A Little Bit Of Fate

Chapter 54: Courage

"Oh. Weird." Sneaky grumbles from my shoulder. I jump, then facepalm.
"Stop doing that!" I hiss. "In fact, stop is stop in my language." They look at me in confusion for the extra Norse words.
"This language barrier is so frustrating," I complain, throwing my hands up. Toothless walks back up to me.
"Now you know how I felt when you couldn't understand me." Toothless croons smugly, and I swat him playfully.
"Yeah, so I couldn't understand what you were saying," I admit. "But your facial expressions and body language were easy enough to understand!"

"Body language, huh?" Toothless chortles.
"Most of the time you resembled a cat or a bat. But you growling in my face was a good indication of anger." I joke.
"Yeah. But I don't think you quite understood what I meant when we played that line game." Toothless warbles.

"Aww, were you sad I stepped on your precious drawing?" I coo teasingly. Toothless looks away grumpily.
"Yes. Very much so." He grumbles. I laugh.

"Anyway, let's continue with the lessons." I croon. "Because if some Vikings find their way to this island and are after you guys, it would be a good idea to understand them so you can escape." I turn my attention back to the dragons, who chortle or grumble their agreements...

<><><><><>
A few hours later
Time: sunset

Toothless and I walk side by side down a small path, after promising the other dragons we'd be back the next day.
"Hiccup?" Toothless asks. I look at him. "What's next for us? Where do we go from here?"
I sigh. "I have no idea bud," I admit, using the stick to help me down a steep bit. "I just want to get us up in the air again, then maybe we could decide from there." Immediately after, I misjudge a step and find myself falling towards the ground with a yelp. Toothless stops me with his head.
"Take it easy, Hiccup!" He coos as I straighten up with a sigh. "Don't wanna break the other leg, do we?" He teases.
"Yeah," I scoff. "then I'd be twice as useless. Odin knows the world doesn't need that."
"Now hang on there!" Toothless growls. I blink in surprise, turning to look at him. "You're not useless and you know it! So stop putting yourself down!"

"I can't even walk on my own anymore!" I protest, "You can't fly without me, and that's MY fault. Aaugh! Everything I touch breaks!" I let out my emotions, waving my arms around in exasperation. I sigh and look down.

"No. Everything you have done has been for the better!" He growls.
"I crippled you, Toothless." I hiss. "Downed you. How is that 'for the better'?!"
"Think about what would have happened if you didn't. Go on, TELL ME!" He snarls.
"You would be free," I growl. "You wouldn't be stuck with a pathetic fishbone."

"Free? You mean still trapped under the snare of the Red Death. The one that ate my mother! The one that made me a murderer! The one that made me kill innocents!

"EVERY dragon I met under her control always blamed the Vikings, how they killed us, trapped us, downed us, well guess what?! You were all just defending yourselves! You attacked us because we raided you, took your needs of survival away, killed innocents! Kids, men and women. Gone. Babies...before their lives were even started.

"I don't... I don't even remember how many people I killed because I wasn't even in control of my own body! I would have served that thing until my last breath. You shooting me down SAVED me. I know you find that hard to believe. But it is true. And what did we go on to do? Defeat the queen. Just one boy and one dragon. We not only saved every dragon inside this archipelago, but we also saved the Vikings. This is the first step towards peace. And I know you want that!