Well, no one said anything for this story. I guess that's good, "no news is good news", after all. However there have been those that put it in their favorites. A sign that it's okay. Remember, people: I'm a person that writes these stories for fun. I don't care if anyone likes them or not. Yes, it'd be nice, but I don't need the praise to continue on. Which is why I've decided to update this piece.

I know this seems like a typical "new Night Fury" story, but I think mine is different for 1, the two dragons hate each other (right now). 2, she has no name. Help me come up with one. I have one in mind, but let's see what you can come up with. And 3, I see this as more of a "Toothless finds something that he wants to keep for himself", as oppose to "sharing" it with Hiccup. That's what this story is really supposed to be about.

Also, it was pretty hard to distinguish the dragons' speech from human, so I bolded the dragons' speech to differentiate between the two. Okay, here you go.

Chapter 2: Good Intentions Gone Wrong

Hiccup was up bright and early the next morning, rocking a babbling baby girl on his lap. When Skyla began fussing in the middle of the night, Hiccup rudely woke Astrid up with the excuse of, "Astrid, the baby needs you …" The young woman responded by groaning annoyingly before straining her ears to listen to her daughter's cries. After determining that Skyla was using her "I want to play" cry, she firmly insisted that Hiccup take care of the baby, since he had woken her up for no reason. Hiccup finally gave in after losing three straight rounds of "Rock, Parchment, Dagger".

Downstairs in the candle light, the baby kept babbling happily to her father. Hiccup just nodded and randomly responded with a series of "mm-hmm's" and "I see's". The girl probably thought that they were actually having a conversation. But Hiccup had other things on his mind. Aside from the construction of new houses that he had to oversee, marriages he had to officiate, and festival food he had to approve, he had woken up to find his best friend had left the house.

After finding comfort in his mother's arms earlier that night, Hiccup finally decided to get some sleep. He had entered his room, expecting to see his wife already asleep in their bed, and his best friend asleep in his usual spot. But the big, black pile of scales, that usually kept the room so warm, was nowhere to be seen. Hiccup sighed as shifted Skyla to a shoulder when his arm started to lose feeling in it.

He had a theory that Night Furies were nocturnal dragons (although he could not prove this theory, seeing as he only had one specimen to work with). Toothless occasionally left the house during the night to do Thor knows what nocturnal creatures did during the night. That had been the reason why Hiccup had not been excessively worried when he first noticed his dragon's absence. But worry began to eat at the back of his mind as the night went on. Toothless always returned to the house before sunrise, either to get in an early morning flight or a few hours of sleep.

A small squeal and poke at his face brought Hiccup back to the present. He looked down into the teal eyes of his daughter and smiled. Skyla was in the "poking stage", and she loved poking her parents in the face. The little girl giggled as Hiccup gave his daughter an Eskimo kiss.

Suddenly the house shifted quite a bit. He knew what that meant all too well: Toothless had finally come home. After a few moments of silence, Hiccup could hear the Night Fury making his way through the loft and down the stairs, probably to look for his rider. The young Chief smiled when he saw that his best friend was all right, although he was still rather pissed that the dragon had been gone for so long and made him worry in the first place. "Welcome home, Your Highness."

The dragon looked over at Hiccup and made his way over to him, completely ignoring the sarcastic comment. When Skyla caught sight of the familiar ebony dragon that she adored, she squealed in delight and held her arms out for him. Toothless then quickened his pace so that he could greet her.

Hiccup rolled his eyes as Toothless rushed over and covered the giggling baby girl with dragon kisses. "You two have an odd relationship, you know that?"

Toothless immediately stopped licking Skyla and stared at the girl's father with a hard look, one eye narrowed in annoyance. 'Seriously, Bro?'

Hiccup just laughed at Toothless' expression. He could practically hear his dragon calling him a hypocrite. "Yeah, I guess we're the ones with the odd relationship, huh?"

Toothless exaggeratingly rolled his eyes to get his point across. 'Duh!'

Hiccup laughed again as he, very gently, laid Skyla down on a fur blanket so that Toothless could easily envelope her in his warmth; and that is exactly what he did. He lay down around the girl like a reptilian shield that promised protection from the outside world. Skyla's babbling was now aimed at Toothless, who nuzzled her as she "spoke".

Hiccup smiled as he watched his child and dragon interact with one another. He absolutely loved how Toothless was so protective over the baby girl. He knew that the Night Fury would gladly sacrifice his own life in order to protect Hiccup's family. However he suspected that, if given the choice, Toothless would probably save Skyla over Hiccup, any day. The boy-Chief shrugged acceptingly at this.

As Hiccup continued to watch, he noticed that Toothless' eyes seemed to look a bit heavy. They were half-lidded, and he would blink more often than usual. He also gently shook his head a few times. Hiccup knew that these were actions that Toothless usually did to keep himself awake when he was tired. The darker skin under those luminous, peridot eyes told Hiccup that Toothless had been awake all night. This was very odd to Hiccup, considering how much Toothless enjoyed his sleep. Hiccup had to wonder just what his friend had been up to during the night. Toothless was not usually this tired, not even on the nights that he left the house. Something must have happened during the night.

Jumping with a slight startle, Hiccup was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Toothless let out a painful yip. Somehow Skyla had gotten ahold of one of the dragon's ears and yanked on it. The baby girl giggled at the sound Toothless made when she tugged.

Seeing this, Hiccup had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, himself. "Oh, good Odin … this is priceless …"

Had it been anyone else, Toothless would not have hesitated from blasting the person (or dragon) on the spot—even Hiccup, since he should know better. It was amazing how one seven-month-old human baby girl could tame the reigning Alpha dragon. Thinking of this concept caused a snort to pass through Hiccup's mouth. He covered his mouth with a hand, trying to hide his laughter.

Not too long afterward, Astrid came down the stairs, yawning. "Oh, that extra sleep felt good. Feel free to do early-morning play times more often, Hiccup." The young woman raised her arms above her head and stretched. Her knuckles popped, as well as the kinks in her spine.

Hiccup smiled and shook his head as he rolled his eyes. His wife would always be that strong, wild girl that he had fallen in love with in their youth. "Morning, Dear." He replied, dripping with sarcasm. Smirking, Astrid came over and gave him a deep kiss on the lips, wrapping her arms around his neck as she did so. Once she felt Hiccup start to melt into it, she pulled away and punched him in the arm. "Ouch! What was that for?!" He demanded, rubbing the minor wound.

Astrid's smirk turned into a sweet smile. "Don't call me that."

"Noted …"

The two sat and watched as their daughter practically abused Toothless. Hiccup told Toothless that it was his own fault. He pointed out that if the dragon did not want Skyla to pull on any ears, or frills, or wings, than he would have to be more stern with her. The Night Fury sulked and just took the "beating".

After a few more minutes Hiccup stood up and stretched before giving his wife one last kiss for the morning. "Well Bud, what do you say we get just a bit of a flight in before we start the day?"

Toothless jumped for joy, being very careful not to get too rambunctious until Astrid had Skyla safely in her arms.

As Hiccup saddled Toothless up for the day, the young Alpha's thoughts kept returning to that female dragon currently residing on the hidden beach. She may have been the only other Night Fury around, but she was also very rude and disrespectful. He was not used to being treated like that, and it made him more annoyed whenever he thought of that encounter.

The Alpha dragon came to the decision that no one was to know about this female. Toothless did not want the other dragons to get their hopes up, thinking that their beloved Alpha had finally found a suitable mate. Just thinking about a union with such a … dragon made him upset. Toothless violently shook his head to rid himself of such an idea, nearly knocking Hiccup over in the process.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy! What's the matter, Bud?"

Toothless did not answer, and when the action did not repeat itself, Hiccup did not press the matter further. He just went about adjusting the saddle and making sure that the safety mechanisms were in place.

But just because Toothless did not show his inner conflict did not mean that he had let it go. He looked to his human friend. If Hiccup knew about her than he, too, would get his hopes up for Toothless. He would want something to come out of this whole thing. No, it was best that the presence of the female Night Fury remain a secret.

The only other dragon that would know of her would be Cloudjumper, and that was only because he had seen her already. And Toothless did not have to worry about the owl-like dragon saying anything. He had already told the larger dragon that no one was to know about her. Along with Stormfly, Cloudjumper was the most loyal of any dragon on Berk. That was why Cloudjumper was Beta. Toothless was sure that the secret was safe with him.

"Alright, Bud. You ready?"

Toothless scoffed loudly. 'Stupid question!' He replied. It was time to play a little game. The black dragon suddenly began running toward the nearest cliff.

"Hey, wait for me!" Hiccup ran as fast as he could, which, with a leg missing was not very fast, but nonetheless.

Toothless purposely jumped off the cliff with a spring practically in his step. Hiccup groaned loudly in frustration when he realized that Toothless was playing a game. He quickly jumped off the same cliff and held his arms to his sides to gain more speed. Beneath him, Toothless looked at him with his back to the ground and his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth. 'Come on, catch up already, Mammal!' He then righted himself so that his rider could easily grip onto the saddle. Hiccup reached the saddle merely seconds before Toothless would have been impaled by the sharp rocks below.

Once Toothless felt Hiccup's grip on the saddle he automatically opened his wings to gain momentum. At the same time, Hiccup pulled up on the saddle. Both dragon and rider cheered as they began to sail smoothly and swiftly through the sky. "WOO-HOO! YEAH!" Hiccup cheered with his fists in the air.

The young man then glared down at Toothless and softly gave him a kick to the side, causing the dragon to grunt in surprise. "The next time you decide on jumping to your death like that, let me know! You scared me half to death!" Toothless responded by rolling his eyes.

Later that day sometime around noon, Hiccup had lunch with his family, which consisted of: Astrid, Skyla, Toothless, Valka, Cloudjumper, and Gobber. They decided to have a family picnic outside that day, just because it was a rare, fairly cool, cloudless day.

Hiccup loved this time of day. It was the only time that he was able to enjoy the company of all his loved ones at one time. No matter what they were going through, the family would put aside whatever they were doing in order to have this time together. A night at home could not necessarily be guaranteed, while they were all sure to attend the lunch. It was blissful time for all of them.

Astrid had a bored look on her face as she watched Gobber try to make Skyla laugh, which was not a very big feat, seeing as how Skyla was a very happy baby and laughed at just about everything. Normally the young mother had no problem with Gobber dealing with her daughter. However it was when Skyla got too close to the man's hook that she began to freak out.

Valka and Hiccup chatted about their day, comparing notes. "This morning I had a guy who wanted to have his wife arrested." Hiccup told his mother before taking a bite of his chicken.

"What for?" Valka asked.

"For slaughtering his favorite yak…" Valka laughed when Hiccup rolled his eyes. Honestly, sometimes he could not believe the stupid arguments that people had…

"So what did you do about it?"

"I told him to pick another yak to favor and move on … then I gave his wife permission to "knock" some sense into him." Hiccup took another bite of his food and swallowed it before continuing his story. "She slugged him so hard, he was knocked out completely." Valka laughed a bit more. She knew how much it aggravated her son to deal with stupid domestic arguments like that.

The two continued to talk. Suddenly, Hiccup felt a small touch in his lap. It startled him a bit, but when he looked down, he saw two shining teal eyes looking up at him. "Skyla! You're crawling!" Feeling so overjoyed at his daughter's achievement, Hiccup picked her up and spun her around in the air. He gave her a few congratulating kisses as a reward.

When the adrenaline of the moment passed, he looked around at the other three adults and noticed that he was the only one excited. "Wait, why isn't anyone more—OW! OW! OW! Skyla, let go of Daddy's hair! OW!" Everyone laughed at Hiccup's expense as he pealed a lock of his auburn hair out of Skyla's tiny fist.

"Hate to break it to you, Babe, but she's been moving like that for about three days." Astrid mentioned.

Hiccup's jaw fell open. "What?! How come I haven't seen it?!" He had a whining tone in his voice.

"Well, you've been working hard lately, Dear." Valka replied.

Hiccup threw his head back with a loud groan. "How can I already be missing this kind of stuff?!" His whining had stopped, but a saddened expression was on his face as he looked at his daughter. He knew the pain of not having a parent present at important events in life. "I promised myself that I'd never do that …" He gave Skyla a kiss on her forehead as she snuggled into his chest.

"Relax, Hiccup," Hiccup looked to his wife when she came up to him and rested her chin on his shoulder, "she's only doing the "worm crawl". So you'll still be able to see all her really important milestones."

The young chief smiled lovingly and gave his wife a long, soft kiss. "What would I do without you?" He asked, rhetorically.

Astrid's smile turned into a smirk. "You'd worry too much on such trivial manners and your hair would turn gray at a young age." She played with his hair as she said this. Both of them laughed.

As far as the two dragons of the family went, they were laying on the hillside, keeping an eye on everything. Usually Toothless and Cloudjumper would take this time to do a quick patrol around the town from both sky and ground. If something needed the Alpha's attention, Cloudjumber was quick to notify him.

At the moment, Toothless was happily enjoying the large pile of fish that had just been presented to him. Some of the dragons took it upon themselves to thank their leader for all that he has done, by periodically offering fish to him. Just now, a quintet of Terrors each offered him a sizable salmon.

Toothless downed two salmon and was going to start on the third when he looked over to his left to see Cloudjumper staring at him. The Night Fury tried to ignore it, but the unnerving feeling of eyes on him could not be shaken off. Finally, he became fed up and growled loudly to his Beta.

'What?!' He harshly demanded.

Cloudjumper stared at him for a little longer with his large eyes. He wanted to know all of the details the Alpha's encounter the previous night. However he knew that Toothless was strangely firm on keeping that young female Night Fury (Cloudjumper cringed. He was not used to using the humans' terms for dragon species yet …) a secret. The Stormcutter did not know why; surly the ebony dragon's rider would want to know of such a thing. 'Are you going to simply ignore the events of last night, Your Grace?'

Toothless growled lowly, sounding almost threatening. 'No one needs to know about that …'

'What is your purpose of keeping her a secret? Your human has been looking for more of your kind for quite some time.'

Toothless suddenly snarled at Cloudjumper, signaling that he was pulling on a delicate string. 'That's exactly why it needs to remain a secret!' Without even flinching at Toothless' attempt to be authoritative, Cloudjumper just blinked his eyes and tilted his head in confusion. The smaller dragon sighed. 'If I let anyone—especially Hiccup—know about her,' Toothless stood up and walked away from his lunch, turning away from Cloudjumper so that he did not have to look the Beta in the eye, 'they'll expect something to come out of it …' He almost had a sad tone to his statement.

Cloudjumper blinked again. 'You did not enjoy her company?'

Toothless blew a spark at the ground as he loudly scoffed. 'Enjoy?! Does a fish enjoy being out in the sun all day?! No, I didn't enjoy her company!'

The Stormcutter sighed. He was really hoping that the female Dark would be compatible with the young Alpha. But at the same time, understood Toothless' reasoning. He had learned early on that Toothless hated disappointing anyone. Cloudjumper just stood and watched as Toothless paced back and forth, venting out his anger and ranting about how rude and terrible the female Dar—Night Fury had been.

'I mean, she was just so … GRRRR!' The Night Fury's spines and nostrils began to glow blue for a second when he growled. He spread his wings out as well showing just how aggravated the female had made him. Cloudjumper did not know what to do. Should he just lend an ear, or should he try to calm his leader down. After a few minutes, Toothless shook his head to rid himself of that aggravation for fear of releasing uncontrollable power.

'It was only one encounter, Your Grace. Perhaps you should meet her again and get to know her a bit more.'

'I don't want to get to know her …'

Cloudjumper sighed again. He had a feeling that he should give the Alpha some wise advice. But he bit that feeling back. Toothless was too young to know how to deal with these types of situations. The older dragon knew that the younger would not take his words on this matter to heart. Cloudjumper opened his wings when he saw Valka make her way over to him. He looked over at Toothless, who stared at the ground with a sneer in his eyes, like he was replaying the encounter over again in his head. 'Well, it is your decision, Your Grace. Whatever you decide, I will stand with you.'

Toothless watched as Cloudjumper flew off with Valka on his back. He sighed and adjusted his wings. As much as he tried to put up a dismissive attitude, Toothless could not get the large, orange dragon's words out of his head—he was sure that Cloudjumper could see right through his front. So growling at himself softly, he looked toward Hiccup's direction.

Astrid and Skyla had left, probably home for Skyla's nap. Hiccup and Gobber were dealing with villagers and their problems. Okay, so the human was occupied … for the moment, at least. Toothless looked around at the other Vikings and dragons. None of them were paying any attention to him. They were all living in their own blissful ignorance.

Toothless tried for ten minutes to get the conversation that he had with his Beta out of his head. Despite how much he wanted to prove the older dragon wrong, he had to admit that he was just a teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy bit curious to see whether the female had left or not. Toothless gave one last glance to Hiccup to make sure that the boy-Chief was still busy. Yep, still busy.

The ebony dragon began gradually making his way toward the nearest entrance to the forest. Every few steps he would look back to make sure that his rider was not looking. He could not afford to have his simple-minded-mammal-friend follow him and find out about their uninvited guest. Still busy; time to go.

Like a grasshopper, Toothless quickly hopped into the brush and ran off into the forest. Hopefully if any of the dragons needed him, they would go bug—ask Cloudjumper.

It did not take the Night Fury long to find the secret beach once more. His perfect memory helped him greatly in situations such as the one he found himself in at the moment. Toothless was sure that the humans had a term for such remarkable memories, but he could not recall it.

He was able to track the female's scent once again. This concerned Toothless. That meant that either the female was still there, or her scent was just lingering from her previous visit. The young Alpha prayed to the skies above that it was the latter.

He slowly made his way down the rocky cliff and onto the soft sand of the beach. The closer he approached, the stronger the scent became. The salty sea air was thick, but not thick enough to mask the scent of an injured dragon.

Toothless used his enhanced vision to take in every detail of the beach. Strange; he could smell her, but he could not see her. Where was she? Maybe she really did leave? No, if she had left then her scent would not be as strong as it was.

Toothless began sniffing the sand. He picked up the scent of the female's blood and followed it for a few paces. He then looked up, stopping in his tracks. Before him was a small crack in the rock formations. It appeared to be quite deep. It was a cave! The cave was so small and so well hidden that Toothless had completely missed it the last time he was there. Toothless' curiosity was legendary; and it did not let him down at that moment when he decided to enter the small cave.

The young Alpha took careful maneuvers when approaching the cave. The female could be anywhere. The entrance to the cave was just large enough for him to fit through. The cave was actually larger than it looked from the outside.

Toothless cautiously stepped inside the cave. The female's scent was strong within it. With his natural night vision, it was easy for the Night Fury to locate what he was looking for. The instant his peridot eyes found the female Night Fury Toothless' natural reflex, of spreading his wings out, kicked in. But he relaxed when he realized that she was asleep. He folded in his wings and sat down, staring at the dragon before him.

She really was beautiful. Toothless' enhanced vision gave him the ability to see the small designs in her scales. How interesting. He could hear her make soft purring sounds as she slept. Her long claws reflected the minimal light that the cave entrance provided. And her scent! Toothless inhaled deeply. And her scent was wonderful! But he could still smell her blood. She was still too hurt to really go anywhere.

Being a fellow Dark (ugh! Cloudjumper was rubbing off on him …), he knew that his kind were fast healers. However it depended on the extent of the injuries that indicated how long the actual healing would take.

Toothless slowly approached the female Night Fury. He did not want to wake her up. Slowly and carefully, he was able to gently move her (beautiful?) wing to get to the injury. What Toothless saw made him frown in sympathy.

The injury had begun healing, but not properly. Dirt and debris from the cave, most likely the beach as well, had caked along her side, forming a makeshift scab over the wound. She was still bleeding a little too much. The male Night Fury could only guess at how much blood the female had lost since he had left her last night.

Toothless sighed. Even if she was annoying and rude, she did not deserve to die of infection. But the wound had scabbed over so much that Toothless would have to reopen it, just to get it to heal properly.

He tried to be as gentle as possible—well, as gentle as one dragon could be with another—while removing the dirt and debris. She twitched and whimpered in her sleep. Poor thing. The pain must have really exhausted her. Nevertheless, Toothless continued his mission. He was able to remove the twigs, leaves and clumps of sand.

Now came the hard part: removing the scab. Toothless had to dig his claws under her armor of scales and into her inner skin to get to the rest of the scab. This was something Toothless was quite skilled at doing. His pre-Hiccup days called for first-aide skills quite often. And he usually had to care for himself; no one else was going to help him.

Once the scab was completely removed a significant amount of blood began to gush out again. Working on instinct, Toothless quickly stopped the blood flow by licking the wound.

The female yelped loudly and her eyes snapped open. She screeched and pushed Toothless away before swiftly rising to her feet. The reopened wound caused her to falter a bit. 'What are you doing?!' She yelled in panic, her wings spread wide.

Toothless stepped back, but still held caution. 'Relax, I was just trying to heal your injury.'

The female growled and flicked her wings, emitting a slight wince of pain. 'It was already healed before you came along!'

The young Alpha scoffed. 'Poorly. Didn't your parents, or anyone teach you how to properly treat wounds?'

'That's none of your business.'

'I was trying to help you!' The volume of Toothless' growls began to rise.

The female dragon turned her head away. 'I don't need your help.'

That snobby tone of hers really went right through Toothless, draining him of all the patience, which he had sworn to himself to have, with her. 'Fine! If you don't want my help, then don't come cryin' to me when you die of infection!' Toothless spat a spark at the ground to signal that this encounter was over.

'I'd rather die from infection than live a life owing you a debt!'

'THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!' Any sympathy Toothless may have had for the female was quickly forgotten in his boiling anger.

The two Night Furies charged at each other. Had the female been in full health they would have been an even match. Her injury gave Toothless the advantage. The young Alpha was easily able to overpower her. They blew three plasma bolts at each other, all hitting at exactly the same time. The small explosion in the middle of the cave caused nearby stalagmites to crumble on impact. Toothless tried charging at the female head-on, but even injured, she was able to quickly evade the attack. The male Night Fury was impressed at her stamina, but there was no way he was losing this match. He was too angry. The two dragons tackled each other and rolled a few meters as their massive bodies met. Toothless dominatingly topped the female and harshly pinned her to the rocky cave ground.

The female Night Fury roared and thrashed, determined not to be dominated by someone like him. 'Get off! NO!'

Toothless sneered through his teeth. He was so angry! He would show this arrogant female her place once and for all! The Alpha raised a paw to her neck. His anger and natural instincts were overpowering his mind at the moment. He was about to bite into her neck when he caught sight of their reflection in a small pool. At that moment the red-hot anger he felt melted away into horror. He whimpered softly and looked down.

Toothless had not been around his own kind for so long that he had completely forgotten the ways Night Furies went about mating.

A male challenging a female to a contest was like … how did Hiccup put it …? Asking her out on a date? If the male won the contest by pinning the female to the ground, then marked her as his, then the two dragons became mates for life.

Toothless looked down at the female under his paws. Her eyes and teeth were clenched shut. She was shaking and whimpering quietly. He could see that she did not want this. Toothless knew that her fear was not of death, but of being mated to him by force.

Being forced into a mating that a dragon did not want was a terrible thing. Toothless knew full well what a forced mate-ship was like. His own sire had somehow tricked his mother into a mating. Toothless remembered how frightened his mother had been of his sire. Almost as frightened as much as this female was of Toothless. The young Alpha had promised himself that if he were ever given another chance with a mate, he would not force it.

'What are you waiting for? Do it already!'

Toothless looked at her quivering form with sorrow and disgust. How could he become something so horrible? His time with the humans, and his short time as Alpha had altered the way he approached situations, as opposed to how he had been taught throughout hatchling-hood: take by force. No, he had already caused one tragedy; he was not going to cause another.

With that thought in mind, he slowly removed his paw from the female's neck. He then retreated from her all together.

When the female Night Fury had realized that the young Alpha had let her go, he had backed away from her about five meters. She studied his facial expression. His pupils expanded and his gorgeous peridot (where did that thought come from? And why do they look so familiar?) eyes held such sadness in them. His obsidian scales lightened just a tad, to the darkest gray, signaling his distress. The female dragon watched as Toothless kept backing away. This was very odd behavior for a dominating male Dark, like him. She stood up, rising on her shaky legs and raised a brow at the male's behavior.

Toothless finally looked up at her with such anguish in his innocent eyes. 'I … I'm s-sorry …'

This apology caught the female Dark off guard. She was about to demand to know why he was playing such games, when he quickly ran off, never looking back.

"Toothless! Toothless! You big toddler, where are you?!" Hiccup had looked all over Berk for his best friend for over two hours. He had finished his work early and had hoped to get a good flight in while there was still daylight left. However when he turned around he discovered that his dragon was absent. The young Chief did not worry too much, at first. The Night Fury often went around the island a few times with Cloudjumper to make sure there were no quarrels that needed to be stopped (they happened more often than Toothless would like …). But when Hiccup spotted the Stormcutter up in the air with Valka on his back, that was when the worry kicked in. He knew that Toothless could take care of himself, but Hiccup was still uncomfortable not knowing where his dragon was when he was alone. "Toothless, c'mon! I'm not playing anymore!" Hiccup had hoped that last comment would bring the giant kitten out of his hiding place. When nothing happened the young Chief's worry doubled. Usually Toothless knew when to take a hint and stop his antics. "Okay, now I'm getting scared …" He mumbled to himself. "Tooth—"

Just then the large, ebony dragon emerged from the forest. He ran up to Hiccup, almost knocking him over.

"Toothless!" The young man exclaimed with a smile. He was fully ready to give the Night Fury a long lecture on running off, when he noticed the distressed look in his best friend's eyes. They were filled with fear and anxiety. "What's wrong?" Hiccup asked. The only answer Toothless gave was a few whimpers and pitiful groans. He looked back into the forest with a tense gaze.

Hiccup could not understand the frantic moves and noises that his dragon was making. All he really noticed was that Toothless kept looking back to where he had appeared, he kept taking deep breaths and his scales were more of a dark gray color just like earlier that morning. Another thing that Hiccup noticed was that Toothless' frills kept moving frantically, something that only happened when the Night Fury was extremely troubled. Clearly something had spooked him.

Hiccup placed his hand on Toothless' head. "Too—"

Toothless screeched in shock when he felt the touch. The Alpha dragon crouched; ready to attack the threat, when he saw that it was only Hiccup. Then he relaxed, a bit. "Buddy, what's the matter?"

Toothless shook himself. 'N-nothing …' He replied, glancing back to the forest.

Hiccup followed his gaze. "Something in the forest?" He really wanted to know what was wrong. The young man had never seen Toothless like this, jumpy and on edge. Before he could walk too close to the forest Toothless stopped him by stepping in front of his path. "What?"

Toothless shook himself again. 'Forget it. Let's just go flying.' He then gestured to the sky, which Hiccup quickly picked up on.

End of Chapter