How To Win The Soul of A Dragon

Chapter 21

"What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?" asked Valka to Hiccup, while caressing Toothless' snout gently.

"Oh...He-he didn't take it all that well" indeed he hadn't. Hiccup had told me that Stoick almost disowned him because of Toothless, right after he was captured. I would never forget Hiccup's face when I stepped into the mead hall and saw him there. He wasn't crying when I arrived, but it was obvious that he had been crying before. Who wouldn't?  

All I did was hug him as tight as I could, and we stayed there for quite some minutes before he finally decided to let go. He was heartbroken, and I was sad, really sad for him, I didn't like to watch him suffer like that. I hated it, and the worst part was that I couldn't do anything to fix it. All I could do was let him know that he wasn't alone, and I didn't even think that could help.

"But then, he changed" said Hiccup as I focused back on the scene. Valka looked at him doubtfully, and I didn't blame her. When a member of a crew from the expedition boats in Haustchet told me that dragons were flying all over Berk without anyone attacking them, I had a hard time believing it as well "They all did. Pretty soon, everyone back home had dragons of their own" he scratched Toothless' head lovingly.

"If only it were possible" she said, while I frowned.

"Really, they did" I nodded, while Valka turned to look at me.

"Believe me, I tried, as well, but people are not capable of change" she picked up her staff and stood up "Some of us were just born different"

"Yeah, I know" I said in a low voice, and she turned towards me and smiled, making me smile a little bit, too. Then, she turned towards her dragons.

"Berk was a land of kill or be killed" she was talking about the past "But I believed peace was possible" that reminded me of someone.

 I turned to look at Hiccup, who was looking at his mother curiously, not realizing I was staring at him "It was a very unpopular opinion" tell me about it "Then one night, a dragon broke into our house" she turned to look at Hiccup "Finding you in the cradle" my friend gave her a curious stare "I rushed to protect you, but what I saw was proof or everything I believed" it was my turn to look at her curiously then "This wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own" I turned to look at Thunderlight. He was playing with Toothless' in the grass. I smiled, happy that he was having a good time. Valka then proceeded to explain how Hiccup had gotten the scar on his chin, and how she had been taken by a dragon whom she named Cloudjumper "You and your father nearly died that night. All because I couldn't kill a dragon" I giggled slightly, and turned to look at Hiccup, who smiled at me, knowing what was I remembering. Valka gave us a curious look, and Hiccup explained.

"It runs in the family" Valka smiled, but then her expression turned solemn again.

"It broke my heart so stay away" she admitted "But I believed you'd be safer if I did"

"How did you survive?" asked the Viking, and I looked at her curiously. I wanted to know, too.

Valka started to walk towards the edge of a cliff, and we followed closely behind.

"Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm me!" of course not, dragons didn't mean to harm anyone. They were great creatures.

That woman and I had many things in common.

"He must have thought I belonged here, in the home of the great Bewilderbeast" the what? I frowned looking at Hiccup, who shrugged. That time he did realize I was looking at him.

Valka then gestured to an enormous white dragon, who was resting by the lake below.

So that was the Bewilderbeast.

My gods, he was beautiful.

He had white spikes all over his body. On his face, they were smaller and seemed sharper. But the most amazing things wasn't his size, or his spikes, it was his eyes. They were turquoise, a deep turquoise. I had never seen a dragon eye like that before, it was quite impressive, and majestic.

"The alpha species, one of the very few that still exist" explained Valka, pulling me out of my admiration "Every nest has its queen" continued the woman, making me remember the awful experience with The Red Death "But this is the king of all dragons! With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest" she motioned with her staff towards the walls of the nest, if you could even call them that.

Wait, icy breath?

Did that mean...

"Wait, that's the ice- spitter?!" asked my friend, reading my mind completely "He's responsible for all that destruction?" we followed the woman down a slope.

"He protects us!" explained Valka "We all live under his care, and his command" we reached the edge of the cliff, with our dragons behind. Some small dragons started to fly around me while squeaking, and then went flying towards our dragons, making us giggle. I hadn't seen them before; they were so cute "All but the babies, of course" Cloudjumper roared at them, making them fly away from Thunderlight and Toothless, and making the Bewilderbeast their new target "Who listen to no one!" laughed Hiccup's mother. Then, the alpha proceeded to lift his head up till it was on our level. The dragons around us bowed down, and I noticed that neither Thunderlight nor Toothless could keep eye contact with him. He was an alpha, afterall.

"Woah" said Hiccup and I at the same time, making us smile at each other before turning back to the Bewilderbeast.

"I've lived among them for twenty years, discovering their secrets" awesome, I wish I could have done something like that. Instead, I was stuck in Berk where anyone that considered dragons friends, was most likely to be the joke of the village. 

The gigantic beast roared softly at us,  covering Hiccup's hair and eyebrows in snowflakes. He looked way too funny.

"He likes you!" said Valka laughing, I chuckled because of how funny Hiccup looked, but my smile faded away as he shook his head in front of me, all the snowflakes falling on me.

"Hey!" it was Hiccup's turn to laugh. Oh, he was so dead.

I heard Valka's laugh as I shook the snow off my hair and turned to look at Hiccup, who was still chuckling.

"You're so dead" I repeated out loud, but didn't do anything. Not in front of his mother, I would get him when he was alone. He just chuckled and wrinkled his nose; I returned the gesture and turned to look at her mother, who was smiling knowingly. Again.

"How long have you two known each other?" she wondered, looking at both of us.

"Six years" we replied at the same time. I smiled at him, thinking it was amusing we had both said it at the same time, and he smiled back. It was the second time we had done that.

"Oh, that's a really long time" it was, though we had left out the part in which I ran away.

"Yeah, I guess it is" I nodded, Valka smiled again.

"You must be hungry" she changed the subject, looking at both of us.

"Uh, yeah, I could eat" agreed Hiccup.

"Good, it's feeding time" she grabbed my hand and we were off.