One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts

Gilded

Chauncey trotted through the underbrush, finding patches of wild vegetables or berries and collecting them to deposit in Hiccup's bag.

Every time the diminutive dragon returned, Hiccup was a little bit surprised. Chauncey had no reason to stick around; he fed himself plenty, and he refused to simply walk or fly alongside the group. Regardless, he helped light their fires, and collected food for them, and every night he would saunter into Hiccup's tent and curl up beside him, his warmth helping offset the chill of the ground and the ice tent.

It made no sense. Chauncey would eat alongside them for no discernable reason, and despite always having his own prey to eat he'd beg for the others to slip him scraps. He'd make loud crooning and yelping sounds to get Hiccup up at the crack of dawn as though it were his responsibility, and then he'd go wake the rest of the mortals (Jack and Mahina were always awake and doing something already).

When Mahina and Jack got into a routine of stretching in the morning before anyone else got up, they reported that Chauncey attempted to join them. When any of the others cooked, Chauncey would watch diligently and help control the heat of the fire, and everyone but Hiccup had begun explaining their cooking processes to the dragon.

Hiccup watched Chauncey climb up on Mahina while she was stretching out the stiffness in her now-healed hip (immortals really did heal startlingly fast!), and saw her laugh and try to remove the dragon while Jack and Rapunzel tried to help and Merida just cackled.

"Have you tried bribery?" Eugene suggested from where he was stretched out by the fire, laughing as well.

"Of course I have!" Mahina called back, falling over as Chauncey unbalanced her. "Mahina down!"

At this point Jack had to sit down in the grass and fall over on his side next to her, laughing and holding his sides.

"Aaand Jack down," Hiccup piped up as Chauncey ran a victory lap around the two Chosen.

Mahina managed to sit up. "Hey, that actually did help my hip. Feels good as new. Thanks, Chauncey." She gave the proud little beast some scratches behind his little ear, and Chauncey gave a pleased warble.

Hiccup shook his head a bit. The little dragon made no sense. All his experience with dragons told him that they took time to figure out how to interact with people, and that smaller species weren't nearly as intelligent. Chauncey didn't conform to what he knew, any more than Toothless had when Hiccup first encountered him.

The thought of his beloved Night Fury companion created a lump in Hiccup's throat. He hoped Toothless had made it to safety somehow after Hiccup had been portaled away.

Thoughts of home and worries about his dragon kept a cloud of gloom stuck firmly over Hiccup's mood as the crew had breakfast and packed up camp.

Finally back to normal, Mahina was, on the other hand, a boundless font of energy, racing the others and challenging them to scavenging contests. Chauncey was delighted by these, and happily chased Rapunzel, Jack, Merida, and Mahina around as they played their traveling games, laughter and calls to each other echoing off the trees.

Jack was the first to notice Hiccup's muted demeanor, and he dropped out of the games to walk next to him. "Hey. You all right?"

Hiccup wasn't sure how to answer, and said so.

"You want to talk about it or do something about it?" Jack asked.

Hiccup looked up at the winter spirit, surprised by his combination of sympathy and directness. "I guess just- I'm a bit confused by Chauncey. Dragons don't usually bond so easily. And I'm worried about Toothless, worried that he didn't make it out of the water after I got pulled out of that sea battle."