A Small Addition To Berk's Flock, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 5 (rough draft)

When Hiccup returned and was swarmed by villagers trying to get his attention for various complaints and reports and problems and more complaints, even the most insistent of them didn't get too close. That was how strongly he smelled.

They reluctantly retreated when he promised to come back and be a proper chief once he was clean, but he knew he would still have to move quickly if he didn't want anyone getting impatient enough to barge in on him with their complaints/reports/problems before he was done. Even though the villagers' improved opinion of him meant that he no longer got harassed about his body, he still didn't like bathing in (human) company.

The woman who ran the bathhouse on this side of town wasn't around, since people usually didn't come in the middle of the day, but it was an easy enough matter for Hiccup himself to stoke up the fire and fill the smaller pool with running water, which was a lot quicker than lugging buckets around at home. Toothless, disgruntled but resigned, lay down to wait as he watched his human unhappily.

Hiccup, trying not to use too much soap because dragons found the smell of it disturbing and offensive, washed the dried saliva and sea salt off his flesh and out of his hair. After he'd dried himself off, he called to Toothless, who immediately hopped up and trotted over to him.

Hiccup hugged and petted the dragon to get some of his human scent onto him, and let Toothless lick his forearms. He rubbed his fresh clothes on the Night Fury before putting them on, and let Toothless nuzzle his clothes and face and hair afterward. As opposed to licking, the quieter scent was barely detectable to humans and therefore non-offensive; though it wasn't as rich as saliva would have been, it was still much more informative than nothing. Hiccup picked up some pieces of charcoal and rubbed them in both hands for a moment, since apparently dragons perceived the scent as one of his strong personal identifiers.

Ready at last, he put his hands on his hips and eyed the dragon challengingly. "We good now?"

"Yourself, Consort, MINE," Toothless huffed, grudgingly satisfied. "This crazy human 'clean,' I don't like it, blech..."

Almost the second Hiccup stepped back outside, he was swarmed. A few people had even been literally waiting outside the bathhouse for him.

"Whoa, okay, people, no, this is- Come on, guys, we have a system here!" Hiccup reached the forge and hopped up onto a counter to elevate himself above the crowd, and got Toothless to roar in order to shut them up. "Do we need to practice this some more?"

"It's confusing!" someone complained.

"I get the lines mixed up!"

Hiccup nearly facepalmed at the typical Viking resistance to his ideas. "It's not that hard, guys, you won't think twice about it once you get used to it!" He pointed he spoke. "This line is for patrol and mission reports, this line is for dragon stuff, this line is for village stuff, this is for miscellaneous, and if you don't want to wait in line, leave a note in the bucket. Come on, people! War - dragons - village - everything else!"

Much as Hiccup would have loved to throw himself whole-heartedly into dealing with the dragon-related problems, those days were over for him. Sadly, Hiccup handed off the entire dragon group to his mother. Toothless made a squawking sound, looking as reluctant to part with him as Hiccup felt. "Wish I was going with you, bud," Hiccup murmured, caressing the dragon's head. Toothless toothlessly bit his arm in affectionate farewell, then turned away and left with Valka and the others.

"Okay," Hiccup sighed, "Astrid, Snotlout, what've you got for me?" He listened to summaries of their reports and arranged a meeting time for that evening when they could discuss things more thoroughly with the rest of their 'troop,' Gobber, and Valka.

Then, still turning over the information in a corner of his mind, he moved on to the more mundane (and teeth-grindingly boring...) aspects of chiefing. "Mulch, just because he's your best friend doesn't give you the right to cheat him...calm down, Sven; just turn it into a game for the junior riders, they'll round up the missing sheep soon enough...yes, Mildew, you'll be compensated for the cabbage she ate. No, she's not a menace, she's just got a new clutch to feed and is trying to stay healthy so she can keep doing that..."

That last one was a more serious problem, because even the newest flock additions knew to steer clear of Mildew's property. According to Valka, the legacy dragons had marked it as off-limits, so it was worrying that a dragon, even a mother from one of the new factions, had still trespassed there for food.

Gustav confirmed it when he said solemnly, "Just thought you should know, Hiccup...Fanghook killed and ate a boar when we were out in the woods this morning."

"Thanks for telling me, Gustav," Hiccup said, running a hand through his hair. Dragons were known to eat things besides fish, but it wasn't typical and usually signaled a shortage of their usual food source. "Can you take your Nightmare riders out fishing again today?"

"Yeah, but...you know it's not gonna be a long-term solution..."

"I know, Gustav. I'll figure things out, just give me a little more time."

It was hours before Hiccup could get away for a break. 'I shouldn't let it pile up like this, then it just gets overwhelming and horrible when I do stop procrastinating...' He found himself even working during what was supposed to be his break, paging through the written complaints/reports/problems as he lay with his head in Astrid's lap.

After several false starts, Astrid finally said, "I keep wanting to talk about the wedding, but every time I try, I always end up just worrying about the feast."

"We're gonna starve, aren't we," Hiccup said bleakly.

"Hiccup-"

"I was such an idiot. Dad should have smacked me in the mouth instead of just sending me out of the way so he could clean up my messes."

"You were just a kid."

"I was fifteen! Legal adult and all, but still blowing up our supplies or sending them gift-wrapped to the Red Death, I'm surprised no one ever threw me over a cliff."

"You'll figure something out. You always do."

"The flock tripled in a single day. We can't keep up. They're raiding Mildew's place and hunting in the forest, how long before we completely-? Owwww! Ow ow ow Astrid, stop!"

"I'm hearing a lot of really unproductive self-blaming instead of brainstorming."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop, please, ow...!"

"You're supposed to be taking a break, anyway, not continuing to stress out."

After a long pause, "...It still hurts. I think you owe me some kisses."

"Oh, do I~?"

"Mmm hmn. Lots."

They started to make out, but didn't get very far before the sound of approaching wingbeats prompted them to break apart. A few Nadders galloped up to them; Cloudjumper and the rest of the dragons who had flown came to a landing nearby.

Hiccup climbed to his feet and smiled a little at the sight of dragons seeking him out. "What's up, Mom?"

"They insisted," she said apologetically as she dismounted, then stood perfectly still.

Hiccup laughed and Astrid moaned good-naturedly, recognizing her pose. Make-Consort-Do-Things-Using-Human-Sounds-ONLY had become one of the dragons' favorite games. It worked on other humans as well, but they preferred to play it with Hiccup because he was the most obedient (other humans tended to lose interest quickly, misunderstand, make mistakes, or otherwise spoil the game).

"The first instruction is to shoot," Valka said, remaining very still and trying to speak in a monotone. "I'm pretty sure they mean your sword."

Hiccup obligingly ignited Inferno, to the delight of the dragons. They never did seem to get tired of the fact that they could convey messages to their human flockmates using nothing but Valka's meaningless-sounding noises. Once the blade was aflame, Hiccup smiled at Astrid as he used it to draw a heart shape in the air. "My heart is on fire for you," he said, playfully stilting the words a bit.

"You dork," she laughed.

"Now," Valka continued, "pick up the three Terrors whose most recent meal was cod. I know you can't tell by scent, so I'll just tell you that it's the two green ones and that purple one. And Astrid, since you're here, Stormfly is telling me that she has some instructions for you as well."

Hiccup and Astrid played for a few more minutes, but eventually they had to return to work. Hiccup was so busy that by evening, he was too tired to eat, and fell asleep leaning against Toothless before Valka had finished cooking supper.

The woman crouched down and watched her son for a long time, quietly watched in turn by Toothless. Her child was so...so not a child anymore, and she wondered with a pang what he had looked like as a toddler, as a boy, as a teenager...

Finally she reached out to draw his arm around her shoulders. He grumbled and leaned heavily against her, still half-asleep, and slowly trudged up the stairs beside her. He seemed to rouse enough to give her a slightly sheepish grin when she attempted to put him to bed. "Oh...sorry, Mom, I- Give me a second to change clothes, I'll...I'll try to eat in...a minute, I'm just not...very hungry..." He yawned, after which his head seemed to droop with weariness.

Valka knew that Toothless would do a better job than she could of deciding whether her son could afford to skip a meal or not. Since the dragon showed no inclination to force some fish down Hiccup's throat, she said, "Don't worry about it, Hiccup. I know my cooking isn't...entirely appetizing. Go on to bed, you'll have enough to deal with tomorrow."

"Soooo much to do," Hiccup groaned. "I didn't even get a chance to look at Squirt's shackle, I have to do something about that soon...makes me sick to even look at it..."

The next day, after his usual morning flight with Toothless and dealing with a couple of urgent matters, Hiccup determinedly set aside time for Squirt. He called the Bewilderbeast up out of the ocean, to the alarm of the rest of the village. "Good morning, Squirt~!"

Squirt rumbled at him, looking a little disoriented.

"Hey, little guy, ready to get that icky shackle off? Ready to get rid of it, huh~?"

The dragons from the king's old flock had retreated to hide on the far side of Berk, or even in the forest. The legacy dragons were calmer, but kept close to their human partners. It was mostly Drago's ex-slaves who started flocking around Squirt, screeching angrily and occasionally feinting at him. Squirt stared up at him, baring his teeth in a long, low growl.

"NO, Squirt," Hiccup ordered. He swung into the saddle (Toothless was also growling) and flew up to the Bewilderbeast's remaining tusk. "SQUIRT!"

The giant dragon slowly redirected his attention to Hiccup.

"NO antagonizing flockmates, little guy. I know they're making a fuss, but you are bigger than them. Just ignore them."

Squirt gazed at him without response.

"Hey!" Hiccup shouted up at the smaller dragons. "Guys, settle down! Settle down, he's not hurting you!" He was a little surprised when they took no notice of him whatsoever. However, when Toothless roared, most of the dragons shrank back and sullenly glided away.

Hiccup was glad that he thought to evacuate the path to the forge first, because as careful as he tried to be in guiding Squirt, the fact still remained that he was dealing with a leviathan dragon, and not a particularly careful one, either. Several buildings (some of them freshly rebuilt from Drago's attack) got crushed. "Yeah, yeah, I know, just add it to the pile," Hiccup sighed at the protesting Vikings. "Squirt, down. Down."

Once Squirt understood that he was supposed to lie down and keep his head on the ground, he obeyed, barely moving. However, his eyes widened and he made distressed noises when he saw the two smiths approaching him with their equipment, so Hiccup had to soothe him for a while before they could start. "It's okay, little guy...it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, all right?"

It took Hiccup and Gobber most of the day to remove the enormous shackle, and by then, Hiccup was exhausted. He surveyed their work, his heart aching to see the heavy indentations in the tusk, clearly marking where the shackle had been. The huge scar in the enamel would always be a sign both of past slavery and present freedom. "Good job, Squirt."

Squirt rumbled uncertainly.

"You can get up now, for good this time." Hiccup gestured hugely. "Up, Squirt! Up!"

As before during each rest break, Squirt laboriously rose up and then fixed his wary eyes back on Hiccup.

"Good! You're done! Now, go, Squirt." More gesturing. "Go."

Squirt stared at him.

"Means GO AWAY," Toothless confirmed irritably.

"Lie down again? Get up, lie down, loud loud loud tug? Get up, lie down-"

"GO AWAY. FINISHED, GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY," Toothless thundered. "No more rotten human marks on you, gone, finished!"

Squirt looked at Hiccup for confirmation. Although Hiccup was staring at his Night Fury in surprise at the moment, he had just been making that sound and those motions that Squirt tentatively thought might mean "Go away."

"Go away? I will go away and eat fish?"

"YES, STUPID!"

"Go away, Squirt!" Hiccup called, heaving his arms yet again. "Go eat! Go swim and eat; finished!"

"Go away. Finished? Go away." Slowly, Squirt started to turn toward the ocean. He paused. He shook his head in an odd way, a rapid swinging movement, then abruptly paused again. He took a few more steps, halted, and shook his head once more. Then he continued on until he had disappeared beneath the sea.

To be continued...

Author's Notes: I am so sorry about the nine month delay in updating this! In addition to my usual distracted muse shenanigans, it seemed like every time I managed to sit down and work on this chapter, certain paragraphs would get so long and impossible to explain succinctly that I kept having to pull them out and expand them into full-fledged one-shots. This happened with Smelly, Conveyance, Factions, and partially with Language Lessons (the stuff in LL was originally supposed to be in A Small Addition To Berk's Flock, but they had nothing to do with Squirt, so I decided to group those scenes together outside of "Small Addition").

I have found that doing research for my stories, even fanfiction, can lead to interesting things that I would never have dreamed of learning about or encountering otherwise. For this chapter specifically, I tried to look up how a blacksmith would remove shackles. At first, I found only one even remotely useful site that had a picture of a blacksmith removing a shackle from an ex-slave in 1907. In searching for additional sources, I came across a site that claimed to teach you how to escape from shackles...only to discover that its suggestions included things like switching bodies with a prison guard, gnawing the restrained limb(s) off, and turning into mist. I was literally laughing out loud in amused confusion, going, "What the heck IS this site?!" Turns out there's an entire Web site dedicated to "telling you all you need to know to be an evil villain, a nefarious cybernetic juggernaut, or a not-to-be-truly-comprehended interstellar vixen." ^^;;;;;;;;

SOME NOTES ABOUT LANGUAGE LESSONS!

First of all, I made a mistake, there are no pronouns in dragon language. (You see pronouns because the Dragonese is being rendered into English so you guys can read my fanfiction, but within dragon language itself, there are no pronouns; dragons always address and refer to people by their names/titles.) The concept of dragon love being more single-minded than human love is still true, but I'm going to have to find a different place for Valka to explain it.

Second of all, receiving feedback on Language Lessons made me realize that there's been a problem with the way I've been shipping HiccStrid all this time: when I scrutinized canon more closely, I realized that Astrid actually gets nothing out of the relationship, so apparently I've been subconsciously trying to make it up to her all this time by giving her a strong libido that Hiccup can satisfy and make her happy. I realize now that that is not the best way to balance out their relationship, so I need to start shipping this pairing differently. I have a few ideas, but haven't settled on one yet, which is why I'm working on experiments to interpret HiccStrid in various ways and see which works best for me.

Thirdly, more people than I expected wanted better descriptions of the Dragon Voice. I apologize for not doing a better job of that! I myself dislike and don't care about detailed descriptions, so sometimes I forget to provide even the bare minimum for people with different preferences. ^^; I'll try to improve that if/when I ever get around to editing Language Lessons properly!

I have no idea when I'll be able to update "Small Addition" again, since I haven't started the next chapter yet, but I do have enough ready-to-post installments stockpiled to last us through the end of December (if I update every Wednesday and Saturday)! I've got the next "Tooth's backstory" one-shot/chapter, the next three chapters of To Put It In Perspective (which will complete the HTTYD1 arc), and the next six chapters of Carried Off (the rest of Part 1 and all of Part 2). I'm also trying to get a really old, completed His Soul Reflects My Own one-shot typed, and I need to see what I can do about having at least one holiday fic ready for Christmas (requests are still open for that, btw!).