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There were dragons when he was a boy.
There had been so many, in every color and size you could possibly imagine. They were beautiful creatures and most of them were the most loyal companions a Viking could ever have.
He should know. He had one. And his Night Fury was his best friend in the whole world.
The trouble was that his children didn’t believe him.
There was no sign of dragons ever existing, so why should they? They believed their father told them fairy tales about a made-up black dragon who was faster than the wind. They didn’t even believe it when their mother tried to make them understand.
The only signs the children had that dragons weren’t just a myth were in town. Most of them in their house.
The Book of Dragons was a big collection of Uncle Fishlegs’ and Daddy’s overactive imaginations. All the drawings were of dreams.
They couldn’t explain the saddles or the single red tail fin though, no matter how hard they tried. Even they knew their father wouldn’t go to that great of a length to trick them. Somewhere in the back of their minds, they wanted to believe that their Nana and Gobber and the twins and Uncle Snotlout and their parents had their own dragons, but they never could completely.
They would never have races in the sky. They would never have the ability to take down a ship in a burning rage with a signal. No, they didn’t have any dragons. That was impossible.
"Dad?" called a voice into the forge. Hiccup still went there to get away, even if he wasn’t doing anything. It reminded him of the many hours he had spent there with his best friend.
"What is it, buddy?"
His thirteen year old son sounded frightened. “There’s a giant black bat on the roof!”
"A giant black bat? Hal, what on earth are you talking about?" Hiccup demanded, coming outside.
Hal was staring, eyes wide at the roof. Hiccup looked up.
"Toothless?" he asked in disbelief.
The large black creature jumped from the roof and Hal (who was not as brave as he looked), slipped behind his father. The creature had intelligent green feline eyes and when he moved his tail, one of the black fins was obviously mechanical. It sniffed Hiccup once before its tongue lolled out.
"Toothless, it really is you!" Hiccup wrapped his arms around the creature’s neck. The creature just began licking Hiccup happily. The force knocked Hiccup to the ground. Hal was in shock.
"Toothless is real?" Hal was dumbstruck.
Hiccup was laughing and scratching the dragon, but managed to tell Hal it was impossible to keep up a lie for thirteen years.
"So Stormfly is real too?"
"Of course she is. I told you that Mom used to drop me off of her." stood up and flicked dragon saliva off of himself and back onto Toothless, who grumbled.
"Don’t pout at me! You’re the one that left for fourteen years!"
Toothless narrowed his eyes.
"Can I touch it?"
"Sure you can." Hiccup smiled. "Toothless, this is Hal. He’s my son." The dragon gave him a look. "Yes, Astrid’s too. He’s a good kid, bud. Can he pet you?"
Toothless sniffed the boy, who still looked terrified, and then nodded.
"Hold your hand out and look away." Hiccup instructed the teenager. Hal did just that. Toothless touched his snout to Hal’s open palm.
Hal looked over and smiled at his father. He patted the dragon’s nose.
There was the sound of wings flapping overhead and Hal, Toothless, and Hiccup all looked up to two dragons in the sky.
"Look who’s back!" Astrid called from the back of Stormfly. Their six year daughter was in front of her, looking very excited. "Are you three going to join us?"
Hiccup looked at Hal. “Think you want to try?”
"With you, I hope."
Hiccup chuckled. “Of course,”
Toothless crouched, tail wagging eagerly.
"Want to change your tail later, bud?" Hiccup asked, helping his son onto the back of the dragon.
Toothless crooned happily in response.
"Alright," Hiccup nodded, joining Hal. "Forgive me in advance, I’m out of practice."
Hal nodded.
"Let’s go bud."
Toothless took off. He joined Stormfly and Cloudjumper in the sky.
"Nice to see you, Toothless." Valka told the Night Fury. Astrid and Hiccup’s other daughter, who was ten, was in front of her,
Toothless crooned.
"Shall we?" Astrid asked.
"We shall," Hiccup replied.
The three dragons flew higher until they were in the clouds, the children squealing in glee. Below them, dragons and people were getting reacquainted.
They might never know why the dragons’s left and why they came back, but that didn’t matter at that moment.
There were dragons when he was a boy. Now, his boy had dragons.