A Day in the Life of Toothless

The sun was just beginning to peak over the mountains as I opened my eyes and stretched. The sun felt good as it warmed my wings. They tingled lightly from the stiffness of sleep and for being still for so long. I shook the last specks of sleep from my eyes, my body now fully awake, before climbing over the side of the roof.

My claws clung to the shingles as I walked to the very edge then, with a quick burst, I flared my wings and jumped inside the building. It was fairly chilly inside and I sneezed. Well, a quick flight would warm me right up.

I moved over to the bed and growled softly at the sleeping form. It made a soft noise and shifted before settling back into sleep. Sometimes he was just so stubborn... I put my front feet on the edge of the bed and leaned in close, breathing down at the creature.

"Uhhhh...Toothless..." Hiccup mumbled sleepily, batting a hand at my snout. "Im tired..." I growled low in my throat and nudged him with my nose. "Okay, okay..." He put a hand on my nose and nudged me away, yawning. "I'm...upppp..." I snickered at his yawning and he looked at me skeptically. "Hey, don't judge. At least my breath doesn't smell like fish." I rolled my eyes, but grinned as soon as I saw him climbing out of bed. "Alright, bud. Let's get your saddle on, then we can go for a quick flight."

There is no better feeling than the air building beneath your wings and lifting you high into the sky. It can't compare to anything. I closed my eyes for a moment and crooned. Ahhh...this was great...

I felt Hiccup shift on my back and guide my tail so we flew slowly left. "Come on, bud! Let's try our new move." Ugh. I hated when he wanted to try those moves. When he did, I couldn't fly. I could only glide and barely at that. It scared me...just a little. I huffed and he chuckled, patting my shoulder. "Come on, Toothless! We can do it!" As much as I hated those kinds of moves, however, Hiccup was always excited when we managed to pull one off. It made me happy to help my best friend smile.

Fine... I tucked my wings in and flew toward a stone arch. A few flaps and...I snapped my wings out to slow enough for Hiccup to jump off. There was the familiar metallic click and then that awful rustling that meant my tail was loose. "Steady..." Hiccup's voice reached my ears and I whined fearfully. The water was always so cold this early in the morning. Part of me wondered if he made us try in the morning for that fact. Who would want to go swimming in that freezing water? It was a pretty good motivator to succeed.

His weight pressed down on me as he jumped off and I soared by underneath the arch, before turning and looping back the way I had come. I could already feel my altitude falling, so I flapped, attempting to regain it and I did, but barely. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hiccup watching me then turn to run. As I flew out from under the arch, I felt a weight drop down on my back. Then there was the click and my body leveled out, the rustling silenced. "Yes! Way to go, Toothless!" Hiccup happily guided me back toward Berk and I shot a plasma blast, as Hiccup was so fond of calling them, into the air. We had done it! I was so excited!

I was so bored... All of the kids, except for Snotlout who was missing at the moment, were talking about that annoying Dagur kid again. He'd caught me in his stupid nets so many times... It was infuriating! I wandered out and laid down on the ledge outside of arena, watching them from above as the others dragons, except Hookfang, obviously, lounged around inside the arena. I wondered why we didn't just finish off the villian, but it seemed to be against some 'code' they had or something because they never even discussed it as an option. They only talked about scouting, capturing, and defending. I tried not to think about it, but it upset me how they had readily killed my kind for centuries and yet, they didn't even consider it an option for another human.

My eyes drifted to my rider and my pain lessened. These kids that were discussing capturing Dagur and not killing him were the same ones who had never killed a dragon. Sure, they had trained, but they had never actually killed one. All of this gentleness and attempts at avoiding fighting and killing had started with my rider. That one boy had changed the world of dragons and the world of humans so completely and so positively, that I really felt proud to have him as my rider. It was why I didn't want to fly on my own. It was why we were a team.

"Guys! Drop what you're doing!" I glanced over to see Snotlout come tearing through the entrance. Huh. Where was Hookfang? "Hookfang's missing!" Oh. Well, that answered that.

Hiccup raised his hands up. "Calm down, Snotlout. Just tell us what happened." I leaned down into the arena, trying to hear when there was a light breeze and a familiar scent caught my attention. It was Hookfang's scent. I took a quick glance in the arena, but they were all talking or busy. I couldn't lose the scent and if I ran in to get Hiccup I'd lose the scent, so I ran off following the trail.

Well, this was going nowhere. The scent had led me into the middle of the forest, but I lost it at the river. I stomped a foot down and shot a blast at a rock, torching it in frustration. Immediately, I felt ridiculous. What good had torching the rock been? Wait...torching it... I looked at the burnt rock and thought for a moment.

As much as I couldn't stand the guy, he had to know the forest better than me. He iced hee after all. I lived in the village. Maybe he had seen or heard something. I wasn't looking forward to running into him, but I had to see for Hookfang's sake so, grudgingly, I hurried off to where I thought his territory was.

I looked around the open clearing, thick, green grass grew in a spiral at the center of the clearing, but no dragons in sight. He wasn't here. Great. Any more brilliant ideas, Toothless? Just when I felt like going back to Berk and giving up, there was a familiar hiss and I jumped, spinning around to see Torch. His eyes narrowed at me and he growled. "What are you, doing here?" Then his eyes widened and he looked around worriedly. "Where's Hiccup? Is he alright?"

I reared up growling to catch his attention and once I had it again, I growled out my reassurance. "He's fine. He's fine. He's back at Berk. I came to ask you if you've seen one of my friends. He's a nightmare named Hookfang and he's missing."

Torch looked thoughtful, moving out of his offensive stance. "I don't remember well enough to say for sure, but when I passed by the meadow earlier I saw a nightmare. I can't say for sure it was Hookfang, but it could have been him, I guess."

Well, it was a lead at least. I glanced up at the Typhoomerang. "Thanks, Torch..." I hated having to thank him for anything. Generally, I tried to get along with everyone, but he was always so smug.

He smirked. "Glad to help." I glared at him ad ran off to the meadow. Torch called out behind me. "Tell Hiccup I said hello!" It seemed innocent enough, but I could hear the mocking in his voice and he laughed. Grrrrr...I really couldn't stand that guy. No time to worry about him, though. My focus had to be on Hookfang

It took me longer than I would have liked to reach the meadow, but eventually I got there. I scanned the area and didn't see Hookfang anywhere. This dragon was impossible to track down. Maybe he had gone back to Berk? Might as well head back at this point...wait! What was that? I had seen a flash of an orange tail near a tree on the edge of the meadow! Could it be...?

I raced to the tree and sure enough...there was Hookfang! He was rubbing his neck on a tree and didn't even seem to notice me. "Hookfang!" I was probably less than half his size, but Hookfang fetal like a little brother to me. He reminded me of a hatchling, curious and playful, but also listening and timid when necessary. It always surprised me when I saw him act fierce or tough because it was so out of character for him. I was just glad to see he was alright.

His eyes widened and he looked around until he saw me. He smiled happily. "Hi, Toothless!"

"Don't 'hi Toothless' me! Everyone's worried about you! Where have you been?" I narrowed my eyes as I stared at him.

He seemed taken aback by my outburst, but I had reason to be frustrated. I had been all over Berk looking for him. "I'm sorry, Toothless...I just..." He lowered his head sadly and I noticed something green on his neck.

"Hookfang? What's that?"

He saw me gesture this neck and nodded quietly in acknowledgement. "Oh, that. Well, Snotlout has been upset my saddle is worn and rough so I thought I'd put some moss on it to fix it up and soften it a little bit. I thought it'd be a nice surprise for him."

So that's where he had been all day... "That was thoughtful, Hookfang." He perked up at my compliment a little bit. "You still should have told someone where you went, though, surprise or not." He seemed disappointed at that and I immediately felt bad. "Come here, Hookfang." I moved over to his neck and put my front feet on the saddle, patting the moss and pressing it into place. "There. That's better. Now let's head on home."

He smiled, happier. "Thanks, Toothless! I hope Snotlout is happy with it!

"I'm sure he'll love it." I smiled nd turned, headed toward Berk, hearing him walk behind me after a moment. Sometimes it was really tiring being the leader of our little group of dragons.

Finally, we made it back to the arena and I heard sad voices inside. The first I recognized to be Hiccup's. "I...I can't believe he's gone. Where could he have run off to, Astrid?" He sounded so dejected, my ears flopping down in guilt.

"He'll show up, Hiccup. He always does." I imagined Astrid patting Hiccup's shoulder reassuringly.

"Who cares about your missing dragon? Hookfang's still missing!" Did Snotlout ever think of anyone except himself? How Hookfang put up with him was beyond me...

"Where could they be?" Hookfang and I looked at each other before racing inside. All of them looked up in surprise at our arrival and I barked softly.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout hurried over and Hookfang nudged him happily. Then he snatched him up and dropped him on to the saddle. Snotlout shifted this way and that to see its patchwork. "Hookfang? This is where you've been?" A pause. Wait for it... "Is my dragon awesome or what?!" There we go.

"Toothless!" Before I knew it, Hiccup had thrown his arms around me in relief. I closed my eyes and leaned my head on his shoulder, whining softly. "Don't scare me like that, bud..." I pulled back and looked at him, blinking. "You had me worried sick!" Hiccup could be so ridiculous. I Rowland licked his face making laugh and take a step back. He smiled and rubbed my nose. "Good job, Toothless. Now everyone's home and safe." I crooned my agreement as we watched Snotlout and Hookfang's reunion.

Sometimes it's frustrating and exhausting to be the leader of our little dragon group, but sometimes it just feels really really great.

Well, this was intended to be a oneshot, but if enough people review it with positive feedback I may add another chapter. Hope you liked it! And hope I got Toothless's personality well.