[IC] How To Train Your Dragon: Spreading Wings

[AHeartlessNobody]

Aurora purred slightly when Hiccup began to scratch her behind the ears, though was rudely interrupted by the male dragon putting himself between the two of them. She went to growl at him, only to blink in surprise and look at him in confusion when he rubbed against her in a friendly way before nudging the human and heading to the door. Something was definitely up with this dragon. He had been acting as if he didn't want her around the night before and now suddenly he was acting as if he enjoyed her presence? Either he was planning something or extremely bipolar. Maybe both. But either way, she wasn't going to let her guard down on this one. He was too tricky to let herself believe anything kind he did was meaningful.

She rubbed her head against Hiccup's hand when he placed it on her head before heading outside with him. He said he had an idea for something. What it was, she wasn't quite sure, but she had a feeling it had to do with her. Maybe her human form? It would explain why he was leading them out of the village. She walked outside and looked about at the Berk freshly coated in ice and snow. It looked wonderful. And she blended in with it with her white scales, which was all the more better. She made a happy sound, hopping onto the ice and sliding until she hit a snow bank. Back with the other humans she hadn't gotten to enjoy the winter like this, so for now she was taking advantage of it.

Getting out of the snow, she shook it off and went over to Hiccup, licking him cheek from chin to hairline before nudging him toward the snow as if she wanted to play.

[Toothless]

Hiccup stepped carefully upon the ice and made decent progress- not slipping. At least until a certain overjoyed dragoness rushed over to him with a lick that caused him to pull back and his metal foot to shoot out from under him, flipping him onto his back. Snow scattering around him as he sat momentarily dazed before swiping the slobber off himself. His dragon stop by and laughed unaware Hiccup was preparing a snowball until it collided with his face. That silenced Toothless with a stunned snort.

“That’s what you get bud.” Hiccup stood up in time to get hit by the wave of snow Toothless swatted at the two of them with his tailfin before snickering at the pair. “Har har. Real mature.” Hiccup brushed the power off himself as Toothless straightened and grumbled in an impression of him. Stopping the moment Hiccup looked his way, “ah. Don’t think I didn’t see what you did there mister.” He shook a finger at the dragon.

Toothless feigned innocence and after a few moments Hiccup set to rolling snow into a ball instead. “I’m keeping an eye on you.” Of course the moment he turned to gather more snow for the mound he was making Toothless leapt on top of the pile. “Toothless! You big lug! Get off of there now!” Toothless wiggled and lowered into a crouch, only springing away when Hiccup threw a snowball at him and began running around, flinging snow everywhere.

[AHeartlessNobody]

When Hiccup slipped she hopped over to him and sniffed him, getting sure he was okay before she too gave her own snicker, backing up to let Hiccup throw a snowball at Toothless and just laughed at that, only to give her own surprised snort when the male dragon threw a bunch of snow on she and Hiccup. A grin ,much like Toothless always made(except she didn't retract her sharp teeth), came to her face as she crouched down, her tail swatting back and forth. After the male dragon had hopped off the snow pile Hiccup had made, she turned and began digging at the snow, her paws flinging it at the two males. When she had done that, she flung snow wit her tail at Hiccup before pouncing at the male dragon, knocking him down into the snow playfully, before hopping back up.

Shaking the snow off of her white scales, she sat down, her tail flicking back and forth, happy to have gotten to play in the snow with the two, though, remembering they were coming outside for a reason, stood up again and nudge Hiccup forward so they began walking again until they were outside of the village. Once they were a good ways away, she sat in front of the human and looked at him, waiting to see why he had wanted them to go away from the village for this idea of his.

[Toothless]

Once they were back to walking Hiccup hummed to himself and met Aurora’s gaze. “I was thinking that you could experience Berk as a human. If you want.” He didn’t wait for her reaction but continued to speak. “Here’s the plan, I’ll just say that when Toothless and me were out flying that we noticed a shipwreck and found you as a castaway.”

Toothless gave him a look which he immediately responded to. “It can work. We’ll just say she lost a lot of her memory and prevent having to answer to many questions. What do you think Aurora?”

[AHeartlessNobody]

As they walked along and Hiccup told her his idea for bringing her back to Berk as a human, she looked at him in surprise before giving him an unsure look. Would that even work? She looked so different from other humans. And what if people released she appeared just as the 'dragoness disappeared' and pieced things together? She just really hoped if they were really going to do this that Hiccup knew what he was doing and that no one would figure the truth out.

She thought about it for a moment, trying to think of a decision before she looked back at Hiccup and when he asked what she thought, she merely nodded, showing she agreed to try his idea out. It was worth a shot at least. And if it didn't work....well she could only hope the Vikings in Berk wouldn't react too badly to a dragon having the ability to turn into a human.

[Toothless]

“It’ll work.” Even though she couldn’t speak like this and he hadn’t asked about her doubts- Hiccup already seemed to know what she was thinking. Though it had been a long time since people treated him like some kind of… hiccup- that could only make mistakes, he occasionally fell back on the habit of trying to defend his own capabilities. “We’ll just say you came from some far away land. We don’t get out that much… there’s no reason for them to dispute it.” Even as he was saying this he was thinking about how they were Vikings and might cause issues just to stir up some excitement. So why was he suggesting this?

“Look, they were against the idea of getting along with dragons and look how far we come. I’m sure they will warm up to this as well. If all dragons can do this I want them to be able to accept it…” Toothless grumbled before showing off his gummy smile. He’d gone off when they were talking and had just returned, material clumped at his feet. Hiccup glanced at it before picking up the plain brown tunic. “Won’t do much to keep her warm.” Toothless wrapped his tail around Hiccup and pushed his forehead against him. Hiccup shoved him away. “I don’t like what you're suggesting bud.”

Toothless slunk away to rub against Aurora instead and Hiccup groaned in response. “Go ahead and change Aurora, we can get you warmer furs once we get back to the village.”

[AHeartlessNobody]

When he assured her it would work, Aurora simply nodded and took his word for it, hoping he was right. She sat there and watched at Toothless came back with a piece of brown material and figured it was likely for her to wear until they would get to the village. She had the same idea as Hiccup as she looked about at the deep snow and frowned. She was still warm right now. Dragons had thick hides and were naturally warm. And while in her human form she was still warmer than the average human, she wasn't as warm as a dragon and the snow would still make her cold. She looked at the tunic and thought for a moment, her tail swishing back and forth before Toothless rubbed himself against her.

And to her surprise, a slight purr escaped her. She stopped the content sound quickly though and shook her head, snorting at him as if getting onto him for doing that, though more annoyed at herself for showing she hadn't minded it in that moment, before she walked over to the tunic. When Hiccup had turned his gaze, she transformed and slipped it around her, "Okay. I have it on." She said in her quiet voice before she looked back at him, "Let us get there quickly. It is very cold." It was true. All she had to this tunic, leaving her legs and feet bare for the snow, leaving her feeling as though she were freezing. And the snow fluttering down around them from the skies didn't help at all.

She brushed her long white hair back from her face as her rainbow eyes watched them, waiting for Toothless to bend down so she and Hiccup could get on his back and could fly back.

[Toothless]

Toothless snorted in turn at how she attempted to cover up her natural reaction. While he would have enjoyed toying with her some more his human was going to make that hard by having her switch species. He stalked a few steps away as she transformed- leaving a fragile soft skinned body in place of strong dragon hind and powerful muscle. He eyed Hiccup from the corner of his eye knowing he found better company in dragons than in the other Vikings. This dragoness had something over him because of this. She was little of both worlds. Toothless didn’t like it, he needed to keep the two from getting too close because who knew if Aurora here was one of those possessive dragons that horded items. Not that he’d let her carry Hiccup off but what if that magic extended beyond shape shifting? Who knew with the ancient ones.

He wasn’t going to take that chance, he needed to do something about this. He lowered on his haunches so the two could get onboard and soon they were in the air flying towards Berk. “Don’t worry Aurora, I’m sure they’ll like you.” Toothless snorted because the girl wasn’t very ‘Viking’ like and would probably be regarded poorly right off the bat.

They set down behind Hiccup’s house, entering through the backdoor. Hiccup peered in than ushered Aurora inside. “I’m going to warm things over with the villagers… let them know what’s going on. Toothless will stay here with you. Make sure nothing goes wrong… right bud?”

Toothless grunted and sat down as Hiccup headed out.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Aurora wasn't too sure if they would like her or not, despite what Hiccup said about them liking her. She was different. She didn't loo like a normal human and more so, her human form was weak, even compared to them. It was skinny and fragile, easily beaten down by anyone who wished to. The Vikings were not very likely to be pleased with that fact. Still, when Toothless landed behind the human's house, she hesitated and walked in. Everything looked bigger in her human form and made her feel utterly small. She frowned to herself before she looked back at him and nodded when he stated he was going to tell the Vikings what was going on, "Very well." She just hoped things would go well with this. If not, well, she wasn't sure what she would do. And more so, what they would do. Would they try to hurt her? Surely Hiccup wouldn't let them do such a thing. But then again, if they did, would he be ABLE to stop them? He was so small compared to them, just like she was. And she had a feeling Toothless wouldn't be so willing to helping her either.

So then, would she have to leave? She had never been on her own before, and with her injury would she even be able to make it far before something hurt or killed her? There were still other vikings, hunters, uninjured dragons who while normally were weaker could over power her without her flight to aid her, and of course the natural elements. She wouldn't last a day on her own.

She watched as he left out and she slowly looked around before moving to sit in one of the chairs, an uneasy look on her face, "This is going to turn out bad....isn't it? I have a horrible feeling about all of this." She whispered, mainly to herself, but loud enough for Toothless himself to hear as well. She sighed and sat there quietly, waiting for Hiccup to return.

[Toothless]

Toothless snorted because at this point, after all the time he spent with these Vikings he knew something most certainly would go wrong. He nudged his snout into her warming her pale fleshy human skin with his breath. No reason for concern. Whatever happened he was confident him and Hiccup would be able to handle the outcome. He looked at her with his big green eyes and gummed up a smile. But all the same he was going to keep close to her- if only to keep her from getting too close to Hiccup.

He stepped around between her and the door as it opened and tilted his head at the sight of Hiccup alone. “My dad is holding a meeting. Probably not the best time to disturb him or the villagers.” He rubbed at the back of his head because technically he knew he should have been in attendance. He smiled at Aurora and then headed for the stairwell. “Wait here.”

Once he disappeared from sight again Toothless looked towards Aurora and sort of rolled his eyes in exasperation. When his human returned it was with a pair of pants and an old set of boots that honestly one had to wonder why he kept them when they were too small now. Well, they would probably come in handy now. “This should help keep you warm. And-” He pulled out the fur cloak next, tugging it around her shoulders. “That. It’s got to be strange going from a dragon with your own inner fire to keep you warm to a human.” He smiled lopsided at her, feeling sort of stupid for bringing it up. “Let me show you around the village.”

[AHeartlessNobody]

Aurora sighed when she heard him snort, as if in agreement to her thoughts something would go sour with this plan and when she felt him nudged her with his snout, she blinked in surprise before giggling ever so slightly, "H-hey...that tickles." She stated, gently rubbing her hand on his head, smiling softly back at him when he gave her that gummy smile. She dropped her hand fro his head and took a nervous deep breaths as thoughts of what was to come began swarming in her head again, just in time for the door to open. She jumped at this and was thankful for the male dragon to step between she and whoever could be entering the house.

It was Hiccup, coming back in to say his father was at some sort of meeting. What it was about she wasn't sure of, but Hiccup seemed kind of sheepish of it. She could guess he was slightly supposed to have been there, but didn't linger too much on the thought. If he would have wanted to be there in at that meeting, he would have been. If he didn't want to do something then the other couldn't make him. Thats the way she saw it anyway.

Watching him go up the stairs, she covered her mouth to hold in the slight giggle from escaping her this time at Toothless's look of annoyance when Hiccup went upstairs to get something. She grew curious though when he returned with a pair of pants, boots, and fur cloak. It would feel so strange to wear human clothes all the time, but he was right. They would keep her warm in this cold land of Berk. She thanked him softly before putting the pants and boots on and looked back to hi, smiling when he gave her his own lopsided grin, nodding to his suggestion, "I would love that."

She went to the door, hesitating about this, unsure if the whole town would be in the meeting or if there would be only a few of the town's leaders in the meeting, leaving the rest of the Vikings in the village. If there was people still out and about she could only hope they wouldn't do anything about her for now. Taking a shaky breath she stepped out of the doorway with him and began walking with him, staying rather close, her rainbow eyes searching nervously for other humans.

[Toothless]

They didn’t get too far until someone called out to him “Hiccup! The chief was looking for you!” And as this villager waved and approached they paused as they noticed the stranger beside him. “Who is that?”

“A castaway, we found her washed up on shore on the far end of the island.” He said with a nod towards Toothless to signify the ’we’.

“Where’d she come from?” It was a suspicious edge that could turn into a call for arms. Though he explained where he had supposedly picked her up Hiccup knew this was a question over what lands she hailed from. A worry about a Viking spy. As if Vikings were capable of such intelligent tactics…

Hiccup rolled his eyes, “does she look like a Viking to you?” Aurora was very unviking like in this form but one might argue the same about him and he proved to be formidable in his own right in the long run. Befriending the most dangerous of all creatures. “Come on, she’d just some foreigner that was attacked at sea. I can’t send her on her way in this weather.”

The man grunted “talk to the chief.”

“Will do.” Hiccup said offhand before taking Aurora’s hand and leading her further into the village. If a certain short tempered girl saw the exchange she choose not to approach, gritting her teeth at a distance.

Astrid should have know Hiccup would skim out on the meeting but this… it was unexpected. Besides from the female of the twins she was the only similarly aged girl in this village and the obvious choice for Hiccup. The only thing Astrid enjoyed about competition was crushing it.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Aurora tensed and moved a little closer to Hiccup when the Viking man approached them, looking at her suspiciously. If the others acted like this toward her she wasn't sure if they would either try to attack her or make her leave. Well, at least if they 'made her leave' she could always turn dragon and come back. That is, as long as they didn't send her off on a boat. Swimming was not something Aurora could do well. If they made her walk across the island before leaving then she would have no problem. She hoped anyway.

Here she was planning for this when Hiccup hadn't even brought her to the chief yet. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly when Hiccup took her hand and couldn't help but think of how this was such a human reaction for her. In dragon form, if a dragon had acted in such ways she wouldn't have allowed it. But because it was Hiccup she didn't mind it, whether she was in human or dragon form.

She looked about the village as he lead her through, surprised at how everything, and everybody, looked so much bigger when she was in human form. In this form she felt so weak and sheepish. If any of the villagers looked at her, she would make a point to look away, trying to not provoke any of them into saying something to her or Hiccup. The nervous and slightly scared look stayed on her face as she walked along close to Hiccup, toward where they were supposed to be having the meeting in one of the large buildings. When they stopped outside of it, she nudged herself closer to him, an unsure look on her face, "Are you sure they won't hurt me?" She whispered, looking up at him, a worried look on her face.

[Toothless]

If the majority of the Vikings had a problem they chose not to say anything, occasionally they would stare but seeing as this stranger was being escorted… that’s all they did. It wasn’t really a concern of what Hiccup would do but what his father or his DRAGON would do if they moved against him to get rid of this newcomer. And people knew Toothless wasn’t some mild mannered kitty cat. Though at that moment Toothless had slunk off through the shadows- approaching a certain Viking girl that had taken to trailing the pair. “Look at her! She’s a leech.” She growled with an angry hiss of breath. “It’s obvious that she’s only interested because he’s the chief’s heir.” She grumbled before adding: “dragon conqueror. A spy trying to get the secrets to dragon training.”

Of course that seemed sort of absurd from Toothless’ standpoint, knowing the girl was also a dragon but Astrid couldn’t know that. He crept up behind her and ‘barked’. She wheeled around with her axe rose and he bared his teeth. “Toothless?! Why aren’t you with Hiccup?” Reluctantly she lowered the weapon. “I know Hiccup didn’t ditch you for that girl.” Toothless rumbled in response and she continued to stare at him. “He’s in trouble isn’t he? You agree with me.” She looked back towards the two as they approached the meeting hall. “Don’t worry Toothless, I’ll handle this.”

She set her jaw and narrowed her eyes approaching the pair.

Hiccup was pretty sure the villagers trusted his opinion they were just wary of outsiders when Berk was far from a tourist attraction. He was about to assure her when Astrid stormed up. “Hiccup. Who’s this girl?” That of course was one little issue that he overlooked- he couldn’t call her the same thing as her dragon form, someone would know something was up. Though he was pretty sure they would never guess that she was secretly a dragon.

“Uh… Allie.” He introduced, “she was attacked at sea and washed up here.”

[AHeartlessNobody]

Hiccup was just about to answer her when she heard footsteps and turned to see none other than the human girl approach the two, asking who she was. This girl really had a lot of nerve to approach them so quickly. Her dragon instincts were temped to kick in at the fast approach but she held herself into place close to Hiccup, her body tense. She didn't know what kind of claim this girl thought she had on Hiccup, but Aurora wasn't about to be scared away by some jealous Viking girl. Hiccup gave the human girl a fake name for Aurora. Allie wasn't as good of a name as Aurora but she would just have to deal with it for now.

Aurora's eyes searched around and found Toothless a little ways off. She had a bad feeling the girl approaching had something to do him. This dragon was really getting on her nerves. When she would just start to think he wasn't so bad, he would go off and do things like this. That two faced dragon was still up to something. Well, two could play at this game. If he was trying to get a rise out of her and make her look bad, she would stay as calm and friendly as possible. She kept her face calm as she looked at the girl, acting as though she hadn't even noticed the hostility toward her and nodded in agreement to Hiccup's explanation, "It is true. I was the only survivor of the attack. I hadn't known this island had anyone on it until Hiccup and his dragon found me." She said, her voice having a quiet tone as usual.

The doors to the building opened. This girl she wasn't scared of. The adult Vikings on the other hand? Yes, she was. She turned, clinging to Hiccup's arm, hiding halfway behind him as the large Viking's began exiting the building, her eyes wide, an unsure look on her face about this situation she had been placed in.

[Toothless]

Astrid snarled: “You honesty expect me to believe that?! Even Toothless agrees that there’s something fishy about this!” The dragon in question tilted his earflaps to say he hadn’t a clue to what she was talking about. “Just look at her Hiccup. She’s up to something!”

“Stop it Astrid. Aur-Allie hasn’t done anything wrong.” He almost slipped up there and hoped she didn’t notice. “She’s gone through a lot and you should try being nicer, you don’t even know her.” His voice was low and hushed, not wanting to include all of berk into their discussion.

“You don’t know her!” Which was more than he could say for Astrid.

A small frown settled on Hiccup’s face. “I need to talk to my father. I’ll see you around Astrid.” He lead Aurora inside by the hand, away from the awkward tension in the air.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Aurora was inwardly annoyed and furious at the way this human was speaking about her. She was glad that Hiccup was taking up for her though. He knew she wasn't up to anything and was trying to convince this over the edge girl of that fact. But the girl would hear nothing of it. She just continued on saying how they didn't know her and that she was up to something. What did she think Aurora was going to do? Even if she was a human bent on destroying these Vikings or stealing their secrets, she wouldn't get far. She was so much smaller and weaker than them in this form. If she tried hurting anyone she would easily be with-strained and if she tried to run off after 'stealing information' they would find her without her having a ship or dragon to leave on.

She allowed herself to be lead inside, holding onto Hiccup's hand tightly, her eyes searching about until they fell upon the big Viking that was standing there, speaking with a few other Vikings quietly until Hiccup was spotted, and more importantly, she was spotted with him. They didn't look happy about this. Not at all.

She scooted a little closer to Hiccup as they stood there and waited for either Hiccup or his father to break the silence.

[Toothless]

Astrid stood, too prideful to take back what she had said BUT she knew she had upset Hiccup and that was why she didn‘t turn and walk away. Her intention had never been to accuse him of bad judgment- he had seen in dragons what no one else ever had. Suddenly she changed her mind, charging into the meeting hall with a call of: “Hiccup!” But she fell short of the name ever reaching his ears over the din as she saw he was already with his father. She faltered back a step and locked her jaw, making a calculated retreat so she could talk to him later in the presence of fewer people.

Hiccup hadn’t even noticed she followed. He was faced with that nervous instant of wondering if Aurora would be accepted. “Dad…,” He started “I found her washed up on shore. She was attacked out at sea… I couldn‘t just leave her there…”

“You know the penalty of outsiders upon our lands.”

“Yeah…” Hiccup rubbed his hand through his hair stressed by his response. “But times have changed.” He reminded him. “And winter is practically upon us I know you’re probably thinking, let’s just send her off on a boat… she’ll never make it in this weather. Least we can do is extend some hospitality. Who knows, we might even gain an ally.”

Stoick didn’t look overly impressed, if she was an example of her people than they wouldn’t be a helpful bunch in raids or battle. “How can you be so assured she is not one of those riders from several nights back?” While he asked he knew the answer, she was too frail to be one of them. “Son. The safety of Berk comes first but if you feel this girl in no danger to us or our dragons than she is welcome to stay. As long as she has an escort.”

“Toothless and me will keep an eye on her.” Hiccup offered Aurora a smile.

“We will talk about this more later.” Stoick assured before walking away.

[AHeartlessNobody]

Three months had passed since she had ended up on Berk and things had been relatively quiet. Sure people stared at her sometimes, but who wouldn't with her strange and foreign appearance? Most days she spent either reading(as Hiccup had taught her to do so during the first few weeks of her stay) or going off with Hiccup and Toothless into the woods so she had some time to roam in her dragon form as well. They had also found that her wing seemed to heal faster the more tie she was in her dragon form than it did in her human form so being in her dragon for when she could was a very needed thing. Just like now.

She moved around the trees in her dragon form, rainbow eyes looking about happily, Toothless and Hiccup trailing behind her as they made their way further into the forest and further from the village. The two probably knew where she was going. She had gone to same place everyday for the past two weeks since the hole in her wing from the arrow completely closed. Now it was just a matter of trying to gain the muscle strength in her wings back to fly without injuring her wing again. She approached the small ledge, lifting her head to feel what way the wind was blowing before she perked her ears up and crouched, extending her wings. The ledge was only about fifteen feet up so it was high enough to give her a good lift off but not so high that if she failed to fly she would hurt herself falling.

She stood there a moment, feeling the wind under her wings and made a small happy sound before she pounced off of the ledge, flapping her large wings. It was a struggle and for a moment she thought she would once again fall. Only this tie she didn't. She continued flapping and when she saw she was staying in the air, gave a happy roar, shooting up into the air her purple colored plasma blast. She was healed. She could fly. She was finally free. Not free from those men but stuck on the ground. Now she was free to go where she wanted, do what she wanted, and to even better; fly. She flew about now going full speed in a excited way before she landed gracefully in front of Hiccup and Toothless giving happy high pitched clicking sounds, bouncing up and down on her front paws.

[Toothless]

Hiccup smiled but after a moment it seemed to falter because he knew this meant she would be leaving now. Three months was plenty of time to get to know a person and he came to value her as a close friend- in both forms and more than that, he felt Toothless had gotten even closer than he had. But the nightfury was returning the happy clicks and bouncing back with a broad gummy smile. No doubt Toothless was happy for her because flight had to be a horrible thing to lose. It was so free… Now she was free again.

He cleared his throat and found the strength for a small smile once more, he really was happy for her, even if he was sad at the same time. “I guess this is it Aurora.” His hand came to rest against Toothless’ neck who cooed in response and became subdued. “You can go look for your family now. There’s nothing holding you back.”

Rather than say it he went on instead in lighter spirits “you’re always welcome in Berk so don’t think you can’t come back and you know… visit.” His smile had become toothy with embarrassment, lopsided and genuine as he rubbed the back of his head and Toothless chuckled before bounding up to Aurora and rubbing down her side.

Then the nightfury turned around, flicking her in the face with his tail as he strolled back to stand behind his rider. Hiccup shook his head at the dragon’s antics and then reached out to Aurora in the space between her eyes. “Be safe out there.” Toothless gave him a look which he returned with a scoff and a gentle whack at his snout “I know she’s a dragon.” Which obviously in Toothless’ eyes was a reason not to be concerned. “I’m just… wishing her well on her journey.”

Toothless shoved Hiccup over and sat down on his hind quarters, clicking at Aurora in encouragement. He wasn’t one for sappy goodbyes, she was a dragon and as such their was no boundaries that could stop her from returning if she wished to do so one day. They would just see how things turned out.