[open]

[no_eels]

Who: Toothless, and you!
Where: All over Wonderland.
When: Zombie event.
Rating: PG-13ish.
Summary: What's wrong with the shambly Vikings who can't move around much? Why do they make those weird noises?
The Story:

22nd, 23rd, 24th—

He doesn't much understand it, the word that he hears on the communicator. It sounds vaguely familiar, like something he heard someone mention in passing, but the Vikings are a bit of a mystery. Not as much as for some, however, because Toothless can smell them decaying, and he knows what that means. Death.

At first, they ignore him. He isn't sure what to make of that, but eventually they come after a Viking he's protective of and he lunges out — and then the creatures all at once become aware of him, and he isn't safe anymore. He barely was to begin with, maybe, but it was something. Now, he moves quickly. Looking for Vikings who are stranded or seem to be in need of help. It's not as easy as usual, because, once again, he can't breathe fire, and his wings feel wobbly. Unsteady, incapable of flight.

But he still has his teeth, his claws, and the force of a twenty-foot-long dragon to throw things around with. He moves like a shot through the woods and anywhere else he finds, getting out of the prison quickly enough. At first, anyway. His mind is on the Vikings, and where his friends are.

25th—

Something strange happens in the night. By teeth or by the scratch of a nail, Toothless wakes up feeling strange. Hungry, in a way he recognizes from when his Mirror was in his mind. While he'd like nothing more than to tear the leg off of a dragon, or rip into its throat, any Vikings he finds will have to do. Or anything else, for that matter.

The brilliant green of his eyes fades, just a little, giving way into a paler color, his teeth yellowing and his scales losing their keen shimmer. His wings drag alongside him, the Night Fury having lost the ability to control them entirely, and his tongue lolls from his mouth. But he can move quickly in short bursts, should he catch sight of anyone.

Comments

[no_eels]

This is definitely one of the Vikings that he's been looking for, and Toothless, looking disheveled, skitters forward to nuzzle his snout against Caroline's leg. He's pleased to see her, after catching sight of a few Vikings who had fallen prey to the fumbling hungry things. She seems to be in a similar state to himself, which is comforting.

The Night Fury chitters quietly, looking up at her with his big green eyes.

[disparage]

Nuzzling his snout against her leg isn't going to cut it today.

Caroline swoops down, landing on her knees, and embraces Toothless with a fierce hug. It's not choking nor hurtful, as she's lost the power of her strength the minute she awoke on the first day. "Oh my god," she breathes out. She doesn't want to let go of him, so, she simply pulls back, keeps her hands on his scales, and looks him in the eye. "Are you okay?"

[no_eels]

Toothless makes a noise that seems to be an affirmation, a deep thing in the back of his throat that's almost like a sigh. He's tired of this change, already, and he wants the mansion back. He wants the ability to breathe fire back, and fly. Taking it away is a reminder of being stuck, flightless, in the grotto, back when Hiccup had found him. It's unpleasant.

[disparage]

Caroline wants her ability to tear things in two and run at the speed of light back. She doesn't like how human she feels; clumsy and disoriented. Why does Toothless always have the luck in finding her in such a state?

Hesitantly, she says, "No … bites?" Her eyes roam over him. He doesn't seem hurt. There's no scratches nor bleeding. But she doesn't like that she can't smell it to make sure. She's not on her A-game and she dislikes how it slows her down. "Scratches? Cuts?"

[no_eels]

Caroline isn't a damsel in distress, but still, Toothless has a knack for locating pretty Vikings when things go to shambles. Literal shambles, being that these decaying creatures have zero grace. The Night Fury shakes his head. So far, he's been pretty lucky. He ends his fights quickly, before things can fight back too much, after hearing that that's what he should do.

[disparage]

"Okay, good," she breathes out, relieved. She finds the tension that has built up within her has abandoned her almost instantly at the notion that Toothless is okay. She almost feels cold without it. "You're so not dying or becoming a zombie on my watch," she says, with a smile. Even though she can't protect herself nor him with her state of being human, it doesn't mean she's not going to try.

"We should go somewhere that's not in the open. They're, like, everywhere here." She glances around. The zombies are loud and sloppy, their feet barely lifting from the ground, but just because she can't hear them now doesn't mean they're not approaching. She hates how dull things sound to her; it's muffled, as though she's listening through a wall. She misses the sharpness.

[no_eels]

The Night Fury nods his agreement. Out in the open, during the day, he's a hard shape to miss, now that the decaying dead things are paying attention to him. He gets to his feet properly, providing a platform to help Caroline to her feet, as well, and then sniffs, trying to gauge which way might be clear of zombies.

His sense of smell is dulled, too, like his vision to some extent, but it's still far more keen than the nose of most creatures. He chooses a direction that doesn't smell so bad and begins to move.

[disparage]

Caroline much prefers to follow his instincts than hers. Before, when she had trusted her own, she'd walked right into the sight of one of the weird dogs back in the mines. She's not going to override Toothless' choice in which way they go.

"You should get a weapon," she says, keeping her eyes peeled for any zombies, just in case Toothless happens to be looking in the opposite direction. Two pairs of eyes are always better than one. "… I don't know what kind of weapon a dragon could use." She talks to fill in the space, despite her gut telling her to keep silent. "A sword? A knife?"

[no_eels]

Toothless glances at Caroline in recognizable confusion, and rumbles. A weapon? Why would a dragon need a weapon? He has weapons. Though he's without his two greatest at the moment — flying and fire-breathing — he's far from defenseless. He does, of course, know about how zombies keep themselves going.

But aside from holding a knife in his teeth, he's out of luck for the most part.

[disparage]

It probably sucks not having opposable thumbs. Caroline's starting to see what kind of disadvantages Toothless is facing by being stripped of what makes him so unique and intimidating.

"Have you ever dealt with a zombie before?" It's something better than pointing out their weaknesses. She can pick things up and swing, but she doesn't have the power behind it anymore. Toothless lacks in the two things Caroline's incapable of. Perhaps they do make quite a pair. "I've only seen them in the movies and they suck."

[no_eels]

He shakes his head. While he's sure he's heard the word before, it was from throw-away statements or jokes. It wasn't from actual contact with the decaying, horrible things that now want to eat his friends. Now that he thinks on it, that was a much happier time in general...