Ahem, hello. Yes, Hecate's Apprentice 1997 here. Changed my name, as you can see. I grew bored with the other one. DON'T question me about the cookie part. Just...just don't.

Another lame one-shot done before a two-hour road trip to Fort Worth and back. I just can't seem to get enough of the rider/dragon friendship. One way or another, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I, for the last time, do NOT own the awesome movie called How to Train Your Dragon. I, however, do own this. So bug off! No, read and review first before you bug off, please!

A Dragon's Words

Dragons can't speak. Well, they can communicate with each other using their language, Draconic or Dragonese, but humans can't understand their screeches, their growls and their rumbles except for the most basic meaning. So it was necessary that dragons showed their feelings through actions. Their bonded, or riders, should be able to pick up on the dragon's feelings as long as he used the simplest acts – it was pretty insulting to the (intelligent) reptiles to have to act like household pets, but it was the only way. Love overrides everything, even the cockiest race's pride.

To Toothless, a bonded Night Fury (Hel will take over first before any of the dragons referred to themselves as "tamed"), this is no different. To his relief, his rider, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, a Viking kid, was smart, and he could pick up fairly quickly what Toothless was trying to say, but there were a few things even he overlooked or didn't think much about, and there were those that Hiccup understood pretty well.

Whenever Toothless took to the sky with Hiccup on his back, it wasn't just because the dragon needed him there to control is prosthetic tailfin. It was a silent thorough acceptance, a respectful act toward the long and lanky human hatchling: "I value you highly".

That time in the forest when two morons, after beating Hiccup up thoroughly and was stupid enough to go to Toothless' valley to make a pretense scene to hide their little crime and was caught by Toothless, the message the dragon wished to deliver was: "I can protect you, and I will." To the bullies, the message was even clearer: "Mess with him, mess with me."

The afternoon that Hiccup was supposed to slay the Monstrous Nightmare and was nearly killed instead, Toothless made a choice to burst into the crowd full of dragon-hating Vikings to save him. "I can risk my freedom and my life or both, just for you," his actions had said. And he held Hiccup absolutely no grudge when he was captured by the little one's sire, he was not angry at his rider at all. He found that he couldn't.

When Toothless dove into that storm of fire the Dragon Queen, the Green Death, had created after his fallen rider and accepted to take that shaky fall for Hiccup, it meant, "I can't lose you." In the end, even though Hiccup did not manage to maintain his left leg, he was alive and well, and Toothless had mostly succeeded.

And now…as Toothless stood by his rider's side on top of a cliff that overlooked Berk, watching all the dragons and Vikings living together so peacefully, heard the playful shouts and challenges of the teenage riders, the cautious bellows of the adults, the Night Fury turned his head to look at Hiccup and grinned that grin he'd copied from him when they first met, one more line of silent communication was traded between them:

"I'm glad the gods had let us meet."

Oh, and for those who are interested about the part about the bullies, I've gotten a complete story including how Toothless beat them up in revenge in my stories, called, You Don't Mess with Dragon Riders. To fully see what happened that time, go check it out. Leave a review when you're at it, will you?

Mm...And I'm making a How to Train Your Dragon OC fic. First shot at it, but well...who knows. It could be Mary Sue for all I know. But hey, to tell a story from a dragon's point of view is different. I just hope I don't give birth to the first Dragon Sue. And for your information, no, it's not a shapeshifting Night Fury. It's not even a Night Fury.

~the Apprentice (the Cookie Master's this time)