THE TRANSLATOR, httyd.

the translator, twenty-five.

"w-wait! come back! you can't just say something — something like that, and — and run off! you're my mother?!" hiccup watched as elina and val — his mother skip pass the rocks easily as if the two were used to doing this. hiccup shook his head in disbelief; of course his girlfriend knew his mother.

hiccup ducked pass the rocks. "what the — do you... do you grasp how insane it sounds?" 

"come quickly," his mother gave no answer to his questions, darting off. elina watched hiccup struggle to climb up, so at toothless's frustrated growl, she bent over the rock, helping him up the steep slope.

"what — what have you been doing? but they —" hiccup panted, "they said you were dead! everyone thinks you were eaten by..."

his voice trailed off as hiccup's eyes widened. dragons bellowed, a crowd of multicolored dragons flying around trees in harmony. elina smiled, clearly reminding her of her own sanctuary. hiccup's jaw dropped. the enclosure was magnificent, even bigger than elina's sanctuary.

hiccup felt like some part of him should've just realized that his girlfriend and his mother would both have dragon sanctuaries. hiccup shook his head, brushing the hair out of his eyes as a swarm of dragons tackled elina to the grassy floors, making elina laugh. chameleon hissed unhappily as she watched her owner get swarmed with dragons.

hiccup turned to look at baby gronckles wrestle each other amongst the leafy greens. a giant dragon brushed past them, hiding the four in their shadow as hiccup watched in awe. 

"cool, huh?" elina nudged hiccup, making him look at her smile. hiccup wrapped his arm around elina's shoulder, landing a kiss on her temple. 

his mother watched the two of them with a smile on her face.

"this is where you've been for the past 20 years? rescuing dragons?"

his mother nodded, a gentle grin on her face. hiccup looked at elina, who shrugged and smiled. 

"you're... not upset? or surprised?"

"no! i — i don't know. i... it's a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. it's not every day you find your mother and girlfriend to be some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon ladies."

elina rolled her eyes and knocked the back of his head. his mother just chuckled nervously. "oh, well, at least i'm not boring, right?"

"well, i suppose there is that... one specific thing." a dragon nuzzled up to hiccup and elina, causing elina to brush her hand through its scales and talk to the dragon. the dragon purred happily.

"do... do you like it?"

"i — of course," hiccup murmured. he supposed he would've been more shocked if elina hadn't shown him her dragon sanctuary first. as he nodded to let his mother touch toothless, he grinned at toothless's affection towards his mother. his mother looked at her and smiled.

"he might very well be the last of his kind." hiccup watched toothless lick his mother. toothless nudged elina over, and the two females surrounded toothless. toothless happily rolled over, a content look on his face as he was surrounded by his 2 favorite people (apart from hiccup). 

"oh, and look, he's your age!" valka pointed out, toothless happily growling. toothless looked at chameleon, but chameleon just snorted, ignoring toothless. she trotted off, making toothless whimper sadly. elina laughed. "no wonder you get along so well." 

"elina's second dragon. your's first, i expect?" valka turned to look at hiccup. "how did you meet toothless?"

"well, toothless was... shot down... and wounded." valka had a serious expression.

"this snafflefang lost his leg to one of drago bludvist's iron traps. this raincutter had her wing sliced by a razor netting. and this, oh, poor hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare and then left to die alone and scared. and what of this?" his mother looked at toothless's prosthetic wing. "did drago or his trappers do this too?"

hiccup grimaced nervously, and elina winced as her head hurt again. his mother noticed. "elina?"

elina shook her head.

"well... crazy thing is... i'm actually the one who shot him down." his mother raised her eyebrows at him. "hey, it's — it's okay, though. he got me back, right, bud? you couldn't save all of me, could you? you just had to make it even. so, peg leg!" 

hiccup saw elina laugh at his awkwardness as he pointed to his metal leg. 

"and elina?"

hiccup looked even more embarrassed. "uh... it's a long story," elina quickly explained. hiccup's mother sat down patiently, waiting for an explanation.

seeing as hiccup was too awkward to explain, elina took it upon herself to tell their story. "i was riding chameleon. berk had a dragon invasion, and — well — he shot down toothless and i. so i fell and when hiccup came to try to — uh — kill toothless," his mother narrowed her eyes, "he didn't quite manage to kill him because —"

"i saw myself in him," hiccup finished. valka smiled. "elina was there too, and i guess we sort of became friends then. she brought me to her sanctuary and when i was put in the fighting arena, elina brought me out of that situation. and uh, we've... gone through a lot together." elina kissed his cheek, grinning. 

his mother's smile couldn't split any further.

"how do you know elina?" hiccup asked curiously.

valka nodded to let elina speak. elina explained, "so you know how i left berk? valk — your mom heard of my self-exile and found chameleon and i in the woods. she gave me a place to stay — well, here. eventually, i'd been gathering my own supplies to make a sanctuary just like hers. we usually visit each other to get supplies, trade dragon tricks and just talk. but ever since i permanently came back to berk, i haven't had the time to visit her."

hiccup's eyes widened as he looked between the two of them. his mother just looked at them. now she was the one that was confused.

"berk? wasn't your father — well, how did your father think of your night fury friend?"

"oh, he — he didn't take it all that well." toothless grunted as if agreeing with hiccup's explanation. "but then, he changed. they all did. pretty soon, everyone back home had dragons of their own."

his mother sighed. "if only it were possible."

"no, really!"

"believe me, i tried as well, but people are not capable of change, hiccup. some of us... were just born different."