Frozen/HTTYD Chapter Twenty-One

[afterandalasia]

Chapter Twenty-One

Toothless had a new trick. Hiccup would probably have preferred it if he had not worked it out, but he had to admit that it was effective. It was, after all, difficult not to wake up in the mornings when a Night Fury was enthusiastically licking your face.

“Oh, come on, bud,” he said, trying to push Toothless away again. “This again? Really?”

Even more unfortunate was the fact that Toothless was not exactly picky about which part of Hiccup’s face he licked. Hiccup grimaced at the taste of Night Fury spit on his lips and wiped it away with the back of his hand. Well, he supposed, at least it was before he had washed his face.

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” he added through a yawn. He rolled to a sitting position, grabbing his foot from beside his bed. Putting it on was automatic now, as familiar as putting on boots. Hiccup glanced over to where Toothless had been sleeping, relieved to see that Elsa was not there and therefore must have avoided the nightmares tonight, before pulling on some clothes and shrugging on his raincape. “Who would have thought dragons were morning creatures...” he muttered, as Toothless lightly bounced in place again, huffing with each hop.

He opened the door to a cold breeze and a scattering of snow on the ground, and shivered. They wouldn’t hit the depths of winter for a few months, but it wasn’t going to be fun even in the meantime. Toothless nudged him out of the way to bound out, lolloping around as if he had been cooped up inside for weeks rather than just sleeping overnight, then turned to face Hiccup with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go get you some breakfast.”

The sun was probably up, but it was hidden behind the grey-white clouds, and the world seemed ghostly in the gloom. Yawning, Hiccup followed Toothless to the feeding station, and glanced in to find the fish frozen in place.

He looked at Toothless and nodded his head towards the fish, hoping that this time Toothless would remember to dial back his power and not send partially-burnt fish scattering all over the immediate area. Although at least the raincape would help with that.

Luckily, this time Toothless breathed fire more gently across the surface of the fish, the ice melting away. The faint smell of cooking filled the air, but it wasn’t enough to do much more than make Hiccup’s stomach rumble. With a smack of his lips, Toothless started eating, and Hiccup leant against the edge of the bowl. It wasn’t even warm.

“You know, I think you’re getting better at this.”

A series of thuds behind him made him look round to see Hookfang banging his head against the roof of the Jorgensen’s house. Hiccup frowned vaguely, but a hatch was thrown open from beneath the snow and he heard Spitelout hollering something indistinct. Hookfang’s reaction was to stick his head through the conveniently opened window, to more frustrated shouting. Almost within seconds, Snotlout was stumbling out of the front door of his house, helmet askew, one boot on and the other in his hand, waving at Hookfang.

“Get down from there! You stop that right now!”

Trying and failing not to grin, Hiccup at least managed not to start laughing as Snotlout hopped around, trying to pull his other boot on. Withdrawing his head from the window, some item of clothing or other dangling off the horn on his nose, Hookfang leant round until he could see Snotlout and grunted a hello.

Hiccup looked over to Toothless, who was still rooting through the fish. “Well, at least it’s not just you and me today.”

Finally managing to get his boot on, Snotlout straightened his helmet and pointed to the ground. “Hookfang, you get down here right now or you are not getting that door to my room.”

With another grunt, Hookfang crawled down the side of the building and headbutted Snotlout in... well, the everything, to be quite honest. Snotlout pulled free the item of clothing and opened the door long enough to throw it back into the house before sticking his hands in his armpits and clomping over to the feeding station.

“Stupid dragons getting up at stupid times...” he grumbled under his breath.

“Well, at least they sleep through the night,” said Hiccup, but Snotlout gave him the glare of the not-quite-awake and he let the matter drop again. Instead he leant his head back, letting his mind wander. He should check on Hoark at some point today, and have another bash at working out how to get the slab of slate into his room for Toothless. Maybe try flying through the trees again, or spend more time high up. The others still complained about the thinner air sometimes, though Hiccup was used to it by now. Sadly, suggesting that people save their breath by not talking so much had not proved particularly effective.

He was startled from his thoughts as Toothless sneezed. At least, he was fairly sure it was a sneeze; he hadn’t heard a sound quite like it before. Snotlout gave a yelp, and Hiccup whirled in time to see Hookfang flaming up, fire licking out all along his body. Another sneeze knocked the feeding station to the ground, almost sending Hiccup with it, and Toothless started inching his way backwards, shaking his head.

“Whoa, Hookfang!” Snotlout shouted. “Cool it! Hiccup, what was that?”

“I don’t know,” he said, regaining his balance and walking towards Toothless, one hand outstretched. “What’s up, bud? You get some dust up your nose?”

Toothless made a plaintive sound deep in his throat, looking up at Hiccup with wide eyes. His pupils were so large that they were almost black, and he was crouching low to the ground, not arching his back but trying to push down instead. Hushing him gently, Hiccup continued forwards, but Toothless kept backing away from him.

“Toothless?” said Hiccup again, feeling a bubble of concern start forming in his chest. “What’s wrong? Let me see.”

For a moment, Toothless’s jaw fell open, and Hiccup blinked at the reddish glow inside. Then he coughed - and that was what it must have been, a cough rather than a sneeze - and a fireball hit the ground in front of him, melting the snow in an instant and leaving grass smouldering behind it.

Hiccup’s hand tightened on the head of his cane. Toothless’s eyes weren’t focusing on him, and he kept tossing his head, tail whipping back and forth. The dragon squeezed his eyes closed and Hiccup wanted to fall to his knees and ask what he could do, what was wrong.

“Snotlout,” he shouted over his shoulder, “please tell me that you’ve got Hookfang under control. Toothless, it’s all right, look at me. If something’s wrong, just... just let it out, bud. Three more shots and then we can have a proper look, huh?”

Toothless opened his eyes again, but the green was hardly visible now, and he pawed at the ground hard enough to leave raked-up scars in the mud. Hiccup tried lunging forwards, hand outstretched, but Toothless sprung to the side with another explosive fireball. This one struck one of the wooden posts supporting the nearby ramp, immediately catching on the wood and setting it burning.

This was bad. “Oh Thor,” said Hiccup. “Toothless, buddy, come on. Fire at the ground if you need to.” Toothless was making a sound that was almost a whine, deep in his throat, and Hiccup’s heart felt like it was going to be ripped from his chest. “Snotlout, a hand here!”

The barrels of water which had once been meant for the dragon attacks might still have been around the town, but they had frozen some days ago.

“What is wrong with your dragon?” snapped Snotlout.

“I don’t know!” It came out a little more desperate than frustrated, as Toothless started to shake his head more violently, closing his eyes once again. His mouth opened, the red glow still in his throat, then his teeth flashed as he closed it again, throat working. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup ran the few strides and flung himself over Toothless’s shoulder before the dragon could pull away again. “Toothless, come on. Get a grip, tell me - argh!”

Toothless bucked violently, rearing off the ground and throwing Hiccup aside as he fired straight up into the air. The fireball shot upwards with a sound like thunder in its wake, but Toothless was growling now and that was all that Hiccup could hear, a growl with a pained edge running through it. He pushed himself up off the ground, struggling with the slush and mud that made it hard to get a grip, and made himself reach out with a shaking hand, palm outstretched.

“Please, Toothless,” he whispered.

For a moment, he thought that Toothless would listen, that the black in his eyes was contracting slightly. Then with another pained shriek, Toothless fired again, the blast knocking over a cart and sending sparks jumping through the firewood in it. They started to burn, but despite it all Hiccup felt a flush of relief run through him.

“All right, buddy, that’s six, that’s it all. Let me have a look...”

Toothless was still backing away. He could hear shouting now, people calling for water to put out the fire, running for the well and the pump - if that had not frozen as well. But Hiccup could not care, not while Toothless was tossing his head, pawing at the ground, wings half-flared as if he wanted to take off.

Then Toothless fired again.

It hit the nearest house, leaving behind nothing worse than a burn mark but still enough to make Hiccup stop in his tracks. Because that was seven, that was beyond the shot limit, and Toothless fired again into the ground and again into the remains of the feeding station, and Hookfang was roaring as well and people were shouting all around him.

Toothless looked straight up, meeting Hiccup’s eyes. They were wide open, pleading, but Hiccup did not know what to do, had no idea what was going on.

Another fireball ripped out of Toothless. Hiccup threw himself sideways, but the blast clipped his left foot and thrust him backwards as well. He hit the ground hard, air knocked out of him, and looked up to see Toothless running, head down and wings back, from the village.

“Toothless!”

“Hiccup! What is happening!”

Cold hands wrapped around his arm to help him to his feet, but he tried to pull out of Elsa’s grip all the same, to go after Toothless. She held him back with surprising strength, and he looked round at her more in desperation than in anger. “There’s something wrong with Toothless,” he said, all in a breath. “I have to help him.”

He heard the sound of another fireball, another characteristic Night Fury scream, and flinched bodily.

“Something’s wrong,” he insisted. Elsa looked in the direction that Toothless had gone, then nodded and released her grip, but before Hiccup took take advantage of the moment his father came running up as well.

“Hiccup!” he barked. “I’ve got half the town shouting that your dragon is setting the place on fire!”

Hiccup could see that Stoick already knew that it was true, that he had heard those unmistakeable Night Fury cries. But he doubted that Stoick knew the nuances of them yet, knew that there had been pain in each one. The marks on the house and the smouldering firewood didn’t tell the best of stories.

“I don’t know why,” he said quickly, “but there’s something wrong. He’s gone past his shot limit, something must be-”

“Shot limits are not the point, Hiccup-”

“His fire was turning red!” Hiccup waved an arm in the direction that Toothless had taken. “It was red, it was too many shots, he was in pain; Dad, there’s something wrong. I have to help him.”

“You have to stop him before he sets the town aflame,” said Stoick. There was anger in the set of his brows - but fear in his eyes. “In more ways than one.”

Hiccup swallowed. The town meeting had been in favour of the dragons - but in favour of giving them a chance, and this was it. “I’ll do it, I’ll fix this,” he said, more confidently than he really felt. “You guys deal with the fires, I’ll deal with Toothless. Elsa, please go and get Astrid for me, I’m going to need to borrow Stormfly.” Hookfang might have been faster, but he was too unpredictable, and Snotlout had only just got him to extinguish his fire anyway. He looked his father in the eye. “I’ll help him.”

The helplessness was the worst part. The minutes that Hiccup had to wait for Elsa to get Astrid and come back with Stormfly felt interminably long, try as he might to fill them by retrieving his cane, redoing the straps on his leg where it had come loose, and helping as best he could as Snotlout and Fishlegs righted the feeding station and started to throw the scattered fish back into it.

Some of the fish were whole, straight from the nets, while others were scraps and heads and fins. The dragons weren’t fussy about which parts they ate. Hiccup was just dumping in another handful, picking stray scales off his hands, when he heard the beating of wings behind him and turned to see Astrid land. Her hair was awry, and she wasn’t wearing her pauldrons or belt - or even a cloak - as she jumped down to the ground. Elsa slipped down more carefully from where she had been sitting behind Astrid on Stormfly’s back.

“What happened?” she said, looking around at the trampled, melted snow and the people arguing again. “Elsa said that something was wrong with Toothless. Where is he?”

“He ran off,” said Hiccup. “I need to borrow Stormfly, I’m sorry. I have to find him.” Wiping his hands on his cloak, he crossed over to Stormfly, who cocked her head at him curiously. She bent at the knees to let him climb on her back; Astrid had not even bothered with her saddle, but Hiccup could handle that easily enough. He was just extending his hand to Elsa as Astrid went to climb back up again.

“You want me to come?” said Elsa warily. Her hand, which she had been resting on Stormfly’s wing, came back to curl against her chest. “Astrid would be better. She knows Stormfly.”

“But you know Toothless,” Hiccup replied. “I’m sorry, Astrid, I just... Toothless needs us. And Elsa and I have known him the longest.”

Astrid nodded, and stepped back again. “I understand.” She wrapped her arms around herself, goose pimples rising all down her arms. “I’m sure that Stormfly will too.”

He looked back to Elsa more beseechingly, and she looked around as if thinking of fleeing before meeting his gaze once again. “All right,” she said quietly. She stepped forwards, and accepted both Hiccup’s hand and Stormfly’s bow to settle into place behind him. When standing, Stormfly’s back was angled, and it was a little harder to get a good seat than it would be in the air. Elsa’s arms slipped around Hiccup’s waist.

“Thanks,” he said, to both of them, and tucking his cane under his arm leant his weight forwards. “Come on, Stormfly.”

She probably understood the set of his body more than his words, but sprang into the air all the same, climbing fast. Hiccup had to hold her back to keep her below the clouds again, needing to be able to see where Toothless had gone.

It wasn’t hard to find his trail. Small fires and plumes of smoke, most already being extinguished, made a line from the feeding station through the village and south into the forest. The snow was thicker there, not worn away by the passing of boots and the warmth of houses and people, and mercifully there were only a few thin wisps of smoke and no trees were aflame. But this was more than six shots, far more, and Hiccup felt the curling of panic again as he steered Stormfly lower, almost skimming the tops of the trees as he tried to follow the path that Toothless had taken.

“I know this route,” he murmured, stilling in the air. He frowned. It looked different from above, rather than knowing the landmarks of particular trees or rocks or tilts of the ground. “He’s going to the cove.”

Even on the ground, Toothless was fast, but Stormfly was quick for a Nadder and the air would let them take the more direct route. Hiccup felt Elsa tense up at the mention of the cove, but could not find the words to ask, and he just angled Stormfly straight towards the cove and pressed himself down against her neck.

The air rushed around them. Stormfly was fast, but she wasn’t a patch on Toothless even on his laziest of days, and it was just close enough to ache. As they drew closer, Hiccup could see flashes of red-white flame in the cove, and it began to snow around them as they came in to land.

Toothless shrieked and ran to the far side of the cove as Hiccup slid down to the ground, wings flared and tail whipping. He fired again, but turned his face to the cliff and let the flame lick against the rocks. There were black marks all along the limestone, and though ice glittered across much of the cliff it had melted away in patches.

“Bud, please,” said Hiccup. The grass brushed against his legs as he walked straight forwards, but Toothless kept the pool between them. “Let us help you. Elsa, go round that side,” he said, waving off to the left. “We’ve got to stop him running away. He can’t get out of the cove, I don’t think...” he eyed the narrow tunnel that Elsa had found in the first place. Somehow he did not even want to speak the thought aloud, for fear that Toothless would not only understand but would be able to squeeze out that way. If he vanished elsewhere in the forest, he was not sure they could find him so easily.

Toothless cried out, short and shrill, eyes squeezed closed as he turned his face down. He clawed the ground again, leaving furrows behind. His mouth opened and his chest heaved, and Hiccup flinched, but this time no fire came and a flicker of hope came back again.

“Toothless,” said Hiccup. So strange to be back here after almost four moons, in the snow rather than the rain and knowing that something was wrong but not how he could fix it. At least with cleaning the wound in Toothless’s tail, he had known.

At the sound of his name, Toothless looked up sharply, but when he turned to run away he must have seen Elsa on the other side of him. This time the sound he made was almost a whine, and he hunched to the ground again, backing up until he was almost against the rock wall.

“It’s us, Toothless,” he said, voice cracking slightly. Toothless coughed up another fireball, turning his head towards the wall just in time that the ball of flame burst against it. “It’s just us.”

Even having found Toothless, the helplessness was overwhelming. He wished that there was something that he could do, anything; even being able to comfort Toothless would be better than standing here calling to him in the middle of the cove. It was starting to snow, just little specks, but that was the last straw, the last gods-damned straw, and Hiccup stomped his good foot against the ground in frustration.

“I wish you could just tell me what was wrong!” he said, closing his eyes as well for a moment. The inside of his head felt too small, and he had another throbbing headache starting up just behind his eyes. A cold touch against his arm startled him, but when he jumped he did not lose his footing this time. Hiccup’s eyes snapped open and he turned to see that Elsa was right next to him and that Toothless had not moved, not run into the great open gap. He looked at Elsa as if she would somehow have the answer.

“Ask him,” she said.

That was all that he had been doing. If it had been form anyone else, Hiccup would have rolled his eyes, but Elsa spoke with complete earnestness. “He doesn’t exactly speak Northur,” he replied instead.

“Neither did I.”

She had a point, he supposed. But a broken ankle was easy to see, easy to deal with. Hiccup did not know where to begin with knowing what was wrong with Toothless. He once more looked over at the dragon, who was giving him a look that was faintly hopeful, had to be hopeful, surely could not be as desperate as Hiccup felt. “You weren’t a dragon,” he said, a little more quietly.

Elsa’s eyes were still hard to read sometimes. “I was a wildling,” she replied.

It stilled any response that Hiccup might have made. He wasn’t sure how much Elsa had heard, what people had said about Wildlings in her hearing. Well, he’d heard more than a few comments at the town meeting. Making the dragons a part of Berk had been such a huge task that it had seemed to eat up all of his time, and he realised too late and at the wrong moment that he had almost certainly not helped Elsa as much as he should. He would have to redress that, once they got through this.

It had to be once. He couldn’t bring himself to think about if.

He just nodded, and looked to Toothless again. He was pressed low to the ground, flaps back, head tilted up like he was begging for food. But the expression was all wrong, lips twitching with pain, and there was hardly any green visible in his eyes at all.

Just seeing the pain didn’t help, Hiccup forced himself to think. Toothless’s mouth opened, and Hiccup flinched, but it was just to make that head-thrusting, hawking motion again, teeth all withdrawn. But nothing happened, and Toothless shook his head with a rumble.

They had just been at the feeding station, eating breakfast, like they had the previous day and the one before that. And then... this.

“Eating,” said Hiccup quietly. He looked at Toothless’s heaving sides, the working of his throat. “He was eating.”

Elsa looked at him questioningly, cocking her head, and finally letting her hand slip away from his arm. Before she could speak, however, there was another of those Night Fury shrieks, and the air around them flared white. Hiccup grabbed Elsa and pulled her away, but ice had shot up from the ground in a jagged clear sheet, with a crack down the middle of it where Toothless’s fireball must have struck.

“Een,” whimpered Elsa, and went to pull away from Hiccup, but he kept hold of her.

“Elsa, I need your help,” he said. He could see the panic in her eyes, feel her starting to shake, and since the fireball had been no closer than others that had come their way it had to have been the offshoot of her magic. There just wasn’t the time, not now. “Please. I need you to help me.”

Her wrists were still so thin that he could wrap his hand all the way around them. If Elsa stood up straight she was taller than Hiccup, but too often she seemed to fold down on herself so that they were eye-to-eye.

“It must have been something that he ate,” said Hiccup. “Something in the feeding station. And he can’t spit it out again. That’s got to be it.”

How to make your dragon throw up hadn’t exactly been covered in the lessons at the arena. The first emetic that Hiccup could think of was seawater, but the dragons had all been diving in and out of the sea with no problems and he feared that it would not actually work.

“All right,” he said, glancing over at Toothless. “Elsa, I need you to take Stormfly back to the village-” The fear started up in Elsa’s eyes again, but he forced himself to press on. “-and ask Gobber for an emetic.” He said the word very clearly, but Elsa showed no indication for a moment that she had heard it. “An emetic for dragons. If he doesn’t know, ask Gothi instead.”

“I can stay with him,” she said. “The ice,” it took her a moment, and she had to swallow before she could speak on. “The ice will protect me.”

It had already done so; Hiccup had seen it. Elsa had been horrified at the sight, but her ice had blocked the fireball all the same, and Hiccup had not been looking to see how close it might have come otherwise. But when Hiccup had looked at Toothless, it had not been Elsa that the dragon was turning his beseeching gaze on.

Hiccup shook his head. “He needs me here. Elsa, I know that I’ve asked so much of you, but please,” he slipped his hands so that they had taken hold of hers, and squeezed more gently. “Please do this for me. For him.”

“Emetic,” said Elsa. Her lips trembled slightly, but her hands were steadier as she slipped them out of Hiccup’s. “Gobber, then Gothi.”

“Thank you,” he breathed, legs feeling shaky underneath him. He watched as she stepped forwards, extending one hand with the palm out as they always did. Toothless hunkered down lower to the ground, but did not run away again, even as Elsa’s hand came to rest just for a moment on his forehead. When she took it away again, there was a faint outline of frost left behind, but it melted away in seconds.

Elsa crossed back to Stormfly, who dipped lower than usual to let her climb on. Perhaps it was the lack of saddle that made her seat so awkward, or the fact that she clung on desperately as Stormfly took off and swept over the edge of the cove, back towards the village. As they vanished off, Hiccup turned to Toothless again, leaving his cane on the ground where it had fallen.

“Looks like it’s just you and me again, huh bud?” he said, as calmly as he was able. “Elsa’s going to get help. She’ll be back soon.” He reached out his hand as she had done, as he had done so many times, and shuffled forwards. The ice that had shot from the ground was still there, not falling away as Elsa’s work had done before. Hiccup edged around it and towards Toothless, whose flaps flicked warningly but who did not back away.

It seemed like an eternity, until Toothless finally lifted his head the last fraction to brush against Hiccup’s palm. His skin felt burning hot, scales rougher than usual to the touch, and barely had Hiccup had time to register it when Toothless snatched his head away again. Before Hiccup could even protest, another fireball burst from Toothless’s mouth, splattering against the rocky wall. Hiccup threw up an arm to protect his eyes, but did not shy back, and when Toothless went to run away again he lunged forwards with both of his hands outstretched.

“No! Toothless, you don’t have to run, it’s all right. I know that you’re not going to hurt me.”

Hiccup’s feet went out from under him, and the next thing that he knew he was on the mud and snow, half-sprawled over Toothless’s tail. Toothless looked over his shoulder and cocked his head as Hiccup pulled himself to a sitting position and ignored the wet hair falling in his eyes. He put his hand on Toothless’s tail, over the scar where the fin should have been.

“You never did,” he added, more quietly.

He wished that he knew how much Toothless understood. Toothless pawed at the ground once more, but it was not so deep and only grazed the grass beneath the snow, and he left his tail draped over Hiccup’s lap. At least it was something, perhaps. A shudder ran through the dragon’s body, and he fired again, this time right away from Hiccup so that it burst into steam against the surface of the pool.

It had to have been the eel, it had to be. And there had to be something to make him throw it up so that he would be all right again. Hiccup wasn’t sure what else he could offer. He ran his hand over the scar, the thick black skin raised and without scales. Ridges marked where the bones of the fin had once projected, and the skin burned as hot as his forehead had done.

“I’m here. I’m right here.”

Every time the fireballs tore from him after that, Toothless turned his face to the wall or the lake, and Hiccup stayed quietly by his tail hoping that his presence might be some sort of comfort. He kept his eyes on the horizon, waiting for the appearance of a dragon silhouetted against the sky, and felt his heart leap into his throat when he caught Stormfly’s distinctive form.

“She’s back,” he told Toothless, who murmured something. The dragon had one wing extended over his head, and the fireballs were coming less frequently now, but he was making low rumbling sounds that just worried Hiccup more. “She’s back.”

The snow had seeped into his clothes and right down to his skin, to the point that he couldn’t feel it all that much any more. That wasn’t a good sign. Hiccup rolled to his knees and then managed to get to his feet, waving his arm as if he somehow needed to attract Elsa’s attention. Mostly it was for something to do. As Stormfly came closer, Hiccup blinked and frowned at her outline, but no, there were definitely two people on her back.

Once they were more than an outline against the sky, he realised that it was Astrid, a cloak now wrapped around her shoulders and her hair done up. She tried to get Stormfly to land close by, but at the last minute the Nadder arced away to settle on the far side of the pond instead, tossing her head and looking at Toothless with wide eyes.

Astrid was jumping down and running almost as soon as Stormfly’s feet hit the snow, a costrel clutched in one hand. At the sound of her crunching footsteps, Toothless jerked to his feet, hissing a warning and backing away a few paces.

“Whoa!” said Hiccup immediately. “It’s all right! It’s just Astrid!”

Toothless growled, and Astrid’s pace slowed, but she still ran right up to Hiccup and pushed the costrel into his hands. “Mustard water,” she said, without him needing to ask. “Gothi’s idea. It’s strong; he might not like it.”

“He doesn’t need to like it,” replied Hiccup. It didn’t seem like very much to face a Night Fury with, but it was the best that they had. He pulled out the cork and advanced on Toothless, but with a snort Toothless turned to run away again. “Oh, please, gods, no...” Hiccup muttered.

But before Toothless could run far, ice shot up like a wall in front of him, at least six foot high and made up of jagged spikes. Toothless gave a shriek that turned into a fireball, but though it left a melted hollow in the ice it could not break through. He whirled to face Hiccup and Astrid, wings half-unfurled, flaps flared.

“We really don’t want to do this the hard way,” said Astrid, but she still undid her cloak and let it slip to the ground. The snow was still falling around them, dulling the scene and giving it a dreamlike edge.

The mustard water was so strong that Hiccup could smell it, sharp and hot in his nose. Toothless’s lips parted and his teeth glittered slightly as he growled again, but Hiccup marched over, dropped to his knees right in front of Toothless, and stuck one hand into the dragon’s mouth before anyone could react.

It was probably a good question who was the most surprised by the act, but it could well have been Toothless as he hurriedly retracted his teeth. His tongue was hot and dry under Hiccup’s hand, and when Hiccup pushed upwards on the roof of his mouth to open his jaw wider, there was a curl of mist right in the back of his throat. It was white, thicker than usual, with an unhealthily milky edge to it. Hiccup felt the twitch of muscles in Toothless’s chest, felt the building anticipation of fire, and hurriedly emptied as much of the mustard water as he could down Toothless’s throat.

Toothless sneezed. This time it was just a sneeze, with no fire, and he snorted afterwards as he pulled away, shaking his head again. His nostrils flared like he had inhaled dust, and he gagged on the air.

“Why exactly did you want him to throw up?” said Astrid, walking up behind and hooking her hands under Hiccup’s armpits to pull him to his feet again. “Elsa didn’t get as far as explaining that.”

“He ate something that did this,” said Hiccup. “Contender for the strangest thing you’ve seen me doing?”

“Probably.”

Toothless backed up, sneezing again, and Hiccup busied his hands by trying to force the cork back into place once again. His throat pulsed, his mouth opened... and finally, Toothless vomited up a rush of fish guts onto the snow.

It smelt worse than he could have anticipated. Hiccup almost gagged himself at the smell, and saw Astrid put the back of her hand to her mouth. His eyes, though, were fixed on Toothless, and as the Night Fury looked up his eyes were constricting again, green returning.

Hiccup smiled. “Toothless,” he said quietly. He dropped the costrel and ran forwards, throwing his arms around Toothless’s neck as the dragon stretched upwards once again. Toothless gave a rumble that ran through them both, and Hiccup pressed his face to his neck with a relieved groan. “Oh, bud. Don’t scare me like that.”

Toothless responded by licking his face, and at that moment Hiccup recoiled. Dragon breath was one thing, but post-vomit dragon breath was in entirely its own class.

“Sorry,” he said, “that’s pushing it.” But he held up his hand for Toothless to butt against and was more glad than ever when he felt that Toothless’s skin was already cooling down again.

He looked round at the fish guts, then grabbed one of the teazles that grew at the foot of the cliff and snapped it off at the base. Trying not to breathe too deeply, he used it to poke at the fish, put there was nothing identifiable among it all. Which was probably what you got for being strange enough to poke partially-digested fish. Just as he was about to give up, though, he noticed a piece that was less digested than the others, the flesh still looking like muscle, a small white circle of bone still visible at one end of a long, thin strip.

“What are you doing?” said Elsa. Her wall of ice had sloughed away again, and she was fiddling with the bracelets that were back on her wrist.

“That,” said Astrid, sounding a little more unsettled and distinctly more disgusted, “is a very good question.”

“He was eating,” said Hiccup. He managed to hook the piece of fish that stood out onto the end of the teazle and deposit it away from the rest of the guts. It was a couple of feet long, headless and finless, more neatly skinned than the other remains. Skinned, Hiccup realised, not skinless. At first glance, he might have thought that it was a snake, but his gut twisted as he realised what he was seeing. “It’s eel.”

“What?” said Astrid. “The dragons won’t eat eel.”

“Maybe it was inside another fish,” said Hiccup. “Or maybe skinning it stops them from recognising it. Maybe he just didn’t notice... but we told people not to put eel in the feeding station.”

It could have been an accident. There were hundreds of people on Berk, dozens of whom might have been throwing fish into the feeding station on any given day. All it took was one person who had not heard. But eel was fairly rare on Berk, with relatively few people who set traps for them in the rivers, and considered a delicacy by most. And this one looked to be a good size, in good condition, and already skinned. It didn’t make sense to throw it away.

Astrid’s hand on his shoulder jolted him from his thoughts. “This time we’ll tell them a bit more... firmly.” Somehow she managed just with the tone of her voice to promise that there would be axes involved.

Stepping carefully over, Toothless nudged Hiccup’s hip, and Hiccup ran a fond hand over his forehead in response. “All right, bud. Let’s get you home.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Astrid. “We bought his tail as well. Thought that you might need that.”

He hadn’t even managed to think that far. “I really don’t deserve you guys,” said Hiccup.

Astrid punched him in the shoulder. “Like you ever did.”

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