33. Teatime with Toothless

“And this is…”

“Demeaning.”

Hiccup’s dry quip earned him a scolding glare from Mirabel. “Come on, Hiccup! How’re you gonna learn to read if you don’t take this seriously?”

They were in Casita, the nursery room specifically. There currently weren’t any babies in the Madrigal household, but a new nursey was built just in case. One of its walls was adorned with colorful decals of the Latin Alphabet, and Mirabel was using this opportunity to introduce Hiccup to their written language. Something he still didn’t quite understand.

“Y’know…when you said we should hang at your place today, this isn’t what I had in mind.” He grumbled. Mirabel was taking her role as a teacher very seriously, to the point where it was becoming very annoying.

“Hiccup, if you’re gonna live here you need to know how to read. I just want to help you…” Her genuine concern for the boy was adorable, and it lessened his exasperation to a mild irritation.

“This is?” She repeated, gesturing to a symbol on the wall.

Hiccup’s pouting only increased. “You’re not gonna let me out of this, are you?”

“Nope!” She answered brightly, before gesturing to the wall one more time. “THIS IS!?” She asked, intensely.

Hiccup responded with a sigh.

“A…”

“And this?”

“B…”

“What about this one?”

“C…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And that, is why you should never interrupt a Monstrous Nightmare mating dance!”

Antonio laughed uproariously as Toothless finished his story, a tale as epic as it was hilarious.

The two were sat in Antonio’s room, having a tea party. Toothless would protest, and call it a meeting between an apex predator and the ambassador to humankind, or something cool like that. But it was a tea party.

As they relaxed under the canopy of the massive tree, a menagerie of creatures frolicking and flying around them, Toothless regaled the child with stories from his younger years as a traveler. Before meeting Hiccup.

“And there was this one dragon, a Whispering Death. That guy was a total…” Toothless quickly remembered he was in the presence of a child. “Uh…Meany-Pants! A big, fat, Meany-Pants. He would follow me around wherever I went, trying to kill me…”

Antonio leaned forward, enthralled. “He was relentless! He never stopped hunting me…I think he was lonely!” The boy laughed, as the dragon continued. “Yeah, we chased each other around for a few years. Until I got pulled into the nest…”

“What’s the nest?” Antonio asked with a childlike curiosity.

Toothless grimaced, as bad memories of red fog and the smell of sulfur came to his mind. “The nest is where dragons end up when they get really, really unlucky. It’s a prison, where the only escape is death…” He glanced to his prosthetic tail-fin. “Or getting permanently disfigured by a dork, in my case.”

Antonio still had questions. “But what’s so bad about it?”

He tool another sip of his tea, as the Night Fury elaborated. “It isn’t the nest itself that’s bad, its what’s inside it…the Red Death…”

The boy’s eyes lit up with recognition at the name. “You mentioned that before!”

Toothless nodded, remembering that night. “Yeah, that was when Hiccup was convinced he had to leave. And the other week, he was convinced he had to push Mirabel away. Geez, that guy can be stupid sometimes…”

As the dragon chuckled, Antonio looked offended on the scrawny teen’s behalf. “Hey! Stop being mean to my cousin!”

Toothless gave a deadpan stare in response. “Kid, he’s not your cousin…”

“He’s not my cousin yet!” Antonio countered.

The dragon rolled his eyes. “Fine, but until he’s your cousin he’s MY rider, and I can insult him all I want!” The child just stuck his tongue out.

“What was I saying? Oh yeah, Queenie…” Toothless collected his thoughts. “The Red Death is a tyrant. She forces other dragons into being her minions, and makes them raid the Viking village so they can steal food and feed her…”

The fluffy haired child considered the dragon’s words, and then realization hit him. “Wait, is she the reasons the dragons attack Berk?”

Toothless nodded again. “You got it. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t even bother with those stupid Vikings and their stupid island.” He began to grumble as he took a drink from his water bowl, thinking of those smelly horn-heads.

“But…why don’t the dragons just fly away?” Asked Antonio, as if it was obvious.

The Night Fury looked almost somber.  “We would’ve if we could’ve, kid. She’s an alpha, she can control our minds. We have no idea what we’re doing until we’ve already done it…”

As the dragon described the situation at the nest, Antonio actually began to look enraged. It surprised Toothless quite a bit.

“That’s so unfair!” He cried. “She’s making the dragons her slaves! She’s making the dragons and the Vikings fight when they don’t have to, and nobody’s happy!” He looked to Toothless, determined. “We gotta do something!”

While he appreciated the child’s enthusiasm, Toothless had to scoff. “Number one, we’re hundreds of miles away from the nest. Number two, she’s literally the size of a mountain. How the heck are we supposed to stop her? She’d step on us before we could try anything…” The child’s righteous anger simmered down.

He knew Toothless was right, but he didn’t like it.

Seeing the boy’s disheartened expression, Toothless tried to console him. Wrapping his tail around the child.

“Look, I want to help too. Really. But sometimes in life bad things happen, and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s just how it is.” Despite his best efforts, the boy didn’t look any happier.

He had to do something, he couldn't stand seeing this kid upset.

“You wanna go flying?” Toothless proposed, but the boy shook his head.

“You wanna go blow something up?” The dragon proposed again. Antonio stopped to think for a moment, before shaking his head again.

“You wanna go see what Hiccup and Mirabel are doing? I bet it’s really stupid!” The child perked up at the mention of his favorite cousin(s).

The topic of the tyrant lizard forgotten, the boy and the dragon slid down the playground of a tree, and exited the animal whisperer’s room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on, Hiccup!”

“C-C-C…”

“Sound it out!”

“Cuh-Cuh-C-C-Cuh…”

“Remember your training!!!”

In the nursery, on a bed made for someone ten years younger than him, Hiccup was hunched over a book. Sweat dripping down his brows, veins throbbing out of his forehead. Mirabel was leaning over his shoulder, cheering him on.

“I can’t do it…”

“Yes you can!”

“It’s impossible!”

“You better believe in yourself before I slap some belief into you!”

Hiccup felt his heart beating out of his chest as he stared at the word, made of characters still so alien to him. But he’d been learning, and it was finally time to put his new knowledge to the test.

“Cah-Caaah…”

“You’re almost there!”

“Cccchhhh….”

“Finish it!”

Finally, with a final shout of exertion, Hiccup yelled out the complete word.

“CAT!!!”

There was no sound to be heard, except for Hiccup’s huffing and puffing.

Slowly, Mirabel turned to him. A dumbstruck look on her face. “…You nailed it…” Hiccup responded with a shaky thumbs-up, still very winded.

As the teens basked in the glory of Hiccup’s achievement, Toothless and Antonio stood in the nursery’s doorway. Observing the strange situation.

“…See?” Toothless spoke to Antonio, as the both looked on confounded. “I told you it’d be stupid.”

Deciding they’d had enough of watching…whatever that was. They made off for the kitchen to snag some snacks before dinner time. It was Toothless’ idea, he’s a bad influence.

As they munched their nabbed food, Toothless couldn’t help bust notice that the child still looked downtrodden. “Don’t tell me you’re still upset over the whole nest thing?”

“I can’t help it” shouted Antonio. “It’s really sad! The dragons and the Vikings are fighting for no reason!” He then shivered a bit. “…And the queen sounds really scary.”

“Oh yeah, she’s terrifying. I mean, I’ve only seen her head, but that was frightening enough. Gigantic jaws, razor-sharp teeth. Six eyes, each one filled with eternal malice and greed. Impressive nostril horn…” He quit describing the dragon as he saw the child become increasingly petrified.

The dragon tried to reassure the trembling boy. “But hey, it’s nothing to worry about! Like I said, she’s hundreds of miles away!”

“Trust me, kid. We won’t ever have to deal with her!”