It Was Always There

We Have Dragons

A black snout of a Night Fury slowly closed in enough to a sleeping boy's face, sniffing a bit before pulling back and quietly rumbling with a soft huff at the end. Slowly, the human boy's eyes opened, blinking a few times as they do. Seeing his rider finally awake, Toothless grumbled happily, shaking his shoulders a bit before nudging the boy on his cheek. Hiccup smiled at him as he started to nudge him gently with his nose. "Oh, hey, Toothless." He continued to nudge him, slowly becoming a bit stronger but not enough to hurt him. "I'm happy to see you too, buddy." The dragon got closer to him, his grumbles becoming purrs as he started to climb up onto the bed. Unfortunately, the dragon stepped on his groin, causing him to sit up quickly, groaning as he covered himself with his arms in pain. Though it quickly disappeared when he realized they weren't outside, but in his house. He looked around, taking everything in. "Ahh...I'm in my house." He looked at Toothless and saw him wiggling as he sat down, licking his lips. "You're in my house." By simply being excited that his friend was up, Toothless hopped onto a support beam. "Does my dad know you're here?!" Toothless continued to jump around, knocking a few things over. "Oh, uh," The dragon stopped for a moment, moving close to Hiccup. "Okay, okay-" He backed up and jumped up onto a railing. "-no, Toothless." The dragon stopped, looking down at the boy from the other side of the railing. "Aw, come on." He went to get up, but then stopped suddenly. Something felt off. He sat back a bit with a saddened expression. He pulled back the covers and his eyes widened. Toothless hopped down and walked over to him. He sat down and tilted his head, garbling.

Hiccup's expression fell, his shoulders sagging before he swung his legs off the bed. His right leg first, then a prosthetic metal left leg. Toothless leaned down to the metal one and sniffed it. He looked back up, coming face to face with his rider who looked at him. He took a breath, letting out a slightly shaky one before taking a deep breath and standing up with a grunt. He moved his peg leg forward first, limping a bit as he moved his good leg. Taking another deep breath, he took a second step but ended up falling forward. Toothless moved quickly, catching his friend and helping him stand back up. "Okay, okay." Toothless let him use him as support as they walked towards the door for him to slowly get used to walking a bit. "Thanks, bud." When they reached the door, Hiccup slowly stopped using Toothless as a crutch and opened the door with a little bit of extra effort. What he wasn't prepared for was to see a Monstrous Nightmare fly down right in front of his house. He quickly shut his door and turned towards Toothless. "Toothless, stay here." He opened the door again to hear Snotlout yell out; "Come on, guys, get ready! Hold on tight! Here we go!" He flew off with other dragons with people riding them follow after the teen. Hiccup looked around, taking a few steps outside and saw that there were dragons everywhere. Deadly Nadders perched on top of houses, Hideous Zipplebacks eating from what looked like a large bowl of fish in the center of town, another Monstrous Nightmare walking around casually, a Deadly Nadder following a Viking, and Gronckles hovering around other Vikings playfully. "I knew it." Hiccup started, shrugging his arms up in shock. "I'm dead."

Stoick laughed as he walked up to his son, placing a hand on his shoulder as he walked to stand behind him a bit. "No, but you gave it your best shot." He patted his son's shoulder a bit and took a few steps forward with him. "So, what do you think?" He asked, gesturing to all the Vikings and dragons getting along. Other Vikings noticed that the boy was awake and a few called out; "Hey, look! It's Hiccup!" "Hiccup, how you doin', mate?" "It's great to see you up and about!" as they all started to head up the hill to the Haddock house. The father and son stopped and looked at each other, smiling. "It turns out all we needed was a little more of..." He waved his arm up and down at him. "This." The was a little confused. "You just gestured to all of me." His father smiled and nodded, until Gobber spoke up and moved towards them from the crowd. "Well, most of you." He pointed to Hiccup's new prosthetic leg. "That bits my handywork. Runa insisted that we throw in a little 'Hiccup flair'. Think it'll do?" He looked down at his leg, twisting it around a bet while smiling a bit. "I mike make a few tweaks." Everyone laughed at him before he was punched in the arm. "What is it with girls hitting me? Is it always this way?" He asked his dad who looked away and shrugged while waving his hands a bit. "That's for scaring me. And this," She hit him on the back of the head. He winced and looked down, rubbing the spot she hit. "Is for Runa." Hearing her name, the boy quickly turned his head to look at her. He looked around the group, turning and trying to peek around everyone to find her. "You won't find her here, mate." Gobber said, making him think something happened to her during the fight against the Red Death. "She took Melody for a flight." Astrid said. "She should be back-" As if on cue, a roar from above was heard.

All heads turned to look up as a Dramillion flew down, a girl jumping off before they landed completely. "Hiccup!" Runa cried out, running towards the boy and jumping at him. They both fell back, everyone laughing at the sight. Melody garbled happily seeing the boy awake, leaning down and nuzzling the boy on the cheek. "I'm awake. I'm okay." The girl was sitting beside him, her hands on either side of his arms and glaring down at him. "Uh...you're upset." It wasn't a question. He could tell by the look in her eyes and the unshed tears. "You almost broke your promise! And you were asleep for almost three weeks!" Neither of them noticed the amused eyes watching them. Some whispering bets to one another. "Uh, but I didn't. See?" He closed his eyes, smiling nervously. "Still alive!" The girl sniffled still, then hit his shoulder. "Yoh! Hey now-" "You dummy." She cut him off before leaning down and resting her forehead against his own. Green eyes softened as Hiccup smiled softly. "Yeah but," He started before tilting his head up a bit and pecking her lip. "You're dummy." Runa pulled back quickly; eyes wide as she looked down at him. She smiled softly and leaned down, softly kissing him again. "About time!" They heard Astrid cry out, causing them to pull apart, a little embarrassed. Gobber then walked over to them as Runa helped the teen stand. They looked at the blacksmith as he held something out to the boy. "Runa thought you may need a new set." The boy took the new saddle and prosthetic tailfin from him. "Welcome home." Melody then chittered loudly before everyone froze, "Night Fury!" Someone cried out. "Get down!" Toothless jumped out of the house, landing on a couple of Vikings who struggled to stand before falling as the dragon hopped off of them. He looked at them and warbled, licking his lips a couple of time.

The two teens who changed Berk's way of life stood at the top of a cliff. Hiccup already sitting on Toothless and Runa climbing onto Melody. He tested the mechanics of the new set up with his peg leg before he looked at the girl with a smile. "You ready?" Instead of answering him, she shot up into the air leaving and blinking teen behind. He smirked, narrowing his eyes before they rushed after her.

"This... is Berk."

All throughout the village there were Vikings mounting all sorts of dragons preparing to take flight.

"It snows nine months of the year, and hails the other three."

Hiccup raced after Runa who laughed as she and Melody did a trick turn to mess with them.

"Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless."

Others joined them in their flight; Snotlout on his Monstrous Nightmare, Astrid on her Deadly Nadder, Fishlegs on his Gronckle, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut on their Hideous Zippleback.

"The people that grow here are even more so."

Fishlegs had trouble following the pair under a bridge and between a couple of cliffs. Bumping into the sides of it and falling behind a bit. The other, larger dragons like the Monstrous Nightmare and the Hideous Zippleback, flew around or over the bridge.

"The only upsides are the pets."

The group of friends all flew together, laughing with each other.

"While other places have...ponies or parrots, we have..."

Runa and Hiccup looked at each other, smiling before nodding. They sped up a bit, separating from the group a little. The other teens watched them fly away, ascending into the air and spinning around each other. They got to a certain height before they stopped suddenly, their dragons' wings spread out and letting out loud roars.

"Dragons!"