Defying The Rules

Moment Of Truth

          The seemingly eternal torcher that Thalos was feeling on his back was finally over. The old woman stopped rubbing the liquid into his burn and started wrapping his torso in a cloth. Thalos was already breathing heavily and his back still stung.

          "Thor.." he breathed, the nerves in his back practically shaking. "Please tell me the arm won't be nearly as painful." He ran his hands over his face, wiping off the swet.

          Gothi put the stuff she was using away and walked to the side of his body to look at his arm. She started examining it. She poked it, felt it, and even squeezed it. Thalos cringed and and flinched when she squeezed it. Of course that only made her squeeze more, harder, and in different places on his arm.

          "For the love of Thor, stop!" He shrieked, standing up and getting his arm away from her.

          The old lady sighed and shook her head. She walked to a crate and opened it up. She grabbed some ointments, a bandage cloth, and a sling. She tapped the chair with her stick and gave him a stare. It was quite frightening, actually.

          "Is it going to hurt?" Thalos asked, clearly stressed and untrusting of the woman. She just shook her head and tapped the chair again. Thalos took a few seconds, but he cautiously sat down.

          Gothi then started rubbing and putting the ointments on his arm. He cringed at her touching it, but that was really the only pain he felt. Once she was done with the various ointments, which took a good ten minutes, she started wrapping up his arm.

          Thalos watched, taking slow breaths, and trying not to move. His head was already starting to hurt from the wack he had gotten from the old woman's stick. Great—because that was what he needed.

          Once she finished wrapping, she put his arm in the sling. She checked a few more things and gave Thalos back his shirt. He quickly put it on, using his good arm.

          Gothi started drawing in the dirt and Thalos tried translating. "Don't scream-" Before he could finish, the old lady wacked him in the head with her stick. Thalos yelped and rubbed his head. He tried again. "Don't do a lot of yak milk-" He got hit harder, in which he almost whimperd.

          Thalos tried to translate for about ten minutes. After many smacks on the head and a throbbing headache, he had gotten what she said. "Don't do a lot of movement with your arm, and try not to do a lot of rolling or running." Thalos nodded at this and finally left the hut.

          He walked down the eternal flight of steps. He reached the ground and groaned. Now what? He wasn't supposed to run, roll, or anything of the sort. How was he supposed to get to dragon killing? He was going to fail! He didn't stand a chance going after and trying to kill the Monstrous Nightmare now. Astrid would get it for sure, then he would never hear the end of it.

          Thalos  groaned and started walking.  He decided now, that he would go visit the Xeno'jiiva. He wanted to try that hand-to-nose thing that Hiccup had done. He really was hoping that the dragon wouldn't bite off his hand. That would be bad.

          Thalos wasn't even sure if he was allowed to walk that far, but he decided that he would do it anyway. A little bit of walking couldn't hurt, right?

           He started making his way, going the same way he always did when visiting the Xeno'jiiva's cavern. He walked by a river and stopped. He had gotten pretty good at free-hand fishing. So, he decided he would try to catch some fish for the dragon. Even if he could only get one, it was better than nothing. There was always that part of him that was nervous of the Xeno'jiiva  getting hungry and deciding to eat him. At this point, that was the only hesitancy Thalos had.

          He fished for about fifteen minutes. He did have more dragon killing training today, so he couldn't be messing around. He caught a good little pile fish in that time period, which wasn't to bad. He was pretty proud of himself, especially since it was a lot harder with one arm.

          He resumed his walk to the cavern. Once he made it to the shore of the beach, he got on his raft and started rowing. He followed the path of the river in the cave, trying to be quiet so he wouldn't disturb the native resident.

          Once he got off the raft, he did hear a small roar. He recognized it as the Xeno'jiiva, so he wasn't worried about some other dragon. The roar didn't sound aggressive..he didn't think..so that was at least good.

          He walked down the way to the main portion of the cavern. Once he came in view of the Xeno'jiiva, and the beast saw him, it started quickly making his way over to him. Thalos's eyes widened, and he moved out of the way before the animal could reach him. The dragon snorted and tilted its head before changing direction and coming at him again.

          Thalos moved again, but the beast kept following him. The dragon gave a low, rumbling sound and snorted. It kept following him. This time, Thalos just stayed still. He covered his face with his good arm as the creature got closer.

          The Xeno'jiiva's head stopped about two feet away from Thalos. When the boy hadn't yet felt an impact, he slowly lowerd his hand and saw the dragon staring at him. He swallowed and slowly stood up straighter, looking at the beast.

          The dragon just stared at him. Thalos might have taken this opportunity to touch the dragon and do the nose thing, but he chickened out. Instead, he pulled out one of the fish. The dragon looked at the fish, and then looked at Thalos. It gave him a "really?" kind of look and ate it out of Thalos's hand. Even Thalos could tell the dragon wasn't impressed by his peace offering.

          "I have a little more more." Thalos said, pulling out another fish, and letting the Xeno'jiiva eat it. He probably should have tried to get more. This dragon was massive, and a few measly fish were probably nothing for its appetite. He let the beast eat the rest of the fish.

          The Xeno'jiiva looked at him expectantly, clearly wanting more food. "I don't have any more.." Thalos said apologetically. The icey-blue dragon snorted and stared at the boy. "I'll bring you more next time. I promise."

          Thalos bit his tongue. "Can I touch you?" He asked, somehow thinking the dragon would understand him. The dragon tilted its head.

          The Viking hesitated before slowly reaching his hand up to touch the dragon's nose. The beast growled, which scared the everything out of Thalos, causing him to jump and recoil his hand back to his side. Thalos swallowed and tried again, his hand shaking uncontrollably. The Xeno'jiiva growled again, and Thalos stopped.

          "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. Just, please don't hurt me." He asked quietly. How did Hiccup do it so easily? How was he not horrified?

          The boy swalllowed, stretched his hand out further, and looked away at the ground, like Hiccup had done. He could hear the dragon growling. His hand was stretched out as far as it would go.

          The blue dragon looked at Thalos, and then his hand, growling slightly. It snorted and hesitated a moment before gently pressing its large nose to Thalos's hand. The boy's entire body tensed, naturally thinking it bit off his hand, but when Thalos looked up, he saw the dragon staring at him, it's nose up against his hand.