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aleteia-ff · 5 years

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Do You Want to Train a Dragon? | Post-HTTYD3 One-shot

I wrote another Haddock-family one-shot! This one takes place before my other one-shot, Chasing the Western Wind, and this time around we meet Zephyr and Nuffink when they are 16 and 14. What they are up to? Well, the kind of stupid thing teenagers tend to be up to.

The title and opening paragraph are obviously inspired by Frozen.

Do You Want to Train a Dragon?

“Zeph. Zeph, wake up!”

Lazily, Zephyr Haddock opened her eyes, finding her younger brother sitting on her bed, on top of her, with nothing but a candle in his hand. His blonde hair looked messed up, as if he’d only just jumped out of bed himself. Only the small braids their mom had made in it were still somewhat intact. His green eyes had a sense of urgency in them as he looked down at her.

“Nuff, what in Thor’s name are you doing?” she moaned.

“Listen,” he told her, holding up his finger.

She furrowed her brows, taking in the sounds around them. It didn’t take long before she noticed what her brother was talking about. It came from downstairs.

“Oh gods. Dad’s snoring like a Thunderdrum again,” she moaned, pulling the covers over her ears. She usually slept through it just fine, but if she was ever unlucky enough to wake up in the middle of the night, falling back asleep was a challenge on its own.

Nuffink didn’t give her any rest though, pulling her blanket back down. “Which means?”

“Mom and dad have been drinking with their friends, probably,” she added.

“So dad’s completely out, and mom likely won’t hear anything,” Nuffink smiled, almost jumping up on her bed.

“What are you getting at?” she frowned, trying to figure out what was so urgent her brother had woken her.

Nuffink rolled his eyes. “Geez, sis, I thought you were the clever one. This was your plan, after all.”

A smile appeared on her face as she finally realized what Nuffink was talking about. She sat up, instantly awake. She put her hands on her brother’s shoulders, looking sternly at him. “Alright, Nuff.” Her smile widened. “Do you want to train a dragon?”

Nuffink gave her a smile back. “Thought you’d never ask.”

They jumped out of her bed, giggling and chuckling as they gathered their stuff, pausing in between their father’s snores. Finally, they climbed out of the window, out into the moonlight and towards New Berk’s docks.

“Wow, they actually made it out of the harbour this time.”

“Thanks, Tuff, I hadn’t seen that yet,” Hiccup sarcastically remarked. They were standing on the cliff overlooking New Berk’s docks. It looked the same as it did on every other morning, except for one thing. His ship was missing.

“Must mean you’re getting old, Chief,” the male Thorston twin added. “If they managed to sneak off like this.”

“Believe me, I’ve noticed,” he grumbled. Then, to no one in particular: “Some people lose their knife or their mug. But no, not me. I lose my 16-year old daughter and my 14-year old son.”

“Well, if you ever need any parenting advice, baby-sitter extraordinaire Tuffnut LaVerne Thorston is at your service.”

He gave Tuffnut an unamused stare. “Do I need to remind you, Tuff, that it was your nephew who was on guard duty last night?”

Tuffnut put his hands up in the air, feigning innocence. “Hey, he’s sixteen and totally in love with your girl, while she hardly notices him. You can’t put that on the poor guy.”

“Yeah, Chief, do we need to remind you of all the time you spent swooning over Astrid?” a voice added from behind him. He turned around, finding Snotlout and Astrid walking over to them.

“No, Snot, I don’t think you need to,” his wife – gods, even after all those years of marriage, being able to call her that made his heart accelerate – remarked, intertwining her fingers with his and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“I take it they weren’t in the village either?” he asked rhetorically, squeezing her hand. “Given that our ship is gone.”

“Well, at least we’re pretty sure where they’ve gone,” Astrid pondered, biting her lower lip.

“I just don’t understand why they keep trying,” he frowned. “We visit Toothless multiple times a year, and they always get to come along. Why would they go on their own?”

“Same reason you always did everything your dad told you not to,” Astrid smiled.

He rolled his eyes at her. That wasn’t exactly what he needed to hear right now. “So does that mean they should just get away with things like this?”

“Oh, absolutely not,” she laughed. “We’re going to drag them back here and after we’ve done that, they’ll be grounded for a long time. Or well, for as long as you can prevent Zephyr from wrapping you around her finger again.”

“Thanks for reminding everyone I still haven’t grown a backbone after sixteen years,” he pouted.

“And when it comes to her, I doubt you ever will,” she teased.

“Anyways,” he continued, frowning at Astrid as Snotlout and Tuffnut snickered behind his back. “Do you want to go after them? Or should I? I’m not sure if it’s a good idea if we’re both gone unexpectedly.”

“Oh, come on, Chief,” Tuffnut butted in. “It’s not like the village will burn down if the two of you aren’t here.”

He pulled up one of his eyebrows. “Given that you and Ruff are still around, I’m not so sure.”

“Pff,” Snotlout scoffed. “As if Ruffnut even has time to cause mayhem. If anything, it’s her twins you should be worried about.”

“And I wonder who taught them how to become the next earthly embodiments of Loki,” Astrid remarked.

“That would be none other than yours truly.” Tuffnut took a deep and overexaggerated bow.

“Which is my point exactly,” Hiccup concluded.

“Seriously though, Hiccup, we can handle it,” Snotlout countered. “Even if you don’t trust us, your mom’s still feisty enough for her age to put us back in line.”

“Snotlout, for the last time, one more word about my mom –” he started.

“Just go already.” Snotlout rolled his eyes. “You won’t convince any of us you two don’t want to see Toothless and Stormfly too. Take my ship if you want to, Hookie flew by here just the other month, so I don’t need to go anywhere for now.”

He looked at Astrid then, finding her gazing back at him. Their agreement didn’t have to be spoken. They’d take any chance they got to see their dragons.

“I suppose we’ll start packing then,” he decided, nodding to their friends. “Thanks, Snotlout.”

They’d been at sea for a few days already, but things couldn’t be better. They were close, Zephyr couldn’t be more sure of it. Her dad had been teaching her to make maps for years. How to read the stars and the movement of the sun, along with how to make the get the most out of the tide and the wind. She’d used everything he’d taught her to make her own map the last few times they’d sailed out, detailing the route towards the Hidden World. But this was the first time she actually had to use it. And the first time she was sailing for multiple days without her father.

She was standing at the front of their family’s ship, taking in the horizon in front of them and shouting something to Nuffink every now and then, who was always quick to adjust the sails, although she still needed to help him out every now and then. Her little brother could be a brat, but when it came to things like these, things he knew she was good at, he usually listened to her.

She took a deep breath, taking in the salty smell of the ocean. There was nothing that could beat this feeling. The wind in her hair, making her long auburn braid trail behind her. The sound of the waves crashing beneath her as their ship cleaved through it. How the weather could suddenly change, the waves picking up, challenging you to conquer them. And she was always glad to take on that challenge.

The only feeling that came close to beating it, was that of being on the back of a dragon. Flying. She’d loved that ever since her mom and dad had first taken them to the Hidden World to meet their dragons. But as the years had gone by, she couldn’t help but start to feel conflicted about it as well. Her dad had been the one to create that, a tribe of Vikings riding on the backs of dragons until they were forced to part, for the sake of the dragons’ safety. And she was next in line to him.

How was she supposed to beat that? How would people come to respect her as Chieftess, if she couldn’t at least live up to her father’s legacy? The man who had resolved the longest war Berk had ever known, had led them through the wars that came afterwards and had finally helped them rebuild their lives so close to the edge of the known world? Her father was a great man. And she didn’t know if she could ever become as great as him.

Which is why she needed to do this. And Nuffink had been happy to come along, always eager to go an adventures and jumping into them head-first. He never backed down from anything, and when she’d offered him the challenge to sneak away from their parents, he’d instantly gone for it. They’d been caught in the act several times, but he hadn’t relented, seizing the opportunity that had presented itself to them several days ago.

Their plan was simple, really. Sail to the Hidden World. Find a dragon. And train it. They’d rode on Toothless, Stormfly and Cloudjumper – on those occasions that grandma felt fit enough to come along – many times before, but they’d been trained by others. They already knew how to listen to their riders and how to keep them safe. Training a wild dragon from scratch, that was something different. And they – she – needed to prove to Berk she could do that too. Not just her father.

“What dragon do you want to go for, Fin?” she asked her brother, who was leaning over the ship’s edge, his eyes peering into the water.

“I don’t really care, as long as it’s awesome,” he beamed. “A Monstrous Nightmare, maybe. Or a Deadly Nadder.”

“Like mom’s?” She pulled up an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Stormfly always seems cool. Why? What’s wrong with Nadders?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I just wouldn’t want the same kind of dragon as mom. Or dad. I want something different. Something new. A Boneknapper maybe. Or a Slitherwing…” She trailed off into thought. She couldn’t simply do what anyone they knew had done before. Which eliminated quite some dragon species already, but the Hidden World had enough of them to choose from.

They sailed on for a bit and she spent some time scribbling, studying the movement of the sun. Every now and then, she dropped something small into the sea, watching it float away and taking notes on the current. It was intriguing to her how the currents seemed to flow one way close to New Berk, and another here. It had made her start to envision the ocean as an intricate system of flows, rather than one big puddle of still water. And she couldn’t wait to explore every corner of it.

“Zephyr,” Nuffink suddenly called. She looked up from her sketchbook, urged on by the fact that he had called her with her full name. “Do you hear that?”

For a bit, she heard nothing but the waves as they crashed against their ship. But then, another sound started to fill her ears. That of falling water.

“We made it!” She jumped up, running to the front of the boat. In the distance, she now saw it too. A border of rocks, shrouded in mist. Undoubtedly the edge of the waterfall that led into the Hidden World.

They pulled up the sails, slowing down the boat until it softly bumped against the stone shore. After they let down the anchor, she grabbed her sword and jumped off first, her feet landing in the shallow water as she made her way up onto the rocks. Nuffink threw a rope towards her and she agilely bound it around one of the higher boulders, securing the ship. She offered her brother her hand, but he jumped off on his own, excitedly swinging his axe as he did.

Now they stood there together, at the edge of their world, looking down into the Hidden one. They couldn’t see anything but endless streams of water pouring down into it.

“Mom’s going to kill us,” Nuffink remarked as he leant forward, trying to get a better look at their target.

“Are you scared, baby brother?” she quipped.

“No,” he smiled, looking at her with his green eyes. “I’ll just tell her this was your idea.”

“You’re such a snitch,” she smiled before looking down once more. This was it. They could do this.

“Alright,” she continued, turning around and slowly lowering herself onto the next layer of rocks. “Like it or not, but I’m still taller and stronger than you are. So stay behind me.”

Nuffink pouted but then nodded after all, slowly following her as she continued to make her way downward, trying her best to hold on to the slippery stones. Moving step by step, she slowly grew more confident, enjoying the way the mist made her skin feel damp and her bangs stick to her face. Her dad had had his breakthrough with dragons when he was only fifteen. This was going to be hers.

They went lower and lower, until the edge disappeared from sight. They had already caught the shadows of a few dragons, who either hadn’t noticed their presence or were unbothered by it. But as she paused on a larger ledge, waiting for her brother to reach her, she spotted a big, black shadow. It came right at her, the accompanying high-pitched sound leaving no doubt about its identity.

“Toothless!” she yelled, watching her father’s Night Fury’s green eyes appear, focusing on her. “Toothless, no!”

But the dragon didn’t listen to her. It went straight for her, grabbing her with his front legs and yanking her up as he used his hind legs to push himself off the rock wall. They shot straight up, back into the sky. She yelled and struggled, hoping the dragon would somehow drop her. But he didn’t release her until her feet touched down on the edge, making her fall to her hands and knees as he let her go.

The black dragon landed next to her, his green eyes watching her as the Light Fury put Nuffink back where they seemed to feel they belonged. She balled her fists, shooting the Night Fury an angry look. “Why, Toothless? Why did you have to ruin it?”

He gave her an apologetic warble, his big eyes looking at her as he softly pushed his snout against her cheek.

“Yeah, thanks for nothing, you useless reptile,” she told him, her eyes still set on the hole in front of them. She couldn’t let it end this way. She had to prove herself.

She waited until Toothless turned towards Nuffink and the Light Fury to see if they were okay. Then she got up to her feet, sprinting towards the edge of the rocks. As she reached it, she leapt.

She heard Toothless roar loudly, her brother screaming her name as she fell. But she didn’t fall for long. Three shapes shot out from between the waterfalls, one of them swiftly grabbing her and putting her back down next to Toothless.

The three now fully-grown Night Lights – her dad had called the crossbreeds that due to a lack of inspiration – landed next to them, proudly looking towards their parents as she scrambled back up to her feet, yelling loudly in frustration. “Fuck!” She threw her balled fists up in the air, intending to punch the gods. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

Tears welling up in her eyes, she let herself fall to the ground, sitting down on the stones beneath her feet. Toothless curled up around her, his big eyes looking at her as she leant back against him and buried her face in his scales, softly pounding her fist against the dragon. She wasn’t mad at him. She was just mad at herself. They’d failed. She’d failed.

“Hiccup, you really have to stop playing around with your prosthetic. You’ll break it one of these days.”

“Don’t tell me you’re not at least slightly worried either,” Hiccup shot back as he reattached his prosthetic to his left leg. “As much as I love it when you play with my hair, I am starting to get the feeling you’re just using me as a distraction.”

“Busted,” Astrid smiled as she leant her head on his shoulder, the two of them sitting on the deck of Snotlout’s boat.

He put his arm around her waist, pulling her closer against him. “I just hope they’re okay.”

“They will be, right? Zephyr’s at least as good a navigator as you are, and Fin’s smart enough to get himself out of most situations,” she murmured, sounding more like she was trying to reassure herself than him.

“I’m not worried about them getting there. But about what they are planning when they do,” he thought out loud, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Toothless will be there. He always is. And he adores those two as much as we love his kids. He’ll take care of them.”

“I know, it’s just…” He sighed. “I wonder if we made the right choice, in not letting them have any dragons of their own.”

“They’ll understand someday,” she reassured him.

In the distance, a faint sound could be heard. That of a waterfall. “Looks like we’re here,” Astrid remarked as she got up to her feet, pulling him up with her.

The first thing they saw was their own boat, floating around in the water. Then, through the mist, a set of figures appeared. A Light Fury, intently watching their visitors approach. And next to her, a Night Fury, lazing on the rocks with both of the Haddock children leaning against him, whose faces instantly contracted as they caught sight of their parents. But he couldn’t be any more relieved to see the two of them safe and sound.

Trying to remain strict nevertheless, he helped Astrid dock the boat, jumping off it and walking up to the two of them. They almost visibly cringed as he looked down at them, kneeling in front of Toothless’ face before giving them what was coming for them. He took the dragon’s head in his hands, softly pressing his forehead against his, speaking to him as one father to another. “Thanks for looking after them, bud.”

Toothless gave him an understanding warble as he got back up, looking sternly at Zephyr and Nuffink. Nuffink instantly moved, pointing at his sister. “It was her idea!”

Zephyr’s elbow landed in his stomach and he winced. Hiccup looked down at his son. “You’re old enough not to let your sister talk you into things.” He pointed behind him, where Astrid was watching from the boat, giving Nuffink the kind of look only a mother could give her son. Nuffink spotted it too, his green eyes turning bigger in fear. “Your mother would like to have a word with you.”

Nuffink seemed to deliberate in his head for a minute, wondering if there was a way to get out of this. Seemingly realizing there absolutely wasn’t one, he got up to his feet, walking past his father with his head held low.

Supressing a little smile, he sat down in Nuffink’s spot, leaning back against Toothless as he looked down at his daughter. “Care to start explaining yourself?”

“Not really,” Zephyr answered, looking at her feet and fidgeting with her hands.

“Well, we’re not leaving until you’ve told me why you thought sneaking out at night with your brother was a good idea. Because it absolutely isn’t. After all, if you’d wanted to see Toothless and his family, you could’ve just asked.”

“It’s not like you’d understand,” she bit, still not looking up at him.

Teenagers. “Give it a shot.”

She stayed silent for a minute before something akin to an answer came out of her mouth. “I just wanted to train a dragon too.”

“And why exactly did you think I would not understand that?” he laughed. “I did the same thing for years.”

“Because you and mom won’t let us.”

The accusing tone in her voice was clear as day. “Zephyr, we’ve talked about this…” More than once, actually. “You know what we tell every sailor or trader that visits New Berk, saying that they’ve heard stories of Berkians flying dragons.”

“We’ve never heard of such a thing. Dragons are just a big part of our tribe’s folk tales. As far as we know, they don’t exist,” she quoted the lines that’d been taught to her since she’d first learnt that dragons were real.

“Exactly,” he nodded. “They have to stay here, because as much as I wish it could be, New Berk is not safe for them. Not yet.”

“But it doesn’t make sense, dad,” Zephyr sighed. “I mean, Toothless is always here to protect the Hidden World, but other dragons visit us all the time, staying out of sight of those that shouldn’t know. Stormfly, Hookfang, Cloudjumper, all of them. Then why can’t Fin and I have dragons too?”

“Because I don’t want you two to have to go through the same amount of hurt your mother and I did,” he admitted. He’d never stated that reason before, hoping he wouldn’t have to talk about it. But Zephyr was getting too inquisitive. And restless.

She looked up at him then. “What do you mean?”

He sighed, reaching behind him and softly petting Toothless. “Dragons weren’t just the creatures we rode around on. To each and every one of us, they were our best friends. And parting with them, no longer waking up to their presence every day, it’s the hardest thing your mom and I have had to do.”

Her big blue eyes turned questioning as she gazed at him, demanding a further explanation.

“You love your brother right, and your friends?” he asked. She nodded. “Imagine spending all these years with them, going on all the crazy adventures Berk still talks about. And then suddenly having to live this far away from them.”

“I’d miss them a lot,” Zephyr agreed.

“And so did we. It took your mom and I years to get over that, and, looking back on it now, it wasn’t until you and your brother came into our lives that we somewhat did. And, to be honest, I still don’t think we’re fully over it,” he told her.

She stayed silent then, seemingly thinking it over.

“But I just want to be more like you, dad,” a small voice eventually told him. “I want to be able to fly too. To go on all those adventures you’ve been on. To prove myself.”

He pulled her closer then, hugging his daughter tightly. “And I wish you could. You don’t want to know how often I imagined it when I was younger. Marrying your mom and eventually teaching our children how to fly.”

“Well, at least the first part of that worked out,” she softly joked.

“Hey, you can fly Toothless, Stormfly and Cloudjumper just fine,” he pointed out.

“But I haven’t trained my own dragon,” Zephyr countered, her voice turning softer again.

“But do you understand why your mom and I would rather you didn’t?” he asked. “Because, as much as I wish I could, I can’t promise you that you will ever be able to really be with them, that the world will be safe enough for dragons and Vikings to reunite. In my lifetime, or the next.” He sighed. “It makes me afraid that, as lovely and great as it’d be at first, you’d only end up getting hurt in the long run. As you’d have to always be apart from someone who’s likely to become your best friend.”

He looked into his daughter’s eyes. “And as your father, I will do everything I can to prevent you from getting hurt.”

Zephyr stayed silent for a moment, looking out across the ocean as she seemed to think things over. “I understand,” she finally responded, and he could feel his heart become lighter almost instantly. “But I just don’t know what else I should do with my life.”

He laughed softly. “You’re sixteen, you don’t have to know yet. You’ve got years to figure it out. For now, just spend your time on what you love. For me, that happened to be dragons. But it doesn’t have to be the same for you.”

“Sailing,” was the only word that came out of her mouth in response, a smile spreading across her face. “That’s what I love to do.”

“Then I will take you on many more fishing trips when we get back to New Berk,” he reassured her. It was one of the things they usually did together. Zephyr loved the ocean, and he was still learning how to navigate in a boat to the extent he’d been able to from a dragon’s back. And he always loved to involve her that.

“I’d like that,” his daughter agreed.

“But first,” he continued. “You’re grounded. I don’t know what exact terms your mother has come up with, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to fill you in once she’s done with Fin.”

“But dad –”

He shook his head, getting up. “No ‘but’s. Next time you want to go somewhere, you ask me first. Whether you like it or not, I’m still your father. So you have to listen to me. To prevent me from worrying too much about you and your brother.”

Zephyr glared daggers at him, using the blue eyes she’d gotten from her mother to do so. He gave her a what-can-you-do kind of smile as he nudged Toothless, getting on the dragon’s back and holding his hand out to her. “So did you want to go flying or not?”

Her stare intensified for a moment before she relaxed, reluctantly taking her father’s hand and getting behind him on the Night Fury. Then, the two of them shot off into the sky.

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