A/N-A quick reply to guest reviews:

THE FIRE KING: Yes, yes they are.

DragonNut: I feel I should give a reminder that Jezebel only ever influenced Hiccup's world; the timeline was only changed there, the two worlds were never a single unit (if that's what you mean). The meaning of the book's title actually has several points of reference, and they'll reveal themselves as the story moves on.

Enough chatter, a week was long enough to wait for this chapter. Onward!

Chapter 1

Four Months Before

I know that I have said it before, but I'll say it again: summer is a wonderful time.

It was very early June, just a little while after my sister got out of school, and after yet another incredibly cold winter both at home and in Berk I just had to get out and enjoy the warm breeze that was filling the air again. It was a perfect day for flying too: crystal clear and not a cloud in the sky, a high pressure system settling over Colorado and providing great thermals, and visibility for miles in every direction.

Late morning therefore found me in Night Fury form, gliding high above the Rocky Mountains below. Okay, gliding isn't the right word: I was playing in the air, diving, rolling, and dodging the trees near the ground as I swept through the valleys and over the ridges of the range. It was the first day I'd really had open for such activities, so I was taking it with both paws.

Eventually, I tired out a bit and did settle into just riding the thermals, watching beneath me as nature played its course in the national park I'd practically grown up in. I liked the hot, humid conditions of the south, and Berk was like a second house now, but the wild sweeps of Colorado had always been, and would always be my original home. Nothing matched it; even Thor's Peak on Berk, which rose up high enough that snow never melted at the summit, was dwarfed by the 14,000 foot peaks that I once hiked amongst, and now soared amongst.

Herds of elk were grazing in the high alpine meadows, a lone coyote pack wandered the moraine basin away from the park's trails, and the daily flood of tourists, campers, and long-time hikers meandered the roads and pathways as they watched the scene as well. Though as always, with me being up in the air enjoying myself, a crowd began to gather as well for the unique opportunity of watching a dragon in flight. Eventually it got old though as it always did, and I soared off toward a hopefully less-populated region of the park, looking for a peaceful afternoon.

Turns out that wasn't the best plan either. I flew low over the pines along a rising mountain, daydreaming as my music played in the air around me (more on that later), and just as I crested a low ridge, something small, fast, and painful pierced straight through my wing. I screeched in both pain and surprise and faltered in my flight, before cutting the music and healing the tiny hole in my wing membrane. Then I glanced downward to locate what it was that may have hit me; from where the pain had started, the projectile had come from the ground.

It didn't take too long to find the perpetrator: a probably 40-something guy stood amongst the trees, holding a high-power hunting rifle and dressed in camouflage attire, aiming the barrel at me. My eyes narrowed and I folded my wings, spilling air and diving down immediately, dropping out of his line of fire and gliding into the trees. Moments later I flared my wings and landed in front of the startled hunter. The reason he was dumb enough to take a shot at a dragon also immediately became clear: against one of the trees nearby was his bag, and hanging out of it was a half-empty case of beer.

"I hope you will realize I could have you arrested at once for attempted murder, hunting in a protected area without license, and whatever they might have on top of that for operating a firearm whilst horribly inebriated?" I asked lowly, not bothering to morph back. In response, the man jerked and stumbled back slightly in surprise, nearly losing his footing in his intoxication.

"Talking bird," he muttered. "I musta….I musta hallucinatin'!" He blinked a couple of times, before waving the barrel of his gun at me again. "You-you not talk, bird!"

I sighed; this conversation was reaching a painful level already, and the other party hadn't even managed one decent sentence. "Alright," I growled, "you can't tell the difference between a 30 foot dragon and a bird. I think it's high time we took a nice short trip to the closest ranger's station."

Without giving him time to protest, I spread my wings and leapt forward, grabbing his bag in one front paw and snagging his vest with the other, making sure in the process he dropped his gun which I also picked up with my hind legs as we gained altitude. Being as far under as he was, the man yelled and squirmed a fair bit, but he couldn't quite gain the leverage to put up a serious fight, so our flight together was blessedly short.

My run-in with the trigger-happy drunk ruined the mood for further free-flying, so after I left him in the hands of the proper authorities (along with all the evidence they needed to take care of him; apparently this wasn't the first offense from this guy as one of them recognized him immediately), I took off toward home.

Even just gliding, as a Night Fury the trip from Rocky Mountain National Park to my home was at best 30 minutes to my house, and wide open skies the whole way. The plains spread out ahead of me, a patchwork of small towns and farmlands that stretched out from the foothills, and a few miles out, my neighborhood appeared in view. Minutes later, I folded my wings and dropped, landing with practiced ease in the center of my back yard.

Demorphing, I walked up to the back door and slid it open, stepping inside. Holly was at the table, working away on…something I did not immediately recognize. She'd become a teenager of many talents, not the least of which included writing, artistry, singing, and more recently a serious love of various weaponry. The shape of the object on the table, with curved, smooth edges, suggested something related to the latter.

I smirked and sauntered over to the table myself, taking a seat and holding my hand open. My new MP3 materialized, and I set it down carefully on the tablecloth. I mentioned earlier about the music, but the player was only part of the fun: a few years before there had been a book series I had greatly enjoyed, and it featured a very unusual dragon, one that could act like a living interface with technology.

Being naturally curious as I was I decided to try something similar. Thanks to my capacity to morph, and the Lightning Blazer's electrokinetic traits, I quickly found out I could do the same thing: connect directly to computers and other forms of technology just by touching them, and what was more fun I found I could mentally navigate everything most people needed a mouse and a keyboard for. Hence, after buying something to store away songs I found great pleasure in being able to play them out loud anywhere I went. It beats having to carry around a set of speakers or a pair of headphones, that was for sure.

Holly glanced over at my player, and then up at me, a faint smile appearing. "Enjoy your flight?" she asked. I shrugged.

"Eh, up until the point where an alcoholic with a rifle took a shot at me, but that's taken care of," I drawled. "What are you working on?" "Stuff." "I assumed as much, Holly. You want to give a straight answer for once in your life?"

Holly grinned and reached over to pick up the object on the table, pulling it apart. A pair of Mysteel blades appeared from inside their wrapped double hilts, gleaming with black and red highlights.

I sighed. "You got Astrid to hound on Hiccup for you, didn't you?" "Yeah," she admitted unapologetically, "plus I also got permission from Mom and Dad beforehand too. I'm actually heading out to the cove in a couple of hours so we can do some training, and Ember said she'd be joining in as well."

I glanced out the window of the sliding door. "Well, that actually works out then. I've got a project I want to work on that I need to be alone for, and before you ask why I'm going to say it's a surprise and I won't tell you." Now my focus returned to Holly, or more specifically the scimitars she held. "Just be safe, will you? I won't be nearby to fix it if an accident happens, and I know you know what Mysteel can do."

Holly groaned. "Yes, I know what it can do. I'll be fine, okay?"

I nodded. "Good. I need to go find Hiccup before I get to work on this, so I don't know when I'll be back here. If I don't see you before you leave, bye!"

Holly waved me off, clearly done with listening to my protective rambling, and I headed out to the portal. Once through, as always, I morphed and took off, noting as usual the very cloudy atmosphere of my second home; there would probably be a minor storm later that afternoon.

Nearly a year after our last major skirmish, Berk hadn't changed much, but where it had was noteworthy. Over time many of the buildings had been almost completely reinforced with Mysteel, for more reasons than just fire prevention; turns out the insulative properties of the odd metal kept houses warmer during winter, cutting down on the use of firewood (especially in conjunction with warm dragons), and the frequent heavy rain and hail storms of summer were quieted by the metal as well. More dragons had also flocked to Berk to call the island home, permanently or temporarily, in no small part due to the shared relations the island now had with the nest of Tohar the Bewilderbeast to the north.

Most noteworthy, perhaps: Hiccup had over winter fashioned a system for running water, drawing it from the streams and seeps of the mountains behind the village and coursing it through insulated Mysteel pipes into the village proper. When the project had been unveiled, a great sigh of relief was taken by the residents, not only because it was easier than digging wells but also in no small part due to the fact that Gobber could no longer run so easily from bath day now.

The forge had also slowly been morphing, growing larger as Gobber and Hiccup built up extra space for the four people and numerous dragons that now regularly occupied it. Granted, while we all now sort of had our own personal work spaces, we often moved freely between the different rooms and various stations within, and so still managed to end up under each other's feet.

As I glided in to land outside the smithy, it quickly became obvious one such occupant was working away within, and in a rather chipper mood as I heard singing coming from the oft-dubbed "Myscale station" that Hiccup, Ember and I frequented. I grinned, recognizing the owner of the voice as well as the song he was singing almost immediately.

"…in the sky, wake up so high, away. Let's make it around, let's play with it! We go where no one goes, we slow, for no one…cannot hold us!"

Hiccup was completely oblivious as I walked up behind him, his music playing just loud enough, and his singing even more so, to mask my already soft steps against the stone floor. I wasn't the only one who had their own MP3 now; feeling generous around my last birthday, I'd bought one as well for both Hiccup and Astrid each, and loaded up songs I knew they liked along with showing them how to load their own at my house. Hiccup was playing 'Where No One Goes' from….well, if you're reading this now I'm sure you probably know where it's from.

"We ain't slowing down, we ain't coming o-over! We're circling low-!"

"Hi Hiccup!"

"Aaaahhhh! What the-?!"

He jerked in shock at finally noticing me standing behind him, before quickly scrambling to hide away whatever it was he'd been working on and turn off his music player. "Geez, give a guy a heart attack why don't you?!" he complained.

"Hey, I wasn't exactly being silent as I walked in here," I returned lightheartedly. "It was your music and your own nasally voice that was drowning me out." "Hey, I'm not that bad!" "Eh, depends on who you ask, but then again it's the same for me. Great song, though."

Hiccup snorted and shrugged. "Yeah, one of the ones from that movie I actually liked enough to keep around. Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be out flying today."

I shrugged and turned away, pulling out a sheet of Night Fury Myscale and looking it over. "Well, I was, up until some idiot tried to shoot me. Kind of ruined the mood, you know?"

"Tell me about it," Hiccup drawled, smirking; we'd both had our close calls. I nodded. "Actually, though, I came here to let you know I'm going to be working on a new project and I might be absent for a few days."

"Must be some project then," he said, pulling out what had become to all of us a very familiar Myscale contraption.

I nodded. "Yeah, it is. I see you're busy still too; the wings almost done? Or your outfit?" "Well, I didn't overdo it quite like they did in the movie," Hiccup replied, "but yeah. I still have to figure out how to make the wings work though. You know, something a little more than gliding and controlled falling." "Yeah, because you've got that second part down."

Hiccup ignored the prod, but smirked nonetheless. "The second Toothless heard about it he tried to drag me out of the forge too. That's one thing they got spot-on; his attitude about it."

I nodded, before glancing down at the drawer where he'd placed whatever he'd had out when I walked in. "Speaking of projects and certain black dragons, two more questions: one, what was it that you put away down there in such a hurry?"

Hiccup winced. "Uh, just-just another personal thing. I don't really want anyone seeing it yet, if you don't mind." I smirked, but let the topic drop. "Okay, fine. Question two: how's our own resident Night Fury doing, anyway?"

The room immediately felt a little tighter. Hiccup tried to smile, before simply sighing and putting down his new version of the wing suit. "Well, with his new position as an Alpha here he's kept pretty busy by other dragons," he said quietly, "though considering he was the head reptile on the island before, it's not terribly different anyway. As for the other context," he looked around, checking out the windows to make sure Toothless wasn't immediately nearby, before lowering his voice, "well, there are times. He still sulks occasionally, and I've seen tears on rare occasions. He hides it if he thinks anyone else is looking, but that tipoff is still hitting him hard."

To remind the readers of the situation: in our last battle with the sorceress Jezebel, it was told to us by that woman, none-too-kindly either, that Toothless was, in fact, the very last Night Fury known to be alive. Jezebel herself had wiped out almost the entire rest of the race, which was terrible enough, but then Toothless later told us something even worse.

We knew the very last one other than our draconic brother was taken as a trophy by Drago Bludvist, and the cloak that the homicidal warlord wore was made from its skin, but Toothless had informed us that the story went deeper. His father had been killed before he'd ever hatched, and Toothless and his mother were the last two either of them knew of. With Toothless still being around…well, the remainder of the tale I'll leave to be inferred. The Night Fury and Drago had a history, one of the things that had driven him and Hiccup so fervently against Drago in that battle.

I sighed and leaned against the wall, putting the Myscale sheet I held back in its drawer. "Well, hopefully we'll find something soon to remedy that case of dark thoughts," I said quietly. "At the very least he's being kept busy and his mind elsewhere most of the time, but I just hope the other dragons aren't getting too rambunctious around him."

::Eh, if they do, I just pass them on to Hiccup,:: a new, now welcome voice spoke up. ::We all know he's better at dealing with them anyway.::

The owner of the voice landed outside and sauntered in, bright green eyes landing on Hiccup, who snorted again. "Yeah, sure Toothless, just shirk all your responsibilities onto me," he drawled. ::Hey, it's not like I knew that'd be the outcome,:: the Night Fury protested. ::We all knew you were the Dragon Whisperer anyway; Hawken's present to us just made you better at the job. Besides, at least I have Cloudjumper and Spitfire to help me most of the time.:: He looked over at me, and gave his signature toothless grin. ::So, how's your day been?::

I chuckled. "Oh, you know, got shot at, but that's nothing new for us. I came here to let you guys know that I'm taking a leave of absence to work on a project of my own, actually. I'll be gone a couple of days, but if it all works out I might have a serious surprise in store when I get back."

::Oh?:: Toothless toned. ::What's the project?:: "Something I'd like to leave as a surprise for now, thank you." The dragon smirked, and looked sidelong at Hiccup. ::Oh, okay. Kind of like the thing Hiccup's working on that he doesn't want-:: "Toothless!"

I chuckled. "Sure, something like that. Anyway, I'll leave you two to your business now, or dorking around as you do"- they both shot me looks, and I only smiled wider, "-and I'll be back soon enough!" I turned to leave, and Hiccup called out, "Don't do anything stupid while you're gone, okay?" I laughed as I took to the air, calling back, "Oh come on now Hiccup, you know none of us can really promise that!"

Gliding back home, I found my sister had already left the house, heading off to train with Astrid. With one less person to worry about, I headed to my room, and began my preparations.

A few years before while in ceramics class at school, I'd finished out a project consisting of making sculptures of a number of various dragon species, like the Nightmare, Nadder, and Night Fury, along with a few other creatures and characters I happened to like. It was these sculptures, along with a couple of special toys, that I pulled off my shelves and began carefully placing into barrier field "boxes" (which beat trying to carry them in a bunch of flimsy cardboard containers). Once they were all together, I hoisted up the motley crew and carefully headed out of the house and back through the portal.

I had searched the island a few times on my own before, and at one point I'd stumbled across a small, sheltered cove high up in the mountains; it was a spot where nothing else could get to, not without being able to fly. It was there that I now headed, a spot where none of the animals on Berk would bother me, and secluded enough that none of the dragons that frequented the area would find too soon either.

The project I was about to attempt to put into motion was rather daring and unorthodox, and there was a fairly high chance of it failing too, I knew. But, under the circumstances that it worked as I hoped, there would be a great deal of good news to go along with it. Our "family" that we had all formed (me, my family, the teens etc.) would get just a little bigger and more interesting, Berk's fighting forces would be that much stronger, and I'd have a new, perhaps slightly less risky means of starting to break my final major secret to my own world.

Plus, there was just enough of a chance that Toothless would get a surprise he desperately needed, and that alone was more than enough for me to stay set in determination to make this work.

A/N-Okay, time to hear your thoughts, questions and predictions! Let me know in a review! And sorry everyone for a slight mix-up; forgot to add in the edits for Dragonese that fanfiction doesn't like my original version of, so that should be fixed now.