Between Waves and Clouds

17 - Dragon fan

The rest of the meal was spend in a lighter more joyful way. Another conversation started about the village affairs. Nuffink saw how Frost had completely unfocused on the conversation but he couldn't blame him for that, the boy surely couldn't associate any name to faces he hadn't seen yet. Actually, the blond was sure his friend couldn't even say if the names were refering to vikings or dragons.

Instead, the boy stared at the dragons. Despite the fact that Nuffink had told him Night Furies and Light Furies were relative species and the fact the five dragons looked alike, he couldn't help but notice how much they were different and unique from each other.

The mother was completely white with faint hue of blue on the belly, her scales were glittering and reflecting the light from the fireplace, her head and limbs were slimmer and she had less 'ears' on the head. Her white body and blue eyes reminded him a bit of Baby Tooth. The big one with green eyes, Toothless, had more visible scales than the other, his wings also seemed larger and sharper. As to the siblings, noone of them had the same colors even if Dart and Ruffrunner looked a bit alike.

If the parents were quietly eating their fish, the three siblings were bustling about. Soon, the two males started to wrestle over the same fish, which looked like a fat salmon. Each took a part of the fish and started to pull, grunting and grumbling on the other. Until their mother tapped their muzzle with her paw. Both froze and dropped the fish, which their sister hurried to steal from them.

Frost chuckled seeing this, earning him the attention of the three vikings. They too looked at the dragons and saw Dart licking her lips, seemingly pleased, while her brothers were grunting at her. Nuffink couldn't help but smile seeing how fascinated Frost seemed to be. The boy was still staring at them, even when he took another bite of his grilled fish.

''You seem to be a dragon fan.'' Hiccup noted, amused.

''Hum ?''

Frost focused back on the table and them, he understood they had spoken to him but hadn't heard it. Hiccup smiled and repeated his observation.

''You really like dragons, don't you ?''

The boy swallowed his food and nodded.

''I've never seen some like them, before.''

''There must not be a lot of dragons in the frozen lands of the north.'' Astrid said, looking at her son for confirmation.

''Not as many as we can find here.''

''Those who live underwater are really agressive and isolated, even more than the ones on the toundra.'' Frost added. ''It's not easy to get close to them, we mostly flee from them before they can catch and eat us. Sometimes we can see some in the sky, but those never land.''

The disappointment was noticeable in his voice, and was another proof of how much he liked the winged creatures. Nuffink decided to cheer him up by talking about the ones living on their viking island.

''The ones living here are used to us, you'll have plenty opportunity to approach them. It's hard to miss them, especially the Terrible Terrors. Those move in groups and like to make commotion in the village, scare off the sheep and steal shields and other stuff.''

''They seem to be little pranksters.'' Frost smiled.

The good mood was back at the table, and Frost was glad he could be part of the conversation again. Quickly, the parents stopped talking and settled into staring at the two young men. It was easy to see how happy Nuffink was to talk about the dragons, and they liked Frost's enthusiasm. It was obvious both of them were getting along very well, even if the boy had only woken up a few hours ago. Because both Hiccup and Astrid were still thinking these two only knew each other for the past few hours.