THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN

Stormfly and Toothless talk to me a lot as we fly back towards the village. I feel a little overwhelmed and threatened by Toothless's excessive interest in me. Stormfly seems to see that and talks to me with a more laid-back and casual composure. Soon, I turn my full attention to her, completely ignoring the male Night Fury on my other side.

"I remember my days as a wild dragon before the Vikings caught me." she says, "We were at war at the time, of course. I really hated them and how they used me to train the humans to fight dragons- one time I almost killed Astrid!" she laughs and, deciding to be polite, I let out a chuff, "But then the whole thing with the Red Death happened and we had to put our differences behind us to survive. By the way, where were you when that happened? Toothless never recalled there being another Night Fury in the Queen's nest."

"I never strayed in her territory." I explain, "Only after I heard of her defeat was when I started exploring the islands I'd never been able to. Unfortunately, the other male Night Fury that attacked me yesterday had apparently also heard of her defeat and got there before I did."

Stormfly nods in understanding and asks, "So… do you know how many other Night Furies there are?"

I shake my head and reply, "No, I don't. The only ones that I've seen in my life are my family, a wounded female that is probably dead now, and that male. Plus Toothless, now." I add, casting a glance at the bigger male, who is flying ahead of the group.

His rider, Hiccup, glances over his shoulder and calls out, "Okay, guys, we're gonna dive down to the village now. Make sure that the Night Fury flies down with us. Snotlout, fly above her so that she'll have to go downwards when you dive."

I roll my eyes and hiss to Stormfly, "How stupid do they think we are?!" The Deadly Nadder shrugs while Hookfang takes his position above me.

I huff in annoyance and follow the group as we dive down towards a mass of wooden structures on different levels of the island. As we land, I feel my stomach lurch in sudden nervousness. The houses loom over me, making me feel trapped in a horrible way that trees don't. Vikings and domestic dragons give me strange and curious looks as they pass by; some even stop to observe me. I return their looks with a challenging glare, but soon turn my attention to a large, burly Vikings in front of a big house that we come to a stop to.

Hiccup walks up to him and says, "Dad, we found the dragon. You were right- she's a Night Fury."

Another Viking strides to the Hiccup's father's side, adding in, "And not a bad-looking one either, Stoick." He has a light aura about him, but 'Stoick' turns to him and says, "You might change your mind, Gobber."

Walking down the steps, Stoick pushes past the other dragons and stops in front of me. He looks at me and I meet his gaze stubbornly. When he stretches his hand out to touch me, I peel my lips back and snarl.

"Yeah, she needs to adjust to people and… other dragons." Hiccup says, laughing nervously.

Stoick frowns and says gruffly, "She better not become troublesome."

Hiccup shakes his head, "No, no, don't worry. We're going to work on taming her, right after we heal her wounds."

His father nods, noticing my injuries, "That might part of the reason for her hostility. Take her inside and do what you need to do, but be cautious. She's still a wild dragon."

"I'll be careful, Dad." Hiccup promises, gesturing for me to follow him, "Come on, girl. Come inside."

Resisting an eye-roll, I climb up the steps towards the big house. Right before I enter, I hear Gobber say to Stoick, "Hopefully we'll have a few young Night Furies on Berk soon."

I stop dead in my tracks, causing Toothless to bump into me. What did he just say?

"What's wrong?" Toothless asks. I shake my head and continue walking into the house, barely acknowledging the strangeness of it all. Is that why they brought me here? So I can spend the rest of my life laying eggs and taking care of hatchlings? No, no, no! That is not going to happen- especially not with Toothless!

Hiccup walks up a staircase but, now aware of Toothless being behind me, I sidestep and turn to him. Jerking my head up at his rider, I say to him, "You can go first. I'll be right behind you."

"Uh, sure." he agrees, seeming slightly suspicious. Brushing past me, he climbs up the staircase and I soon follow after him. He looks relieved that I actually followed him instead of running away. Leading me towards a nest/bed thing in the corner of the room, he says gently, "Lay down on this. Don't worry, it's softer than it looks."

"I've slept on rocks before." I scoff, stepping onto the bed, "Comfort doesn't really matter to me." The bed is actually rather comfy, but I don't say anything about it.

Hiccup appears at Toothless's side and says, "Hey, bud, make sure her wounds are clean while I find some bandages and medicine." Turning away, he walks out of the room, leaving Toothless and I alone.

We both look at each other at the same time. I harden my gaze and glare, daring him to make a move. When he actually leans down to my injured leg to lick it, I push him away and snarl, "I can do it myself!"

"Alright, alright." he ducks his head, backing up a bit.

Huffing, I turn so I can lick my wound. It stopped bleeding long ago, but it still hasn't scabbed. Carefully swiping my tongue over the gash, I grimace as it throbs in pain, attempting to conceal my discomfort from Toothless but failing. After a few more licks, the pain eases and I pull away.

Lifting my paw, I lick it before wiping it over the nick in my windflap. Fortunately, it's small enough to have already scabbed and I put my paw back down, not wanting to bother it.

The last thing that needs to be cleaned are the scratches on my shoulders. Twisting around, I try to lick them, but, like before, they're just out of my reach. Grunting, I flick out my tongue desperately, twisting until I feel a sharp pain on one of the scratches. Hissing, more from annoyance than pain, I turn back around, realizing that I must've reopened one. Shaking my head, I say aloud, "Whatever, it's probably already-"

I cut off mid-sentence, interrupted by Toothless who actually has the nerve to lean forward and lick my scratches. For a few moments, I just stay frozen, thoroughly surprised. Then, I narrow my eyes and glare at him. Apparently I haven't intimidated this guy enough.

Before I can say anything, though, Toothless surprises me further by sending me a glare of his own. "Don't bother arguing." he says sternly in between licks, "You can't reach them and Hiccup wants all of your wounds clean. You've already re-opened one of the scratches, so stay still unless you want to injure yourself further."

I hiss in response, but grudgingly lower my head and glare at the floor while he licks my narrow shoulders. After a minute or so, I feel that my scratches are clean, but the licking continues longer than necessary. Narrowing my eyes, I lift my head and pull away from him, shifting a bit so that there's more distance between us.

Just then, Hiccup's footsteps come pounding up the stairs, saving us from an awkward silence. The human appears at the top of the staircase, arms full of medicine and bandages. Walking over to us, he kneels down in front of me and dips his fingers in some gooey-looking stuff.

"Here." he says, reaching towards me cautiously. I fix him with a hard gaze, watching everything he does with sharp amber eyes. Despite not wanting to be touched by humans, I let him smear the cream over my wounds. The medicine soon eases the pain into a dull throb and I let out a sigh of relief. When Hiccup moves to bandage up my leg, I willingly stick it out to make it easier for him.

"Good girl." he says, finishing wrapping my leg. Standing up, he hesitates before reaching his hand towards me again. I growl lowly, but then realize that I owe him since he healed me and reluctantly lean towards him. His hand feels soft and cold on my warm and rather rough scales. I only let him touch me for a moment before pulling away.

Hiccup seems satisfied and says, "I knew you'd warm up eventually, girl. By the way, I need to give you a name."

I arch an eye skeptically. He's going to name me? Oh, please let it not be something as ridiculous as 'Toothless'.

The Viking looks me up and down, and then suggests, "How about 'Raven'?" To Toothless, he asks, "Do you like 'Raven'?" Toothless nudges him and makes a noise as if to say 'yes'.

Hiccup nods, "Raven it is." Bending down, he pats the bed and continues, "Lay down, Raven. I know it's only dusk, but you should get some sleep. It'll help your wounds heal faster."

Grunting, I obediently lay down and curl my tail around my body. Patting my head once more, Hiccup straightens up and says, "I have to go have dinner, but I'll be back later. Toothless," he turns to his dragon, "Uh, I guess you can stay with her if you want. I'll be with Dad." Turning around, he leaves the room again.

Toothless and I glance at each other. Huffing, I stand and turn around, curling up with my back facing him. He stays silent for a moment, and then says, "Uh, yeah, I think I'll take a nap too." I hear him moving behind me, but instead ignore him and close my eyes.

It takes a while to fall asleep, despite me being tired. I miss the sounds and scents of the wild around me. In this house- this village- all of the wild is muffled by metal and houses and bizarre sounds.

Eventually, however, darkness manages to take over my mind and send me into a dreamless sleep.