Tired. --open

[Hiccup]

Hiccup was beat after an intense training session. He had bruises on his bruieses, his head was throbbing, and his prosthetic was bothering him. Gobber had told him it was something that takes getting used to, but he didn't expect the pain. It was infuriating that now he was even more of a liability in normal battle. Sure, he was the best dragon rider in the village, but what would that do in a fight against the people of Curr? He didn't want to put Toothless in that kind of danger, people were crueler than beasts.

So here he was, lying against a rock with Toothless chasing some little bird. No, toothless was not going to eat the bird, or even really catch it. He just got amusement out of scaring the living daylights out of it or something.

Hiccup looked to the sky before closing his eyes. He just wanted some peace and quiet for a while, but he wouldn't mind some company. Of course he had Toothless, who was undoubtedly his best friend, but Toothless couldn't understand everything Hiccup was thinking, the same way Hiccup didn't always understand Toothless.

[Fulgora Horrorcrow]

He'd run off nearly right after training. Which wasn't unusual, most of them wanted to get the heck outta dodge after all the hard work she put them threw. Of course Fulgora taught the old fashion way, she taught them to fight with shields and axes, with blunt weapons and their own heads. But she didn't teach them a spec about them dragon fighting they did. Fulgora didn't roll that way, she didn't do the dragon thing, they were good for transportation, but then she wanted on her own feet with her own fighting. Even though Stoick kept reminding her that fighting an enemy with flight you had to use flight. Whatever, she could take down anyone with just her own bare hands. No need for some fledgling lizard, though Morthalium never seemed to protest her dislike nor accept it. That's what irritated her about him, he didn't take nor deny her insults.

"Down there ya lizard." she muttered, jumping off the dragon just as it hit the ground and strolled without stopping toward the boy who was resting on the rock, "Ya know if you went out instead of lazin around, your training might make your shrimpy arms less shrimpy." the older woman frowned at him, raising a booted foot to kick lightly at his arm. She folded her own arms and looked toward the dragon hoppin about over in the corner away from the three of them. Morthalium sat beside the rock and gave a low groan of greeting to Hiccup before his eyes focused on the lively Night Fury. She rolled her shoulders back and avoided Hiccup's gaze.

"Why'd ya leave so quickly?" she kicked up a stick and balanced it on the top of her foot. His father and her we're rather close friends for the most part, her dad fought with Stoick, she fought with Stoick, she was to look after Hiccup every now and again. Mostly when he was younger, no one wanted to touch the natural disaster with a twenty foot poll once he got older. "You're doing that thinking thing again, not wise." she kicked the stick up and caught it in her gloved hand.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup groaned as he heard heavy footsteps come toward him, obviously Dragons and definitely not Toothless who was still chasing the bird. There were human footsteps as well, but not Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlouts and there was only one set so he could assume not Ruffnut and Tuffnut. He's not saying they were never apart, just that is was abnormal. He cracked an eyelid to see Fulgora. He bit bad a louder groan.

Needless to say, this was not what he was hoping for when he mused about company. Astrid, Fishlegs, even Snotlout would be better than this. Within a few seconds, Toothless was sitting at Hiccup's side, eyeing the others. He bobbed his head in greeting to the other dragon, the looked to the woman who arrived and did the same. Toothless didn't like her much. He didn't like how she treated dragons, especially her own, but it seemed they had some sort of silent agreement worked out so he said nothing to the other dragon about it.

"Yeah, yeah." He said, not happy that she was making fun of his size. He wasn't like the other Vikings, he didn't have the mass, the strength, or the coordination on the ground to fight on his feet, not to mention the new prosthetic gave him a serious disadvantage.

"Toothless wanted to run around, and my leg was bothering me." He told her. No use in lying. He was terrible at it, and most people could see right through him when he was. He heard the stick move, but still didn't want to open his eyes to watch it. His head was still pounding, and the sunlight wasn't exactly helping. He wondered breifly why she really cared why he left. He did it often enough that this wasn't abnormal.

"I'm doing that, if I think at all my brain will ooze out my ears thing actually." He told her wryly. He didn't really have the will to deal with this right now. He would prefer to take a nap, but obviously she wasn't going to just up and leave. She came out here for something, he just wasn't sure what.

[Fulgora Horrorcrow]

He blew her off like he usually did, and Fulgora sighed. Not like this was abnormal behavior, and she watched the creature in the distance with a big of disgust. She didn’t like the Night Fury anymore than it liked her. But it did good, well, it did bad destroyin there homes and ruining their lives. But it saved Hiccup’s life. And while the shrimp was, just that a shrimp, she watched him grow into that shrimp. Even though she was only five years older than him. Stoick treated her life family, as did he treat the rest of the Vikings, because they sort of all were family. But her father and Stoick did dragon hunts together, they were close. Hiccup and she were not close like their parents were. She was very not close to anyone. But maybe that’s why she had some deep seeded care for him, because they were ‘family’ ish. That or she walked in her father’s footsteps. Haddocks and Horrorcrows were supposed to work together. She just had the misfortune of having Hiccup being her side car. She’d complain about it later, it really wasn’t that important right now.

”Did ya talk to Gobber about it?” she twirled the stick between her fingers, not showing any particular interest. But there was something in her voice, the fact that she asked, and the whole ideal that she was standing right there; that gave off some spec of her giving a damn. Hiccup losing his leg was unfortunate it really was, because yes, how could he be more useless in a fight? But that’s what she was here for. She trained fighters. Sure, Hiccup was harder to train then a fish, but she wasn’t giving up on him. His effort level just needed a little shove off a cliff. But she watched the Fury run around, ”Keep that up and he’ll be as wimpy as you.” she stopped spinning the stick and turned to glance down at Hiccup. He never enjoyed her presence, did he?

”Nah that means you’ve got too much on your mind.” She jumped up to sit on the rock he was leaning on throwing the stick to Morthalium who caught it in his mouth and lowered his head again, watching Fulgora for a moment before lowering the long neck of his to watch Toothless again. ”Ain’t bout the Currs is it?” lots of people were worrying about those chickens. Advantage? They had dragons, the Currs had birds the circle of life spoke for itself.

[Hiccup]

"He told me discomfort was normal at first, and that the pain doesn't always go away with everyone." He said shrugging. Medically speaking he was lucky not to have bled out when he lost his leg. He was lucky to be alive, and for that he was greatful. He could deal with a little pain if the only thing he had to endure was a little pain. Of course standing on it all the time was making it worse. It healed up ok, but he needed to give his leg some time to adjust. He also needed to adjust the designs of the prosthetic some more. Gobber did a good job with the original, he was genuinly suprised that he invented something like that. Of course, he needed to adjust it to fit Toothless' saddle and things like that. He couldn't have the prosthetic slipping out every time he tried to help his dragon fly. He found the irony amusing, it was his fault Toothless' left tailfin was missing, and now peice of his left leg was missing. He figured it was the gods putting things right.

"Really it means I got wacked on the head one too many times and I feel the need to just...do nothing." He said not really sure how to describe what he was doing. Nothing didn't really fit, but neither did clearing his mind. He knew that Fulgora didn't really take the threat of Curr seriously. Of course their partners didn't look like much, but from what he's hear they are wicked deadly.

"I wasn't thinking about it, but yeah I'm worried about Curr. Firstly their partnership with the Griffins has been going on much longer than we've had the dragons. Griffins have the power of lightning and, from what I've heard, their attacks are wicked deadly. They would be formidable opponents." He explained. This was the kind of stuff he would rather not think about right now. The pounding in his head hadn't stopped yet and it was hard to concentrate on things right now. He couldn't just ignore her, he learned early on that purpously ignoring people who could kick the crap out of you was a bad idea.

Toothless looked over to the other dragon. They had similar camoflage techniques both blended with the sky, he just blending in at night while the other bleded with the day sky. Of course he preferred his own coloring but he couldn't really judge a dragon based on it. He hadn't really gotten to know the other dragon, but he didn't really know how he could. The dragon didn't seem the most social, but he wanted to be on at least friendly terms with other dragons here in Berk.

[Fulgora Horrorcrow]

She looked down at the leg as he spoke and nodded her head, ”Right…But I’m sure you’ll get use ta it.” she muttered. Was that a bit of encouragement? No. Of course not Fulgora didn’t encourage anything Hiccup did. The prosthetic was weird for her, she didn’t know what she’d do if she had to have one, not that it’d ever happen. But she knew that it was hard. Gobber made it seem like a bloody breeze, but Hiccup was the real deal, watching him struggle with it. Hiccup was never good at a lot of things, but hiding how he was feeling, pro. Or it was just the fact that Fulgora couldn’t read anyone deeper than the face they were wearing. Unless it was terribly unconvincing, then she’d figure it out. ”You’ve toughed out worse.” like everyone thinking he was a failure. Then he came out of this, killed Red Death, won the war between dragons, and though she didn’t approve of letting the beasts lounge around like nothing happened, he was admirable. The trouble he went though. This was his fighting game, while she could best him in axe, there was no doubt that he could out fly her. Well…Morthalium might object, but Furies were fast…Morthalium was just skillful.

She leaned down, ”Well maybe if you knew how ter dodge, ye wouldn’t be takin as many hits to the head.” she hovered over him where she sat on the rock, reaching over and lightly slapping him on the cheek, ”’Nah would ya?” she smirked. She wasn’t being serious, but she was right, Fulgora was always right. She wasn’t much older, but she was old enough to know better. Vikings didn’t worry about their opponents; they were always stronger than them. Always. She’d yet to meet her match in this life, and the gods knew she didn’t fear it yet. ”Doin nothing? Ye do a lot of doin nothing, runt.” she finally stopped fidgeting on the rock and crossed her legs, leaning her elbows on the knees and resting her head in her hands.

She let her eyes drop to him again, but didn’t move so much as an inch from where she was. ”But they ‘ave birds. They’re bloody chickens, Hiccup.” Fulgora didn’t seem to threatened by the thought of Griffins. ”They’re just another bunch of hot heads breathin for a fight.” that sounded a little hypocritical, didn’t it Fulogra? ”They’re about as formidable as a dr-“ she stopped, ”They ain’t nothing to worry about.” she corrected herself, instead of continuing on with what she wanted to say. So used to slandering the very partners they now held. ”Ain’t yer critter do the lightning thing? It always looked like lightning.” Creature of Lightning and Death is what they called’em.

Morthalium raised his head, shaking his head when Fulgora stumbled over her words. He knew what she was going to say, he knew she wasn’t going to change, but the old creature knew that she held a special spot in her heart for him. Though most would deny she even had a heart. Bright green eyes caught sight of the younger dragon looking in his direction and he raised his head. The wise creature moving to his feet and walking over to the Night Fury before the tail came around and sat still while the bird landed on it. Morthalium looked toward the bird creature before it flew off from its perch, realizing that where it had landed was not a tree, but a tail. What appeared to be a somber smile crossed Morthalium’s face, and he glanced back at Fulgora.

[Hiccup]

"Yeah." He laughed. He wasn't going to tell her that him defeating the Red death was just him doing something insane. He never had a real plan, and pretty much winged it with Toothless. He also knew it was mostly luck, a lot of luck, that he was even still alive afterwards, that without Toothless he would still be Hiccup, the walking natural disaster. Some people would argue that most people would have killed the Night Fury so it was really a chain of events started by him, he was just trying to protect the people he cared about, the people he loved, when he fought the Red Death. That was one thing him and his father had in common, they both would do anything to protect their people.

"I know how to dodge, it's the actual dodging process I have trouble with." He said sighing. Yeah, he light and quick but the other vikings his age were quicker, and trained better in battle. They had an edge on him on the ground, that was for sure. "I do not! I do a lot of training with you, and training with the Dragons, practicing with Toothless and making saddles and whatnot for the dragons!" Hiccup exclaimed, sitting up quickly to look at Fulgora. The quick movement made his brain hurt, but it went away quickly to the duller constant pain in his head. Of course, he couldn't really blame her, most people didn't see him when he was off doing some of those things but he was sort of offended that she would think he was sitting and doing this all the time with the threat of the Currs coming nearer every day. He didn't like it one bit.

"I haven't seen a chicken Griffin yet. Falcon, Hawk, Eagle, Osprey, Kite, Owl, Vulture but no chicken." He said plainly. He breifly wondered what a chicken would look like as a Griffin. It would most likely be pretty hilarious but he dousbted such a thing existed. Since the Curr arrived with threats, he's been reading up on Griffins. He wanted to be totally mentally prepared for anything that could happen. He did catch that she was about to say dragon. He knew he wouldn't change her views anytime soon, but he at least hoped her partner could. Like he's said before, vikings tended to have stubborness issues which is why he was so amazed when he woke up to find dragons living amoung them.

"Eh, me and Toothless are still trying to riddle that one out. When it hits something it's more of an explosion than a burst of lightning. It doesn't really act like normal fire though either. Best theory we have is that it's something in between." Hiccup explained. He knew most people assumed it was lightning, and, ar first, he did too. But after some studying, they still haven't quite figured it out. It wasn't terribly important, it was good enough knowing that it was dangerous enough, but that didn't ease Hiccup's curiousity.

Toothless snorted loudly, almost menacingly when Fulgora almost said dragons. He didn't appreciate being compared to those featherbrained weaklings. He knew all the people of Berk were worried about the threat but Toothless was confidant, though Hiccup would probably call it cocky. He agreed with Fulgora there, those Griffins were nothing to worry about but he didn't want Hiccup getting hurt because of them so he would stick to the training. "So..." was all the Night Fury said, to the humans it would not sound like actual words, but he didn't mind. Dragons did have a language it was just they didn't really have the type of vocal cords to speak the human language, despite being able to understand it well enough.

[Fulgora Horrorcrow]

The laugh brought a smirk to Fulgora’s face, just because she was a bit heartless didn’t mean she didn’t care. Hiccup was just one of those people she found herself rather protective over. Maybe it was the relations of their family, the closeness of the Haddocks and the Horrorcrows. But she felt responsible for what happened to Hiccup when she was around, training and outside of that. Sure he handled the Red Death, but even that felt like a bit of luck. He might be a master thinker, he weaved through dragon training, but she was afraid for him otherwise. Being smart was only half the battle. But that seemed to be one or the other when it game to Vikings. Either you were smart and whimpy or beefed and idiotic. There were very rare combinations of smart and strong. But they happened, she and Stoick were examples, but she was weaker than most, mainly because of her female anatomy, but she was just as capable of beating down opponents.

She reached down and ruffled his hair, ”That’s part’a knowin how to dodge, runt.” probably not helping how his head was feeling but she was teasing him, for the most part. Then she crossed her arms as he sat up to face her, she tilted her head, ”Yer special. A lot ain’t gonna do much.” she said with a frown, ”Because yer dad didn’t have much faith in ya in the beginning, yer a late bloomer.” she explained with a ruffle of her hair, ”And fer good reason, kid. So just doin the normal nothing, ain’t gonna do anything.” she pressed her lips into a line, she didn’t mean to be so frank but it was true, ”We may be divin into a war.” she sighed, ”And not all of us are ready.” she gave him a serious look. That was Fulgora code for ‘I don’t want anything to happen to you again.’ But the look changed when she looked at the dragons for a few moments, taking that moment to wipe all possible emotion from her face.

”Don’t be a smart ass.” she nudged him with her foot. ”In the food chair, what eats a bird? A lizard. We have dragons, they have birds. We ain’t gonna buckle to the threat. Besides, what’s that crap you sell, we’re closer to our dragons?” Fulgora snorted. Though anyone who had the guts to tell Fulgora that her and her dragon were closer than she liked to admit, would receive a vicious beating. And no one wanted that, well, Fulgora liked beating people to the ground. ”So yeah.” she rolled her eyes, before looking at Hiccup.

”So indeed.” the dragon muttered, letting his gaze fall on the Night Fury for a moment, ”Your ideas on the recent invaders to our new home?” he stepped carefully toward the lake in the middle of the clearing, his eyes looking at his own reflection.

[Hiccup]

Hiccup scowled at Fulgora, he really hated when she did that thing with his hair. He sighed and tried to put it back right. Of course his hair was kind of just there to begin with but that was against the point. Toothless snickered at Hiccup, finding the exchange quite amusing.

"No, I have to disagree, knowing how and being able to are different." He said. Yeah, he was being cheeky, did he care? Nope. This was Hiccup, and he wouldn't change for anyone. If he were any differemt he probably would have killed Toothless in the forest. Then, what would Berk have now? Nothing. His father would have found the nest eventually, and then Berk would probably be a pile of rubble.

"Sorry to say, but right now, doing nothing was the general goal so I wasn't really wanting to do anything." He said. He was worried about the war, but that didn't mean he didn't need to rest every now and again. "Yeah, I know, on the ground I am a toothpick and an easy target, but chances are I'll be on Toothless for most of the battle if a war does break out, and speaking of, you should really let me make you and Morthalium a saddle. Fighting on a dragon is different than just flying on one, especially if you'll need your hands to fight, and if it comes down to it, you know my father wouldn't let me near battle without Toothless. Even if the Griffins are dangerous, we have yet to find anything that can meet a Night Fury's speed." He said sighing. He didn't want anything to happen to Toothless, and was praying that a war did not come. He didn't see any other options, however.

"Cats eat lizards Fulgora, and by the way Birds of prey, Hawks, Eagles, Falcons and the like, actually eat lizards, at least the small ones." Hiccup explained. Yeah sure, bigger lizards at some birds, but they didn't really get eaten by lizards.

"And, Hey, totally not crap! I personally find everyone, at least everyone but you, though you've managed to find a dragon that can deal with all of that," he said, gesturing to her. He meant her general personality. " a dragon that best fits their personality. The bond between a person and their dragon is not just some flimsy things, and yeah while the majority of people from Curr are rude and mean to their Griffins, it doesn't mean they aren't skilled fighters. It's what they breed their Griffins for!" He exclaimed. He would probably never say these things to the average Berk resident, but this was Fulgora she could handle it. She wasn't going to start panicking just because he was being completely honest about the upcoming war.

"The birds are toast, though I do feel for them. It's not like they want any part of this. The people are blind. They don't see what they could have." He said nodding, still watching Hiccup and the other human. Hiccup seemed to be getting upset, and while he knew Fugora probably wouldn't hurt Hiccup, at least not too bad, he didn't want to be off of his guard.

[Fulgora Horrorcrow]

Fulgora chuckled lowly, as out of character as that seemed, when the younger Berk boy tried to fix his hair again. She enjoyed pestering him, maybe because she was older and their family was so close that Hiccup felt like a younger sibling to her. Possibly, if she ever accepted the fact that a dragon pansy such as himself was able to relate to the Horrorcrow name. The Haddocks could deal with that all they liked, but Fulgora was not going to be kissin the dragon bus just yet. She crossed her arms, ”Nah, it’s all one swift procedure.” The chain of events that lead to this state of Berk or the possible states of Berk had Hiccup not been Hiccup didn’t matter to Fulgora. She never thought about them and never would unless pressed with the conversation. ”Think ya could do it if ya stopped day dreamin.” the hint of teasing never went away. She wasn’t there for their Dragon training the first time. Too busy being on the boat of death that was ambushed close to the nest the first time they went out to fight it. And when she came back hearing Hiccup was a master dragon trainer. Oh man, she choked on her own words.

”Doin nothing is like takin a step back, Hiccup.” though Fulgora couldn’t talk she was standing right next to him doing nothing at the same time. But she did train over the top for the most part. Fulgora was obsessed with being stronger and better than anyone around her. It might have been her fault, she never did anything else but fight. Fight and watch out for Hiccup, in her own little way. On the ground, toothpick, in the air – her eyes moved to Toothless – wicked fast and hardly touchable. But that still didn’t mean he was invincible. He had to be prepared for everything. While he could best her on wings, she could best him on the ground without lifting a finger. She snapped out of staring at Toothless to turn to Hiccup, ”Now I don’t need one of yer, fancy little Saddles.” she muttered, she narrowed her eyes at him, ”Ye can go on fine dressing up yer dragons all pretty and the like, but I want as little contact with mine as I can muster.” and he knew that. Fulgora was one of the only people in Berk that was still getting used to dragons, she rode her’s as little as possible, trained with it as little as possible, and interacted with them as little as possible. Perhaps she was afraid of change, but Fulgora was taking far too long to wade into the water. ”The lizard and I fight fine without yer saddle.” she turned her gaze away.

He was right, Stoick probably wouldn’t. She nodded her head from side to side, ”That’s true, but it’s still-“ dangerous. She stopped, ”eh, yer funeral.” she muttered with a shrug of her shoulders. It was really hard not to care. ”I’m bankin on that.” That his Night Fury was fast enough to at least keep Hiccup from getting hurt. She glared at him, ”Oi, some big lizards eat birds, now our big lizards are gonna barbeque them birds. Ye wreckin my point, sport.” she muttered. She rolled her eyes at the exclamation, and raised a brow, yes everyone but her. And shifted slightly when he gestured to all of her, and raised a brow at what he was getting at. ”Tis flimsy.” she interjected, but her kept going on. She leaned back on the rock, ”They missin’ something that we have then.” she raised a brow, ”Most of our Dragons are wild, they come to us nearly full grown, and they have their natural instincts to bank on. Them Griffin’s don’t have that. Some of ‘em might, but not enough to beat the pure instinct that ours do.” she tapped her helmet, ”Bein born and raised doesn’t help you remember yer natural instincts.”

”Humans are never aware of what they have.” Morthalium answered, moving slowly along the rim of the little lake as Toothless spoke. He noticed how he watched Hiccup and Fulgora, and though Mort’s eyes were not fixed on his owner, he still kept an ear and eye out for his name or a mention for his presence. ”I think cooperation would be better than fighting…” the old dragon muttered, ”But it cannot be helped if the humans see fit to battle…our job will be to keep them safe…My job to keep her safe…” the relationship between Fulgora and Morthalium was indeed a mystery, but there was something there that he knew of, but she would not admit to.