Toothless' Background

[downednightfury]

Toothless’ exact origins aren’t revealed, nor is his age. As far as the movie goes though, it’s easy to assume that he was born on the island where all dragons make their home. The dragons all made a habit of raiding the Viking village, Berk, but Toothless never actually entered the village or stole food. Instead, he flew overhead, taking out the village’s defenses with precise shots. This plus the fact that the dragons attacked after dark earned his species his species the title “Night Fury”. It also made his the only species the Vikings knew nothing about...except being able to tell when one was about to fire a shot.

One night during a raid, however, he was hit by a bolo launcher which tangled his wings and he crashed in the nearby forest, tearing his left tail fin clean off in the process.

The next day, he was found by Hiccup, the young Viking who had shot him down. Now the boy obviously planned to finish him off while he was helpless. With no way to escape or defend himself, Toothless simply closed his eyes and waited for the end...but instead found himself being cut loose. No sooner than he was free, he pounced on and pinned the boy to a rock. Rather than hurt him though, he made his displeasure at the situation known by roaring in his face before attempting to fly away.

Without his fin he was unable to fly straight, and crashed into what was essentially a small grotto in the forest.

The next day, while trying and failing to climb/fly out of the grotto and catch a fish in the nearby pond, he was made aware of the same kid watching him nearby. Hiccup didn’t linger for very long though. Soon Toothless gave up trying to escape the forest, since he couldn't return to the nest as he was. But he was concerned that the Vikings might find him.

The next day, Hiccup was back again with a fish for him. Toothless had hidden just out of sight at first, but came out enticed by the fish and curious about this boy that kept coming back. He noticed the knife in Hiccup's belt though, and wouldn’t approach him until it was gone. Then he quite happily took the fish, though he regurgitated half for Hiccup to eat...which was done, because who says no to a dragon.

When Hiccup tried to pet him, Toothless wouldn’t allow it, retreating to the other end of the area and otherwise making it known that he wanted his space when the boy came near. Eventually he approached him again and did finally let Hiccup touch him, but sort of on his terms.

The next day, Hiccup came back with a big basket of fish for him. In this, Toothless taught Hiccup the first important rule about dragons: they hate/are afraid of eels. Once it was removed from the meal, he was only too happy to eat. While he was distracted with the food, he noticed that something was going on where his tail fin had been and instinctively took flight. It was awkward at first but he found that he could fly again, due to a fin that Hiccup had made him…but not without help.

The next time Hiccup came to see him, he'd made a saddle. This didn't thrill the black dragon at first, but it was eventually put on and Hiccup began testing methods of controlling the fin to help him fly again. Simply using a string to pull the fin open resulted in a crash. So Hiccup made a tether to keep him in the saddle and tried tying the string to his foot. This resulted in another crash, but into a field of plants that were like dragonnip.

While Hiccup continued to try and find something that worked, he and Toothless continued to grow closer with the dragon teaching the would ne Viking more about dragons every day. The next attempt was tying the string to a kind of stirrup that was added to the saddle. This worked the best and Hiccup worked on learning to use it by tethering Toothless to a stump while he learned what positions could be used and how the fin position affected flight.

One test nearly got them caught. The tether to the trunk snapped and Toothless crashed. This damaged the clasp to the tether that hooked Hiccup to the saddle and resulted in Hiccup having to sneak Toothless to the village to undo the clasp. Finally, it came time for a test flight over the sea. It was rough at first and they lost control and nearly died, but when it came down to it, they smoothed it out and came out okay. When several Terrible Terrors raided Toothless' dinner that night, Hiccup got to learn an important fact: dragons aren't as fireproof on the inside. This was demonstrated when Toothless used a flame attack into one of the smaller dragons' mouth.

There were no problems that Toothless was really aware of, until one evening when a strange girl followed Hiccup and took her annoyance out on the boy physically. This upset Toothless and he attacked, but Hiccup stopped him. When the girl went to rat them out, though Toothless would have been happy to let her leave, they followed and carried her up into the trees where they dropped her into the highest branch. Toothless was still annoyed with her, so when she agreed to let Hiccup show her, he ignored Hiccup’s order to take them down gently and instead went on a daredevil flight of loops, spins, and dives...anything he could pull off without Hiccup's help, until she apologized. Then he promptly leveled out into a much more enjoyable flight.

The enjoyment was short-lived as they found themselves among a large number of dragons returning from food hunting. Rather than try to sneak away, Toothless went with them back to the nest and hid in the shadows while the others dropped the food into the pit into the middle, where Green Death lived. Together with Hiccup and Astrid, he watched a poor Gronkle that lingered over the pit be eaten by the massive dragon, then fled when it tried to eat them too. Even though things were slightly tense, the evening ended pretty well.

The next day, he was woken from a nap by the sense that something was very wrong. He didn’t hesitate to climb out of the grotto he now called home...something he'd given up on trying, and rushed to the village’s arena. There he saved Hiccup from a Monstrous Nightmare, but was captured trying to save him from the Vikings too. Shortly after, he was shackled and loaded onto a boat to be forced to guide them to the dragons’ nest, which he did on instinct when they neared the island.

When the nest was cracked open, the all of other dragons quickly vacated the island in fear. If he hadn't been chained up, Toothless would have gone too. The Green Death emerged from the empty nest and began destroying everything, including setting the ship Toothless was still trapped on ablaze. Hiccup appeared to free him, but they were both submerged when the Green Death accidentally sank the ship. Hiccup was dragged away by his father before he could drown and Toothless thought for a moment that he’d been left to die, but Hiccup’s dad returned to free him. Toothless dropped him back on the shore before taking off with Hiccup to try and defeat the Green Death, since it threatened them all.

They managed to do it by launching a flame into its mouth and leaving it to crash and explode on the ground, but Toothless’ replacement fin was destroyed and Hiccup thrown from his back when they slammed int the dragon's club-like tail. Toothless managed to catch the boy before he was incinerated by the fire they were falling toward and shielded him as they crash-landed by using his wings as a shield. When they returned to the village he waited By Hiccup’s side until he regained consciousness. After that things were peaceful in the village because the dragons and Vikings coexisted as though they’d never been fighting, and Toothless and Hiccup could continue their friendship without it being secret now.