's request, hiccup brought a basket of fish and a prosthetic wing. elina was waiting for him patiently. he noticed she'd changed her clothes; when he asked, elina replied, "chameleon got some for me."

he winced at the stab of guilt as he realized she couldn't go since she was still hurt, and it was his fault.

if elina noticed, she didn't say anything. instead, she asked, "what's that?" she pointed to the prosthetic wing. 

hiccup quickly explained, "it's a prosthetic wing. i made this so... so toothless can fly again. then i can make up for my mistakes as well."

there was a moment of silence, and elina placed her hand on his shoulder. hiccup could smell cherries and smoke as their bodies leaned closer together. 

"let's go help toothless, haddock."

hiccup felt elina's presence walk away from him. he was holding his breath the whole time, and he felt that same strange feeling again.

he was snapped out of his thoughts by chameleon, who snorted some smoke at his face. hiccup coughed, and gave some fish to chameleon. then, he headed towards toothless.

"hey, toothless. i brought breakfast. hope you're hungry." toothless dug his head deep into it, tossing fish bones behind him. hiccup swore that both elina and chameleon rolled their eyes at the same time. "okay, that's disgusting. uh, we've got some salmon, some nice icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel."

hiccup certainly didn't miss how toothless reared up in fear at the word 'eel' and how chameleon immediately flinched as if the word was poison. elina told hiccup, "almost all dragons are scared of eel." hiccup nodded.

"it's okay. i don't really like eel either." hiccup threw the eel aside. as toothless was eating, he looked at elina, who gave him the thumbs up. she patted toothless's head, making him purr as she whispered something in his ear. hiccup carefully attached the mechanism to his tail, and elina watched expectantly as toothless immediately sat up straight, the basket falling off his head. 

hiccup smiled and dusted his hands on his pants. elina walked over to him, but not before toothless took off from the ground. hiccup, who was literally on toothless's tail shouted, "whoa! no! no! no!" 

elina watched worriedly as the two nearly crashed into a rock wall. chameleon trotted towards her, and elina climbed onto chameleon. the two rose into the sky. elina ignored how some of her muscles were still slightly tense, and she darted after hiccup and toothless.

it was at that moment when toothless realized that hiccup was still on his tail. growling, toothless flung him off, making hiccup fall. without hiccup, toothless couldn't steer, and elina managed to jump off chameleon and safely catch hiccup while chameleon watched as toothless fell into the lake. chameleon swatted toothless once the dragon emerged from the water.

"are you okay?" elina asked hiccup. hiccup nodded, his heart still beating incredibly fast after the fall (or was it because he was in elina's arms? hiccup didn't know.) 

"yep." the two stared into each other's eyes before elina quickly let go of hiccup and the two stood awkwardly. chameleon snorted, and toothless huffed at chameleon before lighting the ground up and the two dragons watched elina and hiccup sleepily.

"i expect you have dragon training tomorrow." elina said. hiccup noticed her tone faltering.

hiccup sighed. "yep, i do." there was a pause. "wait, didn't you do dragon training before?"

"...yeah, i did. why?"

"do you have any tips? as in, not to harm the dragons but, like, make them go away or something?" hiccup asked curiously, and elina looked at him before slowly nodding.

"yeah. do you know what animal you are working with tomorrow?"

"the hideous zippleback, i think. the one with two heads."

"yeah, you can use an eel. remember how toothless didn't like eels? yeah, you can use that on the zippleback. it's harmless as well."

"an eel, huh?" hiccup repeated to himself. elina nodded again. 

"yep. by the way, do you mind if i drop into berk to take a look at the weapons? they've been infecting some of our dragons and i want to take a look at their toxins so i can create a vaccine."

"sure." hiccup replied, but he was worried for the girl. "are you sure you'll be okay going to berk?"

"yeah. don't worry, i'm tougher than i look," elina joked, pretending to flex her muscles. both hiccup and elina laughed, then they fell into silence.

the silence wasn't awkward. it was peaceful in a way where they didn't feel the need to talk to communicate with each other, and serenity folded over the teenagers as they watched the sun's reflection illuminate the tides of the water. 

hiccup watched as elina's eyelids fluttered shut, and realized just how different she was from the vikings. the vikings wore dragonskin and leather as 'awards' for their victory and battles, with cruel expressions and disapproving remarks, but elina wore a black dress that highlighted her pale skin and rosy cheeks, with sky blue bishop sleeves. there was a natural look on her face rather than the tattered and brutal one vikings went for, and hiccup thought it looked beautiful.

hiccup knew he was supposed to leave, but he didn't want to. elina leaned her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed. hiccup looked at the tired girl and a small smile crept onto his face. he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree as well.

sometimes, when he felt alone in the world, he would remember elina gertrude, and then he didn't feel so alone anymore. 

berk could wait.