[HTTYD] He's Not Dangerous (Slyfoot version, ch.3)

He's Not Dangerous [Slyfoot version] - Part 3 (rough draft)

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

A/N:  I recommend that you read my fic The Dragon Queen of Berk before you read this chapter and the next.

o.o.o

When we wake up again, it's the normal waking-up time instead of the middle of the day.  I get up and yawn and streeeetch~

The rest of the flock is awake too and starting to fly, and everyone is wondering about Shield.  I don't know why until I look at his tail because they're all talking about his tail, and I see that one fin is a strange color.  I sniff it, and it doesn't smell like a tail fin at all.

"That's my other half's fin," Shield explains to us.  He is smug when he says, "I lost my flesh fin but it's okay because I'm not crippled, I can still fly because Half Of Me gave me a new fin and we fly together instead."

This is amazing.

"Very so much amazing," Shield agrees, "me and my other half and the two of us together."

"How, how?!" everyone is wondering.  "How can this be?!  How can you fly with only one fin and a not-fin!"  We very much can't wait to see this impossible thing happen, this dragon who makes a human fly and this human who makes a dragon fly.

"Half Of Me, let's show them how we best brother-alphas can fly!"  Shield is doing something very strange, baring his teeth at his other half but with his teeth retracted and feeling happy happy happy.  Charcoal Paws bares his teeth at his other half and feels happy too, and we can see his teeth but they don't look scary, his mouth looks just as harmless as Shield's does right now.

It must be a very strange two-halves communication, somehow it means something very good to them, but I don't know what.  I try to do it, too - I retract my teeth and I try to bare my gums, but it's hard to pull my lips back like that, I don't know why it looked so easy for Shield.

I'm about to try again, but a sound startles me and I look and Charcoal Paws is on Shield's back.  Shield's not-fin is moving just like his real fin is, they're jumping into the air, Shield only has one real fin so he should be falling, but he doesn't.

I have to rush to catch up.  Charcoal Paws and Shield are so happy together that their happiness smells the same, like they're just one person instead of two, and they climb and climb for no reason, I think just for the fun of rushing into the sky.

It's AMAZING.  I thought I understood before, but now I very understand.  They really are two halves, they really do love and trust each other enough to be each other's wings, it very so much doesn't matter that Charcoal Paws is human (he's a human?!  I forgot...), because his heart and his beloved's heart are still the same.

They are reckless and flashy like the bravest fledglings.  They don't hunt or stay stealthy like adults and alphas are supposed to, they don't care about hunting or hiding; all they care about is wind and joy and freedom.  I'm a fledgling too, but I can't keep up with them, none of us can keep up with them because sometimes they cavort like fledglings do, but sometimes they do crazy things, I think because they are half-human and think of stupid fun not-dragon things to do.

Like FALLING.

On PURPOSE.

They climb and climb, it starts getting hard to breathe so we call to them to come back because it's dangerous, but they keep climbing.

Then Charcoal Paws shifts backward, we think it's a stupid human mistake because of course he throws off Shield's balance, but then Shield folds his wings in the middle of the sky and lets himself fall!  Not diving, just FALLING, and their shrieks are HAPPY!!  They're not scared to fall; they're excited!  Crazy crazy crazy foreigner and his crazy other half human!!

Everyone is swarming around them and screaming at them, warning them of danger danger danger and wondering how to catch them without hurting them.  I'm not screaming; I just dive beside them and watch, because I want to see what they'll do.  My heart is beating so hard in my chest that it almost hurts.  They are doing this on purpose, they are crazy enough to be dangerous on purpose but not crazy enough to die on purpose, so somehow they'll do something amazing, and I want to see it happen.

Charcoal Paws fidgets, and I don't see it at first because it's so crazy I can't believe it, but now I see that he is not connected to his other half anymore.  He's not holding on, he's not frightened, and Shield is not frightened either to see his other half plummeting with no wings at all, they just make their two-halves bared-teeth signal at each other as if it's a joke.

Crazy.

Amazing.

Some of the others are almost panicked enough to catch them even if it hurts them.  "No, shut up, it's okay," Shield tells them, but they don't believe him because he's too crazy.  So he says, "Come back, Half Of Me."

Charcoal Paws reaches out for his other half again and slides back onto his back.  Shield opens his wings and his fin again like he's supposed to, and Charcoal Paws somehow opens his fin too even though he's not touching it, and they go back to flying properly as if they don't even know what a very so much crazy thing they just did.  "It's fun being half of a human," Shield says.

They fly with us for a little while; not hunting or scouting, just watching us and being happy.  But then Charcoal Paws starts to get a little bit sad, I don't know why.  No one notices except me because I'm flying so close to him, and I wonder why he's sad.

"We'd better start heading back, bud...."

"Going home," Shield says.

"What?!  What?!"  When they break away from the flock, I follow them.  "No, no, don't leave!  I love this very so much interesting thing your other half!"

"Me and Half Of Me are going home.  We left our flocklings behind with surrogates, but we must go back now and be good strong alphas to our flock."  He says it in a strange way that I've never heard before.

"Alphas?  You are brother-alphas of one nest??"  I didn't know there could be two rulers in the same nest.  "How can that be??  Why does your flock pay homage to him as your consort if he is alpha with you instead??"

"I am alpha of our dragons and He is my consort, so our dragons honor Him as my consort.  He is alpha of our humans and I am His consort.  Humans don't know how to pay homage because they're stupid and can't make the right smells, but they still know that He is mine and I am His and that we rule our flock together."

What a very so much strange thing, I didn't know there could be a crazy dragon-and-human, two-alphas flock like that.  But Shield and Charcoal Paws are so strange and amazing that I don't feel surprised, and they love each other so much that I know they can take good care of their strange flock together.

The others who love this dragon-hearted human foreigner tell him goodbye and return to the flock, so only me and Bear Brain are left.  I don't want to go back.  I don't know what will happen, it's kind of scary so I don't want to think about it, but I want to follow this wonderful person Charcoal Paws until I know what to do.

"Where are we going, Friend?" Bear Brain asks me.

"We are following Charcoal Paws."

"But I think Good Human is going home to his nest."

"We are," Shield says.

Finally Bear Brain says, "Are you going to go visit Good Human's nest, Friend?"

"I'm going to follow Charcoal Paws, that's what I'm doing!!  Leave me alone!"

"Our nest is too far for you to fly all the way," Shield says.

"NO!  I can fly as far as you can!"

Shield snorts.  "No, you can't."

"You are still very young, Friend.  I don't think you can yet," Bear Brain says.

"Shut up!!"

"Why don't you want to stay with your own flock?" Shield asks me.

"I don't know."

"...You're allowed to love my human because He likes when people love Him, but you can't have Him because He's MINE first, okay?"

"Yes, I know, duh!"

"I have to make sure!  Because stupid Half Of Me loves so so so so SOOOOOOOOO very many people who aren't me, I am jealous anxious scared!!!"

...I didn't know that.  I didn't know that someone can love someone else so much that it hurts.  Maybe I don't want an other half, I don't know....

"I think it's okay, Humanhalf," Bear Brain says.  "If Good Human loves you most even though he also loves so many others, that means you are the most special and he won't ever abandon you."

"...Half Of Me, I can't reach You, but if I could, I would lick You and claim You and comfort myself, okay?"

"Easy, bud.  You all right there?"

"Stupid human that I love."

Charcoal Paws croons to his other half and strokes him until he is reassured and quiet again.

We fly and fly and fly and fly and flyyyyyyyyy.  We are tired because we were awake during the day, and my wings start to ache but I don't say anything because I'm strong and I can fly as far at the others can.

We fly and fly and fly and fly and fly.  How are they still able to stay so high and go so fast?!  I'm SO TIRED, I can't say anything because I'm strong and I can do this, but I can't keep up with them, they are more and more higher than me and farther than me, I fly and fly and....

I panic because I'm falling, I think maybe I was a little bit asleep but I'm not anymore, I'm panicking and crying and flapping my wings so I don't fall but it hurts, and Bear Brain calls to me so I know where they are even though I can't see them anymore.  I follow his calls, and my wings hurt so much now that I'm saying "It hurts it hurts it hurts" over and over, and I don't care now who can hear me.

They were right.  I'm too young, I'm weak, I can't keep up, I will fly until I fall into the ocean and die.  I should have stayed home with my flock.  But even now I don't want to be home, I want to be with Charcoal Paws, but I'm not with Charcoal Paws, I'm all alone hurting and hurting with nothing but Bear Brain's voice far away, I'm going to die like this and I hate it, I'm so frustrated and angry and saaaaaad...!

I think the ground is close, but I don't care.  I just want to die now.  I land so awful that it's more like crashing than landing, I don't care, I want to die, but I smell Charcoal Paws's human/charcoal/worry scent nearby and I think maybe I'm dying a lot sad but a tiny bit happy....

o.o.o.o.o

I wake up and see that I was sleeping with Charcoal Paws, his foreleg is draped over me.  I'm surprised and happy.  I lick him and tell him how glad I am that I'm still alive and that I'm close to him.  He doesn't like it and he grumbles when he wakes up, but he is happy to see me and he scratches my head on the best spots, I very much like it.

Bear Brain is settled down to sleep.  He watches us stretching and moving, and Charcoal Paws chittering to himself as he adjusts the human things that are wrapped around himself and Shield.  "We're leaving??" Bear Brain finally asks.

"Yes," Shield says.  "My whole flock are day creatures, so now I am one, too.  The sun is up, so now we'll travel instead of sleep here."

"Oh noooo...!"  Bear Brain is disappointed because he's tired and wanted to sleep, but he gets up again and shakes himself and spreads his wings to follow us.  I'm not tired at all, I don't know why, maybe because I slept when it was dark instead.  Everything's all mixed up!

We fly some more.  My wings are still sore, but I feel a lot better now than I did before, because I rested and my belly is full of fish that me and the others caught.

"Seriously, guys, we're going all the way home to Berk. Are you sure you want to come with us?"

Charcoal Paws sounds like he's asking something, but I don't know what it is.

"He doesn't know why you're still following us," Shield says.  "He's probably worried about you."

"We're following you because we love you," I tell Charcoal Paws.  But he doesn't change at all, so I think he didn't understand.  "How do I tell him so that he'll understand?"

"Retract your teeth and bare your gums.  He'll know you want to come with us."

I curl my head down so that Charcoal Paws can see me bare my gums at him.  It's not as hard to do this time.  It feels strange, like I'm telling him I'm mad at him even though I'm not, but he bares his teeth back at me in that strange happy way, so I know he understood my real feelings, but I don't know why.  "Humans are strange."

"Yes, very so much," Shield agrees.

To be concluded....

Author's Notes:  Ftr, "Humanhalf" is a common post-HTTYD1 dragon name for Toothless by foreigners, just like "Charcoal Paws" is a common dragon name for Hiccup.