[HTTYD] A Small Addition To Berk's Flock (part 1)

A Small Addition To Berk's Flock

(rough draft)

A Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary:  Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III can apparently befriend and train ANY dragon - even Drago Bludvist's Bewilderbeast.

A/N:  Told from the Bewilderbeast's POV.  SPOILERS for HTTYD2.

There's not much reference to my "dragon queen" headcanon in this story, but I'm posting it here because I'm trying really hard to avoid making any new series for canon-based HTTYD fics.

Part 1

I am dying.  I think I should maybe be displeased about this, but I'm not.  I don't feel anything.  I'm just waiting.  I sleep whenever I can, and when I can't sleep, I wait.

Master told me to stay here.  He was very angry.  He is always angry, but He was Very Angry when He left me, because I did something wrong.

I lost our new flock, I think that is why He was so angry.  I couldn't...I couldn't hold on to them, they flew out of my control, they were sucked away like things that are sucked into a whirlpool.  That nightwing who tore himself out of my flock and then tore all the rest of them away from me was very powerful like a sun; I didn't know anything that small could be so powerful.

I don't know how I could have done it right, I don't know how I can make Master stop being Very Angry at me, and now He has left me to die.  I feel like that is not a bad thing.  Maybe...maybe it should be.  But it isn't.  Whenever He is gone, there is no anger and it is peaceful.

My skin is very dry, so dry now that I can feel it breaking.  Soon it will be so dry that I will be dead.  I think that is what I'm waiting for.  Yes.  I thought I was waiting for Master to come back, but I am also waiting to die, and I hope that dying comes first.  I think dying will be very peaceful, with no anger and hate pressing pressing pressing into my mind always.  If Master comes back after I am dead, then I think...I think His mind won't be able to reach me then.  I like to think that.

Something is shocked and frightened.  There are many creatures here in these caves, but most of them don't know I am alive, and the ones who do know I'm alive can tell that it doesn't matter.  This is the first creature who has been frightened of me here.  I can smell that it's a human - yes; humans are always very different from other animals, and they don't understand things even when they're obvious.

...I recognize this human.  Young adult male, half of a nightwing - that nightwing, the one who defeated me.  The human is covered with fresh scents of dragons paying homage to their flock's consort, but the queen scents are still underneath, fainter but not faded away yet.  He was their queen until only very recently.  His flock was stolen from him, too, but...but they didn't reject him, the way they rejected me.  He only shifted aside to give way to the new alpha, and his dragons and the alpha his other half are still devoted to him like they were before.

I don't like that, it makes me unhappy.  Why does this tiny, pathetically weak human have a flock who wants him, but no one wanted me even when I had a flock?  I don't like it at all.

I wonder if I should look at this small human consort who has come to make Master angry again, but I am too tired to open my eyes.  It doesn't matter what he does, nothing will change.  I am still waiting.

The human stays still for a long time.  His fear fades, and his anger gets stronger.  His anger is not as ugly as Master's, but I still don't like it.  But his anger is weaker than Master's, so I'm not afraid of it.

He finally approaches, very cautiously as if he thinks he might be in danger, and he makes little human noises.  His voice is so very much softer than Master's that I almost don't hear it.

"Figures...it figures I'd end up trapped in the same cave as you, you horrible murdering ugly monster...."

He is very close now.  I can open my eyes just a little and see him.  He is standing right near my head with his foreleg held out.  He has a human blade in his paw.  It's such a tiny blade that I can barely even see it, I can smell it more than I can see it.  It smells like metal and charcoal and wood.  The human himself has charcoal smell on him too, I like it.

"You...you think you can just...yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you.  I should avenge my father right here and now, it was you calling the shots when you killed him, you were the one using my best friend like he was some, some doll, some tool; I'm gonna walk right up there and gouge out your eyes and then figure out how to...actually kill you...."

We look at each other.  His anger is fading too, now it's just grief grief grief pouring from his mind and body so strongly that it's making my heart hurt the way I think his is hurting.

"...Who am I kidding."  He sticks the tiny blade to his foreleg and throws himself down on the ground, and covers his head with his paws.  "I couldn't kill if you even if I tried, you're too freaking big, you stupid monster...."  I smell a little bit of salt water.  I am confused.  I didn't know that humans could shoot water, too.  But it is only a very tiny bit, and it's not frozen.  "I hate this...I hate this...I know it wasn't even you, either; the one calling the shots was him...giving those orders, using you like a tool the way you...the way you used Toothless...."

He stands back up and steps close to me and sets his paws on my chin.  I can't even feel it, his paws are so tiny and gentle.  "Why do you even listen to him, anyway?"  He is pleading with me, but I don't know what he wants.  Humans can barely talk.  "Why?  Why?  You're a million times bigger than him, you could squash him like a bug and barely even notice; why do you do whatever he tells you?  Do you like killing people and enslaving dragons and destroying things and making people miserable?!  Are you happy being as evil as your sick little madman?"

I'm tired.  I want him to go away and stop being angry at me, but I'm too tired to move.  I shut my eyes again and try to sleep.

"...What's wrong with you?"  I think I might feel a little, very tiny twinge as he moves his paws over my skin.  He must have touched one of the edges of the peeling-away places.  "You weren't this ugly when you wrecked Berk...."  His little human voice stops for a while.  When he starts chittering again, he's somewhere different.  "You're...you're drying out, aren't you.  You're a tidal class dragon, you....  Hey."

I think I was asleep.  It feels and smells and sounds a little different.  Time has passed, but the human is still here, chittering on and on without stopping, and I think I can feel him moving around my head.  I feel...a little better, too.  Not my heart, but my body.  Just a little tiny bit.

"...don't even know why I'm wasting time here when I should be trying to find a way out of these caves, you don't even deserve my help.  Gah, they're right, I'm way too soft-hearted for my own good.  For everyone's good.  Maybe I could get away with this kind of stuff before you showed up, but now that I'm chief and everything sucks, I've got re-spon-si-bilities, like needing to prep my tribe for war with your evil crazy boss instead of hanging out lost in a maze with my father's freaking murderer, but I guess I've always been stupid like that.  So whoo-hoo, looks like you lucked out, drag--"  He glances up at me and suddenly goes quiet, flaring surprise and fear.  I don't know why.

We look at each other, and he calms down.  He thought I was asleep.  I was asleep.  He saw my open eyes and was startled.  I can tell it has been hours since my eyes were open, but I don't feel like any time has passed at all, I want to go back to sleep.

"...Yeah, so...hmph.  Good morning.  Or afternoon, or evening, or whatever.  I have no idea what time it actually is."

This human is noisy.  Chitter chitter chitter, constantly.  Master doesn't sound like this at all.

The human moves again, and I can see what he's doing now.  He...poured water on my face.  He climbs back down and trudges across this cave to where seawater leaks into little pools and streams.  He scoops more water into something and then carries it back to me and pours the water on a tiny bit more of my skin.

He is...

he is...

...helping...me?

I don't understand.  At all.  I thought he was angry at me.  I thought we were enemies.

He's so slow and tiny, it's almost useless; only some of my head is not as dry as the rest of me.  But...I don't know.  I don't understand.  I like it anyway.  It makes me happy that he's doing this.  It's useless because I'm still dying, but...it makes me happy anyway.  I don't understand.  I don't understand, so I can't think about it, and his chittering makes it harder to think, so I go back to sleep.

I wake up and I look for Strange Confusing Thing - I can't see him, but I can smell him very close.  Oh - he is sleeping on my face.  I don't know why.

I think about it, and finally I decide that he did something smart.  If he still thinks I am a threat but he was too tired to stay awake and wary, then he chose to fall asleep where I can't reach him.  I can't shoot him where he is, and the caves are too cramped, I can't reach him with my paws.  He is curled up in a hollow where he would be hard to crush even if I tried to press my face against a wall.  I can't hurt him right now even if I wanted to, but...I don't want to.  I don't want to.

I hope hope hope that Master doesn't come back and make me hurt Confusing Thing.  I am glad this little human made himself safe.

"Mmn...."

He is waking up now.

"Ugh...I'm still tired...."  I feel a very tiny impact.  "What about you, Squirt, you still sleeping?  ...No?  Great.  Just great."

He climbs down to the ground and looks up at me.  I look back at him.  ...I think I like him.  I don't know if I do or not.  But I don't don't don't hate him.  He is a very much easier human to be with than Master is.

"...You still look terrible."

We look at each other some more.

"Well, I'm really, really hungry, so I'm going to hazard a wild guess that you're starving."  He sighs just like an unhappy dragon would.  "Greeeeaaat.  So not only do I have to go catch breakfast in the middle of a cave maze with almost no supplies, but I somehow have to find enough to feed a billion-ton dragon, too.  Fantastic."

I don't even hate his chittering.  It's a little bit comforting, like he's saying I'm here I'm here I'm here with the strange warmth of his heart, like he's shining light on me and not abandoning me.

"Whatever.  Just hang tight, Squirt, okay?  I'll be back as soon as I can."

He walks back toward the water.

But then he doesn't stop.

He keeps going.  No!  No!  No!

"Whoa whoa whoa, what the--?!"  He's frightened now and running, I can't see him anymore, where did--?!

"Hey!  HEY!  SHUT UP!"  He's climbing on my face and he has his blade clutched in his paw again and he's still a little frightened but he's angry, too.  "SHUT UP!  I MEAN IT!  DOWN!"  He's close to me again, so it's okay now.  I lie back down and try to look at him, but he's so close to my eye that I can't focus my vision and it doesn't feel good in my head.  "Don't do that again, you hear me?"  When I am calm, he calms down, too.  He puts his blade away.  He climbs back down.

He starts to walk away again.

"Don't leave me!"

"Stop it!  STOP IT, dragon, NO!  Stay!"  He is gesturing violently.  He's angry and frightened again.  Why?  Why, why--?

He is abandoning me, and I must obey.  He is leaving forever.  I hate it.  I want to die.  I close my eyes and try to think and feel and be nothing.

o.o.o.o.o

I feel something.  It won't stop, and it's making me become awake even though I don't want to be awake.

He's here.  My nostrils are full of his scent and I open my eyes and here he is, he came back he came back, he's clinging to my face and kicking my mouth hard enough for me to feel.  "Open - your - mouth - stupid - dragon!"

He has fish with him.  He's pulling at my mouth like he wants me to open it, so I do, and he unfolds the skin he was holding and dumps fish into my mouth.  So few I can barely taste them and I can barely feel them when I swallow, but...but...what?  I am confused.  He is feeding me?  I don't understand.  I am very, very confused.  It seems wrong and good at the same time.  I'm the one who did something wrong, but I don't know what.  He's the one who is good.

Yes.  He came back.  He doesn't like me but he keeps taking care of me.  That does not make sense at all so I won't try to understand it, but I do know that this human...is...a good human.  I know now why his other half and his flock are so very devoted to him.  I wish I was in his flock too.  I would follow him and obey him.  But I have to follow and obey Master instead, so I can't.

I hate that.  I am sad.

"Yay.  Now that that's done...."  He siiiighs.  "Back to work, huh."  He looks out to where the water pools are.  "There has got to be an easier way to do this...."

Back and forth, back and forth, nursing my dry broken skin.  If he keeps doing this for long enough, I won't die.  I think now that is a good thing.  Maybe.  I think maybe I wish that he would just stay still close to me and let me die with him comforting me.  That is what I wish.  No one ever comforted me before even though I've always always always wanted it, but now he is and I like it so much I'm happy.

"I like you."  Humans are too stupid to understand what other animals say, so I have to tell him in a way he understands, but...he is so small and fragile, I must be very, very gentle so I don't hurt him.  I have to think about it before I do it, and then I...I don't draw on my water, I don't try to breathe, I just...it's almost like breathing in, except it's going out instead.  Just a tiny bit of frost mist, not even any ice.  Surely, surely that won't hurt him?

"Whoa!"

Oh no oh no oh no, I made a mistake, I hurt him when I didn't mean to, I--

"What the...."  He scrubs his paws over his fur so that the frost is rubbed away, and he looks at me.  He is surprised.  "You...?"

His heart is hurting.  Why?  Why did I cause him pain?  I was trying to not hurt him, I don't understand....

"What is that, 'Hello' in Bewilderbeastese?  You know, the last guy who did that to me, he died.  You're the one who killed him.  You killed him and then you...you...."

He leans against me so I can't see him anymore, and I would like the feel of his touch except that he is grieving again and I don't know what to do.  I have been making so many mistakes.  Humans are so hard to talk to, if I just knew what they wanted then I could give it to them and make them happy so there wouldn't always always always be all this pain...!

"What am I doing?"  He is making drops of salt water again.  "I've got a freaking war to plan and I'm just, just, playing around down here with this...GAH!"

He's hitting me.  I like that I can feel it a little, except I don't like the anger frustration pain grief.  If I can't make him happy then I want to sleep again so that I can't hurt his heart anymore and he can't hurt mine.  I close my eyes.

I wake up because someone's attacking me--  No?  It feels good....  What?  I don't understand.

Painful Thing is standing on the ground looking at me again, but he's happy now.  Something feels very good.  I look over my shoulder and there is water pouring over me, getting sucked up by my dry thirsty skin.

"There we go, perfect."

Water is flowing through the rocks and pouring right on top of me.  If I shift around, I can get it to cover all of me.  It's slow and difficult, but much much much much faster than the little human dragging tiny splashes of water back and forth.

"Perfect.  Perfect."  Precious Thing approaches, so I lie very still, and he climbs on me and looks at my skin.  "Yeah.  Still ugly, but much better than before.  Yes, this definitely beats Plan A by a long shot."  He stretches out his limbs and makes a louder noise than usual.  "Now I am going to take a very hard-earned nap.  Hold down the fort, Squirt."  He comes to curl up on my face, and he goes to sleep.

"You are very important to me," I say, very carefully so he will stay asleep.  He probably doesn't know what I'm telling him, but his tiny body relaxes.  I hope he stays here with me forever.

...No.  I hope he stays until Master comes back.  Then I hope he runs very fast and far and escapes.  I'd rather die all alone than my precious thing get hurt.

That nightwing alpha said this human is precious to him, too.  And I think some other dragons have things like that.  I didn't understand, but now I do.  Something is 'precious' when you are very much devoted to it and would do anything anything anything to keep it safe, but because you like it and you want to, not because you're forced to.  Yes.  I understand now.  It makes my heart feel more alive.  I feel like I wasn't even a dragon until now, but now I am.  I don't know what I was before, but now I am a dragon, and I....

I don't know.  My heart feels more alive than I ever thought it could, that's all I know.  It's enough.

I think of something.  I think the nightwing alpha broke free from me because if he hadn't, his precious human would get hurt.  I think he challenged me and stole my flock to keep his human safe, because I did something bad and tried to kill his human.  I think he is very, very strong like a sun because he had something precious to protect.

Master protects nothing except Himself.  I think that maybe - Master is weak.

If He is weak, why must I follow Him and obey Him even though I don't want to?  Why?

I think and think, but there is no answer.  I will ask this human when he wakes up, and maybe if I can make him understand my question, then he will know the answer and tell me.  I want him to tell me that I was wrong and that he will set me free from Master and let me follow him instead.

New smells.  Humans.  No--!

Not Master.  Thank you thank you thank you, not Master.  But who are they?

As they get closer and closer, I learn more and more about them.  Five humans, and five dragons.  Six males and four females, all young adults.  All in the same flock; closely bound together with ties of...it is hard to understand, but they are devoted to each other in confusing complex ways that they're still too far away for me to sense very well.  Are they from the nightwing's flock?  ...Yes, his.  He is one of the dragons.  He is furious and anxious with protection-fear/fury, especially now that he's caught the scents of me together with his other half.

...He has come to take my precious thing away from me.  No.  Nooooo.  But I must let him, because this human I treasure already belonged to him and not to me.  No, no, no, no, no....

"Don't move!"

The foreign dragons have been agitated and upset the whole time, but now the humans stop moving and flare out shock and fear when they see me.  Just like Precious Thing did when he first saw me.  They didn't know I was here until they could see me, how amazingly stupid....

"Hide!  Quick, before it sees us!"

"Toothless, come here!"

"Give Him back!  Give Him BACK!  If you hurt Him I will KILL YOU!"

All five dragons are preparing to shoot me, enraged because they think their precious consort is threatened.  Precious Thing is very safe from me, but right there on my face, he will get hurt if they shoot me wrong.  I must protect him.  I lift my head - there is not very much water left in my pouches at all, but there is enough for one shot that can stop them.

...Maybe...maybe if I kill them all...then they can't take Precious Thing away from me, and then I can keep him for myself.

"Mmmn, what--?  ?!  Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA, stop, everyone STOP, no, NO, NO!!!"

No, no!  Precious Thing woke up and he ran and now he is hanging right in front of my mouth I can't shoot or I will hurt him!!!  Stop, climb back up where you'll be safe!

"Toothless, stop!  STOP!"

"Why?!?!  Why why why do You ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS DO THIS, STUPID STUPID PRECIOUS!"

"Hiccup!  Don't look now, but there is a giant Bewilderbeast right behind you."

"Yeah, thanks, Ruff.  I kinda figured that out a few days ago."

"Hiccup, what are you doing?!"

"It's all right!  Guys, it's all right--  HOOKFANG, down!"

"Hey!  Don't order my dragon around!"

"Um, I'm your chief, hello?"

The alpha is pacing and howling frustration frustration protection-terror.  He thinks I will hurt this precious human.  Stupid.

"Guys, just calm down, no one has to get hurt here, okay?  Squirt, down please."  There is a tiny bit of pressure on my chin.  I look down, trying to see Precious Thing, and he is pleased, so I keep looking down until my head rests on the floor again.  "Thank you.  Good job, little guy."  He looks at his flock and pats his paws on my face.  "Guys, this is Squirt.  He's a friend."

The alpha has come dashing up and he seizes his consort and starts dragging him away.

"Toothless--  Ah, Toothless, wait, hold on, buddy--!  Wait!"

"Go!" the alpha orders, and his other dragons start nudging and tugging at their humans, too, trying to take them away.

My heart is starting to die inside me as my precious thing gets further away.  "No...don't leave me."

"YOU don't move or I will kill  you!"

"Toothless, stop!"  Precious breaks free from his dragon half and takes up a stance between us, one foreleg stretched toward me and the other stretched toward his flock.  He can't talk very well, but I know he doesn't want either of us to hurt each other - his body is so frail and tiny, but somehow he is shielding us from each other anyway.

This must be how he was able to be a queen.  His body is almost insignificant, but there is somehow enough strength in him somewhere to be able to lead and hold onto and protect a whole dragon flock until he was ready to give them away willingly.  "Squirt - is - a - friend.  I've been hanging out with him for days and he's been completely docile almost the entire time, okay?  This guy is...he is not our enemy."

"...You are confusing/amazing."  The alpha steps close and nuzzles his other half, sad and frustrated and resigned, but with something else too; I don't know what it is but it's good.  Even though he's upset, he somehow also feels happy as he caresses his other half and licks him.  He says a strange word I don't understand.  "Love love love, that's all You do, even when it's stupid and dangerous.  You even love horrible bad things that You shouldn't, but then it's okay after all and I don't understand how You do it, I love You...."

"Pffft, Squirt?"

"You named a Class 10 Leviathan Squirt?"

"Yeah.  Like how he squirts ice at stuff, duh."

"You're such an idiot, Tuffnut...."

"First 'Toothless,' and now 'Squirt.'  Hiccup, you are not allowed to name new dragons ever again.  At least, none that I care about."

"Hey, it's irony!  And he's...less scary when he has a silly name...."  Precious Thing comes close and pats his paws on my face again.  I wish I could feel it, but he's too gentle.  "But he doesn't bother me anymore.  Even if his name was Freezing Killer Ice, The Dragon or something."

"Cool, Freezing Killer Ice, The Dragon!  Let's call him that instead."

"Um, no."

"Wowww, Hiccup, you really can train any dragon, can't you...."

"Duh.  Didn't we tell you?  'Hello, nice dragon.  You can be my friend~  My leg fell off!  All of the dragons are my friends.'"

"Does that ever get old for you guys?"

"Heh, nope."

"Come on, let's get out of here."  Precious Thing looks back up at me.  "Hey.  You'll be fine now, all right?  I got your shower all set up, we can try to cache some fish for you, then when you're ready you can go...do...whatever you...."

The humans are uneasy now.

"So, what, we're just gonna let Drago keep using your new pet to attack Berk whenever he feels like it?"

"...I don't even know...if Drago still wants him or not; he hasn't been here in days...it's like he just left him here to die or something...."

"You're going to trust the safety of Berk to wishful thinking?"

"No!"  Precious Thing is looking at me, feeling distress.  I want to make him happy again.  I want him to give me orders I understand so that I can do whatever he wants me to do.  "What am I supposed to do with you, little guy...?"

"You think he'd come with us?"

"Maybe.  He's not as dead-looking as he was when I found him, maybe if I can get him to follow us...."

They are leaving.  The foreign flock is going away and they are leaving me behind, no, no, no, my heart is empty, he should have just left me to die but now I will have to stay alive being alone and feeling all this misery misery misery....

"Ssshh, ssshh, Squirt, it's okay!  Hey!  I'm not leaving you behind again, okay?  Come on, come with us, follow us out where we can get to the sky and the sea, okay?"

"Again?"

"Yeah, he...kind of freaked out like this the other day, when I left him to find food."

"Heh.  He really does like you, doesn't he."

"I hope so...makes things sooooo much easier in a crisis...."

Precious Thing is waving his forelegs at me.  I don't understand and I don't care.  My heart is dying.

"Come, Stupid," the alpha tells me angrily.  "Half Of Me is telling you to follow us."

"...What?"

"That's how humans say 'follow me,'" the blue two-legged dragon explains.

"I think he wants you to come home with us to our nest and join our flock, because he likes when foreign dragons are not foreign anymore," says the rock-eater.  "Alpha won't refuse him because Alpha always does whatever Consort wants."

"Stupid loves-too-much plays-with-danger Half Of Me...."

...They want me...to leave this place...and follow them.  But...Master told me to stay here.  If I do what the foreigners want, I will disobey my master.  I can't...disobey Him.  If I do...He...He....

...I don't care if Master gets Very Angry, as long as Precious Thing is safe.  As long as he is...happy.  If I follow him...he will be happy.

....

Two forces are pulling at my heart.  It hurts.

Master...Master...so powerful and so dark, I must...I feel like I must...obey Him.  But my precious human...I want to obey him, but I can't without disobeying Master...but...but I...want....

....

Something must break.  Either my devotion or my heart.  Both of them will hurt, I will certainly be hurt.  But I....

"Come on, Squirt."  He's so close, but so gentle I can't feel him and almost can't see him; it's his scent and his gentle mind that are reaching for me, calming me, asking me.  Asking me so sweetly.  Not even ordering.  Just asking.  Please order me, force me, tear me away from the darkness....  "Come on, little guy, it's okay.  Can you get up?"

"I don't think this is working, Hiccup."

"Come on, Squirt.  Just a little way to go and you'll be back in the ocean where you belong, right?"

Lost, alone, frightened.  I...if I break away from Master, I will be...I don't know what I will be, I will be adrift, and it's frightening.  ...But I think it is better to be frightened and adrift trying to follow this precious human, instead of staying secure in the familiar darkness.

It is hard to stand up on my paws.  My legs hurt and are so weak, and these caves are small, it is hard to move.  But Precious Thing will leave, and if I am to follow, I must stand up and walk, no matter how hard it is.

"That's it, that's right, excellent!  Come on, Squirt, this way."

I am...following.  I am...leaving the darkness...leaving my master...behind.

...Not Master.  Not anymore.  I...break...every strand that binds me to Him, every....  My heart hurts, it hurts, but I keep going.  I am so light, fragile, I will float away and become nothing if these foreigners can't hold onto me, but it's okay.  It is better to be nothing than to be Master's-- than to be...than to belong to that human who has rotted on the inside, that human bound by darkness so much more tightly than I was, that raging, terrified, despairing, hurting, grieving, weak human.  He can stay in the darkness if He--  if he wants to.  I won't stay.  I am leaving.  I am going to where...there is light.  And...and what the alpha called 'love.'  And this thing that I think is called 'kindness.'

I must ask the foreign dragons who soon might not be foreign anymore.  "How do I bind myself to this human, your consort?  How do I make Him my master?"  That rotted human was always always always my master.  Now that he's not anymore, I don't know how to make a new master.

"No 'master,' Stupid!  Ugly rotten thing you learned from your horrible rotten human!"

"What?  What?"

"Consort is Consort.  Alpha is Alpha.  Pledge to Alpha, easy."

"Duh."

I don't understand.

"Alpha Consort Friend Companion Partner Beloved Queen Leader Flock-mate.  Like that."

Too many new concepts these dragons are trying to explain to me, too many things I don't understand, it is overwhelming and frustrating.

"Maybe this sea-king is crazy, he doesn't even know how to be a dragon...."

To be continued....

Author's Notes:  I do have plans for a second half of this story, but I have no idea when I'll have a chance to write it.  Hopefully soon.  (...But that's what I'd thought about He's Not Dangerous, too. *sweatdrop*  Still, this story is way easier to work on than Slyfoot's version of HND is.)

Had to move my computer into a different room again in order to write this.   (Most of it.  Had to move it back after a while and finish up while crouching with no chair again.)  I've been writing soooo much lately, one story in my home notebook and another story in my work notebook and nursing a bunch of other plot bunnies I haven't had time to write yet, and then this one wrote itself in my head while I was at work, so I wanted to capture it while it was still fresh and the timing happened to be good (Friday night, with the whole weekend stretching out in front of me).  I'm still stuck cleaning my nightmare room, though....  Ugh; it's such a mess I can barely turn around in it.

According to the official HTTYD Web site, Drago found his Bewilderbeast as a hatchling and raised him, which is probably why he's able to control him so much.  (Am I going to eventually be writing a fic about that?  Most likely yes. XD)

I chose the name Squirt both for the definition ("cause a liquid to be ejected in a thin, fast stream or jet") and for the irony of how it's used as a nickname (sometimes derogatory but occasionally affectionate) for someone smaller than you.

I could have sworn I read somewhere that Bewilderbeasts keep water in internal pouches or sacs, which they then freeze as they shoot so that the water turns to ice on impact - but now I can't find the Web site. *sweatdrop*  Whatever.

There are several references to the "Free Scauldy" episode of the TV show.

The English word "master" is more nuanced and can have both positive and negative connotations; but the made-up dragon word Squirt is using that I've translated as "master" is completely negative.  I mentally wrote, but have not yet had time to actually write, a story where that was explained a bit better; sorry that I wasn't able to write/post that fic before I wrote/posted this one. ;;;

Half the dragons whose perspectives I write don't sound like I expected them to! XD XD  After how human-sounding the Good Alpha turned out, I was expecting his dark counterpart to be the same, but poor Squirt had such an atypical upbringing that he ended up sounding similar to the other dragons I've written.