Chapter Text
The night was clear and awfully silent, until it was disrupted by loud and forceful wingbeats, descending from the Southern skies. A beat later, a lean and built man clad in a tightfitting black leather suit and metal helmet hopped down from what was identified as a majestic dragon with covering of the night. The dragon and the man appeared to be two halves of the same whole, both concealed in darkness, moved in agile tandem, carried with them an air of danger and ferociousness, and above all, both crippled: the dragon missing half of its tailfin, and the man, his left leg from below the knee was replaced by metal-boned prosthetics. However, they moved silently through the night as shadows, whether above the clouds, or under the cover of the dense forest.
Wordlessly, the man strayed from his beast, trekking along the sides of the forest, and his companion paid no mind, as if this was a ritual, perhaps it was. The dragon concentrated on sensing his surroundings, stilling, sniffing and his earplates spun to face different directions. He crawled through the forest floor undetectable like a snake, right to the center of the woods, before circling the grounds and making a detour back to their landing spot. No humans, no dragons. Good.
After returning to the grassy clearing atop a hill, where they touched down, the dragon began a series of actions, strangely resembling how humans would settle down at a new camp spot. He fetched water from a nearby spring he discovered while scouting, with a copper container strapped to his leg and gathered thin branches, only he had no trouble lighting up the campfire - he fired at it.
“There you are bud! I checked the forest boundary and coastline along the South. The island is completely empty, except for that village we saw in the sky on the other side of the island. We're good.” The man set to untie the basket and satchels on the dragon's - Toothless' body, along with the heavy saddle. Tired from a whole day of flying, the dragon can only tumble around to stretch his sore muscles, grunting out his displeasure and joy of being freed. Finally!
“Yeah yeah grumpy. I'll scratch you later alright? Business first.” From under his outer suit in front of his chest, the nameless man pulled out a worn-out leather-bound book, and set it on the ground, before opening it and revealing an incredibly extensive and detailed expandable map. The map appears to capture a world far beyond the archipelago, reaching to the lands of the South where completely different and extravagant civilisations lay. Could he have travelled that far? Attached to the edges of the map are smaller pieces of parchment with detailed illustrations of different regions and landmarks, all able to be folded and reduced, and safely tucked into that 'notebook' of his.
The man scanned the numerous coloured symbols on the map, before pointing out, “Great, we're finally in the Barbaric Archipelago. We took an awfully long time to get back, didn't we bud?”
You wanted to visit that mental man and his volcano, then you went to see Leneah, and you turned back South because you wanted more grapes, and you…
“Okay maybe I got a little distrac-“
A little?
“For a dragon that cannot speak you are awfully good at complaining.”
Well, we are who we talk to.
“Hey! You say I'm a bad influence...I say I'm a good time.”
We had a great time being hunted by 2 of the most dangerous groups of people you mean?
“That was not my fault, they are just easily-offended. Who knew crashing their wedding was such a bad idea?” The man's giggles turned dark, “They had it coming.”
Crashing of the wedding, or wiping out one-quarter of their people?
“Anyway, from the looks of it, we are here, on one of the small islands West of Hysteria. No wonder no one else lives on these islands. The Wrath of Thor made this place completely inaccessible from the rest of the archipelago, except for the Bog Burglurs.” The man traced the map with the bone of a writing instrument he called a pencil. “We are no more than two hours away from Visithug by the high-altitude wind system. We'll rest here for tomorrow and head North to the Visithug Territories at nightfall. What do ya say?”
I'm not going anywhere without a basketful of fishes down my throat and your fingers scratching my back, that's for sure. Toothless announced with mischief, certain that Hiccup would comply with his request no matter how tired he is.
“Urghhh, fine.” The man hopped onto the dragon's back and started scratching, muttering under his breath in a false voice. “Be kind and let the dragon live, Hiccup. He's probably gentle and friendly and will be an obedient pet, and not end up using you as his personal masseur.”
Hiccup hid his warm smile. Why keep a dragon, though, if not to spoil it? Anything you say, Toothless. Anything for you.
The silence of the hill was no more, drowned out by the rhythmic and thunderous purring of offspring of lightning and death.