How to Train Your Dragon Rider

(1.5) A tail, a Nadder, and a Peace Offering

I spent most of the night doing as much research as possible on dragons, but with Vikings intense hate of the creatures all I could find was how to kill them. And another thing, they seem to genuinely not know anything about Night Furies. Absolutely nothing. Which leads me to my next point, there is very little knowledge on how dragons work. All that Vikings seem to care about is how dangerous they are, and how they steal our food very often.

But whatever, I began sketching the tail-fin as best as I could. Calculating exactly how much metal I would need, as well as leather. It wasn't very difficult to build the tale itself, just rather time consuming. It got into the early morning hours, before I actually finished, and by the time that I did I was way to tired to actually try and walk to the Chief House. So I didn't.

I slept in my workroom in the back of the forge, and was rather excited when I remembered that I had left an extra blanket in the the workroom.

And that was that.

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I was not surprised when the Nadder and I had the same dizzying connection. But like with the Gronkle, it was different. It was released out, and then I was astonished by the amount of different smells in the air. Every footstep seemed to echo, and every smell (weather it be good or bad) was multiplied ten-fold.

It was deafening, all of it. I, once again, tried to pay attention to the lesson, but was unable to. As I ran through the small maze, it was nearly impossible to focus on anything. I lost my footing multiple times, and misplaced my shield during it. Luckily, the maze was able to hide my accidents from the rest of the class. Successfully keeping me from any form of embarrassment.

"Focus Hiccup, you're no' even tryin'." Gobber's voice cut through to me, and I attempted to shake the haze away.

My eyes catch onto Astrid's (probably soft) blonde hair, she motions for me to get down, so I certainly try to. I'm able to squat near to the ground, and lean forward to make it seem as though I am paying attention to what she is saying.

I cannot be sure if its the dragon-haze that is distracting me, or how fuc-freaking pretty she is. She turns around, and rolls across the ground, quickly followed by Snotlout, then my weak attempt at a forward roll.

I am obviously unsuccessful. I can honestly say the only constant in my life is how often I screw up. This particular screw up, led to the Nadder noticing our location and charging.

Snotlout and Astrid rushed away, but I was stuck. Frozen in the steely gaze of the Deadly Nadder. It's fire blew hottest, but it felt like a cold wind as it blew past me. Something about all of this was so odd. For one, Astrid was actually nice enough to grab me out of the way of the blast (even though I am fairly certain that it wouldn't have hurt me).

And for second, the Nadder actually shrank away after blasting in my direction. Instead of charging at us again, it ran off towards it cage. However, before it actually reached the cage, Snotlout chucked his hammer towards at the Nadder, startling it. Which lead to it going back onto the attack. It charged once again, its fire pointed at Astrid rather than me.

I scrambled to my feet, and tried once again to run away, just as Astrid ran towards it. We collided, and the butt of her axe became buried underneath me. Which meant it was consequently under her as well. We struggled for a moment (I believe I heard a few comments about love on the battlefield) before she yanked her axe out from underneath the both of us and smashed the side of it into the Nadders head.

Just as the iron door goes down, Astrid comes at me (rather aggressively) shouting her head off.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you? Our parents war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you are on."

Well, that certainly stung.

After that, there was a bit more shouting, a bit of cleaning up, then I was off. I stopped by the great hall (where we eat our meals) to grab a few fishes, and then to my house to grab the tail. I make a note (mentally of course) to fix the door before my dad gets back. The trip to the dragon's cove seems to get shorter ever time I go out there.

I decided against bringing the tail down to the cove just out of fear that the dragon would react badly towards it. There were plenty of spaces to tuck it away so I did just that. I could actually see the Night Fury's outline underneath one of the bigger rocks.

I climbed most of the way down, and threw a fish as hard as I could into the direction of the dragon. It very obviously did not get very far, but it was successful in drawing out the dragon. I was pretty sure that the lake didn't actually have any fish in it, and my guess turned out to be true as I watch the dragon absolutely gobble up the entire fish in one bite. I take that as an "its okay" to come closer so I do.

I stop about three feet away from the dragon, and hold out another fish. The dragon slowly comes closer and opens its mouth,

"Toothless, I could'a sworn you had t-" I stand corrected as a set of retractable teeth shoot out and the dragon nearly takes off my hand as it snatches the fish away. The teeth shrink away just as quickly as it was here.

It starts moving towards me, and I am very careful to avoid eye contact with the dragon. I back up with every step it takes towards me, and soon I am stuck between a rock and the dragon.

It sits back on its haunches, and starts hacking. It hacks the head of the fish out, and drops it directly into my lap. I smile at the dragon very forcefully and nodded my head in thanks for the fish. Sadly, it wanted me to take a bite.

I did so, and nearly hurled. The dragon looks actually happy after this, it relaxes in its stance, and wiggles it tail almost like a dog. I tried to move closer to him, but he growls in warning.

I mean, I am a bit of an idiot, but I am not enough of an idiot to approach a dragon that doesn't want me near it. I wander off, taking a look around the cove, before settling on a small-ish rock and begin sketching the dragon Toothless.

I could feel him draw near to be which causes me to tense up a bit, but continue none-the-less. He watches for a few minutes, before I head him lumber off. It's actually very strange, Toothless was walking around on his back legs, as if he was human. I watch out of the corner of my eye as he rips a branch off of a tree and begins spinning around in circles dragging the branch around behind him.

When he finishes he tosses the branch away, and watches me with cautious eyes. I still do my best to avoid eye contact, choosing instead to focus on the ground below me. I take a step forward, and a deep growl sounds. I lift my foot, it stops.

Back down, back again. Up, stops. I repeat this for a few minutes, before stepping around the ridges of the drawing. I began twisting round and round avoiding the twists and turns of the image.

I take my final step and freeze. Toothless' breath brushes across my shoulders and I slowly spin around. I lift my head up and slowly make eye contact.

Just like before, I was transported into the sky. It felt beautiful. Everything was perfect and right with the world. I was able to force myself back into the real world (with a lot of struggling, but it was done).  When I came back, I lifted my hand ever so carefully, and touched it to Toothless' face.

This time it was different. I suppose it was the skin-to-contact of it all. It was like I could hear him. Well, not really hear him, but notice his thoughts in a way.

Toothless didn't think in English (which is totally understandable because he doesn't speak it) but he does speak in symbols almost. It's a combination of a couple of squiggles, and little symbols. It was strange, but the instant we made contact I could understand every single one.

And man, it was beautiful.