Thousand Miles Ch. 8

Some days Hiccup wondered if the Gods hated him. Like the day he had searched for Toothless after shooting him down and had difficulty finding him, or the day that his father had set off for the dragon's nest, doomed to be defeated and worse. This morning felt like another one of those days.

First, he'd been awoken by a Timberjack biting him on his cheek hard enough to draw blood. Then while he was cooking breakfast, a Nadder had sniffed the pepper and nearly impaled him with flying tail spikes. After that, a Night Fury had accidentally knocked him over with his tail while trying to catch fish in a pond Hiccup was washing off in. Hiccup just couldn't wait to see what the Whispering Death had in mind for him.

"Aww, come on Hiccup, cheer up!" Astrid said, prodding him in the ribs and causing him to jump.

"Not helping." Hiccup stated blandly, scowling at her. She scowled back at him, before her face lightened and she step forward and kissed him. His mood instantly lifted. "Okay. Helping a little bit."

Astrid smiled, stepping away from him. "I can't do that too often or you might get used to it."

"Slim chance of that." Hiccup murmured, a dreamy look on his face.

They extinguished the campfire and climbed on their dragons for the flight to Balder's. When they arrived, he was outside waiting on them.

"I hope you brought your notebook with you Hiccup. This will likely be the first time you've ever gleaned so much information from the dragons." Balder said to the male Viking after they'd landed. Once they'd stepped off, he started walking down the winding trail.

"We're walking?" Hiccup asked, surprised.

'Yes. My kin are aware of your coming, but it would be wise not to surprise them by flying in. We don't want more incidents such as…yesterday.' Loki answered, staring at Hiccup. There was a feeling of unease that traveled through their connection that Hiccup sensed had to do with the 'incident'. He turned and followed Balder down the trail.

"That, and I don't want to get too sore before we leave." Balder called back, adding to their conversation. Hiccup shrugged and looked at Astrid. Astrid returned the gesture before following after the Whispering Death with Bluebell. Toothless nosed Hiccup in the back, shoving him forward a bit.

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It took the group about ten minutes to walk across the valley from the small cabin to the opposing mountains. From there, they walked up a steep and rather rocky hillside, Hiccup needing some small assistance from Toothless here and there, and entered a narrow split in the mountains. It was just wide enough for Toothless to spread his wings, and probably for Loki to do the same. He'd yet to actually see the dragon fly.

The walls of the crag were lined wind nooks and hollows and caves, perfect for dragons to hide and nest in. Loki paused in his step and sat down on his haunches. Hiccup realized he must have called to the other Deaths, as the dragons soon slid out of the caves. Two slowly flittered down to ground level. There were six other Deaths in the crag.

Immediately, Hiccup felt them touch his mind and saw visions of himself, Toothless, Astrid, Bluebell, and Jack all from different angles. It was rather disorienting, and he was soon glad to have Toothless to lean against. The sensations faded away, and Hiccup saw Astrid blink and sway for a moment before she too stood back upright.

'Welcome Hiccup and Astrid, Toothless, Bluebell and Jack.' a unfamiliar voice spoke to them. It was feminine and smooth. One of the dragons stepped forward to them. While Loki was a dark colored yellow, this dragon was slightly smaller and creamier shade of yellow than Loki. For the first time, Hiccup really studied the Whispering Deaths.

Their heads were rounded, their chins spiky and yellow colored. At the top of their head were rounded eyes, slightly cloudy and misty, and a faded shade of purple. The tops of their heads were a brick-red color, dark and deep. In between their eyes was a long curved spike, then a shock of separate spikes, leveling off before the straight spikes began near their wings. Their wings were long but not wide, spikes protruding at each supporting bone running through the appendages. Their entire upper body was long and could move similar to that of a snake. This ended at their legs, which were short and thick, but powerful. They didn't have individual digits for each claw, but instead were similar to humans with a foot and three claws protruding. Their tails were shorter than the Skrill and Timberjack's, but longer that Toothless's.

'This is my mate, Sigyn.' Hiccup smiled at the small joke as Loki introduced the female.

"Hi." Hiccup greeted.

"Hello." Astrid added. Jack flew off of her shoulder and landed in front of the Death. She lowered her head to his eye level, gazing at him with the pupil in her faint purple eye. Timberjack and Death stared at each other for a moment before Jack cooed at her, sitting back on his haunches.

'He approves that I will not try to hurt you.' Sigyn sounded amused at the little dragon. 'He says however, that I may use the one legged one for a chew toy if need be.'

"Not surprising. HE already does." Hiccup moaned, running his hand over his hair. He head Toothless laughing at him, the weird throaty sound. It just proved he was right about the dragon not liking him though.

That day, Hiccup met the other dragons, who didn't have names. They weren't permanent residents like Loki and Sigyn. He met them, and they all thought something at him. One sent him an image of flying over the forests, another sent him an image of swooping down on a deer, another showed him a fight scene between it and another dragon, the final two showed him the same picture, what he assumed was their hatchling growing up and flying from their nest in the winter. Astrid was likewise receiving the same treatment as him.

Hiccup traded all of them with his memories, some of feasts, meeting Toothless, the other dragons, the Green Death, and other things. The dragons all seemed to be intrigued by Hiccup, and Loki explained to him that they were only the second and third friendly human that they had met.

The Vikings spent the entire day with the dragons, communicating basic things through their minds. When the sun began to set, Hiccup and Astrid said their goodbyes and flew away on Toothless. Bluebell and Jack had left earlier, Bluebell needing to hunt and desiring to show Jack how.

"That was…amazing." Astrid said, not for the first time, as she stirred the rabbit meat in the pan, adding some various spices that Balder had given her during their lunch break that day.

"Tell me about it. There's literally no limit on what we could learn from the dragons!" Hiccup exclaimed. Toothless snorted behind him, rather annoyed that he hadn't received very much attention today. "Aww, come on Toothless. You have to give me a break. I've never met a actual talking dragon before."

The Night Fury snorted again, looking up at the fading light in the sky as Bluebell and Jack returned. Jack happily roared, bouncing over to Astrid when he landed. He tugged at her arm wrapping.

"What is it Jack?" Astrid asked, standing and following the little dragon to the edge of the clearing. There, he spread his wings and charged at a tree about three inches thick. He sliced through it near the bottom. It fell over towards the campsite, nearly hitting Hiccup on it's way to the ground. "That's great Jack!"

Astrid scratched the dragon under his chin, noting that he'd grown to be bigger than a terrible terror now, and was getting a bit large to be sleeping inside the tent. He'd slept outside a few times before, when he was exhausted and curled up next to Bluebell. She was going to have to get the dragon to start sleeping outside soon.

"Jack, you're gonna have to sleep outside. You're to big to sleep in the tent with me anymore." Astrid said. A hurt look appeared on Jack's face, and he curled up on the opposite side of the fire from her. She sighed. She didn't want to make him angry with her.

"Ah, he'll be fine. After all, when he's outside, he can do what he wants to." Hiccup said, reacting to her sigh. At least he wouldn't be waking up to a dragon treating him like a teething toy anymore.

"Yeah, you're right Hiccup. Outside he can stay up as late as he wants and sleep wherever he wants." Astrid said, catching on to what Hiccup was doing.

"Yep. He could even sleep in a tree if he wanted." Hiccup said, watching the little dragon perk up his ears. Jack rose and paced back over to Astrid, curling up beside her, but still to far away for her to scratch him.

They went to bed that night without having a dragon kicking at them or swatting them with his tail. It was nice.

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The next morning, Hiccup woke rather late and saw that Astrid was already gone. When he exited the tent he saw the water skins were gone to, and he guessed she was filling them up for later. Toothless and Bluebell were curled up at the edge of the campsite. Hiccup also noticed that Jack was nowhere in sight.

"Must be with Astrid…" he muttered to himself.

As Hiccup was going about restarting the campfire, he tripped over his own leg and fell forward into the cool ashes from the previous night. When he rose, grime was caked all over his face and hair.

"Urgh!" He moaned, pushing himself into a sitting position. He heard Toothless laugh at him before a tail swung into his view, offering him some leverage on standing up. "Thanks bud. I gotta go wash up."

Hiccup made his way to the pond he'd bathed in the morning before, hoping to at least clean the soot off his face and out of his hair. He came through the trees and emerged at pond just as Astrid was leaving it.

All he could do was stop and gawk at her, unable to move. Unfortunately for Hiccup, she didn't have that problem. Astrid found the heaviest piece of clothing she had and hurled it at him. Toothless grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of the way just in time, as an armored skirt rushed by where his head had been.

"HICCUP!" Astrid roared at him as he sat stunned in the bushes Toothless had tossed him into. He knew he was in for it. Not a minute later, his doom came barreling through the trees at him. He winced as Astrid stopped in front of him, expecting a kick or bashing by a heavy object. Strangely, none of that came. Instead, she reaches down and helped him up.

"A-Astrid, I uh I was-" Hiccup stuttered, trying to explain himself.

"Shut up." Astrid said, roughly grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back to the pond. He stared helplessly at Toothless, silently begging for some sort of assistance. Toothless shook his head slightly, almost as if saying he wasn't stepping into this.

Astrid led Hiccup out onto a rock that extended out into the pond, grabbed him by the back of his vest and pants leg and threw him into the pond. After the splash, she walked off, ignoring him as he sputtered to the surface, coughing up water. Toothless appeared at the edge of the pond, peering at Hiccup and then looking back in the direction Astrid had gone. Hiccup thought he saw the dragon shiver, but he wasn't sure.

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When Hiccup returned to the camp, Astrid had lit the fire and was cooking breakfast. Hiccup tried to explain himself to her, but she ignored him. Hiccup sighed, resigning himself to the silent treatment for a while. As he was eating his breakfast in silence, he realized something.

"Astrid, where's Jack?" Hiccup asked her, half expecting a reply. She paused in eating and looked over at Bluebell. Astrid pointed at the Nadder, and Hiccup turned to look at Bluebell, for the first time seeing that she was curled up around something.

Hiccup realized that Bluebell cared for Jack a great deal. It struck him as odd that she would. She'd always been indifferent to most people, though he knew that she must have a soft spot somewhere.

"Are you going to ignore me all morning?" Hiccup asked as he turned back to Astrid. Astrid looked up at him. Her anger had faded slightly, and Hiccup realized that there was something else mixed in with it. Could it be embarrassment?

"Maybe." she answered, quickly looking back down at her food. He was sure he'd seen her blush slightly before she'd lowered her face.

"You know, I was only coming to wash my face off. I tripped and fell in the ashes earlier." Hiccup said, trying to keep her talking.

"I know."

"Two words now! See, we're improving!" He heard Astrid laugh a bit.

"I'm still mad." she said, looking up at him.

"And look, there was three!" Hiccup said, gesturing to her.

"Shut up Hiccup." she said, smiling at him slightly. It was hard to be angry at someone who can make you laugh.

"Fine. I'm sorry for earlier, I didn't mean to…you know." Hiccup said, blushing at the memory.

"Well, I'm kind of sorry for throwing you in the pond." Astrid apologized.

"Kind of?"

"Yeah, I should have thrown you farther." She answered, smiling now. She saw him shrug, taking it as Hiccup usually did.

After they finished eating, Hiccup and Astrid flew to Balder's cabin. He had already left for the Whispering Death's valley, so Hiccup took Toothless down low over the trees, flying in so close that if Toothless had extended his legs, they would've scraped the treetops. Dragon and Rider pulled up sharply, flying perpendicular to the ground, rushing  straight past Bluebell and Astrid before pulling even with the clouds.

"Ready Toothless?" Hiccup asked.

"Groar." Toothless affirmed, laying his ears back. One click of the tailfin later, and they were in a sharp spiraling dive. The duo pulled out just in time to land at the mouth of the crag.

"That was a nice display of acrobatics." Balder called from below as he leaned against Loki, climbing the steep banking.

"Don't tell him that, it'll give him a big head." Astrid said as she and Bluebell landed. Hiccup smiled as they walked into the valley as a group. And so began their study of the Whispering Death.

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It was probably the easiest Hiccup had ever learned about dragons. The first day alone he'd filled thirteen of the thirty questions he'd made. All of them were 'How, Why, Where, What' questions involving the dragon species. It was an in general questionnaire that he'd made so he'd have guidelines for researching the new Dragon Manual.

The Whispering Death were migratory dragons. They lived up North during the spring and summers, and lower in the South when winter and fall came to the world. The dragons were omnivores, more so than any other dragon. They would eat fruits if they could find them, but preferred red meat to anything. Hunting rarely proved to be a challenge to them, a fact Hiccup noted while watching Loki paralyze a deer with his mental probes. They never had to worry about game running away once they'd located it and got within range.

Hiccup found their rituals to be just as fascinating. On the third day of his time with the Whispering Deaths, Sigyn explained the way Whispering Death's mated and raised their young. It was a privilege Hiccup never had with the other dragons. He'd had to learn about them by observation.

The Whispering Death chose a partner to fly with after they were typically six, and if they liked this partner, they would become mates. After a four year period, if they were still together, they would become mates for life, and would begin producing young. The young were hatched in late summer, and raised in the fall. Then, during the winter months they would fly to find game and learn how to use their minds to hunt. They would continue until they became proficient at it. When spring came again the dragons would fly north, and the young would now be treated as lesser members of the groups, no longer bound to their parents and free to go to any of their living areas they wished. They were now responsible for themselves.

There were places spread all across the eastern inland where the hundred or so Whispering Deaths would fly. Different ones were popular with different personalities of the dragons. Some liked to be near water, others trees or mountains. The one Hiccup and Astrid had visited however, was the westernmost Whispering Death homestead.

Hiccup also learned a lot of miscellaneous things about the Whispering Deaths, such as their ability to breathe fire depends on how much red meat they eat. If they don't get enough, their fires would be unable to even produce a puff of spoke. Loki also told Hiccup that Bone Nappers enjoyed the occasional company of the Whispering Death, and had been known to occasionally travel with them for short periods of time.

On the fifth day Hiccup and Astrid flew to the Whispering Death's valley, Loki and Balder greeted them with news.

"Hiccup, Lady Astrid, good morning!" Balder spoke as Toothless landed in the valley. Bluebell and Jack had gone hunting that morning.

"Good morning Balder." Hiccup said, suppressing a yawn. Astrid returned his greeting.

'Today, a guest has come to visit us here.' Loki spoke, 'My offspring, Nari.'

"That's great Loki!" Astrid said with a smile. They entered the crag and found Sigyn there with a smaller dragon, about the size of a large Gronkle.

Loki introduced the younger Whispering Death to the Vikings as Nari. The young dragon rose from her sitting position and walked over to the newly arrived humans. She sat down again, sniffed them, then greeted them.

'Hello.' Nari spoke with her mind, just like her parents.

"Hello." Hiccup said, extending his hand slightly, palm open. Nari sniffed him again before nosing him. All the while Hiccup could sense her in his mind by the vision he was receiving of himself. Nari then turned to Astrid, who returned her greeting in a similar way as Hiccup. Apparently satisfied with them, the young dragon turned to Toothless.

The Night Fury had been watching Nari carefully as she sniffed his humans, and when she turned to him, they looked at each other, apparently exchanging thoughts, and Nari returned to where she had been conversing with her mother.

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"Hiccup, that village of yours, Berk was it?" Balder asked Hiccup as they sat around the table outside his cabin. They had gone out flying, Hiccup trying to get a full grasp of the Whispering Deaths abilities in the air. Because of their long bodies, they could twist and turn in odd ways in the air, and Toothless was challenged to keep up with them in aerobatics. But the Night Fury wasn't to be denied however, and out-flew them in the end. After their flight, they had gone to the cabin for lunch as usual. Sigyn and Loki sat behind Balder, just as Toothless and Bluebell lay behind Hiccup and Astrid. Nari and Jack were playing not far away, the Timberjack running about, attempting to catch  Nari's agile tail.

"Solidly located on the Meridian of Misery." Hiccup answered. Astrid smiled. It was something only the people from Berk would understand.

"I'm leaving for there tomorrow. We were waiting on Nari before departing." Balder spoke.

"You're already leaving?" Hiccup asked, slightly surprised. He and Balder had discussed leaving for Berk for the past few days, but he had expected him to wait a little longer.

"I may as well. I must admit…I'm excited about what it will be like now that Loki can be with me, with humans. I've had to hide my connection with these magnificent creatures for so long, it will be nice to finally be somewhere..." Balder trailed off, and Hiccup and Astrid felt elation swell through  them, Loki transmitting Balder's feelings to them. Hiccup completely understood, and asked Loki to relay his memory of when Berk had first become friendly with the dragons. He saw Balder smile.

"So when exactly are you leaving tomorrow?" Astrid asked. She had received the broadcast of Hiccup's memory as well.

"Early morning." Balder answered.

"Okay. I suppose it would make sense for us to leave then too." Hiccup said with a shrug. Nearby, Jack tumbled head over heels in a roll, as Nari lifted her tail out of the way.

"What?" Astrid asked, caught off guard. "But we haven't even spent a full week studying the Whispering Death."

"I know, but we didn't need as long with them as we did with the others. And the faster we get done, the faster we can go home, Astrid. We already wasted a week searching, so it's been a month since we started out. We've seen three dragon species in that time. We've still got to find the Thunderdrum, the Scauldren, the Changeling, and a few other dragons." Hiccup spoke with his typical passion that he typically got whenever he talked about dragons. Astrid knew he already had his mind set and there was little chance of changing it.

'Would you mind if I came with you?' a voice popped into their conversation, adding a mental image of them sitting at the table outside the cabin.

Nari's question caught Hiccup off guard. He seemed confused for a  minute, as if his mind were still processing the question. It would be great to have the young dragon along as a linguist, but it did surprise him that she wanted to come.

"That would he great, actually!" Astrid responded, knowing that even if Hiccup got mad at her later, it wouldn't matter, he was going to say yes anyways. The young dragon's skills were too valuable to pass up.

"She's right. It would be great to have you along with us. It would save us a lot of time." Hiccup agreed. Nari's emotions swelled over into their minds, and Hiccup got a glance into why she wanted to go. It got boring just moving around in a cycle, and the prospect of meeting other dragons, helping out someone who was a legend...

'I would love to meet other dragons, and I love finding new places!' Nari exclaimed, waves of emotion still pouring from her. There was a screeching, grinding sound that Hiccup recognized as the strange laughter that dragons made. He looked over at Loki and saw he was laughing.

'She reminds me much of myself when I was younger. But if I hadn't been like her, then likely Balder and I wouldn't be sitting here right now.' Loki spoke, and Hiccup saw a hazy set of memories flash in front of his eyes. Flying, journeying, and an injured, much younger Balder.

"Well…if you're going to leave in the morning as well, it would be wise to begin preparing now." Balder said. "I have a map of the North, but there are several islands here. Which one of these is Berk?"

Hiccup stood and walked over to where Balder was sitting. He studied the map for a moment, wondering how old it was. It was slightly yellowed and rather stiff. Hiccup didn't remember seeing it before, in the rather barren cabin, and realized it must have come out of the chest in the cabin.

"Berk isn't marked on here. It's actually a little farther out to sea than what this extends too." Hiccup said. He moved his finger just to the edge of the map. "It would be about right here if I'm not mistaken. We have a more current map. I can bring it to you in the morning."

"Thank you, it will be much appreciated. I have a few gifts for you tomorrow. Now, you should probably be on your way, and make as much use of the remaining daylight as you can." Balder said, patting Hiccup on the shoulder.

Astrid and Hiccup returned to their camp and packed the supplies they had used while staying in the forested valley. It didn't take a long time, but by the time they'd cooked and cleaned their dishes, the sun was fading out of the sky.

That night, Hiccup's dreams were filled with talking dragons and Astrid. And for the first time, he realized that his dreams had come true.