un / sheathed.

a fun, if slightly long, thing for munday!

um...

umm??

“how did toothless survive under the red death’s reign if she eats every dragon that doesn’t come back with enough food? we don’t know but doesn’t it make him sound cool!”

“how does drago adequately use toothless’ prosthetic on his first try when it took hiccup ages and ages and AGES of learning how to use it to even fly without immediately falling? we don’t know but isn’t it sad that he’s taking toothless away!”

“how is toothless ‘the king of dragons’ when there is an ‘alpha species’, the existence of which implies that there are multiple alphas and multiple kings? we don’t know but doesn’t it make him sound COOL!”

“why would the dragons even need a singular alpha / king of them all in the first place? we don’t know but doesn’t it make him sound C O O L !”

@dragetunge: The cutest and best dragon in the whole world <3

nonverbal starters / shelter or heal / accepting.

         He is not sick. He is not sick. He is just…tired. Uncomfortable. Cold, maybe. Nobody can blame him if he is ( maybe ) cold, though — the wind out here is so biting-howling-strong that even his very so much big, not-sick heart-fire might feel the tiniest bit smothered. But it doesn’t! It doesn’t because he isn’t cold, because he isn’t sick, so these good but worried-upset-distressed-for-nothing flock-subjects should stop being worried-upset-distressed-for-nothing!

         You are sick! The thrill-powered frantically flapping around him squawks for the too-many-est time. Their voice is so high and loud that it makes his already aching head ache even more, and he gives them an annoyed begone! swat. They dodge it like the sneaky thrill-powered they are, of course, and continue flapping and clucking and fussing and UGHHH stop it stop it stop it!

         The rock-spewer trailing behind him and the snapping-venoms on his back aren’t any better! They keep whining You neeeeed and crooning rest rest rest at him, but how can he do that when he still has territory to secure and flock-subjects to check on and oh, look, another fight he needs to resolve and they are making so much noise, when will they—

         Companion! Companion is here, Companion will believe him, maybe he can help with these worried-upset-distressed-for-nothing flock-subjects who won’t believe their Alpha…

@stucanje / nonverbal prompts / accepting.

         When will Half Of Him learn that He is a very easy-to-break human? It doesn’t matter how many times he or his troopmates or his flock-subjects or His troopmates or His flock-subjects tell Him that, He always always ALWAYS forgets and does something stupid-dangerous-bad like this!

         What are You doing. He hush-hisses at Him. He wants to scream at Him but he can’t because Half Of Him has His paws on a venomskin, and if he screams then that venomskin will maybe get scared and His human skin will maybe get burnt and He will maybe no longer get to use those clever human paws!

         Joy-peace-love-delight, He hums back, and no! Not joy-peace-love-delight, stupid Half Of Him, doesn’t He know what the person He is touching can do to Him?! Why does he even need to ask that — no, of course not, Half Of Him is too busy loving-loving-giving-loving to think about how quickly His paws can be hurt when they are on a venomskin and so close to long jaws…!

         Your paws…feel nice, the venomskin hush-chirrs to Him. She is not wanting-wanting-wanting for His affection like most people are, but He is very good at scratching ( as he and everyone else knows ) so she nuzzles into His touch anyway. It makes him feel a bit bad for being protection-scared like this, and it makes him feel even worse when she hail-calls him because she is one of his flock-subjects now so he has to trust that she will not hurt Him. She is also one of Monster-King’s flock-subjects-that-once-were who do not like humans though, so he can’t trust her to not hurt this human who is very so much precious to him; Precious Thing, stop touching her…! You…feel nice.

         “Relaxed-content-pleased,” Half Of Him says with His scent. Then, when it becomes too much for His scent to hold, He says it with His voice and body and — just as he thought He would — His teeth.

         ( Half Of Him can be really clever, sometimes. So clever that it’s hard to understand or even think about.

         This is not one of those times. )

         What? The venomskin croaks, confused-troubled-uneasy. She stops nuzzling in and starts bending away. Precious Thing doesn’t immediately realise and so doesn’t immediately follow. Good. You threaten me? You are threat? What? What?

         Her head is finally not cradled by His paws and that’s when He realises. Awwnosohrisohri, He chatters. He still smells “relaxed-content-pleased” but there is a hint of guilt now as He reaches for her. Come back, come back—

         Like he’ll let that happen.

         Not-threat! He pushes himself into those paws, ignoring the startled toohfss! that comes from Half Of Him as he does. The protection-fear is gone now that they are not touching; there is only protection-anger and stupid-kind-loves too much-stupid mine that I love and cherish! annoyance. Not-threat! He repeats, and coils around his easy-to-break human to rub fresh “mine-protected, not-threat, MINE” marks all over Him.

         The venomskin rises just a little from her threatened-threatening crouch and tilts her head down. Not-threat?

         Not not not-threat, he assures. Half Of Him is trying to climb over him to get to her but it’s too late now because even though she knows that he is not-threat, she is still confused-troubled-uneasy so she chirps a cautious farewell and retreats. Now the protection-anger is gone, too.

         He turns to Half Of Him, fully prepared to shriek about how stupid-dangerous-bad that was and how He shouldn’t be touching a venomskin ( especially one who is Monster-King’s flock-subject-that-once-was that does not like humans ) and how it’s still too early for his hurt flock-subjects to really trust not-monster humans — except Half Of Him is looking at him all smug-fond-amused-teasing. Why is He smug-fond-amused-teasing and not annoyed-exasperated-reluctant like He usually is when he stops Him from doing something stupid?

         Toohhfsss~ He warbles. No no no, he doesn’t like it when He warbles his soundname like that, it means He is going to do something He shouldn’t—! Wuhryujehh-uhs-buhd~?

         I don’t understand You. Now he’s the one moving away from Half Of Him, confused-troubled-uneasy. But I don’t like it, stop it, what are You planning!

         He chatters some more, voice light and airy with teasing-teasing-teasing, before He stretches His paws out to him. Come here, come here! He croons, and he doesn’t want to because he doesn’t know what He is going to do, but he does ( very, very slowly ) anyway because he trusts that it is not anything bad.

         Half Of Him smells like “love-fond-joy” when He places His paws on both sides of his head, so maybe it really isn’t anything bad. Then He stoops down to press His mouth against his scales and yes, it really isn’t anything bad.

         I love You! He says with that pressing-of-mouth-against-scales ( Dragonkin told him what it meant ). He says it again, and again, and many many many times again before He leans back to chatter and chortle and tease some more.

         ( Maybe he won’t scold Half Of Him for doing something so stupid this time.

the httyd films do a wonderful job when it comes to showing how hiccup has grown over the course of his friendship with toothless, and it is very heartwarming to see. toothless’ growth, however, isn’t as explicitly displayed and it is easy for many to mistake what is arguably character development / progression for character degradation / deadlock. in this essay, i aim to rectify that by pointing out a few of the many things toothless has learnt and become for the better through his friendship with hiccup.

toothless still being shot down by hiccup during on of their nightly raids...except instead of losing a tail-fin, he loses his dragonstone and is stuck in dragon form for an extended while. which is. Not Recommended since stewing in their power ( i.e. staying in dragon form ) for longer than is appropriate is how manaketes start degenerating in the first place fsdkfj but hiccup manages to forge, anoint ( literally “make magical” through hexes / blessings ), and gift him another in the end so it’s all g!

hiccup bonding with this weird semi-humanoid, mostly-draconic being...the two trying to figure out how to make this v unstable human-made dragonstone work together...even when they finally perfect it, when toothless successfully stores his power in it and is able to fully shift to his more humanoid form, it requires hiccup’s complex set of incantations to be able to work again. basically, toothless cannot freely move back and forth between his two forms without hiccup there to ‘fine-tune’ his dragonstone.

nonverbal prompts / accepting.

         Humans are the very much most strangest things ever. It’s not something that has changed since he first saw one, and it hasn’t changed even now that he is nesting with them. If anything, being and living and breathing with them has only let him see that they are even stranger than he thought! He doesn’t understand so many of the things they do and so many of the things they are — like how they can be so clever-good-skilled and so stupid-silly-bad at the same time.

         Humans can take the shape of anything around them and put it down in nonsense-but-not-nonsense markings. Humans can build a den from nothing but dead-bark and metal and small stones only. Humans can make good fangs and paws and flight-tails like they grew them themselves — can do so many amazing, impossible, never-thought-of things — but they can’t talk for real or mark for real or even sing for real, and how is that possible? How can they be smarter than the oldest elder and dumber than the youngest hatchling?

         Even just then, Half Of Him was being a clever-stupid human.

         He was making those useless-but-not-useless markings on one of His many dead-skins ( he thinks He was capturing the shape of a nightfallen, but he is a bit dazed from looking at something that strange for so hard and long so he can’t be sure ), and he wanted to let Him know that he is content-pleased-cherishing so he licked a “You that makes me content-pleased-cherishing” mark onto His face and trilled I love You~ Except stupid-silly Half Of Him didn’t say it back. No, stupid-silly Half Of Him said amusement-exasperation. Said I am relaxed-content. Chittered awww-toohfsss! then pressed His mouth against his scales and leaned back to tease how’s that? Like that pressing-of-mouth-against-scales means something other than absolutely nothing.

         At least His strange I am relaxed-content baring-of-teeth human word meant something ( even if that something was I threaten you ), at first! This nothing-word-nonsense-thing is just a nothing-word-nonsense-thing! Ugh, now his snout feels itchy-weird, he doesn’t liiiike it…

         That, he snorts and tries rubbing that itchy-weird feeling in his snout away. That—…that! He doesn’t even know how to describe it, it is so strange-new-weird! It isn’t a real word because it doesn’t mean anything, but maybe it is a human word? One they made from nothing like how they make their dens from nothing? It doesn’t make sense because even though they can’t speak for real, they speak enough that people like him can understand them, so why would they need to make a word from nothing? Humans are the very much most strangest things, it is so very much confusing! If it really is a human word, though…

@stucanje​ / nonverbal prompts / accepting.

         He wakes.

         ( He is not sure what from, but he wakes. )

         Why is it so cold?

         ( It reminds him of something, this waking. )

         Where is he?

         ( Reminds him of…of—? )

         Right, he is at that sea-king’s nest! That sea-king who is the alpha of Half Of Him’s dam. That sea-king who welcomed a foreign nest-leader and His consort into his territory. That sea-king who looked at Half Of Him who was being stupid and rude and not paying proper fellow-respect and said I like you anyway. That sea-king who— that sea-king who has been fell—!

         Nononono, where is He, where is—

         Oh, it’s okay, He is over there with His dam and sire.

         Where is that bigger maybe-not-monster monster? Precious Thing was challenge-pleading it before, was claiming I defy you whilst coaxing listen to me in that too dangerous way he very so much hates, but it is gone now so maybe He won? He always does when it comes to challenge-pleading maybe-not-monster monsters — always somehow soothes them with His love and makes them not-monsters for real — but He and Dragonkin are saying “UPSET-GRIEVING-HEARTSICK-SAD” with their entire bodies and voices and scents, so maybe He didn’t? Maybe He didn’t win? Where did the monster go then, if He didn’t win? Would it just leave even though it won??

         Why why WHY is this so confusing! What was he doing if he can’t remember this?! What did he wake from if he just now woke?! Ughhh, Half of Him should have just let him shoot that bad monster He maybe lost to from the start!

         But maybe he did shoot it? Maybe he shot it and killed it ( he doesn’t remember doing that but… ) and that’s why it’s gone now? He can feel the after-burn of a bolt smouldering in his throat, and the air is foul with the stench of charcoal meat and broken skin and burnt fur and singed metal, but why is Half Of Him UPSET-GRIEVING-HEARTSICK-SAD if the monster is dead? He wouldn’t feel all of that even for a monster, would He? Ugh, too much did this happen? and not enough yes, this happened; why is this so confusing—!

         Troopmates! Troopmates are here, they can tell him what happened…?

         Consort, Friend hails.

         What happened? Kind-Witted asks.

         No, they can’t.

          Sun-Heart hurries past him. She smells like softer “upset-grieving-heartsick-sad” when she collapses beside Half Of Him. Gentle Paws who is next to him starts smelling like that too, then Struts Always starts, then Breathes Mischief starts, then Breathes Trouble starts — even Bark-Paws starts smelling like that and now he knows he didn’t shoot the monster because they wouldn’t feel all of that for a monster. Half Of Him is so stupid-kind that He might ( and he doesn’t know Dragonkin enough to tell if she would ) but his human troopmates absolutely-definitely-very very surely would not.

         So what happened? Who are they—? What did he—?

         They are spilling all of their upset-grieving-heartsick-sad on top of Half Of Him’s sire but His sire is not dead? His sire can’t be dead?? His sire is a king! A human-king! There is no other human here strong enough to fell him, no other human-king here strong enough to fell him. How can he be dead?

         Half Of Him’s sire is not dead but he is lying awfully still. Maybe Human-King is asleep ( ? ) like how he was before? He doesn’t know how someone like Human-King can sleep during a time like this, but he didn’t think someone like him could sleep during a time like this either and he did, so…

         Wake up, he chirrs. His footfalls as he approaches Human-King are slow and careful. They mourn you but you are not-dead, wake up, wake up!

         The scent of death gets stronger and stronger as he comes closer and closer, and even though he knows that Human-King is not dead, he has to wonder if he is very badly hurt. Is that why he is so still? Because he is very much hurt and needs the rest?

         Wake up, he chirrs again. A bit quieter. A bit more desperately. It smells so so so bad here at Human-King’s side that for a very terrifying moment, he thinks maybe Human-King really is dead. But he can’t be. He CAN’T be. He moans, wanting-wanting-wanting, and pushes his snout into thick, familiar fingers. Wake up, come back—

         NO!! Half Of Him bellows and—?

         Pushes?

         Him?

         Away?

         He doesn’t understand.

         Half Of Me? He is a little sad but a lot confused because Half Of Him would never push him away. He is His half! Half Of Him! He wouldn’t…do that…? What? What?

         GO AWAY! No, why is He saying that, doesn’t He know how much that hurts? Hearts-in-each-other shouldn’t be pushing away when they are UPSET-GRIEVING-HEARTSICK-SAD like He is — they should be coming together to hold-share all that feeling and make each other less upset-grieving-heartsick-sad! Why is He saying that…? GO AWAY, GO AWAY!!

         Half Of Me…! He tries leaning into those paws. Tries crooning comfort-peace-calm to the HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME of Half Of Him’s heart-soul. Tries loving Him as He loves so many things He shouldn’t but does anyway because He is that kind and warm and giving. Let me comfort You, let me make it better for You, let me love You…!

         Except those paws don’t want him. That heart-soul doesn’t want him. Half Of Him doesn’t want him.

         NO, YOU BAD BAD BAD THING! Stop it stop it stop it, it hurts so much, stop it, please—! I AM ANGRY-SCARED-HURT, YOU VERY SO MUCH BAD THING, GO AWAY!!

         There’s a grunt as He hurts him one last time, as He places paws he thought would never do this on his head and pushes like He is pushing a fang deep into his neck.

nonverbal prompts / accepting.

         He is tired. Tired and hurt and shamed and relieved, and that is the only reason why he doesn’t object. That is the only only reason why he does nothing when Half Of Him is swarmed. That is the only only ONLY reason why he simply sags into the ground and watches as the not-monster humans take Half Of Him away. There is an instant urge to follow, of course — a fear of forgotten-left-behind that almost has him rising and trailing after them to keep Him close — but there is also a taste on his tongue that shouldn’t be there, blood in his maw that shouldn’t be there, and he lets his tired-hurt-shame-relief melt away his fear as it melts away his protests.

         They don’t take Him away too far. Just over to the edge where the sea touches the land. He doesn’t understand why they do that when all of their floating dead-bark things are burnt and sunken, then they suddenly bare their fangs and he doesn’t understand why they do that when the bad, most worst ever threat is already dead. Is there some other threat he can’t sense there? It’s all so very strange to see, especially when they start shouting nonsense and telling each other no, my fang is better! for what feels like ages and ages, but finally one of them wins ( why were they challenging each other in the first place?? ) and the defeated put their fangs away.

         Sun-Furred approaches him then and he asks her, Why did they do that? She doesn’t answer ( at least, not in the way he wants her to ) but she does sit beside him and rub her paws along his head. The cold of them feels so good on the heat of his scorched scales that he leans as much as he can into her and forgives her for not answering.

         They watch together as the other humans fuss over Half Of Him and do a lot more things he doesn’t understand why they do. They all seem to be worried-focused on His hindleg though, and Sun-Furred’s smell says “peace-sad-relief” instead of “panic-distress-fear”, so he thinks maybe all those things he doesn’t understand are for fixing what he didn’t-mean-to-but-did-anyway broke.

         There’s a pause where nothing happens. Where they all just look at what they’ve gathered and done. Until the human-king takes the fang he was burning out of the fire a gem-crowned helped them make and—

         Something about his heat must feel very good to Sun-Furred too because she all at once moves until she’s crouched over his head and stretches her forelegs across his eyes.

         Stop that, he snorts and tries to gently shake her off. It’s nice that she likes his heat so much but also not because now he can’t see what they’re going to do next. Off, let me—

         The yelps of several scared-upset-confused people cut through the air and he stills.

         Sun-Furred exhales from where she’s sprawled against him. She tries stroking calm-peace-quiet into his scales but it doesn’t work because she’s trembling and her scent is turning sour with hurt-grief-distress, and that’s all he can take before he’s leaping to aching paws and throwing her off.

         What is?! What is?! He searches the area for a threat, searching and searching and searching, except there is no threat: only grim-looking humans and horrified-sounding people and a still sleeping Half Of Him and the stench of too much blood— oh.

         No.

         No.

         No no NO NO!

         STOP! He roars and rushes towards the humans by the sea-edge, voice high with RAGE-PANIC-DISTRESS. Those very so much bad monster humans are hurting Half Of Him!! Why are they hurting Half Of Him?! STOP STOP STOP STOP!!

         He doesn’t get very far before too many monsters pounce on him and hold him down. He opens his jaws to shoot but then they hold those down, too. He can’t do anything but screech and cry and wail and moan, and he hears other people screech and cry and wail and moan back, but none of them are stopping the monster humans; why aren’t they stopping the monster humans?!

         He should’ve never let them take Him. He thought that they could maybe fix Him because He is a human and they are humans too, but he was so so so wrong; why did he let them take Him, why are they hurting Him when they should be healing Him, why why WHY WHY?!

         Sun-Furred approaches him again and he screams at her, WHY?! She doesn’t answer ( never in the way he wants her to ) but she does kneel beside him and brush shaking paws along his ear-flaps.

          The den is quiet when he enters. Quiet and hushed and peaceful and still: a very welcome change from the too loud, too rushed, too demanding, too much scenery that makes up most of his days now.

          He calls a gentle hello to what he hopes are empty aeries. When he receives no response in return, he nearly sinks into relief — nearly sinks into the breath that has been eluding him, the slump that has been pushing down on his wings, the strained exhaustion-frustration that has been stalking his steps for practically the entire day.

          Except Companion is right there by the crackling den-fire ( watching and waiting and watching and waiting ) so he doesn’t sink so much as he lightly stumbles.

          Companion! He greets maybe a bit too loudly. A bit too shakily. He glances back towards the den-opening and considers leaving for a moment, if only because he doesn’t want to start the conversation he so desperately needs to have with the fourwing, but his fear is swallowed by his exhaustion-frustration in the end and he resigns himself to a slow, careful approach.

          Companion, he repeats. Softer, this time. Firmer, this time. He sits when he is close enough to and wants so badly for one of their human denmates to jump out of their aerie or burst into the den so he has an excuse to not continue.

          Nothing of the sort happens.

as the first openly, sincerely hostile monster-human he and hiccup swayed + convinced on the whole “everything [humans] know about [dragons] is wrong” topic, toothless respects and appreciates the hell out of astrid! she was the one who proved to him that hiccup wasn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime thing. she was the one who proved to him that humans can indeed change for the better. ( that’s not to say that hiccup himself didn’t prove anything to toothless; it’s just that hiccup is so kind and giving and empathetic and GOOD that toothless thinks of him more as a “too good to be true” miracle than an example of the virtue in humans. )

he values her input and judgement almost as much as he does hiccup’s. i say almost because if hiccup and astrid were to explicitly disagree on smth then toothless would be on hiccup’s side, no doubt or questions asked ( unless hiccup’s being stupid — e.g. “no i don’t need to rest despite my illness i’m fine to go flying!!” — in which case yeah nah bye hiccup ), but like…any instances where he’s on edge? where he’s agitated and feeling threatened and ready af to shoot? where he’s confused and feeling jittery and ready to do smth but unsure of what to actually do? he seeks for her…well, not guidance or permission or anything like that, just. confirmation. a compromise, maybe, if no confirmation is offered. he seeks for her knowledge and ideas on how to proceed in this situation as much as he seeks for hiccup’s and his own.

and it’s obv not the same now because he does get used to human touch but i like to think that immediately post-httyd, astrid was one of the only humans whose touch was actually welcomed by toothless. his underside and tail stayed off limits but he wouldn’t like…skirt out of reach or keep her in his sights at all times / constantly growl while she patted him. he welcomes all human touch now but she, the other Big Five riders, gobber, and valka and stoick but. y’know are still the only humans he trusts enough to let them touch his vulnerabilities + tail. ( hiccup is the only person — human or dragon — he trusts enough to relax around when he touches his vulnerabilities + tail. )