Alright, I've never seen anything like that before," Hiccup said in awe.
"Is it safe?" Toothless warbled back, his ears flattened to his head in slight worry.
"Probably, it looks completely abandoned."
The massive city, which more than dwarfed the village of Berk by many times, had fallen into complete disrepair. Collapsed spires lay throughout the city. What looked like the ruins of a stone Great Hall lay on an island with a bridge leading to the fallen structure. It had once been a truly great city to have so much of its construction done from solid rock.
They glided over the ruins and saw no motion at all within.
Toothless dove and landed on one of the remaining standing walls. He shuffled on the ledge for a moment before finding his grip, his tail hanging off the side over the water.
"This was a very big nest," he remarked.
"City. It is called a city," Hiccup explained.
Toothless then hopped and glided down into a clearing that was apparently once a main road.
Hiccup dismounted and started walking, Toothless staying close to his side. Large, fallen chunks of white rock lay around them on the road. Other types of debris and even a few abandoned weapons lay around the ruins.
The air itself was filled with memory and decline.
"I had no idea that people build cities this... big," Hiccup looked around in amazement.
"How many Vikings lived here?" Toothless wondered, twitching his tail slightly.
"I don't think these were Vikings. We... they do not build like this."
"I suppose there would be more types of humans than only Vikings," Toothless muttered after a moment of thought.
"Yeah, we have flown very far from them. These people loved to build. I wonder what they were like?" Hiccup sighed.
They paused in front of the ruins of a large wall that was collapsed in several places. Hiccup took a moment to appreciate how fine the construction was. The perfectly carved and fitted slabs of rock were especially impressive.
However, while the place was filled with many feats of ancient engineering, he also started feeling uneasy about something the longer they stayed there.
"I'm not sure why, but I really don't want to stay here."
Toothless stepped up next to him.
"Why not?" he warbled.
Hiccup again looked around at the ruins, seeing nothing that looked suspicious out in the open.
"I don't know if we are alone here."
Toothless shuffled on his feet and looked out over the lake through the largest collapse in the wall. Hiccup joined him in staring out over the blue vista framed by the massive hills on both sides.
"There is no smell of any other humans here. I would know."
"I didn't think there would be..."
"But you need to find other humans eventually to know where we are," Toothless gently nudged his shoulder.
"Yeah, that would help a lot. I wonder why this city was abandoned. We can probably find cities near water, like this was once," Hiccup explained.
Toothless then pointed a paw at a far side of the calm lake which reflected the blue sky.
"I saw a river flowing from this lake over there. We could follow that and maybe catch some fish also."
Hiccup sighed and chuckled with amusement.
"Bud, you ate almost a whole deer just a couple days ago."
"There is always more room for fish," Toothless casually explained while flashing his teeth.
Hiccup laughed freely and rubbed the Fury's neck after vaulting into the saddle.
"If I had any doubt that you are a true dragon..."
Toothless laughed deeply and spread his wings. They jumped from the ruins, dove toward the lake while spinning freely, and were rapidly flying across the water moments later. Their flight was so fast that Hiccup saw a wake forming behind them as they flew low above the surface.
While looking back, Hiccup spared one final glance at the ancient ruins.
I wonder what happened there.
Hiccup idly poked a stick into the small fire crackling before them, and then looked up at the stars. They were completely strange to him, and none of the shapes looked anything like what he remembered in the skies over Berk.
The only sounds were his and Toothless's regular breathing, the crackle of the fire, and the babble of the nearby river.
Night had long since fallen, and they were both settled down to rest.
"Toothless, you said that you never knew your family."
A solemn warble followed from next to him where the Fury lay with his head on his forearms.
"What about others? Did you ever know any other Night Furies?" Hiccup continued.
That got the Fury's interest, judging from his lifted frills and very wide, eager eyes.
"Night Furies? Is that the name Vikings use for my kind of dragon?"
"Yeah, it is. Your dark color is perfect for hiding at night, and you can be very... uh, furious."
Toothless only snorted and tilted his head slightly in thought.
"Night Fury. I like it. It is a good name for my kind. And no, I never saw another of my kind in all my years," he sadly added.
"I cannot imagine what that is like, bud," Hiccup gently patted Toothless's neck.
Green eyes that reflected the fire flicked over to him even as a wing rearranged itself partly over his back.
"Can you not? You are different from all other Vikings."
Another solemn silence followed between them until Hiccup shrugged.
"I suppose I have always been... different. I was always terrible at being a Viking. Not big enough, strong enough, or brave enough. One of them even told me to stop trying to be something I was not. Good thing I learned that lesson."
A moment of peaceful silence followed.
"Hiccup, I remember seeing your sire many times in the fighting. He is very big. What about your dam?"
"My mother. She... she was taken by a dragon when I was only a baby."
Toothless moaned softly at that.
"My dad never talked about what happened, but I heard that she was like me. Trying to be peaceful toward dragons and get Vikings to try another, better way. She wanted change. She was a voice for peace. And then there was an attack at night... a dragon broke into the house... and she was... gone... carried away..."
"Sorry," Toothless whispered.
"Don't be, Toothless. You didn't do anything wrong to her or me."
"But a dragon did hurt you by hurting her. You said that she was a good Viking. She did not deserve that. And no hatchling should be left without its dam or sire. I know that."
"One more way we are similar," Hiccup whispered.
He was about ready to put out the fire and go to sleep when an unfinished question came back to mind. Since learning that he and Toothless could talk together, there were so many questions that he had asked, been asked, and had thought to ask but had not yet.
"What were you thinking in the cove? We didn't finish that talk."
Toothless sighed and shuffled in place to find a more comfortable position.
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything. Why did you trust me? What was the picture you made? Why were you chasing the light I was shining on the ground? Anything..."
"I was... wait.. the light-spot? That was you!" Toothless narrowed his eyes with a grumble.
"Uh... maybe..."
Toothless snorted.
"I might toss you in the river for that. You need a bath also."
"My hygiene is perfectly fine considering that I am living out here in the wild, thank you very much mister fish breath!"
"I smell normal for a dragon!"
"Yeah! I know! At least you know how to keep yourself clean..."
"Of course I do! Are you sure you do not want me to lick you clean?" Toothless grinned.
"No! I am not your hatchling! I'm perfectly capable of washing myself!"
They glared at each other, their narrowed eyes eventually softening as a pair of chuckles burst from them.
Afterwards, Toothless sighed and again lay his head on the ground.
"What was I thinking? I knew that you were the same human that let me go before and which I saw looking down at me. You brought a weapon and a fish with you. That was strange, as if you were not sure what you were doing. Then you threw away your weapon. That was good, but I thought you were still dangerous even without your weapon."
"What? How?" Hiccup chuckled with amusement at the idea of him being innately dangerous.
Toothless grimaced slightly.
"Looking back over my tail now, my thinking that does look twisted. But I have seen many dragons killed or grounded by humans' paws only or small weapons. None of the humans ever give fish. I..."
A long pause followed.
"I saw that you were different from the others when you got rid of the weapon and gave me the fish. But I did not like you trying to touch me."
Hiccup grinned and rolled his eyes, remembering very well the dragon's reluctance in that first peaceful meeting. He also reached over and gently scratched Toothless's neck.
"I figured that out quickly. Why not?"
"Because touching is a type of bonding and trusting. Dragons touching or grooming each other trust the other to not hurt them. That trusting had never happened between a dragon and a human before, I am sure. I also thought that, just like Monsters have power in their eyes, you might have power in your paws."
"Huh? What?"
"Yes," Toothless hummed, "it is your paws that make things like your dens and your false-claw weapons, true?"
"Yeah, but we don't have any magic or anything like that," Hiccup frowned as he held out both his hands.
Toothless freely leaned over and nosed at the hands.
"All dragons know that the most dangerous part of a human is the paws. Those let the human be strong and make things. We dragons cannot do those things with our paws."
Toothless sighed softly and continued.
"You made a picture of me in the dirt, I could see that, so I tried to make a picture of us. Did it look good?"
Hiccup winced slightly at the Fury's eager expression.
"Uh, Toothless, I can definitely say that it didn't look like us or anything else I could see. I'm sure it was great, whatever it was..."
Toothless huffed heavily in Hiccup's hair. Then he sat back on his haunches and grumbled, deep in thought and planning.
"I am throwing you in the river later..."
"Great, bath time. Love it. So... moving on from that..." Hiccup mumbled.
Toothless nodded and then continued, apparently forgetting his frustration.
"I still was not sure if I could trust you after you danced through my picture. You held out your paw to me while looking at me. You still wanted some control then. But... you... did it again while looking away. You trusted me completely."
Toothless looked up at the stars and closed his eyes.
"You let me choose if we should try to fly the winds of life together, dragon and human."
"Toothless..." Hiccup whispered with a tear on his cheek.
"I knew in that moment. I had enough of the way the world was, and I wanted to change it! So I did."
A long, poignant silence ensued.
"And I'm glad you did, bud," Hiccup whispered as he put a hand on Toothless's neck.
Hiccup noticed a slight shine near Toothless's visible eye. He could not be certain about it, so he said nothing of it as he put out the small fire.
Neither of them said anything else before they fell asleep under the strange, unfamiliar stars and the bright moon.
"That looks promising," Hiccup mused.
They looked down together at the distant signs of civilization. They were up in the clouds and surely out of sight of any eyes.
A very long road running East to West crossed a prominent bridge over the river they had been following through the morning. A path on the Eastern side of the river ran along the water and led into a distant green country with several towns throughout. All was framed to the far East by a thick and wild forest.
They wordlessly adjusted their flight to carry themselves over that deep forest where they could pass unseen. They flew out over the edge of the forest, dove, and landed, and Toothless darted into the relative darkness. Hiccup then hopped off and retrieved some of his supplies from the saddlepack.
"That worked. No chance anyone saw us."
"Now what?" Toothless wondered.
"Now you stay here out of sight, I go visit these people, and we figure out where we are and where to go."
Toothless paced and chuffed.
"Do you think they will trust me?"
Hiccup nervously bit his lip.
"Maybe not at first, but we can show them that you are not a monster if we plan to stay here. It would definitely help if they have not seen dragons before. They won't have any bad stories of you."
Then Hiccup frowned at a recurring thought that kept bothering him.
"Speaking of that, you haven't seen any other dragons yet, have you?"
Toothless sadly warbled and gently shook his head.
"No, I have not."
That was spoken very evenly, but Hiccup could feel the sadness in the now very familiar voice. For Toothless to possibly be the only living Night Fury or even the only dragon in these lands was very strange and discouraging to think about. The thought also reminded him of something that both of them definitely had to do in the future.
"Toothless, I promise you that we will go look for other dragons eventually. There have to be some in hiding somewhere."
"I would like that."
"Me too. I will try to be back before sundown."
"Be careful, Hiccup."
Hiccup threw on his traveling cloak, made sure that he had his bag of coins, and grabbed a small knife. He would be worse than useless in any kind of fight, but simply having some protection helped him feel a little better.
He glanced back at the thick forest once he was out of shouting distance and finally on the well-maintained dirt road. There were no green eyes or any shadowy figures visible among the trees.
He knows what to do.
Still, it was his first real separation from Toothless since they both fled Berk a few weeks ago. While he did not like admitting it to himself, he relied heavily on Toothless's prowess at hunting, ability to keep him warm, and general protectiveness.
And he was now walking toward an unknown people, far from home, in a place where he might not even be understood, with no protection beyond a simple hunting knife, and no Toothless to protect him.
"This is stupid..."
His confusion only grew greater the closer he came to the village and the strange people, although that feeling was also mingled with relief. The relief was because of the peaceful lives these people evidently enjoyed. Many of them were farmers, ferrying cattle here and there and tending to the fields and gardens. Children laughed and ran all around in play and games. The green fields on the way into town were filled with people tending crops and grazing livestock.
More confusing was that there were two different groups of people living peacefully here. One group of people would have been entirely at home back on Berk, except that this group of humans had a relative lack of very long beards and general, ax-wielding craziness. The other group of people was far shorter, and they would barely reach up to his chest. They looked like children in some ways, but in other ways they looked like adults. They were all well-dressed for work, many wearing suspenders, and none of them wore shoes.
"And I thought I was short..." he mumbled under his breath.
Another surprising and very reassuring discovery was that he could understand everything they were saying. Everyone here spoke Norse, or he spoke whatever language they spoke. He would not have questioned how he understood them before, but the revelation that Toothless could now speak with him left him uncertain about what he truly knew about this world. More than once on the way into town he had passed roadsigns that were completely indecipherable to him, but he could speak with anyone here.
Maybe I can learn these runes eventually.
He continued on along the path toward what looked like the main establishments, or at least toward the center of town.
If there was any remaining doubt that this was a peace-loving people, that doubt was thoroughly banished when he saw all the stalls set up in the town marketplace. Farmers were selling crops or livestock. Craftsmen were marketing their wares. Smiths were showing off their tools.
There were no weapons anywhere in sight beyond maybe a pitchfork.
"This is definitely not like Berk."
Several of the natives, both the short folk and the tall folk, nodded politely to him in passing. He thought it was odd that no one noticed him as being a foreigner.
Maybe they see a lot of travelers here and don't find me that strange. That would be reassuring. Okay, we need information. Where do I go for information?
He realized that it was a very easy question to answer. Every town had one such place where people gathered to talk and probably would not mind or question a new face. A few minutes of walking followed, and then he saw what he was hoping he could find.
Hanging over the entrance to a large, wooden building was a sign displaying the establishment's logo and apparently its name, which of course he could not read.
He approached the nearest man he could see.
"Excuse me, sir. What is the name of this place?" he pointed to what had to be this town's mead hall or great hall or something like that.
"Not from round here, eh. That there is our tavern, The Tipsy Cow. Wally's a good old bar-tend, an' he'll do ya right, if ya got the coin."
Hiccup politely thanked the man and then strode with a muted chuckle toward The Tipsy Cow.
Well, now I know that Vikings are not the only people who have issues naming things. Not that I am one to talk about that...
Toothless prided himself on never being snuck up on or surprised by anything. Not even Hiccup in their most serious play-fights had ever managed to tag him or hide from him for long.
Every one of his senses was alert to the feeling that something was not normal about this old forest. For it was very old. The trees were twisted and gnarled in many places. No clear human paths ran through the forest.
That was all the better for him because it made his discovery less likely.
Still, as he swished his tail behind him and listened carefully to all the sounds of life around him, he could not escape the feeling that he was being watched. More than once he got to his feet, aimlessly walked under cover of the trees, and felt a small twig fall onto his head.
That was very bad luck the first time it happened.
By the third time, it was an indication of some foul purpose.
Then he started catching flashes of motion out of the corner of his eyes. There was never anything hiding behind the trees, nor was there any recognizable scent on the air.
What is going on?
He flamed a patch of ground on which he then curled up in warmth. No sooner had he done so before he heard the trees themselves start groaning. Some of them even had their leaves and branches start swaying slightly in the wind.
But there was no wind.
It took a few moments before he realized that the trees were almost moving on their own.
He flew to his feet with a soft growl and narrowed eyes. It felt like there were tiny bugs crawling all over him and trying to get under his hide. There were no bugs on him.
Good thing Hiccup is not here to see this.
He huffed at himself and strode closer to the edge of the forest. It was getting closer to sunfall, and Hiccup should be arriving soon.
Until then, he planned to remain low to the ground and attentive while throwing the occasional glance back over his tail. He did so while snarling softly.
The old forest did not like him.
The feeling was mutual.
The tavern was surprisingly busy despite it being still only the afternoon. Although, even the Great Hall on Berk always had someone in there drinking, reading the Dragon Manual, cleaning up, fighting someone, or doing something else. Maybe these people also took pleasure in their ales and meads early in the day.
Hiccup found himself an empty table in a corner of the building. Taking that seat gave him a very good view of everything else going on.
This Hall-tavern had rows of tables, a few of which were occupied by large men and many empty mugs and a few tables which were filled by the smaller folk. The smaller people tended to be smoking something in pipes while talking much among themselves. They also liked propping up their hairy feet on the tables themselves!
They all lived a very slow pace of life.
If only Berk were more like this.
Then he spied the barman and waved him over. The man, Wally apparently, was probably in his sixties, had a kind smile, and reminded him of a thinner Gobber who still had all his limbs.
"Yer' not from 'round 'ere, eh?"
"No, I'm not. Where is here?" Hiccup asked.
"What, ya don' know where ye are? That's a problem fer after ye've had yer drinks," the barman was either suspicious or amused.
"I, uh, lost my map a while back. I know where I'm trying to go, but I'm not sure how far it is now."
The barman grumbled at the explanation.
"I'll tell ya', but I only answ'r questions from payin' customers. Jus' good budiness."
Hiccup pulled out and handed him a single small coin, which the barman then inspected.
"What will that get me?"
"Nev'r seen one of these before. Where did ya' say ya' was from?"
"I didn't say. I'm from far up North. How much will that get me?"
Wally bit at the golden coin to test it and was apparently satisfied.
"A hot meal, an ale, and all questions answered."
"Done."
Hiccup had a pint of ale, a loaf of warm, fresh bread, a bowl of soup, and a hearty helping of chicken before him shortly thereafter. It looked like a true feast, especially after a couple weeks of roughing it in the wild with almost nothing but flamed fish.
His stomach began protesting its emptiness.
"Thank you, this is a... lot of food."
"Jus' good budiness, Mister... eh, I never got yer' name."
"Haddock."
"Mister Haddock. Wallace at yer' service. May I say that yer' Common Tongue is mighty strange. Where ya' from?"
"Up North," Hiccup muttered past the spoonfulls of warm vegetable soup.
It was the first time he had soup that was not tasteless.
"I see. Well, Mister Haddock, yer' never goin' ta' find warmer welcome than right here in Buckland, Newbury ta' be precise."
Hiccup was too busy with the freshly-baked bread to reply for a moment. The bread was warm and not very tough at all.
"So, this area is Buckland?" he mumbled past the bread.
"Yes sir, everythin' East o' the Brandywine River an' West o' the Old Forest. If ya' don' mind me asking, are ya' young to be traveling alone, Mister Haddock?"
"I'm not alone. My friend could not come here to eat with me, that is all. This might sound strange to you, but what is this place called?" Hiccup asked.
"Buckland, as I said."
"No, not just this place here. I mean, what is the mainland called?" Hiccup explained.
Wallace twiddled at his beard in thought.
"I don' understand tha' question."
"Have you ever heard of the Barbaric Archipelago?"
A head-scratching by a confused barman was the only reply he needed to see. Wallace had never heard of it.
"Nope. Never did hear o' such a place in all Middle-earth, and I've had guests from all over tell o' their venturin'," Wallace answered.
Middle-earth, is that another name for Midgard or something?
"Nevermind then," Hiccup turned his attention to the chicken.
Wallace left to attend to some other people, mostly to refill some mugs, and then returned to him.
"Say, Mister Haddock, ya' wouldn't be headed fer the Shire now, would ye?"
Shire? What?
"Why do you think that?"
"Oh, just that there are a lot o' folk headed that way these days. Some big party o' special magnificence is what I have heard. Several groups o' Dwarves have come through here recently with a bunch o' supplies."
Hiccup almost choked on the chicken and passed it off as a coughing fit.
Dwarves? What in Thor's name...?
Something very strange was going on. He decided to play along and took his time with the chicken and ale. This was a very good opportunity to learn as much as possible.
"Yep, I'm headed to the Shire."
Wallace chuckled to himself and slapped his expansive belly.
"Ha! Knew it! No other reason ta' pass through about now. Those Shirefolk sure have it good, even greener fields than we have. They're more peace-lovin' an' lazy than us here! Course, we had ta' fight way back when and there's that Old Forest ta' worry about, but no matter. Hobbits will be Hobbits."
Hiccup frowned in worry. That news about the forest, vague though it was, was mildly troubling. What if there was something dangerous about that forest after all? Sure, Toothless was a Night Fury, but these were strange lands for him too.
"Hobbits? Who are they?"
Wallace again looked confused at his apparent lack of knowledge.
"They're the halflings, the little folk in the Shire, same as my guests over here."
Wallace gestured toward the small folk at one of the main tables. They were still smoking their pipes, reclining, sipping their ales, and talking about gardening.
"Very sturdy folk fer their size. To tell the truth, they're not the greatest warriors or counted among the wise. They spend most of their time smokin' their pipeweed, drinkin' their ales, havin' many meals, and tendin' their gardens."
That sounds very nice.
"Kinda surpris'd ya dinna know them since you're going ta the Shire..."
"Eh, we call them something different up North. What is the fastest way there?"
"Ya' head North out of town ta' Brandywine Bridge and go West on the East Road. Biggest bridge over the river. Ya cannot miss it if ya stay on the road. Who knows who ya' might run into on the road going there these days!"
Wallace was then beckoned away on more important missions to refill emptied mugs.
Hiccup took his time to finish off the rest of the meal and casually listen in on all the conversations he could overhear. Everything was gloriously mundane: bemoaning recently escaped farm animals, talking about problems disciplining a rebellious child, gossiping about who fancied whom, complaining about long work hours, laughing about how many hours during the day were spent not working, and singing of songs brought on by too much ale.
The little that he knew of this Shire place was very appealing. It was a place of peace. Further, everyone was going to be extra happy following whatever festival or special party was being planned. The time after the feast could be a perfect opportunity to introduce these Hobbit people to himself and to Toothless and start a new life of peace.
What timing. This just might work.
However, on his way out of town he saw something that made him stop and stare. He saw two people, likely a father and son, walking out of the fields where they had been working together. They were both sweaty and exhausted. The father had an arm around his son's shoulder and was proud of something while the son held his shoulders high.
Hiccup sighed, turned away from them, and continued on out of town.