(Toothcup week ‘HTTYD3 AU’)
Toothless could smell something. It was oddly enticing, which was annoying, because he was perfectly comfortable right here with Hiccup. Watching his adorable, beloved, clever human play with bits of prey-skin and a charred stick. Listening to his voice eagerly chattering to about something called ‘the hidden world’, whatever that was. It sounded like a hatchling’s story time.
At last the urge to follow that odd smell became too strong. Toothless still didn’t want to leave Hiccup, so he nudged his human until Hiccup asked “what is it, bud?” He jumped around urgently. “You wanna go flying?” Hiccup got to his feet at last, and Toothless immediately scooped him up. “Whoa! Okay!”
Whatever was making the weird scent, it was coming from the woods of Berk. Toothless landed not far away and made Hiccup dismount, so he could approach with caution. Of course Hiccup tried to follow him. Toothless growled softly until his human got the idea and stayed put. Then he slunk forwards.
When he emerged into the fern-filled clearing, it was to see something very odd. A pure white dragon that looked like him. Well, a Night Fury, anyway. Only something was off - and not just the colour. This dragon was smooth, barely any scales at all, and there was a very strong female scent coming off of them.
He hadn’t smelled a female-scent that strong before, and wrinkled his snout up. The female looked over her shoulder at him and purred. ‘Hello, alpha.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Who and what are you?’
‘I’m just a lonely, lost drakaina in need of protection,’ she replied, slinking towards him. ‘As for my name, you can call me whatever you like, alpha…’
This close, her scent was overpowering. It made him sneeze. She recoiled. ‘Sorry. Please don’t stand so close… you smell kind of weird. No offence.’
The white dragon pouted at him. ‘Don’t you like it? This is my natural scent.’ She fluttered her wings to waft it at him. ‘It’s stronger than normal because… well, I don’t have to tell a strong male like you what time of year it is, do I?’
She purred. ‘No, silly. It’s mating season for us Furies. Just so you know, if you’ve been getting any urges, I am available.’ She stretched luxuriously.
‘No thanks. I almost forgot. Welcome to Berk. Help yourself to fish, don’t set stuff on fire, and no matter how annoying some of them are, don’t hurt the’-
‘Human!’ she snarled. It looked like when Hiccup scrunched his pillow up. She reared up and fired a blast over his shoulder at - his human, who hadn’t stayed put after all. Toothless leapt in the way and took the blast on his wing.
‘HOW DARE YOU!’ he roared at her. ‘I just told you not to hurt the humans!’
‘It was sneaking up on us!’ she protested, trying to get past. ‘It’s a threat!’
Toothless growled. ‘No, he isn’t. The humans here don’t hurt dragons. The one you nearly killed is my human. My best and dearest friend. Understand?’
She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Humans are dangerous! Quick, we must go!’ With that, she leapt into the air and flew away. Toothless blinked. Then he turned to check on Hiccup. “Woah. Did you see that? It was like a Bright…”
“A Light Fury!” Astrid exclaimed breathlessly. When did she get there?
“Yeah, yours is better, probably. Whoa, bud. What’s wrong?” Hiccup asked when Toothless nuzzled him. “I’m fine. Thanks for the save. Sorry for scaring off your new friend.” Toothless snorted. He wasn’t friends with that female.
A few days later, Toothless and Hiccup were flying off in search of this so called ‘hidden world’. They were accompanied by Astrid and Stormfly, Valka and Cloudjumper, and the rest of their friends. As they were gliding beneath the clouds, Astrid suddenly exclaimed “up there!” and pointed above them.
Toothless looked sharply, in case it was a threat. At first he didn’t see anything. Then a white silhouette that wasn’t a cloud soared past. That female was back. He caught a whiff of that overly strong scent of hers again and sneezed.
“She’s beautiful,” declared Astrid. Toothless wasn’t so sure. He thought she looked weirdly smooth. Why was she following them? As he watched, she flew through one of her own fireballs and disappeared. Toothless shrugged and kept flying. Then out of nowhere, he felt Hiccup get ripped off his shoulders.
His human yelled, and Toothless roared. He dived and easily swept Hiccup out of the air, then slowed to a hover and looked around for whoever had attacked them. The Light Fury reappeared not far away, looking confused. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked him. ‘I just saved you from that human on your back!’
Toothless snarled at her. ‘I need his help to fly, you idiot! And even if I didn’t, he’s my best friend. You could have killed him!’ She looked scared and fled.
“Man. She really doesn’t like me, does she?” remarked Hiccup.
‘I don’t like her either’ Toothless growled as she turned herself invisible again.
The hidden world turned out to not only be real, but beautiful. Toothless couldn’t wait to explore it further with Hiccup. On the way home they passed over an island and heard frightened roars coming from it. ‘Help me! Help me!’
Toothless recognised the Light Fury’s voice. “Did you hear that?!” asked Hiccup. Yes, he had, and now they were going to have to save her. Great. He flew down, followed by Stormfly. They found the Light Fury lying unconscious in front of some thick ferns and bushes that and no sign of her attacker.
Stormfly’s nostrils flared. ‘I can smell a bad human’ she snarled, and flicked a spine from her tail. It landed in the ferns and they heard a muffled cry of pain. Toothless promptly fired at the same spot despite Hiccup’s protest. When the smoke cleared, they could see a man with a crossbow dead on the ground.
The Light Fury jerked to her feet in alarm. Toothless and Stormfly landed behind her. She stared at the man’s body and exclaimed ‘you killed him!’
‘He was a threat! He was using you as bait to lure dragons in’ he told her.
She rounded on him and snarled. ‘You killed my human!’ Then she flinched, as if realising what she’d just said. Toothless’ eyes widened. ‘No, wait. I mean’-
‘You help him!” Toothless roared. ‘You were trying to help him kill me and Hiccup this whole time! HOW DARE YOU?!” Enraged, he leapt at and grappled with her. She shrieked and struggled, but she was weak compared to him, and he easily pinned her down. Then he began to charge another blast.
“STOP!” yelled Hiccup, running forwards. “Toothless, stop. Just let her go.”
Toothless hesitated. Hiccup would be upset if he killed her, and he didn’t want that. ‘I’ll spare you’ he growled at the Light Fury. ‘But if you try to hurt him again, I will kill you.’ Then he stepped back. She scrambled to her paws and fled once more, hopefully for good this time. Toothless snorted irritably.
“What was all that about?” asked Hiccup, reaching out to him cautiously. Toothless nuzzled his beloved human. In that moment he realised, even if the Light Fury hadn’t secretly been working with their enemy, he still wouldn’t have wanted to be her mate. All he really wanted was to stay and be with Hiccup.