Later that afternoon after the incident at the arena, Hiccup entered with a shield and a fish with Emily right behind him as she was holding a cabbage with salmon.
Hiccup looks over the shield to see if the Night Fury and Optimus were in his line of sight but the two weren't. Making sure to see if the cost was clear, he tossed the cod in his hand over the shield and it landed with a splat on the ground. Still nothing, he walked forward but the shield was instantly stuck between two rocks that he and Emily were hiding behind.
He tried to pull it back but it wouldn't budge so he crawled underneath it while Emily just went around the rocks as he tried to pull it from the other side but it was stuck and caused him to sigh before looking back at the cod. He picks it up and starts making his way around the cove while Emily seems to be at ease at the moment as they were looking for their scaly friends.
Unknown to them, the Night Fury and Optimus were hiding and watching them curiously. Optimus took a quick whiff of the air when he smelt something and looked to where Emily is and almost instantly his mouth began to water at the sight of the fish and vegetables. Even though he finds it strange that he needs organic sustenance, it doesn't seem like a bad thing to imagine.
Emily heard something move just beside them and she nudged Hiccup instantly when she spotted their scaly friends. Hiccup let out a short gasp when he saw the Night Fury creeping out from its hiding spot while Optimus just followed and was looking at the two expectantly. The Night Fury sniffs at Hiccup cautiously but mainly the fish and takes on a defensive stance.
Hiccup swallowed his fear and held out the fish to the hungry dragon. It approached him slowly but quickly retreated with a warning growl when a faint metallic scent reached his nose. Hiccup backed away slightly and moved his vest away to reveal the dagger that he brought before Emily nudged him gently.
"I don't think it likes the knife, Hiccup." Emily whispered while eyeing the Night Fury cautiously as Optimus was a little wary.
"Yeah, I kinda figured that out already." Hiccup whispered back.
Hiccup moved his hand to the dagger and got a defensive growl in response. He gulped slightly before taking the dagger from his waistband slowly and dropping it on the ground. The Night Fury was still unconvinced and made a motion for him to throw it away. Hiccup understood the gesture for some reason, used his foot to pick the dagger up before tossing it into the pond with a small splash of the water.
Once the weapon or threat was gone, the Night Fury instantly calmed down and was looking like a curious puppy and Emily had to stop herself from laughing as she moved to Optimus who came to her as she gave him his fish and cabbage and made him warble softly in content while scratching his chin and making him purr deeply. Hiccup watched that before holding out the fish again before the Night Fury approached him slowly before opening its mouth to reveal rather teeth less gums. How the heck is the Night Fury gonna eat the fish?
"Huh, no teeth." Emily pointed out in confusion while Optimus just tilted his head curiously.
"Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had-" Hiccup pondered but was interrupted when the Night Fury's teeth slid out from its gums and quickly snatched the fish from him.
Hiccup let out a startled yelp and watched the Night Fury chomped on the fish in two bites before swallowing it whole and licked its chomps in satisfaction on getting to eat something. Emily, Hiccup and Optimus just stared in startled bewilderment at what they just discovered.
"... Teeth." Hiccup finished weakly while his eyes were wide.
The Night Fury then looked at him before approaching the boy and causing him to start backing away but fell back when he tripped over a rock and started to crawl backwards only for his back to hit a rock. The Night Fury was now towering over him as they were now inches apart.
"Uh, uh, no, no, no. I-I don't have any more." Hiccup said nervously as he tried to back away from it more.
After that, there was a moment of pause before the Night Fury started making hacking sounds as if it was about to puke only to regurgitate half of the fish that Hiccup gave it to eat onto his lap.
Hiccup couldn't help but become a bit queasy and made a disgusting noise as Emily almost puked at that but covered her mouth just to be sure while Optimus was just simply disturb at that. The Night Fury then stood up before sitting down on its haunches while it and Hiccup had a small stare off. The Night Fury then gestured to the regurgitated fish in Hiccup's lap and he followed its gaze and just sigh. He can't believe he's actually gonna do this and will seriously regret it later.
He hesitantly lifted the fish to his mouth before taking a small yet convincing bite out of it and Emily shuddered when she had to swallow her puke while Optimus let her lean against him. Hiccup tried to give the fish back to the Night Fury but it noticed that bulge on his cheek and noted that the human hadn't swallowed it yet.
He then made a swallowing motion and Hiccup gave a face of disbelief that would clearly say 'are you kidding me?!' as Emily and Optimus just stared at the Night Fury in shock. Hiccup just sighs silently through his nose and tries to swallow it whole. At first he literally almost threw up but he stopped it before swallowing it whole and shuddered in disgust and discomfort at the feel of fish scales sliding down his throat.
The Night Fury licked its lips like a cat would and seemed to be asking how the fish was and Hiccup just smiled at it awkwardly. The Night Fury squinted its eyes at what Hiccup was doing and tried to mimic it much to their surprise and made a toothless smile which was adorably cute as Hiccup, Emily and Optimus were amazed by this.
Hiccup then put the fish aside before slowly standing up and reached for the Night Fury slowly but its smile instantly disappeared as he snarled at him in a warning sound before clumsily flying off to the other side of the cove as the trio watched it curiously.
Hiccup curiously followed it as it breathed fire on the ground in a circular motion before laying down on the heated ground. It then looked up as a bird flew away as it watched the bird for a moment before it noticed Hiccup was sitting a few yards from it. It made an annoyed expression before moving its body and lay back down and used its tail to cover its face and tried to take a nap.
Hiccup slowly scooted closer to it and reached for the tail until the Night Fury lifted it to look at him as if saying 'what do you think you're doing' as this made Hiccup to stand up and walk away quickly. The Night Fury moved from its spot and hung itself upside down on a branch and wrapped itself with its wings and finally got to fall asleep for a nap while Hiccup, Emily and Optimus watched it from where they were.
"This will take a while." Hiccup said as he rested his cheek on the palm of his hand while watching the dragon.
"Just give the dragon some time. And it will trust you eventually." Emily told him as she was resting against Optimus' warm and scaly body.
Hiccup took out his notepad and started to sketch them to which the two didn't mind at all.
It was now sunset when Hiccup was finished drawing Emily and Optimus to which he showed them and he was just sitting on a rock and drawing the Night Fury's face on the ground. Emily borrowed his sketchbook and he didn't mind since she was drawing something on it.
The Night Fury opened its eyes and looked around before its ears perked up slightly when it saw that the two humans were still there and they seemed to be doing something. It then got down from the branch and approached them. It watched as the female human was drawing something while the Stormcutter, who introduced itself as Optimus, was just perfectly content with the female near it.
It walked to the boy and sat down and saw that the human boy was drawing it. The dragon couldn't help but make a crooning sound in approval to which the two humans noticed. Emily and Optimus watched the Night Fury walk off somewhere on two legs which was highly comical. The Night Fury then snapped a tree branch and was now carrying it back before dragging it around as if it was drawing.
It dragged the tree around and accidentally hit Hiccup on the head with the leafy part. It turned around when it heard Hiccup yelp and checked if the human was okay. Hiccup just gave it a smile before it continued dragging the stick around.
After a few minutes, the Night Fury was down and set the branch down and admired its work. Hiccup looked around himself to see the lines were around before he heard a growling noise. He looked over and the Night Fury seemed to be glaring at something while growling. He followed its line of sight and saw that he stepped on the line. He raised his foot up and the Night Fury stopped growling instantly. He grew curious and decided to test the reaction and got the same results.
Step on the line; growl. Off the line; purr. He did this after a couple of times and when the Night Fury looked like it's about to pounce, he stepped over the lines and the crooning sounds got louder and he couldn't help but smile genuinely at the dragon.
Emily and Optimus watch him dance around the maze and as soon as Hiccup stepped off the last line, he felt a huff of breath ruffling his hair. He then turned around and he was now right in front of the Night Fury. Hiccup was a little breathless as the Night Fury looked so peaceful with its dilated eyes as he reached out to him slowly but got a soft warning growl and made him withdraw his hand slightly in fear as the Night Fury stopped growling as the two continued to stare at each other.
Hiccup thought about what he was about to do. He was about to befriend the rarest and elusive of all dragons of all of dragon kind. He took a deep breath before trying a new approach and turned his head away while stretching his hand out slowly and stopped as he waited.
Both Emily and Optimus watched in awe and bated breath as the Night Fury didn't growl or do anything dangerous to hurt Hiccup but stared at the human hand in front of it. It hesitated and thought about what it was about to do. He was about to trust a human, an enemy of its dragon kind but the human boy was different. After moments of hesitation, it finally decided to trust the boy and leaned its nose to the hand and closed the gap between them while closing its eyes.
Hiccup let out a soft gasp before glancing at the dragon as the Night Fury pulled away and stared at him. It then snorted before running off somewhere and leaving Hiccup in a slight daze as he stared at his hand. Emily approached him and gave his notepad back as Optimus followed the Night Fury to rest for the night.
"Well, looks like you and the Night Fury are gonna have a forbidden friendship." Emily said.
"F-Forbidden, what?" Hiccup asked as he looked at his friend.
"Come on. I'm not the only one who noticed that he decided to trust you." Emily said as she started to walk to the entrance of the cove as Hiccup followed.
"So the dragon is a male?" Hiccup asked curiously as she helped him up.
"Yup. The only way to differentiate between a male and female dragons is the coloration of the scales and their body figure and shape." Emily explained as Hiccup walked beside her as she explained the difference between the males and females of dragons.
Later that night, they both met up with Gobber and the other teens at one of the catapults and sat around it while Gobber was telling one of his tales of how he lost his limbs.
"... And with one twist, he took my hand, and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg." Gobber told the teens as some were in awe while Hiccup just listened while keeping an eye on his fish.
Emily was munching on a piece of bread with cheese while listening while her thoughts just went to other things like where the other teams were.
"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed the dragon from the inside by... crushing his heart, or something." Fishlegs suddenly said and Emily and Astrid just looked at him with disturbed expressions while Hiccup lost his appetite at that.
"I swear, I'm so angry right now! I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight. With my face!" Snotlout said as he struck a pose for Astrid and she just rolled her eyes at him.
"And when that happens, ladies will just run away from you." Emily said as she finished her sandwich as Snotlout looked at her with a dumbfounded look.
"Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon." Gobber said but what he said horrified both Hiccup and Emily as they looked at each other.
Hiccup suddenly felt guiltier as it is. He took the Night Fury's to fly and it was his fault.
"Emily, what am I gonna do? It's my fault that the Night Fury won't be able to fly again..." Hiccup whispered to her sadly as she put a hand on his back.
"I got an idea. We'll make something to help him fly again." Emily whispered with determination as Hiccup looked into her cerulean blue eyes and nodded.
Emily got up first and quietly left with Hiccup following her.
Gobber stood up before letting out a yawn as he then announced to them what will be happening tomorrow.
"Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be, too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?" Gobber said as he then left and left the teens all excited about their dragon training.
Astrid then noticed that Hiccup and Emily were gone before she got up and walked to the walkway and saw that the two were hurrying down to the ground. She grew a bit suspicious but shook it off.
Both Hiccup and Emily were in the forge at the late hours of the night. Hiccup soon took out his notepad before opening it to the drawing of the Night Fury and sketched a new tail to where the missing one was. If he was going to earn the Night Fury's loyalty and trust, then he'll have to help him.
Emily soon got all the materials that they needed and got to work.
Emily heated up the forge as Hiccup started to make the structure of the prosthetic tailfin. She helped Hiccup with making the other pieces and putting them all together. After they put the final piece on, they finally finished the prototype of the tailfin. Hiccup looked at it in amazement before nodding in approval as they both looked at the blueprints of the tailfin.
They then headed off to bed for the night and knew that they would have to get up early for the cove.