Chapter Four: Dragonstone
It was two weeks before Snoggletog, Berk was covered in a shallow layer of fresh snow. Toothless woke up Hiccup and Astrid by jumping on the roof and roaring. Hiccup groaned but rolled out of the bed, and prepared Toothless for a flight. He slipped on the newer tail, much to the dragon's displeasure, and threw on the new saddle that went with it. Hiccup saddled up, and Astrid was already waiting for him on Stormfly. They took off and flew over to the stables, where the Night Furies had a guest already. They found Valka feeding them fish and giving them neck rubs. Toothless bounded over to them, and held himself proudly before Shadowrath, showing that he was the alpha dragon of Berk. As if to emphasize his point, Cloudjumper and several other dragons bowed to Toothless. Sapphire tipped her head down to Toothless for a bit; she was accepting that this was his island, but she would not be so submissive to him. Shadowrath, on the other hand, didn't even tip his head. What he saw was a young Night Fury, without that many scars to prove himself in battle, a pet to a lame human, and was the only Strike class dragon of his Island. There was nothing to challenge him until today. So rather than submitting to Toothless, he was asking for a challenge by stepping towards him, his plates splitting, wings raised, and teeth bared.
Hiccup stepped in front of Shadowrath telling him: "You don't want to challenge Toothless, he's beaten a Red Death and a Bewilderbeast."
Shadowrath understood every word in that sentence, and found Toothless flying to the ceiling of the stables where the tusk of a defeated Bewilderbeast was hanging form chains. Once used as a weapon, the tusk was now a dragon perch that happened to be a symbol of the strength of the dragons of Berk. Even Aric, looking inside the stables, was impressed to see the tusk of the Bewilderbeast that tried to kill him hanging up there.
Shadowrath flew up and sniffed the base of the tusk where it had broken off the massive beast; sure enough it had the scent of a plasma blast on it. Looking over to Toothless, he finally tipped his head, not as much Sapphire did, but enough to tell Toothless that he acknowledged that he knew that he was the alpha, and will not be challenging him in the near future.
Now Toothless jumped from the tusk, and landed before Sapphire. Now that it was light out it was easier to see her blue scales, and to see that she was definitely a female. She stepped forward and looked Toothless over and he was looking her over too.
"She's magnificent, isn't she?" Hiccup asked.
"She's beautiful. Look at her! A magnificent coloration, very few scars if none at all, and she's perfectly healthy!" Valka exclaimed.
Toothless made a move towards Sapphire, but it was a move that Shadowrath clearly did not approve of. He separated Toothless and Sapphire with his wing and snarled at Toothless. Then something dawned on the three humans.
"Shadowrath, you're Sapphire's father, aren't you?" Hiccup asked. The larger Night Fury looked at him in the eyes and gave him a sharp nod with a chuff that said: 'You're damn right I'm her father!'
"So, does Toothless have to prove himself worthy of her?" Astrid asked. Again, Shadowrath nodded again.
"That must mean that there are enough Night Furies out there for them to be picky about who they mate with!" Hiccup exclaimed with dawning realization. To his further delight, both Shadowrath and Sapphire nodded. So Hiccup said to Shadowrath: "Well I don't know about other Night Furies, but Toothless has proven himself to be a mighty warrior."
Shadowrath nodded again.
"So, does he have to prove that he is a competent alpha or worthy as a Night Fury?" Astrid asked. Shadowrath nodded twice. It was clear now that if Toothless wanted to claim the right to mate with Sapphire he would have to prove himself as an alpha and a Night Fury. Toothless already had an idea that would do the trick as a gift for Hiccup a few days before Snoggletog, but it would have to be given earlier. He would be quite interested in participating in this year's migration if he could. With a roar he called all the other dragons out of the stables.
In the center of the village, Toothless brought a large rock and called for the rest of Berk's dragons. On Berk they had dragons of every size now from Bewilderbeast to Terrible Terrors. They clustered themselves according to breed and kept their eyes on Toothless who seemed to be addressing a plan he had with them. After 'talking' to the other dragons, he circled around his rock and blasted it to bits with a shot. The dragons looked amongst each other knowing what Toothless was asking them to do.
From the roof of one of the homes, Stoick, now known as Stav the Silent, had caught sight of Toothless' actions and put down his hammer. Odin told him that what Toothless had in mind was a spectacular sight. He sat on the rooftop as Toothless went around selecting at least one of each breed of dragon on Berk.
Among the ranks were: Hookfang, Meatlug, Grump, Stormfly, Skullcrusher, Cloudjumper, Barf & Belch, Ruffnut's new Scauldron named Scauldy (Tuffnut found a wife on Outcast Island and won custody over the Zippleback), a pair of Skrills who were once residents of Aric's sanctuary, a few Timberjacks, a couple Changewings, a couple other Scauldrons, two Hobblegrunts, two Whispering Deaths, and a few multiples of other dragons.
With a series of roars from Toothless, the Night Fury took to the skies with the selected dragons following him. This behavior caught the attention of all the villagers by now as the dragons hovered in the air. With another roar from Toothless, the dragons formed a circle large enough to surround Aric. The dragons hovered in place as the Night Fury checked their position. He made sure that the dragons were lined up with dragons of their breed if they were looking through the center of the circle, and that there was plenty of space between dragons. With another roar he led them into a rotation at a slow and steady pace. With another roar from Toothless the dragons gradually sped up. When the dragons reached the maximum speed their slowest dragon could go, Toothless fired a plasma blast and the pair of Whispering Deaths blew their flame through the diameter of the circle. Down on the land, the village saw a perfectly formed spinning line of fire and rings. Then, pair by pair, the other dragons who could hold a stream of fire breathed across the diameter of the circle as they continued to rotate, making these criss-crossing lines look like the dragons were creating a disk of flame. Now the Scauldrons shot their water and Aric helped by keeping a narrow and steady breath of ice aimed at the center of the ring of dragons. For the second to final touch, the dragons that couldn't keep steady shots, fired into the center until they ran out of shots. For the final touch, Toothless powered up a plasma blast so big that his scales were turning blue, and then he fired! The center of the disk of fire went up in a fantastic explosion with Toothless diving into the blast!
The dragons from the ring dispersed and landed. Toothless, landed before Hiccup holding a large black rock with his four feet.
"All that work for a rock?" Snotlout asked in the distance. Hookfang knocked him off his feet with his tail.
Grump took the rock in his jaws and cracked it open into two halves, revealing a large and beautiful gemstone inside. It was the color of Toothless' plasma blast before it made contact with anything or exploded, with flecks of reds, yellows, and the blue that Toothless' scales turned when they glowed. At the center of it, was the silhouette of a dragon. Meatlug pried the stone out of the rock with her teeth and set it at Hiccup's feet. He picked it up and admired the amazing colors, the smooth texture, the silhouette inside, and the size of it. He looked down at Toothless and asked him: "You want me to have it?" The dragon nodded.
Shadowrath and Sapphire approached Toothless. The larger dragon having a stern expression in his red-violet eyes, but then he bowed his head to Toothless and nudged his daughter over to him. Sapphire gave a wide draconic smile for both males and bounded over to Toothless, nuzzling him. In turn, Toothless tipped his head upward and crooned towards Shadowrath. The larger dragon turned away and flew off to circle around Berk to stretch his wings. Other dragons went straight for the feeding stations or to the ocean to get something to regain their strength from their efforts.
Hiccup headed over to the forge, deciding that if he was to keep the Dragonstone, he would have to keep it on his person at all times, as people like Snotlout would want to take it for themselves even if it meant destroying the village. He made a new piece of armor to be mounted on his left shoulder that would encase the gem, but could be opened by figuring out the secret way of removing the panel concealing it. Despite the size of the stone, it didn't seem to have a lot of weight when he put the piece of armor on his shoulder.
Toothless was also busy, but he was busy running around the island, playing with Sapphire, until she started playing a bit rough. After firing a small plasma blast, her projectile struck his false tailfin just right and dislodged it! Sapphire's eyes widened, thinking that she knocked off a real fin. She leapt over to the false fin and examined it, and took a look at Toothless' real tail noticing the old wound made when he lost his original fin, and discovered that the fin he just lost had been its replacement.
From the forge, Hiccup saw what happened, and Shadowrath saw it from above. By the time Hiccup reached the two dragons, Shadowrath had already landed and examined the false fin and the side of the tail it was knocked off from. When he looked up to Toothless in the eye, his expression was a mix of shocked and apologetic. By looking at Shadowrath's scars, it was easy to tell he'd been through his share of hard times, but he'd never suffered anything as bad as loosing an important appendage.
Hiccup picked to the fin and looked it over. It would need repairs, but at least he wouldn't have to remake the whole thing. He looked over to Sapphire, who looked like a guilty dog about to get in trouble.
"Hey, girl, it's alright, you didn't know any better. I'll have this thing fixed soon enough." Hiccup stated in a soothing voice. While his back was turned to them, he heard the all-too familiar sound of a dragon regurgitating a hunk of fish. It was Shadowrath making the sound; he was sharing a fish with Toothless.
"Well, Shadowrath, I must say it's nice to see that you have a more positive attitude towards Toothless." Hiccup stated as he started heading back to the forge.
"He's proven himself to be a fine Night Fury, and he's shown that he's been through harder times than me." Shadowrath replied. Hiccup stopped in his tracks. He did expect to hear a response from the larger dragon, but he did expect to understand what he was saying, especially since his voice reminded him of his father's a little bit.
"H-how can… How d-d-did you…" Hiccup stuttered.
"It's the Dragonstone, more than just water, fire, acid, and plasma went into that. It is a mystical and mysterious treasure, and it can only be made when many different breeds of dragons ruled by one great alpha cooperate perfectly. For dragons it is a symbol of the strength of their nest or island. It is also capable of many mystical properties, but how many we do not know; we do know that when in the possession of a human, one of its powers is to allow the human to understand out draconic language." Shadowrath replied.
"Uh, wow, this is going to be a door to something new. Uh, Toothless, I'll fix this up right away." Hiccup said.
"I'll meet you back home." Toothless replied. His voice sounding just as Hiccup imagined it would be.
In a cave at the easternmost regions of the globe, a cloaked man with a dark mane of dreadlocks also discovers a treasure kept away from the world. It was another Dragonstone, but this one held more of a red than the color of the plasma blast required to make these stones.
"At last, I will my revenge with the dragon riders of the North. I will build an army greater than before, with dragons from all over the world!" This cloaked madman exclaimed. He swept out of the cave to his dark Bewilderbeast and set off. He was ready to take on the world's dragons.
So that concludes Chapter Four. Now, please review. What did you guys think of the Dragonstone's creation, what other powers do you think the Dragonstone should have, and what are your thoughts on the new Night Furies? I'm particularly interested on what you guys think of Shadowrath as I'm still developing Sapphire's personality. Now, because the lengths of these chapters are getting longer, there ay be a longer break before I update again, but then I might reward you with TWO new chapters. Again, reviews are awesome.