Astrid ⟡ 001

[4everythingelse]

Who: 4everythingelse and anybody afoot
Where: The fields around Espoir, midday ish
Style: Third, preferably
Status: OPEN~

Comments

[hasnoteefs]

Toothless had been dozing, somewhere nearby what could have been described as the Arrival Field in Espoir. He had found a few good places to catch fish, and he knew where to find Hiccup, and with the stark lack of meatheaded Vikings to harass and other dragons to bother, the Night Fury found himself with a lot of downtime on his claws. So he did what any domesticated animal does when they have downtime; nap.

Of course, being near the Arrival Field resulted in him catching wind of dozens of new scents every few days.

Today, two of those scents were very familiar, so the dozing dragon lifted his head quickly and looked left, then right, unfolding himself and stretching, sniffing the air. Those-- that-- that was that angry little blond girl that Hiccup liked so much, wasn't it? And her Nadder. He couldn't remember what the girl had called her.

His nose stuck in the air slightly, Toothless followed the scent upwind until he caught sight of the retreating forms of a bright blue dragon and a yellow-haired Viking girl. Moving faster, his reptilian lips curled into a smile and he made a pleased gurgling sound with his approach. Friends!

[4everythingelse]

Astrid's nadder gave a high, cheerful trill, and she turned to give the dragon an odd look. She had been pleased to discover that despite their somewhat fearsome presentation, dragons were not entirely unlike any other animal. Astrid never would have gone so far as to say that Berk had domesticated dragons, because they were still very much wild animals, and her nadder was always her companion and never really her pet, but the fact remained that dragons did remind her a bit of dogs sometimes.

Like right now, for example. As she watched in confusion, her nadder unfolded her wings and clicked her jaw a few times. She'd seen Öndótt do that a few times; it usually meant that one of the other dragons was nearby. Öndótt had been named for her fierce, fiery gaze, but Astrid had quickly taken to just calling her Dot, because fierce though she was, she was also quite friendly once you got to know her. The nadder had quickly made friends with the other dragons in the paddock, and hated to be left alone.

But if she was making that sound like another dragon was around, that could only mean...

"What is it?" she asked, getting to her feet. She'd been fiddling with the runebox. Sliding it back into her pouch, Astrid put a hand on Dot's flank and squinted in the direction the dragon was facing. "We're not in Berk anymore, the others aren't here--"

And that was when she saw a strangely familiar dark shape bounding across the field. Was that--? It couldn't be.

"... Toothless?"

Dot chirped again, flapping her wings and nearly knocking Astrid sideways. Sidestepping and then moving out of the way of wayward wingspan, Astrid's face broke into a wide smile. Wherever in the world she was, it always helped to have a few friends. And wherever there was Toothless, Hiccup was usually nearby.

(Not that she was missing him or worried about him or anything. Nope. Not at all.)

[hasnoteefs]

Dogs, cats, funny little blue aliens with six arms and antennae-- Yeah, dragons were quite similar to a number of other creatures on the face of the planet. Toothless, too, was doing a splendid impression of a dog as he bounded across the field gleefully. He beat his wings uselessly against the air and lifted himself off the ground for a few feet just prior to coming to a surprisingly light landing in front of Astrid and Öndótt, gums bared in a big silly grin and his entire back end wiggling. He folded his wings back against himself and trilled loquaciously at Öndótt, appearing to hold a conversation with the Nadder, before he took another few steps forward toward Astrid and nearly headbutted her off her feet.

Their less-than-happy meeting aside, Toothless really did enjoy the high-strung little Viking girl-- though in part because she really did seem to make Hiccup very happy. Astrid was by no means a substitute for the Chief's son, but she was a friend nonetheless, and friends not only deserved reptilian affection, but also tended to give scritches. Which Toothless was highly fond of.

Unfortunately for Astrid's quiet (though really, Toothless could hear it loud and clear) hope of Hiccup's presence, the boy was nowhere to be seen. Toothless assumed he was likely at the workshop-- he checked up on him numerous times throughout the day, but didn't fit in the shop by any stretch of the imagination and hardly wanted to crowd his human while he worked. So while there was no awkward Viking in tow of the dragon, Toothless made a point of, with his nudging, gurgling about the fact that he'd take Astrid to them if they liked.

Though he was mostly aware that Öndótt would be the one to understand him more than Astrid herself.

[4everythingelse]

Astrid laughed aloud as the night fury made a big show of plowing his head directly into her. Yup, it was definitely Toothless. Reaching out and scratching both sides of his head fondly, Astrid gave a wide smile.

"It's good to see you, too, Toothless," she said as Dot trilled happily. Pulling back and looking into the dragon's big acid-green eyes, she placed her palms on either side of his face and gave him a hopeful look. "Is Hiccup here?" she asked, maybe a bit too eagerly. "Is he okay?" Not that she was that concerned.

Dot had, of course, gotten a bit more of the message than Astrid was getting at the moment, and trilled at Toothless again. Astrid was more worried than she would ever admit to, but it seemed she didn't have to worry.

[hasnoteefs]

Whoever said dragons couldn't purr was quite and very dead wrong, because as Astrid's fingertips scritched the sides of his head, that is precisely what Toothless began to do. Mind it was a sort of guttural gurgling sound and not the breathy rumbling one may receive from a cat, but it was still, most assuredly, a purr. He let his eyes slide closed until the blond recoiled and used her hold on his head to look directly at him, at which point he blinked owlishly.

...and promptly nodded to her question. Hadn't he just said that? Goodness, Astrid, get better at speaking Toothless. He closed his eyes over again and his reptilian lips peeled away from his gums as he made a chatty series of grunts, nattering about the fact that Hiccup still had the leg he had lost, but overall it was a good thing in the dragon's mind, so what did it really matter? A Hiccup with two feet is a wholer Hiccup than a Hiccup with one foot and a metal peg leg, so yes, Toothless figured that counted as Hiccup was "okay". He offered an amused little grunt to Öndótt over Astrid's worry-- humans were such funny things, pretending they weren't worried over each other to save face. Did they really never notice?

[4everythingelse]

... Had Toothless just nodded? Hiccup always seemed to know more or less what the dragon was talking about, but Astrid had never been quite certain the dragons understood anything they said. Suddenly she wondered if Toothless didn't understand better than she'd thought. She blinked at the night fury, then at Öndótt, and then rewarded Toothless with another round of ear-scritches.

He seemed quite content, so she had to figure Hiccup was around somewhere. If she knew Hiccup, he was probably off tinkering, building ridiculous things that were more complicated than necessary but somehow making everyone's lives a little easier for it regardless. Or possibly getting in over his head and somehow managing to set everything on fire. It was pretty much 50/50 with him. Even if he should have been in bed resting until his leg healed, she had no doubt he was being a bad convalescent. It was sort of a viking prerequisite.

"Can you show me where he is?" she asked then, perhaps as a test as to whether or not Toothless really understood her.

[hasnoteefs]

Night Furies weren't called the most intelligent breed of dragon for nothing, Miss Hofferson. There were certain words and phrases Vikings used that went right over Toothless' scaly head, but for the most part he could figure out what was being said and asked of him as much as a young Viking like themselves could. He didn't always understand why they said the things that they said or what it had to do with anything, but he did generally understand, as a whole.

Good call on contentedness relating to Hiccup's presence there, Astrid. If the boy hadn't been in Somarium and Toothless had been all on his own, he would have still been happy to see Astrid and Öndótt-- possibly happier, even, but it would have been different. The excited affection of a lonely dragon without his human is entirely different than the excited affection of a dragon who just happens to be bored because his human is hard at work in the smithy.

Grunting and giving a brief sort of nod, Toothless pulled away from Astrid's scritches to lead the pair off toward the workshop. He still wouldn't fit inside, and Öndótt wasn't likely to either, but there was plenty of space outside the smithy and they could wait while their humans played catchup.