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❛ ᴋʜᴀʟᴇᴇsɪ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚  ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ғɪɢʜᴛ ғɪʀᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ғɪʀᴇ꒱


❝ AND YOU TOO, DROGON—
OR SHOULD I CALL YOU MR.
GRUMPY PANTS? ❞

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Hiccup was over the moon. He'd been Daenerys Targaryen's first kiss!

He wanted to shout the news to the sky, tell anyone who would listen— but Dany would hate all of the attention that would bring, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he thought about it constantly. Though it had been brief, he knew he would never forget the feeling of her lips on his. Daenerys had always been pretty to him; it was obvious to anyone with eyes. But in the days following their kiss, he'd begun to notice how beautiful she truly was.

The brunet would find himself staring at her more than he ever had been before. He was in awe of the way her silvery hair shone under the sun, how her violet eyes became impossibly bright, almost becoming lavender when she was happy. He admired her dedication to their shared interest of dragons and her determination to protect them. Hiccup was suddenly extremely conscious of the way his heart would behave— or, rather, misbehave when she was nearby, always skipping beats and stuttering in his chest when she smiled at him. He came to realize that he'd always felt this way about her but was just paying more attention to it now. And, ever the logical thinker, he came to the obvious conclusion:

He had a crush on Daenerys Targaryen.

A part of him still wanted to deny it so that they could remain forever in the safety of their friendship, but his feelings had become impossible to ignore. He consoled himself that it was just a crush— something that would pass in a few weeks, a month at most. (But who was he kidding? the snide, Snotlout-like voice in his head sneered. You've known Dany for years now and you've always felt this way about her.) This voice, however, he could overlook. He convinced himself that it was okay to acknowledge his feelings for her and by doing so, they would vanish faster.

Dany, on her part, seemingly felt the same as she always had— if not a little more awkward and distant. (Which only reinforced his desire to keep this revelation a secret.) She didn't once bring up their kiss (not that he'd been expecting her too; it had been just a bet, after all— maybe he was taking this too seriously.) In fact, he noticed that she'd been meeting his eyes even less than she already had been and her face often flushed a pretty shade of pink if the silence between them lasted too long.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that she was adopting some of her old habits, the ones she'd had just after the Battle of the Red Death. She tried not to be alone with him for too long. She held herself apart from him; any of that easy camaraderie that had formed between them all but disappeared when they were alone. He didn't know what any of this meant, but it made him wish more and more that things could just have gone back to how they'd been before the kiss. (Though, to be clear, he wouldn't trade the fact that he had kissed her for the world.)

"Hiccup?"

The brunet jerked a little, coming out of the daze he'd been in— once again thinking about Dany (but that was always the case, wasn't it?) Fishlegs was looking at him expectantly, having apparently asked him a question. "Huh? What? Sorry."

"I asked if you had plans for what we're going to be doing next," the blond repeated, appearing bemused. "Seriously, Hiccup, where is your head at these days? You're always staring off into space."

Not into space, he wanted to say. His gaze was currently on Dany, who stood on the far side of the arena as she talked to Astrid. They'd wrapped up training for the day and almost everyone had gone their separate ways, but apparently the girls were making plans for later. He hadn't noticed Fishlegs come up behind him, too caught up in daydreaming about the Targaryen. He fully intended to answer the boy's question but what came out instead was: "oh. Have you ever thought about Dany?"

At this, Fishlegs scrunched up his face in confusion. ". . .Thought about her?" he echoed. "I mean, I suppose she does exist, but I've never thought extensively about it. Why?"

"Don't you think she's pretty?" (And of course, Hiccup knew that Dany was more than just pretty— that it was only a base, shallow adjective to use— but how could he begin to put into words everything he thought about her? The list was insurmountable.)

The Ingerman considered his question rationally, comparing the Targaryen's appearance to the other girls he knew (but again, Hiccup hadn't meant just outwardly; there was so much more to her than that that it would be impossible to compare her to anything.) Then, he shrugged. "She's not really my type. Maybe you should be having this conversation with Snotlout since she's clearly his."

 Both of those statements independently caused him to have different reactions. The first— 'she's not really my type'— made him stare dumbfoundedly at the other boy. How could Dany not be someone's type? The second prompted an immediate feeling of revulsion at the thought of talking to Snotlout about Dany. She was someone to be respected, to treat like a warrior princess— not whatever Snotlout thought about her. (Still, he was glad that Fishlegs had nothing but platonic interest in her.)

"Never mind," he said hastily, hoping that his friend wouldn't pick up on how odd of a question that had been. (Fishlegs remained blessedly oblivious to the whole 'Hiccup-has-feelings-for-Dany conundrum.) He glanced across the way to where the girls had been, but they were gone now. "Anyway, I was thinking we'd dismantle some old dragon traps tomorrow; if we're going to be doing more training around Berk, we don't want to be accidentally caught up in one of them. . ."

🏹🏹🏹

They gathered early the next morning to go over the different styles of dragon traps that they would encounter. Gobber, being the one with the most experience using them, joined their lesson to instruct the teens in the best way to dismantle them. The gang stood in a semi-circle around the setup as the blacksmith approached the first one: a large, nasty-looking trap with big metal teeth which would snap shut vertically when triggered.

To make sure everyone was paying attention, Gobber stepped on the panel that activated the trap. It shut with a loud clang! on his hand— the metal one— and he made a cry of agony as if it had been his real one. "Ah! Ow, the pain!"'

Everyone grimaced and looked away from the scene, half-expecting blood to start spurting over the arena's floor. Dany made a face and lowered her gaze as well, not wanting such a gruesome start to her morning. Thankfully, Gobber was just messing with them and he continued to make sounds of pain until he was satisfied with his theatrics. He easily pulled the two sides apart, laughing as he emerged unharmed. "Don't soil your skivvies. I was just playing around. But these dragon traps are made to withstand the toughest of. . . well, dragons. They're nothing to play around with."

"Uh," Tuffnut interjected, "I beg to differ. That one with all the teeth on it's got 'Tuffnut' written all over it."

"Exactly what I was thinking," his sister agreed. She folded her arms across her chest and smirked at him, probably planning something horrible to do to her brother later.

In Dany's opinion, it was too early in the morning to deal with the twins' hijinks. She hoped they'd behave themselves long enough to get the day's mission— but that was asking a lot from the academy's most notorious pranksters, so she didn't think she'd get that lucky. Gobber seemed to feel the same was as he attempt to shut down their antics before they started, scolding them: "you two can feel free to experiment on your own time. Now, who can tell me what this trap is called?"

"Ruffnut-be-gone," the older twin guessed with a laugh. Ruffnut reached out and slapped her brother's ear, causing him to rub the injured area as he exclaimed: "ow! My lobe. . ."

Fishlegs waved his hand in the air eagerly, answering without waiting to be called on. "It's called a Snapper."

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "Potato, po-tah-to."

Hiccup stepped forward to pin the siblings with an unusually stern look. "You guys, this is really important, okay? Eyes forward."

"No problemo," Ruffnut replied. But of course, it was never that easy with the twins. Instead of looking directly at the traps to pay attention, their gazes locked on each other. They collided their heads together to focus entirely on the other's eyes.

"Other traps include ropers, grabbers, and netters," Fishlegs continued, ignoring their stunt.

Gobber nodded in approval. "Ah! Well done, Fishlegs. But remembering how to unset them, that's what separates the men from the maimed."

The Ingerman moved towards the traps to demonstrate but a nervous Meatlug fluttered up beside him to protect her rider. He gave her a reassuring hug. "Oh, it's all right, girl. Daddy will be fine." He also lightly kissed her scaly skin to comfort her, and she let out a reluctant, acquiescing rumble to let him proceed. Fishlegs went over to the trap on the right. "For the roper, press your foot against the activation lock."

Astrid, who had followed him over to help with the display, loosened the pin that sprang the trap and held it up for them to see. "Then, remove the latch key, which takes tension off the trigger. Then you can cut the rope."

"Someone's been paying attention," Gobber praised them. He went over to the one on the left. "And what about the notorious netter trap?"

Hiccup made as if to answer the blacksmith's question, but Snotlout stuck out his arm to stop him. "Uh-uh-uh, I got this one."

The brunet gestured towards it. "Please, be my guest."

Having finished with helping Fishlegs, Astrid returned to her place next to Dany. She leaned towards the girl and said in a not-too-quiet voice, "is it wrong to root for the trap?"

Daenerys smirked at her friend's comment, adding (in a much softer tone), "honestly, I feel sorry for the trap. Imagine having to hold Snotlout!"

"Good point," the Hofferson agreed, making a face.

Snotlout walked indifferently over the net of the trap to reach the pin. He bent down to loosen it as he explained, "okay. It's pretty simple, actually. You just detach the ropey-chain looking thing, pull the pointy part back, then—"

Unfortunately, as he was still standing on the part of the net that closed, he was yanked upwards and encased in the metal chains. Suspended, he spun helplessly for a few seconds before he implored his dragon to help him. "Hookfang, you gonna get me out of here?" His dragon responded by grumbling and walking away. "Any time."

Gobber put his hands on his hips as he prompted the boy, "Hiccup? You want to release the beast?"

Astrid shrugged, affecting an unbothered tone as she asked, "that's not absolutely necessary, is it?"

Hiccup shook his head, half-exasperated, half-amused, but didn't reply. He went over to the net and, with an assist from Toothless, was raised up to where it was cinched tightly at the top. He clambered onto the rope that held it. "Okay. . . engage the safety pin, dislodge the trigger strike. . ."

The net opened with such force that it sent an unsuspecting Snotlout crashing to the ground. He landed face-first on the hard stone, not wasting any time to insult the brunet by grunting, "teacher's pet."

Hiccup leapt neatly down from the rope to land on his dragon's head, then his feet landed on the ground. Not bothering to engage in the Jorgenson's taunt, he pointed towards the large, metal trap that Gobber had started the lesson off with. "Toothless, plasma blast!"

A shot of purple light emitted from the Night Fury, landing squarely on the trap's trigger. It snapped shut so hard that it bounced sideways. Hiccup patted his dragon's head appreciatively. "Good job, bud."

Gobber fixed the fallen trap back into its proper position before he addressed the twins: "right. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, show me how to unset this snapper trap."

The siblings, however, had occupied themselves with another task entirely. Tuffnut held up a finger in a 'wait-a-minute' gesture. Shortly, he explained: "can't. Staring contest."

"Now!" the blacksmith snapped at them.

"Fine," Ruff grumbled, taking on a bit of an attitude as she huffed, "you don't have to get so testy."

Together, with their heads still glued to each other, they walked sideways until they were situated in the middle of the designated trap. Since they weren't looking where they were going, they stepped on the trigger rather than around it, and the trap snapped shut. Their helmets got flung across the arena to land on Barf and Belch's head. The two dragons laughed at each other as Tuffnut shoved his face into his sister's face. "You almost cut off my head!"

"Now that would've been stare worthy," Ruffnut commented regretfully. "Ah, next time."

Gobber stuck his face between them to get the twins to focus back on the task at hand. "All right, listen here. You all have your assignments." As they turned to look at him, he went over to the map that had been pinned up on the board behind him. "There are dozens of dragon traps left over from, well. . ."

He paused awkwardly, then decided the best course of action was to roughly whisper the next words: "when we killed them." This was met with uncomfortable squawks from the nearby dragons. He carried on: "but, since we don't. . . well, kill them anymore, (more squawks of protest met his words) we thought it might be a good idea to get rid of them before some wild dragon wanders into them and gets caught. So get going!"

He spread his arms enthusiastically, but misjudged the distance he had. His metal hook hit the board and, with a groan, it fell to the ground with a crash! As he hefted it back up, Hiccup approached the twins warily. "You guys know what you're doing, right?"

"What kind of question is that?" Tuffnut demanded, acting offended by the insinuation.

"A necessary one," Astrid retorted. She crossed her arms firmly as she came over to join the conversation.

"Come on, guys," Dany added, following just behind the Hofferson. "This is really important. We want to make sure you're included in everything we do, but you have to know what we're doing."

Impatiently, Hiccup groused, "you have absolutely no idea, do you?"

"Absolutely—," Tuffnut began with an unconvincing grin. (Daenerys thought that the twins looked strange without their helmets; they were a constant feature for the siblings and she really hoped that they'd put them back on soon.)

"—no idea," Ruffnut finished with an blasé shrug.

Thankfully (for Dany), Barf and Belch came over to their riders with the twins' helmets in their mouths. Ruffnut and Tuffnut put them back on their respective heads, looking much more like themselves. Hiccup frowned at their careless attitude. "Guys, we're clearing dragon traps. It's very dangerous— for you, and for your dragon." Unsurprisingly, their clueless looks remained. The brunet let out an annoyed sigh. "You know what? Forget it. You guys stay here where you can't get into trouble."

"Actually, we can get into trouble pretty much anywhere," the older twin correct him, which didn't help his case as much as he probably thought it did. He elbowed his sister cheerfully. "Remember that empty room?"

She chuckled at the memory as Astrid allowed, "he's got a point."

"Look, I-I just don't know if I can trust you guys out there right now. This is. . . serious," Hiccup told them sternly.

For once, the twins seemed to get his message, and to Dany's surprise, their faces fell. (She didn't think that they had the emotional capacity to experience disappointment.) Tuffnut frowned at the boy's scolding tone. "Wow. That was. . . harsh."

"Yeah. . . ouch," Ruffnut agreed.

Seeming to realize how his words had come out, Hiccup rushed to correct his mistake: "Yeah, no, I didn't mean it like that, it's just—"

"No, we get it," Tuffnut interrupted him. "You think we're useless."

He waved towards his dragon and the two heads lowered so that the siblings could climb on. Hiccup made a last-ditch effort, objecting: "I didn't say that. . ."

"But you were thinking it," Astrid teased him in a lilting voice.

"That's not helping me at all."

Before they took off, Ruffnut insisted, "we'll be fine, Hiccup. It's not like we never pay attention."

"Just. . . rarely," her brother clarified.

They chuckled mischievously as their Zippleback padded out of the arena. As the trio watched them go, Astrid remarked, "you know, I'm actually gonna miss them when they don't come back."

Before the three of them went on their way, Hiccup caught Dany's expression and stopped in his tracks. His face fell at the sight of her less-than-approving look. "What? You don't think I was too harsh on them, do you?"

"Dany, it's the twins," Astrid added, backing him up. "Half the time we wonder why we brought them on the mission in the first place."

"But they're our friends," the Targaryen countered; the softness in her tone only made Hiccup feel worse. "I don't mean to be a hypocrite as Thor knows that they drive me nuts, too, but sending them off on their own. . . alienating them from the group— no one would like that. We should figure out a way to teach them that they'll listen to, not just forget about them entirely."

She fiddled with the fur on her vest as she looked hesitantly up at the brunet while she waited for his response. She wanted to say that she was speaking from a place of experience, that this was one of her greatest fears— her friends finding her unworthy of their friendship— but she didn't know if they'd understand. Hiccup probably would because he'd been on the outs since before they'd met, but Astrid, who had always been popular, never had such concerns. She'd undoubtedly scoff at the sentiment and say that 'empathy was for the weak' or something like that.

"We're not forgetting them, Dany," the chief's son began, reaching out a hand to place it reassuringly on her shoulder, only to drop it back to his side after a second's consideration.

"It's impossible to forget the twins," Astrid put in, a little scornfully. She put her hands up placatingly at the disapproving look Dany sent her.

"There's just a few missions like these where listening is imperative, and the twins, well, don't," Hiccup continued as if there'd been no interruption. "Even if we did find a way to make them, I don't think they have the skills for this particular task. But we're not alienating them, I promise. Okay?"

"Okay," the Targaryen agreed quietly, sending the boy a relieved smile, trusting his w.

🏹🏹🏹

Drogon flew steadily through the air as Daenerys navigated towards her designated section. It was one of the outermost ones, further from Berk (she couldn't help but wonder if Hiccup had given the area to her specifically because he knew how she preferred solitude.) While she waited to arrive, she busied herself with her newest carving project: making a small, wooden replica of Rhaenys. The Terror herself sat around her shoulders, the warmth of her dragon heat providing a nice buffer against the cooler winds of high altitude. (It was an added benefit that Rhaenys' position caused her to lay against her hair, keeping trapped under her weight so it didn't fly in her face like it usually did.)

Dany was quite happy that this was a solo mission as it had been a while since she'd had time to herself, what with the Outcasts threatening their borders and an impending war on their hands. She felt at peace as the breeze brushed against her cheeks, flushing them a windburnt red. She could feel Drogon's strength underneath her as he propelled them forward, each great flap of his wings sending them several feet closer to their destination. His muscles coiled underneath her every time he flapped his wings and they shifted against her legs as she gripped him with her thighs to stay seated.

The silver of her carving knife flashed in the bright sunlight, unhindered by clouds due to the height at which they flew. Little bits of golden shavings whisked past her as her knife skated along the wood. Dany had already created most of the Terror and was now working on the finer details, etching out the eyes and scale pattern to make the figure more Rhaenys-like. Sometimes she would stow her project away in her vest pockets to free up her hands, then lift the Terror from her resting place around her neck to bring her into view just to make sure she was getting the details right. Then she replaced Rhaenys and continued working.

By the time they'd arrived at the designated spot, she'd almost completed one eyeball. Dany tended to be very particular with her projects and often fashioned and re-fashioned the end result until she was happy with it (which was very rare; she was too critical of her pieces and thought that they could still be perfected even when she was done with them.) But, there was a mission to do so she put her project away for now to focus on finding the traps.

It was always a bit precarious to try and land Drogon in a thicket of trees as the closeness of their trunks made it difficult for a dragon of his size to touch down in the forest. They made it with more than a few broken branches and annoyed squawks from Rhaenys, which Drogon ignored. He graciously extended his wing so that Daenerys could climb off his back, neatly sliding down the slope until both of her feet hit the ground.

She felt the grass under her bare feet and winced at the texture. Usually, it was soft and springy; a natural carpet on the forest floor. But months without rain had left it dry and twiglike, crackly underfoot as the stalks poked against her skin. The blonde sighed in disappointment, knowing that the dehydrated grass also meant that there weren't any woodland flowers to make a crown out of; any that did exist would be too droopy to use.

"This is definitely fire weather," she remarked aloud to her dragon companions. "I guess that means no firepower to close the traps; we don't want to burn down the whole forest. I better get some rocks in case we come across any Snapper traps."

After gathering a few stones that were large and heavy enough to trigger the panel on aforementioned trap, Daenerys got to work, starting methodically on one side to keep track of where she had and hadn't looked. However, it didn't take long for her to realize something: as much as she loved being on her own (and as important as she knew the task was), it was incredibly boring wandering the forest to look for traps that she didn't have an exact location for. There weren't even any flowers to occupy her hands with braiding a crown, just tedious traipsing back and forth. Not only that, but she couldn't do any carving in fear of accidentally walking over a trap that might hurt her, so she had to pay attention the whole time, too. (Never before had she related to the twins so much— and it wasn't the best feeling in the world.)

But Hiccup was counting on her equal participation, which was the only thing that kept her actively engaged in the task (rather than skiving off and going for a swim or practicing her flying tricks.) The Targaryen sighed once more as the brunet crossed her mind. She was finding it impossible to act normally around him after their 'kiss-that-didn't-mean-anything.' She found herself feeling uncertain and awkward, with an odd, fluttery feeling in her stomach whenever she caught his gaze. She had dreaded the thought of her actions ruining their friendship and it looked like she might be right in some regards. If she couldn't have a proper conversation with him— all the while regressing to not even being able to look him in the eyes, like back when they'd first met— then she wished that their 'kiss-that-didn't-mean-anything' had never happened.

She was pulled from her anxious thoughts by Rhaenys letting out an alarmed squawk. While they'd been walking along looking for traps, Drogon had kept an ambling pace beside her, occasionally using his bulk to knock down any trees that stood in his way. The Terror had lived up to her specie's mischievous stereotype and had been bouncing through the branches (while avoiding the ones that Drogon felled), occasionally littering the blonde with acorns and other tree debris. Dany hadn't minded, choosing to ignore the leaf-bits and twigs that now littered her silvery-blonde curls (it had been her thought that a lack of acknowledgement of this misbehavior would dissuade Rhaenys from continuing— but to no avail.)

The purple dragon had immediately ceased her antics as she caught a change in the air, detecting another scent that Drogon noticed around the same time. Both dragons stilled, the larger one using his tail to sweep his mother under his wing and into the protection of his body (much to her chagrin.) A low rumble began in his throat at the threat of a potentially hostile presence. Rhaenys mimicked his growl as best she could, though it came out more of a chirp than anything remotely dangerous-sounding. She landed on the ground in front of Dany, spreading her wings would and craning her head to appear taller.

"Drogon!" she protested, annoyed. "Seriously? There's no need for you to go into overprotective mode! We can't keep getting distracted if we want to find all of the traps by nightfall. I mean, if there was a real threat—"

The sound of crashing trees finally reached her ears— a noise not made by Drogon. Dany stilled, suddenly understanding her dragon's defensiveness. She trusted his instincts and heightened senses, so she stopped any objections that she had.

Little puffs of dust rose in columns from the felled trees as the. . . whatever it was got closer. The Targaryen had a sneaking suspicion that it was another dragon as there wasn't anything else that could disturb the forest in such a noticeable way. Because of this, she didn't draw her bow (as she didn't want to hurt whomever they were going to encounter) and decided to rely on her skills and dragons alone to protect her.

It didn't take long for her to lay eyes on the creature. It was a dragon— a huge one, almost rivalling Drogon in size. (That made her a little more nervous than she'd like to admit.) The Typhoomerang was an orangey-red. Its body was the stockiest part, leading up to a slender neck that was lined with spikes and ended in a skull-like head. Two massive horns protruded out from either side, giving it a devilish appearance. The dragon's yellow eyes instantly zeroed in on the trio and it let out a furious roar, the gust so strong that Dany could feel the tail end of it from where she was standing. It ruffled her hair and blew out a few bits of the twigs that had been lodged in the strands.

The Typhoomerang paused for a moment to assess whether it would be worth engaging with Drogon. Daenerys' dragon bared his teeth in response, allowing his adversary to see his gleaming fangs. The orange dragon must have decided that it was worth it, since he spread out his wings and took a few steps forward. Except— it didn't attack like she thought it would.

Instead, he let out a interested growl and lowered his head towards her, much to Drogon's displeasure. He twisted sideways and jabbed his snout against the Typhoomerang's too-curious head, forcing the other dragon away from his mother. Rhaenys squawked her approval, then lunged forward to grapple at the other dragon's feet.

"Rhaenys, no!" Dany commanded the Terror, half-afraid that one shake from the larger dragon would hurt her. "Come back here at once."

Her Terrible Terror ignored her in favor of keeping her jaws clamped around the Typhoomerang's ankle. Luckily, the orange dragon was much more levelheaded than she expected. Rather than brushing the Terror aside, he craned his neck to gently grasp the small dragon by the scruff with his teeth, gave her a sharp tug, then returned her to Daenerys' side. It was only when his head came into closer view (and Drogon didn't repel him away) that she took better notice of his features.

"Wait a minute. . ." she began slowly, her eyes widening as a thought occurred to her. It couldn't be. . . could it? ". . . Ignis? Torch? Whatever name you go by?"

Another soft rumble was the answer to her question, the Typhoomerang's yellow eyes much friendlier now. Drogon still wasn't happy about this development, though, and butted his snout between them once more, offering Ignis a snap of his teeth for getting too close.

Once she knew the Typhoomerang wasn't a threat, she gently pushed her dragon's head to the side. He didn't move an inch since she put no weight behind it, but he understood the message. Drogon turned his bright orange eyes on her in an 'are you sure' sort of way. She gave him a reassuring smile. "It's alright, buddy. This is Ignis, remember? You tried to keep me from taking him home because he was a baby. He won't hurt me."

Just like she had trusted his instincts to protect her earlier, Drogon let out a reluctant gust of hot wind ('if you say so') and backed off a little— but still close enough that he could interfere if need be. Dany reached her hand out, palm flat, and offered it to the orange dragon. He lowered his head again and bumped his snout lightly against her hand, letting it rest there as he gazed at her with his yellow eyes. She smiled in response, happy to meet an old friend; it had been a while since she'd thought about Ignis at all.

Seeing her mother's comfort with the unknown dragon, Rhaenys stopped protesting. She flapped her wings to gain some height and landed on the blonde's shoulder. Her two back talons gripped Daenerys' shoulder while the front two rested against her hair. The Terror fluttered her wings to keep her balance as her tail swished back and forth. She watched the larger dragon cautiously, probably wondering how Dany knew him.

Guessing her dragon's confusion, the blonde helped to fill in the gaps: "Rhaenys, this is Ignis, who might also go by Torch since he was given two names. Hiccup found him during one of our training sessions. He didn't know Ignis was a baby and brought him back to learn more about the species. I took care of him for a night and we returned him to his mother shortly after. She was not pleased with us."

She returned her attention to the Typhoomerang and smiled warmly at him while she lightly stroked his snout. "It's good to see you again, buddy." Here, Drogon let out an irritated snort as she used the nickname that she usually reserved for him on another dragon. She rolled her eyes in response. "I apologize for Drogon's attitude— you probably remember how he didn't want me to bring you home in the first place, right? Apparently he hasn't changed much. Anyway, I hope you're staying safe out here. We're trying to help out by closing the dragon traps that Berk put down. You haven't seen any, have you?"

The orange dragon cocked his head at her as he let out a low rumble. Dany thought that meant 'yes' in dragon, so she gestured for Ignis to go ahead. It didn't take long for them to come upon the first trap, which was a Snapper. The metal teeth glinted dangerously in the dappled light of the forest and a half-rotted fish sat on the spring. It had clearly been placed here awhile ago and no one had come around to check on it, leaving the bait to molder as it was exposed to the weather. The blonde wrinkled her nose at the sight and smell, though she wasn't surprised when Rhaenys shifted on her shoulder hopefully.

"I'll give you a better treat than that once we get back," she promised the Terror. "Trust me, you don't want to go anywhere near that fish. And you too, Drogon— or should I call you Mr. Grumpy Pants? All three of you, actually, if Ignis wants to follow us back. Especially if he helps us knock these traps out. How does that sound, boy?"

Dany had always been more comfortable with talking to dragons than her peers, having been surrounded by the former for much longer. She had no problem with talking to the creatures as if they were human since she maintained that they did have human-level intelligence, they just spoke a different language. Ignis seemed to understand her and, after she closed the Snapper with a well-aimed throw of her heavy rock, they went on to the next one.

🏹🏹🏹

Apparently, Ignis had other plans for the day because once they'd found all the traps, he jetted off after a brief goodbye. Since it was still early in the day and there wasn't anything else planned, Dany decided to take the afternoon for personal time and flew several leisurely laps around the archipelago. She was just thinking about what her evening might entail when a burning, acrid stench stung her nose. She sat bolt upright from where she'd been leaning against one of Drogon's spikes to look around in concern.

"Do you smell that, buddy?" she asked her dragon. Of course he did, since he'd abruptly changed their course not long ago. "I knew it was fire season. How much do you wanna bet that it's the twins?" When Drogon didn't answer, she nodded approvingly. "Yeah, I would've said that, too. I'm not losing any money today. Let's go take a look."

At this, he let out a rumbling protest and stubbornly kept his direction. Daenerys sighed. "Drogon, you know the others are going to be there— maybe even Snotlout. We can't have worse reputation than him! We've slacked off for almost the entire day. They could probably use our help." She paused, then added triumphantly: "Rhaenys is on my side. That's two against one. You're outvoted!"

The Terror squawked in what seemed to be disagreement, but the Targaryen waved her off. "Oh, shush. You know you agree with me." She lowered her voice to a whisper to add: "if you do, I'll give you double treats when we get home."

Drogon grunted underneath her in a way that she just knew to be 'you know I can still hear you, right?' so she scoffed: "no you can't. Besides, I didn't promise Rhaenys anything. I definitely didn't bribe her. I don't even know what you're so worked up about anyway since you know I'm immune to fire."

Really I should get at least two votes, Drogon thought grumpily, seeing as how I'm at least ten times the size of that hatchling. That would leave us at a stalemate. He was strongly against doing anything that would put his mother remotely in danger, and flying straight towards a wildfire was definitely high on the list of things he wanted to avoid (even with Daenerys' proclivity for fire-retardantness,.) But since he couldn't speak, he let out a dissatisfied huff and turned back towards Berk.

When they arrived at the village, Vikings were scurrying around, most with at least two water buckets in their hands. The smell of fire was stronger now and Dany could see the orangey flames above the rooftops. Astrid ran over to her, looking relieved. "There you are! You've been gone all day. What kept you?"

The Targaryen stared at her, caught off guard as she'd expecting to be bombarded with fire-related tasks as soon as she landed. "What about the fire? Shouldn't we. . . you know, do something about it?"

"Hiccup's on it," the blonde replied. "He went to go fetch the twins and hasn't come back. We're standing by if he needs help but so far it seems like everything's fine."

(Here, Drogon snorted behind her as if to say 'I told you so.') Sure enough, the flames disappeared a few minutes later and all that was left was a column of smoke. Then, to her delight, Ignis made a reappearance as he landed gracefully in front of them with Hiccup, the twins and their dragons on his back. Snotlout and Fishlegs came running at their arrival, the former letting out an awed breath at the sight of the orange dragon. "A Typhoomerang! Amazing!"

She noticed that Tuffnut had managed to get himself ensnared in a trap, which wasn't that much of a surprise, if she was being honest. For all her defense of not leaving the twins out of things, she still held no high regard for their intellect. Those who were not trapped filed off the Typhoomerang's wing. As Hiccup reached them, he corrected the boy: "not just any Typhoomerang. Take a closer look."

Fishlegs' eyes widened as the realization hit him. "Is that. . . Torch?"

"Yep," Dany said, only a little smugly for she'd recognized him without prompting.

Astrid gaped at the dragon in admiration while Snotlout leaned towards her, muttering, "please tell me he didn't bring the family."

"I found him in the woods. And I trained him," Tuffnut told them, proudly crossing his arms against his chest, seeming to be quite comfortable in his net.

"I found him in the woods, too," the Targaryen added, "he helped me find all the dragon traps in my area."

"Did you train him to open any?" the older twin asked, swinging pointedly from where Ignis had dropped him off.

She shook her head, mostly joking as she replied, "unfortunately we ran out of time for that."

He shrugged, not looking the least bit put out. "Eh, you win some, you lose some. Hey, watch this! Torch, wings!"

Tuffnut spread his arms wide. Ignis copied him enthusiastically, forgetting that they were in a smaller, more crowded space than the forest. As his wings came up, the tip of one smacked an unsuspecting Snotlout. He ended up headfirst in a wheelbarrow, the force of his fall sending it into motion. Unfortunately, is was perfectly lined up with the steep ramps down to the dock. He went screaming down the decline and, after a few seconds, a splash! was heard as he hit the water.

Ignis seemed to find this funny and slit his eyes in amusement. A roar sounded in the distance, sounding very much like his own. He looked towards it before he lowered his head to nuzzle at Tuffnut affectionately. The boy laughed. "Quit it! What's he doing?"

"He's saying goodbye, Tuff," Hiccup explained gently.

"Oh. . ." he sighed. "I'm gonna miss you, Torch. You're the only one who ever listened to me." He roared then and the Typhoomerang responded with one of his own.

The orange dragon regarded Hiccup and Dany with his yellow eyes, appearing to nod at them respectfully before he launched himself into the air with his special flight pattern. Sparks of orange flame came from his mouth to help him gain height. It didn't take long for him to vanish from view.

After a moment of silence as they watched his departure, Tuffnut spoke up again: "okay. Can you guys let me out of this trap now, or. . ."

"Well, I suppose." Hiccup started to step forward, but before he could, Gobber reached out an arm to stop him.

"No, no. Not so fast, Hiccup," the blacksmith warned him. "You got yourself into that, you need to get yourself out."

Needless to say, the twins were blissfully occupied for quite some time.