entrancelogs | swallowed by the dark

Entry tags:

swallowed by the dark | open

Who: Toothless and you.
Where: The woods/grounds.
When: Today.
Rating: PG. Mentions of character death.
Summary: Death is a big thing if you... don't really know what it is.
The Story:

He remembers teeth sinking into his flesh, snarls, claws on the floor by his head, and fire. A voice — and then nothing. Every organism struggles to keep on, to keep going, to keep existing. Aside from the end, and trying to prevent it in himself and others, the Night Fury has never really thought about death. Death is natural, though as a dragon he knows not to go lightly. When he closes his eyes, it's so very dark.

But then he hears wind through the trees, and smells the ocean. That's not right. He remembers the Vikings talking about deaths — something about five of them, and coming back — but it had never really processed that he, too, would return. That's not natural. Why would he come back at all?

Now that he's lived it firsthand, Toothless doesn't know what to do with the information.

The dragon bolts upright, eyes as wide as saucers, and then runs. He doesn't stop until he's tired, and by then he can't see or smell the mansion anymore. He lays there, panting, until he surrenders to sleep again, hoping things make more sense when he awakens. Is this where dragons go when they die? He isn't sure where he is anymore.

For the entire day after Toothless' death, he wanders. Parched, hungry, and upset. He can't smell the invisible beasts anymore, but he startles at every rustle of leaves. Are they going to come find him? Mob him again? His plaintive cries are lost to the trees, and at the end of the night Toothless curls up under a fallen log and falls into a restless slumber.

When he awakens, he's lying on the grounds near the maze. It's a familiar sight, but it brings back memories of sulfur and snarling. Toothless is immediately in motion, again, the second he awakens, and runs to the corner of the foundation that leads to the caves. He doesn't go all the way inside, instead going just inside the entrance and then staring out. All that's visible is the vague shape of his head and his bright green eyes, due to his dark coloration.

There, he waits. Unwilling to move. On edge.

Still very much confused.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Those two big eyes look in either direction, warily. Nothing seems to be happening or approaching from elsewhere, and he can't smell the hellhounds anymore. This Viking seems friendly. He hesitates for a long moment before, slowly, taking a few steps out of the shadows and then looking at Jack curiously.

Jack continues to stand where he is, arms raised. He doesn't want to do anything that would get himself eaten or killed by an actual dragon. Standing still and quiet isn't exactly Jack's forte, but, well. He's got preservation instincts. Dying was unpleasant enough the first time around.

But then the dragon finally moves out of the shadow and Jack slowly lowers his arms, looking at Toothless just as curiously as Toothless is looking at him. After a second, all Jack can thing to say is, "...Dragon."

Jack is one of the quicker Vikings, to deduce what he is (not that he minds being called a lizard, but it's inaccurate — and do any lizards even fly?). Toothless makes a satisfied-sounding trill in the back of his throat and then takes a few more steps closer to him, nodding. That's what he is, all right.

He sniffs at the colorful Viking, taking in all of the bangles on his strange armor, looking at Jack's sword with a wary glint to his large green eyes.

Jack had been told there was a dragon in Wonderland. And while Toothless wasn't exactly what Jack had pictured in his head when he thinks dragon, there wasn't any denying the fact that it is, in fact, a dragon.

He notes that the dragon actually nods to Jack's announcement. A dragon that can understand words. That's interesting. Which is why, when Jack notices Toothless staring at his sword, he raises his hands in a placating gesture.

"No worries, mate. I ain't plannin' on usin' it."

At the comment, Toothless' eyes lift to Jack's face and the Night Fury studies him for a moment. Not in a way that most animals do, with a narrowing of his gaze and a calculation as to whether Jack is being truthful or not. He has no way of knowing Jack's record with the truth, but he does seem to be genuine about the sword at least. So Toothless nods again, sitting down. His ears are forward as he does so, a low and curious rumble coming from him.

If Jack was going to use his sword, he would have used it already. But despite his rocky relationship with most animals, Jack doesn't like to hurt them. It's not like they really know any better.

He moves a step closer when Toothless sits down, but he makes no motion to touch him. He happens to likes both of his hands right where they are, thanks. Instead, he motions to the cave that he had been hiding in. "Is this where you live?" Then, he frowns. "Do dragons live in caves?"

To the first, he shakes his head. To the second, he nods. Although the mansion's room for him has taken the shape of a cave, now that Hiccup is gone, the caves under it aren't all that terrific. A little too damp for Toothless' taste. He prefers being near the kitchen that can supply him with whatever food he's craving on that particular day.

Toothless nods at the mansion, trilling again.

When Toothless nods behind him, Jack turns around, trying to see what he's gesturing at. Then he turns back around to put the pieces together.

"So... Dragons do live in caves, but you don't. You live in," Jack turns and gestures to the mansion behind him. "...the mansion, aye?"

He knew there was a dragon in Wonderland, but a dragon in the mansion? He regards Toothless once more. "At least you seem nice enough."

Pleased with Jack's deduction skills, Toothless nods again in confirmation of what he's worked out. It's 'nice' to be called nice, though sometimes he worries about his image as a Night Fury. Perhaps the inhabitants of the mansion think he's more of a cuddly teddy bear than a dragon, defending them against hellhounds aside.

He comes a few more curious steps closer, sniffing at Jack's boots and committing his scent to memory.

Jack leans back when Toothless moves forward. To his credit, he doesn't take a step back or go run away screaming when the dragon gets close enough to touch him. He's still fairly wary though, because Jack Sparrow has not had the best luck when it comes to animals.

"You ain't gonna bite me or nothin', eh?" Because it never hurts to be sure.

Looking up at the pirate, his scent memorized now, Toothless shakes his head gently. He then sits down, so that they're more or less the same height (the Night Fury perhaps a bit shorter). Toothless prefers to save the violence for when the situation really calls for it, like most predators. Especially so in the mansion, where he rarely has to worry about his safety.

...except in the case of invisible beasts, of course.

But the Vikings are all, generally, kind to him. Or at least, they don't tend to go for their weapons first and ask questions later.

"Right. Good." Jack nods, pleased when the dragon sits back down. He's still not about to touch the dragon but, as far as animals go, Jack could admit that Toothless wasn't altogether too bad. Which, as far as he's concerned, is a compliment.

"So, if you don't live in a cave, what're you doing out here for?" A thought comes to him and he frowns, looking around him. "You aren't lookin' for prey or nothin', were you?"

Toothless shakes his head. There's nothing here worth hunting. Fish in the sea, yes, but that's about it. He hasn't mastered hunting deer in the forest yet, as the trees are far too close together. It's difficult for him to maneuver. He's not sure how to explain that he'd just died, either, but a sudden thought comes to him. He moves a short distance away to find a stick, managing to come across a hefty one, and then crosses to a closer patch of dirt.

He has no chalk, so this will have to do. Very hesitantly, he begins to draw a skull. Maybe that will help. Of course, it takes him a few tries to get the shape down.

Of course, Jack Sparrow sees the skull and does not think death. Instead, he thinks, "Pirates?" Because, well, a skull and crossbows are the pirate symbol, after all.

He frowns as he puts together his previous thought and his current thought. "You were... huntin' pirates?" Which, you know, does not bode well for him at all, considering what he is.

The Night Fury shakes his head, registering that Jack looks a little on the unnerved side by this statement. No, that's not it at all (what are pirates?). Toothless isn't sure how else to describe things, and doesn't know how long Jack has been in the mansion. But now that he has an audience, he can attempt to give this more of a try.

Expression determined, Toothless begins to draw a dog in the dirt. That's what someone had described the monsters as. Dogs? He thinks of D'Artagnan's dog and one starts to take shape in the dirt. Only he makes sure this one looks spiky and dangerous.

Jack hasn't been in the mansion long enough to have experienced the disaster that was the hellhounds. However, he'd certainly heard enough about it that he can make some educated (or not-so educated) guesses about what might have happened.

And really, the image that Toothless draws in the dirt isn't too far off from what Jack imagined one of the monsters to look like -- dogs, but dangerous, probably with a lot of teeth, probably black. "Those be one o' those hellhounds, aye?" That, at least, would make some sense.

Toothless drops his stick to the ground, nodding. He hadn't gotten a glimpse, of course, but he'd felt them — and he'd killed many with his teeth and claws, protecting the Vikings around him. He raises a paw up to his throat and mimes being slashed, just the once. It's still a touchy subject, even if he's feeling a lot more confident now that he has Jack to talk to.

Throat slashing is a pretty international, interdimensional sign of being killed, and Jack understands immediately and he frowns.

"One of 'em got you, eh?" He can sympathize, really. He might not have been killed by hellhounds, but he has died before. "Not a pleasant experience, is it? Dyin'."

The Night Fury shakes his head, softly trilling in the back of his throat. It had felt cold and confusing and he hadn't known where he was, at the end. Before struggling through the woods, and arriving back at the manor just as suddenly as the act of dying. He was unmarked, and he knew there were more deaths he could go through — but it wasn't an experience he was seeking to duplicate.

Jack nods in understanding. His own death experience was somewhat similar, except he knew exactly where he was. Davy Jones' Locker. Bright white sand, as far as the eye can see. No wind, no clouds, no food, no drink. Just a lot of nothing.

"At least you came back, aye? Better than what most people can say." He pauses, considering this before he waves his hand. "Not here, I s'ppose, but. Elsewhere."

Toothless inclines his head in agreement. He wouldn't have minded dying, protecting the Vikings he's grown attached to. But still. It's good to be back among them. And now, perhaps, he has a better understanding of Wonderland as a whole.

He trills questioningly at Jack, as if asking if the pirate's died before, too.

Jack points a finger to himself in question. "Me? Have I died?"

Well, that's certainly a loaded question, isn't it? He waves a hand. "Not here. Not yet, anyways. Just got here not too long ago. But back home." Back home there were giant Kraken teeth and a horrible smell and Kraken saliva stuck to his body, and Jack shivers just remembering the experience.

"Aye. I've died back home. Not a pleasant experience, I would not recommend it."

The Night Fury nods in quiet agreement, carefully nudging his head against Jack's boot in a tentative gesture — seemingly — of solidarity. Death had been unpleasant and confusing. But he feels all right, now. Not back to normal, but it seems like it won't be too long before that happens.

Jack's still a bit... wary about touching the dragon. However, it had nudged his boot, and so Jack doesn't see much wrong with... nudging it back, just a little. Solidarity, indeed.

"Well, we be back alive now. Best not make those mistakes again, eh?

Again, he nods. Toothless seems pleased at the nudge, almost. Maybe the Viking is getting used to him. He gives Jack another one, just for good measure, and then trots off in the direction of the mansion to secure himself something to eat, tail swishing behind him like a particularly enormous dog.

(no subject)

bottlearum - 2013-09-14 18:41 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only