How to View Your Dragons Chapter 16

Meatlug had just asked Toothless, "Why did Hiccup work so hard to get you flying again, knowing that you were his tribe's worst enemy?"

"Good question," Stormfly said when Toothless didn't answer right away. "I think that goes to the heart of this entire adventure. Toothless, Hiccup could have kept you alive forever in that cove; he could have brought you fish every day or two, and no one would have known you were there. He didn't have to make you a tail and learn to fly with you, and risk being discovered by the other Vikings. You still could have been friends, and you never could have known that he even had the ability to make an artificial dragon's tail. Why did he risk everything to get you back into the air?"

"Especially," Sizzle added, "when getting you back in the air meant you could destroy his village some more?"

"I don't think he was worried about that last part," Toothless finally said. "I couldn't fly without his help, so if he didn't want me flaming his village, then he could have kept me from flying anywhere near it. My human-fighting days were over, no matter what happened. But I think you're mistaken in one area, Stormfly, and that's the key to answering that question.

"The Vikings would have found me eventually. Astrid found the cove, and the others could have followed Hiccup, too. Somebody was bound to get curious about where the chief's son disappeared to every day. And once they found me..." He paused and swallowed hard. "Game over. As long as I was stuck in that cove, my days were numbered. Hiccup realized that when he heard Gobber say, 'A downed dragon is a dead dragon.' Don't you remember how concerned he looked when he heard that proverb? That's your answer. He worked so hard to get me back in the air because, long-term, that was the only way to keep me alive."

Meatlug nodded. "So he did it all for you."

"At the end of the story, that's all he ever did," the Night Fury said quietly. "He offered me everything he was, everything he could do, and everything he might ever be. All I could offer him in return..."

"...was everything you were, everything you could do, and everything you might ever be," Meatlug finished.

"Thank you for summing that up," Toothless said. The other dragons smiled slightly, but none laughed.

"But why would he do that for a dragon?" Hookfang wondered. "I mean, you're very close now, but you were enemies at the start. When you took that first flight with his first attempt at a tail, you did your best to get rid of him. Why was he so determined to do something nice for you?"

"Was it guilt over ruining your real tail?" Meatlug asked.

"No, I think we've already beaten that issue into the ground," Toothless replied. "The bottom-line reason is that he looked at me and saw himself. The bond between us formed on his side long before it formed on my side. Because he was so neglected and abused by his own people, his heart was empty and desperately looking for someone to fill it. He needed a friend, and I came along at just the right time, even though I wasn't a very good friend at the very beginning. Still, I didn't hate him; I didn't reject him; I showed him mercy, and then kindness. Those were all things that most of us take for granted, but for Hiccup, they were precious gifts that he'd never known before. They had a huge impact on the way he thought about me. The efforts that he put into keeping my existence a secret, and making my new tail, and getting me back in the air, weren't about guilt. They were about gratitude."

After a long silence, Stormfly said, "I think I get it now," and all the others nodded in agreement.

"So... what happens next?" Barf wondered.

"Now that we understand our riders better," Belch added, "what are we going to do about it?"

"I'd share half of an extra-tasty fish with my rider," Meatlug thought out loud, "but I know he doesn't like it. Maybe I'll give his toes an extra lick in the morning."

"EWW!" the other dragons chorused.

"Well, why not?" the Gronckle said defensively. "He bathes once a week, just like the other Vikings. His feet aren't that dirty, and they have a nice salty aftertaste."

"I'll get my salt from the fish I eat, thank you very much," Hookfang said firmly.

"Likewise," Stormfly added. "But now that I understand more about Hiccup, one thing is going to change. The next time Astrid hits him, I'm going to give her a firm warning." She snarled viciously. "Like that. Nobody is allowed to hit Hiccup anymore, not even her! After all the things he's done for us, we owe him too much."

"I'm with you there," Hookfang nodded. "If my rider is on my neck and he gives Hiccup a hard time, I'll give him such a shaking, his teeth will rattle!"

"And his brains!" Belch chortled.

"That won't take much shaking," Barf smirked.

"What about you two?" Meatlug asked the Zippleback.

"Our riders don't bother Hiccup that much," Belch began.

"Pranking Hiccup is too easy for them, I think," Barf nodded. "He's too easygoing and too trusting. Making trouble for him isn't enough of a challenge for professional-level trouble-makers like them."

"But if they get bored and try to make trouble for him anyway," Belch finished in a threatening tone, "they'll have to get through us first!"

"Yeah!" Barf agreed. "We can do pranks, too!"

Belch suddenly turned to face his other head. "Hey! Do you think we should?"

"Oh, yeah!" Barf grinned. "Maybe a couple of snorts of green gas through the window of their house... not enough to do any harm, just enough to make them run out in a panic."

"Let's do it!" Belch nodded. "It'll be fun!" The Zippleback rambled off toward Ruffnut and Tuffnut's house, their tails lashing back and forth behind them.

"Uh-oh," Sizzle said as he watched them go. "Did their riders do anything to deserve that?"

"Probably," Stormfly nodded.

"I don't think 'deserving it' has anything to do with it," Toothless shrugged.

"So they might do it to me next?" the Terror quavered.

"With that pair, there's no predicting," the Night Fury said. "Guessing what they'll do next is like throwing a fish in the air and guessing which side it will land on."

"Worse," Stormfly disagreed. "A fish has only two or three sides that it can land on, depending on the fish. There's no limit to the mischief those two can dream up. And when their riders get into the act... all bets are off."

"Then maybe I should make myself scarce while they're in a trouble-making mood," Sizzle decided. "I don't have a rider and I don't do much of anything with Hiccup, so I didn't really learn much from the pictures. Except now I know why the war is over." He glanced toward Toothless. "And I also know why you give me a dirty look whenever I come near you while you're eating. I won't steal your fish like my relative did, I promise!"

"We'll see," Toothless said, and gave him a dirty look. Sizzle took that as his cue to fly away and disappear.

Hookfang cocked his head. "I think I hear my rider calling me," he explained. "He probably wants to go flying."

"Didn't you already fly with him this morning?" Stormfly asked him.

"Yes, but there's no such thing as 'too much flying,' even with that doofus on my back. I'd better go see what he wants. If I keep him waiting, he's liable to try and wrench my horns off my head." Hookfang sprang into the air and flapped heavily away.

"Now it's just the three of us," Toothless said as he watched the Nightmare go. "I guess we'll all have to go back to 'business as usual' now. The strange man is going to want his flat panel and his hut back."

"Would you want to see the moving pictures again?" Meatlug asked him.

"Umm... I'm not sure," the black dragon admitted. "It was really intense, seeing those scenes again, and learning what was going on when I wasn't around. Some of it was good, and some of it was bad. I'm definitely not sorry I saw it, but to see it again? I'm not sure."

"I'd like to see it again if I could," Stormfly said firmly. "It wasn't so intense for me, because I wasn't in the middle of it, and I learned quite a bit."

"Same here," the Gronckle nodded, "but I can understand why you feel that way, Toothless. After all, your rider was in the middle of just about all of it, and he went through a lot. Some of it was pretty bad."

"I think that might be the most amazing part of the story," Toothless said intensely, "and that's also the most important thing I learned about Hiccup from these moving pictures. He really was in the middle of it all! He initiated almost everything that happened, or if he didn't initiate it, he tried to take control of it. This tiny un-Viking was scorned by his entire tribe, and he was just an elusive target to us dragons; but through creativity, passion, and sheer stubbornness, he remade both his tribe and our nest into his image. We wanted to have all the food we needed; the Vikings wanted to live in peace; and we both thought that meant relentlessly fighting each other. He changed both our societies! Now we have all the food we need, the Vikings have peace, and we did it his way instead of our own way. All of those rough, tough Viking warriors couldn't make it happen. It took a Hiccup. It took my rider."

"You helped him a lot, you know," Stormfly observed.

"Yes, I know I did," Toothless nodded, "but I just went along for the ride, just like the rest of you. I couldn't have done it alone, and I couldn't have done it with any other human. It was all about Hiccup."

They noticed the strange man striding out of the woods toward them, whistling an energetic tune of some kind (they didn't recognize "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce). "I think he's back to collect his stuff," Meatlug said. "It's time for us to go." They nodded and went their separate ways.

Meatlug wasted no time finding Fishlegs, who was bringing water in buckets from the town well to his house. She ran up to him and laid a soggy, slurpy kiss on his face. "You're not perfect," she told him as he wiped his face, "but you're a wonderful human and I'm glad you're my rider." But, of course, he couldn't understand her.

Stormfly went out fishing first. She could eat her fill from the fish feeding trays anytime she wanted, but she liked to keep her fishing skills sharp, just in case. After she'd eaten her fill, she hunted for Astrid and found her coming out of the woods after a vigorous axe-throwing session. The Nadder coughed twice and laid a fine redfish at her rider's feet.

"Thank you, Stormfly," Astrid said, puzzled, "but what's this for?"

"That's for being a friendly human who was willing to change," Stormfly said. "Now don't hit Hiccup anymore!" Of course, Astrid couldn't understand her.

Toothless couldn't fly to find Hiccup, but he knew exactly where to look for him, and he wasted no time getting there. Hiccup was almost done hammering out the brackets for a rudder for a new Viking longship. Toothless ran up to him in the forge, rubbed his head against his rider, and let out a long, happy croon.

"I'm glad to see you too, bud, but what's this about?" Hiccup wondered. He couldn't comprehend dragon speech any better than the others, unfortunately.

So he didn't understand that Toothless had just said, "You're a crazy, brave, stubborn, creative, unpredictable, one-of-a-kind human! Don't ever change, my friend. I love you."

THE END

o

A/N
As I mentioned to several reviewers, the idea for this story hit me while I was driving to work. I got so excited at the thought, I was bouncing up and down in my seat and laughing out loud. I'm glad there weren't any other cars on the road nearby, or I might have hit them; and I'm glad there weren't any pedestrians watching me, or they would have thought I'd lost my mind.

I've gotten multiple requests to do something similar with "Gift of the Night Fury" and/or the second movie. I'm putting some ideas together; we'll see what happens.