Nightshade

He stares at me, confused. I can't believe it, he's alive! All this time, he's been alive!

Darkwing, my best friend. I've missed him so much.

He kindly states, "You must be mistaken, my name's Toothless. Not Darkwing."

Not Darkwing? Impossible. "R-really? You look exactly like him…" I remember father telling me no two Night Furies have the exact same eye color and those are Darkwing's. I'd recognize his light green eyes anywhere, as beautiful as a summer meadow. He must be Darkwing, he has to be. "What's your real name?" A lot of the tame dragons have a second, viking-given name. 'Toothless' sounds like a viking-given name to me.

He looks uncomfortably at the ground, "I never had a real name. I've always been called Night Fury or, for the last five years, Toothless. My parents died before I hatched."

Could I be wrong? "Oh, I'm so sorry. My parents and siblings died when I was a hatchling…" so did Darkwing's. I thought Darkwing did too.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said sincerely. Then he asked "Did you have any other family? Who took care of you?"

"No one did. I have no family now. I lived on my own for 11 hatch-seasons until I met Thunderstrike, then 9 hatch-seasons ago, Dark Alpha captured us and that's where I've lived since."

Cloudtail jumped in, "Don't forget, you met me 5 hatch-seasons ago when Dark Alpha caught me too. We've been friends since."

I laugh quietly, "Yeah, you always did your best to cheer the rest of us up, even without your Skydancer."

Toothless

Immediately Cloudtail's cheerfulness disappeared. A heartbroken expression replaced it. Skydancer must have been his mate.

"What happened to her?" I ask, sad for him, for his loss. Dragons mate for life; he'll never have a family without her.

"Stone-Viking Island, the vikings, they-they shot her down." His voice breaking.

"You- you mean Berkians shot her down?" I ask, shocked. Could one of my human friends have caused Cloudtail his pain?

"Yeah, we were raiding here for Redqueen when-"

He's cut off by Stormfly coming from the direction of Astrid's yelling, "Toothless! I'm here! Sorry I'm-" She stops upon seeing Cloudtail, Nightshade, and me.

"Cloudtail?" she asks, shocked. She knows Cloudtail?

"Skydancer?" he says, barley a whisper. Skydancer?!

Stormfly runs towards him, happily yelling "Cloudtail!"

"Skydancer!" he runs to her, as eager for their reunion as she so obviously is. He puts his nose to hers as they meet; a dragon kiss. After a few moments he backs from her. "I thought the vikings killed you! I saw them shoot you down!"

"They did, but they didn't kill me. They used me to train their young. I thought you were dead! You never came to Hatchling Island!"

"The Dark Alpha caught me. I couldn't leave, no one could. What happened? Did you escape from the vikings?"

"No, I'm Astrid's dragon now. She calls me Stormfly, everyone does."

Ok, enough of this. "You know him Stormfly?"

She finally looks at me since seeing Cloudtail. "He's my mate." She immediately turns back to him and nervously asks "Cloudtail, do-do you want to meet our clutch?"

"Our clutch? You-you mean that you... that I'm a?"

"Yes, we're parents! We have two daughters and a son."

I sigh, "Stormfly, Cloudtail, I'm happy you found each other again. I think I'll leave you two be. You've got a lot of catching up to do." They have each other again. They're so lucky. I'll never have that.

Stormfly barley even seems to hear me, "Ok, later Toothless. You too Nightmare." And immediately starts to describe Clouddancer, her-no-their daughter. Now that I know who Cloudtail is, I know she looks just like him, but with yellow tail-spikes.

"Um, I think I'll go with Toothless. See ya around, Cloudtail."

"Ok," he mumbles, listening to Stormfly describing their other daughter, Skytail. She looks just like her mother.

Nightshade and I walk off a little ways and I turn to her, "I guess I'll be going. I need to go deal with some Raincutters." I tell her. Why does she make me so nervous?

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you later?" She seems so hopeful at this. Does she wish we get to know each other? Could she… like me?

No I won't think like that! I'm meant to be alone; I'm the last Night Fury. It's my destiny.

"Maybe. I'm the alpha; it gets to be a pretty busy job." Nice save there.

"Oh, ok. So long, Toothless." She turns and flies away.

"So long, Nightshade."

Thunderstrike

I watch her fly off. No! No, no, no! That Night Fury is not moving in on my Nightshade! She belongs to me! She'll always belong to me!

But there's no mistaking it Thunderstrike, they have a connection.

A connection? Ha! The only connection they could possibly have is the fact they both have Night Fury blood. So do I. I will be her mate! Our offspring will be the greatest creatures to fly the skies! Nothing will be able to defeat them, nothing.

But she doesn't love you. She loves Darkwing. And you already heard her call him Darkwing. He's the one she wants, not you.

No, this can't happen. I won't let it. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll keep them apart. I'll win her, and then we'll take over this pack. Then we'll destroy the Night Fury Pack. We will exterminate the Night Fury species. I smile to myself, that Night Fury thinks he's the last of his kind, as if! If it was just one Night Fury I would have killed off the species long ago.