User blog:Invisiblewing/HTTYD Fanfiction/Retelling: Part 13

All right, here it is. This is the final post I will make for this story. I appreciate everyone taking time to read this, and I hope you got as much enjoyment out of reading as I did writing. Most importantly, I would like to thank Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell for creating such an amazing story to springboard off of. As always, comments and suggestions for improvement (or just other ideas) are always welcome.

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My mind was stuck. I felt fully awake. But I had no idea about anything. It just felt…weird. Like I was swimming just barely under water. And I needed to take a breath, but every time I reached upward, the surface moved away. I was trapped here, in this limbo, or whatever you call it.

When someone was talking, I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. I just recognized voices. There was Astrid’s and Gobber’s. My dad’s voice was buried somewhere in that mess too. A few other people from around the village stopped by occasionally. But if Toothless was there, I never heard him.

Time made no sense to me. It seemed like days, or maybe minutes, but something finally started working. From out of nowhere, I felt a gentle wind touch my face. It sounded like a bellows. Kinda like the bellows Gobber and I used in the armory. But it smelled like fish.

Who in their right mind puts a fish in the bellows? A better question would be how in the world you could get a fish into the bellows. Unless…

I opened my eyes to find a hazy black figure staring at me with two yellow-green eyes. Inches away. It pulled back and gave a short, raspy bark. My eyes focused and saw a Night Fury. It pulled its mouth into a toothless smile…

Toothless.

Everything cleared in an instant. Toothless shuffled towards me and licked me excitedly on the side of my face. He was thrilled that I was alive.

“H-hey there, buddy,” I said weakly. He continued pushing into me. “Yeah, I’m glad to see you too.” I touched his cheek just as he stepped on my stomach. I doubled over in pain with a groan, noticing that I was mostly covered in bandages.

Toothless sat back on his haunches, wriggling with excitement. His eyes were massively round. He couldn’t contain it anymore as he bounded throughout my house, knocking dishes and chairs over in the process.

Wait. I thought I was on the dragons’ island. “I’m      in      my       house,” I said slowly, looking around. “You’re      in       my       house,” I said pointing to Toothless as he jumped onto one of the rafters from the floor. A few wooden shards rained down as he used his back claws to balance himself on top of the wooden beam. He looked at me upside-down. He was truly excited that I was okay. “Um, does my dad know about this?” I asked Toothless. He just continued gazing happily at me, giving another raspy bark.

I moved to get out of bed when I heard something that sounded like metal scraping across wood. It was coming from near my feet. Without thinking, I pulled the cover back to see what it was. And blanched. I slowly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, hoping what I saw was just an illusion. Opened them again. No change.

I had no left foot. Everything below my left knee was gone. In its place was a complex-looking metal peg. It was way more complicated than a standard wooden peg. This thing was composed of two metal pieces, which were spring-loaded against each other. I had small ropes wrapping around my left thigh to keep the prosthesis in place.

I slowly sat up with my legs hanging over the edge of my bed. Placed my right foot on the ground, followed by the peg. Toothless jumped off the rafter, landing with a hollow ka-thump and padded over. He gently sniffed at the peg and slowly brought his gaze up to meet my eyes. I tried to hide the tears from Toothless. Tried to let him know that I was strong, that I was gonna be okay. We had killed that gigantic dragon, for crying out loud. But one of them got out. He watched it slide down my face. Sighed. Leaned over and brought his chin to rest on my right shoulder, eyes closed. Toothless rumbled gently, letting me know that he was here, that he was gonna take care of me.

I wrapped his neck in a hug and whispered, “Thanks, Toothless.” He murmured softly in response. I let a few more tears fall because I didn’t have to be invincible emotionally, like a stereotypical Viking. Toothless was the pillar I could lean on when I needed support.

I let go of Toothless, and he pulled back, looking at me with those big, round yellow-green eyes. Every time he looked at me like that, I felt calmer. I had no idea why, but it always worked.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I stood with most of my weight on my right side. Took two deep breaths and stepped. I stumbled forward slightly with a grimace, landing on my right foot. It felt like a bolt of lightning had just shot through my left knee, where the prosthesis was resting. I paused. Tried another step. This time, I couldn’t catch myself because the pain was too much. Couldn’t move fast enough. I saw the floor ready to meet my face when Toothless ducked his head under my chest and caught me. He lifted up just enough so that I could stand again.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Thanks, bud,” I said. Toothless helped me limp toward the door. I looked back and saw his tail was bandaged from an injury fighting the giant dragon. But his tail had only one fin. Just like me. I only had one leg now. We matched.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I let go of Toothless and hobbled as I pulled the door open. As soon as I got a small gap between the door and the frame, I heard a loud roar. Slammed the door shut and collapsed on the floor from stepping on my left leg again. I stood up with a worried look on my face because the Viking-and-dragon war hadn’t ended yet. There was a Monstrous Nightmare just outside my door, probably the same one Toothless had defeated. Not good. Especially if it saw Toothless.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Toothless, stay here,” I said. Slowly limped the door open and found the same Nightmare, but it…looked…happy? I cautiously hobbled through the doorway, knowing I could meet my fate at any second. But the dragon just looked at me with the same expression. I stepped fully outside the door, and the dragon gently rubbed its snout into my chest. Like it was thanking me.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Aw, geez! That’s what you were worried about!?” Snotlout shouted from next to the Nightmare. “You killed that giant dragon, put your life on the line, and you’re scared of him?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">Something was terribly wrong here. The war hadn’t ended, and Snotlout had a dragon? “I knew it. I’m dead,” I said to no one in particular.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“No, but you gave it your best shot,” my father said from my right. He walked toward me and asked, “What do you think?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“What do I think?” I replied. “I don’t know…Is this a joke or something?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">He shook his head. “Turns out, all we needed was a little more of…” He paused, waiting for the right words to come to him. I had a hunch about where he was going. “This,” my father concluded, motioning in my general direction.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">For sixteen years, I had just wanted someone at some point in time to come up with a better description of me. But even I couldn’t think of one. “This” fit me perfectly, because I was Hiccup. “You just gestured to all of me,” I pointed out.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">He nodded and smiled. My father knew it too. I was perfectly suited to be the one and only Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Well, most of you,” Gobber chimed in as he loped up the steps toward me. “That bit’s my handiwork,” he said, motioning toward the prosthetic leg. “With a little Hiccup flair thrown in. Do you think it’ll do?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“I might make a few adjustments,” I said quietly. He and my father laughed.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I stood, taking the moment in, when something collided with my right shoulder. My weight fell onto my left side, and my left leg buckled from the pain. I stepped forward with my right leg and put all of my weight onto it, letting the sizzle on my left knee die down. Hopped around and found an irritated Astrid. Her arms were crossed.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“That was for scaring me!” She glared at me to make sure her message sunk in.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“What is this!? Is it always going to be this way with you?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">Before I could do anything (not that I could move very quickly, mind you), Astrid leaned in and planted a kiss on my lips. My eyes widened in surprise before I relaxed, the pain in my left leg melting away.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Yep,” she said, pulling away from me with a grin.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“…Because…I could get used to it,” I said quietly.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“You ready, Astrid?” Snotlout shouted excitedly.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“You betcha! Hiccup, are you coming?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Where?” I asked.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Racing,” she replied.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Yeah, right. I can’t even walk right now.”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“I don’t think you have to. You’ve got…” she paused briefly. “…A dragon, right?”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">At that moment, somebody shouted “NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I had forgotten to close the door to keep Toothless from getting out. He barreled out of the house, shoving Vikings out of the way to get to me. Just like when I woke up, he was wriggling with excitement. He wanted to fly. I looked at Toothless, who was yearning for some air when I realized something. “Aw, buddy, you’re gonna need a new tail fin,” I pointed out. I remembered he had lost it during the battle with that giant dragon. Where I lost my leg.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Hiccup, I believe you’re in luck, today,” Gobber said. “You might need these.” He handed me the saddle I had made for Toothless. There was the connecting cable, but the ratchet was missing. Some kind of hasp was on the left side of the saddle.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Is…Is this the saddle I made for Toothless?” I asked, looking at it like it was some strange but beautiful creature.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Yep, and you’ll need this too,” Gobber said like it was nothing. He placed a tail fin on top of everything. It wasn’t brown, like the one I had made. That one was on the dragons’ island, charred to a crisp. This fin was a bright red with a white caricature of a skull painted on one side.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“You did all of this?” I asked Gobber. He nodded with a small grin. “Wow, thanks,” I said quietly.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“You can thank me later,” he said. “Right now, I believe you have some flying to do.”

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I smiled as I turned toward Toothless. He sniffed at the new equipment and crouched slightly, telling me to get it on his back soon. He didn’t need to ask me twice, but my left leg did. I knelt gingerly, pain thrumming up through my left thigh. But if Gobber and several of the other Vikings were able to walk around with a peg, then I could do it too. I quickly got the strap around Toothless’s front left leg. Shuffled over to his right side and did the same thing, left leg in pain and all. Toothless licked me on the side of the face as I fumbled with the strap. He was telling me to calm down, that we could get in the air soon enough.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I limped to his tail and strapped on the new fin. Everything was perfectly measured, as if I had inexplicably woken up, made all this and went back to sleep. But there was a reason Gobber was the master blacksmith of Berk. He proved he wasn’t too shabby at metal- and leatherworking. The connecting rod from the wire to the fin was different too. It was a failsafe, because the eyelet opened and closed, like a carabiner. This was almost too good to be true. Gobber had plenty of time, no rush to get this equipment done. And it was spot-on perfect.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I stumbled to the right side of the saddle as Toothless crouched again. Hopped on with less fuss than walking and clicked the peg into the stirrup. There was yet another failsafe, as my peg locked into the stirrup. Not only that, I had something I was trying to avoid when I first designed Toothless’s saddle: a range of motion. A continuum. There were no preset positions. What I did with my left leg translated directly into the fin’s movements. No more ratchet, no more remembering which position did what to the fin. It was intuitive now.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I briefly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, thinking about everything that had happened this past week. From shooting down a Night Fury named Toothless to simply being there for him every day to killing that gigantic dragon. But the most important thing happened afterward, when I finally woke up after however many days it was. Toothless was there for me. After all that he had been through, he stayed by my side. Without fail, he stayed.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I thought about how crazy it was to shelter a dragon for a week, keeping on the down-low about it. For all the pain and suffering Toothless and I went through this past week, I’d have done it all over again. Because I saw what Toothless meant to me when I woke up today. He wasn’t just a gift from the gods, a statement from them to the rest of Berk that dragons are misunderstood. Toothless was my protector. He was my shoulder to cry on. He was my support. He was everything I needed him to be.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I opened my eyes, finding Astrid, Fishlegs, Snolout and the twins on the dragons they had ridden into battle. All of them were looking at me, ready for an adventure. I glanced down at Toothless and said, “Well, you ready, bud?” He looked back at me with an excited grunt. I grinned. “Let’s go,” I said quietly. Toothless crouched, tensing. I tightened my grip on the handles as he took off.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">It felt amazing to fly just because we could. Well, except for the dull fire in my left knee. I paid attention to everything, like all the colors around us had intensified. I felt the wind rushing through my hair as Toothless banked left while gaining height. I rolled in with my peg slightly, feeling the bank tighten. Toothless began losing a little altitude, but there was ground just below us. No problem. He landed with a gallop and took off again.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Ruff and Tuff were just behind us. Sure, race, whatever. I didn’t care about any race they wanted to do. I just wanted to fly with Toothless, that was all.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">“Let’s go, bud,” I said to him as he gained height. I had no say in where we were going, and I didn’t care. Wherever the wind took us, that was fine with me.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I stole a glance down, toward Berk. Everything was there, just like it was supposed to be. Vikings milling around town. The armory and its characteristic black smoke from the coals. The great hall, just above our house. The docks with a few boats ready to launch. Everything was perfect.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">As Toothless jumped back into the air, I noticed the wind was a little cooler than that first day we truly flew. Winter was coming again, but hey, that’s nine months out of the year for us. Two-and-a-half months are hail. Two weeks are what we call “summer.” Our growing season is way too short to have anything palatable to eat here. But it’s one very important place to all of us: home.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">Toothless banked upward, pulling my gaze in front of us. I didn’t even have to think about his tail fin. In fact, if I stood just slightly off the saddle, Toothless’s rhythm put his fin exactly in time with his wingbeats. He never checked or tilted on his bank upward.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">I looked at the clouds in front of us. Wondered how high Toothless could go. If the wind took him there, that would be great. If it took him back to Berk for the day, that would be great too. For once, I didn’t have a care in the world. And after we landed, I still wouldn’t have a care in the world. Because everyone knew about these amazing pets called dragons that are far better than, say, ponies or parrots.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in">Toothless pumped his wings harder. I stood from the saddle slightly, letting him do the work with his tail and wings. I felt his breaths coming in massive gasps. His tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth. No doubt, he was ecstatic. Toothless gave a jubilant roar as he aimed upward, trying to reach the sky.