Toothless groaned. Dizzyingly, his eyes cracked open. A bright robins egg blue sky made his retina's burn from the brightness. Ignoring the feeling of throwing up building up in his gut, he attempted to sit up. His head only pounded harder behind his eyes. His teeth quickly snapped together in pain. As he caught his breath, a distant roar hit his slightly ringing ears.

He momentarily forgot about his pain, looking around quickly. A forest...the smell of pine carried on the wind. Just over the treetops were wisps of grey smoke, contrasted against the startlingly bright blue sky. Right. There was a dragon attack last night. Toothless and a few of his comrades had been chasing after a vast red dragon, that had managed to grab two large clawfuls of sheep. He remembered crashing through the woods, then hearing something behind him.

It had darted from the trees, only when the others ran ahead. The smaller dragon had roared in surprise then attempted to fly after the larger red dragon. He had aimed his bow at it, squinting through the thick darkness and black smoke. The shot seemed to have hit true, if the shriek of pain was anything to go by.

….Then why was he on the ground with a splitting headache?

The thick unyielding oak branch above him seemed to hold the answer. Some of the bark had even peeled from the impact of the warriors skull. Toothless sighed. Now he remembered. He was so focused on getting to his prey, he had ran straight into the tree. And since he wasn't waking up in a healers hut, this probably meant no one had come upon his passed out body. Thank the gods. He had an image to protect. Dusting off himself as he swayed to his feet, he heard the hollow, distant roar. It sounded like the howl of a lonely wolf. That was probably the beast that tried to jump him last night. With a grumble, he slid his emergency dagger from its sheath on his boot.

Trudging through the spongy forest floor proved less disastrous than the night before. All he really had to do was follow the dumb dragons call for help. But if he had been doing it all night, he had no hope now. Dragons were selfish and cruel. They would never turn back to save another. It was hopeless. While Toothless wasn't one for killing cornered creatures (he rather hunt it down instead) this creature has caused him plenty of pain. Plus, the weak calls were starting to get annoying.

It didn't take him long to come upon the pathetic creature. Though, he did stop short. It was...it was so small. It was about the size of a rather large housecat, but all wrapped up in a bola and shrunken in on itself it looked like a hatchling. It had stilled, and was quiet now. Its cries had stopped as soon as Toothless's steps became within its hearing range. Its eyes were closed tightly, and Toothless could see its body quivering.

He shook off his hesitance and flipped the dragon with his boot. Its neck and stomach vulnerable, he kneeled to finish it off. As he brought his hand back, he made a horrible mistake.

He looked into its eyes.

Wide forest green eyes stared at him. Reptilian pupils were wide and black, betraying a horrified expression Toothless had seen on many of his comrades faces. They looked almost glassy with tears- which made no sense, dragons couldn't cry. But the sheer human emotion in this small dragons face...Toothless made the horrible connection to an afraid child. In a horrifying rush of emotions, Toothless found himself deflate. His dagger rested against his head, and he took in a deep breath through his nose.

'What am I doing?' A part of him screamed. He tightened his grip on the dagger, eyes opening in a small fit of rage. He can't go soft! He's the Nightfury! The most terrifying warrior in the archipelago! How dare this dragon manipulate him! He looked to the runts eyes again, meaning to meet the soft expression with his anger. Instead, he saw the small dragon notice his change in demeanor. It held his gaze for a moment, before letting out a sad, small sound and closing its eyes tightly. Its head met the ground as it just...gave up.

His irrational anger subsided, like a storm cloud blowing out into nothing. He cursed, but it was not backed by much venom. '...what am I doing.." He repeated in his head, in a more guilt ridden way.

"Gods be damned." He growled, then suddenly started cutting ropes. With each snap, the dragon's body stiffened. As he cut the final rope, it sprung up and pounced onto Toothless's chest. He was knocked roughly onto the ground, his dagger scattering away over the dirt.

Ah. So this is what he gets for being weak. Death. At the claws of such a small, pitiful creature. He would much more rather it be the colossal red dragon, at least there was some honour there. Expecting teeth locked in his throat, he was surprised when instead his ears rung with a loud, shrill roar right in his face. Then, as quickly as it had brought him down, it bolted away. It spread it's green wings to fly away, but with another panicked roar it dipped the wrong way.

Toothless blinked a few times. Getting up, he grabbed his dagger. He then proceeded to almost faint, but caught himself. He blamed his dehydration and obviously small concussion. Deciding to forget this ever happened, he unsteadily walked back home.