How To Train Your Dragon 3 - A Tale of Two Tails -

Chapter Nine: The Alpha's Pain

"LET ME GO! I'll kill the scrawny brat! I'LL KILL ALL YOU VIKINGS! LET ME GO!"

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!"

"No, Dad, he won't hurt you!"

"No, don't! You're only making it worse! Toothless, STOP!"

"No! NOOOOO!"

"Get him!"

"No! Please, jus-- just don't hurt him! Please don't hurt him."

"Put it with the others!" 

"Filthy beast..."

"Devil's spawn!"

"GO ON! GET OUT OF HERE! GET AWAY!"

"I'm right here. Come back to me."

"It's all your fault."

"You'd never hurt him."

"No! Get away from him!"

"You'd never hurt me."

"No, Dad, he won't hurt you!"

"Please. You are my best friend."

"Bud."

"My best friend."

"GO ON! GET OUT OF HERE! GET AWAY!"

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!"

"Toothless! Toothless! Wake up, bud!"

He felt something shaking him hard.

"Toothless!"

"Wha-- What...? H-Hiccup?!"

He shook his head, voices raging in his head painfully. In agony, he let out a whimper and buried his head deep into the crook of Hiccup's arms, comforted only by the way he tightened his embrace.

He felt his heart thud in his chest, but it felt like a hundred needles were trying to force their way out of his ribs.

The last voice resonated with him.

It didn't sound like Hiccup, nor like anyone he knew but the agony in the scream made his insides twitch. 

'It's your fault...' he thought over and over again until they were the only words he knew.

"It's my fault," he warbled monotonously and raised a leg to rest on Hiccup's lap. 

In that moment, he wanted to do anything to be closer to his best friend.

"C'mon, bud," he said softly and stood up.

"N-no! Don't l-leave..." he croaked tiredly and followed, legs falling under him weakly.

But Hiccup didn't stop. Because he couldn't understand.

So Toothless followed even though his bones felt like breaking and his head was spinning.

He was stopped dead in his tracks when Hiccup flashed something bright red in front of him. It took a second for his eyes to focus on the object but once they did, he realised that it was a new prosthetic. He instinctively sniffed it.

"Yeah...?"

"But... W-what about your leg?"

"D'you like it bud? And look!"

He showed him his leg. He'd created a new leg, though without the modern mechanics of his old leg, looked better than a wooden peg.

"It's complete with a new leg," he joked before rambling on, "It doesn't have the same contraptions as the leg we lost but at least we can fly!"