lightning and death [open]

[no_eels]

Who: Toothless, and you.
Where: Along the trail, and then in Denny's. With any luck.
When: Oregon Trail event.
Rating: PGish. A dragon's gotta eat.
Summary: He has no idea what happened to the mansion, but this whole dusty traveling thing is just downright weird even for Wonderland. Still, Toothless is determined to see it to the end, and to follow everyone.
The Story:


Day One: And here the dragon had thought he was maybe, finally getting used to Wonderland, the strange island one cannot swim or fly from. Toothless opens his eyes to find a dusty prairie on all sides and a lot of strange, smelly new people. Everyone is a bustle of activity, most of the grumbling and grumpy nature, and at first Toothless sticks close to Hiccup's side. He doesn't trust any of this.

But later in the day, as wagon trains begin to take shape, Toothless finally branches out on his own, to explore and sniff all of the new objects he's never seen before. He gives the salted meat a wrinkled nose before the butcher chases him away, and accidentally terrifies a woman putting together a clothing display outside of her shop. By the end of the day, Toothless is exhausted, and still very confused.

Day Two: Even without his wings, Toothless doesn't give the river much thought, at first. He easily swims across, thinking everyone else will do the same, and then realizes they have those bulky... wheeled things to deal with. In deeper water, he'd be worried. But the dragon, with a little creativity from his tail, manages to swim well enough. Toothless fords back out in the middle of the river (to the alarm of the ferry people working it), hoping to help in some measure. Though the only way he could help is to stop a drowning.

As for the rest of the day, Toothless becomes separated from his friend early on, in the dark; the dust and strange smells down out Hiccup's scent. He spends his time keeping an even trot, checking each wagon he comes across for his friend. But inevitably, his search comes up empty. When it starts to get dark again, he simply looks for someone who doesn't mind a dragon sleeping next to them.

Day Three: Another trading post isn't of much consequence for Toothless, who's been living largely off of rabbits found off the trail and maybe a few bites of food from kindly Trail goers. He can hunt reasonably well, but the buffalo confuse him more than the oxen. They're more of a meal than he needs, anyway, and he spends the time at the trading post looking for Hiccup again.

Needless to say, the amount of sick vikings around him worries the dragon. But there isn't much he can do, other than hope that the human sicknesses don't pass down to him. He doesn't exactly fit in a wagon. Not without killing the oxen from effort.

Day Four: Cold. Great, just great.

Toothless himself doesn't care. He isn't a true reptile, and he can keep himself warm in the snow. He's from a cold climate, after all. A little time spent running and hopping around like the world's biggest cat gets his blood moving again. But the vikings? The vikings don't seem to be doing so well, and the Nightfury can't do much for them aside from helping them start fires whenever they have to slow for the night.

He really hopes this is going to be over soon.

Day Five: But he didn't expect this.

Toothless spends far, far too much time at the flashing neon sign, after he swims across the river. He nearly gets swept up in the freezing water, but struggles to the shore, coughing water out of his system. For a time, he simply lays on the river bank, tired and disheartened that his search for Hiccup has turned up nothing. But then he spots the sign, and his curiosity wins out.

From there on, it's the smell of food that distracts him. Denny's staff don't mind a black dragon in the building, do they?

Whether they do or not, the dragon totters inside to curl up in a corner of the place, recognizing these particular vikings, and at least has a warm place to spend his time. No matter how much the employees freak out, the miserable Nightfury won't be moved from the premises.

Comments

Day One?

[widows_kiss]

Natasha's been one of the grumbling and grumpy travelers, because this is not her idea of fun in the least, but here they are. She has no idea why they're going to Oregon or why they have to do it in a wagon. Not to mention Steve's one of the ones who's fallen sick and half the team's trying to keep him comfortable while she keeps them moving.

Who'd have guessed that oxen are more annoying to drive than an alien aircraft? And so much slower.

But it's dark now and most of the wagons have rolled to a stop - mostly for lack of visibility, despite the bright stars overhead. Clint's gone hunting and there's plenty of food around the Avengers campfire, where everyone's found someplace to make themselves relatively comfortable for the night.

Natasha's still up by the fire, however, keeping watch for a bit and enjoying the quiet. She supposes being in the middle of nowhere has some benefits and it's been ages since she's seen a sky so full of familiar stars, with no city lights to dim them.

:D

[no_eels]

Ordinarily, in the prairie, the biggest thing you have to worry about is a bear. But something much larger and darker is afoot in this particular prairie, and it's searching for someone. So far, the search has been fruitless. But Toothless is a determined creature. He's not going to back down just because he can't find Hiccup within a few hours.

This brings him to this latest fire, the Nightfury trotting with his wings folded against his back. His gait isn't exactly alarming; he's moving more like a dog than anything else. But he's still a dragon, of course. This whole event hasn't taken that much away from him.

For someone on watch, he sticks out like a sore thumb as he draws closer to the Avengers' fire.

[widows_kiss]

She catches the movement of a dark shadow before the fire illuminates it enough to see who's approaching. Or what, for that matter, although she can tell it's rather large. One of the horses maybe, is her first though until she catches sight of gleaming almost cat-like eyes and then there's a dragon across the fire from her.

At least she's assuming that's what it is, because she's never seen anything quite like him, and it has her getting to her feet in a startled motion, because what the hell, why was there a dragon in the prairie? She'd never played this ridiculous game, but she's pretty sure that's historically inaccurate right there.

[no_eels]

Toothless' green eyes are wide as he watches the viking stand up. Any scent not like Hiccup's has almost been ignored, in the Nightfury's determination to locate his friend, and that means more vikings than usual have gotten the drop on him. Luckily, for the most part, reactions to him have been fairly positive.

But this one seems to be more on par with the reactions he'd seen upon first coming to Wonderland.

He slows, sitting down as he looks across the flames at Natasha. If things turn unfriendly, he'll move on. But if he can, he wouldn't mind an opportunity to rest his feet and warm his black scales.

[widows_kiss]

The creature sits down across the fire from her in a move that's both surprising and interesting and she stays where she is for a moment when the dragon just blinks at her patiently. When he doesn't seem inclined to attack, she lets herself relax slightly as she eyes him with curiosity.

"Hello?" she asks, wondering if that's actual intelligence she senses behind his gaze or its just her imagination playing tricks on her.

[no_eels]

That's encouraging. Toothless is already being lulled by the warmth of the fire, on his way to feeling more relaxed, as the viking watches him. She has the same fiery red hair as a few vikings do in Wonderland. It's not uncommon back home in Berk, but the reds that Toothless has seen here are more pronounced. He likes them. Like a dragon breathed fire and it settled down to sleep on a viking's head.

Toothless makes a trill in response, eyes growing a little wider; it sounds like a noise from the world's biggest cat, only lacking a true meow. Hello!

[widows_kiss]

Alright that definitely sounded like an answer. Even if it was one she couldn't exactly translate beyond the obvious. She sank down in a crouch once more across the fire from the dragon, her head tilted faintly to the side in curiosity as she studies him with interest.

"You can understand me?"

[no_eels]

He trills again, in answer, looking pleased. It's not a feat all dragons can do. They can understand the gist of what a viking tells them, sure — dragons are special like that. But Toothless is smart enough to be able to pick out most of what is said and interpret it, much like a very young viking might.

Though he doesn't know quite that much about it. But he does know that he's smart.

Vikings have told him so, and then he's spent hours preening over the fact (to Hiccup's exasperation).

[widows_kiss]

The sound gets a smile from her and she relaxes a hint more, settling down by the fire once more, her gaze still locked on him, curious.

"Well then. That's new. You're welcome to sit here by the fire, if you like. Are you hungry?"

[no_eels]

Also like a young viking, Toothless is a walking stomach. He perks up considerably when she asks him if he's hungry — he's always hungry. Ninety percent of the time, at least. And even if he isn't, he can still eat. It's a survival trait when you live in the North, where food is sometimes scarce during certain months and putting on fat is important.

In Wonderland, however, it means Toothless is on his way to gaining a bit of a belly.

His ears shift forward, looking very interested. Does the pretty viking have food?

[widows_kiss]

"I'm going to take that as a very obvious yes." Because she's pretty sure that look is universal. Or at the very least, it's eerily similar to her partner's when she shows up unannounced with Thai.

Bending down, she roots through the crate they've been storing supplies in and comes up with some of the dried venison they'd stocked up on. She holds out a strip of it to him, watching him curiously. "I don't have anything fresh at the moment - the boys are out hunting, actually - but you can try this if you don't mind it dried?"

Because what on earth did dragons eat?

[no_eels]

Refusing to take food is, generally speaking, a reliable way of telling if Toothless is sick. He's in the best of health, for the moment, and so he stands up and starts to make his way slowly around the fire. Even with a bottomless appetite, Toothless is still wary of vikings who might be jumpy and quick to defend themselves. This one doesn't seem to be, but one can never be too careful when there are boomsticks around.

He's imagining that they hurt, when used. They kill buffalo, after all.

Toothless, with the greatest care, moves his head forward and takes the strip of venison from her hand, exposing his rows of short, white teeth. It's not as good as fish, but it's still good. Trilling quietly in the back of his throat — almost a purr — he chews down the venison with wide, pleased eyes.

[widows_kiss]

Natasha understands the importance of body language in just about any situation, and there's nothing about her that announces alarm or threat. She remains sitting easy and patient as the black dragon prowls around the fire towards her and her outstretched offering. Even the sight of his teeth don't have her tensing, although she's definitely watching him alertly.

Not necessary, it seems, as he takes the venison with a pleased-sounding trill. Her lips curve in amusement at his reaction.

"I'm guessing that means you like it," she speaks again, a smile in her voice as she takes out a handful of the dried meat and places it on the container's lid, before setting it down like a plate for him. "Here, help yourself."

[no_eels]

It will more than do, and Toothless immediately digs into the offered 'plate' once he's swallowed his first strip. Where he gets food doesn't really concern him all that much. He's learned that the closets will give him food, if he thinks about it really hard. And hadn't that been a terrible moment, as far as the dragon's sleek belly was concerned.

Really, it's a miracle that he isn't completely round.

He finishes the jerky in short order, licking his lips before sitting up again and rumbling at Natasha. The sound is like the purr of a giant, satisfied cat.

[widows_kiss]

She watches him devour the meat with enthusiasm, a bemused smile lingering about her lips as she stays sitting beside him. When he sits up and... is he purring at her? It makes her laugh softly, because he reminds her, if anything, like an over-sized cat.

"Good?" she asks with a smile, tentatively reaching a hand out to him, palm open, curious about him. "Hopefully that will tide you over. I have no idea how much a dragon needs to eat. That's what you are, isn't it? Then again, I suspect you'd have an easier time hunting out here than the rest of us."

[no_eels]

Toothless leans his head forward in answer, gently giving her fingers a quick sniff — like he's checking to see if there's more and he just can't see — before he presses his snout against her palm. The scales on his head are particularly fine, and feel almost like leather. And while he's warm all of the time, he's a lot warmer than he would be normally on account of resting close to the fire.

Dragons eat quite a bit. Luckily, there are a lot of animals on the trail with the wagons. Here, at least, but Toothless has no idea what's to come.

[widows_kiss]

She doesn't jump when the dragon unceremoniously leans into her offered touch, but she does let her fingers brush against his scales with avid fascination, a mix of petting and exploring in her touch. "Well, you're certainly a friendly one, at least. I'll take that over the opposite any day. Do you have people here looking after you? People you're travelling with?"

[no_eels]

He rumbles again as she pets him and slides her fingers over his scales. Any sort of attention is good attention, any day of the week, but today it's especially welcome. His answer would have been different before the morning, when he'd lost sight of Hiccup, but now his rumbles turn lower, and his gaze shifts to the dirt.

Toothless had been traveling with someone.