If We Had Wings - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

1

It was a pleasant morning on Dragon's Edge. Tuffnut woke to the sun shining in his face through the entrance of his sandy den. With an annoyed groan, he moved his tailfins to cover his eyes. "Not today, sun," he mumbled, "go back to sleep." He, himself, was about to fall back asleep when the sound of splashing disturbed him. "Ugh," he huffed, thumping his tail back onto the ground, "what is going on?"

"Hey, watch it, bro," Ruffnut hissed from further back in the cave, "you're getting sand all over me."

"But you love sand," Tuff argued in confusion.

"Not when it's being sprayed all over me first thing in the morning," Ruff snorted as she stood up and shook, sending the tiny grains in all directions. "What are you doing up so early anyways?" She asked, "we usually sleep through dawn."

As if cued by her question, more splashing came from the ocean outside of their den. This time, it was followed by a desperate flapping of wings. The two sand wraiths exchanged a curious look before hurrying out to the shoreline. "Woah..." Ruff breathed out as she saw a brand new dragon species lying halfway out if the water on the beach. Colors of blue accented her white scales beautifully, making it hard to tell her apart from the water.

But when Tuffnut realized that this dragon wasn't moving, he frowned. As they got closer, he spotted an open wound on her back. "Hey, she's hurt," he announced abruptly. Picking up his pace, he trotted over to the unconscious dragon. "Uh..quick, get Fishlegs..or Hiccup," he told his sister as he stared down at the stranger in horror, "this is...this is really bad."

Ruffnut didn't need to be told twice when she heard the severity in Tuff's tone. She flew off immediately to alert the others. Tuffnut was left to do nothing to do but wait. Wanting to help, he grabbed her gently with his teeth by the scruff of her neck and dragged her out of the water completely. But as he did this, the dragon that he'd assumed was unconscious growled in pain.

Tuffnut immediately jumped away, afraid she might try to bite him. He watched her ocean blue eyes open into slits and land on him. However, she seemed dazed, unable to focus on anything; she didn't even seem to comprehend that she wasn't alone. Realizing that she was no threat after all, Tuffnut padded back over to her. "Uh, hang in there," he told her anxiously, "help is coming."

As the female laid on her belly limply, breathing shallow breaths, Tuff examined her wound. There were three, long slices running along her back diagonally from the joint of her left wing in the direction of her tail. In addition to this, there was a nine inch long tear in the thin webbing of her left wing right near the base, surely making flying impossible.

"Tuffnut!" He heard his sister squawk from the sky. Immediately looking up, he spotted the sand wraith flying his way, followed by Hiccup, Fishlegs, Astrid, and Snotlout.

Once they landed on the beach, Hiccup rushed forward to get a look at the injured dragon. "Oh gods.." He remarked at the sight of the deep cuts, "Fishlegs, we need some healing herbs now."

"Way ahead of you," Fishlegs agreed as he rushed forward, talons full of greens. "I brought some from my garden just in case when Ruffnut said she was hurt."

"Good thinking," Hiccup complimented. As he began to crush the herbs with his claws against a rock, he went on, "she must've been in the water since this happened; it's stopped bleeding, but the wounds haven't scabbed over yet."

"And the sea water probably helped cleanse away any infection-causing bacteria," Fishlegs added.

As Hiccup began to spread the herb juices over her cuts, the dragon screeched weakly in pain. "Sorry," he muttered awkwardly, continuing with his action, "we're trying to help you."

"Her breathing is steadying...I think she's unconscious now," Fishlegs observed, the put a clawed hand to her back. "Her heartbeat is normal," he sighed in relief, "it seems she's stabilizing."

The others all relaxed at this. But upon seeing her torn wing, Hiccup frowned in empathy; that was going to be hard to fix, if it was even possible. "Snotlout, we need tree sap," Hiccup ordered firmly.

"What? Why do I have to get the tree sap?" Snotlout demanded, puffing out smoke through his nostrils, "you know that takes forever to wash off."

"Because Fishlegs is helping me, and I don't think any of us want the twins to get into the tree sap again," Hiccup argued back.

Tuffnut nodded in understanding, recalling the last time he and Ruff decided that tree sap would be fun to play around with. "Yeah I can't say I disagree with you there," he admitted.

"What about Astrid?" Snotlout questioned as if to prove a point. However, this only earned him a glare from the night-light fury. Astrid bared her teeth at the nightmare and growled shallowly. Snotlout backed away from her and gave in, "alright, point taken." Then, he was off.

Turning back to Hiccup with a look of confusion and wonder, Astrid spoke up hesitantly, "Hiccup..that's some kind of fury."

"I know," the night fury groaned in reply, "which just makes saving her life all the more important."

It was no secret that the furies were dying off. Dragon hunters and trappers were to blame for that. Hiccup had heard tails of furies that were twice his size, others that were a variety of brilliant colors, some that were as small as a terrible terror. Those species had already gone completely extinct, leaving only the lights and the nights. But this injured dragon was unlike any fury the small group had ever even heard of.