Company's Shadow
The Hobbit x How to Train Your Dragon
Being the last of your kind is a lonely thing. Especially when you no longer have your best friend, brother in all but blood, by your side to distract you from that bone crushing loneliness that comes with being the last.
So, you find it easier to just wander. Reminiscent of the old days of just flying to get away from everything. Two partners just flying away together, exploring for anything new, just get away from all the responsibility and worries that come with life. It's nice and nostalgic. Helps make remembering things less painful.
And that's what Toothless was doing, for he may not have knew it then when he had first met his human, but the moment the human Hiccup had dubbed him Toothless, from that moment on, it became his name until Toothless finds his own end. Toothless flew and flew, expecting to find the end of the world as Hiccup talked about during their past explorations. Toothless flew, finding many new islands. Until, one day, he came upon a large piece of land, much bigger than any island Toothless has ever seen before in the past. So, Toothless decided to explore this new land and its people.
By this point in time, it's been years, and on one of Toothless's many wanderings and explorations, one day, he finds a strange large group camping out on the cold night.
This group consisted of a tall elderly looking man and thirteen short people. The man dressed differently than other humans Toothless has met or seen, wearing almost ragged looking grey robes with a large wide brimmed pointy hat, in his hand is a tall wooden staff. He looked old and frail, but the aura he gave out told Toothless that this man is much stronger than he looks. And the thirteen short people were definitely not children, despite being about the same size, for the way they carried themselves reminded Toothless of the grown men, they remind Toothless of the short people he has caught glimpses of in the mountains he'd passed by. Dwarves, Toothless remembers over hearing other humans call them. But what built upon the strangeness of this group that caught Toothless's attention, is the fact that they aren't heading in the direction of any mountains, at least not any close by. Which means these dwarves are far from home, and Toothless is curious as to why. But there is one that stood out to the Night Fury. One that can't be a dwarf like the others. For he may be small like the other dwarves, but he's smaller still, he is built differently than the others, he has less hair on his face, has slightly pointed ears unlike the others, and this one holds himself much differently compared to the others.
The little man reminds Toothless of his human Hiccup actually.
Strangeness of no home or mountains nearby, this little man would have been the only reason Toothless would need to stay and watch. He reminds Toothless too much of Hiccup not to stay close. Hiccup had the bad habit of finding himself in trouble quite often.
Toothless has the feeling this little man is no different.
So, Toothless settled himself quietly above the group of sleeping dwarves, the little man, and the strange old man, easily blending into the shadows and the darkness of the night. He notices they already have someone awake and on guard, notices how they wake each other up to take turns watching over the others.
And Toothless sleeps, keeping an ear out and instincts alert as he decides to watch over the group. Just until they get where they are going.
~
It's been multiple days since Toothless had decided to follow and watch over the company, what the group had called themselves, and he is slowly learning the names. One of the younger dwarves, Kili and Fili, reminds him a little of the twins on their Zippleback, except with less fighting and more bantering. Kinda like him and Hiccup when they play and mess around together. The leader of the group is named Thorin, he reminds Toothless of Stoick, Hiccup's father, before he was okay with dragons. More angry and fierce.
Though Stoick was always fierce, he just had more reason to be when dragons and Vikings were at war with each other.
There's this one dark haired dwarf that wears a funny hat, and tells fun stories, always keeping the other's spirits on high, his name is Bofur, Toothless remembers, and the cheery dwarf reminds Toothless of Gobber actually. The two both liked to tell stories around the campfire. And then the little man, Hobbit, half-ling, or burglar Toothless has overheard the others refer to the smaller one as. But it was the man, Gandalf the half-ling has called him, that finally gave Toothless the Hobbit's name, Bilbo Baggins.
~
It's been a week now and Toothless noticed how Bilbo's been getting skinnier and hasn't been dealing well with the small rations, none of them have really. But Toothless noticed that it has been affecting Bilbo the most.
Well, he can't have that now, can he?
So Toothless decided to lend a helping hand, or claw really. Before, Toothless mostly hunted for himself and always did so whenever the Company would sit and eat. He would fly to the nearest pond, lake, or other water source and grab what he wanted before flying right back to wherever his hiding spot is close to the camp, and enjoy his meal.
Now, things are different. Compared to their first interactions together, Toothless likes to think he is pretty knowledgeable to humans, and dwarves and hobbits in this case, eating habits. And Toothless has realized three very important facts about humans and their diets.
First, they are not like hatchlings. They do not like to share food that have already been consumed. When Toothless realized this later in life, he was actually impressed his partner still did it in their original meetings in the beginning.
Second, they don't like raw food, prefer to cook over fire or some other heat source. Fortunately, Toothless has that covered. His plasma blasts will have his killed cooked and ready to eat in no time.
And thirdly, humans don't like just fish. They eat other meat. Prefer land meat actually. Only the cities, villages, and smaller islands that live/surrounded by water eat more fish then land meat. And based on their usual meager meals, Toothless can safely guess that the company is former, and prefers the meat from the lands than the water.
So, the next morning the company awoke to find a charred.... deer? Wolf? Boar? It's kind of hard to tell from the blackened fur and burned flesh.
Toothless waited eagerly in the shadows, tail swaying excitedly behind him. He hopes they like his hunt. Plus! He made sure to make the land meat extra crispy.
"What in the heavens?", Bilbo mutters as he stared the lump of charred meat.
"That wasn't there earlier.", a small red headed dwarf states as he keeps spinning around as if in search of the source of the strange... gift?
Unbeknownst to Ori, said source was crouched, hidden, right behind him. Only mere feet away.
"Well.", Bofur said with a raised considering brow, "It may be charred beyond belief, but it's food. Bifur, help me cut off anything left that may be edible for today's lunch and, if there's enough, dinner."
Toothless ears perked up. Not edible? He thought he did a great job! Maybe it wasn't cooked enough?
The next day, they found another unrecognizable animal, for it too was burned until black. Except, this time, it's somehow worse than the last one. The company could only look at the charred remains incredulously.
"What is wrong with this trail?", Gloin asked in confusion, "Why is it we keep finding burned animal meat?"
Gandalf actually looked amused, "Either there is something hunting for sport, or there is something out there trying to tell us to eat more... albeit poorly."
"I don't like it.", Thorin spoke as he crossed his arms, eyebrows furrowed in suspicion, "There are not many out there that could cause such damage like this. And those that can, are creature I'd prefer to keep my distance."
"I don't understand. Your saying that a-a... creature did this?", Bilbo asks face becoming pale as he stared at the poor animal, "What could have done this? What kind of creature?"
"None I care to meet.", grumbled Thorin before turning to the rest of company, "Gather up anything that can be used for food and be ready to move out. We need to keep moving."
Toothless laid in his hidden patch of shade, pouting. He cooked it more this time and it seemed to baffle and upset them even more. Maybe they do prefer fish rather than the land meat.
And that's when Toothless remembers, whenever they took a break and ate together, Hiccup preferred to cook his own food. Maybe humans just had this territorial thing of cooking their own meals. Not that much different from dragons being possessive of their own kills. Only sharing to those they like or trust.
So, once again, the next morning, the company awoke to find another animal carcass sneaked into their camp. But this time it was fresh and left alone.
Toothless was very happy to see the company take to the meat with glee. So he was right! They are just particular about cooking their own food.
Good to know.
After that, every other morning, the company would awake to new meat waiting for them. All of them confused, Bilbo looked sick at the sight at first, but as time went by, the hobbit was just relieved to have the extra food on his plate. Thorin remained suspicious, but won't turn away good meat that can be used to feed his men. The quest will all for nothing if they're starving by the tie they reach Erebor. And Gandalf seemed to be amused, but curious as well.
Out of the company, Gandalf seems to be understanding what's going on the most. But even though he understands the situation, he doesn't know or what is doing it. Following them as a self-proclaimed guardian it feels like.
Again, amusing, but curious as well. For whoever or whatever it is that is following the company, is very good at hiding themselves. Gandalf knows that they are being followed, he knew just before the meat begun to turn up. But thing is, the wizard is aware that the group was most likely followed by the creature for longer before Gandalf had noticed.
Gandalf chuckled, and Bilbo looked over to the Grey Wizard curiously.
"What's so funny?"
"We are being followed.", Gandalf answered with an amused mischievous twinkle in his eye.
But the moment those words were out of the wise wizards mouth, he had the attention of the whole company.
"Followed?", Thorin rumbled, "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"Because by the time I noticed Master Dwarf, our shadow had started to leave gifts for us to find.", Gandalf spoke calmly, staring at the dwarf pointedly.
"You mean the food?", Kili asked.
"Makes sense why the meat was charred at first. Probably tried to cook it for us. But when it noticed we didn't like it, tried to cook the meat more, and finally left it raw for us to use as we pleased.", Balin mused.
"It's intelligent then?", Bilbo guessed.
"Must be.", Dwalin crossed his arms over his chest, "Other wise, we'd either have found it by now, or the meat would have remained charred like it was the first time we found it. Or, more likely, not burned at all."
Dwarves all nodded in agreement. So that's one clue to this mysterious tag along, it's a creature, but it's intelligent enough to understand them and make adjustments according to their reactions.
"What I don't get is when it started following us in the first place, and why?", Dwalin grumbled.
"That's what I would like to know.", Thorin agreed with an angry furrow in his brows.
"My guess, is that it's been following in our shadows long before it had started to leave us food.", Gandalf informed the company, "A week, a the least, and a fortnight at most. For some reason, it seems that this creature, whatever it is, has determined to remain in our shadow until it is needed, remaining hidden at all times."
"Alright, but what for? For what purpose?", Thorin pushed.
Gandalf shook his head, "Your guess is as good as mine."
The left the Company in silence before Bombur looked over and saw Bofur looking off into the distance thoughtfully.
"Bofur.", the round dwarf called out.
Bofur hummed with a thoughtful look, "The Company's Shadow. I'd say that's a good as name for it as now."
"We're naming it?", FIli and Kili asked in unison.
"No. No. No. We are not naming whatever thing is following us.", Thorin thundered.
But Bofur just grinned, "We just did."
"Shadow's a good name.", Bilbo nodded in agreement.
"Aye, fine name for any lass or lassie.", Balin agreed, many dwarves followed their leader voicing their own positive reactions and agreements.
"Ya hear that!", Fili calls out into the woods.
"Your the Company's Shadow now beastie!", Kili finished.
And Toothless couldn't help his roar of amusement and permission. His name is still and forever will be Toothless. But he doesn't mind being called a shadow for now.
It's funny, because many of the Vikings in the village joked about the same thing when referring to how close he stuck to Hiccup. It's not his fault the human kept finding himself in trouble and needed to be watched at all times because of it!
So yes, for now, the Company's Shadow Toothless shall be.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Author's Note:
Hey ya'll! Hoped you liked it! I've had this stuck in my head for a long while. I think I'll turn this into a series. When the next part is posted, there will be a link pasted below to the next part. Hope you enjoyed!
Be Your Best You! Bye~!
23 notes
·
View notes
Hot take
Night furies are actually perfectly evolved for hunting and killing other dragons and the only reason they aren't a dragon-hunting species like the death song or deathgrippers are is because DreamWorks couldn't have their adorable main character dragon be a "cannibal"
(below I'm gonna try to summarize what we've figured out in a convo with friends on discord)
(also tw animal death via predator)
First of all yes I'm aware that pretty much every decision made about their design was with consideration of the effect it would make on human audiences but hear me out
Night furies are most iconically known as dive-bombers. They are built for speed, high maneuverability, night-time camouflage and for striking targets from above. If we remove human settlements out of the equation (which would not have existed long enough to actually influence night fury evolution, come on), what does that leave us with?
They aren't built for catching fish for sure, they aren't very hydrodynamic and their head is round, wide, and their teeth are dull. Honestly, the monstrous nightmare is much better suited for catching fish, with its long neck, almost pelican-like jaw and rhamphorhynchus teeth
Compare to
Yeah the jaws look kinda like a porpoise of some sort but for that the whole body would have to be a lot more aquatic imo. The light fury looks a lot closer to an aquatic diver, it has a sleeker body, rounded fins instead of spikes, and a long neck.
I don't really see them hunting land animals either, they just don't look like they're adapted for that minus the resemblance with large felines and even then, they're too large to effectively hunt in forests.
The one thing I can kinda imagine them hunting is large mainland megafauna, but we're working with a setting that takes place pretty much exclusively on islands. And overall, dragons are the only abundant species there with the exception of fish and human-bred sheep and chickens.
In general, night furies have duller teeth, smaller claws and are smaller than most dragons. Disregarding the movies making Toothless weirdly OP, a night fury would be disadvantaged against most dragons in a 1v1 fight and besides, it has four huge weak spots that would highly discourage it from a direct physical fight - the primary and secondary tail fins. One unlucky rip in the membrane and the night fury is fucked.
The night fury however noticeably resembles falcons, given their dive-bombing ability and high maneuverability.
Falcons too have smaller beaks and weaker claws compared to most birds of prey, and for that they compensate by simply picking up speed, balling up their talons and Punching. Really. Hard.
And they use that ability to kill other birds, even much larger ones, by knocking them right from the sky.
Here, the night fury's plasma blast works the same way as a falcon's punch. Dragons are fire-resistant, so what the plasma blast does is really just a densely packed bolt of energy that has the effect of either stunning or outright killing prey by damaging its spine. And what the plasma bolt doesn't do, rapid contact with the ground would finish. And if even that doesn't do it, the night fury's wide jaws and dull teeth are just fine for simply clamping around the unlucky dragon's neck and strangling it, like a lion or a pitbull.
The night-time camouflage allows the night fury to soar for extended periods of time perfectly unnoticed in the night sky, and by the time it strikes, the dragon wouldn't even know what's coming.
Unless
Say the hunting night fury is aware of other dragons sleeping under the trees, as most dragons probably would at night (village raids aside, most dragons seem to be diurnal), so how does the night fury get them in position where it can use its signature attack? Well, there's That Iconic Screech Of Death. Since in the movies it tends to appear not just during dive-bombings but also when charging up a blast, I imagine it's something the night fury is able to control to some degree. So by simply fake-diving in close proximity to sleeping dragons, it can effectively terrify them into leaving their hideout and fly out into the open where it can easily take them out.
I dunno, the possibility of night furies as predators to other dragons just makes so much sense to me, I really don't know what other reasons there would be for them to evolve these particular adaptations.
And one more little headcanon to add to this whole rant - since night furies are significantly smaller and less equipped for dragon vs dragon fights and are primarily speed-based predators, I imagine there is this very likely scenario:
There is one dragon who resembles a hyena, a lil bit
Ok, rant over
4K notes
·
View notes