If We Had Wings - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

5

"But hey, don't worry about us," Ruff assured, prancing over to Delta with a renewed excitement. "Want us to help you make this place more homey?" She asked nodding in towards the cave.

"Ah! A spendid idea, sister," Tuffnut squawked, then turned to Delta and explained, "Ruff and I are experts at decorating, right Ruff?"

"You said it, bro," the female wraith agreed with a proud gurgle.

Delta gurgled in response, unable to avoid the contagious energy of the twins. "Okay," she agreed, hopping to her feet, "what do you suggest?"

"Well, first you'll need proper bedding," Ruffnut roared eagerly, "do you prefer grass or moss."

"When I was with my mother, we slept on moss," Delta gurgled her response.

The female wraith flapped her wings. "Alright, I'm on it," she offered. Then she took off toward the woods.

As Delta watched Ruff fly away, Tuffnut watched her. The sunlight reflected off the metallic white speckles on her head. One could easily assume that underwater, these reflective scales could hypnotize her prey, making hunting easy. "Do you like shells?" He questioned abruptly. When Delta nodded, he let out a roar, "that great! I have a whole bunch of shells in me and Ruff's den. Maybe you could pick some out for your den."

Before Delta could even thank him, the sand wraith hopped away in the direction of his den. The tidal fury followed more calmly, not wanting to disturb her injuries.

By the the Delta had made it to the sand wraiths' den, Tuffnut was already rumaging around for his shells. He swiped sand all around as he dug to find his buried treasures. Delta simply sat and watched, amused by his enthusiasm. She could easily guess that not many dragons often showed interest in his collection.

Finally piling up all the shells he could find at the entrance of the cave, he called to Delta, "fiest your eyes on this."

As the female made her way over, Tuff crouched down so that his eyes were level with the shells. He then proceeded to point at them with a single claw, one at a time, and explain how each was found. "This one I found when I was trying to see how long I can hold my breath," he began to ramble happily, "and this one Ruff used to knock me out; I didn't wake up for two days." A gurgle erupted in his throat as if it were a funny memory.

"And this one, is my favorite" the sand wraith squawked, grabbing one shell and sitting up suddenly, "because it's blue, and very shiny." Sure enough, the shell he held between his two paws was a beautiful blue-green color. And it was, indeed, shiny.

But Delta frowned as she admired the shell, realizing that it wasn't a shell at all. "Tuffnut, that's a dragon scale," she informed him with a smile, "a tide glider, actually."

"Woah, really?" Tuffnut's eyes widened in fascination. His gaze then met Delta's and he wondered, "you must know a lot of tide gliders, being underwater all the time."

"I do, or did," Delta answered with a light sigh, "my father was one."

Sensing the small change in her mood, Tuff frowned. He lowered his gaze to the scale in his paws, giving it a sad look. Then, he thrust it out toward Delta with a smile. "Then you should have it," he offered with an innocent face.

Delta blinked in surprise. "But it's your favorite," she countered.

Tuff adverted his gaze. It was his favorite, but he knew that giving it to Delta would make her happy. And although he wasn't sure why yet, he felt as if he needed her to be happy. "Well, I have a lot of shiny things," he brushed it off, then shook the scale at her encouragingly, "really, take it."

Delta took it delicately with her teeth, sniffing Tuff's paws curiously as she did so. He smelled of dirt and sea water. She could also pick up on a faint scent of smoke, probably from the brawl with Snotlout earlier.

Tuffnut sat awkwardly still as he watched Delta sniff at his outstretched forelimbs. "Uh..you're really...sniffy," he observed.

Delta pulled her head back in embarrassment. She placed the scale down between her feet so that she could reply. "Sorry," she groaned, "there's just not much to smell underwater. This is all so..new."

"Didn't you spend any time on land?" Tuff asked.

"When I was just a hatchling, yes. But after my mother was taken by hunters, I went underwater to be with my father and his pod," Delta explained.

Just then, a gentle cooing came from behind Tuffnut. Delta gurgled curiously and moved to peer around the sand wraith. To her surprise, she spotted a chicken waddling out of the den. The chicken flapped her wings excitedly and squawked at Delta before approaching her.

Delta hissed and hopped away, unsure how to react to the strange creature.

"Chicken you're awake!" Tuffnut roared, "we are going to have a serious talk about you sleeping in so late, missy." The chicken cooed in response as Tuffnut grabbed her with his front paws. He walked over to Delta, still holding the bird gently, and sat down. "Don't worry, it's just Chicken," he insisted, putting the bird down again.

This time, when Chicken approached Delta, the dragon remained still. She gave the small creature a curious look. "It looks like something a dragon would eat," she admitted, leaning down to sniff her, "not befriend."

"Well, I'm on a strick 'no chicken' diet now," the sand wraith explained. "Now, come on, Chicken," he went on, grabbing the bird carefully in his jaw and twisting around to place her on his back, "let's find Delta some more shells."